Sappho of Lesbos - 630–570 BC - Ancient Greek Lyric Poet - Tenth Muse - Ode to Aphrodite - Aged Alabaster Statue

Item Specifics

Quote: "May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve!"

Condition: New, Handmade in Greece
Height: 16 cm(6.3")
Width: 4 cm(1.5")
Weight: 130g
Material: Alabaster

Sappho of Lesbos (c. 620-570 BCE) was a lyric poet whose work was so popular in ancient Greece, and beyond, that she was honored in statuary and praised by figures such as Solon and Plato. She was widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets and was given names such as the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess". Sappho's school devoted itself to the cult of Aphrodite and Eros, and Sappho earned great prominence as a dedicated teacher and poet. Her name has leant itself to `lesbian' and `Sapphic', both relating to homosexual women, because of her extant poetry which concerns itself with romantic love between women. Very little is known of her life and of the nine volumes of her work which were widely read in antiquity only fragments survive. Contrary to popular opinion on the subject, her works were not destroyed by closed-minded Christians seeking to suppress lesbian love poetry but were lost simply through time and circumstance.