The 9 Earthly Muses: Sappho and Her Sisters, Greek Anthology 9.26

Sappho and the Earthly Muses

Name:  Antipater of Sidon Date:    2nd – 1st century BCE Region:     Sidon [modern Lebanon] Citation:     Greek Anthology 9.26

Helicon and the Pierian mountains have nourished the following divinely-inspired women with song:

·                      Praxilla

·                     Myrus

·                     Anyte, the female Homer

·                     Sappho, the glory of pretty-haired Lesbia

·                     Erinna

·                     Famous Telesilla

·                     And you,Corinna!, who celebrates Athena’s raging spear in song,

·                     Woman-tongued Nossis

·                      Sweet-tongued Myrtis.  

All these women’s words will outlast the ages.

Great Heaven has nine Muses,

But earth has created nine of its own,

Women who will bring eternal joy to mankind.   

τάσδε θεογλώσσους Ἑλικὼν ἔθρεψε γυναῖκας ὕμνοις, καὶ Μακεδὼν Πιερίας σκόπελος, Πρήξιλλαν, Μοιρώ, Ἀνύτης στόμα, θῆλυν Ὅμηρον, Λεσβιάδων Σαπφὼ κόσμον ἐυπλοκάμων, Ἤρινναν, Τελέσιλλαν ἀγακλέα, καὶ σέ, Κόριννα, θοῦριν Ἀθηναίης ἀσπίδα μελψαμέναν, Νοσσίδα θηλύγλωσσον, ἰδὲ γλυκυαχέα Μύρτιν, πάσας ἀενάων ἐργάτιδας σελίδων. ἐννέα μὲν Μούσας μέγας Οὐρανός, ἐννέα δ᾽ αὐτὰς γαῖα τέκεν, θνατοῖς ἄφθιτον εὐφροσύναν.

Sunt enim doctae, muliebria nomina, vates quas Helicon aluit Pieriumque iugum. Praxilla et Myro facundaque gloria Lesbi [Sappho], et quae vix Anyte cedit, Homere, tibi. Est Erinna etiam Telesillaque, tuque Corinna, Quae docta clypeum Palladis arte canis: Et Myrtis placida et versu quoque femina Nossis, Omnes perpetui carminis artifices. Aetheris aequavit tellus fecunda labores, Ille novem Musas protulit, ista novem. Translated into Latin by Hugo Grotius

Antipater of Sidon [2nd – 1st century BCE, modern Lebanon] was a Greek poet who lived under Roman rule during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. Dozens of his poems were preserved in the Greek Anthology.