The Fragments of Anacreon — Anacreon
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ΑΝΑΚΡΕΟΝΤΟΣ ΑΠΟΣΠΑΣΜΑΤΑ
Translation/edition: J. M. Edmonds (Loeb Classical Library, 1924)
Language: English
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## The Fragments of Anacreon

[Image: ]Anacreon depicted singing and playing his lyre — Roman copy, second century AD, Copenhagen

## BOOK I


## To Artemis

[1] Hephaestion on PoemsA 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.]

## To Dionysus

[2] Dio Chrysostom DeclamationsIt 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] [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] 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] 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] 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] Scholiast on the Iliad [‘immovable’]The mark is against αστεμφες, which means ‘not to be moved’; compare Anacreon:
for thou to me wast immovable.
[8] Scholiast on Dionysius Periegetes... Tartessus which Anacreon calls all-happy, for that Arganthonius reigned there.
Strabo Geography [on the wealth of the Iberians]Well might one believe the inhabitants of these parts to have a name for happiness and longevity, particularly their rulers; and it was for this reason Anacreon said:
I would not have Amalthea’s horn, nor even a reign of a hundred years and fifty over all-happy Tartessus; [the possessor of A.’s horn got all he wished]
Herodotus adds the name of the king in question, Arganthonius.
[9] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on sweet smells]And the wise Anacreon says:
Come haste thee to anoint with unguent a bosom as hollow as a cave; [the idea is ‘as deep-breasted as a woman’] exhorting him to anoint the bosom, in which lies the heart, clearly because the heart is soothed by sweet scents.
[10] Etymologicum MagnumΝΕΝΩΤΑΙ [for νενοηται] ‘he is minded... and the participle in Anacreon:but he, being lofty-minded
or ‘proud’...
[11] The SameΔΕΝΥΣΟς, Deunysus: — Dionysus. Compare Anacreon:and oft loud-shouting Deunysus
The ι becoming ε gives Deonysus, which is the Samian form — and by contraction Deunysus, like Theodotus Theudotus.
[12] Scholiast on Euripides [‘the sister of Hector and of many another!]τήν κάςιη ‘the sister’ [not ‘brother’]; compare Anacreon:
nor yet the tender sister
It is marked because he uses κάσις as a feminine noun, unless indeed it is a shortened form of κασιyvητη ‘sister.’
[13] Old Etymologicum Magnumμύθεαι ‘thou sayest’; second person of the present passive; compare Anacreon’s έπίδίνεαι:
thou art crazy for Leucippe.
[14] Etymologicum MagnumΣΊΛΛΟΙ:—’ jests,’ by change of τ to σ, thus some writers for τίλλοι; and τίλλεν means ‘to jest or flout’; compare Anacreon: ‘Flouts’ etc.
Old Etymologicum Magnumσίλλος ‘jest’... Compare Anacreon in the first Book:Lo! this man flouts the blue-bucklered warriors of Ιalysus.
[15] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on a poem of Hermesianax]Now Hermesianax is mistaken here in synchronising Sappho and Anacreon, the one having flourished in the reign of Alyattes father of Croesus, and the other in the time of Cyrus and Polycrates. Chamaeleon in his book On Sappho declares that she is held by some authorities to have been the person to whom Anacreon addressed the following poem:
Lo now! golden-haired Love hits me with his purple ball and calls me forth to play with a motley-slippered maid; but no, she hails from grand Lesbos, and so she finds fault with my hair because it is white, and goes gaping after another; and says that Sappho replied to him thus: ‘The hymn thou hast uttered O golden-throned Muse, is that which the illustrious old Teian sang so delightfully from that noble land of fair women’; but it is perfectly obvious, surely, that this poem is not the work of Sappho, and for my part I think that Hermesianax is not speaking seriously.
[16] Apollonius SyntaxTHE form χρήμι was actually used for χρω, like φημί, and the third person of it was χρησί, like φησί, with the shortened form χρη ‘it is right or necessary’; compare [the form φη ‘he says’] in Anacreon:
For Targelius saith thou pitchest the quoit full well.
[17] Chrysippus NegativesANACREON has said:Nor am I easy-going, nor yet pleasant to my fellow-citizens.
[18] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the antispastic]The catalectic tetrameter which has the second dipody iambic is called Priapeian, for instance:
I have dined on a morsel of thin mealcake, but I drained a whole keg of wine, and now I thrum delicately my lovely lute in a serenade to dear Poliagre.
[19] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on the magadis or harp]For the sweet Anacreon says:
And I thrum and thrum in the Lydian fashion the harp of twenty strings, while you, Leucaspis, play the roysterer.
[20] Scholiast on the Odyssey [‘the Sintians of wild speech’]Anacreon too speaks of them as makers of weapons:
What care I for the Scythians and the crook-bowed Sintians who befriend the Cimmerians?
[21] Hephaestion on PoemsThere are also in poems the so-called επωδοι — the noun is masculine — or epodes, when an addition is made to a long line... but when the addition comes first it is called a pro-ode, as in Anacreon:
Lo! I climb up and dive from the White Cliff into the hoary wave, drunken with love.
[22] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on flutes]We know also the flutes called half-bores [that is, with half the usual number of holes or stops], of which Anacreon says:
Who turneth back his mind to delightsome youth and danceth to the tender half-bore?
These flutes are smaller than the complete ones.
[23] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the Cratinean]Eupolis in the Exempt from Service has used this form of verse very irregularly; sometimes he writes it thus... and sometimes like this: ‘And I always consorted with good sea-breams,’ so that it becomes a mixed choriambic like this of Anacreon:
