The name Sappho has two meanings today, the
world-famous poet from the Island of Lesbos in Greece, or the archetypical
lesbian heroine. Both meanings of the poet’s name are correct and important.
But the Lesbian side of Sappho has since the 19th century been so
prominent that Sapphic now stands for lesbian and the hitherto famous “Sapphic
meter” has been almost forgotten. The myth and the poet in flesh and blood have
been entangled. So let this introduction reveal the lyrical secrets of the poet
and unlock the words of one of the greatest poets in the history of the humans!
Table
of Contents
Saving Sappho’s Works for over 2,500 Years
Translating and Interpreting Sappho’s Poems
The Heritage of the Greek Gods and Homer
The Old
Greek Alphabet and its Pronunciation
List of Surviving Poems and Fragments
The Music to Sappho by H.W. Gade
Composers / Dramatists using Sappho’s Work
and Life
Impertinent
Old Greek Comedies
General Timeline of Ancient Greece
History of the Old Greek Language
Unification
of the Greek Dialects into Attic and Koine
Homosexuality in the Antiquity and Now
Dictionaries, Grammars and Fonts
What does it take to perform Lesbos?
Understanding Sappho and her environment on the
small, but wealthy Greek island Lesbos (Lesvos) is not very easy for a modern
reader. Her ingenious contribution to the subjects of poems – the
autobiographical theme – is so revolutionary for its time that it is hard to
comprehend even today. The freedom and freshness of her work has survived 2,600
years and countless generations of poets writing formal, impersonal hymns,
eposes and didactic poems. Until the birth of modern poetry around 1860 under
the leadership of Charles Baudelaire, nobody dared write personal and
straightforward poetry based on their own life – Sappho’s strongly emotional
poems were the first and only since the old ages shortly after Homer at the
time of the Old Testament and Buddha. She was there at the birth of Civilized
Mankind around 600 B.C. And she is still with us in 2004.
From the
advent of complex languages about 40,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens has probably
been composing simple songs with words in rhythmic patterns recited with 2
undulating notes, as the old tribes on New Guinea still do today. Poetry has
followed the humans since their earliest days, closely connected to the
aspiring religions based on the animated nature and the sun.
After the invention of the alphabet, the
poems were written down. The story of Gilgamesh and the works of the mythical
poet Homer were among the first masterpieces in the newborn written literature.
Sappho grew up a few centuries after Homer. For her, Homer was the classic standard
for all poets and she often quotes and plays around with Homeric phrases like
“the black earth” and “the rosy-fingered dawn”. But her works represent a
totally new conception of poetry; subjective, personal writing.
How Sappho came about to invent the bold new attitude to writing poetry, we cannot know, but she was surely inspired by the general emotionality of her Aeolian compatriots (see the section on Lesbos). The period about 600-500 years B.C. was one of the most important in the history of the humans. Several new religions and spiritual movements were born almost at the same time including the Jewry, Buddhism and the teachings of Socrates and Plato. The old nomad tribes had long ago settled in rich towns like Babylon, Mycenae and Athens. The shift into a civilized culture with a written history, splendid temples, highly skilled art, poetry and music was almost done. And of course philosophers and politicians in our sense of the word added to the picture of a new, bright world.
Sappho was born into a rich family on Lesbos. She must have received the best possible education in her hometown Mytilene. She played the lyre, wrote songs and worked with design and musical instruments and as a teacher, a universal artist like Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo. The invasions and settlement of the Greek tribes were over, and Sappho lived on the main island of the Aeolian tribe. She was ready to fulfil the role of a national Aeolian poet, writing hymns, eposes and didactic poems. She did write in the traditional genres but she also did something very strange – she wrote about herself.
To a modern reader, lines like:
Face me, my sister
And unveil your eyes so vigorous and graceful
or
I have a daughter, beautiful as golden flowers
My Cleis, love embodied, worshipped child, child of wonders,
Richer, even more than all Lydian splendours or Lesbos dearest
sound like normal romantic poetry. But wait a minute – the Romantic Movement was in the beginning of the 19th century, right? And yes, Sappho was the first poet to write such emotional words to her own daughter or such an intimate declaration of love. This is new, this is a revolution and Sappho of Lesbos changed poetry forever through this radical step, even if her successors had to wait for 2,600 years before they realized that poetry had changed. It was a long wait, but now, ladies and gentlemen, we all understand and speak the new language invented by a dark-skinned female genius from Lesbos.
The traditional duty of a poet until a hundred years ago was primarily religious hymns or epic stories of the Nation’s past glory. Sappho did write both kinds of poems, but due to the burning of her works around year 1000, most of her epic poems and hymns were destroyed. Her most famous work: “Hymn to Aphrodite” though, survived. But even this hymn turns out to be a love poem or invocation of Sappho’s reluctant female lover.
There have been rumours of Sappho being a priest in the temple of Aphrodite, but in spite of the importance of this Goddess on Lesbos, this might be a just good story like the one telling about Sappho taking her own life by jumping from the Leucate rock (check the links list for further details of this silly myth).
Sappho is especially known for her many wedding hymns. Here is a famous example:
Raise
the roof beams, raise them high
Hymenaeus!
Faster carpenters, he’s coming!
Hymenaeus!
Here comes the bridegroom strong as Ares
Hymenaeus!
Taller and stronger than any man
Hymenaeus!
Most of Sappho’s work was destroyed during the Christian burning of her books around 1000 after Christ. The remaining works consist of 4-6 longer poems and about 200 small fragments with only 1-4 lines, often with missing words and lines. But even in severely fragmented form, Sappho’s genius is evident:
Evening star, gather now the creatures of
the glittering morning and call
the Sheep
from the mead, goats from the mountain and the child to stay with its mother
Lighten
my deep sorrow
Lift it on dark winds, high up in the heavens
Relieve my misery
Call me now
golden sandal dawn
They are all fragments, but seems like perfectly finished poems from a great master.
In the antiquity, Sappho was hailed as the supreme master of erotic poetry. Her songs are never explicit, but nonetheless full of open physical desire and bodily delight in her girlfriends' arms, neck and eyes. She draws the most charming – sometimes teasing – portraits of her lovers. Expressions like "Larger than any man" proves that she had a sense of male beauty, too.
The present focus on soft and hard porno has partly blinded our senses. The light, tender and warm sensuality of Sappho make nowadays "erotic" art look pale and dead in comparison.
Sappho was
born in Eresus on the prosperous island of Lesbos about 622 B.C. and died
around 572 B.C. The two years are qualified guesswork based on various known
persons’ date of birth or death and the years of the Old Greek Olympic games.
According to Herodotus, Sappho was the
daughter of Scamandronymus, her father and Kleïs, her mother. Sappho had two
brothers, Charaxus and Larichus. Charaxus became a merchant sailing the
excellent Lesbian wine to Egypt. Sappho mentions Charaxus’ wife, Doricha, in
fragment no. 85.
Sappho spent most of her life in the capital of Lesbos Mytilene, and was married to the merchant, Cercôlas. They had the daughter Cleïs named after her grandma, Kleïs.
As to Sappho’s looks, she was small of size and dark-skinned. Her name Sappho, originally “Psappho”, is not a Greek word according to Professor W. Harris and her family is may be of Hittite origin. She has described herself in a poem as “I am not one of a malignant nature, but have a quiet temper”. Quite a few of her other poems blatantly contradicts her moderate view of her own temper, especially the one about Andromeda who stole Atthis from her.
During the well-meaning tyranny of Pittacus, Sappho and her family had to flee to Syracuse in Sicily. They stayed on Sicily for 7 years.
When she returned to Lesbos, she became the leader of a school for young girls, preparing them for later marriage, similar to many girls’ schools in the 19th century. The women of Lesbos lived a privileged life compared to the enslaved wives of the Ionian and the Spartans. Sappho was not the only female poet on Lesbos, but she was regarded the best of all. She was a friend of the poet Alcaeus, sometimes described as her spiritual twin. Alcaeus was the second best known Lesbian poet, a professional soldier with a love of adventures, wine and young boys.
The girls’ school had several students from all over Greece. They were taught poetry, music and dancing. Besides the arts, they have probably been taught philosophy and Greek history based on Homer. Among her best-known students are Erinna of Telos and Damophyla of Pamphylia.
She had an intimate relationship to a number of her students, most prominently Atthis, Anactoria, Telesippa and Megara. The love affair with Anactoria has been compared to Socrates’ legendary affair with Alcibiades.
See also the section on “Homosexuality” in Ancient Greece.
Saving Sappho’s Works for over 2,600 Years
Some
thoughtlessly proclaim the Muses nine;
A tenth is Lesbian Sappho, maid divine.
Plato, translation Lord
Neaves.
But
her sweet words of wisdom ne'er will die.
Tullius Laurea, translation Lord
Neaves.
For over 1,500 years, Sappho’s poems were a part
of the Greek and Roman literary canon along with Homer, Euripides and the other
famous writers of the past. The nine volumes of poems were read by all students
and admired for their beauty and emotional strength. A person who had not read
Sappho was considered a cultural ignorant.
Then
came the dark ages. 1000 years after Christ, the fundamentalist Byzantine
church did not like women. They did not like Aphrodite and the old Greek gods.
And they certainly did not like homosexual love poems. As a consequence, they
burned all Sappho’s books along with a long row of other famous Greek and Roman
writers’ works. She simply disappeared from the face of the black earth.
After 500 years of darkness, the few remains of
her work were rediscovered by the renaissance after the knowledge of old Greek
had returned to the West from the Arabs. The “modern” movement received Sappho
as a reborn Goddess and she returned to her former glory. Today, she is held as
one of the finest poets ever in the rank of Shakespeare and Homer. She is still
alive in the hearts of all true lovers of poetry.
During the ancient days, her admirers were countless. She was called the Tenth Muse by Plato (so the film media must be the Eleventh Muse after Sappho J) and she was always mentioned as the Poetess (Homer was called the Poet). She was often called the child of Aphrodite or the companion of Apollo.
