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G£N£BAL HISTORY OF LYRIC COMPOSITION DURING THIS PERIOD. I. Origin and early cultivation of Greek Lyric poetry. — 2. Its connexion with music. — 3. General characteristics of the arts of music and dancing in Greece.— 4. Elegiac poetry. Characteristics of the Elegiac measure. — 5, Origin and early cultivation of the Elegy —6. Its supposed inventors and principal masters. — 7. Iambic poetry. Characteristics of the Iambic rhythm. Its early cultivation. — 8. Melic orders of Lyric poetry. — 9. The Nome. Aulodic Nomes. Olympus. — 10. Citharoedic Nomes. Terpander. — 11. Other early poet-musicians. Thaletas. Clonas. Xenodamus. Polymnestus. Xenocritus. Sacadas. 12. Spartan influence on Greek Lyric art. — 13. Sparto-Dorian school of Lyric poetry. — 14. Strophic and Choral orders of Lyric poetry. Metrical definitions. Melic Strophe. — 15. Choric Strophe. Anti- strophe. Epode. " Triad of Stesichorus " - - Patre 1 CHAP. II. ORDERS AND OCCASIONS OF LYRIC PERFORMANCE. 1. Their number and variety. Nome. Hymn. — 2. Pasan. — 3. Hypor- chem. Its dramatic element. — 4. Prosodia. Parthenia. Daphnephorica. —5. Dithyramb. Its earliest form. Dithyramb of Arion.— 6. Doric Mimes. — 7. Poetical and metrical characteristics of Arion's Dithyramb. — 8. Its other titles. Cyclian Chorus. Tragcedia, or Goat-song. — 9. Transition from Dithyrambic Tragcedia to Attic Tragedy. Lyric Tragedy.— 10. Lyric Comedy. " Satyr" or Satyric Drama.— 11. Thre- nus. Song of Linus. — 12. Convivial poetry (Symposiaca). P^an. Vi CONTENTS. Parcenia. — 13. ScoHa, or Greek musical catches. — 14. Their poetical and rhythmical characteristics. Alliteration and rhyme. — 15. En- comia. Comus. Epinicia. — 16. Erotica. Gamelia. Hymenaga. Epi- thalamia.— 17. Military music : war songs ; marches.— 18. " Popular " songs. Definition of. — 19. Extant specimens - - Page 63 CHAP. III. BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. CAXLINUS. ARCHILOCHUS. SIMONIDES. TYRT.a;us. 1. Leading Lyric poets of this period, as classed in the Alexandrian Canon.— 2. Callinus. His age, as compared with that of Archilochus. _3. Character, works, and times of Callinus.— 4. Archilochus.— 5. His birth, life, and character. — 6. Disappointed love and revenge. —7. Promiscuous impartiality of his satire. His death.— 8. His genius and that of Homer in their parallel and their contrast.— 9. Redeeming features of his moral character. Personal individuality of his poetry. — 10. Originality and fertiUty of his inventive genius. DetaUs of his style and imagery. Epithets. Dialect. — 11. Metrical element of his composition. ^Classification of his works. — 12. His genius illustrated by his remains.— 13. Remarks on the loss of his poems.— 14. Simonides of Amorgos.— 15. His poem " On Women." Origin of Greek poetical satire against the female sex. Hesiod. Pandora. — 16. Style of the poem "On Women." Other works of Simonides. — 17. Tyrtsus. His popular biography.— 18. Its authenticity. — 19. His age, character, works ----"""" CHAP. IV. ALCMAN. ARION. STESICHORUS. XANTHUS. SACADAS. XENOCRITUS. EL'NOMUS. 1. Alcman. His origin, birthplace, and times. — 2. Style and tendency " of his poetry. His title to the character of " Laconian poet."— 3. His rhythmical improvements. — 4. His remains. — 5. Arion and his dol- phin. — 6. Probable import of the legend. — 7. His reputed ode to Neptune. — 8. Character of his genuine works. — 9. Stesichorus. His birthplace. His Locrian origin. His descent from Hesiod. — 10. His family. Intercourse with Phalaris. — 11. BUndness. " Recantation." —12. Migration to Catana. Death and tomb. Personal character.— 13. Inventive genius. Epico-lyric style. — 14. Its prior cultivation by Xanthus.— 15. Homeric attributes of Stesichorus. — 16. His works an.Uheir remains. Europia. Geryonis. Cerberus. Cycnus. Scylla. AthlaPelise. Syothera. Eriphyle.— 17. Ilii-persis.— 18. Palinodia. — 19. Calyce. Rhadina. Pagans. Apocryphal works. Fables.— 20. Metres. Dialect.— 21. Other Epico-Lyric poets. Sacadas. Xe- 1 Q8 nocritus. Eunomus CONTENTS. vii CHAP. V. AXC^US. SAPPHO. DAMOPHYLA. ERINNA. 1. Alcaeus. His life and times. — 2. His character, political and personal. — 3. His works : Stasiotica, Erotica, Convivial songs. Hymns. — 4. Metres invented or cultivated by him. — 5. Sappho. — 6. Her birth- place, age, family, and social relations. — 7. Her love for Phaon. Her lyeucadian leap. — 8. Origin of the rite. — 9. Evidence for and against her performance of it. — 10. Her personal appearance. Moral habits. — 11. Fallacy of the late popular estimate of her character. — 12. How far represented by the antieuts as a courtesan. — 13. How represented in the Comic drama of Athens. — 14. Apology for her character de- rived from the freedom of ^olian manners. — 15. Her character as portrayed by herself in her ode to Venus. — 16. In her other works. — 17. Her relations to her female associates. — 18. Critical estimate of her genius and works. Her metres. — 19. Branches of composition cultivated by her. — 20. Damophyla. Erinna - - Page 256 CHAP. VI. MIMNERMUS. SOLON. " SEVEN SAGES." PITTACUS. PERIANDER. CLEOBULUS. CHItON. BIAS. 1. Mmnermus. His age, birthplace, character. — 2. His works. Style of elegiac poetry. — 3. Solon. His age, birthplace, family. — 4. Early life. Salaminian war. Sacred war. Legislative code. — 5. Travels. Interview with Croesus. Narrative of Herodotus. — 6. Return to Athens. Death. Private character. — 7. Poetical compositions. Gnomic school of poetry. — 8. Critical estimate of Solon's poetical genius and works. — 9. Poem and legend of Atlantis. — 10. Origin and import of the legend. — 11. A pure Platonic allegory. — 12. "Seven Sages." Pittacus. — 13. Periander. — 14. Just estimate of hischaracter. — 15. Cleobulus. Cleobuline. — 16. Chilon. Bias 332 CHAP. vn. EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING IN GREECE. Part I. Monumental Liscriptions. , Introductory remarks. Cadmean tradition. Its historical import. 2. Rules for the guidance of modern research. Number and peculiar character of the early Greek inscribed monuments. — 3. Chances of their preservation. — 4. Comparative neglect of Black-letter pursuit in Greece. Supposed literary frauds. Rudeness of the primitive alpha- bet.— 5. Notices of early inscribed monuments. Epitaphs. Legis- lative tables. — 6. Votive monuments in the national sanctuaries. viii CONTENTS. Pausanias. — 7. Olympia. Disk of Iphitus. " Treasuries." Chest of Cypselus.— 8. Other monuments at Olympia and elsewhere. — 9. Early Greek archives. — 10. Monuments of the Ante-Dorian aera. Tripods of the Ismenian sanctuary. — 11. Other Cadmean monuments Page 397 Part II. Writing for Literary Purposes. 12. General remarks. — 13. Athenian Ostracism. — 14. Public opinion of early Greece relative to the antiquity of writing. State of education in early Greece. Text of " Hesiod." Of Stesichorus. Of Archi- lochus. — 15. Spartan Scytale. — 16. Education in Sparta, In Crete. Laws of Lycurgus. Other early written codes. Philolaiis. Phidon. — 17. Want of convenient material. — 18. A passage of Thucydides. Parchment. Papyrus. — 19. Memorial recital, or Rhapsodism. — 20. Laws set to music. Lateness of prose composition. — 21. Homer. — 22. Letters of Bellerophon. Other allusions by Homer to the art of writing. Conclusion - - _ . . 440 APPENDIX. App. A. On the relative ages of Olympus and Terpander - 491 App. B. On the expressions Trpbirr] and hvTipa KaTdaraaic in Plu- tarch's treatise on music - - . . . 492 App. C. On the terms Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian, as applied to the Greek musical Harmonies .... 494 App. D. On the age of Tyrtseus - - . . . 495 App. E. On the personal characters of Anacreoii, Archilochus, and Sappho .-.-... ^gg App. F. On the Lesbian vice - - - . _ 497 App. G. On Cadmus ----... 499 App. H. On the Treasury of the Megarians at 01ymi)ia - - 500 App. J. On the authenticity of the Spartan genealogies and other Peloponnesian state archives - - - . 50I App. K. On the literary culture of the Spartans - - 504 App. L. On the letters of Bellerophon - - - _ 507 App. M. On the objections to a primitive written text of Homer founded on the peculiarities of his dialect - - - 512 Addition to p. 501. ---._. 522 Index ---..... 523 CRITICAL HISTORY, BOOK III. POETICAL PERIOD. — LYRIC POETRY. CHAP. I. GENERAL HISTORY OF LYRIC COMPOSITION DURING THIS PERIOD. 1. RISE AND EARLY CULTIVATION OF GREEK LYRIC POETRY. 2. ITS CON- NEXION WITH MUSIC. 3. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ARTS OF MUSIC AND DANCING IN GREECE. 4. ELEGIAC POETRY. CHARACTER- ISTICS OF THE ELEGIAC MEASURE. 5. ORIGIN AND EARLY CULTIVATION OF THE ELEGY. 6. SUPPOSED INVENTORS AND PRINCIPAL MASTERS. 7. IAMBIC POETRY. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IAMBIC RHYTHM. EARLY CULTIVATION. 8. MELIC ORDERS OF LYRIC POETRY. 9. THE NOME. AULODIC NOJIES. OLYMPUS 10. CITHARCEDIC NOMES. TERPANDER. 11. OTHER EARLY POET-MUSICIANS. THALETAS. CLONAS. XENODAMUS. POLY- MNESTUS. XENOCRITUS. SACADAS. — 12. SPARTAN INFLUENCE ON GREEK LYRIC ART. 13. SPARTO-DORIAN SCHOOL OF LYRIC POETRY. 14. STRO- PHIC AND CHORAL ORDERS OF LYRIC POETRY METRICAL DEFINITIONS. MELIC STROPHE. 15. CHORIC STROPHE. ANTISTROPHE. EPODE. "TRIAD OF STESICHORUS." 1. In the present book it is proposed to offer : Rise and First. A general outline of the history of lyric vation""/' poetry, in its connexion with the kindred arts of ^^?^^ music and dancing. poetry. Secondly. A review of the more remarkable occa- sions or objects of lyric celebration, and of the varie- ties of hymn, ode, or song, appropriated or adapted to each. Thirdly. A biographical notice of the more dis- - VOL. III. ^^ B /# 2 ORIGIN A^^D EARLY HISTORY Book 111. tinguished lyric poets of the period, with critical remarks on their genius and works. Attention has already been directed in the pre- vious book^ to the origin of lyric poetry, and to the causes which obtained for the sister epic art, if not the palm of prior invention, a preference at least in respect to culture and preservation. It mil now be proper to inquire into the circumstances to which, at a later epoch, the Lyric Muse was indebted, in her turn, for an equal share of honourable distinction. The primary cause of the rise, progress, or decline of every popular art is to be sought in the social condition of the country where it is exercised. The decay of the epic school, the productions of which had hitherto sufficed for the higher poetical wants of the nation, was a consequence partly of changes in the social state of Greece unfavourable to the pros- perity or popularity of that school, partly of the tendency of all human art to degenerate after reach- injr a certain climax of excellence. The same ex- ternal influences which led to the decline of the one branch of composition, contributed to the improve- ment and extension of the other. Epic poetry, as it appears in the age and works of Homer, is the poetry of a whole nation. The honour, the interest, or the ambition of the individual is con- centrated around common objects, of a grandeur in the national estimate which requires a corresponding extent and dignity in the works devoted to their celebration. The break up of the old heroic con- federacy, the substitution of independant republics for patriarchal monarchies, with the complexity of social interests consequent on advancing civilisation, > Vol. I. p. 168. sqq. Ch. I. § 1. OF LYRIC POETRY. 3 produced a parallel change in the taste for literary pursuit. As the objects of popular ambition became more numerous and varied, the channels for the dis- play of poetical talent were proportionally multiplied. The decay of the heroic minstrelsy, originating in causes peculiar to itself, involved no similar decline in the national genius, which, still buoyant and energetic, sought out the more zealously fresh materials for its exercise. The attempts of Pisander and his contem- poraries to enliven by artificial expedients the languor of the superannuated epic style have already been considered. The same thirst for novelty led others to abandon that style altogether, and turn for relief from its dulness to more original sources. The nicer distinction of dialects, coinciding with a like sub- division of the federal body, tended still further to vary and extend the field of literary enterprise. Hence, while the old epic masterpieces still remained the common standards of poetical excellence, the lonians and ^olians of the Asiatic coast, and the Dorians of Southern Greece, the three races now jointly in the ascendant of the Hellenic body, each started forth to enliven, by some new style of treat- ment, the new subjects and interests which the pro- gress of society had called into existence. The more practical or " subjective " tendency of the lyric, as compared with the epic order of com- position, is strikingly illustrated in several distinctive features of their respective histories. It can hardly be doubted that the earlier ruder stages of epic poetry abounded in popular ballads, celebrating the heroes or enterprises of the day. Yet in no instance has the author of any great heroic epopee selected his subject from contemporary events. A certain mist of 4 ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY Book III. antiquity was required to magnify both actions and characters to the pitch which constituted them fit subjects for the higher inspirations of the Epic Muse. Her lyric sister, on the other hand, recognises the full rights of the present. She seeks her materials, by preference, in local, or even domestic, sources : in the honour of a patron deity or an illustrious citizen ; in a victory which the poet has helped to achieve, or a disaster in which he has participated. The dis- tinction is similarly marked in the personal lot of the authors. In scarcely an instance, if, indeed, one can be found, has a lyric composition of any note been transmitted to posterity anonymously. Not only is the poem, Avhether a war-song of Tyrtseus, a lampoon of Archilochus, or a love-melody of Mimnermus, in- variably identified with the name and person of the author, in most cases through his own allusions to himself or his concerns, but he is often himself the subject of his work.^ Many of the greatest epic pro- ductions, on the other hand, are either unconnected with the name of any poet, or, what is nearly equi- valent, are claimed by so many, as to impart not only to the pretensions, but to the existence, of those claimants, a doubtful or mythical character. Nor is there any instance of a distinct allusion contained in a great epic work to its author or his affairs. The first advance towards the individuality of spirit ^ Hence, too, the number of allusions, direct or indirect, by lyric poets of this period, from Callinus downwards, to each other, or to their fellow epic minstrels ; allusions which form some of the most valuable data for the illustration of the obscurer points of Greek literary history. See a catalogue of such passages in ]\Iarcksch. Fragm. Ilesiod. p. 149. sq., to which additions might be made. No such notices can be discovered either in the text of, or citations from, the epic poets of this period. nexion with music. Ch. I. § 2. OF LYKIC POETRY. 5 which distinguishes the Lyric Muse is observable in the Works and Days of Hesiod. That poem may, accordingly, be said to form an intermediate stage bet^Yeen the t\vo branches of composition, as being the production of a local school of poetry de- voted to a comparatively homely class of subjects, and deriving its chief interest from its detailed no- tices of the author and his domestic affairs. 2. Another important cause or concomitant of the its con- more extended culture of the art of lyric composition with was the improvement of that of music. These two arts were, in the early ages of Greece, if not in- separable, so closely connected, that the advance of each from infancy to maturity must have been simul- taneous. Lyric composition was invariably destined, at least on occasions of public or festive recital, for musical accompaniment. Purely instrumental music, on the other hand, at all times comparatively little popular among the Greeks ^, could at this early period have exercised proportionally slender influence on the progress of the science. While, therefore, the developement of the more complex forms of poetical metre depended on that of the musical schemes or systems, these, in their turn, were similarly indebted for their extension and refinement to the parallel improvement or complication of the poetical measures to which they were adapted. The adjustment of the accompaniment to the words, on the most delicate ideal principles, thus became essential to the full effect of a lyric performance. Hence that harmony between the genius of the different families of the ' Plato repudiated the separation of music from poetry as a corruption of tiic former art. he^g. 669 d. sq. ; conl'. Hoeckli. de Melr. I'iiid. 'ioS. B 3 6 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. Hellenic race and that of their respective lyric and musical styles, which, in these earlier stages of ele- gant culture, forms so prominent a feature in the character as well as literature of the nation. The gravity and severity for which the habits and lan- guage of the Dorians were proverbial were also the proper attributes of their music and poetry. Among the jEolian colonists, on the other hand, a race of a naturally ardent temperament, and whose primitive patriarchal rudeness, verging on ferocity of manners, was superseded in their new seats by a taste for voluptuous enjoyment, the change in their own cha- racter was accompanied by a softening down of the native asperities of their dialect into an apt vehicle for the impassioned strains of Alcceus and Sappho. The more sprightly genius and varied intellect of the lonians displays itself in the point and precision of the elegiac and iambic orders of composition, which they were the first to cultivate, and with which was associated a spirited but somewhat licentious musical style, as distinct from the severe majesty of the Dorian as from the fervid excitement of the Jilolian school.^ The nicer relations between the two arts belong to the history of music rather than literature. The analysis of those relations is a subject which, beyond a few elementary facts, is involved in great obscurity. It is one, too, which, even apart from defective his- torical data, would demand, for the full apprehension of its more subtle details, a depth of insight into the theory of musical science by no means necessary to the general student of classical literature, and which few, even of the most accomplished, can be expected ' See Boeckh, dc Metr. Find. p. "238. sqq. Ch. I. § 2. ITS CONNEXION WITH MUSIC. 7 to possess. Poetry and music, to whatever extent tliey may tend mutually to adorn each other, and vitally as they were linked together among the Greeks, are yet, like architecture and painting, literary composition and elocution, distinct arts. A building may derive much of its effect from the co- loured decoration of its walls, or an oration from the eloquence of its recital ; but an architect is not, on this account, required to be a painter, nor an elegant writer an orator. Similar is the relation between poetry and music. The office of the poet is to adapt the style of his work, even in the form of expression, or the sound of the words, to the spirit of his subject. The musical accompaniment, like colour in architec- ture, is but a secondary aid to these primary requi- sites. A poetical composition which through the vehicle of language alone failed to produce its effect, and was solely dependant on its musical arrangement, would be but a sorry performance. The question here naturally arises, how far, among the Greeks, the functions of poet and musician may have been combined in the same person. It must certainly have been desirable, in the spirit of the Greek Lyric Muse, in order to secure the requisite harmony between the words and the air of a composition, that both should be the produce of the same genius ; and such, there is reason to believe, was frequently the case, in the infancy of musical science, among a people so highly gifted in regard to all the imaginative facul- ties. But neither probability nor historical data war- rant the belief that this was the universal rule^, or 1 Among the most celebrated performances of Terpander was his arrangement of portions of the Homeric poems, where a lyric character predominates, as musical nomes. Plut. de Miis. iii. B 4 8 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. that all the great lyric poets, from Callinus down to Callimachus, were also accomplished musical com- posers. Nor can it be supposed that the original words would be held at all times inseparable from the original melody. The same ode might acquire popularity in different places, where different musical tastes prevailed. The air might, in such cases, be varied at pleasure, without real detriment to the literary character of the composition. It may also be presumed that, from the earliest period at which the two arts had reached that stage of maturity in which they already appear in the days of Archilochus and Terpander (b.c. 676), there was, besides the public or festive, also the purely literary enjoyment of lyric composition, through the medium of written circulation, without the aid either of voice or instru- ment. Wherever the above relation between the two arts Avas reversed, and the words of an ode became alto- gether secondary to the air, the case would pass from the province of poetical into that of musical criticism. The parallel of the modern opera is here closely in point. As a general rule, the words of the Italian musical dramas, where not mere vapid commonplace, possess no pretensions to higher poetical excellence. They are but a vehicle for the execution of the music, which is alone responsible for the effect on the au- dience. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, supplying cases analogous to the Greek lyric re- hearsals. Many of the popular dramas of Metastasio, for example, were composed for musical recitation, and the odes in which they abound were arranged to melodies ; yet the intrinsic poetical value of those compositions has secured for them, apart from all Ch. I. § 3. ITS CONNEXION WITH MUSIC. 9 musical aids, a permanent popularity with the read- ing public. If a knoAvledge of the sister art can be dispensed with in a case where the means of obtain- ing that knoAvledge exist, still less essential must it be in one where the utmost extent to which it can be acquired amounts to a few doubtful antiquarian speculations. All, therefore, that here falls strictly within the province of the literary historian is the fact that lyric compositions were, among the Greeks, especially in the public festivals, far more closely and habitually combined than in modern times with musical execution, and that the latter was adapted to th% genius of the poem on the most refined ideal prin- ciples. ^ As, however, the general connexion between the two arts will necessarily form the subject of fre- quent allusion in the sequel, it will here be proper, without enlarging on the nicer links of that con- nexion, to offer a concise notice of the Greek musical systems, and of the terminology by which they are distinguished. 3. The foundation of the Greek art of music ^ was General the tetrachord, or four-strin2:ed lyre, an instrument '''''"■^*'" o • ^ • ., • -I- , teristics of lurmshmg, as its name mdicates, but four distinct the arts of sounds or tones. The limited variety of accompani- Tncingt ment which these sounds supplied seems to have suf- ^'^^'^° ■ficed for the recitative of the epic minstrelsy during its flourishing ages. With the progress of lyric art, the number of strings was increased to seven (b.c. 676), the first and last of which, by the omission of a centre tone of the scale, were placed at the interval of an octave from each other. The different key or 1 See especially Arist. Polit. viii. vii. ; Tlato de Legg. p. 669. sq. ; Burette, Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscr. vol. x. p. 212. ~ Boeckh. de Metr. Find. p. 204. sqq. ; Thiersch, Einleit. zu Find. p. 40. sq. 10 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. pitch in which this scale of chords was strung con- stituted the fundamental distinction between the national styles or harmonies.^ Of these there were at first but three, the Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian. The Dorian was in the lowest key ; the Phrygian was strung a tone higher than the Dorian ; the Lydian a tone higher than the Phrygian. Not long after the regulation of these three primary harmonies two others were invented : the Ionian between the Dorian and Phrygian, the ^olian between the Phrygian and Lydian ; the interval between the key note of each harmony and that of the "^next in order being here, consequently, but half a tone. Besides the key or tone, these styles were characterised by the genius of their metrical numbers.^ The Dorian measure was distinguished by a grave and equable modification of notes, and a corresponding arrangement of the words, with a prevalence of long syllables and uniform suc- cession of feet. In the Phrygian and Lydian, and their respective modifications, the ^olian and Ionian, a livelier, more flexible, sometimes turbulent or en- thusiastic rhythm was preferred. In the different harmonies, these peculiarities of national style de- pended mainly for their developement on the different modes of applying to each the three musical scales or " genera," still famiharly known under the titles of diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic ; according to which the seven notes of the octave were intonated, and the intervals between each note regulated, in the adaptation of the instrument to different styles of performance.^ 1 Boeckh. de Metr. Find p. 212. sqq. ; Thiersch, Eiuleit. zu Find, p. 44. sqq. 2 Auctt. ap. Boeckh. de Metr. Find. p. 238. sqq. 276. sqq. ^ Boeckh. op. cit. p. 207 Ch. I. § 3. ITS CONNEXION WITH MUSIC. 1 1 The above three or five primitive harmonies form the basis of numerous other subordinate varieties, under the titles of Hypophrygian, Hypolydian, Mixo- lydian, and others similar. This multiplication of styles, involving a proportional mixture or confusion of the antient fundamental forms in Avhich the new varieties originated, is censured by the best native critics as a corruption of the popular taste, concurrent with the general decline in the character of the nation. One of the few distinctly recorded facts in the history of antient music is, that, at least during this earlier more genial period of the art, the rhythmical nuflfibers of the air were far more essentially de- pendant on the poetical numbers of the song than in modern times. The accompaniment was considered, as a general rule, altogether subservient to the words, both in its adaptation to the character and genius of the poem, and in the individual adjustment of its numbers to the length or brevity, gravity or vivacity, of the verses and of their syllables and feet.^ The best or only practical insight, therefore, into the musical element of Greek lyric poetry, is the familiarity which every competent scholar possesses with the fundamental laws of prosody, quantity, and versi- fication.2 The analysis of these laws belongs to the ' Plato de Kep. p. 400. ; Aristot. Probl. xlx. 9. ; Plut. de M. xxxv. ; conf. Herm. Doctr. Rei raetr. p. 660. sqq. The neglect or reversal of this rule, and the degradation of the words of the song, as in modern operatic music, into vehicles for the display of licentious musical com- binations, or of brilliant powers of vocal or instrumental execution, formed one of the corruptions of national taste consequent on the later complica- tions of the theory and practice of music above adverted to. 2 Beyond these elementary principles the science of Greek metres is itself a mystery, forming, in fact, a chapter of the same general field of investigation as that concerning the more subtle connexion of the musical and poetical arts, and offering the same poverty of tangible results. This 12 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. grammar of the language, not to its history, where they can fitly be considered but with reference to the mode of their application by different authors or schools of poetry. Much of what has here been said of music applies also to the sister art of dancing, on which certain orders of Greek lyric composition seem to have been little less dependant for their full effect than on the musical accompaniment.^ With the varied movements of the festive dance were more imme- diately connected, in their origin or their artistic arrangement, those varieties of poetical form which, under the names of Strophe, Antistrophe, and Epode, constitute so prominent a characteristic of the more advanced stages of the lyric art. Several of the more popular styles of poetical composition are also identical, in name and origin, with the dances to which they were chiefly adapted. In Homer, the Threnus, or dirge, and the Paean are the only two classes of song with which dancing is not combined ; and, in the immediately subsequent age, the Pajan no longer forms an exception.^ In the festive halls of Ithaca, Scheria, and Sparta the bard not only plays, but sings, to the dance of the suitors, of the Phaeacian youths, and of the guests of Menelaus. A similar accompaniment enlivens the evolutions of the vine- sufficiently appears from the wide discrepancies in the respective views of the two distinguished modern grammai-ians, Hermann (Doctrina Rei metr.) and Boeckh (De Metris Pindari), who have bestowed tlie greatest amount of labour and ingenuity on the subject. The scholar who cor- rectly appreciates the more recondite excellences of Greek rhythmical science according to the one, must be a stranger to them in the esti- mation of the other. See Herm. op. cit. Praef. p. xvii. ; Boeckh. Expl. Pind. pp. 693—698. ; conf. Thiersch. Einlelt. zu Find. p. 66. 1 Lucian. de Salt.; Athen. Deip. xiv. p. 631. alibi: Boeckh. dc Metr. Pind. p. 269. sqq. " Horn. Hymn. Apoll. Pylh. o38. sqrj. Ch. I. §4. THE ELEGY. 13 dressers on the shield of Achilles, and those of the more accomplished performers in the Cretan dance of Dosdalus, in another compartment of the same sculp- tured series. The word Chorus, signifying in later usage a concert of voices, denoted in earlier times simply a dance, or, even in the stricter usage of pri- mitive art, a place suitable for such exercises.^ The custom of the dancers joining in the song led to the term being extended to each class of performance. Finally, on the greater distinction of the two arts, and the substitution in the tragic chorus of the pro- cessional march and gestures for the ordinary dance, the plirase was appropriated, in a great measure, by the art of music. The more extended application of it maintained its ground, however, during the flourishing age of lyric poetry, in regard to many of the nobler branches of festive solemnity. 4. It has already been shown, that, while epic com- eic: position was indebted for its highest perfection to iEolian genius, the chief seat of its later cultivation and subsequent decline was the neighbouring region of Ionia. That decline, however, it has also been remarked, was but a prelude to a spirited develope- ment of the national talent in a new direction. In the same Ionia the first fruits of this revival were brought to maturity in the elegy and iambic trimeter. These two branches of composition, if they cannot be proved to be next to the hexameter the earliest cul- tivated, are those at least of which the next most antient remains have been preserved. Each, while * In this sense it is chiefly, perhaps exclusively, used by Homer. II. xviii. 590., 0(1. VIII. 260., xii. 4. 318. Hence, also, parts, in some in- ■stances the whole, of the agora of cities, where dances were performed in primitive times, are said to have been called x^P^C- Pansan. iii. xi. 7. poetiy. 14 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Booit IIT. Charac- teristics of the elegiac measure. conventionally classed as lyric, might, perhaps, with greater propriety be defined as a medium between the Ij^ic and epic ; a first step in the transition from the one to the other style of popular art. Of the two, the elegy possesses, upon the whole, the strongest claims to priority, as well on historical grounds, as from its close connexion with the old heroic measure, of which the pentameter may be considered, theoreti- cally at least, but a slight modification, adapting it to more homely and familiar objects. For the better understanding of the nature of this modification, attention must be recalled to those pro- perties of the hexameter verse formerly^ pointed out as peculiarly fitting it for epic composition ; to the variety and flexibility of its metrical numbers, and the scope which they afi'orded both to narrative con- tinuity and dramatic mechanism, in the treatment of every kind of subject. These properties were illus- trated by the contrast of certain other systems of epic versification, where the text is subdivided into groups of lines, forming, in their successive repetition, dis- tinct metrical stanzas or clauses of the narrative. Tliis subdivision of the metrical text, and into very minute parts, is the special characteristic of the elegiac, as compared with the purely hexameter, order of versification. The fundamental base or ele- ment of the former is not, as in the hexameter, a single line, but a distich or couplet, formed by sub- joining to the heroic verse another shorter line con- sisting of the same dactylic elements, and commonly called the pentameter. The single distich^ is named, ' Vol.II. p. 103. ^ The employment of the pentameter in its single capacity was never countenanced by classical usage. The few examples which occur belong Ch.I. §4. THE ELEGY. 15 technically, an Elegium. The elegy or elegiac poem (Elegia) is but a repetition of the distich in numbers proportioned to the extent of the subject. The obvious effect of this combination of the longer and shorter measures, enhanced by a peculiar abruptness in the central ca3sure of the latter, and in its closinoc foot or " catalexis," is to impart a certain emphatic point to the entire period. This branch of composition, therefore, is essentially epigrammatic or sententious. Its scope and tendency is to express concisely and emphatically, in the case of the single distich, a cer- tain statement or maxim ; in that of the prolonged eleg^, a series of similar statements or maxims. Each distich forms, it is true, a concise metrical system, capable, like the hexameter verse, of being multiplied into a poem of any length. But the process of repe- tition is here far from offering the same freedom and facilities for the treatment of a varied and extensive subject. Each pentameter couplet ought, obviously, in the true spirit of the Elegiac Muse, either itself to comprise a distinct clause or period of the sense, or at least to form a subdivision of another more com- prehensive clause or head of argument, terminating in a pentameter verse; in other words, every full pause in the sense ought to coincide with a full pause in the measure. Where a continuous head of the sub- ject runs through the close of one distich into the commencement of another, there results a palpable in- congruity, which becomes the more glaring when the ensuing pause takes place in the body of the distich, whether at the close of the hexameter or in the middle either to the lower ages of Greek literature, or are to be considered as mere specimens of poetical caprice. See Bode, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtk. vol. 11. p. 136. sq. 16 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. of either verse. Not only, therefore, is the elegy dis- qualified by its epigrammatic spirit for continuous narrative, but even in its own proper sphere compa- rative brevity is essential to the full effect of an elegiac poem. A protracted series of such epigrammatic com- mentaries, upon any subject, can hardly fail to prove jejune and monotonous. These anomalies, it is true, are all more or less authorised by the practice of the great professional masters of this style, in their na- tural anxiety to adapt their favourite means to every kind of object. The real impropriety, however, does not the less exist; and, despite the ingenuity with which it may be smoothed over, the discerning critic must, in his own experience, have felt how much su- perior is the effect of the elegiac measure in the pointed epigram, and other concise and pithy com- positions, than in prolonged poetical narratives or moral dissertations. Origin and 5. In any theory, therefore, as to the origin of this measure, we may safely assume, by reference both to the general law of human invention and to the dis- criminating taste which marks the developement of art among the Greeks, that the elegiac distich was called into existence by the object to which it was best adapted, that of modifying the old dactylic metre to familiar epigrammatic purposes. This view is confirmed by the fact that the elegy was the measure solely or chiefly employed, in early times, for sepulchral or dedicatory inscriptions ; the kind of epigrammatic composition which would first, or alone, suggest itself as an object of polite culture. The parent term Elegos, whence Elegium and Elegia, denotes accordingly, in its earliest usage, mourning or sorrow ; as we learn from the united testimony of early cultl vation Ch. I. § 5, THE ELEGY. 1 7 the antient critics', confirmed by its own probable etymology.^ It is accordingly classed by some of the same authorities, though not with strict propriety, as identical with Threnus. The threnus Avas the dirge, or funeral lament, sung over the corpse, or during the funeral solemnity. The elegy was the more permanent tribute of mournful respect to tlte memory of the deceased, recording his own virtues with the regrets of his friends, and commonly en- graved on his monument. So peculiarly Avas the elegiac measure, in the subsequent stages of its cul- tivation, considered as proper to poems of a doleful tendency, that the name Elegy was extended, in vulgar use, even to those of a like character where a different metre was preferred. To this view, however, it has been objected^, that the extant elegiac compositions of' remote antiquity are for the most part in a style quite opposite to 1 Didym. ap. Etym. M. v. 'EXfyun ; Procl. Chrestom. p. 379. Gaisf.; Drac. Straton de Metr. p. 161. sq. ; conf. Aristoph. Av. 217. ; Eurip. Hel. 186., Ipliig. Taur. 146. alibi; alios ap. Frank. Callinus. ^ For the infinity of speculative, often very fanciful, hypotheses upon this point, see Frank. Callin. p. 42. alibi ; Welck. Der Elegos, Kleine Schr. vol. I. p. 63. ; Osann, Beytrage zur Gr. Literaturgesch. vol. i p. 11.; Ulrici, Gesch. der Hell. Dichtk. vol. ii. p. 101. sq.; Bode, Gescli. der Hell. Dichtk. vol. ii. p. 120. sqq. The most reasonable etymology appears to be that which connects the term with iXtog or dXyog, But even this connexion is obscure and doubtful. All that can safely be assumed is, that the word was originally of mournful import. ^ Frank. Call. p. 7. sqq., 36. sqq. ; conf. Ulrici, loc. sup. cit. The doc- trine of these authors, that the first application of the elegy to mournful purposes was not earlier than the time of Mimnermus, a century after Callinus, seems quite inconsistent with their admission, as above quoted, of the originally mournful signific^ation of the term. Equally groundless is the assumption of Frank, (p. 77.), that the phrase Elegos and its de- rivatives were first invented in the age of Simonides. The former term occurs a full generation earlier, in an epigram of J^cheinbrotus, a poet of the xLvith Olvmpiad. Pans. x. vii. 3. VOL. in. C 18 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. either the funebral or the epigrammatic, being chiefly martial or patriotic appeals, often of considerable length, addressed to the poet's fellow-citizens in times of public emergency. These poems, however, while possibly the oldest ascertained specimens of penta- meter style, cannot reasonably be assumed to re- present the taste or practice in which that style originated. The distinction between what may for- merly have existed, and what has been preserved to posterity, is one of essential importance in questions of this nature. The elegy, in the works of Callinus, Archilochus, and Tyrtaeus, its earliest professional votaries, already appears in an advanced state of cul- tivation, implying a long course of previous practice, and consequent modification of its primitive use. Their compositions stand to its first beginnings in the same relation as the Iliad and Odyssey to the ear- lier eftbrts of the Epic Muse. It were as reasonable to aro-ue, from the actual priority of the Iliad, that the first poem in hexameter verse was a finished epo- pee, as from the existing compositions of Callinus, admitting him to be the most antient author in this style, that the first elegy was a martial or political ode. For the great antiquity of the elegy, however, in its application to what has here been assumed to be its original object, appeal may be made to Archi- lochus, an author of the same age as Callinus, but of far more varied genius. The remains of the former poet, while exhibiting the measure in its adaptation to every variety of subject, plaintive, martial, and satirical, offer, together with several elegies of a funebral character, a general predominance of those of the epigrammatic order. ^ But, even did the works ' Ap. Bergk. Poctt. Lyr. Gr. p. 467. sqq. Ch. I. § .5. THE ELEGY. 19 of these earlier poets furnish no distinct proof of this presumed original destination of the measure, there remains another more competent source of illustration in the sepulcliral or votive dedications of the same aera. The existing relics of this class, though scanty in the ratio of their antiquity, yet form a more or less continuous series of evidence that, during this whole early period, from an epoch equal or little inferior to that of the poets above cited, the pentameter was the measure exclusively preferred in monumental inscrip- tions. The general rule is curiously confirmed by the exceptions, the few dedications where the hexameter verse occurs being confined, solely or chiefly, to such occasions as either possessed or pretended to an anti- quity prior to the age at which the elegiac measure is supposed to have come into popular use. Another in- direct proof of the essentially epigraphic character of the latter measure is the circumstance, that the only other compositions of a like brief or sententious na- ture emanating from the same period, the oracular responses, are with equal constancy couched in hexa- meters. This may be ascribed partly to a religious veneration for primeval custom, partly to the heroic measure being itself, in a poetical point of view, better suited to the dignity or sanctity of such edicts.^ ' Of the thirty or forty dedicatory epitaphs or epigrams given by Piuisanias, all are pentameters but three ; two of which (i. xxxvii., ix. xi.), as in honour of mythical heroes, are appropriately embodied in the hex- ameter measure. The only hexameter distich connected with the histo- rical age is that to Miltiades (vi. xix.). Of those in elegiac measure, four or five may belong to this early lyric period (iv. xxii., v. xxiv., IX. xxxviii., X. vii.). To these may be added the inscription of Orrhip- pus at Megara (Boeckh. Inscr. torn. i. p. 553.; Clint, ad 01. xv.). The oracles cited by Fausanias, on the other hand, about thirty in number, are all in hexameters, with the exception of one in iambics (iv. ix.). The c -2 masters. 20 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. Supposed G. There can be no reasonable doubt that the remote Lmr'prin- oHgln of the elegiac distich is lost, like that of the cipai hexameter verse, in the mists of antiquity. When, therefore, we find, according to the prevailing prac- tice of confounding the higher cultivation of an art with its invention, the merit of that invention variously ascribed in the present case to Callinus and Archi- lochus, the only real question of precedence must relate to the age of these authors, or of others of still greater antiquity, if such can be pointed out, from whom genuine specimens of this style of com- position have been transmitted. Both these poets flourished towards the close of the eighth or com- mencement of the seventh century b. c. They are by consequence so nearly contemporaneous, that the closer examination of their claims to priority, as of no material bearing on the history of elegiac poetry, will be reserved for the chapter on their personal history. The same measure was also cultivated in its primary epigrammatic form by Asius of Samos ^, an epic poet of uncertain age, but possessing claims, perhaps, to equal antiquity with either Callinus or Archilochus. Their younger contemporary, Tyrtaeus, was distin- guished still more than Callinus for its application same general rules apply, with rare exception if any, to similar speci- mens of these various orders of monumental or sacred literature pre- served by other compilers. The inscriptions on the Chest of Cypselus (Paus. v. xviii. sq.) are in hexameter verse ; but they are of a properly epic character. It is also probable that the age of this monument may be prior to the familiar use of the elegy. This latter remark applies further to the epigrams cited by Herodotus (v. lix. sq.) in the Ismeniaii sanctuary, whether ge- nuine or forgeries. ' A single epigram of Asius, alluding, it would seem, to Homer's fabulous father, Meles, has been preserved by Atheiia?us (iii. p. 125 v. ; cunf. Bergk. Poet. Lyr. p. 31.'?. Ch. I. § G. THE ELEGY. 21 to martial and political subjects. About the same period, certain of the earlier Greek musicians, Olym- pus, Clonas, Terpander, Sacadas, and others, are men- tioned as authors of elegies ; but it seems doubtful whether the term here applies to the pentameter mea- sure, or to the plaintive style of music with which that measure was originally connected.^ The next elegiac poet of any celebrity is Mimner- mus of Colophon, who flourished about the close of the seventh century B.C. To him belongs the credit of having greatly extended the use of the pentameter measure in the more plaintive style of amatory com- position, its adaptation to which constituted, in later times, its chief source of general popularity.^ Coeval with Mimnermus was Solon, in whose remains, and those of his contemporary Sages, are the first distinct traces of the gnomic or didactic elegy. This style was extensively cultivated in the latter half of the sixth century B.C. by Phocylides and Theognis. During the same period flourished Xenophanes of Colophon, Avho seems first to have employed the pentameter measure in prolonged narra- tive compositions ; and Simonides of Ceos, who, above all his predecessors, gave prominence and effect, as a cultivated branch of literature, to the strictly epi- grammatic style of elegiac poetry. ' Plut. de Mus. III. vm. ; Suid. v. "0/\j>/i7roc. It appears probable, from these passages and other sources referred to in p. 17. supra, that the term Elegos, in its origin, attached with equal, or perhaps greater, pro- priety to the melody than to the words of a composition. 2 Mimnermus was celebrated on this account by Ilermesianax ap. Athen. xiii. p. 597. sq. This passage, misinterpreted by later uncritical writers, obtained for the same poet, with those writers, in spite of the notoriously far higher antiquity of Callinus and Archilochus, the credit of first " inventor " of the elegiac measure. Conf. Frank, op. cit. p. 9. sqq. VOL. III. * c 3 22 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book HI. In the sequel of the Attic period, Antimachus of Co- lophon, an early contemporary of Plato, distinguished himself in the tender amorous elegy as an imitator or emulator of his fellow-citizen Mimnermus, by whom that st}le had been first carried to perfection. In the Alexandrian school, as among the Romans, both the joys and the sorrows of love supplied abundant and popular subjects for the elegy. With the poets of the latter nation this measure obtained a peculiar vogue, and was largely employed in compositions of an epic character. In the musical accompaniment of the pentameter distich, the flute, though not to the exclusion of the lyre, was the instrument preferred, as that which in every age was considered more immediately adapted to mournful composition. Accordingly, Mimnermus, the most popular author in the plaintive style of elegiac poetry, and various other early elegiac poets, are themselves described as skilful flute-players.^ This preference may perhaps be considered as in part a consequence of the Ionian origin of the elegy, the taste for wind-instruments among the Greeks being confessedly derived from Asia. Among the Lydians of the coast on which the Ionian colonies were esta- blished, the flute was extensively used in martial as well as mournful music.^ Hence, as the earliest resfu- lar odes of the elegiac order, those of the Ionian Cal- linus, are of a martial tendency, the preference of the flute by the Greeks, as the accompaniment of the Elegy, the more naturally suggested itself. How far elegiac poems were at any time regularly set to music, how ' Pausan. x. vii. 3. ; Echembrot. ap. eund. ; Plut. de Mus. iii. viii. alibi; Ilermesian. ap. Athen. xiii. p. 597. sq. ; Suid. v. Tvjtraiot:; Tbeogn. (Gaisf.) 532. 1052. alibi. "^ Ilerodot. i. xvii. ; conf. Athen. xiv. p. G27. Ch. I. § 7. THE IAMBUS. 23 far merely attuned to harmonious chords hke the epic recitative, would probably depend, much on the nature of their subject. The more it partook of a continuous narrative character, the more appropri- ate the simpler style of accompaniment ; the nearer " the approach to the pure lyric, the more artificial would be the style of music preferred. The poems of Mimnermus, where the lyric character predominates more than in those of any previous author, are stated, accordingly, to have been set to music. ^ To the more dignified martial and political addresses of Callinus or Tyrta3us, a graver recitative tone might seem bet- ter adapted ; while the elegies of Solon, Periander, Xenophanes, and Phocylides, where the gnomic or didactic style predominated, are expressly said not to have been musically arranged.^ 7. The invention of the Iambus, the rival of the iambic potftvy. Elegy in antiquity and early popularity, was familiarly ascribed by the antients, as was that of so many other metrical forms, to Archilochus.^ In the ]\Iargites, ' Plut. de Mus. VIII. ; Chamael. ap. Athen. xiv. p. 620. ^ Athen. xiv. p. 632. In the older vocabulary of the poetical art (Solon, frg. xvi. 2. Gaisf. alibi; conf. Herodot. v.cxiii.), and indeed during every subsequent age of literature (conf. Frank. Callin. p. 77. sqq), the more familiar title of poems of any length, either in pentameter or hexameter measure, was tvrt], or " lines ; " obviously with reference to that continuity of style which distinguishes each order of composition, in its relative degree, from the more properly melic branches of lyric art. The plural formation Tci iXtyela, denoting, like tXtyfin, an elegiac poem, originates in this usage, eTTi] being understood. The term t-n-i) was also occasionally apj^lied, on similar grounds, to iambic, trochaic, and other compositions marked by a like continuity of metrical succession (Bekk. Anecd. p. 751.; Dionys. Hal. de Comp. verb. xxvi.). Hence, in later times, the works of Archilo- chus, Simonides the elder, Tyrtseus, and Phocylides, are said to have been " rhapsodised" occasionally, along with the properly epic j)oems of Hesiod and Homer. Flat. Ion. p. 530, 531. ; Athen. xiv. p. 620. ^ Plut. de Mus. XXVIII.; Clem. Alex. Stromat. p. 308.; Ilorat. de Art. Poet. 79. c 4 24 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book II however, a poem of very early date, and assigned by Aristotle to Homer himself, iambic verses were inter- spersed with heroic hexameters.^ It must be pre- sumed, therefore, either that the respectable authors who attribute the invention of the former measure to Archilochus differed from Aristotle as to the ge- nuine antiquity of the Margites, or that the term Invention, as here applied by them, relates merely to the regular poem of continuous trimeters, to which, in popular usage, the phrase Iambic measure was appropriated, ciiarac- But the naturc and spirit of the Iambus, still more theianyc perhaps than of the Elegy, entitle us to look, for its rhythm. -fj^g^ beginnings at least, to the spontaneous effort of tlie primitive Muse, rather than to the artifice of a politer age. The component elements of the elegy were contained in the old hexameter. It might very naturally occur, therefore, to an ingenious master of later times to invent a new form to suit a new pur- pose, by curtailing two syllables of every alternate verse ; for such, in fact, is the whole amount of change in the mechanical structure of the measure. The iambus, on the other hand, bears, perhaps above all other metres, in its very essence, the stamp of popular orio;in. It is, as Aristotle^ and other antient critics have pointedly remarked, the metre of familiar dis- course. Hence, as the same critics observe, the frequency of its spontaneous occurrence in prose compositions, the justice of which remark may be easily verified by the test of experiment. The mea- sure suggested itself instinctively, therefore, to pri- mitive genius, in any attempt to impart to the poetical ' Supra, B. ii.Ch.xx. § IG. - Rhetor, iii. i., Poetic, yxiv. ; conf. p. 9. ed. Graf'enli. ; Hermogen. de Form. Orat. ed. Laur. p. 263. Cu. I. § 7. THE IAMBUS. 25 treatment of a subject, not so much dignity or solemnity, as emphatic pungency and smartness. This view, together with the remote mythical anti- quity of the iambic measure, is supported in the tra- dition of the Homeric Hymn to Ceres ^ by what is probably the earliest extant vestige of the name, the title of the Eleusinian nymph lambe, who contributes, by her jibes and drolleries, to dissipate the grief of the goddess for her lost daughter. A popular cere- mony of the rites of Ceres, both at Eleusis and else- where, were sallies of bantering and raillery, directed b}' the assembled crowd against each other or the passers by, during the procession.'^ lambe is the my- thical type both of this ceremony and of the mode in which it was performed. A similar custom prevailed in the kindred worship of Bacchus, combined with a still more decided dramatic ingredient, which after- wards ripened, under the auspices of Thespis and Susarion, into the regular Attic tragedy and co- medy. So naturally, indeed, in the opinion of tlie antient critics, did the iambic measure suggest itself as the weapon of satirical attack, that both Horace and Ovid suppose its imputed invention by Archi- lochus to have been for the special convenience of his biting pasquinades.^ In its further cultivation, however, the iambus, or Early cui- rather the iambic trimeter, for in that form alone is its full excellence displayed, not only embraces, like ' Verse 195. ; conf. Gaisf. Heph. p. 157. sq. ; Procl. Chrestom. p. 379. Gaisf. ; Welck, Archilochos, KI. Schr. vol. i. p. 78. The words lambe, Iambus, are derived apparently from unmo (la'/iw, i'a7i/iai), to provoke, ha- rass, rail; by the same analogy as XaVf^w or Xaijjidi'w, from Aj/Vtw, Aa'/Sw. ^ Apollodonis, I. V. 3- ; conf. Heyn. Obs. ad loe. ; Aristoph. Kan. 384. sqq. ; Benll. Opuscc. p. 312. •' Licbel, fra^m. Aruhil. p. 26. tivation. 26 EAIiLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. the elegy, the treatment of every variety of subject, but, as possessmg, in a degree little short of the hex- ameter, the x^rinciple of continuity which is wanting in the elegy, is qualified to treat those subjects with similar, if not the same, ease, amplitude, and dig- nity as the hexameter itself. The essential property of the iambic foot, consisting of one short and one long syllable, so as to commence with the weaker and terminate smartly in the stronger element, may be de- fined as a union of simplicity and emphasis. These primary elements again, through the ordinary expe- dients of Greek metrical art, solution, common syllable, and the like, admit, without any actual violation of their own fundamental attributes, the variety of effect derivable from an interspersion of trochaic, dactylic, spondaic, or anapaestic forms. Still, however, the ex- cellence of the measure, even in its complete adapta- tion to the drama, shines forth less in the flowing discourse or narrative, than in its own original proper class of subjects, lively conversation, pungent satire, or smart repartee. An oration of ^schylus, with all its rhetorical pomp and elevation, falls far short, in true poetical grandeur, of the higher eloquence of the Iliad. The perfection of iambic versification is the text of Aristophanes, where it will ever remain un- surpassed and unrivalled in variety and brilliancy of dramatic effect. The honour of the first invention, or, in other words, higher cultivation, of the iambic measure, while usually awarded to Archilochus, was disputed in some quarters in favour of the elder Simonides, author of the most antient extant iambic poem of any considerable length. The point is of little im- portance as affecting either the history of this style Ch. I. §8. MELIC ORDERS OF COMPOSITION. 27 of composition, or the credit of the two poets, both having adapted it to satirical purposes, and having been contemporary with each other. If we except these two authors and Solon, who was partial to the iambic trimeter, the measure seems to have been com- paratively little popular during this period, owing, perhaps, to its being less well adapted than other rhythmical forms to the melic or pure lyric order of performance, now so greatly in the ascendant. The iambic compositions of Solon, consisting chiefly of addresses to the Athenian public in vindication of his own political conduct, or reflecting upon that of his fellow-citizens, appear from the extant specimens to have partaken at times much of the character of speeches in the mouth of a hero of Euripides, afford- ing a foretaste, as it were, of the style of the tragic dialogue. In the arrangement of the iambic trimeter to music, the same general rule seems to have been observed as in the case of the elegy. Where the melic element prevailed, as in the jocund sallies of festive revelry, a properly musical accompaniment might be preferred ; where the composition was of a graver character, or more continuous tenor, the simple recitative would suffice. This view seems in some measure confirmed by the statement of Plutarch, that the iambic odes of Archilochus, the standard master of this branch of art, were partly sung, partly recited to the harp, and that their author had himself prescribed rules for the allotment to each of its appropriate style of ac- companiment.^ 8. The two branches of composition above treated, ^^'^•'^ the elegiac and iambic, while both apparently of lyiic com- position. ' riutarcli. lie Mus. xxviii. ; conl'. Luciiai. de Saltu, xxvii. 28 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. Ionian origin, form, as already observed, an inter- mediate stage between the epic or heroic and the purely lyric stjde, and might thus be conjointly characterised as the Epico-lyric, in contradistinction to the melic or choral orders of poetry, where a more vital connexion with the sister art of music was maintained. The precocity of Ionian inventive ge- nius is, however, similarly exemplified in these more refined and complicated styles of lyric performance, to which attention will now more immediately be directed. Although the strictly musical element of lyric poetry appears to be chiefly of JEolian origin, a priority in respect to the culture and extension of its literary element is, by a preponderance of antient testimony \ awarded to the same Ionian Archilochus so distinguished by his services in ex- tending and adorning the elegiac and iambic branches of art. Certain it is, that in the works of this re- markable man a number even of the more delicate varieties of melic rhythm appear in an advanced state of maturity. Among these, the Trochaic, while capable in its lighter combinations of the liveliest musical effect, may, in its more prolonged tetrameter form, be classed along with the elegy and iambic trimeter, as another intermediate stage between the epic and lyric styles. It offers, in fact, a counterpart to the iambic trimeter, as well in the equal division and regular progression of its numbers, and its consequent, though less complete, adaptation to continuous re- cital, as in the general spirit of its poetical expres- sion. The iambic foot, rising from the short to the long syllable, possesses a vigour and emphasis fa- ' Sec the authorities collected hy Licbel, fragm. Archilochi, p. 27. sqq. Ch. I. § 8. MELIC ORDERS OF COMPOSITION. 29 vourable to smart invective or keen expostulation ; the trochee, subsiding from the long to the short, has a more rapid but comparatively smooth and equa- ble progression, suited rather to persuasive appeal, querulous complaint, or even dignified declamation.^ Hence its names of Trochseus, the runner, or Cho- raeus, the dancer, from its adaptation to the more airy motions of the dance. The Anapaest, the converse of the dactyl, and another imputed discovery of Archi- lochus, is an extension of the time and rhythm of the iambus, enhancing the rhetorical power of that mea- sure from emphasis to impetuosity, but forfeiting much of its narrative or conversational spirit. To the same poet were also ascribed the Choriambic and Pgeonic, with various more complicated metres arising from the combination of those already de- scribed with each other or with the elementary forms in which they originated, and adapted to correspond- ing varieties of poetical expression.^ The term Invention, as applied to the earliest ascertained use of these varied metres, may, in some cases safely be taken in a literal sense. Not only were many of them dependant on a parallel improve- ment of the art of music, but their arrangement seems to imply a more forward stage of literary cul- ture, and a more copious stock of technical resources than was required for the earlier recitative branches of composition. Still, however, it is not likely that any art, in the ordinary course of things, can have reached at a single step the stage in which lyric rhythm appears in the works of Archilochus. It may ' Hermogen. de Form. Orat. ii. p. 383. ed. Laurent. * Liebel, op. cit. p. 30. sq(j. 30 EARLY PIISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. reasonably, with all respect for the brilliant genius of that author, be assumed in his case, as in that of Homer and the epopee, that many zealous labourers had preceded him in the same field, but that their productions, whether from their own slender claims to permanent popularity, or from the slowness of the public to appreciate those claims, had not been pre- served. There can, indeed, be little doubt that even in the very infancy of society, among all poetically gifted nations, popular songs admitted of a variety of metrical forms suited to their variety of subject; and that in Greece, consequently, even in the days of Homer, there must have existed for the lighter orders of composition livelier systems of versification than the dactylic hexameter, or even the elegy and iambus. The same rule holds good in modern literature. ]\Iany of the lyric stanzas which now charm in the page of Dryden or Gray existed in substance, in the popular ballad minstrelsy, long before the more dignified epic measure was improved by Chaucer, or carried to perfection by Milton. In every age, however, the nobler orders of poetry, as more immediately con- nected with objects of public or national interest, naturally take precedence, in polite cultivation, of those of a lighter more familiar character ; and it is the epoch of that cultivation which, in any such case, can alone or chiefly supply tangible material for cri- tical commentary. Origin of 9. It has already been remarked, that, while any 'trv''VhT technical analysis of the Greek art of music would Nome. here be out of place, the elementary history of mu- sical composition must enter to a greater or less de- gree into tlie history of Greek Ij^ric poetry, owing to the vital connexion between the two arts, especially Ch. I. §9. POET-MUSICIANS. THE NOME. 31 during their earlier stages. All the authentic no- tices of the origin and early progress of the more refined branches of lyric composition revolve, in fact, around the names and performances of the primitive improvers of the science of music. To the efibrts of these personages, consequently, in the joint field of invention, a reasonable share of the present chapter will be allotted. With the notices of their labours will also be combined the few particulars of their per- sonal history which have been recorded. This arrange- ment will here be preferable, on various accounts, to that of reserving such biographical details for sepa- rate treatment ; the method which, for equally valid reasons, has been adopted in regard to contemporary authors of the strictly poetical order. Scarcely one of those celebrated patriarchs of the art of music, while all, probably, to a certain extent poets, ap- pears to have possessed claims to higher distinction on the ground of his poetical, apart from his musical, talents.^ Nor, indeed, is there any one of them of whose personal affairs the extant notices are such as to supply material for a separate memoir. The views of the leading antient authorities relative to the early progress of the combined arts have been preserved in the Treatise on Music which passes cur- rent under the name of Plutarch. This tract is more remarkable for learning than method or precision. The object of its author was less to promulgate any definite system of his own, than to embody an abstract of the doctrines of the older wTiters on the subject. His authorities, accordingly, while agreeing generally in fundamental matters, are often much at variance ' Of Terpander alone have any fragments, amounting to but eio^ht verses, been preserved. 32 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. in details ; nor has any serious effort been made by the compiler to reconcile their discrepancies. The greater indulgence, therefore, is due to the following attempt, by a collation of his best accredited and most consistent data, to place before the reader, in as distinct a form as the case will admit, the substance of the information which they supply.^ The clearest insight into the earlier stages of pure melic art is afforded by the extant notices of that pri- mitive order of poetico-musical performance called Nome. This term, by reference to its etymology, denotes any thing " set apart " or " appropriated." In its application to the arts of music or poetry it ad- mits of a twofold interpretation, as signifying either a poem or ode set to a musical air, or a piece of music arranged to the words of a poetical text.^ The foundation of Plutarch's treatise is a distinction be- tween the recitative and the lyric element in the works of the old epic poets. Under the head of Lyric he classes the hymn, the threnus or lament, the cho- rus, the convivial song ; illustrating his doctrine by the Hymn of Mars and Venus, and other parallel portions of Homer's poems. ^ Such compositions, he remarks, were not merely chanted or recited, like the ordinary epic narrative, at the free discretion of the poet, but were arranged to a nome or piece of music specially adapted to their respective characters. The existence of some such distinction seems, indeed, ' The reader is further referred to the ingenious commentary of Burette, in the 10th vol. of the Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscr. * In this primitive sense the term seems to be used in the Homeric hymn to Apoll. Del. 20. vo'/ioi 7r. ^ Hellaniciis et Sosibius ap. Athen. xiv. p. 635. ; conf. Plut. de Mus. IX.; Clint. Fast. Hell. vol. i. pp. 187. 20L The notice of the Parian Chronicle, which brings down the first promulgation of Terpander's Ch. I. § 10. CITHARCEDIC NOMES. TERPANDER. 39 considered as a generation younger than Olympus, and nearly coeval with Archilochus. Sparta was, at this early period, the state in which musical art was cultivated with the greatest zeal. Her citizens were in the habit of engaging the services of the ablest professors from every part of Hellas. Here, accord- ingly, the leading improvements of Terpander were matured and promulgated. Terpander's connexion with Lacedsemon is said to have originated in an invitation by the Spartan rulers to visit their city during a period of intestine dis- cord. This step was taken by them in obedience to an injunction of the Delphic priestess, by whom the Lesbian musician had been pointed out as the des- tined means of reconciling the hostile factions. Such is said to have been the effect of his music on those reputed men of iron, that the contending parties, dis- solved in tears, embraced each other, and buried all previous differences in oblivion.