Sappho, A woman of the yle of Lesbos, a greate Poeetresse, who made verses called Lyrici: at the laste, shee was taken with the loue of a yong man called Phaon, who running awaye from hir, shee not sustayning the anguishe of loue, threwe hir selfe dawn from an hill into the sed.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
Sapphō, ūs, f., = *sapfw/,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,
in Sapphic measure
, Aus. Ephem. 22; cf.: hendecasyllabum, Diom. p. 508 P.; and metrum, Serv. Centim. p. 1819 sq. P.