Simona Martorana (Durham University)
Beyond a Binary Sappho: (Re)Thinking Sappho’s Gender and Sexuality in Ovid, Her. 15
Sappho’s epistle to Phaon is one of the most discussed letters among the Heroides and has incited centuries of debate, despite its general attribution to Ovid, over its authorship and authenticity (for an overview, cf. Thorsen 2014). In recent years, however, critics have shifted their attention to other issues within the epistle, including questions of gender, literary genre, and narratology (e.g. Rimell 2000; Hallett 2005; Fabre-Serris 2009). Building on Anglo-American and French interpretations of the fragments of Sappho, some scholars have read Ovid’s Sappho as a problematic embodiment of lesbian desire (Lipking 1988; De Jean 1989; Gordon 1997). By going beyond the binarism implied in the previous approaches, my paper navigates the ambiguity, fluidity, and ‘queerness’ of Sappho in Her. 15, thus demonstrating how her (self-)portrayal escapes traditional gender taxonomies.
Cast as epistles written by female characters of mythology to their partners, the Heroides are extremely peculiar within ancient literature in that they blend the male voice of the poet (Ovid) with the female voices of the authorial personas (the heroines). While having a historical figure (Sappho) as its fictional writer makes Heroides 15 unique, Sappho’s letter shares with the other Ovidian epistles a reversal of traditional gender identities and a challenge to well-established societal, and literary, norms. By referring to herself as a poet at Her. 15.183 and depicting Phaon as a puer (21- 22; 91-96), Sappho takes over the role of the male poet and, conversely, attributes to her beloved the role of the elegiac scripta puella (“written woman”), thus subverting well-established literary patterns and gender norms. Furthermore, in line 3 (Ovid’s) Sappho indicates herself as an “author” (auctoris ... Sappho), which is never used by other heroines to refer to themselves as writers of their epistles but is commonly employed by male Latin poets. This non-conforming attitude finds further evidence in Sappho’s sexual orientation, which is profoundly non-binary. While often hinting at her relationships with the girls of Lesbos within her letter (e.g. Her. 15.15-19; 199-202), Sappho at thesame time rejects them and seemingly professes her love for Phaon (203-220). This denial, however, coexists with the continuous reaffirmation of her passion for the girls of Lesbos, which guarantees Sappho’s fame as a great poet (181-184), and stresses her non-binary sexual orientation.
The fluidity of gender identities and sexual orientations is, therefore, an intrinsic feature to the writing of (Ovid’s) Sappho and articulates the non-binarism of her Weltanschauung. To express this heterogeneity, Sappho has to deconstruct and subvert traditional conceptions of genders, as well as dismantling the divide between (what was traditionally understood as) masculine and feminine. By subverting gender norms and challenging a reified, quasi-Lacanian, concept of ‘Woman’, Sappho stresses the uniqueness of her subjectivity beyond gender definitions, thus making the traditional category of ‘Woman’ appear meaningless. This analysis of Sappho’s (re)construction of her identity in Her. 15 allows us to question a binary view of reality and to embrace an anti-conformist notion of genders, both in the ancient and contemporary world.