The Sappho Companion

Description

Edited and introduced by Margaret Reynolds. Born around 630 BC on the Greek island of Lesbos, Sappho is now regarded as the greatest lyrical poet of ancient Greece, ironic and passionate, capturing the troubled depths of love. Her work survives only in fragments, yet her influence extends throughout Western literature, fuelled by the speculations and romances which have gathered around her name, her story and her sexuality. This remarkable anthology brilliantly displays the way different periods have taken up Sappho’s haunting story, bringing together many different kinds of work. We see her image change, re-created in Ovid’s poetry and Boccaccio’s tales, in translations by Pope, Rossetti, Swinburne and Baudelaire, and in the modern versions of Eavan Boland, Ruth Padel and Jeanette Winterson. About the Book About the Author Dedication Epigraph Title Page Before the Beginning Introduction A Note on the Text 1. The Fragments of Sappho 2. The Tenth Muse 3. The Learned Lady 4. Nymphs and Satyrs 5. Wanton Sapphoics 6. The Sapphic Sublime 7. Hellenism and Heroes 8. The Lady with the Lyre 9. Daughter of de Sade 10. The New Woman 11. Return to Mytilene 12. Modernist Sappho 13. Sapphistories 14. Swingers and Sisters 15. Fragments Acknowledgements Select Bibliography Complete List of Poems and Extracts