I associate the cover picture with Tanith Lee's Vivia.

While I loved the idea of a fictionalization of the life of Sappho, as well as the world of Greek mythology in general, I found the actual writing sort of stilted. I wasn't sure if this was supposed to convey the "ancient" way of speaking, but it just seemed a little forced to me. And while I appreciated the attempt to include Sappho's attitude towards love, sex, bisexuality, the unnatural formality of discussion made it come across as uncomfortable instead of passionate or emotionally moving.

oh shit. good reads (or i) just deleted my entire crap review.

can i be bothered to rewrite?
meh.

this book isn't as bad as other reviewers are saying. no, it won't save your life. but it does offer a cute glimpse at the life of an icon, and given that so little is known about sappho, i'm impressed with jong's tale.

we see sappho grow up and hear some humorous dialogue between zeus and aphrodite. it's worth the couple of hours it will take you to read, and offers a pleasant, although not life-altering, escape from this world.

The first half feels like the more fanciful, mythic side of Herodotus - cosmopolitan, extravagant - but in the second half (after Sappho's trip to the Land of the Dead) it just gets silly. Also I couldn't help thinking that Sappho's relationships with men tended to be more romantic and those with women more purely sexual, and I'm not sure what to make of that. But as trashy beach reads go, you could do so much worse. Plus I find it impossible to completely dislike any book which has Alcaeus of Mytilene as a main character.

PS: and Erica Jong's Sappho-inspired poetry is surprisingly good.

I can describe the author’s attitude towards lesbianism in one note: Jong in her interview says Sappho’s passion for women is suggested by the grammar of two fragments, while she quotes a poem by Sappho and actively cuts out the mention of a female beloved (Anaktoria) from the surviving text.

Truly one of the most astoundingly homophobic, poorly researched, tritely written “historical fictions” I have ever had the displeasure of reading.

I was so excited for this book. In the end I was a little disappointed. It wasn't what I thought but I've never researched Sappho so I don't know her story. Jong is obviously passionate about her but I would like to imagine Sappho differently. I think Jong tried to create a scholarly version of Sappho reflective of the information she researched about her life. My disappointment is due only to the Sappho of my imagination.
I think Jong did a decent job writing in a historical style so I think some of the criticism is unfair.

I always love to find novels about Ancient Greece figures. This time i found Sappho, which became an inspiration to me. In the book it's clearer the devotion of Sappho to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and passion.
She was born in the island of Lesbos, which Sappho defends that love among men or women is a beautiful thing. The book is related to Sappho's passion for Alceus,and her life looking for him after both of them having been exiled from the island of Lesbos. I love the fact that in the book, all her life is being controlled by the Gods, as Zeus and Aphrodite make a bet for how many chalenges she would be able to get over through.

Excelent book!

Ohmygod. And here's the 2nd book I've given up on within 20 pages: in the last 5 years, that's happened only twice - and both in this week. Jong is a wildly uneven writer. Her heyday was the late-70s and she was truly a groundbreaking, explicit - & unusually accessible - literary novelist. Now, not so much. The very promising prologue of Sappho as an old woman, standing upon the cliffs reviewing her life in preparation for hurling herself into the sea, gave me false hope that died with the 1st chapter. How you make the life of the greatest love poet of four millenia boring - & the world she lived in two dimensional - I have no idea.

VI sec a. C., Leucade. Il suo piedino calzato d'un sandalo d'oro si inerpica su, su, sempre più su. La bella cantrice di Afrodite ha timore dell’autunno della vita. Sale in fretta la scogliera mentre il cuore le pulsa forte in gola e rivede la sua bellezza e la sua giovinezza a Lesbo, l'ispirazione e le sue passioni, e calpesta il sogno dell’amore di Alceo. È mossa da un unico istinto: gettarsi dalla rupe. Ma le sue ginocchia ora tremano. In cima alla scogliera dell'isola, l'aria si fa più rarefatta e in basso tra i faraglioni il mare spumeggia. Saffo e la sua poesia corrono già sull’orlo dell’eternità…

«Un romanzo comincia sempre con un: "E se...?" E se Saffo fosse stata sul punto di gettarsi dalla rupe, ma si fosse fermata per raccontare la sua storia?»: nella postfazione, subito dopo aver proposto la rilettura della vita di Saffo in una narrazione ricca di elementi di mito e di sogno, Erica Jong ritorna agli scenari di composizione dell’opera incentrata intorno alla figura della poetessa; per buona parte misteriosa e per questo plasmabile. Così, non sorprendentemente, la scrittrice suggerisce che «per uno storico, questo è un ostacolo. Per un romanziere, può essere una benedizione». E per un lettore? Beh, si può sempre vagare sulle ali della fantasia, no? Apprestatevi, dunque, a chiederle in prestito ad Icaro e predisponetevi a leggere una storia d’amore, guai e avventura. Lasciatevi andare! Il romanzo non poggia difatti su solide basi storiche. I punti di forza sono altri, quelli di Paura di volare e di molte altre opere caratterizzanti il percorso letterario della scrittrice americana. In primo luogo, la capillare esplorazione dell’universo femminile; l’attenzione alle passioni e alle solitudini delle sue protagoniste; l’affermazione della libertà delle scelte, la denuncia dei pregiudizi atavici di genere. E ancora, la forte unione di eros e psiche. In particolar modo, ne Il salto di Saffo la volubilità dell’amore e della sua dea Afrodite. Situazioni sentimentali ed erotiche emblematiche. Le Muse e tutte le arti poetiche unite al gusto dell’eros rinascono qui in pagine dal ritmo fluido. Il mito lontano rivive e affianca personaggi leggendari come il greco Esopo, celebre favolista. L’ispirazione ha un ruolo rilevantissimo. Le ambientazioni e specialmente le acque dell’Egeo sono in primo piano. Chiosa la Jong: «Spero di essere riuscita a catturare in queste pagine un po' della luce di quelle isole e di quel mare». Da parte nostra, l’invito a non fermarsi soltanto a quest’opera, che pure interpreta Saffo e può incuriosire sulla sua affascinante figura, e il suggerimento di leggere i frammenti che ci sono giunti degli appassionanti canti della poetessa.
http://www.mangialibri.com/node/11989

...why is a book about the MOST FAMOUS LESBIAN OF ALL TIME about her relationship with men?? I appreciate learning more about Sappho (I didn’t realize that she may have actually been bisexual), but having the major relationships be with men and everything focused around men was...problematic. Also problematic: a lot of the views expressed about how men and women need each other for “balance,” especially when dealing with a queer icon like Sappho. Also didn’t appreciate the gender stereotypes (characterizing women as “complicated” and men as “simple”) throughout. This could have been an interesting book but it just...wasn’t.

i mean tem frases impactantes like "Há muito tempo aceitei a escravidão para que outra pessoa ganhasse a liberdade. Isso, creio eu, é amor"
Mas existe uma ideia demasiado forçada de ela ter amado Alceu intensamente, she is shappo she was the mother of shappic, its kinda weird but ya it have good greak mythology

i stopped listening at the scene where sappho is boinking pubescent girls. not for me.