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An Iambic Scepter?: The Akhnymenē Skytalē of Archilochus
- Arethusa
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 47, Number 1, Winter 2014
- pp. 19-38
- 10.1353/are.2014.0001
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Archilochus issues an iambic challenge to Kerykides through the frame of authoritative speech in Epode 185W; the much-debated phrase akhnymenē skytalē is essential to that attack. I propose a new reading of akhnymenē that allows for its double-valence: it is at once "sorrowful" (as traditionally understood) and "speaking." This double meaning accords precisely with the dual strands of Archilochus' biting poetic mode: his words bring sorrow to their target in their verbal articulation. Such a reading also recommends my view of Archilochus' message stick as an analogue to Hesiod's iconic scepter, that is, as emblematic of Archilochus' authoritative iambic speech.