Not Each Other's Type, Anacreon fr. 358

Not Each Other’s Type

Name: Anacreon Date:  582 – 485 BCE Region:  Teos [modern Turkey] Citation: Athenaeus, Deipnosophists 13.72

According to Athenaeus, Anacreon wrote this poem to Sappho, because he was smitten by her:

Golden Haired Love

Attacked me with a purple ball.

He keeps trying to get me

To play with him.

But she who inhabits posh Lesbos [Sappho]

Takes one look at my silver hair,

Laughs at me

And swoons over someone else—a girl!

 

σφαίρῃ δεὖτέ με πορφυρῇ βάλλων χρυσοκόμης Ἔρως νήνι ποικιλοσαμβάλῳ συμπαίζειν προκαλεῖται. ἡ δ᾽ ἐστὶν γὰρ ἀπ᾽ εὐκτίτου Λέσβοὐ τὴν μὲν ἐμὴν κόμην λευκὴ γάρ καταμέμφεται, πρὸς δ᾽ ἄλλην τινὰ χάσκει.

Globo, age, me purpureo petens auricomus Amor, huic, varie me prensans, ut colludam provocat. at illa, est enim ex bene habitata Lesbo, meam quidem comam, cana cum sit, vituperat, et alli cuipiam inhiat.  Translated into Latin by Johann Schweighäuser

Anacreon [575 – 495 BCE, modern Turkey] was a Greek poet who lived during the 6th century BCE. He was born in Teos [modern Turkey] during a period of intense conflict between the Ionian and Persian forces, and did not remain in his homeland for long. Sources indicate that he found success and fame for his poetry in Samos and Athens, but little is known about his life beyond anecdotes written hundreds of years after his death.  His poetry was exceedingly popular, to the extent that an entire genre of poetry was dedicated to his style of writing; the Anacreonta are a collection of poems written in imitation of his writing style composed by Greek authors throughout the centuries. Despite Anacreon’s immense popularity and influence on literature, only fragments of his poetry remain today.