The City Eater Metaphor in Alcaeus fragments 70 and 129V

Abstract

The large amount of insults to Pittacus figure in Alcaeus Poetry called the attention of modern critics because he is seen as a great ruler by authors of Antiquity and is always associated with moderation, an image that differs from the way that Alcaeus describes him in his verses, specially concerning the city eater metaphor presented in fragments 70 and 129V, in which Pittacus is described as an insatiable ferocious beast that devours the polis itself.
The present paper will examine the referred metaphor, aiming to point that the invectives contained in the fragments in question, much more than mere insults, are inserted in the negative image that the tyrant presents in other passages of Greek archaic poetry.