Sappho

Sappho (Attic Greek ????? Sapphô, Aeolic Greek ????? Psappha) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from the city of Eressos on the island of Lesbos, which was a cultural centre in the 7th century BC. She was born sometime between 630 BC and 612 BC. The bulk of her poetry is now lost, but her reputation in her time was immense, and she was reputedly considered by Plato as the tenth Muse.

Life

Sappho, daughter of Scamander and Cleïs, was married (Attic comedy says to a wealthy merchant, but that is apocryphal) and had a daughter also named Cleïs. She became very famous in her day for her poetry ? so much so that the city of Syracuse built a statue to honor her when she visited. Her family was politically active, which caused Sappho to travel a great deal. She was also noted during her life as the headmistress of a sort of Greek finishing school for girls. Most likely the objects of her poetry were her students. Sappho had three brothers, married and had at least one daughter, was exiled to Syracuse for political reasons, returned in 581 BC, and died in old age.

Related Topics:
Attic comedy - Merchant - Syracuse - Statue - Finishing school - 581 BC

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She was a lyric poet. Older critics sometimes alleged that she led an aesthetic movement away from typical themes of gods, to the themes of individual human experiences and emotions, but it is now considered more likely that her work belongs in a long tradition of Lesbian poetry, and is simply among the first to have been recorded in writing.

Related Topics:
Lyric poet - Aesthetic - God - Human

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Some of her love poems were addressed to women. The word lesbian itself is derived from the name of the island of Lesbos from which she came. (Her name is also the origin of its much rarer synonym sapphic).

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Because of its eroticism and of the difficulties posed by its dialect, her work was not included in the Byzantine school curriculum. The manuscript tradition therefore broke off, but copies of her work have been discovered in Egyptian papyri of an earlier period: for an example (from book 2 of the collected edition), see this page.

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In ancient and medieval times she was famous for (according to legend) throwing herself off a cliff due to unrequited love for a male sailor named Phaon. This legend dates to Ovid and Lucian in Ancient Rome and certainly is not a Christian overlay.

Related Topics:
Medieval times - Legend - Phaon - Ovid - Lucian - Ancient Rome - Christian

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The philosopher Maximus of Tyre writes that Sappho was "small and dark" and that her relationships to her female friends were similar to those of Socrates:

Related Topics:
Maximus of Tyre - Socrates

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:What else was the love of the Lesbian woman except Socrates' art of love? For they seem to me to have practiced love each in their own way, she that of women, he that of men. For they say that both loved many and were captivated by all things beautiful. What Alcibiades and Charmides and Phaedrus were to him, Gyrinna and Atthis and Anactoria were to the Lesbian.

Related Topics:
Alcibiades - Charmides - Phaedrus - Gyrinna - Atthis - Anactoria

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A major new literary discovery, the Milan Papyrus (see partial image here), recovered from a dismantled mummy casing and published in 2001, has revealed the high esteem in which the poet Posidippus of Pella, an important composer of epigrams (3rd century BC), held Sappho's 'divine songs': translations and notes are available here, the Greek text on this page.

Related Topics:
Milan Papyrus - Posidippus - Epigrams

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An epigram in the Anthologia Palatina ascribed to Plato states:

Related Topics:
Epigram - Anthologia Palatina - Plato

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:Some say of nine Muses, how neglected!

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:Behold, Sappho, from Lesbos, is the tenth

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Aelianus Claudius wrote in Assorted History (??????? ???????) that Plato called Sappho wise.

Related Topics:
Aelianus Claudius - Plato

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Horace writes in his Odes that Sappho's lyrics are worthy of sacred admiration.

Related Topics:
Horace - Odes

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One of Sappho's poems was famously translated by the 1st century BC Roman poet Catullus in his "Ille mi par esse deo videtur" (Catullus 51).

Related Topics:
1st century BC - Roman - Catullus

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