Year: 1978
Type: article
Abstract: I P LUTARCH REPORTS that Archilochus, when he came to Sparta, was expelled because he had stated in a poem that it was better to throwaway one's arms than to be slain.1 As evidence for the Spartan charge Plutarch adds four lines (5 W.=6 D.), which even today, more than 2000 years after they were written, have lost nothing of their fresh liveliness and provocative unconventionality: , ,~ , 'P'" " " \ "\ .. , f)' aC7TW£ }LEV ..:.-a£wv T£C ayaI\I\ETa£, T)V 7Tapa afLvw£, " " '"\ "\ " f ) '"\ EVTOC afLWfLT)TOV, Kal\l\£7TOV OVK E EI\WV' .1.' ~" c ' , ' " \ " " 't'vXT)v 0 E~Ecawca.'T£ fLo£ fLEI\U aC7T£C EKUVT)j " 'I: -, " 2 EppETW' E~aV'T£C KTT)cofLa£ OV KaK£W.Not only do the unusually large number and the variety of ancient testimonia bear witness to the popularity of the poem,3 but Alcaeus, Anacreon, and even Horace more than 600 years later, decided to follow the lead of the great ancestor of personal lyric poets and throw their shields away toO.4 Aristophanes also paid tribute to the famous 1 pluto Inst.Lac.34, 239B; for a variant of the story see Val.Max.6.3 Ext.l.
Author: Bernd Seidensticker
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Classics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1569377774