Greek mythology: The inventor of the plectrum

In the previous posts about Female Composers ("Women will be Women: Female Composers", Part I & Part II), it has mentioned that the information about female composers have been vanished from music history, due to societal constructions. To continue the search for female composers in music history, I would like to highlight a very dedicated woman, who definitely deserves to be mentioned cause of her (re)markably important role. She deserves to be remembered! In this post would like to introduce you to The inventor of the plectrum:     Sappho.


© Luthieros Music Instruments Ltd.

Timeframe:
We will go back to Ancient Greece, which would be counted officially as BCE.

In the times of Ancient Greece, the earth was ruled by the first generation: The Titans.
These "Gods & Godesses" were almighty and could oversee all that was happening in their own domain. Their children grew up and became the second generation: The Olympians. After a battle with the Titans, the Olympians ruled over the world (society).
Zeus, one of the Olympians, was the head of the Olympians and took one of the roles called Justice. Olympian God Zeus (Justice) and Titan Goddess Mnemosyne (Memory) passed on their legacy to their 9 daughters. These 9 daughters were part of the 'government' and were devided over the departments of arts and sciences. This 'ministery', has been named as The Muses since. Shortly mentioned the daughter's names and the departments:
1. Calliope: Muse of poetry (chief of the Muses)
2. Clio: Muse of history
3. Erato: Muse of love
4. Euterpe: Muse of music
5. Melpomene: Muse of tragedy
6. Polyhymnia: Muse of hymns
7. Terpischore: Muse of dance
8. Thalia: Muse of comedy
9. Urania: Muse of astronomy.
The Muses have been shown on images with a Lyre, a musical instrument (the grandparent of the Lute and thus the ancestor of the guitar). They all had their own types of lyres. The lyre transformed into a kythara, which means: (any) String instrument. More information related to Gods and Music (Instruments) will come back in another blogpost :) (TBA)

Sappho: The 10th Muse?

 © Unsplash

Born and raised on the Greek island Lesbos, around 630 BCE, she grew up within a noble family. Her dad passed away when she was young, but she was surrounded by her mom and three brothers. Sappho was very interested in Greek literature and along the years she wrote a lot of poems that she performed with the Lyre.
Where men wrote about epic battles and war, Sappho was more interested in writing about romantism and eroticism. Also, she wrote in the first person (personal), which was a bit rare at the time.
Her type of poetry could be described as lyrical poems, which means her poetry was meant to be sung/chanted, accompanied by the Lyre. Her type of Lyre was the Barbiton*.
This is the perfect formula for the modern-day songs and so Sappho seems like the first ancient female singer-songwriter.

*Sidenote: The Barbiton, also called a Barbitos, is a type of Lyre, a music instrument. The Lyre was very popular in ancient Greece. Only professionals in music had one. The Lyre is the grandparent of the lute, and thus the ancestor of the guitar. Still, because the Barbitos is a 'type' of lyre, this evolves into the zither and zither family instead of the lute. Thereby it is rather an ancestor-uncle from the guitar. The Barbitos has the same 'travel-size' version as the kithara, although it has longer arms and thus longer strings: A bass-lyre.
The Barbiton is typical by it's lower sound due to the very long strings. 

Sappho married a wealthy man, her daughter was born and even though it looked great, she wrote poems about her sexual troubles. She had some affairs here and there and she wrote emotional lyrics about a few very specific female lovers.
A story about Sappho was told that she fell in love with a new man (the ferryman), although it was one-sided and that caused her to struggle with serious mental health issues that impacted her life. This part of the story seems mythical by many scholars and some belief she passed away a natural death. Even so, let's go over a quick recap of her achievements:

Sappho was the first woman who wrote lyrics about women, as the opposite version of the male songs. This had created a new perspective in which women were more than just objects of men's desire. Her poetry was about friendships and cravings along women, passionate stories from the countryside life, feminine sensuality, wedding songs for young unmarried women and so on. This caused a lot of discussion among the public if Sappho could have had feelings for women, and to discuss a modern topic called sexual orientation. By the Romans she was called a masculine Sappho or a lesbian, due to that she was famous for her poetry, in which men more often excel... Nowadays we can say that sexuality is for all humans, that the LGBTQIA+ community mentions that sexuality is fluid and that Sappho is highly praised for her musical contribution and work.

