Women Writers: Nossis’s Epigrams

Women writers from Ancient Greece survive in fragments. Ancient women were Pythagorean philosophers, lyricists, sexual treatise writers, and poets. The destruction of libraries during wartime, Christian imperialism, and the selective recopying of the Dark Ages monks all contributed to their loss.

I keep hoping that someone will uncover a non-Christian version of the Nag Hammadi library. If polytheists buried sacred statues instead of submitting them to Christian inquisitors, how do we know they didn’t bury texts as well? How do we know that someone didn’t save Sappho or Hypatia?

I'm reading Nossis’s epigrams right now. If you haven’t seen her beautiful poetry, you can find all twelve of her epigrams online. Here’s a taste:

Holy Hera, you who often descend from the heavens
visit your Lacinian sanctuary sweet-scented with incense,
accept the byssus cloak which Teofilis, daughter of Kleochas,
wove for you with Nossis, her noble daughter.

No? What about this:

Nothing is sweeter than Love; and every other joy
is second to it: even the honey I spit out of my mouth.
Thus Nossis says: and who didn't love Kypris,
doesn't know what sort of roses her flowers are.

Women’s poetry is so tasteful and modest, isn’t it?