Seven
Sappho's Group: An Initiation into Womanhood

Claude Calame

1. The "Circle" of Sappho as an Institution

With the model of the Hellenistic cult groups in mind, many modern scholars have decided that Sappho possessed a thiasos on Lesbos in the traditional sense of the term. Indications of this are very tenuous and the word is never used in connection with Sappho, so it seems more prudent to speak with Merkelbach of the Kreis or Lesbian "circle" of Sappho or, in an even more neutral mode, of her group.^[1] Nevertheless, it is possible to see through these indications together with some fragments of the poet herself what an association of women at the end of the seventh century could be; the evidence also points to other groups of the same type, of interest as points of comparison with the Spartan educational system for women. The most significant fragment speaks of a moisopolon oikia , a house of women dedicated to the Muses. The term mousopolos could have the institutional meaning here that it certainly has in a Boiotian inscription dating perhaps from the second century B.C.E ., in which the actors in a theatrical troupe are described.^[2]

[1] See Merkelbach, "Sappho und ihr Kreis" 4 with n. 1, who summarizes the theses of his predecessors, as also West, "Burning Sappho" 324 ff.; Lasserre, Sappho 114 ff.; and De Martino, "Appunti" 271. I would like to thank A. Lardinois and B. Zweig for their useful remarks.

[2] Sappho fr. 150 Voight (V.); IG 7.2484. See Poland, Geschichte des griechischen Vereinswesens 206 f., and Lanata, "Sul linguaggio amoroso" 67; in Sappho's fragment, oikiai , metrically awkward, is a gloss that has slipped into the line in the place of a probable domoi . For other indications that could refer to the existence of the thiasos of Sappho, see Treu, "Neues über Sappho" 10 ff., and "Sappho," PW, suppl. 11:1228, 1325 f.

Sappho's "house" or group, like most of the female choruses of the archaic period, was composed of young gifts and, beside the epithalamia themselves, were probably composed for wedding ceremonies; her poems mostly speak of parthenoi, korai , or paides .^[3] Indirect testimony defines the bonds linking the girls with the poet with the terms hetairai (philai ) and mathetriai .^[4] The first term contains the semantic feature "companionship" and is used not only by the indirect tradition but also by Sappho herself when she speaks of her own companions.^[5] Athenaeus cites the fragment in which the term appears and explains that the meaning as used by Sappho is different from the more common one of "hetaira"; in Sappho's meaning, it is employed when women or girls talk of their most intimate friends (sunetheis kai philas ). Semantic ambiguities of this type have probably led to the tradition that makes of Sappho a porne gune , a woman of doubtful morals.^[6] The second term and its implications will be examined further, emphasizing the pedagogical element in these bonds of friendship and companionship.

There is a probable hint of the institutional base of these relationships in a verse of the famous "Ode to Aphrodite." The use in the same context of the term adikein , "to commit an injustice," and philotes , "friendship based on mutual confidence," indicates that the rupture by one of the members of Sappho's circle of the bonds of loving friendship was felt as a juridical violation of the rules. The wrong committed on the person of Sappho at the emotional level was made worse by the injustice committed with regard to the institutional foundation of their relationship. To betray Sappho was not only to betray the intimate and reciprocal relationship of philia the poetess was setting up with the girls of her group, but it meant also to break the bonds sanctioned by a contract.^[7]

[3] Parthenos: frs. 17.14, 27.10, 30.2, 153 V., etc.; kore : frs. 108, 140 V.; pais : frs. 49.2 (Atthis), 58.11 V., etc. See now the detailed study of Lardinois, "Subject and Circumstance" 65 ff. The term gune is used only in frs. 44, 15, 31 (description of the wedding of Hektor and Andromache), and 96.6 f. V. (poem addressed to a young Lydian girl who is no longer in Sappho's circle).

[4] Suda under Sappho (S 107 Adler) = test. 253 V. (see Ael. VH 12.19 = test. 256 V.).