I saw Simalus in the chorus with his pretty lyre.
Sometimes again he has used it in other irregular shapes.
[24] The Same [on the choriambic]A frequent variety of the choriambic tetrameter catalectic is that which has the second dipody iambic as well as the close; compare Anacreon:
I return from the river bringing all bright...[the next line perh. began eιματα ‘clothes’; the speaker is feminine]
[25] The Same [Just before]Anacreon throughout a whole poem has made the first dipody (of the choriambic tetrameter catalectic) of a tribrach and an iambus, so that there is ‘resolution’ common both to the choriambic and to the iambic: ‘Light-winged,’ etc.
Lucian The Gallic HerculesBut when I remember that aged Heracles I begin to feel reckless and lose all shame to be doing such things at the statue’s time of life; so strength and swiftness and beauty and all other bodily advantages may go hang, and your Love-God, O poet of Teos, may ‘fly by me,’ etc.
Light-winged I fly to Olympus to fetch master Love; for lo! he will not play with me as he used to do, but he has seen that my beard is getting grey now, and so he flies by me in the wind of his golden-shining wings.
[26] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on τήγανον ‘pot’]The Ionians say ήγανον without the τ; compare Anacreon:
to throw green-wheat into the pot
[27] Priscian Elements of GrammarAnd it is not surprising, since the Greek poets are found to lengthen vocatives in the above termination. Compare Anacreon:
Fair-shining Sun,[if this poem referred to an eclipse it must have been either 19 May 557 or 17 Feb. 478]
[28] Attilius Fortunatianus the Metres of Horace [contrasted with Te deos oro Sybarin cur properas amandoThe second line of the stanza Anacreon gives thus:
cast his shield into the outflow of a fair-streaming river.
[29] Old Etymologicum MagnumCuckoo: — a spring bird the size of a falcon; a great coward; compare Anacreon:
as for me, I fled her like a cuckoo.
[30] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on ‘unconnectable’ metres]Anacreon has added the ithyphallic not to an iambic dipody but to an iambic-mixed choriambic:
I asked the lyre-maker Strattis if he would wear his hair long.
[31] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on thirst used metaphorically]There is no desire more imperious than that of thirst. And that is why Homer calls Argos ‘much-thirsted-after’ as being much desired owing to lapse of time [to the absent Greeks], And so too Sophocles says... and Anacreon:
You are dear, my lass, to strangers; so, as for me, you may let me go thirsty. [or, keeping the ms-reading, ‘let a thirsty man drink’]
[32] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the choriambic catalectic]some of these lines end with an amphibrach or bacchius, for instance in the dimeter... and in the trimeter compare Anacreon:
and fell in love with the tearful strife of war.
[33] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on the large cup or jar called κελεβη]compare Anacreon:And the serving-maid, holding the jar aloft, poured out the honey-sweet, mixed one in three.[i. e. one of wine to three of water]
[34] SCHOLIAST ON PINDAR [‘For in those days the Muse was not covetous nor an hireling, nor were sweet tender-voiced lays sold of honey lipped Terpsichore with their faces silvered o’er’]: he speaks periphrastically of those who wrote for money. The same sort of thing is said by Anacreon, and possibly there is a reference to it here. Anacreon says:
nor in those days did Persuasion shine all silver.
[35] Attilius Fortunatianus the Metres of HoraceIn Anacreon we find:I will take it to the temple of Hera.[prob. the famous temple on Cape Colonna in Samos, cf. 21]
[36] Scholiast on the Iliad [‘mules... which the Mysians gave once to Priam’]The Mysians, because they dwelt near the Enetians who first bred mules, or because the Mysian mules are particularly good; compare Anacreon:
The Mysians invented the mixing of mare-leaping asses with horses; whence the mules come by the name ‘half-asses.’
[37] Scholiast on the Odyssey [‘a stormy wind’]The correct form is without ν ζαη... it is Aeolic with the ν and should be accented on the last but one, as in: ⟨... [citation apparently lost; cf. Cram. A.P. 3. 480. 31] in Alcaeus; the form without the ν is Ionic; compare: ⟩
... I should live to see my country in misery;Anacreon. But Aristarchus says it should be circumflexed (i. e. in the Homeric passage).
[38] Hesychius Glossary ΕΡΜΑa support, or a deed, or a rocky place of the sea hidden from view by the waves; compare Anacreon:
I am carried over hidden reefs.
[39] Scholiast on Aeschylus [- -. - -.. -. - . - -]The rhythm is Anacreon’s, a broken rhythm suitable to a lament. For Anacreon lived some time at Athens at the time of his passion for Critias, and took delight in the lyrics of Aeschylus. They did not use them promiscuously but only in laments, as Sophocles did... This passage resembles (in rhythm):
And will you not suffer me to go home drunk?
[40] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on garlands]They called the garlands they tied about their necks υποθυμίδες; compare... and Anacreon:
and woven necklets of lotus did they put about their breasts.
[41] Pollux VocabularyWHEN Anacreon speaks of:a wattle basket full of the stalks of fine white celery
he means one plaited of reeds.
[42] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on dancing]Even Socrates the Wise loved the Memphis dance, and according to Xenophon, when he was found dancing it, as often happened, he used to say to his acquaintance ‘Dancing exercises every limb.’ For the verb ‘to dance’ was used of movement and excitement; compare Anacreon:
Lightly danced the fair-tressed daughters of Zeus;[context seems to imply that the dancing is metaphorical, but?]and Ion: ‘The unexpected makes hearts dance the more.’

