Tyrtaeus, a Spartan poet of the early Archaic period, composed his martial exhortations in order to address growing tensions between elites and non-elites of preclassical, and thus pre-militaristic, Sparta during the Second Messenian War. His poetry is filled with allusions to Homeric heroes and heroic concepts that interact with archaic institutions and thought. This thesis seeks to examine those interactions and to discern how Tyrtaeus uses the heroes Hector, Odysseus, and Achilles in his exhortations to encourage men to stand and fight and not to retreat from battle. This study also uses modern theories of cohesion in order to provide a framework for Tyrtaeus’ appeals to social ties among the soldiers and for his models of reciprocal relations between the πόλις and the soldiers, both of which he uses to overcome the tension between the elites and non-elites and create a single, cohesive group. / Graduate

This thesis contends that Sappho's Fr. 16 is intended to oppose the definition of the term Καλόѵ in Tyrtaeus' elegies 10 and 12. An analysis of Tyrtaeus 10 reveals the poet's attempt to institute a new civic courage in Sparta, one shaped by an understanding of honor and shame centered around the young man's willingness to fight and, if necessary, die in battle. Remarkably, the successful practitioner of this courage will literally come to sight differently in the eyes of his fellow citizens. In Tyrtaeus 12, this courage is more clearly defined as τò Καλλɪσɪoѵ, the focus of a new system of virtue that ranks the good of the common above all else, but that provides as much recompense for the warrior and his family as advantage for the city. Sappho's response in her Fr. 16 is to reject any understanding of the Καλόѵ that relies on convention, replacing it with the personal predilections of each individual. As she demonstrates, however, this view contains severe limitations and is inherently destructive of the city. The “debate,” conducted by both poets partly through Homeric allusions, continues the opposition between public and private begun in Homer.

Consoante aos estudos recentes sobre a lírica grega arcaica, hoje podemos aduzir a ocasião de performance como um elemento central para a definição de um gênero poético. A partir dessa concepção mais ampla de gênero, este trabalho visa à tradução e estudo dos fragmentos elegíacos de Tirteu, tendo em vista o caráter estritamente político de suas elegias narrativas e marciais e seus vínculos temáticos com a tradição épica, de modo que possamos ensejar uma reflexão outra sobre a função e estatuto dessa poesia em suas determinadas ocasiões de performance. / According to modern studies on archaic greek lyric, occasion of performance was a main feature to the definition of a poetic genre. Thus, this work seeks to translate and analyze the elegiac fragments of Tyrtaeus, considering the strictly political aspect of his martial and narrative elegies and its thematic resemblances with epic tradition, in order to raise a different comprehension on the function and meaning of this poetry, given its occasions.

Consoante aos estudos recentes sobre a lírica grega arcaica, hoje podemos aduzir a ocasião de performance como um elemento central para a definição de um gênero poético. A partir dessa concepção mais ampla de gênero, este trabalho visa à tradução e estudo dos fragmentos elegíacos de Tirteu, tendo em vista o caráter estritamente político de suas elegias narrativas e marciais e seus vínculos temáticos com a tradição épica, de modo que possamos ensejar uma reflexão outra sobre a função e estatuto dessa poesia em suas determinadas ocasiões de performance. / According to modern studies on archaic greek lyric, occasion of performance was a main feature to the definition of a poetic genre. Thus, this work seeks to translate and analyze the elegiac fragments of Tyrtaeus, considering the strictly political aspect of his martial and narrative elegies and its thematic resemblances with epic tradition, in order to raise a different comprehension on the function and meaning of this poetry, given its occasions.

La singularité et la fonction holoparénétique particulièrement efficace des fragments de Tyrtée et de Kallinos, trop longtemps négligées par une tradition philologique étroitement homérocentrée, imposaient d’elles-mêmes que l’on revienne sur le texte de ces deux poètes-savants du VIIe siècle a. C. et, pour ce faire, que l’on s’en tienne à la lettre des manuscrits sans d’entrée de jeu s’en offusquer, et que l’on étudie pour elle-même, en ses profondeurs linguistiques, la diction qui fut la leur et qui pour la première fois, concomitamment à Archiloque, usa du mètre élégiaque. Or, outre que le fonctionnement dialectal et rythmique de leurs fragments se révèle plus fluctuant qu’il n’y paraît, leur organisation intrinsèquement « stanzaïque » reposant sur des systèmes d’échos plus phoniques que lexicaux, ainsi que l’usage répétitif de la forme rythmiquement marquée des participes moyens-passifs en -me/noj/-(o/)menoj, sont deux traits qui nous fondent à penser que c’est un « rythme sonore », ou plus précisément « phonico-pragmatique », qui devait en être le moteur. Aussi est-ce pourquoi, puisqu’on reconnaît de plus en plus unanimement au Cratyle (dialogue éminemment poiétique de Platon) un savoir linguistique aussi fiable que véritable, j’ai cherché à travers lui une méthode qui permette d’appréhender un tel état de langue. Le parcours herméneutico-philologique qui en découle, mené à l’intérieur d’un système de correspondances phonico-syllabiques centré sur le radical du verbe me/nw « rester, tenir bon », permet de se frayer un chemin dans la dimension intra- et infra-linguistique de la diction parénétique de Tyrtée et de Kallinos afin de mieux comprendre les raisons et la nature d’une efficacité qui hérite à l’évidence de traditions non narratives. / The singularity and the most effective holoparenetic function of Tyrtaeus’ and Kallinos’ fragments, too long neglected by a philological tradition narrowly focussed on the homeric model, imposed themselves for a return to the text of these two wise-poets of the VIIth century B. C. and, to do this, required that we stick to the letter of the manuscripts without first take offense, and that we study for itself, in its depths language, the diction which was theirs and that for the first time, concomitantly with Archilochus, used the elegiac meter. Now, apart from their being dialectically and rhythmically more fluctuating than it looks, their organization inherently “stanzaic”, based on echoes which are more phonic than lexical, as well as the repeated use of the rhythmically marked form of the medio-passive participles in -me/noj/-(o/)menoj, are two features that underpin us to believe that it is a "sound " or more precisely "phonico-pragmatic" rhythm which was to be their driving force. For that reason and since it is more and more established that we must trust the linguistics of Plato’s Cratylus, I have been looking through it for a method that tackles such a state of language. The resulting hermeneutic and philological journey, through out a whole system of phonico-syllabic correspondences turning around the verbal stem of me/nw “to stand firm”, helps clear a path into the intra- and infra-linguistic dimension of Tyrtaeus’ and Kallinus’ parenetic diction in order to understand better the reasons and the nature of an efficiency that inherits obviously non-narrative traditions.