Alcaeus of Mytilene (; , Alkaios ho Mutilēnaios; – BC) was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. He was a contemporary of Sappho, with whom he may have exchanged poems. He was born into the aristocratic governing class of Mytilene, the main city of Lesbos, where he was involved in political disputes and feuds.
Biography
The broad outlines of the poet's life are well known.David Mulroy, Early Greek Lyric Poetry, University of Michigan Press, 1992, pp. 77–78David. A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classic Press, 1982, pp. 285–7 He was born into the aristocratic, warrior class that dominated Mytilene, the strongest city-state on the island of Lesbos and, by the end of the seventh century BC, the most influential of all the North Aegean Greek cities, with a strong navy and colonies securing its trade-routes in the Hellespont. The city had long been ruled by kings born to the Penthilid clan but, during the poet's life, the Penthilids were a spent force and rival aristocrats and their factions contended with each other for supreme power. Alcaeus and his older brothers were passionately involved in the struggle but experienced little success. Their political adventures can be understood in terms of three tyrants who came and went in succession: Melanchrus – he was overthrown sometime between 612 BC and 609 BC by a faction that, in addition to the brothers of Alcaeus, included Pittacus (later renowned as one of the Seven Sages of Greece); Alcaeus at that time was too young to be actively involved; Myrsilus – it is not known when he came to power but some verses by Alcaeus (frag. 129) indicate that the poet, his brothers and Pittacus made plans to overthrow him and that Pittacus subsequently betrayed them; Alcaeus and his brothers fled into exile where the poet later wrote a drinking song in celebration of the news of the tyrant's death (frag. 332); Pittacus – the dominant political figure of his time, he was voted supreme power by the political assembly of Mytilene and appears to have governed well (590–580 BC), even allowing Alcaeus and his faction to return home in peace.
Sometime before 600 BC, Mytilene fought Athens for control of Sigeion and Alcaeus was old enough to participate in the fighting. According to the historian Herodotus,Histories 5.95 the poet threw away his shield to make good his escape from the victorious Athenians then celebrated the occasion in a poem that he later sent to his friend, Melanippus. It is thought that Alcaeus travelled widely during his years in exile, including at least one visit to Egypt. His older brother, Antimenidas, appears to have served as a mercenary in the army of Nebuchadnezzar II and probably took part in the conquest of Askelon. Alcaeus wrote verses in celebration of Antimenides's return, including mention of his valour in slaying the larger opponent (frag. 350), and he proudly describes the military hardware that adorned their family home (frag. 357).
Alcaeus was a contemporary and a countryman of Sappho and, since both poets composed for the entertainment of Mytilenean friends, they had many opportunities to associate with each other on a quite regular basis, such as at the Kallisteia, an annual festival celebrating the island's federation under Mytilene, held at the 'Messon' (referred to as temenos in frs. 129 and 130), where Sappho performed publicly with female choirs. Alcaeus's reference to Sappho in terms more typical of a divinity, as holy/pure, honey-smiling Sappho (fr. 384), may owe its inspiration to her performances at the festival. The Lesbian or Aeolic school of poetry "reached in the songs of Sappho and Alcaeus that high point of brilliancy to which it never after-wards approached"James S. Easby-Smith, The Songs of Alcaeus, W. H. Lowdermilk and Co., Washington, 1901 and it was assumed by later Greek critics and during the early centuries of the Christian era that the two poets were in fact lovers, a theme which became a favourite subject in art (as in the urn pictured above).
Poetry The poetic works of Alcaeus were collected into ten books, with elaborate commentaries, by the Alexandrian scholars Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace sometime in the 3rd century BC, and yet his verses today exist only in fragmentary form, varying in size from mere phrases, such as wine, window into a man (fr. 333) to entire groups of verses and stanzas, such as those quoted below (fr. 346). Alexandrian scholars numbered him in their canonic nine (one lyric poet per Muse). Among these, Pindar was held by many ancient critics to be pre-eminent,Quintilian 10.1.61; cf. Pseudo-Longinus 33.5 . but some gave precedence to Alcaeus instead.James Easby-Smith, The Songs of Alcaeus p. 31 The canonic nine are traditionally divided into two groups, with Alcaeus, Sappho and Anacreon, being 'monodists' or 'solo-singers', with the following characteristics:Andrew M.Miller (trans.), Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation, Hackett Publishing Co. (1996), Intro. xiii They composed and performed personally for friends and associates on topics of immediate interest to them; They wrote in their native dialects (Alcaeus and Sappho in Aeolic dialect, Anacreon in Ionic); They preferred quite short, metrically simple stanzas or 'strophes' which they re-used in many poems – hence the 'Alcaic' and 'Sapphic' stanzas, named after the two poets who perfected them or possibly invented them. The other six of the canonic nine composed verses for public occasions, performed by choruses and professional singers and typically featuring complex metrical arrangements that were never reproduced in other verses. However, this division into two groups is considered by some modern scholars to be too simplistic and often it is practically impossible to know whether a lyric composition was sung or recited, or whether or not it was accompanied by musical instruments and dance. Even the private reflections of Alcaeus, ostensibly sung at dinner parties, still retain a public function.
