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Notes | Translated by Wilmer Cave Wright Chapter 1 | Next chapter Return to index |
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Anacreon the poet composed many delightful songs; for a luxurious life was allotted to him by the Fates. But Alcaeus and Archilochus of Paros the god [Note 1] did not permit to devote their muse to mirth and pleasure. For constrained as they were to endure toil, now of one sort, now of another, and by abusing those who wronged them they lightened the burdens imposed on them by Heaven. But as for me [Note 1], the law forbids me to accuse by name those who, though I have done them no wrong, try to show their hostility to me; and on the other hand the fashion of education that now prevails among the well-born deprives me of the use of the music that consists in song. For in these days men think it more degrading to study music than once in the past they thought it to be rich by dishonest means. Nevertheless I will not on that account renounce the aid that it is in my power to win from the Muses. Indeed I have observed that even the barbarians across the Rhine sing savage songs composed in language not unlike the croaking of harsh-voiced birds, and that they delight in such songs. For I think it is always the case that inferior musicians, though they annoy their audiences, give very great pleasure to themselves. And with this in mind I often say to myself, like Ismenias -- for though my talents are not equal to his, I have as I persuade myself a similar independence of soul -- "I sing for the Muses and myself." Note 1: god = Apollo Event: Julian and Antioch |