"We have no business to romanticize the ancient past, or to see the glory that was Greece as a history of gods and heroes, remote from us, preserved in the translucent air of ancient (proper, well-intentioned) values. In fact, of course, the Greeks were just as disgraceful as we are (and Green's persuasive Sappho makes that clear."
Mary Margaret McCabe, Times Literary Supplement

When making a reading list of historical fiction written by classicists, you should be aware of the sub-genres and how each author uses history. Steven Saylor deftly weaves his murder mysteries around events of the day and real figures while Lindsey Davis uses the setting of the Empire to tell entertaining detective stories. In The Laughter of Aphrodite, Peter Green has also written an historical mystery -- about Sappho and the mystery of her life.

While clearly the events of Sappho's life are so little known as to present a mystery to any would-be biographer, Green adds further elements of intrigue: Who is the man Sappho is ready to die for? How did a run-in with Pittacus forever change young Sappho's life? And an unsatisfactorily unanswered one: What happened between Sappho and Pittacus' daughter, Andromeda?

Compensating for the limited number of details known about Sappho's life have been centuries of speculation. Sexual mores of each era determine whether to ignore, deny, or highlight Sappho's lesbianism. Green portrays Sappho as having a hearty appetite for firm bodies of either gender -- an appetite to match her brother who almost drove the family into poverty in his vain efforts to marry an Egyptian prostitute. Sappho's fellow poet, Alcaeus, portrayed as no more noble than is to be expected of a man who boasts about his cowardice, is also portrayed as lecherous.

Also convincing is the plausible development of the school for girls on the island of Lesbos. Starting gradually as an attempt by Sappho's parents to teach the girls as well as the boys, it spread to many of the other families on the island. After Sappho's return from political exile, the school resumed, with Sappho and one of her fellow students as the new instructors.

In most of the book, however, Sappho simply looks back at herself. Sometimes she sees one person, other days another. Sometimes she's self-righteous, and at other times she accepts blame.

Sarah Pomeroy aptly characterizes it as "an explicitly erotic modern novel about a mature woman's struggle for self-determination against the power of Aphrodite." In the end, Sappho's sexuality seems reasonable and appropriate, but Sappho's self-centered life, her constant introspection that only briefly sees what's really there, and her inability to realize fully the damage strewn in her wake, make her a less than appealing heroine.

The Laughter of Aphrodite is closer to a psychological profile than either a biography or historical novel. To help with the ever-present problem for the reader of determining where fact blurs with fiction, Green provides a genealogical table with data and notes on what little is known of the historical Sappho.

Also see Alcaeus and Sappho