Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/73

Rh native dialect till the era of antiquarian collection in the fourth century or after; and perhaps if this poem were ever unearthed from an Egyptian tomb, we should have a specimen of the loose and popular epic not yet worked up by Ionic genius. Its style in general seems light and callous compared with the stern tragedy of the Milesian Æthopis' and Sack of Ilion* Among the other rejected epics were poems of what might be called the World-cycle. Of these, Proclus uses the Theogony* and the Titan War* of which last there exists one really beautiful fragment. The Theban 'Ring,' which was treated by grammarians as an introduction to the Trojan, had an Œdipodea,* a Thebais* and a Lay of the After-born* treating of the descendarks of the Seven, who destroyed Thebes. The Driving forth of Amphiaraus* the Taking of Œchalia,* the Phocais* the Danais,* and many more we pass over.

It was a custom in epic poetry for the minstrel to 'begin from a god,' generally from Zeus or the Muses. This gave rise to the cultivation of the ' Pro-oimion ' or Prelude as a separate form of art, specimens of which' survive in the so-called Homeric ' Hymns,' the word having in early Greek no religious connotation. The shortest of these preludes merely call on the god by his titles, refer briefly to some of his achievements, and finish by a line like, "Hail to thee, Lord; and now begin my lay," or, "Beginning from thee, I will pass to another song!" The five longer hymns are, like Pindar's victory songs, illustrations of the degree to which a