^ Fixing his abode in the city, he fulfilled, during the remainder of his life, the functions of state poet and musician, amid new system of music at Sparta as late as 644 b c, is strangely at variance with the account of his triumph in the Spartan Carnea in the first year of their institution, thirty years before. It is certainly far more probable that the introduction of his improvements should have been, if not ante- rior, simultaneous at least with the institution, under his own auspices, of the national festival where they were publicly sanctioned and reduced to practice. See Appendix B. Nor is there the least notice of any funda- mental change in the Spartan system of music after the institution of the Carnea. The date of the chronicle is also, it need hardly be added, repugnant to the received tradition, which describes the revolution effected by Terpander In the musical art and taste of Laceda?mon as simultaneous with his first settlement in the country, not as a work of his old age, after more than thirty years' service as state musician. 1 Stesich. ap. Phllodam. de Mus. Voll. Hercul. l p. 81. 91. sq. ; Sappho, frg. Lii. Galsf., LXix. Neue ; Aristot. ap. Eustath. ad II. ix. 129. ; Diod. SIcul. ap. Tzetz. Chil, i. 16. ; Plut. de Mus. xlii. ; Gaisf. Paroem. Gr. p. 74. ^41. ; Apostol. v. iurd \i<7^iov <^f6v. D 4 40 EAKLY IIISTOKY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. universal admiration and esteem. After his death his memory was revered, and his compositions esteemed as models to all succeeding professors of citharcedic art. His system continued to flourish chiefly under Lesbian masters, both at Lacedsemon and elsewhere, up to the time of his countryman Phrynis^, whose in- novations, about the period of the Persian war, were considered as corruptions of the " genuine Hellenic music." ^ Terpander, besides his victory in the Carnea, conquered four times in the Pythian festival^, at that time apparently the only one of the great Panhellenic solemnities of which competitions in lyric poetry formed a part. Great as was Terpander's fame as an original genius, his merits would yet appear, from the more authentic notices, to have consisted less in actual discovery, than in the adaptation to Greek tastes and habits of refinements of art already familiar to the cultivated nations of Asia. The most celebrated novelty for which he obtained credit was the invention of the seven-stringed lyre'*, by the addition of three chords to the old tetrachord instrument. This, however, cannot be considered, nor has it been so understood by the more critical even of his own countrymen, as indicatino; the first actual construction of a strino;ed instrument with the compass of an octave. There can be no doubt that the more civilised nations of Asia possessed, before his time, instruments of equal or greater compass ; and Terpander is stated, on no less authority than that of Pindar, to have founded ' Plut. de Mus. VI. "^ Aristoph. Nub. 971.; Procl. Chrestom. p. 382. Gaisf. ; Suid. et Hesych. V. AfTi3(oc cfror. 3 Plut. de Mus. iv. * Fragm. Terpand. i. ap. Schneidewin, Del. Poes. Gr. p. 237. ; Plut. de Mus. XXX. Ch. I. §10. CITHARCEDIC NOMES. TERPANDER. 41 his improvements of the Greek cithara on a Lydian instrument of two octaves, called magadis, which, under the Greek name of pectis or barbiton, he had also the merit of first introducing into Europe.^ Terpander is also the accredited "inventor" of the art of writing music^ ; and there can be little doubt of his having possessed a system of notation forming the basis of that still in use. Here aa:ain, however, his services are probably to be understood rather in the way of adaptation to native Greek practice than of original discovery. It is difficult to believe that Olympus could not only have carried his branch of art to so high a degree of excellence, but have suc- ceeded in transmitting his many elaborate composi- tions to posterity, without the aid of some such expedient. Consistently with his preference of the lyre as the favourite instrument of the old Heroic ^luse, Ter- pander, even in its adaptation to melic poetry, showed a partialit}^ for the antient rhythmical forms. His nomes were chiefly in hexameter verse, and the Avords of manv of them are described, not as his own com- position, but portions of the Homeric poems arranged by him to a lyric accompaniment. He was, however, also the author of original poems, though apparently few in number, and with a preference here also for the hexameter or other co":nate ^ metres. Of these 1 Boeckh. de Metr. Find. p. 261. ; Frag. Find. 9. ; Athen. xiv. p. 635. ; Flutarch (De M. xviii.) also describes him, while adding compass to his native lyre, as reducing or curtailing the superabundant strings (jTfpiiiXirriv Tro\vxop?i(iv) of the Asiatic instruments; for of these instru- ments, obviously, the notice must be understood. ^ Plut. de M. III.; Clem. Alex. Str. i. p. 308.; Boeckh. de M. Find. p. 245. ^ Ap. Plutarch, de Mus. iii., who also (iv.) ascribes to him citharcedic profiemia in epic measure, probably hymns to Apollo, similar to the 42 EAKLY HISTORY OE LYRIC POETRY. Book III. poems several fragments still remain. One is a por- tion of a hymn or nome to Jupiter, in spondaic mea- sure \ and marked by both grandeur of conception and harmony of numbers. Of the four pure hexa- meters which have been preserved, two^, recording, in somewhat boastful terms, his substitution of the seven-stringed for the four-stringed lyre, are a less favourable sample of his style. Far superior are two others^, imitated by Pindar, in honour of the com- bined musical and military genius of Sparta. Pindar's assignment to Terpander of the "invention" of the Scolion, or Greek convivial Catch'*, can hardly be un- derstood as referring to any thing more than im- provements in the style or musical accompaniment of that entertainment. Other 1 1 . The next in celebrity among these early im- muskfairs.' provers of Greek melic art is Thaletas, a native of Thaietas. Gortys lu Crete ^, and attracted, like Terpander, to Sparta, as the central seat of musical culture. Like Terpander, also, he possesses claims to mythical anti- quity, but his probable epoch may be placed about a generation subsequent to the Lesbian musician. His chief merit consisted in his application of Ter- pander's system to the martial and orchestic branches of Spartan state ceremonial, as founder, in the year 665 B.C., of the second of the two great Lacedae- monian musical festivals, that of the Gymnopaedia^; Delian Hymn in the Homeric collection. See supra, Ch. xx. § 3. The second fragment in Schneidewin's collection seems to have belonged to one of these compositions. Conf. Procl. Chrest. Gaisf. p. 382. ^ Frg. IV. ap. Schneidewin, Delect. Poes. Gr. ^ Frg. I. ^ Frg. iii. ; conf. Pint. Lycurg. xxi. ^ Pint, de M. xxviii. ^ Polymnest. ap. Pausan. i. xiv. 3. f" Plut. de M. IX. X. He must not be confounded with another earlier, perhaps mythical, Thales or Thaletas, who acts as coadjutor of Lycurgus Ch. I. §11. POET-MUSICIANS. THALETAS. 43 Terpander being still more renowned as the author of the first, or Carnea. Of the younger solemnity the war-dance formed the leading feature, and it was distinguished generally by its athletic character from the graver more dignified Carnea.^ The pyr- rhic, and other dances chiefly preferred in the Gym- nopsedia, were held, like the author of the ceremony, to be of Cretan origin. The personal history of Thaletas is, in its details, little more than a counterpart of that of Terpander, and may accordingly be considered as somewhat apocryphal. By the power of his music he allayed a pestilence which ravaged the city, and by his soothing influence repressed thefactious spirit of the inhabitants, and moulded their wills to the wise purposes of their rulers.^ His musical compositions are described as chiefly pagans or hyporchems^, both of which were connected with the rites of Apollo and with the po- pular exercise of the dance, and were nearly akin to each other. The poetical works ascribed to him were, accordingly, in pgeonic measure, and in honour of Apollo ; but no remains of them have been preserved. The originality of his productions was questioned by antient critics, some of whom stigmatised him as a plagiarist of Archilochus, others of Olympus. From the latter he is also said to have borrowed the mea- in his legislative labours. (Plut. in Lycurg. iv., Clinton, F. H. vol. i. pp. 1.59. 191. 201.) It Is, however, not easy to understand how Clinton, in the face of the authorities which he himself quotes, should have placed the genuine Thaletas, author of the second musical " Catastasis " of the Spartans, earlier than Terpander, the author of the first. See Appendix B. 1 Plut. de M. IX.; Athen. xv. p. 678. ; Schol. Find. Fyth. ii. 127. 2 Find. ap. Fhilod. de Mus. VoU. Hercul. i. pp. 81. 91. ; Fausan. i. xiv. 3.; Flut. de M. xlii. ; conf. INIiiller, Dor. vol. ir. p. 17. •^ Flut. de M. IX. ; Schol. Find. Fyth. ii. 127.; Ephor. ap. Strab. x. p. 480. 44 EARLY HISTORY OF LYRIC POETRY. Book III. Clonas. Xenoda- mus. Polymne- stus. sure called, probably from his own partiality for it, the Cretic.^ Nearly contemporary with Thaletas was Clonas^, another aulodic musician and poet of elegies and epic hymns, whom the Thebans of Boeotia and the Tegeans of Arcadia each claimed as their citizen. He shares with several other primitive artists the credit of having composed the celebrated trimelic or tripartite nome, so called from consisting of three parts or strophes, each in one of the three chief musi- cal modes or styles, Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian. In the arrangement of the Gymnoptedia, the name of Thaletas is associated^ by classical authorities with those of four other poet-musicians, Xenodamus of Cythere, Xenocritus of Locris, Polymnestus of Colophon, and Sacadas of Argos, all, like Thaletas himself, distinguished as performers on the flute or clarionet, the instruments preferred in the Gynmo- paedia. It is certain, however, that several of these artists belong to a much later epoch than Thaletas. The notice, therefore, of their joint services, in regard to the Gymnopsedia, must be understood to imply, not a simultaneous exercise of their talents, but their successive modifications or improvements of the solemnity, resulting in the form which it afterwards presented during the flourishing sera of the Spartan republic. Xenodamus of Cythere, the first on the list, is otherwise little known to fame. A hyporchem, how- ever, or gymnastic dance, ascribed to him, was ex- tant in later times. Polymnestus*, son of Meles of Colophon, was a contemporary, probably a disciple ' Piut. de M. X. ' riut. de M. IX. " riut. de M. 111. V. VIII. * riut. de M. III. IV. V. IX. Ch. I. §11. OTHER POET-MUSICIANS. 45 of Thaletas. He was employed by the Spartans to compose an ode or elegy in honour of that mu- sician \ and was similarly celebrated, in his turn, by Alcman and Pindar.- He may, by reference to the above data, be placed in the latter part of the seventh century b.c.^ His compositions are described as belonging chiefly to the class of nomes called Orthian, literally steep or straight, indicating the sustained elevation of their pitch.'* Several of his nomes bore in later times the distinctive title of Polymnestian. He was also considered the originator of various more or less important refinements of musical art.° Xenocritus of Locris ^ towards the close of the x seventh century B.C., and Sacadas of Argos in the early part of the sixth, attained a certain distinc- tion, both as poets and musicians, in a peculiar style of epico-lyric composition, apparently of Locrian origin, and which was carried to high perfection, about or shortly after the time of Sacadas, by Stesi- chorus of Himera. Hence, such notices as may be due to their character as poets will be more oppor- tunely introduced in connexion with the history of that more celebrated author." They will here be consi- dered but in their capacity of musicians. Xenocritus, a native of the Italian or Epizephyrian Locris, said to have been blind from his infancy, was celebrated for his paeans, and as originator of a Locrian school of music, distinguished for its elegance, but censured > Paus. I. xiv. 3. 2 piut_ jg jy^ y 3 Clint. Fast. Hell. vol. i. p. 191. * Plut. de M. IX. The pathetic power of the orthian nonie is evinced by its having been sung by Arion, .ns his own death dirge, before his plunge into the sea. Herodot. i. xxiii. ; conf Suid. v. ui)f)i Conf. Suid. V. kvkXiu. "^ Pollux, rv. 104. liTrorpox" npxovntvoi. 3 Ilerodot. v. 67.; Arlstot. Rhet. iii. 1.; Aristoph. ap. Athen. xir. p. 551., conf. XIV. p. 630.; Suid. vv. QiairiQ, et ovltv irpo,: rov Aiovvaov; Bocckh. Staatsh. der Ath. vol. ii. p. 362. sqq. ; Corp. Inscr. Gr. vol. i. p. 765. ; Welck. Nachtr. zur Tril. p. 239. sqq. * Dioscor. in Anthol. Pal. vii. ep. 410. ; Auctt. ap. Bentl. Opusc. p. 315. sq. ; Diomcd. Putsch, p. 484. * Ap. Welck. .Esch. Tril. p. 240. ; Bcntl. loc. cit. Ch.II. §8. DITHYRAMBIC TRAGCEDIA. 87 goat-like choristers who officiated.^ The name occurs frequently in connexion with the tragic choruses of Sicyon, at all periods a distinguished seat of Bacchic festivity, both musical and mimic. Among these Sicyonian rites the most remarkable is that familiarly know as the " Tragoedia of Epigenes,"^ which, though advancing extravagant claims to my- thical antiquity, was probably but a variety of the dithyramb of Arion. It is apparently the same " tragic chorus " mentioned by Herodotus ^ as having been diverted by the Sicyonians, at a very remote period, from the celebration of Dionysus to that of their national hero Adrastus, but restored again by Clisthenes (595 B.C.) to its proper subject. This text of Herodotus is the only passage of the antients where allusion occurs to a " tragic," in the now familiar use of the term, or in other words a mournful, ingredient as entering into tlic composition of the primitive Dorian mimes. It has hence been appealed to by several modern authors ■*, who, by a misconception it is ap- prehended of the original spirit of those entertain- ments, have assumed the term Tragoedia and its cognates, as applied by the antient critics to the dithyramb of Arion, to indicate even that solemnity to have been of a mournful or pathetic character. It were in itself a fallacious inference, that because the clioric mimes of Sicyon, when transferred by a capricious populace from the rites of Bacchus to those of Adrastus (a hero whose whole career was a series of afflicting incidents), had assumed a mournful charac- ' Etym. M. v. rpayificia. ^ Suid. W. OiiTTTic et ovSlv vpoQ Tov Aiovvaoi' ; Apostol. V. ovC>, tt. r. Aiovvaov ; conf. Gaisf. Paroem. Gr. p. 153. 356. ^ V. Ixvii. '*' Mlill. Hist of Gr. Lit. p. 290. ; conf. Smith's Diet, of Ant. art. Tragoedia. o 4 88 ORDERS OF LYRIC PERFORMANCE, Book III. ter, they must, in their original Dionysiac form, have been marked by similarly doleful features. Bacchus was indeed himself a sufferer as well as an actor in some of his numerous adventures ; which circumstance may possibly have suggested an occasional admixture of mimic distress, though probably in grotesque or burlesque form, in the compositions where those adventures were celebrated. But every thing leads to the belief that the proper characteristic of the Bacchic dithyramb, especially as remodelled by Arion, was, like that of the god and his worshippers, an exuberance of jovial excitement. The terms Tragedy and Tragic were, therefore, in the spirit of their early application to these histrionic goat-songs, nearly synonymous with drama and dramatic ; and are, in fact, pointedly described by the antient critics as common in this sense to both tragedy and comedy.^ When the same dramatic forms were transferred from Bacchus to the adventures of human heroes, whose destinies were marked by incidents of a really pathetic character, and dramatised exclusively by human actors, the tone of the performance natu- rally adapted itself to that of the subject. The term Tragic thus gradually acquired its now classical import, as distinguished from Comic, which, by a parallel train of association, was appropriated to the humorous branches of the same art. Transition 9. It wcrc forcigu to thc present subject, to ana- diTramb ^Y^^ ^^^ detail the successive stages of transition to Attic by which the dithyrambic tragedy was transformed into the regular drama of the Athenian theatre. The ' Aristot. ap. Ulrici, Gesch. rler Griech. Dichtk. vol. ii. p. 584. It is not easy, certainly, to imagine any thing really pathetic in thc per- formances of a chorus of Satyrs and Silcncs. Ch.1I. §9. TRANSITION TO ATTIC TRAGEDY. 89 following concise, and doubtless authentic, epitome of those stages by Aristotle \ with a very few illustra- tive remarks, will here suffice. *' Tragedy derives its origin from the exarchon of the dithyrambic chorus ; Comedy from the leader of the phallic chorus. The former branch of poetical art, after many changes, assumed its present character. yEschylus added a second actor to the single joer- former of old, transferring the more important func- tions of the solemnity from the chorus to the dialogue. Sophocles added a third actor with scenic decorations. The inferior class of subjects, with their Satyric mummeries, gave place to dignity and pomp ; and, instead of the trochaic measure, formerly preferred as best adapted to the melic and orchestic spirit of the dithyramb, the iambus was substituted, as that which most nearly corresponds to the tone and cadence of familiar dialogue."^ The earlier stages of alteration here indicated by Aristotle were, it may be presumed, first, the intro- duction of other subjects besides the adventures of Bacchus, and, as a probable and necessary conse- quence, the substitution in the chorus of a different class of actors for the Satyrs. Traces of such in- novations are already perceptible at Sicyon, in the transfer, as above mentioned, by Epigenes, of the honours of the tragic chorus from Bacchus to Adra- stus.^ The first step in the transition from exarchon 1 Poetic. IV. ; conf. nott. Graf, ad loc. ; Diog. Laert. iir. i. 34. Tauchn. 2 Conf. Rhetor, m. i., Poetic, iv. ; Cic. Orat. ed. Tauchn. p. 399. scjq. 3 Herodot. v. Ixvii. ; Suid. v. etmrig ; Suid. Phot, et Apostol. v. ovcev iTfjoQ rov Atovuffov ; Chama;!. ap. Apostol. ibid. ; Gaisf. Paroemiogr. Gr. p. 153. Bacchidas, an antiont poet of uncertain date (ap. Athen. xiv. p. 629.), boasts of having instituted "a chorus of men" for tlie Sicy- onians ; and Themistius, on these grounds, claims, in opposition to Ari- stotle, the first invention of " tragedy" for that people. (Orat. xxvii. ; 90 ORDERS OF LYRIC PERFORMANCE. Book III. to actor was the extension of the functions of the former from those of chief chorister to those of reci- tative poet, narrating the actions, rather than singing the praises, of the god or hero celebrated. Another step in advance would be to dramatise the main action by making the actor assume the person of the leading hero, and possibly, in succession, of one or more participators in his adventures; the histrionic effect being maintained by dialogue, from time to time, between the actor himself and the chorus. Such is the state to which the dithyrambic tragedy, when transferred to Attica, appears to have been brought by Thespis (535 B.C.), and in which it was delivered over by him to iEschylus and Phrynichus. In their hands the dramatic acquired that complete ascendant over the lyric element of the performance, which was maintained or extended in every subse- quent stage of its progress. Later Attic Not long after the extension given to the dramatic dithyramb, (.jgj^gjj^ ^^f ^^g Corinthiau dithyramb in the Attic Dionysiaca, an important modification of its lyric element was effected (503 B.C.) by Lasus of Her- mione^, Pindar's master in the art of music. By Lasus, as by Thespis, a chorus of men was substitu- ted for Arion's chorus of Satyrs ; and the subjects of celebration were extended from the adventures of Bacchus to those of other mythological personages. Greater variety, ^vith a higher degree of refinement, was also imparted to the melic style of the perfor- mance, both in respect to rhythm and melody; a conf. Herm. ad Aristot. Poet, iii.) Others claim a similar precedence for them in respect to comedy. (Onestes ap. Brunck. Anal. vol. ii. p. 289.) ' Suid. V. Auffoc ; Schol. Aristoph. Av. 1403. ; Clem. Alex. Str. i. p. 308. ; Plut. de Mus. XXIX. ; conf. Smith, Diction, of Biogr. Art. Lasus. Ch.il §9. LYRIC TRAGEDY. 91 variety which, in the subsequent vicissitudes of the " Attic dithyramb," as that of Lasus was familiarly called, degenerated into a license reprehended by the best native critics as a complete subversion of the fundamental principles of the pure Hellenic mu- sic.^ The old Cyclian chorus of Arion appears, in the course of these vicissitudes, after the innovations of Thespis and Lasus, to have forfeited its separate existence, and to have been entirely merged in its more dignified or more elegant offspring. No trace, at least, appears of Satyric performance, in the strict sense of the term, in the cultivated dithyrambic cho- rus of the Attic, or of any subsequent period. Even after the final transformation of the dithy- Lyric rambic into the Attic " Tragedy," and the appro- ^'■*°^'^^* priation by the latter of the antient common title in familiar usage, certain dithyrambic varieties of lyric composition continued, at least in local prac- tice, to bear the title of Tragic chorus, or even of Tragcedia, in the pristine Dionysiac sense. The tragic choruses or tragic dramas of Pindar, Simonides, and other contemporary poets of the early Attic period, though sometimes classed by antient bibliographers under a separate head, were evidently mere varieties of the Attic dithyramb.^ Similar, doubtless, in great part, were the tragic choruses, which continued to be performed in the Orchomenian festivity of the Charitesia up to a late period of the Roman empire.^ ^ Plut. de Mus. XXX. sqq. ; Dion. Hal. de Comp. v. xix. ; Aristoph, et Callim. ap. Suid. v. kvkXwi re x°P^'- ^ Suid. vv. JlivS. et Si/zwj'i'ojjc ; Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 1402.; Aristoph. ap. Athen. xii. p. 55 L ; conf. Welck. Nachtr. zur Trilog. p. 243. sqq. Boeckh (Frag. Pind. p. 555. sqq.) has, however, without sufficient reason it is apprehended, ranged them under the head of Ilyporchems. ^ Boeckh. Staatshaush. Ath. vol. ii. p. 362. ; conf. Corp. Inscr. Gr. vol. 1. p. 765. sqq. ; Welck. op. sup. cit. 92 ORDERS OF LYRIC PERFORMANCE. Book III. There may thus be distinguished three stages or epochs of the cultivated dithyrambic ode or chorus : first, the primitive Song of Bacchus, or Dionysiac Pa3an ; secondly, the Satyric dithyramb of Arion ; thirdly, the Dithyramb of Lasus, also called the Attic Dithyramb, under its numerous modifications or corruptions, any further remarks on which belong to a future stage of this history. LYRIC COMEDY. Lyric 10. A small share of attention must still be de- comedy. yQ^g^ ^o that otlicr inferior order of Dionysiac ritual, which, while scarcely ever assuming the rank of a cultivated style of lyric art, possesses importance, as standing to the classical comedy of Attica in the same relation as the dithyramb of Arion to her tragedy. Certain varieties of this branch of enter- tainment have already been noticed as embodied by Arion in the mimic department of his ceremonial. The one which seems to have enjoyed the most general popularity as a public and authorised rite was that entitled Phallica, to which, accordingly, Aristotle traces the origin of the regular comedy, as he does that of tragedy to the Cyclian chorus of Arion. The Phallica was but an inferior style of dithyrambic tragcEdia, or goat-song, in the pristine sense of the term, with mimic dance and Satyric chorus. The Dorians advanced an equal claim to priority of invention in regard to this as to the higher department of dramatic art, and apparently on equally valid grounds. Besides the general ar- gument based on their partiality for mimic repre- sentation, appeal was made by them to the popular etymology of the term Comoedia, " song of the village Ch. II. § 10. LYRIC COMEDY. SATYRIC DRAMA. 93 or Come." Such diversions, it was urged \ were limited, in their origin, to the rustic population. Hence, as Come was the proper Doric term for vil- lage or rural district among the Dorians (Demus being that used in Attica), the phrase Comoedia, and by consequence the thing it signified, must, it was argued, be assigned a Doric origin. It seems, how- ever, very doubtful whether the god Comus, presiding, as he certainly did, over an extensive range of popular festivity, may not have a stronger claim on the first portion of the word, than any of the localities where the comoedia was celebrated. A better argument on the Dorian side is the fact that Susarion 2, author of the first decided step towards the regular Attic comedy, was a native of the Dorian town of Megara, settled at Icaria in Attica. Megara was from an early period distinguished for a species of low comedy, or farce, the taste for which was imported by Su- sarion into the Attic demus above mentioned, itself a principal seat of the Athenian Dionysiaca, where he obtained for himself and for his mimes a permanent domicile. As he preceded Thespis by about forty years, the origin of the cultivated comedy of Athens must be held to have anticipated that of her tragedy. Both having been produced in Icaria, it were unrea- sonable to doubt the influence of the one upon the other, or, by consequence, that the improvement of the Megarian comcedia by Susarion gave the initiative to that of the Corinthian tragoedia by Thespis. To Pratinas, another Dorian musician of the age '.Satyr," of ^schylus and Sophocles, belongs the credit of "^ ^^^^'''^ ^ drama. ^ Ap. Aristot. Poet. in. (Griif.) ^ Clcin. Alex. Strom, i. p. 308.; Bekk. Anecd. Gr. p. 748.; conf. Bcutl. Opusc. p. '260. sqq. ; Miill. Dor. vol. 11. p. 350, sq. 94 ORDERS OF LYRIC PERFORMANCE. Book III. having not long after introduced into Attica from his native city Phlius\ also celebrated for its mimes, the remaining variety of the Athenian drama, under its previous local title of " Satyr," and at first with no substantial alteration of its originally grotesque character. For the refinement which entitled it to a place by the side of the regular tragedy and comedy on the Attic stage, it appears to have been indebted partly to Pratinas himself, partly, like the sister branches of Dorian art, to the great contemporary Attic masters.^ THRENUS. EPICEDIUM. SONG OF LINUS. Threnus. n^ ^lie tcrm Threnus denotes, in its origin, any Epicedia. . ^ -, • i i n- species of lamentation, more properly the dirge or lament for the death of kinsmen or dear friends. In later usage, the title became nearly equivalent to the more familiar one of Elegy. When sung over the corpse at its laying out or entombment, the threnus acquired the distinctive name of Epicediuin, or funeral song ^ The only two occasions on which the threnus is mentioned by Homer were of the latter description. The dirge chanted in the Iliad over the body of Hector is a most impressive solemnity. After a prelude by the bards or professional musicians, the near rela- tives, standing round the bier, offer in succession their tribute of sorrow for the fate, and eulogy of the virtues, of the departed hero ; while the attendant female mourners respond at intervals by their groans and tears. ' Suid. V. UfjaT.; Pausan. ii. xiii. 5,; Dioscorid. in Anthol. Pal. vir. ep. 37. 707. ; conf. Mull. Dor. vol. n. p. 369. '^ Dioscorid. locc. sup. citt. ' Procl. Chrest. p. 385. Gaisf. ; Etym. M. v. Opiiroc ; Tryph. ap. Am- mon. V. iniK^ctiov Ch.II. §11. THRENUS. SONG OF LINUS. 95 There are few branches of lyric composition with Song of stronger claims to early cultivation than the Threnus. Grief for the loss of the objects which chiefly render life valuable must be, in all ages, a fertile source of poetical inspiration. The origin of the threnus, accordingly, is traced back to the remote fabulous ages of Greek art. It is there identified in mythical legend with the name and fate of a primitive hero or demigod called Linus. ^ This mysterious personage appears in two capacities. In the one he is the emblem of that vanity and uncertainty of mundane existence from which the threnus derives its subjects of celebration ; he is the type, more especially, of the ephemeral tenure of health, youth, or beauty, liable to be suddenly blighted or cut off by disease, decay, or death. Hence he is figured in the most elegant, if not the earliest, version of the fable as a beautiful boy, or youth under age, prematurely slain by the weapon of some invidious deity, usually Apollo the Destroyer, whose afiiictive dispensations are figured as chiefly directed against such victims. It was natural that the personification of a branch of art should himself become a minstrel ; and, in this second character, Linus is slain by Phoibus, from jealousy of his musical skill. ^ Hence, again, a third signification of the term, as denoting a popular song, celebrating the youthful bard, and which became the type or eponyme of this whole threnetic order of poetical com- position. Several remnants of this plaintive Linus- song have been preserved.^ 1 Plut. dc IMus. III. ; conf. Welclc. lib. den Linos, KI. Solnift. vol. i. p. 8. sqq. 2 Paus. IX. xxix. 3.; Philooh. ap. Eust. ad 11. xviir. 570. p. 1163. 3 Ap. Bcrgk. Poctt. lyrr. Gr. p. 878. sq. ; oonf. infrn, § 1!). VOL. in. * G 8 96 ORDERS OF LYRIC TERFORMANCE. Book III. It is remarlvablc that the " Song of Linus " wns from an early period closely associated with agricul- tural life, as the popular chant of the wine-gathering and harvest-home. These, however, are proverbially distinguished in all countries as jovial, rather than mournful, solemnities. Accordingly, in Homer's de- scription of the vintage festivity in the " Shield," the Song of Linus is alluded to, if not as itself a jocund sono-, as the acconipaniment at least of a jocund ceremony.^ The apparent anomaly finds its explan- ation in the figurative mythology of agricultural life among the Greeks and other nations of the Mediter- ranean ; where the declining year, and consequent transition of the terrestrial fruits from maturity to decay, were brought into close and appropriate con- nexion with the corresponding vicissitudes of Imman existence. Hence the intimate union between the rites of Ceres and those of Pluto, between the mystical theology of the world above and that of the world be- low. The Song of Linus, the Genius of ephemeral existence, formed, therefore, a significant ceremony in those rustic festivities, which, in every country, are among the most antient, as being the most vitally associated with the existence of civilised society.^ Hesiod seems, indeed, to describe the Lament of Linus as habitually sung at the opening and close of all banquets or festive rejoicings ; possibly as a " me- mento mori " or warning against undue elation or 1 II. xviii. 570. 2 Hence some authors interpret the death of Linus by the hand of Apollo as inilicatlng the victory of the more elegant and rational taste for music and lyric song, preferred in the ceremonial of that god, over the more melanclioly or impassioned, but ruder and often gloomy and barbarous, style of the Bacchic, Ori)hic, and other rites of the class to which the Song of Linus belonged. Miiller, Dor. i. p. 34G. sqq. Ch. n. §11. TIIRENUS. 97 exuberance of J03'0us feeling.^ It was natural that the character, both of the hero and of his song, in their more immediate connexion with rural life, should undergo some variation. Among the Argives, accordingly, Linus was not a professional minstrel, but a gentle shepherd boy, whose office it was to guard and nurse the tender lambs, and who was him- self torn to pieces by wolves or raging dogs.^ The prevalence of substantially the same legend and rite in numerous other parts of the antient world, offers a striking example of a correspondence of religious ceremonial, spontaneously arising from a similar association of ideas, among different nations where no trace can be detected of a direct influence exercised by one upon the other. In almost every country on the shores of the Mediterranean, Greek speculative mythologers discovered a fable, a hero, and a song, which, according to the popular practice, they identified, and certainly with more than usual plausi- bility, with their own national song and hero Linus.^ The Thrcnus of Homer's bards, like other culti- vated branches of composition in those early days, was probably in dactylic measure. With the ad- vance of lyric art, a greater variety of metrical forms was admitted. The reputed author of the extension was the Phrygian Olympus, who first introduced into Greece a taste for wind instruments, the style of music best adapted to mournful or pathetic subjects. Several of the more remarkable compositions ascribed ^ Frg. ccxiv. Marckscli. ^ Conon, XIX. ; oonf. Paiisan. n. xix. 7. ^ Such are the Atys and Lityerscs of the Phrygians, the Bormus of the ]\Iarian(lyna3, the Ilylas of the Mysians, the Adonis and Tliamniuz of the Semitic races, and the Mancros of the Egyptians. Miill. Dor. i. p. 347. ; Welck. lib. den Linos, Kl. Schrift. vol. i. p. 9. sqq. VOL. in. * II 98 ORDERS OF LYRIC PERFORMANCE. Book. lU. to him belonged to the sacred class of Threni. Such was the Lament, or Dirge \ of the snake Pytho slain by Apollo, also called a nome. The nomes of this author are all, indeed, described as of a mournful ten- dency. That such was the case with his celebrated Epitymbian nomes ^ is indicated by their name, literally, Tomb-songs. It would appear, however, that these nomes were purely musical, or, in other words, instrumental, rather than vocal or poetical performances. Nor does the Threnus appear to have been a very popular branch of composition with the lyric poets of this early period. But few works are cited under that title prior to the age of Simonides, of whose Threni, as of those of his younger contem- porary Pindar, several fine remains have been pre- served 2, partly relating to mythical subjects, partly in honour of human personages. CONVIVIAL POETRY (sYMPOSIACA). PARCENIA. SCOLIA. Convivial 12. lu thc carlicr stages of Greek literature, al- most every branch of poetical composition might be classed under the head of Convivial. The ban- quet formed part even of the most solemn religious offices; and, for this portion of the sacred ritual, lyric performances seem chiefly to have been re- served. In the Iliad, after the propitiatory sacrifice to Apollo, the Greeks spend the day in carousing and singing pa3ans in honour of the deity ; and, through- out the poet's narrative, the sacred hymn or thc epic song, recording the praises of the gods or the actions of heroes, is indispensable to the full enjoyment of all convivial festivity. Like the pa2an of Apollo, » Plut. de Mus. XV. ^ Pollux, iv. 78. 2 Bocckb, Fragm. Pind. p. 619.; IJcrgk, Fragm. Simon, p. 759. poetry. Cii. II. §12. CONVIVIAL POETRY. 99 the dithyramb of Bacchus was, from the earhest period, habitually suug at the table, as appears from a passage of Archilochus containing the most antient extant al- lusion to a dithyrambic ode. The encomia or epinicia were also performed, by preference, at the feast in honour of the distinguished personage to whom tliey were .dedicated. But in the subsequent relinements of lyric art these various orders of composition, as des- tined for more dignified occasions, or connected with a more definite range of subject, were ranked each under its own proper title. The term Convivial poetry, in the more limited sense, embraced but the lighter more fugitive style of composition, the object of which was to enliven the banquet in its purely social character. In the mode of providing for this enjoyment, the Varieties same variety and ingenuity are observable, as in every vLrsong. other department of cultivated Greek art. Convivial songs were classed by the antients under three ^ heads: first, those sung in chorus by the whole company ; secondly, those sung by each guest in succession ; thirdly, such as were also sung in succession, but under certain peculiarities of arrangement, and with a limitation in ordinary cases to the more gifted members of the company. The songs of the first class appear to have been Paean?, chiefly those inaugural odes familiarly called Paeans-, sung as grace or prooemium to the whole entertain- ment, and usually addressed to Apollo, sometimes to Jove, Bacchus, Hermes, or such other deity as the occasion suggested. The next more varied order of Paicenia. * Dicaearcli. ap. Suid. Ilesycli. et I'liot. v. (jkuXioi' ; Pint. Syniposiac. i. i. 5. ; Artemon ap. Atlien. xv. p. 694. '■^ See above, p. 67. note 3. n 2 100 ORDERS OF LYRIC PERFORMANCE. IJook III. symposiac performance in which all took part, though not all simultaneously, very much resembles our old national custom of laying each guest under an obli- gation to sing his song\ whether his own composition or some popular ode of the day. On these occasions a lyre or myrtle branch ^, less frequently a drinldng- cup ^, was handed round as a temporary badge of office from guest to guest, each, in his turn, re- ceiving it from his predecessor, and passing it on to his neighbour at the close of his own part. The lyre was destined probably for those alone who, together with a musical voice, possessed skill in the use of the instrument. When these qualifications, one or both, were wanting, the myrtle branch was preferred, as the antient proper symbol of the more simple styles of poetical recitation.'^ The songs thus circulated bore no distinctive title but that of Paroenia (wine- songs), or Symposiaca (drinking-songs), common to all those of the convivial order. . Scoiia, or 13. The third more complicated and more cele- Greek ^ratcd speclcs of parcenia were those called Scoiia. musical r i- catches. Xhc performance was here reserved for the more scientific and experienced musicians of the party.'' ' Plat. Synipos. p. 214. sqq. Occasionally prose was substituted for poetry, each guest telling a story, or offering a short essay on some pleasant topic. Plat. loc. cit. 2 Aristoph. Nub. 1358., Schol. ad loc. ; Vesp. 1214—1220., Schol. ad oc. ; Plat. Sympos. i. i. 5.; Hesych. vv. fivf)pii'7]g et -i)v iTridiKiav; Cic. Tusc. I. ii. 3 Athen. xi. p. 503. "* Apostolius et Hesych. v. (tcetv -n-pog fir^f). In Aristoph. Nub. 1356. sqq. the lyre is offered to Phidippides, when it is proposed that he shall sing an ode of Simonides, a melic poet. The myrtle branch is substituted when it is proposed that he shall recite a passage of iEschylus or Eu- ripides. * Arteni. ap. Alhen. xv. p. 694. ; Dicasarch. ap. Phot, et Suid. v. oKoXtov; conf. Hesych. v. <7k-o\ . ; Schol. ad Aristoph. Vesp. 1214. 1220. ; Plut. Symp. Cii. II. §13. SCOLIA, OR CONVIVIAL CATCHES. 101 The chief of the qualified guests led off with a short stave or sonnet, whether an entire ode or a part of some longer composition, marked in either case by- some lively spirit or point. He then handed the symbol of office to the person who it had been ar- ranged should follow, or whom he thought fit to select as his successor, who passed it on, in his turn, to a third, and so forth ; each being expected at once to carry on the strain, whether in the way of continuation or repartee, in the same or a closely congenial style of subject or measure. It may be presumed, that, at least in the origin of the custom, these sallies were understood in courtesy to be, and frequently" were, either impromptus, or pieces pre- pared by each performer for the occasion. But no such rule seems to have been enforced in practice, each guest being at liberty, if not ready with an appropriate contribution of his own, to select one from the stores of some favourite author. As nu- merous such forms, adapted to an equal variety of occasions, obtained popularity in the more advanced stages of convivial literature, the process of linking or " capping " the successive epigrams or stanzas on each other would be greatly facilitated : and where any number of them became more peculiarly con- nected in subject or measure with each other, as could hardly fail to result from the very spirit of the practice, their combination into a single longer ode or "canzone," consisting of a corresponding number of strophes or stanzas, as naturally followed. Such was, for example, the celebrated scolion, or series of scolia, addressed to Harmodius and Aristogiton. These I. i. ; Eustatb. ad Od.vii. 125. p. 1574.; conf. De laNauze, ]\Iein. de I'Acad. des Inscr. vol. ix. p. 324. sqcj. ; Ilgeii, Sculia give Carin. Conviv. Grtec, H 3 102 OKDEES OF LYRIC PEREORMANCE. Book III. four beautiful stanzas, while sufficiently connected in subject to form a continuous ode, as published in the modern collections, are yet capable of being trans- posed without any sacrifice of their bond of continuity, in such a manner as to imply, apart from other evi- dence, the originally independant integrity of each. The precise nature of the connexion, in subject, style, or numbers, requisite to constitute any such series of poetical sallies a scolion or round of scolia, as distinct from the ordinary paroenia, or wine-songs, is nowhere clearly defined. Nor, probably, were the regulations on the subject of a very definite nature. Much might depend on the previous understanding of the party. In the more rigid form of the enter- tainment a certain continuity both of subject and measure might be required. But, as in a numerous company the series could hardly be prolonged to any considerable extent consistently with a strict observance of any such rule, some relaxation of it would be necessary. The number of responses to Avhich the correspondence was, in the first instance, required to extend might be limited, and, when brought to a close, give place to a new series. In some cases an entire change, both of subject and measure, might be allowable ; in others, the abrupt- ness of the transition might be softened by a con- tinuance of the same measure with a change of subject, or by the introduction of a new measure, the subject remaining the same. A prolonged series of scolia, without some such opening for variety, could hardly fail to become monotonous. Another bond of con- nexion was supplied by innuendos or ambiguous al- lusions, satirical or complimentary, to the character Cii. II. §13. SCOLIA, OR CONVIVIAL CATCHES. 103 or circumstances of the individual performers.' In such cases the principle of contrast would often be preferable, in point of effect, to that of conformity. The scolion of the Crab and Snake ^, for example, cited by Athenaeus, where the shell-fish counsels the reptile to mend its crooked gait, would, without re- ference to any previous train of subject, have formed a very happy repartee to a moral sentiment uttered by a predecessor not himself remarkable for acting up to his own precepts. Almost any phrase or al- lusion contained in a foreo-oino; scolion mig^lit thus, under incidental circumstances, supply a catchword to the next. Such, for instance, was the obvious, probably hackneyed, introduction which the presenta- tion of the myrtle branch of office afforded to the scolion of Harmodius : " In a myrtle branch my sword I'll bear." . . . The above speculations, which naturally offer them- selves in illustration of the nature of this entertain- ment, seem all more or less borne out by the only two passages of antiquity in which it is distinctly ex- emplified : the one in the latter part of the Wasps of Aristophanes ^ ; the other in the concluding dialogue of the Deipnosophista3 of Athenseus.^ The former pas- sage contains five or six scolia. The burlesque irre- gularity, however, of the mode in which the game is here carried on renders it the less easy to recognise ' Eustath. ad Od. vii. 125. p. 1574. * Ilgen, Scol. IX. p. 36. ; Bcrgk. Poett. lyrr. p. 874. 3 1222. sqq. '* XV. p. G!)4. r;ox<)tlv. istics. 106 ORDERS OF LYRIC PERFORMANCE. Book III. (26, 27.) \ which close the series, while not appa- rently connected in any way with their predecessors, are intimately so with each other. Their 24. Amono^ the varieties of measure and style poetical ® . . i i • i t character- admitted m these compositions, and which do not seem to have been subjected to any definite limita- tion, a general preference is given to the melic strophe. The properties by which the individual scoha are distinguished from other lyric stanzas or strophes of the same class are, an epigrammatic terse- ness of expression, compactness and vivacity of num- bers, and, as a general rule, brevity; features all specially conducive, or even essential, to the spirit of the game. Among the preserved scolia are many of the more popular current in the best ages of Greece. 24, aJ c3! AcixpvSpiov TrpocioaiTaipoV otovg dvSpae aTrw/Xeffag, juax£(T0at ayaQovQ re, /cat tviraTpiSag, 01 Tor eSei^av oiwv Trarepwv taav. 25. offTig avcpa 6o[xai xa) xpoxr^v MxX^av ; tyuj MicaQ . . . This pastime seems to liavc resembled the modern game of Hot cockles. 2 Conf. Maitt. Dial. Ling. Gr. p. 8 A. 230 d. ^ Tiie white waves, or breakers. VOL. HI. * I 8 128 ORDERS OF LYRIC PERFORMANCE. Book III. Phallic entertainments above illustrated ; and, though highly characteristic as specimens of their kind, are of little real poetical interest. In more agreeable style is the burden of the Spartan Trichoria\ the festival jointly celebrated by the three generations of Spartan citizens, old men, youths, and boj^s : Yepovr. auis ttok r)[xsg aXxiixoi vsaviai. Neav. a^sg oi y 6][X6g ' a] 8s X^t; ireipav Aa/Ss. Yla'i()Bg. a[xsg 6= y ea-(r6[xscrSa rroXAto xuppovsg. Old men. Brave youths we were in days gone by ! Voimg m. Brave youths we are ; if ye doubt, ye may try ! Boys. Braver youths far than ye, in our day we shall be. Another short but valuable remnant of popular Spartan poetry is quoted by Lucian^, as the burden common to the songs by which some of the livelier Laceda3monian dances were accompanied : Forward boys, and merrily foot it, and dance it better and better still ! The rhythm of this line, oiFering a spirited combi- nation of trochaic and dactylic forms, corresponds, it may be remarked, in all essential respects, with that of the modern Neapolitan tarantella. As Tarentum was one of the most distinguished of Spartan colonies, and as music and song are perhaps the dej^artments of national custom in which antient taste and habit are apt to remain most inveterate, it is no very far- fetched inference, that we have in the Tarantella a genuine representative of some of the popular Laco- nian dances. ' Plut. Lye. XXI. * Dc Salt. X. ; Bcrgk, Toett. lyrr. p. 880. Ch. III. §1. BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. 129 CHAP. III. BIOGRAPHY OF LY'RIC POETS. CALLINUS. ARCHIL0CHU8. SIMONIDES. TYRT^US. 1. LEADING LYRIC POETS OF THIS PERIOD, AS CLASSED IN THE ALEXANDRIAN CANON. 2. CALLINUS. HIS AGE, AS COMPARED WITH THAT OF ARCHILOCHUS. 3. CHARACTER, WORKS, AND TIMES OF CALLINUS. — 4. ARCHILOCHUS. 5. HIS BIRTH, LIFE, AND CHARACTER. 6. DISAPPOINTED LOVE AND RE- VENGE.— 7. PROMISCUOUS IMPARTIALITY OF HIS SATIRE. HIS DEATH. 8. HIS GENIUS AND THAT OF HOMER IN THEIR PARALLEL AND THEIR CON- TRAST. 9. REDEEMING FEATURES OF HIS MORAL CHARACTER. PERSONAL INDIVIDUALITY OF HIS POETRY. 10. ORIGINALITY AND FERTILITY OF HIS INVENTIVE GENIUS. DETAILS OF STYLE AND IMAGERY. EPITHETS. DIA- LECT. 11. METRICAL ELEMENTS OF HIS COMPOSITION. CLASSIFICATION OF HIS WORKS. 12. HIS GENIUS ILLUSTRATED BY HIS REMAINS 13. RE- MARKS ON THE LOSS OF HIS POEMS 14. SIMONIDES OF AMORGOS 15. HIS POEM " ON WOMEN." ORIGIN OF GREEK POETICAL SATIRE AGAINST THE FEMALE SEX. HESIOD. PANDORA. 16. STYLE OF THE POEM " ON WO- MEN." OTHER WORKS OF SIMONIDES. 17. TYRT^US. HIS POPULAR BIO- GRAPHY. 18. ITS AUTHENTICITY. 19. HIS AGE, CHARACTER, WORKS. 1 . The branches of composition comprehended in the Leading foregoing general view of Greek lyric poetry may be o^thir^ " ranked under three principal heads of Elesriac, Iambic, Pf '"'^' l"* i J- o ' ' classed iii and Lyric proper, or Melic. This subdivision, if not the Aiex- specifically laid down, is indirectly sanctioned by the canon, antient grammarians, in their appropriation of one or other of the above titles to individual authors, on the ground of their preference respectively of the style to which such title belongs. The Alexandrian list or canon ^ of standard melic poets for the flourishing age of art comprises but nine : Alcman, Stesichorus, Alcaeus, Sappho, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides (of Ceos), Bacchylides, Pindar. The works of these authors are limited, accordingly, to melic composition, ' Quint. X. i. 61.; Anthol. Pal. ix. cpiyr. 184. 571.; Schol. Pinrl. Boeckh, Pi-fpf. p. 7, 8. VOL. III. K 130 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. either exclusively, or with rare exception in favour of the elegy or iambic trimeter. Archilochus, on the other hand, although, in the more general sense of the term, the greatest of Greek lyric poets, and so characterised by antient grammarians \ was classed, along with Simonides of Amorgos and Hip- ponax, as an iambographer.^ Callinus, Tyrta^us, and Mimnermus rank as elegiac authors.^ Even this extended classification does not comprehend several of the most illustrious names in the annals of lyric art ; those, for example, of Terpander, Thaletas, Arion, who, though distinguished as poets, being still more celebrated as musical composers, were ranked as musicians, or, as the antient critics express it, as harp-players or flute-players, according as their taste or talent happened to lie in the department of wind- or string-instruments. To these, with other less celebrated artists of the same order, a distinct share of attention has already been devoted. Arion alone, in consideration of his special celebrity as a poet, will claim a separate notice in the biographical department of our subject. Another technical dis- tinction might be, and has by some authors on the lyric history of this period been, founded on the pe- culiar cultivation of certain styles in certain regions or by certain races ; of the elegy, for example, and iambus by Ionian poets, Callinus, Archilochus, Si- monides, Tyrta)us, Mimnermus, Solon ; of the lighter melic style by the JEolians, Alcasus, Sappho, and their school ; and of the more complicated choric orders of composition in the Dorian states, by Alcman, Ari- on, and Stesichorus. These various subdistinctions, ' Ap. Licbel. Archil. Fragm. p. 3. * Procl. Chrest. Gaisf. p. 380. ; Lucian. Pseudol. u. 3 Conf. Procl. p. 379. Ch. III. §2. CALLINUS. 700 B. C 131 however, while just and well-founded in themselves, and hence carefully kept in view m the foregoing ge- neral history of lyric art, are of too technical a nature, and too little definite in their application to individual cases, to form an appropriate rule of biographical arrangement. The more convenient method will be to comprise the whole remaining authors of this period, elegiac, iambic, and melic, under the common head of Lyric, and treat their lives and works in chronological order. It happens, also, that this chro- nological succession supplies in itself, spontaneously, about as near an approximation to a generic arrange- ment as were desirable, or, perhaps, even practicable, had the latter method been purposely preferred.^ CALLINUS. 700 B.C. 2. Among these earlier votaries of the Greek Lyric Caiunus Muse, the palm of antiquity has usually been awarded 3^00™-^°''' to Callinus of Ephesus.^ The only author on whose fh,7tf"Ar- behalf a counter-claim has with any plausibility been chiiochus. 1 The authors whose lives form the subject of the present chapter, Cal- linus, Archilochus, Simonides, and Tyrtseus, were all cultivators of the Ionian (either the elegiac or iambic) styles of lyric art. Alcman, Arion, Stesichorus, and the other poets comprised in Ch. iv., also rank together, both in the order of their time and of their more properly melic or cho- ral styles. The same holds good of Alcseus, Sappho, Erinna, in Ch. v. Miumermus, while dated, though doubtfully, by extant authorities, some- what earlier than the leaders of the Lesbian school, has, in consideration partly of his personal connexion with Solon, partly of his own elegiac style, been included in the chapter (vi.) devoted to the Attic legislator and his seven fellow-sages, with whom the annals of this period close. In the date attached to each name, where a single number occurs, it indicates the probable acme or flourishing period of the poet's life. The double number indicates the period of time over which the existing more authentic notices of him extend. 2 Bach, Callini Carniina, Lips. 1831 ; Schneidewin, Delect. Poes. Gr. p. 1. ; Bergk, Poett. lyrr. Gr. p. 303. ; Gaisf. Poett. niinn. vol. 111. ed. Lips. p. 224. The remains are quoti'd according to the arrangement of Bach, K 2 132 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. advanced is Arclnlochus. The balance of opinion in favour of the Ephesian poet rests chiefly on a com- parison of certain allusions in their respective works to the events of contemporary history.^ During the latter part of the eighth and commencement of the se- venth century B.C. Asia Minor was invaded by Scythian hordes, called Cimmerians and Trereans, from the northern shores of the Euxine. These barbarians, after occupying Sardis, the Lydian capital, destroyed the city of Magnesia on the Maeander, the metropolis of a flourishing Ionian state, and rival in power to Ephesus. Archilochus^, in a still extant passage, commiserates this calamity of the Magnesians. Cal- linus^ is also cited as acquainted with the destruc- tion of their city ; but it seems he had, in another place, mentioned it as still in prosperous condition. ^ Hence it was argued that Callinus, as having been acquainted with the earlier, while Archilochus knew but the latter, state of the unfortunate community, was the older poet of the two. The fallacy of this reasoning is sufficiently apparent. That either poet should have mentioned the concerns of this particu- lar city must be considered as in itself but an acci- dental circumstance ; nor, certainly, were such notices likely to be as frequent with Archilochus of Paros as with Callinus of Ephesus. Any extraordinary disaster befalling a distinguished Hellenic city, such as its total destruction by invading barbarians, might very naturally supply matter of allusion to popular poets, even of a distant part of the confederacy. But it is certainly far less likely that the ordinary condition 1 Strab. XIV. p. 647. ; Clem. Alex. Str. p. 333.; conf. Clint. Fast. Hell, ad an. 712 b^c. ; Bach, Callin. p. 6. * Lieb. frg. 29. ; conf. nott. ad loc. 3 Ap. Athen. xii. p. 52.5 c. * Strab. et Clem. sup. cit. Ch. IIL§2. CALLINUS. 700 B. C. 133 or prospects of Magnesia should have been cele- brated by a poet of Paros or Thasos, than by one of Ephesus, the immediate neighbour and rival of the same Magnesia. But, in fact, the terms in which Archilochus mentions the calamity of Magnesia, as an event of recent occurrence, plainly, though indirectly, imply that he had also known the city in its previous flourishing condition. All, therefore, that can be gathered from the above data is that the two poets were contemporary with the destruction of Magnesia. Their common epoch still remains doubtful, owing to the uncertain chronology of that event, and of others connected with it. The inroads of those Scythian tribes into Asia Minor are described as oc- curring at various intervals, from before the Olympic asra (776 B.C.) down to the age of Halyattes, father of Croesus (617 B.C.) ; and the dates of their prin- cipal ravages are but imperfectly defined.^ It is fortunate, therefore, that we possess, in respect to Archilochus, a more solid basis of calculation, in the part taken by him in the colonisation of Thasos from his native island of Paros. The lowest date ' See Clint. Fast. Hell. vol. i. ad an. 712 b. c, 678 b.c, 635 b.c, 617 B.C. The leading chronological pivots are here the reigns of the kings of Lydia, as given by Herodotus (ap. Clint, locc. citt.). Gyges succeeds Can (laules - - 716 b.c. and reiffns - - 38 Ardys succeeds - - 678 and reigns - - 49 Sadyattes succeeds - - 629 and reigns - - 12 Halyattes succeeds - - 617 The destruction of Magnesia is placed in the only specific notice extant on the subject (Plin. xxxv. viii. (xxix.), couf. vii. xxxviii. (xxxix.)J In the reign of Candaules ; but the passage is of an apocryphal character. K 3 ]34 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. Character, works, and times of Callinus. assigned to this event is 708 b.c.^ Assuming him to have been then a youth of twenty, his birth would fall about 728 B.C., during the reign of Candaules, king of Lydia, who was murdered by Gyges in 716 b.c.^ He- rodotus^, accordingly, describes Archilochus as con- temporary Avith the death of Candaules. These data tend, consequently, to confirm the otherwise not very trustworthy notice of Pliny ^, which places the destruc- tion of Magnesia by the Trereans in the reign of Can- daules. If, upon these data, the epoch or acme of Archilochus be fixed about or soon after 700 b. c, Cal- linus may, upon the same grounds, be considered as coeval with, or at the most as an elder contemporary of, the Parian poet. This precedence we have accord- ingly, in so far at least as regards the order of biogra- phical arrangement, here been contented to award him, in deference, however, rather to the popular opinion than to the weight of the evidence on Avhich it rests.^ 3. That Callinus was a native of Ephesus is unani- mously agreed, but of his birth, parentage, or his- tory, no details have been transmitted. His claims to the honour of " inventor " of the elegy have been examined in another place.'' He is, at least, justly entitled to compete with Archilochus for the credit of having been the first poet of ascertained date by whom the elegiac order of composition was culti- vated. His remains, which are exclusively in ele- giac measure, comprise from twenty to thirty lines of appeal to the martial or political feelings of his coun- trymen. They bespeak a man of a proud spirit and ' Clint. Fast. Hell, ad an. ; Lieb. Fragm. Archil, p. 5. sqq. » Clint. Fast. Hell. vol. r. p. 170. ' I. xii. ; conf. Lieb. op. cit. p. 8. and fi-g. 2. * xxxv. viii. (xxix.) * Of a somewhat apocryphal recognition by Aristotle of the superior antiquity of Callinus, see Bode, Gesch. der Hell. Dichtk. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 139. sq. * Supra, p. 16. sqq., 20. sq. Ch. m. §3. CALLINUS. 700 B. C. 135 ardent patriotism, flourishing at a period when such qualities were less in the ascendant among his Ephesian fellow-citizens than in his own bosom, or than was required by the political emergencies of the times. Deeply affected by the dangers with which his native republic was threatened in the advance of the barbaric invaders, to whose arms several neighbouring states had already fallen victims, he reproaches the Ephesians, in a still extant ode^, with their sluggish apathy to the war which raged around them, draws a lively picture of the impending calami- ties, and exhorts them to buckle on their armour, and prepare for a valiant defence of their altars and homes. The scanty remnants of these patriotic addresses af- ford a no less favourable opinion of his poetical taste than of his personal character. Their style is concise and energetic, in good keeping with the tone of ear- nest remonstrance and spirited martial exhortation by which they are animated. If, however, we may judge from the rarity of the extant appeals to his text, and from the absence of laudatory comments on the passages cited, Callinus would not appear to have enjoyed any high reputation among the antients, on the ground of his purely poetical attributes. He is quoted rather for the antiquity of his historical testi- mony, and as the accredited inventor of the elegy, than from any inherent excellence in the passages adduced. These passages still possess a deep interest, from the light which they reflect, in their combination with other supplementary notices by Archilochus and later authorities, on the political state of the Ionian Greeks at this epoch. The martial spirit which animated their ancestors of the heroic age 1 Frg. I. K 4 136 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. now appears relaxed, but not extinguished, by the influence of wealth and civilisation. " How long," exclaims their poetical monitor, " while dangers " thicken around you, will ye repose, thoughtless and " unconcerned, in the lap of social enjoyment, equally " free from alarm at the advance of the foe, and from " shame for your backwardness to face him in the "field!"! ^s^pig rsu xaraxBiG-Qs ' xor dlT^xi^ov s^stb Qu[xoVj CO vsoi ; oud aiZsiad' d[j.(pi7rspixriQvaSy w^s Xivjv [xsSisvrsg ; h ffJpvjvr; 3s OoxsTts rjoSar drap 7r6Xsy.og yaiav ocTraa-au sysi. . . . The actual approach of hostile aggression suf- ficed, however, to awaken their patriotic energies, as evinced by their subsequent successful resistance to the barbarian invader, and by his ultimate ex- pulsion from the states of the Hellenic confederacy. That the military genius of the race, though apt to slumber, was far from extinct, appears also from the extant notices of the relations between the colonies themselves, and of the fierce wars waged with each other, as well as against their L3^dian neighbours; wars involving the destruction of some of the fairest and most flourishing Greek cities of Asia. The only wOrk of Callinus cited under a specific title is an address to Jupiter'^, propitiating his favour towards the " SmyrnaBans." By this term, as the inter- preters inform us, with what reason may be a ques- tion, the poet characterises his own fellow-citizens, Ephesus having formerly been called Smyrna. His compositions seem to have been replete with allusions to interesting points of native history and tradition. He traced certain early settlements in the Troad to ' Frg. I. 2 Bach adfrg. iv. ; Strab. ap. eund. Ch. III. §3. CALLINUS. 700 B.C. 137 Crete \ and recorded the adventures of some of the Greek heroes who remained in Asia after the destruc- tion of Troy, especially the wanderings and death of Calchas^, and the subsequent establishment of the followers of that prophet in the interior of the penin- sula. He is also cited by Pausanias, in a passage of somewhat uncertain reading, as having ascribed the Cyclic Thebais to Homer.^ The internal evidence even of the few preserved remains of his odes shows him to have been intimately acquainted with Homer's genuine works. Several of his pithiest moral or poli- tical reflexions are, in fact, little more than transcripts or ^paraphrases of corresponding passages of the Iliad or Odyssey.^ The martial sentiments, images, and tone of ex- pression, in the bulkiest of the few extant passages of this poet, find so near a counterpart in the far more copious remains of his younger contemporary Tyrtasus, as to afford colour at least to the suspicion of a distinguished modern critic '^, that this text may be an extract from Tyrtaius, erroneously ascribed to Callinus, either by the original compiler of the ' Frg. VI. ^ f J'g- VII. ^ Pausan. ix. ix. 3. Of the probability that the author here alluded to was the antient Callinus, see Welck. Ep. C. p. 198. sqq. ; conf. Marcksch. Fragm. Hcsiod. p. 149. * Frg. I. 12. 20., conf. II. vi. 488. sq., Od. xi. 556.; frg. iv., conf. II. I. 40. ^ Thiersch, Act. Philol. Monac. vol. iii. p. 576. Thiersch's proposal, however, it must be observed, comes with but a bad grace from a critic who elsewhere (op. cit. p. 642. sqq.), on account of imputed discre- pancies of style or allusion pronounces the whole collection which passed current under the name " Tyrtaeus" (as the same critic and the school to which he belongs have also pronounced the works of Homer, Hesiod, and, in fact, every Greek poet of this period) to be a mere cento of fragments by many different authors. To talk, under these circum- stances, of assigning to " Tyrta-us " by preferable right, on grounds of internal evidence, any particular passage usually imputed to Callinus, seems altogether nugatory. chus. 138 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book liI antient Florilegium ^ where alone the fragment is preserved, or by his transcribers. In the absence, however, of all documentary evidence in favour of this conjecture, the safer alternative must be, to as- sume that Tyrtteus has borrowed from or imitated his Ephesian predecessor. In subjects, indeed, of this nature, marked coincidences could hardly fail spon- taneously to arise in the works of different poets ; and there is reason to believe, from this and other examples, that in the elegiac, as in the old epic or heroic school, many popular images or phrases had passed into a sort of commonplace, or public property, among the successive professors of the martial or political school of elegiac composition. ARCHILOCHUS. 728—660 B. C. Archiio- 4. The life, works, and character of Archilochus^ supply one of the most remarkable chapters in the history not only of Grecian literature, but of human nature. To no poet of classical antiquity, with the single exception of Homer, has so high a celebrity been so unanimously or enthusiastically awarded. In the familiar allusions of the leading native critics to the standard classical authors. Homer and Archi- 1 Stob. Fl. LI. xix. Bernhardy (Grundr. der Hell. Lit. vol. ii. p. 330.), without subscribing to Thiersch's views, leans to the opinion, previously hazarded by Valckenaer, that the whole of this passage of " Callinus " is the forgery of a later period. He adduces, among other equally pointless arguments in favour of this view, the occurrence of the phrase oXi'yoc kuI fiByag, in the antithetical sense of " great and small ; " of which he says there is no example in any author prior to Theocritus. He has over- looked both Homer and Hesiod. Od. x. 94. alibi ; Hcs. 0pp. et D. 641. * Liebel, Archilochi Reliquiae; Gaisf Poett. minn. vol. iii. ed. Lips, p. 85.; Bergk, Poet. lyrr. p. 467.; Schncidewin, Delect. Poes. Gr. pt. ii. p. 171. The fragments are here quoted according to the arrangement of Liebel, unlebs where another collection is speciGed. CH.in. §4. ARCHILOCHUS. 728— 660 B. C 139 lochus are set apart ^ as a duumvirate of poets, to be compared with whom the world never saw, and never again will see, a third ; as constituting, each in his proper sphere, a distinct standard of excellence, far removed above the reach of competition in any- other quarter; and tested by which standard the beauties of all others are as the insipidity of water compared with the flavour of wine.^ In their antient busts, accordingly, the effigies of the two poets appear combined in the form of Janus or double Hermes, as the joint eponymi or Dioscuri of Greek poetical litera- ture ^ ; and, in the same spirit of common veneration, their natal feast was celebrated on the same day, and with joint honours.^ The great Alexandrian critic, Aristophanes ^, con- sidered the compositions of Archilochus so near per- fection, that, when consulted which was the best, his answer was simply, " the longest." Longinus ^ speaks with rapture of the torrent of his divine inspiration, constraining us to admire even the blemishes which it bore along with it in its impetuous course. Among the Romans he was equally esteemed. Respectable critics of both nations have gone the length of assign- ing him perhaps even a superiority of natural genius to the poet of the Iliad, inferior as he may have shown himself in his mode of exercising his powers. In an epigram ^ ascribed to the emperor Hadrian, it is said to have been by the special favour of the Muses to Homer that the efforts of Archilochus were ' Velleius Paterc. i. 5. ; Dio Chrysost. Orat. xxxiii. vol. ii. p. 5. sq. Reisk. ; Longin. de Subl. xxxin. 5. ; Cic, Orator, i. * Antipater in Epigr. ap. Licb. p. xui. ; Anthol. Pal. xi. 20. ' Visconti, Iconogr. Gr. vol. i. p. 62. ; Mus. P. Clem. vol. vi. pi. 20. * Antip. in Antli. Pal. xi. 20. ; conf. Diog. Laert. vit. lloraclid. 87. * Ap. Cic. Ep. ad Att. xvi. xi. ^ Dc Subl. loc. sup. cit. '' Ap. Lieb. p. xiv. ; Anth. Pal. vii. G74. 140 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. confined to the less noble branches of poetical art. Plato ^ pronounces him the wisest of poets. By other philosophical critics ^ he is designated the breath and soul, Homer the voice, of Wisdom. Archilochus is also styled the most beautiful of poets ^, with reference more immediately to the high polish of his style. The parallel between his celebrity and that of his great epic predecessor extends to the mythical details of their history. The Delphic oracle foretold ^ to the father of Archilochus that a son would be born to him " immortal among men in the glory of his song." The author of his death was denounced ^ in the same sanctuary as guilty of sacrilege, in destroying the favourite servant of Apollo. Hence he is further described as surpassing even Homer in the lustre of his destiny, in having been not only at his birth, but in his death, an object of engrossing interest to the gods themselves.^ His works remained, like the Iliad and Odyssey, a common fountain head of poetical excellence, whence the greatest of his successors were not ashamed largely to draw, interweaving whole verses and passages with their own text.^ His poems also supplied, after those of Homer, the favourite sub- ject of commentary to the greatest critics.^ His cele- brity is further attested by numerous epigrams, com- menting on the excellence of his genius, and the more striking features of his character and history.^ ^ De Republ. p. 365 c. 2 Philostr. vit. Soph. p. 620. ed. Lips. 1709. ^ Synes. Encom. Calv. p. 75. ed. Petav. * Euseb. Pra;p. Ev. ed. 1668, p. 227. ; Steph. Byz. v. ea^ffoc. 5 Heraclid. Polit. viii. ; Plut. De Ser. Num. Vind. p. 560. ; Die Chrys. vol. II. p. 5. Reisk. ; Aristid. Oratt. vol. ii. p. 296. ed. Jebb. '' Dio Chrys. loc. sup. cit. "^ Conf. Lieb. p. 21. sqq. ^ Aristarchus, Apollonius Rhod., Heraclides Ponticus, Aristophanes,. ap. Lieb. p. 23. " Ap. Lieb. p. xi. sqq. Ch. III. §4. ARCHILOCHUS. 