Her voice emerges as confident, even triumphant, her work celebrating her gender and those who came before her. Nossis of Locri became the Hellenistic period’s most interesting female author. Her poetry weaves a fascinating yarn, showing just what women excelled at in an era dominated by men. In doing so, and despite the widespread oppression women endured, Nossis crafted solidarity with other women through time and rejoiced in what was. But how did she do this and why has so much of her work survived? This is Nossis’s ravishing story, how she communicates the ancient world and commands all who listen to immerse themselves in its alien beauty.
The Birth of the Noble Woman of Letters
Nossis resided in Locri Epizephyrii, a Dorian settlement in what’s now southern Italy, around 300 BC. This was the first Greek community to have a written code of laws. Nossis was most likely from a noble family.
Despite living over 2,300 years ago, we know Nossis’s mother’s name was Theuphilis, and her grandmother’s name was Cleocha. Nossis wrote in Doric, with some Aeolic, the dialect of her hero Sappho, the great lesbian poet of Ancient Greece, who lived a few hundred years before Nossis.
Nossis’s poetry’s sophistication implies that she was relatively well-educated. Women appear to have enjoyed a better standing in Dorian society, particularly in Locri, than elsewhere in Greece. The settlement was founded by women and their enslaved lovers, according to folklore.
Nossis loved to write poetry, just like Sappho, composing epigrams. But there was something different about what Nossis wrote and it’s why she is still remembered to this day…
Sappho’s Lineage of Verse
Sappho influenced Nossis’s epigrams, which are short poems with funny or satirical connotations, and a clever finale. Most of Nossis’ epigrams claim to be commemorative or dedicatory, that is, designed to accompany offerings to be placed in a temple.
12 of Nossis’s epigrams survive in the Anthologia Palatina, or Greek Anthology, a tenth-century collection of older texts. They are written in a female voice, implying they are most likely for a female audience. According to Professor Marilyn Skinner:
“Ekphrastic epigrams [vividly described poems] provided Hellenistic women writers with a new way to express a gendered perspective.”
That is to say, Nossis’s work gave a rather unusual female perspective on a world dominated by men.
Poem 1
Even from afar, Sabetis’ face is recognisable, filled as it is with such form and dignity.
Abandoned yourself and contemplate it; it is the very image of her wisdom and sweetness.
Be praised, you marvellous woman!
Here, Nossis celebrates the female form, praising the beauty of another woman. Nossis honours Sabetis, for her grace and wisdom. 2,300 years later, Nossis’s poetry still feels relevant. Sappho adored women and so did Nossis.
Her epigrams make especially feminine pleas, such as the one for a successful delivery, or reflect offerings unique to women: the delicate robe Nossis and her mother wove together, the hair snood evoking womanly beauty, the statue of Aphrodite dedicated by a wealthy courtesan, and the portraits that bring women to life and remind Nossis of their domestic relationships, especially with parents and pets.
Greek Anthology, 7.718
Stranger, if you sail to the city of beautiful dances, Mytilene,
The city which fed Sappho, the flower of the muses,
Tell them that the land of Lokris bore for the Muses
A woman her equal, by the name of Nossis. Go!
In this poem, Nossis compares herself directly to Sappho. Nossis proclaims she is Sappho’s equal, perhaps not as a poet but more as a woman. Nossis asserts forcefully in this poem that her poetry is centred on women and that women’s poetry is highly accomplished.
Nossis uses Sappho to represent female-authored poetry, positioning Sappho as the head of a female poetic lineage to which Nossis claims to belong. The poem belongs to the Greek genre of ‘epitaphic’ poetry, which imitates inscriptions on headstones.
These poems are frequently addressed to the reader on behalf of a departed individual, much like actual inscriptions. However, there is no death in 7.718, the message was instead sent to Mytilene.
It is as if Nossis defies death itself. Here is a poem immortalising Sappho and her lineage, that it will never die. In writing this poem in a style usually associated with death, Nossis declares that female-authored poetry, which she believed was borne of Sappho, is effectively immortal.
The grave cannot silence what Sappho birthed. It lives in me. And in all other women forever…
To Embrace Love
As Nossis lived so very long ago, not much is known of her life. We know very little about her family or marital status, which is unusual as this would have been recorded. Perhaps she rejected marriage, as Sappho rejected convention.
Clearly, we can infer much about Nossis from what she wrote. Female poets are clearly very important to her. They define her life and identity. Nossis is proud of her lyrical ability and isn’t hesitant to admit that it is influenced by and focused on women.
The desire to recall her own name as a poet can be seen as a woman struggling to gain respect as a poet, but, equally, one can perceive this as Nossis celebrating who she is.
Greek Anthology, 5.170
There is nothing sweeter than love: all other blessings
Take second place. I even spit honey from my mouth.
