@@HiopX There’s an April fools apology video from Red and Blue where he confesses to stealing the entire contents of the library of Alexandria and burning it down to cover his tracks. That’s what they’re referencing. It’s a joke.
@@bazzfromthebackground3696 damn what a shitbag. I wonder, how many hours does he spend each day on his computer typing stuff like this out? And how many do you think actually decide to be loyal subscribers because of this? I'd say maybe 1 sub per 30 hours of work, that's my estimate
@@oracle8192 funny thing is, I bet if they put the time they clearly spend spamming comments into actually making quality content, they might actually grow
Honestly the fact that her meme husband was literally called *Dick of Man Island* is perfect when you consider that because of Sappho's legendary gayness in the modern English language "Sappho of Lesbos" basically means "Gay of Gay Island". And naturally there is no power couple greater than Gay of Gay Island and her husband Dick of Man Island.
@@juliannechen9094 yup, and instead of eloquence, they use repetition. Which in itself isn't bad and has been used in poetry for millennia, but nowadays it represents... repetition because we're not that creative.
It’s possible that she MIGHT have been a virgin, and that’s WHY she was so damn thirsty. You tend to not crave water when you’ve been drinking all day, y’know? But that’s no longer speculating on her orientation, and just straight up gossiping about her sex life, and we don’t need to do THAT, especially after the mess we Louis and Marie Antoinette.
That’s actually a surprisingly refreshing reframing of Sappho. Interesting to learn it wasn’t the homophobes that got her, it was just dumb old illiteracy.
It would be like if a really awesome writer only wrote their works in Esperanto. Like, some people might read it but probably not enough for it to become worth printing
@@turma8eac I mean, she did get 'printed', but over time people stopped learning the language her works were published in. It's like books written in welsh. Very few people, even from Wales, can read it, and it's only getting worse over time, so it's a matter of translate or lose it.
@@Electric999999 Exactly. For example, the vast, vast majority of modern German speakers would get a stroke if they had to read something in Middle High German, and that's still at least somewhat intelligable.
An odd point about historical women is how often they're defined by who they slept with. Sappho is no exception, as her name is most strongly associated not with her type of poetry but her type of lovers.
I mean, in this case, it's because the name of her birthplace gave name to an entire sexuality? While her poetry should be an important factor, that is overshadowed in this case. And Jeanne d'arc, the French war hero, who she slept with? Idk! Marie curie? Her neither!
@@szarekhthesilentking7043 1. I was referring to the word "Sapphic". 2. As far as I know, Lesbos was associated with lesbianism _because_ of Sappho, so...same argument applies, just with a little more word cruft.
@@szarekhthesilentking7043 Lesbians are only called that *because* Sappho is such a well known woman who loved women. Another word for women who love women (not just lesbians but also bi women for example) is "Sapphic". Lesbians are called lesbians because everyone defines Sappho for sleeping with/loving women, rather than the other way around
So she wrote "lyrics" about herself and her strong emotions, designed to be read aloud over an instrumental backing, plus she used a native dialect rather than the empire's standard language??? So Sappho was a rapper?!!!
Despite how little of her work remains, we can at least be grateful that *"I'm horni"* is a sentiment that transcends language, period, cultural framework and all literary conventions. Millennia later, we can still relate to and laugh at the idea of finding someone's voice so hot we need to sit down.
@chinsaw2727 lmao I'm sorry but some nerd on the internet who doesn't even mention this real part of history doesn't get to decide the sexual orientation of an ancient poet. Blue is wrong and Sappho wasn't even s little bit gay, she just wrote poetry.
Today: Group 1:"Sapho is gay, she slept with women!" Group 2:"Nooo, Sapho is at least bisexual, she had relations with men" Ancient times in Greece Sapho:"did that human breathe? I'd hit that!" Zeus:"Same"
@@witheredaway6747 It's clearly because she's crisp and serves to enhance anything she inserts herself into in subtle yet irreplaceable ways. Just like celery!
My hottake: If all the greek historians and/or philosophers suddenly had a means to use twitter, then twitter will be entertaining and changed forever, for better and/or worse.
I don't know if you mean "Imagine if we discovered an ancient Twitter database with Socrates's lost tweets" or "Imagine if ancient Greek philosophers could communicate with modern Twitter," but those both sound interesting. Especially the latter, because it means ancient Greek philosophers from different centuries could get into Twitter beefs.
@@or9422 Yeah. I'd definitely be entertained by Sappho shit posting about gay yearning or Alcibiades just hitting on literally everyone literally all the time on twitter. But we'd also get that *t o t a l* asshole Aristotle pulling a Jordan Peterson and constantly just posting the *worst* and *dumbest* takes with an intense degree of arrogance and an intellectual aesthetic that makes people think he has a point when he's just spouting ignorant bullshit.
I have! I thought it was called the Island of Man though. I’m impressed this guy came all the way from the British Isles to Greece. Hell of a journey back then.
I think my favourite Sappho fragment is ‘someone, i tell you, will remember us, even in another time’. Like, holy shit, that’s haunting, and also rings very true when considered in the context of historical same-sex relationships. God Sappho is just so cool
that's my favorite fragment to!!! I want to get it as a tattoo. I love it so. much. It's sweet, and sad, and hopeful. And I feel like it's so soft too. Not the kind of grand declaration of love you say in front of hundreds of people, but the kind of thing you whisper to someone you love as you fall asleep.
Sappho: "Aphrodite HEEEEELP!!!" Aphrodite, to the pantheon: "This is the third poem this week. Can someone else take this prayer?" Athena, taking the call: "Go to horny jail". Artemis: "Don't be mean! Tell her to hunt her prey, even if they're just friends" Aphrodite, with an evil smile: "Yes... Just friends.... Nothing more.... > : ) "
There's something so weird about the term lesbian coming from the island lesbos. It's like if the modern term for gay being named after the east village.
The level of gay p i n i n g Sappho exudes in the poem about her passing out just from hearing a girls laugh is one of the most relatable experiences I have ever heard
Thirsty pansexual is thirsty, ngl. I mean, she pines over a giggling girl and in the same sentence adores said girl's companion as a god-made-flesh. Someone needs to make a biopic for Sappho, include the scene building to that line, and end the scene with at least one orgy.
Blue: *Does a video on Sappho that focuses more on her poetry and the problems of literary drift than her sexuality* Me, a lesbian writer: Ha jokes on you, I’m into that shit
That poem about her passing out from a woman's laugh and thinking a man is a God from sitting next to her screams extreme bisexual thirst and as a pansexual I love that.
When you're a Les-Bi and two hot people of the opposite sexes start talking and sitting next to you and you freak out so hard you pass out from indirect overstimulation I might have felt this once or twice despite my utter straightness
sappho fainting over a girl's laughter from across the room is so damn good. whoever translated it is so damn good. it reminded me of a (very gay) story that i read. so now i know that i have good taste for liking that story.
Regardless of if she's gay, bi, pan, poly or whatever- we know she's not straight. We also know she was a disaster when it came to other women. All in all, still a huge gay icon
"Lesbian" and "Sapphic" entered the lexicon (at least in their modern sense) in the late 19th Century, when the learned in society were attempting to apply the kind of rigid, everything-goes-in-a-box thinking that had worked so successfully in early science to all aspects of life. Same time period that coined "homosexual" (from a hideous hybrid of Greek and Latin words, just ask Havelock Ellis about that one). These terms all sound ancient Greek (or Roman) simply because post-Renaissance society viewed ancient Greece and Rome as the mark of high culture, so they pretentiously applied that kind of terminology to give their theories social weight - not because these terms have any real connection to the ancient world. Sappho of Lesbos was simply the only point of reference they had in Victorian high society for a woman who liked women (kinda). Up to that point in history, there wasn't really a word for "gay", "lesbian", "homosexual" etc, because it was something you DID not something you WERE. It's quite a strange notion really, we don't have a word for people who prefer chocolate ice cream to strawberry. It's pretty much the only preference we have specific words for. Why? Because they were viewed as medical or psychological conditions, and scientific terms were invented to pathologise them so they could be "treated". Later in the 20th Century, with the sexual revolution and the slow de-stigmatisation of same-sex attraction, the clinical aspects of the term were de-emphasised and it was embraced as a reclaimed term of pride. But it's fundamentally ahistorical to apply our modern rigid conception of sexuality to anything before the late 1800s. Sappho wouldn't know what the Hades you were talking about if you asked her what her sexuality was.
