Sappho of Lesbos (613-570
BC)
1.
How is Sappho's genre different from the epic poems we have looked at?
2.
What sort of relationship does Sappho describe herself having with Aphrodite?
3.
What is Sappho's greatest preoccupation in her poems?
4.
How does Sappho employ the myths of the Trojan war?
5.
What is Sappho's experience of love?
6.
Compare Sappho's love poems with the poem by Archilochus (here).
Elizabeth Barber,
"The Golden Spindle"
1.
What puzzling question is raised by the discovery of spindles made from
precious metals?
2.
Why was purple the colour of kings?
3.
What sort of textiles did wealthy women produce? What was their function?
4.
What sort of work was done by women in the Mycenaean palaces?
5.
What was the economic significance of this work?
6.
How can this archaeological evidence be compared with the picture of women in
Hesiod and Semonides?
7.
Trace the steps in processing wool from sheep to cloth.