閱讀薩福 Sappho在诗海的作品!!! | |||
萨福薩福是古希臘的著名詩人，也是世界古代為數極少的幾位女詩人之一。她於公元前６３０年至６１２年出生於一個貴族家庭。豐盛的財富使她能自由地决定自己的生活方式，而她選擇了在當時的文化中心勒斯博（Lesbos）島上專攻藝術。
人物特點
Sappho是西方文學史上開天闢地的女詩人，生活在公元前六世紀的希臘。薩福是當時詩壇的大牛，連柏拉圖老頭子都誇她作起詩來簡直就是繆斯附體。不過薩福侍奉的女神不是繆斯，而是愛神阿佛洛蒂特，這就註定了她的風格：優雅精緻、性感香豔。
薩祖喜歡在詩裏自爆隱私，所以在她的殘篇裏（據說“薩福寶典”有整整十捲，可惜經歷後世男權社會漫長的文字獄，衹剩下一兩首完整的，其餘都是斷章，可這都能輕鬆搞定武林霸主地位），我們明確看到她對其它女子心旌搖蕩神魂顛倒，她們相愛時的欲仙欲死琴瑟和諧。
比較逗的是，薩福詩裏面的女子名字衆多，據說這些都是她在lesbos島上創立的女子學院裏的學生。看來dean Sappho很花心，經常性的引誘女弟子。
當然薩祖也也有失手的時候，她留下來最完整的一首詩就是嚮愛神吟唱的祈禱詞，通篇是愛神和她的問答，薩祖說，愛神你來做的同謀，幫我搞定那女孩吧！愛神說，你又來麻煩我，這回又是哪個倒黴的女生？熱望中不乏自嘲的幽默。
薩福往往給自己的詩歌譜上麯調，供人吟詠彈唱。在技巧上，她創立了“薩福體”，改革了當時詩歌創作的韻律;在內容上，她與其他詩人一起，把詠唱的對象由神轉嚮人，用第一人稱抒發個人的哀樂，領當時文學創作風氣之先。千百年來，薩福被人們視為描寫女性愛情的聖人、“女性主義者的偶像”、“化身為文學家的羅蕾萊”(羅蕾萊是德國民間文學中傳說的女妖)。 當時很多希臘女子慕名來到蕾斯波斯島，拜在其門下學習詩藝。當時蕾斯波斯島上的貨幣，都以薩福頭像為圖案。
從19世紀末開始，薩福成為了女同性戀的代名詞，“Lesbian”(意為女同性戀者)與形容詞“Sapphic”（女子同性愛的）等，均源於薩福。由此，薩福也被近現代女性主義者和女同性戀者奉為鼻祖。
生平
薩福出生於貴族世傢。無憂無慮的孩提時代是在萊斯沃斯島上度過的。萊斯沃斯公元前7世紀曾是一個文化中心，該島現名米蒂利尼。無憂無慮的孩提時代是在萊斯沃斯島上度過的。她在富庶的萊斯沃斯島上享受自由、閑暇和寧靜的時光，過着精緻奢華的生活。但青年時期因捲入了一起推翻執政王事件而被放逐到意大利北部的西西裏島。
在憂鬱、流亡的生涯中，她嫁給了一位富有的名叫瑟塞勒斯的富商西西裏男子，育有一女，名叫剋雷斯。不久，她丈夫去世，留下大筆財産。她在西西裏島上過着平靜優渥的生活。這時，她開始創作詩歌，詩篇從西西裏島傳出使她名聲遠播。等她回到萊斯沃斯島已是一位無可匹敵的詩人了。那時她約為二十多歲，風華正茂。在萊斯沃斯島上她創辦女子學校，教授詩歌、音樂、儀態，甚至美容和服飾。許多人慕名而來，貴族把自己的女兒送往該校。她喜歡這些年輕美麗的女孩，不僅教授她們詩歌與音樂，閑暇之餘熱情教授她們戀愛藝術。心中的詩情在朝夕相處中轉化為深深的愛戀，使她與女弟子們在那片芬芳之地上綻放出豔麗的同性之愛的花朵。從而使薩福的名字成為現代女同性之愛的象徵。現代英語Lesbian（女同性戀）一詞就是來源於Lesbos（萊斯沃斯島）。她的許多詩篇都是對女弟子學成離別或嫁為人婦時表達相思之情的贈詩。
詩人曾造訪意大利錫拉庫紮市時，該市曾樹起一座雕像以示敬意。詩人還因擔任一所希臘女子精修學校的校長而聞名遐邇。詩人詩作的對象很可能就是詩人的弟子。薩福是一位創造出了自己特有詩體的抒情詩人，這種詩體被稱作“薩福體”。
作品
有關詩人詩歌的史料同詩人的傳記一樣撲朔迷離。人們衹知道她是上古時代的一位偉大的詩人：古希臘人十分稱贊她，說男詩人有荷馬，女詩人有薩福，柏拉圖曾譽之為“第十位繆斯”。她的詩對古羅馬抒情詩人卡圖盧斯、賀拉斯的創作産生過不小影響，後來在歐洲一直受到推崇。詩人的肖像曾上過硬幣。詩人的詩作大約於公元前3世紀首次輯成9捲行，但流傳至今的極少，僅有一首28行的詩作保存完好，到19世紀為止，人們主要是通過其他作者的引用得以瞭解詩人的。1898年學者們出土了一批含有詩人詩作殘片的紙草。現代的各種版本中，詩人詩作的殘片纍计已達264片，但僅有63塊殘片包含完整的詩行，衹有21塊含有完整的詩節，而迄今能讓我們作為文學作品來欣賞的近乎完整的詩作僅有4首。第4首是2004年新發現的，這首12行的詩作是在一具埃及木乃伊上面的紙草上發現的。該詩連同牛津大學學者馬丁·韋斯特的英文譯文發表在2005年6月第3周出版的《泰晤士報文學增刊》上。
薩福被冠以“抒情詩人”之名，是因為在那個時代，詩歌是由七弦琴伴唱的。薩福在技術和體裁上改進了抒情詩，成就了希臘抒情詩的轉嚮：從以諸神和繆斯的名義寫詩轉嚮以個人的聲音吟唱。她是第一人描述個人的愛情和失戀的詩人。
