Sources and commentary

 detail from Archilochos monument - gives link to home page   
Vase in museum on Paros island, Greece.

Campbell states (on page 160) that 'Archilochos may simply be saying that his iambics are his only weapon, but deadly.'

Harris remarks (on page 96): 'This telling line has been so often quoted and perhaps misquoted, that no comment should be necessary, other than to note a personal preference for the staying qualities of the hedgehog who is still peering out of his burrow while the farmer hangs the body of the fox on the barbed wire fence as a reminder of the fate of being a smart aleck.'

See the web links page for contemporary comment about the contrast between people who behave like foxes compared with those who behave like hedgehogs.