Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589 brill.

nl/mnem

Marginal Voice and Erotic Discourse in Anacreon

Ippokratis Kantzios
University of South Florida, College of Arts and Sciences, WLE, 4202 E. Fowler Ave.,
CPR 107, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
kantzios@usf.edu
Received: February 2009; accepted: May 2009

Abstract
In archaic lyric poetry the expressions of erôs often provide commentary regarding
the identity, cohesion, ideological parameters and value system of the aristocratic
group to which the lovers belong, expressed in language of physical desirability. In
the poetry of Anacreon, however, this pattern of socio-erotic interaction mediated
by beauty is disrupted, as the erastês is often an older man, and the object of desire
either a non-aristocrat or not a citizen at all. This distortion of the code of eligibil-
ity of both erastês and erômenos is a reflection of the new mode of interaction
between the poet and his (sympotic) audience: Anacreon, being an itinerant enter-
tainer offering his services at the courts of tyrants, is an outsider whose attachment
to his listeners is incidental, and whose voice—contrary to that of his predeces-
sors—does not express the concerns of the group outside the banquet hall. For
this reason the poet adopts a marginal persona through which he safeguards his
distance from the audience and is able to function in ways similar to those of Sap-
pho when (re)performed in a sympotic setting.

Keywords
Anacreon, Sappho, symposion, tyranny, aristocracy, old age

The ancient sources inform us that Anacreon was considered the sympotic
poet par excellence, and this information is indeed corroborated by the
numerous references to wine drinking in his extant corpus.1) Poetry

1)
Fifteen of his fragments (346 fr.4, 352, 356ab, 373, 383, 396, 409, 412, 415, 427, 433,
454, 455, and eleg. frr. 2, 4 W) mention wine drinking. Three visual representations of the
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI: 10.1163/156852511X504999
578 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589

performed at the archaic symposion, that is, the bulk of archaic monody, is
aristocratic, since the symposion itself is an institution practiced principally
by members of the nobility.2) The verses of Archilochus, Alcaeus, Theognis,
Mimnermus and Solon give us ample evidence that the poet both reflects
the value system of the group and sets forth its ideological parameters.3) It
is in this context that we must understand all discourses in archaic poetry,
including erotic ones. Thus pederastic relationships are not depicted as
limited to the level of sensual pleasure alone but as contributing to the
transmission of aristocratic ideology from one generation to the next
through moral and political advice by the erastês, a man in his prime, to his
attractive and youthful erômenos. In Anacreon, however, this pattern is
disrupted, as the erastês is often an older man, and the object of desire
either a non-aristocrat or not a citizen at all. In my paper I suggest that the
distortion of the code of eligibility of both erastês and erômenos is primarily
the expression of the notional distance between the poet and the sympotic
group. On a second level, it is a by-product of the particular composition
of his audience and its internal dynamics, which constrain the poet to sing
of themes that offend no one politically. Anacreon, being an itinerant pro-
fessional offering his services for hire at the courts of tyrants, is an outsider
whose attachment to his listeners is incidental, and whose voice—contrary
to that of his predecessors—does not express the concerns of the group
outside the banquet hall. For this reason the poet chooses to adopt a mar-

poet in a symposiastic or komastic context appear in the so-called Anacreontic vases, see
Yatromanolakis 2007, 110-40 with bibliography. For Anacreon’s image as a lover of wine in
ancient sources, cf., e.g., οἰνοπότης (AP 7.28.2); φιλάκρητος, οἰνοβαρής (AP 7.24.5);
σεσαλαγμένος οἴνῳ, μεθυπλήξ (APl 306); vinosus senex (Ov. Ars 3.30). Text and enumer-
ation of Anacreon’s fragments are those of D.L. Page’s Poetae melici Graeci (PMG); for ele-
giac and iambic fragments, those of M.L. West’s Iambi et elegi Graeci. All translations in
this paper are mine.
2)
For the symposion as an aristocratic institution, see Murray 1982, 47-52; 1983, 257-72;
1990, 3-13; Bremmer 1990, 135-48; as the principal setting of archaic monody, cf. Reitzen-
stein 1970, 45 ff.; Murray 1980, 200 ff. and 1990, 9; Bowie 1986, 13-35; 1990, 221-9;
Pellizer 1990, 180.
3)
E.g., the addressee is advised to ignore the censure of the common people (δήμου),
Archil. 14, and abide by the truth and justice (ἀληθείη δὲ παρέστω / σοὶ καὶ ἐμοί, πάντων
χρῆμα δικαιότατον), Mimn. 8. Also Alc. 366: οἶνος, ὦ φίλε παῖ, καὶ ἀλάθεα. In fr. 15,
Solon by distinguishing between ἀγαθοί and κακοί reveals an aristocratic ideology and so
does Theognis in his admonitions to Cyrnus or the anonymous παῖς.
 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589 579

