Sappho was an ancient Greek poet, from the island of Lesbos (now Mytilene). She was born sometime between 630 B.C and 612 B.C.

Sappho was married to a wealthy merchant, and they had a daughter named Cleis. She became very famous in her day for her poetry -- so much so that the city of Syracuse built a statue to honor her when she visited.

She was a lyric poet who developed her own particular meter, known as sapphic meter, and she was credited for leading an aesthetic movement away from classical themes of gods, to the themes of indivual human experience. The Greeks were so enamoured of her poetry that they referred to her as the "tenth Muse". Since only fragments of her work remain, the world lost a valuable treasure in her work.

Sappho wrote mainly love poems, of which as already alluded only fragments survive. Some of her love poems were addressed to women, from which she developed a reputation for lesbianism.

The word lesbian itself derives from her, being derived from thename of the island from which she came. Lesbos in the 7th century B.C. was a cultural center.

Her name is the source of a much rare word related to lesbianism: sapphic. For this reason--and because of its explicit eroticism--her work was disapproved of by the Christian church, which is arguably the main reason most of it has not survived, due to a combination of neglecting to copy it and undoubtedly in some cases purposeful destruction.

Her family was politically active, which cause Sappho to travel a great deal. She was also noted during her life as the headmistress of a sort of Greek finishing school for girls. Most likely the objects of her poetry were her students.

In ancient and medieval times she was more famous for (according to legend) throwing herself off a cliff due to unrequited love for a male sailor. However, this legend has no substantiation in Greek history, and it is generally believed that the legend was a fiction created by the Christian church to misdirect attention away from the overtones of her writing.

/Talk