Weekday Greek

Some closing thoughts on Archilochus: Tough to generalize about Archilochus. He's an unusually broad and diverse author, I think, even given the paucity of surviving fragments. We have bits that feel just like Homer (17a, the Telephus elegy), but also explicitly erotic material (42, 43, Cologne epode), animal stories (~ Aesop), and consolatory epigram (~ Theognis, maybe? or a bit like hDem 217?). Practically the entire range of archaic poetry in a single author. Despite that diversity of material, he is more coherent in his language: even at his most explicit he still feels a bit like Homer: e.g. 42 (working it bent over like a Thracian sucking a straw) has a simile and uses Epic-Ionic Θρειξ instead of Attic Θρᾳξ. Some common threads do emerge: very concerned with what citizens think (polis ideology? 13.1-2, 172.3-4, 196a.33-5), and a kind of oppositional stance -- the persona often takes the position that the addressee has wronged him, or that others will object to what he is sayi...

The narrator continues: "one of these will suffice. When grows dark... I'll do as you say.... beneath the eaves and gates. Don't be stingy, honey. I'll hold toward the grass gardens. Know this. Let another man have Neoboule: too ripe, twice your age, her maidenly flower has withered and the charm she once had. She's crazy -- to hell with her. May it not... that I have such a wife and be a laughingstock to the neighbors. You're trustworthy, but she's sharper and makes many men her friends. I'm worried that I'll be too eager and have blind children like a dog." So I said. I laid down the girl in the blooming flowers, covered her up with my cloak, and held her neck in my arms; she stopped being afraid, like a faw[n]... I gently touched her breasts (the onslaught of youth) and her whole body, and touching her blonde hair I released my white strength. 

 80: "a spark of fire in it" 181: very fragmentary. the most intelligible bit is "a path swiftly through the sky turning snatching wings" 196A:  "holding off... enduring equally... but if you're in a hurry, there is a lovely, delicate girl at our house who's very eager. I think her form is faultless. Make her your friend."  I responded, "Daughter of the good, late Amphimedo, young men have many pleasures of the goddess besides the divine use." 

front of fragmentary codex leaf (recto): ... died (~ Gospel of Thomas 63.3) For [I say] to you: [do not w]orry [about your life], what you will eat, [or your] body, what you [will wear]. (~ Matt. 6.25, Luke 12.22) [Unless you] fast from [the world], [you will] not find the [kingd]om (~Gospel of Thomas 27) [Consider] the birds, how... and the heavenly father f[eeds them]. So you... (~Matt. 6.26, Luke 12.24) back (verso): ... how [it/they gro]w... [toil?]ing... [spin?]ing (~ Matt. 6.28, 'consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin') th[us not even So]lomon was cl[othed] in [his] glory. (~ Matt. 6.29, Luke 12.27b) father [clothes?] grass being d[ried] and into the ov[en] being [th]rown... so [he will clothe] you [too]... (~ Matt. 6.30, Luke 12.28) So yo[u do not worry about what you will eat or wear] (~ Matt. 6.31, Luke 12.29, Just. 1 Apol. 15.14) For your father [knows of what] you have need. Rather s]eek h[is kingdom]. And [all these things will b...

174: this is a story about people, how a fox and eagle mixed together 175: carrying to its children... the two flightless one hastened upon a foul feast... on a high hill 176: you see where there is that high hill, rough and hostile. He sits in it, scorning your fight. 177: Zeus, father Zeus, yours is the sky's strength, you see just and unjust acts among people, and you also care about animals' insolence and justice 178: lest you chance upon one with a black butt 179: he set forth a harmful dinner to his children More frustrating fragments. The assemblage of these fragments into a semi-coherent narrative seems plausible enough, though it relies a lot on the Aesop fable: i.e. an eagle stole a fox's cubs and fed them to its own children; later, after accidentally burning his own nest, the fox eats the eagle's chicks. The whole idea of a one-to-one allegory with animals feels pretty far from epic, but it is a bit like Hesiod's fable of the hawk and nightingale (also i...

19: "I do not care about Gyges' wealth, nor am I jealous of the gods' actions or a tyranny; let them be far from my eyes" 42: she sucked like a Thracian or a Phrygian sucking beer through a straw; and she took it bent over while she worked 43: his penis flooded over like a stud donkey 114: I don't love a tall, shaven general; for me may he be small and crooked in the looking, but full of heart 172: Father Lycambes, what a thing you said; now you're a laughingstock to the citizens 173: you've forsaken your oath and table These six fragments are so short and (with the exception of 114) clearly so dependent on their lost context that it's hard to say anything about them with conviction. Frustrating. 42 and 43 here are the most striking to me. Compared to other explicit archaic texts (e.g. the Cologne epode), these are unusually explicit and degrading: we have comparisons to barbarians and animals, and I can't think of any other explicit descriptions o...

Archilochus 13: No citizen or city at a festival would fault you for your grief and swollen lungs, Pericles; such were the men whom the wave covered. Nevertheless, friend, the gods set down endurance as a drug for incurable evils; it holds us now, but later changes for another. Put aside womenly suffering and endure. Archilochus 17a: ... streams... one must not say cowardice. We hastened to flee; once Telephus made the Greek army flee, filling the Caicus and Mysian plain with corpses as they fled to the shore and their ships. Then off-course they ascended the city, thinking it was Troy. Heracles met them, helping his pitiless son Telephus...  13: Love the general theme of consolation of grief from a shipwreck; I'm going to try to keep my eye out for shipwrecks, which I feel like are more common in elegy and lyric than in epic. Interesting here that grief for the dead is treated specifically as womanly, and the addressees are told to 'endure' (τλῆτε, like men in battle, cf. ...

Tyrtaeus 12. 1-9: I would not remember or set in speech a man for speed, size, good looks, wealth, kingliness, or speech, or any virtue, 10-22: unless he is good in war, the greatest prize for the polis and demos, risking his soul enduring on the front lines and encouraging his comrades. 23-34: if he dies, all will mourn him and build a tomb; his fame will live forever, and despite being underground he will become immortal 35-42: if he lives, all will honor him distinguished among the citizens, and the young and old will yield their seats to him 43-4: so let each man try to reach this peak of virtue, refusing to yield in war Language and ideas are generally similar to Homer. I think the biggest differences are in the rewards / ideological justification for fighting in the 'if he dies' and in the 'if he lives' sections. If he dies: At least some Homeric heroes get tombs and immortal kleos for dying in battle (though now that I think about it it's actually pretty rare...