Archilochus of Paros Quotes

Say goodbye to the island Paros,
farewell to its figs and the seafaring life.

These golden matters
Of Gyges and his treasuries
Are no concern of mine.
Jealousy has no power over me,
Nor do I envy a god his work,
And I do not burn to rule.
Such things have no
Fascination for my eyes.

"Old women should not seek to be perfumed" (Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, first ebook edition, 2014)

She is a common woman for rent,
but what sensuality and fat ankles.
O fat whore for hire!

: Fragment 67, as translated by R. Lattimore

One big thing I understand:
I know how to spit back with black venom
against the man who wrongs me.

A Saian boasts about the shield which beside a bush though good armour I unwillingly left behind. I saved myself, so what do I care about the shield? To hell with it! I'll get one soon just as good.

The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one.

Like the Mykonians, Perikles,
you drink our unmixed wine
and pay for nothing.
You broke into this party, uninvited,
and act as if among old friends.
Your stomach has tricked the brains in your skull
and now you are shameless.

Let the stone of Tantalos
no longer overhang this island.

Хтось із саійців щитом моїм нині хизується, певно:
Славний був щит, але ба, кинуть в кущі довелось
Душу зате я зберіг, ну а щит? Та що мені щит той?
Хай собі!.. Інший куплю — гіршим не буде, либонь.

ὦ Ζεῦ͵ πάτερ Ζεῦ͵ σὸν μὲν οὐρανοῦ κράτος͵ σὺ δ΄ ἔργ΄ ἐπ΄ ἀνθρώπων ὁρᾶις λεωργὰ καὶ θεμιστά͵ σοὶ δὲ θηρίων ὕβρις τε καὶ δίκη μέλει.

This wheatless island stands like a donkey's back.
It bristles with a tangle of wild woodland.
Oh,
there is no country so beautiful,
no sensual earth that keys my passion
as these plains around the river Siris.

The gold booty of Gyges means nothing to me.
I don't envy that Lydian king, nor am I jealous
of what gods can do, nor of the tyrants' great
powers. All these are realms beyond my vision.

Father Lykambes, what is this new silliness?
Are your natural brains wholly rotted?
The neighbors laugh openly at your absurd life
and you persist in chattering like a cricket.