薩福留有詩歌九捲之多，但目前僅存一首完整的詩章，其餘均為殘篇斷簡。從公元前三世紀起，薩福的名字就開始出現在詩歌、戲劇和各種著述中，她逐漸被神化或醜化，按時代的需求——或被喻為第十位繆斯；或被描繪為皮膚黝黑、長相醜陋的女人。中世紀時，因她詩篇歌詠同性之愛而被教會視為異端，將她的詩歌全部焚毀。若不是在十九世紀末一位埃及農民在尼羅河水域偶然發現紙莎草本上記載薩福的詩歌，被淹沒的詩歌會更多。但薩福的傳奇始終流傳着，尤其是在各代詩人們心中成為一座燈塔。
薩福的詩溫婉典雅，真情率性，大多以人的愛和欲望為主題——不同於她以前的詩歌是以神作為歌吟的對象——詩中充滿了愛的勸喻、愛中的甜美與痛苦或兩者相互交織的情愫，以及彌漫着憐憫和嫉妒的悲鳴之聲。讀她的詩歌，猶如冒險去遠航。
薩福的詩藝很高，在目前僅存的詩篇中已經能夠看出她嫻熟運用暗喻（不像荷馬時代多用明喻）這種現代詩歌的技巧，使詩歌形象和內在涵義更為豐富和飽滿，如她描寫鴿子：“它們的心漸漸冷卻/任雙翅垂落下來”，意象優美而凄婉，鑲嵌着她難以述說的某種落寞情懷；又如上述引文中的“戰車和驍騎”，除了具體所指外還暗喻着男人。 此外，有時她的詩歌又像浪漫主義時期的抒情詩，將大自然的風物山川用來象徵自己微妙心緒。
薩福的詩體是獨創的。西方詩歌史上把這種詩體稱之為“薩福體”。它們是獨唱形式的——荷馬時代和古希臘悲劇中有許多是歌隊的集體合唱——詩體短小，以抒情和傾述內心情懷為主，音節更為單純、明澈。在“薩福體”的格律中，每一節分為四行，每一行中長短音節在相對固定中略有變化，前三行有點像荷馬時代的六韻步詩體，第四行則音節簡短，顯得幹脆明快。相傳，與薩福同時代的雅典統治者梭倫也是一位詩人，當他偶然聽到薩福的詩篇時說“如果我學會了她的音律，可以死而無憾了”。
薩福的詩體類似於中國古代的詞，目的在於供人彈琴詠唱，但她往往自己譜麯。薩福不僅在技巧上創立了“薩福體”，改革了當時詩歌創作的韻律，而且與其他詩人一起，在風格上把詠唱的對象從神轉移到人，並用第一人稱來抒發個人的哀樂，在當時相當革新。
薩福的作品多為柔美婉約的渴求愛戀的情詩，並且常常為她的女弟子所作。當時很多年輕女子慕名來到勒斯博島，拜學在她門下。薩福不僅教與她們藝術，而且寫給她們表達強烈愛慕的情箋。當弟子學成離島，嫁為人婦時，薩福還為她們贈寫婚詩。古希臘盛行師生間的同性戀情，師者授業解惑，弟子以情相報，所以這些帶有強烈同性戀情感的詩歌在當時不但沒有遭禁，而且還廣為傳頌，甚至連Lesbos島上用的貨幣都以薩福的頭像為圖案。在薩福由於家庭原因流亡於西西裏島時，那裏的居民為她竪起了雕像以表愛戴。柏拉圖稱薩福為“第十謬斯”，視其地位與雅典衆神相當。雅典統治者梭倫本人也是位出色的詩人，但有一回聽到薩福的詩時，堅持要求學唱，並說: “衹要我能學會這一首，那麽死也無憾了。”
雖然薩福在當時久負盛名，據說共有九捲作品，但由於保藏不當和後來宗教壓製的原因，毀損無數，流傳至今的完整詩作衹有一首，其它的衹留下零碎的片段。十九世紀後期，人們在尼羅河𠔌發掘出早至公元前八世紀的手稿，其中有一些被證實為薩福的作品。後來人們又在埃及廢墟的一些包裹木乃伊與棺材的紙草中發現了薩福的詩歌。
薩福詩歌的翻譯難度很高。因為很多片段已遺失，所以翻譯者需要根據上下文的意思和韻律用古希臘語先進行“補缺”。這種“補缺”不免帶有揣測成份，在技巧與風格上可能會與原詩有所出入，而譯者添加的表達也可能有別於薩福的原意。但是對於許多讀者來說，如果沒有這些努力，薩福的詩歌也許永遠會被埋沒。
影響
薩福往往給自己的詩歌譜上麯調，供人吟詠彈唱。在技巧上，她創立了“薩福體”，改革了當時詩歌創作的韻律；在內容上，她與其他詩人一起，把詠唱的對象由神轉嚮人，用第一人稱抒發個人的哀樂，領當時文學創作風氣之先。千百年來，薩福被人們視為描寫女性愛情的聖人、“女性主義者的偶像”“化身為文學家的羅蕾萊”(羅蕾萊是德國民間文學中傳說的女妖)。馬丁·威斯特稱她是“學者繞不過去的坎”。
當時很多希臘女子慕名來到萊斯波斯島，拜在其門下學習詩藝。薩福不僅教她們知識，還寫了很多表達對她們強烈愛慕的詩作。在當時，古希臘盛行師生之間帶着強烈精神交往的戀情，薩福的帶着強烈同性戀情感的詩歌，廣為傳唱。當時萊斯波斯島上的貨幣，都以薩福頭像為圖案。從19世紀末開始，薩福成為了女同性戀的代名詞，“Lesbian”(意為女同性戀者)與形容詞“Sapphic”等，均源於薩福。而由此，薩福也被近現代女性主義者和女同性戀者奉為鼻祖。
評價
關於薩福的逸聞趣事，版本層出不窮，大多是基於不大可靠的傳聞。在埃裏卡瓊的《薩福的飛越》這本書裏，瓊將這個詭異的希臘女詩人拉進肥皂劇式的世俗生活中。薩福像斯嘉麗一樣在男人中間周旋、調情，“似乎想要吞下整個世界”。行文中，瓊激蕩的語調如同薩福轉世。在她筆下，薩福是一個無所畏懼、卓越不凡的女英雄。
