Three Archaic Poets: Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho

by Anne Pippin Burnett

This study of early Greek lyric provides portraits of Archilochus, Alcaeus and Sappho and their poetry. It looks at their social setting, and their purposes within it.

Hardcover

First published December 30, 1983

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for *uni* for an essay on gender in greek archaic poetry.
loved the section comparing archilochus and hipponax, and the alcaeus chapter about the creation of a group identity within the sympotic atmosphere is outstanding.

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a re-examination of three ancient Greek poets whose work has come down to us in fragmentary form. In some cases it is a useful corrective to the work of previous scholars. I found Anne Pippin Burnett's comments on Alcaeus and Sappho to show more common sense than a lot of what Denys Page, for example, wrote in his Sappho and Alcaeus. And her presentation of Archilochus struck me as much more realistic and coherent than any other description I've seen of his work. (Some of his poems are obscene, while others seem to offer wisdom.)

Within the body of the book, each poet gets a separate section. Burnett first describes what we know of their lives, then goes through most, if not all, of their surviving poetry in detail. The poems are given in Greek followed by her translations. There are also copious footnotes, which include untranslated excerpts from scholarly writing in German, French, Italian, and English. I would think general readers who are interested in learning more about these three poets would find much of value in the book, as long as they are willing to ignore the footnotes.