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" Bascoul, on the other hand, will accept no
statements about Sappho which conflict with modern ideals of
complete respectability, and even seeks to rewrite her most
famous ode in accordance with the colorless literary sense which
he supposes that it originally bore (J.M.F. Bascoul, _La Chaste
Sappho et le Mouvement Feministe a Athenes_, 1911).
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (_Sappho und Simonides_, 1913) also
represents the antiquated view, formerly championed by Welcker,
according to which the attribution of homosexuality is a charge
of "vice," to be repudiated with indignation. Most competent and
reliable authorities today, however, while rejecting the
accretions of legend around Sappho's name and not disputing her
claim to respect, are not disposed to question the personal and
homosexual character of her poems. "All ancient tradition and the
character of her extant fragments," says Prof. J.A. Platt
(_Encyclopedia Britannica_, 11th. ed., art. "Sappho"), "show that
her morality was what has ever since been known as 'Lesbian.


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