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All the luxuries and elegances of life which that climate and the rich valleys of Lesbos could afford were at their disposal: exquisite gardens, where the rose and hyacinth spread perfume ; river beds ablaze with the oleander and wild pomegranate; olive groves and fountains, where the cyclamen and violet flowered with feathery maidenhair; pine-tree-shadowed coves, where they might bathe in the calm of the tideless sea; fruits such as only the southern sun and sea wind can mature; marble cliffs, starred with jonquil and anemone in spring, aromatic with myrtle and lentisk and samphire and wild rosemary through all the months ; nightingales that sang in May; temples dim with dusky gold and bright with ivory ; statues and frescoes of heroic forms. In such scenes as these the Lesbian poets lived, and thought of love. When we read their poems, we seem to have the perfumes, colors, sounds, and lights of that luxurious land distilled in verse. Nor was a brief but biting winter wanting to give tone to their nerves, and, by contrast with the summer, to prevent the palling of so much luxury on sated senses. The voluptuousness of ^Eolian poetry is not like that of Persian or Arabian art. It is Greek in its self-restraint, proportion, tact. We find nothing burdensome in its sweetness. All is so rhythmically and sublimely ordered in the poems of Sappho that supreme art lends solemnity and grandeur to the expression of unmitigated passion.
The world has suffered no greater literary loss than the loss
Sappho
Photogravure from the painting by Alma Tadema
SAPPHO AND THE . EOLIAN STOCK. 131
of Sappho's poems. So perfect are the smallest fragments pre served in Bergk's "Collection" — the line, for example, which Ben Jonson fancifully translated, "the dear glad angel of the spring, the nightingale" — that we muse in a sad rapture of astonishment to think what the complete poems must have been. Among the ancients Sappho enjoyed a unique renown. She was called "The Poetess," as Homer was called "The Poet. " Aristotle quoted without question a judgment that placed her in the same rank as Homer and Archilochus. Plato in the "Phaedrus" mentioned her as the tenth muse. Solon, hearing one of her poems, prayed that he might not see death till he had learned it. Strabo speaks of her genius with religious awe. Longinus cites her love ode as a specimen of poetical sublimity. The epigrammatists call her Child of Aphrodite and Eros, nursling of the Graces and Persuasion, pride of Hellas, peer of Muses, companion of Apollo. Nowhere is a hint whispered that her poetry was aught but perfect. As far as we can judge, these praises were strictly just. Of all the poets of the world, of all the illustrious artists of all literatures, Sappho is the one whose every word has a peculiar and unmistakable perfume, a seal of absolute perfection and inimitable grace. In her art she was unerring. Even Archilochus seems commonplace when compared with her exquisite rarity of phrase.
About her life — her brother Charaxus, her daughter Cleis, her rejection of Alcaeus and her suit to Phaon, her love for Atthis and Anactoria, her leap from the Leucadian cliff — we know so very little, and that little is so confused with mythol ogy and turbid with the scandal of the comic poets, that it is not worth while to rake up once again the old materials for hypo thetical conclusions. There is enough of heart-devouring pas sion in Sappho's own verse without the legends of Phaon and the cliff of Leucas. The reality casts all fiction into the shade; for nowhere, except, perhaps, in some Persian or Provencal love songs, can be found more ardent expressions of overmas tering emotion. Whether addressing the maidens, whom even in Elysium, as Horace says, Sappho could not forget; or em bodying the profounder yearnings of an intense soul after beauty, which has never on earth existed, but which inflames the hearts of noblest poets, robbing their eyes of sleep and giving them the bitterness of tears to drink —these dazzling fragments,
Which still, like sparkles of Greek fire, Burn on through time and ne'er expire,
132 SAPPHO AND THE . EOLIAN STOCK.
are the ultimate and finished forms of passionate utterance, dia monds, topazes, and blazing rubies, in which the fire of the soul is crystalized forever.
Bt HENRY T. WHARTON.
Sappho, the one great woman poet of the world, who called herself Psappha in her own iEolic dialect, is said to have been at the zenith of her fame about the year 610 B. C. During her lifetime Jeremiah first began to prophesy (628 B. C. ), Daniel was carried away to Babylon (606 B. C. ), Nebuchadnezzar be sieged and captured Jerusalem (587 B. C. ), Solon was legislating at Athens, and Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king, is said to have been reigning over Rome. She lived before the birth of Gautama, the founder of Buddhism.
Two centuries have sufficed to obscure most of the events in the life of Shakspere; it can hardly be expected that the lapse of twenty-five centuries should have left many authentic records of the history of Sappho. Little even of that internal evidence upon which biography may rely can be gathered from her extant poems, in such fragmentary form have they come down to us. Save for the quotations of grammarians and lexicographers, no word of hers would have survived. Yet her writings seem to have been preserved intact till at least the third century of our era ; for Athenaeus, who wrote about that time, applies to himself the words of the Athenian comic poet Epicrates in his "Anti Lais" (about 360 B. C. ), saying that he, too,
Had learned by heart completely all the songs Breathing of love which sweetest Sappho sang.
Scaliger says, although there does not seem to exist any confirmatory evidence, that the works of Sappho and other lyric poets were burnt at Constantinople and at Rome in the year 1073, in the popedom of Gregory VII. Cardan says the burning took place under Gregory Nazianzen, about 380 a. d. And Petrus Alcydrius says that he heard when a boy that very many of the works of the Greek poets were burnt by order of the Byzantine emperors, and the poems of Gregory Nazianzen circulated in their stead. Bishop Blomfield thinks they must all have been destroyed at an early date, because neither Alcaeus nor Sappho was annotated by any of the later gram marians. " Few, indeed, but those roses," as the poet Meleager said, and the precious verses that the zeal of anti-paganism has spared to us.
