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Study Questions on Sappho's Poetry
Additional
Vocabulary: Imagery, implied audience,
lyrics,
thiasos, Sapphic meter, poetic speaker.
Introduction:
none.
Lecture or Handouts: What
island did Sappho live on in Greece? Some scholars think
she may have been a priestess; if so, what deity did Sappho
probably worship? What is one legend concerning Sappho's
life that scholars have proven is false? Why does so little
of Sappho's poetry survive? In what unusual location were
the most recent fragments of her poetry located? What meter
did Sappho use most often for her poetry?
Identify the following folks:
Zeus, Aphrodite, Anactoria, Diana (Dian)
Reading Questions:
- "On a Priestess of Diana."
- In the first line of the poem, "On a Priestess
of Diana," the speaker claims to answer from an unusual
place or situation. What is that place or situation? What
does that imply about the status of the speaker?
- In the poem, "On a Priestess of Diana," how
did the speaker became a priestess? Was it her choice?
- In the poem, "On a Priestess of Diana," what
is the one request the speaker asks of her goddess?
- "Ode to Anactoria."
- In the poem, "Ode to Anactoria," the poetic
speaker addresses an implied audience named Anactoria.
Anactoria, however, is not paying attention to the
speaker (herself? himself?), but paying attention to someone
else sitting beside her (him?). Who does the implied audience
pay attention to? What does this third person look like?
- In the first stanza, the youth's ears are doing something
unusual. What are they doing? Why is that an impossible
image? What does this image mean the youth is doing as
he listens to Anactoria?
- How does Anactoria's smile affect the speaker?
- What happens to the speaker's eyes while watching Anactoria?
What does this image mean?
- The last stanza states that the speaker grows "grassy
pale." What do you suppose this means? Why might
we call grass pale?
- "Hymn to Aphrodite."
- What does the speaker ask of Aphrodite in the opening
of the prayer?
- Where or what is "your father's golden house"
in the second stanza section?
- When Aphrodite goes out riding in her chariot, she hitches
her vehicle up to some rather unusual animals. What animals
does she hitch her chariot to? Why is that appropriate
or inappropiate as a beast of burden for the goddess of
love?
- What does Aphrodite promise the speaker to provide her
with some comfort concerning the lover playing hard-to-get?
- In the last stanza, the speaker asks Aphrodite for an
odd favor. Why is that favor odd, given the nature of
the goddess Aphrodite?
- "Fragment Three."
- In fragment III, what is the relationship between the
moon and the "planets" or stars described in
the poem? Why does this power-dynamic make sense, given
the qualities of these celestial objects?
- What does "full-orbed" mean? How do you know
it means that since it doesn't appear in any dictionaries
in the world?
- The poet chooses an unusual verb to describe the way
moonlight falls on the earth in the final two lines. What
does the moon do with her "silver radiance"?
Why is that odd or poetic?
Sample Passage Identifications:
A. Come, Venus, come
Hither with thy golden cup,
Where nectar-floated flowerets swim.
Fill, fill the goblet up;
These laughing lips shall kiss the brim--
Come, Venus, come!
B. Does any ask? I answer from the dead;
A voice that lives is graven o'er my head:
To dark-eyed Dian,
ere my days begun,
Aristo vowed me, wife of Saon's son:
Then hear thy priestess, hear, O virgin Power,
And thy best gifts on Saon's lineage shower.
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