Qass.L_t 2^ Book- C)^ ]%$*$ ? 2. V r& U? Z 9 I A HISTORY OF GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. * ■/ BY K^W"; TBROWNE, M.A. PREBENDARY OP ST. PAUL'S, AND PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE IN KING-'s COLLEGE, LONDON. 'Sirovdcuov ovSeu in sermone, (piAoAoya multa. Cic Ep. ad Att. NEW EDITION. LOlVSON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, Ptrfiltsfjer m ©rfcmarg ta p?et fHajestg. 1853. 6^ < o,0 *& LONDON : Printed by Samuel Bentley and Co., Bangor House, Shoe Lane PREFACE. In entering upon a general survey of Classical Literature, that of Greece first engages the atten- tion, not only as constituting the oldest literature of Europe, but as the source from which Rome derived all her mental culture. The literature of Rome was distinguished not by originality of talent, but by cultivation of taste. Rome owed to Greece all her genius for poetry, her knowledge of philosophy, her skill in historical composition. To Greece, then, the scholar first turns, in order to seek for the germs of that intellectual excellence, which, when expanded and matured, has influenced and formed the taste of the most civilized nations in Europe. In forming a correct estimate of Greek Litera- ture, the nation in which it took its rise must be viewed in two different and, as it at first sight appears, somewhat contradictory aspects; first, in its oneness as a nation, next in its subdivision into different races, distinct enough to give rise to almost a2 IV PREFACE. opposite intellectual phenomena, but not enough to destroy nationality. Unity and combination against the non-Greek, or, as the Greeks called it, the Barba- rian element of the human race, and jealousy between the opposing sections of the Hellenic portion, con- stitute the key to Greek Political History, and it is the leading principle also in Greek Intellectual and Literary History. In everything relating to Greece this tendency to union, accompanied with an insur- mountable principle of disunion and division of race, is discernible. The natural boundaries of river and mountain presented at one and the same time ob- stacles to physical and moral amalgamation, and yet, notwithstanding this separation, there was a sympathy between Greek and Greek which never existed between Greek and Barbarian. In literature, as in their political and social rela- tions, the author, to whatever race he might belong, found common sympathies, to which he could appeal, and which he was sure to awaken. Hence each poet, although local in blood, in prejudices, in principles, was boasted of by Greece universal as the common property of the Hellenic name. No one could fail to observe the difference between Ionian, iEolian, Dorian, Boeotian and Sicilian; and yet to see in all, the common features which distinguish the Greek nation PREFACE. Y from the other nations of the world. It is in the earliest phase of Greek literature that nationality is most manifest. Homer was an Ionian, and displays all the intellectual characteristics of the Ionian race, yet he unites in himself the peculiarities of the other races likewise. He is the representative of the Greek national mind. The versatility which could paint all the varied elements which go to make up Greek character, must have been the attribute of a nature possessing in itself somewhat of each of them. In the Homeric poems the terse, rude and satiric wit of the Dorian occasionally appears amid the graceful polish of the Ionian. Achilles, the chieftain of the Thessalian mountaineers, Ulysses, the monarch of the enduring and wily islanders, are portraits evidently the work of one who could understand and sympathize with the feelings of both of them. But whilst it is necessary to bear in mind the unity and nationality of Greek literature, it is also impor- tant to remark the different intellectual peculiarities which characterize the great races into which Greece was divided. The refined and energetic mind of the Ionian developed itself in the epic, elegiac and iambic poetry ; and their poetical genius reached its zenith in the activity and life-like representations of the Attic tragedy and comedy. In prose, the same VI PREFACE. mind was the first to exercise its acuteness and inge- nuity in philosophical speculations, and to satisfy its inquisitive thirst after knowledge in the wide field of historical inquiry ; for with them history, as the name implies (/Wof/a), was at first not mere compilation ((jvyyguQyi), but original investigation. The same structure of the ear which led to the modulation of Ionic poetry, gave birth to the melodious dialect in which Herodotus and Hecatseus narrated their stories; and when a modern dialect succeeded, and literature was transplanted to the soil of Attica, we recognize the same, or even greater, sweetness in Attic purity and simplicity. The philosophical spirit there com- bined with the habit of historical research, and Ionian Athens gave birth to Thucydides, the father of philo- sophical history, as Asiatic Ionia did to Herodotus, the father of the history of induction and inquiry. Again, the same talent developed itself in the critical faculty which was so strong in Aristotle, which could analyse the principles of beauty and of taste, and thus reduce to rule and system, and bring within the province of art and science the laws which in these matters regulate the operations of the human mind. And lastly, the imagination, combined with the logical power, produced oratory, which shed a lustre upon the decline and fall of Greek liberty. PREFACE. Vll Such was the career of Ionian and Attic intellect, far superior in every point of view but one to that of the Dorian and iEolian races ; for their characteristics, as might be expected from their origin, were the same. But there was one excellence peculiar to themselves. The palm in lyric poetry was due to the iEolians of Lesbos. They could boast of the passionate emotions of Alcseus, in which love, though full of tenderness, breathes an almost chivalrous respect for the beloved object, and is elevated far above a mere sensual passion. Theirs were the burn- ing strains of Sappho, whose simplicity, whatever may have been her faults, could not disguise her most secret thoughts and feelings. Again, the Dorian originated and cultivated the religious and fervid enthusiasm of the dithyrambic chorus, and then modifying and adapting it to the drama, handed down those beautiful odes which adorn the texture of Attic tragedy. They consecrated the lyric muse to the service of religion, and to the celebration of the victors in the national games of Greece. The prolific talent of Simonides exhibited itself in his numerous epinician odes, and still more in his plaintive and pathetic threni. And the lofty Pindar far outstripped his contemporary, Simonides, if not in feeling, at least in grandeur. Such were the Vlli PREFACE. claims of the Dorian race to literary reputation ; but these were all. Their very chorus was not finished and brought to perfection by themselves, but by the genius of the Attic dramatists. They had no history, no oratory, no philosophy. The literature of Greece has been stamped, by universal testimony, as beyond comparison with that of subsequent periods. We admire and imitate the Greeks, but we cannot equal them. We take their works as models, not arbitrarily, but after putting them to the test of those principles of taste which form part of our nature; and when put to this test they never fail. But Greek literature is not only admirable, as pre- senting a picture of the human intellect in its highest state of perfection, but also for its moral value. It is a monument to all ages of unselfish industry, of en- thusiastic devotion to a great purpose. Each author seems impressed with the idea that he has a duty to perform, a message to deliver. The lower motives which too often give an impulse to the literature of modern times, did not influence them. The poet, the philosopher, the historian, were urged on by an irre- sistible devotion to their work, or at least felt no motive more selfish than a desire to be loved and admired by their contemporaries, or to enjoy an undy- PREFACE. IX ing reputation in after ages. Private means were, in many cases, only considered valuable as affording to the possessor an opportunity for indulging his tastes, and undertaking a literary career. They were un- grudgingly expended in procuring a liberal education and the advantages of foreign travel, for their own sakes, and not with any hope of a pecuniary return. Few writers think so little of self as the ancients ; their minds and thoughts are absorbed in that of which they write, their sentiments are freely re- vealed in their works ; but it is very difficult to derive from them any information respecting themselves. Although, therefore, it is impossible not to admire the unselfishness from which this results, it is a cause of regret that, for the same reason, the sources from which their private histories are derived are often of doubtful credit. Only a few words are necessary respecting the author's object in giving to the public this work, and the mode in which he has carried it into effect. He feels that apologies are due for venturing on a field in which so many, superior to himself in abilities and learning, have already successfully laboured ; but he wished to collect within a moderate compass such facts and observations as might be interesting to the general reader, but which are now scattered over a X PREFACE. wide surface, and cannot be brought together without pains and trouble. To the researches of his predecessors in the history of ancient literature, and to the labours of modern philologers, especially Mr. Donaldson, he acknowledges the deepest obligation. As the present work is the result of reading and study during a period in which, from the position which he has occupied, it has been his duty to collect information from all possible sources, he cannot always say to whose investigations particu- lar statements are due, nor can he always separate his own original observations from those which he has derived from other authorities. Owing to the limits within which he has wished to confine himself, he has often stated the conclusions to which he has come, without entering into the grounds and reasons on which they are based. He hopes, therefore, that this apology will be accepted, for some parts of the work being in a dogmatic form, instead of that controversial one which, to the minds of some readers, appears more satisfactory. From the same desire to economize space, he has almost always contented himself with giving references to illustrative passages, instead of quoting the passages themselves ; whilst, at the same time, he has inserted translations, in order that the sense and spirit of the PREFACE. XI author may be conveyed to those who are unacquainted with the language of the original. If the reader recognizes in this work statements which are already familiar to him, and observations which appear trite, they will be found, it is hoped, such as could not be omitted in a work which pro- fesses to be a history. If, on the contrary, he observes what he considers important omissions, let him remem- ber that it was the author's duty to exercise his judgment, to the best of his power, in making a selection from a vast mass of materials. It will readily be believed that one of the principal difficul- ties which the author has encountered in his task, has been the making this selection, and determining what might be omitted, without violating the fidelity of history. In most instances the author believes that his state- ments are justified by competent authority; wherever he has given his own views and opinions, he offers them with diffidence, as to their correctness, although he has adopted them as the result of deliberate conviction. CONTENTS TO VOL. I. BOOK I. FIRST ERA OF GREEK LITERATURE. CHAPTER I. PAGE Limits of this work. — Its twofold division. — Origin and affi- nities of the Greek language — Indo-European and Semitic races. — Their languages compared. — The Greek dialects. — Con- nexion of the Ionians with the Pelasgians. — Origin of the Greek alphabet. . . . . . .1 CHAPTER II. Poetry precedes Prose literature. — First developments of Greek poetry religious. — Worship of Nature. — Greek climate. — Worship of the Sun-god. — Ancient traditions. — Linus. — Hylas. — Lityerses. — Adonis. — Bards. — Testimony of Homer. — Orpheus. — Eumolpus. — Thamyris. — Musaeus. — Chrysothemis. — Philammon. — Olen. . . . . .20 CHAPTER, III. No actual literature before Homer. — His birth-place. — Dif- ferent traditions reconciled. — Argument in favour of Smyrna. — Difficult to determine whether he was an Ionian or an xiv CONTENTS. PAGE iEolian. — Life by Herodotus and Suidas. — Importance of this legendary biography. — The Chorizontes, or Separators. — Their doctrines reviewed. — Payne Knight. — Nitzsch. . .31 CHAPTER IV. Theory of Hedelin and Perrault. — Heyne. — Bentley's sequel. — Wood's Essay on Homer. — Wolfs Prolegomena. — The grounds of Wolf's theory. — Observations of Nitzsch in opposi- tion to Wolf's arguments. — How far he agrees with his oppo- nent. — Argument from the state of the language. — Power of memory — The question can only be decided by internal evi- dence. — Wolf denies the poetical unity of the poems. — Interpo- lations and alterations highly probable. — The materials of the poems. — Ancient lays. — Objection to Heyne's hypothesis. — Lachmann's hypothesis. . . . . .41 CHAPTER V. I. Language, style, and taste of the Iliad. — Homeric verse. — Simile. — Dramatic power. — Other points of resemblance. — Language, versification, etc., of the Odyssey. — Style of the Iliad and Odyssey compared. — II. Plan of the Iliad and Odyssey. — Epitomes of both. — General observations. . . 52 CHAPTER VI. III. Consistency in the characters. — Their individuality. — Achilles. — Agamemnon. — Menelaus. — Nestor. — Ajax. — Dio- mede. — Odysseus. — Hector. — Priam. — Paris. — Helen. — Hecuba. — Andromache. — Telemachus. — Penelope. — Euryclea. — Nausicaa. — Eumseus. — The conditions required by the oppo- nents of Homer's personality not fulfilled. — The most probable theory. — Reason why spurious poems and passages were re- ceived as genuine. — Passages which have been considered as interpolations. — Wolf's opinion of his own arguments. — What historic truth is contained in the Homeric poems. . . 78 CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER VII. PAGE The Homeric age. — Division of the subject. — Value of Homeric testimony. — Religion. — Zeus and the other deities. — Worship. — No Hero-worship. — Divination. — Dreams. — Future state. — Government. — Kingly power hereditary and limited. — Administration of Justice. — Social habits and institutions. — Hospitality. — Barbarism in war. — Insecure state of society. — Love. — The condition of the Female sex. — Female employ- ments. — Households. — Marriage. — Old age. — Death. — Science. — Astronomy. — Geography. — Medicine. — Arithmetic. — Poetry. — Oratory. — Music. — Statuary. — Painting. — Ornamental arts. — Useful arts. — Art of War. . . . .95 CHAPTER VIII. Homeric hymns and minor poems. — Proof that they are spu- rious. — The hymn preludes. — Battle of Frogs and Mice. — Margites. — Hesiod. — Climate of Bceotia as compared with that of the Asiatic coast. — Dulness attributed to the Boeotians. — Causes of it. — Parallel drawn between Bceotia and Germany. — Characteristic features of the Hesiodic poetry. — The age of Hesiod subsequent to that of Homer. — Proof of this from lan- guage, philosophy, and geography. — Imitations of Homer. — Notices of Hesiod contained in his works. — Works and Days. — Theogony. — Eoe?e. — Cyclic Poets. . . . .123 CHAPTER IX. Elegies and Iambics the literature of free institutions. — Elegy soft as well as patriotic. — Its musical accompaniment. — Its metre compared with the Epic. — Callinus. — Tyrteeus. Archilochus. — Simonides. — Mimnermus. — Solon. — Theognis. — Xenophanes of Elea.— Phocylides. — Iambics.— Archilochus of Paros. — He invented the Epode. — Simonides of Amorgos and Solon.— Hipponax. — Choliambic metre.— Hesiod's fable the oldest. — Archilochus and Stesichorus. — iEsop. — His life. 137 XVI CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. PAGE Greek Music. — Terpander the inventor of musical science. — The Greeks did not understand harmony. — Definition of dp/jLovacij. — The three genera. — Improvements introduced by Terpander. — The colours. — Modes. — The Dorian mode the oldest. — Character of Dorian music. — Conservative principles of the Dorians. — Eleven-stringed lyre of Timotheus. — Olympus of Phrygia. — Thaletas of Crete. . . . .152 CHAPTER XL Lyric poetry. — ■ Its two schools or subdivisions. — Their general characteristic features compared. — The Dorian lyric examined in detail. — Pseans. — Nomes. — Hyporchemes.— Par- thenia. — Prosodia. — Dithyrambs. — Cyclian chorus. — Etymo- logy of dithyramb. — The worship of Apollo and Diana a criterion of Doric origin. — Simplicity of Dorian belief. — Cha- racteristics of Apollo. — Scolia, etc. — Eumelus. — Alcman. — Arion. — The legend told by Herodotus. — Alcseus. — Sappho. — Her character and biography. — Erinna. . . .159 CHAPTER XII. Stesichorus. — Biography. — Legends. — Characteristics of his poetry. — The improver of Bucolic poetry. — Ibycus. — The cranes of Ibycus.— Anacreon. — The poems attributed to him spurious. — Biography. — His associates, especially Mimnermus. — Story of his death. — Simonides. — His life. — Legend respect- ing him. — Epitaph on Archedice. — Bacchylides. — Pindar. — Characteristic features of his age. — Rise and progress of Boeo- tian poetry. — Biography. — Style of Pindar's poetry. — Epini- cian odes. — His mode of producing variety. — Advice of Corinna. — Religious character of Pindar's mind. — Testimony of Horace. — Pindaric metres. . . . . . .183 CONTENTS. XVli CHAPTER XIII. PAGE Poetry naturally precedes Prose composition. — Causes which probably led to the introduction of Prose writing. — The change gradual. — Influence of political circumstances. — The era of the Seven Sages. — Periander. — Pittacus. — Thales. — Solon. — Cleobulus. — Bias. — Chilon. — Sacerdotal and Orphic literature. — Ionia the parent of prose literature as well as of poetry. — The Logographi. — The character of their works. — Their authority. — Cadmus. — Acusilaus. — Hecatseus. . .204 CHAPTER XIV. Greek Philosophy owed its origin to the Greek mind, and not to foreign influences. — Influence of religion, poetry, and politics. — Pherecydes of Syros first treated of philosophical subjects. — There was, however, as yet, no philosophical system. — Thales the first physical philosopher. — The earliest philoso- phical doctrines difficult to discover. — The Oriental origin of Greek philosophy insisted on by comparatively modern autho- rities. — Arguments against this theory. — Period at which Ori- ental doctrines were first infused into Greek philosophy. — Point of resemblance between the philosophical and poetical literature of Greece. — Philosophy followed the subdivisions of the Greek nation. — The Ionian and Dorian schools. — The Eleatic school, — Its relation to the other two. . . 225 CHAPTER XV. Two systems in the Ionian school, the dynamical and mecha- nical. — The philosophy of Thales. — Anaximander. — Anaxi- menes. — Heraclitus. — Pythagoras. — Bis doctrines of number and harmony. — His theory of the human soul. — His belief in the superiority of intellectual activity to corporeal organiza- tion. — The Eleatic school. — Its origin. — Xenophanes. — His history and doctrines. . . . 241 VOL. I. XVlll CONTENTS. BOOK II. SECOND OR FLOURISHING ERA OF GREEK LITERATURE. CHAPTER I. PAGE Age of Pisistratus. — Establishment of Tyrannies in Greece. — Patronage of literature by Pisistratus. — The Drama. — Drama- tic taste of the Ionian race. — Nature of dramatic poetry. — Religious character of the Attic drama. — Religious drama of the Romish Church. — The religion of Greece not unfavourable to the drama, or to its forming a part of an act of worship. — The ludicrous element natural to the Dionysiac worship. — Some nations destitute of dramatic literature. — The two ele- ments of the drama, the chorus and the dialogue. — The chorus is (1) the religious and moral element, and (2) the representa- tion of the spectators. — The essence of the drama is the dialogue. — Lyrical comedy and tragedy. . . .259 CHAPTER II. Origin of the dialogue. — Account given by Aristotle. — Origin of the terms rpayw^'a and ka>juw£/a. — Twofold nature of the Dionysiac worship. — Its history and introduction into Greece. — Amalgamation of it with the Eleusinian worship of Iacchus. — The progressive advance of the Tragic drama traced. — Introduction of satyrs. — Arion. — Thespis. — Phrynichus. — Chcerilus.— Pratinas. — Athenian political and dramatic great- ness contemporaneous. . . . . .273 CHAPTER III. Homeric spirit of the three great tragic poets. — Their reli- gious belief and mythology compared with those of Homer. — Successive eras of poetry and religious belief. — iEschylus, his CONTENTS. XIX PAGE life. — Observations upon the style and language of iEschylus. — His extant tragedies. — The Persians. — The Seven against Thebes. — The Suppliants. — The Prometheus Bound. — The Orestean trilogy, Agamemnon, Choephori, and Eumenides. — Symbolism of this trilogy. — Political object of the Eume- nides. — Quotations. . . . . . .285 CHAPTER IV. Sophocles compared with iEschylus. — His birth, parentage, and education. — Dramatic success. — Appointed one of the Ten Generals. — Unfitness for the office. — His political senti- ments and conduct. — The unnatural conduct of his son Iophon. — Chorus in the (Edipus Coloneus. — His death. — Epigrams of Simonides and Simmias. — Character of his poetry. — The ethical character of the Sophoclean drama. — His dramatic reforms. — The number of his compositions. — The chronological order of those extant. — Antigone. — Electra. — The grandeur of iEschylus con- trasted with the beauty of Sophocles. . . . 305 CHAPTER V. The three tragic poets form successive eras in literary taste. — These are analogous to the progress made by the individual mind. — Euripides, his life and character. — Religious, poli- tical and philosophical sentiments unpopular. — Unjustly slan- dered. — His supposed hatred of the female sex. — Story of his marriages and divorces. — His exile, death, and epitaph. — The age of Euripides a philosophical era. — The effects of this on his poetry. — Was Euripides the most tragic of poets ? — His pro- logues. — The real objections to them. — The use which he makes of Divine interposition. — His political principles. — His fond- ness for special pleading. — His lyric power. — Monodies. — Chronological list of plays. — Alcestis. — Medea. — Hecuba. — Electra. — Cyclops. — Passages from the tragedies of Euripides. — Ion. — Achaeus. — Agathon. — Euphorion. — Iophon. — The younger Sophocles and Euripides. — Chaeremon. — Theodectes. 321 XX CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. Situation and construction of the Theatre of Dionysus. — Date of its building. — Seats. — Thymele. — Stage. — Scenery.— Partly architectural, partly painted. — Curtain. — Logeion. — The effect produced by the grouping. — Size of theatre. — Con- trivances to remedy the inconvenience of distance. — The theatre roofless, and therefore natural and artificial scenery was com- bined. — The Greeks lived in the open air. — Machinery The eccyclema, and the occasions on which it was used. — Instru- mental music. — Decorations of the orchestra and thymele. — Purposes for which the theatre was used. — The four Dionysia. — Liturgies and theoric fund. — Number and arrangement of tragic chorus. — Costume. — Distribution of parts amongst the actors. — Greek tragedy not like modern opera. . . 343 CHAPTER VII. The law of Blood-guilt.— Its early origin. — The form in which it was incorporated into the Athenian code. — Mention of it in the Iliad and Odyssey. — View in which it was regarded by tragic poets. — Ceremonies of purification. — Sources from which the subjects of Greek tragedy were derived. — Reverence for their ancient monarchs not inconsistent with Athenian liberty. — Some previous familiarity with the plot considered desirable. — Distance of time prevented tragedy from exciting the feelings too strongly. — Instruction given on matters of modern interest through the medium of ancient legend. — Ex- amples from iEschylus and Euripides. . . .365 CONTENTS OP VOL. II. BOOK II. {continued). SECOND OR FLOURISHING ERA OF GREEK LITERATURE. CHAPTER VIII. The descriptive accuracy and general truthfulness of Greek Literature. — In estimating this, two considerations necessary — 1. The changes which have taken place in the face of the country, — 2. Love for the softer beauties of Nature. — Why the Greeks do not describe landscapes. — The poets did not act disingenuously in selecting particular features for description. — Place which the sea occupies in Greek poetry. — Whenever truth is wanted the Greek poets are always truthful. — Instances of Homeric accuracy. — This accuracy made use of as an argu- ment against Homer's personality. — Such objections answered. — Similar accuracy in iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. — Truthfulness the characteristic of Greek literature. — Irony. — Litotes. — iEschylus, — Aristophanes. CHAPTER IX. Comedy, its origin. — Etymology. — First exhibited in Icaria by Susarion. — Epicharmus, his life, and character of his come- dies. — Phormis. — Dinolochus. — Attic comedy, its threefold VOL. II. b vi CONTENTS. PAGE division. — Character of the old comedy, as traced in that of Aristophanes. — Its refinement, its elegance, and its grossness. — Its effects for good and for evil Its impartiality. — Laws by which it was prohibited. — The Parabasis. . . .14 CHAPTER X. Chionides. — Magnes. — Quotation from Aristophanes respect- ing him. — Cratinus. — Horace's opinion of him. — Testimony of Aristophanes. — Eupolis. — Story of his death. — Crates. — Fragment of one of his comedies translated by Cumberland Quotation from Aristophanes. — His life. — Age at which a dramatic poet could exhibit. — His first comedy, the Ban- queters, — the Acharnians, — the Knights, — the Clouds, — the Wasps, — the Peace, — the Lysistrata, — Thezmophoriazusse, — the Ecclesiazusae, — the Frogs, — the Birds, — the Plutus. — Chronological Table. . . . . .25 CHAPTER XI. Why History was cultivated earlier among the Semitic nations than among the Greeks. — Pherecydes of Leros. — His works. — Charon of Lampsacus. — Hellanicus. — Herodorus of Heraclea. — Herodotus. — The improvements which he intro- duced into history. — His birth, parentage, native city. — His sources of information. — His travels. — The tradition that he recited his history at the Olympic Games. — His residence at Samos, Athens, and Thurii. — He did not travel much in Italy. — Some of his ideas taken from Sophocles. — His poetic talents. — Method in which he introduces his digressions. — His autho- rity as an historian. — His style of writing. — His religious sentiments. — The geography of Herodotus. . . .49 CHAPTER XII. Philosophical History. — Thucydides its inventor. — His life. — Extent of his history. — The authenticity of the eighth book examined. — Summary of Greek history in the first book. — CONTENTS. vii PAGE Story of Harmodius and Aristogiton. — The plan of his history. — Digressions. — Chronological arrangement. — The advantage of his being a contemporary historian. — The speeches of Thu- cydides. — Their value. — Their style. — Truthfulness in his general narrative. — Graphic power. — His chief intellectual qualities. — Herodotus and Thucydides compared. . .76 CHAPTER XIII. Xenophon. — His birth. — Connexion with Socrates. — Joins the expedition of Cyrus. — The Retreat of the Ten Thousand. — His history of it. — Argument of the work. — His manner of life in his retirement at Scillus. — The Hellenics. — The Cyro- paedia. — The Memorabilia of Socrates. — The view of the Socra- tic doctrines contained in it compared with that of Plato. — Other treatises of Xenophon. — General character of his works. — Ctesias. — His works on Assyrian and Persian history, and on the natural history of India, of little value. . . .94 CHAPTER XIV. Eloquence a feature of Greek literature. — Examples. — Sici- lian schools of eloquence. — Tisias and Corax. — Greek prose improved by the Sophists. — First school of rhetoric at Athens established by Gorgias. — Rivalry between the orators and philosophers. — Oratory abused during Peloponnesian war Constitution and character of the Athenian ecclesia. — Exam- ples. — The externals of oratory most appreciated by the Athenians. — Care taken in the composition of orations. — Ne- cessary qualifications of an orator. — The influence of free insti- tutions on oratory. . . . . . .108 CHAPTER XV. Earliest written orations. — Antiphon. — His life and occupa- tion. — Resemblance of his style to that of Thucydides. — Ando- cides. — His life, politics, and dates of his extant orations. — His troubles and exile. — Value of his orations. — Lysias. — Migrates Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE to Thurii. — Is exiled, and returns to Athens. — Assists Thrasy- bulus and his party. —His style.— Influence of Herodotus on it. — Influence of Isocrates on oratory. — Various criticisms on his style. — His life and suicide. — Isaeus Little known of his life. — He was a pupil of Lysias and Isocrates, and instructor of Demosthenes. ...... 125 CHAPTER XVI. Circumstances which led to the perfection of oratory. — Parentage and birth of Demosthenes. — Dishonesty of his guar- dians. — ■ His self-education. — Acts as choregus. — Prosecutes Midias. — Instances in which he distinguished himself as an orator. — His Philippic and Olynthiac orations, — His denuncia- tion of the treachery of iEschines. — His speech De Corona. — Imprisonment. — Exile. — Death ■ Criticism on his style. — iEschines. — His parentage and family. — He was schoolmaster, secretary, soldier and ambassador. — Sent on two occasions as delegate to the Amphictyonic council. — His exile and death. — Hyperides. — His upright character. — Accuses Demosthenes. — Leaves Athens. — His death. — Demades. — His great talents and unprincipled character. — His death. — Lycurgus. — His financial abilities Anecdote related by Plutarch. — Statue erected to his honour. — Dinarchus. — His birth, politics, and style. . . 1 34 CHAPTER XVII. Philosophy flourished later than literature Diogenes of Apollonia. — His physical theory. — Anaxagoras. — His character and philosophical system. — His inconsistencies. — His theory of knowledge. — His system compared with that of his predeces- sors. — Parmenides. — The time of his birth uncertain. — Cele- brated as a legislator. — A moral poet rather than a philoso- pher. — His view of human nature mournful. — Zeno. — His connexion with Parmenides. — Founder of dialectics. — His fallacies. — His physics.— Melissus. — His system a negative one. ■ — His physics nearly those of the Eleatic school. — Empedocles. CONTENTS. IX PAGE — Some of his doctrines Pythagorean. — He is said to have invented rhetoric. — Fable mixed up with his life. — He refused the tyranny. — His doctrine of the Deity. — Necessity. — The elements. ....... 152 CHAPTER XVIII. The natural philosophy of the early Greek schools of no value. — This is not the case with mental and moral philosophy. — Progress of these branches of philosophy. — Athens now the seat of philosophy. — Causes which led to her literary and phi- losophical as well as political supremacy. — Why history took precedence of philosophy at Athens. — Review of the state of philosophy. — The Sophists. — They improved Greek prose, and directed man to the study of himself. — The character of the times at which they flourished. — State of education. — The sophists became the public instructors. — Their abilities. — How they performed their functions. — Evidence of the existence of " sophistical " teaching. — The extent to which the philosophers are correct in their estimate of the sophists. — The fact that so little remains of their works proves that they were of little value. . . . . . . .169 CHAPTER XIX. Socrates. — The practical character of his philosophy. — His birth, parentage, and early life. — His daemon. — Alcibiades, Xenophon, and the younger Pericles his pupils. — Causes of his unpopularity and persecution. — His public conduct on three remarkable occasions. — His apology and condemnation. — His death. — His mode and occasions of teaching. — Why his teach- ing was so often political. — The Socrates of Plato seems to differ from that of Xenophon. — They give his teaching from opposite points of view. — Why he valued moral above physical and mathematical science. — Difficulty of eliciting the doctrines of Socrates from the writings of Xenophon and Plato. — His CONTENTS. PAGE first great doctrine the existence of truth. — His second the existence of God. — His doctrines arranged under three heads, — I. His idea of God, — II. The immortality of the soul, — III. His moral theory. — The contradictory part of his teaching 184 CHAPTER XX. Biography of Aristippus. — The Cyrenaic school the parent of the Epicurean philosophy. — Its doctrines degenerate and cor- rupt. — Points of resemblance between the teaching of Aristippus and Socrates. — The Cyrenaic fourfold division of the subjects of science. — Life of Antisthenes. — Negative character of the Cynic philosophy. — ■ The style of Antisthenes. — His teaching generally ethical. — His logic. — The unpopularity of his moral teaching caused it to be misrepresented. — Euclides, and the school of Megara. — The doctrines of Euclides partly Eleatic, partly Socratic. ...... 208 CHAPTER XXI. Biography of Plato. — His travels. — Objects of his three jour- neys to Sicily. — False views respecting his philosophy. — Testimony of Aristotle. — The beauty of his style. — The drama- tic character of the Platonic dialogue. — The dialogues arranged in trilogies and tetralogies. — Some arrangement necessary. — The difficulties and mode of reconciling them. — His spurious writings. — Points to which attention must be paid in arranging his genuine works. — The dialogues which are the most Socratic not necessarily the earliest. — The true test of their order.— Schleiermacher's arrangement. . . . .219 CHAPTER XXII. Plato's idea of philosophy. — The relation which the one bears to the many. ^-Science one.— Its object the knowledge of God. — The relative position which other sciences occupy. — Divisions of the Platonic philosophy.— Senses in which he uses CONTENTS. xi PAGE the term dialectic. — Dialectic. — He confutes preexisting errors. — Knowledge not the result of sensation. — The consequence of the Eleatic theories. — Plato's own theory of the relation of mind to matter. — The doctrine of the idea. — Idealism and conceptu- alism compared. — Plato's idea of God. — His description of Deity. — Doctrine of reminiscence. — Statement of physical theory in the Timseus. — Arguments by which it is established. — The soul of the world. — The soul of man. — Its nature and immortality. — The objects of the Symposium and the Phsedo compared. — One great argument for immortality to which the rest are subordinate. — Mythical representations. — Free will. — Origin of evil. . . . . . .234 CHAPTER XXIII. Physical science subordinate to ethical. — Threefold division of Ethics. — Relation of " the good " to pleasure. — Apparent inconsistencies in Plato's ethical system. — Special goods. — Virtue. — Its fourfold division. — Justice. — Connexion of ethics and politics. — Sacrifice of private rights to public good. — Analogy of the state to the individual. — Mixed forms of government best. — Views of the republic modified in the laws. — Education. — Music and poetry. — The Platonic number. — The Cratylus. — 'The successors of Plato. . . .257 CHAPTER XXIV. Aristotle. — The uncertainty of his biography. — His birth- place and parentage. — Visits Athens. — Becomes a pupil of Plato. — His attachment to his tutor. — His embassy to the court of Philip. — Controversy with Isocrates. — Becomes tutor to Alexander the Great. — Course of education adopted. — Re- turns to Athens. — Lectures in the Lyceum. — His manner of teaching. — False charge of poisoning Alexander. — His volu- minous works. — Munificence of Alexander. — Persecution of Aristotle. — Flies to Chalcis. — His death. — Appointment of a successor. — His appearance. — His style contrasted with that of Xll CONTENTS. PACK Plato. — His style influenced by the age in which he lived. — His deference for authority The practical character of his mind. — His views limited to this life. — Division of his works. — Meaning of Esoteric and Exoteric. — His habit of induction. — Defect in his ethics. — His philosophy contrasted with that of Plato. ... ... 373 CHAPTER XXV. Logic fully developed by Aristotle. — His Organon. — The Categories, their nature and application. — The treatise on the Proposition. — The two Analytics. — The Topics. — Fallacies. — His Metaphysics. — Origin of the term. — The origin of know- ledge. — The objects of sensation. — Matter. — Form. — Motion. — Final cause. — Energy. — Entelechy. — Idea of God. — Physics. — Exactness not to be expected in physical and moral science*, — Theory of the human soul. — Sensation. — Imagination. — Memory. — System of the universe. — Ethical and political phi- losophy. — General sketch of the Ethics. — Its connexion with political science. . . . . .292 CHAPTER XXVI. Economics. — Slavery. — Analogy of a family to a state. — Politics. — Definition of a state. — Two subjects for consideration. — Three forms of government. — Three degenerate forms. — Property qualification a safe principle. — The anti-democratic bias of Aristotle. — State of political opinion at Athens. — Influ- ences acting upon the opinions of Aristotle. — His honesty. — His leading principle. — Internal arrangements. — Property. — Education. — Rhetoric, its real object. — Analysis of the Rhetoric. — Analysis of the Poetic. — Critical spirit of the age. — Con- clusion. ....... 312 Appendix . . . . • • 333 A HISTORY OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. PART I. GREEK LITERATURE. BOOK I. FIRST ERA OF GREEK LITERATURE. CHAPTER I. LIMITS OF THIS WORK. ITS TWOFOLD DIVISION. ORIGIN AND AFFI- NITIES OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE. INDO-EUROPEAN AND SEMITIC RACES. — THEIR LANGUAGES COMPARED. THE GREEK DIALECTS. : CONNEXION OF THE IONIANS WITH THE PELASGIANS. ORIGIN OF THE GREEK ALPHABET. The Classical literature of a nation includes, strictly speaking, only the works of its best authors. Its era is that during which the national intellect is in its greatest vigour and health; when the language, which is the exponent of that intellect, exhibits the most perfect refinement and purity ; when Poetry, Philosophy and History are in their most flourishing condition. VOL. I. B 2 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. This definition excludes the period of its rise and progress towards perfection, as well as that of its decline and fall ; but it is obvious that a history, even of its flourishing period, although it naturally termi- nates when that period comes to a close, must trace its growth and development from the earliest times. An inquiry, therefore, into the Classical literature of Greece divides itself into two heads : — I. The era which extends from the infancy of literature, unwritten as well as written, to the time of the Pisistratidse. It includes the time when the Ionian Greeks were struggling against the over- whelming power of Cyrus, and terminates with their subjugation towards the end of the sixth century before Christ. II. The era at which the national literature had attained its highest state of perfection. During this era the Tragic Drama rapidly arrived at maturity, and suddenly became extinct; Comedy flourished; History assumed its most perfect form, and Athens came to be considered the home of Philosophy. This period commences with Simonides, and ends with Aristotle. It includes the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, the subsequent years during which Grecian liberty was in a tottering state, and had a hard strug- gle for existence, until at length the supremacy of Macedon completed its destruction. At this point, then, will end that portion of this work which is devoted to the history of Greek Clas- sical literature. GREEK LANGUAGE. 3 But the history of a nation's literature implies some account of its language, and the important philolo- gical investigations which have distinguished the pre- sent age, furnish the materials for tracing the origin of the Greek language, and its affinities with other languages of the civilized world. Language is the material of literature, in the same way that the marble gives visible existence to the ideas and feelings of the sculptor. As the artist converts the shapeless block into a life-like statue, so the poet, the philosopher, and the historian breathe life into the dead letter of mere words. Again, the beauty of sculpture depends in no small degree on the fitness of the material for expressing and giving reality to the ideas of the artist. And in the same way, on the genius of a language, the character of a national literature will frequently depend. The first step towards exhibiting the origin of the Greek language, is to trace the earliest migrations of the human race. From Armenia there proceeded two great families. One, the Aramaic, or Semitic, gradually occupied the plains of Mesopotamia, and thence overspread Syria, Arabia, and North Africa, including Egypt; the other, the Iranian, or Indo- European, moved westward to Asia Minor, thence to India, and skirting in its migrations the northern shores of the Euxine and Caspian, penetrated into the colder and less fertile regions of Europe. These two races were equally gifted both corporeally and b 2 4 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. intellectually ; to them are owing the literature and civilization of the world. To the Indo-European race we are indebted for the vocabulary and grammatical structure of the lan- guages of civilized Europe. To the Semitic we owe the alphabet and the means of committing ideas to writing. But whilst the Semitic race possessed, far earlier than the Indo-European, a phonetic alphabet of such power and perfection as to satisfy the requirements of both races, and to be capable of expressing and representing every sound, its comparative superiority, in point of language, ends here. The varied struc- ture of the Indo-European languages, the power of combination in their elements, the perfection of their grammatical principles, endowed them with greater capacity for forming a widely diffused and extended literature. The written literature of the Semitic race is of greater antiquity than that of the other, as is evident from a critical study of the sacred volume, an antiquity likewise established by the whole course of modern discovery ; but the varied power of inflexion, the luxuriant copiousness of grammatical forms in the Indo-European tongues, gave them a superior facility of accommodating themselves to the various modes of thought and feeling in different nations. In the Semitic languages, the roots are few in number, and composed of only two or three letters, and the formation of words by means of prefixes and GREEK LANGUAGE. affixes is simple, and in most cases similar ; hence, although there is weight and dignity, there is an absence of that variety of sound which, in the Classical languages, falls so agreeably on the ear, even although we are ignorant of the true pronunciation. Hebrew poetry, for example, is probably metrical, but we cannot discover those nice shades of rhythm and scan- sion, which in Greek and Latin are capable of being reduced to such exact rules. The only poetical pecu- liarities discoverable, are antitheses in sense and equally balanced periods, or sentences. The slightest acquaintance with the Classical lan- guages of antiquity is sufficient to show the advantage of varied grammatical inflexion, both as to sense and sound. The mind recognises with satisfaction the philosophical exactness with which they were able to express the most refined distinctions of human thought, the means which were at their disposal by composition and derivation, for forming a complete nomenclature in any science — a power which modern languages are obliged to borrow from them. Doubtless, the Greeks were distinguished by a vast amount of mental energy and subtlety of discrimina- tion, but it is clear that, whilst these natural gifts assisted in the rapid development of their language, the accommodating structure of the Indo-European languages was a powerful instrument to mould and educate their mental powers. Miiller a says on this subject, " That in the ancient * History of Greek Literature, p. 5. 6 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. languages the words with their inflexions, clothed as it were with muscles and sinews, come forward like living bodies full of expression and character; while, in the modern tongues, the words seem shrunk up into mere skeletons." The ear, even of the uninitiated, is struck with the harmonious variety perceptible in the Greek language, and its fitness at once for the loftiest strains of heroic and dithyrambic poetry, the sweet pathos of the lyric muse, the rhythmical character of oratorical prose composition, and the simple home- liness and elegant perspicuity of narrative and con- versation. But whilst this is the charm resulting from variety of inflexion, the ear is also effectually addressed by the systematic rule which regulates these inflexions. Every different idea and relation has its different sound, but at the same time, as a general rule, every similar and kindred idea has a similar or kindred oral development. The ear, at- tuned as that of the Greek was to catch at every minutest difference in sound, and to discriminate with the nicest accuracy, was at once conscious of the sound, and the mind as readily recognised the mutual rela- tion of ideas, the adaptation of the parts, the depend- ence upon each other of the words in the sentence. The Greek language, then, was especially adapted to an age when literature and a literary taste were dissemi- nated far more by oral transmission than by writing. Even when the art of writing was discovered, and writing materials became sufficiently abundant ; con- PRINCIPLES OF GRAMMAR. 7 venient means for a rapid and easy multiplication of copies were not at hand until the invention of printing ; hence recitation, and oratory, and the drama, and lectures, and the public and private conversations of philosophers were, for the most part, the vehicles of literature. It was most important, therefore, to the formation of a national literature, that the lan- guage should be one which addressed itself to the ear rather than to the eye. There was, besides the variety of inflexion, and the symmetry of principle which regulated inflexion, an- other important advantage which the Greek pos- sessed over modern languages. The grammar was the natural offshoot and product of the human mind ; it was the grammar of attraction rather than of go- vernment ; it presented itself as the natural normal form in which ideas strive for utterance rather than as artificial trammels to restrain and correct inaccu- racies of expression. To write accurate grammar was natural to them. The reverse would, as it were, have done violence to their nature. The very inaccuracies of the poets, and of so rapid a thinker as Thucydides, can be ac- counted for on the common laws which regulate human thought; even the familiar and conversational dialogues of Plato, and the jottings down of Aris- totle's note-books, are free from grammatical inac- curacies which we frequently meet with even in the polished essays of modern times. With the ancients, the order of thought was that 8 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. in which the thoughts were expressed. The plastic nature of their languages allowed the thoughts to flow in words precisely as nature dictates. The arrange- ment of the words in a Latin or Greek sentence is determined by the relative importance of the ideas, and therefore the Classical is in fact the natural order, whilst the grammatical order is that, which is deter- mined by artificial rule. The same facility which assisted the ear in the appreciation of the sense, and led the hearer gra- dually onward together with the speaker, so that he grasped the ideas precisely as they originated in the speaker's mind, constituted one of the charms of Greek poetry. The laws of metre and of rhythm might fairly be more strict where the grammatical structure of a sentence did not fetter or circumscribe the order in which the words might be arranged ; and at the same time regular metrical analysis was perfectly com- patible with the infinite variety which Classical metre is capable of assuming. Hence a determinate quan- tity could be affixed by rule, or by authority, to every syllable which the tutored ear of modern scholars, even amid all the disadvantages under which we labour, is able to appreciate, but which must have spoken to the musical ear of the Greek in accents of which we can form no adequate idea. There can be little doubt, that, although the dialects of early Greece were very numerous, a variety of which Homer a was aware, the Greek language was originally a Iliad, ii. 804 ; iv. 437. ORIGIN OF HELLENIC TONGUE. 