I have heard that there was, a long long time ago, an edition of Sappho's poem published (right?) at Alexandria. I know it had at least 8 books (maybe 9, maybe more, that's up for debate) and that the poems were arranged "by meter". So I was wondering: besides knowing that book 1 contained Sapphic stanzas, do we know what meters other books contained? I ask because I see Bibliotheca Augustana splitting the poems into books, supposedly by meter, and yet some books seem to have poems of pretty different meters. Let me make a little list:
- Melôn I: sapphic stanzas;
- Melôn II: aeolic dactylic pentapodies (hope the terms is right, metric scheme is xx–uu–uu-uu–ux), with a few fragments being not even a full line, and one being possibly catalectic (ὠς δὲ πάϊς πεδὰ μάτερα πεπτερύγωμαι ends with –u, not –ux, so either it's missing its last syllable, or it's xx–uu–uu–uu–x);
- Melôn III: greater asclepiads, and then suddenly μνάσασθαί τινα φαῖμι ... κἄψερον ἀμμέων, which as is looks like xx–uu–u–uu–ux, but is usually restored to be a dactylic pentapody and hence belong in book 2, or as a lesser asclepiad (maybe book III was generically "asclepiads"? But that would anyway make this "ἐξ ἀδήλων βιβλίων", seen as the quotation this is from, as reported by Bergk, does not mention it being ἐν τῷ τρίτῳ, i.e. in book III…);
- Melôn IV: Ionic a maiore tetrapodies (xxuu––uu––uu–u–x);
- Melôn V: first off, an uncertain fragment; then, τί με Πανδίονις ᾬραννα χελίδων, which looks like uu–uu–––uuu–, but I don't believe the short alpha of Ὤραννα, so I'd expect uu–uu––––uu–, maybe with a final anceps, that is two anapests, and then something dactylic, so a caesura after Pandionis, uu–uu–|–––uu–, feet uu– uu– || –– –uu x, which I cannot classify as a meter; then Ζά τ' ἐλεξάμαν ὄναρ Κυπρογένηα, uu–u–u–||–uu–x, which is different from the previous and cannot be explained away with anaclasis because anaclasis of the previous gives uu–u–u–––uu–, which ends in –––uu– vs. ––uu–x in this one; then πλήρης μὲν ἐφάινετ' ἀ σέλαννα, ––uu–u–u–u, ionic a maiore plus three trochees; then πτερύγων δ' ὐπακακχέει λιγύραν ἀοίδαν, uu–uu–u–uu–u–x, with a reversal of the thesis-arsis pattern from the previous; then δεῦτέ νυν ἄβραι Χάριτες καλλίκομοί τε Μοῖσαι, –uu––uu––uu–u–u, choriambic n-meter; and I think I can stop here: my point is well illustrated; just one more: dactylic pentapodies make a comeback! Φοίβῳ χρυσοκόμᾳ τὸν ἔτικτε Κόω κόρα;
- Melôn 6: fragmenta desunt;
- Melôn 7: a single fragment in x–u–u–||–uu–u–u–x;
- Melôn 8: three fragments of unclear meters which could be ionic a maiore tetrapodies (book IV), and one which is of unclear meter but, being line beginnings; all these are from papyri, so no quotation could tell us "they were in book VIII";
- Melôn 9: epithalamia of the most various meters.
So what is B.A.'s logic in that book V, and is it known what meters were in what books (at least the 8 that are sure to have existed)?
