DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5309#0107
SAPPHO.
There can be no doubt that this is the bust of the celebrated Sappho, as she is
similarly represented in many marbles bearing her name. One may easily discern in
her countenance something manlike, which corresponds to the apposite epithet of
Mascula, given her by Horace ; though this adjunct might as well be a sarcastical
allusion to her noted partiality for her fair countrywomen, the Lesbian virgins. If we
are to believe the account which she gives of herself in the epistle to Phaon, in Ovid,
her stature was low, and her complexion brown. She does not seem to plume herself
on the charms of her person ; she owns that her features were but homely, and her
form without elegance and attraction : and the outlines of this plate are perfectly
consonant to such an avowal. But the height of her mental accomplishments made
an ample atonement for her personal deficiencies. Her superlative excellence in
lyrical verse was never called in question ; she did not only surpass Stesichorus and
Alceus, her contemporaries, but all the most renowned poets of Greece were thrown
at an infinite distance by the astonishing power of her genius, and the matchless feli-
city of her diction. The Sapphic verse originated from her poems, of which two only
have escaped the grasp of time, an Hymn to Venus, and an Ode addressed to one of
the Lesbian damsels, which Longinus offers as a pattern of the true sublime, and really
is the most vivid picture of love that ever was drawn by a poetical pencil. Our poetess
flourished in the forty-fourth olympiad, six centuries before the Christian sera. When
her years were drawing near the state of full maturity, she unfortunately feU in love
with a youth of Mitylene, whose name was Phaon ; but not meeting with a return, she
yielded to despair, and precipitated herself from the Leucadian rock. Strabo1 acquaints
us that this rock was a promontory, on which stood a magnificent temple dedicated to
Apollo, and that every year, on a certain festival, a malefactor was hurled headlong
from the top into the sea, which the Leucadians believed to be the means of averting
every public calamity. It is easy to perceive that the intention of this sacrifice was
the same as that of the Jews in the immolation of the scape-goat. The criminal
destined to be the victim was covered with feathers, and had many live birds tied
about him, so that the fluttering of their wings might break the violence of the fall.
At the bottom of the precipice there were boats disposed to receive him : and when
he happened to save his life, he was doomed to perpetual banishment. We read of
several who took this mortal leap, to free themselves from their amorous frenzy ; and
it is said that the remedy was generally effectual; but all concur in affirming that to
our Lesbian heroine the experiment proved absolutely fatal.
61
There can be no doubt that this is the bust of the celebrated Sappho, as she is
similarly represented in many marbles bearing her name. One may easily discern in
her countenance something manlike, which corresponds to the apposite epithet of
Mascula, given her by Horace ; though this adjunct might as well be a sarcastical
allusion to her noted partiality for her fair countrywomen, the Lesbian virgins. If we
are to believe the account which she gives of herself in the epistle to Phaon, in Ovid,
her stature was low, and her complexion brown. She does not seem to plume herself
on the charms of her person ; she owns that her features were but homely, and her
form without elegance and attraction : and the outlines of this plate are perfectly
consonant to such an avowal. But the height of her mental accomplishments made
an ample atonement for her personal deficiencies. Her superlative excellence in
lyrical verse was never called in question ; she did not only surpass Stesichorus and
Alceus, her contemporaries, but all the most renowned poets of Greece were thrown
at an infinite distance by the astonishing power of her genius, and the matchless feli-
city of her diction. The Sapphic verse originated from her poems, of which two only
have escaped the grasp of time, an Hymn to Venus, and an Ode addressed to one of
the Lesbian damsels, which Longinus offers as a pattern of the true sublime, and really
is the most vivid picture of love that ever was drawn by a poetical pencil. Our poetess
flourished in the forty-fourth olympiad, six centuries before the Christian sera. When
her years were drawing near the state of full maturity, she unfortunately feU in love
with a youth of Mitylene, whose name was Phaon ; but not meeting with a return, she
yielded to despair, and precipitated herself from the Leucadian rock. Strabo1 acquaints
us that this rock was a promontory, on which stood a magnificent temple dedicated to
Apollo, and that every year, on a certain festival, a malefactor was hurled headlong
from the top into the sea, which the Leucadians believed to be the means of averting
every public calamity. It is easy to perceive that the intention of this sacrifice was
the same as that of the Jews in the immolation of the scape-goat. The criminal
destined to be the victim was covered with feathers, and had many live birds tied
about him, so that the fluttering of their wings might break the violence of the fall.
At the bottom of the precipice there were boats disposed to receive him : and when
he happened to save his life, he was doomed to perpetual banishment. We read of
several who took this mortal leap, to free themselves from their amorous frenzy ; and
it is said that the remedy was generally effectual; but all concur in affirming that to
our Lesbian heroine the experiment proved absolutely fatal.
61