Sappho is an ancient Greek poet who is known for her capability in the theorization and processing of love, though in The New Sappho her curiosity and amusement tends to turn its perspective to the idea of age. While we are used to the common concept of love and appearance of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, in Sappho’s poems, it seems that The New Sappho is both a play on her age, as well as a metaphor for her new subject. The poem’s title seems to suggest a rebirth or a renewal of being, yet in contradiction her physical form is aging.
In The New Sappho, she opens by stating “(You for) the fragrant-bosomed (Muses’) lovely gifts / (be zealous,) girls, (and the) clear melodious lyre,” which can be translated to Sappho telling the reader, who is presumably younger, be devoted to the gifts the muses have granted, for the melodious musical instrument is either comparable to your voice or opening the poetry (Sappho 1-2). The reason it can be suggested that the reader is potentially younger, is due to the method Sappho uses to approach or introduce them. I believe she intended for the reader to be a young woman, or considering her poems were usually presented in song, perhaps she was addressing the younger females within the audience. The reference of the instrument, however, can be interpreted two different ways. Either Sappho is continuing to bless and compliment the women by comparing their voice to the beautiful music of a Greek instrument, or she was making a statement and
Symposium is a gathering hosted by Agaton to celebrate his first tragedy award for playwriting. Each of the guests gave a speech about love. The speech dealing with questions about what is love; interpersonal relationships through love; what types of love are worthy of praise; the purpose of love; and others. A series of speech about the love ended by the entry of Alcibiades, known as a wealthy aristocrat of Athens for his good-looking, and political career. He entered the discussion drunkenly supporting by a flute-girl, follow upon his speech about love. His unexpected entrance and speech dramatically changed the mood left from Diotima’s serious dialogue with Socrates about the ideal love. The first five speeches contradicted each other and were reconciled in Diotima’s speech, especially her speech about “Ladder if love” and “love of wisdom ”, which implies the delicate relationship between Alcibiades and Socrates.
Throughout the fragmented poem, Sappho expresses how someone else’s degrading words affect her and how she handles that pain. She is quick to judge and takes action after being put down. With the descriptions of her pain in movements, she tells a story of what caused her pain.
It is often—in books, poems, paintings, and sculptures—that one hears of and sees the goddess of love. But when is it that one hears of the god? In Greek mythology, Eros is the god of love, and a god who is many times overlooked. In Robert Bridges’ “EPÙÓ” and Anne Stevenson’s “Eros”, the idea that Eros is overlooked is portrayed, but in two separate ways. Techniques such as diction, imagery, and tone are used to help convey the idea.
Sappho’s poem, entitled Fragment 16, is of the lyrical style instead of the epic style we are used to in Homer’s Iliad. The lyrical style of poetry got its name because it was usually accompanied by a lyre while it was recited. It also was used to express more emotion rather than telling a story. This form of poetry seems to be more artistic rather than the story telling of epic poetry of the time. In this poem we are able to use the comparison of different imagery to understand a common theme within the poem itself. The reason for the interesting title of the poem is because most of Sappho’s poetry is now only found in fragmented forms. Most of Sappho’s writing is from 600 B.C.E.
She is talking to a group of young people, who she believes is making fun of her for wanting to praise her for her creativity. She asks them, “My skin with its aging, / My black hair gone white,” (line 107-108). Sappho realized that age cannot be escaped. Even Tithonus whom the gods granted eternal life cannot escape aging. His lover Eos, goddess of light, cannot reverse the effects of time. Knowing that not even a goddess cannot prevent age, Sappho accepts that she will lose her youth and beauty. That she will not be able to dance as swiftly as a fawn like she once could. Sappho, however, is not going to let age depress her. Since it cannot be escaped and it happens to everyone, she is not going to let it sadden her. Losing her youthful beauty will not stop her from seeing the beauty of
This book report is an analysis of the Egyptian Love Poem [ My god, my Lotus…], from the book, The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volume A. Egyptian Love Poems date back to 1300-1100 B.C.E., they were written on papyri, potsherd, and flakes of limestone. Papyri are a sheet-like material that was made out of pithy stems from a water plant. Which was used to write or paint on in the ancient Mediterranean world, potsherd is pieces of broken ceramic material. The lovers in Egyptian Love Poems are young and tend to be under parental supervision, half the poem is spoken by the girl and the other half by the boy. [ My god, my Lotus…] uses imagery to describe the desires of love and how different types of love function within modern societies. This poem displays different perspectives of love and the reality of how love is viewed in most civilizations. Readers will learn that love is not exclusive to men and women, and how different forms of love can lead them to overcoming life obstacles.
The first Homeric Hymn of Aphrodite tells the story of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, desire, and beauty. She is the daughter of Zeus and highly regarded among both immortals and mortal men. The story recounts the power that Aphrodite possesses as well as the limitations of her power. One limitation this hymn primarily focuses on is a situation in which Aphrodite is humiliated. This myth utilizes strategies such as story structure and word choice in order to describe how Aphrodite is humiliated.
