Similarities Between Sappho and Doolittle

you spoke;
your hair is not less black
nor loss fragrant,
nor in your eyes is less light,
your hair is not less sweet
with purple in the lift of rock;

Above are two fragments over what was left of Sappho's poems.

Below is a stanza from Doolittle's poem, 'Hermes of the ways'.

That a goddess flung from the crest
Of the wave the blue of its own
Bright tress of hair,
The blue of the painted stuff
it wore for dress.

In just one stanza and a fragment of Sappho's work, we can see that Sappho had definitely influenced Doolittle's work (a lot).

Both these poets use colors (purple and blue) as a descriptive word in their poems and they both use hair as a valuable asset to women.

Sappho's started writing in 600 BC - 2620 years ago today. Doolittle started writing in 1916, which is 2516 years from 600 BC.

The language still reminded the same and the way Sappho wrote her poems was a little different as you can tell in the picture that is cited on her biography page on this blog, but there are more similarities that structure.

Hippolyta and Theseus

Hippolyta

Hippolyta was the Amazonia queen who possessed a magical girdle, she is also the daughter of Ares, the god of war.

Her name means to 'let loose'.

Heracles was given a series of tasks to perform one of his tasks was to retrieve the belt of Ares from Hippolyta. Hippolyta was torn because she knew what the belt symbolized to herself as well as to her people.

After Hercules took her love and her magical girdle, she knew that she needed to support her people but how without any power.

She had an obligation to her own people, the Amazons, as well as her own responsibilities. Theseus sailed miles to see Hippolyta again after a 'festival' where she caught his eye by dancing with her sister. He wanted to marry her, but she didn't feel the same. Although flattered, she refused his offer. As she turned to leave the boat, she didn't realize that the boat had left the dock and Theseus had kidnapped her to make her his wife.

Theseus

Theseus was a mythical king that saved Athens from the war of destruction.

(Theseus was a founding hero for the Athenians in the same way that Hercules was the founding hero for the Dorians).

Theseus was married twice before Hippolyta.

He and Hippolyta had a son named Hippolytus.

He ended his life by drinking poison because he couldn't live without his wife or son. His throne was overtaking before the position kicked in by a woman named Medea.

Sources

https://spcollege.libguides.com/HellenicStudies

https://hdis.chass.ncsu.edu/popculture/

Biography

Hilda was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1886, and grew up in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, and attended Bryn Mawr College. She sadly passed away on September 27th, 1961.


She moved to London in 1911, where she played a central role within the then-emerging Imagist movement.

She wrote poetry early in her career that shaped the direction of Imagism and modernism with Ezra Pound and Richard Aldington.



She translated Greek poetry, including poetry by Sappho and Euripides.



and wrote stunning long poems that recorded the modern response to world wars, reimagined changes in gender roles and status, and reshaped the function and purpose of poetry.

Sappho

Sappho was born in c. 630 and she passed in c. 570 BC

Sappho was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos.

Sappho is known for her Lyric Poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by a Lyre.

Sappho was a prolific poet, probably composing around 10,000 lines.

Only 650 lines survived through the centuries, despite the theories that Sappho was a love poem writer, researchers found that only two were certainly love poems, while at least three and possibly four are primarily concerned with family.

Introduction

                   Poet’s express their unspoken thoughts and emotions in the least amount of words. In Dolittle's case, she writes about something she is deeply interested in. She is one of few that doesn’t actually write poems about her feelings or deep thoughts. In her poems, ‘She Constructs with Herself Hippolyta’, ‘The Shrine (“She Watches over the Sea”) and ‘Sea Garden’, Doolittle references two of her interests, Greek Mythology and Nature. Doolittle will reference many familiar names, objects, and characteristics that have to do with Greek Mythology when you take the time to analyze these poems, there is a deeper meaning of cultural and social context behind why Dolittle uses these specific elements.

The Goddess Amphitrite

Amphitrite, in Greek Mythology, the goddess of the sea, wife of the god Poseidon and one of the 50 (or 100) daughters of Nereus and Doris (the daughter of Oceanus). Known as a siren more as a mermaid.


She was called the personification of salt water.


Amphitrite always loved being the goddess of the sea and being able to control the sea and sea creatures till sometime after her marriage to Poseidon she started to resent it. She turned vengeful and had hatred towards everyone. Her vengeful strike started with a mistress her husband had an affair with. Amphitrite got so angry that she tossed magical herbs in the nymph Scylla’s bath, and the herbs turned Scylla into a horrible monster. Scylla turned into a new sea creation with 8 tentacles and six mouths.


Then the myth with Sirens murdering sailors started with Amphitrite. She became filled with hatred that she lured men into the depths of the sea, stole their valuables and tore them apart.

Amphitrite is also believed to have given birth to a variety of sea creatures including seals and dolphins.

She Contrasts with Herself Hippolyta

In this poem, it is obviously started that H.D is taking about Greek Mythology given the title but do we know exactly what she is trying to say and how this poem connects to either cultural or social context.


"Theseus sought Hippolyta;

she yielded not nor broke,"

In lines 8-10, on line 8 Dolittle brings up a mythical person, Theseus.

Theseus is a mythical king that saved Athens from destruction. Thesus tried for years to wed Hippolyta, but she also declined his offer till one day he kidnapped her and forced her into marriage. Luckily enough she got away in the night due to one of Theseus villagers from Athens.


"entreating cold white river,mountain-pool and salt:let all my veins be ice,until they break(strength of white beach,rock of mountain land,"

On line 56, the one aspect that breaks this particular river away from just a regular river is the description word 'white'. The water that streams through rivers are usually blue, but in Athens, the water was supposedly crystal white, only in one river that ran through Athens and that is 'llisos'.

This line in the poem represents Cultural Context, the setting aspect of it. The imagery paints a beautiful life-like picture of the setting in which this whole poem takes place in Athens, Greece.

The Shrine ("She watches over the Sea")

The Shrine ("She Watches Over the Sea") is a strong poem about someone overseeing parts of the ocean from danger. In the urban Greek Myth, Sirens were rulers of the sea and the one motivate in life was to lure sailors with their perfect pitch sounds out into the depths of the sea to murder them.

In Greek Mythology one of the most recognizable sirens is Amphitrite. In this poem, Dolittle is telling a story about Amphirite and how she protects her home by giving us a whirlwind of imagery to back up her story.

In the first stanza, it recites,

"Are your rocks shelter for ships--have you sent galleys from your beach,are you graded--a safe crescent--where the tide lifts them back to port--are you full and sweet,tempting the quietto depart in their trading ships?"

let's break this stanza down.
Line one: The rocks were a siren sits to guide the sailors into the depths of the sea.
Line four: The high tides that come at dawn to wash away all the evidence of a siren murdering the sailor.
Line five: they are one of the most beautiful creatures with venomous tendencies, they may look sweet but looks can be deceiving.
Line six: quiet: luring in the weakest of men.

This stanza defines two aspects of cultural context lifestyle and value. Lifestyle because is how the character lived their life and value because this is what the author thought was important in the goddess's life. More relevant than important. Social Culture ties into this stanza by this author giving us insight into the social setting - how Amphitrite 'socializes'.