在《如果不是鼕天：薩福斷章》裏，安妮卡爾森以獨特的翻譯風格，描述了薩福在大到愛情、欲望、婚姻、驅逐，小到靠墊、蜜蜂、豆子，以及關於衰老、羞恥、時間等等人類方方面面的思考，用括號和空格來提醒讀者紙草上原稿文字的殘缺。
美女、詩人、男詩人的情人、第一個失戀投海自殺女詩人、女同性戀者、現代女權主義的先祖……在薩福這個名上，似乎可以加上任何一個在現代文學流行着的詞彙。若是薩福本人，大概情願用自己的詩形容自己吧：“周圍的群星黯淡無光而她的光華，鋪滿了鹹的海洋和開着繁花的田野”。
薄伽丘在《列女傳》中哀嘆道：“她在詩藝中得到的幸福，一如她在愛情中遭遇到的不幸：愛上一個青年男子，為了他的魅力，或者美貌，或者其他什麽原因，屈服於難以忍受的折磨。他拒絶服從她的欲望，於是，悲傷的薩福寫出哀悼的詩篇……我們是不是應該責備繆斯女神呢？當安菲翁彈唱詩歌的時候，她們肯為他移動奧吉及亞的石頭，卻不肯為薩福移動那位年輕男子的心。”
古羅馬作傢奧維德為薩福代擬了一封緻法翁的二百二十多行的詩體哀歌長信，通過薩福之口，傾述了她內心的深情：“我愛過上百個人——作孽的愛——可是現在，/你這冤傢，以前為衆人所有的，現在屬了你一人。/你就是美，你的年齡最適合風流享樂，/你的魅力是襲擊我的伏兵。”
傳說
薩福最終卻還是為了一位英俊的青年男子殉情而死。他名為法翁（Phaon），是萊斯沃斯島上一名船夫，常年在大海間飄蕩，身背弓箭，長發飄逸，宛如《指環王》電影中的那位金發飄飄的神箭手，但他冷漠無情，視薩福瘋狂的愛而不顧，致使薩福哀痛不已，墜崖沉海而去。時年她五十五歲。
The only contemporary source which refers to Sappho's life is her own body of poetry, and scholars are skeptical of biographical readings of it. Later biographical traditions, from which all more detailed accounts derive, have also been cast into doubt.
Chronology
Strabo says that Sappho was the contemporary of Alcaeus of Mytilene (born ca. 620 BC) and Pittacus (ca. 645 - 570) and according to Athenaeus she was the contemporary of Alyattes of Lydia (ca. 610 - 560). The Suda, a 10th century Byzantine encyclopædia, dates her to the 42nd Olympiad (612/608), meaning either that she was born then or that this was her floruit. The versions of Eusebius state that she was famous by the first or second year of the 45th or 46th Olympiad (between 600 and 594). Judging from the Parian Marble she was exiled from Lesbos to Sicily sometime between 604 and 594. If fragment 98 of her poetry is accepted as biographical evidence and as a reference to her daughter (see below) it may indicate that she had already had a daughter by the time she was exiled. If fragment 58 is accepted as autobiographical it indicates that she lived into old age. If her connection to Rhodopis (see below) is accepted as historical it indicates that she lived into the mid-6th century.
