What Women Want: Sappho's Desires Sumana Gupta

What Women Want: Sappho’s Desires

Sumana Gupta Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Andrew Sherwood for reading over my paper, his valuable edits and much appreciated guidance.

Thank you to Professor Walsh for always being a great mentor and encouraging me to pursue my now greatest passion, Classical Studies.

Thank you to my friends and family for your endless support and love.

And lastly thank you to the Guelph Classics Society for publishing my paper. !1

Sappho was a poet hailing from the island of Lesbos from about 630-570 BC. We only know the basics of this woman, but her poetry has gained such acclaim that it has created debates on the smallest intricacies of her life. Today she holds a tremendous amount of renown and importance, but what did she represent in antiquity? Her poetry did not discuss the routine matters in which women of ancient Greece were usually involved in, like children bearing and rearing, domestic work, or being a good wife.1 Instead, Sappho discussed the rich ideas of love and desire, filtering them through wedding songs and various mythological allusions.2 Via her poetry, Sappho was able to represent women’s desires and teach them that they had the power and agency to pursue their passions. The following paper will argue how Sappho was able to teach such lessons to women regarding their romantic lives, with the term ‘desires’ being used to illus- trate what women wanted concerning the maintenance of one’s virginity, sexually pleasing one’s husband and pursuing love. Her esteem as a poet is evident in the ancients’ marginal apotheosis of Sappho, as Plato credits in an epigram that he believes her to be the 10th muse.3 While there are many named male poets, writing about all aspects of Greek life, Sappho is the earliest and one of the only female poets with surviving works that give a proper, authentic voice to the lives of women in ancient Greece - thus, she serves a pivotal role in the development of the female poetic tradition.4 The very existence of the female poetic tradition is contested, but Skinner argues that it can be found within Sappho’s community, delving into the theory of how Sappho’s poems were used in per- formances for other women.5 As a result of the traditional isolation of women from men in Greek society, perfor- mances by and for women allow for an authentic female voice that reflects their experiences and can be observed in such poems.6 We must acknowledge here that this isolation was not universal as men and women were able to converse with one another in certain spaces.7 Though the per- formance of Sappho’s works provides us with the most relevant platform for the female voice, other expressions of female privacy were present in civic festivals such as the Thesmophoria, an

1 Page DuBois, Sappho Is Burning (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 12.

2 DuBois, Sappho Is Burning, 12.

3 Warren Castle, “Observations on Sappho's To Aphrodite,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 89, (1958): 66; Pl., AP 9.506.

4 Marilyn B. Skinner, “Corinna of Tanagra and Her Audience,” Tulsa Studies in Women's Litera- ture 2, no. 1 (1983): 9.

5 Marilyn B. Skinner, “Corinna of Tanagra and Her Audience,” 16.

6 Laurel Bowman, “The "Women's Tradition" in Greek Poetry,” Phoenix 58, no. 1/2 (2004): 6.

7 Marilyn B. Skinner, “Corinna of Tanagra and Her Audience,” 12. !2 event shrouded in mystery as a result of this exclusivity.8 Suffice to say, within this segregated patriarchal society, private spaces for women existed and provided a space for Sappho to write in which would allow for the creation of such a poetic tradition. With the existence of a female poetic tradition established in Sappho’s poetry, let us move forward to how she discussed desires. One such desire expressed in Sappho’s works is the preservation of a woman’s virginity, which is expressed through surviving fragments that discuss marriage. This is shown in Fr. 44AA, which models Artemis as a role model for virginity: Artemis swore the great oath [of the gods]: By your head, I wish to be a virgin, always [unmarried], roaming the mountain peaks alone. Please, accede to my desire. So she spoke. The father of the blessed gods nodded his consent She is known as [virgin and shooter of deer] by gods [and men], huntress, a great title. Eros [limb-loosener] never approaches her. (Sappho, Fr. 44AA, 3-11)

