scene of Aphrodite's descent from Olympus (fr. 1) it attests her skill in vivid depiction. Of more formal
poetry we have but scraps of wedding songs and thirty-five lines describing Hector and Andromache's
wedding (fr. 44) - here myth is narrated not as illustration, but for its own sake.
Alcaeus, her contemporary from Mytilene, deploys the same language and metres on similar themes.
Myth figures in hymns, and in two poems is narrated for its own sake. Like most personal poets, Alcaeus
sang of love, but the songs most read later are political - one-sided views of aristocratic power-struggles
in Mytilene c. 600 B.C. For Alcaeus success - such as one tyrant's overthrow, which evoked 'Now we
must get drunk, since Myrsilus is dead' (fr. 332) - was rare and brief. Pittacus, once Alcaeus' ally, himself
became tyrant, and his 'betrayal' of Alcaeus prompted his most vigorous poetry. One fragment (129)
recalls oaths sworn together and calls upon Zeus, Hera, and Dionysus to succour Alcaeus and his exiled
friends while an avenging Erinys pursues Pittacus. Another (130) voices despair at exclusion from the
political life enjoyed by his ancestors. Elsewhere he suppresses his political message until another theme
has captivated his listeners. Thus a long fragment (298 Suppl.) blames Ajax's rape of Cassandra in
Athena's temple for the Achaeans' troubles returning from Troy: the rape fills four stanzas, then a storm
punishes Ajax with death. This, we now discover, illustrates a community's need to destroy its sinners
before gods act, a message presented as relevant to the Mytileneans harbouring the 'sinner' Pittacus. Two
other vivid storm scenes, perhaps allegorical (frs. 6, 326), also have political contexts.
Many songs, like that on Myrsilus, take their cue from the drinking central to symposia. Like love, this
theme can be given many twists. So, trite but apt, fr. 335:
We should not abandon our hearts to our woes
for we gain not a whit by our moping;
but, Bycchis, the medicine best for our case
is to pour out the wine and start toping.More ingenuity goes into fr. 338 (imitated by Horace) where drink is invoked to combat wintry weather.
Naturally summer heat waves allow the same conclusion (fr. 347)-
Wine and love were handled very differently by two poets whose careers crossed about 530 B.C. at the
Samian court of Polycrates. Ibycus of Rhegium presumably became known in Italy and Sicily before
attracting Polycrates' hospitality. Anacreon was from nearby Teos, and when Polycrates was murdered he
moved to Pisistratid Athens, probably staying on after Hippias' expulsion. Both resort frequently to
provocative imagery, often symbolic. But Ibycus' aim in accumulating images of passions seems to be to
saturate one's mind by their intense lushness:
In spring the Cydonian quinces bloom,
watered from the rivers' streams,where lies the maidens' unplucked garden,
and the vine-blossoms
thrive, taking their strength