Alcaeus

Not to be confused with Alcaeus (comic poet).

Wine, my dear boy, and truth.

Alcaeus of Mytilene (Attic Greek Ἀλκαῖος, Alkaios; c. 625/620 – c. 580 BC) was a Greek lyric poet from Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic verse. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. He was an older contemporary of his fellow Lesbian poet Sappho. He was born into the aristocratic governing class of Mytilene, the main city of Lesbos, where he was involved in political disputes and feuds.

Quotes

O violet-tressed Sappho chaste,
O maid with honeyed smile!
I fain would tell what is in my breast,
Did shame me not beguile.

• Splendid burns the huge house with bronze; rich is the ample roof
  with radiant helmets; overhead each helmet lets a horse-hair plume
  droop, the warrior’s ornament. Plates of armour hang on the pin,
  greaves of radiant bronze, defence against the sturdy javelin.
  Curved shields and cuirasses of new linen bestrew the room;
  here are blades from Chalcis; here is many a cincture and kilt of proof.
  These are things we must remember now our duty shall begin.
  • Fr. 19 (tr. Gilbert Highet, 1938)

• Not in hewn stones, nor in well-fashioned beams,
  Not in the noblest of the builder's dreams,
     But in courageous men of purpose great,
     There is the fortress, there the living State.
  • Fr. 29 (tr. James S. Easby-Smith, 1901)

• Ἐξ ὄνυχος δὲ λέοντα γράψαις.
  • Painting a lion from the claw.
  • Fr. 66 (tr. J. M. Edmonds, 1928)

• O violet-tressed Sappho chaste,
     O maid with honeyed smile!
  I fain would tell what is in my breast,
     Did shame me not beguile.
  • Fr. 124 (tr. Walter Petersen, 1918)

• Οἶνος, ὦ φίλε παῖ, καὶ ἀλάθεα.
  • Wine, my dear boy, and truth.
  • Fr. 126 (tr. J. M. Edmonds, 1928)

    Compare: In vino veritas

• Let's drink! Why are we waiting for the lamps? Only an inch of daylight left.
  Lift down the large cups, my friends, the painted ones;
  for wine was given to men by the son of Semele and Zeus
  to help them forget their troubles. Mix one part of water to two of wine,
  pour it in up to the brim, and let one cup push the other along.
  • Fr. 163 (tr. Andrew M. Miller, 1996)

• Οἶνος γὰρ ἀνθρώποισι δίοπτρον.
  • For wine is a spying-hole unto man.
  • Fr. 169 (tr. J. M. Edmonds, 1928)

    Edmonds: or like κάτοπτρον, 'mirror'?

• Raise a song for her, O Muse!
     The violet-crownèd maiden,
  And praise her soft throat's changing hues,
     Her low voice, laughter-laden.
  Sing yet again her thousand charms,
     Her eyes entrancing splendour,
  Her swarthy cheeks and supple arms
     And bosom dark and tender.
  Yea, sing forevermore of her,
     My mistress soft-beguiling,
  Fairest of all who are, or were,
     My Sappho, sweetly-smiling.
  • Paraphrase (tr. James S. Easby-Smith, 1901)

Quotes about Alcaeus

• Alcaeus was in some respects not unlike a Royalist soldier of the age of the Stuarts. He had the high spirit and reckless gaiety, the love of country bound up with belief in a caste, the licence tempered by generosity and sometimes by tenderness, of a cavalier who has seen good and evil days.
  • R. C. Jebb, Greek Literature (London: MacMillan and Co, 1878) p. 59

Translations

• James S. Easby-Smith, The Songs of Alcæus (Washington, DC: W. H. Lowdermilk, 1901)

• Walter Petersen, The Lyric Songs of the Greeks (Boston, MA: Richard G. Badger, 1918)

• J. M. Edmonds, Lyra Graeca, vol. 1 (1922; 2nd ed. 1928) — this page uses Edmonds' numbering of the fragments

• T. F. Higham, C. M. Bowra, Gilbert Highet, William Marris, The Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation (1938) nos. 131–139

• Andrew M. Miller, Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (Hackett Publishing Co, 1996) p. 48

External links

• Poems by Alcaeus – English translations
• A. M. Miller, Greek Lyric: – Alcaeus, many fragments
• Alcaeus Bilingual Anthology (in Greek and English, side by side)