9 the result of one regular plan. The manner in which Hellas originally became settled is of itself sufficient to account for the rise of many various forms out of one common matrix. The same causes which interfered with the mixture of races would produce difference of dialects and present a barrier to their fusion. The physical features of a country exercise an important influence in perpetuating or causing distinctions of dia- lect, on the one hand, and in preventing one language from being split into many cognate varieties, on the other. The vast open plains inhabited by the Semitic nations softened down the differences of languages and encouraged a similarity and uniformity in their structure, whilst the rivers and mountains which inter- sected Greece produced and maintained the characte- ristic forms of her several dialects, and hindered their amalgamation into one common Hellenic tongue. The following is the account which some philologists have given of its origin. The Pelasgi, who were the oldest inhabitants of Greece, and who, according to the authority of Herodotus/ spoke a barbarian, i.e., a foreign language, were allied to the Iranian tribes in the north of India; and consequently that element in the Greek language which exhibits an affinity for the Sanscrit is the Pelasgic, and hence the numerous resemblances in words and inflexions which are found to exist between the two languages. It is to this oldest element that the Latin is allied, which is now univer- a Herod, i. 57, 10 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. sally allowed to be the older language of the two, and to resemble the Greek in the earliest phase of its existence. The Hellenes subsequently migrated into Greece, and the Hellenic element being added to the other, caused the older Pelasgian language to be looked upon as barbarous, when the Hellenes, who were an Ionian race, became the possessors of Attica. This element of the Greek language is said to have had an affinity to the Persian. A distinguished modern scholar 3 brings forward the examples of Democedes b and Themistocles c as proofs of some similarity existing between Greek and Persian ; and thus accounts for the facility with which these persons are represented as having learnt the latter language. According to this theory, then, the common or older element in the Greek and Latin languages would be the Pelasgian, and would have a close affinity with the Sanscrit ; whereas the new element which distin- guishes the Greek from the Latin would be the Hellenic, and be closely related to the Persian. When tradition, following the universal practice of legendary history, named races after imaginary pa- triarchs, and made Dorus ; iEolus, and Ion the offspring of Hellen, it was symbolizing the fact that the sub- divisions of the Hellenic race were the Dorians, iEolians, and Ionians. The Dorians, as their name implies, which has an affinity to other words signifying a Donaldson's New Cratyl. b Herod, iii. 130. c Thuc. i. THE PELASGIANS. 11 mountains — such as Tor and Taurus, were the moun- taineers. The iEolians — whose habits and modes of thought, and therefore their literature, as seen in the compositions of the lyric poets of Lesbos, exhibit some mixture of Dorian feeling — sprang probably from an union of Dorian races with the Pelasgians of Thes- saly. For that reason they were termed Alokzig, or a mixed race. The lonians were so called, because they inhabited the coast (jfiuv). It was to their local habi- tation, and consequently their commercial and mari- time pursuits, and their intercourse with foreigners that they owed those peculiar characteristics, which distinguished them by so broad a line of demarcation from the Dorians and iEolians. Hence sprang their activity of mind, their enterprising disposition, their love of foreign travel, their restless desire of change, their liberal spirit, and attachment to. free institutions, the versatility of their intellectual powers, which is reflected in the wide extent and varied nature of their literature. Of the ancient Pelasgian race little certain is known, although their traces are visible throughout Europe and Asia, marking, wherever they are found, the progress of civilization. Herodotus asserts that they were barbarians ; a that they were the occupiers of the whole of Hellas ; that the inhabitants of Attica were once called Pelasgians ; b that the Athenians afterwards shared that country with them, and learnt from them some of their customs ; a Herod, i. 57. b Ibid. viii. 44. 12 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. that their gods had no names ; a that judging from the Pelasgian settlements, which existed in his own day, their language was barbarous; 13 that they were expelled from Attica, and settled in Lemnos; c and that, together with change of race, the language of Attica changed also ; d that a wall attributed to Pelasgians existed at Athens, 6 a fact which is also alluded to by Thucydides, who speaks of a district of the city called the Pelas- gian/ Such is the imperfect account transmitted to us by the father of history. The mighty works which have marked their migration — the fortifications which they built (for their vastness called Cyclopean), relics of which even still remain — the undoubted fact that they were the founders of those nations amongst whom literature and the arts have most flourished, forbid the belief that they or their language were barbarian. Doubtless the Pelasgians were a civilized and peace- ful race, whilst the Hellenes were a warlike and con- quering people ; both sprang from one common origin ; and their languages were sufficiently similar, so that, when the races lived together as a conquering and sub- ject people, they were capable of amalgamation, and in the process of reconstruction formed the Greek language in the earliest state in which it was applied to the purposes of literature. Possibly the assertion of Herodotus is, after all, the true one, that the Athenians were not a Hellenic a Herod, ii. 51. b Ibid. vi. 137. c Ibid. v. 64. d Ibid. i. 57. e Ibid. i. 57. f Thuc. lib. i. ORIGIN OF GREEK ALPHABET. 13 but a Pelasgian race. a The Dorians, we know, were Hellenians; and the opposition between the Dorian and Ionian mind and character leads us to expect that in the Ionian race are to be found the descendants of that marvellous people which Italy, as well as Greece, acknowledges for its founders. Such appears to have been the origin of the Greek nation and its great subdivisions, and such the sources from which its language was derived. But whilst the Greek language belongs to the Indo-European family, the alphabet is of Semitic origin. Tradition repre- sents Cadmus, a Phoenician, as having introduced an alphabet, of sixteen letters, into Greece, 5 and there are good reasons for believing that the ancient © © Greeks were accustomed to call the Semitic nations Phoenicians. The truth, which the mythical history symbolizes, was probably the following. The Phoenician, or Syro-Chaldean, cities of Tyre and Sidon were, in very early times, important commercial communities. It is probable that through them, principally, the trade between the East and West was carried on. The antiquity of our own sacred writings proves that the existence of a Semitic written literature was at least coeval with their com- merce ; and thus it was not long before the Greek merchants derived from the descendants of Shem, the signs which they used, and which they adapted to the representation of the sounds of their own native tongue. a Herod, viii. 44. b Ibid. v. 28. 14 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. The Semitic alphabet was doubtless at first pic- torial, and afterwards, in process of time, became phonetic. Even after it had undergone this im- provement, the ancient names of the things which the letters depicted still remained ; and although the form became gradually altered, some rude resem- blance to the original picture form can be still detected. For example tf, the first letter in the present Hebrew alphabet, was called Aleph, or ox; and in the character, and still more in the older Phoenician form *fc, the rude picture of an ox's head may be traced. So 1, Beth, signified a house; 2, Gimel, a camel; and so forth. The letter y, Ain, the eye, corresponds to the European vowel O ; and the oldest form in which it was written was 0, or O, as representing a rude resemblance to the human eye. Other instances of the pictorial character may be traced in some of the letters of the Hebrew and cognate alphabets. Tradition informs us that the Phoenician or Semitic alphabet, introduced into Greece by Cadmus, consisted of sixteen letters, and the grammarians asserted that these sixteen were a, (8, y, \ s, /, #, "k, p, v, o, #, g>, (T, r, y; a but the same philologer, whose authority has been already referred to, has unanswer- ably proved that this is impossible, and that the original letters must have been those which appear in the extant Hebrew alphabet, under the following names and symbols : — a Donaldson's New Cratyl. i. 5. ALPHABETS COMPARED. 15 Hebrew. Greek. N H first breathing, A. 1 B } B. a g \ middle sounds (mediae), T. 1 D j A. n h second breathing, E. ") Bh P, digamma. n Gh ■ aspirated sound, H. D Dh e. !? L A. D M - liquids, M. 3 N N. D S the sibilant, I. v o third breathing, - O. S P ] - smooth sounds (teni n. p Q ies), 4>. n t l T. The following specimens of Greek, Phoenician, and Samaritan characters, will show the transition from the Semitic to the Greek a forms : — Hebrew. Samaritan. Phoenician. Greek. K * A. 1 3 B. J 1 r. 1 Q A. n * E. i 7 P, digamma. T n ^ H. to 0. > 3 7 K. b Z A. D *f M. : > N. a See Penny Cyclopaedia, art. Alphabet. 16 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Hebrew. Samaritan. Phoenician. Greek. D *•(») V 0. 2 n. a 3UU z. P V *. i <\ p. w place. 33 The prevailing opinion among the ancients was that he was a Smyrnean ; his epithet, Melesigenes, being derived from the river Meles, in the neighbourhood of Smyrna. Upon the whole, notwithstanding it has been argued that he was a European, and by Briant that he was a native of Ithaca, all his local descrip- tions, his feelings and prejudices, displayed in his works, are in favour of the supposition that he was an Asiatic, and probably an Ionian. 3 His accurate and graphic descriptions of the Asiatic coast of the jEgean, and the scenery of the adjacent islands, are those of one long and familiarly acquainted with them. His statement that the west wind blows the waves in shore, is the language of one accustomed to the coast of the Levant. " The swans of Cayster — the Asian meadows — and other scenes in Ionia, are described with the faithfulness and feeling of one who connected them with his earliest recollections." 5 He shows the greatest reverence for the Ionian theology. Poseidon is recognised by him as the deity of the Ionian league. Ajax is represented as an Attic (and therefore an Ionic) hero, instead of being described, according to the Dorian usage, as of the same family with Achilles. The Homerides, his principal admirers, inhabited Chios, which was situated off the Ionian coast ; and the Cyclic poets, who, in their feeble imitations, pro- a See Plato, De Legg. iii. p. 680. b Miiller, c. v. c Ibid. c. v. VOL. I. D 34 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. longed his strain, were likewise Ionians. With the exception of one passage (II. &', 40) he has avoided any allusion to the Dorian conquest of the Pelopon- nesus, 3 for the Dorians were the enemies of the Ionian race; and, lastly, the only Heraclid chieftain in the " Iliad " is Tlepolemus, who was driven out by his brother, and joined the JEolians. The probability that Homer was an Asiatic Greek, almost amounts to a certainty. The only doubt is whether he was an Ionian or iEolian ; and in support of the belief that he was an iEolian, it may be asserted that in his dialect there is as much iEolic as Ionic Greek ; that the Trojan war is an iEolian tradition ; and that the most circumstantial accounts of his life are evidently based upon iEolian legends. With respect to the era in which he lived, Mitford 5 places it previous to the Dorian conquest in B.C. 1104; Clinton subsequently to that event, in B.C. 962 — 927 ; the Arundel Marbles, in B.C. 907. But, according to Herodotus, he flourished about four hundred years before his time. This date is approved by Heyne, and is supported by the opinion generally prevalent in ancient times. Besides these considerations, it will be seen to agree best with the theory of Homer's personality ; and for those who deny this, to fix any definite period for the composition of the poems is manifestly groundless and visionary. There are many lives of Homer, all of which, what- a See Clinton, vol. i., Appendix. b Mitford, i. 140. c Herod. Eut. 53. LIFE OF HOMER. 35 ever truth is mixed up with them, derive their materials from early legendary history. Two of these are attributed to Plutarch, and one — by far the most circumstantial — is ascribed to Herodotus. The great historian, as is evident from passages in his work, a took great pains to collect information respecting the divine poet, and therefore the following biography has been compiled from his, with the addition of a few traditions recorded by Suidas, in his short com- pilation. b The legend followed by Herodotus is evidently of JEolian origin. Melanopus, a Magnesian, was one of the early settlers in the iEolian town of Cyme. At his death, he left his daughter, Critheis, to the guardianship of Cleanax. He, finding that she was pregnant, con- signed her to the care of Ismenias, who was one of the founders of Smyrna. On the banks of the Meles she gave birth to a son, who was therefore named Melesigenes ; and afterwards, because he was given as an hostage to the Colophonians, he was surnamed ofiqgog (Homer). The supposed date of his birth, ac- cording to Herodotus, was four hundred years before his own time. In very early youth he exhibited considerable talent, and a Leucadian merchant, named Mentes — whose name the poet has handed down to pos- terity in the "Odyssey" — struck with his genius, took him with him to sea. On this occasion he visited Ithaca, and there collected the materials for * Herod, lib. ii. and iv. b Suidas s. v. d 2 36 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. the " Odyssey." Thence he went to Colophon, where he became blind — a tradition doubtless derived from his name, Homer, which, according to another ety- mology, signified the blind man (6 ^ 6g£v). Later researches 3 have discovered that the name, Homer, was first given to the author of the " Iliad " and " Odyssey," by Xenophanes of Colophon. Smyrna, Cyme, Phocsea, Chios, successively became the place of his abode. At one period of his wanderings he became tutor to the sons of a very wealthy man named Chiros, and at that time composed his comic poems. Another account says that he wrote them in order to amuse the children of the master of the shepherd, Glaucus. The " Iliad " and " Odyssey " were composed during the period of his residence at Chios. He married Aresiphane, a Chian, who bore him one daughter and two sons, named Erephon and Theolaus. On his way to Greece he landed sick on the island of Irus. Some fishermen's boys, who were engaged in an employment, not of a very cleanly kind, asked him the ridle — "Aaa eXofxsy, Xiirofiea&a, a d' ovk eXofxev, ep6 fisada. " What we caught we left, what we could not catch we carried with us." On this Suidas gravely remarks that he did not die of vexation, because he could not guess the riddle, but of the disease under which he laboured when he landed. He lived to a good old age, and was buried a Welcker, Ep. Cycl., p. 186. MORALITY OF HOMERIC POEMS. 37 in the island. The inhabitants inscribed on his tomb the following elegy — "Ev0a£e rrjv upav K£(f>aX^v /carci yaia KaXvirrti, 'Av^owv f]poju)v KoajxrjTopa $eiov"0/ur)pov. " Here his sacred head in Earth's dark bosom reposes, Homer the poet divine who heroes adorns with his praises." Dioscorides asserts that Homer's great object was to enforce upon the young the duty of temperance, and quotes many passages from his poems, in which he describes regal banquets, marriage-feasts, and public entertainments as consisting of the simplest fare. Suidas bears testimony to the purity of his life, and mentions a tradition to the effect that his reputed blindness typified his freedom from the power of desire which holds sway through the eyes. And no one can read the poems of Homer without being struck with one noble quality which distinguishes him not only amongst heathen but even amongst Christian poets, namely, that there is scarcely a passage or a thought throughout them which would give offence to the purest and most delicate mind. Horace wisely remarks, in his epistle to Lollius, 3 that the contrast between virtue and vice is more in- structively painted in the Homeric poems than in the lectures of philosophers. The terrible evils of un- governed passions — the prevailing sins of heroic natures — are put forward as a stern moral lesson in the "Iliad," whilst the self-indulgent luxury and licentious riot of the suitors, the patience and resist- a Horace, Epistles, i. 2. 38 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. ance to temptation displayed by Ulysses, enforce the same moral lessons in the " Odyssey." Such, then, in its general features, is the legendary biography of Homer. How much of truth is con- tained in it cannot of course be determined. Pro- bably, as in most other cases, there is a groundwork of truth on which has been built up the superstructure of fable. But even a life, the principal part of which rests on no better authority than popular tradition, becomes, in the case of Homer, exceedingly valuable. It proves that the testimony of an age perhaps not far distant from the period at which the Homeric poems were written, believed in the personal existence of their author ; a belief which, as is well-known, has been attacked in later times with all the ingenuity of argument and the resources of learning. It is necessary, therefore, to a certain extent, to enter upon the much- vexed question of the origin of the Homeric poems. No doubt was ever entertained by the ancients respecting the personality of Homer. Pindar, a Plato, b Aristotle, and others, all assumed this fact ; nor did they even doubt that the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" were the work of one mind. The genuineness of the lesser Homeric poems was denied by Herodotus ; d and all works bearing his name, except the " Iliad " and " Odyssey," were rejected by Aristotle; 6 but the authorship of these remained undoubted. a Nem. viii. 29. b Plato, Repub. iii. iv. vii. c Nic. Ethics, ix. 10. d Herod, ii- 117 ; iv. 117. e Arist. Poet. DOCTRINE OF THE SEPARATORS. 39 The difference between these two poems did not escape the critical notice of the ancients, but it never appeared to them so great as to demand such an hypothesis in order to account for it, as the supposing that the j proceeded from two authors. The one was compared to the sun in its noon-day splendour; the other to that luminary when it sets, shorn of its beams: 3 but they would as readily have doubted the identity of the mid-day and evening sun as that of their greatest bard. Longinus even sees so intimate a connexion between the " Iliad " and the " Odyssey," that he considers the latter as the ImKoyog, or proper conclusion, of the former poem, a relation which implies such an unity of design as marks the work of a single author. This, however, was the side on which the ancient creed was first assailed. Some of the Alexandrian grammarians, of no great reputation, asserted, on account of some slight and not unnatural inconsis- tencies in language and mythology, that the " Iliad " and " Odyssey " belonged to different ages, and were the works of different authors ; they were hence called 01 xagityvrsg, or the separators. They did not, however, succeed in overthrowing the popular belief. Their theory was looked upon as an ingenious paradox ; it gradually died away, and was forgotten. Nor can it be a matter of astonishment that their speculations met with so little support, to those who know, from experience, how different are the works of the same a Longinus. 40 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. poets at different periods of their lives, and who know as a fact that the "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained" are the works of one and the same Milton. The doctrine of the Chorizontes was revived by Payne Knight, who attempted to show inexplicable discrep- ancies between events related in the two poems. Nitzsch defended the theory on the ground that there was a marked difference between the theology of the " Iliad " and " Odyssey ;" but as he asserts that the attributes of deity, in the latter poem, are far holier and purer, the difference may be accounted for by supposing that as the poet advanced in years his ideas respecting the divine nature reached a higher standard. THEORY OF HEDELIN AND PERRAULT. 41 CHAPTER IV. THEORY OF HEDELIN AND PERRAULT. HEYNE. — BEXTLEy's SEQUEL, WOOD'S ESSAY ON HOMER. WOLF'S PROLEGOMENA. THE GROUNDS OF WOLF*S THEORY. OBSERVATIONS OF NITZSCH IN OPPOSITION TO WOLF'S ARGUMENTS. HOW FAR HE AGREES WITH HIS OPPONENT. ARGUMENT FROM THE STATE OF THE LANGUAGE. — POWER OF MEMORY. THE QUESTION CAN ONLY BE DECIDED BY INTERNAL EYI- DENCE. — WOLF DENIES THE POETICAL UNITY OF THE POEMS. INTER- POLATIONS AND ALTERATIONS HIGHLY PROBABLE. THE MATERIALS OF THE POEMS. ANCLENT LAYS. — OBJECTION TO HEYNE's HYPO- THESIS. — LACHMANX's HYPOTHESIS. Scepticism went no further than this attempt to deny that the " Iliad " and the " Odyssey " were the works of the same author, until the end of the seven- teenth century. At that time two French critics, Hedelin and Perrault, asserted that the Homeric poems were compilations of various lays, the works of different poets, all having the same subject, namely, the Trojan war. This theory was adopted by the learned Heyne, who put it into a more scholar-like form, and supported it with his wonted learning and ingenuity. Still, however, the principal argument of any value on which it rests for confirmation is, that so long a poem, composed previous to the invention of the art of writing, could scarcely have been the work of one 42 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. mind. In the early part of the eighteenth century, Bentley a proposed a new solution of the difficulty. He assumed that, although these poems were the work of one author, yet still, that he wrote a sequel or series of songs to sing at festivals, as was the custom with the bards of the heroic age ; and he accounted for the difference between the stirring, warlike tone of the "Iliad," and the quiet, peaceful scenes of the " Odyssey," by saying, that the former was composed for men, the latter for women. He supposed that these lays or songs were transmitted from generation to generation, thus separate from each other, and that they were not collected together until after an interval of five hundred years. In 1770, Wood published an essay on the original genius of Homer, in which he proposed the question, whether the Homeric poems were originally written ? This suggested to Wolf the thorough and complete investigation of the subject, and in 1795 the "Pro- legomena," or preface to Homer, appeared, the ob- ject of which was to prove, that the " Iliad " and " Odyssey " were a collection of separate lays, ar- ranged and put together for the first time during the tyranny and by the order of Pisistratus. The grounds on which Wolf rested his theory were (1), that the art of writing was not sufficiently advanced, or writing materials sufficiently convenient, to allow of the be- lief that the Homeric poems were written ; and (2), that, therefore, as they must have been orally recited, a " Letter to N. N. by Phileleuth." GROUNDS OF WOLF'S THEORY. 43 it is not probable that a poem would have been com- posed longer than could have been recited on a single occasion. The premisses from which he deduces his first argument are, (a) that, although the Ionians used skins of sheep and goats a for writing on, as early as the first Olympiad, B.C. 776, the Greeks could not have had materials suitable for the transcription of long poems until the time of Amasis, who reigned between B.C. 570 and B.C. 525 ; (b) that the laws of Zaleucus were the earliest documents committed to writing, and that their probable date is the year B.C. 664. (c) A statement made by Josephus, b that Homer did not leave his poems in writing, but that they were handed down from memory in songs, and afterwards put together and arranged. He confesses, indeed, that his arguments do not go so far as to prove that the art of writing was totally unknown at so early a period as that in which the Homeric poems were composed, but only that it could not possibly have been applied to literary productions. He considers that his view derives support from the internal evi- dence of the poems themselves, for from two passages in the " Iliad," and one in the " Odyssey," he draws the same conclusion. The first of these is in the seventh " Iliad : "— Throughout all the host, To every chief and potentate of Greece, From right to left, the herald bore the lot By all disowned ; but when at length he reached a Herod, v. 58. b Apion, i. 2. 44 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. The inscriber of the lot, who cast it in, Illustrious Ajax, in his open palm The herald placed it, standing by his side ; He conscious with heroic joy, the lot Cast at his foot, and thus exclaimed aloud. II. vii. 183 (Cowper). Here he conjectures, that if the mark had been written characters, the herald would himself have decyphered it. (2) In the following passage : — Him therefore he dismissed To Lycia, charged with tales of dire import, Written in tablets, which he bade him show, That he might perish, to Anteia's sire. II. vi. 168 (Cowper). He asserts that the e^urcc kwygci were not words, but a species of picture-writing. (3) Lastly, from the " Odyssey," viii. 163, he infers that the captain re- members the contents of the ship, instead of having an inventory of it, and, therefore, assumes that the art of writing could not possibly have been in use at that time. Wolfs great opponent, G. W. Nitzsch, has denied that there is any weight in these arguments. He asserts not only that the use of wooden tablets and hides was introduced by the Phoenicians into Ionia as early as the first Olympiad, but that even papyrus was used long before the reign of Amasis ; that even the laws of Lycurgus were not orally transmitted, although they preceded those of Zaleucus ; and that the passage quoted from Josephus, originated in his misunderstanding the sentiments of the grammarians WOLF, NITZSCH, RITSCHL. 45 on this point, who attributed the various readings of Homer to the rhapsodists. But although, according to his theory, writing was in general use as early as the first Olympiad, it does not affect the question, whether the Homeric poems were originally written, unless the Homeric age is supposed to have been nearly a century later than that fixed by the testimony of antiquity. It is remarkable, however, that these two great opponents approach near to one another's views ; for Wolf, after all, admits that the art of writing was known in Ionia and Magna Grsecia in the seventh and eight centuries B.C., and was used by Archilochus, Alcman, Pisander, and others, as early as the first Olympiad ; and Nitzsch asserts that Homer probably flourished not much before the age of Lycurgus, as determined by Thucydides, and that if he lived earlier (which it is almost certain that he did), it is impos- sible to maintain that his poems were written. With respect to the materials out of which the (i Iliad " and " Odyssey n were compiled, Nitzsch, as well as another German critic (Ritschl), contended that the author was indebted to earlier bards, that his taste selected legends from a vast number of tradi- tional epics, and his genius combined them into one whole. These were then handed down, orally, by such poets as the Homeridae, and having become, by lapse of time, separated and dispersed, though not for- gotten, were again collected and arranged by Pisi- stratus. 46 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. The most satisfactory method, however, of arriving at a probable solution of this difficult question is, a critical examination of the language in which the Homeric poems themselves are written ; and the opinion which is every day gaining more supporters amongst scholars, is that, according to the known laws which regulate the progress and formation of lan- guage, the advanced state of the dialect, and the per- fection of the metre, unanswerably prove that the poems must have been sung or recited long before they were committed to writing. Porson, for ex- ample, observed, that when the poems were com- posed the digamma must have been pronounced, and yet no trace of it is discovered in any manuscript, however ancient. It is also plain that the slight dif- ference between the language of Homer and later Greek, when compared with the rapid changes ob- servable in other languages, presents a philological anomaly very difficult of explanation, unless on the hypothesis that the poems were subjected to much revision, and adaptation to the language of a more advanced period of literature. But although it is impossible to avoid making this admission, further considerations and an examination of Wolfs second position will show that it is of no importance towards settling the question at issue, but that it must be decided by the internal evidence of the poems themselves, and by that alone. Accustomed as we are to all that assistance to literary composition which the art of writing supplies, NATURAL POWERS OF MEMORY. 47 and, what is still more important, to the substitute for memory itself, which the power of committing our thoughts to paper furnishes, it is scarcely possible to form any idea of the natural powers of the memory when obliged to depend upon its own resources. We are, indeed, acquainted practically with the aid which metre and rhythm furnish; and the importance of this aid was so appreciated by the ancient Greeks, that they symbolized it in the belief that the Muses were daughters of Mnemosyne. It is not, therefore, so impossible a thing as it may at first sight appear, to conceive a poem of many thousand lines composed and arranged as a perfect whole, by an effort of memory, and then so perfectly retained in the mind as to be capable of recitation. Instances are not unknown of the wonderful power of memory when it is compelled to exert itself. Plutarch mentions the astonishing memories which the Greeks possessed. It is said also, that in modern times, the rude Calmucks have a national epic of three hundred and sixty cantos each fully as long as a book of the " Iliad," and that their bards are in the habit of reciting twenty at one time. Nor is it difficult to conceive that occasions of festivity might occur, in which the fervid imagination of the Greeks would listen with unwearied rapture to the recitation of the whole "Iliad 1 ' within the space of a few days. " If," says K. O. Miiller, a " the Athenians could at one festival hear in succession • Literature of Greece, p. 62. 48 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. nine tragedies, three satiric dramas, and as many comedies, without ever thinking that it might be better to distribute this enjoyment over the whole year, why should not the Greeks of earlier times have been able to listen to the ' Iliad ' and ' Odyssey,' and perhaps other poems at the same festival?" Such occasions we know did occur at the Panionian festival, 51 where poetical contests of the bards were held; at Sicyon, b during the contests of the rhapsodists in the time of Clisthenes ; and also in many other parts of Greece. Besides it is not inconsistent with the theory, that each of these poems was composed with an unity of subject and design, to suppose that some of the parts or episodes might have been recited separately ; that the plan of the whole and the gradual unfolding of the story should be so well-known, from familiarity with it, that the hearers could delight in the recitation of a part, and their imaginations readily place and arrange it in the frame-work which fully occupied their minds. In later times, it was essential to the idea of Greek tragedy that the histories which the poets developed should be well-known to the audience, and this, probably, was the case with the legends of the Trojan war, which were the original foundation of the " Iliad " and " Odyssey." Again, to refer, by way of illustration, to the habits of modern times, the popularity of those romances, which are periodically published in parts, shows that a Heyne, Ex. viii. p. 796. b Herod, v. 67. wolf's third argument. 49 even with long intervals between the publication of the parts, it is possible to sustain the interest of a tale and to keep awake the attention of the reader. In the same manner, those who listened to the divine poems of Homer, might have delighted to receive, book by book, his inspired strains. All these considerations go far to remove two difficulties suggested by Wolf's second argument, but independently of them there are inconsistencies in his theory which cannot be reconciled with one another. It cannot, however, be too strongly, or too constantly insisted on, that the decision of the question re- specting the personality of Homer, is not affected by the fact, which must be admitted, that the poems were composed, recited, and transmitted for a long period without the use of writing. It really depends upon the internal evidence, on an examination of the structure of the poems themselves. If they bear evident, unan- swerable marks of unity of design, this fact is strong enough to overthrow all objections, however subtle or ingenious they may be ; for it would be more difficult to imagine that oneness of design was the result of accident, or of the piecing and cementing together the works of many different minds, than to admit all the other objections, however incapable of explanation. This the acute mind of Wolf perceived ; and there- fore, as his third argument, he denied the poetical unity of the poems. It is unnecessary to state the steps by which he endeavoured to establish this position ; it will be far better to show in the history of this con- VOL. I. E 50 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. troversy, how satisfactorily others have proved their unity. In doing this it must be admitted, that, as the natural result of that transmission, many alterations * must have taken place, and many interpolations been introduced ; that, although at first a complete whole, they became broken up and separated by the re- citers, whether rhapsodists or others; and that the dismembered parts were rejoined, the dispersed frag- ments collected, and the poems reconstructed in their present form by command of Pisistratus ; but not then for the first time. It must also be allowed that Homer drew largely upon ancient lays and legends of the ballad kind. The early existence of poetry in those ages, which are termed mythical, the unbounded fruitfulness of Greek genius, the interest which would invest the exploits attributed by tradition to the respective heroes of those races which formed the Greek nation, must have given birth to something like a ballad literature. An epic poet would naturally take advantage of this mass of popular legends. It would be a rich mine from which to draw materials likely to be acceptable to his hearers, and he might thus build up an " Iliad," or an "Odyssey," as authors of more modern times constructed the poem of the "Cid," or the "Niebelungen Lied." This opinion is perfectly consistent with a belief in a single author of the great Homeric poems, and in that unity of design which Aristotle observed and admired both in the " Iliad" and " Odyssey." The existence of these various legends and poems, lachmann's hypothesis. 51 from which the mind of a single poet compiled one consistent and harmonious whole, is perfectly conceiv- able without going so far as to assert the hypothesis of Heyne, a that there existed some older "Iliad" and "Odyssey" from which several bards compiled the diffe- rent rhapsodies now composing the poems entitled the " Iliad" and " Odyssey." This hypothesis only places the difficulty a stej} farther back, without furnishing any solution of it ; and it may be asked, is it probable that these numerous poets should each have composed only a single episode, and that on one limited and narrow subject ; or, if they composed other pieces, that not one of the rest should have been rescued from oblivion ? Whatever the external historical evidence may be, it is powerless to overthrow that which is derived from the structure of the poems themselves. Unity of plan is an unanswerable proof of any poem being the work of one mind. This truth was so clearly seen by Lachmann, the most sagacious of modern critics who have as- sailed the existence of Homer, that he felt that all argument was useless until the unity of the Homeric poems was disproved. He has, therefore, attempted to prove, by a series of apparent incongruities, that the boasted unity which has been the theme of critics from Aristotle downwards, and which was held up as a model by that great master of poetical criticism, does not exist. His theory is, that the " Iliad" is made up of no less than eighteen different and totally distinct lays, easily separable from one another. a Opusc. vol. vi. e-2 52 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. CHAPTER V. I. LANGUAGE, STYLE, AND TASTE OF THE ILIAD. HOMERIC VERSE. — SIMILE. DRAMATIC POWER. — OTHER POINTS OF RESEMBLANCE. LAN- GUAGE, VERSIFICATION, ETC, OF THE ODYSSEY. STYLE OF THE ILIAD AND ODYSSEY COMPARED. II. PLAN OF THE ILIAD AND ODYSSEY. — EPITOMES OF BOTH.— GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. In order to prove from internal evidence that the Homeric poems are the works of one author, it is neces- sary to establish three points. I. General similarity of style, taste, and feeling. II. Unity of plan. III. Consistency in the characters. I. To enter into a critical examination of the style and language of Homer would be inconsistent with the plan of this work ; it must suffice, therefore, to state the results which seem to arise out of an accu- rate study of the text. The language of the " Iliad" is throughout evidently that of one period ; it does not exhibit so much variation as might be supposed to take place during the course of two successive generations ; but more than this, the propriety of expression, the adaptation of the descriptions to the things described, bear such marks of undesigned and natural resem- blance, that it is scarcely possible to imagine them to have proceeded from more than one mind. Such, it must be confessed, is the general impression produced UNIFORMITY OF THE HOMERIC POEMS. 53 upon the reader, unless biassed and inclined towards the contrary belief by other arguments and conside- rations. The same words, the same phrases, the same modes of illustration, are constantly recurring. Some favourite similes, e.g. such as those of the lion and the boar, are frequently'used. Their details are suffi- ciently similar to show probable identity of author- ship, without wearying by too much repetition. The same musical rhythm and metrical arrangement are preserved throughout. The Homeric verse is sui gene- ris — it can be compared to that of no other poet in any age. And this phenomenon, be it remembered, oc- curred when the laws of metre must have been simply the suggestions of a delicately organized ear and a naturally refined taste. They could not have been reduced to rule in so remote an age, and, therefore, there were no means of attaining resemblance to one great and perfect model by study and imitation. There is a characteristic of the Homeric poetry which, in the manner of its treatment, is without parallel, although it has been imitated by countless poets since his time : that is, the Simile. It is, evi- dently, the favourite figure of the bard, full of knowledge gathered from observation of nature, ani- mate and inanimate. He delighted thus to illustrate his subject, and at the same time make the illustration itself a perfect and independent picture, by painting it in the most striking and interesting colours. Apposite as the Homeric similes are, it is not that quality which strikes the reader as constituting their especial beauty ; 54 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. we almost lose sight of its intention to illustrate, in the profusion and variety of the images presented to us. We should be pleased even if the illustration were scarcely applicable. This is not the case with the similes of any author, except where they are palpable imitations of those of Homer. As no poet ever pos- sessed the same graphic power, so none could venture, without danger of producing weariness, to introduce this figure so frequently. Every part of the " Iliad " abounds with them, except the commencement and conclusion of the poem ; and this fact is to be accounted for by the busy character of these portions : the rapid succession of events left no room for illustration. It will be sufficient to refer to a few of the most charac- teristic, and at the same time most beautiful Homeric similes, in order to prove that their features are unlike those found in the works of any other poets except his imitators. So in some spacious marsh the poplar falls, Smooth-skinned with boughs unladen, save aloft, Some chariot-builder, with his axe, the trunk Severs, that he may warp it to a wheel Of shapely form, meantime, exposed it lies To parching airs beside the running stream. II. iv. 482 (Cowper). As a winter flood Impetuous mounds and bridges sweeps away, The buttressed bridge checks not its sudden force ; The firm enclosure of vine-planted fields, Luxuriant, falls before it ; finished works Of youthful hinds, once pleasant to the eye, Now levelled, after ceaseless rain from Jove. HOMERIC SIMILES. 55 So drove Tydides into sudden flight The Trojans. II. v. 87 (Cowper). As in the garden with the weight surcharged, Of his own fruit, and drenched by vernal rains, The poppy falls oblique ; so he his head Hung languid, by his helmet's weight oppress'd. II. viii. 306 (Cowper), As when the watch-dogs and assembled swains Have driven a tawny lion from the stalls ; Then, interdicting him his wished repast, Watch all the night, he famished, yet again Come, furious on, but speeds not ; kept aloof By frequent spears from daring hands, but more By flashing torches, which, though fierce, he dreads, Till at the dawn he sullen stalks away ; So from before the Trojans Ajax stalked, Sullen and with reluctance slow retired, His brave heart trembling for the fleet of Greece. II. xi. 547 (Cowper). As the feathery snows Fall frequent on some wintry day, when Jove Hath risen to shed them on the race of man, And show his arrowy stores, he lulls the winds, Then shakes them down continual, covering thick Mountain-tops, promontories, flowery meads, And cultured valleys rich, the ports and shores Receive it also of the hoary deep ; But there the waves bound it, while all beside Lies whelmed beneath Jove's fast descending shower. So, thick from side to side, by Trojans hurled Against the Greeks, and by the Greeks returned, The stormy volleys flew. II. xii. 278 (Cowper). As wolves that gorge The prey yet panting terrible in force ; When on the mountains wild they have devoured An antlered stag new slain with bloody jaws, 56 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Troop all at once to some clear fountain, there To lap with slender tongues the brimming wave ; No fears have they, but at their ease eject, From full maws flatulent, the clotted gore : Such seemed the Myrmidon heroic chiefs. II. xvi. 156 (Cowper). As the luxuriant olive, by a swain Reared in some solitude, where rills abound, Puts forth her buds, and fanned by genial airs, On all sides hangs her boughs with whitest flowers ; But by a sudden whirlwind, from its trench, Upturned it lies, extended on the field : Such Panthus' warlike son, Euphorbus, seemed. II. xvii. 53 (Cowper). Again, dramatic power pervades the whole poem. Every character describes himself and tells his own story. The poet is never seen, his sentiments are never known but through the medium of his actors : he is never subjective, he seems to forget himself. Although he is describing his own feelings, and enforcing his own sentiments, he never personally appears upon the stage, • but leaves it to his characters to express his thoughts ; and this is not only the case sometimes but universally. Is it probable, then, that more than one poet, in one age, should have possessed this dramatic faculty in so eminent a degree ? Uniformity on other points of this nature seems to stamp the poem as the work of one mind. Stories the most different from one another are told precisely in the same way ; conversations and councils are carried on after the same plan. The sentiments on all important subjects, whether religious, political, or social, are uniform and without variation. One high UNIFORMITY OF ODYSSEY. 57 tone of moral principle and willing obedience to law, both human and divine, pervades the whole work. It is, doubtless, possible to conceive that a school of poets, such as the bards of the Homeric age must have been, venerated for their inspiration, and respected for their moral and religious worth, would have resembled each other in mental cul- ture, taste, and sentiments; but they could not have been equal in that mental power, which would have been necessary to produce the uniformity in these points observable in the Homeric poems. Throughout the " Iliad," no more inequality of talent is to be discerned than in great works which are known to have had but one author, — at any rate no more than would result from interpolations and additions, the introduction of which to a certain extent it is im- possible to deny. The language of the " Odyssey " is, throughout the whole poem, as uniform in its structure and its prin- ciples as that of the " Iliad." The versification never varies, it has always the same mechanical structure and the same harmonious flow, which is so difficult to arrive at, without betraying a palpable attempt at imitation. There can be traced also from beginning to end, a consistent moral and religious principle, dra- matic power, fidelity in describing, and taste in appre- ciating the beauties of nature, and lastly, spirit and picturesqueness in the use of similes and illustrations. These considerations are in favour of the hypothesis that the "Odyssey" had but one author, and was 58 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. not formed by collecting together lays and episodes by different poets. It now remains to inquire, whether the confessed discrepancies in language, taste, and sentiment, which exist between the " Iliad '" and " Odyssey," are too great to warrant the belief that one poet was the author of both. As regards language, the "Odyssey" undoubtedly exhibits, in a few instances, alterations in the form of words, which implies some slight advance. The forms in the "Odyssey," for example, are shorter than those in the " Iliad." The manifest tendency of the Greek language having been towards contraction and simplification of orthography, it is plain that this difference proves that the date of the " Odyssey " is subsequent to that of the "Iliad." But, on the other hand, as the grammatical construction has under- gone no change, it is probable that the difference of time was not greater than that of a single life. Again, words are introduced in the " Odyssey " which are not found in the "Iliad." But this was absolutely required by the subject of the poem. Ideas were to be expressed in the former, which find no place in the latter, and therefore demanded new terms. A nomenclature was wanted to describe the manners and customs of domestic life, and the various wonders met with in the voyages and wanderings of Odysseus, different from that which represented the warlike exploits of heroes absent from their hearths and homes, although the poet was depicting one social period. