domain 33 / 64 · LESBOS · Sappho, in fragments
I THINK I'M IN LESBIANS WITH YOU
the first individual voice of personal feeling in the West, and the island whose very name gave us the words 'sapphic' and 'lesbian'.
21 fragments recovered · the light lifts one at a time · sealed & live
❦ SAPPHO FRAGMENTS · torn papyrus, read one at a time
FRAGMENT · —
hover a fragment · click to enter its sphere
❦ the fragments
every fragment, named & enterablePURPLE PAPER · LESBOS — THE ISLAND THAT TAUGHT · PURPurple Paper · Lesbos — The Island That Taught the Rule to B→THE SAPPHIC TELEGRAPH · SAPThe Sapphic Telegraph→THE DACTYLIC HEXAMETERlesbos · the metre of epic — 6 feet, dactyl or spondee, alwa→THE ALCAIC STANZAlesbos · Alcaeus of Lesbos' four-line shape — 11·11·9·1→THE IAMBIC PENTAMETERlesbos · the pulse of English verse — 5 iambs, da-DUM x5, ho→THE ELISIONlesbos · vowel meets vowel, two syllables become one — writt→THE CAESURAlesbos · the breath inside the line — a word-break within a →THE SCANSIONlesbos · weigh each syllable long or short — long by nature →THE ANCEPSlesbos · the free syllable (x) — long OR short by the poet&#→THE SAPPHIC METRElesbos · Sappho counted lengths, not stresses — a fixed quan→THE LACUNAlesbos · the metre fixes a fragment's rhythm even when →SAP · SAPPHOLESBOS · female · ~630–570 BCE · the Tenth Muse→THE TENTH MUSE · the front doorthe LESBOS hub · a live constellation of every Sappho sphere→THE FRAGMENTS · the lacunaeSappho survives as torn papyrus · drag the erosion · the gap→FRAGMENT 31 · the physiology of desirethe body comes apart in nine symptoms · step the poem · hear→THE MUREX · the coloursnail → sunlight → Tyrian purple = this domain's own ro→THE RECOVERED · she grew in our lifetimethe 2004 & 2014 papyri that added whole poems · a discov→THE ISLAND · Lesbos, where it all stoodone island: Sappho, the lyre, the first biology, an 18-Myr s→SAPPHO'S LIMEN · SLMLESBOS · an adopted child of LIMEN · only her circle's →SOUNDS OF LESBOS · SOLLESBOS · Sappho's modes, plucked live · the lyre→THE SAPPHIC MELODY · TSMLESBOS · the melody as centerpiece · pure · modern beat · li→