Autorytet i autorytetka?
The Great Poet and the Great Poetess?

On The Different Reception of Homer and Sappho in Antiquity

Summary/Abstract: This paper traces the reception of two towering figures of Ancient Greek literature, namely Homer and Sappho. Although both are viewed as epitomes of poetic talent, the fact that Sappho is a woman makes her stand out in the literary tradition and as a female poet she is perceived as an extraordinary phenomenon. The analysis of the reception of Sappho in antiquity, especially in Hellenistic and early Imperial epigrams in which her gender is often underlined, aims to show that while both Homer and Sappho are authority figures for subsequent generations of poets, they are not regarded in the same way. At the same time, Sappho’s unique position as a woman in the literary world results in a double effect: on the one hand, she is confined to the realm of poetry written by women, which almost amounts to a distinct category of literature, but on the other hand, the position makes it possible for her to become the fundamental literary figure and inspiration that she has been for women writers, artists, and activists for centuries, and even millennia, afterwards.

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