277 



SAPPHO. 



SARTO, ANDREA VANtJCCHl. 



278 



Pilar. In 1775, he was elected a member of the Academy of St. Fer- 

 dinand, and when the school instituted by Goicoechoa was made an 

 academy by the title of that of San Luis, in 1792, Sana was appointed 

 director, having previously given instruction in architecture there 

 without any emolument. In his capacity of public teacher he did 

 much towards eradicating the prejudices and corrupt taste of the pre- 

 ceding period, when the art was in a very degraded state in Spain ; 

 and towards introducing a better style. Nor was his influence incon- 

 siderable, as the government appointed him to inspect all designs for 

 public buildings proposed to be erected in Aragon. Among those 

 erected by himself the principal are, the church of Santa Cruz, Sara- 

 gossa (of the Corinthian order, and forming a Greek cross in its plan), 

 and those at Urrea and Binaces, both of them built at the expense of 

 the Duke de Hijar. He also designed the theatre and some other 

 public edifices at Saragossa, besides a number of private houses. He 

 die<l July 25, 1801, and left a son, Martias Sanz, who was also an 

 architect, and who completed the faade of the church at Epila, which 

 building had been begun by his father. 



SAPPHO was a native of the island of Lesbos, though the exact place 

 is uncertain, for according to some she was born in Eresus, and accord- 

 ing to others in Mitylene. The time of her birth is also unknown, 

 and there are few events of her life which can exactly be ascertained. 

 Her own fragments, as well as those of Alcoeus, show that these two 

 greatest poets of the JEolio school were contemporaries, though 

 Sappho must have been younger than Alcsous, for she was still alive in 

 B.C. 568, as may be inferred from the ode that she addressed to her 

 brother Charaxus, in which she reproached him for having purchased 

 Rhodopis, the courtesan, from her master, and having been induced 

 by his love for her to emancipate her. (Herod., ii. 135 ; Athen., xiii. 

 p. 569.) Charaxus bought Rhodopis at Naucratis in Egypt, and in 

 all probability not before the reign of Amasis, who ascended the 

 throne in B.C. 569. Before this, time, and when she was still in full 

 possession of her beauty, she is said to have left her country for Sicily, 

 but the cause of this flight is unknown. (Marm. Par., 'Ep.' 36 ; Ovid. 

 ' Heroid.,' xv. 51.) It was formerly a common belief that Sappho 

 destroyed herself by leaping into the sea from the Leucadian rock, in 

 despair at her love being unrequited by a youth named Phaon. It ia 

 true that in her odes she frequently mentioned a youth whom she 

 loved, -who did not return her love, but there is no trace of the name 

 of Phaon in any. of her poems ; and if the name did occur, it was 

 probably the name of Adonis, the favourite of Venus, who was in 

 some legends called Phaon or Phaeton. It is therefore not unlikely 

 that the manner in which she described Venus addressing Phaon may 

 have given rise to the story of her own passionate love for Phaon. 

 The story of her " leap from the Leucadian rock " is likewise, as K. 0. 

 Miiller and others have shown, a mere fiction which arose from a 

 figurative poetical expression, for the phrase appears to have been 

 used by some poets to express a violent love from which relief is 

 sought by a leap from the Leucadian rock into the sea. It is not ex- 

 pressly stated by any of the ancients who tell the story, whether 

 Sappho terminated her life by the leap or whether she survived it. 



The genuine sources of information as to Sappho are the fragments 

 of her own poems and some of Alcseus, and in reading them it should 

 not be forgotten that Sappho belonged to the Molian race, which at 

 the time when the state of society in Attica had assumed a totally 

 different aspect from that of the Heroic age, still retained much of 

 the simplicity of ancient Greek manners. At Athens women lived in 

 the strictest seclusion, and the free intercourse of women of ability, 

 such as Sappho and her numerous friends, would lead to the opinion 

 among Athenians that she led an immoral life. It is now superfluous 

 to vindicate the personal character of Sappho, for this has been satis- 

 factorily performed by F. G. Welcker, in a little work called ' Sappho 

 von einem herrschenden Vorurtheil befreit,' Gottingen, 1816. 



With the exception of one complete ode and a considerable number 

 of short fragments, the poems of Sappho have perished ; but what we 

 possess is sufficient to justify the admiration of the ancients. In 

 warmth and purity of feeling, in grace and sweetness, and in delicacy 

 and beauty of diction, she has perhaps never been excelled by any 

 lyric poet either of ancient or modern times. The loss of her works is 

 perhaps as much to be lamented as that of any other ancient author 

 whose writings have perished, for besides the pleasure that might havp 

 been derived from them as works of art, they would undoubtedly have 

 thrown much light on the condition and social relations of women in 

 some parts of Greece, a subject now involved in great obscurity. The 

 ancients divided her poems into nine books, which consisted of erotic 

 odes, epithalamia, hymns to the gods, and other poems. The ryth- 

 mical construction of her odes was essentially the same as that of 

 Alcseus, though with many variations, and in harmony with the softer 

 character of her poetry. There is a verse called the Sapphic verse, 

 which derives its name from the Greek poetess, and which she is said 

 to have invented. The verse is as follows : 



The Sapphic strophe consists of three Sapphic verses followed by a 

 versus Adonicus. It has been frequently imitated by poets of ancient 

 as well as modern times. 

 The fragments of the poems of Sappho are generally printed 



together with the poems ascribed to Anacreon. The beat separata 

 editions are : ' Sappho Leubia, Carmina et Fragmenta, rec. comment. 

 illustr. schemata musica adj., &c. H. F. M. Volger,' Lipsiae, 8vo, 1810 ; 

 Sappho, ' Fragm. Specimen Operas in omnibus artis Graecorum Lyricao 

 reliquiis, &c., proposuit C. F. Neue,' Berlin, 4to, 1827. The best 

 German translation ia by K. L. Kannegiesser, Berlin, 1827. 



