Aspects of erotic and bacchic poetry in Roumanian and Modern-Greek literature at the end of 18th century

Abstract

The present article focusses on aspects of neo-anacreontic poetry in the
Roumanian and modern Greek languages at the end of the XVIIIth century.
A comparative thematic study is made of the most representative Roumanian
pre-modern poets, such as Ienăchiţă Văcărescu (1740-98), Alecu Văcărescu
(1762-1800), Costache Conachi (1778-1849), Nicolae Dimache (1776-1836),
loan Cantacuzino (1757-1828), and their Greek contemporaries Athanasios
Christopoulos (1772-1847), Ioannis Vilaras (1771-1823), and Athanasios
Psalidas (1764-1829). Taking into account the peculiar historical and spiritual circumstances of the two regions in which the neo-anacreontic genre was cultivated, attention is paid to expressive means, the poets’ social origins and education, the heterogeneity of the audience, and also the influence of folklore on scholarly tradition. The harmonious combination of classical, Arcadian, and folk motifs is therefore interpreted with reference to the ideals of the Enlightenment, revealing a poetic production with a unique aesthetic value and a new democratic content.