ginal persona which safeguards his distance from the audience and allows
him to sing of the symposion itself, life, and especially unfulfilled erotic
longing with an intensity comparable only to that of Sappho. Although
none of his themes is alien to previous sympotic poetry, Anacreon’s exclu-
sive focus on them, the unexpected twists in their treatment and his
expressed desire to keep politics at a distance4) create irregularities which I
will attempt both to identify and to explain in terms of his relationship to
his audience.
To begin, Anacreon depicts his characters in a light noticeably different
from that of his predecessors, who generally present men in their prime,
confidently pursuing the fulfillment of their military and political poten-
tial. The poetry of Archilochus, for instance, clearly conveys the percep-
tions of a speaker who is young enough to be a soldier and colonizer; in
Alcaeus, the speaker is a forceful and energetic participant in the political
arena of Mytilene; in Theognis, he is repeatedly self-described as a young
man; and in Mimnermus, the same occurs at least twice.5) To this

4)
In fr. 2 W, in an almost programmatic manner, Anacreon announces his aversion to
political and military themes (νείκεα καὶ πόλεμον δακρυόεντα) and his sole interest in
love poetry (Μουσέων τε καὶ ἀγλαὰ δῶρ᾿ Ἀφροδίτης συμμίσγων). Cf. also eleg. fr. 3 W,
in which he admits that he does not care about the Scythians, known for their military
prowess.
5)
In Archilochus, the point of view conveyed in much of his poetry is that of a speaker who
is young enough to be a soldier (frr. 1, 2, 4, 5, 89.14, 91.25, 112.2 and 114.1). In Alcaeus,
in fr. 38A.11-2 the speaker, in his address to Melanippus, identifies himself as a young man:
θᾶς] τ᾿ ἀβάσομεν αἴ ποτα κἄλλοτα ν[ῦν χρέων / φέρ]ην ὄττινα τῶνδε πάθην τά[χα δῷ
θέος; in the political fr. 73.9 he describes himself as young again (σύν τ᾿ ὔμμι τέρπ[εσθ]α[ι
συν]άβαις). In fr. 39.3 old age seems to be lying ahead: ]ευτέ με γῆρας τε[, and the same
applies in the very mutilated fr. 33 (in which the endings seem to be in the first person), cf.
ἀβα[ι]ς[, γηρά[σ]σ [ (probably in a future tense), ]ετι γυῖα φ[ (‘limbs still carry [?]’). For
the “I” fully dedicated to the political struggles in Mytilene, see frr. 6, 43, 58, 69, 70, 112?,
124?, 129, 130B, 140, 148, 167, 207, 208, 298. In Mimnermus: fr. 1.2-6 τεθναίην, ὅτε
μοι μηκέτι ταῦτα μέλοι (sc. the gifts of Aphrodite) / . . . οἷ’ ἥβης ἄνθεα γίνεται ἁρπαλέα
/ . . . ἐπεὶ δ᾿ ὀδυνηρὸν ἐπέλθηι / γῆρας . . . A similar idea appears in fr. 5.2-6 (same as Thgn.
1017-22): πτοιῶμαι δ᾿ ἐσορῶν ἄνθος ὁμηλικίης / . . . ἐπὶ πλέον ὤφελεν εἶναι· / ἀλλ᾿
ὀλιγοχρόνιον γίνεται ὥσπερ ὄναρ / ἥβη τιμήεσσα . . . γῆρας ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς αὐτίχ᾿
ὑπερκρέμαται. In fr. 6 the speaker expresses the wish that death come at the age of sixty
(ἑξηκονταέτη μοῖρα κίχοι θανάτου), thus suggesting that he is quite far away from that
point in life. In Solon: in regard to fr. 25, Plu. amat. p. 5, the quoting source, states that
Solon wrote the lines νέος ὢν ἔτι καὶ σπέρματος πολλοῦ μεστός. In Theognis: in
580 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589

