Sappho (Grillparzer)
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| Title: | Sappho |
| Genus: | Tragedy in five acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Franz Grillparzer |
| Publishing year: | 1818 |
| Premiere: | 1818 |
| Place of premiere: | Burgtheater , Vienna |
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Sappho is a drama by Franz Grillparzer from 1818.
The tragedy in five acts is about the unrequited love of the ancient poet Sappho for the youth Phaon. It was premiered in the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1818.
action
Sappho returns from the Olympics , where she was awarded the victory wreath for reciting her poems and songs. She is received by her compatriots on the island of Lesbos with great joy, jubilation and reverence. Sappho has brought the youth Phaon with her, whom she introduces to the people as her lover and equal master of the house. She praises him as a man of action, by whose side she wants to live a simple and quiet life. Previously, the beautiful and legendary Sappho kings had thrown themselves at the feet, but they spurned them. Phaon, who had been told stories by Sappho since childhood and only went to the Olympics to see her, can hardly believe the happiness of her closeness and generosity. When he meets Sappho's servant Melitta in the garden, he falls in love with the silent girl and realizes that he was only attracted by Sappho's fame and that his worship was not love. Sappho bought Melitta at a slave market as a toddler and has raised her like a daughter ever since. When she discovers the betrayal and realizes that they have real feelings in common, she first threatens Melitta with a dagger and later wants to have her transported to the remote island of Chios . Phaon thwarts this plan, however, by taking over the boat to escape with Melitta from the mighty Sappho. At Sappho's behest, the compatriots pursue the boat and bring the couple back. Melitta regrets her flight and her infidelity when she sees how much the grief and hurt have changed Sappho. Phaon, however, attacks her and insists on his freedom to turn away from Sappho, whom he values as a poet, but now despises as a human being. The servant Rhamnes accuses Phaon of having broken Sappho, who was blessed by the gods and who was uniquely gifted, and of having destroyed her through his words and deeds. When Phaon realizes this, he, like Melitta, regrets his act and rushes to Sappho. She has already turned away from the world, throws all symbols of her worldly success into the sea and does not react to the couple. Disappointed by the people she loved, she surrenders her fate to the gods, whose darling she was, and throws herself into the sea, blessing the couple and expecting a better life.
Quotes
“The laurel has wilted and the strings have faded away! / It was not their home on earth. / She has returned to her own. "(Rhamnes)
“You adorn me with your own wealth. / Sore! would you ever take back your beloved. "(Sappho)
“Suffering for the beloved is so sweet / and hope, and memories are roses / from a trunk with reality. / Only without thorns ... "(Sappho)
"That is the magic power of love / that it refines what its breath touches / similar to the sun, whose golden ray / storm clouds themselves turn into gold." (Sappho)
reception
The contemporary critics praised the premiere, in particular the poet and actress Wilhelmine Korn in their performance of Melitta .
Web links
- Sappho (Grillparzer) in Project Gutenberg ( currently not usually available for users from Germany )
Individual evidence
- ^ Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 274.
reference
- Franz Grillparzer: Sappho. A tragedy in five acts . Reclam, Stuttgart 1953
First edition
- Franz Grillparzer: Sappho. A tragedy in five acts . Wallishausser, Vienna 1819. ( digitized and full text in the German text archive )