Greek · -630–-570
Sappho was a Greek lyric poet who lived on the island of Lesbos in the late seventh and early sixth centuries B.C. Ancient sources place her in Mytilene, and some say she was exiled to Sicily for a time. She wrote songs for performance, including wedding songs, hymns, and poems of personal address, mostly to women in her circle. Alexandrian scholars collected her work in nine books, but nearly all of it was lost. One complete poem, the Ode to Aphrodite, survives, along with fragments preserved by quotation and on papyrus. Finds in 2004 and 2014 added the Brothers Poem and the Kypris Poem. She wrote in the Aeolic dialect and gave her name to the Sapphic stanza. Ancient critics ranked her among the Nine Lyric Poets, and Plato is said to have called her the tenth Muse. Her direct treatment of desire shaped later love poetry, and her work remains central to classical study.