What Is Sappho's Influence On Greek Culture

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.

In the first quatrain of “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…”, the speaker is already showing that this is not an ordinary love poem. He says, “my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (line 1). This metaphor depicts that the woman does not have bright eyes. Most poets would use a cliché to describe a woman’s eyes as bright or like sapphires, but the speaker is saying there is nothing special about her eyes. Next, the speaker describes the woman’s lips. The color coral is slightly orange, but he believes coral is more red than her lips. Also, most poets would describe their subjects to have bright, shiny red lips (2). In these two lines, the speaker compares his mistress to things found in nature, and many people associate beauty with nature. However, that is not the case with this poem. He describes her as the complete opposite. In line 3, the woman’s skin is described as gray which makes it seem like her skin is dull. In Shakespeare's time, pale skin was more desirable, and since she does not have a pale complexion, it would make her less attractive. The speaker then compares her hair to wire in this line: “If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head” (4). A beautiful woman is usually described as having silky locks. That is the opposite in this poem. This comparison depicts the woman to have hair that lacks

The Iliad and The Odyssey are tales written by Homer centered on the drama of the Trojan War. First poem deals with the time during the end of the war, while the latter, which occurs roughly ten years later, explains the disastrous journey of Odysseus fighting his way back home. The character of women in the Odyssey is to exhibit the many and diverse roles that women play in the lives of men. These functions vary from characters such as the goddess ' that help them to the nymphs who trick them. Women in the Iliad exhibit their significance in the lives of the ancient Greeks because they are so prominent in a world so dominated with military relations.

I personally love this poem for the idea of love and beauty that is in the eyes of the beholder. The fact that Sappho ties the culture and their stories of history along with her idea of beauty into one piece allows me to also think about what I might consider beautiful. And that beauty isn’t just beauty but it is love and respect. While I would never find beauty in anything war related I’m sure I’d have a different view if I lived during that time period but I can actually find a relation in myself to the people of Sappho’s time because of her work. I can imagine standing in awe of the army marching away to war as well as being in awe of a beautiful queen. While I find beauty in the ocean I’m sure I’d find beauty in the Greek

In “I” the ever present theme of love is very evident. Sappho lists things that people believe to be the most beautiful things on earth, “array of horsemen / and others of marching men / and others of ships” (line 2-3). However, she does not hold these things to have more beauty over the others. She believes that beauty has a different meaning to everyone. She uses Helen, daughter of Zeus, for an example. Helen left her husband to follow her heart. Anactoria is Sappho’s beauty. “For I would rather watch her… than all the force of Lydian chariots,” (19 & 22).

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,

While at the same time as exemplifying masculinity through chivalry this line also begins the subversion of gender roles by putting the woman in the more dominant position - she is now in control of this situation. In the following line it is stated that “all the others honored her and offered to serve her” (166). The use of the verbs honor and offer are direct effects of the way they “see” her which continues to implicate the importance of her beauty while also putting her in a dominant role. This is emphasized once again in lines 611-612 “When they had looked at her well, when they greatly praised her beauty” (166). This is another instance in which a verb, “praised,” is a direct result of seeing her beauty. This direct relation between such verbs and her presence helps to demonstrate her force and impact as a woman along with her characterization as a sovereign being. In lines 613-614 it is stated that “she spoke in this way, she didn’t want to wait”

The myth of how the war between the Greeks and the Trojans began, itself, shows women, in this case goddesses, in an unflattering light, fighting like vain beauty queens over which one is more beautiful. In fact, the very character of these three goddesses is at the least reprehensible and mirrors the conception of many ancient, male-driven societies of women being fickle, disloyal temptresses. Hera is the paranoid, jealous wife who viciously strikes out at her husband's lovers, Aphrodite is a kind of divine harlot, and Athena, although the most admirable of the group, nevertheless gives in to petty emotions and is an odd choice to be guardian of wisdom, since no women were allowed in the academies or thought of by men as being particularly wise. Thetis' intentions are the exception to the trivial designs of her immortal counterparts, for she is always the devoted mother of Achilles, trying to do what is best for her son. Athena may give aid to the Greek cause, but only because she was not picked by Paris as the most fair. The only mortal woman in the Iliad who seems to have any redeeming qualities, and to whom we are not introduced for any real amount of time, in contrast to Hecuba, is Andromache, who makes a brief, yet lasting appearance as Hector's wife. For the most part, however, women in the Iliad are placed decidedly in the background, at best shown as accessories to their male spouses.

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.

Women play an enormous role in the Iliad and even though they do not actually fight in the war their presents in the lives of the protagonist change the war completely. Their roles, though small from line to line, had huge impacts on the war overall. From Hector’s love for Andromache who fought for the Trojans nonmatter what, and Achilles not fighting for the Achaeans because of Brises, to Paris capture of Helen that started the whole war Homer really emphases these women’s role and influence in the different male protagonist and the Trojan war

The role of women in Greek literature has demoralized them and showing them in a maligned light. The women are portrayed as frail, cruel, insensitive, or as seductresses. These characteristics have been integrated into today’s society and [have] built the standards and defined the moral outlook of women. However, in Greek mythology, powerful and strong women are not as well celebrated, such as Athena. Homer’s The Odyssey construes the positive and negative role of women through the epic poem. The women in the poem are depicted through the contrasting actions of Penelope and the maids, in addition with the opposite personalities between the goddess Athena and the nymph Calypso.

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.

Homer’s Iliad is undoubtedly focused on its male characters: Achilles, primarily, but also Hector and Agamemnon. Nevertheless, it seems that the most crucial characters in the epic are female. Homer uses the characters of Thetis, Andromache, and Helen as a basis for comparison to the male characters. Homer wants his audience to see and understand the folly of his male characters in choosing war over peace, aggression over kindness, and honor over family. While the behavior of these characters clearly speaks for itself, the contrasting attitudes and behaviors of the female characters proffer an alternative; in comparison, the reader can hardly fail to concur with Homer’s message that war, aggression,

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.