#271: Filling in the Fragments
The Greek poet Sappho\u2019s reputation looks something like a parabola: at the height of her powers, her lyrics were so beloved that grammarians quoted them as exemplars of the Greek language; Plato called her the \u201cTenth Muse.\u201d Then, after a thousand years of exaltation, she tumbled from the pantheon. Today, we know very little of her life and precious few of her works remain, most of them recovered from ancient garbage heaps in the 19th century. The surviving 306 fragments of her verse\u2014dozens of them but a single word or phrase\u2014are compiled in a new and updated translation by classicist Diane J. Rayor, simply titled Sappho, out this month from Cambridge University Press. Rayor, Professor Emerita of Classics at Grand Valley State University, joins us on the podcast to discuss the difficulties\u2014and joys\u2014of rediscovering Sappho and translating her verse into English.
Go beyond the episode:
- Diane J. Rayor\u2019s Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works, with an introduction by Andr\xe9 Lardinois
- Cambridge University Press has made professional recordings of all of the fragments available for free, performed by Kate Reading
- Read more about the murky provenance of the newest Sappho papyri unearthed in 2014
- The music used in this episode is the song \u201cSeikilos Epitaph,\u201d performed by Lina Palera on the Lyre of Apollo, a recreation of the ancient instrument by the Lyre 2.0 Project
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