๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ท Welcome to Lesbos, Greece.

๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€โค๏ธโ€๐Ÿ‘ฉ The Greek island is inhabited by 115,000 Lesbians, but has also given its name to women loving women worldwide.

๐ŸŒˆ For #InternationalLesbianDay, let's take a look at the history of the word "lesbian". ๐Ÿงต Photo of harbour on LesbosPainting of Sappho
๐Ÿ›๏ธ From the Iliad to the Odyssey, Lesbos has had a central part in Ancient Greek history.

โœ’๏ธ One of its most famous inhabitants was the 6th century B.C. poet Sappho, whose lyrical poems explored her love of women and their beauty โ€“ sometimes even venturing into the erotic. Fresco of Sappho
๐Ÿ‘ฉ Sappho was regarded as one of the greatest poets of her time.

๐Ÿ“œ Today, not much is known about her life, and much of her work has been lost over the centuries.

๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€โค๏ธโ€๐Ÿ’‹โ€๐Ÿ‘ฉ But Sappho's homoerotic writing โ€“ and possible personal life โ€“ has been discussed since Hellenistic times. Drawing of Sappho
๐Ÿ’˜ Sappho wrote about loving women, but it's debated if these descriptions were romantic โ€“ and if she was attracted to women.

๐Ÿ‘ฌ While homosexual behaviour between men was accepted and documented in Ancient Greece, accounts of lesbian relationships are much rarer to come across. Two men kissing on a painted plate
๐Ÿ‘ญ Irrespective of Sappho's sexuality, her name has ever since been tied to love between women.

โœ’๏ธ It was in the 18th century her birthplace came into the equation, with William King defining "Lesbians" as women who "loved Women in the same Manner as Men love them". Painting of Sappho
๐Ÿฅผ In 1890, the term lesbian appeared in a medical dictionary describing sex between women.

๐Ÿ“• While lesbian was used interchangeably with 'sapphist' and 'homosexual' at the turn of the 20th century, it was recorded as a noun in 1925, as the female equivalent of a sodomite. Painting of Sappho
๐Ÿคซ Gay โ€“ a 12th-century word meaning carefree โ€“ became an underground word for being homosexual in the early 20th century.

โœŠ But with the rise of second-wave feminism in 1960s and โ€˜70s, gay women wanted their own identification and the use of lesbian became mainstream. People marching for womenโ€™s rights
โœˆ๏ธ Today, thousands of lesbians travel to Sappho's birthplace yearly.

๐Ÿง‘โ€โš–๏ธ Even if some of the locals unsuccessfully went to court to ban the word being used to describe gay women.

๐Ÿธ Eros, the village of Sappho's birth, has three lesbian bars โ€“ that's two more than London. ๐Ÿ‘‡
๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ As time has moved on, more young queer women are rejecting traditional labels and have stopped using the word lesbian to describe their sexual identity.

โ“ If you are a #WLW, how do you prefer calling yourself?

๐Ÿ‘‡ Share with us below!

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