Archilochus and Odysseus Seidensticker, Bernd Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Jan 1, 1978; 19, 1; ProQuest pg. 5 Archilochus and Odysseus Bernd Seidensticker I PLUTARCH 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. 2 Editions: E. Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca 1.38 (Leipzig 1952); F. R. Adrados, Liricos griegos, elegiacos y yambografos arcaicos I (Barcelona 1956); F. Lasserre, Archiloque, Fragments (Paris 1958); M. Treu, Archilochos (Miinchen 1959); G. Tarditi, Archilochus (Rome 1968); M. West, Iambi et Elegi Graeci I (Oxford 1971). For the difficult textual problems in line 3 of fr.5 W. (6 D.) cf L. Weber, "EVK(% ~4" 'Epl-'~"" Philologus 74 (1917) 92-98; A. Colonna, "Su alcuni frammenti dei lirici greci," SIFC 21 (1946) 23-30; V. de Falco, "Note ai lirici greci," ParPass 1 (1946) 347-59; and esp. M. Gigante, "n testo del fr.6,3 di Archiloco," ParPass 11 (1956) 196-200, who gives a good survey of the extensive discussion. With Treu and Lasserre I prefer the beginning of line 3 which is attested by Ar. Pax 1298f, 1301: .pVX~v 8' E~W%WC(%. 3 For the testimonia see West ad fr.5. Most critics think that the four lines form a com· plete poem; but see H. Frankel, Dichtung (infra n.6) 152; and earlier F. Jacoby, Hermes 53 (1918) 277 n.1, and M. Theunissen, "A propos des fragments 2 et 6 (Diehl) d'Archiloque," AntCl 22 (1953) 406-11, who fancies the idea that 2 D. and 6 D. belong together. 4 Alcaeus fr.428 L.-P., cf D. L. Page, Sappho and Alcaeus (Oxford 1955) 153ff; Anacreon, PMG 36 (51 D.); Hor. ad. 2.7.9f, cf E. Fraenkel, Horace (Oxford 1957) llff. Most critics will agree that here (at least in the cases of Anacreon and Horace) we are dealing with a literary topos and not with a biographical detail; for Archilochus see infra pp.l9f. 5 6 ARCHILOCHUS AND ODYSSEUS lines in his own way. He ridiculed them at the end of Peace (1298ff), while at about the same time the philosopher and conservative politician Critias, in his attack on Archilochus, branded this poem and the event and attitude celebrated in it as "especially revolting and disgraceful."5 It seems therefore that already in antiquity the shield poem was of crucial importance for the image of Archilochus. This is certainly the case in modern criticism, as a brief look at some of the most influential interpretations and evaluations (Snell, Frankel, Treu) will show.6 "No one today," says Russo? correctly, "reads the early lyric poets without an acute awareness that he is hearing the first utterances of the 'personal' voice in early Greece, and no com­ mentary on these poets fails to call attention to the dramatically expanded self-awareness of the seventh century, which expresses itself in its emphasis on new personal values in lieu of -or in deliberate contradiction of.-the traditional Homeric values." The aC1Ttc poem, together with the other equally famous quatrain, the iambos about the bowlegged commander (114 W., 60 D.), is a key witness for this development of a new un-Homeric spirit. Snell's diachronic model (epos to lyric to drama) and his insistence on a strong cleavage between epic and lyric have been questioned, however, by many scholars.8 Russo, to give a recent example, has Ii Critias 88 B 44 Diels-Kranz (= Ael. VH 10.13). • D. A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry (New York 1967) 1-8, 136-61; K. J. Dover. "The Poetry of Archilochus." Entretiens Hardt 10 (Geneva 1964) 183-222; H. Frankel. Wege und Formen fruhgriechischen Denkerul (MUnchen 1968) 1-96 [hereafter, FRANKEL. Wege]; id., Dichtung und Philosophie des frUhen Griechentumsl (Munchen 1962) 147-70 [hereafter. FRANKEL, Dichtung]; D. E. Gerber. Euterpe (Amsterdam 1970); W. Jaeger. Paideia I' (Berlin 1959) 160-86; G. M. Kirkwood. Early Greek Monody (Ithaca 1974) 2~52 [hereafter. KIRKWOOD]; A. Lesky. Geschichte der griechischen Literatur· (Bern 1971) 132-43; D. Page, "Archilochus and the Oral Tradition." Entretiens Hardt 10 (Geneva 1964) 119-79 [hereafter. PAGE]; G. Perrotta/ B. Gentili. Polinnia l (Messina/Florence 1965) 63-97; A. Scherer. "Die Sprache des Archi­ lochos," Entretiens Hardt 10 (Geneva 1964) 89-116; B. Snell. Die Entdeckung des Geistes' (Gottingen 1975) 56-81 [hereafter, SNELL. Entdeckung]; id .