The original Lesbian poet “was massively admired in antiquity,” her works collected into nine papyri at the great Alexandria library. But almost none of it survives: only two complete poems and about 200 fragments. “Sappho has a pretty astonishing reputation, given how little survives. … [And] she has been the subject of some extraordinary fantasy over the years, the starting point for ‘biography’, fiction and sheer titillation.”