The ancient Greek poetess who wrote lyric poetry on Lesbos was Sappho.
Sappho lived around the late seventh and early sixth centuries BC and was associated with Mytilene or Eresos on the island of Lesbos. Her poetry was composed in the Aeolic Greek tradition and was intended to be performed with musical accompaniment, making “lyric” poetry a literal description rather than simply a label for emotional verse.
Sappho was celebrated in antiquity as one of the Nine Lyric Poets and was sometimes called the “Tenth Muse.” She probably wrote roughly 10,000 lines, but only fragments survive today; the “Ode to Aphrodite” is the only poem generally regarded as complete. Her work explores love, desire, family, religion, and personal emotion with unusual immediacy.
A common mix-up is Alcaeus, another major lyric poet from Lesbos and a near-contemporary of Sappho. The adjective “sapphic” comes from her name, while “lesbian” derives from the island where she lived.