Other authors after Homer also use reverence for a god’s domain as a tool to gain attention from the gods. In the Fragments, the author, Sappho, uses this tool to gain attention from the gods for herself. Sappho is a lover of love and her work shows her obsession with love as most of her partially retained and transcribed lyrics focus on love and its different forms. In supplication to the goddess Aphrodite, Sappho writes, “Deathless Aphrodite of the spangled mind… I beg you do not break with hard pains, O lady, my heart” (The Fragments, pg.3). Due to the fact that love is Aphrodite’s domain, Aphrodite pays attention to Sappho – someone who personifies and respects the power of love. Subsequently, after Sappho’s supplication, Aphrodite asks, “Whom should I persuade (now again) to lead you back into her love? Who, O Sappho, is wronging you?” (The fragments, pg.3). The use of the phrase ‘now again’ indicates that Aphrodite not only pays attention to Sappho, but that Aphrodite helps Sappho in issues of love repeatedly. Out of context, the phrase ‘now again’ also denotes and exasperated tone, however, the preceding context states that Aphrodite greeted Sappho smiling – a symbol of pleasure with another. Additionally, Sappho gains the attention of Hera because of her mention and praise of marriage in lyric 44, motherly love in lyric 132 and the praise of women throughout - all powers that lie under Hera’s domain. Recently in a newly discovered and transcribed lyric, Sappho says,
The opinion and image that most people have of Eros, the god of love in Greek mythology, often reflect the view and representation that people have for love itself. Since love is such a puzzling matter, people quickly form an ambivalent opinion toward Eros. Robert Bridges and Anne Stevenson reveal these uncertain feelings toward Eros in their poems directed to the Greek god of love through their diction, allowing readers to notice similarities and differences in their works. Although Bridges and Stevenson expose a level of uncertainty and sympathy toward Eros in their poems, both poets different inquisitive interpretations of Eros divulge their true and differing feelings toward
There are different forms of love, ranging from the lust of one another to a familial fondness. Two poets, Sappho and Catullus, each represent a different type of love in their respective poems. Sappho, a female poet born in the early sixth century B.C. on the Greek island of Lesbos, was said to be the tenth Muse and a supreme lyric poet of her time. Her life remains mostly a mystery, but through her poems it has been found out that she had a husband, and a daughter named Cleis. Catullus, a Roman poet that lived from roughly 84 to 54 B.C., found inspiration in and was influenced by Sappho, opting to write about love rather than politics like the rest of the poets of his time. He also popularized the style of “love elegy” in poems. Sappho and Catullus, as seen in “Sleep, Darling” and “If Ever Anyone Anywhere” respectively, use diction, the speaker, figurative language, and imagery in similar and different ways to express varying versions of love.
Aristotle states, "... the poet's function is not to report things that have happened, but rather to tell of such things as might happen, things that are possibilities by virtue of being in themselves inevitable or probable." (Aristotle 1150). In Aristotle's thinking poetry is higher more complex, and philosophical than history is (Aristotle 1151). Thus it is not only the form and structure different, the content is different as well, in essence each one expresses something different; history a fact and poetry the universal (Aristotle 1151).
The structure of this poem is unique. At first glance it may look like the words are all spaced out; however, after reading the poem and understanding its message, you are able to picture the poem in the shape of the ocean. The poem imitates the flow of the ocean. Spacing between the words occurs regularly in the poem. Be it one, two or three words on the own. By each individual word that is separated to be on it's own, following the structure in the poem; timing is the reason. The timing of the words being on their such as “distant” (Silko 2) and “Pale” (Silko 6); the poem creates pauses in the poem, to my opinion the reasoning is for emphasis.
In this Poem, Sappho is revealing the true nature of her romantic thoughts. When she states, “He is more than a hero ... he is a god in my eyes,” she is describing her forced admiration for the man that is with her forbidden lover. It is this deification of the male figure which suggests this to me, that the author can only classify the male as, because her true love only deserves a god at the least. In the following lines which proceed, “The man who is allowed to sit beside you,” this confirms that she is indeed the third person in this exchange between the female, the object of her desire and the male beside her, the man she envies figuratively and who also represents an antagonistic figure here.
Imagine yourself in a world in which the profound emotional need of affectionate love was non-existent. If that world somehow came to existence, what would then be the purpose and meaning of our lives? Now ask yourself, could you live a life with no purpose? Although the purpose of life is entirely subjective to each individual, a reoccurring theme of love has been expressed through stories over thousands of years suggesting that the need for love is deeply rooted within our very own being. Metamorphoses, a Latin narrative poem written by Roman poet Ovid, draws attention to change and social cohesion mainly by transfiguring characters within the poems. By examining Ovid’s Metamorphoses, specifically Book IX, glimpses of social cohesion through the reoccurrence theme of love have been brought to light. Ovid bases these poems on deep emotions of affection contrary to rational thinking while suggesting an encoded purpose of life: the need and search for deep affectionate love. While examining the poems within Book IX one can understand that a flashing insight into love encodes our world through the fundamental relationship between the sexes and therefore unifies our society by creating a sense of identity and purpose. Examining these two encodings will exemplify the understanding and discovery of what suggests as being the purpose of life. Although the poems
When Sappho expressed herself through her wonderful poetry, she spoke on behalf of many women of her time. Interestingly, she lived through verbal expression and spoke about it so refined in her own poetic style. She knew what women in antiquity wanted and expressed it so well in her writing style.