Fair point. And yet ... we can actually measure homosexual and heterosexual orientation in the science lab. With erection detectors / blood flow detectors and whatnot. Sexual orientation is a real and measurable thing, same as left-handedness and right-handedness. In fact the two phenomena are quite similar. For instance, both orientation and handedness seem to be fixed at a very early age, maybe even in the womb. Neither can be altered later in life; you can fake it, for social reasons or to avoid punishment, but you can't actually force it to change. Also, there are more gay guys than lesbians, just as there are more left-handed men than left-handed women. No reason to suppose the same wasn't true back in Ancient Greece, even if people didn't think about it that way at the time. Gravity was still gravity even before people knew why things fell down. Still, female sexuality is more complicated than male sexuality. There are more bisexual women than lesbians, for instance, and women in general are a little more 'free-floating' in their attraction than men. So trying to categorise Sappho from this distance is a bit tricky. She was definitely parched, though...
Btw I agree with this notion, it's ridiculous that sexuality has become a character trait, it's just something you are? Like if not every black person plays basketball either. It's not something unnormal or even special
Probably the least "woke" comment in this comment section, cause you apparently woke up in the last moment, and got it too late... Lyrics = The poetry of songtexts/lyrics
"Hold on, little girls, to the beautiful gifts of the violet Muses, and cling to your love of the clear sweet lyre, that lover of music. My skin was once supple and smooth, but now it is withered by age; my hair had been lustrous and black, but now it is faded and gray. My heart grows heavy; my knees, too weary to stand upon, though once, they could lift me and dance, and could leap as light as a fawn. I grumble and groan on and on-and yet, what else can I do? No woman has lived without aging, no man has eternal youth. They say that Tithonus was held in the rosy arms of Dawn, who carried him off to the ends of the earth, so her love would live on. Though charming and young at the time, and despite his immortal wife, he too would succumb to old age in the end of his endless life. Yet, thinking of all that I’ve lost, I recall what maturity brings: the wisdom I lacked as a youth, and a love for the finer things. And Eros has given me beauty not found in the light of the sun: the passion and patience for life that so often is lost on the young." (Sappho's Tithonus Poem, Translated by J. Simon Harris)
As someone who reads it in Greek, that's a surprising good translation. I didn't think English could go this far on Greek. I might have to do more research 😁
@@cassiefromooo but she used gender neutral pronouns and in the piece of poetry blue mentioned she describes a man as godlike. and considering where she came from, it would make sense that she was into anything that moves.
@@zennim125 or because he had the courage to make a move that she didn't, or because he was as beautiful as she was, or because its a reference to actual gods making moves on the most beautiful girls... we don't know. we don't understand shit about their lingo and what she could have meant, and we can't exactly ask her. the best we can do is speculate on what we know about her culture and her other writing.
@@anzaia2164 I read a tumblr post once where someone claimed that in her school days she (the tumblr writer, not Sappho) wrote poetry for other people's girlfriends in exchange for cash.
@@supremeperson6866 Are you being genuine here, or just trolling? On the off-chance that you're actually confused - being panromantic means that people can have romantic feelings for anyone, regardless of gender, and being asexual means that you aren't sexually attracted to anyone. Sometimes it also means that you are opposed to having sex, but some asexual people don't mind having sex, or even enjoy it. I never said Red was pansexual, she's panromantic. All clear?
Sappho: "This woman laughed and I full on fainted from how beautiful she was" Historians: "Ah, but she said the man was godlike! She and the woman must have just been *close friends* ."
Historians: So Sappho, what's you're sexual preference? Sappho: Thirsty Historian: No I mean do you like men or women? Sappho: Yes. Historian: Oh...so you like both then Sappho: I'm going to need everyone to take off their pants now. Historian: Take off our pan...OOOO GOD YOUR NAKED! Sappho: Its go time!!
"With Sappho's poetry, you understand that there's a real person behind those words, with complex feelings, who wrote from a place of deep sincerity... AND THIRST." *Careless Whispers intensifies* I choked on soda and laughed until I cried, partly because of Blue's unbridled giggle with those last couple words. And the image, of course... and the saxophone...
"poetry performed with musical accompaniment that was about whatever you want" I will no longer not see Sappho as a slam poet from now on and I love it, thank you
@@Xman34washere very possible, but given her initial works were clearly showing interest in men, it's safe to say she wasn't gay and anyone claiming she was is delusional
"This is first attested to a hellenistic era comedic play" This is like people from the future learning about how Jane Adams died because the Simpsons did an episode on it.
Yes, sadly there are sometimes so few sources preseved we have to use plays or poems to know about ancient people. For example one of the main sources for the lives of later Roman Emperors is the Historia Augusta, which is thought to be an anti-Christian parody book
I have a theory that after her death, Sappho ascended as a champion of Aphrodite, given that a lot of her poems were flattering or pleading to Aphrodite and the sheer thirst shown by the woman through expertly crafted lyric poetry would likely impress even the Shipper Goddess herself. Aphrodite: Gods, fine! I'm here now, what do you want?!? Sappho, about to straight up die at the sight of the most attractive woman ever: help...too pretty... please Aphrodite: Oh, I like you. You're coming with me. How would you like to spend the rest of eternity watching pretty people fall in love? Sappho, with no hesitation: Yes please. Sorry for posting cringe, dialogue is hard
Hey so, I know you wrote this like a year ago but I have an answer for this. So ‘Despoina’ was/is an epithet used for Aphrodite, I don’t know much more about it because I haven’t been able to access a source yet, but I’m going to assume that going by her slight ‘historical’ interpretations of being a war goddess that the whole ‘the mistress’ thing came about as a she’s scary because we want to avoid a war? I can’t properly tell I don’t know too much about Aphrodite to be honest I’m also not a professional historian. I did have a quick google, it seems that while this is one possibility (I haven’t been able to find a original text to search for ‘Despoina’ or related terms) a lot of the translations seem to refer to her as an alternatively ’o enchantress’, or ‘weaver of wiles’ which also fits Aphrodite. I’ve become very invested in the Despoina concept and seeing this I thought you might like an answer of some sort :)
Aphrodite's response is a bit weird though, she says "that girl doesn't want you know, but just wait and I'll make her thirst even more for you in the future"
honestly, this was the best cover of Sappho. I was introduced to her in a gay literature class and if any viewers have the chance, I can not stress enough, please, English majors especially, please read her work! not because of the gay undertones, but the eloquent manner she expresses how love feels, the heart still beating behind those words, it truly is a breathtaking experience.
@@jaojao1768 because English majors study all languages of important literature. Sappho wrote in a literary style that changed everything for writers, but it is a shame she was lost for years and was just rediscovered.
@@jaojao1768 plus every language contributes to the modern writing styles as well as breaking down the thoughts of authors even way back when. English majors do it with Shakespeare, and even ancient mythology which is Greek too. so yeah, it's important to English majors.
I love how all of the comments are like “thanks for covering such a lesbian icon and how dare they censer her woman love” without actually watching blue explain that the censorship was just lost translations and she wasn’t the kind of gay you think she was
I'm not seeing anybody talk about her being censored or complaining that it cost her so many of her works because that's not why we lost them. I *am* seeing a lot of people meming about how people both historically and even today try to be like "she's totally not gay guys, she even had a husband who's name we have. It's Dick of Man Island, a totally real person that totally means Sappho was a hetti spaghetti", which *is* a fair thing to meme about because a lot of people did and still do try to somehow write her off as not gay as fuck. The attempted degayification of Sappho is definitely overblown and not why we lost her works, but it is still a thing that's so absurd it's hilarious.
Uhhh… “Gay panic” means, “You, a dude, freaked out because that dude made a pass at you. So you beat him to death.” No, I'm not kidding. There's something called the, “‘gay panic’ defense,” which defense lawyers would use for clients who went out to find a f@g to bash and actually got arrested for it. During the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, homophobes could hunt down gay men, beat them to death, then literally get away with murder by using the “gay panic”-defense. Juries of that time would always acquit anyone who claimed “gay panic” made them kill that “ho-mo-sekshal.” It's important that we don't erase our history by redefining away the meaning of words & phrases that were used against us.
