For the
most part it was of public importance, and when it was performed
in private the occasion was one of general interest.
most part it was of public importance, and when it was performed
in private the occasion was one of general interest.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v26 to v30 - Tur to Zor and Index
It was song-poetry; i.
l.
, poetry composed for singing,
the soul of which vanished when the music passed away. After the
loss of Greek independence, Greek music rapidly degenerated. The
music composed by the poets of the classical period was too severe
and noble for the Greeks of later days. The older songs, therefore,
were no longer sung; and the poetry, minus its music, giving way
to shallow and sensational compositions, passed into oblivion.
Scanty however as are the fragments of Greek lyric poetry, these
scanty fragments are of priceless value. The little we possess makes
every lover of literature pray that among the rediscovered treasures
of antiquity, to which every year of late has made valuable contribu-
tions, many more of these lost lyrics may come to light.
In one sense or another, singing was characteristic of nearly all
forms of Greek poetry. The earliest conditions of epic recitation
may be realized from certain scenes in the Odyssey. In one passage
(viii. 62 ff. ) the shipwrecked Odysseus is a guest in the palace of King
Alcinous. The feast is spread, and the great hall is thronged with
Phæacians, when in the midst appears the blind Demodocus, led by
the King's herald, who sets the minstrel on a high chair inlaid with
silver, hangs up his lyre, and brings him a basket of bread and a
goblet of wine. After the feast the minstrel is stirred by the Muse
to sing the deeds of famous men, and his theme is a quarrel between
Odysseus and Achilles, “whereof the fame had reached the wide
heaven. ” At another feast (i. 325 ff. ) the suitors of Penelope compel
Phemius the minstrel to take his lyre and sing to them.
deals with the return of the Achæans from Troy; and as he sings,
Penelope in an upper room, with tears in her eyes, listens to the
strain.
Thus epic poetry, at least in the earliest times, was sung to the
lyre; but this singing was probably unlike the later recitations by
the rhapsodists, for the verse of Homer is unsuited for melodies, and
Greek writers uniformly distinguish epic from lyric, — the former
being narrative poetry, the latter song poetry.
Even elegiac poetry was not regarded by the Greeks as lyric; and
yet elegiac verse was originally sung to the music of the flute, an
instrument used both on mournful occasions and also at festive social
gatherings. But as melodies were found to be inappropriate with the
hexameter of epic verse, so their use was not long continued with
the elegiac couplet, which in its metrical form is so closely allied to
the hexameter.
His lay
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no
Still less lyric in character was the iambic verse of satire, which
was first perfected by Archilochus of Paros. Iambic metre, the metre
of English blank verse, is (as Aristotle long ago perceived) of all
verse forms the least removed from prose. And yet the iambics of
Archilochus, according to Plutarch, were sometimes sung. More fre-
quently this verse was given in recitative with musical accompani-
ment.
Both elegiac and iambic poetry, then, though originally lyrical, at
an early time lost their distinctly lyrical character; and even if their
recitation at a funeral or in camp or round the banqueting-board was
accompanied by music, yet they were more regarded by the
Greeks as lyrical than were the poems of Homer. For the sake of
convenience, however, and because of their subject-matter, these forms
are usually included under the head of lyric poetry by historians of
Greek literature.
During the epic period in Greece, lyric poetry existed mainly in
an embryonic, undeveloped state. Epic poetry held undisputed sway
till near the end of the eighth century before our era. Then began
a movement in the direction of political freedom. Oligarchies and
democracies took the place of ancient monarchies; the planting of col-
onies and the extension of commerce gave an impetus to the spirit
of enterprise and individual development; and the citizen began to
assume his proper rôle as a factor in the life of the State.
It was coincident with this change that lyric poetry — the poetry
thať voiced, not the ancestral glory of kings and princes, but the
feelings and experience of the individual — entered upon its course of
artistic development. The Ionians of Asia Minor were perhaps the
first Greeks among whom democratic institutions came to life. They
were certainly the most active in commercial and colonizing enter-
prises by land and sea, as well as the first to enter the hitherto un-
explored field of speculative philosophy.
To the student of Greek history, lyric poetry is very significant.
Without it we should hardly realize the great extent of the Greek
world toward east and west. Greece would mean little more than
Athens and Sparta. But lyric poetry widens ‘our vision.
Here we
learn of the wealth and luxury of the Asiatic Ionians, of the oble
chivalry and refinement of life in the Æolian isles of the Ægean sea,
of the beauty and grace of festal celebrations in the Dorian Pelopon-
nesus, in southern Italy and distant Sicily. Then comes Pindar, the
heroes of whose triumphal odes are Greeks hailing from all corners
of the known world,— from the coasts of the Black Sea, or the col-
onies of far-off Libya and remote Gaul.
In Ionic Greece the new poetry took two forms, - elegiac and
iambic. The structure of elegiac verse shows its close connection
with the epic; for it is written in couplets, of which the first line is
-
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1
i
the ordinary hexameter as employed by Homer, and the second the
same line abbreviated to five feet. The name elegy, however, indi-
cates the presence of a foreign element; for it comes from that of a
plaintive instrumental dirge, in vogue among certain tribes of Asia
Minor, especially the Phrygians, to which people belonged Olympus, a
musical reformer of the eighth century. As adopted by the Greeks,
elegy was not confined to mournful themes, but its application varied
as much as that of the flute, the Asiatic instrument which at first
accompanied it.
The earliest Greek elegists of whom we have any records are Cal-
linus and Tyrtæus, who lived as contemporaries at the beginning of
the seventh century B. C. Callinus, it is true, is a rather shadowy
personage; but he was regarded by the Greeks as the inventor of
elegy, and is known to have lived at Ephesus in Ionia, at a time
when Asia Minor was overrun by hordes of Cimmerians, who came
down from the northern shores of the Black Sea.
Tyrtæus, according to tradition, was born in Attica; but his poetic
career centres in Sparta. Here, during and after the second Messe-
nian war, there was much civic discord; and both Tyrtæus the poet
and Terpander the musician are said to have been publicly invited
by the Lacedæmonians to apply the resources of art in inspiring a
lofty patriotism, and thus healing the wounds of the body politic.
The lame Attic schoolmaster for tradition thus describes Tyrtaus
was eminently successful in his noble task; and the Spartans not
only conferred upon the poet the rare favor of citizenship, but did
him the greater honor of preserving his poems from age to age, and
revering them as national songs. These were sung by the soldiers
round the camp-fires at night; and the officers rewarded the best singer
with extra rations. Tyrtæus also composed choruses for groups of old
men, young men, and boys, the general character of which may be
inferred from the following popular ditty, which was sung to a dance
accompaniment:-
(a) In days of yore, most sturdy youths were we.
(6) That we are now: come, watch us, if
(c) But we'll be stronger far than all of you. *
.
you will.
Famous too were the marching-songs of Tyrtæus, which were
accompanied by flute music, and sung by the soldiers advancing to
battle. These were written in the tripping anapæstic measure, and
in the Dorian dialect. One example may be paraphrased thus:
On, ye glory of Sparta's youth!
Ye whose sires are the city's might:
* Unless otherwise credited, translations are by the essayist.
1
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:
Grasp the shield with the left hand thus,
Boldly poise the spear in the right;
Of your lives' worth take ye no heed, -
Sparta knows not a coward's deed.
It is for his elegies, however, that Tyrtæus is most favorably
known. True to their origin, these poems, though addressed to a
Dorian audience, are written in the Ionic dialect. We have fragments
of one elegy called (Good Government,' which eulogizes the Spartan
constitution and King Theopompus, one of the heroes of the first Mes-
senian war. But most of the elegies of Tyrtæus are less distinctly
political, and aim simply at infusing into the citizen soldiery a spirit
of valor, military honor, and contempt for cowardice. The following
is a rendering of one of these martial elegies, by the poet Thomas
Campbell. The picture of the youth whose fair form lies outstretched
in death, is not only pathetic and beautiful but also peculiarly
Greek:
HOW GLORIOUS fall the valiant, sword in hand,
In front of battle for their native land!
But oh! what ills await the wretch that yields,
A recreant outcast from his country's fields!
The mother whom he loves shall quit her home,
An aged father at his side shall roam;
His little ones shall weeping with him go,
And a young wife participate his woe;
While, scorned and scowled upon by every face,
They pine for food, and beg from place to place.
Stain of his breed! dishonoring manhood's form,
All ills shall cleave to him; affliction's storin
Shall blind him wandering in the vale of years,
Till, lost to all but ignominious fears,
He shall not blush to leave a recreant's name,
And children, like himself, inured to shame.
But we will combat for our fathers' land,
And we will drain the life-blood where we stand,
To save our children: fight ye side by side,
And serried close, ye men of youthful pride,
Disdaining fear, and deeming light the cost
Of life itself in glorious battle lost.
1
Leave not our sires to stem the unequal fight,
Whose limbs are nerved no more with buoyant might;
Nor, lagging backward, let the younger breast
Permit the man of age (a sight unblest)
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TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
To welter in the combat's foremost thrust,
His hoary head disheveled in the dust,
And venerable bosom bleeding bare.
But youth's fair form, though fallen, is ever fair,
And beautiful in death the boy appears, –
The hero boy, that dies in blooming years:
In man's regret he lives, and woman's tears;
More sacred than in life, and lovelier far,
For having perished in the front of war.
In striking contrast with Tyrtæus and Callinus, whose elegies are
so full of martial spirit, stands Mimnermus, an Ionian poet of Smyrna,
who flourished near the end of the seventh century B. C. This cen-
tury witnessed the gradual subjection of the Asiatic Greeks to the
Lydian yoke; and from Mimnerinus we gather that his Ionian fellow-
countrymen, who in former days had successfully resisted the bar-
barian might, were now sunk in inglorious inactivity and fettered in
complacent slavery. Yet the poet can rejoice in the brave days of
old, when on the Hermian plain the spearman mowed down the
dense ranks of Lydian cavalry, and Pallas Athene ne'er found fault
with his keen valor, as on he rushed in the vanguard, escaping the
piercing arrows of his foes in the clash of bloody battle. ” The
poet's forefathers too once “left lofty Pylus, home of Neleus, and
came in ships to lovely Asia, and in fair Colophon settled with the
might of arms, being leaders of fierce boldness; and thence they
passed by the counsel of the gods and captured Æolian Smyrna. ”
But the prevailing tone of Mimnermus's verse is that of luxurious
indolence and sensual enjoyment. This is the main characteristic
of those elegies, which are addressed to a favorite flute-player called
Nanno.
Where's life or joy, when Love no more shines fair?
2
The beauty of comely youth fires the poet with the heat of intense
passion:-
Then down my body moisture runs in streams,
As gazing on the bloom of joyous youth,
I tremble oft; so bright are beauty's beams.
But his heart is flooded with melancholy; for all this joy and beauty
remind Mimnermus that crabbed age, “unhappy and graceless,” is
coming on apace,
And cherished youth is short-lived as a dream.
