Sappho

Sappho was an archaic Greek lyric poet associated with the island of Lesbos. Her surviving fragments address desire, memory, ritual, beauty and relationships among women, and became foundational to later lyric traditions.

Sappho was born in Lesbos and died in Lefkada. Ancient readers grouped Sappho’s poetry into multiple books, but only fragments and one substantially complete poem survive; the intensity of her first-person lyric voice ensured an influence far beyond archaic Lesbos.

In Sappho’s Stung with Love, This selection of Sappho’s poetry presents lyric fragments concerned with desire, memory, song, the gods, women’s voices and the intense physical experience of love.