Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/136

 120 HlLr^'liY OF GREECE. Besides: the Iliad and Odyssey, we make out the titles of about thirty lost epic poems, sometimes with a brief hint of their contents. Concerning the legen 1 of Troy there were five : the Cyprian Verses, the ./Ethiopia, and the Capture of Troy, both ascribed to Arktinus ; the lesser Iliad, ascribed to Lesches ; the Returns (of the Heroes from Troy), to which the name of Hagias of Troezen is attached ; and the Telegonia, by Eugammon, a continuation of the Odyssey. Two poems, the Thebai's and the Epigoni (per- haps two parts of one and the same poem) were devoted to the legend of Thebes, the two sieges of that city by the Argeians. Another poem, called OEdipodia, had for its subject the tragical destiny of CEdipus and his family ; and perhaps that which is cited as Europia, or verses on Europa, may have comprehended the tale of her brother Kadmus, the mythical founder of Thebes. 1 The exploits of Herakles were celebrated in two compositions, ?ach called Herakleia, by Kinaethon and Pisander, probably also in many others, of which the memory has not been preserved. The capture of QEchalia, by Herakles, formed the subject of a separate epic. Two other poems, the JEgimius and the Minyas, are supposed to have been founded on other achievements of this hero, the effective aid which he lent to the Dorian king JEgl- mius against the Lapithas, his descent to the under-world for the purpose of rescuing the imprisoned Theseus, and his conquest of the city of the Minyae, the powerful Orchomenus. 2 Other epic poems the Phoronis, the Danai's, the Alkmaeonis, the Atthis, the Amazonia we know only by name, and can just guess obscurely at their contents so far as the name indicates. 3 The superior antiquity of Orpheus as compared with Homer passed as a received position to the classical Romans (Horat. Art. Poet. 392). 1 Respecting these lost epics, see Diintzer, Collection of the Fragmenta Epicor. Grsecorum ; Wiillner, De Cyclo Epico, pp. 43-66 ; and Mr. Pynes Clinton's Chronology, vol. iii. pp. 349-359. 1 Welcker, Der Epische Kyklus, pp. 256-266 ; Apollodor. ii. 7, 7 ; Diodoi iv. 37 ; O. Mailer, Dorians, i. 28. 3 Welcker (Der Epische Kyklus, p. 209) considers the Alkmseonis as the same with the Epigoni, and the Atthis of Hegesinous the same with the Amazonia: in Suidas (v. 'Opqpof) the latter is among the poems ascribed to Homer. Leutsch (Thehaidos Cyclic Reliquiae, pp. 12-14) views the Thebats and the Epigoni as different parts of the same poem.