The Concept of ‘Lovers’ in Sappho, Iliad, and Oresteia

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December 12, 2019
The Concept of ‘Lovers’ in Sappho, Iliad, and Oresteia
Love has always been an important and pervasive theme in classical literature. From Herodotus’ The Histories to other pieces of literature, the capacity of love to overcome all odds has been illustrated in different shapes and sizes. Accordingly, this article would focus on the classical humanities and social interaction through love and compassion reflected in different Grecian poems. Specifically, it would compare and contrast different literary articulations of love in Sappho, Iliad, and the Oresteia. All in all, I believe that a greater understanding and appreciation of these pieces could be achieved at the poets’ personal lives in relation to thematic expressions and the styles applied in their articulations.
Love and Agency
Early Greek Literature was mostly dominated by male authors such as Plato, Aristotle, and Homer, among others. Thus, most of the works during those times have focused on the agency of male over everything including lust and love. In contrast, Sappho is the only female writer from the ancient Lesbos. Thus, in a world dominated by male voices, Sappho's works have focused on emphasizing the voices of wives and women, perhaps in an effort to signify the agency and free will of women contrary to current views of those time.
To achieve her purpose, Sappho uses women as the main character in her works and highlighted how their decisions affect the external world. For example, she portrayed the intensity of Helen’s love towards Paris by emphasizing Helen’s personal decision to go with the love of her life. This approach is entirely different from the story-telling utilized by Homer’s Iliad and Aeschylus’ Oresteia. On the one hand, the Iliad portrayed that Helen’s act of eloping with Paris was due to the latter ‘abducting’ her instead of being to her own free will (Johnson, 2018). On other hand, the Oresteia emphasized that the reason for the war was because of Paris’ treachery and Helen’s betrayal. It is clear from these alone that both works of Homer and Aeschylus relegated women’s agency or free will in pursuing the one that they love relative to that of men.
Aside from the main characters, it is also apparent that the three author’s manner of delivery reflects their own lives as well as goal that they are trying to achieve. For example, it is evident that the environment of Sappho’s articulations or literary works is relatively emotional and sentimental when it comes to ideas of love. In fact, she noted in one of her works “how she views the man that she loves, his sweet voice, and his enticing laughter as ‘equal to the gods’” (Dubnoff, n.d.). Alternatively, Homer’s and Aeschylus’ articulation of love is reflected only through adventures heroism. They did not focus too much on personal feelings or emotions, but rather on the actions and adventures that the male protagonists accepted as resulting from their personal feelings.
To exemplify this, some examples of how the three authors view emotional love is in order. On the other hand,...