As Homer had said long before, we are but as the leaves which
appear with the flowers of spring”; and “when springtime is past,
((
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.
1
TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
15167
then is it better to die than live »: for at our side stand two black
Fates, one of gloomy age and the other of death”; and of the two,
old age and death, the soft, effeminate, pleasure-loving Mimnermus
hesitates not to choose the latter:-
1
1
1
1
1
AH! FAIR and lovely bloom the flowers of youth-
On men and maids they beautifully smile;
But soon comes doleful eld, who, void of ruth,
Indifferently afflicts the fair and vile:
Then cares wear out the heart; old eyes forlorn
Scarce reck the very sunshine to behold,
Unloved by youths, of every maid the scorn,-
So hard a lot God lays upon the old.
Translation of John Addington Symonds.
WA.
If disease and care trouble not, Mimnermus would make sixty years
the extreme limit of life to be desired; but his younger contempo-
rary, the Athenian Solon, who had little sympathy with such gloomy
views, appeals to the "sweet singer” to change his three to four score
years.
Mimnermus, a pure hedonist, lived only for the sensual pleasures
that life could afford; and when these were withdrawn, life was to
him no longer worth living. The poet had no sublime religious
faith, no lofty philosophy, to guide and comfort his soul; and at a
time when Greece was still in her youth, and almost before she had
entered upon her wonderful career of glorious achievement, this
bright intellect sinks into a nerveless ennui, and gives way to a
world-weary pessimism.
Mimnermus lived before his time; and it is therefore a less re-
markable fact that when elegiac verse was long afterwards cultivated
by learned poets and versifiers in the artificial society of Alexandria
and Augustan Rome, the sweet sentimental Mimnermus should have
been more often taken as a model than were the saner and more
robust writers of early Greek elegy.
From elegiac we pass to iambic verse; which, like elegy, has an
Ionic origin, is written in the Ionic dialect, and lies midway between
epic and lyric poetry proper. But there is this important difference
between iambic and elegiac verse: the latter is in form but slightly
removed from the dignified measure of heroic poetry; the former -
the metre of English blank verse — is but one remove from the lan-
guage of every-day life. It is therefore suitable for poetry of a per-
sonal tone and conversational style; and thus it became the common
form for miscellaneous subjects of no great elevation in thought, as
well as for sharp satire and dramatic dialogue.
1
1
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There is a story that connects the name ia mbic with the festi-
vals of Demeter. When that goddess was bewailing the loss of her
daughter Persephone, none could relieve her grief until the maid
Iambe, with her sparkling witticisms, raised a smile on the sorrowful
mother's lips. Archilochus, the reputed inventor of iambic poetry,
was a competitor with his verses at the feasts of Demeter; and it is
doubtless in the freedom of satiric and jocular utterance tolerated
on such occasions, that we are to seek the origin of this species of
verse.
Both iambic and elegiac verse were often cultivated by the same
poets. Certain fragments of the elegies of Archilochus, as well as of
Solon, have come down to us. In one elegy Archilochus lamented,
in graceful language, the loss of a friend at sea. In another we find
the martial tone of Callinus. «I serve the Lord of war,” says the
soldier-poet, and am skilled in the Muses' pleasing gifts. With my
spear I earn my kneaded bread, with my spear my Thracian wine,
and when I drink 'tis on my spear I rest. ”
Archilochus was born in the island of Paros, one of the Cyclades,
and flourished at the beginning of the seventh century B. C. His
father Telesicles was man of aristocratic rank, but his mother
Enipo was a slave. While a mere youth he accompanied his father,
when the latter led to Thasos, in the northern Ægean, a colony of
gold-seekers from Paros.
To the young man, disappointed in his
quest, Paros with her figs and sailor life seemed infinitely superior
to Thasos which «like a donkey's back, stands crowned with wild
wood. 'Tis a place by no means fair or lovely or pleasant, as is the
land by Siris's streams. ” This allusion to the Siris would seem to
imply that the poet had previously traveled to southern Italy. Archilo-
chus soon found the condition of Thasos to be desperate:
a
>>>
All the woes of Hellas throng the Thasian isle,
(
((
over which the stone of Tantalus was suspended. ” The colonists
attempted to gain a foothold on the mainland opposite, but the
Thracian tribes drove them back; and in one conflict Archilochus,
though he managed to save his life, had to part with his shield.
“I'll get another just as fine," he adds with cheerful composure.
This roving soldier-poet afterwards engaged in war in Eubea, and
visited Sparta; but the paternal government of that model State
would have none of him, and he was promptly ordered to withdraw.
Subsequently he returned to his native place, and was eventually
killed in a battle between the Parians and the people of the neigh-
boring island of Naxos.
The poet's private life was not of a high type, and seems to have
been deeply colored by his ill-success in love. He was betrothed to
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15169
Neobule, daughter of Lycambes, a Parian, and was passionately en-
amored of the girl.
But oh! to touch the hand of her I love!
he sighs; and then gives us this simple and beautiful picture:-
Holding a myrtle rod she blithely moved,
And a fair blossoming rose; the flowing hair
Shadowed her shoulders, falling to her girdle.
Translation of J. A. Symonds.
we
In the depth of personal feeling, and the impetuosity and fire of his
passion for Neobule, Archilochus belongs to the same class as the Les-
bian singers, Alcæus and Sappho. “So strong,” he writes, « was the
storm of love which gathered in my heart, that over my eyes it
poured a heavy mist, and from my brain stolė my wits away. ”
For what reason can only conjecture, Lycambes withdrew his
consent to the marriage of his daughter; whereupon the poet, in
furious rage, assailed him with merciless abuse, embracing in his
venomous attack — for chivalry was a virtue unrecognized by Archilo-
chus — both Neobule herself and her innocent sisters. To illustrate
the power of this master of satire, tradition assures us that Lycambes
and his daughters were driven to self-destruction. Good reason, then,
had Archilochus to utter in blunt fashion the unchristian boast :
One mighty art full well I know-
To punish sore my mischief-working foe.
We possess but scanty fragments of the poems of Archilochus,
and therefore are unable to form for ourselves a correct judgment
upon his merits. There is, however, plenty of evidence to show
in what esteem he was held by antiquity. Though Homer stood
supreme above all other poets, yet Archilochus, summo proximus, was
placed in the same rank. In statuary they were represented together;
and Quintilian assures us that if Archilochus was inferior to any other
poet, the inferiority, in the opinion of many, was due to his subject-
matter, not his genius. When Plato made his first assaults upon the
Sophists, Gorgias exclaimed, “Athens has found a new Archilochus. ”
The Roman Horace claimed to be not merely the Alcæus but also
the Archilochus of Rome. “I was the first,” he says, “to show to
Latium Parian iambics; following the metre and spirit of Archilochus,
but not his subjects or words. ” Archilochus in his rhythms, as in
other ways, gives proof of a daring originality. One interesting use
to which he put his epodes, or system of lines alternately long and
short, was in the narration of fables which contained a satiric moral.
In one fragment a fox thus prays! “O Zeus, father Zeus! thine is
power in heaven; thou seest the deeds of men, both knavish and
XXVI–949
.
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TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
righteous, and in beasts too thou payest heed to frowardness and
justice. ” Burns could sing how -
«The best-laid plans o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley);
but surely no poet-moralist was ever bolder than Archilochus, in thus
attributing moral qualities to the lower creatures. In these fables
he was the forerunner of Æsop.
Still another metrical creation of this poet's must be mentioned.
This is the trochaic system, which like the iambic was destined to
become one of the most popular measures in later poetry. Here too
in Archilochus' we find evidence of much variety; but the favorite
trochaic line of the Parian poet was that of four measures. Ten-
nyson's "Locksley Hall is in its form a distant descendant of the
tetrameters of Archilochus. This measure was used by him for per-
sonal description which is humorous rather than malicious in intent.
So for example in the passage: “I care not for a tall general with
outspread legs, - a curled, well-shaven dandy: give me a short man
with bandy legs, who treads firmly on his feet and is full of spirit. ”
The tetrameter is further employed in giving counsel or in animated
philosophic moralizing: -
-
To the gods intrust thou all things. Ofttimes out of evil toil
Raise they mortals who lie abject, stretched upon earth's darksome soil.
Ofttimes too they overturn men; and when we have walked in pride,
Trip us up and throw us prostrate. Then all evils throng our side,
And we fare forth lacking substance, outcast and of wits bereft.
The poet's beautiful lines on equanimity are well worth remember-
ing:-
Tossed on a sea of troubles, Soul, my Soul,
Thyself do thou control;
And to the vieapons of advancing foes
A stubborn breast oppose:
Undaunted 'mid the hostile might
Of squadrons burning for the fight.
Thine be no boasting when the victor's crown
Wins thee deserved renown;
Thine no dejected sorrow, when defeat
Would urge a base retreat:
Rejoice in joyous things - nor overmuch
Let grief thy bosom touch
Midst evil, and still bear in mind
How changeful are the ways of human-kind.
Translation of William Hay.
1
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(When my
1
(
Still another side of the manifold literary activity of Archilochus
is represented by his hymns composed in honor of gods or heroes.
In one of his trochaic couplets we find the first allusion in Greek
literature to the dithyramb, or convivial hymn, in praise of Dionysus,
the seed from which grew the glorious tragedy of Athens.
brain,” says the poet, in words which imply a chorus of revelers, “is
smitten by wine as by a thunderbolt, I know how to lead off the
dithyramb, the beautiful strain of Lord Dionysus. ” Thus Archilochus
was the predecessor of Pindar in the dithyramb of Bacchic festivities,
as he was also in the songs of victory sung at Olympia. Even in
Pindar's day exultant friends still sang the “Hail Victor) refrain
of Archilochus's hymn to Heracles, as they led the conquering hero
to the shrine of Zeus.
It is not, however, as an elegiac or love poet, as an inventor of
varied forms of verse, as a fable-writer or singer of hymns and songs
of victory, that Archilochus is best remembered: it is as the fore-
runner of the great Aristophanes, of Lucilius, Horace, and Juvenal,
of Swift and Pope, of Molière and Voltaire, and as the most potent
wielder in antiquity of the shafts of personal satire by means of
what Hadrian called his «frenzied iambi”; for, as Quintilian says,
compressed into his “short and quivering sentences was the maxi-
mum of blood and sinew. ” In this sphere his surpassing great-
ness has completely overshadowed later iambic writers of no little
intrinsic merit; such as Simonides of Amorgus, the unsparing reviler
of womankind, and the caustic Hipponax of Ephesus, whose crippled
lines (for Hipponax was the inventor of the so-called “limping
iambics”) present vivid and homely pictures of daily life among the
Asiatic Greeks of those remote times.
The iambic measure, having been found a fitting vehicle for per-
sonal and satiric effusions, afterwards enjoyed the great distinction of
being adopted as the ordinary verse of dialogue in the Attic drama.
Greek elegy, too, being applicable to the most heterogeneous subjects,
especially to epigrammatic composition, continued an independent
existence not only till the glory of Greece herself had departed, but
even till after the fall of the Roman empire.
