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Notable Poets
Sappho

Born: Mytilene or Eresus, Lesbos, Asia Minor; c. 612 B.C.
Died: probably Mytilene, Lesbos, Asia Minor; c. 580 B.C.

Poetry: Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta, 1955; Sappho: A New Translation, 1958; Lyra Graeca, volume 1, 1958; Sappho: Poems and Fragments, 1965; The Poems of Sappho, 1966

Achievements
One of the most admired poets of the ancient world, Sappho was widely popular not only during her lifetime but also for centuries after. Although she wrote nine books of poetry, very little of the corpus remains. Except for a very few phrases on vase paintings or papyri, Sappho’s poetry has been preserved primarily in small bits that happened to be quoted by other writers. There are some 170 of these fragments extant, and although there may be among them one or two complete poems, most of the fragments consist of only a few lines or a few words. For Sappho’s poem fragments, the numerical system of Edgar Lobel and Denys Page, Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta, is used.

These fragments indicate that Sappho’s poems were largely lyrical, intended to be sung and accompanied by music and perhaps dance. Although in form her poetry was thus traditional, in content it differed significantly from the larger body of Greek verse, which was written primarily by men. Whereas other Greek poets were mainly concerned with larger and more public issues and with such traditional masculine concerns as war and heroism, Sappho’s poems are personal, concerned with the emotions and individual experiences of herself and her friends. In exploring and describing the world of passion, in particular, Sappho departed from conventional poetic themes. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that her poetry was so popular in the ancient world.

Sappho’s work has continued to be popular, however, not only because of the timelessness of her subject matter, but also because of the exactness of her imagery and the intensity of her expression. Although her style is simple, direct, and conversational, her poems are powerful in creating an impression or evoking an emotion. Her world is therefore not the larger world of politics or warfare, but the smaller world of personal feeling; nevertheless, in depicting the outer limits of that world—the extremes of jealousy as well as tenderness, the depths of sorrow as well as the heights of ecstasy—Sappho’s poetry sets a standard to which all later writers of lyrics must aspire.

In addition to being well-known for her subject matter, Sappho has come to be associated with a particular metrical form. Although she was probably not the inventor of Sapphic meter, it has been so named because of her frequent use of it. In Sapphic meter, the stanza consists of three lines, each of which contains five feet—two trochees, a dactyl, and two more trochees—with a concluding fourth line of one dactyl and one trochee. The first line of the “Ode to Aphrodite” in the original Greek illustrates this meter. This ode is thought to have been accompanied by music written in the Mixolydian mode, a musical mode with which Sappho is also associated. Plutarch, in fact, claims that this mode, which is said to arouse the passions more than any other, was invented by Sappho.

Sappho’s enduring reputation is based, however, upon the fragments of her poetry that remain. Although those fragments themselves indicate her poetry’s worth, there is in addition the testimony of other writers regarding the greatness of her accomplishment. She was praised and revered by a long line of ancients, including Solon, Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Catullus, Ovid, and Plutarch. Proving that imitation is the highest form of praise, some later poets actually incorporated her verse into their own compositions; Catullus’ Poem 51, for example, is a slight reworking of a poem by Sappho. Plutarch, who, like Catullus, admired this particular ode, described it as being “mixed with fire,” a metaphor which could accurately be applied to the entire body of Sappho’s poetry which remains.

Biography
There are few details about Sappho’s life which can be stated with certainty; the only evidence is what other writers said about her, and there is no way of knowing whether what they said is true. She is thought to have been of an aristocratic family of the island of Lesbos and to have had three brothers and a daughter named Cleis; dates of her birth and death, however, are not known. Athenaeus, writing around A.D. 200, claimed that Sappho was a contemporary of Alyattes, who reigned in Lydia from 610 to 560 B.C.; Eusebius, who was writing in the late third and early fourth centuries A.D., refers to Sappho in his chronicle for the year 604 B.C. Other writers indicate that Sappho lived at the time of another poet of Lesbos, Alcaeus, who seems to have been born around 620 B.C. It seems safe, therefore, to conclude that Sappho was born sometime during the last quarter of the seventh century and lived into the first half of the sixth century B.C.

