The Sappho Companion - Softcover

Sappho

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312295103 ISBN 13: 9780312295103

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2002

Synopsis

Born around 630 BC on the Greek Island of Lesbos, Sappho is now regarded as the greatest lyrical poet of Greece. Her work survives only in fragments, yet her influence extends throughout Western literature, fuelled by the speculations and romances which have gathered around her name, her story, her sexuality. The Sappho Companion brings together many different kinds of work, ranging from blue-stocking appreciations to juicy fantasies. We see her image change, recreated in Ovid's poetry and Boccaccio's tales, in translations by Pope, Rossetti and Swinburne, Baudelaire, and H.D., in the modern versions of Eavan Boland, Carol Rumens, and Jeanette Winterson. Artists, too, have felt Sappho's power, and the, Companion contains a rich variety of illustrations: classical statues and pre-Raphaelite paintings, Roman mosaics, and Romantic pornography.

About this title

Review

The ways in which this sparkling, unexpected anthology will be classified in libraries and bookstores--lesbian studies; classical studies--will strike anyone who reads it as absurd. A sweeping look at the persistence of the Greek poet Sappho in the artistic and popular imagination, The Sappho Companion draws on everything from the Roman myths of Sappho to the eighteenth century rediscovery of Herculaneum, with its intriguing papyrus fragments, to Pat Califia's 1980 lesbian S/M book, Sapphistry: The Book of Lesbian Sexuality (out of print). The only book that compares to The Sappho Companion in its breadth and imaginative vigor is Charles Sprawson's lyrical book on swimming, Haunts of the Black Masseur: The Swimmer as Hero, in which the swan-diving Sappho makes an appearance. You don't need to know a thing about Sappho to relish this book, but for true enthusiasts, it makes a good companion volume for Yopie Prins's Victorian Sappho, Paige DuBois's Sappho is Burning, and Anne Carson's brilliant meditation, Eros: The Bittersweet. --Regina Marler

From the Inside Flap

A beautifully illustrated anthology of works inspired by Sappho combined with fragments of the poet?s own writing.

Born about 2,500 years ago on the island of Lesbos, Sappho is now regarded as the greatest lyrical poet of ancient Greece. Her work survives only in fragments, yet her influence extends throughout Western literature, fueled by the speculation and romances which have gathered around her name, her story and her sexuality. This collection demonstrates how Sappho?s image has changed through the ages ? in Ovid?s poetry, Boccaccio?s tales, in translations by Pope, Rossetti, Swinburne and Baudelaire, and in modern versions of Eavan Boland and Jeanette Winterson.

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0312295103
• ISBN 13: 9780312295103
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432
• Editor: Margaret Reynolds