Mercedes Matamoros and Safo of Lesbos

Abstract

The Cuban writer Mercedes Matamoros (1851-1906) published in 1902 «The last love of Safo», composed by twenty sonnets that approach the loving relationship between the poet of Lesbos and Faón, a mythological character. The story finishes with Safo’s suicide, throwing himself from Léucade’s rock. Mercedes Matamoros’s poetry belongs to the currents that show the femme fatale in the frame of the Antiquity, and confirms the passion that the woman writers feel for Safo of Lesbos, the most recognized and admired poet of the History. Key words: Mercedes Matamoros, Safo, Classic Tradition, Hispano-American Literature.