1 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:04,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you missed in History class from how 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hey everyone, Before we get started today, 3 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:16,599 Speaker 1: we wanted to let you know that there are only 4 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,760 Speaker 1: a few spots left on our upcoming trips to Paris. Yes, 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,439 Speaker 1: which startles and delights me. I thought no one would 6 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:28,440 Speaker 1: want to come with us, and it turns out everybody does. So, Yes, 7 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:33,159 Speaker 1: we are going to Paris June second through night. If 8 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:35,559 Speaker 1: you come to our website, which is missed in history 9 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:39,320 Speaker 1: dot com, you can click the link that says Paris 10 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:42,560 Speaker 1: trip exclamation point in either the top menu bar or 11 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:44,880 Speaker 1: under the little menu icon. If you're on a mobile device, 12 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:46,920 Speaker 1: that will take you to the site we can learn 13 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:49,400 Speaker 1: all about the trip and sign up for it. Yes, 14 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:51,080 Speaker 1: so we hope to see you in Paris. We're going 15 00:00:51,120 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 1: to have a splendid time. We're both extremely excited. Hello 16 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:03,840 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson and 17 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:08,000 Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry. The poet Sappho is the first known 18 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:11,320 Speaker 1: woman writer in the European literary tradition, and she is 19 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:15,560 Speaker 1: described as the greatest female poet of Ancient Greece or 20 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:20,440 Speaker 1: the greatest Greek lyric poet period regardless of gender, or 21 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:24,000 Speaker 1: even the greatest female poet of all time. There's a 22 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:27,840 Speaker 1: addition to her work where C. R. Haynes, who edited 23 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:30,679 Speaker 1: that edition, put it this way quote with the possible 24 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:34,720 Speaker 1: exception of Shakespeare, Homer is still the supreme poet, and Sappho, 25 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:39,560 Speaker 1: without any exception, the poetess par excellence. Except those last 26 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:41,560 Speaker 1: two words were in Greek, so I got to figure 27 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 1: out how to translate them, which was a challenge. Sappho's 28 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: reputation as one of the world's finest poets has persisted 29 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:53,720 Speaker 1: for more than hundred years, and that's fascinating because the 30 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:57,920 Speaker 1: overwhelming majority of her work has not. And then also 31 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:01,880 Speaker 1: fascinating is that the words sapphic and lesbian, which is 32 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:04,840 Speaker 1: derived from the island of les Boss, where Sappho lived, 33 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:09,360 Speaker 1: they've become synonymous with same sex relationships among women. But 34 00:02:09,639 --> 00:02:12,640 Speaker 1: we actually know very very little about Sappho's life or 35 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:16,560 Speaker 1: her relationships, and two thousand years ago those terms had 36 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:19,360 Speaker 1: really different meanings from what they do now. So we 37 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:22,240 Speaker 1: are going to get into all of this today. Sappho 38 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 1: is also a frequent listener request and over the past 39 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:28,480 Speaker 1: few years we've gotten requests from Helen Sillian pat Esther 40 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:30,800 Speaker 1: and one person who didn't have a name on their emails, 41 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:34,200 Speaker 1: and then as a heads up, we talk about people's 42 00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:38,200 Speaker 1: relationships often enough on the show, we don't usually need 43 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:41,960 Speaker 1: to mention a specific sex act. That is not the 44 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,760 Speaker 1: case today, so use discretion if it seems like that 45 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 1: sort of territory might be an issue for you or 46 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,240 Speaker 1: people that you listen with. Now, I feel like we 47 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:55,960 Speaker 1: need to do a show called sexy History, be a 48 00:02:55,960 --> 00:03:00,120 Speaker 1: whole other thing, completely different, and we wouldn't need as 49 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:04,120 Speaker 1: Runnings new. So the most referenced source of information about 50 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:09,080 Speaker 1: Sappho's life is a tenth century Byzantine compendium called the Puda. 51 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:12,520 Speaker 1: In the Studa is sort of a lexicon or encyclopedia 52 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 1: of the ancient Mediterranean. It has two Sappho entries, and 53 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:18,480 Speaker 1: we'll get into why that is a little bit later. 54 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:22,520 Speaker 1: Sappho's name also comes up in lots of other entries 55 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: in the Suda, including ones for her relatives, places she lived, 56 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:31,240 Speaker 1: people she knew, and definitions of various literary terms. She's 57 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:33,960 Speaker 1: also mentioned in lots of other historical writing that has 58 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 1: survived until today, although usually those references are shorter and 59 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:41,240 Speaker 1: less detailed than what's in the Pseuda. This all makes 60 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:44,920 Speaker 1: it very tricky to piece together Sappho's biography. The Pseudo 61 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,840 Speaker 1: was compiled more than a thousand years after Sappo actually lived, 62 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:51,600 Speaker 1: and then on top of that, it's not exactly reliable 63 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:54,680 Speaker 1: all the time. It's cobbled together from all kinds of 64 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:57,720 Speaker 1: different sources, and some of its entries pick up information 65 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:01,360 Speaker 1: that is clearly not factual. In terms of the entries 66 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:03,960 Speaker 1: on Sappho, it's just not clear how much of the 67 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: information came from historical sources, how much from what people 68 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:11,840 Speaker 1: just knew in quotation marks about Sappho in the tenth century, 69 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:14,280 Speaker 1: and how much of it was gleaned from things that 70 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:17,840 Speaker 1: are mentioned in her poetry. It's always tricky to try 71 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:21,839 Speaker 1: to use poems as a source for the poet's biographical details, 72 00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: but it's even more of a challenge here because by 73 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:26,880 Speaker 1: the tenth century a lot of