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The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10

R >> Richard F. Burton >> The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10




[FN#302] Vol. i, Preface p. v. He notes that Mr. Dallaway
describes the same scene at Constantinople where the Story-teller
was used, like the modern "Organs of Government" in newspaper
shape, for "reconciling the people to any recent measure of the
Sultan and Vizier." There are women Rawiyahs for the Harems and
some have become famous like the Mother of Hasan al-Basri (Ibn
Khall. i, 370).

[FN#302] Hence the Persian proverb, "Baki-e-dastan farda = the
rest of the tale to-morrow," said to askers of silly questions.

[FN#303] The scene is excellently described in, "Morocco: Its
People and Places," by Edmondo de Amicis (London: Cassell, 1882),
a most refreshing volume after the enforced platitudes and
commonplaces of English travellers.

[FN#304] It began, however, in Persia, where the celebrated
Darwaysh Mukhlis, Chief Sofi of Isfahan in the xviith century,
translated into Persian tales certain Hindu plays of which a MS.
entitled Alfaraga Badal-Schidda (Al-faraj ba'd al-shiddah = Joy
after annoy) exists in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. But to
give an original air to his work, he entitled it "Hazar o yek
Ruz" = Thousand and One Days, and in 1675 he allowed his friend
Petis de la Croix, who happened to be at Isfahan, to copy it. Le
Sage (of Gil Blas) is said to have converted many of the tales of
Mukhlis into comic operas, which were performed at the Theatre
Italien. I still hope to see The Nights at the Lyceum.

[FN#305] This author, however, when hazarding a change of style
which is, I think, regretable, has shown abundant art by filling
up the frequent deficiencies of the text after the fashion of
Baron McGuckin de Slane in Ibn Khallikan. As regards the tout
ensemble of his work, a noble piece of English, my opinion will
ever be that expressed in my Foreword. A carping critic has
remarked that the translator, "as may be seen in every page, is
no Arabic scholar." If I be a judge, the reverse is the case: the
brilliant and beautiful version thus traduced is almost entirely
free from the blemishes and carelessness which disfigure Lane's,
and thus it is far more faithful to the original. But it is no
secret that on the staff of that journal the translator of Villon
has sundry enemies, vrais diables enjuppones, who take every
opportunity of girding at him because he does not belong to the
clique and because he does good work when theirs is mostly sham.
The sole fault I find with Mr. Payne is that his severe grace of
style treats an unclassical work as a classic, when the romantic
and irregular would have been a more appropriate garb. But this
is a mere matter of private judgment.

[FN#306] Here I offer a few, but very few, instances from the
Breslau text, which is the greatest sinner in this respect. Mas.
for fem., vol. i. p. 9, and three times in seven pages, Ahna and
nahna for nahnu (iv. 370, 372); Ana ba-ashtari = I will buy (iii.
109): and Ana 'Amil = I will do (v. 367). Alayki for Alayki (i.
18), Anti for Anti (iii. 66) and generally long i for short .
'Ammal (from 'amala = he did) tahlam = certainly thou dreamest,
and 'Ammalin yaakulu = they were about to eat (ix. 315): Aywa for
Ay wa'llahi = yes, by Allah (passim). Bita' = belonging to, e.g.
Sara bita'k = it is become thine (ix. 352) and Mata' with the
same sense (iii. 80). Da 'l-khurj = this saddle-bag (ix. 336) and
Di (for hazah) = this woman (iii. 79) or this time (ii. 162).
Fayn as raha fayn = whither is he gone? (iv. 323). Kama badri =
he rose early (ix. 318): Kaman = also, a word known to every
European (ii. 43): Katt = never (ii. 172): Kawam (pronounced
'awam) = fast, at once (iv. 385) and Rih asif kawi (pron. 'awi) =
a wind, strong very. Laysh, e.g. bi tasalni laysh (ix. 324) = why
do you ask me? a favourite form for li ayya shayyin: so Mafish =
ma fihi shayyun (there is no thing) in which Herr Landberg (p.
425) makes "Sha, le present de pouvoir." Min ajali = for my sake;
and Li ajal al-taudi'a = for the sake of taking leave (Mac. Edit.
i. 384). Rijal nautiyah = men sailors when the latter word would
suffice: Shuwayh (dim. of shayy) = a small thing, a little (iv.
309) like Moyyah (dim. of Ma) a little water: Wadduni = they
carried me (ii. 172) and lastly the abominable Wahid gharib = one
(for a) stranger. These few must suffice: the tale of Judar and
his brethren, which in style is mostly Egyptian, will supply a
number of others. It must not, however, be supposed, as many have
done, that vulgar and colloquial Arabic is of modern date: we
find it in the first century of Al-Islam, as is proved by the
tale of Al-Hajjaj and Al-Shabi (Ibn Khallikan, ii. 6). The former
asked "Kam ataa-k?' (= how much is thy pay?) to which the latter
answered, "Alfayn!" (= two thousand!). "Tut," cried the Governor,
"Kam atau-ka?" to which the poet replied as correctly and
classically, "Alfani."

