Sappho of Lesbos

Sappho (/ˈsæfoʊ/; Attic Greek Σαπφώ [sapːʰɔ̌ː], Aeolic Greek Ψάπφω, Psappho [psápːʰɔː]; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Sappho wrote lyric poetry, and is best known for her poems about love. Most of Sappho's poetry is now lost, and survives only in fragmentary form. As well as lyric poetry, three epigrams attributed to Sappho are preserved, but these are in fact Hellenistic imitations.

Little is known of Sappho's life. She was from a wealthy family from Lesbos, though the names of both of her parents are uncertain. Ancient sources say that she had three brothers; the names of two of them are mentioned in the Brothers Poem discovered in 2014. She was exiled to Sicily around 600 BC, and may have continued to work until around 570.

Sappho's poetry was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, and she was among the nine lyric poets deemed major by scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. Today, Sappho's poetry is still considered extraordinary, and her works have continued to influence other writers up until the modern day. Beyond her poetry, she is well known as a symbol of love and desire between women.

Little is known about Sappho's life for certain – so little that Monique Wittig and Sande Zeig's Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary contains an entire page for the entry on Sappho, deliberately left blank. There are three major sources of information about Sappho's life: her own poetry, other ancient sources, and deductions from our knowledge of the historical context in which Sappho worked.

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