prominence of young men we may contrast the paucity of older

characters: despite the presence of the theme of γῆρας, before Anacreon
the speaker is securely presented as an old man only infrequently.6) Espe-
cially in metasympotic references, “the revelers are young by definition, no
matter what their actual age is, and they define themselves as ‘young
men’ . . . ‘All the young ones’ are the poet’s fellow-symposiasts—who may
in fact be anything between twenty and sixty.”7) The motifs of old age and
death seem to have been used in paraenetic discourse chiefly as arguments
for carpe diem, to encourage the enjoyment of the sympotic moment, when
youth and health are still present.
Anacreon’s poetry, on the other hand, not only brings older men to
center stage, but, as if emphasizing the fact, also presents them in visual
terms, especially as appearance relates to the sphere of love. While tradi-
tionally γῆρας is dissociated from the realm of ἔρως and the aged man is
understood as having given up his claims to erotic desirability, Anacreon’s
older characters refuse to withdraw from the game of love. It is a paradox
that, although Anacreon’s themes are almost exclusively erotic, his charac-
ters are men who have passed the age in which erotic pursuits are consid-
ered a legitimate concern.8) It is indeed true that in a few cases the “I”

numerous passages the speaker is self-described as a young man, sometimes in a context of

gnomic advice: e.g., 567, 767-8, 877, 977-8, 983-5, 1018-9, 1119-22, 1063-4, 1323-6.
6)
Archilochus: in fr. 190 the speaker claims οἷος ἦν ἐφ᾿ ἥβης, thus placing his youth in the
past. The context seems to be sexual. Alcaeus: in fr. 50.2 the speaker describes his chest as
‘grey’, πολίω στήθεος. Solon: in fr.18 the speaker states that he is an old man but always
learning new things (γηράσκω δ᾿ αἰεὶ πολλὰ διδασκόμενος). One might also suspect that
the speaker of fr. 20 (ὀγδωκονταέτη μοῖρα κίχοι θανάτου), who feels the need to revise
Mimnermus’ wish, is around the age of sixty and not quite ready for Hades yet. Theognis:
the speaker is explicitly depicted as an old man in line 1351, ὦ παῖ, μὴ κώμαζε, γέροντι
δὲ πείθεο ἀνδρί. Cf. gnomic statements: gods give youth and old age; the worst possible
thing is when a child does not honor his father (271-8); an old man should not marry a
young woman (457-60); youth makes a man foolish and prone to wrong-doing (629-30).
7)
Slings 2000, 433, a propos Thgn. 1319-22.
8)
E.g., Plu. amat. 5 p. 751e: ὅθεν οἶμαι καὶ Σόλων ἐκεῖνα μὲν (περὶ ἐρωτικοῦ ἀνδρός, fr.
25) ἔγραψε νέος ὢν ἔτι καὶ σπέρματος πολλοῦ μεστός . . . ταυτὶ δὲ πρεσβύτης
γενόμενος . . . ὥσπερ ἐκ ζάλης καὶ χειμῶνος {καὶ} τῶν παιδικῶν ἐρώτων ἔν τινι γαλήνῃ
τῇ περὶ γάμον καὶ φιλοσοφίαν θέμενος τὸν βίον. Also Mimn. 1.2-6, see above. It is also
worth noting the response of old Sophocles in Plato’s Republic 329c: ‘Quiet, man! Certainly
I have escaped this (sexual desire) most gladly, as if fleeing a raving and savage master.’
Socrates’ comment: ‘At that point he seemed to me that he spoke well and now not less so.
 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589 581

indicates a young man: in frr. 378 and 402a the youth of the speaker is
indicated by the verb συνηβᾶν, and in fr. 420 he contemplates the min-
gling of his black hairs with white ones as a future event.9) But these excep-
tions do not alter the general impression that the poetry of Anacreon is
dominated by older men: in fr. 358 the girl from Lesbos despises the
speaker’s white hair (τὴν μὲν ἐμὴν κόμην, / λευκὴ γάρ, καταμέμφεται); in
fr. 395 the latter bemoans the whiteness of his head (πολιοὶ μὲν ἡμὶν
ἤδη / κρόταφοι κάρη τε λευκόν) and confesses his fear of death; in fr. 379
he mentions his graying beard (ὑποπόλιον γένειον); in fr. 418 he asks a
young female to listen to him, an old man (γέροντος); and in fr. 363, as
Athenaeus informs us, συρίγγων κοϊλώτερα στήθεα is also a reference to
an old man. Moreover, there may be two additional characters presented as
older men, again through hair imagery: Erxion is depicted as white-
crested (‘white-haired’?, λευκολόφωι, 433), and Alexis as bald (φαλακρός,
394b).10) Anacreon thus seems to draw attention not to characters in their
prime but to ones who bear visible signs of advanced age.
This shift has certain ramifications in the sphere of ἔρως, with which
the poet is primarily preoccupied. The fragmentary nature of Anacreon’s
corpus does not usually allow us to observe the reasons for his erotic fail-
ures; but when old age is mentioned, this must be understood as chiefly

