Archilochus Archilochus , or , Archilochos ( ) ( c . 680 – c . 645 BC ) was a Greek lyric poet from the island of Paros in the Archaic period . He is celebrated for his versatile and innovative use of poetic meters and as the earliest known Greek author to compose almost entirely on the theme of his own emotions and experiences . 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 fiancee and her father to suicide . He presented himself as a man of few illusions either in war or in love , such as in the following elegy , where discretion is seen to be the better part of valour : Archilochus was much imitated even up to Roman times and three other distinguished poets later claimed to have thrown away their shields — Alcaeus , Anacreon and Horace . Biography . The historical sources . A considerable amount of information about the life of Archilochus has come down to the modern age via his surviving work , the testimony of other authors and inscriptions on monuments , yet it all needs to be viewed with caution — the biographical tradition is generally unreliable and the fragmentary nature of the poems doesn ' t really support inferences about his personal history . The vivid language and intimate details of the poems often look autobiographical yet it is known , on the authority of Aristotle , that Archilochus sometimes role - played . The philosopher quoted two fragments as examples of an author speaking in somebody else ' s voice : in one , an unnamed father commenting on a recent eclipse of the sun and , in the other , a carpenter named Charon , expressing his indifference to the wealth of Gyges , the king of Lydia . There is nothing in those two fragments to suggest that Archilochus is speaking in those roles ( we rely entirely on Aristotle for the context ) and possibly many of his other verses involved role - playing too . It has even been suggested by one modern scholar that imaginary characters and situations might have been a feature of the poetic tradition within which Archilochus composed , known by the ancients as iambus . The two poems quoted by Aristotle help to date the poet ' s life ( assuming of course that Charon and the unnamed father are speaking about events that Archilochus had experienced himself ) . Gyges reigned 687 – 652 BC and the date of the eclipse must have been either 6 April 648 BC or 27 June 660 BC ( another date , 14 March 711 BC , is generally considered too early ) . These dates are consistent with other evidence of the poet ' s chronology and reported history , such as the discovery at Thasos of a cenotaph , dated around the end of the seventh century and dedicated to a friend named in several fragments : Glaucus , son of Leptines . The chronology for Archilochus is complex but modern scholars generally settle for c . 680 – c . 640 BC . Whether or not their lives had been virtuous , authors of genius were revered by their fellow Greeks . Thus a sanctuary to Archilochus ( the " Archilocheion " ) was established on his home island Paros sometime in the third century BC , where his admirers offered him sacrifices , as well as to gods such as Apollo , Dionysus and the Muses . Inscriptions found on orthostat s from the sanctuary include quoted verses and historical records . In one , we are told that his father Telesicles once sent Archilochus to fetch a cow from the fields , but that the boy chanced to meet a group of women who soon vanished with the animal and left him a lyre in its place — they were the Muses and they had thus earmarked him as their protégé . According to the same inscription , the omen was later confirmed by the oracle at Delphi . Not all the inscriptions are as fanciful as that . Some are records by a local historian of the time , set out in chronological order according to custom , under the names of archons . Unfortunately , these are very fragmentary . Snippets of biographical information are provided by ancient authors as diverse as Tatian , Proclus , Clement of Alexandria , Cicero , Aelian , Plutarch , Galen , Dio Chrysostom , Aelius Aristides and several anonymous authors in the Palatine Anthology . See and other poets below for the testimony of some famous poets . Scholarship and the biographical tradition . According to tradition , Archilochus was born to a notable family on Paros . His grandfather ( or great - grandfather ) , Tellis , helped establish the cult of Demeter on Thasos near the end of the eighth century , a mission that was famously depicted in a painting at Delphi by the Thasian Polygnotus . The painting , later described by Pausanias , showed Tellis in Hades , sharing Charon ' s boat with the priestess of Demeter . The poet ' s father , Telesicles , also distinguished himself in the history of Thasos , as the founder of a Parian colony there . The names ' Tellis ' and ' Telesicles ' can have