## A and B

[43] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the dactylic]... and the tetrameter catalectic in a disyllable, which was first used by Archilochus in epodes... but this metre was afterwards employed by Anacreon for whole poems; compare:
Sweet-tuned swallow, pretty bird, and:Lo! baldhead Alexis goes a-wooing.
[44] The SameFOR those which are catalectic in a syllable, compare the two-and-a-half-foot used by Archilochus... and the three-and-a-half-foot used by Anacreon thus:
this, like all the people

## BOOK II

[45] [CF. ATH. 15. 674a, Poll. 6. 107]
Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on garlands]And why in Anacreon are people crowned with osier? In the second Book of his Lyric Poems we read:
For ten months now has Megistes crowned himself, dear heart, with osier and drunk the honey-sweet must. [prob. means he is an ephebus of 10 months’ standing]
A garland of osier is absurd; for it is used for cords and wickerwork.
[46] The Same [on mixing wine]Anacreon bids them mix the wine still stronger [than one of wine to two of water; Alc. 163] in this passage:
And into a pure clean jar let them pour five and three.
[47] Scholiast on the Iliad [‘in anger over the dice’]Most of the ‘individual’ editions read ‘in a quarrel over the dice,’ using the feminine form of the word ‘dice’; and it is more Ionic; compare Anacreon:
The dice of Love are madnesses and mellays.
[48,49] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the lonicum a minore]And the brachycatalectic tetrameter is used for whole poems by Anacreon:
Lo now! Love like a smith has smitten me with a great hammer and soused me in the chill stream.
Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on the luxury of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos]... Indeed he was actually a rival in love to the poet Anacreon, and in a fit of rage cut his beloved’s hair off.
Aelian Historical Miscellanies. Anacreon did not take upon himself to accuse Polycrates with coolness and determination, but shifted the blame to the beloved, in words in which he upbraided his rashness and ignorance in taking arms against his own hair. But the poem on the disaster to the hair must be sung by Anacreon; for he will sing it himself better than I.
Favorinus in Stobaeus Anthology [against beauty]And therefore Anacreon would seem to be ridiculous and captious in blaming the lad for having cut off some of his hair, in the words:
You have shorn a faultless flower of soft hair,
[arming your own hand against your tresses].
[50] Etymologicum MagnumΣΊΤΟΙ ‘corn’:... The word σείω ‘to shake’ occurs also in the form σίω, which is used by Anacreon, for instance:
tossing [your] Thracian locks
[51] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the Ionicum a minore]Of the trimeter the acatalectic... and in Anacreon:
May my due be granted me, to die; for no other deliverance from these troubles e’er can be.
[52] Scholiast on Pindar [‘a golden-horned hind’]The poets make a point of giving the female deer horns... and it is the rule in Anacreon:
mild-eyed, like a little suckling fawn that is afraid when he is left by his horned mother in the wood.
Zenodotus changed κεροεσσης ‘horned’ to εροεσσης ‘lovely’ because it is recorded that the females have no horns like the males; nevertheless all the poets give them horns.
[53] ETYMOLOGICUM MAGNUM:
Doorkeepers that fight are a mischief, from the second Book of Anacreon; σινάμωροι ‘a mischief,’ that is μεμορημενοι ‘destined to mischief,’ σίνεσθαι.
[54] Apollonius Homeric Lexiconθεσθαι ‘to deposit’:... for θησαυρός ‘treasure’ is sometimes called θεσμος; compare Anacreon:
and carried off a great treasure.
[55] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on the game called cottabus]They regularly practised the cottabus, — a Sicilian game as Anacreon of Teos testifies:
throwing with elbow curved the drops of the Sicilian cottabus.
[56] The Same [on garlands]They also wore garlands on their foreheads, as the beautiful Anacreon says:
Let us put little garlands of celery upon our brows and hold high festival to Dionysus.
[57] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the Ionicum a minore]And in Anacreon (51)... hut the catalectic trimeter is different: [the second foot being a molossus]
the prancing Bassarids of Dionysus [i. e. Bacchants prancing: or of straddling gait]
[58] Scholiast on Euripides [‘leaving her dear bed in a single garment like a Dorian maid’]... and ‘to play the Dorian’ means that women display themselves naked; compare Anacreon:
to put off her shift and play the Dorian
[59] PTOLEMAEUS DIFFERENCES IN words: [διαβόητος ‘famous’]: επιβόητος means ‘of ill report’; compare Anacreon’s second Book:
and you will make me of ill-report among my neighbours.
[60] Scholiast on the Odyssey [a vexed passage]μύθου ‘word, tale’: — here ‘rebellion’ or ‘factious strife’; hence Anacreon calls the rebel fishermen of Samos μυθηταί; compare:
And rebels, O Megistes, bear sway in the sacred city of the Nymphs.
[61] PTOLEMAEUS DIFFERENCES IN Words: λεια with an ε means ‘cattle-lifting’; compare Homer Iliad 677 ‘A mightily abundant prey did we drive together out of the plain’; whereas with the ι it is an adverb expressing intensity, whether the ι is short as in Anacreon:
thou art exceedingly afraid
[62] Plutarch AmatoriusSO true is it that the genuine love is of the male, not ‘shining with desire,’ as Anacreon says of that of the female, nor ‘gleaming with unguents,’ but of plain aspect and not spoilt in the schools of the philosophers.
e.g.... shining with desire and gleaming with unguents
[63] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on ‘unconnectable’ metres]A notable composite too is the double two-and-a-half-foot line known as the encomiologic, which consists of a two-and-a-half-foot dactylic and an iambic of the same length, used by Alcaeus... and by Anacreon in several poems, for instance
Warman Ares loves a staunch fighter.
[64] ELYMOLOGICUM MAGNUM: ΉΜΕΤΕΡΕΙΟΣ is a possessive adjective meaning ‘belonging to what is ours’; it was used by Anacreon thus:
neither one of our land nor beautiful
[65] Scholiast on Pindar [‘when they set about to make a crown for Ilium’]‘crown’ is metaphorical for ‘wall’; for the walls of a city are as it were its crown; so also Anacreon:
But alas! the crown of the city is destroyed.
[66] Choeroboscus on Hephaestion [on the combination of two syllables not separated by a consonant]Heliodorus in his Introduction says that even three syllables coalesce into one, for instance this double two-and-a-half line which resembles an elegiac:
Asteris, neither I love you nor Apelles.
For it is not an elegiac really, but the first part is a dactylic and the second an iambic, since it has two iambic feet and a syllable, so that the words φιλεω οΰ together make a short and one long.
[67] Etymologicum MagnumΗΠΕΡΟΠΕΥΤΗς ‘a cheat’:... compare (Od. 11. 364)... and Anacreon:... wishes to be a deceiver to us.
[68] The SameΆΒΑΚΉς ‘childlike, innocent’... so from αβακης comes ίβακω ‘to be childlike,’ as εύσεβω ‘to be pious’ from ευσεβης’pious’; there is also a form άβακίζω; compare Anacreon:
But as for me I hate all those who have secretive and uncompromising ways; I have learnt that you, Megistes, are one of the childlike ones; meaning quiet and not blustering.
[more prob. ‘frank’]

