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My Name is Sappho
Out of history legend and the cloud drifts of Sappho's own poetry Martha Rofheart has spun a dazzling tale - a life of high adventure brutal war political intrigue and poignant romance. The dimly known era of Greece six centuries before Christ is illuminated in a lyrical and humanistic story of a woman whose enduring fame lies in her new conception of woman as an intellect and an artist.
339 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
About the author
Martha Rofheart
20 books9 followersMartha Jones Rofheart was an actress and a novelist, inspired by her grandfather's stories of their Welsh ancestors.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 8, 2016
I loved the idea of this book. Having studied Classics I am always on the look out for authors who can bring these historical figures to life. Sappho’s life is ripe for fictionalization; one of the most famous but mysterious poets in history. Rofheart has clearly done a lot of research into Sappho and the period in which she lived, I liked her explanation of this at the end. She gives some really interesting insights into the culture and brings Sappho’s world to life, especially politics and the treatment of women.
I found the narration a bit confusing as each of the five parts is told by a different character - all the voices were quite similar and I would have liked to hear more from Sappho herself.
I was ready to love this book but unfortunately it fell down in the emotion stakes for me. As this massively passionate woman is the keystone of the book I just expected it to grab me more. The writing style is quite staid, perhaps to give it the sense of the period, but for me it dimmed the beauty.
I found the narration a bit confusing as each of the five parts is told by a different character - all the voices were quite similar and I would have liked to hear more from Sappho herself.
I was ready to love this book but unfortunately it fell down in the emotion stakes for me. As this massively passionate woman is the keystone of the book I just expected it to grab me more. The writing style is quite staid, perhaps to give it the sense of the period, but for me it dimmed the beauty.
November 11, 2017
Story of the 6th Century BC Greek poetess, Sappho as related by Sappho and three others. Whilst very little is known about Sappho, this is a fair fictional account with a plausible story behind it.
Personally, I would have preferred the one narrator as the passion of Sappho would have shone through more and I would have developed more of a connection with her.
Personally, I would have preferred the one narrator as the passion of Sappho would have shone through more and I would have developed more of a connection with her.
July 11, 2014
I love historical fiction, especially concerning women who contributed much to the world. The story of Sappho gives very interesting glimpses into both her character and the culture of Western civilization at that time. The research sounds very authentic, and is mentioned at the end. As a great artist from a wealthy family, Sappho was able to fight for the rights of women in a Greek culture that was very male dominated.
The structure was a little creative, as there are five segments, each told in first person by four different characters (Sappho tells two, but her lover, husband and sister-in-law tell the others). This allowed different viewpoints both on Sappho and the society. It was a little disconcerting getting into the “I” each time the POV shifted, but it was done well enough to work.
The writing was at times humorous, and always descriptive, but in general it was – well, somewhat bland. I never got any emotional rushes, never got really engrossed in the characters, and never really got caught up in what would eventually happen. It was all very nice, interesting, engaging on an intellectual level, but not exciting. A very pleasant read, great if you are interested in learning about this time period and the life of Sappho, but not great literature you would miss if you did not read it.
The structure was a little creative, as there are five segments, each told in first person by four different characters (Sappho tells two, but her lover, husband and sister-in-law tell the others). This allowed different viewpoints both on Sappho and the society. It was a little disconcerting getting into the “I” each time the POV shifted, but it was done well enough to work.
The writing was at times humorous, and always descriptive, but in general it was – well, somewhat bland. I never got any emotional rushes, never got really engrossed in the characters, and never really got caught up in what would eventually happen. It was all very nice, interesting, engaging on an intellectual level, but not exciting. A very pleasant read, great if you are interested in learning about this time period and the life of Sappho, but not great literature you would miss if you did not read it.
November 10, 2016
There are some historical women whose lives have been written about in fiction many times but I think it’s safe to say that Sappho, the Greek lyric poet, doesn’t seem to be one of them. This novel, first published in 1974, is the first I’ve come across that tells her story and much as I do enjoy reading about Tudor queens and medieval princesses, it’s always refreshing to have the opportunity to read about somebody different!
Very little is known for certain about Sappho’s life. We do know that she was born on the Greek island of Lesbos, possibly between 630 and 612BC, and grew up in the port town of Mitylene. We know the probable names of some of her family members and we know that she was exiled from Mitylene twice. Beyond this, most of the information we have about Sappho is unreliable or based on the remaining fragments of her poetry, which may or may not have been autobiographical. It’s enough to build a novel around, though, and in Burning Sappho Martha Rofheart uses the known facts as a starting point to give a possible interpretation of what Sappho’s life could have been like.