Family
An Oxyrhynchus papyrus from around 200 AD and the Suda agree that Sappho had a mother called Cleïs and a daughter by the same name. Two preserved fragments of Sappho's poetry refer to a Cleïs. In fragment 98, Sappho addresses Cleïs, saying that she has no way of obtaining a decorated headband for her. Fragment 132 reads in full: "I have a beautiful child [pais] who looks like golden flowers, my darling Cleis, from whom I would not (take) all Lydia or lovely..." These fragments have often been interpreted as referring to Sappho's daughter or as confirming that Sappho had a daughter with this name. But even if a biographic reading of the verses is accepted, this is not certain. Cleïs is referred to in fragment 132 with the Greek word pais, which can as easily indicate a slave or any young person as an offspring. It is possible that these verses or others like them were misunderstood by ancient writers, leading to the biographical tradition which has come down to us.
Fragment 102 has its speaker address a "sweet mother", sometimes taken as an indication that Sappho began to write poetry while her mother was still alive. The name of Sappho's father is widely given as Scamandronymus, he is not referred to in any of the surviving fragments. In his Heroides, Ovid has Sappho lament that, "Six birthdays of mine had passed when the bones of my parent, gathered from the pyre, drank before their time my tears." Ovid may have based this on a poem by Sappho no longer extant.
Sappho was reported to have three brothers; Erigyius (or Eurygius), Larichus and Charaxus. The Oxyrhynchus papyrus says that Charaxus was the eldest but that Sappho was more fond of the young Larichus. According to Athenaeus, Sappho often praised Larichus for pouring wine in the town hall of Mytilene, an office held by boys of the best families. This indication that Sappho was born into an aristocratic family is consistent with the sometimes rarefied environments which her verses record.
