“Cantos de Safo para Átis” by Natália Correia

Classical legacy and poetic recreation

Abstract

There are a few lyrical poets, who stand out in Greco-Latin literature, that took as their muse of inspiration the one who transposed into odes and elegies the principles of the powerful Aphrodite: Sappho of Mytilene. But her legacy does not end in Classical Antiquity. In the context of contemporary Portuguese poetry, the object of our study is the case of Natália Correia, who recreates in “Cantos de Safo para Átis”, published in Poemas (1955), a love reunion between Sappho and Athis. In this article, besides the historical-literary contextualization of the figure of Sappho and the reflection on one of the specificities that her poetry suggests – homoeroticism in the feminine – it is our aim to analyse and comment on the way in which Sappho’s poetry influences contemporaneity and the poetic recreation takes form from this classical legacy in a composition by Natália Correia.