FRAGMENTS OF SAPPHO. 133
FRAGMENTS OF SAPPHO.
(From the collection of Henry T. Wharton ; the prose translations by him. ) I.
Hymn to Aphrodite.
Immortal Aphrodite of the broidered throne [Poikildthron, sometimes printed PoikUdphron, various-minded], daughter of Zeus, weaver of wiles, I pray thee break not my spirit with anguish and distress, O Queen. But come hither, if ever before thou didst hear my voice afar and listen, and, leaving thy father's golden house, earnest with chariot yoked, and fair, fleet sparrows drew thee, flap ping fast their wings around the dark earth, from heaven through mid sky. Quickly arrived they; and thou, blessed one, smiling with immortal countenance, didst ask, What now is befallen me, and why now I call, and what I in my weak heart most desire to see ? " What beauty now wouldst thou draw to love thee ? Who wrongs thee, Sappho ? For even if she flies, she shall soon follow ; and if she rejects gifts, shall yet live; if she loves not, shall soon love, however loth. " Come, I pray thee, now too, and release me from cruel cares ; and all that my heart desires to accomplish, accom plish thou, and be thyself my ally.
(Translation of J. H. Merivale. )
Immortal Venus, throned above In radiant beauty, child of Jove, O skilled in every art of love
And artful snare ;
Dread power, to whom I bend the knee, Release my soul and set it free
From bonds of piercing agony
And gloomy care.
Yet come thyself, if e'er, benign,
Thy listening ears thou didst incline To my rude lay, the starry shine
Of Jove's court leaving.
In chariot yoked with coursers fair, Thine own immortal birds, that bear Thee swift to earth, the middle air
With bright wings cleaving.
Soon they were sped — and thou, most blest, In thine own smiles ambrosial dressed,
FRAGMENTS OF SAPPHO.
Didst ask what griefs my mind oppressed — What meant my song — —
What end my frenzied thoughts pursue For what loved youth I spread anew
My amorous nets — " Who, Sappho, who
Hath done thee wrong ?
What though he fly, he'll soon return ;
Still press thy gifts, though now he spurn ; Heed not his coldness — soon he'll burn,
E'en though thou chide. "
And saidst thou this, dread goddess ? Oh, Come then once more to ease my woe ; Grant all, and thy great self bestow,
My shield and guide !
(Translation of J. A. Symonds. )
Glittering-throned, undying Aphrodite, Wile-weaving daughter of high Zeus, I pray thee, Tame not my soul with heavy woe, dread mistress,
Nay, nor with anguish !
But hither come, if ever erst of old time
Thou didst incline, and listenedst to my crying, And from thy father's palace down descending,
Camest with golden
Chariot yoked : the fair swift-flying sparrows
Over dark earth with multitudinous fluttering, Pinion on pinion, thorough middle ether
Down from heaven hurried.
Quickly they came like light, and thou, blest lady, Smiling with clear undying eyes didst ask me What was the woe that troubled me, and wherefore
I had cried to thee :
What thing I longed for to appease my frantic
Soul ; and whom now must I persuade, thou askedst, Whom must entangle to thy love, and who now,
Sappho, hath wronged thee ?
Yea, for if now he shun, he soon shall chase thee ; Yea, if he take not gifts he soon shall give them ; Yea, if he love not, soon shall he begin to
Love thee, unwilling.
Come to me now too, and from tyrannous sorrow Free me, and all things that my soul desires to Have done, do for me, queen, and let thyself too
Be my great ally !
FRAGMENTS OF SAPPHO. 135
(Translation of Francis T. Palgrave. )
Golden-throned beyond the sky, Jove-born immortality :
Hear and heal a suppliant's pain ; Let not love be love in vain !
Come, as once to Love's imploring Accents of a maid's adoring, Wafted 'neath the golden dome, Bore thee from thy father's home;
When far off thy coming glowed, Whirling down th' ethereal road,
On thy dove-drawn progress glancing, 'Mid the light of wings advancing ;
And at once the radiant hue
Of immortal smiles I knew ; Heard the voice of reassurance Ask the tale of love's endurance :
Why such prayer ? And who for thee, Sappho, should be touched by me ; Passion-charmed in frenzy strong,
Who hath wrought my Sappho wrong ?
" Soon for flight pursuit wilt find Proffered gifts for gifts declined ; Soon, through long resistance earned, Love refused be love returned. "
To thy suppliant so returning, Consummate a maiden's yearning ; Love, from deep despair set free, Championing to Victory !
n.
To Anactoria.
That man seems to me peer of gods who sits in thy presence and hears close to him thy sweet speech and lovely laughter; that indeed makes my heart flutter in my bosom. For when I see thee but a little, I have no utterance left, my tongue is broken down, and straightway a subtle fire has run under my skin, with my eyes I have no sight, my ears ring, sweat pours down, and a trembling
I am paler than grass, and seem in my mad ness little better than one dead. But I must dare all, since one
seizes all my body ; so poor —
136
FRAGMENTS OF SAPPHO.
(Translation by W. E. Gladstone of Catullus' imitation. )
Him rival to the gods I place, Him loftier yet, if loftier be,
Who, Lesbia, sits before thy face,
Who listens and who looks on thee ;
Thee smiling soft. Yet this delight Doth all my sense consign to death ;
For when thou dawnest on my sight,
Ah, wretched ! flits my laboring breath.
My tongue is palsied. Subtly hid,
Fire creeps me through from limb to limb ;
My loud ears tingle all unbid ;
Twin clouds of night mine eyes bedim.
m.
The stars about the bright moon in their turn hide their bright faces when she at about her full lights up all earth with silver.
rv.
