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despite his unprepossessing appearance and abject neediness is one among many signs that he has ventured into fairyland. In short the Greeks of Homer’s age were in no doubt as to the dangers and discomforts of homelessness. 1
    Lyric and Elegiac Poetry
    The Spartan elegiac poet Tyrtaeus (mid-seventh century), some of whose compositions are thought to have been recited during military campaigns, perhaps even in the immediate lead-up to a battle, contrasted the wretched condition of the man who has been driven from his homeland after his city has fallen with the valiant hoplite who sacrifices his life (fr. 10 IEG ):
    It is good for a good man to fall and die fighting in the front ranks for his native land, whereas to leave one’s city-state and rich fields and be a beggar is the most wretched condition of all, being a wanderer with one’sdear mother and aged father and little children and wedded wife. For he is hateful to everyone whom he approaches, being bound to neediness and hateful poverty. He disgraces his lineage and betrays his good looks. Since there is no consideration, no honor, no respect, and no pity for a man who is a wanderer, let us fight with courage for our land and die for our children and never spare our lives.
    In other words, the exile is stripped of everything that makes life worthwhile. His disgrace is compounded by the fact that he is publicly deemed to be a coward. Here as elsewhere Tyrtaeus is exhorting the Spartans to risk their lives in battle, using as blackmail, so to speak, the wretchedness of a wanderer’s life, which includes destitution for all his dependents.
    Exile features in the work of the lyric poet Alcaeus of Mytilene, who was driven from his home on the island of Lesbos in ca. 600 as a result of political unrest. Alcaeus’s comments appear in poems that were intended for delivery at a symposium or drinking party, and as such may well have had a political and/or educational function. The relevant lines appear to be autobiographical, though we cannot dismiss the possibility that he has adopted an imaginary persona. In one of them Alcaeus appeals to the triad of Zeus, Hera, and Dionysus “to save us from these labors and painful exile” (fr. 129.11–12 Campbell). In another he articulates his despair to a friend as follows (fr. 130B 1–9 Campbell):
    I poor wretch live the lot of a rustic, longing to hear the assembly being summoned, Agesilaidas, and the council: the property in possession of which my father and my father’s father have grown old among these mutually destructive citizens, from it I have been driven, an exile at the back of beyond … (trans. Campbell).
    The corpus that is ascribed to the elegiac poet Theognis of Megara (ca. 640–540?) also includes references to an exile’s lot. Though it is possible that Theognis was forced from his homeland, the verses supporting this supposition, in which he claims that “other men possess my flourishing fields,” are corrupt (ll. 1197–1202 IEG ). Earlier in thecollection he speaks with feeling about the isolation that a homeless person faces (ll. 209–210 IEG ):
    To be sure, no-one is a friend and trustworthy companion to one who is a pheugôn [exile]. This fact is more painful than phugê [exile] itself.
    Elsewhere, however, he warns his friend Cyrnus to steer clear of such people (ll. 333–34 IEG ):
    Never be friends with a man in exile, Cyrnus, looking to the future. Once he returns home, he won’t be the same man at all.
    Tyrtaeus’s gripe is that exiles try to ingratiate themselves to advance their own interests. But once they no longer need your services, their promises will quickly be forgotten.
    Finally, these lines written by the Athenian elegiac poet and lawgiver Solon strike a decidedly and deliberately poignant note (fr. 36.8–12 IEG ):
    I brought back many people to Athens, back to their homeland that was founded by the gods. Some of