Da Scheria a Lesbo: isole ‘al femminile’ nella poesia greca arcaica = From Scheria to Lesbos: Women’s islands in Greek Poetry

The islands of the Odyssey are associated with female characters, with whom they establish a high degree of overlap. The remote and lush landscape is easily linked to a feminine dimension of isolation and otherness, suggesting an assimilation between woman and island as an unexplored land and prey of the colonizer. Actually, the colonial dimension of a poem like the Odyssey grants women of the islands a very different kind of agency, endowing them with authority and autonomy of thought, which make them quite distinct from other Homeric female characters. This is also reflected in the poetry of Sappho, similarly, tied to the insular dimension of Lesbos.