Anyte of Tegea facts for kids

Anyte of Tegea was a Hellenistic poet from Tegea in Arcadia. She is one of the nine outstanding ancient women poets listed by Antipater of Thessalonica in the Palatine Anthology. Anyte was known for her epigrams, and she introduced rural themes to the genre.

Life

According to Julius Pollux, Anyte was from Tegea in Arcadia. An alternative tradition is recorded in the Greek Anthology, where Anyte is described as being from Mytilene on Lesbos. Her use of a Doric dialect, and mentions in her poem of Tegea and the Arcadian god Pan, suggest that a Tegean origin is more likely. The story of a Lesbian origin was likely a later invention to link Anyte to Sappho. No reliable information about Anyte's life survives, and she can only be approximately dated by the style of her work. Based on this, and on possible imitations of her works in the second half of the third century BC, she is generally thought to have been active around 300 BC. Only one story about Anyte's life is preserved. Pausanias claims that she was once visited by the god Asclepius while she was asleep, and told to go to Naupactus to visit a certain blind man there. On doing so, the man was cured, and he built a temple to Asclepius. Though little is known about Anyte's life, more of her poetry survives than any other ancient Greek woman, with the exception of Sappho.

Poetry

Twenty-five epigrams attributed to Anyte in antiquity survive, one quoted by Julius Pollux and the remainder in the Palatine or Planudean Anthology. Of these, nineteen are generally agreed to be by Anyte. Of the remaining six, four are attributed to both Anyte and another author in either the Palatine or Planudean anthology, and two epigrams are attributed to Anyte by the Palatine Anthology, but are included without an author named in the Planudean. Of these six uncertain poems, two (AP 7.190 and 7.232) are considered possibly or probably by Anyte; the others are generally doubted. It is likely that Anyte compiled a book of her poetry from her epigrams – she may have been the first to do so. The Greek Anthology twice refers to her as "the lyric poet", and Pausanias mentions her epic poetry, but neither survive.

Anyte's poetry is composed in a mixed dialect, with elements of Doric and epic language, as well as some Atticisms. It is often interested in women and children, and Kathryn Gutzwiller argues that it was deliberately composed in opposition to traditional epigrams, which were by anonymous authors and from a masculine and urban perspective. Accordingly, of five epitaphs written by Anyte which survive, only one marks the death of a young man, as was traditional in the genre; the remaining four all commemorate women who died young. She is most famous for her epitaphs for animals and pastoral epigrams describing idyllic landscapes; two dedicatory epigrams by Anyte also survive.

Anyte's poetry make use of Homeric vocabulary in order to write about personal and domestic themes. For instance, Anyte's epigram 6, an epitaph dedicated to the unmarried Antibia, repeatedly echoes phrases from the Iliad and Odyssey. Her work also references archaic Greek lyric and Attic drama, and shows evidence that she was familiar with the epigrams of Simonides of Ceos and Anacreon.

See also

In Spanish: Ánite de Tegea para niños