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ILIAD AND ODYSSEY. 50 It cannot be denied that the " Odyssey " does not show the same sublimity and grandeur, the same fervid enthusiasm, and torrent-like eloquence as the " Iliad ;" but it does not follow for that reason that it is an inferior work. It displays equal genius, but less imagination. The calmness of wisdom supersedes the storms of passion, and gives a general colouring to the whole, as different from that of the "Iliad" as the wrathful hero of the Trojan war differs from the prudent Odysseus. There is a contrast not only between the subjects, but the objects, of the two poems, sufficient to account for difference of style. The subject of the " Odyssey " is human life in all its varied points of view, its strange vicissitudes of fortune ; the object is to inculcate, by precept and example, lessons of moral and political wisdom. Doubtless, Homer was older when he wrote the " Odyssey," but he shows no marks, as Longinus would have us suppose, of decaying and declining genius. The subject was one suited to the riper and calmer judg- ment of maturer years, but it is treated skilfully and ap- propriately. The language, imagery, and poetical orna- ment are as suitable to its gentler nature, as fire and impetuosity are to the stirring scenes of the " Iliad." Wherever sublimity is appropriate, the " Odyssey * rises to as great a height as the "Iliad." If the awful contest of the elements is described, there is no deficiency in animation ; if the terror, inspired by the unexpected presence of Odysseus, and the glories of his triumph over vice and profligacy are painted, 60 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. the language is as majestic and dignified as that which narrates a battle in the " Iliad." The religious and almost devotional feeling which pervades the second poem, is far more awful and sublime than the mythological attributes with which the poet of the "Iliad" invests the Divine nature. Every- where there are points of unequalled excellence which mark the world's poet. In moral power, in wise instruction, in tranquil reflection, in simplicity of historical narrative, in pathos, and in comic live- liness, the " Odyssey " is even superior to the grander poem. If there is any difference observable between the metrical character of the " Iliad " and " Odyssey," it is simply this, that there is greater gravity and sedateness in that of the latter, more rapidity and energy in that of the former. 3 In the " Iliad " dactyles are more abundant ; but in both, the ver- sification, like the diction, is that which is best suited to the poet's intention, and leaves nothing in either case to be desired. The dissimilarity of style, feeling, and sentiment in the "Iliad" and "Odyssey," furnishes but slight grounds for disbelieving the identity of authorship. The same ocean is at one time tossed by storms, at an- other smooth and tranquil as a lake. The same mind which is at one time agitated by the violence of pas- sion, is at another calm as that of a child. The "Iliad" has its intervals of tranquillity and rest, but a See Coleridge, Introduction, p. 171. THE POEMS COMPARED. Gl the variety of its action, the powerful interest with which it hurries us from scene to scene, and from episode to episode ; the tumult of emotion which the descriptions of human passion excite in the breasts of those who sympathize with the varied fortunes of its heroes, remind us of a wild ocean across which sweep furious tempests, but which is occasionally lighted up by transient gleams of sunshine. The " Odyssey" by its peaceful beauty reminds us of voyages on the mirror- like surface of a summer sea, sparkling in the bright and cheerful sun-beam, broken only by a gentle ripple. In these two divine poems we see the same mind, the same creative imagination under two different aspects ; and when we remember that vigour and passion are the characteristics of youth and of mature age, whilst a sadder and more serious calmness marks a later period of life, we may well assent to the theory of Longinus so far as to attribute the " Iliad" to the manhood, and the M Odyssey'' to the old age of the great poet, although we cannot admit that his intellectual vigour had declined. In the one, doubtless, we are dazzled by his genius in its noonday splendour ; in the other we admire its setting glories, less brilliant indeed, but not less beautiful. II. The unity of plan and natural connection of the principal events, will best be shown by a short epitome of the " Iliad" and " Odyssey ;" and it will be plainly seen that as the plot of the latter poem is more intri- cate and complex than that of the former, so the skill displayed in the construction of it is more remarkable. 62 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. ARGUMENT OF THE ILIAD. The poet proposes to sing of Achilles' wrath and its terrible consequences to the Greeks. When the poem opens more than eight years of the war are supposed to have passed away. a Chryseis, who has been allotted to Agamemnon as his portion of the Theban spoil, is the daughter of a priest of Apollo ; her father proposes to ransom her, but is refused. Apollo, in order to avenge the cause of his servant, afflicts the army with pesti- lence. Achilles calls a council, at which Agamemnon consents to restore Chryseis, but declares that he will take in her place Briseis, the favourite of Achilles. Hence a fierce quarrel arises between the heroes, and Achilles refuses to take part in the war. He then entreats Thetis to prevail on Zeus to avenge his wrongs : she accedes to this request of her son, and her prayer is granted. Zeus, mindful of his promise to Thetis, deceives Agamemnon in a dream. b A council of war is called, in which Thersites attacks Agamemnon for his con- duct towards Achilles : a battle is determined upon. This furnishes an opportunity for enumerating the forces both of the Greeks and Trojans. The armies now meet, and Paris challenges Mene- laus : Helen is to be the prize of the victor. c Mene- laus is victorious, but Paris is rescued by Aphrodite, and conveyed to the apartments of Helen. Agamem- non then demands the fulfilment of the conditions. a II. i. b Ibid. ii. « Ibid. iii. ARGUMENT OF THE ILIAD. 63 Zeus sends Athene to renew hostilities by causing some one to violate the truce. a In the disguise of Laodocus she persuades Pandarus to shoot at Mene- laus : he is wounded and the battle begins. The battle continues, and Diomede is the hero of it. b Wounded at first by Pandarus, he afterwards slays him. He pursues Aphrodite, and wounds her in the wrist ; afterwards he attacks Ares, whom he drives from the field. As Athene is the patroness of the invincible w r arrior Diomede, the augur Helenus sends Hector to Troy to advise a procession to the temple of the goddess. This gives him an opportunity of visiting Paris, and of exhorting him to return to the battle, and also of having an interview with his wife, Andromache. Another single combat is proposed, and this time Hector is the challenger/ Ajax is selected by lot as the Greek champion. They fight, and, night coming on, the heralds separate them. A council is heJd at Troy, in which Antenor advises the surrender of Helen, but Paris will not consent. The Greeks fortify their camp. Zeus forbids the gods to interfere ; and taking his seat on Ida, he weighs in a balance the fates of the two nations, and by his decree fortune favours the Trojans. 6 They assault the Greek camp. Here and Athene set off in disobedience to the divine command, a II. iv. b Ibid. v. c Ibid. vi. d Ibid. vii. e Ibid. viii. 64 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. but are stopped by a message from Zeus. Night puts an end to the assault, but Hector prepares for a re- newal of it in the morning. Agamemnon calls a council, and complains of the false promises of Zeus ; in his despair he proposes to return to Greece. a Nestor advises him to conciliate Achilles by restoring Briseis : consequently Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax are sent to the tent of Achilles, but their proposals are treated with scorn. The son of Atreus cannot sleep ; he resolves, there- fore, to seek counsel from Nestor and Menelaus. 5 During the same night Diomede and Odysseus make an expedition to the Trojan camp, slay a spy named Dolon, and afterwards the Thracian chieftain Rhesus, whose chariot and horses they capture. Morning breaks, and Discord excites the Greeks to battle. c Atrides has preeminently distinguished him- self. Diomede, Odysseus, and the physician Machaon, are all wounded and retire from the field. Achilles, who, notwithstanding his wrath, feels for the Greeks, sends Patroclus to inquire who is wounded. Nestor urges him to intercede with Achilles, and to persuade him to return ; or if not, to entreat that he will send Patroclus disguised in his own armour. The evil fortune of the Greeks still continues. Hec- tor assaults their fortified camp, and succeeds in forcing an entrance/ The Greeks fly in confusion to their ships. Poseidon, disobeying the command of Zeus, dis- a II. ix. b Ibid. x. c Ibid. xi. d Ibid. xii. ARGUMENT OF THE ILIAD. 65 guised as Calchas, sides with the Greeks ; Zeus still supports the Trojans. a Many heroes are slain. Hector still leads the assault, upbraids Paris with his effemi- nacy, and hurls defiance at Ajax. Nestor, who had been sitting drinking with the wounded Machaon, goes forth to view the bloody field. b There he meets Odysseus, Diomede, and Aga- memnon, who rebuke him for forsaking the battle. Here borrows the cestus of Aphrodite, and, vanquished by love, Zeus sleeps. Poseidon takes advantage of his slumbers to help and encourage the Greeks. The Greeks rally and rout the Trojans. Zeus awakes, reproaches Here, and sends Iris to warn Po- seidon from the field of battle. He declares that the Greeks shall suffer until the wrath of Achilles is appeased. Apollo then, armed with the segis, puts the Greeks to flight. Hector calls for fire to burn their fleet, but all that come Ajax receives on his spear's point, till at length twelve fall by his single arm. Achilles arrays Patroclus in his armour, d gives him the command of the Myrmidons, and sends him to the relief of the camp. The Trojans, thinking that it is Achilles, fly. Patroclus pursues them, and per- forms wonderful feats of valour. At length Apollo smites him on the back, his head grows dizzy, his armour falls from him, he is wounded by Euphorbus, and then run through the body by Hector. The dying words of the young warrior foretell the death of his conqueror by the hands of Achilles. a II. xiii. b Ibid. xiv. c Ibid. xv. d Ibid. xvi. VOL. I. F 66 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Menelaus bravely defends the body of Patroclus. a Hector overtakes the bearers of Achilles' arms and puts them on. Zeus declares, that, though successful for a while, he shall never return in them to Troy. Zeus now relents, and sends Athene, in the form of Phoenix, to assist the Greeks. Menelaus bids Anti- lochus carry the tidings of Patroclus 1 death to Achilles, and then, with Meriones, bears the body from the field. The groans of Achilles at his friend's death alarm Thetis in the depths of ocean. b She hastens to com- fort him, and promises that Hephaestus shall furnish him with new armour. Iris, sent by Here, bids him seek the fight. He obeys, stands by the entrench- ment, and, at his very shout, confusion seizes the Trojans. Polydamas proposes that they should at once retire within the walls of Troy, but Hector wrathfully refuses. Hephaestus forges the armour, and the shield is described. Achilles is reconciled with Agamemnon and gene- rously exacts no conditions, but the latter voluntarily restores Briseis. c Achilles arrays himself in his ar- mour, mounts his chariot, and drives forth to battle. Zeus now permits the gods to engage in the battle. d iEneas meets Achilles and is rescued by Poseidon, and afterwards Hector is saved by Apollo. Achilles takes twelve youths prisoners, as offerings to the manes of Patroclus. e The river god endeavours a II. xvii. b Ibid, xviii. c Ibid. xix. d Ibid. xx. e Ibid. xxi. ARGUMENT OF THE ODYSSEY. G7 to overwhelm him with his waters, but Athene and Poseidon appear, and tell him that \his foe shall soon be conquered. The fire god prevails over the deity of the stream. The deities engage in the hottest of the battle. Priam urges Hector not to remain and brave the fury of so dread a warrior as Achilles. a They meet and fight. Zeus weighs their doom in his golden balance ; down sinks the lot of Hector, and his patron Apollo leaves his side. He falls transfixed by the spear of his adversary, who strips him of his armour, and drags his corpse at his chariot wheels. The funeral rites of Patroclus are performed, b the twelve human victims sacrificed, and games are cele- brated in his honour. Achilles still wreaks his vengeance on the corpse of Hector; and Apollo, in compassion, preserves it from mutilation and decay. The aged Priam, at the command of Zeus, begs his son's body, and Achilles, by the advice of Thetis, accepts the ransom. The funeral of Hector concludes the poem. ARGUMENT OF THE ODYSSEY. Odysseus being detained in the island of Calypso, a council of the gods is held, at which his return to Ithaca is resolved upon. d Athene, in the likeness of Mentes, appears to Telemachus, and bids him dismiss the suitors of Penelope. She upbraids their wasteful- a II. xxii. b Ibid, xxiii. c Ibid. xxiv. d Odjs. i. f2 68 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. ness and extravagance, and commands Telemactms to summon a council, and prepare an expedition to Pylos and Sparta, in search of his father. Telemachus obeys the instructions of the goddess, but, through the influence of the suitors, a ship is refused him, and the council hastily dissolved. 3 Athene, in the form of Mentor, provides him with a ship manned by volunteers, and his nurse, Euryclea, supplies him with provisions. He sails at sunset, accompanied by Athene, without his mother's know- ledge. The voyagers arrive at Pylos, and are hospitably received by Nestor, who tells them all that he knows respecting the Greeks since they left Troy. b Nestor then advises Telemachus to go to Menelaus, in order to learn tidings of Ulysses. The goddess soars to heaven, and is recognised by Nestor. Telemachus de- parts for Sparta, accompanied by Nestor's son Pisi- stratus, and at night they are entertained at Pherse by Diodes. They arrive at "the Hollow Lacedsemon," and Menelaus informs them that Odysseus is in the island of Calypso. The scene now shifts to Ithaca, and the suitors are represented as engaged in sports before the palace-gates. One of them, Antinous, undertakes to attack Telemachus on his voyage home. Penelope being distressed with anxiety for her son, Athene ap- pears to her in a dream to comfort her, in the form of her sister Iphthima. » Odys. ii. b Ibid. iii. c Ibid. iv. ARGUMENT OF THE ODYSSEY. 69 Zeus sends Hermes to Calypso, commanding her to send away Odysseus.* She reluctantly obeys, and enables him to build a raft. He sets sail, but the angry Neptune, who was now returning from iEthi- opia, raises a violent tempest and wrecks his raft. An ocean nymph gives him a magic zone, and tells him, without fear, to swim to Phseacia. After much suffering he arrives in safety. Odysseus, oppressed with fatigue, sleeps. b Mean- while Athene, in a dream, commands Nausicaa, the daughter of Alcinous, King of Phseacia, to go to the river and wash her garments for her approaching marriage. The princess, after her task is done, plays at ball wdth her maidens, and the ball falling in the water wakes Odysseus. Nausicaa declares who she is, gives him food and wine and raiment, and leads him to her father's city. Athene, in the form of a maiden bearing a pitcher, conducts Odysseus to the magnificent palace and gardens of Alcinous. He, as a suppliant, begs the protection of Areta the queen, is hospitably re- ceived, and promised a safe return to Ithaca. He relates the story of his wanderings. A council is held, and a galley prepared for the departure of Odysseus. d A banquet follows in his honour, and games are celebrated. The court bard Demodocus sings in joyous strains the loves of Ares and Aphrodite. Next, inspired by Apollo, he sings of the Trojan horse, and draws tears from the eyes a Odys. v. b Ibid. vi. c Ibid. vii. d Ibid. viii. 70 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. of the stranger. Alcinous thereupon inquires who he is, and why he weeps. Odysseus tells the tale of his adventures; he relates his victory over the Ciconians; 3 his visit to the Lotophagi ; his imprisonment in the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus ; his arrival at the island of iEolus; b the destruction of his fleet by the Lsestrygo- nians; his year's sojourn in the palace of the en- chantress Circe ; and his determination to visit the realms of Hades, in order to consult the spirit of Tiresias. He proceeds to relate his descent to Hades ; his interview with Tiresias, who prophesies the difficulties of his voyage home ; c how that he conversed with his mother's shade, and many persons famed in legen- dary story, and witnessed the torments of Tityus, Tantalus, and Sisyphus. He describes his adventures subsequent to his return from Hades ; d his escape from the Sirens, and from Scylla and Charybdis, with the loss of six of his companions ; how his friends, urged by the pangs of hunger, slew the oxen of the Sun ; how his ship was wrecked in a storm, and himself alone saved on the fragments of his vessel. The Phseacians load him with presents. 6 He sails, and in a deep sleep is conveyed to Ithaca. He wakes unconscious that he is in his native land. His ship is changed into a rock by Neptune. Athene appears a Odys. ix. b Ibid. x. c Ibid. xi. d Ibid, xii. e Ibid. xiii. ARGUMENT OF THE ODYSSEY. 71 to him as a youthful shepherd, and tells him he is in Ithaca. They consult how to assail the suitors ; he hides his treasures in a cave, and is changed into an aged wrinkled beggar by Athene. He is hospitably received in the house of a noble swineherd named Eumseus." He tells his host a feigned story, and declares that Odysseus will soon return home. Meanwhile, Athene has visited Lacedsemon, in order to summon Telemachus home. b As he is offer- ing up prayers and libations before setting sail, Theoclymenus, an Argive prophet, who has slain one of his countrymen, begs to be taken on board. The scene shifts to Ithaca, and Eumseus tells his story to Odysseus. Telemachus arrives at Ithaca. He commits Theoclymenus to the charge of Piraeus, and landing, proceeds to the dwelling of Eumseus. Eumseus is sent to Penelope to announce the return of Telemachus. At the command of Athene, Odys- seus makes himself known to his son. The suitors, who had gone in vain to intercept Telemachus, re- turn to the city. Telemachus tells his mother the history of his expedition.* 1 Odysseus, led by Eumseus, arrives at the palace, and is recognised by his dog Argus. Eumseus first enters the banquet hall, and Odysseus after him. He is treated with such insult by Anti- nous, that even his profligate companions rebuke him a Odys. xiv. b Ibid. xv. c Ibid. xvi. d Ibid. xvii. 72 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. for violating the laws of hospitality. Penelope sends for the stranger, but he entreats permission to wait until the departure of the suitors. Eumseus leaves him and returns home. The beggar Irus, who is a favourite with the suitors, insults Ulysses, who severely chastises him, although supported in his insolence by his patrons. a The extravagance and debauchery of the suitors con- tinue, but Amphinomus, who in the sixteenth book had opposed the design upon the life of Telemachus, shows himself less wicked than the rest. Penelope receives the suitors' gifts, but refuses compliance with their wishes. Odysseus upbraids Melantho, the wan- ton mistress of Eurymachus, and is taunted and in- sulted by her and her paramour. Ulysses and Telemachus remove the arms from the armoury. b The former tells Penelope that he has seen her husband, and that he will soon return. She describes to him the web by which she deceives the suitors. Euryclea, attending on Ulysses while bathing, discovers who he is, by a scar on his leg. The acci- dent which caused it is described. Ulysses, passing the night in the porch of the palace, is witness to the licentious conduct of the women. A feast is celebrated in honour of Apollo, and the debauchery of the suitors continues. The suitors urge the assassination of Telemachus. but Amphinomus, warned by an omen, declares that he is under the divine protection. Theoclymenus, the Hype- a Odys. xviii. b Ibid. xix. c Ibid. xx. ARGUMENT OF THE ODYSSEY. 73 resian seer, beholds, as in a vision, the awful punish- ment which awaits the suitors. Penelope promises to marry the suitor, who shall bend the bow of Ulvsses, and shoot between twelve axes placed in a line. a The bow is brought forward, but no one can bend it. Odysseus discovers himself to Eumseus and Philsetius ; bends the bow, and shoots between all the axes ; and, as he shoots, thunder and lightning burst from heaven. Ulysses discovers himself, and all the suitors, with the exception of Melanthius, Medon the bard, and Phemius the herald, are slain ; the latter two are spared because they were in secret faithful to Ulysses. b Melanthius is then bound, and afterwards cut to pieces. The suitors' paramours are condemned to clear away the dead, and are then hung. Euryclea informs Penelope that her husband is re- turned, and the suitors slain. c She will not believe the news, but at length she is convinced, and is transported with tenderness and love. They discourse of all that has happened to them since they separated. They re- tire to rest, and next morning Ulysses and his friends leave the city to visit Laertes. Hermes conducts the souls of the suitors to Hades. d Odysseus discovers himself to his father, Laertes. A rebellion breaks out, in which Eupithes, the father of the suitor Antinous, is the ring-leader. Eupithes is slain by Laertes, and the rebels defeated. By the a Odys. xxi. b Ibid. xxii. c Ibid, xxiii. d Ibid. xxiv. 74 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. mediation of Athene, Odysseus grants peace to his offending but now submissive subjects. A mere cursory perusal of these epitomes is sufficient to show that there is in both poems that unity of plot which Aristotle pointed out and admired. Events follow each other in natural succession ; they do not bear marks of having been forced into their places ; the subsidiary narratives, or episodes, are suggested and ever after rendered necessary by the regular course of the action. And these are the results of the poet's taste, and not of technical and artificial contrivance, In the " Iliad," the one great event proposed by the poet as the subject of his song, is the wrath of Achilles; and with the exception of a few passages, which may be considered as interpolations, the development of this idea, with all its terrible and widely extended con- sequences, forms the web and texture of the plot from the commencement to the catastrophe. The disas- trous consequences are represented as of two kinds, (1) Those which the insult and injustice, of which the Greeks had been guilty towards Achilles, brought upon themselves, and, (2) those which sprang from Achilles 1 indulgence of his own angry feelings, and his determined refusal to abstain from the contest. Both these combine to invest with a powerful interest the character of Achilles, and to make him, amongst the many heroes of the poem, the noblest, the most heroic of them all, and to claim for him and for his wrongs, the largest amount of the reader's sympathy. UNITY OF THE ILIAD. 75 The first produces this effect by representing him as undeservedly injured ; the second, by showing his supe- riority to the other Greek chieftains, and their inca- pacity as compared with his warlike prowess. As, therefore, there is one hero to whom the rest are subordinate, the interest, however divided, concentrates itself on this one point ; and although we gladly ac- company the poet in his delightful digressions, we feel that there is in reality one hero, the course of whose adventures we are pursuing. The unity of the plan consists in this, that all its events group themselves round Achilles. Nor is this unity broken by the action being continued after the wrath of Achilles has been pacified, and the death of his friend avenged. This might, perhaps, at first sight appear the most natural catastrophe, were it not for the strong feeling which existed amongst the Greeks respecting the rites of sepulture. Not even the funeral games of Patroclus would have been sufficient to leave that impression upon the minds and feelings of his hearers, which a humane and religious poet would consider desirable. The vengeance taken by the exasperated hero on the senseless corpse of his enemy, was too horrible an idea to be left in possession of the mind, at the conclusion of the poem, without counteraction. This would have been carrying vengeance too far, and in an age which, though rude and warlike, had much true refinement, would, perhaps, have destroyed the admiration felt for the hero, 76 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Ferocious as in some of its features the warrior character was, as typified in Achilles, it was human- ised and softened by a noble and compassionate na- ture. The poet had an excellent opportunity for exhibiting the brighter side of the heroic character, by representing Achilles as sympathizing with the bitter grief of a bereaved father, and granting to his earnest supplications the only comfort of which he was capable. For this reason the present conclusion appears to be an integral part of the " Iliad," and absolutely necessary to the full completeness of the poet's design. In the " Odyssey, " the unity of the plot, notwith- standing its greater complexity, is still more evident, if viewed according to the same principle ; here the in- terest is still more decidedly concentrated upon the fortunes of an individual. He is engaged in a greater variety of adventures than the hero of the " Iliad" could possibly be, because the latter holds himself aloof from all the exploits which constitute the main substance of the poem ; the hero of the " Iliad," on the contrary, is personally engaged in most of them. Hence there are in the " Odyssey," longer narratives and more nu- merous digressions from the main order of events ; but all converge to the same point. The variety of interest, the rapid change of scene, are absolutely required by the conditions which the poet has imposed upon him- self. He was bound to give a long series of interest- ing adventures, and the only method of doing this was by thus interweaving them with a plot of the dimen- sions suited to epic poetry. UNITY OF THE ODYSSEY. 77 The " Odyssey" has been supposed naturally to ter- minate with the recognition of Ulysses. This is, doubt- less, the denouement ; but the moral object of the poem would not have been accomplished without the restoration of the legitimate monarch to his throne, and to his proper place in the hearts and affections of his people. Nor is it easy to believe that the meeting of Odysseus with his father Laertes is unnecessary to satisfy the interest of the poem, or that any poet be- sides the author of the whole, could have described it in such exquisitely touching terms. It is therefore pro- bable, that the present conclusion formed part of the poet's design. With regard to the circumstances attending the vengeance taken upon the suitors, it must be con- fessed that the justice of the case, the belief that such shameless vice demanded the severest punish- ment, is the only defence which can be made for the savage mutilation of Melanthius ; it is so utterly in- consistent with the general character of Odysseus, that, if this portion of the poem is genuine, it must be in- tended to represent him, not as gratifying a brutal vengeance, but acting as the appointed minister of in- exorable unrelenting justice. The genuineness, how- ever, of the second Necyia, or the descent of the suitors to Hades, cannot be defended : it is superfluous and unnecessary ; it is so palpable an imitation that it may safely be pronounced an interpolation by a subse- quent and not very skilful hand. 78 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. CHAPTER VI. Ill, CONSISTENCY IN THE CHARACTERS. — THEIR INDIVIDUALITY. — ACHILLES AGAMEMNON. — MENELAUS. NESTOR. — AJAX.—- DIOMEDE. ODYSSEUS. — HECTOR. PRIAM. PARIS. HELEN. HECUBA. — AN- DROMACHE. — TELEM ACHUS. PENELOPE. — EURYCLE A, NAUSICAA. EUJOEUS. THE CONDITIONS REQUIRED BY THE OPPONENTS OF HOMER'S PERSONALITY NOT FULFILLED. THE MOST PROBABLE THEORY. REASON WHY SPURIOUS POEMS AND PASSAGES WERE RECEIVED AS GENUINE. — PASSAGES WHICH HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED AS INTERPO- LATIONS. — WOLF'S OPINION OF HIS OWN ARGUMENTS. — WHAT HIS- TORIC TRUTH IS CONTAINED IN- THE HOMERIC POEMS. III. The well-known authority of Horace laid down, that consistency of character is essential to epic ex- cellence. His axiom, — " servetur ad inmm Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet," a was founded upon a study of Homer, nor has the character of the great poet, on this point, ever been successfully impugned. Very brief observations there- fore will be necessary. In his heroes, the poet evidently intended to typify some striking phase of the heroic character. They all have their points of resemblance, but the points of contrast are more fully dwelt upon. Each is a re- a Horace, Art. Poet. 126. CHARACTERS OF THE ILIAD. 79 presentative man : standing out, therefore, thus in bold relief, the slightest inconsistency would be at once detected. So strong was the poet's impression of the distinct individuality of his heroes, that fre- quently the same distinctive epithet is applied to each, on the majority of occasions, throughout his whole career. Opposite as are the traits which mark the character of Achilles, they are all, vices as well as virtues, such as may be found united in noble and impetuous natures. Revengeful as he is, even to ferocity, his warm and passionate heart can sympathise with deep sorrow, and feel compassion for the van- quished. He is haughty and reserved, and yet a devoted and affectionate friend, unrelenting under a sense of injustice, yet, when satisfaction is offered, he is generously and unconditionally forgiving. Agamemnon has all the regard for his subjects, which marks the sovereign of a free people, but his generosity proceeds from impulse rather than prin- ciple, and therefore he is generally dignified, but sometimes vacillating. Menelaus, though not kingly, possesses the virtues of royal race, he is brave and gentle, and has an unfeigned respect for the regal authority. Nestor is an old man, and an experienced states- man, he has all the garrulity of the one, and the long-sighted wisdom of the other. He is too cheerful to betray much of the querulousness of age, although he cannot forbear comparing the virtues of former days with the degeneracy of the present generation. 80 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Ajax and Diomede are thorough soldiers. The former has all the physical strength and animal cou- rage which fit a man for the perils of war; the latter, the moral firmness and well-disciplined cool- ness which render him fit either to command or obey. Odysseus possesses every qualification, bodily as well as mental, for influencing men's minds ; he is of noble figure and graceful bearing, sound-judging and discreet ; an accurate observer of men and things. His intimate knowledge of the human heart and its crooked ways, causes the policy, which is his favourite weapon, to appear at times crafty and dishonest, but it is only appearance, for he is benevolent, and has a strong sense of justice. Hector unites moral with physical courage, but his warlike spirit sometimes degenerates into rashness. He is domestic and affectionate, and shows that ten- derness towards women and children which charac- terises true bravery. Priam is an Oriental sovereign, whose yielding yet amiable temper allows things to take their own course. He is too careless and self-indulgent to have any high moral principle, and yet he has strong affections and impulses towards good. At length the depth of his despair awakens his energy, and in his old age, for the first time, he acts with vigour and heroism. Paris is an effeminate and conceited fop, but brave notwithstanding, as those often are who have been brought up in refinement and luxury. CHARACTERS OF THE ODYSSEY. 81 Helen, though a light wanton, who has left her husband and child for an adulterer, is full of fascina- tion. She is neither bold nor depraved; she can admire chastity, she feels remorse for her sin ; to her seducer she is tender and faithful ; but even when restored to her husband there remains that volup- tuous self-indulgence which perhaps paved the way to her weakness and her fall. Hecuba is a woman of strong passions, whose fe- rocity is increased and not softened by affliction ; she never can look on Helen in any other light than as the cause of all her sorrows, and of course her revengeful temper can never forgive her. Andromache, the affectionate wife and mother, has not a spark of selfishness in her character. In his life-time she was wrapped up in her husband, and after his death, though overwhelmed with the weight of her sorrows, she thinks more of her husband's fame, her child's irreparable loss, and the ruin of her country. Such are the principal characters of the " Iliad." Those who play an important part in the " Odyssey," are very few. Helen and Odysseus have been already described, and in the luxurious matron restored to her place in society, and the patient strong-willed voyager struggling with adverse fortune, the same points of character which were depicted in the " Iliad " are plainly discoverable, modified, as they necessarily must be, by change of circumstances. Telemachus is a modest, ingenuous, and promising youth, full of consideration for his mother, and al- VOL. I. G 82 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. though not yet able to act for himself, willing to act with decision and energy at the suggestion of a wise counsellor, and with a strong sense of filial duty and obedience to his father's will. Penelope appears to possess the cool diplomatic policy which distinguishes her husband, alloyed with somewhat of duplicity. Exposed as she is to the solicitations of the suitors, she has doubtless a difficult part to play; but the false hopes with which she deceives them, and the stratagem with which she puts off the fulfilment of her promise, whilst she permits their riot and extravagance, are scarcely consistent with a high tone of morality. She remains, however, faithful to her husband, even when his return scarcely seems probable; and when her fidelity is rewarded by his return, her coldness gradually melts, her caution gives way to conviction, at length all her calculating shrewdness vanishes. The mask and restraint under which she had so long lived are removed, and her true woman's nature shines forth at once in all its tenderness and affection. Such a change, at first sight may appear inconsistent, but the skilful and gradual manner in which it is managed by the poet renders it perfectly natural. Euryclea is a model nurse, she continues the same attention to Telemachus when he is a youth which she paid to him in infancy; nor is her kindness un- returned by her foster-child, for she it is to whom he applies in his difficulty when a ship is refused him by the suitors. CHARACTERS OF THE ODYSSEY. 83 The elegant and unaffected simplicity of Nausicaa is most charming, and the noble swineherd, Eumseus, the keeper of the king's swine, the principal wealth of his rocky isle, presents an inimitable picture of that sturdy yeoman-like independence which is fos- tered and nurtured by the pursuits of rural life. Such is the internal evidence in favour of both the great Homeric poems having been the works of one mind, and to this evidence may be added the following considerations. It is not too much to assert that the conditions requisite for denying the personality of Homer have never been fulfilled in any nation or in any times. The separators of the " Iliad " from the " Odyssey," require the belief that, during a period extending over no very wide space, there should have lived two poets, whose talents and genius were of so high an order and so nearly equal, as to have produced these two great poems. And yet the history of the world proves that no nation, during the whole period of its existence, has ever possessed more than one great epic poet. Rome had one Virgil, modern Italy one Dante, England one Milton. If the separators demand that which is improbable, those who attribute the poems to a large number of original bards, argue in favour of a moral impossibility. To adopt their view, implies the belief that at a period when all the rest of the world was destitute of litera- ture, except the Semitic nations inhabiting Palestine, Greece and her colonies were so fruitful in poets, as to give birth, almost simultaneously, to a vast number; G 2 84 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. that this phenomenon never occurred in that country, either before or since ; that they all chose for their theme different parts of the same subject; and that these, by accident or design, were so portioned out amongst them, as to be capable of being welded together into one harmonious whole. This whole was so com- plete, as to contain all that so acute a critic as Aris- totle, and many scholars of the most accomplished taste since his time, deemed essential to an epic poem. Moreover, those who arranged and set in order these separate poems, whether we call them Rhapsodi or Diasceuastse, must have possessed such exquisite skill and judgment, that the places where they are joined together never present the appearance of abrupt tran- sition from one part to another. And as this union could not have been effected without the composition of some fresh passages, they must have been poets and imitators nearly equal to the original composers themselves. The most probable conclusion to be arrived at from balancing and comparing together these discordant views, is the following : — At some period beyond the reach of history, a long and difficult struggle took place on the coast of Asia Minor between the natives and the Hellenic inhabitants of the opposite continent, which ended in the success of the latter. Hence arose in a poetic age a multitude of lays and legends, which were constantly sung and recited on all public and private occasions, and took a strong hold on the taste and affections of the conquering people. These lays PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE POEMS. 85 celebrated the exploits of heroes supposed to have been engaged in this war, whose names were well- known and popular, and lived in the memory of pos- terity. Legends of the gods and mythological traditions, which gradually assumed an uniform and systematic form, were mingled with the deeds of men, and thus the formation of the Greek mythology came to be attributed to the author of the Homeric poems. At length there arose one master mind, the grasp of whose intellect could conceive a framework into which it was possible to weave these various traditions, so as to form one epic story. The time when this took place is unknown, but as the state of society, of government, of the arts, correspond somewhat with those of Orientals, as described in Sacred History at the time of the Jewish monarchy, the period at which this poet flourished, may have been that fixed by Herodotus. He was a Greek, certainly an Asiatic, probably an Ionian ; what his name was matters not, after ages have called him Homer. In those tradi- tions of a warlike nature, he found the materials for a poem, which he called the "Iliad," the central subject from which all the events and episodes di- verged, being the wrath of Achilles. From those lays which sing of the arts of peace and the wonders of foreign lands, which he enriched by his own know- ledge and observation, he framed the skeleton of the " Odyssey." Probably he did not write them, but if he had known how to write, and had done 86 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. so, few would have been able to read his poems. The art of writing may have been invented, but it must have been in its infancy, and known to few, and the materials for writing must have been scarce and inconvenient. Literature was addressed to the ear. At every social meeting, every gathering for joy or for sorrow, the bard was a welcome guest. Possessing the strong powers of memory which belong to one absorbed in the subject of his inspiration, he sang parts of his tale to an audience which listened with rapt atten- tion. After he had passed away, his poems still lived in the affections of his countrymen. Multitudes of admirers (Homeridse), schools of poets, like the schools of the prophets, of whom mention is made in the Old Testament, recited or imitated his strains, and wan- dered as minstrels from place to place, some reciting portions of Homer, others original poems, afterwards called Cyclic, the themes of which were connected with the Trojan war. These wandering minstrels are frequently desig- nated by the name of Rhapsodists, respecting the meaning of which word there is much doubt and difficulty, and nothing is for certain known. Some have derived it from the pdZlog, or wand, which the bard carried as the insignia of his office. Others from pdwretv, to sew, because they joined, or, as it were, stitched together the various lays into one large poem. Pindar a alludes to both etymologies. a See Diet, of Antiq., ii. 506. ARRANGEMENT OF THEM. 87 Thus the poems got broken up, dispersed, and sepa- rated. Their popularity prevented them from being forgotten ; but when the art of writing so advanced, as to provide the means of preserving them, they existed only in an unconnected form. Solon, a ac- cording to Diogenes Laertius, was the first to per- ceive that the unconnected poems and episodes which the bards and minstrels were accustomed to recite, were parts of a whole, and under his direction some attempt was made at arrangement and order. Then arose Pisistratus, famed like the rest who bear the misapplied name of tyrants, for their patronage of learning and literature. He saw that the first step to cultivate Athenian taste, was to collect together into one these Homeric fragments, the " disjecta membra poetse." Part, probably, already existed in writing, and from these imperfect copies, but still more from oral traditions, the Homeric poems were arranged by poets employed under the direction of Pisistratus, and assumed the form which they now possess. Thus they became the fixed and recognised standard of Greek poetic taste, and the foundation of their na- tional literature. This was an age ready to admire with enthusiasm rather than to criticise. The age of cold criticism did not commence in Greece until the fire of Hellenic genius was well nigh extinct. Hence much was accepted as genuine and Homeric which was in reality the work of imitators — poems which the Homerids and a Diog. Laert. i. o~. 88 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Rhapsodists had themselves written. Not only perfect works were attributed to Homer which modern critical taste has with reason pronounced deficient in the stamp of his genius, but interpolations were intro- duced by those who are commonly called Diasceuastee into the genuine poems. To the first undoubtedly belong those poems which are classed under the appellation of Cyclic, the Hymns, or Proemia, as the ancients termed them ; and the comic and satiric poems, the " Margites " and the " Batrachomyomachia," or Battle of Frogs and Mice. Easy as it is to determine the spurious poems of Homer from their immeasurable inferiority to the " Iliad " and " Odyssey," it is not so easy to point out the interpolations, so skilfully are they interwoven with the original web of the story. Discrepancies and inconsistencies do not furnish sufficient grounds for determining a passage to be spu- rious, since in so long a poem, especially if retained in the memory without the help of writing, it is not only probable but certain that the poet would fall into errors of this kind. Horace knew human nature well when he said — " Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus." Nor can it be asserted that all passages or episodes are interpolated which could be safely omitted without injury to the plot, or breaking the thread of the narrative. If all those parts were interpolations which have in turn been held to be so by successive critics, very little of the "Iliad" would be left, except INTERPOLATIONS IN THE ILIAD. 89 the first book ; and that portion which commences with the thirteenth and ends with the eighteenth. Many of the most beautiful scenes would be eliminated — such as the speech of Andromache to Hector, 3 and the description of the shield of Achilles/ and other pas- sages which have always justly been considered as best representing the mind and genius of Homer. The arguments, however, most deserving of consideration, are those which have been brought against the genuine- ness of the following passages ; but even many of these arguments, although the most plausible, are far from satisfactory. I. The catalogue of the ships has been condemned, simply because it may be omitted without injury ; but it may be answered, (1.) that such an enumeration, setting forth as it does the glory of Greece, gave the poet an opportunity of kindling a feeling of enthu- siasm in his audience which no poet would willingl) have passed over. (2.) That there is not throughout this long description the slightest inconsistency with any other part of the poem. (3.) That the accuracy of the descriptive epithets attached to each locality exhibits that felicitous power of observing and de- picting the most striking natural features which is discernible throughout the Homeric poems. II. The single combat between Menelaus and Paris 3 has been considered spurious, on the ground of incon- sistency with what follows. III. The scene on the walls of the city between a II. iii. b Ibid, xviii. c Ibid. ii. 90 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Priam and Helen a is said by Heyne to be an interpo- lation. IV. The Aristea of Diomede, b which forms the sub- ject of the fifth and sixth books, has been thought by Heyne, with some probability, to be a separate poem. V. The expedition of Diomede and Odysseus c by night, commonly called the Dolonea, where they kill Rhesus, the Thracian chieftain. VI. All the conclusion of the poem subsequent to the death of Hector. This assertion bears some ap- pearance of probability, because there is no doubt that the death of Hector is the true catastrophe of the poem. But it must not be forgotten how deep a reverence the ancient Greeks entertained for the dead, nor would this reverence have been satisfied had not Achilles fully avenged his friend's death, and per- formed his funeral obsequies. This same reverence probably caused the poet not to consider his work per- fect until the mutilated and insulted corpse of the brave Trojan was restored to his mourning father, and the last sacred offices were performed even to the enemy of his country. Such are some of the alleged interpolations in the " Iliad." In the " Odyssey" they are by no means so numerous. I. The song of Demodocus, the Phseacian bard, d has been pronounced spurious, chiefly on the ground that there is a manifest discrepancy in the mythology. Venus being here represented as the wife of Vulcan, a II. iii. b Ibid. v. vi. c Ibid. x. d Od. viii. INTERPOLATIONS IN THE ODYSSEY. 