“The boys are my gods”, what Anacreon says in an anecdote transmitted by the scholia to Pindar (Isthm. 2, 1b), symbolises a characteristic of his erotic poetry, at the heart of which are his pupils. The datum that Anacreon would have composed no hymns to gods can be explained in the light of both a narrow concept of “hymn” (celebration of gods) on the one hand, and a devaluation of Anacreon’s hymns on the other. Anacreon’s appearances here and throughout the tradition, together with Ibycus and Alcaeus – especially as a representative pederastic poet and/or in connection with musical subjects – lead back to the moral background of IV cent. BC within which the Peripatetic Aristoxenus of Tarentum appears to have played an important role.
“The boys are my gods” : Anacreon’s pederastic poetry and its moral reception
Bucceroni Lorenzo
2019
Abstract
“The boys are my gods”, what Anacreon says in an anecdote transmitted by the scholia to Pindar (Isthm. 2, 1b), symbolises a characteristic of his erotic poetry, at the heart of which are his pupils. The datum that Anacreon would have composed no hymns to gods can be explained in the light of both a narrow concept of “hymn” (celebration of gods) on the one hand, and a devaluation of Anacreon’s hymns on the other. Anacreon’s appearances here and throughout the tradition, together with Ibycus and Alcaeus – especially as a representative pederastic poet and/or in connection with musical subjects – lead back to the moral background of IV cent. BC within which the Peripatetic Aristoxenus of Tarentum appears to have played an important role.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
