Throughout Sappho’s poetry, one can hear a vibrant, yet somewhat melancholic voice that brings out sentiments of love and affection correlated with powerful natural imagery. The verses reflect a certain communion between love, reflection, natural symbolism and the act of communicating with the gods. It is both spiritually soothing and enlightening to read Sappho’s poetry, even though the bittersweet feeling of yearning is persistent in her lyrics. At the same time, Sappho’s verses are sensual and daring – no bashful tone resides in her expression of true and powerful emotions. Moreover, a nice feeling of intimacy is established between the author and the reader: unlike Homer’s poetry, which is grand and heroic and where the poet is a mouthpiece for the gods, Sappho’s poetry seems a lyrical conversation between earthly individuals consumed by the same feelings and yearnings that surpass time and space . Therefore, since Sappho’s poems could be considered personal confessions of love and desire, this paper sets out to analyze a poem that not only compares love to an ideal of beauty and purpose in life (while still clinging on to the feeling of yearning and melancholia), but also defines Sappho’s voice as an expression of feminine thoughts and opinions that clash with those acclaimed as universally true by a male dominated society.
Poem 31 in Lombardo’s translation expresses the author’s untamed opinion about what universal1 beauty is: “some say an army on horseback, /some say on foot, and some say ships/ are the most beautiful things/ on this black earth/but I say/ it is whatever you love”. Even if Sappho chanted about love, affection and adoration in most of her work – whether it was expressed through bittersweet yearning or erotic passion – this particular correlation between love and beauty is of major significance. Beauty was considered by ancient Greeks to be one of the most important aspects of earthly and divine life, and associating a human sentiment with the concept of beauty is both daring and serious. It shows Sappho’s view that the beauty projected by such a strong feeling like love surpasses any kind of beauty reflected by simple physical objects, or worse, military strategies. At the same time, the poet underlines the fact that beauty is “whatever you love”; therefore, it is specific and individual for every person and becomes an expression of our true selves. Furthermore, the object of our affection is not beautiful by itself – it becomes beautiful when we direct our love towards it, elevating it to a superior state of beauty. All in all, these ideas lead to the conclusion that Sappho considered love to be the ultimate expression of beauty in this world, as opposed to any other preconceived ideal (in this case, a military ideal) nurtured in a male dominated society.
In the above cited fragment, Sappho starts by stating three distinct views upheld by a masculine society regarding the concept of beauty, only to introduce a completely contradictory opinion in the last line. This opinion is both from a feminine point of view, as well as a personal point of view (“but I say”), which demonstrates that Sappho does not let herself sunk in the mainstream thinking of the collective masses, nor does she accept the concepts and ideals set up by men. She is not the voice of the society as a whole and she is definitely not the voice of the gods. She is a passionate lyrist with an urge to express deeply personal ideas and feelings. However, in order to stress her point, Sappho draws arguments from historical events. Helen is used to express both the individual and the feminist opinion of love as the ultimate expression of beauty; for it was Helen – a woman guided by love and passion – who solely decided to flee for Troy: “she left/ her perfect husband and went/ sailing off to Troy/ without a thought for her child/ or her dear parents, led astray/ lightly” 2. As Helen went against community consensus in order to follow her love, so does Sappho go against predetermined ideas in order to express her own views. At the same time, the poet characterizes Helen as “beautiful beyond everything human” , thus stressing again the beauty of the individual versus the beauty of the military fleet depicted at the beginning of the poem and somewhat suggesting that Helen’s beauty derives from the fact she was an object of admiration and affection for Paris, as well as many other suitors before him. This way, one can easily conclude that indeed, through this poem, Sappho wanted to express a personal opinion, that was, at the same time, a feminine one, in opposition with the views of the male dominated society at the time.
In the last part of the poem, the feeling of longing for a lost love returns, following a recurring theme in Sappho’s poetry. There is the familiar “emphasis [] on the poet's own suffering, caused by bittersweet love” as Sappho mentions her yearning for “Anactoria, who is gone”. The image depicted in this passage is vibrant and rich, even if the poetess uses few words to describe her loved one, regarding “her lovely walk and bright, shimmering face”. This way, the reader dives into a complex mix of both melancholia and ardent love that transcends time and speaks directly to one’s soul, making one become absorbed by it. At the same time, Sappho uses this opportunity to emphasize once again that she would rather see her beloved than “all the chariots/ and armed men in Lydia” . The poetess’s feminine and individual opinions are carried out till the end and expressed through her true needs and yearnings. This way, love (or better said, fulfilled love) becomes not only a beauty ideal, but also a purpose in life and the only thing that matters “on this black earth”.
In conclusion, this particular poem created by Sappho has three main functionalities. First of all, it reflects a recurring theme in the work of the poetess: the constant nostalgia caused by an unfulfilled love and the lyrist’s reflections upon the beloved’s features . The last part of the poem particularly emphasizes this theme and also transmits powerful feelings of longing and need for fulfillment in love. Second of all, the poem presents Sappho’s views regarding what people can call universally beautiful; unsurprisingly, love – as the ultimate human sentiment – along with the object of one’s affections are claimed to be the most beautiful things on earth. Drawing her arguments from Greek history, as well as personal accounts, Sappho supports her ideas, interestingly enough, despite the fact that love causes her perpetual feelings of yearning. Third of all, in this poem, Sappho is expressing a personal and feminine view towards beauty that strongly opposes the views of her male compatriots. Through a clever construction of verses, as well as well-laid arguments, the poetess freely introduces and supports her opinions. She does not speak for the whole Greek society or for the gods; on the contrary, Sappho expresses herself as an individual and a woman above all. At the same time, the poem is beautiful in itself and makes one marvel at the fact that certain human feelings, concerns, opinions and needs transcend time and space and are transmitted down generations through some ancestral, mystical memory. Sappho’s poetry has made me access that memory and reflect upon such concepts as love, beauty and personal yearnings.
Works Cited
Alix North. Isle of Lesbos. 2007. 16 October 2012
Lombardo, Stanley. Sappho: Poems and Fragments. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2002.
Poetry Foundation. Sappho. 2012. 18 October 2012
The Academy of American Poets. Sappho. 18 October 2012