91 instead of one of the Graces. Mure has well observed, 3 (1.) that the legend is represented as that of a Phaeacian bard, and therefore need not be in accordance with the Homeric mythology ; (2.) that the adultery and di- vorce of Venus reconciles the apparent opposition. II. The Alexandrians, Aristophanes, and Aristar- chus, considered that the " Odyssey " terminated with the 296th line of the twenty-third book. The recogni- tion of Ulysses and Penelope is, doubtless, the proper catastrophe, and the second Xecyia, b or descent to Hades, has so many points of resemblance to the first that it is scarcely possible to conceive such unneces- sary repetition, especially in a poem, the construction of which is so artificial, and the unity of design so carefully maintained throughout as it is in the " Odyssey." That there are interpolations and corruptions it would be idle to deny, but so skilfully have they been introduced that no critic can point them out with cer- tainty, nor is there one of those which are best sup- ported, so contradictory of the Homeric spirit as to offend the taste of the most fastidious admirer. Even Wolf himself was scarcely converted by his own arguments, " So often," says he, " as I withdraw mv mind from the historical arguments, and observe in Homer's poems one colouring, the adaptation of the events to the times, and the times to the events, the consistency and agreement of the allusions, the sanie- a Mure, ii. xviii. 5. b Od. xxiv. c Wolf, Preface to Homer, p. xxii. 92 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. ness of character preserved in the heroes, I am angry with myself, and blame my own diligence and bold- ness, and look on all which we read in Homer as Homeric, and in them admire the skill of Homer alone." One more question still remains for consideration, and that an important one, on which scholars have entertained great variety of opinions. Were the events recorded in the Homeric poems purely fabulous, and the productions of the poet's imagination, or was there some substratum of historical truths on which they were founded? It is an historical fact that an Hellenic race, called iEolians, had settlements at some early period on the coasts of Asia Minor. It is plain, also, that they were not Asiatics ; that they differed from the inhabi- tants of Asia, and from all Orientals in their language, their habits and customs, their religious faith and wor- ship. It is also probable, from the internal evidence of poems written by one who was himself one of cognate race with them, that they were inferior to the Asiatics in the arts, luxuries, and refinements of civilized life. And, lastly, as the Europeans with whom they were evidently connected by blood, were celebrated not only in mythical times but also in those ages which are within the reach of history for their valour and warlike prowess, it is not too much to assume that they were superior to the generality of Orientals as warriors. Greeks, in historical times, were successful in their struggles against the people of HOMERIC POEMS FOUNDED ON TRUTH. 93 Asia, it is probable, therefore, that it would have been so in those ages of which there are only traditions. and no trustworthy records. Now it is not probable that the JEolians should have obtained a settlement in the Troad without a strug- gle: that the inhabitants should have tamely and unre- sistingly evacuated a territory consisting of a fertile and well-watered plain, possessing forests of timber fit for building ships, an extensive sea-coast, and a beauti- ful climate. The settlement must have been made by conquests,, and not by a simple act of migration, such as takes place to uninhabited countries. The legends of the conquering people furnish pre- cisely such a narrative as would account for their settlement in Asia Minor. Stripped of all their romantic detail, of the fabulous matter which gradually grew amidst them in the national lays and ballads, they relate that a confederate army of Greeks invaded the Troad. maintained a long and difficult struggle with the inhabitants, and were eventually successful. This is a tale the parallel of which may be found in the history of all nations, a tale which is not only antecedently credible, but which alone would account for the subsequent state of that portion of Asia Minor. It is not, therefore, sufficient to say that the traditions of the Trojan war, which, dispersed in different lays and legends, furnished Homer with the materials for his poems, may possibly have originated in some such struggle, but it may be asserted that no other hypothesis will satisfactorily account for the 94 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. historical fact that an iEolian migration into the coast- country of Asia Minor took place in pre-historic times. It may even be added, in further support of this view, that legends so numerous, so similar in their details, so uniform in their character, could scarcely have existed unless they had their origin in substantial truth. So deep a root had they taken in the Greek mind, so absorbing was their interest to the exclusion of any poetical topics which did not claim kindred with them, so early did a firm belief exist in their general truthfulness, so wide was their influence over the whole field of Greek literature — not in one age only, but during centuries — that the only plausible mode of accounting for the phenomenon is by assum- ing the hypothesis of their being founded on fact. Every other method would be not only difficult but unnatural. If it be argued that the probable and improbable parts of the legend rest on the same evidence, and therefore that if we believe in a Trojan war at all, we must on the same grounds receive as true all the mythological and miraculous machinery, the answer is that we do not believe in the Trojan war only because it is the production of the legend, but because that bare framework, which imagination afterwards clothed with poetical and mythical ornament, is absolutely necessary in order to account for what rests on actual historical evidence — namely, the occupation of the Troad by iEolians. THE HOMERIC AGE. 95 CHAPTER VII. THE HOMERIC AGE. DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT. —VALUE OF HOMERIC TESTIMONY. RELIGION. ZEUS AND THE OTHER DEITIES. WORSHIP. NO HERO-WORSHIP. DIVINATION. — DREAMS. FUTURE STATE. GOVERNMENT. KINGLY POWER HEREDITARY AND LIMITED. ADMI- NISTRATION OF JUSTICE. — SOCIAL HABITS AND INSTITUTIONS. HOSPITALITY. BARBARISM IN WAR. — INSECURE STATE OF SOCIETY. — LOVE. THE CONDITION OF THE FEMALE SEX. — FEMALE EMPLOY- MENTS. — HOUSEHOLDS. MARRIAGE. OLD AGE. DEATH. SCIENCE. ASTRONOMY. GEOGRAPHY. MEDICINE. ARITHMETIC. POETRY. ORATORY. MUSIC. STATUARY. PAINTING. ORNAMENTAL ARTS. USEFUL ARTS. ART OF WAR. The Homeric poems contain so many particulars respecting the age and state of society which they profess to describe, that it will be interesting to examine the details of the picture presented to our view. These points shall be treated of in the follow- ing order: — religion, government, social habits and institutions, science and art. On these points the authority of the Homeric poems ought to be allowed great weight. The poet, as he is evidently describing scenery with which he himself is frequently familiar, is also depicting a state of society either such as prevailed in his own times or was not far removed from them. Tradition furnished him with his story and his heroes, but 96 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. personal observation, and such testimony as did not extend so far backward as to be out of the sphere of truth and probability provided him with the scenes in which they moved, and the manner of life which they led, as well domestic as political. The trust reposed in Homer as an historian by ancient authors, such as Thucydides and Strabo, a is far greater than is thus claimed for him. They felt strongly that he was their only authority, that if they deserted him they had nothing to trust to, and therefore they clung to him, not only as a faithful delineator of life and manners and principles, but as a truthful and credible historian. It has often been remarked that the state of society w r hich the Homeric poems depict, is a patriarchal one, and points of resemblance have been pointed out between it and that patriarchal period which is de- scribed in sacred literature. Doubtless the Homeric age is patriarchal in its character: it is the inter- mediate period between barbarism and refinement ; it has all the delightful simplicity of patriarchal times without the affectation of more advanced social culti- vation. But with this simplicity, the descriptions given by Homer combine an intercourse with the world by means of extended commerce, and conse- quently a state of art, science, and general civilization, in advance of the patriarchal stage of society. There will not, therefore, be found a very close parallelism. The patriarch of a pastoral tribe, sum- a Strabo, Geogr., 1. i. EARLY RELIGION OF GREECE. 97 moned from his native land into a new country, living in tents, his riches principally consisting in flocks and herds, and asses, and camels, and servants, would naturally differ much from the chieftains, or kings, of races inhabiting Western Asia and Europe — living in cities, in the enjoyment of wealth and luxury, raising armies, and going, for the sake of conquest, on distant expeditions. The period of the Jewish monarchy will furnish points of resemblance to the Homeric age, not to be found in patriarchal times. It is probable that the earliest form of religion in Greece was monotheism. It has been already observed, on the authority of Herodotus, a that the Pelasgians worshipped gods which had neither name nor surname. The only way in which the fact of their knowing no distinguishing appellations for differ- ent deities can be accounted for, is by supposing that they were the worshippers of one god. But, with so imaginative a people as the Greeks, this belief did not continue long ; they soon peopled heaven and earth, and the sea, and the regions under the earth, with deities. Men of heroic character were, by an admiring posterity, admitted into the peaceful orders of the gods after death, and the transition to poly- theism must have been early and rapid. As these deities were the creations of a poetic imagination, and as the development and moulding into form of those traditions which owed their birth and their origin to the popular mind, was the work of the early poets, a Herod, ii. 52. VOL. I. H 98 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Herodotus tells us that Homer and Hesiod were the framers of the Greek theogony. It cannot be supposed that the names given by Homer to the gods, were for the first time made known through the medium of his poems, or that the pedigrees of Hesiod were unheard of before. That Homer first described these persons, marked out more definitely the sphere of their respective authorities, and assigned to each more clearly their specific attributes, is highly probable ; and thus, without being entirely the authors, Homer and Hesiod may be considered the framers and systematizers of the popular religious belief, The mythology of Homer doubtless embodies those ideas of deity, which, in a more vague and uncertain form, had pervaded Greece long before, and the gene- rations of Hesiod are figurative personifications of the order of creation as imagined by some old philosophy. " The way," says Thirlwall, a " in which Hesiod treats his subject, suggests a strong suspicion that his theogony or cosmogony was not the fruit of his own invention ; and that although to us it breathes the first lispings of Greek philosophy, they are only the faint echoes of an earlier and deeper strain." The chief of the Olympian deities is Zeus : as he originally established the laws of Nature, so he con- stantly directs and controls all their operations. He rules over the rest of the gods as a king, or rather as the father of a royal race. His word and nod are law. His wisdom is surpassingly great, but his prin- a Thirl wall, vol. i. c. 6. ATTRIBUTES OF ZEUS. 99 cipal attribute is strength rather than wisdom ; he is neither omniscient, omnipresent, nor all-powerful. He holds the balance which decides human destinies, but still Fate is an independent and coordinate power. Sometimes his will coincides with the decrees of Fate, sometimes he struggles in vain to resist its decisions. He can delay or hasten that which is preordained, but he cannot change it. Although an abstract principle, Destiny seems to represent the natural idea of Providence and the First Cause, whereas Zeus and the other deities constitute the personal machinery by which the fixed ordinances of this mysterious principle are carried into effect. This is the universal belief of Homer's gods and men. Her6 says that all which shall happen to a man is allotted at his birth. a Athene declares that even the gods are powerless to save, when Fate summons a man. b Poseidon determines to rescue iEneas, because it is fated that he shall escape, and Hector comforts Andromache with the assurance that no man can slay him until the appointed time. Zeus is subject to human weaknesses and wants, such as hunger and thirst. He "sleeps, and must be awakened." Nor is he free from such passions as agitate the human breast. He is not free from the emotions either of anger or desire. Limited only by Destiny, he con- trols the affairs of men with strict impartiality. By him kings rule, with justice ; the sacred rites of hos- pitality are under his protection. He defends the a II. xx. 128. b Od. iii. 237. c II. xx. 300. h 2 100 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE, cause of the widow and the orphan ; no suppliant ad- dresses him in vain. He hears prayer and he especially punishes perjury, adultery, and the neglect of duty to parents, and the principal instruments of his ven- geance are the pestilence and the thunderbolt. The other deities are as inferior to him in their moral attributes, as they are in power. They fear and stand in awe of their sovereign ruler, but fre- quently thwart his inclinations, and endeavour to resist or to overreach him. Amongst themselves strife, and envy, and jealousy prevail, as they might amongst the members of an earthly court. The petty disputes and quarrels, the loves and caprices of the Olympian family constitute some of the few portions of the Homeric poems, in which an almost comic vein supersedes their grave stateliness and serious dignity. Zeus, supremely good and great, is often called upon to quell the factions and curb the humours of his quarrelsome courtiers, and to threaten expulsion from Olympus in case of disobedience to his will. a A perfect analogy is maintained between the nature of gods and men. As in the veins of man flows the principle of life, so in their veins flows the divine ichor, the principle of immortality, and their frames require the support of nectar and ambrosia, as men need that of earthly food. Although Zeus was generally the re warder and protector of truth and virtue, the inferior deities in a II. viii. 13. OFFICE OF THE FURIES. 101 their intercourse with men exercised a species of favouritism. This led them to violate the well-known principles and sanctions of morality. Minerva a advises Pandarus to bribe Apollo to aid in the murder of Menelaus, and even Zeus approves the treacherous deed. Hence the sin of the deepest dye was not to offend against the immutable principles of natural justice, but to neglect or offend a deity ; and the sum and substance of religion consisted in averting their anger and propitiating their favour by prayer and by expensive offerings and sacrifices. The executors of vengeance on the wicked were the Furies, whose abode was the darkness of the unseen world ; they were unerring, implacable. Ac- cording to Hesiod, they could punish gods as well as men ; b and, therefore, they were as much dreaded by them as by mortals. The religion of the heroic age was free from any taint of idolatry. No mention is made of any visible representation of Deity, excepting the statue of Athene in the citadel of Troy. The funeral rites of Patroclus, however, prove that it was not un- polluted by that darker stain, the offering of human sacrifices. This, however, is reprobated by Homer, c and perhaps introduced as characteristic of his hero's fierce temper and implacable resentment. Temples were not common. Mention is made of the oracular shrine of Delphi, and in the midst of the Phseacian market-place stood one in honour of Poseidon. They a II. iv. 101. b Theog. ii. 21. c II. xxiv. 102 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. offered sacrifices beneath the open vault of heaven, and, like the nations of Canaan, in high places and sacred groves. As in patriarchal ages, the patriarch was priest of his tribe, or family and household, so in the Homeric, the priestly office was united with that of the king. Not that we are to suppose that the kings were priests in the sense in which we generally understand the term, but that it was one of the functions of the king to offer sacrifice in behalf of his people. There were besides, priests, like Chryses, who were dedicated to the worship of some particular deity, and attached to some locality where the worship of that deity was established. Earthly and sensual in their nature although the Homeric deities were, still they formed a race of beings perfectly distinct from mortals. No notion yet pre- vailed of elevating a mortal to the rank of a god. Those of distinguished virtue might, like Hercules and Ganymede, be admitted into the society of the gods, or endowed with immortality and perpetual youth, as Calypso wished Odysseus to be, a but this was all : hero-worship had not as yet appeared in Greece. The first dawn of this worship appears in Hesiod, where the spirits of the mighty dead are spoken of as tutelary deities, or guardian angels, watching over the conduct and the fortunes of men. The desire of examining into futurity had not yet attained its highest development. Individuals, like a Od. v. 136. PROPHECY, OMENS, AND DREAMS. 103 the seer Calchas, a were believed to be inspired by Apollo, and to possess the gift of prophecy. The oracles of Dodona and Delphi had already become celebrated. 5 Natural phenomena, the appearance of the heavenly bodies, and the flight of birds of good or ill omen, were considered as prognosticating future events ; but human energy was deemed superior to them all, and there was a lofty confidence felt in the justice and holiness of a righteous cause. " The best of omens is," says Hector, " to fight in one's country's defence." In the Homeric age, too, it was not customary to divine future events by exa- mining the entrails of the victim. Dreams were thought to be direct revelations from Zeus to man. It was thus that Agamemnon was induced to give battle to the Trojans, and Achilles urged to celebrate the funeral of Patroclus. d One of the most important subjects for exami- nation connected with religion is the belief respect- ing the condition of man after death. Homer evidently entertained some vague notion of the im- possibility of the soul existing in a state of activity unless united to some immortal body. " In the house of Hades," says Achilles, 6 " the soul and image (4*%*] *°u s'/hakov) exist, but they have no vitals ( b.c. 727. c About b.c. 678. d Muller, p. 110. e Matthise, History of Literature. TYRTiEUS, ARCHILOCHUS, AND SIMONIDES. 141 arose from his profession being that of a rhapsodist. However this may be, that which Athens intended as mockery proved the safety of Sparta; for the animating strains of the lame bard— his urgent appeals to the love of country — his descriptions of firmness and resolution in the field — his enlivening anapaests (e^&ocr^ioc fizkn) to cheer and encourage the troops on their long and dreary marches — produced a striking effect upon the true-hearted Spartans, and contributed more to victory than the profoundest tactics of a skilful general w T ould have done. Nor were his political admonitions in his " Eunomia" less valuable, at a period when the old Dorian aristo- cratic institutions of Sparta were menaced by some of her own citizens, who, discontented at the devas- tation of their estates in Messenia by the insurgents, were demanding an agrarian law. a The poetry of Archilochus of Paros, and Simonides of Amorgos, was of two kinds — iambic and elegiac. At present we will confine our attention to the latter only. Archilochus is commonly said to have lived about B. c. 720, b and Suidas places the date of Simonides about b. c. 780 ; but it is more probable that the date assigned by Eusebius to Simonides (b.c. 664) is the correct one, and that Archilochus was his contemporary. Respecting the subjects treated of in the elegies of Simonides, nothing is known. Those of Archilochus (although some are melancholy) are the earliest specimens extant of the a Plutarch. b Matthiae. 142 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. symposiac kind. Their subjects are those which are in modern times called Anacreontic, and celebrate the delights of wine and revelry. They mark the decay of a warlike and patriotic spirit in the Asiatic Ionian race, the growing softness of manners derived from their oriental neighbours, destined first to corrupt and debase them, and then to deprive them of their independence. In the latter part of the seventh century before the Christian sera, flourished Mimnermus of Smyrna. In his days the sad catastrophe fell upon Ionia, a Gyges took Colophon, and Smyrna surrendered to the arms of Halyattes. The old twofold nature of the elegy, that of sad pathos and warlike spirit, mingled well in the strains of Mimnermus. He bewailed that the native independence of Ionia was now lost, her sun set, her military glory ruined, as it seemed, for ever, and yet there burst forth strains of enthusiasm when he speaks of the bygone valour and ancient exploits of his degenerate countrymen. Both before and after the legislative measures of Solon, which rendered his archonship, in B. c. 594, so celebrated, this great lawgiver distinguished himself as an elegiac poet. The fragments of his poetry which are extant, consist chiefly of maxims (yvapou) both moral and poetical, and hence he is considered one of the gnomic poets. In them are found noble thoughts on the use and abuse of riches, such as we might expect from one who, like him, sympathised a Herod, i. 16. EXPEDITION AGAINST THE MBGARIANS. 143 with the sorrows of the poor, and one great object of whose legislature was to relieve them from the grinding oppression of the wealthier classes. Another object to which he devoted his muse was the recovery of Salami s from the Megaiians. and. on this occasion, tradition furnishes us with an example of the power of song upon the susceptible Athenians. Habited as an herald, and feigning frenzy., which was then considered akin to inspiration, he recited an appeal to the sympathies of the assembled people in behalf of that beautiful island. The enthusiasm thus kindled, spread far and wide, and with one voice an expedition was voted against the Megaiians, which was successful in wresting Salamis from their power. We learn from an inscription on a tripod, preserved by Fansanias,* that Echembrotus. an Arcadian, sang elegies to the accompaniment of the flute at the Pythian games, b. c. 586, and on that occasion the prize was awarded to him. But the substitution of singing with a musical accompaniment for simple recitation., was considered unsuited to the solemnity of the festival, and was consequently forbidden. The Dorian ~ colonies in Sicily were numerous and celebrated in verv early times, and in that island Ifegara in Attica founded a colony bearing the same name, which appears to have kept up continual com- munication with the parent state. Theognis was a native of the Sicilian liegara, but resided at the Attic city, and took a deep and personal interest 1 Paus. x. 7. 3. Muller's Dorians, i. «3. 10. 144 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. in the political convulsions which disturbed Greece during the sera of the Tyrants. He was the poet of the old aristocracy of birth, which was now begin- ning to crumble away before the growing power of the wealthier commons, led by some popular and influential citizen, who was commonly called in Greece a tyrant (rvgavvos). The Dorian gvggItkz, or public tables, which had their most perfect development in the leading Dorian state of Sparta, and which, like all their other na- tional institutions, were attributed to Lycurgus, were social bonds of union, which kept up the old here- ditary aristocratic feeling amongst the members of them. We can easily conceive the influence and popularity of such elegies as those of Theognis if sung at these friendly meetings. They would produce an effect similar to that of our after-dinner speeches, and songs expressive of party-feeling delivered and sung at the political reunions of our own day. Theognis flourished about B. c. 548, and more fragments are extant of his elegies than of any other elegiac poet. The elegies of Kenophanes of Elea, the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy, who flourished about B. c. 540, were also suited to be sung at public enter- tainments. His contemporary, Phocylides of Miletus, is said, by Miiller, 3 to have written principally in hexa- meters, but Matthiae 5 considers the Troi^oc vovQztizov, in that metre which bears his name, to have been a Miiller, p. 120. b Matthise, History of Literature, part i. (ee). PHOCYLIDES, ARCHILOCHUS. 145 spurious, and the work of some Christian author. All his compositions are introduced by the words, " And this, too, is Phocylides's." One epigrammatic and paradoxical distich preserved, has been wittily paraphrased by our own Porson. a Kcu rode (i)icv\id£' AepioL kclkol' ovk 6 [lev, og & ov, TLdvTEQ Tr\rjv UpoKXeovg, ical UpoKXerjg Aeptoc. " This, too, is Phocylides's ; the Lerians are rogues, not one a rogue and another not, but all except Procles, and Procles is a Lerian." The Germans in Greek Are sadly to seek : Not five in five score, But ninety-five more, All but friend Hermann ; And Hermann's a German. Contemporary with the invention of the elegy was that of iambic poetry by Archilochus of Paros. The head-quarters of the mystical worship of Demeter (the Roman Ceres) was at Eleusis, but the epic hymn to Demeter informs us that the place next in importance, where her mysteries were celebrated, was Paros, of which Archilochus was a native. The worship of Demeter was nearly allied to that of Dionysus, and, like it, gave full scope to the initiated to indulge in frolic jest, and bantering raillery. Now, one characteristic of the iambic metre, as opposed to the stateliness of the epic and the epi- grammatic terseness of elegiac verse, is rapidity. It is evidently well suited to express the quickness of a Gaisford, Poetse Minores, fr. 5. VOL. I. L 146 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. repartee, and the sharpness of satire. Moreover, its facility and the similarity of its rhythm to that of conversational prose, rendered it suitable for giving utterance to effusions which were originally, and probably still continued to be in some instances, ex- temporaneous. The expressions of Horace, " Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo ;" and again, " In celeres iambos misit furentem," as well as that of Cicero, " Archilochia edicta," a recognize the object and adaptation of this metre, and hence the very word passed into. a proverb, for to rail at any one was expressed in Greek by the word la^tZ^iv. With regard to the etymology of the word, it is probably, like elegy, one of those which were derived from sound, that its root is the shout of joy if}, just as aidZpiv is from a/, ororvfyiv from ororoi, and so forth. The iambic metre, as is evident from its forming one of the two elements of the Attic drama, was as peculiarly belonging to the Ionian race, as the lyric or choral poetry belonged to the Dorian. Archilochus himself was an Ionian Greek, and either he himself, or his father, Telesicles, was the leader of a colony to Thasos. His ancestors had held the priesthood of Demeter, and were therefore nobles. He nourished about b. c. 720, and, consequently, was one of the oldest of the Ionian poets. a Ep.ad Att. ii. 21. INVENTOR OF THE EPODOS. 147 The admiration with which Archilochus was re- garded by the ancients, both Greek and Roman, proves that his poems could not have conveyed mere licentious raillery. When we find Plato a speaking of him as the wisest of poets, Horace b professing to imitate him, and Quinctilian eulogising his brief yet thrilling sentences {breves vibrantesque sententice), full of life and vigour, we can scarcely doubt the truthfulness as well as the power of his satire. When we speak of Archilochus as an iambic poet, it must not be supposed that his poetical effusions were either entirely, or even chiefly, confined to that metre. His name is connected with it as its in- ventor, and as the poet who applied it to an especial purpose, that of personal satire ; but the vast number of metres in which his poems are written, show that Greek metre had already attained that variety which rendered it capable of expressing every conceivable feeling and emotion. Besides employing all the existing metres, he was also the inventor of the kvcfioQ, a metre imitated by Horace in that book of his " Odes " which is dis- tinguished by this title. The epode is a short verse subjoined to a longer one. Whether the poet had any object in view in introducing this metre beyond mere variety, it is impossible to determine ; but al- though we cannot, the delicately attuned ear of the Greek might probably have recognized a peculiar a Plato, Republ. ii. 365. b Horace, Ep. i. xix. 23. c Quinct. x. 1 § 60. l 2 148 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. appropriateness to the subject treated in this metrical combination. Simonides of Amorgos, and Solon, were also iambic poets. A specimen of the iambics of the former is preserved by Stobseus ; and some fragments of Solon's in Gaisford's collection. 5 * Simonides of Amorgos must be carefully distin- guished from the celebrated lyric poet of that name. They have often been confounded one with the other, both in ancient and modern times, and their poems have been mixed indiscriminately in one collection. It is not, however, difficult to separate them, for the probability is, that only the iambic fragments belong to Simonides of Amorgos, and that almost all the lyric and the elegiac verses are the productions of the Cean poet. His poems were of two kinds, gnomic and satirical, and the bitter irony which dis- tinguishes the latter, is fully equalled by the know- ledge of human nature which marks the former. Of the latter, the most celebrated is his satire on woman. In it he represents the various shades of female cha- racter by the following allegories : — 1. The swine ; 2. the fox ; 3. the dog ; 4. the earth ; 5. the sea ; 6. the ass ; 7, the weasel ; 8. the mare ; 9. the ape ; 10. the bee, Suidas b informs us that he was a na- tive of Samos, and the leader of a colony to Amorgos, one of the Cyclades, where he founded three cities. The period at which he flourished was most probably about 01. xxix. B.C. 665 or B.C. 662. c a Gaisford, No. 28. b Suid. s. v. c Clint. Fest. Hell, in annis. ORIGIN OF GREEK FABLE. 149 In a philological point of view, the fragments of Simonides are invaluable as specimens of the Ionic dialect in its oldest form. But the iambics of the Ephesian Hipponax, beyond all others, not excepting even those of Archilochus himself, deserve the epithets given to this metre, on account of their bitterness and severity. He flourished at the time when the empire of Croesus was destroyed by Cyrus, a period when Ionic softness and self- indulgent luxury had reached its zenith, and his in- dignation did not spare their degeneracy. He is said to have invented the choliambic or lame iambic, the last foot of which was a spondee instead of an iambus ; a metre afterwards much used by the writers of fables. That the fable was not indigenous in Greece, or its colonies, is certain, but whence it derived its origin it is impossible to determine. It bears the strongest resemblance to the parabolic symbolism of Oriental nations. Many of these fables, which have found their way into all the languages of the civilized world, can be traced to the East, and if the fables ascribed to iEsop are really his, the introduction in such early times of such animals as peacocks, monkeys, and pan- thers, seem to point to an Indian original. But still all nations of Europe, however independent their existence, have their fables, and some were tradition- ally known in the early ages of Greek literature by the name of Libyan, as though there were no doubt of their African origin. 150 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. The oldest fable which we meet with in Greek lite- rature is that well-known one of Hesiod, a " The Hawk and the Nightingale/' Arehilochus, and the Sicilian lyric poet, Stesichorus, both wrote fables. That of " The Horse, the Man, and the Stag " was written by the latter, in order to warn the people of Himera against the designs of the tyrant Phalaris; b but the name which modern times always connects with fable is that of iEsop. As the traditional author of compositions orally handed down, and afterwards versified by subsequent writers, iEsop demands a place amongst the authors of Greek literature. His very existence, like that of Homer himself, has been doubted ; but mentioned as he is by Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, and others, it is hard to believe that he was a mere imaginary person. It is probable that many fables were attributed to him which were not his, just as all the Hesiodic poems were attributed to Hesiod ; but the opinion of Bent- ley c is probably the correct one, that he was the author of fables which he related orally, although he did not leave any written works. On the authority of Eugeon, a Samian historian, quoted by Suidas, d we are informed that iEsop was a native of Mesembria in Thrace, although Sardis, Samos, and Phrygia, claimed the honour of being his birth- place. He was the slave of a Lydian, named Xanthus, » Works and Days, 202. b Arist. Rhet. ii. 20. c Dis. Fables of iEsop. d Suidas, s. v. K'ktuttoq. AGE OF .ESOP. 151 and afterwards of Iadmon, who emancipated him. He subsequently lived at the court of Croesus. Herodotus a tells us of a fellow-slave of iEsop, named Rhodopis, who lived in the time of Amasis, King of Egypt. Plutarch, whose authority is of little value, relates that he was sent by Croesus to distribute a gratuity among the citizens of Delphi, and that a dispute arising they threw him from a precipice and killed him. a Herod, ii. 134. 152 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. CHAPTER X. GREEK MUSIC. TERPANDER THE INVENTOR OP MUSICAL SCIENCE. — THE GREEKS DID NOT UNDERSTAND HARMONY. DEFINITION OF cipfJLOVlKYI. THE THREE GENERA. IMPROVEMENTS INTRODUCED BY TERPANDER. — THE COLOURS. MODES. THE DORIAN MODE THE OLDEST. CHA- RACTER OF DORIAN MUSIC. CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES OF THE DORIANS. ELEVEN-STRINGED LYRE OF TIMOTHEUS. OLYMPUS OF PHRYGIA. — THALETAS OF CRETE. We have now arrived at the period of lyric poetry, a style more subjective than any which pre- ceded it, which gave utterance to the language of deep and fervent passion, and was inseparably con- nected with music, both vocal and instrumental. It will, therefore, be necessary to prefix to this portion of the subject a few general remarks on the musical theory of the Greeks. The sense or appreciation of melody must always have been possessed by that people in a very high degree. The ear, which was so nicely tuned as to enjoy the varied metres of Greek poetry, must have possessed a national music as an art, long before it was reduced to system and became a science ; and the bards of Pieria, and the minstrels of whom we hear in the mythical age, were doubtless, as far as the mere art is concerned, practised and accomplished musicians. INVENTOR OF MUSICAL SCIENCE. 153 Owing to the connexion between music and lyric poetry, the first inventor of musical science was not only a musician, but a poet likewise. This was Ter- pander, a native of Antissa. in Lesbos. He flourished about B.C. 648. He was the first who adapted melo- dies to the national lays of the Lacedaemonians (uAhog TTzaJrog xqwArpu role, TorijfiMffi, Ttm rovg AaxebaifLOviav iofLovg The musical science of the Greeks comprehended only the laws of melody, and the principles of har- mony were not understood by them. The only ap- proach to harmony with which they were acquainted was that of two voices singing at the interval of an octave. Of this simplest form of musical concord they could not possibly have been ignorant, because, as the pitch of male and female voices differ by an octave, it would become known to them as soon as they were accustomed to make use of a chorus of men and women. This species of concord was technicallv termed pcvycabtZp*, and as the constitution of the Greek musical scale was peculiarly unfitted for harmo- nies we are driven to interpret all passages which speak of concord, and of two instruments plaved si- multaneouslv in different moods, as alluding to this simple kind of harmony. The term agpotuai (harmony), therefore, as used bv the Greeks only signified the science of melody. This is evident by the definition of it given by Euclid. " Harmony is the theoretical and practical science of a M tiller's Dorians, i. 369; ii. 333. Clem. Alex. 154 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. the nature of tune, and tune is composed of notes and intervals arranged in a certain order." Another fact, which shows the imperfect nature of Greek music, is that the instrument to which, until the time of Terpander, the Greek theory was adapted was the tetrachord. The scale, therefore, only con- sisted of four notes, and the two extreme notes of the scale were at an interval of a fourth. The arrange- ment of the intermediate intervals determined what the Greeks designated the genus to which the scale belonged. There were three genera. — 1 . The diatonic, in which the intervals between the four notes were semitone, tone, tone. 2. The chromatic, the intervals of which were semitone, semitone, tone and a half. 3. The enharmonic, which, as is evident from its nature, was the most artificial and pedantic, and consequently most difficult. The intervals in this genus were quarter-tone, quarter-tone, two tones. The improvement introduced by Terpander was to increase the compass of the instrument, and conse- quently of the scale, to an octave by the addition of three strings. This compass was called a diapason (lid ftoiGav). But it must be remarked, that, although the compass was increased, the fundamental system still remained unaltered : it was not one octave but two tetrachords, with the interval of a tone between them. The third string was omitted in this new arrangement in order to make the number of notes in the octave seven. Certain modifications of the intervals in each genus GREEK MUSIC AN OBSCURE SUBJECT. 155 were technically termed xgocu (colours), and consti- tuted species. The diatonic admitted two X£oa/, the chromatic three. The enharmonic only one, making six in all. Other arrangements of the intervals, combined also with difference of musical pitch, determined the dif- ferent modes, rovoi. These, in the earliest state of the science, when the tetrachord alone was known, were three in number, the Lydian, Phrygian, and the Dorian. In these modes, the Lydian was the highest and the Dorian the lowest. As musical science advanced, these modes were gradually increased in number, until at last they amounted to fifteen, of which the Hyper-Lydian was the highest, and the Hypo-Dorian the lowest. The subject of Greek music is one of great obscurity ; and this obscurity is increased by the subject of concord and discord being treated of so differently from the way in which they are treated in the modern system. For example, the third, which is our easiest and most natural concord, was not consi- dered a consonant interval at all. It is plain, therefore, that in the method of tuning the scale adopted by the ancient Greeks, the major third did not exist at all. It is a remarkable fact, that the tetrachord re- mained as the fundamental principle of the scale until Gregory, the composer of the chaunt which still bears his name, substituted the octave, and thus laid the foundation for the modern theory. 3 Burney's Hist. Music. 156 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. The Dorian mode was most probably the oldest, and in fact the only genuine Greek style of music. The Lydian and Phrygian were introduced subse- quently by the iEolians of Lesbos. These, from their geographical position, had constant communication with Greece on the one hand, and the musical schools of Asia Minor on the other ; and hence the two newer modes were soon combined with the Dorian and formed one national system. As the Dorian music resembled in its style the peculiar features of the national character, and was marked with sobriety and severity, it acquired refinement from the intro- duction of the Lydian and Phrygian measures. This stern race, strongly impressed with the important influence which music exercises over the moral cha- racter of a people, and therefore cultivating it as an integral part of education, were naturally careful that music should express that sentiment and principle which so strongly marked all their institutions. "The ancients," says Miiller, 3 " who were infinitely quicker in discovering the moral character of music than can be the case in modern times, attributed to it some- thing solemn, firm, and manly, calculated to inspire fortitude in supporting misfortunes and hardships, and to strengthen the mind against the attacks of passion. They discovered in it a calm sublimity, and a simple grandeur which bordered on severity, equally opposed to inconstancy and enthusiasm ; and this is precisely the character which we find so Miiller's Dorians, iv. 6. SEVERITY OF DORIAN MUSIC. 157 strongly impressed on the religion, arts, and manners of the Dorians. We are thus enabled to draw a distinction between the Greeks of Asia and those sprung from the mountains in the north of Greece, who, proud of their lofty nature and vigour of mind, had acquired but little refinement from contact with strangers." The Dorian race of Sparta, eminently conservative in all the principles which it professed, slowly and unwillingly admitted improvements in anything, and thus Terpander, when he increased the gamut to seven notes, was obliged to obtain the sanction of a law to legalize the introduction of his invention into Sparta. But if there is any truth in the Spartan enactment respecting the eleven-stringed lyre of Timotheus, a the Dorian attachment to antiquity would not permit progress to go further. It decreed, that Timotheus should be censured as introducing effeminate music, and compelled to restore his lyre to the original compass of seven notes. 5 Doubtful although the authenticity of this document is, it proves that an opinion has been long entertained of the strictness with which the Spartans were anxious to maintain the severity of their musical style. Terpander then may fairly be considered the founder of Greek musical science. He invented also some system of musical notation, and his written melodies, adapted and arranged for the cithara, were known in Greece by the title of vopoi. A Phrygian a Mus. Crit. i. 506. b Muller's Dorians, iv. 6. 3. 158 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. musician, named Olympus, whose whole story is mythical, is said to have been the inventor of flute music, and to have composed in a wild and noisy style, suited to the orgiastic rites of the Phrygian deity. Attached to the worship of Zeus, as the fabulous Olympus is said to have been to that of the mother of the gods, was a native of Crete, named Thaletas. He flourished about B.C. 620, and devoted himself to the improvement of the music used at the religious festivals. The music attributed to Olympus formed the foundation of his system, and the improvements which he made upon it he introduced into Sparta, and, by engrafting them upon the system of Ter- pander, became the second founder of that science which was afterwards so ably cultivated by a long series of professors. LYRIC POETRY. 159 CHAPTER XI. LYRIC POETRY. ITS TWO SCHOOLS OR SUBDIVISIONS. — THEIR GENERAL CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES COMPARED. THE DORIAN LYRIC EX- AMINED IN DETAIL PiEANS. NOMES. HYPORCHEMES. PAR- THENIA. PROSODIA. DITHYRAMBS. CYCLIAN CHORUS. ETYMOLOGY OF DITHYRAMB. — THE WORSHIP OF APOLLO AND DIANA A CRI- TERION OF DORIC ORIGIN. SIMPLICITY OF DORIAN BELIEF. — CHA- RACTERISTICS OF APOLLO. SCOLIA, ETC. EUMELUS. ALCMAN. ARION. THE LEGEND TOLD BY HERODOTUS. ALCJ3US. SAPPHO. HER CHARACTER AND BIOGRAPHY. — ERINNA. Greek lyric poetry is the development of the na- tional feeling with respect to religious worship, and all the stirring or interesting events of public and private life. It was peculiarly the poetry of that race, of which the iEolians and Dorians formed the two branches, and the subjects to which it was de- voted, the dialects in which it was written, and the characters and moral and intellectual features of those two branches will serve to distinguish the schools to which the poets, who were its authors, respectively belonged. The solemn ceremonials of religion at once inspired the serious temper and elevated mind of the Dorian, and decided the form in which he should pour forth 160 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. strains, expressive of awe and veneration for the deities of his race. The dignified march of the priests and their attendants, the more cheerful dance of the assistant band of youths and virgins, suggested that with them lyric poetry should assume the form of stateliness, and yet at the same time be adapted by variety for the many-voiced chorus. The deep religious feelings, and the grave character which marked the race, found expression in the sonorous effect and open, long-sustained vowel-sounds of the pure Doric dialect ; its very harshness prevented ex- pressions of cheerfulness from conveying any idea of lightness or frivolity. The choral lyric of the Dorians was eminently fitted for solemn and sacred subjects, whilst the iEolian measures and dialect, participating, to a cer- tain extent, in Asiatic softness, was suitable to the expression of human sentiment and passion. The influence of Asia is plainly visible in the lyric poetry of the iEolians. Alcman was a native of Sardis; Callinus, of Ephesus ; Mimnermus, of Smyrna. The islands in its immediate neighbourhood, Teos, Paros, and Ceos, could each boast of its lyric poet, and Lesbos was the native country of Terpander, Alcaeus, and Sappho. The choral lyric is always marked by solemnity and not by passion. If ever it descended from heaven to earth, it was in order to celebrate the glories of heroes, who, by their exploits, appeared to partake almost of a divine nature, or to call forth sympathy on those solemn occasions which partake ^OLIAN LYRIC POETRY. 