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Writing Assignment: Three Archaic Poets
Compare and contrast the attitude toward women and feminine beauty in
the first two excerpts from archaic Greek poetry. Although #1 uses female
speakers, the first two passages were written by men. Does the third passage
present a significantly different concept of beauty from the first two,
or do you think the difference is related to the fact that the third poet,
Sappho, was a woman? Back up all your comments with specific references
to images and statements from the passages themselves.
1. Alcman, Partheneia (Sparta)
But I sing the light of Agido. I see
her like the sun, which
Agido asks to shine as our witness. But I can=t praise
or blame her. Our glorious leader
won=t let us, who clearly stands out
herself, as if you put
among the herds a racehorse,
sturdy, thundering, a champion
from soaring dreams....
But the tresses of my cousin
Hagesichora blossom
like pure gold;
and her silvery face-
why do I say what=s obvious?
There=s Hagesichora herself.
2. Semonides, On Women (Amorgos)
Another woman is born of the delicate, long maned mare,
Who maneuvers her way around the slavish and
troublesome housework
And wouldn't put a finger to the mill, or so much as lift
The sieve, or sweep the dirt out of the house
Or go into the kitchen, for fear she'll get dirty.
She introduces her husband to the pinch of poverty . . .
For Zeus designed this as the greatest of all evils:
Women. Even if in some way they seem to be a help;
To their husbands especially they are a source of evil,
For there is no one who manages to spend a whole day
In contentment if he has a wife.
3. Sappho, fragment 16 (Lesbos)
Some an army of horsemen, some an army on foot
and some say a fleet of ships is the loveliest
on this dark earth; but I say it is what-
ever you desire:
and it is perfectly possible to make this clear
to all; for Helen, the woman who by far surpassed
all others in her beauty, left her husband--
the best of all men--
behind and sailed far away to Troy; she did not spare
a single thought for her child nor for her dear parents
but [the goddess of love] led her astray
[to desire....]
[....which]
reminds me now of Anactoria
although far away,
whose long-desired footstep, whose radiant, sparkling face
I would rather see before me than the chariots
of Lydia or the armor of men
who fight wars on foot . . .
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