Archilochus Handbook - Tapa blanda

PREFACE: This edition of Archilochus is intended to be a general introduction for an educated reader. It does not contain new scholarship, findings, arguments, and/or insight into Archilochus and his works. This edition does however provide the general reader with an eminently readable volume, background on the poet, elucidation of points of interest, unique images, and easy to read content from credible sources.

Archilochus was a Greek poet living in the Seventh Century BC. He originated from the island of Paros but spent considerable time on Thasos, the Thracian colony of Paros. Archilochus’ relationship with Thasos and the idea of Greek colonization is explored in his poetry. He is unique in being the first Greek author to compose almost entirely based on his own emotions and experiences. Previous poets, namely Homer and Hesiod, used Greek myth and legend as the basis of their poetry. Archilochus made much of his poetry personal, basing it on a specific point of view. Traditional epic tended to be more detached from its material. Throughout his poetry, Archilochus explores what it means to be a person trying to make terms with the world and events surrounding him.

Archilochus was a Greek poet living in the 7th Century BC. He originated from the island of Paros but spent considerable time working on and fighting for Thasos, the Thracian colony of Paros. Archilochus’ relationship with Thasos and the idea of Greek colonization is explored in his poetry. He is unique in being the first Greek author to compose almost entirely based on his own emotions and experiences. Previous poets, namely Homer and Hesiod, used Greek myth and legend as the basis of their poetry. Archilochus takes his listener to a different place with different concerns. Throughout his poetry, Archilochus explores what it means to be a person trying to make terms with the world and events surrounding him.

Archilochus held a special place in the canon of Greek authors. Alexandrian scholars included him in their canonic list of iambic poets, along with Semonides and Hipponax, yet ancient commentators also numbered him with Tyrtaeus and Callinus as the possible inventor of the elegy. However modern critics often characterize him simply as a lyric poet. Although his work now only survives in fragments, he was revered by the ancient Greeks as one of their most brilliant authors, able to be mentioned in the same breath as Homer and Hesiod, yet he was also censured by them as the archetypal poet of blame—his invectives were even said to have driven his former fiancée and her father to suicide. Archilochus was controversial and seen as reprehensible because of his viewpoints. Nevertheless, Archilochus was respected and revered by many Greeks.