![]() ![]() Popular consensus has cast Sappho as a lesbian.īut there are countless “fictions” arguing for or against Sappho’s same-sex practices. Sappho’s sexuality, for example, is the ground of most contention. ![]() These biographies tend to be charged with the beliefs and ideals of the biographer, a practice more in reflexivity. This, of course, does not stop many from trying to construct a biography of the poet. Sappho as real historical figure remains an enigma and will probably always remain so. Her poetry is the only definitive source for a woman bearing that epithet.Īs Page Dubois observes in her introduction to Sappho Burning, “She is not a person, not even a character in a drama or a fiction, but a set of texts gathered in her name” (Dubois 3). Little is known about the actual life of Sappho. The personage of Sappho has been a subject of much dispute over the centuries. Out of this oeuvre, we possess only one of those books, containing only forty, decipherable poems. Of course, we all know what happened to that library. The library of Alexandria once held nine of her books. ![]() The papyri on which she wrote has been lost, destroyed, or corrupted beyond recognition. Ripped, torn, shredded papyri, quotations on pottery shards and in the text of historical writers are all that remain of Sappho’s lyrical poetry. Review of If not, Winter, Fragments of Sappho Translated by Anne Carson Global Health Engineering Music Writing Randy Yee Review of If not, Winter, Fragments of Sappho Translated by Anne Carson ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |