Lesbianism
What is that lesbian?
Lesbianism is a form of homosexuality among women. The existence of female homosexuality alongside male homosexuality was a fact in ancient times. Plato even tried to explain it with the reason philosophically.
The origin of the word ‘lesbian’ can be traced back to the Greek island of Lesbos. The inhabitants of the island of Lesbos became famous mainly for their courtesan art.
The ancient Greeks and sex
The expression of homoerotic desire in ancient Greece did not necessarily mean that people belonged to a particular sexual orientation. The ancient Greeks founded homosexuality naturally. It was a common form of sexual behavior among men. And the love affair of women and women who were dissatisfied in many respects was not immoral either.
In ancient times, however, few spoke openly about sexuality. And there were few women among them.
Sappho
Sappho, the Greek poetess (around 600 BC), lived on the island of Lesbos. She was a poetess of passion; love was a constant theme in her poems. Her poetry had a significant influence on Catullus, Horace.
She is the first female writer in cultural history to be known to everyone in ancient times. And she earned herself world fame that continues to this day.
Sappho was born around 600 BC as a child of a wealthy aristocratic family. Her original family name was Sappho. She founded the company of young girls in Mytilene (this city is located on the island of Lesbos).
source: Lesvos
The group dedicated their lives to honoring Aphrodite and the muses. Sappho was attached to the members of the company by incredibly tender threads. Her girlfriends were the recipients of love poems containing fierce emotions.
source:pinterest
Sappho is the poetess
Some scholars deeply believe that Sappho wrote her poems primarily for women and girls associated with the cult of Aphrodite. In this cult, important events in the lives of women were celebrated, such as puberty, marriage, and childbirth.
Because Sappho’s parents were wealthy, she didn’t have to fight for a living; however, she had to fight for her self-acceptance. In the center of this society was THE MAN. And to create and assert as a woman was a difficult task. The male contemporaries did not take a good look at Sappho’s poetic work. Maybe they envied her for her success.
The people celebrated Sappho in her lifetime. They honored her with the very honorable ‘poetess’ badge. Her poems have been preserved for many centuries in all major antique libraries. Later, however, her works mysteriously disappeared, leaving only fragments surviving except for an ode to the Hymn to Aphrodite.
Sappho – three souls in one evening
However, most of the time, Sappho was not in love with a woman or a man, but with the people themselves. Recent rumors and various legends make the poet’s life quite confusing. But most of them agree: three souls dwelt in one body. Sappho was one of the greatest poets of ancient literature, as well as a woman who met expectations as both a mother and a wife. And thirdly, her person covered a passionate woman who was constantly in love and attracted to her own gender.
Poems by Sappho
What did Sappho like to write about the most? About the power of the soul and love, and the tremendous power of desire. She also wrote openly and boldly about unfulfilled emotions, longing, and sexuality. She articulated her thoughts like no one else before her.
In her poems, she simply tried to portray this feeling intensely physically as well. Besides, Sappho diagnosed the so-called “love disease” thousands of years ago in ancient Greece.
Sappho first used the term “bitter desire,” or “depressing emotions,” in her writings. And we use these still today.
She believed in love and not in war. Therefore she decided to write openly about both intimate experiences and sex.
More than two thousand years ago, she first wrote about the problem of the love triangle. She recognized that people wish something that others find attractive too. Sappho has often studied this phenomenon. She believed that if a man sees the object of his desire with another person, then love becomes a kind of frenzy, desire breeds desire.
But she also wrote that when a person acquires the object of her emotions, she begins to look for something or someone else.
Sappho’s conception of life and the end of his life
According to her outlook on life, “let’s dance, laugh while we’re young because old age destroys everything.”
She became the most famous lesbian icon in world history. But it is now a historical fact that Sappho showed interest in both women and men.
They exiled her family to an Italian island. Researchers consider it a legend to believe that the poet committed suicide because of a ferryman who was twenty years younger than her – Phaon – because the young man did not reciprocate her love.
After all, her birthplace, the island of Lesbos, later became a cult place. And because of the person of Sappho, they named this place after the love of women in the modern age.
