Alcaeus

Brave men are a city's strongest tower of defence.

Not well-built walls, but brave citizens are the bulwark of the city.

Not houses finely roofed or the stones of walls well builded, nay nor canals and dockyards make the city, but men able to use their opportunity.

Plant no tree sooner than the vine.

Fighting men are the city's fortress.

To be bowed by grief is folly; Naught is gained by melancholy; Better than the pain of thinking, Is to steep the sense in drinking.

Tis said that wrath is the last thing in a man to grow old.

One that hath wine as a chain about his wits, such a one lives no life at all.

Wine is a peep-hole on a man.

The Arcadians were chestnut-eaters.

Alcaeus

Alcaeus: Biography and Life Work

Alcaeus was a notable lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos.

Alcaeus of Mytilene 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.

Philosophical Views and Reflections

πώνωμεν· τί τὰ λύχν' ὀμμένομεν; δάκτυλος ἀμέρα· κὰδ δ'ἄερρε κυλίχναις μεγάλαις ποικίλαισ· οἶνον γὰρ Σεμέλας καὶ Δίος υἶος λαθικάδεον ἀνθρώποισιν ἔδωκ'. ἔγχεε κέρναις ἔνα καὶ δύο πλήαις κὰκ κεφάλας, δ' ἀτέρα τὰν ἀτέραν κύλιξ ὠθήτω...

Some of the fragments quoted by ancient scholars were able to be integrated by scholars in the nineteenth century. Thus for example two separate quotes by Athenaeus were united by Theodor Bergk to form fr. Three separate sources were combined to form fr. 350, as mentioned above, including a prose paraphrase from Strabo that first needed to be restored to its original meter, a synthesis achieved by the united efforts of Otto Hoffmann, Karl Otfried Müller and Franz Heinrich Ludolf Ahrens . The discovery of the Oxyrhynchus papyri towards the end of the nineteenth century dramatically increased the scope of scholarly research. In fact, eight important fragments have now been compiled from papyri – frs. 9, 38A, 42, 45, 34, 129, 130 and most recently S262. These fragments typically feature lacunae or gaps that scholars fill with 'educated guesses', including for example a "brilliant supplement" by Maurice Bowra in fr. 34, a hymn to the Dioscuri that includes a description of St. Elmo's fire in the ship's rigging. Working with only eight letters ( πρό...τρ...ντες ; tr. pró...tr...ntes ), Bowra conjured up a phrase that develops the meaning and the euphony of the poem ( πρότον' ὀντρέχοντες ; tr. próton' ontréchontes ), describing luminescence "running along the forestays".