Part 6

If I have been a courtesan, what is the harm? Was it not my duty as a woman? Stranger, the Mother-of-all-things guides us. To forget her is not prudent.

In gratitude to thee who hast paused, I wish thee this destiny: Mayest thou be loved, but never love. Farewell; remember thou, in thine old age, that thou hast seen my tomb.

LAST EPITAPH

Under the black leaves of the laurels, under the amorous blooms of the roses, it is here that I lie, I who have known how to braid line with line, and exalt the kiss.

I grew in the land of the nymphs; I lived in the isle of lovers; I died in the isle of Cypros. It is for this that my name is illustrious and my stèle cleaned with oil.

Weep not for me, thou who pausest; they made me fair funeral rites; the weepers bruised their cheeks; they have laid in my tomb my mirrors and my necklaces.

And now, over the pale meadows of asphodel, I walk, an impalpable shadow, and the remembrance of my earthly life is the joy of my life in the underworld.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Bilitis’ saemmtliche Lieder zum ersten Male herausgegeben und mit einem Woerterbuche versehen, von G. Heim.--Leipzig. 1894.

II. Les Chansons de Bilitis, traduites du Grec pour la première fois par P. L. Paris. 1895.

III. Six Chansons de Bilitis, traduites en vers par Mme. Jean Bertheroy.--Revue pour les jeunes filles. Paris. Armand Colin. 1896.

IV. Vingt-six Chansons de Bilitis, traduites en allemand par Richard Dehmel.--Die Gesellschaft. Zeitung. 1896.

V. Vingt Chansons de Bilitis, traduites en allemand par le Dr. Paul Goldmann. Frankfurter Zeitung. 1896.

VI. Les Chansons de Bilitis, par le Pr. von Willamovitz-Moellendorf.--Goettingsche Gelehrte--Goettingen. 1896.

VII. Huit Chansons de Bilitis, traduites en tcheque par Alexandre Backovsky.--Prague. 1897.

VIII. Quatre Chansons de Bilitis, traduites en suédois par Gustav Uddgren.--Nordisk Revy.--Stockholm. 1897.

IX. Trois Chansons de Bilitis, mises en musique par Claude Debussy.--Paris. Fromont. 1898.

NOTES AND COMMENT

“Translated from the Greek.”

The antique sketches here rendered in English, some of which possess great beauty, appeared first, in French, in 1894, bearing the legend “Translated from the Greek.” This feeling of translation the Author attempted to strengthen by recording, in his Index, certain “songs” marked “not translated” which, as a matter of fact, never existed. It is extremely doubtful, however, whether anyone really acquainted with the Greek Poets was misled, even for a moment. Internal evidence often points to modern thought and ideas; and a number of the pieces, if not exactly “translated” are at least adapted from epigrams by various writers of established place in the Greek Anthology. These would at once indicate “Bilitis” as an imaginary personage.

In the following notes, some of the more important of the direct translations and paraphrases from antique writers have been indicated, with an occasional comment, for the convenience and interest of the reader.

The English translation itself is complete and has been kept in close parallel with the French text, except for a few changes in tense which seemed advisable.

M. S. B.

LIFE OF BILITIS

“Psappha.”

No authority is evident for the statement that Sappho was known at Lesbos under the name of “Psappha.”

It seems likely, from Pierre Louÿs’ general attitude toward the “Poetess” and his description of her in XLVI, that at the time he wrote the Songs of Bilitis he was either indifferently acquainted with the known facts of Sappho’s life or deliberately chose, with some other modern writers, to disregard or misunderstand them. Dr. Horace Manchester Brown, in the Preface to his translation of the present work (Aldus Society. 1904) remarks that “the translator has felt that such a protest (in defense of Sappho by a professor of Göttingen) and such a defense were unnecessary and has believed that the beauty of the pictures presented by many of the songs is sufficient excuse for their existence....” A few words on the subject of Sappho seem desirable, however, since it cannot be assumed that all the readers of this volume are familiar with the facts of Sappho’s life.