[FN#307] In Russian folk-songs a young girl is often compared
with this tree e.g.--

Ivooshka, ivooshka zelonaia moia!
(O Willow, O green Willow mine!)

[FN#308] So in Hector France ("La vache enragee") "Le sourcil en
accent circonflexe et l'oeil en point d'interrogation."

[FN#309] In Persian "Ab-i-ru" in India pronounced Abru.

FN#310] For further praises of his poetry and eloquence see the
extracts from Fakhr al-Din of Rayy (an annalist of the xivth
century A.D.) in De Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe, vol. i.

[FN#311] After this had been written I received "Babylonian, das
reichste Land in der Vorzeit und das lohnendste Kolonisationsfeld
fuer die Gegenwart," by my learned friend Dr. Aloys Sprenger,
Heidelberg, 1886.

[FN#312] The first school for Arabic literature was opened by Ibn
Abbas, who lectured to multitudes in a valley near Meccah; this
rude beginning was followed by public teaching in the great
Mosque of Damascus. For the rise of the "Madrasah," Academy or
College' see Introduct. to Ibn Khallikan pp. xxvii-xxxii.

[FN#313] When Ibn Abbad the Sahib (Wazir) was invited to visit
one of the Samanides, he refused, one reason being that he would
require 400 camels to carry only his books.

[FN#314] This "Salmagondis" by Francois Beroalde de Verville was
afterwards worked by Tabarin , the pseudo-Bruscambille d'Aubigne
and Sorel.

[FN#315] I prefer this derivation to Strutt's adopted by the
popular, "mumm is said to be derived from the Danish word mumme,
or momme in Dutch (Germ. = larva), and signifies disguise in a
mask, hence a mummer." In the Promptorium Parvulorum we have
"Mummynge, mussacio, vel mussatus": it was a pantomime in dumb
show, e.g. "I mumme in a mummynge;" "Let us go mumme (mummer) to
nyghte in women's apparayle." "Mask" and "Mascarade," for
persona, larva or vizard, also derive, I have noticed, from an
Arabic word--Maskharah.

[FN#316] The Pre-Adamite doctrine has been preached with but
scant success in Christendom. Peyrere, a French Calvinist,
published (A.D. 1655) his "Praadamitae, sive exercitatio supra
versibus 12, 13, 14, cap. v. Epist. Paul. ad Romanos," contending
that Adam was called the first man because with him the law
began. It brewed a storm of wrath and the author was fortunate to
escape with only imprisonment.

[FN#317] According to Socrates the verdict was followed by a free
fight of the Bishop-voters over the word "consubstantiality."

[FN#318] Servetus burnt (in A.D. 1553 for publishing his Arian
tractate) by Calvin, whom half-educated Roman Catholics in
England firmly believe to have been a pederast. This arose I
suppose, from his meddling with Rabelais who, in return for the
good joke Rabie laesus, presented a better anagram, "Jan (a pimp
or cuckold) Cul" (Calvinus).