This fragment describes Artemis, an eternally virginal goddess, wishing to protect her virginity and refuse marriage – perhaps even denying the subordination of women observed in heterosex- ual relationships.9 This is evident by the last line of the poem, as it leaves the impression that Artemis is a chaste maiden who chooses to remain separate from marriage. As a young woman and a goddess, she has the power to implement her decision, and the unfaltering maintenance of her virginity would have set a clear example for other young women.10 Several of Sappho’s fragments mourn the loss of virginity in support of Artemis’ chastity, and though some scholars believe that this supports the poetess’s longing and passion for other women, it also reflects a desire to remain chaste in Artemis’ image.11 On the reasoning behind Fr. 44AA, Wilson questions the purpose of whether it was didac- tic or used to honour Artemis.12 If we are to assume that this fragment had educational intent, we can infer that Sappho’s herself wanted women to choose to remain unmarried and retain their virginity – a desire which can be observed outside of Sappho in instances where women become

8 Jack Winkler, “Gardens of Nymphs: Public and Private in Sappho's Lyrics” Women's Studies 8, no. 1-2 (1981): 66.

9 Hatherly Lyn, Wilson, Sappho's Sweetbitter Songs Configurations of Female and Male in An- cient Greek Lyric. (London; New York: Routledge, 1996), 91.

10Wilson, Sappho's Sweetbitter Songs, 90.

11 Sappho, “Fragments 105c”, 235, ‘Fragments 117”, 239, “Fragment 114, 233; Holt N. Parker, “Sappho Schoolmistress," Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-) 123 (1993): 313.

12 Wilson, Sappho's Sweetbitter Songs, 90. !3 heroines, for maintaining their chastity.13 A key difference we must note in the treatment of he- roes and Sapphic virgins is that these heroines were publicly worshipped as symbols of purity and as worthy sacrifices to better their community, where Sappho only champions virginity itself.14 Sappho’s portrayal of virginal women is inherent to women themselves, which is - in es- sence, a private proclamation that enhances the importance of this perspective. In antiquity, it was expected for young women to be virginal, as the breakage of an intact virginity was used to show the legitimacy of potential heirs for their husbands.15 While the majority of her wedding songs celebrate the relationship between a man and a woman, the resistance to marriage in Fr. 44AA lends to the theory that Sappho herself did not favor marriage, a desire that could have been felt by women throughout the Greek world. In short, Sappho’s depiction of Artemis’ autonomy and preservation of her virginity can be observed as an encouragement to young women to remain virginal, but perhaps, also as a representation of feminine desire for marriage. The extent of Sappho’s views on desire will be revisited, but suffice to say that Sappho’s depiction of Artemis’ autonomy and the preservation of her virginity in Fr. 44AA is evident of Sappho’s unique voice for women in a society that marginalized them. Though we have Fr. 44AA as an example of the feminine rejection of marriage, a greater amount of Sappho’s surviving poetry depicts wedding hymns - a reflection of the diversity of feminine desires. Conversely to our Artemis example, the wedding hymns observed in Fr. 113 and 112 indicate that Sappho viewed marriage to be equally unique and special to both the bride and bridegroom. Where ‘Fr. 113: ‘For you, O bridegroom, there was never another girl like this one,’ Fr. 112 goes on to further express the bride’s good qualities: blest bridegroom, your marriage that you prayed for is accomplished, you have the girl for whom you prayed, and you, bride, your appearance is full of grace, your eyes are gentle and love wells on your delightful face: Aphrodite has honored you beyond all others (Sappho, Fr. 112)

In these fragments, Sappho is one of the few writers in antiquity to revel in the joys and delights of marriage, as she saw that it could be equally pleasurable for both the bride and bridegroom. Fr. 113 emphasizes the bride’s uniqueness, and that the groom should value her. Sappho praises the beauty of both in Fr. 112, where it can be seen that she did not value or praise one companion over another.16 While these fragments are not explicit in the sexual pleasure of marriage, the praises signify that she saw marriage as an equal partnership.

13 Wilson, Sappho's Sweetbitter Songs, 99; Marilyn A. Katz, "Sappho and Her Sisters: Women in Ancient Greece," Signs 25, no. 2 (2000): 516.

