Rose, Queen of Flowers

And finally, in the Valentine's Day vein, Irene Virag (Newsday.com) cites (inter alia) some lines of "Sappho":

Actually, the royal treatment may have begun more than 2,500 years ago, when the Greek poetess Sappho put her feelings right out there: "Would Jove appoint some flower to reign/In matchless beauty on the plain/The Rose (mankind will all agree)/The Rose the queen of flowers should be."

Yes, well...So where did those verses come from (asked the humanities.classics usenet group)?  NOT from Sappho, in fact...and they're only verses in the English...They're the 18th-cen. poet Francis Fawkes' version (online in imperfectly legible form here) of a prose passage of Achilles Tatius' romance Cleitophon and Leucippe (II.1).  Fawkes notes (not online) that these words are "generally ascribed to Sappho," which may have been true formerly, but is not true any more...Dona Martin, in Rose Lore (Sept. 2004), cites versions by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and J. A. Symonds, noting the provenance (Achilles Tatius), then goes off to the Anacreontea to follow up the trail of the "Queen of Flowers"...Here, finally, is Gaselee's (Loeb) translation of the passage in question:

If Zeus had wished to give the flowers a king, that king would have been the rose; for it is the ornament of the world, the glory of the plants, the eye of all flowers, the meadows' blush, beauty itself glowing; it has the breath of Love, it is the go-between of Aphrodite; its foliage is of sweet-smelling leaves, it glories in its rustling petals which seem to smile at the approach of the Zephyr. [my emphasis]

Granted, in Achilles Tatius this is supposed to indicate what Leucippe sang, but it is not verse as written.  Oh, and one of these days I should figure out how to put Greek text on this site...since as far as I can tell, A.T. is not online anywhere...

Comments

[Flowers Philippines]

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-fern-

[Florist Italy]

I hav been wandering online since the past couple of hours and accidentally came to your blog post..Just admiring the way you conclude your post:*********** Actually, the royal treatment may have begun more than 2,500 years ago, when the Greek poetess Sappho put her feelings right out there... *********

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[sharleen flowers2world.com]

Rose, Queen of flowers..
it's really lovely post..
i am love in it..

[Philippines florist]

For Valentine its best things to sharing your Feelings & Emotions..Rose, Queen of Flowers.

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Woow..
here you all guys going well..
in Red Color we can express our love ...
i am absolutely agree with last one..

[silk bouquets designs]

I agree with you, Rose is the king and queen of plants in general. They are just incredibly gorgeous and fit for any king.

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Rose is my first choice for everything, I like it as a stand alone flower or mixed with some green or lavender in a bouquet. I like also artificial color like violet and blue roses. So I have to say I totally agree with you :)

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