The Spectator, Volume 2. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,123 pages of information about The Spectator, Volume 2..

The Spectator, Volume 2. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,123 pages of information about The Spectator, Volume 2..

  Eunica, a Maid of Paphos, aged Nineteen, in Love with Eurybates
  Hurt in the Fall, but recovered.

  N.  B. This was her second Time of Leaping.

  Hesperus, a young Man of Tarentum, in Love with his Masters
  Daughter.  Drowned, the Boats not coming in soon enough to his Relief.

Sappho, the Lesbian, in Love with Phaon, arrived at the Temple of Apollo, habited like a Bride in Garments as white as Snow.  She wore a Garland of Myrtle on her Head, and carried in her Hand the little Musical Instrument of her own Invention.  After having sung an Hymn to Apollo, she hung up her Garland on one Side of his Altar, and her Harp on the other.  She then tuck’d up her Vestments, like a Spartan Virgin, and amidst thousands of Spectators, who were anxious for her Safety, and offered up Vows for her Deliverance, [marched[1]] directly forwards to the utmost Summit of the Promontory, where after having repeated a Stanza of her own Verses, which we could not hear, she threw herself off the Rock with such an Intrepidity as was never before observed in any who had attempted that dangerous Leap.  Many who were present related, that they saw her fall into the Sea, from whence she never rose again; tho there were others who affirmed, that she never came to the Bottom of her Leap, but that she was changed into a Swan as she fell, and that they saw her hovering in the Air under that Shape.  But whether or no the Whiteness and Fluttering of her Garments might not deceive those who looked upon her, or whether she might not really be metamorphosed into that musical and melancholy Bird, is still a Doubt among the Lesbians.
Alcaeus, the famous Lyrick Poet, who had for some time been passionately in Love with Sappho, arrived at the Promontory of Leucate that very Evening, in order to take the Leap upon her Account; but hearing that Sappho had been there before him, and that her Body could be no where found, he very generously lamented her Fall, and is said to have written his hundred and twenty fifth Ode upon that Occasion.

    Leaped in this Olympiad [250 [2]]

Males     124
Females   126

    Cured [120[3]]

Males      51
Females    69

C.

[Footnote 1:  [she marched]]

[Footnote 2:  [350], and in first reprint.]

[Footnote 3:  [150], corrected by an Erratum.]

* * * * *

No. 234.  Wednesday, Nov. 28, 1711.  Steele.

[Vellum in amicitia erraremus.

Hor.] [1]

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The Spectator, Volume 2. from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.