Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/122

100 100 HISTORY OF THE grammarians, some are doubtful, as they do not occur in ancient au- thors, and others do not by their title give any idea of their plan and subject ; so that we can make no use of them in our endeavour to con- vey a notion of the tone and character of the Hesiodean poetry. CHAPTER IX. j 1. General character of other Epic Poets. — § 2. Cinsethon of Lacedaemon, Eumelus of Corinth, Asius of Samos, Chersias of Orchomenus. — § 3. Epic Poems on Her- cules; the Taking of (Echalia ; the Heraclea of Peisander of Rhodes. § 1. Great as was the number of poems which in ancient times passed under the name of Homer, and were connected in the way of supple- ment or continuation with the Iliad and Odyssey, and also of those which were included under the all-comprehensive name of Hesiod, yet these formed only about a half of the entire epic literature of the early Greeks. The hexameter was, for several centuries, the only perfectly developed form of poetry, as narratives of events of early times were the general amusement of the people. The heroic mythology was an inex- haustible mine of subjects, if they were followed up into the legends of the different races and cities ; it was therefore natural, that in the most various districts of Greece poets should arise, who, for the gratifi- cation of their countrymen, worked up these legends into an epic form, either attempting to rise to an imitation of the Homeric style, or con- tenting themselves with the easier task of adopting that of the school of Ilesiod. Most of these poems evidently had little interest except in their subjects, and even this was lost when the logographers collected into shorter works the legends of which they were composed. Hence it happened only occasionally that some learned inquirer into tradi- tionary story took the trouble to look into these epic poems. Even now it is of great importance, for mythological researches, carefully to collect all the fragments of these ancient poems ; such, for example, as the Phoronis and Danuis (the works of unknown authors), which con- tained the legends of the earliest times of Argos ; but, for a history of literature, the principal object of which is to give a vivid notion of the character of writings, these are empty and unmeaning names. There are, however, a few epic poets of whom enough is known to enable us to form a general idea of the course which they followed. § 2. Of these poets several appear to have made use of the links of gejiealogy, in order, like the poet of the Hesiodean catalogues, to string together fables which were not connected by any main action, but which often extended over many generations. According to Pausanias, the works of Cinaethon the Lacedaemonian, who flourished about the 5th Olympiad, had a genealogical foundation ; and from the great pleasure which the Spartans took in the legends of the heroic age, it is probable