2600 Year Old Lesbian Love Poem Found

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/06/062705sappho.htm

A lesbian love poem written 2600 years ago by Sappho has finally been published.

The poem was discovered by researchers at Germany's Cologne University written on papyrus and used as wrapping around an Egyptian mummy.

Sappho is considered the greatest female poet of ancient Greece. She lived on the Island of Lesbos - in what researchers suggest was the first lesbian colony.

[jobycom]

1. Love Sappho

Full of eroticism and emotional longing.

Some an army of horsemen, some an army on foot
and some say a fleet of ships is the loveliest sight
on this dark earth; but I say it is what-
ever you desire:

and it it possible to make this perfectly clear
to all; for the woman who far surpassed all others
in her beauty, Helen, 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 led her astray


<...which>
reminds me now of Anactoria
although far away,

--Translated by Josephine Balmer

http://www.sappho.com/poetry/sappho.html#Some

[SteppingRazor]

2. Not too surprising. The Greeks were all about their homosexuality.

Heck, ever read Plato's The Symposium? He actually makes a case that homosexual relationships, from the male perspective, are actually superior to heterosexual ones.
His thinking being, since men are better than women (you'll have to forgive the misogyny. It is ancient Greece after all), if a man has sex with a woman, he's degrading himself. Whereas if he has sex with a man, he's at least sticking to a being on his own level.
OK, OK. So it's a pretty wrongheaded reasoning, based as it is on utter chauvinism. but it's still interesting to see someone make the case for homosexuality not only being equal, but actually superior to heterosexuality.

Me? I'll stick with women. They're pretty :)

[mom cat]

3. The new poem reads:

"You for the fragrant-bosomed Muses' lovely gifts,
Be zealous, girls, and the clear melodious lyre:
But my once tender body old age now
Has seized; my hair's turned white instead of dark."

http://www.sundayherald.com/50494