## BOOK III

[69] STOBAEUS ANTHOLOGY [ON death and its inevitability]; Anacreon:
My temples have grown grey and my crown bare and white; graceful youth is no longer with me, and my teeth are the teeth of an old man. There is left me but a short span of sweet life. And so I often make my moan for fear of the underworld. For dire is the dark hold of death, and grievous the way down thither; and more, ’tis sure that once down there’s no coming up.
[70,71,72] MAXIMUS OF TYRE Dissertations: The art of the sophist of Teos is of the same kind and character. He is in love with all who are beautiful and praises them all. His poems are full of the hair of Smerdis, the eyes of Cleobulus, and the youthful bloom of Bathyllus. Yet mark even in this his powers of restraint:
and I long to play with you; you have such pretty ways; and again:
To be just and fair is a good thing in lovers; and I am sure he has revealed his art at once in the lines:
For as for me, the children can but love me for my words and my tunes, seeing that I sing pretty things and know how to say pretty things.
[73] Strabo Geography [on the Carians]Their bent for things military is indicated, it is said, by our shield-straps, blazons, and plumes, all of which are called Carian. Compare Anacreon:
Lo! through the shield-strap of Carian work have I thrust my hand.
[74] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the lonicum a minore]The acatalectic dimeter of ‘irregular’ type is frequent in Anacreon:
Lo now! I went down to Pythomander’s to escape Love.
[75] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on mixing wine]It was formerly the custom to pour into the cup first the water and then the wine... Compare Anacreon:
Bring water, lad, bring wine, bring me garlands of flowers; aye, bring them hither; for I would try a bout with Love.
[76] The Same [on the same]In Anacreon it is one of wine to two of water:
Come bring me a jar, lad; I want my first-drink; ten ladles of water to five of wine, for I would e’en play the Bacchanal in decent wise; and proceeding he calls the drinking of wine unmixed a Scythian practice:
Come let us give up this Scythian drinking with uproar and din over our cups, and drink moderately between pretty songs of praise. [the two passages are apparently continuous]
[77] Scholiast on Hesiod [‘of the infernal God’]The word χθόνιος ‘infernal’ is used for στυγερος ‘hateful or wretched’ as in Anacreon:
and I kept myself secretive.[if the quotation is sounds it is hardly applicable]
[78] Scholiast on Pindar [‘Even as if one... shall make gift of a cup to his daughter’s young bridegroom’]πρόπινειν, ‘to drink before or to, to pledge,’ is properly to make a present of the drinking-vessel along with its contents; compare Anacreon:
Nay, pledge me, friend, thy slender thighs; where pledge means ‘let me have.’
[79] Etymologicum MagnumΠΗΓΟς ‘the purple coverlet’; for ρεξαι is equivalent to βαψαι ‘to dye’... the use of ραγευς for βαφευς ‘dyer’ and ρεγος for βάμμα ‘dye’ is shown by Anacreon’s phrase:
dye of sea-purple
[80] Proclus on Hesiod [‘a woman... with cozening babble’]κωτίλλουσα means ‘sweetly speaking’; he uses the verb in connexion with the swallow, as Anacreon does:
the babbling swallow
[81] Servius on the Aeneid [‘Dido... and drank long love’]metaphor from a drinking-party; so Anacreon
drinking love
[82] Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica‘mad Love’: — by ‘metonymy’ Love that makes mad... compare Anacreon
languishing love

## A

[82] Herodian Words Without ParallelBut Anacreon gives the word χαριειςgraceful
the full form χαριτοεις.
[83] PHOTIUS LEXICON:the talents of Tantalus
The Phrygian Tantalus was famous for his wealth, being reputed the son of Zeus and Pluto; the proverb is used by Anacreon in his third Book.

