Sappho: The Eighth Muse and Lyric Poetry

Ancient Greece: Philosophy, Democracy, and Endless War — Fexingo History · Sep 10, 2026 · 12m · transcript

While we have spent months exploring the marble columns of the Parthenon, the rigid discipline of the hoplite phalanx, and the turbulent politics of the Athenian Assembly, there is another voice echoing from ancient Greece that demands our attention. This episode turns away from the public sphere to focus on Sappho, the renowned poet from the island of Lesbos. Often called the Eighth Muse, Sappho composed over ten thousand lines of lyric poetry in the early sixth century BCE, much of which has been lost to time. We will examine her role as a teacher and leader of a community of young women…