Μέθεξη στον λυρισμό της Λέσβου και της Σαπφούς : Σαπφώ η διαλεκτική (137 L.-P.)
Part of : Πλάτων : περιοδικό της Εταιρείας Ελλήνων Φιλολόγων ; Vol.53, No.1, 2003, pages 85-145
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Part of this essay was presented in the 2nd International Conference onSappho {Sappho- Elytis and Lyric Poetry in the 21st Century, Eressos,Lesbos, August 24-26, 2001), under the following title: Sharing to the LyricFeeling of Lesbos and Sappho. Thereby, I have tried to show how thelanguage, the ecphrasis, and the themes of a piece of art - of a ποίημα - inpainting or in verse can speak under the coverage of its lyricism, butessentially through its sub-liable dialectic elements, to our personalappropriateness -as common dialecticians- to approach its message and betaught by art. Starting with my personal folklore, almost proverbial, lyricalexperiences, and my familiarity with specific paintings of Theophilos andOrestes Kanellis, I have come to examine Sappho' s dialectical τρόπους asexemplified in notorious fragments of hers, usually treated withoutemphasis on their dialectical significance: the device of άνάμνησις, thechronicling starting from the current presence of a fact or an idea and thenthrough encircling process from the past back to the present, and then byits projection to the future; the psychological influence exerted on theαναγνώστης through the incantatory resonances and repetitions of keytermsof the theme concerned, and the αναγνώστης inductiveparticipation to it. Special attention has been given to the fragments 16and 137 L.-P.; to the first of them because of the elaborate transmutationof the homeric stance of Helen into the new dialectical and abstractreferring to absolute standards under the ifluence of the pioneerintroduction of currency by Lydians; to the fr. 137 (with its Alcaic stanzanot identifiable elsewhere in the remains of Sappho, see Page, p. 107) onthe other hand, because of its pure aristotelic dialectic form under thelyrical coverage of the erotic discourse of Alcaeus and Sappho in a quasiplatonicquestion-answer έλεγχος about the relation between the politicalprinciples such as αιδώς and δίκαιον. The last word of the fr. 137τώδικαίως as a verbal formation with crasis of τώ έδικαίως is defendedas switable to the meaning of the last line, and scanning perfectly well, lss:τ' αλλ' ελε, lss: γες περί, lslx: τωδικαιως, with the exception of the -και-(normally reduced to short -a- in Lesbian) as long, and without the epiccorreption of the short vowel or diphthong before vowel. The previous linecould be perfectly sound after the following modes of emendation, αϊδωςώς κέν σε ουκ ίιχεν οππα-, or αϊδως κεν ως σε ουκ ήχεν οππα-,mainly because of its being based on the natural redundance of ώς either supposed as a dittography of previous -δως or by avoidance of theresonance of two successive ς-σ, despite thereby emphasis performed, butin both types of restoration according to the scholiast' s remark of a modalparticle such as οΰτω needed. So the scanning will be as follows: 11 (x)I:αιδώς ως, ls(x)l: κεν σε ουκ, lslx: ηχεν οππα, or better ll(x)s: αιδώςκεν, ls(x)l: ως σε ουκ, lslx: ηχεν οππα; it has been considered -primafacie- acceptable, especially the second scanning (thanks to the variety ofthe Alcaic stanza) by Prof. I. Rutherford -an expert in lesbian prosodywhendiscussed with him at the Conference.
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