In contrast with this Ionic poetry, let us turn to that which was
first brought to perfection by the Æolian and Dorian tribes, and
which alone was regarded by the Greeks as lyric. If we cared to
employ a term used by the Greeks themselves, we might distin-
guish Æolian and Dorian lyric by the term melic, because such poetry
was always set to some melos or melody. The Æolian lyric was
cultivated chiefly in the Æolian island of Lesbos, the Dorian in the
Dorian Peloponnesus and Sicily. The former was sung in the Æolic
dialect, the latter chiefly in the traditional epic dialect, but included
1
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TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
a sparing admixture of Doric forms. The two schools differ materi-
ally in every respect, - in style, subject, and form.
The Æolic was intended to be sung by a single voice, the singer
accompanying himself on a stringed instrument, with suitable gest-
ures. It was essentially personal, expressing the singer's own emo-
tion. Political feeling is, to be sure, prominent in Alcæus; but this
is due to the poet's identifying his personality so completely with
a political party. As to form, Æolic lyrics are very simple, either
consisting of a series of short lines of equal length, or of stanzas
in which shorter line marks the separation from one another. The
four-lined stanza is the commonest form. The Alcaic and Sapphic
odes of Horace are illustrations familiar to the Latin student.
On the other hand, Dorian lyric poetry was sung by a number in
chorus, accompanied by dancing and musical instruments.
For the
most part it was of public importance, and when it was performed
in private the occasion was one of general interest. Hence choral
poetry is found connected with the sacred and festal gatherings
of the people, or the marriages and funerals of private life. The
structure of a choral poem is often very elaborate and artificial; but
the movements of the dance, appealing to the eye, assisted the ear in
unweaving the intricacies of the rhythm.
Let it always be borne in mind that Greek dancing was very dif-
ferent from the modern art. Dancing to our mind simply implies
tripping it on the light fantastic toe”; and often with little reason
and less grace.
But in Greece the term dancing applied to all move-
ments of the body which were intended to aid in the interpretation
of poetry or the expression of emotion. Thus gestures, postures, and
attitudes were most important forins of dancing, and in dance move-
ments the hands and arms played a much larger part than the feet.
Aristotle tells us that dancers imitate actions, characters, and passions
by means of gestures and rhythmical motion. Thus the spirit which
animates Greek mythology and Greek art — the desire to give form
and body to mental conceptions — is characteristic of Greek dancing.
Various attempts have been made in recent years to reproduce the
graceful and rhythmical movements of ancient dancing. One of the
most successful of these was that of the young
of Vassar
College, who in May 1893 rendered Sophocles's Antigone in the
original Greek, adhering as closely as possible to the ancient mode
of representation. The lyrics, sung to Mendelssohn's fine music, were
accompanied by expressive and artistic dance evolutions. The beau-
tiful imitative and interpretative movements of the choristers were
in striking contrast with the ludicrous and meaningless feats of the
spinning ballet-girls, with their scant muslin skirts and painted ex-
pressionless faces.
mo
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As to Greek music, it too was very different from ours; but in this
sphere the advantage certainly lies with the modern art.
And yet
the music of the Greeks, as illustrated by the few extant remains,
especially by the Apollo hymns found at Delphi in 1893, has its own
peculiar beauties, which can arouse the sympathy and interest of a
cultivated audience even to-day,
In the best period of Greek poetry, the only musical instruments
employed were practically the lyre, a string instrument, and the flute,
a wind instrument; the former being much preferred because it al-
lowed the same person to sing and play. Other string instruments,
such as the cithara, phorminx, psaltery, chelys, barbiton, and pectis,
were all mere variations of the lyre, and depended on the same
principle. Instruments with a large number of strings were known,
as the magadis and trigon; but these, though commonly used by pro-
fessional musicians, were unhesitatingly condemned by Plato and
Aristotle, as pandering to perverted tastes. As to wind instruments,
the flute was originally imported from Lydia, and was still unfamiliar
to the Greeks in Homer's time. This flute must not be confounded
with the one used in our modern orchestras, for it resembled rather
the clarionet or oboe. It was also stronger and shriller than our
modern Aute. Flutes varied in length; and a double flute was often
used. The syrinx, or Pan's pipe, had seven reeds of different length,
giving the seven notes of the scale. For special effect the trumpet
or horn was introduced: also the tympanum or drum, and cymbals.
The question is often asked whether the Greeks employed har-
mony or not. Part-singing was unknown among them, as were also
the elaborate harmonies of the modern art. Yet they did understand
and employ harmonies; though with the exception of octave singing,
these were confined to instrumental music. In the best days of
Greek song, however, harmony seems to have been little more than a
matter of octaves, fourths, and fifths, – the only concords, it is said,
that the Japanese have to-day. Pythagoras on theory rejected the
third, which we regard as the most pleasing of intervals; but it was
apparently used in practice.
Yet if the Greeks were far inferior to us in harmony, it would
appear that they developed melody to an extraordinary degree.
Quarter-tones, used it is true as merely passing notes, were sung by
the voice and played on strings; and as there was no bowing, as with
our violin, this was done without sliding from one note to another.
Yet this sort of playing, when well done, aroused the greatest enthu-
siasm.
In Greek lyric, the three sister arts of poetry, music, and dance
formed a trinity in unity, whereas with us they are quite distinct.
Poetry and music may be united artificially on occasion; but in an-
tiquity the great poets were musicians as well, and wrote their own
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.
1
-
music, perhaps simultaneously with their poetry. As for the dance,
that too was an important element of Greek lyric; though nowadays
it is very poor poetry indeed that we should care to marry to the
art of romping:
After what has just been said, it will not be thought remarkable
that the first name in the history of Greek melic, or lyric poetry
proper, is noteworthy also in the history of music. Terpander, who
was the first to add three strings to the primitive four-stringed lyre,
and who thus gave a great impetus to musical development, was born
in the Æolian island of Lesbos. He is said to have won the victor's
prize on the occasion when the festival of Apollo Carneus was first
established at Sparta in 676 B. C. His consequent fame gave him
great influence with the music-loving Lacedæmonians, among whom
he introduced his melodies or nomes, which received the sanction of
State authority. These nomes, which were sacred hymns sung by a
single voice, were composed chiefly in the stately dactylic and solemn
spondaic verses. Only long syllables are used in a hymn to Zeus
which begins in this simple but weighty language: “Zeus, of all things
the beginning, of all things leader: Zeus, to thee I offer this beginning
of hymns. ”
That the Æolian Terpander should have practiced his art in a
Dorian State is but one illustration of the way in which the vari-
ous streams of Greek artistic activity tended to intermingle. In the
seventh century, however, Sparta was the greatest power in Greece;
and it was but natural that she should act as a magnet, drawing
within her borders the leading artists of every State. Thus Terpan-
der the Lesbian was followed by Tyrtæus a reputed Athenian, Clonas
the Theban, Thaletas the Cretan, and Alcman the Lydian. These
were the poets who laid the foundations of choral poetry, which was
destined to have so magnificent a future.
Meanwhile in Terpander's native isle, the wealthy and luxurious
Lesbos, that form of song which embodied purely personal sentiment
was being gradually developed. We know nothing of the immediate
predecessors of the great Lesbian poets; but the fact that Terpander
was entering upon his career at the beginning of the seventh cen-
tury is sufficient proof that at time Lesbos was already a centre
of music and poetry. At the end of this same century, suddenly and
without warning, we come face to face in Lesbos with the very per-
fection of lyric art.
The greatest names in Æolian lyric are Alcæus and Sappho. The
former was a Lesbian noble, a proud and fiery cavalier, who sang of
love and wine or poured forth passionate thoughts on politics and
philosophy. The scanty fragments of Sappho's songs fully bear out
the verdict of antiquity, that her verse was unrivaled in grace and
sweetness. She was «the poetess," as Homer was «the poet ”; and
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>
1
Plato added her to the choir of Muses nine. ” (See the special
articles on these two poets. With the Æolian poets of Lesbos,
Anacreon, an Ionian, must be classed, because he too sings simple
songs of personal feeling. But Anacreon is not to be compared
with Alcæus and Sappho in inspiration and genuine emotion. He has
plenty of grace, plenty of metrical charm and polish; but the fire
of genius is lacking. Anacreon is a mere courtier who adorns the
palaces of princes, and free from deep or absorbing passion, sings
lightly and sweetly of youths and maidens, of love and wine and
pleasure. This very absence of real seriousness of purpose ely
accounts for the great popularity of Anacreon's verse, which in more
prosaic days was freely imitated. The admiration bestowed by the
modern world upon Anacreon is founded almost entirely upon a col-
lection of odes which pass under his name, but which have long
since been proven spurious. These Anacreontics, most familiar to us
in Thomas Moore's translation, are of unequal merit; some of them
being very graceful and pleasing, while others are feeble and puerile.
Æolic song, besides being limited in local sphere, was very short-
lived. As the expression of purely personal, individual emotion,
apart from the sentiments of one's associates and fellow-citizens,
song did not play that part in the Greek world with which we are
so familiar to day. As a race, the Greeks were not sentimental and
introspective; but were distinguished for their practical, objective
manner of looking upon the world. The Greek could never forget
that he was a member of a community; and even in the expression
of his joys and sorrows he would not stand aloof from his fellow-
Hence, we find that in the creative period of Greek poetry,
the song to be sung by a single voice, and setting forth the feelings
of the individual heart, was never wide-spread, but limited to the
small field of the Lesbian school; and however remarkable its brill-
iance, flourished in splendor for little more than a single generation.
Not so with the poetry which voiced the sentiments and emo-
tional life of a whole community. Lyric poetry of this popular and
general character is found from early days in connection with the
festivals and institutions of the various Greek States. More particu-
larly did it suit the genius of the Dorian tribes, among whom civic
and communal life was more pronounced than elsewhere. After
undergoing a rich artistic development, this Dorian lyric became
panhellenic in the range of its acceptance; and being adopted in
Attica in the service of the gods, it enjoyed a glorious history in the
evolution of Athenian greatness, and more particularly in the remark-
able development of the Attic drama.
Let us first note the various forms which this public poetry
assumed. The very earliest lyric poetry of Greece is connected with
the worship of nature, such as the Linus-song, incidentally mentioned
men.
11
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by Homer (Iliad, xviii. 570) and sung at the vintage as an elegy on
the death of a beautiful youth who symbolized the passing of sum-
mer. Similar songs were the lament for Hyacinthus and that for
Adonis, subjects which often found artistic treatment in the poets of
later times.
A fruitful source of lyric song was the worship of the nature-god
Dionysus or Bacchus. Like our Christmas festival, the Bacchic fes-
tivities had two sides, a sacred and a secular. Characteristic of the
latter was the so-called phallic song, the seed from which was to
spring Attic comedy. In the Acharnians) of Aristophanes we have
a mosaic of such a song, not without much of its primitive coarse-
ness. To the more reverential side belongs the invocation of the
god, the dithyrambic hymn, first mentioned by Archilochus. The
dithyramb became popular at luxurious Corinth; and here it was that
in the beginning of the sixth century B. C. , Arion, a Lesbian, first
gave it artistic form, adapted it to a chorus, and set it on the path of
development, which was to lead to the tragic drama. Only one such
poem has come down to us in any completeness; and that is a beau-
tiful dithyramb of Pindar's, composed for a chorus of fifty voices.
