Set in the open air, with a view of a halcyon sea, the painting shows the main characters of a goddess temple in the roles imagined by Alma-Tadema's Victorian contemporaries. On the left is Sappho, the High Priestess. By her side stands a girl representing the White Goddess as Spring, who is costumed as described by earlier English poets such as Spenser (The Faerie Queen) and Marlowe (Hero and Leander). Before them is a laurel wreath, which, if Sappho so decides, will be presented to the young musician. The wreath is no simple accolade - its granting means that the player is inspired by the muses and is a true musician and that he has a place in the temple while ordinary men have not. The laurel is also a promise of immortality. This relationship, of an applicant poet/musician and a recognising high priestess is one referred to and re-enacted by many including Robert Graves. The young musician is named by Alma-Tadema, Alcaeus, who was a famed poet and musician (c.620-c.580 BC) (and a favourite of the actual Sappho of Lesbos whose name we have taken generically to mean High Priestess), so we can guess that the outcome in the painting will be that he will be granted the laurels.

Beyond Sappho we see an audience representing the other people admitted to the temple. Two matrons are present because, as women, they share in the nature of the Great Goddess, while a young man is present presumably because he has undergone the rites of Attis, which word is carved into the marble below his arm.