Sappho Are Multiple Poems Discussing Women And Their Emotions

Snyder points out that Sappho is the first known woman in the world of Western literature to articulate on the female gaze. It is the female gaze that is the cornerstone to the the visual component of Sappho's lesbian experience.

Women are a very prominent part of the Greek society. Their role has influenced and shaped the Greek society to a very large extent. Women have been shown in many different lights in the Greek works of Odyssey and Iliad which we have covered in our class. The works that I will be citing in this essay, namely Homer’s poems Odyssey and Iliad talk about many prominent women such as Helen of Troy, Penelope and also many other Goddesses. Homer’s poems talk about the various traits of Greek women and portray their characteristics by describing their traits and the events they were involved in. Through this essay, I would like to illustrate how women were treated as objects of desire for

We can see this in lines such as “I beg of you do not break with hard pains, O lady, my heart.” In fact, it was so emotional that it became a new standard for ancient students to learn. Plato mentions it saying: she was “one among the muses, the tenth muse”. In another instance Solos, an Athenian ruler stated “I shall learn it so that I may die”(). Taking this and applying to how important emotion and story was to the ancient Greeks we can see why this type of writing impacted the society around her. Also, another essential factor in analyzing this poem is that Sappho wrote in lyrics, and her poems were supposed to be accompanied by music. She composed her own music and refined her lyrics so much that it inspired a new lyric meter called Shappic meter(). The last thing she did that was very sensational at the time was not just referring to the gods but taking their point of view. In ancient Greece gods and mortals together were used in myths. Gods were in an upper scale and only talked down to mortals, but in Sappho's poetry they having conversations between each other. In this poem, Aphrodite comes down and appeals to Sappho asking “O, Sappho who is wronging you?” This was a new concept and was continued to be used even after most of Sappho's poetry was

The first female Greek poet to influence not only the Greek culture, but also the global culture, Sappho was a well-known individual in history particularly due to her artistic capacity (E. Green, 1999, 344-346). From a poet to a talented musician, Sappho's personality and her poetic phenomenon has redefined the cultural norms expressed in the societal and literal formulas of archaic poetry from the perspective of her woman-centered world. (Hallett, J.P., 1979, pp. 447-450). The following response will investigate and analyze the differences between the two translations of - 'some say,' - one of Sappho's poems, in order to determine which variation of the poem was more convenient and appropriate within the male-dominant Ancient Greek culture and society.

“I adore delicacy” (Simpson, 1998, http://condor.depaul.edu/dsimpson/tlove/sappho2.html), says Sappho in one of the fragments found by historians. Sappho used highly opinionated, intimate and sensual literature to earn her significance as a respected historical figure whilst facing the public and parading her homosexuality through lyrical poetry. Sappho was a Greek lyric poet who was born on the Island of Lesbos. Her birth was sometime between 630BCE and 612BCE. It is said that she died around 570BC, but very little information is known about Sappho’s life. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired for its antiquity and it’s originality of the time. Sappho’s status of being an

It is tempting to compare Sappho’s poetry to that of Greek epic writer Homer for many reasons, not the least of which is her apparent invocation to the muse at the beginning of the only complete poem existing from the scant remaining fragments of her work. In her “Ode to Aphrodite,” she appeals: “Immortal Aphrodite of the shimmering throne…come hither” (Sappho, Loc. 30), echoing Homer’s famous “Tell me, oh Muse” (Homer, The Odyssey 36), and “Sing, O goddess, the destructive wrath of Achilles” (Homer, The Iliad 3). And, from what scholars have been able to glean from ancient texts, a woman such as Sappho, wealthy and relatively well-educated (Prentice 348), would have heard recitations of those epic poems. Recitations, because poetry was

In the poem, she dictates the role which women are given when they become married. By comparing a wife to a servant, the woman is seen as a submissive creature, who is to do no more than obey to the demands of her husband. However, she is ultimately treated more as a slave, than a servant. Once she is married, she is no longer to do anything of her own volition.

