ALCAEUS

born c. 620 BC, , Mytilene, Lesbos died c. 580 BC Greek lyric poet. His work was highly esteemed in the ancient world. A collection of Alcaeus' surviving poems in 10 books (now lost) was made in the 2nd century BC, and he was a favourite model of the Roman lyric poet Horace, who adapted from him his own alcaic stanza. Only fragments and quotations from Alcaeus' work survive, but they are enough to show the extent of his themes and to reveal his quality as a poet. His poems may be classed in four groups: hymns in honour of gods and heroes, love poetry, drinking songs, and political poems. Many of the fragments reflect the vigour of the poet's involvement in the life of Mytilene, particularly its political life. After years of political unrest, some measure of stability had come to Mytilene through the acquisition of power by Pittacus. He had a reputation for mildness and was rated one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Alcaeus fought beside Pittacus against the Athenians, but Pittacus betrayed Alcaeus, whose respect turned into hatred. Several fragments testify to the bitterness of his attack. He derides Pittacus for his splayfeet, his fat belly, his stinginess, and his intemperance. The most serious of the charges brought by this immoderate conservative is made against Pittacus' origin: They have set up the low-born Pittacus as a tyrant over our gutless and godforsaken city. Other fragments of Alcaeus' work convey the atmosphere of everyday life in 6th-century Mytilene. He writes of ships and rivers, of wine and banquets, of a girls' beauty contest, of a flock of widgeon in flight, and of the flowers that herald the spring. He managed to convey what can well be believed to have been the spirit and the values of the city-states of the Aegean, as, for example, when he declares where real greatness lies: Not in well-fashioned houses, nor in walls, canals, and dockyards, but in men who use whatever Fortune sends them.