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Sappho - Blog Posts
Hello!🦋✨ I was wondering what your opinion of devotion/worship of Greek figures that arent gods is? Im asking bc I want to honor Sappho in some way but I havent seen any opinions on it. Even if shes not recognized as a Goddess I feel that Sappho could be a great deity/spirit for wlw to work with. I feel like maybe worship is the wrong word but i cant think of another word rn? 🙊 Would it be wrong to consider her a Goddess? How would I go about this (honoring her) in a respectful manor? ✨💖
Hello, sweetness!! The Ancient Greeks have been worshiping non gods since forever! I mean they deified a lot of heroes just so they could worship them as gods. And today a lot of non god figures are worshiped by modern Hellenics such as Alexander the Great, Chiron, and most likely many others. So there’s nothing wrong with you wanting to honor Sappho.
I do think you can honor her (which would be a nice way to describe it if you dont want to say “worship”) without referring to her as a Goddess. I personally think its best you don’t refer to her as a Goddess because she isn’t one and could be seen as offensive and disrespectful to actual Goddesses. But like i said you don’t need to see her as a Goddess in order to honor her and work with her.
I truly believe you can pretty much go about honoring her however way you want to. Like you can do similar things that we as worshipers do for the gods. I think giving her the label of Goddess would piss off the gods more so than anything you do for her. So you can give offerings and do things in her honor if thats what you choose to do.
But I do also want to stress that this is strictly my opinion.
Sapphomanteia (or ‘Sapphomancy’) is a divination system performed by casting dice to identify one of sixty-four possible number combinations, each referencing a fragment of Sappho’s lyrical poetry. This line of poetry can then be interpreted to answer the posed question, or as a guide to think over.
I have carefully selected sixty-four fragments from various translations of Sappho’s work – Diane Rayor, Anne Carson, Aaron Poochigan, and Mary Barnard. The end of each fragment is marked with its relevant reference number as per E. W. Voigt’s numbering system.
To perform Sapphomanteia:
Roll 3 four-sided dice (or roll one dice three times) and use the three digits rolled to reference the corresponding fragment in bold below.
(Online dice rollers here or here).
As with many forms of divination, you could say a prayer to Sappho or another god for guidance in your reading before you start.
~
111 - Yes, we did many things, then - all beautiful (24a)
112 - Golden-crowned Aphrodite, may I draw this lot (33)
113 - I hunger and I struggle (36)
114 - In the dripping of my pain may winds and anguish take him who condemns (37)
121 - You scorch us (38)
122 - To you I sacrifice on the altar a white goat and I will leave for you (40)
123 - My lovely friends, how could I change towards you who are so beautiful? (41)
124 - Their hearts grow cold and their wings fell slack (42)
131 - As long as you want (45)
132 - On a soft cushion I will lay my body down (46)
133 - Without warning as a whirlwind swoops on an oak, Love shakes my heart (47)
134 - You came and I was crazy for you, and you cooled my mind that burned with longing (48)
141 - The gorgeous man presents a gorgeous view; the good man will in time be gorgeous, too (50)
142 - I don’t know what to do - I am of two minds (51)
143 - I don’t expect to touch heaven (52)
144 - Having come from heaven wrapped in a purple cloak (54)
211 - Dead you will lie and never memory of you will there be (55 partial)
212 - I think no woman of such skill will ever again see the light of day (56)
213 - What country girl seduces your wits wearing a country dress not knowing how to pull the cloth to her ankles? (57)
214 - Yet I love the finer things … this and passion for the light of life have granted me brilliance and beauty (58)
221 - Because the blessed Graces grant gifts to the garlanded and snub the worshipper with no flowers on her head (81)
222 - I will love you … as long as breath is in me … will care (88a)
223 - Clothed her well in delicate linen (100)
224 - The evening star is the most beautiful of all stars (104b)
231 - The sweet apple reddens on a high branch, high upon highest, missed by the applepickers: No, they didn’t miss, so much as couldn’t touch (105a)
232 - Like a hyacinth in the mountains, trampled by shepherds until only a purple stain remains on the ground (105b)
233 - Superior as a singer from Lesbos to those of other lands (106)
234 - We shall give, says father (109)
241 - I can best compare you to a slender sapling (115)
242 - Come, divine lyre, speak to me and sing! (118)
243 - I have no spiteful temper but am calm in mind (120)
