This volume contains the poetic fragments of the two illustrious
singers of early sixth-century Lesbos: Sappho, the most famous
woman poet of antiquity, whose main theme was love; and Alcaeus,
poet of wine, war, and politics, and composer of short hymns to the
gods. Also included are the principal testimonia, the ancients'
reports on the lives and work of the two poets.
The five volumes in the Loeb Classical Library edition of Greek
Lyric contain the surviving fragments of solo and choral song. This
poetry was not preserved in medieval manuscripts, and few complete
poems remain. Later writers quoted from the poets, but only so much
as suited their needs; these quotations are supplemented by papyrus
texts found in Egypt, most of them badly damaged. The high quality
of what remains makes us realise the enormity of our loss.
Volume I presents Sappho and Alcaeus. Volume II contains the
work of Anacreon, composer of solo song; the " Anacreontea"; and
the earliest writers of choral poetry, notably the seventh-century
Spartans Alcman and Terpander. Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, and
other sixth-century poets are in Volume III. Bacchylides and other
fifth-century poets are in Volume IV along with Corinna (although
some argue that she belongs to the third century). Volume V
contains the new school of poets active from the mid-fifth to the
mid-fourth century and also collects folk songs, drinking songs,
hymns, and other anonymous pieces.
General
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