Page:The Poems of Sappho (1924).djvu/25

Rh loves a shining mark, and such was Sappho for several centuries after her death. The invocation to Aphrodite for aid in securing the affections of a member of the same sex causes some suspicion that the expression of passion contained in it shows an abnormal element, but in endeavouring to reach a decision on this point, it must be remembered that there is no certainty that in the seventh century B.C. the word “Aphrodite” represented the same conception that it does in the twentieth century A.D., and there should not be too much haste in giving judgment upon social and psychological conditions of that early era. Furthermore, if we knew the age of Sappho when she wrote the poem, our conclusion would be influenced by that knowledge. If for example, it could actually be proved that the poem was the work of a girl of eighteen, a not impossible contingency in dealing with genius, our estimate of the psychology of its writer would differ widely from what it would be if we knew that we were dealing with the work of a woman twice that age.

Beginning two or three centuries after the death of Sappho there was a gradual development of a certain amount of obloquy in connection with her name, and as time went on this gathered force and definiteness, until, leaving her genius out of the question, her name came, to some extent, to connote decadence and depravity.

The first important disseminators of the scandal were the later comic writers who apparently attacked her reputation in