Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/161

139 LITERATURE OP ANCIENT GREECE. 139 the instrument left the voice, and did not fall in with it till the end , while the early musicians accompanied it, syllable for syllable, with the same notes on the instrument*. A peculiar kind of three-cornered stringed instrument, called iambyce, was also used to accompany iambics, and probably dated from the time of Archilochusf. § 10. It was necessary to lay these dry details before the reader in order to give an idea of the inventive genius which places Archilochus next, in point of originality, to Homer, among the Greek poets. There is, however, another remarkable part of the poetical character of Archi- lochus, viz., his language. If we can imagine ourselves living at a time when only the epic style, with its unchanging solemnity, its abun- dance of graphic epithets, and its diffuse and vivid descriptions, was cultivated by poets, with no other exception than the recent and slight deviation of the elegy, we shall perceive the boldness of introducing into poetry a language which, surrendering all these advantages, attempt- ed to express ideas as they were conceived by a sober and clear under- standing. In this diction there are no ornamental epithets, intended only to fill out the image ; but every adjective denotes the quality appropriate to the subject, as conceived in the given placej. There are no anti- quated words or forms deriving dignity from their antiquity, but it is the plain language of common life ; and if it seem to contain still many rare and difficult words, it is because the Ionic dialect retained words which afterwards fell into disuse. We likewise find in it the article§, unknown to the epic language ; and many particles used in a manner having a far closer affinity with a prose than with an epic style. In short, the whole diction is often such as might occur in an Attic comic poet, and, without the metre, even in a prose writer: nothing but the liveliness and energy with which all ideas are conceived and expressed, and the pleasing and graceful arrangement of the thoughts, distinguishes this language from that of common life |. xpoviris, which Archilochus is said to have invented. The meaning is made clear by a comparison of Aristot. Problem, xix. 39, and Plato Leg. vii. p. 812. Kpouuv denotes the playing on any musical instrument, the flute as well as the cithara. f See Athen. xiv. p. 646. Ilesychius and Photius in ictft/ivxti. The instrument xXi-^iafifioi, mentioned by Athenseus, appears to have been specially destined for the V<!C0 T*JV  xd^irai yaf> %on y where the skin is not c.dled tender generally, but in reference to the former bloom of the person addressed ; and as (fragm. 55) where the rock is not called dark generally, but in reference to the difficulty of avoiding a rock beneath the surface of the water. Such epic epithets as irarS' " Amio pinQovov (fragm. 116) are very rare. § E. g. fragm. 58 : ra/avSs V Z cr/^xs, t*iv #vyw tx'-'St where the article separates roidvls from -rvyw : " such are the posteriors which you have." J| We may cite, as instances of the simple language of Archilochus, two fragments evidently belonging to a poem which had some resemblance to Horace's 6th epode. la the beginning was fragment 122, tt'oXX" «TS' nkuvrnl, «XX' l^wj h piyu.; 'Mho
 * In Plutarch the latter is called n^otrxofia hpoviiv, the former % vto <rr,v aSjjv