Opening The Anacreontea — Anacreon in Plato Scroll…
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Anacreon · J. M. Edmonds (Loeb Classical Library, 1931)
[Image: ]Bust of Anacreon, Vatican Museum, Rome [THE MS HAS the title: ‘Convivial Half-Iambics of Anacreon of Teos and Anacreontea and Trimeters’; and at the end of the book ‘End of the Convivial Poems of Anacreon’; Anacreontea may be an alternative title, Trimeters that of a section which the scribe failed to copy out.] The Teian lord of minstrelsy Hailed me gaily in a dream; I ran and kissed him tenderly. Old he was, but fair did seem, Fair and fond of merriment; Love his tottering footsteps led, His lip of wine was redolent. There was a garland on his head; He snatcht it off and held it out; It smelt of him; and (silly lout!) I took and bound it my fool brows above; And from that hour I’ve never ceased to love. [Introductory. Probably the introduction to the book from which the oldest of the poems were selected.] Comrades, give me Homer’s lyre, But change the chord of blood and fire; …
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