Search Results: Sappho of Lesbos

Sappho of Lesbos (l. c. 620-570 BCE) was a lyric poet whose work was so popular in ancient Greece that she was honored in statuary, coinage, and pottery centuries after her death. Little remains of her work, and these fragments suggest she...

Lesbos, a Greek island located in the eastern Aegean, had several prosperous city-states which thrived from the Bronze Age to the Byzantine era. Switching many times between independence, Persian and Greek control, Lesbos was often a victim...

History is recorded by individual human beings with their own beliefs and interests guiding what they choose to record, and, as such, many events and details may be omitted from the account of a certain event or the story of a great person’s...

Women in the ancient Greek world had few rights in comparison to male citizens. Unable to vote, own land, or inherit, a woman's place was in the home and her purpose in life was the rearing of children. That is a general description and when...

Marble head of the poetess Sappho, from Smyrna (Izmir, Turkey). Roman copy of a portrait type belonging to the Hellenistic period. (Istanbul Archaeology Museum)

Sappho and Alcaeus, oil on panel by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1881. The painting illustrates a passage by the ancient Greek poet Hermesianax (active c. 330 BCE) depicting a scene on the island of Lesbos (Mytilene) during the late 7th century...

In many cultures of antiquity women had to battle the disadvantages of rules and conventions made for men and by men who dominated government, public life, and society. Nevertheless, many ancient religions had powerful female goddesses like...

Greek literature has influenced not only its Roman neighbors to the west but also countless generations across the European continent. Greek writers are responsible for the introduction of such genres as poetry, tragedy, comedy, and western...

Sappho of Lesbos was considered one of the greatest poets of her time. Ancient scholars included her among the illustrious Nine Lyric Poets - a list of the most important and influential poets of the age who mirrored the Nine Muses. Sappho...

The lyre was a stringed musical instrument played by the ancient Greeks. It was probably the most important and well-known instrument in the Greek world. The lyre was closely related to the other stringed instruments: the chelys which was...