Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/76

 52 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE epic. The opening is Bcieotian ; the general colour of the poem Attic. An obvious fable — followed strangely enough by A. Ludvvich in his large edition — gives it to one Pigres, a Carian chief, who fought in the Persian War. The battle began because a mouse named Psicharpax, flying from a weasel, came to a pond to quench his thirst. He was accosted by a frog of royal race, Physignathos, son of Peleus — (the hero of Mount Pelion has become 'Mudman,' and his son ' Puff-cheek' !) — who persuaded him to have a ride on his back and see his kingdom. Unhappily a 'Hydros' — usually a water- snake, here perhaps some otter-like animal — lifted its head above the water, and the frog instinctively dived. The mouse perished, but not unavenged. A kinsman saw him from the bank, and from the blood-feud arose a great war, in which the mice had the best of it. At last Athena besought Zeus to prevent the annihilation of the frogs. He tried first thunderbolts and then crabs, which hitter were more than the mice could stand ; they turned, and the war ended. There were many comic battle-pieces ; we hear of a Spider-Jight* a Ci'ajic-fight* a Field/are-poem* Some were in iambics, and consequently foreign to the Home- ric style. The most celebrated comic poem was the Mar- gites* so called after its hero, a roaring blade (/xapjo';), high-spirited and incompetent, whose characteristic is given in the immortal line — TToXX' TjmaTaTO epya, KaKa>s 6' ^Tricrraro navTa. " Many arts he knew, and he knew them all badly ; " and again : " He was not meant by the gods for a digger or a ploughman, nor generally for anything sensible ; he was deficient in all manner of wisdom!' Late writers on metre