Sappho is the first female writer known to Western civilisation - one of the very few female voices speaking to us from antiquity. Although her name is synonymous with lesbian desire, when Sappho was writing on the Greek island of Lesbos 2, years ago, its inhabitants were more renowned for their expertise in the arts of the courtesan.
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Sappho's reputation has long been shrouded in myth and legend, often shifting to reflect society's changing attitudes towards gender and sexuality. But over the last century, with further discoveries of her work, we've come to understand the fundamental role she played in shaping the language of love and desire we still use today. The facts we have revealing Sappho's life are scarce — like many of her poems, they have been lost to the passage of time. We know she was born on the Greek Island of Lesbos around BC and belonged to a wealthy aristocratic family.
Some ancient texts reference a daughter and husband, although we can't be sure they existed.
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Some scholars believe she wrote her poems for women and girls belonging to the cult of Aphrodite, which would have celebrated female milestones like puberty, marriage and childbirth. In later life, it seems her family were exiled to the Italian island of Sicily. Following her death, a story surfaced claiming she killed herself after a man called Phaon rejected her. However, that story has been discredited by scholars. Her poetry lined the shelves of ancient libraries for centuries.
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But through the intervening years, the completed works were lost. All that remains are a handful of completed poems and hundreds of fragments — parts of her poetry transcribed onto scraps of ancient papyrus. But despite the hurdles and the intellectual heartache, there are rewards in recent discoveries that continue to add more words, more lines, more stanzas and sometimes even new poems to the canon.
In , the discovery of piece of papyrus that completed an existing fragment - thereby making a new poem by Sappho - received international media coverage. The process of repair resulted in Poem 58 , which deals with the themes of youth and old age. Sappho mourns the passing of her youth, and reminds her audience of the myth of Tithonos , one of the few mortals to be loved by a goddess.
Struck by the beauty of the young man, the goddess Eos asks Zeus to permit her to take the young man to live with her eternity. But Eos forgets to ask that Tithonos be granted a second gift: And so, she is left with a lover she quickly finds hideous and repellent, and Tithonos is left alone, trapped in a never-ending cycle of ageing. More and more of Sappho is emerging. In , more new fragments were discovered that have assisted in reconstructing existing pieces, and bringing to light four previously unknown pieces.
One relatively complete poem, Brothers Song is the most significant of the find because of its hitherto unknown status.
How did Sappho shape the way we talk about love and sex?
The piece is also important because it further develops the image of the poet as an artist whose themes extended beyond the sensual and romantic. The discoveries of this century are testimony to the fascinating and random nature of such finds. Rather than being hidden away in obscure manuscripts in dusty archives or included in elaborate scrolls, the fragments have sometimes come from less salubrious environments. And while other pieces were preserved as quotations in more respectable formats, such as books on grammar, composition and philosophy, the poem originally came from the cartonnage of an Egyptian mummy.
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Marguerite Johnson , University of Newcastle. Fragment of a Sappho poem, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri: Wikimedia Commons Even if a girl demonstrated extraordinary artistic skills, there was usually no avenue to express them, as the aspirations of women were limited to marriage and motherhood. Homer's Iliad Love of women But Sappho was no epic poet, rather she composed lyrics: Alcaeus left and Sappho. Side A of an Attic red-figure kalathos, circa BC.
Wikimedia Commons The Sappho mystique is further confounded by later testimonies such as the 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia called the Suda or the Stronghold , which chronicled the history of the ancient Mediterranean. In Fragment , for example, Sappho sings of Cleis: I have a beautiful child whose face is like golden flowers, my beloved Cleis … Beauty, caresses and whispers Sappho, following the poetic traditions of Archaic Greece, tended towards floral and natural imagery to depict feminine beauty and youth. Wikimedia Commons The man is god-like because he can be in the presence of the woman and remain unaffected.
New discoveries But despite the hurdles and the intellectual heartache, there are rewards in recent discoveries that continue to add more words, more lines, more stanzas and sometimes even new poems to the canon. Papyrus from third century BC. They speak simply and directly to the "bittersweet" difficulties of love. Many critics and readers alike have responded to the personal tone and urgency of her verses, and an abundance of translations of her fragments are available today. Texts about this Poet: Poetry's Place in the History of Banned Books. Some there are who say that the fairest thing seen on the black earth is an array of horsemen; some, men marching; some would say ships; but I say she whom one loves best is the loveliest.
Light were the work to make this plain to all, since she, who surpassed in beauty all mortality, Helen, once. Some say thronging cavalry, some say foot soldiers, others call a fleet the most beautiful of sights the dark earth offers, but I say it's what- ever you love best. And it's easy to make this understood by everyone, for she who surpassed all human kind in beauty, Helen, abandoning her. Like the very gods in my sight is he who sits where he can look in your eyes, who listens close to you, to hear the soft voice, its sweetness murmur in love and laughter, all for him.
But it breaks my spirit; underneath my breast all the heart is shaken.
Let me only glance where you are, the voice. Academy of American Poets Educator Newsletter.