tyrant of Samos at least ten years, ending in 522 B. C. Strabo says Anacreon's poems are full of the name of Polycrates, which seems to indicate that the poet was at Samos for some years, if not throughout the entire period of the tyranny. He was at Samos when Polycrates was killed, but went soon after to Athens, where Hippias and Hipparchus had been for five years in possession of the power left them by their father, Pisistratus. Hipparchus was a lover of poetry, music, and art, and is said to have sent a galley to bring Anacreon to his court. At Athens, Anacreon was the friend not only of Hipparchus, but also of other prominent men, among them Xanthippus, the father of Pericles. Hipparchus was murdered in 514, but whether Anacreon was at Athens at the time is not known. He may have stayed at Athens even after the death of Hipparchus, for the fact that an epigram preserved under his name was intended for an offering by a Thessalian chief, Echecratides, does not prove that Anacreon went to live in Thessaly. The date of the poet's death is unknown, though as he is said to have lived to the age of eighty-five years, his death probably took place at some time after 500 B. C. An epigram attributed to Simonides mentions his tomb at Teos, but the attribution is probably not correct, and the epigram therefore proves nothing more than that at some later time it was believed that Anacreon's tomb was in his native town. The story that he was obliged to leave Teos in 494 is probably only a repetition of the story of the migration in 545. In one or two places Anacreon speaks of having been a soldier, and he imitates Archilochus and Alcæus so far as to say that he threw away his shield, but his poems as a whole are not those of a warlike or soldierly man. He was a court poet, a lover of soft pleasures, of luxurious surroundings, good company, good food, and good wine. Archilochus was a roving warrior, fighting for no principle, to be sure, but too independent to live on the bounty of any ruler. Alcæus was a fierce partisan in politics, a lover of liberty, at least for himself and his faction, outspoken and independent. Even Sappho, though a woman, had been forced into exile by the tyrants of her native island. But Anacreon was the friend of Polycrates and of Hipparchus. He was not too independent to be agreeable to the wealthy rulers and their friends, who gave him the comforts he loved in return for the poems which praised their acts or their characters, or at least added a delicate and refined pleasure to their banquets. In Anacreon's poetry there is no great power, but there is much grace, elegance, and brilliancy. Though several of the extant fragments are addressed to deities, there is no genuine religious feeling, but rather here, as elsewhere, a graceful, almost playful ease of expression. The impression of ease is enhanced by Anacreon's use of a simple and elegant Ionic dialect cast in verses of great variety, but for the most part short and far from complicated. His versification resembles that of Alcæus and Sappho, but he avoids the Sapphic and Alcaic The poems of Anacreon. stanzas. Like most of the Greek poets, Anacreon wrote elegiac verses, but these differ little in character from his odes. The charm of his poetry is inseparable from his language, but some of its qualities may be recognized even in a translation, as, for instance, of his so-called hymn to Dionysus: O Lord, with whom the conqueror Eros and the blue-eyed nymphs and blushing Aphrodite sport, thou who wanderest on the peaks of the high mountains, I beseech thee, but do thou come propitious to me, and hearken graciously to my prayer. To Cleobulus be a good counselor, that he accept my love, O Dionysus. Again he sings to a beloved boy: O boy with maiden glances, maiden grace, Elsewhere he sings of the joys of wine and pleasure, and also of the troubles of old age which takes away the charm and the pleasures of youth. Anacreontics. Of the poems of Anacreon, which formed in the Alexandrian period five books, only about one hundred and seventy fragments are preserved, and of these many consist of but one line or less. But his light and pleasing verse was deservedly popular throughout antiquity, and called forth numerous imitations. A collection of these imitations, Anacreontics as they are called, is preserved in the anthology of Cephalas, dating from the eleventh century after Christ. There are about sixty pieces, each composed of a system of short verses, Ionic dimeters or catalectic iambic dimeters-i. e., dimeters lacking a syllable at the end. These are of various merit and of various dates. For many years they were regarded as the genuine work of Anacreon, and references to Anacreon in modern literature are for the most part references to these poems. It is now recognized, however, that they are very much later work in imitation of Anacreon. Some of them are really beautiful, though none shows any great power, but rather an attractive and often playful sweetness. They tell of love among roses, of Love who comes to the singer and begs for shelter on a stormy night, only to reward his host by fixing an arrow in his heart, of the pleasures of wine, of the charms of the beloved. Their general character is indicated in the lines: You sing the Theban story, Some sing of Phrygian deeds; I sing my own destruction. I was not lost by steeds In spite of his Ionic dialect, Anacreon is properly classed with the two Lesbian poets Alcæus and Sappho, being, like them, a singer of short and simple songs to be accompanied by the lyre. This kind of monodic poetry has found many admirers at all times, but the progress of Greek poetry led in another direction, and these three poets had no immediate successors. CHAPTER IX CHORAL LYRIC POETRY Thaletas, about 660-600 в. c.—Alcman, about 650–600 B. c. or a little later-Arion, 640 (?)-570 (?) B. C.-Stesichorus, about 635-555 B. C.— Ibycus, about 590–520 B. c. Monodic poetry individual. THE development of choral poetry in Greece is due in great measure to the peculiar character of Greek civic life. Alcæus, Sappho, and Anacreon, as well as the elegiac poets, expressed their individual sentiments in beautiful verse, with all the grace and all the power to which each individual poet could attain. The works of these poets are charming in their sweetness, their simplicity, their straightforward honesty of workmanship, their suggestive imagery, their diction, and their versification, but they differ from the poetry of other peoples in details or in special qualities rather than in their whole nature and essence. This is because the individual is essentially the same at all times and in all places, however he may be influenced in details and in special directions by his surroundings. The individual utterances of an Alcæus or a Sappho are those of a man or a woman, and the fact that the man or woman is a Greek of Lesbos is a matter of importance, to be sure, but of secondary importance only. But Greek choral lyric poetry is the expression not of the individual, but rather of the community. The poet whose verses are sung by the whole people of his native city as they approach the shrines of the gods, or by the |