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 and M. Hubbard presume a double entendre («Lesbians in more senses than one») which seems impossible because love between women is never
associated with Lesbos before II century AD. In fr. 96 Voigt (and,
probably, in fr. 94 too) Sappho complains about a beloved girl who is leaving Mytilenae – for the reasons of marriage abroad, as it is generally supposed. The paper argues that queritur puellis de popularibus (sc. de puellis, qui olim suae populares fuerunt, nunc non sunt) is a reminiscence of such Sapphic propemptika.