Sappho's work had already 74 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:29,760 Speaker 1: been lost, so we don't know the full context of 75 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: those lines that we have. According to the Suda, Sappho 76 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:36,800 Speaker 1: was born in the forty two Olympiad, which was between 77 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:40,440 Speaker 1: six twelve and six O nine b C. But the 78 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:43,640 Speaker 1: wording of it could also be translated as flourished and 79 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:45,760 Speaker 1: not born, which would mean that those years were the 80 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:49,160 Speaker 1: height of her career and not her birth. The pseudolists 81 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:53,960 Speaker 1: eight different men as Sappho's potential father. Herodotus, on the 82 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:57,240 Speaker 1: other hand, lived about two hundred years after Sappho did, 83 00:04:57,320 --> 00:05:01,480 Speaker 1: and he wrote that her father was named scam Andronymus, 84 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:03,039 Speaker 1: and that's one of the eight men that the sud 85 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:06,800 Speaker 1: elicit as a possibility. Hundreds of years later, Sappho's mother 86 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,479 Speaker 1: may have been named Claius, and we have to say 87 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:12,839 Speaker 1: may have been, because a couple of Sappho's fragments mentioned 88 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:16,160 Speaker 1: a daughter named Claius, and it was traditional for daughters 89 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:19,039 Speaker 1: to be named after their grandmother. But even that is 90 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:22,200 Speaker 1: pretty murky because the the word that's used for daughter 91 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,240 Speaker 1: could also just mean child, and in some cases it 92 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:29,360 Speaker 1: could actually be translated as slave. So this Claius, who 93 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:31,640 Speaker 1: may or may not have been named after Sappho's mother, 94 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:34,320 Speaker 1: may or may not have been her child. This is 95 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:39,560 Speaker 1: like the most provisional discussion of history ever. I feel 96 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:42,400 Speaker 1: like if you've heard the words possibly and may have been, 97 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: you've heard most of Sappho's biography. We do know she 98 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:49,520 Speaker 1: lived on the island of Lesbos and the aegan C 99 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:52,880 Speaker 1: and that's just across the water from what's now Turkey. 100 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 1: At the time that was Sartists, which was the capital 101 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:59,039 Speaker 1: of Lydia. Sappho's place of birth on the island was 102 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:02,839 Speaker 1: probably the town of Heiressis or the capital of Middlini. 103 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:06,479 Speaker 1: She most likely lived most of her life in Middlini, 104 00:06:06,839 --> 00:06:09,320 Speaker 1: although it is possible that she and her family either 105 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:13,120 Speaker 1: moved or fled to Sicily for a time, either because 106 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:16,600 Speaker 1: of general political upheaval on Lesbos or because of their 107 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:21,120 Speaker 1: own political affiliations. She may have had three brothers. The 108 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:25,960 Speaker 1: Suda names them as Larkos, Caraxos, and Eurygios, and two 109 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:28,560 Speaker 1: of those names appear in a poem that was unearthed 110 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:31,520 Speaker 1: in which we talked about in one of our Unearthed 111 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:34,919 Speaker 1: episodes that year, and that poem has been nicknamed the 112 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:39,120 Speaker 1: Brother's Poem because it contains these two names. From here, 113 00:06:39,320 --> 00:06:43,920 Speaker 1: the pseudo wanders into some more questionable territory. It says 114 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:49,000 Speaker 1: that Sappho's husband was Kirklius of Andros, but Kirklius is 115 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:51,960 Speaker 1: very close to a slang term for the word Penis 116 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,479 Speaker 1: and Andross was a real place, but was also the 117 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:58,760 Speaker 1: word for man. So the suitas name for Sappho's husband 118 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:01,240 Speaker 1: is sort of like saying he was Dick Johnson of 119 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:04,480 Speaker 1: Man Island. So this is more likely to be a 120 00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:07,839 Speaker 1: crude joke than her husband's actual name. I want to 121 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:12,920 Speaker 1: make a sitcom now about Dick Johnson on man Island. Uh. 122 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:18,040 Speaker 1: And then the suda names three of Sappho's friends, Athis, Tellusippa, 123 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:21,080 Speaker 1: and Megara, using a word to describe them that could 124 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:25,000 Speaker 1: mean companion, but it could also mean cortisan, and the 125 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: studha says her relationship with them led her to be 126 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:30,840 Speaker 1: accused of a friendship or a love that was shameful. 127 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 1: From there, the student goes into some more mundane territory, 128 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: naming a few of Sappho's students, saying that she wrote 129 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:41,920 Speaker 1: nine volumes of poetry and crediting her with inventing the plectrum, 130 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:44,280 Speaker 1: which is like a pick for plucking the strings on 131 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:48,640 Speaker 1: a liar. It also describes her poetry as including epigrams, 132 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:53,200 Speaker 1: l j x iambics and monodies. Her surviving work also 133 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: includes a lot of epithalamia, and these are poems that 134 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:00,320 Speaker 1: were celebrating a marriage which she was probably commissioned to right. 135 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:04,040 Speaker 1: In addition to the Sudas mentioned of students, a number 136 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:08,000 Speaker 1: of classical sources described Sappho as a teacher, but none 137 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:11,720 Speaker 1: of these sources mentioned what or where she taught. In 138 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:14,400 Speaker 1: spite of that lack of detail, a lot of articles 139 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:18,440 Speaker 1: that exist today definitively say that Sappho ran a thesos, 140 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:21,280 Speaker 1: which is sometimes described as a sort of finishing school 141 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:24,640 Speaker 1: for women waiting to get married, and it's also sometimes 142 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:29,040 Speaker 1: described as a religious community dedicated to Aphrodite, and sometimes 143 00:08:29,080 --> 00:08:32,400 Speaker 1: as a group of temple courtisans. But really there's no 144 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:35,960 Speaker 1: substantiation to any of this or for the idea of 145 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:39,760 Speaker 1: a Theosos as an actual established school of some sort. 146 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:44,160 Speaker 1: None of sappho