Sometime between 604 and 592 B.C., Sappho seems to have been sent into exile in Sicily by Pittacus, who was then a democratic ruler of Mytilene on Lesbos; an inscription on the Parian marbles of the third century B.C. provides confirmation. Although it seems likely that such an exile would have been for political reasons, there are no clear references in any of the fragments of Sappho’s poems to indicate that she was specifically concerned with political matters; in fact, based upon those fragments, her poetry appears to have been very much apolitical.

Whether Sappho was married is also uncertain; some say that she had a husband named Cercylas, but others believe this report to be a creation of the Greek comic poets. More suspect is the story that Sappho committed suicide by leaping from the Leucadian Cliff when rejected by a sailor named Phaon. To begin with, this story did not surface until more than two hundred years after her death, but more significant is the fact that Phaon has been found to be a vegetable deity associated with Aphrodite, and a god to whom Sappho wrote hymns. These hymns are thought to have provided the basis for this apocryphal account of her death.

There are, however, some assumptions which can be drawn from Sappho’s own words. Her poetry indicates that she was the leader of a group of young women who appear to have studied music, poetry, and dance and who seem to have worshiped Aphrodite and the Muses. As the daughter of an aristocratic family, Sappho would probably not have conducted a formal school, but was more likely the informal leader of a circle of girls and young women. Scholars know from other references in her poetry that there were several such groups on Lesbos, with leaders who were rivals of Sappho.

Many of Sappho’s poems also concern her romantic relationships with various women of her group, a fact which has evoked various responses throughout history, ranging from vilification to denial. Her reputation seems to have been first darkened in the fourth century B.C., long after her death, when she was the subject of a number of comic and burlesque plays; it is believed that many of the unsavory stories that came to be associated with Sappho were generated during this period. A serious and most unfortunate effect of this created and perhaps inaccurate reputation was that much of Sappho’s work was later deliberately destroyed, particularly by Christians whose moral sensibilities were offended by some of the stories which circulated in the second, fourth, and eleventh centuries A.D. Sappho’s reputation was also reworked by later scholars who admired her poetry but who were discomfited by her love for women; among their efforts to dissociate Sappho from her sexuality was the widely circulated story that there were in fact two Sapphos, one the licentious and immoral woman to whom all the unsavory tales applied, and the other a faultless and asexual woman who wrote sublime poetry. Most scholars today believe that there was only one Sappho, but they also believe that most of the stories told about her were untrue.

Thus, because of the legendary tales that have come to be associated with Sappho, and because of the lack of reliable historical evidence, there is little knowledge about her life which is certain. It seems reasonable to assume that she lived on Lesbos, that she was a poet, and that she valued personal relationships, about which she wrote. Both during her lifetime and after, she was much admired; statues were erected in her honor, coins were minted bearing her likeness, and she is said to have been given a heroine’s funeral. Beyond these small pieces of information, scholars must turn to the fragments of her poetry for knowledge and understanding.

Analysis
Since Sappho’s poetry is largely personal, it concerns her immediate world: her dedication to Aphrodite, her love of nature and art, and her relationships with lovers, friends, and family. Her poetry reflects her enjoyment of beauty in the natural world and the close connection that existed between that world and the lives of herself and her friends. Their worship of Aphrodite, their festive songs and dances, are all celebrated with flowers from the fields and with branches from the trees. Her poetry also reflects her love of art, whether in the form of poetry, the music of the lyre, or the graceful movement of a maiden in a dance. Since these interests are, however, always presented through the perspective of a personal response, a chief defining characteristic of Sappho’s poetry is that it is highly emotional.

