Who was the first 'Lesbian'?
4/21/202642 min
Was Sappho queer? Or was this Ancient Greek poet just really really good friends with women?
Today on Betwixt the Sheets, Kate is joined by Katherine Horgan to find out how Sappho's poetry has lasted through the centuries, what we can really know about her life, and why she is important in the modern world?
Katherine is researching classical reception in Early Modern English Literature at Harvard, and will be taking on a professorship at Sarah Lawrence later this year.
This episode was edited by Hannah Feodorov. The producer was Sophie Gee. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.
Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
You can take part in our listener survey here.
All music from Epidemic Sounds.
Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsKate Lister· Host0:00
Do you want even more shocking and scandalous history, like why the ancient Greek statues had such small manhoods, or what went on behind closed doors in the Georgian era? Well, sign up to History Hit, where you can see me discover the scandalous side of history, as well as hundreds of hours of original documentaries, plus new releases every week, covering everything from prehistoric Scotland to the Treaty of Versailles. Sign up to join me in locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe. Hello, my lovely Betwixtors. Welcome back to Betwixt the Sheets. Thank you for dropping by once again. I know that there's an array of podcasts that you could be listening to, and I'm frankly stoked that you've chosen to listen to this one. But before we go any further, I do have to tell you, this is an adult podcast. It's spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things in an adulty way, covering a range of adult subjects, and you should be an adult too. Right, can you tick all of that off? Can ya? Can ya? Well, if you can't, be off with you. You're just holding things up. Right, for the rest of you, on with the show. [gentle music] "He seems to me equal to the gods that man, whoever he is who is opposite you, sits alone and listens close to your sweet speaking and lovely laughing. Oh, it puts the heart in my chest on wings, for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking is left