How Phaedrus drew on Sappho's Poems
A documented line of influence: Plato demonstrably engaged Sappho’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
Sappho's Poems
Sappho · c. 600 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
Phaedrus
Plato · c. 370 BCE
Ancient GreeceRelevance
7/10
On Phaedrus’s page
- Socrates names his source: "the fair Sappho" at 235c, invoked as a wellspring before he speaks on love
- The Phaedrus' famous account of erotic madness draws on Sappho 31's anatomy of desire — the trembling, the fire, the body overcome
- Plato turns the lyric poet's experience of love into philosophy; reading Sappho first lets you hear what Socrates is building on
On Sappho's Poems’s page
- Plato names you in the Phaedrus — "the lovely Sappho" at 235c, cited as one of the wise on love before Socrates dares his own speech
- Sappho 31's physiology of desire — the body undone by the sight of the beloved — feeds directly into Socrates' great second speech on erotic madness
- Plato called her the tenth Muse; here her lyric account of eros becomes the seed of philosophy's