728— 660 B. C. 141 On comparing, however, this proud array of testi- monials with the data on which they are founded, one cannot fail to be struck on first view by the contrast, and feels at a loss to discover any sufficient title to so brilliant an award of renown. Scanty as are the preserved remains of Archilochus, they yet suffice, with the aid of collateral notices, to afford a fair cri- terion of the general character of his muse. No trace can be discerned of any composition approaching to what is commonly considered the higher standard of poetical art ; none distinguished by vastness of design or grandeur of execution ; no deep tone of tragic pa- thos; no lofty strain of martial or patriotic enthusiasm. The property to which attention is chiefly directed by his commentators, as the primary basis of his fame, is the skill with which he employed his favourite iambic measure, in what was held to be its original destination, mordacious satire and scurrilous pas- quinade. His most celebrated productions are ad- mitted to have been inspired and pervaded by a fierce spirit of revenge ; a passion hateful in itself at best, and in his case devoid of claim to even such amount of dignity as it may occasionally derive from the causes which call it forth. With Archilochus, vindictive wrath originated in ungenerous or dis- creditable motives, was directed against unprotected objects, and exhibited in unmanly or brutal excess. How then, it may be asked, could even the most unlimited command of the secondary resources of his art have obtained him, in preference to iEschylus, Pindar, or Sophocles, a seat on the highest pinnacle of Parnassus, by the side of Homer ? In order to arrive at any effectual solution of the apparent enigma involved in this question, it will be proper to have distinctly before us the leading facts of the 142 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. poet's history, which possess the peculiar attraction of being, with scarcely an exception, either transmitted by himself, or confirmed by his incidental allusions. The chronological details of his biography have been disposed of ^ in treating of Callinus, and need not here be recapitulated. His birth, 5. The celebrated painter Polygnotus of Thasos, charaaer. ^^ ^ picturc representing the descent of Ulysses to Hades, painted on the wall of the great saloon of the Delphic sanctuary, introduced, among the passengers in the bark of Charon, Tellis of Paros, and his sister Cleoboea, the great-grandfather and great-grand-aunt of Archilochus.^ Cleoboea was portrayed as a young virgin with a sacred chest on her lap, allusive to the rites of Ceres, reported to have been first introduced by her from Paros into Thasos, in which latter island Archilochus- settled as a colonist, and afterwards resided. This would imply, either that Polygnotus believed in the settlement of a Parian colony in Thasos, under the auspices of the ancestors of Archi- lochus, prior to that led hither by the poet himself ; or that Cleoboea, as a matron of distinguished family, had been selected in her latter days as the instrument of importing the worship of Ceres into the new settle- ment of her great-grand-nephew. How either she or her brother Tellis came to be allotted by Polygnotus a place in the bark of Charon, in the days of Ulysses, is not so easily explained. The poet's father's name was Telesicles ^ ; his mother, as he has himself been at pains to record, was a slave named Enipo ^ ; an origin typical of the ' Supra, p. 131. sq. ; conf. infra, p. 149. note 6. ^ Paus. X. xxviii. ^ Euseb. Prasp. Ev. ed. 1688, p. 227. 256. ■' iElian. Var. Hist. x. xiii. Ch. III. § 5. ARCHILOCHUS. 728—660 B. C. 143 combination of noble and degrading attributes in his character. At an early age he was selected as leader of the colony which, in obedience to the Delphic decree \ the Parians (708 B.C.) established in Thasos. No distinct notice has been transmitted of the cir- cumstances which obtained him this honour ; whether a previous family connexion with the island, the early prophecy as to his future greatness, his own precocious indication of genius, or the fact also recorded in tra- dition, that to his penetration the Parians were in- debted for .the knowledge of the exact spot destined for the new settlement in the enigmatic response of the Pythoness. His own inducements to the under- taking, poverty and discontent in his native island^, were of no auspicious nature. A fragment of his parting address to the land of his fathers has been preserved, and is in very characteristic style, xa.) (Tuxa xeiva xcci Sa7\.d(r(riou ^lov. Away with Paros ! Her figs and fishy life. Nor does his new residence, Thasos, seem to have been much more to his taste. Some of his bitterest strokes of satire are directed against the inhospitable soil of that island, eulogised by more impartial autho- rities for its fertility and wealth.^ By Archilochus it is taunted as "thrice "v^T:*etched, the sink of all " Hellenic ills *, the source of calamities from which " no tear could be spared even for the sad fate of the " Magnesians^ ;" and its woody heights are sarcas- 1 Euseb. Prsep. Ev. p. 22G. 25G. ; Steph. B. v. B«(t;i,-- * Strab. X. p. 487. ; Steph. Byz. loc. sup. cit. ; Procl. Chrost. p. 380. Gaisf. ; conf. Welck. op. cit. p. 367. Ch. ITT. § 14. SIMONIDES OF AMORGOS. 603 B. C. 175 to his style of composition, as in contradistinction to the later more elegant and more popular Cean poet of the same name. The latter, again, in addition to his surname of Cean, derived from his native island, bears the distinctive title of Melic poet. It might seem, on "first view, more reasonable to interpret this distinction as relating merely to the prevailing cha- racter of the works of the two authors, than as im- plying, in the literal sense, that the poems of the elder Simonides were exclusively composed in iambic measure, those of his younger namesake in the ele- giac, or the properly melic forms of lyric verse. The literal interpretation is, however, strongly borne out by the fact, that, while numerous passages in iambic trimeter, besides his acknowledged poem " On Women," are quoted under the name of Simonides the lambographer, in no instance is any iambic text^ possessing a fair claim to genuine character distinctly ascribed to his successor. The few iambic verses which pass indefinitely under the common name are also, with rare exception, so plainly marked by the proper characteristics of the lambographer, as, on grounds of internal evidence, to leave no doubt of their being his composition. That his works were 1 The only three iambic fragments usually comprised among the remains of Simonides of Ceos, and which, from internal evidence, could not have emanated from his more antient namesake of Amorgos, must on the same ground be discarded from either collection, as equally in- compatible with the age of the Cean poet. Neither Scopas the sculptor, celebrated in frg. lxxvii. Gaisf. (186. Bergk), nor Dionysius the Colo- phonian painter, in frg. i-xxx. Gaisf., nor the Colossus of Rhodes, lig. Lxxxv. Gaisf. (187. Bergk), could have been known to Simonides of Ceos. All three passages may, perhai)s, be assigned to some one of the younger Simonidae menticmed by Suidas. (Conf. Gaisf. Poctt. minn. vol. m. ed. Lips. p. 157. note.) The collections of the two poets have been con- founded in the older editions ; the distinction has, however, been accurately drawn by the more recent editors, Welcker, Schneidewin, and Bergk. 1 76 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC TOETS. Book III. exclusively limited to iambics is also probable.^ While much the greater portion of the numerous elegiac or melic fragments which pass under the common title are distinctly ascribed by name to his successor, there is not one similarly allotted to himself; nor, among those not so definitely claimed for the Cean Simonides, are there any which, as collated with the ascertained productions of the lambographer, could, on internal evidence, be properly ascribed to the latter poet. Upon the whole, therefore, in any distribution of the doubtful passages, the safest general rule must be to allot all the iambic passages extant under the common title Simonides to the poet of Amorgos, all those of an elegiac or purely melic character to his more celebrated namesake. With the above limitation, the preserved works of this author are : a satirical poem or part of a poem, of considerable length, " On Women;" another shorter one, containing moral reflexions on the Vanity of Human Life ; and a number of detached passages or fragments, for the most part also of a sarcastic or epigrammatic character. His poem 15. The pocm on Women ^ comprises a hundred and twenty lines. Its satire, as the name implies, is of a general rather than a personal tendency. It describes the various characters of women, as they appeared to the jaundiced eye of the author, under ten 1 In the list of Suidas two books of elegies are ascribed to him. To this testimony, however, unsupported by other better authorities, but little weight can attach. Suidas has here probably, as in other parallel cases, confounded the two authors with each other, and with Simmias of Rhodes. Similar doubts attach to the " Saniian Archaeology " mentioned by Suidas ; and to the trochaic tetrameters alluded to by the anonymous grammarian cited in p. 173. But conf. Welck. op. cit. p. 357. sqq. Two books of iambics are mentioned by AtheuaBus, n. p. 57 d. ; conf. Bekk. Anecd. Gr. vol. i. p. 105. » Frc. 6. Ch. in. §15. SIMONIDES OF AMORGOS. G93 B. C 177 heads, each of which is illusti^ated by the correspond- ing properties of certain animals or other objects, from which the different kinds of female, or rather of wife, are respectively figured to have derived their origin. These allegorical representatives of female attribute and character are, according to the descriptive order adopted by the satirist: 1. the Hog; 2. the Fox; 3. the Dog; 4. Mud, or Clay; 5. Sea water; 6. the Ass; 7. the Weasel; 8. the Blood-mare; 9. the Ape; 10. the Bee. The first is dirty, grovelling, and sluttish : the se- cond, cunning, versatile, and clever, for good or for evil : the third, an incorrigible scold, blustering, quar- relsome, and at the same time prying and suspi- cious : the fourth, sluggish, apathetic, and gluttonous : the fifth wayward and capricious, by turns pleasant and sulky, placid and choleric ; charming when in good, insufferable when in bad, humour: the sixth, excellent at household work when forced to apply, but lazy, obstinate, and incontinent : the seA^enth, sullen, morose, and thievish, repulsive in person and manners : the eighth, the lady of fashion, despising houscAvifery, devoted to dress, the bath, and per- fumes; a beautiful ornament of a royal or wealthy establishment, but ruinous to the husband of more humble rank. The ninth is hideous in person, sly, mischievous, and malicious. The tenth alone pos- sesses all the qualifications of a good wife, and is the greatest blessing the gods can bestow on their fa- vourites among mortals. The poem closes with a sort of epilogue, or general summary, characterising the female sex as, upon the whole, the chief bane of man's existence, and the married state as the most wretched of human lots. VOL. III. N 178 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. Origin of Greek poetical satire against the female sex. Hesiod. Pandora. This work possesses various strong claims on the attention of the student of early Greek literature. It is the only entire specimen of the style of didactic allegory to which it belongs. It is also the first distinct expression of that spirit of satire against the female sex which forms so characteristic a feature of the popular Greek poetry, from the earliest to the latest period. The allegorical mode in which the same spirit is expressed in the Hesiodic fable of Pandora, the first woman, and authoress of evil to the human race, connects itself very plainly, in the figurative cosmogony of Greece, with the Mosaic tradition of the Fall of man. Pandora is Eve. The vice and misery contained in her box, and which she scatters through the world, are described accordingly by Hesiod as the judgements of Jupiter on the human race, for having conspired with Prometheus against his divine authority. Prometheus, Fore- thought or Foreknowledge, is the same genius of presumptuous human self-sufficiency figured in the Mosaic system by the Serpent and the Tree of Know- ledge. The legend of Pandora, like others common to the two standard poems of Hesiod, appears in a far more genial form in the Works than in the Theogony.^ In the former poem. Pandora, as distributrix of the contents of Jove's mystical box, appears as the foolish or even reckless agent, but not as the wilful cause, of ruin to her descendants. Nor has the poet, in the zeal of his satire, lost sight of the sounder maxim inculcated by him in other portions of his text, that, " although a bad wife is the worst of evils, a good wife is the best of blessings : "^ and, among 1 Works, V. 47. sqq. ; Theog. 565. sq(l. * Works, 700. Ch. m. §15. SIMONIDES OF AMOKGOS. 693 B. C. 179 the numerous vices of his mythical type of female levity, she is at least endowed with the virtue of industry, so precious in the eyes of Hesiod. In the Theogony, the more genial playful spirit of the allegory disappears. Pandora, deprived of her box, is there represented in her own proper person as the genius of all mischief, and as the mother of an equally reprobate race of daughters, who perpetuate unmitigated sin and misery among the sons of men. That Simonides had " Hesiod " in view in working up his own poem, appears both from the general tone of his allegory, and from his paraphrase, or almost tran- script, of standard passages of the Bceotian poems. '^ He has conformed to the Works in the spirit of impartiality with which he has blended a certain ingredient of good with the predominant vices of his decad of heroines. He has followed the Theogony in the spirit of malignant exaggeration with which he has enlarged on their defects. These three poems, especially those of tlie elder Hesiod and Simonides, have given the tone to all the Greek poetical pasquinades of the same class ; and their more characteristic passages have been freely pirated and paraphrased by subsequent authors. Another curious recognition of the title of the Greek fair sex to the honour of standard popular butt of the satirical muse of their ungallant lords, is to be found in the only extant fragment of Susarion, the founder of Grecian comedy. The passage sounds almost like an inaugural announcement of the spirit that was to animate the whole family of literature of which the author was the father. ' Frg. VII., conf. Works, 700. sq. ; IVg. v., conf. Theog. 612. N 2 ] 80 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. aHOvsTSf Asto* Xotxra^Uov T^sysi raos, xa;.at^srai. Next in the lot a gallant dame we see, Sprung from a mare of noble pedigree. No servile irork her spirit proud can brook ; Her hands were never taught to bake or cook ; The vapour of the oven makes her ill ; She scorns to empty slops or turn the mill. No household washings her fair skin deface, Her own ablutions are her chief solace. Three baths a day, with balms and perfumes rare. Refresh her tender limbs ; her long rich hair 1 27. sqq. ^ 57. sqq. ^ 83. sqq. VOL. UI. * N 3 1^2 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. Each time she combs, and decks with blooming flowers. No spouse more fit than she the idle hours Of wealthy lords or kings to recreate, And grace the splendour of their courtly state. For men of humbler sort, no better guide Heaven, in its wrath, to ruin can provide. The epilogue from v. 93. downwards, although the style and general character bespeak the composition of the same author, appears, in its present connexion with the remainder of the text, rather as an excres- cence than as an integral part of the poem. It does little more than exaggerate, with some tasteless re- petitions, the former train of philippic against the sex; and that most inappropriately, immediately after the passage admitting and enumerating the ex- cellences by which their defects were counterbalanced. If to these considerations be added the fact, that the whole text is given, in the compilation of Stobseus^ merely as one among numerous fragments of, or extracts from, a variety of poems satirising the cha- racter and habits of the female sex, the suspicion naturally arises that the compiler or his transcribers may have confounded into one two distinct extracts from the same author. Other The tone of the other bulkier remnant of the muse sTmonidL of Simonides^, in twenty-four lines, partakes more of morbid melancholy than of sarcasm. The text of the whole discourse is to be found in vv. 13G, 137. of the xviiith book of the Odyssey, paraphrased in vv. 3 — 5 of the author's own poem, which is a commentary on the evils of human life, addressed to a young friend. The poet expatiates on the weakness and helplessness of man, on the vanity of his wisdom or power, and 1 Stobcei Flor, Lxxm, ' Frg. 1. Bcrgk. Ch. ni. §16. SIMONIDES OF AMORGOS. 693 B. C. 183 on his depenclance on the arbitrary will of the gods, in a tone of gloomy discontent rather than pious resignation. The fairest hopes, or most brilliant prosjDects, are described as but so many snares to entrap deluded mortals into disaster or disappoint- ment. The whole sums up with the usual moral of such a tale : to beware of being unduly elated by prosperity, or cast down by adversity, and to study rather to preserve a stoical indifference to the concerns of life. This composition is marked by the same homely simplicity, and the same terseness of style, as the satire on women. ^ The remainino; frao;ments, of which, with the ex- ception of one of three lines, none exceed a single distich, present the same peculiarities of manner and language as the two longer pieces. Here and there traces of JEsopic allegory are observable. The dialect of Simonides, while in its general tone the purest poetical Ionic of his age, presents not a few original and characteristic forms both of idiom and expression, proper, it may be presumed, to the Samian variety of his native tongue.^ His versi- fication, like his general style, is more remarkable for simplicity and vigour than for musical cadence. Like jEschylus, he takes pleasure in lines consisting of a few long words ^, as a means of imparting earnestness of effect. The iambic trimeter appears in his text in the simplest forms, rarely admitting even that legitimate amount of encroachment on the elementary principle of the measure authorised by its other standard cultivators. He is extremely ' In V. 23. of this passage, the correction of KaicCjv into KoXtHv seems obviously to be required. * Conf. Welck. p. 370. eq. ' Frgg. vi. 40. 66. 118. V 4 184 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. sparing in liis solution of the long syllable ^ and seldom if ever allows the short syllable before mute and liquid. The extant verses offer but a single exception^ to this latter rule, which even Homer does not hesitate freely to transgress. TYRT^US. 680—660 B. C. Tyrtaeus. 17. The transition from the last two heads of subject to that treated in the present section transports us once more from the busy thoroughfares of an Ionian city into the heart of a camp of Homeric warriors. The remains of Tyrtaeus, as compared with those of the Parian or the Amorgian poet, offer one among other examples that might be adduced, how fallacious in many cases must be the evidence derivable from those peculiarities of style, subject, or allusion, so much pressed by speculative critics as tests of the compara- tive age of authors or works. Tyrta3us, by reference to such criteria, and apart from the historical data which establish him as a younger contemporary of Archilochus, would naturally be classed as the more antient poet of the two. Of those varied pictures which the works of the latter present of the social condition of early republican Greece, from the busi- ness of the senate or forum down to the domestic squabble or the debaucheries of the brothel or beer- house, the pages of Tyrta3us offer not a vestige. With a uniformity of style amounting almost to ' But one example can be discovered in the extant fraofinents, and that in a doubtful reading (frg. 15. Bergk). In verses 1. and 43. of the longer passage a synizesis rather than solution may be assumed, as in many parallel passages of Archilochus. ' Before 6j/ in v. 13. of frg. i. Ch. m. §17. TYRTiEUS. 680— 660 B. C. 185 monotony, they are exclusively devoted to martial adventure, exhibiting an absence of all interest in the concerns of ordinary life, with an absorption of the individuality of the author in the enthusiasm for his subject scarcely surpassed in the case of Homer himself. Nowhere, accordingly, is there any allusion by Tyrtseus to his OAvn personal history, the accounts of which, as transmitted in other quarters, are of a somewhat singular or even marvellous character. The most remarkable events in the political annals His popu- of European Greece, between the epoch of the Dorian gTaphy- settlement in Peloponnesus and the Persian invasion, were the two devastating wars waged between the leading states of that peninsula, the Spartans and Messenians. This long struggle, extending, with the intermediate interval, over nearly a century, ended in the subjugation of the latter people, and annexation of their territory by the victors to the Lacedaemonian state. The first war terminated in a treaty, the conditions of which were so oppressive to the Mes- senians, as to lead in the second generation after- wards to a renewal of the contest with still greater energy. At the outset the fortune of the war was now on the side of the Messenians, who, under the auspices of their hero Aristomenes, obtained so decided a su- periority, as to induce the Spartans to have recourse to the Delphic oracle for advice in their emergency. The answer of the Pythoness was, that they should apply to the Athenians for a leader. A deputation was sent to Athens accordingly. The Athenians, with a view of defeating, in so far as in them lay, the favourable intentions of the oracle towards their formidable neiirh- hours, and of indulging at the same time their face- 186 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book IH. tious humour, made choice, as the legend bears, of a lame schoohxiaster of the demus of Aphidnte, hitherto as little distinguished for mental as bodily qualities, who was escorted with all due ceremony to Lacedaj- mon, and, in punctilious obedience to the terms of the oracle, installed in his high functions. The peda- gogue, however, was not long in asserting both his own honour and the credit of the Pythoness. Such was the wisdom of his counsels, and so brilliant the poetical rhetoric by which he enforced them, as speedily to renovate the drooping courage of his new fellow- citizens, and turn the tide of success in their favour. The hero of this adventure, and of Sparta during the second Messenian war, was Tyrtteus.^ Nor was the influence of their new political chief confined to the military affairs of his adopted country- men. It extended also to their domestic politics. On the Spartan arms regaining the ascendant in the field, the Messenians, by the desperate measures of defence to which they resorted, aggravated the evils of war to their adversaries by those of famine and civil dissension. 2 Avoiding pitched battles, they were content, from their stronghold Ira, situated not far from the Spartan frontier, to exercise a systematic brigandage, as well on the territory con- quered from themselves as on the conterminous parts of Laconia. Seizing men and goods, they exacted high ransoms for their restoration ; and, allowing the enemy to cultivate the soil, descended as harvest ' Pausan. iv. xv. sqq.; Justin, m. T. ; Themist. Orat. xv. p. 197 d. ; conf. Plat. Legg. p. 629 d. ; Lycurg, contr. Leocr. § 28. ; Philoch. et Callisth. ap. Strab. vin. p. 362. According to Suid. v. Tvpraloc, the poet's father's name was Archimbrotus. ^ Pausan. iv. xviii. sq. ; Aristot. Polit. v. vi. Ch. m. § 18. TYRT^US. 680—660 B. C. 187 approached, and destroyed the crop or carried it off for their own use. This policy was met by the Spartan government with a decree, that, as the be- nefit derived from the culture of these lands was solely or chiefly enjoyed by the enemy, they should be allowed to lie waste. The consequence was a scarcity which, with the discontent of the owners of the deserted properties, led to a sedition, and to a clamour for the popular expedient of the Greek de- mocracies in such cases, a new division of the lands of the state. The ferment thus created was allayed by the eloquence of Tyrtasus ; an example of the power of music and poetry on the minds of those stern citizens, to be added to those already recorded of Terpander and Thaletas. Another reported ex- ercise of his political influence was his having per- suaded the Spartans, after a great defeat and carnage of their troops, to resort, for the first time, to the expedient of recruiting their army from the Helots.^ This new force he inspired with such enthusiasm as to turn the tide of success in the next engagement. 18. The legend of the poet's origin and first con- itsanthen. nexion with Sparta, for the rest is all, in substance *'"^^" at least, historical fact, if occurring in the annals of some chivalrous war of our own middle ages, would not, perhaps, be exposed to any very severe scrutiny. The afi"air is characteristic of the relations between rival members of petty martial confederacies in primi- tive times, and might possibly find a parallel in the authentic chronicles of the Ilanse towns or Italian republics. Uut the spirit of modern inquiry is less indulgent towards such traits of political romance in the corresponding periods of antient history ; and ' Pausan. iv. xvi. 3. 188 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. the whole story has, in authoritative quarters, been rejected as fabulous. That it is, however, founded on fact in so far at least as respects the foreign origin of the poet, which forms the essence of the legend, seems to be conclusively established by the concur- rent testimony of all the earliest and best authorities^, inclusive of that of the Lacedaemonians themselves. Not only is there no notice of any attempt on their part to dispute the foreign birth of Tyrta3us, but, in one of the celebrated Laconian apophthegms^ in the collection of Plutarch, Pausanias, the victor of Plateea, when asked why the Spartans had conceded to Tyr- toBus the rights of citizenship, replies : " In order that no foreigner might appear ever to have held sway in Laceda3mon." That the Spartans would, had Tyrtseus really been a native Laconian, ever have sanctioned the alienation of so distinguished a national hero in their popular tradition, or that Plutarch, in a professed treatise on their character and institutions, should ever have placed such an acknowledgement of that hero's foreign birth in their mouth, is scarcely credible. The powerful influence of lyric song on the political des- tinies of Sparta during this period, is itself a no less certain fact than that she was indebted to foreigners rather than her own citizens for the exercise of that influence. There can, therefore, be as little real ground for denying a share of it to the Athenian Tyrt^us, as to the Lesbian Terpander or the Cretan Thaletas. The Athenians of later times would not be slow to turn the circumstance to satirical account, in favour ^ Nor is t^iere any trace of scepticism but in a single anonymous notice of Suidas (v. Tvjjt.), where Tyrtajus is called " a Milesian, or a Laconian ;" while in another article of the same compilation the popular account is preferred. 2 riut. Apophth. Lac. p. 230. Ch. III. §18. TYRT^.US. 680— 660 B. C. 189 of their boasted intellectual superiority to their Laco- nian rivals ; and the story of an Attic man of letters restoring by his inspiring minstrelsy the fortunes of the Messenian campaign, might easily assume the turn of an "Athenian schoolmaster superior in the art of war to the Spartan generals." As to his lame- ness, the literal acceptation of the legend is at least as rational as the interpretation, itself certainly some- what lame, suggested by modern critics, that the allusion is to the limping style of his pentameter verse.-^ It is also worthy of remark, that neither in his own poems nor in the current tradition is there any hint of actual military exploit performed by Tyr- taeus. On the contrary, it is distinctly stated by the authorities who have preserved the most specific details of that tradition, that he remained with the priests and augurs in the rear of the battle during action, to encourage the troops in his capacity of counsellor and poet.^ It were certainly somewhat strange that a Spartan hero, whether poet or private citizen, unless under some such peculiar circumstances of physical disqualification as those recorded in the legend for the most essential duties incumbent on every Spartan, should have obtained so high a celebrity merely by inculcating those duties, without being himself at all distinguished for their peformance. An argument, however, in favour of the indigenous Spartan origin of Tyrtaius has been adduced, with some hesitation by antient^, more confidently by modern, critics'*, from an extant passage of his own works, ' Thiersch, Act. Monac. vol. in. p. 594. * Pausan. iv. xvi. 1. ^ Strab. viii. p. :i(i2. * Conf. Thiersch, op. cit. p. 600. ; Bernhardy, Grundr. der Griech. Lit. vol. II. p. 344. 190 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. where, reminding his fellow-warriors of the martial feats of their Dorian ancestors, he uses the expres- sions "we" and "our," thus identifying, it is urged, his own origin with that of the audience whom he addresses. A sufficient answer to this argument is contained in the Laconian apophthegm above cited from Plutarch, where the republic is described as having conferred on the alien poet the unusual boon of a full right of citizenship, " in order that no foreigner might exercise authority over them." The language of the poet and of the apophthegm thus mutually illustrate each other. Tyrtseus, as an adopted son of Sparta, was not only entitled, but bound, to merge his foreign blood and associations in his new privilege. But, apart from any such testi- mony, even a less thoroughly naturalised foreigner, when once installed as the state poet and inspired organ of the national enthusiasm, could hardly be held, in his stirring addresses, to a rigid maintenance of the distinction between his o^vn personal share in the common fund of patriotic feeling and that of his adopted countrymen. Whether a Spartan by birth or by adoption, he spoke henceforth not as Tyrtasus but as the Muse of Sparta ; and the observance of any such subtleties as that here imagined, in the midst of his poetical fervour, could as little occur to himself as be expected by his public. His age, 19. The age of Tyrtseus depends entirely upon wo'rkT'''' that of the second Messenian war, in which he figures, and which is itself a doubtful point of chronology. Pansanias places the commencement of the war in the fourth year of the xxiiird Olymp., or G85 B.C. ; other authorities bring that epoch, and by consequence the age of Tyrtasus, from forty to fifty years lower. The Ch. m. §19. TYRTtEUS. 680— 660 B.C. 191 point is one of some difficulty ; but, upon the whole, a preference may be given to the testimony of Pau- sanias, both on its own merits, and in consideration of the peculiar care and zeal with which he has brought his habits of antiquarian research to bear upon the Spartan and Messenian history of this period. His view is also more in unison with the dates of other contemporary events incidentally connected with the vicissitudes of the war. As the strufro-le lasted, in round numbers, about twenty years, the poetical distinction of Tyrtseus, who first appears at a comparatively advanced period of it, may be placed between 680 and 6G0 b.c.^ The personal character of Tyrtgeus, as exhibited in his remains, appears but a reflexion of the national genius of his adopted countrymen. Every sentiment or allusion may be said to embody some peculiarity, military or political, of that singular people. This attribute of his muse was warmly and durably appre- ciated on their part; and his works constituted in every age of the republic the most popular text-book of martial song, and the most approved standard of national and patriotic feeling." Later grammarians allude to a division of them into five books ^, upon what principle does not appear. By earlier autho- rities they are classed, with reference to their subject, under three heads."^ The first head comprised mar- tial addresses or exhortations ; the second consisted of odes of a political tendency, inculcating obedience to the laws, and maintenance of the Spartan consti- 1 Cliut. Fast. Hell. vol. i. p. 183. 251. sqq. See Appendix D. ^ Lycurg. contr. Leocr. § 28. ; Athen. xiv. p. 630. ; Plat, de Legg. p. 629. 660. sq. ; Plut. vit. Cleom. ii.; conf. Bach. op. cit. p. 54. ^ Suid. V. TiYjrrtioc. ■* Puu.san. IV. xv. 3. ; Aristot. Pol. v. vi. ; conf. Suid. v. Tvpr. 192 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book IIL tiition and customs. The compositions of both these classes were in elegiac measure and Ionic dialect. The third head comprised war marches (enoplia, em- bateria), in anapaestic measure and Doric dialect, sung in chorus by the phalanx in advancing to tlie attack. The poems of all three classes were considered among the most excellent of their kind. The performance of his martial and political odes on festive occasions became a habitual custom at Laceda^mon, especially in time of war, when they were chanted by the troops at their meals, or when assembled in front of the general's tent door.^ The war marches of Tyr- taBUS also constituted the national standards in that branch of composition ; and the anapaestic measure in which they were composed, called in memory of its origin Messeniac, continued to be preferred as the favourite rhythm for the regulation of military movements.^ The preserved passages of Tyrt^eus are chiefly of the elegiac order. Several of them can hardly be called fragments, as extending to from thirty to fifty verses each, and the longest^, though not distinctly transmitted as such, possesses all the requisites of an integral composition. They offer in their general character much resemblance to the remains of Calli- nus ; and the correspondence in several verses is such as almost to warrant a suspicion of plagiarism by the more recent author. The style of Tyrtseus, however, is marked by a greater vigour and terseness, and his addresses by a spirit of ardent enthusiasm, and fierce or even ferocious determination, very different from the morbid desponding patriotism of Callinus. The • Lycurg. contr. Leocr. § 28. ; Philoch. ap. Athen. xiv. p. 630. "^ Bach, p. 73. sq. ■• Frg. viii. Ch. III. § 19. TYRT^US. 680— 660 B.C. 193 martial appeals of Tyrtoeus are also enlivened by il- lustrations of the soldiers' duties, and of the scenes and adventures of the battle field. Among the most graphic of his pictures is the description ^ of the war- rior advancing to the encounter "with compressed " lips and firm step, brandishing his spear in his hand, " while his plume nods terribly from his helmet." The excellence of a glorious death is placed in spirited contrast with the wretchedness of life purchased by loss of honour ; and the baseness of flight is further beautifully illustrated by the reflexion, that, " in pro- " portion as it insures safety to the young and lusty " combatant, it entails death on the grey-headed vete- " ran, whose support and defence ought to be a chief " duty of his youthful comrades." " To the political order of elegy belonged what ap- j)ears to have been the most elaborate work of Tyr- tteus, and the only one mentioned by the antients under a distinct title, the Eunomia, or Politia.^ The former title, literally, " excellent system of laws," is the same by which the Pythoness, in her celebrated enuntiation to Lycurgus"*, designates his code, and by reference to which the lawgiver was afterwards him- self honoured with the figurative patronymic of Son of Eunomus. The poem, of which some fine remains are extant^, was a eulogistic commentary, as its name implies, on the Spartan constitution. It appears to have been composed for the purpose of allaying the agrarian sedition above noticed, and to have been addressed more immediately to the instigators of that ' Frg. VII 21. sqq. ; conf. vi. 31. * Frg. VI. 21. ' Aristot. Polit. v. vi. ; Strab. vni. p. 362. ; Suid. v. J'l'pr. * Plut. in vit. v. 5 Frg. I. VOL. III. O 194 ETOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book lit. distiu^bance. It was interspersed with allusions to the fflories of the Ileraclid race, and to the rise and ascendancy of the Dorian power under the auspices of so admirable a form of government, the special gift of Apollo to his favoured people. Stress was also laid on the triumphs achieved in the first war over the same enemy, the prospect of whose complete subjection was now endangered by a factious impa- tience of the evils inseparable from such a contest. Even in this poem military descriptions seem greatly to have abounded, as most of the existing fragments partake of the martial character. The dialect of these elegies is the same modification of the old epic, or Homeric (here slightly tinged with iEolo-Doric forms ^), as that used in the parallel compositions of Callinus and Archilochus. The preference of this idiom by a Spartan minstrel may be attributed partly to a deference to the example of those earlier standard elegiac authors ; partly to a similar deference to the old hexameter style, from which the elegy or penta- meter is itself an emanation ; partly, perhaps, to the poet's Ionian origin. The few remaining passages of the embateria, or war marches, in anapaestic measure and Doric dialect, are, upon the whole, the most original and characteristic portions of the extant works of this poet. They are not only the earliest remaining examples of the pure anapaestic metre, but the only preserved specimens of the Greek war march, and so excellent in their kind as painfully to tantalise the appetite for more. Replete with fire and energy in sound and sense, they aftbrd abundant proof of the value of the anapaestic verse, 1 Frgg. II. 7., V. 3. Ch. III. §19. TYRT^US. 680— 660 B.C. 195 and of the Greek tongue, in their adaptation to the rhythm of military movements : ^ aysr', CO %7raciTa.g svccvO^ou hoQu 6 s6ro7\.[xcog ;raAXovrs^, ou ya^ 7rdTf>iov rag '^iraf^roi.g. . . . To the field, to the field, gallant Spartan band. Worthy sons, like your sires, of our Avarlike land ! Let each arm be prepared for its part in the fight, Fix the shield on the left, poise the spear with the right. Let no care for your lives in your bosoms find place. No such care knew the heroes of old Spartan race The style of Tyrtseus is more remarkable for sim- plicity and vigour than polish and refinement. He brings home facts and objects in their native reality to the apprehension, with little variety of phraseolo- gy, and rarely an attempt at figurative illustration. The frequent recurrence, in his longer addresses, of the same ideas and images^, a consequence, in some degree, of the almost exclusively martial character of his odes, amounts occasionally to a sort of poet- ical commonplace, similar to that authorised in the popular usage of the heroic minstrelsy. Here, how- ever, the repetition, in its connexion with otherwise broadly difi'erent materials and style, instead of con- ducing, as in the old epic poem, to harmony or pre- cision, imparts at times an incoherent or disjointed character to the text. This latter peculiarity may ' Frg. XI. The anapaest embodies, in fact, the natural march time, and was adopted as such, accordingly, by the Romans (Ammian. IMarccll. xxiv. 6.; Cic. Tusc. Disp. ii. 16.), as it has been in familiar modern practice. ^ Of the plirase 7r|0o/ji7\'0(, for example : frgg. vi. 1. 21. 30., vii. 4. 12. alibi ; conf. frgg. vr. 31., vii. 21. o 2 196 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. also, in part, be a consequence of the fragmentary form in which the passages have been transmitted. It has, however, aiForded matter for the speculations of those modern critics who would discover, in all such distinctive peculiarities, so many evidences of miscellaneous origin or systematic corruption. Such theories, precarious as they are even in the case of entire compositions, become comparatively nugatory as applied to detached passages of works which must have been, even in their integrity, of an essentially fugitive or desultory character. It were certainly not easy to find a similar collection of fragments displaying, in its variety or uniformity, its merits or defects, more satisfactory internal evidence of a single author.^ The elegiac verse of Tyrtaeus is distinguished by regularity and emphatic precision of structure. As a general rule, each distich comprises a more or less distinct clause of the text ; and rarely, if ever, does a full period seem to have occurred at the close of a hexameter, or in the middle of either verse, according, at least, to the genuine arrangement of the text, although here and there introduced by the caprice of editors. That Tyrt^eus was familiar with the poems of Homer may be inferred from several pas- sages^ of his remains, embod3dng the spirit, and to ' See supra, p. 137. note 5. That the national Spartan collection of martial songs by native Spartan warriors should ever have been recognised by the Spartans themselves, for so recognised the poems of " Tyrtaeus " unquestionably were, as the compositions of an Athenian stranger, seems something, to say the least, very marvellous. Such, however, in substance, is the theory of Thiersch, when stripped of all its appendages of Wolfian subtlety and learned illustration. * Compare frg. vi. 19. sqq. with II. xxii. 71. sqq. ; frg. vn. 10, sqq. with II. V. 529. sqq.. xv. .'561. sqq.; frg. vir. 31. with II. xiii. 129. Ch. III. §19. TYRT^US. 680-660 B.C. 197 a certain extent the letter, of parallel portions of the Iliad. Of his musical talents less is said by the an- tients than in the case of most other equally distin- guished lyric poets of this period.^ * He is mentioned by Pollux, iv. 107., as the institutor of the Spartan musical festival of the Trichoria (supra, p. 127.). Plutarch, however, apparently with better reason, traces the origin of this primitive national solemnity to the time of Lycurgus. Plut. in Lye. xxi. o .1 198 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. CHAP. IV. BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. ALCMAN. ARION. 8TESI- CHORUS. XANTIIUS. SACADAS. XENOCRITUS. EUNO- MUS. 1. ALCMAN. HIS ORIGIN, BIRTHPLACE, AND TIMES. 2. STYLE AND TENDENCY OF HIS POETRY. HIS TITLE TO THE CHARACTER OF " LACONIAN POET." 3. HIS RHYTHMICAL IMPROVEMENTS. 4. HIS REMAINS. 5. ARION AND HIS DOLPHIN 6. PROBABLE IMPORT OF THE LEGEND 7. HIS IMPUTED ODE TO NEPTUNE. 8. CHARACTER OF HIS GENUINE WORKS 9. STESI- CHORUS. HIS BIRTHPLACE. HIS LOCRIAN ORIGIN. HIS DESCENT FROM HESIOD. 10. HIS FAMILY. INTERCOURSE WITH PHALARIS. 11. BLIND- NESS. "RECANTATION." 12. MIGRATION TO CATANA. DEATH AND TOMB. PERSONAL CHARACTER. 13. INVENTIVE GENIUS. EPICO-LYRIC STYLE. 14. ITS PRIOR CULTIVATION BY XANTHUS 15. HOMERIC ATTRIBUTES OF STESICHORUS. 16. HIS WORKS AND THEIR REMAINS. EUROPIA. GERY- ONIS. CERBERUS. CYCNUS. SCYLLA. ATHLA PELI^. SYOTHERiE. ERI- PHYLE. 17. ILII-PERSIS. 18. PALINODIA. 19. CALYCE. KHADINA. P^ANS. APOCRYPHAL WORKS. FABLES. 20. METRES. DIALECT. 21. OTHER EPICO-LYRIC POETS. SACADAS. XENOCRITUS. EUNOMUS. ALCMAN. 670—610 B. C. Aicman. 1. Alcman^, tlie next as he is the last of the more Sdtim?s" illustrious masters of the Spartan school of lyric poetry, flourished, according to the various notices of chronologers, from about 670 B.C. down to 611 B. c.^ The length of the period comprised within these two dates is justified by his own pointed allusion in one of his odes to his advanced old age. The former date may be taken conjecturally as the epoch of bis youth or first notoriety ; the latter, as that of his death. His period of poetical activity would thus ^ Conf. Welck. Fragm. Alcni. ; Bergk, Poett. lyrr. p. 538. ; Sclinpidewin, Delect. Poes. Gr. sect. in. p. 2.38. The fragments are here cited accord- ing to the arrangement of Welcker. ^ Clint. Fast. Hell. vol. i. pp. 189. 195. 201. 217. Ch. IV. §1. ALCMAN. 070— 610 B.C. 199 have commenced about the close of the second great Messenian war, and the establishment of the Spartan ascendancy over the Dorian peninsula. Accordingly, both the style and the subjects of his compositions bespeak a period of national prosperity and repose, or even of festive enjoyment, broadly contrasted with the wars, turbulence, and internal dissensions sha- dowed forth in the odes of his elder contemporary, Tyrtaeus. While rivalling, or even surpassing, his great predecessors, Terpander and Tyrtaeus, in the popularity enjoyed by his muse among his Lace- dasmonian fellow-citizens, Alcman possesses as little claim as those masters to the honour of genuine Lacedasmonian origin. By the concurrent testimony of the best authorities, corroborated incidentally by himself, he was a Lydian slave in the family of Agesidas, a Spartan citizen, by whom he was eman- cipated, and under whose patronage he acquired such subordinate political rights as were compatible with his previous condition.^ It does not distinctly appear whether he was himself a native Lydian, or a son of Lydian parents settled in Laconia ; but the former view is the more probable, and is partially borne out by a passage of his own works where he connects a certain refinement of tastes, for which he assumes credit, with the Lydian capital, in terms seeming to claim it as his birthplace.^ That he must, in this case, have been brought early to Laccda^mon may be inferred from his mastery of the Greek tongue, especially the Laconian dialect. According to some ' Crates ap. Suid. v. 'Wkixuv ; Ileracl. Polit. frg. ii. Schneidew. ; Veil. Paterc. i. xviii. ; Alex, yl'^tol. in Anthol. Pal. vu. cp. 709.; Antip. et Leonid, ibid. 18, 19.; conf. Cliut. Fast, llcll. vol. i. p. 189. ^ Frg. XI. o 4 200 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC TOETS. Book III. authorities, his father's name was Damas ; according to others, Tityrus.^ Style and 2. The morc prominent features of Alcman's genius hispoetry! prcseiit, Certainly, more of an Asiatic than a Spartan character ; the extant specimens of his muse being chiefly of an amorous tendency, or in celebration of the pleasures of the table. Of the poems of the former class a large proportion appear to have been those called Parthenia, performed at certain public festivals and under national auspices, in honour of the youthful portion of the female citizens.^ The cir- cumstance of his being the earliest recorded author of odes of this rather peculiar character, may have obtained him the credit which he enjoys with the later grammarians, as "inventor" of the love song.^ The only member of the sex whom he celebrates by name is Megalostrata'*^, described by some commen- tators, but on no competent authority, as herself a proficient in the poetical art. These compositions are censured by the antients for their voluptuous or even licentious style ^ ; and their author is ranked, in respect to this peculiarity of his muse, in the same category as Anacreon. This judgement is also amply justified by the remains of Alcman, which are, for the most part, of a light and jovial, or even mere- tricious, tendency, savouring more of iEolian or Lydian than Dorian genius. Yet it is certain that the same rank allotted to the Athenian TyrtoBus, as representative of Spartan national feeling in the mar- tial and political orders of poetry and music, was enjoyed by the Lydian Alcman in the more social ^ Suid. loc. cit. ; conf. Welck. p. 4. - Supra, p. 74. ^ Suid. loc. cit. ; conf. Athen. xiii. p. 600 r. * Frg. xxvi. sq, * Archyt. et Chamael. ap. Athen. xiii. p. 600 r. Cu. IV. §2. ALCMAN. 670— GIO B. C 201 and familiar departments of the same arts. This congeniality of his style to the taste of the Spartan public, with his skill in adapting the rugged forms of the Laconian dialect to the livelier more popular branches of lyric composition, obtained for him the proud title of " Laconian " or " Lacedaemonian poet " by preeminence ; under which title he is as familiarly cited by his quoters and commentators as under his proper name of Alcman. From all this it would appear, either that the His tuie „ •,.-,, -..-to the ciia- ascetic contempt tor sensual mdulgcnce on which the ractor of Spartans afterwards prided themselves liad not yet ',iia,\''pyet;'' been fully matured, or that the legislative rigour of their public morality was compatible, in the days of Alcman, with much freedom of social habits.^ The great importance attached by the " Laconian poet " to the subject of eating and drinking forms, it may be added, a no less prominent feature, both of his personal and poetical character, than his turn for sexual gallantry. A large portion of his remains are devoted to elaborate descriptions of particular dishes, with eulogies of such as were to his own taste, and directions for their preparation. ^ He also boasts, in no measured terms, of the vastness of his appetite for this unpoetical species of luxury. Wa, is hence habitually quoted, by Athenaeus and otlier popular writers on convivial subjects, as the chief ^ The frequent and f:uuiliar allusions to gold and other objects of luxury or social splendour by " the Spartan poet," in these popular Spartan odes (frgg. xxv. xxix. xxx. xvii.), are also in curious conflict with the traditional banishment by Lycurgus (Plut. in vit. ix. ; conf. Lacon. Apophth. p. 22G.) of the precious metals, and all other more sumptuous appendages of civilised life, from the Lacedtcmonian state. - Frgg. XVII — XX., XXIII — XXV., xxviii, XXIX, JLxxxiv. alibi; all in the broadest possible conllict with J'hitai-fii, Vit. Lye. x. alibi. VOL. m. " i> T 202 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. authority of this early period on some of the more delicate branches of the art of good living. Several of the dishes described and commended by him belong rather to the head of pastry or confectionary than to that of substantial diet ^, and are, by consequence, more peculiarly at variance with the popular notions relative to the black broth school of cookery. He disclaims, however, in very emphatic terms, any desire to indulge in more dainty diet than his fellow-citizens ^ ; pluming himself less on the quality than the quantity of his meals, as his title to the designation, in which he seems to have gloried, of " the voracious Alcman." ^ The loathsome disease of which, like Sylla, Phere- cydes, and some other great men, he is said to have died, has hence been ascribed to his gluttonous ha- bits.^ Yet, from allusions contained in his extant passages, he would seem to have lived to an advanced age.^ His taste for wine was equally liberal. In one place he enumerates five kinds, several of which appear to have been of foreign growth.^ But neither his own text, nor the notices of his life, indicate any turn for intemperate conviviality. His rhyth- 3. Alcman possesses a strong claim to the honour, if not of inventing, of maturing at least, the proper melic school of Greek lyric poetry. Tcrpander, Tha- letas, and other earlier composers of Spartan celebrity, while uniting in some degree the literary with the melic branch of art, rank not as poets but as musi- cians; Callinus, Tyrtreus, Archilochus, on the other hand, rank not as musicians but as poets. In the works of Alcman is first observable that more com- plete distinction between recitative and melic com- * Frjrg. xvni. xxviii. ^ Frg. xxiii. ^ Frg. xxiii. "• Arislot. Hist. An. v. 31.; riin. H.N. xi. 39.; conf. Welck. p. 14. eq. ; iElian. V. II. i. xxvii. '' Frg. xii. <- Frg. xv. miciil im- prove- ments. Ch. IV. §3. ALCMAN. 670— 610 B.C. 203 position, which forms so essential a characteristic of the more advanced stages of lyric poetry. As the immediate successor or younger contemporary of Ter- pander, and enjoying the full benefit of the musical improvements of that great master, Alcman flou- rished at a period peculiarly favourable for the exercise of his own inventive faculties in the extension of those improvements to the properly poetical department of their common art. He is celebrated, accordingly, as author of the first more artificial developement of the strophe, the foundation of the higher choral styles of composition. The strophe, indeed, in its simplest form, was probably from the earliest period an ele- ment of the jDopular minstrelsy. In the remains of Archilochus it already appears, but on a compara- tively limited scale, and imparting epigrammatic rather than melic spirit to the text of an ode. In Alcman it assumes a fulness of form, and a variety of rhythmical combination, equalling or surpassing that allotted to it by Alcaeus or Sappho. His Ly- dian origin therefore, taken in connexion with the popularity of this style of composition in the contem- porary or immediately succeeding school of TRob'an poetry on the same Asiatic coast, and with a marked tinge of ^Eolism in his dialect^, can leave little doubt that the Greek public was indebted for the germ of this, as of other similar improvements of lyric art, to an Jj^olian rather than a Peloponnesian source. Alcman was probably not so much tlie author of the improvement, as the instrument of its introduction and developement on a Avider field of influence and popularity. Tlie exercise of his in- ^ Frgg. passim ; conf. Auctt. ap. Welck. ad frg. lxxvi. ; Eustath. ad Od. XV. p. 1787. 204 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book m. ventive talent has also been supposed, on grounds the validity of which has been considered in a pre- vious chapter \ to have extended from the sim[)ler melic order of strophe to the more complicated choric or antistrophic form of the same metrical refinement. The existing passages of his works afford, indeed, no distinct evidence of antistrophic arrangement. But, while neither their number nor state of preservation is sufficient to constitute them in this case any fair criterion of the entire collection, it is certain that several of the metrical combinations comprised in that collection are so far prolonged be3^ond the ordi- nary limits of the melic strophe, as to warrant the belief of their having formed part of regular choral compositions. Alcman is also mentioned by antient critics as author of an ode of fourteen strophes or stanzas, consisting of two sets of seven, each of which sets was in a different measure.^ But it does not appear in what mode the members of the series were disposed, whether the two varieties of form were chequered with each other in alternate pairs, and arranged, by consequence, in regular antistrophic form ; or whether each set of stanzas was ranged by itself in continuous order, forming, as it were, one prolonged strophe, to which the other seven stanzas may have corresponded as antistrophe. His works 4. The partlicuia^, or virginal songs, which occupied two** at least of the six books into which Alcman's entire collection is divided by the grammarians^, seem to have been solely or chiefly of the kind above classed^ as secular or profane; those, namely, com- * Supra, p, 59. " Ilephaest. p, 134, Gaisf. ^ Plut. de Mus. XVII. ; Alcni. fig. i. alibi. * Frg, XI. ; conf. Steph. Byz. v. Spviyix'i- * Suid. V. 'A\Kfi. 6 Ch. ii. p. 74. supra. and their remains. Ch. IV. § 4. ALCMAN. 670—610 B. C. 205 posed and performed in honour of the youthful mem- bers of the female sex. Of the other sacred order of parthenia, sung in chorus by the virgins themselves, there is no distinct trace in this poet's remains; although such compositions appear in Sparta, as in Thebes and Athens, to have formed a distinct branch of choral poetry.^ Besides the parthenia, Alcman is described as author of hymns, posans, prosodia, hymen^ea, and of certain compositions entitled Diving or Tumbling songs.^ The preserved specimens of these various compositions can hardly be said to justify the great celebrity of their author. Amid much that is commonjilace, or even vulgar, the style of his chaster passages seldom rises above a tone of easy colloquial elegance; and, even in his more dignified, amorous, or tender moods, his taste for the lower objects of sensual indulgence is apt to break forth. He descanted with some complacency, in one of his hymena^al odes it would appear, on the ingredients used in the preparation of certain dainty cakes which it was customary to hand round to the female choristers while engaged in chanting the praises of the bride.^ In a poetical description of the four sea- sons^, he complains of spring, on account of the compa- ratively scanty stock of his favourite viands with which that part of the year supplied his table, but con- gratulates himself on the increased variety which would set in after the summer solstice.^ His chief ex- cellence appears to have lain in his descriptive powers. The best and one of the longest extant passages ^ * Paus. III. X. 8., IV. xvi. 5. alibi. « Frg. XXXII.; Monand. Rh. ap. Welck. ibid.; Phit. de Mus. xvii. ; Leonid. Tarent. in Anthol. Palat. vji. 19.; Siiid. et Eudocia, v. '\\k/i. ; conf. Welck. op. cit. p. 9. ^ Sosib. ap. Athen. xiv. p. C4fi. •* Fr". xxiv. * Frg. xxiii. c Frg. x. 206 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. of his works is a description of sleep, or rather of night ; a description unsurpassed, perhaps unrivalled, by any similar passage in the Greek or any other language, and which has been imitated or paraphrased by many distinguished poets : ^ eu^oucriv S' ooicov xopui^al re xai (papocyyegf Trpibvig TB xal ^apaOf/ai' Qrjosg of>s(rxiooi rs, xai ysuog jU,?Xv xai xvay^aTC ev jisvSs(r(n TrojX^upoig aChlg ' ^xiKoL TavvTTTspvycov. . . . Now o'er the drowsy earth still night prevails. Calm sleep the mountain tops and shady vales, The rugged cliiFs and hollow glens ; The wild beasts slumber in their dens ; The cattle on the hill. Deep in the sea The countless finny race and monster brood Tranquil repose. Even the busy bee Forgets her daily toil. The silent wood No more with noisy hum of insect rings ; And all the feather'd tribes, by gentle sleep subdued, Roost in the glade, and hang their drooping wings. Nowhere, however, in his remains, even in the frag- ments of his hymns to the gods, is there any distinct trace of that loftiness of style which distinguishes the nobler productions of the Dorian Muse ; no high tone ^ ApoU. Rh., Virgil, Tasso, ap. Welck ad loc. A beautiful pecu- liarity of this beautiful description is the vivid manner in which it shadows forth the scenery of the vale of Lacedasmon, with which the inspirations of the poet were so intimately associated ; from the snow- capped peaks of Taygetus, down to the dark blue sea which washes the base of the mountain. The author would find it difficult to convey to the imagination of the reader the effect produced on his own by the recurrence of the passage to his mind, during a walk among the ruins of Sparta, on a calm spring night, about an hour after a brilliant sunset. Ch. IV. § 4. ALCMAN. 670—610. B. C. 207 of devotional fervour or moral feeling. Even his amatory effusions are rather of the sentimental and complimentary than the impassioned order. Xor does a vestige of camp song or war march appear in the collection, although later superficial grammarians^, in the face of the notorious priority of Tyrtseus in this department, ascribe to Alcman the invention of the anapaestic embaterion, or battle p^ean. The peculiar title of Diving or Tumbling songs ^, given by the antients to a portion of his compositions, would indicate them to have been of a grotesque or ludicrous tendency ; destined, possibly, as accom- paniments of the rustic mimes and Satyr dances popular among the Lacedremonians during this early period. Among the graver mythical subjects treated by Alcman, for the most part incidentally it may be presumed, were the siege and sack of Athens, and capture of ^thra, mother of Theseus, by the Dio- scuri.^ These adventures were described in a hymn addressed to the twin deities. Alcman differed from Homer, in representing Circe as herself stopping the ears of the mariners of Ulysses^, instead of merely instructing the hero to take that precaution, and in assigning ten, instead of twelve, children to Niobe.^ Among other innovations on the older fable, he de- scribed the Muses as female Titans^', daughters of Uranus and Terra. Fortune (Tyche), a deity un- known to Homer, was, in a more ethic spirit of allegory, made daughter of Promethia (Prudcntia), and sister of Eunomia (good government"). The » Ap. Welck. p. 12. ^ KoXvfifiujtTHc ; Suid. et Eiuloc. v. '.Wk/j. ; conf. Wclck. p. 8. sqq. ' Frg. III. sqq. ; conf. Welck. ad loc. * Krg. i.i. ' Frg. Liv. "^ Frg. ix. ' Frg. xi.v. 208 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. stone of Tantalus was explained, not as a real object of Tartarean terror, but as a morbid delusion in the condemned hero's mind^ ; and the Greco- Pelasgic origin of the Hellenic race was figured by their descent from a mythical race of matrons called Grasces.^ Consistently with Alcman's accredited extension of the system of strophic or choral arrangement, the more elementary rhythmical combinations, on which the varieties of that system are founded, appear in greater number in his remains than can be discovered in the works of any previous poet. He supplies, consequently, several additions to the stock of Archi- lochus, especially in the dactylic and Cretic branches, and in their different modifications, the choriambic, Ionic, and pa3onic.^ Although Alcman has the credit of imparting the graces of poetical diction to the ruder forms of the Laconian dialect, his use of that idiom seems to have been chiefly confined to compositions of a more familiar character. The more classical of his extant passages are partly in the primitive epic dialect, especially where dactylic forms prevail ; partly in the iEolic, or in a medium between the two. Even in more homely subjects, his idiom can rarely, if ever, be considered as pure Laconian. Like other poets, he availed himself of the ordinary privilege of Greek art, to select from the common stock of poetical usage the forms best adapted to the subject of each work. ARION. 625—610. B. C. Arionand 5. A large sharc of attention has already been his dolphin. ^jJQ^^gjj ^^j ^]^jg pQg^ ijj rj^ previous chapter, in con- ' Frg. Mil. ^ Frg. xciii. ' Welck. Prtef. ad Fragm. p. 12, sqq. Ch. IV. §5. ARION. C-25— GIO B.C. 209 nexiori with the dithyrambic chorus, around which his celebrity, as a promoter or improver of national art, was mainly concentrated. A few remarks, how- ever, still remain due to the details of his own per- sonal history, and to the merits of his poetical style, as represented by the single composition transmitted under his name. Arion was a native of Methymna, in the isle of Les- bos, and a disciple, therefore, of the same yEolian school which produced so many other illustrious poets of the melic order. His talents, as we have alreadv seen \ were more celebrated as exercised in the musical and orchestic than in the poetical depart- ment of his art. Tlis age has not been very exactly recorded. He is described, however, as a pupil of Alcman"^ (670 — 611 B.C.) ; and the chief scene of his professional activity was Corinth, during the reign of Periander, which commenced in 625 b. c. The date assigned to his maritime adventure, described in the sequel, is 610 B.C., the year before the death of his accredited master Alcman. His own flourishing period may therefore be placed between 625 and 610 B.c.^ The name Cycleus, or Cyclon, familiarl}^ ascribed to his father"*, seems an evident figure of the fame derived by the son from his invention of the " Cyclic " chorus. Of his early career nothing fur- ther is recorded than that he selected Corinth as his principal scene of activity, where he enjoyed the patronage and friendship of its celebrated ruler above mentioned. The remarkable adventure of which he afterwards became the hero, while indebted probably for much ' Supra, p. 77. sqq. " Said. v. 'Apiojv. 3 Clint. Fnst. Hell. vol. i. p. 211. 217. * Suid. v. •kplmv. VOL. III. J' 210 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. of tlie romantic detail with which popular tradition has invested it to his celebrity as an artist, has, in its turn, contributed nearly as much to his posthu- mous fame, as the brilliancy of his musical compo- sitions. It has been narrated under its liveliest and most attractive features by Herodotus, and cannot, consequently, be presented to the reader in a more concise, simple, and agreeable form than in the lan- guage of that author : ^ " During the reign of Periander, a very extraordinary event occurred, the transport of Arion, the Methymnfean, to Cape Tte- narus by a dolphin. This Arion, the most distinguished harp- player of his age, and the first wlio, to our knowledge, composed and represented the dithyramb in Corinth, is said, after a long residence at the court of Periander, to have conceived a desire to visit Italy and Sicily. Having acquired much wealth in those regions by the exercise of his art, he resolved again to return to Corinth, and, reposing great confidence in the mariners of that city, embarked on board a Corinthian vessel. The crew, how- ever, conspired on the voyage to cast him into the sea, and take possession of his treasure. On being apprised of their design, he entreated them to spare his life, and to content themselves with his goods, the whole of which he would freely abandon to them. But they would not listen to him, and ordered him either to dis- patch himself with his own hand, promising him a decent inter- ment on shore, or to throw himself into the sea. Seeing no hope of prevailing with them, he besought them at least to allow him, adorning himself with the insignia of his art, to sing his own funeral dirge, and promised that, at its close, he would fulfil their com- mand. To this they agreed, fascinated by the thought of hearing such a performance by the most illustrious musician of the age, and assembled in the centre of the ship for the purpose. Arraying him- self accordingly in his festive attire, he took up his station on the prow, witli lyre in hand, and, after performing the Orthian nome^, plunged into the waves. The ship pursued its course to Corinth ; ' Hcrodot. I. xxiii. sq. ; conf. Dio Cln-ys. vol. ii. p. 102. Reisk.; rausan. III. XXV. 5. ; iElian. Hist. An. xii. xlv. ; Aiictt. ap. Plehn. Lesbiara, p. 166. ; Welck. Delph. des Arion, Kleine Scbrift. vol. i. j). J)l. 2 riiitardi (Conv. Sept. Sap. p. 161.) calls it the Pytliian nonie. Ch. IV. § 6. ARION. 625— GIO B. C. 211 while a dolphin, as the story is tohl, taking Arion on its back, bore him safe to Cape Tajnarus. On landing he travelled direct to Corinth, still equipped as before, and on his arrival related what had befallen him to his patron. Periander, somewhat incredulous, retained him in custody, keeping, at the same time, a careful watch on the return of the vessel. On its entry into port he sent for the mariners, and questioned them concerning Arion. They replied that the poet was still in Italy, and that they had left him in prosperous circumstances at Tarentum. Upon this, Periander suddenly brought him, dressed precisely as he was when he leapt overboard, into their presence; wlien, terroi'-struck, they confessed all that had taken place. This adventure is related both by the Corinthians' and the Lesbians; and, in a small bronze offering dedicated by the poet himself in the sanctuary of Neptune at Taanarus, he is represented bestriding a dolphin." 6. That this beautiful fable is founded, to a grearer Probable or less extent, on fact, few even of the most fastidious Sgend. commentators have ventured to dispute, whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the nature or amount of such ingredient of reality. Some have supposed that the poet, when thrown into the sea by piratical mariners, had been picked up alive by a vessel bearing the sign of a dolphin. Others have conjectured that a figure of Neptune riding on a dolphin had been dedicated by Arion in the temple of Neptune at Tasnarus, as an acknowledgement of the favour vouchsafed by the deity to the poet in liis maritime adventures; and tliat the human portion of the group having been misrepresented by the priests, or mistaken by the frequenters of tlic sanctuary, for an effigy of Arion himself, had given rise to tlie fa])le of his miraculous preservation by the animal. There can be little doubt that the legend, whatever ' Uianor (in Anlli. Tal. ix. cp. .']()«.) makes the dolpliin hoar Arion direct to Coriiilli. Lucian iuiil others (conf. Welck. op. cit. n. !)7.) place tlie advoiiturv in tlic .Kj;;i;ui sea. 2 1 2 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. its own immediate import, is connected with the older fable of the Laconian hero Phalanthus^, who led a colony from Sparta to Tarentum, the Italian port from which Arion sailed, and who was similarly preserved by a dolphin when shipwrecked near the coast of Italy. There is here the further coincidence, which can hardly be altogether fortuitous, that the same legend is related of Taras, the primitive eponyme hero of Tarentum^, who is also represented on the coins of that city bestriding a dolphin. The dolphin, from its proverbially sociable and easy intercourse with mariners, playing, as it does habitually, round their vessels, and accompanying them on their course, was the popular type, not merely of navigation,, but especially of successful maritime enterprise.