Title
Sappho's Mythic Models for Female Homoeroticism
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-16-2021
Department 1
Classics
Department 2
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Abstract
This paper contends that Sappho draws upon the mythic tradition to represent female homoeroticism as queer in her poetry. First, I show how Sappho's invocation of Tithonos and Helen as erotic paradigms in fragments 58 and 16 figures female same-sex love as non-normative and shadowed by loss, while also symmetrical and idealized. Then I propose that the Homeric Andromache also informs Sappho's representation of her speakers' desires in fragments 16 and 31, and I argue that recognizing Andromache's latent example helps us to understand how Sappho, in these songs, positions female homoeroticism in painful opposition to conventional marriage.
DOI
10.1353/are.2021.0004
Recommended Citation
Lesser, Rachel H. "Sappho's Mythic Models for Female Homoeroticism." Arethusa 54, no. 2 (2021): 121-161. doi:10.1353/are.2021.0004.