Sappho 94

Sappho 94, sometimes known as Sappho's Confession, is a fragment of a poem by the archaic Greek poet Sappho. The poem is written as a conversation between Sappho and a woman who is leaving her, perhaps in order to marry, and describes a series of memories of their time together in order to lessen the pain of separation.

The poem was preserved on a sixth-century piece of parchment discovered in Egypt, along with four other fragments of Sappho. This papyrus, Papyrus Berol. 9722, is part of the collection of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. Parts of ten strophes of the poem are preserved. Only two lines of the first stanza of the poem are preserved, showing that at least one line is missing.

The poem is composed in strophes of three lines, the first two glyconic and the third glyconic with dactylic expansion. It was part of Book V of the Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry.

The poem is typical of Sappho's work, with both its subject and form both characteristically Sapphic. It deals with separation from someone the poet cares about – other significant fragments of Sappho, including the Ode to Aphrodite, fr. 16, and fr. 31, deal with the same theme. Likewise, the form of the poem – structured as a conversation Sappho has had – has parallels in the Ode to Aphrodite, and probably fragments including Sappho 95.

The poem begins in media res, with at least one prior line missing. The first surviving line of the fragment has either Sappho or the woman leaving her saying that they long to be dead; as it stands, it is not possible to determine with certainly to which speaker the line should be attributed. Most scholars attribute the initial line of the poem to Sappho. Wilhelm Schubart, the first to edit the poem, initially thought that it was spoken by the departing woman; a position that has been taken up more recently by scholars such as Stephanie Larson.

The first two surviving strophes of the poem establish the scene. Sappho describes the girl leaving her "weeping" and saying that she leaves unwillingly. In the third strophe, Sappho replies, telling the departing girl that she should "Go happily and remember me". The remaining seven strophes of the poem consist of Sappho recalling the happy times that she has shared with the girl. Many commentators have interpreted this as Sappho attempting to console her departing companion; John Rauk, however, argues that the work was not intended as a poem of consolation but as a lament for Sappho's loss of her lover.

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