Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/202

180 ISO HISTORY OF THE one of her poems, he is said to have exclaimed, that he would not wil- lingly die till he had learned it hy heart. Indeed the whole voice of antiquity has declared that the poetry of Sappho was unrivalled in grace, and sweetness. And doubtless from that circle of accomplished women, of whom she formed the brilliant centre, a flood of poetic warmth and light was poured forth on every side. A friend of hers, Damophila the Pamphy- lian, composed a hymn on the worship of the Pergsean Artemis (which was solemnized in her native land after the Asiatic fashion) ; in this the yEolic style was blended with the peculiarities of the Pamphylian man- ner*. Another poetess of far higher renown was Erinna, who died in early youth, when chained by her mother to the spinning-wheel ; she had as yet known the charm of existence in imagination alone. Her poem, called " The Spindle" ('H/War?/), containing only 300 hex- ameter verses, in which she probably expressed the restless and aspiring thoughts which crowded on her youthful mind, as she pursued her monotonous work, has been deemed by many of the ancients of such high poetic merit as to entitle it to a place beside the epics of Homer t- § 11. We now come to Anacreon, whose poetry may be considered as akin to that of AlcEeus and Sappho, although he was an Ionian from Teos, and his genius had an entirely different tone and bent. In respect also of the external circumstances in which he was placed, he belonged to a different period ; inasmuch as the splendour and luxury of living had, in his time, much increased among the Greeks, and even poetry had contributed to adorn the court of a tyrant. The spirit of the Ionic race was, in Callinus, united with manly daring and a high feeling of honour, and in Mimnermus with a tender melancholy, seeking relief from care in sensual enjoyment ; but in Anacreon it is bereft of of all these deeper and more serious feelings; and he seems to consider life as valuable only in so far as it can be spent in love, music, wine, and social enjoyments. And even these feelings are not animated with the glow of the iEolic poets ; Anacreon, with his Ionic disposition, cares only for the enjoyment of the passing moment, and no feeling takes such deep hold of his heart that it is not always ready to give way to fresh impressions. Anacreon had already arrived at manhood, when his native city Teos was, after some resistance, taken by Harpagus, the general of Cyrus. In consequence of this capture, the inhabitants all took ship, and sailed for Thrace, where they founded Abdera, or rather they took possession of a Greek colony already existing on the spot, and enlarged the town. This event happened about the 60th Olymp. 540 b. c. Anacreon was among these Teian exiles; and, according to ancient testimony, he f The chief authority is Anthol. Palat. ix. 190.
 * Philostrat. Vit. Apolton. i. 30., p. 37. ed. Olear.