Who was Sappho?
Scholars believe that Sappho was born sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and that she spent most of her life on the Greek island of Lesbos during a rich intellectual and cultural period. Sappho was a lyrist writing poetry to be performed with the accompaniment of a lyre but none of her music has survived. In fact, although it is thought that she wrote nine full books of poetry, only fragments of these have been found, some on papyrus, some on vase paintings, and some in the writings of those who came after her. One or two complete poems may exist of the whole set the rest can only be imagined using the fragments that have survived. Sappho was notable in that she refined the prevailing lyric meter of the time, and her unique meter has come to be called “Sapphic meter.” She wrote on themes of love, yearning, and reflection, from a personal point-of-view, and describing her experience as a woman, all of which were rare in ancient times. It is known that she was well-respected in her time, a
Where did the name ‘lesbian’ come from? Why do people sometimes call lesbians ‘Sapphist’ or refer to Sappho when talking about lesbianism? The basic information about Sappho that most people know, if anything, is that she was a Greek poet who lived on the island of Lesvos (or Lesbos) in around 600BCE, that’s 2,600 years ago. Are you into older women? You might have fancied Sappho if you’d been around then, I know that I would have. She is described as ‘small and dark’ by a Third Century philosopher. Although no contemporary descriptions or paintings of Sappho remain, many artists have depicted her as being classically beautiful with flowing dark curly hair, slim but with womanly curves, swarthy skin and deeply mysterious eyes. Yum yum. Plus she was rich, and came from an aristocratic family. Help me make a time machine, anyone? Sappho is also depicted holding a lyre, which is a quite basic stringed instrument like a hand-held harp: the electric guitar of the day. The reason for this is
