Overview

The daughter of an aristocratic family, a wife, a devoted mother and a lover of women, Sappho was one of the greatest writers of her own or any age. Although most people have heard of Sappho, the story of her lost poems and the lives of ancient women they celebrate has never been told for a general audience. Philip Freeman paints a vivid picture of Sappho's world. He delves into religious rites, customs, the role of women in the family, medical knowledge and the experience of motherhood at the time. Through this contextual knowledge, a picture of Sappho's life emerges. Freeman uses his vast historical research, in conjunction with Sappho's poems and other Greek works of fiction, to bring us the closest we can come to knowing the biographical details of this most famous woman poet.

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9780393242232

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Reviews

... plain and elegant translations of Sappho's fragments... -- Times Higher Education This short book provides an admirably clear and compact introduction to Sappho, while offering as a bonus a complete new translation of her frustratingly incomplete known oeuvre... -- The Independent

Philip Freeman's Searching for Sappho provides students and general readers with readable translations and interpretations of all the surviving poems and fragments, including those most recently discovered. As it reconstructs Sappho's life, it offers a lively picture of ancient Greek women's daily experience within their families and communities. Finally, it conveys a sense of the excitement generated in the last two decades by the unexpected recovery of several new Sappho texts. Soundly researched yet wholly accessible, this volume is a complete and rewarding introduction to one of the world's greatest poets. -- Marilyn B. Skinner, professor of classics emerita, University of Arizona

Author Information

The author of more than a dozen books on the ancient world, Philip Freeman is a professor and chair of the classics department at Luther College. He earned his PhD from Harvard University. He lives in Decorah, Iowa.

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