Person

Sappho

c. 630–c. 570 BCE · 6th century BCE

Sappho was a Greek lyric poet of Lesbos, active in Mytilene around 600 BCE. Her poems, mostly songs about love and longing addressed to women and composed for a circle of young women, were collected in nine books in antiquity but survive mainly in fragments. Ancient writers called her the tenth Muse, and the Sapphic stanza is named after her.

Sappho
Image: Sappho Painter · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 profile

Ancient GreekGrammar, Literature

Mentioned in 2 state histories

MytileneLeucas

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Sappho. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sappho
MLA
“Sappho.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sappho. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Sappho.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sappho.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Sappho’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sappho (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