i absolutely have to finish an essay but i also don't want to so here are random thoughts about #catullus version of #sappho's fragment 31. (source: lesbian desire in the lyrics of sappho by jane mcintosh snyder)
okay wait no. i don't have time for a whole thread. also this is a recollection from a presentation i did in 2017.
but basically catullus is a simp for "lesbia". she's a lesbian as in she's from the island of lesbos (not wlw or not in a way that is relevant for the discussion) (cf. catullus 5, 'ode to lesbia').
#sappho's fragment 31 is her most famous and has been translated and adapted many times throughout history. if you can read french, check "l'égal des dieux" (allia editions) which is a collection of some of these adaptations and translations. https://www.editions-allia.com/fr/livre/7/egal-des-dieux-l
in this poem we assume that the first person poetic voice is "sappho" and the adressee/love interest is a woman (we can infer from the use of participles which are marked for the feminine gender in the greek text).
and one of these first translations/adaptations is catullus 51. and he uses it a self insert for him and lesbia (who like sappho comes from lesbos - so you see the connection he made there). and yeah he mentions himself 'catullus' as well as 'lesbia' straight washing the poem.
and according to snyder this version was influential in the heterosexual readings of the poem throughout history. (yes even sappho, THE sappho has been a victim of galpal-ing)
so yeah i wrote this bad toot just to call out #catullus after praising him for #catullus16.
guys i have adhd so here are other random thoughts about sappho, catullus, sodomy and face fucking.
so let's fast forward to the 19th century and the decadent movement.
literary decadence and aesthesism are tightly intertwined and tbh i don't remember how they can be distinguished.
but you might know oscar wilde's version of aestheticism as "art of art's sake". art is an end in itself and they reject using external justifications in order to attribute a value to art.
aestheticists are also:
very gay
and it's not that far fetched to draw a comparison between homsexuality and aesthecism. like aesthecism, homoeroticism is not driven towards an external goal and victorian productivity but rather its direct towards itself. (sex for hedonism/itself and not producing an offspring/contributing to society etc.) also well the "homo" "sameness" of the relationship.
(i have so much to do idk why im writing this in the first place)
OKAY
SO SWINBURNE
swinburne also draws inspiration from sappho's fragment 31 in his poem "anactoria".
swinburne's takes these themes to a whole other level. homosexuality is sinful and not productive because it doesn't lead to reproduction? well for swinburne homosexual pleasure = self destruction/pain/violence/cannibalism.
"I feel thy blood against my blood: my pain
Pains thee, and lips bruise lips, and vein stings vein.
Let fruit be crushed on fruit, let flower on flower,"
my final thought is although i called out catullus for straight washing sappho - we can queer it again à la swinburne. because through his adaptation catullus takes a poem of which sappho was the subject and puts her in the object position through the figure of Lesbia. and this is very similar to swinburne's reading of the poem where in the homoerotic sexual act bodies become indistinguishable, subject and object merge leading to the bodies destruction.
sorry for the spelling and grammar mistakes. happy pride? maybe one day ill make a proper blog article about all of these thoughts
@bella "guys i have adhd so here are other random thoughts about sappho, catullus, sodomy and face fucking" is one of the best openers i've ever read :zerotwo_laugh: :ms_100_pansexual: :hug_love: :sparkles_lesbian_sapphic:
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