Reading

So I have recently poked my nose into a wonderful book, again. I would suggest it to anyone. Confessions of a Pagan Nun by Kate Horsley. Set in the sixth century, Gwynneve, a nun at the monastery of Saint Brigit writes her memoirs.. It was one of those books that painted a full picture for me. When I finished it I just had to sit for a few moments and reflect.

After that i re-discovered a fabulous book on one of my boxes. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: women in classical antiquity by Sarah B. Pomeroy. It is amazing and opened me to areas of study I hadn't thought of before. Ancient female poets and lyricists I have begun to search for and admire. Of all of them Sappho, born in approx. 600 BC on the island if Lesbos. Not many pieces of her work remain intact. There is mostly fragments of her work along with others.

In the first century BC, Antipater of Thessalonica, wrote a catalogue of the most respected and famous women poets, whom he called the nine earthly muses. The nine were: Praxilla, Moero, Anyte, Erinna, Telesilla, Korinna (or Corinna), Nossis, Myrtis, and Sappho. Each scrap of writing I uncover by these women the more amazed I am of their abilities.


I am more tremulous than shaken reeds,
And love has made me like river water.

Thy voice is as the hill-wind over me,
And all my changing heart gives heed, my lover.

Before thy least lost murmur I must sigh,
Or gladden with the as the sun-path glitters.

Sappho