• Dichtung und Gesellschaft (Ham­ burg 1965) 56-112 [hereafter. SNELL. Dichtung]; M. Treu, Von Homer zur Lyrik2 (Zetemata 12. Munchen 1968); ad 5 W. (6 D.) cf edd.citt. (supra n.2) and W. Klinger, "Do fragmentow elegijnych Archilocha." Eos 24 (1919/20) 26fT; N. Terzaghi. "Abiecta non bene parmula," BFe 34 (192.8) 13fT; Chr. Karathanasis. "'H aC1T1c TOil )lPX''\0XOV Kai 'r7 N£o/Jov'\TJ:' Platon 14 (1955) 296fT; G. Broccia.lIo8oce ,pOyoc. Ilframmento 6 D. e l'opera d'Archiloco (Rome 1959); for further literature see Gigante, op.cit. (supra n.2). 7 J. Russo, "The Inner Man in Archilochus and the Odyssey." GRBS 15 (1974) 139. 8 The Archilochus symposium of the Foundation Hardt (Entretiens sur l' antiquitt! classique 10, Geneva 1964) brought together the opposing views (Snell, Treu versus Dover. Page) in an ideal way. BERND SEIDENSTICKER 7 tried to show that the poem about the two captains is much closer to Homer's world, especially the world of the Odyssey, than is commonly allowed.9 Although I feel that here, in the attempt to correct an extreme, Russo pushed his argument too far and has underestimated the difference in tone and spirit between the Odyssey and Archilochus, his observations and COllllllents are in principle correct. A close look at the other poem, which has been used-in Russo's words-as "prima facie evidence for the conceptual gap supposed to exist between Homer and Archilochus" may therefore not be inappropriate. II In a detailed analysis of the fragments Page has shown to what degree Archilochus was influenced by the traditional epic language not only in his elegies and epodes but in the iambics and trochaic tetrameters also.10 Fragments 13 W. (7 D.) and 3 W. (3 D.) are par­ ticularly impressive examples for this thesis. But Page, as several critics have pointed out, tends to overstate the importance of the Homeric element.H With regard to 5 W. (6 D.), the shield poem, he states: "The theme is (or seems) modern, but there is no attempt to express the matter in any but the commonest traditional terms."12 Now, it is true that "all the words are Homeric" (Page) or, to be more prudent, that they can be paralleled in the Homeric epics. But as Scherer, Dover13 and others have pointed out, this does not necessarily mean that Archilochus is using traditional poetic language when he says Jg€cawca or JppE-rW, Jgav-nc or K7"~COJ.L(u. In fact, it is more likely that he is using the contemporary Ionic dialect spoken by him and his fellow Parians. Page's observations of the sort that, e.g., "Jppl.7"W begins the line in II. 9.377" or "Jgav-nc occupies the same position more than once in the Odyssey" are certainly correct in them­ selves, but they do not justify his rather bleak conclusion: "The poet • Russo, op.cit. (supra n.7) 141. 10 Page 144, 154 (and passim). 11 Cf. e.g. Kirkwood 219 n.26, 220f n.29; D. A. Campbell, Arethusa 9 (1976) 152-54; and already Dover, Snell and Treu in the discussions following the papers of Page and Scherer (supra n.6). 11 Page 132. 18 Scherer, op.cit. (supra n.6) 97; Dover, in the discussion following Scherer's paper, 108, 110. 8 ARCI-llLOCHUS AND ODYSSEUS neither intends nor achieves any special effect by the contrast between contemporary theme and traditional phrasing. He composes in this manner because he has no choice; his technique is wholly that of oral Epic."14 The only convincing pieces of evidence on which Page could base such an assumption-the typical formulaic combinations-are scarcely crammed cheek by jowl into these four lines; they occur only in the poem's second line, where Archilochus appears to have created a formula (EVTOC afLclJfL"I}Tov)15 and used an existing epic combination (OVK E8iAwv), not because he was limited by choiceless fatality but precisely because he wanted to produce a "special effect." The epic coloring is particularly appropriate in this line, which describes the precise moment of the break from the heroic convention; the playful irony of EVTOC afLclJfL"I}ToV (the blameless shield of a blameworthy owner) is slight but nevertheless clear, and the two epic phrases form a nice ironic frame around the crucial word KaAAmov. Further, it seems likely that line 1 contains another deliberate and significant use of a Homeric word. Page says16 that "ayaAAETaL in this position [i.e., before the bucolic diaeresis] is traditional" and quotes Iliad 17.473 and 18.132. In both cases the