This LGBT+ History Month, we take a look at one of the most prominent figures in queer history
BY FELICIA KOCH, IMAGE BY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
When taking a closer look at sapphic history, it’s hardly a coincidence as to why a well-known lesbian trope has always been the whimsical love of beauty, art, and a lyrical mixture of the two, poetry. The very word sapphic descends from the Greek origin of Sappho, the prolific female poet born on the Island of the Lesbos in ancient Greece, the very land where the term lesbian originated from.
If you aren’t familiar with stories of the infamous Sappho, here’s the simple breakdown. Sappho is believed to have been born around 620 BCE to an aristocratic family during a cultural turning point in Greek history. Many details of Sappho and her life have been lost to the passing of time and the destruction of her work, but her ability to harness the power of words was one thing that historians, lovers, and lesbians alike are all simultaneously sure of and smitten by.
In ancient Greece, lyric poetry consisted of short, songlike poems that expressed the poet’s sentiments and passions. It was really giving sensual spoken word, honestly. These poems were typically read aloud or sung along with instruments like the lyre, a stringed musical tool that resembled a harp and inspired the titling of lyric poetry.
Much of Sappho’s life has become something of legend and lore, with only one of her works, Ode to Aphrodite, said to be found fully completed. She was well known for leading an academy of unmarried women, where wealthy families sent their daughters to learn the art of music, dance and poetry as well as social graces. During this time period, homosexuality was accepted in Greece, and same-sex relationships among women were not uncommon. Sappho often used her female students as subjects of her loving expression and was one of the first poets to write from a first-person point of view, using her own love and life as inspiration, as opposed to the gods.
Ornate-throned immortal Aphrodite, wile-weaving daughter of Zeus, I entreat you: do not overpower my heart, mistress, with ache and anguish,
but come here, if ever in the past you heard my voice from afar and acquiesced and came, leaving your father’s golden house,
with chariot yoked: beautiful swift sparrows whirring fast-beating wings brought you above the dark earth down from heaven through the mid-air,
and soon they arrived; and you, blessed one, with a smile on your immortal face asked what was the matter with me this time
and why I was calling this time and what in my maddened heart I most wished to happen for myself: “Whom am I to persuade this time to lead you back to her love? Who wrongs you, Sappho?
If she runs away, soon she shall pursue; if she does not accept gifts, why, she shall give them instead; and if she does not love, soon she shall love even against her will.”
Come to me now again and deliver me from oppressive anxieties; fulfil all that my heart longs to fulfil, and you yourself be my fellow-fighter.
– Sappho, Ode to Aphrodite, The Institute for the Humanities English translation
Very queer of Sappho to literally beg the goddess of love for friendship and guidance in her plight against repeated offences of shameless yearning and longing, right?
It’s difficult to determine which of Sappho’s poetic revolutions lesbians have long claimed and fallen for. Is it the reference to a mystical and mysterious “she”? Or is it the sultry way that Sappho ties together syllables of sadness and seduction like delicate little threads sewn together and flowing into intricate patterns of soft, white lace? I would argue that it is the poetic portrait of an unattainable love that strums at our gay little heartstrings, reminding us of all the times we’ve longed for someone that we feared would never long for us.
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