''The Songs of Bilitis'' (; ) is a collection of erotic, essentially

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

, poetry by

Pierre Louÿs Pierre-Félix Louÿs (; 10 December 1870 – 4 June 1925) was a Belgian poet and writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who sought to "express pagan sensuality with stylistic perf ...

published in Paris in 1894. Since Louÿs claimed that he had translated the original poetry from Ancient Greek, this work is considered a

pseudotranslation In literature, a pseudotranslation is a text written as if it had been translated from a foreign language, even though no foreign language original exists. History The practice of writing works which falsely claimed to be translations began in ...

. The poems were fabulations, authored by Louÿs himself, and are still considered important literature. The poems are in the manner of

Sappho Sappho (; ''Sapphṓ'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; ) was an Ancient Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sapph ...

; the collection's introduction claims they were found on the walls of a

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, written by a woman of

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

called Bilitis (), a

courtesan A courtesan is a prostitute with a courtly, wealthy, or upper-class clientele. Historically, the term referred to a courtier, a person who attended the court of a monarch or other powerful person. History In European feudal society, the co ...

and contemporary of Sappho's to whose life Louÿs dedicated a small section of the book. On publication, the volume deceived even expert scholars. Louÿs claimed the 143 prose poems, excluding 3 epitaphs, were entirely the work of this ancient poet—a place where she poured both her most intimate thoughts and most public actions, from childhood innocence in

Pamphylia Pamphylia (; , ''Pamphylía'' ) was a region in the south of Anatolia, Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean to Mount Taurus (all in modern-day Antalya province, Turkey). It was bounded on the ...

to the loneliness and chagrin of her later years. Although for the most part ''The Songs of Bilitis'' is original work, many of the poems were reworked epigrams from the ''

Palatine Anthology The ''Palatine Anthology'' (or ''Anthologia Palatina''), sometimes abbreviated ''AP'', is the collection of Greek poems and epigrams discovered in 1606 in the Palatine Library in Heidelberg. It is based on the lost collection of Constantine Keph ...

'', and Louÿs even borrowed some verses from Sappho herself. The poems are a blend of mellow sensuality and polished style in the manner of

Parnassianism Parnassianism (or Parnassism) was a group of French poets that began during the positivist period of the 19th century (1860s–1890s), occurring after romanticism and prior to symbolism. The style was influenced by the author Théophile Gauti ...

, but underneath run subtle Gallic undertones that Louÿs could never escape. To lend authenticity to the forgery, Louÿs in the index listed some poems as "untranslated"; he even craftily fabricated an entire section of his book called "The Life of Bilitis", crediting a certain fictional archaeologist Herr G. Heim ("Mr. C. Cret" in German) as the discoverer of Bilitis's tomb. And though Louÿs displayed great knowledge of Ancient Greek culture, ranging from children's games in "Tortie Tortue" to application of scents in "Perfumes", the literary fraud was eventually exposed. This did little, however, to taint their literary value in readers' eyes, and Louÿs's open and sympathetic celebration of lesbian sexuality earned him sensation and historic significance.

Background

In 1894 Louÿs, travelling in Italy with his friend Ferdinand Hérold, grandson of the composer (1791–1831) of the same name, met

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...

, who described how he had just lost his virginity to a Berber girl named Meriem in the oasis resort-town of

Biskra Biskra () is the capital city of Biskra Province, Algeria. In 2007, its population was recorded as 307,987. Biskra is located in northeastern Algeria, about from Algiers, southwest of Batna, Algeria, Batna and north of Touggourt. It is nickna ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

; Gide urged his friends to go to Biskra and follow his example. The ''Songs of Bilitis'' are the result of Louÿs and Hérold's shared encounter with Meriem the dancing-girl, and the poems are dedicated to Gide with a special mention to "M.b.A", Meriem ben Atala.

Basic structure

The ''Songs of Bilitis'' are separated into three cycles, each representative of a phase of Bilitis's life:

Bucolic The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target aud ...

s in Pamphylia—childhood and first sexual encounters,

Elegies An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

Mytilene Mytilene (; ) is the capital city, capital of the Greece, Greek island of Lesbos, and its port. It is also the capital and administrative center of the North Aegean Region, and hosts the headquarters of the University of the Aegean. It was fo ...

