Sappho

Ancient Greek poet from Lesbos (c. 630-c. 570 BC)

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Momentum1.5
Writers rank#99
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Lived -650–-570, aged 80

WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
112 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
-650–-570
Aged 80

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

An ancient Greek poet whose fragments—mostly lost, mostly broken—shaped the language itself: "sapphic" and "lesbian" both trace back to her and the island where she wrote love poems so precise they were called divine.

Biography

About

Sappho came from wealth on Lesbos around 630 BC and wrote lyric poetry meant to be sung with music. Ancient readers named her the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess," and she likely composed some 10,000 lines—nearly all of it now gone. Only the Ode to Aphrodite survives intact; the rest exists in fragments, including the Brothers Poem, discovered in 2014, which names two of her three brothers, Charaxos and Larichos. She had a daughter, referenced in two fragments, and was exiled to Sicily around 600 BC. Her work—personal, immediate, clear—centered on love, family, and religion, and was esteemed by…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Sappho

Sappho

saidundated

Immortal Aphrodite of the shimmering throne, daughter of Zeus, weaver of wiles, I pray thee crush not my spirit with anguish and distress, O Queen.

— Fr. 1 Voigt (tr. E. M. Cox, 1924)

Sappho

saidundated

Come hither from Crete to this holy temple, where is your graceful grove of apple-trees, and altars smoking with frankincense.

— Fr. 2 Voigt (tr. C. M. Bowra, 1961)

Sappho

saidundated

Some say cavalry and others claiminfantry or a fleet of long oarsis the supreme sight on the black earth. I say it isthe one you love. And easily proved.

— Fr. 16 Voigt (tr. Willis Barnstone, 1965)

Sappho

saidundated