(Miiller, Hist, of Oredc Lit., i. p. 172-180 ; Bode, Qeschichte der Hel- 

 leniachen Dichtkun&t, vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 411, &c.) 



SARDANAPA'LUS is the name by which the Greek and Roman 

 writers designate the last king of Assyria. They state that he was a 

 wealthy and powerful king, and built two towns, Anchiale and 



, 



Tarsus, in one day. (Steph. Byz., v. 'Ayx^n; Snides, v. ZaptavdiroAos', 

 Herod., ii. 150.) But he was a man of voluptuous habits, and spent 

 his life in his palace at Ninus or Ninive, surrounded by women. The 

 mode in which he end^d his life, at the time when his kingdom fell 

 into the hands of the Medea, ia told by Diodorus Siculus (ii. 24-27) and 

 Justin (i. 3). Arbaces, who was his satrap in Media, one day with 

 great difficulty obtained admission to his master, and to his astonish- 

 ment found him engaged in his usual unmanly occupations among his 

 concubines. Filled with indignation, Arbaces on his return declared 

 to his friends that he could no longer obey such a king. A conspiracy 

 was formed, and Arbaces, with his Medes, joined by Belesys, a Baby- 

 lonian priest (probably a Chaldacan), marched against Ninive (comp. 

 Herod., i. 95). Sardanapalus at first endeavoured to conceal himself; 

 according to others, he marched out to meet the rebels, and was suc- 

 cessful in three battles ; and then, thinking himself safe, he gave him- 

 self up to his us lal pleasures, and prepared a grand feast for TUB 

 army. Arbaces however in the meantime surprised the king's camp, 

 routed the enemy, and drove the king with a few followers back to his 

 capital. Here Sardanapalus maintained himself for two years, though 

 deserted by all the provinces, and when at last he saw that further 

 resistance was useless, he caused a pyre to be raised on which he 

 burnt himself with all his treasures and his women. Assyria thus fell 

 into the hands of the Modes, who united it with Media. The time of 

 this event is differently assigned ; some suppose that it took place 

 about 880, some again place it in the year 717, and others in B.C. 606. 

 The name of King Sardanapalus, both in ancient and in modern times, 

 has been used proverbially to express the highest degree of volup- 

 tuousness and effeminacy. 



The above is the old popular account of Sardanapalus. Of late 

 years owing to the difficulties in the statement of Ctesias, as given by 

 Diodorus, some writers have regarded the entire account as a myth, 

 and Sardanapalua as a fabulous personage (K. 0. Miiller, for instance, 

 has sought in an elaborate essay, ' Sandon und Sardanapal,' to identify 

 him with the god Sandon) but his name is believed to have been 

 deciphered in the cuneiform inscriptions, and the annals of his reign to 

 have been recovered from several independent texts at Nimrud. These 

 texts are in great detail, occupying some thousands of lines, but they 

 differ widely as to the events of hisjeign. An Assyrian kiug is recorded 

 to have perished in some great combustion, but it does not appear to 

 have been Sardanapalus. His annals, with many others, the trustees 

 of the British Museum propose to publish under the care of Sir Henry 

 Rawlinson and Mr. Edwin Norris. It may be added that among the 

 Assyrian remains sent within the last year or two to this country by 

 Sir Henry Rawlinson and now in the British Museum, are fragments 

 of a throne, which Sir Henry supposes to be that of Sardanapalus, and 

 which certainly was the throne of the kings of Assyria. 



SARTI, GIUSEPPE, a composer, once in high repute, and whoae 

 name is still too familiar to the readers of musical history to be 

 omitted here though his works, like most that are written to suit the 

 fashion of the day, are, with the exception of a sacred terzetto, con- 

 signed to oblivion was born in 1730, at Faenza. In 1756 he became 

 Maestro di Capella at the court of Copenhagen : he afterwards com- 

 posed for the court of Dresden ; and finally entered into the service 

 of Catherine of Russia, who treated him with a liberality truly imperial, 

 at whose demise he was continued in all his appointments and emolu- 

 ments by Paul, her successor. His chef-d'oeuvre, ' Giulio Sabino,' an 

 opera, which was extravagantly applauded abroad, and is highly 

 spoken of by Dr. Burney, did not succeed in London ; indeed the 

 neglect into which it speedily fell here, and, in time, everywhere else, 

 may be adduced as a proof of its inherent weakness, and of the want 

 of that power in the composer which is apparent in most of his works 

 that are known to u?. Sarti produced about thirty operas, and some 

 sacred music. Of the latter, the terzetto alluded to above, 'Amplius 

 lava me,' is deservedly admired. He died at Berlin, in 1802. 



SARTO, ANDREA VANUCCHI, called del Sarto, from the occu- 

 pation of his father, who was a tailor, was bom at Florence in 1488, 

 and having shown an early predilection for drawing, was placed with 

 a goldsmith to learn the business of engraving on plate. Being 

 noticed by Giovanni Barile, a painter of no great celebrity, he per- 

 suaded his father to entrust his son to his care. With him young 

 Sarto remained three years, and manifested such extraordinary talent 

 that Barile placed him with Pietro Cosimo, who was considered one 

 of the best painters in Italy. On leaving the school of Cosimo he 

 formed an intimacy with Francisco Bigio, with whom he executed 

 some works in the public buildings of Florence, which gained him 

 considerable reputation. Lanzi observes that his improvement was 

 not so rapid as that of many other artists, but slow and gradual. It 



