Archilochus

Archilochus ( Greek  Ἀρχίλοχος Archilochus , Latinized Archilochus ; * 680 BC on the.. Cycladic island of Paros ;.. † around 645 BC) was a Greek writer. He is considered to be the earliest perfectly formed Greek poet and in ancient times was even equated with the epic poet Homer in terms of his importance . In addition, he is considered to be the first Greek jambographer, as he defended himself against the abuse by Lykambes by means of iambic verses .

biography

He was the illegitimate son of a man of the Parian aristocratic family and a Thracian slave named Enipo and, due to his illegitimate birth, was poor for the rest of his life as he was excluded from his paternal line of succession . Possibly his father was Telesikles , the founder of the Parian colony on Thasos . All his life he wandered about unsteadily. According to tradition, he died in the war between Paros and Naxos .

Archilochus' dates of life are controversial, as they have not been passed down directly, but can only be reconstructed in a laborious manner, and he himself partially stylized his vita according to the literary model of Homeric Odysseus . However, the founding of the colony on Thasos can be traced back to around 660 BC. To date. Likewise, the description of a solar eclipse has been handed down from Archilochus , which probably means that on April 6, 648 BC. Is meant about Thasos. Since Archilochus around 645 BC BC fell as an active warrior in battle, it can be assumed that he was not much older than 40 years.

Myth of Archilochus' ordination as a poet

Archilochus provides information in his work, which has only survived in fragments, about how he came to poetry . When he was young, his father sent him to the mainland to sell a cow in town. Outside the city he met a crowd of laughing women whom he teased. The women offered him a fair price for the cow, and Archilochus agreed. Suddenly both the women and the cow were gone, only a lyre lay at his feet. After initial dismay, Archilochus realized that he had met the Muses . The unbelieving father made inquiries into the whereabouts of the cow, but they were unsuccessful. He even consulted the Delphi Oracle , who prophesied excessive fame for his son and called him the future "darling of the muses."

Work and meaning

An extensive fragment in the papyrus collection Cologne (P. Köln II 58)

The remains of his poetry, of which barely 500 verses and no poem have been completely preserved, show that he differed significantly from his predecessors Homer and Hesiod . In terms of content, too, he resolutely opposed Homer's heroic portrayal of people. As the first Greek he brought personal feelings and experiences into his poems and thus became the founder of personal poetry . He describes himself both as a servant of the god of war Ares and as a friend of the muses, although his poetic inclination has priority in case of doubt. In one poem he tells how he lost his shield in battle without unduly regretting it; life is more important to him and he can get a new shield at any time - a stark contrast to the archaic heroic ethics. He is said to have also visited Sparta , but was banished from there because of his non-warlike attitude and his mocking poems. He is said to have been killed in the war against Naxos when a Kalondas from Korax is said to have killed him, who was then cursed by the oracle for killing a servant of the Muses.

He was best known for his humiliating and mocking poems, through which he founded the new literary genre of the iambus (humiliating and mocking poems in iambic verses). A second new creation of Archilochus was the dance-like, trochaic tetrameter . Archilochus exerted a strong influence on ancient poetry, particularly the Roman poets Catullus and Horace . Archilochus was already considered a perfectly formed lyric poet in ancient times and was equated with Homer in terms of his meaning. For today's research he is tangible as the first sharp poet personality.

One of the most famous quotes from Archilochus is the following: "Πόλλ᾽ οἶδ᾽ ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ 'ἐχῖνος ἕν μέγα." (The fox knows many different things, but the hedgehog only knows one big one.)

