Anacreontics

ἄγε δηὖτε μηκέτ' οὕτω πατάγωι τε κἀλαλητῶι Σκυθικὴν πόσιν παρ' οἴνωι μελετῶμεν, ἀλλὰ καλοῖς ὑποπίνοντες ἐν ὕμνοις.

áge dēûte mēkét' hoútō patágōi te kalalētôi Skuthikḕn pósin par' oínōi meletômen, allà kaloîs hupopínontes en húmnois.

The English word appears to have been first used in 1656 by Abraham Cowley, who called a section of his poems "anacreontiques" because they were paraphrased out of the so-called writings of Anacreon into a familiar measure which was supposed to represent the meter of the Greek.

[4] Half a century later, when the form had been much cultivated, John Phillips (1631–1706) laid down the arbitrary rule that an anacreontic line "consists of seven syllables, without being tied to any certain law of quantity."

He dwells, moreover, on the absurdity of writing "pious anacreontics," a feat, however, which was performed by several of the Greek Christian poets, and in particular by Gregory of Nazianzus and John of Damascus.

A section from an ancient metrical treatise concerning the anacreonteus . Above the description the lengths of all but the first syllable can be seen marked out; the final syllable is marked as anceps . Near the beginning of the description it is reported that some call the anacreonteus "Parionic" (παριωνικόν) because of its resemblance to the "class of Ionic meters" (Ἰωνικῶν γένους). ( P.Oxy. II 220 col. vii, 1st or 2nd century CE). [ 1 ]