[5] Sappho fr. 160.1 V. = Ath. 13.571c-d. See frs. 142, 126 V. with Lanata, "Sul linguaggio amoroso" 66 f. The use of the term hetaira has led some interpreters to compare Sappho's group with the political hetaireia Alcaeus was animating at the same time at Mytilene (Trümpf, "Über das Trinken" 141 ff.; Burnett, Three Archaic Poets 209), and this hypothesis has been now put forward by Parker, "Sappho Schoolmistress" 341 f.; but Sappho's dancing companions are not represented as revelers at the banquet!

[6] Sappho test. 261, 262 V.; on this tradition, see below, § 3.

[7] Sappho fr. 1.18 V. See Rivier, "Observations sur Sappho" 84 ff.; Carson [Giacomelli], "The Justice of Aphrodite" 226 ff.; and Burnett, Three Archaic Poets 254 ff. The bonds of friendship within the Sapphic circle were combined with homoerotic relationships: see below, § 3, and now Calame, I Greci 17 f., 72 f.

These indications, to which is added the choreographic and musical activity evidenced in most of Sappho's fragments, show structures in the Lesbos circle analogous to those characteristic of the female lyric chorus: young girls, bound to the one who leads them by ties expressed in the term hetaira , perform together dances and songs. This situation is described in the epigram of the Palatine Anthology in which young Lesbians, under the leadership of Sappho, form a chorus in honor of Hera.^[8] Philostratos also sees a choral image of this type when a picture of young girls (korai ) singing round the statue of Aphrodite recalls for him the figure of Sappho.^[9] These girls, Philostratos explains, are led (agei ) by a khoregos designated as didaskalos , still young, who beats the rhythm while the adolescents (paides ) sing the praises of the goddess; by marking the beat, the khoregos indicates to the young girls the right moment for beginning the song. It is unnecessary to point out the presence of the typically choral semantic features of "leading" and "beginning" in this scene described by Philostratos.

Sappho was not the only woman in Lesbos at the end of the seventh century to have a circle of young gifts about her. She had two rivals in the persons of Andromeda and Gorgo.^[10] A fragment of commentary on papyrus tells us that the same relations existed between Gorgo and her companions as between Sappho and her pupils.^[11] These relations are referred to by the term sunzux , which means, literally, the one who finds himself or herself under the same yoke. The use of this term by the tragedians to refer to the spouse in a matrimonial context has been cited as proof of marriagelike bonds between the members of the group and its leader.^[12] The plurality of these bonds within a circle and the frequent use of the term suzugos as a synonym for hetairos , the companion, suggest that this denomination is the expression of the relationship of "companionship" that, independent of any matrimonial meaning, unites the members with the khoregos in Gorgo's circle as in the

[8] AP 9.189. The word choros appears only once, it is true, in the fragments we have of Sappho: fr. 70.10 V. It is clear that the classical distinction between monodic poetry and choral poetry, which places Sappho's compositions under the category of monodies, does not correspond to reality: on this subject see Calame, L es chœurs 1:126 f. with n. 171, and, for Sappho specifically, Lardinois, "Subject and Gircumstance" 73 ff., and "Who Sang"; see also Greene, "Apostrophe and Women's Erotics."

[9] Philostr. Imag . 2.1.1 ff. = Sappho test. 217 V.

[10] Max. Tyr. 18.9 = Sappho test. 219 V.; see frs. 57, 131, 144 V. Page, Sappho and Alcaeus 133 ff., recognizes the existence of rivals and friends of Sappho, but denies their relations were other than personal, thus denying any official or professional reasons for these bonds; on another rival circle, see perhaps fr. 71 V.

[11] Sappho fr. 213 V.

[12] Gentili, Poesia e pubblico 106 f.; to the parallels cited by Gentili can be added the existence of a Hera Syzygia: see Stob. 2.7.3 . On this subject see Page, Sappho and Alcaeus 144 n. 1, and West, "Burning Sappho" 320.

lyric chorus.^[13] I shall address later the sexual form which these relationships could take.

A late testimonium by Philostratos, probably not very dependable, reports that a certain Damophyle of Pamphilia had composed for young girls (parthenous ) love poems (erotika ) and also hymns to Artemis Pergaia.^[14] Even if Damophyle is difficult to situate historically, it is interesting to note that, again according to Philostratos, this unknown poet passed as a pupil of Sappho, on whose musical activity she modeled herself; consequently the mention is an indirect witness of Sappho's activity, and it is significant that the author used the word "disciple" (homiletria ) for the girls who sang the compositions of the supposed Damophyle. The term is similar to mathetria used in the Suda to denote the companions and pupils of Sappho.^[15] My list would not be complete without Telesilla, the Argive poet of the beginning of the fifth century One of her poems is addressed to young girls (korai ) and tells the story of Artemis fleeing from Alpheios.^[16] The adolescent connotations of this myth could point to the fragment as an extract from a partheneion, but no source explicitly says that Telesilla was the leader of a group of gifts.

[13] The commentary attributed to Gorgo two suzuges , namely Gongyla and Pleistodike (probably the girl called by Sappho Arkheanassa; see Treu, Sappho, griechisch und deutsch 165); Gongyla is herself named in the Suda under Sappho(S 107 Adler) = Sappho test. 253 V. as one of the pupils of Sappho; see Sappho fr. 95.4 and possibly fr. 22.10 V. As for Arkheanassa, she reappears in a fragment of Sappho unfortunately very mutilated: fr. 103 Ca, 4 V. It is thus possible that, like Atthis, Pleistodike and Gongyla had left Sappho's confraternity for the rival circle of Gorgo. On the use of suzugos , see Eur. IT 250 (Orestes suzugos of Pylades), Tro . 1001 (Pollux suzugos of Castor); see also HF 673 ff. (suzugia of the Muses and the Graces,) Ar. Plut . 945.

[14] Philostr. VA 1.30 = Sappho test. 223 V. See Treu, Sappho, griechisch und deutsch 237; see also, for Corinna, fr. 655. Page (P.) 10 ff. 8.

[15] It seems to have been a late tradition that made the poet Erinna a companion (hetaira ) of Sappho. See Suda under Erinna (E 521 Adler) = Sappho test. 257 V. (see also Eust. Il . 326.46 ff.); Donado, "Cronologia de Erinna" 349 ff., and Rauk, "Erinna's Distaff " 101 ff. See also AP 9.190 = Sappho test. 56 Gall., with AP 9.26 = Sappho test. 52 Gall., which names nine poetesses, the earthly incarnation of the Muses. Among them are also Telesilla and another supposed companion of Sappho, Nossis (AP 7.718) = Sappho test. 51 Gall.; she was actually an Alexandrian poet: see Skinner, "Sapphic Nossis" 5 ff. A women's thiasos serving Artemis at Gyzicus is mentioned in the Suda under Dolon (D 1345 Adler) = Ael. fr. 46 Hercher. On the mention of a relationship of "companionship" in an epigram about Erinna, see AP 7.710.7 f. = Erinna fr. 5.7 f. D. (sunetairis ). The companion of Erinna to whom this funeral epigram is dedicated was a newly married young woman; she had probably left Erinna's circle to be married before death struck: see again AP 7.712 = Erinna fr. 4 D. and fr. 1B.47 ff. D.; see Snyder, The Woman and the Lyre 86 ff.

[16] Telesilla fr. 717 Page (P.); see also fr. 720 E In "Auf den Spuren" 1 ff., Herzog thinks that the poet headed a thiasos dedicated to Apollo, but see Snyder, The Woman and the Lyre 59 ff., and Cavallini, "Erinna."

So several women poets, particularly in eastern Greece, gathered around them groups of girls who were both their pupils and their companions; under their direction these adolescents were musically active, often in a cult context, thus making their association into something very similar, if not identical, to the lyric chorus.

