Skip to content

Order by Dec 10 for Christmas: 27 days left. Shop gifts

Spartan Surfers

c. 680-645 BC

Archilochus

Soldier-poet from Paros, one of the first Greek poets to write in his own voice. He lived by the spear and wrote about war, loss and the rhythm of life.

6 sourced lines

Every line we carry

Each one links to its source, what it means, and the shirt in any of our looks.

  1. The fox knows many things. The hedgehog knows one big thing.

    The proverb is recorded by Zenobius, who says Archilochus used it in an epode. The fox has many tricks, but the hedgehog has one that works: it rolls into a ball of spines. Sometimes one deep strength beats a hundred shallow ones.

    Fragment 201 West (Zenobius 5.68), our translation from the Greek

  2. Don't gloat when you win. Don't collapse at home when you lose.

    Archilochus talks to his own heart, battered by trouble: when you win, do not openly brag, and when you lose, do not fall down at home and wail. Same face in victory and defeat. That evenness is what lets you keep competing.

    Fragment 128.4-5 West, our translation from the Greek

  3. Know the rhythm that holds human life.

    Rejoice in good things and grieve at bad ones, but not too much, Archilochus says, and recognize the rhythm that governs people. Life comes in sets, like waves. Ride the up without clinging to it, ride the down knowing it will turn.

    Fragment 128.6-7 West, our translation from the Greek

  4. My bread is kneaded on my spear. I drink leaning on it.

    Archilochus was a soldier-poet, and here he says his bread, his wine and his rest all come by the spear. It is a proud statement of living by your own trade. Whatever your spear is, know that it feeds you.

    Fragment 2 West, our translation from the Greek

  5. Give me a short general, steady on his feet, full of heart.

    Archilochus says he has no use for a tall, swaggering general with fancy hair; give him a short, bow-legged one, planted firmly on his feet and full of courage. Looks are not leadership. Pick the person who holds ground.

    Fragment 114 West, our translation from the Greek

  6. I serve the lord of war, and I know the Muses' gift.

    Archilochus introduces himself as both a servant of Enyalios, god of battle, and a man who knows the lovely gift of the Muses. Fighter and poet in one couplet. You do not have to choose between toughness and art.

    Fragment 1 West, our translation from the Greek