Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/487

 POPULARITY OF GRECIAN MY fAAS. 455 A similar effect was produced by the multiplied religious fes- tivals and processions, as well as by the oracles and prophecies a. curious proof how much these mythes were in every one's memory, and how large the range of knowledge of them was which a good dancer pos- sessed (see particularly c. 76-79. t. ii. p. 308-310, Hemst). Antiphanes ap. Athenae. vi. p. 223 : tflaicapiov EOTLV f/ rpayydia nolrjua Kara ITUVT el ye irpurov oi TiCtyoi imb TUV fiearuv elaiv eyvupiffftevoi nplv Kai TIV' EiTrelv wf VTiOfiv^aai ftovov del TOV TtoiTjTrjv. OldiiTovv ~yap ui> ye u, T& cT uA/la Travr' laacriv 6 rraTr)p Aaifof. [tfjTrjp 'loKuarri, tftr/arepef, Traldes rivef Tl 7T(T1?' (WTOf, Tl TTETTOtTJKEV. *Av ITU^IV 'A%.Kfj.aiuva, nal TU rraidia rrjv p.TjTep' 1 ayavaKTuv 6' "Adpaaroc; einJcuf rj^ei, Ttufav (T UTTEIGIV, etc. The first pages of the eleventh Oration of Dia Chrysostom contain some striking passages both as to the universal acquaintance with the mythes, and as to their extreme popularity (Or. xi. p. 307-312, KeiskJ. See also the commencement of Heraklides, De Allegorift Homeric^ (ap. Scriptt. Myth. ed. Gale, p. 408), about the familiarity with Homer. The Lyde of the poet Antimachus was composed for his own consolation under sorrow, by enumerating the 7/puif/ccif ovfiQopus (Plutarch, Consolat. ad Apollon. c. 9. p. 106 : compare .^Eschines cont. Ktesiph. c. 48) : a sepul- chral inscription in Thera, on the untimely death of Admetus, a youth of the heroic gens ^Egidse, makes a touching allusion to his ancestors Peleus and Pheres (Boeckh, C. 1. 1 ii. p. 1087). A curious passage of Aristotle is preserved by Demetrius Phalereus (Hcpi 'EpfiJjveiaf, c. 144), "Oau -yup avrirrif nal fiovuTTjc slfil, fyikopr&oTepos yeyova (compare the passage in the Nikomachean Ethics, i. 9, fiovuTije nal ureKvof). Stahr refers this to a letter of Aristotle written in his old age, the mythes being the consolation of his solitude ("Aristotelia, i. p. 201). For the employment of the mythical names and incidents as topics of pleasing and familiar comparison, see Menander, IIep2 'EmdeiKTiK. IT- capp. 9 and 11, ap. Walz. Coll. Rhett. t. ix. pp. 283-294. The degree in which they passed into the ordinary songs of women is illustrated by a touching epigram contained among the Chian Inscriptions published in Boeckh's Collection (No. 2236) : Btrnj nal Qaivls, i%j] Ttfiepij (?), al avvepr&oi, A.i irevixpal, ypaiai, T7j J Afj.(j>oTepai Kuiai, -xpurai yevo u Upbf ).v%vov <ft nvftovg ydo/isv rjfu.'&cuv. These two poor women were rot afraid to boist of th*ir family djtMwat