Fragment 130
130Libanius the rhetorician, about the fourth century A.D., says:—
‘If therefore nought prevented Sappho the Lesbian from praying νύκτα αὐτῇ γενέσθαι διπλασίαν that the night might be doubled for her, let me also ask for something similar. Time, father of year and months, stretch out this very year for us as far as may be, as, when Herakles was born, thou didst prolong the night.’
Bergk thinks that Sappho probably prayed for νύκτα τριπλασίαν a night thrice as long as an ordinary night, in reference to the myth of Jupiter and Alcmene, the mother of Hercules.