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Spartan Surfers

c. 630-570 BC

Sappho

Lyric poet of Lesbos whom the ancients called the tenth Muse. She wrote about love, beauty and friendship in direct, personal verse.

2 sourced lines

Every line we carry

Each one links to its source, what it means, and the shirt in any of our looks.

  1. Some call an army the finest sight. I say: whatever you love.

    Sappho opens a poem by listing what others call most beautiful on the black earth: cavalry, infantry, a fleet. She says it is whatever a person loves. Beauty is not ranked by size or power. It is found in what you care about.

    Fragment 16.1-4, our translation from the Greek

  2. The beautiful is beautiful to look at. The good will soon be beautiful too.

    Sappho contrasts two kinds of beauty: the handsome person is beautiful only as long as you look, but the good person will soon be beautiful as well. Looks fade on contact. Goodness grows on you.

    Fragment 50, our translation from the Greek