Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/216

194 194 HISTORY OF THE composed a poem to Thaletas *. According to this, he must have flourished about Ol. 42. (b. c. 612), which is the date assigned to him by ancient chronologists. His mention of the island Pityussef near the Balearic islands, points to this age; since, according to Herodotus, the western parts of the Mediterranean were first known to the Greeks by the voyages of the Phocaeans, from the 35th Olympiad downwards ; and then became a subject of geographical knowledge, not, as hereto- fore, of fabulous legends. Alcman had thus before him music in that maturity which it had attained, not only by the labours of Terpander, but also by those of Thaletas ; he lived at a time when the Spartans, after the termination of the Messenian wars, had full leisure to devote themselves to the arts and pleasures of life ; for their ambition was not as yet directed to distinguishing themselves from the other Greeks by rude unpolished manners. Alcman devoted himself entirely to the cultivation of art; and we find in him one of the earliest examples of a poet who consciously and purposely strove to embellish his works with new artistical forms. In the ode which is regarded by the ancients as the first, he says., " Come, Muse, clear-voiced Muse, sing to the maidens a melodious song in a new fashion J ;" and he elsewhere frequently mentions the originality and the ingenuity of his poetical forms. He ought always to be imagined as at the head of a chorus, by means of which, and together with which, be seeks to please. " Arise, Muse," exclaims he, " Calliope, daughter of Jove, sing us pleasant songs, give charm to the hymn, and grace to the chorus §." And again, " May my chorus please the house of Zeus, and thee, oh lord || !" Alcman is regarded by some as the true inventor of choral poetry, although others assign this reputation to his predecessor Terpander, or to his successor Stesichorus. He composed more espe- cially for choruses of virgins, as several of the fragments quoted above show ; as well as the title of a considerable portion of his songs, Par- thenia. The word Parthenia is, indeed, not always employed in the same sense ; but in its proper technical signification it denotes choral songs sung by virgins, not erotic poems addressed to them. On the contrary, the music and the rhythm of these songs are of a solemn and lofty character; many of those of Alcman and the succeeding lyric poets were in the Doric harmony. The subjects were very various : according to Proclus, gods and men were celebrated in them, and the passage of Alcman, in which the virgins, with Homeric simplicity, ex- I This is the meaning of fragm. 1., which probably ought to be written and dis- tributed (with a slight alteration) as follows : Mar ay!, Muira Xiyaix, •xoXv/i.iXis f/.iXo; The first verse is logaoedic, the second iambic. § Fragm 4. |] Fragm. 68.
 * See Ch. xii. §9. f Steph. Byz. in Utruovtrai.