Poems and Fragments (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Translator) "Shimmering, iridescent, deathless Aphrodite, child of Zeus, weaver of wiles,..." (more)
Key Phrases: archaic poets, erotic desire

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Little remains today of the writings of the archaic Greek poet Sappho (fl. late 7th and early 6th centuries B.C.E.), whose work is said to have filled nine papyrus rolls in the great library at Alexandria some 500 years after her death. The surviving texts consist of a lamentably small and fragmented body of lyric poetry--among them, poems of invocation, desire, spite, celebration, resignation, and remembrance--that nevertheless enables us to hear the living voice of the poet Plato called the tenth Muse.

Stanley Lombardo's translations give us a virtuoso embodiment of Sappho's voice, whose telltale charm, authority, immediacy, directness, intensity, and sudden changes of tone are among the hallmarks of his masterly translation.

Pamela Gordon introduces us to the world of Sappho, discusses questions surrounding the transmission of her manuscripts, offers advice on reading these texts, and concludes with an enlightening discussion of same-sex desire in Sappho.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872205916
• ISBN-13: 978-0872205918
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #250,375 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #3 in

  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Sappho

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shining and Resplendent Sappho..., October 3, 2008

By	Ryan Kouroukis "In 1882 Richard Wagner said: ... (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

These translations of Sappho are for me the most beautiful I've ever encountered...

Lombardo presents each fragment on its own page, and presents them Thematically (in other words, not in order). He has used ALL of the long and shorter fragments.

In the Introduction he says that he did not want to use every single fragment because some of them are only one word and thus incomprehensible for poetic purposes (which I also agree)...so in total he presents over 90 of the fragments in the most beautiful and ravishing renditions I've ever seen!

These may be Lombardo's most beautiful translations he's done for Hackett Publishing!

5.0 out of 5 stars "The moon has set...", June 12, 2004

By	Jan Dierckx (Belgium, Turnhout) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In Antiquity decent women were supposed to work in the kitchen and to raise their children, nothing more, but there were exceptions. More or less 150 years after Homer's Iliad, Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos, west off the coast of what is Turkey today.. (She went in exile for a short period due to political upheavel).
Sappho was already famous in Antiquity. Plato called her the tenth Muze and someone said her poetry was "as refreshing as a morning breeze".
Some of the best poems of Sappho are those that describe her loneliness.
(#62)
"But if you are my friend,
Go to a younger woman's bed,
For I will not endure an affair
In which I am older than the man."
(#73)
"The moon has set,
And the Pleiades
Midnight
The hour has gone by
I sleep alone."