Beschrijving
Paris, EUGENE FASQUELLE, 1928, 356 pages, half leather binding, marbled boards and marbled flyleaves, gilt lettering and ornaments on spine, Les Chansons de Bilitis is a collection of erotic, essentially lesbian, poetry by Pierre Louys published in Paris in 1894. Since Louys claimed that he had translated the original poetry from Ancient Greek, this work is considered a pseudotranslation. 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: Âéëéôéò), 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. Though the poems were actually clever fabulations, authored by Louys himself, they are still considered important literature.