The story that Sappho, in despair over her love for this irresistible youth, died by jumping from Leucas Petra (or the ‘Shining Rock’) into the Aegean probably derives from the fact that she mentions the rock in a poem. In a play by Menander (342–291 BCE) we find: They say that Sappho, while she was chasing haughty Phaon, Was the first to throw herself, in her goading desire, From the rock that shines afar. (Leucadia fr. 258)
