Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/335

313 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 313 here be far more intimately blended with the dramatic than in the choral songs of which we have hitherto treated. Wherever the discourse does not express subjects of the intellect, but feelings, or impulses of lively emotion, it becomes lyrical, and finds utterance in song. Such songs, which do not stand between the steps or pauses of the action, but enter into the action itself (inasmuch as they determine the will of the actors), may belong to the persons of the drama, to the chorus, or to both; but in no case can they be given to a full chorus. The third kind of these songs is, in its origin, the most remarkable and important, and unques'ionably had place in the early lyrical tragedy. The name of this song, common to the actors and the chorus, is commos, which properly means plancius, " the wailing for the dead." The wail over the dead is therefore the primary form from which this species of odes took its rise. The liveliest sympathy with suffering constantly remains the main ingredient of the commos; although the en- deavour to incite to an action, or to bring a resolution to maturity, may be connected with it. The commos often occupies a considerable pait of a tragedy, especially those of iEschylus : as for instance, in the Per- sians * and the Choephorai.t Such a picture of grief and suffering, worked out in detail, was an essential part of the early tragedies. In a commos, moreover, the long systems of artfully interwoven strophes and antistrophes had an appropriate place; since in representation they derived a distinctness and effect from the corresponding movements of the persons of the drama and of the chorus, which is necessarily lost to us in the mere perusal. We find a variety of the commos in scenes where the one party appears in lyrical excitement, while the other enounces its thoughts in ordinary language ; whence a contrast arises which produces deeply affecting scenes even in iEschylus, as in the Agamemnon j and the Seven against Thebes. § But the chorus itself, when agitated by violent and conflicting emotions, may carry on a lyrical dialogue; and hence arose a peculiar kind of choral poetry, in which the various voices are easily recognized by the broken phrases now repeating, now disputing, what has preceded. Lung lyric dialogues of this sort, in which all or many voices of the chorus are distinguished, are to be found in .Eschylus, and have been noticed by the ancient com- mentators. || Succeeding tragedians appear to have employed these choral f Mich, t'hoeph. 306 — 178. + yEsch. Auam. 1069 — 1177, where the lyrical excitement gradually pusses fn m Cassandra to the chorus. § j^isch. Sept. cont. Theh. 369 — 70S, through nearly the whole episodion. Com p. Suppl. 346—437. 140—77, 254—75, 777—92, 836-46. Theb. 77-181. Suppl. 1019—74. The editions frequently denote tl.ese single voices by hemichoria; but the division of the chorus into two equal parts, called iix°Z' a in Pollux, only occurred in certain rare- circumstances, as in /Esch. Theb. 1066. Soph. Aj. 866.
 * yEsch. Pers. 907 — 1076. The extire exodus is a cemmos.
 * See Schol. j^sch. Eum. 139, and Theb. 94. Instances are furnished by Eum.