On the riverbanks
You could free me from all my cares
All through the night

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment23

ψαύην δ᾿ οὐ δοκίμωμ᾿ ὀράνω †δυσπαχέα†
——————————
I don’t seek to touch the sky (with my two arms)

—Sappho

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment52

ἄγι δὴ χέλυ δῖα † μοι λέγε †
φωνάεσσα † δὲ γίνεο †
———————
Come, my divine lyre,
Speak to me and become a voice.

—Sappho

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment114

I have no complaint

Prosperity that
the golden Muses
gave me was no
delusion: dead, I
won’t be forgotten

—attributed to Sappho, translated by Mary Barnard

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment193

…πά]γχυ δ’ εὔμαρες σύνετον πόησαι…
————
…Helen, far surpassing all mortals in beauty,
Leaving behind the best of all men,
Departed, sailing for Troy—
And not at all did she remember
Parents, nor love of children,
But passion directed her…

—Sappho, trans. Maddie Hanson

#SapphoSaturday #Fragment16

ἄγι δὴ χέλυ δῖα † μοι λέγε †
φωνάεσσα † δὲ γίνεο †
———————
Come, my divine lyre,
Speak to me and become a voice.

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment114

ἐλθόντ᾿ ἐξ ὀράνω πορφυρίαν περθέμενον χλάμυν
—————
Eros,
clad in a purple cloak,
flew from heaven

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment54

Image: “Sappho Inspired by Love” (1775) by Angelica Kauffman

a woman is reaching for an apple from a tree . ALT: a woman is reaching for an apple from a tree .

Οἶον τὸ γλυκύμαλον ἐρεύθεται ἄκρῳ ἐπ᾽ ὔσδῳ...
—————————
As the apple reddens on the branch,
On the top of the topmost bough,
The harvesters have forgotten it.
No, not forgotten—
It couldn’t be reached.

—Sappho

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment105A

Happy Last Sappho Saturday of #PrideMonth!

δαύοις ἀπάλας ἐτα⟨ί⟩ρας ἐν στήθεσιν.
 ———————
May you sleep on the soft bosom of your beautiful friend.

—Sappho

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment126

Happy Third Sappho Saturday of Pride Month

μνάσεσθαί τινά φαῖμι † καὶ ἕτερον † ἀμμέων.
—————————
I declare
That later on,
Even in an age unlike our own
Someone will remember who we are.

—Sappho, translated by Aaron Poochigian

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment147

Happy Second Sappho Saturday of Pride Month!

πέρροχος ὠς ὄτ’ ἄοιδος ὀ Λέσβιος ἀλλοδάποισιν
———————
The Lesbian singer surpasses the rest...

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment106

Happy First Sappho Saturday of Pride Month!

]τοῦτο καί μοι τὸ λά[μπρον ἔρος τὠελίω καὶ τὸ κά]λον λέ[λ]ογχε.
———————
I love the pleasures of life...
Love has given me the brightness and beauty of the sun.

—Sappho, translated by Philip Freeman

#SapphoSaturday #Fragment58

I have no complaint

Prosperity that
the golden Muses
gave me was no
delusion: dead, I
won’t be forgotten

—attributed to Sappho, translated by Mary Barnard

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment193

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0IG...

This, this, alas! alarm’d my breast,
And robb’d me of my golden rest:
While gazing on thy charms I hung,
My voice died faltering on my tongue.

—Sappho, translated by Francis Fawkes (1720-1777)

#SapphoSaturday #Fragment31 #Persona #IngmarBergman #BibiAndersson #LivUllmann

Arkheanassa and Gorgo
lie together in one bed
as Pleistodike lay with Gorgo
when Gorgo tired of Gongyla,—
and each girl wants the other.

—attributed to Sappho, translated by Konstantinos Lardas

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment213 #BringItOn #Rizzles

καὶ στρώμν [ αν ἐ ] πὶ μολθάκαν
ἀπάλαν πα ̣ [ ] ̣ ̣ ̣ ων
ἐξίης πόθο ̣ [ ν ] ̣ νίδων...
——————
and on soft beds
delicate
you would quench your desire...

—Sappho

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment94 #ICantThinkStraight

πάρθενοι δ[
παννυχίσδοι̣[σ]α̣ι̣[
σὰν ἀείδοιε̣ν φ[ιλότατα καὶ νύμ-
φας ἰοκόλπω.
———————
Young girls
all night long
may sing of the love between you
and the bride with violets in her lap.

—Sappho

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment30

Image by John William Godward (1861-1922)

It’s #LesbianVisibilityDay!

