|
Erica Jong leads us on a journey back 2,600 years to experience the adventurous life of history's most famed love poetess, Sappho of Lesbos. Sappho was seduced at the tender age of 14 by her idol, the romantic poet Alcaeus. Pregnant and in disgrace, she is forced to marry a lecherous old sot to keep her out of trouble, but she instead plots to overthrow her stepfather, the island's cruel dictator. She loses custody of her baby daughter through her mother's treachery, and she and her female lover and slave, Praxinoa, are banished from Lesbos, doomed to roam the islands in search of her daughter and her true love, Alcaeus.
Aphrodite and Zeus amuse themselves by toying with Sappho to challenge her resourcefulness and prove her worthiness. Aphrodite has faith that Sappho is worthy of being memorialized as history's greatest singer. Zeus scoffs that she will fail as all women do, by throwing herself away on a man. They toss heaving ocean storms, shipwrecks, pirates, erupting volcanoes and hordes of barbarians in her path on an odyssey to rival Odysseus. She encounters centaurs, the legendary Amazons, wanders aimlessly through Hades, becomes the favorite of an Egyptian Pharaoh, vies with the Oracle of Delphi as a seeress, winning her way into portals usually closed to women with her enchanting songs and poetry.
The few remaining fragments of poems available to scholars stirred Jong to research the fascinating times of ancient Greece and bring Sappho to life in a way portrayed by no other author.
Jong says in the afterword: "Sappho is an icon to women everywhere despite the fact that so little is known about her. She is associated with women's sexuality and gay rights, but she may not have been homosexual at all, or she may have loved both women and men as was common in the ancient world, and in ours. The concept of homosexuality as a distinct lifestyle did not exist in classical antiquity. People were bisexual, free of sexual guilt as we know it; it was a pagan world. Attitudes toward love, toward sex, toward conquest, toward slavery, toward money, toward social climbing were uncannily like our own --- and yet fascinatingly different. Women were sexual chattel, yet, as in all times, there were rebellious, adventurous women."
It's no wonder Erica Jong was fascinated with the multi-faceted poet of legend. When she roared onto the bestseller lists with FEAR OF FLYING in the 1970s she was hailed as shocking, exhilarating and at the cutting edge of women's sexuality. Fans will relish this creative and thoroughly exuberant historic romp through ancient times. I had not read Jong since FEAR OF FLYING, but am now looking for back titles. My pick for a great beach read.
--- Reviewed by Roz Shea
 Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
