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Name: Maximus of Tyre Date: 2nd century CE Region: Tyre [modern Lebanon] Citation: Dissertation 18 |
- Both confessed that they loved many people, and were captivated by the most beautiful.
- And the relationship that Alcibiades, Charmides, and Phaedrus had with Socrates,
- so too did Gyrinna, Athis and Anactoria have with Sappho.
- And Prodicus, Gorgias, Thrasymachus and Protagoras were Socrates' rivals,
- Gorgo and Andromeda were Sappho's rivals.
- Sometimes Sappho blew off her lovers, sometimes she yelled at them, sometimes she would blow them away with the charm of Socratic wit.
- Socrates said: "Io, protect me!"
- Sappho said, "Protect me, son of Polyanax!"
- Socrates said that he did not date Alcibiades (whom he had a crush on for a while) until he could handle advanced conversations.
- Sappho said, "you're just a little girl, way too immature."
- Socrates criticized the body language and how sophists sat down;
- Sappho sang, "the woman wearing a country-style dress."
- Diotima said to Socrates that Cupid was not the son but the slave and attendant of Venus.
- Sappho says the same thing in one of her poems: "You, too, o Cupid, you most beautiful slave."
- Diotima said that love flourishes in good times, and dies in bad times.
- Sappho says the same thing: she calls love "bittersweet" and that it gives troublesome gifts.
- Socrates calls love a sophist;
- Sappho called it a architect of words.
- Socrates said that his love of Phaedrus put him in a Bacchic rage;
- Sappho said that love shakes her mind like the winds shake the mountain treetops.
- Socrates chided Xanthippe when she was sad about his impending death;
- Sappho wrote to her daughter that "Grief wasn't appropriate (nefas) in the house of the muses, and it certainly isn't appropriate for us."
Sapphus vero (si quidem antiquiora cum recentioribus conferre fas est) quid est aliud quam amatoria ars Socratis? Videntur enim mihi idem spectare uterque, hic cum virorum, illa cum mulierum celebrat amorem. Uterque plurimos se amare fatetur, et ab omnibus formosis facillime capi. Quod enim Alcibiades illi & Charmides, et Phedrus, hoc Sapphoni Lesbiae Gyrinna, Athis, et Anactoria: et quod Socrati aemuli illi Prodicus, Gorgias, Thrasymachus, et Protagoras, hoc Sapphoni Gorgo et Andromeda. Interdum namque increpat illas, interdum arguit, tum ubique urbana illa Socratis elucet dissimulatio. Ionem salvere iubeo, ait Socrates. Plurimum salvere Polyanactis filium iubeo, ait Sappho. Negat se Alcibiadem quem diu ante amarat, priusquem e coloquiis suis fructum haurire posset, accedere voluisse Socrates. Parva mihi puella videre, nec adhuc matura, ait Sappho. Ille habitum alibi & discubitum sophistae perstringit: ila alibi canit, Quaedam rustica tunica induta. Amorem ait Diotima apud Socratem, non filium, sed pedissequum esse Veneris & famulum. Venus alibi apud Sapphonem in oda quadam ait, Et tu pulcherrime famule amor. Rursus Diotima ait, florere amorem cum abundat, mori cum eget. Illa utrumque coniungit: cum Amorem dulceamarum vocat, et dona aid dare, sed molesta. Socrates Amorem sophistam vocat, Sappho verborum architectum. Phaedri amore tanquam Bacchico furore concitare se ait Socrates. Illa vero, Amore mihi mentem, inquit, impulit, venti instar qui montanis incidit arboribus. Socrates Xanthippen perstringit, cum mortem eius dolet: illa filiae suae scribit, Nefas in poetica domo luctum esse; neque id nobis sit dignum.
Translated into Latin by Claudius Larjot
Maximus of Tyre [2nd century CE, modern Lebanon] was listed as one of
the most influential people in the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius’ life. He
spent most of his life in scholarly pursuits; his Dissertations were a
collection of philosophical treatises based on the works of Plato.
