So, too, Matthew Arnold, in the Harp-player on Etna: "And the eagle, at the beck of the appeasing gracious harmony, droops all his sheeny, brown, deep-feather'd neck, nestling nearer to Jove's feet; while o'er his sovereign eye the curtains of the blue films slowly meet." Of these extracts from the Epinikia, the first, from the 2nd Olympic, is in the Aeolian rhythm, which exhibits stronger personal feeling than is found in the more stately Doric Odes, of which the 1st and 4th Pythian Odes afford specimens. The "soft Lydian airs' were less seldom employed by Pindar. In No. cxx11, p. 142, there is a mixture of the Dorian and Lydian rhythms. Bergk's text differs here in several points from that of Donaldson. "This dithyramb was designed for the vernal Dionysia at Athens, and seems to breathe the perfumes and smile with the brightness of spring." The date of the eclipse referred to in this hyporcheme has been fixed at April 30, B.C. 463. L. 10. TOλÚσXOTE. Cp. Shakespeare, Rich. II, Act iii. Sc. i: "The searching eye of heaven." L. 10. xai Toì μév. Cp. Virg., Aen. vi. 642-655:— "Pars in gramineis exercent membra palaestris," etc. This invective is interesting, as illustrating the hatred inspired among the insular allies by Themistocles' venality. Timocreon wrote it when smarting under the disappointment of not being recalled from exile by Themistocles, who betrayed his friend for a bribe. L. 9. Ἰσθμοῖ δὲ, κ.τ.λ. It would seem that Themistocles had on some occasion provided for the accommodation of visitors to the Isthmian festival in a sordid way (yo). Müller remarks of Timocreon that, "powerful both as an athlete and a poet, he transferred the pug nacity of the Palaestra to poetry," PAGE No. He was also the author of the following Skolion. This latter term is not applied to all drinking songs, but only to those sung by particular guests to whom the lyre or a sprig of myrtle was handed. Of the two derivations of the word, (1) from the irregularities allowed in a performance of this kind, (2) from the irregular course in which the song went round the table, the latter is generally accepted. Müller, however, adopts the former. For the historical delusion on which this famous song 153. was founded, Hippias having remained despot four years after Hipparchus, see Grote, vol. iv. pp. 153, 154. L. 1. ἔστι μοι, κ.τ.λ. "My wealth's a burly spear and brand, and a right good shield of hides untann'd, With these I plough, I reap, I Sow, with these I make the sweet vintage flow, But your wights that take no pride to wield Oh, I bring those heartless, hapless drones, to call me King and Lord."-T. Campbell. L. 5. volag. By this name the Cretan serfs were known. L. 11. äλ, X.T.λ. This ditty is generally understood in a political sense, referring to Pittacus' cruelty. Plutarch, however, and Diogenes Laertius took it in the literal sense of his having worked at the hand-mill. A Rhodian specimen of one of the mendicant songs sung on the arrival of Spring. A similar Lay of the Swallow is still sung by the modern Greeks at the same The Lay of the Fieldfares (Tixixides), the Lay of the Wool wreath (εἰρεσιώνη), and the κορωνίσματα, were probably of the same character. season. C C CXXXII. BOOK IV. It has often been remarked that great crises of history are most favourable to poetry. Athens, after having pas-ed through the ordeal of the Persian war, presents a signal instance of this truth. The ascendancy in Literature and Art, which she attained simultaneously with her political hegemony, is the great fact which marks the earlier part of the Vth century B.C. It is briefly described by Pericles in his Funeral Oration, when he calls her "the School of Hellas" (Tñç Eλλádos Taideve). In the place however of that variety of styles which has hitherto been cultivated by the different members of the race, Poetry now finds its crown and consummation in the Drama, the most suitable mirror of the spirit of the age. While other forms of composition fell into abeyance, the development of Tragedy and Comedy during the period immediately succeeding the Persian war is certainly unparalleled. The abundance of plays represented, and the fact that some of the finest which we possess, such as the Oedipus Tyrannus and the Medea failed to gain the first prize, cannot but impress us with the highest idea of the genius that could produce and of the critical acumen among the mass of Athenians that could appreciate these masterpieces of creative intellect. On the origin of the Greek drama, and the important influence which it exerted upon rhetoric, dialectics, and ethical philosophy, see Müller, vol. i. ch. xx-xxvi; Grote's Greece, vol. viii. ch. lxvii; Theatre of the Greeks, Part 1. ch. i-v. L. 18. καὶ μήν. "And now in deed, no more in word, the rockings of the earth I heard ; Hark the long thunder's bellowing sound! fierce hurricanes roll the cloudy dust, forth leaps each wind with roaring gust meeting in furious enmity; confusion mingles sea and sky: So wild a blast, and full of dread PAGE No. from Jove pours manifest upon my blameless head. O, my great mother's holiness! O Heaven! that giv'st thy common light to bless all human-kind, look down and see the black injustice of my misery!"-Milman. This description of the battle of Salamis, in which, as well as in those of Marathon, Artemisium, and Plataea, Aeschylus took part, is, it has been remarked, the earliest extant specimen of Greek history. L. 3. φεῦ τοῦ ξυναλλάσσοντος. Cp. Hor., Od. III. 2. 29 : neglectus incestum addidit integro." L. 19. τὴν μακρὰν πόλιν: "the far-off city" is Hades, opposed, as Paley says, to the short expedition from Argos to Thebes. L. 1. áváynas edu Xémadvov: i. e. he yielded to the first 166. impulse of sin, and so subjected himself to a series of CXLII. mactare natam; classibus ut via materies animusque bello. Nec profuerunt tam miserae preces; prociderit velut agna virgo, raptim expeditis tollere brachiis, aere gravem cohibere vocem. velle loqui miseranda, tanquam picta in tabellis:-Saepe etenim patris aulâ frequenti dulce dabat melos: Bacchoque ter pleno beatum virgineo celebrabat ore."-E. B. L. 11. Tápeσri oy'. Dean Milman here follows the MS. reading: "Silent there she stood, too false to honour, too fair to revile; is the cold statue's fine-wrought grace. L. 20. Evváμooav. Paley compares,— "Water with fire in ruin reconciled." Milton, Par. Reg. iv. 412. "Sunt duo discordes, ignis et unda, dei."—Ov., Fast. So, too, "The seas and winds, old wranglers, took a truce, and did him service."-Troilus and Cressida. L. 18. Baμoũ Tатpov. Cp. Virg., Aen. ii. 550. L. 8. ὦ ὦ δμωαὶ γυναῖκες, κ.τ.λ. Or. Maidens, they are upon me, Gorgon-shapes, folded in sable amice, and entwined with clustering snakes. I can abide no more. Ch. What thoughts, oh faithfullest of sons to sire, distract thee: hold let fear subdue thee not. |