She is the acknowledged inventor of the pastoral epigram, introducing evocations of peaceful idyllic landscapes into the repertoire of themes. Far from offering a detached, strictly empirical, report of visual experience, they infer, from observed phenomena, the internal disposition of the object portrayed. In the third line, there is an abrupt switch in perspective to the reverent tremor of the water as it, in turn, observes the goddess' glistening statue. Descriptively, the epigram presents a contrast of emotive reactions to separate ocular experiences linked by the mutual apprehension of a brightly sunlit surface. Anyte's efforts to create audience empathy with the visualized object blur strict boundaries between textual perceiver and thing perceived, and consequently between that perceiver and the reader.
Nothing is sweeter than desire.
All other delights are second. From my mouth I spit even honey. Nossis says this. Whom Aphrodite does not love, knows not her flowers, what roses they are. Over the course of centuries, Sappho's lyrics inspired a host of ancient imitations.