Anacreon

“ The genius of Anacreon (fl. 540 B.C.) , though akin to that of Alcaeus and Sappho, had an entirely different bent. He seems to consider life as valuable only so far as it can be spent in wine, love, and social enjoyment. The Ionic softness and departure from strict rule may also be perceived in his versification. The different odes preserved under his name are the productions of poets of a much later date. ”

“ In examining these compositions, one cannot abstain from a certain kind of surprise: all the odes of Anacreon revolve upon two or three central ideas, expressed in a manner full of grace, unquestionably, but still always the same ideas. ”

“ Come, let us hear the harp's gay note
Upon the breeze inspiring float,
While round us, kindling into love,
Young maidens through the light dance move.
Thus blest with mirth, and love, and peace,
Sure such a life should never cease!
[1] The character of Anacreon is here very strikingly depicted. His love of social, harmonized pleasures, is expressed with a warmth, amiable and endearing.
ODE XLIII. While our rosy fillets shed
Freshness o'er each fervid head,
With many a cup and many a smile
The festal moments we beguile. ”

“ Valentinus.
Truly it has ever been a favourite of mine since in my schoolboy days I conned my Anacreon! [Pertinax looks discomfited, Quartilla sympathetic, while Nerva, looking in at the curtains, bursts into peals of laughter.]
Nerva.
Anacreon! By Momus, but that’s funny! Anacreon, indeed, my poet!
[36]
Pertinax.
[Seizing on Nerva.] Shameless one than whom none is more contemptible! To perdition with you! May the gods give you your deserts! ”

“ In the 18th century, the antiquary William Oldys (1696–1761) was the author of a little piece which is the perfect type of an anacreontic: this begins:—
In 1800 Tom Moore published a collection of erotic anacreontics which are also typical in form; Moore speaks of the necessity of catching “the careless facility with which Anacreon appears to have trifled,” as a reason why anacreontics are often tame and worthless. ”

“ Girodet is not less voluptuous than Anacreon; but he always maintains that grace and delicacy which add so great a charm to the voluptuous: nowhere in his animated panorama is sight or sense shocked.
These designs originally accompanied a translation of the Odes of Anacreon, made by the painter himself and published shortly after his [Pg 10] death. Some small photographs of them on a greatly reduced scale appeared in 1864, in an exquisite little edition of the original Greek, from the press of Firmin Didot, at the almost prohibitive price of Two Pounds. ”

“ After the very enthusiastic eulogiums bestowed both by ancients and moderns upon the poems of Anacreon, we need not be diffident in expressing our raptures at their beauty, nor hesitate to pronounce them the most polished remains of antiquity. They are indeed, all beauty, all enchantment. He steals us so insensibly along with him, that we sympathize even in his excesses. In his amatory odes there is a delicacy of compliment not to be found in any other ancient poet. ”

“ This opinion seems also to be confirmed by Herodotus, who assures us that Anacreon of Teos was with that prince in his chamber when he received a message from Orœtes, governor of Sardis, by whose treachery Polycrates was soon after betrayed and inhumanly crucified. Anacreon, it would seem, had left Samos a short time previous to this remarkable event, and had removed to Athens; having been invited thither by Hipparchus, the eldest son of Pisistratus, one of the most learned and virtuous princes of his time ”

“ While the outspoken sensuality of the poems devoted to women cannot be matter of dispute, even judging from such fragments of them as remain, the chaste and sober nature of Anacreon’s relation to his boy-lovers is not only a feature of the extant fragments, but is also alluded to more than once by ancient writers, who had his complete works from which to draw their inferences. ”

“ Wherefore Anacreon thus sings,
“Neither would I desire the horn of Amalthea, nor to reign over Tartessus one hundred and fifty years.”
Herodotus too has preserved the name of the king, whom he calls Arganthonius.1109 The passage of Anacreon must therefore either be understood [of this king] , or some other like him; or else more generally thus, “nor to reign for a lengthened period in Tartessus.” ”

