In Hor. Carm. III, 13, 24-25 Sappho, performing her songs for the ghosts in the Underworld, queritur puellis de popularibus. Queritur is the right word for a love complaint, but what is the exact meaning of populares (‘members of the same community, fellow citizens’)? R. G. M. Nisbet andM. Hubbard presume a double entendre («Lesbians in more senses than one») which seems impossible because love between women is neverassociated with Lesbos before II century AD. In fr. 96 Voigt (and, probably, in fr. 94 too) Sappho complains about a beloved girl who isleaving Mytilenae - for the reasons of marriage abroad, as it is generallysupposed. The paper argues that queritur puellis de popularibus (sc. depuellis, qui olim suae populares fuerunt, nunc non sunt) is a reminiscenceof such Sapphic propemptika.