Sappho

Aphrodite goddess of the embroidered throne

-Sappho implores Aph to aid her as she is in anguish over unrequited love, asks her to leave Olympus

-Aph asks the cause of fufering and says soon the object will understand

DETAIL

‘Aphrodite, goddess of the embroidered throne’

-Kletic hymn

>epic form used for a new purpose

>using the epithets ‘Daughter of Zeus, weaver of wiles’ (Homeric cadence) she emphasises Aph;s power

-Dramatises a prayer, may suggest a religious context

-Blondel claims this poem is a parody of Bk5 (Diomedes and Athene)

>may be humorous

>also emphasises their personal connection

>Aphrodite ‘quickly you came’, and asks who is hurting Sappho’s- care for her suffering

‘Smiling all over your immortal face‘

>may be tender and caring or mocking and amused by Sappho’s melodramatics Keith “tender and amused”

-By emphasising the power of Ach she suggests the power of desire

-Presents her love as cyclical and repetitive (deute motif)

-Carson claims that it is a pederastic relationship between women

(v Stehle: ‘Male assumptions about competition [...] Sappho does not picture love relations as domination by one partner over the other.  [...] desire is mutual. )

>Sappho appears desperate ‘I beg you’ ‘anguish;

>eromenos will grow into Sappho’s position ‘even if she does not want to’ (some have read it as uncomfortable, Aph bypassing girls consent, may also ref natural life cycle)

‘Be my ally’

>helper in erotic conquest, militaristic masculine context imposed

Come to me, leave Crete behind!

-Sappho invites Aphrodite to come to lesbos and characterises it as beautiful and sharing in Aph’s qualities

DETAILS

-Suggestion that she may sing in a Thiasos to honour Aph

>intimate rel between S and Aph

-Nature associated with desire

>describes an idyllic grove, enticing, fertile images of abundance

>extended metaphor, the amorous setting may reflect her wish to be filled with desire for her poetry

>suggestion of a moderate climate

-Apples are associated with fertility and Paris

-Incense makes the scene olfactory

‘Here the cold water sings’

>personified, sensual, vivid, alive

-Nectar is usually enjoyed by gods, sense of her mixing with divinity

Cypris

-She refers to Aph and wishes this women would find love disgusting

-Herodotus says that ‘Doricha’ was a prostitute liberated from Egypt by S’s brother

The most beautiful sight in the whole world

-TMBS is not the military (cavalry, infantry, ships) where are cold and unfeeling but the one you love, more femininine and erotic

-explains her opinion with the myth of Helen, subverted so that Helen’s love blinded her to run away (active desirer)

-Thinks about Anactoria who she loves and is not there

DETAIL

-Uses priamel and hyperbole to focus our attention

-The references to war suggests stately masculinity

>gender divide between what is considered beautiful

Carvalho ‘dichotomy between the collective and the individual’

-She gives Helen agency

>uses Homeric allusions to empower women

>subverts the idea of passivity

>conveys the power of feminine desire

-Missing section may suggest love or Paris

-Anactoria is likely lost to marriage

>like Erin’s

Karanika: ‘Sappho deeply communicates the female anxiety towards marriage, marriage that did not operate in any romantic terms that we see today.’ 

Freeman ‘It is tempting to see the emphasis on bridal virginity simply as a form of masculine oppression against younger women, lest they dare to enjoy their own sexuality and thus reduce their value as a commodity to a future husband.’ 

-Ring composition, returning to war suggests sophisticated writing

Priamel

-A technique in which a list of inadequate concepts focus our attention on the final one

Come, Queen Hera

-invokes Hera (intimate rel?) + refs a myth in which the Atreides couldn’t set sail post victory in Troy until they prayed to Hera, Zeus, Dionysus

DETAIL

-Kletic hymn

>her use of imperatives are bold (ordering the queen of the gods)

-Another song in a religious setting but not to Aph

>may suggest her role in society is to pray

>Carson there was a temple in Lesbos that praised the three Gods mentioned (Hera, D, Zeus)

>calls the only female of the trio, reflects her connection

-Little reference to sexuality, greater focus on culture

‘The sons of Atreus’ (Ag and Men)

>Prayed to Hera in order to leave Troy

>Heroditus suggests her brother was a merchant, may be praying for his return

I call upon you, Abanthis

-Instructs the girl to sing about her love for Gongyla

>helping this girl to use her desire to honour Aph and channel it creatively

>cult poet? Attempt to socialise desire?

