Anactoria


Anactoria is the name of a woman mentioned by poet Sappho as a lover of hers in Sappho's Fragment 16 , often referred to by the title "To an Army Wife, in Sardis". Sappho 31 is traditionally called the "Ode to Anactoria", though no name appears in it.
Algernon Charles Swinburne wrote a long poem in Poems and Ballads titled Anactoria, in which Sappho addresses Anactoria in imagery that includes sadomasochism, cannibalism, and dystheism. Lipking discusses Swinburne's poem.