"Lament for a Maidenhead" (link to reading)
Author: Sappho
Date: c. 630-570 BCE
Location: Greece
Course Unit: Domestic Violence and Rape
Context:
"One of the great poets of the ancient world - considered an equal of Homer and called the 'the tenth Muse' by Plato - Sappho was one of the first, maybe even the first, to stop using poetry for ritualistic and militaristic ends (war stories, funerals of VIPs, paeans to the gods) and start using it to express our inner lives, especially affairs of the heart. Sung to the accompaniments of a lyre at her highly esteemed school of poetry on the Isle of Lesbos, her poetry wasn't written down during her lifetime (circa 610-570 BCE), but when it finally was, over a century later, it filled nine rolls of papyrus. [...] Sappho's poetry shows that love hasn't changed one iota in the intervening two and a half millenia. The joy, ecstasy, and excitement are there, as are the despair, jealousy, and confusion." (The Graphic Canon 65)
The Graphic Canon. Edited by Russ Kick, Seven Stories Press, 2012.
Topics/Questions to Consider While Reading:
How is rape represented through poetry?
How are mental health issues related to this act of violence represented?