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Sappho [-615--550] GRC
Ranked #79 in the top 380 poets
Votes 80%: 608 up, 154 down

Overwhelming power of love.

Only a handful of details are known about the life of Sappho. She was born around 615 B.C. to an aristocratic family on the Greek island of Lesbos. Evidence suggests that she had several brothers, married a wealthy man named Cercylas, and had a daughter named Cleis. She spent most of her adult life in the city of Mytilene on Lesbos where she ran an academy for unmarried young women. Sappho`s school devoted itself to the cult of Aphrodite and Eros, and Sappho earned great prominence as a dedicated teacher and poet. A legend from Ovid suggests that she threw herself from a cliff when her heart was broken by Phaon, a young sailor, and died at an early age. Other historians pThe history of her poems is as speculative as that of her biography. She was known in antiquity as a great poet: Plato called her "the tenth Muse" and her likeness appeared on coins. It is unclear whether she invented or simply refined the meter of her day, but today it is known as "Sapphic" meter. Her poems were first collected into nine volumes around the third century B.C., but her work was lost almost entirely for many years. Merely one twenty-eight-line poem of hers has survived intact, and she was known principally through quotations found in the works of other authors until the nineteenth century. In 1898 scholars unearthed papyri that contained fragments of her poems. In 1914 in Egypt, archeologists discovered papier-mâché coffins made from scraps of paper that contained more verse fragments attributed to Sappho.

Three centuries after her death the writers of the New Comedy parodied Sappho as both overly promiscuous and lesbian. This characterization held fast, so much so that the very term "lesbian" is derived from the name of her home island. Her reputation for licentiousness would cause Pope Gregory to burn her work in 1073. Because social norms in ancient Greece differed from those of today and because so little is actually known of her life, it is difficult to unequivocally answer such claims. Her poems about Eros, however, speak with equal force to men as well as to women.

Sappho is not only one of the few women poets we know of from antiquity, but also is one of the greatest lyric poets from any age. Most of her poems were meant to be sung by one person to the accompaniment of the lyre (hence the name, "lyric" poetry). Rather than addressing the gods or recounting epic narratives such as those of Homer, Sappho`s verses speak from one individual to another. They speak simply and directly to the "bittersweet" difficulties of love. Many critics and readers alike have responded to the personal tone and urgency of her verses, and an abundance of translations of her fragments are available today.

Homoerotism

YearsCountryPoetInteraction
-800--700
GRC
Homer
→ influenced Sappho
1758-1800
ENG
Mary Darby Robinson
→ resembled Sappho
1837-1909
ENG
Algernon Charles Swinburne
← influenced by Sappho


WorkLangRating
He is more than a hero
eng
21
Blame Aphrodite
eng
15
Although they are
eng
11
Of course I love you
eng
11
Hymn To Aphrodite
eng
9
Before They Were Mothers
eng
8
With his venom
eng
8
Awed by her splendor
eng
6
The Moon
eng
6
And their feet move
eng
5
Cleis
eng
5
Ode To A Loved One
eng
5
To One who Loved not Poetry
eng
5
Anactoria
eng
4
Yes, Atthis, you may be sure
eng
4
I took my lyre and said
eng
3
To Evening
eng
3
Without warning
eng
3
You know the place: then
eng
3
You may forget but
eng
3
In the spring twilight
eng
2
Like the gods. . .
eng
2
Sleep, darling
eng
2
Tell everyone
eng
2
Tonight I`ve watched
eng
2
We know this much
eng
2
Words
eng
2
Cyprian, in my dream
eng
1
Drapple-thor
eng
1
I have no complaint
eng
1
It is the Muses
eng
1
It was you, Atthis, who said
eng
1
It`s no use
eng
1
Prayer to Our Lady of Paphos
eng
1
Song Of The Rose
eng
1
Standing by my bed
eng
1
We put the urn aboard ship
eng
1
We shall enjoy it
eng
1
A Hymn To Venus
eng
0
A Lament For Adonis
eng
0
An Epithalamium
eng
0
Claïs
eng
0
Dica
eng
0
Evening
eng
0
Grace
eng
0
Hesperus The Bringer
eng
0
In Adoration
eng
0
Leto and Niobe
eng
0
Like The Sweet Apple
eng
0
Loneliness
eng
0
Love
eng
0
Maidens Dancing In Moonlight
eng
0
Moonlight
eng
0
Mother, I Cannot Mind My Wheel
eng
0
Must I remind you, Cleis,
eng
0
My Garden
eng
0
No Word
eng
0
Ode To Anactoria
eng
0
On The Tomb Of A Priestess Of Artemis
eng
0
One Girl
eng
0
Orchard Song
eng
0
Sappho To Her Girlfriends
eng
0
Sounds of grief
eng
0
The Arbor
eng
0
The Death Of Adonis
eng
0
The Dust Of Timas
eng
0
The Fisherman`s Tomb
eng
0
The Silver Moon
eng
0
The Torments Of Love
eng
0
Thy Form Is Lovely
eng
0
To A Bride
eng
0
To A Girl In A Garden
eng
0
To A Rich Vulgarian
eng
0
To A Youth Who Wooed A Woman Older Than Himself
eng
0
To Anactoria, Who Has Forsaken A Once-Loved Girlfriend Of Sappho
eng
0
To any army wife
eng
0
To Aphrodite
eng
0
To Atthis The Inconstant
eng
0
To One False In Love
eng
0
Wedding Song
eng
0
Yea, Thou Shalt Die
eng
0
Youth And Age
eng
0

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