A papyrus fragment from the Egyptian Oxyrhynchos published in 2005 contains the longest fragment of Archilochus' Elegeia to date . Some shorter fragments of this work had already been found. The translation of the new fragment is (prose translation from English):

“If it happens under the compulsion of a god, a retreat cannot be called weakness and cowardice: no, we turned around to flee quickly: sometimes it is necessary to flee. Just as Telephus once chased the mighty army of the Argives to flight from Arcadia , and they fled - indeed, so violently the fate of the gods raged against them - even though they were powerful spear-bearers. The flowing river Kaïkos and the plain of Mysiens were littered with the corpses of the fallen. And struck by the hands of the merciless man (Telephus), the well-armed Achaeans turned in headless haste to the coast of the echoing sea. The sons of the immortals and brothers whom Agamemnon wanted to bring to holy Ilium to wage war embarked happily on their nimble ships. On this occasion they came to this coast because they lost each other on their way. They landed near the lovely city of Teuthras, and there, snorting anger with their horses, their minds became confused. Because they believed they were attacking the towering city of Troy , but in truth their feet trod the wheat-bearing Mysia. And Heracles met them as he roared to his lion-hearted son Telephus, who, fierce and merciless in cruel battle, endeavored to instigate the unfortunate flight of the Danaer , in order to satisfy his father on this occasion. "

Archilochus as a representative of the iambik

Even in antiquity , the etymology of the word iambik was unclear. What is certain is that the term is ritually charged. Links to the Demeter cult were already established in antiquity . Within this cult a maid Iambe (Greek Ἰάμβη) was invented who made the goddess Demeter , who was mourning for her daughter Persephone, laugh with her biting jokes ( Homeric Hymns 5, 192-205). In the more recent research, however, there is also a reference to the Dionysus cult . The focus of iambic poetry is the ἰαμβίζειν (Greek "blaspheme"). The author of such poetry is known as a jambograph (Greek ἰαμβογράφος, translated as "blasphemous mouth"). Iambik belongs to the genre of Aeschrology (Greek αἰσχρός - "ugly, shameful" and λόγος - "speech"), which deals with suggestive or frowned upon topics, and can also be assigned to the invective . Archilochus is (like Hipponax ) a representative of the mocking poetry and diatribes, which go to extremes, and thus only represents a part of the iambik, which furthermore consists of the sub-genera of the mirror of women (especially of Semonides of Amorgos ) and the Elegy for self-defense ( e.g. Solon ) composed. The women's mirror addresses the nullity of human existence and assigns - preferably famous - female personalities (by holding a mirror up to them metaphorically) typifications that go back to different animals and are highly insulting. The meter to insult is not - as the name suggests - tied to the iambus . The trimeter , the trochaic tetrameter or limping shapes can also occur.

Archilochus himself turned to the iambik due to several cuts in his life: On the one hand, as a bastard, he was excluded from the paternal line of succession and therefore never wealthy and always shunned. On the other hand, he had been promised to Neobule, the daughter of Lykambes . However, the future father-in-law, up to then a good friend of Archilochus, broke this promise and promised his daughter to a better-off man who had returned from the war. Archilochus was so offended and filled with hatred that he began to write hateful verses. With the help of his iambs, Archilochus is said to have driven Lykambes, Neobule and their sisters to suicide by hanging. Archilochus primarily used the animal fable (so-called αἶνος ) for his insulting and mocking poetry . Research suggests that Archilochus' most shameful verses are lost. Instead, it is only possible to work on the reconstruction with the fragmentary fragments and the comments of other authors and contemporary witnesses.

reception

Antiquity

Even in Roman antiquity , the iambus was always associated with Archilochus' trimeters and tetrameters and his invectives . The best example of this, which is often referred to as the “main testimony” in research, is the first epistle of the Roman poet Horace ( Epist. 1, 23–34):

“Parios ego primus iambos

ostendi Latio, numeros animosque secutus

Archilochi, non res et agentia uerba Lycamben;

ac ne me foliis ideo breuioribus ornes

quod timui mutare modos et carminis artem,

temperat Archilochi Musam pede mascula Sappho,

temperat Alcaeus, sed rebus et ordine dispar,

nec socerum quaerit, quem uersibus oblinat atris,

nec sponsae laqueum famoso carmine nectit.

Hunc ego, non alio dictum prius ore, Latinus

uolgaui fidicen; iuuat inmemorata ferentem

ingenuis oculisque legi manibusque teneri. "

“I led Archilochus' iambs in Lazio

For the first time, only following the parry's meter and melody,

Not his material and the ridicule that Lykambes once drove into the grave.

