SAPPHO
the voice of the woman
Sappho was born on Lesbos, possibly at Eressos, at the end of the 7th
century BC, but spent the bigger part of her life at Mytilene. She was a
scion of an aristocratic family and took an active part in public
affairs, and was sent into exile on Sicily for a time by Pittakos.
Sappho was married and had a daughter:
'I have a beautiful child who looks like
golden flowers: my darling Kleis, for whom
I would not take all Lydia'.
(Loeb edition)
Alcaeus, who knew her, described her as 'black-haired Sappho, pure,
sweetly-smiling'. As happened later with Plato and the other great
philosophers, a circle was formed around the poetess of girls who shared
the same ideals and were bound by strong ties of love.
Sappho saw herself as 'mousopolos', dedicated to the service of the
Muses, and seems to have been aware of the value of her poetry, which
would keep her fame alive even after her death.
Sappho wrote monodies (solo songs), that were sung to the accompaniment
of the Iyre, and also epithalamia, or wedding songs, which were highly
popular in antiquity, epigrams and iambics. In the Hellenistic period
her works were collected in nine books, of which only one complete ode
and a few hundred fragments now survive, fully vindicating the
admiration of the ancients, who gave her the title of 'the tenth Muse'.
In a simple, very direct language, devoid of rhetorical flourish, Sappho
speaks of the emotions that shook her heart:
'You came, and I was longing for you,
You cooled my heart, which was burning with desire.'
(Loeb edition)
Her descriptions of the world around her have the same immediacy. Tender
images, full of the joy of young girls, the scent of flowers, the murmur
of the waves, the silver light of the moon, alternate with moments of
profound contemplation and penetrating self-observation. Sappho does not
hesitate to speak in a completely personal tone of the agony of
separation, the bitterness of loneliness, the pain of old age that
comes, ineluctably, to drive away love; she is thus the first poetess in
the modern sense of the word.
The strong emotions and sensuous atmosphere exuded by her poetry,
provided fuel for the myth woven around Sappho and her personal life
ever since antiquity, and still give rise to lively debate and strong
disagreement. What is certain is that at the centre of the world of the
poetess is to be found love, the motive force behind all things and the
invincible monster that paralyses the limbs:
'Once again limb-loosening Love makes me tremble,
the bitter-sweet, irresistible creature.'
(Loeb edition)
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