Women In The Poetry Of Sappho

It is no secret that women in Classical Greece were not held in high regards due to the strikingly misogynistic takes on gender, hierarchy, and marriage that were prevalent in this era. In fact, women were seen as a threat to the male order, frequently being compared to vixens, mares, and pigs. So why then, is the well-versed Sappho held in such high approbation? Though she was a woman in this prejudice era, she was very much admired in antiquity, complimenting the extraordinary reputation that still permeates today’s modern times. The answer to this paradoxical question lies in the avant-garde nature of her alluring poetry. It is illuminated again and again throughout time that humanity has a tendency to question traditions and cultural norms, …show more content…
Her leading-edge portrayal of women in relationships, her unconventional notion of love, and the question of lesbian content of her work earned her and her compositions a revered status in the ancient world of oration and literature, against the odds attached to her gender and her unprecedented viewpoints.

Found in Sappho is the affirmation that “ Right from the beginning it was the erotic content of (some of) her songs that struck the ancients most” (Rayor and Lardinois 5). Ancient Greek culture clearly and rigidly defined the man as being the penetrator and active partner in every aspect of a relationship. Naturally in consequence, any poetry or lyric about a relationship would revolve around the male perspective of the noted union. Unlike Homer’s Iliad or the Odyssey, “Sappho’s …show more content…
Poem 31 describes the passion the poetic speaker, who is presumably female, has for another female who is in a relationship with a man. The speaker’s internal struggle is beautifully lyricized by Sappho with the phrase, “ lovely laughing- oh it puts the heart in my chest on wings, for when I look at you, even in a moment, no speaking is left in me” (31.5-8). This confession is strangely free of a lustful connotation, which was very common occurrence in classical Greek literature. Although Sappho does in fact dabble in erotic visualizations through her poetry, she is unique because of her portrayal of the emotional and passionate aspect of love, something that was scarcely seen in her time. Fragment 48 distinctly depicts this passionate love in with the words, “you came and I was crazy for you and you cooled my mind that burned with longing”(48.1-2). Ancient Greece did not connect this described ardent love with marriage; marriage was for the purely practical reasons of producing heirs for the male’s bloodline. Her conception of love separated her from the customary social construction of gender, marriage, and hierarchy that were present in her society, and the striking divergence of her views, doubled with her impressive ability to write, drew attention, so much in fact, that she was imitated numerous times by men. Sappho’s cutting-edge presumptions about