THE TEXT AND ITS FORMAT "TO APHRODITE"

The Text and its Format

Reading classical Greek we might have the impression that we are reading a
book much the same as when it was published in the Hellenistic period,
aside from the few critical text variants at the foot of an Oxford Classics
Text edition. The elegantly clear font of the OCT Series was based on the
handwriting of Richard Porson, the early l9 th century scholar who transcribed
and edited thousands of pages from obscure sources, and it is so
familiar as the traditional font for schoolbooks, that one may be at first surprised
at viewing the upright and shaded fonts used for a century and a half
by the German Teubner editions. And now that we have electronic fonts
available for reading on the web, we have many more fonts available for
our letters, some more rounded, some less shaded, some no longer italic,
and others businesslike and less delicate in shape.

But if we look back a few centuries to the first generation of printed Greek
in the early 1500's, we find an entirely different and virtually unreadable
text, which has characters of different form, abbreviations and ligatures of
several letters bound together, and other conventions drawn from the
manuscript hand of the middle ages. And this in turn looks nothing like the
hand written texts on papyrus sheets which were the reading format of
educated readers throughout the Alexandrian Hellenistic world.
The "accents" were written in for school use since educated native speakers
of Greek knew them as intuitively as a modern Russian knows his pitch
intonations, and ancient readers would read a poem of Sappho in a version
much like this one:

poikiloqron j aqanat j afrodita
pai Dio~ doloploke lissomai se
mh m j asaisi mhd j oniaisi damna
potnia qumon
alla tuid j elq j ai pota katerwta
ta~ ema~ auda~ ai>ousa phlui
eklue~, patro~ de domon lipoisa
crusion elqe~
arm j upadeuxaisa : kaloi de s j agon
wkee~ strouqoi peri ga~ melaina~
pukna dinnente~ pter j ap j wranwiqero~
dia messw,
aiya d jexikonto. su d j, w makaira,
mediaisai~ j aqanatw/ proswpw/
hre j otti dhute peponqa kwtti
dhute kalhmmi,
kwtti moi malista qelw genesqai
mainola/ qumw/. tina dhute peiqw
mais aghn e~ Ûsan filotata … ti~ s j w
yapf j, adikhei …
kai gar ei feugei tacew~ diwxei
ai de dwra mh deket, alla dwsei
ai de mh filei tacew~ filhsei
kwuk eqeloisa.
elqe moi kai nun, calepan de luson
ek merimnan, ossa de moi telessai
qumo~ imerrei, teleson. su d jauta
summaco~ esso

This is less different than it appears on first sight, once we understand the
use of the "lunar sigma" which is in the shape of a Roman "C", and the
upsilon fashioned after the capital form. In fact it does the mind good to
take some time to read this uncial text, since it must be read slowly and
carefully, much in the manner of an Alexandrian reader of poetry. Our tendency
to scan when reading, discarding the phonetic and euphonic contents
as we search out a file away the 'meaning' as the important part of the message,
does not suit the reading of Greek poetry at all. I suggest mastering
this remarkable poem in the Uncial format as a way to get a new view of
the text, one unencumbered by a shower of diacritic accents (which are not
used by us as pitches !) or by a font which has become easy to scan as we
learned out Greek in school from textbooks. Sappho is emphatically not a
textbooks text. The Aeolic dialect, the problems with readings as well as interpretation,
and the vivid translucence of the poetry demand special attention,
and reading the text in uncials as a kind of "discovery" may be of use
in establishing the atmosphere of specialness which is needed for reading
lyric poetry.

But we also want to have at hand a clearer reading text, for which this one
on th following page seems quite suitable. The diacritical accents have been
stripped away in order to present the clearest and least cluttered appearance
of the words, but with a familiar font . This text is especially good for a
working copy from which to work out the metrical cadencing, since we can
concntrate on the longs and shorts of the Sapphic line, without the reminders
of "stress pronunciation" which our early training in Greek associates
with the Accents.

