This page has been validated.
78
THE POEMS OF SAPPHO

pp. 126–127, Mr. A. S. Hunt takes exception to some of Mr. Edmonds’ emendations, giving the reasons for his objections. Without necessarily accepting in full the emendations of either, it may be admitted that the effort to make them is most interesting and scholarly, and that it makes a reasonable basis for suggesting the purport of the poem. In September 1914, again in the “Classical Review,” Mr. T. L. Agar offers suggestions which differ in many ways from those of the other two commentators.


4

Ἄστερες μὲν ἀμφὶ κάλαν σελάνναν
αἶψ ἀπυκρύπτοισι φάεννον εἶδος,
ὄπποτα πλήθοισα μάλιστα λάμπης
ἀργυρία γᾶν.


The stars about the fair moon lose their bright beauty when she, almost full, illumines all earth with silver.


The gleaming stars all about the shining moon
Hide their bright faces, when full-orbed and splendid
In the sky she floats, flooding the shadowed earth
with clear silver light.


Quoted by Eustathius of Thessalonica in the twelfth century.