surviving writing mentions that the asos at all. 147 00:08:44,559 --> 00:08:48,240 Speaker 1: You will see a lot of just incredibly definitive saying 148 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:51,640 Speaker 1: with a h confidence, statements that are like, Sappho ran 149 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:55,200 Speaker 1: this the ass that taught these young women how to 150 00:08:55,320 --> 00:09:01,360 Speaker 1: be wives and mothers, and maybe it's not documentation of that. 151 00:09:01,559 --> 00:09:04,840 Speaker 1: And then there is the story of Sappho and Phayon, 152 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:07,920 Speaker 1: and the basic gist of this story is that Sappho 153 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:11,080 Speaker 1: fell in love with a ferryman named Phayon, and when 154 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:14,200 Speaker 1: he rejected her, she threw herself off a cliff. That 155 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:18,679 Speaker 1: story makes up the bulk of the Suda's second Sappho entry, 156 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:23,679 Speaker 1: which says that this supposedly different Sappho was also from Middelini, 157 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:27,080 Speaker 1: also played a harp and may have written lyric poetry 158 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:31,400 Speaker 1: as well. This story about the ferryman is repeated over 159 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:34,720 Speaker 1: and over and over. It's depicted in numerous works of 160 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:39,200 Speaker 1: art and literature, including in Avids herodes or epistles of 161 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:42,960 Speaker 1: the heroines. But Phayon was a mythical figure, and it 162 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:46,120 Speaker 1: seems like this idea that the real Sapphos threw herself 163 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:48,840 Speaker 1: over a cliff for him dates back to a comedy 164 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 1: by Menander written about two hundred years after Sappho died, 165 00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:55,679 Speaker 1: and in the thousands of years since then, the fact 166 00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:58,960 Speaker 1: that at least one of Sappho's fragments mentions Phayon has 167 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,520 Speaker 1: been used to try to substantiate this fictional story as 168 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:05,640 Speaker 1: though it were fact. So when it comes to Sappho's biography, 169 00:10:05,679 --> 00:10:08,960 Speaker 1: we have a whole lot of contradictions and questionable sources, 170 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:11,079 Speaker 1: and in some cases or poetry has been used to 171 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:14,160 Speaker 1: try to substantiate those claims. So we are going to 172 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:17,080 Speaker 1: take a look at her poems and some more detail 173 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:27,720 Speaker 1: after we take a quick sponsor break. Sappho was a 174 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:31,120 Speaker 1: lyric poet, meaning that she composed poems that were meant 175 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:35,280 Speaker 1: to be sung accompanied on a liar in In ancient Greece, 176 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:38,760 Speaker 1: lyric poetry tended to be short and very personal, often 177 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:42,360 Speaker 1: sung from one person to another or written in the 178 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:46,760 Speaker 1: voice of one person addressing another. Many of Sappho's poems 179 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:50,160 Speaker 1: that have survived until today either are or are believed 180 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:53,120 Speaker 1: to be love poems. It's hard to tell sometimes because 181 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:56,880 Speaker 1: what survives can be incredibly short. Homer, on the other hand, 182 00:10:56,920 --> 00:10:59,720 Speaker 1: wrote epic poetry, and this was much longer, with a 183 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:02,680 Speaker 1: narrative that told the story of the heroic deeds of 184 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:05,480 Speaker 1: the characters in the poem. And we should also note 185 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:08,440 Speaker 1: that it's very possible that the work attributed to Homer 186 00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:12,760 Speaker 1: was really written by several people and not just one. Regardless, 187 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:15,600 Speaker 1: though in the ancient Western world he was called just 188 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:20,280 Speaker 1: the poet and Sappho was the poetess. Lyric poetry really 189 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:23,520 Speaker 1: flourished in ancient Greece between about six hundred and four 190 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:27,440 Speaker 1: fifty b C. So that was when Sappa lived. It 191 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:31,040 Speaker 1: wasn't newly invented during that time. This was more a 192 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:35,320 Speaker 1: revival of an earlier poetic form. And then two people 193 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:38,320 Speaker 1: were considered to be the most notable lyric poets of 194 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:41,400 Speaker 1: this period. They were Sappho and I'll see Us, both 195 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:44,000 Speaker 1: of whom were from Lesbos and may have known each 196 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:47,360 Speaker 1: other and even written to each other. Sappho wrote her 197 00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:51,400 Speaker 1: poems in Aolic Greek, which is sometimes also called Lesbian Greek, 198 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:54,640 Speaker 1: and in that dialect her name was more like Shapa 199 00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:57,280 Speaker 1: than the Sappho that we know today. In about the 200 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:00,920 Speaker 1: third century b c. E Sappho's poet Tree was compiled 201 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:04,960 Speaker 1: into an eight or nine volume collection in Alexandria, Egypt. 202 00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:08,880 Speaker 1: The volumes were arranged by the meter used for each poem, 203 00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:12,200 Speaker 1: which set it apart for most other compilations, which tended 204 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:15,960 Speaker 1: to be organized instead by subject or seem. There were 205 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:19,320 Speaker 1: as many as ten thousand lines of poetry in this compilation, 206 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:22,760 Speaker 1: but it's possible that Sappho wrote much more than that, 207 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:26,160 Speaker 1: especially since many of her works were commissioned for special 208 00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:29,520 Speaker 1: occasions like weddings, and they might not have been preserved 209 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:32,920 Speaker 1: after they were performed. Today, Sappho was known most for 210 00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:36,319 Speaker 1: one particular poetic form, and that's the Sapphic, which is 211 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:40,400 Speaker 1: also called Sapphic meter or Sapphic stanzas. We don't really 212 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 1: know whether Sappho developed this form herself or refined a 213 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:47,240 Speaker 1: form that already existed, but she was so skilled at 214 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,040 Speaker 1: writing in this form that it ultimately carried her name. 215 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:54,320 Speaker 1: The Sapphic used four line stanzas, with three longer lines 216 00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:57,400 Speaker 1: followed by one shorter line, and then within those lines. 