Anyte of Tegea

According to Julius Pollux,[3] Anyte was from Tegea in Arcadia.[4] An alternative tradition is recorded in the Greek Anthology, where Anyte is described as being from Mytilene on Lesbos.[5] 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.[6] The story of a Lesbian origin was likely a later invention to link Anyte to Sappho.[5] No reliable information about Anyte's life survives, and she can only be approximately dated by the style of her work.[7] 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.[8] 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.[7] Though little is known about Anyte's life, more of her poetry survives than any other ancient Greek woman, with the exception of Sappho.[7]

Twenty-five epigrams attributed to Anyte in antiquity survive,[5] one quoted by Julius Pollux and the remainder in the Palatine or Planudean Anthology.[9] 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,[lower-alpha 1] and two epigrams are attributed to Anyte by the Palatine Anthology, but are included without an author named in the Planudean.[lower-alpha 2] Of these six uncertain poems, two (AP 7.190 and 7.232) are considered possibly or probably by Anyte; the others are generally doubted.[lower-alpha 3][11] It is likely that Anyte compiled a book of her poetry from her epigrams[2] – she may have been the first to do so.[12] The Greek Anthology twice refers to her as "the lyric poet", and Pausanias mentions her epic poetry, but neither survive.[13]

Anyte's poetry is composed in a mixed dialect, with elements of Doric and epic language, as well as some Atticisms.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16] She is most famous for her epitaphs for animals and pastoral epigrams describing idyllic landscapes;[2] two dedicatory epigrams by Anyte also survive.[17]

Anyte's poetry make use of Homeric vocabulary in order to write about personal and domestic themes.[18] For instance, Anyte's epigram 6, an epitaph dedicated to the unmarried Antibia, repeatedly echoes phrases from the Iliad and Odyssey.[19] Her work also references archaic Greek lyric and Attic drama,[3] and shows evidence that she was familiar with the epigrams of Simonides of Ceos and Anacreon.[20]

Anyte's pastoral poems and epitaphs for pets were important innovations, with both genres becoming standards in Hellenistic poetry.[21] Her pastoral works may have influenced Theocritus, and both Ovid and Marcus Argentarius wrote adaptations of her poems;[21] the epigrammatist Mnasalces produced an epigram collection in imitation of Anyte.[15] Antipater of Thessalonica lists her in his canon of nine women poets.[4] According to Tatian, a statue of Anyte was sculpted by Cephisodotus.[22]

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Anyte's poetry was highly thought of by the Imagist poets, with Richard Aldington describing her in his translation of Greek and Latin poetry as the "woman-Homer".[23] Modern scholars have been more critical of Anyte's work, considering her subjects frivolous.[3] However, Josephine Balmer describes her poetry as "stunning", and argues that it demonstrates both education and technical skill.[21] Anyte is one of the women included on Judy Chicago's Heritage Floor,[24] and has a crater on Mercury named after her.[25]

• Balmer, Josephine (1996). Classical Women Poets. Bloodaxe Books. ISBN 1-85224-342-2.
• Barnard, Sylvia (1978). "Hellenistic Women Poets". The Classical Journal. 73 (3).
• Bowman, Laurel (2004). "The 'Women's Tradition' in Greek Poetry". Phoenix. 58 (2).
• "Amyte". Brooklyn Museum. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
• Geoghegan, D. (1979). Anyte: The Epigrams. Rome: Edizioni dell'ateneo & bizzarri.
• Greene, Greene (2005). "Playing with Tradition: Gender and Innovation in the Epigrams of Anyte". In Greene, Ellen (ed.). Women Poets in Ancient Greece and Rome. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806136639.
• Gutzwiller, Kathryn J. (1993). "Anyte's Epigram Book". Syllecta Classica. 4.
• Highet, Gilbert; Spawforth, Anthony. "Anyte". Oxford Classical Dictionary.
• Martin, A. (2021). "Ill-Fated Shields and Man-Slaying Spears: Anyte and Nossis on the 'Heroic Code' in Hellenistic Epigram". Akroterion. 66.
• Plant, I. M. (2004). Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: an Anthology. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806136226.
• Skinner, Marilyn B. (2005). "Homer's Mother". In Greene, Ellen (ed.). Women Poets in Ancient Greece and Rome. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806136639.
• Snyder, Jane McIntosh (1991). The Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece and Rome. Carbondale: SIU Press. ISBN 9780809335961.
• "Planetary Names: Crater, craters: Anyte on Mercury". USGS Astrogeology Science Center. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2022.

• Baale, M. J. (1903). Studia in Anytes Poetriae Vitam et Carminum Reliquias. Haarlem.

•  Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: Ἀνύτη
• Anyte bio and excerpts
• Anyte Bibliography
• Anyte: translation of all surviving epigrams at attalus.org; adapted from W.R.Paton (1916–18)
• Epigrams by Women from the Greek Anthology, translated with notes by Marilyn B. Skinner. Includes Anyte 15 (AP 9.144).
• Bibliography for Anyte at A Hellenistic Bibliography, compiled and maintained by Martine Cuypers, Trinity College Dublin.