Sappho
Was a poet in ancient
Greece. It is commonly thought that she
was born on the Isle of Lesbos between 630 and 612 BC; dying in approximately
570 BC. Her association with persons
from these years is how scholars can pinpoint these details about her life.
Much
of her work has been lost to time. The
remnants that remain of her poetry are often referred to as “fragments”. Fragment 98 indicates Sappho may have been
exiled to Italy for a time but it is generally thought she returned to the Isle
of Lesbos at some point.
Sappho
wrote poems in the Aelic Greek dialect.
Over time her works were copied less frequently as this particular
dialect was considered to be difficult and, in time, old fashioned. Some of her poems have been found in the
ruins of Oxyrhynchus on old papyri fragments.
Here is an example:
The word Lesbian is derived from
the name of the Island where Sappho lived. The word Sapphic is based on her name.
Her work is important because she was an extremely talented
poet who was so admired she was once referred to as “the tenth muse.”
(wikepedia).
The Norton
Anthology of World Literature (Vol. 1) states:
“Sappho’s poems
evoke a world in which girls lived an intense communal life of their own,
enjoying activities and festivals in which only women took part, in which they were
fully engaged with one another.”
Further, to provide context, Norton
states: “ What we do know, and what we must always bear in mind while
reading these poems, is that they were composed not to be read on papyrus or in
a book but to be performed by a group of dancing, singing women and girls (a “chorus)”,
to the accompaniment of musical instruments.
A portion of Poem 1 included in Norton, and
which I like very much is included here:
“Deathless
Aphrodite of the spangled mind,
child
of Zeus, who twists lures, I beg you
do
not break with hard pains,
O
lady, my heart”
The opening lines to Poem 94 are surprisingly easy
to relate to:
“I
simply want to be dead.
Weeping
she left me
with
many tears and said this:
Oh how badly things have turned out for us.
Sappho,
I swear, against my will I leave you.” (Norton, Vol. 1)
Although there are many available images of artists conceptions of Sappho, I made the choice to
include this painting of Sappho by Charles Auguste Mengin , who was a french painter,
because it resonates with the themes of love, loss and desire so often
mentioned in discussions about Sappho’s works.
Sources:
The Norton Anthology of World LIterarure, 2013.
Lehmiller, pgs. 185,211
Kimmel, pg. 277-332.
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