Anacreon
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Anacreon. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a-nak're-on, a famous Greek lyric poet. He was born at Teos, Asia Minor , about 562 B. C., and died about 478 B. C., choked, Pliny tells us, by a grape seed. He was held in high esteem as a poet, both in his own age and in the ages that followed. Ancient writers call him "The Charming," "The Honeytongued," "The Swan of Teos," "The Glory of Ionia." He was the author of many lyrics, and of satires as well. In the year 1554 Henry Stephens published a volume of Greek poems which purported to be the collected songs of Anacreon. They were translated into English by Cowley, Moore, and George Bourne. In modern times critics agree that these lyrics are by writers of a later century, and that a few genuine fragments only are found among them. All, however, are after the manner of Anacreon, and compare favorably with the few genuine verses extant. Moreover, these "Anacreontic Odes," whatever their authorship, are most graceful lyrics, ranking with the best of Greek poetry. They are chiefly in praise of love and wine. This fact has led both ancients and moderns to place an unjust estimate on the poet's character. Indeed, the citizens of Teos, his own countrymen, placed his effigy on their coins, portraying a coarse and brutal face, worthy of Silenus. In Athens a statue erected in his honor represented him as a drunken singer. The songs themselves, however, contain nothing that is coarse or sensual. "The love-poems might be recited in the most modest household, and the drinking-songs sung at the most decorous banquet." It has been said of Anacreon that "he seems at least to have been sober when he wrote," and in one fragment, the poet himself condemns intoxication as fit only for "barbarians" and "Scythians." In another song occur the lines: Let cheerful temperance rule the soul, The best ingredient in the bowl. The story runs that Anacreon was once charged with writing hymns to the reigning beauties of the day, instead of to the gods and goddesses. He made answer in these words, "But are not these also lesser divinities?" The word Anacreontic is used to designate any short, sprightly song in praise of love or wine. PLEA FOR DRINKING. The Earth drinks up the genial rains, Which deluge all her thirsty plains; The lofty Trees that pierce the sky Drink up the earth and leave her dry; The insatiate Sea imbibes each hour The welcome breeze that brings the shower; The Sun, whose fires so fiercely burn, Absorbs the waves, and in her turn The modest Moon enjoys each night Large draughts of his celestial light. Then, sapient sirs, pray tell me why, If all things drink, why may not I?--Transl. of Bourne. ON HIS LYRE. While I sweep the sounding string, While the Atridae's praise I sing-- Victors on the Trojan plain-- Or to Cadmus raise the strain, Hark, in soft and whispered sighs, Love's sweet notes the shell replies. Late I strung my harp anew, Changed the strings--the subject too. Loud I sung Alcides's toils; Still the lyre my labor foils; Still with Love's sweet silver sounds Every martial theme confounds. Farewell, Heroes, Chiefs, and Kings! Naught but Love will suit my strings.--Transl. of Bourne.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A famous lyric poet of Teos, in Ionia , favored by Polycrates and Hipparchus , son of Philostratus . He was of intemperate habits and fond of pleasure. Some of his Odes are extant, and the beauty of his poetry has been the admiration of every age and country. He lived to the age of eighty-five, and after a life of pleasure was choked with a grape-stone. He flourished B. C. 532. The Odes have been translated into English by Moore, Cowley, and others.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a renowned lyric poet of Greece, born at Teos in Ionia, 562 b. c. He enjoyed the patronage of Polycrates, autocrat of Samos; and, while at his court, composed most of the odes in praise of wine and women which won for him pre-eminence among singers. A few of his authentic compositions have come down to us. He died 477 B. C.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The core judgement Aiton's reached in 1910 — that the volume Henri Estienne (Henry Stephens) printed in 1554 as Anacreon's collected songs is mostly the work of much later imitators, with only a few genuine fragments among them — is exactly what scholars hold today; those poems are now published separately as the Anacreontea, a collection assembled over several centuries after his death. What has shifted is the biography rather than the text: the drunkard of the 1900 account, "of intemperate habits and fond of pleasure," is now generally read as a persona built up by later readers and by the Anacreontea themselves, and the death by grape-stone that Pliny reports is treated as anecdote, not fact. Modern editions gather the authentic fragments in standard critical collections and place his life roughly 575–485 B.C. rather than the 562–477 given by Collier's in 1921. On the strength of the surviving genuine verse the entries still read fairly, and the afterlife noted above — the club song "To Anacreon in Heaven" furnishing the tune of "The Star-Spangled Banner" — remains his oddest legacy.
Written for this edition, 2026.