2. The Instruction Given in Sappho's Group

In Sappho's group, there is no doubt about the didactic relationship between the poet and her companions. For instance, speaking of the famous fragment in which Sappho tells the recipient of the poem that she will disappear and leave no trace in the memory of men if she has not taken part in the "roses of Pieria," in other words in the musical activity of Sappho's circle, Plutarch says that the woman addressed was among those who were amousai and amatheis , strangers to music and ignorant. It is not only significant that it is Plutarch, with his great interest in pedagogy, who quotes this fragment and who sees that Sappho's circle offered a form of instruction and education by frequenting the Muses. But it has to be pointed out that inside Sappho's group, the memorial function of poetry, current in archaic Greece, takes on a specific role: it is only through poetry itself that the beauty acquired through musical activity will gain a kind of afterlife and that the educated girl will keep it, despite the destructions of time, in the memory of the persons performing the poem that praises her.^[17]

Other fragments by the Lesbian poet refer to this pedagogical aspect by characterizing young girls who were not in her circle but in a rival group or were about to join to her circle as ignorant and ungracious.^[18] As I mentioned already, the biographical section of the Suda itself names three mathetriai , three pupils of Sappho, and the khoregos who conducts the young gifts as they sing for Aphrodite is called didaskalos , the mistress. This relationship between master and pupil is identical to that between the khoregos and the khoreutai , according to the lexicographers. Finally a new fragment of commentary on Sappho's poems clearly describes the poet in her role as educator (paideuousa ); the commentator adds that this education was not only for gifts of good family (tas aristas ) in Lesbos, but also those who came from Ionia.^[19] But what was

[17] Sappho fr. 55 V.; see Plut. Mor . 646e-f and Stob. 3.4.12 (pros apaideuton gunaika ): on this subject see Snell, "Zur Soziologie des archaischen Griechentums" 54 ff. On the memorial function of Sappho's poems, see Burnett, Three Archaic Poets 277 ff., and Gentili, Poesia e pubblico 116 ff.

[18] Sappho frs. 49, 130.3 f., 57 V.

[19] Suda under Sappho (S 107 Adler) = Sappho test. 253 V.; see frs. 16, 15, 95.4 V.; Philostr. Imag . 2.11 = Sappho test. 217 V. See above, § 1; P. Colon. 5860 a, b = Sappho fr. S 261A P.; see Gronewald, "Fragmente" 114 ff.

the content of the education given by the poet as instructor to the young aristocratic gifts of her group?

If music seems to be the essence of the education Spartan gifts received in choruses led by poets such as Alcman, we must remember that neither music nor dance were ends in themselves in Greece; they are the means of communicating by performing and assimilating by mimesis a precise set of contents. By reciting the poems composed by their masters the poets , the khoreutai learn and internalize a series of myths and rules of behavior; moreover, archaic choral poetry has to be understood as a per-formative art, as a set of poems functioning as cult acts in precise ritual contexts. But examining the content of the musical instruction in a cultic context of performance leads to the question of its function, of its pragmatics: what was the aim of the instruction received in the chorus of young gifts? For what would this instruction prepare the chorus members?

As far as Sappho's group is concerned, we see with numerous interpreters of this poetry that most descriptions of the poet and her advice bear on the themes of feminine grace and beauty. The life of Sappho's companions unfolded almost completely under the sign of Aphrodite, in an atmosphere and in a setting represented on the mythical level by the famous gardens of the goddess.^[20] From a pedagogical point of view, Sappho's circle looks like a sort of school for femininity destined to make the young pupils into accomplished women: through the performance of song, music, and cult act, they had lessons in comportment and elegance, reflected in the many descriptions of feminine adornment and attitudes in the fragments that we have by Sappho.^[21]