161 most of a religious nature, that is, marriages and funerals. These are events of human life, but they are blessed and consecrated by the especial invocation of deity. The lyric poetry of the iEolian school, on the other hand, — although some of it, like the hymeneal of Sap- pho and the choral poetry of Corinna, resembled the Dorian in its object and purpose, — was all passion and feeling. It sympathised with man rather than endea- voured to elevate the soul to the contemplation of, and communion with deity. Lyric poetry is the out- pouring of the human heart, when inspired either by religion or love. The former characterizes the lyric of the Dorians, the latter that of the iEolians ; in this aspect it viewed all the subjects which it ce- lebrated. If the Lesbian poets touched upon the events of political life, it was not in a spirit of grave and sober reflexion on the high and noble destinies or the sad fortunes of men, but in a strain of vehemently ex- cited feeling. But, though passionate and voluptuous, they did not give utterance to self-indulgent feel- ings only ; they laid bare their own sentiments, but they expressed sympathy with those of others. If they sang of love, self seemed forgotten in their de- votion to the object of their affections ; if of the joys of the banquet, their theme was the social enjoyment which accompanies the wine cup, and not the mere gratification of the appetite. The deities in whose honour choral odes, accom- VOL. I. M 162 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. parried with music and dancing, were sung, were Apollo and Dionysus. The earliest choral song was the Paean, sung in praise of the former god, as the averter of evil ; but although the paean pro- perly belonged to the worship of Apollo, the term was sometimes applied to poems sung in honour of other deities. 3 It was essentially a song of joy, as is evidenced by the exclamation !rj, which always formed part of its burden. When evil was anticipated, it implied hope ; when danger was past, it expressed confidence and gratitude. Homer b represents a paean as being sung in honour of Apollo, when the Achaeans were suffering from the wrath of that deity. When the Dorian armies marched to battle, the paean cheered and awoke their warlike spirit ; and when the victory was won a similar strain expressed their triumph over their foes. Muller c attributes the origin of the Dorian religious music and poetry to the an- cient Phrygian inhabitants of Crete, who celebrated the worship of the mother of the gods. He states, on the authority of Athenaeus, d that the paean, as well as the nome and the hyporcheme, were known in Crete in the earliest times, and that the two last were in that island connected with cyclic dances. The other choral songs were nomes, hyporchemes, parthenia, prosodia, and dithyrambs. The nomes {vopoi) e were lyric hymns in honour of a Hellen. iv. 7, ; Anab. iii. 2. > II. i. 473. c Muller's Dorians, iv. 6, 5. d Athen. iv. p. 181, B. NOMES, HYPORCHEMES, ETC. 163 Apollo, set to written tunes ; the hyporchemes (vtt- ogfflpciTa) were songs subordinate to the music, and accompanying the pantomimic dance which bore the same name. a The musical accompaniment was that of the flute, and, therefore, the hyporcheme properly belonged to the worship of Dionysus, for the flute was his instrument, as the cithara was that of Apollo. A hyporcheme of Pratinas is preserved by Athense- us, b in which he complains that music is usurping an undue supremacy over poetry. The parthenia (sra^gwa) were grave and modest songs, sung by young virgins ; the prosodia (wgoffoht'a) were hymns sung as the procession of priests marched up towards the altar ; and the dithyramb was a characteristic poem in honour of Dionysus. The dithyramb was the germ of the choral element in the Attic tragedy. It was a hymn sung to the flute, whilst the rest of the chorus danced in a circle round the altar of the god. From this circumstance the dithyrambic choruses were called Cyclian. It is pro- bable, however, that in the earliest ages this form was not peculiar to the dithyrambic chorus alone, if the etymology of Hesychius c is to be trusted, who makes %6gog equivalent to zvzXog, or crityuvog ; thus connecting it with the Latin word corona, which sig- nifies a band arranged in a circular form. At what period the dithyramb was first used is a Nitzsch, Hist. Horn. p. 40. b -ffischyl. Choeph. v. 1013. c Athenseus, xiv. d Hesych. in loco. m 2 164 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. unknown ; it is said, however, that it was first intro- duced and exhibited in regular choral form by Arion, in the city of Corinth. a He is also said to have added to the mere choral element, the recitation of verses by actors, representing satyrs, thus, in fact, in- vesting it with a rude dramatic form ; and from this modification it gradually became more dramatic and less choral. The sentiments uttered by such charac- ters as satyrs would, of course, be of a joyous if not of a jocose kind, 5 and hence there -were two kinds of dithyrambs, the one such as we have just described, the other of a grave, solemn, and tragic kind, cele- brating the sorrows and dangers of Dionysus in his varied adventures. The meaning and etymology of the word di thy ram- bus have been the subject of much investigation, but are still involved in obscurity. Blomfield was the first to observe the undoubted connexion between the words hOvgupfcog, ta(Jb&oc 9 ^loc^Qog (the Latin word tri- umphus). It is equally certain that it is allied to the Greek words Sgtov and §vgvog. d Now Sgtov signifies (1) a fig-leaf, e (2) something wrapped in fig-leaves, f and the thyrsus, g which was emblematic of the infant Dionysus wrapped in ivy, was sometimes a spear terminated by a cone and wreathed with ivy-leaves, sometimes a simple shaft without ivy, surmounted a Pindar, 01. xiii. 18. b Hor. Art. Poet. c Mus. Grit. ii. 70. d Liddell and Scott, Lex. in loco, e Aristoph. Vesp. 436. f Aristoph. Ran. 134, &c. e Don. Theat, of Greeks, p. 18. ETYMOLOGY OF DITHYRAMB. 165 by a %tb* instead of a cone. If. then, this connexion is to be oo:. si.'. zVz ■. as esta . lish - h t A/ - foe-ajiftoc would imply the iambic or wild sa- :ain san_ t :"_■:.: _ v-hise symbol is the thyrsus. If it be objected that the syllable Aj points : Zeus rather than Dionysus, it may be answered that the transition from the Cretan worship of Zeus be Dorian worship of A the subsequent the worship of Apollo with that of Dio- nysus, is sufficient :o account for this element of the wordu Moreove: the -i_:.:r. mini :■: the wore Diouy- :he god of Nyso? " ;:"o> that some wore which _, o: A,: he root. ~:.i us much :hr r e- i -ui: aauie :■:' deity, as the cognate v.-; A id:.-; wa> in Latin. Such were the forms of 1 rric p e t rv which formed pa rt or tie reunions woi ship ■It t 2 £ Doi ■ace. But "houoh. theT Dart It en1 -r-d into the cere ids of th e Dionysiao worship.. the princ -. "'" ± deit ies of the D Brians were Apollo a r.d I l)ia::a. and not Dionysus. In ail their settlements the ship may be traced so universally, that its picS enee is a proo f that the Pe ople amor..'" '"'horn i t \. : ' avails is oi 1 Do ric origin. Midler : auerms that A ■"-: rshipped on ly by races of Belle no? deseer a n ras not a national deity of the Pelasgic race. Owing to suc- cessive Dorian migrations this worship first perw- Delphi and Delos, and the other seats of this worh on the continent and islands of the JEgean, next it * Halo, de Leg. iiL 700. fc MiUler's Dorians, 228. 166 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. spread over the coasts of Asia Minor, and lastly was introduced into the Peloponnese. The simplicity which marked the whole character of the Dorians, was originally visible in their religious belief. They did not, at first, people every spot with supernatural beings, or fill Olympus with deities, like the more imaginative Ionians. The only two male deities whom they recognised were Zeus and Apollo. Zeus, it was believed, held communication with man, through Apollo ; he is sometimes called his son, a and is the bearer of his commands and revelations. In the Homeric hymns, as well as in the " Iliad," he is represented as the bearer to men of the divine blessings and the divine vengeance. He is always the author of evil which is justly deserved ; not of evil abstractedly. In the " Iliad" b he is represented as the inflictor of pestilence, only to be cured by appeasing his wrath through priestly interposition. His weapons of vengeance are, from their swiftness and unseen na- ture, represented as arrows; and the archer himself is called the far-darting one. But though the minister of divine vengeance, his names of Apollo and Psean imply that he was a pro- tecting and a healing power. The former was, accord- ing to its oldest orthography, 'AttsKKm, the averter (of ill), a title synonymous with the other epithets applied to him of u\e%Ucczog and aTrorgoTrcctog. The latter from vmu, to heal, was applied to him as the only deity who could heal the wounds which he had him- a "Eicctror Aioe viog, Alcman, Hephaest. Gaisf. p. 61. b II. i. WORSHIP OF APOLLO AND DIANA. 167 self inflicted. It is probable that the connexion be- tween Apollo and cc7r6\\v(jiji, to destroy, and between Psean and tccm, to strike, is only accidental ; and that the use of the epithets in these senses is an instance of that play upon words which was universally admired by the Greek poets. The goddess Diana, who was associated with Apollo as an object of Dorian worship, was represented as his sister. These two constituted the male and female development of the same idea of deity — they sym- bolized the sources of light; they were personifications of the two principal heavenly bodies, the sun and moon. The belief that Apollo was the sun-god, harmonizes with all the attributes ascribed to him. The rays of the sun might be poetically symbolized by the arrows of the god. The distance of the sun from the earth would procure for Apollo the title of the " Far-darter," — the baneful effects of the solar heat on the one hand, or its healthful influence on the other, would cause him to be looked upon as the inflictor of fever and pestilence, as well as the healing power. Lastly, as the source of physical light and heat, he would naturally be worshipped as the author of poeti- cal and prophetical enthusiasm, and as bearing the messages of intellectual light and knowledge from God to man ; as the divine illuminator of man's mental darkness. The worship of Apollo and Diana was afterwards superseded by that of Dionysus, and the paean gave 168 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. place to the dithyramb. How this came to pass, his- tory does not inform us ; we know only that the former worship was peculiarly Hellenic, whilst the latter was of foreign origin. It is plain that the Dionysiac wor- ship was a degenerate and less spiritual one. Instead of the refinements of poetry and music being consecrated to the service of heavenly beings, they were devoted to that of deities who dwelt amongst men, who made earth their abiding place. Apollo and Diana had symbolized the heavenly causes of produc- tion : Dionysus represented the fertility of earth. A link lower down in the chain of causes was thus substituted as an object of adoration for that which had previously been regarded as the first cause. But the Dorian choral lyric was national and patriotic, as well as religious, and hence possesses an historical value. The political events and circumstances of the times entered very largely into the writings of the lyric poets ; and from the personal knowledge which Alcman, Thaletas, and Tyrtseus possessed of the people of Sparta, reliance can safely be placed on their authority. In fact to them are we indebted for all that is authentic in the history of the first and second Messenian wars, since the other romantic incidents contained in the narratives of Plutarch, are only based upon family legends and popular traditions. The distinction between the two schools cannot be maintained when treating of the convivial poetry of the Greeks, for poems of this class were written both CONVIVIAL POETRY. 169 by iEolians and Dorians. The most popular of these lyrical compositions were the Scolia. The guests at a banquet passed a branch of myrtle from one side to the other of the table, and each in turn, as he held it, was called upon to sing a few verses. The connexion of metre and subject was preserved throughout the whole series of singers, and the whole poem thus sung was termed oxofaov. These compositions did not, as might be expected, merely celebrate the plea- sures and enjoyments of social life, but were fre- quently vehicles of sage and wise reflexions, or of free and patriotic sentiments. Grave and solemn as was the natural temper of the Dorians, their lyric poetry permitted the introduc- tion of light and secular subjects. The songs which enlivened the banquet did not always speak the words of wisdom ; they were sometimes, as might be expected, during hours of unrestrained freedom and social relaxation, joyous and voluptuous, as those of the iEolians, and not unfrequently coarse and licen- tious. The following scolia, by Pittacus, Simonides, and Callistratus, will exhibit the general scope and ten- dency of these compositions : — 7,vvet(Jjv iarlv avcipuip Hplv yEvsadai to. Sw^epf} Hpovorjaai 07twq prj yivqraC ^Avlpeioiv 11, yEv6p.eva ev Seadai. Against each ill provides the prudent breast : The brave man feels whatever is is best. 170 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. "Yyiaiveiv fJL'ev apurrov ctvdpl $va.Thi' Asvrepov Ce, Ka\6v (j>vav yEvsaQai' To rpirov eg, nXovTEiv a'co'Xwe* Kai to Teraprov, f](3q,v perd twv opr]ff(t), k. t. X. I '11 wreathe my sword in myrtle bough — The sword that laid the tyrant low, When patriots, burning to be free, To Athens gave equality. Harmodius, hail ! though 'reft of breath, Thou ne'er shalt feel the stroke of death ; The heroes' Happy Isles shall be The bright abodes allotted thee. I '11 wreathe my sword in myrtle bough, — The sword that laid Hipparchus low ; When at Minerva's adverse fane He knelt, and never rose again. While freedom's name is understood, You shall delight the wise and good ; You dared to set your country free, And gave her laws equality. There were also other songs (Kccgoivia), which were purely convivial ; tc^oi, or songs accompanied with dances on occasions of domestic rejoicings ; and sKidcc- \d[jbicc, sung at marriages in honour of the bride. The following were the principal lyric poets who flourished during this, its first period : — EUMELUS, ALCMAN. 171 Eumelus, (about) B.C. 768. Eumelus, a a native of Corinth, who lived in the early Olympiads. He was the author of epic poems, and also an historical poem, the subject of which was Corinth. The lyrical production for which he is known, is a prosodion in honour of Apollo ; and whilst doubt rests upon the genuineness of the other poems which are ascribed to him, this was considered by Pausanias, as his work. b He is not placed by the Alexandrian grammarians in their canon of nine lyric poets. These were Alcman, Alcaeus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides, Bacchylides, and Pindar. Alcman, (about) B.C. 671. Alcman, whom tradition hands down as the great- est lyric poet of whom Sparta could boast, was a native of Sardis ; brought to Sparta as a slave, he was emancipated, and naturalized as a citizen. He lived, according to Suidas, about B.C. 671. Muller says, that he was a child at the close of the reign of Ardys, B.C. 629. The period of his poetical career at Sparta, was that immediately succeeding the second Messenian war. Probably the high reputation which he enjoyed was owing to the fact, that his adopted countrymen had now, for the first time, leisure to devote themselves to the refinements of poetry, as 3 See Matihiae Hist, of Lit. b Paus. iv. 4, § 1. 172 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. the fragments which have come down to us, scarcely warrant the estimation in which they were held, or the title awarded to him of the principal lyric poet. His poems comprehend all the species of lyric composition above mentioned, and his love songs, of which style of poetry he is said by Suidas to have been the inventor, are distinguished by a voluptuousness, which forms a marked contrast to the severity of the Dorian character. The poems for which he was most famed were parthenia. These were choruses, sung by bands of virgins, and accompanied by music, in which science he was a proficient. They were of a solemn kind, and their subjects were of a religious character. Arion, (about) B.C. 628. Arion, who is said to have been the inventor of the dithyrambus, was also a lyric poet ; he was a native of Lesbos, and a friend of Periander of Corinth, and therefore lived about B.C. 635. The following legend is told respecting him, by Herodotus, on the authority of the Corinthians and Lesbians. a Having made a voyage to Italy, and earned a large sum of money, he hired a Corinthian vessel at Taren- tum, in order to return to the court of Periander. The sailors, tempted by his wealth, determined to throw him overboard, but he, discovering their inten- tion, entreated them to take his money, but spare his a Herod, i. 24. . ARION, ALCEUS. 173 life. His prayers were ineffectual, for they only gave him the alternative, of either killing himself, in order that he might obtain the rites of burial, or leaping into the sea. Arion then besought the sailors, that they would permit him to stand in the stern of the vessel and sing. Delighted at the prospect of hearing him, they consented. Taking therefore his cithara, he sang the Orthian nome, and when his strain was ended, he leaped into the sea, and a dolphin bore him safe to Tsenarus. A monument at Taenarus commemorated this legend in the days of Herodotus, and, in after ages, the poet and his harp were immortalized among the constellations. Alcjeus, (about) B.C. 610. Alcaeus was also a Lesbian, a native of Mitylene, whose patriotism shone forth in his military prowess, a as well as in his impassioned poetry. b At the very commencement of his poetical career, B.C. 610, his native country was distracted by those contests between the aristocratic and democratic parties, which were the curse of every Greek state at some period of its history. Alcseus was noble, and therefore supported the aristocratic faction. The success of democracy led as usual to the establishment of a tyranny, and Alcseus and his brother were exiled. After a time he returned, and headed an unsuccessful attempt to restore the aristocratic party to power. 3 Hor. Od. i. iii. 2 ; n. xiii. 28. b Quinct. xi. 63. 174 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. On this occasion, the celebrated Pittacus was elected tyrannus by the people. His moderation led him to pardon Alcseus and the exiled nobles, not- withstanding the literary provocations with which the poet had assailed him, magnanimously saying that forgiveness is better than revenge. He then became a wanderer from his native land, and died in exile. His poems are especially interesting, as having fur- nished to Horace, not only a metrical model, but also the subject-matter, of some of his most beautiful odes. They may be divided into three classes. 1. Hymns, some of which relate, in simple and graceful verse, some favourite legend of the deity to whom they were addressed ; for example, the adventures of Mer- cury, imitated by Horace. a 2. Odes, which sing the praises of love and wine, of which the most beautiful are those which he addressed to the object of his admiration, even more than of his love, the poetess Sappho. b Miiller ob- serves, that his drinking songs were not invitations to mere sensual enjoyment, but universally connected with reflections on the circumstances of the times, or upon man's destiny in general. 3. But it is in the third class of his poems that the peculiar features of the mind of Alcaeus are especially exhibited, viz., his zeal as a political par- tizan, and his hearty devotion to the principles of his party. These poems were called ^/^oo-rac/acr/^a, a Hor. Od. i. 10. b Arist. Rhet. i. 9. ALC^US, SAPPHO. 175 or party poems. One of them is imitated by Horace, a in that ode in which he describes the state, during times of civil commotion, as a tempest-tossed vessel, the sport of the winds and waves ; a metaphor which has been adopted by poets and orators in every age. There is another, also imitated by Horace, b in which, transported with joy at the liberation of his country from the tyranny of Myrsilus, he exclaims, Now is the time for drinking, since Myrsilus is dead. Sappho, (about) b.c. 610. Contemporary with Alcseus, and perhaps even more admired, was the much calumniated Sappho. She was a woman of the liveliest fancy, and the most ardent passions. Warmhearted, and endowed with more than common tenderness of disposition, openness, and candour, which made it impossible for her to conceal her inmost thoughts, or to veil her feelings in words less warm than the feelings themselves, have caused her character to be maligned, and her motives misinterpreted. Miiller remarks, " That the strict morality with which she reproves the licentiousness of her brother Charaxus, fully acquits her of levity of character, inasmuch as her reproof would have been her own condemnation." It is not, of course, to be supposed that Sappho was purer-minded than other women of her age, but there a Hor. Od.i. U: b Ibid. i. 37. e On this subject see Welcker, Sappho befreit, &c. Gott. 1816. 176 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. is no evidence for believing that she was inferior to them in morality. She was the native of a country in which little restraint was put upon the indulgence of the softer passions, whose poets were accustomed to express their amatory feelings in the warmest language. She, therefore, as a poet, would naturally pour forth her feelings in similar strains, she would forget her sex in the enthusiasm of inspiration, but it by no means follows that in her conduct she would forget her sex's modesty. It must be remembered that Sappho was an iEolian, and therefore enjoyed far more liberty and public intercourse with general so- ciety than Ionian women, who lived in a retirement and seclusion almost like that of Orientals, with the sole exception that they were actively employed in the management of domestic concerns. Hence the Athenians were likely to consider the openness with which Sappho expressed those feelings which women instinctively conceal, as unmaidenly, nay, even as unfeminine. It is true that she does not hesitate to pour forth her passionate accents in the most glowing language, but then in her case, it was thinking aloud; nor did she know the duty of concealment. She seems to have instinctively felt that poets have a right a to dare anything. Nor was there a calumny breathed against her for generations after her death. The Athenian comic poets were the first to slander her, and to attack her, as they were wont to attack the female sex generally. Their accusations, moreover, a Hor. Art. Poet. CHARACTER OF SAPPHO. 177 were addressed to an audience from which women were excluded, and at a period when the virtuous of the sex were denied that education which would have fitted them to be companions of men of refine- ment, and thus were degraded from their proper place in society. Sappho's reputation was first assailed when accomplishments were possessed by the licen- tious alone of the female sex, and the mere fact of being a poetess would have been sufficient to create a prejudice against her. Her poems were* principally epithalamia and hymns, and as, among the Latin poets, Horace delighted to imitate Alcseus, in his nobler odes, and adopted the metre of Sappho in his lighter and softer poems; so the sweetest and most poetical of them all, Catullus, a often appropriated the impassioned thoughts, and nature-loving imagery of Sappho, — the brightest of those bright female minds which throw a lustre over Greek lyric poetry. b Of one of her poems, the wise Solon is said to have exclaimed, that he would not be content to die, until he had committed it to memory. And it is a matter of the deepest regret that so few fragments of her compositions are pre- served. The following are faithful translations of two, which have always been admired for their sin- gular beauty : — Blest as the immortal gods is he, The youth who fondly sits by thee, And hears and sees thee all the while Softly speak, and sweetly smile. a See Catul. li. b Stobseus, xxix. 28. VOL. I. N 178 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 'Twas this deprived my soul of rest, And raised such tumults in my breast ; For while I gazed, in transport tost, My breath was gone, my voice was lost. My bosom glowed ; the subtle flame Ran quick through all my vital frame ; O'er my dim eyes a darkness hung, My ears with hollow murmurs rung. In dewy damps my limbs were chilled ; My blood with gentle horrors thrilled, My feeble pulse forgot to play, I fainted, sank, and died away. Ambeose Phillips. Ad Lesbiam. Ille mi par esse deo videtur, Ille, si fas est, superare divos, Qui sedens adversus identidem te Spectat, et audit Dulce ridentem • misero quod omnis Eripit sensus mihi ; nam simul te, Lesbia, aspexi, nihil est super mi Voce loquendum. Lingua sed torpet ; tenues sub artus Flamma dimanat ; sonitu suopte Tinniunt aures ; gemina teguntur Lumina nocte. Catullus. Hymn to Venus. Venus, beauty of the skies, To whom a thousand temples rise, Gaily false in gentle smiles, Full of love-perplexing wiles ; goddess, from my heart remove, The wasting cares and pains of love ! TRANSLATION FROM SAPPHO 179 If ever thou hast kindly heard, A song in soft distress preferred, Propitious to my tuneful vow, 0, gentle goddess ! hear me now, Descend, thou bright immortal guest, In all thy radiant charms confess'd. Thou once didst leave almighty Jove, And all the golden roof above ; The car, thy wanton sparrows arew, Hovering in air they lightly new ; As to my bower they wing'd their way, I saw their quivering pinions play. The birds dismiss'd (while you remain). Bore back their empty car again ; Then you with looks divinely mild, In every heavenly feature smiled, And asked what new complaints I made, And why I call'd you to my aid. What frenzy in my bosom raged, And by what cure to be assuaged ; What gentle youth I would allure, Whom in my artful toils secure. Who does thy tender heart subdue — Tell me, my Sappho, — tell me who ? Though now he shuns thy longing arms, He soon shall court thy slighted charms ; Though now thy offerings he despise, He soon to thee shall sacrifice. Though now he freeze, he soon shall burn, And be thy victim in his turn. Celestial visitant, once more, Thy needful presence I implore ! In pity come and ease my grief, Bring my distempered soul relief; Favour thy suppliant's hidden fires, And give me all my heart desires. Ambrose Phillips. n2 180 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Respecting her biography but little is known ; the principal authorities are, the Parian marble, and the traditions contained in Ovid's epistle of Sappho a to the imaginary Phaon. She was born either at Eresos or Mitylene, about the forty-second Olympiad, and was therefore a contemporary of Alcseus, Stesichorus, and Pittacus. Her fathers name has been variously stated, and he died when she was six years old. Her mother's name was Cleis, She had three brothers, Larychus, Cha- raxus, and Eurygius. She married an Andrian, named Cercolas, by whom she had one daughter, who was named after her mother Cleis. Her life, like that of many other Lesbian women of talent and refinement, was passed in literary pursuits, in the midst of a circle of female friends and pupils of her own sex, to whom she was devotedly attached. Amongst them are preserved the names of Anagora of Miletus, Goggyla of Colophon, and Eunice of Salamis, b and from the epithet yegotirsgu, which she applies to herself, it is evident that she lived beyond the prime of life. Besides elegies, iambics, and monodies, she wrote nine books of lyric poems, and is said to have invented the plectrum. The whole romantic story of Sappho's love for Phaon, and her leap, in the despair of disappointed love, from the Leucadian promontory, are legendary. That Sappho, in her amatory poems, delighted to sing of the loves of Aphrodite and Adonis, is very a Heroid. xv. b Fr. 20. c Suidas, s. v. LEGEND OF PHAON. I 81 probable, and hence, the last line of the Sapphic stanza was termed by the grammarians, an Adonian. Hesiod a also states that a child named Phaethon was carried away by Aphrodite. This name may perhaps have become corrupted into Phaon, and substituted, in the legend, for that of Adonis ; and if made the subject of any of Sappho's odes, may have come to be considered as the name of a lover of her own. b A similar account may be given of the Leucadian rock, since a legend of the same kind forms part of the love-tale of Adonis and Aphrodite. Perhaps, as has been suggested, the whole legend originated in the poets having spoken of a violent passion, as one which could only be cured by a leap from the Leu- cadian promontory. The rhythm of her poems, with some slight variations, is essentially the same as that of her fellow-countryman Alcaeus. The following neatly-turned epigram is extant in honour of the ad- mired poetess : — Evve'a rag ^lovaac (paaiv rivet,'' wc oXtywpwe* 'YLvice Kai Ha~ History of Literature, s. v. DEATH AND EPITAPH OF ANACREON. 189 strength of mind, to restrain his appetite; but his refinement was greater, and his temperament natu- rally melancholy. He saw the hollowness of mere selfish enjoyment, and he gave utterance to his glow- ing spirit in lamentations on the shortness and sorrows of life. Anacreon was probably a man of strong pas- sions, and possessed one of those vigorous and healthy physical constitutions which even debauchery and self-indulgence fail to destroy. At any rate he is said to have attained the age of eighty-five years, and even then (about B.C. 480) to have died not of disease, but by accidentally swallowing a grape-stone. This legend, however, bears so much the appear- ance of having been invented, because such a death was not inappropriate to a lover of conviviality, that it is scarcely deserving of credit. He was buried in his native country ; and his friend Simonides wrote two epitaphs to his memory. Another, also, is preserved in the Greek " Anthology," of which the following is a translation by an anonymous author : — QdWot TETpaKOpVfJLtoQ, K. T. X. This tomb be thine, Anacreon ; all around Let ivy wreathe, let flow'rets deck the ground, And from its earth enriched with such a prize, Let wells of milk and streams of wine arise ; So will thine ashes yet a pleasure know, If any pleasure reach the shades below. 190 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. siMONiDES, born B.C. 556. Simonides a was born in the island of Ceos, 01. lvi. i. (b.c. 556). His family was connected with the Diony- siac worship, and the part which he himself, when a boy, is said to have taken in this poetical worship pro- bably fostered his natural genius for poetry. The principal part of his life was spent at Athens, at the court of Hipparchus. How long after the expul- sion of the tyrants he remained at Athens is uncer- tain, but he next removed to Thessaly, where he en- joyed the patronage of two families, the Aleuadse and Scopadse. A legend is told by Cicero, b relating to the life of the poet in Thessaly. In a triumphal ode in which he had sung the praises of Scopas, he introduced also those of Castor and Pollux. Scopas, therefore, asserted that the two heroes should fairly pay half the promised premium for his poem. During the banquet it was told Simonides that two young men were at the door who wished to speak with him. He obeyed the summons, but found no one there ; and in his absence the banqueting-room fell and crushed Scopas and his friends. After this event the heaven- protected poet returned to Athens, where, in his eightieth year, he gained, for the fifty-sixth time, the prize in the dithyrambic chorus. The last years of his long life were spent at the court of Hiero. Amongst all the eminent literary men whom the taste and a MatthisD, History of Literature. b Cicero, de Nat. ii. 86. EPITAPH ON ARCHEDICE. 191 munificence of the tyrant attracted to Syracuse, Simo- nides was his chief favourite. He was a more worldly- minded man than the high-souled Pindar, and could far more easily adapt himself to the manners of a court, and the society of a prince. Simonides was also, to a certain extent, a philo- sopher, as well as a poet. He possessed stores of moral and political wisdom, which rendered him a valuable counsellor to Hiero, as well as an agreeable companion. As a lyric poet he was inferior to Pindar, his style is not adorned with that sublime beauty, that variety of imagery and illustration. But though sur- passed in lyric power by him who brought the ode to perfection, he stands unrivalled in the neatness and elegance of his epigrams, and the mournful and affec- tionate strains of his elegiac poetry. As he was the first to use the elegiac metre for funeral songs and monumental inscriptions, so in the skill and force with which he used it, he has never been equalled. The simple epitaph on Archedice, the daughter of Hippias, ' A^oc uourrtvffMros, k. r. a. is well known to every reader of Thucydides, and the following quaint yet faithful translation will give some idea of its neatness to the English reader : — Archedice, the daughter of King Hippias, Who in his time Of all the potentates of Greece was prime, This dust doth hide, Daughter, wife, sister, mother, unto kings she was, Yet free from pride. Hobbes. 192 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Many a touching epitaph may be read in the " An- thologia," written by him in honour of the patriot warriors of Greece, who fell in the Persian war at Salamis, and Artemisium, and Thermopylse, and Ma- rathon. With the elegy written in honour of those who fell at the last-mentioned of these glorious occa- sions he vanquished iEschylus himself. 41 Probably the terrible and majestic style of the great tragic poet was ill adapted to inspire tenderness and sympathy. BACCHYLIDES. Bacchylides belonged to a family in which, as was so often the case, poetry was followed as an hereditary pro- fession. He was the nephew of Simonides. Nothing is known respecting his life, except that he was born at Ceos, that he lived with Simonides and Pindar at the court of Hiero, and was a rival of Pindar, al- though it can scarcely be believed that he was a worthy one, As far as a judgment can be formed from the few relics extant of his numerous and various poems, they exhibit polish, correctness, delicacy, and orna- ment, but not the fire or fervour of Pindar. His excellence was the result of education rather than of natural poetic inspiration. The emperor Julian is said to have drawn from the lyrics of Bacchylides rules for the conduct of life, so highly did he appreciate their ethical value. b The following epigram will furnish a a 01. lxxii. 3. b Pearce's Longinus. ERA OF PINDAR. 193 specimen of the sentiments frequently found in the poetry of Bacchylides : — AvBia fxkv yap \idog Mavvei ypvaov 'AvBputv B' dperdv Y.O(piav re TtayKparris 'EXey^a d\{]deia. " The touchstone tries the purity of gold, And by all-conquering truth man's worth and wit is told." pindar, born B.C. 517. Pindar flourished on the confines of the two great literary periods. iEschylus was his contemporary ; and therefore the Attic drama was attaining perfec- tion at the very time when assembled Greece listened with rapt attention to the inspired effusions of his lyric muse. His genius, however, was totally inde- pendent of Attic taste, and had nothing in common with it; and although his earliest composition was probably written but three years before iEschylus exhibited his first tragedy, their walks were perfectly distinct ; they arrived at eminence by two parallel but different paths ; they belonged to different schools of art and different ages of poetry. With Pindar the independent existence of Dorian lyric poetry ceased, whilst iEschylus was the founder of the drama strictly so called, which only incorpo- rated lyric odes as adjuncts, and assigned them a place, which gradually became more and more sub- ordinate. But whilst Pindar is considered as belong- vol. i. o 194 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. ing to the earlier period of Greek literary history, it must not be forgotten that the era in which he flourished was preeminently fitted for the develop- ment of his genius. The germ of Greek national talent was just unfolding itself. At the festivals where Pindar sang his songs of triumph, assembled Greece was now beginning to feel, for the first time, her greatness as one united nation. The Greeks were now ready to act in concert in any great enter- prize ; they were already animated by that oneness of spirit which, notwithstanding occasional defections and treacherous desertions from the national cause, enabled them successfully to resist the power of Persia. Pindar, though a Dorian, could regard Ionian Athens without jealousy as the centre of that union around which the rest of Greece was grouped and clustered ; and in the presence of Greeks of every race and blood congregated at their games, which were the symbols of union, he could extol her praises with- out fearing to excite Dorian jealousy. The ground on which Pindar took his stand was a neutral one, in which all Greeks could meet without any worse feel- ings than a spirit of generous rivalry. Pindar, the greatest of all Greek lyric poets, was born at Cynoscephalse, a Theban village in the native country of Hesiod and Corinna. The date of his birth is, according to Matthise, 01. lxv. 3, B.C. 517, but Clin- ton places it one year earlier, and Miiller in B.C. 522. The Persian war, whilst it concentrated the warlike spirit of Greece in one united effort, and thus assured POETRY NOT INDIGENOUS IN BCEOTIA. 195 her safe position amongst the nations of the world, gave strength and vigour and enthusiasm to the poetic faculty. Still, however, poetry was the wild out- pourings of inspiration ; it disdained the rules of art ; it could not be criticised according to any principles of taste. But when the war was over, and tran- quillity ensured, and the ascendancy of Athens esta- blished, and thus itself elevated to the rank of a capital of Greece, it became a school of poetry, and the art did not depend upon the independent taste of each individual poet, but seemed to recognize some general scientific principles. It has already been said, that the literary and poetic talent of Boeotia, as exhibited in Hesiod and his school, was not indigenous, but was introduced from foreign climes. A band of settlers from Asia formed a settlement in her fertile plains, and the pastoral valleys hidden in the recesses of her mountains. The Theban Cadmus, the literary civilizer of Greece, is fabled to have come from Tyre. The Phoenician colo- nists, together with letters, introduced poetry, and sowed those seeds which afterwards brought forth fruit in their adopted country. The poetry of those Se- mitic nations from which they came, contained, as we see in the sacred writings, every species of composi- tion, with the exception of the dramatic alone. The worship of Dionysus probably prevailed in early ages in this land of grapes and vineyards, and, together with its wild dithyrambic poetry, was soon natu- ralized in Thebes and its territory. His worship o 2 196 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. was a rural worship, and its rites and ceremonies were naturally adapted to the rural habits of the Boeotian agriculturists and herdsmen. The music of the flute, the favourite instrument of Dionysiac wor- ship, soon began to be heard, where hitherto had only been heard the harp of the Ismenian Apollo. The worship of the Sun God and the Wine God became amalgamated ; and soon the wilder and more licen- tious foreign rites supplanted the purer worship of their older deity in the affections of a rude and coarse-minded people. This is a brief sketch of the probable origin of that Boeotian poetry which Pindar and his fair instructors and rivals, Myrtis and Corinna, brought to perfection. The epic poetry of Hesiod and his school had taken its external form from that which was prevalent in Ionia. This school had now ceased for centuries, and in the choral worship of Dionysus originated the wild ode of Pindar. The worship of Dionysus was joyous and exhila- rating, like the wine of which he was the patron. The shrill accompaniment of the flute was therefore better adapted to its romping dances than the stately lyre. The early Greek flute was like the fife; its tones sharp, lively, thrilling, and it produced that in- spiriting effect which renders the fife so suitable to martial music. This kind, therefore, of instrumental music was much cultivated in Boeotia, and the father of Pindar, whose name is said to have been Daiphan- tus, was a flute-player; but Pindar's genius disdained to confine itself to his paternal profession. He went LIFE OF PINDAR. 197 to Athens, and became a pupil of Lasus, the dithy- rambic poet, to learn the laws of metrical arrange- ment, so far as they were then understood, and the theory of adapting poetry to the necessary accompa- niments of music and dancing. It is probable, how- ever, that Pindar had not much education, for he reproaches Simonides and his nephew, Bacchylides, with being (juddovreg, as though he felt the truth of the proverb, that a man must be born a poet, but cannot be made one. At an early age, B.C. 502, he wrote his tenth Py- thian, in honour of a noble Thessalian, named Hip- pocles. His reputation soon spread throughout Greece and her colonies, and even all those countries of Europe which were accustomed to send their distin- guished natives as competitors at the games. No nation ever felt a more ardent thirst for fame and distinction than the Greeks, they lived upon praise, they were eminently social, and therefore nothing was so valuable to them as the position which they occupied in the eyes of others. They felt that the aid of such a poet as Pindar was essential to the attainment of this end ; and, therefore, every tribute of affection and respect was universally lavished upon the Boeotian bard. All felt that on his tribute of praise depended immortality. Athens appointed him her resident irgo%evog, or consul, at Thebes, and pre- sented him with ten thousand drachmae, and, after his death, honoured him with a statue. a But the a Isocr. ITfpt 'Avrtc). Pausan. i. 8. 198 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. most generous of all his patrons was Hiero of Sy- racuse. This munificent promoter of literature, as we have seen, occupied in Sicily a place similar to that of Pisistratus at Athens. At his refined and polished court all literary men found kindness and protection. Four years he resided at the court of Hiero, but his usual residence was Thebes. He was not made to be a courtier ; his was a noble, truthful, independent spirit, which could praise, but not flatter. Politics and public affairs, which were alien to the subjects of his poetry, had no interest for him; but he was always ready to use his influence as a poet to quell those factious disputes which even then distracted Thebes, and his heart was ever open to sympathise with the sorrows of his countrymen, as well as to celebrate their triumphs and victories. The time of his death is as uncertain as that of his birth, but he is said to have attained the age of eighty years. The style of his poetry was as varied as his metrical har- monies. He wrote dithyrambs, odes to be sung at processions and by female choruses, encomiums, dirges, scolia, hyporchemes, and epinician, or tri- umphal odes. With the exception of fragments and quotations, none are preserved except the epinicia, but the care with which these have been handed down from generation to generation justifies the assumption that they are the most valuable of his works. The odes of Pindar cannot be classed in point of style with any other species of poetry, although parts of them resemble and partake of the nature of all EPINICIAN ODES. 199 kinds. The mythological epic, the mournful elegy, the didactic nome, the triumphal dithyramb, the sacred paean, have all and each of them their coun- terparts in his poems, but still these poems form a species by themselves. Hence ancient critics ap- plied to them the title of iilrj, a term which implies specific poems coming under no certain designation. The epinician odes were composed in honour of the victor at the four great games of Greece, and therefore are arranged in four divisions, the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian. Amongst them, however, are found a few in honour of conquerors at other subordinate festivals. The return of a victor at the games to his native city, was an event celebrated with public rejoicings and solemn religious thanksgivings. A procession welcomed the successful hero, and attended him to the temple, sacrifices were offered, and the banquet which usually accompanied sacrifices followed. The triumphal ode, the principal feature in the solemnity, was sung, partly like the strophes and antistrophes of the dramatic chorus, as the procession moved along, partly like the stasima and epodes during intervals of rest. The festival was prolonged to a late hour, and ended with a joyous revel, which was called zaJ(Log. At this revel the praises of the victor were again sung, and the poem which celebrated them was, from its being sung in the comus, termed an enco- mium. Besides his general merit as a poet, the peculiar 200 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. skill which Pindar exhibited, was the interweaving other cognate incidents with the immediate subject of his poem. The praise of the steeds and their owner, the merits of the athlete and the musician, would not have afforded sufficient variety ; and there- fore digressions, suggested by their names and persons, formed the staple materials of his odes. Plutarch asserts that Corinna recommended him to produce variety of effect by embodying in his odes mythological traditions, and, if this be true, to her first he may have been indebted for his peculiar artifice. These mythical traditions form a large portion of many odes, but they are never out of place, they are always suggested by the subject ; and though at times they are so long as to deserve the reproof with which Corinna qualified her instruction, " one ought to sow with the hand, not with the whole bag," they are not introduced without reason. At one time an apoph- thegm containing a mythical allusion, leads him to sub- join the whole legend in an expanded form; at another, the descent of the victor from heroic ancestors, na- turally leads to the celebration of their exploits ; at another, he connects the hero's family history with the ancient legends of the country to which he be- longs. This was a fruitful source of imagery. The glory of the individual was considered as reflecting credit on his country, the personal interest of the Greek was absorbed and merged in that of his na- tive land, and his victory was considered a national triumph. Hence every glorious recollection of ancient CHARACTERISTICS OF PINDAR'S POETRY. 