Sappho of Lesbos: Great Sluts of History
from a fresco in Herculaneum
Love that she’s using a stylus & wax tablets!
Her lyrics were epic, intimate, erotic, and timeless. Even over two thousand years later, even in fragmented form, Sappho’s poetry sings to the heart.
We shall enjoy it
As for him who finds
fault, may silliness
and sorry take him!
(Mary Barnard translation)
She was born about 615 B.C. and died about 550 B.C. Later in her life because of political upheaval, she may have been be exiled to Sicily, where there are records of her statues in some cities, though she may have returned to Lesbos before her death.
Of Course Sappho Was a Lesbian
Legends of Sappho and the island from which she came, Lesbos, gave rise to the term we use today for women who love other women sexually: lesbians.
But back in the day (around 630 B.C.), everybody from the island of Lesbos (culturally belonging to Greece, though as we can see in the map much closer to Turkey) were Lesbians, just as people from London are Londoners, and people from Athens are Athenians.