Most of the extant fragments of Sappho’s poetry were quoted by later writers to illustrate some point of dialect, rhetoric, grammar, or poetic style, and those writers usually quoted only that portion of Sappho’s poem which was pertinent to their point. It is fortunate, then, that Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Greek writer of treatises who lived in Rome around 30 B.C., quoted in its entirety Sappho’s “Ode to Aphrodite,” to illustrate “the smooth mode of composition.” This poem, the longest of several by Sappho honoring Aphrodite, appears to be the most substantial complete work of Sappho which remains.

The ode contains the usual components of a celebration prayer to Aphrodite: the Invocation, the Sanction, and the Entreaty. The Invocation to the goddess consists of a series of epithets, “Dapple-throned Aphrodite,/ eternal daughter of God,/ snare-knitter”; the Sanction asks the goddess’ generosity and assistance and reminds her of past favors she has granted; and the Entreaty urgently appeals to the goddess for aid in the present situation. Sappho employs this traditional form in a fresh way, however, not only by her use of vivid metaphors and lyrical language, but also by using the Sanction to reveal something of the goddess’ character as well as something of Sappho’s own psychology.

As Sappho employs it, the Sanction is a narrative passage within which both she and the goddess move back and forth in time. After describing a past occasion when the goddess came to Earth in a carriage pulled by sparrows, Sappho then recounts the goddess’ questioning of her at that time. Using in her narrative the past tense and the indirect question, Sappho recalls the goddess’ remarks: “You asked, What ailed me now that/ made me call you again?” Abruptly, then, Sappho places the goddess’ gentle chiding within the present context; the poem shifts to direct discourse as the goddess questions Sappho directly: “Whom has/ Persuasion to bring round now/ to your love? Who, Sappho, is/ unfair to you?” This mix of the two temporal perspectives links and blends the present with the past, emphasizing not only Sappho’s recurring states of anxiety over new love, but also illuminating the special and friendly relationship between the poet and the goddess: Aphrodite has obviously assisted Sappho before in similar matters of the heart. Continuing to reveal Sappho’s character, the goddess reminds her that they are beginning a now-familiar pattern: A bemused Aphrodite recalls, “If she [the desired lover] won’t accept gifts, she/ will one day give them; and if/ she won’t love you—she soon will/ love.” Sappho, manipulating the tradition of the Sanction for new purposes of self-mockery and character revelation, thus discloses her love for the courting period, as well as the shift in attitudes which will inevitably occur between her and her new lover. After the goddess’ assurance that the sought-after lover will very shortly be seeking Sappho, the reader is then returned to the poem’s outer frame, the prayer, as Sappho begs the goddess to help at once, to “Come now! Relieve this intolerable pain!”

Within the form of a traditional prayer honoring Aphrodite, the poem thus presents a delightful variety of tone. It discloses not only the intensity of Sappho’s passion for the desired lover, but also her wry recognition that this intensity will be limited by time and by her own nature. The poem similarly indicates not only the immensity of the goddess’ power but also her gentle amusement at the joys and woes of her followers; although Sappho’s present sufferings in love will soon be in the past, a pattern underscored by the poem’s movement between present and past time, there is every reason to believe that the goddess will assist Sappho once again in achieving the lover who will end her present suffering. In revealing not only something of the character of Aphrodite but also something of the character of Sappho, the poem thus transcends the limitations of its genre: it is a prayer, to be sure, and a narrative, but it is also a charmingly refreshing analysis of the poet’s own psychology.

Although there are a few other fragments of poems honoring Aphrodite, the largest number of Sappho’s fragments which remain are concerned with love, a subject which occupied much of Sappho’s attention. One love poem which may, like the “Ode to Aphrodite,” be nearly complete, is the large fragment sometimes called the “Ode to Anactoria,” although the poem may have been written for Atthis or even for some other woman whom Sappho loved. An unknown writer who has been labeled “Longinus,” in a Greek work believed to date from the first or second century A.D., quoted this fragment to illustrate Sappho’s mastery in depicting physical sensations. Extraordinary in its exquisitely precise delineation of the extremes of passion, the poem is also notable for the contrast between the control of its first section and the revealed intensity of its latter section, with the resulting alternations in tone as the speaker sits in the presence of two people, the woman she loves and the man who is evidently enjoying that woman’s attentions.