217 00:12:57,480 --> 00:13:00,320 Speaker 1: The meter came from Lesbian Greek's pattern of long and 218 00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:04,960 Speaker 1: short syllables. When people are translating Sappho's work today, sometimes 219 00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:08,600 Speaker 1: they approximate the meter using the characteristics of whatever language 220 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:11,600 Speaker 1: they're working in. So, for example, in English, there's a 221 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:15,760 Speaker 1: pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, with the stressed syllables 222 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:18,600 Speaker 1: standing in for the long syllables in Greek, and the 223 00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:22,360 Speaker 1: unstressed syllables taking the place of the short ones. These 224 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:26,520 Speaker 1: tend to be very personal, passionate, and emotional poems, and 225 00:13:26,559 --> 00:13:31,520 Speaker 1: they're simultaneously very simple and elegant. During Sappho's lifetime, poetry 226 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:34,640 Speaker 1: was also believed to be magical, so poetry was thought 227 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:38,319 Speaker 1: to be able to influence or shape reality. So Sappho's 228 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:42,280 Speaker 1: poetry was considered to be beautiful and melodic and powerful. 229 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:46,959 Speaker 1: But we have unfortunately very little of this poetry today, 230 00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:49,800 Speaker 1: and even less of it in the form of complete poems. 231 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:53,640 Speaker 1: The vast majority of what we have is just short fragments, 232 00:13:54,240 --> 00:13:56,560 Speaker 1: and some of these fragments are from damaged pieces of 233 00:13:56,559 --> 00:14:01,079 Speaker 1: writing material or pieces of clay pots. Other are quotations 234 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:06,000 Speaker 1: from other people's surviving work. For example, Cassius Longinus quoted 235 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:09,560 Speaker 1: four stanzas by Sappho in on the Sublime, which was 236 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:13,400 Speaker 1: published around one hundred CE. Today, out of those ten 237 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:16,360 Speaker 1: thousand or so lines that we think that Sappho wrote, 238 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:20,640 Speaker 1: we have roughly six hundred and fifty lines of poetry remaining. 239 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:24,840 Speaker 1: That is spread out across about two hundred and fifty fragments, 240 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:28,200 Speaker 1: And of those six and fifty lines, fewer than a 241 00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:30,840 Speaker 1: third of them or even complete lines of poetry. A 242 00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:34,240 Speaker 1: lot of them are partial lines. Six of the fragments 243 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:38,200 Speaker 1: are longer and more substantive, but still not entirely intact, 244 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:41,280 Speaker 1: and one of those longer fragments is the brother's poem 245 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:44,160 Speaker 1: that we mentioned earlier, which is missing only its first 246 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:48,400 Speaker 1: few stanzas. Only one of Sappho's poems is believed to 247 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:51,680 Speaker 1: be complete today, and that is the Ode to Aphrodite. 248 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:55,480 Speaker 1: Different collections of Sappho's poetry use different numbering systems to 249 00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:58,200 Speaker 1: keep up with all of these fragments, but most of 250 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:02,440 Speaker 1: the time Owed to Aphrodite, sometimes translated as Him or 251 00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:06,040 Speaker 1: Prayer to Aphrodite is number one. Here's the beginning of 252 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:09,800 Speaker 1: Ode to Aphrodite, translated by T. W. Higginson in event 253 00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:15,600 Speaker 1: one quote beautiful throned immortal Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus beguiler. 254 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:19,560 Speaker 1: I implore THEE weigh me not down with weariness and anguish. 255 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:23,080 Speaker 1: Oh Thou most holy, come to me now, if ever thou, 256 00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:27,239 Speaker 1: in kindness harkenist my words. And in the poem, Aphrodite 257 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:31,000 Speaker 1: does come and says, who has harmed thee? Oh, my 258 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:34,600 Speaker 1: poor Sappho. Though now he flies ere long, he shall 259 00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:38,240 Speaker 1: pursue THEE. Fearing thy gifts. He too, in turn, shall 260 00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:43,040 Speaker 1: bring them loveless. Today tomorrow he shall Woozee, though thou 261 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:46,600 Speaker 1: should spurn him. Another of the longer fragments is the 262 00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:48,960 Speaker 1: one that was quoted in On the Sublime, which we 263 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:53,120 Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, and it describes the speaker's response to sitting 264 00:15:53,160 --> 00:15:56,120 Speaker 1: across from a woman that the poem is addressing. This 265 00:15:56,280 --> 00:15:59,920 Speaker 1: is usually interpreted as Sappho herself describing her own response 266 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:02,400 Speaker 1: of the woman that she's facing, but that's not really 267 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:07,000 Speaker 1: clear here. It is as translated by John Addington Simmons 268 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:11,200 Speaker 1: in three Peer of the Gods. He seemeth to me 269 00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:14,560 Speaker 1: the blissful man who sits and gazes at the before 270 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:18,720 Speaker 1: him close besides these sits and in silence, here's the 271 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:24,840 Speaker 1: silverly speaking laughing Love's low laughter. Oh this this only 272 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,160 Speaker 1: stirs the troubled heart in my breast to tremble. For 273 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,640 Speaker 1: should I but see thee a little moment? Straight? Is 274 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:36,040 Speaker 1: my voice hushed? Yea, my tongue is broken, and through 275 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:40,520 Speaker 1: and through me neath the flesh impalpable fire runs tingling 276 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:45,080 Speaker 1: nothing see mine eyes and our noise of roaring waves 277 00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:48,880 Speaker 1: in my ear sounds. Sweat runs down and rivers. A 278 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:53,120 Speaker 1: tremor seizes all my limbs, and paler than grass in autumn, 279 00:16:53,240 --> 00:16:57,280 Speaker 1: caught by pains of menacing death, I falter lost in 280 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:00,720 Speaker 1: the love trance, But almost all the aments are not 281 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:05,240 Speaker 1: nearly so long as this. Here is an example, Sweet mother, 282 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:08,280 Speaker 1: I cannot weave my web broken as I am by 283 00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:12,439 Speaker 1: longing for a boy at soft aphrodite's will. One that 284 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:15,720 Speaker 1: we think from a wedding poem goes neither honey nor 285 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:18,960 Speaker 1: be for me. I don't know why I love that 286 00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:24,440 Speaker 1: I do neither of the above. Another fragment just says 287 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:28,639 Speaker 1: shot with a thousand hues, and one reads and I 288 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:32,400 Speaker 1: flutter like a child after her mother, And one fragment 289 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:36,640 Speaker 1: is simply the words you burn me. Sappho's fragments can 290 00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:41,600 Speaker 1: be really evocative, and then combined with her pretty mysterious biography, 291 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:44,720 Speaker 1: they can just be beguiling. But the fact that they're 292 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:48,719 Speaker 1: so fragmented and scattered makes her work really difficult to study. 