—indulgence in homosexual sensuality, and

Epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia ...

s in the Isle of Cyprus—life as a courtesan. Each cycle progresses toward a melancholy conclusion, each conclusion signalling a new, more complex chapter of experience, emotion, and sexual exploration. Each of these melancholy conclusions is demarcated by a tragic turn in Bilitis's relationships with others. In the first stage of her life, Bucolics, she falls in love with a young man but is then raped by him after he comes upon her napping in the woods; she marries him and has a child by him, but his abusive behavior compels her to abandon the relationship. In the second stage (Elegies), her relationship with her beloved Mnasidika turns cold and ends in estrangement, prompting her to relocate once again. Finally, in the Epigrams, in the Isle of Cyprus, despite her fame, she finds herself longing for Mnasidika. Ultimately, she and her beauty are largely forgotten; she pens her poems in silent obscurity, resolute in her knowledge that "those who will love when he isgone will sing ersongs together, in the dark." One of Louÿs's technical accomplishments was to coincide Bilitis's growing maturity and emotional complexity with her changing views of divinity and the world around her—after leaving Pamphylia and Mytilene, she becomes involved in intricate mysteries, moving away from a mythical world inhabited by satyrs and Naiads. This change is perhaps best reflected by the symbolic death of the satyrs and Naiads in "The Tomb of the Naiads".

Bilitis

Louÿs dedicated a small section of the book to the fictional character of Bilitis (), whom he invented for the book's purpose. He claimed she was a

and contemporary of

's, and the author of the poems that he had translated. He went so far as not only to outline her life in a biographical sketch, but also to describe how her fictional tomb was discovered by a fictional archeological expedition, and include a list of additional, "untranslated", works by her.

Influence

While the work was eventually shown to be a

by Louÿs, initially it misled a number of scholars, such as

Jean Bertheroy Berthe Jeanne Le Barillier (24 July 1858 – 24 January 1927), known by her pen name Jean Bertheroy, was a French classicist and writer. First noted for her poetry, she turned to the historical novel and then the modern novel. Her work, although l ...

, who retranslated several poems without realizing they were fakes. Like the poems of Sappho, those of ''The Songs of Bilitis'' address themselves to

Sapphic love ''Sapphism'' is an umbrella term for any woman attracted to women or in a relationship with another woman, regardless of their sexual orientations, and encompassing the romantic love between women. The term is inclusive of individuals who ar ...

. The book became a sought-after cult item among the 20th-century

underground and was only reprinted officially in the 1970s. The expanded French second edition is reprinted in facsimile by

Dover Books Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books ...

in America. This second edition had a title page that read: "This little book of antique love is respectfully dedicated to the young women of a future society." In 1955, the

Daughters of Bilitis The Daughters of Bilitis (), also called the DOB or the Daughters, was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. The organization, formed in San Francisco in 1955, was initially conceived as a secret soc ...

was founded in San Francisco as the

first First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

civil and political rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

organization in the United States. In regard to its name,

Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon Dorothy Louise Taliaferro "Del" Martin (May 5, 1921 – August 27, 2008) and Phyllis Ann Lyon (November 10, 1924 – April 9, 2020) were an American lesbian couple based in San Francisco who were known as feminist and gay-rights activis ...

, two of the group's founders, said "If anyone asked us, we could always say we belong to a poetry club."

Adaptations

*In 1897, Louÿs's close friend

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

set three of the poems—''La flûte de Pan'', ''La chevelure'' and ''Le tombeau des Naïades''—as songs for female voice and piano. The composer returned to the collection in a more elaborate fashion in 1900, creating ''Musique de scène pour les chansons de bilitis'' (also known as ''Chansons de bilitis'') for recitation of twelve of Louÿs's poems. These pieces were scored for two flutes, two harps and

celesta The celesta () or celeste (), also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five-octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music ...

. According to contemporary sources, the recitation and music were accompanied by ''tableaux vivants'' as well. Apparently, only one private performance of the entire creation took place, in Venice. Debussy did not publish the score in his lifetime, but he later adapted six of the twelve for piano as '' Six Epigraphes Antiques'' in 1914. *French composer and pianist

Rita Strohl Rita Strohl (born Aimée Marie Marguerite Mercédès Larousse La Villette) (8 July 1865 – 27 March 1941) was a French composer and pianist. Musical career Born in Lorient (Morbihan), Rita Strohl was a gifted student and entered the Paris Conser ...

composed her settings of 12 ''Chansons de Bilitis'' in 1898. They were performed by

Jane Bathori Jane Bathori (14 June 1877 – 25 January 1970) was a French mezzo-soprano. She was famous on the operatic stage and important in the development of contemporary French music. Life and career Born Jeanne-Marie Berthier, she originally studied ...

