CHAPTER I
BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
LESBOS, the chief town of which Mytilene claims with Eresus the honour of having been the birthplace of Sappho, has been from the earliest ages famous for its fertility, its beauty, and the perfection of its climate. The nearest point of the mainland of Asia Minor is eight miles distant, and the whole island, with its irregular coast-line, is one hundred and thirty-eight miles in circumference. Though its surface is mountainous, the soil is very prolific, and its oil, wine, and grain have from immemorial times been proverbially celebrated. Even as early as the Homeric poems there ate references to its wealth and its populous cities. Mitylene was the only Aeolian city which maintained a navy, and Lesbos had for generations many flourishing colonies in Asia Minor and in Thrace.
Methymna, Antissa, Eresus, and Pyrrha were the other four important towns which, at the period of its greatness, 700 B.C. to 500 B.C., caused the island to be known as Pentapolis. After the defeat of Croesus, about 546 B.C., Lesbos fell under Persian domination, but later was freed and joined the Delian confederacy. The subsequent somewhat dismal history of the island is of no interest to us at present, but the glories of the lyric poetry of its golden age have never sunk into oblivion and can never fail to be a source of inspiration to students of form and language in poetical composition.
It is obvious that after the vicissitudes of twenty-five centuries, the task of disentangling biographical details in connection with an individual however eminent, with any degree of accuracy and completeness must, in the nature of the case, be one of great difficulty. Almost every important writer of ancient times has suffered to a considerable extent from neglect, ignorance, or insensate destructiveness and bigotry, and if we were called upon to designate the period when reactionary forces had reduced culture, art, and literary appreciation to their lowest point, we should be right in choosing the six black centuries from about A.D. 400 to about A.D. 1000. The state of European civilization in general at that period is too well known to need comment, but it may be noted that among the writers singled out from time to time during some centuries for such assaults of bigotry and destructiveness were the ancient lyric poets, and it is a matter of knowledge that among these Sappho was a prominent victim. There is known to have been one orgy of such destructiveness about A.D. 380 at the instigation of Gregory Nazianzen, and another in the year 1073 when Gregory VII was pope.
Rome and Constantinople were the chief centres of this madness, and the value of what was destroyed on these and similar occasions is from the present-day point of view incalculable.
A consequence of such occurrences as far as Sappho is concerned is that, notwithstanding the esteem in which she was held by writers who came within a measurable distance of her epoch, her writings have practically disappeared, although a large proportion of the works of many Greek writers living not much after her have come down to us with something approaching completeness. For the story of her life we must depend upon the scanty, more or less casual, and sometimes hostile statements of writers who, in most cases, were, in point of time, further away from her than we are from Shakespeare. It is only by collating the statements of these later writers, while giving much greater proportionate weight to what was written by those who lived nearest to the period of her life, that we can arrive at even approximate accuracy in the details of her biography.
Sappho was the one woman poet in history to whom the somewhat misused term “great” may be justly applied. We do not know with certainty the date either of her birth or of her death, but the years from 610 B.C. to 570 B.C. may reasonably be assumed to have covered the most important part of her life. Herodotus, who wrote within about one hundred and fifty years of her death, tells us that the name of her father was Scamandronymus, and in the absence of any trustworthy evidence to the contrary this statement may be accepted as true. Suidas, in his Greek Lexicon, written in the eleventh century, mentions other names, but great importance need not be attached to his statements in the face of what Herodotus has written upon the subject. The place of Sappho’s birth was either Eresus or Mytilene, but if it were the former, she apparently did not remain there long, for tradition soon and ever afterwards associated her with Mytilene.
Among events contemporary with her life were the prophecies of Jeremiah about 628 B.C., the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C., the period of Solon in Athens, and of Pittacus in Mytilene. Terpander, the first important lyric poet of Lesbos, of whose works we have also only the scantiest remains, preceded her by about a century, and when she flourished Gautama Buddha had not been born. Sappho had two brothers, Charaxus and Larichus, and, according to Suidas, a third, named Eurygius, of whom, if he really existed, nothing is known. From Athenaeus we learn that Larichus held the office of cup-bearer at Mytilene, and as this office appears to have been a perquisite of the aristocracy, it is therefore with good reason inferred that Sappho and her family were patricians. Charaxus, the other brother, was a merchant engaged in exporting the highly prized wine of Lesbos to Naucratis in Egypt, and it was apparently on one of his expeditions in this connection that he met the beautiful Doricha, surnamed Rhodopis, to whose charms he succumbed. At great expense he is said to have ransomed her from bondage. According to Herodotus, she later became very rich, and her name, no doubt without justification, was associated with the building of one of the pyramids. Suidas makes the statement that Charaxus and Doricha were married. If this tradition is founded on fact, it would indicate that there was considerable material prosperity in the family of Sappho. The poetess disapproved of the episode, and expressed herself in verse upon the subject.
