Sappho (c.630–c.570 BCE) was a Greek lyric poet who lived on the island of Lesbos. She was one of the most important lyric poets of the Archaic Period (sixth-century BCE.) Many critics consider her the most celebrated female poet of the classical world and the founder of women’s literature.
Sappho is renowned for her creative brilliance and the unmitigated, passionate, emotional intensity of her homoerotic lyrical poetry. Little is known about her life, and barely a small portion of her large output of work survives, if only in fragments, except for one complete poem—the “Ode to Aphrodite.”
Although Sappho was satirized in ancient Greek comedies as having an insatiable appetite for men, the long-established view is that her sexual preference was for women. She has therefore achieved immortal status as the patron and muse of lesbian lovers.
Beyond poetry, Sappho is renowned as a symbol of love and desire between women.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Sappho
From all the offspring of the earth and heaven love is the most precious.
—Sappho
Topics: Love
What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful.
—Sappho
Topics: Beauty
Power intoxicates men. When a man is intoxicated by alcohol, he can recover, but when intoxicated by power, he seldom recovers.
—Sappho
Topics: Power
Beauty endures only for as long as it can be seen; goodness, beautiful today, will remain so tomorrow.
—Sappho
Topics: Goodness
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