η 'ωσπερ Σαπφω, "'οτι το αποθνησκειν κακον: 'οι θεοι γαρ 'ουτω κεκρικασιν: απεθνησκον γαρ αν."

Or Sappho, "Death is an evil; the gods have so decided, for otherwise they would die." — On Rhetoric, Book II, Chapter 23

I, however, prefer this poetic reconstruction, by H. de Vere Stacpoole:

  Death is an evil, for the gods
      choose breath;
  Had Death been good the gods
      had chosen Death.

Sometimes I wonder if Socrates read this and muttered to himself, "Is death evil because the gods hate it, or do the gods hate it because it is evil?" It was traditional in ancient Greece to read everything out loud, so it only seems reasonable that he would argue with books as he read them.

That must have been frustrating for him, for books don't argue back. The elenchus needs arrogance and pig-headedness to work its magic, and the written word has neither.

Much of Sappho's work comes to us like this, quoted in another work. The grammarians and linguists of ancient greek loved using poetry to demonstrate grammar. It is somewhat ironic that most of the most beautiful lyricist comes to us today from boring grammar exemplars.

Greek and English translation quoted from Project Perseus under fair use.
English prose translation quoted from Sappho: a New Rendering, H. De Vere Stacpoole, which is in the public domain.