Concisely and with control, the poem beings:

He is a god in my eyes—

the man who is allowed

to sit beside you—he

who listens intimately

to the sweet murmur of

your voice, the enticing

laughter that makes my own

heart beat fast.

This calm and steady beginning establishes an outer mood of control, an atmosphere of containment and casual social interplay; the poem turns, however, upon the word “laughter,” and the rest of the fragment describes, rapidly and with great intensity, the physical symptoms of the poet’s great passion. All of her senses are affected: her “tongue is broken,” and she sees nothing; she hears only her “own ears drumming” as she drips with sweat; and, as “trembling shakes” her body, she turns “paler than dry grass.” In one of Sappho’s most superb lines, she declares that “a thin flame runs under/ my skin.” Then, ending this rapid and graphic description of the physical results of intense emotion, the poet remarks, in a powerfully reserved manner, that “At such times/ death isn’t far from me.”

Scholars have long debated the cause of Sappho’s passion, arguing whether it is love or jealousy or both; scholars have also quarreled over the identity of the woman and the relationship between the woman and the man who sits beside her. Such discussions are, however, ultimately irrelevant; the poet’s salient point is her own overpowering feeling for the woman to whom she is listening, a feeling which prevents Sappho from exercising over her body any control; it is the physical manifestations of that feeling, the effects upon the body of great passion, which Sappho is recording. Within the poem, the effects of that passion are heightened by the contrast which turns upon the word “laughter”; just as the poem is divided between the controlled description of the outer situation and the blaze of feelings within the poet, so Sappho and the man are divided in their response to the woman’s laughter; he “listens intimately,” calmly, while Sappho experiences a whole cascade of violent physical and emotional reactions.

Sappho’s description in this poem of the effects of passion has not been surpassed, although a number of later poets, including Catullus, have imitated, translated, or adopted her ideas. None, however, has been able to convey such intensity of feeling with the economy and precision of Sappho. It seems safe to say that there are few who would dispute Longinus’ claim that this poem illustrates “the perfection of the Sublime in poetry.”

In addition to considering the physical effects of love on the individual, Sappho also analyzes love’s nature and power. One such poem, 16 L.-P., which refers directly to Anactoria, appears on a papyrus of the second century. The poem begins with a paratactic trope, a common device which presents the theme as the culmination of a series of comparisons:

Some say a cavalry corps,

some infantry, some, again,

will maintain that the swift cars

of our fleet are the finest

sight on dark earth; but I say

that whatever one loves, is.

More than illustrating normal differences of opinion, this means of introducing the theme establishes, as well, a decided difference between male and female values: Sappho seems clearly to imply that while men would see the ideal of beauty to be things having to do with war, she sees the ideal of beauty to be the thing beloved—in this case, the absent Anactoria.

Sappho then reinforces her contention that the beloved is the world’s most beautiful sight by a reference to Helen, who had her pick of the world’s men; in contrast to what one would expect, however, Helen was obliged, because of love, to choose “one who laid Troy’s honor in ruin,” one who “warped” her “to his will,” one who caused her even to forget the “love due her own blood, her own/ child.” Sappho uses the story of Helen to illustrate love’s power to make insignificant all ordinary considerations and constraints. Yet Sappho clearly intends no judgment against Helen; the purpose of her allusion is simply to demonstrate the power of love and, by analogy, Sappho’s love for her beloved.

Only then, after establishing by example and comparisons the supremacy and strength of love, does Sappho reveal in an apostrophe the name of her beloved. Addressing Anactoria and expressing her fear that Anactoria will forget her, Sappho confesses that the sound of her footstep, or the sight of her bright face, would be dearer “than glitter/ of Lydian horse or armoured/ tread of mainland infantry.” In an intricate linking of end and beginning by means of metaphor and comparisons, the poem thus moves full circle, back to its starting place; the final sentence of the fragment reinforces the idea contained in the opening sentence as it simultaneously contrasts the tread of the infantry with the delightful sound of Anactoria’s footstep, and the glitter of armor with the bright shine of Anactoria’s face. In such ways Sappho clearly exposes the conflicting value systems which underlie her poems and those of her male contemporaries.

