Sappho the lesbian poet

start with Sappho
she is a poet from the island of lesbos. She is claimed to have been a lesbian and is renowned for writing transgendered poems, meaning she writes love poems about women as if she was a guy.
Was she gay? No

Lyric Fragment 16

Some say an army of horsemen, and others

a fleet of ships is the most beautiful thing

on the black earth. But I say

it is whatever a person loves.

+ this is a famous stanza from her writing She presents a case that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it is the heart that dictates what is desired as loved.

Meaning she is correct things people love they find beautiful, some find guns beautiful cause they love guns others do not find them beautiful.

It is easy to make everyone understand this.

The woman who far surpassed all mortals in beauty,

Helen, leaving behind the very best

of husbands,

sailed off to Troy without a thought for her child

or her dear parents, but [love]
led her astray . . .

*.. she now turns to Helen of Greece that she draws as going off to troy without thought due to ... interpreter says love is missing word as it is in brackets

.

lightly . . .

reminding me now of Anactoria,

who is not here.

I would rather see her lovely step

and the radiant sparkle of her face

than the Lydians’ chariots and armed infantry.

* here you notice her confess that seeing the sparkling face of her female friend is still better than seeing guns and soldiers. Its like saying I would rather see my same sex friend, though I am straight, than people killing each other, Now the missing word above, is it love?
it does not fit, they assume the word love based on Aphrodite connection to the myth of Helen is this platonic love?
your prof ,might think so secretly because the symposium by Plato was next
Helen sailed to troy due to agapi not eros, a love for peace not war, for even platonic agapi between women is better than war, Sappho tells you she is going to prove that beauty is what is loved the lightly means Helen reminded her of her female friend but barely cause she was not there, thus lightly is like saying you are not here so it reminded me that ed was not home.

*the proof of Sappho is in the next fragment

Lyric Fragment 31

He seems to me the equal of the gods,

the man who sits facing you

and, near you, listens to

your charming voice

*So the guy who sits and talks with a women, listening to her as an equal is a God

and your alluring laugh that makes

my heart flutter in my breast.

When I see you, even briefly, then

I cannot speak,

here she is happy when a male treats her friend that she loves with respect and dignity. It makes her heart flutter with happiness for the female friend as she feels she deserves such a guy. Though so proud when she sees this she remains proud but silent.

but my tongue is silenced; a slender

flame slips suddenly beneath my flesh;

my eyes see nothing, my ears

are roaring,

* so upon seeing her friend happy with a guy who is like a god she becomes proud and silent and gets embarrassed, she is not jealous as some might read but embarrassed, she heats up ears burn, she pretends not to see anything, like a mother might feel catching her daughter with Mr right

sweat drenches me, trembling

seizes my entire body, I am paler

than grass, and I seem

almost dead.

But I must endure, since . . .

she gets sickly embarrassed, she starts sweating cause she is so happy and proud for the friend she cannot figure out what to say which embarrassed her more, she shakes from embarrassment, goes white as a ghost and she feels dead , but she endures it because this happens only when the friend is with mr right. the fact that this happens when the friend meets a guy like me who is a god proves tjhe reason for the poem. her joy makes her feel for her friend, like a child pulling their face from a embarrassing moment in a movie

its like finding shawn with a woman he likes, you go speechless seeing it, might tremble with joy, esp if you were that type of person,

" like wow shawn, I'm speechless"

when the friend is like a sister just seeing her treated like she should be would fuck up someone emotional,

now a days psychologists have sydrom names for people like shaphom they it led to the inspiration that made her famous.

agapi poems to a platonic female friend

donew

I realise that Sappho is emotionally gussy when she sees her friend with a male lover who is worthy of the friend she loves.
More normal than a syndrome, she sees her friend with thew guy she exalts as a god, she looks silently happy feeling a warming feeling that makes her feel amazing.
So Sappho praises the friend she loves using terms to describe her delight that are not weird but often thought of as descriptives of lovers not friends, but being happy to see a platonic friend that makes your heart flutter with joy is platonic. Not embarrassed but gooshy feel good warm.
on top of everything else Sappho had a husband and her god.