Editing Sappho (section)

===Ancient editions===
It is uncertain when Sappho's poetry was first written down.  Some scholars believe that she wrote her own poetry down for future readers; others that if she wrote her works down it was as an aid to reperformance rather than as a work of literature in its own right.{{sfn|Lardinois|2008|pp=79&ndash;80}} In the fifth century{{nbsp}}BC, Athenian book publishers probably began to produce copies of [[Aeolic verse|Lesbian lyric poetry]], some including explanatory material and glosses as well as the poems themselves.{{sfn|Bolling|1961|p=152}} Some time in the second or third century{{nbsp}}BC, [[Library of Alexandria|Alexandrian scholars]] produced a critical edition of her poetry.{{sfn|de Kreij|2015|p=28}} There may have been more than one Alexandrian edition – [[John J. Winkler]] argues for two, one edited by [[Aristophanes of Byzantium]] and another by his pupil [[Aristarchus of Samothrace]].{{sfn|Winkler|1990|p=166}} This is not certain – ancient sources tell us that Aristarchus' edition of Alcaeus replaced the edition by Aristophanes, but are silent on whether Sappho's work also went through multiple editions.{{sfn|Yatromanolakis|1999|p=180|loc=n.4}}

The Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry may have been based on an Athenian text of her poems, or one from her native Lesbos,{{sfn|Prauscello|2021|pp=220&ndash;221}} and was divided into at least eight books, though the exact number is uncertain.{{sfn|Yatromanolakis|1999|p=181}} Many modern scholars have followed [[Denys Page]], who conjectured a ninth book in the standard edition;{{sfn|Yatromanolakis|1999|p=181}} Dimitrios Yatromanolakis doubts this, noting that though ancient sources refer to an eighth book of her poetry, none mention a ninth.{{sfn|Yatromanolakis|1999|p=184}} The Alexandrian edition of Sappho probably grouped her poems by their metre: ancient sources tell us that each of the first three books contained poems in a single specific metre.{{sfn|Lidov|2011}} Book one of the Alexandrian edition, made up of poems in [[Sapphic stanza]]s, seems to have been ordered alphabetically.{{sfn|Prauscello|2021|pp=222&ndash;223}}

Even after the publication of the standard Alexandrian edition, Sappho's poetry continued to circulate in other poetry collections. For instance, the Cologne Papyrus on which the [[Tithonus poem]] is preserved was part of a Hellenistic anthology of poetry, which contained poetry arranged by theme, rather than by metre and incipit, as it was in the Alexandrian edition.{{sfn|Clayman|2011}}