Charles Segal takes this sonic richness a step further, arguing that Sappho’s language is incantatory and its effect is thelxis (enchantment): ‘… for Sappho the “power” of love is a god, as power often is for the ancient Greeks, and as such is to be summoned before her by the incantatory power and the quasi-magical thelxis of her poetry. Her poetry both portrays thelxis and, in a sense, is thelxis.’26