For, no doubt, in old age a great peace comes in such matters and freedom, when desires
cease being intense and relax, then certainly what Sophocles said is true, and it is possible
to get rid of many and raging masters.’
9)
For the contrast between black and white hair and its representation of different stages
in life in archaic lyric and more generally in Greek society, cf. Irwin 1974, 194-6.
10)
In addition to these references, Anacreon’s corpus contains two others, more indirect
and uncertain in their suggestion of age: in fr. 374 the speaker tells his addressee ψάλλω δ᾿
εἴκοσι / χορδαῖσι μάγαδιν ἔχων, / ὦ Λεύκασπι, σὺ δ᾿ ἡβᾶις. Although the two parts of
the sentence are not strictly antithetical, in that they do not address the same thematic
point, they seem to express an opposition between the youth of Leucaspis and the advanced
age of the player of the magadis. We may imagine an older musician who sings about the
fact that he is singing, underlining the fresh beauty and grace of his addressee while at the
same time hinting at his own age, which no longer permits him to share in the joys of
youth; cf. Alcman fr. 26 and Sappho fr. 58. A similar although even less clear idea seems to
be present in fr. 375, in which the speaker asks τίς ἐρασμίην / τρέψας θυμὸν ἐς ἥβην
τερένων ἡμιόπων ὑπ᾿ αὐλῶν / ὀρχεῖται; We may again imagine the speaker referring to the
boy, who indulges himself in the carefree pleasures of youth while igniting erotic desire for
himself, and sadly realizing that his own youth is no more.
582 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589

responsible for them: In fr. 358 the girl from Lesbos rejects the speaker for
the explicit reason of his white hair.11) Lack of fruition in erotic pursuits is
a perennial motif for the “I” in Anacreon: in frr. 357 and 359 Cleobulus
remains an object beyond reach, as the speaker’s prayer to Dionysus indi-
cates, and that speaker is reduced to simply gazing (Κλεόβουλον δὲ
διοσκέω, 359).12) The same frustrated gaze (βλέπων δίζημαί σε) is encoun-
tered in fr. 360, in which the speaker again seeks the boy but the latter does
not even notice that he has gained such power over him (τῆς ἐμῆς ψυχῆς
ἡνιοχεύεις). In fr. 367 the speaker complains that his addressee (probably
the boy or a hetaira) is inflexible (ἀστεμφής) towards him, and in fr. 378
that the object of desire does not wish to have fun with him. In fr. 389 he
complains again that the female addressee satisfies (probably in an erotic
sense) strangers, but not him; in fr. 417 he asks a female, ‘the Thracian
filly’, why she flees him. We may add here the more general expressions of
suffering that the unsuccessful lover experiences: in fr. 411 the speaker
prays that death may come as a release from the pains of love, and in fr.
413, ‘dipped in a wintry torrent’, he endures the blows of the hammer of
Erôs. A substantial part of Anacreon’s poetry, then, is a chronicle of unmet
desires, intimations of an erotic world in disarray. This prevailing atmo-
sphere of dysfunctional ἔρως pushes the boundaries of the literature of
unfulfilled longing beyond the familiar landscapes of archaic monody,
with the exception of Sappho.
Although erotic dissonance in the poetry of Anacreon stems primarily
from the deficiencies of the lover, it may also be the result of the transgres-
sions of the erômenos, who, through his irresponsible, lascivious or other
inappropriate behavior disrupts the relationship with his lover, as in frr.

