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    The Fragments of Anacreon Illustrated
    The Fragments of Anacreon Illustrated
    The Fragments of Anacreon Illustrated
    Ebook673 pages2 hours

    The Fragments of Anacreon Illustrated

    By Anacreon of Teos and Delphi Classics

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    About this ebook

    Revered in the canon of Nine Lyric Poets, Anacreon flourished in the sixth century BC. His widespread popularity over the classical world went on to inspire countless imitators. His writings influenced fifth century Athenian drama, while tragedy adopted his metres and comic playwrights, including Aristophanes, made allusions to his verses. He was also admired by the Latin poets Ovid, Propertius and Horace, who frequently alludes to his work. Delphi’s Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both English translations and the original Greek texts. This eBook presents Anacreon’s fragments, with illustrations, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)



    * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Anacreon's life and works
    * Features the complete fragments of Anacreon, preserved in the writings of other ancient authors, in both English translation and the original Greek
    * Concise introduction to the fragments
    * Includes J. M. Edmonds’s translation of the fragments, previously appearing in the Loeb Classical Library edition
    * Also features multiple translations of the ‘Anacreontea’ — a Hellenic collection of odes inspired by Anacreon’s poetry and traditionally ascribed to the poet
    * The Romantic poet Thomas Moore’s celebrated 1800 translation
    * Excellent formatting of the texts
    * Easily locate the fragments you want to read with individual contents tables
    * Features a bonus biography — discover Anacreon's ancient world
    * Ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres



    CONTENTS:



    The Translations
    Fragments of Anacreon (1924)
    Anacreontea (Moore translation, 1800)
    Anacreontea (Bourne translation, 1844)
    Anacreontea (Edmonds translation, 1931)



    The Greek Texts
    List of Greek Texts



    The Biography
    Life of Anacreon (1924) by J. M. Edmonds



    Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to explore our range of Ancient Classics titles or buy the entire series as a Super Set

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDelphi Publishing Ltd
    Release dateJan 18, 2024
    ISBN9781801701617
    The Fragments of Anacreon Illustrated

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      Book preview

      The Fragments of Anacreon Illustrated - Anacreon of Teos

      cover.jpg

      The Fragments of

      ANACREON

      (c. 575-c. 495 BC)

      img1.jpg

      Contents

      The Translations

      Fragments of Anacreon (1924)

      Anacreontea (Moore translation, 1800)

      Anacreontea (Bourne translation, 1844)

      Anacreontea (Edmonds translation, 1931)

      The Greek Texts

      List of Greek Texts

      The Biography

      Life of Anacreon (1924) by J. M. Edmonds

      The Delphi Classics Catalogue

      img2.png

      © Delphi Classics 2024

      Version 1

      img3.jpg

      Browse Ancient Classics

      img4.jpgimg5.jpgimg6.jpgimg7.jpgimg8.jpgimg9.jpgimg10.jpg

      The Fragments of

      ANACREON OF TEOS

      img11.png

      By Delphi Classics, 2024

      COPYRIGHT

      The Fragments of Anacreon

      img12.jpg

      First published in the United Kingdom in 2024 by Delphi Classics.

      © Delphi Classics, 2024.

      All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

      ISBN: 978 1 80170 161 7

      Delphi Classics

      is an imprint of

      Delphi Publishing Ltd

      Hastings, East Sussex

      United Kingdom

      Contact: [email protected]

      img13.png

      www.delphiclassics.com

      The Translations

      img14.jpg

      Ruins at Teos — Anacreon’s birthplace. Teos was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, which was founded by Minyans from Orchomenus, Ionians and Boeotians. It was one of the twelve cities that formed the Ionian League. Situated on a low hilly isthmus, the city’s ruins are located to the south of the modern town of Sığacık, Izmir Province, Turkey.

      img15.jpg

      Ruins of the theatre in Teos

      Fragments of Anacreon (1924)

      img16.png

      Translated by J. M. Edmonds, Loeb Classical Library, 1924

      Notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems, the Greek lyric poet Anacreon flourished in the sixth century BC. Little information is known about his life, save for what can be gleaned from the extant fragments. Ancient sources agree that Anacreon came from Teos, on the coast of Ionia (modern day Turkey). This tradition is attested as early as Herodotus, and at least one of the fragments references the city. When Teos was conquered by Persia in the 540’s, the Teians moved to Abdera, Thrace, by which time Anacreon was likely an adult.

