ellauri152.html on line 71: The Songs of Bilitis (/bɪˈliːtɪs/; French: Les Chansons de Bilitis) is a collection of erotic, essentially lesbian, poetry by Pierre Louÿs published in Paris in 1894. Since Louÿs claimed that he had translated the original poetry from Ancient Greek, this work is considered a pseudotranslation. Though the poems were actually clever fabulations, authored by Louÿs himself, they are still considered important literature. [by whom?]
ellauri152.html on line 73: The poems are in the manner of Sappho; the collection's introduction claims they were found on the walls of a tomb in Cyprus, written by a woman of Ancient Greece called Bilitis (Greek: Βιλιτις), a courtesan and contemporary of Sappho to whose life Louÿs dedicated a small section of the book. On publication, the volume deceived even expert scholars.
ellauri152.html on line 75: 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 pubic actions, from childhood innocence in Pamphylia to the loneliness and chagrin of her later years.
ellauri152.html on line 77: Although for the most part The Songs of Bilitis is original work, many of the poems were reworked epigrams from the Palatine Anthology, 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, but underneath run subtle Gallic undertones that Louÿs could never escape.
ellauri152.html on line 79: 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' 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' open and sympathetic celebration of lesbian sexuality earned him sensation and historic significance.
ellauri152.html on line 81: In 1894 Louÿs, travelling in Italy with his friend Ferdinand Hérold, grandson of the composer (1791–1831) of the same name, met André Gide, who described how he had just lost his virginity to a Berber boy named Muhammed in the oasis resort-town of Biskra in Algeria; 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 Muhammed the dancing-boy, and the poems are dedicated to Gide with a special mention to "M.b.A", Mohammad ben Atala. Ben is boy, bat is girl, Q.E.D.
ellauri152.html on line 83: While the work was eventually shown to be a pseudotranslation by Louÿs , initially it has mislead a number of scholars, such as Jean Bertheroy
ellauri152.html on line 92: Louÿs' close friend Claude Debussy in 1897 musically set three of the poems—La flûte de Pan, La chevelure and Le tombeau des Naïades—as songs for feminine voice and piano. Pan huiluu pyllyyn. The book was accidentally translated to Polish twice, in 1920 by Leopold Staff and in 2010 by Ruben Stiller.
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