News at Eleven: "Some people think that she had a religious sect

where she would train aristocratic young women to sing religious hymns or songs to Aphrodite; other people think it was kind of like a finishing school; other people think she just had a load of hot chicks with her who fancied having a sing and doing other things together."

Then there are the stories that she was married, had a daughter, was exiled to Sicily for a while because her family was part of the aristocratic infighting. We have the poet Ovid to thank for the story that she killed herself over the unrequited love of a man, Phaon. "It's interesting, the desire to make her straight," says [Jane Montgomery] Griffiths.

from Cherrie: Fragments of Sappho

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