god
Eros
also: Ἔρος
The god — and the force — of desire, in Sappho's poetry an external power that seizes the body. Elsewhere in her fragments he is the 'limb-loosener' and 'sweetbitter.'
Reading notes
- Fragments of Book Two §47 Eros
Desire arrives 'again' (δαὖτε) — Sappho's signature adverb for a god who never visits once — and with weather for a body: a mountain wind dropping into oaks, force measured by what it shakes.
- The Major Poems §16 Eros
Desire as a god — in Sappho an outside force that bends and leads people. The word at this point of Cox's printed text is corrupt; this rendering follows the restorer's evident sense (see the headnote).
- Fragments of Uncertain Book, with the Epigrams and Dubia §130 Eros
Desire as a god — for Sappho a force that arrives from outside, shaking the body it enters; her coinage 'sweetbitter' and her epithet 'limb-loosener' both live in this fragment.