Athenaeus The Deipnosophists

How many festive parties frequent rang

With the fond love of Lesbian Alcæus,

Who sang the praises of the amorous Sappho,

And grieved his Teian¹ rival, breathing songs

Such as the nightingale would gladly imitate;

For the divine Anacreon also sought

To win the heart of the sacred poetess,

Chief ornament of all the Lesbian bands;

And so he roved about, now leaving Samos,

Now parting from his own enslaved land,

Parent of vines, to wine-producing Lesbos;

And often he beheld Cape Lectum there,

Across th' Aeolian wave. But greatest of all,

The Attic bee² oft left its rugged hill,

Singing in tragic choruses divine,

Bacchus and Love

Note 1. Anacreon.

Note 2. Sophocles.