"Archilochos is the second poet of the West. Before him the archpoet Homer had written the two poems of Europe;never again would one imagination find the power to move two epics to completion and perfection. . . . As a poet he was both satirist and lyricist. Iambic verse is his invention. He wrote the first beast fable known to us. He wrote marching songs, love lyrics of frail tenderness, elegies. But most of all he was what Meleager calls him, "a thistle with graceful leaves." There is a tradition that wasps hover around his grave. To the ancients, both Greek and Roman, he was The Satirist. And we have not a single whole poem of Archilochos." [Guy Davenport, from the introduction, Archilochos, Sappho, Alkman: Three Lyric Poets of the Late Greek Bronze Age (Berkeley: U California P, 1980.]Here are some of the pieces we have of Archilochos's work:
5Listen to me cuss.
8
What hair styles among
All this jackass backsided
Sabazian pederasty.
9
With ankles that fat
It must be a girl.
25[ ]
Slime and crud
[ ]
Snot
26Nasty
Which thinks
Woman
Hatefullest
And father
Dear
Not O
Upon
43Be bold! That's one way
Of getting through life.
51
Yes, yes,
As sure as a poppy's
Green.
54
The arrogant
Puke pride.
55
Until,
And,
Mountain tops.
56
Field rations,
Legitimacy,
Heart.
61
Butt kisser!
75
Medlar trees.
89Plums.
99
Boil in the crotch.
136
The good-natured need no cutlery
In their vocabulary.
172
With what springs
In my legs
I leapt the rocks.
177
Against the wall, fists on hips,
They leaned in a fish-net of shadow.
183
Fox knows many,
Hedgehog one
Solid trick.Aliter:
Fox knows
Eleventythree
Tricks and still
Gets caught;
Hedgehog knows
One but it
Always works.
201
Grape.
206
They chased him
down the mountain.
259
No more does this smooth flesh stand slant and bold
Now that it's withered, and I am old.
It quickens still at splendid eyes,
But its seed bag's dry, and it will not rise.
Cold winds and winter drive us on.
283
Give the spear-shy young
Courage.
Make them learn
The battle's won
By the gods.
287
Upbraid me for my songs:
Catch a cricket instead,
And shout at him for chirping.