"...a brilliant phase in the evolution of poetry often overlooked, for reasons we'll see later." It was homophobia, wasn't it? ... Oh! Not homophobia! That's a nice change of pace.
My college had something called the common intellectual experience that all freshmen had to take and all professors had to teach regardless of department or intended major. The idea was to make sure we were well-rounded before entering higher level classes by reading some of the most influential works throughout history. When it came time to read Sappho this one dude bro started the class by saying "Well in this poem Sappho is saying how HE finds this lady hot." The biology teacher who very much didn't want to be there was trying so hard not to laugh. My teacher kept asking him more to questions to see when he'd realize.
Have you heard about the stupid argument that some people say she wasn't even a woman??? I was doing research for a project and was disgusted to find that
the theoretical male!sappho; “Ah yes, let me, a greek man in a pretty misogynistic society, call myself a woman. That’s definitely going to advance my career like never before!”
.....................................y'know what that reminds me of? that time an sculptor made a photo-realistic statue of a hot-ass woman, full-on renaissance "the thin chamise has 2349234923432 creases" style, and some dudes on twitter went all 'ah yes, only a white cishet man could depict such beauty, truly inspiring, nothing like all these snowflakes, they could never understand a woman's beauty like a man does'. the sculptor was an asian woman.
I love Sappho not only is she an amazing writer, poet, philosopher, and thinker. She gave queer women expression and still an icon today. She really was the 10th muse. Speaking of muses when are we getting a video about Juana Inés de la Cruz.
@@tada-kun982 Men, both in Sappho's time and ours, have blamed women for a lot of stuff that wasn't really their fault. See Helen of Troy, a girl that the athenians absolutely hated for starting the Trojan war - you know, beccause she was kidnapped. Please stay in your jurisdiction.
@@j2dragon109 we can doubt the reality of the Trojan war for once, second please give modern examples and thirdly, you are strawmanning. Not NEARLY all men do that and modern feminists tend to blame Everything on the arrogance of men... So that's not a good point really
Thanks for this - especially when we’re already missing LGBT History Month (especially with your nuanced explanation of Sappho's sexuality)! I love your videos and it’s great to see someone discuss the survival of Classical literature from multiple perspectives. But I wanted to point out a couple of things as a professional Classicist: (1) Lyric poetry was not ‘invented’ between an ‘epic age’ and the Classical period but existed alongside epic (the Iliad itself mentions several genres of lyric poetry and it is widely thought that the dactylic hexameter used by epic poets and the Aeolic metres used by the Lesbian poets are closely related and descend from the same Indo-European rhythms; add to this the widely posited ‘Aeolic phase’ of Greek epic and it seems likely the two kinds of poetry influenced each other and developed alongside each other well before our earliest recorded lyric poetry); (2) Sappho’s poetry cannot be said to directly or straightforwardly represent the poet’s feelings, as it is widely recognised that she uses a persona (probably based somewhat on herself but elaborated and fictionalised to some degree) and some now think that the other people in her poetry are often ‘type’ characters; furthermore, her poetry has not only or even primarily the purpose of communicating her own ‘private’ or ‘sincere’ feelings, as our modern expectations influenced by Romanticism might suggest, but it has a social purpose (as all Greek poetry in this period is public to some extent and has important social layers); (3) Sappho’s dates are more secure than the dates of most ancient Greek poets as her compatriot and contemporary Alcaeus mentions the Babylonian’s sack of Ashkelon in 604 BC, which itself is secure because of Neo-Babylonian records; (4) Sappho’s biography in the later Greek tradition is really ridiculously sexist and some even turn her into a nymphomaniac (it’s just so sad); (5) A lot of Sappho’s extant poetry, as mentioned, does concern expressions of love and desire, but because a lot of the surviving fragments (and all the complete poems) all come from Book 1 of Sappho in the Alexandrian collection, it may well be that the rest of her 8 or 9 books had different emphases (and indeed, the discovery of new poems may add to this, as we now have poems about her family that we didn’t before); I love her love poems, but I also think her wedding songs and dick jokes are hilarious and worth thinking about (but are unfortunately usually forgotten).
Thank you for this additional information and clarification! Item 2 is especially interesting to me, as I often forget that removing an author’s work out of ‘context’, e.g. their living circumstances, cultural norms, etc., can limit your understanding of their work.
ただ Tada-Kun it’s in June, it’s to reflect on the oppression the lgbt community has faced, remember the people’s have fought for queer rights, and think about the future of the lgbt community
As a poet, I can relate to the pain of linguistic barriers. I'm brazilian and write most of my poems in brazilian portuguese, although I do write some stuff in english from time to time (coincidentaly, just wrote a small one few hours ago!). One thing I've noticed, and has been a dilema for me ever since is: the more I elaborate the form of the poem, via linguistic resources, the more I can play with it and interlap feelings with precise and sometimes surprising structures. At the same time, the more it becomes harder to proper understand without a good knowledge of the language. As a quick example: Through the fires I went Tough they have made me Though only on my body Thoughts still can hurt me Altought now, only mine In that tiny poem, I can play alot with how similar the words can look and sound, making the process my lyric-self just went seem longer in duration, kinda repetitive or at least full of familiar and/or cyclical steps, while failing to bring a complete enhancement, just physical one. However, that in brazilian portuguese would be something like: Através dos fogos passei Forte eles me fizeram Apesar de que apenas em meu corpo Pensamentos ainda podem ferir-me Porém agora, apenas os meus It's almost a 1:1 translation, where the message is the same, but gone is the textual resource of repetition of similar words to make it look more tiring, cyclical and longer. Only the feelings are left, without the game I played with the words. So, I think the most practical way to make your poem language-proof (lol) it's to focus on the feeling alone, making the text secondary. The impact comes from the story being told, the sentiments unfolding, the scenario and the atmosphere, but at the loss of one of the most unique resources of the written medium.
To be fair the concept really did not exist then yet. The people then knew it existed but not that it was complete or normal and did not have scientific names for it until the 19 century when studies were actually made.
Daedalus, "I'll be with you in a minute, I just got to finish working on their wooden cosplay suit so that my client can go full-Furry with a sacred bull."
@@ktheterkuceder6825 the concept of homosexuality existed, just not homophobia. The only thing that mattered was if you were a top, so I'd be screwed 🤷 ... literally
[She] wrote from a place of deep feelings... And thirst. Best quote today. Also, really cool to hear more about this person. I only heard that one poem about envying the guy that gets to sit cloe to you, but that is effin' beautiful.
"I heard a woman talk and almost fucking died" is iconic, hands down.
Iconic and so so so fucking relatable
the original "too gay to function"
(NOT CLICKBAIT)
A mood as well
gay panic
I love Sappho and her completely platonic best friend/roommate who she grew old and died with
The classic greek hetero life partner
Totally not gay ‼️‼️‼️‼️
They have slept with each other only a couple of times. Like, accidentally.
R/sapphoandherfreind
I don’t get why the left always wants to make ancient Greeks look gay, They were obviously just gals being pals
@@alexfirefly1956 Who hasn’t been nailed by their gal pal?
Sappho: I was censored
Everyone: By the church?
Sappho: No, by language barriers
Que? Kya Kaha?
No she was also censored by the church and misogyny
@@youknow7856 as expected
@@youknow7856did you watch the video perchance?
"I heard a woman's laugh and passed out from lesbian longing"
Fucking MOOD, SAPPHO
The OG gay panic
IK!!!! Goodness that had me rolling on the floor
Theres a reason the adjective for lesbian things is sapphic 😭
Ogod this had me rolling 😂
“Before we put ALL the blame on the loss of Alexandria-“
He’s covering up for the fact he burned down the Library of Alexandria
Blue is the last person that would burn down that library
@@HiopX that’s what I thought too...
I’m no longer so naive
@@HiopX You sure about that?
@@rynvail521 have you seen ANY other video from him?
@@HiopX There’s an April fools apology video from Red and Blue where he confesses to stealing the entire contents of the library of Alexandria and burning it down to cover his tracks. That’s what they’re referencing. It’s a joke.