Sappho’s fragments in, If Not, Winter, are composed of her reflections on the ardent emotions of love and desire. Sappho continues to ask and search for love, but she becomes consumed with desire. Her inability to control these emotions causes her to be caught in a battle between love and desire. Throughout the text, Sappho uses “eros” to express her desire towards an individual. This causes a conflict within the word eros because eros is defined as a fluid term in which, desire and love are synonymous with one another. This implies that love and desire are essentially interchangeable, however, Sappho does not treat them as such. This distinction becomes solidified by analyzing Sappho’s use of the gods in her poetry, where she correlates love with the goddess Aphrodite, and lust with the god Eros. By observing Sappho’s stylistic formation and diction within fragments 1, 16, and 31, the distinction between these two opposing forces becomes clear. In this paper I will argue that Sappho believes love involves an emotional connection that should be reciprocated and she also correlates love to beauty. In contrast, Sappho classifies desire as egotistical lust, which fulfills a physical need, where reciprocation is not required. Her distinctions between desire and love leads to a conflict in the term eros and her internal feelings add complexity and depth to her work.

While Sophocles, Homer, and Thucydides all are wonderful writers and have truly outstanding works, they are lengthy, hard to understand, and otherwise dull. Sappho's poems in contrast are short, sweet, and to the point. The simplicity of her style is shown in “You May Forget But” and again in “Although They Are.” She was very skilled in making her point in very few lines. Her poem “Although They Are” is at most 5 lines long. In Sappho's poems, the reader does not have a chance to really get bored or to have their mind waiver. This is not only because the poems are so short, but because the content is

Sappho is the life story of an ancient Greek female named Sappho. Born around 630 BCE on the fertile island of Lesbo, Sappho established herself as a well-respected female in the male-dominated world of Ancient Greece. Plato, one of the most important figures of the decade referred to her as “the tenth muse” – a Greek goddess who ruled over the arts and science. Decades later, she remains to be well-respected and is regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets today.

The fact that Sappho choses these words rather than that of any other reveals that one of the conceptions of love is pain. In addition, the use of figurative language within the poem reveals another conception that Sappho has of love is

In both poems women are important in Greek culture, but they play a much more controlled and restricted role in Homeric Greece. Women were expected to be loyal and obedient to their husbands. They were expected to be graceful, dutiful wives and mothers. But, above all else, they were required to take a role that depended on the existence of man in their lives.

Sensuality can be described as "Of or arousing gratification of the senses and physical, especially sexual, pleasure" (Oxford, 2016). Many critics such as Circa say “Most commonly the target of her affections was female”. I disagree that her poetry shows a confession of a sensual relationship. Rather, it just lets out her emotive feelings. My argument is that her poetry is metaphorical showing a new and creative representation of the future. Sappho’s work has been criticised by many scholars, one of which being Nazianzen. Sappho's books were burned by Christians in the year 380 A.D. at the instigation of Pope Gregory Nazianzen. Another book burning in the year 1073 A.D. by Pope Gregory VII may have wiped out any remaining trace of her works.

Sappho believed that the teacher was a mentor for girls and thought that a person needed to be educated as a whole. Sappho was said to be very cool, calm and poised which helped to influence her decision to create the first school for girls (Robbins 125). According to Thrasher (2014), she became the principal of her finishing school for girls and was apart of a “special society of girls who devoted themselves to the worship of Aphrodite and the Muses” (Life’s Work section, para. 8). Many students would attend her school and when they returned home they were said to be “cultured women” and ready to be married. In addition, Sappho taught her students many different forms of art such as poetry, music, and dancing. These teachings helped Sappho to establish the idea that in order for a person to be fully educated they had to be involved in the arts. Sappho saw mentoring as an important factor that helped teachers develop their practical teaching skills. Through her poetry, Sappho wrote from many new perspectives that helped “defined women in terms of themselves rather than in terms of men” (Murphy 19). As a result, her work influenced many women and she is considered to be the first feminist of her time.

Sappho of Lesbos (c. 630-570 BC) was a poet from Ancient Greece. To date, only fragments of her poems remain, with “Ode to Aphrodite” being the one surviving work. I was drawn to Sappho’s work on account of how long it has survived, and how it continues to be analyzed and revered in scholarly circles today. On Poemhunter.com, I found many of her poems. Her use of hyperbole and vivid, heart-wrenching imagery combined with references to Greek deities was independent of anything I’ve ever read. Many of her poems, such as “Awed By Her Splendor” and “Jealousy” were about Sappho’s love for women, a subject I felt was integral to her style. In my original poem, “O’, Aphrodite,” I utilized her intense imagery and subject (loving women) to convey her unique and long-standing style.