Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/39

Rh architecture, music, and poetry proceeded, must for a long time have consisted chiefly in mute motions of the body, in symbolical gestures, in prayers muttered in a low tone, and, lastly, in loud broken ejaculations, such as were in later times uttered at the death of the victim, in token of an inward feeling; before the winged word issued clearly from the mouth, and raised the feelings of the multitude to religious enthusiasm—in short, before the first hymn was heard. The first outpourings of poetical enthusiasm were doubtless songs describing, in few and simple verses, events which powerfully affected the feelings of the hearers. From what has been said in the last chapter it is probable that the earliest date may be assigned to the songs which referred to the seasons and their phenomena, and expressed with simplicity the notions and feelings to which these events gave birth: as they were sung by peasants at the corn and wine harvest, they had their origin in times of ancient rural simplicity. It is remarkable that songs of this kind often had a plaintive and melancholy character; which circumstance is however explained when we remember that the ancient worship of outward nature (which was preserved in the rites of Demeter and Cora, and also of Dionysus) contained festivals of wailing and lamentation as well as of rejoicing and mirth. It is not, however, to be supposed that this was the only cause of the mournful ditties in question, for the human heart has a natural disposition to break out from time to time into lamentation, and to seek an occasion for grief even where it does not present itself—as Lucretius says, that "in the pathless woods, among the lonely dwellings of the shepherds, the sweet laments were sounded on the pipe ." § 2. To the number of these plaintive ditties belongs the song Linus, mentioned by Homer, the melancholy character of which is shown by its fuller names, and  (literally, "Alas, Linus!" and " Death of Linus"). It was frequently sung in Greece, according to Homer, at the grape-picking. According to a fragment of Hesiod, all singers and players on the cithara lament at feasts and dances Linns, the beloved son of Urania, and call on Linus at the beginning and the end; which probably means that the song of lamentation began and ended with the exclamation. Linus was originally the subject of the song, the person whose fate was bewailed in it; and there were many districts in Greece (for example, Thebes, Chalcis, and Argos) in which tombs of Linus were shown. This Linus evidently belongs to a class of deities or demigods, of which many instances occur in the