Fragment 100
100And a soft [paleness] is spread over the lovely face.
Μελλίχιος δ’ ἐπ’ ἰμέρτῳ κέχυται προσώπῳ.
In the National Library of Madrid there is a MS. of an epithalamium by Choricius, a rhetorician of Gaza, who flourished about 520 A.D., in which the lamented Ch. Graux (Revue de Philologie, 1880, p. 81) found a quotation from Sappho which is partly identical with this fragment preserved by Hephaestion. H. Weil thus attempts to restore the passage:—
Σοὶ χάριεν μὲν εἶδος, ὄππατα δ’ –⏑–⏒
μέλλιχρ’, ἔρος δ’ ἐπ’ ἰμέρτῳ
κέχυται προσώπῳ·
–⏑ τετίμακ’ ἐξοχά σ’ Ἀφροδίτα.
Well favoured is thy form, and thine eyes ... honeyed, and love is spread over thy fair face ... Aphrodite has honoured thee above all.
Two apparent imitations by Catullus are quoted by Weil to confirm his restoration of Sappho’s verses; viz., mellitos oculos, honeyed eyes (48, 1), and pulcher es, neque te Venus negligit, fair thou art, nor does Venus neglect thee (61, 194).