Charlie Richmond/OutWrite
Content warning: Discussion of lesbophobia.
“someone will remember us I say even in another time” • Sappho, fragment 147, trans. Ann Carson
Since the 1970s, the use of the term Sapphic in reference to lesbians has grown in popularity. The term originates from the ancient Greek poet Sappho, born in Lesvos around 620 BCE. Sappho was a skilled and influential poet, but she is arguably best known for the homoerotic and lesbian themes expressed in many of her works. Although Sappho is only one piece of the vast history of influential queer women — queer women have flourished in Indigenous societies across the globe — how Sappho has been perceived and how she has influenced society, queer and otherwise, has changed greatly throughout history and remains relevant today.
The vast majority of Sappho’s poetry has been lost to time. Still, a significant number of her fragments have been discovered and translated, along with mentions of the Greek poet by other ancient writers. During and immediately following her lifetime, Sappho was well-loved in Greek society, especially by women, who shared her works with each other through writing and song. Plato lauded her works, regarding Sappho as the honorary tenth sister to the Muses, the goddesses of art and poetry. Sappho even championed her own style of poetry, Sapphic Meter.
However, this widespread respect for Sappho and her works did not last forever. Her poems and history were often suppressed or rewritten to suit social and political standards. In the Victorian Era, for example, scholars attempted to erase the homoerotic and sexual nature of Sappho’s works in order to frame her as a chaste schoolmistress, the epitome of a Victorian woman. This intentional misinterpretation of Sappho’s works demonstrates a period of erasure of Sappho herself. After all, the love and obsession towards other women expressed in her poetry is an essential part of who she was as an artist and an individual.
So how did Sappho come to gain icon status and major influence within the modern queer community? During the second-wave feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Sappho became a mascot and role model for queer people involved in the movement. They recognized her for her unabashed queer sexuality and opposition to the gender roles for women of the era, as Sappho was a highly respected writer and a leader within her community. In the early 2000s, queer women began taking pilgrimages to Lesvos, Sappho’s home island and the source of the word “lesbian.” These lesbian pilgrimages, known as the International Eressos Women’s Festival, continue to be a space for sapphic women to gather and celebrate their culture. In recent history, Sappho and her queerness have become a flag under which queer women unite. By celebrating and honoring her, queer women have joined together to cultivate community and solidarity in the face of often harsh and unaccepting political and social climates.
Lesbian cinema of the 2010s and 20s, especially in the increasingly popular subgenre of the melancholy lesbian period piece, has come to adopt a distinctly sapphic ethos. Sappho 31, one of the most famous of Sappho’s poetry fragments to be discovered, expresses emotions almost uncannily similar to those portrayed in modern lesbian dramas. The setup of Sappho 31 sees the poet observing a man in conversation with a female companion. When she notices the woman, her jealousy and desire become so intense that they elicit a physical reaction.
“and lovely laughter, which, as it wafts by, sets the heart in my ribcage fluttering; as soon as I glance at you a moment, I can’t say a thing, [...] my body shakes, suddenly sallower than summer grass, and death, I fear and feel, is very near.” • trans. Chris Childers
Films like “Carol” (2015), “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019), and “Ammonite” (2020) hold a mirror to Sappho’s stories written over two thousand years ago. Longing gazes, swelling orchestral music, the demand for secrecy in a heteronormative society, and other cornerstones of the genre emphasize the anguish, yearning, and intense joy that often go hand-in-hand in queer love. In addition to their shared themes, the historical nature of both queer period pieces and Sappho’s poetry speak to a key idea: queer women and lesbianism have always existed. Whether they are portrayed as poems of the tragic separation of Sappho and her lover, as in Sappho 94, or in a film about an eighteenth-century aristocrat and the female artist commissioned to paint her (as in “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”) each depiction shines new light on the experiences of queer women who came before.
Although the queer community and Sapphic identities have evolved and diversified since Sappho’s life, her poems are timeless and continue to speak to queer and lesbian experiences in the modern day. Her works stand out for their pure and unashamed expressions of love and sincerity, which some have tried to suppress, but many more have worked to uplift and capture. Since the late 20th century, Sapphic influences in popular culture have been a marker of queer artists’ work to liberate themselves and generate community in the face of oppression and erasure. The current cultural landscape that has been and is becoming increasingly hostile towards queer people — especially queer cis and trans women and lesbians across the gender spectrum. As the queerness and liberation that Sappho represents were suppressed during the Victorian Era, censorship and the attacks on the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people threaten to do the same thing today. Therefore, it is more important than ever to continue making and appreciating art that embraces and truthfully represents queer experiences, as Sappho’s works have for generations.