And round about the [breeze? ] murmurs cool through apple boughs, and slumber streams from quivering leaves.
v.
For they whom I benefit injure me most
VL
When anger spreads through the breast, guard thy tongue from barking idly.
(Translation of "Michael Field. ")
When through thy breast wild wrath doth spread And work thy inmost being harm,
Leave thou the fiery word unsaid, Guard thee, be calm.
VII.
Hadst thou felt desire for things good or noble, and had not thy tongue framed some evil speech, shame had not filled thine eyes, but thou hadst spoken honestly about it.
FRAGMENTS OF SAPPHO.
137
[Aristotle, in his " Rhetoric," says : " Base things dishonor those who do or write them," as Sappho showed when Alcaeus said: "Violet-weaving, pure, softly smiling Sappho, I would say some thing, but shame restrains me," and she answered him in the words of the present fragment.
Blass believes that these verses also are Sappho's, not Alcaeus'. Certainly they were quoted as Sappho's by Anna Comnena about 1110 a. d. , as well as by another writer whom Blass refers to. —
Whabton. ]
The Loves of Sappho and Alceus. (Anonymous translation in Edinburgh Review. )
Alcaeus — I fain would speak, I fain would tell, Sappho —But shame and fear my utterance quell.
If aught of good, if aught of fair,
Thy tongue were laboring to declare,
Nor shame should dash thy glance, nor fear Forbid thy suit to reach my ear.
VIII.
I do not think to touch the sky with my two arms.
rx.
And I flutter like a child after her mother.
x.
Spring's messenger, the sweet-voiced nightingale.
XI.
Now Love masters my limbs and shakes me, — fatal creature, bitter-sweet.
XII.
Now Eros shakes my soul, — a wind on the mountain falling on the oaks.
XIII.
The moon has set, and the Pleiades ; it is midnight, the time is going by, and I sleep alone.
■
138 FRAGMENTS OF SAPPHO.
Xrv.
Thus at times with tender feet the Cretan women dance in measure round the fair altar, trampling the fine, soft bloom of the grass.
IT.
And dark-eyed Sleep, child of Night
XVI.
Delicate Adonis is dying, Cytherea; what shall we do? Beat your breasts, maidens, and rend your hands.
xvir.
But thou shalt ever lie, dead, nor shall there be any remem brance of thee then or thereafter, for thou hast not of the roses of Pieria; but thou shalt wander obscure even in the house of Hades, flitting among the shadowy dead.
(Translation of William Cory. )
Woman dead, lie there. No record of thee
Shall there ever be,
Since thou dost not share Roses in Pieria grown.
In the deathful cave,
With the feeble troop
Of the folk that droop,
Lurk and flit and crave, Woman severed and far-flown.
(Paraphrase of A. C. Swinburne. )
Thee, too, the years shall cover : thou shalt be As the rose born of one same blood with thee, As a song sung, as a word said, and fall Flower-wise, and be not any more at all,
Nor any memory of thee anywhere ;
For never thou hast bound above thine hair The high Pierian flowers, whose graft outgrows All summer kinship of the mortal rose
And color of deciduous days, nor shed
Reflex and flush of heaven about thine head.
FRAGMENTS OF SAPPHO. 139
XVIII.
What country girl bewitches thy heart, who knows not how to draw her dress about her ankles?
XIX.
But if thou lovest us, choose another and a younger bedfellow ; for I will not brook to live with thee — old woman with young man.
xx.
Do thou, Dica, set garlands round thy lovely hair, twining shoots of dill together with soft bands; for those who have fair flowers may best stand first, even in the favor of goddesses, who turn their face away from those who lack garlands.
(Translation of C. D. Tonge. )
But place those garlands on thy lovely hair, Twining the tender sprouts of anise green With skillful hand ; for offerings and flowers Are pleasing to the gods, who hate all those Who come before them with uncrowned heads.
XXI.
I love delicacy, and for me Love has the sun's splendor and beauty.
XXII.
I have a fair daughter with a form like a golden flower, — Cleis, the beloved, above whom I [prize] nor all Lydia nor
lovely [Lesbos].
XXIII.
Sweet mother, I cannot weave my web, broken as I am by long ing for a boy, at soft Aphrodite's will.
(Paraphrase of Moore. )
As o'er her loom the Lesbian maid
In lovesick languor hung her head,
Unknowing where her fingers strayed, She weeping turned away and said :
140
FRAGMENTS OF SAPPHO.
" Oh, my sweet mother, 'tis in vain ; I cannot weave as once I wove, So wildered is my heart and brain
With thinking of that youth I love. "
XXIV.
As the sweet apple blushes on the end of the bough, the very end of the bough, which the gatherers overlooked — nay, overlooked not, but could not reach.
(Translation of Francis T. Palgrave. )
O fair — O sweet!
As the sweet apple blooms high on the bough,
High as the highest, forgot of the gatherers, So thou : —
Yet not so : nor forgot of the gatherers ; High o'er their reach in the golden air ;
O sweet — O fair!
xxv.
As on the hills the shepherds trample the hyacinth under foot, and the flower darkens on the ground.
(Translation of Sir Edwin Arnold. )
Pines she like to the hyacinth out on the path by the hilltop ; Shepherds tread it aside, and its purples lie lost on the herbage.
Beauty — a Combination from Sappho.
(Translation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, of XXIV. and XXV. combined. ) I.
Like the sweet apple which reddens upon the topmost bough,
Atop on the topmost twig, — which the pluckers forgot somehow, — Forgot it not, nay, but got it not, for none could get it till now.
n.
Like the wild hyacinth flower which on the hills is found,
Which the passing feet of the shepherds forever tear and wound, Until the purple blossom is trodden into the ground.
