Sappho's "He is More than a Hero": Analysis

A BESTWORD ANALYSIS

Sappho’s “He is More than a Hero”, the third of only four existing original copies of Sappho’s surviving works, is an intriguing example of the raw, passionate sexuality that had made Sappho, by Greek reputation, the “tenth muse” of antiquity.  The focus of Sappho’s poem, not the man, but the unnamed woman whose attention he holds, unleashes three feverous stanzas of concupiscent desire.  Prior analyses of Sappho’s poem “He is More than a Hero” have unfairly labeled it as a work of jealousy or, perhaps in an act of latent homophobia, redirected the affections of the infatuated narrator.  The work, however, is an enthralling dynamic of the physiological phenomenon of sexual desire and classical Greek culture, with its ancient definitions of erotic love, pouring out in a lyrical melic scandalous by today’s standards.

Living in the Seventh century B.C., on the island of Lesbos, Sappho was a teacher of young aristocratic Greek women in the city of Mytilene.  Though excluded from positions in society, women of high birth where expected to be cultured and refined in the arts of music, dance and literature.  As a famous writer of Greek lyric love poetry, Sappho was an outstanding contributor to the arts of the Mediterranean as well as to her own reputation as a woman.  The name Sappho and the Isle of Lesbos are immortalized in popular literature, and the English language, as the hot springs of female homo-erotic engenderment.

Sappho would also be remembered for her incredible poetry as well.  Her writing would often be in a form of melic monodies, or songs that were to be sung by a single musician, singing it as a musical poem reading.  Sappho favorite use of the four line stanza utilizing a metric pattern that would come to be known as ‘Sapphic’ stanza would later be named after its originator.  Indeed, Sappho is considered one of the most prominent lyric poets of ancient Greece.  Yet, in spite of the historic claims that her writings had filled nine scrolls of papyrus in the Library of Alexandria, only four surviving original copies of Sappho’s work have ever been found.  Two were found incompletely on torn pieces of parchment and the last written on the bindings of a mummy in Egypt.  Only one poem was actually found complete; a prayer to Aphrodite. 

Sappho, because of how little we actually know about who she was, or how she wrote, lives on through reference by Greek and Roman philosophers and poets.  Mostly, her name is remembered by her almost fantastic mythology; the sensual female poet with a talent for writing passionate ‘Sapphic’ love poetry.

HE IS MORE THAN A HERO
(Translated by Mary Barnard, 1958)

He is more than a hero,
He is a god in my eyes –
The man who is allowed
To sit beside you --- he
Who listens intimately
To the sweet murmur of
Your voice, the enticing
Laughter that makes my own
Heart beat fast.  If I meet
You suddenly, I can’t
Speak – my tongue is broken;
A thin flame runs under
My skin; seeing nothing,
Hearing only my own ears
Drumming, I drip with sweat;
Trembling shakes my body
And I turn paler than
Dry grass.  At such times
Death isn’t far from me.  (Sappho, 7th Century B.C.) 

Sappho’s “He is More than a Hero,” is an exquisite example of Sappho’s mythology.  Its popularity throughout history has seen it translated and retranslated through several Western interpretations.  A Latin version by the Roman, Catullus, was a popular version for many years in Europe.  Today, several translations from Sappho’s original Greek dialect have made their way into English, though many of them extraordinarily dissimilar from each other.  Besides the broad differences in the words of the poem, some even go so far as to change the sexual preference of the narrator (T.G Rosenmyer, 1982, & Guy Davenport, 1980) while other interpretations undulate with the narrator’s sexuality (Horace Gregory, 1931).  Though Mary Barnard’s (1958) translation is perhaps the most neutral interpretation, much of the original writing must be re-written so to be palpable in English. Sappho’s poem is another example of how important it is for a direct, uninterpreted translation when analyzing poetry that was not originally composed in English.

Prof. William Harris, Classics at Middlebury College (2007), compiled as direct a translation as possible, revealing much of the common themes found in other translations:

HE APPEARS TO ME LIKE UNTO THE GODS
(Translated by William Harris, 2007)

He appears to me like unto the gods,
That man, who opposite to you
Sits and to you speaking a sweet word,
He replies,
To your lovely laughter.  Truly that
Flutters my heart in my breast.
For when I look at you for a moment,
I can not speak
But my tongue is broken, right then
Over my skin a light fire races,
I see nothing with my eyes, my ears
Rumble,
And sweat pours over me a trembling
Seizes me entire, greener than grass
I am, just about to die
I seem to me.     (Sappho, 7th Century B.C.) 

Much of the scandal of Sappho’s poem, “He is More than a Hero” is found in the very first few lines of the first stanza; “He appears to me like unto the Gods,/ that man who opposite you sits...”  Where many could see a narrator who is declaring her affections for the male in the poem, she may only be idolizing him and describing his incredible fortune by winning the affections of the woman who is the narrator’s actual focus.  His comparison to a deity is a form of admiration for his success, and how by being in ‘Her’ presence, he is able to achieve a level of existence shared only by the Gods.  There doesn’t seem to be any descriptions by Sappho of jealousy or malice; the short lines describing him, are only used to introduce the main focus of the poem: the woman whose presence makes Sappho’s narrator long for her in classic Sapphic style.

The rest of the poem is a gentle escalation of emotion as Sappho describes how the woman in her poem causes the narrator to suffer ardently for her.  During an initial reading, the description of the symptoms is so powerful, they sound as if the result of some terrible somatic delirium.  They are, however, Sappho’s narrator’s screaming sexual urges acting out on her physiology; her racing heart, speechlessness, sweating and trembling, all mount into a literary climax of “le petite morte” proportions.  She is so gripped by her yearning, she feels that she will die of desire.  It is this sort of crimson writing that we find in “He is More than a Hero” and, incidentally, what Sappho has been immortalized for.

Sappho, Tenth Muse of Lesbos, is an unbelievably powerful poet.  Her writing of “He is more than a Hero” can touch any reader; from the shy boy struck mute by the presence of a girl he likes, to the burning fervor of desire for a sensual lover.  It reaches into soul of the reader and heaves their passion free by the throat.  It exists outside the boundaries of sex or preference, and any lover longing for another can seek inspiration in her prose.  It’s incredible to think that a writer who would be responsible for a standardized style of metric poetry, could also cage the fury of such raw emotion within those same four line stanzas.

Sappho’s “He is more than a Hero” is a perfect example of Sapphic love poetry.  Her timeless talent at describing physiological passion could cause a reader to blush even today.  Where some Westerners may find her sexuality and preference to be unnatural, this writer finds it refreshing and exciting.  She has found a niche of love poetry and mythology that will be hers forever, and for anyone to alter or censor that would be artistic sacrilege.  Indeed, Sappho has become, in death, the tenth muse that Plato had described her as.

Written by Jordan Dickie
CEO, Executive Editor
BestWord SEO Copywriting Services
jordandickie@bestword.ca

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