Sappho

~630–~570 BCE · Greek (Lesbos) · Ancient Greece, Archaic Period

Known for: Greatest lyric poet of antiquity, called 'the Tenth Muse' by Plato

Sappho was an aristocratic poet from the island of Lesbos who led a circle of young women in what may have been a school, religious community, or artistic salon. She wrote in the Aeolic Greek dialect with a directness and emotional intensity unmatched in ancient poetry. Plato called her 'the Tenth Muse,' and her nine books of poetry were considered among the greatest achievements of Greek literature.

Most of her work was destroyed—some deliberately by Christian authorities who found her erotic content between women unacceptable. What survives in fragments reveals a voice of piercing beauty and erotic frankness. She was married and had a daughter named Cleïs. The word 'lesbian' derives from her island, and her name gave us 'sapphic.' She remains, across 2,600 years, one of the most powerful poetic voices ever recorded.

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