Sappho (b. 630 B. C.)

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Background

• Sappho (b. 630 B. C.)
• lived at the island of Lesbos off the coast of Asia Minor
• educator at school for women
• later known as the "Tenth Muse"
• love poetry, celebration and expression of love between women
• representation of life of aristocratic women
• nine books at the library of Alexandria (3rd c. B. C.), now lost
• systematic destruction of Sappho's works by later Christian censors
• fragments of her poetry recovered from quotations in commentaries by ancient writers and from Egyptian sites

Study Questions

What is the significance of Sappho's belonging to the Ionian Greek culture (in and around Asia Minor). In what way may that have affected her perceptions and attitudes toward the dominant culture of the Greek mainland? Are there any similarities in Sappho's ideas and themes and those found in the works of Homer (who also appears to have lived in Asia Minor)? How may one characterize the situation and thinking of a poet living in a sort of borderland between different cultures?

What is the attitude toward love in Sappho's poetry? What role did love play in the life of women like Sappho? What is the character of that love? What role or situation did the love between women have in the ancient Greek world? Was it accepted? Condemned? How did such love fit in the context of Sappho's activity as an educator at a school preparing women for marriage? How do the speakers in the poems feel about the loss of a beloved (generally to the man she married)?

Is love between women articulated in Sappho's poetry as a sort of counter- or sub-culture in the ancient Greek context? How does it relate to the mainstream male culture of martial prowess and violent heroic action? May Sappho's work be read in any way as the expression of an alternative voice? A somewhat suppressed perspective? If so, how can one characterize the positions toward life and living articulated in the poetry?

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