Anacreontea 39-43
Anacreontea 39. Young at heart. I love an old man and a young dancer; and whenever an old man dances, he is young in his heart.
Anacreontea 40. I'll dance before I die. On the path of life I do not know what I have to run. No matter; before my end catchs me, I will play, laugh, and dance with Dionysu.
Anacreontea 41. A romantic meadow. It's lovely to walk in a meadow with the Zephyr and to hold a tender girl smelling of Aphrodite.
Anacreontea 42. Preferring the peaceful life. I love Dionysus' dances and playing the lyre with a young man, and I love garlands and playing with girls. But I hate battles over wine; instead, let me lead a peaceful life.
Anacreontea 43. A girl and boy sing and dance. Let's get drunk, while a girl and boy sing and dance. Love will rejoice and enter the revel.
Anacreontea 39. I'm not seeing a lot of parallels in Anacreon or the Anacreontea for the idea of being 'young at heart' -- maybe the closest is Anacreon fr. 402 ἔραμαι <δέ> τοι συνηβᾶν, but I think that's more like "and I love for you to share your youth."
Anacreonta 40. The closest parallel I'm seeing to the "path of life" (βιότου τρίβον ὁδεύειν) is AG 9.359 (labeled Posidippus or the comic Plato), Ποίην τις βιότοιο τάμῃ τρίβον ("What path of life should one pursue?"). That one is a pretty tight parallel.
There are other parallels too if you search TLG for βιοτος + ὁδος/τριβος (Gregory Nazianzensus, Apollinaris, and very late Byzantine poetry), but the Anthology one is the earliest.
Anacreontea 41. I'm struck by the word order in
ἀναπνεῖ Ζέφυρος αὔρην,
which reminds me of the Latin "golden line" (adjA-adjB-verb-nounA-nounB). Is the golden line ever a thing in Greek poetry? I don't think the idea actually has a classical root, at least not according to this blog post: https://classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/kenimayer/blog-golden-line%E2%80%94-classroom-canon
Anacreonta 42. What's meant by δαῖτας in line 14, where the speaker can lead a peaceful life? Maybe just a poetic word, though Plutarch in Table Talk 2.10 discusses contemporary δαῖτες (seen as a continuation of the Homeric ones), where each attendee receives a pre-allotted share of food and drink. Possibly that practice would lead to less conflict. https://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-moralia_table_talk/1961/pb_LCL424.183.xml
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