Sappho

Sappho was an ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos who lived from around 630 to around 570 BC, known for lyric poetry composed to be sung with musical accompaniment and regarded in antiquity as among the greatest lyric poets, honored with titles such as the Tenth Muse. Most of her poetry survives only in fragmentary form, with the Ode to Aphrodite the sole certainly complete poem, and ancient sources describe a wealthy family background, three brothers, and a daughter traditionally identified as Cleis. Best known in antiquity for love poetry, probably composing around ten thousand lines in total, she also treated themes of family and religion, and later legend held that she died leaping from the Leucadian cliffs out of unrequited love, though this account is not considered historically reliable.