About Arcaeus of Mytilene: The Ancient Greek Poets (0600-0560)
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Arcaeus of Mytilene (; Ancient Greek: Ἀλκαῖος ὁ Μυτιληναῖος, Alkaios ho Mutilēnaios; C. 625–620 – c. 580 BC) was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Arkeith Festival. He was included in the classic list of nine lyric poets by scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. He is a contemporary, allegedly Sappho’s lover, with whom he may have exchanged poetry. He was born into the aristocratic ruling class of Mytilene, the main city of Lesbos, where he was involved in political strife and discord.
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Alcaeus “A possibly genuine lesbian coin has been preserved with the face of… Alcaeus on the obverse and… Pittacus on the reverse. The coin is said to belong to Fulvius Ursinus. It entered Paris through various hands and collections Royal Museum, and engraved by Knight Visconti.” — J. Easby-SmithPittacus
The general outline of the poet’s life is well known. He was born into the noble warrior class that ruled Mytilene, the most powerful city-state on Lesbos, and by the end of the seventh century BC it was the most influential of all cities in North Aegean Greece, with A strong navy and colonies secure its trade routes at Hellespont. The city has long been ruled by kings born to the Penthilid clan, but during the poet’s lifetime, the Penthilids were a depleted force, with rival nobles and their factions vying for supremacy. Arcaeus and his brothers engaged in the struggle enthusiastically, but with little success. Their political adventures can be understood in terms of three tyrants who come and go:
- Melanchrus – He was overthrown sometime between 612 and 609 BC by a faction that included Pittacus (later known as one of the Seven Sages of Greece) in addition to Arcaeus’ brothers ); Arcaeus at that time was too young to be actively involved;
- Myrsilus – It is not known when he came to power, but some verses of Arcaeus (fragment 129) indicate that the poet, his brother and Pittacus planned to overthrow him, and Pittacus then betrayed them; Arcaeus and His brother fled into exile, and the poet later wrote a drinking song to celebrate the news of the tyrant’s death (fragment 332);
- Pittacus – the leading political figure of his time, he was voted supreme power by the political council of Mytilene and seemed to govern well (590-580 BC), even allowing Arcaeus and his faction Return home in peace.
Sometime before 600 BC, Mytilene fought Athens for control of the Sigeion, and Arcaeus was old enough to fight. According to the historian Herodotus, the poet threw away his shield to escape the victorious Athenians, then celebrated the moment in a poem he later sent to his friend Melanipus. It is believed that Arcaeus traveled extensively during his exile, including at least one visit to Egypt. His older brother Antimenidas appears to have served as a mercenary in Nebuchadnezzar’s army and may have been involved in the conquest of Askelon. Arcaeus wrote several poems to celebrate the return of Antimenides, including references to his valor in slaying even greater opponents (fragment 350), and he proudly describes the military hardware that adorned their home (fragment 357).
“Arcaeus was in some ways not different from the royalist soldiers of Stuart’s day. His spirited, reckless joy, his love for his country combined with his faith in caste, in generosity and even sometimes because of Trained in tenderness. A knight who has seen good days and bad.” -Richard Claverhouse Jebb
Arcaeus was Sappho’s countryman and countryman, and since both poets wrote for Mytilene’s friends, they had many opportunities to associate regularly, such as in Calistyathe annual festival of the island’s Commonwealth under Mytilene, celebrated at the “Mason” (called Timenos In France. 129 and 130), where Sappho performed publicly with a female choir.Arcaeus refers to Sappho in more typical divine terms, such as Holy/Pure, smiling Sappho (fr. 384), she may have been inspired by her performances at music festivals. The lesbian or Aeolic school of poetry “reached in the songs of Sappho and Alcaeus a height of splendor it never came close to”, later Greek critics and the early centuries of the Christian era believed that the two poets were actually lovers , which became the most popular subject in art (like the urn pictured above).
poetry
Sometime in the 3rd century BC, the Alexandrian scholars Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace collected the poetic works of Arcaeus in ten books with detailed commentaries, But his verses exist today only in fragmentary form, varying in size, such as wine, a man’s window (fr. 333) to whole groups of verses and stanzas, such as those cited below (fr. 346). Alexander scholars number him in their Canon Nine (one lyric poet per muse). Of these, Pindar is considered to be excellent by many ancient critics, but some give priority to Arcaeus. Classic Nine is traditionally divided into two groups, Alcaeus, Sappho and Anacreon, which are “solos” or “solos” with the following characteristics:
- They personally create and perform for friends and colleagues on topics of immediate interest to them;
- They write in the local dialect (Alcaeus and Sappho in Aeolic, Anacreon in Ionian);
- They prefer rather short, rhythmically simple stanzas or “strophes” that are used repeatedly in many poems—hence the “Alcaic” and “Sapphic” stanzas named after the two poets who perfected them or may have invented them.
