Attributed to the Sappho Painter Black-figure Athenian Hydria, 510-500 B.C., Clay (Beazley Vase No. 510) The National Museum, Warsaw |
In this vase, created in Athens around the end of the sixth century BCE – only around a century after Sappho's birth – testifies to the widespread popularity of her poetry. She is portrayed wearing a chiton (a kind of tunic) and himation (a cloak or mantle thrown over her left shoulder). In her arms she carries a barbitos, a long-armed low-pitched lyre with seven strings; her left hand rests on the sound box; her right, holding the plektron (a small piece of ivory, wood or bone used to pluck the strings much as on a modern-day guitar) has just finished striking the strings. To one side, she is identified with a (mis-spelled) version of her name: ΦΣΑΦΩ, or PHSAPHO.