Anacreon Biography

Greek lyric poet, native of Teos. Little is known of his life. He probably joined in the foundation of Abdera by the Teans fleeing before the threat of the Persian general Harpagus in 545. He joined the court of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. After the murder of Polycrates by the satrap Oroetes he joined the Pisistratid court at Athens.

 

The range of what survives is narrow. Wine and love (both homosexual and heterosexual) figure prominently. His control of form produces an appearance of effortlessness. Many poems have an epigrammatic quality. Words are positioned with great effect. Striking images for love abound. Delicacy, wit, paradox, irony, and self‐mockery are prominent. He also produced biting abuse in the iambic tradition (see iambic poetry, greek). His wit inspired a corpus of frivolous imitations in and after the Hellenistic period, the Anacreontea.