Tyrants and Poets

In most schools, we learn about Ancient Greece, Socrates, Plato, and the birth of democracy. But we rarely learn about Archaic Greece, the pre-Socratic era, when tyrants ruled the various city-states with diverse styles of leadership. Around 600 BC, Sappho, the renowned Poetess from Lesvos, was at the peak of her fame. Greece was in transition from an oral tradition to the written word. Reputations could be enhanced or destroyed by the words of poets. In fact, Aesop, with his fables, was he...