Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/144

122 122 HISTORY OF THE ther *." Theognis doubtless made this complaint on the debasement of the Megarian nobility with the stronger feeling of bitterness, as he him- self had been rejected by the parents of a young woman, whom he had desired to marry, and a far worse man, that is, a man of plebeian blood, had been preferred to him f. Yet the girl herself was captivated with the noble descent of Theognis : she hated her ignoble husband, and came disguised to the poet, " with the lightness of a little bird," as he says X . With regard to the union of these fragments into entire elegies, it is important to remark that all the complaints, warnings, and lessons having a political reference, appear to be addressed to a single young friend of the poet, Cyrnus, the son of Polypac §. Wherever other names occur, either the subject is quite different, or it is at least treated in a different manner. Thus there is a considerable fragment of an elegy addressed by Theognis to a friend named Simonides, at the time of the revolution, which in the poems addressed to Cyrnus is described as passed by. In this passage the insurrection is described under the favourite image of a ship tossed about by winds and waves, while the crew have deposed the skilful steersman, and entrusted the guidance ot the helm to the common working sailor. " Let this (the poet adds) be revealed to the good in enigmatic language ; yet a bad man may under- stand it, if he has sense ||." It is manifest that this poem was composed during a reign of terror, which checked the freedom of speech; on the other hand, in the poems addressed to Cyrnus, Theognis openly dis- plays all his opinions and feelings. So far is he from concealing his hatred of the popular party, that he wishes that he could drink the blood of those who had deprived him of his property %. § 15. On attempting to ascertain more precisely the relation of Cyrnus to Theognis, it appears that the son of Polypas was a youth of noble family, to whom Theognis bore a tender, but at the same time paternal, regard, and whom he desires to see a " good " c'tizen, in his sense of the word. The interest felt by the poet in Cyrnus probably appeared much more clearly in the complete elegies than in the gnomic extracts now preserved, in which the address to Cyrnus might appear a mere superfluity. Several passages have, however, been preserved, in which the true state of his relation to Theognis is apparent. " Cyrnus (says the poet) when evil befals you, we all weep ; but grief for others is with § Klmsley has remarked that WoXvxuthn is to be read as a patronymic. The remark is certain, as 17 o>.vral^yi never occurs before a consonant, but nine times be- fore a vowel, and moreover in passages where the verse requires a dactyl. The exhortations with the addresses Ku^vt and UoXwutin are also .closely connected. To?.uTa; (with the long a) has the same meaning as otXi/tk^v, a rich proprietor. Aaafio; OovKirlrro; ylyvirai 'a to fi'trov. f v. 349.
 * v. 189, seq. f v - '- 61 > se 1' I v - 1091 -
 * In v. GG7 — 82 there is a manifest allusion to the y~/n ava luirpof in the verses