The word beautiful is frequently used to describe her language. “She was the pride of the lovely-haired Lesbians”, a Greek author wrote. The famous Greek poet Anacreon called her “sweet-voiced”. The poetess Nossis named Sappho “the flower of the Graces”.
Our beautiful Poetess had her portrait on the Lesbian coins, statues of her were raised in Greece and Rome, and her work and reputation seemed to last for ever. Then came the Byzantine burning of her works.
Two popes, Gregory Nazianzen and Gregory VII were responsible for the burning of Sappho’s works. The first burning took place in 380 after Christ and the final doom came in 1073. The emperor of Byzans also had a say in 1073. After the second burning, the flames managed to silence the beautiful voice of Sappho for 500 years.
Dislike of women was part of early Christianity established by St. Paul, and the fundamentalist movement fed the people with hate of the pagan gods and the homosexual ways of the Hellenistic culture. Soon after the burnings, in 1095, the first crusade was a reality and the Christian and Arab cultures drowned in blood.
When the few surviving poems were found in the 16th century, they were a sensation, and composers immediately began writing music to the fantastic words. In the 17th and 18th century, the love of Sappho’s poem was an integral part of the academic tradition. The romantic movement in England was a good example of the great influence of Sappho’s poetry.
In the middle of the 19th century, Baudelaire included Sappho in his “Flowers of Evil”. The symbolist painters and the decadent movement worshiped her and made her the lesbian icon she is today. But the words were not forgotten – the sweet voice of Sappho.
The ancient portraits of Sappho included a wonderful bronze statue made
by the Greek sculptor Silanion and a statue in Byzantium as late as 500 years
after Christ.
Her portrait can be found on
several Greek vases, sometimes together with her friend, the poet Alcaeus. The
most famous portrait though was found as part of a wall painting in Pompeii.
Pictures from the Hellenistic period a few hundred years after Sappho’s dead. See the fine web collection.
See a collection of pre-Raphaelite
paintings at ArtMagic.
Translating and Interpreting Sappho’s Poems
In order to translate an English poem into for
example Danish, you will have to speak fluently Danish and English. Besides
being fluent in both languages, you also need to understand the original poem
on all levels; the type of language (formal/informal The Queen's English or
dialect etc.), all the idiomatic expressions and the social meaning in the
chosen type of language, the historical background, the expected reader type
(intellectuals/casual readers) and many more details. And one has to keep the
original poem's sound, rhymes, alliterations and number of syllables.
All in
all; a very demanding task, that often lead to translations in "free
verses", i.e. the translator gets rid of the irritating meters and rhymes,
or the translator simply rewrites the original translation completely,
replacing every word, action and idea of the poem with new interesting
inventions by the translator. This is often seen with famous poets who are
forced to translate poems by other poets for the sake of money (no names
mentioned).
In
order to translate a very old poem one is forced to use one's imagination more
and more, the older the original work is. When you get close to Homer and
Gilgamesh, the translation will be a complete guesswork with no references and
long time forgotten hidden meanings. Add an odd Old Greek dialect, Aeolian, and
you are ready to translate Sappho!
Classic poetry uses a tool called meters. A meter is a sort of template or basic rhythm for a poem. The best-known meters are:
The hexameter
– u u – u u – u
u – u u – u u – –
Carefully stick to
the rhythms of Homer and write like a Greek
H.W. Gade, impromptu December 2004
The blank verse
– u – u – u
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
William Shakespeare, from sonnet no. 43,
blank verse with ABAB rhymes
In our time, meters use accentuated and not accentuated syllables. This was not the case in Greek/Roman poetry. The meters were based on the duration of a syllable, i.e. the syllable which in our time would be accentuated, had a fixed (longer) duration in Greek and Latin. Besides the duration, the Greek poems were equipped with accents serving various purposes, dividing the words, changes in pitch etc.
Read more about the important meters at William Harris on Greek Meters and Sappho The Greek Poems where you find Professor W. Harris' excellent articles on general Greek poetry and Sappho.
Using the meters as Sappho did is impossible today, but keeping the basic rhythmical structure of the meters is still important. This sounds easy, but the differences between the long Greek rows of syllables (due to the case system) compared to the shorter English words or the longer Danish words make the task of writing a metrically correct translation hard work.
While translating Sappho, I wrote my words over the original syllables (see the Latin transcriptions in the libretto). This – partly – ensured that the original meter was kept in English. The Danish translation, however, had to be longer to make sense.
The Sapphic Meter
Sappho
used a classic meter, the "Sapphic Meter", in many of her poems,
although she probably did not invent the meter herself. It is build on the
following template:
- u – – u u – u – –
- u – – u u – u – –
- u – – u u – u – –
– u u – u – –
panchu eumares suneton poésai
panti tou`t , a gar polu perskethoisa
kallos anthrópón Elena ton andra
ton panariston
Sappho, around 600 B.C. excerpt from “Some
says the Horsemen”, Latin transcription © William Harris reproduced with
permission
The Sapphic meter was one of the most popular
meters in ancient Greek, Roman and older English poetry (16th to 19th
century).
Besides the obvious influence of Homer, Sappho had to stick to a number of traditional forms. First of all, there was a distinction between personal solo songs (monodic songs or melê) and choir songs with for example mythological contents. Hymns or dithyrambs for poetry competitions, epigrams and couplets were other classic forms. Sappho apparently used them all, but most of the texts vanished in the flames of 1073.
The local traditions of Lesbos included various popular folk songs, a mill song, a spinning song, a wine pressing song. All work songs like the ones we used to have on ships and in the fields. From these songs, the Lesbian tradition of 4 line verses was born, the Sapphic meter.
The Greek dialects, for example Dorian, Ionian, Aeolian and Archaic were the dialects of the tribes conquering various parts of Greece through the hundreds of years of invasions from the north. The old languages (Semitic?) were replaced with the Indo-European Greek, which is maybe related to the Celtic group of languages. A few hundred years after Sappho, the Greek languages were collected in the Attic language of Athens, now the official "Old Greek". At the time of Sappho, the differences between the tribes were marked by traditions, political systems and the dialect. The Aeolian people lived in Northern Greece close to the Turkish Coast, and Lesbos was the centre of the Aeolians.
Aeolian differs from Attic in many ways. The pronunciation is remarkably different from the other Greek dialects, and the vocabulary has a clear "otherness" from Attic. Translating Aeolian is a trial if one is taught Attic Greek like I am. My Greek dictionary, which has helped me for over 30 years had but a few of the words and I am in deep debt to the work of professor W. Harris who has translated and interpreted the strange words of the Aeolians in his books and articles on Sappho.
The Aeolian dialect of Sappho was later copied methodically by later Greek poets to create the classic "Sapphic" feeling of the old poetess. This is one of the main reasons that we have so many surviving fragments by Sappho – they were used as models for later generations of poets for over 1,500 years.
The poems of Sappho are based on sounds and rhythms, meters. The meters are relatively easy to transfer from Aeolian into for example English. But the sounds of the words, which are the most prominent feature of Sappho's genius – they are almost impossible to translate!
The "sweet" voice of Sappho is the soft or hard sounds of the syllables and words pronounced in Aeolian. No poet can ever reach the original tone of her lyrics in a barbaric tongue such as Danish with its guttural sounds or English with the broad diphthongs and soft ds and rs.
The poems should actually never be translated if we want to keep the poetic brilliance of Sappho's works. As this is not possible due to the sadly few Old Greek teachers, we will have to do with translations. It is my hope, that my choir work "Lesbos” will sometimes be performed in the original language, thus the Latin transcriptions. Each language has its own sweetness, but none as sweet as the sweet voice of the Lesbian poet Sappho, 2,600 years ago in the town of Mytilene in the Aegean Sea.
Lesbos was colonized by the Aeolians about 1,200 years B.C. The relations to Athens and other Greek cities could be tense from time to time, especially during Sappho's lifetime. Until Greece was officially made a roman province (146 B.C.), the island was ruled by local tyrants (military dictators) with only a few periods of democracy.
During the rule of the tyrant and wise man Pittacus, Sappho and her family had to flee to Sicily, so she knew political chaos very well. Through the reading of Homer, she had a thorough knowledge of Greek history. She sometimes referred to Homer in her poems, most prominently in "Some say the horsemen". The traditions are always close at hand in Sappho's work including sagas and traditions we will never know about, as they were forgotten thousands of years ago.
To translate Sappho (and Alcaeus etc.) takes not only knowledge of obvious historical facts but also the ability of qualified guessing, when the facts run dry.
So are we translators only dream-weavers?
The number of Sappho translations is growing year by year. Nobody knows
the exact number but there are thousands of books and websites with Sappho
poems in English and other languages. The first reason for all the many
translations is a great love of Sappho and the desire to make her words
accessible to non-Greek speakers. It also helps the creative souls that the
remains of her work is so limited that complete translations are not unusual,
although the majority of my colleagues choose to pick only a few favourite
pomes, like I did myself.
A complete list of translators
is impossible to make, as it would be incomplete the following month. In its
place, I will name a few national translators in Europe and the US. The year after
the name is normally the publishing year of a central translation. A few
important poets inspired by Sappho are included, for example Charles
Baudelaire.
The English tradition of reading Sappho is the longest in modern time. Schoolboys have been taught Greek since the 17th century and the explosive blend of young sensible men with hot blood and a solid knowledge of Greek and Sappho inevitably led to a number of fine translations into English. For centuries, English poetry had a Sapphic tone. Besides the translations, there was a frequent use of Sapphic themes among English poets like Swinburne, Keats and Byron.
In the late 19th century, the Victorian poets mass-produced romantic translations farther and farther from the originals.
Ambrose
Philips, 1711
Herbert,
1713
Alexander
Pope, 1743
John
Herman Merivale, 1833
F. T. Palgrave, 1854
Edwin Arnold, 1869
T.
W. Higgenson, 1871
J. Addington Symonds, 1893
Bliss
Carman, 1910
An English example: A fine translation of “He seems like the immortal gods” by Ambrose Philips from the early 1700-ies:
Blest
as the immortal gods is he,
The
youth who fondly sits by thee,
And
hears and sees thee all the while
Softly
speak and sweetly smile.
