Lesbos

“ Lesbos was the most prominent of Aeolian settlements, and indeed played a large part in the early development of Greek life. Its commercial activity is attested by several colonies in Thrace and the Troad, and by the participation of its traders in the settlement of Naucratis in Egypt; hence also the town of Mytilene, by virtue of its good harbour, became the political capital of the island. ”

“ It appears that the native poets and fabulists who professed to deliver the archæology of Lesbos, dwelt less upon the Æolic settlers than upon the various heroes and tribes who were alleged to have had possession of the island anterior to that settlement, from the deluge of Deukalion downwards,—just as the Chian and Samian poets seem to have dwelt principally upon the ante-Ionic antiquities of their respective islands. ”

“ If we are to take as our standard the happiness of the people as a whole, then of all the Latin [312] establishments in the Levant Lesbos comes first. But for that there were special reasons. The first Gattilusio came to Lesbos not as a foreign conqueror, but as brother-in-law of the Greek Emperor; he soon spoke the language of his subjects; his successors wrote in Greek, and as time went on the family became hellenized. But a company is apt to be deficient on the human side; and this would seem to have been the weak point of the maona. ”

“ LESBOS, the chief town of which Mytilene claims with Eresus the honour of having been the birthplace of Sappho, has been from the earliest ages famous for its fertility, its beauty, and the perfection of its climate. The nearest point of the mainland of Asia Minor is eight miles distant, and the whole island, with its irregular coast-line, is one hundred and thirty-eight miles in circumference. Though its surface is mountainous, the soil is very prolific, and its oil, wine, and grain have from immemorial times been proverbially celebrated. ”

“ But besides these islands, and the strip of the continent between Kymê and Pitanê (which constituted the territory properly called Æolis) , there were many other Æolic establishments in the region near Mount Ida, the Troad, and the Hellespont, and even in European Thrace. All these establishments seem to have emanated from Lesbos, Kymê, and Tenedos, but at what time they were formed we have no information. ”

“ At Lesbos she was head of a great poetic school, for poetry in that age and place was cultivated as assiduously and apparently as successfully by women as by men. Her most famous pupils were Erinna of Telos and Damophyla of Pamphylia. ”

“ Methydrium, a town of Peloponnesus, near Megalopolis. Valerius Flaccus.
Methymna (now Porto Petero) , a town of the island of Lesbos, which received its name from a daughter of ♦Macareus. It is the second city of the island in greatness, population, and opulence, and its territory is fruitful, and the wines it produces excellent. It was the native place of Arion. When the whole island of Lesbos revolted from the power of the Athenians, Methymna alone remained firm to its ancient allies. Diodorus, bk. 5.—Thucydides, bk. 3.—Horace, bk. 2, satire 8, li. 50.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 90. ”

“ Lesbos is on the sea, so the picture of the white-winged ships came naturally to the mind of Sappho. But the poet of Sharon thought only of Pharaoh's shining cavalry and of (magic phrase!) an "army with banners."
The world cannot be too grateful to Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt for their literary mining, and to Mr. Edmonds for his marvelously ingenious [Pg 179] work of reconstruction. We may object to scholars and commentators, we may regret their interpretations, but in this instance men of this sometimes irritating class have made the world's literature their debtor. ”

“ In 334 Lesbos served as a base for the Persian admiral Memnon against Alexander the Great. During the Third Macedonian war the Lesbians sided with Perseus against Rome; similarly in 88 they became eager allies of Mithradates VI. of Pontus, and Mytilene stood a protracted siege on his behalf. This town, nevertheless, was raised by Pompey to the status of a free community, thanks no doubt to his confidant Theophanes, a native of Mytilene. ”

“ The women of Lesbos of all classes enjoyed a freedom from restraint unknown among the other Greeks, and it may be reasonably assumed that this freedom, so enjoyed by them in earlier ages, had, with the increase in wealth, luxury, and refinement, lost much of its simplicity, and may later have degenerated into a mode of life in which there was much more licence than had ever been known before in any part of the world inhabited by people of the Greek race. ”

