Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet; born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BCE; and it is thought that she died around 570 BCE; though little is known for certain about her life. The bulk of her poetry; which was well-known and greatly admired throughout antiquity; has been lost; but her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments.

Sappho's poetry centers on passion and love for various personages and both genders. The word lesbian derives from the name of the island of her birth; Lesbos; while her name is also the origin of the word sapphic; neither word was applied to female homosexuality until the nineteenth century.