Theocritus · Epigrams §21.1-21.6

Praise for the Statue and Fame of Archilochus

Passage 21 of 25 · Greek

Summary

The speaker urges passersby to stand and look at the statue of the ancient poet Archilochus, praising his worldwide fame and how he was loved by the gods for his skill in composing verses and singing to the lyre.

§21.1Ἀρχίλοχον καὶ στᾶθι καὶ εἴσιδε τὸν πάλαι ποιητὰν §21.2τὸν τῶν ἰάμβων, οὗ τὸ μυρίον κλέος §21.3διῆλθε κἠπὶ νύκτα καὶ πρὸς ἀῶ.

Stand and look upon Archilochus, the poet of old, the writer of iambics, whose boundless fame has spread both to the night and toward the dawn.

§21.4ἦ ῥά νιν αἱ Μοῖσαι καὶ ὁ Δάλιος ἠγάπευν Ἀπόλλων, §21.5ὡς ἐμμελής τʼ ἔγεντο κἠπιδέξιος §21.6ἔπεά τε ποιεῖν πρὸς λύραν τʼ ἀείδειν.

Truly the Muses and Delian Apollo loved him, since he became so harmonious and adroit at both making verses and singing to the lyre.

Notes

21.1Ἀρχίλοχον — Placed at the very beginning of the sentence by hyperbaton, this accusative form serves as the direct object of the subsequent verb εἴσιδε (look upon), separated from its appositive noun phrase τὸν πάλαι ποιητὰν.
21.3κἠπὶ νύκτα καὶ πρὸς ἀῶ — κἠπί is a crasis of καὶ ἐπί. The phrase refers to "night" (sunset, West) and "dawn" (sunrise, East), a poetic idiom meaning "throughout the entire world." ἀῶ is the Doric accusative form of ἠώς (dawn).
21.5ὡς — A causal conjunction ("since," "because"), introducing the clause that explains the reason for the verb ἠγάπευν (loved) in line 4.
21.6ποιεῖν / ἀείδειν — Infinitives of limitation (or specification), modifying the adjectives ἐμμελής (harmonious) and ἐπιδέξιος (adroit) in line 5, meaning "harmonious and adroit in respect to making / singing."

Cite this passage

Theocritus, Epigrams §21.1-21.6. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0005.tlg002.humanitext-grc2:21.1-21.6

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