Archilochus was the earliest Greek lyric poet, writing about the soldier’s life in the middle of the seventh century BCE, two hundred years before this black-figure hoplite was painted onto an Attic pot. Hear a sample in the original Greek and follow in English here.
Around 650 BCE, mourning a brother-in-law lost at sea, the warrior-poet Archilochus tells his friend that sorrow is something that the Gods expect us to endure. The illustration shows mourners from a Greek vase of the sixth century BCE. Archilochus is the earliest poet of personal experience that we have from Greece: learn more about him on his poet page here.
Hear the poem in Greek and follow in English here.
The loss of a loved one is hard, but it has inspired some very beautiful poetry. This selection begins with Catullus’s farewell to a beloved brother. In this poem, the Continue Reading
See and hear a selection of poems by Catullus, Virgil, Callimachus and Archilochus on the theme of loss and mourning here.