Sappho (c. 610, Lesbos, Greece - died c. 570 BCE) was a Greek lyric poet who was greatly admired for her concise, direct, and picturesque writing style. Very little is known of her life but that she was held in high acclaim as most women were on Lesbos. Sappho came from wealth and was able to attend school just as her brothers had done. Sappho chose to convey erotic impluse towards woman. The socially acceptable style of man chasing woman was not something she wanted to write. Sappho had written what is said to be some of the most intense and immediate love poems. Being a poet of that time period, Sappho may have found her audience because at the time, before marriage girls were encouraged to cultivate female poetry and friendships.

There were nine volumes of work Sappho had created that did not survive the Middle Ages, only fragments remain. The Ode to Aphrodite, 28 lines long, is one of the most complete texts that were discovered. More fragments have been found as more escavaions occurred since 1898. There is nothing equal in quality to the two longer poems of Sappho; that has been the opinion of many scholars. Because of the time period most story tellings were told verbally and through song, in order to be remembered and passed onto future generations.

Poems are considered lyrics when it represents an utterance in the first person, an expression of personal feelings, according to a model of modern lyric reading that diverges from the way poems were performed and read in antiquity. Alternatively as an expressive reading, a poem may be considered lyric when it foregrounds the musicality of language by appeal to the ear or to the eye. Sometimes poems are called lyrics simply because they are short; sometimes lyrics is defined in opposition to narrative, assuming a modern binary in literary modes. Increasingly, the lyrics are a way to describe the essence of poetry, a poem at its most poetic.

Sappho’s Ode To Aphrodite:

“Immortal Aphrodite of the shimmering throne, daughter of Zeus, weaver of wiles, I pray thee crush not my spirit with anguish and distress, O Queen. But come hither if ever before thou didst hear my voice afar, and hearken, and leaving the golden house of thy father, camest with chariot yoked, and swift birds drew thee, their swift pinions fluttering over the dark earth, from heaven through mid-space. Quickly they arrived; and thou blessed one with immortal countenance smiling didst ask: What now is befallen me and why now I call and what I in my heart's madness, most desire. What fair one now wouldst thou draw to love thee? Who wrongs thee Sappho? For even if she flies she shall soon follow and if she rejects gifts, shall soon offer them and if she loves not shall soon love, however reluctant. Come I pray thee now and release me from cruel cares, and let my heart accomplish all that it desires, and be thou my ally”

The voice of the poem, Sapphos, cries out to the Goddess of love, pleasure and passion, Aphrodites, daughter of Zeus, for help in her love battle. She begs Aphrodite not to kill her by means of her unrequited love. She must hear Sapphos long lost cries for help no matter how far they must travel. The sky opens and the blinding beauty of the Goddess in her gold chariot comes to Sappho’s aid. With deep inquires as to who and how Aphrodite can assist Sappho’s lustful love connection, Aphrodites explains that the love this woman will soon hold for Sappho will be undeniable and inescapable. Sappho again, begging to be released of worry and lust for this woman, so that they may be together. She gracefully begs to be released of the love that holds her heart so tightly and urges Aphrodite to aid her, to be her ally, to cast this spell.

This incantatory quality has a special relevance for early love poetry. Sappho’s poetry seeks to create a verbal equivalent to the magnetic, quasi-magical compulsion which the ancient poets referred to as thelix, "enchantment," or peitho, "persuasion." The repetitions and the recurrent rhythms of the poetic language evokes the magical effect of eros itself; and this "magic" is also the mysterious peitho or thelxis which the archaic poetess undergoes when gripped by the beauty of a young girl. Eros, she says, "shakes" or "whirls" (donei) her consciousness. He is like an elemental power of nature, a violent wind or an "overpowering creature" which "loses her limbs."

Christopher A. Faraone, the author of Ancient Greek Love Magic, says in an interview that, “I realized toward the end of the project was that the modern category "love magic" embraced two rather different types of spells, one set designed to produce erôs ("erotic seizure") in the victim, and the other used to create philia ("affection" or "friendship"). Faraone also states that erôs spells are actually curses that inflict pain on the target till they travel to the one who summons the gods to cast the enchantment. A curse is mostly used by men against women. Philia spells are used more often by women on men and underlings of the spell’s owner to conjure affection rather than lust. These spells are more often a tangible icon that holds the magic. Being that Saphho is summoning the Goddess Aphrodite we can not completely agree Sappho wishes harm or pain to the woman she lust over. Moreso, in most Greek stories, men are trying to lure a female from someone, one or a family that opposes the hypothetical affair, or to break up a marriage bed. So the women would have to travel a fair distance to break the painful curse. Whereas Sappho, more than likely, longs for this woman that she sees regularly; being that she speaks about seeing her occasionally and in their present time. It seems, if the woman that Sappho enchants, with the help of Aphrodite, we can assume that the woman is compelled by lust and adoration as Aphrodite stated in her reply to Sappho. Aphrodite treated the love magic that was pleaded for by Sappho, as more of a philia inspired erôs cures; a hybrid of magic spells. (Faraone 137)