So Atthis, according to the Suda one of Sappho's three dearest companions, was a very young and graceless child (smikra pals k'akharis ) before joining the group; two sources that cite the fragment specify that "graceless" in this context meant a girl not yet old enough to be married, not yet nubile.^[22] Physical grace thus became the mark of nubility; by being in Sappho's chorus the young girl acquires the grace that will make her a beautiful woman, which in turn clears the way for marriage. Consequently, possessing kharis signifies gaining the status of adult and the possibility of being a wife, in the same way

[20] Sappho fr. 2 V. See Schadewaldt, Sappho 25 ff.; Merkelbach, "Sappho und ihr Kreis" 25 ff.; Lanata, "Sul linguaggio amoroso" 68 ff.; Barilier, "La figure d'Aphrodite" 27 ff.; Burnett, Three Archaic Poets 217 ff.; Gentili, Poesia e pubblico 115 ff.; and, specifically for the signification of the gardens, Calame, I Greci 132 ff.

[21] Sappho frs. 22.9 ff., 81.4 f., 94.12 ff. V., etc.

[22] Sappho fr. 49 V. See Plut. Mor . 751d (ten oupo gamon echousan horan ) and scholia Pind. Pyth . 2.42 (II, p. 44 Drachmann).

as "beauty" made the young followers of the cult of Helen at Therapne into women ready for marriage.

And when Andromeda, Sappho's rival, tries to take away young Atthis, the poet attacks her cruelly by describing her dressed as a peasant, a rustic (agroïotis ).^[23] If "rustic" means simply an exterior lack of elegance, it nevertheless has an impact on the status of the woman described in this way. The status conferred on a girl by Sappho's education is therefore distinguished from the state of ignorance and uncouthness of the child without instruction or the protégée of one of Sappho's rivals, in the same way as "culture" differs from "nature." The education received in Sappho's circle moves the young gift from the uncouthness and lack of culture of early adolescence protected by Artemis to the condition of the educated woman capable of inspiring the love embodied by Aphrodite; it leads her from a state of savagery to civilization. If the companion of Atthis is described by Sappho when she returns to Lydia after her time in the group as shining among the women (gunaikessin : no longer among the gifts) of her region like the moon among the stars, it is because the education she has undergone on Lesbos has given her divine beauty, and that through the songs and dances (molpai ) performed by Atthis herself. The reference to Aphrodite, guessed at in the final mutilated verses of the poem, as well as the comparison with the moon with its connotations of bodily liquids and ripeness, suggests that the girl is now an accomplished woman, probably married.^[24]

The education of Sappho in her group prepared young girls to be adult, married women by teaching feminine charm and beauty. The poet's connections with marriage are confirmed by the numerous fragments of epithalamia transmitted by quotations, or by a poem such as the one describing the wed-dang of Hektor and Andromache, which some interpreters would like to be itself an hymenaion.^[25] This is apparent again in a passage by Himerius, who paraphrases a poem very certainly by Sappho and shows the poet herself preparing a nuptial chamber for the newly married couple;^[26] young gifts are arranged there—probably gifts from Sappho's circle who form a chorus to celebrate the couple—and a statue of Aphrodite is brought along together

[23] Sappho fr. 57 V.; see fr. 131 as well as fr. 81 V.

[24] Sappho fr. 96 V., to be compared with fr. 55 V., where the girl who has not had her part of the roses of Pieria, in other words Sappho's education, will die unknown and undistinguished (aphanes ); on the connotations of the moon in this poem, see Burnett, Three Archaic Poets 304 ff.

[25] Sappho frs. 104-17 V.; on the epithalamia of Sappho see Page, Sappho and Alcaeus 72 ff., 112 ff.; Galame, Les chœurs 1:161 n. 230; and Lasserre, Sappho 17 ff. See fr. 44 V., with the interpretations given a. o. by Rösler, "Ein Gedicht" 275 ff., and summarized by Lasserre, Sappho 83 ff.