[FN#319] There is no more immoral work than the "Old Testament."
Its deity is an ancient Hebrew of the worst type, who condones,
permits or commands every sin in the Decalogue to a Jewish
patriarch, qua patriarch. He orders Abraham to murder his son and
allows Jacob to swindle his brother; Moses to slaughter an
Egyptian and the Jews to plunder and spoil a whole people, after
inflicting upon them a series of plagues which would be the
height of atrocity if the tale were true. The nations of Canaan
are then extirpated. Ehud, for treacherously disembowelling King
Eglon, is made judge over Israel. Jael is blessed above women
(Joshua v. 24) for vilely murdering a sleeping guest; the horrid
deeds of Judith and Esther are made examples to mankind; and
David, after an adultery and a homicide which deserved
ignominious death, is suffered to massacre a host of his enemies,
cutting some in two with saws and axes and putting others into
brick-kilns. For obscenity and impurity we have the tales of Onan
and Tamar, Lot and his daughters, Amnon and his fair sister (2
Sam. xiii.), Absalom and his father's concubines, the "wife of
whoredoms" of Hosea and, capping all, the Song of Solomon. For
the horrors forbidden to the Jews who, therefore, must have
practiced them, see Levit. viii. 24, xi. 5, xvii. 7, xviii. 7, 9,
10, 12, 15, 17, 21, 23, and xx. 3. For mere filth what can be
fouler than 1st Kings xviii. 27; Tobias ii. 11; Esther xiv. 2,
Eccl. xxii. 2; Isaiah xxxvi. 12, Jeremiah iv. 5, and (Ezekiel iv.
12-15), where the Lord changes human ordure into "Cow-chips!" Ce
qui excuse Dieu, said Henri Beyle, c'est qu'il n'existe pas,--I
add, as man has made him.

[FN#320] It was the same in England before the "Reformation," and
in France where, during our days, a returned priesthood collected
in a few years "Peter-pence" to the tune of five hundred millions
of francs. And these men wonder at being turned out!

[FN#321] Deutsch on the Talmud: Quarterly Review, 1867.

[FN#322] Evidently. Its cosmogony is a myth read literally: its
history is, for the most part, a highly immoral distortion, and
its ethics are those of the Talmudic Hebrews. It has done good
work in its time; but now it shows only decay and decrepitude in
the place of vigour and progress. It is dying hard, but it is
dying of the slow poison of science.

[FN#323] These Hebrew Stoics would justly charge the Founder of
Christianity with preaching a more popular and practical
doctrine, but a degradation from their own far higher and more
ideal standard.

[FN#324] Dr. Theodore Christlieb ("Modern Doubt and Christian
Belief," Edinburgh: Clark 1874) can even now write:--"So then the
'full age' to which humanity is at present supposed to have
attained, consists in man's doing good purely for goodness sake!
Who sees not the hollowness of this bombastic talk. That man has
yet to be born whose practice will be regulated by this insipid
theory (dieser grauen theorie). What is the idea of goodness per
se? * * * The abstract idea of goodness is not an effectual
motive for well-doing" (p. 104). My only comment is c'est
ignolile! His Reverence acts the part of Satan in Holy Writ,
"Does Job serve God for naught?" Compare this selfish,
irreligious, and immoral view with Philo Judaeus (On the Allegory
of the Sacred Laws, cap. 1viii.), to measure the extent of the
fall from Pharisaism to Christianity. And the latter is still
infected with the "bribe-and-threat doctrine:" I once immensely
scandalised a Consular Chaplain by quoting the noble belief of
the ancients, and it was some days before he could recover mental
equanimity. The degradation is now inbred.

[FN#325] Of the doctrine of the Fall the heretic Marcion wrote:
"The Deity must either be deficient in goodness if he willed, in
prescience if he did not foresee, or in power if he did not
prevent it."

[FN#326] In his charming book, "India Revisited."

[FN#327] This is the answer to those who contend with much truth
that the moderns are by no means superior to the ancients of
Europe: they look at the results of only 3000 years instead of
30,000 or 300,000.

[FN#328] As a maxim the saying is attributed to the Duc de Levis,
but it is much older.

[FN#329] There are a few, but only a few, frightful exceptions to
this rule, especially in the case of Khalid bin Walid, the Sword
of Allah, and his ferocious friend, Darar ibn al-Azwar. But their
cruel excesses were loudly blamed by the Moslems, and Caliph Omar
only obeyed the popular voice in superseding the fierce and
furious Khalid by the mild and merciful Abu Obaydah.

[FN#330] This too when St. Paul sends the Christian slave
Onesimus back to his unbelieving (?) master, Philemon; which in
Al-Islam would have created a scandal.

[FN#331] This too when the Founder of Christianity talks of
"Eating and drinking at his table!" (Luke xxn. 29.) My notes have
often touched upon this inveterate prejudice the result, like the
soul-less woman of Al-Islam, of ad captandum, pious fraud. "No
soul knoweth what joy of the eyes is reserved for the good in
recompense for their works" (Koran xxxn. 17) is surely as
"spiritual" as St. Paul (I Cor. ii., 9). Some lies, however are
very long-lived, especially those begotten by self interest.