FRAGMENTS OF SAPPHO. 141
XXVI.
Evening, thou that bringest all that bright morning scattered ; thou bringest the sheep, thou bringest the goat, thou bringest the child back to her mother.
(Byron's paraphrase in "Don Juan. ")
O Hesperus ! thou bringest all good things, Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer,
To the young bird the parent's brooding wings, The welcome stall to the o'er-labored steer ;
Whate'er of peace about our hearthstone clings, Whate'er our household gods protect of dear,
Are gathered round us by thy look of rest ;
Thou bring'st the child, too, to its mother's breast.
XXVII.
From an Epithalamium.
A. — Maidenhood, maidenhood, whither art thou gone away
from me?
B. — Never again will I
(Epitaph. ) This is the dust of Timas, whom Persephone's dark chamber received, dead before her wedding ; when she perished, all her fellows dressed with sharpened steel the lovely tresses of their heads.
XXIX. May the night be doubled for me.
XXX.
(Epitaph. ) Maidens, dumb as I am, I speak thus, if any ask, and set before your feet a tireless voice : To Leto's daughter ^Ethiopia was I dedicated by Aristo, daughter of Hermocleides son of Saon- aiades, thy servant, O queen of women : whom bless thou, and deign to glorify our house.
XXXI.
On a Priestess op Diana.
—
come to thee never again.
XXVIII.
I answer from the dead :
Does any ask ?
A voice that lives is graven o'er my head ;
To dark-eyed Dian, ere my days begun,
Aristo vowed me, wife of Saon's son :
Then hear thy priestess, hear, O Virgin Power, And thy best gifts on Saon's lineage shower.
142 SAPPHICS.
SAPPHICS.
By ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.
[Algernon Charles Swinburne : English poet ; born at London, April 5, 1837. His skill in the use of English rhythms and rhymes is unexcelled by any modern English poet. He also writes French and Qreek with remarkable suc cess. His first notable work was two plays, " The Queen Mother " and " Rosa mund," 1881. "Atalanta " in Calydon," considered the finest reproduction of the classical spirit, 1804 ; Cbastelard," 1866; "Bothwell," 1874, the longest drama in English, consisting of about fifteen thousand lines and a multitude of characters, are among his ablest productions. His "Poems and Ballads" of 1866 met with severe criticism, and were withdrawn from the market. He has published in all no less than twenty volumes. ]
All the night sleep came not upon my eyelids, Shed not dew, nor shook nor unclosed a feather, Yet with lips shut close and with eyes of iron
Stood and beheld me.
Then to me so lying awake a vision
Came without sleep over seas and touched me, Softly touched mine eyelids and lips ; and I too,
Full of the vision,
Saw the white implacable Aphrodite,
Saw the hair unbound and the feet unsandaled Shine as fire of sunset on western waters ;
Saw the reluctant
Feet, the straining plumes of the doves that drew her, Looking always, looking with necks reverted,
Back to Lesbos, back to the hills whereunder
Shone Mitylene ;
Heard the flying feet of the Loves behind her Make a sudden thunder upon the waters,
As the thunder flung from the strong unclosing
Wings of a great wind.
So the goddess fled from her place, with awful Sound of feet and thunder of wings around her ; While behind a clamor of singing women
Severed the twilight
Ah the singing, ah the delight, the passion !
All the Loves wept, listening ; sick with anguish, Stood the crowned nine Muses about Apollo ;
Fear was upon them,
SAPPHICS.
While the tenth sang wonderful things they knew not Ah the tenth, the Lesbian ! the nine were silent,
None endured the sound of her song for weeping ;
Laurel by laurel,
Faded all their crowns ; but about her forehead, Round her woven tresses and ashen temples White as dead snow, paler than grass in summer,
Ravaged with kisses,
Shone a light of fire as a crown forever.
Yea, almost the implacable Aphrodite
Paused, and almost wept; such a song was that song,
Yea, by her name too
Called her, saying, " Turn to me, O my Sappho ! " Yet she turned her face from the Love's, she saw not Tears for laughter darken immortal eyelids,
Heard not about her
Fearful fitful wings of the doves departing,
Saw not how the bosom of Aphrodite
Shook with weeping, saw not her shaken raiment,
Saw not her hands wrung ;
Saw the Lesbians kissing across their smitten
Lutes with lips more sweet than the sound of lute strings Mouth to mouth and hand upon hand her chosen,
Fairer than all men;
Only saw the beautiful lips and fingers, Full of songs and kisses and little whispers, Full of musio ; only beheld among them
Soar, as a bird soars
Newly fledged, her visible song, a marvel, Made of perfect sound and exceeding passion, Sweetly shapen, terrible, full of thunders,
Clothed with the wind's wings.
Then rejoiced she, laughing with love, and scattered Roses, awful roses of holy blossom ;
Then the Loves thronged sadly with hidden faces
Round Aphrodite,
Then the Muses, stricken at heart, were silent ;
Yea, the gods waxed pale ; such a song was that song. All reluctant, all with a fresh repulsion,
Fled from before her.
144
LYRICS OF ALC^US.
All withdrew long since, and the land was barren, Full of fruitless women and music only.
Now perchance, when winds are assuaged at sunset,
Lulled at the dewfall,
By the gray seaside, unassuaged, unheard of, Unbeloved, unseen in the ebb of twilight, Ghosts of outcast women return lamenting,
Purged not in Lethe,
Clothed about with flame and with tears, and singing Songs that move the heart of the shaken heaven, Songs that break the heart of the earth with pity,
Hearing, to hear them.
LYRICS OF ALCLEUS.
(About B. c. 600) (Translated by Sir William Jones. ) What constitutes a State?
What constitutes a state ?