We don’t have much factual information about the other characters who appear in the novel either – and I have to admit, I hadn’t even heard of most of them and didn’t know whether they were real or fictional, so Google proved very useful there! Some of the most notable characters include Gorgo, a girl from Sparta who angers Sappho by befriending Andromeda, the Nubian slave purchased by Sappho’s father; Alkaios, a fellow poet and the man Sappho loves; Pittakos, who rules Mitylene after the downfall of the Tyrant, Melanchros; and the famous courtesan Doricha, known as Rhodopis. I was also pleased to see Aesop make a few appearances – one character I had at least heard of!
The novel is divided into five sections; there are two narrated by Sappho herself and one each from the points of view of Alkaios, Doricha/Rhodopis and the sea trader, Kerkylas of Andros. There’s not a lot of difference between the voices of the narrators so it took a while to adjust to each change of perspective, but otherwise I thought the structure worked well. I preferred Sappho’s own narration, but hearing from other people who were close to her helped me to form a more balanced view of her as a person. There seems to be a lot of debate surrounding Sappho’s sexuality (the word lesbian is derived from the name of Sappho’s home, Lesbos), but Rofheart portrays her as having relationships with both men and women. In particular, she is shown to be in love with a girl called Atthis, whose name is mentioned in some of her love poetry.
I always admire people who write fiction set in ancient periods; I think it must be very difficult, when we have such limited knowledge of how people lived in those times. On reading Martha Rofheart’s Author’s Note and list of acknowledgments at the end of the book, I can appreciate the efforts she went to in researching her novel – for example, she states that as the geographical landscape has changed so much over the centuries, she has based her descriptions of the Greek islands on how they appeared in ancient writings rather than modern day ones. However, I still felt that there was something a little bit too ‘modern’ about this book – maybe it was the attitudes of some of the characters and the language they used. It wasn’t a huge problem, but the best way I can explain it is that I was always conscious that I was reading a story written in the 1970s, rather than being completely swept away to another time and place.
Still, I thought this was a fascinating novel and an educational one too. I knew absolutely nothing about this period before I started to read so I don’t feel qualified to comment on the historical accuracy or the choices Rofheart makes, but even if not everything happened as she describes it, I feel that I’ve learned a lot about the history of Lesbos. Although the focus is usually on Sappho and her music, she lived through a time of political turmoil; one of the most memorable scenes in the book describes the overthrow of Melanchros the Tyrant (which is sparked, in Rofheart’s version of events, by Sappho’s performance of a song she has written in protest against the custom of child sacrifice).
Burning Sappho (also published as My Name is Sappho) was an enjoyable read. Although it wasn’t quite as immersive as I would have liked, I thought it was much better than Lionheart, the other Martha Rofheart book I’ve read. She has written several other historical novels, all set in different periods, and I’m looking forward to working my way through them. As for Sappho, I can only find details of one or two other novels about her, but there seems to be plenty of non-fiction, including collections of her surviving writings. Now that I’ve been introduced to this fascinating woman, I’m interested in reading more about her!
Very little is known for certain about Sappho’s life. We do know that she was born on the Greek island of Lesbos, possibly between 630 and 612BC, and grew up in the port town of Mitylene. We know the probable names of some of her family members and we know that she was exiled from Mitylene twice. Beyond this, most of the information we have about Sappho is unreliable or based on the remaining fragments of her poetry, which may or may not have been autobiographical. It’s enough to build a novel around, though, and in Burning Sappho Martha Rofheart uses the known facts as a starting point to give a possible interpretation of what Sappho’s life could have been like.
We don’t have much factual information about the other characters who appear in the novel either – and I have to admit, I hadn’t even heard of most of them and didn’t know whether they were real or fictional, so Google proved very useful there! Some of the most notable characters include Gorgo, a girl from Sparta who angers Sappho by befriending Andromeda, the Nubian slave purchased by Sappho’s father; Alkaios, a fellow poet and the man Sappho loves; Pittakos, who rules Mitylene after the downfall of the Tyrant, Melanchros; and the famous courtesan Doricha, known as Rhodopis. I was also pleased to see Aesop make a few appearances – one character I had at least heard of!
