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Sappho, the lyric poetess, was born c. ... Sappho was the daughter of Skamandronymos and Kleis, and reportedly was orphaned at the age of six. ... There is much controversy surrounding Sappho’s life; during her lifetime she was both loved on the island of Lesbos and exiled to Sicily in her thirties, due to her family’s political activities. ... Sappho was highly regarded by both her contemporaries in the Archaic Period of ancient Greece, as well as world renowned today, by scholars and poets. ...
Sappho was one of the first poets to write in the first person; her style was also unique, so much so that a style of metric verse was coined in her honor, “Sapphic Meter”. Sappho was a figurehead for women of her time, as well as women and poets alike of modern times. ... On the island of Lesbos, the society in which Sappho was raised, a less misogynistic view of women was held. ... Sappho, who was born to an aristocratic family, was afforded a more culturally free existence in her time than that of other Greek women.
Lesbos at this time was a much more sexually free area than mainland Greece; the sexual and romantically geared subjects in Sappho’s poetry can help to deduce this. ...
As a woman, Sappho had the good fortune of being born into a society that allowed her to use her talent as a poetess. ... Powell states that: “a number of Sappho’s surviving poems and fragments may have played a role in the rites and festivals of several goddesses, notably Aphrodite, and Hera.” Thurman notes that Sappho is also said to have been “a teacher of poetry, music, dance, and other cultured rituals to young women of Lesbos, who were preparing to take part in the social rituals and religious festivities of the island.” Although Lesbos was described to be a refined, and non-gynophobic society in Sappho’s time, as Powell reports: “there is also evidence that it was dominance-oriented, and somewhat militaristic, as were many of the city states (especially Athens) at this point.
Approximate Word count = 1715
Approximate Pages = 6.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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