Sappho Research Paper

Day by day women are faced with obstacles simply because of gender. In the plays we have read women are faced with obstacles but overcome them. Women in the past were expected to be submissive and not object to the men’s decisions. The world today has changed its face. No longer are women quiet. Sappho and her work is a good example in our readings to represent today’s day and time. Her poems seem contemporary, very modern. The Descent of Inanna ,on the other hand, is a prime example of works we’ve read that represent the past much more. I strongly believe that each generation is a product of the previous generation, and during the Ancient World, women were not expected to write. They were submissive and their religious superior had the final say. Sappho broke these rules and went against the odds. She wrote and produced wonderful work that everyone can relate to during any time period. Although religious leaders successfully destroyed a great amount of her work, the few parts and pieces that survived still describe things of today in such short lines and phrases. “At noontime” is a good example of this.
It describes Inanna going into the “underworld” a place that we do not relate to as easily as a worldly location. WE never hear of a person visiting the “underworld” and returning as if they had never left. The process of going into the underworld is another thing that we of today’s time do not relate to. Inanna is submissive and gives her material things which are being taken away from her by gate keepers. We no not normally see these customs in today’s time. A guest is never treated as an outsider, but rather welcomed and lead to the place they need to be. Stripping a guest of his/her garments and jewels is ill-mannered and uncivilized. For these reasons is why The Descent of Inanna is the most dated of the works we have