11)
Eros starts the process by tossing his purple ball to the poet. The god, being χρυσοκόμης,
with all its divine overtones, is given central prominence, so that inevitably the speaker’s
white hair is not only contrasted to the (presumably black) hair of the other man who is
competing for the girl’s attention, but also to the golden hair of the god; the old man is
shown as the epitome of the anti-lover.
12)
Goldhill (1984, 85-8) suggests that fr. 357 contains irreverent playfulness and verbal
games with the suffixes (Κλεό-βουλος / σύμ-βουλος), prefixes (συμ-παίζουσι / σύμ-
βουλος) and the placement of the addressed god at the very end, which violates the conven-
tions of proper prayer. Fr. 359 is a polyptoton in its form, a literary device with satirical
effects, as in Archil. fr. 115. The fact, however, that the two Cleobulus poems contain
humor and witticism does not alter in the end the sense of failure that permeates them.
 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589 583

354 (καί μ᾿ ἐπίβωτον / κατὰ γείτονας ποιήσεις) and 366 (ἀλλ᾿ ὦ τρὶς
κεκορημένε / Σμερδίη, in an obscene sense?). Even more important, in
two fragments (347, 414) the youthful erômenos has cropped hair like a
slave or a person in mourning: he is not only unattractive according to the
code of love but is, or is like, one socially outside the pale. The Greek lan-
guage abounds in words like καλλίκομος, καλλιπλόκαμος, εὐπλόκαμος,
ἠΰκομος, which are descriptive of and even synonymous with human and
divine beauty. In a sense, κόμη becomes a metonymy for erotic attraction,
a notion also reflected in other archaic poetry.13) By cropping his hair the
erômenos takes himself out of contention as an object of desire. It is not
surprising therefore that the speaker in Anacr. 347 laments for the cropped
hair—and lost charm—of a boy in language reminiscent of epic lamenta-
tions for death.14) The identical sentiment seems to be present also in fr.
414 (ἀπέκειρας δ᾿ ἁπαλῆς κόμης ἄμωμον ἄνθος).
Traditionally, erotic longing and satisfaction are only part of the com-
plex set of reciprocities and interactions in a pederastic relationship. When
the erastês/mentor advises his young ward on various sociopolitical issues,
he also constructs the ideological parameters and civic ideals of the aristo-
cratic group to which both of them belong and assures preservation of that
ideology into the future. In contrast, the pederastic relationships in Ana-
creon are truncated: there is frequent profession of physical longing but
everything ends there. The traditional reciprocal interaction in which sen-
sual pleasure is intertwined with political advice is now absent, since the
erastês is either uninterested in or unable to offer political guidance and the
youth, unwilling to learn. Of the twenty-three addresses to an individual
(mostly a beloved boy), only one15) seems to venture outside the strict dec-
larations of love and refer to a current political situation in Samos: in fr.
353 Megistes is reminded that ‘talkers hold sway over the sacred town’

13)
E.g., Archil. 31; Semon. 7.57, 65-6; Alcm. 1.51-4; Sol. 22a; Thgn. 827-8; Ibyc. 282.5,
303.2.
14)
Cf. Hutchinson 2001, 266-7: “αὐχμηράς must refer to a barber’s hands . . . (which) are
squalid because of his social standing, and perhaps his profession . . . It contrasts with ἁβρόν
(1). But we do not see people directly here, only hair and hands. ἀθρόη conveys the mag-
nitude of this moment of disaster . . .”
15)
So also Gentili 1958, xi.
584 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589

(μυθιῆται διέπουσι ἱρὸν ἄστυ).16) When there is no political message

intended exclusively for an aristocratic addressee/lover, the social status
and even the gender of the erotic partner lose importance, since the con-
cerns of the erastês are now purely sexual. It is in this light that one should
consider Anacreon’s high frequency of addresses to females as objects of
erotic desire.17) By the same token, when the speaker asks Strattis whether
he will let his hair grow long (κομήσει, 387), he inserts erotic innuendo,
an invitation for him to consent to become the recipient of his affections;
but the invitation does not include an offer for political instruction. Even
if Strattis does yield to the pursuit of the erastês, his relationship to him
remains manqué: he is a perfume-maker (μυροποιός), not a member of the
aristocratic class. Strattis as a lover may offer physical satisfaction but can-
not offer the erastês the immortality of carrying his political influence into
the future. The same can certainly be said of another erômenos, Smerdies,
who as a foreigner (Thracian) is not even a citizen.18)
These irregular pederastic relationships are connected, I believe, with
the new kind of milieu in which Anacreon operates: in contrast to
Archilochus with his close-knit military band or Alcaeus among an inti-
mate hetaireia,19) Anacreon is an itinerant poet who performs profession-
ally at the courts of tyrants, first of Polycrates in Samos, and later of

