Selection from Sappho’s Lyre (University of California Press, 1991). Translation copyright 2000 Diane Rayor; all rights reserved.
| Terpsichore [told] me | |
| lovely old tales to sing | |
| to the white-robed women of Tanagra | |
| and the city delighted greatly | |
| 5 | in my voice, clear as the swallow’s. |
| Since whenever great . . . | |
| false . . . | |
| . . . land with wide dancing-places, | |
| and stories from our fathers’ time | |
| 10 | by my art adorned |
| for the young women [I’ll begin]. | |
| Many times I adorned | |
| the leader Kephisos with stories — | |
| often, too, the great Orion | |
| 15 | and his fifty strong sons |
| from his mingling with nymphs | |
| . . . Libya . . . | |
| * | |
| I tell of the girl . . . | |
| 20 | lovely to see . . . |
| the [land] bears . . . | |
| . . . I bore . . . |
For an interpretation of this poem in the context of Korinna’s craft, see Diane Rayor, “Korinna: Gender and the Narrative Tradition,” Arethusa 26 (1993) 219-231.
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