Sappho
(630 B.C.–570 B.C.)

Although lyric poet Sappho of Lesbos wrote nearly 500 poems, no collections of her works survived the Medieval period. Sappho had been admired by other great poets of her time, such as Plato. She had even been parodied on Greek stage, but the plays were lost and ugly legends about Sappho sprang from them. Initially they caused disapproval and then hatred of the poet and her works. All the legends have been discredited, but not before the Bishop of Constantinople ordered all copies of her works burned during the Middle Ages.

The works of Sappho that remain address various girls of Lesbos, who were probably students or apprentices who studied poetry and the lyre with her.

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