'Twas
this deprived my soul of rest,
And
raised such tumults in my breast;
For
while I gazed, in transport tost,
My
breath was gone, my voice was lost:
My
bosom glowed; the subtle flame
Ran
quick through all my vital frame;
O'er
my dim eyes a darkness hung;
My
ears with hollow murmurs rung.
In
dewy damps my limbs were chilled;
My
blood with gentle horror thrilled;
My
feeble pulse forgot to play;
I
fainted, sank, and died away.
To come closer to the real Sappho, we have turn to American translators, who have been some of the most prolific Sappho translators in the 20th century. Mary Barnard and Anne Carson are good examples of modern translations of Sappho’s complicated lyrics.
Walter
Peterson, 1918
Edwin
Marion Cox, 1925
Sylvia
Plath, 1960
Elizabeth
Vandiver, 1977
Karen
Friesen, 1982
Mary
Barnard, 1986
Jim
Powell, 1993
Julia
Dubnoff, 1997
William
Harris, 1999
Anne
Carson, 2002
Missing a Translator from Your Country?
Please send an e-mail or letter, if I have missed
your favourite translator.
I especially miss old Italian and modern French translators.
Giacomo
Leopardi, 1822
Manara
Valgimigli, 1900
Salvatore
Quasimodo, 1950
Francesco
Sisti, 1990
A. Aloni, 1997
Du
Four de la Crespeliere, 1670
Anne
Le Fevre Dacier, 1681
Charles
Baudelaire, 1856
Johann
Nikolaus Götz, 1760
Anna Louisa Karsch, 1764
Johann Gottfried Herder
Klaus
Thomamhuller, 1974
Joachim
Schickel, 1978
Kurt
Steinmann, 1998
Thøger
Larsen, 1930
H.W. Gade, 2004
The Heritage of the Greek Gods and Homer
The love goddess Aphrodite and the father god Zeus were the protectors of Lesbos. Sappho had a lifelong passion for worshipping Aphrodite and the war god Ares. There was an important Aphrodite temple on Lesbos, where the most famous of Sappho’s poems takes place the “Hymn to Aphrodite”. The mythic poet Orpheus was worshipped on Lesbos, too.
The
Ruins of the Aphrodite Temple on Lesbos
Sappho wrote a famous “Hymn to Ares”, which vanished in the flames 900 years ago. The love goddess and the war god were always with her in her poems. Whether she believed literarily in the gods or saw them as eternal symbols, we cannot decipher by the modern standards. But she was most like a very religious person, who seriously believed in the bond between the gods in the blue misty mountains of Lesbos and their humanity and affection for the mortal people inhabiting the beautiful island.
Opposite the poets of the later Hellenistic period, Sappho seldom wrote about satyrs, maenads and other half gods and creatures. She concentrated on Aphrodite and her closest family plus a few immortals and holy towns. Here is a list of deities mentioned in her poems.
Aphrodite: The Love Goddess. Her flowers / fruits are roses, apples, myrtle and myrrh, often mentioned in Sappho’s poems. She is lawfully wed to the ugly smith of the gods, Hephaestus, but prefers the very manly war god Ares (when Hephaestus is away, that is). Her lovers are plenty, including Adonis, who is dying in one of Sappho’s hymns. Eros, the son of Aphrodite, is evoked in the haunting “Eros has shaken my soul”.
The 9 Muses, the 3 graces: As sisters in poetry, singing and dancing, the graces and muses were bound to be associated with Sappho. She is even called “the flower of the Graces”.
The following gods and mortals are involved in a number of Sappho’s poems:
Niobe, a mortal woman who claimed that she was a better mother than Leto, mother of Artemis (the hunter goddess) and Apollo (the god of reason and music). Leda, Zeus’ female lover (yes, he liked young boys, too). Andromeda, a Trojan princess, who ended as a heavenly constellation (Sappho loved the stars, she would have been an astronomer today).
The
Apollo Temple on Lesbos
A couple of scary monsters and unknown gods: Gello, a monster who ate little children on Lesbos and Gorgo, a monster woman with snakes as hair and a killer look. The Hero of Gyara – the name suggests Indian / Arian roots. Cythera, one of Aphrodite’s islands. Panormos, name of a village near Akhaia and Paphos, town on the island Cyprus
The controversial question about Homer being a real person or a group of poets constructing and refining the tales of the Iliad and the Odyssey is not solved yet and maybe never will, but these two archetypical Greek tales are the cornerstones of Greek culture. The Greek people of the Homeric tales were Mycenaean and Arcadian, not Dorian and Ionian, but the people of Athens and Sparta, later to dominate Greece, took the tale of the besiege of Troy as the first and most important Greek turning point in history. They defined the Homeric epic poems as their cultural heritage.
The language of Homer was mainly Ionian, but Sappho knew Homer by heart and used the phrases “the black earth”, “the rosy-fingered dawn” etc. in her poems as marks of the innermost feeling of being a Greek, despite the never stopping wars between the small cities always in danger of being consumed by their big neighbours the Persians and the Romans.
The spirit of Homer’s eposes is a heroic spirit not unlike the later Vikings and knights. Courage, virtue and fame are the key elements of being a potential hero.
Sappho’s mild, loving portrait of her girlfriend Anactoria, who isn’t there, in “Some say the Horsemen” is in strong contrast to the barbaric but heroic battles of the Mycenean era, 800 years earlier. The young civilization defining itself on the basis of a cruel fairytale from times gone by.
You cannot
learn Old Greek by reading this website. But you can get a touch of really old
Greek by learning the Greek letters and how to pronounce them. This is not a
difficult task. And there are – surprise, surprise – many websites with
recorded examples of spoken old Greek (see the Links list).
Learning
Old Greek, however, is a wonderful thing, which gives you an invaluable insight
in a distant civilisation still alive in our modern languages and cultures.
To be honest, fairly difficult compared to simple languages like English, French or German. The old Greeks had lots of cases, many irregular nightmarish verbs and some strange, archaic verb forms from the illiterate times, where only presence and future verbs existed, before the invention of writing.
New Greek is much easier than Old Greek, but unfortunately, Sappho and Homer wrote in Aeolian and Ionian, not Modern Greek. So if you want to meet the poets of the past online, you have to learn it the hard way: Join an Old Greek evening course now! Expect 2-3 years to learn basic Old Greek.
The Old Greek Alphabet and its Pronunciation
As you will soon find out, the Greek alphabet is almost exactly the same as your national, Latin alphabet. This is obvious, as the Greek alphabet is the mother of all Western and Eastern alphabets. Her mother in turn, the Phoenician alphabet, was the grandmother of many other alphabets like the Hebrew, the Arab, the runes and the Thai alphabets.
|
Letters |
Pronounciation |
|||
|
Letter |
Name |
Old |
Classical |
Modern |
|
Α α |
Alpha |
[a] |
[a] |
|
|
Β β |
Beta |
[b] |
[v] |
|
|
Γ γ |
Gamma |
[g] |
[j] [e] [i] [G] |
|
|
Δ δ |
Delta |
[d] |
[D] |
|
|
Ε ε |
Epsilon |
[e] |
[e] |
|
|
Ζ ζ |
Zeta |
[z:] |
[z] |
|
|
Η η |
Eta |
[E:] [h] |
[E:] |
[i] |
|
Θ θ |
Theta |
[th] |
[T] |
[T] |
|
Ι ι |
Iota |
[i] |
[i] [j] |
|
|
Κ κ |
Kappa |
[k] |
[k] |
|
|
Λ λ |
Lambda |
[l] |
[l] |
|
|
Μ μ |
Mu |
[m] |
[m] |
|
|
Ν ν |
Nu |
[n] |
[n] |
|
|
Ξ ξ |
Xi |
[ks] |
[ks] |
|
|
Ο ο |
Omicron |
[o] |
[o] |
|
|
Π π |
Pi |
[p] |
[p] |
|
|
Ρ ρ |
Rho |
[r] |
[r] |
|
|
Σ σ |
Sigma |
[s] |
[s] |
|
|
ς |
Sigma (final) |
|||
|
Τα τ |
Tau |
[t] |
[t] |
|
|
Υ υ |
Upsilon |
[u] |
[y:] |
[i] |
|
Φ φ |
Phi |
[p_h] |
[f] |
[f] |
|
Χ χ |
Chi |
[k_h] [ks] |
[C] |
[C] |
|
Ψ ψ |
Psi |
[ps] |
[ps] |
|
|
Ω ω |
Omega |
[O:] |
[o] |
|
|
Combined Letters |
Pronounciation |
|||
|
Letter |
Name |
Old |
Classical |
Modern |
|
αι |
[aI] |
[E] |
||
|
ει |
[eI] [e:] |
[eI] |
[i] |
|
|
οι |
[oI] |
[i] |
||
|
υι |
[yI] |
[i] |
||
|
ωι |
[OI] |
[O] |
||
|
αυ |
[aU] |
[av] [af] |
||
|
ευ |
[eU] |
[ev] [ef] |
||
|
ηυ |
[E:U] |
[iv] [if] |
||
|
ου |
[oU] [o:] |
[u:] |
[u] |
|
|
γγ |
[Ng] |
[NG] |
||
|
γκ |
[Nk] |
[Nk] |
||
|
γξ |
[Nks] |
[Nks] |
||
|
γχ |
[Nx] |
[NC] |
||
|
μπ |
- |
- |
[b] [mb] |
|
|
ντ |
- |
- |
[d] [nd] |
|
List of Surviving Poems and Fragments
The
9 volumes of poems by Sappho included hymns, wedding songs and other songs in
various forms. The books (rolls) were published 300 years after her death in
the legendary library of Alexandria in Egypt. The books were all burned in 1073
after Christ.
Sappho wrote many popular wedding songs of which only “Raise the roof beams, raise them high” survived as a whole poem. She was also famous for her hymns, especially “Hymn to Aphrodite”, which is still with us. Another famous hymn of hers, “Hymn to Ares”, has vanished.
The Roman poets Catulus and Horace used the meters of Sappho, and some of their poems may be actual translations of the – now lost – originals.