-Deute

>image of desire’s cyclicality, almost predatory

-Sappho teaches how to gain Aph’s favour (Plato similar)

-Subject shifts to personal with the theme of desire persisting

You will remember

-She insights someone to remember the exploratory stage

-Assertive and desperate tone

-As in ‘often she turned her thoughts here’ she uses memory to soothe the pain of absence

‘Many beautiful things’

>deliberately vague, imagines youth and experimentation, suggests sexual allusion

May the maidens sing

-may the maidens sing

>friends of the bride would stand outside the marital chambers and sing all night

>rare chance for women to socialise with men and meet prospective husbands

-and of your bride, adorned with violets

>fertility and beauty of nature

>reminds us of deflowering

-with the clear-voiced nightingale

>known for singing late into the night

He is as blessed as a god

-mimics an epithalamium

-Carson she desires the girl but considering the extent of her current physical response, reciprocation would be dangerously

-Expect him to be an epic hero but the girl is better

>the male is generic, only elevated by his proximity to you

‘Strikes terror into the heart’

>in epic this is usually done by a great warrior

>desire is just as powerful

‘A delicate fire runs beneath my skin’

>panic attack, orgasm?

>physical symptoms suggest its power

>Longinus perfect description of love’s symptoms and a perfect poem

-Paradox between her incapacity to speak (reflected in line break) and her speak

‘Sweat pours all over’

>as though physically sick (Plato)

>all encompassing

-Ormand 2 Sapphos one is helpless and cant speak the other singing in a metre

-Music creates greater emotional understanding

Who gave their works

-The muses are giving her inspiration

>she has a privaleged position as the mouthpiece of the muses

epithalamium

Wedding song

Around the beautiful moon

-Night inherently dark mysterious seductive filled with fantasy

-Moon assoc with woman

-She outshines the other women

Embroidered sandals

-Suggests wealth

>embroidery is not functional

‘Beautiful Lydian workmanship’

>engaging in a high class sphere

>culture is influenced by Lydia

>S values luxury, suggests she moves in high circles

Love shook my soul

-Is a metaphor

>violent, forceful, deeply moving (contrasts usual images of love as gentle or floral)

>suggests that love is physically resonant

‘Like a wind buffeting oak trees on a mountain’

>simile suggests intensity

>the wind, like love is uncontrollable, powerful

>oak trees are famously strong and stable, shows love as effecting even the strongest

>the mountain suggests isolation where the wind is all the more forceful

Wilson: ‘Sappho's poems emphasise the isolation of the individual… she shows us what it means to be excluded and alone.’ 

>visceral in its natural grounding

You came, just what I was looking for

-Love has a healing power

>desires destructive power

‘You soothed my soul which was burning with desire’

>fire metaphor (as seen in ‘he seems to me like a god’)

-Being away from the one you love is painful, as in Phaedrus where the wings shrink and the soul is in pain

I used to love you, Atthis

-Women flighty and changeable??

-Doesn’t appear to have sexual focus

-She has moved past her feelings

-A clumsy little girl

>maternal love, it doesn’t sound sexual

A handsome man is only good to look at

-When you get to know someone their goodness becomes attractive

>external beauty doesn’t equal internal goodness

>Plato similarly prioritises the mind over body

I do not know what I am going to do

-Cant assume this is about sex

>could be about the confusing nature of love or anything mundane

I do not think I can touch the sky with my hands

-Something unattainable an unknowable

-Her hands/senses are deficient

When you die

-Carson Sappho threatens obliteration which she enacts by not naming the subject

>resonant, taps in to common fear of being forgotten

‘Because you have no share of the roses from the Pierian muses’

>Pieria is believed to be the muses birthplace

>calls the subject uninspired

>could be Alcaeus her poetic rival though Carson claims it is feminine

What farm girl

-3 characters

>the poetic persona, the farm girl who is the subject of jealousy, and the one who loves the farm girl

‘Does she even know how to pull up her ragged dress over her ankles’

>would be seductive to show off slim ankles

>ironic, her ankles are likely thick from work

-Sappho is obsessed with love triangles

>eromenos more attractive when they are wanted by others

>eros means lack, wanting what you cant have

Put garlands around your lovely hair, O Dika

-guiding Dika to receive divine favour (evidence of thiasos)

>Sappho takes on the role of mentor (sensual, not erotic)

‘Bind stems of anise with your soft hands’

>tension between constriction and softness

‘Blessed graces’

>three daughters of Zeus, able to bestow gifts

Honestly I want to die

-She laments the loss of her lover

-May be leaving because of her marriage

Karanika: ‘Sappho deeply communicates the female anxiety towards marriage, marriage that did not operate in any romantic terms that we see today.’ 

