Sappho

Fact-check note: Even Sappho’s dates are scholarly estimates, and very little of her biography is secure. Her poems were composed for performance and include desire directed toward women. The statement that “later Christians” treated her work with suspicion implies a cause for its loss that historians cannot establish; changing literary tastes, manuscript transmission, and the fragility of ancient media are better-supported explanations. “Someone, I tell you, will remember us” is a recognizable translation of fragment 147; other dialogue is interpretive. Classical overview · Modern discussion of the uncertain dates