(An English rendering is given by Campbell, 'Greek Tragedy,' page
50. )
The hymns sung in honor of other deities were probably less pop-
ular and general in character; being mainly connected with local
cults and often with hereditary priesthoods. Delos and Delphi were
the peculiar homes of the worship of Apollo, and there it was that
the Apollo hymns chiefly flourished. The most important variety of
these was the Pæan, which glorified Apollo as the giver of health
and victory. In a lyrical monody of Euripides's "Ion,' we have what
is probably the burden of one of these solemn old Delphian chants,
“O Pæan, Pæan, blessed be thou, O son of Leto! »
Processional hymns, sung by a chorus to instrumental accompani-
ment, were a common feature of solemn festivals. These prosodia, as
they were called, were composed by the greatest poets of the day,
such as Alcman, Stesichorus, and Pindar. Processional hymns, when
sung by girls only, were called parthenia. What beauty and splendor
these processions of youths and maidens could lend to civic celebra-
tions, may be inferred from those glorious pictures in marble adorn-
ing the frieze of the famous Parthenon.
Still another occasion when the noblest sentiments of Greek civic
life found utterance in lyric song, was the celebration of victory in
the national games. In this matter-of-fact age, notwithstanding our
devotion to athletics and manly sports, we find it very difficult to
comprehend the lofty idealism with which in days of old the con-
tests on the banks of the Alpheus, and at other noted centres, were
invested. And yet unless we realize how intense was the national
1
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15177
and spiritual exaltation which characterized these games, we shall
never regard Pindar as more than an idle babbler of meaningless
words, whereas in reality he is one of the most sublime and creative
geniuses in all literature.
Other occasions for the use of lyric were funeral solemnities and
wedding festivities. Even as early as Homer, laments for the dead
were sung by professional mourners; and with the growth of the
poetic art, dirges became an important form of artistic song. Simon-.
ides and Pindar were both distinguished in this field; and in the lyri-
cal part of tragedy the dirge is a prominent element.
The hymenaus, or joyous wedding song, is also known to Homer.
In one of the cities represented on the shield of Achilles were de-
picted bridal feasts, “and with blazing torches they were leading
brides from their chambers through the city, and the hymenæus
swelled high. And youths were whirling in the dance, while among
them flutes and harps resounded; and the women, standing at their
several doors, marveled thereat. ” (Iliad, xviii. 491. ) The songs sung
in chorus before the bridal chamber were called epithalamia, and were
deemed worthy of the attention of the greatest lyric artists. Sappho
was particularly famous for her epithalamia; but only fragments
have survived, and we must form our conception of a Sapphic epi-
thalamium from Catullus's beautiful imitation
((
Vesper adest, iuvenes, consurgite.
Greek drinking-songs belong to the borderland between personal
and popular verse. Some of the so-called scolia or catches were
patriotic songs; an interesting specimen of which is the ode by Cal-
listratus in honor of those idols of the Athenian people, Harmodius
and Aristogeiton, who slew the tyrant Hipparchus:-
With leaves of myrtle I'll wreathe iny sword,
Like Harmodius of yore and his comrade brave,
What time they slew the tyrant lord
And equal laws to Athens gave.
Beloved Harmodius, thou hast not died!
The isles of bliss hold thee, 'tis said;
There Achilles the fleet is by thy side,
And Tydeus's son, famed: Diomed.
With leaves of myrtle I'll wreathe my sword,
Like Harmodius of yore and his comrade brave,
What time at Athene's festal board
Through tyrant Hipparchus the sword they drave.
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For aye will men sing with one accord
Of thee, loved Harmodius and thy comrade brave;
For ye did slay the tyrant lord
And equal laws to Athens gave.
Another of these songs, written by Hybrias, a Cretan, was doubt-
less popular with those proud young cavaliers who adopted arms as
a profession, and served in various lands and under various leaders.
The sentiment recalls to our minds Archilochus. Here is a spirited
translation by the poet Thomas Campbell:-
MY WEALTH's a burly spear and brand,
And a right good shield of hides untanned
Which on my arm I buckle:
With these I plow, I reap, I sow,
With these I make the sweet vintage flow,
And all around me truckle.
But your wights that take no pride to wield
A massy spear and well-made shield,
Nor joy to draw the sword –
Oh, I bring those heartless, hapless drones
Down in a trice on their marrow-bones,
To call me king and lord.
Most pleasing of the forms of popular poetry are the songs of
children. The so-called flower song ran thus: “Where are my roses?
Where are my violets? Where are my beautiful parsley-leaves ? ”
«Here are your roses; here are your violets; here are your beautiful
parsley-leaves. ” The children of Rhodes had a pretty custom. On
a day in early spring they would go round the town seeking presents
from door to door, and singing the advent of the swallow:
>
She is here, she is here, the swallow!
Fair seasons bringing, fair years to follow!
Her belly is white,
Her back black as night!
From your rich house
Roll forth to us
Tarts, wine, and cheese:
Or if not these,
Oatmeal and barley-cake
The swallow deigns to take.
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What shall we have? Or must we hence away ?
Thanks, if you give; if not, we'll make you pay!
The house-door hence we'll carry;
Nor shall the lintel tarry.
From hearth and home your wife we'll rob;
She is so small
To take her off will be an easy job!
Whate'er you give, give largess free!
Up! open, open to the swallow's call!
No grave old men, but merry children we!
Translation of J. A. Symonds.
1
Choral poetry of a definite artistic type seems to have been first
cultivated in Sparta by Alcman about the middle of the seventh cen-
tury B. C. Alcman composed hymns to the gods, marching-songs and
choral songs for men and boys; but his best-known compositions
were choruses for girls, which were largely dramatic in character
(see special article). A pupil of Alcman's was Arion the Lesbian,
who in Corinth first gave a literary form to the dithyramb. Well
known is the pretty story of Arion and the dolphin. The poet had
traveled through Magna Græcia, and having made a large fortune by
his songs, again took ship at Tarentum for Corinth. But the sailors,
who coveted his wealth, forced him to jump overboard; whereupon to
their amazement a dolphin bore him safely to land.
In Stesichorus (630–550 B. C. ) we meet for the first time a Sicilian
poet, and one of great power. His original name was Tisias, which
he resigned for another that indicated his profession as a trainer of
choruses. His native city Himera was a Dorian settlement, but had
a large Ionic element in the population. Catana was the scene of his
death.
According to Quintilian, Stesichorus sustained in lyric form the
weight of epic verse. By this is meant that the poet made use of
epic material; taking such subjects as the exploits of Hercules, the
tale of Orestes, or the story of Helen. But recitation was supplanted
by song; and the verse of Stesichorus was such that it could be
sung by choruses. It was he who permanently established the triple
division of choral odes into strophes, antistrophes, and epodes. In the
performance of hymns to the gods, the choristers would first dance
to the right, chanting a metrical period called a strophe; then to the
left through an antistrophe which corresponded in metrical detail to
the strophe; while through the after-song, the dissimilar epode, they
remained in their original position near the altar. The triad of
strophe, antistrophe, and epode formed one artistic whole. Corre-
spondence of strophe and antistrophe seems to have been known to
1
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Alcman; but to Stesichorus must be given the credit for first reveal-
ing the capabilities of the choral ode, through the addition of the
epode and the elaboration of artistic details. Herein he is the fore-
runner not only of Pindar, but also of the great dramatists.
In addition to being an originator in the structure of choral verse,
Stesichorus seems to have been the first to give literary standing to
two important spheres of poetry. A single surviving line, -
When in springtime twitters the swallow,-
and his references to Cydonian apples, myrtle leaves, roses, and vio-
lets, are an indication of his affinity to Theocritus and Bion. His
pastoral on Daphnis was probably based on a form of Sicilian pop-
ular poetry; and his love idyls — which were utterly unlike the erotic
poems of the Lesbian school, and which also, we may well believe,
have a popular origin — are the beginning of Greek romantic poetry.
One of these, called Rhadina,' told the sad story of a brother and sis-
ter who were put to death by a tyrant; and another, Calyce,' set
forth the unhappy end of “love's sweet dream. ”
>
When thus her lover passed away,
From her too passed the light of day.
A peculiarly interesting figure in the history of lyric poetry is
Ibycus, who hails from the Italian Rhegium, another half-Dorian, half-
Ionian city. He belongs to the middle of the sixth century; and in
his art shows the influence both of Alcman and Stesichorus on the one
hand, and on the other of the Æolian school of Lesbos. In form his
verse belongs wholly to the Dorian lyric; but in giving free scope to
the personal element' he resembles Alcman, and when indulging his
passionate erotic sentiment he is evidently under the spell of Sappho
and his contemporary Anacreon. His career was divided between
Sicily and distant Samos. In Sicily he followed in the steps of his
master Stesichorus; producing odes of elaborate structure, based
largely on epic and mythological material. But at the invitation of
Polycrates, Ibycus left western Greece, and crossed the seas to adorn
the court of the great tyrant of Samos.
The rule of the tyrants was a transitional period in the develop-
ment of democratic life in Greece. It came after the overthrow of
oligarchic power, when the people were still unprepared to assume
the responsibility of government. But it was a period of great com-
mercial progress, industrial activity, and national ambition.
The seva
eral tyrants, vying with one another in their display of wealth,
adorned their cities and courts with all the embellishments and lux-
uries that riches and art could provide. It was thus that the poets
found a home with princes. Henceforth the courts of tyrants, whether
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1
at Syracuse, Athens, or Samos, are thronged with sculptors, musicians,
painters, and poets; and art, which had heretofore been largely local
in sphere, comes to have more and more of a panhellenic character.
By Ibycus the forms of Dorian lyric are planted in Ionian Samos, even
as through Arion's career at Corinth they take up their home at
Ionian Athens.
The love poetry of Ibycus, though clearly expressive of personal
emotion, exhibits a choral structure, and was apparently sung on pub.
lic occasions. Its tone may be inferred from the following frag-
ment:
IN SPRING Cydonian apple-trees,
Watered by fountains ever flowing
Through crofts unmown of maiden goddesses,
And young vines, 'neath the shade
Of shooting tendrils, tranquilly are growing.
Meanwhile for me, Love, never laid
In slumber, like a north wind glowing
With Thracian lightnings, still doth dart
Blood-parching madness on my heart,
From Kupris hurtling, stormful, wild,
Lording the man as erst the child.
Translation of John Addington Symonds.