[FN#332] I have elsewhere noted its strict conservatism which,
however, it shares with all Eastern faiths in the East. But
progress, not quietism, is the principle which governs humanity
and it is favoured by events of most different nature. In Egypt
the rule of Mohammed Ali the Great and in Syria the Massacre of
Damascus (1860) have greatly modified the constitution of Al-
Islam throughout the nearer East.

[FN#333] Chapt. viii. "Narrative of a Year's Journey through
Central and Eastern Arabia;" London, Macmillan, 1865.

[FN#334] The Soc. Jesu has, I believe, a traditional conviction
that converts of Israelitic blood bring only misfortune to the
Order.

[FN#335] I especially allude to an able but most superficial
book, the "Ten Great Religions" by James F. Clarke (Boston,
Osgood, 1876), which caricatures and exaggerates the false
portraiture of Mr. Palgrave. The writer's admission that,
"Something is always gained by learning what the believers in a
system have to say in its behalf," clearly shows us the man we
have to deal with and the "depths of his self-consciousness."

[FN#336] But how could the Arabist write such hideous grammar as
"La Il h illa All h" for "La ilaha (accus.) ill' Allah"?

[FN#337] p. 996 "Muhammad" in vol. iii. Dictionary of Christian
Biography. See also the Illustration of the Mohammedan Creed,
etc., from Al-Ghazali introduced (pp. 72-77) into Bell and Sons'
"History of the Saracens" by Simon Ockley, B.D. (London, 1878). I
regret some Orientalist did not correct the proofs: everybody
will not detect "Al-Lauh al-Mahfuz" (the Guarded Tablet) in
"Allauh ho'hnehphoud" (p. 171); and this but a pinch out of a
camel-load.

[FN#338] The word should have been Arianism. This "heresy" of the
early Christians was much aided by the "Discipline of the
Secret," supposed to be of apostolic origin, which concealed from
neophytes, catechumens and penitents all the higher mysteries,
like the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Metastoicheiosis
(transubstantiation), the Real Presence, the Eucharist and the
Seven Sacraments; when Arnobius could ask, Quid Deo cum vino est?
and when Justin, fearing the charge of Polytheism, could
expressly declare the inferior nature of the Son to the Father.
Hence the creed was appropriately called Symbol i.e., Sign of the
Secret. This "mental reservation" lasted till the Edict of
Toleration, issued by Constantine in the fourth century, held
Christianity secure when divulging her "mysteries"; and it
allowed Arianism to become the popular creed.

[FN#339] The Gnostics played rather a fantastic role in
Christianity with their Demiurge, their AEonogony, their AEons by
syzygies or couples, their Maio and Sabscho and their beatified
bride of Jesus, Sophia Achamoth, and some of them descended to
absolute absurdities, e.g., the Tascodrugitae and the
Pattalorhinchitae who during prayers placed their fingers upon
their noses or in their mouths, &c., reading Psalm cxli. 3.

[FN#340] "Kitab al-'Unwan fi Makaid al-Niswan" = The Book of the
Beginnings on the Wiles of Womankind (Lane i. 38).

[FN#341] This person was one of the Amsal or Exampla of the
Arabs. For her first thirty years she whored; during the next
three decades she pimped for friend and foe, and, during the last
third of her life, when bed-ridden by age and infirmities, she
had a buckgoat and a nanny tied up in her room and solaced
herself by contemplating their amorous conflicts.

[FN#342] And modern Moslem feeling upon the subject has
apparently undergone a change. Ashraf Khan, the Afghan poet,
sings,

Since I, the parted one, have come the secrets of the world to
ken,
Women in hosts therein I find, but few (and very few) of men.

And the Osmanli proverb is, "Of ten men nine are women!"

[FN#343] His Persian paper "On the Vindication of the Liberties
of the Asiatic Women" was translated and printed in the Asiatic
Annual Register for 1801 (pp. 100-107); it is quoted by Dr. Jon.
Scott (Introd. vol. i. p. xxxiv. et seq.) and by a host of
writers. He also wrote a book of Travels translated by Prof.
Charles Stewart in 1810 and re-issued (3 vols. 8vo.) in 1814.