^ Hence the legends of remarkable persons (among whom may be numbered, besides Taras, Phalanthus, and Arion, Telemachus, Hesiod, and others of inferior note) saved from death, or preserved, when drowned, from a watery grave, by the friendly intervention of this animal, were singularly popular and prevalent^ among the Greeks of all ages. Riding on a dolphin thus became the familiar symbol of providential escape from maritime disaster. Another fabulous attribute of the animal was its partiality for music and musicians^, ' Pausiin. X. xili. 5. ' Pausan. loc. clt., conf. x. x. 4. ; Strab. vi. p. 279. ; conf. Mlill. Dor. vol. ii. p. 216. 369.; Plehn, Lesbiaca, p. 166. 3 Honi. Hymn. Apoll. Pyth.; Pind. Pyth. iv. 29.; Eurip. Helen. 1474.; conf. Wclck. Ueb. den Delph. d. Arion. Op. Misc. vol. i. p. 89. ; and the author's Journal of a Tour in Greece, vol. i. p. 173. ^ Of Hesiod, supra, Vol. II. p. 375. Of Telemachus, Plut. de Solert. Anim. p. 985.; conf. Archil, frg. 84. Lieb.; Phylarch. ap. Athen. xiii. p. 006. ; Paus. i. xliv. 11., in. xxv. 5. ; Plut. Conv. S. Sap. p. 162 , De Solert. Aniin. p. 984.; Welck. op. cit. p. 90. » Pind. fi-jre. \r>r,, 157. Rocrkh; Eurip. Electr. 4.13. Ch. IV. §6. ARION. 625— 610 B. C. 213 supplying an additional motive for its employment by Arion or his admirers, in this symbolic capacity, should opportunity offer, or circumstances require. Assuming, therefore, that the poet was, it matters not how, providentially preserved from drowning in the course of a voyage from Tarentum, nothing could be more natural than for him to shape his votive offering to Neptune in the form described by Hero- dotus ; and any more subtle interpretations which have been hazarded, as to a misunderstanding of the real nature or import of the monument by posterity, or wilful deception by the priests of the temple, be- come superfluous and hypercritical. More specious, perhaps, is the objection founded Cydeus, on the text of the inscription on the monument, as Arion. quoted by later authors \ where the name Cycleus or Cyclon occurred as that of Arion's father. This name, it has been urged, was a mere figurative title ^, typifying the poet's celebrity as institutor of the " Cyclic " chorus. It could hardly, therefore, have been the invention of Arion's own day, still less have been inscribed by himself, instead of the real name of his parent, on a votive monument of his own dedication. Upon this difficulty has chiefly been grounded, and with some plausibility, the hypothesis, that the figurative group, even if really representing Arion, was not of his own or of contemporary dedi- cation, but a forgery of the priests in later times, as a valuable addition to their stock of curiosities. Tlie sceptical argument, however, is here also more spe- cious than real. The slender knowledge we possess of ' >Elian. Hist. An. xn. xlv. : Cramer, Anecd. Oxoii. vol, iir. p 352, " Colli'. sii|)r:i, |). 85.; Siiid. et End. v. 'Afiitor. 214 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. the mode or circumstances under which such symbolic titles were wont to be bestowed, ought itself to render us cautious, in any case, of grounding specific con- clusions on such speculative data. But, in fact, there can be no doubt, by reference to other authenticated examples, that it would have been quite in conformity with the Greek figurative style of those days, that a significant patronymic of this nature should not only have obtained currency during Arion's own life- time, but should have been used by himself or his friends in a poetical dedication. That the figurative title Ligystiades, or Ligyastades, " Son of Complaint," was similarly applied to Mimnermus, the " plaintive poet " by preeminence, is proved by its occurrence in a still extant passage of an elegy addressed to him by his friend and contemporary Solon. ^ Whether that legislator's own patronymic Execestides, " Son of Reform," be more than a typical indication of his political services, seems also very questionable. And there is reason to believe that the name Enipo, literally " Scold," under which Archilochus has himself recorded his servile origin by the motlier's side, is but a figure of his own scurrilous tongue. The genuine character botli of Arion's monument and of its in- scription has received a further curious confirmation by the pala^.ographical discoveries lately effected in the island of Thera, now Santorini.- That island was colonised by Sparta at a remote date, and the worship of Neptune was transplanted to it, in a form similar to that which prevailed at Ttenarus, as an emanation ]>robably from the Laconian sanctuary. ' See Cli. vi. § I. - Boeckh, Uebcv die von rrokcsch in Thera entd. Inschr. Abliandl. dev Berlin Acad. 1838, p. 41. scjq. ; conf. Franz. Eleni. Epigraj)li. p. 53. Ch. IV. §7. ARION. Gi.7— 610 B. C. 215 Among other very antient and valuable inscriptions lately discovered in Thera, seemingly within the sacred precinct of the god, is one which, as restored by its ingenious editor \ contains the name of Cycleus, and, to all appearance, those of Arion and his dolphin. It also bears, in its terms, that the monument to which it referred, a duplicate probably or copy of that in the parent sanctuary, was dedicated by the poet's own brother ; and the style of the letters has been admitted, on the same not very indulgent authority, to betray an antiquity coeval with that of the dedicator. 7. Another important question, as affecting both Arion's the element of historical fact in this legend and the Neptune, literary character of Arion, is that concerning the authenticity of the elegant ode to Xeptune^ preserved by JElian^, and attributed by hhn to Arion. This poem not only describes itself very distinctly in the person of its own author as a work of Arion, com- posed in commemoration of his delivery by dolphins, but makes the poet himself allude to the circum- stances of that delivery as corresponding, in all es- sential respects, with those narrated by Herodotus. lie describes " treacherous men as casting him from " the hollow ship into the purple sea ; and the nim- " bly bounding music-loving dolphins as transporting " liini on their crested backs to the T^enarian shore " of the land of Pelops." Modern critical opinion* ' Bueckh, oj). cit. p. 71. sciq. ^ Ap. Schiieidcw. Delectus Pocsis Grace, sect. ir. p. 258. ; Bcrgk, Poet. lyrr. Grsecc. p. 566. ^ Hist. An. XII, 45. ; couf. Tzetz. ap. Ciam. Ancctl. Oxon. vol. iii. p. 352. •* Conf. AVcklc. op. (it. p. !);5. ; MuHlt, Hist, of Or. Lit. vol. i. p. 205.; Hennaiin aatical and exaggerated criticism of Lelirs, Khein. Mus. 1«47, p. (13. 218 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. author in liis capacity of poet or composer of verses, apart from his celebrity as musician. That Arion, as a poet, in the narrower sense of the term, was dis- tinguished in any great degree by the higher attri- butes of genius, there is no ground to believe. The fact that, with the exception of this apocryphal ode, no passage of his works has been preserved, or so much as appealed to, by any antient author, is in itself argument that comparatively little account was made of them, apart from the charm of the musical and dramatic performances with which they were origi- nally connected. Had his literary compositions been distinguished by those higher poetical features Avhich characterise the muse of Archilochus, Sappho, or Alcaeus, such neglect on the part of the native pub- lic were scarcely conceivable. Hence, although by extant authorities Arion is occasionally designated poet as well as musician, it is in the latter capacity alone that he can be said to be celebrated. Hero- dotus describes him simply " as the greatest musical performer upon record;" and the same or similar expressions are habitually applied to him by others. While this silence as to any superior excellence of his poems need not necessarily imply an actual deficiency of merit, it goes far to indicate that such merit as they possessed was much of that description cha- racterised by one of the critics already quoted as " consisting in words rather than ideas ; " in suavity and elegance of expression, and harmony of sound ; in tliose features, namely, which adapt lyric composi- tion to the lighter festive order of musical performance. As judged merely by this standard, the ode in ques- tion is certainly no way unwortliy of its accredited author's reputation. There are, however, it can Ch. IV. §8. AlUON. 6-25— 610 B. C. '219 hardly be denied, both in its style and measure, traces of a later more artificial period of literature than the age of Arion. The measure is of that com- paratively lax and disjointed kind which the antient critics^ considered as a species of lyric recitative or harmonious prose, and is, by consequence, widely at variance with the practice of either the J^^olian or Dorian schools in the age of Arion. It savours, at the earliest, of the time of Simonides, whose Lament of Danae"- is the first ascertained specimen of this style of composition. The expression and imagery are also in a strain of poetical rhetoric more com- patible -svith the muse of a dithyrambic poet of the Attic period than with that of Arion. Apart from these considerations, it were certainly not very easy to understand how, among so many classical authors who describe, or pointedly allude to, Arion's adventure, ^lian should have been the first to appeal to this ode as an authority on the subject, had his predecessors known of its existence or admitted its genuine cha- racter. To revert^ however, from the apocryphal to the more solid claims of Arion to poetical celebrity, it may further be remai-ked, that the vigorous talent displayed by him in his own proper style of art, as originator or ennobler of the lyro-dramatic order of composition, furnishes no necessary argument of any higher qualifications as a poet in the ordinary sense. A proficiency in such orchestic or pantomimic branches of art might rather, perhaps, as a general rule, be held incompatible with genius of a superior order. The more properly dramatic or mimetic ' Dion. Hal. do Struct. Orat. xxvi. " Ap. Dion. Ilal. loc. cit. 220 BIOGRxVPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. portions of the dithyrambic solemnity were, doubtless, in a great measure extemporaneous, and neither in- tended nor qualified to stand the test of a written jDerusal. Kor, accordingly, among the notices of Arion's works, does mention occur of any poem under the general title of Dithyramb. His compositions are limited to the two heads of Procemia and Odes or Songs ; and, as the whole collection is described by the same authorities as consisting of but two books, it was not probably copious. The Prooemia were, there can be little doubt, the introductory hymns or preludes to the dithyrambic performances. The other head might comprehend productions of a very mis- cellaneous character. The title Orthian or Pythian nome, given by Herodotus and Plutarch to the com- position executed by Arion before committing him- self to the waves, alludes to a musical rather than a poetical performance. The wide- spread celebrity of Arion, whether due to his merits as a musician, or to the supernatural protection vouchsafed him by the gods, cannot be better evinced, than by the fact of the group re- presenting him astride on his dolphin having been adopted by luunerous cities and states as the device of their coined money. This is a distinction rarely conferred, in any case, but on divinities, founders, or illustrious national heroes. Its extension to an ordinary mortal is here the more remarkable, from the absence, in several instances, of any immediate bond of connexion, by birth, race, or otherwise, between the person so honoured and the commu- nities by whom the honour was conferred. That such a compliment should have been paid to Arion at Methymna or Corinth, localities closely identified Ch. IV. § 9. STESICHORUS. 635— 554 B. C. 221 with his own personal history, were nothing ex- traordinary. But he possessed no such claim on Brundusium, Alisarne, Pisaurus, and other states \ by whom the like homage was offered to his memory. His statue, in the same attitude as at Taenarus, was also dedicated in the Sanctuary of the Muses at He- licon.^ ace. Locrian origin. STESICHORUS. 635—554. B. C. 9. Before enterhig on the life and Avorks of Stesi- stcsicho- chorus^, attention may seem to be demanded by Shp"' another poet, named Xanthus, mentioned by several authorities as having not only preceded Stesichorus in the cultivation of the branch of lyric art common to each, but as having supplied him with a portion of his materials. As, however, the chief or only title to celebrity on the part of Xanthus seems to be this connexion between him and Stesichorus, the few par- ticulars transmitted of the life or labours of the former will be more appropriately introduced as sub- sidiary to the history of his distinguished successor and supposed plagiarist. The birthplace of Stesichorus is generally under- stood to have been Himera^, a Greek colony on the north coast of Sicily, founded about the xxxiiird ' Rasche, Lex. Rei Num. vol. i. p, 1098., vol. in. p. 1361.; conf. Si({)])lein. vol. I. p. 1046.; Pkkli. Dortr. R. N, vol. i. p. 143. 145., vol. ii. J). 50-2. " Pausan. ix. xxx. 2. ^ Conf. Siiid. V. lV/;ai\o^)(ic ; Kk'in, Dc vit. ct .<;cript. Stosidiori ; Fr:i_rrm. ytesi(;li. ibid.; Scliiicidewin, Del. Toes. Gr. p. 325.; Bergk, Poett. lyrr. p. 634.; Welok. Stesichorus, in Kleine Sclirilt. vol. i. p. 148. sqq. The remains are here quoted according to the arrangement of Klein. ♦ Auctt. ap. Wclck. Stesich. p. 150. 222 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. Olympiad, b. c. 648.^ This colony is described as having been peopled by a mixed body of settlers^, comprising emigrants from the opposite coast of the Italian Locris, Chalcidians from Zancle on the Straits, afterwards called jMessana, and Syracusan refugees. The poet's familiar title of HimeraBan, Avith the leading circumstances of his history, establish Himera as at least his place of residence. In some accounts, how- ever, he is described as a native of Pallantium in Arcadia^ ; in others, of a town called Metaurus. This latter name is connected by geographers with two localities : the one situated in the same Italo-Locrian territory which contributed largely to the Himera3an settlement ; the other is placed in Sicily"^, and de- scribed as a Locrian colony. But the existence of the Sicilian town rests on no sufficient authority, and both notices probably refer to the Italo-Locrian ]\Ie- taurus.^ These conflicting accounts of the poet's nativity may be partially explained by the circum- stance of the foundation of Himera itself having taken place but a few years prior to his own birth ; or, ac- cording to some authorities, the two events must have been nearly simultaneous. He might thus have been brought over an infant by one of the earlier colonists ; and, if any doubt existed as to his precise place of nativity, it Avas natural that each district whence an influx of settlers had taken place should, on his subsequently obtaining celebrity, attempt to claim hini as its own.'' In the more popular ac- 1 Clint. Fast. Hull. vol. i. p. 198. ' Thucyd. vi. 5. ' Suid. V. Sd/it. '* Ste'iili. Byz. v. MaTavonr. * Stnib. VI. p. 25C).; conf. Plin, alios ap. Kloin. Fragm. Stcs. p. 9. 6 This explanation, even as :ii)i)lied to tlio logond of his Arcadian origin, which stands altogether alone among the variety of those con- necting him with Locris, appears more natural and probable than Cu. IV. §9. STESICHORUS. 635— 554 B. C. 223 counts, however, a Locrian origin at least is as- signed him. His connexion, or that of his fjimily, with the Italian Locris is further confirmed by the name of one of his brothers, Mamertius^ and by that of Tisias, which he himself is said originally to have borne.^ The one is evidently derived from ^Mamertium, the other from Tisias, two towns of the Locrian dis- trict. Of the four or five^ different names, mythical or real, ascribed by different biographers to his father, that of Euphemus is supported by the authority of Plato. "^ Another was Euclides, in favour of which might be urged, that Thucydides mentions a Euclides as one of the founders of the Himera^an colony. The birth of Stesichorus may, on a balance of Age. De- various authorities, be placed about 635 b. c. ; his Sod!"" death about 554 b. c. He would thus have lived upwards of eighty years. Lucian assigns him eighty- five.'' Aristotle*^, however, backed by Philochorus, an esteemed commentator of the poet, is said to have ascribed to him a much higher antiquity, and, at the same time, a father of no less celebrity than Hesiod.^ His mother, in the same account, was Clymene, the maiden whose imputed seduction by the Boeotian bard was, in the popular legend, the cause of his AVclckcr's proposed interpretation of it (op. cit. p. IGO.) in a figurative sense. • Suid. V. ^Djirixopor. 2 Suid. ibid.; conf. Klein, op. cit, p. 10. 3 Suid. V. Srrjfft'xopoc ; conf. Klein, p. 3. sq. '^ riiiudr. p. 244. 5 Klein, Fragm. Stcsicli. p. 4. ; A\'olck. Stesieh. Kleine Schrift. vol. i, p. 149.; conf. Clint. Fast, llell. vol. i. p. 217., vol. n. p. 5.; Lucian. .Macrob. xxvi. ''' Prn(;l. et Tzctzes, Prolegg. in Ilcsiod. ap. Gaisf. pp. 7. 15. ; if iiidoed the work of Aristotle here quoted be genuine, which the grammarian himself appears to doubt. ' Prod, ad ITesiod. 0pp. 268. ; conf Suiil. v. iVi/Ti'x. and supra, A'ol. II. p. -U-J. 224 BIOQRArHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. own death. This account, taken by the letter, is so repugnant to all history, chronology, or common sense, and so broadly disproved by the internal data of the Himera?an poet's works, as to render it, even if sanctioned by so high authority, unworthy of serious attention. Modern commentators, accord- ingly, are agreed that, in so far as admissible at all, it must be taken in a figurative sense, as indicating not a kindred of blood between the two poets, but a relation between the schools of art over which they respectively presided. To the nature of that relation attention will be directed in the sequel. His family. 10. Thc poct's owu uamc, as already stated, is re- Jith'^Phar j)orted to ha^'e been originally Tisias, but was altered ^^'''■"'" to Stesichorus ^ in honour of his choric improvements, possibly of his office of president of the choral festi- vities of his native republic. The latter name appears to have remained hereditary in the family. A second Stesichorus of Himera is mentioned, though on some- what apocryphal authority, as having visited Greece in the Lxxiiird Olympiad-, about seventy years af- ter the death of his more distinguished predecessor ; and a third as having gained a prize in a theatrical competition at Athens several generations later.^ ' Sucli clianges are familiar in Greek literary history, as in the cases, among others, of Phito and Theophrastus, whose previous appellations are reported, on apparently authentic testimony, to have been Aristoclos and Tyrtaraus. '^ ]\Iarm. Par. 01. jlxxiii. 3. ^ Marm. Par. 01. cii. 3. These later Stesichori, in whatever number they may have existed, or whatever their connexion with each other or the chief of the family, are so completely unknown to fame, that it is not easy to see how they should, in any quarter, have been raised to the dignity of chronological pivots. There can, indeed, be little doubt that the first Stesichorus of the Parian chronicler (to whose notices of the early lyric authors, as a general rule, very little value attaches) is the original Ch. IV. § 10. STESICFIORUS. G 35— 5.54 B. C. 225 Mention also occurs of two brothers of Stesichorus, each of whom enjoyed his share of the family talent, in a different branch of pursuit. One, the Mamertius above noticed, is described as a skilful geometrician ; the other, Halianax, as a legislator or statesman.^ Of the poet's daughters, their existence, or adven- tures, no information has been transmitted, but on the very questionable authority of the epistolary romance which passed current with the moderns up to the time of Bentley as the " Letters of Pha- laris,"^ the celebrated tyrant of Agrigentum. The genuine character of any portion of this correspond- ence is now universally and justly set aside. Pha- laris and Stesichorus appear, however, to have been contemporaneous ; and, as the author of the Letters would naturally be anxious to impart plausibility to his fiction, by embodying in it the current historical notices concerning two such remarkable personages, it is not perhaps unlikely that some of the details of their joint biography which the correspondence sup- plies may be authentic, though not entitled to rank as such unless corroborated by better evidence. The most important of these details, on which all or most of the others depend, is the tyrant's munificent pa- tronage of the poet, in common with other men of letters of the same period. It would appear, how- ever, by reference to better authorities, that the merits of Phalaris as a Maecenas are fictitious^, or Himeraean poet, transferred, by some strange blunder, from the fifth to the eighth decade of the Olympic aera. Conf. Klein. Fragm. Stesich. p. 5. sq. ; Welck. Stesich. p. 149. sc[. ; Boeckh. Corp. Inscr. Gr. vol. ii. p. 319. * Suid. V. 'S.rtjaix-', conf. Eudoc. p. 385. Villois. ; Hipp. ap. Procl. ad Euclid, ap. Klein, p. 14. ^ Epist. 67 alibi, ed. Boyle. 3 Bentl. Opusc. p. 32. sqq. ed. Lips. 1781. VOL. III. Q 226 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. at least that such relations as may have subsisted between him and Stesichorus were of no very friendly nature. The only well attested record of a part taken by the latter in the political affairs of his times describes his successful resistance to the insidious attempt of Phalaris to reduce the poet's native com- monwealth, Ilimera, to subjection. The tyrant, by his intrigues, favoured by the necessities of that re- public, then engaged in wars with its neighbours, had procured himself to be elected commander-in-chief of its forces, and subsequently applied for a body guard in support of his authority. From this dangerous concession Stesichorus dissuaded his fellow-citizens by a popular fable, ever since justly esteemed one of the most ingenious of its kind, and for the invention of which Aristotle ^, bmwhom the whole transaction has been recorded, gives him credit : " A horse who had hitherto enjoyed the pasturage of a meadow, being disturbed in his possession by a stag, applied to a man for assistance in expelHng the intruder. The man replied, that he could only serve him effectually if allowed to mount on liis back and put a bit in his mouth. To this the horse agreed ; but no sooner was the rider firm in his seat, than the horse discovered, too late, that in avenging his cause against the stag he was become the slave of the man. ' Beware, therefore,' the poet continued, applying the case to his audience, ' lest, in your anxiety to obtain the superiority over your enemies, you yourselves be reduced to subjection. The bit you have already placed in your mouths, by selecting Phalaris to command your troops ; but, if you grant him a body guard, you will then have allowed him to mount you, and will become his slaves.'" ^ Blindness. n. Xhc most cclcbratcd event, however, in the atiou ■• life of this poet, supplying certainly one of the most interesting chapters in the literary mythology of ' Rhetor. 71. 20. ; fonf. Ilorat. Epist. i. x. ,34. '^ The same story is told by Conon (Narr. 42.), concerning Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse, and the Stesichorus of 01. 73. Cii. TV. §11. STESICHORUS. G35— 554 B. C. 227 Greece, is the temporary blindness with which he was visited, shortly after the composition of his poem on the " Destruction of Troy." This disaster was supposed to have been inflicted on him by the heroine Helen, as a punishment for the calumnious terms in which he had spoken of her in that poem ; and the restoration of his sight was attributed to his public recantation of the slander in a subsequent work. The following account of his recovery is given by Gonon^ and Pausanias", on the joint authority of the Hime- rteans and Grotoniates : " In the Euxine Sea, near the mouth of the Danube, is situated the island called Leuka, sacred to Achilles, and containing a temple and image of that hero. This island is said to have been first visited by Leonymus of Croton ; who, being afflicted by a sore wound in the breast, applied for relief to the Delphic oracle. He had received this wound in an engagement between the Crotoniates and the Locrians. It was the custom of the Locrians in mar- shalling their line of battle to leave an open space in the centre, which they believed to be occupied and defended by their national hero Ajax, son of O'ileus. Leonymus, in the course of the action above alluded to, made an attempt to break through this opening ; when he was assaulted and beaten back by a phantom warrior, and x-eceived a thrust in the breast from the spear of his mysterious adversary. Unable to procure relief from human surgical skill, he appealed to the Pythoness. Her advice was, that he should visit the temple of Achilles, in the sacred island of Leuka, whei'c the Locrian Ajax would appear to him and heal his sore. This advice he followed. On his return home from his pilgrimage, cured through the agency pointed out by the oracle, he related, among other wonders of the sacred island, that he had found Helen there, living as the spouse of Achilles, and that she had ordered him, on revisiting his native country, to cross over to Himera, and inform Stesichorus that the blindness which had overtaken him was a punishment for his injurious treatment of her. On receiving this communication, the poet composed his Palinodia, or Recantation, and liis sight was I'estored." ' Ap. riiot. Nair. 18. * m. xix. 11. Q 2 228 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. Plato ^, who, with other distinguished authors, dwells with pleasure on this legend, gives a some- what different version of it, describing Stesichorus as having himself, by the inspiration of his muse, divined the source of his calamity. According to other ac- counts, it was disclosed to him in a dream. ^ The story, stripped of its fabulous appendages, may reduce itself to a simple kernel of fact. An attack of oph- thalmia, shortly after the composition of the work in which the heroine was maligned, would easily lead a lively poetical imagination to combine the two cir- cumstances in the relation of cause and eiFect. This was the more natural, from Stesichorus having, in the unfavourable points of the history of Helen, de- ferred to the authority of Homer ; whose proverbial blindness he might naturally connect, as Plato ^ him- self and other authorities very pointedly do, with the same cause to which he had been led to attribute his own. A dream, a vow of redress, a recantation, and subsequent recovery of sight, would suffice to impress a conviction of preternatural interference on a superstitious mind. Some such basis of fact, to- gether with his own actual belief in the reality of the interposition, is implied by the ten^r of an extant passage^ of his works. Migration 12. Towards the close of his life, Stesichorus is De^th and ^^^^ ^^ hsLYQ emigrated from Himera, driven probably tomb. 'by i\iQ political emergencies of the times, to the kin- dred Chalcidian city of Catana, on the opposite coast ^ Phajdi*. p. 243. ; conf. Isocrat. Helen. ; alios ap. Klein. Fragm. Stesich. p. 21. sqq. * Suid. t'S bviipov. ^ Loc. cit. ; conf. Vit. Horn. Matrit. p. 233., where Homer's blindness is distinctly attributed to the anger of Helen. * Frg. xi.iv. Ch. IV. § 12. STESICHORUS. 635—554 B. C. 229 of the island, where he died.^ Mention occurs of the murder of Stesichorus, " the citharoedic poet," by a robber named Icanus.^ But the notice, even if authen- tic, leaves it doubtful whether reference be made to the elder Stesichorus, or to one of the subsequent poets of the name. A sumptuous monument was erected in his honour at one of the gates of Catana, hence called the Stesichorean gate.^ The structure is described as octangular, supported by eight columns, and raised upon eight steps. From this peculiarity some de- rived the popular Greek proverb, " all of eight," expressive of uniformity or symmetry. Hence, also, a cast of the dice in which the number eight came up is said to have been called the " cast of Stesi- chorus."'^ Several authors, alluding to this proverb, describe the tomb as situated at Himera ^ ; but the claims of Catana to possess the remains of the poet are preferable. His memory, however, was highly cherished in his native town, where a fine bronze statue of him is described by Cicero as still extant in his time.*" Of the personal character of Stesichorus, the com- Personal paratively slender criteria supplied by the more au- *^ ^'^^'^'^ ^'^' thentic notices of his life, or by the internal evidence of his remains, afford a favourable estimate. His successful opposition to the intrigues of Phalaris exhibits him in a creditable light, both as a patriot ' Suid. V. 'Sr7](Tixop()c et TrdpTu uktio ; Antip. in Anthol. Palat. vii. 75. ; Plialar. Epist. 54. * Suid. v. tTTiriijOf I'/zff. ^ Suid. V. Sr>)(T. et vravTci oktm, alibi ; Antip. .sup. cit. * Pullu.x, IX. 100. For other more subtle, not perhaps more probable, interpretations, see Welcker, p. 170. ^ Eustath. ad II. p. 1289. ; Pollux, loc. cit. ; conf. Klein, p. 27. ; Bentl, Opusc. Diss. XV. p. 30. ed. Lips. '' In Verr. ii. xxxv. Q 3 230 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book ITI. and a statesman ; while the ingenious allegory with which he seasoned his counsel displays the lively ima- gination of the poet, united to the sound judgement of the practical philosopher. The affair of the Pali- nodia, on the other hand, savours more of the former than the latter quality. The general spirit of his works, whether in the selection of his subjects or in their mode of treatment, is marked by dignity and de- licacy of taste, and, upon the whole, by a higher tone of morality than is common with his brother poets of the lyric school ; but the characteristic absence from his compositions of that personal or local individuality, which forms the prevailing feature of their style, ren- ders his text proportionally barren of data for judging as to the nicer shades of his own temper or disposition. Inventive 13. The influcnce ascribed to Stesichorus in ma- iTo-e ic during or perfecting the antistrophic order of choral style. composition has already been considered in treating of the general progress of the lyric art. In another respect, he ranks as the most distinguished master, if not the actual originator, of a new style of poetical composition. Among the more prominent features of distinction between the lyric and the epic schools of Greek poetry, a distinction already frequently noticed and illustrated in these pages, are the prefer- ence in the former of subjects of local or contem- porary, rather than mythical or heroic, interest, and their treatment in a descriptive or illustrative, rather than a narrative, style. In the works of Stesichorus this distinction entirely disappears. The more essen- tial characteristics of epic composition are there found engrafted on lyric forms. The subjects of all or most of his principal poems are derived from the old ideal mythology, from the events and exploits of the Ch. IV. §13. STESICHOKUS. 635— 554 B. C. 231 ( heroic age ; from the same mythical sources, in fact, which supplied the Epic Muse with her favourite materials, and are treated in the same narrative mode as in the page of Homer and Hesiod. Still, however, the metrical style of Stesichorus was so essentially lyric, that, even amid a marked preference for dactylic forms, his remains afford no trace what- ever of a continuous series of hexameter or elegiac verses. This peculiarity of his style is much dwelt on by antient critics, and has been elegantly described by Quintilian^ as " sustaining mth the lyre the burthen of the epic minstrelsy." It helps also to explain the fable which made Stesichorus a son of Hesiod. The epic element of the Himeraean poet's art stood obvi- ously in a nearer relation to the Hesiodic than to the Homeric school of poetry. An ode or choral song, to whatever extent it may have partaken of the epic character, could never, without an entire forfeiture of its lyric character, admit of the wide extent or elaborate structure of the Homeric epopee. The subject of such an ode must have been either in itself comparatively limited, or have been treated in a limited or condensed form. But this comparative brevity is the characteristic of the Hesiodic, as con- trasted with the Homeric or Cyclic school of heroic composition. The seat of the former school was, as we have already seen-. Central Greece; Boeotia, with the neighbouring districts of Phocis and Locris. The prevalence and popularity of the Hesiodic poetry in the latter district are sufficiently proved l)y the tradition of Ilesiod's death within its bounds, and of his burial in tlie sacred soil of one of its most ' X. i. 62. ' Conf. Vol. II. p. 374. sqr^. a 4 Orestia. 232 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. distinguished sanctuaries. But Stesichorus himself was of Locrian origin, or, at least, was proudly claimed as such by the Italo-Locrian colonies. In any attempt, therefore, to connect his epic genius with the mother country by the popular forms of figurative genealogy, both his Locrian blood and his poetical style could hardly fail to point out Hesiod, and Ilesiod's Locrian mistress Clymene, as his most appropriate ancestors.^ How so immediate a relation as that of father and son should, in complete repugnance to the received chronology, have been preferred to the more remote bond of patriarchal kindred usual in such cases, is not so easily explained. Priority of 14. Admitting, however, the claim of Stesichorus to and hi" rank as the earliest author of any high celebrity in the lyro-epic style of composition, it would yet appear that the origin and first cultivation of that style are to be sought in a still earlier source. There is, in- deed, reason to believe that the Himera3an poet was not only a successor, but a plagiarist or imitator of a more antient author in the same style, the Xanthus ' The Locrian origin of Stesicliorus forms a very palpable ingredient in tlie legend of his blindness and Palinodia. A Crotoniate warrior, suffering from a Locrian wound inflicted by the Locrian Ajax, is sent to Leuca to be healed by the same Locrian hero; and, on his return home, is bearer of a message to the Locrian Stesichorus (supra, p. 213.). Stesichorus is also said (frg. xxiii.) to have copied Hesiod in writing the name of the national Locrian hero's father promiscuously, Oileus and Ileus. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 277. 1018.) Pindar, too (01. x. 19.), in the marked compliment paid by him to the lustre of the Ejiic Muse of the Epizephyrian Locris, in connexion with the adventure between Hercules and the Locrian hero Cycnus celebrated by both Hesiod and Stesichorus, may be presumed to have had in view the Locrian kindred of the two poets. Welcker (Stes. p. 154.) has pointed out the further coincidence, that Cuma, the seat of Hesiod's family, in deriving her popular title of " Phriconis," from a Locrian mountain, admitted the share taken by Locrians in her original colonisation. Ch. rV. § 14. STESICHORUS. 635—554 B. C. 233 already alluded to. One of the most remarkable works of the former poet, his Orestia, is stated, on good authority, to have been modelled in a great de- gree, both in regard to its plan and treatment, on a similar poem, under the same title, by Xanthus.' That Stesichorus, however, was neither a treacherous nor an ungenerous plagiarist, and as little ashamed of the obligations under which he lay to his predecessor as disposed to suppress them, is evinced by his having himself appealed to him by name as a prior autho- rity.^ The birthplace of Xanthus has not been re- corded. Of his age the only specific notice is that which asserts his priority to Stesichorus. It has been further conjectured that he must also have preceded Pisander, having, as Stesichorus himself recorded of him^, represented Hercules after the old Homeric fashion, armed with bow and arrows, instead of club and lion's hide according to the later innov^ation, of which Pisander was the reputed author, and which was adopted by Stesichorus. This is not, certainly, a very conclusive argument of the antiquity of Xanthus. That poet was distinguished, as appears from other evidence, for a respectful deference to Homer as his text-book of heroic tradition ; and there is no reason to suppose he would more readily desert this standard authority in favour of Pisander than of any other in- novator. Of his respect for Homer's tradition another example has been transmitted. The daughters of Agamenmon are described by their father in the Iliad as but three in number, Chrysotliemis, Laodice, and Iphianassa, to the exclusion of Electra, so celebrated in later fable. Xanthus, in his Orestia, in order to ' Athen. xii. p. 513 a. ; conf. Klein. Fragiu. Stcs. p. 83. - Frg. LXii. ^ Ap. Athcn. xii. p. 512. bq. 234 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. Homeric properties of the style of Stesicho- rus. uphold Homer's authority, without too rudely clashing with the current tradition of his own day, identified Electra with Laodice by a slight variation of the former title into Alectra, as a significant surname subsequently conferred on the heroine, in allusion to the celibacy to which she had been condemned b}'' her mother and Jigisthus.^ The Orestia is the only poem of Xanthus the title of which has been recorded. No remains of his works have been preserved. 15. But, although Stesichorus may not have been the originator of this order of composition, he appears to have been the only author of any celebrity by whom it was cultivated. Even among those lyric poets who, like himself, aimed at a loftier range of heroic subject and style, no actual parallel can be found. The nearest extant approach to one appears in the odes of Pindar, many of whose encomia on illustrious mortals, or hymns in praise of the gods, contain a large amount of epic material. Still, how- ever, such passages are introduced but as episode or digression. The epic remains subservient to the lyric element, the narrative to the song or ode. With Stesichorus each composition was, in regard to its main subject, substantially an epic poem embodied in the choral forms proper to the higher walks of lyric poetry. Several of his odes celebrated the same ad- ventures which formed the subject of distinguished poems of the Homeric school, and under titles com- mon also to those poems. Such were his Ilii-Persis, or Destruction of Troy, and his Nosti, or Return of the Greeks. A certain slight analogy might also, per- haps, be traced between the Stesichorean ode and the ' ^Elian. Var. Hist. iv. xxvi. Ch. IV. § 1.5. STESICHORUS. 635—554 B. C. 235 narrative portion of the dithyramb of Arion, where the exploits and adventures of the god Dionysus were the subject of a mixed epico-lyric celebration. The difference, however, in the general spirit of the dithy- ramb, its essentially mimetic character, the extent to which its epic element was absorbed by its dramatic and orchestic accompaniments, with the purely reli- gious tendency of the whole ceremonial, preclude any attempt to establish, even collaterally, a connexion between the two orders of composition. From what has been said, it seems evident that Stesichorus was by nature formed to excel as an epic, rather than a lyric, poet ; and that, had he flourished at an earlier period, he would have been a zealous, and probably a successful, cultivator of the regular heroic style. He had, however, the discrimination to perceive that, from the influence of circumstances over which he had no control, that style now pre- sented but a barren and exhausted field for poetical enterprise. He preferred, therefore, by a happy combination of the new and old departments of art, establishing his own claims to celebrity on a more solid and hitherto unoccupied basis. To this prefer- ence of heroic subjects and epic treatment he was indebted, in part at least, it may be presumed, for the title and honours which he enjoyed of " the most Homeric" among the melic poets of Greece. " It is the universal opinion of the Greek critics," says Dio Chrysostom\ " that Stesichorus was a devoted dis- ciple of Homer, and that there is a great resemblance between tlieir works." He is further described by a subtle, but not inappropriate, figure, as " watering ' \vl. 11. p. -284. Reisk.; conf. vol. i. p. 83. 81. 236 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. his ovm labours with streams derived from the foun- tains of Horner;"^ and, in* a still more rhetorical strain, the soul of Homer is said, in the vicissitudes of metempsychosis, to have animated the body of Stesi- chorus.^ Commentators of high authority also award him the still prouder distinction of having success- fully emulated his great original in some of the more excellent attributes of his genius. Longinus^ classes him with Archilochus, Sophocles, and Herodotus, among the few authors entitled to that distinction. Quintilian^ commends the Homeric spirit of his dia- logue, and his happy conception of his heroes' cha- racters. Dionysius^ of Halicarnassus passes a similar eulogy on this attribute of his muse, in which he pronounces him superior to Pindar and Simonides. The same critic dwells also on his native ease and unaffected simplicity of style, equally remote from turgid pomp, prosaic insipidity, or elaborate artifice, a beauty which he allows to so few of Homer's more ce- lebrated successors in common with himself.'' Quin- tilian'^, however, blames Stesichorus for occasional diffuseness, and in this respect contrasts him un- favourably with Homer. A more fastidious judge of the latter poet might perhaps adduce this as another trait of analogy between the two, it being one of those points on which Homer himself is occasionally open to censure. The imputed defect, as we learn from other sources, consisted, in the case of Stesi- chorus, in an occasional superfluity of epithets, while his elegant taste in their selection is also commended.^ > Antbol. Pal. ix. 184. ^ Antip. in Anthol. Pal. vii. 75. 3 De Subl. xiii. 3. * x. I 62. ^ De vett. Script, p. 421. Reisk. ^ De comp. Verb. xxiv. " Loc. cit. ^ Hermog. de Form. Orat. ii. p. 400. Laurent. Ch. IV. §16. STESICHORUS. 635— 554 B. C. 237 The criticism here again, under both its heads, might be extended to his illustrious predecessor. These comments^ are all more or less borne out by the remains of the Himersean poet. As a general rule, his verse is marked by a sonorous roundness and har- mony, seldom rising to the grandeur, but, in terms of the Halicarnassian commentary, free from the in- flation or obscurity of Pindar. His text is indeed remarkable for the flowing smoothness and perspi- cuity of its structure. The parallel between him and Homer is, however, less observable in the matter than the manner of his composition. He exhibits, in fact, in the selection or working up of his epic materials, a frequent preference of versions of the national tradition which, whether the fruit of his own imagination, or derived from secondary epic sources, are not only at variance with those authorised by the pure Homeric minstrelsy, but in themselves eccentric and farfetched. 16. The following are the titles, in so far as known, His works of the epico-lyric compositions of Stesichorus, ar- remains! ranged, as nearly as may be, in the chronological order of their subjects : Europia, Geryonis, Cerberus, Cycnus, Scylla, Athla Peliae, Syotherag, Eriphyle, Ilii- Persis, Palinodia, Nosti, Orestia, Calyce, Ivhadina. The two last -mentioned poems, although partaking of the same epic character, belong, as will be seen, to a less purely heroic head of celebration than the remainder. The title Europia here, as in the Cyclic poem to Europia. which it was common, indicates the subject of the work to have been the settlement of the Cadmcan colony in Boeotia. It described the sowing of the dragon's teeth, which was attributed to Minerva, not * Conf. alios ap. Klein, pp. 32, 3.^. ; Welck. Stcsich. p. 163. 238 BIOGRAPPIY OF LYRIC TOETS. Book III. to Cadmus as in the popular account.^ The death of Actason was also mentioned.^ The very strange ver- sion of this latter legend preferred by Stesichorus was by no means an improvement on the vulgar fable, and certainly does not tend to bear out the poet's high reputation for Homeric dignity in the treatment of his subject. The death of the unfortu- nate hunter was ascribed, not to the anger of Diana at his outrage on the sanctity of her virgin retirement, but to her anxiety to disembarrass her father Jupiter of a rival competitor for the favours of Semele. The expedient to which she resorted to secure the assault of the hero's dogs on his person, by dressing him up in a deer's skin, is also a very poor conceit.^ Geryonis. Thc ucxt four poems iu the list relate to as many more or less familiar adventures of Hercules, whom Stesichorus, preferring the authority of Pisander to that of Homer, armed, not with bow and arrows, but with club and lion's skin.^ In the Geryonis he also adopted, from the same source, the not very genial fable of the aerial voyage of the son of Alcmena, under the patronage, and in the mystical drinking- Cerberus. goblct, of tlic suu.^ The Ccrberus treated of the descent of Hercules to Hades, and his victory over the fabulous monster guardian of the palace gates of Cycnus. Pluto. lu liis accouut of the hero's adventure with Cycnus, the same celebrated in the Hesiodic Shield of Hercules, Stesichorus, while referring to the lesrend of the Shield, and to Hesiod as author of that poem, differed from his reputed poetical father in describing the Theban hero as flying from Cycnus ' Frg. XVI. stiq. - Frg. xvii. ' Paus. IX. ii. 3. ; conf. Apollod. iti. iv. 4. * Frg. Lxn. ; conf. Vol. II. p. 460. sq. * Frg. x. Cir. TV. §17. STESICHORUS. 635— 554 B. C. 239 at their first encounter, on observing Mars arrayed as ally of his opponent. Hence the Greek proverb, " Two to one are too much even for Hercules."^ In the sequel, when himself backed by Minerva, the hero engages the enemy with the same result as in the Shield. This account of the combat, as more credit- able to Cycnus, may have been preferred by Stesichorus in compliment to his Locrian clansmen of the Epicne- midian territory, Cycnus being a hero of that district. The same version of the legend is sanctioned by Pindar^, in a passage where he dwells in a highly complimentary tone on the merits of the Italian Locris, and which also appears to contain an allusion to the previous poem of Stesichorus. The Scylla^ Scyiia. recorded, it would appear, not the more celebrated encounter of Ulysses with the monster heroine whose name the poem bears, but a previous adventure of Hercules, by whom the same Scylla, amid the ano- malies of the popular mythology, had been slain ^ although alive and in full activity in the next genera- tion. The adventures of Ulysses in the Straits appear to have been treated in the Nosti.^ The Athla Peliaj was a description of the funeral Ati.ia games in honour of Pelias. Among the heroes who ^'''''''^' took part in them, Meleager and Amphiaraiis seem to have been chiefly distinguished. ° The subject of the Syothera3^ is less clearly ascer- syother tained. That it described a boar hunt, the name itself indicates. But as Hercules and Meleager were > oiiit 'HpciKXn TTfwc cro. Aristid. vol. ii. p. 102. (172.) Jebb ; Schol. ad loc. ; Archilochus ap. Aristid. loc. cit. ; Plato, Diipdo, p. 89. The above citation of Arcliilochu.s, if authentic, would imply this version of the legend to be older tiian the time of Stesichorus. "^ rind. 01. XI. 15. lioeckh, Schol. ad 1. 3 Klein, p. 72. * Schol. ad Od. xii. 85. ■' Frp. xxxv. '^ Klein, p. 54. " Klein, p. 72, 240 BIOGRArHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. both favourite heroes of Stesichorus, and as the single extant citation throws no light on the details of the text, it becomes the less easy to decide between the claims of the Erymanthian and those of the Caly- donian adventure, the two most celebrated of their class. The plural form of the title might perhaps imply that both were comprehended, or that the poem may have treated generally of the more famous boar hunts of the heroic age. Eriphyie. The EHphylc^ derived its name from the spouse of Amphiaraiis, who, bribed by Polynices, betrayed her husband into a participation in the first Theban war, in which he was destined to perish. The poem appears, from the existing notices of its contents, to have comprised a large portion of the events of the war. lUi-Persis. 17. The title of the Ihi-Persis, or Destruction of Troy, sufficiently explains the subject of the poem. Of its plan there exists, in addition to the preserved notices of the antients, a valuable elucidation in the extant piece of sculpture called the Iliac Table. This celebrated monument, already cited in treating of the Cyclic poems, represents, in a series of reliefs, the more important adventures of the Siege, according to various popular authorities. As a work of the Roman period, it has evidently been prepared with more immediate reference to Roman feelings and associations. Hence, in the portion of it devoted to the sack of the city, the version of that catastrophe given by Stesichorus has been preferred (as is also stated in the inscription annexed to the relief) ; being that upon which were founded the flight and subse- quent adventures of .Eneas, as related by Virgil. The ' Klein, p. 74. sq. Cu. IV. §17. STESICHORUS. 635— 554 B.C. 241. existing fragments show the narrative to have also embraced, in the form either of introduction or of episode, a considerable portion of the previous history of Helen, -which it seems to have been a special object of Stesichorus, in this poem, to represent in the most unfavourable light. Venus, in revenge for a slight put on her by Tyndareus, in excluding her from the honours of a sacrifice offered to the rest of the deities, pronounced on him the curse, that he should be the father of incontinent and adulterous daughters.' Under the in- fluence of this malediction, Helen, at a very early age, became the captive and mistress of Theseus, to whom she bore Iphigenia. The child was adopted by Clytemnestra, who passed it otf as her own offspring by her husband Agamemnon.- When retaken by her brothers, the Dioscuri, and restored to her paternal mansion at Sparta, Helen was courted by the Greek chiefs ; and a vow was exacted by Tyndareus from her suitors to defend the rights of the fortunate candidate.^ Her subsequent marriage to Menelaus, her elopement with Paris, and the ten years' war for her recoveiy, were related in substantially the same form as in the tradition of Homer.'* The main narrative of the poem, as figured on the relief, com- menced with the Wooden Horse standing in the Trojan agora. The Greek heroes, to the number of one hundred •', are issuing by a ladder from the side of the colossal image, and dealing death and devastation around them. Priam and Hecuba take refuge at the altar of Jupiter Herceus, Avhere the old king is slain. Several of his sons lie prostrate by his side. Ajax Oileus, not far off, is seen dragging Cassandra from the steps of the temple of Pallas. In another direction, Helen, flying for refuge to the sanctuary of Venus, is seized by the hair, and detained by Menelaus. The Greeks are about to stone her, as the fitting punislnnent of lier adulteries ; but such is the magic influence of her beauty that, as they gaze on her, the weapons drop ^ powerless from their hands. Hard by, ^thra, mother of Theseus, who had been captured and enslaved by the Dioscuri in the I'escue of Helen from that prince, and had since acted as the waiting-maid of their sister, is recognised and led off > Frg. Lixiv. '^ Fig. XXI. ^ Frg. xx. * Frg. xx. * Frg. XXVI. ^ Frg. xxvu. VOL. III. *R 242 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. by her own two grandsons. Below, iEneas is seen issuing from the gate of the city into the open country, with Anchises on his back, who bears in his hands the Trojan penates. Mercury con- ducts ^neas by one hand ; with the other iEneas leads Ascanius ; Creusa follows behind. Numbers of fugitive Trojans, male and female, assemble round the tomb of Hector, without the walls ; among them are Hecuba, Andromache, Helenus, and Polyxena. Hecuba is preserved from captivity through the interposition of Apollo, by whom she had been beloved in her youth, and is trans- ported by the god to his Lycian sanctuary.^ Neoptolemus sacrifices Polyxena on the tomb of his father Achilles, in the presence of Cal- chas and Ulysses. Anchises, iEneas, and Ascanius, but now with- out Creusa, embark, attended by the pilot Misenus, for Hesperia. Among other remarkable innovations on the old Homeric tradition observable in tliis poem was that which described Hector, in the Iliad the favourite hero of Apollo, as the son of that deity, offspring of an illicit connexion between him and Hecuba.^ Hence, too, Hecuba, instead of being led away captive by the Greeks, as in the Cyclic version, is here preserved by her divine paramour, and transported safe to his own sanctuary in I.ycia. The legend which traced the incontinent habits of Helen and Clytemnestra to the wrath of Venus, seems to have been common to Hesiod, the fabulous father of Stesichorus.^ Paiinodia. 18. Tu tlic Palinodia, or " Recantation," Stesicho- rus retracting, as the title implies, under the circum- stances already noticed, the opprobrious statements promulgated against Helen in his former poem, gave an entirely different version of her life and adven- tures. Herodotus^ reports the following legend to have been current among the Egyptian priests in his time, and to have been communicated by them to him. Helen, according to these authorities, instead of sailing to Troy with Paris, had, when that hero touched on ' Frg. xxvni. ^ Frg. xsix. 3 Scbol. Eurip. Orcst. 249. * "• 113. sqq. Ch. IV. §18. STESICHORUS. 635— 554 B. C. 243 their coast on his voyage from Sparta, been seized and detained by their king Proteus. In her place, a phantom was delivered to Paris, and enacted during the whole period of the war the part of the real heroine, who was restored to J\lenelaus when he visited Egypt on his return from the siege. This far-fetched and insipid fable, though more worthy of an Egyptian than of a Hellenic imagination, could hardly have been of Egyptian invention. It origi- nated probably in some section of the early epic school of poetry, was introduced into Egypt by Greek settlers, and readily adopted by the native priesthood, with other incongruous blendings of Greek and Egyp- tian fable tending to enlarge the credit of their own school of mythology. Upon this legend Stesichorus so far improved, as to deny that Helen had ever quitted Laceda3mon at all, or by consequence sinned against her nuptial vow, devolving, from the first, on the phantom alone the functions of both fugitive and adulteress.^ This appears from the still extant exor- dium of the Palinodia, which, in an abrupt and excited tone, at once announces the author's object in com- posing the poem, and offers a summary of its contents : o'jK %(TT srvfxog 7\.oyoj ovTog ' ou yap s^as ev vrjUO-)v eufrcrBT^^oig^ ou6 XKzn TTSpyaixa Ipoiag. Untrue 's the tale I told ; for ne'er didst thou The briny sea in swift-oared galley plough, Or visit lofty Troy. The words " Untrue 's the tale " passed into a fa- miliar proverb, ennobled by the use of Plato, Cicero, and other distinguished classics.^ A still more strik- ' Dio Chrys. vol. i. p. 323. Rcisk. ; coiif. Fiat, alios ap. Klein, p. 93. sq. * Frg. xuv. ^ Ap. Kkin. p. 91. sqq. R 2 244 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. ing living test of the celebrity of the poem and of its author is the adoption and inveterate use^ of the term " recant," or " sing back again," in the sense of retract or unsay, in the vocabulary, not only of Greece, but of civilised Europe. This phrase, how- ever familiar and expressive it may by long usage have become to our ears, has no intrinsic sense or point but in connexion with Stesichorus and his Pa- linodia. How the sequel of the real Helen's history was treated by him, if indeed he ventured to grapple with it at all ; whether he left her concealed in her husband's palace at Sparta, or transported her at once to the isle of Leuka, to be reserved for her future marriage to Achilles, are points on which no light is shed, either by the fragments or the quoters of the poem. The Palinodia is, there can be no doubt, the same work also cited occasionally as the " Encomium of Helen," sometimes simply as the " Helen " of Stesichorus.^ It appears to have comprised a de- scription of the nuptials of the heroine and Menelaus, in the form of an episode, introduced, it may be pre- sumed, as a medium for the more effective celebration of tlie beauty and purity of the bride. ^ Nosti. The Nosti, or " Return of the Greeks,"'* forming a sequel to the '' Destruction of Ilium," narrated, in considerable detail, the destinies of the heroes, " whether they perished in the sea, were driven to " wander on foreign shores, or reached their native *' land in safety." The " Scylla," if devoted to the adventure of Ulysses with the monster heroine whose name it bears, could have been little more than an * Aiu'tt. ap. Klein, sup. cit. et p. 95. sqq. * Suid. V. ^rrjT. ; Atben. iii. ]). 81., x. p. 451.; conf. Klein, p. 21. sqq. ' Fig. XLVi. * Klein, p. 81. sq. ; frg. xxxiv. sqq. Ch. IV. § 19. STESICHORUS. 635—554 B. C. 245 episode of the Nosti. Hercules, however, as has been seen, has prior claims to the honour of hero of the former poem. The Orestia was divided into two books \ and, judg- destia. ing from the numerous quotations of its text, nuist have been a poem of some length, embracing various heads of episodical matter, besides its own immediate subject. Here, again, Stesichorus prefers the more eccentric varieties of tradition. The royal residence of Agamemnon was placed at Laceda3mon, instead of My- cenae.^ The invention of alphabetic letters was ascribed to Palamedes^ ; whether that of the whole number, or merely of the additional four for which later gramma- rians gave that hero credit, is not distinctly stated. 19. The fables which supply the subjects of the caiyce. Calyce and Rhadina, the two remaining poems on the list, are of a somewhat different character from those hitherto examined. The "Calyce""* narrated the sorrows of a nymph of the same name, who, deeply enamoured of a youth called Euathlus"^, prayed to Venus that she might obtain him as her husband; but, failing in her efforts to propitiate the goddess, or to inspire the object of her affection with an honourable passion in return, she sacrificed herself to her love by a leap from the Leucadian cliff. Rhadina, a virgin of the town of Samos on the uimdina. coast of Elis, was beloved by a tyrant of Corintli, and delivered up^ by her parents, or the native rulers, ' Bekk. Anecd. Gr. p. 78.3. * Schol. Eurip. Oivst. 46. ' Bekk. Anecd. Gr. loc. cit. * Frg. i,iv. ; AiIhmi. xiv. p. 619. ^ Stesichorus seems here to have mixed up tlie legend of the rustic " Lay of Calyce" (supra, Ch. ii. § xix.) with Ilesiod's tradition of a nynipli of the same name, dauf^hter of Ilesiod, and sj)ouse of Aeililiii«. ]Mai(k.sch. Fragni. Ilesiod. xii.; conf. ApoUod. i. vii. 3. 5. Klein, p. 105. ^ Whether as bride or mistress is not distinctly stated. n 3 246 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. an unwilling victim to his passion. Her cousin and lover, Leontychus, pursued her to Corinth ; and, in an attempt to rescue her, both were slain by the tyrant, who, in a fit of remorse, delivered up the bodies to their friends.^ This adventure, of all those treated by Stesichorus, is the only one which can, with any probability, be considered as embodying a historical fact, or at least a tradition connected with the historical age of Greece. The Corinthian " tyrant " could hardly have been the celebrated Peri- ander, the poet's contemporary, although the adven- ture were in unison with the popular accounts of Periander's character.^ These two poems, the Calyce and the Rhadina, offer the first recorded examples of the treatment, in classical Greek poetry, of that species of romantic love story which afterwards acquired so great a popidarity in the pages of Parthenius, Heho- dorus, and other prose authors of the Roman and Byzantine periods.^ Paans. By various modern commentators the collective ithdpTems, works of Stcsichorus have been supposed to comprise, besides the epico-lyric poems for which he was chiefly celebrated, numerous other more properly lyric pro- 1 Strabo, viii. p. 347. A free version has here been given of Strabo's account, which is somewhat ambiguous and confused ; but the substance of it seems to be as embodied in the text. What the mission of Rhadina's brother to Delphi, mentioned by the geographer, had to do with the matter does not appear. 2 The Samians of Asia, however, also claimed Rhadina as their own, according to Pausanias (vii. v. 6.). ^ A poem on the subject of the celebrated Sicilian pastoral hero Daphnis has also been ascribed to Stesichorus by modern critics, and has supplied material for elaborate commentaries to Welcker, O. JMiiller, and others. But the single vague passage* of iElian (V. II. x. xviii.), on which the existence of such a poem has been assumed, does not appear sufficient to bear out any such conclusion ; although it seems probable that Stesichorus may have alluded to the fate of the fabulous Himeraaan shepherd boy in some of his works. Ch. IV. § 19. STESICHORUS. G35— 5o4 B. C. 247 ductions: hymns, pagans, erotica, elegies, scolia, bii- colica, and metrical fables. That a popular lyric poet should have composed many such pieces seems in itself certainly probable. With the exception, how- ever, of a convivial pa3an^ and of a hymn to Pallas^, the notices of which last are, at the best, extremely doubtful, there is no authentic record of works be- longing to any of those branches of composition having been ascribed to Stesichorus. The poem cited by the title " Encomium of Helen" has already been disposed of. The " Epithalamium of Helen" ^ seems to have formed part either of the Ilii-Persis or the Palinodia, probably of the latter. The erotic poems'^ were the Calyce, Rhadina, and others possibly in the same style, the names of which have perished. Of bucolic poems or elegies by Stesichorus there is no authentic notice.^ The pa^an, or pagans, attributed to him appear to have been of the kind usually ap- propriated to social festivities.^ The scolia somewhat vaguely ascribed to Stesichorus, like those quoted of various other illustrious lyric poets, were apparently nothing more than appropriate passages selected from the body of his works, and introduced as parts or members of the popular roundelays or catches to which attention has been directed in a former chapter.^ ' Timae, ap. Athen. vi. p. 250. 2 pj.„ xcvii. ^ Schol. Theocr. Id. xviii. These various compositions, or rather titles, are comprehended under the common head of r/n'ovc flij 'EXhnjv by Conon, Narrat. 18. ap. Thot. ^ Klein, p. 100. s(p * The only allusion to Bucolica occurs in the passage of ^Elian relative to Daphnis, already disposed of. Elegies are mentioned but in tlie letters of the Pseudo-riiaiaris, and in terms which do not here warrant the assumption of any historical basis for his fictions. Klein, p. 114.; Welck. p. 214. ^ Athen. vi. p. 250. ; Ilesych. v. Vpiac ^T}jaix<'>iJov. "' Conf. Welck. Stesich. p. 211. H 4 248 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book lU. Fables. Still Icss authority is there for the belief that Stesichoriis composed metrical fables of the ^sopic order. The moral tales of this description above referred to, that of the Horse and Stag, for example, quoted by Aristotle \ are ascribed to the poet in his political, not his poetical, capacity. Another similar piece of advice, embodied in a like figurative form, is that recorded on the same authority^ as having been imparted by Stesichoras to the Locrians, where he warns them to beware " lest the reckless impolicy of " their conduct should cause their crickets to sing on "the ground;" in other words, lest their country sliould be invaded, its vines and olive trees cut down, and the wood-crickets no longer perch on their branches. There is as little reason here as in the former case to suppose that the lesson Avas delivered in a metrical form. The fable of " The Man and the Eagle," diffusely narrated by Jillian^, is also stated by that author, in somewhat ambiguous terms, to have been cited by Grates the grammarian from a "rare work" of Stesichorus. Admitting the substance of this notice to be correct, the story could have formed but an epilogue or illustration, not the principal sub- ject of tlie supposed work. It was to the following effect : A party of reapers, reposing during the heat of the clay, sent one of their number to draw water from a fountain. Tlie man on. npproaching tlie spot saw an eagle entwined in the coils of a large serpent, and in the last gasp of strangulation. Hastening, with pious zeal, to the rescue of Jove's messenger, he cut the serpent in two witli his sickle, and the bird recovered and escaped. ' Rhet. II. XX. Tauchn. ' Arist. Rlict. II. xxi. (xxii.) alibi. Similar is our own popular pro- \L-yb of " making the squirrels walk," denoting a great fall of ■wood. ' Hist. An. XVII. 37. and ap. Klein, p. 111. ?q. Ch. IV. §20. STESICHORUS. 635-5.54 B. C. 249 Eeturning to his companions, the reaper, whose turn it was to act as cupbcai-er, mixed the water with a due proportion of the common stock of wine, and poured out to each man his sliare of the beverage. But, as he was about to enjoy his own portion, the eagle, which had remained hovering around him, flew against the cup and dashed it to the ground. On the point of bitterly re- proaeliing the bird for so unworthy a requital of his late good offices, the man happened to look towards his comrades, and saw those who had first drunk writhing in the agonies of death. The water had been poisoned by the venom of the snake. He now saw that to the gratitude of the eagle he was indebted, in his turn, for the preservation of his life. 20. The remains of Stesichorus comprise about Gram, fifty lines of various leno;ths and characters. His 1"k r"' • *^ <~j suuu I Vision whole works are subdivided by the grammarians into ''""^ works. twenty-six books. ^ As this number considerably ex- ceeds that of his entire poems, which has been given above in so far as their names have been preserved, it may be presumed that in the antient enumeration the separate parts or books of poems were taken into account. It was stated in a previous chapter"^ that, while riair le- Alcman enjoyed the credit of originating the anti- "''"■^'''• strophic style of composition, to Stesichorus was as- signed the honour of carrying its elementary principle to maturity, by the addition of the epode to the two simpler alternations of choral response, and of having thus laid the entire basis of the variety of forms which the antistrophic ode assumed in the hands of the Attic dramatists. Among the fragments of his works are none of sufficient continuity to afford any clear insight into the actual arrangement of his chorus ; but from secondary sources it may be in- ferred that there was mucli general correspondence ' Suid. V. iDjff/'x. * Siiprn, p. CO. 250 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. between his odes and those of Pindar, in regard, at least, to the length and varied character of tlieir strophes. And here the question arises, to what extent the continuous heroic narrative of the Stesichorean odes could, consistently with the dignity or propriety of their epic character, have admitted of a purely choral performance. The analogy of those of Pindar, which often comprise a large amount of historical matter, scarcely applies here. The epic is with that poet still altogether subordinate to the lyric element, and each ode in its integrity is essentially adapted to the forms of lyric ceremonial. But it is less easy to imagine a similar adaptation in the case of the Ilii- Persis or the Nosti of Stesichorus. Perhaps, therefore, the more probable view, and which seems also to receive support from antient authority, may be, that the compositions of Stesichorus, those at least in which the epic character chiefly predominates, were destined for recital in a more continuous form, and with a less varied style of musical accompaniment, somewhat in the manner of the rhapsodial rehearsals of Homer, Hesiod, and other poets of the regular epic school.^ Metres. Tlic mctrcs of Stesichorus, as exemplified in his remains, are all reducible to certain lofty and sonorous combinations of dactylic or trochaic rhythm, compre- hending, besides the primary forms of each of those measures, the choriambic, anapaestic, and Dorian epi- trite." The monotony of efl*ect, which might otherwise have been expected to result from a repetition of these more grave and solemn metrical cadences in a text of prolonged epic continuity, was relieved by the ' Chama;!. ap. Athcn. xiv. p. 620. ; conf. Welck. Stesich. p. 166. * Klein, Fragm. p. 41. sqq. ; Welck. Sfesich. p. 1.71. sqq. Ch. rV. §20. ' STESICHORUS. 