Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-05-17
SapphO's Mission to Athenian wo-
mem.


This woman determined to do her utmost to
elevate her sex. The one method OF culture
open to women at that time was poetry. There
was no other form Of literature, and, according
~, she systematically trained her pupils to be
poets, and to weave into verse the nobteSt max
Inns OF the intellect and the deepest emotions Of
the heart. Young people with richly endowed
formed kind OF woman'S college. There can
be no doubt that these young women were i'm
PEELED to seek the society OF Sappho from dis.
routine to which women's lives were sacrificed,
and they were anxious to rise to something
nobler and better. We learn this from Sappho
herself. 1t is thus that she addresses an unedu-
Gated woman: 'DyiDg thou shalt lie in the tomb
and there shall be no remembrance of the after
ward, for thou partakest not Of the roses of
pieria; yea, undistinguished shalt thou walk In
the nallS OF HadeS, nutterfng about with the
pithless dead" And one OF her most dis
tinguished pupils, Erinna, who died at the early
age or l9, sang In her poem, "The Distaff," the
sorrows OF girl whom her mother compelled to
work at the loom and the distafT while She her
Muses..
Did she attempt any other innovation In re-
gard TO the position OF women? What did she
mink were the relations which ought to SubSiSt
between the one sex and the other? These are
questions that we should fain wish we could
answer; out history remains silent, and we
can only form conjectures from isolated facts
and statements. A late Greek writer, Maximus
lyr1us, compares her association with young
Socrates and young men. 1t has to be remem-
Dered that even In Sparta the men were thrown
mo very close and continual Intimacy; and that
ms was still more the case in other states
where the women were kept in strict, confineo
ment. Even In Sparta the men dined together
aione; tney were often away on military expe.
were the instructors OF the youths In this Xsv
passionate 1ntlmac1eS arose between old and
young, the Old man striving to instruct his
clses, and the young man serving and PROTECTING
MS OLD friend TO the best of his power. These
as l were like the loves of Jonathan
likely that Sappho did not see why these init.
mac1es, fraught as they were with SO many ad.
Vaatages, should be confined to the male sex:
thought she strOve, to establish much cIoser
connections, such strong ties of love hetWeen
members OF her own sex as would unite them
time OF sorrow, and make the hours or life
pass joyfully on. And her poetry expresses an
ee;x ext strength and warmth Of afrec-
sight Of the exquisite beauty Of an Athenian
youth, so Sappho trembles all over when She
gazes on her lovely girls. And she weaves all
the beauties OF nature into the expression of the
depth OF her emotion. She seems to have had
a rarely intense love of nature. The bright sun,
the moon and the stars, the music of birds,
me cool river, the shady grove, Hesperus, and
1sels OF love, OF this intense love for her poeti
Cal pupils, for one OF whom she says she would
not take the whole OF Lydia. But though this
association may have been one great object, 1t
making the love OF women substitute for the
love Of men: Some OF her girls unquestionably
married. and Sappho composed their hymeneal
songs. She entered into their future dest1nies
and sympathized with them throughout their
career, following them to the grave with the
sad lament which they only can utter who have
the entrance to cold, shadowy and pithless
eX1stence.-[From an English Reuie,c