How Many Lines in a Sapphic Stanza?

P. J. Finglass

doi:10.56004/v3.2pjf

How Many Lines in a Sapphic Stanza?

Authors

P. J. Finglass University of Bristol https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6654-6602

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56004/v3.2pjf

Keywords:

Sappho, metre, manuscripts, papyrus, Greek language, Greek literature

Abstract

This article considers, first, why in papyri of Sappho the sapphic stanza is written over four lines, rather than the three required by the nature of its verses; and second, how printing a three-line stanza allows a better appreciation of the relationship in Sappho’s poetry between metre and meaning.