Amanda ae

Sappho and sexuality in archaic lesbos

Abstract

Sexuality in archaic Lesbos was as erotic as it was patriarchal. Sappho’s fragmentary poems became a thematic expression of implied sexuality, as the suggestion of intimacy encompassed feminine traits of flowers or delicate touches between women. Yet, the historicity of Ancient Greek sexuality suggests limitations to exist in an overt homoeroticism between women, as its patriarchal structure identified same-sex relations to cater exclusively to pederasty¹. In this essay, I seek to examine the sexuality of women in Archaic Lesbos through Sappho’s pathic expressions by juxtaposing the heterosexual and homoerotic intimacy present in her poetics. The paper will exclusively cover Ovid’s Heroides XV and Fragment 94 of Sappho’s poetics, to further argue that homosexuality was present not only in Sappho’s work, but also commonly acted upon by women in archaic Lesbos.  

Sappho’s ‘circle of girls’ was recognized by an educational and cultural application that focused on cultivating the ‘pupils’ to be socially integrated in female-led practices, such as raising the household and children, while also contributing to the prospect of marriage. Akin to the puberty and entry into adulthood we experience, Sappho fostered the intellect and intimate friendships, while also referring to the young girls as ‘companions’ (hetairai). Rosler develops the relationship as, “The cultivation of physical appearance and personal charm, artistic competence, and the expert observance of religion were all important areas, as was the induction to the erotic and sexual achieve by encouraging and fostering homoerotic relations within the circle².” Yet, the cultural climate of modern-day sexuality presents a disparate outlook as the labels, expressions, or community are politicized and representative of cultural integration. Therefore, the analysis applied extends to a basic conception of sexuality, where same-sex intimacy is argued not through sexual displays but with an iconographic and symbolic expression of sexuality expressed between two women.  

Chapter 1: Sappho’s Suicide & Heterosexuality 

Heterosexuality as a dominant form of cultural and sexual identity, finds root in historical references to Sappho. The female muse and poet was linked to Phaon within Ovid’s, Heroides XV, through the depiction of an unrequited, heterosexual intimacy that ultimately led to her suicide. Phaon, a boatman residing in Lesbos, was characterized by his unattractive appearance and generosity toward his Lesbian passengers. Aphrodite, upon hearing of this kindness, pursued a test of his character by dressing up as a frail, old woman. The myth concludes, “They say that she transformed him—rewarded the old man with youth and beauty. This is the Phaon, the love for whom Sappho often put in song³.” Investigating further into their relationship becomes arduous, as Phaon lacks further historical relevance in either the Greek cannon or through mythological narratives; the opposite could be said for Sappho, even with limited surviving work. Judith Hallet, in her piece, ‘Sappho and Her Social Context: Sense and Sexuality,’ examines the poetic phenomena of Sappho sexual relationships within the Hellenistic period. Hallet writes, “Various works from the fourth century onward also represent Sappho as a mythic heroine, driven by her love for a younger man, Phaon, to a dramatic suicide⁴.” 

Ovid Heroides XV: 

The ‘dramatic suicide’ of Sappho is referenced in Ovid’s Heroides XV, as the poet publishes an extensive letter to depict a distraught Sappho, who declines into suicidal ideation. Ovid’s characterization of Sappho centres a woman in love to the point of insanity, who irrational behaviours are synonymous with infatuation rather than love. Moreso, she applies her desire topically, to the youth and aesthetic of Phaon that left her lyric arguments barren of intimacy. Halfway down the letter, Sappho exclaims: 

What is Lesbos to me? I wish I were Sicilian.  

 Oh you Nisean mothers, and Nisean daughters,  

send back the wandered from your shores!  

Don’t let the lying endearments of his tongue deceive you:  

what he says to you, he said before to me⁵. 

