Sappho in the Greek comedy. Mocked or mocking? A new consideration on Sappho鈥檚 role in the comic fragments

Abstract

In the following pages I will consider the existing comic fragments related to Sappho, the poetess from Lesbos. My aim is to challenge the scholars who have claimed that Sappho was ridiculed in the comic tradition for her licentiousness, for her ugliness, and more generally for her life and habits. I will show that there is no certain evidence for that in the texts that survive and, on the contrary, that some elements indicate the opposite, offering traits that are in common with some Aristophanic female figures.