Sappho, sometimes known as Psappho. was a Greek poet born in Mytilene, a town on the island of Lesbos in 610 BC. She was renowned throughout history for her beautiful style of writing. And is ranked very high amoungst other poets including Archilochus and Alcaeus, for her ability to entertain readers with her lively personality. Her language contains elements of Aeolic vernacular speech and Aeolic poetic tradition with hints of epic vocabulary akin to works by Homer. Her phrasing is direct and to the point while still maintaining a certain charm. Sappho has the unique ability to remain detached and at the same time, look critically at her own desires and emotions.
Legends about Sappho abound, many having been told for centuries. For example, it is said she was married to Cercylas, a wealthy man from the island of Andros but this is contested by many scholars. There is another legend saying she lept from the Leucadian rock because of unrequited love for Phaon, a young sailor. She is also said to have two brothers, Laricus and Charaxus and possibly a third. She also mentions her daughter Cleis or Clais in one of her poems. The story of her being banished or fleeing to Sicily may be true but she most definitely spent most of her life on Lesbos.
Her work contains only a few apparent references to the political issues of the day which were so frequently seen in her contemporary's, Alcaeus' work. Sappho's work usually revolves around more personal themes, she was primarily concerned with the thiasos or the female community. She lead a group of women, who gathered regularly. And was known oftentimes to attack other groups (thiasoi ) led by other women.
The primary goal of Sappho's thiasos was to educate young women, particularly for marriage. Aphrodite was the group's patron goddess and Sappho served as a intermediary for her and the girls. Images found frequently in Sappho's poem's are flowers, colorful garlands, outdoor scenes, altars smoking with incense, scented ointments for skin and hair-- that is elements of Aphrodite's rituals. In the thiasos girls were educated in grace and elegance. Essentially given tools to flaunt their sensuality and express love. I like to think they were given a chance to embrace that side of themselves. Singing, dancing and poetry also played a central role in the girls education and other cultural practices, as it did in other female communites, like in Sparta.
In Sappho's poetry, love is passionate, an inescapable force that moves at the will of the goddess. It is nostalgia of affections that are now distant memories and shared by all of the thiasos. This makes her poems more personal because girls can all relate to the shared feelings. An important theme in her work was epithalamia or wedding songs.
It is not known how her work was distributed in her lifetime and in the following 3-4 centuries. In the era of Alexandrian scholarship (3rd and 2nd century BC), what survived of her work was collected and published in a series of nine books, these did not survive after the early middle ages and by the 8th or 9th century AD Sappho was recognized only in quotations by other authors. Only her ode to Aphrodite, which 28 lines long is complete.
Footnotes
Archilochus- a poet from the island of Paros. He is famous for his creative and versatile meters (a linguistic sound, used in poetry to create rhythm and melody).
Alcaeus- a poet who created the Alcaic stanza, an important form of classical poetry. He was born into an aristocratic family in Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos and was involved with numerous political disputes and feuds. He is also rumored to have been a lover of Sappho's and reportedly exchanged poems with her as well.
Aeolic vernacular speech/dialects- dialects of ancient Greek that were spoken in Thessaly, Boetia and after about 1000 BC, Asiatic Aeolis (collection of cities in western Anatolia, now modern day Turkey), including the island of Lesbos, where Aeolian colonists from the mainland were settling.
Aeolic poetic tradition- a classification of Greek lyrical poetry, referring to the two great poets of the Archaic period, Alcaeus and Sappho. Who wrote in their native Aeolic dialect. These verse forms were borrowed and developed by later Greek and Roman and European writers.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sappho-Greek-poet
YOU ARE READING
Women in Literature and Music
Non-FictionWomen who have changed the world through poetry, books and music.