635— 554 B. C. 251 variety of new and agreeable turns which he im- parted to them. Hence the number of such combi- nations which, besides their more technical definition, bear the distinctive surname of Stesichorean, and most of which have been used by Pindar. The peculiar harmony and suavity of the versification of Stesichorus, combined with his lucid perspicuity of style, beauties so much dwelt on by the antient critics above quoted, were figured by the elegant fable, that when an infant, shortly after his birth, a night- ingale Avas found perched on his lips, warbling her sweetest notes. ^ The authority of the commentators is here amply confirmed by the poet's remains. The following passage embodying his own fantastical alle- gory, and that of the lyric schools of his day, relative to the sun's evening course in the heaven, will serve for more efi*ectual illustration, owing to the beauty of the work being so little dependant on that of the material : 'AiXiog 0 'YTTspiovl^oig ^STrag eo-xarejSa/vs ^p6(rsoVj o'cj^pa oi' wxsavoTo Trepaca^, a^ixoi()* Upoig ttoti ^ivQsa vuxrog epsfjivoig' ttot) /xarspa, xoxtpioiav r a7v.op^ov, TTOu^idg TS ly. The antients^ however, in spite of this single blemish on his scutcheon, are unanimous in admitting and celebrating his military prowess ; and tlie same apology for the self-imputed delinquency may be advanced in his case as in the parallel case of Archilochus. Like his distinguished predecessor, Alca^us was not ashamed to allude to his mishap in one of his odes, addressed in the form of a poetical letter from the field of battle to a fi^iend.^ Alcasus afterwards appears as an adherent of the constitutional party, in the resistance offered by them to the attempts made by a new series of turbulent demagogues, successfully it would seem in several instances, to reestablish desjootic power. The most formidable of these leaders was Myrsilus^, whose death, from what precise cause has not been recorded, the poet celebrates in a tone of triumphant exulta- tion in a still extant passage of his works. ^ In the sequel of the same political vicissitudes, Alcajus and bis brothers appear, in their turn, as usurpers or disturbers of the liberties of the republic.^ They were expelled in consequence by their old ally Pit- tacus, the only staunch and disinterested patriot, it Avould seem, among these political chiefs, and wlio was supported by the mass of the better-disposed citizens. In the sequel, as the most effectual stop to this disastrous series of civil broils, the same Pittacus was elected by the unanimous voice of the " 2:)eople," as Alcaius himself admits^, to the dignity entitled ' Ilorat. Carm. i. xxxii. 6. ; Allien, xiv. p. G27., xv. j). 687. ; Antliol. Pal. IX. 184. ; Cic. Tusc. Disp. iv. 33. ^ Frg. IX. ' Frg. ii. ; lloraclid. Pont, ad loc. ■♦ Frg. IV. ; Athon. x. p. 430. ' Slrab. xiii. p. 617, ^ Frg. V. s 2 260 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. among the .Eolians iEsymnetes, or constitutional cliief with dictatorial powers for the preservation of the laws and liberties of the state. ^ This measure is described by classical authorities as chiefly directed against the machinations of Alca^us^ and the other exiled malcontents. The poet's muse, following the bent of his passions, was speedily directed against Pittacus, Avith an ani- mosity as fervid as the zeal with which the cause of that patriot had formerly been lauded and supported. He now denounces his fellow-countrymen in the mass as a servile mob, and their leader as the author and instrument of the same tyranny which he affected to abhor in others ; as a traitor, in comparison with whom even the base Melanchrus^ deserved well of the republic ; and as a wretch every way contemptible, from an accumulation of defects, bodily and mental. These imputed failings are described in terms of vitu- peration expressly invented for the purpose, such as Archilochus himself might not have been ashamed to employ in one of his most withering Iambic sallies. The best epithets which Alca^us has now to bestow on a fellow-citizen so celebrated in every age and in every impartial quarter, as one of the ablest and most virtuous of Greek patriots and philosophers, are those of "base born, bloated, paunchbelly ; " "splay- footed sloven," "swaggerer," and "night-reveller."* This is the worst feature in the character or history ' Strab. loo. fit. ; Aristot. Polit. iii. ix. (x.) ; Dionys. Ilal. Ant. Rom. V. 73. ; Diog. Laert. i. iv. " Aristot. et Dion. Hal. locc. citt. 3 Frg. VII. ; conf. Welck. Ale. p. 130. * KOKmrdrpiSa; (pufficiova, yatrrpwva, aapc't-oca, aaitnxoi' ; ayaavpTOi' ; ■XHimnnhn-; ynopiVa ; 'Co^o<^opirLSav. Aristot. Pol. in. ix. p. 101. Tauchn.; Diojr. Laerl. i. iv. 81.; conf. IVg. v. vi. Ch.V. §1. ALC^EUS. 611 B.C. 2G1 of A learns ; the moderation of Pittaciis and the purity of his motives being admitted and eulogised by every impartial authority. The fact, indeed, of his having voluntarily resigned his dictatorship on the expiry of the ten years for which it had been delegated ', is sufficient evidence that he was influ- enced by motives of patriotism rather than of personal ambition to its acceptance. But the hostility of Alca?us was not confined to words. In an armed attempt to reestablish their influence, his party was defeated and himself made prisoner; when his generous adversary, mindful rather of the honour due to his genius as a poet than of the punishment merited by his oflence as a citizen, restored liim to liberty.- His ultimate fate is un- known. By some authorities he is supposed to have been permanently reconciled to Pittacus, and to have passed the remainder of his lii"e in tranquillity at Mitylene, under the mild sway of that patriotic rider ; by others, to have ended liis days a discontented Avan- derer in foreign lands. In the course of his peregri- nations, and of the maritime disasters with whicli Horace^ describes them as having been attended, he visited Egypt ^ ; and, about the same time, his brother Antimenidas, his steady companion, it would seem, in good or bad fortune, entered into the service of the Babylonian emperor, where he distinguished himself by his valour. Alcajus alludes, in a still extant pas- sage '', to the victory achieved by this brother overa notable chieftain of tha enemy in a battle, probably ' Stral). XIII. p. 617. ; Diog. Lacrt. i. iv. 75. * Diog. Laert. i. iv. 76.; V.ilor. M:ix. iv. i., Ext. G. ; Diodori Ex- cerpt. I. vii. ^ Carm. ii. xiii. •* Strab. i. p. 37. ^ Conf. Strali. xiii. p. 617. s ;] 262 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book ITT. that fonglit at Carchemish, between Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh Necho. Tlie rival champion appears to have been a sort of Assyrian Goliath, though some- what inferior in stature to the Philistine giant, being described by the poet as " but a span short of five " cubits in height." ^ Hischa- 2. The above review of the public life and conduct I ideal and' ^f Alcoius, Compiled from the most impartial autho- personal, ritjcs, aud confimied by his own remains, places his character, both as a man and a citizen, in a light which is far from justifying the encomia bestowed by various critics, antient and modern, on his fervent patriotism and love of liberty. From the same more authentic sources it appears that the ardour of his temperament was as broadly manifested in the pleasures as in the business of life. He describes himself as resorting for consolation in disappointment to the same sensual enjoyments with which he so exultingly celebrates the prosperous turns of his des- tiny. " Wine," he pronounces. " the most efficacious " medicine for all diseases, the sweetener of the joys " of life, the remedy for all its evils, the drowner of " its cares-; the mirror of human character"; the best *' resource against the heat of summer ', or the cold of "winter''; the best welcome to reviving spring."^ Nor was the proverbial combination of zeal for the wor- ship of Bacchus, with nu equal devotion to the rites of ' TTdXaarat' nTroXitTrorTd fioi'nv iiinr Tri\\(MV f'lTro —ifiizior^ according to K. O. Miillcr's ingenious restoration of the corrupted text. Schnei- dewin, t'rg. 2G. ; oonf. Matth. frg. vm. " Frg. x.xxi. ' Frg. xxxvi. xxxvtr. * Frg. xxviii. a. ^ Frg. XXVII. 6 Frg. XXVIII. S. Kara Tra-rtv iopav kii'i Trfpirrrarriv -iiiur. Athcn. X. p. 430., who has carcfuliy collected and ingeniously commented the niinierou'5 passages illustrative of this point in tiie poet's clinracfer ; conf. frgg. XVII. 5qr|. Ch. V. §2. ALC^^US. Gil B.C. 263 Venus, belied in his case. He describes Love ns the most terrible of gods^; his own submission to whose authority seems also to liave been largely displayed in the forms most repulsive to modern taste or morality. Special mention occurs of his passion for a youth named Lycus-, whom he appears to have celebrated in a very offensive strain of encomium^; and, even in his flight, his exile, and greatest political emergen- cies, he is said never to have separated himself from this favourite object of sensual attachment.^ Yet, al- though the licentiousness of his amorous muse has been generally stigmatised by judicious critics, none of the specimens preserved are open to very grave censure on this account ; and those allusive to the tender relations between him and Sappho, wliose charms were among his favourite subjects of celebra- tion^, are as remarkable for delicacy as for elegance of expression. In one of the remaining texts ^, he accosts her as the " dark-haired, spotless, sweetly smiling Sappho." In another", he makes advances of a less Platonic tendency, wdiich, in her reply, also still extant, whether from modesty, prudery, or per- sonal disinclination, she mildly repels. Judging, indeed, as well from the recorded verdict of the an- tients as from the remains of his works, the poetiy of Alca3us was less open to criticism than his personal character. He appears to have been considered, and with justice, among the most brilliant or even faultless authors of his class, and his works obtained a place ' Frrr. xxrv. 2 p,.g_ 48_ .Sdiiu'idow. ^ Cic. de Xat. D. i. x.wiil. " Xaevus in arl'uiulo piieii delortnf Al- ojpum." * Ilorat. Carni. i. xxxii. 7. sqq. ' Hermesianax ap. Allien, xiii. ]i. .398. c p,.jT xhii. ~ Frg. xi.r. ; Ari^tof. Klict. i. ix. s 4 264 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC TOETS. Book III. ninong the standard representatives of that mixture of native siin[)licity and dignity of expression so miicli admired by the great critiesof antiquity.^ His muse, althougli, as regards its mechanical element, strictly confined within the limits of the ^olo-melic school, offers a considerable resemblance to that of Arclii- loclnis, in the freedom with which it ranges over an extensive variety of subjects, from the heroic ode or the scurrilous pasquinade to the tender love sonnet or the joyous drinking-song. Any closer parallel, how- ever, between the characters of the two poets must be restricted solely to their common defects of malignity, scurrility, and profligacy. Alca^us can advance little or no pretension to the higher ethic attributes of the Parian satirist, to his profound though gloomy spirit of philosophy, or his elevated though morbid tone of reliiiious enthusiasm. Both were the slaves of im- pulse ; but the impulse of Archilochus, although often degrading him below himself, to disgraceful excesses of malignity, transported him at times as far beyond himself, to the opposite extreme of the noble and sublime. Even in the higher efforts of Alcasus, self in its undisguised nakedness seems always predomi- nant, animating those of his compositions devoted to objects of public importance equolly with those elicited by his own petty interests and enjoyments. His political effusions appear neither to have con- templated nor produced any benefit, social or civil, to his native community. That their tendency was rather in an op[)osite direction, may be assumed, as ' Dion. Hill, do Struct. Ornt. xxiv. ; conf. Judic. de vett. Sorii.t. p. 4-21. ed. Roisk. In tlic Intter to.\t this coninjentator speaks in teims of l)()un(llcss eulogy of his styh', ns combining dignity, conciscnoss, sua- vity, ]io\vor, perspicuity, and elcgauce. Ch. V. §3. ALGOUS. 611 B.C. 265 well from the above details of his political career, as from the distinctive titles of Dichostasiastica and Stasiotica, " factious or seditious poems," bestowed by the antients on this chapter of his collective works. His love of strife and power was also ac- companied by love of money, if several fragments of his compositions may be trusted, whore wealth is de- scribed, in terms apparently representing the author's own doctrine, as an indispensable ingredient of merit in human character; poverty as equally incompatible with its dignity or respectability.^ 3. Besides the Stasiotica already mentioned, under His woru. which head his more popular compositions of tlie mar- ^^^^■°'"'^- tial or satirical orders appear to have been included, the collective works of Alca3us comprised hymns, love sonnets (Erotica), and Symposiaca, or convivial songs. The collection was divided by the later grammarians into books ^, on what precise principle does not ap- pear; nor has the precise number of such divisions been specified ; but ten books are incidentally cited. The most esteemed part of the collection were the Stasiotica, as well, it may be presumed, from the greater importance of their subject, as from their affordino; a more effective medium for those vivid displays of individual passion and feeling which form tlie zest of all genuine lyric poetry. Quintilian^, accordingly, speaks of tlunn in high terms of com- mendation, passing over the remainder of the col- lection with comparative indifference ; and stigmatises the autlior for having bestowed so great a portion of his time and talents, destined by nature lor nobler themes, on love ditties and other inferior sulijccts. To ' Frg. L. Lxv. ' Wclck. Alcfcus, p. 1.31. ?([. ^ x. i. G3. 266 CIOfiRAPllY OF LY];iC POETS. Book TIF. the political class, accordingly, belong the greater portion of the fragments transmitted to our own age in the citations of the classics. The longest and most spirited are, his description of the brilliant appearance of his palace halls, resplendent with arms and military equipages \ on the eve, it would seem, of some great outbreak of hostile factions ; and the remnant of the ode, in which he describes the distracted state of the republic under the figure of a ship tossed in a stormy sea." The former passage is subjoined as a specimen of his style. cr[xrirai Grrsya ' 7\rxix~ or/A(j IV X'jyirxicri, xarToiv "i^vjy.rn xahiiWz'Jivj iV- v£l(0'Jt;v, y<.i^a7\cd(j iv auo^tov aya.X[xar(X' ya7^xiai 6= 'K acre- 0)^0 1 g 'AOuTvrrjimy jTzCiiXziu.vjai 'AajXTroou xva^xi^Bg^ doxng ]- bc'ooaxig ts i/sm "kivco, x(o'i7\.ai rs xolt a.cr~if)sg ldB(i7\,ri[X5vai. Trap 5= \a7.xi0ixcii (nraSai, Trap 0= ^wixara ~(j70-27 . " Frgg. it. m. Ck.V. §3. ALC^.US. 611 B.C. 267 Clialcidian blades enow, and belts are here, Greaves and emblazoned shields ; Well tried protectors from the hostile spear, On other battle fields. With these good helps onr work of war's begun. With these our victory must be won. Of the fire and spirit of his martial poetry this passage, with others in tlie collection, can leave no room for donbt, whatever may have been the case with the antlior's own military conduct. Some of the laconic apophthegms in which he inculcates mili- tary duty are also singularly terse and pointed. In one passage \ paraphrased by iEschylns, he tells us that " the device of a warrior's shield inflicts no '• wound ;" and in another^, also imitated by iEscliy- lus, and cited or celebrated by various distinguished classics from Plato downwards, he pronounces " the " best rampart of a city to be the valour of its men." That his amatory compositions, however morally Erotica. defective, possessed great poetical excellence, may be inferred, as well from their remains, as from the ex- tent to which they were admired and imitated by poets of high credit, but less fastidious judgement than Quin- tilian. His convivial songs were equally esteemed ; convivial and most deservedly so, as is evinced by many fine ''""°'" passages in the extant collection, distinguished by a tone of licentious indeed, but manly and martial joviality, strongly contrasted with the strains in which Anacreon and Mimnermus celebrate their luxu- rious and effeminate debaucheries. Several of these convivial passages are also among those where the fervid impetuosity of the author s political feelings and passions l)ivaks fortli in tlic most brilliant and ' Frg. xm. ; .Afiilt. nd Inc. ■ FrcTJ. XI. xiT., cfinf. M.ittli. rilui!st. cd. Gaisf. p. 134. ; Villois. Prolog, ad Iloiii. p. Lix. ; conf. Mattli. rrtef. ad Fragm. p. 5. 2 Carm. i. ix. ; Epod. xiii. ; c(nii'. Irg. xxvii. * Carm. i. xiv. ; conl'. li'g. ii. m. and Theogii. 671. '' Carm. i. x. ; conf. JMattli. ad IVg. xxi. 272 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. lilts ill liis revels over the downfall of the rival po- litical chief, Myrsilus, has also been paraphrased by Horace in a more amiable, but less animated, strain. There seem, in fact, to have been few standard compositions of Alcasus but have supplied subject of imitation to his brilliant disciple of Rome. Hence Horace has been occasionally styled the Latin Al- cseus, with much propriety in respect to all but the less amiable characteristics of his Grecian prototype. The veneration of Horace for his Lesbian master is equally marked in his preference of the favourite metres of Alcaeus, especially of the Alcaic and Sap- phic strophes. Even the more celebrated countrymen of Alca3us, /Eschylus, for example, and Aristophanes, did not disdain to borrow from him.^ Of piracy . from his own predecessors, the only distinct example is a passage of some length paraphrased from Hesiod.^ SAPPHO. 600 B.C. Sappiio. 5. The earliest Greek authoress, omitting the fa- bidous Sibyls and Phemonoes, of whom any men- tion occurs is Megalostrata, the beloved of the poet Alcinan, whom Athenaeus describes as herself a poet- ess "^ ; but of her works or history no further notice is preserved. The next is Sappho ^, admitted by her ' Carm. i. xxxvii., fry. iv. ; conf. Carm. i. xviii., frg. xxx. ''' Frg. XII., -S:sch. Pers. 349. ; frg. xiii., .^isch. Sejit. ia Th. 388. ; frg. XXXVI., conf. Matth. ad loc. ; frg. xiv., Aristoj)!!. Vcsp. 1234. Tauchn. ; frg. liii., Aristoph. Av. 1409. 3 Frg. xxvii. ; conf. lies. Op. ct D. 580. sqq. * xiii. p. 600. * Sapphonis Fragni. ed. D. C. F. Ncue ; Gaisf. Poett. niinn. Gr. ed. Lips, vol.111, p. 291.; Schncidcwin, Delect. Poes. Gr. § in. p. 289. ; Bergk, Poett. lyrr. Gr. p. 598. ; conf. Wclckcr, Sapplio, Kl. Schrift. vol. 1. p. 110. The remains arc here cited according to (lie number and Ch. V. §5. SAPPHO. GOO B. C. 273 countrymen of every age to be the only female entitled to rank on the same level with the more illustrious poets of the male sex ; and who may even be said to bear away the prize from them all in the peculiar branch of composition which her genius led her to cultivate. Hence, as the author of the Iliad and Odyssey w^as called by preeminence " the poet," Sappho was ho- noured by the distinctive title of " the poetess ;" and Aristotle ^ classes her in the same high grade of relative excellence as Homer and Archilochus. Of Solon it is related, that, on hearing for the iirst time the recital of one of her most esteemed compositions, he prayed that " he might not see death until he had committed it to memory." ^ So highly did Plato value her intellectual as well as her imaginative en- dowments, that he assigned her the honours of sage as well as poet, and familiarly entitled her the tenth Muse.^ Strabo"^ describes her genius in a tone of mysterious awe, as a divine rather than a human at- tribute. By other authorities she is characterised in more figurative vein as tlie joint fosterchild of Venus, Cupid, and the Graces'^, and as combining in her single person the two natures of Muse and Venus ^ ; while, in one of the numerous epigrams '^ in her praise, the Muses themselves, nothing jealous, unite with Jupiter and Destiny in confirming or ap- proving the honours bestowed on her by her fellow- mortals. Amid all this, and nuich more that mio-ht be quoted of enthusiastic eulogy, not a word of censure arrangement of Neue, unlcs.-* where another collection is specified in the reference. ' Rhet. 11. 23. " iElian. ap. Slob. xxix. 58 ' Ph«dr. p. 235. ; Anthol. Pal. ix. 50G., conf. 66. 571. * xni. p. 617. ^ Antip. Sid. in Anthol. Pal. vii. 14. 6 Demochar. iu Anth. Plan. iv. 310. ■ Auth. Pal. ix. 521. VOL. III. T 274 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book IU. is to be found on any actual defect, either of her poetical style generally, or of any individual passage of her poems. The scantiness of the existing remains of those poems renders it the less easy to judge hoAV far their internal evidence may have justified this boundless admiration. If, however, the brilliancy and beauty of the passages which have been preserved may be taken as a criterion of tlie general character of the collection, Sappho, as the poet of I-.ove and the Graces, may still be pronounced unrivalled by any successor, male or female, among the numbers who, in difi'erent ages and countries, have competed with her for the palm. To this celebrity of her genius may partly be as- cribed the obscurity which involves her history. In addition to the popular tendency, in such cases, to engraft fabulous details on a comparatively slender stock of matter of fact, the controversies which arose relative to the merits or defects of her personal cha- racter, and the efforts made by the different sections of the critical public who took part in those con- troversies to force the data at their disposal into harmony with their own peculiar views, interj^ose another serious obstacle to the success of impartial investigation. There can be no better evidence of her surpassing fame and popularity, than the fact of her having figured as a favourite heroine of the comic drama of Athens, to a greater extent, it would appear, than any other historical personage upon record. Mention occurs of not less than six comedies ^ under the title of Sappho ; and her history, real or imaginary, ' By ns many authors : Amipsias, Antiphanes, Amphis, Ephippus, Tinioclcs, and Diphilus. INIeinck. Fragra. Comm. Gra>c. vol. ii. p. 707., HI. p. 112. .31.5. 338. 610., iv. p. 409. Ch. V. § 6. SAPPHO. 600 B. C. 275 furnished materials to nearly as many more \ with which her name is not so specifically connected. While this, at the best ambiguous, preeminence sup- plies ample ground of belief, even apart from other authority, or the internal evidence of her remains, that the events of her life or her social habits offered a fair opening for satirical animadversion, there can be no doubt that, in the hands of such censors, her defects would be broadly caricatured. Nor could the judgement of so popular a tribunal fail to exercise influence upon that of posterity. This latter con- sideration, however, has led her more enthusiastic modern admirers and apologists into the opposite extreme, of ascribing all the less favourable features of her portrait to the above polluted source, in their efforts to convert her into an ideal model of purity and moral excellence. It will be the object of the following review of her life and character to steer a just medium between these two extremes, by an im- partial analysis of the existing materials for guiding the judgement, whether supplied by herself or de- rived from other sources. 6. The age of Sappho is established, with more or Her birth, less accuracy, by its partial coincidence with the still famn'y,^^*' better defined epoch of Alcasus and Pittacus : and, ^"'^ ^'^"''^ ^ *- ^ ' ' relations. besides other incidental synchronisms, by a general concurrence of authorities.^ According to these data, the more brilliant portion of her career may be placed in the first half of the sixth century B.C., ' Two under the title of Phaon ; one by Plato, the other by Antiphanes, Meinek. op. cit. vol. ii. p. 672., iii. p. 124; one under the title of Leucadia, by Menander, Meinek. vol. iv. p. 158. ; and another entitled Leucadius, by Antiphanes, Meinek. vol. iii. p. 78. ^ Athen. xiir. p. 599.; Strab. xiii. p. 617. ; conf. Neue, p. 3.; Clint. Fast. Hell. vol. i. p. 225. T 2 276 BIOGRAPHY or LYRIC POETS. Book III. while her childhood and early youth belong to tlie close of the seventh. Her birthplace, according to the more trustworthy authorities, was Mitylene, the metropolis of the isle of Lesbos. Others make her a native of the ncio-hbouring' town of Eresus.^ It is certain that her family was of Mitylene, and of some rank in that state ; one of lier brothers, called Lari- chus ^, having held the post of cupbearer in the Pry- taneum, an office only conferred on youths of the aristocratic order. Her father's name was Seaman - dronymus ^, her mother's Cleis.^ If Ovid may be trusted, she was left an orphan when six years old."* The names of three of her brothers are also recorded : Charaxus, Larichus above mentioned, and Eury- gyius.^ Of the youngest of the three nothing is known. Charaxus, as Herodotus and others relate, was a trader in Lesbian wines, and obtained noto- riety by his amour with the celebrated Thracian courtesan, Rhodopis, then a slave in the Greek colony of Naucratis, in Lower Egypt, to which port he was in the habit of resorting. Such was the violence of his passion for this woman, as to induce him to pur- chase her from her master, set her free, and lavish his substance in her maintenance, or even, in some accounts, to espouse lier. His sister was greatly scandalised and incensed at his conduct, and gave vent to her indignation in an ode composed for the occasion. This affair", bv reference to chronolomcal ' Suid. et Eiulocia, v. ^mr/pd' ; Discorid. in Anth. Pal. vu. 407. * Athen. x. p. 424.; Scliul. Bekk. II. xx. 2:54.; Eustath. ad loc. p. 1205. ■' Ilerodot. H. cxxxv. ; yElian. V. II. .mi. xI.x. For the multitude of other fanciful titles, or varieties of the same title, see Neue, p. 1. * Suid. V. ^tnr', may possibly be her reproachful address at daybreak to the disturbing twitter of the swallow. * Frg. LV. ' Welck. Kleiiie Schr. vol. ii. p. 103. sq. ; Miiller, Hist, of Gr. Lit. p. 172. * Frg. LXT. Ch. V. § 16. SAPPHO. 600 B. C. 313 favourable sense, as indicating that Sappho repelled the advances of Alcajus towards an illicit connexion, all that can reasonably be inferred is that he was not a favoured lover. The terms of her reply are nothing more than the received commonplace of coy woman, declining a proposal which happened not to be to her taste, where the language of modesty is as habitually assumed by the loosest characters for the purposes of coquetry, as it is used in its literal sense by the most virtuous. The same or a very similar expression, used probably on a similar occasion, occurred in a passage of Anacreon ^ ; nor, if this charitable con- struction of the phrase be insisted on in the one case, can it, in the spirit of fairness, be denied in the other. The notoriously profligate and licentious Te'ian poet would then be entitled to rank, according to this novel standard of poetical morality, as the type of male bashfulness and discretion, by at least as good a right as that by which Sappho, on the strength of her dialogue with Alcseus, has been set apart as the type of female purity and modesty. No less fallacious is the inference proposed to be derived from the expression " pure," applied by Alcajus to Sappho in another passage.^ Here, again, nothing is known of the circumstances under which the epi- thet was used. As Alcaeus was probably her senior, it may have been addressed to her at an early period of her life, in which it was quite appropriate. It would be, however, at the best, unreasonable to ex- pect that an enthusiastic lover would be deterred from paying such a compliment to an amiable mistress, ' Ka\6i' th'ui T ffmrt ra ciKciia. Ap. Max. Tyr. Dissert, viii. p. 96. Dav. * Alcsei Fragm. xiai. Matthia. 314 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book lU. merely by the consideration that it might not be merited in a rigidly moral point of view. That the general tendency of Sappho's poetry was not more favourable to her private character than that of the portions preserved, is equally certain from the testimony of those who had access to her entire collection. The judgement of Ovid, while the most specific that has been transmitted, is here as distinct as it is conclusive. While there are few poets of antiquity who combined in a higher degree than Ovid brilliant and varied genius with critical taste and discernment, and with extensive knowledge of the antient world, its history and manners, his authority is here of the greater weight, that neither his own moral habits nor those of his muse were such as to render him a fastidious judge in the case of a fair fellow-minstrel.^ When, therefore, we find Ovid * Welcker admits that Ovid has preserved the most numerous notices of the real facts of Sappho's history. (Kleine Schr. vol. ii. p. 81.) He admits that the same Ovid must probably have known her compositions by heart. He even goes the length (to which we are hardly prepared to follow him) of maintaining, on Ovid's authority, against O. Miiller, the reality of the name and person of Phaon as the genuine lover of Sappho. (Op. cit. p. 124. 136.) Yet after this large recognition of the value of Ovid's testimony, that testimony is summarily discarded as a mere echo of the calumnies of the Attic comedians, in regard to every jDoint where it seriously militates against the modern theory. The principal reasons assigned for this uncourteous rejection of any evidence to Sa^jpho's moral character, on the part of a witness so valuable in all other particulars, is, that Ovid, as a Roman, was incapable (op. cit. p. 120.) of " raising him- self above the realities of life to the level of Greek ideal sensibility." This imputed disqualification is precisely what, according to the view hei-e taken of the case, imparts the chief weight to his authority. It certainly enabled him to judge more dispassionately, and, we apprehend, more truly, of the moral attributes of the poetess, than any such second-rate Pla- tonist as Maxiraus Tyrius, to whose affected sentimentalities (Diss, viii.) so much importance has been attached. Even the great masters of the Academy were evidently so swayed by their own erotic theories, and so Ch. V. §17. SAPPHO. 600 B. C. 315 characterising the amatory poetry of Sappho as " un- surpassed in lasciviousness," ^ it seems incredible that eiFusions open to such a censure in such a quarter could have been indited by a really modest or virtuous woman. His verdict is well supported by such other antient critics as have ventured, with equal candour, to draw a distinction between the moral tendency and the poetical power and brilliancy of her compositions.^ 17. Another delicate question involved in this Herre- ...ji, • J^^ • X r j^i lations to inquiry is that concerning the precise nature ol the her female intercourse between Sappho and her female associates, associates. It will neither be necessary nor agreeable here to dwell at any length on the chapter of Greek scandalous history with which this question connects itself, further than by remarking that the taste for impure intercourse, which forms so foul a blot on the Greek national character, was not confined to the male sex ; and that, among the females who had tlie chief credit of being infected with that taste, the Lesbians were so remarkable, as to have procured for it, under its several varieties, the distinctive title of the Lesbian bedazzled by the brilliant illustrations of those theories with which the muse of Sappho supplied them, as to destroy the whole value of their commentaries, in so far as bearing on the moral element of her cha- racter. Tlicir habitual association of her with Anacreon, and other notoriously licentious authors of the erotic order (see p. 294. sq., note), in their commentaries, is also in itself conclusive proof tliat their judge- ments were regulated by far other considerations than those of female virtue or modesty. 1 Art. Amat. iii. 331. * Apul. Apol. p. 11. ed. Casaub. 1593; Martial, Epigr. vii. 68., x. 35. ; conf Athen. xiii. 605. ; Epicrates ap. eund. Compare more especially the specimen given by Athenycus (xv. p. 697.) of the " Locriun " style of amorous composition, to which style he alludes (xiv. p. 039.) as identical with that of Sappho. 316 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book ni. vice. This certainly affords strong presumption that in a Lesbian female association, tlie chief object of which was the pursuit of love and pleasure, even this eccentric variety of the passion was not likely to be excluded. Here again, as in regard to Sappho's dealings with the other sex, veneration for the ge- neral brilliancy of her muse, with the indulgence shown by the Attic, especially the Platonic, school of philosophy towards every kind of amatory influence, seems to have checked any more severe scrutiny of this part of her character; and, among the few re- maining comments on the subject, the authority of her apologists is, perhaps, equal to that of her de- tractors. Her extant remains, however, which stiU. supply the modern critic with his own means of judging between the two parties, leave no reasonable doubt as to which was in the right. In several places, Sappho addresses certain of her female as- sociates in terms of no less voluptuous passion than those employed towards her male objects of adoration. In one passage^, equal in power and nearly equal in length to the ode to Venus already cited, her ardour is inflamed by the sight of a rival, a male rival, it ma}' be remarked, participating, however slightly, in the privileges to which she herself claimed an ex- clusive right. She describes it as " a bliss equal to " that of the gods to sit by the side of her beloved, to " hear the music of her voice, and gaze on her fasci- " nating smile. At the sight of another enjoying this " happiness her heart sinks, her tongue falters, her " lips refuse their oflice ; a subtle fire runs through her " veins, dimness overspreads her eyes, a hollow sound " fills her ears ; cold perspiration, with tremor and ' Frag. II. ; conf. note to p. 308. Ch. V. § 17. SAPPHO. 600 B. C. 317 " ashy paleness, pervades her frame, and she feels as " if the last ebb of life was approaching." Elsewhere she describes her sensation towards her beloved un- der the figure of " Cupid, that bitter-sweet resistless " enemy, creeping over her frame, and relaxing every " limb;" and, on the same and other occasions, gives equally keen expression to her feelings of mortifi- cation and jealousy towards any supposed rival in the affections of a favourite mistress.^ The former of these extracts has been cited by Longinus, as the passage wliich, in tlie whole volume of Greek erotic literature, offered the most powerful concentration, into one brilliant focus, of the various modes in which the overwhelming influence of amo- rous concupiscence can display itself on the human frame. The modern apologists of Sappho discover in it merely a warm expression of "maternal interest" and " friendly attachment ; " ^ and the passionate tone which it assumes does but reflect " the extreme excitability of the Greek character, and the ardour of the southern temperament, where feelings which among nations of colder blood remain altogether dis- tinct are blended or confounded." That the warm temperament of the Greeks led them to feel more keenly, and express their emotions more vehemently, than the natives of northern latitudes, may, as a general rule, be admitted. To suppose, however, that it ever led them, in embodying those emotions in poetical form, to confound feelings as completely distinct among them as among all other nations ; that it ever led them, when their hearts were overflowing with maternal fondness, or sisterly ' Frg. xxxvii. ; conf. lviu. lxxx. « Mull. Hist, of Gr. Lit. p. 177, 178. 318 BIOGRAPHY or LYRIC POETS. Book HI. friendship, to address the object of those affections in the language of ardent sensual passion, were as great a libel on the genius as on the common sense of a race so deservedly celebrated for discriminating taste and propriety in every branch of literature and art. It will, doubtless, have already occurred to the critical reader, that in the exact ratio in which such over- strained attempts to explain away or palliate the ob- vious and natural import of these brilliant effusions may tend to vindicate the moral character of the poetess, they must tend to depreciate her poetical genius. There is no escape from one or other alter- native. If Sappho did not mean or feel what she has expressed in the passages above quoted, then the most brilliant extant specimens of her muse become comparatively unmeaning rhapsodies ; if she did so feel, her sentiments were not those of maternal ten- derness or sisterly friendship.^ Critical 18. Au agreeable change of subject is afforded by herTorks.^ thc trausition from the foregoing impartial, and, be- cause impartial, in many respects painful, scrutiny of the moral character of Sappho, to the critical estinrate of her poetical genius. Upon this head no difference of opinion can be discovered among either antient or modern commentators, none at least disparaging to her fame. Of all Greek lyric poets, she is the one perhaps who, in her own peculiar branch of inspira- tion, was held most nearly to have attained perfection. The unanimity which pervades the judgements of the leading antient critics has already been pointed out. ' The comment.ory of Longinus, ru avm^ciivovTa tcuq IpuiriKcuQ /javiatQ TTciOijijaTa . . . tK T)]c aXijBtiac avrijc, k.t.\., would also, if that com- mentator had understood his text in the sense proposed by Miiller, be a pure nullity. Conf. Appendix F. Ch. V. §18. SAPPHO. 600 B. C. 319 Our means of testing their verdict by internal evi- dence, tliough unfortunately but limited, are yet amply sufficient to establish its justice. There can also be no doubt that, in the two longer compositions above appealed to, we possess two of her most brilliant pro- ductions ; for as such they are quoted and eulogised by the standard authors in whose text they have been preserved. That the more dazzling characteristics of Sappho's muse were of a licentious, or even meretricious, ten- dency, can in itself form no conclusive argument of her having been, when free from counteracting in- fluences, less feelingly alive, in the abstract, than many rival poets of less exceptionable morality, to the truly great and excellent in human character, even to the virtues by which she herself was least distinguished. Such anomalies are familiar in every age, and, above all, perhaps, as evinced by the case of Archilochus, in the rich variety of ethic studies presented by the literary history of Greece. The works of Sappho, however, supply no evidence of her fame having rested on any more solid basis than her power of portraying the tender passions, coupled with brilliancy of description, purity of style, and harmony of numbers. Her hymenseals, where a wider open- ing was afforded to a more sober vein of sentiment, are much in the same glowing enthusiastic strain as the rest of her odes. The existing collection com- prises, indeed, occasional passages ostensibly of the didactic or gnomic order, embodying maxims for the guidance of female conduct, addressed to her young friends. These lessons are, however, directed chiefly to the formation of the taste of her pupils in music, poetry, dress, carriage, and other elegant arts and 320 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. accomplishments which fell within her own imme- diate province of academical instruction. The few dogmas of a graver tendency, however beautifully expressed, are but specimens of what may be called the popular ethic commonplace of the lyric lite- rature of the age.' It was, therefore, to the spirit of love, tenderness, and ideal beauty, which, free from the alloy of any darker or sterner ingredients, breathed through all her productions, rather than to any depth or precision of the moral element with which they were seasoned, that she was indebted for the high encomia pronounced on her intellectual attributes by Solon and Plato, authorities themselves peculiarly susceptible of the former class of influences. Pier pathos, even where most overpowering, appeals but to the more delicate sympathies of our nature, to those concen- trated around the ajEFections of love, sorrow, mortifica- tion, or disappointment. The graver or darker moods of mind, fortitude, endurance, resignation, still less anger, revenge, remorse, seem to have found no place in her system of poetical ethics. Hence the pre- vailing suavity of her style as often subsides to lan- guor as rises to passion, but seldom if ever sinks below the one or soars above the other. The honour which Longinus awards to one of her odes, of ranking among the examples of that attribute of poetical 1 Frg. xLi. XLv. One of the passages of this kind (frg. x.) partakes much of what is called in modern criticism a " conceit." A question appears to have arisen in Sappho's conversational circle as to the merits or demerits of death. The poetess, in answer probably to some senti- mental commonplace of an opposite tendency, argued that " death could not be a blessing, otherwise the gods would die. Their reservation to themselves of the privilege of immortality proved that death was an evil." Sappho was satirised accordingly on the Attic stage for such exercise of intellectual subtlety. Supra, p. 300. note. Ch. V. § 18. SAPPHO. 600 B. C. 321 power classed by him under the general head of The Sublime, is due solely to the wonderful concentration within those few stanzas of the more striking phases or influences of the passion of love. Nor did she herself lay claim to any loftier vein of inspiration, if we may trust the terms in which one of her antient critics has made her contrast her own muse with that of her countryman Alcseus.^ Her imagery, in the same graceful spirit of consis- tency, is borrowed alone or chiefly from the softer more attractive objects of life, real or ideal ; the sweetest flowers, the fairest colours, the gentlest ani- mals, the brightest phases of the heavenly bodies. Even the destructive elements assume, at her behest, mildness in the exercise of their powers. "The " wind rushing down the mountain gorge, and rend- " ing the boughs of the majestic oak," ^ as a type of the invincible power of love on the sternest bosom ; " the autumnal rain hissing through the branches, " and scattering the seared leaves of the ash,"^ as a figure of some cheerless afl^ection of the heart, are the harshest and dreariest images borrowed by her from the phenomena of the material world. Her mytho- logical agents are similarly selected : the " bliss- " bestowing Cypris ; the bitter-sweet, resistless, limb- " dissolving Cupid^; the golden-throned Aurora; the " rosy-armed Graces ^ ; the Muses with their fair " flowing tresses^; Leda with her hyacinthine egg" ; " Mercury with his ambrosial chalice."^ Once alone the dark Hades is invoked, as a terror to the female who " despises the flowers of Pieria." ^ Such figura- tive embellishments, however, are chiefly displayed ' Ovid. Her. xv. 30. ^ Frg. lxxiv. ' Frg. iv. * Frg. xxxvir. ' Frg. XXII. ^ Frg. l. ' Fig. xxx. " Frg. lxxix. '-' Frg. xix. VOL. III. Y 322 BIOGEAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. in her lighter passages. Her more vivid outbreaks of passion are distinguished rather by that truthful, unstudied, and unadorned simplicity of expression, which insures their effect on the reader by the testi- mony it affords to their sincerity in the breast of their author. In the ode, for example, selected by Longinus as illustrative of the amatory sublime, the whole of that electrifying effect which he so well appreciates depends on the naked reality with which the combined emotions are described. The same re- mark applies to her complaining ode to Venus, where, with the exception of the agency of the goddess herself, the whole description, however brilHantly worded, is confined to the actual facts and feelings to which it was the main object of the poetess to give expression. The passage above referred to, in which Sappho taunts a noble Lesbian dame with insensibility to the charm of her own favourite pursuits, shows that she possessed considerable powers of sarcasm when she thought fit to exercise them : xar^avoTo-a 8s xs/o-y;, ouO sri rig [xva[xo(ruvcc Hcraclid. ap. Plut. in vit. i. "' Pint. loc. cit. Salaminian Cu. VI. § 4. SOLON. 634—554 B. C. 347 of bettering his family affairs ; in other accounts, cu- riosity and thirst of knowledge are assigned as his motive.^ 4. Solon's first efforts in poetry are described by Early life. his antient biographers as light fancy pieces, of an amorous or convivial tendency, composed for his own amusement or that of his friends.^ His compositions of this kind, however, as their existing remains prove, were not confined to his youth. At a more mature age, the political vicissitudes of his country led him to direct his genius to nobler purposes. Athens had long been involved in a severe contest with the neigli- bouring Dorian state of Megara, for the possession of the isle of Salamis, which lay contiguous to the coast of both countries. The Athenians having, after many sufferings and sacrifices, been worsted in the struggle, and seeing little prospect of its ultimate success, determined to abandon it altogether, and passed a law denouncing the penalty of death against whosoever should propose the renewal of hostilities. This self-imposed humiliation of his country was deeply felt by her future legislator, in common with many other men of spirit among his fellow-country- men. For long, however, the terror of the decree prevented any public declaration of their sentiments, until the boldness and ingenuity of Solon struck out an expedient for evading the law, and rousing the more apathetic citizens to a sense of their disgrace. Shutting himself up in his house, he caused it to be reported that he had suddenly become deranged. In his retirement he occupied himself in composing an ode adapted to his purpose, which he committed to ' Pint, in vit. n. iii. * Pint. loc. cit. 348 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. memory. Having fully matured his design, in concert with a chosen few of the friends who shared his pa- triotic feelings, and among whom, according to some not very valid authorities was the youthful Pisistratus, he selected for its execution the day of a great public assembly. Rushing into the agora with wild ges- tures and disordered attire, he appealed to the multi- tude in the assumed character of a herald from the " Sacred Island " to the Athenian people, exhorting them, in an address of a hundred spirited lines, to make another attempt at reasserting their meanly relinquished rights. The stratagem was completely successful. His own confederates loudly applauded his proposal, and were backed by the popular voice. The repeal of the law was carried by acclamation. In the sequel, by a series of successful measures, also planned and executed by Solon, the island was con- quered, and, under the auspices and arbitration, as is said, of the Spartan government, was permanently annexed to the Athenian dominions.^ Sacred war. Solon ucxt appears as a leading promoter of the " Sacred war," - carried on by the Amphictyons against the Cirrhaeans, on account of their sacrilegious usurpation of the privileges and funds of the Pythian sanctuary. Another transaction of importance in which he engaged, and Avhich has already been no- ticed in the life of Epimenides, was the purification of Athens from the stain of blood and sacrilege, called the " Cylonian curse." For the successful perform- ance of this duty, as also for various provisions embodied in his legislative code, tradition reports him ' Pint, in vit. VIII. sq. ; DIog. Laert. in vit. 46. sqq. ; conf. Aristot. Rlut. I. xvi. ; Ilcrodot. i. li.\. '■' Plut. in vit. XI. ; Aristot. ibid. Ch. VT. §4. SOLON. 634— 554 B. C. 349 to have been greatly indebted to the advice and sug- gestions of the Cretan sage.^ The removal of these impediments to the pros- Legislative perity of the republic, instead of conducing to its tranquillity, appears even to have had an opposite effect, by affording fresh opportunity for the prose- cution of those internal feuds which pestilence or foreign war had for a time at least the advantage of suspending. The old contentions of the " Moun- tain," the " Plain," and the " Shore, " the pastoral, agricultural, and maritime classes of the citizens, again broke out with renewed virulence.^ The evils of faction were aggravated by the distressed condition of the lower order of citizens, overwhelmed with debts to their wealthier neighbours. The unhappy condition of the republic at this period has been elo- quently described by Solon in extant passages allusive to his own reforms.^ The burthens of the poorer class were rendered the more intolerable by the seve- rity of the law of creditor and debtor, which entitled the former to rights of vassalage over the defaulting client, or even to sell him abroad into slavery, if per- manently unable to fulfil his engagements. In this emergency, a general desire arose for a new and more equitable system of laws, by which the poor hoped to be relieved of a portion of their burthens, and the rich to have the power of enforcing their obligations placed on a more definite and less invidious footing. Solon was by common consent intrusted with the important duty of compiling the impi'oved code, and Avas appointed archon, with enlarged authority for carrying his ordinances into effect. His own parti- ' Supra, Vol. II. p. 464. ^ Pint, in vit. xiii. ' Frsjr. XV. xxviii. 350 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. sans are said to have strongly urged him to put an end at once to the evils of anarchy by a permanent usurpation of supreme power.^ But his virtue was proof against this temptation, as well as against the ri- dicule to which, as appears from still extant passages of his works, his patriotic scruples exposed him.^ Aware of the fickle temper of his countrymen, he took the precaution, before promulgating his code, of exacting from them an oath to maintain its enact- ments inviolable during a period of at least ten years. The wisdom of this measure was afterwards fully justified. It would be transgressing the bounds of Solon's literary biography, to enlarge on the merits, defects, or peculiarities of his legislative system. With many excellences, amply approved by the subsequent experience of Greece and Europe, that system com- bined, like all human productions, various faults and anomalies. Some of these were acknowledged and defended by their author^, on the ground that his policy had been to give the Athenians, not theoreti- cally the best laws, but the best which, under the circumstances, they were qualified to enjoy. In one of his political elegies ^, he himself describes the or- dinances of his code as extending in much detail to all the relations of civil and social hfe. Among the chief defects, accordingly, imputed to his laws was a want of precision in these details, and the consequent wide opening which they afforded for litigation ; de- fects to which probably all elementary codes must, in the ordinary complications of society, be more or less liable. ' Plut. in vit. XIV. ^ Frgg. xxv. xxvn. ' Plut. in vit. XV. sqq. ; conf. frg. vii. * Frg. xxvm. v. 16. sq. Cu. VI. §5. SOLON. 634— 554 B. C. 351 5. The consequence, however, of this ambiguity. Travels, whether the fault of the legislator or of the materials with which he had to deal, was, that no sooner had the system been brought into full operation, than he was appealed to on all sides for counsel and guidance in obscure or doubtful questions.^ Apart from the constant interruption of his leisure to which he was thus exposed, the difficulty, in more subtle cases, of satisfying the applicants gave plausible opening to the charge of inconsistency, ignorance, or breach of his own statutes. Under these circumstances, he again, on pretext of commercial pursuits, quitted Athens^, with the intention of sojourning abroad during the remainder of the ten years of unconditional obser- vance of his code for which he had stipulated on the part of the citizens ; in the hope that the new institu- tions might, during his absence, acquire the force of custom, in addition to the solemnity of law. He first visited Egypt, and conferred with the priests of that country relative to the early history, physical and political, of his native Greece. The nature and re- sults of his intercourse, real or fabulous, with those learned persons, will supply matter for further con- sideration in the sequel. From Egypt he sailed to Cyprus, where he was hospitably received and entertained by Philocyprus ^, a prince of the island, who was indebted to his guest for various useful suggestions as to the better govern- ment of his own territory. In commemoration of these benefits and of the legislator's visit, the capital city of the district, when removed by Solon's advice ' Pint, in vit. xxv. "^ Plut. in vit. xxvr. sqq. ; conf. ITerodot. T. xxix, ^ Plut. in vit. XXVI. ; conf. Ilorodot. v. cxiii. 352 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. to a better situation, is said to have been named Interview Soloi. The distinguished traveller afterwards passed Tu's. ^'^' into Asia Minor and visited Sardis, the Lydian capital, where, if Herodotus may be trusted, he met with an honourable reception from Croesus, the last and most celebrated sovereign of the Lydian monarchy. The narrative of this visit, familiar as it is to every classi- cal reader, as one of the most popular episodes in the work of the most popular Greek historian ^, can yet hardly with propriety be omitted in a chapter of literary history devoted to the life and character of Solon : Narrative " After several days of hospitable entertainment, the king, con- j ^ *'"*' ducting his guest through the palace, and displaying its accumulated treasures, asked him, nothing doubting of the reply, whether, in the course of his long and varied experience of life, he had ever met w^ith so fortunate a man as the possessor of these vast riches. To this question Solon, more studious of truth than flattery, an- swered in the affirmative, mentioning the name of Tellus the Athenian. On being asked in what respect he considered this man's lot preferable to that of the Lydian monarch, he replied, ' that Tellus was blessed with a family of noble children, all of whom he lived to see parents of an equally excellent progeny; that in the midst of this domestic happiness he had, in a battle between the Athenians and Eleusinians, after putting the enemy to flight by his valour, met his death in the moment of victory.' Croesus then inquired of him, whom, after Tellus, he considered the most fortunate, trusting confidently to obtain at least the second place ; but he was again disappointed. The next in the philosopher's list were ' Cleobis and Biton, two noble youths of Argos, not less distinguished for the virtues of their mind than for their athletic powers. On occasion of the feast of Juno, the oxen failing to arrive from the country, they yoked themselves to their mother's car, and drew her a distance of forty-five stadia to the sanctuary. While the assembled Argives extolled the Her- culean strength and filial piety of their young fellow-countrymen, the grateful mother besought the gods to reward them with the choicest ' llerndof. i. xxx. Cu.VI. §5. SOLON. 634— 554 B. C. 353 blessing they had to bestow. Her desire was speedily fulfilled. Her sons, after participating in the sacrifice and feast, lay down side by side in the temple to repose from their toil, and, falling asleep, never again awoke. The Argives esteeming them among the most excellent of their citizens, dedicated statues to their honour in the Delpliic sanctuary.' " At this the king, much mortified, asked ' if no place whatever was to be allotted to himself, by the side of these private citizens, in the scale of human happiness.' Solon replied, 'that he was no doubt at that moment a wealthy and flourishing monarch ; but that to confer on him or any other mortal the title of Happy would be premature, before his claim to it had been ratified by a death corresponding to the previous prosperity of his life ; that, in the vicissitudes of human existence, the brightest sunshine of youth and manhood was often but a prelude to a cloudy and cala- mitous old age.' These remarks at the time did but excite the contempt of Croesus for the folly of the man who was thus unfitted to appreciate present good by morbid anticipations of future evil. But, when, not long after, the Lydian monarchy was subdued by the Persians, and Croesus himself became the prisoner of Cyrus, the warning of the Athenian sage recurring to his recollection proved the means of delivering him from a cruel death prepared for him by his conqueror." The sequel of the story, however, belongs not to the history of Solon but to that of Croesus. The details of this pleasing and impressive nar- rative, though closely interwoven with the conviction of the Hellenic public, savour greatly, it must be admitted, of that superstructure of didactic em- bellishment which, in the popular Greek tradition even of historical ages, is often apt to be reared on a comparatively slender basis of fact. The very ap- positeness of the contrast, so eloquently drawn by the historian, between Greek republican simplicity and Oriental pomp, between the calm philosophic foresight of the European sage and the vainglorious self-sufficiency of the Eastern despot, might tend to VOL. III. A A 354 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book ITT. awaken suspicion as to the historical value of the details, at least, of the narrative. But the whole account, even of the legislator's visit to Sarclis, has been further impugned, and with some force, upon chronological grounds. According to the well au- thenticated order of succession in the Lydian royal family, the death of Alyattes, father of Croesus, with the latter monarch's accession to the throne, did not take place until 560 B.C., the year of the usurpation of Pisistratus. This latter event, however, is equally well ascertained to have been posterior to the philo- sopher's return from his travels, and resettlement in Athens after his voluntary expatriation. Crcesus, consequently, could not have been the reigning sove- reign of Lydia at the epoch assigned by Herodotus to Solon's visit to the court of Sardis. It has been attempted to evade this difficulty, and save the cre- dit of the historian, by assuming Crcesus to have been associated with his father in the government at an earlier period, to wliich the narrative of Herodo- tus may refer. This apology, however, at the best somewhat far-fetched, is precluded by the tenor of the historian's own text. Alyattes is there plainly represented as already dead ; and Crcesus, not only as reigning in an independant capacity long after the death of his father, but as having, in the interval between that event and the philosopher's visit, had time to achieve the concpiest of the greater part of Asia Minor. Any attempt, therefore, to adjust the narrative of Herodotus to the chronology of the period were fruitless. There appear but two modes of upholding the truth of the substantial facts of the story, both involving a sacrifice of the historian's credit in regard to its particulars. The first would Ch. VI. § 6. SOLON. 634—554 B. C. 355 be, to adopt the version transmitted by Diogenes Laertius', which connects Solon's visit to Lydia with a second retirement from Athens, after the failure of his efforts to counteract the schemes or overthrow the usurped dominion of Pisistratus. The other hypo- thesis would be, that Solon really had been the guest of Croesus during the lifetime of that prince's father, but that Herodotus, in deference to the popular tradition, or following the dictates of his OAvn taste, had worked up the anecdote into the form best suited to his object of contrasting with each other the genius of the two men, and of the state of society which they respectively represent.^ It is probable that Solon, on his first visit to Asia, may have formed the acquaintance with Mimnermus which led to the poetical correspondence between them ad- verted to in a previous section. 6. During the absence of their legislator, the Return to levity of the Athenians broke through all the re- olath'' straints which his wisdom or authority had imposed on their factious spirit, and the strife among the parties of the IMountain, the Plain, and the Shore soon raged with its former virulence."^ His return took place when the disturbance was at its height, and all his influence was exerted, though vainly, to promote an accommodation. He succeeded, however, in penetrating, though not in counteracting, the insi- dious design formed by his own cousin and friend, Pisistratus, leader of the democratic party, to con- » In vit. Sol. 50. ^ Plutarch (in vit. xxviii.) enlarges here, as in some other similar cases, the element of fable, by tlie introduction of iEsop, as the court wit of the Lydian king, reproving the philosopher for the morose un- mannerly boorishness of his demeanour towards royalty. ^ Pint, in vit. xxix. sq. A A 2 356 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. vert the political restlessness of his countrymen into the instrument of his own aggrandisement, and of the overthrow of their liberties. Solon left no means unemployed to divert him from his mischievous purpose, whether by friendly expostulation or open opposition. Even after the establishment of the " Tyranny " he continued to protest against it, and to endeavour, by arguments, entreaties, and reproaches, to rouse his countrymen to a sense of their degra- dation. They, on their side, unable either to meet his remonstrances or to justify their own conduct, had recourse to their favourite expedient in such emer- gencies, of giving the affair a burlesque turn. They directed against him the stratagem he had formerly employed for their own benefit, and pronounced the enthusiasm of his opposing eloquence to be a re- turn of his old Salaminian fit of insanity.^ At length, when no hope remained of restoring the con- stitution, collecting his arms, he deposited them in the vestibule of his house, towards the street, as a symbol that he had not given up the cause of liberty until utterly desperate.^ In the sequel, according to the more accredited accounts, unable to prevent the evil, he did his best to mitigate it. With this view, during the short remainder of his life, which closed, according to the more authentic ac- counts, but a few years after the establishment of the " Tyranny," he adopted a conciliatory line of conduct towards the usurper.^ Pisistratus, on his part, who possessed every quality which can adorn the Attic citizen but that of disinterested regard for republican liberty, willingly renewed, upon this ^ DIog. in vit. 49. ; frg. xvii. ^ Pint, in vit. xxx.; TElian. V. H. vni. xvi. ^ Pint, in vit. xxxii. Ch.VI. §6. SOLON. 634— 554 B. C. 357 footing, the antient friendly relations with his dis- tinguished kinsman, and cooperated with him in enforcing and improving the new system of legis- lation in all points not immediately interfering with his own usurped power.^ Other less valid authorities represent the legislator, on the overthrow of the republic, as again retiring from Athens, and settling at the court of Croesus. Some describe him as re- turning to Cyprus, and ending his days as the guest of his former host, Philocyprus.^ Diogenes^, on the authority of Aristotle and of Cratinus the comic poet, relates that his ashes, in terms of his own testamentary injunction, were conveyed to Salamis, and scattered over the surface of that island, around which so many glorious associations of his early life were concentrated. This tradition, however, is ridi- culed, in a somewhat flippant tone, by Plutarch*; and JElian^ describes the philosopher as buried at Athens, near the wall of the city, on the right hand of one of the principal gates. The character of Solon appears in a more unex- Private ceptionable light as contemplated in his political than in his private and social relations. In his public conduct, disinterested patriotism, military prowess, and honesty of purpose appear combined with deep knowledge of human nature, penetrating judgement, and conciliatory temper. In his social life, the dignity of the philosopher and statesman was sullied *" by habits of sensual indulgence, in- clusive even of certain of the more scandalous vices which disgraced his age and country, but his propen- * Plut. in vit. XXXI. " Uiog. Lacrt. in vit. 62. ; Suid. v. S/iXwr. ^ Loc. cit. * In vit xxxir. '' V. H. viii. xvi. c pint_ in vif_ j_ fiii]ji_ A A .3 character. 358 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. sity to which he seems himself to have considered as an honourable trait of his character rather than as a ground of reproach. This latter inference is war- ranted, not only by the remains of his lighter compo- sitions ^, where a taste for degrading sensualities is very plainly, or even coarsely, expressed, but by cer- tain provisions of his code^ regarding the class of persons to whom, or the circumstances under which, a participation in such excesses was to be conceded. In one of his epigrams he couples these less honour- able sources of gratification with athletic exercises, horsemanship, the chase, and the rites of hospitality. Solon was never married ^, and seems in no way to have appreciated the value of domestic life. Even in his old age he describes Bacchus and Venus as the best coadjutors of the Muses in mitigating the cares, ' Frg. II. sqq. ^ Plut. in vit. I. There can be no reasonable doubt that the ex- pression vSfioc, used by Plato in his Symposium with reference to the Attic Pa^derastia (p. 182. sqq., and especially p. 196 c), and which has been loosely interpreted by the commentators " custom or usage," really applies to a law of the state, probably of Solon. The expression in the latter passage, o't voXtiog jSamXrjg vofioi, imitated from Pindar's iwfMog 6 ivav- Tiov (iaffiXevg, can never have referred to a mere popular custom too common all over Greece to deserve notice of so pointed a nature in con- nexion with Athens. Additional details of this strange chapter of Solon's legislation are given by other authorities : 6 Si SoXwj^ iv to7q vo/^ioig kg) TTuaovQ Tnjxtig cnrixovru aKuXovOtlv Stl rdv ipaaT))v r^ ipMfiivifi dtOtjXuiKi, kcu Toigi\tv6ipotg to i7riTi}divp,a TeTtjptjKe, k.t.X. Anon. ap. Bach. p. 13. It is also remarkable, that throughout the poetry of Solon, among his numerous allusions to the sensual pleasures of life, there is not one to inter-sexual love. The attempts of Plato (De Legg. viii. p. 839.), Plutarch, and others, to explain away the more licentious tendencies of the legislator, as mere ebullitions of the fervour of his youthful passions, are completely set aside by an extant passage of his own poeuis (frg. ii.) descrijitive of the favourite occupations of his old age. 3 Plutarch's story (vi.) of the trick played by Tliales on the legislator, in which a son of the latter is made to take part, is evidently a fable. It is given by Plutarch, accordingly, on the very appropriate authority of a certain Patajcus, who boasted that his body contained the soul of ..Esop. Ch. VI. §6. SOLON. 634— 554 B. C. 369 or soothing the privations, with which the decline of life was attended. The genius of this remarkable man may thus, both in its excellence and in its de- fects, be considered as a type of that of his race. The virtue of the Athenian citizen neither was, nor as among their Spartan neighbours affected to be, ex- empt from the weakness of the man ; and firmness, prudence, and integrity in the business of life Avere often combined with even a vicious susceptibility of its enjoyments. The merits of Solon as an encourager of literature are chiefly concentrated around his regulations for the more orderly recital of the Homeric poems in the public festivities.^ He has also the credit of having interpo- lated verse 558. of the Catalogue of the Iliad, in support of the claims of Athens to the possession of Salamis. That the story of his opposition to the dramatic en- tertainments of Thespis is a fable, is sufficiently clear even upon chronological grounds. The first intro- duction of those entertainments into Athens (535 B.C.) took place twenty years after the death of Solon. - The fabulousness of the story is further proved by its absurdity, as narrated by the popular authorities. Plutarch makes the philosoplier inveigh, in a highly poetical strain of rhetoric, against the immoral ten- dency of exhibitions which represented falsehoods in the disguise of truth ; as if there was any greater false- hood in the mythical adventures acted by Thespis than in many of those "rhapsodised" under Solon's 1 Sec Vol. I. p. 204. ^ The author has observed with some surprise, that both in Grote's History of Greece (vol. iii. p. 194.), and in the article Solon of Smith's Diet, of Biogr., this very palpable fable has been allowoil a place auion<>- the ascertained historical ("acts of Solon's life. A A 4 360 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. own auspices.