by Peter Green
The brutal truth is that we know rather less about Sappho as a person than we do about Shakespeare—another great collector of romantic or cranky adherents, and for very similar reasons. There is not one surviving ancient Life of Sappho, unless we count a wretched entry in a Byzantine lexicon. Our main primary source of Sappho’s life is, naturally, her own poetry, and that of her contemporary Alcaeus—or such tattered scraps of it as survive in grammarians’ excerpts and have been rescued on papyrus fragments: less than one-twentieth of the estimated whole.
I have done my best to put Sappho’s life together in accordance with the evidence. My task has been rather like that of an archaeologist reassembling some amphora from hundreds of sherds—of which more than half are missing. Only when historical evidence fails have I invented incidents or characters. I have been wary of modern myths, though I hope I have treated ancient ones with respect. For centuries, it has been a favourite pastime, among scholars and others, to prove (to their own if no one else’s satisfaction) that Sappho could not have been a Lesbian, in the modern sense of that word; could not have committed suicide; and could not, for good measure, have had an affair in late middle-age with a boatman. A misplaced zeal for romantic truth has led men to maintain very curious arguments in this field: when all else failed, awkward or unwelcome facts were written off as misapplied mythology.
Sappho’s life spans one of the most fascinating periods in all Greek history: the last two decades of the seventh century b.c., and the first three of the sixth. It was an age of transition—political, ethical, cultural—with a failing aristocratic ideal stubbornly entrenched against the rising flood of mercantilism. I have tried to take account of this conflict in my novel.
There is one other source of evidence which may, rightly or wrongly, be regarded as more beneficial to the novelist than the historian; and that is the island of Lesbos itself. Of all Aegean islands, this one has perhaps changed least since ancient times: it is, for instance, still very heavily wooded, with pine and chestnut forests in addition to the ubiquitous olive or ilex. Any permanent resident who knows his Sappho (and many Greeks do) will be struck, again and again, by climatic or topographical echoes of some striking image in the poetry: a ‘rosy-fingered moon’ after sunset will come as no surprise to an islander—nor will the ‘down-rushing wind’ that shakes the oaks.
Methymna, LesbosPeter Green
CHRONOLOGICAL
TABLE OF EVENTS
N.B. Fictional events (as opposed to historical hypotheses, or historical events for which no reasonably sure date can be argued) are marked with a star, thus:* Many birth-dates are highly theoretical; these, and other reasoned guesses, are marked with a query: ?
b.c.
640Pittacus born
625Periander succeeds to tyranny of Corinth
?Alcaeus born
618?Sappho born at Eresus on Lesbos
Alyattes succeeds to throne of Lydia
616?Telesippa and Charaxus born
615?Mica born
614?Eurygyus, Sappho’s brother, born; also ?Pittacus’ son Tyrrhaeus
613*Pittacus visits Scamandronymus and Clefs in Eresus
Alyattes, Periander, and Thrasybulus of Miletus in alliance
612Melanchros, tyrant of Mytilene, overthrown by aristocratic coup: conspirators include Pittacus, Phanias, Antimenidas, Cicis, Scamandronymus
Melanchros’ deputy, Myrsilus, exiled
?Scamandronymus killed during coup
?Cleïs and her family move to Mytilene
?Sappho’s brother Larichus born
610?Atthis born
609?Premature death of Sappho’s brother Eurygyus
Death of Psammetichus I of Egypt; Neko succeeds him
608Draco secures Pittacus’ appointment as commander in Sigean War
*Praxinoa given to Sappho, Megara, and Telesippa as maid
607Sigean War: campaign in Troad during which Alcaeus (aet.18) drops his shield and runs
606Periander arbitrates between Athens and Lesbos in Troad
?Death of Sappho’s Uncle Eurygyus
605*Cleïs collecting conspirators
604Return of Myrsilus from exile: successful coup; Council of Nobles overthrown
Defection of Pittacus
First exile of Sappho [to Pyrrha]
?Pittacus embezzles 2000 gold pieces from Alyattes of Lydia
601Pittacus (aet.39) confirmed in joint power with Myrsilus
Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign against Jehoiakim
600*Birth of Atthis’ brother Hippias
599Unsuccessful aristocratic coup against Myrsilus
?Death of Phanias and Cicis
Alcaeus and Antimenidas captured
?Sappho and Cleïs arrested in Pyrrha, brought back to Mytilene
Second exile: Sappho to Syracuse[?] in Sicily, Antimenidas to Babylon as mercenary, Alcaeus to Egypt
*Sappho travels with Arion of Methyrana, meets Periander
597*Telesippa marries Archaeanax
Birth of Croesus
?Arion returns to Corinth: the dolphin story
?Death of Sappho’s mother Cleïs
*Aunt Helen’s second marriage: to Myrsilus
*Phanias’ widow Ismene marries Agesilaïdas
*Charaxus marries Draco’s daughter Irana
*Lycurgus and Chloe ambushed and killed in Sicily
594?Sappho marries Cercylas of Andros, returns to Mytilene
Sappho’s brother Larichus cup-bearer in Mytilene City Hall
593?Sappho begins to establish group in Mytilene: Atthis (aet.17), Megara (aet.26), Mica (aet.22), Telesippa (aet.23)
?Rival group led by Andromeda (aet.27) with Gorgo (aet.26) and Irana (aet.22)
592?Alcaeus (aet.33) and Antimenidas (aet.42) granted pardon, return from exile
*Death of Pittacus’ wife Chione (aet.46)
591?Sappho pregnant with Cleïs
590Death of Myrsilus [*and Cercylas] in ambush between Pyrrha and Mytilene
?Arrival of Anactoria and Cydro
Pittacus elected aesymnetes, or constitutional dictator, of Mytilene
Death of Antimenidas; trial of Alcaeus
Pittacus marries widowed sister of Draco [*Sappho’s Aunt Helen]
589*Mica marries Melanippus
587*Anactoria marries Iadmon, leaves for Lydia
586?House of the Muses begins to crystallize as professional undertaking
585*Agesilaïdas and Ismene move from Three Winds to Pyrrha
Death of Periander
582First formulation of “Seven Wise Men” (including Pittacus)
581Pittacus’ son Tyrrhaeus murdered (aet.33)
580Pittacus (aet.60) resigns tyranny of Mytilene
579?Alcaeus exiled by new democratic Council; travels to mainland Greece
578*Larichus marries rich Athenian heiress
576?Death of Draco (aet.69)
575?Alcaeus returns to Mytilene (aet.50)
574Croesus governor of Adramyttium
573?Sappho (aet.45) has serious breakdown and illness
572House of the Muses dissolved; voyage to Samos; *affair
571with Hippias
570Charaxus’ affair with Doricha-Rhodopis in Naucratis
Accession of Amasis as Pharaoh
Death of Pittacus (aet.70)
*Death of Draco’s wife Xanthe (aet.66)
569Sappho’s affair with Phaon of Mytilene
568Phaon removed from Lesbos [*at Charaxus’ instigation] and sails to Sicily
?Sappho takes ship for Corinth and Sicily; her death on the island of Leucas
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter Green was born in London in 1924 and educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took first-class honours in both parts of the Classical Tripos, winning the Craven Scholarship and Studentship in the same year (1950) and subsequently obtaining a Ph.D. After a short spell as Director of Studies in Classics at Cambridge, h
e worked for some years as a freelance writer, translator and literary journalist and as a publisher. In 1963 he emigrated to Greece with his family. From 1966 to 1971 he lectured in Greek history and literature at College Year in Athens; in 1971 he came to the University of Texas at Austin, where he is now Dougherty Centennial Professor of Classics.