In Sappho’s surviving poem commonly called the “Ode to Aphrodite,” the speaker addresses Aphrodite.
The poem is a direct prayer to the goddess of love. Sappho asks Aphrodite not to crush her with sorrow but to come to her aid, as she has done before. The goddess appears in a divine chariot drawn by sparrows and asks whom Sappho should persuade to love her.
Sappho’s poem is especially important because it is one of the very few works by her preserved substantially intact. Most of her poetry survives only in fragments quoted by later writers or recovered from ancient papyri. The ode therefore offers an unusually complete example of her voice, imagery, and prayer-like structure.
Sappho lived on the Greek island of Lesbos, probably around the late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE. The poem is sometimes called Fragment 1 or “Hymn to Aphrodite.” Its exact original performance context is uncertain, but its address to the goddess is unmistakable.