Death's Beauty in Tyrtaios

 

     Most twenty-first century readers remain belated Romantics, valuing individuality and self-expression in lyric poetry while depreciating received ideas.   Yet every work of art (like every utterance) contains elements adopted from the group as well as those peculiar to the maker.   This mixture may be unbalanced however, with some works primarily reproducing what everyone believes and others that open space for change by expressing doubt or deviance.  The former sort is dominant in oral and popular literature since the belief system is transmitted through stories, poems, and myths, enabling the reproduction of culture over generations, though the dissenting view of the latter is always present in embryo, enabling evolution and development over time. 

    The traditional distinction between monodic and choral poetry in ancient Greek lyric, though still in dispute, reflects that contrast.  Sappho and Archilochus, considered to write from an individual point of view, both cast doubt on the glories of combat, while, as a civic composer of choral song, Tyrtaios expresses patriotism and duty in a form\ familiar from nearly all times and places, most certainly including our own..  

     Tyrtaios begins with the beauty of the individual when he acts on behalf of the collective, his fate in battle unsettled but his role unclouded and admirable, contrasted with the poverty-stricken, alienated, and contemptible life of the cowardly exile.  Cheer-leading for the troops, he concludes with a call to hold steady on the front lines of battle.

     A similar sentiment appears in Book XXII of the Iliad when Priam attempts to dissuade Hector from fighting Achilles.  His appeal is to pathos.  As Hekuba cries in the background, he gives in to self-pity and raises the image of his own miserable death, eaten by dogs.  His sentiment is unworthy of a warrior; the scene recalls Book VI when Andromache tries to dissuade her husband from combat.  Yet this statement is in character, expressing not only father's love, but also the view of an old man whose years have brought him, not wisdom, but a fear unseemly in the young.  While the Iliad is encyclopedic, offering these moments among many other perspectives on war, Tyrtaios’ song is single-minded.  There is no tension, no contradiction. He delivers the social consensus: because war is noble, it is perforce beautiful. 

     Love and death, the two most elemental motivators for our species (and, indeed, all others) are mingled with a variety of meanings from the Wagnerian Liebestod to Poe’s notion that the death of a beautiful woman is “the most poetical topic in the world.”  Here the link is military and patriotic, with much in common with orations in a veteran’s cemetery today in spite of Tyrtaios’ air of Greek homoeroticism.

 

 

 

 

How fair to fall when fighting for one’s home!

A good man takes a stand In foremost ranks

whereas to leave the rich fields of one’s home

and set off begging is the worst of fates,

to wander with dear mother and old dad                      5

with little children and a wedded wife!

An exile is despised by all he meets –

he comes to them with only hateful want.

disgracing then his house and noble self.

Then every shame will follow after that.                       10

If no respect will go to vagrant men

and no esteem, no favor, and no care,

then let us fight with heart for land and blood

and let us die with no thought for our lives.

You youth must hold your ranks till death                   15

avoiding shameful flight and fear of death.

Make great and bold the will within your heart.

To fight the foe you must not love your life.

The older men, with legs no longer lithe,

must not run off and leave the fallen youth.               20

An older man should never fall and lie

among the youth who fight in vanguard ranks

with his white hair and venerable beard,

exhaling his brave soul into the dirt,

his hands might hold his bloody loins – a shame        25

to lookers-on, a frightful sight to see,

his body naked.  With a young man all is seemly

while he holds still the charm of blooming youth,

for men a wondrous sight, to women fair,

alive and fair too fallen in the front.                           30

So each must stand his ground both feet firm in place

Set upon earth biting his lip with his teeth.

 

 

τεθνάμεναι γὰρ καλὸν ἐνὶ προμάχοισι πεσόντα

ἄνδρ᾽ ἀγαθὸν περὶ ᾗ πατρίδι μαρνάμενον.

τὴν δ᾽ αὐτοῦ προλιπόντα πόλιν καὶ πίονας ἀγροὺς

πτωχεύειν πάντων ἔστ᾽ ἀνιηρότατον,

πλαζόμενον σὺν μητρὶ φίλῃ καὶ πατρὶ γέροντι             5

παισί τε σὺν μικροῖς κουριδίῃ τ᾽ ἀλόχῳ.

ἐχθρὸς μὲν γὰρ τοῖσι μετέσσεται, οὕς κεν ἵκηται

χρησμοσύνῃ τ᾽ εἴκων καὶ στυγερῇ πενίῃ,

αἰσχύνει τε γένος, κατὰ δ᾽ ἀγλαὸν εἶδος ἐλέγχει,

πᾶσα δ᾽ ἀτιμίη καὶ κακότης ἕπεται.                             10

εἰ δέ τοι οὕτως ἀνδρὸς ἀλωμένου οὐδεμἴ ὤρη

γίγνεται οὔτ᾽ αἰδὼς οὔτ᾽ ὄπις οὔτ᾽ ἔλεος,

θυμῷ γῆς περὶ τῆσδε μαχώμεθα καὶ περὶ παίδων

θνῄσκωμεν ψυχέων μηκέτι φειδόμενοι.

ὦ νέοι, ἀλλὰ μάχεσθε παρ᾽ ἀλλήλοισι μένοντες,     15

μηδὲ φυγῆς αἰσχρᾶς ἄρχετε μηδὲ φόβου,

ἀλλὰ μέγαν ποιεῖσθε καὶ ἄλκιμον ἐν φρεσὶ θυμόν,

μηδὲ φιλοψυχεῖτ᾽ ἀνδράσι μαρνάμενοι:

τοὺς δὲ παλαιοτέρους, ὧν οὐκέτι γούνατ᾽ ἐλαφρά,

μὴ καταλείποντες φεύγετε γηπετέας:                        20

αἰσχρὸν γὰρ δὴ τοῦτο, μετὰ προμάχοισι πεσόντα

κεῖσθαι πρόσθε νέων ἄνδρα παλαιότερον,

ἤδη λευκὸν ἔχοντα κάρη πολιόν τε γένειον,

θυμὸν ἀποπνείοντ᾽ ἄλκιμον ἐν κονίῃ,

αἱματόεντ᾽ αἰδοῖα φίλαις ἐν χερσὶν ἔχοντα -- αἰσχρὰ 25

τά γ᾽ ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ νεμεσητὸν ἰδεῖν -- καὶ

χρόα γυμνωθέντα: νέῳ δέ τε πάντ᾽ ἐπέοικεν

ὄφρ᾽ ἐρατῆς ἥβης ἀγλαὸν ἄνθος ἔχῃ:

ἀνδράσι μὲν θηητὸς ἰδεῖν, ἐρατὸς δὲ γυναιξίν,

ζωὸς ἐών, καλὸς δ᾽ ἐν προμάχοισι πεσών.                30

ἀλλά τις εὖ διαβὰς μενέτω ποσὶν ἀμφοτέροισιν

στηριχθεὶς ἐπὶ γῆς, χεῖλος ὀδοῦσι δακών.