Sappho was an ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos known for her lyric poetry, which was written to be sung to musical accompaniment. Sappho was widely regarded in her time as one of the greatest lyric poets, earning monikers such as the "The Poetess” and the "Tenth Muse".
Most of Sappho's poetry had been lost over the centuries, and as a result, people had largely forgotten about or lost interest in her. She was "rediscovered" during the Renaissance and her poetry has continued to influence poets ever since.
The revival of her work went hand in hand with a popular fascination with her sexuality. Because she wrote love poems to women, Sappho and her island of Lesbos gave us the words sapphic and lesbian. The fragments of her work that have survived, however, reveal that she wrote love poems to both women and men.