Radiant Eros, the sun, beauty - this is what I have chosen. Love is the central theme in Sappho's life and in her poems. Born around 600 BC, she is the first female poet in world literature. Her sense of song, music, and poetry was legendary, and she taught many young women in these arts. Her songs were sung throughout Greece, and coins bore her portrait. It is no coincidence that Plato referred to her as the tenth Muse two decades after her death.