Composition, voices, and the poetological programme in the Carmina Anacreontea
Composition, voices, and the poetological programme in the Carmina Anacreontea

Summary/Abstract: The Carmina Anacreontea (CA) is a collection of ancient Greek poems which recreate theliterary inheritance of their model, the archaic Greek poet Anacreon. The poems were writtenby several anonymous authors from various centuries and were later arranged by an anonymouscollector/editor. Although the collection is clearly not the product of one author and one period, itshould be regarded and analysed as a coherent literary corpus. In this article it is argued that various(and partly conflicting) voices of different speakers emerge from these poems; that some ofthem suggest identity between the poetic speaker and Anacreon, whereas others do not; and that,in certain cases, a deliberate ambiguity between identity and non-identity is implied. These voicesinvite the readers of the collection to actively engage in a productive dialogue and to subsequentlycontinue the writing process which initially had been passed from Anacreon to his follower. Theideal reader of the CA is thus an active reader who engages with his reading to the extent that heis gradually transformed into a poet and/or collector himself.

• Details
• Contents