^ Diogenes ^ goes still further, and as- serts that Solon attributed the success of the plot of Pisistratus against the liberties of the state to the lessons of intrigue which the usurper had learnt from the exhibitions of the Thespian stage. Works. 7. The collective works of Solon comprise, in the school of summary of the popular grammarians^. Laws, Ora- poetry, tlous, Rcflexions or Commentaries on his own affairs, Elegies, the Salaminian ode, Reflexions or Commen- taries on the Athenian state in five thousand verses. Iambic pieces, and Epodes. The Orations comprised in the above list, if assumed to be, in the stricter sense of the term, specimens of prose oratory, were probably spurious, as are doubtless the epistolary compositions given by Diogenes as extracts from the philosopher's private correspondence. The poetical works forming the remainder of the catalogue appear from the above description, as well as from the por- tions of them still extant, to have been almost ex- clusively of the ethic or didactic order. Solon is, in fact, the earliest known author who can properly be classed under the title of " gnomic " poet. The term Gnomic appears to have been originally invented, as it was exclusively employed, to denote a school of elegiac poetry, the object of which was to incul- cate moral doctrines rather than express mental emotions ; to enforce maxims of worldly wisdom in their more immediate bearings on objects of special interest to the author or his public. The charac- teristic, consequently, of the " gnomic " style was a sententious gravity, savouring often more of philo- * Plut. in vit. XXIX. ; conf. Sol. fig. 28. Bergk, where Solon himself admits the falsehood of (his latter class of mythical authorities. • Diog. in vit. 60, ' Diog. in vit. 62. Ch. VI. §7. SOLON. 634— 554 B. C. 361 sophy than poetry. It is true that, by reference to this definition, portions of the works of various pre- ceding poets, of Archilochus, for example, or Tyrtaeus, might rank as gnomic. There is, however, this dis- tinction between the cases, that, in the poems of those authors, the purely ethic or didactic element is not only comparatively limited, but altogether subor- dinate to the general scope and tendency of their muse ; in Tyrtaeus, for example, to martial and po- litical enthusiasm ; in Archilochus, to satire and sarcasm. The elegies of Solon, Xenophanes, Theognis, on the other hand, are for the most part essentially of the gnomic order, while all may be said to partake more or less of the same character. The spread of this style of composition in the age of Solon connects itself with the rise of what may also be called the gnomic School of philosophy ; if it be permitted to apply so dignified a title to so pri- mitive a fraternity, whose doctrines consisted chiefly of desultory maxims or moral precepts in prose and verse. The more remarkable members of this school are familiarly known by the title of the " Seven Sages." Among these Solon himself was the most distinguished ; the others were in great part, like himself, persons versed in the business of public life ; several of them, also like him, political leaders. This school, therefore, as comprising Thales, the earliest professional mathematician of whom Greece can boast, might, in contradistinction to the mys- tical or cabalistic school represented by Epimenides and Pythagoras, claim with some propriety the title of first practical school of Greek philosophy. Amid the still slender popularity of prose composition, the masters of the latter school were natiu'ally led, in 362 BIOGRAPHY OF LYEIC POETS. Book III. order to secure attention or permanence to their doc- trines, to embody them in a poetical, chiefly an elegiac form. Critical 8. It results in some degree from what has been SoionV "^ said, that, while there is no style of Greek poetry wu"rkll ""''^ more closely connected than the gnomic with the in- terests of real life, there is none which, if it does not altogether exclude, so little implies or requires in its cultivators, any fervid glow of poetical inspiration or lively play of fancy. Nor can Solon be said to form an exception to this rule. It would indeed be doing him injustice, to deny that he was a poet by nature as well as by art or study ; and had his lot been cast in other times, in another station of life, or under other circumstances, the power of native inspiration might have shown itself more extensively and under more genial forms in his productions. In his Salaminian ode ^, accordingly, dictated as it was by a powerful im- pulse of patriotic enthusiasm, his elegiac style appears, even from the few preserved lines, to have risen much above its usual height, towards the level of Tyrta^us or Simonides. His other compositions also contain some spirited and original passages. But, as a gene- ral rule, the poet is absorbed in the philosopher and statesman ; and the intrinsic value of his collective works consists rather in their intellectual than in their imaginative attributes ; in just and striking sen- timents, correctness of expression and versification ; in the qualities proper as much perhaps, or more, to elegant prose than to genial poetry. It may also be owing to the comparatively limited range afforded by the gnomic style to individuality of poetical character, ' Fr". XVI. Ch. VI. § 8. SOLON. 634—554 B. C. 363 that so frequent a correspondence, or even sameness, is observable in passages of Solon, Mimnermus, The- ognis, and other poets of the same order ; and hence that the texts belonging to these different poets have been so frequently confounded with each other in their citation by the antient commentators. There can, indeed, be little doubt, as has been observed in a former page, that there existed, from the days of Callinus and Tyrtteus downwards, in the elegiac school of composition, especially in its gnomic element, as in the old epic minstrelsy, a certain ingredient of poetical commonplace, extending from individual phrases and expressions even to entire sentences, and to the doctrines or illustrations which they em- body.^ It seems doubtful whether any poem of Solon has been transmitted entire, Avith the exception, it may be, of the short elegy descriptive of the septennial periods of human life - ; but several of the longer extant passages, as illustrative of the genius of their author, possess, in their existing integrity of subject and style, a value equal or little inferior to that of entire compositions. The whole number of extant verses is about two hundred and seventy-five. Of these upwards of two hundred are in elegiac measure ; between thirty and forty are iambic trimeters. Of the remainder, sixteen are trochaic tetrameters ; five alone are in purely melic style. The two hexameter verses which make up the sum total of the collection ' Conf. Bergk. Poett. lyrr. nott. ad Mimnerm. frgg. v. vii., nott. ad Solon, fig. XII. Go. sqq. 71. sqq. frgg. xv. xvi.; IJach. ad Callin. frg. i. 15., ad Tyrticuin, frg. vi. 8. 29. 31., ad frg. vm. 1. sqq. 27. 39. alibi. - The arguments urged by Porson against the genuine character of this elegy have been well met by Bach, p. 14 s([([. 364 BIOGRAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. are of questionable authenticity. They are cited by Plutarch in reference to a tradition of which he him- self appears to make but little account, that Solon had originally intended to draw up his code in a me- trical form ; and of this legislative poem they profess to be the exordium.^ The longest passage of the collection ^, comprising seventy-six elegiac verses in essentially gnomic style, may be considered as a fair and favourable sample of the general character of Solon's poetry. It contains a summary of his views relative to the tenor of his life and conduct, forming evidently a portion of his " Reflexions on his own affairs." The doctrines in- culcated are sound, often original and striking ; are expressed with a vigour and terseness sometimes bor- dering on abruptness, and are illustrated by some spirited imagery. He comments, in equally emphatic but less querulous terms than Mimnermus, on the ephemeral nature of human enjoyments ; dwells on the blessings of a clear conscience and a contented mind ; condemning the insatiable thirst of mortals for the possession of a happiness beyond their reach, and their wayward caprice in its pursuit. Riches ac- quired with the favour of the gods are pronounced a blessing, but ill-gotten wealth a curse, to the possessor. The whole is pervaded by a deep tone of religious feeling, by an humble sense of the dependance of earthly destiny on the divine will, and by a pious recognition of the often slow, but always sure, course of heaven's retributive justice. His description of Ate, as the figurative personification of the penal or vindictive agency of divine retribution, is borrowed from Ho- ' Plut. in vit. 111. Frg. v. Ch. VI. § 8. SOLON. 634—554 B. C. 365 rner ^ ; and various other passages show his familiarity with the IHad and Odyssey, and the influence of Homer's philosophy on his own theory of moral sen- timents. Another bulky text, or series of texts ^, of a more strictly political tendency, composed, it would appear, about or shortly prior to the epoch of his legislative undertaking, describes, in the same elegiac measure, and in equally spirited language, the evils which led his fellow-countrymen to resort to his healing interposi- tion. He dwells on " the usurpations and impieties of " the rich and noble, the cruel oppression and degrada- " tion of the poor, and the consequent wretched state " of the whole community. But he expresses a firm " reliance on the power and will of the protecting " deities of the republic to put an end to these cala- " mities, were the citizens but willing to cooperate in " providing the only sure remedy, orderly govern- " ment and equitable laws." Several of these pas- sages offer a near resemblance to parallel portions of the Eunomia of Tyrtajus, on which Avork this entire composition of Solon appears to have been modelled. Of the Salaminian ode, the most remarkable of all Solon's productions, but eight elegiac verses are extant, in a spirited vein of patriotic enthusiasm. He pro- tests " that he would rather be a denizen of the most " contemptible community in Greece than a citizen " of Athens, to be pointed at as one of those Attic das- " tards who had so basely relinquished their right to " Salamis." In several of the shorter pieces allusion is made to the less prosperous events of his political • Fig. V. 13. sqq., 75. sqq. ; oonf. II. ix, 505., xix. 92. * Frgg. XV. XXVIII. 3G6 BIOGRAPHY OF LYKIC POETS. Book III. career, to the intrigues and usurpation of Pisistratus, and to the servile submission of his fellow-citizens to the despotic sway. The following lines are a fair specimen of his mode of availing himself of the popular vein of poetical imagery, in giving effect to his ethic commentaries: ex VzipiXi^g (pef>srai ^lovog ^xevog tjSs p^aXa^r;^', s^ avep.(jiiv 61 ^akoLTfTa. ra^drrcrsTOii ' -^v hi rig (xutyjv [XT) xivj], TravTcov sot) hixaiordrri. avOf>u)v 8' sK [xsyaT^cov TroXig oKKurai ' s]g Se [JLOudpyou hriixog ai^pig scov hou7^o(T()Mii]V sirscre si 8s TTSTTovSars Oeivd Oi' oixeripriv xaxrjTYjra, jU-Tj ri bioig ro'JTcav [xoipav STrafx^spsTS' auTo) ydp rouroug rju^yjixars, potria. hoursg^ Hoi Old raura xa.x7]U s Conf. Clin. F. II. ad an. 596. 58G. '^ Aristot. Rhet. n. xxiv. ; Diog. in vit. Chil. 68. ^ Herod, vi. Ixv. ^ Herod, i. lix. ; conf. Diog. loc. cit. ^ Herod, vii. ccxxxv. ^ Diog. in vit. 69. ; conf. GcU. i. iii. Ch. VI. § 16. BIAS. 585— 540 B. C. 393 from the combined effects of old age and of joy, wlien embracing a son who had been declared victor in the games. ^ The single extant remnant of his lyric composition -, comprising six lines in Stesichorean measure, and marked by elegance both of expres- sion and sentiment, inculcates that, " as the purity of " gold is proved by the touchstone, so gold itself is the " test by which the good or evil in human character " is brought to light." Of his two hundred elegiac verses, also mentioned by his biographers^, no re- mains have been preserved. BIAS (585—540 B. C.)/ Son of Teutamus, of Priene in Ionia, is celebrated bi exclusively as Sage. While his character receives neither lustre nor tarnish from political rank or power, he has not only the honour of belonging to the select four ^ whose claim to be numbered among the Seven was undisputed, but seems, in regard to the strictly ethic or moral attributes of his order, to have en- joyed the highest reputation of the whole frater- nity.^ Though not a professional statesman, he was enabled by his natural penetration, in several emer- gencies, to render important public services to his countrymen. The date of his birth has not been recorded. He survived, however, all his fellow- sages, Solon by nearly twenty years, being still alive at the epoch of the conquest of his native Ionia by the Persians 1 Diog. in \\t. 72. ; Pliii. II. N. vii. 32. (54.). = Diog. 71. 3 Diog. in vit. init. * Clint, ad an. 586 n.c. 5G9 u.c. ^ Diog. Laert. in vit. Tlial. 41. 6 Satjr. ap. Diog. in vit. Biantis, 82, ; Ilerad. ap. Diog. 88. 394 BIOGKAPHY OF LYRIC POETS. Book III. (540 B.C.). He seems, consequently, to have been the youngest of the Seven. In the Panionian as- sembly of the confederate states, held in reference to the national calamity above mentioned, he was .the author of a suggestion greatly commended by He- rodotus.^ He proposed to his fellow-countrymen that they should emigrate in a body to the island of Sardinia, and there found a single commonwealth, as the only means of insuring the joint blessings of con- stitutional liberty, unity among themselves, and se- curity against foreign aggression. The practical benefit of his sententious wisdom was also exemplified ^ in the argument by which, when a guest of Croesus, king of Lydia, he dissuaded that ambitious monarch from a project equally pregnant with mischief to Lydians and liellenes. Croesus, sovereign of a great inland monarchy, was, about the period of the philosopher's visit, fitting out a fleet for the reduction of the Greek insular republics on the Asiatic coast. On his inquiring of his guest what news he brought from Ionia, the philosopher an- swered, that the islanders were preparing a great force of cavalry, with the intention of marching upon Sardis. At this intelligence the king expressed great delight, in the prospect of an easy victory over such inexperienced horsemen. " And do you not think," rejoined Bias, " that the Ionian mariners look forward " with equal satisfaction to their victory over your " navy of Lydian landsmen ? "^ Bias was distinguished for his talent of forensic ^ III. clxx. " Ilerod. i. xxvii. ^ This story was told by some of Pittacus (Ilorod. loc. cit.). But rittacus died before the accession of Croesus to the Lydian throne. Ch.VL§16. bias. 585— 540 B.C. 395 pleading^, and is celebrated on this account by his younger contemporary, the poet Hipponax. His death is said to have taken place in court, while resting his head on the bosom of a young grandson after a powerful address, at the moment when the decision was pronouncing in favour of his client.^ His fellow-citizens, in testimony of their esteem, decreed him a sumptuous funeral and monument at the public expense.^ The poetical works attributed to Bias were two thousand lines upon the means of restoring prosperity to the Ionian republics.^ The single existing rem- nant of his muse consists of a convivial stanza of three verses, inculcating the wisdom of adapting our habits to those of the place or people among whom it is our lot to reside. Of his sententious prose lessons the following are specimens ^ : " The most unfor- "tunate of all men he pronounced to be the man who " knows not how to bear misfortune : " that " it was " better for a man to act as arbiter in a dispute be- " tween two of his enemies than between two of his " friends ; for in the former case his decision would " be sure to gain him a new friend, in the latter to " create him a new enemy : " that " a man should be " slow in making up his mind, but swift in executing " his decisions." Another, on first view less generous, but perhaps, if rightly understood, not less sound and valuable, doctrine inculcated by him was, " that a man should " temper his love for his friends by the reflexion that ' Strabo, 11. 636. ; Diog. in vit. 84. ; Ilipponax ap. DIog. ct Strab. locc. citt. 2 Diog. loc. cit. 3 £)|og_ 85. ■* Diog. loc. cit. ^ Diog. 86 sqq. 396 BIOGRAriiy of lyric poets. Book IH. " they might some day become his enemies, and mode- " rate his liatred of his enemies by the reflexion that " they might some day become his friends." ^ When overtaken by a storm on a voyage with a dissolute crew, and overhearing them offer up prayers for their safety, he advised them rather " to be silent, " lest the gods should discover that they were at " sea." 1 Aristot. E,het. it. xv. xxii. ; conf. Cic. tie Amic. xvi. Ch. VII. §1. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 397 CHAP. VII. EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING IN GREECE. PART 1. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. CADMEAN TRADITION. ITS HISTORICAL IM- PORT. 2. RULES FOR THE GUIDANCE OF MODERN RESEARCH. NUMBER AND PECULIAR CHARACTER OF THE EARLY GREEK INSCRIBED MONUMENTS. 3. CHANCES OF THEIR PRESERVATION. 4. COMPARATIVE NEGLECT OF BLACK-LETTER PURSUIT IN GREECE. SUPPOSED LITERARY FRAUDS. RUDE- NESS OF THE PRIMITIVE ALPHABET. 5. NOTICES OF EARLY INSCRIBED MONUMENTS. EPITAPHS. LEGISLATIVE TABLES.. — 6. VOTIVE MONUMENTS IN THE NATIONAL SANCTUARIES. PAUSANIAS. 7. OLYMPIA. DISK OF IPHITUS. "TREASURIES." CHEST OF CYPSELUS. 8. OTHER MONUMENTS AT OLYMPIA AND ELSEWHERE. — 9. EARLY GREEK ARCHIVES. 10. MONU- MENTS OF THE ANTE-DORIAN ^RA. TRIPODS OF THE ISMENIAN SANCTU- ARY.— 11. OTHER CADMEAN MONUMENTS. PART II. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 12. GENERAL REMARKS. 13. ATHENIAN OSTRACISM. 14. PUBLIC OPINION OF EARLY GREECE. STATE OF EDUCATION. TEXT OF " HESIOD." STESI- CHORUS. ARCHILOCHUS. 15. SPARTAN SCYTALE. 16. EDUCATION IN SPARTA. CRETE. LAWS OF LYCURGUS. OTHER EARLY WRITTEN CODES. PHILOLAiJS. PHIDON. 17. WANT OF CONVENIENT MATERIAL 18. A PAS- SAGE OF THUCYDLDES. PARCHMENT. PAPYRUS 19. MEMORIAL RECITAL, OR RHAPSODISM. 20. LAWS SET TO MUSIC. LATENESS OF PROSE COMPO- SITION. 21. HOMER. 22. LETTERS OF BELLEROPHON. OTHER HOMERIC ALLUSIONS TO WRITING. CONCLUSION. Part L MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. ' 1. The early history of the art of writing in Greece introfiuc has, in the course of the more searching investigations \^ll\^2' to which it has of late years been subjected, usually been treated in immediate connexion with the history of the Homeric poems. This arrangement was natu- ral, perhaps even in some degree necessary, in the more elementary stage of the joint inquiry, in so far as the former branch of that inquiry naturally con- centrated itself around the most antient accredited 398 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. remains of literary composition. But the turn given to the whole subject, by the subsequent treatment of its Homeric element, has tended greatly to obstruct the sound course of critical research. The question concerning the origin and early use of alphabetic writing thus became in a manner circumscribed within the narrow limits of certain speculative theories as to the state of Homeric criticism in the days of the Pisistratidee, to the exclusion of all more enlarged views of the facts or authorities essentially bearing on the actual progress of literary culture in Greece. It has been shown, in the course of the fore- eroino- narrative, that the interval between the age of Pisistratus and that of the original composition of the Homeric poems comprehends one of the most brilliant periods of Greek literature ; a period abounding, as Ci- cero has remarked, with authors, many of whose names are still the most illustrious in their various branches of composition ; names not representing doubtful or semifabulous personalities, but poets and musicians of well-attested historical existence, profoundly skilled in the subtlest technical refinements of their respective arts. Every intelligent reader must perceive how essentia^a careful and comprehensive previous survey of this first strictly historical age of literature must be to any just estimate of the progress of an art without which no such organised system of literary culture could possibly exist. But, in the process hitherto pursued, this whole period is virtually over- looked, or, at the most, appealed to for the sake of a few incidental illustrations. A difi'erent method has here, therefore, been preferred. A general view of the extent and mode in which the intellectual powers of the Hellenes, during this youthful and genial Ch. VII. §1. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 399 period of their literature, were displayed, has been considered indispensable to a right estimate of the technical aids requisite for the developement or ex- ercise of those powers. That the Hellenes were indebted for their first Cad knowledge of the art of writing to the Phoenicians is a tradition of the historical value of which Ave have proof, altogether distinct from its own antiquity or universality, in the characters of the Greek alphabet. The evidence which the names, forms, and arrano-e- raent of those characters afford of their Oriental origin has already been considered,^ In regard to the period at which a knowledge of them was first communicated to the Greeks we are left, as on other points of earliest Hellenic culture, altogether de- pendant on mythical sources. There are, however, few national legends which, on the twofold ground of internal probability and the inveterate conviction of the enlightened native public in its favour, can advance stronger claims to the character of historical fact, than that which ascribes the introduction of the alphabet to the Oriental colonies figured, in the name and person of the hero Cadmus, as having settled in Greece, chiefly in Boeotia, at an early mythical period. This legend is at least broadly distinguished by the above-mentioned more solid characteristics from various other traditions of mere local or poetical origin, invented in honour of certain heroes or tribes, and according to which there is scarcely a Greek patriarchal chief celebrated for ingenuity in the ele- mentary sciences, to whom the discovery of this es- sentially Phoenician art has not been attributed : such are Prometheus, Orpheus, Musceus, Linus, Chiron, Palamedes. There is one point, however, on whicli ' Vol. I. p. 78. sut there is no trace of the same curious persons having advanced even a pretension to possess records of any remote antiquity on parch- ment or other cartaceous material. In our own times the case is exactly the reverse. There are few of the earlier civilised nations of modern Europe but can exhibit numerous documents on parchment or paper, executed at a period of which it would be difficult to discover a single record inscribed on stone or metal. This distinctive feature of the two states of society may be traced to the same source already frequently appealed to in other parts of this his- tory: the fundamental diiference in the circum- stances under which antient and modern civilisation had their origin. Greek culture advanced from in- fancy to maturity with the spontaneous develope- ment of the national genius ; the culture of modern Europe was for many centuries but a reconstruction from the ruins of a previous state of society. We inherited tlie art of writing from a people among whom it may be said already to have reached its perfection, together with a plentiful material for its exercise, and with a literature already fully matured and perfected as the guide to our own progress in scientific pursuit. The Greeks, on the other hand, received the same art from a people among whom it had as yet advanced but little beyond its elemen- tary stages; from a people not of literary habits in the more enlarged sense, and among whom its use was confined chiefly to works of necessity. They received it in an age when the supply of convenient material for its practice was compara- tively small, and wlien tlie benefits to be derived from that practice held out proportionally little in- Ch. VII. § 2. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 405 ducement to study or exertion. Under such circum- stances, the materials to which a newly instructed semibarbarous people would instinctively resort, as combining facility both of execution and preservation for the few works of utility or necessity to which the art would in the first instance be limited, would be wood, stone, and other hard substances. To these, accordingly, the earliest literary efforts of the Greeks may be supposed to have been solely or chiefly confined. But what was once necessity often becomes habit or fashion ; and the practice of per- petuating public documents by preference in this form was maintained, or even greatly extended, long after more convenient material for their circulation was abundant. Hence the following curious distinc- tion : in the darkest periods of modern medieval ignorance, when the knowledge of letters was far less extended probably than at any epoch of Grecian history subsequent to the Olympic a^ra, treaties of peace, charters, and other similar documents were committed to parchment and paper, and a public record of those periods, of any other than a sepulchral character, engraved on stone or any hard substance is a thhig of which it were difficult to find an ex- ample : in Greece and Kome, on the other hand, even in the palmy days of their literature, when education was the birthright of every citizen, the most im^ portant national registers and state diplomas, treaties of peace, laws, fasti consulares, even military lists and muster rolls, were dependant all but exclu^iively on sculptured tables for their legal publicity. This distinction supplies in itself a sufficient answer to the popular ai'gument against any familiar use of the alphabet in the primitive ages of Greece, wliich J. I. a 406 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. has been founded on the circumstance of the laws of Draco and Solon, or other similar state registers, having been promulgated on material no way adapted for literary purposes in the wider sense. The peculi- arity, if such it be, is one obviously of manners and usage, involving neither capacity nor inability to pursue a diflferent method. Had parchment or papy- rus been as plentiful in the age of Solon or Servius as in that of Cicero, those lawgivers would not have the less resorted to wood, metal, or stone, for their public registers; while, had the supply of the lighter ma- terial totally failed during our own dark ages, it might be a question whether our semibarbarous an- cestors would have been sufficiently zealous scribes to have had recourse to their iron mines or freestone quarries for a substitute,^ Their 3. Thus far concerning the number and character presTnL"*^ of tlic earlier specimens of Greek alphabetic writing. *'on- Attention must now be directed to their chances of preservation. Inscribed monuments of remote date may, with reference to the present question, be con- sidered under two heads : first, those recorded by ^ How inveterate this custom remained up to the latest period of classical antiquity appears from the mass of inscriptions preserved in the Vatican, Capitol, and other repositories of antient epigraphy. Among these monuments, besides testaments and other documents which in modern times it never occurred probably to the most eccentric scribe, either before or after the invention of printing, to embody in such a form, are found many (such as muster rolls of soldiers, of whole garrisons or cohorts) destined for mere temporary use. In the fire of the Capitol under Vitellius were destroyed 3000 inscribed tables of brass, which Vespasian (Sueton. in vit. viii.) replaced from other and probably cartaceous copies of the same deeds preserved elsewhere : " undique investigatis exemplarihus." The more pliable kinds of metal seem also, in the early ages of Greece, to have been occasionally resorted to for the promulgation of literary works of peculiar interest. Pans. ix. xxxi. 3., IV. xxvi. 6.; of. Nitzsch. Hist. Hom. p. 73. sqq. ; Montfauc. Palseogr. Gr. p. 16. Cu. VII. §3. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 407 later classical writers as extant in their own days ; secondly, those actually preserved to modern times. It may, on a superficial view, appear strange, had the practice of monumental Avriting been of any remote antiquity in Greece, that not one specimen should yet have been discovered bearing distinct in- ternal evidence of an epoch prior to the Olympic a3ra. The science of Greek palieography is still, perhaps, in too unsettled a state to admit of any solid argum.ent being grounded either on the age or the authenticity of extant inscriptions. There is also too much reason to believe that those who of late years have chiefly de- voted themselves to this branch of research have, in doubtful cases, been disposed rather to make the doc- trines of the modern sceptical school a guide to their decisions, than to avail themselves of the results of impartial investigation as a test of those doctrines.^ But, even admitting the entire deficiency of all writ- ten monuments of so remote a date, that deficiency were no proof whatever that many may not have been executed. The farther back we go, it is obvious that both the number of such monuments and the chances of their preservation diminish in an equal ratio. In the infancy of the art of writing, the efforts of its cul- tivators were not only fewer, but confined chiefly to the more easily wrought, and, by consequence, more perishable materials, such as wood or soft stone, rather than metal or marble. Hence, the more such niemo- ^ Boeckh more especially, wliose preliminary dissertation to his Corp. Inscr. Graec. is little more than a piece of able special pleading in favonr of the Wolfian theory. The author has been gratified to ot serve that his learned and ingenious friend Dr. Franz has not been withheld, by his respectful deference to the authority of his own distinguished friend and master, from following a more liberal and impartial course in his valuable work, the Elemonta Epigrn[hices GrffLiC, Introd. § iv. De jEtate Script urw, p. 30. D u 4 408 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book. 111. rials were exposed to the ravages of time, the less they were qualified to resist them. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, but one thousand inscriptions to have been executed in Greece prior to the Olympic ^ra, and let us calculate, by the analogy of parallel cases in historical times, what are the chances that a single one of that number should now be extant. Let us take, as a basis of this calculation, the probable number of such documents executed in Attica be- tween the first Olympiad (776 B.C.) and the final settlement of the Attic orthography by Euclides in the xcivth Olympiad (404 b. c.) ; those accumulated on edifices public and private, in market-places and thoroughfares, on monuments sacred, civil, sepulchral, or triumphal, during this the most flourishing period of the most civilised and literary commonwealth in Greece. Tliey can scarcely be rated at less than fifty times the number above allowed to all Greece durinsr the remote semibarbarous ages of her art of alpha- betic writing. Yet of the extant Attic inscriptions there are not fifty ^; not one in a thousand, conse- quently, to which a date prior to Euclides can with any probability be assigned. The chances, then, are infinitely against the transmission to posterity of even a single one of the ante-Olympic thousand. The analogy may be transferred to the primitive stages of modern art. It were probably not easy to find in Great Britain a single inscribed stone or metal monu- ment of the Anglo-Saxon aera.^ Yet it will not be ' See Boeckh, Corp. Inscr. Gr. vol. i. No. lxx. sqq. The utmost number that the author has been able to collect out of the whole twelve classes amounts to about forty-five. * Admitting Pausanias (see infra, § 7. sqq.) to have seen but twenty genuine inscriptions ranging over the three centuries between the middle of the ninth and the middle of the sixth century b. c. (the epoch of Pisi- stratus), the oH?;t of them would have dated 1000, the most recent about Ch. VII. § 3. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 400 denied that writing was familiarly practised in Eng- land in the ninth century, and more or less habitually applied by the inhabitants of that country to monu- mental literature, to sepulchral inscriptions, land marks, and the like. The fallacy of any negative argument founded on the nonexistence of inscrip- tions of remote date is furtlier apparent from the consideration that the same argument would equally disprove the execution, at the same period, of all works whatever of the class on which it was customary to engrave letters. It were as difficult to produce an uninscribed urn, tripod, or tombstone, which anti- quaries would acknowledge coeval with Homer, as one bearing an inscription. Yet no one would ques- tion the existence of such monuments in Homer's time, in the face of numberless passages of his poems where they are alluded to as abundant. The mere want of preservation can be no more valid argument in the one case than in the other. The argument against the antiquity of alphabetic writing, founded ^ on the absence of written legends on the older specimens of Greek coined money, affords another signal instance of the mode in which matters altogether extraneous to this question have been forced into connexion with it. That coinage is itself a practice standing in no necessary relation to literary culture is proved by the case of the Phoenicians and other Asiatic nations, who, although familiar with the art of writing long before the Greeks, are in- 700 years prior to his own time. We question whether the most diligent British antiquary of the present day could produce half as many from the cathedrals and cemeteries of England, ranging between the years 850 and 1150 of our sera. Yet the monuments of Greece had suffered in the time of Pausanias far more frequent and more fatal ravages than any to which those of Britain have yet been subjected. ' Miiller, Hist, of C,v. Lit. vol. i. p. 38. 410 EARLY HISTORY OF WRIIING. Book 111. ' debted to the Greeks for that of coinage; and the Egyptians, who wrote after their own fashion some thousand years before the Greeks, appear never to have had any coined money. The primary object of coinage, that of stamping, by a certain device, the genuine character or weight of the minuter parts of the circulating medium, was one for the attain- ment of which ciphers or symbols would probably, in the first instance, suggest themselves more natu- rally, even in an age of literary culture, than alpha- betical characters. Such symbols are, in fact, still preferred to letters among ourselves, in certain cases, as marks of metallic purity. Compara- 4, Anothcr fcaturc of distinction between antient lect of and modern times, of no little importance as bearing lett^er'^pur- ^^^ ^^^^^ incjuiry, is the comparative neglect, by the suit in Greeks, of a branch of scientific pursuit, which, under Greece. i. j 7 the name of Black-letter taste, has obtained so exten- sive a popularity in the present age. The zeal for an- tiquarian study, so characteristic of modern science, has in another place been pointed out as the result, in a great measure, of our dependance on the antients for our first advances in the polite arts ; and here again, as in the case of the sculptured literature of Greece and Rome, what originated in necessity has since ripened into habit and taste. But the Greeks, individualised in their own national feeling, and de- pendant on no previous state of society for the pro- gress of their own culture, had no such inducement to retrospective study. The investigation of the remote antiquities, even of their own country, was to them matter of comparatively small practical utility. They had no lost arts to recover, no extinct civilisation to resuscitate. Proud of their actual superiority in Ch. Vir. § 4. MONUMENTAL 1NSCRIPTI0J:S. 411 knowledo^e and taste to other nations, and attaclied by habit and superstition to the fabulous legends which formed so graceful a substructure to their existing splendid edifice of science and learning, they felt little disposition to mar the symmetry or unity of the ^vhole fabric by any close scrutiny of the ruder materials of which tlie basement was composed. It is not, therefore, until after the decay of original genius, and the loss of national independance, had led them to look back with melancholy fondness to every memorial of their antient glory, that any distinct traces appear of a taste for the branch of antiquarian pursuit here under consideration. In the days of Herodotus a manuscript was valu- able only in so far as it was useful. AVhen worn out it was transcribed, and probably destroyed as waste paper. Hence, the absence of all notice, in later times, of original manuscripts, not to say of Horner^ or Hesiod, but of Archilochus, Sappho, Ana- ^ Hence too might be explained the fact, could it be established as such, so pointedly pressed by Giese (De Dial. ^Eol. p. 163. sq.), that all the standard antient MSS. of the Homeric poems at the disposal of the Alexandrian grammarians were written in the " Ionian " alphabet (that is, in an alphabet of which the long vowels )/ and w already formed part); the use of which alphabet did not become general in European Greece until the xcivth 01. (404 b. c), although familiar probably in Asia, as Giese himself observes, several centuries before. His argument as to the Homeric MSS. is grounded on the frequent occurrence of appeals by the Alexandrian critics to the Chian, Massiliotic, and other old texts, in questions as to the best-authorised readings of words such as naxfi<^onai and fxuxtoofiai, Kaoroip and Kacrro^j, oi'Toic and ovroc, where the s or >;, o or oi, might, on mere grammatical grounds, be equally admissible. Such appeals, he urges, would be nugatory, unless the distinction between those several letters had been as plainly drawn in the old codices as in the editions founded on them. So probably it may have been. But his theory as to the mode in which he supposes it must have been drawn, is set aside or greatly invalidated by abundant evidence, supplied both by classical grammarians and by antient inscriptions, of another fact overlooked by 412 EARLY HISTOUY OF WRITING. Book III. creon, even of Herodotus or his contemporaries, having been preserved, still less cherished as objects of curiosity or interest. In the few instances where veneration was attached to cartaceous documents, a purely religious motive may be traced. The case was somewhat different in regard to monu- mental inscriptions. ]\Iany of these, being of a dedicatory character, were guaranteed by their sanc- tity from wilful destruction. Many also possessed, in their matter or style, a historical or literary value altogether distinct from antiquarian considerations. Hence, the literature of monumental epigraphy seems to have been cultivated with some diligence from the Alexandrian sera downwards. But, of strictly pala3o- graphical or black-letter research, even here little or no trace is observable.^ Supposed From this absence either of allusion by Greek fraud7 authors to preserved literary manuscripts of remote antiquity, or of pretension to possess such docu- ments, a further inference may be derived, tending to vindicate the Greek archeeologers from the very rude charges of dishonesty to which they have been exposed in the modern schools. As the authority of those native writers often interfered greatly with the late speculative theories, it has been customary to pronounce the monumental inscriptions cited by them to be forgeries, and themselves dupes or ac- complices of the priests, or of others interested in this fraudulent mode of augmenting their stock of Giese, that in the old, in itself less definite, Attic alphabet, it was customary in metrical texts to distinguish the quantity of the doubtful vowels by accents or marks, somewhat as in modern prosody. The authorities on this point have been accumulated by Villoison, in his preface to the Venetian Scholia (p. v. sqq.). ' Conf. Franz. Elem. Epigraph. Gr. p. 9. Ch.VII. §4. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 413 local curiosities. A more impartial view of the case would rather tend to relieve the Greeks from any serious imputation of this kind. There can be no doubt that popular tradition loved to assign obscure or illegible monuments of early date, by preference, to a remote fabulous antiquity ; and frauds may also, no doubt, have occasionally been committed. Yet it is somewhat remarkable, that of monuments fabricated for the express purpose of imposing on the public no authentic example has yet been adduced. Nor is it easy to reconcile with the late assumption of a pre- valence of such frauds in works of stone or brass, the other undeniable fact, that not a vestige of evi- dence should be extant of any similar attempt at forgery having ever been made in the case of literary manuscripts. How happens it that it never should have occurred to the same zealous bands of falsifiers who had successfully fabricated Grasco-Phoenician in- scriptions of the heroic age of Thebes, or bustrophe- don monuments of the time of Lycurgus, to produce original autographs of Homer or Hesiod, of Orpheus or Musasus, on diphthera or papyrus ? Such docu- ments would assuredly have been not less precious in the eyes of credulous Greek archaeologers than a stela of Hercules or of Cadmus. But not a single allusion is extant to anything of the sort. This entire silence as to the one kind of pious fraud seems inexplicable, on the supposition of the other kind havinof been so universal as has been surmised. But the same silence, taken in connexion with the greater general probability that, among the written docu- ments of real antiquity, those on the more solid ma- terial would be the best preserved, affords strong, almost conchisive, evidence tliat the monumentiil 414 EARLY HISTORY UF WIJITING. Book III. dedications advancing claims to such antiquity, if not necessarily genuine, were at least rarely if ever wilful foroferies.^ Rtuieness Tlic otlicr objcctiou to an early proficiency in the mitive ai-" ^rt of Writing, founded on the rude appearance of the piiabet. older extant specimens, is still less valid than that derived from their paucity. The analogy of histori- cal times abundantly shows an equal or still greater rudeness to be compatible, not only with an extensive application of the alphabet to elementary purposes, but with a highly flourishing state of literature. Among various antient nations, second only to the Greeks in the cultivation of ornamental art, alpha- betic writing never, even in their most civilised ages, presented a more elegant appearance than in ' Admitting the Greeks to have occasionally indulged in this species of literary imposture, a few examples of such fraud would no more dis- prove the existence of genuine archaic monuments among them, than the modern forgeries of Ibramiotti, Fourmont, Chatterton, or others, would justify a similar Inference in regard to the genuine antient relics of our own day. But the fact Is, that not a single Greek Inscription has yet been discovered supplying any reasonable pretext for such im- putations. The examples cited by Boeckh (Prsef. ad Corp. Insc. Grsec.) prove nothing more than that, after the more elegant forms of the alphabet had become general, curious or fanciful persons were In the habit of en- graving their dedicatory Inscriptions In antiquated characters; precisely as, in modern times, the old black-letter text is often preferred to the Roman In similar cases. But no example has been substantiated of an attempt not only to imitate the alphabetic characters, but to counterfeit the facts or names, of remote antiquity. Nor must it be forgotten, that there were professional sceptics in antient Greece as well as in modern Europe ; and, had the practice of literary fraud been carried to such an extent in the former country as has been assumed, neither the counterfeits nor their authors would have escaped a disgraceful notoriety. But throughout the wide field of Hellenic controversy on almost every other kind of literary c[uestion, there Is here scarcely an allusion to either Imputation or de- fence. It seems impossible to reconcile these facts with such a systematic course of impo^ture as Boeckli and his school assume to have been carried on, from the very earliest period, by the Greek monuiiicntal epigrnphists. Conf iM'anz. Elom. Epigraph, p. 75. sqq. Ch. VII. § 4. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 4 I 5 tlio earlier ruder specimens of Greek palaeograpliy. Among the Phoenicians and Etruscans, for example, whose alphabets are substantially the same as that of Greece, the taste for lineal regularity or symmetry seems never to have prevailed at all. Their monu- mental inscriptions of the age of Alexander, exhibit as uncouth an appearance as the Greek inscriptions of that of Solon, with a still less delicate adaptation to the niceties of pronunciation or flexion. Had clumsi- ness of form and arrangement, or the want of a few vowel sounds or double consonants, been incompatible with the advance of literary culture, both these nations would have remained in comparative barbarism. The progress of the useful arts, in their strictly useful ca- pacity, keeps pace, it is true, as a general rule, with the civilisation at large of the people by whom they are practised. But the growth of the ornamental arts, or the embellishment of arts not essentially ornamental, such as that of alphabetic writing, is often the consequence of a certain impulse of national taste during a particular period. Such seems to have been the case in Greece about the epoch of the Persian war, in respect to all the politer arts, in- cluding that of writing. The Doric temple of the age of Solon was as rude, compared with the Ere- chtheum of Pericles, as the IMelian inscription now appears, collated with the improved Attic calligraphy. Yet as architecture was quite as generally cidtivated for all ordinary purposes at the one period as at the other, so probably was the art of writing.^ ' Even in the time of Herodotus tlie forms of several letter?, smih as r and A, A and P, were still uncertain, as appears from many extant inscriptions of that period, where the only sure means of distinction is the import of the text. Yet the art of writino; on pnpor wn? then in a high state of perfection. 416 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book ITI. Notice-; of 5. Sucli are tlie principles of distinction by which scribed mo- tliis inquiry will be regulated in regard to these im- numents. portaut elementary considerations. In passing on to a closer analysis of the historical data for our guidance, attention is called, in the first instance, according to the arrangement above proposed, to what may be called glyptical literature ; inscriptions, namely, on stone, metal, wood, or other hard substances. The more important branch of the subject, which relates to writing on pliable material, will be considered se- parately. The lowest epoch at which the history of Greek letters can be said to be involved in any obscurity is that of the usurpation of Pisistratus, in the Livth Olympiad (560 B.C.), which forms also the limit of the present subdivision of this work. From that epoch, without however any servile adherence to chronological order, the investigation will be carried back, by a sort of analytical process, to the period in which history gives place to mythology. Epitaphs. That sepulchral inscriptions were common in the time of Solon, a generation prior to Pisistratus, appears from one of Solon's laws ^ directed against their effacement. Considering the concise charac- ter of these earlier codes, a specific enactment would hardly have been thought requisite in regard to a practice not yet familiar or universal. The Lejrisiative noticcs of the tables on which Solon's code was promulgated shed a curious light on the mode of pub- ' Ap. Cic. de Legw. ii. 26. Compare the tradition ap. Diog. Laert. i. ii. 48., that Solon supported the title of the Athenians to the possession of Salaniis by evieii^ rofio^ ; couf. Franz. Elem. Fpigr. p. 35. VOL. 111. E E 418 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. in public registers longer than in ordinary practice. In our own middle age, for example, after the Roman had supplanted the German character in familiar use, pro- clamations, epitaphs, and other smiilar documents, continued to be engrossed in black letter. And at a later period of Athenian literature, the old Attic or- thography was retained in the state registers long after the improved Ionian style was common in the ordinary transactions of life. The code of Draco, drawn up about thirty years before that of Solon, was on similar tables, and the same name (nuf^^sig), de- scriptive of their peculiar form, was common to both. ^ That this mode of promulgating laws was so uni- versally familiar at this period as to have become proverbial appears further from the saying recorded of Pittacus, the Mitylena3an statesman, an elder contem- porary of Solon. AYhen asked by the king of Lydia what he considered the best form of government, he replied, " That of the revolving tables ; " in other words, that regulated by a fixed code of written laws.^ Votive mo- 6. The most copious and specific notices of Greek IheTationai inscribcd monuments of remoter date are preserved by sanctuaries. Pausauias, the only extant author whose attention I'ausanias. "^ - . . . was seriously turned to the monumental antiquities of his country. His work, consequently, stands forth as a beacon amid the obscurity in which the interest- ing matters Avhich it illustrates have been left by his predecessors. It is true that Pausanias was credu- lous, but his credulity was of that venial kind which consists in a deference to the religious belief of his ' Flut. in Sol. XXV. 2 Diog. in vit. Pitt. 77.; Diodor. Sic. Exc. vii. xxvii. ; conf. Aristot. dc Mundo, VI. xxxvi. Bekk. ; Zenob. alios a}*. Gaisf. Paixmi. Gr. p. 67. 77. 190. 329. Ch. VII. § 6. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 4 1 1) forefathers, and which may, in a Greek antiquary of that age, as in a superstitious schohir of the pre- sent, be quite compatible with common sense and sound judgement in questions of secular criticism. It is further true, as a general rule, that no implicit reliance can be placed on the authority even of the best classical archa^ologers in matters of palasographical antiquity. Their deficiency of philological resources rendered them, if not less veracious, less critical in- vestigators than their brethren of modern times. There were, however, probably few men of his own nation better qualified than Pausanias, by long ex- perience and patient research, to judge of the genuine character or comparative antiquity of the monuments he examined. The correctness of his notices is also, in many cases, borne out by their own internal evi- dence or by other collateral authority ; and in various instances he shows a sound caution and discrimination in detecting or repudiating apocryphal or fictitious documents.^ In order rightly to estimate the data supplied by this author, it will be 2)roper to consider the amount of devastation to which the chief depositories of Greek national art had been subjected before his time. Pau- sanias wrote towards the end of the second century of Christianity, upwards of six hundred years after Herodotus, and nearly one thousand after the Olympic aera. The places where the richest collections of mo- numental antiquity would have existed, had nothing interfered with their transmission to posterity, were Thebes, Athens, Delphi, and Olympia. Thebes was totiilly demolislied by Alexander the Great, and was a village in Strabo's time. The Ismenian sanetuaiy, ' VI. xiii. 1., \iii. .\iv. 4. aq., alibi. 420 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. and one oi' two neighbouring edifices, without the walls, seem to have been the only remnants of the former greatness of that celebrated city. Athens had been similarly ravaged by Xerxes, who had made her sacred edifices a more especial object of destruction. The Delphic sanctuary, as Pausanias ^ himself relates, had been subjected to more severe and more frequent devastations than any other spot in Greece. This was chiefly owing to the sacred wars. The peculiar cha- racter of those wars not only caused a suspension of the national law which protected religious establish- ments, but even promoted the destruction of their monuments The contending parties, under pretence of combating in the service of the god, converted the treasures of his house into martial weapons. The temple itself had been destroyed by fire in the LViiith Olympiad; and the emperor Nero carried ofi" from Delphi, on one occasion, five hundred works of art ^, some of which seem to have been of great antiquity and curiosity. In regard to Olympia the case is some- what difi'erent ; and the fact, that precisely in this quarter the greatest number of monuments of high antiquity are described as extant, while conformable to all historical analogy, is a good guarantee of the ofenuine character of the works themselves. The quadriennial returns of the Olympic festival, the chief national solemnity of Greece, had been adopted in the early part of the eighth century B.C. (776), by common consent of the confederacy, as the standard pivots of the national system of chro- nology. The Elean magistrates, who presided at the games, kept regular chronographical tables, in which the names of the victors for each period were in- J X. vii. 1. " Tausan. loc. cit. Ch. VII. § 6. - MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 421 scribed. In addition to these state registers, both the dates and particulars of successive celebrations of the games were recorded by votive offerings of the victorious combatants or their patrons. The sacred precinct was also the favourite receptacle of monu- ments of a miscellaneous character, which the devotion, the public spirit, or the vanity of states or individuals had accumulated within this chosen rallying point of the spirit of Hellenism. AVhile the Peloponnesiaii states had been at all periods comparatively less ex- posed to the more destructive ravages of war than the republics of Northern Greece, the superior sanctity of the Olympic circus had specially provided for its protection. No notice, accordingly, is extant of its having been either wilfully destroyed or purposely sub- jected to devastations similar to those of which Thebes, Delphi, and Athens had been the victims. Even foreign conquerors were led, by the associations connected with this spot, to treat it with greater respect than other depositories of Grecian art. Accordingly, so late as the time of Pausanias, though shorn of many of its treasures by the occasional depredation of a Roman governor ', or by the little less fatal ravages of time and neglect, Olympia was still a valuable museum of monumental antiquity. The greater weight attaches to the number, limited as it is, of dedicatory inscriptions of remote antiquity noted here, as elsewhere, by Pausanias, from the cir- cumstance that his comments do not appear to have been specially guided by any spirit of palo^ogrnphical inquiry. The more antient written monuments are quoted by him neither as proof of the antiquity of the art of writing in his own country, which it never ' rauHnn. v. xxv. 5. E E 3 422 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. could have occurred to him to doubt, nor even in the way of archasological curiosity, but, in their turn with the rest, as iUustrative of questions of national or domestic history, or of elegant art : so that for one such inscription that lie has mentioned numbers may have existed. It must also be remembered, in re- spect to the older monuments cited by Pausanias as of uncertain age, or as dating, in his estimation, prior to the Olympic chronological ara, that, if the native antiquaries may be trusted \ the commencement of that a3ra was not coeval with the first institution of the games as a federal solemnity. The last-mentioned event is said to have taken place several generations earlier, under the auspices of Iphitus king of Elis, and Lycurgus the Spartan legislator ; and it was the increased community of national feeling consequent on this first formal recognition of the federal cha- racter of the games which led to their periodical returns being afterwards adopted as the standard notation of time. But even before the time of Iphitus the games appear to have been celebrated as a popular Peloponnesian festival.'^ Under any cir- cumstances, the chief temple of the chief national deity must, from remote antiquity, have been a favourite site for devotional offerings. Although, therefore, the great mass of the monuments within the sacred precincts may have been of a date subse- quent to the Olympic aera proper, there must have been exceptions, and among these are some of the more remarkable dedications noticed by Pausanias."'' 1 See Miill. Dor. i. p. 130. sqq. ; Clint. F. 11. vol. i. pr«f. p. ix. squ- ; coiif. p. 140. si[. '^ Horn. 11. XI. 700. 3 ruusau. V. XX. 1., conf. viii. 2. sq. ; Aristot. ap. Plut. Lyciirg. i. Ch. Vri. § 7. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 428 7. The most important relic of a public character oiympia. Disk of Iphitus. was the so-called disk or quoit of Iphitus. On its sur ^'^^ °^ face was inscribed in circular order the decree jointly ratified by that sovereign and Lycurgus, on the esta- blishment of the festival. This decree provided that, during the celebration of the games, hostilities be- tween Hellenic states should be suspended. It also secured to the Eleans the inviolability of their terri- tory, as guardians of the sanctuary and judges of the games. This inscription was read and its genuine cha- racter recognised by Aristotle, and by other leading native critics and chronologers.^ The first Olympiad of the chronological series was marked by the victory of Coroebus of Elis in the foot-race. The tomb of this athlete was seen by Pausanias on the frontiers of Elis and Arcadia, with an epitaph to the efl^ect that " Coroebus was the first Olympic victor, and that his tomb was the boundary of the Elean territory."^ Among the more antient edifices within the sacred " Treasu- enclosure was a " treasury" of the Megarians.^ On its frontispiece was a shield with an inscription record- ing its having been constructed " with the spoils of the Corinthians." Pausanias remarks that the only war of remote antiquity between Megara and Corinth, ^ Ap. Plut. loc. cit.; conf. Eratosth. ed. Bernhardy, p. 260. Mr. Grote, however, questions the genuine character of this inscription, on the ground that Herodotus has neither mentioned it nor founded on it in his chronological calcuhitions. (Hist, of Gr. vol. ii. p. 56.) This argument, if valid at all, would equally prove the Olympic chronological registers, to the historical authenticity of which I\Ir. Grote attaches the greatest im- portance, to be forgeries. They, too, are completely overlooked by Hero- dotus, among his authorities on Peloponneslan history, while freely citing the Spartan and other local chronicles, which Mr. Grote condemns aa worthy of no credit. ' Pausan. viir. x.xvi. 2., conf. v. viii. 2. ^ vi. xx. 9, E E 4 nes. 424 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Rook III. in which the former state could have Avon trophies of such importance, was during the archonship of Phor- bas at Athens, in the early part of the ninth century B. c.^ Another similar " treasury " was that erected in the xxxiiird Olympiad (643 B. c.) by Myron, t3'^rant of Sic^^on, with an inscription recording the quantity of metal used in its construction. Within the building was deposited a votive " shield" of the Myonians, a people of whom nothing was known in the days of Pausanias, but whom he conjectures to have been Locrians. The shield contained an in- scription in archaic characters, nearly obliterated by time.^ This custom of registering public deeds of importance on circular plates or targets of metal or parchment was common, in remote antiquity, both in Greece and Italy. ^ The name Shield or Disk must not here, as a general rule at least, be understood as denoting literally that the monuments had ever been actually destined for the purposes which those designations seem to imply, but merely that, owing to their circular form, they were so called in a figurative sense.'* The adoption of that form may, however, have originated in, or be connected with, another very antient custom, that of warriors inscribing de- vices on their bucklers ; a custom to wliich JEschylus and other early tragic poets would not have given so great prominence in their dramas, had not its origin been lost in the mists of the heroic age. One of the most celebrated exploits of Aristomenes, the Mes- senian hero of the second Spartan war, was a mid- 1 Clint. F. 11. vol. I. p. 131. See Appendix II. ^ y^ ^ix. 2. sq. ' Festus, V. Clypeus ; conf. Niebubr. Rom. Gesch. vol. i. p. 25G. ed. 1827. * " Clypeos ob rotundit.atem appellanint." Festus, loc. cit. Ch. VII. § 7. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 425 night incursion into Sparta, and the suspension of a votive shield on the temple of Minerva, with the in- scription, " Aristomenes to the Gods, from the spoils of the Spartans." ' The legend, ^Yhether historically true or not, represents at least the manners of the age. The greatest curiosity, however, the gem as it were chest of of the Olympic collection, appears to have been the Chest of Cypselus.- In this receptacle, as Herodotus relates, the Corinthian ruler of that name, father of Periander, had, when an infant, been concealed by his mother from the emissaries of the rival faction of the Bacchidie who sought his life ; and it was afterwards, in grateful commemoration of his escape, dedicated to the Olympian Juno. It was of cedar wood adorned with figures, partly carved in the wood itself, partly inlaid or embossed in ivory and gold. The figures, which were very numerous, were in groups or com- partments, representing various subjects of popular mythology. To each group a brief explanatory epi- gram was attached ; and to many of the figures were also appended the names of the persons represented. The forms of the inscriptions, which were all in very antiquated character, seem to have been regulated by the convenience of the space allotted to them, some being in the usual order, others in the bustrophedon style, others contorted into flourishes difficult to decipher.^ The portion of their poetical contents transcribed by Pausanias comprehends thirteen hexa- meter verses, which he inclines to consider as the composition of Eumelus'* of Corinth, Avho flourished ' Pausan. iv. xv. 2. * Pausan. v. xvii. 2. sqq. ; conf. Ilerodot. v. xcii. 4. ; Qiiatrcuiere de Quincy, Juj)if. Olymp. p. 124. ^ Pausan. loc. cit. § 3. '* v. xix. 2. 426 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. about 750 b. c. This opinion he grounds on a certain resemblance which he had observed in their phraseology or dialect to that of the Delian Proso- dium, a well known popular poem of Eumelus. The inscriptions of the chest quoted by Pausanias are, however, in much ruder style than any extant specimen of the muse of Eumelus, or of any other professional poet of his sera. They are marked indeed by a quaint, almost doggerel tone of primitive mannerism, which, but for their palpable allusions to portions of the text of the Iliad and Odyssey, mio:ht o;ive them claims to be considered as the oldest extant remains of the language. It seems, therefore, more probable that they are the work of some hum- bler genius, perhaps of the artist of the reliefs which they illustrate. Cypselus was born about 695 b. c. The construc- tion of the chest cannot, therefore, under any cir- cumstances be placed later than about the com- mencement of that century. That Pausanias himself ascribed to it a much higher antiquity is evident, both from his conjecture as to the author of the illustrative verses, and from his alluding to it^ as an old family possession at the period of the adventure to which it owed its public notoriety. This, there- fore, Avas obviously one of those ornamental chests described by Homer as an ordinary article of fur- niture in royal or wealthy households during the heroic age, and on the rich decoration of which he dwells in several passages of both poems.- They are described by him as kept chiefly in the apartments of the female heads of families, as depositories of costly 1 V. xvlii. 2. " II. XVI. 221. sqq. ; Od. xxi. 51., xv, 10-1. Ch. VIT. §7. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 427 dresses, jewels, and other precious articles. Hence the ready occurrence of the expedient to the alarmed mother. The subjects of the reliefs were numerous and varied, but the greater part were borrowed from the affairs of Thessalian or of Peloponnesian heroes ; the family of Cypselus, though already naturalised for several generations in Corinth, being of Thes- salian origin. In one of the compartments Pausa- nias recosfnised an adventure connected with their first settlement in the city. The mode in which the subjects of the decorative reliefs were treated was redolent, generally, of high antiquity. Hercules ap- pears armed with his bow, as in the old Homeric lesrend, not with club and lion's skin as in the inno- vation of the Rhodian Pisander, which first acquired popularity in the nge of Cypselus himself.^ Several of the adventures are derived from the Iliad or Odyssey, and the details of their representation in- dicate the artist's familiarity with the text of those poems. One of the mottoes, describing the combat between Aoamemnon and the Antenorida3 in 11. xi., was engraved on the shield of the Greek commander. This fact, considering the limited space necessarily ' Paus. V. xvii. in fin., xix. 1. These passages have been strangely misunderstood by K. O. ^Iiiller (Ai'diaol. der Kunst. p. 37.), who questions tiie genuine anti(iuity of the reliefs on the chest, on the ground of Her- cules being there represented after the Pisandrian fashion. In both pas- sages the hero is distinctly described as fighting with his bow. The attempts of several other critics to invalidate the authority of I'ausanias have been well confuted by Thiersci), Epoch, der bild. Kunst, Mlin. 1819, p. 49. The notion of the sculptured ornaments, with their inscriptions, having been added to the original work at the period of the dedication, in order to render the chest a more appropriate oflering to the Olympian sanctuary, is completely set aside by the circumstance that scarcely one of the multitude of subjects treated has any immediate reference to Olympia or its mythology. Conf. Ileyn. der Kast. des Cyps. ; Siebelis ap. licitt. Amalth. vol. ii. p. i:57. and else- where, 428 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. occupied by such an appendage to a single figui*e out of so many, proves the ingenuity displayed in lettering the monument, while it also implies the chest to have been of very large dimensions. Other mo- 8. The remaining more antient monuments at (Hyl^'pia^ Olympia the inscriptions on which are specified by Pausanias were, a statue of Jupiter dedicated by the Spartans during the second Messenian war, in the early part of the seventh century b. c.^ ; and a statue of Eutelides of Sparta, victor in the xxxviiith Olym- piad (627 B. c), with an inscription on the base obliterated by time.^ At Sparta, the oldest inscribed monument men- tioned by Pausanias was a stela recording seven Olympic victories of the athlete Chionis^, who after- wards joined the expedition of Battus to Cyrene, in the xxxviith Olympiad (630 b. c). Another Laco- nian inscription of high antiquity, already alluded to in a former page, was the epigram on the votive mo- ' V. xxiv. 1. ^ Pausan. vi. xv. 4.; conf. v. ix. 1. ^ Pausan. iii. xiv. 3. This athlete is here called Anchionis by Pau- sanias, but is evidently the same person as " Chionis the Laconian," elsewhere described by the same Pausanias (iv. xxiii. 2. 5., viii. xxxix. 2.) ns eponyme victor of the xxviiith, xxixth, and xxxth Olympiads, for the first, second, and third time. The period between the xxxth and xxxviith Olympiads would suffice to complete his number of seven victories before his embarkation with Battus. That two Spartan athletes of such extra- ordinary powers, the one victor in seven Olympiads, the other eponyme victor of three in succession, should have been contemporary, is obviously most improbable. The two names, therefore, denote the same person. The mistake may be laid to the charge of Pausanias himself, rather than of time or of his transcribers, and tends but to enhance the value of his tes- timony as to the antiquity of the inscription he lias misread. In the old orthography, where tlie words were not distinguished by intervals, the Doric form of the verb or substantive viKciv or riKuv, or of the relative particle civ or rar, prefixed to the name \i6viq, -would give a combination of letters easily mistaken, in a half- obliterated monuaicnf, for the proper name Anchionis. Cu. VII. §8. