love and desire

In "To Her You Were Like A Visible Goddess," Sappho describes a woman in love yearning for her the object of her affection. The title and the first two lines reveal a female-female relationship. The identity of the second female is unknown; however, taken in the context of the times, the mentioned "goddess" could be literally be the goddess Aphrodite, with emphasis put on "visible," implying that woman can almost see her, and fell in love with her sensuality. In a more probable interpretation, "goddess" could refer to simply to another human woman who is elevated to that status in her eyes by her feelings.

The second stanza romanticizes the vision of the yearning woman. It compares her to a "rose-tipped moon." Rose-tipped is not the first word I would think of to describe the moon, but it is the symbol of love. The moon comes out at night, a time of solitude and quiet contemplation. Together, the words cast a more romantic light on the woman's thoughts. The idea of the stanza as a whole speaks of how love sets her apart and heartbreak isolates her ("conspicuous among Lydian women...surpasses all the stars").

The poem then goes on to contrast the moon imagery with one of the setting sun. Here, Sappho uses gentle and yet wholesome adjectives such as"bountiful dew," "tender parsley," and "honey-colored" flowers, again romanticizing the vision of the main character. Despite the beautiful imagery, the woman is described to still be in a state of sadness and intense yearning. Atthis, a lady from a Greek myth sometimes known to have died a young, unmarried virgin, is brought up. The main character sees Atthis as a reflection of herself without the lover she desires. Her heart is "consumed with pain." Not only does she feel pain, she is consumed by it. Her yearning overtakes her whole being. In general, the poem speaks about how all-encompassing the woman's desire is, filling up her whole consciousness and isolating her from others.