Sappho 
The Poems of Sappho 

The Poems of Sappho Sappho – Sappho is widely recognized as one of the great poets of world literature, an author whose works have caused her readers to repeat in many different forms Strabo’s amazed epithet when he wrote that she could only be called ‘a marvel.’The reception of Sappho’s poetry even through the twentieth century offers a case study of the conflicts induced by the sexual preferences she seemingly alludes to in her verse.Little is known with certainty about the life of Sappho, or Psappha in her native Aeolic dialect. She was born probably about 620 B.C. to an aristocratic family on the island of Lesbos during a great cultural flowering in the area.In antiquity Sappho was regularly counted among the greatest of poets and was often referred to as ‘the Poetess, ‘ just as Homer was called ‘the Poet.Praised for their simplicity and sincerity, the poems of Sappho evoke powerful and memorable images through her focus on emotion and individualism that foreshadows modern poetry.

About the author

Sappho ( or ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet, born on the island of Lesbos. In history and poetry texts, she is sometimes associated with the city of Mytilene on Lesbos; she was also said to have been born in Eresos, another city on Lesbos. Her birth was sometime between 630 BC and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired throughout antiquity, has been lost, but her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments.