Jong pens lusty Greek tale

Eric J. Blommel, Special To The News

Published May 2, 2003 at midnight

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Greek poet Sappho is notorious for her homoerotic poetry about women. But besides her poetry, many of the details about her life 2,600 years ago come from legend. One such legend has it that Sappho leapt to her death because of unrequited love for (ironically) a young man. This leap inspired Erica Jong to write her latest historical fiction.

As Jong admits in the novel's afterward, what remains frustrating for the historian becomes a boon for the novelist. Gaps in knowledge leave her free to craft Sappho as a lusty, adventurous heroine, while at the same time liberally quoting her poetry.

At the beginning of the novel, Sappho stands at the precipice of the fabled cliff, reflecting on her long, strange journey through life. This journey begins on her home island of Lesbos, where she is taught to worship Aphrodite, the goddess of love and sex. Growing to her teens, she becomes fond of singing and finds she has talent for it. As an aristocrat, she owns a slave girl, Praxinoa, who is her companion and lover.

Zeus and his daughter Aphrodite observe Sappho's life and make a bet. Zeus believes Sappho will throw her life away for an unworthy man, and Aphrodite bets that no man will humble the woman. The commentary of the two gods follow events in the story and add suspense.

Sappho's first real love is Alcaeus, who unwittingly attracts Sappho with his beauty and singing talent. Alcaeus is the enemy of Sappho's stepfather Pittacus, the dictator of Lesbos. Though Alcaeus says he prefers boys, they share sex and romance before he recruits the teenage Sappho in the overthrow attempt on her stepfather.

When the plan fails, both are separated and exiled, and Sappho is married off to an alcoholic crony of Pittacus' named Cercylas. She discovers she is pregnant with Alcaeus child, but Cercylas is too drunk and impotent to know the difference. The daughter she bears is kidnapped by her namesake, Cleis, Sappho's mother.

Much of the story then centers on Sappho's quest to reunite with Alcaeus, who professes his love in letters. Along the way, she consults the Oracle at Delphi, befriends Aesop of fable fame, and becomes a concubine of Pharaoh Necho. She also meets the secretive tribe of Amazon women, invokes the appearance of Pegasus, visits the Lake of the Dead, becomes stranded for years on a deserted island with a ship's crew, and then confronts Sirens, a Gorgon and Centaurs on other islands - all in search of Alcaeus. Yet, in the end, it is not Alcaeus for whom legend says she jumped.

Readers familiar with both classical mythology and fantasy genre fiction will recognize both in Jong's rendering of ancient Greece. Clearly modeling Sappho's journey as an odyssey, Jong's occasional tongue-in- cheek wit (often through the voice of the gods) identifies this otherwise well-researched historical fiction as playfully postmodern. She clearly has much fun with this story and the fun is infectious, but attempts at passing on wisdom about human nature are hard to take seriously.

Jong's signature style comes through in features such as the characters' obsession with sex, and barbs such as "men are lead by their (penises)."

The story seems to generate a moral out of all the romping: that people are helplessly amorous, ruled as we are by the mighty powers of Aphrodite.

As a result of this conclusion, readers may find themselves tempted to interpret Sappho's Leap as the rationalization of a libertine: "Aphrodite made me do it."

Eric J. Blommel is a free-lance writer living in Centennial.

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