Editing Alcaeus (section)

===A hymn (fr. 34)===
Alcaeus rarely used metaphor or simile and yet he had a fondness for the allegory of the storm-tossed ship of state. The following fragment of a hymn to Castor and Polydeuces (the [[Dioscuri]]) is possibly another example of this though some scholars interpret it instead as a prayer for a safe voyage.<ref>David A. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric Poetry'', Bristol Classical Press (1982), pp. 286, 289</ref>
{{poemquote|Hither now to me from your isle of Pelops,
You powerful children of Zeus and Leda,
Showing yourselves kindly by nature, Castor
And Polydeuces!

Travelling abroad on swift-footed horses,
Over the wide earth, over all the ocean,
How easily you bring deliverance from
Death's gelid rigor,

Landing on tall ships with a sudden, great bound,
A far-away light up the forestays running,
Bringing radiance to a ship in trouble,
Sailed in the darkness!}}

The poem was written in [[Sapphic stanza]]s, a verse form popularly associated with his compatriot, Sappho, but in which he too excelled, here paraphrased in English to suggest the same rhythms. There were probably another three stanzas in the original poem but only nine letters of them remain.<ref>David A. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric'' Vol. I, Loeb Classical Library (1990), p. 247</ref> The 'far-away light' ({{lang|grc|Πήλοθεν λάμπροι}}) is a reference to [[St. Elmo's Fire]], an electrical discharge supposed by ancient Greek mariners to be an epiphany of the Dioscuri, but the meaning of the line was obscured by gaps in the papyrus until reconstructed by a modern scholar; such reconstructions are typical of the extant poetry (see [[Alcaeus of Mytilene#Scholars, fragments and sources|Scholars, fragments and sources]] below). This poem does not begin with a verb but with an adverb (Δευτέ) but still communicates a sense of action. He probably performed his verses at [[Symposium|drinking parties]] for friends and political allies – men for whom loyalty was essential, particularly in such troubled times.<ref name="literature214"/>