In this set of mostly destroyed fragments Sappho speaks for a culture where sexual conduct, ritual preparation and poetic receptivity are indivisible and subject to rules. Sappho does not judge, moralize or console: she simply points out the consequences of misalignment.
Kypris, may she pick your last embittered nerve,
And give her no cover to share more heroics,
Doricha, with her inducement thing again,
Eros, he entered.
---
Mica despised,
The intimacies you’ve taken with Penthelia
Turned our circle inside out.
I will never allow you:
The measures of song …
The sweetness of voice …
The sound of the wind …
The dew.
---
But you, O Dika, gather proper clusters,
Binding your garlands with the gentlest hands,
For the Graces then will thrive – while the unwreathed
They turn away from.
---
There’ll never be a time you’ll be remembered
When you’ve died, or be seen even in Hades,
For you’ve refused the roses of the muses
And turned to vapor.
---------------------------------------------------------------
15
Κύ]πρι κα[ί σ]ε πι[κροτάτ]α̣ν ἐπεύρ[οι,
μη]δὲ καυχάσ[α]ιτο τόδ’ ἐννέ[ποισα
Δ]ωρίχα, τὸ δεύ[τ]ερον ὠς πόθε]ννον
εἰς] ἔρον ἦλθε.
71
]μισσε Μίκα
]ελα[ . . ]ἀ̣λ̣λά σ’ ἔγωὐκ ἐάσω
]ν̣ φιλότ[ατ’] ἤλεο Πενθιλήαν̣[
]δα κα̣[κό]τροπ’, ἄμμα[
] μέλ̣[ος] τι γλύκερον .[
]α μελλιχόφων[ος
]δει, λίγυραι δ’ ἄη[ται
] δροσ[ό]εσσα[
81
σὺ δὲ στεφάνοις, ὦ Δίκα, πέρθεσθ’ ἐράτοις φόβαισιν
ὄρπακας ἀνήτω συν⟨α⟩έρραισ’ ἀπάλαισι χέρσιν·
εὐάνθεα †γὰρ πέλεται† καὶ Χάριτες μάκαιραι
μᾶλλον προτόρην,1 ἀστεφανώτοισι δ’ ἀπυστρέφονται.
55
κατθάνοισα δὲ κείσῃ οὐδέ ποτα μναμοσύνα σέθεν
ἔσσετ’ οὐδὲ πόθα εἰς ὔστερον·1 οὐ γὰρ πεδέχῃς βρόδων
τὼν ἐκ Πιερίας, ἀλλ’ ἀφάνης κἀν Ἀίδα δόμῳ
φοιτάσῃς πεδ’ ἀμαύρων νεκύων ἐκπεποταμένα.
