Sappho Is More Than A Hero Poem

Sappho, one of the first documented female poets, was born near the time of 615 B.C. on a Greek island called, Lesbos. Today, the word “lesbian” is commonly used to describe women who are sexually, emotionally, and/or romantically involved with other women. This use of the word comes from the name of the island that Sappho resided on and the nature of some of her poetry, which is commonly referred to as of “Sapphic nature”, meaning a homosexual nature involving women. She was well known for her unabashed passion in writing as well as in living, which is easily felt in her poem, “He is more than a hero”. Some may say that forbidden love is the most passionate love, the most heated love, and Sappho would surely agree to that. While there were many behind-doors orgies and same-sex relations, an open-door relationship of any sort, other than brief friendship, between two women was quite frowned upon in Sappho’s day. In “He is more than a hero”, she expresses her yearning to be the man who sits beside a woman and makes her laugh, something she is forbidden to do (3-8). Even the woman’s voice invokes such feelings of …show more content…
She speaks of flames under her skin, akin to the heat of desire. Seeing nothingness, hearing nothing but the pounding of her own heart, even going as far as saying she is near death in this time (12-19). As deeply passionate as she is, Sappho also exposes another part of herself in this poem, the lovelorn part. She is experiencing a bout of unrequited love, simply because she isn’t free to act on her impulses. She aches to be close to this woman, to get the chance to speak with her, going as far as referring to the man in this poem as a god, just because he has the power and ability and freedom to speak to the woman. Sappho knows she will never get to be this man, so comparing him to a god is not too much an