Archilochus of Paros Quotes

Her breasts and her dark hair were perfume
and even an old man would desire her.

Let who will boast their courage in the field,
I find but little safety from my shield.
Nature's, not honour's, law we must obey:
This made me cast my useless shield away,
And by a prudent flight and cunning save
A life, which valour could not, from the grave.
A better buckler I can soon regain;
But who can get another life again?

Горя ні плачучи не пригашу, ні його не зроблю я
Гіршим, коли святкувать і веселитись почну.

When dead no man finds respect or glory from men
of his town. Rather, we hope while alive for some
favor from the living. The dead are always scorned.

His penis is swollen
like a donkey from Priene
taking his fill of barley.

The fox knows many tricks,
the hedgehog only one. A good one.

I don't like a general
who towers over the troops,
lordly with elegant locks
and trim mustachios.
Give me a stumpy soldier
glaringly bowlegged,
yet rockfirm on his feet,
and in his heart a giant.

Take the joy and bear the sorrow, looking past your hopes and fears: learn to recognize the measured
dance that orders all our years.

Soul, my soul, don't let them break you, all these troubles. Never yield: though their force is overwhelming, up! attack them shield to shield...

There’s one big thing I know, to pay back injury done to me with terrible injuries.

Let the stone of Tantalos
no longer overhang this island.

No man, Aisimides, who bows to the mud-slinging
mob has ever been capable of profound pleasures.

In the hospitality of war we left them their dead to remember us by.

The fox knows many tricks, the hedgehog only one. One good one.

Well, what if some barbaric Thracian glories
in the perfect shield I left under a bush?
I was sorry to leave it — but I saved my skin.
Does it matter? O hell, I'll buy a better one.