religious connotations and some modern scholars infer that the poet was born into a priestly family devoted to Demeter . Inscriptions in the " Archilocheion " identify Archilochus as a key figure in the Parian cult of Dionysus There is no evidence to back isolated reports that his mother was a slave , named Enipo , that he left Paros to escape poverty , or that he became a mercenary soldier — the slave background is probably inferred from a misreading of his verses ; archaeology indicates that life on Paros , which he associated with " figs and seafaring " , was quite prosperous ; and though he frequently refers to the rough life of a soldier , warfare was a function of the aristocracy in the archaic period and there is no indication that he fought for pay . The life of Archilochus was marked by conflicts . The ancient tradition identified a Parian , Lycambes , and his daughters as the main target of his anger . The father is said to have betrothed his daughter , Neobule , to Archilochus , but reneged on the agreement , and the poet retaliated with such eloquent abuse that Lycambes , Neobule and one or both of his other daughters committed suicide . The story later became a popular theme for Alexandrian versifiers , who played upon its poignancy at the expense of Archilochus . Some modern scholars believe that Lycambes and his daughters were not actually the poet ' s contemporaries but fictional characters in a traditional entertainment . According to another view , Lycambes as an oath - breaker had marked himself out as a menace to society and the poet ' s invective was not just personal revenge but a social obligation consistent with the practice of ' iambos ' . The inscriptions in the " Archilocheion " imply that the poet had a controversial role in the introduction of the cult of Dionysus to Paros . It records that his songs were condemned by the Parians as " too iambic " ( the issue may have concerned phallic worship ) but they were the ones who ended up being punished by the gods for impiety , possibly with impotence . The oracle of Apollo then instructed them to atone for their error and rid themselves of their suffering by honouring the poet , which led to the shrine being dedicated to him . His hero cult lasted on Paros over 800 years . His combative spirit also expressed itself in warfare . He joined the Parian colony on Thasos and battled the indigenous Thracians , expressing himself in his poems as a cynical , hard - bitten soldier fighting for a country he doesn ' t love ( " Thasos , thrice miserable city " ) on behalf of a people he scorns ( " The woes [ dregs ] of all the Greeks have come together in Thasos " ) , yet he values his closest comrades and their stalwart , unglamorous commander . Later he returned to Paros and joined the fight against the neighbouring island of Naxos . A Naxian warrior named Calondas won notoriety as the man that killed him . The Naxian ' s fate interested later authors such as Plutarch and Dio Chrysostom , since it had been a fair fight yet he was punished for it by the gods : he had gone to the temple of Apollo at Delphi to consult the oracle and was rebuked with the memorable words : " You killed the servant of the Muses ; depart from the temple . " The poet ' s character . This couplet testifies to a social revolution : Homer ' s poetry was a powerful influence on later poets and yet in Homer ' s day it had been unthinkable for a poet to be a warrior . Archilochus deliberately broke the traditional mould even while adapting himself to it : Ancient authors and scholars often reacted to his poetry and to the biographical tradition angrily , condemning " fault - finding Archilochus " for " fattening himself on harsh words of hatred " ( see Pindar ' s comment below ) and for " the unseemly and lewd utterances directed towards women " , whereby he made " a spectacle of himself " ( Plutarch " de curiositate " 10 . 520a - b ) . He was considered " . . . a noble poet in other respects if one were to take away his foul mouth and slanderous speech and wash them away like a stain " ( Suda ) . According to Valerius Maximus , the Spartans banished the works of Archilochus from their state for the sake of their children " . . . lest it harm their morals more than it benefited their talents . " Yet some ancient scholars interpreted his motives more sympathetically : Poetry . The earliest meter in " extant " Greek poetry was the epic hexameter of Homer . Homer however did not create the epic hexameter and there is evidence that other meters also predate his work Thus , though ancient scholars credited Archilochus with the invention of elegy and iambic poetry , he probably built on a " flourishing tradition of popular song " that pre - dated Homer . His innovations however seem to have turned a popular tradition into an important literary medium . His merits as a poet were neatly summarized by the rhetorician Quintilian : Most ancient commentators focused on his lampoons and on the virulence of his invective as in the comments below , yet the extant verses ( most of which come from Egyptian papyri ) indicate a very wide range of poetic interests . Alexandrian scholars collected the works of the other two major iambographers , Semonides and Hipponax , in just two books each , which were cited by number , whereas Archilochus was edited and cited not by book number but rather by poetic terms such as ' elegy ' , ' trimeters ' , ' tetrameters ' and ' epodes ' . Moreover , even those terms fail to indicate his versatility : One convenient way to classify the poems is to divide them between elegy and iambus ( ) — elegy aimed at some degree of decorum , since it employed the stately hexameter of epic , whereas the term ' iambus ' , as used by Alexandrian scholars , denoted any informal kind of verse meant to entertain ( it may have included the iambic meter but was not confined to it ) . Hence the accusation that he was " too iambic " ( see Biography ) referred not to his choice of meter but his subject matter and tone ( for an example of his iambic verse see Strasbourg papyrus ) . Elegy was accompanied by the aulos or pipe , whereas the performance of iambus varied , from recitation or chant in iambic trimeter and trochaic tetrameter , to singing of epodes accompanied by some musical instrument ( which one isn ' t known ) Archilochus was not included in the canonic list of nine lyric poets compiled by Hellenistic scholars — his range exceeded their narrow criteria for lyric ( ' lyric ' meant verse accompanied by the lyre ) . He did in fact compose some lyrics but only the tiniest fragments of these survive today . However they include one of the most famous of all lyric utterances , a hymn to Heracles with which victors were hailed at the Olympic Games , featuring a resounding refrain in which the first word imitates the sound of the lyre . Style . Like other archaic Greek poets , Archilochus relied heavily on Homer ' s example for his choice of language , particularly when using the same meter , dactylic hexameter ( as for example in elegy ) , but even in other meters the debt is apparent — in the verse below , for example , his address to his embattled soul or spirit , , has Homeric echoes . The meter below is trochaic tetrameter catalectic ( four pairs of trochees with the final syllable omitted ) , a form later favoured by Athenian dramatists because of its " running " character , expressing aggression and emotional intensity . The comic poet Aristophanes employed it for the arrival on stage of an enraged chorus in The Knights , but Archilochus uses it here to communicate the need for emotional moderation . His use of the meter however isn ' t intentionally ironic since he didn ' t share the tidy functionalism of later theorists , for whom different meters and verse - forms were endowed with distinctive characters suited to different tasks — his use of meter is " neutral in respect of ethos " . The following verse is indicative too of the fragmentary nature of Archilochus ' s extant work : lines 2 and 3 are probably corrupted and modern scholars have tried to emend them in various ways , none satisfactory , though the general meaning is clear . Recent discoveries . Thirty previously unknown lines by Archilochus , in the elegiac meter , describing events leading up to the Trojan War , in which Achaeans battled Telephus king of Mysia , have recently been identified among the Oxyrhynchus papyri and published in " The Oxyrhynchus Papyri " , Volume LXIX ( Graeco - Roman Memoirs 89 ) . referring to the works and life of poet Arhilochos of Paros ( 7th century bc ) , who was the ancestor of modern poetry since he turned his attention to the individual , speaking of common feelings and passions . External links . Archilochos ’ poems are translated by Yannis Tritsibidas and Jeffrey Carson . Interviews of the following specialists filmed during the Archilocho ’ s International Conference on October 2005 are included : Prof . Gregory Nagy , Harvard Univ . - Centre of Hellenic studies , Washington Prof . Diskin Clay , Duke Univ . of North Carolina Prof . Ewen Bowie , Univ . of Oxford Jeffrey Carson , writer , living in Paros Prof . Jenny Clay - Strauss , Univ . of Virginia Prof . Ippocratis Kantzios , Univ . of South Florida Prof . Brian Lavelle , Loyola Univ . of Chicago Dr . Dirk Obbink , Univ . of Oxford Prof . David Tandy , Univ . of Tennessee Olympios Alifieris , Honorary President - Court of Appeal Assoc . Prof . Ioannis Petropoulos , Democritean Univ . of Thrace Fotini Zafiropoulou , Honorary Chief curator of Antiquities Dr . Dora Katsonopoulou , archaeologist , President of the Paros and Cyclades Institute of Archaeology