“... who wrote from a place of deep sincerity. AND THIRST.” Cracked me up
Deeply SINCERE thirst.
L e s b i n
G i r l s
Is there even a difference?
*"oh my god they were roommates" intensifies*
*“Oh my god they were in the same room”*
@@AxxLAfriku tf are you on abt
@@oracle8192 I've seen this guy, legitimately, across like 6 channels. He just replys in peoples comments with either this nonsense or hate speech.
@@bazzfromthebackground3696 damn what a shitbag. I wonder, how many hours does he spend each day on his computer typing stuff like this out? And how many do you think actually decide to be loyal subscribers because of this? I'd say maybe 1 sub per 30 hours of work, that's my estimate
@@oracle8192 funny thing is, I bet if they put the time they clearly spend spamming comments into actually making quality content, they might actually grow
Blue said "I'm gonna give the gays everything they want"
As he should.
I'm I'm m
B
B
Dude I’m straight and I freaking wanted this.
LITERALLY THO
@@jamesadams715 nooo stop you will start a chain th-
IM BLUE DABU DI DABU DAAAS
"The Greeks and Romans were indiscriminately thirsty."
There are so many great lines in this vid and Blue's delivery is fantastic.
He's mostly just telling it the way it is, to them hot is hot and nothing will stop them from trying to appreciate that hot from as close as possible.
@@laurenkirby97 waifu is husbando, husbando is waifu
How is that possible?
Unfortunately (especially in regards to same sex relations) they were also indiscriminate in regards to age.
Sappho said “I love women so much I’m gonna die” and a ton of Ancient Greek lesbians went “retweet” and now we’re here
PLEAAASSSEE 😭😭😭
sometimes i feel such intense love for women that im starting to be pretty sure that its sappho possesing me
@@rozsia3464fucking mood
@@rozsia3464 Same but with men I think it's Apollo coming inside me.
I should probably reword that.
@@laravioliiii2832WAIT A DAMN MINU-
Alexander the "You all speak Greek now." has to be my favorite title Blue has given him to date
I like Alexander the Alexandest
Oohhhhh okay someone has to have a list of alex's names!!!!
My personal fave is Alexan the plot armor
im partial to "Alexander the just ok" myself
@fabRic_jAck I think my favorite was "Alexander the 6/10"
Honestly the fact that her meme husband was literally called *Dick of Man Island* is perfect when you consider that because of Sappho's legendary gayness in the modern English language "Sappho of Lesbos" basically means "Gay of Gay Island". And naturally there is no power couple greater than Gay of Gay Island and her husband Dick of Man Island.
Patrocolus and Achilles: Are you sure about that?
Oop--
very based take, canon as far as i'm concerned.
Symbolic
this is what we call literacy irony, or historical irony
"Hey hot stuff
You sure are hot
And boy do I have opinions about that"
Such a beautiful poem Blue, I'm in awe ...
Basically the summary of most love songs on the charts these days.
A fantastic summary of the music industry
@@juliannechen9094 yup, and instead of eloquence, they use repetition. Which in itself isn't bad and has been used in poetry for millennia, but nowadays it represents... repetition because we're not that creative.
@@ryangreen6255 Repetition legitimizes
Repetition legitimizes
Repetition legitimizes
@@ryangreen6255 I mean, it's good for dancing to at least?
It isn't much, but it's definitely _something_
"What's wrong with Kerkylas of Andros?"
"Well, I think it's a joke, sir. Like Sillius Soddus or Biggus Dickus."
Ancient history as depicted by monty python
To be fair though, Andros is an actual place.
“I have a vewy gweat fwiend in Wome named Biggus Dickus”
@@giggabiite4417" Silence! What is all this insolence? You will find yourself in gladiator school vewwy quickly with wotten behaviour like that."
@@Visplight "can i go now, sir?"
I hear that women’s laugh and I get *HELLA THIRSTY!*
“Now hear me out guys, I think she was chaste.”
You'd need a whole different level of thirsty to call that Chaste.
Why not? I'm a chaste guy, and i got HELLA THIRSTY at a woman laugth!
It’s possible that she MIGHT have been a virgin, and that’s WHY she was so damn thirsty. You tend to not crave water when you’ve been drinking all day, y’know?
But that’s no longer speculating on her orientation, and just straight up gossiping about her sex life, and we don’t need to do THAT, especially after the mess we Louis and Marie Antoinette.
That’s actually a surprisingly refreshing reframing of Sappho. Interesting to learn it wasn’t the homophobes that got her, it was just dumb old illiteracy.
Not really illiteracy, they were just literate in the wrong languages and dialects.
It would be like if a really awesome writer only wrote their works in Esperanto. Like, some people might read it but probably not enough for it to become worth printing
@@turma8eac I mean, she did get 'printed', but over time people stopped learning the language her works were published in. It's like books written in welsh. Very few people, even from Wales, can read it, and it's only getting worse over time, so it's a matter of translate or lose it.
@@Electric999999
Exactly. For example, the vast, vast majority of modern German speakers would get a stroke if they had to read something in Middle High German, and that's still at least somewhat intelligable.
No exactly illiteracy just plain old language/dialect barrier.
An odd point about historical women is how often they're defined by who they slept with. Sappho is no exception, as her name is most strongly associated not with her type of poetry but her type of lovers.
I mean, in this case, it's because the name of her birthplace gave name to an entire sexuality? While her poetry should be an important factor, that is overshadowed in this case. And Jeanne d'arc, the French war hero, who she slept with? Idk! Marie curie? Her neither!
@@szarekhthesilentking7043 1. I was referring to the word "Sapphic".
2. As far as I know, Lesbos was associated with lesbianism _because_ of Sappho, so...same argument applies, just with a little more word cruft.
@@szarekhthesilentking7043 Lesbians are only called that *because* Sappho is such a well known woman who loved women. Another word for women who love women (not just lesbians but also bi women for example) is "Sapphic". Lesbians are called lesbians because everyone defines Sappho for sleeping with/loving women, rather than the other way around
@@timothymclean she is the one case I see a woman defined by who she slept with, tho.
@@zoesequeira5388 yes, I don't argue with that. I argued with the fact that most other historical women get associated with who they slept with.
So she wrote "lyrics" about herself and her strong emotions, designed to be read aloud over an instrumental backing, plus she used a native dialect rather than the empire's standard language??? So Sappho was a rapper?!!!
this is a hot take I didn't know I needed
44 minutes later I made the same conclusion without seeing this comment.
Top 10 rappers eminem was afraid to diss.
Now this is real hip hop
Pretty sure Sappho was pre-Alexander the Dialect-Eraser
Despite how little of her work remains, we can at least be grateful that *"I'm horni"* is a sentiment that transcends language, period, cultural framework and all literary conventions. Millennia later, we can still relate to and laugh at the idea of finding someone's voice so hot we need to sit down.
...I get that reference.
"Have you ever seen a girl so pretty you started crying" - Sappho, probably
Regardless of if she's a lesbian icon or a bisexual icon, she's still a fantastic icon for female poets!
Indeed!
*Romantic Poets in general
I think "Queer Icon" would be a good title.
@@crypticcorvid this entire political debate is so unnecessary, just appreciate the art :(
@@tada-kun982 how is it political??
If he doesn't mention her super real husband that totally existed, *Dick Allcocks from Man Island,* I will be disappointed.
Edit: Hell yeah.
Probably ancestor of Biggus Dickus
@chinsaw2727 lmao I'm sorry but some nerd on the internet who doesn't even mention this real part of history doesn't get to decide the sexual orientation of an ancient poet. Blue is wrong and Sappho wasn't even s little bit gay, she just wrote poetry.
@chinsaw2727 definitely not straight
Obviously sapphic
@@bixmcgoo5355 this is sarcastic, right?
@@cantthinkofaname4555 One could only hope
Edit: nope they're in other comment sections, it's just your common-garden variety asshat.
"wrote poetry to defend himself against accusations"
Is this history's first known example of a rap battle?
Nope, that is flyting.
Today:
Group 1:"Sapho is gay, she slept with women!"
Group 2:"Nooo, Sapho is at least bisexual, she had relations with men"
Ancient times in Greece
Sapho:"did that human breathe? I'd hit that!"
