Читать книгу Yale Classics - Ancient Greek Literature - Anacreon - Страница 113

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ALCÆUS spent his life in wars, first against Athens for the possession of Sigêum, where, like Archilochus, he left his shield for the enemy to dedicate to Athena; then against the democratic tyrant Melanchrôs and his successor Myrsilos. At last the Lesbians stopped the civil strife by appointing Pittacus, the 'Wise Man,' dictator, and Alcæus left the island for fifteen years. He served as a soldier of fortune in Egypt and elsewhere: his brother Antimenidas took service with Nebuchadnezzar, and killed a Jewish or Egyptian giant in single combat. Eventually the poet was pardoned and invited home. His works filled ten books in Alexandria; they were all 'occasional poetry,' hymns, political party-songs (στασιωτικá), drinking-songs, and love-songs. His strength seems to have lain in the political and personal reminiscences, the "hardships of travel, banishment, and war," that Horace speaks of. Sappho and Alcæus are often represented together on vases, and the idea of a romance between them was inevitable. Tradition gives a little address of his in a Sapphic metre, "Thou violet-crowned, pure, softlysmiling Sappho," and an answer from Sappho in Alcaics -- a delicate mutual compliment. Every line of Alcaeus has charm. The stanza called after him is a magnificent metrical invention. His language is spontaneous and musical; it seems to come straight from a heart as full as that of Archilochus, but much more generous. He is a fiery Æolian noble, open-handed, free-drinking, frank, and passionate; and though he fought to order in case of need, he seems never to have written to order.