## BOOK IV. IAMBICS

[I HAVE INCLUDED trochaics]
[84] HERACLEITUS HOMERIC ALLEGORIES: Moreover Anacreon of Teos, in finding fault with the airs of a courtesan and the arrogance of a disdainful woman, has compared her skittish disposition to a horse in these lines:
Pray, why do you look askance at me, my Thracian filly, and shun me so resolutely as though I knew nothing of my art? I would have you to know I could bridle you right well and take rein and ride you about the turning-post of the course. But instead you graze in the meadows and frisk and frolic to your heart’s content; for you have not a clever breaker to ride you.
[perh, emending text, ‘for it is because I am so clever a breaker that I keep you unridden.’]
[85] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the trochaic]Among the acatalectic forms the tetrameter is a notable metre, for instance Anacreon:
Give ear, thou maid of the lovely tresses and robe of gold, give ear to an old man’s prayer. [prob. to a Muse]
[86] JULIAN THE BEARD-HATER: For already, as you see as well as I do, I am near, save the mark, to the time
JULIAN THE BEARD-HATER: When white hairs shall mingle with my black in the words of the poet of Teos.
[87] Palatine AnthologyA tetrameter by Anacreon:
Of all my gallant friends, Aristocleides, I pity thee the most; for in the defence of thy country from slavery thou hast lost thy youth.
[88] PLATO THEAGES:
SOCR: Well, shall we make use now of Euripides, Theages? It is he, I think, Who says ‘Kings know their art through converse with the knowing.’ Now suppose someone said to Euripides, knowing in what?... Well then, shall I tell you the answer?
THEAG: Please do.
SOCR: They are knowing in what Anacreon says Callicrite knew. You know the poem, don’t you?THEAG, Yes.
SOCR: Well? Is the converse you want the converse or company of a man who is of the same craft as Callicrite daughter of Cyane, and knows how to king it or queen it as the poet says that she did, so that you yourself may become a ruler over us and our country?
SOCR: e.g. Callicrite daughter of Cyane knows well how to queen it.
[89] Scholiast on Sophocles [‘swaying he fell on the unyielding earth’]τανταλωθείς means ‘shaken’ or ‘swaying,’ witness Anacreon:
swings amid the dark-leaved laurel and green olive[perh. of a bird]
[90] An Anonymous Writer On SolecismThe ancients called barbarous speakers solecians; compare Anacreon:
Make cease, O Zeus, the solecian utterance.
[91,92] Scholiast on the Iliad [‘a lion that has eaten up a bull’]the severance of the verb ‘eaten up’ from its prefix is descriptive of the disparted bull, as it is not necessary to the metre; compare Anacreon:
cut through the midst of the neck and:the robe was rent right down.
[93] Cramer Inedita (Oxford)μεμετρεαται ‘have been measured’: — this form is Ionic; compare Anacreon:
and my senses are stunned.
[94] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on σκύφος ‘a drinking-vessel’]Hesiod in the second Book of the Melampodia uses the form with π inserted... so also Anacreon:
but as for me, I held the cup and drained it to the white-crested Erxion;
‘drained it to him’ instead of ‘drank it to him.’
[95] [CF. POLL. 6. 107 who explains ‘Naucr.’ as ‘of marjoram’]
The SameNow that our enquiries have turned to garlands, pray tell us, Ulpian, the nature of the ‘wreath of Naucratis’ mentioned by the charming Anacreon; for that delicious poet says:
and each man had three garlands, of roses two, and the other a wreath of Naucratis.
[96,97] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on luxury]Chamaeleon of Pontus in his book On Anacreon, after quoting the lines:
the flaxen-haired Eurypyle’s concern is with Litter-rider Artemon;[not part of the next poem: for Euryp. cf. A. P. 7. 27]
declares that Artemon received this nickname from his luxurious habit of being carried in a litter. And indeed Anacreon avers in the following passage that he rose from poverty to luxury:
Once he went about in the wasped-headdress of a Cimmerian, with wooden astragals in his ears, and about his ribs a hairy oxhide that had been the unwashen cover of a wretched shield — the scoundrel Artemon who made a fraudulent living by consorting with bread-wenches and whores-for-choice, with his neck often bound to the whipping-stock [according to Poll. 10. 177 fraudulent buyers or sellers in the market were thus treated] or else to the wheel, and his back often seared with the leathern scourge and his hair and beard plucked out; but now he goes in a coach, wearing earrings of gold like a mix-with-all, and carries an ivory sunshade as though he were a woman.