Sappho’s authorial intention with ‘I’ calls to the personal, possessive emotions she is presently experiencing, within the “tension between past pleasure and present despair⁶” of remembering Phaon. This memory of lovesickness, of the intimacy she shared as they “[…] both abandoned to pleasure, [amongst] that deepest languor of our weary bodies⁷,” and the reciprocation of thoughts that cultivated the relationships became ‘lying endearments’ to Sappho. Ovid depicts their love as poisonous to Sappho’s body. The treachery, heartbreak, and eventual death, posit love within a heterosexual relationship to erode the identity of Sappho all together. Moreover, she recalls moments of dysphoria, where the work of the female poet that has been published and recognized within Lesbos, would not even be identified by her lover, Phaon. Ovid developed such insight within the beginning of his letter, by writing, “[…] he would not know where this work came from in short, unless you’d read the name of its author, Sappho⁸?” The presence of degrading attitudes, of a lover incapable of identifying his partner, commences Sappho to warn the readers of this letter, emphasizing ‘Nisean mothers, and Nisean daughters⁹’ to not fall for the aesthetic youth and charmful language. The memory of their intimacy is not cherished, but rather a cautionary tale that concludes in death, pain, and devastation. 

Furthermore, Sappho’s turn to nature is not coincidental. Within a contemporary application, a rise in eco-feministic movements, can explicate the utilization of nature to argue despair within patriarchal institutions. Developed by Francoise d’Eaubonne, the critic argued, “the patriarchy is responsible for both environmental disasters (through overproduction and the capitalist logic) and the subjugation of women (by appropriating women’s bodies)¹⁰.” When applied to Sappho’s poetics, and Ovid’s production of the female poet’s diction, the call to nature becomes fundamental, as seen in Fragment 2, “[…] In the meadow where horses graze / spring flowers are in bloom, and breezes gently / blow¹¹,” or in Fragment 105c, “Like the hyacinth in the mountains, trampled / underfoot by shepherds – flattened on the grounds / the purple flower¹².” Nature becomes vibrant and harmonious within Sappho’s work, to connect her subjectivity with the ever-changing environment of Lesbos. Moreso, the femininity is expanded by the flora and fauna utilized as flowers grow seamlessly, the breeze blows gently, and the animals move naturally; it all becomes idyllic to Sappho. Yet, her connection to nature in Ovid’s Heroides XV is drastically violent, with lines such as: 

My love is weeping: it’s elegiac verse that weeps: 

I don’t set any of my tears to the lyre. 

I’m scorched, as a cornfield burns, its rich crop set alight 

by a wild south-easterly, bringing lightning¹³. 

This performance of love declared by Sappho is entirely a manifestation of the male poet, Ovid. The publishes letters of Heroides were designed as fanatical and utilized as, “a collection of imaginary letters from heroines and heroes from mythology¹⁴,” yet, Sappho’s reputation is historically defined as she is a recognized figure within the poetics, either through her work alone or as the Tenth Muse. So, why did Ovid create such a harrowing representation of Sappho, pushed to the limits of grief? He wanted to portray her eroticism through female authorship, to make it seem as if the lust felt for Phaon was realized and even further, exhibited by an emotional vulgarity of a women in love. Arguably, Sappho’s lamentation is two-fold for both the poet and the speaker, as the emotional discourse suggest new political attitudes toward sexuality; if a woman was to experience love in such a devastating manner, then the heterosexual relationship should be re-examined as proper within cultural and sexual expectations. Similarly, Vicky Rimell argues toward a re-evaluation Ovid implicitly alludes to, as her text, ‘Epistolary Fictions: Authorial Identity in “Heroides” 15,’ generates questions of authorial intention, writing, “Just how authentic, or how written is Sappho in this self-conscious erotic alignment of His n Hers, Roman and Greek love poets¹⁵?” The authenticity Rimell vocalizes, challenges the authorial intention of Ovid within his letters, as the historical figure of Sappho as a teacher to women and a poet who writes on women, would suddenly appear to be a lovesick heterosexual.  

