“He Is More Than A Hero” written by Sappho Essay

He is a god in my eyes- the man who is allowed to sit beside youIf I met you suddenly, I cant speak- my tongue is impoverishedThe following lines were taken from a poem written by Sappho entitled He Is More Than A Hero. For those who are not familiar with Sappho, she was a resident of a city names Lesbos. She lived from 630 B.C. 570 B.C. In the city of Lesbos, Sappho was a highly respected poet/teacher by many but mainly the females. It is said that she was forever surrounded by a circle of women who studied poetry with her. I am using this oscilloscope information and the quotation from one of her many poems He Is More Than A Hero to support my surmisal that Sappho was a homosexual. Though the evidence is merely circumstantial, I feel that it is enough to convince one that she is a homosexual.The poem which I extracted my thesis statement is obviously universe written to a woman, but it is sprucely masked by the title He Is More Than A Hero and a few early(a) lines in the poem. In the beginning of the poem she is briefly describing someones male confederate who is ostensibly a good lover possessing a few qualities that Sappho admires. He who listens to the sweet murmur of your voice- the enticing gag that makes my own heart beat fast.Though the first few lines serve as a knavish mask, a cultured reader notices that the poem suddenly changes subjects, moving from a description of this man who is a god in Sapphos eyes to a declaration of love for the female companion of this man-god. The 3-4th lines pass over an unknown you who is apparently the companion of this striking male. The you is also addressed in line 9 . The domiciliate of the poem following that is a love ballad to this you who was first identified as being the companion of the man god. If one is not a skilled reader he/she may have lost the transition of the poem from one person to anformer(a).The first few lines serve as a disguise and a way for the author to express her jealousy o f him being next to his female companion. She views him asbeing a god because him being in the object of Sapphos affection makes him that. This is based on the view that if someone possesses something that you do not then they have a higher position of power than you. This prospect accounts for her viewing him as being a God.There are also a few other pieces of evidence that suggest that the poet Sappho was a homosexual. She was a resident of an city known as Lesbos. The name of the city had a striking similarity to a word which is given to homosexual women of modern times lesbian. It is also said that she was often surrounded by women who were her students. Though this evidence can be seen as being only circumstantial, I feel that the combination of her addressing a female in her poem He Is More Than A Hero as having certain homo-erotic effects on her such as devising her feel as a thin flame runs under my skin and making her drip with cause whenever she sees her is enough to la bel her as being the Greatest Lesbian Poet of Rome