Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/477

455 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 4oo ordinate details had been cast into such darkness and obscurity by the infinite multiplication of stories among the Greeks, that it gave room for an absolutely poetic treatment. If Aristotle is right in asserting that poetry is more philosophical than history, because it contains more general truth, it must be admitted that events like the Persian war place themselves on the same footing with poetry, or with a history naturally poetical. Whether Chcerilus, however, conceived this subject in all its grandeur, and considered it with equal liveliness and vigour in its higher and lower relations, cannot now be determined, as the few fragments refer to particulars only, and generally to subordinate details* It is a bad svmptom that Chcerilus should complain, in the first verses of his poem, that the subjects of epic poetry were already exhausted : t this could not have been his motive if he had undertaken to paint the greatest deed of the Greeks. But, in general, a striving after novelty seems to have produced marked effects upon his works, both in general and in the details. Aristotle finds fault with his comparisons as far-fetched and obscure ; and even the fragments have been sometimes justly censured for their forced and artificial tone. § The Thebais of Antimachus was formed on a wide and comprehen- sive plan ; there was mythological lore in the execution of the details, and careful study in the choice of expressions ; but the whole poem was deficient, according to the judgment of the ancient critics, in that natural connexion which arrests and detains the attention, and in that charm of poetic feeling which no laborious industry or elaborate refinement can produce. || Hadrian, therefore, remained true to his predilection for everything showy, affected, and unnatural, when he placed Antimachus before Homer, and attempted an epic imitatioc of the style of the former, % verse, as has been inferred from Suidas : it is obvious that t is is a confusion with the later Chcerilus, whom Alexander rewarded in so princely a manner. Herat. Ep. II. 1, 233. j - T A ft-oLKUf opti; 'ir,v kuvov y^^oiot "djii; utiduv tlavrawv fcoccrruv, or u,Kr,pa.ros r,v irt Xii/iuv. vvv o on TutTa ozouffrui, t^ov/ri oi Tii^ara Ti^vai, i/! arnv •xtLvrri iranrTaivmra. vio^vyn uof&a <zO*a.<r<ra.i. These verses are preserved in the Scholiast to Aristot. Rhet. III. 14, § 4, in Gais- ford's Animadversiones (Oxon. 1S20). Compare- Naeke's Chcerilus, p. 101. % Aristot. Topic. VIII. 1. A. F. Naeke, Chcenli Samii qua super tuni. Lips. 1817. ]| AnUinnrhi Co/opho/iii re/iqmcc, eil. Schc/terihog, p. 3S, seq. K Spartianus in the life of Hadrian, c. 15. The title of Hadrian's work is now known to have been Catachanee; the poem probably had some resemblance tc tlie Calonis Direc of Valerius.
 * It is clear that the Athenians did not pay Chcerilus a golden stater for every