293 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:51,920 Speaker 1: We have a sense that she wrote lots of love poems, 294 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:55,040 Speaker 1: and that she wrote lots of poems for people's weddings. 295 00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:58,080 Speaker 1: Her work seems to carry a lot of affection as well, 296 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:02,520 Speaker 1: including physical affection from and women, but we don't necessarily 297 00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:05,520 Speaker 1: have the greatest sense of what the whole body of 298 00:18:05,560 --> 00:18:09,120 Speaker 1: her work is like. There's some guesswork going on, especially 299 00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:11,520 Speaker 1: since some of the fragments are so short that we're 300 00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:15,160 Speaker 1: not even a hundred percent sure that Sappho really wrote them, 301 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:18,040 Speaker 1: And we'll get into why there's so little of Sappho's 302 00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:27,520 Speaker 1: work left today to study after we have another sponsor break. 303 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:30,960 Speaker 1: As far as we know, during her lifetime and at 304 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:34,560 Speaker 1: least for a while afterwards, Sappho was deeply respected and 305 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:38,000 Speaker 1: admired as a poet and a person. Plato, who lived 306 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:40,760 Speaker 1: roughly two hundred years after she did, wrote quote some 307 00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:44,400 Speaker 1: say them uses are nine, but how carelessly look at 308 00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:49,120 Speaker 1: the tenth Sappho from Lesbus. It doesn't seem as though 309 00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:53,120 Speaker 1: her contemporaries really questioned her character in any way. I mean, 310 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:55,520 Speaker 1: after all, she was getting a lot of commissions to 311 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:59,600 Speaker 1: write poetry for people's weddings, and that doesn't seem like 312 00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:02,919 Speaker 1: it would be happening if she were socially reviled. But 313 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:06,399 Speaker 1: in the century since then, people have interpreted Sappho in 314 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:11,040 Speaker 1: vastly different ways. In the words of Holt and Parker quote, 315 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:14,640 Speaker 1: every age creates its own Sappho, and many of these 316 00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:18,080 Speaker 1: creations have imagined Sappho as being, at least in the 317 00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:22,600 Speaker 1: morality of the time, deviant or depraved. Some of these 318 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:24,720 Speaker 1: shifts are thanks to her being from the island of 319 00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:28,480 Speaker 1: les Bus. While she was living, les Bus was considered 320 00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:31,800 Speaker 1: to be a place full of passion and poetry and sensuality, 321 00:19:32,119 --> 00:19:35,840 Speaker 1: although also with a lot of political turmoil and in fighting, 322 00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:38,800 Speaker 1: which is why Sappho and her family may have fled 323 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:42,920 Speaker 1: at some point possibly see our Haynes, who we quoted 324 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:44,880 Speaker 1: at the top of the show, described it this way 325 00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:49,000 Speaker 1: quote the Aoliens of Lesbas were a vigorous and gifted race, 326 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:53,760 Speaker 1: brave and war enterprising and trade, vehement and politics eminent, 327 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:57,240 Speaker 1: and poetry and music. But within a few centuries after 328 00:19:57,320 --> 00:20:01,240 Speaker 1: her death, prevailing opinion of the island of Lesbas had shifted. 329 00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 1: That tendency towards passion and wealth moved more into perceived 330 00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:09,800 Speaker 1: hedonism and excess. Lesbis went from being thought of as 331 00:20:09,840 --> 00:20:13,280 Speaker 1: a place of beauty and refinement to one of licentiousness 332 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:18,040 Speaker 1: and corruption. The Greek word lesbias in meaning acting like 333 00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:22,919 Speaker 1: someone from Lesbus, became associated with impurity and one specific 334 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:27,000 Speaker 1: sex act, that being Fallacio. It wasn't just about the island, 335 00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:32,440 Speaker 1: though eventually this also extended to Sappho herself. Greek comedy 336 00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:35,320 Speaker 1: tended to be in one way or another satirical, although 337 00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:38,680 Speaker 1: the exact nature and the primary targets of the satire 338 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:42,439 Speaker 1: shifted over time. In the in the sort of history 339 00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:45,960 Speaker 1: of Greek comedy, and starting a couple of centuries after 340 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,680 Speaker 1: she died, Sappho became the target of this satire. Her 341 00:20:49,760 --> 00:20:53,280 Speaker 1: name was used for characters in several Greek comedies, and 342 00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:58,040 Speaker 1: those characters were usually depicted as wanton and lustful and 343 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:03,800 Speaker 1: just excessively sexual with young men. Society's understanding of relationships 344 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:07,720 Speaker 1: and gender roles shifts over time, so it's certain that 345 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:11,760 Speaker 1: romantic and physical relationships were viewed very differently on Lesbos 346 00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:14,440 Speaker 1: in the seventh century b c. Than they are in 347 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:19,360 Speaker 1: various cultures today. But we know virtually nothing about the details, 348 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:21,879 Speaker 1: and many of the authors who have speculated about it 349 00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:26,080 Speaker 1: have tried to draw conclusions based on ancient Sparta. But 350 00:21:26,119 --> 00:21:29,760 Speaker 1: our understanding of Spartan society is also limited, and it 351 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:33,520 Speaker 1: was a completely different society from Lesbi's, located in a 352 00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:36,960 Speaker 1: different part of Greece, and it flourished starting two hundred 353 00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:41,120 Speaker 1: years or so after Sappho's death. However, we do know 354 00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:45,399 Speaker 1: that same sex relationships became increasingly taboo in parts of 355 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,720 Speaker 1: Europe in the centuries after Sappa lived, so they don't 356 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:51,359 Speaker 1: really know how they were regarded while she was living 357 00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:53,720 Speaker 1: and where she was living, but we do know that 358 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:57,800 Speaker 1: it became more and more taboo afterward, and as that happened, 359 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:01,280 Speaker 1: the idea that Sappho was dv because