-Unsure who is speaking in the opening lines, presumed to be the girl

‘Weeping, she was leaving’

>suggests the intensity of their connection

“Oh, Sappho”

>she has a signature in her poem

“And remember me”

>as in ‘often she turned her thoughts here; or ‘you will remember’ she advises memory to be used to mitigate pain

“We both”

>Sappho and Aphrodite

‘Violets, roses, crocuses and […]’

>incomplete tetracolon, activates all senses

>the sensuality is emotional

‘Your lovely neck’

>sensuality indicated in the movement of focus from her head down to the bed

‘You anointed yourself as if you were a queen’

>sense of their wealth

>perfume is expensive, shes able to cover herself

‘On a soft bed’

>overtly sexual

>suggests erotic relationship

‘Or sacred place’

>to honour Aphrodite or be together

-There is a tension between present sadness and sweet memories

>glukupikros

Gongyla

-2nd reference to her

>possible pupil

-She is grieving a loss

>a girl left

>she wishes to die (very intense)

-Underworld ref

-The poem begins with Abanthis as the subject but ends with the poet referring to herself

Often she turned her thoughts here

-Sappho is talking to Attis who is missing her lover who went to Lydia

-Says to deal with the pain is to reminisce

>love is bittersweet (use the sweetness of love to temper the sadness of loss)

-Sardis is the capital of Lydia

‘Like the rosy fingered moon’

>Carson Sappho views night as a sexual time

>Ormand ‘rosy fingered’ Homer uses for dawn, masculine due to its association with the rising sun) but the moon is feminine (Artemis, Selene, periods)

>she calls up a masculine image of epic simply to deny it

‘Among all the stars after sunset’

>other women are stars, she stands out as the most beau

‘Flowery fields’

>representation of womanhood and temporary beauty

>sense of sadness, love is temporary

>sensual scene

>the constancy of nature v fragility of human relationships

‘She remembers gentle Atthis’

>she becomes a bridge for the two girls

My mother said

-Changing fashions indicate a society motivated by status

‘With a purple headband’

>dye is expensive- indicted wealth

Sweet mother!

‘Sweet mother’

>needs personal aid, like a child

‘I cannot weave my web’

>she cant loom or fulfil societal role (eg Plato’s bad Erastus)

>eros distracts us

>weaving occurred at turning points, she is coming of age

‘Because of slender Aphrodite’

>shes usually voluptuous

>she doesn’t yet know how it sing to her

Hesperus

-Hesperus refers to the morning star

-you bring back…you bring back

>the anaphora creates a sense of desperation

-Sappho misses her daughter/pupil

>maternal love+protectiveness

-She calls for a reversal of time- can it bring back a loved one who left

Just like the sweet apple

-Possibly connected to just like the hyacinth

-Compares virginity to apple picking

>men cant reach the virginity

>they prize her virginity/sexuality

>apple reminds of the golden apple from the Iliad’s prepromium (of epic significance?)

-Carson indicates if there is a bride she is absent

>the men are reaching for an absence

Just like the hyacinth

-Possibly connected to just like the sweet apple

-Brutal image of the flower being trodden on (though retaining some beauty)/deflowered

-The hyacinth is a reflection of the female virginity/the girl

>she appears passive and vulnerable

-The shepards represent the men

The doorkeeper

-Her capacity for humour conveys the wide range of her poetic abilities

-Uses humour to distress the anxieties connected to marriage for women

Karanika: ‘Sappho deeply communicates the female anxiety towards marriage, marriage that did not operate in any romantic terms that we see today.’ 

Freeman ‘It is tempting to see the emphasis on bridal virginity simply as a form of masculine oppression against younger women, lest they dare to enjoy their own sexuality and thus reduce their value as a commodity to a future husband.’ 

-It is for a wedding- meant to be amusing and gently mock the bride/groom

>rare instance of sexual innuendo

-the doorkeeper has size twenty-seven feet

>hyperbole, extremely large

>euphemism for sexual arrousal?

-The doorkeeper would guard the door to ensure the marriage was consummated and to stop her friends feigned rescue

Raise the roof

-Male desire is presented more obviously

>men generally absent or not the focus

-The bridegroom is coming

Like Ares

>he is presented as intimidating

>may be imagined from the bride’s view, anticipating her first experience if sex

>male desire is a threat to women

Karanika: ‘Sappho deeply communicates the female anxiety towards marriage, marriage that did not operate in any romantic terms that we see today.’ 

Freeman ‘It is tempting to see the emphasis on bridal virginity simply as a form of masculine oppression against younger women, lest they dare to enjoy their own sexuality and thus reduce their value as a commodity to a future husband.’ 

-bigger by far than the biggest man

>may be hyperbolically suggesting a large penis

-Could be mocking male overconfidence in sexual ability

>thus empowering for women to mock men’s vast overconfidence

>perhaps contributed to stories of her ugliness

Lucky bridegroom

-Shows his joy

-Marriage brings relationships to an end

-you…you…your

>repeated you suggests she is directly addressing the groom

>sense of jealousy and regret that the lover went with him not her

Karanika: ‘Sappho deeply communicates the female anxiety towards marriage, marriage that did not operate in any romantic terms that we see today.’ 