On the testimony of many writers of antiquity--who, at least, had more on which to base an opinion than we have--the description in XLVI of “ ... her hair cut like that of an athlete ... virile breast ... narrow hips,” and, as assumed, ready to prey lasciviously upon any passer-by, becomes ridiculous and defamatory. Sappho’s brother, Larichus, was public cup-bearer at Mytilene, an office held only by young men of noble birth. She herself, “violet-weaving, pure, soft-smiling” as Alcæus says, although “small and dark” according to Maximus Tyrius, was, according to her own words, “of a quiet temper” and in all probability was married and mother of a daughter named Cleis whom she mentions in an extant fragment (72), which, considering the personal tone of so many of her poems, may be taken as something more than a poetic fancy; “I have a fair daughter with a form like a golden flower, Cleis the beloved, above whom I prize nor all Lydia nor lovely Lesbos.” (Wharton.) Philoxemus describes her as “sweet-voiced.” Damocharis, in the Anthology (Plan. App. XVI-310) describes her picture in glowing terms: “Her eyes overflow with brilliance, showing a fancy rich in happy images. Her skin, smooth and not too reddened, shows simplicity; and the blended gaiety and gravity of her features proclaims the union, in her, of the Muse and Cypris.”

That she gathered about her a society of maidens to whom she taught the art of poetry, is well known; the names of many of her pupils and friends have been preserved in fragments of her verse. How much farther her friendships were carried, as indicated in the poems, will always be a matter for speculation; but that she was a charming, lovely woman, sufficiently reserved, of perfect maturity and free from petty or promiscuous vice seems undeniable. Otherwise, we may be sure the writers of antiquity would have treated her with far less veneration and respect.

* * * * *

“A verse of Sappho.”

This is the verse placed by Pierre Louÿs at the beginning of “Elegiacs in Mytilene.”

* * * * *

“Phryne.”

The crime of which Phryne was accused, and for which she was tried before the Areopagos at Athens, was of profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries--a crime even more serious than Pierre Louÿs’ “murder.”

* * * * *

“Apelles revealed his Anadyomene.”

Pierre Louÿs writes “entrevit la forme.” Apelles was a painter.

BUCOLICS IN PAMPHYLIA

XIV “Melissa.”

That is: “bee.” Marcus Argentarius has an epigram in the Anthology using the word (Anth. Pal. V-32): “Melissa is thy name and truly so, as my heart bears witness. Thy soft lips sweeten thy kisses with honey, but thou also piercest with a cruel sting.”

* * * * *

XVI “Like a cup with two handles.”

The “amphora kiss,” as though one drank the kiss from a beaker.

* * * * *

XXXVI “My father.”

An oversight, as Pierre Louÿs says in the “Life of Bilitis,” she seems never to have known her father for he is not mentioned ...” See also the First and Second Epitaphs.

* * * * *

XLII “First dawn.”

Execrations of the morning light were popular among the Greek amatory poets. See Meleager (Anth. Pal. V-172): “Star of Morning, enemy of lovers, why shinest thou so quickly upon the couch where, a moment since, I lay warm with Demo?...”

* * * * *

XLIII “The trunks of the pines.”

The same thought in the “Song of Songs” (Song of Solomon) I-17: “The beams of our house are of cedar and our rafters of fir.”

ELEGIACS AT MYTILENE

John Addington Symonds in his “Problem in Greek Ethics” (London. 1901. pp 71-72) remarks: “Lesbian passion, as the Greeks called it, never obtained the same social sanction as boy-love. It is significant that Greek Mythology offers no legends of the goddesses parallel to those which consecrated paederastia among the male deities. Again, we have no recorded example, so far as I can remember, of noble friendships between women rising into political and historical prominence.... The Greeks, while tolerating, regarded it rather as an eccentricity of nature, or a vice, than as an honourable and socially useful emotion.... There is an important passage in the ‘Amores’ of Lucian which proves that the Greeks felt an abhorrence of sexual inversion among women similar to that which moderns feel for its manifestation among men.... And ... while the love of males for males in Greece obtained moralisation, and reached the high position of a recognized social function, the love of female for female remained undeveloped and unhonoured, on the same level as both forms of homosexual passion in the modern European world are.”

The exposition, perhaps beyond decorum, of Lesbian love in this section of the Songs of Bilitis has no parallel in all Greek literature where references to the subject are very few.

* * * * *

LXXI “My throat becomes dry.”

See Sappho, Frag. 2. (Wharton): “ ... For when I see thee but a little, I have no utterance left, my tongue is broken down, and straightway a subtle fire has run under my skin. With my eyes I have no sight, my ears ring, sweat pours down, and a trembling seizes all my body; I am paler than grass, and seem in my madness little better than one dead....”

* * * * *

LXXV “The object.”

See the sixth mime of Herondas (too long to reproduce here) translated in Symonds’ “Studies of the Greek Poets” (Third edition. 1893. II-237). This mime describes a visit between two women in reference to the same sort of object sought by Bilitis’ friend. One of Herondas’ ladies remarks, about her leather worker, “He works at his own house and sells on the sly ... but the things he makes, they’re like Athene’s handiwork ... a cobbler more kindly disposed toward the female sex you would not find....” The price was “fourpence.”