Not high-raised battlement or labored mound,
Thick wall or moated gate ;
Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned ;
Not bays and broad-armed ports,
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride,
Not starred and spangled courts,
Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride.
No, — men, high-minded men,
With powers as far above dull brutes endued
In forest, brake, or den,
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude —
Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain,
Prevent the long-aimed blow,
And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain ;
These constitute a state ;
And sovereign law, that state's collected will,
O'er thrones and globes elate
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. Smit by her sacred frown,
LYRICS OF ALC. EUS.
The fiend, Dissension, like a vapor sinks ; And e'en the all-dazzling crown
Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks ; Such was this heaven-loved isle,
Than Lesbos fairer and the Cretan shore ! No more shall freedom smile ?
Shall Britons languish, and be men no more ? Since all must life resign,
Those sweet rewards which decorate the brave 'Tis folly to decline,
And steal inglorious to the silent grave.
Defying the Stobm.
(Translated by J. A. Symonds. )
The rain of Zeus descends, and from high heaven A storm is driven :
And on the running water brooks the cold Lays icy hold :
Then up ! beat down the winter ; make the fire Blaze high and higher;
Mix wine as sweet as honey of the bee Abundantly ;
Then drink with comfortable wool around Your temples bound.
We must not yield our hearts to woe, or wear With wasting care ;
For grief will profit us no whit, my friend, Nor nothing mend :
But this is our best medicine, with wine fraught To cast out thought
An Arsenal.
(Translated by "William Mure. )
From roof to roof the spacious palace halls Glitter with war's array ;
With burnished metal clad, the lofty walls Beam like the bright noouday.
There white-plumed helmets hang from many a Above, in threatening row ;
Steel-garnished tunics and broad coats of mail
Spread o'er the space below. vol. m. — 10
THE OLD AGE OF THE SENSUALIST.
Chalcidian blades enow, and belts are here, Greaves and emblazoned shields ;
Well-tried protectors from the hostile spear, On other battle-fields.
With these good helps our work of war's begun, With these our victory must be won.
A Stobm at Sea.
(Translated by Sir William Jones. )
Now here, now there, the wild waves sweep, Whilst we betwixt them o'er the deep,
In shattered tempest-beaten bark, With laboring ropes are onward driven,
The billows dashing o'er our dark Upheaved deck — in tatters riven
Our sails — whose yawning rents between The raging sea and sky are seen.
Loose from their hold our anchors burst, And then the third, the fatal wave,
Comes rolling onward like the first, And doubles all our toil to save.
THE OLD AGE OF THE SENSUALIST.
By MIMNERMUS.
[About 625 B. C. ] (Translated by J. A. Symonds. )
What's life or pleasure wanting Aphrodite ? When to the gold-haired goddess cold am I,
When love and love's soft gifts no more delight me, Nor stolen dalliance, then I fain would die !
Ah ! fair and lovely bloom the flowers of youth ; On men and maids they beautifully smile :
But soon comes doleful eld, who, void of ruth, Indifferently afflicts the fair and vile :
Then cares wear out the heart ; old eyes forlorn Scarce reck the very sunshine to behold ——
Unloved by youths, of every maid the scorn So hard a lot God lays upon the old.
SOLON.
SOLON. By PLPTARCH.
147
[Plutarch : A Greek writer of biographies and miscellaneous works ; born about a. d. 60. He came of a wealthy and distinguished family and received a careful philosophical training at Athens under the Peripatetic philosopher Ammonius. After this he made several journeys, and stayed a considerable time in Rome, where he enjoyed friendly intercourse with persons of distinction, and conducted the education of the future Emperor Hadrian. He died about a. d. 120 in his native town, in which he held the office of archon and priest of the Pythian Apollo. His fame as an author is founded upon the celebrated " Parallel Lives," consisting of the biographies of forty-six Greeks and Romans, divided into pairs. Each pair contains the life of a Greek and a Roman, and generally ends with a comparison of the two. Plutarch's other writings, more than sixty short treatises on a great variety of subjects, are grouped under the title of " Morals. "]
It is perfectly possible for a good man and a statesman, without being solicitous for superfluities, to show some concern for competent necessaries. In his time, as Hesiod says, — " Work was a shame to none," nor was distinction made with respect to trade, but merchandise was a noble calling, which brought home the good things which the barbarous nations enjoyed, was the occasion of friendship with their kings, and a great source of experience. Some merchants have built great cities, as Protis, the founder of Massilia, to whom the Gauls, near the Rhone, were much attached. Some report also, that Thales and Hippocrates the mathematician traded ; and that Plato defrayed the charges of his travels by selling oil in Egypt. Solon's softness and profuseness, his popular rather than philo sophical tone about pleasure in his poems, have been ascribed to his trading life ; for, having suffered a thousand dangers, it was natural they should be recompensed with some gratifica tions and enjoyments ; but that he accounted himself rather poor than rich is evident from the lines, —
Some wicked men are rich, some good are poor — We will not change our virtue for their store : Virtue's a thing that none can take away ;
But money changes owners all the day.
At first he used his poetry only in trifles, not for any serious purpose, but simply to pass away his idle hours ; but afterwards he introduced moral sentences and state matters, which he did,
148 SOLON.
not to record them merely as an historian, but to justify his own actions, and sometimes to correct, chastise, and stir up the Athenians to noble performances. Some report that he designed to put his laws into heroic verse, and that they began thus, —
We humbly beg a blessing on our laws
From mighty Jove, and honor, and applause.
In philosophy, as most of the wise men then, he chiefly es teemed the political part of morals ; in physics, he was very plain and antiquated, as appears by this, —
It is the clouds that make the snow and hail, And thunder comes from lightning without fail ; The sea is stormy when the winds have blown, But it deals fairly when 'tis left alone.