[26] Himer. Or . 9.4 = Sappho test. 194 V. On this subject see Meerwaldt, "Epithalamia" 19 ff.

with figures representing the Graces and a chorus of Erotes . The preparation of the nuptial chamber was preceded in Himerius's description by a celebration of rites in honor of Aphrodite (Aphrodites orgia, agonas ) during which Sappho herself sang to the sound of the lyre. Even if we cannot know exactly what these rites were, constant reference to the goddess of love shows that the ritual was under the same sign as the values taught by the poet. Thus the acquisition of these same abilities by Sappho's pupils was vindicated in the context of marriage. The education they received aimed at developing in adolescents all the qualities required in women—specifically, young wives. It concerned those aspects of marriage under Aphrodite's protection, namely sensuality and sexuality rather than conjugal fidelity and wife's tasks, which were under the domain of Hera and Demeter. However, this education was not addressed to the same public as the Spartan system of education. Sappho's circle welcomed young adolescents from different parts of Ionia, particularly Lydia, so its character was not strictly Lesbian. The education the girls received, in competition with rival groups such as that of Andromeda, was probably not obligatory. Sappho and her khoreutai may have taken part in the official religious life of the island, but the instructional activity of the poet seems not to have been included in the educational system legally subject to the political community of Lesbos. It would be misleading to compare Sappho's group to a real school, not to speak of a "Mädchenpensionat" or a "finishing school." Sappho herself is certainly not to be considered as a "schoolmistress."^[27] If she gave through the performance of song and cult acts an education to the girls of her group, this education had an initiatic form and content: it was entirely ritualized. Moreover, Sappho made accomplished women out of her "pupils," but she did not have to make them perfect citizens. She had to initiate them, with the help of Aphrodite, to their gender role as wives of aristocratic families.

3. Sappho's Homoeroticism: the Initiatory Function

The homoerotic feelings expressed in Sappho's poems have been the object of much debate, which I shall not repeat here. From antiquity on they have been falsified by moralizing resulting from different social attitudes that were

[27] Through the notions of Kreis or thiasos , the qualification of Sappho's group as a "Mädchenpensionat" by U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf (in Die Griechische 41) had the long fortune that is outlined by Lasserre, Sappho 112 ff., and by Parker, "Sappho Schoolmistress" 313 ff. (with the justified criticisms by Lardinois, "Subject and Circumstance" 57 ff.); see also Burnett, Three Archaic Poets 211 ff., and Cantarella, Secondo natura 107 ff. See P. Colon. 5860 a, b = Sappho fr. S 261A P., and above.

more or less critical toward male and female "homosexuality" and imposed various aesthetic visions on Sappho's poetry.^[28] It is difficult to deny, however, that the fragments evoking the power of Eros, to mention only those, refer to a real love that was physically consummated.^[29]

It should be noted that the semantic features "companionship," "education," and homophilia are all found among the basic elements that make up Sappho's group.^[30] The instruction leading to marriage given by Sappho has as its corollary the homoerotic relations between mistress and pupils. In comparison with the male educational system, Sappho's circle, however, offers a new problem in that these homoerotic bonds are not between an older individual and a younger one, but specifically between a woman and her group of young girls. And yet, if Sappho sometimes addresses all her companions (hetairais tais emais ), the relationships, as expressed in her poems, are nevertheless all individual. Sappho's love pains expressed in several of her poems are provoked by the absence of a single companion, whether Atthis, Anaktoria, or Gongyla; and Sappho asks Aphrodite for a single young girl to entrust her philotes to.^[31] There seems to be a contradiction between these singular love protestations and the collective character of the education given to the girls in Sappho's circle. We must presume that only some of the gifts had a homoerotic relationship with the poet, while the other adolescents only participated by reciting the passionate poems addressed to the young lover.

