Roman Receptions of Sappho
Stephen Harrison editor Thea S Thorsen editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:15th Jan '19
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Sappho, a towering figure in Western culture, is an exemplary case in the history of classical receptions. There are three prominent reasons for this. Firstly, Sappho is associated with some of the earliest poetry in the classical tradition, which makes her reception history one of the longest we know of. Furthermore, Sappho's poetry promotes ideologically challenging concepts such as female authority and homoeroticism, which have prompted very conspicuous interpretative strategies to deal with issues of gender and sexuality, revealing the values of the societies that have received her works through time. Finally, Sappho's legacy has been very well explored from the perspective of reception studies: important investigations have been made into responses both to her as poet-figure and to her poetry from her earliest reception through to our own time. However, one of the few eras in Sappho's longstanding reception history that has not been systematically explored before this volume is the Roman period. The omission is a paradox. Receptions of Sappho can be traced in more than eighteen Roman poets, among them many of the most central authors in the history of Latin literature. Surely, few other Greek poets can rival the impact of Sappho at Rome. This important fact calls out for a systematic approach to Sappho's Roman reception, which is the aim of Roman Receptions of Sappho that focuses on the poetry of the central period of Roman literary history, from the time of Lucretius to that of Martial.
this volume's overall contribution to a deeper awareness of how Sappho was received in Rome is unquestionable. * Giuseppe Bocchi, EOS: Commentarii Societatis Philologae Polonorum *
Following the important discoveries of new fragments of the poetry of Sappho,1 Thea Thorsen and Stephen Harrison have undertaken the publication of a volume devoted for the first time, and with no claim to being exhaustive, to the influence of Sappho on Roman authors from Lucretius to Martial. * Antonio Ramírez de Verger, University of Huelva, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
This is a thoroughly worthwhile book and a credit to the two editors. It will reinvigorate everyone with an interest in the first feminist poet. * Stuart Lyons, Classics for All *
Roman Receptions of Sappho covers all this material exhaustively, and includes an extremely valuable collection of ancient texts referring to Sappho, in Latin and Greek, with good clear translations. * Mildred Faintly, 96th of October - Tales of the Extraordinary *
ISBN: 9780198829430
Dimensions: 223mm x 149mm x 35mm
Weight: 712g
472 pages