Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/212

190 190 HISTORY OP THE the liberators of the Athenian people, Harmodius and Aristogiton, for having 1, at the festival of Athene, slain the tyrant Hipparchus, and re- stored equal rights to the Athenians ; for this they lived for ever in the islands of the hlest, in community with the most exalted heroes, and on earth their fame was immortal *. This patriotic scolion does not indeed rest on an historical foundation ; for it is known from Herodotus and Thucydides, that, though Hipparchus, the younger brother of the tyrant, was slain by Harmodius and Aristogiton, this act only served to make the government of Hippias, the elder brother, more cruel and suspicious; and it was Cleomenes the Spartan, who, three years later, really drove the Pisistratids from Athens. But the patriotic delusion in which the scolion was composed was universal at Athens. Even before the Persian war, statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton had been erected, as of heroes ; which statues, when carried away by Xerxes, were after- wards replaced by others. Supposing the mind of the Athenian poet possessed with this belief, we cannot but sympathize in the enthusiasm with which he celebrates his national heroes, and desires to imitate their costume at the Panathenaic festival, when they concealed their swords in boughs of myrtle. The simplicity of the thoughts, and the frequent repetition of the same burden, " for they slew the tyrant," is quite in conformity with the frank and open tone of the scolion ; and we may perhaps conjecture that this poem was a real impromptu, the pro- duct of a rapid and transient inspiration of its author. CHAPTER XIV. § 1. Connection of lyric poetry with choral songs : gradual rise of regular forms from this connection. First stage. — $ 2. Alcman ; his origin and date ; mode of recitation and form of his choral songs. — § 3. Their poetical character. — § 4. Stesichorus ; hereditary transmission of his poetical taste ; his reformation of the chorus. — §5. Subjects and character of his poetry. — §6. Erotic and bucolic poetry of Stesichorus. — § 7. Arion. The dithyramb raised to a regular choral song. Second stogie. — § 8. Life of Ibycus ; his imitation of Stesichorus. — § 9. Erotic tendency of his poetry. — § 10. Life of Simonides. — § 11. Variety and ingenuity of his poetical powers. Comparison of his Epinikia with those of Pindar. — § 12. Characteristics of his style. — § 13. Lyric poetry of Bacchylides, imitated from that of Simonides. — §14. Parties among the lyric poets; rivalry of La sirs, Timocreon, and Pindar with Simonides. § 1. The characteristic features of the Doric lyric poetry have been already described, for the purpose of distinguishing it from the MoWc. These were ; recitation by choruses, the artificial structure of long strophes, the Doric dialect, and its reference to public affairs, especially
 * These, and most of the other scolia, are in Athenseus, xv. p. 694. sq.