Zeus:"Same"
I now understand why Zeus was the head of their Pantheon
this comment ad me cackling at 4 in the morning for like 5 minutes straight 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah greeks and Romans tended to have sex with any gender
Lmfao 😭
Doesn't even have to be breathing... doesn't even have to be human...
“Hype-up poetry to motivate soldiers” is the most on-brand Spartan thing imaginable
And thus the first military cadence was born
"I dunno what I've been told; Deirdre's got a Network Node."
@@ElliottBelser Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri ftw
Sparta: Civilization or Military, take your pick.
Everyone gangsta until Sparta rolls up to Till I Collapse
And now for a poem.
"Celery" -Sappho
Truly inspiring.
You can just see how she felt about it! It is clearly a metaphore that she is the celery becouse she is so moist around people!
@@witheredaway6747 YOU DID NOT-
@@witheredaway6747 Moistened Celery is my VeggieTales tribute band's name.
@@witheredaway6747 It's clearly because she's crisp and serves to enhance anything she inserts herself into in subtle yet irreplaceable ways. Just like celery!
@Jess :0 for Sappho there might not be a difference
My hottake: If all the greek historians and/or philosophers suddenly had a means to use twitter, then twitter will be entertaining and changed forever, for better and/or worse.
I don't know if you mean "Imagine if we discovered an ancient Twitter database with Socrates's lost tweets" or "Imagine if ancient Greek philosophers could communicate with modern Twitter," but those both sound interesting. Especially the latter, because it means ancient Greek philosophers from different centuries could get into Twitter beefs.
I think it would be for better AND worse
@@or9422 Yeah. I'd definitely be entertained by Sappho shit posting about gay yearning or Alcibiades just hitting on literally everyone literally all the time on twitter. But we'd also get that *t o t a l* asshole Aristotle pulling a Jordan Peterson and constantly just posting the *worst* and *dumbest* takes with an intense degree of arrogance and an intellectual aesthetic that makes people think he has a point when he's just spouting ignorant bullshit.
@@minerva9104 Diogenes would definitely be the troll
@@minerva9104 We'd also still have to deal with all the bloody sophists.
"Who are you married to?"
"Dick"
"Richard is a nice name! Where is he from?"
"Man island"
"Huh, I've never heard of that place..."
Better than his cousin Willy, from Pen Island
"Okay, lets call him, um, Steve... Steve Trevor... from Man's World?"
Gay of Gay Island and her husband Dick of Man Island.
*sad noises from Richard who lives on the Isle of Mann”
I have! I thought it was called the Island of Man though. I’m impressed this guy came all the way from the British Isles to Greece. Hell of a journey back then.
I think my favourite Sappho fragment is ‘someone, i tell you, will remember us, even in another time’. Like, holy shit, that’s haunting, and also rings very true when considered in the context of historical same-sex relationships. God Sappho is just so cool
I think you mean Aphrodite Sappho is so cool ;)
that's my favorite fragment to!!! I want to get it as a tattoo. I love it so. much. It's sweet, and sad, and hopeful. And I feel like it's so soft too. Not the kind of grand declaration of love you say in front of hundreds of people, but the kind of thing you whisper to someone you love as you fall asleep.
Wow...
That's, uh...
That's deep...
I think this fragment was found partially destroyed in a wine jug, iirc...
Sappho: "Aphrodite HEEEEELP!!!"
Aphrodite, to the pantheon: "This is the third poem this week. Can someone else take this prayer?"
Athena, taking the call: "Go to horny jail".
Artemis: "Don't be mean! Tell her to hunt her prey, even if they're just friends"
Aphrodite, with an evil smile: "Yes... Just friends.... Nothing more.... > : ) "
sappho: please, god, just let me have one good [love]?
aphrodite: oh my god you again? give it a rest buddy!
Artemis, patron of "virginal" women? Yeah she knows what's being girl besties means
This comment thread is fckin awesome
@@mothlarvas5066 favorite comment so far
Zeus is asking. So where does she live asking for a friend..
Sappho: A woman so gay that all other gay women were named after her home town.
And after _her_ , with "sapphic" also meaning "lesbian".
Island
Her poems brought all the girls to the yard
@@nothingyet120 I have a feeling you missed the point of my comment.
and her own name is now used as a term for every woman that is attracted to another, hell yeah sapphics
There's something so weird about the term lesbian coming from the island lesbos. It's like if the modern term for gay being named after the east village.
I mean, it's not due to that reason, but you definitely hear the term "village people" being used for queer folk.
You mean like The Village People?
There was a bunch of hijacked terminology that the Victorians used to use to romanticize certain things. It's an interesting rabbit hole.
@@VulpesHilarianus Examples?
It probably was a euphemism, like you know that gay poet? Stephanie is from HER place if ya know what I mean
The level of gay p i n i n g Sappho exudes in the poem about her passing out just from hearing a girls laugh is one of the most relatable experiences I have ever heard
Thirsty pansexual is thirsty, ngl.
I mean, she pines over a giggling girl and in the same sentence adores said girl's companion as a god-made-flesh. Someone needs to make a biopic for Sappho, include the scene building to that line, and end the scene with at least one orgy.
@@onijester56 bisexual*
Same same but different
“APHRODITE! HELP! BEFORE I DIE OF THIRST!”
I can’t help it, I laughed way too hard at this
Blue: *Does a video on Sappho that focuses more on her poetry and the problems of literary drift than her sexuality*
Me, a lesbian writer: Ha jokes on you, I’m into that shit
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sappho not even mad, yo
That poem about her passing out from a woman's laugh and thinking a man is a God from sitting next to her screams extreme bisexual thirst and as a pansexual I love that.
*SCREAMS IN BISEXUAL*
As a Zelda fan, I've met many of her kind, both women and men.
As a bisexual/biromantic, 😍😍😍😍!!!
Also its just really good...
When you're a Les-Bi and two hot people of the opposite sexes start talking and sitting next to you and you freak out so hard you pass out from indirect overstimulation
I might have felt this once or twice despite my utter straightness
It was at this moment lesbians around the world all feel fulfilled
I saw this in my subscription box and was just filled with joy!
my heart basically lit up as soon as I saw it
@@femke9960 man I hope it can handle when you find out she wasn't actually gay.
@@bixmcgoo5355 dickman from all cock island isn't real. She's just a pure lesbian.
sappho fainting over a girl's laughter from across the room is so damn good. whoever translated it is so damn good. it reminded me of a (very gay) story that i read. so now i know that i have good taste for liking that story.
Regardless of if she's gay, bi, pan, poly or whatever- we know she's not straight. We also know she was a disaster when it came to other women.
All in all, still a huge gay icon
"Lesbian" and "Sapphic" entered the lexicon (at least in their modern sense) in the late 19th Century, when the learned in society were attempting to apply the kind of rigid, everything-goes-in-a-box thinking that had worked so successfully in early science to all aspects of life. Same time period that coined "homosexual" (from a hideous hybrid of Greek and Latin words, just ask Havelock Ellis about that one). These terms all sound ancient Greek (or Roman) simply because post-Renaissance society viewed ancient Greece and Rome as the mark of high culture, so they pretentiously applied that kind of terminology to give their theories social weight - not because these terms have any real connection to the ancient world. Sappho of Lesbos was simply the only point of reference they had in Victorian high society for a woman who liked women (kinda).
Up to that point in history, there wasn't really a word for "gay", "lesbian", "homosexual" etc, because it was something you DID not something you WERE. It's quite a strange notion really, we don't have a word for people who prefer chocolate ice cream to strawberry. It's pretty much the only preference we have specific words for. Why? Because they were viewed as medical or psychological conditions, and scientific terms were invented to pathologise them so they could be "treated".
Later in the 20th Century, with the sexual revolution and the slow de-stigmatisation of same-sex attraction, the clinical aspects of the term were de-emphasised and it was embraced as a reclaimed term of pride. But it's fundamentally ahistorical to apply our modern rigid conception of sexuality to anything before the late 1800s. Sappho wouldn't know what the Hades you were talking about if you asked her what her sexuality was.
Fair point. And yet ... we can actually measure homosexual and heterosexual orientation in the science lab. With erection detectors / blood flow detectors and whatnot. Sexual orientation is a real and measurable thing, same as left-handedness and right-handedness.
