Anactoria (or Anaktoria) is the name of a woman mentioned by poet

Sappho Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...

as a lover of hers in

Sappho's Fragment 16 Sappho 16 is a fragment of a poem by the archaic Greece, archaic Greek lyric poet Sappho. It is from Book I of the Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry, and is known from a second-century papyrus discovered at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt at the begin ...

(Lobel-Page edition

often referred to by the title "To an Army Wife, in Sardis".

Sappho 31 Sappho 31 is an archaic Greek lyric poem by the ancient Greek poet Sappho of the island of Lesbos. The poem is also known as phainetai moi (φαίνεταί μοι) after the opening words of its first line. It is one of Sappho's most famous poe ...

is traditionally called the "Ode to Anactoria", though no name appears in it (A. C. Swinburne, quoted in Lipking 1988

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as ''Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

wrote a long poem in '' Poems and Ballads'' titled ''Anactoria'', in which Sappho addresses Anactoria in a long monologue written in pentameter with rhyming couplets. The poem created a sensation amongst contemporary readers by openly approaching hitherto taboo topics such as

Lesbianism A lesbian is a homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with fema ...

and dystheism. Swinburne's Sappho is heavily inspired by Milton's Satan and John Donne's poem, also on Sappho.

References

* 7th-century BC Greek women 6th-century BC Greek women Sexuality in ancient Greece British poems Literary characters {{lit-char-stub