Sappho

Sappho was an Ancient Greek lyrical poet. She was probably born around 630 BC on the island of Lesbos.^[1] In the ancient world, Sappho's poetry was highly thought of. Today, most of it has been lost. Sappho presumably wrote about 10,000 lines of poetry, but only around 650 lines survive today.^[2] Little is known for certain about Sappho's life.^[3]

Sappho's poetry centres on passion and love for both men and women. The narrators of her poems often speak of infatuations and love for various women. Descriptions of physical acts between women are few and open to debate.^[4] Whether these poems are meant to be autobiographical is not known, although elements of other parts of Sappho's life do make appearances in her work. It would be like her style to have these intimate encounters expressed poetically.^[5]

1. ↑ Campbell, D. A. (ed.) (1982). Greek Lyric 1: Sappho and Alcaeus. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts. p. xi
2. ↑ Rayor, Diane and Lardinois, André (2014). Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. p. 7
3. ↑ Rayor, Diane and Lardinois, André (2014). Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. p. 1
4. ↑ Page, Denys (1959). Sappho and Alcaeus. Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp. 142-146
5. ↑ Burnett, Anne Pippin (1983). Three archaic poets: Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts