Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/100

 82 HISTORY OF GREKCE. kles was still popularly sung by the victors at Olympia, near two centuries after his death, in the days of Pindar ; but that majes- tic and complimentary poet at once denounces the malignity, and attests the retributive suffering, of the great Parian iambist.' Amidst, the multifarious veins in which Archilochus displayed his genius, moralizing or gnomic poetry is not wanting, while his contemporary Simonides, of Amorgos, devotes the iambic metre especially to this destination, afterwards followed out by Solon and Theognis. But Kallinus, the earliest celebrated elegiac poet, so far as we can judge from his few fragments, employed the elegiac metre for exhortations of warlike patriotism ; and the more ample remains which we possess of Tyrtoeus are ser- mons in the same strain, preaching to the Spartans bravery against the foe, and unanimity as well as obedience to the law at home. They are patriotic effusions, called forth by the circum- stances of the time, and sung by single voice, with accompani- ment of the flute, 2 to those in whose bosoms the flame of courage was to be kindled. For though what we peruse is in verse, we are still in the tide of real and present life, and we must suppose ourselves rather listening to an orator addressing the citizens when danger or dissension is actually impending. It is only in the hands of Mimnermus that elegiac verse comes to be devoted to soft and amatory subjects. His few fragments present a vein of passive and tender sentiment, illustrated by appropriate matter of legend, such as would be cast into poetry in all ages, and quite different from the rhetoric of Kallinus and Tyrtasus. The poetical career of Alkman is again distinct from that of any of his above-mentioned contemporaries. Their compositions, besides hymns to the gods, were principally expressions of feel- ing intended to be sung by individuals, though sometimes also suited for the komus, or band of festive volunteers, assembled on some occasion of common interest : those of Alkman were prin- cipally choric, intended for the song and accompanying dance of 1 Pindar, Pyth. ii, 55; Olymp. ix, 1, with the Scholia; Euripid. Ilercul. Furens, 533-683. The eighteenth epigram of Theokritus (above alluded to) conveys a striking tribute of admiration to Archilochus : compare Quintilian, x, 1, and Liebel, ad ArchS'.ochi Fragmenta, sects. 5, G. 7.
 * Athenseus, xiv, p. 630.