A story given by Herodotus and later by Strabo, Athenaeus, Ovid and the Suda, tells of a relation between Charaxus and the Egyptian courtesan Rhodopis. Herodotus, the oldest source of the story, reports that Charaxus ransomed Rhodopis for a large sum and that after he returned to Mitylene, Sappho scolded him in verse. Strabo, writing some 400 years later, adds that Charaxus was trading with Lesbian wine and that Sappho called Rhodopis Doricha. Athenaeus, another 200 years later, calls the courtesan Doricha and maintains that Herodotus had her confused with Rhodopis, another woman altogether. He also cites an epigram by Posidippus (3rd c. BC) which refers to Doricha and Sappho. Based on this story, scholars have speculated that references to a Doricha may have been found in Sappho's poems. None of the extant fragments have this name in full but fragments 7 and 15 are often restored to include it. Joel Lidov has criticized this restoration, arguing that the Doricha story is not helpful in restoring any fragment by Sappho and that its origins lie in the work of Cratinus or another of Herodotus' comic contemporaries.
The Suda is alone in claiming that Sappho was married to a "very wealthy man called Cercylas, who traded from Andros" and that he was Cleïs' father. This tradition may have been invented by the comic poets as a witticism, as the name of the purported husband means "prick from the Isle of Man."
Sappho and Alcaeus of Mytilene, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1881)
Exile
Sappho's lifetime was a time of political turbulence on Lesbos and saw the rise of Pittacus. According to the Parian Marble, Sappho was exiled to Sicily sometime between 604 and 594 and Cicero records that a statue of her stood in the town-hall of Syracuse. Unlike the works of her fellow poet, Alcaeus, Sappho's surviving poetry has very few allusions to political conditions. The principal exception is fragment 98 which mentions exile and indicates that Sappho was lacking some of her customary luxuries. Her political sympathies may have lain with the party of Alcaeus. Though there is no explicit record of this it is usually assumed that Sappho returned from exile at some point and that she spent most of her life in Lesbos.
Phaon legend
A tradition going back at least to Menander (fr. 258 K) suggested that Sappho killed herself by jumping off the Leucadian cliffs for love of Phaon, a ferryman. This is regarded as ahistorical by modern scholars, perhaps invented by the comic poets or originating from a misreading of a first-person reference in a non-biographical poem. The legend may have resulted in part from a desire to assert Sappho as heterosexual.
Sexuality and community
by Édouard-Henri AvrilSappho's poetry centers on passion and love for various personages and genders. The word "lesbian" derives from the name of the island of her birth, Lesbos; her name is also the origin of its less common synonym sapphic. The narrators of many of her poems speak of infatuations and love (sometimes requited, sometimes not) for various females, but descriptions of physical acts between women are few and subject to debate. Whether these poems are meant to be autobiographical is not known, although elements of other parts of Sappho's life do make appearances in her work, and it would be compatible with her style to have these intimate encounters expressed poetically, as well. Her homoerotica should be placed in the seventh century (BC) context. The poems of Alcaeus and later Pindar record similar romantic bonds between the members of a given circle.
Sappho's contemporary Alcaeus described her thus: "Violet-haired, pure, honey-smiling Sappho" (ἰόπλοκ᾽ ἄγνα μελλιχόμειδε Σάπφοι, fr. 384). The 3rd Century philosopher Maximus of Tyre wrote that Sappho was "small and dark" and that her relationships to her female friends were similar to those of Socrates:
What else was the love of the Lesbian woman except Socrates' art of love? For they seem to me to have practised love each in their own way, she that of women, he that of men. For they say that both loved many and were captivated by all things beautiful. What Alcibiades and Charmides and Phaedrus were to him, Gyrinna and Atthis and Anactoria were to the Lesbian.
During the Victorian era, it became the fashion to describe Sappho as the headmistress of a girls' finishing school. As Page DuBois (among many other experts) points out, this attempt at making Sappho understandable and palatable to the genteel classes of Great Britain was based more on conservative sensibilities than evidence. There are no references to teaching, students, academies, or tutors in any of Sappho's scant collection of surviving works. Burnett follows others, like C.M. Bowra, in suggesting that Sappho's circle was somewhat akin to the Spartan agelai or the religious sacred band, the thiasos, but Burnett nuances her argument by noting that Sappho's circle was distinct from these contemporary examples because "membership in the circle seems to have been voluntary, irregular and to some degree international." The notion that Sappho was in charge of some sort of academy persists nonetheless.
Works
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Sappho
Meters and genres
Ancient sources state that Sappho produced nine volumes of poetry.
Please help improve this section by expanding it
with: discussion of the generic and metrical classifications of Sappho's works.
