author
Anacreon
Known for lyrics about love, wine, and the pleasures of company, this ancient Greek poet became one of the best-known voices of light, musical verse. Although only fragments survive, those pieces helped shape the long afterlife of lyric poetry in the Western tradition.
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Lauluja Anakreonilta, ynnä myös Laulu Sapfolta
by Anacreon
Anakreons sånger
by Anacreon
About the author
Born in Teos in Ionia around the 6th century BCE, Anacreon was an ancient Greek lyric poet who wrote in the Ionic dialect. Ancient sources connect him with the courts of Polycrates of Samos and later Hipparchus in Athens, placing him among the prominent cultural figures of his time.
He was especially associated with songs about love, desire, feasting, and wine, but his surviving work also shows wit, polish, and careful musical craft. Like much early Greek lyric poetry, his poems were meant to be performed with music rather than silently read.
Only fragments of his writing remain, yet his reputation endured for centuries. Later readers admired him so much that a whole body of imitation poems, the Anacreontea, was linked with his name, extending his influence far beyond the small portion of authentic verse that survives.