Modern knowledge of Sappho comes both from what can be inferred from her own poetry and from mentions of her in other ancient texts.[3] Her poetry – which, with the exception of a single complete poem, survives only in fragments[4] – is the only contemporary source for her life.[5] The earliest surviving biography of Sappho dates to the late second or early third century AD, approximately eight centuries after her own lifetime; the next is the Suda, a tenth-century Byzantine encyclopedia.[6] Other sources that mention details of her life were written much closer to her own era, beginning in the fifth century BC;[6] one of the earliest is Herodotus' account of the relationship between the Egyptian courtesan Rhodopis and Sappho's brother Charaxos.[7] The information about her life recorded in ancient sources was derived from statements in her own poetry that ancient authors assumed were autobiographical, along with local traditions.[6] Some of the ancient traditions about her, such as those about her sexuality and appearance, may derive from ancient Athenian comedy.[8]
Until the 19th century, ancient biographical accounts of archaic poets' lives were largely accepted as factual. In the 19th century, classicists began to be more sceptical of these traditions, and instead tried to derive biographical information from the poets' own works.[9] In the latter half of the 20th century, scholars became increasingly sceptical of Greek lyric poetry as a source of autobiographical information, questioning whether the first person narrator in the poems was meant to express the experiences and feelings of the poets.[10] Some scholars, such as Mary Lefkowitz, argue that almost nothing can be known about the lives of early Greek poets such as Sappho; most scholars believe that ancient testimonies about poets' lives contain some truth but must be treated with caution.[11]
