Aphrodite

As the title implies, the poem addresses Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. The speaker evokes the goddess in impassioned prayer, desperately pleading with Aphrodite to ease her suffering and join her in the battle to win the heart of the cold-hearted woman she unrequitedly loves. Like most Greek gods, Aphrodite is willing to intervene in the lives and affairs of her mortal worshippers. In the poem, she appears as she descends from heaven in a chariot pulled by sparrows, landing before the lovelorn speaker to discuss her plea. The speaker describes Aphrodite as regal but compassionate, a god who occasionally abandons her throne and chooses to bless mankind with a smile. Characterized as benevolent and kind, she is willing to come to the aid of those suffering the pains of love and desire, as she does—though unsatisfyingly—for Sappho.

The Speaker

The poem's author and speaker, Sappho, was a female poet from the Greek island Lesbos writing during the seventh century BCE. Today, her work is beloved, though most of her poetry only exists in scraps and fragments. “Ode to Aphrodite” is a notable exception; remarkably, all twenty-eight lines have survived to the modern day. 

As the speaker of this poem, Sappho explains her deep anguish for an unnamed woman who neither responds to nor acknowledges her romantic overtures. She draws upon her spiritual beliefs to once again call upon the goddess of love, Aphrodite, as a “comrade” in battle, for she hopes the goddess will help her leave the battlefield of love victorious. The poem lingers on her anguish to reveal that she is deeply sensitive and feels strongly affected by the pangs of desire. 

The Beloved

“Ode to Aphrodite” recounts the speaker's prayer-like invocation of the goddess Aphrodite and recalls their conversation. Across seven stanzas of prayer and dialogue, the object of her interest is referenced only once as “she” in stanza six. Unnamed with no concrete attributes, the love poem orbits this abstract, formless female figure. She causes pain and inspires affection, “runs away” and “rejects” gifts, and does not care for the speaker. In short, the beloved rejects Sappho and her loving overtures. However, the speaker cannot accept her rejection and requests divine intervention to snare her beloved against her will. Readers get the sense that this one-sided love affair is out of touch with reality, for Sappho seems to value the escape from pain more than love itself. Selfishly, she gives little thought to the desires and agency of her elusive beloved and does not spare even a stanza to describe who her beloved is and why she feels so strongly for her.

Zeus

Only mentioned in passing, Zeus is a minor character in the poem. Sappho refers to Aphrodite as the “Child of Zeus." This passing comment has interesting implications. By attributing Aphrodite’s paternity to Zeus, Sappho ties the poem to the mythological lineage of Homer’s epic poem The Iliad. Traditionally, the identity of Aphrodite’s father is a hazy question with many equally valid answers, though she is often said to emerge from the waves as sea foam, sired by Neptune, the god of the sea. However, Homer popularized another interpretation and identified Zeus as Aphrodite’s father. In the poem, Sappho chooses to do the same, an interesting decision that directly ties her work to the literary canon of one of the most famous poems ever written.