Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/43

21 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 21 those events of private life which strongly excited the feelings, cdled forth the gift of poetry. The lamentation for the dead, which was chiefly sung by women with vehement expressions of grief, had, at the time described by Homer, already been so far systematised, that singers by profession stood near the bed where the body was laid out, and began the lament ; and while they sang it, the women accompanied them with cries and groans*. These singers of the threnos were at the burial of Achilles represented by the Muses themselves, who sang the lament, while the sisters of Thetis, the Nereids, uttered the same cries of grieff. Opposed to the threnos is the Hyvu ineo*, the joyful and merry bridal song, of which there are descriptions by Homer J in the account of the designs on the shield of Achilles, and by Hesiod in that of the shield of Hercules §. Homer speaks of a city, represented as the seat of bridal rejoicing, in which the bride is led from the virgin's apartment through the streets by the light of torches. A loud hymenaeos arises : young men dance around ; while flutes and harps (cpupfjiiyyae.) resound. The passage of Hesiod gives a more finished and indeed a well-grouped picture, if the parts of it are properly distinguished, which does not appear to have been hitherto done with sufficient exactness. According to this passage, the scene is laid in a fortified city, in which men can abandon themselves without fear to pleasure and rejoicing: " Some bear the bride to the husband on the well-formed chariot; while a loud hymenaeos arises. Burning torches, carried by boys, cast from afar their light: the damsels (viz., those who raise the hymenaeos) move forwards beaming with beauty. Both (i. e. both the youths who accompawy the car and the damsels) are followed by joyful choruses. The one chorus, con- sisting of youths (who accompanied the car), sings to the clear sound of the pipe (o-vpiys) with tender mouths, and causes the echoes to resound: the other, composed of damsels (forming the hymenaeos, properly so called), dance to the notes of the harp (0o t n/«y£)." In this passage of Hesiod we have also the first description of a comos, by which word the Greeks de- signate the last part of a feast or any other banquet which is enlivened and prolonged with music, singing, and other amusements, until the order of the table is completely deranged, and the half-intoxicated guests go in irregular bodies through the town, often to the doors of beloved damsels : " On another side again comes, accompanied by flutes, a joy- ous band (kajyuoc) of youths, some amusing themselves with the song and the dance, others with laughter. Each of these youths moves onwards, attended by a player on the flute (precisely as may be seen so often re- presented on vases of a much later age, belonging to southern Italy). f Odyssey, xxiv. 59—61. J Iliad, xviii. 492 — 4!»5. S,-.t. 274—280.
 * a.01%0) fywuv i'iaQX"'- — Iliad, xxiv. 720 — 722.