This course will serve as an introduction to the poetic production of the archaic period—the elegy, iambic, and melic poetry composed between ca. 650-450 BCE throughout the Greek world. All material will be read in the original ancient Greek. This will entail reading selected poems and fragments by Archilochos, Tyrtaios, Mimnermos, Solon, Theognis, Xenophanes, Alkman, Stesichoros, Sappho, Alkaios, Ibykos, Anakreon, and Simonides. We will focus on the poems simultaneously as literary texts and as historical artifacts, considering such topics as their relation to Homeric themes and diction, the effects of orality and literacy, performance context, genre, and sociological/ideological position. We will then devote approximately the last third of the course to reading selected poetry of Pindar and Bacchylides. Course requirements include two midterms, a final exam, and a short (6-10 pp.) literary paper.