16)
μυθιῆται is another term for στασιασταί (Schol. Hom. Od. 21.71, ii 698 Di; Apollon.
Soph. Lex. p. 558 de Villoison; Eust. Od. 1901.45), the rebellious fishermen who at some
point were seemingly in control of a considerable part of Samos, under the leadership of
one Herostratus, cf. Lobel 1927, 50-1 and Bowra 1961, 275. For the political difficulties of
Polycrates, see Hdt. 3.44 ff.
17)
καλλιπρόσωπε παίδων, 346.3; ἡ δ᾿, ἐστὶν ἀπ᾿ εὐκτίτου Λέσβου, 358.5-6; Λευκίππην
ἔπι δίνεαι, 368; ξανθῆι δ᾿ Εὐρυπύληι μέλει . . . Ἀρτέμων, 372; τῆι φίληι κωμάζων,
373.3.
18)
The names of the other erômenoi who appear in the extant poetry of Anacreon or in
secondary sources do not illuminate considerably the issue of their social status: in fr. 364
the addressee is a young man who practices at the gymnasium, thus suggesting that he is a
member of the upper class. Although his relationship to the speaker is not clear, the refer-
ence to the delicacy of his movements suggests erotic interest on the part of the latter. The
social status of Leucaspis, Cleobulus, and Megistes remains unclear.
19)
For Alcaeus’ poetry as an articulation of the identity of the poet’s hetaireia, see Rösler
1980, 33-6.
 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589 585

Hipparchus and Hippias in Athens.20) If he is to flourish as an entertainer

in the employment of powerful tyrants, he must abide by their tastes and
thematic preferences and work within the parameters dictated by the
occasions on which he performs, that is, the symposia at court. These
symposia now are less homogeneous than in the past, because, in addition
to their main aristocratic constituency,21) they include merchants who are
gaining in status through accumulation of wealth with the creation of
emporia (trading posts) throughout the Mediterranean22) and people from
the middle classes who can afford hoplite armor and thus make themselves
valuable to the tyrant by joining the infantry phalanx.23) Yet, despite
the fact that the symposia in which Anacreon entertains are heavily aristo-
cratic in their composition, the rhetoric of nobility is toned down consid-
erably, if not silenced altogether, in the presence of the tyrant.24) In such an

20)
Anacreon’s most productive years were spent in Samos, cf. Ael. VH 9.4 (p. 102 Dilts;
Apul. Flor. 15.51, 54 (p. 20 s. Helm). After his patron’s death, he was fetched on a trireme
to Athens (Ps.-Plato Hipparch. 228c), obviously with the desire to generate similar poetry
in the Pisistratid court.
21)
Many aristocrats managed to retain good relations with the tyrants and attempted to
incorporate themselves into the new political situation. On their part, the tyrants too made
efforts to establish friendly relations with at least certain segments of their opponents:
Herodotus (6.103.2) informs us that Pisistratus recalled Cimon, an exile, and Aristotle
(Ath. 16) mentions the efforts of the same tyrant to win the upper class by diplomacy
(Andrews 1982, 405- 6). See also the nomination of Cleisthenes, son of the Alcmaeonid
Megacles, to the office of archonship (525/4) and in the following year, Miltiades, son of
Cimon and nephew of Miltiades (Lewis 1988, 288 ff.).
22)
Cf. Herodotus’ (4.152) mention of Sostratus (active ca. 535-505), who amassed a for-
tune through commerce in the West. The families of such successful men were rising in
social prominence, and, on occasion, they would even hold public offices, as did Onetori-
des, a man from a rich but undistinguished background, who became an archon in 527/6
(Murray 1980, 212).
23)
See Andrews 1956, 31-8; Starr 1977, 177-81; Snodgrass 1980, 96; Murray 1980, 137,
139. For the composition of the sympotic group at the courts of the tyrants, see Kantzios
2005, 227-45.
24)
The tyrants were obviously wary of the aristocracy and their ways, cf. Athenaeus
13.602d: ‘On account of such erotic relationships, then, the tyrants, (for they were unfa-
vorable to these friendships), abolished pederasty altogether, eradicating it from every-
where. And there were some tyrants who even set fire to the wrestling-schools, as if they
were counter-walls to their own citadels, and razed them to the ground. This is what Poly-
crates, the tyrant of Samos, did.’ Regarding the abolition of pederasty, Athenaeus’ sources
should not be taken literally, yet they are an indicator of the tyrants’ measures to strip it of
586 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589

