{"id":6248,"date":"2014-01-28T12:11:54","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T19:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6248"},"modified":"2014-01-28T12:11:54","modified_gmt":"2014-01-28T19:11:54","slug":"new-poems-by-sappho-discovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6248","title":{"rendered":"New Poems by Sappho Discovered"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my fondest fantasies is that some archaeologist working in Greece or Italy will find a jar of scrolls that when read turn out to be the complete works of the poet Sappho<\/a> \u2014 and just to continue the fantasy, packed in with them are the commentaries of the some erudite literary critic of the later Hellenistic period<\/a>, reflecting back 500 years to her lifetime.<\/p>\n

Despite her fame for centuries, most of her poems are incomplete. One of my favorite translations carries that sadness in its title: If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

So it is big news when a little more is found.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe new Sappho is absolutely breath-taking,\u201d said Albert Henrichs, a Harvard classics professor who examined the papyrus with Dr. [Dirk] Obbink. \u201cIt is the best preserved Sappho papyrus in existence, with just a few letters that had to be restored in the first poem, and not a single word that is in doubt. Its content is equally exciting.\u201d One of the two recovered poems, Prof. Henrichs notes, speaks of a \u201cCharaxos\u201d and a \u201cLarichos,\u201d the names assigned by ancient sources to two of Sappho\u2019s brothers but never before found in Sappho\u2019s own writings. It has as a result been labeled the Brothers poem by Prof. Obbink.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A downloadable version of Obbink’s paper is here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my fondest fantasies is that some archaeologist working in Greece or Italy will find a jar of scrolls that when read turn out to be the complete works of the poet Sappho \u2014 and just to continue the fantasy, packed in with them are the commentaries of the some erudite literary critic of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,232],"class_list":["post-6248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-greece","tag-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1CM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7171,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7171","url_meta":{"origin":6248,"position":0},"title":"The Slut, the Priestess, and\/or the Poet","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent article in The New Yorker, \"How Gay was Sappho?\" re-examines two questions about the famous poet of antiquity: 1. Was her poetry really \"personal,\" as opposed to something like the Iliad, which clearly was created for public performance? 2. Although she lived on the island of Lesbos, was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"sappho painting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/sappho-painting.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":100,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=100","url_meta":{"origin":6248,"position":1},"title":"Haifa Wehbe Watch","author":"Chas S. 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Clifton","date":"February 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The possibility of deciphering the carbonized papyrus scrolls from the Villa of the Papyri is exciting. One friend hopes that some day an Etruscan\/Greek or Etruscan\/Latin dictionary will be discovered. (The Etruscan language used Greek letters, but we cannot completely read it, beyond some kings' names, etc.) Me, I hope\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Classics\"","block_context":{"text":"Classics","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=classics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.history.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/herculaneum-scrolls.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3300,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3300","url_meta":{"origin":6248,"position":5},"title":"A Reason to ‘Love’ Boston","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Because the Museum of Fine Arts will have an exhibit opening later this month devoted to \"Aphrodite and the Gods of Love.\" And fine birds brought you quick sparrows over the black earth whipping their wings down the sky through midair\u2014 they arrived. 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