Safo of Lesbos. Some questions about the historiographic myth from a gender perspective

Abstract

This article pretends to reflect some historiographical myths related to Sapho of Lesbos, the iconic poetess of Greek archaism. Her great fame converted her into a model (and sometimes antimodel) of behavior since Antiquity. Nevertheless, not much data about her life has been conserved. Since the beginning of historiographic studies, scholars proposed theories based on opinions about the scarce data of her private life. In this article, several topics that have generated controversy are discussed. All of them were difficult to accept for conservative minds: orientalism as a way to explain female visibility, Sappho being considered the first lesbian in History and finally the education of maidens in Antiquity. All of them try to explain why a woman could be famous, logically using their perception of women’s roles. The methodological approach will be historiography critic from a Gender perspective to present a global vision. It seems clear that all societies have created a personal version of Sappho related to her misconceptions about women and their ideal behaviors.