“ Approximation is all that even genius can hope for in the attempt. An important point to remember in considering the construction and metre of the Sapphic poems is that we may take it for certain that they were always delivered in the form of a recitative or chant, and that they were nearly always accompanied by music on one or more of the stringed instruments for which Lesbos was famous at the time when Sappho lived. ”

“ About 611, with the assistance of the brothers of the poet Alcaeus, he overthrew Melanchrus, tyrant of Lesbos. In a war (606) between the Mytilenaeans and Athenians for the possession of Sigeum on the Hellespont he slew the Athenian commander Phrynon in single combat. In 589 his fellow citizens entrusted Pittacus with despotic power (with the title of Aesymnetes) for the purpose of protecting them against the exiled nobles, at the head of whom were Alcaeus and his brother Antimenides. ”

“ Lesbos is at the same distance, rather less than 500 stadia, from Tenedos, Lemnos, and Chios.
CHAPTER III.
1. Since there subsisted so great an affinity among the Leleges and Cilicians with the Trojans, the reason is asked, why these people are not included in Homer’s Catalogue. Perhaps it is that, on account of the loss of their leaders and the devastation of the cities, the few Cilicians that were left placed themselves under the command of Hector. For Eetion and his sons are said to have been killed before the Catalogue is mentioned ”

“ Ephesus pitched a magnificent tent for his accommodation, Chios furnished his horses with provender, and himself with animals for sacrifice; and Lesbos supplied him with wine, and every thing else necessary for giving great entertainments. Yet even at this brilliant period of his life he incurred discredit, either by his own fault or through the spite of his enemies. The story is that an Athenian named Diomedes, a respectable man and a friend of Alkibiades, was desirous of winning a victory at Olympia. ”

“ Having said so much on the subject of the leading Greek cities of Asia Minor, or rather of some of them, we shall notice, but as briefly as possible, the principal islands adjacent to its shores; and as the space at our disposal compels us to contract our narrative within the closest limits, we shall refer only to Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Rhodus, and Cyprus. Crete, as a matter of fact, is generally attached, geographically, to the continent of Greece, but, in any case, would require a volume to itself that adequate justice should be done to its ancient and modern story. ”

“ In the organization of academies or classes which reached a high degree of development in the study and production of such poetry, women often took a prominent part, their position among the Aeolian Greeks being better and less subject to social restraint than was the case anywhere else in the then known civilized world. Terpander and Alcaeus were natives of Lesbos, the latter a contemporary of Sappho, and there were several lesser lights among the lyric poets who were women. ”

“ The Lesbians were celebrated among the ancients for their skill in music, and their women for their beauty; but the general character of the people was so debauched and dissipated, that the epithet of Lesbian was often used to signify debauchery and extravagance. Lesbos has given birth to many illustrious persons, such as Arion, Terpander, &c. The best verses were by way of eminence often called Lesboum carmen, from Alcæus and Sappho, who distinguished themselves for their poetical compositions, and were also natives of the place. Diodorus, bk. 5.—Strabo, bk. 13.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. ”

“ Nevertheless, Thrasybulus, in spite of farther help from Chios and Mitylênê, still thought himself not in a situation to go to Rhodes with advantage. Perhaps he was not sure of pay in advance, and the presence of unpaid troops in an [p. 367] exhausted island might be a doubtful benefit. Accordingly, he sailed from Lesbos along the western and southern coast of Asia Minor, levying contributions at Halikarnassus [698] and other places, until he came to Aspendus in Pamphylia ”

“ No. 13. Question 8 refers to Sappho.
Longepierre, M. de. Les Oeuvres d’Anacréon et de Sapho, contenant leurs Poësies, et les galanteries de l’ancienne Grèce. Traduites de Grec en vers François par Mr. de Longepierre, avec des Notes curieuses sur tout l’ouvrage. Les Poésies de Sapho de Lesbos, pp. 347–398. Paris, 1692. 12mo.
De Re Poetica, or Remarks upon Poetry. By Sir Thomas Pope Blount. 1694. 4to. Two pages devoted to historical notice of Sappho.
Anacreontis Teii Carmina. Subjiciuntur autem duo vetustissimae Poetriae Sapphus, elegantissima odaria una cum correctione Isaaci Vossii. ”

