Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Archilochus
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===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}} {| style="border: 0px; margin-left:30px; white-space:nowrap;" ! scope="col" width="350px" | ! scope="col" width="350px" | |- border="0" |- Valign=top | {{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/> | 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/> |}
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Archilochus
(section)
Add topic