Some Short Stuff from the Early Greeks

Just some short poems and aphorisms from pre-Christian era Greece.  Nothing heavy here.


Fox knows many
Hedgehog one 
Solid trick.

-- Archilochus --
trans.  Guy Davenport

I suppose I've missed the whole point here, but I like the fox better than the hedgehog.  I've known humans who are like foxes--active, mobile, inventive--and I've know humans who are like hedgehogs--solid, immovable, imperturbable--and I like the foxes for things happen when they are around.  In a situation controlled by hedgehogs, little if anything new happens, and what little energy is expended is spent on maintaining the status quo.




Mercenary

I don't give a damn if some Thracian ape strut
Proud of that first-rate shield the bushes got.
Leaving it was hell, but in a tricky spot
I kept my hide intact. Good shield can be bought.

-- Archilochus --
trans. Stuart Silverman

He's definitely not a Spartan or a poor Spartan at best, for their motto was to come home carrying their shields or on it.



Thermopylae

Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.

-- Simonides --
trans. by William Lyle Bowles

True Spartans here.



Because of these men's courage, no smoke rose
Skyward from Tegea's burning.  They chose
To leave their children the broad land's township green
With freedom, while in the front line they went down.

-- Simonides --
trans. by Peter Jay

Perhaps not Spartans, but certainly closer in behavior than to the mercenary mentioned earlier.



The poet Hipponax lies here.
In justice, this is only fair.
His lines were never dark or deep.
Now he enjoys  (like his readers) sleep.

-- Theocritus --
trans. by Fred Chappell

Hipponax doesn't seem to have been loved by all.



I've never feared the setting of the Pleiades
or the hidden reefs beneath the waves
or even the lightning at sea

like I dread friends who drink with me
and remember what we say.

-- Antipater of Thessalonica --
trans. by Sam Hamill

Dangerous friends to have. 


All poems are from World Poetry: The Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time.
edited by Katherine Washburn and John S. Major, with Clifton Fadiman as General Editor