>
Here as in other fragments of Ibycus we can detect an almost
romantic sentiment for external nature, as evidenced by fruits and
flowers, nightingales, running brooks, and starry nights. For the con-
ception of love in the above passage, we may compare another
where love looks upon the poet “from under deep-dark brows,” and
Ibycus “trembles at his onset like a valiant chariot-horse which in
old age must once more enter the race.
the soul of which vanished when the music passed away. After the
loss of Greek independence, Greek music rapidly degenerated. The
music composed by the poets of the classical period was too severe
and noble for the Greeks of later days. The older songs, therefore,
were no longer sung; and the poetry, minus its music, giving way
to shallow and sensational compositions, passed into oblivion.
Scanty however as are the fragments of Greek lyric poetry, these
scanty fragments are of priceless value. The little we possess makes
every lover of literature pray that among the rediscovered treasures
of antiquity, to which every year of late has made valuable contribu-
tions, many more of these lost lyrics may come to light.
In one sense or another, singing was characteristic of nearly all
forms of Greek poetry. The earliest conditions of epic recitation
may be realized from certain scenes in the Odyssey. In one passage
(viii. 62 ff. ) the shipwrecked Odysseus is a guest in the palace of King
Alcinous. The feast is spread, and the great hall is thronged with
Phæacians, when in the midst appears the blind Demodocus, led by
the King's herald, who sets the minstrel on a high chair inlaid with
silver, hangs up his lyre, and brings him a basket of bread and a
goblet of wine. After the feast the minstrel is stirred by the Muse
to sing the deeds of famous men, and his theme is a quarrel between
Odysseus and Achilles, “whereof the fame had reached the wide
heaven. ” At another feast (i. 325 ff. ) the suitors of Penelope compel
Phemius the minstrel to take his lyre and sing to them.
deals with the return of the Achæans from Troy; and as he sings,
Penelope in an upper room, with tears in her eyes, listens to the
strain.
Thus epic poetry, at least in the earliest times, was sung to the
lyre; but this singing was probably unlike the later recitations by
the rhapsodists, for the verse of Homer is unsuited for melodies, and
Greek writers uniformly distinguish epic from lyric, — the former
being narrative poetry, the latter song poetry.
Even elegiac poetry was not regarded by the Greeks as lyric; and
yet elegiac verse was originally sung to the music of the flute, an
instrument used both on mournful occasions and also at festive social
gatherings. But as melodies were found to be inappropriate with the
hexameter of epic verse, so their use was not long continued with
the elegiac couplet, which in its metrical form is so closely allied to
the hexameter.
His lay
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15163
no
Still less lyric in character was the iambic verse of satire, which
was first perfected by Archilochus of Paros. Iambic metre, the metre
of English blank verse, is (as Aristotle long ago perceived) of all
verse forms the least removed from prose. And yet the iambics of
Archilochus, according to Plutarch, were sometimes sung. More fre-
quently this verse was given in recitative with musical accompani-
ment.
Both elegiac and iambic poetry, then, though originally lyrical, at
an early time lost their distinctly lyrical character; and even if their
recitation at a funeral or in camp or round the banqueting-board was
accompanied by music, yet they were more regarded by the
Greeks as lyrical than were the poems of Homer. For the sake of
convenience, however, and because of their subject-matter, these forms
are usually included under the head of lyric poetry by historians of
Greek literature.
During the epic period in Greece, lyric poetry existed mainly in
an embryonic, undeveloped state. Epic poetry held undisputed sway
till near the end of the eighth century before our era. Then began
a movement in the direction of political freedom. Oligarchies and
democracies took the place of ancient monarchies; the planting of col-
onies and the extension of commerce gave an impetus to the spirit
of enterprise and individual development; and the citizen began to
assume his proper rôle as a factor in the life of the State.
It was coincident with this change that lyric poetry — the poetry
thať voiced, not the ancestral glory of kings and princes, but the
feelings and experience of the individual — entered upon its course of
artistic development. The Ionians of Asia Minor were perhaps the
first Greeks among whom democratic institutions came to life. They
were certainly the most active in commercial and colonizing enter-
prises by land and sea, as well as the first to enter the hitherto un-
explored field of speculative philosophy.
To the student of Greek history, lyric poetry is very significant.
Without it we should hardly realize the great extent of the Greek
world toward east and west. Greece would mean little more than
Athens and Sparta. But lyric poetry widens ‘our vision.
Here we
learn of the wealth and luxury of the Asiatic Ionians, of the oble
chivalry and refinement of life in the Æolian isles of the Ægean sea,
of the beauty and grace of festal celebrations in the Dorian Pelopon-
nesus, in southern Italy and distant Sicily. Then comes Pindar, the
heroes of whose triumphal odes are Greeks hailing from all corners
of the known world,— from the coasts of the Black Sea, or the col-
onies of far-off Libya and remote Gaul.
In Ionic Greece the new poetry took two forms, - elegiac and
iambic. The structure of elegiac verse shows its close connection
with the epic; for it is written in couplets, of which the first line is
-
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1
i
the ordinary hexameter as employed by Homer, and the second the
same line abbreviated to five feet. The name elegy, however, indi-
cates the presence of a foreign element; for it comes from that of a
plaintive instrumental dirge, in vogue among certain tribes of Asia
Minor, especially the Phrygians, to which people belonged Olympus, a
musical reformer of the eighth century. As adopted by the Greeks,
elegy was not confined to mournful themes, but its application varied
as much as that of the flute, the Asiatic instrument which at first
accompanied it.
The earliest Greek elegists of whom we have any records are Cal-
linus and Tyrtæus, who lived as contemporaries at the beginning of
the seventh century B. C. Callinus, it is true, is a rather shadowy
personage; but he was regarded by the Greeks as the inventor of
elegy, and is known to have lived at Ephesus in Ionia, at a time
when Asia Minor was overrun by hordes of Cimmerians, who came
down from the northern shores of the Black Sea.
Tyrtæus, according to tradition, was born in Attica; but his poetic
career centres in Sparta. Here, during and after the second Messe-
nian war, there was much civic discord; and both Tyrtæus the poet
and Terpander the musician are said to have been publicly invited
by the Lacedæmonians to apply the resources of art in inspiring a
lofty patriotism, and thus healing the wounds of the body politic.
The lame Attic schoolmaster for tradition thus describes Tyrtaus
was eminently successful in his noble task; and the Spartans not
only conferred upon the poet the rare favor of citizenship, but did
him the greater honor of preserving his poems from age to age, and
revering them as national songs. These were sung by the soldiers
round the camp-fires at night; and the officers rewarded the best singer
with extra rations. Tyrtæus also composed choruses for groups of old
men, young men, and boys, the general character of which may be
inferred from the following popular ditty, which was sung to a dance
accompaniment:-
(a) In days of yore, most sturdy youths were we.
(6) That we are now: come, watch us, if
(c) But we'll be stronger far than all of you. *
.
you will.
Famous too were the marching-songs of Tyrtæus, which were
accompanied by flute music, and sung by the soldiers advancing to
battle. These were written in the tripping anapæstic measure, and
in the Dorian dialect. One example may be paraphrased thus:
On, ye glory of Sparta's youth!
Ye whose sires are the city's might:
* Unless otherwise credited, translations are by the essayist.
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:
Grasp the shield with the left hand thus,
Boldly poise the spear in the right;
Of your lives' worth take ye no heed, -
Sparta knows not a coward's deed.
It is for his elegies, however, that Tyrtæus is most favorably
known. True to their origin, these poems, though addressed to a
Dorian audience, are written in the Ionic dialect. We have fragments
of one elegy called (Good Government,' which eulogizes the Spartan
constitution and King Theopompus, one of the heroes of the first Mes-
senian war. But most of the elegies of Tyrtæus are less distinctly
political, and aim simply at infusing into the citizen soldiery a spirit
of valor, military honor, and contempt for cowardice. The following
is a rendering of one of these martial elegies, by the poet Thomas
Campbell. The picture of the youth whose fair form lies outstretched
in death, is not only pathetic and beautiful but also peculiarly
Greek:
HOW GLORIOUS fall the valiant, sword in hand,
In front of battle for their native land!
But oh! what ills await the wretch that yields,
A recreant outcast from his country's fields!
The mother whom he loves shall quit her home,
An aged father at his side shall roam;
His little ones shall weeping with him go,
And a young wife participate his woe;
While, scorned and scowled upon by every face,
They pine for food, and beg from place to place.
Stain of his breed! dishonoring manhood's form,
All ills shall cleave to him; affliction's storin
Shall blind him wandering in the vale of years,
Till, lost to all but ignominious fears,
He shall not blush to leave a recreant's name,
And children, like himself, inured to shame.
But we will combat for our fathers' land,
And we will drain the life-blood where we stand,
To save our children: fight ye side by side,
And serried close, ye men of youthful pride,
Disdaining fear, and deeming light the cost
Of life itself in glorious battle lost.
1
Leave not our sires to stem the unequal fight,
Whose limbs are nerved no more with buoyant might;
Nor, lagging backward, let the younger breast
Permit the man of age (a sight unblest)
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TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
To welter in the combat's foremost thrust,
His hoary head disheveled in the dust,
And venerable bosom bleeding bare.
But youth's fair form, though fallen, is ever fair,
And beautiful in death the boy appears, –
The hero boy, that dies in blooming years:
In man's regret he lives, and woman's tears;
More sacred than in life, and lovelier far,
For having perished in the front of war.
In striking contrast with Tyrtæus and Callinus, whose elegies are
so full of martial spirit, stands Mimnermus, an Ionian poet of Smyrna,
who flourished near the end of the seventh century B. C. This cen-
tury witnessed the gradual subjection of the Asiatic Greeks to the
Lydian yoke; and from Mimnerinus we gather that his Ionian fellow-
countrymen, who in former days had successfully resisted the bar-
barian might, were now sunk in inglorious inactivity and fettered in
complacent slavery. Yet the poet can rejoice in the brave days of
old, when on the Hermian plain the spearman mowed down the
dense ranks of Lydian cavalry, and Pallas Athene ne'er found fault
with his keen valor, as on he rushed in the vanguard, escaping the
piercing arrows of his foes in the clash of bloody battle. ” The
poet's forefathers too once “left lofty Pylus, home of Neleus, and
came in ships to lovely Asia, and in fair Colophon settled with the
might of arms, being leaders of fierce boldness; and thence they
passed by the counsel of the gods and captured Æolian Smyrna. ”
But the prevailing tone of Mimnermus's verse is that of luxurious
indolence and sensual enjoyment. This is the main characteristic
of those elegies, which are addressed to a favorite flute-player called
Nanno.
Where's life or joy, when Love no more shines fair?
2
The beauty of comely youth fires the poet with the heat of intense
passion:-
Then down my body moisture runs in streams,
As gazing on the bloom of joyous youth,
I tremble oft; so bright are beauty's beams.
But his heart is flooded with melancholy; for all this joy and beauty
remind Mimnermus that crabbed age, “unhappy and graceless,” is
coming on apace,
And cherished youth is short-lived as a dream.
As Homer had said long before, we are but as the leaves which
appear with the flowers of spring”; and “when springtime is past,
((
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TYRTÆUS, ARCHILOCHUS, ETC.
