Sappho's poetry and the initiation of girls: from Lesbos to Sicily (VII–VI b. c.)

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 (Fr. Sapph. 96, 5 Campbell) Sappho identifies the main occupation of the girls of her community as a «song and dance» (mo> lpa). Epigraphic evidence and the literary tradition allows us to associate this «song and dance» and with the ritual singing and dancing youth choirs, that were age and gender associations of young men and women, and also – with the rituals of initiation. Thanks 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» (cf: IC III(II), № 2, 2–3; Hom. Od. VI, 101–106; Hymn. Hom. in Merc. 451–452; Strab. X, 4, 20–21). In contrast to the views of modernizing the Sapphic poetry as a private art, the author of this article brings new facts, that attest to public performance and social relevance of Sappho's poetry. Important findings of the Asian origin of the cult of Cybele in a Sicilian Acres, that have been made in the latest book by Gi. Pedrucci, allow us to enter the poetic activity of Sappho and her chorus in historical context. The Sapphic poetry as related to the cult of female fertility goddesses appeared an important means of the traditional hegemony of the aristocracy: it was, as we see, and in the ancient Lesbos, and in the ancient Sicily (domination of the «Gamors» oligarchy). This generic landed aristocracy establishes a new lush religious festivals and patronizes poetic creativity in the process of fighting for own political hegemony (VII–VI B. C.).