10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Making Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer
3. In ‘Restless’, The Symbols On Tara’s Back Have An Actual Meaning
The Season 4 finale is a standout episode. Rather than featuring an epic battle sequence, the story explores the fears and desires of the four central characters via a series of dream sequences.
Willow is up first, and at the start of her dream, she paints a series of symbols onto Tara’s naked back. Given these symbols are actually letters from the Greek alphabet, most Buffy fans are completely unaware of the deeper meaning.
Collectively, the symbols make up a poem by Sappho, who was a female poet from Ancient Greece. Just like Willow and Tara, Sappho preferred to have relationships with women, not men. She even came from an island called Lesbos, which – as you might have guessed – became the origin of the English word “lesbian”.
The poem on Tara’s back is called Ode to Aphrodite, who was the Greek goddess of sexual love and beauty. To create this striking visual, makeup artist Todd Macintosh researched the poem and painted the entire thing using the Greek alphabet.
Whilst the deeper meaning of these symbols isn’t integral to understanding Willow’s dream sequence, it’s a nice bit of trivia for the Buffy fanatics who want to know as much as possible about the show.