14 Katz, “Sappho and Her Sisters: Women in Ancient Greece,” 516.

15 Wilson, Sappho's Sweetbitter Songs, 88.

16 Judith P. Hallet, “Sappho and Her Social Context: Sense and Sensuality." Signs 4, no. 3 (1979): 456. !4

Sappho expresses her views of pleasurable marriage in Fr. 115 with natural imagery as a metaphor for the bride and bridegroom’s beauty, ‘To what shall I best liken you, dear bridegroom? Most of all to a slender sapling I liken you’ (Sappho, Fr. 115). Sappho expresses her views of pleasurable marriage in Fr. 115 through natural imagery that serves as a metaphorical device to describe the bridegroom’s beauty, specifically through the description of the bridegroom as a ‘slender sapling’ to connote his youth. The importance of this fragment, however, is in the sensuality derived from metaphorical descriptions, a commonality in Sappho’s wedding songs as they are ripe with imagery of nature to indicate youth and beauty. The construction of these verses creates an erotic landscape with words like dew and flowers, indicating the visual- ization of an erotic setting.17 Numerous poets reference nature to suggest themes of sensuality, specifically Homer who wrote about an encounter between Zeus and Hera whose embrace caused ‘dewey lotus, and crocus, and hyacinth’ to grow from the ground.18 Nature represents eroticism in Fr.115 with the bridegroom’s comparison to a ‘slender sapling’. Eroticism is reflec- tive of the locale where these desires are fulfilled, as landscapes such as meadows and flowery fields are often places where love-making occurs in poetry.19 This natural erotic imagery symbol- ized the importance of the sexual bond that would be shared between husband and wife. In mythology, love-making in flowery fields is significant with some of the first beings, Ouranos and Gaea.20 The frame of this mythical relationship that is strongly represented by the rain in- seminating the earth and conceiving life parallels the erotic landscape that Sappho creates in her poetry. Therefore, this could be a metaphor for the importance of love-making between the bride and bridegroom on their wedding night.21 In great contrast to Sappho’s emphasis on the eroticism of marriage through allusions to nature, other fragments of hers harken back to our earlier discussion on virginity, specifically with the concern over the loss of virginity observed in Fr. 107: ‘do I still yearn for my virginity? (Sappho, Fr. 107)’. When verses of eroticism and sensuality are contrasted with the yearning of one’s lost virginity, it allows for the interpretation that Sappho and the women around her were concerned with both and that these lines served to educate young women on the perils of sex be- fore getting married.22 Though the surviving fragments of Sappho’s work are not sufficient to definitively conclude what her opinion was on virginity, the surviving evidence does allow us to

17 Jo Heirman, "The Erotic Conception of Ancient Greek Landscapes and the Heterotopia of the Symposium," CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 14, no. 3 (2012): 2.

18 Hom., Il, 14.348; Heirman, "The Erotic Conception of Ancient Greek Landscapes and the Het- erotopia of the Symposium," 2.

19 Rebecca Hague “Ancient Greek Wedding Songs: The Tradition of Praise," Journal of Folklore Research 20, no. 2/3 (1983): 136.

20 Hague “Ancient Greek Wedding Songs: The Tradition of Praise," 143.

21 Hague “Ancient Greek Wedding Songs: The Tradition of Praise," 143.

22 Hallet, “Sappho and Her Social Context: Sense and Sensuality." 456. !5 observe that she encouraged virginity in young women as well as an erotic relationship once bonded in marriage. Elsewhere in Sappho’s wedding hymns she employed teasing to express her views on an equality in marriage, specifically through the Eikôn.23 An Eikôn was sung during wedding feasts to makes fun of the bride and bridegroom, as can be observed in Fr. 111, where Sappho teases the bridegroom for his size: ‘the bridegroom is coming in equal to Ares.’ Although this was thought by some to be a simple joke of Sappho making fun of the bridegroom's size, Kirk interprets this fragment as Sappho making fun of the groom’s overt ithyphallic appearance.24 While this may seem inappropriate, such teasing was typical in wedding songs, and it was used to check the bridegroom’s hubris.25 This interpretation is indicative of the doubled praise from Sappho, as it makes fun of the groom, while the bride is simultaneously praised for being able to arouse her groom about his erect penis. Another example of how Sappho praises the bride is derived from Fr. 105A, where she likens the bride to an apple. As a sweet apple reddens on a high branch at the tip of the topmost bough: The apple-pickers missed it. No, they didn’t miss it: They couldn’t reach it. (Sappho, Fr. 105A)

