Atthis Comes to Mytilene | A Tribute to Sappho

Ο Πόθος της Σαπφούς | Rachel Maybank as Atthis and Laure Bachelot as Sappho at the Linbury Studio, London. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

bewildered by strange

new dreams

she comes to Mytilene and under a curious blue sky the scent of jasmine and the coolness of the vine Atthis falls in love in abandon on the poet's bed she yields to a world of boundless passion

mouth on mouth and limbs entwined

she revels

in acts of wild and sinless loving

tonight the journey to Apollo's light

starts for Atthis

in the beauty of her lover's eyes

Read A short Biography of Sappho the ancient world's greatest poet

This poem is part of the collection of poems Sappho