ὀ μὲν γὰρ κάλος ὄσσον ἴδην πέλεται ⟨καλος⟩…

“Beauty is beauty only while you gaze on it....”

—Sappho, translated by Jim Powell

#SapphoSaturday #Fragment50 #BathroomMirror #TheIncrediblyTrueAdventureOfTwoGirlsInLove #TheHalfOfIt #BlackMirror #SanJunipero #Cloe

∑οὶ χάριεν μὲν εἶδος, ὄππατα δ᾿…
μέλλιχ᾿ • ἔρος δ᾿ ἐπ᾿ ἰμέρτῳ κέχυται προσώπῳ
…τετίμακ᾿ ἔξοχά σ᾿ Ἀφροδίτα
————————
Your form is graceful, your eyes…
tender. Love flows over your comely face
…Aphrodite has greatly honoured you.

—Sappho

#SapphoSaturday #Fragment112 #2BrokeGirls

Κὰμ μέν τε τύλαν κασπολέω.

ἔγω δ᾿ ἐπὶ μολθάκαν
τύλαν ⟨κα⟩σπολέω †μέλεα· κἂν μὲν τετύλαγκας ἀσπόλεα†

And down I set the cushion
Upon the couch that she,
Relaxed supine upon it,
Might give her lips to me.

—Sappho, trans. by John Myers O’Hara (1870–1944)

#SapphoSaturday #F46 #MädchenInUniform

⊗   φάινεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν
ἔμμεν ὤνερ, ὄττις ἐναντίος τοι
ἰσδάνει καὶ πλάσιον ἆδυ φωνεί-
σας ὐπακούει…

—Sappho

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment31 #HappiestSeason

Me, in my glass, I call thee; but alas,
When I would kiss, tears dim mine eyes and glass.
O cure this loving madness, and restore
Me to thee; thee, my half, my all, my more.

—from “Sappho to Philænis” by John Donne (1572-1631)

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday

Image: Milo Manara

ζὰ ... ἐλεξάμαν ὄναρ Κυπρογενηα
———————
I spoke with you in a dream, Cyprus-born Aphrodite

—Sappho

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment134

⊗   Ἴψοι δὴ τὸ μέλαθρον,
 ̓ Υμήναον,
ἀέρρετε, τέκτονες ἄνδρες·
̓ Υμήναον.
γάμβρος † (εἰσ)έρχεται ἶσος † Ἄρευι,
ἄνδρος μεγάλω πόλυ μέσδων.
 
—Sappho

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment111

⊗ πλήρης μὲν ἐφαίνετ’ ἀ σελάννα
αἰ δ’ ὠς περὶ βῶμον ἐστάθησαν
———————
The moon, in all its fullness, came into view
And as the women took their places around the altar...

—Sappho

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment154 Happy #InternationalWomensDay!

ψαύην δ᾿ οὐ δοκίμωμ᾿ ὀράνω †δυσπαχέα†
——————————
I don’t seek to touch the sky (with my two arms)

#Sappho #SapphoSaturday #Fragment52

Image: John William Godward, “In the Days of Sappho” (1904)

το̣ῦ̣[ ο]ἶσθα καὔτα·
x[ λέ]λ̣αθ’ ἀλλονιά[
——————
I shall love as long as there is breath in me

—Sappho, translated by Willis Barnstone

#SapphoSaturday #Fragment88 #ValentinesDay (plus 1) #HappyValentinesDay (plus 1) #ImagineMeAndYou (2005)

two women are hugging each other and looking at the ocean . ALT: two women are hugging each other and looking at the ocean .

Ο]ἰ μὲν ἰππήων ϲτρότον οἰ δὲ πέϲδων...
————
Some say a host of cavalry, some say infantry
and others say a fleet of ships is the most beautiful sight
on this black earth, but I say it is
what you love

—Sappho

#SapphoSaturday (a day early) #Fragment16 #ValentinesDay #HappyValentinesDay #SanJunipero

...Sing the song while I, in the arms of Atthis,
Seal her lips to mine with a lover’s fervor,
Breathe her breath and drink her sighs to the honeyed
Lull of the melics.

—John Myers O’Hara (1870–1944), from his rendition of an ancient Greek fragment no longer attributed to Sappho

#SapphoSaturday

γλύκηα μᾶτερ, οὔτοι δύναμαι κρέκην τὸν ἴστον
πόθῳ δάμεισα παῖδος βραδίναν δι’ Ἀφροδίταν.
——————
Sweet mother, I cannot weave —
slender Aphrodite has overcome me
with longing for a girl.

—Sappho, translated by Stanley Lombardo

#SapphoSaturday #Fragment102 #GilmoreGirls