[FN#344] The beginning of which I date from the Hijrah, lit.= the
separation, popularly "The Flight." Stating the case broadly, it
has become the practice of modern writers to look upon Mohammed
as an honest enthusiast at Meccah and an unscrupulous despot at
Al- Medinah, a view which appears to me eminently unsound and
unfair. In a private station the Meccan Prophet was famed as a
good citizen, teste his title Al-Amin =The Trusty. But when
driven from his home by the pagan faction, he became de facto as
de jure a king: nay, a royal pontiff; and the preacher was merged
in the Conqueror of his foes and the Commander of the Faithful.
His rule, like that of all Eastern rulers, was stained with
blood; but, assuming as true all the crimes and cruelties with
which Christians charge him and which Moslems confess, they were
mere blots upon a glorious and enthusiastic life, ending in a
most exemplary death, compared with the tissue of horrors and
havock which the Law and the Prophets attribute to Moses, to
Joshua, to Samuel and to the patriarchs and prophets by express
command of Jehovah.

[FN#345] It was not, however, incestuous: the scandal came from
its ignoring the Arab "pundonor."

[FN#346] The "opportunism" of Mohammed has been made a matter of
obloquy by many who have not reflected and discovered that
time-serving is the very essence of "Revelation." Says the Rev.
W. Smith ("Pentateuch," chaps. xiii.), "As the journey (Exodus)
proceeds, so laws originate from the accidents of the way," and
he applies this to successive decrees (Numbers xxvi. 32-36;
xxvii. 8-11 and xxxvi. 1-9), holding it indirect internal
evidence of Mosaic authorship (?). Another tone, however, is used
in the case of Al-Islam. "And now, that he might not stand in awe
of his wives any longer, down comes a revelation," says Ockley in
his bluff and homely style, which admits such phrases as, "the
imposter has the impudence to say." But why, in common honesty,
refuse to the Koran the concessions freely made to the Torah? It
is a mere petitio principii to argue that the latter is
"inspired" while the former is not, moreover, although we may be
called upon to believe things beyond Reason, it is hardly fair to
require our belief in things contrary to Reason.

[FN#347] This is noticed in my wife's volume on The Inner Life of
Syria, chaps. xii. vol. i. 155.

[FN#348] Mirza preceding the name means Mister and following it
Prince. Addison's "Vision of Mirza" (Spectator, No. 159) is
therefore "The Vision of Mister."

[FN#349] And women. The course of instruction lasts from a few
days to a year and the period of puberty is feted by magical
rites and often by some form of mutilation. It is described by
Waitz, Reclus and Schoolcraft, Pachue-Loecksa, Collins, Dawson,
Thomas, Brough Smyth, Reverends Bulmer and Taplin, Carlo
Wilhelmi, Wood, A. W. Howitt, C. Z. Muhas (Mem. de la Soc.
Anthrop. Allemande, 1882, p. 265) and by Professor Mantegazza
(chaps. i.) for whom see infra.

[FN#350] Similarly certain Australian tribes act scenes of rape
and pederasty saying to the young, If you do this you will be
killed.

[FN#351] "Bah," is the popular term for the amatory appetite:
hence such works are called Kutub al-Bah, lit. = Books of Lust.

[FN#352] I can make nothing of this title nor can those whom I
have consulted: my only explanation is that they may be fanciful
names proper.

[FN#353] Amongst the Greeks we find erotic specialists (1)
Aristides of the Libri Milesii; (2) Astyanassa, the follower of
Helen who wrote on androgvnisation; (3) Cyrene, the artist of
amatory Tabellae or ex-votos offered to Priapus; (4) Elephantis,
the poetess who wrote on Varia concubitus genera; (5) Evemerus,
whose Sacra Historia, preserved in a fragment of Q. Eunius, was
collected by Hieronymus Columnar (6) Hemitheon of the Sybaritic
books, (7) Musaeus, the Iyrist; (8) Niko, the Samian girl; (9)
Philaenis, the poetess of Amatory Pleasures, in Athen. viii. 13,
attributed to Polycrates the Sophist; (10) Protagorides, Amatory
Conversations; (11) Sotades, the Mantinaean who, says Suidas,
wrote the poem "Cinaedica"; (12) Sphodrias the Cynic, his Art of
Love; and (13) Trepsicles, Amatory Pleasures. Amongst the Romans
we have Aedituus, Annianus (in Ausonius), Anser, Bassus Eubius,
Helvius Cinna, Laevius (of Io and the Erotopaegnion), Memmius,
Cicero (to Cerellia), Pliny the Younger, Sabellus (de modo
coeundi); Sisenna, the pathic Poet and translator of Milesian
Fables and Sulpitia, the modest erotist. For these see the
Dictionnaire Erotique of Blondeau pp. ix. and x. (Paris, Liseux,
1885).

