In “Ventriloquizing Sappho, or the Lesbian Muse,” Elizabeth Harvey defines “transvestite ventriloquism” as “the appropriation of the female voice by the male author ” and “its implications in the silencing of women's speech and writing” were far-reaching and long-lasting (82). In Sappho's case, this began with Ovidian epistle in which Sappho throws herself to her death for love of Phaon. Ovid's appropriation, or rather, misappropriation silences Sappho's original voice in his work because he writes in Sappho's voice, without any inclination to consider it a work of fiction. This threatened Sappho's entire reputation as a poet because when it was recovered many centuries later, scholars believed for a while that it was in fact a real letter from Sappho. The mistake was quickly realized upon closer inspection, the meter is not sapphic and the voice is too masculine in imagery and tone, but it was enough for people to believe the myth, which continues to be part of its history today . Now, there should be no text that says she didn't fall in love with a man named Phaon, so it's unknown where Ovid heard this statement or whether he made it up. In the text, Ovid belittles Sappho of her voice and poetic ability. The pseudo-Sappho voice continues “into the text to say that the old power of poetry does not come to Sappho's call and grief has silenced her lyre,” all because Phaon does not love her back (Harvey, 85). Ovid even states in the epistle that Sappho was only able to write poetry when she first saw Phaon's beauty. She was inspired by seeing Phaon to write her poems and gave up her power when he left. Male beauty as the reason for the existence of Sappho's work, according to Harvey, “denies the possibility of authentic female discourse”...... half of the article ......: University of California Press, 1996 . Print .O'Higgins, Dolores. "Sappho's Splintered Tongue: Silence in Sappho 31 and Catullus 51." Reread Sappho: reception and transmission. Ed. Ellen Greene. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Print.Parker, Holt. «Master of Sappho.» Reread Sappho: reception and transmission. Ed. Ellen Greene. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Print.Prins, Yopie. "Sappho's afterlife in translation." Reread Sappho: reception and transmission. Ed. Ellen Greene. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Print. Sappho and Anne Carson. Trans. Otherwise, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. New York: Random House, 2002. Print.Winkler, Jack. "Gardens of Nymphs: Public and Private in Sappho's Texts." Reading Sappho: contemporary approaches. Ed. Ellen Greene. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Print.