ALCAEUS
56

Bust. on the Gfyssew (they were diverting themselves at
draughts]: The author of the treatise On Grek Goons declares
that the draughts were five pebbles with which they played
wpon five lines drawn on either side, so that cach of the
players had his own... And there was a line drawn in
the middle which they called sacred . . . because the loser
comes to the furthest line. Hence the proverb ‘to move
the piece on the saered lines used. of course, of those whom
desperation drives to their Jast resource ; compare Sophron :

; Alcaeus gives the phrase in full:

And now this tellow has prevailed, by moving the

piece on the sacred line, the cunning man.

57

Scholiast on Pindar [the overwhelming bane which his
father hung over him, to wit a mighty stone’]: The punish-
ment of Tantalus is variously related... . ; Alcaeus and
Aleman say that a stone was hung over him; compare
Alcaeus :

Over Tantalus’ head, O son of Aesimus, there
hung a great stone;

and Aleman {Alem. 89).
58

Hephaestion Hamdbouk of Mefre [on Swnconnectable metres):
A well-known combination, too, is the double two-and-a-halt-
foot metre called the encomiologic, consisting of a two-and-
a-halt-foot dactylic and an iambic of equal length ; it is used
by Alcaeus in the poem which begins:

And are the weapons still lying bright and ready
in the myrtle-grove for Thieme en and the son of

Hyrrhas: Pl

! Pittacus

4 Seidl: cf. Cram. 4.0. 4. 326. 30. Mim. Gr. Lind, 2. 38s:
Mss τῷ τυρρακήῳ 8. κέαντ᾽ B: mss κέατ᾽