A considerable body of Sappho's poetry exists, and more is found as archaeology proceeds. Scraps of her writings are often found bound into the wrappings of mummified cats. Burial with a dead cat was not an ancient form of literary criticism, rather, it reflected the association of the idea of the cat as a divine animal, and the sacred nature of the parchments which came from the temple. It is likely that the people who buried the writings could not actually read what was on them, for the art of writing was one of the secrets of the temple. The parchments were probably given out or sold to pilgrims visiting the temple, the way an astrologer may sell charts or fortunes today. These parchments are found over such a wide area of North Africa and the Western Mediterranean and in such quantity that it seems that Sappho was not a single individual, but that her name was a title, in the same way that Pope is a title of a contemporary religious leader. Sappho was the High Priestess of Lesbos.

In Sappho's verse the characters shown are all young girls at work and play. However, she does mention three "males" in her life. They are Larachus; Spilote, and an unnamed husband, whose loss to Rosy-cheeks she laments. Of Larachus, more later. Rosy-cheeks has hitherto been understood as some rival, a hussy. Rosy-cheeks is one of the names of the death aspect of the great goddess, and more of this later. The 'spilote' (which means 'spindle'), was a stone phallus, or ichylith. Similar ichyliths can be found today in India and Cambodia, always in temples with goddess associations. This spindle represented the Earth's axis, the line about which the heavens rotate, and which points to the group of stars which was thought to be the home of the ascended gods. This circle of stars is a recurring symbol of the goddess.

Sappho is often portrayed seated or standing near two columns. These columns represented a door, which she guarded. This doorway was the doorway to the heavens, and Sappho therefore played the part of a living Saint Peter, admitting or refusing entry to the dead. She was the most important person in the goddess temple, being in contact with the goddess as muse, and with the god Hermes. It was for her favour that poets; musicians, dancers and mathematicians contended, for her approval meant glory in this life and thereafter in the eternal stars.. On this major Arcana tarot card from the Rider-Waite pack, Sappho is depicted seated before two pillars of the temple of Solomon, with the crescent moon at her feet. The veil behind her is decorated with pomegranates, symbols of immortality. Beyond the veil is Death and the goddess' messenger Hermes. See also: The Apotheosis of Homer, a 2nd century marble bas-relief revealing more about role of Sappho and her priestesses.

In this panel, the god Hermes, the first and highest servant of the goddess, escorts a dead woman to the afterlife, on a chariot drawn by angels. The religious belief represented here is that women, because they share the life-giving nature of the goddess, rejoin that celestial divinity in death. Men conversely, rejoin the clay from which they were made, and they are escorted to the underworld ruled by the god Hades. That the underworld was reserved for the spirits of men is shown by the story of Persephone (Spring) and the rumpus caused in the heavens when Hades, the god of the underworld, took her as wife. Hades took her below, Mother objected, and Hermes in one of his guises was sent to fetch her back. He only partly succeeded, and Spring returns above ground for only half the year as a result.Important exceptions were made to the rule that women ascended and men descended. Exceptional men, heroes, high in the favour of the goddess, were granted immortality and bliss. This belief had startling consequences, which can best be understood if we first consider a parallel from more recent history. In the civilisations of central America a few centuries ago, the sacrifice of captives and slaves was a common practice. What surprises us is that many ordinary citizens volunteered themselves for sacrifice, indeed the victors in sporting contests could claim sacrifice as their prize. This was because they believed that they thereby stepped directly into heaven; that they became gods. So it was in the Mediterranean in ancient times.

Sappho did not only serve as the guardian of the doorway between the worlds of the living and the dead. She was the representative of the aspects of the goddess called the Three Fates; and the aspects called the Nine Muses. The Three Fates were named Clotho; Lachesis, and Atropos. They were also called the Spinners, for Clotho spun the thread which represented a human life; Lachesis carded the threads, and Atropos cut them, thereby ending life.

The myth of the Three Fates is an expression of the triple nature of the goddess, also given in the name Triple Goddess (and in the Three Graces, and the Three Furies...). The myth echoes the three phases of woman's relationship with man. In the first phase, man is born of woman; the second is the sexual phase, and in the third, woman is the layer-out of man. This triplicity is preserved in all the later versions of the myth, even if different names are used. The first goddess may be called Spring, or Ceres, or Persephone; the second Aphrodite or Venus, and the third the Crone, the Destroyer, or represented by an animal such as the white hyena or a white sow. Often the three aspects are combined in a single representation, as with Lilith or Astarte, with a beautiful face; multiple breasts, and the lower parts of a bird of prey.