Titles as translated by Edwin Marion Cox, bold titles are partly complete poems. Titles marked with red are included in this Choir Work “Lesbos”.
Not
Included in Cox’s Book of Translations:
I Really Wish I were dead
From Crete to this Holy Temple
Lady
with the Crystal Voice
Cox’s List
1 Hymn to Aphrodite
2 That one seems to me the equal of the gods...
3 Some say that the fairest thing upon the dark
earth is a host of horsemen...
4
The stars about the full moon...
5 And by
the cool stream the breeze murmurs...
6 Come,
goddess of Cyprus...
7 If thee,
Cyprus or Paphos or Panormos...
8 But for
thee I will bring to the altar...
9 May I win
this prize...
10 Who made
me gifts...
11 This
will I now sing...
12
For thee to whom I do good...
13 But that
which one desires I
14
To you, fair maidens...
15 And this
I feel myself.
16 But the
spirit within them turned chill...
17
From my distress...
18
Just now the golden-sandalled Dawn
19 A
broidered strap...
20 Shot
with innumerable hues.
21 Thou
forgettest me.
22 Or
lovest another...
23 You are
nought to me.
24 I yearn
and I seek.
25
When anger spreads...
26 Hadst
thou wished for things good or noble...
27
Face me, my dear one
28 And
golden pulse grew along the shores.
29 Lato and
Niobe were most dear friends.
30
I think men will remember us even hereafter.
31 I loved
thee Atthis...
32 To me
thou didst seem a small and ungraceful child.
33 Foolish
woman...
34
I know not what to do...
35
With my two arms...
36 So, like
a child after its mother, I flutter.
37 The
messager of spring, the sweet voiced nighingale.
38 Now
Love, the ineluctable...
39 But to
thee, Athis...
40
Now Eros shakes my soul...
41 When all
night long sleep holds them.
42 Come, O divine
shell
43 And
delicately woven garlands round tender neck.
44 More
fond of children than Gello.
45 Very
weary of Gorgo.
46 But upon
a soft cushion I dispose my limbs
47 And
there the bowl of ambrosia was mixed
48
The moon has set...
49 The moon
rose full...
50 Thus
sometimes, the Cretan women, tender footed...
51 Then
lightly, in an enfolding garment I sprang.
52 They say
that Leda...
53 And
dark-eyed Sleep, child of Night.
54 The
handmaiden of Aphrodite, shining like gold.
55
Andromeda has a fair reward.
56 Sappho,
why [celebrate or worship] most happy Aphrodite?
57 Come now
gentle Graces, and fair-haired Muses.
58 A
sweet-voiced maiden.
59
Gentle Adonis is dying, O Cythera, what shall we do?
60 O for
Adonis.
61 Coming
from heaven...
62 Come
rosy-armed Graces, virgin daughters of Zeus.
63 But Ares
said he would forcibly drag Hephaestus.
64
Innumerable drinking cups thou drainest.
65 But thou
shalt ever lie dead...
66 No
maiden, I think, more wise than thou...
67 What
rustic girl bewitches thee...
68 Hero of
Gyara, that swift runner, I taught.
69 I am not
of a malign nature...
70 Then
sweet maidens wove garlands.
71 Thou and
my servant, Eros.
72 For if
thou lovest us...
73 More
shapely is Mnasidica, than gentle Gyrinno.
74 One more
scornful than thee, O Eranna, I have never found.
75 Do thou,
O Dica, set garlands upon thy lovely hair...
76 I love
refinement...
77 And down
I set the cushion.
78 Wealth
without thee...
79 And thou
thyself, Calliope.
80 Sleep
thou, in the bosom of thy sweetheart.
81 Hither
now, ye Muses...
82
I have a fair daughter...
83 From all
joy to me...
84 In my
dream, I spoke to the Cyprian goddess.
85 Why
lovely swallow...
86 She
wrapped herself well in gossamer garments.
87 My sweet
mother! Fair Aphrodite's spell...
88
Raise high the roof beams, Workmen!
89 Towering
like the singer of Lesbos among men of other lands.
90
As the sweet apple blushes on the end of the bough...
91 O'er the
hills the heedless shepherd,...
92
Hail, gentle Evening, that bringst back...
93 Ever
shall I be a maid.
94 We will
give, says the father.
95 To the
door-keeper, feet seven fathoms long...
96 Happy
bridegroom!...
97 And a
sweet expression spreads over her fair face.
98 He who
is fair to look upon is good...
99 Do I
still long for maidenhood?
100 The
bride comes rejoicing...
101 To what
may I liken thee, dear bridegroom?...
102 Hail
bride...
103 For,
like her, O bridegroom, there was no other maiden.
104
Maidenhood, maidenhood, whither art thou gone from me?...
105 To
himself he seems...
106 Much
whiter than an egg
107
Neither honey nor bee for me.
108 Stir
not the pebbles.
109 Thou
burnest us.
110 A
napkin dripping.
111 Him she
called her son.
112
Maidens, although I am dumb, yet thus I speak...
113 This is
the dust of Timas...
114 A most
tender maiden gathering flowers.
115
Than the lyre, far sweeter in tone, than gold, more golden.
116
fragment fiction weaving
117 the
brightness...not destroying the sight
118 With
rosy cheeks...
119 Pausanias on
Sappho
120 Himerius on
Sappho
121
Persuasion
122
Athenaeus on Sappho
Later
Collections have more fragments!
The Secret Music of Sappho
Until
the end of the Middle Age, most poets were also composers and singers. The
Minne singers in Germany are the most illustrious examples, but Greece has
famous poets too, who wrote their own music. The greatest of them all was
Sappho.
Sadly did we not only loose most of Sappho's
words during the infamous burnings of her works, we will never be able to hear
her music. Before the advent of modern musical notation in the 14th century,
only a scarce number of songs has been found and reconstructed. The Greeks had
a sort of notes but they are inexact and incomplete. The whole body of Ancient
music from Greece, Rome, Persia and many other old countries known for their
music, has vanished into the dark, as the music was not written down.
What we do know, however, are the scales,
the Greek music theory and the instruments. Sappho was famous in the antiquity
for two major inventions, which are still the basis of modern rock, funk and
blues: The Mixolydian scale and the (harp/guitar) plectrum.
Sappho’s music would most likely sound as Arab music to our modern ears, with many microtones and embellishments. There would be a static flow of small melodic movements and no leaps higher than, say, a major third. The rhythms would be very free and often based on “odd” meters like five and seven, just like the Greek or Arab music of today.
We shouldn’t imagine a rock singer with a crowd of fans listening to her new hit. Rather a poetess with her highly educated audience waiting for – and expecting – the finest poetry, formally and emotionally, ever made. There must have been a very intense atmosphere, shifting between personal interpretations by Sappho and choir songs, the audience all ears. The words and the melodic threads, there amidst the intelligent and rich girls of Sappho’s Elysium on earth, her school.
Listen to a completely new (2004) reconstruction of Ancient
Greek Music
Besides being a revolutionary poet and headmaster of a girls’ school, Sappho introduced a number of new instruments in Greece. She must have heard the instruments on Sicily or in Africa during her seven years stay while being exiled from Mitylene, or on travels to the kingdom of Lydia on the other side of the coast of Lesbos.
The new instruments were the barbitos, a lyre with 8 strings on a long neck thus having a deep tone, the Magadis, a harp with 20 strings (2 octaves) and the Kithara with 4-7 strings and a large sound box. Sappho (and Alcaeus) played both with the fingers and the plectrum, which is said to have been invented by Sappho. I have one in my pocket right now – it might be 2,600 years old, hail, hail, rock’n’roll!
The plectrum is a very important tool for any guitar player today, but the Mixolydian scale is even more important. This familiar scale is maybe invented by Sappho according to some ancient writers. The Mixolydian scale is known to all listeners of rock and pop even if most of the readers may never have heard of its name. It is one of the most common scales in rock and funk together with the Dorian scale. Both scales are part of the Modal Scales (church modes), which are all originally based on the white notes of the C major scale on the piano (see “All Aspects of ROCK & JAZZ, 1/Music Theory” for further details: links). The Modal Scales werer used by the Old Greek musicians and the Catholic Church (Gregorian music).
|
|
Major
scale on the 5th step of a “normal”
major scale. It has a flat seventh opposed to the normal sharp major seventh.
Used in pop, blues and funk music. The sweet, neutral sound of the scale
makes it perfect for epic parts of a song. |
|
|
Minor scale
on the 2nd step of a “normal” major scale. It has a sharp 6th
step, which makes the scale ambiguous as to tonal gender. This ambiguity
makes the scale perfect for blues and funk, as the chord of the prime note is
a minor chord (tonic) and the fourth note chord (subdominant) is a major.
This tonal shift turns the normal harmonizing process upside down. |
The Music to Sappho by H.W. Gade
The Choir work “Lesbos” was written in the
autumn of 2004 based on five long poems by Sappho and a number of her
fragments. The music is composed for a choir of 27 singers (27 was a holy
number for the Old Greeks) and a small symphony orchestra without brass
instruments. The translations into English and Danish from Old Greek are the
work of the composer, except for the “Hymn to Aphrodite” which is translated by
professor William Harris.
After a short intro with harp and flute, the choir starts quoting “Hymn to Aphrodite”:
And if she flees Sappho
soon will she follow
The rhythms of “Lesbos” are based on the artificial rhythms invented by the French avant-garde composer Olivier Messiän. The “normal” rhythms are increased or decreased with added or removed duration values, or they are reversible, i.e. symmetrical (anagrams). The result is a fluent rhythm, which escape the conscious feeling of a beat, although it has an intense rhythmic feel. Messiän has used his rhythmic invention in several of his organ works and symphonies from around 1940-60. For details see All Aspects of ROCK & JAZZ/1 Music Theory: Links).
The scale is A minor and D Dorian (minor).
