The nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greek composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study. The most famous of which is probably Sappho, who was born sometime between 630 and 612 BCE on the Greek island of Lesbos. The famous Library of Alexandria collected Sappho's poems into nine books; however these editions have been lost. Today only fragments of the poetess' work remains. These fragments are collected together here in this volume of "The Poems of Sappho and the Other Greek Lyricists" along with fragments of other Greek lyric poets contemporary to Sappho. Altogether we find the poetry of Alcaeus, Pythermus, Anacreon, Anacreontea, Corrina, Telesilla, Praxilla, Erinna as well as Sappho in this volume of poetry translated by Walter Petersen.
