Alcaeus is the premier poet of politics and the symposium, or drinking party. Like Sappho, he wrote poems intended to be sung by one person to the accompaniment of a lyre (see Horace, Odes 2.13, 4.9);...
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In the following excerpts, Martin analyzes the influence of the Homeric epic on Alcaeus and discusses ancient critical reaction to his work.
In this chapter I propose to relate Alcaeus's poe...
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In the following essay, Kirkwood analyzes Alcaeus's poetry and what the fragments reveal of his political thought.
Both Alcaeus and Sappho are the spiritual successors of Archilochus, becaus...
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In the following essay, Burnett examines Alcaeus's art songs, proposing that in these, the poet uses myth to illuminate the larger issues of mankind.
There is one last set of Alcaic songs in...
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In the following essay, Mulroy discusses Alcaeus's poems, as well as references to him in works by Heraclitus and Athenaeus.
The poetry of Alcaeus gives us a different perspective on the pol...
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In the following essay, Kurke contends that certain “critical ruptures of decorum” found in Alcaeus's poetry may be read as indications of crisis in the aristocracy.
1. Decorum ...
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In the following essay, Walker considers the performance contexts of Alcaeus and Sappho's poetry, particularly the question of whether or not their audiences consisted chiefly of like-minded fr...
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Alcaeus
Critical Essay by Hubert Martin, Jr.
