29. Beyond the Rainbow: Building Queer Symbologies Before and After Gilbert Baker

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For this episode, we’re bringing you a whole bunch of history at once, for everyone’s quarantined entertainment! Presented live on Zoom, we revisted a presentation that Leigh originally gave at the GLBT Historical Society Museum about the history of queer symbols before and after the creation of the rainbow flag, and sharing some stories from folks who participated in a flag-making workshop! From 600 B.C. to right now, queer people have used hundreds of symbols to refer to themselves, find community, and create shared language. Learn about just some of them in this episode, and tell us your favorites! What symbols are your favorites? If you were to create a new queer symbol or flag, what would you do?

You can follow along listening to the episode and see the presentation side show below:

Beyond the Rainbow: Building Queer Symbologies Before & After Gilbert Baker Hello and welcome to History is Gay, a podcast that examines the underappreciated and overlooked queer ladies, gents, and gentle-enbies that have always been there in the unexplored corners of history. Because history has...

New Queer Flags!

Below are some of the amazing pieces of artwork that the participants in our flag-making workshop at the GLBT Historical Society Museum back in January created! You can hear each person describe their flag, the symbolism behind it, and what inspired them toward their designs, in the episode!

Mya Byrne, Trans Butch Pride flag:

Iris, Queers with Disabilities flag:

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Sadia Thomas, Black Queer Femme Power flag:

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Steve, with his “queer pacifist” flag!

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Rhea Ewing and Ezra Miller, Nonbinary Love flag:

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27. Sappho: F*cking Superb, You Funky Little Lesbian

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At long last, hosts Gretchen and Leigh are going back to the beginning, to the OG lesbian: Sappho herself. Despite the dearth of information about her life and history, your hosts still find plenty to say about Sappho, her poetry, her legacy, and all the debate that’s circled around her for years. Was she a ‘school mistress’? Was she actually a man? Did she really have a husband or throw herself from a cliff? Find out what Leigh and Gretchen think and listen to fragmentary poetry filled with queer longing and other relatable feels like fire burning beneath flesh, wind crashing through mountain oaks, and…celery.

We’ll start off with one of the poems we didn’t discuss in the episode, but is a piece of writing that forms the basis for why we do this show. As Sappho writes in Fragment 147,

someone will remember us
I say
even in another time

A Closer Look at Sappho

Painting of Sappho by the “Sappho Painter” (circaa 510 BCE).

Painting of Sappho by the “Sappho Painter” (circaa 510 BCE).

Sappho depicted holding a plectrum and lyre on the side of a vase (circa 470 BCE).

Sappho depicted holding a plectrum and lyre on the side of a vase (circa 470 BCE).

Head of a female figure widely believed to be a copy of the 4th Century BCE portrait of Sappho by Silanion.

Head of a female figure widely believed to be a copy of the 4th Century BCE portrait of Sappho by Silanion.

Roman scupture of Sappho (5th Century BCE). Inscription reads “Sappho of Eresos.”

Roman scupture of Sappho (5th Century BCE). Inscription reads “Sappho of Eresos.”

“woman with Wax Tablets and Stylus,” a Fresco from Pompeii (circa 55-79 CE). IT is frequently called “Sappho,” though we have no idea if the artist meant it as a portrait of the poet or not.

“woman with Wax Tablets and Stylus,” a Fresco from Pompeii (circa 55-79 CE). IT is frequently called “Sappho,” though we have no idea if the artist meant it as a portrait of the poet or not.

Fragment 58 (tithonus poem). Unfortunately, this is what a lot of Sappho’s poetry looks like, though usually even worse for the wear. :(

Fragment 58 (tithonus poem). Unfortunately, this is what a lot of Sappho’s poetry looks like, though usually even worse for the wear. :(

Woodcut of Sappho from Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris (circa 1541).

Woodcut of Sappho from Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris (circa 1541).

Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene by Simeon Solomon (1864).

Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene by Simeon Solomon (1864).

Sappho, by Charles Mengin (1877).

Sappho, by Charles Mengin (1877).

Sappho by Amanda brewster Sewell (1891).

Sappho by Amanda brewster Sewell (1891).

Sappho by Francis Coates Jones (1895).

Sappho by Francis Coates Jones (1895).

Sappho of Lesbos by John William Godward (1904).

Sappho of Lesbos by John William Godward (1904).

The Sapphic Stanza

Sappho not only wrote beautiful, haunting poems, but invented an entirely unique poetic form, appropriately named after her! Composed of two hendecasyllabic (eleven syllables) verses, and then a third verse beginning the same way and continuing with five more syllables (sometimes written as a fourth line), it gave Sappho’s poetry its lyrical nature.

Using "–" for a long syllable, "∪" for a short syllable, and "x" for a free syllable, the meter looked like this:

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ ∪ – –

The Mixolydian Mode

This link also has some great information about another invention of Sappho’s: the Mixolydian Mode, which is a musical scale that is still in use today, although heavily altered through history!

What did Sappho’s poetry sound like?

Sappho’s poetry was meant to be recited to the sound of an ancient Greek instrument called a lyre, sometimes made from tortoise-shell, and looked like this:

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She references the instrument in her poetry often, like in this fragment:

I took my lyre and said:
Come now, my heavenly
tortoise shell: become
a speaking instrument

And in the below video, you can see a modern replica of an ancient Greek tortoise-shell lyre, and hear what it would have sounded like, also being plucked and strummed with a plectrum, the picking instrument also credited as an invention of Sappho’s! A musical genius! The person in the video is Michael Levy, a musician who records and interprets ancient Greek lyre music:


Here’s a video of someone’s recorded interpretation of a Sapphic wedding hymn:

And here’s some more of Michael Levy’s music, with several different hymns and songs on lyre:

If you want to learn more about the Sappho, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Online Articles:

Books and Print Articles:

Translations of Sappho’s Poetry Used in this Episode:

  • Sappho: A New Translation translated by Mary Barnard

  • If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho translated by Anne Carson

  • Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works translated by Diane Rayor

  • Hymn to Aphrodite

  • Poems of Sappho

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!