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THE POEMS OF SAPPHO
41
Ὄτα πάννυχος ἄσφι κατάγρει.
When all night long [sleep] holds them.
Bergk suggests that the words ὄππατ᾽ ἄωρος may have preceded these words. The fragment is quoted by Apollonius, and its sense may be: “when all night long sleep holds their eyes.”
42
Ἄγε δὴ χέλυ δῖά μοι φωνάεσσα γένοιο.
Come, O divine shell, yield thy resonances to me.
Come, O come, divinest shell,
And in my ear all thy secrets tell.
Quoted by Hermogenes and Eustathius. Sappho is apparently addressing her lyre. The legend is that Hermes is supposed to have made the first lyre by stretching the strings across the cavity of a tortoise’s shell.
43
Κἀπάλαις ὐποθύμιδας
πλέκταις ἀμπ᾽ ἀπάλᾳ δέρᾳ.
And delicately woven garlands round tender neck.
Quoted by Athenaeus.
