ius, given at the
end of Vol. II., is intended to identify the Greek Rhodopis with the
mythical builder of the Pyramid. I would also mention here that she
is called Doricha by Sappho. This may have been her name before she
received the title of the "rosy-cheeked one."

I must apologize for the torrent of verse that appears in the
love-scenes between Sappho and Bartja; it is also incumbent upon me to
say a few words about the love-scenes themselves, which I have altered
very slightly in the new edition, though they have been more severely
criticised than any other portion of the work.

First I will confess that the lines describing the happy love of a
handsome young couple to whom I had myself become warmly attached,
flowed from my pen involuntarily, even against my will (I intended to
write a novel in prose) in the quiet night, by the eternal Nile, among
the palms and roses. The first love-scene has a story of its own to me.
I wrote it in half an hour, almost unconsciously. It may be read in my
book that the Persians always reflected in the morning, when sober, upon
the resolutions formed the night before, while drunk. When I examined in
the sunshine what had come into existence by lamplight, I grew doubtful
of its merits, and was on the point of destroying the love-scenes
altogether, when my dear friend Julius Hammer, the author of "Schau
in Dich, und Schau um Dich," too early summoned to the other world by
death, stayed my hand. Their form was also approved by others, and I
tell myself that the 'poetical' expression of love is very similar in
all lands and ages, while lovers' conversations and modes of intercourse
vary according to time and place. Besides, I have to deal with one of
those by no means rare cases, where poetry can approach nearer the truth
than prudent, watchful prose. Many of my honored critics have censured
these scenes; others, among whom are some whose opinion I specially
value, have lavished the kindest praise upon them. Among these gentlemen
I will mention A. Stahr, C. V. Holtei, M. Hartmann, E. Hoefer, W.
Wolfsohn, C. Leemans, Professor Veth of Amsterdam, etc. Yet I will not
conceal the fact that some, whose opinion has great weight, have asked:
"Did the ancients know anything of love, in our sense of the word?
Is not romantic love, as we know it, a result of Christianity?" The
following sentence, which stands at the head of the preface to my first
edition, will prove that I had not ignored this