Therefore - I ask - do not adorn myself with less laurel,

Because I was afraid to change the rules and rhythms of poetry.

The powerful Sappho also follows the verse of Archilochus,

Yes even Alkaios, albeit with a different content and structure:

Because he does not revile his father-in-law with malicious verses,

Doesn't want to lay any pitfalls with the bride's slippery songs.

I, the Latin poet, have not yet appreciated him,

Made known to all. I am filled with joy to bring something new:

Connoisseurs will read it, worthy hands will hold it! "

Horace himself wrote in 42 BC First iambi and published in 31 BC. His 17 epodes , which he called iambi . In the epistle he explains that he was the first to show the iamb of Archilochus to the Romans and that he followed their numeri and animi . The number ( numerus ) in this case clearly describes the iambic trimeter, while the meaning of the spirit ( animus ) is controversial in research: On the one hand, it can be used to denote the ethos , character or custom of Archilochus. On the other hand, based on Horazi and other contemporary testimony to the concept of the iambus (e.g., Cic. Att. 2, 21, 4 shows how one would understand animi Archilochi in 59 BC), the Romans automatically understood an angry, aggressive poetry. With the rhythm and ethos of Archilochus ( numeros animosque Archilochi ), Horace not only explains his approach, but also gives a picture of the Roman understanding of the genus iambik, which Archilochus shaped . According to the research, it is explained that “ iambi generically, iambically rhythmized poetry as a carrier of typically Archilochic (especially: personal) invective makes up”. Horace, however, distances himself from the matter ( res ) and the words ( verba ) regarding Lykambes , which apparently forms a direct association with Archilochus among the Romans and demands a reference to it. This and the fact that besides the name "Lykambes" no further information about this person is necessary, illustrates the fame that Archilochus and his life enjoyed among the Romans. The bride ( sponsa ) also remains nameless , as the Romans seem to know that Neobule is hidden behind it. The events surrounding the broken engagement of Archilochus are assumed by the reader, which shows how well known the Greek jambograph was in Roman antiquity. Horace, however, not only proves the fame itself, but also the evaluation that Archilochus undergoes with the Romans. With “I” ( ego ) he emphasizes that he and no other previously introduced the jambograph and speaks of worthy ( ingenui ) readers. This is an honor and attributes great esteem to Archilochus at the time of Horace. A completely different picture emerged from late antiquity , when Archilochus was marked by a strict moral condemnation.

Modern

Archilochos is also the main character in Friedrich Dürrenmatt's comedy " Greek Seeks Greek " , whereby the name Archilochos is derived from the swear word asshole .

Editions and translations

• Archilochus. Greek - German. 2nd, improved edition, edited by Max Treu . Munich 1979.
• Greek poetry . 2nd, revised edition, edited by Dietrich Ebener . Berlin / Weimar 1980, pp. 60-67.
• Some Recently Found Greek Poems. Text and Commentary. Edited by Jan Maarten Bremer , Anna Maria van Erp Taalman Kip and Simon Roelof Slings (= Mnemosyne. Supplementum . Volume 99). Brill, Leiden et al. 1987, ISBN 90-04-08319-7 (Archilochos, Alkaios , anonymous commentary on Hipponax , Stesichoros ).
• Iambi et elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati. Volume 1: Archilochus, Hipponax, Theognidea. Edited by Martin L. West . Oxford 1971 (2nd edition 1989), ISBN 0-19-814696-5 (standard edition).
• Archilochus: poems. Greek - German. Translated by Kurt Steinmann . Frankfurt am Main 1998.
• Archilochus: poems. Greek - German. Published by Rainer Nickel . Düsseldorf / Zurich 2003.
• Archilochus: The Poems. Introduction, Text, Translation, and Commentary. Ed. by Laura Swift. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2019.

literature

Overview representations

• Andreas Bagordo : Archilochus . In: Bernhard Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Handbook of Greek literature in antiquity . Volume 1: The literature of the archaic and classical times . CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-57673-7 , pp. 138-148.
• Otto Crusius : Archilochus 2 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 1, Stuttgart 1895, Col. 487-507.
• Max Treu : Archilochus 2 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplementary volume XI, Stuttgart 1968, Sp. 136-156.