After the choir intro, the first fragment appears:
Heavenly
lyre, come sing me your secrets, I bid you
First part is based on the famous poem “Some say the Horsemen” comparing the Greek people’s love of the army and fleet with the love of another person (in favour of the latter). The choir, again, starts with a quote from the main poem:
Flexible, lightly –
flexible
The melody to the actual text floats over
an ostinato rhythm in 15/8. The song is composed in one piece with new music to
each line of the text and no normal repeats. The choir voices are complex and
the song ends with a canon repeating:
I
prefer her looks, I prefer my girlfriend
The main song is followed by fragments in F# minor and A minor:
2. Eros has shaken my soul,
Bending the oaks just like a storm over a mountain
A short hectic song with many transitive (modulating) movements in the harmonies.
The last 3 fragments are all colla voce (freely) and very short:
3. Face me, my sister,
And
unveil your eyes so vigorous and graceful
4. With my two arms I don’t attempt to touch
the heaven
5. Lady with the crystal voice
starts with a short prelude on harp and clarinet.
The second part is based on the most famous poems of Sappho “Seems to Me that He is Like the Immortal Gods”, which is called the perfect description of the symptoms of divine love. The drastic symptoms of Sappho include loosing her hearing, sight, and finally sweating all over and turning “green as the pale green grass”. The melody of the song is a “normal” strophic form with a repeated melody from verse to verse. The rhythm is in 7/8. The verses describe the growing feelings of the woman in a slow but increasingly ecstatic mood. The scale is C Dorian (minor).
The song is followed by fragments in C major:
2. I have a
daughter, beautiful as golden flowers
A lovely praise of Cleis, the daughter of
Sappho. A simple melody follow by the choir and soft chords on the strings.
3. She is a sugar-apple
is probably also to Cleis, preparing her for being “hunted” by the young men. The melody in 3/4 is a lively (good, I think) tune with a playful, teasing tone, suitable for Sappho’s text. The number of choir singers grows for each line.
4. Raise the Roof Beams,
Raise them High
is the only surviving complete marriage
hymn of Sappho. The music is solemn based on percussion instruments and
woodwinds. The startling line “Taller
and stronger than any man” introduces the divine bridegroom, Ares, Aphrodite’s
(not very) secret lover.
5. Evening star
Gather
now the creatures of the glittering morning and call
The Sheep from the mead, goats from the mountain and the child to stay with its
mother
is a much beloved
romantic nature scenery with the animals and humans seeking rest in the tired
evening. The melody has an almost classical form but ends in a surprising
little Ancient Greek melodic turn.
After
a short prelude on harp and oboe, the main song “I Really Wish I Were Dead” starts. Like the first main song in
Part 1, the melody changes all the time, now over an ostinato rhythm in 9/8.
The harmonies and sounds are rough and angry, suiting the schizophrenic text,
oscillating between love declaration and fear. It ends with the whole orchestra
and choir praising:
Dancers, music, singing
The scale is Db Lydian (major scale with a sharp fourth step – Db Eb F G Ab Bb C – with a spicy, sharp sound).
The fragments in E Lydian (sharp scale, sharp key) are confused and sad:
2. I know not what to do: I have two minds
3. When your anger grows from within your
breast,
You
must hold your tongue, lay off your shouting
4. Beautiful
ladies, my mind is sure and never changes
The music is fragmented and chaotic, partly ugly, using musical scratches and mechanical repetitions.
5. Gentle Adonis is Dying
This is a “dirge” (sad psalm) based on the ritual deaths of the God of fertility, similar to the Demeter myth. The tradition dates back to the Phoenicians. The music is sad and disharmonic.
6. I was your friend
but
you just treated me worse than my enemies
is another chaotic fragment, but the last
fragment is a sort of funeral song, relieving the sorrow and looking beyond the
heavens:
7.
Lighten my Deep Sorrow
I am very happy with this strange melody build on a 3/4 basic pulse with a strictly syncopated 6/8 rhythm in the melody. The rhythmically unusual melody, written in one piece, is one of my personal favourites from “Lesbos”.
The
fourth part starts with a cello solo accompanied by the harp. The main song is
the “The
Rosy-fingered Moon”
featuring the best known of Sappho’s lovers, Atthis, who has become married and
now “shines” in the rich Lydia just like the “rosy-fingered moon”, e.g. the
orange full moon near the horizon. The song is based on a symmetric theme in
old Greek style (E Dorian). This is the song in “Lesbos” maybe closest to the
original melodies of Sappho with its partly exotic melodic lines and the repeated
unison theme in the orchestra.
The melody in 5/4 is arranged from solemn
to soft moods until in the final canon about Sappho dreaming and mourning the
loss of Atthis.
The fragments in C Lydian scales are all
very romantic:
2. Blinking
Stars Around the Moon
An impressionistic song (Debussy style) with advanced, spherical chords.
3. But I’m Alone on My
Couch
A sad song. One of Sappho’s most beloved fragments, comforting the lonely, deserted hearts – one of Aphrodite’s main missions.
4. No honey for Me
A
joke, a pun. The Aeolian “Μήτ᾽ ἔμοι μέλι μήτε μέλισσα” (Mitemoi
méli míte mélissa) with its soft alliterations is impossible to translate
directly and the contents of the famous one-liner is disputed. I have used
translations by William Harris, Cox, Walter Petersen and myself to show the
differences between the possible translations. The song is a small canon with
individual melodies for each translation.
5. From Crete to this
Holy Temple (Excerpt)
A
most beautiful poetic image; “Cool
water’s running under the apple branches”. This is a
perfect picture of lovely Lesbos, even today. Breathlessly romantic and true to
the nature of the island in the Aegean sea. The orchestra arrangements and the
choir are unashamedly romantic and impressionistic.
6. Call me now Golden
Sandal Dawn
“Αρτίωσ μ᾽ ἀ χρυσοπέδιλλοσ Ἀύωσ“ (artios m’ á chrysopédillos aýos). The fragment has been called one of the most beautiful sentences written in Greek. It is very difficult to translate (what is a morning sandal? Slippers of Aurora???). The wording of my translation has been chosen to make it possible to sing the words. Golden sandaled dawn is more correct, but try to sing “sandaled” loudly for 4 seconds.
The music has tight choir chords and a little rough sounding full orchestra.
Where we present the masterpiece “Hymn to Aphrodite”. Please see Sappho The Greek Poems to read professor W. Harris’ fantastic analysis of this emblematic hymn. After an introduction on woodwinds and strings, the drums set in. The melody in A minor has the tone of “Porky and Bess”, which is on purpose in order to let the blues and jazz into the musical universe of Lesbos. It is a strophic song with repeated circles around the notes A C D E with various jazz-like chords.
The song ends in a primal scream. In my youth I was much intrigued by the primal screams of John Lennon’s first solo album. While composing the last verses of “Hymn to Aphrodite”, the idea struck me: Why not end the “war ally” line with a battle cry? So the whole work ends with a coarse, ecstatic, orgasmic yell of triumph and agony. Love supreme rules.
2. Some Time in the Future a Stranger Will
Remember Me
The last fragment is a greeting to our time in 5/4 and Bb Dorian:
A transparent harp, a flute, and the choir sings the last greeting in English and Aeolian Greek. The light goes out and the stars shine, forever. If there is an eternity? Now, at least, we have one, SAPPHO.
Composers / Dramatists using Sappho’s Work and Life
Many
composers have set music to the words of Sappho and a web list of musical works
based on Sappho counted over 92,000 websites, although many of them were
replica. The following list are a few examples of old and modern composers and
dramatists who have tried their hands on Sappho’s poems. The list also includes
music drama and theatre.
Missing a Composer / Dramatist from Your Country?
Please send an e-mail or letter, if I have missed
your favourite composer / dramatist.
Music
Sir Granville Bantok: Sappho, 1905
WH Bell, 1940
Harrison Birtwistle, 1979
John Taverner, 1990
Christos Hatzis (Canada), 1995
Music Drama
John Lilly: Sappho and Phao, 1584
Estelle Lewis: Stella, 1860
Music
Robert Taylor, 1960
Paula Saffire, 1989
James Rolfe, 1997
Ira-Paul Schwarz, 1995
Richard Aldag, 1998
Music
Luigi Dallapiccola, 1942
Music
Drama
Giovanni Simone Mayr:
Saffo, 1794
Franceco Morlacchi: Saffo, 1808
Pacini: Saffo, 1840
J.A. Bosso: Saffo, 2000
Music
Wilfried Hiller, 1970
Hans-Jürgen von Bose, 1983
Martin Derungs, 1980
Spoken
Drama
Franz Grillparzer: Sappho (1818)
Music Drama
Charles Gounod: Sapho, 1855
Jules-Massenet: Sappho, 1897
Spoken Drama
Madame de Staël: Sapho
Music
H.W. Gade: “Lesbos”, 2004
Music
Esa Pekka Salonen: Five Images After Sappho, 1999
Impertinent Old Greek Comedies
After Athens heydays were over and the political power was drastically diminished, its self-esteem faded. In the so-called Middle Comedy period (400-320 B.C.), the satirical comedy became a political remedy to criticize and make fun of the ruling classes and its heroes. Sappho was such an “untouchable” hero, depicted in a number of “Sappho” comedies, poking fun at the values and ideals of the former generations, in spite of strict laws trying to stop this kind of namedropping in comedies.
Sappho as a symbolic figure, a sort of patron of love or mystic prophetess, was already on its way, and the comedies cemented the silly image of Sappho, dealing mostly with the “Phaon” myth of Sappho committing suicide by jumping from the Leucadia rock, a myth still alive in the Victorian era some 2,400 years later. We know very little about these comedies of which there are only a few comments and small quotes left.
Title:
Sappho
Antiphanes (408-334 B.C.), Ameipsias, Amphis, Dïphilus, Ephippus, and Timocles
Title:
Phaon / Phao
Antiphanes (408-334 B.C.), Plato (not the philosopher)
Title:
Leucadia / Leucadius
Menander (324-291 B.C.), Antiphanes (408-334 B.C.)
