Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/233

211 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 211 good : that no man could be invariably good or bad, but could only act virtuously by the grace of the gods, and upon this principle the saying of Pittacus, " it is difficult to be good," was censured as requiring too much, and probably was applied for the purpose of extenuating some faults in the life of the victorious prince*. We should be guilty of injustice to Simonides were we to conclude that he did violence to his own convictions, and offered mercenary and bespoken homage; we rather discover a trace of the mild and humane, though somewhat lax and commodious, opinions on morals, prevalent among the Ionians. Among the Dorians, and in part also among the JEolians, law and custom were more rigorous in their demands upon the constancy and the virtue of mankind. The epinikia of Simonides appear to have been distinguished from those of Pindar mainly in this; that the former dwelt more upon the particular victory which gave occasion to his song, and described all its details with greater minuteness; while Pindar, as we shall see, passes lightly over the incident, and immediately soars into higher regions. In an epinikion which Simonides composed for Leophron the son of the tyrant Anaxilas and his vicegerent in Rhegiiim f, and in which he had to celebrate a victory obtained with a chariot drawn by mules (airfivri), the poet congratulated the victorious ani- mals, dexterously passing in silence over the meaner, and directing attention to the nobler, side of their parentage: " Hail, ye daughters of storm-footed steeds !" Simonides, too, in these songs of victory more frequently indulged in pleasantry than befitted a poem destined to be recited at a sacred feast; as, for example, in the epinikion composed in honour of an Athenian who had conquered Crios of TEgina in wrestling at Olympia ; where he plays upon the name of the defeated combatant: " Not ill has the ram (c Kp'wg) got himself shorn by venturing into the magnificent grove, the sanctuary of Zeus J". But the merits of Simonides were still more remarkable (as we have already seen in treating of the elegy) in dirges (Spijvoi). His style, as f As the historical relations are difficult of comprehension, I remark briefly, that Anaxilas was tyrant of Rhegium, and, from about 01. 71. 3. (b. c. 494), of Messene ; and that he dwelt in the lattrr city, leaving Leophron to administer the government of Rhegium. On the death of Anaxilas in Olymp. 76. 1. (b. c. 476), Leophron. as his eldest son, succeeded him in the city of Messene: and the freedman Micythus was to administer Rhegium for the younger sons, but be was soon compelled to abandon his office. Fortbese facts, see Herod, vii. 170. Diod. xi. 48. 66. Heiaclid. Pont. pol. '15. Dicnys. Hal. Exc. p. 539. Vales. Dionys. Hal. xi-x. 4. Mai. Ashen. i. p. 3. Pausan. v. 26. 3. Schol. Pmd. Pyth. II. 34. Justin, iv. 2. xxi. 3. Macrob. Sat. I. 11. The Olympic victory of Leopbron (by some writers ascribed to Anaxi- las) must have taken place before Olymp. 76. 1. b. c.476. J That the words 'Etrijatf' i Kg7o; ovx. aiixt'iw; &c. are to be understood as is indi- cated in the text, is proved by the manner in which Aristoph. Nub. 1355. gives the substance of the song, which was sung at Athens at meals, from a patriotic interest, like a scolion. The content must be placed about Olymp. 70. b. c. 500 P2
 * See this long fragment from the odes of Simonides in Plato Protag. p. .339. sq.