There was one important event in the early life of Sappho of which we have direct documentary evidence, and that is her sojourn in Sicily. A celebrated inscription cut in a block of marble and found at Paros, now in the British Museum, professes to give a chronological account of the chief events in Greek history from the sixteenth to the third century B.C. Among the other statements which appear in this chronicle is one which tells us that when Aristocles ruled the Athenians Sappho fled from Lesbos to Sicily. When this flight took place the reason no doubt was that she and her family happened to be involved with the losing side in some political convulsion in her native island. She apparently remained in Sicily for some years, though she was still comparatively young when she returned to Mytilene, for the tradition is that she soon afterwards married a man called Cercolas, who came from the island of Andros, and that later she had a daughter whom she named Cleis, after her own mother. One of the surviving poetical fragments refers to this daughter by name, but nothing more is known about her. To judge by the absence of any further reference to Cercolas, it may be inferred that he played no very important part in the life of Sappho, or that possibly he did not live very long. In any case, history gives us no later information concerning him. One episode, until comparatively recently always included in biographical accounts of the poetess, is that associating her name with the possibly mythical Phaon. Although this story of Sappho’s alleged love for Phaon, who according to tradition was a boatman endowed with unusual physical beauty, was prevalent in ancient and mediaeval times, and although it helped to inspire the poetical efforts of many writers and has been handed down to very recent times as if it had some authentic foundation, there is no real reason to accept as true the statement that Sappho ever even saw the Leucadian promontory, much less leaped from it as the Phaon legend suggests. The story is no doubt a myth founded on an allegory tricked out in the meretricious trappings of mediocre poetical efforts, and it is probable that any other name than that of Sappho would have served as the incarnation of scorned femininity in the poems upon this subject As noted elsewhere, modern English writers justly treat this Phaon legend as incredible and as one founded neither on reason nor on sound evidence. The whole story seems, indeed, to be a legend of a not infrequent type.
It is not known certainly how long Sappho lived, but from the expression γεραίτερα, “rather old,” which she uses about herself it may be supposed that she lived past middle life. Such biographical material is all too scanty, and it contains a considerable amount of conjecture, yet with it we must perforce be satisfied. Our knowledge of Sappho’s life-history is never likely to be amplified materially, though there is always reasonable hope that in the future more of her poems may be recovered.
As already indicated, the position, climate, and natural resources were all favourable to a high degree of material and intellectual development in the island of Lesbos, and such a state of affairs did actually exist even in these early times. The commercial and material prosperity no doubt came first, but it is known that in the seventh century B.C., before the birth of Sappho, there was already in existence a considerable body of lyric poetry, as well as other evidence of artistic, musical, and literary culture in the chief centres of population such as Mytilene. There is, furthermore, evidence that in some ways the customs of the Lesbians differed from, and were in advance of, those of many of the other divisions of the Greek population. The women of Lesbos of all classes enjoyed a freedom from restraint unknown among the other Greeks, and it may be reasonably assumed that this freedom, so enjoyed by them in earlier ages, had, with the increase in wealth, luxury, and refinement, lost much of its simplicity, and may later have degenerated into a mode of life in which there was much more licence than had ever been known before in any part of the world inhabited by people of the Greek race. However much such licence might be deplored, if its existence could be proved, it need not therefore be assumed that there was a generally depraved state of society. In the case of Sappho it serves no good purpose to concern ourselves very much with the morality of her sentiments and conduct. We should rather concentrate our attention upon the poetic depth, intensity, and value of what she wrote, and upon its philological and historical interest. One thing is certainly evident and that is that when we read those surviving fragments which describe love and passion, we need never look elsewhere for anything nearer perfection in intensity, in sound, and in rhythm in any language. However the question may be considered, there is no trustworthy evidence to prove that, at the time when Sappho lived, the moral standards in Lesbian society were low, and it is by no means certain that the decadence and corruption which did undoubtedly develop as time went on had even begun during her lifetime.
It should also be remembered that Scandal, like Death, loves a shining mark, and such was Sappho for several centuries after her death. The invocation to Aphrodite for aid in securing the affections of a member of the same sex causes some suspicion that the expression of passion contained in it shows an abnormal element, but in endeavouring to reach a decision on this point, it must be remembered that there is no certainty that in the seventh century B.C. the word “Aphrodite” represented the same conception that it does in the twentieth century A.D., and there should not be too much haste in giving judgment upon social and psychological conditions of that early era. Furthermore, if we knew the age of Sappho when she wrote the poem, our conclusion would be influenced by that knowledge. If for example, it could actually be proved that the poem was the work of a girl of eighteen, a not impossible contingency in dealing with genius, our estimate of the psychology of its writer would differ widely from what it would be if we knew that we were dealing with the work of a woman twice that age.