“ Beauty's smiles and blissful love.
↑ There is an anecdote in the history of Anacreon, recorded by Stobæus, to which this ode may possibly bear some allusion. He relates that Anacreon, having received a present of five talents of gold from Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, was so embarrassed with cares and solicitudes about his treasure, that he could not sleep for two nights successively: whereon he sent back the present with this apology to his patron, "That however valuable the sum might be, it was not a sufficient price for the trouble and anxiety of keeping it." ”

“ Wean, a child.
Wee, little.
Weel-faur'd, well-favoured.
Weir, war, to herd.
Whusslit, whistled.
Wooster-trystes, wool-markets.
Yird, earth, soil.
END OF VOL. III.
EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Later writers attributed to Anacreon immoralities in Paiderastia of which they themselves were guilty, but of which there is not the slightest trace in him, or indeed in any of the early bards. ”

“ By the Atridæ is meant the Trojan, and by Cadmus, the Theban war. ↑ It was common among the ancient poets to say that "they had new strung their lyre," when about to celebrate any important subject, or extraordinary event. ↑ In order to understand this passage clearly, we must imagine Anacreon singing and playing on his lyre, which, instead of returning sounds suitable to the lofty subject of his song, perversely warbles "Love's sweet silver sounds." ”

“ All rivers go to the sea, but none return from it. Xerxes wept when he beheld his army, to consider that in less than a hundred years, they would be all dead. Anacreon was choked with a grapestone; and violent joy kills as well as violent grief. There is nothing in this world constant, but inconstancy; yet Plato thought, that if virtue would appear to the world in her own native dress, all men would be enamoured with her. ”

“ She fled upon the wings of morn, [2]
And left me joyless and forlorn.
↑ Tereus, king of Thrace, for whose story the reader is referred to the sixth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Though Anacreon seems to adopt the less usual acceptation of the fable, that it was Philomela, and not Progne, who was transformed into a swallow. ”

“ It is more reasonable to wish for reputation, while it may yet be enjoyed, as Anacreon calls upon his companions to give him for present use the wine and garlands which they purpose to bestow upon his tomb. ”

“ GÖTZ, JOHANN NIKOLAUS (1721-1781) , German poet, was born at Worms on the 9th of July 1721. He studied theology at Halle (1739-1742) , where he became intimate with the poets Johann W. L. Gleim and Johann Peter Uz, acted for some years as military chaplain, and afterwards filled various other ecclesiastical offices. He died at Winterburg on the 4th of November 1781. The writings of Götz consist of a number of short lyrics and several translations, of which the best is a rendering of Anacreon. ”

“ Our inquiry thus far has revealed that the adrenin secreted by the adrenal glands in times of stress has all the effects in the body that are produced by injected adrenin. It plays an essential rôle in calling forth stored carbohydrate from the liver, thus flooding the blood with sugar; it helps in distributing the blood to the heart, lungs, central nervous system and limbs, while taking it away [p. 185] from the inhibited organs of the abdomen; it quickly abolishes the effects of muscular fatigue; and it renders the blood more rapidly coagulable. ”

“ Neurones of the Sympathetic Division and Adrenal Secretion Have the Same Action
Lying anterior to each kidney is a small body—the adrenal gland. It is composed of an external portion or cortex, and a central portion or medulla. From the medulla can be extracted a substance, called variously suprarenin, adrenin, epinephrin or “adrenalin,” [*] which, in extraordinarily minute amounts, affects the structures innervated by the sympathetic division of the autonomic system [p. 37] precisely as if they were receiving nervous impulses. ”

“ The liver and intestines cannot be made to shorten clotting time by stimulation of their nerves, but, as has already been shown (see p. 157) , [p. 171] neither can adrenin act by itself to hasten the clotting process. Apparently the effect is produced by coöperation between the adrenals and the liver (and possibly also the intestines) . Somewhat similar coöperation is noted in the organization of sugar metabolism; splanchnic stimulation in the absence of the adrenal glands does not increase blood sugar, [3] and in the absence of the liver adrenin is without influence. ”

