Fragment 16
Fragment 16
Sappho
Some say a host of cavalry, some of infantry, some of ships, is the most beautiful thing on the dark earth; but I say it is whatsoever a person loves.
It is very easy to make this understood by all; for she who was far the most beautiful of mortals, Helen, left her husband most noble and sailed away to Troy, thinking neither of child nor dear parents, but love led her astray.
... She reminds me now of Anactoria who is absent; whose lovely walk and bright glancing of her face I would rather see than Lydian chariots and armed foot-soldiers fighting on the plain.
Verse breaks and indentation are preserved. Wrapped lines have a hanging indent. Width adapts to your screen.
c. 600 BC. Prose rendering by Henry Thornton Wharton, 1885. · Translated by Henry Thornton Wharton