Beginning two or three centuries after the death of Sappho there was a gradual development of a certain amount of obloquy in connection with her name, and as time went on this gathered force and definiteness, until, leaving her genius out of the question, her name came, to some extent, to connote decadence and depravity.
The first important disseminators of the scandal were the later comic writers who apparently attacked her reputation in the same way in which, by the use of satire and suggestive allusion, they attacked other famous individuals. They used Sappho merely as a celebrity whom they considered vulnerable, but they were certainly not attempting to conduct a moral crusade like some of their more sanctimonious and ignorant successors. From an evidential point of view these onslaughts may be safely disregarded. Later, during the Middle Ages, Sappho seems to have suffered attack, not on account of alleged moral depravity, but because she, like other lyric poets, wrote what some austere fanatics chose to consider frivolous and, according to their views, immoral poems. The attacks of this nature were against her works rather than against her character, and this is a distinction which must be kept before our minds in weighing much that has been written upon the subject. Many other ancient writers were treated in the same way. There were six comedies entitled “Sappho” and two entitled “Phaon” produced in the era of the Middle Comedy, all more or less scurrilous, and when we consider the way, for example, in which Socrates was lampooned by Aristophanes, we are justified in absolutely rejecting any account of Sappho which rests upon the authority of the writers of such comedies.
It has already been noted that in the golden period about 600 B.C. Lesbos was the centre of a rich and highly organized literary, social, and commercial life. At about that date there flourished an unsurpassed school of lyric poetry. In the organization of academies or classes which reached a high degree of development in the study and production of such poetry, women often took a prominent part, their position among the Aeolian Greeks being better and less subject to social restraint than was the case anywhere else in the then known civilized world. Terpander and Alcaeus were natives of Lesbos, the latter a contemporary of Sappho, and there were several lesser lights among the lyric poets who were women. Sappho even in her own time easily overtopped all others of her sex, and she was called the poetess in the same way that Homer was called the poet. She was called also “the tenth muse,” “the flower of the Graces,” and was credited with having written nine books of lyrics.
We ourselves know from the fragmentary remains of her works left to us after the attrition of centuries that she was incomparable in the perfection of every line, in the felicitous correspondence of the sense and the sound of her words, and that she had a perfect command over all the most delicate resources of versification. This combination of qualities, almost marvellous, is exemplified over and over again in many of the all too truncated fragments with which we must, so far, be satisfied. From the time of her own epoch the works of Sappho have never been entirely forgotten, and since the Renaissance the fragmentary remains of her poems have been eagerly studied by scholars of almost every country. Her metre, her style, her choice of words both as to meaning and sound, and her command of language in expressing emotion have been held up to us as exhibiting all that was most perfect in those particulars. Aristotle, in his “Rhetoric,” mentions her three times, always with approbation, and there are many references to her in the works of various other writers before the beginning of the Christian era. In the time of Augustus there occurred the first revival of Roman interest in her works.
Of all those who, at that period, sought to imitate or adapt any part of them, Catullus was the foremost and most successful. He made the well-known Latin paraphrase of the ode preserved in its original Greek by Longinus, and he was more successful than any of his Roman contemporaries in entering into the spirit of the Greek rhythm. Horace also was a successful imitator of the Sapphic metre which he employed in numerous instances, but both he and Catullus were imitators, not translators or preservers. In the Augustan age a knowledge of the poems of Sappho was looked upon as almost an essential accomplishment among the Roman women of education. There was at this period a considerable amount of intellectual traffic between Rome and Athens, and a knowledge of the Greek language and literature was considered, among the educated classes, to be very important. Ovid’s epistle, “Sappho to Phaon,” belongs to this period, but whatever may be its poetical and literary merits, it may, from a historical and biographical point of view, be safely disregarded. As will be seen later, this epistle of Ovid attracted some attention among English writers, but as far as Sappho is concerned their contributions to the subject are unimportant. To Dionysus of Halicarnassus our gratitude is due for the transmission to posterity of the Hymn of Invocation to Aphrodite, for it is only in his writings that this has been handed down in its entirety. His comment is sufficiently appreciative to cause astonishment that he did not think it worth while to preserve for us something else, and by so doing to magnify our indebtedness to him. Time, neglect, and ignorance have combined almost completely to annihilate the nine books of lyrics known to have been in existence at one period, except for the series of fragments which have been collected and published by various editors and commentators. The series begins with the hymn to Aphrodite in its complete perfection and ends with a collection of fragments consisting often of a word or two quoted by some prolix grammarian to illustrate a point of syntax or a dialectic peculiarity. During the past few years the Egypt Exploration Society has sent indefatigable workers to the delta of the Nile, and among other treasure trove there occurs a number, tantalizingly small it is true, of most interesting fragments from second and third century papyri of Sappho’s works. These recovered fragments have been deciphered, translated, and from time to time published.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the character of Sappho did undoubtedly suffer from attack both direct and by insinuation, and also because her name was often used by those who were merely repeating the unsubstantiated statements of others in order to personify something decadent and depraved. However, at the same time that this state of affairs existed some more appreciative and discerning writers were already calling attention to the pre-eminent qualities of genius which the then known remains of her poems patently showed.
