Sappho

1
Sappho

• Of Lesbos

2
Lesbian, a. and n.

• Of or pertaining to the island of Lesbos, in
  the northern part of the Grecian archipelago.
  Lesbian rule a mason's rule made of lead, which
  could be bent to fit the curves of a moulding
  (Aristotle Eth. Nic. V. x. 7)
• hence fig., a principle of judgment that is
  pliant and accommodating. (Very common in 17th
  c., but app. not always correctly understood.)

Freq. with lower-case initial.) After the
alleged practice of Sappho, the poetess of
Lesbos cf. SAPPHIC a. and n., SAPPHISM. Of a
woman homosexual, characterized by a sexual
interest in other women. Also, of or pertaining
to homosexual relations between women.
3
No Absolute Information

• Her work is some of the earliest poetry written
  by a woman poet. They include some poems about
  love of women for women. "Lesbian" comes from the
  island, Lesbos, where Sappho lived.
• However, while on one hand the Greeks had little
  prohibiting same sex relations (Socrates was also
  a homosexual) the narratives are also easily
  described in other ways as well. And none of
  them contain strong sexual descriptions. Most of
  her lesbian reputation is hearsay.
• Notable that in Greek culture same sex
  relationships were to be outgrown, and mockery
  was given to those who failed to outgrow this.

4

• Sappho's contemporary Alcaeus described her thus
  "Violet-haired, pure, honey-smiling Sappho"
  (??p???? ???a µe?????µe?de S?pf??, fr. 384). The
  3rd century philosopher Maximus of Tyre wrote
  that Sappho was "small and dark" and that her
  relationships to her female friends were similar
  to those of Socrates
• The only contemporary source which refers to
  Sappho's life is her own body of poetry, and
  scholars are skeptical of biographical readings
  of it. Later biographical traditions, from which
  all more detailed accounts derive, have also been
  cast into doubt.

5
Greatness Recognized and Lost

• Ten books of verse cataloged and published by the
  library in Alexandria in the third and second
  centuries--the first containing more than 1000
  lines.
• A pitiful remnant passed on to us. By the middle
  ages, after the fire in Alexandria, all the
  volumes were lost.
• Today only three major sources give her poetry.
  One or two complete poems and a collection of
  quotes made by other poets.

6

• In antiquity, Sappho was commonly regarded as the
  greatest, or one of the greatest, of lyric poets.
  An epigram in the Anthologia Palatina (9.506)
  ascribed to Plato states
• Some say the Muses are nine how careless!
• Look, there's Sappho too, from Lesbos, the tenth.

Sappho and Alcaeus who was included in the
canonical list of nine lyric poets by the
scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. He was an
older contemporary and an alleged lover of
Sappho, with whom he may have exchanged poems.
7

• Strabo says that Sappho was the contemporary of
  Alcaeus of Mytilene (born ca. 620 BC) and
  Pittacus (ca. 645 - 570) and according to
  Athenaeus she was the contemporary of Alyattes of
  Lydia (ca. 610 - 560).
• The Suda, a 10th century Byzantine encyclopædia,
  dates her to the 42nd Olympiad (612/608), meaning
  either that she was born then or that this was
  her floruit. The versions of Eusebius state that
  she was famous by the first or second year of the
  45th or 46th Olympiad (between 600 and 594).

8

• Judging from the Parian Marble she was exiled
  from Lesbos to Sicily sometime between 604 and
  594.
• If fragment 98 of her poetry is accepted as
  biographical evidence and as a reference to her
  daughter it may indicate that she had already had
  a daughter by the time she was exiled.
• If fragment 58 is accepted as autobiographical it
  indicates that she lived into old age. If her
  connection to Rhodopis is accepted as historical
  it indicates that she lived into the mid-6th
  century.

A story recorded by Herodotus, and later by
Strabo, Athenaeus, Ovid and the Suda, tells of a
relation between Charaxus and the Egyptian
courtesan Rhodopis. Herodotus, the oldest source
of the story, reports that Charaxus ransomed
Rhodopis for a large sum and that after he
returned to Mitylene, Sappho scolded him in verse
9
Sites Cited

• Homosexuality in ancient Greece Wikipedia The
  Free Encyclopedia. http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho
  mosexuality_in_ancient_Greece
• Library of Alexandria Wikipedia The Free
  Encyclopedia http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_
  of_Alexandria

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• Sappho Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia.
  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho
• Sappho of Lesbos Woman Poet of Ancient Greece.
  About.com Womens History. http//womenshistory.a
  bout.com/od/sappho/a/sappho.htm

Bust inscribed Sappho of Eressos, Roman copy of a
Greek original of the 5th century BC