of her lust 360 00:22:01,359 --> 00:22:04,520 Speaker 1: for young men morphed into the idea that she was 361 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:08,359 Speaker 1: deviant because of her lust for young women. The first 362 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:10,600 Speaker 1: reference to this that we know about was written in 363 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:14,440 Speaker 1: the second or third century CE. In the sixteenth century, 364 00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:19,480 Speaker 1: humanist scholars claimed that Christian Church officials had burned Sappho's 365 00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:23,560 Speaker 1: work for this reason at least twice. That Bishop Gregory 366 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:26,720 Speaker 1: nazi Enzen of Constantinople had done so in three eighty, 367 00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:30,280 Speaker 1: followed by Pope Gregory the Seventh in ten seventy three, 368 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:34,160 Speaker 1: but it's not clear whether these burnings actually happened, especially 369 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:38,600 Speaker 1: since Bishop Gregory himself was known to quote from Sappho. Yeah, 370 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,840 Speaker 1: it's there's some conjecture that over the centuries, two different 371 00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:46,080 Speaker 1: Gregory's were conflated together into this one person who supposedly 372 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:50,160 Speaker 1: did this burning. Even if her work was burned by 373 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:54,840 Speaker 1: the church because of perceptions about Sappho's morality, that would 374 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:57,280 Speaker 1: not account for so much of its loss. There were 375 00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:00,800 Speaker 1: also floods and accidental fires, and that aging of the 376 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:04,600 Speaker 1: material that the poetry was recorded on, and fewer and 377 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:08,320 Speaker 1: fewer people speaking a Olian Greek, meaning that there was 378 00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:11,040 Speaker 1: less and less demand for new copies of her work 379 00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:15,399 Speaker 1: to be printed or written or copied. Sappho didn't fade 380 00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:18,840 Speaker 1: into total obscurity, though we mentioned in our Christine to 381 00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:21,119 Speaker 1: Pizzant episode that she's named in the Book of the 382 00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:23,680 Speaker 1: City of Ladies, which was written in fourteen o five. 383 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:28,040 Speaker 1: By the sixteenth century, though, what most people knew about 384 00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:32,560 Speaker 1: Sappho really came from Ovid's Herodies rather than from anything 385 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:36,320 Speaker 1: about her actual biography or her work. By the eighteenth century, 386 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:39,199 Speaker 1: even less of Sappho's poetry was known to the world 387 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:42,639 Speaker 1: than the six hundred fifty lines we have today, and 388 00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:46,240 Speaker 1: the words Sapphic and lesbian had taken on entirely different 389 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:49,960 Speaker 1: meanings than what they'd initially meant, which was basically related 390 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:54,400 Speaker 1: to Sappho or related to the island of Lesbis. Lesbian 391 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,080 Speaker 1: was first used in writing to describe a woman who 392 00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:00,760 Speaker 1: is physically or romantically involved with another woman in seventeen 393 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: thirty two, and saffic was used in association with same sex, 394 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:09,439 Speaker 1: desire and relationships among women. A few years later. The 395 00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:12,359 Speaker 1: first appearance of the word sapphic in writing was in 396 00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:15,760 Speaker 1: a seventeen sixty one translation of Plato, which read quote, 397 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:19,199 Speaker 1: their affections tend rather to their own sex, and of 398 00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:23,359 Speaker 1: this kind are the sapphic lovers. So by the Romantic 399 00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:27,400 Speaker 1: era in Europe, both Sappho and the island of Lesbus 400 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:32,399 Speaker 1: had become inextricably connected to the idea of homosexuality among women, 401 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:37,040 Speaker 1: which was also culturally very taboo and in some cases outlawed. 402 00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:40,080 Speaker 1: But in spite of that, in the nineteenth century, Sappho's 403 00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:45,000 Speaker 1: poetry experienced a surge in popularity. The Romantics found the 404 00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:48,959 Speaker 1: emotional depth of her poems and the fragments really appealing. 405 00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:53,240 Speaker 1: She started appearing in poems by people like Byron and 406 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:56,320 Speaker 1: bade Laire, although not necessarily in what we would call 407 00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,840 Speaker 1: a favorable light. Then, in the late nineteenth and early 408 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:04,280 Speaker 1: twenty centuries, a collection of manuscripts was unearthed near the 409 00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:09,040 Speaker 1: Egyptian city of Oxyrynchus, drastically increasing the number of known 410 00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:12,439 Speaker 1: Sappho fragments and giving people way more of them to 411 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:17,119 Speaker 1: study and read. Running alongside this increasing popularity was an 412 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:21,359 Speaker 1: attempt to reform Sappho's image into something that wasn't contrary 413 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:26,120 Speaker 1: to nineteenth century morality. In eighteen sixteen, Frederick Gottlin Welker 414 00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:30,600 Speaker 1: published Sappho Freed from a Prevailing Prejudice, which tried to 415 00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:33,680 Speaker 1: reinterpret her poetry in a way that minimized the homo 416 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:37,040 Speaker 1: eroticism of her work, and this did start to shift 417 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:42,160 Speaker 1: people's opinions about Sappho. But then in Pierre Luis published 418 00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:46,240 Speaker 1: Chanson de Bilitis, which was supposedly a collection of newly 419 00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:50,320 Speaker 1: discovered poems written by one of Sappho's female students, who 420 00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:54,600 Speaker 1: was named in the French pronunciation beauty. These were really 421 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:58,160 Speaker 1: a work of poetic fiction, though these poems are very 422 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:01,520 Speaker 1: erotic and sensual on though people really quickly figured out 423 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:04,200 Speaker 1: that they were not really written by one of Sappho's students, 424 00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:09,520 Speaker 1: it did reinforce the connection between Sappho and homosexual relationships 425 00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,800 Speaker 1: among women that Welker had been trying to minimize and 426 00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:16,000 Speaker 1: his earlier work, and that led to another effort to 427 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:20,040 Speaker 1: try to reimagine Sappho's identity in nineteen thirteen led by 428 