Sapphō, ūs, f., = Σαπφώ,
I a celebrated poetess , born at Mytilene , in the island of Lesbos , who , on account of her hopeless love for Phaon , threw herself from the Leucadian rock into the sea. Under her name Ovid composed the fifteenth epistle of his Heroides, Sappho Phaoni; nom. Sapphō, Hor. Ep. 1, 19, 28; Stat. S. 5, 3, 155; Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 57, § 125; gen. Sapphūs, Ov. H. 15, 3; acc. Sapphō, Hor. C. 2, 13, 25; abl. Sappho, Plin. 22, 8, 9, § 20.
II —Hence, Sap-phĭcus , a, um, adj., of or belonging to Sappho , Sapphic : Musa, i.e. Sappho (as a tenth Muse), Cat. 35, 16: versus, in Sapphic measure , Aus. Ephem. 22; cf.: hendecasyllabum, Diom. p. 508 P.; and metrum, Serv. Centim. p. 1819 sq. P.