Like nowadays - lyrics include a verse (lines). Sappho made a lot of verses and these have been kept in a total of 9 books. The 1st book was about the heterosexual marriage, family and religion. The rest of her work was targeted for censorship by the religious Bishop and Pope in Christianity times. During the capture and plundering most of her work has been lost. The work of Sappho that has been saved, includes fragments and scraps and only one full poem that has been republished in 2004. In 2014 another poem of Sappho has been rediscovered.
Her own style was different than the others by the amount of meters (lines) of the verse. And thus, her own style was called the Sapphic Stanza. This has been very popular in Western poetry.

Sappho has been admired by many. Mostly she has been named as The Poetess.
The Nine Lyric Poets, a highly ranked society, was created by 8 men and 1 woman: Sappho. Guess who was also included: A guy named Alcaeus.  He has been along her side since the start. When she flew from Lesbos to Greece when she was 24, he also flew to Greece. They were both poets and musicians and performed a few times together, for example at the Kallisteia Festival. They had their musical meetings, where they would have a poetic dialogue, accompanied by their own music. Basically, these could be called as dialogic songs. Thereby they were surrounded by either female or male singers and dancers, which Sappho choose to have only women (women-choir). Many interpretators over the years have tried to portray them as colleagues, competitors or even lovers.

Sappho invented a 'school' for young unmarried women, where they could follow an education in singing, poetry and dance. This academic group or community was called a Thiasos. She gave lessons as a teacher and she gave space to women's voices and opinions. Hereby she has been seen as an ancient feminist and role model for women writers for centuries.

Aristotles, a philosopher and writer, mentioned Sappho in his writings. "Although she was a woman", was part of his recognition for Sappho's talent and her impact by overcoming social barriers.
Sappho has been recognised by Greek writer Plato as the "Tenth Muse". It was not an official title, although it was definitely part of her status and contribution in the arts and sciences.

Sappho has also been a great inventor. She invented a new kind of harp (Pektis), but most likely she has been seen on images with a lyre (the Bariton) with an ancient plectrum!
And so the plectrum has been attributed to Sappho!
Well, what is a plectrum? The lyre has been used for a long time in the ancient times.
In Ancient Egypt - a time before Ancient Greece - they used 'fingerpicking style'. This means that people who play the lyre pluck the strings with their fingers. Over time these fingers will build-up callus.
Ancient Greece was all about "utopian beauty", and thus the fingerpickingstyle was a not-done procedure for playing the lyre - Your hands and fingers will be ruined!
Sappho came up with the umbrella term: plēktron. In Greek this means plectrum (verb: to strike). In the beginning this could be just a long object, like a quill (feather). Later in the Roman times they used the stylus (more pointy object). Ivory has been used all the time.

The plectrum, in the shape of a spearpoint, to pluck the strings. It could be made from any natural or animal bones. The shape of the plectrum has a phallic appearance, which many people jokingly and metaphorically hint towards Sappho's sexual desires...
Soon the plectrum had been evolved in material for diverse lyres and lutes. It improved with a range of different triangle shaped and raindropshaped smaller sizes over the last centuries.
It turned out that making the material fold, thinner or smaller made it more flexible... Hmm...
The plectrum (guitarpick) is still used by many musicians and guitarists.

During the 19th and 20th century Sappho's name has popped up again both positive and negative among writers and welcomed within the LGTBQIA+ community.
Since 2000 she is yearly celebrated by visitors at the "International Sappho Women Festival", located at the Greek island Lesbos and held by the organisation Sappho Women.