The namesake of the word lesbian, Sappho of Lesbos (c. 630–c. 570 BC) was an ancient Greek poet and teacher. Although very few of her love poems have survived into modern times, she was immensely popular in the ancient world and exerted a major influence on later Greek and Roman poets.
Indeed, her reputation was such that centuries after her death, Plato (c. 429–347 BC) called Sappho the “tenth muse”—comparing her to the celebrated nine goddesses of arts and literature in Greek mythology. She was “violet haired, pure, honey-smiling Sappho,” according to another ancient admirer.
More recently, fragments of several of Sappho’s lyric poems have been rediscovered, and she has been reclaimed as one of the earliest writers in Western history on homosexual themes. Several recent translations of Sappho’s work have been published, novels have been written about her life, and her home island has become a magnet for lesbian tourists.
Sappho lived most of her life on Lesbos, an island in the Aegean Sea, although some historical evidence suggests she was briefly exiled to Sicily. She was probably a member of the island’s elite, had at least two brothers, and may have given birth to a daughter named Cleis.
Filled with love, eroticism, jealousy, and longing, Sappho’s poems were mostly directed at women, though several were addressed to men. In one characteristically vivid poem, she describes her jealous reaction upon seeing a woman she desires with a man: “ … cold sweat holds me and shaking / grips me all, greener than grass.”
After her death, Sappho’s poetry was organized into nine books and read by Ovid (43 BC–c. AD 17), Catullus (c. 84–c. 54 BC), and other classic poets. Much of it was destroyed during the Middle Ages, when many Greek classics were lost; only one of her poems, “Hymn to Aphrodite,” still exists in complete form.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term lesbian entered usage as a synonym for homosexual woman in the nineteenth century. The use of gay as a synonym for homosexual man may have originated as early as the nineteenth century as well.
- In total, only about 1,000 lines of Sappho’s poetry still survive, much of it on tiny scraps of papyrus.
- In 2008, three residents of Lesbos asked a court in Greece to prevent gay and lesbian groups from using the word lesbian, contending that it unfairly stereotyped the island’s inhabitants. The suit was dismissed.
