sappho fragments

Question 1

fragment 1, aphrodite, goddess of the embroidered throne

Answer 1

weaver of wiles
queen I beg you (kletic poem)
come to me again now queen, release me

Question 2

fragment 2, come to me, leave Crete behind!

Answer 2

and sleep flows down from the trembling leaves(metaphor)
(religious imagery) holy temple, altars, smoking incense

Question 3

fragment 16, the most beautiful sight in the whole world

Answer 3

a group of cavalry, infantry, fleet of ships (primael, tricolon)
I think it’s the one you love (subverts Homer, transsgression)
gleaming face, soldiers with weapons (parallel)
Helen, the most beautiful woman on earth (ubiquitous example)

Question 4

fragment 17, come queen Hera

Answer 4

Help me as you helped in the past (establishes a relationship)
come beside me! (exclamation, kletic poem)
many victories at Troy (subverts Homer, showing her well read)

Question 5

fragment 24a, You will remember

Answer 5

when we were young (nostalgic)
you will remember (who?)

Question 6

fragment 30, may the maidens sing

Answer 6

your bride, adorned with violets (nature topoi)
clear-voiced nightingale

Question 7

fragment 31, he is as blessed as a god

Answer 7

I am greener than grass
sweat pours over me, a tremor, seizes me all over (visceral imagery, tricolon)
strikes terror into the heart in my breast
he seems to me equal to a god

Question 8

fragment 47, love shook my soul

Answer 8

love shook my soul (chaos)
like a wind buffeting oak trees on a mountain (nature, exposure, similie)

Question 9

fragment 49, I used to love you Atthis

Answer 9

I thought you were like a clumsy little girl
I used to love you

Question 10

fragment 55, when you die

Answer 10

no one will ever remember you
no share of the roses from the Pieran muses (subverts Homer)

Question 11

fragment 57, what farm girl

Answer 11

charms your mind? (rhetorical- disbelief)
ragged dress over her ankles

Question 12

fragment 81, put garlands around your lovely hair, O Dika!

Answer 12

put garlands around your hair O Dika
the blessed graces favour the beautifully floral over the ungarlanded

Question 13

fragment 94, honestly I want to die

Answer 13

weeping, she was leaving me
O sappho, I do not want to leave you
remember all the wreaths
violets, roses, crocuses
and on a soft bed, you satisfied your desire

Question 14

fragment 96, often she turned her thoughts here

Answer 14

like the rosy fingered moon
the light spreads over the salty sea and the flowery fields
roses, the tender chervil and the flowering melilot bloom
she remembers gentle Atthis
longing consumes her flighty soul

Question 15

fragment 98a, my mother said

Answer 15

it was all the rage to tie up her hair with a purple headband

Question 16

fragment 102, sweet mother!

Answer 16

I cannot weave my web
I am smitten by a boy because of slender Aphrodite

Question 17

fragment 104a, Hesperus!

Answer 17

you bring back (sheep, goats and the child to its mother” (x3) –> anaphora

Question 18

fragment 105a, just like the sweet apple

Answer 18

sweet apple reddening at the highest height
missed by the apple pickers
they just couldn’t reach

Question 19

fragment 105c, just like the hyacinth

Answer 19

hyacinth on a mountain
trodden by the feet of the sheperds
on the ground, a purple flower

Question 20

fragment 112, lucky bridegroom

Answer 20

lucky bridegroom
you have the girl of your dreams
honey sweet, love is poured
aphrodite has honoured you above all others

Question 21

fragment 114, virginity

Answer 21

where have you gone?
i will come to you no more
no more will I come (chiasmus)

Question 22

fragment 121, if you care about me

Answer 22

find the bed of a younger woman
for I never want to be the older one in a relationship

Question 23

fragment 130, love which loosens the limbs

Answer 23

love which loosens the limbs
once again shakes me
bitter sweet
invincible creature

Question 24

fragment 131, atthis the thought of me

Answer 24

the thought of me now repulses you
you run off to Andromeda

Question 25

fragment 132, I have a beautiful daughter

Answer 25

resembles the sight of golden flowers
I love her more than all of Lydia

Question 26

fragment 137, I want to say something

Answer 26

a sense of shame holds me back
your tongue was not about to spit out some hurtful remark