Archilochus (Greek: Ἀρχίλοχος) (c. 680 BC-c. 645 BC) was a Greek poet and supposed mercenary. Centuries: 8th century BC - 7th century BC - 6th century BC Decades: 730s BC 720s BC 710s BC 700s BC 690s BC - 680s BC - 670s BC 660s BC 650s BC 640s BC 630s BC Events and Trends 689 BC - King Sennacherib of Assyria sacks Babylon 687 BC - Gyges becomes king of... Centuries: 8th century BC - 7th century BC - 6th century BC Decades: 690s BC 680s BC 670s BC 660s BC 650s BC - 640s BC - 630s BC 620s BC 610s BC 600s BC 590s BC Events and Trends Assyrian king Ashurbanipal founds library, which includes our earliest complete copy of the Epic... For other uses, see Mercenary (disambiguation). ...

Life and poetry

The details of his life are inferred from his poetry, doubtless including details that were traditional in Antiquity. Archilochus was born on the island of Paros. His father, Telesicles, who was from a noble family, had conducted a colony to Thasos, in obedience to the command of the Delphic oracle. To this island Archilochus himself, hard pressed by poverty, afterwards removed. Another reason for leaving his native place was personal disappointment and indignation at the treatment he had received from Lycambes, a citizen of Paros, who had promised him his daughter Neobule in marriage, but had afterwards withdrawn his consent. Archilochus, taking advantage of the license allowed at the feasts of Demeter, poured out his wounded feelings in unmerciful satire. He accused Lycambes of perjury, and recited such verses against his daughters, that Lycambes and his daughters are said to have hanged themselves. Paros (Greek: νήσος Πάρος; Venetian: isola di Paro) is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea, in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. ... Thasos or Thassos (Greek: Θάσος, Ottoman Turkish: طاشوز Taşöz, Bulgarian: ) is an island in the northern Aegean Sea, close to the coast of Thrace and the plain of the river Nestos (during the Ottoman times Kara-Su). ... For other uses, see Delphi (disambiguation). ... Paros (Greek: νήσος Πάρος; Venetian: isola di Paro) is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea, in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. ... This article is about the grain goddess Demeter. ... 1867 edition of Punch, a ground-breaking British magazine of popular humour, including a good deal of satire of the contemporary social and political scene. ... Perjury is the act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a material matter under oath or affirmation in a court of law or in any of various sworn statements in writing. ...

1) Colonized Thasos; was part of general ‘colonization’ efforts of his era (750-550 B.C.;______ 2) Was a mercenary soldier by profession—typical of many landless, rootless ‘younger’ or illegitimate sons (no inheritance) in Archaic Greece, when ‘overpopulation’ was a major problem. 3) Was a ‘Lyric’ = ‘personal’ topics, poet; the 1st of the known Lyric poets, who broke with Homeric Epic poetry style to write of their own lives, experiences, feelings, attitudes. Other sig. Lyric poets included Sappho, Alkman, etc

Along with the epics of Homer and Hesiod, the satires of Archilochus were one of the mainstays of itinerant rhapsodes, who made a living declaiming poetry at both religious festivals and private homes. For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... Roman bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, now identified by some as possibly Hesiod Hesiod (Hesiodos, ) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. Hesiod and Homer, with whom Hesiod is often paired, have been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived... In classical antiquity, a rhapsode was a professional reciter of poetry, especially the epics of Homer, but also the wisdom-verse of Hesiod and the satires of Archilochus, among others. ...

In the historical and poetic imagination, Archilochus represents the romantic intersection of the fighting and the poetic spirits; this dual aspect of his personality is captured with brevity in the following poetic fragment, wherein he describes himself as both a warrior and a poet:

Εἰμὶ δ' ἐγὼ θεράπων μὲν Ἐνυαλίοιο ἄνακτος,

καὶ Μουσέων ἐρατὸν δῶρον ἐπιστάμενος.

Although I am a servant of Lord Enyalios [Ares, god of war],

I also know well the lovely gift of the Muses.

Alternate Translation: This atricle is about Ares, the Greek god of war. ...

I am two things: a warrior who follows Mavors lord of battle

And a poet, who understands the gift of the muses love.

At Thasos the poet passed some unhappy years; his hopes of wealth were disappointed: Mars was the Roman god of war and the son of Juno and a magical flower (or Jupiter) and initially was the Roman god of fertility and vegetation, and protector of cattle, but later he became associated with battle. ... Thasos or Thassos (Greek: Θάσος, Ottoman Turkish: طاشوز Taşöz, Bulgarian: ) is an island in the northern Aegean Sea, close to the coast of Thrace and the plain of the river Nestos (during the Ottoman times Kara-Su). ...

These golden matters

Of Gyges and his treasuries

Are no concern of mine.

Jealousy has no power over me,

Nor do I envy a god his work,

And I do not burn to rule.

Such things have no

Fascination for my eyes.

According to him, Thasos was the meeting-place of the calamities of all Hellas. The inhabitants were frequently involved in quarrels with their neighbors, and in a war against the Saians— a Thracian tribe— he threw away his shield and fled from the field of battle. He does not seem to have felt the disgrace very keenly, for, like Alcaeus, he commemorates the event: in a surviving fragment he congratulates himself on having saved his life, and says he can easily procure another shield: Gyges can be: A figure from Greek mythology, one of the Hecatonchires. ... Greece, formally called the Hellenic Republic (Greek: Ελληνική Δημοκρατία), is a country in the southeast of Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. ... Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak  Thrace (Bulgarian: , Greek: , Attic Greek: ThrāíkÄ“ or ThrēíkÄ“, Latin: , Turkish: ) is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. ... Alcaeus may refer to several ancient Greek figures: in mythology, Alcaeus was the son of Perseus and the father of Amphitryon. ...

