Top 52 Quotes & Sayings by Sappho

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Greek poet Sappho.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
Sappho

Sappho was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sappho was widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets and was given names such as the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess". Most of Sappho's poetry is now lost, and what is extant has mostly survived in fragmentary form; only the "Ode to Aphrodite" is certainly complete. As well as lyric poetry, ancient commentators claimed that Sappho wrote elegiac and iambic poetry. Three epigrams attributed to Sappho are extant, but these are actually Hellenistic imitations of Sappho's style.

Would Jove appoint some flower to reign, in matchless beauty on the plain, the Rose (mankind will all agree). The Rose the queen of flowers should be.
Death is an evil; the gods have so judged; had it been good, they would die.
Love - bittersweet, irrepressible - loosens my limbs and I tremble. — © Sappho
Love - bittersweet, irrepressible - loosens my limbs and I tremble.
Someone, I tell you, in another time will remember us
All the while, believe me, I prayed our night would last twice as long.
There is no place for grief in a house which serves the Muse.
Death must be an evil and the gods agree; for why else would they live for ever?
I will let my body flow like water over the gentle cushions.
Builders, raise the ceiling high, Raise the dome into the sky, Hear the wedding song! For the happy groom is near, Tall as Mars, and statelier, Hear the wedding song!
The Moon and Pleiades have set, / Midnight is nigh, / The time is passing, passing, yet / Alone I lie.
In gold sandals / dawn like a thief / fell upon me.
The moon is setand the Pleiades; Middle ofthe night, time passes by,I lie alone.
Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables. — © Sappho
Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables.
Eros seizes and shakes my very soul like the wind on the mountain shaking ancient oaks.
Mere air, these words, but delicious to hear.
Love, like a mountain-wind upon an oak, falling upon me, shakes me leaf and bough.
The evening star Is the most beautiful of all stars
The moon has set In a bank of jet That fringes the Western sky, The pleiads seven Have sunk from heaven And the midnight hurries by; My hopes are flown And, alas! alone On my weary couch I lie.
Eros harrows my heart: wild gales sweeping desolate mountains, uprooting oaks.
No honey for me, if it comes with a bee.
I know not what to do, my mind is divided
I took my lyre and said: come now, my heavenly tortoise shell: become a speaking instrument.
If you are squeamish Don't prod the beach rubble.
May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve.
Hesperus bringing together All that the morning star scattered.
When I look on you a moment, then I can speak no more, but my tongue falls silent, and at once a delicate flame courses beneath my skin, and with my eyes I see nothing, and my ears hum, and a wet sweat bathes me and a trembling seizes me all over.
You may forget but let me tell you this: someone in some future time will think of us
Some say an army of horsemen, or infantry, A fleet of ships is the fairest thing On the face of the black earth, but I say It's what one loves.
Love shook my heart/ Like the wind on the mountain/ Troubling the oak-trees
How love the limb-loosener sweeps me away
With his venom irresistible and bittersweet that loosener of limbs, Love reptile-like strikes me down
He who is fair to look upon is good, and he who is good will soon be fair also.
I do not know what to do, my mind's in two.
Now the Earth with many flowers puts on her spring embroidery — © Sappho
Now the Earth with many flowers puts on her spring embroidery
What cannot be said will be wept.
For some the fairest thing on the dark earth is Thermopylae, And the Spartan phalanx lowering lances to die.
Stand and face me, my love,and scatter the grace in your eyes.
Although only breath, words which I command are immortal.
Death is an ill; 'tis thus the Gods decide: / For had death been a boon, the Gods had died.
Whatever one loves most is beautiful.
Once again love drives me on, that loosener of limbs, bittersweet creature against which nothing can be done.
When anger spreads through the breath, guard thy tongue from barking idly.
Stars veil their beauty soon / Beside the glorious moon, / When her full silver light / Doth make the whole earth bright.
Without warning as a whirlwind swoops on an oak Love shakes my heart — © Sappho
Without warning as a whirlwind swoops on an oak Love shakes my heart
To me the Muses truly gave / An envied and a happy lot: / E'en when I lie within the grave, / I cannot, shall not, be forgot.
From all the offspring of the earth and heaven love is the most precious.
The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, and time passes, and I sleep alone.
Experience shows us Wealth unchaperoned by Virtue is never an innocuous neighbor.
Beauty endures only for as long as it can be seen; goodness, beautiful today, will remain so tomorrow.
Dancing up the full moon Round some fair new altar Trample the soft blossoms of fine grass.
Raise high the roof-beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man.
I would not think to touch the sky with two arms
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