This commentary by Syrianus has led scholars to consider this fragment as a wedding song.26 The metaphor of the apple relates to the bride through firmness, seeds, and sweetness.27 The former allusions represent fertility, as firmness is indicative of a woman’s body and seeds represent the children she will bear for her husband, while sweetness represents a woman’s tempera- ment that she must possess in her marriage. As such, Sappho's reference to a ‘sweet apple' de- notes the young woman’s maturity and desirability as a bride, praising her for such qualities and emphasizing the bride’s importance in a marriage.28 While Sappho’s poems of love and marriage are more overtly relevant to our discussion of feminine desire, we may also turn to her mythical allusions for a deeper discussion. In Fr. 16,

23 Hague “Ancient Greek Wedding Songs: The Tradition of Praise," 132.

24 G.S Kirk, “A Fragment of Sappho Reinterpreted,” The Classical Quarterly 13, no. 1 (1963): 51.

25 Drew R. Griffith “In Praise of the Bride: Sappho Fr. 105(A) L-P, Voigt,” Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-) 119, (1989): 56.

26 Griffith, “In Praise of the Bride: Sappho Fr. 105(A) L-P, Voigt,” 56; Sappho, Syrianus on Her- gomenes, Greek Lyric, Volume I: Sappho and Alcaeus, trans. D.A Campbell, (Cambridge Univer- sity Press), 131.

27 Griffith, “In Praise of the Bride: Sappho Fr. 105(A) L-P, Voigt,” 56.

28 Griffith, “In Praise of the Bride: Sappho Fr. 105(A) L-P, Voigt,” 58. !6

Sappho discusses the flight of Helen to Troy and takes a distinct turn from the tradition that Homer set in his interpretation of the departure: Easy to make this understood by all For she who overcame everyone in beauty (Helen) left her fine husband

behind and went sailing to Troy Not for her children nor her dear parents had she a thought, no – ] led her astray ]for ]lightly ] reminded me now of Anaktoria who is gone

I’d rather see her lovely step, And the motion of light on her face Than chariots of Lydians or ranks Of footsoldiers in arms. (Sappho, Fr. 16, 5-12).

In comparing the portrayal of Helen in Homer’s Iliad and Sappho’s poetry, we see two distinct scenarios in which the Helen of Homer is kidnapped while the Helen of Sappho leaves of her own volition – an overt expression of female agency. While Sappho takes the stance here that Helen exercised agency in her departure from Sparta to Troy, her repeated references to the Tro- jan war outside of this fragment remind the reader of the consequences of such actions.29 Though Helen is aware of her husband’s militaristic capabilities and the potential consequences of her actions, she leaves despite this, for she has prioritized her love for Paris.30

The positivity of this fragment is seemingly diminished in the next line when Sappho as- sumes the perspective of Menelaus, who laments the abandonment of his lover. Anaktoria has left Sappho just as Helen left Menelaus. With the introduction of Sappho’s perspective, she describes her hurt feelings akin to Menelaus’, where the preference of seeing her beauty is com- pared to the sight of the Trojan War. This duality fleshes out this fragment, as a modern positivity of Helen’s established agency is contrasted with the consequences of her departure, which is manifested with Sappho’s lamentation. The poetess’s comparison of her love life to this infa-

29 Ilja Pjeiffer “Shifting Helen: An Interpretation of Sappho, Fragment 16 (Voigt),” The Classical Quarterly 50, no. 1 (2000): 2.

30 Loukas Papadimitropoulos, “Sappho Fr. 16: Love and War,” The Classical Journal 112, no. 2 (2017): 132. !7 mous, epic story enriches this fragment, as Sappho and her former lover are made to walk in the same steps as Menelaus and Helen, revered figures in the Greek’s history.

Sappho’s employment of Helen’s agency within this fragment expresses the power of desire over women – something so great that Helen leaves Sparta for the sake of love despite the impact her departure has. This is what Sappho is trying to tell through her poem: it does not matter what happens, we must pursue our desires regardless of such perils and consequences. She explicitly states that Helen leaves without a thought for those she left behind, a device she uses to reflect upon her own sadness at the departure of Anaktoria, a young woman that leaves her behind for a husband. As such, with this mythological allusion, Sappho acknowledges the power of desire over women and that they are powerless to deny it – for better or for worse. Helen, a revered figure in mythology caused a ten-year war but she was happy, so what does it matter as long you follow what you love?

