194{@24 @Sappho poems: pre-socratics

~4~ The moon shone full

when the maidens stood around the altar...

~5~

“He is dying, Aphrodite;

luxuriant Adonis is dying.

What should we do?”

“Beat your breasts, 

young maidens.

And tear your garments

in grief.”

~6~

O, weep for Adonis!

~7~

But come, dear companions,

For day is near.

TRANSLATED BY JULIA DUBNOFF

Focus Questions:

1. Sappho presents herself, espectially in #1, as having a close relationship with

Aphrodite. What are the dynamics of this relationship? What does it say about

the religious perspectives possible to women?

2. How does Sappho portray herself as a lover? What is her relationship to the

objects of her love? Is her love reciprocated, or is the focus of the love of others?

3. What is the community of women implied by Sappho’s poems? What are their

activities? How do they feel about one another? Who are they? What stage of

life?

4. Do men have a place in Sappho’s poetry? If so, what is it? Do you get a sense of

male/female relationships from this poetry?

5. Is there anything about Sappho’s poetry that makes it particularly feminine?

6. What is it about Sappho’s poetry that would appeal enough to the male

readers/listeners so much that she was the only really famous female poet of her

period, the best-known female poet ever in the Greco-Roman w