Sappho: Memoir, Text, Selected Renderings and a Literal Translation

the young French scholar, M. Charles Graux, who found the quotation among the dry dust of Choricius’ rhetorical orations, is indeed to be deplored. Had he lived longer he might have cleared up for us many another obscure passage in the course of his studies of manuscripts which have not hitherto found an editor.

The publication of the memoir on Naukratîs by the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund last autumn is an event worthy of notice, the town having been so intimately connected with Sappho’s story. On one of the pieces of pottery found at Naucratis by Mr. Petrie occur the inscribed letters ΣΑΦ, which some at first thought might refer to Sappho; but the more probable restoration is εἰ]ς Ἀφ[ροδίτην original: "to Aphrodite".

Since the issue of my first edition, M. De Vries has published at Leyden an exhaustive dissertation upon Ovid’s Epistle, Sappho to Phaon, which has caused me to modify some of my conclusions regarding it. Although Ovid’s authorship of this Epistle seems to me now to be sufficiently vindicated, I still remain convinced that we are not justified in taking the statements in it as historically accurate.

It is curious also that a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Erlangen offered, as his inaugural dissertation,