[28] If Page, Sappho and Alcaeus 143 ff., expresses a certain skepticism toward the lacunae in our documentation concerning the reality of "sapphic love," for Marrou, Histoire de l'éducation 72; Schadewaldt, Sappho 98 ff.; Merkelbach, "Sappho und ihr Kreis" 7 (in spite of 3 n. 2), Lanata, "Sul linguaggio amoroso" 64; West, "Burning Sappho" 320 ff.; Dover, Greek Homosexuality 173 ff.; and Gentili, Poesia e pubblico 117 ff., the reality of Sapphic eros leaves no doubt. For a history of the image of Sappho's sexuality, see Lardinois, "Lesbian Sappho" 21 ff., and Paradiso, "Saffo" 41 ff.

[29] Sappho frs. 47, 130, 48, 49 V.; see also 1.19, 16.4, 94.21 ff. V. For the erotic meaning of the expression exies pothon in this last poem, see particularly Burnett, Three Archaic Poets 298, who points out as well the sexual meaning of the "sleep" in fr. 2.8 V. (pp. 270 ff.).

[30] The bonds between hetairai were placed under the sign of Aphrodite: Sappho frs. 142, 160, and 126 V., with Ath. 13.571c-d. The connection among education, homosexuality, and an association of companions is found in a gloss of Pollux (4.43 ff.) that makes the terms agelaioi, mathetai, hetairoi, choreutai , and sunerastai synonymous. See Lardinois, "Subject and Circumstance" 58 ff., against the arguments of Parker, "Sappho Schoolmistress" 341 ff., who makes the hetairai of Sappho the participants in a sympotic hetairia .

[31] Sappho frs. 160, 49, 131, 16.15, 94.4, 1.18 ff. V.; see Max. Tyr. 18.9 = test. 219 V. It is significant that in Sappho's life in the Suda under Sappho (S 107 Adler) = test. 253 V., Atthis is described as one of the hetairai philai , "the dear companions," while Anaktoria and Gongyla are called mathetriai , "pupils." Sappho's poems themselves show that the pupils are also her loved ones: see Marrou, Histoire de l'éducation 70 ff. Danielewicz, "Experience" 163, also sees a "didactic purpose" in Sappho's love for the girls in her circle; see as well Cantarella, Secondo natura 108 ff.

It was probably the same in Gorgo's circle, in which the homoerotic bond defined by the term sunzux existed, possibly successively, between Gorgo and two girls, Gongyla and Pleistodike.^[32]

The Cretan customs for the boys offer a striking parallel, since the eromenos is not alone when he goes away from the city with his erastes but is generally accompanied by his friends who take part in the rite of abducting the adolescent, go hunting, then celebrate the final banquet at the confusion of their expedition into the wilderness with the lover and his beloved; these same friends share the expenses of the gifts given to the eromenos at the end of the initiation and join with him in the sacrifice of the ox to Zeus.^[33] These friends of the eromenos have no sexual contact with an erastes but have followed the same itinerary of initiation as their companion. Their participation in the sacrifice to Zeus certainly shows that they too have taken the step that leads to adulthood.

The reality of Sappho's homoerotic feelings and their expression in her love for a young gift explain how a scholar like Devereux can see in the famous fragment 31 V. the symptoms of an authentic crisis of "homosexual" anxiety.^[34] He recognizes that the clinical expression of homosexuality is not exclusive of its sociological aspect. With Sappho, it is true that we seem to have a case in which homoerotic love has been so internalized that it "short-circuits" any heterosexual feeling. Hence, maybe, our own awareness when reading the poems of an internal vibration that goes beyond the expression in traditional forms of a homoeroticism entirely conforming to its educational function. This supposed extra dimension does not, however, contradict in any way the institutional reality of the circle and the pedagogical role of the relations within it: for Sappho, the ritual and initiatory "pseudo-homosexuality" could simply become an example of what we call homosexuality. Its educational and social function stays the same; its expression in poetry is inspired by a sensibility that finds no balance in a heterosexual life. And even this conclusion could be modified since Sappho, as she herself says, had a daughter and, unless her marriage with Cercylas and her love for Phaon

[32] Sappho fr. 213 V.; see above n. 13.