General Timeline of Ancient Greece
|
Time |
Events |
Technology
and Culture |
|
6000-3000
BC |
Matriarchal
(?) civilisations based on a Mother Goddess or the Sun. |
Sophisticated
stone tools |
|
3000-1500
BC |
The
(Semitic speaking?) Minoan culture evolves on Crete. Rich palaces and a
peaceful society. |
|
|
2000-1700
BC |
Middle
Bronze Age Archaic,
Aeolian and other Greek speaking tribes invade Greece mainland in several
waves from the North. |
|
|
1700-1100
BC |
Late
Bronze Age 1600 The Greek Mycenaean culture develops on the Greek mainland,
influenced by the Minoan culture. 1400 A volcanic eruption destroys Mycenae. 1200 Dorian tribes invade Greece. Fall
of Troy and the Mycenaean culture. |
1650 Linear A letters 1500 Linear B letters |
|
1100-850
BC |
Iron
Age (The “Dark Age”) The
Greek invaders make colonies on the Aegean islands and the coasts of Turkey. Almost
no written material for 250 years. |
1100
The Phoenician Alphabet 1000
Iron industry in the Aegean area |
|
850-701
BC |
International
sea born trade starts again. The
first classical Greek city-states. 750 Greek colonies in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. 650 Tyrant rule in Athens |
776
First Olympic Games 750
The Greek alphabet built on the Phoenician alphabet. Greek
music discovers the scales and the acoustic laws of the notes. 700
Homer |
|
700-601
BC |
683 Aristocratic Republican rule in Athens |
650
The first full-size sculptures 600
First Greek coins |
|
600-501
BC |
594 Reforms of Solon in Athens 507 Cleisthenes founds democracy in Athens |
Sappho Alcaeus 585
Birth of Greek rationalistic philosophy 530
Pythagoras born 522
Pindar born |
|
500-401
BC |
The
Persian Wars 490 Persia invades Greece, but are defeated at Marathon 480 New attacks. Battles of Salamis and Plataea, The Persians loose the
battles. The
Peloponnesian wars 460-446 First Peloponnesian war 443-429 Pericles rules Athenian politics 431-404 Second Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens Sparta
Rules 404 Athens surrenders to Sparta. |
496
Sophocles born 485
Herodotus born 480
Euripides born 484
Aeschylus born 469
Socrates born 460
Hippocrates born 448
Aristophanes born 433
Parthenon completed 429
Plato born 404
An anti-intellectual, reactionary movement sets a stop to the classical
traditions of poetry and music in Greece. |
|
400-323
BC |
399 Trial of Socrates in Athens 371 Sparta defeated by Thebes Macedonia
Rules 338 Philip defeats Athens - supreme power in Greece 336 Philip is assassinated, his son Alexander the Great becomes king of
Macedonia. 333 Alexander the Great defeats the Persians at Issus and is given Egypt
by the Persian Satrap. 332 Alexander builds his new capital Alexandria. Alexander
campaigns as far east as India, conquering Persia and Egypt 323 Alexander dies in Babylon |
335
Aristotle founds his school |
|
324-201
BC |
Alexander's
empire fragments into Greek monarchies in Macedonia, Syria and Egypt. The
Roman Wars 208 Roman overseas expansion begins |
|
|
200-146
BC |
146 Greece becomes a Roman province |
|
|
147-001
BC |
44 Caesar murdered 31 Augustus seizes the power in Rome |
|
|
1-199
AD |
14 Augustus dies The
Age of the Roman emperors |
|
|
200-299 |
267 Goths ruin Athens, Sparta and Korinth 286 Emperor Diocletian divides the empire into a Western and an Eastern
part. Beginning of the Byzantine empire. |
|
|
Time |
Events |
Technology
and Culture |
|
3000-1000
BC |
Neolithic
/ Early Bronze Age Villages
all over the island, a rich culture. |
|
|
1393-1184
BC |
Achaean
invasion. |
|
|
1100-850
BC |
Iron
Age (The “Dark Age”) The
Aeolian invasion. |
1100
The Phoenician Alphabet 1000
Iron industry in the Aegean area |
|
850-601
BC |
Archaic
Period International
sea born trade starts again. Lesbos
colonises the coast of Asia Minor, and the island becomes a strong political
and economical power. Intellectual
movement on the Island. 683 Aristocratic Republican rule in Athens Tyrants
rule Lesbos |
750
The Greek alphabet built on the Phoenician alphabet. Greek
music discovers the scales and the acoustic laws of the notes. 700
Homer Pottery:
Figurines, small human figures |
|
600-501
BC |
General
unrest and civil wars. Patticus
becomes tyrant. 527 Persia conquers Lesbos |
Sappho Alcaeus |
|
500-401
BC |
High
Classical Period 479 Lesbos liberated by Athens. New alliance between the two states 460-446
The Peloponnesian wars 428 Rebellion against Athens. Lesbos is defeated and loses its colonies. Sparta
Rules 404 Athens surrenders to Sparta |
|
|
400-88
BC |
Hellenistic
Period 371 Sparta defeated by Thebes Macedonia
Rules 333 Alexander the Great of Macedonia defeats the Persians. The
Roman Wars 208 Roman overseas expansion begins 88 Lesbos becomes a Roman province |
In the 6th century B.C., the Lesbians went through a unique phase in the cultural history of Greece. A wave of emotionality overcame the island, in stark contrast to the rationality of the Athenians and the rigid self-control of the Spartans. The very fact that the Lesbian women were free and able to study art and music was an important factor in the lyrical revolution of Lesbos. The female influence on the contents and form of Lesbian poetry was immense, and the sense of beauty and sensuality, opposite to the brutality of the Homeric Viking like warriors, shaped a whole new kind of writing, a female literature.
The nature of Lesbos, one of the most beautiful places in the whole of Greece, lent the ladies of the lyre a deep, resonant background for the emotional storms. But their romantic poetry never went to excesses, held in place as it was by firm poetic meters, tradition and refined modesty.
For a short period of History, a whole country was spiritually ruled by brilliant female and male poets changing the course of literature and culture. Then came the darkness and moral decadence, until the Lesbians were mostly known for their widespread corruption.
Yet, Athens and Lesbos both disintegrated after their historical moments of grand poetry and philosophy. And history moved mercilessly; a bright spark, then darkness and oblivion. But the Lesbian poetry and the democratic ideas of Athens survived its persecutors and tyrants in the distant future. The poetry of Sappho and Alcaeus still lives, democracy rules. Beauty and freedom has won.
History of the Old Greek Language
Greek is one of the first civilized languages
in the World along with Chinese and Egyptian. Greek colonies spread rapidly
over the present Greece, Turkey, Sicily and the Black Sea during the 2nd
millennium B.C. Under Alexander the Great around 330 B.C., a vast area
stretching from central Greece and Macedonia to the far north, west and deep
into India, became partly Greek speaking. After the Roman takeover of Greece,
Greek (besides Latin) became the cultural lingua franca (leading second
language) of the European continent. After the Roman Empire split into a
Western and Eastern Empire, Greek survived in the East until the abrupt end of
the Byzantine Empire in 1453, when it became a part of the Ottoman Empire.
Modern Greek is much simpler than Old Greek,
and the Greeks of today can hardly read their old texts without a translation
at hand. Nonetheless, Old Greek has lived on, first through the Arab
philosophers in the early middle age, and later through the reborn classicism
in the Western renaissance and after the French revolution’s militant freedom
movement. Generations of schoolboys in Western Europe and the US have learned
to read and think like the old Greeks, and the ideals and beautiful words of
Hellas have pervaded the Western culture, until the point where we thought, the
ideas and the poetry were Latin, English, German or French. They are not; the
name of the language is Greek, Old Greek.
Until fairly recently, it was believed that the Greek language was a whole family of languages in itself, born out of the blue. This is of course not true. All indo-European languages share the same roots in our common Asian homelands 6,000 years ago, and no Indo-European language stands alone The major Indo-European language families are: German, Roman, Celt, Slav and Indo-Iranian. The linguists have placed a number of “strange” languages including Greek, Albanian and Hittite outside these families, which is rather unlikely: A language does not come out of the blue.
To start somewhere, Macedonian and Greek are similar in many respects. It has been suggested, that a new family, Hellenic, should consist of these two languages. Other suggestions include Armenian, also a lonely language looking for a family. A Celtic connection is also possible based on evidences in the Greek grammar and general structure.
The first migration of Greek speaking tribes around 2200 B.C. probably spoke Arcado-Cypriot, now spoken on Cyprus. The dialect is closely related to Mycenaean Greek (1600-1100 B.C.).
Later, migrating tribes spoke Ionic and settled in Attic and central Greece. In the 12th century B.C., the Dorian invasions forced the Ionians to move from their original settlements to Peloponnesos, leading to the collapse of the Mycenaean Empire.
The Dorians settled on Crete and other Aegean islands and the Aeolians settled on Lesbos and in the present Turkey. Eventually the Greek language spread to the whole Mediterranean area including Sicily and Southern Italy.
After the Greek invasions 2,000 years B.C. and the fall of the (Greek) Mycenaean civilisation, there were three main dialects (branches) of Greek: Aeolic (the Aegean islands), Ionic (Asia minor, i.e. Turkey) and Doric (Sparta).
The oldest epic poems in Greek are the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer, both written in a peculiar (ask any Greek student!) mix of Ionic with Aeolian and Dorian elements. Doric was used in poetry and drama choirs.
Unification of the Greek Dialects into Attic and Koine
During the cultural zenith of Athens, Attic (Attic-Ionic) became the leading cultural dialect used by Plato, Aristotle and many other writers between 600 to 400 B.C.
When Greece ultimately became a real nation, not a collection of odd city-states, the need for a common language arose. The Attic, spoken in Athens, fused with the dialects and a new common language Koine was born also called Hellenistic Greek.
Under the rule of the Macedonians, Alexander the Great made Koine (Attic) the common language of the new world he had conquered. Persia, Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia and India learned to speak Koine. The old dialects gradually mixed with Koine and disappeared. Eventually, the Koine became the language of the Christian New Testament.
Greek is based on cases (nominative, vocative, accusative genitive and dative) and has three genders like Latin. On the surface, the verb system looks a bit like Latin, too, but there are traces of an older verb system lacking the past sense form, and the verbal system is extremely complicated. These are some of the important differences between Greek and Latin. The Greek verbs and case systems seem more related to Celtic and Slav grammar than to the similar Italic system.
