Through time Sappho and her poems have been considered analogous to genders and sexualities that do not fit societies’ dominant structure. Even the modern definition of the word Sapphic (to be lesbian related) relates almost entirely to lesbianism, a non-conforming form of sexuality. In this vein t is possible to relate Sappho’s poetry to contemporary queer thoughts. For this paper I will be taking an anthropological perspective to analyses this poem. And in such a perspective, context is key. No matter how people or people’s thoughts are viewed, it is impossible to separate them from the social and historical contexts they happen to be in. A person’s idea of what it means to be queer can change throughout their life time so it is extremely…show more content… However, using this imagery to describe a potentially homosexual deity could be viewed contemporarily as very significant. In Tracking a Vampire Sue-Ellen Case makes a point of purporting that non-heteronormative ways of being are analogous with mythological creatures and monsters. I think this theory would be well at home in Sappho’s first fragment. Case’s argument is that lesbianism specifically is analogous to vampirism because whose who experience and/ or embody it are neither alive or dead but somehow separate. Similar in a way to how Aphrodite is deathless because she is immortal and has always exist and will always exist inside Greek mythology. Contemporary queer theorists like Case may even go so far as to say that the two in the lesbian like relationship described in this poem are even more queer than any other lesbian like relationship. The reason for this being that the poem describes a woman and her unrequited love for Aphrodite and how her love will no longer be unrequited. The relationship described involved an individual who is existing outside of the concept of life and death with someone, who by contemporary standards is deathless because of their sexual and romantic attractions. Nevertheless, it is important to understand that this perspective is an ethnocentric one based in contemporary…show more content… In Black Queer Studies by E. Patrick Johnson, Johnson discusses what it means to be queer or quare in southern black society and culture. This uniqueness of perspective, I believe, can be extrapolated out to apply to Sappho’s unique cultural perspective. When analyzing Sappho’s fragments, it is important that even our words for activities that have been occurring and existing for time immemorial may not apply outside of their contemporary contexts. This is because words carry with them not only their meaning, but also the history of how they have been used and the social/ cultural meaning s those words imply/ apply. Much like how for Johnson quare carried with it everything that the average queer person would imply by using queer but the word quare would be illegible to them, the words we may use to describe Sappho’s poems such as lesbian or gay would be illegible to her and thus would have no effect on
