A few days ago, I posted a piece about a Homeric passage that the recent supermoon reminded me of. But I’ve just realized that there is a description by Sappho, in a short poem not entirely complete, that I like even better. The original text is below, with a translation of my own after it.
Sappho, Poem 34
Ἄστερες μὲν ἀμφὶ κάλαν σελάνναν
ἂψ ἀπυκρύπτοισι φάεννον εἶδος,
ὄπποτα πλήθοισα μάλιστα λάμπῃ
γᾶν … ἀργυρία …
Stars near the moon hide
when she causes earth to glow
in lovely silver. …
Yeah, it’s a haiku, I know, so that’s a little cheesy. But Greek lyric poetry strikes me as having the same sort of oblique quality that can be found in a good haiku. I fooled a little with the photo (the original of which I found here), but I like the moonlit ruin, since it picks up on the content as well as the fragmentary nature of the poem.
I think you’ll find that lampe is a conjugated verb that governs rather than is governed by gan.
What makes you think this text refers to anything other than an ordinary full moon? For a start does any ancient text even mention the concept of the ‘super moon’? I seriously doubt it since its not noticeable to the naked eye and the Greeks could hardly have calculated the moon’s elliptical orbit to figure out when one would occur.
Many thanks for your comment. I don’t know if the Greeks in general knew about supermoons, but Sappho surely knew about a very full one (πλήθοισα μάλιστα). As to λάμπῃ, I translated it actively, though I’ll admit it may be over-translated as “causes earth to glow.” The most egregious problem is transferring κάλαν to silver from moon, I think. Again, thanks for having a look at my post.