Sappho

Now Available Online | Sappho in the Making: The Early Reception

The CHS team is pleased to announce the online publication of Sappho in the Making: The Early Reception, by Dimitrios Yatromanolakis for free on the CHS website. For a print version of this edition, please visit the Harvard University Press website. “The need to broaden our investigation is urgent. Sappho must be revisited from several different perspectives. One is her surviving textual corpus… Read more

Now Available Online | Sappho in the Making: The Early Reception

The CHS team is pleased to announce the online publication of Sappho in the Making: The Early Reception, by Dimitrios Yatromanolakis for free on the CHS website. For a print version of this edition, please visit the Harvard University Press website. “The need to broaden our investigation is urgent. Sappho must be revisited from several different perspectives. One is her surviving textual corpus and… Read more

SapphoFest 2015

The Center for Hellenic Studies, in association with Govinda Gallery, is pleased to announce SapphoFest 2015, three days of art and discussion celebrating the songs of Sappho, fifty years of Donovan's poetry and music, and Donovan's Sapphographs. Read more

Classical Inquiries | Diachronic Sappho: some prolegomena

Detail from Attic krater attributed to the Brygos painter, 480-470 BCE. Line drawing by Valerie Woelfel. “A diachronic as well as synchronic approach to the songmaking of Sappho” by Gregory Nagy In his posting Diachronic Sappho: some prolegomena, Gregory Nagy argues that the art of Sappho’s songmaking can be viewed as an evolving medium through time. He offers his views in support of this argument. Read more

Classical Inquiries | Diachronic Sappho: some prolegomena

Detail from Attic krater attributed to the Brygos painter, 480-470 BCE. Line drawing by Valerie Woelfel. “A diachronic as well as synchronic approach to the songmaking of Sappho” by Gregory Nagy In his posting Diachronic Sappho: some prolegomena, Gregory Nagy argues that the art of Sappho’s songmaking can be viewed as an evolving medium through time. He offers his views in support of this argument. Read more

Short Writings Volume III | “A poetics of sisterly affect in the Brothers Song and in other songs of Sappho,” by Gregory Nagy

Featured research on The Brothers Song and “Sappho’s sisterly identity” “What would be so delightful about songs expressing an aristocratic woman’s tormented feelings about a brother who squandered his family’s wealth on a courtesan in Egypt?” In an attempt to answer this question, Gregory Nagy comments on the “mixed feelings” of a sister on his essay “A Poetics of Sisterly Affect in the Brothers Song and in… Read more

Short Writings Volume III | “A poetics of sisterly affect in the Brothers Song and in other songs of Sappho,” by Gregory Nagy

Featured research on The Brothers Song and “Sappho’s sisterly identity” “What would be so delightful about songs expressing an aristocratic woman’s tormented feelings about a brother who squandered his family’s wealth on a courtesan in Egypt?” In an attempt to answer this question, Gregory Nagy comments on the “mixed feelings” of a sister on his essay “A Poetics of Sisterly Affect in the Brothers Song… Read more

Classical Inquiries | “Genre, Occasion, and Choral Mimesis Revisited,” by Gregory Nagy

"What happens if the occasion for performing a given genre of song becomes obsolete?" Gregory Nagy considers this question in his recent article on Classical Inquiries: "Genre, Occasion, and Choral Mimesis Revisited—with special reference to the 'newest Sappho'.” (2015.10.1) Drawing on the songs of Sappho and the modern lyrics of Lesley Gore, Nagy argues that genre can compensate for, and even absolutize, the occasion of performance. For Nagy, the occasion of choral performance is the mimesis of emotions by way of song and dance. "The emotions themselves are not the occasion." Read more