Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/213

191 L LITERATURE OP ANCIENT GREECE. 191 to the celebration of divine worship. The origin of this kind of lyric poetry can be traced to the earliest times of Greece : for (as has been already shown) choruses were generally used in Greece before the time of Homer; although the dancers in the ancient choruses did not also sing, and therefore an exact correspondence of all their motions with the words of the song was not requisite. At that period, however, the joint singing of several persons was practised, who either sat, stood or moved onwards; as in pseans and hymenseals ; sometimes the mimic movements of the dancer were explained by the singing, which was executed by other persons, as in the hyporchemes. And thus nearly every variety of the choral poetry, which was afterwards so elaborately and so brilliantly developed, existed, even at that remote period, though in a rude and unfinished state. The production of those polished forms in which the style of singing and the movements of the dance were brought into perfect harmony, coincides with the last advance in musical art ; the improvements in which, made by Terpander, Olympus, and Thaletas, have formed the subject of a particular notice. Thaletas is remarkable for having cultivated the art of dancing as much as that of music; while his rhythms seem to have been nearly as various as those afterwards employed in choral poetry. The union of song and dance, which was transferred from the lyric to the dramatic choruses *, must also have been introduced at that time ; since the complicated structure of the strophes and antistrophes is founded, not on singing- alone, but on the union of that art with dancing. In the first century subsequent to the epoch of these musicians, choral poetry does not, however, appear in its full perfection and individuality ; but approaches either to the Lesbian lyric poetry, or to the epos ; thus the line which separated these two kinds (between which the choral songs occupy a middle place) gradually became more distinct. Among the lyric poets whom the Alexandrians placed in their canon, Alcman and Stesichorus belong to this period of progress ; while finished lyric poetry is repre- sented by Ibycus, Simonides with his disciple Bacchylides, and Pindar. We shall now proceed to take a view of these poets separately ; class- in" - among the former the dithyrambic poet Arion, and among the latter Pindar's instructor Lasus, and a few others who have sufficient indivi- duality of character to distinguish them from the crowd. We must first, however, notice the erroneous opinion that choral poetry existed among the Greeks in the works of these great poets only ; they are, on the contrary, to be regarded merely as the eminent points arising out of a widely extended mass; as the most perfect re presentatives of that poetical fervour which, at the religious festivals, inspired all classes. Choral dances were so frequent among the Greeks the modern pantomimic style of dancing with the ancient lyric and dramatic style.
 * TlciXai fjtXv yuo el aire) xa) fiov x«) u^euvra, says Lucian de Saltat. 30, comparing