It is, however, well to keep in mind the fact that, no matter what weight we may give to the evidence either for or against the spotlessness of the personal character of Sappho, a decision on this subject should not in any way influence our estimate of her poetic genius. Taking into consideration all of the facts and conjectures at our disposal, the most unfavourable verdict which could with justice be rendered upon the question of these alleged moral derelictions is one of “not proven.” As to the personal appearance of Sappho, we have nothing but some untrustworthy tradition to assist us. She has been described as small and dark, and remembering her race, this may well have been the case.
There are really no contemporary authentic coins, statues, or medallions representing her in existence, although for many decades and even some centuries after her death she was represented upon coins, and more rarely upon vases. Such a vase of about the fifth century B.C., found at Agrigentum, shows Sappho and Alcaeus, each with a musical instrument. This vase is now in Munich. According to Cicero there was a fine bronze statue made by Silanion, which was stolen by Verres from the Prytaneum at Syracuse, and Christodorus also describes a statue of the poetess in the gymnasium of Zeuxippus at Byzantium in the fifth century A.D. Unfortunately, all trace of these statues has disappeared.
The Aeolic dialect in which Sappho wrote is the softest, smoothest, and most direct in expression of all the varieties of the Greek language. There are said to be traces of this dialect in the ordinary speech of the people of Lesbos even to the present day. In it the rough breathings were absent, there was a frequent throwing back of the accent, the digamma (Ϝ) was used to some extent, and ἠ frequently becameἀ, for example, ἥ σελήνη became ἄ σελάννα, It should be noted in this connection that Sappho sometimes calls herself “Psappha,” which is an Aeolic form of her name. This soft Aeolic Greek was a fitting medium for the rich and sensuous language and imagery of her poems, and the result is perhaps more pleasing than would have been the case had the circumstances of time and place caused her to use the crystalline and more finely chiselled Attic Greek of two centuries later.
It is very important to remember the part played by musical instruments in relation to the composition and recitation of the lyric poetry of Lesbos. Stringed instruments were popular, and of them there were several varieties in use, one of which, the Πηκτίϲ, apparently a sort of small harp, is said to have been first used by Sappho herself. One or two other varieties of instruments, also stringed, are mentioned, but at this late date their identification is uncertain, although in at least two instances their names are known.
To judge by what remains of them, many of the poems were particularly suitable for recitative chanting in conjunction with such musical instruments.
The metres in which Sappho wrote were several. She used pre-eminently that known as Sapphic, but she also wrote in Alcaic, choriambic, and several others, all apparently with equal facility and delicacy. The metre known as Sapphic was not actually invented by Sappho herself, for it had been in use before her time, but she adopted it in many of her poems, and her use of it was so successful that it soon became associated with her name. Many of the fragments apparently belong to poems which contain very beautiful descriptions of natural phenomena or allusions to such things, and these have nothing to do with the passionate quality found in much that Sappho wrote. So much attention has been lavished upon these poems which contain descriptions of some sort of passionate devotion or invocation that the nature poems and some of those which evidently had a wonderful, wistful, and haunting quality of reminiscence, of hope, and of friendship have not had accorded to them the importance to which they are entitled.
Sappho has had her enthusiastic admirers amongst writers in almost all important languages, and those who have written in English have been in the forefront of this enthusiasm.
Among them all, John Addington Symonds, the translator of many of her poems, embodies his opinion in a few lines, well worth quoting. He says: “Of all the poets of the world, of all the illustrious artists of all literatures, Sappho is the one whose every word has a peculiar and unmistakable perfume, a seal of absolute perfection and illimitable grace.” There is nothing to add to such words of concentrated praise, even if we possibly lag a little behind their writer in our own enthusiasm.