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 BACCHYLIDES 49 whom affairs did not leave much leisure for study, and the epinikia of Bacchylides. His fifth ode, and Pindar’s who rejoiced in a poet with whom they could live on such first Olympian, alike celebrate the victory of the horse easy terms. Pherenicus; but, while Pindar’s reference to the race Another prominent trait in the style of Bacchylides is itself is slight and general (vv. 20-22), Bacchylides his love of picturesque detail. This characteristic marks describes the running of the winner much more vividly the fragment by which, before the discovery of the new and fully (vv. 37-49). MS., he was best known,—a passage, from one of his MS. contains fourteen epinikia, or thirteen if Blass be right paeans, on the blessings of peace (fr. 13, Bergk); and it m The supposing that odes vi. and vii., as numbered by Kenyon in the frequently appears in the odes, especially in the mythical editio princeps, are parts of a single ode (for Lachon of Ceos), narratives. Greater poets can make an image flash upon hour (or on the view just stated, three) of the odes relate to the the mind, as Pindar sometimes does, by a magic phrase, Olympian festival; two to the Pythian ; three to the Isthmian; to the Nemean; and one to a Thessalian festival called the or by throwing one or two salient points into strong three Uerpaia. This comes last. The order in which the MS. arranges relief. The method of Bacchylides is usually quieter ' he the other epinikia seems to be casual; at least it does not follow paints cabinet pictures. Observation and elegance do G ) alphabetical sequence of the victors’ names, or of the names more for him than grasp or piercing insight; but his work or their cities; nor (2) chronological sequence; nor (3) classificais often of very high excellence in its own kind. His tion by contests ; nor (4) classification by festivals—except that the great festivals precede the Fetraea. The first ode, celebrating treatment of simile is only a special phase of this general atour victory ot the Cean Argeios at the Isthmus, may possibly have tendency. It is exemplified by the touches with which he een placed there for a biographical reason, viz., because the poet elaborates the simile of the eagle in ode v., and that of treated in it the early legends of his native island. the storm-tossed mariners in ode xii. This full develop. A mythical narrative, connected in some way with the ment of simile is Homeric in manner, but not Homeric in victor or his city, usually occupies the central part of a motive: Homer’s aim is vividness; Bacchylides is rather Pindaric ode. It serves to lift the poem into an ideal intent on the decorative value of the details themselves. legion, and to invest it with more than a local or temThere are occasional flashes of brilliancy in his imagery, porary significance. The method of Bacchylides in this when it is lit up by his keen sense of beauty or splendour department of the epinikion is best illustrated by the in external nature. A radiance, “as of fire,” streams from myth of Croesus in ode iii., that of Heracles and Meleager the forms of the Nereids (xvi. 103 If.). An athlete shines in ode y., and that of the Proetides in ode x. Pindar’s out among his fellows like “ the bright moon of the mid- habit is to select certain moments or scenes of a month night ” among the stars (viii. 27 If.) The sudden legend, which he depicts with great force and vividness. gleam of hope which comes to the Trojans by the with- Bacchylides, on the other hand, has a gentle flow of simple drawal of Achilles is like a ray of sunshine “from epic narrative; he relies on the interest of the story as a beneath the edge of a storm - cloud ” (xii. 105 ff.). The whole, rather than on his power of presenting situations. shades of the departed, as seen by Heracles on the banks Another element, always present in the longer odes of of the Cocytus, are compared to the countless leaves victory, is that which may be called the “gnomic.” Here, fluttering in the wind on “the gleaming headlands of again, there is a contrast between the two poets. Pindar Ida ” (vv. 65 ff.),—an image not unworthy of Dante or packs his yvCyiai, his maxims or moral sentiments, into of Milton. terse and sometimes obscure epigrams; he utters them in Among the minor features of this poet’s style the most a didactic tone, as of one who can speak with the remarkable is his use of epithets. A god or goddess commanding voice of Delphic wisdom. The moralizing of nearly always receives some ornamental epithet; some- Bacchylides is rather an utterance of quiet meditation, times, indeed, two, or even three (e.y., KaXvKorrrajjdvov sometimes recalling the strain of Ionian gnomic elegy. cre/ivas . . . ’Apre/xtSos XevKuAkvov, v. 98 f.). Such a trait. The epinikia of Bacchylides are followed in the MS. by is in unison with the epic manner, the straightforward six compositions which the Alexandrians classed under the narrative, which we find in some of the larger poems (as general name of 8i6vpapf3oL, and which we, too, must be in v., x., and xvi.). On the other hand, the copious use content to describe collectively as Dithyrambs. The of such ornament has the disadvantage that it sometimes derivation of 8i-0vpap{3o<; is uncertain : 8c may be the gives, a tinge of conventionality to his work. This im- root seen in Sios (cp. StTroAta), and 8vpap,/3o<s another pression is somewhat strengthened by the fact that many form of 0piap,f3os, a word by which Cratinus (c. 448 B.c.) of the epithets are long compound words, not found elsedenotes some kind of hymn to the wine-god. The where, and (in some cases at least) probably invented by “dithyramb,” first mentioned by Archilochus (c. 670 B.c.), the poet; words which suggest a deliberate effort to vary received a finished and choral form from Arion of Lesbos the stock repertory. (c. 600 B.c.). His dithyrambs, produced at Corinth, The poems contained in the new MS. are of two belonged to the cult of Dionysus, and the members of his classes: I. Odes of Victory; II. Dithyrambs. The Ode chorus (rpayiKos yopo?) personated satyrs. Originally o ictory, cttivikiov (/xeAos) or hrlvuios (v/avos'), is a form with the birth of the god, the dithyramb came derived from the fl/xvo?, which was properly a song in concerned to deal with all his fortunes: then its scope became still praise of a deity. Stesichorus (circ. 610 B.c.) seems to larger; it might celebrate, not Dionysus alone, but any have been the first who composed hymns in honour, not god or hero. This last development had taken place of gods, but of heroes; the next step was to write hymns before the close of the 6th century b.c. Simonides wrote in celebration of victories by living men. This custom arose in the second half of the sixth century b.c., the age in a1 dithyramb on Memnon and Tithonus; Pindar, on Orion which the games at the four great festivals reached the a ^ on Heracles. Hence the Alexandrian scholars used lulness of their popularity. Simonides (born c. 556 b.c.) 8idvpap./3o<s in a wide sense, as denoting simply a lyric was the earliest recorded writer of epinikia. His odes of poem occupied with a mythical narrative. Thus ode xvii. his class are now represented only by a few very small of Bacchylides (relating the voyage of Theseus to Crete), though it was clearly a iraidv for the Delian Apollo, was iragments, some twenty lines in all. Two of these frag- classed by the Alexandrians among his “ dithyrambs ”—as ments, belonging to the description of a chariot -race, appears not only from its place in our MS., but also from warrant, the belief that Simonides, in his epinikia, differed the allusion of Servius (on Aen. vi. 21). The six dithyrom Pmdar in dwelling more on the incidents of the rambs of Bacchylides are arranged in (approximately) particular victory. The same characteristic is found in alphabetical order: AvTT^vopiSai, HpuKhijs^’HideoLri Qr/crevs, S. II. — 7