Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/248

226 the victor. Their extraordinary strength and felicity are continued in their descendants; the same mixture of good and evil destiny, and even the same faults , recur in their posterity. It is to be observed that, in Pindar's time, the faith of the Greeks in the connexion of the heroes of antiquity with passing events was unshaken. The origin of historical events was sought in a remote age; conquests and settlements in barbarian countries were justified by corresponding enterprises of heroes; the Persian war was looked upon as an act of the same great drama, of which the expedition of the Argonauts and the Trojan war formed the earlier parts. At the same time, the mythical past was considered as invested with a splendour and sublimity of which even a faint reflection was sufficient to embellish the present. This is the cause of the historical and political allusions of the Greek tragedy, particularly in Æschylus. Even the history of Herodotus rests on the same foundation; but it is seen most distinctly in the copious mythology which Pindar has pressed into the service of his lyric poetry. The manner in which mythical subjects were treated by the lyric poets was of course different from that in which they had been treated by the epic poets. In epic poetry, the mythical narrative is interesting in itself, and all parts of it are developed with equal fulness. In lyric poetry, it serves to exemplify some particular idea, which is usually stated in the middle or at the end of the ode; and those points only of the story are brought into relief, which serve to illustrate this idea. Accordingly, the longest mythical narrative in Pindar (viz., the description of the voyage of the Argonauts, in the Pythian ode to Arcesilaus, king of Cyrene, which is continued through twenty-five strophes) falls far short of the sustained diffuseness of the epos. Consistently with the purpose of the ode, it is intended to set forth the descent of the kings of Cyrene from the Argonauts, and the poet only dwells on the relation of Jason with Pelias—of the noble exile with the jealous tyrant—because it contains a serious admonition to Arcesilaus in his above-mentioned relation with Damophilus.

§ 6. The mixture of apophthegmatic maxims and typical narratives would alone render it difficult to follow the thread of Pindar's meaning; but, in addition to this cause of obscurity, the entire plan of his poetry is so intricate, that a modern reader often fails to understand the connexion of the parts, even where he thinks he has found a clue. Pindar begins an ode full of the lofty conception which he has formed of the glorious destiny of the victor; and he seems, as it were, carried away by the flood of images which this conception pours forth. He does not attempt to express directly the general idea, but follows the train of thought which it suggests into its details, though without losing sight of their reference to the main object. Accordingly, when he has