Sweetbitter | A Sappho (S1) & Pirates (S2) History Podcast

By Leesa Charlotte, Ellie Brigida & Alyse KnorrEducation History

Sweetbitter | A Sappho (S1) & Pirates (S2) History Podcast episodes

December 31, 2020 Holiday Special: Aphrodite with Liv Albert
Grab a drink and join us for a holiday bonus episode with our friend Liv Albert from Let’s Talk About Myths Baby. We talk about Aphrodite, Greek Mythology and the patriarchy.

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

You can find Let’s Talk About Myths Baby anywhere you find podcasts and on social media @mythsbaby.

You can find the episode transcript here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
57 min
December 17, 2020 Sappho: Fragment 58 (pre-2004)
]
]
]
]
]running away
]bitten
]
]
]you
]makes a way with the mouth
]beautiful gifts children
]songdelighting clear sounding lyre
]all my skin old age already
hair turned white after black
]knees do not carry
]like fawns
]but what could I do?
]not possible to become
]Dawn with arms of roses
]bringing to the ends of the earth
]yet seized
]wife
]imagines
]might bestow
But I love delicacy and this to me—
the brilliance and beauty of the sun—desire has allotted.

Translation by Carson

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

If you want to know more about Eurocentrism in papyrology, please follow Usama’s blog: Everyday Orientalism. Ariel’s book Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man & the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife is out wherever you buy books - here’s it's listing our favorite local.

If you want to listen to another cool podcast all about the Hobby Lobby, check out the Behind the Bastards episode.

Our guests this episode were Malcolm Choat, Ariel Sabar, Mike Sampson & Usama Gad. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them here.

You can find the episode transcript here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
45 min
December 03, 2020 Sappho: Fragment 55
When you lie dead, no one will remember you
For you have no share in the Muses’ roses.
No, flitting aimlessly about,
You will wildly roam,
a shade amidst the shadowy dead.

Translated by Dubnoff
Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Our guests this episode were Marguerite Johnson and Malcolm Choat. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them here.

You can find the episode transcript here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
46 min
November 12, 2020 Sappho: Fragment 130
Once again Love, that loosener of limbs,
bittersweet and inescapable, crawling thing,
seizes me.

Translation by Rayor.
Rayor, Diane. Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works, Cambridge University Press, 2014. Introduction & notes by André Lardinois.

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter.

Our guests this episode were Marguerite Johnson, Alex Purves, Jade Esteban Estrada and Diane Rayor. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them here.

You can find the episode transcript here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
33 min
October 29, 2020 Sappho: Fragment 94
I simply wish to die.
Weeping she left me.
and told me this, too:
We've suffered terribly, Sappho.
I leave you against my will.
I answered: Go happily
and remember me --
you know how we cared for you.
If not, let me remind you
*
. . . the lovely times we shared.
Many crowns of violets,
roses, and crocuses together
. . . you put on by my side
and many scented wreaths
woven from blossoms
around your delicate throat.
And . . . with pure, sweet oil
[for a queen] . . .
you anointed . . .
and on soft beds
. . . delicate . . .
you quenched your desire.
Not any . . .
no holy site . . .
we left uncovered,
no grove . . . dance
. . . sound

Translation by Rayor.
Rayor, Diane. Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works, Cambridge University Press, 2014. Introduction & notes by André Lardinois.

Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter - sign up before November 1st at any level for a free Sweetbitter tote bag.
Our guests this episode were Marguerite Johnson, Jane Montgomery Griffiths, Sandra Boehringer (translation by Annie McCarthy) and Diane Rayor. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them here.

You can find the episode transcript here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
40 min
October 15, 2020 Sappho: Fragment 16
Some men say and army of horses and some men say an army on foot
and some men say an army of ships is the most beautiful thing
on the black earth. But I say it is
       what you love.
Easy to make this understood by all.
For she who overcame everyone
in beauty (Helen)
       left her fine husband
behind and went sailing to Troy.
Not for her children nor her dear parents
had she a thought, no-
         ]led her astray
                               ]for
                ]lightly
         ]reminded me now of Anaktoria
         who is gone.
I would rather see her lovely step
and the motion of light on her face
than chariots of Lydians or ranks
         of footsoldiers in arms
] not possible to happen
] to pay for a share
]
]
]
]
]
toward[
]
]
]
out of the unexpected.

