Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/147

Rh seasonable douceur to the Corinthian general, paved the way to his recall to Megara, will be seen in the account we propose to give of the last epoch of his life, which is supposed to have lasted till beyond 480, as he distinctly in two places refers to the instant terror of a Median invasion. That life divides itself into the periods of his youth and prosperous estate, his clouded fortunes at home, and his long and wearisome exile. The remainder of this chapter will serve for a glance at the first period.

That our poet was of noble birth may be inferred from the confidence with which, in reply to an indignity put upon him in his exile at Thebes, to which we shall refer in due course, he asserts his descent from "noble Æthon," as if the very mention of the name would prove his rank to his contemporaries; and in the first fragment (according to the ingenious chronological arrangement of Frere, which we follow throughout), Theognis is found in the heyday of prosperity, praying Zeus, and Apollo, the special patron of his fatherland, to preserve his youth

Interpreting this language by its context, we learn that his ideal of joyous years was to frequent the banquets of his own class, and take his part in songs accompanied by the flute or lyre,—