Count Prosper d'Epinay (Port Louis, Mauritius,1836–1914 Paris), accepted the calling and challenge to depict Sappho at a sacred moment in time. The Count presents the artist, Sappho, during her creative process, exploring and recalling strong emotions of love, lust and desire. Count Prosper d'Epinay’s, Sappho c. 1895, created in white marble sculpture with a height of 65 3/8 inches. Larger than life and seated above us let viewers know she is a force to be reckoned with. She is a scholar, a writer and as close to goddess as one can seemingly achieve. Sappho is the intimate and servant of goddess. She is seen almost lounging while still sitting on a chair. Her hair is gently pulled back, holding her curls away from her beautiful young face. The thin fabric that is gently holding her locks back is slowly unraveling and losing its purpose as Sappo’s head tilts forward. She is wearing a long slightly textured toga that drapes softly over her body and ties at the waist. Her eyes are open and look down and past the viewer suggesting she is deeply inside her mind and unaware of the outside world. Her left arm lies relaxed and down to her side. Casually holding her intertwined lyre and laurel wreath as they are lightly resting on the grown chair also stands on. The right shoulder of Sappho's garment falls to her arm as she rests the arm on the back of the chair, with a bent elbow grabs her right breast with a bit of lustful aggression. Her mouth slightly open and perhaps exhaling. Sapphos fabric ruffles beautifully in and below her hand with the expressive gesture. Her right leg is stretched out while her left is bent and weight baring, securing her position on her seat. Sapphos outstretched leg exposes her feet and sandals from beneath her clothes. The tension in her feet and the flexing of her toes also lead us to believe she is visualising her next lines of love and lust for another. We can see the definition in her thigh indicating specific tension in her body that is trying to escape. And though the toga is finely texture, the anatomy that shows through suggests that the garment is very thin and flowing. Without her left leg planted and leaning slightly to the left, she would likely fall off her seat while so deep in thought. This exceptional sculpture in the round has text on the back of the chair within the smooth marble space of the two chairs legs that was not removed but inscribed in French with; “...Une sueur glacée m‘inonde, un tremble ment me saisit tout entière; je deviens plus verte que l’herbe, il me semble que je vais mourir … .” Which translates to, “... A sweet ice floods me, a tremor seizes me all entree; I'm getting greener than the grass, it seems to me that I'm going to die …”

Among the great literary geniuses that have come and gone on this earth, Sappho is one of the many women who also deserve such commendations. During her time period, only her words and connotations were praised and spoken about. Sappho’s writing has the ability to possess the reader by generously retelling her stories of love and desire. Longing for love is far from a new subject. Sappho chose to bend the norm of her time and wrote of her own lust for other women, as men have been doing from the beginning record time. Other scholars did not see the author’s writings as a taboo or as a foreign subject, at the time. After Sappho was rediscovered, her same sex lustful poems were were the main topic of discussion, rather than the exceptional words that merely show human love and desire for another. It was also a normal practice to beg upwards to the sky for miracles that could move heaven and earth in order to bring two hearts together. Miracles, magic and prayers towards outside forces has always played a prominent role in finding a means to an end. During Sappho’s time, she would often call on Goddess’ to “magically” cause the woman she is currently captivated by, to have mutual feelings. Today we wear jewelry, carry small icons and speak to the sky in hopes of better fortune in life.

Works Cited

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Sappho. 5 Nov. 2019, http://www.britannica.com/biography/Sappho-Greek-poet.

Sappho, and Anne Carson. If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. Vintage Books, Random House, Inc., New York, 2002.

Jackson, Virginia Walker, and Yopie Prins. The Lyric Theory Reader: a Critical Anthology. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.

Segal, Charles SegaArethusa. “Access to the Complete Full Text This Is a Short Preview of the Document. Your Library or Institution May Give You Access to the Complete Full Text for This Document in ProQuest. Eros and Incantation: Sappho and Oral Poetry.” Johns Hopkins University Press, vol. 7, no. 2, Sept. 1979, pp. 139–139., search.proquest.com/openview/5f141174744879989b3568e9e3c2bcd2/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1816968.

Faraone, C. A. (2001). Ancient Greek love magic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.