From the Bookshelf of Reading Ancient Classics…

[close] Sappho is one of the few female poets to survive from antiquity. She lived on the island of Lesbos in the 7th century B.C. & was reportedly exiled to Sicily between 604-595 B.C., for reasons unknown. She was a lyric poet - her poems were accompanied by music, typically the lyre. She composed & performed her work among her group of female friends & students, at gatherings at her home. Her music was also performed at religious festivals & marriage ceremonies. Alexandrian scholars collected her lyrics into nine books, but today only a single poem survives in full - the rest comes to us in fragments, and the music is entirely lost. She was highly respected in antiquity & is credited with the creation of two musical instruments, as well as the mixolydian mode, which she bequeathed to the tragic poets. She had a profound influence on later Greek & Latin literature - Hellenistic poets called her the tenth muse, and her presence is clearly felt in the love poems of Roman writers, including Catullus.
Many of her poems give expression to her intimate & deep love for women, and the term ‘lesbian’ derives from the name of her native island, Lesbos.

If Not, Winter collects all Sappho’s fragments together in a beautiful translation by Anne Carson - herself a master of poetry & language. It contains the original Greek alongside the English translation. What I particularly love about this collection is its form & presentation - blank space & brackets mark the lacunae in the papyrus, showing us the shape of what is present and what is lost.

Sappho was the group read-along for April 2020.