[Born at Paros, about B.C. 700. Killed in battle, about B.C. 635]
A satirical poet of great renown, whose acrid pen spared neither friend
nor foe. A writer also of licentious verse. Fragments only of his
compositions have come down to us. To him is attributed the invention of
the Iambic measure, and he shares with Thaletas and Terpander the honour
of establishing lyric poetry in Greece. The victors in the Olympic games
were accustomed to sing one of his hymns in their triumphal procession.
The countenance of his statue denotes impudent boldness.
[The two early poets united: a mode of portraiture adopted by the
Greek artists when two celebrated men were of the same country, and
of kindred pursuits, as Herodotus and Thucydides, parallel historians;
Metrodorus and Epicurus, philosophers of the same sect (see No. 20).
This double terminal or Janus was found at Rome on the Celian Hill: it
is now in the Vatican. The ends of the noses are modern, as are some
other parts in the Homer. That portraits of Archilochus existed so
long after his death is proved by the existence of an inscription in
the Analecta of Thucydides written for his portrait.]
2A. HOMER. _Great Epic Poet of Greece._
[For life see No. 1.]