Pindar and Anacreon/Anacreon/Ode 16

by Anacreon

ODE XVI.—THE CAPTIVE.

Some sing of Thebes, and some prolong^[1]
The battle-shouts of Phrygian wars;
But I must trill a captive's song,^[2]
Sigh o'er my wounds, and count my scars.

Of conq'ring fleets no slave am I,
No armies claim me for their prize;
But all my foes in ambush lie,
And dart their fires from Pyrrha's eyes!

1. Anacreon here alludes to the famous war waged by the seven captains against Eteocles, king of Thebes, in order to restore to his brother Polynices his share in the government, according to their agreement on their father's death to reign annually in turn. On this subject Æschylus has written a tragedy, and Statius a noble poem called the Thebaid.
2. The poet here alludes to the numerous instances in which he had been brought under the dominion of love.