The Fragments of Archilochus Illustrated E-Book

Archilochus of Paros

• Herausgeber: Delphi Publishing Ltd
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: Delphi Ancient Classics
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 144

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Chief among the iambic poets of ancient Greece was the seventh century lyric poet Archilochus. Notorious for his outspoken and vituperative verses, he flourished in a time of great colonisation and vigorous intellectual movement, questioning the prevailing aristocratic ideals. Celebrated for his versatile use of poetic metres, Archilochus is the earliest known Greek author to devote his poetic compositions almost entirely to his own emotions and experiences. He developed a modern form of poetry that contrasts strongly with Homer’s grand heroism. Delphi’s Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both English translations and the original Greek texts. This eBook presents Archilochus’ collected fragments, with illustrations, an informative introduction and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)

* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Archilochus’ life and works
* Features all the major fragments of Archilochus, in both English translation and the original Greek
* Concise introduction to the poet
* J. M. Edmonds’ 1931 translation, previously appearing in the Loeb Classical Library
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* Easily locate the fragments you want to read with individual contents tables
* Features a brief biography

CONTENTS:

The Fragments
The Fragments of Archilochus

The Greek Texts
List of Greek Texts

The Biographies
Archilochus (1911)

Leseprobe

The Fragments of

ARCHILOCHUS

(c. 680 - c. 640)

Contents

The Fragments

The Fragments of Archilochus

The Greek Texts

List of Greek Texts

The Biographies

Archilochus (1911)

The Delphi Classics Catalogue

© Delphi Classics 2024

Version 1

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The Fragments of

ARCHILOCHUS OF PAROS

By Delphi Classics, 2024

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The Fragments of Archilochus

First published in the United Kingdom in 2024 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2024.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 80170 206 5

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The Fragments

Paros, a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea, forming part of the Cyclades — Archilochus’ birthplace

Ancient ruins at Paros

The Fragments of Archilochus

Translated by J. M. Edmonds, Loeb Classical Library, 1931

The iambic poetry of the archaic period is characterised by a scornful criticism of friend and foe and by sexual license. The purpose of these poems remains unclear, though they appear to have a connection with the cult songs used in religious festivals. Chief among the iambic poets was the seventh century lyric poet Archilochus, who hailed from the island of Paros and was notorious for his outspoken and vituperative verses. Unusually for a poet of his time, a large amount of information about his life has survived from his extant work, as well as the testimony of other authors and inscriptions on monuments.  He is believed to have flourished between c. 680 – c. 640 BC.

According to tradition, Archilochus was born to a notable family. His grandfather (or great-grandfather), Tellis, helped establish the cult of Demeter on Thasos near the end of the eighth century BC — a mission that was famously depicted in a painting at Delphi by the Thasian Polygnotus. The poet’s father, Telesicles, also distinguished himself in the history of Thasos by founding a Parian colony there.

Archilochus’ life was marked by conflicts. An ancient tradition identifies a Parian, Lycambes, and his daughters as the principal target of his anger. The father is said to have betrothed his daughter, Neobule, to Archilochus, but reneged on the agreement and the poet retaliated with such eloquent abuse that Lycambes, Neobule and one or both of his other daughters committed suicide. The story later became a popular theme for Alexandrian versifiers, who played upon its poignancy at the expense of the poet. Some modern scholars believe that Lycambes and his daughters were not actually the poet’s contemporaries, but fictional characters in a traditional entertainment. According to another view, Lycambes was an oath-breaker that had marked himself out as a menace to society and the poet’s invective was not just personal revenge, but a social obligation consistent with the practice of iambic poetry.

Several inscriptions in the Archilocheion (a sanctuary dedicated to the poet during the third century BC) imply that he had a controversial role in the introduction of the cult of Dionysus to Paros. It records that his songs were condemned by the Parians as “too iambic” (perhaps concerning phallic worship), though it was the citizens that were ultimately punished by the gods for impiety, possibly with impotence. The oracle of Apollo then instructed them to atone for their error and rid themselves of their suffering by honouring Archilochus, which led to the shrine being dedicated to him. His hero cult lasted on Paros for over 800 years.

