In the summer of 2003 archaeologists recovered a manuscript, written in Attic Greek, from the library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, Italy. It had been buried there since the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, but dated from an era much earlier. Its preservation was completed in the Museum of Antiquities Rome, and then because of his reputation in the field, its translation was taken on by the internationally renowned anthropologist and classics expert, Professor Gordon Harrington of Mercy University, Houston, Texas. It was Professor Harrington who discovered its secret: a story about the sexual lives of some of the most well known characters who inhabited the histories of Ancient Greece; warriors, gods and heroes whose deeds were recorded by the first true scholar - Homer. Professor Harrington believes the author of this work to be the central character, Sappho, herself well known for her writing at this time, and here retelling in the third person, her own part in the Greek war against Troy.
I met Professor Harrington at a conference on the discovery in Austin, Texas. In the raucous music district of the city we spent several evenings together in a lively student bar inhabited by lovers of bondage and slavery. Here I learned of his love of bondage, and he found in me an eagerness to submit to a variety of humiliations he had learned on his travels throughout the world. He kept me with him for two months early in 2004, at one time binding me with tape and shutting me in a small cupboard in his office for two whole days. I have rarely experienced the levels of joy that Professor Harrington brought about in me with his harsh techniques, humiliating and imaginative practices. Especially, he aroused in me a love for confinement in small spaces which, to this day, only continues to grow.
At last, after two more joyous and degrading visits to him, he has agreed to my using his text, with some amendments, and it is reproduced here with his full permission.
Syra Bond
Houston, Texas. March 2006