by Zoie C.
Date: 630-580 BCE
Birthplace: Lesbos, Greece
Sappho is the original Lesbian poet. She was a poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who wrote of female lovers in the perspective of a man. While there is some evidence that suggests that she was married and had a child, she also invested her time in an academy for unmarried women and devoted herself to the cult of Aphrodite and Eros, the god and goddess of love.
Her poetry gained so much recognition in antiquity that Plato referred to her as ‘the tenth muse”. She was even compared to Homer who was known as “the Poet” and was sometimes known as “the Poetess”. She had her own style of poetry that had its own correlating meter that was eventually referred to as “Sapphic” meter. Future poets and comedians would over dramatize her life and portray her as overtly promiscuous. They even went as far as to portraying her as lesbian. While we have no true evidence as to whether she sexually preferred companions of the same sex or not, we do know that her poetry spoke directly to other individuals instead of addressing the gods which was the norm for that time period and her poems about love spoke to both men and women.
She was highly praised by scholars and politicians of her time, she was placed on coins and had statues made in her likeness. Despite all she did for poetry and the praise she was given, she was highly criticized and the things she spoke on were twisted for the agenda of the author. Her works is still being studied today and she adds a layer to women’s history. She shows us that not only have women been strong through out history but that we can also be open in expressing our sexuality and intelligence.
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