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Two new poems by the ancient Greek poet Sappho have been detect on a papyrus owned by a private aggregator . The cleaning woman , who hailed from the island of Lesbos , was one of the most renowned lyrical poets of her day , during the seventh century B.C. But today , only one of her poems survives , along with fragments of four others .

" The new Sappho is utterly breathtaking , " Albert Henrichs , a Harvard classics professor who canvas the paper plant , secernate The Daily Beast . " It is the best - preserved Sappho papyrus in existence , with just a few letters that had to be restore in the first verse form , and not a single Holy Writ that is in doubt . Its content is as exciting . "

In Brief

A depiction of Sappho

One of the poem trace two humans — Charaxos and Larichos — whom ancient scholarly person said were the name of Sappho ’s brother . The poem verbalise occupy about sea - do Charaxos ' safety on his in style excursion . The other sherd is a love poem , which beseeches Aphrodite for assistance .

An anonymous presenter gave the third century A.D. papyrus to Oxford , and classic prof Dirk Obhink shortly earn the grandness of the work once he began translating . Obhink has let go a tentative version of the text , which should seem by and by this year in a compeer - reviewed diary .

sappho

A depiction of Sappho

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