Sappho gay poems

Sappho &#; the original lesbian. At least, this is how we within the LGBTQ community reflect of her today, with the words sapphic and lesbian originating from her name and house island of Lesbos. Yet, her identity and the desires expressed in her poems have been debated for thousands of years. Homophobia, and more specifically lesbophobia, have been rife since adequately before they were named concepts. Sappho has always been an icon for her poetry, her talent leading to her reputation as the “Tenth Muse” or “The Poetess”. As such, her legacy has prevailed through millennia. The love that she professed for women in her poetry could not be erased, despite the efforts of multiple generations; no matter what, she remains the lesbian icon. In this post, I am going to discuss how her icon status informed the image of Sappho that we now associate with ancient lesbianism today. This is the story of the creation of the original lesbian look. 

A quick note: I am not writing this post to debate if Sappho was really a lesbian, or if she was bisexual, or even engage with her writing at all

Sappho: F*cking Superb, You Funky Little Lesbian

The Sapphic Stanza

Sappho not only wrote beautiful, haunting poems, but invented an entirely unique poetic form, appropriately named after her! Composed of two hendecasyllabic (eleven syllables) verses, and then a third verse beginning the same way and continuing with five more syllables (sometimes written as a fourth line), it gave Sappho’s poetry its lyrical nature.

Using "–" for a long syllable, "∪" for a short syllable, and "x" for a free syllable, the meter looked like this:

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ ∪ – –

The Mixolydian Mode

This link also has some great information about another invention of Sappho’s: the Mixolydian Mode, which is a musical scale that is still in use today, although heavily altered through history!

What did Sappho’s poetry sound like?

Sappho’s poetry was meant to be recited to the sound of an ancient Greek instrument called a lyre, sometimes made from tortoise-shell, and looked like this:

POEMS OF SAPPHO

TRANSLATED BY JULIA DUBNOFF

 

1

            Immortal Aphrodite, on your intricately brocaded throne,[1]

            youngster of Zeus, weaver of wiles, this I pray:

            Dear Lady, don&#;t crush my heart

            with pains and sorrows.

 

5          But come here, if ever before,

            when you heard my far-off cry,

            you listened. And you came,

            leaving your father&#;s house,

 

            yoking your chariot of gold.

10        Then beautiful swift sparrows led you over the shadowy

Voices of queer desire have been with us for millennia. For Pride, we offer a selection of voices from the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. From fragments of the love elegy of Sappho of Lesbos to a love spell by Serapiakos from Hawara in Egypt. The urgency and vitality of their queer desire still resonate today.

In her recent novel After Sappho, Selby Wynn Schwartz reminds us of Sappho’s continued power to captivate:

Who was Sappho? No one knew, but she had an island. She was garlanded with girls. She could sit down to dine and look straight at the woman she loved, however unhappily. When she sang, everyone said, it was fancy evening on a riverbank, sinking down into the moss with the sky pouring over you (Schwartz , 9).

In our exhibit era, queer voices—particularly trans and non-binary ones—are under attack. These voices matter and should be heard. Likewise, it is essential to recognise and listen to the many queer voices that came before.

Selected Voices

“Queer desire” here describes desires other than heterosexual or cisgender. Such desire is typically identifiable