Editing Archilochus (section)

==Poetry==
The earliest meter in extant Greek poetry was the [[Epic poetry|epic]] [[hexameter]] of Homer. Homer did not create the epic hexameter, however, and there is evidence that other meters also predate his work.{{refn|See for example the ''Iliad'' 1.472–474; 16.182–183; 18.493<ref>Jeffrey M. Hurwit, ''[https://archive.org/details/artcultureofearl0000hurw The Art and Culture of Early Greece]'' 1985. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 137/</ref>}} Thus, though ancient scholars credited Archilochus with the invention of elegy and iambic poetry, he probably built on a "flourishing tradition of popular song" that pre-dated Homer. His innovations however seem to have turned a popular tradition into an important literary medium.{{Sfn|Barron|Easterling|1985|p=119}} His merits as a poet were neatly summarized by the rhetorician [[Quintilian]]:

{{quote|"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."<ref>Quintilian, ''Principles of Oratory'' 10.1.60, trans. {{harvnb|Gerber|1999|p=65}}</ref>}}

Most ancient commentators focused on his lampoons and on the virulence of his invective,{{Sfn|Barron|Easterling|1985|p=123}} yet the extant verses (most of which come from Egyptian papyri<ref>Davenport, Guy (1980), ''Archilochus, Alcman, Sappho: Three Lyric Poets of the Seventh Century B.C.'' University of California Press. {{ISBN|0-520-05223-4}}, p.2.</ref>) indicate a very wide range of poetic interests. Alexandrian scholars collected the works of the other two major iambographers, Semonides and Hipponax, in just two books each, which were cited by number, whereas Archilochus was edited and cited not by book number but rather by poetic terms such as 'elegy', 'trimeters', 'tetrameters' and 'epodes'.{{sfn|Gerber|1999|p=6}} Moreover, even those terms fail to indicate his versatility:
{{quote|"... not all his iambic and trochaic poetry was invective. In his elegiacs we find neat epigrams, consolatory poems and a detailed prediction of battle; his trochaics include a cry for help in war, an address to his troubled soul and lines on the ideal commander; in his iambics we find an enchanting description of a girl and Charon the carpenter's rejection of tyranny."{{Sfn|Campbell|1982|p=138}}}}
One convenient way to classify the poems is to divide them between elegy and iambus ({{lang|grc|ἴαμβος}}) – elegy aimed at some degree of decorum, since it employed the stately hexameter of epic, whereas the term 'iambus', as used by Alexandrian scholars, denoted any informal kind of verse meant to entertain (it may have included the iambic meter but was not confined to it). Hence the accusation that he was "too iambic" (see [[#Biography|Biography]]) referred not to his choice of meter but his subject matter and tone (for an example of his iambic verse see [[Iambus (genre)#Strasbourg papyrus|Strasbourg papyrus]]). Elegy was accompanied by the [[aulos]] or pipe, whereas the performance of iambus varied, from recitation or chant in iambic trimeter and trochaic tetrameter, to singing of epodes accompanied by some musical instrument (which one isn't known).{{Sfn|Barron|Easterling|1985|pp=120–121}}

The Alexandrian scholars included Archilochus in their canonical list of [[Iambus (genre)|iambic poets]], along with [[Semonides]] and [[Hipponax]],<ref>Sophie Mills (2006), 'Archilochus', in ''Encyclopaedia of Ancient Greece'', Nigel Wilson (ed.), Routledge, page 76</ref> yet ancient commentators also numbered him with [[Tyrtaeus]] and [[Callinus]] as the possible inventor of the [[elegy]].<ref>Didymus ''ap. Orion'', ''Et. Mag.'' p. 57, Scholiast on Ar. ''Birds'' 217, cited by {{harvnb|Barron|Easterling|1985|p=129 (note 1)}}</ref> Modern critics often characterize him simply as a [[lyric poetry|lyric poet]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Diane J.|first=Rayor|title=Sappho's Lyre: Archaic lyric and women poets of ancient Greece|publisher=University of California Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-520-07336-4|place=Berkeley, CA}}</ref> but he was not included in the Alexandrian list of [[nine lyric poets]] – his range exceeded their narrow criteria for lyric ('lyric' meant verse accompanied by the [[lyre]]). He did in fact compose some lyrics but only the smallest fragments of these survive today. However, they include one of the most famous of all lyric utterances, a hymn to [[Heracles]] with which victors were hailed at the [[Olympic Games]], with a resounding refrain, {{lang|grc|Τήνελλα καλλίνικε}}, in which the first word imitates the sound of the lyre.{{Sfn|Campbell|1982|p=138}}
<blockquote>
Τήνελλα καλλίνικε,<br />
χαῖρ' ἄναξ Ἡράκλεες,<br />
αὐτός τε καὶ Ἰόλαος, αἰχμητὰ δύο.<br />
Τήνελλα καλλίνικε<br />
χαῖρ' ἄναξ Ἡράκλεες.
</blockquote>Although his work now only survives in fragments, Archilochus was revered by the ancient Greeks as one of their most brilliant authors, able to be mentioned in the same breath as [[Homer]] and [[Hesiod]],{{Sfn|Barron|Easterling|1985|p=118}} yet he was also censured by them as the archetypal poet of blame{{Sfn|Brown|1997|p=49}} – his invectives were even said to have driven his former fiancée and her father to suicide. He presented himself as a man of few illusions either in war or in love, such as in the following elegy, where discretion is seen to be the better part of valour:
{{Verse translation|italicsoff=y|lang=grc|
Ἀσπίδι μὲν Σαΐων τις ἀγάλλεται, ἥν παρὰ θάμνῳ
:ἔντος ἀμώμητον κάλλιπον οὐκ ἐθέλων·
αὐτὸν δ' ἔκ μ' ἐσάωσα· τί μοι μέλει ἀσπὶς ἐκείνη;
:Ἐρρέτω· ἐξαῦτις κτήσομαι οὐ κακίω.
|
One of the Saians (''Thracian tribe'') now delights in the shield I discarded
:Unwillingly near a bush, for it was perfectly good,
But at least I got myself safely out. Why should I care for that shield?
:Let it go. Some other time I'll find another no worse.<ref>Fragment 5, trans. {{harvnb|Gerber|1999|pp=80&ndash;82}}</ref>}}