[98] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the iambic]There are notable acatalectic forms of it, whether dimeters such as whole poems of Anacreon (104)... or trimeters such as: ‘Ye are’ etc.
Plutarch Against the StoicsSo when they are thirsty they have no need of water, nor when hungry of bread:
Ye are like kind guests who need but roof and fire.
[99] Zenobius ProverbsIT is said that the Carians when at war with Darius the Persian, in obedience to an old oracle bidding them take the bravest of men for their allies, went to Branchidae and asked the God there if they should seek alliance with Miletus; whereupon he replied:
There was a time when the Milesians were brave men:but the line occurs earlier in Anacreon.
[100] SELECT PROVERBS:Thanks to Syloson there’s plenty of room:
Syloson of Samos became friendly with the Persian king Darius, and through his means succeeded to the despotism at Samos on the death of Polycrates, but owing to the harshness of his rule most of the inhabitants emigrated. Hence the proverb.
[101] Herodian on Incorrect SpeechThere is a difference between -γημαι ‘to marry’ and γημασθαι ‘to give oneself in marriage, be married’... Anacreon, ridiculing a man for effeminacy, says:
and the chamber wherein he married not but was married.
[102] Etymologicum MagnumΚΝΰΖΑ, according to Herodian, if it means the plant ‘Fleabane,’ is a shortening... but if it means ‘spoilt or denied’ it comes from κνύω ‘to scratch’ — whence κνυος ‘the itch’ — ; compare Anacreon in the Iambics:
I am growing blear-eyed and big because of thy lechery. [the subject is fem: the meaning ‘blear-eyed’ or ‘with itching eyes’ is more likely than ‘defiled’]
[103] ZONARAS [ON ΠΑΝΔΟΚΕΙΟΝ ‘inn’]... the form μοχλός ‘bolt’ with a χ is used equally in Attic, Doric, and Ionic, save for Anacreon, who is practically alone in spelling it with a κ, though Zenodotus would change it to a χ:
He sleeps untroubled though he never drew bolt in his house-door.[lit. double-door]
[104] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the iambic]There are notable acatalectic forms of it, whether dimeters such as whole poems of Anacreon, for instance:
Lo! I both love and love not, and am mad yet not mad.
[105] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on πίνω ‘to drink]Then, my friend, to quote the Twins of Alexis ‘Drink you to this man and he to another’ and let us have what the lyric poet Anacreon calls a hearth-cup:
and babble not like a wave of the sea, while you quaff the bounteous hearth-cup with the jade Gastrodora;
[prob. a comic perversion of Metrodora (Wil.)]this is what we call the equalisation-cup.
[106] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on the iambic]The catalectic dimeter is that known as Anacreontean, for instance:
He that will fight may fight if he will.
[107] Priscian the Metres of TerenceAccording to Heliodorus, Anacreon has the line:O ever too delightful one! for many are they that love thee;
where the iambic line has a spondee in the fourth place.
[108] Etymologicum Magnum ΚΙΝΆΚΗ ‘scimitar’the form is κινάκης in Sophocles. The form used by Anacreon (is not parallel, for it) is written without the ι (‘subscript’); there has been ecthlipsis or squeezing-out of the ι, and with crasis of ωα the result is τωκινάκη
with his scimitar
as in ωπολλον for ω Απολλον ‘O Apollo.’
[109] ETYMOLOGICUM SORBONICUM ΑΣΤΡΑΒΗ... in Anacreon it occurs in the form αστραφηsaddle
and is used of a chair-saddle in which people sit securely.
[110] Hesychius Glossary ΑΎΤΆΓΗΤΟΙ‘self-admiring, self-marvelling’ (women); Ion in the Alcmena. Some authorities say it means
stubborn and it is used so by Anacreon.
[111] Etymologicum Magnum ΙΣΥΝΗΚΐΝAlcaeus uses this form, and Anacreon εξυνηκενhe understood,
with pleonastic augment.
[112] Scholiast on AristophanesBecause of its warming the breast the phrase ‘to put the corslet on’ is used meaning ‘to be drunk,’ and people slightly drunk were called
top-corsleted an expression used by Anacreon. It is Attic.
[113] Etymologicum GudianumΚΟΡΩΝΗ ‘crow’... from καυρος which means ‘bad’: compare Anacreon:stepping with arched neck
[i.e. haughtily].
[114] Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica [‘glancing fearfully over them’]looking at them hard and excitedly; for παμφαλαv
to glance fearfully is to look at excitedly, and is used by Hipponax and Anacreon.
[115] Clement of Alexandria The SchoolmasterFor effeminacy of movement in walking about and to go straddling-wise
in Anacreon’s phrase, are altogether marks of the harlot. [1 cf. Semon. 18 (Bergk), to whom the fr. possibly belongs]

