DOI: 10.53084/22209050_2022_26_18

I.P. Rushkin
Apology of Archilochus

Abstract: In his widely known elegy, Archilochus says that his shield was captured by the enemy. Later in antiquity, Archilochus was censured for cowardice, as well as for being unrepentant and boastful about it. This view was accepted and further developed in modern scholarship, where Archilochus's cynical attitude, juxtaposed with the ideal Homeric heroes, serves as the basis for inferences about Archaic Greek culture in general. In this work, we show that the view of the Archilochus's shield incident as a disgraceful act that would be unthinkable in the world of Homeric heroes, is an ancient anachronism, compounded with a modern misconception about shields in the Homeric epics. In fact, the elegy of Archilochus contained nothing reprehensible. As an optional hypothesis, we suggest that this anachronism gained some currency only in the 1st century AD.

Keywords: Archilochus, rhipsaspia, shield throwing, phalanx, archaic Greece, Homeric heroes, aristocratic ethics

To cite this article: Rushkin I.P. Apology of Archilochus. Aristeas XXVI (2022): 18–28.

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Author:

I.P. Rushin