Several other fragments of varying size also treat the power of love, among them a particularly felicitous line quoted by Maximus of Tyre around A.D. 150: “As a whirlwind/ swoops on an oak/ Love shakes my heart.” An overpowering natural phenomenon, love is presented here as an elemental force which completely overcomes the lover, both physically and emotionally. As the wind physically surrounds the oak, so does love overpower the lover physically as well as emotionally. Love, a force which cannot be denied, is thus depicted as a violent physical and emotional assault, to which one may well respond with mixed feelings.

Sappho explores the ambiguity of the lover’s response to love’s violent assault in another fragment, quoted by Hephaestion around A.D. 150: “Irresistible/ and bittersweet/ that loosener/ of limbs, Love/ reptile-like/ strikes me down.” Again, love is depicted as an absolute power and as a violent force—in this instance as a reptile which, attacking a passive victim, creates in her a weakened state. That state is not, however, altogether unpleasant, as is indicated by the exquisite sensuality of the adjectival phrase describing love as “that loosener of limbs.” Love’s duality—its violence and its sweetness—and the lover’s ambiguity of response—as the victim of assault and as reveler in love’s sensuality—are further underscored by the oxymoronic adjective “bittersweet,” an epithet for love which Sappho may have been the first to use.

In addition to analyzing the nature and effects of love, Sappho also writes of love’s termination, of separation, loss, and grief. One such fragment, 94 L.-P., found in a seventh century manuscript in very poor condition, contains many lacunae and uncertain readings. Nevertheless, enough of the poem remains to prove that Sappho was defining the state of bereavement and the effectiveness of memory in alleviating that state. In the course of exploring these themes, however, the poem presents an enchanting account of the life led by Sappho and the members of her group as they worshiped Aphrodite, celebrated the beauty of nature, and gloried in one another.

Like the “Ode to Aphrodite,” the poem uses a frame of present time to contain an account of past time; in this poem, however, the past time frames an even earlier period, so that there are three time periods represented. Beginning in her present situation, Sappho, alone, reveals her emotional state at the loss of her beloved: “Frankly I wish I were dead.” Attempting then to console herself, Sappho recalls the occasion of their parting; at that time, in contrast to the present situation, Sappho controlled her grief in order to comfort her lover, who was overcome by weeping. On that occasion, Sappho urged her beloved to remember their former happiness and to comfort herself with the memory of their love. At this point in the past, the poem then removes to its third temporal setting, that idyllic period when the two were actually together. In a passage of great lyrical beauty, Sappho recalls the details of their life:

think

of our gifts of Aphrodite

and all the loveliness that we shared

all the violet tiaras

braided rosebuds, dill and

crocus twined around your young neck

myrrh poured on your head

and on soft mats girls with

all that they most wished for beside them

while no voices changed

choruses without ours

no woodlot bloomed in spring without song.

In re-creating, at the moment of their farewell, this earlier time of delight in love, nature, and each other, Sappho consoles her beloved by reminding her that the joys they shared are preserved in memories and that those memories can provide solace. At the same time, from her position in the outer frame of the poem—the present context—Sappho attempts to comfort herself by the same means.

Although the poem, on the one hand, asserts the consolation that memory can offer, it testifies as well to memory’s limitations. Even though Sappho has shared the joyful events of which she reminds her beloved, the poem nevertheless indicates all too clearly that memory’s ability to ease grief is restricted. As Sappho tersely and flatly demonstrates by her opening statement, in no way can memory truly compensate for the beloved’s absence. Still, the enchantment of those memories remains, and even though they cannot totally eliminate the pain of parting, they can provide some surcease by powerfully evoking the time when the lovers’ joy in nature and in their love created for them an existence truly idyllic.

