Sappho’s Poetry is About Love, Tenderness, Heartbreak, Virginity, and Sexuality
A central theme that remains relevant throughout If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho translated by Anne Carson is romantic love. Sappho clearly used writing as a way to explore her thoughts about love, almost like a journal or diary. However, this being said, Sappho’s sentiments about romance are not limited to her own experiences. She unites her audience by providing words that articulate the feelings many people share. This sense of universality stems from those common experiences, ideas, expectations, connotations, and memories associated with love and affection. A typical association with the concept of love has to do with the lack thereof. Therefore, several of Sappho’s fragments involve the exploration of sorrow and have an underlying tone of nostalgia. Sappho also uses motifs, specifically the moon and flowers. They are mentioned, although subtly, several times throughout her poetry, which I interpreted as a way of showing that love isn’t always visible or obvious. It may be hiding in the shadows or in the imagery of an unread poem, but it always comes back, sometimes in the least expected places. Sappho makes it known that she had a strong affinity for love and that she recognized the beauty in femininity, considering her prayers to the goddess Aphrodite and her subtle references to gender and sexuality. What all of her poems share is a sense of tenderness and longing for love.
At the beginning of fragment 16, Sappho makes a few general statements about the human perception of beauty. Then, she contradicts them with her own opinion before explaining it to the audience. The beginning of the fragment reads: “Some men say an army of horses and some men say an army on foot and some men say an army of ships is the most beautiful thing on the black earth. But I say it is what you love. Easy to make this understood by all.” Then, Sappho proceeds to reference Helen, a female figure well known for her beauty, in comparison with a past lover called Anaktoria. By creating a parallel between Helen, who virtually everyone had heard about, and Anaktoria, Sappho cleverly connects herself to her audience on a universal level. She must’ve recognized that in order to tell her story, she needed to find a way to relate to her audience first. The connecting force that Sappho uses here is the concept of love. The poem itself implies that Sappho had a romantic relationship with Anaktoria. She’s comparing her own desire for Anaktoria to Helen’s willingness to abandon everything for the one she loved. Helen abandoned her home without a thought in order to pursue Paris, the one she loved who had become, to her, the most beautiful thing in the world. This example illustrates the role of love in Sappho’s work; she shares intimate memories in an attempt to immortalize and universalize them.
Although the emotional example is a powerful argument on its own, it is also an example of how to see Helen’s story as allegorical, an example that the audience can follow. Fragment 16 makes its argument through allegory, using the story of Helen to illustrate the broader idea that Sappho referring to. The figure of Helen stands for the generic “you” at the beginning of the poem. The speaker is arguing that Helen’s situation is representative—that anyone would do as Helen did. Sappho allows Helen to become an allegorical figure for the audience and for them to place themselves in her specific story. This fragment is not only personal in its description of the lover but universal in its argument for the importance of “what one loves.”
Later in the fragment, Sappho restates her original opinion: “I would rather see her [Anaktoria’s] lovely step and the motion of light on her face than chariots of Lydians or ranks of footsoldiers in arms.” Once again, Sappho is applying the same technique as before; using a universally known image as a vehicle to bring herself closer to the audience.
Sappho mentions the moon at length in fragment 96: “at sunset, the rosy-fingered moon surpasses all the stars. And her light stretches over salt sea equally and flower deep fields.” The fact that Sappho uses the word “her” implies that she considers the moon a feminine entity. To that effect, the moon stands as a symbol of womanhood (the lunar cycle echoes menstrual cycles) and the love for women that Sappho’s poetry celebrates. It represents the possibility for love despite physical distance or social separation, and the ability to see beauty from afar. Sappho’s imagery of the moon directly connects to another one of her themes: nostalgia for love.
In the next stanza, Sappho continues with the moon simile, describing how “the beautiful dew is poured out and roses bloom and frail.” In this way, Sappho describes Atthis’s beauty like the moon at sunset, which outshines all the stars around it so that it appears alone in the sky. In other words, Sappho associates Atthis with the incomparable beauty of nature and the way the moon can light up the night brighter than all of the stars.
At the bottom of the page, Sappho refers to herself in the third person: “But she goes back and forth remembering gentle Atthis and in longing, she bites her tender mind.” Sappho emphasizes that this is sentimental by using the words “remembering” and “longing” at the bottom of the page, which connects with what was previously stated; Sappho’s writing is deeply rooted in the emotional concepts of love and heartbreak.
