Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/146

124 124 HISTORY OF THE far beyond Megara, by means of his travels as well as of his poetry ; and his elegies were sung in many symposia*. The poetry of Theognis is full of allusions to symposia : so that from it a clear conception of the outward accompaniments of the elegy may be formed. When the guests were satisfied with eating, the cups were filled for the solemn libation : and at this ceremony a prayer was offered to the gods, especially to Apollo, which in many districts of Greece was expanded into a poean. Here began the more joyous and noisy part of the banquet, which Theognis (as well as Pindar) calls in general Kuifioc, although this word in a narrower sense also signified the tumul- tuous throng of the guests departing from the feast t. Now the Comos was usually accompanied with the flute : hence Theognis speaks in so many places of the accompaniment of the flute-player to the poems sung in the intervals of drinking § ; while the lyre and cithara (or phorminx) are rarely mentioned, and then chiefly in reference to the song at the libation ||. And this was the appropriate occasion for the elegy, which was sung by one of the guests to the sound of a flute, being either addressed to the company at large, or (as is always the case in Theognis) to a single guest. § 16. We have next to speak of the poems of a man different in his character from any of the elegiac poets hitherto treated of; a philoso- pher, whose metaphysical speculations will be considered in a future chapter. Xenophanes of Colophon, who about the 68th Olympiad (508 B.C.) founded the celebrated school of Elea, at an earlier period, while he was still living at Colophon, gave vent to his thoughts and feelings on the circumstances surrounding him, in the form of elegies^. These elegies, like those of Archilochus, Solon, Theognis, &c. were symposiac: there is preserved in Athenaeus a considerable fragment, in which the beginning of a symposion is described with much distinctness and elegance, and the guests are exhorted, after the libation and song of praise to the gods, to celebrate over their cups brave deeds and the exploits of youths (i. e. in elegiac strains) ; and not to sing the fictions 387, seq. In Sicily be composed the elegy lor his countrymen, which has been men- tioned in the text, the colonists from Megara of Megara HyUaea. The verses 891—4 must have been written in Euboea. Many allusions to Sparta occur, and the pas- sage v. 880 — 4 is probably from an elegy written by Theognis for a Spartan friend, who had a vineyard on Tay^etus. The most difficult of explanation are v. 1 200 and 1211, seq., which can scarcely be reconciled with the circumstances of the life of Theognis. f See Theogn. v. 829,940, 1046, 1065, 1207. I See above § 2. § v. 241, 761, 825, 941, 975, 1041, 1056, 1065. «T There are, however, in Diogenes Laertius elegiac verses of Xenophanes, in which he states himself to he ninety-two years old, and speaks of his wanderings 'ii Greece.
 * Theognis himself mentions that he had been in Sicily, Eubcea, and Sparta, v.
 * v.534. 761, 791.