Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/411

 TRAGIC POET 379 phon and Pegasus, the Chimaera, the Amazons and the Hyper- boreans all appear painted on the same canvas, and touched with the same colors, as the men of the recent and recorded past, Phalaris and Krossus ; only they are thrown back to a greater distance in the perspective. 1 The heroic ancestors of those great -^Eginelan, Thessalian, Theban, Argean, etc. families, whose pre- sent members the poet celebrates for their agonistic victories, sympathize with the exploits and second the efforts of their de- scendants : the inestimable value of a privileged breed and of the stamp of nature is powerfully contrasted with the impotence of unassisted teaching and practice. 2 The power and skill of the Argeian Theseus and his relatives as wrestlers, are ascribed partly to the fact that their ancestors Pamphaes in aforetime had hospitably entertained the Tyndarids Kastor and Pollux. 3 Perhaps however the strongest proof of the sincerity of Pindar's mythical faith is afforded when he notices a guilty incident with shame and repugnance, but with an unwilh'ng confession of its truth, as in the case of the fratricide committed on Phokus by his brothers Peleus and Telamon.4 JEschylus and Sophokles exhibit the same spontaneous and uninquiring faith as Pindar in the legendary antiquities of Greece, taken as a whole ; but they allow themselves greater license as to the details. It was indispensable to the success of their com- positions that they should recast and group anew the legendary events, preserving the names and general understood relation of those characters whom they introduced. The demand for novelty of combination increased with the multiplication of tragic specta- cles at Athens : moreover the feelings of the Athenians, ethical as well as political, had become too critical to tolerate the literal reproduction of many among the ancient stories. Both of them exalted rather than lowered the dignity of the mythical world, as something divine and heroic rather than human. 1 Pfth. i. 17 ; iii. 4-7 ; iv. 12 ; viii. 16. Nem. iv. 27-32 ; v. 89. Isthm. v, 31 ; ri. 44-48. Olymp. iii. 17 ; viii. 63; xiii. 61-87. ix. 103. Pindar seems to introduce <$>va in cases where Homer would have mentioned the divine assistance. 3 Nem. x. 37-51. Compare the family legend of the Athenian Dem it- erates, in Plato, Lysis, p. 295. * Nem. v. 12-16.
 * Nem. iii. 39; v. 40. avyjevfif eiido^ia Tror/zof avyyevf/f ; v. 8. Olymp.