NOTES TO SAPPHO. (1) And soft as those the lyre of Orpheus breathed.-P. 122. Orpheus, whose songs wrought so many prodigies, having been torn to pieces by the Bacchantes, his head and lyre were thrown into the Hebrus, a river in Thrace, and conveyed by the waves of the sea to the shores of Methymna. In its passage, the voice of Orpheus sent forth enchanting sounds, accompanied by the lyre. The strings of which were gently agitated by the winds. See Ovid. Metam. lib. ii. v. 55. Lucian. Adv. Indoct. t. iii. p. 109. (2) They have decreed your banishment from Lesbos.-P. 127. The part of the Parian Chronicle which mentions Sappho is almost entirely obliterated on the marble; but we read very distinctly that she fled, and embarked for Sicily. It was not, therefore, to follow Phaon, as is pretended, that she went to that island. It is probable that Alcæus engaged her in the conspiracy against Pittacus, and that she was banished from Mytilene at the same time with him and his partisans. See Marmor. Oxon. epoch 37. (3) Oh! fatal dowry that did gift thee thus.- Page 132. It was affirmed, that Phaon had received a box of ointment from Venus which conferred on him extraordinary beauty. (4) But yet remains to us the rose.— Page 139. I allude to the Pæstan rose often mentioned by the classic poets from the singularity of its blowing twice a-year, in the Spring and Autumn. (5) Take thou my lyre, whose chords.—Page 177. A statue was erected in Sicily to the memory of Sappho. It was sculptured by Silanion, one of the most celebrated artists of his time. ON HAYDON'S PICTURE OF THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. HE E comes! behold him, gazing Bethany! A voicé goes forth the grave yields up the dead. Those secrets hidden in the shroud and shred; |