      He is also believed to have spent time in Samos. According to Himerius, he was invited there to educate Polycrates, the future tyrant of Samos, who Strabo reports was one of the main subjects of his poetry. If Himerius is correct and Anacreon arrived on Samos before Polycrates became tyrant, this would have been before 530. From Samos, Anacreon moved to Athens on the invitation of Hipparchus, some time after Hipparchus came to power in 528. According to Herodotus, the poet was still on Samos in 522 when Polycrates was murdered. No sources record if or when he left Athens. He may have departed after the assassination of his patron Hipparchus in 514, or the expulsion of Hipparchus’ brother Hippias in 510, though there is evidence of his presence in the city later than this. Two epigrams from the Greek Anthology suggest that he spent some time in Thessaly, though others doubt this tradition. He probably died at the beginning of the fifth century. According to the first century Latin writer Valerius Maximus, Anacreon died by choking on a grape seed, though this is generally considered apocryphal. An epigram in the Greek Anthology claims that his tomb was located on Teos.

      Composed primarily in the form of monody rather than for a chorus, Anacreon’s poetry is written in the ancient Ionic dialect. Like all early lyric poetry, his verses were composed to be sung or recited to the accompaniment of music, usually the lyre. In keeping with the Greek poetic tradition, his poetry relied on metre for its construction. Metrical poetry is a particularly rhythmic form, deriving its structure from patterns of phonetic features within and between the lines of verse. The phonetic patterning in Anacreon’s poetry is based on the structured alternation of long and short syllables. The Ionic dialect also had a tonal aspect that lends a natural melodic quality to the recitation. The metres employed by Anacreon are now known as anacreonteus. The Anacreontic verse is an eight-syllable line u u – u – u – –.

      The Greek language is particularly well suited to the metrical style of poetry, though the sound of the verses does not easily transfer to English. As a consequence, translators have historically tended to substitute rhyme, stress rhythms, stanzaic patterning and other devices for the style of the originals, with the primary, sometimes only, connection to the Greek verses being the subject matter. More recent translators have tended to attempt a more spare translation which, in spite of losing the sound of the originals, may be more true to their flavor.

      Anacreon’s poetry concerns universal themes of love, infatuation, disappointment, pederasty, the symposium, festivals and observations of everyday people and life. The subject matter of his poetry helped to keep it familiar and enjoyable to generations of readers and listeners. His widespread popularity over the classical world went on to inspire countless imitators.

      He also had a reputation as a composer of hymns, as well as of those bacchanalian and amatory lyrics. Two short hymns to Artemis and Dionysus, consisting of eight and eleven lines respectively, stand first amongst his few undisputed fragments. His frequent allusions to the joys of wine, music and the pleasures of love have caused some ancient commentators to regard him as a poet of a frivolous and libertine nature. According to the early geographer Pausanias, Anacreon’s statue on the Acropolis of Athens depicts him as drunk. Still, Athenaeus remarks that Anacreon must at least have been sober when he composed his lyrics. It should also be noted that, like Horace much later, Anacreon’s fragments reveal a strong criticism of the brutal characteristics of intoxication, which he regards as fit only for barbarians and Scythians.

      The Suda, a seminal tenth century Byzantine encyclopaedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, and Athenaeus record that Anacreon produced five books of lyrical verses extant in their time, of which sadly only the merest fragments exist, largely collected from the citations of later ancient authors. The Anacreontea, a collection of poems by numerous, anonymous imitators was long believed to be the works of Anacreon himself. It was preserved in a tenth century manuscript that also includes the Palatine Anthology. The poems of the Anacreontea appear to have been composed over a long period of time by numerous authors, from the rise of Alexander to when paganism gave way in the Roman Empire. They reflect the light-hearted elegance of much of Anacreon’s genuine works, although they were not written in the same Ionic Greek dialect. They also display literary references and styles more common to the time of their actual composition.

      Unlike many ancient poets, Anacreon attained fame in his own lifetime, as he is depicted in contemporary Athenian red-figure vase paintings. His writings influenced fifth century Athenian drama, while tragedy adopted his metres, and comic playwrights, including Aristophanes, made allusions to his verses in their works. Ancient philosophical and moralistic writers were divided on Anacreon, with some, such as Plato, portraying him as a wise man, while others condemned him for being too concerned with drunkenness and lust. By the Hellenistic period, a caricature of Anacreon as drunken and lustful was firmly established. Still, Anacreon was respected as a poet and was traditionally included in the canon of Nine Lyric Poets. The Hellenistic poet Callimachus’ Lock of Berenice is an adaptation of a poem by Anacreon; Ovid and Propertius allude to him; and he was an important influence on Horace, who refers to him three times in his poetry and frequently alludes to his work.

