d to us in anything like their entirety, one dedicated to
the service of Aphrodite, and the other composed in honor of a girl
friend, Anactoria. Dionysius of Halicarnassus embodies the first in one
of his rhetorical works, as a perfect illustration of the elaborately
finished style of poetry, and comments on the fact that its grace and
beauty lie in the subtle harmony between the words and the ideas. Edwin
Arnold renders it as follows:

"Splendor-throned Queen, immortal Aphrodite,
Daughter of Jove, Enchantress, I implore thee
Vex not my soul with agonies and anguish;
Slay me not, Goddess!
Come in thy pity--come, if I have prayed thee;
Come at the cry of my sorrow; in the old times
Oft thou hast heard, and left thy father's heaven,
Left the gold houses,
Yoking thy chariot. Swiftly did the doves fly,
Swiftly they brought thee, waving plumes of wonder--
Waving their dark plumes all across the aether,
All down the azure.
Very soon they lighted. Then didst thou, Divine one,
Laugh a bright laugh from lips and eyes immortal,
Ask me 'What ailed me--wherefore out of heaven,
Thus I had called thee?
What was it made me madden in my heart so?'
Question me smiling--say to me, 'My Sappho,
Who is it wrongs thee? Tell me who refuses
Thee, vainly sighing.
Be it who it may be, he that flies shall follow;
He that rejects gifts, he shall bring thee many;
He that hates now shall love thee dearly, madly--
Aye, though thou wouldst not'
So once again come, Mistress; and, releasing
Me from my sadness, give me what I sue for,
Grant me my prayer, and be as heretofore now
Friend and protectress."

The ode to Anactoria is quoted by the author of the treatise on _The
Sublime_ as an illustration of the perfection of the sublime in poetry.
John Addington Symonds thus renders it in English:

"Peer of gods he seemeth to me, the blissful
Man who sits and gazes at thee before him,
Close beside thee sits, and in silence hears thee
Silverly speaking,
Laughing love's low laughter. Oh this, this only
Stirs the troubled heart in my breast to tremble I
For should I but see thee a little moment,
Straight is my voice hu