LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Sappho: Phaon
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Sappho, at the height of her creative life as the celebrated poetess, returns, adorned with the laurel wreath, from the festivities at Olympia, with Phaon at her side. With him she hopes to enjoy happiness. But the youth can only admire her, and Sappho herself is the first to discover an affection between Phaon and her young maid Melitta, which her bitter jealousy self-destructively lures into full consciousness. Only when she has debased her humanity does she admit to her disloyalty to the gods, which she has incurred in abandoning her lyre. Seeking for Phaon and Melitta the blessing of the gods, and for herself forgiveness, she plunges to her death into the sea.
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Considering that, as this story shows, Phaon himself was a purely legendary figure, it is surprising that the combined legend about him and Sappho has been generally accepted as a fact for so many centuries. Actually Ovid, and not the historians, is chiefly responsible for the widespread acceptance of the Sappho-Phaon tale. For Ovid’s ode, Sappho to Phaon, was known and quoted throughout the ancient world.
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Other important lesbian poets drew upon the rich heritage provided by Sappho. Renee Vivien, (1877-1909) made the first French translation of the Sappho fragments, taking them from the original Greek, which she had learnt specifically for that purpose. In an autobiographical novel, the heroine Vally (modelled upon Vivien’s real life lover, Natalie Barney) expresses Vivien’s admiration for Sappho: “the only woman poet whose immortality equals that of statues is Psappha [Sappho], who didn’t deign to notice masculine existence. She celebrated the sweet speech and the adorable smile of Atthis, and not the muscled torso of the imaginary Phaon.”
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It is obvious why many of these historians, who made a study of Sappho's life, and her death, were willing unquestioningly to accept the Phaon legend. These historians were all men, and they naturally preferred to believe that, at the close of her life, at least, this great woman found a man necessary to her happiness. Consciously or unconsciously, these historians ignored the symbolism of her own story about the eternally sleeping Endymion, or suppressed the story altogether.
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