Anth. Grec. pp255-256
Line 1.
- "Aphrodite," named after her worship in Cyprus. Here in the vocative.
- =
- "calm, gentle"
- "loving the bride/groom"
- "just, fitting; civilized, well-ordered." Here acting as a noun, "the just"
Line 2.
- "allied with, fighting along with." See Sappho 1 for a similar use of this word with Aphrodite.
- "longing, desire, yearning, love." Here personified.
- "storm-footed, swift-footed"
In the next lines we get a barrage of phrases in the accusative. We'll not see the verb that goes with these until line 7. Take the as a relative pronoun agreeing with .
Line 3.
- "half pulled out; half pulled down"
- "saffron-colored"
- "bridal chamber"
Note the phonetic echo between and .
Line 4.
- "snow"
- "Gallic; Celtic"
- "snow", in passive "be snowed on", here more in the sense of "chilled".
is accusative of respect, so "chilled to the soul".
Line 5.
- =
- "still, quiet; at rest; gentle"
- "light, nimble; easy; vain, empty"
- "prattle, chatter, talk"
The sense of the last clause is that he doesn't gossip.
Line 6.
- "dark-gleaming (of the sea); purple; shining, shimmering"
- "to be dashed up (by the sea); washed over"
- "sea"
Note the phrase "sea of troubles" which is probably implied here.
Line 7.
- "she who loves harbors"
- "fond of rites/sacrifices/orgies" - the usually refers to the rites of Bacchus, thus the orgy associations we have in English.
- "save"; with prepositions of motion "bring safe to" - see in the next line
Line 8.
- "of/for the Naiads" but here "of/for Naias" where 'Naias' is a woman's name.
- "now, presently; by this time, already"
- =
- "lady, mistress" - used of royalty and goddesses
- "harbor; haven"