Atthis: A Figurative Analysis

Victoria BianRhetoric 103A11/24/2016GSI: Jerilyn Sambrooke

Atthis: A Figurative Analysis

        Sappho’s poems are known for their sensual and melodic styles. Primarily on love, yearning and relationship, her poems often vaguely but emotionally and beautifully express her feelings and reflections about homosexual relationships particularly between women. In fragment 14, Sappho uses figurative language such as metaphor, imagery, exclamation, hyperbole to delicately reveal her experience of a romantic relationship with her female lover.
        Sappho begins fragment 14 with the application of metaphor. Her romantic relationship with her lover is projected through the figure of Atthis who was understood as a Greek mythical figure. At first, we might think that Atthis is an idealization of her lover but as we read on we find that “She” is the female figure that Sappho experiences a romantic relationship with. The employment of imagery in “simply as a famous goddess” delivers a pure, beautiful and graceful image of a goddess who possesses the voice adored by Sappho’s lover, and personifies Sappho’s romantic relationship. Sappho draws curiosity from the audience about the mysterious female lover by calling her lover “She” without indicating her name. Sappho uses exclamation multiple times to express her excitement when she describes her lover in the poem and her intense emotion towards her. She shouts, “Look at Her, now!” Immediately following this, Sappho gives a high praise of her, “She’s matchless among the Lydian women!” Hyperbole is used here to emphasize that she views her lover above any other woman. The application of exclamation, which also continues throughout half of the fragment, effectively catches audience’s attention and makes Sappho’s statements more powerful and convincing.
        Having introduced her lover as a matchless woman, Sappho starts to focus on more detailed illustration about her lover by using metaphor and imagery as she describes her lover as the “rosy-fingered moon” and “a light that shines.”  The rosy color conventionally associates with romance and warmth and moon is a representation of tranquility and purity. Additionally, the image of “rosy-fingered moon” appeals to the audience’s senses as something gentle and delicate just like this romantic relationship that Sappho treasures so much. Although as subtle and reserved as the language goes in the metaphor, Sappho never misses a chance to openly appreciate her lover’s beauty using hyperbole. Immediately following the the metaphor, Sappho uses another hyperbole, “Supreme among the stars!” Similar to the previous one, Sappho exaggerates her lover’s beauty as a light that over shines all the stars. Metaphor is also applied as a background to convey how Sappho perceives this romantic relationship. Throughout these lines, Sappho places her metaphor in some conventional settings that usually associate with companionship and intimacy with a lover such as “after the sun has set” and “flower-covered fields.” Sappho continues to experience the transition from intimacy to sweetness and happiness in this relationship. She pictures a dreamy image of blooming roses, tender chervil and flowering honey clover that are lively and joyful.
        The last section may seem to be disconnected. Clearly, in the previous metaphor, the emotion that Sappho tries to evoke is happiness but in the last section, Sappho takes a step back from her joyful and dreamy depiction of her lover and her relationship, “With longing in her heart, she remembers our gentle Atthis.”.  Sappho gives the audience the freedom for different interpretations. The romantic relationship that Sappho experiences and writes about in this poem may be temporary for Sappho and her lover or may be even nonexistent. Whether it’s a temporary relationship or imagination, from what we know, this image of a homoromantic relationship is vivid and full of intense emotion as depicted by Sappho throughout the poem which eventually evokes her lover’s longing desire for Atthis, a pure and beautiful romantic relationship. By using figurative language such as metaphor, imagery, exclamation and hyperbole, Sappho carefully paces the rhythm of the poem to build up emotions and present the audience with immersive images about homoromantic relationship, and subtly expresses how she truly feels about it.