the Greek version of this charming ode of Catullus, has neglected a most striking and anacreontic beauty in those verses "Ut flos in septis," etc., which is the repetition of the line, Multi illum pueri, multæ optavère puellæ," with the slight alteration of nulli and nulla. Catullus himself, however, has been equally injudicious in his version of the famous ode of Sappho; having translated γελώσας ιμερόεν, but omitted all notice of the accompanying charm, adù þwvouras. Horace has caught the spirit of it more faithfully: Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo, 1 This fragment is preserved in the third book of Strabo. 2 Of the Tartessian prince my own. He here alludes to Arganthonius, who lived, according to Lucian, an hundred and fifty years; and reigned, according to Herodotus, eighty. See Barnes. 3 This is composed of two fragments; the seventieth and eighty-first in Barnes. They are both found in Eustathius. 4 Three fragments form this little ode, all of which are preserved in Athenæus. They are the eighty-second, seventy-fifth, and eighty-third, in Barnes. 5 And every guest, to shade his head, And one was of the Egyptian leaf, ODE LXX.6 A BROKEN cake, with honey sweet, ODE LXXI.7 WITH twenty chords my lyre is hung, And while I wake them all for thee, Thou, O maiden, wild and young, Disportest in airy levity. The nursling fawn, that in some shade More timid of the rustling wind! Longepierre, to give an idea of the luxurious estimation in which garlands were held by the ancients, relates an anecdote of a courtezan, who, in order to gratify three lovers, without leaving cause for jealousy with any of them, gave a kiss to one, let the other drink after her, and put a garland on the brow of the third; so that each was satisfied with his favor, and flattered himself with the preference. This circumstance resembles very much the subject of one of the tensons of Savari de Mauléon, a troubadour. See "L'Histoire Littéraire des Troubadours.' The recital is a curious picture of the puerile gallantries of chivalry. 6 Compiled by Barnes, from Athenæus, Hephæstion, and Arsenius. See Barnes, 8oth. 7 This I have formed from the eighty-fourth and eighty-fifth of Barnes's edition. The two fragments are found in Athenæus. 8 The nursling fawn, that in some shade ὃς ἐν ὕλῃ κεροέσσης ὑπολειφθεὶς ὑπὸ μητρός. "Horned "here, undoubtedly, seems a strange epithet; Madame Dacier however observes, that Sophocles, Callimachus, etc., have all applied it in the very same manner, and she seems to agree in the conjecture of the scholiast upon Pindar, that perhaps horns are not always peculiar to the males. I think we may with more ease conclude 2 This is to be found in Hephæstion, and is the eighty-ninth of Barnes's edition. I have omitted, from among these scraps, a very considerable fragment imputed to our poct, Ξανθη δ' Ευρυπύλη μέλει, etc., which is preserved in the twelfth book of Athenaus, and is the ninety-first in Barnes. If it was really Anacreon who wrote it, "nil fuit unquam sic impar sibi." It is in a style of gross satire, and abounds with expressions that never could be gracefully translated. 3 A fragment preserved by Dion Chrysostom. Orat. ii. de Remo. See Barnes. 93. 4 This fragment, which is extant in Athenæus (Barnes, 101.), is supposed, on the authority of Chamaleon, to have been addressed to Sappho. Come, within a fragrant cloud Blushing with light, thy votary shroud; Love! my soul is full of thee, But she, the nymph for whom I glow, HITHER, gentle Muse of mine, For the nymph with vest of gold. Pretty nymph, of tender age, Fair thy silky locks unfold; Listen to a hoary sage, Sweetest maid with vest of gold! ODE LXXVII.6 WOULD that I were a tuneful lyre, Some blooming boy should bear! We have also a stanza attributed to her, which some romancers have supposed to be her answer to Anacreon. "Mais par malheur [as Bayle says], Sappho vint au monde environ cent ou six vingt ans avant Anacréon.” Nouvelles de la Rép. des Lett." tom. ii. de Novembre, 1684. The following is her fragment, the compliment of which is finely imagined; she supposes that the Muse has dictated the verses of Anacreon: κεῖνον, ὦ χρυσόθρονε Μοῦσ ̓ ἐνίσπες Oh Muse! who sit'st on golden throne, The Teian sage is taught by thee; He lately learned and sung for me. 