291 292
291
(“leave off Paros” the poet is, then,
saying to himself)
or even to the reader, that is, ourselves.
Moreover, the imperative may signify
the overturning of a given state of affairs:
“leave off (the place you now inhabit)”,
but it may also
convey acquiescence,
acceptance of an event that’s already been,
acceptance of the inevitable to come.
Ἔα: the first word sets the fragment’s tone
Give up what’s no good for you,
Or, on the contrary,
Say goodbye though you don’t want to
Say goodbye because you must.
Second word: Πάρον
What needs to be left behind is Paros island.Third
word, as well as sixth:
Καὶ/And. Coordinating conjunction.
It connects Paros with those figs
and with sea life.
Twice uttered it also means: not only, but.
Ἔα Πάρον καὶ σῦκα
Fourth word: σῦκα
Σῦκον/Fig- the fruit of the fig tree.
But also σῦκον- the female vagina,
According to the dictionary,
With a reference to Aristophanes:
Τοῦ μὲν μέγα καὶ παχύν,
τῆς δὲ ἡδὺ τὸ σῦκον
(His is large and thick
and her fig is sweet)
Ἔα Πάρον καὶ σῦκα κεῖνα
Fifth word: κεῖνα/those
Ἔα Πάρον καὶ σῦκα κεῖνα
Ionian idiom for the pronoun εκείνa.
Demonstrative pronoun signifying distance
in space or time of the person or object
previously spoken of.
Not just: the figs
but those figs, there rather than here.
Those figs, with the emphasis on those,
those ones over there,
which are here no longer
those ones which he is looking at from afar,
those he’s thinking of and misses already
those bygone ones, or, by reversing,
those he no longer has an appetite for,
those ones that gave him grief,
those there stupid old figs.
Alongside the First word, ἔα,
the Fifth word κεῖνα, full of vigor,
reinforces the tone and the timbre
through the
ε
and the
α
Seventh word: Θαλάσσιον
Θαλάσσιον, adjective, of the sea-thalassa
Eighth : βίον
Bίος/Life. The way one lives.
Bίος θαλάσσιος, is the life of the sea,
the way in which one lives by the sea,
the way one makes a living from it.
Through a richness of tone and timber,
either the vaginal figs -the erotic life- refer to sea
life,
its joys and its tribulations
or else, the figs are eaten,
and the edible fruit of late summer
connects to the sea life as sustenance.
Σ Κ Ι Η Π Ε Τ Ρ Α Ι Η
Schol.Atatus 1009: διακινοῡσι δὲ τὰς πτέρυγας ἤτοι ὑφ’
ἡδονῆς, τἡν κοίτην καταλαβόντες, ἤ τήν ἐκ τοῡ ἀέρος
διατινάσσοντες ἱκμάδα καὶ παρ’ Ἀρχίλοχῳ, ἡ ὑφ’ ἡδονῆς
σαλευομένη κόρη ὣσπερ κηρύλος πέτρης ἐπῑ προβλῆτος
ἀπτερύσσετο.
“like the kingfisher shaking his wings on the upright rock
was the maiden writhing with pleasure”.
and his dick was filling up
like a lusty donkey’s from Priene
well fed on ample barley
the froth spilled down our jaws
and down our legs
from inside her periwinkle
I know of a different cure
for this swelling
to screw it onto a woman
and through my pipe into her vessel
what sprouts between our thighs
Although the heart of each is cured by a different one
humans differ in their nature/character
Eust.in Hom.Il. 11.385: And it seems that when the scorpi-
on-tongued Archilochus called the penis, a soft horn, he de-
rived the expression from there.
V.test.3 ὁ Διόνυσος τ[ Dionysus t[
ουλαστυαζ[ unripe[
ὄμφακες α[ grapes[
σῡκα μελ.[ honeyed figs
2
[
Οἰφολίωι ερ[ Oipholios
3
2. Grapes and figs may be sexual metaphors for young or small breasts and
vαginas.
3. Presumably an epithet of Dionysus and derived from the root -oiph, denot-
ing sexual intercourse.
41
43
44
32
67
152
46
66
25
247
251
ΑΛΛ’ ΑΛΛΟΣ ΑΛΛΩΙ ΚΑΡΔΙΗΝ ΙΑΙΝΕΤΑΙ
πόρνη
HESIOD, Ε+Η, 582 BUT WHEN THE ARTICHOKE FLOWERS, AND THE CHIRPING GRASS-HOPPER SITS IN A TREE
AND POURS DOWN HIS SHRILL SONG CONTINUALLY FROM UNDER HIS WINGS IN THE SEA
SON OF WEARISOME HEAT...
WOMEN ARE MOST WANTON, BUT MEN ARE FEEBLEST...
589 BUT AT THAT TIME LET ME HAVE A SHADY ROCK AND WINE OF BIBLIS
ARCH 43: EUST.IN.HO.OD.8.335: ΚΗΛΩΝ and ΛΑΓΝΗΣ and ΟΙΦΟΛΗΣ and ΤΙΤΑΝ and ΜΑΧΛΟΣ: these words are
used by the ancients who say that ΚΗΛΩΝ comes from asses kept for breeding purposes. Cf.
Archilochus, ΩΣΤ’ONOY ΠΡΙΗΝΕΩΣ ΕΠΛΗΜΥΡΟΝ (“and his dick was filling up like a lusty don
key from Priene”)