A Greek female poet of antiquity. Her lyrics contain the perfect harmony of sound which is hard to illustrate in translation.
Sappho was born towards the end of the seventh century B.C. during the Archaic period. Her name is properly Psappho. She lived on the island of Lesbos within the Aegean Islands. She had three brothers named Eriggois, Charaxos and Larichos. Scamandronymus, her father's name, suggests great importance in Greek history. The Scamander is one of Troy's major rivers, where her grandfather fought, and this is the river that her father was named after. It was unknown if she was ever married.
She was known as a singer as well as a poet. She composed several songs to Aphroditeas well as other people. Her poetry and songs told of love and life, many of which reflected on her own personal life and those around her. Her face even appeared on some Mytilene coins, as well as a fifth century BC vase holding a scroll with Greek writing, which suggest that her poems were known in Athens.
Sappho opened a school for girls. Many of the girls came from Ionia. When a girl would come to this school, she would make the sacrifice to be separated from her family and relatives for a considerable amount of time. These girls' common experiences were not required. The school was completely voluntary.
Traditionally girls were trained in household activities that were needed in the archaic household, such as weaving, but Sappho's education was in dance and song. The girls were true musicians. Sappho used song as a way of teaching her students. These songs use first person but are not autobiographical and were performed to audiences of other young women. The songs were used as a way of prayer, the girls were taught about the ways of their favorite goddesses. Sappho also taught her girls about clothing and how to dress, but the core curriculum was music.
Eventually the girls would get married. This was what their fathers had intended for them. This education, which increased the value of the girls as prospective wives, helped the girls' fathers find a groom. The girls were taught how to be a wife and to prepare for marriage. They also learned that one had to be pure and desirable. The girls were to spend their lives bringing their husbands pleasure. In the ideal marriage the husband was more aggressive and the wife submissive. Marriage was what brought Sappho's group together, but marriage was also what moved them apart. Once a girl left Sappho's school she would never return, in turn never be a girl again. Sappho had taught the girls that their experiences of love, enriched by song, would help them recognize beauty in various forms later on.
Three Archaic Poets: Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho/ Anne Pippin Barnett. Cambridge, Mass:Harvard University Press, 1983
Journal of Hellenic Studies Vol. 33: Coinage of The Athenian Empire/ P. Gardner. London, W.C., 1913
Three Classical Poets: Sappho, Catullus, and Juvenal/ Richard Jenkyns. Mass: Harvard University Press, 1982
The Early Greek Poets and Their Times/ Anthony J. Podlecki. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984
Journal of Hellenic Studies Vol. 44: The Stuccoes of the Underground Basilica/ E. Strong and N. Jolliffe. London, W.C., 1924
Journal of Hellenic Studies Vol. 43: The Progress of Greek Epigraphy/ Marcus N. Tod. London, W.C., 1923