WISDOM WEDNESDAY | Sappho

“Although they are

Only breath, words
which I command
are immortal”

 

Classical Greek texts are one of the areas of literature I most enjoy, but it wasn’t until last year that I discovered this female poet. Plato and Aristotle argued that all humans are equal by nature, which presumably had some effect on the collective view of women’s equality in ancient Greece, but this was after Sappho’s time. So, the success she found as a poet, a category in which greats the likes of Homer were already revered, is pretty cool and speaks to her mastery. Though much of her poetry is lost, ancient accounts laud her compositions as remarkable, and those pieces we do have left certainly warrant such praise. The subject of much debate, in regard to both her work and her personal life, Sappho makes for a fascinating study. I’m featuring her today because, as is true of much classical literature, her poems exude a timeless wisdom and provoke deep thought. A few of them seem to include a humorous attitude as well, though it’s hard to know if she intended it. The one below made me laugh! I suppose it’s quite true!

“If you are squeamish

Don’t prod the
beach rubble”

Mary Barnard’s translations are considered some of the best, and I particularly enjoyed her explanation of the process and its difficulties, which can be found in the footnote at the back of the book, so I’ve included a snippet from this as well.

“Every translator of poetry has to face and solve somehow the problem of ‘that which is untranslatable.’ The translator of Sappho has to cope with serious textual problems in addition. The texts vary to such an extent and have been emended by so many hands that the translator has a choice of words and meanings for almost every line. Such problems often arise out of the circumstances of survival. The sources for our texts are various, and most of them are as unsatisfactory as might be expected in the case of a poet who lived twenty-five centuries ago. Sappho may or may not have written her poems down. She sang or recited them with lyre accompaniment; they were passed on to professional singers who sang them wherever Greek was spoken. Copies were made and these copies were copied. The earliest papyrus text we possess dates from the third century B.C., about three hundred years after her death. Copyists were not always reliable, so that different texts sometimes offer choices of words, when we are fortunate enough to have two texts.”

Have you read Sappho before? Do you study classical literature? While I took some classical studies courses in college, my actual major was English, so the amount of classes on these particular topics were limited. My research on Sappho has presented so many differing accounts and opinions. If you are well versed on the subject, I would love to hear about it! Please comment below or email me!