Some barbarian is waving my shield,

since I was obliged to

leave that perfectly good piece of equipment behind

under a bush.

But I got away, so what does it matter?

Life seemed somehow more precious.

Let the shield go; I can buy another one equally good.

After leaving Thasos, he is said to have visited Sparta, but to have been at once banished from that city on account of his cowardice and the licentious character of his works (Valerius Maximus vi. 3, externa 1). He next visited Magna Graecia, Hellenic southern Italy, of which he speaks very favorably. He then returned to his native home on Paros, and was slain in a battle against the Naxians by one Calondas or Corax, who was cursed by the oracle for having slain a servant of the Muses. For modern day Sparta, see Sparti (municipality). ... Valerius Maximus was a Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes. ... Magna Graecia around 280 b. ... Paros (Greek: νήσος Πάρος; Venetian: isola di Paro) is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea, in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. ... Naxos (Greek: Νάξος; Italian: Nicsia; Turkish: Nakşa) is a Greek island, the largest island (428 km²) in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean. ... For other uses see Muse (disambiguation). ...

The writings of Archilochus consisted of elegies, hymns— one of which used to be sung by the victors in the Olympic games— and of poems in the iambic and trochaic measures. Greek rhetors credited him with the invention of iambic poetry and its application to satire. The only previous measures in Greek poetry had been the epic hexameter, and its offshoot the elegiac meter; but the slow measured structure of hexameter verse was utterly unsuited to express the quick, light motions of satire. For other uses, see Elegy (disambiguation). ... A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a god or other religiously significant figure. ... The five Olympic rings were designed in 1913, adopted in 1914 and debuted at the Games at Antwerp, 1920. ... An iamb is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... A trochee is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... Rhetoric (from Greek ρητωρ, rhêtôr, orator) is one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar). ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of narrative poetry, characterized by great length, multiple settings, large numbers of characters, or long span of time involved. ... Hexameter is a literary and poetic form, consisting of six metrical feet per line as in the Iliad. ...

Archilochus made use of the iambus and the trochee, and organized them into the two forms of meter known as the iambic trimeter and the trochaic tetrameter. The trochaic meter he generally used for subjects of a vicarious nature; the iambic for satires. He was also the first to make use of the arrangement of verses called the epode. Horace in his meters to a great extent follows Archilochus. All ancient authorities unite in praising the poems of Archilochus, in terms that appear exaggerated. His verses seem certainly to have possessed strength, flexibility, nervous vigor, and, beyond everything else, impetuous vehemence and energy: Horace speaks of the "rage" of Archilochus, and Hadrian calls his verses "raging iambics." His countrymen reverenced him as the equal of Homer, and statues of these two poets were dedicated on the same day. His poems were written in the old Ionic dialect. An iamb is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... A trochee or choree, choreus, is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... Iambic trimeter is an ancient metre consisting of three iambic metra (each consisting of two iambi) used in the spoken verses of the Greek tragedy and comedy. ... Trochaic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. ... Epode, in verse, the third part in an ode, which followed the strophe and the antistrophe, and completed the movement. ... Horace, as imagined by Anton von Werner Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. ... Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus (January 24, 76 –– July 10, 138), known as Hadrian in English, was emperor of Rome from 117 A.D. to 138 A.D., as well as a Stoic and Epicurean philosopher. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ...

Only fragments of Archilochus' poems survive; these are collected in the Greek Anthology. Greek Anthology (also Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Ancient and Byzantine periods of Greek Literature. ...

Recent discoveries

Thirty lines of a previously unknown poem in the elegiac meter by Archilochos describing events leading up to the Trojan War, in which Achaeans battled Telephus king of Mysia, have recently been identified among the unpublished manuscripts from Oxyrhynchus.^[1] Elegiac refers either to those compositions that are like elegies or to a specific poetic meter used in Classical elegies. ... The fall of Troy, by Johann Georg Trautmann (1713–1769). ... A Greek mythological figure, Telephus referred to two different people. ... Mysia. ... Oxyrhynchus (Greek: Οξύρυγχος; sharp-nosed; ancient Egyptian Per-Medjed; modern Egyptian Arabic el-Bahnasa) is an archaeological site in Egypt, considered one of the most important ever discovered. ...

References

• Translation by Guy Davenport Archilochos Sappho Alkman: Three Lyric Poets of the Late Greek Bronze Age
• Politics, Aristotle, Book VII, vi 3; 1328a 5; Loeb p. 567.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

The cover of Apples and Pears by Guy Davenport Guy Mattison Davenport (November 23, 1927 – January 4, 2005) was an American writer, translator, painter, illustrator, intellectual, and teacher. ... Encyclopædia Britannica, the eleventh edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

Notes

1. ^ P. Oxy. 2382.

Quotes

• "For 'tis thy friends that make thee choke with rage". (1)
• "The fox knows many things; the hedgehog one great thing." (cf. The Hedgehog and the Fox)
• "Wretched I lie, dead with desire, pierced through my bones, with the bitter pains the Gods have given me."

The Hedgehog and the Fox is the title of an essay by Isaiah Berlin, regarding the Russian author Leo Tolstoys theory of history. ...

External links

• Introduction to Archilochos and translation of A's longest fragment by Guy Davenport
• Web Resources on Archilochos
• The Poetry of Archilochos
• Archilochos fragments in Greek
• Archilochus Bilingual Anthology (in Greek and English, side by side)
• Zweisprachige Textauswahl zu den griechischen Lyrikern mit zusätzlichen Hilfen