Sappho, a poet

Roman copy of Sappho's Bust, Musei Capitolini

Sappho is the first female writer in Europe. She is the Homer for female writers. 

All women writers have been described as “the daughters of Sappho” in a book of Margaret Williamson Sappho’s Immortal Daughters*. 

But who is Sappho? You’ve definitely heard of her, especially in relation to female homoeroticism, but do you feel you have a clear image of this poet?

Sappho lived in the small island of Lesbos in the 6^th century B.C in a world of aristocrats, where the term “lesbian” meant a woman from Lesbos. She also lived in a world where women were not confined in attics and didn’t have to convict themselves in order to write—as female authorship is described in Gubar and Gilbert’s book The Madwoman in the Attic. She was a poet, a female poet who was respected by the community of Lesbos as she was asked to write wedding songs (epithalamia) and hymns for the gods.

Sappho reading to her companions, Attic Vase 435 BC.

Many said that she probably didn’t exist. Some said that the cloud of mystery surrounding her makes studying her life even more difficult. Through the centuries we acquired a twisted image of this woman. She became legend; Ovid even includes her letter in his work Heroides where famous mythological women address their lovers (Her. Ep.XV). Sappho is the only historical person included in this fictitious letters collection of Ovid. So, we infer that even in antiquity (1^st century BC) she was already legend.

But what can we really know about her? What facts do we have regarding Sappho? Well, for starters she wrote some poems. Poems about love, life, death, beauty, travels, fears, solitude, separation, religion and old age. And her poems are not very different from the poems of other lyric poets, like her fellow-islander Alcaeus or Anacreon.

Secondly, we know that she talks about some women in her poetry. Women who are in love with other women. Women who desire and women who are desired. She also shows how the loved one desires and therefore disrupts the usual “male gaze” objectification problems we encounter in other love poems.

Sappho and Alcaeus, Attic red-figure vase by Brygos painter c470 BC
Interestingly Sappho is depicted here like all other poets and not as a legendary figure.

Now, as far as the hot question regarding Sappho is concerned—i.e. was she a homosexual? —the only safe answer is: we cannot know. We cannot know with certainty whether Sappho was a homosexual as we would define today a woman who falls in love with women. In addition, we cannot know whether Sappho had homoerotic relationships since there is no historic evidence about her life, only legends and poetry which are not to be trusted completely. Also we cannot safely assume that through her poetry she served a more public purpose: i.e. we cannot know if she really had homoerotic relationships in an institutionalized way like male aristocrats had in early ancient Greek societies.

We could say though with certainty, that the idea of homosexuality that we have today is quite modern—a 19^th century concept according to Foucault. So strictly speaking, Sappho was not gay. As far as the question of the institutionalization of homoerotic relationships is concerned, we have to have in mind the differences between male and female homoeroticism. Men used homoeroticism as an initiation rite; the boy had to be passive and receptive of the older man’s authority and political wisdom in early aristocratic Greek societies. Women, on the other hand, cannot physically have a submissive- assertive homoerotic experience because there is no penetration in their homoerotic practices. Hence, female homoerotic relationships were completely different from the ones of men and could not serve the same purposes—if they ever served a purpose.

Then, the only fact that we have is that the poetry of a respected female poet of Lesbos refers to female homoerotic desire. So it could be inferred that homoeroticism or homoerotic desire was acceptable in a certain-- unknown to us-- context. (Many scholars have tried to reconstruct this context, but I’m afraid there is hardly any evidence to prove that the women in Sappho’s poetry existed).

Sappho and Alcaeus by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

 So, having that cleared up, let’s proceed to the more interesting stuff, Sappho’s poetry. I particularly like the fact that Sappho keeps it simple in her poetry. She does not describe the loved one. There is no reference to the desired woman’s appearance or characteristics. And there is no fragmentation of the body—you know that usual practice of male poets to talk about beautiful eyes or luscious legs. On the contrary, Sappho describes the effect the loved one’s presence has. She mentions “her lovely step” or the sound of her laughter. Beautiful, translucent moments of perfection and love fill her poetry with the magical sensation of the presence of a special loved one.

For example, in the famous fragment 16, the poetic voice talks about how “whatever one desires” is the best for that person. The subjectivity of human taste is the central idea of the fragment as a philosophical approach of life. The following extract describes the young Anactoria but not in terms a male author would describe someone beautiful or desired.

And I recall Anactoria, whose sweet step[…]

Or that flicker of light on her face,

I’d rather see than Lydian chariots

Or the armed ranks of the hoplites.

And here is Eros, the little mischief maker

Another prominent subject of her poetry—if not the most important one-- is Eros. Eros, the personification of love has a central place in Sapphic poetry. But love not as romantic “lovey-dovey”-I-will-love-you-forever love we have in mind. No sighs or letters or poems of the Romantics can be found in ancient Greek thought. Love for the ancient Greeks as Eros was serious business. It was violent, like the wind. Eros in philosophy is the desire to live, to learn (See Plato Symposium 203b-204c).

Here is what Sappho says on Eros:

Love shook my heart,

Like the wind on the mountain

Troubling the oak-trees.

It’s like the violent wind or like a serpent that no one can escape from as she writes:

Eros, again now, the loosener of limbs troubles me,

Bittersweet, sly, uncontrollable serpent….

I cannot think of a better description of falling in love and being nonsensical than Sappho’s poems. In fragment 31 she describes erotic desire as a disease and in the famous fragment 1—the prayer to Aphrodite—she talks about the torment one goes through when their love is unrequited.

   

Sappho painted by John William Godward

So, my point is that even though we can know very little on Sappho and her life, we can know the basics which are the most important. No poet has been so sensitive towards the nature of love and life—at least before her. And we should be grateful we still have these beautiful poems to read. Summing up, I hope I answered the question “Who is Sappho?”. Sappho is a poet. She could be described as a poet of love. A Lesbian poet if you like, or rather a poet from Lesbos.

For her full translated works in a literary way see the Loeb edition http://www.amazon.co.uk/Greek-Lyric-Alcaeus-Classical-Library/dp/0674991575, or if you prefer the easy way just Google. 

I would recommend this one as it is closer to the original http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Sappho.htm#_Toc76357041

*Sappho's Immortal Daughters by Margaret Williamson can be found 

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674789135.