Sappho: The "Tenth Muse" and the Mystery of the Lost Lyrics

Join us on this episode of pplpod as we explore the life and legacy of Sappho, the ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Revered in antiquity as the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess," Sappho is famous for her lyric poetry, which was originally composed to be sung while accompanied by music. Although she likely wrote around 10,000 lines of verse, only about 650 lines survive today, mostly in fragments, with the "Ode to Aphrodite" remaining her only certainly complete poem.

We dive into the "Great Sappho Question" regarding her sexuality, discussing how the terms "lesbian" and "sapphic" derive from her home island and her name, despite long-standing scholarly debates over her relationships. The episode highlights her revolutionary style, which adopted the "lyric 'I'" to explore personal identity, desire, and the lives of women, rather than just the epic themes of gods and heroes. We also debunk famous myths, such as the legend that she committed suicide by leaping from the Leucadian cliffs, a story likely invented by comic poets. Finally, we examine how her work disappeared—not through church censorship, but due to the decline of the papyrus scroll and the difficulty later readers had with her provincial Aeolic dialect.