NOTE: Wednesday and Friday classes should do the questions below this one first (Questions, Part I). These questions will be due next week for all classes, depending on what day you come to class. I'll post another lecture video in a few days which will have a separate due date.
Read the following poems: pages 65, 67, 69, 83, 85, 99, 101, 103, 105, 109, 115, 117, 119, 121, 131, 145, 185-187
Answer 2 of the following 4 questions:
Q1: Try to fill in one of the fragment poems: what do you think this poem was really about, and what ideas do you think are missing based on what we have? What's the 'secret' poem, and what clues lead you to think so?
Q2: These poems offer us a unique insight into the lives of women in ancient Greece, who were often little more than slaves, and couldn't write, vote, or own property. What does Sappho seem to express about the life of a woman 2,000 years ago? Discuss at least one poem that shows us this.
Q3: Poem 94 on page 185-187 is a rare almost complete poem. What seems to be the story behind this poem? Clearly something has happened just before this poem was written, and the poem is responding to it. Who are the two characters in this poem, and what kind of relationship do they seem to have? What is happening to them? And what do they fear about the future?
Q4: Legends suggest that Sappho was a teacher of an all-girl's school in Lesbos, the island where she was born. Many of her poems, it is suggested, were sung with her students and express lessons for growing up and becoming a woman in ancient Greece. Is there a specific poem that seems to offer advice or wisdom for teenage girls emerging into a world of men and adulthood? Does any of this advice sound familiar to us even today?
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