What's Sappho Owed? (language-ish)

[abu nuwas]

Yes, well, yes it's so
And so was her Selena
(Which by a strange
phonetic change
Is now our own Helena)

But this thing I also know
That she was rather sly:
And she'd write out a Sapphic ode
While on a cock she rode
For dear Saffy was a bi.

Note:'Cock' is of course an allusion to the the death of Socrates, yet to come.