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 429 nument dedicated by Arion^, in the sanctuary of Neptune at Cape Tsenarus, about 610 b. c. In the second Messenian war (665 b. c), the plan of the Arcadians to retrieve the affairs of their Messenian alHes by a secret expedition against the city of Lace- da3mon was betrayed by the Arcadian chief Aristo- crates to the Spartan king, and the stratagem failed accordingly. The treachery, however, was brought to light, and its author was stoned to death by his indignant subjects, who also, in commemoration of the event, erected a column near the altar of Jupiter Lyceus, with an inscription in four elegiac verses, still extant in the time of Pausanias.^ The particulars of this transaction, together with the epigram, are also given by Polybius^, after Callisthenes, with this slight difference, that the monument is described as dedicated by the Messenians in gratitude to the Arcadians for their generous conduct. The somewhat ambiguous tenor of the inscription admits of either interpre- tation, but is, perhaps, most favourable to that of Polybius. At Delphi the only written monuments advancing claims to a remote date were the metal plates de- posited in the sanctuary by the Seven Sages, and containing their celebrated maxims.^ Another early " Delphic " monument^, though doubtful if preserved at Delphi, was the tripod dedicated by Echembro- tus the flute-player, with an elegiac inscription of three verses commemorating his victory in the second Pythiad (586 B.C.). At Athens no earlier specimen ' Supra, Ch. iv. p. 214. sq. '^ Pausan. iv. xxii. 4. 3 Polyb. IV. c. 33. * Plato, Ilipparch p. 228. ; coiif. Protag. p. 343. * Pausan. x. vii. 3. 430 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book IU. of writing than tlie laws of Solon is mentioned by Pausanias. Demosthenes, however \ cites a tabular inscription in antient half-obliterated characters, con- taining a law relative to the rights of the King- archons, as still extant in his time in the temple of Bacchus "in the Marshes." How little value was attached by the Athenians of later times to their remains of national epigraphy may be gathered from the fact mentioned by Pausanias, that the statues of Miltiades and Themistocles had been transferred to two other persons, and the dedicatory epigrams altered accordingly. The names of the usurpers he suppresses, contented with designating them, sarcas- tically, a "Roman and a Tliracian."^ Among the antient Greek inscriptions in the extant collections, there are a considerable number admitted by the most sceptical modern pala30graphers to range as far back as the age of Solon ; that is, about the close of the seventh or the commencement of the sixth century b. c. Some of these monuments date, however, there can be little doubt, from a much more remote period of antiquity." Early 9. Bcsldcs thc written registers mentioned by na- tive antiquaries as exposed to public view, there is another class of similar documents, the evidence of which, if less direct, is no less conclusive in favour of the prevalence of glyptical literature in Greece, from the epoch of the Dorian settlement downwards. These are the chronological records which, as at- tested by the highest authorities, were more or less regularly kept in the principal cities or sanctuaries of ^ Orat. p. Neasr. p. 1370. " i. xviii. 3. ' Boeckh, Corp. Inscr. Gr. vol. i. init. ; Franz, El(?iu. Epigr. Gr. p. 51. sqq. Greek archives. Cu. VIL§9. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 431 Peloponnesus during the whole or the greater part of this period. To the Olympic registers attention has already been directed. Similar chronicles were pre- served at the seats of other public solemnities of less universal interest. The CarneonicaB, or annals of the victors in the Carnean games of Sparta, established in 676 B.C., formed the subject of a chronological work of Hellanicus^ ; and Pindar quotes the "stone-engraved records" of the victors at Megara,^ The state re- gisters of the Peloponnesian republics appear to have been more regularly compiled in these early times, and afterwards more carefully preserved, than in other dis- tricts of Greece. This may be explained by various causes ; the pride taken by the Dorian royal or aristo- cratical families in their common Heraclidan descent^ ; the consequent jealous maintenance of their pedigrees ; and the comparative exemption of Peloponnesus from the more destructive vicissitudes of war or conquest. The earlier Spartan chronicles contained, apparently, little more than the names of the kings ^, with the number of years of each reign ; to which were added the names of the ephori, after the institution of that office. These chronicles formed the subject of a work by Charon of Lampsacus^, a historian prior to Hero- dotus, who is also said to have illustrated their meagre ' Similar records were preserved at Sicyon, and from them Plutarcb cites the names of the more antient masters of the musical art. De Mus. III. VIII. - Find. 01. VII. 156. ^ pi^to, Hipp. Maj. p. 285. * Hence Miiller (p. 132.) explains very ingeniously the uncertainty as to the age of Lycurgus ; never having himself reigned, no accurate record was preserved of his epoch. ^ Suid. V. Xdp(x)v. The great antiquity of these and other similar registers is vouched for by their name '12|fu)i ; from woor, an antient, and at every classical period obsolete, term for year (Athen. xi. p. 475.). sometimes used in the compound form wpoypnf<('ai. Etym. M. v. Hipot;. 432 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book lU. details by inscriptions from sepulchres and votive offerings ; a rare and early instance of recourse being had to such aids. The same registers supplied Era- tosthenes, the most critical of Greek chronologers, and his disciple Apollodorus, with their data for settling the period from the Heraclid migration to the first Olympiad.^ The antient archives of the Eleans ap- pear to have contained^ similar genealogies of their kings of the dynasty established simultaneously with that of the Dorians in Sparta ; and equal credit for antiquity and regularity seems to have attached to the chronicles kept in the temples of Juno at Argos and Sicyon, recording the succession of priestesses in those sanctuaries. The general harmony of dates in these various registers, as testified by later chro- nologers, is a strong argument of their genuine cha- racter. Timseus, as cited by Polybius^, compared the lists of the Spartan ephors, from their first institution, with those of the kings, and the lists of the Athenian archons with the succession of Argive priestesses and of Olympic victors, investigating and adjusting the details of each register by years or even months. AVith every allowance for the hypercritical genius of this compiler, it is difficult to believe that documents which supplied material for such researches could have been devoid of chronological value. Other strong evidence of the antiquity and regu- larity of these chronicles is to be found in the fact, that, in regard to the events of the period over which they extend, from the Dorian irruption downwards, ' Plut. Lycurg. i. ; Diod. Sic. i. v.; conf. Miill. Dor. i. vii. p. 132.; Heyn. Fragm. ApoUod. p. 411. ^ Pausan. v. iv. 5. ; conf. ]\IulI. op. cit. p. 133. ' Ii^xcerpt. vol. iii. p. 42. cd. Vindob. 1763. Cii. Vir. § 10. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 433 poetical tradition is altogether silent. The subjects not only of the regular epopee, but of the genealo- gical poetry of this period, still continue, even with the Dorian poets, Eumelus, Cinasthon, Pisander, and others, to be derived exclusively from the ante-Dorian a3ra, from the exploits or sufferings of the Labdacidse, Pelopidaj, or Laertiada3. Neither the Dorian conquest, the great Ionian migration, nor the Messenian wars, find a single epic annalist. An occasional allusion in a lyric ode is all that the Muse of Poetry has vouch- safed to those deeply interesting and important events. This is one of the most singular and apparently inex- plicable phenomena of early Greek literature ; one to which it were difficult to find a parallel elsewhere, and which it is the more surprising should never have attracted the notice of modern critics. Any attempt to explain it in these pages must be reserved for the portion of them devoted to the early history of prose composition. It supplies, at least, evidence which it seems impossible to evade, that the frame- work of historical fact, which even the most sceptical inquirers have not failed to recognise in the period between the Dorian conquest and the first Olympiad, could only have been transmitted by means of written monuments.^ 10. The foregoing details can leave no reasonable Ante-oo- doubt that writing, in the special mode to which our present inquiries are more immediately confined, was practised to a greater or less extent by the Dorian states of Greece, from about the period of their es- tablishment downwards. But the Dorians were pro- verbially a barbarous race as compared witli that which they subdued or expelled, and were always ' Sec Ap[icn(lix J. VOL. 111. F F nan inotiu- nieiits. 434 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. belimd their Ionian and Attic kinsmen in the arts of civilised life. It may therefore safely be assumed that, during the period above examined, the art of writing, if so familiar even to the Dorians, must have been more extensively cultivated, not only in the Asiatic colonies, but in the neighbouring state of Attica where the old civilisation maintained its ground ; although circum- stances have proved more favourable to the preser- vation of distinct evidence on the subject in the former than in the two latter cases. Nor, therefore, can there be any reasonable doubt that the Pelopon- nesian Dorians received their elementary knowledge of the art from the race whom they had supplanted ; or, in other words, that they found that art already practised in their new territory, on their arrival. They can hardly be supposed to have brought it down with them from Pindus ; nor is it very likely to have been first imported from the East into Pelo- ponnesus immediately on the settlement of these semibarbarous invaders, a people averse to commerce or foreign intercourse, after having remained so long a mystery to their more enterprising and enlightened predecessors. The preferable opinion, then, must be, that the alphal3et was familiar to the more civilised tribes of Hellenes prior to the Dorian usurpation, and, by consequence, that earlier written monuments than any above cited may have existed in Greece. It is true, on the other hand, that the classical notices of such monuments, as necessarily connecting them with fabulous persons and events, can possess no tangible or specific historical value. Still, how- ever, they may not be altogether devoid of indirect or speculative value, as illustrative of the early vi- cissitudes of the art of writing. Cu. VII. § 10. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 435 Attention will here be confined to a very few of Tripods of the more familiarly known and respectably attested l^L^sZt monuments of this apocryphal class. Among these, ^"^'■y- a first place is due to the three votive bronze tripods described by Herodotus Mn his standard passage on Greek palaeography. These monuments were pre- served in the temple of the Ismenian Apollo at Thebes. On each was engraved the name of the donor and the object of the dedication. The first tripod, in a single hexameter line, described itself as dedicated by Amphitryon ; the second and third announced them- selves, each in two hexameter lines, as oflfcrings the one of Polydamas, the other of Scaaus. The writino- is described by the historian as in the old Cadmean or Phoenician character, previous to the modifica- tions which the alphabet underwent on its subsequent more extended use among the native Hellenes. The genuine antiquity of these dedications has, by modern critics, been very generally and reasonably denied on two principal grounds : the mythical age and fa- bulous personality of their reputed dedicators, and the language in which they are expressed. On the latter objection it may be observed, that, while all three epigrams are marked by much rude quaintness of style and idiom, the last alone contains traces of a phraseology little in keeping with the primitive forms of the poetical dialect. It must, however, be remem- bered, that much of the antiquated effect of any such inscription depends on its being given in the orioinal orthography, not, as these now appear, in that of classical times. Many a distich might be selected from Chaucer, which, as written by himself, would be as obscure to the understanding as harsh to the ear ' V. lix. F F 2 436 EAKLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. of an Englishman of the present clay, but, if reduced to the modern spelling, might pass current as the production of a living author. No suspicion of wilful deceit on the part of Hero- dotus has here ever attached to that historian The prevailing opinion has been that he was himself im- posed on by the priests ; and this is, perhaps, under certain restrictions, the most reasonable view. That the inscriptions, however, were wilful forgeries of the priests cannot be so readily admitted. To the general reasons above advanced against too easy an acqui- escence in charges of this nature, others may be added more immediately apphcable to the present case. It is plain, from the remarks of Herodotus, that the Avriting must have been of the most antiquated cha- racter. He alludes to the modifications which the Phoenician alphabet had undergone since its first im- portation by Cadmus, selecting these letters as spe- cimens of the old Cadmean type, and as the most primitive, if not the only, specimens of that type which he had seen. Although Herodotus may not be entitled to rank as a critical philologer in the modern sense, his views here expressed on the vicis- situdes of the national orthography are consistent and judicious, and he was, perhaps, of all men of his age, the one best qualified, from observation and experience, to judge, by the eye at least, of such distinctions. Even admitting, therefore, that the verses on the tripods were forgeries, the fact that the Ismenian priests possessed so great a knowledge of the mysteries of Oriental palaeography, as to forge inscriptions in Pha?nician characters calculated to pass current with Herodotus for genuine, were in itself a strong argument of the facilities which r.ocolia offered for such studies in the number and Ch. Vn. §10. MONUMKNTAL IXSCRIPTTOXS. 437 antiquity of the relics it contained. The earlier we assume the fraud to have been executed, the stronfrcr this argument becomes. It might, however, be open to doubt, whether these inscriptions were really legible to Herodotus himself. Perhaps the more probable view is, that they were not, and that he has taken their interpretation on the authority of the priests : for it is certain, from other passages of his history, that Herodotus was much more likely to become the dupe of empirical inter- preters of illegible antient writing, than to mistake the forgeries of a local Boeotian priesthood for genuine monuments. On this supposition another question would arise, whether the inscriptions were legible even to the priests. The opposite opinion, that they were not distinctly legible to either party, is perhaps the most plausible in itself, and that which supplies the best solution of the difficulty. Various intermediate hypotheses, however, suggest themselves, between that of the epigrams being a literal tran- script of a legible text, and that of their being an imaginary interpretation of an illegible one. The priests may have been able conjecturally to decipher a word or two in each inscription, a proper name for example, and may have accommodated the rest to the received tradition of the temple relative to the dedicator. There exists other incidental evidence in favour of this latter view. Pausanias^ mentions the tripod of Amphitryon as still extant in his time, but gives a different account of its dedication. According to him, it was the custom for noble young 1 hebans to serve the office of laurel-bearer to Apollo during a year, and to dedicate a tripod in the sanctuary at ' IX. X. 4. r r 3 438 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book IIT. the expiry of their term of duty : *' and the most re- markable of these monuments," he continues, " both in respect of its antiquity and the rank of the donor, is that presented by Amphitryon on behalf of the youthful Hercules." It is obviously not very likely that the tripod here mentioned was different from that seen by Herodotus ; but it might easily happen that the local ciceroni, while constant to the name of Amphitryon, had varied their rendering of the ob- scure dedication, during the seven centuries that had elapsed since the visit of the historian. Upon the whole, then, there can be little doubt that these inscriptions, whatever their exact import, were genuine specimens of the earliest Cadmean or Graeco-Phoenician alphabet, of more antiquated form than Herodotus had elsewhere met with. They tend, therefore, at least to corroborate the tradition of a priority of Boeotia, among the Greek states, in the knowledo;e and use of the art of writino;. Other 11. Another notice of the old ./Eolo-Phoenician al- phabet, in an apocryplial work of Aristotle \ derives, from its connexion with the text of Herodotus just examined, an importance which might not otherwise attach to it. Near the town of Hypate, on the frontiers of Thessaly and Phocis, a cippus was disin- terred inscribed with letters unintellio-ible to the finder, who sent the monument to Athens, as the metropolis of science, to be interpreted. The mes- senger, on his way through Boeotia, was advised to visit the Ismenian sanctuary, as, among the votive monuments there preserved, were some bearing si- milar characters. This advice he followed, and was furnished, accordingly, by the learned men of that ' De JNlirub. Auscult. cxxxlii. Cad mean luoiui- nit'iits. Ch. VIT. §11. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 439 establishment with six verses relating to the adven- ture of Hercules with Geryon. The accuracy of this interpretation, as in the case of Amphitryon's tripod, may rest on its own merits. The essential point is the fact of an illegible inscription from a neighbouring- province having been found, on collation, to resemble others, probably as illegible, at Thebes, the same doubtless described by Herodotus as remains of Cad- mean writing. The priests, in the one as in the other case, would be at no loss for a solution of the enigma. A third notice of primitive Boeotian epigraphy is that transmitted by Plutarch ^ concerning a plate of brass bearing cabalistic letters, discovered at Haliar- tus, near Thebes, in the interior of a monument which tradition called the tomb of Alcmena, destroyed by the Spartans under Agesilaus about 380 b. c. In the same tomb were found a brass necklace and two terra cotta urns. The Spartan king is said to have sent to Egypt, the supposed fountain-head of all mystical lore, for an explanation of the inscription ; with what result does not appear. The natural in- ference is, that a specimen of illegible writing, found in the reputed sepulchre of one of the same Cadmean family, would be in the same Cadmean alphabet which Herodotus saw on the Theban tripod. Of the authenticity of the notice itself, its own internal evi- dence, and the mode in which it is introduced by Plutarch, can leave no reasonable doubt. The above notices, referring to some five or six monuments, appear, whether as respects their internal evidence or their connexion with each other, to be the most authentic allusions to an ante-Dorian use of I De (JL'ii. Sucrat. i)p. 577 — 579. i- I- 4 440 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book TIT. writing, and are all concentrated around Boeotia, the reputed seat of the first establishment of the alphabet in Greece. A recent discovery has supplied another curious link in the connexion between the primitive Gr^co-Phoenician alphabet and the name of Cadmus.^ The island of Thera, in the iEgasan, was celebrated as the seat of a colony of that hero's followers, left by him on its coast when on his voyage to Greece, which colony afterwards received an augmentation from Sparta of citizens also claiming descent from the Grseco-Phoenician blood royal of Thebes. It is, there- fore, a remarkable coincidence, that precisely in this island a number of Greek inscriptions should in our own time have been discovered, the characters of which exhibit the closest resemblance to, in the older specimens almost identity with, the original Phucni- cian alphabet. So striking has this resemblance ap- peared even to the ablest and most zealous living opponent of the antiquity of Greek writing, that he has been constrained to admit the evidence it affords of a basis of fact in the legend of Phoenician settle- ment in the island. Part II. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. General 12. lu Dassino; ou to thc rcmaininc; head of this in- quiry, which treats of the npplication of the al[)habet to literary purposes in the more familiar sense, it need hardly be observed, that, unless for the sake of method, no marked distinction can with propriety be drawn between the two branches of the art, in the con- duct of any such investigation. The extension of the ' Boeckh, Abh. der Berl. Akad. der Wissenscli. 1838, p. 41. sqq. ; Franz, Elem. Epigr. Gr. j). 51. Cii. VII. §12. WRITING FOR LITERARY TURPOSES. 411 one branch must involve from the first a proportional increase of the other. The custom of posting notices in public places implies a more or less general capa- city to read them ; and even the first elements of lite- rature can hardly be mastered by any considerable portion of the community, without a supply of more convenient materials for study and practice than slabs of wood or stone. Attention has already been directed to the uncritical argument against any gene- ral spread of monumental writing in early times, which has been grounded on the inelegant forms of tlie older extant Greek dedicatory inscriptions. Still more fallacious were the like inference in regard to writing for literary purposes. Although the first rude attempts in alphabetic art would probably be made on hard substances, it is inherent in the very nature of things, that the practice of tracing letters with ink on a susceptible surface would be earlier carried to perfection than that of engraving them on stone or metal. Of this conclusive proof is af- forded, on the one hand by the comparative rude- ness of many extant inscribed monuments, both Greek and Roman, transmitted from flourishing epochs of classical literature ; on the other hand, by the paper or parchment diplomas of our own dark ages, which offer fine specimens of their own style of art, executed at epochs when monumental literature was in a very degraded state. Niebuhr has shown ^ that written books existed in Rome under the Tarquins ; but the date of the oldest extant Latin inscription, the epi- taph of Scipio Barbatus, the style of which equals in rudeness that of the earlier Hellenic specimens, is later by several centuries than the expulsion of the kings. AVere the analogy transferred from Rome to ' Rtiin. Gesch. vol. i. p. 5'2G. sq. 530, 442 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. Greece, even granting the oldest preserved Hellenic monument to date but from the time of Solon \ the art of writing for literary purposes might have been familiar in the ninth century B.C. By those who lix the middle of the sixth century B.C. as the utmost limit of any general practice of committing popular compositions to writing, the prac- tice of their general perusal has been consistently assigned to a later epoch ; since it was not to be sup- posed that any large body of the citizens would be suddenly endowed with capacity for a branch of in- tellectual pursuit to which even professional men of science had only just begun to turn their attention. This opinion has been pronounced by Wolf, in allusion to the herina3, or way posts, with which Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, adorned the market towns and public thoroughfares of Attica, and on which were in- scribed moral sentences for the edification of the pas- sengers. It is not easy to apprehend, on first view, how those who admit the truth of this fact can ques- tion the general capacity to read on the part of the Attic population of this period. If so illiterate as has been supposed, what benefit, the question natu- rally occurs, were they to derive from the institution ? This difiiculty, however, has been evaded on the ground that the object of Hipparchus may have been, by exciting their curiosity, " to encourage them to learn ; " and that, amid the great deficiency of writing- ^ Payne Knight, according to whose palasographical system tlie oldest extant Greek inscriptions do not mount higher than this date, or about GOO B.C., grounds upon that hypothesis one of his principal arguments of the Iliad and Odyssey not having been written prior to that epoch. Upon the same principle, it would be necessary to measure the period at which the Hebrew scriptures were first written by the oldc-t extant specimens of Hebrew epigraphy, which belong to a more recent age than that of Solon. Prolegg. ad Horn. §§ xxxviii. xlii. Ch. Vn. § 13. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 443 material at that period, these monuments " may have served as a species of horn-book for practice." ^ It is true that this learned trifling, for it certainly deserves no better name, has been in a great measure repudiated by the reviving common sense of the clas- sical 2>ublic.^ Here, however, as in the previous more elementary branch of the inquiry, the best mode of securing method and perspicuity will be to assume, as a basis, the latest period concerning which any serious doubts have been expressed, and hence to carry back the investigation, by the same analytical process, to those ages in which the entertainment of such doubts becomes reasonable. 13. There is no more celebrated institution of the xi-.e Athe- Athenian republic than that of the Ostracism, which ciMn.°'*"" gave to the democracy an arbitrary power of pronoun- cing sentence of banishment against ambitious citizens. This power was exercised by each man inscribing the name of the person whose exile he desired upon a tile, which he deposited in a place set apart for the purpose in tlie Agora. If the number of tiles ex- ceeded six thousand, the sentence of banishment was enforced ; if not, the ostracism was void.-^ It is clear that this law is a practical assumption that, at the period of its enactment, every Athenian citizen could not only read, but write. It will hardly be objected, on the strength of the popular anecdote concerning Aristides, that the exercise of the privilege may have been common to the whole body of freemen, although 1 Wolf, Trolegg. § xvii. not. 35. p. 72. : "No vcro ex bis inscriptioiiibus colligas CO tempore qucinvis Athenis Icgere scisse I'otuerunt tainen ad discendiim invltari illo instituto, non pojore, opinor, eleinontarIi.s li- bcllis nostris." ^ Sec more cspeiially Xitzsch's excellent work, Dc Ilisloria lloiaeri. ' Pint, in Arifttid. p. 322. 444 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book HI. but few had the benefit of liberal education, because the rest might have their tile inscribed by their neighbours. The notion of some thousand citizens, in times of popular excitement, being under the ne- cessity of exercising so important a privilege at second hand, were as inconsistent with the genius of that age as with the secrecy which forms so essential an element of all ballot, and to provide for which was evidently the main object of the process. The open- ing to fraud, by the writing of false names, would also have tended to nullify the whole system, and render these haughty freemen dependant on an oli- garchy of scribes for the exercise of their highest privilege. Such a law, therefore, could neither have been enacted nor carried into effect in any state where edu- cation was not general ; and, at whatever period the ostracism existed in Athens, the great majority at least of the citizens, amounting to from twenty thousand to thirty thousand, must have been able to read and write. Stress is here laid on the two correlative departments of art, " reading and writing ; " for whoever is familiar with the habits of the less educated class, even in our own time, must know that the number of persons who possess the former art alone is always greater than that of those who combine the two. The extension of the latter must consequently, in every case, form the best and most conclusive evidence of the literary attain- ments of a people. The capacity to scratch a name upon a tile may not, indeed, appear any very severe test of a liberal education ; yet he must have been no contemptible scribe who could engrave some of the longer Athenian names, often witli the distinctive adjuncts of tribe and parentage, on a material not Ch. VIL §13. WRITING FOll LITERARY PURPOSES. 445 certainly, to our notions, of the most convenient de- scription. Had so remarkable a practice as the ostracism been first introduced during any distinctly historical period, it might seem difficult to explain the absence of all positive notices as to the time or circumstances of its origin. Without, therefore, going the length of several respectable authors who trace it back to the fabulous ages of tlie republic, it might yet be reason- able to consider it as some antient national custom anterior to Solon's legislation. Let it, however, be admitted, with the best classical authorities^, to have been estaljlished, at the latest, by Clisthenes, about 510 B.C., after the exjDulsion of the Pisistratida), in order to guard for the future against the too great influence even of meritorious citizens. Aristides, as authentic history records, was its victim Avithin thirty years afterwards ; and the institution is not alluded to as a novelty at that period. Education, therefore, must have been universal among the citizens of Athens, in the year above noticed. It may also, however, safely be asserted, that the assumption by legislative enactment at any given period in that age and country, as a matter of course, that every citizen could write, is in itself conclusive proof that the liberal arts must have been more or less cul- tivated by the mass of the community during several previous generations, and familiar probably, during several previous centuries, to those classes who had more leisure or taste for such pursuits. These are facts which ought to render the modern critic very cautious in his comparative estimate of the state of I Diodor. Sic. xi. Iv. ; iElian. V. II. xiii. xxiv., conf. Perizou. ad loc. ; Ileraclid, frg. i., conf. Schneldewin. ad loc. p. 39. 446 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. Public opinion in early (ireece concerning national education. literature in primitive Greece, and in his own age. It were still, perhaps, possible to find, in some of the more enlightened regions of modern Europe, a borough containing some thousand freemen, where, if the clan- destine exercise of a political privilege were to be clogged with the formalities attending the Athenian mode of ballot, the consequence might be a virtual disfranchisement of a large portion of the constituency. It appears, from the statistical returns of the year 1842^, that the proportion of the adult male popu- lation of England and Wale^ who in that year could not write their names was 32*4 per cent, or about one third of the whole. Had therefore " universal suffrage and vote by ostracism" formed a part of the Reform Bill of 1831, about one third of the citizens of this country would have been disqualified for the exercise of the franchise by the condition with which it was clogged ; a condition involving but the same amount of education considered as an indispensable palladium of their liberties by the supposed illiterate citizens of Athens in the sixth century b. c. 14. The almost total loss of the works of the nu- merous writers, especially of the lyric poets, who flourished between the Olympic sera and the Persian war, deprives us in a great measure, though not entirely, as has been and will be still further seen, of what Avould probably have been a copious repertory of contemporar}'' evidence regarding the state of edu- cation during that period. The deficiency, however, of their direct testimony is in some degree made good by the indirect evidence of their nearest successors, whose impressions as to the age in which they lived ' The latest to which the author has had acccs?. Porter, Progress of the Nation, p. 707. Ch. VII. §14. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 447 were derived from their works. Not one of these early classics, so distinguished for candour and im- partiality, even modesty, in all that regards the com- parative antiquity of their national culture, seems to have entertained a suspicion that practical literature was a mushroom plant which had sprung up sud- denly at Athens about the Livth Olympiad. All treat it as a tree of old and irradual rn'owth, with roots tapering deep into the soil of ages, and the stem of which had slowly and steadily attained its solid character, and the branches the luxuriant foliage by which they were adorned, in the early Attic period. It was hardly, therefore, to be expected that those writers would adduce formal proof of what no one doubted. Silence, indicating the universal notoriety of a fact, is often stronger attestation than the keenest ex- pression of individual conviction. There exists, how- ever, in incidental passages, sufficient evidence of their opinions. Herodotus, for example, even giving him Herodoti credit for a large share of popular credulity in such matters, could never have penned his celebrated passage on the primitive Greek alphabet and writing- material, had there been room for so much as a con- jecture that the oldest extant Greek volumes dated but a century before his own day: still less could Stesichorus, about the seventh century e.g., have as- stesicho- cribed the invention of letters to a hero of the Trojan '■"^• war, had it not been notorious among all well-informed men, in the days of that poet, that books had been familiarly written and read in Greece from time im- memorial. Even the tragic poets, from iEschylus downwards, although their text cannot be quoted as historical testimony in the stricter sense, would hardly have represented their heroes habitually resorting to 4 18 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book 111. the art, liad its practice not been universally believed to be lost in the mist of ages. Even in the most favoured regions of modern Europe but a limited number of the population, as we have already seen, can read and write ; and the ac- quirement of those arts is, in many countries, matter of little concern to the people themselves, and neglected or coldly encouraged by the governments. With the Greeks the case was different. It was a consequence of that spirit of social equality which marks their republican ages, that every art considered as closely connected with the duties of public life became a branch of public education. Besides the anxiety of each citizen to secure to his descendants the elemen- tary qualifications for the duties or privileges of his order, it was also the concern of the common parent, the state, to place all her children on an equal footing in these important respects. Hence, from the earliest period, in every part of Greece, a knowledge of letters is alluded to by classical authors as an indispensable accomplishment of a Hellenic freeman. About the time when the Athenian ostracism first appears in a state of activity, the death of a hundred and twenty children at Chios was occasioned, as we learn from He- rodotus ^, by the falling in of the schoolhouse in which they were assembled. Still more characteristic of the genius of the age is the anecdote^ of the " tyrant" of Mitylene, who, in the flourishing days of tliat republic, in the early part probably of the seventh century B.C., having subjugated some neighbouring states, resorted, as a means of curbing their spirit of independance, to tlie expedient of prohibiting the instruction of their ' VI. xxvii. * /Elian. Var. liist. vii. xv. ; conl", riclui. Lesb. p. 89. sq. 94. Ch. VII. § 14. ^yRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 449 youth in letters and music. It appears, also, certain, Legislation that both these arts were enjoined by the codes of Ly- Je"t. curgus^ and of other early lawgivers.^ In whatever age it was customary to expose publicly laws, treaties of peace, and other state documents, it would be discreditable for any citizen to be unable to read them. Nor is it an unimportant fact, or tradition, it matters little which, recorded by Aristotle, that Zaleucus of Locris, the first reputed author of a written code for that republic in the early part of the seventh century (660 B.C.), was a shepherd and a slave, who raised himself by his talents to the office of legislator.^ Literary culture must have been in a certain state of forwardness, when it opened up a road to distinction even to persons of this class. Thales, about the middle of the same century, Thaies. foretold an eclipse of the sun, which came to pass under the great-grandfather of Cyrus. The mathe- matical science requisite for any such computation implies, on the part of its author, a familiar know- ledge of Avriting, and the possession of convenient material for its exercise. The six remaining sages, ' Plut. in vit. Lye. xvr. ; Instlt. Lacon. p. 237 a. 2 Of Crete, Heraclid. Polit. in. ; Ephor. ap. Strab. p. 482. ; ^lian. V. H. II. xxxix. or Draco and Solon, ^schin. adv. Timarch. p. 32. sqq. Reisk. ; conf. Plat. Crito, p. 50 d., De Legg. p. 689 d. 804 d. 809. sq. Of Charondas, Died. Sic. xii. xii. Diodorus here dwells pointedly on the great extent and precision of the regulations of this lawgiver (.500 n.c?) relative to literary instruction. When, therefore, Aristotle (Polit. 11. ix. p. 69. Tauchn.), in treating of the code of Charondas, specifies certain penalties against false testimony, as the only enactments peculiar to it among others of early date, we may the more certainly assume that the injunction as to public education was common to all these primitive legislators. Conf. Aristot. Polit. viii. ii. Tauchn. p. 257. in fine. ' Ap. Schol. Pind. 01. x. (xi.) 17.; Suid. v. ZaXet'/cot; ; conf. Aristot. Fragm. Bekk. ed. Oxon. vol. x. p. 322. VOL. III. G G 450 EAKLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. of whom Thales was the seventh, were assuredly as well qualified in this respect as himself. Nor can there be any reasonable objection to the accounts, al- though not perhaps historically authenticated, of a cor- respondence by letters between remarkable characters of this period, between Solon and Mimnermus, Peri- ander of Corinth and Thrasybulus of Lindus, Poly- crates of Samos and Amasis the last of the Pharaohs. The Samian prince has also the credit of establishing Pisistratus. a public library in his metropolis. And here it is that a place properly belongs, as an encourager of literature, to Pisistratus, whose real merits in this respect have been too much overlooked, in the zeal of his admirers to load his memory with fictitious glories. In early times, coiTiplete copies of more voluminous works were limited to professional men of letters, to the rhapsodists, who made a livelihood by their recital, to the school- master, and other curious persons. Pisistratus is the first who is recorded as having practically exerted him- self in the promotion of literary pursuit, not merely by encouraging living men of genius, but by multiplying good editions of the works of their predecessors, and by the establishment of a repository where those works might be stored up for the use of the citizens at large. ^ The oracular or sacred part of this col- lection was removed to Lacedasmon by the Spartan king Cleomenes.^ The remainder is said to have been carried off (more probably destroyed) by Xerxes on the capture of the city, and to have been restored to the Athenians by Seleucus Nicator^, two hundred years afterwards. In the list, however, of classic allusions to the familiar use of letters between the Olympic rera and ' Athen. i. § 4. ; Aul. Gell. vi. 17. ^ HeroJot. v. xc. 3 Gell. loc, cit. Ch. VII. §15. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 451 the Persian war, the most important place belongs to those by contemporary authors. The value of these notices is also, unfortunately, much enhanced by the slenderness of the remains from which they are derived. Among many of a more or less distinct character, in the fragments of " Hesiod," Stesichorus ^, Erinna, "Hesiod." Pittacus, Solon, a more peculiar value attaches to a chus. passage of Archilochus, involving also a somewhat more extended range of historical illustration. 15. Of the many singular institutions of Sparta, The Spar- the Scytale, or mode of conducting state correspond- tlve^'^^' ence, was one of the most remarkable. It consisted of two cylindrical j)ieces of wood exactly equal in size and form to each other, one of which was kept by the magistrate, the other was delivered to his agent or officer. When either party had any matter of importance to communicate, he cut a long narrow stripe of parchment ^, and rolling it in spiral form about his staff, one fold close upon another, wrote the dispatch on its surface : then, unrolling it again, he transmitted it to his correspondent, who wrapped it round his own staff, when the writing, which before was disjointed and unintelligible, appeared very plain. ^ The existence of this practice at any epoch of the Lacedaemonian republic affords no less positive proof than does the ostracism in the paral- lel case of Athens, that letters were then an essential part of education in Sparta. All the citizens of the latter republic, with the exception of the kings, were • Of Stesichorus see above (p. 401.). In " Hesiod's " Maxims of Chiron, a work of acknowlecljred high antiquity, and quoted and jiara- phrased by Pindar, it was enjoined that children should not be instructed in letters until seven years old. Quintil. i. i. 15. ; conf. vol. n. p. 438. ^ Hence the name tTKindXr] ; from oki'toc, hide or skin. ^ Plut. in Lysand. p. 444. G G 2 452 f:ARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. equal in the eye of the constitution, and its whole theory- went to maintain and secure that equality, as regards mind, body, and estate. They were, therefore, accord- ing to one of their fundamental laws, educated in the same manner^, on a prescribed plan, and under the superintendance of officers intrusted with that depart- ment of state discipline. The knowledge of letters, therefore, which the code of Lycurgus enjoined, limited as it appears to have been, was common at least to every Spartan. The ephori, by whom this correspon- dence Avas carried on, were themselves private citizens annually selected, like the Roman tribunes, from the whole body, usually, it would seem, from the lower order of Spartan freemen.^ No one, therefore, was qualified for the office of Ephorus who had not both acquired and kept up his stock of literary accomplish- ment. But in Sparta, even did the state permit any such laxness, few would be willing to incur the stigma of incapacity for the duties of a popular ma- gistrate. Whoever aspired to the command of an army must have been similarly qualified ; and, although this duty, in early times, was specially appropriated to the kings, they were frequently unable to fulfil it, from old age, imbecility of body or mind, or other obvious causes. Every true Spartan, therefore, it may safely be assumed, was, at the period when the practice of the scytale prevailed, expected to be able to read and write. A similar inference as to the general use of writing throughout the dis- tricts politically connected with Sparta, at any period in which this mode of correspondence existed, is no less obviously involved in the peculiar character of that correspondence. Such extraordinary precautions ' Aristot. Polit. iv. vii. p. 130. Tauclin. * Aristot. Tolit. ii. vii. p. 62. Taucbn. Cii. Vir. § 15. M'KITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 453 against the risk of a dispatch being read by others than the person to whom it was addressed, would hardly have been devised in a country where no one could read with the exception of a few state officers or professional scribes. The question then occurs, How far back does the practice extend ? The singularity of the institution brought the term Scytale into proverbial use in Greece for any message or announcement of importance. Hence Pindar^ addresses a brother-minstrel, when intrusting him with a poetical embassy, as " the Muse's scytale." This the scholiast on the passage interprets as the " Muse's messenger, or herald." He adds that the saying was proverbial, and cites a similar use of it by Archilochus. The text appealed to by the scholiast forms the exordium of a moral tale, where, when about to declare some unpleasant truths to one of the objects of his satire, the Parian poet likens himself or his ode to a scytale containing unwelcome intel- ligence : £f>£co riv u[x7v aopia. ^ With whatever levity the notion of leaves, bark, or other "rude" substances having been used for literary purposes by the primitive Greeks may have been treated by Wolf and his disciples (Prolegg. p. 59. sq.), both historical testimony and the existence of numerous MSS. in a high state of preservation abundantly prove the great perfec- tion to which the manufacture of " paper " from those substances has been carried by various nations. (Conf. JMontfauc. Pala;ogr. Gr. p. 13. sqq. ; Caylus, Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscr. vol. xxvi. p. 271. ; Nieb. Rom. Gesch. vol. I. p. 527. ; Encycl. Brit. 1st ed. ait. Paper.) Xames can here avail but little. As to bark, however, the Latin word Liber is a living monument in its favour. The author of this work has seen voluminous Indian manuscripts, of as great beauty and delicacy as any of our parchment codices, on the leaves of the palm, or of other Oriental trees of kindred species. And what, after all, was the celebrated Egyp- tian paper but split bulru'^h ? and the modern still more improved material is but old rags. Ch. VII. §18. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSF.S. 465 a very curious manner how much more, in cases of this of Timey- nature, may often depend upon incidental differences of manners or habits, than on other more funda- mental causes. When the affairs of the Athenians before Syracuse began to . wear a gloomy aspect, " Nicias," says the historian ^, "finding his embarrass- ments daily increase, sent frequent messengers to the Athenians, notifying what was passing, and that, un- less the armament were speedily recalled or properly reinforced, its ruin was inevitable. But fearing lest his couriers, whether from want of eloquence or of judgement, or from a desire to shape their discourse to the popular inclination, might have misrepresented the state of the case, he wrote a letter, considering that in this way he would be best able to explain his own views, without risk of their perversion through the medium of an interpreter.'' Refer this description to the present day, and how strange does it appear. Let us imagine the commander-in-chief of a mighty arma- ment, after sending; a succession of verbal messasres during the season to his government announcing the critical state of affairs, and having received no satis- factory reply, being at last reduced to the necessity of writing a dispatch ! Had this passage occurred in the history of some more antient expedition of the republic, in the ante-Pisistratian £era, what a tri- umphant argument would it have supplied of the in- frequency of writing and the deficiency of material in those early times. But how is it to be explained in the age of Thucydides ? This anecdote offers a concise but vivid sketch of the spirit of the Athenian de- mocracy, which required that even the most important state correspondence, the very essence of whicli in ' VII. viii. VOL. III. H II 4G6 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Uook TIT. other governments is secrecy, should be carried on by public "viva voce" communication. Even a courier was in his own sphere an orator and a demagogue ; and this very letter, as appears in the sequel of the historian's narrative, was read aloud by the public crier in the market-place. The many-headed despot of the Pnyx would never have submitted to such an organised system of interference with his authority as the Spartan mode of secret diplomacy above de- scribed. The apparently needless simplicity of the Ostracism and Petalism might, perhaps, be accounted for by some similar point of democratical etiquette, which required that the material, like the exercise of the franchise, should be, in the strictest sense of the term, gratuitous.^ I'archment. I^ is sonicwhat rcmarkablc, however, that even those modern authorities by whom this employment of wood, stones, leaves, and other rude substances has been most pointedly pressed as an argument of the backwardness of the art of writing in Greece prior to the Livth Olympiad, have not questioned the fact that a more or less abundant supply of papyrus or parchment was at the disposal of the Greek scribes upwards of a century earlier.^ The evidence of this is, indeed, sufficiently conclusive. Herodotus^ states that, in the remotest antiquity, " while papyrus was yet scarce," sheep and goat skins were used for manuscript purposes among his countrymen. He adds that the use of the latter kind of material was acquired by them from the same Oriental source whence they obtained the alphabet, and was still inveterate in ' So Niebuhr, Roin. Gcscli. vol. i. note to p. 527. « Wolf, Trolegg. p. 59. sqq. ^ Y. Iviii. Ch. VII. §]8. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 467 some Eastern countries. The more copious supply Papyrus of the Egyptian commodity, by which the parch- ment was superseded, is universally admitted to date from the epoch when a free access to the interior of Egypt was opened up to the Greeks by Psamme- ticus, and commercial factories of that people were settled at the mouth of the Xile, about the year 650^ B.C. That before this time parchment was ex- tensively used in Greece is evinced by the circum- stance added by Herodotus, that the old-fashioned name for a book among the lonians in his time was Diphthera, " a parchment," derived from the antient obsolete substance, just as the classical term Biblus was adopted from that afterwards introduced. Unless written works had abounded at the earlier period, the proper name borrowed from the former material could never have become so inveterate as to maintain its ground two centuries after the material itself had given place to papyrus. This statement of Hero- dotus is corroborated by the subjoined antient pro- verbs : (J Zsbg KOLTsi^s. -^poviog e\g rdg OupSsfiots.^ Jupiter consulted his diphther^e. ' Wolf, while not disputing this fact, infers (Prolegg. xvi.) from the rapidity with which the new material superseded the old, that the pre- vious use of letters must have been very limited. This means, in other words, that eagerness to procure cheap and efficient aids to the ex- ercise of an art, and the ready and speedy abandonment in their favour by a whole nation of a former less commodious practice, are to be held as proof of the little prevalence or popularity of the art itself. Let the same test be applied to any existing art or custom whatever, and will not the very reverse be the more reasonable conclusion ? Upon Wolf's principle, the ready abandonment of sailing vessels and stage coaches for steam conveyance must be a proof how little taste there was for travelling in England before the introduction of the improved mode of communication. ^ Diogeii. 111. 2. ap. Galsf. Parann. Gr.TC. p. 174. u II 2 4G8 EARLY HISTORY OF WRIFING. Book. III. More antient even than diplithera. The first shows that the oklest oracular books were of parchment ; the second, that parchment manuscripts of a remote date were extant in later times, and pro- verbial for their great antiquity. The term Diphthera is also employed by Euripides ^ to designate the pri- meval collections of prophetic edicts. That oracular decrees were transmitted in writing from the remotest period is certain. Reference has already been made to the Rhetrae of Lycurgus. Herodotus also describes the answers of the various Greek oracles to Croesus as written documents.^ Decrees of such importance and sanctity could hardly, under any circumstances, have been confided to the mere memory of a mes- senger. Even if their enigmatical character could have admitted of their being conveyed with reason- able accuracy through such a medium, the great length of some of them would have been a serious obstacle. The Pythoness must have employed a large part of her time in conning over with her consulters the decrees of the god ; an occupation not very com- patible with the dignity or solemnity of oracular an- nouncement. Another proof that oracular injunctions were habitually committed to writing is the fact stated by the most learned antient investigator of this sub- ject^, that, in the remoter periods of antiquity, they were, as a general rule, transmitted like the Rhetraj of Lycurgus in prose, and were not, consequently, adapted for preservation by memory alone. ' Gaisf. op cit. p. 53. 307. 191. ^ n'ni)/ yclfj, n'ui ^iij)0:-pat jueXayy/^o^fTf. TToWioi' yi-fiovJai Ao^t'ou yrjfjVfiaTwv. Fragin. Plistlien. ap. Botlic. p. 219. 3 Ilcrodot. I. xlviii. ■* Plut. de Tjlh. Orac. p. 403 f. Ca. A'll. §19. WRITING FOR LITERARY TURTOSKS. 4G9 19. It still remains to consider one of tlie most Memorial . 1 ..,,•• recitation popular arguments agamst the antiquity of writing andrhapso- in Greece, that derived from the prevalence of public '^'"* rehearsal or rhapsodisin, as a favourite mode of pro- mulgating or transmitting to posterity works of popu- lar literature during this early period.^ Imperfect as are the existing notices of this practice, there can 3^et be no reasonable doubt that it prevailed to a great extent in Greece during many ages, and that it had its origin at a time when neither the art of writing nor the means for the exercise of that art were common. It has, however, been abundantly shown in the fore- going pages, that customs originating in necessity may often, from habit, national taste, or other causes, be maintained or even extended in general use long- after such necessity has ceased to exist. Of this truth the practice of rhapsodism here in question supplies another illustration, since it is certain that, in respect both to the older national poems and to new compo- sitions of a lower date, it remained in full force as late as the age of Plato. If, then, as results from the tenor of the previous inquiries, the epoch at which pliable writing-material, whether parchment or pa- pyrus, became more or less common in Greece may, even on the least liberal estimate, be safely carried back to the eighth century b. c, it may as safely be assumed that the more intelligent class of Greek citizens would have been as little disposed in those days, as in the days of Plato, to despise the facilities thus afforded for securing to thenvselves the personal possession or private enjoyment of works of genius, merely because the old custom of oral recitation continued inveterate in popuLir use. It might witli ' Wolf, i'roleg,:,'. § XXII. sqq. ; 1'. lvui>,'Iit, Prulegg. «;5 .vxx.viii. li.\ii II II '6 470 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. better reason be urged that the extensive prevalence of that custom would in itself be favourable to the progress of writing, necessity suggesting the one practice as an aid to the other. Whatever may be said of the powers of memory in primitive times, this faculty is not essentially connected with poetical talent. It might often happen that poets of excellent genius, or rhapsodists highly favoured by voice, manner, and other accomplishments, had but indifferent memories ; and, if they found more diffi- culty than their fellows in retaining their compo- sitions, they would not fail to resort to the aids within their reach for making good the deficiency. The obligation to extemporaneous rehearsal, instead of an obstacle, would thus prove a stimulus to the art of writing. That the same was the case in the early ages of Roman literature is implied by the fact, that in the antient dialect of Latium the term Scribe signified also Poet. That the functions of poet and of psedagogue, or teacher of letters, went hand in hand in those early times, seems also probable, and is indicated perhaps in the legend of the Spartan poet TyrttBUS, or even of Homer himself, having belonged to the latter profession. The parallel may be carried on to our own middle ages. The poetry of the French troubadours, the German minnesingers, and the Bri- tish bards and harpers, was chiefly promulgated and enjoyed by open rehearsal. Yet the art of writing was, comparatively speaking, quite familiar in Europe in the age of those minstrels ; and they were them- selves probably among the persons most conversant with its mysteries, both as an aid to their studies and as a means of preserving their compositions. Admitting all that has been urged as to the supe- Ch. Vir. §19. WKITING FOR LITI^HARr PURPOSES. 471 rioi* powers of memory in primitive ages, it would yet be very difficult to understand the transmission, by aid of that faculty alone, of so voluminous a library of compositions as it would be necessary to assume, had no more artificial expedient been at hand in Greece during the three centuries prior to the usurpation of Pisistratus. That the compositions of Homer and Hesiod, with some others of a peculiarly sacred and national character, may have been handed down in their integrity during a few generations by oral tradition alone may perhaps be imagined. But it is not so easy to comprehend how those of the multitude of inferior poets flourishing between the Dorian con- quest and the middle of the sixth century B.C. could have been so preserved. Between these two dates there lived, besides the genuine Homer, of authors whose names were known and works extant in later times, Hesiod, Arctinus, Eumelus, Cinaethon, Stasinus, Asius, Hagias, Pisander, Lesches Lesbius, Chersias, Callinus, Archilochus, Simonides, Tyrtasus, Terpander, Ale- man, Arion, Xanthus, Stesichorus, Alcaeus, Sappho, Epimenides, Mimnermus. To this list must be added a number of poems ascribed to Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus, Mus£Bus, and other fabulous bards, poems which, though spurious, were of great antiquity; and many more, the Minyas, Naupactica, and the like, of uncertain charac- ter and author. All appeal to the primitive powers of memory must here be at fault. Neither precedent nor reason can justify the belief of a whole literature of this nature having been matured and preserved by such means. In a succession of several centuries, among a people equally fond of poetry and of novelty, although a few first-rate bards might continue to be preferred, the older poet of secondary rank would II u 4 472 EAELY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. naturally give place to the new, and the rhapsodists would abandon the study of the one for that of the other accorduigly. In modern times the case is parallel. Although a few standard authors of primi- tive ao-es continue to maintain their 2:round in the every-day usage of the reading public, yet the great mass of literary performances, giving place to the ephemeral popularity of each other, are in their torn successively laid on the shelf, where they are only sought out by the more curious student, for whose use they are preserved in a Avritten form. ]]ut this laying on the shelf would be far more fatal in an age of pure rhapsodism than in one of book- making. If once erased from the tablets of the me- mory, to make way for some more popular novelty of the day, the work of the old poet would have been lost for ever. The preservation, therefore, of so nu- merous a body of second-rate poems, many of them possessing no recognised claim to general popularity, and of a very voluminous nature, may be considered in itself indirect evidence of their having been written. The peculiar character of some of the most celebrated works of this period places tlie improbability of their preservation by any other means in a still stronger light. Whatever may have been the case with le- gends of heroic adventure or with sacred hymns, it is scarcely credible that tissues of dry genealogical com- monplace, such as were in a great measure the Co- rinthiaca, Naupactica, and Hesiodic Catalogues ; or volumes of calumnious satires and lampoons, such as those of Archilochus, for the most part on subjects of mere local or private interest, could have been transmitted entire to a late posterity by extempore rehearsal alone. Nor were it easy to understand how Ch. VII. § 19. WIUTING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 473 SO many subtle varieties of metre, comprising, in fact, the whole complicated theory of Greek lyric combina- tion, could have been invented and matured by Archi- lochus and his contemporaries or immediate successors without a copious supply of meclianical aids to their studies. The reduction of the art of music to fixed principles and technical rules, which is also admitted to have taken place in the early part of the seventh century B.C., no less imperatively demanded a familiar practice of writing, and a supply of convenient mate- rial. The Greek system of musical notation, forming the basis of that still in use, and understood to be the invention of Terpander (676 B.C.), also contains evidence, in the forms of its ciphers ', that the alpha- bet had in the days of that artist alread}^ undergone some of the changes and refinements referred to in an early chapter of this work. It is certain that, even in more advanced stages of Hellenic culture, the circulation of complete copies of voluminous works was, comparatively speaking, limited, and that they were enjoyed rather through the me- dium of the ear than of the eye. The case here is ana- logous to that formerly illustrated, of the preference of marble and stone, at every period of classical anti- quity, to parchment and papyrus, for the promulga- tion of public registers. In the same way, the popular mode of enjoying literary productions by recitation was continued, from habit, long after written copies ' Several of these ciphers appear to be variations of the old Phoenician elements Koppa, Vau, San, which went into desuetude at a remote period. There seems no other conceivable motive for the ajiplication of these elements to this new object, in preference to other aljAabetic signs, than the circumstance of their having been, at the period of that appli- cation, no longer re(juired for purely literary purposes. (See Boeckh, Staatsh. vol. ii. p. 387.) 474 EAKLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. were multiplied. This peculiarity of antient usage may be traced to various causes, the influence of which is little felt, or altogether imperceptible, in the present age. The publicity of social life, . partly a consequence of republican manners, partly of the genial character of the people and of their climate, led the Greeks to cultivate in the open air and in large assemblies pursuits which are now exercised in soli- tude or retirement. Their popular literature was itself of an essentially national character, and interwoven with their civil or religious solemnities. Hence even prose compositions, which could not be recited with- out book, were read aloud for the benefit of the mul- titude ; and controversies which would now be carried on by pamphlets were managed by open disputation of the parties, pitted against each other in places of public resort. Still, in all these cases, the works were not only written by their authors, but copies of them, comparatively speaking, were as generally possessed as now by men of literary habits. The ease with Avhich the rhapsodist declaimed was as much the result of study as the readiness of dramatic dialogue, while the fluency of oratory smelt more of the lamp in the senate of Athens or Eome than in the parliament or courts of Westminster. The assumption, therefore, that the voluminous poets or voluble rhapsodists of the eighth or ninth centuries B.C. were without copies of their works, merely because the public at large were made familiar with them through open rehearsal alone, were a fallacy diftering only in degree from a like inference as to the professional men of letters in the Periclean or the Augustan age. Laws set Tlic tradition that, in early times, laws were oc- to music, ^.asionally embodied in verse, and sung in festive Ch. VII. §20. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 475 assemblies, has been prominently urged among the objections of this class to the early spread of writing,^ As among the Greeks every object of national interest, religious doctrines and rites, the glories of the gods or heroes, and the arts or institutions derived from them, became matter of poetical celebration, it could hardly fail to happen that much not improperly com- prehended under the general term "law" would be versified and sung.- But the fallacy of any inference from this practice against the early use of letters is curiously evinced by the fact, that the only historically substantiated case of such juridical rhapsodism is that of certain laws of Charondas ^, an Italo-Greek leo-is- lator, whose code was distinguished above all others by the specific character of its enactments enforcing literary instruction. 20. It is a judicious remark, that the introduction Lateness of of prose composition, as a branch of popular litera- ture, was a consequence of the more extended use of writing and of the increase of convenient material ; but it by no means follows that it would be an im- mediate consequence. Much must here, as in other similar cases, be attributed to the influence of habit and taste. Before the time of Aristotle, there is no record of any grammar, vocabulary, or other works of a technically grammatical nature, such as afterwards occupied so large a space in every Greek library ; yet, unless such compositions had been abundant long before, letters could hardly have been taught at all. ^ The very natural confusion of the term rofioc, in its twofold sense of law and of musical arrangement, has here been a fertile source of error and su1)tlctv. Conf. Nitzsch. de Hist. Iloni. §§ x. xii. " Tlie niL'ti-ical grammars coaimon in modern education might be cited in the way of analogy. ^ Hermipp. ap. Atheii. xiv. p. 619. prose com- position. 476 EAULY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. The progress of taste, however, had not yet made them a distinct department of literature. The case of prose composition is analogous. Epistolary or di- plomatic communications, inclusive, it would appear, of oracular edicts \ public records, codes of laws, and other strictly useful documents, were, there can be no reasonable doubt, written in prose from a very remote period. But it might not be until long after such adaptation of the alphabet to necessary purposes, that the public of primitive Greece would become alive to the charm of prose style as a branch of ele- gant composition. This exclusive prevalence of poetry as the popular literature of the Greeks, up to so late a period, is cer- tainly in itself a striking and interesting peculiarity of that people. It is one, however, which, while of great importance in the history of their literary genius, has but very little bearing on that of their al- phabetic writing. The distinction here drawn may be illustrated by the comparison or contrast of the parallel period of civilisation among the neighbouring nations to the eastward. The popular Greek records of primitive national history, real or fabulous, were in early times, as we have seen, all but exclusively, volu- minous epic poems. There existed no prose work on tlie same subjects prior to the age of Solon. The his- torical records of tlie Hebrews, Phoenicians, and other Aramaic nations, during the corresponding periods of their literature, were, on the other hand, all but ex- clusively, prose compositions. Their poetical records ' That such was the case with the greater number of the more anticnt oracles, inclusive of the Ilhetne of Lycurgus, is asserted by I'lutarch (De Pyth. Orac. p. 403 e.), on the authority of writers who had speciall)' investigated this branch of literary antiquity. Cii. Vir. §21. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 477 of the same age consist but of a few popular songs or ballads, introdacecl here and there to adorn or illustrate the prose narrative. To whatever otlier cause this difference in the practice of the two races may be attributable, it cannot assuredly be accounted for by any great superiority in the stock of writing- material at the disposal of the Canaanites in tlie days of Moses, beyond that accessible to the Greeks in the time of Homer, Arctinus, or Eumelus. The further investigation of the real cause belongs, however, to the ensuing portion of this work, devoted to the his- tory of Greek prose composition. 