The significance of ΥΓΡΟΝ ΥΔΩΡ in Anacreontic 33.22

Extract

The phrase ὑγρòν ὓδωρ in Anacreontic 33.22 requires more explanation than has until now been offered: the parallel passages cited by M. L. West in his edition (Carmina Anacreontea, Leipzig, 1984), namely Ovid, Ars Am. 3.224, ‘nuda Venus madidas exprimit imbre comas’ and Her. 18.104, ‘madidam…imbre comam’, present the same image, but with quite a different vocabulary, whilst Patricia A. Rosenmeyer (The Poetics of Imitation: Anacreon and the Anacreontic Tradition, Cambridge, 1992, p. 80) regards it only as an example of tautology characteristic of the Anacreontic corpus. But it is by no means unique, and, both for this reason and in the context of the nature of the whole poem, it is capable of further elucidation.