Vates Lesbia

This chapter argues that the representation of Sappho the poet appears as a coherent portrait in the poetry of Ovid, and that this portrait closely resembles that of Ovid himself. This is so even when Heroides 15, also known as Epistula Sapphus, where Sappho as poet is centre stage, is set aside. The argument emerges from close readings of passages from the earliest of Ovid’s poetic career, such as the Amores, Ars amatoria (Book 3), and Remedia amoris, and also deals with some of his latest poetry in the Tristia, written in exile, all in the context of passages in Sappho and other Latin poetry and prose.

As Important as Callimachus?

This chapter departs from the fact that Sappho is a case in point for many kinds of translations in Roman culture, notably from Greek to Latin, female to male, and from one poetic form to another. By looking at Sappho and Callimachus as two sides of Catullus’ translational technique, this chapter proposes that Sappho can be regarded to be at least as important as Callimachus in the case of Catullus. Catullus, possibly inspired by an existing Hellenistic tradition, thus seems to introduce a model for pairing Sappho with another Greek, male poet, which proves productive in later Roman poets such as Horace, Propertius, Ovid, and Martial.

Lucretius and Sapphic uoluptas

The philosophical aspects of Sappho’s poetry are well established, as are those of Lucretius. This chapter makes the case for a number of Sapphic allusions in Lucretius, and thus strengthens the possibility for seeing theoretical points of contact between the poetic projects of the Greek and Roman poet, which are normally regarded as incompatible. The argument emerges from the close reading of Lucretius in dialogue with Sappho 1, frr. 31 and 55, and reflects on poetic and philosophical imagery of flowers, honey, and, more generally, ancient concepts of gratification. In this way the chapter outlines a common ground between Sappho and Lucretius in their poetic-philosophical concept of pleasure.

Introduction

Within a framework that shows how Sappho’s reception in antiquity has important implications for Sappho scholarship, our understanding of Roman poetry, and of classical reception studies in general, the introduction outlines the extant output of Sappho, including the newest Sappho text (2016), as well as the chapters of the present volume. The introduction departs from three Sappho scholars, Welcker (1784–1868), Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (1848–1931), and Robinson (1880–1958), and reflects on the scholarly implications of how their times were ideologically different from ours. By revisiting important evidence for Sappho’s ancient reception, such as the Parian Marble, coins, figurative representations of Sappho, and considering recent papyrus finds from the Roman era, the introduction zooms in on Roman literature, which is the main focus of the present volume. Then there follows a brief presentation of Sappho’s extant output and an ample thematic presentation of the chapters in the volume. Finally, the introduction discusses Shane Butler’s new concept of Deep Classics in the context of Sappho’s Roman reception, and points towards another metaphor, this time from art, as a means to pursue future reception studies, using the restored Sappho fragment that was retrieved in 2004, known as ‘Posthumous honour for Sappho’, to illustrate the point.

Sapphic Echoes in Catullus 1–14

This chapter argues that a pattern of Sapphic allusions in the first fourteen poems of Catullus’ poetry book constitute a hitherto neglected unity similar to that which scholarship now recognizes as a group of allusions to the Greek epigrammatist Meleager in the same Catullan corpus. This Sapphic pattern, inter alia, confirms the importance of Sappho as a model author for Catullus. The argument emerges from a close examination of Catullus’ first fourteen poems, particularly poems 2, 3, 6, 8, and 11, as well as Catullus’ epithalamial poem 62, in comparison with Sappho poem 1, her fragments 105b (Voigt), and 137, whose metrical form of Alcaics (uniquely among extant Sapphic fragments) paves the way for an investigation into the institution of ancient symposia and the theme of friendship in Greek and Roman poetry.

Notes on the Ancient Reception of Sappho

The absence and presence of Sappho in ancient literary criticism is telling of her reception, not least in the Roman context, as this chapter shows. It argues that through various approaches to Sappho we can observe the dynamics of ancient literary theory, where inter alia the contrastive concepts of ἀλλότριον‎ (‘what belongs to someone else’) and οἰκεῖον‎ (‘what is one’s own’) prove productive for enhancing our understanding of categories such as gender, translation, and—more broadly—reception in the ancient world. The chapter covers reflections on literature in ancient literary critics, combined with analyses of passages from the poetry of Sappho and Roman poets such as Lucretius, Catullus, Horace, and Ovid.

Sappho in Roman Epigram

This chapter argues that Martial positions himself in relationship with his great model Catullus through a number of highly sophisticated yet ‘deformed’ allusions to Sappho. It argues further that these allusions help Martial in asserting his own, individual poetic project. The line of reasoning emerges from close scrutiny of a number of details from a wide range of Greek and Roman epigrams, such as that in which Valerius Aedituus alludes to Sappho fr. 31. The main investigation, however, remains concentrated on crucial passages from Martial, compared with relevant passages from the satires of Juvenal, which together form a pattern in which the figure of Sappho appears key.

The Newest Sappho (2016) and Ovid’s Heroides 15

This chapter argues that Ovid’s Heroides 15, also known as Epistula Sapphus, appears singularly receptive to the sequence of poems that have recently been recovered in the newest Sappho papyrus, which belongs to a Roman-period copy of an Alexandrian edition of Sappho. Among the most striking similarities is the sustained combination of love and personal desire on the one hand and issues concerning family and autobiography on the other, which has become apparent with the recovered sequence of Sappho poems and which—uniquely in a post-Sapphic context—is also found in Heroides 15. The chapter shows how Heroides 15 displays striking similarities with a number of these fragments, concerning both general aspects and specific details.

Sappho: Transparency and Obstruction

A number of issues obstruct our vision of Sappho and her ancient reception. This chapter revisits such obstructions as the loss of Sappho’s poetry, the difficulty of accessing information regarding e.g. Chamaeleon’s treatise on Sappho, the attestation of the Athenian sculptor Silanion’s portrait of Sappho at Rome, and the significance of the poem variously known as Ovid’s Heroides 15 and Epistula Sapphus, as well as most of the testimonies for Sappho’s alleged ugliness and association with prostitution. Finally, conflicting images of Sappho are measured against the consistently erotic depiction of her figure and poetry at Rome, where she becomes particularly closely linked with a Roman brand of the metapoetics of love poetry, dubbed erotopoetics in this volume.

Sappho as a Pupil of the praeceptor amoris and Sappho as magistra amoris

This chapter takes a new approach to the idea of ‘Sappho the schoolmistress’ by exploring the significance of Sapphic evocations in Ovidian erotodidaxis. By focusing on the figure of Sappho in Heroides 15, also known as Epistula Sapphus, this chapter argues that the rhetorical strategies employed in this poem appear strikingly consistent with those of ‘Ovid the poet’ in his Amores and ‘Ovid the teacher of love’ in his Ars amatoria. The argument emerges through an exploration of a large number of passages from Ovid’s love elegies, making links with several Sappho fragments, and focusing throughout on the employment of ancient rhetoric and reasoning in a poetic context.