Archilochus of Paros Quotes

I am a servant of the kingly wargod Enyalios
and am also skilled in the lovely arts.

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

πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ, ἐχῖνος δ'ἓν μέγα

Heart, my heart, so battered with misfortune far beyond your strength, up, and face the men who hate us. Bare your chest to the assault of the enemy, and fight them off. Stand fast among the beamlike spears. Give no ground; and if you beat them, do not brag in open show, nor, if they beat you, run home and lie down on your bed and cry. Keep some measure in the joy you take in luck, and the degree you give way to sorrow. All our life is up-and-down like this.

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

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

A life of doing nothing is good for old men,
especially if they are simple in their ways,
or stupid, or inane in their endless blabber
as old men tend to be.

O father Zeus, you who control the cosmos,
and oversee the actions of man,
his criminal and lawful acts,
you also judge the arrogance and trial of wild beasts.

Lady, you are much too old
to rub yourself with perfume.

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.

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.

Go take your cup and walk along the timber deck
Of our roaming ship; drain the hollow casks
Of all their red wine. How can we stay sober
on the watch when all the rest are drunk?

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

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

They laid down their lives
in the arms of waves.