This is what Nossis says. Whomever Kypris has not kissed,
Does not understand her flowers, what kinds of things roses are.
No other poem of hers surmises Nossis’s message better. 5.170 respects and embraces the grace and wisdom of love. ‘Kypris’ is another name for Aphrodite (and from where Cyprus gets its name). Aphrodite was more than the goddess of love and pleasure. She was the goddess of fertility and womanhood.
Nossis celebrates the ‘kiss of Kypris’ as a gift to the world, that nothing is sweeter than love. And, in Nossis’s usual style, she declares it. This is what I say and this is the truth.
It was the honey she spit from her mouth, the truth she spent her entire life giving to the world. And it was so memorable, so unusually defiant of the conventions of her age, that we still remember and celebrate her.
Nobody knows when Nossis died or where she is buried. In Poem 11, Nossis asks those who see her grave if they go to Mitylene to catch inspiration, remind the people of her. In this poem, she demands immortality. Not because she is arrogant, but because the thought of a world in which female authors are unknown was too much to contemplate.
And she was right. The poetic lineage she spoke of thrives to this day.
Greek Anthology, 7.414
Pass by me, give an honest laugh, and speak over me
A loving word. I am Rhintho from Syracuse,
A minor nightingale of the Muses. But from my tragic
Nonsense poems, I made my own ivy crown.
What Remarkable Kinds of Things Are Roses
Some people look down on Nossis as arrogant and self-centred, but she isn’t. Her voice emerges as confident, even triumphant, her work celebrating her gender and those who came before her. She is one of the best-preserved female poets of her age, the majority of her poems about women, goddesses, childbirth and children.
She became the Hellenistic period’s most interesting female author. Her poetry weaves a fascinating yarn, showing just what women excelled at in an era dominated by men. Despite the widespread oppression women endured, Nossis crafted solidarity with other women through time and rejoiced in what was.
In doing so, she aimed to reproduce the atmosphere her hero Sappho created. Nossis claimed herself Sappho’s equal, not necessarily for what she wrote, but in what she wrote about. Nossis’s poetry, like Sappho’s poetry, is a celebration of women, filled with women of great beauty and talent.
Through her artistic delicacy, intelligence and wit, Nossis aimed to create a poetical lineage with Sappho. Nossis considered Sappho the mother of feminist poetry, and that female poets had to continue that lineage to ensure women’s voices were heard.
It is why her work has survived because feminist poetry still prospers, from the likes of the voices of Sarojini Naidu to Audre Lorde, from Patricia Lockwood to Rupi Kaur.
While Nossis of Locri’s name will be remembered for her outstanding contributions to Hellenistic poetry, her ravishing story communicated a rallying cry to celebrate and rejoice the female voice.
I think she’d be proud the lineage she spoke of continues to thrive.
Antipater of Thessalonica, a poet who lived more than three centuries after Nossis, ranks Nossis as one of the great poets. He writes:
‘Nossis, the poet, by the soothing female voice and the sweet song of Myrtis, is the author of immortal texts’.
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Post Sources
https://www.scribd.com/document/472448833/Nossis-mulher-cultura-classica, https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/women-of-words-02-nossis-of-locri/, https://cdn.inst-fs-iad-prod.inscloudgate.net/6274f01a-a721-4d4d-8ab4-7d0b25e8a544/Klinck%20on%20Nossis.pdf?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzUxMiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCIsImtpZCI6ImNkbiJ9.eyJyZXNvdXJjZSI6Ii82Mjc0ZjAxYS1hNzIxLTRkNGQtOGFiNC03ZDBiMjVlOGE1NDQvS2xpbmNrJTIwb24lMjBOb3NzaXMucGRmIiwidGVuYW50IjoiY2FudmFzIiwidXNlcl9pZCI6bnVsbCwiaWF0IjoxNjk0MTA0MjA0LCJleHAiOjE2OTQxOTA2MDR9.MfejBdhO_B_b6O2J0RPsbC2Ss7ZnP38Fms6eL4CMF4Khn2Tm7nk2hjgRwkpJS_77gnC7g8WQlovxZGowDC9FnA&download=1&content_type=application%2Fpdf, https://www.locriantica.it/english/figures/nossis.htm, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DN%3Aentry+group%3D11%3Aentry%3Dnossis-bio-1, https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2019/03/05/what-kinds-of-things-are-roses-more-poems-from-nossis/, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/heritage_floor/nossis, https://www.hellenistichistory.com/2021/04/08/hellenistic-women-ii-nossis/, https://www.crystalinks.com/nossis.html, https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2019/03/04/sapphos-equal-some-epigrams-assigned-to-the-poet-nossis/, https://www.carolinewarfield.com/2014/12/nossis-poet-of-women/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nossis, https://euterpetranslation.wixsite.com/mysite/post/ancient-women-poets-two-epigrams-by-nossis-3rd-century-bce
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