The use of objects with verbs are slightly different from the modern use. Some verbs may have an object in genitive. The ancient partitive case (part of) reappears in Old Greek as genitive. Prepositions may also decide one or more cases.
The order of the elements is very free compared to modern languages, allowing for a fluent language structure suited for poetry. Although the gender, number and case should agree, the possibilities for agreement were numerous adding to the freedom and expressive strength of Greece.
The Old Greek pronunciation was very complicated.
The vowels had precise lengths (duration) and pitches. There were many diphthongs as well (see the table in “Old Greek for Beginners”) and “Gliding” diphthongs were common.
The consonants were pronounced using the throat, tongue and lips, articulating with voice, voiceless, unaspirated and voiceless aspirated. There were two nasal sound, two liquids, a trill and a row of other exotic sounds, including “rough breathing”, i.e. an “h” marked with an accent (example: ca) before the first vowel of a word*). Aeolian lacked this and other vocal features of mainland Greece.
Accents were placed in an unpredictable manner. Accents were also used to separate words.
The language itself was so musically inclined that the invention of modern poetry and music was an obvious development once the Greek invaders had settled down and laid down their arms.
*)
For
Finnish speaking persons: the Old Greek “h” is pronounced almost like the “h”
in “kahvia” (coffee).
The poetry and drama of Greece were an
intellectual breakthrough of immense consequences for all future cultural life.
Inspired by their heroic wars, the life in the new city-states, nature and the
myths of the Greek Gods the poets from Homer to Pindar helped shape the Greek
civilisation, and thus the Roman and Western cultural identity.
Greek verses and drama have been the ideal for
500 years of Western operas, theatre plays and poetry. Reading and learning
from the Greek authors used to be obligatory in the school, and is still vital
for everyone longing to understand and master poetry and drama. The following
is only namedropping and a few hints. See the links pages for further
(necessary) reading of Greek texts, originals and translations.
For more
information on ancient Greece poets and dramatists, search http://en.wikipidia.org.
Type in the name of the person or subject you are looking for and click on GO.
|
Time |
Poet
/ Dramatist |
|
800-701
BC |
Homer Epic Poet Hesiod Epic Poet |
|
700-601
BC |
Sappho Lyric poet Alcaeus Lyric poet Archilochus Satiric poet (the “angry” poet) Solon Politician and poet Alcman Lyric poet Aesop Fables and tales Thales Scientist and philosopher |
|
600-501
BC |
Anacreon Hymn and Choir poet Theognis Elegiac Poet Ibycus Love poet Simonides Poet and linguist Thespis The first Actor in the World Aeschylus Dramatist (tragedies) Pindar Choral Poetry, Hymn Bacchylides Poet, odes to victories Hecataeus Historian |
|
500-401
BC |
Sophocles Dramatist, tragedies Euripides Dramatist, tragedies Socrates Philosopher Lysias Orator and politician Aristophanes Dramatist, comedies Plato Philosopher Herodotus Historian Thucydides Historian Xenophon General, Historian |
|
400-301
BC |
Demosthenes Orator and Politician Aristotle Scientist and Philosopher Diphilus Dramatist, comedies Menander Dramatist, comedies |
The Greek poets wrote in two main genres, the epic and the lyric verses. The epic poets wrote long poems in hexameters, all about wars and tragic incidents in the history of the Greek nation. The lyric poets sang about lost lovers and beautiful nature scenes, just like today.
- Both the epic and lyric poets sang their poems while playing the lyre or harp or being accompanied by flutes and oboes.
- Wedding hymns and drinking songs were very popular and both Alcaeus (drinking) and Sappho (wedding poetess) were masters in these two genres.
- Monodic songs (personal poems) and choral songs (hymns to the Gods or other public themes) were specialities of Lesbos.
- Other genres were dithyramb (hymns for the wine god Dionysus), partheneion (maiden songs), dirges (psalms) and victory odes.
The spoken Elegies and iambics are closer to the present poetic oral tradition. The elegies were used for special occasions, while the iambic poems were down to earth and full of (sometimes bizarre) humour.
For more
information on ancient Greece poets and dramatists, search http://en.wikipidia.org.
Type in the name of the person or subject you are looking for and click on GO.
Besides the first “two legs” of poetry, epic and lyric, the Athenians invented a third leg, the Drama. Theatre was born as the choir began to act while they sang. Soon after, the acting and singing evolved into tragedies where spoken parts were divided by choral poems and music. This was the birth of both the opera and the theatre of our days.
The first dramatic genre was the tragedy. The most famous dramatists were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. They all wrote about the Greek Gods and legends.
The second dramatic genre was the comedy. Aristophanes and Menander were the two most famous comedy writers.
Beside the main target of this introduction; poems and music, the Greeks had a wealth of philosophers and scientists. The philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are still considered giants in the academic world, and the historians Herodotus and Xenophon have written important books about national and international history 2000 years ago. Plutarch was another Greek historian who wrote a comparative book on Greek and Roman rulers. The Greek mathematic and musical geniuses like Euclid and Pythagoras, also count. Especially Pythagoras who is the founding Father of Music Theory.
Before the people of Greek invented Music
Theory, music was dancing and hymns. There were simple scales and melodies,
but nobody knew the why’s and when’s of the intervals or rhythms. Instruments
like the flute, the harp, the Aulos double-flute (actually oboes) and
percussion had existed for a thousand years. But it was not until Pythagoras
discovered the intervals, that the scales were formalized and written down. His
invention revolutionized music all over the Mediterranean world.
The first known Greek music was Homer’s simple tunes, consisting of “nomoi”, i.e. small vocal phrases, probably like the blues phrases of our time, repeated and reused during the long performances of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Terpander of Lesbos (7th century B.C.) was the first known musician in Greece. The music of Sappho and Alcaeus was probably a younger version of Terpander and Homer’s music.
The mythic musician Orpheus was connected with Lesbos, where he was worshipped.
After the invention of the drama, the ode was developed for the choir singers. The now classical traditions of lyric singing, hymns, dance and drama were born.
In the late 5th century, Phrynis of Lesbos, his pupil Timotheus of Miletus and the dramatist Euripides developed a new music with complicated tunes including chromatic steps. When Greece became a Roman province, an adventurous musical era ended, only to be revived 1,000 years later in the Gregorian hymn.
Please
note the birthplace of the majority of the above musicians and poets J.
The Greek solo/orchestra instruments were stringed instruments (lyres and harps), flutes, woodwind (oboes, clarinets and panpipes), various horns and trumpets and drums/percussion. The leading instruments were the various lyres and harps and the flutes/oboes.
Stringed instruments: Kithara (4 to 7-strings lyre originally restricted to the Apollo cult), barbitos (8-strings lyre), Magadis (20-strings, 2 octaves harp), smaller harps and various lyres.
Woodwind: Aulos (i.e. two oboes originally restricted to the Dionysus cult), clarinets and panpipes, flutes.
Brass: Horns and trumpets.
Percussion: Cymbals, drums and other percussion instruments.
NOTE The orchestra instruments played the same notes, almost as Arab orchestras do today. There were no harmonies, only unison melodies.
When Sappho was an old lady, she almost lived to see the young philosopher/scientist Pythagoras, who invented / discovered the scales. He was inspired, it is said, by hearing smith hammers of different sizes making differently pitched sounds on metal in a workshop.
He experimented with a so-called monochord with one string and movable frets, and through his experiments he found the relations between the intervals, octave, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. By accidence, the number of intervals happened to be the same as the planets known in the Antiquity. This led Pythagoras to a theory of a music of the spheres (see also the section on “Music as a Mathematic Art”).
The intervals gradually gave rise to the Greek scale system, called the modal scales or Church scales. Each mode represents a starting point on one of the white keys of the piano. The scales, except for the ones starting on C (major) and A (minor) are different from the Europeans scales from the 18th century (Mozart and consorts). The Dorian, Mixolydian and Lydian scales are all used in modern rock, funk, jazz and pop.
Modal scales
Pentatonic Scales
Besides the modal scales, the Greeks also used the Pentatonic scales. Here is an example. Please note that the pentatonic scales are neutral, i.e. they can start or end on any of the five notes. Here is an example. It could be a D scale, an E scale, a G scale, an A scale or a C scale. The Pentatonic scales are widely used all over the world, and they are still dominant in traditional Chinese music.
Examples
from “All Aspects of ROCK & JAZZ/1 Music Theory”, reproduced with
permission
The musical ideas of Pythagoras was an important inspiration to Plato and Aristotle
The first primitive lyre had 4 strings. The first string was the prime (first note in the scale) and the fourth string a fourth note. The two middle strings were tuned according to the scale in question. A typical tuning would be: E - D - C - B. If another lyre was added, it was tuned A - G - F – E. Now we are close to playing a scale!
Pythagoras:
The pitch of a string is proportional to the square root of its tension.
The rhythms were probably based on 2/4, 3/4, 5/4 and 7/8 like the still existing Greek and Balkan rhythms.
Alypius (about 360 after Christ) wrote an introduction to Greek musical notation. Unfortunately only 20 (22 with the newest findings) fragments have survived. Vocal and instrumental music each had a notation system.
Plato turned the teaching of Music and Math into one and the same. Right up to the end of the Middle age, music was considered a philosophical discipline. When for example the famous female composer Hildegard von Bingen took music lessons in the convent, it included a wealth of math.
This inflexible tradition from Plato stopped musical development in Western Europe for several hundred years. Adding to the misery, Pythagoras’ ideas of Music of the Spheres became an obsession, mixing music with superstition, effectively blocking the development of pure music in the scholastic period where realities sometimes seemed to exist only in the heads of the scholars.
Homosexuality in the Antiquity and Now
Sappho was
homosexual. This is obvious, if we judge by the number of love poems to women
and the intensity of her feelings. She was married, which happens to most
homosexuals even in our time, but her erotic life was realized outside her
home. Her wonderful poem to her daughter Cleis, however, shows her affection
and pride of her daughter. So she is a good mother as she is a good teacher to
her students.