00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:24,760 Speaker 1: Ulrich von Velamovitz. His Sappho and somonodies drew from Welker's 429 00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:28,520 Speaker 1: eighteen sixteen work, and it depicted Sappho as a spinster 430 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:32,720 Speaker 1: ish schoolmarm. This work also really reinforced the idea that 431 00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:35,680 Speaker 1: Sappho was a teacher at a formal school with young 432 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:39,000 Speaker 1: women as her pupils, and this depiction is based on 433 00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:45,040 Speaker 1: his reinterpreting her poetry, not on historical research. Today, Sappho 434 00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:49,480 Speaker 1: seems really intrinsically connected to the idea of lesbian, which 435 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,520 Speaker 1: can describe a person's sexual orientation as well as their 436 00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:56,920 Speaker 1: political or social identity, and that connection was really reinforced 437 00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:59,199 Speaker 1: during the early years of the gay rights movement in 438 00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:01,879 Speaker 1: the United States when it was still known as the 439 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:06,159 Speaker 1: homophile movement. In nineteen fifty five, for lesbian couples formed 440 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:09,360 Speaker 1: the Daughters of Belts that's spelled the same way as Belaitis, 441 00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:13,639 Speaker 1: which Tracy said earlier pronounced differently uh. They included activists 442 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,000 Speaker 1: Phillis Lion and del Martin, who later became the first 443 00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:19,520 Speaker 1: same sex couple to get married in San Francisco, and 444 00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:22,920 Speaker 1: it began allowing same sex marriages in two thousand four, 445 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,880 Speaker 1: and this was part social club, part support group, part 446 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:31,679 Speaker 1: education and advocacy organization. They named themselves the Daughters of 447 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:36,439 Speaker 1: Beltis after that eight Chanson Debilities collection. And by this 448 00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:40,280 Speaker 1: point everyone knew and quotation marks that the historic Sappho 449 00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:44,199 Speaker 1: was a lesbian. So the name Belitus let the organization 450 00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:48,080 Speaker 1: connect itself to Sappho and signal to potential members what 451 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:52,840 Speaker 1: the organization was for without needing to publicly express who 452 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,840 Speaker 1: and what the organization was for. Because of the social 453 00:27:55,920 --> 00:28:00,120 Speaker 1: climate and in some cases the law, just publicly declaring 454 00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:03,480 Speaker 1: that this was an organization for lesbians was not possible. 455 00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:07,960 Speaker 1: In the Daughters of belid Has created a newsletter called 456 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,679 Speaker 1: The Ladder, which developed a national readership, and the organization 457 00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:15,640 Speaker 1: itself became the first national lesbian organization in the United States. 458 00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:19,359 Speaker 1: And as time went on, Sappho became increasingly present in 459 00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:22,160 Speaker 1: the pages of The Ladder, which also had a poetry 460 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:26,560 Speaker 1: column called Sapphistries. All of this continued to reinforce that 461 00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:31,200 Speaker 1: connection between Sappho and the lesbian community. So that is Sappho. 462 00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:35,160 Speaker 1: We know literally almost nothing about her, and this whole 463 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:37,760 Speaker 1: story reminds me a lot of Jenny Lynde who was 464 00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:40,800 Speaker 1: supposed to be just the world's most incredible opera singer, 465 00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:47,040 Speaker 1: but of whom we have no recordings. Yeah, yeah, I 466 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:49,600 Speaker 1: think there's always that thing. Right. We talked about how 467 00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:54,440 Speaker 1: there are many attempts to reinterpret and and shift her 468 00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:57,920 Speaker 1: identity over time, And it is like that trick when 469 00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:00,800 Speaker 1: you only have these tiny bits and fragments. The people 470 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:03,480 Speaker 1: can want a thing so badly that they will interpret 471 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,720 Speaker 1: it in whichever way makes them the most comfortable with 472 00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:10,040 Speaker 1: the material or like aligns with their ideas of of 473 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:13,920 Speaker 1: this historical figure that we really have just the vaguest 474 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,640 Speaker 1: smattering of information about. Yeah, well, and there's so many 475 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:20,520 Speaker 1: of the things that we in in theory know about 476 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:26,160 Speaker 1: her are like, Okay, are these three brothers? Are those 477 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,720 Speaker 1: three brothers her brothers and she mentioned them in her poetry? 478 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,320 Speaker 1: Or have those names been picked to stand for her 479 00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:36,000 Speaker 1: brothers because those are names that appeared in her poetry. 480 00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:38,560 Speaker 1: It's sort of a chicken and egg situation where like 481 00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:41,240 Speaker 1: we don't really know which then led to which, or 482 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:45,160 Speaker 1: they someone else's brother nothing to do with her at 483 00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,920 Speaker 1: all because it was a commission. Right, Was this poem 484 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:55,760 Speaker 1: written in a someone else's voice, not Sappho's personal expressions. Anyway, 485 00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:57,800 Speaker 1: I love her and I think she's fascinating, even though 486 00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:03,000 Speaker 1: I know literally tiny amount about any of it. Uh. 487 00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:06,200 Speaker 1: There you go. Do you have a listener mail? Uh? 488 00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:10,720 Speaker 1: Sort of. Um. We recently did an episode about Olga 489 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:13,920 Speaker 1: of Kiev, and when we started promoting that episode, we 490 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:16,520 Speaker 1: heard from a couple of listeners about the spelling that 491 00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:21,920 Speaker 1: we used for Kiev. Because we used the spelling ki 492 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:25,440 Speaker 1: e V, which is like the spelling you'll find it 493 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:29,040 Speaker 1: a lot of American English dictionaries and style guides and 494 00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:32,239 Speaker 1: a lot of news media used that spelling. It is 495 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:37,240 Speaker 1: not the preferred spelling in Ukraine, which is where the 496 00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:41,720 Speaker 1: city is actually located. And it's not just that that's 497 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:45,080 Speaker 