For instance, scholars are not sure whether or not she was literate.
Gladly! Many other arguments still rage regarding Sappho. It seems that she knew and loved women as deeply as she did music. Instead, Carson promptly deals with the issue on the second page of her introduction to the work, casually dismissing concerns:Ĭontroversies about her personal ethics and way of life have taken up a lot of people’s time throughout the history of Sapphic scholarship. Had she drawn attention to them, she would have marked them, thereby insulating the original author and her subject material from the general readership. By not bloviating (or worse, fulminating) on the issue of her gender identity and sexual temptations, Carson leaves these issues unmarked in the discursive sense. In this way, Carson’s compilation of the entire corpus of Sappho’s work puts Sappho brilliantly into the context of her time. Compellingly, its translator/editor does not set out to write or revise history.
I found that opportunity when I encountered Anne Carson’s book, If Not, Winter. Sappho’s truest concern was love, and a comprehensive appraisal of her work must study that concern in the context of her time.Īs someone who studied Sappho many years ago, I always vowed to return to her again in the future. This is hardly surprising– she lived in Lesbos! But this is surely not the most important characteristic of Sappho, nor, really, is it related to particularly defining motivation. She is best known in general discourse as a lesbian poet. Unfortunately, the vast majority of her work is lost to antiquity and those who lived in it. Someone who has been considered both a troublesome muse (the tenth, according to Plato) as well as a poet who could only have come out of legend is Sappho. These women include the likes of Kassiane, Theodorou, Karelli, Aravantinou, Votsi, and countless others - and this is all to say nothing of its female warriors, political leaders, and troublesome muses. The contributions from strong women remain especially visible, I would argue for more than in other cultures broadly termed the West (to what degree this results from chance I do not know).
Its achievements continue to echo through the annals of history, not merely to inform, but to awe. There is no need to embellish upon the record of timeless verse that comes to us from the Hellenes.
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