201 times adapted to display national greatness, became a topic for the poet, certain of being acceptable to his hearers. In the odes of Pindar are visible the true majesty and grandeur of religious poetry, and the religious character of his mind, as well as his firm belief in a superintending providence, would not permit him to connect success with mere human causes. He always represents the gods as the givers of victory, and speaks of piety, and the fulfilment of relative duties, as the causes which recommended the conqueror to their favour. Nor did he neglect to warn the victor of the dangers of success, and the temptations which it offers to overweening pride. Humility, gratitude, and mo- deration in victory, are to him subjects of praise, and of the moral lessons which he teaches to those whose victories he is at the same time celebrating. The above are a few of the most striking charac- teristics of Pindar's poetry. It is not surprising that this proneness to digress and to depart far from his main subject, to which allusion has been made, and the overflowing stream of imagery which the analogical power of his mind supplied, render his plan confused, and his style full of obscurity. Like one hurried down the rapids of a river, and whirled round in its numerous eddies, the reader's head gets confused and loses sight of the poet's ideas from their very number and the rapidity with which he passes by them. The great feature of his mind was rapidity in 202 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. seeing analogies and resemblances ; one idea leads to another connected with it, and the poet is insensibly led away by a long train and succession of ideas, in which a connexion can always be traced, although he saw them far more quickly than the reader can hope to follow him. The criticism of Horace accurately describes this characteristic of the Pindaric ode. Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres Quern super notas aluere ripas Fervet, immensusque ruit profundo Pindarus ore. Hor. Od. iv. ii. The just and discriminating taste of the same Latin poet pronounced a judgment, the truth of which has been proved by the experience of every succeeding generation, namely, that his powers defy imitation or rivalry. Pindarum quisquis studet aemulari, Iule, ceratis ope Daedalea Nititur pennis, vitreo daturus Nomina ponto. Hon. Od. iv. ii. The rhythm of Pindar's metres appear to be, more than those of any other ancient poet, under the in- fluence of music; and the imperfect knowledge of Greek music which we possess, renders his metrical harmonies so difficult to analyse and explain. So much, however, as this is clear, that there was a recognized inseparable connexion between music and poetry, and that certain metres were considered as especially suited to each of the different modes. DORIAN, iEOLIAN, AND LYDIAN ODES. 203 Now, originally, there were only three modes, the Lydian, Phrygian, and Dorian. Afterwards, two more were introduced, the Ionian below, the iEolian above the Phrygian in musical pitch. The Ionian was a modification of the Phrygian, the iEolian of the Lydian. The graver and more stately metres were considered as more suitable to that mode of which the pitch was lower, whilst more appropriate expression was supposed to be given to rapid and lively mea- sures by that higher pitch which is always allowed to impart greater brilliancy of tone. If, then, the as- sumption be correct that the epinician odes of Pindar can be divided into Dorian, iEolian, and Lydian, according to the musical mode for which they are best adapted, the metre can be our only guide in this classification. The Dorian odes will be those of which the style is most epic in character, the systems gen- erally dactylic, and in which the structure of the verse approaches most nearly to the hexametrical rhythm. As the rhythm became lighter and more rapid, we should be inclined to consider that the musical accompaniment would be of a higher pitch, and so long as they were of an intermediate or mixed cha- racter, they might be classed as iEolian. Lastly, the brilliant Lydian mode must be confined to those odes which abound in the tripping dancing trochees, the liveliest and the gayest of all the Greek metrical systems. It may be still a matter of question whether there are sufficient grounds for this arbitrary arrange- ment of the odes of Pindar. 204 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. CHAPTER XIII. POETRY NATURALLY PRECEDES PROSE COMPOSITION. — CAUSES WHICH PROBABLY LED TO THE INTRODUCTION OF PROSE WRITING. THE CHANGE GRADUAL. — INFLUENCE OF POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES. — THE ERA OF THE SEVEN SAGES. PERIANDER. — PITTACUS. — THALES. SOLON. CLEOBULUS. BIAS. CHILON. — SACERDOTAL AND ORPHIC LITERATURE. IONIA THE PARENT OF PROSE LITERATURE AS WELL AS OF POETRY. THE LOGOGRAPHI. THE CHARACTER OF THEIR WORKS. THEIR AUTHORITY. — CADMUS. — ACUSILAUS. HECAT^JUS. Poetry being the natural and spontaneous language of the emotions, constitutes, as is evident, the only lite- rature in that period of mingled rudeness and refine- ment which lies between barbarism and advanced civilization. It is the natural outpouring and overflow of the feelings — it recognises no artificial limitations except the laws of metrical harmony and the metaphy- sical principles of grammar which the human mind, from its natural constitution, cannot disregard. It is the language of the imagination, and therefore of the creative and perceptive powers ; but it makes little de- mand upon the logical and reflective faculties. Prose writing, on the contrary, implies that all the intellec- tual powers are in a higher state of advancement, and more equally balanced : it is an effort not merely of genius but of reason. Hence many changes take place INTRODUCTION OF PROSE COMPOSITION. 205 in the subjects on which the human intellect is em- ployed before any alteration takes place in the outward form. Even the apparently uncongenial subjects of moral, physical, and political philosophy, enter into a national literature before it throws off the trammels of metre, and appears in the plainer but unusual, and less popular garb of prose composition. The introduction of prose literature was at first, probably, a matter of necessity, and afterwards of convenience. The in- creased extent of human experience, the wider field of knowledge and practical wisdom which began to be gradually explored, absolutely demanded the unre- strained freedom of prose. Either investigation must have been retarded or even stopped in its career, or some freer form substituted for the communication of ideas. Increased facility, moreover, in the art of writ- ing, would have a tendency to produce the same result. The rapidity of human thought was unwilling to sub- mit to unnecessary restraint when writing materials of a more convenient form furnished readier means of expression. But, notwithstanding the necessities of the case, the change was slow and gradual. In that epoch which is commonly called the era of the " Seven Wise Men of Greece," no complete separation had taken place between philosophy and poetry. These great men, whose names have been handed down to succeeding ages as the luminaries of their age, stand, as it were, upon the debatable land between the poetical and philosophical ages ; they were not undis- tinguished as poets, but, nevertheless, they owe their 206 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. reputation principally to their moral, political, and philosophical wisdom. The subjects of contemplation which interested the Greek mind, were now in a tran- sition state. The motives and principles of human conduct were beginning to be examined and analyzed in a more philosophical spirit ; but the results of obser- vation, whether moral or political, were expressed in verse even more frequently than in prose. The poli- tical state of Greece, moreover, at this period, caused legislative wisdom and an ability to deal with great social questions to be more highly valued than they had hitherto been, and the title of ao(p6g, or sage, was conferred on him who benefited his fellow-creatures by his practical knowledge, and illustrated his intel- lectual preeminence by his moral virtues. Revolutions were now taking place throughout the different Grecian states. The limited hereditary mon- archies (tfurgUoii fiuaikziui In) pqTo7g yi^MGi a ) were de- caying ; the aristocracies of birth were crumbling away. The scenes of bloodshed, the rending asunder of civil society necessarily preceding the introduction of free institutions among communities which had con- ceived a desire for them, but were not as yet suffi- ciently prepared to receive them, set men thinking on political subjects. The exigencies of the times turned the attention of deep and serious thinkers, who in the previous age would have been the poets of their times, to subjects of practical interest, to devise means for remedying these social evils. But the legislator, the a Thucyd. i. LAWS WRITTEN IN VERSE. 207 popular leader, and the tyrant, who devoted themselves to these studies, wrote in hexameters or elegiacs their practical precepts and wise admonitions ; nay, even the laws which they enacted for the benefit of the state. The laws of Charondas were, according to Her- mippus, written in verse, and even sung at banquets ; a and hence, probably, the application of the same term, v6(juog, both to a law and a metrical composition. 1 * The ancient Roman laws were likewise written in verse, and it is also said that the Turdetani in Spain had metrical laws. To this distinguished body belonged Zaleucus, the law-giver of the Epizephyrian Locrians ; Charondas, the Catanian ; and Epimenides of Crete, whose skill in cere- monies of purification caused him to be called in to purify Athens (b.c. 598), from the guilt and pollution which were considered as attaching to it, from the mas- sacre of Cylon and his followers (b.c. 612). But his fame is built upon a more stable foundation, namely, that he was the friend and assistant of Solon in framing his code of laws. Thus they addressed themselves to the feelings and old literary prejudices of the people ; and even the guests at the social board listened to the words of wisdom, instead of mere legends and heroic lays. These sages, because of the practical tendency of their compositions, deserved the title of, and pre- pared the way for, that class of writers which were after- wards called Gnomic poets, as well as for those who, like iEsop, veiled their words of wisdom and rules of a Athenseus, xiv. 3. b Arist. Prob. xix. 208 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. life under the enigmatical form of apologues, or fables {kitohoyo^ (avQoi), and still later for prose composition generally and the laborious investigations of the great philosophical schools, Asia and Greece. When speaking of the Seven Sages, it must be re- rembered, that this number is a mere arbitrary one ; different names have been given, of those who were to be admitted into this body; by some the number has been increased to eleven, or even more, whilst Plutarch and others mention only five. The four universally recognised, are Thales, Bias, Pit- tacus, and Solon; and the number is usually com- pleted by the addition of Cleobulus, Chilo, and Periander. The list authorised by Plato, a is identical with that given above, with the exception of substituting Myson, a native of the obscure village of Chense, of whose claims history is silent, in the place of Periander. According to Demetrius Phalereus, and all the best authorities, the epoch at which the Seven Wise Men were so named, was the archonship of Damasias, B.C. 586. The following legendary tale is told respecting them. A golden tripod was found in the nets of some Milesian fishermen, and the Delphian oracle being asked whose it should be, decreed that it should be given to the wisest man. The fishermen naturally thought of their distinguished countryman Thales. He, however, modestly declined it, and offered it to Bias of Priene. Thus it passed through the hands of a Protag. p. 343. THE SEVEN SAGES. 209 the seven in succession, and Solon, who received it last, dedicated it to Apollo, as alone worthy to be called " the wise." These sages lived between the years B.C. 665 and B.C. 540. Periander, the earliest of them, succeeded Cypselus as tyrant of Corinth, about B.C. 625. His public and private character have both been vehemently assailed, but only by those whose political principles rendered them his bitterest enemies. The times in which he ruled, made severe measures necessary, and these were easily misrepresented as tyrannical. The vigour with which he suppressed the aristocratic institutions of the Dorians, prove him to have been a friend to free and popular ones. a In all respects, he appears to have been a wise politician, a maintainer of public morality, a friend to commerce, and a munificent patron of art and literature. 5 The duration of his tyranny, and therefore the time of his death, is uncertain. It is not improbable that he owes his place amongst the Wise Men of Greece, rather to his political position than his literary eminence. A friend of wise men, and a promoter of learning, he displayed those quali- fications for which the Greek rvguvvoi were universally distinguished, the cultivation of wisdom and virtue, but he seems to have been a patron rather than a philosopher. Pittacus was born at Mytilene, B.C. 652. d His father * Miiller, i. 8, 3. b Arist. Pol. c Thucyd. vi. d Suidas, s. v. VOL. I. P 210 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. is said to have been a Thracian, his mother a Lesbian. In the revolution in B.C. 612, he, with Alcseus, joined the aristocratic faction. Six years later, he distinguished himself in a battle with the Athenians, in which Alcseus, like his imitator Horace at Philippi, left his shield, and fled from the field of battle. After a succession of rvgmvoi, Pittacus was at length chosen chief ruler of the state, abvpvqrqQ, a jurisdic- tion which he successfully administered during ten years, and then resigned it, at the request of the Lesbians. Aristotle, a on the authority of the poet Alcaeus, as- serts that Pittacus was a tyrant in the modern sense of the term, but the general testimony of antiquity is in favour of his virtue and patriotism. His cha- racter is usually described as consistent with two of his remarkable sayings, " A victory should be gained without bloodshed," and " Speak not evil of friends, or even of enemies." He died b.c. 569, having written six hundred elegiac verses, and a prose work, in defence of his laws. Thales, the most distinguished of the number, the founder of the Ionian philosophy, was born at Miletus, about B.C. 63 5. b In addition to the practical wisdom which obtained for him a place among the Seven Sages, his scientific investigations caused him to be regarded by Aristotle, as the first discoverer of mathematical a Pol. iii. 10. b Diog. Laert. i. 37 ; Clinton, p. 7. 1 Arist. Metaph. THALES, SOLON, CLEOBULUS. 211 and physical philosophy. He is said to have calcu- lated the solar eclipse which took place B.C. 609, and his engineering skill was exhibited in turning the course of the Halys, at the command of Croesus.* Solon, the celebrated Athenian archon and legis- lator, was born about B.C. 638. The date of his archonship was B.C. 594. He was related maternally to the family of Pisistratus. His practical wisdom was the result of personal experience, and acquired during foreign travel, in the capacity of a merchant, an occupation, which the extravagance of his father had rendered necessary. To enter upon the subject of Solon's institutions, which form the most interesting subject connected with his life, would be beside the purpose of this history. His poems, which are almost entirely moral and political, are more distinguished for their wisdom than for any poetical power ; their characteristics are simplicity and energy. His philosophical acquirements must have been of a high order, since Athens was indebted to him for the improvement and correction of the calendar, and the establishment of the trieteris, or cycle, which was completed at the termination of every two years. Cleobulus was a citizen of Lindus, in Rhodes, and a contemporary of Solon. His influence as a legis- lator has obtained for him the reputation of having been rvgwvos, or, like Pittacus, ahv^r^g of his native a Herod, i. 75. p2 212 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. city. Egyptian physical philosophy was by this time beginning to find its way into Greece, and Cleobulus is said to have been one of its professors ; hence some have supposed that he travelled to Egypt, and there became instructed in the principles of natural science. His fame rests, however, on his moral apophthegms, and not on his scientific discoveries. His daughter Cleobulina is frequently celebrated by the ancients for her elegant accomplishments and amiable hos- pitality^ Bias b was a native of the Ionian town of Priene, and flourished about B.C. 550. Little is recorded of him, except a few maxims of practical wisdom and proverbial sayings, and the fact related by Diogenes Laertius, that, after having pleaded a cause success- fully, he died suddenly at a good old age. Chilon was a native of Sparta, and filled the im- portant office of ephor. He flourished about B.C. 596. Herodotus c mentions that when Hippocrates was sacrificing at the Olympic festival, the caldrons boiled over without fire. Chilon being present, and thinking that this prodigy boded ill, advised him not to marry a woman likely to have children ; if already married, to divorce his wife, and if he had a son, to disown him. Notwithstanding this advice, Hippo- crates had a son. This was Pisistratus, the head of the revolutionary party, and afterwards tyrant of Athens. a Clem. Alex. Strom, iv. 19. b Herod, i. 27. ; Arist. Rhet, ii. 13. ; Cic. de Am. 16. c Herod, i. 59. ORPHIC LITERATURE. 213 He is the reputed author of the celebrated maxim ymk aiuvrov (know thyself), and is said to have died of joy on his son being proclaimed victor in the Olympic games. A religious belief existed at this epoch, which exercised no slight influence upon literature.* The doctrine of a future state and an unseen world, had led the poets in their theogonies, to people the dark regions beneath the earth with their own peculiar deities, the yflovioi Szoi. The worship of these deities was of a mysterious nature; the doctrines taught, as connected with the immortality of the soul, were kept as invisible secrets, except for the initiated. Amongst these mysteries, the Eleusinian were deemed the most awful ; they were celebrated in honour of Demeter, the mother of Persephone, queen of the unseen world, who, every year snatched away from earth, was every year supposed to return in pristine beauty. By this myth was typified death, and the descent of the body into the grave, and the resto- ration of the soul to life and immortality. But be- sides these, there were other mysteries in honour of a Dionysus, who, according to some post-Homeric theogony, was considered a Chthonian deity . b Those who were initiated in them, professed to be dedicated to the mythic poet Orpheus, and, instead of attaching an idea of secrecy to their revelations, embodied them in the form of odes and. hymns, which are a Muller's Hist. Greek Literature, 233, &c. b Herod, ix. 81. 214 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. known by the name of Orphic poems. Thus, then, in the devotees of this worship, is visible the mixed character of priest and poet. They did not keep their doctrines secret, like the mysterious worshippers of Demeter ; their enthusiasm, developed in poetry, ex- tended beyond the inner circle of their own disciples, and influenced the popular creed. Hence they be- came invested with supernatural functions ; the know- ledge of the divine will and a spirit of prophecy were attributed to them, and they were believed to possess the power of influencing and propitiating the gods themselves. Amongst these sacerdotal poets, were Epimenides, whose priestly character has already been alluded to, Pherecydes of Syros, and Abaris, who is commonly called the Hyperborean. The lives of these sacerdotal authors belong to tradition rather than history, and in them there is consequently a large admixture of fabulous legend. Epimenides. Epimenides a is said to have been the son of a nymph of Crete, and a story is told of him which has found its way into the literature of other countries. It is said, that, overcome by the heat of the sun, he fell asleep in a cave, and so remained for fifty-seven years. Whilst he retained his youth, he found to his surprise, on his return home, that his brother had a Diog. Laert. i. 109. EPIMENIDES, PHERECYDES. 215 become an old man. Many works on ceremonial and genealogical subjects are attributed to him, but it is probable that scarcely any of them are genuine. Cicero a gives Epimenides the title of propheta, and St. Paul, who, from passages in his writings, 5 appears to have been well versed in Greek literature, quotes a line from his writings, in the Epistle to Titus. c "One of themselves, even a prophet of their own. said, ' The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.' " Pherecydes. Pherecydes, d although the period at which he flou- rished is uncertain, probably lived about B.C. 548. He is said to have been the first prose writer on philosophical subjects ; but even if this be the case, he can scarcely be termed a philosopher. Philosophi- cal investigation did not as yet exist, and although speculations on subjects of a philosophical nature were doubtless now paving the way for legitimate inquiry, they were, nevertheless, imitations and adaptations of the doctrines taught by the poets of the Hesiodic and Orphic schools. That he taught the doctrine of the metempsychosis, perhaps led to the prevalent belief that from him Pythagoras derived this portion of his system. But in his sacerdotal and prophetical cha- racter Pherecydes was more celebrated than as a poet and a philosopher. a De Divin. b See 1 Cor. xv. 33 ; Acts xvii. 28. c Tit. i. 12. d Suidas; Cic. Tusc. i. 16. 216 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Abaris. To relate the various traditions respecting Abaris would be beyond the compass of this work. He is called a Hyperborean, 3 which implies that he was devoted to the worship of Apollo ; the unknown regions north of the Caucasus being considered as under the protection of that deity. He cured dis- eases, lived without food, and was supposed to be the author of a theogony in prose. b The best authorities fix the time at which he flourished about B.C. 570. Such was the literature of the period which imme- diately preceded and introduced prose composition. Although the Muse of Greece had her European dwelling-place amongst the Pierians in the valleys of Parnassus and Helicon, and was nurtured there by Hesiod and his countrymen, it was in Ionia that she attained her maturity and perfection. Moreover, on tracing the gradual progress and development of Greek literature, it is evident that Ionia was not only the nurse of early epic poetry, and its protector from the influence of Dorian rudeness, but that, with few exceptions, literature of every kind was the offspring of the Ionian mind. The influence of Ionian genius is visible in the satire of the iambic metre, the plain- tive sadness and martial enthusiasm or the terse neatness of the elegy, the wisdom of didactic poetry, and the wit of parody and fable, and, in later times, the peculiar characteristic part of the Greek drama, a Herod, iv. 36. b Lobeck's Aglaoph. RELATION OF PROSE TO POETRY. 217 both tragedy and comedy, is due to the Attic branch of the Ionian race. The Ionian Greeks also were the earliest authors of prose as well as of poetry. In investigating the origin of prose literature, it must be remembered that the object of Greek poetry was recitation. Previous to the invention of writing it was necessarily confined to this ; and even after this epoch the scarcity and inconvenience of materials for writing caused authors to compose their works for hearers and not for readers. The time for recitation, too, was the hours of relaxation, the banquet, and the symposium, and when the art of music was cultivated, and a species of poetry introduced adapted to siuging instead of recitation, the cheering notes of the harp or flute accompanied the inspiration of the lyric bard. Poetry was, therefore, as has been observed, on all these accounts, the appropriate vehicle of thought, and even when a more philosophical and observant age demanded a more exact and perspicuous method of communicating knowledge, poetry for some time furnished the source from which the prose writers drew their stores. The logographi, as they were called, took the theogonies, the genealogies, and the vague philosophical speculations of their predeces- sors, the epic poets, translated them, as it were, into unmetrical and unadorned language, and invested legendary tales, mythological fables, traditional pedi- grees, or the physical hypotheses of a poetical ima- gination, with earnestness, reality, and truthfulness. The fact that the later epic poetry wore more of a 218 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. didactic garb, and exhibited more reflectiveness and more intimate acquaintance with the human heart and with the springs of moral action, prepares us to expect that when thought once indulged in the un- restrained freedom of prose, it would also devote itself to historical and philosophical inquiry. This proves to be the case ; but an examination of what is known respecting the earliest historical writers will show that, in these rude beginnings, there was no logical connexion between the events narrated, scarcely even any historical order. No distinction was made be- tween real and fictitious accounts, probably because, in the absence of personal observation and historical investigation, all were esteemed of equal value. Thu- cydides a tells us that popular traditions were generally received without inquiry as to their authenticity, and that people took little trouble to search after truth. The logographers collected together the traditions of the principal cities, and interspersed them with legends of gods and heroes, derived from poetical sources. They cared more for amusement than in- struction; they compiled their accounts not so much with a view to truth, as to give pleasure to their hearers. 5 The principle on which they generally en- deavoured to arrange their materials was a geogra- phical one. This plan of arrangement indicates that the leading ideas which had possession of their minds were rather those of a poet than of an historian. They were derived from the wonders of mythology and tra- a Thucyd. Hist. ii. 134. b Ibid. i. 21. WRITINGS OF THE LOGOGRAPHI. 219 dition, and from the picturesque features of countries which had become known to them by hearsay or ob- servation. These they would describe in a plain and simple style, and then, ^itb all the artlessness of children, relate the wonderful tales and traditions connected with them. a Such topics as these were full of interest for their hearers. They would sit for hours listening with breathless attention to the marvels of foreign lands, some of which were familiar to them, others only known by report, in the same way that the Italian will listen to the story-teller of modern times. Traces of this principle of connexion may be found at a more advanced epoch of historical literature, in the digressions of the later and better arranged his- tories of Herodotus. Small as must have been their real value, as vehicles of historic truth, the works of these logographi were looked upon as possessing some authority by the geographer Strabo and the historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus. It is evident from the above description, which is as specific as the sources from which our information is derived, that, although these writings are termed his- torical, there was nothing in them, excepting, perhaps, those of Hecataeus, approaching to historical records or annals. The Greeks, perhaps from want of union amongst themselves, and the consequent jealousy which existed between the different states into which a Dion. Hal. yi. 819 j Cic. de Or. ii. 12 ; Thucyd. i. 21. 220 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Greece was divided, or from there being amongst them no single individual whose personal vanity, like that of Eastern monarchs, would seek for monumental records of his exploits, had no national fasti ; they seemed, in fact — until Herodotus, by the brilliance and liveliness of his talents, gave a living interest to those scenes in which Greece had played so heroic a part — to undervalue the exploits of their own imme- diate ancestors, whilst absorbed in those of the heroic age. We look in vain, therefore, for such records as the pictorial inscriptions which enable us to determine and arrange the dynasties of Egypt, and the ancient cuneiform characters which promise hereafter to throw such light upon the histories of Assyria, Nineveh, and Babylon. The deficiency under which Greek history labours, in this respect, stands out in still stronger con- trast to the accurate, because inspired, literary records of the Jewish people. The theocracy amongst the Jews, and the monarchies of other Eastern nations, by different methods, produced similar historical results. God's immediate government of his chosen people has enriched us with a history of his dealings with man, authenticated by the infallibility of inspiration; and respect for a monarch, or the spirit of flattery, or personal vanity, has stored up in sculpture and paint- ing almost imperishable chronicles of the Oriental and Egyptian dynasties. These are the true materials of history, but they are not found in the first logogra- phic literature of Greece. The earliest of these quasi-historians, who belong CADMUS, ACUSILAUS. 221 to that period of literary history, which is contained in this book, were Cadmus and Hecatseus of Miletus, and Acusilaus of Argos. Pherecydes, of the island of Leros, belongs to the second or flourishing period of Greek literature. Cadmus, (about) B.C. 540. Cadmus is evidently confounded by Suidas with the Cadmus of mythical tradition, for he speaks of him as the introducer into Greece of the Phoenician alphabet. Josephus a states that he flourished soon after the Persian invasion, but the common opinion is, that he lived and wrote about B.C. 540. b Tradition speaks of him as the author of an historical work, on the foundation of Miletus and colonization of Ionia (xriffug M.i\rjrov zcct ''lavi'ctg). In what way he treated the subject, it is impossible to say, for it has perished ; and Dionysius pronounces the work bearing his name, which was extant in the Augustine age, to be a forgery. Acusilaus. Although Acusilaus was a native of Argos, he forms no exception to the statement already made, that Ionia was the nurse of the earliest historical literature of Greece; for so imbued was his mind with Ionic taste and intellectual cultivation, that the dialect in which he wrote was the Ionian. a Josephus, c. Apion. i. 2. b Miiller, Hist. Greek Lit. 222 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. What traces we possess of him prove, that his works consisted of a transcript in prose of the legends belonging to the mythical era, and some genealogies translated from Hesiod. Suidas a was not acquainted with any writings of Acusilaus, but only asserts that he compiled some genealogies from brazen plates, discovered by his father. The time when he flou- rished is uncertain, but it was, probably, soon after the age of Cadmus. Hecatjeus, (about) B.C. 540. Hecatseus is well-known to us, through the history of Herodotus, not only as a celebrated historian (XoyoKOiog), but also as taking a part in the political affairs of his country. When Aristagoras was per- suading the Ionians to revolt, he endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to dissuade them from the attempt. 5 Again, on the invasion of Ionia, by the Persian satrap Artaphernes, he recommended Aristagoras, as a tem- porary measure, to fortify and occupy the island of Leros. c In this case also his prudent counsels were disregarded. Both Miiller and Suidas place the epoch at which he wrote, earlier than these times of national difficulties. The former B.C. 540, the latter B.C. 520. If the testimony borne to his character is to be depended upon, the statesmanlike views exhibited in his public career are sufficient proof that he was fitted for discharging the duty of an historian, and the a Suidas ; Fragm. Acus. Museum Crit. i. 216 ; Plato, Symp. b Herod, v. 36. c Ibid. v. 124. HISTORY OF HECAT7EUS. 223 account we have of his love of foreign travel bears similar testimony to his probable faithfulness as a geographer. 4 His historical work was genealogical, and the sources from which he drew his materials were similar to those of his contemporaries; but still, unlike them, he appears to have applied a critical and philosophical spirit to the separation of that which appeared to be true, from that which was evidently traditional. He was, however, like other logographers, infected with a belief in mythical genealogies, for Herodotus 5 tells us, that he boasted, in the presence of the Egyptian priests, that he was the sixteenth in descent from a god. They are said to have completely refuted him, by the superior antiquity of their genealogical records. On his authority, the same historian rests his account of the early Pelasgian history. He was, evidently, far in advance of his age, and Herodotus had, doubtless, carefully studied his writings; but he had compared them with the results of his own observation, and, therefore, did not place undue con- fidence in him, and was not misled by his errors. Hence the unsparing ridicule which he casts upon his theory of the disc-like form of the earth, d the causes which led to the inundation of the Nile, and his romantic story of the sunny island of the Hyperboreans. 6 His geographical work bears marks of careful personal investigation, it is descriptive a Herod, v. 24. b Ibid. ii. 143. c Ibid. vi. 137. d Ibid. ii. 21. e Ibid. iv. 13, 33. 224 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. and interspersed with historical notices ; in connexion with his geographical knowledge, it must be remem- bered, that when Aristagoras visited Cleomenes, king of Sparta, in order to invite him to take part in the Ionian revolt, he is said to have taken with him a map of the country.* From the intimate relation in which Hecatseus stood to Aristagoras, it is probable that this was his work. At any rate, it is the earliest occasion on which this species of geographical illustration is mentioned, and it coin- cides with the era of Hecatseus. The map spoken of by Herodotus was probably founded on the system of this eminent geographer. Such progress had the Greek language already made, that the Ionic of Hecatseus is said to have been even purer than that of Herodotus. a Herod, v. 49. HISTORY OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 225 CHAPTER XIV. GREEK PHILOSOPHY OWED ITS ORIGIN TO THE GREEK MIND, AND NOT TO FOREIGN INFLUENCES. INFLUENCE OF RELIGION, POETRY, AND POLITICS. PHERECYDES OF SYROS FIRST TREATED OF PHILOSOPHI- CAL SUBJECTS. — THERE WAS, HOWEVER, AS YET NO PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEM. THALES THE FIRST PHYSICAL PHILOSOPHER. THE EARLI- EST PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINES DIFFICULT TO DISCOVER. — THE ORIENTAL ORIGIN OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY INSISTED ON BY COM- PARATIVELY MODERN AUTHORITIES. ARGUMENTS AGAINST THIS THEORY. — PERIOD AT WHICH ORIENTAL DOCTRINES WERE FIRST IN- FUSED INTO GREEK PHILOSOPHY. — POINT OF RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND POETICAL LITERATURE OF GREECE. — PHI- LOSOPHY FOLLOWED THE SUBDIVISIONS OF THE GREEK NATION. — THE IONIAN AND DORIAN SCHOOLS. THE ELEATIC SCHOOL ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER TWO. As philosophy is the expression of human thought, a history of Greek philosophy must necessarily obtain a place in a history of Greek literature. It has already been seen how in the intellectual progress of the Greek nation the subjects treated of in poetry became more philosophical in their character. The warlike adventures of the heroic age, which delight us in the Homeric poems, gave place to the theogonies and cos- mogonies of Hesiod ; physical and metaphysical theo- ries and speculations, — not, indeed, as yet founded on induction and observation, but as baseless and fanciful VOL. I. Q 226 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. as the most imaginative poetical effusions — were ex- pressed in the same metrical language to which alone the popular ear and taste were as yet accustomed. It is commonly assumed that the philosophy of Greece was of Oriental origin, but with this theory it is impossible to reconcile the phenomenon that dif- ferent systems sprang up, and opposing schools were formed simultaneously and independently of each other. If then the spirit of philosophical investigation, which was developed so early in the Greek nation, owed its beginnings to the Greek mind itself and not to foreign influences, the question arises, to what influences are we indebted for these invaluable trea- sures of intellectual power ? The three subjects which exercised the greatest influence in forming the Greek mind, and in directing its speculations, were religion, poetry, and politics. Impressed with a strong and lively sentiment of vene- ration for Deity, the Greek, when he began to think, was not long in perceiving how abhorrent to all pure and high views were the doctrines of the popular mythology. Again, when he turned his thoughts inward and contemplated his own nature, he naturally concluded that so far as man could form a conception of a Divine nature, it must be of a Being bearing some resemblance to the noblest part of himself, namely, his intellect. The same inquiring spirit, therefore, which aspired to investigate the laws of the universe, and the nature of that one Being or prin- ciple by which the order and operations of nature ORIGIN OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 227 were governed, would also seek to trace the operations of mind, and the laws which governed the intellect. Whilst the germ of philosophy may be thus traced even in the very mythical superstitions of Greek po- pular religion, a symbolical connection between the powers and processes of nature and the ceremonials of public worship was maintained by those mysteries which were revealed only to the initiated few. The popular religion recognized an indwelling of the Di- vine presence in every natural phenomenon and every visible created thing, and so far recognized also laws of nature, and therefore a subject for philosophical inquiry. The religion inculcated by the mysteries taught that the ceremonies, blindly and ignorantly per- formed, were symbolical of certain natural phenomena, and therefore prepared the initiated worshippers to contemplate not only the phenomena but the laws according to which the operations of nature were carried on. The religion of Greece, as well mystical as popular, taught that Nature worked in obedience to the Divine laws, and therefore the mind of Greece was thus pre- pared to inquire into and speculate upon the laws themselves. Again, the poetical sentiment led to similar re- sults. The devotional and poetical feelings are closely connected, and religious sentiments recognize in poetry, or in the outpourings of a fervid imagination, their appropriate vehicle of expression. None felt more deeply than the Greek this close Q 2 228 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. connection which unites the literature of speculative thought so closely with that of the imagination. Verse was the language of inspiration even in ages when prose writing had hecome common ; the revela- tions of Deity were given in verse ; a holiness invested the character of the poet as the favoured of heaven, and as owing his power to influence men's minds to direct inspiration. Poetry deals with the ideal, the immaterial ; it has to do with imagery ; its subjects are the creations of the mind. It invests things which have no real existence with a reality, so far as mental conceptions are concerned. Hence the same faculties which are devoted to the cultivation of poetry are easily diverted to the speculations of meta- physics, or even to that imaginative system of natural science which occupied the minds of the early philo- sophers. Lastly, the established relations of society and the institutions of a state arise out of a conception of the moral relations which men bear to one another, and, in their turn, exercise a reciprocal influence upon the notions which individuals form of these relations. Free institutions, such as those which distinguished the Ionian race, imply a jealousy, regard to right and justice, first as regards ourselves, next as regards any interference with the rights of others. It is easy, therefore, to see the influence which politics must have had upon the high and noble tone which per- vades Greek moral philosophy. Pherecydes of Syros, who lived in the era of the DOCTRINES OF PHERECYDES. 229 Seven Sages, about the 58th or 59th Olympiad,* is said to have first attempted to treat in prose of those subjects which may be considered philosophical, arid Herodotus b relates that he was one of the earliest who wrote on parchment, an invention ascribed to the Ionians. Living, as he did, in the infancy of philosophy, his speculations, though generally termed philosophical, were rather theological and mythical. " He stands, as it were/' says Aristotle, " on the boundary line between mythical poetry and philosophy." Early traditions assert that he derived his knowledge from the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and hence lie gained the reputation of a soothsayer and diviner; but there is no better authority for these statements than the theory which attributes to Oriental sources the origin of Greek philosophy. A belief in the metempsy- chosis is also attributed to him, and he is said to have taught this doctrine to Pythagoras. The passage d quoted by O. M tiller from the frag- ments of Pherecydes is the best adapted of any which can be adduced to show the nature of these early speculations. " Zeus," he writes, " Chronos and Chthonia existed from eternity. Chthonia was called Ge, since Zeus endowed her with honour." He next relates how Zeus transformed himself into Eros, the god of love, wishing to form the world from the original materials made by Chronos and Chthonia. a Matthiee, History of Greek Literature ; Suidas, s. v. h Herod, v. 58. c Aristotle, Met. xiv. 4. d Miiller, p. 241. 230 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. " Zeus makes a large and beautiful garment ; upon it he paints Earth and Ogenos (Ocean), and the horses of Ogenos, and he spreads the garment over a winged oak." This is evidently poetry, although expressed in prose ; assertion, and not speculation ; the germ from which philosophy was developed, but not philosophy. There is here no observation of natural phenomena, no attempt to investigate the connection between cause and effect ; and yet these are both absolutely necessary to constitute a system of physical science. Again, in the mythical traditions of Greek religion transmitted by the poets, originated many of the earliest so called philosophical dogmas. When Homer taught that Oceanus and Tethys were the progenitors of gods and men, he furnished the germ of the physical assumption that all things are in a perpetual flux. When Hesiod sang of Chaos and Eros as the parents of all existing things, he separated and distin- guished matter from the creative cause, a doctrine afterwards adopted by the Ionic school. As the habit of thought, which led to the specu- lations of physical philosophy grew gradually out of the mystical fables of religion and the fantastic crea- tions of the poets, so the principles of moral philo- sophy may first be traced in the isolated apophthegms and proverbs of moralists and politicians, like the Seven Sages. Observation of human character and motives ; of man's political and social relations made amidst the difficult and turbulent circumstances of Greek public life, rather than thought out in solitude, MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 231 led these great men to embody the results in short and terse sentences, which might make an impression by their novelty, and by their brevity be retained in the memory. These enunciations of condensed wis- dom were not confined to a few, like the obscure reasonings aud speculations of systematic philosophy, but were understood and appreciated by the people generally, and exercised a great influence over the popular mind. But great as was the reputation which the authors of these moral axioms enjoyed as wise and shrewd thinkers and sagacious observers of human nature, their isolated and unconnected apophthegms were as far from constituting a system of moral philosophy as the beautiful but fanciful fables, already spoken of, were from embodying the true principles of physical inves- tigation. Philosophy implies system, and system implies not merely a collection of independent dicta, however wise and true and well-founded they may be, but a logical sequence of cause and effect, a chain of propositions deduced in regular order from first principles, a mutual dependence of the several parts so close that the falsity of one shakes and endangers the safety of the whole. It is evident that, so far as the progress of the Greek mind has as yet been traced, no philosophical system, either physical or moral, is discoverable. The Hesiodic poets introduced into their poems subjects of a philosophic character, but they treated them as poets, and not as philosophers. The Orphic poems 232 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. merely related the legendary wonders of mythical religion, although, as they professed, like Hesiod, to give an account of what they believed to be the history of creation, they gave their poetry a philoso- phical appearance. The gnomic poets and the poli- tical sages merely expressed the results of their observation of human character in isolated axioms. Thales alone forms an exception to this assertion respecting the absence of philosophical system amongst the Greek poets and prose writers who were his pre- decessors and contemporaries. He was not only a statesman and a moralist, and therefore reckoned among the Seven Sages, but he was also the first physical philosopher, and may be considered as the founder of the Ionian school. There are many difficulties in the way of arriving at an accurate perception of the doctrines and theories taught by the earliest philosophers. They not only lie scattered up and down the works of various writers, but when their supposed speculations are collected together and arranged, it is impossible to be certain that they are genuine. They may be quoted with particular objects in order to defend some favourite thesis; they may be wilfully misrepresented or acci- dentally misunderstood ; and lastly, in the later philosophical writers in which they are found most plentifully, the sources from which the information has been derived are frequently spurious and supposi- titious treatises. It is on the authority of authors of comparatively ORIENTAL DOCTRINES. 