. There is a modern recording by Marianne Croux and Anne Bertin-Hugault. *French composer

Charles Koechlin Charles-Louis-Eugène Koechlin (; 27 November 186731 December 1950), commonly known as Charles Koechlin, was a French composer, teacher and musicologist. Among his better known works is '' Les Heures persanes'', a set of piano pieces based on th ...

completed his five ''Chansons de Bilitis'', Op.39 between 1898 and 1908. The first complete performance was on 29 January 1918 by Jane Bathori and

Andrée Vaurabourg Andrée Louise Vaurabourg-Honegger (8 September 1894 − 18 July 1980) was a French pianist and teacher. She was the wife of Swiss-French composer Arthur Honegger (1892–1955), whom she met at the Paris Conservatoire in 1916. Honegger married h ...

. They were published in 1923. *Brazilian composer

Luciano Gallet Luciano Gallet (June 28, 1893 in Rio de Janeiro – October 29, 1931 in Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian composer, conductor and pianist. Gallet was born in Rio de Janeiro to a French-Brazilian father and a French mother and displayed musical ...

set his ''Deux chansons de Bilitis'' for three voices and piano in 1920. *Polish composer

Roman Maciejewski Roman Maciejewski (28 February 1910 in Berlin, German Empire, Germany – 30 April 1998 in Gothenburg, Sweden) was a Polish composer. His mother, Bronisława Maciejewska, was a talented violinist and music teacher who taught him to play piano. He ...

published ''The Songs of Bilitis'' (translated into Polish by

Leopold Staff Leopold Henryk Staff (November 14, 1878 – May 31, 1957) was a Polish poet; an artist of European modernism twice granted the Degree of Doctor honoris causa by universities in Warsaw and in Kraków. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize ...

) for soprano & orchestra in 1935. *

Joseph Kosma Joseph Kosma (22 October 19057 August 1969) was a Hungarian composer who immigrated to France. Biography Kosma was born József Kozma in Budapest, where his parents taught stenography and typing. He had a brother, Ákos. A maternal relative wa ...

's ''comédie musicale'' (or operetta) ''Les chansons de Bilitis'' was produced in Paris in 1954 at the

Théâtre des Capucines The Théâtre des Capucines was a theatre on the boulevard des Capucines in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. Built in 1889 by architect Édouard-Jean Niermans, it was taken over by two brothers, Émile Isola and Vincent Isola, in 1892 to become ...

. * Michael Findlay and

Roberta Findlay Roberta Findlay (née Hershkowitz; born December 30, 1943) is an American film director, cinematographer, producer and actress. She is best known for her work in the exploitation field. Her work has received increasing critical appreciation in r ...

made a 1966

sexploitation A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, Low-budget film, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition o ...

film titled ''Take Me Naked'' which features narrated passages from ''The Songs of Bilitis''. In the film, the main character is shown in bed reading the collected works of Pierre Louÿs. He then has a series of erotic dreams depicting nude or scantily dressed women while a female voice narrates passages of the Bilitis poetry. *The 1977 French film '' Bilitis'', directed by David Hamilton and starring

Patti D'Arbanville Patricia D'Arbanville (born May 25, 1951)Willis, John; Monush, Barry (2006). Screen World: 2005 Film Annual, Volume 56'. New York: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. p. 357. . is an American actress known for her appearance in Andy Warhol pr ...

and Mona Kristensen, was based on Louÿs's book, as stated in the opening credits. It concerns a twentieth century girl and her sexual awakening, but the British magazine '' Time Out'' said that, "surprisingly, a strong hint of Louys' erotic spirit survives, transmitted mainly through the effective playing and poise of the two leading characters." *More recently ''Songs of Bilitis'', a play adapted from the poems by Katie Polebaum with music by

Ego Plum Ego Plum (born February 27, 1975) is an American film composer, musician, and performer. He is best known for his work on ''The Cuphead Show!,'' ''The Patrick Star Show,'' '' Kamp Koral,'' ''SpongeBob SquarePants,'' ''Jellystone!,'' ''Making Fie ...