Introductions and general presentations

• Paul Barié: Sappho and Archilochus. Magic of the beginning. Origins of European poetry (= Exemplary Series Literature and Philosophy , 27). Sonnenberg, Annweiler 2008, ISBN 978-3-933264-54-1
• Hermann Fränkel : Poetry and philosophy of the early Greek culture. 5th edition, CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-37716-5 , pp. 147-170
• Herbert D. Rankin: Archilochus of Paros . Park Ridge, New Jersey 1977, ISBN 0-8155-5053-7 .

Investigations

• Alan Blakeway : The Date of Archilochus. In: Cyril Bailey (Ed.): Greek poetry and life (Festschrift Gilbert Murray), Oxford 1936, pp. 34–55.
• Felix Jacoby : The Date of Archilochus. In: The Classical Quarterly 35, 1941, pp. 97-109.
• Nikolaos M. Kontoleon: To the new Archilochos inscriptions. In: Philologus 100, 1956, p. 29ff.
• Klaus Lennartz : Iambos. Philological studies on the history of a genre. Reichert, Wiesbaden 2010.
• Herbert D. Rankin: Archilochus' Chronology and some possible events of his life. In: Eos 65, 1977, pp. 5-15.
• Andrea Rotstein: The Idea of ​​Iambos. University Press, London / Oxford 2010.
• François Salviat: Archiloque hoplite et général - À Thasos avec Glaucos - Return to Paros. In: Dominique Mulliez (Ed.): Θάσος. Μητρόπολη και αποικίες / Thasos. Métropole et colonies (= Recherches Franco-Helléniques. Volume 5). École française d'Athènes, Athens 2017, pp. 65–112.

reception

• Andreas Bagordo : Archilochus. In: Christine Walde (Ed.): The reception of ancient literature. Kulturhistorisches Werklexikon (= Der Neue Pauly . Supplements. Volume 7). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02034-5 , Sp. 77-90.

Web links

• Literature by and about Archilochus in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

1. ^ Rainer Nickel : Introduction . In: Archilochus: Poems . Ed. U. trans. v. RN, Düsseldorf-Zurich 2003, pp. 313-315.
2. ↑ John Stobaios 4, 46, 10 = Archilochus fragment 122 West ; also P.Oxy. XXII 2313 Fr. 1 (a) .
3. ↑ Fred Espenak, Jean Meeus: Five Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses: -1999 to +3000 , NASA Technical Publication TP-2006-214141.
4. ^ Jacoby (1941).
5. ↑ Max Treu 1959, pp. 138f.
6. ↑ Paul Barié 2008, p. 34.
7. ↑ 151 [Ed.118]; cited in ML West (ed.), Iambi et elegi Graeci , Vol. I (Oxford, 1971) English.
8. ↑ P. Oxy. LXIX 4708. Also Péter Mayer: Accidentally war? On the function and statement of the Telephos story in the new Archilochos (P. Oxy. 4708, fr. 1) , in: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 157, 2006, pp. 15-18.
9. ↑ P. Oxy. VI 854, P. Oxy. XXX 2507.
10. ↑ Independent ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ Martin Steinrück 2009.
12. ↑ Martin Steinrück 2009.
13. ↑ Max Treu 1959.
14. ↑ Max Treu 1959.
15. ↑ Klaus Lennartz 2010, p. 407.
16. ↑ See Klaus Lennartz 2010, p. 404.
17. ↑ See Martin Steinrück 2009, p. 102.
18. ↑ See Klaus Lennartz 2010, p. 421.
19. ↑ Klaus Lennartz 2010, p. 407.
20. ↑ See Bernhard Zimmermann 2011, p. 146.