Sappho (c.600 BCE)

[angeldust]

Meqe ne kohen e Safos statuja ju beheshin vetem Perendive, imazhet e busteve te saj datojne shekuj mbasi ajo jetoi.


Immensely famous in the ancient world, Sappho was a lyric poet loved throughout the ages for the beauty of her writing. Her poems were collected into nine volumes in ancient libraries, but today only one complete poem survives. Then we have one sixteen-line fragment and the rest are bits, known mostly from later writers who quoted her work. In spite of this tragic loss, the intensity and power of her poetry can still be felt.

Sappho was reported to have been married. Apparently she had a daughter. She was also supposed to have hurled herself off a cliff into the sea (playing her poet's lyre all the while) out of unrequited love for some guy.

[angeldust]

The Hymn to Aphrodite


O Venus, daughter of the mighty Jove,
Most knowing in the mystery of love,
Help me, oh help me, quickly send relief,
And suffer not my heart to break with grief.

If ever thou didst hear me when I prayed,
Come now, my goddess, to thy Sappho's aid.
Orisons used, such favour hast thou shewn,
From heaven's golden mansions called thee down.

See, see, she comes in her cerulean car,
Passing the middle regions of the air.
Mark how her nimble sparrows stretch the wing,
And with uncommon speed their Mistress bring.

Arrived, and sparrows loosed, hastens to me;
Then smiling asks, What is it troubles thee?
Why am I called? Tell me what Sappho wants.
Oh, know you not the cause of all my plaints?

I love, I burn, and only love require,
And nothing less can quench the raging fire.
What youth, what raving lover shall I gain?
Where is the captive that should wear my chain?

Alas, poor Sappho, who is this ingrate
Provokes thee so, for love returning hate?
Does he now fly thee? He shall soon return;
Pursue thee, and with equal ardour burn.

Would he no presents at thy hands receive?
He will repent it, and more largely give.
The force of love no longer withstand;
He must be fond, wholly at thy command.

When wilt thou work this change? Now, Venus free,
Now ease my mind of so much misery;
In this amour my powerful aider be;
Make Phaon love, but let him love like me.



Translated by Herbert 1713

[angeldust]

Me sa duket Safo ishte dhe biseksuale sipas interpretimeve, megjithese pak dihet per te. Ose jane kenge dasmash qe ajo thurr per nusen.

Fragment 31 V
He seems to me to be like the gods--
whatever man sits opposite you
and close by hears you
talking sweetly

And laughing charmingly, which
makes the heart within my breast take flight;
for the instant I look upon you, I cannot anymore
speak one word,

But in silence my tongue is broken, a fine
fire at once runs under my skin,
with my eyes I see not one thing, my ears
buzz,

Cold sweat covers me, trembling
seizes my whole body, I am more moist than grass;
I seem to be little short
of dying...

But all must be ventured....

[abnk]

Me sa duket Safo ishte dhe biseksuale sipas interpretimeve, megjithese pak dihet per te. Ose jane kenge dasmash qe ajo thurr per nusen.

You don't say. Prej saj ka dale fjala "lesbian"--Sappho of Lesbos.

[angeldust]

Dhe une qe kujtoja se fjala lesbian ka dale prej emrit te ishullit. :D


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Sappho (Attic Greek Σαπφώ, Aeolic Greek Ψάπφα, Sapphô) was an Ancient Greek poet, from the city of Eressos on the island of Lesbos, which was a cultural centre in the 7th century BC. She was born sometime between 630 BC and 612 BC. It was said that she was small and dark.

Sappho, daughter of Scamander and Cleïs, was married (Attic comedy says to a wealthy merchant, but that is apocryphal) and had a daughter also named Cleïs. She became very famous in her day for her poetry—so much so that the city of Syracuse built a statue to honor her when she visited. Her family was politically active, which caused Sappho to travel a great deal. She was also noted during her life as the headmistress of a sort of Greek finishing school for girls. Most likely the objects of her poetry were her students.

She was a lyric poet who developed her own particular meter, known as sapphic meter, and she was credited for leading an aesthetic movement away from classical themes of gods, to the themes of individual human experience. An epigram in the Anthologia Palatina ascribed to Plato referred to her as the "tenth Muse".

Sappho wrote mainly love poems, of which only fragments survive, save a single complete poem, Fragment 1, "Hymn to Aphrodite". Given her reputation in the ancient world, since only fragments of her work remain, the world lost a valuable treasure in her work.

Some of her love poems were addressed to women. The word lesbian itself is derived from the name of the island of Lesbos from which she came. (She is also the origin of its much rarer synonym sapphic, derived from her name.)

Due to its homosexual content—and because of its explicit eroticism—her work was disapproved of by the Christian church, which is arguably the main reason why most of it has not survived, due to a combination of neglecting to copy it, and actively destroying it.


While in the modern period this content is well known, in ancient and medieval times she was more famous for (according to legend) throwing herself off a cliff due to unrequited love for a male sailor named Phaon. This legend dates to Ovid and Lucian in Ancient Rome and certainly is not a Christian overlay. It is not unusual for significant figures in Greek history to have conflicting accounts told about them. (Of particular note is that a purported consort of hers was named Cercglas of Andros, literally "Penis, from the town of Man"). As far as history is concerned, Sappho came from a noble family, had three brothers, married and had at least one daughter, was exiled to Syracuse for political reasons, returned in 581 BC, and died at old age.


Sappho in Literature
The philosopher Maximus from Tyrus (second half of 2nd c. AD), writes that Sappho was "small and dark" and that her relationships to her female friends were similar to those of Socrates:

What else was the love of the Lesbian woman except Socrates' art of love? For they seem to me to have practiced love each in their own way, she that of women, he that of men. For they say that both loved many and were captivated by all things beautiful. What Alcibiades and Charmides and Phaedrus were to him, Gyrinna and Atthis and Anactoria were to the Lesbian.
Plato has called Sappho the Tenth Muse and the mortal Muse.

Aelianus Claudius wrote in Assorted History (Ποικίλη ιστορία) that Plato called Sappho wise.

The Greek poet Odysseas Elytis (20th century AD from Lesbos) admired her in one of his Mikra Epsilon: .. Such a being, both sensitive and courageous, is not often presented by life. A small-built deep-dark-skinned girl, that did prove to be equally capable of subjugating a rose-flower, interpreting a wave or a nightingale, and saying 'I love you', to fill the globe with emotion.

Horace writes in his Odes that Sappho's lyrics are worthy of sacred admiration.

Lord Byron wrote the following lines about her in Childe Harold:

And onward viewed the mount, not yet forgot,
The lover's refuge and the Lesbian's grave.
Dark Sappho! could not verse immortal save
That breast imbued with such immortal fire?

Charles Baudelaire writes about Sappho in his volume of poetry The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du Mal).


Ancient Greek bust of Sappho the Eresia.