Freeman ‘It is tempting to see the emphasis on bridal virginity simply as a form of masculine oppression against younger women, lest they dare to enjoy their own sexuality and thus reduce their value as a commodity to a future husband.’ 

Virginity

-virginity, virginity, where have you gone?

>apostophe emphasises its absence and the metaphor

>personifies chastity to suggest it has left

>there is an instant transition from girl to women marked by losing virginity/marriage- she sounds like a child playing a game (reminds of how they’d give away toys to Artemis)

>repetition, sense of panic and anxiety for marriage

-it has gone but she remains a child

Karanika: ‘Sappho deeply communicates the female anxiety towards marriage, marriage that did not operate in any romantic terms that we see today.’ 

Come my divine lyre

-Sappho and her instrument look to each other for inspiration

>her playing gives her lyre voice

If you care about me

-Reflections on relationships

-she is willing to give up her Lover to feel secure and beautiful

-for i never want to be the older one

>concerns about fading looks- insecure

Love which loosens the limbs

-Eros suggests she is wishing for that which she lacks

-Both violent and pleasuable

-Once again

>deute

-bittersweet, invincible creature that he is

>glukupikros

>she anthropomorphises the force, personifying Eros as male

Atthis, the thought of me

-Arguably women are presented as flighty and changeable

OR

Emphasises the temporary nature of love

-now repulses you

And you run off

To Andomeda

>changeable- desire is powerful and cyclical but the object may change

>sense of jealousy

>Andomeda may be the farm girl or the girl that went to Sardis

>connected by a love rivalry which extremifies Eros

I have a beautiful daughter

-She loves eastern luxury but loves her daughter more

>kleis

I want to say something

-Discussion of shame

>Aristotle viewed it as an exchange between her and Alcaeus who is quoted in the first two lines (Alcaic metre)

BUT the word for shame indicates mutual shyness between lover and beloved

-The language is intimate and charged

Neither the honey

Neither the honey

Nor the bee

Is for me

>does she not want to get married? Is she swearing off love?

>ancients viewed it as a proverb to take the good with the bad

>love is both bitter (like the bee’s sting) and sweet (like the honey) glukupikros Paradox

>Carson questions if this is a renunciation of all things aphrodisiac

Wealth without virtue

-Reminds of Seneca - to live in poverty or wealth distracts from virtue, moderation is key

Now, for my companions

-Indicates her audience

>she sings for women

>may have been a monody i will sing

Gone are the moon and the Pleiades

-Similar image to often she sent her thoughts here

-Gone are the moon and the

Pleiades

>ref to her lover and others

-in the middle of the night

>at the darkest part

>aware of an isolation

Wilson: ‘Sappho's poems emphasise the isolation of the individual… she shows us what it means to be excluded and alone.’ 

>no comfort or hope for companionship

what is a kletic hymn

a poem that invokes a God/muse

to which goddess does Sappho often write

-Aphrodite

>sense of familiarity (eg Aphrodite of the embroidered throne, she is comfortable making demands)

>probably honoured her within a thiasos (makes sense that she would praise sex and desire in this context)

>suggestion that she, like the heroes of myth, is the favourite of the Gods (Blondel claims Loeb 1 resembles Diomedes and Athena)

>’be my ally’

How does Sappho make lesbos attractive in ‘come to me, leave Crete behind’

-enticing to the senses

-vivid descriptions of the rural idyll

-nature personified

Leucadian leap

-The traditional story goes that Sappho jumped off a cliff to end her life in order to rid herself of her passion for Phaon, a local ferryman.

>Ovid immortalised the story following refs from previous writers

>heteronormative

-Phaon is often associated with Adonis (who Sappho wrote of)

>Sappho and Aphrodite are similar in their capacity to conjure love (Aph with divine power, Sappho via memories of love in song)

>Reynolds ‘Sappho wrote poems naming Adonis and lamenting his demise in the name of Aphrodite’ ‘assumed that she was speaking in her own personna and confessing a personal passion’

>dangers of Leftkowitz

Why does Sappho compare women to the moon

-The moon is a feminine force

>associated with Artemis and Selena

>Carson Sappho views night as a sexual time

-Indicates her superior beauty over other women who are compared to stars (the moon shines brightest)

-Light of the moon touches everything like her beauty

-It recalls homeric convention (rosyfingered) but replaces masc dawn with a fem force

>she calls up a homeric image only to deny it

WHERE

Around the beautiful moon

Often she turned her thoughts here

Gone are the moon and the Pleiades

Why is Sappho unique

-she describes the physical and emotional effects of love and the anxieties that come with it

> this does not mean that every line is a euphemism

Sappho on marriage

-may the maidens sing, the doorkeeper, raise the roof, lucky bridegroom, honestly I want to die, he is as blessed as a God

-Some of Sappho’s poems are likely for wedding ceremonies or celebrations

>many references to the big day

>give us some information about the wider society of Lesbos and how songs may have featured at wedding celebrations.