And, indeed, it is probable that at that time Thales alone had raised philosophy above mere practice into speculation ; and the rest of the wise men were so called from prudence in
. . . It is stated that Anacharsis and Solon, and Solon and Thales, were familiarly acquainted, and some
political concerns.
have delivered parts of their discourse ; for, they say, Ana charsis, coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told him, that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a friendship with him ; and Solon replying, " It is better to make friends at home," Anacharsis replied, " Then you that are at home make friendship with me. " Solon, some what surprised at the readiness of the repartee, received him kindly, and kept him some time with him, being already en gaged in public business and the compilation of his laws ; which, when Anacharsis understood, he laughed at him for imagining the dishonesty and covetousness of his countrymen could be restrained by written laws, which were like spiders' webs, and would catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but easily be broken by the mighty and rich. To this Solon rejoined that men keep their promises when neither side can get anything by the break ing of them ; and he would so fit his laws to the citizens, that all should understand it was more eligible to be just than to break the laws. But the event rather agreed with the conjec ture of Anacharsis than Solon's hope. Anacharsis, being once at the Assembly, expressed his wonder at the fact that in Greece wise men spoke and fools decided.
SOLON.
149
Solon went, they say, to Thales, at Miletus, and wondered that Thales took no care to get him a wife and children. To this, Thales made no answer for the present ; but a few days after procured a stranger to pretend that he had left Athens ten days ago ; and Solon inquiring what news there, the man, ac cording to his instructions, replied, " None but a young man's funeral, which the whole city attended ; for he was the son, they said, of an honorable man, the most virtuous of the citi zens, who was not then at home, but had been traveling a long time. " Solon replied, "What a miserable man is he! But
"I have heard it," says the man,
what was his name ? "
have now forgotten it, only there was a great talk of his wis dom and his justice. " Thus Solon was drawn on by every answer, and bis fears heightened, till at last, being extremely concerned, he mentioned his own name, and asked the stranger if that young man was called Solon's son ; and the stranger assenting, he began to beat his head, and to do and say all that is usual with men in transports of grief. But Thales took his hand, and, with a smile, said, " These things, Solon, keep me from marriage and rearing children, which are too great for even your constancy to support ; however, be not concerned at the report, for it is a fiction. " This Hermippus relates, from Pataecus, who boasted that he had ^Esop's soul.
However, it is irrational and poor-spirited not to seek con veniences for fear of losing them, for upon the same account we should not allow ourselves to like wealth, glory, or wisdom, since we may fear to be deprived of all these ; nay, even virtue itself, than which there is no greater nor more desirable posses sion, is often suspended by sickness or drugs. Now Thales, though unmarried, could not be free from solicitude, unless he likewise felt no care for his friends, his kinsmen, or his coun try ; yet we are told he adopted Cybisthus, his sister's son. For the soul, having a principle of kindness in itself, and being born to love, as well as perceive, think, or remember, inclines and fixes upon some stranger, when a man has none of his own to embrace. And alien or illegitimate objects insinuate them selves into his affections, as into some estate that lacks lawful
heirs ; and with affection come anxiety and care ; insomuch that you may see men that use the strongest language against the marriage bed and the fruit of it, when some servant's or concubine's child is sick or dies, almost killed with grief, and abjectly lamenting. Some have given way to shameful and
"
but
150
SOLON.
desperate sorrow at the loss of a dog or horse ; others have borne the death of virtuous children without any extravagant or unbecoming grief, have passed the rest of their lives like men, and according to the principles of reason. It is not affec tion, it is weakness that brings men, unarmed against fortune by reason, into these endless pains and terrors ; and they indeed have not even the present enjoyment of what they dote upon, the possibility of the future loss causing them continual pangs, tremors, and distresses. We must not provide against the loss of wealth by poverty, or of friends by refusing all acquaintance, or of children by having none, but by morality and reason. But of this too much.
Now, when the Athenians were tired with a tedious and dif ficult war that they conducted against the Megarians for the island Salamis, and made a law that it should be death for any man, by writing or speaking, to assert that the city ought to endeavor to recover it, Solon, vexed at the disgrace, and per ceiving thousands of the youth wished for somebody to begin, but did not dare to stir first for fear of the law, counterfeited a distraction, and by his own family it was spread about the city that he was mad. He then secretly composed some elegiac verses, and getting them by heart, that it might seem extem pore, ran out into the market place with a cap upon his head, and, the people gathering about him, got upon the herald's stand, and sang that elegy which begins thus : —
I am a herald come from Salamis the fair,
My news from thence my verses shall declare.
The poem is called Salamis ; it contains an hundred verses very elegantly written ; when it had been sung, his friends commended it, and especially Pisistratus exhorted the citizens to obey his directions ; insomuch that they recalled the law, and renewed the war under Solon's conduct.
The Megarians, however, still contending, and both sides having received considerable losses, they chose the Spartans for arbitrators. Some of Apollo's oracles, where he calls Salamis Ionian, made much for Solon. This matter was determined by five Spartans, Critolaidas, Amompharetus, Hypsechidas, Anaxilas, and Cleomenes.
For this, Solon grew famed and powerful ; but his advice in favor of defending the oracle at Delphi, to give aid, and not to suffer the Cirrhaeans to profane it, but to maintain the honor
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151
of the god, got him most repute among the Greeks ; for upon his persuasion the Amphictyons undertook the war.
