Sappho and Catullus

You are beautiful as... football Round and smooth What the heck rhymes with football? Ah! You are beautiful as a football Round and smooth, Not at all like a troll Hm, perhaps love poems aren't your strong point. Let's go to the ancient world and meet with two poets.

That might give you some inspiration. Ancient literature is divided into three kinds: Stories in verse - epics; Theater plays - drama; and Poetry - lyric. Lyric was not spoken as it would be today but was mostly sung. It was in the seventh century BCE that lyric was foremost. At that time it was mostly written here, on the islands in the Aegean sea.

And it was here, on the Island of Lesbos that the most celebrated and admired ancient Greek poet lived: Sappho. Sappho is also the first female poet that we know of in world history. Apart from writing poetry it's not clear how Sappho spent her days. The only thing we know about is that she was the centre of a group of rich, young women in something that might have been a school, or a sorority or a religious cult. Sappho's poetry often covers topics of love and eroticism, often written to women.

This is why we call a homosexual woman a lesbian- because Sappho was from Lesbos. Sapphic love is another expression meaning love between lesbians. But both words, "lesbian" and "homosexual", are modern words and were not in use in ancient times. Whether or not Sappho really was a lesbian, we can't know either. BUT it's only in later centuries that we started thinking that her love poems dedicated to women might not be about "physical love".

Anyway. This is what the beginning of one of her most famous poems sounds like. "To me he seems like a god as he sits facing you and hears you near as you speak softly and laugh in a sweet echo that jolts the heart in my ribs" The Roman poets were both impressed and inspired by Sappho. Especially the poet Catullus. Catullus wrote, among other things, a version of the poem of Sappho that we just heard. But Catullus made it out to be about his beloved, Clodia.

Who was Catullus? Well, he was the first Roman poet to write about personal feelings. Above all, he wrote about his relationship with Clodia. Clodia was married to one of Rome's most famous men but had lots of lovers that her husband didn't know about. This made Catullus both love her and hate her in his poems.

Like here: "I hate and I love. Why I do this, perhaps you ask? I don't know, but I feel it, it's happening, and I'm tortured." Well, do you feel inspired? I hate and I love That you are like a ball, not at all like a troll.