Studies in Sappho and Alcaeus

by: Tsantsanoglou, K.

The poetry of the archaic poets of Lesbos, Sappho and Alcaeus, has been imperfectly and poorly transmitted either in book fragments or in later ragged papyri, so that new attempts of interpretation will always be required, especially when new research tools and methods have appeared in classical scholarship.
The book consists of 14 articles by the author, which present and deal with diverse problems of the two poets of Lesbos. Various questions on already transmitted poems, different readings, reconstructions, and interpretations of the new finds are proposed, but, most importantly, new approaches in general topics, such as the division of Sappho?s work in Books, the logic leading to this division, the order of these Books, the contents of each of them, the interpretation of the surviving fragments, often quite different than before. A feature that characterizes the old-age poetry of Sappho is her anxiety about the posthumous fate of her poetry and her hope that Kleïs, her only daughter, will ensure its dissemination. Finally, the author investigates the communal festival of Hera in Lesbos, a festival performed in common with Zeus and Dionysus, the so-called “Lesbian Triad”. The festival is specified as a welcome to the season of spring at the time of the vernal equinox. Also, the location of the temenos of Hera is investigated, close to Pyrrha of Lesbos, which was the site of Alcaeus? second exile.

Frontmatter
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: I–IV

Preface
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: V–VI

Contents
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: VII–VIII

List of Figures
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: IX–X

1. Sappho Illustrated
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 1–27
2. Sappho on her Funeral Day: P.Colon. 21351.1–8
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 28–37
3. Kleïs as Promoter of Sappho?s Poetry (Fr. 59 V.)
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 38–41
4. Sappho?s (?) Orpheus Song
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 42–71
5. P. Sapph. Obbink: the ?Kypris Poem?
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 72–85
6. Sappho?s Epithalamians
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 86–113
7. Sappho Tithonus Poem
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 114–117
8. Sappho 1.18–19 V.
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 118–120
9. The Banquet of the Gods and the Picnic of the Girls
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 121–146
10. The Danaans in Lesbos
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 147–161
11. Sappho 27 V., Alcaeus 308 Lib., and the Homeric Hymn to Hermes
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 162–168
12. Alcaeus on the Lesbian Triad Festival
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 169–191
13. The Location of the Lesbian Triad Temenos
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 192–203
14. Who was Onymacles the Athenian?
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 204–212
Bibliography
Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou
Page Range: 213–218

Studies in Sappho and Alcaeus

by: Tsantsanoglou, K.

• ISBN-13: 9783110629835 / 978-3-11-062983-5
• ISBN-03: 3110629836 / 3-11-062983-6
• Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 2019