Now the Cylonian pollution had a long while disturbed the commonwealth, ever since the time when Megacles the archon persuaded the conspirators with Cylon that took sanctuary in Minerva's temple to come down and stand to a fair trial. And they, tying a thread to the image, and holding one end of it, went down to the tribunal ; but when they came to the temple of the Furies, the thread broke of its own accord, upon which, as if the goddess had refused them protection, they were seized by Megacles and the other magistrates ; as many as were with out the temples were stoned, those that fled for sanctuary were butchered at the altar, and only those escaped who made sup plication to the wives of the magistrates. But they from that time were considered under pollution, and regarded with hatred. The remainder of the faction of Cylon grew strong again, and had continual quarrels with the family of Megacles ; and now the quarrel being at its height, and the people divided, Solon, being in reputation, interposed with the chiefest of the Athe nians, and by entreaty and admonition persuaded the polluted to submit to a trial and the decision of three hundred noble citizens. And Myron of Phlya being their accuser, they were found guilty, and as many as were then alive were banished, and the bodies of the dead were dug up, and scattered beyond the confines of the country.
In the midst of these distractions, the Megarians falling upon them, they lost Nisaea and Salamis again; besides, the
city was disturbed with superstitious fears and strange appear ances, and the priests declared that the sacrifices intimated some villainies and pollutions that were to be expiated. Upon this, they sent for Epimenides the Phaestian from Crete, who is counted the seventh wise man by those that will not admit Periander into the number. He seems to have been thought a favorite of heaven, possessed of knowledge in all the super natural and ritual parts of religion ; and, therefore, the men of his age called him a new Cures, and son of a nymph named Balte. When he came to Athens, and grew acquainted with Solon, he served him in many instances, and prepared the way for his legislation. He made them moderate in their forms of worship, and abated their mourning by ordering some sacrifices presently after the funeral, and taking off those severe and
barbarous ceremonies which the women usually practiced ; but
152 SOLON.
the greatest benefit was his purifying and sanctifying the city, by certain propitiatory and expiatory lustrations, and founda tions of sacred buildings, by that means making them more submissive to justice, and more inclined to harmony. It is reported that, looking upon Munychia, and considering a long while, he said to those that stood by, "How blind is man in future things ! for did the Athenians foresee what mischief this would do their city, they would even eat it with their own teeth to be rid of it. " A similar anticipation is ascribed to Thales ; they say he commanded his friends to bury him in an obscure and contemned quarter of the territory of Miletus, say ing that it should some day be the market place of the Mile sians. Epimenides, being much honored, and receiving from the city rich offers of large gifts and privileges, requested but one branch of the sacred olive, and, on that being granted, returned.
The Athenians, now the Cylonian sedition was over and the polluted gone into banishment, fell into their old quarrels about the government, there being as many different parties as there were diversities in the country. The Hill quarter favored democracy, the Plain, oligarchy, and those that lived by the Seaside stood for a mixed sort of government, and so hindered either of the other parties from prevailing. And the disparity of fortune between the rich and the poor at that time also reached its height ; so that the city seemed to be in a truly dangerous condition, and no other means for freeing it from disturbances and settling it to be possible but a despotic power. All the people were indebted to the rich ; and either they tilled their land for their creditors, paying them a sixth part of the increase, and were, therefore, called Hectemorii and Thetes, or else they engaged their body for the debt, and might be seized, and either sent into slavery at home, or sold to stran gers ; some (for no law forbade it) were forced to sell their chil dren, or fly their country to avoid the cruelty of their creditors ; but the most part and the bravest of them began to combine
together and encourage one another to stand to it, to choose a leader, to liberate the condemned debtors, divide the land, and change the government.
Then the wisest of the Athenians, perceiving Solon was of all men the only one not implicated in the troubles, that he had not joined in the exactions of the rich, and was not involved in the necessities of the poor, pressed him to succor the common
SOLON. 153
wealth and compose the differences. Though Phanias the Les bian affirms that Solon, to save his country, put a trick upon both parties, and privately promised the poor a division of the lands, and the rich security for their debts. Solon, however, himself says that it was reluctantly at first that he engaged in state affairs, being afraid of the pride of one party and the greediness of the other ; he was chosen archon, however, after Philombrotus, and empowered to be an arbitrator and lawgiver, the rich consenting because he was wealthy, the poor because he was honest. There was a saying of his current before the election, that when things are even there never can be war, and this pleased both parties, the wealthy and the poor, — the one conceiving him to mean, when all have their fair proportion ; the others, when all are absolutely equal.
Thus, there being great hopes on both sides, the chief men pressed Solon to take the government into his own hands, and, when he was once settled, manage the business freely and ac cording to his pleasure ; and many of the commons, perceiving it would be a difficult change to be effected by law and reason, were willing to have one wise and just man set over the affairs ; and some say that Solon had this oracle from Apollo —
Take the mid seat, and be the vessel's guide ; Many in Athens are upon your side.
But chiefly his familiar friends chid him for disaffecting mon archy only because of the name, as if the virtue of the ruler could not make it a lawful form ; Euboea had made this experi ment when it chose Tynnondas, and Mitylene, which had made Pittacus its prince ; yet this could not shake Solon's resolu tion; but, as they say, he replied to his friends, that it was true a tyranny was a very fair spot, but it had no way down from it ; and in a copy of verses to Phocus he writes —
— that I spared my land,
And withheld from usurpation and from violence my hand, And forbore to fix a stain and a disgrace on my good name,
I regret not ;
I believe that it will be my chiefest fame.
From which it is manifest that he was a man of great reputa tion before he gave his laws. The several mocks that were put upon him for refusing the power, he records in these words, —
154 SOLON.
Solon surely was a dreamer, and a man of simple mind ; When the gods would give him fortune, he of his own will
declined ;
When the net was full of fishes, overheavy thinking
He declined to haul up, through want of heart and want
of wit.
Had but that chance of riches and of kingship, for one day,
would give my skin for flaying, and my house to die away.