Critics often seek to understand Alcaeus in comparison with Sappho:
The Roman poet, Horace, also compared the two, describing Alcaeus as "more full-throatedly singing"James Michie (trans.), The Odes of Horace, Penguin Classics (1964), p. 116 – see Horace's tribute below. Alcaeus himself seems to underscore the difference between his own 'down-to-earth' style and Sappho's more 'celestial' qualities when he describes her almost as a goddess (as cited above), and yet it has been argued that both poets were concerned with a balance between the divine and the profane, each emphasising different elements in that balance.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus exhorts us to "Observe in Alcaeus the sublimity, brevity and sweetness coupled with stern power, his splendid figures, and his clearness which was unimpaired by the dialect; and above all mark his manner of expressing his sentiments on public affairs",Imit. 422, quoted from Easby-Smith in Songs of Alcaeus while Quintilian, after commending Alcaeus for his excellence "in that part of his works where he inveighs against tyrants and contributes to good morals; in his language he is concise, exalted, careful and often like an orator"; goes on to add: "but he descended into wantonness and amours, though better fitted for higher things".Quintillian 10.1.63, quoted by D.Campbell in G.L.P, p. 288
Poetic genres The works of Alcaeus are conventionally grouped according to five genres. Political songs: Alcaeus often composed on a political theme, covering the power struggles on Lesbos with the passion and vigour of a partisan, cursing his opponents,fr. 129 rejoicing in their deaths,fr. 332 delivering blood-curdling homilies on the consequences of political inactionfr. S262 and exhorting his comrades to heroic defiance, as in one of his 'ship of state' allegories.fr. 6 Commenting on Alcaeus as a political poet, the scholar Dionysius of Halicarnassus once observed that "if you removed the meter you would find political rhetoric".Imit. 422, quoted by Campbell in G.L.P., p. 286 Drinking songs: According to the grammarian Athenaeus, Alcaeus made every occasion an excuse for drinking and he has provided posterity several quotes in proof of it.Athenaeus 10.430c Alcaeus exhorts his friends to drink in celebration of a tyrant's death,fr. 332 to drink away their sorrows,Frs. 335, 346 to drink because life is shortfr. 38A and along the lines in vino veritas,fr. 333 to drink through winter stormsfr. 338 and to drink through the heat of summer.fr. 347 The latter poem in fact paraphrases verses from Hesiod,Hesiod Op. 582–8 re-casting them in Asclepiad meter and Aeolian dialect. Hymns: Alcaeus sang about the gods in the spirit of the Homeric hymns, to entertain his companions rather than to glorify the gods and in the same meters that he used for his 'secular' lyrics.David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classical Press (1982), p. 286 There are for example fragments in 'Sapphic' meter praising the Dioscuri,fr. 34a Hermesfr. 308c and the river Hebrusfr. 45 (a river significant in Lesbian mythology since it was down its waters that the head of Orpheus was believed to have floated singing, eventually crossing the sea to Lesbos and ending up in a temple of Apollo, as a symbol of Lesbian supremacy in song).David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classical Press (1982), pp. 292–93 According to Pomponius Porphyrion, the hymn to Hermes was imitated by Horace in one of his own 'sapphic' odes (C.1.10: Mercuri, facunde nepos Atlantis).David Campbell, 'Monody', in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature, P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), Cambridge University Press (1985), p. 213 Love songs: Almost all Alcaeus's amorous verses, mentioned with disapproval by Quintilian above, have vanished without trace. There is a brief reference to his love poetry in a passage by Cicero.Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 4.71 Horace, who often wrote in imitation of Alcaeus, sketches in verse one of the Lesbian poet's favourite subjects – Lycus of the black hair and eyes (C.1.32.11–12: nigris oculis nigroque/crine decorum). It is possible that Alcaeus wrote amorously about Sappho, as indicated in an earlier quote.fr. 384; however, Liberman (1999) reads "Aphro" (Ἄφροι; a diminutive of "Aphrodite"), instead of "Sappho". Miscellaneous: Alcaeus wrote on such a wide variety of subjects and themes that contradictions in his character emerge. The grammarian Athenaeus quoted some verses about perfumed ointments to prove just how unwarlike Alcaeus could befr. 362, Athenaeus 15.687d and he quoted his description of the armour adorning the walls of his housefr. 357 as proof that he could be unusually warlike for a lyric poet.Athenaeus 14.627a Other examples of his readiness for both warlike and unwarlike subjects are lyrics celebrating his brother's heroic exploits as a Babylonian mercenaryfr. 350 and lyrics sung in a rare meter (Sapphic Ionic in minore) in the voice of a distressed girl,fr. 10B "Wretched me, who share in all ills!" – possibly imitated by Horace in an ode in the same meter (C.3.12: Miserarum est neque amori dare ludum neque dulci).David Campbell, 'Monody', in P. Easterling and E. Kenney (eds), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), p. 214 He also wrote Sapphic stanzas on Homeric themes but in un-Homeric style, comparing Helen of Troy unfavourably with Thetis, the mother of Achilles.fr. 42
A drinking poem (fr. 346) The following verses demonstrate some key characteristics of the Alcaic style (square brackets indicate uncertainties in the ancient text):