Sappho
The painting “Sappho and Erinna in the Garden Mytelene” by Simeon Solomon, in which a pale woman with brown hair wearing a red dress is held by another pale woman with black hair wearing a yellow dress. They sit together on a stone bench surrounded by nature.
“You may forget but let me tell you this:
someone in some future time will think of us.”
– Sappho
We begin with the origin of the word Sapphic and one of the most recognizable figures in history: Sappho. A woman who has left ripples throughout queer history, her name remains a cornerstone of our discussions. As she predicted, she is remembered.
Unfortunately, the memories of her are not always reliable. Much of the information that circulates now is based on accounts written centuries after her death. She is, according to Plato, the Tenth Muse, "The Poetess" to Homer's "The Poet," one of the nice great lyricists, and ultimately unforgettable. However, she was not always treated with such dignity. At one point, she was a stock figure in Ancient Greek comedies, and some of the more wild theories about her life can be sourced from these.
One of the less popular but more amusing stories from such sources is that of the two Sapphos: one a great poet, the other a "notorious slut." Unsurprisingly, there is essentially no evidence that this was the case.
On the more accepted end of the spectrum comes Sappho's husband, Kerkylas, a character introduced by the Suda, written centuries after her death. This was not the first time her life story had included a husband or even a male lover. The writers of such stories mistakenly assumed any man in her romantic or sexual life would mean she did not sleep with women. Moreover, though a man would not negate her queerness, her supposed husband's name translated to "Penis, from Men's Island." His existence is unlikely.
Scholars explained away her erotic descriptions of goddesses by placing her in the role of the priestess. In the Victorian Era, some tried to style her as the headmistress of a girls' school. There is little to no evidence for either position.
Willis Barnstone writes of these theories:
"It is no less than astonishing how otherwise temperate scholars became outraged and imaginatively unobjective at the slightest suggestions by others of moral frivolity on Sappho's part."
Throughout the years, theory after theory has been brought up and subsequently shot down. Though many people will claim she was heterosexual, she is a recognized part of queer culture. Perhaps it is because of her obvious queerness or because the community itself has refused to let her fade into heterosexual obscurity—likely a healthy mixture of both.
Nevertheless, not all scholars or fellow artists were parties to the grand deception. Many risked their reputations and positions to defend the truth about Sappho. Queer or otherwise, historians and writers have not been a united front of homophobic erasure. If that were the case, there would likely be nothing left of her memory.
It is also worth noting that even the wildest speculation did not always exclusively come from homophobia. While Christianity was experiencing a period of intense political power, Christian leaders aimed to burn as much of her work as possible. For a time, minimizing her attraction and love for women was done to protect her work from extremists.
The most considerable blow to her work came in 391 B.C.E. when a mob of Christian zealots partially destroyed the library of Alexandria, which housed nine volumes of her poetry at the time. From this point on, the effort to understand her life and preserve her work was more of a piecemeal operation. The majority of her work comes from the original papyrus' fragments, quotes from other works, and mummy wrappings.
There are not many primary sources in the discussions around Sappho's life, which leaves even the most simple details in question. There are wild overlaps and contradictions. Some judgements say she was beautiful, while the opposition says she was ugly. She was rather short, with dark hair and skin. She is credited with musical innovations throughout her life, making sense as most of her poems started their lives as songs.
After years of wild theories, homophobic historians have settled on a new take: her poetry was not, in fact, autobiographical. If such a claim was valid, then we truly know nothing of the real Sappho.
Many scholars seem content to accept that the poems are autobiographical when discussing other things, like politics or a feud with friends. However, as soon as it comes to her sexuality, they balk. Almost everything we know of her is speculation, at best rumours and gossip, the only exception being her work.
Her poetry is the only certain part of her we have.
What can be gleaned from her poetry is also relatively sparse.
Sappho lived sometime in the early seventh century on the island of Lesbos. She mentioned multiple women with whom she had varying relationships. She names them: her companions Anaktoria, Atthis, Gongyla, her friends Mika, Telesippa, Anagora, and two people she had falling outs with Gorgo and Andromeda.
During her lifetime, Greece was much more accepting of same-gender attraction than it is today. Her reputation for loving women and the island she spent most of her life led to the creation of the word "lesbian."
Initially, the word described fellatio between a man and a woman. However, her reputation shifted it to the term we use today. Sappho had quite an impact on our language; she lends us her name in the word "sapphic," describing romantic love between two women.
In addition to the chronological sense of starting with Sappho, there's also the erasure of her identity that makes her a fitting person with which to begin. It shows precisely the kinds of forces we are up against in the pursuit of queer history.
Fortunately, her legacy may remain if only because she is impossible to ignore. Though we have little of her work left, she once had nine volumes of poetry, all of which were well-loved and referenced by other famous writers. Plato, who was not known for enjoying poetry, even said:
"Some say the Muses are nine: how careless!/Look, there's Sappho too, from Lesbos, the tenth."
Horace wrote in his Odes that Sappho's work was worthy of sacred admiration; she is not someone who can fade away. Her work is known as some of the best poetry of all time, full of wit and eloquence and inspiring other writers for thousands of years to come.
While she lived when she could love other women, each following era seems to struggle with that idea. Some have worked tirelessly to develop theories around her heterosexuality, trying to find a turn of phrase that could prove something that did not exist. Anything to avoid admitting such influential work was written by a queer woman.
Despite all of this, Sappho has become as much a figurehead as she was a poet. Activist groups are named after her. Books are written about her. Queer people themselves identify with her. She is the proof that homosexuality is not new but as old as legends themselves.
She is also proof that through the fires of religious zealots, the carelessness of academic institutions, the fear, the deeply conditional love, queer people remain on the pages of history.
References and Further Reading
Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material
Barnstone, W. (2009). The Complete Poems of Sappho. Shambhala Publications.
DeJean, J., & Dejean, P. J. (1989). Fictions of Sappho, 1546-1937. University of Chicago Press.
Duban, J. M., & Sappho. (1983). Ancient and modern images of Sappho: Translations and studies in archaic Greek love lyric. University Press of America.
Greek Gender. (n.d.). Greek Sexuality and Gender Relations. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rauhn/greek_gender.htm
Mendelsohn, D. (2015, March 16). How Gay Was Sappho? The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/16/girl-interrupted
Sappho. (2002). The Sappho Companion (M. Reynolds, Ed.; Reprint). St. Martin’s Griffin.
Sappho. (2009). If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Sappho (last). (2018). Poems & Fragments (Josephine Balmer, Trans.; 2nd ed.). Bloodaxe Books. https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781780374574
Edited March 2021