15167
then is it better to die than live »: for at our side stand two black
Fates, one of gloomy age and the other of death”; and of the two,
old age and death, the soft, effeminate, pleasure-loving Mimnermus
hesitates not to choose the latter:-
1
1
1
1
1
AH! FAIR and lovely bloom the flowers of youth-
On men and maids they beautifully smile;
But soon comes doleful eld, who, void of ruth,
Indifferently afflicts the fair and vile:
Then cares wear out the heart; old eyes forlorn
Scarce reck the very sunshine to behold,
Unloved by youths, of every maid the scorn,-
So hard a lot God lays upon the old.
Translation of John Addington Symonds.
WA.
If disease and care trouble not, Mimnermus would make sixty years
the extreme limit of life to be desired; but his younger contempo-
rary, the Athenian Solon, who had little sympathy with such gloomy
views, appeals to the "sweet singer” to change his three to four score
years.
Mimnermus, a pure hedonist, lived only for the sensual pleasures
that life could afford; and when these were withdrawn, life was to
him no longer worth living. The poet had no sublime religious
faith, no lofty philosophy, to guide and comfort his soul; and at a
time when Greece was still in her youth, and almost before she had
entered upon her wonderful career of glorious achievement, this
bright intellect sinks into a nerveless ennui, and gives way to a
world-weary pessimism.
Mimnermus lived before his time; and it is therefore a less re-
markable fact that when elegiac verse was long afterwards cultivated
by learned poets and versifiers in the artificial society of Alexandria
and Augustan Rome, the sweet sentimental Mimnermus should have
been more often taken as a model than were the saner and more
robust writers of early Greek elegy.
From elegiac we pass to iambic verse; which, like elegy, has an
Ionic origin, is written in the Ionic dialect, and lies midway between
epic and lyric poetry proper. But there is this important difference
between iambic and elegiac verse: the latter is in form but slightly
removed from the dignified measure of heroic poetry; the former -
the metre of English blank verse — is but one remove from the lan-
guage of every-day life. It is therefore suitable for poetry of a per-
sonal tone and conversational style; and thus it became the common
form for miscellaneous subjects of no great elevation in thought, as
well as for sharp satire and dramatic dialogue.
1
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There is a story that connects the name ia mbic with the festi-
vals of Demeter. When that goddess was bewailing the loss of her
daughter Persephone, none could relieve her grief until the maid
Iambe, with her sparkling witticisms, raised a smile on the sorrowful
mother's lips. Archilochus, the reputed inventor of iambic poetry,
was a competitor with his verses at the feasts of Demeter; and it is
doubtless in the freedom of satiric and jocular utterance tolerated
on such occasions, that we are to seek the origin of this species of
verse.
Both iambic and elegiac verse were often cultivated by the same
poets. Certain fragments of the elegies of Archilochus, as well as of
Solon, have come down to us. In one elegy Archilochus lamented,
in graceful language, the loss of a friend at sea. In another we find
the martial tone of Callinus. «I serve the Lord of war,” says the
soldier-poet, and am skilled in the Muses' pleasing gifts. With my
spear I earn my kneaded bread, with my spear my Thracian wine,
and when I drink 'tis on my spear I rest. ”
Archilochus was born in the island of Paros, one of the Cyclades,
and flourished at the beginning of the seventh century B. C. His
father Telesicles was man of aristocratic rank, but his mother
Enipo was a slave. While a mere youth he accompanied his father,
when the latter led to Thasos, in the northern Ægean, a colony of
gold-seekers from Paros.
To the young man, disappointed in his
quest, Paros with her figs and sailor life seemed infinitely superior
to Thasos which «like a donkey's back, stands crowned with wild
wood. 'Tis a place by no means fair or lovely or pleasant, as is the
land by Siris's streams. ” This allusion to the Siris would seem to
imply that the poet had previously traveled to southern Italy. Archilo-
chus soon found the condition of Thasos to be desperate:
a
>>>
All the woes of Hellas throng the Thasian isle,
(
((
over which the stone of Tantalus was suspended. ” The colonists
attempted to gain a foothold on the mainland opposite, but the
Thracian tribes drove them back; and in one conflict Archilochus,
though he managed to save his life, had to part with his shield.
“I'll get another just as fine," he adds with cheerful composure.
This roving soldier-poet afterwards engaged in war in Eubea, and
visited Sparta; but the paternal government of that model State
would have none of him, and he was promptly ordered to withdraw.
Subsequently he returned to his native place, and was eventually
killed in a battle between the Parians and the people of the neigh-
boring island of Naxos.
The poet's private life was not of a high type, and seems to have
been deeply colored by his ill-success in love. He was betrothed to
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Neobule, daughter of Lycambes, a Parian, and was passionately en-
amored of the girl.
But oh! to touch the hand of her I love!
he sighs; and then gives us this simple and beautiful picture:-
Holding a myrtle rod she blithely moved,
And a fair blossoming rose; the flowing hair
Shadowed her shoulders, falling to her girdle.
Translation of J. A. Symonds.
we
In the depth of personal feeling, and the impetuosity and fire of his
passion for Neobule, Archilochus belongs to the same class as the Les-
bian singers, Alcæus and Sappho. “So strong,” he writes, « was the
storm of love which gathered in my heart, that over my eyes it
poured a heavy mist, and from my brain stolė my wits away. ”
For what reason can only conjecture, Lycambes withdrew his
consent to the marriage of his daughter; whereupon the poet, in
furious rage, assailed him with merciless abuse, embracing in his
venomous attack — for chivalry was a virtue unrecognized by Archilo-
chus — both Neobule herself and her innocent sisters. To illustrate
the power of this master of satire, tradition assures us that Lycambes
and his daughters were driven to self-destruction. Good reason, then,
had Archilochus to utter in blunt fashion the unchristian boast :
One mighty art full well I know-
To punish sore my mischief-working foe.
We possess but scanty fragments of the poems of Archilochus,
and therefore are unable to form for ourselves a correct judgment
upon his merits. There is, however, plenty of evidence to show
in what esteem he was held by antiquity. Though Homer stood
supreme above all other poets, yet Archilochus, summo proximus, was
placed in the same rank. In statuary they were represented together;
and Quintilian assures us that if Archilochus was inferior to any other
poet, the inferiority, in the opinion of many, was due to his subject-
matter, not his genius. When Plato made his first assaults upon the
Sophists, Gorgias exclaimed, “Athens has found a new Archilochus. ”
The Roman Horace claimed to be not merely the Alcæus but also
the Archilochus of Rome. “I was the first,” he says, “to show to
Latium Parian iambics; following the metre and spirit of Archilochus,
but not his subjects or words. ” Archilochus in his rhythms, as in
other ways, gives proof of a daring originality. One interesting use
to which he put his epodes, or system of lines alternately long and
short, was in the narration of fables which contained a satiric moral.
In one fragment a fox thus prays! “O Zeus, father Zeus! thine is
power in heaven; thou seest the deeds of men, both knavish and
XXVI–949
.
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righteous, and in beasts too thou payest heed to frowardness and
justice. ” Burns could sing how -
«The best-laid plans o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley);
but surely no poet-moralist was ever bolder than Archilochus, in thus
attributing moral qualities to the lower creatures. In these fables
he was the forerunner of Æsop.
Still another metrical creation of this poet's must be mentioned.
This is the trochaic system, which like the iambic was destined to
become one of the most popular measures in later poetry. Here too
in Archilochus' we find evidence of much variety; but the favorite
trochaic line of the Parian poet was that of four measures. Ten-
nyson's "Locksley Hall is in its form a distant descendant of the
tetrameters of Archilochus. This measure was used by him for per-
sonal description which is humorous rather than malicious in intent.
So for example in the passage: “I care not for a tall general with
outspread legs, - a curled, well-shaven dandy: give me a short man
with bandy legs, who treads firmly on his feet and is full of spirit. ”
The tetrameter is further employed in giving counsel or in animated
philosophic moralizing: -
-
To the gods intrust thou all things. Ofttimes out of evil toil
Raise they mortals who lie abject, stretched upon earth's darksome soil.
Ofttimes too they overturn men; and when we have walked in pride,
Trip us up and throw us prostrate. Then all evils throng our side,
And we fare forth lacking substance, outcast and of wits bereft.
The poet's beautiful lines on equanimity are well worth remember-
ing:-
Tossed on a sea of troubles, Soul, my Soul,
Thyself do thou control;
And to the vieapons of advancing foes
A stubborn breast oppose:
Undaunted 'mid the hostile might
Of squadrons burning for the fight.
Thine be no boasting when the victor's crown
Wins thee deserved renown;
Thine no dejected sorrow, when defeat
Would urge a base retreat:
Rejoice in joyous things - nor overmuch
Let grief thy bosom touch
Midst evil, and still bear in mind
How changeful are the ways of human-kind.
Translation of William Hay.
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(When my
1
(
Still another side of the manifold literary activity of Archilochus
is represented by his hymns composed in honor of gods or heroes.
In one of his trochaic couplets we find the first allusion in Greek
literature to the dithyramb, or convivial hymn, in praise of Dionysus,
the seed from which grew the glorious tragedy of Athens.
brain,” says the poet, in words which imply a chorus of revelers, “is
smitten by wine as by a thunderbolt, I know how to lead off the
dithyramb, the beautiful strain of Lord Dionysus. ” Thus Archilochus
was the predecessor of Pindar in the dithyramb of Bacchic festivities,
as he was also in the songs of victory sung at Olympia. Even in
Pindar's day exultant friends still sang the “Hail Victor) refrain
of Archilochus's hymn to Heracles, as they led the conquering hero
to the shrine of Zeus.
It is not, however, as an elegiac or love poet, as an inventor of
varied forms of verse, as a fable-writer or singer of hymns and songs
of victory, that Archilochus is best remembered: it is as the fore-
runner of the great Aristophanes, of Lucilius, Horace, and Juvenal,
of Swift and Pope, of Molière and Voltaire, and as the most potent
wielder in antiquity of the shafts of personal satire by means of
what Hadrian called his «frenzied iambi”; for, as Quintilian says,
compressed into his “short and quivering sentences was the maxi-
mum of blood and sinew. ” In this sphere his surpassing great-
ness has completely overshadowed later iambic writers of no little
intrinsic merit; such as Simonides of Amorgus, the unsparing reviler
of womankind, and the caustic Hipponax of Ephesus, whose crippled
lines (for Hipponax was the inventor of the so-called “limping
iambics”) present vivid and homely pictures of daily life among the
Asiatic Greeks of those remote times.
The iambic measure, having been found a fitting vehicle for per-
sonal and satiric effusions, afterwards enjoyed the great distinction of
being adopted as the ordinary verse of dialogue in the Attic drama.
Greek elegy, too, being applicable to the most heterogeneous subjects,
especially to epigrammatic composition, continued an independent
existence not only till the glory of Greece herself had departed, but
even till after the fall of the Roman empire.
