The Tenth Muse: What’s in a Name?
“Say my name and you say sex.”
-Jeanette Winterson, “Sappho,” from Art & Lies
Regarded by Plato as nothing less than the Tenth Muse
(“Some say the Muses are nine: how careless!Look, there’s Sappho too, from Lesbos, the tenth.”),
Sappho was considered one of the greatest poets of antiquity. Unfortunately, most of her poems have been lost and only fragments remain.
“Famous men have written about me. What more could a girl ask? I have a lot of questions. Not the least of which is: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY POEMS?”-Jeanette Winterson, “Sappho,” from Art & Lies
The details of her life and work are suspect, having been written and rewritten in the course of time until little but legend is left.
“There is no such thing as Autobiography. There is only Art and Lies.”–Jeanette Winterson, “Sappho,” from Art & Lies
Sappho is thought to have been born between 630 BC and 612 BC on the Isle of Lesbos in the city of Mytilene and may have died around 570 BC. Tradition has it that she committed suicide, distraught over her love of the ferryman Phaeon.
“Me, who could have had any woman in history fell for a baggy-pants bus conductor…Fuck him? I couldn’t even find him.”–Jeanette Winterson, “Sappho,” Art & Lies
Sappho’s poetry speaks passionately about love for persons of both genders, but she has come to be thought of as lesbian (i.e. a woman who loves and is erotically involved with women), the word lesbian itself derived, of course, from Sappho’s birthplace. Herein, apparently, lies the problem.
Three current islanders are suing a gay rights group– Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece– for using the word lesbain in its name because they fear the term
” ‘Insults the identity of the people of Lesbos’ who are also called Lesbian.”
Look on the bright side people; it could be worse. You could be called Hoosiers (“Hoo-sier mamma?” “Hoo-sier daddy?”– get it?).
The plaintiffs claim they mean no offense:
“This is not an aggressive act against gay women. Let them visit Lesbos and get married and whatever they like. We just want (the group) to remove the word lesbian from their title.”
Yes, let them visit and get married and spend lots of money; but change the name!
Further, the plaintiffs assert, Sappho was not sapphic:
“But even if we assume she was, how can 250,000 people of Lesbian descent — including women — be considered homosexual?”
Yes, it must be embarrassing for countless island women to have to explain, “Yes, I am a Lesbian, but I’m not that way.” And the island men! One can almost hear them joking, “I’m a Lesbian in a man’s body.”
As for Sappho’s sexuality it remains unclear. But her work and legend seem to suggest a definite love for women:
To Andromeda
That country girl has witched your wishes,
all dressed up in her country clothes
and she hasn’t got the sense
to hitch her rags above her ankles.
–Translated by Jim Powell
To Atthis
Though in Sardis now,
she thinks of us constantly
and of the life we shared.
She saw you as a goddess
and above all your dancing gave her deep joy.
Now she shines among Lydian women like
the rose-fingered moon
rising after sundown, erasing all
stars around her, and pouring light equally
across the salt sea
and over densely flowered fields
lucent under dew. Her light spreads
on roses and tender thyme
and the blooming honey-lotus.
Often while she wanders she remem-
bers you, gentle Atthis,
and desire eats away at her heart
for us to come.
–Translated by Willis Barnstone
The case will be heard June 10.
Leave a Reply