Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/471

449 LITERATURE Ov ANCIENT GREECE. 449 Timotheus of Miletus* funned himself after the model of Phrvnis ; at a later period he gained the victory over his master in the musical contests, and raised himself to the highest rank among dithyrambic poets. He is the last of the musical artists censured hy Pherecrates, and died in extreme old age in 01. 105, 4. b.c. 357. t Although the Ephors at Sparta are said to have taken from his harp four of its eleven strings, Greece in general received his innovations in music with the most cordial approbation ; he was one of the most popular musicians of his time. The branches of poetry, which he worked out in the spirit of his own age, were in general the same which Terpander cultivated 4(J0 years before, namely, Nomes, % Proems, and Hymns. There were still some antique forms which he too was obliged to observe ; for instance, the hexameter verse was not quite given up by Timotheus in his nomes ; but he recited them in the same manner as the Dithyramb, and mixed up this metre with others. § The branch of poetry which he chiefly cultivated, and which gave its colour to all the others, was undoubtedly the Dithyramb. Timotheus, too, was worsted, if not before the tribunal of impartial judges, at least in the favour of the public, by Polyeidus, whose scholar Philotas also won the prize from Timotheus in a musical contest. || Polyeidus was also regarded as one of those whose artificial innovations were injurious to music, but he also gained a great reputation among the Greeks. There was nothing which so much delighted the crowded audiences which flocked to the theatres throughout Greece as the Dithy- rambs of Timotheus and Polyeidus. ^[ Besides these poets and musicians there was still a long series of others, among whom we may name Ion of Chios, who was also a favourite dithyrambic poet;** Diagoras of Melos, the notorious sceptic ; ft the highly-gifted Licymnius of Chios, (whose age is not accurately known ;) Crexus, also accused of innovations ; and Telestes of Selinus, a poetic f Marin. Par. 7(3. Suictas perhaps places his death most correctly at the age of 97. X Steph. Byz. v. MiXfivas, attributes to bun IS books of /opti xifuevlizo), in 8,000 verses ; where the expression 'irn is not to be taken strictly to signify the hex- ameter, although this metre was mixed up in them. § Plut. de Mus. 4. Timotheus's Nome, " the Persians," began ; Kahvov iXtuhtfas rivxw piyav 'EWdh xoirftav, Pausan. VIII. 50, ^ 3. 1| Athenams, VIII. p. 352, B. Comp. Plutarch, de Mus. 21. It is clear that be is not the same as the tragedian and sophist Polyeidus, mentioned in Aristotle's Poetic. Aristotle would hardly have given the name l <ro$i<rrhs to a dithyrambic poet whose pursuit was chiefly the study of music. ^ In a Cretan decree, (Corp. Insrr. Gr. N. 305,) one Menedes of Teos is praised for having often played on the harp at Cnossus after the style of Timotheus, Polyeidus, and the old Cretan poets (chap. XII. § 9). ft The most important fragments of his lyric poems are given by the Epicurean, Phtedrus, in the papyri brought from Ilercukmcum (Uercu/anensia, ed. Drummond et Walpolc, p. 164). Jd G
 * See, besides the better known passages, Aristot. Metaphys. A. ixttvrov, c. 1.
 * Comp. Chap. VI. § 2.