Archilochus’ aggressive nature was not only apparent in his poetry, but also underlined by his own military encounters. He joined the Parian colony on Thasos and battled the indigenous Thracians, expressing himself in his poetry as a cynical, hard-bitten soldier fighting for a country he does not love on behalf of a people that he scorns; still, he values his closest comrades and their stalwart commander. Later he returned to Paros and joined the war against the neighbouring island of Naxos. A Naxian warrior named Calondas won notoriety as the man that killed him. The Naxian’s fate interested later authors such as Plutarch and Dio Chrysostom, since it had been a fair fight, yet he was “punished for it by the gods”: He had gone to the temple of Apollo at Delphi to consult the oracle and was rebuked with the memorable words: “You killed the servant of the Muses; depart from the temple.”

Like other archaic Greek poets, Archilochus relied heavily on Homer’s choice of language, particularly adopting the same metre — the dactylic hexameter. Although in previous generations, it had been unthinkable for a poet to be a warrior, Archilochus broke the traditional mould. His fragments hint at a new modern style of poetry, turning away from the grandly heroic attitudes of Homer and preferring a new unsentimental honesty, supported by an iconoclastic and flippant tone of voice. Many ancient authors and scholars censured his poetry, condemning Archilochus for “fattening himself on harsh words of hatred,” as stated by Pindar. The Suda states that he was “... a noble poet in other respects if one were to take away his foul mouth and slanderous speech and wash them away like a stain” According to Valerius Maximus, the Spartans banished Archilochus’ works from their state for the sake of their children, “...lest it harm their morals more than it benefited their talents.” Dio Chrysostom interpreted his motives more sympathetically:

“For of the two poets who for all time deserve to be compared with no other, namely Homer and Archilochus, Homer praised nearly everything... but Archilochus went to the opposite extreme, to censure; seeing, I suppose, that men are in greater need of this and first of all he censures himself ... thus winning for himself... the highest commendation from heaven.”

Although ancient scholars credited Archilochus with the invention of elegy and iambic poetry, he likely built upon a rich tradition of popular song that pre-dated Homer. His innovations appear to have transformed a popular tradition into an important literary medium. His merits as a poet were aptly summarised by the Roman rhetorician Quintilian:

“We find in him the greatest force of expression, sententious statements that are not only vigorous but also terse and vibrant, and a great abundance of vitality and energy, to the extent that in the view of some his inferiority to anyone results from a defect of subject matter rather than poetic genius.”

Archilochus’ fragments were first edited by Theodor Bergk in Poetae Lyrici Graeci (tom. II, 1882) There are about three hundred known fragments, besides some forty paraphrases or indirect quotations, collected in the Budé edition (1958) by François Lasserre and André Bonnard. About half of these fragments are too short or too damaged to discern any context or intention, with some consisting of a single word. One of the longest fragments (fragment 13) has nearly ten complete lines. Thirty previously unknown lines by Archilochus, composed in the elegiac meter, describing events leading up to the Trojan War, in which the Achaeans battled Telephus king of Mysia, were recently identified among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri and published in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Volume LXIX (Graeco-Roman Memoirs 89, 2007).

Archilochus is a significant figure in the grand history of Western poetry. He flourished in a time of great colonisation and vigorous intellectual movement, when there was often a tendency to question the prevailing aristocratic status and ideals. He automatically challenged the assumptions made by aristocrats about the way life should operate and he delighted in demolishing what he perceived as their cherished fallacies — note the fragments where he refutes their belief in the importance of fame as a form of triumph over death. Archilochus’ fiercest attacks were against the ideals of chivalry as practiced by the lords of Euboea. This is seen most notably in his poem about deliberately losing his shield in battle, when he bestows upon himself the epithet Rhipsaspis (shield-dropper). Although his work now survives in fragments, his influence on the course of literary history is immense. Celebrated for his versatile use of poetic metres, Archilochus is the earliest known Greek author to devote his poetic compositions almost entirely to his own emotions and experiences. Perhaps he is the most modern of all the ancients.

