Robinson sets out to rescue Sappho from her reputation and present her as a great lyric poet. He reviews what is known of her life on Lesbos, separates fact from the legend of Phaon and the Leucadian leap, discusses her surviving poems and her image in art, and follows her influence through Greek and Roman, medieval, Italian, French, German and English literature and music.
A learned, enthusiastic survey from the Our Debt to Greece and Rome series. Download the free EPUB.