Anacreon

Douglas Gerber (University of Western Ontario)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University)

Dates

Born c. -570
Died c. -485
Activity c. -550-c. -485

Places

Born in Ancient Greece
Active in Ancient Greece

Activities

Primary

Poet

Other

Translator

Resources

Anacreon was a peripatetic figure who moved from place to place throughout his long life span. He was born in Asia Minor, in the Greek city of Teos, but when the Persians attacked the city about 540 Anacreon and his fellow citizens moved to Thrace, an area bordering the northern edge of the Aegean Sea. There they founded the city of Abdera. At some point, probably close to 530, Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, invited him to his court. When Polycrates was assassinated in 522, Hipparchus, son of the tyrant Pisistratus, invited Anacreon to Athens, where he stayed until Hipparchus was murdered in 514. The evidence for his movements after 514 is murky, but he may have spent some time at a royal court in Thessaly and then returned to Athens w…

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525 words

Citation: Gerber, Douglas. "Anacreon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 April 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=104, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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