Today, a bit from the Anacreontea (Ἀνακρεόντεια), the title given to a collection of some 60 Greek poems. The poems date to between the 1st century BC and the 6th century AD, and are attributed pseudepigraphically to Anacreon. The collection is preserved in the same 10th-century manuscript as the Anthologia Palatina (Palatinus gr. 23), together with some other poetry.
It's this lovely little sliver of prose that mentions Sappho. Not by name, of course, but through reputation.
It's this lovely little sliver of prose that mentions Sappho. Not by name, of course, but through reputation.
Anacreontea, fragment 358
[Translation: Gillian Spraggs]
[Translation: Gillian Spraggs]
"Golden-haired Eros once again
hurls his crimson ball at me:
he calls me to come out and play
with a girl in fancy sandals.
But she's from civilized Lesbos:
she sneers at my hair because it's grey,
and turning, gapes in wonder
after another of her own gender."
hurls his crimson ball at me:
he calls me to come out and play
with a girl in fancy sandals.
But she's from civilized Lesbos:
she sneers at my hair because it's grey,
and turning, gapes in wonder
after another of her own gender."
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