Sappho
Of Lesbos
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.
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.
• Sappho's contemporary Alcaeus described her
thus: "Violet-haired, pure, honey-smiling Sappho"
(ἰόπλοκ᾽ ἄγνα μελλιχόμειδε Σάπφοι, 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.
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.
• 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.
• 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).
• 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
Sites Cited
• “Homosexuality in ancient Greece” Wikipedia
The Free Encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in
_ancient_Greece
• “Library of Alexandria” Wikipedia The Free
Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexa
ndria
• “Sappho” Wikipedia The Free
Encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa
ppho
• “Sappho of Lesbos: Woman
Poet of Ancient Greece.”
About.com: Women’s History.
http://womenshistory.about.co
m/od/sappho/a/sappho.htm
Bust inscribed Sappho of
Eressos, Roman copy of a
Greek original of the 5th
century BC