Portrait of a bearded man, believed by some to be the poet Archilochus. Roman copy c. 100 AD of the Greek original of the fourth century BC

CONTENTS

Fragments Concerning Archilochus’ Life

Elegiac Poems

Inscriptions

Iambi

[i] Trimeters

[ii] Tetrameters

[iii] Asynartete Tetrameters

Epodes

Hymns

Hymn to Heracles

Iobacchi

A papyrus scrap first published in 1908, which is derived from the same ancient manuscript of Archilochus that yielded the most recent discovery (P.Oxy. VI 854, 2nd century AD)

Fragments Concerning Archilochus’ Life

“FARTHOUGH I be, I have seen the chiding Archilochus in manifold want, with nought to fatten him but heavy-worded hatreds.” Pindar Pythians, P. 2. 99

“... Gyges, who is mentioned in an iambic trimeter by his contemporary Archilochus of Paros (fr. 25).1“ Herodotus Histories:

“From the [coming into fame of Archil]o[chus the iambic poet] 418 years, in the archonship of Lysiades at Athens.2“ Parian Chronicle:

“But Aristarchus in his Notes on Archilochus makes Homer contemporary with the colonisation of Ionia.” Clement of Alexandria Miscellanies

“[on the frescoes of Polygnotus in the Delphian Colonnade] It is not quite clear with what the passengers (in Charon’s boat) are concerned.3 Tellis4 appears to be about eighteen years of age, Cleoboea still a girl, and is holding in her lap a casket of the shape of those made for Demeter. With regard to Tellis I was told this much, that the poet Archilochus was descended from him in the second generation; and it was Cleoboea, they say, who introduced the worship of Demeter into Thasos from Paros.” Pausanias Description of Greece

“Thasos: ... The great height of Thasos appears from the oracle given to the father of Archilochus:

Tell unto the Parians, O son of Telesicles, that I bid thee found a far-seen city in a lofty isle.” Stephanus of Byzantium Lexicon:

“As Cratinus says in his Archilochuses .5“ Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner

“The iambus is the invention of Archilochus of Paros.” Clement of Alexandria Miscellanies

“Semonides is made contemporary with Archilochus, and Callinus comes a little earlier, Archilochus speaking of Magnesia as destroyed and Callinus as still flourishing. Eumelus of Corinth is said to have belonged to an earlier date and been contemporary with Archias the founder of Syracuse. “ Clement of Alexandria Miscellanies

“. . the hymn of the wine-stricken Archilochus.” Callimachus

“You are thumbing6 Archilochus: — a proverb applied to those who revile others, Archilochus being one of these.” Diogen. Proverbs:

“Beware, beware! I’m a tough fellow with horns ready for the wicked, like him to whom the false Lycambes would not give his daughter, or him that was so fierce a foe to Bupalus.” Horace Epodes:

“He means Archilochus, who attacked Lycambes so bitterly with abusive verses that he committed suicide. Archilochus attacked him because he denied him his daughter’s hand after promising it.” Scholiast on Horace Epodes:

“I it was that first gave Latium the Parian Iambic, copying Archilochus in metre and spirit, but not in matter nor the words that assailed Lycambes. And should you be disposed to skimp my crown because I have feared to change the rule and rhythm of his song, remember, pray, that virile Sappho shapes her Muse by his measure, and Alcaeus too, yet his themes are different and the order of his lines; he seeks no father-in-law to bespatter with black verse nor knots a halter of defaming song for his bride-to-be.7“ Horace Epistles:

“Wrath armed Archilochus with her own Iambic.” Horace Art of Poetry:

“Some day, if you stay not your hand, my outspoken iambic will furnish me against you with arrows dipt in Lycambean blood.” Ovid Ibis:

“It should be noted that literature has many cases of self-hanging for grief, and this was the death, according to the old story, of the daughters8 of Lycambes, who could not withstand the onslaught of the satire of Archilochus.” Eustathius On the Odyssey

“The Spartans ordered that the books of Archilochus should be removed from their state because they considered them indecent, and would not have their children indoctrinated with writings which might do more harm to their morals than good to their wits.” Valerius Maximus Memorable Deeds and Sayings:

