1809.] 
afterwards banished from their society 
the noble author ofthe Adelphi Pictures, 
the designer and engraver of Job and Pa- 
lemon, whose mind was as -comprehen- 
sive asthe most enlightened of all that 
have practised the art, and who. united 
to the energies of a man the siinplicity of 
a child, the self-denial of a philosopher, 
aid the virtues of a Christian. 
Your's, ie. 
G. CUMBERLAND. 
esl Sakai 
Far the Monthly Magazine. 
LYCEUM. OF ANCIENT LITERA- 
TURE.—No. XXIV. 
ANACREON. 
FHIMUE great name of Anacreon de- 
mands an extended consideration: 
the celebrity of his Muse, and the num- 
ber of the pieces attributed to him, 
distinguish him from the — cbscure 
and uncertain poets. From the many 
transiations which have appeared in 
almost every language of Kurope, there 
are few more universally known than the 
Bard of Téos. _ By the admirers of warm 
and voluptuous poetry, he has, at all 
times, ch eagerly perused, and_fre- 
quently imitated. By these means he 1s 
familiatly known, even to that numerous 
class of readers, to whom, in his original 
dress, he would be unintelligible. every 
poetical volume which issues from the 
press contains some imitation of his man- 
ner. Our very songs applaud the name, 
and often breathe the spirit, of Anacreon, 
He'had the advantage, too, of living 
ata time, when authentic history began 
to supply the place of unfounded traai- 
tions; in the polished age, when Hip- 
parchus, of Athens, and Polycrates, of 
Samos, contended with laudable am- 
bition, for the superior patronage of li- 
terature and the arts. Yet there are 
very few particulars of his hfe, that can 
be stated with any thing like certainty. 
He was born at Téos, a city of Tonia, in 
those delightful regions, where the inbabi- 
tants were equally remarkable for their 
eeniusand their luxury.* His birth is 
inost commonly placed about the 55th 
‘Olymp. in the sixth cent. B.C. His fa- 
ther’s name is uncertain; his mother’s, 
Fiétia. M. Dacier has attempted to 
prove, from Plato, that he was con- 
nected withthe family of that philoso- 
a OE Si 
* Ingenia Asiatica inclyta per gentes fecere 
Poete, Anacreon, inde Mimnermus et An- 
timachus, &c.--S@LINUS, 
a 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature. —No. X VEY. 
379 
ilied to the Co- 
1 Athens. But 
’ detected this 
a a musinter- 
iS passage in 
_erance.t | His 
trious, but his 
glory is derivec. “is genius, and 
not from his birth. » we may credit 
some accounts, he appears, in his earlier 
days, to have followed, with some acti- 
vity, the sinking fortunes of his country. 
When Harpagus, the general of Cyrus, 
invested (féos, and had made himself 
master of their ramparts, the inhabitants, 
finding themselves unequal to the con- 
test, tike the modern Portuguese, adopted 
the generous resolution of abandoning 
their country, rather than submit to the 
slavery intended forthem. They unani- 
mously went on board their ships, and, ° 
sailing into Thrace, fixed themselvas in 
the city of Abdera, where they had not 
long been settled, before the Thracians, 
jealous of these new neighbours, endea- 
voured to expel them. It was during 
these conflicts that he lost the friends 
whom he celebrates in his epigrams; and 
it was at, Abdera, that he is supposed to 
have written his fifty-ninth Ode. 
This magnanimous expatriation of the 
Teians 1s historically noticed by Hero- 
dotus ; but that Anacreon accompanied 
them, 1s not so clear... The idea one is 
apt.to form of him, is that of a happy in-. 
doient mortal, too fond of his owii ease 
to» endure these sudden emiyrations. 
He seems to have been ‘a’ professed de- 
spiser of business, and of all those af- 
fairs, whether domestic or public, which 
usually occupy the attention of mankind. 
Love and wine had the disposal ofall his 
hours; and if he engaged in the pleasing 
amusement of poetry, for to him, gro-. 
bably, it was never-a study, his object 
was not so much to eompliment the 
Muses, as to celebrate his favourite pur- 
suits. His whole life was a continued 
state of voluptuous repose, savhich ad- 
mitted of ng interruption, but what arose 
from the. varied allurements of festivity 
and pleasure. When his senses were 
calmed by enjoyment, he amused his 
imagination, by retracing in his memory 
the delichts he had experienced, and in 
descriptions where he has indulged in 
all the wantonness of Bacchanalian 
phef, and conser 
dride, the ni 
Mr: Gail * sh: 
mistake, wl 
pretation of 
Plato’s Dial: 
family was, p 
* Gail, Pref. in Anac. Paris, 1799.° 
+ The sagacious Bayle had already adverted 
to this error. 
frenzy, 
