Sappho

Sappho was a poet whose beautiful poems were known and sung all over the ancient Greek world. She was one of the first people to write love poetry. Her work shows psychological insight and skill with complex rhythm. Her poetry is also important because it is some of the only work by an ancient Greek woman to survive into the modern age – it is a chance to hear from a real ancient Greek woman's perspective.

Sappho lived on the Greek island of Lesbos in the east of the Aegean Sea. She was active from the late 7^th into the early 6^th century BCE (c.630-570BCE). She created new styles of poetry, writing about being in love with some of the lovely young women that she knew, writing about her brothers going to sea, and writing a prequel to the Trojan War. Sadly none of her works survive complete, so we can only read fragments of what she wrote. Even those fragments show us a lot; her poem about Troy is known as Fragment 44 - A Wedding at Troy. Her work would have been sung to a musical accompaniment. Her poems influenced other ancient writers and poets across the ages who have written imitations and translations of her work, striving for her clarity of expression and insight.

You can find out more in the About Sappho video and you can hear Sappho Fragment 44 sung in ancient Greek by Aliki Markantonatou. Click here to see the animation in Polish.

The Sappho vase is a hydria, so instead of having another image on the opposite side, there is a third handle there. Hydria's were used for water, so the third handle was useful for pouring. The style, using a lot of black slip and just a little colour, is known as the Six Style. The vase can be seen in the National Museum in Warsaw, in Poland (number 142333). The other figures in the Sappho animation are created in an earlier style known as 'Geometric'. You can find out much more about the vase in the About Sappho documentary.

© National Museum in Warsaw in Poland (number 142333)

Sappho remained a popular figure throughout antiquity. When vase makers switched from black-figure to red-figure she continued to appear in their work. The vase below shows her holding her barbiton, looking back at another famous poet of her era, Alcaeus.

© Munich Staatliche Antiken 2416

This animation presents the poet Sappho as a creator – her playing brings the figures from her poetry to life. The figures that she creates are from an earlier age of pottery known as Geometric pottery, because Sappho is singing about a time that was long ago even to her. After a brief introduction, the words that appear above the figures are a translation of the words of the poem. The music that you hear is based on the tune her poem would originally have been sung to, as determined by Professor Armand D'Angour of Jesus College, Oxford. You can find out more about Sappho, the vase, and the adaptation of her poem in the About Sappho video.

This animation was created as part of the European Research Council (ERC) funded project: Our Mythical Childhood... The Reception of Children's and Young Adults' Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges (Grant Agreement 681202; ERC Consolidator Grant led by Professor Katarzyna Marciniak) www.omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl.

This PowerPoint file and activity sheet are designed to make it easier to integrate the Sappho videos into your teaching. Feel free to use or adapt them with your class, or if you'd like to do more by yourself :)

• Sappho PowerPoint
• Sappho Activity Sheet