      img17.png

      Bust of Anacreon in the Louvre

      CONTENTS

      BOOK I

      1 TO ARTEMIS

      2 TO DIONYSUS

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9

      10

      11

      12

      13

      14

      15

      16

      17

      18

      19

      20

      21

      22

      23

      24

      25

      26

      27

      28

      29

      30

      31

      32

      33

      34

      35

      36

      37

      38

      39

      40

      41

      42

      43 A and B

      44

      BOOK II

      45

      46

      47

      48, 49

      50

      51

      52

      53

      54

      55

      56

      57

      58

      59

      60

      61

      62

      63

      64

      65

      66

      67

      68

      BOOK III

      69

      70, 71, 72

      73

      74

      75

      76

      77

      78

      79

      80

      81

      82

      82 A

      83

      BOOK IV. IAMBICS

      84

      85

      86

      87

      88

      89

      90

      91, 92

      93

      94

      95

      96, 97

      98

      99

      100

      101

      102

      103

      104

      105

      106

      107

      108

      109

      110

      111

      112

      113

      114

      115

      BOOK V. ELEGIACS

      116

      117

      118

      119

      120

      121

      122

      123

      124

      125

      126

      127

      128

      129

      130

      131

      132

      133

      134

      135

      136

      137

      138

      139

      140

      141

      142

      143

      144

      145

      146

      147

      148

      149

      150

      151

      152

      153

      154

      155

      156

      157

      158

      159

      160

      161

      162

      163

      164

      165

      166

      167

      168

      169

      img18.png

      Anacreon depicted in the act of singing and playing his lyre, second century AD, Copenhagen, Denmark

      BOOK I

      1 TO ARTEMIS

      img19.jpg

      HEPHAESTION ON POEMS: A poem is known as ‘common in form’ when it is made up of two ‘systems’ or stanzas like the first poem of Anacreon:

      To thee I kneel, [lit. ‘clasp thy knees in supplication’] thou shooter of deer, flaxen-haired child of Zeus, Artemis queen of wild beasts, who now doubtless lookest down rejoicing beside the eddies of Lethaeus upon a city of valiant hearts; for thou art shepherd to no savage flock of men. [now: dedicatory of a new temple or statue of Artemis? city: Ionian Magnesia; the poem is prob. complete; see however Kehrhahn Berm. 1914]

      For although according to the edition now in use the strophe has eight lines and the poem consists of a single strophe, this strophe can also be separated into a three-group and a five-group, so that a Pherecratic ends both the three-line and the four-line systems. [does not necessarily imply that 1. 3 ended in the Aristarchean (?) edition in θηρίων, but prob. that there was no division mark put between ll. 3 and 4.]

      2 TO DIONYSUS

      img19.jpg

      DIO CHRYSOSTOM DECLAMATIONS: It follows that we should not offer to the king prayers like those we offer others, nor yet call upon the Gods in the manner of Anacreon the poet of the Ionians:

      O Lord with whom playeth Love the subduer and the dark-eyed Nymphs and rosy Aphrodite as thou wanderest the tops of the lofty hills, to thee I kneel; do thou come unto me kind and lending ear unto a prayer that is acceptable, and give Cleobulus good counsel, O Dionysus, to receive my love.

      [a complete letter (or serenade?) to Cleobulus]

      3

      img19.jpg

      [HERODIAN] ON FIGURES of Speech [repetition of a word in various cases]: It occurs in Anacreon in three:

      I love Cleobulus, I dote on Cleobulus, I gaze at Cleobulus.

      4

      img19.jpg

      ATHENAEUS DOCTORS AT Dinner [on the eyes of the beloved]: And what says Anacreon?

      O lad that lookest in maiden wise, I seek thee and thou hearkenest not, little knowing that the reins of my soul are in thy hand.

      5

      img19.jpg

      EUSTATHIUS ON THE Odyssey [‘thrice blest’]:... and in Anacreon:

      but O thrice out-swept Smerdies,

      that is ‘often swept out’ [meaning doubtful, perh. ‘well-groomed, foppish’]

      6

      img19.jpg

      THE SAME ON the Iliad:... Poseidon is the ‘cause’ comprising the sea, being the cause of ‘drinking’ (ποδις) owing to the rivers and other waters which spring forth after percolating from the sea, with which ‘drinking’ is connected the rain, itself ‘drinkable’ (πάτιμος); and that is why in Attic the month of the winter solstice is called Poseideon; compare Anacreon:

      Lo! the month of Poseidon is here; the clouds are heavy with water, and wild storms bring the sky-God down.

      7

      img19.jpg

      SCHOLIAST ON THE Iliad [‘immovable’]: The mark is against αστεμφες, which means ‘not to

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