Sappho’s surviving works on love and life are integral to the study of women in Ancient Greece as her unique feminine perspective exercises a poetic tradition that reflects the desires of such women. Sappho’s discussions of virginity, eroticism, and marriage through allusions to nature and mythology display the incredibly nuanced ethos of women in antiquity and their varying opinions on such topics – from valuing virginity to desiring marriage and the erotic partnership expressed therein. In all, the poetry of Sappho allows modern scholars to understand the intricacies of feminine thought in a world governed by the works of men, providing a glimpse into what it was that women truly wanted. !8

Bibliography

Bowman, Laurel. “The "Women's Tradition" in Greek Poetry.” Phoenix 58, no. 1/2 (2004): 1-27. doi:10.2307/4135194.

Carson, Anne. If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. 1st ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf: Dis- tributed by Random House, 2002.

Castle, Warren. “Observations on Sappho's To Aphrodite.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 89 (1958): 66-76. doi:10.2307/283665.

Decker, Jessica Elbert. "The Most Beautiful Thing on the Black Earth: Sappho’s Alliance with Aphrodite." In Looking at Beauty to Kalon in Western Greece: Selected Essays from the 2018 Symposium on the Heritage of Western Greece, edited by Reid Heather L. and Leyh Tony, 39-50. Sioux City, Iowa USA: Parnassos Press – Fonte Aretusa, 2019. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/j.ctvcmxpn5.6.

DuBois, Page. Sappho Is Burning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Giacomelli, Anne. “The Justice of Aphrodite in Sappho Fr. 1.” Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-) 110 (1980): 135-42. doi:10.2307/284214.

Greene, Ellen. “Apostrophe and Women's Erotics in the Poetry of Sappho.” Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-) 124 (1994): 41-56. doi: 10.2307/284285.

Griffith, R. Drew. “In Praise of the Bride: Sappho Fr. 105(A) L-P, Voigt.” Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-) 119 (1989): 55-61. doi:10.2307/284260.

Hallett, Judith P. “Sappho and Her Social Context: Sense and Sensuality.” Signs 4, no. 3 (1979): 447-464. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173393.

Hague, Rebecca H. “Ancient Greek Wedding Songs: The Tradition of Praise.” Journal of Folk- lore Research 20, no. 2/3 (1983): 131-143. http://www.jstor.org.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/stable/3814526.

Heirman, Jo. “The Erotic Conception of Ancient Greek Landscapes and the Heterotopia of the Symposium.” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 14, no. 3 (2012): 1-7.

Homer, Hymn to Demeter, with an English translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Ed. G.P. Put- nam’s Sons Heinemann, 1914. !9

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0138:hymn=2

Homer. The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134

Katz, Marilyn A. "Sappho and Her Sisters: Women in Ancient Greece." Signs 25, no. 2 (2000): 505-31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3175564.

Kirk, G. S. “A Fragment of Sappho Reinterpreted.” The Classical Quarterly 13, no. 1 (1963): 51-52. http://www.jstor.org.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/stable/637934.

Papadimitropoulos, Loukas. “Sappho Fr. 16: Love and War.” The Classical Journal 112, no. 2 (2017): 129-38. doi:10.5184/classicalj.112.2.0129.

Parker, Holt N. “Sappho Schoolmistress.” Transactions of the American Philological Associa- tion (1974-) 123 (1993): 309-51. doi:10.2307/284334.

Pfeijffer, Ilja Leonard. “Shifting Helen: An Interpretation of Sappho, Fragment 16 (Voigt).” The Classical Quarterly 50, no. 1 (2000): 1-6. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1558930.

Sappho, Alcaeus. Greek Lyric, Volume I: Sappho and Alcaeus. Edited and translated by David A. Campbell. Loeb Classical Library 142. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982. The Greek anthology. 1916. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. https://archive.org/details/greekant hology01newyuoft.

Skinner, Marilyn B. “Corinna of Tanagra and Her Audience.” Tulsa Studies in Women's Litera- ture 2, no. 1 (1983): 9-20.

Wilson, Lyn Hatherly. Sappho's Sweetbitter Songs Configurations of Female and Male in An- cient Greek Lyric. London: New York: Routledge, 1996.

Winkler, Jack. “Gardens of Nymphs: Public and Private in Sappho's Lyrics.” Women's Studies 8, no. 1-2 (1981): 65-91