Sappho

Question 1

Greene - eroticism

Answer 1

Argues that Sappho contrasts erotic experience outside of ‘male ideas about dominance and submission’ - becomes an act of beauty and worship rather than a strive for power and for producing children.

Question 2

wilson - isolation

Answer 2

Argues that ‘Sappho’s poems emphasise the isolation of the individual, within the group and even from herself.’

Question 3

Kareneika - anxiety

Answer 3

Sappho’s poetry addresses the transition from girlhood to womanhood and deeply communicates the female anxiety surrounding marriage.

Question 4

Skinner - Cult of Aphrodite

Answer 4

Apples, roses and horses all have some relation to the cult of Aphrodite, apples and roses are also symbols of female sexuality.

Question 5

Blondell - parody
Freeman - Charm

Answer 5

Blondell argues that L1 is a parody of Diomedes’ petition to Athena in the Iliad.

Freeman argues that L1 can be read as a magic term to turn transform the beloved into your lover and says that this an ‘intensely personal interaction’ between Sappho and Aphrodite.