Sappho: A New Rendering

Sappho

Sappho was an ancient Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. She is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, she 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 not has mostly survived in fragmentary form; only the Ode to Aphrodite is certainly complete. As well as lyric poetry, ancient commentators claimed that Sappho wrote elegiac and iambic poetry. Three epigrams formerly attributed to Sappho have survived, but these are actually Hellenistic imitations of Sappho's style.