Truth is often stranger than fiction: it would not seem logical that the model for the Cinderella story would be a fellow slave with Aesop, the fairy tale maker – but such was the case with Rhodopis, who Sappho's brother Charaxos squandered the family fortune on to free from prostitution in Thrace (after which the Thracian king, having only one of her slippers, had her looked for all over the land). The blow to the family Brand was such Sappho uses the occasion to conduct a public audit, acutely aware of how stories about women are often used to manage male failure.
Kypris and Nereids may he be returned
Unscathed, unstained, my brother, back to our home.
Anything that he desires, let him procure.
All things will be done.
Release what happened before, Immortal One,
Let him become welcome again to his friends,
Keep his foes at a distance – and may we receive
Not one other slap.
... And may he wish to consider his sister
To have a share in his honor, pain and shame,
… The humiliation before citizens
… Kypris, trembling.
---
All of that gossip you've spread that Charaxos
Will arrive with a full ship, Zeus I suppose
Knows all of this but it’s none of your business
To hypothesize.
Could you tell me instead how to be of use?
I have many skills -- supplicate Queen Hera
I could to help Charaxos safely arrive
Along with his ship
And us find him intact. And everything else
Let us entrust to our personal demons
For out of a great storm comes beautiful peace
Just as suddenly.
And the King of Olympus if he wishes
To bless us and make us very prosperous
Just one bolt of coercion could flip our fate,
Could be salvation.
And we could do that too, if his head lifts up
And Larichos becomes at last a man, then
The exhaustion, the heavy burden would be
Released like the wind.
A Note on Provenance: While Fragment 5 has been known about for centuries, its near-complete restoration—and the discovery of the "Brothers Poem"—only occurred in 2014. This "New Sappho" emerged under a cloud of international controversy. The find, by papyrologist Dirk Obbink, became embroiled in a scandal involving Iraq war antiquities profiteering, the Museum of the Bible and Hobby Lobby. Despite this shadowy journey, the text itself is widely accepted as authentic, providing the first direct confirmation of Sappho’s brothers, Charaxos and Larichos, effectively moving them from the realm of later biographical legend into her poetic canon.
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5
Κύπρι καὶ] Νηρήιδες ἀβλάβη[ν μοι
τὸν κασί]γνητον δ[ό]τε τυίδ’ ἴκεσθα[ι
κὤσσα ϝ]οι θύμῳ κε θέλῃ γένεσθαι
πάντα τε]λέσθην,
ὄσσα δὲ πρ]όσθ’ ἄμβροτε πάντα λῦσα[ι
καὶ φίλοισ]ι ϝοῖσι χάραν γένεσθαι
κὠνίαν ἔ]χθροισι, γένοιτο δ’ ἄμμι
πῆμ’ ἔτι μ]ηδ’ εἴς·
τὰν κασιγ]νήταν δὲ θέλοι πόησθαι
ἔμμορον] τίμας [ὀν]ίαν δὲ λύγραν
]οτοισι π[ά]ροιθ’ ἀχεύων
].να
].εισαΐω[ν] τὸ κέγχρω
]λ’ επαγ̣[ορί]ᾳ πολίταν
]λλως̣[. . .]νηκε δ’ αῦτ’ οὐ
]κρω[
]οναικ[ ]εο[ ].ι
]..[.]ν· σὺ [δ]ὲ̣ Κύπ̣[ρ]ι̣ σ̣[έμ]να
]θεμ[έν]α κάκαν [
]ι.
“The Brothers Poem”
ἀλλ’ ἄϊ θρύλησθα Χάραξον ἔλθην
νᾶϊ σὺν πλήαι. τὰ μὲν̣ οἴο̣μα̣ι Ζεῦς
οἶδε σύμπαντές τε θέοι · σὲ δ’ οὐ χρῆ
ταῦτα νόησθαι,
ἀλλὰ καὶ πέμπην ἔμε καὶ κέλεσθαι
πόλλα λί̣σσεσθαι̣ βασί̣λ̣η̣αν Ἤ̣ραν
ἐξίκεσθαι τυίδε σάαν ἄγοντα
νᾶα Χάραξον
κἄμμ’ ἐπεύρην ἀρτ̣έ̣μεας. τὰ δ’ ἄλλα
πάντα δαιμόνεσσ̣ιν ἐπι̣τ̣ρόπωμεν·
εὔδιαι γ̣ὰρ̣ ἐκ μεγάλαν ἀήτα̣ν̣
αἶψα πέ̣λ̣ο̣νται.
τῶν κε βόλληται βασίλευς Ὀλύμπω
δαίμον’ ἐκ πόνων ἐπάρωγον ἤδη
περτρόπην, κῆνοι μ̣άκαρες πέλονται
καὶ πολύολβοι·
κἄμμες, αἴ κε τὰν κεφάλα̣ν ἀέρρ̣η
Λάρι̣χος καὶ δή ποτ’ ἄνη̣ρ γένηται,
καὶ μάλ’ ἐκ πόλλαν βαρ̣υθυ̣μίαν̣ κεν
αἶψα λύθειμεν.
