🇬🇧 Hello, how are things going for you? Today I'm here with an essay and a poem book from Greek/Italian Literature.
Check out my last review about Radio Silence by Alice Oseman.
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Today's review will be about the poems book by the Greek poet Sappho, and the essay about her: Sappho, the Girl of Lesbos, by the Italian author Silvia Romani.
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The first one includes only some complete poems and lots of fragmented ones, because the majority of them got lost in time.
We can distinguish two types of lyrics in her poetry: the choral one, characterised by a professional relationship between the poet and the commissioner, usually celebratory; and the intimate one, in which the poet expresses a state of mind.
In her lyric, Sappho expresses her emotions to divinities or to other human beings. Indeed, Sappho offers a simple but passionate image of the feelings of the lyrical ego, where love plays a leading role.
The book by Romani instead is an ode to Sappho through historical and mythological references.
Sappho was a girl from Lesbos, a daughter and a mother. She conducted choirs of young people of the same age, taught them to sing and dance. She educated young ladies in beauty in late 7th century B.C. She is considered a LGBT icon for being bisexual. But one day, she declared that she no longer wanted to live, and she dived from the white cliff of Lefkada.
Her legend was born when she was still alive and was nourished by the fragments that have come down to us. In this volume, Silvia Romani, accompanies the read through the streets of Lesbos, in the days when a girl from a good family discovers her vocation and destiny.
The book is a tribute to her, to the enchantment of her verses, of the places she lived in, of the nostalgia of the fleeing youth; and to the fascination she still manages to exert on anyone of us.
About the author: Silvia Romani is a professor of Mythology, Religions and Anthropology in the classical era for the University of Milan.
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About the poems I can't say anything bad about it, because I really liked them.
It was a really interesting experience. It was my first time reading her poems and the edition I've got was in double language: Greek with the translation in my mother tongue: Italian.
The sad part was the fact that the majority of them were just fragments. It's a huge loss for art and human kind.
The book about her instead was a big disappointment in my opinion.
I thought I was going to read a book about her, but I was wrong. It was fuller of Greek mythology and history, which I like, but I chose the book because I thought I would have explored her figure, so it left me quite annoyed.
The poems of Sappho are recommended, but the other book, only if you would like to explore more about mythology and history, if you're searching a book about her, than it's a no.
Sull'autrice: Silvia Romani è una professoressa di Mitologia, Religioni e Antropologia nel mondo classico per l'Università di Milano.