environment, even if the poet were willing to identify with the sympotic
group (tyrant, aristocrats, commoners), its internal dynamics would have
inclined him to remain silent on political subjects, bound to cause awk-
wardness and friction. On the other hand, focus on unifying elements,
ones that could bring the audience together as a common object of interest
seems to have been a preferable strategy. Among the most widely shared
and least controversial topics are the very event that has brought his listen-
ers together, that is, the symposion itself, and other universal themes, such
as life, youth, old age, and especially love. True, there is an element of mel-
ancholy in Anacreon’s erotic verses performed in a setting where one would
expect an atmosphere of optimism and confidence promoted by the tyrant,
yet we must keep in mind that unhappiness and unfulfilled desire are the
essence of erotic poetry, encountered throughout archaic monody from
Archilochus and Alcaeus to Theognis and indeed Sappho. But Anacreon’s
commonalities with his predecessors in the expression of unrequited love
go only so far: while the pederastic relationship of a previous generation
provides the opportunity to demarcate the values of the group and repro-
duce its ideology through advice to its younger members/erômenoi, the
erastês now is no longer an active, successful mentor leading his boy-lover
into the network of aristocratic ways, but rather a marginalized older man
who functions in a political vacuum.
Anacreon’s emphasis on an aged “I” may be self-referential,25) but it is
much more plausible (even if the poet is actually old) that this is an invented
persona that accommodates him in the creation of a more fragile erotic
world. This fragility brings the poet into close proximity to Sappho, who,
perhaps not accidentally, also treats the theme of advanced or non-

its dangerous political elements. That one had to be careful at the court of Polycrates is
indicated by fr. 414, which reveals eloquently the restraint and diplomacy Anacreon had to
exercise. See Aelian VH 9.4, p.102 Dilts: ‘Anacreon praised Smerdies, the beloved of Poly-
crates, rather warmly, then the boy was pleased with the praise . . . but Polycrates became
jealous because (Anacreon) honored Smerdies, and saw that the poet was receiving the boy’s
love in return. And Polycrates cut off the boy’s hair, shaming him and thinking that he will
cause Anacreon grief. But the latter, prudently and with self-control pretended not to blame
Polycrates but transferred his reproach to the boy (with accusations) in which he berated his
recklessness and folly in arming himself against his own hair.’
25)
Cf. Luc. Macr. 26 (ἔζησεν ἔτη πέντε καὶ ὀγδοήκοντα); V.Max. 9.12 (usitatum humanae
vitae modum supergressum); APl. 306 (γέρων); AP 7.27 (πρέσβυ). But this biographical
information may in fact derive from Anacreon’s very poetry and thus be a historicization of
his poetic persona, cf. Lefkowitz 1981.
 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589 587

youthful age with unaccustomed frequency (four fragments).26) In fact,

Sapph. 58, according to M.L. West, is likely to have influenced directly
Anacr. 395, since the poet of the latter almost certainly knew the poet’s
work in the former, and fr. 395 “is very reminiscent of the new Sappho
poem, with its recital of ‘symptoms’, the white hair, and so on, and espe-
cially the echo of her τὰ <μὲν> στεναχίσδω θαμέως in his διὰ ταῦτ᾿
ἀνασταλύζω θαμά”.27) Anacreon’s affinities with Sappho find yet another
rather unexpected correspondence in their settings of performance, for
although the latter’s poetry speaks in a female voice—and thus in a voice
from the social periphery28)—already from at least the early fifth century,29)
it too is accepted into the symposion, that is, into a space antithetical to the
one that generated it. Why Sappho’s poetry attracted the interest of the
male drinking parties and eventually was appropriated by them remains
open to speculation, but, as D. Yatromanolakis suggests in a recent impor-
tant book, the intimacy and companionship among women expressed in
Sappho’s songs may have been understood in a different light now to reflect
the immediate situation, that is, the attitudes of the symposiasts towards
the hetairai and female musicians who are present at the entertainment;
moreover, the erotic desire for female παῖδες in Sappho’s corpus might
have been assimilated into the pederastic paradigm30) and thus have become
relevant to the particular practices of the symposion, the setting of (re)per-
formance. Anacreon’s erotic discourses too must have kindled the interest
of the symposiasts in parallel ways:31) he also comes from the outside

