Sappho Fragment 44 English version

This animation depicts the poet Sappho, one of the most influential poets of ancient Greece. You see her performing the surviving fragment of one of her poems – fragment 44, a prequel to the Trojan War, in which the Trojan Prince, Hector, arrives home with his new bride, Andromache. The animation was created from a vase made in Athens in the 6th century BCE (now in the National Museum in Warsaw, in Poland, number 142333). The figures that Sappho creates with her music are made in an older pottery style. The music that she plays is the tune that the poem would have been sung to in ancient Greece.

The animation was created by the Panoply Vase Animation Project as part of the European Research Council funded project: Our Mythical Childhood... The Reception of Children's and Young Adults' Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges (Grant Agreement 681202; led by Prof Katarzyna Marciniak). For more animations and for more about Sappho and Our Mythical Childhood, visit www.panoply.org.uk

This animation is available here for free educational use. Please do not download or add your logo for redistribution. Please contact us if you have any questions.