The fragmented legacy of the Greek poet Sappho

“Searching for Sappho: The Lost Songs and World of the First Woman Poet” by Philip Freeman (W.W. Norton, 336 pages, illustrated, $26.95)

Sappho is likely the most highly praised poet we know the least about. Hailed for her lyric grace and metrical dexterity – frequently using Homer’s hexameters to turn his sentiments on their head – she left us mainly fragments on scattered pieces of papyrus or shards of pottery. Much of what she wrote is quoted by writers of poetic handbooks several centuries after her death in the sixth century BC. Little of it comes to us first-hand.

She is the mystery woman of Western literature, the first female poet known to history, a pioneer shrouded in secrecy. But more of her poetry keeps turning up; in 2014, two poems were found, bringing the total of fragments and poems to nearly 200, a paltry sum compared to the nine scrolls she had in the Library of Alexandria.

Philip Freeman, chairman of the classics department at Luther College, makes a heroic attempt to fill in the blanks of Sappho’s creative career, primarily by comparing her lifestyle to that of other Greek women, from Athens to Sparta, who followed the rites and mores of the day. He says he is not writing a biography so much as building an image of Sappho’s life framed by details glossed from her poetry. But the task is overwhelming, and ultimately less than satisfying, even if Freeman tackles it in precise, engaging prose.

Sappho, he tells us, is best known for her deeply personal verses that celebrate the joys and agonies of the human heart, including her love of other women. Born into a well-to-do noble family on the island of Lesbos, a rich, vibrant trading center, she nevertheless was probably married, as most Greek women were, and we know she bore one child, a daughter, Cleis. She was exiled to Sicily for her political beliefs and may have traveled throughout a good portion of the then known Mediterranean world.

So much for the majority of the facts. What’s missing (through no fault of Freeman’s) is the history of Sappho’s poetry: To whom was it written? How was she taught? What was the secret of her genius?

We do learn much in vivid detail about the restrictive roles that Greek women had to play in a male-dominated society during the Archaic period of Greek history, precursor to the golden age of the fifth century BC. But just because most Greek women did x, doesn’t necessarily mean that Sappho did, too. From the sound of her nearly extant poems, she led a life of privilege. To have the luxury to write as she did is a testament to a freedom granted to very few. And it allowed her to express her desires in an open way.

When I look at you even for a moment

I can no longer speak.

My tongue fails and a subtle

fire races beneath my skin,

I see nothing with my eyes

and my ears hum.

Sweat pours from me and a trembling

seizes my whole body. I am greener

than grass and it seems I am little short

of dying.

Thoroughly trained in the Greek literary tradition, she showed consummate skills in the poetic arts, Freeman explains. She mastered the difficult techniques of composing various forms of verse. And she knew how to work within the constraints of ancient Greek meter, which required incredible dexterity in composition and word choice. Best known for her lyric poetry, she composed it to be sung to the accompaniment of the lyre.

For all this pomp and fanfare, however, her more recent works have come to us from papyrus fragments found in a trash heap in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. The irony can hardly be lost.

Perhaps surprising for such a seemingly free spirit, Sappho also wrote poems full of powerful religious imagery, evoking the mystical union of worshippers of (likely) the goddess Aphrodite, and the natural setting of her outdoor temple.

In one poem Sappho makes herself equal to Aphrodite in her demands:

Deathless Aphrodite on your dazzling throne,

child of Zeus, weaver of snares, I pray to you,

do not, with anguish and pain, O Lady,

break my heart.

In another, she chastises her brother for his wanton ways, bringing shame upon her family. She combines tough, straightforward convictions with tender touches of affection. Freeman calls it a blend of stark reality and beautiful imagery.If you read the most complete extant poems, newly translated by Freeman, you get a fairly clear idea of Sappho’s sensibility. She stands as the female counterpart to Homer.

But because of her gender and the ravages of history, we must learn to settle for less, when less is truly less. What we need of Sappho is more.

This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 3:04 PM with the headline "The fragmented legacy of the Greek poet Sappho."