Timothey Myakin

The article finalizes the study of the erotic pre-wedding ritual of the mysteries of Artemis in ancient Mytilene. Comparative analysis of epigraphic, literary and new archaeological data shows that the Sapphic girls during this ritual seem to have sacrificed their virginity to the goddess Artemis, Fr. 114 Campbell; SEG XX 717, 84–97; IG XII 255; Ps.-Aeschin. 10 etc.). In this case, the older girls in the course of these mysteries of Artemis seem to have acted as Hermes, the phallic deity of fertility. New archaeological discoveries, made in Klopedi, also testify in favor of this hypothesis.

The article exposes new arguments that support the views of Cl. Calame on the female circle of Sappho as a religious community confirmed historically. This community had been associated with the cult of the goddesses Artemis, Cybele and Aphrodite, who were responsible for soil fertility and reproductive health of women in ancient Lesbos. In one of her songs Sappho identifies the main occupation of the girls of her community as “song and dance”. Epigraphic evidence and the literary tradition allows us to associate this “song and dance” with the ritual singing and dancing of youth choirs, the associations of young men and women, and also – with the rituals of initiation. Thanks to Cretan parallels, the relationship that united Sappho and her girls can be seen as a relic of female initiation. These ceremonies are similar to those that characterized the relationship between men and boys in the Cretan “hetairia”, №2, 2–3; Hom. Od. VI, 101–106; Hymn. Hom. in Merc. 451–452; Strab. X, 4, 20–21). A law of Cyrene also ordered that the bride entered the bridal chamber of Artemis before the wedding. And a Sapphic new song, which was discovered by D. Obbink, is a part of a longer composition, also written as a choral dialogue. This song says that girls of her community are ἀρτέμεας. The Sapphic choir ridicules brother of Sappho, and exposes this homosexual love of Sappho’s girls against the indiscriminate love of Charaxos. Consequently, Plato wrote, that Sappho is wise, for the reason that the poet defended these traditional rituals on a conservative manner.

Через сопоставительный анализ словоупотребления Лукреция и современной ему древнеримской поэзии в контексте философских и духовных исканий римских поэтов и писателей I в. до н. э. раскрывается действительный смысл образа богини Венеры, его роль и место в философской поэме Лукреция. Проанализированы все случаи употребления имени Венеры у Лукреция. Выдвигается новые аргументы в пользу того, чтобы вслед за Кл. Бельтрэу Да Розой и М. Эйхлер считать поэму Лукреции поэмой в жанре физической теологии stricto sensu. Cp. Varr. De Rer. Div. Fr. 8, 2–5 Cardauns.

Since the epithet ίόκολπος („with a violet breast“) is attested not only, as is commonly believed, in Sappho’s lyrics, but also in an inscription of Athenian Artemis Agrotera’s altar (IG II (2), № 4573), we can better understand the religious outlook of the poetess as well as the working of the Sapphic guild on Lesbos. A comprehensive analysis of the sources allows us to conclude, that the poetess probably was a priestess of Artemis Agrotera as well as of Artemis Thermia, who was an ancient aquatic divinity of the island. We argue that the poetess had performed songs in a festival of this divinity (Θερμιακή πανάγυρις) and that the cult of Artemis in the thiasos of Sappho experienced strong Lydian influence during the life of the poetess. In addition Sappho was linked with Artemis by other varied ties of sacred service.

In the article, I prove that the dialogical ritual obscene songs, in which Sappho “scolds” Gorgo and Andromeda, are the closest parallel to Aristotle's poetic dialogue of Sappho with Alcaeus, 70, 145, 99 etc. Campbell; cf. Max Tyr., 18. 9 Hobein). Also I prove that this poetic dialogue was most likely included in the text of the “Rhetoric” in mid-340s., when Aristotle and his young wife Pythias were living in Mytilene. Aristotelian verb tetimekasin indicates that, even in his time, these Sapphic dialogical songs had traditionally been performed in Mytilene during religious festivals. It becomes clear that Aristotle, while quoting this dialogue of Sappho with Alcaeus, seeks to “elevate” Sappho over the obscene songs of the Mytilenean ritual chorus, leaving all the responsibility for aischrologia entirely with Alcaeus.