* * * * *

LXXXI “Thy hair is moist.”

See Meleager (Anth. Pal. V-175): “Truly, thou betrayest thyself; thy locks, still moist with perfumes, denounce thy dissolute life; thine eyes, heavy with fatigue, show well how thy night has been passed; this coronal upon thy forehead reveals the festival; this disordered hair shows the path of amorous hands; and all thy body staggers under the vapors of the wine....”

* * * * *

LXXXIII “For whom, now, shall I paint my lips?”

See Paulus Silentiarius (Anth. Pal. V-228): “For whom shall I curl my hair? for whom trim my nails? for whom perfume my hands? To what end this purple-banded cloak, since I go not to beautiful Rhodopis?...”

EPIGRAMS IN THE ISLAND OF CYPROS

XCIV “Thyrses.”

These were long rods, often surmounted by a pine cone, carried by votaries of Dionysos. Too long to be used as drum-sticks.

* * * * *

CI “Conversation.”

See Philodemos (Anth. Pal. V-46): “I salute thee.--I salute thee also.--What is thy name?--And thine? Thou mayest know mine later.--Thou art in a hurry?--And thou art not?--Hast thou someone?--I have always my lover.--Wilt thou eat dinner with me to-day?--If thou wishest.--Good. What shall I give thee?--Give me nothing in advance.--That is strange.--But when the night is over, give what thou wishest.--Thou art a just girl. Where is thy dwelling? I will send for thee.--I will show thee.--And when wilt thou come?--At once, if thou wishest--At once, then.--Lead the way.”

* * * * *

CIII “A girdle of silver plates.”

See Asclepiades (Anth. Pal. V-158): “Upon a day, I played with facile Hermione. Like the Goddess, she wore a girdle broidered with flowers; and on it I read, in letters of gold: Love me, but grieve not if I give myself to another.”

* * * * *

CIX “Athena.”

Artemis was more likely to be seen bathing, with disastrous results to the spectator, as noted in the legend of Actæon.

* * * * *

CXXIX “The little Rose Merchant.”

See Dionysius (Anth. Pal. V-81): “Little vendor of roses, thou art fair as thine own flowers. But what sellest thou? thyself? or thy roses? or both together?”

* * * * *

CXXXII “She has a good bed.”

See Antipater (Anth. Pal. V-109): “For a drachma one may have Europa the Athenian, without fear of rivals or refusals. She has a soft bed and, if the night is cold, a fire. Surely, O Zeus, there was no need for thee to make thyself a bull!”

* * * * *

CXL “My autumn.”

See Paulus Silentiarius (Anth. Pal. V-258): “Philinna, thy wrinkles are preferable to the fresh tints of young girls. I love less in my hands their straight, hard breasts than thine which incline like full-blown roses. Thine autumn is fairer than their springtime; their summer is colder than thy time of snows.”

* * * * *

CXLIII “The True Death.”

Compare Rufinus (Anth. Pal. V-76): “Once I had soft skin, firm breasts and pretty feet; my body was supple, mine eyebrows arched, my hair undulating. Time has changed all. Not one treasure of my youth remains....”

For the theme developed, see François Villon’s “Les regrets de la belle Heaulmière.”

INDEX

BUCOLICS IN PAMPHYLIA

Life of Bilitis iii

I. The Tree 3

II. Pastoral Song 4

III. Maternal Advice 5

IV. The Naked Feet 6

V. The Old Man and the Nymphs 7

VI. Song 8

VII. The Passer-By 9

VIII. The Awakening 10

IX. The Rain 11

X. The Flowers 12

XI. Impatience 13

XII. Comparisons 14

XIII. The Forest River 15

XIV. Come, Melissa 16

XV. The Symbolic Ring 17

XVI. Dances by Moonlight 18

XVII. The Little Children 19

XVIII. The Stories 20

XIX. The Married Friend 21

XX. Confidences 22

XXI. The Moon with Eyes of Blue 23

* Reflections (not translated)

XXII. Song 24

XXIII. Lykas 25

XXIV. The Offering to the Goddess 26

XXV. The Complaisant Friend 27

XXVI. A Prayer to Persephone 28

XXVII. The Game of Dice 29

XXVIII. The Distaff 30

XXIX. The Flute 31

XXX. The Hair 32

XXXI. The Cup 33

XXXII. Roses in the Night 34

XXXIII. Remorse 35

XXXIV. The Interrupted Sleep 36

XXXV. The Wash-woman 37

XXXVI. Song 38

XXXVII. Bilitis 39

XXXVIII. The Little House 40

* Pleasure (not translated)

