GREEK LYRIC POETRY: 



 

IAMBOS (iambic meter) 

 

Archilochus ~670 BC.
 - Soldier; lover;  rascal; man.
Semonides of Amorgus ~640 BC. 
 - didactic sarcasm. Women = beasts.
Hipponax of Ephesus
 ~530 BC. (meter - choliambs)
  -mendicant, scoundrel.
Sotades ~280 BC. 
 - obscene, personal. Insulted the king   
  Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt; 
 -- drowned in a sack! 
(So much about freedom of poetic expression under Ptolemaic regime.)
 
 

ELEGY (elegiac couplet: 
dactylic hexameter + pentameter)

Tyrtaeus ~620 BC. 
 - Lame schoolmaster,  sent from Athens
  to Sparta, for good instruction!
Mimnermus ~630 BC.- longing for youth 
   gone by and the joys of Aphrodite.
Solon ~600 BC. 
 - Athenian law-giver; one of 7 Wise Men; 
   grew old learning! (vs. Mimnermus, who   
   wished to die when time of love is gone.)
Theognis ~550 BC. - Aristocratic exilee.
   Deplores the dominance  of the unworthy.
Xenophanes ~570 BC.
 - Eleatic philosopher: anti-athletic,
   anti-populist,  monotheist! 
 

MELOS (melic poetry: song; various meters)

 

Alcman ~650 BC. - Girls' choral songs.
Stesichorus ~600 BC. (Palinody on Helen)
Ibicus ~560 BC.(- Avenged by the cranes.)
Alcaeus of Lesbos  ~580 BC. - Political   
     fractions; skolion - drinking song. 
     Party-man; admirer/  rival of Sappho.
Sappho of Lesbos 
 ~580 BC. - "The 10th Muse": Love;  girls; 
    family;  wedding-songs.
Anacreon ~540BC.
 - Love; wine; defying the old age.
 
 
 
 

    POETIC GENRES:

DITHYRAMB - (flute) ~ Dionysus or hero-cult song; ~dance: tyrbasia.
ELEGY - (flute) gnomic poetry - reflexion or didactics.
ENCOMIUM - praise: banquet-song.
EPINIKION - (flute) - victory ode, choral.
EPITAPH - gravestone inscription, often as if spoken by the dead.
EPITHALAMION - chorus following newly-weds to the bridal chamber.
EPOS - (forminx: a lyre) - heroic or didactic narrative.
EROTICON - love-song.
HYMENAIOS - (also, marriage god's name) - song of bride's maids.
HYMN - (cithara) - "naked song': - praise of god.
HYPORCHEME - sond with a dance (in a tragedy).
IAMBOS - colloquial meter; down-to-earth discourse or dialogue.
NOMOS - (cithara) ~ Apollo.
PAEAN - (cithara) (also, name of Apollo) ~ Apollo-cult.
PARACLAUSITHYRON - song before the closed door: love-serenade.
PAROINION (= SCOLION) - wine-song; symposiac poem.
PARTHENION - chorus of girls.
PROSODION - (flute) - march.
PYRRICHY - military dance & song.
SCOLION (= PAROINION) - drinking part song.
THRENOS - burial song: lament over the dead.