Sappho Fragment 1: Hymn to Aphrodite (Ode to Aphrodite)
Sappho of Lesbos
The only complete poem of Sappho to survive antiquity — a prayer in Sapphic stanzas asking Aphrodite to be her ally in love. Preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
About the Poem
This is the only complete poem of Sappho preserved from antiquity — 28 lines in seven Sapphic stanzas. It survives because Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1st c. BCE) quoted it in full in his treatise On Literary Composition (§23) as an example of polished style.
The poem is a klētikos hymn — an invocation summoning the goddess from heaven — but with a brilliant twist: Sappho turns the formal hymnic structure into an intimate, almost gossipy conversation between the poet and a divine accomplice in love affairs. The central scene, in which Aphrodite descends, smiles, and asks “who has wronged you this time, Sappho?”, is one of the most personal moments in all archaic poetry.
Original Aeolic Greek (Lobel-Page fr. 1)
Ποικιλόθρον’ ἀθανάτ’ Ἀφρόδιτα, παῖ Δίος δολόπλοκε, λίσσομαί σε, μή μ’ ἄσαισι μηδ’ ὀνίαισι δάμνα, πότνια, θῦμον,
ἀλλὰ τυίδ’ ἔλθ’, αἴ ποτα κἀτέρωτα τὰς ἔμας αὔδας ἀίοισα πήλοι ἔκλυες, πάτρος δὲ δόμον λίποισα χρύσιον ἦλθες
ἄρμ’ ὐπασδεύξαισα· κάλοι δέ σ’ ἆγον ὤκεες στροῦθοι περὶ γᾶς μελαίνας πύκνα δίννεντες πτέρ’ ἀπ’ ὠράνωἴθε- ρος διὰ μέσσω·
αἶψα δ’ ἐξίκοντο· σὺ δ’, ὦ μάκαιρα, μειδιαίσαισ’ ἀθανάτῳ προσώπῳ ἤρε’ ὄττι δηὖτε πέπονθα κὤττι δηὖτε κάλημμι
κὤττι μοι μάλιστα θέλω γένεσθαι μαινόλᾳ θύμῳ· τίνα δηὖτε πείθω ἄψ σ’ ἄγην ἐς σὰν φιλότατα; τίς σ’, ὦ Ψάπφ’, ἀδικήει;
καὶ γὰρ αἰ φεύγει, ταχέως διώξει, αἰ δὲ δῶρα μὴ δέκετ’, ἀλλὰ δώσει, αἰ δὲ μὴ φίλει, ταχέως φιλήσει κωὐκ ἐθέλοισα.
ἔλθε μοι καὶ νῦν, χαλέπαν δὲ λῦσον ἐκ μερίμναν, ὄσσα δέ μοι τέλεσσαι θῦμος ἰμέρρει, τέλεσον· σὺ δ’ αὔτα σύμμαχος ἔσσο.
English Translation (Henry Thornton Wharton, 1885 — public domain)
Immortal Aphrodite of the broidered throne, daughter of Zeus, weaver of wiles, I pray thee break not my spirit, O Queen, with anguish and distress,
But hither come, if ever before thou didst hear my voice from afar and listen, and leaving thy father’s golden house
Camest with chariot yoked, and fair fleet sparrows drew thee, flapping fast their wings around the dark earth, from heaven through mid sky.
Quickly they arrived; and thou, blessed one, with smile on deathless face asking what now is befallen me, and why now I call,
And what I in my heart’s madness most desire: “What Beauty now wouldst thou draw to love thee? Who wrongs thee, Sappho?
For if she flees, soon shall she pursue; and if she takes not gifts, yet shall she give; and if she loves not, soon shall she love, even against her will.”
Come, I pray thee, now too, and release me from cruel cares; and all that my heart desires to accomplish, accomplish thou, and be thyself my ally.
Note on Form
The poem is the namesake of the Sapphic stanza: three lines of — ⏑ — × — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — — followed by a short Adonic line — ⏑ ⏑ — —. Catullus later imitated this form in Latin (poems 11 and 51).
Sources & Citations
- Greek text: Edgar Lobel & Denys Page, Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta (Oxford, 1955), fr. 1; also in Eva-Maria Voigt, Sappho et Alcaeus (Amsterdam, 1971). Text available at Perseus — Sappho, Fragment 1
- Source of preservation: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, De compositione verborum 23 — Greek text at Loeb/archive.org
- English translation (PD): Henry Thornton Wharton, Sappho: Memoir, Text, Selected Renderings and a Literal Translation (London, 1885) — archive.org — also available at sacred-texts.com
- Modern scholarly: Anne Carson, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (Knopf, 2002) — copyrighted but widely available
- Wikipedia: Ode to Aphrodite