Sappho (Attic Greek , Aeolic GreekPsappho ) was a Greek lyric poet, born on the island of Lesbos.

Sexuality and community

A painting of Sappho by eroticist douard-Henri Avril depicting lesbian sexual practices in an ahistorical
generalized Classical context
Sappho's poetry centers on passion and love for various people and both sexes. The word lesbian
derives from the name of the island of her birth, Lesbos, while her name is also the origin of the word
sapphic; neither word was applied to female homosexuality until the 19th century. The narrators of
many of her poems speak of infatuations and love (sometimes requited, sometimes not) for various
females, but descriptions of physical acts between women are few and subject to debate. Whether
these poems are meant to be autobiographical is not known, although elements of other parts of
Sappho's life do make appearances in her work, and it would be compatible with her style to have these
intimate encounters expressed poetically, as well. Her homoerotica should be placed in the context of
the 7th century (BC). "Lesbian" was first used in the modern sense in 1890, and the early sources which
describe her reputation for "physical homoerotic involvement" still "postdate her lifetime by at least 300
years", by which point such conduct was considered "disgraceful for a female."
The poems of Alcaeus and later Pindar record similar romantic bonds between the members of a given
circle

Sappho and Alcaeus by Lawrence Alma-Tadema.On view at The Walters Art Museum.
Sappho's contemporary Alcaeus described her thus: "Violet-haired, pure, honey-smiling Sappho"
( , fr. 384). The 3rd-century philosopher Maximus of Tyre wrote that
Sappho was "small and dark" and that her relationships to her female friends were similar to those of
Socrates:
What else could one call the love of the Lesbian woman than the Socratic art of love? For they seem to
me to have practised love after their own fashion, she the love of women, he of boys. For they said they
loved many, and were captivated by all things beautiful. What Alcibiades and Charmides and Phaedrus
were to him, Gyrinna and Atthis and Anactoria were to her