Greek Fragments

Brazilian researcher performs philological study on fragments of ancient Greece’s first lyrical poet.

By Fábio de Castro

Agência FAPESP – Animals had a striking presence in the work of Archilochus, one of ancient Greece’s most important poets, born on the isle of Paros in the first half of the 7th century B.C. The fragments of his writings containing fables and animal imagery were the topic of a study performed by professor Paula da Cunha Corrêa from Universidade de São Paulo’s (USP) School of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH).

The result was Um bestiário arcaico – Fábulas e imagens de animais na poesia de Arquíloco, [An Archaic Bestiary—Fables and animal imagery in the poetry of Archilochus], released with FAPESP funding through its Publications Research Assistance Program. The work reveals the connotations of animal characters—quite different for the ancient Greeks—in Archilochus’ fragments. The book not only discusses the poems but also the sources and the processes through which the texts were transmitted over the centuries.

Corrêa had already released the book Armas e Varões – A Guerra na Poesia de Arquíloco [Weapons and Men—War in the Poetry of Archilochus] in 2009, which was dedicated to commentary on Archilochus’ work from the perspective of war—another recurring theme in his poems. The author has dedicated her research to the poet from Paros since her doctorate, concluded at USP in 1995. In 2001, she also did post-doctoral studies on the subjects at Oxford University under a FAPESP fellowship.

“Even though he was a fundamental poet in Greek literature, there is no exhaustive commentary on his poems. That’s why I decided to do a study based on themes. Many of his poems narrate fables and there is a large group of them in which animal imagery and metaphor appears, usually in erotic poems,” she told Agência FAPESP.

According to her, after Homer and Hesiod—who lived in the 8th century B.C.—Archilochus was the first Greek poet. “He’s the first author of the so-called Greek lyric, according to the modern classification that divides literature between theater, epic poetry and lyric poetry. Even though, his characteristic genres are iambic and elegies,” she affirms.

Ancient writers placed Archilochus on the same level as Homer, but today the poet from Paros is much less well-known than the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. “Very little of Archilochus’ work remains, around 300 fragments. This probably occurred because the iambic verses, aside from having erotic connotations, have a morality that may have been shocking for the Christians in a later period,” she pointed out.

Aside from possible rejection by the church, according to Corrêa, Archilochus’ poems could have been poorly interpreted even in ancient times, since iambic is a genre that lends itself well to comedy, to poking fun at society and deal with themes like sex.

“The ‘lyric self’present in a poem in first person is a personality created by the author. But in some cases, it could be interpreted as if it were autobiographical. So many could have thought that the poet himself did the things described, which could be considered undignified,” she said.

According to Corrêa, the work is divided into two parts. In the first, dedicated to fables, the author analyzes each poem from a philological standpoint. The second part consists of a study of the characters of animals since antiquity.

“They are fragments that came to us, in some cases, by direct transmission—on papyrus from the second century before Christ—or, more frequently, by indirect transmission, through commentaries and other works that came to us via the manuscript tradition throughout the Middle Ages,” she explained.

For each poem, the author studied original sources and presents commentaries. Not all of the verses are complete. “In studying the poems, I realized that the ethical connotations—the ethos or character—of the animals was in some cases fundamental to understanding the poem itself. The fox, for example, appraises things with a very different connotation than ours, which alludes to cunningness that is mischievous or pejorative,” she said.

Um bestiário arcaico – Fábulas e imagens de animais na poesia de Arquíloco
Organizer: Paula da Cunha Corrêa
Release: 2011 / Editora Unicamp
Pages: 528