Anactoria
Encyclopedia
Anactoria is the name of a woman mentioned by Sappho
as a lover of hers in Fragment 16 (Lobel-Page edition) http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/sappho/sappho0.htm, often referred to by the title "To an Army Wife, in Sardis." Fragment 31 is traditionally called the "Ode to Anactoria", though no name appears in it (A. C. Swinburne, quoted in Lipking 1988).
Algernon Charles Swinburne
wrote a long poem titled Anactoria, in which Sappho addresses Anactoria in imagery that includes sadomasochism, cannibalism
, and dystheism.http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/acs-idx.pl?type=section&rgn=level1&byte=97791 Lipking (1988) discusses Swinburne's poem.
Sappho
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
as a lover of hers in Fragment 16 (Lobel-Page edition) http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/sappho/sappho0.htm, often referred to by the title "To an Army Wife, in Sardis." Fragment 31 is traditionally called the "Ode to Anactoria", though no name appears in it (A. C. Swinburne, quoted in Lipking 1988).
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
wrote a long poem titled Anactoria, in which Sappho addresses Anactoria in imagery that includes sadomasochism, cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
, and dystheism.http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/acs-idx.pl?type=section&rgn=level1&byte=97791 Lipking (1988) discusses Swinburne's poem.