Thus he makes the many and the low people speak of him. Yet, though he refused the government, he was not too mild in the affair he did not show himself mean and submissive to the powerful, nor make his laws to pleasure those that chose him. For where was well before, he applied no remedy, nor altered anything, for fear lest,
Overthrowing altogether and disordering the state,
he should be too weak to new-model and recompose to toler able condition but what he thought he could effect by persua sion upon the pliable, and by force upon the stubborn, this he did, as he himself says,
With force and justice working both in one.
And, therefore, when he was afterwards asked he had left the Athenians the best laws that could be given, he replied, " The best they could receive. "
The way which, the moderns say, the Athenians have of softening the badness of thing, by ingeniously giving some pretty and innocent appellation, — calling harlots, for example, mistresses, tributes customs, garrison guard, and the jail the chamber, — seems originally to have been Solon's contrivance, who called canceling debts Seisacthea, a relief, or disencum- brance. For the first thing which he settled was that what debts remained should be forgiven, and no man, for the future, should engage the body of his debtor for security. Though some, as Androtion, affirm that the debts were not canceled, but the interest only lessened, which sufficiently pleased the people so that they named this benefit the Seisacthea, together with the enlarging their measures, and raising the value of their money for he made pound, which before passed for seventy-three drachmas, go for hundred; so that, though the number of pieces in the payment was equal, the value was less;
;
;
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SOLON. 155
which proved a considerable benefit to those that were to dis charge great debts, and no loss to the creditors. But most agree that it was the taking off the debts that was called Seisacthea, which is confirmed by some places in his poem, where he takes honor to himself, that
The mortgage stones that covered her, by me Removed, — the land that was a slave is free ;
that some who had been seized for their debts he had brought back from other countries, where
— so far their lot to roam,
They had forgot the language of their home ;
and some he had set at liberty,
Who here in shameful servitude were held.
While he was designing this, a most vexatious thing hap pened; for when he had resolved to take off the debts, and was considering the proper form and fit beginning for it, he told some of his friends, Conon, Clinias, and Hipponicus, in whom he had a great deal of confidence, that he would not meddle with the lands, but only free the people from their debts ; upon which they, using their advantage, made haste and borrowed some considerable sums of money, and purchased some large farms; and when the law was enacted, they kept the possessions, and would not return the money ; which brought Solon into great suspicion and dislike, as if he himself had not been abused, but was concerned in the contrivance. But he presently stopped this suspicion, by releasing his debtors of five talents (for he had lent so much), according to the law ; others, as Polyzelus the Rhodian, say fifteen ; his friends, how ever, were ever afterward called Chreocopidae, repudiators.
In this he pleased neither party, for the rich were angry for their money, and the poor that the land was not divided, and, as Lycurgus ordered in his commonwealth, all men reduced to equality. He, it is true, being the eleventh from Hercules, and having reigned many years in Lacedaemon, had got a great reputation and friends and power, which he could use in model ing his state ; and applying force more than persuasion, inso much that he lost his eye in the scuffle, was able to employ the most effectual means for the safety and harmony of a state, by not permitting any to be poor or rich in his commonwealth.
156
SOLON.
Solon could not rise to that in his polity, being but a citizen of the middle classes ; yet he acted fully up to the height of his power, having nothing but the good will and good opinion of his citizens to rely on ; and that he offended the most part, who looked for another result, he declares in the words —
Formerly they boasted of me vainly ; with averted eyes
Now they look askance upon me ; friends no more, but enemies.
And yet had any other man, he says, received the same power,
He would not have forborne, nor let alone, But made the fattest of the milk his own.
Soon, however, becoming sensible of the good that was done, they laid by their grudges, made a public sacrifice, calling it Seisacthea, and chose Solon to new-model and make laws for the commonwealth, giving him the entire power over every thing, their magistracies, their assemblies, courts, and councils; that he should appoint the number, times of meeting, and what estate they must have that could be capable of these, and dis solve or continue any of the present constitutions, according to his pleasure.
First, then, he repealed all Draco's laws, except those con cerning homicide, because they were too severe, and the pun ishments too great ; for death was appointed for almost all offenses, insomuch that those that were convicted of idleness were to die, and those that stole a cabbage or an apple to suffer even as villains that committed sacrilege or murder. So that Demades, in after time, was thought to have said very happily, that Draco's laws were written not with ink but blood; and he himself, being once asked why he made death the punishment of most offenses, replied, " Small ones deserve that, and I have no higher for the greater crimes. "
Next, Solon, being willing to continue the magistracies in the hands of the rich men, and yet receive the people into the other part of the government, took an account of the citizens' estates, and those that were worth five hundred measures of fruit, dry and liquid, he placed in the first rank, calling them Pentacosiomedimni ; those that could keep a horse, or were worth three hundred measures, were named Hippada Teluntes, and made the second class ; the Zeugitae, that had two hundred measures, were in the third ; and all the others were called
SOLON. 157
Thetes, who were not admitted to any office, but could come to the assembly, and act as jurors ; which at first seemed nothing, but afterwards was found an enormous privilege, as almost every matter of dispute came before them in this latter capacity. Even in the cases which he assigned to the archon's cognizance, he allowed an appeal to the courts. Besides, it is said that he was obscure and ambiguous in the wording of his laws, on purpose to increase the honor of his courts ; for since their differences could not be adjusted by the letter, they would have to bring all their causes to the judges, who thus were in a manner masters of the laws. Of this equalization he himself
makes
mention in this manner : —
Such power I gave the people as might do, Abridged not what they had, now lavished new, Those that were great in wealth and high in place My counsel likewise kept from all disgrace. Before them both I held my shield of might,
And let not either touch the other's right.