Sappho

, or Sapho , celebrated for her beauty, her poetical talents, and her amorous disposition, was born in the island of Lesbos, about 600 years before Christ. Her father’s name, according to Hero dot us, was Scam an drony mus, or, according to others, Symon, or Semus, or Etarchus, and her mother’s name was Cleis. Her tender pa ions were so violent, that some have represented her attachments to three of her female companions, Telesiphe, At this, and Megara, as criminal, and, on that account, have given her the surname of Tribas . She conceived such a pa ion for Phaon, a youth of Mitylene, that upon his refusal to gratify her desires, she threw herself into the sea from mount Leucas. She had composed nine books in lyric verses, besides epigrams, elegies, . Of all these compositions, nothing now remains but two fragments, whose uncommon sweetne and elegance show how meritoriously the praises of the ancients have been bestowed upon a poete , who for the sublimity of her genius was called the 10th Muse. Her compositions were all extant in the age of Horace. The Lesbians were so sensible of the merit of Sappho, that, after her death, they paid her divine honours, and raised her temples and altars, and stamped their money with her image. The poete has been censured for writing with that licentiousne and freedom which so much disgraced her character as a woman. The Sapphic verse has been called after her name. Ovid , Heroides , poem 15; Tristia , bk. 2 , li. 365 .— Horace , bk. 2 , ode 13.— Hero dot us , bk. 2 , ch. 135 .— Statius , bk. 5 , Sylvæ , poem 3, li. 155 .— Ælian , Varia Hist or i a , bk. 12 , chs. 18 & 29.— Pliny , bk. 22 , ch. 8 .