Her relations to the students followed the special Greek rules for relationships between teacher and student, where a sexual dimension was considered necessary to prepare the student for her (his) life in the marriage and in society. The most prominent example is Socrates’ sexual and spiritual relationship with Alkibiades. Sappho’s friend Alcaeus was homosexual too and had love affairs with boys. This was normal and nobody cared, as long as the homosexuals did their duty and had children. In general, same sex affairs were not uncommon. A person’s sexual orientation was not the talk of the town 2,600 years ago.
During the 1,500 years between Sappho’s life and the burning of her works, nobody cared about her sexuality, She was a divine poetess and the readers loved her for her poems, not because of her sexual habits. When Sappho’s work was rediscovered in the 16th century, there were no comments about her lesbian love songs; the emotional strength of her poems shone with such a brilliance that no one cared. And at that time, homosexuality was already trendy in the noble and clerical circles of Rome.
Almost 400 years went by.
In the last half of the 19th century, Baudelaire and the symbolists caused a public storm by focusing on Sappho’s lesbianism. Baudelaire’s “Flowers of Evil” became censored and increasingly famous. Paintings with motifs from Sappho’s love life were hot although her poems didn’t contain a single kiss, not to speak of intimacy.
Irritated over this fatal lack of information, the French author Pierre Louys faked a new lesbian poetess, Bilitis, and claimed he had found her lost poems. The poems, published in Louys “translation”, contained the missing information on the lesbian ladies to the delight of literate gentlemen of France and the rest of the civilized world. The “Aeolian” originals were never published, partly because Pierre Louys couldn’t write in the extremely difficult dialect.
The false lover of Sappho became so popular that “Bilitis” and Sappho almost got mixed up. The great poetess, the Tenth Muse, faded into the semi-erotic mists of an artificial lover/co-poetess.
During the 20th century, the lesbian movement took Sappho to their heart. She was an intelligent, liberated woman, who enjoyed the freedom with other beautiful young women. This picture is much to the point, although not very precise when it comes to the complexity of Sappho’s love affairs. She is a modern, real lesbian heroine, a role model for thousands of women all over the world – in doubt, in anger, in despair, head over heel in love. A real human being.
Now it’s the time to free Sappho from the bonds of sexuality. She was not a homosexual poetess, she was a great and original poetess in the rank of Shakespeare, who happened to be homosexual (like Shakespeare?). Listen to her words, open your mind; the real Sappho is still here.
Henrik W. Gade was born 1953 in
Copenhagen, Denmark. After graduating from the Latin High School of Copenhagen,
The Metropolitan School in 1972, he studied Italian and Art History at the
University of Copenhagen. In 1977, Henrik released his first rock album. In
1978, his music to the poems of Baudelaire was performed as a cabaret on the
Café Theatre in Copenhagen. Since then, Henrik has written 10 operas, musicals
and cabarets, and he is one of the most played musical dramatists in Denmark.
Henrik is a composer with a wide range of styles, including advanced rock,
classical lieder and opera, folk rock, funk and blues. He plays the electric
bass, the guitar and the piano and writes for small combos and symphony
orchestra alike. Besides the music, he is a prolific writer with over 80 titles
behind him; music teaching books, songbooks, musical dramas and a successful
series of health books. Most of Henrik’s works are published in Denmark and
internationally (in English). He has released 15 albums and singles. See his
official bio on www.nordisc-music.com.
Henrik is
married to Finnish Paula and the loving father of their handicapped son Lukas
born 1994. Gade is a skilled writer and translator of poetry and prose,
speaking Danish and English fluently. He also reads Latin, Greek, French,
Italian, Swedish and German. Henrik is the great grandson of world famous
Danish composer Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817-1890).
Here are a number of interesting links to
historical and literary websites on Sappho or related to her poems. There are
also links to language websites and free Ancient Greek courses. Besides these
links, you can find over 1 million links to Sappho.
For further reading, visit Amazon.com and
search for “Sappho” (or Sapho, Saphos, Saffo).
THREE TOP SAPPHO SITES
A
highly recommendable eBook about Sappho’s writing and life by professor W.
Harris.
http://community.middlebury.edu/%7Eharris/Sappho.pdf
Classic Persuasion
is another all purpose Ancient Greek website with many
interesting essays and modern translations. Plus the Greek original texts and
links to audio examples of how Old Greek was pronounced.
http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/sappho/index.htm
Sacred Texts contain
the original Greek texts with English translations and much more.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/usappho/
The Perseus Project is one of the most important Ancient Greek
sites on the web. It contains a huge number of texts, historical facts,
grammar, dictionaries and other language / culture related materials. The site
is a must for all students and other lovers of the Old Greek language.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
Ellopos is a comprehensive website covering Greek literature from all periods,
Ancient Greek courses, historical articles and the original texts.
http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/greek-resources.asp
Aoidoi is a small but very useful links page
http://www.aoidoi.org/links.php
The World History
website contains a
number of fine Ancient Greek history links.
http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/A/Ancient-Greece.htm
San Beck is a very different, but eye-opening history of Greece
http://www.san.beck.org/EC18-Greekto500.html#5
Western Culture is a links page about Ancient Greece
http://www.westernculture.com/ancientgreeks.html
About old Greek wedding traditions
http://www.pogodesigns.com/JP/weddings/sappho.html
Dictionaries, Grammars and Fonts
General bi-lingual dictionary from both New and Old Greek.
Greek–English, English–Greek dictionary.
Systran The worlds leading machine translation company. Click the “translate”.
Translates to/from New Greek into English. Very good translations of whole
sentences or websites.
www.altavista.com
Greek Grammar.
http://www.gottwein.de/GrGr/GrGramm.htm
Gentium — a
typeface for the nations, a freely available font including polytonic Greek support
A very professional website on general Greek
linguistic questions and topics.
The Greek Language and Linguistics Gateway
Learn Ancient Greek Textkit is free Old Greek and Latin courses with free downloadable
Ancient Greek grammars and readers.
Beginner’s New Greek. A good introduction.
Learn Greek-
Official site of the Greek Institute of language and speech processing
Learn New and Old Greek Online, Free course in New and Old Greek
with audio files.
The World History
website contains a
number of fine Ancient Greek language links.
http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/G/Greek-language.htm
Ohio State History of the Greek language
http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~bjoseph/articles/gancient.htm
Greek Language with a short introduction to old
Greek.
A Brief
History of the Greek Language
The musical instruments of old Greece.
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Music.htm
Ancient Greek music, Homer and Ancient Greek
pronunciation.
http://www.oeaw.ac.at/kal/agm/index.htm
Paula Saffire’s website. A performing professor singing in Old Greek.
Highly recommendable.
http://bands.butler.edu/~psaffire/index.htm
All Aspects
of ROCK & JAZZ/1 /Music Theory. Details on modal scales and odd meters etc.
http://www.nordisc-music.com/all_aspects_of_rock_and_jazz.htm
William Harris, Professor Emeritus, Classics,
Middlebury College, Sappho: The Greek Poems
http://community.middlebury.edu/%7Eharris/Sappho.pdf
From Longinus’ “On the Sublime” – A Superb
Analysis of “He seems to me like the
Immortal Gods”
http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/longinus/desub003.htm
Eva Cantarella, Pandora's Daughters: The Role and Status of Women in Green and
Roman Antiquity (Baltimore: John Hopkins, 1987)
Judy Grahn,
The Highest
Apple: Sappho and
the Lesbian Poetic Tradition (San Francisco: Spinsters, Ink, 1985)
Edith Mora, excerpt from Sappho -- The Story of a Poet (Flammarion, 1966)
http://travesti.geophys.mcgill.ca/~olivia/SAPPHO/
Diane Rayor, Sappho's Lyre: Archaic Lyric and Women Poets of Ancient Greece
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991)
Leah Rissman, Love as War: Homeric Allusion in the Poetry of Sappho
(Konigstein: Verlag Anton Hain, 1983)
David M. Robinson, Sappho and Her Influence (Boston: Marshall Jones, 1924)
Jane McIntosh Snyder, The Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece
and Rome (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989)
Lesbos
ISBN 87-88619-13-3
1st
Edition, 1st Issue,
Autumn 2004, Produced in Denmark
Digital Books™ is a trademark of
NORDISC Music & Text, DK-2700 Broenshoej, Denmark
Poems by Sappho
© around 580 B.C.
Music,
orchestra / choir arrangements and introduction by H.W. Gade © 2004
Translation from old Greek
English
translation of “Hymn to Aphrodite” by W. Harris © reproduced with permission.
“I don’t know
what to do” Cox.
“No Honey for
Me” includes various translations by different authors reproduced with
permission.
All other
English translations by H.W. Gade © 2004 many inspired by the translations of
professor W. Harris.
Danish
Translations by H.W. Gade © 2004.
All original
drawings and photos © H.W: gade.
Transcription into Latin letters
Transcription
from the Greek alphabet by W. Harris © reproduced with permission: First Part
1, Second Part 1, Fourth Part 1 and Fifth Part 1.
All other
transcriptions by H.W. Gade © 2004.
Playing time approx. 50min (live)
Playing Time (MIDI):
First Part......... 8:44
Second Part.... 11:47
Third Part......... 7:10
Fourth Part...... 10:47
Fifth Part......... 8:20
What does it take to perform Lesbos?
The solo
voices are moderately demanding and needs to be carried out by trained singers.
The choir voices can be sung by good amateurs. The orchestra voices are not
extremely difficult and can be played by a good amateur symphony orchestra.
The singers
must consult local experts on how to pronounce Old Greek correctly.
Flute (1)
Oboe (1)
Clarinet (2)
Bassoon (1)
Counter Bassoon (1)
Violins (6)
Cello (3)
Counter bass (2)
Harp (1)
Percussion: Played by the singers:
Tambourine (12)
Cowbell (6)
Irish Bodhran drum (4)
Medium size Chinese cymbal (4)
Soprano (10)
Alto (10)
Solo (mezzo soprano and alto) (7)