The other six of the nine classic songs were composed for public verses, sung by choirs and professional singers, often with complex rhythmic arrangements never replicated in other verses. However, modern scholars believe that this division into two groups is too simplistic, and it is often practically impossible to know whether a ballad is sung or recited, or whether it has instruments and dance accompaniment. Even the private reflections of Arcaeus, ostensibly sung at the dinner, retain a public function.
Critics often try to understand Arcaeus through comparisons with Sappho:
If we compare the two, we find that Alcaeus is versatile, Sappho’s scope is narrow; his poems are not as graceful or as melodious as hers; and the emotions he chooses to express are less intense. — David Campbell
The Song of the Aeolus emerges as a full-fledged work of art in the vibrant stanzas of Arcaeus. His younger contemporaries, Sappho, elevated it to supremacy, and his melody is unparalleled, perhaps unparalleled, in all the relics of Greek poetry. — Richard Jebb
The variety of his subject matter, the subtle rhythm of his rhythm, the perfection and even the incompleteness of his style, surpasses all poets, and is even stronger, more delicate, and more authentic to contemporary Sappho. — James Isby-Smith
The Roman poet Horace also compared the two, describing Arcaeus as a “fuller singing” – see Horace’s tribute below. Arcaeus himself seems to emphasize the difference between his own “down to earth” style and Sappho’s more “heavenly” qualities, he describes Sappho as almost a goddess (as above), but some argue that the two Poets are all concerned with striking a balance between the sacred and the mundane, and each emphasizes a different element of that balance.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus admonishes us to “observe the sublime, the simplicity, and the sweetness of Arcaeus, combined with his stern strength, his splendid stature and his clarity unaffected by dialect; and above all, The way he expresses his emotions in public affairs” and Quentilian, after praising Arcaeus for his excellence, “in the part of his work in which he attacks tyrants and contributes to good morals; in his language, He was terse, sublime, discreet, and often orator-like;” he continued, “but he descended into debauchery and love, though better suited to higher things.”
Poetry genre
Arcaeus’ work is usually grouped into five genres.
- political songOften writing on political themes, Arcaeus reports on the power struggle in Lesbos with guerrilla zeal and dynamism, curses his opponents, rejoices in their deaths, and speaks horribly about the consequences of political inaction sermons, and exhorted his comrades to fight heroically in resistance, as in one of his “Ship of the Nation” parables. Halicarnassus scholar Dionysius, commenting on Arcaeus as a political poet, observed that “…if you remove the rice, you will find political speech.”
- drinking song: According to the grammarian Athena, Arcaeus used every occasion as an excuse to drink alcohol, and he provided later generations with several famous sayings to prove this.Arcaeus persuaded his friends to drink to celebrate the death of the tyrant, drink their sorrow, drink as life is short and let it be in wine, drink in the winter storm, drink in the summer heat. The latter poem is actually a paraphrase of Hesiod’s verses, reinterpreting them in the Asclepiad Meter and Aeolian dialects.
- hymn: Arcaeus sang the gods in the spirit of Homeric hymns to please his companions, not to glorify the gods, and adopted the same rhythm he used for his “worldly” lyrics. For example, there are fragments in the “Sapphic” rice praising the Dioscuri, Hermes, and Hebrus rivers (a river of great significance in lesbian mythology, as Orpheus’s head is believed to float and sing in its waters, eventually crossing the sea Arrive at Lesbos and end up in the Temple of Apollo, a symbol of lesbian supremacy in the song). According to Porphyrion, Horace imitated the hymn of Hermes in one of his own “Sapphire” odes (C.1.10: Mercuri, faunde nepos Atlantis).
- love song: Almost all of Arcaeus’s sentimental verses, mentioned above with Quentilian’s disapproval, vanished without a trace. In one of Cicero’s passages there is a brief reference to his love poems. Horace, often imitating Arcaeus, wrote in verse one of the lesbian poets’ favorite themes – Lex with black hair and black eyes (C.1.32.11-12: nigris oculis nigroque/crine decorum). As noted in the previous quote, Arcaeus was probably passionate about Sappho.
- Different kinds: Arcaeus wrote on such a wide range of subjects and subjects that contradictions appeared in his character. The grammarian Athena cites something about…
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