Sappho

Sappho was an Ancient Greek lyrical poet. She was probably born around 630 BC on the island of Lesbos.Campbell, D. A. (ed.) (1982).  Greek Lyric 1: Sappho and Alcaeus.  Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts. p. xi In the ancient world, Sappho's poetry was highly thought of.  Today, most of it has been lost.  Sappho presumably wrote about 10,000 lines of poetry, but only around 650 lines survive today.Rayor, Diane and Lardinois, André (2014). Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. p. 7  Little is known for certain about Sappho's life.Rayor, Diane and Lardinois, André (2014). Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. p. 1

Sappho's poetry centres on passion and love for both men and women. The narrators of her poems often speak of infatuations and love for various women. Descriptions of physical acts between women are few and open to debate.Page, Denys (1959). Sappho and Alcaeus. Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp. 142-146 Whether these poems are meant to be autobiographical is not known, although elements of other parts of Sappho's life do make appearances in her work. It would be like her style to have these intimate encounters expressed poetically.Burnett, Anne Pippin (1983). Three archaic poets: Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts

 Life 
Little is known for certain about Sappho's life.  What is known comes from three sources: Sappho's surviving poetry, other ancient writings about her, and evidence about archaic Greece in general.  She was born on the Greek island of Lesbos around 630 BC, in either Eresos or Mytilene.Rayor, Diane and Lardinois, André (2014). Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. p. 4  Her parents' names are not known for certain, though her mother is often called Kleïs.Rayor, Diane and Lardinois, André (2014). Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. pp. 3–4  Ancient tradition gave at least eight possible names for her father.  One ancient story, which might be based on a now-lost poem by Sappho,Campbell, D. A. (ed.) (1982).  Greek Lyric 1: Sappho and Alcaeus.  Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts. p. 15 n. 1 says that her father died when Sappho was still a child.Most, Glenn W. (1995).  "Reflecting Sappho". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 40. p. 20  Sappho was said to have three brothers, called Charaxos, Larichos, and Eurygios.  The "Brothers poem", discovered in 2014, talks about Charaxos and Larichos.Rayor, Diane and Lardinois, André (2014). Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. p. 3

Sappho might have had a daughter called Kleïs (the same as her mother).  Two of Sappho's poems talk about her.  Not all historians agree that the Kleïs in Sappho's poems was Sappho's daughter.  Some have suggested that she was Sappho's lover instead.Hallett, Judith P. (1982).  "Beloved Cleïs".   Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 10. p. 22  But ancient sources call Kleïs Sappho's daughter,Klinck, Anne L. (2008). "Sappho's Company of Friends", Hermes 136 (1). p. 21 and some modern historians have argued that she must have been Sappho's daughter, not her lover.Hallett, Judith P. (1982).  "Beloved Cleïs".   Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 10. pp. 25–26; Parker, Holt N. (2006). "Sappho's Daughter/Clitoris/Lover".  Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 149 (1). p. 112  Sappho's husband, the father of Kleïs, was said to be a rich trader named Kerkylas of Andros.  If Sappho was married, however, this was definitely not her husband's name: it is a joke from a comedy about Sappho's life.

 Poetry 
Sappho is best known for writing lyric poetry, a type of poetry which was sung and accompanied by the music of a lyre.Mendelsohn, Daniel (2015). "Girl Interrupted: Who Was Sappho?".  The New Yorker. Accessed 6 July 2016.  Most of her poetry focusses on the lives of women.Rayor, Diane and Lardinois, André (2014). Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. p. 9  Much of this was love poetry,Campbell, D. A. (ed.) (1982). Greek Lyric 1: Sappho and Alcaeus.  Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts. p. xii but she also wrote hymns, wedding songs, and poetry about her family.Rayor, Diane and Lardinois, André (2014). Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. pp. 8–9  Some ancient sources say that Sappho wrote epigrams, elegiacs, and iambics (three other types of poetry with different metres to lyric poetry) as well as lyric poetry.  However, none of these survive, and probably Sappho did not write in these styles.Rayor, Diane and Lardinois, André (2014). Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. p. 8  Three epigrams said to be by Sappho survive. These were actually written much later, probably in the Hellenistic period.Campbell, D. A. (ed.) (1982). Greek Lyric 1: Sappho and Alcaeus.  Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts. p. xiii

Ancient texts of Sappho's poems survive from as early as the third century BC, and as late as the seventh century AD.Winkler 1990, p.166; Reynolds 2001, pp.81–82  By the medieval period, Sappho's poetry had been lost,Reynolds 2001, p.81 until in the sixteenth century newly printed editions of ancient authors such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who had quoted Sappho's Ode to Aphrodite, began to be produced.Reynolds 2001, p.84  Since the second half of the nineteenth century, archaeologists have discovered many fragments of ancient copies of Sappho's poetry, and the amount of her work known has almost doubled.

Sappho wrote eight or nine books of poetry,Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios (1999). "Alexandrian Sappho Revisited". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. p. 181 which was probably about 10,000 lines in total, but only one of Sappho's poems (commonly called the "Ode to Aphrodite") survives completely.Rayor, Diane and Lardinois, André (2014). Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. p. 7  She was famous for writing love poetry,Campbell, D. A. (ed.) (1982). Greek Lyric 1: Sappho and Alcaeus.  Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts. p. xii and her poems are about personal emotions.duBois, Page (1995). Sappho Is Burning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 7

 References 

 Other websites 

Sappho : the "Brothers poem" (discov. 2014) (text, transl., audio, recited in Greek by Ioannis Stratakis)

Category:Ancient Greek poets
Category:Bisexual people
Category:LGBT writers
Category:630s BC births
Category:6th-century BC deaths