, was performed by Rogue Artists Ensemble under a commission from the

Getty Villa The Getty Villa is an educational center and an art museum located at the easterly end of the Malibu coast in the Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. One of two campuses of th ...

in Los Angeles.

Translations

The book was translated into Polish twice, in 1920 by

and in 2010 by

Robert Stiller Robert Reuven Stiller (25 January 1928 – 10 December 2016) was a Polish polyglot, writer, poet, translator, and editor. Life Robert Stiller was born in Warsaw, Poland, to Polish parents and spent his early childhood in what is now Belarus. His f ...

. English translations: *Horace Manchester Brown in 1904. "Privately printed for members of The Aldus Society" (https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24152668M/The_songs_of_Bilitis) *Alvah C. Bessie in 1926. "Privately printed for subscribers" (https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/sob/sob000.htm) *H.M. Bird in 1931. Argus Books. *J. Rolf in 2013.

Illustrations

''The Songs of Bilitis'' has been illustrated extensively by numerous artists. The most famous artist to illustrate the book was the French painter

Louis Icart Louis Justin Laurent Icart (born 9 December 1888 in Toulouse, died 20 December 1950 in Paris)''Louis Icart''.
In: RKD-Ned ...

, while the most famous illustrations were done by the Hungarian artist

Willy Pogany William Andrew Pogany (born Vilmos András Feichtmann (or Feuchtmann); August 24, 1882 – July 30, 1955) was a prolific Hungarian illustrator of children's and other books. His contemporaries include C. Coles Phillips, Joseph Clement Coll, Ed ...

for a 1926 privately circulated English language translation: they were drawn in an

art-deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s to early 1930s, ...

style, with numerous visual puns on sexual objects, such as the couch in ''The Living Past'' which has an undeniable phallic shape. Other artists have been

Georges Barbier George Barbier (), né Georges Augustin Barbier, (1882–1932) was one of the great French illustrators of the early 20th century. Biography Born in Nantes, France on 16 October 1882, Barbier was 29 years old when he mounted his first exhi ...

, Edouard Chimot, Jeanne Mammen,

Pascal Pia Pascal Pia (15 August 1903, Paris - 27 September 1979, Paris), born Pierre Durand, was a French writer, journalist, illustrator and scholar. He also used the pseudonyms Pascal Rose, Pascal Fely and others. Childhood and Adolescence After the ...

Joseph Kuhn-Régnier Joseph Kuhn-Régnier, (born as Joseph Louis Wilfrid Kuhn-Regnier ,10 December 1873 - 1940) was a French illustrator, draughtsman, and painter who worked and exhibited in Paris at the Salon d'Automne. His work is recognizable by his characters i ...

Sigismunds Vidbergs Sigismunds Vidbergs (1890, Jelgava – 1970, River Edge, New Jersey) was a Latvian artist. Biography Sigismunds Vidbergs came from an upper middle class family in Jelgava, where his father was a civil servant. He was encouraged to study art by hi ...

, Pierre Leroy, Alméry Lobel Riche,

Suzanne Ballivet Suzanne Ballivet (12 August 1904, Paris, 7th arrondissement - 15 June 1985, Saint-Aunès, Hérault) was a French draughtswoman and illustrator.''Benezit''. She is best known today for her erotic illustrations of works by Pierre Louÿs, Alfred d ...

, Pierre Lissac, Paul-Emile Bécat, Monique Rouver, Génia Minache, Lucio Milandre, A-E Marty, J.A. Bresval, James Fagan and Albert Gaeng from Geneva.

References

External links

''The Songs of Bilitis''
full text of 1926 English translation by Alvah C. Bessie
Rogue Artists Ensemble's theatrical adaptation ''The Songs of Bilitis''

Debussy's ''Trois Chansons de Bilitis''
performed by

Sasha Cooke Sasha Cooke (born ) is an American mezzo-soprano. Cooke was born in Riverside, California, and grew up in College Station, Texas, where her parents are professors of Russian at Texas A&M University. She earned a bachelor's degree from Rice Univers ...

(mezzo-soprano) and Pei-Yao Wang (piano) at the

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was found ...

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

format {{DEFAULTSORT:Songs Of Bilitis 1894 books French poetry collections Literary forgeries Erotic poetry LGBTQ literature in France Ancient Greece in art and culture Ancient Greek erotic literature 1890s LGBTQ literature Works by Pierre Louÿs LGBTQ poetry