Callinus fr. 1

Callinus fr. 1. The speaker urges his addressee, young men, to fight. Why do they sit relaxed, when battle consumes the whole earth? It is a honorable thing to fight for land and family, and death comes whenever the Fates spin it. The shirker is not loved by his people, while the great fighter is honored.

1) Much of the language of this poem, down to the formulas and placement in the line, is the same as Homer. But rather than dependence on Homer, seems to me that it's the reverse; Homer's usage of this material seems (to me) to play on a tradition of martial exhortation.

2) Hard for me to see this as a genuine exhortation -- too long, insufficiently pointed. I like the suggestion of a sympotic context, where the neoi can consider at leisure the merits of fighting

3) There's a movement over the poem from something more interactive to something more sententious. The first few couplets are questions to the audience, with enjambment across the couplets; but the last few couplets are generalizing statements, whose thoughts end at the couplet's end. Feels more reflective, less exhortative.