page_title: Sappho
section_title: Ancient sources
hierarchical_section_title: Sappho / Ancient sources
caption_attribution_description: English: Hermaic pillar with a female portrait, so-called “Sappho”; inscription "Sappho Eresia" ie. Sappho from Eresos. Roman copy of a Greek Classical original. Français&#160;: Portrait féminin, traditionnellement identifié comme Sappho&#160;; inscription «&#160;Sappho Eresia&#160;», c'est-à-dire d'Eresos). Copie romaine d'un original grec de l'époque classique. Italiano: Ritratto femminile, detto “Saffo”. Copia romana da originale greco dell'età classica.
context_page_description: Sappho was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by a lyre. In ancient times, Sappho was widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets and was given names such as the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess". Most of Sappho's poetry is now lost, and what is extant has mostly survived in fragmentary form; two notable exceptions are the "Ode to Aphrodite" and the Tithonus poem. As well as lyric poetry, ancient commentators claimed that Sappho wrote elegiac and iambic poetry. Three epigrams attributed to Sappho are extant, but these are actually Hellenistic imitations of Sappho's style.
  Little is known of Sappho's life. She was from a wealthy family from Lesbos, though her parents' names are uncertain. Ancient sources say that she had three brothers; the names of two of them, Charaxos and Larichos, 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. Later legends surrounding Sappho's love for the ferryman Phaon and her death are unreliable.
  Sappho was a prolific poet, probably composing around 10,000 lines.
context_section_description: There are three sources of information about Sappho's life: her testimonia, the history of her times, and what can be gleaned from her own poetry — although scholars are cautious when reading poetry as a biographical source.
  Testimonia is a term of art in ancient studies that refers to collections of classical biographical and literary references to classical authors. The testimonia regarding Sappho do not contain references contemporary to Sappho. The representations of Sappho's life that occur in the testimonia always need to be assessed for accuracy, because many of them are certainly not correct. The testimonia are also a source of knowledge regarding how Sappho's poetry was received in antiquity. Some details mentioned in the testimonia are derived from Sappho's own poetry, which is of great interest, especially considering the testimonia originate from a time when more of Sappho's poetry was extant than is the case for modern readers.
caption: A Roman sculpture of Sappho, based on a Classical Greek model. The inscription reads ΣΑΠΦΩ ΕΡΕΣΙΑ, or "Sappho of Eresos".
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