In fact the two phenomena are quite similar. For instance, both orientation and handedness seem to be fixed at a very early age, maybe even in the womb. Neither can be altered later in life; you can fake it, for social reasons or to avoid punishment, but you can't actually force it to change. Also, there are more gay guys than lesbians, just as there are more left-handed men than left-handed women.
No reason to suppose the same wasn't true back in Ancient Greece, even if people didn't think about it that way at the time. Gravity was still gravity even before people knew why things fell down.
Still, female sexuality is more complicated than male sexuality. There are more bisexual women than lesbians, for instance, and women in general are a little more 'free-floating' in their attraction than men. So trying to categorise Sappho from this distance is a bit tricky. She was definitely parched, though...
@@SchrodingersTransCat then again most ancient people were really indiscriminate about who to ugh have fun with, so there's that
Btw I agree with this notion, it's ridiculous that sexuality has become a character trait, it's just something you are? Like if not every black person plays basketball either. It's not something unnormal or even special
@@tada-kun982 Right but they did, it just wasn't part of their idenity.
@@j2dragon109 what "did they "? Confused as to what thou art referring to
Holy shit, it literally just dawned on me that they call the words to a song "lyrics" because of the lyre. Hurp durr im smrt
Probably the least "woke" comment in this comment section, cause you apparently woke up in the last moment, and got it too late... Lyrics = The poetry of songtexts/lyrics
Yeah, well, at least I can hold my breath for 10 minutes.
@@klausbrinck2137 shhhh
Everybody is afforded the occasional whoooosh
"Hold on, little girls, to the beautiful gifts of the violet Muses,
and cling to your love of the clear sweet lyre, that lover of music.
My skin was once supple and smooth, but now it is withered by age;
my hair had been lustrous and black, but now it is faded and gray.
My heart grows heavy; my knees, too weary to stand upon,
though once, they could lift me and dance, and could leap as light as a fawn.
I grumble and groan on and on-and yet, what else can I do?
No woman has lived without aging, no man has eternal youth.
They say that Tithonus was held in the rosy arms of Dawn,
who carried him off to the ends of the earth, so her love would live on.
Though charming and young at the time, and despite his immortal wife,
he too would succumb to old age in the end of his endless life.
Yet, thinking of all that I’ve lost, I recall what maturity brings:
the wisdom I lacked as a youth, and a love for the finer things.
And Eros has given me beauty not found in the light of the sun:
the passion and patience for life that so often is lost on the young."
(Sappho's Tithonus Poem, Translated by J. Simon Harris)
Omigosh that's gorgeous
Wow this is amazing! So simple yet so wise. Excuse me while I go search for more!
That's one impressive translation, keeping meter and rhymes intact. Hats off to Simon Harris!
As someone who reads it in Greek, that's a surprising good translation. I didn't think English could go this far on Greek. I might have to do more research 😁
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing that slice of her work! That's great. Everyone, especially people in middle age and up, need to hear that.
"Asking Aphrodite to make her less lovesick".... yeah, that's gonna happen.
She asked the wrong goddess, she should have go with Artemis.
if aphrodite heard someone asking to make them less lovesick she wiuld probably just try to set you up
@@femthingevelyn Or punish you for being insufficiently "sexed up."
Like asking Zeus to stop fucking around
More like asking Aphrodite to help her get laid.
"Sorry mom, I can't do my chores. I've caught the Big Gay™"
TL;DR: Sappho was definitely into women, but it’s entirely possible she was the original disaster-bi/pan
10000 lines worth of pan panic basically
the only male romantic partner she ever mentioned was Dick of Man Island, so I doubt she wasn't a full blown lesbian, but it's definitely possible
@@cassiefromooo but she used gender neutral pronouns and in the piece of poetry blue mentioned she describes a man as godlike. and considering where she came from, it would make sense that she was into anything that moves.
saying a guy must be a god if he made the girl laugh MUST mean she didn't think much of men
@@zennim125 or because he had the courage to make a move that she didn't, or because he was as beautiful as she was, or because its a reference to actual gods making moves on the most beautiful girls... we don't know. we don't understand shit about their lingo and what she could have meant, and we can't exactly ask her. the best we can do is speculate on what we know about her culture and her other writing.
Sappho: I can't work. Pretty girls exist.
Me: Mood.
Imagine "Pretty girls exist, I can't work" being your job...
Oh, the things I would give
@@anzaia2164 I read a tumblr post once where someone claimed that in her school days she (the tumblr writer, not Sappho) wrote poetry for other people's girlfriends in exchange for cash.
"Someone will remember us
I say
Even in another time"
*sobbing in thinking about ancient humans thinking about us in the future*
Char Aznable I hope they aren’t too disappointed in us
I’m just aggressively refreshing the comments because all of them are *GOLD*
Indeed
So is blue gay?
@@supremeperson6866 He's straight. In an old Q&A video, people asked their sexualities and Blue said straight, Red said panromantic asexual.
@@Robb3636 how can you be bisexual and asexual?
@@supremeperson6866 Are you being genuine here, or just trolling? On the off-chance that you're actually confused - being panromantic means that people can have romantic feelings for anyone, regardless of gender, and being asexual means that you aren't sexually attracted to anyone. Sometimes it also means that you are opposed to having sex, but some asexual people don't mind having sex, or even enjoy it. I never said Red was pansexual, she's panromantic. All clear?
Sappho: "This woman laughed and I full on fainted from how beautiful she was"
Historians: "Ah, but she said the man was godlike! She and the woman must have just been *close friends* ."
Historians: So Sappho, what's you're sexual preference?
Sappho: Thirsty
Historian: No I mean do you like men or women?
Sappho: Yes.
Historian: Oh...so you like both then
Sappho: I'm going to need everyone to take off their pants now.
Historian: Take off our pan...OOOO GOD YOUR NAKED!
Sappho: Its go time!!
I want to add a like, but we’re at nice levels so I’m keeping it like this
@@samziegelman1835 someone else fucked it up
I like that nobody noticed she was naked until the very end there.
"Needs more Patrochilles" Homer is a mood in that comment.
* gay cheers*
Basically:
Sappho: **hears a woman laugh** I- wow, omg , shes a goddess **dies**
Conclusion: sappho will never not be the ultimate mood 😭
“You may forget but
let me tell you
this: someone in
some future time
will think of us”
― Sappho
"With Sappho's poetry, you understand that there's a real person behind those words, with complex feelings, who wrote from a place of deep sincerity... AND THIRST." *Careless Whispers intensifies*
I choked on soda and laughed until I cried, partly because of Blue's unbridled giggle with those last couple words. And the image, of course... and the saxophone...
"who wrote from a place of deep sincerity... anD THIRST'
single best line of the video
You know, totally just gals being pals, nothing else.
r/Sappho and her friend
It's so nice to see two friends be absolute besties
Aww they has a friendship marriage!
Platonically gay
@@ellendavis9272 they were joking lol
"poetry performed with musical accompaniment that was about whatever you want" I will no longer not see Sappho as a slam poet from now on and I love it, thank you
Nobody:
All the lesbians who saw this on their notifications: *HARD GAY CLICK*
The bisexual Calvary is here
you're really not wrong
I’m bisexual but yeah let’s go!!!
I feel personally attacked
fine you caucht me
Just think about how badass Sappho would feel if she knew that all the gay girls in the world are named after her island.
She'd probably feel weird since she wasn't gay
@@bixmcgoo5355 well she's sure as hell not straight
@@Xman34washere very possible, but given her initial works were clearly showing interest in men, it's safe to say she wasn't gay and anyone claiming she was is delusional
@Bix McGoo Who ate your parents?
@@ghostnebula8805 why do you think it's okay to explicitly ignore all evidence that contradicts your poorly founded views?
"This is first attested to a hellenistic era comedic play"
This is like people from the future learning about how Jane Adams died because the Simpsons did an episode on it.
Yes, sadly there are sometimes so few sources preseved we have to use plays or poems to know about ancient people. For example one of the main sources for the lives of later Roman Emperors is the Historia Augusta, which is thought to be an anti-Christian parody book
OSP: Sappho!
every wlw/nblw on the planet: *I am speed*
Beat me to it! 😂
*gasp* me
I’m HERE
I mean, it has been only a minute but this comment definitely deserves more likes.
