Blog post #3

Sappho Fragment 31 pg 55

He seems to me to be equal to the gods, 

that man who sits across from you 

and listens close at hand 

to your sweet voice

and lovely laughter. Truly it sets

my heart to pounding in my breast, 

for the moment I glance at you, I can 

no longer speak;

my tongue grows numb; at once a subtle

fire runs stealthily beneath my skin;

my eyes see nothing, my ears 

ring and buzz,

the sweat pours down, a trembling 

seizes the whole of me, i turn paler

than grass, and I seem to myself

not far from dying.

But everything can be endured, because ...

Seeing this fragment of Sappho, it illustrates Anne Carson’s explanation of eros that is “bittersweet”. Anne Carson explained eros as an ‘experience of pleasure and pain’ and that the word ‘denotes ‘want’, ‘lack’, ‘desire for that which is missing.’’ Poets that contains poetry regarding love mostly has a sad endings. However, according to Anne Carson’s concept of Sappho, she explains that eros is “not recording the history of a love affair but the instant of desire.” The fragment is about a man who is to “be equal to the gods” with “sweet voice and lovely laughter” having a relation with the young woman she was in love with. The poet tells how she felt as the man shows up in between them attracting the young woman saying that “I can no longer speak……the sweat pours down, a trembling seizes the whole of me I turn paler than grass, and I seem to myself not far from dying.” By this point, it is no differ from any other eros in Greek poetry. But she goes on that “but everything can be endured, because.” This quote illustrates the Sappho’s meaning of eros that love is bitter and sweet. She accept the fact that love is the desire of what she is not capable of getting it which here is the young woman barricaded by “that man.”

Theognis Lines 1353-56 pg 94

Bitter and sweet, alluring and tormenting:

such, till it be fulfilled, Kyrnos, is love to the young;

for if one finds fulfillment, it proves sweet; but if, 

pursuing,

one fails of fulfillment, then of all things it is most painful.

Eros is a “sweetbiter” meaning that a desire for what is not been attained gives sweetness and when it is been gained gives bitterness. This concept of the eros defined by Anne Carson is also well shown by Theognis through this part of fragment. He starts out by defining bitter and sweet as “alluring and tormenting.” He indicates that it happens at the same time when one’s in love “till it be fulfilled.” Theognis argues that finding the fulfillment is the way to “prove sweet” and “pursuing, one fails of fulfillment, then of all things it is most painful.” This shows that obtaining is not the way to feel the sweetness of love instead it may give pain and the bitter. Love comes before the fulfillment where there are “alluring and tormenting” and that when it is fulfilled it only does it to prove.