26)
] χρόα γῆρας ἤδη, 21.6; κ]αὶ γὰρ ἄμμες ἐν νεό[τατι / ταῦτ᾿ [ἐ]πόημμεν, 24.3-4; οὐ γὰρ
τλάσομ᾿ ἔγω συνοί- / κην ἔοισα γεραιτέρα, 121; ἔμοι δ᾿ ἄπαλον πρὶν] ποτ᾿ [ἔ]οντα χρόα
γῆρας ἤδη / ἐπέλλαβε, λεῦκαι δ᾿ ἐγ]ένοντο τρίχες ἐκ μελαίναν, 58.13-4.
27)
West 2000, 5.
28)
Cf. Kurke 2000, 77: “We might read the more intimate and personal quality of Sappho’s
poetry as a phenomenon of the marginalization and containment to the private sphere of
women as a group in ancient Greek culture. Thus the poet spoke intimately to other women,
with whom she shared the experiences of seclusion, disempowerment, and separation.”
29)
The Bochum calyx-crater (480-470 BCE) in which Sappho is depicted holding a barbi-
tos is probably a representation related to the symposion, and more specifically to kômos.
Sources from later antiquity also inform us that her poetry was sung at dinner parties, cf.
Yatromanolakis 2007, 81-8, 108-9.
30)
ibid. 109, 140. For erotic representations in the Anacreontic vases, see Kurke 1999,
200-1.
31)
In antiquity the figures of Sappho and Anacreon were understood as being associated
with each other, and, on occasion, they were brought together even under improbable
588 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589

(although from a different direction) and his poetry is ambivalent enough

to allow for varying interpretations among the members of the same audi-
ence.32) Despite the anecdotes of being close to Polycrates,33) Anacreon’s
status as an itinerant entertainer makes his voice one of the periphery, like
Sappho’s, which has no access to internal matters of the group nor the abil-
ity to articulate its ideologies and political concerns.34) The poet’s marginal
standing is in fact eloquently reflected in the heavy emphasis on the “I”
and the elusive erotic “you” which now have replaced almost completely
the “we” of the earlier sympotic poetry.35)

Works Cited
Andrews, A.A. 1956. The Greek Tyrants (London)
——— 1982. The Tyranny of Pisistratus, in: Boardman, J., Hammond, N.G.L. (eds.) The
Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries B.C. (CAH 3.3) (Cambridge),
392-416

circumstances, cf., e.g., their poetic dialogue, as suggested by Chamaeleon, or Anacreon’s

trips to Lesbos to see his beloved poetess (Hermesianax). For detailed references, see Yatro-
manolakis 2001, 161 n.11 and 2007, 219-20. Here we may think also of Ibycus, who
wrote pederastic poetry usually assigned to the period spent in Polycrates’ Samos (Camp-
bell 1967, 305-6) and treated by later authors as if belonging to the same genre as that of
Anacreon (Cicero Tusc. 4.33.71 and Philodemus Mus. 4). His poetry contains at least two
intelligible fragments treating unfulfilled desire (PMG I 286, 287) and no political advice.
Of particular interest is fr. 287, in which we encounter a number of themes and images
familiar from Anacreon: the presumably older speaker is brought into the game of love by
Eros, well aware and fearful of the daunting task of being a lover and feeling like an old
horse (ὥστε . . . ἵππος . . . ποτὶ γήρᾳ) that is forced unwillingly to take part in a swift race.
32)
Goldhill (1984, 85-8; 1987, 9-18) discusses suggestively this element of ambiguity
employing the metaphor of veils.
33)
Cf. the episode mentioned by Herodotus (3.121), according to which the tyrant is sit-
ting at the table of Anacreon when the messenger from Oroetes arrives.
34)
Thus Anacreon’s poetry should not be perceived as an expression of the court climate, as
one gets the impression in Johnson 1982, 52: “What is the tone, behind this mask? It is a
kind of genial despair—since there is nothing really to despair of, nothing really to win or
lose; a kind of frivolous stoicism, of intelligent stoicism . . . what the mask reveals is weari-
ness, indifference, and a lethargy that is, aesthetically, energetic. L’art pour l’art.”
35)
The only two uses of the first person plural occur in immediate sympotic exhortations (‘let
us drink’, 356b, and ‘let us celebrate Dionysus’, 410). For the distribution of the person of the
verb in Anacreon and his predecessors, see Kantzios 2005, 232-5.
Many thanks to the anonymous referee for his/her valuable comments and Niki Kantzios
for her editorial eye.
 I. Kantzios / Mnemosyne 63 (2010) 577-589 589

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