Lyric Poetry

The Greek lyric poets brought the “personal voice” into the Western literary tradition, composing short poems on mythical and personal subjects for solo and choral delivery.

Date: Seventh century b. c.e. to 31 b. c.e.

Category: Poetry; literature

Summary The word “lyric” (from the Greek word for “harp” or “lyre”) designates a variety of poetry sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument by a solo singer or a chorus of singers. Chronologically, lyric poetry arose later than epic poetry, whose most famous representatives are the works of Homer and Hesiod, and before the dramatic forms of tragedy and comedy. Nevertheless, lyric poetry takes many of its themes and linguistic forms from epic poetry; similarly, the two basic types of lyric poetry—solo and choral singing—were developed into drama by the tragic and comic poets. Thus, the lyric poets occupy an important position in the development of the literary tradition.

The special power of lyric poetry depends upon the use of what is the first real “personal voice”—the speaker refers to himself or herself using “I”—in ancient literature. Lyric poets express in few but well chosen words the universal themes of human experience, such as love and desire, longing and loss, aging and death. They each have their individual attitudes toward war, politics, and other forms of conflict, often subjecting traditional notions of value and valor to critical scrutiny.

Alcman of Sparta (seventh to early sixth centuries b. c.e.) wrote six books of choral poetry and first exhibits the characteristic features of the lyric genre: rich imagery, careful choice of descriptive adjectives, personal references, and mythological allusions. Stesichorus (632/629-556/553 b. c.e.) specialized in full-length narratives of mythological tales, such as the sack of Troy. The most famous choral lyric poet is Pindar (c. 518-c. 438 b. c.e.), who composed victory odes for athletes filled with mythical and historical references written in complex linguistic and metrical structures.

Pindar recites his lyric poetry before an audience. (Library of Congress

His poems have a weighty moral content, offering advice to both the athlete and his audience on the virtuous life.

It is an intriguing fact that the most celebrated lyric poet of the Greek tradition was a woman, Sappho (c. 630-c. 580 b. c.e.). Although only a few complete poems and numerous fragments of her work survive, it is clear that she blended sound, meaning, and rhythm in a uniquely beautiful fashion. Perhaps most famous are her “Hymn to Aphrodite” and a piece delineating the physical symptoms of erotic desire. While Sappho is famous for her descriptions of the experience of love, her contemporary Alcaeus (c. 625-c. 575 b. c.e.) treats subjects ranging from political intrigue on his native Lesbos to the drinking party. Both poets experimented with new metrical forms and were heavily imitated.

The high period of lyric poetry includes Ibycus (mid-sixth century b. c.e.) and Anacreon (c. 571-c. 490 b. c.e.), both famous for their solo love poetry, and Simonides (c. 556-c. 467 b. c.e.) and Corinna of Tanagra (third or fifth century b. c.e.), who wrote choral poems in a direct, non-Pindaric mode.

Significance Lyric poets were constantly competing with their predecessors and striving for originality of expression. Greek lyric poetry had its greatest impact not on later Greeks but on the Roman poets Horace and Catullus and, through them, on Renaissance and modern practitioners of the art.

Lyric Poetry Further Reading

Bowra, C. M. Greek Lyric Poetry from Alcman to Simonides. 2d rev. ed.

New York: Oxford University Press, 1961.

Greene, Ellen, ed. Women Poets in Ancient Greece and Rome. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005.

Kirkwood, G. M. Early Greek Monody: The History of a Poetic Type.

Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1974.

Nagy, Gregory. Pindar’s Homer: The Lyric Possession of an Epic Past.

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.

Stehle, Eva. Performance and Gender in Ancient Greece: Nondramatic Poetry in Its Setting. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1997. West, Martin L., trans. Greek Lyric Poetry: The Poems and Fragments of the Greek Iambic, Elegiac, and Melic Poets (Excluding Pindar and Bacchylides) down to 450 B. C. New York: Oxford University Press,

1994.

David H. J. Larmour

See also: Alcaeus of Lesbos; Alcman; Anacreon; Bucolic Poetry; Corinna of Tanagra; Elegiac Poetry; Iambic Poetry; Ibycus; Literature; Performing Arts; Pindar; Sappho; Stesichorus.