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![womenwhokickass:
Sappho: Why she kicks ass
She was a poet and lyricist born on the Greek island Lesbos and she passed away around 570 BC.
While lots of her work has been lost due time, the works being destroyed and ceasing to be scribed, she was considered one of the greatest lyric poets.
At around 604 BC she was exiled to Sicily for a time because of political activities in her family.
Sappho composed her own music and refined the lyric meter, now known as a Sapphic Meter or Saphhic stanza, named after her.
She was one of the first poets to write from the first person, often writing about love and desires often towards other females. Surprisingly, during her time, her poetry wasn’t condemned due to its homoerotic content (although, in later centuries it was).
The word ‘sapphic’ which is synonymous with woman-love, was derived from Saphho, and the term ‘lesbian’ was derived from her homeland, the island of Lesbos.
You can read some of her translated works [here].](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcbjm3gDJm1rpkenpo1_500.jpg)
Sappho: Why she kicks ass
- She was a poet and lyricist born on the Greek island Lesbos and she passed away around 570 BC.
- While lots of her work has been lost due time, the works being destroyed and ceasing to be scribed, she was considered one of the greatest lyric poets.
- At around 604 BC she was exiled to Sicily for a time because of political activities in her family.
- Sappho composed her own music and refined the lyric meter, now known as a Sapphic Meter or Saphhic stanza, named after her.
- She was one of the first poets to write from the first person, often writing about love and desires often towards other females. Surprisingly, during her time, her poetry wasn’t condemned due to its homoerotic content (although, in later centuries it was).
- The word ‘sapphic’ which is synonymous with woman-love, was derived from Saphho, and the term ‘lesbian’ was derived from her homeland, the island of Lesbos.
- You can read some of her translated works [here].
(via ondyne)
Posted on October 27, 2012 via with 937 notes
Source: womenwhokickass
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