Heartache

The content of "Hymn to Aphrodite" makes clear that the speaker has suffered romantic pain in the past and does so again. In the first stanza, the speaker implores the goddess not to ignore her pleas and thereby to burden her heart with anguish and grief. Many lines in the poem refer to the repetitive nature of the speaker's romantic unhappiness. She has requested the goddess's help in the past to secure a lover's affection. In the fifth stanza, the speaker refers to her "demented heart," and stanza 7 notes the speaker's "aching pain." Heartbreak from unrequited love was a common theme in Sappho's poems to Aphrodite. Many of the recovered fragments refer to love and to the pain it causes, as well as to the hope that relief of this heartache will be provided. This focus on love, especially the pain of love desired and love lost, continues...