person
Charaxos
also: Χάραξος
Sappho's brother, a sea-trader. Herodotus says he shipped Lesbian wine to Egypt and ruinously ransomed the courtesan Rhodopis there, and that Sappho mocked him for it in a poem. The Brothers Poem turns on the wait for his homecoming.
Reading notes
- The Brothers Poem and the Kypris Poem §brothers Charaxos
Sappho's brother, a sea-trader. Herodotus (2.135) says he carried Lesbian wine to Egypt, ransomed the courtesan Rhodopis at great cost, and was mocked for it by Sappho in a poem. Here his name frames the poem: the chatter is of his homecoming, the prayer is for his ship.