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The surviving poetry
The surviving proportion of the nine-volume corpus of poetry read in antiquity is small but still constitutes a poetic corpus of major importance. There is a single complete poem, Fragment 1, Hymn to Aphrodite. Other major fragments include two virtually-complete poems (16 and 31 in the standard numeration) and three shorter fragments, including one whose authorship is uncertain (168b).
Recent discoveries
Sappho's recently discovered poem on old age (lines 9-20). 3rd cent. B.C. papyrus, from an exhibit of the Altes MuseumThe most recent addition to the corpus is a virtually-complete poem on old age. The line-ends were first published in 1922 from an Oxyrhynchus papyrus, no. 1787 (fragment 1: see the third pair of images on this page), but little could be made of them, since the indications of poem-end (placed at the beginnings of the lines) were lost, and scholars could only guess where one poem ended and another began. Most of the rest of the poem has recently (2004) been published from a 3rd century BC papyrus in the Cologne University collection. The latest reconstruction, by M. L. West, appeared in the Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 151 (2005), 1-9, and in the Times Literary Supplement on 21 June 2005 (English translation and discussion). Another full literary translation is available. The Greek text has been reproduced with helpful notes for students of the language, together with other examples of Greek lyric poetry.
A major new literary discovery, the Milan Papyrus,[dead link] recovered from a dismantled mummy casing and published in 2001, has revealed the high esteem in which the poet Posidippus of Pella, an important composer of epigrams (3rd century BC), held Sappho's 'divine songs'. An English translation of the new epigrams, with notes, is available, as is the original Greek text.
Legacy
Loss and preservation of Sappho's works
Sappho, by Charles Mengin (1877) Manchester Art Gallery, UKAlthough Sappho's work endured well into Roman times, with changing interests, styles, and aesthetics her work was copied less and less, especially after the academies stopped requiring her study. Part of the reason for her disappearance from the standard canon was the predominance of Attic and Homeric Greek as the languages required to be studied. Sappho's Aeolic Greek dialect, a difficult one, and by Roman times, arcane and ancient as well, posed considerable obstacles to her continued popularity.
Once the major academies of the Byzantine Empire dropped her works from their standard curricula, very few copies of her works were made by scribes. Still, the greatest poets and thinkers of ancient Rome continued to emulate her or compare other writers to her, and it is through these comparisons and descriptions that we have received much of her extant poetry.
Modern legends, with origins that are difficult to trace, have made Sappho's literary legacy the victim of purposeful obliteration by scandalized church leaders, often by means of book-burning. There is no known historical evidence for these accounts. Indeed, Gregory of Nazianzus, who along with Pope Gregory VII features as the villain in many of these stories, was a reader and admirer of Sappho's poetry. For example, modern scholars have noted the echoes of Sappho fr. 2 in his poem On Human Nature, which copies from Sappho the quasi-sacred grove (alsos), the wind-shaken branches, and the striking word for "deep sleep" (kōma).
It appears likely that Sappho's poetry was largely lost through action of the same forces of cultural change that obliterated, without prejudice, the remains of all the canonical archaic Greek poets. Indeed, as one would expect from ancient critical estimations, which regard Sappho and Pindar as the greatest practitioners of monodic lyric and choral poetry (respectively), more of Sappho's work has survived through quotation than any of the others, with the exception of Pindar (whose works alone survive in a manuscript tradition).
Sources of the surviving fragments
Although the manuscript tradition broke off, some of Sappho's poetry has been discovered in Egyptian papyri fragments from an earlier period, such as those found in the ancient rubbish heaps of Oxyrhynchus, where a major find brought many new but tattered verses to light, providing a major new source. One substantial fragment is preserved on a potsherd. The rest of what we know of Sappho comes through citations in other ancient writers, often made to illustrate grammar, vocabulary, or meter.
Reputation in antiquity
In antiquity, Sappho was commonly regarded as the greatest, or one of the greatest, of lyric poets. An epigram in the Anthologia Palatina (9.506) ascribed to Plato states:
Some say the Muses are nine: how careless!
Look, there's Sappho too, from Lesbos, the tenth.
Claudius Aelianus wrote in Miscellany (Ποικίλη ἱστορία) that Plato called Sappho wise. A story is recounted in the Florilegium (3.29.58) of Stobaeus:
Solon of Athens heard his nephew sing a song of Sappho's over the wine and, since he liked the song so much, he asked the boy to teach it to him. When someone asked him why, he said, "So that I may learn it, then die."
A few centuries later, Horace wrote in his Odes that Sappho's lyrics are worthy of sacred admiration. One of Sappho's poems was famously translated by the 1st century BC Roman poet Catullus in his "Ille mi par esse deo videtur" (Catullus 51).
