THE DOOR is an unyielding, durable, physical manifestation of ambiguity, entrances, or exits. Doors, or closet doors, perhaps, are now metonyms for discussions on sexuality. Previously though, doors were seen externally, as keeping things out, versus modernity’s holding something in. The two sides of the door as a metaphor for sexuality have evolved from ancient poetical conventions of paraklausithyron.
Hozier, a musical artist, who is famously tight-lipped in discussing his sexuality, has seemingly become a beacon for queer fans, who often describe him as Sappho-reincarnated.
Sappho is an icon for queer people globally. Not only does she represent queerness in its most literal sense, but she embodies and influences the image of queerness that internet culture has claimed for the queer community today, e.g., some lesbians have adopted the term ‘sapphic’ to refer to WLW, or women loving women. Even the word ‘lesbian’ refers to her birthplace, the Greek island of Lesbos.
While not explicitly identifying as queer, Hozier has developed a fanbase that seems to be predominantly queer. He easily fits into the lyrical tradition Sappho has carved out within queer internet culture. Often, queer people, specifically lesbians, refer to him as Sappho reincarnated or as using sapphic language to describe his lovers. Hozier is at odds with his queer fanbase, using paraklausithyron to place himself outside the door while his fanbase is stuck behind the door, inside the metaphorical closet, representing homosexuality.
“The closet” as a metaphor
Let’s first take a closer look at another almost-universal symbol of queerness: the closet. As a metaphor, keeping something shut in a private room or closet has always represented keeping a secret, like the wife locked in the attic in Jane Eyre or the portrait in The Picture of Dorian Gray. But being ‘in the closet’ didn’t refer to homosexuality until the 1960s. The closet is a space hidden behind a door, hence private: a place to store intimacies away from others’ prying eyes. It is decidedly non-social, unopened, yet safe from whatever lies beyond the door. In the closet, hiding an intimate part of yourself from the other side of the door is a denial of the self.
“Outside the door” or paraklausithyron as a metaphor
But outside the door is an entirely separate set of meanings. Poetry from outside the door is called paraklausithyron, which means to lament beside the door and is an inversion of being in the closet as a metaphor. In a paraklausithyron, the poet is trapped on the wrong side of the door, begging his mistress to be let in. The door acts as an obstacle to intimacy. Whereby being in the closet is a denial of the self, being outside the door is a denial by others. These poets are shamefully open about their desires, which are usually sexual or romantic, but they cannot be on the side of the door that they genuinely wish to be on.
One of my favorite lines of Latin poetry comes from a paraklausithyron, Tibullus 1.2. Tibullus is stuck outside his mistress’ door. Delia makes him feel impotent, as if she has cut off his genitals, as demonstrated by his reference to Venus’ birth by castration.
Is Venerem e rapido sentient esse mari // She seems like Venus, born from blood and an angry sea (Tibullus 1.2.42)
Hozier as the desirer, the one outside the door
Hozier often uses this paraklausithyron metaphor in his music.
He described his first album as “Finding yourself, accepting yourself, and making sense of yourself. Ultimately it’s just trying to be honest about some of the more wonderful and awful things of your day-to-day.”
While ancient poets direct their laments to or even are the door, Hozier is beastly. He transforms into a terrifying animal, “howling” or “slithering,” to interact with the door.
In It Will Come Back, he pleads, or even warns, his lover not to lead him on: “You know better, babe, than to look to at it like that… don’t feed it, it will come back.”
Hozier even differentiates between the two sides of the door in this song. He has already been intimate with his lover: he “knows the warmth of [their] doorway,” but if his lover continues to “show [him] kindness,” he “warn[s] [you], baby, each night, as sure as [you’re] born, you’ll hear [me] howling outside [your] door.”
Hozier also references a door in From Eden. He implies his intimate knowledge of the workings of the other side of the door, “Honey, you’re familiar, like my mirror years ago… innocence died screaming, ask me how I should know.” He explains to his lover on the other side that he “slithered here from Eden just to sit outside [your] door.”
Hozier’s Sapphistry
Making the connection between Hozier and Sappho isn’t tricky. Many queer fans have made the connection between their lyrics.
But while Hozier has not confirmed in interviews whether he’s a Sappho fan, he engages with Classics. In fact, he’s cited several Greco-Roman myths in his lyrics and has explicitly named some classical authors in interviews.
In Talk, he references the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice:
I'd be the voice that urged Orpheus
When her body was found (Hey, yeah)
I'd be the choiceless hope in grief
That drove him underground (Hey, yeah)
I'd be the dreadful need in the devotee
That made him turn around (Hey, yeah)
And I'd be the immediate forgiveness
In Eurydice
Imagine being loved by me
Hozier and Sappho use similar themes, lyrical structures, and musical methods, making queer people feel connected to them.
In the song Talk, Hozier follows Sappho’s pattern of a yearning lament. This time, Hozier is the desire to get past the door. He acts as “the voice that urged Orpheus… the choiceless hope in grief that drove him underground… the dreadful need in the devotee that made him turn around.”
Hozier is both sides of the door: the impetus for seeking the other side of a door: “the choiceless hope… that drove him underground,” and the reason the door remains between them: “the need… that made him turn around.”
He begins by invoking a mythological figure, just as Sappho does in Sappho 31.
φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν ἔμμεν᾽ ὤνηρ // that man seems equal to the gods (Sappho 31) He then refers to his situation in a deeply personal voice, using the first-person singular to emphasize his own agency and emotions: "I'd... I'd... I'd" At the end of the sapphic structure, he leaves the personal voice, making himself the object of the natural world: "imagine being loved by me."
Saphho’s ‘yearning lament’ structure isn’t just found in Sappho 31, but a similar pattern is found in Sappho 1, where she invokes Aphrodite, using the personal voice:
λίσσομαί σε // I beg you (Sappho 1.2)
and transforming into the direct object in the final stanzas:
ἔλθε μοι καὶ νῦν, χαλέπαν δὲ λῦσον ἐκ μερίμναν // Come to me, even now, and set me free from these obsessive thoughts (Sappho 1.25-26)
Sappho’s modern reception
The feelings Sappho describes have become deeply associated with queerness, allowing non-queer artists to become idolized by internet culture. Sappho’s unrequited or forbidden love themes fit into a modern queer narrative, especially considering the ubiquity of the closet metaphor.
By following the same thematic structure that Sappho does, in combination with his plentiful usage of paraklausithyron, Hozier appeals to queer fans, even if he’s on the other side of the door, instead of behind it.
If you like discussions of Classics and music, be sure to check out some of my other articles, like Phoebe Bridgers and the Iliad and Lizzo and Sappho.
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