A Brief Portrait
 Her BackgroundOn the island of Lesbos outside the Asian coast, probably in the city of Mytilene some time between 630 and 612 B.C, a woman named Sappho was born. It is said she was small and dark but of no great beauty. Her mental gifts were a greater attraction. She came from a noble family, had two or three brothers, married a wealthy merchant named Kerhylas of Andros and had a daughter named Cleis. Nothing certain is known about the marriage, some says she was never married, others that she was and even that the husband died young and left her with a considerable wealth. Several years of her life was spent in exile at Sicily due to political conflict among the noble families on Lesbos, which in these days was something of a cultural center. By that time she was already an accepted poetess and the inhabitants at Sicily erected a statue of her, it is said to have been made by a then reknown Silanion. She was to become the only woman in ancient times that would be remembered for her poems. Later she was referred to as The Tenth Muse" by Platon and she was to be compared to Socrates and referred to as "The Poetess". In her own day she was highly praised and her image was even seen on the coins of the island. At her death the citizens even paid homage to her as to a royal person.
FragmentsNot much of her works remains to us today, only one poem exists in its entirety. In the late 19th century manuscripts were found in the Nile valley, some of them could be dated to the 8th century A.D. and were later proven to be the works of Sappho. Further excavations in ancient Egyptian refuse heaps unearthed strips of papyrii which had been used to sweep mummies in. On some of these the poetry of Sappho was found. The work of piecing together these remains still goes on. The PoetessHistorians have fought among themselves of how to interprete the material. Her poetry never reflects political issues, she is dedicated to quite another aspect of life; she writes poems and songs intended for marriages and celebrations and also to be used at informal parties where both men and women partook. She wrote nine books of odes, epithalamia,or wedding songs, elegies, and hymns. The remains of her words exist as short fragments, and they are still being found in papyrii. Her words are partial to love and eroticism as opposed to war and strife: More lovely than anything existing on the blackened earth others ships of war, but I am partial to that which is loved. Each and all can see it simply: Helen herself, more beautiful by far than all, fled the greatest of heroes, Deserted him she did and forgot daughter and parents too when soon she fared to Troy by sea: so deeply was she changed by Cypris. ----- ----- Suddenly remembering Anaktoria, though already she is far. Her gentle steps and brilliant radiance form and face surrounding I preferred to Lydian infantry and dully gleaming wagons" In Sappho´s days Homer was the all overshadowing poet, making homage to war and bravery. Despite this, many later Greek poets were influenced by her. She is attentive to the feminine side of life, that of love, beauty and peaceful living and so she can be posed as complementary to Homerian poetry and in fact be read as the feminine persepective of the culture at hand. She, and possibly all the women of her time, are well aware of these two worlds, the world of men and the world of women, while the men in her day and time seem to be only aware of their own values of bravery and conquest. 
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(Image: bust from Herculaneum, presumably a portrait of Sappho) "Some regards cavalry and footmen" - anonymous "Please" - from "The Love Songs of Sappho", translated by Paul Roche (New York: Penguin Books, 1966, 1991)
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