5 Formed of the 124th and 119th fragments in Barnes, both of which are to be found in Scaliger's "Poetics." De Pauw thinks that those detached lines and couplets, which Scaliger has adduced as examples in his " Poetics," are by no means authentic, but of his own fabrication," 6 This is generally inserted among the remains of Alcæus. Some, however, have attributed it to Anacreon. See our poet's twenty-second ode, and the notes. Would that I were a golden vase, That some bright nymph might hold My spotless frame, with blushing grace, Herself as pure as gold! ODE LXXVIII.1 WHEN Cupid sees how thickly now, CUPID, whose lamp has lent the ray, That lights our life's meandering way, That God, within this bosom stealing, Hath wakened a strange, mingled feeling, Which pleases, though so sadly teasing, And teases, though so sweetly pleasing! 2 LET me resign this wretched breath, No other balm than kindly death, I KNOW thou lovest a brimming measure, But let me fill and drink at pleasure - 1 See Barnes, 173d. This fragment, to which I have taken the liberty of adding a turn not to be found in the original, is cited by Lucian in his short essay on the Gallic Hercules. 2 Barnes, 125th. This is in Scaliger's "Poetics." Gail has omitted it in his collection of fragments. 3 This fragment is extant in Arsenius and Hephæstion. See Barnes (69th), who has arranged the metre of it very skilfully. 4 Barnes, 72d. This fragment, which is found in Athenæus, contains an excellent lesson for the votaries of Jupiter Hospitalis. 5 Found in Hephæstion (see Barnes, 95th), and reminds one somewhat of the following:Odi et amo; quare id faciam fortasse requiris ; nescio: sed fieri sentio, et excrucior. Carm. 53. I love thee and hate thee, but if I can tell 6 This is also in Hephæstion, and perhaps is a fragment of some poem, in which Anacreon had commemorated the fate of Sappho. It is the 123d of Barnes. 7 Collected by Barnes, from Demetrius Phalareus and Eustathius, and subjoined in his edition to the epigrams attributed to our poet. And here is the last of those little scattered flowers, which I thought I might venture with any grace to transplant; - happy if it could be said of the garland which they form, τὸ δ ̓ ὦς ̓Ανακρέοντος. AMONG the Epigrams of the "Anthologia," are found some panegyrics on Anacreon, which I had translated, and originally intended as a sort of Coronis to this work. But I found upon consideration, that they wanted variety; and that a frequent recurrence, in them, of the same thought, would render a collection of such poems uninteresting. I shall take the liberty, however, of subjoining a few, selected from the number, that I may not appear to have totally neglected those ancient tributes to the fame of Anacreon. The four epigrams which I give are imputed to Antipater Sidonius. They are rendered, perhaps, with too much freedom; but designing originally a translation of all that are extant on the subject, I endeavored to enliven their uniformity by sometimes indulging in the liberties of paraphrase. ΑΝΤΙΠΤΑΡΟΥ ΣΙΔΩΝΙΟΥ, ΕΙΣ 'ANAKPEONTA. θάλλοι τετρακόρυμβος, Ανακρεον, ἀμφί σε κισσός AROUND the tomb, oh, bard divine! Where soft thy hallowed brow reposes, Long may the deathless ivy twine, And summer spread her waste of roses! And there shall many a fount distil, And every fount be milky showers. Thus, shade of him, whom Nature taught To tune his lyre and soul to pleasure, Who gave to love his tenderest thought, Who gave to love his fondest meas ure, Thus, after death, if shades can feel, Thou may'st, from odors round thee streaming, A pulse of past enjoyment steal, And live again in blissful dreaming! 1 1 Antipater Sidonius, the author of this epigram, lived, according to Vossius, de Poetis Græcis," in the second year of the 169th Olympiad. He appears, from what Cicero and Quintilian have said of him, to have been a kind of improvisatore. See "Institut. Orat." lib. x. cap. 7. There is nothing more known respecting this poet, except some particulars about his illness and death, which are mentioned as curious by Pliny and others; and there remain of his works but a few epigrams in the "Anthologia," among which are found these inscriptions upon Anacreon. These remains have been sometimes ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ, ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΝ. τύμβος ̓Ανακρείοντος. Ο Τηϊος ενθάδε κύκνος HERE sleeps Anacreon, in this ivied shade; Here mute in death the Teian swan is laid.1 Cold, cold that heart, which while on earth it dwelt All the sweet frenzy of love's passion felt. And yet, oh Bard! thou art not mute in death, imputed to another poet of the same name, of whom Vossius gives us the following account: 46 Antipater Thessalonicensis vixit tempore Augusti Cæsaris, ut qui saltantem viderit Pyladem, sicut constat ex quodam ejus epigrammate ̓Ανθολογίας, lib. iv. tit. εἰς ὀρχηστρίδας. At eum ac Bathyllum primos fuisse pantomimos ac sub Augusto claruisse, satis notum ex Dione," etc. The reader, who thinks it worth observing, may find a strange oversight in Hoffman's quotation of this article from Vossius, "Lexic. Univers." By the omission of a sentence he has made Vossius assert that the poet Antipater was one of the first pantomime dancers in Rome. Barnes, upon the epigram before us, mentions a version of it by Brodæus, which is not to be found in that commentator; but he more than once confounds Brodeus with another annotator on the " Anthologia," Vincentius Obsopous, who has given a translation of the epigram. 1 the Teian swan is laid. Thus Horace of Pindar: Multa Dircæum levat aura cycnum. A swan was the hieroglyphical emblem of a poet. Anacreon has been called the swan of Teos by another of his eulogists. Pleraque tamen Thessalonicensi tribuenda videntur. - - BRUNCK, "Lectiones et Emendat." ἐν τοῖς μελίχροις Ιμέροισι σύντροφον Εὐγένους, ̓Ανθολογ. God of the grape! thou hast betrayed The Teian, nurst with all those honeyed boys, 1 Still do we catch thy lyre's luxurious breath. Thus Simonides, speaking of our poet:μολπῆς δ' οὐ λήθη μελιτέρπεος ἀλλ' ἔτι κεῖνο βάρβιτον ούδε θανὼν εύνασεν εν αἴδῃ. Σιμονίδου, ̓Ανθολογ. Nor yet are all his numbers mute, With sleepless animation sighs! This is the famous Simonides, whom Plato styled divine," though Le Fèvre, in his "Poëtes Grecs," supposes that the epigrams under his name are all falsely imputed. The most considerable of his remains is a satirical poem upon women, preserved by Stobæus, Voyos yuvaιkov. We may judge from the lines I have just quoted, and the import of the epigram before us, that the works of Anacreon were perfect in the times of Simonides and Antipater. Obsopaus, the commentator here, appears to exult in their destruction, and telling us they were burned by the bishops and patriarchs, he adds, "nec sane id necquicquam fecerunt," attributing to this outrage an effect which it could not possibly have produced. " 2 The spirit of Anacreon is supposed to utter these verses from the tomb, somewhat mutatus ab illo," at least in simplicity of expression. 3 if Anacreon's shell Has ever taught thy heart to swell, etc. We may guess from the words ἐκ βίβλων ἐμῶν, that Anacreon was not merely a writer of billetsdoux, as some French critics have called him. Amongst these Mr. Le Fevre, with all his professed admiration, has given our poet a character by no means of an elevated cast: ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ, ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΝ, 2 ξεῖνε, τάφον παρὰ λιτὸν ̓Ανακρείοντος ἀμείβων, εἰ τί τοι ἐκ βίβλων ἦλθεν ἐμῶν ὄφελος, σπεῖσον ἐμὴ σποδιὴ, σπεῖσον γάνος, ὄφρα κεν οἶνα ὄστεα γήθησε τάμα νοτιζόμενα, ὡς ὁ Διονύσου μεμελημένος οὔασι κῶμος, So shall my sleeping ashes thrill Aussi c'est pour cela que la postérité L'a toujours justement d'age en age chanté Comme un franc goguenard, ami de goinfrerie, Ami billets-doux et de badinerie. See the verses prefixed to his "Poëtes Grecs." This is unlike the language of Theocritus, to whom Anacreon is indebted for the following simple eulogium: ΕΙΣ 'ΑΝΑΚΡΕΟΝΤΟΣ 'ΑΝΔΡΙΑΝΤΑ. σπούδα, καὶ λέγ', ἐπὰν ἐς οἶκον ἔνθης ̇ Ανακρέοντος εἰκόν εἶδον ἐν Τέω, τῶν πρόσθ ̓ εἴ τι περισσὸν ᾠδοποιῶν. προσθεὶς δὲ χώτι τοῖς νέοισιν άδετο, ἔρεις ἀτρεκεῶς ὅλον τὸν ἄνδρα. UPON THE STATUE OF ANACREON. Stranger! who near this statue chance to roam, Let it awhile your studious eyes engage; That you may say, returning to your home, "I've seen the image of the Teian sage, Best of the bards who deck the Muse's page. Then, if you add, "That striplings loved him well," You tell them all he was, and aptly tell. |