Moreover, the promiscuity, desire, and anguish Sappho laments upon was so gruesome, the context of the letter did not waver. In fact, her shrill cries emphasized the steady continuation of her grief throughout her relationship with Phaon. She even recalls such moments in the letter with: “[…] but when I read my poems, I seemed beautiful enough, indeed / you swore I was the only one, fit  to speak for ever¹⁶,” and “[…] must my painful fate fulfil its tender beginning, / and always be bitter in its course.¹⁷”  At its bare minimum, Sappho’s executed grief posits the young, female poet as unhappy, cautious, and desperate to experience mutual desire. Ovid interpretation of their relationship is held with intention, as his illustration of the female poet comes to produce a culture saturated in sex, and affected by its violence.  

Chapter 2: Homoeroticism 

By the twenty-first century, Sappho’s cultural identity became labelled as, “the emblem of female homosexuality¹⁸.” This contemporary label of ‘Lesbian’ assigned to the poet, presents approaches to sexuality that otherwise would not precede sexual or intimate encounters with men and women historically. Rather, the positioning of bodies during the encounters was a key indication of social status, a cultural patriarchy shaped the designation of individual dominance in sex if the body was positioned in an active or passive role. Sandra Boehringer on ’Female Homoeroticism’ delivers a fresh perspective on homosexuality, stating, ”[it is] far from being regarded as different from other erotic emotions, [and] was suited for public art and performances¹⁹.’ The performance of erotic gratification was allegorically imaginative, as a way for society to process two women co-existing sexually, while also not fully accepting the action when presented up close. This is not to say that homoeroticism between women was not apparent at any time in history, as Mueller says it best,  ”Sappho and her contemporaries may not have been familiar with the binary axes of sexual orientation that we use today, but their passions and persuasions were fundamentally the same as our own²⁰.” Therefore, if the discussion of homoeroticism is exclusively reliant on women’s interaction, then gender must be explored further.  

 The institutional, patriarchal role provides an insight into the separation of sexes that ultimately leads to a silencing of internal and external desires of women. Mueller continues her chapter by specifying female sexuality in relation to Sappho and laying the groundworks for historical gendered roles present in Archaic Lesbos. She writes, “[…] women in ancient Greece did not have the freedom to embrace queer identity. They were expected to marry. Their social lives centred around domestic and ritual activities, including care for their husband, household, and children²¹.” The reference to the inability to ’embrace queer identity’ corroborates with the imposed social, patriarchal demands that homosexuality was preferred when it catered to men. As mentioned previously with pederasty, the performance of homoeroticism was reliant on status of gender or wealth to allow public displays of affection, which would be seen as customary outside the heteronormative. Moreso, the civil approach to marriage as a role women must tend too, suggest that homosexuality was eclipsed for the benefit of the nation-state, whether that be through the production of children, or upkeep of the household. Therefore, when processing ’Sappho’s Confession’, the declaration of homoeroticism and female desire breakdowns cultural expectations and patriarchal systems, through radically speaking upon female, homoerotic lust.  

Fragment 94: Sappho’s Confession 

One of the most notable texts from Sappho on female sexuality is Fragment 94, commonly referred to as ‘Sappho’s Confession²².’ The piece corroborates with literary evidence referenced above, toward Sappho’s circle of young girls, where she was seen, “[…] as having the essentially initiatory function of socialising young girls and managing their transition from maidens to marriageable young women²³.” 

