LHMP #514 Davidson 1987 Anacreon, Homer and the Young Woman from Lesbos

Like Pellicia 1995, this article takes a stab at identifying and evaluating possible intended meanings contained in Anacreon’s “she doesn’t like my grey hair” epigram. After reviewing some of the more common suggestions (“she prefers another [hair color]”, “she prefers another [woman]” either in a sexual or non-sexual context) and some less common ones (“she prefers another [type of hair]” – playing on the reputation of Lesbos for fellatio), Davidson adds a couple of possible scenarios inspired by the reference to “Eros hitting me with his ball” (i.e., inspiring my desire), suggesting that an actual game of ball may have been involved. Davidson discusses references to young women playing ball games as with Nausicaa in the Odyssey, or ball-throwing games by young men as entertainment elsewhere in the Odyssey. There are other stylistic allusions to Homer in Anacreon’s poem, so this is a reasonable suggestion.

Two possible scenarios for the inspiration of the poem are suggested. In one possible scenaro, the young woman has deliberately thrown a ball to/at Anacreon in flirtation, but only then notices his grey hair and spurns him. In a second possible scenario, an accidentally thrown ball has drawn Anacreon’s attention to the woman, stimulating his erotic interest in her, but she can’t be bothered and is more enthusiastic about continuing the game. In the second scenario, the woman “gaping after another” simply refers to her interest in continuing the game rather than paying attention to Anacreon.

Davidson admits that neither of these scenarios offers the “dramatic twist” that the structure and genre of the poem seem to call for (and that Pellicia indicates is required by the grammatical structure), but have the advantage [for those who consider it an advantage] of not invoking a homoerotic scenario for the woman’s disinterest.