Tyrtaeus

Solitude, Shakespeare's "long night", ill-borne by the politician - who wanted a poet such as Tyrtaeus during the

Salvatore Quasimodo - Nobel Lecture 1959

Come now and let us all join in asking this question of Tyrtaeus: O most divine poet, we will say to him, the excellent praise which you have bestowed on those who excel in war sufficiently proves that you are wise and good, and I and Megillus and Cleinias of Cnosus do, as I believe, entirely agree with you.

Laws 2006

The Spartans, though an unpoetical race, were nevertheless lovers of poetry; they had been stirred by the Elegiac strains of Tyrtaeus, they had crowded around Hippias to hear his recitals of Homer; but in this they resembled the citizens of the timocratic rather than of the ideal State.

The Republic by Plato ; translated by Benjamin Jowett 2006

Such an one, as we said at first, would be a greater warrior than he of whom Tyrtaeus sings; and he would honour courage everywhere, but always as the fourth, and not as the first part of virtue, either in individuals or states.

Laws 2006

But in the war of which Tyrtaeus speaks, many a mercenary soldier will take his stand and be ready to die at his post, and yet they are generally and almost without exception insolent, unjust, violent men, and the most senseless of human beings.

Laws 2006

Whereas, that virtue which Tyrtaeus highly praises is well enough, and was praised by the poet at the right time, yet in place and dignity may be said to be only fourth rate.

Laws 2006

And is it disgraceful for Homer and Tyrtaeus and other poets to lay down evil precepts in their writings respecting life and the pursuits of men, but not so disgraceful for

Laws 2006

And we shall naturally go on to say to him — You, Tyrtaeus, as it seems, praise those who distinguish themselves in external and foreign war; and he must admit this.

Laws 2006

A far inferior man to Tyrtaeus would have no difficulty in replying quite truly, that war is of two kinds one which is universally called civil war, and is as we were just now saying, of all wars the worst; the other, as we should all admit, in which we fall out with other nations who are of a different race, is a far milder form of warfare.

Laws 2006

But he was yet something more: he could, if he pleased, be a Tyrtaeus; he was no fighter — where was there ever a poet that was? — but he wrote an ode on a sword, the only warlike piece that he ever wrote, the best poem on the subject ever written in any language.

Wild Wales : Its People, Language and Scenery 2004