2-996-933 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

La Mort de Sappho, 1843. The death of Sappho. 'Jeunes filles, voyez où nous conduit l'Amour! Sous nos pieds si mignons, le gueux creuse un abîme Où l'on tombe aisément, car du plaisir au crime Le chemin est bigrement court'. (Mlle Esther, poésies morales). 'Young girls, see where Love leads us! Beneath our little feet, the beggar digs an abyss into which we fall easily, because from pleasure to crime the path is damned short'. (Mademoiselle Esther, moral poems). The poet Sappho, with a hooked nose and straggly hair, is pushed off a cliff by Cupid. From L'Histoire ancienne.