Modern translations
From the time of the European Renaissance, the interest in Sappho's writing has grown, seeing waves of fairly widespread popularity as new generations rediscover her work. Since few people are able to understand ancient languages, each age has translated Sappho in its own idiomatic way. Poetry, such as Sappho's, that relies on meter is difficult to reproduce in English which uses stress-based meters and rhyme compared to Ancient Greek's solely length-based meters. As a result, many early translators used rhyme and worked Sappho's ideas into English poetic forms.
In the 1960s, Mary Barnard reintroduced Sappho to the reading public with a new approach to translation that eschewed the use of rhyming stanzas or forms of poetry, such as the sonnet. Subsequent translators have tended to work in a similar manner, seeking to allow the essence of Sappho's spirit to be visible through the translated verses.
In 2002, classicist and poet Anne Carson produced If Not, Winter, an exhaustive translation of Sappho's fragments. Her line-by-line translations, complete with brackets where the ancient papyrus sources break off, are meant to capture both the original's lyricism and its present fragmentary nature.
References in modern literature
Lord Byron wrote the following lines about her in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Stanza XXXIX:
And onward viewed the mount, not yet forgot,
The lover's refuge and the Lesbian's grave.
Dark Sappho! could not verse immortal save
That breast imbued with such immortal fire?
Sappho was a key figure for the Victorian female poet, who took her as an inspirational figure as one of the first female poets. Poets as varied as Caroline Norton, Felicia Hemans and L.E.L all wrote variations on 'Sappho's song'
Charles Baudelaire writes about Sappho in Les Fleurs du mal.
Ezra Pound admired Sappho's work and wrote "'Ιμερρω" (Poetry, September 1916) to Atthis, the subject of many of Sappho's poems.
Lawrence Durrell wrote a play in verse titled Sappho, set in 7th Century BC Lesbos.
Algernon Swinburne wrote a poem concerning Sappho, Sapphics, and another, Anactoria, concerning her and her lover Anactoria, which makes Sappho into a rather hyperbolic sadomasochist. The Sapphic stanza is a poetic form occasionally imitated by modern writers, including Swinburne's Sapphics.
The Italian composer Giovanni Pacini (1796-1867) composed an opera entitled Saffo for the San Carlo Theatre in Naples. It premiered on 29 November 1840.
The French composer Charles Gounod's first opera entitled Sapho, was about the lyric poet.
Christina Stead wrote a short story about Sappho which is included in her book The Salzburg Tales.
Nancy Freedman wrote a novelisation of Sappho's life entitled Sappho: The Tenth Muse, incorporating surviving fragments of her poetry into the story.
The Polish poet Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska wrote the poems The Roses for Sappho.
Erica Jong wrote a novel about Sappho called Sappho's Leap.
Sappho figures heavily in the later books of William Carlos Williams' Paterson (poem).
Sappho is also a major character in the fictional book Art & Lies: A Piece for Three Voices and a Bawd by Jeanette Winterson.
Certain early twentieth century poets such as Renée Vivien, H.D., and Natalie Clifford Barney rejected the idea that Sappho killed herself because of Phaon. In Barney's Acts d'entr'actes, for example Sappho kills herself because of her love for a girl promised in marriage.
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, by J.D. Salinger, references Sappho in its title and within its text.
American composer Rodney Waschka II composed an opera about the poet entitled Sappho's Breath. It premiered in New York City on April 2, 2002 with soprano Beth Griffith as Sappho.
Notes
^ See, for example, J. Fairweather, "Fiction in the biographies of ancient writers," Ancient Society 5 (1974); Mary R. Lefkowitz, The lives of the Greek poets, Johns Hopkins UP, 1981.
^ Campbell, p. x. - xi.
^ Page, Sappho and Alcaeus, p. 224-5.
^ P. Oxy. 1800 fr. 1
^ (Campbell 1982)
^ See e.g. Gordon, pp. xii-xiii
^ Robinson, p. 15.
^ Herodotus and Claudius Aelianus have Scamandronymus. P. Oxy. 1800 fr. 1 has Scamander or Scamandronymus. The Suda offers a plethora of possibilities: Simon, Eumenus, Eerigyius, Ecrytus, Semus, Camon, Etarchus or Scamandronymus.
^ Campbell, p. 15.
