a famous poetess of antiquity, who for her excellence in her art has been called the Tenth Muse, was born at Mitylene, in the isle of Lesbos, about 610 years before Christ. She was contemporary with Stesichorus and Alcaeus; which last was her country- man, and some think her suitor. A verse of this poet, in which he intimates to her his passion, is preserved in Aristotle, Rhet. lib. i. cap. 9. together with the fair damsel's answer.

ALC. I fain to Sappho would a wish impart, But fear locks up the secret in my heart. SAP. Thy downcast look, reflect, and timid air, Too plain the nature of thy will declare. If lawless, wild, inordinate desire, Did not with thoughts impure thy bosom fire, Thy tongue and eyes, by innocence made bold, Ere now the secret of thy soul had told,

M. le Fevre observes, that Sappho was not in her usual good humour when she gave so cold an answer to a request, for which, at another time, perhaps she would not have waited.—It has been thought, too, that Anacreon was one of her lovers, and his editor Barnes has taken some pains to prove it: but chronology will not admit this; since, upon inquiry, it will be found that Sappho was probably dead before Anacreon was born. Of the numerous poems this lady wrote, there is nothing remaining but some small fragments, which the ancient scholiasts have cited; a hymn to Venus, pre- served by Dionysius of Halicarnassus; and an ode to one of her mistresses*: which last piece confirms a tra- dition delivered down from antiquity, that her amorous passion extended even to persons of her own sex, and that she was willing to have her mistresses as well as her gallants.

Ovid introduces her making a sacrifice to Phaon, one of her male paramours: from which we learn, that Sappho's love for her own sex did not keep her from loving ours. She fell desperately in love with Phaon, and did all she could to win him; but in vain: upon which she threw herself headlong from a rock, and died.

It is said that Sappho could not forbear following Phaon into Sicily, whither he retired that he might not see her; and that during her stay in that island she probably composed the hymn to Venus, still extant, in which she begs so ardently the affiance of that goddess. Her prayers, however, proved ineffectual: Phaon was cruel to the last degree. The unfortunate Sappho was forced to take the dreadful leap; she went to the promontory Leucas, and threw herself into the sea. The cruelty of Phaon will not surprise us so much, if we reflect, that she was a widow (for she had been married to a rich man in the isle of Andros, by whom she had a daughter called Cleis); that she had never been handsome; that she had observed no measure in her passion to both sexes; and that Phaon had long known all her charms. She was, however, a very great wit, and for that alone deserves to be remembered. The Mitylenians held her merit in such high esteem, that they paid her sovereign honours after her death, and stamped their money with her image. The Romans afterwards erected a noble statue of porphyry to her; and in short, ancients as well as moderns have done honour to her memory. Voilus says, that none of the Greek poets excelled Sappho for sweetness of verse; and that she made Archilocheus the model of her style, but at the same time took care to soften the severity of his expression. It must be grant- ed, says Rapin, from what is left us of Sappho, that Longinus had great reason to extol the admirable genius of this woman; for there is in what remains of her something delicate, harmonious, and impassioned to the last degree.