The novel is divided into five sections; there are two narrated by Sappho herself and one each from the points of view of Alkaios, Doricha/Rhodopis and the sea trader, Kerkylas of Andros. There’s not a lot of difference between the voices of the narrators so it took a while to adjust to each change of perspective, but otherwise I thought the structure worked well. I preferred Sappho’s own narration, but hearing from other people who were close to her helped me to form a more balanced view of her as a person. There seems to be a lot of debate surrounding Sappho’s sexuality (the word lesbian is derived from the name of Sappho’s home, Lesbos), but Rofheart portrays her as having relationships with both men and women. In particular, she is shown to be in love with a girl called Atthis, whose name is mentioned in some of her love poetry.
I always admire people who write fiction set in ancient periods; I think it must be very difficult, when we have such limited knowledge of how people lived in those times. On reading Martha Rofheart’s Author’s Note and list of acknowledgments at the end of the book, I can appreciate the efforts she went to in researching her novel – for example, she states that as the geographical landscape has changed so much over the centuries, she has based her descriptions of the Greek islands on how they appeared in ancient writings rather than modern day ones. However, I still felt that there was something a little bit too ‘modern’ about this book – maybe it was the attitudes of some of the characters and the language they used. It wasn’t a huge problem, but the best way I can explain it is that I was always conscious that I was reading a story written in the 1970s, rather than being completely swept away to another time and place.
Still, I thought this was a fascinating novel and an educational one too. I knew absolutely nothing about this period before I started to read so I don’t feel qualified to comment on the historical accuracy or the choices Rofheart makes, but even if not everything happened as she describes it, I feel that I’ve learned a lot about the history of Lesbos. Although the focus is usually on Sappho and her music, she lived through a time of political turmoil; one of the most memorable scenes in the book describes the overthrow of Melanchros the Tyrant (which is sparked, in Rofheart’s version of events, by Sappho’s performance of a song she has written in protest against the custom of child sacrifice).
Burning Sappho (also published as My Name is Sappho) was an enjoyable read. Although it wasn’t quite as immersive as I would have liked, I thought it was much better than Lionheart, the other Martha Rofheart book I’ve read. She has written several other historical novels, all set in different periods, and I’m looking forward to working my way through them. As for Sappho, I can only find details of one or two other novels about her, but there seems to be plenty of non-fiction, including collections of her surviving writings. Now that I’ve been introduced to this fascinating woman, I’m interested in reading more about her!
May 8, 2020
A romantic retelling of the life of Sappho.
August 6, 2012
Strangely this book was called 'Burning Sappho' when I read it. Why the name change? This novel brings to life the famous poet Sappho and the times in which she lived. This was a turbulent period in Greece when the tyrants were taking over everywhere. The word 'tyrant' did not mean the same in those days. It had not acquired its pejorative meaning yet and merely meant 'usurper.' These tyrants took over many states, often with popular support. Supporters of the old regimes fled to other areas to escape death and this is what Sappho was caught up in. Martha Rofheart provides an excellent insight into life in those days, even commenting on little things like how the word 'hetaira' had changed its meaning. There is no agenda in the book, as you get in Mary Renault, but just an excellent story, which is believable and makes you feel that you know Sappho well.
February 16, 2016
I don't know why I had such difficult time initially getting into this book, because it is well written, well researched and good characterization, but once I finished about a third of the book, it finally took over and I was into the story line. I liked the main characters, it was a good plot, and it is a book that I would recommend to readers.
* I would like to thank the author/publisher /Netgalkey for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest opinion*
* I would like to thank the author/publisher /Netgalkey for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest opinion*
June 19, 2014
I read this book many yearsa ago and thought it was good so I saved it. Recently I didn't have antything new to read so I pulled it out and decided to reread it. It was okay, but if I would have read this book now, for the first time, I would not have saved it to read again. So now you know why I gave it a three star rating.
November 29, 2015
A wonderful account of one of the greatest Greek female poets of all time.
This is Sappho's life story from when she was sent into exile, by the usurpers that were trying to take over Greece and her people, from her home on Lesbos to her triumphant homecoming.
I was given a digital copy of this novel by the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
This is Sappho's life story from when she was sent into exile, by the usurpers that were trying to take over Greece and her people, from her home on Lesbos to her triumphant homecoming.
I was given a digital copy of this novel by the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews