290 292
290
SILENCE
I thirst for you as well
and everything just falls away
the world’s arrested
beside itself
beside myself
beside me and you
beside us two
the universe reverberates it sighs
but only silence is audible
the deafening loud
silence
of two together
ΕΑ ΕΚΕΙΝΑ (excerpt)
A verse of Archilochus is preserved
in the Deipnosophists of Atheneus
where he says the following:
“As for the figs of Paros,
which also have a great reputation,
and which the locals call ‘aimonia’,
Archilochus commemorates them in this fashion:
“ Ἐα Πάρον καὶ σῡκα κεῑνα καὶ θαλάσσιον βίον”
In English:
Good-bye to Paros
and those figs and life on the sea.
A fragment of eight words, preserved by choice:
Someone (Atheneus) wishes to commemorate
someone (Archilocus) who in turn
commemorates something (the figs)
Memory is the goal of the salvaging,
the opposite of
lethe
, forgetfulness.
And so, the verse passes in our hands,
eight words with the assonance of the kappa
and the alpha.
First word: Ἐα.
In English:
Good-bye
In modern parlance,
Say goodbye to it – to Paros,
reminding us of the superb verse
by Kavafis in ‘God forsakes Anthony’,
Bid farewell to Alexandria which you are losing
The verb used ἐᾱν, ἔα in the imperative
-the verse’s first word which provides the tone, the
very one translated in English as
to bid farewell,
actually means to:
“leave/ resign myself/ omit/ lose interest in
abandon/ pay scarce attention to/ disregard”
So:
Leave Paros and those figs and the sea life
or, even,
Leave off Paros, drop Paros
…
The same word, ἔα,
is spoken by Odysseus to Achilles
In the Iliad (I, 259-260):
“Ἀλλ’ ἓτι καὶ νῡν
παῡε, ἔα δὲ χόλον θυμαλγέα”
Which is to say:
stop, even now,
give up the anger that is hurting your heart
Ἐα, the second person in the imperative
of the verb ἐᾱν, poses a direct question:
Who is speaking? Who is being addressed?
Someone, (the poet in person we imagine) ad-
dresses in the imperative,
in the second person, someone leaving,
or is obliged to leave, Paros
and tells him to say goodbye,
to leave it behind, to forget about it.
That other might even be himself
Π Ε Τ Ρ Α Ι Η Σ Υ Κ Η
ARCHILOCHUS
125 Ath. 10.433e
.
τὸ δίψος γὰρ πᾶσιν ἰσχυρὰν ἐπιθυμίαν ἐμποιεῑ τῆς
περιττῆς ἀπολαύσεως...καὶ ὁ Ἀρχίλοχος• μάχης δὲ τῆς σῆς, ὣστε
διψέων πιεῑν, ὣς Ἐρεω: “because in everyone thirst instigates a
strong desire for excessive pleasure”. And Archilochus: “As when
I’m thirsty to drink, so I long to do battle with you” or “as I thirst
for a drink, thus do I crave the battle you give”
“like a thirsty man craves a drink, I crave the battle with you”
“like a man thirsting for water, I long to do battle with you”
And for belly to slap against belly, and thighs against thighs.
And for the perpetrator to fall to the flask/ καὶ πεσεῑν δρήστην
ἐπ’ ἀσκόν, κἀπὶ γαστρὶ γαστέρα/ προβαλεῑν μηρούς τε μηροῑς.
ἀλλά μ’ ὁ λυσιμελής, ὦταῑρε, δάμναται πόθος...
“But I, my friend, am beset by that desire that loosens one’s
limbs”.
Ath.3.76 b: Ἐα Πάρον καὶ σῡκα κεῑνα καὶ θαλάσσιον βίον.
“and say farewell to Paros, and those figs and to sea life.
and leave behind Paros, and those vaginas, and the hardship
of the sea.”
Ath. 13.594 c-d: συκῆ πετραίη πολλάς βόσκουσα κορώνας,
εὐήθης ξείνων δέκρια Πασιφίλη.
“A fig tree on a rock ledge where rooks aplenty feed
Panamorous, the jolly hostess of every stranger
the sweet tempered Friend of Everyman and every stranger.”
συκοτραγίδης πα’ Ἱππώνακτι καὶ Ἀρχίλοχῳ: “the son of the
fig-eater
1
, with lewd connotations, since ‘fig’ can be a meta-
phor for the vagina”.
1. A mock patronymie, perhaps with obscene connotation, since ‘fig’ can be a
metaphor for the vagina
119
196
116
331
250
σῦκον
, Boeot. τῦκον (Stratt. 47.5), τό:
A
.
fruit of the
συκῆ, fig, Od.7.121, Hdt.2.40, etc.; βασίλεια ς. were a large kind, Philem. 241; to
eat figs in the heat of the day was thought to cause fever, Pherecr. 80,, Ar.Fr.463, Nicopho 12; ξηρὰ ς. Pl.Lg.845b: prov., ὅσῳ διαφέρει σῦκα
καρδάμων ‘as different as chalk from cheese’, Henioch.4.2; σύκῳ . . ς. οὐδὲ ἓν οὕτως ὅμοιον γέγονεν there is no fig identical to another Poet.
ap. Cic.Att.4.8b.2, cf. Herod.6.60; “τὰ σῦκα σῦκα . . ὀνομάζων” naming the figs, figs Luc.Hist.Conscr.41 (cf. σκάφη); σῦκον χειμῶνος ζητεῖν, ask-
ing for a fig in winter, of a foolish enterprise, M.Ant.11.33.
2
. ς. Αἰγύπτιον,
fruit of
κερωνία, Thphr.HP4.2.4, Od.5.
II.
from its shape, a large wart
on the eyelids, Ar.Ra.1247, cf. Hp.Epid.3.7; of tumours in other places, Poll.4.200, Orib.Syn.7.40.
III.
pudenda muliebria, [pudendum muliebre
(plural pudenda muliebria) A woman’s pudendum; her vulva] Ar.Pax1350.; The bridegroom’s fig is great and thick, the bride’s very soft and
tender: τοῦ μὲν μέγα καὶ παχύ, τῆς δ᾽ ἡδὺ τὸ σῦκον.
ὀργ-άω
, mostly in pres.
I.
to be getting ready to bear, growing ripe for something, of soil, Thphr.CP3.2.6 ; of trees; and of fruit, swell
as it ripens, “ὁ καρπὸς πεπαίνεται καὶ ὀργᾷ” Hdt.4.199=
II.
of men, like σφριγάω, swell with lust, wax wanton, be rampant, Ar.Lys.1113, Av.
462 (where the Sch. explains it ἐπιθυμητικῶς ἔχω) ; of human beings and animals, to be in heat, desire sexual intercourse, ὀργᾶν πρὸς τὴν
ὁμιλίαν, ὀχείαν, Arist.HA542a32,560b13 ; ὀ. ὀχεύεσθαι ib.500b11.
253 Philodemus, On Music:Song and […..] has the power to cau[se d]isturbances [to c]ease, since [… ] and animals
are pacified. Therefore Archilochus says: … is charmed by songs of […
Πασιφίλη