[FN#354] It has been translated from the Sanskrit and annotated
by A.F.F. and B.F.R. Reprint Cosmopoli: mdccclxxxv.: for the Kama
Shastra Society, London and Benares, and for private circulation
only. The first print has been exhausted and a reprint will
presently appear.

[FN#355] The local press has often proposed to abate this
nuisance of erotic publication which is most debasing to public
morals already perverted enough. But the "Empire of Opinion"
cares very little for such matters and, in the matter of the
"native press," generally seems to seek only a quiet life. In
England if erotic literature were not forbidden by law, few would
care to sell or to buy it, and only the legal pains and penalties
keep up the phenomenally high prices.

[FN#356] The Spectator (No. 119) complains of an "infamous piece
of good breeding," because "men of the town, and particularly
those who have been polished in France, make use of the most
coarse and uncivilised words in our language and utter themselves
often in such a manner as a clown would blush to hear."

[FN#357] See the Novelle of Bandello the Bishop (Tome 1, Paris,
Liseux, 1879, small in 18) where the dying fisherman replies to
his confessor, "Oh! Oh! your reverence, to amuse myself with boys
was natural to me as for a man to eat and drink; yet you asked me
if I sinned against nature!" Amongst the wiser ancients sinning
contra naturam was not marrying and begetting children.

[FN#358] Avis au Lecteur "L'Amour dans l'Humanite," par P.
Mantegazza, traduit par Emilien Chesneau, Paris, Fetscherin et
Chuit, 1886.

[FN#359] See "H. B." (Henry Beyle, French Consul at Civita
Vecchia) par un des Quarante H. B." (Prosper Merimee),
Elutheropolis, An mdccclxiv. De l'Imposture du Nazareen.

[FN#360] This detail especially excited the veteran's curiosity.
The reason proved to be that the scrotum of the unmutilated boy
could be used as a kind of bridle for directing the movements of
the animal. I find nothing of the kind mentioned in the Sotadical
literature of Greece and Rome; although the same cause might be
expected everywhere to the same effect. But in Mirabeau
(Kadhesch) a grand seigneur moderne, when his valet-de-chambre de
confiance proposes to provide him with women instead of boys,
exclaims, "Des femmes! eh! c'est comme si tu me servais un gigot
sans manche." See also infra for "Le poids du tisserand."

[FN#361] See Falconry in the Valley of the Indus, London, John
Van Voorst, 1852.

[FN#362] Submitted to Government on Dec. 3', '47, and March 2,
'48, they were printed in "Selections from the Records of the
Government of India." Bombay. New Series. No. xvii. Part 2, 1855.
These are (1) Notes on the Population of Sind, etc., and (2)
Brief Notes on the Modes of Intoxication, etc., written in
collaboration with my late friend Assistant-Surgeon John E.
Stocks, whose early death was a sore loss to scientific botany.

[FN#363] Glycon the Courtesan in Athen. xiii. 84 declares that
"boys are handsome only when they resemble women," and so the
Learned Lady in The Nights (vol. v. 160) declares "Boys are
likened to girls because folks say, Yonder boy is like a girl."
For the superior physical beauty of the human male compared with
the female, see The Nights, vol. iv. 15; and the boy's voice
before it breaks excels that of any diva.

[FN#364] "Mascula," from the priapiscus, the over-development of
clitoris (the veretrum muliebre, in Arabic Abu Tartur, habens
cristam), which enabled her to play the man. Sappho (nat. B.C.
612) has been retoillee like Mary Stuart, La Brinvilliers, Marie
Antoinette and a host of feminine names which have a savour not
of sanctity. Maximus of Tyre (Dissert. xxiv.) declares that the
Eros of Sappho was Socratic and that Gyrinna and Atthis were as
Alcibiades and Chermides to Socrates: Ovid who could consult
documents now lost, takes the same view in the Letter of Sappho
to Phaon and in Tristia ii. 265.

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