Sappho’s Aphrodite, the goddess Chryse, and a primal ordeal suffered by Philoctetes in a tragedy of Sophocles

Abstract

The common thread, as it were, for this essay is the meaning of the epithet poikiló-thronos gracing the goddess Aphrodite in line 1 of Sappho’s Song 1. The persona of Sappho is addressing the goddess there, and I now interpret the epithet—hardly for the first time—as ‘[you] who wear [your] pattern-woven dress’. But how is such a ‘dress’ to be imagined if we think of it only in terms of the multivalent English word ‘dress’? Such a blurry image of what the goddess of sexuality and love is wearing can be sharpened. My metaphor, “common thread,” is relevant: I am thinking here of an ancient technique of fabric work known today as pattern-weaving, a form of visual art that was ingeniously perfected over time through the material instrumentality of upright warp-weighted looms. And my thinking here about this art of pattern-weaving—it really was a form of art, not just a technique—was inspired by relevant comments made in two consecutive personal communications from a colleague and friend, Natasha Bershadsky. The first of these communications, dated 2021.07.20, led to my choosing the image for the cover of the previous essay I posted for Classical Inquiries (Nagy 2021.07.26, linked here). As for the second of the two personal communications, dated 2021.07.28, it has led to my choice of the image that we view as the cover illustration for the posting here. Both these cover images, surviving from the visual art of ancient Greek vase painters working in the classical period of Athens, that is, in the fifth century BCE, picture the look and feel of the ‘dress’ of Aphrodite as pictured in the verbal art of Sappho’s Song 1. And that is because the “dress” that is worn by the goddess represented in both cover images is clearly pattern-woven. The cover image for the previous essay that I posted shows a cult statue of Aphrodite herself wearing a pattern-woven dress. As for the cover image of the essay that I post here, we see once again a cult statue of a goddess wearing a strikingly similar pattern-woven dress. But, this time, the adjacent lettering names the goddess as Chryse / Khrūsē (the lettering, faintly visible, can be restored: ΧΡΥΣΕ), which is a feminine adjective meaning ‘the golden one’. The aim of my essay here is to find answers to two possibly relevant questions:

(A) What is the connection, if any, between Sappho’s Aphrodite and the goddess Chryse?

(B) What is the connection, if any, between the goddess Chryse and a primal ordeal—as I describe it in the title of my current essay—that is suffered by Philoctetes in the tragedy of Sophocles that is named after this hero?