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The Sappho Companion, edited and introduced by Margaret Reynolds.
(2000). London, Chatto & Windus.
ISBN 07011 6586 3 (£25)

Sappho remains a name to conjure with, not only for its connotations with female sexuality - the love of women for women - but also because of the resonance it has still in the world of poetry. She herself is like a conjurer's illusion - now you see her, now you don't; a will-o’-the-wisp illuminating history and literature.

Sometimes we are forced to think of her as 'a thing of rags and patches', for we know her life and her work only through incomplete fragments, bright gleams among the shadows that have taken on a legendary significance. Here, for those who have burned to know more Reynolds has done a magnificent job of garnering up and gathering together all that is available to us directly from Sappho' s hand and from contemporary accounts. To this she has added whatever has been created by commentators around the magic of Sappho' s name throughout the ages.

No-one can answer completely the question: 'Who was Sappho?' Too much has been lost. We do know that she was born around 630 BC on the Greek island of Lesbos, and that she is now regarded as the greatest lyrical poet of ancient Greece. Alongside known facts, Reynolds offers us the chance to savour, in one volume, a stunning compilation of original work, commentary, speculation, imagery, plus new poetry, fiction and drama built around that alluring concept which is 'Sappho'. No longer a person, but a myth; a muse; constant inspiration, and continuing enigma.

The result is riches, indeed. This is a book that won't only satisfy the rigorous scholar, reading solemnly from page one to the end, making notes, and drawing conclusions. It offers something more than discussion and debate, though on that basis alone, we can expect to see it in academic libraries. The Sappho Companion is also for those who prefer to come at their discoveries sideways on, to dip and wander through its pages, finding in each new foray something extra to taste and to appreciate. Something more than mere history, or simple biography.

Here we have that which in the early days of feminism was called 'consciousness raising', implying that through group contribution, new perceptions would evolve. By an act of concentrated focus, and through Reynold's expert facilitation, Sappho makes another leap. This time not down, to death and relative obscurity, but forward, to new life, and to intensified understanding.