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Sappho (c. 613 - c. 570 B.C.)
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 Psappha:
A Novel of Sappho by Peggy Ullman Bell
In this superb
page-turner reminiscent of the great Mary renault, Peggy Ullman
bell brings tolife one of the most exciting and fascinating
figures of the ancent world, Sappho, "the Poetess." A
woman who challenged convention, Sappho redefined the role of
women in Ancient Greece.
"Psappha" will surely rank as one of
the best historical novels of this year. What makes it all the
more extraordinary is that this assured work marks Peggy Ullman
Bell's debut as a novelist.
"There is not much known about the life of
Psappha (apparently a more accurate spelling of Sappho). Bell's
book imagines Psappha's life, keeping rather true to the facts
that are known. Psappha is exiled from her homeland of Lesbos, and
ends up in what's now Sicily. She marries a man, becomes lovers
with an African warrior queen (Gyla), and has a daughter. After
the death of her beloved husband, Psappha begins teaching and
becomes the famous Poetess we now know her to be. She and her
entourage travel back to Lesbos to continue the teachings, and
Psappha lives her life there with her African queen, and in Gyla's
absence, becomes lovers with a fisherman. Bell gives us a heroic,
yet tragic end for Psappha and her beloved warrior queen, which
feels a bit melodramatic. Bell writes beautifully, and several
passages in the novel are rather evocative of life in Psappha's
time, and yet this style isn't continuous throughout. Overall,
this book is a delightful and heartening story of one woman's
journey to happiness." -- Anonymous Review
 Lesbian
Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho (Between Men--Between Women) by
Jane McIntosh Snyder
This is the first book to examine Sappho's
poetry through the lens of lesbian desire. Snyder provides close
readings of the surviving examples of Sappho's poetry,
occasionally presenting comparative material from other ancient
Greek poets. The original Greek text is included in an appendix.
"What emerges in this careful and engaging
study is an explication of Sappho's work and its literary
environment, which illuminates both Sappho and the ways she has
been read, adopted, and co-opted over the centuries. Without
polemics, and with scrupulous candor and fidelity to the
originals, Snyder allows even those readers who are, as she puts
it, 'Greekless' to find their connection with the vitality of the
words and the poems, which often exist on the page in only the
most fragmentary form. By returning often to the bits of text that
contain key words and phrases, Snyder actually succeeds in
intimating poems where only hints remain." -- Choice
Snyder offers a comprehensive treatment of
Sappho's poetry for the Greekless reader, including
transliterations and translations of the Greek. She elucidates
Sappho's representation of female desire and her influence on
modern American women poets. -- Helene Foley author of Homeric
Hymn to Demeter
 Sappho
by Robert Chandler (Editor)
Sappho is one of the very greatest European
lyric poets, along with Catullus, Villon, Shakespeare, Goethe and
Pushkin. Unlike most of the great Latin poets, however, Sappho has
not been well served by translators. Most previous translations
are either over-romantic, or dull. In this translation I have
tried to reproduce Sappho's music as closely as English allows,
thus conveying the full depth and subtlety of her meaning. -- The
Editor, Robert Chandler
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From sappho.com
Biographical Excerpt:
One of the great Greek lyrists and few known
female poets of the ancient world, Sappho was born some time
between 630 and 612 BC. She was an aristocrat who married a
prosperous merchant, and she had a daughter named Cleis. Her
wealth afforded her with the opportunity to live her life as she
chose, and she chose to spend it studying the arts on the isle of
Lesbos.
In the seventh century BC, Lesbos was a cultural
center. Sappho spent most her time on the island, though she also
traveled widely throughout Greece. She was exiled for a time
because of political activities in her family, and she spent this
time in Sicily. By this time she was known as a poet, and the
residents of Syracuse were so honored by her visit that they
erected a statue to her...
This site includes Sappho's poetry:
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Pamela Barnes, Director
The Sappho Project is a
nonprofit organization consisting of highly qualified artists and
administrators. To date, we have designed and produced two
exhibits which reveal the life and extraordinary creative work of
the great genius Sappho. Each exhibit honors her artistic
achievements by graphically depicting her works and everyday life.
These are based as far as possible on facts from the historical
record. Both exhibits, a small and a larger one, tour galleries
around the country as "artists' impressions" of the life
of Sappho, from 7th century B.C. Lesbos up to contemporary times.
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This site has extensive
resources on Ancient Greek Culture, including reference material
on Sappho and poems by Sappho.
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By William Harris, Prof. Em.
Middlebury College
Excerpt:
When we speak of Sappho, the poet from the
island of Lesbos, and her poetry, we are thinking of something
very special, a transcendental kind of poetry which is somehow
purer, fairer, lovelier than anything else in the Western world.
Considering how little we know about the poet herself, and how
little we have of the remains of her poetry, we might well ask
ourselves if we are not participating in a literary myth, creating
a poet-figure of such great talent with so little verse, that one
can only admire from a vast distance...
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From Tufts University
Facts are scant and contradictory concerning the
life of Sappho, the greatest of the early Greek lyric poets, whom
Plato called "the tenth Muse." She was born in either
Eressos or Mytilini on the Greek island of Lesvos into an
aristrocratic, socially prominent family, and was orphaned at the
age of six. Her father, Skamandronymous, is believed to have been
a prosperous wine merchant. The eldest of her three brothers,
Charaxos, was a wine merchant as well, and another brother,
Larichos, held the prestigious job of wine pourer for the
Mytileneans at their town hall. Sappho had a daughter, Cleis,
named after her mother according to the tradition of the time; the
child's father may have been a wealthy merchant named Cercylas.
Some sources claim that Cercylas was her husband and died when
Sappho was about thirty-five. Sappho lived mainly in Mytilini but
was exiled to Sicily for a time, probably because of her family's
political activities. She is reputed to have been short and
dark-haired in an era when the feminine ideal was tall and
fair-haired. Although her romantic preference was for women, she
is said to have had male as well as female lovers, including the
poet Alcaeus. Legend has it that she threw herself off a cliff for
the unrequited love of a man named Phaon, but this is generally
considered by scholars to be untrue...
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Sappho at Ancient Sites, featuring H. T.
Wharton's 1895 collection --the web's largest-- of classic English
translations of Sappho, dedicated to friends and neighbors at Ancient
Sites.
Fragments in translation (Bergk
numbering)
H. T. Wharton's Life of Sappho
Inspired by Sappho
Alexander Pope's verse
translation of Ovid's fictitious letter of Sappho to Phaon.
Joseph Addision on
Sappho, with the first published English translation of Sappho's
"Hymn to Aphrodite," translated by Ambrose Philips.
Addison fulfils his
promise to further explore Sappho, and includes a translation of
fr. 2 by Philips.
W. Rhys Roberts'
translation of Book 10 of the great work once associated with
Longinus. Part of the complete Roberts translation of On
the Sublime at Peitho's Web.
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More Sappho Sites
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Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
Y Z
| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
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