233 modern date, that the Oriental origin of Greek phi- losophy has been so much insisted on, whilst in the works of the oldest philosophical writers themselves, and of ancient historians, there is little or no evidence of that intercourse between them and Oriental phi- losophers which would be sufficient to account for their deriving their theories from such foreign sources. The doctrines of India, Persia, and Egypt are doubt- less discovered in the philosophy of Greece, but the resemblance is rather general than exact, nor is it greater than might be expected to arise from the human intellect being applied to the investigation of the same subjects. The antecedent probability of such resemblance being discovered is still farther increased by the ethnical connection which subsists between the differ- ent races of mankind. Knowing, as we do, that in the inhabitants of Greece were united two elements, from one of which the Persians derived their origin — from the other the civilized races of Northern India — we are prepared to expect that many of the philo- sophical doctrines held in their different countries would be found to be identical. It is not necessary to suppose intercourse between the founders of Greek philosophy and the Brachmans of India, or the Magi of Persia, in order to account for similarity of philo- sophical ideas developed from similarly constituted minds. Had there been any strong resemblance in points of detail, we might infer an historical connexion, because it is in details, rather than in vague and 234 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. general principles, that instruction and tradition exer- cise their principal influence : but in details and sub- ordinate parts, even of a most important kind, the similarity vanishes, and in the practical results and the applications to human conduct and physical phenomena the greatest possible difference is dis- cernible. A priori, therefore, that degree of resemblance which may doubtless be traced between Oriental and Greek philosophy, furnishes no grounds for supposing that the latter derives its origin from the former. Nor is there reason to suppose that Greek phi- losophy was partly derived from the East, partly the offspring of national intellect. If this were the case, there would be want of unity, if not absolute incon- sistency : but this is not the case. In the speculations of the earliest Greek philoso- phers, so far as an opinion can be formed from the fragments which remain, and from the dogmas quoted and referred to by other subsequent writers, there is no trace of that want of connexion which would necessarily result from the introduction of a foreign element. The sequence of ideas from the principles assumed, however false they may themselves be, is simple and logical, and such as might naturally result from the employment of acute and subtle reasoning powers, unaided by any help but the natural energy of a philosophical and inquiring spirit. There are likewise some deficiencies observable in the Greek philosophy, which would not have DEFICIENCIES OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 235 existed had intercourse with the East, and an acquaint- ance with Oriental systems exercised an influence on its doctrines. Eastern philosophy would have taught Greece more perfect notions respecting the personality of the Deity; would have accustomed the Greek mind to contemplate the divine power as creative, and as present and active in its influence over the phenomena of nature ; would have defined more clearly the dealings of God with man as a moral governor of the universe, and probably would have suggested the authority of external revelation. These CO J subjects did not form a part of Greek philosophy. Deity was little more than an abstract principle of reason. Matter was as eternal as God. Revelation was looked upon as a mythical fable. God did not interfere in the concerns or interests of man. What- ever appearance is to be found of dependence upon divine help and support, it proceeds from the natural instinct which recognizes the need of supernatural assistance, and which yearns for fellowship and com- munion with the Supreme Being. Moreover, when the historical evidence on which the assumption is based is accurately investigated, it appears to be wholly inadequate to establish the truth of such a theory. It is, in fact, derived from the authority of authors who flourished in too late a period to be of aDy value — a period subsequent to a time when an Oriental influence on philosophy had doubtless begun to be established. Accordingly, doctrines which were introduced after the decay of Greek philosophy had 236 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. commenced, were erroneously referred to an age ante- cedent to its flourishing era; and principles, which were afterwards infused, were mistaken for the original sources from which the whole system was derived. It is not here contended that there is no connexion between Greek and Oriental philosophy, but that the latter is not the parent in any sense of the former; that they were independent of one another ; that the spirit of Greek philosophy is essen- tially Greek ; and that Oriental doctrines were a subse- quent and late admixture and infusion. The period fixed by Ritter, a with great appearance of probability, for the first infusion of Oriental doctrines into Greek philosophy synchronizes with the decay of the Socratic schools. In investigating the history of Greek philosophical literature, a striking point of resemblance is observ- able between it and their poetical literature, a re- semblance arising out of the national character itself. If history, and not mere mythical tradition, is taken as a guide, it is clear that, although the Greek boasted of a common national existence, and the Hellenic name was a national title used in a collective sense, and opposed to that of barbarian ; yet that this national whole was made up of several separate tribes. These tribes, as they were distinct in dialect, so they differed widely in feelings, prin- ciples, tastes, interests, and politics ; almost so widely as sometimes to preclude the possibility of amalgamation. * Hitter, p. 160. ANALOGY OF PHILOSOPHY TO POETRY. 237 They yearned, indeed, for unity. They possessed institutions, the object of which was to be a bond of union, and to keep up an undying remembrance of their common name, and sometimes under extreme pressure and danger externally, that unity was attained — temporarily, indeed, but still sufficiently for war- ranting the assertion that Greece was one nation, though divided by opposite principles and conflicting interests. Similar to their national character was also, as we have seen, their national literature. Its several parts originated in different localities, they were the pro- duce of differently constituted minds, and it was long before the several parts united in one whole, har- monious, indeed, but still exhibiting the characteristic differences of its original elements, and forming that peculiarly national species of composition, the Attic drama. The epic poem resulted from the liveliness, energy, and exquisite taste of the Ionian Greek. When transplanted into the ruder country of Hesiod it lost its heroic character, and became depressed to a human level, by depicting the cares, the sorrows, the dif- ficulties of human life; but though it lost much of its superhuman grandeur, it gained in moral dignity and instructive power. Grave sternness characterized the lyric muse of the Dorians, effeminate softness, and passionate transport inspired the iEolian poets of Lesbos ; but all these different elements make up a literature, possessing characteristics common to all ; 238 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. some of its features are peculiar to itself, unlike those of any other original national literature, and evidently the developments of one nation's mind. Similar to this also, was the progressive formation of Greek philosophy. It was first cultivated in sepa- rate schools, professing different principles, and, to a certain extent, pursuing different subjects of inquiry. The localities of these schools of philosophy were originally as distinct as those of the schools of poetry, nor was it until the age of Socrates that one universal home of Greek philosophy was established in that cen- tre of nationality, of literature, and of science, Athens. So long as the schools of Socrates, Plato, and Aris- totle were maintained, there may be said to have existed, notwithstanding the differences which sub- sisted between them, a period of philosophical unity in Greece ; but this unity it was as impossible to main- tain, as it was to keep up their wished-for unity as a nation ; with corruption came division, and philo- sophy, though still bearing the name of Greece, was no longer the uniform expression of Greek intellect. Philosophy, like poetry, followed the subdivisions of the Greek nation. The Ionians had their school in Asia Minor, which devoted itself principally to the investigation of physical phenomena, and only incidentally pursued the science of morals. The Dorian school, which, from its great founder, was termed the Pythagorean, flourished in the colonies of southern Italy, and this school, even when it examined the phenomena of nature, applied to them the principles DORIAN AND IONIAN SCHOOLS. 239 and reasonings of ethical philosophy. This difference is precisely what might be expected from the lively sen- sibility of the Ionian mind to the marvels and beauties of nature, which is so universally manifested in their poetical literature, and from the strict sense of duty which led the Dorian to view every subject in an ethi- cal aspect, to refer everything to a standard of moral fitness. Thus, to them, the identity of moral and natural laws was perfectly familiar, and thus, whilst the Ionians in their enthusiastic admiration of the beauties of nature, forgot the Divine author, the Dorian referred all the laws by which these pheno- mena were regulated to a manifestation of the attri- butes and perfections of the Deity. It is clear from what has been stated, that in phi- losophy, as well as in literature, the Ionian race main- tained its superiority. The method of investigation pursued by this school was far more philosophical than that of the Dorians ; it was inductive, and endeavoured to discover the facts, the on, as it was termed, rather than to investigate the hori, i.e., to account for the phenomena on certain preconceived notions of moral fitness and propriety. Throughout its whole existence the school of Ionia enjoyed a reputation worthy of a succession of philosophers, which began with Thales, and ended with Socrates. Besides these two earliest schools, there arose another, somewhat later in point of time, but after- wards becoming more widely influential than either of the other two. The Pythagoreans viewed the phe- 240 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. nomena of nature under a moral aspect, the Ionians under a physical one, but a third school sprang up also at Elea, the characteristic of which was logical and metaphysical analysis. Genealogically, the Eleatic school was Ionian, for the place from which it derived its name, the modern Velia in Italy, was an Ionian colony, and the founder of the sect was Xenophanes, an Ionian, a but, geo- graphically, it came within the influence of the Py- thagorean schools. It was, indeed, related to both, and yet, in the method of investigation which it pursued, independent of either. There will, in fact, be found to have ex- isted a principle of antagonism between the Eleatic philosophy and the two other systems. It did not pretend to the original investigation of natural phe- nomena, but it professed to examine, according to the principles of human reason, the logical conclu- siveness of the arguments adduced. Refutation of error, therefore, was its province, rather than the investigation of new truths. a 01. lx., b.c. 540. THE IONIC SCHOOL, 241 CHAPTER XV. TWO SYSTEMS IN THE IONIAN SCHOOL, THE DYNAMICAL AND MECHA- NICAL. — THE PHILOSOPHY OF THALES. ANAXIMANDER. ANAXI- MENES. — HERACLITUS. PYTHAGORAS. HIS DOCTRINES OP NUMBER AND HARMONY. HIS THEORY OF THE HUMAN SOUL. HIS BELIEF IN THE SUPERIORITY OF INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY TO CORPOREAL ORGANIZATION. — THE ELEATIC SCHOOL. — ITS ORIGIN. XENOPHANES. — HIS HISTORY AND DOCTRINES. The Ionian school of philosophy embraced two dis- tinct systems, the dynamical and mechanical. The former supposes an innate force and energy in nature, the spontaneous changes and developments or genera- tions of which, without the operation of any external influence, constitute the visible phenomena. The latter assumes the existence of immutable elements, incapable of development or alteration of form, and the phenomena are produced by the different combina- tions of these elements set in motion, either by an in- ternal power or an external influence. The dynamical theory was supported by Thales, Anaximenes, Dio- genes of Apollonia, and Heraclitus ; the mechanical by Anaximander, Anaxagoras, and his disciple Archelaus, the teacher of Socrates. Of these Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander, and Heraclitus belong to the period of Greek literature which is treated of in this book. VOL. I. R 242 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Thales. A biography of Thales has already been inserted amongst those of the Seven Sages; it will therefore only be necessary here to give some account of his philoso- phical system. False as his theories are, they deserve the title of philosophical, because they are founded on observation and analogy, and so far widely differ from the mere assertions of poetry. He may, therefore, be considered as the founder of Greek philosophy. He observed first the natural process by which the life of vegetation is developed, from a germ or seed, a and secondly, that moisture generates warmth, and warmth is the cause of nutrition and production. Hence his two leading doctrines, that the whole world was a living being, matured and produced from a seed, in which the phenomena were contained, although as yet latent and imperfect ; and that the origin of all things was the element of moisture, or water. Cicero b informs us that he believed in an intelligent First Cause, and asserted that out of water the Divine mind created all things. That the Deity was without beginning and the soul of man immortal, are also men- tioned as articles of his creed. Doctrines are also at- tributed to him, which argue remarkable progress in astronomy and geometry. He is said to have been the first to calculate and predict a solar eclipse ; ° to have taught that the moon shone by reflected light, and to a Arist. Metaph. i. 3. f De Nat. Deor. i. 10. c Cic. de Div. i. 49. DOCTRINES OF ANAXIMANDER. 243 have discovered that the angle inscribed in a semi- circle is a right angle. Anaximander. Anaximander, in order to preserve the chronological arrangement, must be placed next to Thales, although, as has been stated, he was a mechanical philosopher. He was a native of Miletus, was born in the third year of the forty-third Olympiad, and died shortly after the fifty-eighth Olympiad. 4 Tradition informs us that his earliest labours were devoted to subjects of practical utility. Strabo b ascribes to him the first map; Dio- genes c the use, if not the invention, of the sun-dial. He taught that the Deity pervaded the universe ; and, therefore, that all the heavenly bodies were divine, as being the dwelling-places of the divine essence. The absence of resemblance between his philosophy and that of Thales, renders the statement of Strabo, that he was the pupil of the latter, highly improbable ; indeed, the succession and mutual relation of the phi- losophers in the Ionian school, appears to be arbi- trarily assumed. According to Anaximander, then, the principle (a^) of all nature was the infinite (to aveigov), i.e., a mixture (^typ^of elements from which substances were evolved by separation (fouzgnriQ), the homoge- neous parts being attracted to each other. d The ex- ternal cause which produced this effect mechanically, was motion, and this w 7 as eternal; into the infinite a B.C. 609. b Strabo, i. 1. c Diog. Laert. ii. 1. d Arist. Metaph. xii. 2. r2 244 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. all things were again dissolved. The difference be- tween the dynamical and mechanical theory, is at once made clear by this example. The elements evidently possess no internal power of change, but an external force impressed upon them produces new combinations^ According to the system of Anaximander, the earth was cylindrical, and was situated in the centre of the Universe, where it was kept motionless by its equi- distance from all the forces and motions which sur- rounded it. The heavenly bodies moved round the earth, each on a material orbit, or sphere. The cold elements, which had been separated by motion from the hot, arranged themselves in the centre, the hot elements in the circumference of the universe. The solar heat, acting upon the moister parts of the earth, produced animated beings by a process of fermenta- tion, the last created of which was man. Anaximenes. Anaximenes was also a native of Miletus, who flou- rished about the sixtieth Olympiad. There is a general resemblance discoverable between his fundamental doctrines and those of Thales, taking into consideration that the primary element of Thales was water, that of Anaximenes, air. From air he supposed that all things were produced ; and, like Anaximander, he believed that into air all were finally resolved. This was the undying principle of vitality which pervaded the world ; it was the breath of life which caused man to be a PANTHEISM OF IONIC SCHOOL. 245 living soul. The modifications of this element, by which all things were generated, were effected by rare- faction and condensation (ysro {jbocvoryjrog fcoct wvzvorrjrog), and hence originated the four simple bodies, the four elements, as they still continue to be termed popularly, earth, air, fire, water. Both Anaximander and Anaxi- menes have been accused of atheism, although both held the eternity and agency of an intelligent First Cause. Their atheism consisted in attributing, like the rest of the Ionic school, physical effects to phy- sical causes, instead of accounting for their existence on the principles of mythology. Their real belief was pantheism, the belief in an all-pervading mind, and not a personal Deity. As from the epic tradition, that ocean flowed around the earth, was developed the Thaletic idea that the earth, like a broad island, floated on water ; so this philosopher held that the earth, flat like a leaf, was supported on the air. From the earth were produced all the heavenly bodies, and these, in form and substance, resembled their parent. Heraclitus. Heraclitus was born at Ephesus about the sixty- ninth Olympiad. 3 Owing to the early state of the Greek language, the infancy of prose composition at the period when he wrote, and its consequent in- applicability to the expression of philosophical thought, he is notorious for the difficulty of his style, and the a a.d. 504. 246 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. figurative form in which he enunciated his doctrines. He has therefore been surnamed cxoreivog, or the obscure. The fragments whicli have been preserved and collected by the indefatigable industry of Schleier- macher, a bear witness to the justness of this epithet, by the obscurity of their diction, and their archaic style. Aristotle, in his "Rhetoric," 5 mentions this defect in his composition, as an example of style difficult to punctuate, Prose was just growing out of poetry, its language was rather metaphorical than exact, and the ideas of the philosopher had not as yet found any corresponding terms; and hence, it is difficult to com- prehend what his doctrines are, because of the figu- rative language in which they are conveyed. He is said by Aristotle c to have taught, that all things were in motion except one power, by which all were moulded. This power was fate (eifAagphfi), fixed and determined by the will of the Divine mind. Melancholy in temperament, and aristocratic in his prejudices, he separated himself from the stirring pursuits of active life, refused the government of his native city, d and devoted himself to retirement and contemplation, and to mourning over the sin and misery of man. Who his instructor was is doubt- ful, but disinclined by temper to learn from others, 6 it is probable that he drew upon the resources of his own mind for his doctrines, and that his theories were a Museum der Alterthumswiss. b Rhet. iii. 5. c De Coelo, iii. 1. d Diog. Laert. e Eth. vii. 5. PHILOSOPHY OF HERACLITUS. 247 the result of observation rather than erudition. There is an important feature which distinguishes the phi- losophy of Heraclitus from that of the other philoso- phers of the Ionian school, namely, that the agency of the Deity as the great First Cause, is more prominently brought forward. Although they all believed in the Divine intelligence, the laws of nature were to them the great object of investigation, but he considered them as the instruments of the Divine will, the expositions of the Divine wisdom. According to him even the reason of man is not part of his nature, but is due to the inspiration of a heavenly influence, and this in- fluence is the cause of consciousness. 51 This infusion of divinity extended to all nature, and hence his cele- brated dictum, "Enter, for here too are gods." His faith, however, was pantheistic, rather than a belief in a personal deity ; but this was the theological creed of the whole Ionic school. b The original element of Heraclitus was fire, which was the vital principle in the universe, and also in man. The various transmutations of this element were ascribed by him to a self-existing motion. Har- mony, he says, is the cause and preserver of all things, but it is a harmony of antagonism ; an agreement of contraries. This idea probably arose from illustrating physical science by moral considerations ; for example, sickness makes health pleasant, and labour rest. As fire is the element out of which all things were produced, so it is that into which all will be * Diog. Laert. ix. 10. b Arist. de Part. An. i. 5. 248 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. resolved, and this composition and resolution will recur continually in certain cycles. Heraclitus also taught the imperfection of the external senses as the means of acquiring knowledge, the germ from which were afterwards developed doctrines, exercising an important influence upon Greek philosophy. Pythagoras. So much of fabulous legend is mixed up with the history of Pythagoras, 51 that not only is there great uncertainty respecting the period at which he flourish- ed, but also respecting the principal circumstances of his life. b The Dorian and Achaean states of that part of Italy, which, owing to its being colonized by Greek settlers, was named Magna Grsecia, turned their attention to subjects of philosophical inquiry, almost contempo- raneously with the establishment of the Ionian schools : and whilst the opulence of commerce was fitting the cities of Ionia to become the nursing-mothers of phi- losophy, Grecian enterprize was providing for in- tellectual efforts another home in the west, in the luxurious and refined settlements of the now wild and desolate Calabria. The celebrated legislation of Cha- rondas of Catana, as well as that of the Locrian Zaleucus, proves that social questions had thus early engaged the attention of powerful minds, in that part a Herod, iv. 95. b Porphyry and lamblichus, Life of Pythagoras. PRINCIPLES OF PYTHAGORAS. 249 of the European continent. At Crotona, a colony of the Achseans, a school flourished, devoted to the study of medicine, the existence of which probably attracted Pythagoras, after he had completed his travels, to found his philosophical school in that city, about the sixtieth Olympiad, B.C. 540. He is said by the best authorities to have been born at Samos, in the forty-ninth Olympiad, and to have traced his pedigree to the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians. Nothing is known of his early history, except that he visited the greater part of the civilized world, to gratify his love of observation and his taste for phi- losophical inquiry ; and tradition points to him as the first who called himself a philosopher, tpiXocopog, i.e. a lover of wisdom, whilst others assumed to themselves the less modest title of aotpoi, or wise men. His political principles were evidently aristocratic, for he was diametrically opposed to the government of rvguvvoi, who were, as has been already stated, the temporary patrons and leaders of the growing demo- cratic interests. The influence also of himself, and his followers, was sufficiently powerful to impose an aristocratic constitution on Crotona and the neigh- bouring states. The league which he established, although it was a religious and philosophical fraternity, admission into which was accompanied by mystical rites of initiation, constituted also a political bond of union, and its object was to propagate aristocratic principles. Hence it was a political tumult, origina- ting with the popular party, which led to its suppres- 250 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. sion, and the consequent persecution of the Pythago- reans. The revolution which succeeded, and which pervaded all the states of Magna Grsecia, whilst it made the Pythagorean sect the great object of attack, was in fact a struggle between the two great opposing political factions, and led to the ascendancy of Achaean over Dorian political principles, the utter subversion of aristocracy, and the final establishment of democratical constitutions. In this revolution, Pytha- goras sought safety in flight, but in vain. The prin- ciples, and therefore the influence, of his enemies extended far and wide, and he was put to death at Metapontum, a whilst Crotona, which had rejected his wise counsels, sank into decay as rapidly as it had risen to prosperity. The views which have been generally entertained respecting the Pythagorean philosophy, have been derived, not from an examination of ancient authorities, and those fragments of Pythagorean writers which are probably genuine, but from writers who lived since the commencement of the Christian era. These authors accepted as genuine a vast number of works which bore the title of Pythagorean, but which are unquestionably spurious, and also made no difference between the Pythagoreanism of ancient and of modern times. The inconsistencies, therefore, of those who misunderstood the precepts of their master, were in- corporated in a system with which it was impossible that they could be reconciled. a Cic. de Fin. v. 2. DOCTRINE OF NUMBER. 251 It is difficult to form a clear conception of the rela- tion which number bore to the Pythagorean philoso- phy, even generally; in particular cases it is impossible. Probably in some of its applications, no clear ideas existed in the minds of these philosophers themselves. At one time, the term number is used as though it merely signified the arithmetical proportion in which elements are combined, so as to produce different phe- nomena. Again, in discussing the theory of musical harmony, and that theory of harmony or music of the spheres which he applied to his astronomical system, number simply expresses the ratio which strings, pro- ducing musical tones, bear to one another, and of that relation of the several parts of the universe, which constitutes order, regularity, and stability. In these cases, number is only used as representing, symboli- cally, the mutual relation of things which have an existence independent of it. At another time, when the monad or unity is spoken of as the principle of all being, it appears as though the perception which he formed of it, was that of something real and material. Upon the whole, however, it appears probable that the symbolical sense of the term, was the one adopted by Pythagoras himself, and that, by a forced analogy, number was afterwards made use of by his followers to account for phenomena to which it was totally in- capable of being applied. They committed the com- mon error of confounding the symbol with the thing signified. Instead of being content with affirming 252 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. that harmony depended on the proportion of the parts to one another, and that therefore this proportion was the law, according to which the operations of nature were carried on, the followers of Pythagoras car- ried his theory further, and considered that which was in reality only its symbolical representative, the ma- terial and efficient cause of all things. Harmony seems to have been the foundation of the Pythagorean system ; the leading idea which had first got possession of his mind. Music had now begun to exercise an influence over poetry, it was but a step to introduce it into the domain of philosophy. Its application to account for the order and regularity which reigned among the heavenly bodies, naturally suggested itself to an astronomer, whose studies had been directed to it in the abstract, and who, even in his medical studies, was led to make observations on its influ- ence upon the human frame. Nor is number an unnatural symbol of the rules which govern the various relations and offices of moral conduct. There seems to have been a tendency in the human mind, to connect mysterious ideas with abstract numbers* No one can satisfactorily explain the almost reverential feeling with which the num- bers three and seven have been universally regarded, and yet the fact is nevertheless undoubted. The application of number as the measure of all quantity, the relation which the principles of geometry were soon found to bear, not only to extension and space, but to all science; the capability which it has of DOCTRINE OF NUMBER. 253 symbolically representing even the abstract operations of the human mind itself, will go far to illustrate this tendency, but not to explain it. The Pythagorean axiom, in which is embodied the two significations of the term number, before alluded to, is as follows : — Number is the essence (ovalcx) and principle (%%^) of all things. Now, what is contended for is, that so far as essence was considered as only identical in meaning with principle or first cause (<%#?)> tne doctrine which the Pythagorean philo- sophy intended to convey is clear and intelligible, but when it is used a to signify the substance of things (vX?)), language, which was intended to be symbolical, is applied by a false analogy to subjects to which it is inapplicable. A passage in the "Metaphysics" of Aristotle 5 seems to imply that the studies of the Pythagoreans being mathematical, they assumed that the principles of mathematics were those of all other things. Now, number is the first of these, and in natural phe- nomena many numerical analogies are observable. Again the properties of harmony are represented by number. The false conclusion drawn from these premises was not that the laws of the natural uni- verse were harmony, and represented by number, but, that the universe itself was number and har- mony; probably, all that Pythagoras contended for was, that in all works, human and divine, harmony and proportion, and therefore number is discernible a Arist. Metaph. i. 5. b Ibid. 254 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. as the regulating principle. Had the Pythagoreans been acquainted with the modern theory of chemical equivalents, they would have seen in it the most perfect illustration of their system. This theory of number, as the first principle in nature, is rendered obscure by those who, like Bitter, consider the co-ordinate series alluded to by Aristotle, a as a table of primal elements, whereas the object of this catalogue was totally different ; the parallel columns representing a series of goods, with their corre- sponding contraries, and among these is reckoned the unit, the primal element, the representative or symbol of perfection. From these considerations it is clear that the Pythagorean theory of number was reasonable, so far as it resolved all the relations, whether of space or time, into those of number or proportion, and asserted that the order of the universe was maintained by the laws of harmony ; but that it became arbitrary, mere words without meaning, when it assumed that mathe- matical quantities and ideas were not symbols of things, but the things themselves, the elements out of which material essences originated, and that even virtue, justice, and all other moral qualities were defined by certain fixed and determined numbers. The same mysticism and obscurity, which pervade the doctrines already spoken of, enter also into the investigations of the Pythagoreans respecting the spiri- tual nature of man. The human soul, they believed a Eth. i. 4. DOCTRINE OF THE HUMAN SOUL. 255 to be an emanation from the Deity, eternal, personal, dwelling in other bodies successively, and punished or rewarded in its future state of being, able to energize only by means of its union with the body, the senses of which are its instruments and organs. They divided it into two parts, the rational and irrational : the governing part, the peculiar property of man ; the other the seat of the passions and instincts, common to man, together with the lower animals. After all, the most important feature of the Pytha- gorean philosophy was, that it had for its principal objects the enunciation of one great truth, the supe- riority of intellectual activity to corporeal organiza- tion. Arbitrary as its theory of numbers may have been, nevertheless in teaching that all knowledge was resolvable into that of mathematical relations, it referred its origin not to the operations of the bodily senses, but of pure intellect. Even in musical har- mony the effects and phenomena alone are appre- hended and appreciated by the ear, the theory and the principles of harmony must be investigated by the logical powers. Thus the intellect was made the judge of truth of every kind, without any necessary dependence upon the deceptive tendencies of the ex- ternal senses. It was, doubtless, a yearning after this result, so seductive to contemplative minds, which led Pythagoras and his followers into the unsound appli- cations and illogical developments of a theory which, in its simplicity, appeared to rest upon no unreason- able foundation. 256 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. THE ELEATIC SCHOOL. In this school philosophical investigation was pur- sued on more strictly logical principles than have been hitherto observable. The founders of it recognized, in existent systems, a mixture of what they considered truth and error; they perceived that all contained many arbitrary assumptions and inconsequential rea- sonings, and, as a first step, they applied themselves not to fresh investigation, but to examining the theo- ries already existing. They brought the truth or falsehood of each theory to the test of a strict logical analysis. It is evident that the introduction of this principle into philosophical studies forms an era in- finitely more important than one merely distinguished for an advance in original inquiry. The following is a brief history of the rise of the Eleatic school. The original founders of the Greek colonies carried with them not only commercial en- terprise and spirit, but also that desire of intellectual advancement, which so strongly marks the national character. Hence, the little colony of Elea, in Magna Graecia, soon grew into eminence for its patronage of science and learning. About the sixtieth Olympiad, although the date is somewhat uncertain, there flou- rished in the Ionian city of Colophon, which had been previously celebrated as the native town of Mimner- mus, a an elegiac poet named Xenophanes. Political troubles, probably the attack by the monarch of a Hor. Epist. it, ii. 100. XENOPHANES OF ELEA. 257 Persia upon the liberties of Ionia, drove him from his native land. He travelled through Sicily and Southern Italy, supporting himself as a wandering minstrel, by the recitation of his poems, and finally settled at Elea. Notwithstanding the assertion of Plato, a that the Eleatic doctrines existed previous to the time of Xenophanes, no doubt exists that the wandering and exiled rhapsodist turned his thoughts to philosophy, and became the founder of the celebrated philosophi- cal school in his adopted city. Various opinions have been held on the question, as to who was his philoso- phical instructor, but as the characteristic of his di- dactic poetry is a determined opposition to the vicious polytheism of the epic poets, there is nothing in his system which might not have been the work of an original thinker, placing himself in direct antagonism to immoral doctrines. 5 Out of the negation of the prevailing superstitions, his positive doctrines respect- ing the Deity naturally arose. He denied a plurality of gods. He ridiculed the attributing human forms to the deities. He directed the bitterest attacks against the impiety of representing the gods as guilty of disgraceful crimes, such as are found constantly in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. His positive doctrines were that God is omnipotent and all- wise, without beginning or end ; that a plu- rality of gods is inconsistent with and contradictory to the attributes of Deity, for two all-powerful a Soph. p. 242. b Ritter ; Diog. Laert. and Sext. Empir. VOL. I. S 258 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. beings could not exist together. It has been doubted whether the monotheism of Xenophanes was not in reality pantheism. He asserts that God was the same as the universe, but he also asserts the existence of a material world. Whether, therefore, his idea of God was a spiritual essence pervading the material universe it is impossible to determine, but pure pan- theism is totally inconsistent with the belief which he undoubtedly entertained, that God had a personal existence, and that he was the all- wise governor of the universe. According to the natural system of Xenophanes, the four elements were the original principles of all things. In the midst of all his hypotheses, this philosopher appears to have been deeply impressed with the imperfection of all human knowledge. He saw that the nature of the Deity and all existing things, was beyond the sphere as well of the intellectual powers as the corporeal senses of man. Although the positions laid down by the Eleatic school were rather negative than positive, they, never- theless, marked a great and important advance in philosophical speculation ; first, in asserting the unity of the Deity; and secondly, in referring the conclusions of other systems to the test of reason. BOOK II. SECOND OR FLOURISHING ERA OF GREEK LITERATURE. CHAPTER I. AGE OF PISISTRATUS. ESTABLISHMENT OF TYRANNIES IN GREECE. — PATRONAGE OF LITERATURE BY PISISTRATUS. — THE DRAMA. — DRAMA- TIC TASTE OF THE IONIAN RACE. NATURE OF DRAMATIC POETRY. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE ATTIC DRAMA. RELIGIOUS DRAMA OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. THE RELIGION OF GREECE NOT UNFAVOUR- ABLE TO THE DRAMA, OR TO ITS FORMING A PART OF AN ACT OF WORSHIP. THE LUDICROUS ELEMENT NATURAL TO THE DIONYSIAC WORSHIP. SOME NATIONS DESTITUTE OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE. THE TWO ELEMENTS OF THE DRAMA, THE CHORUS AND THE DIALOGUE. THE CHORUS IS (1) THE RELIGIOUS AND MORAL ELEMENT, AND (2) THE REPRESENTATION OF THE SPECTATORS. THE ESSENCE OF THE DRAMA IS THE DIALOGUE. LYRICAL COMEDY AND TRAGEDY. The period at which Greece began to have a fixed and established national literature was that of Pisis- tratus, commonly called the tyrant (rvguvvog) of Athens. Almost every Greek state, except Argos and Sparta, was, at some period of its existence, under the govern- ment of a rvguvvog. The period of his sway was the transition state through which each little republic passed in its progress towards liberty. The tyrants were in fact the regenerators of Greece. s 2 260 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Absolute monarchy had given way to an aristocracy of birth, this had degenerated into an oppressive oligarchy ; the people increasing in commercial wealth and that intelligence which accompanies it, had gained sufficient strength to throw off the yoke, but not enough to govern and act for themselves. The do- minion of a rvguvvog was therefore necessarily prepa- ratory to the establishment of free constitutions. The era of these provisional governments was an era of pro- gress, their policy was, owing to the circumstances which raised them to power, favourable to the im- provement and cultivation of the national character. When, therefore, we read that Sparta and Argos were the uncompromising enemies of tyranny, we must remember that this implies that they were the bitterest opponents of liberty. They were Dorians, and therefore, by the prejudices of race and blood, aristocratic ; to oppose tyrants would, therefore, be to oppose the overthrow of their own political system. The Ionian race, on the other hand, was by nature enterprising, restless, fond of foreign travel, and of intercourse with other nations, commercial, and zea- lously attached to free institutions. Amongst the Ionian states, therefore, the tyrants flourished. Whe- ther the tyrannies were succeeded by a free con- stitutional government, or by the evils of unbridled democracy, depended on the following alternative, whether or not at the time when the tyrant was over- thrown the people were sufficiently advanced and educated to govern themselves. INFLUENCE OF PISISTRATUS. 261 In Athens, the capital of the most advanced section of the Ionian race, in the days of the great legislator and great patron of freedom, Solon, a relation of Solon was the leader of the anti-aristocratic party . a This was Pisistratus. He was himself, as is so often the case with popular leaders, a member of an illustrious family; he was a descendant of the house of Codrus, the ancient royal family of Athens. His munificent dis- position, his personal beauty and bravery, his shining abilities and powerful eloquence, all contributed to increase and establish his influence, 5 and he used his influence to improve and cultivate the taste and intellect of his countrymen. He restored the great Panathenaic festival, in all its splendour: under his patronage the literary contests of the rhapsodists flourished, the immortal poems of Homer were col- lected and arranged, and thus became fixed and re- cognized standards of Attic taste, as they had been previously national favourites. But his enlightened and cultivated mind, not only encouraged a love for the ancient literature of Ionian Greece, but fostered and matured that branch of it which afterwards possessed the greatest influence over Greece, both morally and politically, that a national literature has ever before or since exercised. In his ten years of power, the drama made its first appearance at Athens, rude, indeed, and in its infancy, but still giving promise of its future great- a Herod, i. 59, k. r. X. b Plutarch, vit. Sol. ; Cic. de Orat. iii. c b.c. 535, Clinton's Fasti Hellenici. 262 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. ness, growing, like all other poetry, out of religious feeling, and now consecrated by this wise ruler to the service of religion. From what has been already said of the Ionian character, it is evident, that it was of that peculiar kind, which, a priori, we should expect would be devotedly and passionately attached to dramatic per- formances. The whole essence of the drama is, as A. V. Schlegel a has observed, activity and energy; it is not enough to describe it as a poem, in which the characters speak and not the poet, for this is the case in mere dialogue, and dialogue is not dramatic unless there is some end or object to look forward to with interest, some effect to be produced, some catastrophe to be brought about. In epic poetry, we never forget that the characters belong to another age, one, perhaps, long gone by; we feel an interest in what they do, and what they suffer, but only such an interest as we should take in historical characters. The train of incidents follow one another, in calm, quiet, and regular order ; the action stops at intervals, in order that the scene and the locality may be de- scribed; the attention is divided, so to speak, between animate and inanimate nature. But in dramatic poetry, the spectator throws himself into the midst of the events which are represented before his eyes; he makes one of the characters; he seems to have a share of their fortunes, just as he would in real life; he cannot believe that it is not a reality; the a Lect. I. THE DRAMA SUITED TO IONIANS. 263 scene, the dresses, the human voices, the gestures, all combine to realize it to him, hence he actively sympathizes, instead of being merely passively moved. The great secret of all poetry is what the ancients called irgo b^wrav vote};,* that is, picturesqueness, the realization of the thing described; now dramatic poetry possesses all the requisites which can be ima- gined for attaining this end. The dramatist has at his immediate disposal resources which the writer of epic poetry would seek for in vain. We can, therefore, easily understand the absorbing interest with which the lively, energetic Ionian would witness a dramatic exhibition ; we can picture to ourselves the enormous theatre crowded with all classes, sitting with breathless attention to hear even a whole tetralogy, although many hours must have passed during the representation. There are two characteristic features of the Attic drama which cannot be too constantly kept in mind when investigating its nature and history. The first is, its religious character ; the second, the actual par- ticipation of the audience in the action of the play. The old cyclic chorus was part of a religious cere- mony, and derived its name (zuzXiog) from its circling dance around the altar of Dionysus. And so the drama, the oldest element of which was the choral, was an act of worship addressed to the same deity. The theatre was a temple consecrated to him. The ^vybilyi, on which the chief member of the chorus stood, when he took a part in the dialogue with the actors a Arist. Rhet. 264 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. on the stage, was an altar. And hence, it must have been with a seriousness approaching to religious awe, that an Athenian audience beheld illustrated, in the fortunes of the great houses of mythical antiquity, the struggle of man's free-will with the omnipotent power of Destiny, a power to which gods as well as men were supposed subject, and which even the divine will (Numen, Ai'ca) was impotent to resist. This contemplation of the struggle with the irresis- tible decrees of Fate, which the best and most virtuous had constantly to maintain, and which is the essence of Greek tragic story, naturally led to melancholy views of human life, and passages abound in the Greek tragedians in accordance with the solemn la- mentation of Job, that " Man is born to misery as the sparks fly upwards ; " and with the words of the in- spired Preacher, 3 " Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead, more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun." The tragic poet would have sympathized with the sentiments of Isaiah, "The righteous is taken away from the evil to come." b In the " (Edipus Coloneus " c the woes of (Edipus suggest an entire chorus on the vanity of life : — One only healing hour remains, When Death, man's comforter and friend, Appears his weary course to end ; Of all the dreams of bliss there are, Not to be born is best by far ; a Eccles. iv. 2, 3. b Isai. lvii. 1. c Verse 1218. RELIGIOUS ELEMENT OF THE DRAMA. 265 Next best, by far the best for man, To speed as fast as speed he can. Anstice. So Euripides exclaims, 3 that " All mortal things are but a shadow," and that " 'Tis not in mortal nature to be happy f and even the comic poet b tells the same tale, and has brought together many of the expressions which either Homer or the tragedians have used to describe man's misery. " Mortals living in darkness ; like to the genera- tions of leaves ; feeble ; moulded of clay ; creatures fleeino*, as it were a shadow, never continuing in one stay ; unfledged ; ephemeral ; wretched ; like a dream that is gone." The believers in a pure faith can scarcely under- stand a religious element in dramatic exhibitions. They who know that God is a spirit, and that they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, feel that his attributes are too awful to permit any ideas connected with Deity to be brought into contact with the exhibition of human passions. Re- ligious poetry of any kind, except that which is in- spired, has seldom been the work of minds sufficiently heavenly and spiritual to be perfectly successful in attaining the erjd of poetry, namely the elevation of the thoughts to a level with the subject. It brings God down to man instead of raising man to him. It causes that which is most offensive to religious feeling and even good taste, irreverent familiarity with sub- 3 Eurip. Med. 1193. b Aristoph. Aves, 685. 