## BOOK V. ELEGIACS

[116] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on drinking-parties]And the delightful Anacreon says:
I like not him who at his drinking beside the full mixing-bowl tells of strife and lamentable war, but rather one that taketh thought for delightsome mirth by mingling the Muses and the splendid gifts of Aphrodite.
[117] Hephaestion Handbook of Metre [on ‘common’ syllables]It is also found in epic metres, for instance in Theocritus... and in Anacreon’s Elegiacs:
Neither is it a thing to your mind, but nevertheless I await you without doubting.
[118] [Longinus] on the Sublime... Most productive and fruitful [of such an effect?] is this of Anacreon:
I care no more for the Thracian ⟨[filly.⟩ [emendation uncertain]
In this respect too this phrase of Theopompus is worthy of praise — it seems to me the analogy makes it most impressive — : ‘Philip being adept at eating circumstances as a duty.’ You see that the homely phrase is sometimes far more vivid than the embellishment; for it is immediately recognised from everyday life, and we are quicker to believe a thing when it is familiar to us.
[119] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on cups]And Anacreon says:and I am become a wine-bibber.
[120] MACEDONIUS:... NOR WOULD I like rigid Aristotle sit in judgement on myself; for ’tis the counsel of Anacreon that I keep in mind —
let not Care restrain.
[121] HYGINUS ASTRONOMIES: FOR this reason it is said by some authorities that the Lyre, which comes next to that constellation, is the lyre of Theseus, for among his manifold accomplishments he seems to have been skilled in the lyre. And Anacreon says the same:
The lyre is near to Aegid Theseus.[Mein, perh. rightly ascribes this line to a later Anacreon who wrote Astronomica]
[122] Eustathius on the IliadMoreover Anacreon calls such a woman quite coolly ‘all-given’ and ‘people-trodden,’ and ‘sung-of-many.’
Suidas Lexicon μυσαχνη— ‘harlot’ in Archilochus...Anacreon calls her ‘all-given’ and ‘people-trodden,’ and (mad-tail?)e.g. All-given, sung - of - many, people-trodden, apple-orchard
[123] HESYCHIUS GLOSSARY:Son of Aethopia
that is ‘Dionysus’; Anacreon. Some authorities say that Aethopia means ‘wine,’ others ‘Artemis.’
[124] SCHOLIAST ON THE Iliad [‘the arms the God hath given are such as the work of immortals should be and as no mortal man should have made’]: Since the fact is of its nature an hyperbole it admits of no extension; compare Anacreon;
he revels as Dionysus revels where Dionysus is compared with himself.
[125] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on meals]Telemachus’ tables remained before the guests full during the whole of the entertainment as is still the custom among many Barbarian nations,
overspread with all manner of good things as Anacreon says.
[126] Gregorius on HermogenesThe ear is improperly flattered by this figure when it is erotic in character, I mean as it is used by Sappho and Anacreon; for instance ‘as white as milk,’ ‘as soft as water,’ ‘as tuneful as the lyre,’ ‘as skittish as a mare,’ ‘as delicate as a rose,’ ‘as soft as a fine robe,’ ‘as precious as gold.’
[127] Hesychius GlossaryΆΜΊΘΑ: — a kind of eatable or sauce mentioned by Anacreon.
[128] Eustathius on the OdysseyWhence is said to come Anacreon’s use of άνηλατος to mean:disobedient,
from beasts of burden.
[129] Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner [on stringed instruments]The baromus and the barbitus mentioned by Sappho and Anacreon, as well as the magadis and the trigonon and the sambuca, are all ancient.
[130] Pollux VocabularyANACREON uses διτοκος to mean her that has twice brought forth
[131] The SameTHE participles are τερπων ‘pleasing’ — and there is the aorist ετερψεν ‘he pleased’ — ; ηδων ‘pleasing,’ which is Ionic; and the aorist ησε
he pleased though rare with us, occurs in Anacreon who was an Ionian and a poet.
[132] The Same [on women’s head-adornments]And you might add... the flower-cups used by Homer and Anacreon.
[133] The SameΠΤΎΣΜΑ ‘spittle’... the words that come from it are πτυειν ‘to spit,’ αποπτύειν ‘to spit out,’ καταπτύειν ‘to spit upon,’ κατάπτυστος ‘contemptible,’ άπάπτυστος ‘detestable’; Anacreon uses the separate feminine form κατάπτυστη
contemptible
[134] Scholiast on Aeschylus [‘soft-living Lydians’]They live softly, whence Anacreon’s phrase:Lydian-like persons
meaning ‘luxurious.’
[135] Strabo Geography [on Ionia]The first founder of Teos was Athamas, and that is why Anacreon calls it
Athamantid
[136] Pollux VocabularyFROM οινος ‘wine’... οίνοπότης ‘wine-bibber,’ and οινοποτις wine-bibbing woman in Anacreon.
[137] The SameAND wine-server in Anacreon.
[138] Hesychius GlossaryΓΥΝΑΙΚΕς ειλιποδες ‘shambling women’... and Anacreon says:twining thigh with thigh
[139] Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica [‘Hera clasped her soft hand’]ραδινης ‘soft, tender’; but Anacreon uses it to mean ‘swift’ [the explanation is hardly correct]:
slender colts
[140] Choeroboscus on Theodosius CanonsWe remark in Homer the phrase ‘the soiled clothes which I have by me’... and in Anacreon
beflogged back
[141] Servius on the Aeneid [‘and fears for his dear burden’ Camilla]Compare Anacreon:a burden of love
[142] Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica [‘through the beautiful sleeping-chamber’]... ‘beautiful’ either because the room was royal, or because it was connected with love; for that is how we speak of what belongs to our beloved. So Anacreon of the woman he loved....
[143] Pollux VocabularyACCORDING to Anacreon they used to crown themselves with myrtle, and coriander, and willow; and with the wreath of Naucratis, which was marjoram; and also with anise, which is mentioned both by Sappho and by Alcaeus.