I dropped everything
10:33 And _this_ is why we should bring back fanfic authors interrupting stories with 4th-wall breaks just before climactic events.
Horrible comment, accept this like
Blue knew what he was getting himself into when he decided to cover the Queen Gay
The queen gay
That's now how I will now say it
The best way to describe the ancient Greek view on sex is ambi-sexual.
I have a theory that after her death, Sappho ascended as a champion of Aphrodite, given that a lot of her poems were flattering or pleading to Aphrodite and the sheer thirst shown by the woman through expertly crafted lyric poetry would likely impress even the Shipper Goddess herself.
Aphrodite: Gods, fine! I'm here now, what do you want?!?
Sappho, about to straight up die at the sight of the most attractive woman ever: help...too pretty... please
Aphrodite: Oh, I like you. You're coming with me. How would you like to spend the rest of eternity watching pretty people fall in love?
Sappho, with no hesitation: Yes please.
Sorry for posting cringe, dialogue is hard
OP this isn't cringe this is literally what i want to read as a 9000 or more page book for the rest of my life cikdkcikkkds
6:37 _Hold up._
Did Sappho call Aphrodite "dread mistress"?
After the Persephone and Hades video, that's rather interesting.
Hey so, I know you wrote this like a year ago but I have an answer for this.
So ‘Despoina’ was/is an epithet used for Aphrodite, I don’t know much more about it because I haven’t been able to access a source yet, but I’m going to assume that going by her slight ‘historical’ interpretations of being a war goddess that the whole ‘the mistress’ thing came about as a she’s scary because we want to avoid a war? I can’t properly tell I don’t know too much about Aphrodite to be honest I’m also not a professional historian.
I did have a quick google, it seems that while this is one possibility (I haven’t been able to find a original text to search for ‘Despoina’ or related terms) a lot of the translations seem to refer to her as an alternatively ’o enchantress’, or ‘weaver of wiles’ which also fits Aphrodite.
I’ve become very invested in the Despoina concept and seeing this I thought you might like an answer of some sort :)
@@ella-mariagrant3150 Thanks! 👍
Ah, the ode to Aphrodite. aka “gimme da lesbians!”
Edit: Greek thirst is fantastic. Unless the gods are involved.
Aphrodite's response is a bit weird though, she says "that girl doesn't want you know, but just wait and I'll make her thirst even more for you in the future"
@@Hecatonicosachoron hmm
@@Hecatonicosachoron i think that's what Sappho was hoping for XD
nah, it gets funnier when the gods get involved.
@@wickederebus Found Zeus' account
Ah, linguistic drift. Truly, humanity has borne no greater curse over the ages...aside from finding new ways in which to be incredibly stupid.
When your girl love is so iconic that the word for female x female relationships is named after your home town
@@miaththered if this is homophobia then you can eff off with that.
@@miaththered I'm not gonna lie, I can't tell if you are being homophobic or are just referencing something I don't know about.
@@miaththered Then may I ask why you said and I quote, "Hell is named after YOU"
@@jacobbabson6786 missing an "it"? maybe even just a "t" if they were going for "Its"? any other explanation than homophobia?
@@jacobbabson6786 possibly a typo
"Sappho hearing a woman laugh from across the room and completely passing out" Ah yes, good to hear that over the centuries wlw are still the same
Me, watching this, eating grapes while half lying on my couch: I, too, am a woman of culture
You know what she's no gay icon.
She's a bi-icon
Edit: I missed my chance to say bi-con. I don't deserve this job.
Bicon.
Pan-con
Any Greek at this point--
She is an icon for being among the first to use the I pronoun
She is both Gaycon and Bicon
Excellent job communicating just how radical the Lyric “I” is!
This reminds me of Ayn Rand’s “Anthem” and I dunno how to feel about that.
Radical only to Greece. Lyric poetry isn't exclusive to Greece.
This sapphic language and poetry nerd was *very* pleased with how this video went. 10/10 do not apologize.
honestly, this was the best cover of Sappho. I was introduced to her in a gay literature class and if any viewers have the chance, I can not stress enough, please, English majors especially, please read her work!
not because of the gay undertones, but the eloquent manner she expresses how love feels, the heart still beating behind those words, it truly is a breathtaking experience.
Why English majors? She wrote in Ancient Greek
@@jaojao1768 because English majors study all languages of important literature. Sappho wrote in a literary style that changed everything for writers, but it is a shame she was lost for years and was just rediscovered.
@@jaojao1768 plus every language contributes to the modern writing styles as well as breaking down the thoughts of authors even way back when. English majors do it with Shakespeare, and even ancient mythology which is Greek too. so yeah, it's important to English majors.
I bet that person in the BC that made that joke about her husband was like. One day someone will get it
im a simple lesbian. i see sappho i click and cry because i want a gf
mood
Same
Yes
No weaving for you then
me
No cause Sappho’s nationality was literally lesbian
I thought she was american 👀
I've recently learned that men from Lesbos are really not happy with the current definition of lesbian 😂
@@TheAmazingFlake There was even a court case about it in 2008.
@@TheAmazingFlakeWe’re happy to let the native born lesbians join our ranks, they should be honored.
@@TheAmazingFlake The simple solution is to just stop being men and start being sapphic women. It's what I did and it's worked out great for me.
I love how all of the comments are like “thanks for covering such a lesbian icon and how dare they censer her woman love” without actually watching blue explain that the censorship was just lost translations and she wasn’t the kind of gay you think she was
Yup. I feel he did miss out bits of her life as well though, such as the existence of her brothers.
I'm not seeing anybody talk about her being censored or complaining that it cost her so many of her works because that's not why we lost them. I *am* seeing a lot of people meming about how people both historically and even today try to be like "she's totally not gay guys, she even had a husband who's name we have. It's Dick of Man Island, a totally real person that totally means Sappho was a hetti spaghetti", which *is* a fair thing to meme about because a lot of people did and still do try to somehow write her off as not gay as fuck. The attempted degayification of Sappho is definitely overblown and not why we lost her works, but it is still a thing that's so absurd it's hilarious.
@@myrddinemrys1332 he mentioned the poem she made about them though
@@beansforsalewahoo when? I don't remember him doing so.
@@myrddinemrys1332 5:08 here, though it is very brief
I love how Sappho basically invented gay panic with that poem about freaking out over a woman's voice.
Uhhh… “Gay panic” means, “You, a dude, freaked out because that dude made a pass at you. So you beat him to death.”
No, I'm not kidding. There's something called the, “‘gay panic’ defense,” which defense lawyers would use for clients who went out to find a f@g to bash and actually got arrested for it. During the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, homophobes could hunt down gay men, beat them to death, then literally get away with murder by using the “gay panic”-defense. Juries of that time would always acquit anyone who claimed “gay panic” made them kill that “ho-mo-sekshal.”
It's important that we don't erase our history by redefining away the meaning of words & phrases that were used against us.
"...a brilliant phase in the evolution of poetry often overlooked, for reasons we'll see later."
It was homophobia, wasn't it?
...
Oh! Not homophobia! That's a nice change of pace.
Sappho should be celebrated more. She was a queen
@cak01vej depends on what period, the Hellenistic Greeks surely did not mind monarchs
Sappho just trying to say everything while I can barely explain what I want for lunch.
If you didn't care at all about being judged for feeling stuff you'd write it in the most dramatic and over the top way just for fun too.
i imagine the phrase "do you read sappho?" as the ancient world's version of "do you listen to girl in red?"
Honestly, she was probably too popular for that work
My college had something called the common intellectual experience that all freshmen had to take and all professors had to teach regardless of department or intended major. The idea was to make sure we were well-rounded before entering higher level classes by reading some of the most influential works throughout history.
When it came time to read Sappho this one dude bro started the class by saying "Well in this poem Sappho is saying how HE finds this lady hot." The biology teacher who very much didn't want to be there was trying so hard not to laugh. My teacher kept asking him more to questions to see when he'd realize.
6:06 Blue and Red trying to convey what they think flirting is like. XD
Blue: The library of alexandria wasn't a big deal
Also Blue: *burned down the library of alexandria
Did red forgot, he is ust trying to cover up his crimes.
