Sappho and her influenceRobinson, David M. (David Moore)
History
Sappho and her influence
Robinson, David M. (David Moore)
Sappho -- Influence
In the seventh century after the founding of Naucratis, about 650 B.C.,
many Mytilenaeans migrated to Naucratis and engaged in trade in wine and
other products.[41] Among these was included, as Herodotus’ story shows,
Sappho’s brother Charaxus; the mention of his name furnishes a further
confirmation of the date we have assumed, and proves that Sappho lived at
least after 572 B.C., the year of the accession to the throne of Egypt of
Amasis, in whose reign Herodotus[42] says that Rhodopis flourished. This
would make Sappho’s age at the time about sixty and justify the epithet
of “old” which she applies to herself in the poem given in Edmonds 99.
Fragment 42 in Edmonds seems to say “age now causeth a thousand twisted
wrinkles to make their track along my face.”[43] Stobaeus[44] tells how
one evening over the wine Solon’s nephew, Execestides, sang to him a song
by Sappho, and Solon requested him to teach it to him that he might learn
it before he died. Now Solon was one of the seven to whom Pittacus also
belonged. He died about 559 B.C. at the age of eighty, and the incident
serves to indicate that Sappho’s poems were coming into vogue among the
young Athenians in Solon’s old age.
Sappho’s birthplace was Eresus,[45] the birthplace also of Aristotle’s
famous pupil Theophrastus. She early moved to Mytilene (Pl. 3), chief
city of Lesbus. Lesbus had been renowned for lovely ladies from Homer’s
day, when beauty contests were held there, as they have been down to the
present time. It had also been famous from early days for its sweet wine.
Many an ancient author speaks of this wholesome tipple, and to-day a
thirsty traveller is delighted to sit in a café on the quay and drink a
glass of the fine modern κρασὶ τῆς Μιτυλήνης.
Lesbus was so near to Lydia that it could not help absorbing some of the
Ionian and Lydian luxury. No one has better described the position of
Lesbus in Greek literature than Symonds:[46]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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