[33] Strabo 10.4.21 = Ephor. FGrH 70 F 149.21. See Calame, Les chœurs 1:421 ff.

[34] Devereux, "The Nature of Sappho's Seizure" 17 ff. Sappho's anxiety attack is not due to a sudden awaxeness of a socially sanctioned homosexuality, as Manieri, "Saffo" 44 ff., supposes, who in any case is wrong to attribute to Devereux such an interpretation of fr. 31 V. and who gives no solution to the problem posed by the particular content of this fragment; Sappho's crisis was probably provoked by seeing her masculine rival for whom she cannot be a substitute for the girl (cf. Devereux 22). Privitera, "Ambiguità antitesi" 37 ff., is right in saying that Sappho's symptoms are the sign of her fear when she realizes her love is hopeless and will never be returned; see also Burnett, Three Archaic Poets 229 ff., and Di Benedetto, "Intorno al linguaggio" 145 ff.

were merely the fantasies of the ancient biographers, she must have crossed the threshold of adult life marked in all Greece by marriage.^[35]

I would like to take as proof of the educational and social role of Sappho's homophilia the fact that an adolescent's time in the poet's circle was a transitory step in a process. Most of the fragments of any length that have come down to us contain the memories of girls who returned to their native lands, most often Asia Minor, or left Sappho for a rival school.^[36] As I have said, the education in Sappho's circle consisted of preparation for marriage through a series of rites, dances, and songs, mainly dedicated to Aphrodite. We have no definite indication about it. But, independently of any gender distinction, it is probable that some of these rites, as for the boys at Thebes and perhaps at Thera too, consecrated the homoerotic bonds between lover and beloved by means of a sexual initiation appropriate for adolescents with the objective of teaching the girl the values of adult "heterosexuality." The temporary and unreliable character of these bonds may provoke in a homosexually oriented person states of anxiety and depression like those that can probably be traced in almost all Sappho's poems of remembering. This would explain the peculiar and personal feminine tone often felt in the modern reading of Sappho's poetry.

Thus the ability of archaic lyric poetry to express the individual collectively explains how a poem by Sappho can express a personal experience true only for herself and one of her companions but can be accepted, recited, and even reperformed by all the gifts in her circle as both a lived and paradigmatic experience. Moreover the language used by Sappho can communicate collectively and can evoke a common system of representations so that all the pupils of the group can have the impression of being participants in the propaedeutic and initiative homoerotic bonds actually experienced by only one of them.

The conventional, formulaic character of the language infuses with life the poem performed by the group, rather than emptying it of meaning. If it seems to readers of Pindar or Ibycus that the homoerotic feelings expressed are a convention for praising the merits of a young man, they may nevertheless have originated in real feelings or in a real experience, feelings and experience that can be repeated through the reperformance of the poem. Moreover it

[35] Sappho frs. 98b, 132 V. See POxy . 1800, fr. 1.14 = test. 252 V., Suda under Sappho (S 107 Adler) = test. 253 V.; see also test. 219 V. On the legend of the loves of Sappho and Phaon, see test. 211 V. and Nagy, Greek Mythology 223 ff. For the controversy on the nature of Sappho's homoerotic feelings, see Hallett, "Sappho and Her Social Context" ("public, rather personal, statements"), and Stigers, "Romantic Sensuality, Poetic Sense" (a specific feminine form of sensibility); see also Winkler, "Gardens of Nymphs" 89ff.

[36] Sappho frs. 16.15, 94.2 ff., 96, 131 V.; see West, "Burning Sappho" 318 ff.

is surprising to notice that, although the education received by the boys and the girls through the choral performances is differentiated and prepares them for different gender roles, nevertheless the language used to express the homoerotic relationships underlying this ritual formation is basically the same. This kind of reciprocity between the linguistic practice of boys and girls as well as between what an adult can express to an adolescent (Sappho) or a group of girls to an older one (Alcman) is probably typical of a ritual and collective poetry with an educational purpose.