I bet he hoards also sapphos poetry, get him.
@@marocat4749 but i thought cleo burnt it down? did he take the blame for cleo, or did cleo take the blame for him?? we need answers
I finally understand the meaning of friendship
Have you heard about the stupid argument that some people say she wasn't even a woman??? I was doing research for a project and was disgusted to find that
Where did they get that?
the theoretical male!sappho; “Ah yes, let me, a greek man in a pretty misogynistic society, call myself a woman. That’s definitely going to advance my career like never before!”
.....................................y'know what that reminds me of? that time an sculptor made a photo-realistic statue of a hot-ass woman, full-on renaissance "the thin chamise has 2349234923432 creases" style, and some dudes on twitter went all 'ah yes, only a white cishet man could depict such beauty, truly inspiring, nothing like all these snowflakes, they could never understand a woman's beauty like a man does'.
the sculptor was an asian woman.
Yep! For anyone who doesn’t know, her name is Luo Li Rong and she is amazing
what the actual FUCK.
5:35 I have a print of this painting on my wall, I adore it so much
Cool! I really like Godward too, even if had a bit of "same face syndrome"
I believe the term "flaming pansexual" that Blue coined for Alcibiades can also be used here without problems.
I love Sappho not only is she an amazing writer, poet, philosopher, and thinker. She gave queer women expression and still an icon today. She really was the 10th muse. Speaking of muses when are we getting a video about Juana Inés de la Cruz.
She literally said: men stop blaming us for stuff that is your fault
@@jellybean1528 she did not lie.
@@jellybean1528 when feminism turns to anti-male sentiments, it becomes Bullshit, thank you!
*Anti-bigotry police departs*
@@tada-kun982 Men, both in Sappho's time and ours, have blamed women for a lot of stuff that wasn't really their fault. See Helen of Troy, a girl that the athenians absolutely hated for starting the Trojan war - you know, beccause she was kidnapped.
Please stay in your jurisdiction.
@@j2dragon109 we can doubt the reality of the Trojan war for once, second please give modern examples and thirdly, you are strawmanning. Not NEARLY all men do that and modern feminists tend to blame Everything on the arrogance of men...
So that's not a good point really
*I hear the rumbling of thudding feet coming from all over the world to this video.*
Ah yes the lesbians are coming.
Thanks for this - especially when we’re already missing LGBT History Month (especially with your nuanced explanation of Sappho's sexuality)! I love your videos and it’s great to see someone discuss the survival of Classical literature from multiple perspectives.
But I wanted to point out a couple of things as a professional Classicist: (1) Lyric poetry was not ‘invented’ between an ‘epic age’ and the Classical period but existed alongside epic (the Iliad itself mentions several genres of lyric poetry and it is widely thought that the dactylic hexameter used by epic poets and the Aeolic metres used by the Lesbian poets are closely related and descend from the same Indo-European rhythms; add to this the widely posited ‘Aeolic phase’ of Greek epic and it seems likely the two kinds of poetry influenced each other and developed alongside each other well before our earliest recorded lyric poetry); (2) Sappho’s poetry cannot be said to directly or straightforwardly represent the poet’s feelings, as it is widely recognised that she uses a persona (probably based somewhat on herself but elaborated and fictionalised to some degree) and some now think that the other people in her poetry are often ‘type’ characters; furthermore, her poetry has not only or even primarily the purpose of communicating her own ‘private’ or ‘sincere’ feelings, as our modern expectations influenced by Romanticism might suggest, but it has a social purpose (as all Greek poetry in this period is public to some extent and has important social layers); (3) Sappho’s dates are more secure than the dates of most ancient Greek poets as her compatriot and contemporary Alcaeus mentions the Babylonian’s sack of Ashkelon in 604 BC, which itself is secure because of Neo-Babylonian records; (4) Sappho’s biography in the later Greek tradition is really ridiculously sexist and some even turn her into a nymphomaniac (it’s just so sad); (5) A lot of Sappho’s extant poetry, as mentioned, does concern expressions of love and desire, but because a lot of the surviving fragments (and all the complete poems) all come from Book 1 of Sappho in the Alexandrian collection, it may well be that the rest of her 8 or 9 books had different emphases (and indeed, the discovery of new poems may add to this, as we now have poems about her family that we didn’t before); I love her love poems, but I also think her wedding songs and dick jokes are hilarious and worth thinking about (but are unfortunately usually forgotten).
Thank you for this additional information and clarification! Item 2 is especially interesting to me, as I often forget that removing an author’s work out of ‘context’, e.g. their living circumstances, cultural norms, etc., can limit your understanding of their work.
Wtf is LGBT history month and what for
ただ Tada-Kun it’s in June, it’s to reflect on the oppression the lgbt community has faced, remember the people’s have fought for queer rights, and think about the future of the lgbt community
@@raymyth767 yeah but it really has no priority over people's health
ただ Tada-Kun I agree- it would be irresponsible to hold anything in person but I really hope there will be some cool online stuff going on
As a poet, I can relate to the pain of linguistic barriers. I'm brazilian and write most of my poems in brazilian portuguese, although I do write some stuff in english from time to time (coincidentaly, just wrote a small one few hours ago!).
One thing I've noticed, and has been a dilema for me ever since is: the more I elaborate the form of the poem, via linguistic resources, the more I can play with it and interlap feelings with precise and sometimes surprising structures. At the same time, the more it becomes harder to proper understand without a good knowledge of the language.
As a quick example:
Through the fires I went
Tough they have made me
Though only on my body
Thoughts still can hurt me
Altought now, only mine
In that tiny poem, I can play alot with how similar the words can look and sound, making the process my lyric-self just went seem longer in duration, kinda repetitive or at least full of familiar and/or cyclical steps, while failing to bring a complete enhancement, just physical one.
However, that in brazilian portuguese would be something like:
Através dos fogos passei
Forte eles me fizeram
Apesar de que apenas em meu corpo
Pensamentos ainda podem ferir-me
Porém agora, apenas os meus
It's almost a 1:1 translation, where the message is the same, but gone is the textual resource of repetition of similar words to make it look more tiring, cyclical and longer. Only the feelings are left, without the game I played with the words.
So, I think the most practical way to make your poem language-proof (lol) it's to focus on the feeling alone, making the text secondary. The impact comes from the story being told, the sentiments unfolding, the scenario and the atmosphere, but at the loss of one of the most unique resources of the written medium.
Great comment
How is there not a manga about Sappho, yet?
Girl who passes out in the presence of hot people? That's like their entire thing!
Because in a very real way, all of Anime is already about her.
“someone will remember us
I say
even in another time”
- Sappho
Catch me still crying in the club
This literally comes out when I'm writing a college paper about LGBTQ+ history
Please tell me you're including Hadrian and Antinous!!!
@@zoinomiko sadly no, it's only a 3 page paper so I went for the strong points, Alexander the Great and Hephaestion, Allan Turring, and Stonewall.
GOOD LUCK!!
Why do you have to write on it, I'm curious?
@@tada-kun982 for a 'How to teach history' class. we had to write short papers on areas we dis not know a lot on already
Ignorant people: LGBT stuff was invented in the 80's.
Ancient Greece: Are you sure about that?
To be fair the concept really did not exist then yet. The people then knew it existed but not that it was complete or normal and did not have scientific names for it until the 19 century when studies were actually made.
Daedalus, "I'll be with you in a minute, I just got to finish working on their wooden cosplay suit so that my client can go full-Furry with a sacred bull."
@@euansmith3699 "I'm sure this will have no repercussions whatsoever. Oh! have I shown you my sketches for a prototype wingsuit?"
LGBT stuff has existed forever. It just wasn't until the late 20th century that a lot of it started getting specific names. That's how I see it.
@@ktheterkuceder6825 the concept of homosexuality existed, just not homophobia. The only thing that mattered was if you were a top, so I'd be screwed 🤷
... literally
Just wanted to say, you guys are by far my favourite channel on RUclips, I've learned more about history from you than 12 years of school
[She] wrote from a place of deep feelings...
And thirst.
Best quote today.
Also, really cool to hear more about this person. I only heard that one poem about envying the guy that gets to sit cloe to you, but that is effin' beautiful.