Sapfo

Somewhere between 617 and 612 BC, Sappho was born in Eresos, Lesbos. We first encounter her as a young poet in the aristocratic circles of the island, and shortly thereafter, she is exiled for political reasons, initially to Pyrrha in Lesbos and then to Sicily. Around 585 BC, she returns to her island and establishes her own circle of Muses, a type of Conservatory, a center for advanced studies where unmarried daughters of the upper class developed skills in music, poetry, and dance. Through the poems of her nine books, we learn that she had three brothers, a daughter, and we get to know each of her students by name, as well as the relationship between Lesbos and Lydia in nearby Asia. Between 570 and 560 BC, Sappho dies—according to legend, from love—at an advanced age for her time.