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[fpb]

I wrote the article behind the cut years ago, in response to a particularly foul bit women's-studies illiteracy which I had encountered in an Amateur Press Association (a circle of amateur writers reading each other's work):

Comments

[jamesenge]

Sappho is certainly a target for weird legends (nowadays more than ever).

The cultural fame of Lesbos may have predated Sappho. Part of the compensation that Agamemnon offers Achilles in Iliad 9 is a group of seven accomplished women from Lesbos, and Alcaeus was almost as famous a lyric poet as she was (although I never liked him as much; only Archilochus comes close to Sappho for me--maybe Catullus, in Latin).

[fellmama]

In general you are quite right. I would, however, offer the quibble that your analysis would be made all the stronger by the excision of some of its Athens-cetric tendency. For example, the universals you offer about the status of women in the Greek world are applicable to only the very most aristocratic women of Athens.

[fpb]

I disagree. Athens may have double concentrated all the Greek tendencies, but I would remind you that the legend of Helen and Clytemnestra was, one, known across Greece before Athens began to count for much; two, significantly different from all the related Indo-European stories of beautiful women for whom great wars are fought (compare Draupadi in India, Gwennhwyvar/Guinevere in the Brythonic cultures, Lavinia in Italy, and so on) exactly in those features I singled out; and, three, flanked by several other legends. From the treacherous wives of Diomedes and Adrastos to the women of Lemnos who sowed toasted wheat, Greek legend is consistently misogynous, and misogynous with the same features.

[fellmama]

Oh, I'd agree that the archetype of woman as betrayer was common across Mediterranean cultures. I was more referring to this bit in particular:
Because of this pathological terror, Greek women were kept in a state approaching slavery, locked in the house, forbidden to take any part in public affairs, oppressed, insulted, and traded like cattle. Whatever happened, they could not be allowed to have an independent life, lest the all too fragile property should be endangered.

[fpb]

I would rather say that, as all art tends to the condition of music, so all Greek attitudes to women tended to the condition of Athens. That is a rather elaborate and thankless joke, but my view is that the proprietary view of women was pan-hellenic, with the exception of Sparta, which was deviant in this as in many other features.

[johncwright]

Thank you for posting this. I found the description of ancient Greece fascinating. The devotion to Sappho's memory is refreshing and displays a rare nobility. I salute you.