person
Sappho
also: Ψάπφω, Psappho
The author of the corpus: lyric poet of Mytilene on Lesbos (c. 630–570 BC), whose nine Alexandrian books survive only in fragments. She names herself in her own poems in the Aeolic form Psappho.
Reading notes
- Fragments of Book Five §94 Sappho
Ψάπφ᾽ — the poet's own name in her own Aeolic spelling, set in the departing woman's mouth. One of the handful of places Sappho names herself; the vocative makes the parting scene a dialogue with a named, answerable person rather than a soliloquy.
- The Major Poems §1 Sappho
The poet names herself — in her own Aeolic form, Psappho — placing her signature inside the goddess's speech.
- Fragments of Uncertain Book, with the Epigrams and Dubia §133 Sappho
The poet herself, addressed by name — the ancients guessed the speaker was Aphrodite, reproaching her own poet with a question the lost lines never let us hear answered.