We should remember that the separation into separate Stanzas is the work of
modern editorial practice, as is the familiar indention of the short line,
which should be read as different from its metrical configuration rather than
from its location on the page.

poikiloqron j aqanat j Afrodita
pai Dio~ doloploke lissomai se
mh m j asaisi mhd j oniaisi damna
potnia qumon
alla tuid j elq j ai pota katerwta
ta~ ema~ auda~ ai>ousa phlui
eklue~, patro~ de domon lipoisa
crusion elqe~
arm j upadeuxaisa : kaloi de s j agon
wkee~ strouqoi peri ga~ melaina~
pukna dinnente~ pter j ap j wranwiqero~
dia messw,
aiya d jexikonto. su d j, w makaira,
mediaisai~ j aqanatw/ proswpw/
hre j otti dhute peponqa kwtti
dhute kalhmmi,
kwtti moi malista qelw genesqai
mainola/ qumw/. tina dhute peiqw
mai~ s j aghn e~ san filotata … ti~ s j W
Yapf j, adikhei …
kai gar ei feugei tacew~ diwxei
ai de dwra mh deket, alla dwsei
ai de mh filei tacew~ filhsei
kwuk eqeloisa.
elqe moi kai nun, calepan de luson
ek merimnan, ossa de moi telessai
qumo~ imerrei, teleson. su d jauta
summaco~ esso

The following "straight" version seems a very good one for perusing once
we are familiar with the text and its phrase structure, which must be
deduced from the words, not from editorial aides like commas and
semicolons. So I will also give on the next page a standard version with the
accents and paragraphing which we can use as the base for the following
pages of commentary.

Note that the meaningless "smooth breathing" is omitted as well as the
aspirating Rough Breathing, which is not used in the Aeolic dialect which is
characterized by its "psilosis" or Stripping (of aspiration).. The Grave
which only warns not to raise pitch, is a secondary accent and since it can
be confused with a "real" pitch diacritic, it not used in this version. We
have difficult work if we want to get the Durations of Long and Short right
to read verse metrically, and there will be more effort involved in
producing the Pitches according to th diacritics, on top of the durative
metrical patterns.

Changing the transitional appearance of the Greek text by removing
unnecessary accent marks has a single purpose, to clear away space and
prepare the text for a closer examination. Unneeded markings can only
confuse.

poikilovqron j aqanavt j Afrovdita
pai` Divo~ dolovploke livssomaiv se
mhv m j avsaisi mhd j onivaisi davmna
povtnia qu`mon
alla tui`d j evlq j aiv pota katevrwta
ta~ evma~ auvda~ ai>vousa phvloi
evklue~, pavtro~ de dovmon livpoisa
cruvsion h`lqe~
avrm j upadeuvxaisa : kavloi de s j a`gon
wvkee~ strou`qoi peri ga`~ melavina~
puvkna dvinnente~ ptver j ap j wravnwiqero~
dia mevssw,
ai`ya d jexivkonto. su d j, w` mavkaira,
mediaisai~ j aqanatw/ proswpw/
hvre j ovtti dhu`te pevponqa kvwtti
dhu`te kavlhmmi,
kvwtti moi mavlista qevlw gevnesqai
mainovla/ quvmw/. tivna dhu`te peviqw
mai`~ s j avghn e~ / san filovtata … tiv~ s j w`
Yavpf j, adikhvei …
kai gar ei feuvgei tacevw~ diwvxei
ai de dw`ra mh devket, alla dwvsei
ai de mh fivlei tacevw~ filhvsei
kwuk eqevloisa.
evlqe moi kai nu`n, calevpan de lu`son
ek merivmnan, ovssa de moi tevlessai
qu`mo~ imevrrei, tevleson. su d jauvta
suvmmaco~ evsso
(Note: There are several Grammatical aides at p. 88 ff.)

And of course I should include a transcription in Roman letters, a practice
somewhat questionably introduced by Perseus throughout its Greek library,
but now so familiar to most of us that it will not seem completely out of
place. It does offer to the reader who has not yet started with the Greek a
chance to experience the sounds and cadences of Sappho's poetry, and for
that alone it is worth the small space it takes in this study.

poikilo-thron' athanat' Aphrodita
pai dios doloploka, lissomai se
me m'asaisi med' oniaisi damna
potnia thumon
alla tuid' elth' ai pota katerota
tas emas audos aioisa peloi
eklues, patros de domon lipoisa
chrusion elthes
arm' updeuxaisa. kaloi de s'agon
okees strouthoi peri gas melainas
pukna dinnentes pter' ap oranothe-
-ros dia messo
aipsa d'exikonto, su de O makaira
meidiaisas' athanato prosopoi
ere' otti deute popontha kotti
deute kalemmi
kotti moi malista thelo genesthai
mainolai thumoi. tina deute peitho
mais agen es san philotata? tis s' O
Psapph' adikeei ?
kai gar ai pheugei, taxeos dioxei
ai de dora me deket', alla dosei
ai de me philei, tacheos philesei
kouk etheloisa.
elthe moi kai nun, chalepan de luson
ek merimnan, ossa de moi telessai
thumos imerrei, teleson, su d'auta
summachos esso.