Alcman

[4] Frequently assumed to have been born in Sardis, capital of ancient Lydia, the Suda claims that Alcman was actually a Laconian from Messoa.

Thus Alcman claims he learned his skills from the "strident partridges" (caccabides),[6] a bird native to Asia Minor and not naturally found in Greece.

Aristotle reported that it was believed Alcman died from a pustulant infestation of lice (phthiriasis),[12] but he may have been mistaken for the philosopher Alcmaeon of Croton.

The fragment, which is now kept at the Louvre in Paris, contains approximately 100 verses of a so-called partheneion, i.e. a song performed by a chorus of young unmarried women.

[17] To judge from his larger fragments, Alcman's poetry was normally strophic: Different metres are combined into long stanzas (lines 9–14), which are repeated several times.

The type of songs Alcman composed most frequently appear to be hymns, partheneia (maiden-songs Greek παρθένος "maiden"), and prooimia (preludes to recitations of epic poetry).

[18] The girls express a deep affection for their chorus leader (coryphaeus): For abundance of purple is not sufficient for protection, nor intricate snake of solid gold, no, nor Lydian headband, pride of dark-eyed girls, nor the hair of Nanno, nor again godlike Areta nor Thylacis and Cleësithera; nor will you go to Aenesimbrota's and say, 'If only Astaphis were mine, if only Philylla were to look my way and Damareta and lovely Ianthemis'; no, Hagesichora guards me.

Calame states that this homoerotic love, which is similar to the one found in the lyrics of the contemporaneous poet Sappho, matches the pederasty of the males and was an integrated part of the initiation rites.

Stehle argues that the maidens of the Partheneion carry a plough (φάρος, or, in the most translations, a robe, φᾶρος) for the goddess of Dawn (Orthria).

Much attention is focused on nature: ravines, mountains, flowering forests at night, the quiet sound of water lapping over seaweed.

[30]The poet reflects, in a poignant poem, as Antigonus of Carystus notes, how "age has made him weak and unable to whirl round with the choirs and with the dancing of the maidens", unlike the cock halcyons or ceryls, for "when they grow old and weak and unable to fly, their mates carry them upon their wings": No more, O musical maidens with voices ravishing-sweet!

My limbs fail:—Ah that I were but a ceryl borne on the wing Over the bloom of the wave amid fair young halcyons fleet, With a careless heart untroubled, the sea-blue bird of the Spring!

[31] Some fragments of Alcman's poetry reflect early cosmological ideas, where he poetically describes the origins of the universe and natural phenomena.

His works blend mythological narratives with reflections on the cosmos, a characteristic feature of early Greek thought before the emergence of formal philosophy.

Alcman's hymns suggest an interest in the order of the natural world, the role of primordial forces, and the creation of the cosmos; themes later explored more systematically by Presocratic philosophers like Thales, Anaximander, and Leucippus.

Scholars argue that Alcman's poetic cosmogony represents an important step toward the philosophical inquiry that developed in ancient Greece.

While he did not formulate scientific theories, his lyrical exploration of the cosmos contributed to the broader intellectual tradition of early Greek cosmology.