In contrast with this Ionic poetry, let us turn to that which was
first brought to perfection by the Æolian and Dorian tribes, and
which alone was regarded by the Greeks as lyric. If we cared to
employ a term used by the Greeks themselves, we might distin-
guish Æolian and Dorian lyric by the term melic, because such poetry
was always set to some melos or melody. The Æolian lyric was
cultivated chiefly in the Æolian island of Lesbos, the Dorian in the
Dorian Peloponnesus and Sicily. The former was sung in the Æolic
dialect, the latter chiefly in the traditional epic dialect, but included
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a sparing admixture of Doric forms. The two schools differ materi-
ally in every respect, - in style, subject, and form.
The Æolic was intended to be sung by a single voice, the singer
accompanying himself on a stringed instrument, with suitable gest-
ures. It was essentially personal, expressing the singer's own emo-
tion. Political feeling is, to be sure, prominent in Alcæus; but this
is due to the poet's identifying his personality so completely with
a political party. As to form, Æolic lyrics are very simple, either
consisting of a series of short lines of equal length, or of stanzas
in which shorter line marks the separation from one another. The
four-lined stanza is the commonest form. The Alcaic and Sapphic
odes of Horace are illustrations familiar to the Latin student.
On the other hand, Dorian lyric poetry was sung by a number in
chorus, accompanied by dancing and musical instruments.
For the
most part it was of public importance, and when it was performed
in private the occasion was one of general interest. Hence choral
poetry is found connected with the sacred and festal gatherings
of the people, or the marriages and funerals of private life. The
structure of a choral poem is often very elaborate and artificial; but
the movements of the dance, appealing to the eye, assisted the ear in
unweaving the intricacies of the rhythm.
Let it always be borne in mind that Greek dancing was very dif-
ferent from the modern art. Dancing to our mind simply implies
tripping it on the light fantastic toe”; and often with little reason
and less grace.
But in Greece the term dancing applied to all move-
ments of the body which were intended to aid in the interpretation
of poetry or the expression of emotion. Thus gestures, postures, and
attitudes were most important forins of dancing, and in dance move-
ments the hands and arms played a much larger part than the feet.
Aristotle tells us that dancers imitate actions, characters, and passions
by means of gestures and rhythmical motion. Thus the spirit which
animates Greek mythology and Greek art — the desire to give form
and body to mental conceptions — is characteristic of Greek dancing.
Various attempts have been made in recent years to reproduce the
graceful and rhythmical movements of ancient dancing. One of the
most successful of these was that of the young
of Vassar
College, who in May 1893 rendered Sophocles's Antigone in the
original Greek, adhering as closely as possible to the ancient mode
of representation. The lyrics, sung to Mendelssohn's fine music, were
accompanied by expressive and artistic dance evolutions. The beau-
tiful imitative and interpretative movements of the choristers were
in striking contrast with the ludicrous and meaningless feats of the
spinning ballet-girls, with their scant muslin skirts and painted ex-
pressionless faces.
mo
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As to Greek music, it too was very different from ours; but in this
sphere the advantage certainly lies with the modern art.
And yet
the music of the Greeks, as illustrated by the few extant remains,
especially by the Apollo hymns found at Delphi in 1893, has its own
peculiar beauties, which can arouse the sympathy and interest of a
cultivated audience even to-day,
In the best period of Greek poetry, the only musical instruments
employed were practically the lyre, a string instrument, and the flute,
a wind instrument; the former being much preferred because it al-
lowed the same person to sing and play. Other string instruments,
such as the cithara, phorminx, psaltery, chelys, barbiton, and pectis,
were all mere variations of the lyre, and depended on the same
principle. Instruments with a large number of strings were known,
as the magadis and trigon; but these, though commonly used by pro-
fessional musicians, were unhesitatingly condemned by Plato and
Aristotle, as pandering to perverted tastes. As to wind instruments,
the flute was originally imported from Lydia, and was still unfamiliar
to the Greeks in Homer's time. This flute must not be confounded
with the one used in our modern orchestras, for it resembled rather
the clarionet or oboe. It was also stronger and shriller than our
modern Aute. Flutes varied in length; and a double flute was often
used. The syrinx, or Pan's pipe, had seven reeds of different length,
giving the seven notes of the scale. For special effect the trumpet
or horn was introduced: also the tympanum or drum, and cymbals.
The question is often asked whether the Greeks employed har-
mony or not. Part-singing was unknown among them, as were also
the elaborate harmonies of the modern art. Yet they did understand
and employ harmonies; though with the exception of octave singing,
these were confined to instrumental music. In the best days of
Greek song, however, harmony seems to have been little more than a
matter of octaves, fourths, and fifths, – the only concords, it is said,
that the Japanese have to-day. Pythagoras on theory rejected the
third, which we regard as the most pleasing of intervals; but it was
apparently used in practice.
Yet if the Greeks were far inferior to us in harmony, it would
appear that they developed melody to an extraordinary degree.
Quarter-tones, used it is true as merely passing notes, were sung by
the voice and played on strings; and as there was no bowing, as with
our violin, this was done without sliding from one note to another.
Yet this sort of playing, when well done, aroused the greatest enthu-
siasm.
In Greek lyric, the three sister arts of poetry, music, and dance
formed a trinity in unity, whereas with us they are quite distinct.
Poetry and music may be united artificially on occasion; but in an-
tiquity the great poets were musicians as well, and wrote their own
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1
-
music, perhaps simultaneously with their poetry. As for the dance,
that too was an important element of Greek lyric; though nowadays
it is very poor poetry indeed that we should care to marry to the
art of romping:
After what has just been said, it will not be thought remarkable
that the first name in the history of Greek melic, or lyric poetry
proper, is noteworthy also in the history of music. Terpander, who
was the first to add three strings to the primitive four-stringed lyre,
and who thus gave a great impetus to musical development, was born
in the Æolian island of Lesbos. He is said to have won the victor's
prize on the occasion when the festival of Apollo Carneus was first
established at Sparta in 676 B. C. His consequent fame gave him
great influence with the music-loving Lacedæmonians, among whom
he introduced his melodies or nomes, which received the sanction of
State authority. These nomes, which were sacred hymns sung by a
single voice, were composed chiefly in the stately dactylic and solemn
spondaic verses. Only long syllables are used in a hymn to Zeus
which begins in this simple but weighty language: “Zeus, of all things
the beginning, of all things leader: Zeus, to thee I offer this beginning
of hymns. ”
That the Æolian Terpander should have practiced his art in a
Dorian State is but one illustration of the way in which the vari-
ous streams of Greek artistic activity tended to intermingle. In the
seventh century, however, Sparta was the greatest power in Greece;
and it was but natural that she should act as a magnet, drawing
within her borders the leading artists of every State. Thus Terpan-
der the Lesbian was followed by Tyrtæus a reputed Athenian, Clonas
the Theban, Thaletas the Cretan, and Alcman the Lydian. These
were the poets who laid the foundations of choral poetry, which was
destined to have so magnificent a future.
Meanwhile in Terpander's native isle, the wealthy and luxurious
Lesbos, that form of song which embodied purely personal sentiment
was being gradually developed. We know nothing of the immediate
predecessors of the great Lesbian poets; but the fact that Terpander
was entering upon his career at the beginning of the seventh cen-
tury is sufficient proof that at time Lesbos was already a centre
of music and poetry. At the end of this same century, suddenly and
without warning, we come face to face in Lesbos with the very per-
fection of lyric art.
The greatest names in Æolian lyric are Alcæus and Sappho. The
former was a Lesbian noble, a proud and fiery cavalier, who sang of
love and wine or poured forth passionate thoughts on politics and
philosophy. The scanty fragments of Sappho's songs fully bear out
the verdict of antiquity, that her verse was unrivaled in grace and
sweetness. She was «the poetess," as Homer was «the poet ”; and
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1
Plato added her to the choir of Muses nine. ” (See the special
articles on these two poets. With the Æolian poets of Lesbos,
Anacreon, an Ionian, must be classed, because he too sings simple
songs of personal feeling. But Anacreon is not to be compared
with Alcæus and Sappho in inspiration and genuine emotion. He has
plenty of grace, plenty of metrical charm and polish; but the fire
of genius is lacking. Anacreon is a mere courtier who adorns the
palaces of princes, and free from deep or absorbing passion, sings
lightly and sweetly of youths and maidens, of love and wine and
pleasure. This very absence of real seriousness of purpose ely
accounts for the great popularity of Anacreon's verse, which in more
prosaic days was freely imitated. The admiration bestowed by the
modern world upon Anacreon is founded almost entirely upon a col-
lection of odes which pass under his name, but which have long
since been proven spurious. These Anacreontics, most familiar to us
in Thomas Moore's translation, are of unequal merit; some of them
being very graceful and pleasing, while others are feeble and puerile.
Æolic song, besides being limited in local sphere, was very short-
lived. As the expression of purely personal, individual emotion,
apart from the sentiments of one's associates and fellow-citizens,
song did not play that part in the Greek world with which we are
so familiar to day. As a race, the Greeks were not sentimental and
introspective; but were distinguished for their practical, objective
manner of looking upon the world. The Greek could never forget
that he was a member of a community; and even in the expression
of his joys and sorrows he would not stand aloof from his fellow-
Hence, we find that in the creative period of Greek poetry,
the song to be sung by a single voice, and setting forth the feelings
of the individual heart, was never wide-spread, but limited to the
small field of the Lesbian school; and however remarkable its brill-
iance, flourished in splendor for little more than a single generation.
Not so with the poetry which voiced the sentiments and emo-
tional life of a whole community. Lyric poetry of this popular and
general character is found from early days in connection with the
festivals and institutions of the various Greek States. More particu-
larly did it suit the genius of the Dorian tribes, among whom civic
and communal life was more pronounced than elsewhere. After
undergoing a rich artistic development, this Dorian lyric became
panhellenic in the range of its acceptance; and being adopted in
Attica in the service of the gods, it enjoyed a glorious history in the
evolution of Athenian greatness, and more particularly in the remark-
able development of the Attic drama.
Let us first note the various forms which this public poetry
assumed. The very earliest lyric poetry of Greece is connected with
the worship of nature, such as the Linus-song, incidentally mentioned
men.
11
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by Homer (Iliad, xviii. 570) and sung at the vintage as an elegy on
the death of a beautiful youth who symbolized the passing of sum-
mer. Similar songs were the lament for Hyacinthus and that for
Adonis, subjects which often found artistic treatment in the poets of
later times.
A fruitful source of lyric song was the worship of the nature-god
Dionysus or Bacchus. Like our Christmas festival, the Bacchic fes-
tivities had two sides, a sacred and a secular. Characteristic of the
latter was the so-called phallic song, the seed from which was to
spring Attic comedy. In the Acharnians) of Aristophanes we have
a mosaic of such a song, not without much of its primitive coarse-
ness. To the more reverential side belongs the invocation of the
god, the dithyrambic hymn, first mentioned by Archilochus. The
dithyramb became popular at luxurious Corinth; and here it was that
in the beginning of the sixth century B. C. , Arion, a Lesbian, first
gave it artistic form, adapted it to a chorus, and set it on the path of
development, which was to lead to the tragic drama. Only one such
poem has come down to us in any completeness; and that is a beau-
tiful dithyramb of Pindar's, composed for a chorus of fifty voices.
