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.