The Lesbian Lyre: Reclaiming Sappho for the 21st Century

Lesbian, because Sappho (7th and 6th centuries BC) lived and composed on the Greek island of Lesbos, off the northern coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey).

Lesbian designating sexual attraction emerged only in the 19th century.

Lyre, because Sappho composed and sung her poetry to the lyre (hence, lyric poetry).

Sappho, the earliest female poet in the Western literary tradition and the most famous in her own time and since.

Reclaiming, because the past fifty years and more have seen Sappho subject to egregious mistranslation and interpretation—in the first case by so-called poet-translators ignorant of Greek; in the second, by feminist scholars with a political agenda.

For the 21st Century, because the output of works on Sappho continues apace.