Sappho (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Franz Grillparzer
- First Published: 1819
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Tragedy
- Time of Work: Sixth century
- Setting: Lesbos, Greece
- Genres: Drama, Tragedy
- Subjects: Love or romance, Immortality, Poetry or poets, Genius, Islands, Legends, Life and death, Greek or Roman times, Sixth century, Greece or Greek people, Aging
- Locales: Islands, Greece, ancient, Aegean Sea, Lesbos, ancient
Characters Discussed
Sappho (SA-foh), the Greek poet. Wearing the laurel wreath of victory from the Olympian contest of poetry and song, she returns to her island home bringing Phaon, with whom she has fallen deeply in love. When the young man falls in love with Melitta, Sappho, offended and troubled, accuses him of being a deceiver in love. Phaon’s reply that he now realizes it was her genius he loved rather than herself causes Sappho to reflect on her gifts. Deciding that her genius bars her from meeting the demands of ordinary mortal existence, she calls on the gods to...
[The entire page is 502 words long]
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