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The Epigrams of Anacreon on Hermae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

C. A. Trypanis
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Extract

If we consult the Anthologia Lyrica of E. Diehl and the Geschichte der griechischen Literatur of Schmid-Stählin, we find that they consider as genuine the three epigrams on Hermae which the Palatine Anthology attributes to Anacreon. The question of the authenticity of these epigrams has been for long a matter of dispute, but we may shed further light on it if we take into account the spread of the cult of Hermes in Attica and Anacreon's visit, or possibly visits, to Athens.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 1 , Issue 1-2 , January 1951 , pp. 31 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1951

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References

page 31 note 1 Fr. 103 (104); 105 (112); 106 (111).

page 31 note 2 Vol. 1. i, p. 433 (and n. 6) (München, 1929);, p. 437, n. 9.

page 31 note 3 Anth. Pal. vi. 138; vi. 143; vi. 346. A fourth one is attributed by the Anthology first to Anacreon (vi. 144) and then to Simonides (vi. 213). But after its first two lines were found on the Hermes of Hagia Trias by Milchlöfer and published by Wilhelm (Oesterreich. Jahreshejte 2, 1899, pp. 228 f.), they became generally and rightly attributed to the latter. See Busolt, , Griech.Gesch.III.i, p. 162Google Scholar; Diehl, Anthol.Lyr., fr. 101 (150) a; Picard, Rev. des ÉT. Anciennes, xxxvii (1935), pp. 9 f., etc.

page 31 note 4 See Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, , Sappho u. Simonides, p. 107Google Scholar, n. i and passim; Geffcken, Griechische Epigramme, No. 116; Weber, , Ana-creontea, p. 36;Google ScholarBoas, , De Epigr. Simonid., p. 152Google Scholar; Kaibel, Epigr. Gr., No. 758, etc. See also Fried- länder-Hoffleit, Epigrammata, pp. 67 f. and n. 8; also n. 107.

page 31 note 5 Mitteilungen des Deutsch. Insiit. in Athen, lx/lxi (1935–1936), pp. 300 f.Google Scholar

page 31 note 6 That the square shape was Attic cf. Thuc. 6. 27; Paus. 4. 33. 3.

page 31 note 7 Crome, , op. cit., p. 305.Google Scholar

page 31 note 8 Ps. Plat., Hipparch. 228 d f.

page 31 note 9 Cf. Herod 2. 2; l.G. ii. 1078.

page 31 note 10 For the famous Hermae of the Agora and their special democratic significance see Doma-szewski, , Die Hermen der Agora, S.B. Heidelberg, 1914, Ab. 10. 9.Google Scholar

page 31 note 11 Ps. Plat., Hipparch. 228 c. The same story is told by Aelian, V.H. 8. 2, probably using the Ps.-Platonic dialogue as his source.

page 32 note 1 This is also, and quite arbitrarily, connected with the great undertaking of Hipparchus in setting up Hermae; see Schmid-Stählin, , op. cit., p. 433Google Scholar and n. 6. All the information about the life of Anacreon has already been collected and examined by Welcker, F. G. in Rhein. Mus. iii (1835), pp. 128 f.Google Scholar (Kleine Schrijten, i, pp. 251 f.).

page 32 note 2 See Bowra, , Greek Lyric Poetry, pp. 305 f.Google Scholar

page 32 note 3 See, however, the suggestion of Madame Karouzou, B.C.H. lxvi/lxvii (1942–3), pp. 248 f.

page 32 note 4 Burnet, Greek Philosophy, vol. i, ‘Thales to Plato’; see also Taylor, , Comm. to Timaeus, p. 23;Google ScholarWade-Gery, , ‘Kritias and Herodes’, C.Q. xxxix (1945), p. 27, n. 2.Google Scholar

page 32 note 5 Plato, Timaeus 21 a.

page 32 note 6 His date is generally given earlier (cf. Kirchner, , Prosop. Attica, i. 592Google Scholar, etc.); in fact in Kritias 5, in P.-W. xi. 2, p. 1901, it is said that Plato places him too late, which is impossible because of this connexion with Anacreon, who is always held to have visited Athens only once and that during the tyranny.

page 32 note 7 Schmid-Stählin, , op. cit., 1. 2, p. 186;Google Scholar 169 (see also n. 7).

page 32 note 8 Beazley, , Attic Red-figure Vase Painters, p. 40Google Scholar, No. 69. Cf. Birch, S., Observations of the Figures of Anacreon (London, 1845), pp. 3 f.Google Scholar

page 32 note 9 Beazley, , op. cit., p. 31Google Scholar, No. 2. These two (a and b) published representations are conveniently assembled in Schefold, , Die Bildnisse der antiken Dichter, p. 51.Google Scholar

page 33 note 1 Beazley, , op. cit., p. 123, No. 29.Google Scholar

page 33 note 2 Cf. Richter, , Attic Red-figured Vases, 1946, p. 44;Google Scholar and Karouzou, B.C.H. Ixvi/lxvii, 1942–3, pp. 248 f. Madame Karouzou very convincingly identifies the figure of a comastes on an amphora of the Louvre (Vases ant. du Louvre; 3e série, G. 220, pl. 130, p. 206) with Anacreon. This should date 490–480 B.C.

page 33 note 3 We must bear in mind that these vasepaintings of Anacreon are only an indication, but by no means a sure proof, for ‘poets’ are exceptions even in this, as Sappho represented on 5th century vases shows. Cf. Schefold, , op. cit., pp. 55 and 57.Google Scholar

page 33 note 4 That friends and guests of tyrants could become friends of the succeeding democracy we know from Simonides and the famous epigram he composed in honour of the murder of his friend and host Hipparchus.

page 33 note 5 Diehl, fr. 8 (i).

page 33 note 6 The Anacreon of Copenhagen is supposed to be a copy of the bronze original: see Amdt, P., Glypt. Ny Carlsberg, p. 39Google Scholar; Lippold, G., Portrætstatuen, pp. 37 f.Google Scholar

page 33 note 7 “ can also be instead of , so it may possibly mean the ‘descendants”. It is not the epigraphical data which speak against Anacreon's authorship, as Kirchoff (C.I.G. i. 381), Kaibel (Epig. Gr. 758) Roberts-Gardner (Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, p. 439), and others thought, for the shapes of the letters, and in particular of the letter A (cf. C.I.G. i. 834 or Roberts-Gardner, op. cit.) are exactly the same as those on the altar of Pisistratus the Younger (Kirchner, Imagines Inscr. Atticarum (Berlin, 1935, v) which is dated 512 B.C. (cf. Welter, , Arch. Anzeig. liv (1934), p. 23Google Scholar) or 497 B.C. (cf. Meritt, , Hesperia, viii (1939), p. 64Google Scholar), and which falls well within the lifetime of Anacreon. The mixing of letters of the old Attic alphabet with those of the Ionian is probably due to Ionian craftsmen working in Attica at that time (cf. Kunze-Schleif, , Jahrb. d. deutsch. Arch, liii (1939), p. 129Google Scholar, or Welter, op. cit.). On these same epigraphical data Friedländer-Hoffleit, Epigrammata, No. 107 mainly exclude Anacreon's authorship.

page 33 note 8 Sappho and Simonides, p. 107, n. i.

page 33 note 9 Gr. Epigr., No. 116.

page 34 note 1 We should bear in mind that these epigrams must have been included already in the Crown of Meleager as works of Anacreon: cf. Anth. Pal. IV. i. 35.

page 34 note 2 Fact, et diet, memorab., 9. 8; Ps.-Lucian, De Longaev. 26, mentions that he died 85 years old.