Sappho
Ancient island poet
Sappho was a Greek poet from the island of Lesbos, active around 600 BCE, celebrated for lyric verse expressing intense emotion and desire—often for women.
Her name and home island gave rise to *sapphic* and *lesbian* as terms for female homosexuality.
Only fragments of her poetry survive, but her influence on Western literature is immense: the tenth Muse, Plato reportedly called her.
Song's text
- fragmentIncomplete portion of whole
- verseMetered poetic passage
- LesbosGreek Aegean island
- ancientVery old indeed
Greek · ode · stanza · papyrus · Alexandrian · Plato · monody · meter
Woman desiring women
- desireIntense wanting
- iconPictorial screen symbol
- prideSatisfaction from one's achievements
- queerUnusual or non-normative
homoeroticism · Daughters of Bilitis · reclamation · visibility · community · identity · love · devotion
Greek goddess of love
- erosLife and love instinct
- longingIntense, persistent desire
- desireIntense wanting
- passionIntense emotional drive
heartache · beloved · wedding song · beauty · jealousy · bittersweet · yearning · devotion
Vertical rock wall
- suicideVoluntary death by oneself
- OvidAncient Roman poet
- legendUnverified traditional tale
- ferrymanOne who shuttles across water
apotheosis · lyre · muses · Apollo · unrequited · heterosexual · erasure · narrative
Ancient Roman poet
- fragmentIncomplete portion of whole
- translationConverting between languages
- adaptationFitting to new conditions
- receptionAct of receiving guests
feminist · canon · classical · literary · inspiration · legacy · rediscovery · scholarship
lyric
Song's text
ancient · Greek · ode · stanza · papyrus · Alexandrian · Plato · monody · meter · anthology
lesbian
Woman desiring women
queer · homoeroticism · Daughters of Bilitis · reclamation · visibility · community · identity · love · devotion · passion
Aphrodite
Greek goddess of love
passion · heartache · beloved · wedding song · beauty · jealousy · bittersweet · yearning · devotion · tenderness
cliff
Vertical rock wall
ferryman · apotheosis · lyre · muses · Apollo · unrequited · heterosexual · erasure · narrative · invention
Ovid
Ancient Roman poet
- fragmentIncomplete portion of whole
- translationConverting between languages
- adaptationFitting to new conditions
reception · feminist · canon · classical · literary · inspiration · legacy · rediscovery · scholarship · imitation
- Ancient GreeksSocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Homer, Pericles
- Ancient PoetsHomer, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Bacchylides
- AuthorsShakespeare, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- historical womenCleopatra, Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, Marie Curie
- Classic AuthorsShakespeare, Dante, Homer, Chaucer, Milton
- classicsHomer, Iliad, the Iliad, Odyssey, the Odyssey
- sapphic loveRomantic desire between women
- sapphic romanceLove stories between women