Mr. Peter Awn, Mr. James Frankel
Colloquium F2001x
Assignment #8
The most famous erotic poet of all time is probably Sappho of Lesbos. Sappho writes extensively of the virtues of physical beauty, particularly in women, and the importance of pursuing true love and its physical pleasures. Sappho, however, is not unique among ancient writers in celebrating human passion; similar sentiments can be found in the Hebrew Song of Solomon. Each of these poetic texts deals with love in a slightly different manner.
The first striking aspect of Sappho’s poetry is her emphasis on the importance of attractiveness. She instructs women with dark hair to wear purple ribbons in their hair (like her mother did), and women with blonder hair to always wear fresh flowers (Sappho 122). She describes herself as “shining among Lydian women like the rose-fingered moon rising after sundown … pouring light … over densely flowered fields” (141) and a “rival of goddesses for the beauty of her figure” (188). And the goddesses in her cosmology are very dazzling, from the “radiant form [of] Lady Hera” (149) to beautiful Aphrodite “with gold flowers in her hair” (158) and Hekate, who shines of gold (159). Sappho also chronicles the handsome appearances of the men she loves, and she generalizes that “a good man will soon take on beauty” (202).
The feminine narrator in the Song of Solomon also emphasizes beauty. She says “I am black and beautiful” (1:5) and that her lover is beautiful and perfect to her. She describes her lover as a “bag of myrh that lies between her breasts” and a “cluster of henna blossoms” (2:13-2:14). She continues that her lover is beautiful, with “eyes [that] are doves, … cheeks [that] are comely with ornaments [and a] neck with strings of jewels” (2:15, 2:10). Her lover is “as beautiful as Tizrah [and] as comely as Jerusalem”, with “hair like a flock of goats,” “teeth like a flock of ewes” and “cheeks like halves of a pomegranate” (6:4-6:7).
Even though much of these two authors’ poetry deals with physical beauty, they both have more interesting things to say about love in general. Sappho, for instance, emphasizes abandoning one’s duties and obligations in order to pursue the one you truly love. She says that the sight of the one you love is “the supreme sight on the black earth” and she demonstrates this with the example of beautiful Helen who deserts her king, her daughter, and her dear kinsmen to sail off to Troy and be with her perfect love (Sappho 124). In a similar vein, the Solomon author says love is much better than wine and that people should eat, drink, and be drunk with love (Solomon 4:10, 5:1). The name of her lover is like “perfume poured out … honey and milk are under [his] tongue, [and] the scent of [his] garment is like the scent of Lebanon” (1:3, 4:11).
Another famous similarity between Sappho and the female narrator of Song of Solomon is their emphasis on how pleasurable and rewarding sex should be. “Upon my bed at night, I sought him whom my soul loves; … when I found him whom my soul loves, I held him and would not let him go” (Solomon 3:1, 3:4). Like Sappho, she evokes vivid sexual imagery: “My beloved thrust his hand into the opening, and my inmost being yearned for him. I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh upon the handles of the bolt” (5:4-5:5). Sappho herself discusses sex in the context of a wedding night, and how little sleep the bride and groom will get that night (Sappho 172). She instructs the bride, whose “body is a joy” (176) to “come to the bedroom now, enter the bed and play tenderly with her man” (174). She even hints at orgasm with the lines: “May the Evening Star lead [the bride] eagerly to that instant when she will gaze in wonder before the silver throne of Hera, queen of marriage” (174). She prays that her wedding night “will last twice as long” (182), and she wonders where her virginity goes when it leaves her, why it never returns, and whether she still longs for it (185, 186).
Also interesting about Sappho and the author of Solomon is their appreciation of the sexuality of girls. Sappho writes a poem to a tender girl full of beauty, generosity, gracefulness, and honey, who comes to her in trim garments and lies in wait for her (224-229, 238). Song of Solomon has similar lesbian elements, though they are more subtle. The author speaks of how graceful her queenly maiden is, her “rounded thighs like jewels, … her navel a rounded bowl, [and] her belly a heap of wheat encircled with lilies” (Solomon 7:1-7:2). Her object of affection’s “two breasts are like two fawns, [her] neck is like an ivory tower, [and her] eyes are pools in Heshbon” (7:3-7:4).
It is noteworthy that much of the erotic poetry that exists from the ancient world were written by women, at a time when most other works were written from a male perspective. Both of these texts stress the fundamental values of love and sexuality, and even a certain degree of bisexuality, rather than the duty and reason that have been the focus of other texts we have studied. Sappho concludes with the message that human love transcends even death, and she tells her soul mate Andromeda that “even in Hades, I am with you” (259).