-Marriage was a point of anxiety for young girls

Karanika: ‘Sappho deeply communicates the female anxiety towards marriage, marriage that did not operate in any romantic terms that we see today.’ 

>they may be stuck with their husband for the rest of their lives

Freeman ‘It is tempting to see the emphasis on bridal virginity simply as a form of masculine oppression against younger women, lest they dare to enjoy their own sexuality and thus reduce their value as a commodity to a future husband.’ 

>they will lose a certain amount of freedom, as well as their virginity (death in childbirth frequent, 1/3)

>it is a real coming of age moment and Sappho presents it as such (e.g. 114: Virginity, virginity)

-Sappho alleviates any anxieties by treating men in a different more humorous way than the women in her poetry

>Some men are ignored in favour of the women around them, others are ridiculed for their hyper-sexuality.

Eg the doorkeeper/raise the roof designed for performance at a happy wedding and so the more amusing the better, especially if they are gently mocking the bride and groom. This is therefore a rare instance of sexual humour.

Most of her poetry has a more serious tone- indicates her wide ranging ability

-BUT Sappho would have been performing to men.

>So, in a performance scenario, although these poems would have been empowering to the women and girls listening, they were an encouragement and a confidence-boost in any marriage. She would not have represented a call to arms for females to unite against men

-there are no descriptions of married life in Sappho’s poetry and therefore this is perhaps something that Sappho did not feel passionate about herself (in her own marriage).

 

Sappho’s intended audience + reception

-        Her poetry elicits a female perspective on love in the ancient world

-        She wrote in a number of different styles

o   Plato referred to her as a muse- reflects talent and uniqueness

o   She wrote personal poems, hymns to the gods, wedding songs etc

o   Probably recited at male and female symposia

o   Unclear if she performed as a monody or as part of a chorus (would change the poem’s impact)

-        She likely intended to entertain (whether her poetry was directed towards wedding guests, symposium goers, or participants in a sacrifice)

o   Frequently refers to companions in (or repeats the name of a girl)- may have been students, poets, cult members, lovers, friends (eg Poem 160)

o   Has been suggested due to her poems sexual nature that she was mentoring others

-        Her poetry was accompanied by a lyre

o   Invented the plectrum (used to pluck lyre)

o   The musical aspect is lost to us

o   Poem 118 conveys the relationship- she and the lyre look to eachother for inspiration

We can never assume her poems are autobiographical- may not have been singing alone

Sappho’s social and poetic context

 

-        Wrote lyric poetry (

o   short sentences grouped into stanzas

-        Her festive poetry suggests the leisured lifestyle of the country side

-        She came from an aristocratic family

o   References the less refined elements derogatorily (eg the farm girl)

o   Changing fashions (eg Poem 98a) suggests a society motivated by status, responding to trends in mainland Greece and Persia, with colour achieved by expensive dyes and thus indicating wealth

-        She is influenced by Homeric epics

o   Poem 44 is about the marriage of Hector and Andromache and uses Homeric metre and style (includes epithets- eg ‘quick glancing’)

o   Poem remind of Diomedes’ prayer to Athene

-        Alcaeus was a contemporary poet-mutual influence is possible

He compliments her, she ‘smiles like honey’

Issues of fragmentary material

·       Some of Sappho’s poems have survived because:

o   Some were quotes in other ancient sources

o   Others were found among papyri found in a rubbish dump excavated next to the ancient Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus.

·       There can be difficulties when piecing together fragments that have been found torn and in different places

·       Many fragments contain only one word, making the job hard

·       Reconstruction of her poems is still ongoing

o   There are hopes that some of her poems may be found in the library of the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum

·       Most recent poem (The Two Brothers) was found in a private collection in 2014

o   Was then attributed to Sappho through the style

Reference to name Charaxus, who is known as Sappho’s brother through other sources

John Tzetzes: ‘the passage of time has destroyed Sappho and her works’ (that Sappho can’t be enjoyed/ appreciated because her work is so fragmented/ disputed/ etc.) 

what does when you die reveal

-a culture of competition, perhaps delivered in an agon

 Use of literary devices and choice of language

·       Hymn to Aphrodite’ (Poem 1)

o   Sappho starts with the topos (recurring feature in literature) of a hymn to a goddess, then creates a dramatic image of her approach

§  In the first few lines, the prayer is written in the typical form to address a god 

o   Adjectives are chosen carefully and added singly, or paired, to nouns to create vivid imagery

§  These descriptions also call to mind the various journeys of the gods to earth in Homeric poetry

§  Reinforced by the use of Homeric epithets to describe the homes of the gods and the wings of the sparrows

