Enter Your Reply

Some barbarian is waving my shield,
    since I was obliged to
    leave that perfectly good piece of equipment behind
    under a bush.
    But I got away, so what does it matter?
    Life seemed somehow more precious.
    Let the shield go; I can buy another one equally good. 

Archilochus of Thasos

Self-described mercenary and poet, Archilochus was revered by the Greeks
as a lyric poet of the first order, credited with inventing iambic meter. He
wrote a/the victor's song for the Olympics, but was reputedly thrown out
of Sparta for cowardice and licentious poetry. So much for the man the
Greeks considered the equal of Homer, and whose birthplace of Paros
instituted a hero cult for him that lasted 8 centuries. ;-)