By the end of teaching, the young women are deemed equipped for Greek society and available for marriage, yet one of Sappho’s hetairai²⁴ (companion) laments toward her personal despair as she prepares to leave her mentor. The opening lines of the piece, depict the young woman urging upon suicide as a solution to her despair, yet this corroboration with death differs from Sappho’s suicide in Heroides XV. The pupil’s claim, “I’m not pretending; I wish I were dead²⁵,” is not driven by despondency, but rather a sadness, as she departs the mutual relationship whether that is between a student and teacher or from female to female. Sappho’s response to the young women fills the void of devastation toward her companion, by suggesting an eroticism built on memory; should the young women enter society for marriage, her memories should not be tarnished by the sadness she is currently experiencing. The remainder of Fragment 94 continues as such: 

Go and be happy; remember me,  

for you know how we have paid court to you: 

and if not, then I want to remind you … and the good things we have enjoyed: 

for at my side, many the crowns of violets and roses … you have put on yourself, 

and many the garlands woven from flowers you have cast round your delicate neck, 

and with quantities of … flowery perfume … fit for a queen even, you anointed yourself all over, and on soft beds …  delicate … you have satisfied desire²⁶.  

From the personal pronoun, ‘I’, to Sappho intentionally incorporating herself with the unnamed woman to become a ‘we,’ argues toward a coming together through memory. As Sappho reminisces back to a time together ‘on soft beds²⁷,’ the intimate sentiments strung together allude to a secrecy of sexuality, that only the women can grasp, can yearn for. The poet leans into the perfume that has been anointed over the young woman, until she is ‘fit for a queen even²⁸.’ The softness of remembering their desire for each other seeps into the unconventional work of homoeroticism at the time, to sink into a normalcy of two women, lying in a bed together, smelling of roses and surrounded by flowers. By the sheer intimacy proclaimed in the poem, Sappho wants the reader to experience the sexual tension, the delicate touches and the ‘satisfied desire²⁹’ both are feeling.  

Moreso, Sappho’s incitement of nostalgia, between ‘remember me’ and ‘the good things we have enjoyed³⁰’ are profoundly sensual, calling out to the young woman to carry out their memory, while also directly implying she wants to be remembered by the woman as well. The flowers Sappho references produce a tone of sexual endeavours at the indication of, ‘many the crowns of violets and roses.’ In George Osmun’s, ‘Roses of Antiquity,’ the production of roses, signify an intimacy found between lovers, as he writes, “Rose petals were scattered on beds, and lovers garlanded and pelted each other with roses³¹.” Philostratus would also go on to reference roses in his piece, Love Letters, to explicate his pederastic, sexual feelings with quotes such as, “The rose suits all boys… it is the hair of spring, the brightness of the earth, the torch of love³²,” and “[…] you are fair and beautiful, and on your cheeks your own roses bloom, so that you need no others besides³³.” Therefore, as Sappho summons a memory of both women, with poignancy to reference the roses that crowed the head and caressed the neck, it was to affect the emotional, sensual aspect of their relationship. Sappho, in her declaration to satisfy the despair of the young girl she mentored, could only think to replicate a moment of feverish peace and feminine desires.  

Bruno Gentili’s application of an anthropological methodology, approaches ‘Sappho’s Confession’ through a mode of memory both women have yet to fully conceive, by arguing toward the practicality of gaps by which they will remember each other by. The Italian scholar comes to write, “Memory is not simply, as in Homer, a means of evoking emotions and sensations: it reactualizes shared experiences in paradigmatic fashion and offers the assurance that the life lived together exists as an absolute reality beyond time and space³⁴.” The shared experience of Sappho and the unnamed women surpass the iconography of flowers and delicate touches, by resisting the constraints of silence, or masking these shared feelings of love, through remembering in declaration, and by Sappho’s doing, in written form. The reactualization of the ‘good things we have enjoyed’ and the pathic expression of ‘satisfied desires’ must produce a reality for both women outside of the fragment alone, by which their mutual love can be expressed physically.  

Overall, the act of female homoeroticism, through its appeasement of patriarchal standards and innate silencing of women through reproduction, marriage, and upkeep on the household, has remained intact through Sappho’s fragmentary voice. Demonstrated in Bruno Gentili’s contempered agreement on spacial memory to Melissa Mueller’s contextualization of female sexuality during the Archaic period, Sappho’s poetics exhibit homoeroticism as normative and crucial to female experience at the time.  