·       Poem 22

o   Another literary topos is the shift of narrator during poems

§  This is to include perspectives of the two, or three, participants in a relationship .

o   This poem addresses Acanthus and begins by inspiring her to write a poem for Gongylla

§  By the end of the third line, we realise Abanthis has felt this way before and the narrator (Sappho?) is also invested in the relationship

·       Suggests that if Sappho was a mentor to these girls, she was also intimately involved in their lives

o   As the perspective of the narrator changes, so does our relationship with the poem

o   Abanthis’ desire begins poetic, but then becomes sexual

§  The poem begins with Abanthis as the subject but ends with the poet referring to herself

·       Poem 16

o   Juxtaposes an army arrayed for war with a woman whose walk and face enraptures the poet

o   Our relationship with the poem changes as the narrator changes

o   The Poem begins in a repetitive style called a priamel

§  A list of metaphorical comparisons are made before the real subject of the poem is revealed

o   These comparisons become hyperbolic later when Sappho compares vast armies and navies with a single girl

§  This is also hyperbolic when she refers to the myth of Helen escaping to Troy.

·       The inclusion of Helen now suggests that Sappho feels resentment towards the girl introduced in the first stanza

o   Another topos is used in Sappho - the ‘lover’s gaze’

§  This hints that a gaze is all which is available

o   The rhythm, alliteration, assonance and repetition in Sappho’s poetry combine to create an enchanting feel

§  This is increased through the music that would accompany

This would have been the mixolydian scale, which would have created a haunting melody

Use of themes and motifs

-        Sappho’s erotic poetry concentrates on topoi of thoughts and emotions

-        The people/ things the poet loves seem to ‘gleam’

o   Interesting comment on how people can appear differently to a lover

-        In poem 96, she compares the gleam from a girl to the gleam from the moon among stars

o    ‘but now she stands out among Lydian women!/ Like the rosy-fingered moon/ Among all the stars after sunset!’

-        Flowers and nature play an important role in her poetry

o   Fertility of nature and changes in nature are used often

-        Sappho also uses fruit metaphorically

o   Apples are symbolic of love in the ancient world – the golden apple won by Paris, apples scattered by Hippomenes in his race with Atalanta

-        Roses are used to give fragrance to the poetry, and some scholars suggest they represent female genitalia

-        In poem 96, flowers open in the moonlight and glisten with dew

Flowers are temporary, as is is maidenhood

Use of mythology

-        Sappho references the Homeric world to draw analogies

-        She uses the Trojan War, but with important differences:

o   In Poem 44, the wedding between Andromache and Hector is joyful, with no sense of foreboding around both of their futures (slavery/death)

o   In Poem 16, Helen has chosen to leave her husband, as well as her parents, abandoned her responsibilities as a mother to her daughter

o   Helen is compared to Anactoria, who has left the poet behind just as Helen did her husband

-        The gods appear frequently in Sappho’s poems, and her poems may have been performed at the sanctuary on Lesbos dedicated to Zeus, Hera and Dionysus

o   In Poem 17, the poet appeals to Hera, just as Agamemnon and Menelaus did when they came to Lesbos on their return from the Trojan War (Zeus and Dionysus are also referenced)

In Poem 1, Aphrodite speaks to Sappho, and reassures her that ‘if she does not love you now,/ she will love you soon/ even if she does not want to’ – Sappho’s beloved will become a lover, but not necessarily for Sappho

Use of humour

-        Few instances of humour

-        Poem 110 contains sexual humour, perhaps it was written to be performed at a wedding

-        Refers to the size of the doorman’s feet outside the bridegroom’s house

o   ‘The doorkeeper has size twenty-seven feet’

-        Scholars have suggested that Sappho is insinuating that the size of his feet indicates the size of his penis

-        There is also hyperbole in the description, providing humour

‘His sandals are made from five hides, / ten shoemakers toiled over them’

Her representation of Love and Desire

-Sappho is celebrated for her depictions of the physical effects of desire for which she had a varied vocabulary

>eros ‘love’, thumos ‘heart’ or ‘soul’ and pothos ‘desire’

-Desire is expressed as ‘limb-loosening’ and as a ‘delicate fire’ which runs under the skin, the lover is dumbstruck and yet still able to express a ‘certain longing’ to die

>particularly sensual – the physical symptoms of of her frustration mimic the physical symptoms of orgasm

- Using sex itself as a metaphor for unrequited desire is another of Sappho’s surprises

-Love is similarly all-consuming in poem 102 where the poet recognises her obligations to society as a woman but cannot fulfil them – she cannot understand the new feelings which are sweeping over he

In other poems, Sappho represents herself as being close to Aphrodite, the goddes of desire (see Poem 1)

Her representation of men and women

·       Carpenters are summoned to raise the roof of the bridal chamber because of the enormous size of the bridegroom

