No ancient poet has a wider following today than Sappho; her status as the most famous woman poet from Greco-Roman antiquity, and as one of the most prominent lesbian voices in history, has ensured a continuing fascination with her work down the centuries. The Cambridge Companion to Sappho provides an up-to-date survey of this remarkable, inspiring, and mysterious Greek writer, whose poetic corpus has been significantly expanded in recent years thanks to the discovery of new papyrus sources. Containing an introduction, prologue and thirty-three chapters, the book examines Sappho's historical, social, and literary contexts, the nature of her poetic achievement, the transmission, loss, and rediscovery of her poetry, and the reception of that poetry in cultures far removed from ancient Greece, including Latin America, India, China, and Japan. All Greek is translated, making the volume accessible to everyone interested in one of the most significant creative artists of all time.

Winner, 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Titles

‘Including a general index (in addition to the reception index) and a very useful bibliography, this volume will be indispensable for all who are interested in Sappho and her tradition and for those working on archaic Greek poetry in general … Highly recommended.’

P. Nieto Source: Choice Magazine

'Greater appreciation for Sappho’s poems, increasing acceptance of lesbianism, poetic modernism, second-wave feminism, and feminist scholarship all contribute to a new view of her as poet and musician, yielding new fictions, and new translations…'

Eva Stehle Source: Bryn Mawr Classical Review

‘a ‘friendly’ and reliable travel ‘Companion’, a well-finished and elegant publication, entirely worthy of the quality of the publisher and the series, as well as of the poet to whom it is dedicated.’

Camillo Neri Source: Gnomon (in Italian)

'Patrick Finglass and Adrian Kelly have mastered the task of presenting the entire knowledge of Sappho and her work in one monumental companion … The carefully edited book … will certainly be an important reference work that depicts current research trends.'

Anton Bierl Source: Museum Helveticum (in German)