In addition to these personal poems, private accounts of her own and her friends’ feelings and activities, Sappho also wrote some poems of a more public nature. Notable among these “public” poems are a number of fragments from her epithalamiums, or wedding songs. Some of these are congratulatory pieces honoring bride or groom, some appear to have been part of good-humored songs of mockery or wedding jest, and some seem to have been serious considerations of what marriage meant, especially for a woman. Of the latter, particularly worthy of comment are two fragments thought by some to be part of a single poem concerning the loss of maidenhood. As is true of other poems by Sappho, opinion is divided as to the poem’s ultimate meaning, some believing that it alludes to an ungentle lover who does not properly appreciate the maiden whose virginity he destroys, and others believing that the poem refers generally to the destruction of innocence and the loss of girlhood joys that marriage necessitates.

The fragments employ two similes, the first comparing the blushing girl to

a quince-apple

ripening on a top

branch in a tree top

not once noticed by

harvesters or if

not unnoticed, not reached.

The location of the apple high in the tree permits it to ripen without disturbance, perhaps as a girl’s careful upbringing or superior social standing might shield her from importunate suitors. The second fragment compares the loss of the virginal state to

a hyacinth in

the mountains, trampled by shepherds until

only a purple stain

remains on the ground.

Through the powerful image of the delicate hyacinth roughly trod into the earth, the poem clearly delineates the destructive power of love and marriage.

That image is countered, however, in another fragment from an epithalamium, 112 L.-P., which rejoices in marriage and celebrates the groom’s winning of the girl he desires. The bride is described as “charming to look at,/ with eyes as soft as/ honey, and a face/ that Love has lighted/ with his own beauty.” Sappho, clearly indicating her own opinion as to which is the lucky partner in the marriage, reminds the groom, “Aphrodite has surely/ outdone herself in/ doing honor to you!” Such songs were thought to have been written for the weddings of Sappho’s friends, and would have been accompanied by music and dance.

Sappho’s legacy is meager in size, consisting of one or two poems which may be complete, together with a number of shorter fragments that tantalize by their incompleteness even as they enchant with what they do provide. These few pieces clearly manifest the enormous poetic talent that Sappho possessed: a genius for capturing a mood, for portraying an experience, and for depicting an emotion. While her poetry is personal in dealing with her own responses to life, it is, paradoxically, also universal; the feelings she describes, even though they are her own, are shared by all human beings who ever love, lose, or grieve, or who experience jealousy, anger, or regret. One of the first poets to explore the range and depth of the human heart, Sappho well deserves Plato’s epithet for her, “the tenth muse.”

Evelyn S. Newlyn

Bibliography
Sappho’s language and the fragmentary nature of her poetry make the translation and interpretation of her work a formidable feat. Greek Lyric, vol. 1, 1982, gives all of her known works in the original Greek with careful translations and informative notes by David Campbell. This volume also contains translations of the ancient testimonia (biographical notices) concerning Sappho’s life. Good general discussions of Sappho and her times may be found in David A. Campbell’s chapter of P. E. Easterling and B. M. W. Knox, eds., The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, vol. 1, 1985; Anthony J. Podlecki, The Early Greek Poets and Their Times, 1984; Denys Page, Sappho and Alcaeus, 1970 (which contains translations of and commentaries on twelve of Sappho’s poems); and Jim Powell, “Afterwords: Special Section on Sappho,” TriQuarterly 86 (Winter, 1993). Valuable articles (from highly disparate perspectives) addressed to Sappho’s homoeroticism are Hector Williams, “Lesbos’ Poet Laureate,” Archaeology 47 (July/August, 1994); John J. Winkler, “Sappho and the Crack of Dawn (Fragment 58 L-P),” Journal of Homosexuality 20, nos. 3-4 (1990); and Nicole Albert, “Sappho Mythified, Sappho Mystified, or the Metamorphoses of Sappho in Fin de Siècle France,” Journal of Homosexuality 25, no. 2 (1993).