244 - A delicate young girl plucking flowers (122)
311 - I myself once wove garlands (125)
312 - May you sleep on the breast of a tender companion (126)
313 - Come close, you precious Graces and Muses with beautiful tresses (128)
314 - But you have forgotten me (129a)
321 - Once again Love, that loosener of limbs, bittersweet and inescapable, crawling thing, seizes me (130)
322 - I conversed with you in a dream Kyprogeneia (134)
323 - Messenger of spring, nightingale with enticing song (136)
324 - I want to tell you something but good taste restrains me (137)
331 - Stand before me as a friend and flaunt the charm in your eyes (138)
332 - Ambrosia mixed in a bowl that Hermes, flask in hand, poured for the gods (141)
333 - Golden chickpeas grew on the shores (143)
334 - Don’t move piles of pebbles (145)
341 - Neither the honey nor the bee for me (146)
342 - Someone will remember us, I say, even in another time (147)
343 - Wealth without virtue makes a dangerous neighbour, while their blend holds the pinnacle of happiness (148)
344 - When nightlong celebration closes their eyes (149)
411 - For it is not right in a house of the Muses that there be lament, this would not become us (150)
412 - As the full moon rose, women stood round the altar (154)
413 - Far sweeter in song than a lyre, more golden than gold (156)
414 - When anger spreads in the breast, guard against an idly barking tongue (158)
421 - Now I will sing this beautifully to delight my companions (160)
422 - With what eyes? (162)
423 - The Moon and Pleiades have set - half the night is gone. Time passes. I sleep alone (164b)
424 - Gaia, richly crowned, adorns herself in many hues (168c)
431 - I would lead (169)
432 - A vine that grows up trees (173)
433 - Easy passage (181)
434 - I might go (182)
441 – Danger (184)
442 – Honeyvoiced (185)
443 – Mythweaver (188)
444 – Manyskilled (190)
~
This has been a project of love and devotion, and I am very excited to share it with you all. Many, many, many thanks to @ofhoneyandflame and @thegrapeandthefig for all their help, guidance and input through this process <3
Sappho as Muse in Nazi Germany
Did you write for Sellie Engler?
Did you whisper in her ear,
Did you speak to Lotte Hahm
Things she would maybe need to hear?
.
Did you strike fear in the Stasi,
Of woman loving woman,
An offence to the Nazis
They'd try to silence one by one.
.
Did you visit Violetta,
Dance with ladies in Berlin,
Were you there when love was shattered
Like the glass they trampled in.
.
Are you here with us this day
As all the terrors rise again,
Will you be there as we’re taken,
Give us strength to rise within.
Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables.
Sappho (via theancientworld)
Some say it's a force of cavalry, others of foot,
others of ships, but I say that the most beautiful thing
upon the black earth is whatever it is you desire.
It's easy enough to make this plain to all:
for she who was far more beautiful than any woman of mortal race,
Helen, abandoned her husband - the best of men -
and went sailing off to Troy; she remembered neither her child
nor her much-loved parents, but Aphrodite(?)
led her astray . . .
[This] has made me think of Anactoria, who isn't here.
Her step, which stirs desire, and the bright sparkle of her face,
are dearer sights to me than the chariots of Lydia,
and armed men fighting on foot.
Sappho, Fragment 16.
This is a translation by Gillian Spraggs published in 1998. http://www.gillianspraggs.com/translations/sappho16.html
Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene, Simeon Solomon, 1864. Watercolour.
“Someone will remember us
I say
even in another time”
- Fragment 147, Sappho
Fragments by Sappho mock book cover 💘💐🕊️
I’ve been continuing to play with cover concepts, and am very excited to share this one for a prospective collection of Sappho’s poem fragments. 💘
I’d come up with the idea earlier, to reuse my illustration of Flora from Stabiae, but this week I stumbled across this very cool font named Big Caesar that looks just like ancient handwriting. I’ve tweaked it a little bit to fit the composition, but overall kept the original look.
Which is why cats respond so well to ‘pspsps.’
In the native dialect of Lesbos, Sappho's name is spelled "Psappho". I sometimes picture what it would have been like if that had been the spelling modern English had gone with. Imagine being psapphic.
The first line had me google searching greatest love stories and it lead me to Sappho!!!!!!!
Then the next line after is literally her poem????????? Geez Taylor CHILLLLLLL🫨
ALSO JUST NOTICED THIS FROM THE BEJEWELED MV
She is Sappho here at the end😭 after she ghosts jack 😭
Love this so much.
I made this Xena edit and it got me shadowbanned on TikTok so I am in the middle of weeping and wailing as we speak