The McDaniel College departments of History, English and Music present “Songs of Sappho,” a performance-lecture by Paula Saffire, at 8 p.m. Sept. 14 in McDaniel Lounge.

The performance is free and open to the public. For more information, call (410) 857-2294.

Saffire, associate professor of Classical Languages at Butler University in Indianapolis, performs Sappho’s poetry and song while wearing a costume in the style worn at the time. Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet believed to have been born between 630 and 612 BCE in the island of Lesbos. Some of her love poetry was addressed to women, which led to the evolution of the word lesbian, derived from the name of her native island.

Over the last decade, Saffire has performed “Songs of Sappho” at more than 20 colleges and venues across the country. The author of dozens of publications about classical Greece, she is the recipient of numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to study Mystical Literature of Islam. Saffire earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1976.