Sappho

1. Sappho

2. Important sites for Sappho: Lesbos, Sardis, Lydia, and Syracuse

3. Early Life • Born on Island of Lesbos • Birth date is debatable • Only poetry exists detailing her life “Sappho the Eresian”

4. Life • Born into aristocratic family • Married • Possibly had a daughter Sappho by Gustav Klimt

5. Statue of Sappho on Lesvos?

6. Years in Exile • Exiled from Lesbos • Spent most of her exile in Syracuse • Poetry during this time speaks of the bitter mistreatment • Returned to Lesbos in 581 BC

7. Lost Works • Produced 9 volumes of poetry, • Papyrus fragments • Pot fragments • Citations in other ancient writers

8. Sappho’s poetry • Often referred to as the Tenth Muse • Sophisticated language • Refers to public life events • Friends and happy times

9. Homosexual Tendencies • Sappho wrote about and to women • Accounts of intimate relations between women • Are these poems are autobiographical?

10. Keep it in Context! • Term “lesbian” derived from her homeland of Lesbos • She was married • Likely had sexual relations with men and women

11. “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.” • 3rd century philosopher Maximus of Tyre comparing Sapphos to Socrates

12. Sapphos and Erinna at Mytelene by Simeon Solomon (1864)

13. Sappho’s Contributions • Sappho’s remaining works do not mention such things as teaching, students, academies, or tutors • Tradition claims that Sappho was the headmistress of a girls’ finishing school,

14. Contributions • Her poems have been used to illustrate grammar, vocabulary, and meter • “Sapphic meter” named after her • Could be considered first liberated woman and feminist

15. Educator • Music teacher • Dance teacher • Reading teacher • Believed in education of whole student • Developed virtues, as well as intellect • Developed aristocratic girls into women who would marry and take their proper role in society

16. SAPPHO AND PHAONIN A SERIESOFLegitimate Sonnets,WITHTHOUGHTS ON POETICAL SUBJECTS,ANDANECDOTESOF THEGRECIAN POETESS.======================================== BYMARY ROBINSON,Author of Poems, &c. &c. &c. &c.======================================== LONDON:Printed by S. GOSNELL,For the AUTHOR, and Sold by HOOKHAM and CARPENTER,Bond Street.1796.

17. Accolades • The Milan Papyrus was recovered from a dismantled mummy casing and published in 2001. The mummy, a 3rd century poet of epigrams named Posidippus of Pella, was clutching a copy of Sappho’s “Divine Songs”

18. Accolades • Plato wrote in an epigram: Some say the Muses are nine: how careless! Look, there’s Sappho too, from Lesbos, the tenth. • Aelian claimed in his work Miscellany that Plato had called Sappho wise • Horace wrote in his Odes that Sappho’s lyrics are worthy of sacred admiration

19. What Happened? • Since Sappho wrote with a difficult Greek dialect, her works became less known over time. • Many cultures, including the Christian church of the Middle Ages, found her poems unfit for reading • Sappho’s popularity has grown since the Renaissance

20. References to Sappho • Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron • Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire • Ezra Pound wrote poetry to Atthis, the subject of many of Sappho’s poems • Portrayed by Jade Esteban Estrada on Comedy Central

21. References to Sappho, Cont. • Mikra Epsilon Mikra Epsilon by 20th century Greek poet Odysseas Elytis • The play Sappho by Lawrence Durrell • Several poems by Algernon Swinburne • Wonder Woman often used the phrase “suffering Sappho!” • The Ethos Effect by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

22. References to Sappho, Cont. • The play “The Underpants” by Steve Martin • An episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer • Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

23. Death • Died in 570 BC • Her actual cause of death is unknown Sappho and Phaon

24. Death • Died in 570 BC • Her actual cause of death is unknown, but legend says that she threw herself off a cliff due to her love for a male sailor named Phaon Sappho and Phaon

25. References • Wikipedia. 2007. Sappho. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho • Mitchell-Boyask, Robin. 2007. Sappho. Temple University Classics Department. Available at: http://www.temple.edu/classics/sappho.html • Murphy, Madonna. 2006. The History and Philosophy of Education: Voices of Educational Pioneers. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.