Sappho

(620?-565? BCE) The incomparable seventh century BCE Greek poetess from the island of Lesbos.

Sappho has the distinction of being one of the most quoted poets of antiquity; her imagery and passion spanned cultures and classes; noted as a lyre player and singer, she earned her place in history with no conscious effort to become immortal; she sang of love and the simple elegance of grace and beauty.

Her work is mostly in fragments but enough survives to give us a glimpse of the commonality that unites human hearts regardless of the age in which we live.

Many “serious” scholars have presented translations of Sappho which are complete fabrications, that is to say, they are not accurate in the extreme; as an example: suppose that the works of Shakespeare are lost and that 2,700 years from now someone finds the phrase “Alas poor Yorik, I knew him well... ” and proceeds to write the complete soliloquy from Hamlet but instead of saying that it’s their “interpretation” of how it might have been, they state that it was actually written by Shakespeare; this is how Sappho has been “translated” by many well meaning writers.

For the complete collection of Sappho’s extant poems I suggest the book “7 Greeks” by Guy Davenport (ISBN 0811212882); just reading the introduction of this excellent book will convince you that Mr. Davenport is as much a poet as he is a scholar; his description of Sappho’s life and work is moving and compelling; before you read anything else about Sappho, you should read Mr. Davenport’s book; this book can be found at your library in section 881 or you can order it through the Book Shop on this site which is linked to Amazon.com.