Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/315

293 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 293 These metres were not invented by the tragic poets, but were borrowed by them from Archilochus, Solon, ami other poets of this class,* and invested with the appropriate character and expression. Probably the tragic poets adopted the lively and impassioned trochaic verse, while the comic poets adopted the energetic and rapid iambic verse, formed for jest and wrangling ; the latter seems to have only obtained gra- dually, chiefly through yEschylus, the form in which it seemed a fitting metre for the solemn and dignified language of heroes, f § 7. In Phrynichus likewise, the son of Polyphradmon, of Athens, who was in great repute on the Athenian stage from Olymp. 67. 1. (b. c. 512), the lyric predominated over the dramatic element. He, like Thespis, had only one actor, at least until jEschylus had established his innovations ; but he used this actor for different, and especially for female parts. Phrynichus was the first who brought female parts upon the stage (which, according to the manners of the ancients, could only be acted by men) ; a fact which throws a light upon his poetical cha- racter. The chief excellence of Phrynichus lay in dancing and lyric compositions ; if his works were extant, he would probably seem to us rather a lyric poet of the iEolian school than a dramatist. His tender, sweet, and often plaintive songs were still much admired in the time of the Peloponnesian war, especially by old-fashioned people. The chorus, as may be naturally supposed, played the chief part in his drama ; and the single actor was present in order to furnish subjects on which the chorus should express its feelings and thoughts, instead of the chorus being intended to illustrate the action represented upon the stage. It appears even that the great dramatic chorus (which originally corresponded to the dithyrambic) was distributed by Phrynichus into subdivisions, with different parts, in order to produce alternation and contrast in the long lyric compositions. Thus in the famous play of Phrynichus, entitled the Phocnisscc (which he brought upon the stage in Olymp. 75, 4, b. c. 476, and in which he celebrated the exploits of Athens in the Persian war). the chorus consisted in part, as the name of the drama shows, of Phoenician women from Sidon and other cities of the neighbourhood, who had been sent to the Persian court ;§ but an- ters ; hut they are evidently taken from the pieces composed by Heraeiides Pontieus in his name. See Diog. Laert. V. 92. It is related that Phrynichus composed apiece in Olymp. 75. 4. (b. c. 477) for a tragic chorus which Theinistocles had furnished as choregus. Bentley has con- jectured with much probability that this piece was the Phcenissae, i'n which Phry- nichus dwelt on the merits of Themistocles. Among the titles of the plays of Phrynichus in Suidas, i^v*Wo/. " the consultors or deliberators," probably desig- nates the Phoenissae, which would otherwise be wanting. 6 The chorus of Phoenician women sang at its entrance: — 2/5Jw« cctrrv Xivrai - in yXvxipaJ ~toa/viy.
 * Ch. XI. §. 8.
 * The fragments preserved under the name of Thespis are indeed iambic tiime-
 * «i Sg««gcv "AjaSan, as may be seen from the Schol. An.-toph. Vesp. 220 and Hesych.