Conclusion 

A window to queer experience, Sappho’s homoerotism represents a linear, collective history of sexual desire. The literature presented validates the connection of heterosexuality and homoeroticism within Fragment 94 of Sappho and Ovid’s Heroides XV, by illustrating a change in pathic expressions from suicidal ideation to feverish desire through memory. I have argued toward a contemporary approach to sexuality in conjunction with an iconographic exploration of femininity to suggest a timeline of homosexual similarities.  

Bibliography: 

Baca, Albert, ‘Ovid’s Epistle from Sappho to Phaon (Heroides 15),’ Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, v. 102, 1971, pp. 29-39, < https://doi.org/10.2307/2935935> 

Boehringer, Sandra, ‘Female Homoeroticism,’ A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities, ed. Thomas K. Hubbard, 2013, <https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118610657.ch9> 

Burnett, Anne, ‘Desire and Memory (Sappho Frag.94),’ Classical Philology, The University of Chicago Press, 74(1), 1979, pp. 16-27. < https://www.jstor.org/stable/268259> 

Gentili, Bruno, Poetry and its Public in Ancient Greece: From Homer to the Fifth Century, trans. Thomas Cole, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1988.  

Hallet, Judith, ‘Sappho and Her Social Context: Sense and Sensuality,’ Signs, 4(3), 1979, pp. 447-464, <https://www.jstor.org/stable/3173393>  

Klinck, Anne, ‘Sappho’s Company of Friends,’ Hermes, 136. Jahrg., H. 1, 2008, pp. 15-29. <> 

Mueller, Melissa, ‘Sappho and Sexuality,’ in The Cambridge Companion to Sappho, ed. Patrick Finglass & Adrian Kelly, Cambridge University Press, 2021, pg. 38. 

Osmun, George, ‘Roses of Antiquity,’ in The Classical Outlook, 52(10), 1975, pp. 114-116, < https://www.jstor.org/stable/43936522> 

Ovid, ‘Sappho to Phaon,’ in The Heroides VIII to VX, trans. A.S. Kline, Poetry in Translation, 2001, <https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Heroides8-15.php#anchor_Toc524696652> 

Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Things, trans. ToposText, Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, 2019, < https://topostext.org/work/808#48> 

Prettejohn, Elizabeth, ‘Solomon, Swinburne, Sappho,’ Victorian Review, Project MUSE, 34(2), 2008, pp. 103-128, <https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/vcr.2008.0034>. 

Ranc, Agathe, ‘Françoise d’Eaubonne and the Imperfect Foundation of Ecofeminist Thought,’ Green Europe Journal, 2022, < https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/francoise-deaubonne-and-the-imperfect-foundation-of-ecofeminist-thought/> 

Rimell, Vicky, ‘Epistolary Fictions: Authorial Identity in “Heroides” 15,’ in Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, No. 45, 1999, pp. 109-135, <https://www.jstor.org/stable/44696750?seq=1> 

Spraggs, Gillian, Fragment 94, trans. Gillian Spraggs, 2006, < http://www.gillianspraggs.com/translations/sappho94.html> 

University of Iowa, ‘Sappho – Poems,’ ed. Peter Jay, The Iowa Review, 15(2), 1985, pp. 90-95, < https://www.jstor.org/stable/20156195> 

Wolfgang Rosler, ‘Sappho and Alcaeus,’ in The Cambridge Companion to Sappho, ed. Patrick Finglass & Adrian Kelly, Cambridge University Press, 2021, 65-76. 

Citations

¹For further information on pederasty as a social and cultural phenomena in Ancient Greece, see T.K.Hubbard, ‘Popular Perceptions of Elite Homosexuality in Classical Athens, Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, 3^rd Series, 6(1), 1998, pp. 49. Hubbard emphasizes, “[…] the young men who had the time and leisure to lounge about the gymnasia watching beautiful boys in all of nature’s glory who had the financial resources to offer them the conventional gifts of courtship, and who had the intellectual and social skills necessary to offer pleasing courtship.” 

