Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/219

197 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 197 are most abundant in certain fragments of a hearty, simple character*, in which Alcman depicts his own way of life, his eating and drinking, of which, without being absolutely a glutton, he was a great lover f- But even here we may trace the admixture with the MoWc character {, which ancient grammarians attribute to Alcman. It is explained by the fact that Peloponnesus was indebted for the first perfect specimen of lyric poetry to an iEolian of Lesbos, Terpander, In other frag- ments the dialect approximates more nearly to the epic, and has re- tained only a faint tinge of Dorism; especially in all the poems in hexameters, and, indeed, wherever the poetry assumes a dignified, majestic character §. Alcman is one of the poets whose image is most effaced by time, and of whom we can the least hope to obtain any accurate knowledge. The admiration awarded to him by antiquity is scarcely justified by the extant remains of his poetry ; but, doubtless, this is because they are extremely short, or are cited only in illustration of trifles. A true and lively conception of nature pervades the whole, elevated by that power of quickening the inanimate which descended from remote antiquity : thus, for instance, the poet calls the dew, Hersa, a daughter of Zeus and Selene, of the God of the Heavens and the Moon ||. He is also remarkable for simple and cheerful views of human life, connected with an intense enthusiasm for the beautiful in whatsoever age or sex, especially for the grace of virgins, the objects of Alcman's most ardent homage. The only evidence that his erotic poetry is somewhat voluptuous^ is to be found in the innocence and simplicity with which, in the true Spartan fashion, he regarded the relation between the sexes. A corrupt, refined sensuality neither belongs to the age in which he lived, nor to the character of his poetry ; and although, perhaps, he is chiefly conversant with sensual existence, yet indications are not wanting of a quick and profound conception of the spiritual **. § 4. The second great choral poet, Stesichorus, has so little in common with Alcman, that he can in no respect be regarded as suc- I Especially in the sound OI5 for an original ON2, as in <p'sgoi<ra. It appears, however, that the pine Doric form M^a-a ought to he introduced everywhere for INIaJVa. In, the third person plural, Alcman probably had, like Pindar, either aUiovTi (lr. 73), or i'uloiiriv. The o-S in rgavirla, xiHagitrdiv, is also ./Folic : the pure Doric form was xJcc^Hhv, &c. § As in the beautiful fragment, No. 10, in YYelcker"s collection, which contains a description of the repose of night. ^[ aKoKaarot, Archytas (« a^oviKos) in Athen. xiii. p. COO. F., in the mind:"' as should be written in Ktytn. Gud. p. 3'J5. 5'2. for faa) ligxov. ■I'^airi is a well-known Doric form for Qgitri.
 * Fragm. 24. 28.
 * Fr. 47.
 * Alcman called the memory, the ^v/i^n, by the name fga.tr't'Stioxtn, " that which