[Originally Published in the Traveler - 12/10/01]

FLASHBACK Paula Saffire, a visiting professor from Butler University, performs the poetry of the Greek poet Sappho of Lesbos on Saturday.

Paula Saffire, associate professor of classics at Butler University, provided a bit of time travel Saturday in Giffels Auditorium through her performance lecture of the works of Greek poet Sappho.

Saffire, appearing in ancient costume complete with robes, sandals and garland, sang Greek renditions and English translations of Sapphic poetry while presenting slides and lecturing on Sapphos life, times and inspirations. She accompanied herself on guitar, which she held upright like a lyre, a type of harp used by ancient Greeks.

I have no talent at the guitar, but I gave myself a guitar for Christmas one year, Saffire said. Then I read a book on how to be the perfect hippie and it had a whole chapter on tuning your guitar like a tamboura, so now I dont have to worry about chords.

While very little of Sapphos works exist today in complete form, Saffire was able to apply her extensive knowledge of the Greek language to complete her singing translations.

What ... was authentic in what I sing in Greek is a pitch pattern, Saffire said. Greek is a pitch language unlike English which is a stress language where a certain syllable is louder than the rest. In Greek, you have to raise your pitch. It didnt have to be any louder, but it did have to be higher.

So little of Sapphos work exists today that historians have resorted to reconstructing strips of Egyptian mummy wrapping that exhibit bits of Sapphos writing, Saffire said.

The Egyptians actually made mummy wrappings out of strips of Sapphos poems, she said. Scholars found these and carefully undid all these little strips so they could see what Sappho wrote.

To better understand the intense expression and emotion that is prevalent in all Sappho works, Saffire devised what she calls a Sappho net, which is a list of themes she believes all of Sapphos poems contain.

This net includes sensuality, sexuality, the presence of the divine warmth, tenderness and amusement.

Many times Sappho will make obvious use of sensuality - with the flowers and the wind - and there is of course the recurring presence of the goddess [Aphrodite], but there is the question of is there sexuality as well as sensuality, Saffire said. Sappho will never say anything crude or coarse. She will only leave little hints, so it all depends on how far you can travel on a hint.

Saffire gave many reasons for the universality of Sapphos works and the love classical students hold for them in the modern world.

We love love, therefore we love Sapphos poetry, Saffire said. Also, she depicted a complete womans world, all self-contained. She didnt discriminate against men; she just didnt recognize them. Thats why women of today go back to Greek images for images of power.
Saffire received a bachelors degree in philosophy from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, where she graduated summa cum laude and was valedictorian. She earned her masters and doctoral degrees in classics at Harvard University, where she received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.

Saffire has taught at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Smith College, Hamilton College, the University of Georgia and the American Institute of Buddhist Studies.

Saffire is the author of Ancient Greek Alive and numerous articles on the ancient world. Her most recent project was the production of a video, Sapphos Undying Smile. She is fluent in French, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, German and Italian.