A. facsimile of the recently discovered poem by Sappho, unearthed
by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt in a mass of papyri found near Alexandria, was published in last Saturday's Daily Mail. The fragment, which is in the Sapphic metre and in the lEolic dialect, is addressed by the poetess to her brother Charaxus, and while expressing her ardent desire for his safe return to Lesbos, Sappho reproaches him for the discredit he has brought upon his name and fame. The episode thus referred to is identified by scholars with Charaxus's liaison with an Egyptian slave, which led to a permanent estrangement between him and his sister. There is something almost humorous in the assumption by Sappho of the role of Mrs. Grundy, but we believe it to be the case that the aspersions on her character are all the product of a later age. Nearly all that is certain about her is that she was the centre and leading spirit of a coterie of emancipated literary women in Mitylene.
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