XXXIX. The Lost Letter 41

XL. Song 42

XLI. The Oath 43

XLII. The Night 44

XLIII. Cradle-Song 45

XLIV. The Tomb of the Naiads 46

ELEGIACS AT MYTILENE

XLV. To the Vessel 49

XLVI. Psappha 50

XLVII. The Dance of Glottis and Kyse 51

XLVIII. Counsels 52

XLIX. Uncertainty 53

L. The Meeting 54

LI. The Little Terra Cotta Astarte 55

LII. Desire 56

LIII. The Wedding 57

* The Bed (not translated)

LIV. The Past Which Survives 58

LV. Metamorphosis 59

LVI. The Nameless Tomb 60

LVII. The Three Beauties of Mnasidika 61

LVIII. The Cave of the Nymphs 62

LIX. Mnasidika’s Breasts 63

* Contemplation (not translated)

LX. The Doll 64

LXI. Tendernesses 65

LXII. Games 66

* Episode (not translated)

LXIII. Penumbra 67

LXIV. The Sleeper 68

LXV. The Kiss 69

LXVI. Jealous Care 70

LXVII. The Despairing Embrace 71

* Recovery (not translated)

LXVIII. The Heart 72

LXIX. Words in the Night 73

LXX. Absence 74

LXXI. Love 75

LXXII. Purification 76

LXXIII. The Cradle of Mnasidika 77

LXXIV. A Promenade by the Sea 78

LXXV. The Object 79

LXXVI. Evening Near the Fire 81

LXXVII. Supplications 82

LXXVIII. The Eyes 83

LXXIX. Fards 84

LXXX. The Silence of Mnasidika 85

LXXXI. Scene 86

LXXXII. Waiting 87

LXXXIII. Solitude 88

LXXXIV. A Letter 89

LXXXV. The Attempt 90

LXXXVI. The Effort 91

* Myrrhine (not translated)

LXXXVII. Gyrinno 92

LXXXVIII. The Last Essay 93

LXXXIX. The Wounding Memory 95

XC. To the Wax Doll 96

XCI. Funeral Chant 97

EPIGRAMS IN THE ISLAND OF CYPROS

XCII. Hymn to the Astarte 101

XCIII. Hymn to the Night 102

XCIV. The Menades 103

XCV. The Sea of Cypris 104

XCVI. The Priestesses of Astarte 105

XCVII. The Mysteries 106

XCVIII. The Egyptian Courtesans 107

XCIX. I Sing of My Flesh and My Life 108

C. The Perfumes 109

CI. Conversation 110

CII. The Torn Robe 111

CIII. The Jewels 112

CIV. The Indifferent One 113

CV. Pure Water of the Basin 114

* Nocturnal Festival (not translated)

CVI. Voluptuousness 115

CVII. The Inn 117

CVIII. The Servants 118

CIX. The Bath 119

CX. To Her Breasts 120

* Liberty (not translated)

CXI. Mydzouris 121

CXII. The Triumph of Bilitis 122

CXIII. To the God of the Woods 123

CXIV. The Dancing-Girl with Crotales 124

CXV. The Flute-Player 126

CXVI. The Warm Girdle 128

CXVII. To a Happy Husband 130

CXVIII. To a Wanderer 131

CXIX. Intimacies 133

CXX. The Command 135

CXXI. The Figure of Pasiphae 136

CXXII. The Juggler 137

CXXIII. The Dance of the Flowers 138

* The Dance of Satyra (not translated)

* Mudzouris Crowned (not translated)

CXXIV. Violence 140

CXXV. Song 142

CXXVI. Advice to a Lover 143

CXXVII. Friends at Dinner 144

CXXVIII. The Tomb of a Young Courtesan 145

CXXIX. The Little Rose Merchant 146

CXXX. The Dispute 147

CXXXI. Melancholy 148

CXXXII. The Little Phanion 149

CXXXIII. Indications 150

CXXXIV. The Merchant of Women 151

CXXXV. The Stranger 152

* Phyllis (not translated)

CXXXVI. The Remembrance of Mnasidika 153

CXXXVII. The Young Mother 154

CXXXVIII. The Unknown 155

CXXXIX. The Cheat 156

CXL. The Last Lover 157

CXLI. The Dove 158

CXLII. The Rain of the Morning 160

CXLIII. The True Death 161

The Tomb of Bilitis 163

First Epitaph 165

Second Epitaph 166

Third Epitaph 167

Bibliography 169

Notes and Comment 171

Note: The Songs marked * are marked in the French index, “not translated,” and do not appear in the French text.

M. S. B.