Sappho

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2015

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Greek poet Sappho. Born in the late seventh century BC, Sappho spent much of her life on the island of Lesbos. In antiquity she was famed as one of the greatest lyric poets, but owing to a series of accidents the bulk of her work was lost to posterity. The fragments that do survive, however, give a tantalising glimpse of a unique voice of Greek literature. Her work has lived on in other languages, too, translated by such major poets as Ovid, Christina Rossetti and Baudelaire. With Edith Hall Professor of Classics at King's College, London Margaret Reynolds Professor of English at Queen Mary, University of London and Dirk Obbink Professor of Papyrology and Greek Literature at the University of Oxford Fellow and tutor at Christ Church, Oxford Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time for more details about In Our Time
0:04.1	and for our terms of use please go to bbc.co.uk slash radio4.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.7	Hello, in antiquity the Greek lyric poet Safo was known as the tenth muse or a Safo
0:17.3	the Wise, where Homer was the poet, Safo was the poetess.
0:21.6	She was as prolific as she was celebrated, her work filled nine papyrus roles in the
0:26.0	Alexandra Library.
0:27.8	Today it's thought less than one percent of Safo's poetry remains.
0:31.6	Even so, she's been a significant influence on literature since there are nassons and
0:38.4	an inspiration to many, struck by the vividness of her writing and the way she describes
0:43.2	her desires, often for other women.
0:46.6	Just as little of a verse remains so we know few hard facts about her, but rarely a new
0:51.7	fragment of papyrus is discovered.
0:54.2	It was recently about one of our guests giving us more of her poetry and some tantalising
0:59.4	personal details.
1:00.4	After the Glacier Water Survey about this, we can't add that down unfortunately.
1:06.5	When we're to discuss Safo, Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King's College London,
1:10.8	Margaret Reynolds, Professor of English at Queen Mary University of London, and Derk
1:14.3	Obing, Professor of Papyrologian Greek Literature at the University of Oxford and Fellow and
1:18.4	tutor at Christchurch College, Oxford.
1:20.6	Edith Hall, how important was the island where Safo lived, Lesbos?
1:24.8	Lesbos was a prominent and prosperous island in the eastern of Jain, very close to what
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.