Archilochus 19, 42, 43, 114, 172, 173

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 of a prostitute's work, a threeway, or the fluid in male climax (though the Cologne epode does end in male climax). 
  • Also fun to have another donkey simile, though this one is on the quantity of a donkey's ejaculation (which I think is a lot, right?).
  • 114 presents itself as though Archilochus is saying something innovative, but even in Homer (as Allen says) there's a lot of concern about physical beauty vs. military excellence (e.g. Nireus, Paris). What is unusual here to me is thinking about the relationship between a general and an ordinary soldier (one assumes) from the perspective of the soldier. Other than Thersites, nobody in the Iliad cares very much about whether a soldier loves (φιλέω) his general.
  • 172: between this one and 13.1-2, Archilochus seems pretty concerned with how one appears to the ἀστοί. Seems like a loaded word -- maybe polis ideology kind of stuff.

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