Ten Greatest Poets – Sappho, Tenth Muse

SAPPHO, TENTH MUSE

Greco-Roman civilization, together with Judaeo-Christianity, constitutes the foundation of Western civilization, which has spread its influence worldwide—notably, through colonialism and imperialism, in no small measure—influence that continues, considerably, to the present day.

From the Greeks the West received the patrimony of a deep, complex, and encompassing philosophy of life and of the world, joined to the value system underlying this philosophy.

The Romans established a durable framework of laws and institutions that constitutes the very core of Western political society today.

Because of the scope and influence of Western civilization, we choose at least one representative from Greco-Roman civilization for inclusion in our top ten.

Why Sappho? Why not Homer?

Homer well deserves inclusion in our top ten, so does Sappho. Elevated for their attainments in the epic and the lyric, respectively, they are the two foremost luminaries of Greek poetry. Their equal eminence leads us to evaluate their inclusion in the top ten according to another criterion cited earlier, female representation. That’s why Sappho wins out.

Sappho’s reputation precedes her. She was admired throughout antiquity. The ancients minted her likeness on coins and commemorated her image in painting and sculpture.

She was hailed as “The Poetess,” alluding to Homer’s honorific, “The Poet.” Plato exalted her as “the tenth Muse.”

Solon is reported to have asked his nephew to teach him a song of Sappho. When asked why, Solon replied, “So that I may learn it, then die.”

Hellenistic Alexandria includes her in the canon of the Nine Lyric Poets esteemed worthy of critical study. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C.E., scholars of the famed city compiled her complete works into eight, possibly nine volumes.

Sappho’s poetry was written to be sung, accompanied by a lyre—hence the origin of the term, “lyric poetry.” Her focusing on deep emotions and on the individual, interior experience is characteristic of the lyric genre.

Her influence on posterity is considerable, too extensive to adequately expound in this short blog.

I incline to mention one lasting legacy, the invention of the Sapphic meter. It consists of three lines of eleven beats concluding with one line of five beats.

Many footnotes about Sappho punctuate Western history, and they are readily consulted elsewhere, especially the sensational controversies concerning her alleged homoeroticism.

Sappho is estimated to have written 10,000 lines of lyric poetry, most of which have disappeared due to the vagaries of over two thousand years of transmission. History, sadly, bequeaths us only 650 lines. Most of her corpus was lost during the latter part of the Early Middle Ages. Over the centuries, interest in her work simply declined, principally because it was written in an Aeolic dialect of ancient Greek that fell into desuetude and that today is a dead language. Most of what is extant exists only in fragments. One complete poem, “Ode to Aphrodite,” remains.

Many fragments of Sappho’s work continue to show their timeless capacity to touch modern hearts. Consider, for example, the striking metaphor in the following fragment. Truncation of the original poem creates a haiku-like effect.  

Love shook my heart,

Like the wind on the mountain

Troubling the oak-trees.

Translation into English by A. S. Kline at this link:

https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Sappho.php

Sappho was renowned in ancient times and continues to be recognized today for her power to speak about love and passion in direct, honest, affecting words, revealing intimate, swelling emotion, as in the following fragment.

I have not had one word from her

Frankly I wish I were dead

When she left, she wept

a great deal; she said to me, “This parting must be

endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly.”

I said, “Go, and be happy,

but remember (you know

well) whom you leave shackled by love.

“If you forget me, think

of our gifts to Aphrodite

and all the loveliness that we shared,

“all the violet tiaras,

braided rosebuds, dill and

crocus twined around your young neck,

“myrrh poured on your head

and on soft mats, girls with

all that they most wished for beside them

“while no voices chanted

choruses without ours,

no woodlot bloomed in spring without song.”

Translation by Mary Barnard was originally published in Sappho (1958).

“Ode to Aphrodite,” the only complete Sappho poem we have, invites an appreciative reading.

Glancing at the poem in the original Aeolic exposes how alien indeed is Sappho’s poetry from our current time, how far removed from our Anglophone world.

Ποικιλόθρον', ἀθάνατ' Ἀφρόδιτα,

παῖ Δίος, δολόπλοκε, λίσσομαί σε

μή μ' ἄσαισι μήτ' ὀνίαισι δάμνα,

πότνια, θῦμον·

ἀλλὰ τυῖδ' ἔλθ', αἴποτα κἀτέρωτα

τᾶς ἔμας αὔδως ἀΐοισα πήλυι

ἒκλυες, πάτρος δὲ δόμον λίποισα

χρύσιον ἦλθες

ἄρμ' ὐποζεύξαισα· κάλοι δέ σ' ἆγον

ὤκεες στροῦθοι περὶ γᾶς μελαίνας

πύκνα δινεῦντες πτέρ' ἀπ' ὠράνω αἴθε-

ρας διὰ μέσσω.

αἶψα δ' ἐξίκοντο· τὺ δ', ὦ μάκαιρα,

μειδιάσαισ' ἀθανάτῳ προσώπῳ,

ἤρε', ὄττι δηὖτε πέπονθα κὤττι

δηὖτε κάλημι,

κὤττι μοι μάλιστα θέλω γένεσθαι

μαινόλᾳ θύμῳ· τίνα δηὖτε Πείθω

μαῖς ἄγην ἐς σὰν φιλότατα, τίς σ', ὦ

Ψάπφ', ἀδικήει;

καὶ γὰρ αἰ φεύγει, ταχέως διώξει,

αἰ δὲ δῶρα μὴ δέκετ' ἀλλὰ δώσει,

αἰ δὲ μὴ φίλει, ταχέως φιλήσει

κωὐκ ἐθέλοισα.

ἔλθε μοι καὶ νῦν, χαλεπᾶν δὲ λῦσον

ἐκ μεριμνᾶν, ὄσσα δέ μοι τελέσσαι

θῦμος ἰμέρρει, τέλεσον· σὺ δ' αὔτα

σύμμαχος ἔσσο.

English translation below of the Aeolic is a lyric gem.

ODE TO APHRODITE by Sappho

Original language Aeolic

Translated by Diane Rayor

On the throne of many hues, Immortal Aphrodite,

child of Zeus, weaving wiles: I beg you,

do not break my spirit, O Queen,

with pain or sorrow

but come—if ever before from far away

you heard my voice and listened,

and leaving your father’s

golden home you came,

your chariot yoked with lovely sparrows

drawing you quickly over the dark earth

in a whirling cloud of wings down

the sky through midair,

suddenly here. Blessed One, with a smile

on your deathless face, you ask

what have I suffered again

and why do I call again

and what in my wild heart do I most wish

would happen: “Once again who must I

persuade to turn back to your love?

Sappho, who wrongs you?

If now she flees, soon she’ll chase.

If rejecting gifts, then she’ll give.

If not loving, soon she’ll love

even against her will.”

Come to me now—release me from these

troubles, everything my heart longs

to have fulfilled, fulfill, and you

be my ally.

Aeolic, and English translation was originally published in Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works, edited and translated by Diane Rayor, introduction by André Lardinois (2014).

The poem is a religious prayer, petitionary, but it does not exhibit any of the attributes of formal rote. Notably, it demonstrates sentiment that we might describe as characteristically Sapphic—direct, honest, affecting, revealing intimate, swelling emotion.

Vyāsa, Compiler of the Vedas:

https://poetryofgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2018/06/ten-greatest-poets-vyasa.html

Sappho (1895) by Francis Coates Jones