1: not the spelling in Ukraine, it's that the government of 498 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:49,360 Speaker 1: Ukraine has literally asked all of the news organizations and 499 00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:53,320 Speaker 1: publications and just general people to please use a different 500 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:58,320 Speaker 1: spelling for the name. Um. I was absolutely ignorant of 501 00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:01,960 Speaker 1: this entire discussion, so I apologize for my oversight, and 502 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:05,440 Speaker 1: I just wanted to read the statement that the Ministry 503 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:08,480 Speaker 1: of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine put out about all of it, 504 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:13,680 Speaker 1: because I think it's sort of clearly sums up why 505 00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:17,680 Speaker 1: the spelling difference exists and why it matters um and 506 00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:22,280 Speaker 1: it says, in accordance with the tenth United Nations Conference 507 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:26,840 Speaker 1: on the Standardization of Geographical Names, we politely request all 508 00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:31,000 Speaker 1: countries and organizations to review and where necessary, amend their 509 00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:35,440 Speaker 1: usage of outdated Soviet era place names when referring to Ukraine. 510 00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:39,520 Speaker 1: Ukraine has been an independent sovereign nation for more than 511 00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:43,000 Speaker 1: twenty seven years, but the Soviet era versions of many 512 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:48,880 Speaker 1: geographic names stubbornly persist in international practice. The transliteration of 513 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,320 Speaker 1: the names of cities, regions, and rivers from the Cyrillic 514 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:56,440 Speaker 1: alphabet into Latin are often mistakenly based on the Russian 515 00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:00,440 Speaker 1: form of the name, not the Ukrainian. So this uh 516 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:03,160 Speaker 1: statement then goes on to list a lot of the 517 00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:06,480 Speaker 1: most commonly misspelled names. That one at the top of 518 00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:10,640 Speaker 1: the list is the Ukraine with a the which we 519 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:15,120 Speaker 1: have fortunately avoided using our own show. The second one 520 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:19,640 Speaker 1: after that is Kiv, which is spelled k y i V, 521 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:24,120 Speaker 1: not ki e V the way we spelled it. There's 522 00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:27,000 Speaker 1: a slight nuance to how these are pronounced, and it's 523 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:31,440 Speaker 1: as a speaker of neither Russian nor Ukrainian, I like 524 00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:35,920 Speaker 1: I can't really accurately replicate that slight difference. UH to 525 00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,640 Speaker 1: return to the statement. Under the Russian Empire and later 526 00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:44,480 Speaker 1: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic's USSR, rucification was actively 527 00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:49,280 Speaker 1: used as a tool to extinguish each constituent country's national identity, culture, 528 00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:52,120 Speaker 1: and the language and light of Russia's war of aggression 529 00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:56,000 Speaker 1: against Ukraine, including its illegal occupation of Crimea. We are 530 00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:59,920 Speaker 1: once again experiencing rucification as a tactic that attempts to 531 00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:04,440 Speaker 1: destabilize and delegitimize our country. You will appreciate, we hope, 532 00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:07,360 Speaker 1: how the use of Soviet era place names rooted in 533 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:10,720 Speaker 1: the Russian language is especially painful and unacceptable to the 534 00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:14,600 Speaker 1: people of Ukraine. To help avoid these mistakes, we refer 535 00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:17,960 Speaker 1: you to page twenty seven of the Resolution x slash 536 00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:22,760 Speaker 1: nine Romanization of Ukrainian Geographical Names adopted by the tenth 537 00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:26,600 Speaker 1: u N Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, which 538 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:31,560 Speaker 1: recommends the Romanization system in Ukraine as the international system 539 00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:36,200 Speaker 1: for the transliterations of Ukrainian geographical names. To better inform 540 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:39,800 Speaker 1: the international community about the correct forms of Ukrainian place 541 00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:42,480 Speaker 1: names and to avoid mistakes. We are launching the campaign 542 00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:47,400 Speaker 1: hashtag correct UA. Your support in helping to ensure that 543 00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:51,840 Speaker 1: the correct internationally agreed place names for Ukraine are adopted 544 00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:55,720 Speaker 1: in your organization is greatly appreciated, So thank you to 545 00:33:55,760 --> 00:33:58,200 Speaker 1: the folks who pointed out that oversight to us. I 546 00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:00,760 Speaker 1: apologize for it. It was a hut of sent me 547 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:06,200 Speaker 1: being ignorant um and not an attempt to wilfully ignore 548 00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:11,000 Speaker 1: the wishes of the nation of Ukraine um, and we 549 00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:14,319 Speaker 1: will uh be better about that going forward. I have 550 00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:18,840 Speaker 1: bookmarked the most commonly misspelled names for my future reference. 551 00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:21,080 Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us about this 552 00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:24,319 Speaker 1: or any other podcast history podcasts at how stuff Works 553 00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:26,560 Speaker 1: dot com and then we're all over social media at 554 00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:30,480 Speaker 1: miss in History. That's where you'll find our Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, 555 00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:33,279 Speaker 1: and Twitter. You can also come to our website, which 556 00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:35,600 Speaker 1: is missed in history dot com and find show notes 557 00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:37,359 Speaker 1: for all the episodes Holly and I have ever worked 558 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:39,879 Speaker 1: on together. Today's show notes include links to a lot 559 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:43,239 Speaker 1: of the poetry from Sappho that you can read online 560 00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:45,960 Speaker 1: for yourself if you would like. You can also find 561 00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:48,759 Speaker 1: a searchable archive of every episode ever, and you can 562 00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:51,959 Speaker 1: subscribe to our show on Apple podcast, the iHeart Radio app, 563 00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:59,440 Speaker 1: and anywhere else you get your podcasts. For more on 564 00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:02,240 Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, visit how staff works 565 00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:06,239 Speaker 1: dot com. Mmmm