Sappho, Archilochus, and Pindar: Archaic Greek Poets
Sappho of Lesbos (Archaic)
Sappho was born in 612 BC in Mytilene, Lesbos. She came from an aristocratic family and lived in exile due to civil strife in the city. Upon her return to Mytilene, she founded an academy for girls from noble families, which was called aunts. The aunts were religious institutions that conducted private worship, but in Sappho’s case, the aunts served as a cultural center for learning music, dance, poetry, and the worship of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. This environment inspired Sappho’s poetry.
Her subjects were erotic (love) and religious (due to the presence of Aphrodite). She analyzed the effects of love on women, and her themes were closely related to domestic life in the aunts.
She also composed epithalamium, which are wedding songs for when a girl leaves the aunts for marriage. These songs emphasize topics such as the bride’s beauty, the esteem for virginity, the husband’s happiness, and allusions to the wedding night.
It is normal for women in the world where Sappho unfolded gave ambiguous situations but were largely negative image of Sappho was derives from the prejudice that evil that had educated and independent woman who has a relationship for herself with other women.
From a literary point of view, Sappho is very important. She wrote in Aeolic, her native dialect, and popularized the Sapphic hendecasyllable, which was later copied. She is one of the major lyric poets of world literature, receiving the nickname of the tenth Muse, given by Plato.
Archilochus of Paros (Archaic)
Archilochus was born in Paros, the son of a general and a slave. He was a mercenary soldier and lived in war. He was a man of both arms and letters.
He was betrothed to Neobule, Licambes’s daughter, but then violated his oath. Archilochus responded by throwing darts through iambic poetry, of which he is considered the creator. This poetry is suitable for mocking enemies, even using obscenities and sarcasm. He also vigorously criticized the aristocracy, from which he was excluded by his origin.
While Homer praises the aristocratic heroes, Archilochus mocks them.
His themes include two recurring ideas:
- Erotic: His love for Neobule leads him to express loving feelings with a rawness that has no limits.
- Critique of Aristocratic Ideas: Honor, glory, fame, or military dignity are meaningless to Archilochus. And, although one should protect their shield, the most important thing is to save oneself.
In this poet must allegory of the ship of state.
Pindar (Archaic)
Pindar was a native of Boeotia and raised in an aristocratic environment. He is considered the foremost representative of choral poetry, which was meant to be sung by a choir and had many sub-genres, such as hymns, paeans, dithyrambs, threnodies, and Epinicia.
His poetry has great formal beauty and often uses similes with animals or natural phenomena.
He uses many myths in his verses, although purified, presenting them in a more reasonable and ethical way for his purposes. A characteristic of his work is that he always advises the winner not to boast too much, because victory is granted by the gods and could be overturned. This is the virtue of prudence, which he discussed extensively in the aristocratic circle.
This author uses some beautiful images and left us phrases like “man is the dream of a shadow” to express the importance of the gods in the fate of humans.