reference is to Hector, who, after he has killed Patroklos, is said to exult in Achilleus' beautiful armor. The second passage (18.130-32) is of special interest for our poem: Thetis reminds Achilleus, who wants to return to the battle­ field immediately to take revenge for Patroklos, that he needs new weapons: '\\'" \' ''11' " al\l\a TO£ EVTEa Kal\a fLETa .l PWECCtV EXOVTa£. '\ ' " II , \ "E xal\KEa fLapfLa£pOVTa' Ta fLEV Kopvua£ol\oc KTWP , '" JI "\, aVTOC EXWV wfLOLC LV ayaI\l\ETa,· If one remembers that in the following lines Thetis promises Achilleus new weapons which, made by the god Hephaistos himself, will be better than the ones he lost, the parallel to Archilochus' poem is seen to be remarkably close. Thetis: you lost your splendid armor (EV'TEa), but I will get you new and better ones. Archilochus: I lost my shield a Page 133. Page's statement about 3 W. (3 D.), "nothing but the metre distinguishes these lines from any five average lines of the Iliad" (132), could certainly not be repeated for 5 W. (6 D.). 16 The words are epic, form and combination are not. Homer does not have the singular £V'TOC (only £v'T€a and £V'T€C&), and a.p.c/Jp.TJ'TOC (II. 12.109) is used of a person, whereas for objects Homer prefers a.p.up.wv. 1. Page 132. BERND SEIDENSTICKER 9 (the blameless gear), but I will buy a better one. Is it possible that Archilochus is making an ironic allusion to the famous scene from the Iliad, evoking the greatest heroes of the Trojan war as contrasting foil for his own little Saian adventure? The language may indeed be largely traditional, but it is the pointed and playful use of the traditional medium which reveals the originality of Archilochus as a poet no less than his new ideas and attitudes. The simplicity of language, syntax and argument and the direct immediacy of the tone have led (or misled) critics to concentrate mainly on the content of the poem and to neglect the artistic form of this little masterpiece. The two distichs form a carefully constructed antithesis, held together by JL€V (1) and S~ (3): I left my shield behind (1-2), but I saved my life (3-4). The words which are central for the antithesis aC7T£St and r/Jvx~v (or ath6v) are emphasized by their position at the beginning of each distich; against the Saian soldier who boasts of the shield he has only found behind a bush, Archilochus sets his scornful 'T'£ JLOt JL~>"€t; secondly, Ka>">"L7TOV OUK EfU>..wv is effectively .:ontrasted with the forceful and resolute eppe-rw, and finally the slight ironic regret which seems to lie in €V'T'OC aJLcfJJLTJ'T'OV is squelched by , " K'T'TJcoJLat ov KaKLW. Syntactical structure, style and tone are antithetical tooP The first distich is formed by a single period (main clause, relative clause, locative phrase, inserted apposition and added participle); the crucial word Ka'\'\L7TOV is held back almost to the end of the sentence; the style appears traditionally poetic (especially line 2), and the tone is deliberate, almost hesitating. The second distich has a totally different syntactical rhythm and tone. Four short sentences follow each other in rapid movement; the central point (r/JvX~v S' E~€Cawca) is placed at the beginning; the style appears to be more personal, almost col­ loquial ;18 the tone is self-assured and determined. The artistic possibilities of word order are employed in the same masterful manner. I have already pointed to the accentuated position f ' flO:! d .1. ,,, " d ' '0 ''\ d . I o aC7Ttot an 'l'VX'YJV; ~"JI'T'OC aJ-twJ-t'YJ'T'OV an OVK E E wv correspon nICe y with each other at the beginning and the end of the pentameter; the 17 The unequal pair of distichs are bound together not only by the correlative particles p~v - 8l and by the careful arrangement of the corresponding elements of the antithesis but also by the sound repetition in lines 2 and 4: Killi1TOV O~K I.8lAwv = KT.qcopai o~ KaKlw. 18 Cf especially Tl pOi plAE'i and I.pplTW. 