A Visible Goddess, Yes, But Still Human (Close Reading #3)

This piece is another example of Sappho’s classical love poetry. She focuses on beautiful imagery and soft tones to support love, life, and youthful spirit. Although the first stanza and several from the end are not available, the remainder of the poem still reveals the kind of themes that Sappho is recognized for: a sort of majestic beauty in nature, divinity, and feminine figures. For example, Sappho describes the subject of interest (“you” in the title) as a “visible goddess”. This is possibly the greatest compliment that can be given in ancient Greece because of the Greeks’ infatuation with divine heroes and their obsession for things unattainable, such as immortality and supernatural powers. Since this female character is “conspicuous among Lydian women,” she surely stands apart from her peers because Lydia was a foreign land, especially to Lesbos (Sappho’s native region). Furthermore, Sappho elevates this demi-goddess’ status to even greater proportions when she compares her to a bright and colorful “rose-tipped moon” that “surpasses all the stars” in the night sky. Mentioning the cosmos adds to the celestial character of Sappho’s subject, lifting her to a realm out of this world, or rather, beyond human capacity. To build upon this character’s majestic beauty, Sappho includes everyday images of nature like “roses bloom” and “honey-flowered clover.” She uses alliterations such as “flowering fields” and “salt sea” to make the sounds smoother and warmer. But there is an interesting change in pace and mood in the last available stanza. Sappho mentions another woman, Atthis, who presumably died early (“her spirit wasted with yearning”) and due to love. Perhaps Sappho cautions her audience about the unforeseen dangers of love. In structuring her poem this way, she suggests that heart-gripping pain may follow apparently perfect experiences early in a relationship. So in this regard, a goddess that is visible to Sappho is also vulnerable to human emotion and limitation—a reoccurring theme among ancient works reviewed in this class.