“ One is situated at the distance of 60 stadia from Adramyttium on one side, and the other 88 stadia on the other side.
62. In the Adramyttene district are Chrysa and Cilla. There is at present near Thebe a place called Cilla, in which is a temple of Apollo Cillæus. Beside it runs a river, which comes from Mount Ida. These places are near Antandria. The Cillæum in Lesbos has its name from this Cilla. There is also a mountain Cillæum between Gargara and Antandrus. Daes of Colonæ says that the temple of Apollo Cillæus was founded at Colonæ by the Æolians, who came by sea from Greece. ”

“ Crates was of Cilicia, which was regarded as a part of Syria.
216 This is a very favourite axiom with Strabo, notwithstanding he too often forgets it himself.
217 The Phrygians were considered to be more timid than any other people, and consequently the hares of their country more timid than those of any other. We see then a two-fold hyperbole in the expression that a man is more timid than a Phrygian hare.
218 Alcæus of Mitylene in the island of Lesbos, the earliest of the Æolian lyric poets, began to flourish in the forty-second Olympiad (B. C. 610) . ”

“ Contains a few Sapphic fragments, with text and translations.
Sapho [sic] et Huit Poétesses Grecques. Texte et Traduction. Paris, Lemerre, 1909. First 98 pages devoted to the Sapphic fragments with literal translation into French.
Sappho. Life and Work. London, Humphreys, 1910. 8vo. Royal Library, Belles Lettres Series.
Supplementum lyricum. Neue Bruchstücke v. Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho, Corinna, Pindar. Hrsg. u. erkl. v. E. Diehl. 2. od. 3. A. Bonn 1910 and 1917.
Bascoul, J. M. F. Ἥ ἌΓΝΑ ΣΑΠΦΏ La Chaste Sappho de Lesbos et le Mouvement Feministe à Athénes au IV Siècle av. ”

“ I wish to heaven my grandmother had chosen any one else in London for your chaperon.'
'I'm afraid Lady Kirkbank's is rather a rowdy set,' answered Lesbia, coolly; 'and I sometimes feel as if I had thrown myself away. We go almost everywhere—at least, there are only just a few houses to which we are not asked. But those few make all the difference. It is so humiliating to feel that one is not in quite the best society. ”

“ She sat in the verandah, looking dreamily at the lake, and at Fairfield yonder, a broad green slope, silvered with moonlight, and seeming to stretch far away into unfathomable distance.
If one could but take one's lover by the hand and go wandering over those mystic moonlit slopes into some new unreal world where it would not matter whether a man were rich or poor, high-born or low-born, where there should be no such things as rank and state to be won or lost! Lesbia felt to-night as if she would like to live out her life in dreamland. ”

“ The gorgeous procession, the full pomp and panoply of the ancient Roman Church, aided by the wealth of English adherents, now came in sight; the tramp of the stirring music swelled louder, and the vast crowd knelt to the glorified vestals with a common impulse. As the twelve thrones, carried on high, passed through the portal, Lesbia’s rustic little maid, simpleton as she was in the things of this world, gazed up into her young mistress’s face with a rapt expression that was truly angelic, a gleam of the Divine Nature breaking forth even from such a very lowly type of it as she. ”

“ Lesbia, in her flame-coloured dress, with gilt chaplet, torc, and brooch, made a truly Celtic maiden, and mercifully did not forget her newly learnt speeches. She caught Joan's eye, as the performers lined up for their final bow, and could not restrain a smile. The [89] school platform meant much to Lesbia. It was the centre of her little world, and to have taken her place upon it to-night was the fulfilment of a long-cherished ambition. Fortune, which lately had frowned upon her, had for once proved a veritable fairy godmother. ”

“ The shop-people were so obliging, and so deeply obliged by Lesbia's patronage. She was exactly the kind of customer they liked to serve. She flitted about their showrooms like a beautiful butterfly hovering over a flower-bed—her eye caught by every novelty. She never asked the price of anything; and Lady Kirkbank informed them, in confidence, that she was a great heiress, with a millionaire grandmother who indulged her every whim. Other high born young ladies, shopping upon fixed allowances, and sorely perplexed to make both ends meet, looked with eyes of envy upon this girl. ”