Sapphō

I. a celebrated poetess, born at Mytilene, in the island of Lesbos, who, on account of her hopeless love for Phaon, threw herself from the Leucadian rock into the sea. Under her name Ovid composed the fifteenth epistle of his Heroides, Sappho Phaoni; nom. Sapphō, Hor. Ep. 1, 19, 28; Stat. S. 5, 3, 155; Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 57, § 125; gen. Sapphūs, Ov. H. 15, 3; acc. Sapphō, Hor. C. 2, 13, 25; abl. Sappho, Plin. 22, 8, 9, § 20.—Hence, Sap-phĭcus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Sappho, Sapphic: Musa, i.e. Sappho (as a tenth Muse), Cat. 35, 16: versus, Aus. Ephem. 22; cf.: hendecasyllabum, Diom. p. 508 P.; and metrum, Serv. Centim. p. 1819 sq. P.