“ Since with the adrenals present stimulation of hepatic nerves induces alteration of glycogen in the liver and quick increase of blood sugar, [2] just as splanchnic stimulation does, the failure of the blood to clot faster after stimulation of the hepatic nerves confirms the evidence already offered that faster clotting when adrenin is increased in the blood is not due to a larger amount of sugar present (see p. 159) . ”

“ What is more likely than that individuals differ in the strength of their adrenal secretion or in the readiness with which the glands are aroused to pour it out into the circulation? The excitable individual might be one with over-active adrenals. And in the same way the strenuous individual might be one with an unusually active thyroid gland, since there certainly seems to be some connection between this gland and the tendency to great activity. ”

“ Since adrenin makes the blood clot much faster than normally in the intact animal, and fails to have this effect when the circulation is confined to the anterior animal, the inference is justified that in the small doses here employed adrenin produces its remarkable effects, not directly on the blood itself, not through change in the extensive neuro-muscular, bony, or surface tissues of the body, but through some organ in the abdomen. ”

“ FAILURE OF THE ADRENALS As the gland of acute stress and strain, the adrenals in modern life are called upon to function more heavily and frequently than in the past. As a matter of fact, the life of the beast of jungle and field, as well as of savage and barbarian, is just as full of emergencies and shocks as that of the average city man or woman. In the case of the latter, however, inhibitions, education, and the conditions of modern living, improper food, sedentary indoor confinement, and universal rack and noise, have undoubtedly made greater and greater demands upon the adrenal glands. ”

“ All this is greatly strengthened by the recent investigations of Sajous, which show that besides its action on the blood-pressure and the heart, the adrenal secretion actually supplies the substance which in the lungs, takes up the oxygen from the air to sustain life in all our tissues. It thus becomes evident that harm to our adrenals is bound to shorten life. ”

“ That isolated strips of the longitudinal muscle of the intestine, which are contracting rhythmically, are characteristically inhibited by adrenin in dilutions of 1 part in 20 millions, had been shown by Magnus in 1905. Although, previous to our investigation in 1910, this extremely delicate reaction had not been used as a biological signal for adrenin, it possesses noteworthy advantages over other methods. The intestine is found in all animals and not in only half of them, as is the uterus ”

“ But it remained for Schafer and Oliver of University College, London, to demonstrate the internal secretion of the suprarenals, and its importance in normal metabolism, thereby confirming Addison’s original view that the disease was due to loss of function of these glands. They demonstrated that these glands contain a very powerful extract which produces toxic effects when administered to animals, and that an active principle “adrenalin” can be separated, which excites contraction of the small blood vessels and thus raises blood pressure. ”

“ It may be that the weakness following removal or disease of the adrenals is due to absence of the cortex (see Hoskins and Wheelon: American Journal of Physiology, 1914, xxxiv, p. 184) . Such a possible effect, however, should not be confused with the demonstrable influence of injected adrenin (derived from the adrenal medulla alone) and the similar effects from adrenal secretion caused by splanchnic stimulation.
The foregoing evidence indicates that removal of the adrenals has a debilitating effect on muscular power, and that injection of extracts of the glands has an invigorating effect. ”

“ First-class Aneroids claim to be compensated, but a greater portion will need a correction which the purchaser can determine for himself, by subjecting the instrument to different temperatures while the pressure remains constant.
A modification of Guyot’s formula adapted to aneroid work was suggested in an excellent paper on the use of the aneroid, read before the American Society of Civil Engineers, in January, 1871. [Pg 38]
It is
D is the difference of altitude in feet. ”

“ This effect accords with the general rule that adrenin simulates the action of sympathetic impulses. It is commonly stated, however, that if the heart holds its normal relations in the body, adrenin causes slowing of the beat. [29] This view is doubtless due to the massive doses that have been employed, which are quite beyond physiological limits and which induce such enormous increases of arterial pressure that the natural influence of adrenin on heart muscle is overcome by mechanical obstacles to quick contractions and by inhibitory impulses from the central nervous system. ”