Should mighty Sappho in these days revive Editions Gr:& Lat: Not: Var: & Pris: Wolfic. Hamburg: 1732. 4to Inter hovem Gra: Fominarum Carmina Grace fura Fuls: Ursini THE LIFE OF SAPPH 0. APPHO was a Native of Mitylene, the Ca SAPPHO pital of the Eolian Cities in the Ifland Lesbos. Her Mother's Name was Cleis, but who was her Father is uncertain, there being no lefs than eight Perfons contending for that Honour in Suidas. Their Names are Scamandronymus, Simon, Eunominus or Eumenes, Eurygius, Ecrytus, Semas, Gamenus, and Etarchus. The most receiv'd Opinion' decides in favour of Scamandronymus. She flourish'd, according to Suidas, about the 42d Olympiad, and was contemporary with Pittacus Tyrant of Mitylene, and the two famous Poets, Stefichorus and Alcaus. The laft of these is faid to have been her Suitor; and a Rebuke which fhe gave M 5 xone of y Seven Tages of Greece. him him is ftill extant in Ariftotle. He informs us, that Alcæus one Day accosting Sappho, and telling her he had fomething to fay to her, but was afham'd to utter it; Was it any thing good, reply'd fhe, and not rather fome Dishonesty which you have conceiv'd in your Mind, you would not be asham'd to disclose it. the Diphilus the Comick Poet, and Hermesianax the Colophonian, affure us that Anacreon of Teos was also one of her Lovers; but this Amour has been generally efteem'd too repugnant to Chronology, to be admitted for any thing but a Poetical Fiction; and I'm afraid it muft ftill be confider'd as fuch, notwithftanding Mr. Barnes's learned Endeavours to prove Vide. Notas Gus ad Vers: 1204:1211. & Vi: contrary. tam ab lo ters: Anacreontis.. We have no Accounts by which we can judge of her Quality, whether she was of a noble, or vulgar Extraction; for tho' Strabo tells us that her Brother Charaxus traded in Wines from Lesbos to Egypt, yet we can conclude nothing from thence; for People of the beft Rank amongst the Ancients em ploy'd themselves in Traffick, and frequently us'd it as a Means to travel. Solen, when in Egypt, defray'd his Expences by Commerce, and Plato maintain'd himself there by the Oils which he fold. Befides Charaxus, whom I mention'd, fhe had allo two elder Brothers, Larychus and Eurygius. Larychus fhe highly commended in her Verses, for his Virtue and Generofity, and particularly for his having distributed Wine amongst the Mitylenians in the the Prytaneum ; but Charaxus fhe as bitterly inveigh'd againft, for the extravagant Love he bore a famous Courtifan call'd Rhodope. This Rhodope is reported to have been FellowSlave with the celebrated Esop, and to have built one of the Pyramids of Egypt. The following Story of her, for its Oddness, may perhaps be not unentertaining. As fhe was once bathing in the Nile (for she was a Native of Naucratis, a City of Egypt)an Eagle fnatch'd one of her Slippers out of the Hands of her Waiting-Woman, and carrying it to Memphis, where the King fat adminiftring Justice in a publick Place of the City, drop'd it in his Lap. The King was furpriz'd at the Novelty of the Adventure, and being fmit with the Beauty of the Slipper, immediately dispatch'd Meffengers over the Country, with Orders to bring him the Woman with whom they should find the Fellow of that Slipper. In fhort, Rhodope being found, was brought to the King, and made by him Queen of Egypt. To return to Sappho, fhe marry'd one Cercolas, a Gentleman of great Wealth and Power in the Isle of Andros, by whom she had a Daughter nam'd Cleis; but he leaving her a Widow very young, she would never accept of any fecond Match; not en during to confine that Paffion to one Perfon, which, as the Ancients tell us, was too violent in her to be: restrain'd even to one Sex, Her Cenfures of Cha raxus, we may prefume, were before her own Conduct lay fo open to Reproof. A little Fragment of hers acquaints us, that two of her Female Favourites were call'd Athis and Andromeda: The Names of the others, as deliver'd to us by Antiquity, arc Telefilla, Megara, Cydno, Mnais, and Cyrene. But no one seems to have been the Object of her Admiration fo much as the lovely Phaon. At first he was a kind of Ferryman, as is reported, and thence fabled to have carry'd Venus over the Stream, and to have receiv'd from her as a Reward, the Favour of growing the most beautiful Man in the World. A This inconftant Lover having withdrawn himfelf into Sicily to avoid her, fhe took a Voyage in Purfuit of him, and there, and upon that Occafion, it's imagin'd, the compos'd her Hymn to Venus. But her Prayers being ineffectual, and Phaon still obdurate, fhe was fo tranfported with the Violence of her Paffion, that she was refolv'd to get rid of it at any Price. There was a Promontory in Acarnania, call'd Leucate, on the Top of which ftood a Temple dedicated to Apollo; in this Temple it was ufual for defpairing Lovers to make their Vows, and afterwards to caft themselves from the Precipice into the Sea; for it was an establish'd Opinion, that all those who were taken up alive, would immediately |