10 ARCHILOCHUS AND ODYSSEUS contemptuous EK£lVTj is also stressed by its position at the end of line 3, and in the last line the words which carry the emotion are again placed in the stressed positions of the pentameter. The little poem is an ideal example of Archilochus' artistic skill at creating, by the use of all stylistic tricks which the four lines can hold, the effect of natural simplicity and personal immediacy. As pointed out, however, it is not the form but the content which has absorbed the main interest of biographic and literary critics from Critias to Kirkwood. III Jaeger, Snell and Fdinkel,19 to name only the most influential critics, have stressed the personal tone and the unreserved frankness with which Archilochus speaks about his questionable behavior and attitude in the raid against the Saians. They emphasize the strong self-confidence with which the poet in these lines sets his personal judgement against the traditional ideology. "The traditional code of honor, as the Spartans long maintained it, prescribed death in such a case. 'With it or on it' the Spartan mother adjured her son when she handed him his shield as he went forth to battle: come back a corpse rather than shieldless! ... Archilochus seriously balances the value of life against an exaggerated notion of honor, draws a realistic con­ clusion, and acts accordingly; and at once, in a tone of aggressive challenge, he proclaims to all the world what he has done."2o We should perhaps not call Archilochus' attitude anti-Homeric but it certainly seems to be un-Homeric21 or, to be even more precise, un-Iliadic. Frankel points to the famous scene in the Iliad where Achilleus toys for a moment with the idea that his life could mean more to him than his honor.22 This shows that the possibility of an Archilochan decision can be envisaged by the hero, but only as negative foil, as unheroic contrast, only to be pushed aside. An Achilleus (or Diomedes or Aias for that matter) who would actually 11 Jaeger. op.dt. (supra n.6) 166; Snell. Entdeckung (supra n.6) 61f; Frankel. Dichtung (supra n.6) 152f. 10 Frankel. Dichtung (supra n.6) 153 (quoted from the English translation. p.137). 11 Cf Kirkwood 33. The tone is not polemic but playful and ironic. Archilochus does not attack Homer but rather uses him as an implicitly underlying foil, against which his own value system stands out more clearly. II II. 9.307ff (356ff, 408-18). BERND SEIDENSTICKER 11 leave his shield behind to save his life is unimaginable.23 Granted; and yet, is Archilochus indeed the ancestor of all poetic pU/J(xcmo€c, as is always maintained? In the second half of the Odyssey the polymetis Odysseus invents four Cretan tales, lie-stories, to hide his true identity.24 In the most elaborate of these amusing mixtures of fiction and truth he tells his faithful old swineherd Eumaios, among other things, about a raid which he and his comrades undertook after the Trojan war. After a successful start they are attacked and put to flight by an overwhel­ mingly superior Egyptian force. In this hopeless situation, while his companions are killed or enslaved, the 'false' Odysseus saves his skin by putting aside his weapons, helmet, spear and shield, and surrender­ ing to the Egyptian king (Od. 14.276ff): "'" \ I J/ "() aVTLK a7TO KpaTOC KVV€71V €VTVKTOV € 7]Ka " " •• ~ I ~'" Q'" I Kat caKOc wP.OtLV, Oopv 0 €KfJaI\OV €KTOC€ X€LpOC , , , 'Q \ ~ , I "\ () ., aVTap €yw fJaCLI\7]OC €vaVTLOV 7]I\V OV t7T7TWV " I ()' f'\' t~'" , "\' Kat Kvca yovva €I\WV· 0 0 €pVCaTO Kat p. €1\€7]C€V, •• Thus the Cretan Odysseus, in a situation which is, to be sure, not identical but in principle quite comparable, acts like the Archilochus of our poem: he puts his shield aside and saves his life. Like Archil­ ochus he does not portray himself as coward; his martial spirit and valor are stressed repeatedly in the story; he is maybe acting dishonorably but, under the circumstances, pragmatically and reasonably.25 We may thus call not only the vocabulary but also the theme of Archilochus' poem 'Homeric'. But again 'Homeric' does not mean more than the theme can be paralleled in the Homeric epic. The flippant irony with which Archilochus talks about the blameworthy loss of his "blameless shield" and the provocative independence with 23 Hector's monologue in the 22nd book when he is waiting for Achilleus is another instructive example. 240d. 13.256ff, 14.192ff, 17.415ff, 19. 165ff (24.244ff). 26 An important difference between the Homeric and the Archilochan loss of a shield lies in the fact that Odysseus' pragmatic action is inspired by Zeus (Od. 14.273-74 u?JTap Eftol Zeve U?JTOC Evl .ppedv ~.se v6'f/ftu I 7TO{'f/C'), whereas Archilochus simply says: l