Translation by Carson
Sappho, , and Anne Carson. If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. , 2002.
Thank you for listening to our first episode! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter - sign up before November 1st at any level for a free Sweetbitter tote bag.

Our guests this episode were Chris Mason from Olds Songs, Marguerite Johnson and Diane Rayor. You can learn more about our guests and where to find them here.

You can find the episode transcript here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
33 min
October 15, 2020 Sappho: Ode to Aphrodite
On the throne of many hues, Immortal Aphrodite,
child of Zeus, weaving wiles: I beg you,
do not break my spirit, O Queen,
with pain or sorrow
but come--if ever before from far away
you heard my voice and listened,
and leaving your father's
golden home you came,
your chariot yoked with lovely sparrows
drawing you quickly over the dark earth
in a whirling cloud of wings down
the sky through midair,
suddenly here. Blessed One, with a smile
on your deathless face, you ask
what have I suffered again
and why do I call again
and what in my wild heart do I most wish
would happen: "Once again who must I
persuade to turn back to your love?
Sappho, who wrongs you?
If now she flees, soon she'll chase.
If rejecting gifts, then she'll give.
If not loving, soon she'll love
even against her will."
Come to me now--release me from these
troubles, everything my heart longs
to have fulfilled, fulfill, and you
be my ally.
Translation by Rayor
Rayor, Diane. Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works, Cambridge University Press, 2014. Introduction & notes by André Lardinois.

Thank you for listening to our episode zero! You can follow us on Twitter & Instagram @sweetbitterpod. You can support us on patreon.com/sweetbitter - sign up before November 1st at any level for a free Sweetbitter tote bag.

Click here for episode transcript
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20 min
September 15, 2020 Introducing
Welcome to Sweetbitter, a podcast where we investigate the truth and controversy surrounding Sappho her life, the Isle of Lesbos and her relevance today, Each episode we'll deep dive into a part of the mystery of Sappho with insights from academics, translators, performers, and poets.
Launching October 15th 2020. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram @sweetbitterpod, or support us on Patreon.
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3 min

About Sweetbitter | A Sappho (S1) & Pirates (S2) History Podcast

From the publisher's feed

About Sweetbitter | Sweetbitter is an investigative history podcast with a focus on queer & women's history. Each season, we explore a different corner of history,…

using historical figures and texts as a starting point to discuss a broader story of erasure of people with marginalized identities. Along with the listener, in collaboration with multidisciplinary experts, we untangle untold histories for a modern audience.

Season 1 | Sappho is the first known woman in the European literary tradition, one of only a few poets we know from antiquity and the o-g lesbian (or rather, where the word “lesbian” originates from). While much of Sappho’s work was destroyed, with only one full poem, Ode to Aphrodite, remaining, she is considered one of the best poets of all time, known as both the “Tenth Muse” and “the Poetess.” Despite her first-person, female-loving poetry, some scholars have fought against the popular image of Sappho as both a woman and lover of women, and still do today.

In the first season of Sweetbitter, we delved into the truth and controversy of Sappho’s life, the Isle of Lesbos and homosexuality in ancient Greece. Was Kerkylas of Andros (translation: “Penis of Mansville”) Sappho’s husband, or a wink to her known love of women? Did she really have a daughter named Kleos, or was she her young lover?

Collaborating with experts in the fields of poetry, queer studies, theatre and Ancient Greece, we will untangle the life of Sappho including the importance of her work and sexuality in modern times.

Season 2 | In our second season, we bring you a high-seas adventure full of surprises as we uncover the queer & women’s history of pirates. Gay love and even marriage were more common in the 17th-century world of pirates than we might expect, and history is full of cross-dressing, swashbuckling pirates who broke gender norms and created their own queer culture. Even Johnny Depp, in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, intentionally played Captain Jack Sparrow as a gay man.

Collaborating with experts in the field, we take a deep dive into the stories you don’t hear in the mainstream, exploring why they have been erased for hundreds of years.

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