Phaon
heroFerryman of Lesbos made supernaturally beautiful by Aphrodite, said to have been loved by the poet Sappho.
The Myth
Aphrodite made him so beautiful that Sappho threw herself from a cliff for love of him — at least, that is what the male comedians claimed. Phaon was an old, ugly ferryman. Aphrodite, disguised as an old woman, asked for passage. He carried her for free. In gratitude, she gave him an ointment that made him the most beautiful man alive. Every woman on Lesbos desired him. Later tradition (mostly comic poets and Ovid) claimed Sappho fell in love with Phaon and leaped from the Leucadian cliff when rejected. Scholars consider this story a male-authored fiction designed to heterosexualize Sappho. The myth is more revealing about Greek anxiety over female desire than about either historical figure.
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Sappho-Phaon story is almost certainly a fiction invented by comic poets to mock or normalize Sappho's sexuality.
Explore Further
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