There are few known facts about the Greek poet Sappho, but there has been much speculation in the efforts to account for her life. What is known is that Sappho was one of the great Greek lyrists and one of the few female poets of the ancient Greek world. Sappho was born around 625 b.c. and lived on the island of Lesvos (also spelled Lesbos). Much of what is thought to be known about Sappho has been taken from her poems, most of which exist only in fragments. In looking to the poem fragments for autobiographical information, what is read from her poems is little more than conjecture taken from a few shreds of papyrus. For instance, the fragments suggest that Sappho either committed suicide, jumping off a cliff after being rejected by a lover, or that she lived until an old age and died in...