Sappho: The Tenth Muse

By Charles Doria

Sappho, The Tenth Muse, depicts through visual text the life, loves and qualities of the great poet of Lesbos. She was so revered by her contemporaries that she was given the accolade of "The Tenth Muse." She served as an inspiration for later generations, particularly such poets as Corinna, Aeschylus, Catullus, Sulpicia and Ovid. This story is told of Solon, the lawgiver and founder of Athenian democracy. One day he asked he secretary, who was known to have a golden voice, to sing a certain ode of Sappho's. After he finished, Solon remarked, "Now I can die happy having at last heard Sappho performed as she should be." Sappho's story is presented through avatars or stand-ins. Chief among them is Alice Liddell, the heroine of Lewis Carroll's Alice books, but also according to many the victim of Charles Dodson's pedophilia. So she is shown here in full shimmering glory and dire mournful hues. Hypatia, the great Alexandrian scientist and inventor, is another. She was murdered c. 420 CE by a mob of xxxtian lynchsters, who grabbed her on the way to teach at Alexandria's Great Library. They stripped her naked, tied her on the altar of a nearby church and sacrificed her as a witch to placate the Prince of Peace. Then we meet Sailor Moon and her karass who fight to protect women from the malign male forces of the Negaverse and promote the welfare and safety of women everywhere. Other avatars: Daphne who was turned into a laurel tree, witches throughout history, H.D., the modern Sappho; and her translator, Mary Bernard, H.D.'s prot g e and still the best modern translator. A well-rounded profile of one of history's most revered and beloved but also most controversial and despised figures.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HFV53K68
• ISBN13: 9798256216573
• Release Date: August 2020
• Publisher: Avant Garde Classics
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.5" x 11.0"