The glyph of Sappho stands at the centre. The branches around it show the subjects of the page in four colours: people in gold, archetypes in blue, traditions in green and narratives in red. Touch a branch and its explanation opens below the map.
SapphoA poet, not a goddess
Sappho lived at Mytilene on the island of Lesbos between roughly 630 and 570 BC. She wrote in the Aeolic dialect for singing to the lyre. Most of what is said about her is gathered from her own lines and from much later sources.
Lesbos and MytileneThe island and the city
Lesbos is an Aegean island close to the coast of Asia Minor and in Sappho's day a prosperous city state. The poet was exiled to Sicily for a time during political unrest. Her contemporary Alcaeus came from the same city.
The prayer to AphroditeThe one complete poem
The poem known as fragment 1 is the only poem of Sappho that survives from beginning to end. The poet calls the goddess, Aphrodite comes down in a chariot drawn by sparrows and asks her who has wronged her this time. The poem keeps the shape of a prayer and turns it into a personal voice. Aphrodite on the Venus page →
Fragment 31A description of the body
The poem describes what happens on seeing the beloved talking to someone else: the tongue breaks, a thin fire runs under the skin, the ears hum. The Latin poet Catullus adapted the same poem into his own language. It is the most imitated ancient text on the effect of love in the body.
Fragment 16What is the finest thing
The poem says that some call horsemen the finest sight and others ships, and then gives its own measure: the finest thing is whatever one loves. It supports the judgment with the example of Helen. The text closes a debate about value with a personal choice.
Nine booksThe Alexandrian edition
In the edition of the library of Alexandria the poems of Sappho were divided into nine books by metre. All of those books are lost. What we have today comes from quotations in other authors and from papyrus fragments found in Egypt.
Papyrus findsOxyrhynchus and after
The rubbish dump papyri found at Oxyrhynchus early in the twentieth century greatly increased the text of Sappho. A poem on old age appeared in 2004 and a poem about her brothers in 2014. The provenance of the second find is disputed, and that dispute shadows its use.
The Sapphic stanzaA metre that carries her name
The Sapphic stanza is a pattern of three long lines and one short. Horace carried it into Latin and it was used in European poetry for centuries. The name of the metre comes straight from the poet.
The tenth MuseA line attributed to Plato
An epigram in the Greek Anthology attributed to Plato says that a tenth has been added to the nine Muses and that she is Sappho of Lesbos. The attribution is not secure. Even so the line shows the standing the poet held in antiquity.
The legend of PhaonNot historical
The story that Sappho fell in love with the ferryman Phaon and leapt from the cliffs of Leucas comes from late Attic comedy. It spread when Ovid turned it into a verse letter. It has no historical basis and should not be confused with the life of the poet.
Sapphic and lesbianWords from a name
The name of the poet and of her island came to be used in the nineteenth century for love between women. That usage is a modern classification. Ancient texts have no term in that sense.
The archetype of lossReading from fragments
To read Sappho is to read an incomplete text. Most lines come from the middle of a quotation or from a torn papyrus. The gaps are therefore as much part of the reading as the voice of the poet.
Sappho in modern astrologyTwentieth century
Those who use Sappho connect it with poetic expression, art and the bond between women. Its literature is thin. These readings have no link to the classical system of dignities and cannot be added to it.