^ (Campbell 1982, p. 3)
^ (Campbell 1982, p. xi & 189)
^ (Campbell 1982, p. 187)
^ (Campbell 1982, p. 15)
^ (Campbell 1982, p. 63 & 65)
^ Lidov, p. 203 and throughout.
^ (Campbell 1982, p. 5)
^ Holt Parker, "Sappho Schoolmistress" (orig. pub. Transactions of the American Philological Association 123 (1993), pp. 309-51.
^ Page, Sappho and Alcaeus, p. 225-6.
^ Lidov, p. 205-6.
^ For example, in Reading Sappho: Contemporary Approaches, ed. Ellen Greene, University of California Press, 1996: Mary Lefkowitz, "Critical Stereotypes and the Poetry of Sappho," pp. 28f. (the story of Sappho's death represents her as "deprived because of her hugliness of male attention...which she craves"); Judith Hallett, "Sappho and Her Social Context: Sense and Sensuality," pp. 126f., while sounding a note of caution about careless assumptions of Sappho's homosexuality, discusses the story of Sappho's sexual conversion and death in the context of "disbelief and disapproval" regarding accounts of her homosexuality, which such legends may aim to disprove; Eva Stehle, "Sappho's Gaze: Fantasies of a Goddess and Young Man," p. 195 n. 10, considers that "The story probably developed in fourth-century comedy."
^ Anne Pippin Burnett, Three Archaic Poets: Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho, Harvard UP, 1983.
^ Burnett, op. cit., p. 210
^ Hymn to Aphrodite, translation, and notes
^ Fragment 168b
^ Main fragments and translations
^ A New Poem by Sappho (from archive.org).
^ AOIDOI.org: Epic, Archaic and Classical Greek Poetry. Retrieved on October 30, 2005.
^ Partial image. Retrieved on October 30, 2005.
^ Translations and notes are available: Diotima. Retrieved on October 30, 2005.
^ The Greek text: Center for Hellenic Studies - Epigrams. Retrieved on October 30, 2005.
^ Quintino Cataudella, "Saffo fr. 5 (5) – 6 (5) Diehl," Atene e Roma ser. 3 vol. 8 (1940), pp. 199-201. Cf. Page, Sappho and Alcaeus, p. 37.
^ An example from book 2 of the collected edition: Virtual Exhibition. Retrieved on October 30, 2005.
^ Susan Gubar, "Sapphistries", Signs, Vol. 10. No. 1. (Autumn 1984) pp. 43-62.
^ http://www.newmusicon.org/v10n2/v102wilcox.html
References
Barnard, Mary (transl.), Sappho: A New Translation, University of California Press; Reissue edition (June 1986) ISBN 0-520-22312-8
Barnstone, Willis (transl.) Sappho and the Greek Lyric Poets, Schoken Books Inc., New York (paperback 1988) ISBN 0-8052-0831-3 (A collection of modern English translations suitable for a general audience, includes complete poems and fragments along with a brief history of each of the featured poets.)
Campbell, D. A. (ed.) (1982), Greek Lyric 1: Sappho and Alcaeus, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., ISBN 0-674-99157-5 (Contains complete Greek text and English translation, including references to Sappho by ancient authors. A good starting-point for serious students who are new to this poetry.)
Carman, Bliss, Sappho: 100 Lyrics, (1907). Public domain text available from Project Gutenberg
Carson, Anne (transl.), If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, Knopf (2002) ISBN 0-375-41067-8; also Virago Press Ltd, UK, ISBN 1-84408-081-1 (A modern bilingual edition for general readers as well as students of ancient Greek languages; N.Y. Times review)
DuBois, Page, Sappho Is Burning, University of Chicago Press (1995) ISBN 0-226-16755-0
Lidov, Joel, "Sappho, Herodotus and the Hetaira", in Classical Philology, July 2002, pp. 203-237.
Lobel, E. and D. L. Page (eds.), Poetarum Lesbiorum fragmenta, Oxford, Clarendon Press, (1955).
Lombardo, Stanley (transl.) and Pamela Gordon (introd.), Sappho: Poems and Fragments, Hackett Publishing (2002) ISBN 0872205916
Page, D. L., Sappho and Alcaeus, Oxford, Clarendon Press, (1955).
Rayor, Diane (transl.), Sappho's Lyre: Archaic Lyric and Women Poets of Ancient Greece, University of California Press (1991) ISBN 0-520-07336-3 (cloth); ISBN 0-520-07336-3 (paper)
Williamson, Margaret, Sappho's Immortal Daughters, Harvard University Press (1995) ISBN 0-674-78912-1