Sappho's Characterizations Of Love example essay topic

Sappho was a one of the best-known female Greek lyrist's of all time. She was an aristocrat who married a rich merchant and had one daughter, Cle is. Having enough wealth to live life comfortably allowed Sappho time to develop beautiful poems and sing them as she played the lyre. Sappho was the head of a, a school for teaching girls skills such as music, singing, and dancing. One theme prevalent in almost every set of fragments that we have today, written by her, is that of love. She speaks of love often and used simple grammar with powerful emotion to display her feelings, mostly regarding women.

Scholars have argued over how the love in her poems is supposed to be perceived, however, if one should analyze some of her poetry it is easy to form one's own educated guess as to her intentions. Some could say that the love expressed in her poems was more of a motherly kind of love. It is easy to compare the despair and longing displayed in the poems Sappho would write, as she saw one of her pupils leave the island after marriage, to that of a mother watching her beloved daughter leaving home as a grown woman for the first time. Others argue that this love is more erotic and sexual; these scholars have taken the approach that Sappho was possibly homosexual or bisexual, but they have little evidence to support these claims.

There are more than a couple sites on the internet that have even bothered to break love down into 9 different kinds; Affection, Sexual, Platonic, Romantic, Passionate, Puppy, Friendship, Infatuation, and Committed. These types of love even have guidelines posted underneath them so you can analyze your love or that of someone else. Lets try this for Sappho concerning the young women that she wrote of. She was obviously affectionate towards the women mentally because it is obvious from her poems that she cared for them very much, but it is unknown if she was physically affectionate or intimate.

Her love seems to include all the aspects of platonic love except her love seems more extreme, yet more fleeting. Some could say that Sappho was a romantic because of her unending stream of love for so many different men and women. She probably was not a committed lover because from her fragments it would seem as if she loved many people and multiple people at once as well. She does seem infatuated with the women she sings about because they are leaving to be married and she begs them not to leave and even asks Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to bring them back once they are gone. As far as puppy, passionate, and sexual love go, there is little evidence to prove that she was physically engaged in relations with any of the women spoken of. Sappho seemed to form her own unique definition of love.

She did not seem to view love as a cut and dry entity that was merely black or white lacking any gray area. Sappho was the gray area of love in many ways; she represented a vicious love that bound her to many without commitment for just one, but many. Her love was consuming, yet spread far and wide. It was an expressive way of loving in which she could express herself in the form of raw emotion. It was a paradox in its own time and remains one today, which seems to be the reason people still can't seem to make an agreement upon it to this day.

Her love was; highly passionate yet parental as well, not loyal to one person, sympathetic, and seemingly fleeting. Sappho's characterizations of love may even help one to uncover some of the mystery as to how love was viewed in Greek Society around 600 B.C. One may assume that it was common to display love and affection for more than one person at a time in ancient Greece. Some may even go with the approach that views that it may have been common for women to be homosexual in ancient Greece and that Sappho most likely was as well. One interesting passage I found on a website speaks of homosexuality between women in Sappho's time: The circle's present love of girl for girl... was neither sanctioned nor prohibited by the community; its purpose was not generation, and its practice was consequently not deformed by fears and tabus.

The love had nothing institutional to offer but... it could give its devotees delight, choice, reciprocity and a heightened sense of self. Since the question of virginity was not involved, nothing was forbidden... One caress was as sweet as another, a wreath could be as provocative as an uncovered limb, and because pleasure was luxuriously sensual but never obscene it could be thought of as a form of worship and sung in all aspects. Finally, because this love was open and non-reproductive, an easy promiscuity was the rule, allowing love to follow always, wherever beauty was perceived. (Powers) Whether or not this statement describes that of the relations between Sappho and the women at the school is uncertain but this view of ancient homosexuality is fascinating. Sappho was a prodigy for love in her time and was a highly respected poet before and after her death.

Her poems continue to touch people's hearts to this day and influence many modern poets who have followed in Sappho's footsteps. Alix North writes, "In more modern times, many poets have been inspired by her works. Michael Field, Pierre Louis, Ren " ee Vivien, Marie-Madeleine, Amy Lowell, and H.D. all cited Sappho as a strong influence on their work" (North). She even has lyric meter named after her known as the Sapphic Meter. Sapphic love is a fascinating topic and a device of much dispute and beautiful all the same.

Bibliography

North, Alix. Isle of Lesbos. 2004 Powers, Jennifer.
Sappho and Her Wedding Songs. 2000 Visions of Love.
9 Types of Love. 2004.