Fragment 3 (Voigt 34)
3 · Voigt 34The stars about the fair moon in their turn hide their bright face when she at about her full lights up all earth with silver.
Ἄστερες μὲν ἀμφὶ κάλαν σελάνναν
αἶψ ἀπυκρύπτοισι φάεννον εἶδος,
ὄπποτα πλήθοισα μάλιστα λάμπῃ
γᾶν [ἐπὶ πᾶσαν]
–⏑–⏑ ἀργυρία –⏑–⏑·
Planets, that around the beauteous moon
Attendant wait, cast into shade
Their ineffectual lustre, soon
As she, in full-orbed majesty arrayed,
Her silver radiance pours
Upon this world of ours.
— J. H. Merivale.
The stars around the lovely moon
Their radiant visage hide as soon
As she, full-orbed, appears to sight,
Flooding the earth with her silvery light.
— ? Felton.
The stars about the lovely moon
Fade back and vanish very soon,
When, round and full, her silver face
Swims into sight, and lights all space.
— Edwin Arnold, 1869.
Stars that shine around the refulgent full moon
Pale, and hide their glory of lesser lustre
When she pours her silvery plenilunar
Light on the orbed earth.
— J. A. Symonds, 1883.
‘As the stars draw back their shining faces when they surround the fair moon in her silver fulness.’ F. T. Palgrave.
Quoted by Eustathius of Thessalonica, late in the twelfth century, to illustrate the simile in the Iliad, viii. 551:—
As when in heaven the stars about the moon
Look beautiful.
— Tennyson.
Julian, about 350 A.D., says Sappho applied the epithet silver to the moon; wherefore Blomfield suggested its position here.