sappho scholarship

Question 1

what interpretation does leftkowitz suggest for female poets

Answer 1

because women poets are emotionally disturbed their poems are psychological outpourings that is not intellectual but ingenius, artless, concerned with their inner emotional lives

Question 2

what does o’higgins say about loeb 31 and homer

Answer 2

some symptomes of physical desire echo homeric descriptions of dying or mortally threatened warriors

Question 3

what does o’higgins say about loeb 31 and the break at line 9

Answer 3

the break after line 9 is deliberate, intended to reproduce the catch in the poets voice

Question 4

what does o’higgins say about the significance of sappho losing her voice

Answer 4

a critical loss for a poet
sappho is disarmed

Question 5

according to jessica elbert decker what is the significance of sapphos connection to aphrodite

Answer 5

sapphos use of aphrodite subverts the dominent patriarchal cultures values such as the depiction of women as weak including female goddesses

Question 6

linking to ‘the depiction of women as weak’ how does osbourne describe the portrayal of women by men in classical greece

Answer 6

but there was an inconsistency about mens depiction of women. on the one hand they were seen as the all embracing archetypal source and providers of life; on the other as she-monsters of outrageous and devilish cunning

Question 7

what does elbert decker say about loeb 16 in relation to the trojan war

Answer 7

sapphos fragment invokes the trojan war, faught with horses and spears but caused by eros and aphrodites manipulations

Question 8

what does elbert decker say about the duality of sapphos language

Answer 8

just as aphrodite can speak mortal and divine language, sappho can speak male and female, public and private

Question 9

what does loukas papadimitropoulos say about love and war in loeb 16

Answer 9

love and war are fused since both contain conflict

Question 10

what does wilamowitz say in regard to sapphos context

Answer 10

-says sappho was the leader of a boarding school
-her affection is directwd towards girls as they leave her school to marry
-this theory comes from the greek thought on the nature of male homoeroticism education and the idea relationships between younger and older males

Question 11

what does maarit kivilo say about sapphos relationships

Answer 11

sappho had many female companions some of them being her friends some pupil and some lovers. she is also believed to have had relationships with many men

Question 12

what does maarit kivilo say about sapphos circle

Answer 12

many suggestions have been made about sapphos circle…the girls formed a closed group whose main purpose was to worship aphrodite and the muses and that sappho was a priestess of aphrodite

Question 13

what does anne L klinck say about sapphos relationship with aphrodite

Answer 13

the goddess addresses sappho by name and implie that she is in the habit of appealing to aphrodite to intervene in her love life

Question 14

what does anne L klinck say about the educational and erotic aspects of sapphos teaching

Answer 14

if teaching and learning took place they did so in an atmosphere of intimacy and erotic involvments

Question 15

what does jane synder say about the way sappho was influenced by homer and how she adapted it

Answer 15

sappho rejects the masculine warlike worldview of homeric epic and replaces it with eros

Question 16

what does anne burnet say about loeb 110/111 (epithalamia)

Answer 16

in good marriage the husband was potent the wife fecund and chaste and these are the themes of the sapphic epithalamia

Question 17

what does synder say about eroticism in sappho

Answer 17

the act of sex is not always mentioned but alluded to perhaps indicating that this is a space in which desire can flourish

Question 18

what does elana irwin identify in loeb 31

Answer 18

intentified orgasmic imagery
-she identifies that the ‘greener than grass’ line should be translated instead as ‘moister than grass’

Question 19

what does jane synder say about sapphos audience

Answer 19

some of sapphos poetry must have been intended for a women only audience

Question 20

what does alex hardie say about sapphos interest in mortality and the future

Answer 20

sappho took an unusual interest in mortality and the shape of things to come. more than once she expreses a wish for death

Question 21

what does holt parker say about sappho being recast by some as a virgin schoolmistress

Answer 21

recast sappho as a virgin schoolmistress. this whole construction was created to explain away sapphos passion for her girls, allowing her the emotion of love but denying it any physical component, by recasting it in the form of an explicitly platonic love

Question 22

what does bruce whiteman say about sapphos poetry in comparison to mens poetry

Answer 22

so much at variance with archaic greek poetry by men (this could be as she wasnt restricted by the laws as a woman she wasnt considered a citizen)

Question 23

what does bruce whiteman say about sapphos bisexuality

Answer 23

her bisexuality, to call it that, complicated and enriches her poetry and adds to the translators burden (hard to interprate her meaning)

Question 24

what does bruce whiteman say about a lack of sensibilty in sapphos poems

Answer 24

there is the remoteness of her sensibility the unbelievable otherness

Question 25

what does freeman say about how the significance of bridal virginity could be weaponised culturally by men to stop women from enjoying their own sexuality in regard to sappho

Answer 25

the emphasis on bridal virginity as a form of masculine oppression against younger women, lest they dare to enjoy their own sexuality and thus reduce their value as a commodity to a future husband

Question 26

what does anne klinck say aboiut there being no evidence that sappho was apart of a cult

Answer 26

although there are numerous references to the gods in sapphos poetry, evidence that she was a member of a formal worshipping group is rare

Question 27

what does anne klinck say about which sappho poems suggest cult activity

Answer 27

only three poems give much indication of a sapphic circle engaing in cult: fr.2, fr.94, fr.96