Love's Sting

Anacreon's Greek lyrics

Venus consoling Cupid stung by a bee: Benjamin West 1876

The poet-songwriter Anacreon flourished in the 6th century BC, and travelled around the Greek world, eventually visiting Athens where he remained until he died. His songs dealt with themes of love, revelry, youth and age, and were widely popular.

His poems gave rise to many imitations over many subsequent centuries, which were compiled in a medieval manuscript and are today called Anacreontea. These use variations of the poetic metre to which he gives his name, ‘Anacreontics’. Since one poem (Anacreon 395) starts with the poet complaining that his teeth are showing their age, a suitable mnemonic for the metre runs:

In a word, Anacreontics

Has a ring of orthodontics.

A common variant of the line lacks the first syllable, so one gets

The word “Anacreontics”

Makes fun of orthodontics.

Anacreontea no. 35 is a charming example of an exchange between Cupid, god of Love, and his mother Aphrodite (Kythera), which I have translated into the same rhythm as the original:

Once resting in the roses
the Love God failed to notice
a bee, which stung his finger.
His hand and finger smarting
he ran for comfort, crying,
to beautiful Kythera.
‘Mama,’ he cried, ‘I’m dying!
I’m wounded and expiring:
a tiny serpent bit me,
a snake with wings – they call it
‘a bee’, the country people.”
She answered “If a bee sting
can give you so much anguish,
what pain do you imagine,
is caused by Love’s own arrows?”

Ἔρως ποτ᾿ ἐν ῥόδοισι
κοιμωμένην μέλιτταν
οὐκ εἶδεν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐτρώθη·
τὸν δάκτυλον παταχθεὶς
τᾶς χειρὸς ὠλόλυξε.
δραμὼν δὲ καὶ πετασθεὶς
πρὸς τὴν καλὴν Κυθήρην
῾ὄλωλα, μῆτερ,’ εἶπεν,
῾ὄλωλα κἀποθνήσκω·
ὄφις μ᾿ ἔτυψε μικρὸς
πτερωτός, ὃν καλοῦσιν
μέλιτταν οἱ γεωργοί.’
ἁ δ᾿ εἶπεν· ῾εἰ τὸ κέντρον
πονεῖ τὸ τᾶς μελίττας,
πόσον δοκεῖς πονοῦσιν,
Ἔρως, ὅσους σὺ βάλλεις;’