Short Essay On Sappho

Little is known about the life of Sappho, or Psappa in her native dialect. Her birthplace was either Eressos or Mytilene to an aristocratic family on the island of Lesbos. Many scholars always say that Sappho came from a wealthy family and the wealth allowed for her to live a comfortable lifestyle, this cannot be supported. Most wealthy women in Lesbos married according to their customs and traditions of their city-states and even though Sappho was possibility wealth, this would have not made her immune to the expectations of her family. Her birth was estimate around 630 BCE and died around 570BCE. Rumor has it from playwright Menander she jumped to her death off the Leucadian cliff (also known as the Cape Leukas on the island of Lefkada) a famous “lover’s leap” for the love of Phaon, a ferryman. It is also a rumor that Sappho indeed grew to live an old woman and passed away from natural causes. She wrote a poem called Cleis, in this poem she talks about her, “having a small daughter called Cleis” (Line 2-4), so it is believed she had a daughter, but like most of her life events, it far from certain. What was clear about Sappho is her poetry, she was a poet that focus on passion and love for various people and for both sexes. Plato hailed her as “the tenth …show more content…
The poem,” In my Pain”, Sappho creates great imagination in this poem by taking pain into moving actions. She talks about how her mood changes from grief to fury and how heavy “pain” (line 1) can be. Throughout the fragmented poem, Sappho express how someone’s hurtful words can affect how she handles pain. She emphasizes how she sees vengeance is the main goal in order for her to recover from this pain. She physically wants to hurt the person who “blames” (line 3) her. Her poetry is energetic, to the point where her listeners or listeners can feel the emotion rising from his or her own being. Her poetry truly complies to a realistic view of the bonds of love and