·       There is humour in the hyperbolic description but the comparison with Ares, the god of war, also means that the bridegroom is now an intimidating figure

·       In poem 111, male desire seems to threaten women

·       Men are generally absent from Sappho’s extant exotic poetry

·       The man who appears in Poem 31 is an observer of the beautiful woman who sits across from him and he is a frustrating presence to the poet, who longs to be as close as he is

·       In other poems, Sappho shows that women have the power to create desire in men

·       In Poem 15, Sappho mocks her brother Charaxus, a merchant who behaved foolishly due to his desire for an Egyptian prostitute called Doricha, who boasts of the power she has over him

·       The relationships between women seem tender and equal in the poems

·       Since it is likely that Sappho’s poetry will have been performed in public, the clear references to female sexual desire may have been empowering and liberating for the women of Lesbos

In 5th century Athens, Sappho was respected as a poet but feared as a role model

Sappho’s representation of sex

-Sex is a recurrent theme in Sappho’s poetry but is usually expressed indirectly through metaphor or allusion

• Poem 24a is a reason why some suppose that the homoerotic sexual relationships to which Sappho refers in her poetry took place before the girls were married

• Shortly following her marriage, a girl would lose her virginity and embark upon the dangerous process of pregnancy and childbirth.

>Poems 110 and 111 could both suggest that sex could be an intimidating prospect to young girls

>Poem 105a and c compares a girl’s virginity to a ‘sweet red apple’ which is out of reach.

»Using an apple to suggest female sexuality is a familiar topos of Sappho and this apple is particularly prized by the apple pickers.

»the poem is perhaps suggesting that female sexuality is beyond the reach of men

>the metaphor of the hyacinth is used, only now the result seems more brutal as the flower, although still beautiful, is trodden by the feet of the shepherds

 

-There would be a celebration at the end of a wedding ceremony at the end of which the bride and groom would retreat to their chamber where they would consummate the wedding as their guests sang songs outside their door

>(the promise of sexual congress is hinted at in poems 110 and 111)

-Sappho’s wedding poems give us some information about the wider society of Lesbos, but there are no descriptions of married life

-Poem 112 is a beautiful expression of a bridegroom’s joy

>the repetition of ‘you’ and ‘your’ does, however, suggest the poet’s regret that the bride has gone to him not her; whereas Sappho has frequently mentioned the ‘lover’s gaze’, the bridegroom’s only view of his bride has been in his dreams

 

-Her poems show girls learning about desire and then falling in and out of love

>Their relationships are then brought to an end by marriage

>There is no sense of shame at these homoerotic sexual relationships as they are described in poems intended for public performance

-The women of Sappho’s poems enjoy sexual freedom

>their lives, unlike the lives of women in mainland Greece at the time, took place outside, in the glades of Lesbos

Sappho’s representation of marriage, society and value

·       Sappho gives us a representation of her own society, her friendship with girls. This may have been a thiasos or a school or eve just a group of friends.

·       Her poems show these girls learning about desire and then falling in and out of love

·       Their relationships are then brought to an end by marriage

·       There is no sense of shame at these homoerotic sexual relationships as they are described in poems intended for public performance

·       Women also lie down together on beds, which one would presume to be inside a house

·       The women of Sappho’s poems enjoy sexual freedom – their lives, unlike the lives of women in mainland Greece at the time, took place outside, in the glades of Lesbos

Wilson on isolation

‘Sappho's poems emphasise the isolation of the individual… she shows us what it means to be excluded and alone.’ 

Karanika on marriaga

‘Sappho deeply communicates the female anxiety towards marriage, marriage that did not operate in any romantic terms that we see today.’ 

Plato on Sappho

(Classical) ‘the tenth Muse’ (in ref to Sappho, v high praise) 

Tzetzes on Sappho’s fragments

‘the passage of time has destroyed Sappho and her works’ (that Sappho can’t be enjoyed/ appreciated because her work is so fragmented/ disputed/ etc.) 

Aelian on Sappho

Aelian, 3rd AD (classical): there must have been ‘another Sappho, a courtesan, not a poetess’

because her sexualised reputation was so repulsive to him, he decided there must be 2 people being confused 

>Sappho’s name and companions’ names are either ethnic (Athis), nicknames (Dorika - giftlover), mythological (Andromeda), abstract nouns (Peace, Justice). Modern pornstar names? Hetairai is the word she uses for her friends? Was she just a prostitute with a talent for song-writing? 

Hall on her lesbianism

‘Sappho’s homoerotic stance, in the ancient setting, was unremarkable.’ 

• Goldhill: Female homoeroticism remained throughout the ancient world a practice without a name - and a practice with no social status except that of reviled and repressed perversion.’ 

