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 im- portance, 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 de- sire, 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’ auton- omy 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 bride- groom? Most of all to a slender sapling I liken you’ (Sappho, Fr.