Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/215

193 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 193 of Alcman, contributed to the cultivation of poetry; as, for example, the maiden whom Alcman himself celebrates in these words*, " This gift of the sweet Muses hath the fair-haired Megalostrata, favoured among virgins, displayed among us." From this we see how widely diffused, and how deeply rooted, were the feeling and the talent for such poetical productions in Sparta; and that Alcman, with his beautiful choral songs, introduced nothing new into that country, and only em- ployed, combined and perfected elements already existing. But neither Alcman, nor the somewhat earlier Terpander, were the first who awakened this spirit among the Spartans. Even the latter found the love for arts of this description already in existence, where, according to an extant verse of his, " The spear of the young men, and the clear-sounding muse, and justice in the wide market-place, flourish." § 2. According to a well known and sufficiently accredited account, Alcman was a Lydian of Sardis, who grew up as a slave in the house of Agesidas, a Spartan ; but was emancipated, and obtained rights of citizenship, though of a subordinate kind f- A learned poet of the Alexandrian age, Alexander the iEtolian, says of Alcman, (or rather makes him say of himself,) " Sardis, ancient home of my fathers, had I been reared within thy walls, I were now a cymbal- bearer J, or a eunuch-dancer in the service of the Great Mother, decked with "-old, and whirling the beautiful tambourine in my hands. But now I am called Alcman, and belong to Sparta, the city rich in sacred tripods; and I have become acquainted with the Heliconian Muses, who have made me greater than the despots Daskyles and Gyges." Alcman however, in his own poems, does not speak so contemptuously of the home of his forefathers, but puts into the mouth of a chorus of virgins, words wherein he himself is celebrated as being " no man of rude unpolished manners, no Thessalian or iEtolian, but sprung from the lofty Sardis §." This Lydian extraction had doubtless an influence on Alcman's style and taste in music. The date at which he lived is usually placed at so remote a period as to render it unintelligible how lyric poetry could have already attained to such variety as is to be found in his works. It may indeed be true that he lived in the reign of the Lydian king Ardys ; but it does not thence follow that he lived at the beo-innin<r of it ; on the contrary, his childhood was contemporary with the close of that reign. (Ol. 37. 4. b. c. 629.) Alcman, in one of his poems, mentioned the musician Polymnastus, who, in his turn, t According to Suidas he was &*o Maria?, and Mesoa was one of the phylae of Sparta, which were founded on divisions of the city. Perhaps, however, this state ment only means that Alcman dwelt in Mesoa, where the family of his former master and Subsequent patron may have resided. I Ki^vai is equivalent to *£gva(p«j«;, the hearer of the dish, k'iovos, used in the wor ship of Cybele. See the epigram in Anthol. Pal. VII. 709. & Fiiirm. ll.ed. Welcker, according to Welcker's explanation. o
 * Fragm. 27. ed.Welcker.