ἀλλά μ’ ὁ λυσιμελής, ὦ ’ταῖρε, δάμναται πόθος,
or someone similar.[25] Fr. 103 again must be taken in conjunction with those that go before and those that follow it. The whole scene described in these fragments[26] is very suggestive of the story in Proverbs vii. 6 seqq. A lady of mature charms (100) and somewhat doubtful character (101, 102) receives a youthful visitor, whose feelings are described in Fr. 103
τοῖος γὰρ φιλότητος ἔρως ὑπὸ καρδίην ἐλυσθείς
πολλὴν κατ’ ἀχλὺν ὀμμάτων ἔχευεν
κλέψας ἐκ στηθέων ἀταλὰς φρένας.
The subsequent fragments deal with the arrival of the husband, and the change to the more rapid metre must have been very effective. This context, of course, makes it clear that φιλότητος ἔρως means simply coitus cupido, and there is no reason to suppose that this fragment ever formed part of what could properly be called an erotic passage.[27]
As a matter of fact, all that we know of Archilochus tends to make it extremely improbable that he addressed love-poetry in any sense of the word to women. There is no evidence that he addressed any poems to Neobule (or for that matter to any other woman) except satires. In these satires we know that he referred to Neobule in terms of the vilest abuse. There is no evidence in his fragments that he ever referred to her otherwise. What reason, then, is there to suppose that he did? His love for her, such as it was, was confessedly purely animal.[28] This is not the kind of love that finds consolation in reminiscences and regrets. His pride was hurt, and he determined to take vengeance on the persons who had offended him. If one of these persons happened to be a woman, that was just as much a matter of chance as the fact that one of the enemies of Hipponax was a sculptor. The woman, like the sculptor, had tried to make the poet ridiculous, and the poet proceeded to have his revenge by satirising her. The fact that she was a woman may have given the satires a certain peculiar colouring, but it certainly did not make them love-poems. Under the circumstances it was not to be expected that Archilochus should express his feelings in erotic poetry, and, as a matter of fact, on the present evidence there is no reason to believe that he did.[29]
The claims of Alcman in this respect seem at first sight somewhat stronger.[30] He has been described as ἡγεμὼν ἐρωτικῶν μελῶν;[31] this has been supposed to mean that he was the first poet who wrote love-poems, and it has been assumed that these poems were addressed to women. This is not, however, all so certain as one might at first be inclined to suppose.
It has been said that Alcman was ἡγεμὼν ἐρωτικῶν μελῶν; but in how far were these μέλη ἀκόλαστα love-poems as we now understand them? All that the words of Archytas imply is that Alcman wrote melic poems, of which “love” was the chief subject. There is nothing whatever to prove that these μέλη were personal, or addressed to any particular woman; it is a misuse of words to call them “love-poems,” and then think of them as if they were what modern love-poems are. As soon as subjective poetry came to be written at all, it is obvious that the sexual passions must have appeared in it in some form. This no one would wish to deny. But there is a great gap between singing of “love” in general, of the pleasures of
κρυπταδίη φιλότης καὶ μείλιχα δῶρα καὶ εὐνή,