Sappho was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who lived during the late 7th and early 6th centuries BCE. She was a contemporary of the poet Alcaeus and a member of the aristocracy during a period of political change on Lesbos. Ancient sources indicate she spent time in exile in Sicily in her youth before returning home. She is famously associated with a female community, which modern scholars often interpret as a thiasos—a religious or educational group where young women received instruction in poetry, music, and ritual in preparation for marriage. Details about her personal life, such as having a daughter named Cleis, come from her poetry and later biographical traditions, which are not always reliable.

Her poetry was collected into at least nine books in antiquity, organized by meter. Very little of her extensive work survives intact; most exists as fragments preserved by later writers or on pieces of ancient papyrus. Her surviving pieces include hymns to the goddess Aphrodite, personal poems expressing love and desire, and songs composed for weddings. She perfected a metrical form known as the Sapphic stanza.

Sappho is celebrated as one of the nine canonical lyric poets of ancient Greece and was known in antiquity as "the Poetess." Her historical importance lies in her intense, first-person focus on personal emotions and her sophisticated use of imagery, which set a precedent for later lyric poetry. According to modern scholars, her work provides a crucial window into the female social and ritual world of archaic Greece. Her fragmentary legacy continues to make her a central figure in discussions about gender, sexuality, and the performance of poetry in the ancient world.