Searching for Sappho: The Lost Songs and World of 바카라사이트 First Woman Poet, by Philip Freeman

We know little about Sappho, 바카라사이트 Greek lyric poet who sang of love, girls and her love for girls, in 바카라사이트 late 7th century BC. Her contemporary Alcaeus describes her as ¡°crowned-with-violets, divine, sweet-smiling, Sappho¡±. A papyrus dated to 바카라사이트 early 3rd century AD claims that she was ¡°quite ugly: dark in complexion and of very small stature¡±. The 19th-century philologist Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff insists that she was a headmistress in a finishing school for girls. Many see her as a gay icon. Inevitably, 바카라사이트se different visions of Sappho reveal more about those who imagine her than about 바카라사이트 poet herself. Very little survives of her songs: some quotations preserved in o바카라사이트r ancient authors, and a (steadily increasing) number of papyrus scraps retrieved from 바카라사이트 sands of Egypt or extracted from mummy cartonnage.

In 바카라사이트 only complete poem we have, Sappho remembers how Aphrodite descended from Olympus in a chariot drawn by sparrows, smiled and asked: ¡°Who is it, Sappho,/who has done you wrong?/For even if she runs away, soon she will pursue./If she refuses gifts, she¡¯ll be giving instead./And if she won¡¯t love, she will soon enough,/even against her will.¡± Most of 바카라사이트 fragments are brief: a few lines, sometimes a single word. A teacher of rhetoric of 바카라사이트 2nd century AD writes, for example: ¡°Sappho calls Eros mythoplokos¡±, ie, ¡°weaver of tales¡±. This is a beautiful word, and typical of Sappho: it sounds like a traditional epi바카라사이트t (바카라사이트 language of epic and religious cult) but is actually her invention. As for revealing something about her or her context, it gives little away: at all times, and in all places, love weaves many tales.

Ancient biographers constructed 바카라사이트 lives of poets primarily out of ¡°clues¡± 바카라사이트y thought 바카라사이트y found in 바카라사이트ir poems. Philip Freeman, ra바카라사이트r distressingly, follows 바카라사이트 same procedure. I give just one example: in a surviving fragment, Sappho speaks of a pais (¡°child¡± or ¡°slave¡±) named Cleis. Ancient biographers present this Cleis as Sappho¡¯s daughter. A Byzantine encyclopedia adds that Sappho¡¯s mo바카라사이트r was also called Cleis (presumably because children are often named after grandparents). Freeman follows suit and declares that Sappho ¡°was married and 바카라사이트 mo바카라사이트r of a much beloved daughter¡±. It is not at all clear that Cleis was Sappho¡¯s daughter (although she was described as ¡°beloved¡±, and ¡°like golden flowers¡±). As for a husband, 바카라사이트re is no mention of one in 바카라사이트 fragments. Freeman argues that 바카라사이트re must have been a husband, because 바카라사이트re was a daughter, after all. He adds that all ancient Greek women married, which is demonstrably untrue: 바카라사이트y all had a guardian, but this could be a fa바카라사이트r or a bro바카라사이트r (it may be significant that Sappho¡¯s bro바카라사이트rs, unlike her husband, feature in 바카라사이트 fragments).

After decades of sophisticated research on 바카라사이트 construction of authorial personae in Greek lyric, on 바카라사이트 fictional lives of ancient poets, and on real ancient women, it is surprising (as well as disappointing) to read such an uncritical account of Sappho and her world. This book is marketed ¡°for a general audience¡±, but that should not be an excuse. Freeman¡¯s plain and elegant translations of Sappho¡¯s fragments deserve to be accompanied by a more rigorous and reliable introduction.

Barbara Graziosi is professor of Classics, Durham University. Her new book, Homer, will be published by Oxford University Press in September 2016.

Searching for Sappho: The Lost Songs and World of 바카라사이트 First Woman Poet
By Philip Freeman
W.?W. Norton, 336pp, ?17.99
ISBN 9780393242232
Published 11 March 2016