Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/46

24 24 HISTORY OF THE from the chorus. This description of choral dances always, in later times, occurs in connexion with the worship of Apollo, which prevailed to a great extent in Crete ; in Delos likewise, the birth-place of Apollo, there were several dances of this description, one of which represented the wanderings of Latona before the birth of that god. This circum- stance appears to be referred to in a passage of the ancient Homeric hymn to the Delian Apollo*, where the Delian damsels in the service of Apollo are described as first celebrating the gods and heroes, and afterwards singing a peculiar kind of hymn, which pleases the assembled multitude, and which consists in the imitation of the voices and lan- guages of various nations, and in the production of certain sounds by some instruments like the Spanish castanets (Kpcju/3aia<7rve), accord- ing to the manner of the different nations, so that every one might imagine that he heard his own voice — for what is more natural than to suppose that this was a mimic and orchestic representation of the wandering Latona, and all the islands and countries, in which she attempted in vain to find a refuge, until she at length reached the hospitable Delos? § 7. Having now in this manner derived from the earliest records a distinct notion of the kinds of poetry, and its various accompaniments, which existed in Greece before the Homeric time, with the exception of epic poetry, it will be easier for us to select from the confused mass of statements respecting the early composers of hymns which are contained in later writers, that which is most consonant to the character of remote antiquity. The best accounts of these early bards were those which had been preserved at the temples, at the places where hymns were sung under their names : hence it appears that most of these names are in constant connexion with the worship of peculiar deities ; and it will thus be easy to distribute them into certain classes, formed by the resemblance of their character and their reference to the same worship. i. Singers, who belong to the worship of Apollo in Delphi, Delos, and Crete. Among these is Olen, according to the legend, a Lycian or Hyperborean, that is to say, sprung from a country where Apollo loved to dwell. Many ancient hymns, attributed to him, were preserved at Delos, which are mentioned by Herodotus f, and which contained remarkable mythological traditions and significant appellatives of the gods ; also nomes, that is, simple and antique songs, combined with certain fixed tunes, and fitted to be sung for the circular dance of a chorus. The Delphian poetess Boeo called him the first prophet of Phoebus, and the first who, in early times, founded the style of singing in epic metre (tVtW aoida) J. Another of these bards is Philammon, whose name was celebrated at Parnassus, in the territory of Delphi. To him was referred the formation of Delphian choruses of virgins, which sung the birth of Latona and of her children. It is plain, from what
 * v. 161—164. t iv. 35. J Pausan. x. 5, 8.