god
The Graces
Graces
also: Χάριτες, Charites, χάριτος (Cox print, fr. 81)
The goddesses of grace, charm, and the pleasure of made things, daughters of Zeus — summoned 'rosy-armed' in fr. 53 and, in fr. 81, the arbiters who favor the garlanded and turn from the bare-headed. With the Muses, the standing patronesses of Sappho's art.
Reading notes
- Fragments of Books Three and Four §53 Graces
The Charites, goddesses of grace, charm, and the pleasure of made things — Sappho's recurring patronesses alongside the Muses. She calls them down with δεῦτε, 'come hither,' the same summons she uses for the Muses elsewhere; in fr. 81 they decide who stands first in favor.
- Fragments of Books Three and Four §81 blessed Graces
Cox's copy prints the line garbled ('χάριτος μακαιρᾶν'); the evident sense, and the modern reading, is that the blessed Charites prefer the garlanded and turn away from the bare-headed. Translated by that sense, with the print kept in the source and the crux logged.
- Fragments of Uncertain Book, with the Epigrams and Dubia §128 Graces
The goddesses of grace, charm, and the pleasure of made things, regularly paired by Sappho with the Muses — beauty's powers and song's powers summoned in one breath.