Anacreon, << uh NAK ree uhn >> (572?-487 B.C.), a Greek lyric poet, made wine and love his main themes. Little of his work has survived. Most of the so-called Anacreontics, poems popular in the 1700’s, are imitations. The tune of a drinking song about him, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” was adopted for “The Star-Spangled Banner” (see Star-Spangled Banner ). He is called “the Teian bard” because he was born in Teos, in Ionia. The emphasis on wit and pleasure in his poems is probably due to the taste and demands of his royal patrons.
