The Love Songs of Sappho

Called the ＂Tenth Muse＂ by the ancients, Greece’s greatest female lyric poet Sappho (ca. 610-580 b.c.e.) spent the majority of her life on the famed island of Lesbos. Passionate and breathtaking, Sappho’s poems survive only in fragments following religious conspiracies to silence her. Sappho penned immortal verse on the intense power of the female libido; on the themes of romance, love, yearning, heartbreak, and personal relationships with women. This work retains the standard numerical order of the fragments and has been arranged in six sections. Distinguished poet and lecturer Paul Roche’s translation of The Love Songs of Sappho is enhanced with his brilliant essay, ＂Portrait of Sappho,＂ as well as a lucid historical introduction by celebrated feminist and classicist Page duBois.

Sappho (ca. 610-580 BCE) was an ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos, who was known for her lyric poetry (i.e., poetry intended to be sung and accompanied by a lyre). Unfortunately, most of her verses are now lost, and what is extant has survived only in fragmentary form, except for one complete poem - the ＂Ode to Aphrodite.＂ Little is known of Sappho’s life. It is thought that she was from a wealthy family living in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Ancient sources say that she had three brothers; the names of two of them are mentioned in the ＂Brothers Poem＂ discovered in 2014. Sappho was a prolific poet, probably composing around 10,000 lines. Her work was renowned in the ancient world, and in later ages she became well known as a symbol of love and desire between women.