BUT Horace, Epistles (classical): ‘mascula Sappho’ (i.e. masculine/ ‘butch’- an insult on her homoeroticism) 

Aelian, 3rd AD (classical): there must have been ‘another Sappho, a courtesan, not a poetess’

because her sexualised reputation was so repulsive to him, he decided there must be 2 people being confused 

Horace’s insult

(classical): ‘mascula Sappho’ (i.e. masculine/ ‘butch’- an insult on her homoeroticism) 

Stehle

Stehle: ‘Male assumptions about competition and about dominance and submission have determined the form of erotic expression [...] Sappho does not picture love relations as domination by one partner over the other.  [...] desire is mutual. 

BUT her love is often exacerbated by a rival lover (literal competition eg ‘he is as blessed as a god)

• her love is frequently shared (eg in ‘i wish i were dead’ she recalls the mutual tenderness)

• the focus is not on defeat in heartbreak but reminiscing and appreciating intimac 

• she doesnt wish to possess the girls but only wishes for their attention and affection

• she technically cannot compete as generally her love rival is a man- the rivalry must be internal and she cannot succeed in reality (she cannot marry her love instead- marriage being inherited submissitary for women)

Longinus, ‘On the Sublime’, 1^st AD (classical): (on Sappho) ‘are you not astonished?... the most extreme and intense expression of emotion’ 

 

Strabo (Classical)  “Sappho is an amazing thing. For we know in all of recorded history not one woman who can even come close to rivaling her in the grace of poetry”  

 

Goldhill: Female homoeroticism remained throughout the ancient world a practice without a name - and a practice with no social status except that of reviled and repressed perversion.’ 

 

Dolores O’Higgins “Sappho’s loss of voice in the context of a lyric tradition that is essentially performative threatens to silence her altogether” 

Wendy Slatkin: ‘Only the poet Sappho received high praise from the Greeks… she came not from Athens or Sparta, but from Lesbos, an island whose culture incorporated a high regard for women.’ 

 

Horace, Epistles (classical): ‘mascula Sappho’ (i.e. masculine/ ‘butch’- an insult on her homoeroticism) 

 

 

Stehle: Sappho used the special conditions of lesbian love to create an alternative world in which [...] mutual desire, rapture and separateness can be explored as female experience.’ 

 

Greene:  “Sappho’s intense, burning images of feminine desire have presided over the Western lyric much the way Homer’s epics have occupied their authoritative position in Western literature.” 

 

Greene:  “Possible to regard imitation of Sappho as praise,  it is equally possible to consider the ways male poets have adapted Sappho’s lines to their own purposes as an appropriation of the woman’s voice, an attempt to master and control feminine desire.” 

Plato (classical): ‘an authority in the manners of love’ 

Leon : "not only was her work sung, taught, and quoted - but the very phrases she coined, from love, that loosener of limbs' to more golden than gold’ entered the Greek language and were used so much they eventually became clichés’ 

Hallett: ‘She should be regarded primarily as a poet with an important social purpose and public function: that of instilling sensual self-awareness and sexual self-esteem and of facilitating role adjustment in young feelings coming of age in a sexually segregated society.’ 

William Harris (on the Tithonus poem, discovered in 2004) ‘it has come through the decay and attrition of 100 decades, and that, besides the wording of the lovely and triste poem itself, is miracle enough’ 

Gubar ‘Sappho epitomises all the lost genius in literary history, especially all the lesbian artists, whose work has been destroyed, sanitised or heterosexualized.’ 

Reynolds ‘As with any translation, the question that faces the writer is whether to naturalise the language and make Sappho into a native – which is what most early versions do – or make the English strange and let Sappho stay foreign – which is what many more recent versions do.’ 

 

Lefkowitz on female poets

‘Because women poets are emotionally disturbed, their poems are psychological outpourings, that is, not intellectual but ingenuous, artless, concerned with their inner emotional lives.’ 

Freeman on female virginity and marriage

‘It is tempting to see the emphasis on bridal virginity simply as a form of masculine oppression against younger women, lest they dare to enjoy their own sexuality and thus reduce their value as a commodity to a future husband.’ 

Hall on Sappho in art

Usually ancient Greek vases will depict goddesses.

Sappho is the only mortal woman to have been depicted on a vase created ca. 440BC, when she was living 150 years before.

>REPUTATION. 

Greene on Sappho

“Each generation invents its own Sappho” 

Issues of fragmentation

-We do not get the full picture/intent of her poem

-We do not know whether we are reading the beginning, middle or end

-We may not understand her similes or more obscure references

-We may misread the tone of her poem

-We may not know the context

Dubois on the most beautiful sight

‘one of the few texts which break the silence of women in antiquity’

>in this text she dismisses the resonance of more masculine objects of admiration in order to foreground an intimate female relationship and the effect of marriage on women

what is the effect of the lyre

-may enhance the emotional resonance