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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SAC-SAR |
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SAPPHO (7th6th centuries B.C.) , Greek poetess, was a native of Lesbos, contemporary with Alcaeus, Stesichorus and Pittacus, in fact, with the culminating period of Aeolic poetry. One of her brothers, Charaxus, fell in love with a courtesan named Doricha upon whom he squandered his property. Sappho wrote an ode, in which she severely satirized and rebuked him. Another brother, Larichus, was public cup-bearer at Mytilenea position for which it was necessary to be well born, It is said that she had a daughter, named after her grandmother Cleis, and she had some personal acquaintance with Alcaeus. He addressed her in an ode of which a fragment is preserved: " Violet-weaving (or dark-haired), pure, sweet-smiling Sappho, I wish to say somewhat, but shame hinders me "; and she answered in another ode: " Hadst thou had desire of aught good or fair, shame would not have touched thine eyes, but thou wouldst have spoken thereof openly." The story of her love for the disdainful Phaon, and her leap into the sea from the Leucadian promontory, together with that of her flight from Mytilene to Sicily, has no confirmation; we are not even told whether she died of the leap or not. Critics again are agreed that Suidas was simply gulled by the comic poets when he tells of her husband, Cercolas of Andros. Both the aspersions which these poets cast on her character and the embellishments with which they garnished her life passed for centuries as undoubted history. Six comedies entitled Sappho and two Phaon, were produced by the Middle Comedy; but, when we consider, for example, the way in which Socrates was caricatured by Aristophanes, we are justified in putting no faith whatever in such authority. We may conclude that Sappho was not utterly vicious, though by no means a paragon of virtue. All ancient tradition and the character of her extant fragments show that her morality was what has ever since been known as blue and a bluish or yellowish green. In blue tourmaline and in iolitestones sometimes mistaken for sapphirethe dichroism is much more distinct. The blue colour in sapphire has been variously referred to the presence of oxides of chromium, iron or titanium, whilst an organic origin has also been suggested. On exposure to a high temperature, the sapphire usually loses colour, but, unlike ruby, it does not regain it on cooling. A. Verneuil succeeded in imparting a sapphire-blue colour to artificial alumina by addition of 1.5% of magnetic oxide
Under artificial illumination many sapphires appear dark and inky, whilst in some cases the blue changes to a violet, so that the sapphire seems to be transformed to an amethyst. According to lapidaries the hardness of sapphire slightly exceeds that of ruby, and it is also rather denser. Notwithstanding its hardness it has been sometimes engraved as a gem. Ceylon has for ages been famous for sapphires. They occur, with many other gem-stones, as pebbles or rolled crystals in alluvial deposits of sand and gravel; the gem-gravel being known locally as illam. The principal localities are Ratnapura, Rakwana in the province of Sabara-Gamawa and Matara. Some of the slightly-cloudy Ceylon sapphires, usually of greyish-blue colour, display when cut with a convex face a chatoyant luminosity, sometimes forming a luminous star
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Although the term sapphire is primarily applied to blue corundum, it is often used in a general sense so as to include all corundum of gem quality, regardless of colour. Hence clear colourless corundum is known as white sapphire or " leucosapphire." Such stones have been occasionally cut as lenses for microscopes, being recommended for such use by their high refractivity, weak dispersion and great hardness. White topaz is sometimes called " water-sapphire," a name which should, however, be restricted to iolite (q.v.). Yellow corundum is not uncommon in Ceylon and is termed yellow sapphire or " oriental topaz," the prefix " oriental " being often applied to corundum. When of pale yellowish-green colour the sapphire is called " oriental chrysolite,' when greenish-blue " oriental aqua-marine," when of brilliant green colour " oriental emerald," and when violet " oriental amethyst." (For figure of crystal of sapphire see CORUNDUM and for artificial sapphire see GEM, Artificial.) The so-called " Hope sapphires " of trade have been shown to be artificial blue spinels, coloured by cobalt. Sapphirine is a rare mineral
At Lesbos she was head of a great poetic school, for poetry in that age and place was cultivated as assiduously and apparently as successfully by women as by men. Her most famous pupils were Erinna of Telos and Damophyla of Pamphylia. In antiquity her fame rivalled that of Homer. She was called " the poetess," he " the poet." Different writers style her " the tenth Muse, " the flower of the Graces," " a miracle," " the beautiful," the last epithet referring to her writings, not her person, which is said to have been small and dark. Her poems were arranged in nine books, on what principle is uncertain; she is said to have sung them to the Mixo-Lydian mode, which she herself invented. The perfection and finish of every line, the correspondence of sense and sound, the incomparable command over all the most delicate resources of verse, and the exquisite symmetry of the complete odes.which are extant, raise her into the very first rank of technical poetry at once, while her painting of passion, which caused Longinus to quote the ode to Anactoria as an example of the sublime, has never been since surpassed, and only approached by Catullus and in the Vita Nuova. Her fragments also bear witness to a profound feeling for the beauty of nature. The ancients also attributed to her a considerable power in satire, but in hexameter verse they considered her inferior to her pupil Erinna.The fragments of Sappho have been preserved by other authors incidentally. Three fragments ascribed to her have been found on Egyptian papyri within recent
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