Archilochus was much imitated even up to Roman times and three other distinguished poets later claimed to have thrown away their shields – [[Alcaeus of Mytilene|Alcaeus]], [[Anacreon]] and [[Horace]].{{Sfn|Campbell|1982|p=145}}

===Style===
Like other archaic Greek poets, Archilochus relied heavily on Homer's example for his choice of language, particularly when using the same meter, [[dactylic hexameter]] (as for example in [[elegy]]), but even in other meters the debt is apparent – in the verse below, for example, his address to his embattled soul or spirit, {{lang|grc|θυμέ}}, has Homeric echoes.{{refn|See ''[[Odyssey]]'' 20.18 ff, ''[[Iliad]]'' 22.98–99 and 22.122{{Sfn|Campbell|1982|pp=153–154}}}} The meter below is trochaic tetrameter [[catalectic]] (four pairs of [[trochees]] with the final syllable omitted), a form later favoured by Athenian dramatists because of its ''running'' character, expressing aggression and emotional intensity.<ref>L.P.E. Parker, (1997), ''The Songs of Aristophanes'', Oxford, p. 36</ref> The comic poet [[Aristophanes]] employed it for the arrival on stage of an enraged chorus in ''[[The Knights]]'', but Archilochus uses it here to communicate the need for emotional moderation. His use of the meter isn't intentionally ironic, however, since he didn't share the tidy functionalism of later theorists, for whom different meters and verse-forms were endowed with distinctive characters suited to different tasks – his use of meter is "neutral in respect of ethos".{{Sfn|Campbell|1982|p=138}}  The following verse is indicative too of the fragmentary nature of Archilochus's extant work: lines 2 and 3 are probably corrupted and modern scholars have tried to emend them in various ways, though the general meaning is clear.{{Sfn|Campbell|1982|pp=153–154}}
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{{lang|grc|θυμέ, θύμ᾽ ἀμηχάνοισι κήδεσιν κυκώμενε,<br/>
ἄνα δέ, δυσμενέων δ᾽ ἀλέξευ προσβαλὼν ἐναντίον<br/>
στέρνον, ἐν δοκοῖσιν ἐχθρῶν πλησίον κατασταθείς<br/>
ἀσφαλέως· καὶ μήτε νικῶν ἀμφαδὴν ἀγάλλεο<br/>
μηδὲ νικηθεὶς ἐν οἴκωι καταπεσὼν ὀδύρεο.<br/>
ἀλλὰ χαρτοῖσίν τε χαῖρε καὶ κακοῖσιν ἀσχάλα<br/>
μὴ λίην· γίνωσκε δ᾽ οἷος ῥυσμὸς ἀνθρώπους ἔχει.}}<ref>Archilochus fr. 128, quoted by Stobaeus (3.20.28), cited by {{harvnb|Gerber|1999|p=167}}</ref><br/>
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My Soul, my Soul, all disturbed by sorrows inconsolable,<br/>
Bear up, hold out, meet front-on the many foes that rush on you<br/>
Now from this side and now that, enduring all such strife up close,<br/>
Never wavering; and should you win, don't openly exult,<br/>
Nor, defeated, throw yourself lamenting in a heap at home,<br/>
But delight in things that are delightful and, in hard times, grieve<br/>
Not too much – appreciate the rhythm that controls men's lives.<br/>
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