“Moreover, if we may believe Pindar, Terpander was the originator of drinkingsongs. But it must be remembered that further innovations were made by Archilochus, the trimeter, the combination of unlike measures, the recitative or rhythmical recitation of poetry to music,9 and the style of music to which recitative was set. To him also are ascribed the epode, the tetrameter, the cretic, the prosodiac, and the lengthening of the ‘heroic’ or dactylic hexameter; and some authorities would add the elegiac, and not only that, but the combination of the epibatic paeon with the iambic, and that of the lengthened ‘heroic’ with the prosodiac and the cretic. He is also credited with the device of reciting some of a number of iambic lines to music and singing the others, a device afterwards employed by the tragic poets and introduced by Crexus into the dithyramb. He is also thought to have been the first to set the music of the accompanying instrument an octave higher than the voice, instead of in the same register with it as had been the custom before his day.10“ Plutarch Music:

“We are told by Chamaeleon in his book On Steichorus that not only the poems of Homer but of Hesiod and Archilochus, and even of Mimnermuus and Phocylides, were sung to music.” Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner

“Compare Clearchus in the first of his two Books On Riddles: ‘It was the habit of Simonides of Zacynthus to recite the poems of Archilochus seated in a chair at the theatre.’ “ Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner

“A foot less and it will be the ithyphallic, which was invented by Archilochus and consists of three trochees, e.g. Bacche plaude Bacche, a rhythm composed, they say, by the poet in honour of the God herein addressed.” Marius Victorinus Art of Grammar:

“There is also the dimeter called Archilochian, e.g. beatus ille qui procul. “ Marius Victorinus Art of Grammar: [on the iambic]

“A perfect poet should have his ‘breaks’ or rhythmic modulations smooth and sonorous. Those which are the reverse should be learnt, one may say, not to be imitated but to be avoided. Of these latter, as of several others, the parent and originator, we are told, was Archilochus, who showed a talent quite unique for inventing and constructing new metres, and was the first to employ ‘epodes,’ that is, stanzas of a long and a short line, taking a single colon from his metre and putting it underneath; for instance in the heroic with which he begins, e.g. diffugere nives redeunt iam gramina campi , followed by an epode of the same metrical type, arboribusque comae. “ Marius Victorinus Art of Grammar:

“The poet Archilochus was killed by a man named Corax or Crow, to whom, we are told, the Pythian priestess gave the answer ‘Leave the temple,’ whereupon he cried ‘But, Lord, I am pure of ill; I slew him in fair fight.’” Heracleides Constitutions:

“The man who killed Archilochus in the fight was called, it seems, Callondes,11 but nicknamed Corax. Accused by the priestess of having slain a man sacred to the Muses, he fell a-praying and a-supplicating with protests of innocence, and was bidden go to the ‘dwelling-place of the cricket’ ( tettix ) to appease Archilochus’ ghost. This was Taenarum, whither they say Tettix the Cretan came by sea and founded a city hard by the Place of Ghost-Raising.12“ Plutarch The Slow Vengeance of the Deity [on Corax of Naxos]

“The man who killed him was driven from his temple by Apollo, who gave answer that he had slain a servitor of the Muses, and when he protested that it was in war, said again ‘Archilochus a servitor of the Muses;’ moreover when the poet’s father had enquired of the God before his birth, Apollo had foretold that he would beget a son who should be immortal.” Dio Chrysostom Orations [on Archilochus]

“The Parians have honoured Archilochus despite his slanderous tongue.13“ Aristotle Rhetoric:

“According to Hermippus in his tract On Gorgias , when Gorgias visited Athens after dedicating the golden portrait of himself at Delphi, Plato at sight of him exclaimed ‘The good and golden Gorgias is come to visit us,’ and Gorgias cried ‘I congratulate Athens on the birth of a new Archilochus.’” Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner

“Therein too the flower of the dread crisp-haired thistle of Archilochus, little drops from the ocean.14“ Meleager Garland:

“But I ask you whether — I do not say Homer, Pindar, or Archilochus, but — Pheidias, Polycleitus, or Zeuxis, appear to you to have practised their respective arts for the sake of pleasure?15“ Cicero On the Chief Good and the Chief Evil: