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Home Home The Classics Poems of Sappho (Unicode) 69: I am not of a malign nature...

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69: I am not of a malign nature...

69: I am not of a malign nature...

Chapters

Title Page
Introduction
1: Hymn to Aphrodite
2: That one seems to me the equal of the gods...
3: Some say that the fairest thing upon the dark earth is a host of horsemen...
3: Some say that the fairest thing upon the dark earth is a host of horsemen...: [transcription]
4: The stars about the full moon...
5: And by the cool stream the breeze murmurs...
6: Come, goddess of Cyprus...
7: If thee, Cyprus or Paphos or Panormos...
8: But for thee I will bring to the altar...
9: May I win this prize...
10: Who made me gifts...
11: This will I now sing...
12: For thee to whom I do good...
13: But that which one desires I
14: To you, fair maidens...
15: And this I feel myself.
16: But the spirit within them turned chill...
17: From my distress...
18: Just now the golden-sandalled Dawn
19: A broidered strap...
20: Shot with innumerable hues.
21: Thou forgettest me.
22: Or lovest another...
23: You are nought to me.
24: I yearn and I seek.
25: When anger spreads...
26: Hadst thou wished for things good or noble...
27: Face me, my dear one
28: And golden pulse grew along the shores.
29: Lato and Niobe were most dear friends.
30: I think men will remember us even hereafter.
31: I loved thee Atthis...
32: To me thou didst seem a small and ungraceful child.
Foolish woman...
34: I know not what to do...
35: With my two arms...
36: So, like a child after its mother, I flutter.
37: The messager of spring, the sweet voiced nighingale.
38: Now Love, the ineluctable...
39: But to thee, Athis...
40: Now Eros shakes my soul...
41: When all night long sleep holds them.
42: Come, O divine shell
43: And delicately woven garlands round tender neck.
44: More fond of children than Gello.
45: Very weary of Gorgo.
46: But upon a soft cushion I dispose my limbs
47: And there the bowl of ambrosia was mixed
48: The moon has set...
49: The moon rose full...
50: Thus sometimes, the Cretan women, tender footed...
51: Then lightly, in an enfolding garment I sprang.
52: They say that Leda...
53: And dark-eyed Sleep, child of Night.
54: The handmaiden of Aphrodite, shining like gold.
55: Andromeda has a fair reward.
56: Sappho, why [celebrate or worship] most happy Aphrodite?
57: Come now gentle Graces, and fair-haired Muses.
58: A sweet-voiced maiden.
59: Gentle Adonis is dying, O Cythera, what shall we do?...
60: O for Adonis.
61: Coming from heaven...
62: Come rosy-armed Graces, virgin daughters of Zeus.
63: But Ares said he would forcibly drag Hephaestus.
64: Innumerable drinking cups thou drainest.
65: But thou shalt ever lie dead...
66: No maiden, I think, more wise than thou...
67: What rustic girl bewitches thee...
68: Hero of Gyara, that swift runner, I taught.
69: I am not of a malign nature...
70: Then sweet maidens wove garlands.
71: Thou and my servant, Eros.
72: For if thou lovest us...
73: More shapely is Mnasidica, than gentle Gyrinno.
74: One more scornful than thee, O Eranna, I have never found.
75: Do thou, O Dica, set garlands upon thy lovely hair...
76: I love refinement...
77: And down I set the cushion.
78: Wealth without thee...
79: And thou thyself, Calliope.
80: Sleep thou, in the bosom of thy sweetheart.
81: Hither now, ye Muses...
82: I have a fair daughter...
83: From all joy to me...
84: In my dream, I spoke to the Cyprian goddess.
85: Why lovely swallow...
86: She wrapped herself well in gossamer garments.
87: My sweet mother! Fair Aphrodite's spell...
88: Raise high the roof beams, Workmen!...
89: Towering like the singer of Lesbos among men of other lands.
90: As the sweet apple blushes on the end of the bough...
91: O'er the hills the heedless shepherd,...
92: Hail, gentle Evening, that bringst back...
93: Ever shall I be a maid.
94: We will give, says the father.
95: To the door-keeper, feet seven fathoms long...
96: Happy bridegroom!...
97: And a sweet expression spreads over her fair face.
98: He who is fair to look upon is good...
99: Do I still long for maidenhood?
100: The bride comes rejoicing...
101: To what may I liken thee, dear bridegroom?...
102: Hail bride...
103: For, like her, O bridegroom, there was no other maiden.
104: Maidenhood, maidenhood, whither art thou gone from me?...
105: To himself he seems...
106: ...much whiter than an egg
107: Neither honey nor bee for me.
108: Stir not the pebbles.
109: Thou burnest us.
110: A napkin dripping.
111: Him she called her son.
112: Maidens, although I am dumb, yet thus I speak...
113: This is the dust of Timas...
114: A most tender maiden gathering flowers.
115: Than the lyre, far sweeter in tone, than gold, more golden.
116: fragment: fiction weaving
117: the brightness...not destroying the sight
118: With rosy cheeks...
119: Pausanias on Sappho
120: Himerius on Sappho
121: Persuasion
122: Athenaeus on Sappho
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69: I am not of a malign nature...

69

Ἄλλά τισ οὐκ ἔμμι παλιγκότων
ὄργαν, ἀλλ᾽ ἀβάκην τὰν φρέν᾽ ἔχω. [transcription]

I am not of a malign nature but have a calm temper.

Quoted in the "Etymologicum Magnum" to show the meaning of ἀβάκησ [transcription] , "innocent", "unsophisticated."

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