Sappho

c. 625 B.C.E.

Often called the "tenth muse", Sappho is the greatest lyrical 
poet of Western Civilization.  She was a prolific writer, and
her work was collected into nine books around the third century B.C.E.
Unfortunately, her work was deemed obscene by the Church, and most of
it was burned.  Only a few hundred lines of her poetry remain.
In her lifetime, she invented a 21-string lyre which she used to
accompany herself when she sang her poems. She also founded a "thiasos",
a society of women bound by religious and secular oaths.  Her Sapphic 
stanza which consists of three long lines and one short one was greatly
emulated by later poets such as Horace and Catullus.  Sappho was born 
on the Greek island of Lesbos and married Cercylas. She had one daughter.