Who was the first 'Lesbian'?
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
History Hit
4.8 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Was Sappho queer? Or was this Ancient Greek poet just really really good friends with women?
Today on Betwixt the Sheets, Kate is joined by Katherine Horgan to find out how Sappho's poetry has lasted through the centuries, what we can really know about her life, and why she is important in the modern world?
Katherine is researching classical reception in Early Modern English Literature at Harvard, and will be taking on a professorship at Sarah Lawrence later this year.
This episode was edited by Hannah Feodorov. The producer was Sophie Gee. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.
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All music from Epidemic Sounds.
Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Do you want even more shocking and scandalous history? |
| 0:03.2 | Like why the ancient Greek statues had such small manhoods? |
| 0:06.8 | Or what went on behind closed doors in the Georgian era? |
| 0:10.8 | We'll sign up to History Hit, |
| 0:12.5 | where you can see me discover the scandalous side of history, |
| 0:15.3 | as well as hundreds of hours of original documentaries, |
| 0:18.7 | plus new releases every week, |
| 0:21.1 | covering everything from prehistoric Scotland to the Treaty of Versailles. |
| 0:25.8 | Sign up to join me in locations around the world and explore the past. |
| 0:30.0 | Just visit history hit.com forward slash subscribe. |
| 0:35.1 | Hello, my lovely betwixters. |
| 0:37.2 | Welcome back to Betwixt the Sheets. Thank you for dropping by once again. |
| 0:41.9 | I know that there's an array of podcasts that you could be listening to and I'm frankly stoked that you've |
| 0:46.3 | chosen to listen to this one. But before it can go any further, I do have to tell you, this is an adult |
| 0:50.8 | podcast. It's spoken by adults, two other adults, about adulty things in an |
| 0:54.9 | adulty way covering a range of adult subjects, and you should be an adult too. Right, can you |
| 0:59.5 | take all of that off? Can you? Can you? Well, if you can't be off with you, you're just holding |
| 1:03.3 | things up, right for the rest of you. On with the show. |
| 1:29.2 | He seems to me equal to the gods that man, whoever he is who is opposite you, sits alone and listens close to your sweet speaking and lovely laughing, oh, it puts the heart in my chest on wings, for when I look at you, even a moment no speaking is left in me. We've all been there, haven't we? When you're at a party and you see the person |
| 1:35.3 | that you've got a crush on and they're only talking and laughing with somebody else and it's |
| 1:38.9 | driving you absolutely insane. Of course, jealousy is a universal experience, but this poem about jealousy, this one, |
| 1:47.4 | this has been written and rewritten and passed on and translated and re-translated for over |
... |
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