This article summarizes the critical debate around the text and meaning of Sappho’s fr. 1,23f. and further argues that a crucial problem affecting the relational logic of the stanza has so far gone unnoticed. A new version of ll. 23f. is proposed. It is demostrated that significant connections with the epic intertext both enrich its symbolic dimension and show its syntactic and discursive norms of Lesbian lyric.