² Wolfgang Rosler, ‘Sappho and Alcaeus,’ in The Cambridge Companion to Sappho, ed. Patrick Finglass & Adrian Kelly, Cambridge University Press, 2021, 67.

³ Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Things, trans. ToposText, Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, 2019.

⁴ Judith Hallet, ‘Sappho and Her Social Context: Sense and Sensuality,’ Signs, 4(3), 1979, pp. 448. 

⁵ Ovid, ‘Sappho to Phaon,’ in The Heroides VIII to VX, trans. A.S. Kline, Poetry in Translation, 2001, ll. 52-56. 

⁶ Burnett, Anne, ‘Desire and Memory (Sappho Frag.94),’ Classical Philology, The University of Chicago Press, 74(1), 1979, pp. 16.

⁷ Ovid 2001: ll. 49-50.

⁸ Ovid 2001: ll. 3-4.

⁹ Ovid 2001: l. 53.

¹⁰ Agathe Ranc, ‘Françoise d’Eaubonne and the Imperfect Foundation of Ecofeminist Thought,’ Green Europe Journal, 2022.

¹¹ University of Iowa, ‘Sappho – Poems,’ ed. Peter Jay, The Iowa Review, 15(2), 1985, pp. 91, ll. 9-11. 

¹² University of Iowa 1985: p. 95. 

¹³ Ovid 2001: ll.7-10. 

¹⁴ Beca Albert, ‘Ovid’s Epistle from Sappho to Phaon (Heroides 15),’ Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philogical Association, v. 102, 1971, p. 29.

¹⁵ Vicky Rimell, ‘Epistolary Fictions: Authorial Identity in “Herodies 15,” Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, No. 45, 1999, p. 109.

¹⁶ Ovid 2001: ll.41-42.

¹⁷ Ovid 2001: 59-60.

^18. Elizabeth Prettejohn, ‘Solomon, Swinburn, Sappho,’ Victorian Review, Project MUSE, 34(2), 2008, p.103.

^19. Sandra Boehringer, ‘Female Homoeroticism,’ A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities, ed. Thomas K. Hubbard, 2014, p.152.

²⁰ Boehringer 2021: 36.

²¹ Melissa Mueller, ‘Sappho and Sexuality,’ The Cambridge Companion to Sappho, ed. Patrick Finglass & Adrian Kelly, Cambridge University Press, 2021, p.38.

²² For further use of this term, see Stephanie Larson, ‘τεθνάκην δ’ άδόλως θέλω: Reading Sappho’s ‘Confession’ (fr.94),’ Mnemosyne, vol 63, no. 2, 2010, pp. 175-202.

²³ Anne Klinck, ‘Sappho’s Company of Friends,’ Hermes, 136. Jahrg, H, 1, 2008, p.15.

²⁴ For further information on hetairai, see Joel Lidov, ’Sappho, Herodotus, and the ”Hetaira”,’ Classical Philology, 97(3), 2002, pp. 203-37, JSTOR, <https://www.jstor.org/stable/1215522>; Lidov writes, ”The term hetaira has a double life in the late fifth century. The older usage, to refer to a woman as a member of a group with a common interest, parallel to hetairos, existed side-by-side with the sexualized meaning. 

²⁵ Gillian Spraggs, ‘Fragment 94,’ trans. Gillian Spaggs, 2006, l.1.

²⁶ Spraggs 2006: ll. 7-13.

²⁷ Spraggs 2006: l. 13.

²⁸ Spraggs 2006: l.12

²⁹ Spraggs 2006: l. 13.

³⁰ Spraggs 2006: l.9.

³¹ George Osmun, ‘Roses of Antiquity,’The Classical Outlook, 52(10), 1975, p.115.

³² Ibid.

³³ Ibid.

³⁴ Bruno Gentili, ‘Poetry and its Public in Ancient Greece: From Homer to the Fifth Century,’ trans. Thomas Cole, Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 1988, pp. 83-84.