(An English rendering is given by Campbell, 'Greek Tragedy,' page
50. )
The hymns sung in honor of other deities were probably less pop-
ular and general in character; being mainly connected with local
cults and often with hereditary priesthoods. Delos and Delphi were
the peculiar homes of the worship of Apollo, and there it was that
the Apollo hymns chiefly flourished. The most important variety of
these was the Pæan, which glorified Apollo as the giver of health
and victory. In a lyrical monody of Euripides's "Ion,' we have what
is probably the burden of one of these solemn old Delphian chants,
“O Pæan, Pæan, blessed be thou, O son of Leto! »
Processional hymns, sung by a chorus to instrumental accompani-
ment, were a common feature of solemn festivals. These prosodia, as
they were called, were composed by the greatest poets of the day,
such as Alcman, Stesichorus, and Pindar. Processional hymns, when
sung by girls only, were called parthenia. What beauty and splendor
these processions of youths and maidens could lend to civic celebra-
tions, may be inferred from those glorious pictures in marble adorn-
ing the frieze of the famous Parthenon.
Still another occasion when the noblest sentiments of Greek civic
life found utterance in lyric song, was the celebration of victory in
the national games. In this matter-of-fact age, notwithstanding our
devotion to athletics and manly sports, we find it very difficult to
comprehend the lofty idealism with which in days of old the con-
tests on the banks of the Alpheus, and at other noted centres, were
invested. And yet unless we realize how intense was the national
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and spiritual exaltation which characterized these games, we shall
never regard Pindar as more than an idle babbler of meaningless
words, whereas in reality he is one of the most sublime and creative
geniuses in all literature.
Other occasions for the use of lyric were funeral solemnities and
wedding festivities. Even as early as Homer, laments for the dead
were sung by professional mourners; and with the growth of the
poetic art, dirges became an important form of artistic song. Simon-.
ides and Pindar were both distinguished in this field; and in the lyri-
cal part of tragedy the dirge is a prominent element.
The hymenaus, or joyous wedding song, is also known to Homer.
In one of the cities represented on the shield of Achilles were de-
picted bridal feasts, “and with blazing torches they were leading
brides from their chambers through the city, and the hymenæus
swelled high. And youths were whirling in the dance, while among
them flutes and harps resounded; and the women, standing at their
several doors, marveled thereat. ” (Iliad, xviii. 491. ) The songs sung
in chorus before the bridal chamber were called epithalamia, and were
deemed worthy of the attention of the greatest lyric artists. Sappho
was particularly famous for her epithalamia; but only fragments
have survived, and we must form our conception of a Sapphic epi-
thalamium from Catullus's beautiful imitation
((
Vesper adest, iuvenes, consurgite.
Greek drinking-songs belong to the borderland between personal
and popular verse. Some of the so-called scolia or catches were
patriotic songs; an interesting specimen of which is the ode by Cal-
listratus in honor of those idols of the Athenian people, Harmodius
and Aristogeiton, who slew the tyrant Hipparchus:-
With leaves of myrtle I'll wreathe iny sword,
Like Harmodius of yore and his comrade brave,
What time they slew the tyrant lord
And equal laws to Athens gave.
Beloved Harmodius, thou hast not died!
The isles of bliss hold thee, 'tis said;
There Achilles the fleet is by thy side,
And Tydeus's son, famed: Diomed.
With leaves of myrtle I'll wreathe my sword,
Like Harmodius of yore and his comrade brave,
What time at Athene's festal board
Through tyrant Hipparchus the sword they drave.
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For aye will men sing with one accord
Of thee, loved Harmodius and thy comrade brave;
For ye did slay the tyrant lord
And equal laws to Athens gave.
Another of these songs, written by Hybrias, a Cretan, was doubt-
less popular with those proud young cavaliers who adopted arms as
a profession, and served in various lands and under various leaders.
The sentiment recalls to our minds Archilochus. Here is a spirited
translation by the poet Thomas Campbell:-
MY WEALTH's a burly spear and brand,
And a right good shield of hides untanned
Which on my arm I buckle:
With these I plow, I reap, I sow,
With these I make the sweet vintage flow,
And all around me truckle.
But your wights that take no pride to wield
A massy spear and well-made shield,
Nor joy to draw the sword –
Oh, I bring those heartless, hapless drones
Down in a trice on their marrow-bones,
To call me king and lord.
Most pleasing of the forms of popular poetry are the songs of
children. The so-called flower song ran thus: “Where are my roses?
Where are my violets? Where are my beautiful parsley-leaves ? ”
«Here are your roses; here are your violets; here are your beautiful
parsley-leaves. ” The children of Rhodes had a pretty custom. On
a day in early spring they would go round the town seeking presents
from door to door, and singing the advent of the swallow:
>
She is here, she is here, the swallow!
Fair seasons bringing, fair years to follow!
Her belly is white,
Her back black as night!
From your rich house
Roll forth to us
Tarts, wine, and cheese:
Or if not these,
Oatmeal and barley-cake
The swallow deigns to take.
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What shall we have? Or must we hence away ?
Thanks, if you give; if not, we'll make you pay!
The house-door hence we'll carry;
Nor shall the lintel tarry.
From hearth and home your wife we'll rob;
She is so small
To take her off will be an easy job!
Whate'er you give, give largess free!
Up! open, open to the swallow's call!
No grave old men, but merry children we!
Translation of J. A. Symonds.
1
Choral poetry of a definite artistic type seems to have been first
cultivated in Sparta by Alcman about the middle of the seventh cen-
tury B. C. Alcman composed hymns to the gods, marching-songs and
choral songs for men and boys; but his best-known compositions
were choruses for girls, which were largely dramatic in character
(see special article). A pupil of Alcman's was Arion the Lesbian,
who in Corinth first gave a literary form to the dithyramb. Well
known is the pretty story of Arion and the dolphin. The poet had
traveled through Magna Græcia, and having made a large fortune by
his songs, again took ship at Tarentum for Corinth. But the sailors,
who coveted his wealth, forced him to jump overboard; whereupon to
their amazement a dolphin bore him safely to land.
In Stesichorus (630–550 B. C. ) we meet for the first time a Sicilian
poet, and one of great power. His original name was Tisias, which
he resigned for another that indicated his profession as a trainer of
choruses. His native city Himera was a Dorian settlement, but had
a large Ionic element in the population. Catana was the scene of his
death.
According to Quintilian, Stesichorus sustained in lyric form the
weight of epic verse. By this is meant that the poet made use of
epic material; taking such subjects as the exploits of Hercules, the
tale of Orestes, or the story of Helen. But recitation was supplanted
by song; and the verse of Stesichorus was such that it could be
sung by choruses. It was he who permanently established the triple
division of choral odes into strophes, antistrophes, and epodes. In the
performance of hymns to the gods, the choristers would first dance
to the right, chanting a metrical period called a strophe; then to the
left through an antistrophe which corresponded in metrical detail to
the strophe; while through the after-song, the dissimilar epode, they
remained in their original position near the altar. The triad of
strophe, antistrophe, and epode formed one artistic whole. Corre-
spondence of strophe and antistrophe seems to have been known to
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Alcman; but to Stesichorus must be given the credit for first reveal-
ing the capabilities of the choral ode, through the addition of the
epode and the elaboration of artistic details. Herein he is the fore-
runner not only of Pindar, but also of the great dramatists.
In addition to being an originator in the structure of choral verse,
Stesichorus seems to have been the first to give literary standing to
two important spheres of poetry. A single surviving line, -
When in springtime twitters the swallow,-
and his references to Cydonian apples, myrtle leaves, roses, and vio-
lets, are an indication of his affinity to Theocritus and Bion. His
pastoral on Daphnis was probably based on a form of Sicilian pop-
ular poetry; and his love idyls — which were utterly unlike the erotic
poems of the Lesbian school, and which also, we may well believe,
have a popular origin — are the beginning of Greek romantic poetry.
One of these, called Rhadina,' told the sad story of a brother and sis-
ter who were put to death by a tyrant; and another, Calyce,' set
forth the unhappy end of “love's sweet dream. ”
>
When thus her lover passed away,
From her too passed the light of day.
A peculiarly interesting figure in the history of lyric poetry is
Ibycus, who hails from the Italian Rhegium, another half-Dorian, half-
Ionian city. He belongs to the middle of the sixth century; and in
his art shows the influence both of Alcman and Stesichorus on the one
hand, and on the other of the Æolian school of Lesbos. In form his
verse belongs wholly to the Dorian lyric; but in giving free scope to
the personal element' he resembles Alcman, and when indulging his
passionate erotic sentiment he is evidently under the spell of Sappho
and his contemporary Anacreon. His career was divided between
Sicily and distant Samos. In Sicily he followed in the steps of his
master Stesichorus; producing odes of elaborate structure, based
largely on epic and mythological material. But at the invitation of
Polycrates, Ibycus left western Greece, and crossed the seas to adorn
the court of the great tyrant of Samos.
The rule of the tyrants was a transitional period in the develop-
ment of democratic life in Greece. It came after the overthrow of
oligarchic power, when the people were still unprepared to assume
the responsibility of government. But it was a period of great com-
mercial progress, industrial activity, and national ambition.
The seva
eral tyrants, vying with one another in their display of wealth,
adorned their cities and courts with all the embellishments and lux-
uries that riches and art could provide. It was thus that the poets
found a home with princes. Henceforth the courts of tyrants, whether
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1
at Syracuse, Athens, or Samos, are thronged with sculptors, musicians,
painters, and poets; and art, which had heretofore been largely local
in sphere, comes to have more and more of a panhellenic character.
By Ibycus the forms of Dorian lyric are planted in Ionian Samos, even
as through Arion's career at Corinth they take up their home at
Ionian Athens.
The love poetry of Ibycus, though clearly expressive of personal
emotion, exhibits a choral structure, and was apparently sung on pub.
lic occasions. Its tone may be inferred from the following frag-
ment:
IN SPRING Cydonian apple-trees,
Watered by fountains ever flowing
Through crofts unmown of maiden goddesses,
And young vines, 'neath the shade
Of shooting tendrils, tranquilly are growing.
Meanwhile for me, Love, never laid
In slumber, like a north wind glowing
With Thracian lightnings, still doth dart
Blood-parching madness on my heart,
From Kupris hurtling, stormful, wild,
Lording the man as erst the child.
Translation of John Addington Symonds.
>
Here as in other fragments of Ibycus we can detect an almost
romantic sentiment for external nature, as evidenced by fruits and
flowers, nightingales, running brooks, and starry nights. For the con-
ception of love in the above passage, we may compare another
where love looks upon the poet “from under deep-dark brows,” and
Ibycus “trembles at his onset like a valiant chariot-horse which in
old age must once more enter the race.
