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Σαπφώ (Sappho)
(“Sappho”)

Discussion Kock II (1884) 464; Bevilacqua 1939, 38-9; Webster 1952, 21; PCG
VII (1989) 777; Konstantakos 2000, 160-61.
Title The same title occurs in Ameipsias (the earliest occurrence, cf. Orth
2013, 268-70), Amphis (cf. Papachrysostomou 2016, 207-8), Antiphanes (cf.
Konstantakos 2000,157-61), Ephippus and Diphilus. Early comedies named after
poets in the plural were Άρχίλοχοι (Cratinus), Κλεοβουλϊναι (Cratinus),'Hoiodoi
(Telecleides); from the end of the fifth century onwards we have titles in the sin-
gular: Κινησίας (Strattis, cf. Orth 2009,100-129),Όμηρος ή Άσκηταί or Σοφισταί
(Metagenes, cf. Orth 2014,435-40),Ησίοδος (Nicostratus), Αρχίλοχος (Alexis, cf.
Arnott 1996, 112-4), Κλεοβουλίνη (Alexis, cf. Arnott 1996, 293-4).
Sappho was considered the poetess of love. Over the course of time she came to
be regarded as an authority on έρωτικά (matters of love); cf. Pl. Phdr. 235c; Clearch.
fr. 33 Wehrli; Plu. Mor. 406a and 762f-763a; Paus. 9.27.3; [LonginJ 10.1-3; Demetr.
Eloc. 132; Hor. Carm. 4.9.10-12; Konstantakos 2000,158; Papachrysostomou 2016,
207-8. But in comic fiction it was not difficult for a subject of her poems to be
transformed into a subject about her’; it might be helpful to recall Aristophanes’
Wasps, where Bdelyclon advises his father to tell a story by Aesop in order to escape
condemnation (V 1258-9); Philocleon later thinks that Αίσωπικόν means about
Aesop’ and invents a story where the protagonist is Aesop himself! (V 1401-5).
Cf. Ath. 13.599d Δίφιλος ό κωμωδοποιός πεποίηκεν έν Σαπφοΐ δράματι Σαπφοΰς
έραστάς Αρχίλοχον καί Τππώνακτα “Diphilus the comic poet in his play Sappho
has represented Archilochus and Hipponax as Sappho’s lovers”.
According to ancient tradition, the best-known lover of Sappho was Phaon, for
whom Sappho was said to feel a fierce passion before finally committing suicide
on the island of Leucas (cf. Plaut. Mil. 1246-7; Str. 10.2.9; Luc. DMort 19.2; Ael.
VH 12.18-9; Ov. Her. 15). However, it is quite uncertain whether the comedies
entitled Phaon (Plato Comicus and Antiphanes) and Leukadia (Amphis, Alexis,
Antiphanes, Menander, Diphilus) included the love affair of Sappho and Phaon;
cf. Konstantakos 2000,159. For Sappho in comedy cf. Konstantakos 2000,157-61;
Orth 2013,268-70; Yatromanolakis 2007,293-307; Olson 2007, 303-4. For the re-
ception of Sappho in antiquity see Konstantakos 2000,157 and Papachrysostomou
2016, 208.
Content Given that female homosexuality is completely absent from Attic
comedy (apparently it was a ‘taboo’ subject, the only references in classical
Attic literature being Pl. Smp. 191e 2-5 and Lg. 1.636c 5-7; cf. Schmidt 2016,
191 with n. 66-8), a possible scenario would be that Sappho is here represen-
ted either as a lubricious woman running after young boys (a subject reminis-
cent of Aristophanes’ Wealth; cf. the version of the Phaon story) or as a comic