21. It now remains to brino; the foreo:oino; results „, .,. . O O O Writing m to bear on the question which has of late obtained so Homer's 1 1 . . . , . . time. great, or almost exclusive, a prominence in this in- quiry, but which, for reasons already stated, has here been treated merely as an element of the general history of the art of writing: When, and under what circumstances, was the benefit of that art first extended to the poems of Homer ? It will not, it is hoped, be necessary here further to discuss the once popular paradox of the Iliad and Odyssey having been first written out at Athens in the Livth Olympiad, 560 B.C. The supposed his- torical testimonies in favour of that theory were dis- posed of in an early stage of this work : and, if there be any weight in the evidence already adduced of a general application of the art of writing to so many much humbler purposes centuries before the above date, it were superfluous to argue that the highest national standards of religion and history, as well as of style, the Greek Bible, as they have been emphati- cally designated by Wolf, would never have been denied every security which tlie alphabet afibrded for 478 EAULY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book ITL their genuine transmission. The inquiry, as affecting the Iliad and Odyssey, will therefore here be limited to the remoter ages of their history, inclusive of the very nice question, whether, or to what extent, they were conmiitted to writing by their author. Attention will first be directed to the arguments on the negative side. Those to which the greatest or only real importance attaches are derived from the poems themselves, and may be summed up as follows : " Nowhere throughout the Iliad or Odyssey is there any allusion to alphabetic writing; nor does the state of society represented in those poems justify the belief of that art having been practised in Greece in the time of Homer. Had the case been otherwise, the jreneral course of his narrative would have offered appropriate or unavoidable occasions for such allu- sion. Amid frequent mention of tombs or sepulchral columns none occurs of monumental inscriptions, none of any use of letters in the transactions of commerce or civil government. It is true that one distinct notice of epistolary correspondence^ is found ' In the whole series of subtleties by which this controversy has been distinguished, the following of J. J. Rousseau, eagerly adopted by Wolf, is certainly one of the most unfortunate : " J'ose avancer que toute rOdyssee n'est qu'un tissu de betises et d'inepties, qu une lettre on deux eussent reduit en fumee." Granting the validity of such an argument in any case, it so happens that the peculiar character of the plot of the Odyssey renders it quite inapplicable to that poem. Between the departure of Ulys- ses from Troy and his emancipation from the bower of Calypso, any com- munication with his home by such means was impossible, unless indeed it be supposed that post-office packets plied between the island of the en- chantress and the port of Ithaca. After the hero's return, his object was concealment, not discovery. The fallacy of the quibble must indeed be apparent to any impartial scholar who reflects that, in the age even of Thucydides or of Cicero, a confidential letter required also a confidential Cn. VII. §21. WRITING FOR LITERARY rURPORES. 479 in the Iliad. But the characters there described appear to have been symbolic, not alphabetic; and afford, by consequence, evidence adverse rather than favourable to the poet's knowledge of the more im- proved practice. This silence becomes the more sig- nificant from the prominence given by him to other customs which in early times supplied the place of writing. Such are his frequent appeals to oral tra- dition as the sole means of transmitting legendary lore. The Muses are the daughters of Memory ; while poets describe themselves as singers, and invoke the aid of those goddesses in giving permanence to their com- positions." In order rightly to estimate the force of tliese ob- jections, some previous understanding is necessary in regard to the question, how far, as a general rule. Homer's silence concerning arts which, if commonly cultivated in his time, must have been familiar to him, is to be considered as the result of ignorance, how far of caprice, accidental omission, or other causes. No impartial judgement can be passed in any one such case, unless upon some principle equally applicable to all. It is, however, certain, that in a number of parallel cases the alternative of caprice or accident is forced upon us, either by the extreme improbability, amounting to a moral impossibility, of the poet's ignorance, or by his mention of other arts or customs, the existence of which necessarily implies that of the particular one in question. messenger. Taking the matter, therefore, even on the very absurd foot- ing on which Rousseau has placed it, there could hardly liave been any purpose served by writing which woidd not have been eipiallv or more surely provided for by the dispatch of one of the hero's trusty followers. Vid. Wolfj Prolegg. p. xci. note. 480 EATILY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book in. For example : among the arts of civilised life, paint- ing is certainly one which Homer, if familiar with it, might be supposed least likely, in compositions so rich in miscellaneous illustration, to pass over im- noticed ; yet in both poems there reigns so complete a silence as to that art, as to have led writers on its history to assume that its first practice in Greece was posterior to the poet's age. In the Iliad, however, Helen and Andromache are described as engaged in works of variegated tapestry, of such a nature as to prove that manufacture to have been carried to a degree of perfection which necessarily presupposes a corresponding advance in the art of painting.' The animal diet of the Greeks in peace or war is confined by Homer to the flesh of domestic quadru- peds, oxen, sheep, goats, hogs. Upon no occasion of the greatest festivity, in his frequent and minute recapitulations of the delicacies enjoyed by his heroes, is there an allusion to game, venison, poultry, or fish ; viands considered, in every age and state of society, essential to good cheer.^ The only exceptions to the rule tend to confirm it. Ulysses, when hard pressed for subsistence onabarbarous coast, kills deer in the woods and eats their flesh ^ ; as he also, in a still more pressing emergency, catches and eats fish and winged garae."^ To conclude, however, that the Greeks, in Homer's time, repudiated all animal food but beef, mutton, and pork, were absurd. The only just inference is, that it suited the peculiarity or the caprice of Homer's taste, in his ordinary descriptions of civilised life, to 1 II. HI. 125.; conf. xxii. 440. 2 Qqq Plato, Rep. p. 404. on this Homeric peculiarity. 3 Q,i_ X. 157. sqq. * Ocl. XII. 330. Cii. VIT. §-21. ^yRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 481 limit the fare of his heroes to the flesh of domestic quadrupeds. A similar example of silence occurs in regard to boiled flesh. On no occasion is any person described as eating animal food otherwise than roasted. Yet the, in itself most improbable, inference, that the other mode of cookery was unknown in Homer's time, is excluded by his mention of a bubbling pot fall of boiled meat, as an illustrative imn2:e. The analogy between these cases (to which others might be added) and that here more immediately in point is obvious. If the argument in favour of ignorance be not conclusive in respect to the more popular arts of painting or cookery, still less can it be held so in regard to the more subtle, and in all ages essentially unpoetical, art of writing. If Helen, in spite of the poet's silence as to painting, could embroider on a large piece of tapestry the adven- tures of the Trojan war. Homer, in spite of his silence as to writing, might record them on a few large sheets of diphthera. But, it may be urged, the negative argument is here confirmed by the poet's frequent allusions to Memory, the Muses, and the oral recital of his poems. There can, indeed, be no doubt that such phraseology, in the mouth of the primeval poets Avith whose spontaneous usage it originated, would indicate a lack of other expedients. But it nmst also be remembered that the same usage, when once established by those early minstrels, would remain inveterate with their successors, and has, in fact, so remained to this present day, as a courtesy of poetical language. Homer borrowed it from his pre- decessors the Phemii and Demodoci, and has trans- VOL. III. I I 482 EAULY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. mitted it, in his turn, to the Cyclic poets, to Anti- machus, Apolloniiis Rhodius, Virgil, and, in the subsequent revolutions of European literature, to the modern schools of epic art. Before, therefore, any- such argument against the use of writing could be fairly applied in any individual case, it would be necessary first to determine the period at which the phraseology in question forfeited its primary literal import, and assumed an artificial or conventional character ; or, in other words, the period at which the increase and improvement of the art of writing and of its material were such, as to secure to the authors who still adhered to the old form of expression the means of written preservation for their works. This, however, is the very point the obscurity or uncer- tainty of which constitutes the whole difiiculty of the present inquiry. The assumption, therefore, that the figurative allusion to Memory and the Muses as agents of poetical transmission is an index of illiterate ha- bits in the case of Homer, rather than of Hesiod, of Stesichorus, or of Apollonius Rhodius, involves an evident fallacy ^ ; two things, each of which requires a separate proof, being thus adduced as evidence of each other. But, apart from this consideration, there can be no doubt that in Homer's time, or long after more artificial resources were common among professional ^ This fallacy bas been judiciously guarded against by a distinguished French historian of the ei)ic literature of our own middle ages, in terms which apply almost letter for letter to the present case : "De tout cela il resulte clairement une chose : c'est que dans la plupart des Romans qui nousrestent aujourd'hui du Cycle Carlovingien, la formule initiale qui les designe comme devant etre chantes, counue expressement faits pour I'etre, ne doit plus etre enteudue a la lettre. C'est evidenmient une formule imitee de compositions anterieures, auxcjuelles elle convenait plus strictement, par lesquelles elle avait ele d'abord trouvce et em- ployee." — Fiviriel, Histoire. de la Poesic Provfmjale, 1847, vol. ii. p. 290. Cii. Vll. §21. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 483 men of letters, the old popular mode of enjoying poetical productions would still so greatly predomi- nate among the mass, as amply to bear out the propriety of the phraseology in question, not merely in an imitative, but in a proper sense. With the public at large. Memory and the Muses were still the recognised modes of poetical circulation and trans- mission ; nor would the most eccentric genius have had a fair pretext for inventing another set of mytho- logical personages, such as nymphs of pen, ink, and paper, to officiate in the stead of those goddesses. But, if stress be laid on the poet's negative evi- dence in any such matter, it may also be proper to consider how the case stands with regard to that other practice, by which the want of alphabetic writing is supposed, in his day, to have been supplied. Nowhere is there a hint, in either poem, of those "colleges" of rhapsodists to which, in the modern schools, such momentous functions have been assigned, as conser- vators of the national library. Poets are described by Homer as reciting their own works ; but there is no allusion to persons professionally employed in committing to memory the compositions of others.^ The general tenor of the authorities on the subject seems rather to warrant the belief that the rhapsodist profession, in the technical sense, is of recent date, and represents an artificial state of the epic art, the * It has, in fact, in an ungiuirded moment, been observed by "Wolf himself (Trolegj?. p. 99.), that, in the Homeric age, the rehearsals of the bards were confined to their own poems, and that the subsidiary order of minstrels, who acted as agents for the posthumous transmission of standard works, dates from the time of Terpander. How then, the question naturally occurs, were Homer's works preserved Between the date of his own death and that of this important change in the primitive practice ? 484 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III first traces of which coincide with an age when no question can exist of letters having been abundantly cultivated. Letters of 22. The forcgoiug illustrations have proceeded on phon.*^*" the basis of a general acquiescence in the popular rule or doctrine of the schools, which assumes an actual silence on Homer's part, throughout both his poems, relative to the art of writing. But this rule is liable, it is apprehended, to at least one very important ex- ception, in the passage describing the epistle carried by Bellerophon from Proetus of Corinth to Jobates king of Lycia ; an exception, however, which, as already observed, has been turned to account of the negative argument, on the ground that the written characters there described were ciphers or symbols, not alphabetic letters. While there is, certainly, no passage of either poem more replete than this very curious one with deep historical interest, there are few which have been more hastily judged or more generally misunderstood. The closer analysis of its niceties of idiom or phrase- ology, however indispensable to a right estimate of its bearings on the present question, has been reserved for another place. ^ It will here suffice to remark, that the result of that analysis amply justifies a conviction that the packet of Proetus was a sealed letter of some length, alphabetically written ; and that any obscurity or ambiguity in the poet's account of it arises from a corresponding ambiguity in the terminology of that early age of the art of writing. The version of the passage here subjoined, being framed by reference to this conviction, may hence be found little in harmony with the popular view of the subject. Its accuracy, however, both in the spirit and the letter, as referred ' See Appendix L. Ch. VII. §22. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 485 to the idiomatic usage of the primitive age of litera- ture in which the Iliad was composed, may be, and has been elsewhere, amply indicated. Bellerophon, a young hero of Corinth, is beloved by Antea, wife of Prcetus lord of that city, and daughter of Jobates king of Lycia. On the refusal of Bellerophon to gratify her passion, she calumni- ates him to her husband. Proetus, unwilling himself to lay violent hands on the youth, adopts a mode of disposing of him, which is thus described : ^ He sent him to Lycia, the bearer of fatal letters 2, Having written many things of pernicious import in a sealed tablet, Which he charged him to present to the Lycian king, in order that he might be put to death. . . . The king received him cordially, And entertained him honourably during nine days. But when the tenth morning arrived. He questioned his guest, and asked to see the letter** Of which he was the bearer from Prcetus ; But no sooner had the king received the evil letter of his son-in-law Than he ordered Bellerophon. . . . The only portion of the above passage on which it will be proper in this place to add a few words of com- mentary is the expression, " many things of pernicious import," ^ applied to the contents of the tablet. The term 5u/xo4>5opa, here rendered " pernicious," may sig- nify, according to its strict etymology, either soul- corrupting or life-destroying.^ By modern commenta- tors it has almost invariably been taken in the latter > II. VI. 168. sqq. "^ cninara ; conf. Appendix L. 3 m~ina ; conf. Appendix L. ♦ tivi^wipQ^pa -KoWa. '■" The noun Qvjx^^, denoting the human soul or spirit, admits a two-lcld application, either to the animal life or to the intellectual faculties and feelings. The verb rpOiipui similarly denotes eitlier to kill in a physical, or to corrupt in a moral, sense. 1 1 ^ 486 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. purely physical sense, apparently because Bellero- phon's life was at stake in the transaction. The application, however, of such an epithet to a mere epistle containing matter calculated to instigate one man to put another to death, would be in itself little in unison with the general simplicity and propriety of Homer's idiom. The poet, accordingly, in every such case his own best interpreter, shows, by his use of the epithet in other parallel passages ^, that it was here also, in conformity with the general spirit of the narrative, employed in a moral sense, to indicate the pernicious effect which the "many things" written in the tablets were intended to produce on the mind of Jobates. Nor, indeed, whatever construction be put on the epithet, could the comprehensive plural predicate, of which it forms part, reasonably be un- derstood in any other sense than as denoting either the number of reasons or instructions transmitted by Proetus in his letter, or the number of the characters by which those reasons were expressed. In either case, the expression were equally incompatible with any species of barbaric symbol or picture-writing ; and it has never been surmised, in any quarter, that the Greeks, in Homer's time, possessed a regular system of hieroglyphic literature. Nor is the generous conduct of the Lycian king, in the sequel, consistent with the belief that he would destroy a noble youth at the mere dictation of a capricious son-in-law, without some specific accusation or reason assigned. The " many things of soul-corrupting or calumnious import" can, ' In 0(1. IV. 716., XIX. 323., the moral application of the epithet is obvious. In Oil. ii. 329. it seems to be used in a physical sense, ahhoiigh even here perhaps there may be room for the other interpre- tation. Ch. VII. § 2-2. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 487 therefore, only be intelligible as containing such a re- capitulation of the calumny of Antea as would readily instigate a father to vengeance against the insulter of his daughter ; and assuredly no such recapitulation was ever imagined by Homer as having been con- veyed by means of a few rude pictorial characters, or by any other mode than that of alphabetic writing. There is another passage of occasional occurrence in other ai- both poems, which can hardly be interpreted but as wririnVby allusive to written documents. It is where the destinies tiomer. of the heroes, or, in other words, the written decrees of Fate relative to those destinies, are said " to lie on the knees of the gods." ^ The Greeks, in every age, were in the habit of writing and reading with their books or papers resting on their knees. In various classical texts, comprising what is perhaps the earliest technical allusion to the habits of the literary profes- sion ^, this custom is specified in terms almost iden- tical with those employed by Homer. Still more immediately in point is a passage of the Republic of Plato ^, where the philosopher, in alluding to the judgement of mortals after death, describes Lachesis as holding " on her knees " the written reports of their ' Otw}/ tv yovvaai Kurai. II. xvii. 514., xx. 435.; Od. i. 267. 400., XVI. 129. ^ Batrachom. 2. sq. t'tVtic' doiSi](; l)v vkov iv ^iKroiaiv ifidtf; irrl yovvaai Otjica. Hippocrates (ad Demag. ed. Lugd. Bat. 1665, vol. i. p. 914.) says of Demo- critus: 6 5' t^x"' **' ^vKotrixiri ttoWtj kTri roTvyovvuToiv (iiftXiov. . . . (««<) ^vvTovMQ typa(psv iyKeifjievog. This is also the attitude in which authors engaged in writing are represented in tlic decorative figures of antient manuscripts. See a figure of Dionysius of Ilalicarnassus ap. Montfiiue. Palaeogr. Gr. p. 23. sq. ; and conf Montf. ad loc. ^ p. 617 D. ■7rpo(l>})ri]v. . . . Xnftoi'Tci tic Twr rijij Aax^otoji; ■^ofc'iTioi' h\)I- porf Ti Kai j^iioii TTapaftiyixcna, I 1 4 sion 488 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. past lives and future destinies. Add to this the an- tient proverb already quoted, where Jupiter is de- scribed as consulting, literally, " looking down into," his parchment roll of Fate.^ The evidence of such a series of parallel texts would be held incontrovertible, regarding the sense of this primitive adage, in any case where no preconceived theories obstructed the free exercise of critical judgement. The other expla- nations of the passage proposed by the commentators are far-fetched or unmeaning. Conciu- In drawing this subject to a close, there still re- main to be considered certain more general points of circumstantial evidence in favour of at least a limited use of letters in Homer's day. It may safely be as- serted, that, in every age and country, an advanced state of commerce and navigation requires a certain amount of literary culture. Alphabetic writing may not, perhaps, be indispensable. Its place might in some degree be supplied by less commodious methods ; although no instance can be adduced of any nation dependant on those methods alone having been distin- guished for zeal or success in commercial pursuits. Most consistently, then, are the Phoenicians, the first people on record as really distinguished by a spirit of mercantile enterprise, reported to have been also the "inventors" of the alphabet.^ Whatever deference ' p. 467. supra ; conf. Diogen. Prov. ui. 2. ;; h^>Qipa- iv y doKil 6 Zfiif cnroypcKpeaOai tu yiyvofjuva' Tzafi-KokaioQ. Conf. Bothe. Fragm. J^urip. Melanip. 16. p. 175. ^ The authorities, sacred or profane, on this point are too numerous and lamiiiar to require citation. Yet Wolf does not hesitate to deny, even to the Phccnicians, any other mechaiiisni for recording facts in Homer's time than that of Memory and the Muses. The Tyrian and Sidonian merchant princes who corresponded with Solomon are sup- posed by him to have employed in their voyages a poetical supercargo, or living log-book, on the tablets of whose memory were engraved Ch.VII. §2-2. WRITING FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. 489 may be due to the letter of the tradition, its spirit, as intimating the first complete adaptation of the art to practical purposes, is conclusive. The poet's own de- scriptions evince, that, long before his time, Phoenician commerce had attained a high degree of that pros- perity so much celebrated both in authentic history and in poetical fable. All the more refined articles of manufacture, not of native production, are described by him as imported from Phoenicia. The merchants of that country covered the Mediterranean with their ships, keeping up not only a direct intercourse with its coast and islands, especially those of Greece, but also a species of carrying trade between the less mercantile nations ; performing, in fact, the same functions as the maritime states of Italy in our own middle ages. The universality of the practice of writing among the Phoenicians could not fail, therefore, to involve a greater or less acquaintance with it among a people so much connected with them as the Greeks, a peoj^le so distinguished also for curiosity and zeal in the pursuit of new and curious science. It cannot be doubted that Homer in particular owed much of his knowledge of maritime geography, real or fabulous, to his intercourse with these enterprising navigators.^ Apart, therefore, from his opportunities at home, it were scarcely credible that a man of his genius, asso- ciating with a people who habitually wrote, should have remained himself illiterate. As to writing-ma- o invoice, bill of lading, freight, stowage, tonnage, custom-house and harbour dues, contracts, debts good and bad, and all the other transactions of a first-rate Sidonian house of business ! His further illustration of the dealings of the PhcEuician traders by those of the barrow -women in the Leipzig market-place, is in good keeping with his general argument. Prolegg. p. L. ; conf. p. lxxxix. note 33. ' See Appendix E. to Vol. I. 490 EARLY HISTORY OF WRITING. Book III. terial, the art of manufacturing parchment, the ac- quirement of which art from the Phoenicians by the Greeks was matter of remote tradition in the time of Herodotus when Phoenician commerce was on the decline, must have been in its most flourishing state in Phoenicia itself in the days of Homer. The Greeks, therefore, whatever their own domestic deficiencies, would be at n.o loss for a supply of writing-material from abroad. When, in the Odyssey, a Phoenician vessel, laden with "an infinity of curious merchandise," is described as lying during a whole year for the dis- posal of its cargo, as a sort of floating shop or bazaar, in the little port of Syros \ opportunities could not be wanting to a poet of Smyrna or Chios for procuring the means of permanent preservation for his compo- sitions. Nor, assuredly, would a poet such as Homer ^ have failed to turn those opportunities to their full account. ' Od. XV. 415. sqq. 455. : /tupt" uyoi'rte aOvpiiara. ^ See Appendix M. APPENDIX. APPENDIX A. (p. 36.) ON THE RELATIVE AGES OP OLYMPUS AND TERPANDER. The priority of age assigned by K. O. Miiller ^ to Terpander over Olympus is at variance with every fact or authority beai'ing on the subject. Muller's chief or only argument in favour of his own view is the invention by Olympus of the enharmonic scale, considered by the Greek musicians as the last and highest refine- ment of their purer system of music. This argument has been met by the observations in p. 40. sq. of the text, where it has been shown that not only the enharmonic scale, but all or most of the other fundamental elements of the antient art of music, existed previously to the age of Terpander in the schools of Asia ; and that Terpander's science consisted, generally, much less in original discovery than in the adaptation of the technical practice of those schools to the more genial citharoedic taste and melody of the (creeks. The labours of Terpander himself, therefore, were no doubt founded in part on the enharmonic scale of Olympus. Had Olympus flourished after 644 b. c, the epoch assigned by Miiller, though very erroneously 2, to the citharoedic improvements of Terpander; had he been consequently junior not only to Ter- pander himself but to Archilochus and Alcman, even possibly to Arion, it Avere difficult to see what room there could have been for tliose great inventive merits on which his lame rests, as the " originator {apxijyoQ ^) of the nobler style of Greek music." Nothing can be more distinct or conclusive than the unanimity ' Hist, of Gr. Lit. p. 1.55. " See note 2. to p. 38. of the text, ^ Plut. de Mus. XI. in lino ; coat', xxix. init. 492 APPENDIX B. with which, throughout the compilation of Plutarch, both he and the numerous prior authorities whom he quotes assign the prece- dence both of age and of inventive merit to Olympus over Ter- pander.' APPENDIX B. (p. 43.) ON THE EXPRESSIONS TTpujTT] AND ^evrepa KaraaraaiQ IN PLUTARCH's TREATISE ON MUSIC. Modern authors on this period of the early history of Greek musical art, however differing on other points, are unanimous in undei'standing the terms Trpwrrj and Itvrepa KaraaracriQ tu>v TTtpl Ti)v fxov(TiKi)v tv T^ 'SiTTupTTf'^ as dcnotlng, not, as assumed in the text above, the " establishment " of the two chief musical fes- tivals of Sparta, the Carnea and the Gymnopaedia, but two suc- cessive "systems" or theories of Hellenic musical art: the first that originally framed by Terpander ; the second that of Thaletas, founded on the basis of that of Terpander, but modelled on new and improved principles. That this view is erroneous, and that preferred in the text alone correct, results from the following con- siderations : The notion of these two successive " systems " of music is re- pugnant to the whole tenor both of Plutarch's treatise and of all other authorities on the subject, who are unanimous in repre- senting the musical " system " of Terpander, TepTrav^ptLov rpoirov, as subsisting in its integrity during the whole flourishing age of Sparto-Dorian art, and the least innovation upon its fundamental principles as a corruption of the pure Greek music. Plutarch pointedly asserts ^ its having been maintained inviolable up to the time of Phrynis in the middle of the fifth century b. c, and specifies Polymnestus^ one of the supposed coadjutors of Thaletas in supplanting it, as having himself conformed to it.^ The pre- vailing interpretation therefore of the phrases first and second musical " catastasis," in the sense of two successive Spartan musical systems, the latter of which, by Thaletas, was an innovation upon that of Terpander, is quite untenable. ' Plut. locc. citt. ; couf. iv. in lin. v. xviii. " Plut. de Mus. ix. ^ Dc Mus. VI. initio. •* Op. cit. xii. APPENDIX B. 493 That the signification of the term Catastasis adopted in the text is the true one, is further evinced by the connexion in the chapter (ix.) of Plutarch here under consideration, between the phrases TrpioTT] KaraffTacriQ and devripa KaTa.GTa(TiQTwv irtplr^v uovai- Ki)v iv ry STraprj;, and the immediately following definitions rd irepl rac rvfivoTraiEidc, KaraaTrivai to. Trepirag 'A7ro2et^£tc rcic ly ApKadl^, and to. kv " Apyii 'F^rcvuaria KciXov/depa. As the Gymno- paedia, Apodexis, and Endymatia, with which the " Catastasis " of Terpander is compared, were all notoriously musical festivals, not theories or systems of music, it follows obviously that the Spartan Catastases were themselves nothing more than similar musical festivities ; the Carnea, namely, and the Gymnopaedia, the first and second institutions of the kind in Sparta, and at all times the most celebrated of that state. To this it may be added that the proper technical noun with Plutarch > to denote Terpander's musical " system " is Kidapw^ia ; and that the technical verb used by him to denote the formation or establishment of such a system is (TV(TTi](TaaQai, not KaBicrraaQai.'^ It may perhaps be urged that the Carnea are nowhere dis- tinctly mentioned by name in connexion with the irpwrr] Kara- araaiQ of Terpander, But the inference that the two terms were synonymous is further borne out by Terpander's participation and triumph in the first celebration of the Carnea, and by the pointed manner in which the Lesbian school of citharoedic art, inherited from him, is described as having been upheld in the same Carnea by Lesbian professors. Thaletas and his four coadjutors, on the other hand, were notoriously " flute-players," ^ and the less likely by consequence to have been authors of any material change in the purely citharoedic system of Terpander. In the Gymnopfedia, accordingly, instituted by them, wind instruments were preferred. To the extension and improvement, therefore, of this martial and orchestic order of performance, not of the pure Terpandrian style, the new or second Catastasis of Thaletas must evidently be under- stood to refer. Clinton (F. H. vol. i. p. 201.) seems to perceive the difliculty of the popular view Avhich he follows, but makes no attempt to clear up that difficulty. To the prevailing misunderstanding of this single phrase Catastasis may be mainly attributed the failure of all attempts of modern commentators to bring into any sort of order the dates of these various masters or scliools of music. ' See ell. vl. tliroiijrhont. ^ De IMiis. v. ■' Op. cit. vi. ) cekcitt) ecpart] potoSaKTvXog 'IIwc, Kai t6t£ fiiv kpieivE, koX r]ree (rrffxa Iciadai, OTTL pa 01 yajxl^polo Trctpci Ylpoiroio (hepoiro. uvrap tTreiSt) (riffin KctKoy TrapeCi^aro ya^ijipov TTpwTOV fill' pa X/yitcdpav The properly technical terms defining the character of the epistle are, in this passage, ypafeiv, irh'aE, tttvktoq, afjfia; the first signify- ing "to write ; " the second, the form and material of the epistle ; the third, the characters employed. Even those who reject the opinion that the characters were alphabetic do not discover in these three terms any thing actually inconsistent with that opinion. A more serious objection has been founded on the poet's employ- ment of the vei-b csl^ai. "That phrase," it is urged, "would, in its ordinary import of ' show,' or ' exhibit,' be inapplicable to the mere delivery of a letter, and must refer to some species of con- ventional cipher or hieroglyphic, intelligible only to those to and from whom it was transmitted." Upon this view, however, it would also be necessary to assume that the contents of the tablet were open to the inspection of the bearer, since a man cannot be said to show to another what is concealed or shut up from himself. The same inference would result from the supposed symbolic nature of the writing. There could be little use in closing up or concealing what, even if seen, were incomprehensible to all but those who possessed the key to the cipher. Yet the epithet " folded " (tttvktoc), applied to the epistle, sufficiently proves, by reference to the whole train of Greek idiomatic usage in every age, that the tablet was so closed and concealed ; that it was, in fact, a sealed letter. On this point indeed there is no diflference* I Apolloilorus (ii. iii. 1.) and Phifarch call it ivnaToX)] ; Cicero, tabellas obsignatas. Heyne ; " Qua? tabula? fuerint, ex ipsis Homeri verbifr 508 APPENDIX L. of opinion among critics either antient or modern. Any argu- ment, therefore, in favour of the symbolic import of the writing, derived from the use of del^ai, must fall to the ground, that term being, in its literal sense of " show," equally inapplicable to a " sealed letter," whether its contents were couched in one species of writing or another. In connexion with the above argument grounded on the use of cel^ai, another negative inference has been drawn from the non- occurrence of avayiyvw(7/cw, or parallel phrases denoting " to read," in this passage or in the Homeric poems. It must here be ob- served that the term avayiyywaKw, like most others in the same category, bears in itself no essential relation to the alphabetic art, denoting simply to " recognise," or take up the sense of a thing ; and is only transferred, in more technical use, to the " recognising " or taking up the sense of written characters. In the same way, ypa.(j)M means simply to engrave or mark, and was afterwards trans- ferred, by a similar process, to the engraving or marking of letters. rpaf.ifia is a thing engraved, afterwards an alphabetic element. How far, therefore, in any case, these or other similar terms are to be taken in a primary or in a technical sense must depend on the discretion of the interpreter ; nor perhaps would it have been easy for the poet to introduce any one of them in such a manner as to interfere with the views of one prepossessed in favour of their more elementary import. If irlva^ itrvKTOQ, instead of a sealed letter, be understood to denote a mere hiero- glyphical tablet; if ypa\l^aL, instead of to write in the familiar sense, be explained as the mere engraving of some enigmatical cipher on the surface of that tablet ; if the o-jy/xara are to be inter- preted as figurative rather than alphabetic " signs ; " upon the same principle, had the term dviyvu) occurred in this very passage to signify the inspection of the tablet by Jobates, it might be interpreted merely of his " recognising " or comprehending the symbolic import of those signs.^ But in reasoning separately on the powers of these two verbs, intelligas : fuere complicatas ; pertulit adeo eas Bellerophon obsignatas." With Herodotus, in like manner, vii. ccxxxix., a sealed letter is StKriov SiTTTvxov. With Herodian, vii. vi. (xiv.), as with Homer, it is TrrvKrog Tzlva'i. Conf. Heyn. Obss. ad II. vi. 168. ' Even ypanixar' auiyvio might be explained of his having " recognised the import of the things engraved." APPENDIX L. 509 te~tt,ai and avayywyai, we must not overlook an important con- nexion between them as affecting any such question, AeiKt'vf.ii, or haiKw, and dyayiyrojfficu) are in their primary signification correlative terms, denoting, the one to " show," the other to " recognise or ap- prehend " the import of the thing shown. The latter, as we have seen, has, in the abstract, no more to do with the act of "reading " than the former with that of " presenting " a letter. The fact, therefore, that the one came, in the progress of language, to be used in the more technical sense of " read," affords a fair ground of conjecture that the other may, in the course of the same vicis- situdes of idiom, have been employed in that of " present." And this conjecture is raised to certainty by the analogy of the deponent ^ixo/J-ai, to " receive " or " accept from," ' and by that of the Ho- meric use of the middle ceiKt'vfiai in the same sense. An author is always his own best interpreter ; and in the sequel of this very passage the poet himself supplies evidence that he meant the phrase to be so understood ; for, a few verses lower, the term Trapece'^aro, applied to the " acceptance " by Jobates of the tablet, i-esponds to cel^ai, as denoting its " delivery." Here, again, allowance must be made both for poetical and antiquated diction, and for the license claimed by and conceded to poets of all ages in the adaptation of subtle or unpoetical arts to their verse. If an example can be adduced of the familiar employment, by one of our own standard poets, of this same expression " show " for " deliver " in the case of a sealed letter, it were hard to deny Homer the same indul- gence. The case in point is to be found in Pope's elegant version of this very passage, where few readers probably have ever been aware of any peculiarity ; yet the anomaly, if such it be, is still more glaring than in Homer : " To Lycia the devoted youth he sent, With tablets sealed that told his dire intent ; . . . . But when the tenth bright morning orient glowed, The faithful youth his monarch's mandate showed .... The fatal tablets, till that instant sealed. The deathful secret to the king revealed." It is certain that, in the familiar sense, Bellerophon here, as in the original, showed no mandate, but presented his dispatch to the king, who opened and read for himself. The third of the three properly technical terms above enumerated, ' See Damm. SIkw, ceiKM, do in manus ; ftVo/io/, capio manu. 510 APPENDIX L. aii/ju, has, like those ah'eady considered, no necessary connexion with writing of any kind.^ It denotes in its origin, like ypanjxa, a line or mark, in its familiar application a sign or token. It may here indicate, therefore, a sign either of a sound, a word, or an idea, and may be rendered, according to the discretion or caprice of the interpreter, either letter, cipher, or symbol. Although the phrase is not used, in the familiar language of later times, in the sense of alphabetic letter, yet such, by reference to poetical or primitive usage, as has been admitted by the more candid opponents of Homer's alphabetic knowledge, would here be its natural significa- tion.^ An objection has, however, been discovered in the desig- nation of the tablet by the singular aiiixa, as implying a single sign or symbol, not groups of characters. But this obstacle is removed by the occurrence in the previous text of the plural crZ/juaT-a, in identically the same sense as ffj/f(«, and supplying further affirma- tive evidence of the connexion of both terms with the alphabetic art in the poet's usage, by the very curious parallel which results between their own power and that of their vernacular synonymes, ypcif^ifia and ypafijjLara, in later times. Vpai.iiia in the singular de- notes, first, engraved line or mark ; secondly, alphabetic character (letter) ; thirdly, written document, letter, epistle. The plural, ypaj-ifxciTci, signifies either the written substance of an epistle or the epistle itself (literas, lettres). In like manner arji.ia, signifying in its primary sense engraved line or mark, denotes in tliis pas- 1 Another passage of the Iliad (vu. 175. sqq.), in Avhich the term frfjpa occurs in a still more ambiguous sense, has been adduced as evidence, sometimes against a knowledge of writing, sometimes in its favour. The seven heroes, when drawing lots for the honour of fighting Hector, make each his mark or cipher, ffiifia, on his own lot. The lots are then shaken together in a helmet. One is drawn and handed round till acknowledged by its owner. This mode of sortition is not perhaps the most effective or impartial that could be devised in an age either of letters or of barbarism. But whether the arjfia was an alphabetic letter or word, a cipher, a symbol, a number, or a mere mark or scratch, remains altogether doubtful. '^ Eumelus (765 b. c), in his Delian Prosodium (Paus. iv. xxxiii. 3.), lias MoTcra .... iXivOipn aaiuiT tyovaa. There seems here no ground whatever for rejecting the authorised reading, nor can it admit of any other plausible interpretation but as allusive to the written compositions of the Muse of Tthonip. Tiie attempts at emendation are as unsuccessful as superfluous. APPENDIX L. 511 sage, in the singular, a letter or epistle simply ; in the plural, its substance or contents.' Adding these considerations to the argu- ment founded in the text above on the phrase dv/jociidopa ttoXXu, there ought to remain no reasonable doubt on any unprejudiced mind that the characters of Bellerophon's epistle were alphabetic : and that any ajiparent ambiguity in the poet's expression is owing partly to the primitive state of the practice of writing and its terminology at the period in Avhich he flourished, partly to the difficulty, common to himself with other poets in more civilised times, of adapting the technical terms of subtle arts to the pur- poses of his muse. With Glaucus's description of Bellerophon's letters may be compared the following address of Ovid to one of his own ejjistles : - Ite liinc difficiles, funebria ligna, tabella?, Tuque negaturis cera referta notis. If Ovid, in the age of Augustus, was at liberty to use the term "mark" for alphabetic character, and to call his letter a "mourn- ful slab of wood," in order to give a poetical turn to his allusion to epistolary correspondence, surely a like indulgence may be ex- tf.'nded to a poet of the ante-Olympic asra. ' Etym. M. yfyajipa 6 xapctKTijf), ypc'ijiiia )/ tTTiffToX;/. Conf. Tbucyd. v. xxix. 1.; Theocrit. xxiii, 46.; Xenoph. Cyr. Inst. viii. vi. 17. Isasus uses the phrase ypdmiaTct aejiva to denote the moral import of a document, with a power consequently almost identical with that of the ar^fiara Xvjpa of Homer. Reiske, p. 148. The parallel between the obsolete idiom of Homer and the vernacular of Thucydides, which extends also to the Latin, French, and English tongues, will more plainly appear from the fcjllowing collation of examples. Homer : TrJpa' c oys a^para ; literas dedit ; il lui donna des lettres ; Thucydides : iffTrsjUTrfi ypupixrira. Homer : ■iJTff. ntipa iikaBai otti pa oi Wpoiroio irapa, .... he asked to see the letter from Prcetus; and: Ivrnd)) ffijpa kukov iraptii^aTo, on receiving the fatal letter. So Thucydides : rovro ptv to ypdppn fxaXinra rijv iii\()-6i'i'7](Tov <\f9opvjiit. We have only, in each passage of the Iliad, to substitute ypupfia in the same case and number as aTipct, and the analogy is complete. * Amor. I. xii. 7. ; conf. Virgil. Mn, iii. 444. Add the verse of Timon, ap. Sext. Empir. adv. Mathem. i. ii. 53. : dvCpi 8iCa ^oivikiku (Ti'ipara Kcicpov. 512 At^PENDlX M. APPENDIX M. (p. 490.) ON THE OBJECTIONS TO A PRIMITIVE WRITTEN TEXT OF HOMER FOUNDED ON THE PECULIARITIES OF HIS DIALECT. The arguments against a written Homer, grounded on certain peculiarities of idiom and orthography in the existing text of the poems, especially on the traces of a former use of the digarama in their dialect, have been upon the whole comparatively little coun- tenanced either by Wolf or his more critical disciples. It was hoped, therefore, that there might have been no call for here opening up a discussion which, beyond the few general remarks offered in a preliminary chapter, belongs rather to the department of etymology or palteography than to that of literaiy history, and which, besides, has obtained, above all others perhaps within the range of classical criticism, a fatal celebrity for dry pedantic subtlety. The arguments in question have, however, lately been renewed in a more confident tone, and with an elaborate profuse- ness of learned detail, which, added to the otherwise practical value of the researches > with which they are combined, has not been without influence on the critical public. It becomes, there- fore, necessary here to enter somewhat more at large on tlie general subject than might otherwise have been desirable. The two more important of these objections may be stated as follows : I. " The digamma was originally ' a pure consonant ' in the Greek language, and possessed all the powers of that class of elements in ci-eatiug position, obviating elision, fixing metrical quantity, and the like. Its consonant power was, however, gra- dually modified in more refined usage, and finally among the lonians became obsolete with the character itself. Hence the anomaly, that while in one text of Homer the digamma is found forming metrical position, as in fapfxai^a ¥ ncwg, ap[.ia Forak-roc, in others it possesses'no such influence, as in apuaff VuraKTwv, ayaaaojieff Ftt^oc ^ilovTtq. But had Homer himself committed his poems to writing, or had they been written while the digamma power still existed in his dialect, the digamma character would have been employed at least in the former class of passages. That it was not so employed is, however, proved by its acknowledged absence from 1 Gicse de Dialect. iEol. p. 159. sqq. 169. sqq. APPENDIX M. 513 the text of the poems at any period to which their written exist- ence can be traced, and by an equal absence, on the part of the antient editors, of all knowledge of its former presence in the manuscripts. The poems therefore, it must be concluded, were neither committed to writing by their author, nor until after the final extinction of the digamma in the poetico-Ionian dialect." • II. The second objection to a Avritten Iliad is grounded on the uncertainties of grammatical form and flexion in the poet's idiom, especially on the numerous varieties or licenses of metrical usage in the same words, or in words subject to the same law of formation. " These anomalies," it is maintained, " indicate a language as yet dependant for its cultivation on the taste or caprice of the popular poets, to the exclusion of any such degree of literary culture as would admit of two such voluminous poems being embodied in writing." - First, then, with respect to the digamma. The primary assump- tion that this element originally possessed the full power of a pure consonant, the assumption on which this whole theory is essen- tially based, is here met at the outset by a simple denial. No such power, it is contended, ever belonged to the digamma, or Greek Vau. It was never, in any state of the language, more than what it has been described in a previous chapter of this work 3, " a liquid guttural or aspirate, like the Semitic element the form and name of which it inherited, imparting emphasis to the initial vowels of words or syllables, and possessing, with certain limitations, the power of creating metrical position." But these vague and indefinite properties, as will be shown in the course of the following remarks, were not such as to entitle it at any period, or in any variety of Hellenic orthography, to a regular or habitual place in the written texts of the popular epic poems. In order to a right estimate of the whole bearings of the ques- tion here involved, it will be proper, in the first place, to consider wherein consists the essential character of that class of elements called consonants, as distinguished, on the one hand, fi'om the ' Giese, op. cit. pp. IGO. 171. sq. 177. 185.; conf. Grote, Hist, of Gr. vol. n. p. 197. ; Smith, Diet, of Ant. vol. ii. p. 502. ; Bernhardy, Grundriss der Griech. Liter, pt. i. pp.219. 223.; Miillor, Hist, of Gr. Lit. vol. I. p. 38. "^ Giese, op. cit. p. 157.; Bernhardy, op. cit. p. 226. ; Miill. op. cit. loc. cit. 3 Vol. L p. 85. VOL. III. L L 514 APPENDIX M. vowels, or, on the other, from that intermediate class of elements usually comprised under the head of aspirates, the functions of which are to modify, without essentially altering, the character of words or syllables. In the first place, then, a pure consonant in the Greek, as in most other languages, may, as a general rule, be described as the essentially radical element of words, a vowel as the secondary or auxiliary element. It is true that, while there are in the Greek vocabulary radical terms consisting of vowels alone, there are others containing consonants which are merely auxiliary, and witliout claims to primary radical power. But this, in each case, is the exception to the rule, and in the latter case a rare exception. The rule itself will be best illustrated by examples of roots in which both elements are combined. Take, for instance, the primary Greek root ftaX, to strike. The vowel here may be extensively varied, or even altogether omitted, without any detriment to the radical value of the word ; as, for in- stance, in /jeX (/3eXoe), ftoX (jSoXr)), /3\ (/3Xr/ro). But the moment either of the consonants is subtracted or another substituted in its place, a\, eX, oX ; /naX, /itX, /uoX, both sound and signification are completely changed. Any such subtraction or substitution of pui'e consonants is certainly an anomaly unexemplified and incon- ceivable in the actual formation or flexion of the Greek tongue. This strange anomaly, however, is what is assumed by the theory here in question, as to every word of which the digamma, in the primitive Greek dialect, formed an element. It is indeed true, as already stated, that in certain cases con- Bonants may, even in primitive Greek roots, be omitted or varied without affecting the sense of those roots. Such licenses take place in all languages ; but there is no analogy between these incidental anomalies and the arbitrary suppression at pleasure, or the entire dismissal, as here supposed, of a particular consonant from the vocabulary. For example, that in rare or partial in- stances Avords commencing with a X, or some such liquid letter, may also be pronounced without it, as in Xet/jw, eiftw, can be quoted but as a natural and elegant variety of etymological for- mation. These are, in fact, different words expressing the same idea. But that in all words beginning with X, such as Xeyw, XtiTTw, Xvo), the X should either be completely dropped, or, what is worse, omitted or added at pleasure, so tliat tliey might also be pronounced at discretion eyw, enrio, vio, were something unheard of Tliis, however, is what is assumed in the theory of the con- APPENDIX M. 515 sonant-digamma, according to which such words as Veirw, FcXw, Faj'o^ might also be pronounced and written £7rw, tXw, ava^. Next to its radicality the most essential property of a Greek consonant is its density or solidity, as contrasted with the tenuity or liquidity of the vowels and of other weaker elements. This property is chiefly exhibited in the power of creating metrical position ; a power possessed by consonants not as a mere accidental or occasional privilege, but as a fundamental and inalienable right. But this right is completely violated, or rather set aside, in the digamma theory, where such phrases as evL Ft^wf are contracted into eiriSioi', airtVoiKiae becomes a7rw/>.iCTf, Fttjitai admits such con- structions as a/x(^w ^' leadijv, and so forth. It certainly seems sur- prising how any competent Greek scholar should ever have been led to class an element subject to such accidents under the head of pure consonant. Attempts have, however, been made by the more ingenious ad- vocates of the consonant-digamma theory to evade some of these difficulties, on the plea that Homer's dialect can, after all, as modified by Ionian influences, supply no genuine criterion of the primitive powers of the element ; and that appeal must be made preferably, as authorities on its earlier history, to other purer dialectical standards, to those more especially of the ^olian family, in which the digamma sound was more thoroughly indigenous and longer preserved. It seems, at the best, very doubtful how far in this or in any similar question it may be allowable to set aside the authority of Homer, the fountain head of all practical know- ledge of the epic dialect, in favour of any other later standard of idiom, merely from that idiom happening to have longer re- tained a particular element in vernacular usage. But be this as it may, the appeal to the other supposed higher authority is not fortunate. The evidence both of the iEolian lyric poets, among whom alone ti'aces of a digamma i-emained in the later poetical style, and of the iEolian monumental inscriptions, is perhaps still less favourable than the usage of Homer to the consonant power of the digamma. The grammarians who allude to the use of the element in the text of the -ZEolian poets describe it as there also of the same inconstant and fluctuating nature as in the old opic dialect' ; and this view is amply borne out by the remaining com- positions of those poets. In their text, as in that of the Iliad and Odyssey, sometimes the digamma appears to possess the full ' Priscian, i. p. .'>4(). ed. Putsch. I.L 2 516 APPENDIX M. power of a consonant, sometimes it forfeits that power altogether. Its influence also varied in the works of different authors, the same word " digammatised " by one remaining unaffected in the text of another. The extant monumental inscriptions where the digarama occurs as a written element tell the same story. The following illustrations, derived from both these sources, have been restricted chiefly to words in which the influence of the ini- tial digamma, whether as illustrated by the text of Homer, by the authority of the grammarians, or by the analogy of the kindred dialects, is best ascertained, and most familiar to scholars : oiKoc This word, habitually affected by the digamma in Homer, is quoted, accordingly, by Dionysius Hal. among his standard examples derived from the primitive dialects. Yet in Sappho the element is powerless: ovk aaivrjg TrdpVoiicEig ; ov yap rXaffOfx' tyu) crvvY oikelv ; and Alcman has ayp^oiKoc. eiTTsw. Among the passages of the ^olian lyric poets commonly cited by modern critics, as illustrating the use of the di- gamma in the text of those authors, are two lines of the cele- brated dialogue between Alcaeus and Sappho : deXu) t"i FeiTTTj)', nXXct ^£ KwXvei Kai lit] Ti t enrrjv yXioara f/cukct kukou. Yet elsewhere we have in the same poets : ev STropry Xoyop OVK aTTaXaj.iv6v FenrrjV and cuk Fenrrjc ra dsXeie. Eiloy. In this word, so extensively digammatised by Homer, and Latinised as video, the element seems to assert its consonant power but in a single passage of the ^olian poets, wg ae yap Ficw. In numerous instances, on the other hand, the terra is used in such a manner as to exclude that power : dtxadv FiBeir, TOVTo criivVoida, (j)alvydi' FtiSoCj irp6(T¥t^oi(rai'. epyoi', ava^. In these terms the consonant power is promiscuously enforced or discarded in ^olic usage, precisely as in Homer, at the discretion of the individual poets. Alcjeus : xpwT-tor' vtro fepyov eaTafitv rode. But Sappho : Av^ioy mXoy fepyor. Alcman has : ov yap tydiyf Fdi-ao-o-a, and Kal rol FavaS, but also FLvTsixV T FavaKTU. ov eo. Even here, where the consonant power of the digamma is held throughout the Hellenic dialects to have been most univer- sally and permanently enforced, Alcaeus seems to discard it : voui d' FeavTU) irafiirav aipperai.^ 1 See the remains of Alcman, Alcffius, and Sappho in the coHectious quoted in Chapters iv. and v. of Book ni. in this volume. APPENDIX M. 517 The same or even greater lubricity is observable in the ortho- graphy of the jEolian monumental insci'iptions.' In the Elean tablet the digamraa is appended to several of the words known to have been susceptible of digammatic influence : F apyoi' ( = F ^pjov), VtTOQy FfTToc, and others. In the Petilian inscription, on the other hand, and in one Boeotian monument, v^re find ^jj^wpyoc, and in several Boeotian inscriptions evepysrav. Fot/cm appears in the Petilian and in an antient Ai-give inscription, and in the Boeotian monuments is the customary orthography. Yet in the latter the digamma also occasionally disappears, as in aypvKixpe. On the same monuments we find, side by side, Fa>'o^yre, primitive four-stringed or Tetrachord, in. 9. Seven-stringed or Heptachord, 9. 40. INDEX. 529 Lyric poetry, origin and definition of, i. 147. 169. sqq. Early history of, iii. 1. sqq. Its connexion with music, 5. ; with dancing, 12. poets, biography of, iii. 129. sqq. , Alexandrian canon of, iii. 129. Tragedy, ui. 91. Comedy, 92. M. Macedonians, their origin and language, i. 61. Magadis or Barbiton, m. 41. Margites of Homer, ii. 863. 507. 508. Megalostrata, iii. 200. 272. Megara, comic drama of, iii. 93. Melic order of Lyric poetry, iii. 27. sqq. Menander, n. 239., m. 173. note, 302. note. Menelaus, Homer's character of, i. 324. Mercury and Iris as messengers of Jove, ii. 488. Military music, iii. 116. 194. Milton, his self-contradictions, i. 515. Mimnermus, his age, birthplace, character, III. 332. sqq. His intercourse with Solon, 337. Style of elegiac poetry, 339. His works proscribed, 173. Minyad, poem of, ii. 456. Miscellaneous epic poems, ii. 445. Mitylenasan Mill Song, iii. 120. Musseus, I. 159. Music of Greece, its connexion with poetry, I. 148. 169., UI. 5. 30. Fundamental prin- ciples of, 9. Aulodic, 22, 33. Citharcedic, 38. Notes of, 41. 473. note. /Eolian style or school of, I. 116., in. 6. 10. 38. 52. 494. Ionian school of, 6. 10. 52. 494. Locrian school of, 45. 253. 315. note. Dorian or Spartan school of, 6. 38. sqq. 50. 494. Myrsilus, tyrant of Mitylene, ui. 259. Mythical legend of Greece, how far founded on fact, I. 14. Parallel of that of modern Europe, 21. Homer's mythical legend, 32., n. 137. sqq. Mythology as distinct from history, i. 15. as distinct from religion in Homer, i. 474. 499., II. 152. N. Nanno, mi.strcss of Mimnermus, iii. 330. 333. , poem of, III. 334. Naupactica, poem of, ii. 455. Nausicaa, Homer's character of, i, 405. Neobule of I'aros, the betrothed of Archi- lochus. III. 144. Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, his age, ii. 135. of Miletus, II. 455. Nestor, Homer's character of, i. 329. 434. Nome, definition of in early Greek poetry and music, in. 32. Harmatian nome, 36. Polycephalic nome, 38. Orthian nome, 45. Epitymbian nome, 98. Py- thian nome, 98. 210. note. Later appli- cation of the term, 37. 65. Nosti or " Return of the Atridas," Cyclic poem of, II. 257. 286. .301. 310. of Stesichorus, iii. 244. Notation of music, iii. 41. 473. note. Nursery rhymes, iii. 127. O. Odyssey, epitome and concordance of the text, I. 363. 374. Unity of the action, 374. 387. Influence of Apollo on the action, 380. Genius of the poem as com- pared with the Iliad, 387. sqq. Cha- racters of the poem, 391. 398. 404. sqq. Comic element of the action, 395. Voyage of Ulysses, 397. Tripartite subdivision of the action, 390. Discordances of the text, 437. Chronology of the poem, 458. See Homer ; Iliad and Odyssey. ffichalia, or Sack of CEchalia, Cyclic poem of, II. 257. 276. Gidipodia, Cyclic poem of, ii 257. 264, CEdipus, his history according to Homer, n. 265. Olen of Lycia, i. 161. Olympia, inscribed monuments at, in. 420. sqq- ... Olympic register, its authenticity, i. 35., III. 420. 501. Olympus of Phrygia, i, 163. His improve- ment of Greek music, in. 33. 97. Omens in Homer's divine mechanism, i, 489. Onomacritus, his literary forgeries, i. 160. A coadjutor of Pisistratus in his Homeric labours, 205. Onomatopuiia in Homer, ii. 105. Oracles, when delivered in prose, in. 458. 468. When delivered in writing, ibid. Orestia of Xanthus, in. 233. of Stesichorus, in. 233. 245, Oroda?cides, iii. 174. Orpheus of Thrace, i, 155, of Croto, a coadjutor of Pisistratus in his Homeric labours, i. 205. Orthian nome, in, 45, 530 INDEX. Paean, Greek national anthem, iii. 64. 66. ; conf. I. 170. Convivial Psean, iii. 99. Battle Paan, 1 1 7. Paeonic measure, in. 29. Painting, art of, known to Homer, iii. 480. Palinodia or Recantation of Stesichorus, III. 242. Pamphos, i. 161. Pandora, the Greek Eve, iii. 17S. Papyrus, early use of, in Greece, in. 467. Paracataloge in Greek music, in. 162. Paradise Lost, discordances of, i. 515. Parchment, early use of, in Greece, in. 466. Paris, Homer's character of, i. 358. Parojnia, or convivial songs, in. 98. Parthenia, or virginal songs, in 64. 74. 204. Patroclus, Homer's character of, I. 285. Patronymics, figurative Greek, lu, 209. 213, 214. 333, 346. Pelasgia, i. 36. Pelasgian language, its connexion with the classical Greek, i. 49. Pelasgians, their connexion with the Hel- lenes, I. 36. 39. Tribes claiming a Pe- lasgian origin in later times ; in Greece, 46. ; in Thrace, 46.; in Italy, 47. 58.; in Macedonia, 60. ; in Asia Minor, 62. ; in Crete, 64. Peloponnesian chronicles, their authenticity, III. 430. 501. Penelope, Homer's character of, i. 427. Parallel of Andromache, ibid. Pentameter verse. See Elegy. Periander of Corinth, character and works of, in. 84. 381. Periods of Grecian literature, i. 6. Perphereiis, Apollo's messengers, ii. 474. Pha?acians of the Odyssey, their character, I. 406. ; their race and country, 510. Phalaris, tyrant of Agrigentum, u. 476., in. 225. Phaon, lover of Sappho, in. 280, 281. note. Phidon of Argos, his laws, in. 460. Philammon, i. 158. Philo-Cyprus, friend of Solon, in. 351. Phoca'is of " Homer," n. 369. Phccnicians, their influence on early Greek culture, 1. 66. 75. sqq. 510., in 488. Phoronis, poem of, n. 478. Phrygian style of music, why so called, in. 494. Pindar, his self-contradictions, n. 483. His Epinicia, in. 1 12. 1 14. His Parthenia, 77. '• Pipkin," poetical game of, in. I 27. note, Pisander of Camirus, n. 457. Pisinus of Lindus, ii. 458. Pisistratus, his Homeric labours, i. 188. 203. His coadjutors, 205. 518. What were " the poems of Homer collected and arranged" by him, 213. 518. His supposed Editio princeps, or Vulgate, of the Iliad and Odyssey, 506. His public library, 215., in. 450. Pittacus of Mitylene, in. 258. 877. 418. Plato, Homer's influence on his genius, ii. 244. Poetry, origin and early cultivation of, i. 19. sqq. 145. Styles cultivated during the " Poetical period," 169. Polycephalic nome, in. 38. Polycrates of Samos, his library, in. 450. Polymnestus of Colophon, in. 44. Popular songs, definition of, in. 119. Spe- cimens of, 121. sqq.; conf. ii. 362., in. 95. Pratinas of Phlius, his Satyric drama, in. 93. Priam, Homer's character of, i. 341. Ana- logy of Shakspeare's Lear, 347. Proclus, his Epitome of the Cyclic poems, II. 257. 290. Prodicus of Phocaa, ii. 456. Prooemia, hymns so called, ii. 320. Of Arion, in. 82. 220. Prose history, late origin of, in. 475. Prosodium, or Processional hymn, ii. 323. note. III. 73. Deliacum of Eumelus, ii. 452. Psaromachia, or Battle of Starlings, of " Homer," n. 371. Pythian nome, in. 98. 210. note. R. Rhadina of Stesichorus, ni. 245. Rhapsodists and rhapsodism, i. 183., ii. 202. 503., in. 469. 483. Rhianus, his edition of Homer, i. 191. Rhodopis, or Doricha, the courtesan, ni. 276. 288. Rhyme in Homer, ii. 1 12. In Greek lyric poetry, iii. 107. Romantic and classical schools of poetry compared, I. 140., ii. 234. Sacadas of Argos, in. 45. sq. 253. Sack of Qichalia, Cyclic poem of, ii. 257. 276. Sapphic metre, ni. 57. 270. 323. Sappho, in. 272. sqq. Her age, birthplace, social relations, 275. Her love for Phaon, 280. Her Lcucadian leap, 280. sqq. ,302. Her personal appearance, 289. Her moral habits, 290. sqq. 315. 497. Her flight to Sicily, 289. Whether represented as a courtesan by antient writers, 296. How INDEX. 531 represented by the Comic dramatists, 274. note. 299. Her ode to Venus, 307. Her Epithalamia, or Hymeniea, 310.; their dramatic element, 325. Critical estimate of her poetry, 318. Her imagery, 321. Her metres, 322. Melody of her num- bers and language, 323. Branches of composition cultivated by her, 324. Her works proscribed, 173. note. " Sappho," comedies so entitled, iii. 274. Satyric drama, or Satyr, iii. 93. Scolia, or Greek convivial catches, in. 100. Scott, Sir Walter, his self-contradictions, i. 516. Scylla of Stesichorus, in. 239. Scytale, or Spartan mode of state corre- spondence, III. 451. Self-contradictions of popular authors com- pared with those of Homer, i. 512. See Pindar, Virgil, Lucian, Dante, Milton, Cervantes, Scott. Selli, or Helli, of Dodona, i. 39. 60. Separatists, or Chorizontes, doctrine of, i. 192. 203. 211., II. 119. sqq. 484. Seven Sages, in. 361. 376. sqq. Shakspeare and Homer, parallel and con- trast of, I. 231. 347., II. 40. note, 41. note, 231. 233. Shield of Hercules. See Hesiod. Shields, votive, inscriptions on, in. 424. Siculo- Doric dialect, i. 126. Similes of Homer, ii. 89. ; of the Iliad, number and distribution of, i. 260. Simonides of Amorgos, in. 173. sqq. His poem on women, 176. ; specimen of, 181. His dialect, 183. Smyrna, its claims to Homer's nativity, ii. 195. 218. Solon, his Homeric labours, i. 188. 204. His age, birthplace, life, in. 343. sqq. His laws, 349. ; travels, interview with Croesus, 352. ; private character, 357. ; works, 360. His dialect, 367. ; reputed poem of Atlantis, 367. sqq. ; legislative tables, their form and material, 416, 417. note, 461. His law enforcing education, 449. note. Sparta, her influence on early lyric art, in. 46. Her school of music, ni. 38. sqq. 46. 50. 494. Her written chronicles, their authenticity, 430. 501. Spartans, their knowledge of writing, iii. 451. sqq. 504. , their social habits, 201. Spendon, Spartan musician, in. .50. Stasinus of Cyprus, ii. 250. 281. Stesichorus of Himera, his metrical inven- tions, in. 60. 249. His " Triad," 60. His birthplace, life, and times, 221. sqq. His descent from "Hesiod," 223. 231. His blindness and Palinodia, 226. His style, 230. 234. 251. His works and re- mains, 237. His .^sopic fables, 226. 248. His metres, 250. ; dialect, 252. Other Stesichori, 224. Strophe in Greek metre, definition of, in. 53. sqq. 59. Melic and choric strophes, distinction between, 57. Suitors of the Odyssey, Homer's character of, I. 419. Susarion of Megara, in. 93. 179. Symposiaca, or convivial songs, ni. 64. 98. SyothercB of Stesichorus, in. 239. " System " in Greek metre, definition of, in. 54. Tables, legislative, how formed in early Greece ; why called Axles and Kvpffeis, in. 417. Tarantella, its resemblance to the popular Spartan dance, in. 128. Tasso, his imitation of Homer, u. 246. note. Telegonia, Cyclic poem of, ii. 257. 288. 302. Critical estimate of, 310. Telemachus, Homer's character of, i. 413. Terpander of Lesbos, in. 38. sqq. His seven-stringed lyre and other inventions, 40. His poems, 41. His age, 491. His musical " Catastasis," 492. Thaletas of Crete, in. 42. His musical " Catastasis," 492. Thamyris the Thracian, i. 158. Theagenes of Ilhegium, his Homeric criti- cism, I. 183. 207. Thebais, Cyclic poem of, ii. 257. Epitome and critical estimate of, 267. 300. 304. Theocly menus of the Odyssey, i. 379. 425. Theogony of Hesiod. See Hesiod. These'is, poem of, n. 479. Thespis, III. 9.3. 359. Thestorides of Phoc«a, patron of " Homer," II. 197. 285. Thrace, Pierian, i. 149. Daulian and Heli- conian, 150. Origin of the name, 153. note. Thracian school of poetry, i. 148. sqq. Threnus, in. 64. 94. Tragedy, Attic, how derived from dithy- ramb, in. 88. Lyric, 91. Tragredia, or Goat song, iii. 86. " Triad of Stesichorus," in. 60. 249. Trichoria, Spartan festival of, in. 128. Trissino, his imitation of Homer, ii. 10. note. Trochaic measure, in. 28. Trojan war, legend of, its historical value, 1. 24., n. 211. Date of, i. 35. 107. 532 INDEX. Trojan and Greek national characters, how distinguished in Homer, i. 338. Tyrtaeus of Aphidna;, legend of his life, III. 185. His age, 190.495. His Eu- nomia, 193. His dialect, 194. sq. His Embateria, or War-marches, 194. U. Ulysses, Homer's character of, i. 391. 412. Its degradation by the later organs of Epic legend, 394. Verse, in Greek metre, definition of, iii. 54. Vico, his Homeric criticism, i. 195. Virgil, parallel of, and Homer, i. 294. 301. sq. 353. note, 397. 494. note, 512., ir. 188. 245. His self-contradictions, i. 512., 11, 188. W. War in heaven, ii. 1 54. War-march and its time, in. 117. 195. Wolf, his Homeric criticism, i. 197. Women, their condition in the heroic age of Greece, ii. 235. ; in Attic and Ionian society, m. 304. sqq. ; in Sparta, in, 76. ; in the iEolian colonies, in. 305. Wood, Robert, his Essay on Homer, i. 197. Writing, early history of, in. 397. sqq, ; in Athens, 442. sqq. ; in Sparta, 451, sqq, 504,; in Rome, 462, note; in Homer's age, 477, Material for, 461. sqq. 464. note. See Education ; Alphabet ; In- scriptions ; Archives ; Laws, Xanthus, his Orestia, in, 233. Imitated by Stesichorus, 221. 2.32. XenocrJtus of Locris, his school of music, III. 45. 253. 315. note, Xenodamus of Cythera, in, 44. Xenon, the Separatist grammarian, i. 192., II, 121, Xenophanes of Colophon, his Homeric cri- ticism, I, 182. 206, His elegiac poetry, ni, 21, Zaleucus, his written laws, in, 449. 460. note. Zenodotus, his Homeric criticism, i. 190., n. 173. Zopyrus of Heraclea, coadjutor of Pisistra- tus in his Homeric labours, i. 205. ND OF THE THIRD VOLUME. London : OTTiswooDKS and Shaw, New- street- Square. n / WORKS IN GENERAL LITERATURE. % PA 227 V.3 Mure, William A criticel history of the language and" literature of antient Greece m PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY ' iii