The Legend of Sappho of Lesbos

Welcome back to Myths & Mischief! This is your Lovable Lord of Lore, today’s mischievous myth is about the famous Greek poet, Sapphos.

When it comes to 2,500 years, it blurs the lines between myths and history. In the case of Sappho, the different eras since 600 BCE affected her legacy in different ways. For the first hundreds of years, she was highly regarded and mentioned by numerous historic people as a talented poet and is credited for inventing lyric poetry. Homer himself adored her work and described her as 1 of the 9 lyric poets and Plato referred to her as the 10th muse.

Most historians agree that she was born in Lesbos to an aristocratic family. Aristocratic women there had more freedom than throughout the rest of Greece. While she did study music and poetry, she would have had more access to homosexual relationships due to her status, than would the average woman. Men as well, could take advantage of their status to engage in homosexual relationships.

Sappho is credited with coming up with her own poetry form, with a unique structure, length, meter and many included the ABAB rhyme scheme. She is credited with innovating the use of first-person narrative in poetry. She also coined the phrase “bitter and sweet” and was prophetic when she wrote the line:

“Someone will remember us, even in another time.”

That is where the agreement ends and the legend begins.

One version of her story has her married for a short time to a man, who dies after just months of marriage. Others suggest that the marriage was made up to criticize her homoerotic poetry. That is why the name of her husband, Kerkylos of Andros, translates into “little prick.” This is similar to the story of her death that has been disregarded by historians. The claim was that she was so distraught over the unreciprocated love of a ferryman, that she jumped off a cliff. It was the same cliff that Aphrodite jumped off, Lover’s Leap, and it coincides with other smear tactics within her life span. Two legends were established and used for different purposes. On one side, she was described as crude, and manly in her appearance and speech. She was even compared to a female Socrates, short and chubby.

It is possible that as her fame rose, that many were threatened by the homoerotic nature of her work, and felt the need to “put her in her place.” Others at the time celebrated her as an incarnate Aphrodite, sensuous, and sexually alluring. Different caricatures and stereotypes were used to describe her which makes most of them unreliable. Both versions of her have been sensationalized and people generally fit in their own picture of her into one of the characterizations. Surely there must be something that provide insight into who she was other than waiting for more of her work to be discovered in some ancient scrolls. What is reasonable to believe?

Her poetry was powerful, and full of passion and vivid an explored the theme of love and relationships. She was part of a women’s group in Lesbos, called Thiasos, but it was unclear if she was a teacher or a just a poet living in an artists’ commune or school. Her birthplace of Lesbos and her content coined the phrase lesbian. She wrote of love with men and love with women. She explored a depth of emotions surrounding jealousy, affection, love’s impact on women, and longing which was innovative for her time and social position and has left a lasting impact of Western literature and poetry.

During the middle ages, monks were responsible for copying down writings in order to preserve them. Like many females in history, their role was either diminished, or villainized to downplay their significance. At one point the Pope ordered the burning of her works. This is despite her likeness appearing on coins and in statues reflecting her high status and recognition of her heroic stature in Ancient Greece.

It is debated if she lived in a writer’s and musician’s colony or a teacher in an elite art institute that prepared young women for marriage. Her stories do link her to kinky love rituals and other guilty pleasures, it is unlikely that the school was one big lesbian orgy, and was more mundane than the fantasy of Sappho’s personal life.

Lines such as “on Sappho’s bed, you quenched desire” implies that she shared an intimate experience with the woman in question, but the separation from exploring feelings, to acting on them is left to speculation. At the least, it describes a woman that has passionate and sexual desires for both women and men, and at most, she is the iconic characterization of a bold, empowered woman who preferred the beautiful companionship of a woman over the social constraints of her day.

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