266 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. jects which cannot be contemplated without awe. But a religious drama would be, to those who realize to their own minds the spirituality of God, nothing less than anthropomorphism and idolatry. Christians of a less advanced age, and believers in a more sensuous creed, were able to view with pleasure the mystery-plays in which the gravest truths of the Gospel were dramatically represented, nay, more, just as the ancient Athenians could look even upon their gross and licentious comedy, as forming part of a religious ceremony, so could Christians imagine a religious element in profane dramas, which represented, in a ludicrous light, subjects of the most holy character. So closely was the drama connected with religion, a that it has been said, that even the plays of our own Shakspeare were reproductions of the prose romances of the day without the monkish religious element. But the imaginative Greek did not experience this difficulty. His gods were either the creatures of his own fancy, or they were human beings like himself, who had, while alive, attained the heroic standard, and after death had been deified. They pos- sessed the same properties, feelings, passions and moral imperfections as himself; even the Supreme ruler of them all was not omnipotent. His own native land was theirs, they were like his fellow-country-men. He could bathe in the river, or drink of the fountain, or seek shade in the grove, or climb the hill which were pervaded by the influence, and consecrated by a Don. Greek Theatre. CONNEXION OF THE DRAMA WITH RELIGION. 267 the presence, of deity. Parnassus, where the Muses, the authors of all inspiration, resided, was close at hand. The mighty Olympus, the dwelling place of Zeus himself, he might behold with his own eyes. That dramatic representations should enter into the ceremonial of public worship, is quite consistent with the nature of the Greek religious belief. If it consisted in a deification of the powers of nature, it follows that the works of nature, the visible manifesta- tions of these powers, were symbols and representa- tions of their deities. The Greeks, therefore, became at once accustomed to connect the mimetic art with worship, and to accompany the choral ode with imitative dances, performed by characters represent- ing the gods in whose honour they were performed, together with their train of attendant deities. Al- though we might expect that these would be of a solemn nature, as, in fact, they were in the earliest species of choral poetry, namely the dithyrambic, which symbolized the story of the birth of Dionysus, we can easily conceive the rapid introduction of the ludicrous element also. Dionysus was the god and giver of wine, which gladdens and cheers man's heart. How natural then it was, that the early symbolizing and expressing the sentiments connected with his worship, should be by means of comedy, even before his dramatic worship took the form of tragedy, and that the origin of the former should be even prior, in point of time, to that of the latter. We must now proceed to distinguish the original 268 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. elements out of which the Attic drama sprung. They are two, the chorus and the dialogue. The language itself, in which each of these are written, show that the former is the Doric, the latter the Ionic element. Not that the choruses in an Attic tragedy are written strictly in the Doric dialect, but that important peculiarity of it, which so singularly adapts it for musical accompaniment, namely, the broad or open pronunciation of the "a" sound being invariably retained, sufficiently demonstrates its Doric origin. When we consider how absorbing is the interest connected with theatrical amusements, it seems sur- prizing that there should have been nations totally ignorant of them. The Semitic races had no drama. The Chevalier Bunsen a says, "The drama, or the com- bination of the lyric and epic elements, and the complete representation of the eternal laws of human destiny in political society, is entirely unknown to the Semite. It is exclusively the creation of the Hellenic mind, feebly imitated by the Romans, repro- duced with originality by the Germanic race. But Iranian India is not entirely wanting in this last of the three species of poetical composition." Hebrew poetry, although it exhibits every variety of composition, is destitute of the dramatic element. The sublime and Homeric Isaiah celebrates in a triumphant epinician the glories of Israel. b The mournful and affectionate threni of Jeremiah reminds us of the elegies of Simonides; one seventh of the a Brit. Assoc. Report, 1847. b Isai. xiv. HEBREW POETRY NOT DRAMATIC. 269 Psalms are elegies; a the book of Job abounds in them; the songs of Miriam and Deborah, the prophecy of Balaam, the numerous Psalms which sing the praises of the Most High, are grander odes and hymns than can be found throughout the whole range of classic poetry. The Proverbs of Solomon contain a collec- tion of didactic poetry, in comparison with which the wisest gnomes of the Greeks sink into insignificance : Ezekiel is, in his ideas and language, as tragic as iEschylus, but he did not write tragedies. Even those portions of Holy Scripture which most resemble dramatic compositions, are not dramas. The sixty- third chapter of Isaiah is simply a dialogue maintained between a chorus and the Messiah. The song of Solomon has no fable, no action. The story of Job has no change of fortune. All these, therefore, whilst they possess some of the qualities, are destitute of the essentials of dramatic compositions. Egypt, Arabia, Persia, however rich their national literature may have been, did not, as far as we have any evidence, possess any. Dramatic performances have existed in India from very early times, and hence, perhaps, the Greeks, as an Indo-Germanic race, were likewise distinguished by a taste for this kind of liter- ature. But it was only in one division of the Greek nation that dramatic literature arrived at perfection. The drama was of Attic growth, and all the great dra- matic writers were Attic, and the beautiful language in which they wrote was Attic likewise. a Lowth, De Sac. Po. 270 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. It has already been shown, when treating of lyric poetry, that choral poetry is essentially Doric ; that although the poets were not native Dorians, yet they adopted that dialect, and addressed themselves to the feelings and sympathies of that race. It was the choral element which gave the reli- gious tone to the drama ; which kept up the con- nexion between it and public worship. If pious and moral sentiments were to be enforced, and reflections made upon the action of the play, it was the duty of the chorus to sustain the part of the religious and moral instructor. Who can read the choruses of the three great tragedians, without being forcibly impressed with the high moral tone, the deep reli- gious fervour, the true wisdom, the virtuous indigna- tion, the sympathy with all that is pure, and wise, and holy, which breathes in them ? We can never forget that they are Dorian in sentiment, as well as in the outward form of rhythm and language. Besides the religious and moral importance of the chorus, there is another object which must be kept in mind. That is, the realization of the audience. The chorus represented the spectators, the connexion which subsisted between it and the actors in the dialogue, symbolized, as it, were, the sympathy which is taken for granted, between the feelings of the spec- tators and the fortunes of those upon the stage. The §v(jb'zk?i, or altar, on which the chief choreutes stood, when, in the name of the rest, he took part in the dialogue, was the central part of the circle in which CHORAL ELEMENT OF THE DRAMA. 271 the audience sat; in him, therefore, they might be supposed to be concentrated, and therefore personified. The choral element, then, of the Grecian drama, iumhmd u - essential points, the religious ?hc f the performance, the realization of the audience. 1. The character of the drama was religions, because the chorus was originally a solemn dance. and sacred hvmn. and it preserved that chare :te: :: the sentiments to which it rave utterance. being always full of sympathy with virtue end : ness. of indignation against vice and injustice, teaching subm:^::u :■■'. iht mmite will, and fortitude under the terrible flat of a destiny, "h hi :: mourn in in to resist, and therefore unmanly to bewail. 2. The chorus represented the spectator: it was therefore the link by which he was connected with as it were, made one of the character- on the stare. He was thus supposed to entei mi: their feeliueis ami mmnm. end the sentiments of the chorus are the echoes of his own. tiie expression of his own sympathies. ' It thus mltihed that impmtent office, which Horace attrihutes to it. of being a public instructor. 2 It him the sympathies of the andience in a right direction, and caused them to he given to right objects. But. although tlm uncus was an important ele- ment in the Greek tragic drama, and to the sacred choral sonus and dances :h: tuna owed its origin, still it is the dialogue, and not the chorus, which constitutes - Hor. Art. F:- 272 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. the essence of the drama. The chorus was doubtless mimetic, for the gymnopaedic, hyporchematic, and pyr- rhic dances, which are said to have corresponded to the tragic, comic, and satyric choruses respectively, were all mimetic, but it could not be dramatic. Previous to the date which is generally assigned to the first invention of tragedy, there is said to have existed performances both tragic and comic, but of a non-dramatic kind. These have been termed, by modern scholars, the lyrical comedy and tragedy, because the choruses and recitations were accompanied by the lyre, instead of the flute, which was the case in the dithyrambi. In these, tlie only actors were the members of the chorus, and hence Diogenes Laertius a asserts, that the chorus alone enacted the whole, he- IgapdriZs. If we apply the term dramatic, simply to mimetic action, this word is correctly used ; if to that which is commonly understood by it, this species of performance was not dramatic. The Orchomenian inscriptions, the oldest of which is supposed by Bockh to be earlier than B.C. 220, mentions both tragic and comic performances, long before the time of Thespis. When, therefore, the invention of comedy is claimed for the Sicilian Epicharmus, lyric comedy is implied; and in like manner, tragedy, which is said to have existed before the time of Thespis, was not dramatic, but lyric tragedy. a Diog. Laert. iii. 56. ORIGIN OF THE DIALOGUE. 273 CHAPTER II. ORIGIN OF THE DIALOGUE. — ACCOUNT GIVEN BY ARISTOTLE. ORIGIN OF THE TERMS Tpayu)Sia AND K(t)fJiO)oia. TWOFOLD NATURE OF THE DIONYSIAC WORSHIP. ITS HISTORY AND INTRODUCTION INTO GREECE. AMALGAMATION OF IT WITH THE ELEUSINIAN WORSHIP OF IACCHUS. THE PROGRESSIVE ADVANCE OF THE TRAGIC DRAMA TRACED. — INTRODUCTION OF SATYRS. ARION. — THESPIS. PHRYNI- CHUS. — CH03RILUS. PRATINAS. ATHENIAN POLITICAL AND DRA- MATIC GREATNESS CONTEMPORANEOUS. The subject now to be examined is, how the dia- logue came to be connected with the original chorus. Aristotle informs us that tragedy (that is, the new element which distinguished the rgdytzog rgoirog from the old chorus) was at first extemporaneous narrative delivered by the sgag%om£. These were the chief per- formers in the dance and the directors of the rest of the dancers, a and were the principal executors of the mimetic action ; they performed, in fact, the united functions of a ballet-master and coryphaeus, and as these extemporaneous effusions gave birth to tragedy, so in the licentious and unrestrained phallic dance they were the original germ of comedy. That these narratives at first were confined to le- a II. xviii. 605. VOL. I. T 274 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. gends connected with the birth and subsequent adven- tures of Dionysus there can be no doubt, and probably the reciter, habited in goat-skins, represented one of his attendant deities, the satyrs. Hence the name given to this entertainment rgocyah'cc, or the goat-ode ; and, on a similar principle, comedy was designated as xoffAofiioc, the ode of the revellers. And hence, when in later times the adventures of other gods or heroes were introduced into these narratives or episodes, the people, disappointed of their favourite and fami- liar legend, or struck with the inconsistency of any other plots unconnected with the subject of the fes- tival which they were celebrating, would express their disapprobation, and exclaim, ovhh Kgog Awvcov, "this has nothing to do with Dionysus." The introduction of subjects not connected with the history of Dionysus is attributed to Thespis, who is therefore considered the inventor of tragedy, and the proverb above-mentioned is said to have been first used with reference to his dramas when exhibited at Athens. Plutarch, a however, assigns the origin and first use of this proverb to the time of Phrynichus and iEschylus. The feelings which accompanied the worship of Dio- nysus were of a mixed nature. The death and birth of the god symbolized the decay of Nature, and its revival in the spring ; the latter the cause of joy and gladness, the former of grief and sorrow; hence, the subjects of tragedy might be at one time mournful a Plutarch. Symp. i. 5. WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS. 275 and another cheerful, and, consequently, it was not until tragedy was severed from this limited range of subjects and adopted other adventures, that it limited itself in its choice to pathetic histories, which are now considered essential to the idea of tragedy. To trace through its numerous forms the worship of Dionysus is a work of no common difficulty. The title "god of many names," given him by Sophocles, im- plies, of course, numerous attributes, and, therefore, numerous phases in which he has been presented to the imagination. The voice of tradition points to India as the birth- place of the god, and antiquity a asserts his identity with the Egyptian Osiris, whilst it makes Orus, the son of Osiris, the same as the Greek Apollo. The similarity existing between some rites observed in the worship of the Indian Bacchus and those of Dionysus, render it probable that they were originally one and the same deity. Herodotus asserts that this worship came to Greece from Egypt and Phoenicia. Now, from the ports of Phoenicia all the commerce of the East flowed to Greece, and, therefore, whatever customs, civil or religious, were introduced from that coast of the Mediterranean, would be said to come from that country. The testimony of Holy Scripture informs us not only that the merchants of Phoenicia were the richest and most celebrated in the world, but that the neighbouring land of Canaan was one of re- markable fertility. It is described as a land flowing a Herod, ii. 42, 144. t 2 276 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. with milk and honey, the glory of all lands. It is said to have abounded in fine vineyards, and to have produced the finest grapes. a The spies who went first to inspect the promised land, "cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two on a staff." Strabo and Pliny both speak of bunches growing in Palestine of an extraordinary size. The numerous passages in which the labours of the vintage and the fruit of the vine furnish meta- phorical expressions to the sacred writers, proves to what an extent the cultivation of the vine prevailed. It is highly probable, therefore, that the idolatrous Canaanites held vintage festivals in honour of a god of wine, and that from them the Dionysiac worship travelled into Greece. Mr. Mitchell remarks, b that some allusion to a Dionysiac worship is found in the devil-worship of the Gentiles. In two places, the original word trans- lated "Devils," is Dn^W to which word Gesenius affixes the following signification, " Hairy, rough, a buck, a he-goat ; plural, inhabitants of solitary places, perhaps wild men in the form of he-goats, similar to the Greek satyrs." The prevalence, moreover, of the Dionysiac worship in Crete is easy of explanation, on the supposition 1 ^ its existence among the Canaanitish tribes. It has been disputed, whether Crete was colonized from Canaan, or the reverse; but a connexion between Crete and Canaan is generally allowed. This island, a Numb. xiii. 22. b In trod, to Frogs, p. 51. WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS. 277 from its situation, seems to have been in very early times, a mark for colonization, and from the variety of nations which inhabited it, and the different religious faiths professed by them, the Dionysiac worship in Crete became mixed up with other traditions/ 1 If a Canaanitish colony settled in Crete, their new abode would well compensate for that which they had left ; its fair climate, its general fertility, and above all, its fitness for cultivating the vine, would point it out as a place peculiarly adapted for establishing the worship of their patron deity. If we trace the Dionysiac worship still further northward, to the barbarian regions of Thrace, we see rites of cruelty and bloodshed superadded to the lawless indulgence of sensual passions. The female Bacchantes lose their feminine nature ; they are no longer mere creatures of sensual passion, but are maddened with the fury of drunken fiends. Inebri- ation leads to bloodshed, and tradition represents the Bacchanals, as rending asunder the mangled limbs of the Thracian Orpheus. The worship of Dionysus was evidently in all its developments, licentious and depraved. But there existed in Greece, another worship of a purer kind. Earth, the mother of all things, was to the Greeks the object of mysterious adoration, under the title of Demeter, (D) pfiriig). Mythology represented her as the mother of two children, Iacchus, who symbolized the joyous youthful principle of nascent and reviving a See Q&ys. xix. 172. 278 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. nature ; and Proserpine, inhabiting the regions of gloom and darkness, and symbolizing the death and decay which succeed to the bright and cheerful seasons of the year. This mythical faith had a moral as well as a natural signification. It represented man's sor- row and despair at being cast out from the favour of heaven, on account of sin, and the joy which he ex- periences when he is forgiven and reconciled. Such were the truths symbolized in the Eleusinian mys- teries, which taught also the immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments. And when their annual festival took place, its ceremonies commenced with expiatory and propitiatory rites, and ended with gay processions, in honour of Iacchus, and scenes of joy and revelry. The Eleusinian rites then, and the views which they inculcated, were chaste, pure, and solemn; the worship of Dionysus, on the other hand, was licentious, and encouraged the indulgence of sensual passion ; but there was some similarity between the truths symbo- lized in so different a manner. There was sufficient affinity to admit of amalgamation, and the purifying of the one by the influence of the other. At some period or other, it is uncertain when, this amalgamation took place, and the two worships were united together. Hence the chorus in the "Antigone," a addresses Bacchus as ruling in the united mysteries of Demeter and Dionysus. It is probable that a more en- lightened age perceived the licentious abuses to which a Verse 1106. RURAL DIONYSIAC FESTIVALS. 279 the Dionysiac worship led, and that its wild debauchery was sobered by this combination with a purer ceremonial. If Greek tragedy is traced from its first origin, the following will be found to have been the progressive steps by which it advanced to perfection. The village Dionysiac festival gave rise to rude ex- temporaneous poetry, in which the sorrows and triumphs of the patron deity were celebrated. Then succeeded the cyclian chorus, which was composed of fifty practised performers, and their hymns were com- posed by the dithyrambic poet. Even in this early stage, it might be expected that the performers would adopt a theatrical costume. The dance, the song, the music, were all imitative, and dress and disguise would realize the subject and heighten the illusion. The simplest garb which they would adopt, would be that of the companions of Dionysus, in peace and war, in sorrow and triumph, in toil and festivity. These were the supernatural inhabitants of wood, and cave, and fountain ; the satyrs, grotesque to our ideas, but still partners with the god in scenes of tragic interest, according to the popular mythology. The first step to the introduction of costume, was to attire these imaginary beings in the skins of goats. Their songs and dances were sportive as well as serious ; the varied adventures of Dionysus had both these aspects : there is therefore no more inconsist- ency in the union of the comic and tragic elements in one piece, than there is in the introduction of 280 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. comic characters and comic scenes in the plays of Shakspeare. Afterwards, when tragedy assumed a serious and grave form, and dignity and pathos were recognised as its characteristics, the satyrs were banished from it, to a drama of their own, and as the farqe follows the tragedy, so a satyric drama formed the fourth in every tragic tetralogy. It is said that Arion a was not only the inventor of the dithyrambic poetry, b but also attired the singers in the garb of satyrs. If this be the case, theatrical costume, in its simplest form, dates as far back as the times of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. In the age of Thespis, c a native of Icaria, a village near Athens, this banishment of the satyrs from tragedy had not taken place. The choreu- tse still, generally speaking, represented satyrs, but be- tween their songs he introduced a performer, who recited some mythological legend relating to Dionysus. This performer w T ore an appropriate mask and costume, and accompanied his recitation with suitable action. He was, therefore an actor, and consequently Thespis is properly considered as having invented the dramatic form of tragedy ; but, at this period, there was no plot, nor was there any dialogue, except between the actors and the chorus. Between these, however, a dialogue was maintained, and from this circumstance, an actor derived his name vvozgirris, i.e., respondent to the chorus. a Herod, i. 24, b Ibid. v. 67. ■ b.c. 536. TRAGEDIES OF PHRYNICHUS. 281 In this condition tragedy remained until the time of Phrynichus, who exhibited his first tragedy, B.C. 511. The subjects of tragedy were now no longer confined to the adventures of Dionysus. The single actor re- cited such events, historical or mythological, as were calculated to move the feelings of the spectators. The chorus represented characters illustrating the recita- tion. In one play they were the daughters of Danaus; in another they were Phoenician women whom war had deprived of their fathers, brothers, or husbands ; in a third they were Milesian captives. Respecting this play, Herodotus a informs us that its pathos was so great that the whole audience burst into tears, and the Athenian people sentenced the poet to pay a fine of one thousand drachmae for representing the calamities of a people with whose woes they sympathised. Suidas enumerates ten tragedies, written by Phrynichus ; but he omits that of the Phoenicians. It is evident, from the anecdote just related, that he possessed dra- matic and pathetic talent of a very high order; and, probably, the introduction of female characters, which is attributed to him, was owing to his skill in moving the softer passion of pity, rather than the other dra- matic passion of terror. 5 He appears also to have been celebrated for the gracefulness of the dances which he invented, and for the beautiful, although archaic, taste of his lyric odes. It is clear that in the tragedies of Phrynichus, the separation of the tragic from the a Herod, vi. 21. b Vide Arist. Poet. c Suidas ; Plat. Symp. iii. ; Aves, 750 ; Ranse, 908. 282 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. satiric element, must have taken place. His contem- porary, Choerilus, B.C. 523, a may be considered as having probably developed the satiric dramas, if we may place any confidence in the following verse of an anonymous poet: — 'Hviica. [lev ftacriXevg i\v XotptXog ev SarvpotQ? which attributes to him preeminence in this kind of composition. During forty years Choerilus c continued an exhibition of tragedies ; and, during that time, pro- duced one hundred and fifty tragedies, and gained thirteen victories. The tradition that Choerilus excelled in the satiric drama, and the undoubted fact that a satiric chorus could not possibly have harmonised with the affecting tragedies of Phrynichus, constitute fair grounds for assuming that the separation of the tragic and satiric dramas commenced with him. The grammarians, how- ever, attribute the first introduction of pure satiric dramas to Pratinas/ a native of Phlius, resident at Athens, who did not exhibit until more that twenty years later than Choerilus. 6 The probability however is, that he completed the separation which had already been begun, and then devoted his talents to perfect- ing that drama which he had assisted in founding. He wrote, also, hyporchematic lyric poems, f which were probably introduced by way of choruses in his satiric dramas. Choerilus also appears to have stoutly main- * Suidas. b See Smith's Diet, and Miiller's Hist. c Suidas. d Ibid. s. v. e b.c. 500. f Athenseus, xiv. 617. PRATINAS A DORIAN. 283 tained the superior importance of poetry as compared with music, and to have opposed the encroachments of the latter, when there appeared danger lest the instru- mental accompaniment should drown the voice of the singer, and music become predominant instead of auxiliary. Pratinas was a Phlian, and therefore a Dorian. After him tragedy became exclusively Athenian. It had already, since the days of Pisistratus, become naturalized in that capital, but Dorian influences had been the strongest, and the lyric element in which the drama originated prevailed. From this period it became gradually less important, and the tendency, which had already begun to show itself slightly even in the plays of Thespis, to less of a lyric and more of the dramatic element, is now plainly visible ; it also now began to satisfy those conditions which modern taste considers essentially dramatic, and to display those inimitable excellencies which distinguish it in its best period. The era of Athenian political greatness, and that in which Athenian tragedy flourished, exactly coin- cide. The first dramatic contest of iEschylus, in which he contended with Chcerilus and Pratinas, took place B.C. 499, and the years in which were fought the battles of Arginusaa and iEgospotarnos a were marked by the deaths of Euripides and Sophocles. b During this period many tragic writers lived, such as were Aristarchus of Tegea (b.c. 454); Achaaus of a b.c. 406. b b.c. 405. 284 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Eretria (b.c. 447) ; Xenocles, who was victorious over Euripides (b.c. 415); Agathon (b.c. 416); and Eu- pliorion, the son of iEschylus himself. Each of these roust have composed and exhibited a vast number of tragedies; nevertheless, with the exception of a few fragments, none remain to us. Many of those which have perished were probably of great beauty, because iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were all occasion- ally beaten by competitors, and even the "(Edipus Rex" and the "Medea" were unsuccessful. Making, therefore, all allowances for popular caprice, the tes- timony of success would of itself prove that some of their compositions would bear comparison with those w r hich we now admire. Still, the fact that so many plays of iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides have survived, whilst all the rest have perished, may well make us feel satisfied, that, upon the whole, we possess the finest specimens of the Greek dramatic writings, and that although occasionally a play may have pleased more, the public voice of Athens assigned the palm to the three great tragedians. On this point, we can appeal to the comic poet 54 who, although in his love and admiration for antiquity he does not refuse praise to the older dramatists, admits none of them as candidates for the tragic throne. a Aristoph. Batrach. HOMERIC SPIRIT OF THE POETS. 285 CHAPTER III. HOMERIC SPIRIT OF THE THREE GREAT TRAGIC POETS. T HKIK RELI- 75 izzzz _z: zziz:z7 zz^zzz ~zzz 7z;sz :z zz::: — s- j:zj:~ ill' :i i:z7zt a>z zzzzzizs zzzzzz — zscHnrs, his zizz. — :isz7z.zzz : zi zz :zz 5izzz _z: LAZzrAGZ :z zzz7zzs — zz zzi_zz rz.zziiz?, — zzz izzsz-zz. — ttzz sz _ zz 273" 5 7 7ZZZZ5. 7ZZ 5 77 1 ZZAZ 7 5 . 7ZZ I7ZZZ7ZZZ5 ZZLZNZD. — izz :zzi7z_or 7ZIZ : :-y _.-. zzzzzz :z:ziz:zz ^zz zzzzzz zz SYMBOLISM OF THIS TRILOGY. POLITICAL OBJECT OE THE ETZME- 5TDES. — QUOTAWC I Although the revival of a taste :or epic poetry, by the exertion? ot Pisistratus. gave a fresh impulse to literature ; still, in the long interval which had elapsed between the time of Homer and the rise Athenian tragedy. Greek intellect :ad made great advances. The language, the tone of thought, the numerous Homerisms of zEschylus. and even of So- phocles, show thai the three great dramatists were embued with the Homeric spirit, and JEsehylus mo- tly termed h:^ tragedies only slices from the niiirhtv feasts of Homer: 2 but still this spirit was modified by that of their own age. They were as creative as Homer was. but their liberty of creating was confine ] within certain bounds. * Athenseus, viii. 39. 286 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. and limited by the recognized laws of human action. Heroic as were their characters, they must act ac- cording to the moral principles which govern man. The pure and awful conception which philosophic Greece now formed of the divine nature, would not permit it to be defiled by mean or petty passions, or swayed by unworthy motives. The whole religious creed of iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides was totally different from that of Homer, except the mere names of the deities, and the machinery of mythology. Homer's gods were, as we have seen, rather par- tizans, than impartial protectors of the human race carrying out in their government the eternal principles of immutable justice. The peace of Olympus was disturbed by petty quarrels and unworthy jealousies; their e very-day life was sensual, their characters were marked with the lowest immorality. They were able to be bribed by their worshippers. Sacrifice was a mere price for favour, not an offering of atonement or propitiation. Deceit and fraud were unscrupu- lously used. Zeus himself, the father of gods and men, was often treated with disrespect, and was, like man, subject to an irresistible Destiny. The supreme being of iEschylus and Sophocles is purer, loving righteousness and hating iniquity, all-seeing, omnipresent, subject neither to sleep nor age. Destiny still existed, still ruled mankind, but its power was subordinate to the supreme will of God (cc'iaa), the divine command, and the eternal principles of justice. DIFFERENT PHASES OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 287 The mythological features and traditions which remain, are those which, in the histories of the great tragic families, describe the undying vengeance of a pure God exercised against the sinner. The punish- ment which pursues unceasingly the violator of the house of life, the perjurer, the adulterer, the violator of hospitality, until he is penitent, purified, and reconciled. As Homer, Pindar, iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euri- pides may be considered as the representatives of suc- cessive poetical eras, so their poetry may be said to embody different phases of Greek religious belief. Homer represents the popular, Pindar the priestly creed; iEschylus and Sophocles that mysterious need of comfort and support from on high, and riddance of the burden of sin, of which the human heart is naturally conscious; Euripides, that philosophical belief which fast degenerates, first into scepticism, and next into infidelity. iEscHYLUS, born B.C. 525. iEschylus was the son of Euphorion, born at Eleusis in Attica, B.C. 525, a and therefore a native Athenian. His father is supposed to have been employed in the mystical worship of Demeter, and from those awful rites in which he is said to have been initiated may have been derived that supernatural grandeur and religious solemnity which pervade his tragedies. a Olym. lxiii. 4. 288 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. At an early age he devoted himself to poetry. Pau- sanias a relates, that being employed when a boy in a vineyard, he dreamed that Dionysus appeared to him, and commanded him to write tragedy; he obeyed the vision. He first contended for the tragic prize against Pratinas and Choerilus, B.C. 499. But he was not a successful competitor until B.C. 484, a year signalized by the birth of Herodotus. His " Persians," the ear- liest of his dramas which have come down to us, was exhibited with the "Phineus," "Glaucus Potnieus," and the satiric play entitled " Prometheus, the Fire- bearer," B.C. 472. Four years afterwards he was van- quished by Sophocles, and, vexed at his defeat, retired from Athens to the court of Hiero, b who received him with his usual kindness and hospitality. Suidas c attributes his exile to the fall of the wooden benches in the theatre, an accident for which the dramatic poet was held partially responsible. The most pro- bable cause, however, of his exile was religious per- secution on account of his philosophical opinions, and the unpopularity of his political sentiments. He was a Pythagorean, d and therefore too enlightened to believe the fictions of the popular mythology; and Aristotle 6 tells us that a charge of impiety had been brought against him, with reference to the Eleusinian mystery. The "Eumenides" shows that he was deeply attached to the old aristocratical institutions of his country, and that he did not think it consistent with a Paus. i. 21-2. b Plutarch. Cim. 8. c Suidas, s. v. d Cic. Tusc. ii. 10. e Eth. Nic. iii. 1. DEATH OF iESCHYLUS. 289 his duty as a public instructor to shrink from sup- porting them against the innovations of the demo- cratic party. Not that the " Eumenides " had as yet been exhibited, for the Orestean trilogy was not acted until B.C. 458. But as, immediately after that event, he a second time retired to Sicily, it is probable that his former visit may have been caused by similar unacceptable sentiments having appeared in some of his former dramas. In the decision of the prize, however, it is not probable that politics had any share, for Cimon a was one of the judges who de- cided in favour of his young competitor. iEschylus was a warrior b as well as a poet ; the field of Marathon witnessed his prowess as well as that of his brothers, Aminias and Cynsegirus, of whom the former opened the attack at Salamis. d Accident was the cause of his death, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, B.C. 456, at Gela, the place of his exile : an eagle let fall a tortoise on the poet's bald head, mis- taking it for a stone, and thus he died, as an oracle is said to have foretold, by a stroke from heaven. The Gelans instituted public games in his honour, and in- scribed on his tomb an epitaph which he himself had written; in which, as Athenseus 6 observes, he shows that he valued his fame as a warrior far higher than his reputation as a poet. 'AXfO/V to use the words of Miiller, " like a temple built of huge rectangular blocks of polished marble." a But the stately and sublime iEschylus does not he- sitate to descend to the homeliest details, if he thinks that it will make the picture more graphic and the character more true to life. The nurse in the "Cho- ephori," b specifies the minutest details with the garrulity and absence of delicacy which mark the old attached domestic, who knows no other way of de- scribing her affection than by enumerating the little a Miiller's Hist, of Lit. p. 335. b Choeph. 721. NUMBER OF HIS TRAGEDIES. 293 offices which she performed for her charge in infancy ; and the contrast is put in a strong light between the little cares which she then bore patiently, and her overwhelming sufferings at his loss, and the ruin of the house of Agamemnon. iEschylus is said to have composed seventy trage- dies ; according to Suidas, a ninety, in a space of forty- four years, and to have gained either eighteen or thirteen victories. Besides these he wrote elegies, and his satiric dramas are said to have possessed merit equal to that of his tragedies. Seven tragedies are still extant, which all formed parts of connected trilogies ; for Sophocles was the first who exhibited as a trilogy three tragedies, which had no connection. The earliest of these dramas is the " Persians," exhibited B.C. 472. b It formed the second tragedy in a trilogy, of which the "Phineas" was the first, and the " Glaucus Pontius" was the third. It is the only his- torical play which we possess, and its subject was the triumph of Greece over the power of Persia. " The Seven against Thebes " stands next in chrono- logical order. It connects the destinies of Thebes with the terrible curse pronounced by (Edipus on Eteocles and Polynices, and fulfilled in their unnatural and deadly strife. It is the second in a trilogy of which the third was the " Eleusinians," and the first is unknown. There is nothing, perhaps, which so strikingly proves a Suidas, s. v. and Vit. iEsch. b Clinton's Fasti Hellenici. 294 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. the pathetic superiority of Sophocles to iEschylus as a comparison of the Antigone of this drama with the heroine of Sophocles. The next trilogy embodied the history of the house of Danaus. The first and last plays are lost, but the second was the extant play of the " Suppliants." Al- though deficient in dramatic interest, its choral odes are of great beauty. In the "Prometheus Bound" a tritagonistes is intro- duced, an improvement which is due to Sophocles; this, therefore, marks it as one of iEschylus's latest compositions. The first of this trilogy was the " Pro- metheus the Fire-bringer," the third the " Prometheus Unbound." It is difficult to reconcile the plot of this drama with the religious submission and devotion to the will of the Supreme Being, which characterizes iEschylus. It appeals to our sympathies more pathetically than any other of his tragedies, and yet they are against Zeus and on the side of his victim. Terror is excited by the fearful punishment which has overtaken stub- born resistance and defiance of Zeus, and is heightened by the Salvator Rosa-like scenery which is so sub- limely described ; but pity is also awakened in behalf of the friend of man, who suffers because of his benevolence. Prometheus the Titan, who represents man's inven- tive intellect, has doubtless, in the opening drama, blessed man with the gift of fire and all those arts of life which would accompany such a gift, as well as PLOTS OF HIS TRAGEDIES. 2,95 those blessings of which fire may be considered a mythical representation ; but intellectual eminence, unchecked and uncontrolled, has led to arrogance, presumption, and impiety. In the second play, Prometheus' punishment has commenced. He is chained to the bare scathed rocks of Caucasus. Though severe, his punishment is de- served ; he has sinned and will not make submission. The reasonings and persuasions of Oceanus and his daughters, even of the god Hermes himself, are all in vain ; he still daringly braves the wrathful thunder- bolts of Zeus. Still his strong will and his dauntless and unbend- ing spirit command our respect, and produce a convic- tion that his sin is not such as to awaken indignation, but the error of a great mind. Hence the skill with which iEschylus has combined his religious lesson with the dramatic interest which must be on the side of suffering. We sympathise with the resolution of Prometheus, although we feel that he is in error, and at the same time we are convinced that the authority of Zeus must, at all risks, be maintained. The last three plays which are extant fortunately form a complete trilogy. It is the last which he exhibited; the date of it is B.C. 458. a The legend which it embodies is that of Orestes, and the three dramas which form it are " Agamemnon," " Choe- phori," and "Eumenides." The subject of the " Agamemnon " is the sin and a Clinton's Fasfci Hellenici. 296 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. punishment of that monarch. His sin is ambition, his punishment ruin and death in the moment of tri- umph and prosperity. In the furtherance of his am- bitious views, he has been regardless of human life (woXvxrovog)* and has, by the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia, shown himself insensible to natural affec- tion. Hence, in this play, contrast is the chief beauty. The splendour of his conquest, the wealth of the royal house to which he belongs, are painted in glowing colours, b in order to make his fall appear more striking and terrible. But besides his own sin, ancestral guilt presses heavily upon him. Cassandra, in her prophetic vision, beholds the shades of the murdered children of Thyestes, and connects this tale of horror with the approaching catastrophe. iEgisthus, too, according to the laws of blood-guilt, is the appropriate avenger, for he is a son of Thyestes. Although the sins of Agamemnon are sufficient to vindicate the justice of heaven, there is nothing to palliate the horrible crime of Clytemnestra. We cannot sympathise with her first jealousy of Cassan- dra, for, as an adulteress, she has forfeited all title to sympathy, and we know that this is not her real motive, but that the deed was premeditated so long before, as the line of telegraphic signals had been posted by her orders. Clytemnestra has nothing feminine in her character — we scarcely remember that she is woman. She is a compound of the worst vices, lust, cruelty and subtlety. a Verse 460. b Agam. 934, 1010 ; also Choeph. 788. PLOTS OF HIS TRAGEDIES. 297 She murders her husband under the mask of con- jugal love, and, when the deed is done, her moral sense is so depraved, that she defends the act by cunning sophistry. In the " Choephori," remorse begins at length to exert its power. Like Lady Macbeth, Clytemnestra is tortured by horrible dreams, and seeks to appease the manes of her murdered husband, by offerings at his tomb. She dreams that she has given birth to a serpent, and suckled it with her blood. Orestes, at the command of Apollo, and threatened, if disobedient, with the Furies of his father, enters the palace in disguise, pretending to bring the news that he is dead. iEgisthus is first slain, and Orestes then meets Clytem- nestra, his sword still reeking with the blood of her paramour. The ensuing scene is deeply affecting; she appeals to him by a mother's love ; he hesitates, — but only for a moment. They disappear : soon the palace doors open, and, behold, the guilty pair sleep, side by side, the sleep of death. They have kept their oath — in death they are not divided. God's slow and sure revenge against murder, mur- der most unnatural, has taken effect, and its ter- rible nature is enhanced, by the twofold character in which Orestes appears, as his father's avenger, and his mother's murderer. Firmly persuaded, as Orestes is, that he is acting in obedience to the command of Loxias, he cannot still the remorseful voice of conscience, until the unna- tural bloodshed is expiated and atoned for. Visions 298 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. of the angry " hounds " of his mother flit around him, invisible to other eyes. a They weep tears of blood, and seem so numerous, as to fill all space. They drive him from his native land, and force him to be an exile until he has obtained purification. This catastrophe prepares us for the opening of the " Eumenides ; " it is the link which connects the action of the two plays with one another. The " Eumenides" opens with the appearance of the terrified Pythoness, who announces b that the holy shrine is occupied by a suppliant, whose head and sword drop blood, and that female forms, like Gorgons and Harpies, black, and distilling from their eyes loath- some rheum, are slumbering around him. The shade of Clytemnestra appears, and awakens them, and they find, that whilst they slept, their victim has, under the protection of Apollo, and guidance of Hermes, escaped to Athens. The scene now changes to the temple of Pallas, in the Athenian Acropolis. The judges are set; the cause is pleaded ; the ballot taken ; Pallas establishes the principle of Athenian law, that if the votes are equal, the defendant is acquitted. The result is equality, and Pallas, by one white ball, acquits the defendant. Orestes then departs with expressions of gratitude to Pallas, Loxias, and Zeus Soter, and pro- mises everlasting respect and friendship between Argos and Athens. The calm wisdom of Pallas appeases the frantic a ChoepL 1043. b Verse 34, k. r. X. SYMBOLISM OF THE ORESTEA. 299 wrath of the Furies. She promises they shall be hence- forth worshipped at Athens, under the milder name of Eumenides, or the gracious deities, and they de- clare that they will bless the land which own her for its patron. This trilogy is full of symbolism. The power of faith, and of the consciousness of obedience to a divine command, to lull for a time the stings of an uneasy conscience, is represented by the Furies slum- bering, for a time, in the sacred shrine of Apollo, just as the Furies themselves symbolize the remorseful terrors of a guilty conscience, which pursue the sinner who has not made his peace with God and man. But this calm is temporary and imperfect ; conscience will awaken, nor can there be perfect peace, unless there is a sense of acquittal, justification, and reconciliation with God. Whence JEsehylus derived this sublime philosophy, it is impossible to say. Cicero asserts that he was a Pythagorean ; probably these truths which speak so naturally to the conscience promptings of the human heart, were drawn from a much wider study of Greek philosophy, than merely one system, and from a still deeper, and more comprehensive study, that of human nature itself. Again, does not the remorse of Orestes teach the poet's belief, that where the Deity has implanted in man moral instincts and natural affections, this evidence of his will cannot be violated with impunity under any circumstances \ Revelation and nature constitute equal obligations. Happy are we. who are taught to 300 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. find, not only no antagonism, but a strict accordance between these two laws, which proceed from one and the same great Author. The ballot of Pallas symbolizes the principle of mercy ; mercy, not from man alone, but from God. Where man cannot decide, the voice of Heaven inter- feres, and declares that Heaven forgives, and therefore man must pardon also. But it is universally allowed, that this trilogy, and especially the concluding tragedy, had a political object. iEschylus felt it a sacred duty to support the ancient institutions of his country, as of divine origin, and therefore of divine right. He was as aristocratic and conservative as Sophocles was attached to the cause of freedom and progress. The court of Areopagus was not only venerable for its antiquity, and the solemn nature of those causes which were taken cognizance of by this tri- bunal, but from its constitution ; although much altered, it was still the stronghold of the aristocratic party. Hence it presented a great obstacle to the liberal policy of Pericles. Shortly before the time when this trilogy was exhibited (01. lxxx. 2), Ephialtes, an eminent general and statesman of his party, proposed a bill, the provisions of which struck a death-blow to this court of judicature. The result of it would have been, according to Cicero, a to render absolute, the political power of the ecclesia. Before this bill (-^r}