[144] Himerius Declamations [to Basilius]Hail! dear light that smilest with so fair a face; for I will take a tune from the lyre to sing in honour of your visit, and though I would rather prevail upon the actual words to be my lyre and poesy so that I might sing you some wanton thing such as Simonides or Pindar sang to Dionysus and Apollo, I will content myself, since the words are proud and haughty and unmanageable and frisk it outside the limits of metre, with inviting Poesy to give me some tune of Teos, which is a Muse I love, and bring you this song of praise from the stores of Anacreon, adding to it something of my own: O light of Greece and of all us who dwell in the holy plain of Pallas and the groves of the Muses...
[145] The Same [to Cerbonius]Come then, my children, since this man illumines us like a God such as poets clothe in mortal guise and various shapes and bring into towns and cities ‘to note the lawlessness or orderliness of man,’ such as Homer makes Athena, and Anacreon and Euripides make Dionysus...
[146] Zenobius Proverbs‘PROUDER than Peleus of his sword’: — this proverb is mentioned by Anacreon and by Pindar in his Nemeans (4. 95); it is said that the sword was made by Hephaestus and given to Peleus by the Gods because of his virtuous behaviour, and by using it he always succeeded whether in battle or the chase.
[147] FULGENTIUS MYTHOLOGIES: FOR according to Anacreon, a most ancient authority, when Zeus took arms against the Titans — that is the sons of Titan brother of Saturn or Cronus — and had made sacrifice to Heaven, he saw an eagle fly in such a way as to make a favourable omen of his victory; and for this happy augury, and the more because it was followed by victory, he made a golden eagle upon his war-standards, and consecrated it as a protection to his valour; whence are derived the Roman standards of the like sort.
[148] Scholiast on Horace [‘nor has Time destroyed the playful work of old Anacreon’]Anacreon wrote a satire (on his enemy Lysander?). Some authorities say that he wrote the story of Circe and Penelope ‘loving the same man.’
[149] Palatine AnthologyANACREON of Teos on the soldier Agathon, at Abdera:
The doughty Agathon who died for Abdera, was mourned at his pyre by all this town; for blood-loving Ares never slew in the whirl of hateful battle such a youth as he.
[150] The SameON Timocritus for distinguished valour; by Anacreon:
This is the tomb of Timocritus, a staunch man in the wars; for it is the craven, not the brave, that are spared by Ares.
[151] The SameA dedication; by Anacreon:
She with the thyrse is Heliconias, she next her Xanthippe, and she that is joining the others Glauce; and they come from the hill with ivy and a fat bunch of grapes and a kid for Dionysus.
[title of dedicatory picture or plaque]
[152] The SameA dedication to Zeus by Pheidolas; by the same:
This mare of Pheidolas from spacious Corinth is set up as a memorial of the prowess of her legs.
[153] The SameA dedication; by the same:This robe was made by Praxidice and designed by Dyseris: the art of it is common to them both.
[154] The SameA dedication to Apollo by Naucrates; by the same:
Lord of the Silver Bow, hearken to these prayers, and give thy gracious thanks to Naucrates son of Aeschylus.
[155] The SameBY the same:
I was first set here in effigy by Calliteles; this later image of me is put up by his children, to whom give thou thanks.
[a herm with what appears to be an incorrect restoration (omitting μ) of this inscr., in letters dating 460-445, has been found at Athens.]
[156] The SameA dedication by Praxagoras; by the same:
These gifts to the Gods are the offering of Praxagoras son of Lycaeus, and the work of Anaxagoras.
[157] The SameA dedication by Melanthus to Semele; by the same:
I was set up to the garland-loving son of Semele by Melanthus son of Areiphilus in memory of the victory of his chorus.
[158] The SameA dedication to Athena; by the same:
I who hang here in the precinct of Athena am the shield which brought Python safe home from ill-sounding war.
[159] The SameA dedication to Dionysus; by the same:
To thy honour, Dionysus, and as a fine adornment of the city was I set up by Echecratidas lord of Thessaly.
[160] The SameA dedication to Hermes by Timonax; by the same:
Pray you that the Herald of the Gods be kind to Timonax, who set me up to the Lord Hermes as an adornment of the pretty porch; I receive into my gymnasium any who will come, friend or stranger.
[161] The SameANACREON:
In gratitude for these pretty gifts, O Son of Maia, send Tellias a life to be desired, and grant he may dwell among the upright-ruling people of Euonymia [a deme of Attica] enjoying the lot of happy days.
[inscr. for a statue of Hermes (set up by a resident alien outside the house, Wil.)]
[162] The SameON Cleenorides lost at sea; by Anacreon:
Thou too, Cleenorides, didst put thy trust in the wintry blast of the Southwind and wast slain by thy love of thy home; for the season with whom is no covenanting had kept thee fast, and now the wet waves have washed away thy pleasant youth.
[163] BEKKER INCDITA: ΑΚΤΑΙΝΩΣΑΙ
to uplift
meaning to raise, to lift, to elevate; and it is formed thus: — there is a tree called ακτεα or ακτή ‘elder,’ from which they make darts; so Anacreon.
[164] Eustathius on the Iliad [‘sits on both feet’]because people who sit thus on both feet can be called sarcastically knock-kneed, as is shown by the ancient writers where they say that crooked-legged people are
knock-kneed but Anacreon uses the word of cowards.
[165] Apollonius Adverbs [on adverbs in -στί]With this in view Tryphon investigated the forms μεγαλωστί ‘greatly’ and ιρωστί
sacredly in Anacreon.
[166] Eustathius on the Odyssey⟨φω⟩ is equivalent to λεγω ‘to say,’ and has an aorist participle φασας — as κλω has κλάσας — by shortening, φάς, as... just as Heracleides quotes the form κλάς
having broken off from Anacreon.
[167] [CF. ORION 148. 5]Etymologicum MagnumAnd σαλαιζειν is used by Anacreon meaning to wail
[168] Scholiast on the Iliad [‘perish unpraised’]according to some authorities, ‘unlamented’; Anacreon uses ύμνος
song of praise
to mean a dirge.
[169] Herodian Words without Parallel:Phillus
is a proper name in Anacreon. [the names Phillo and Philleas occur in inscriptions, and Phillus in Herodas 3. 60]