Sappho acknowledges her thoughts in the second stanza by stating: “But now she is conspicuous among Lydian women,” meaning that her former lover had gone to Lydia and was then living among Lydian women. This mention of “Lydian women” comes with an overwhelming feeling of melancholia. Why would Sappho mention other “Lydian women” in this poem about her lover? It is likely that, heartbroken after Atthis had left, Sappho was left alone, only to think about their fond memories together. The mention of Lydian women alludes to the sorrowful thoughts that Sappho must’ve had while imagining the Lydian women Atthis might have fallen in love with next. Maybe Sappho is saddened by the thought of Atthis returning to Lydia and becoming one of the “Lydian women,” instead of her lover. However, the word “conspicuous” adds yet another layer to Sappho’s yearning. Sappho, or rather Carson, uses “conspicuous,” meaning clear and visible, in describing Atthis. Did Sappho believe that Atthis was “conspicuous” in her romantic feelings towards women? What did she mean by this?
It must be acknowledged that love may be the single most commonly referenced idea in the history of all writing. However, what sets Sappho apart from other people who write about love is her implication of nostalgia through imagery. Another detail that adds nostalgia to Sappho’s writing is the blank spaces. I find it impressive that despite the white spaces that indicate the loss of words over time, Sappho’s warmth and tenderness remain clear. These spaces inherently draw the audience closer to Sappho, leaving room for their own interpretation of her words. This “room for interpretation” in turn causes Sappho’s voice to be conveyed as somewhat lost and uncertain.
Sappho frequently mentions Aphrodite, the goddess of love and desire. In fact, fragment 2 is exclusively devoted to the goddess Aphrodite and reads like an incantation summoning the goddess to the speaker. In the first line, Sappho invites Aphrodite 'to this holy temple, where is your graceful grove of apple trees, and altars smoking with frankincense.” Here, Sappho is envisioning her romantic desires as blossoming in a nurturing space under Aphrodite herself. She describes her sanctuary as “apple branches and with roses, the whole place is shadowed.” It almost seems as if Sappho is trying to please Aphrodite by creating a prayer space that feels holy and special. This connects to the overarching theme of love by demonstrating the lengths to which Sappho will go to show how important love is to her.
I’ve also taken notice that Sappho often mentions flowers. They appear in this poem in order to symbolize the goddess Aphrodite, as they adorn the grove dedicated to her. This association between flowers and the goddess of love is interesting because flowers are touchable, which suggests the physical presence of Aphrodite. This shows the close intimacy between the poet, who refers to herself by name, and the goddess. It even goes so far as drawing a parallel between Sappho and Aphrodite, their two voices mingling in the poem. While the speaker often addresses Aphrodite in the context of her love for a woman, I consider her love for Aphrodite to be just as important. The poem speaks for itself in conveying that Sappho’s connection to Aphrodite is important to her and that she believes it is directly connected to the web of friendships and romances that weave through her poetry.
In addition, the fact that this poem, along with the majority of Sappho’s love life, revolves around Aphrodite makes a statement about gender. Sappho believes that Aphrodite, a female goddess, is in some way responsible for every encounter she’s had with love and every romantic or sexual desire of hers. Sappho’s unconditional faith in Aphrodite makes the audience believe that Sappho lived life comfortable in her own skin and confident about her sexuality. I think she walked the streets with pride about being a woman who loves other women. I’ve considered whether or not Sappho might have been concerned about men dominating the world of literature and whether or not she knew that she was the first influential female writer in Greece. I don’t think Sappho was concerned about gender at all. I think she her intentions were about expressing herself through poetry and using words to articulate her feelings and describe images or tell stories. Even though we may think of her today as this great female writer, which is true, I’d like to think that she thought of herself as emotional, as a human, and as a writer foremost. At the same time, it is obvious that femininity was one of her priorities.
In conclusion, much of Sappho’s poetry is about love, tenderness, heartbreak, virginity, and sexuality. Despite the fact that the original papyrus has been partially destroyed and some of the words have been lost, and despite the inevitable limitations of translating from one language to another, Sappho’s warmth and emotions still remain palpable.
