Company of Soldiers

Figurative Analysis

Alec Silver Fagarang

GSI: Kuan

Fragment 11:

“Some say that the most beautiful sight upon earth’s Dark soil
Is a company of soldiers on horse.
Others think that this honour belongs to 

A line of soldiers on foot.
And still others to a fleet of ships.
Ah, but for me
This honour belongs to whoever one loves. 

It’s easy to see why.
Look!
The most gorgeous woman on earth, Helen, Abandoned her man,
Most excellent of all men!
And made sails for Troy! 

Not a thought for her daughter 

Nor her dear parents. 

That was Cypris’ fault!
Aphrodite!
It was this goddess who had led her so far astray. So suddenly.
So easily.
So gently.”

Sappho uses an extensive amount of figurative language throughout her poetry, often to working to appeal the poem through structure/cadence. Other times Sappho's poems are utilized to allow unrestricted meaning, allowing an open-ended understanding of what the poem was arguing. In fragment 11 Sappho uses many tropes to subversively strike the patriarchal paradigm in her society while simultaneously depicting her nuanced definition of love. Sappho’s use of juxtaposing war and love first to underline the societal paradigm of people that are considered beautiful. Then an ecphonesis is used to immediately exemplify a tangible example in which her audience would know of, which is Helen. After that, she makes her case of redefined love with a metaphor. Though this fragment seems to go on or is supposed to, this aspect of her poem paves a sign of feminism.

At the beginning of the fragment, Sappho employs the juxtaposition between love and war in a way that directly correlates to men in that particular era. She proposes that the most beautiful sight upon earth’s Dark soil could be defined by ‘a company of dark soldiers on a horse,’ ‘a line of soldiers on foot’ or ‘a fleet of ships.’ This description obviously portrays the patriarchal paradigm especially because soldiers and ships at the time were only made by men and particularly for men. Her description also underlines and slightly suggests the measure of beauty to a man, which is also inherently connected to war. She then also proposes that the most beautiful sight to her are ‘whoever one loves,’ but to (most)women of that era, characters within the described the beloved are within the company, within the line, and within the fleet of ships. 

After differentiating her definition of beauty and the opposing definition, she begins to solidify her preference of love over war. In depicting the ‘honour’ of what the definition of beauty belongs to, she uses an ecphonesis, an exclamation to indicate her example. This insertion of an exclamation point can imprint the emphasis on her example, further demonstrating that her example is a valid point. Sappho then describes her example with a hyperbole that connects to Helen, ‘the most gorgeous women on earth.’ It is widely known that Helen was referred to as the most beautiful woman in Greek Mythology, but in the poem, she is a physical manifestation of beauty. 

In the next lines Helen is described to have left her man and although her leaving started a war suggests he sees her as beautiful, Sappho employs personification in order to prove otherwise. Cypris/Aphrodite is directly personified and is described as a goddess that led her so far from where she originally came, meaning she left him not of her own will. Cypris also is a metaphor of patriarchy leading women into something they may not want, further implicating the patriarch her society lives in. She further implicates the influence of patriarchy with an epanaphora, repetition of the same word at the beginning of multiple phrases or sentences, using identical clauses beginning with “so” and ending in “-ly.” Aphrodite had led Helen astray so suddenly, so easily, and so gently, descriptors that demonstrate love, not war.

Sappho speaks in eloquent figurative language, using juxtaposition, exphonesis, personification, and epanaphora and probably a larger number of tropes is apparent throughout her work. Her work is undoubtedly feministic and controversial, with a multitude of deeper meanings under the literal meanings in her poetry.