Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/51

29 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 29 epic or heroic style ; more especially should Thamyris, who in Homer is called a Thracian, and in other writers a son of Philammon* (by which the neighbourhood of Daulis is designated as his abode), be con- sidered as an epic poet, although some hymns were ascribed to him : for in the account of Homer, that Thamyris, while going from one prince to another, and having just returned from Eurytus of Oechalia, was deprived both of his eyesight and of his power of singing and play- ing on the cithara by the Muses, with whom he had undertaken to contend*, it is much more natural to understand a poet, such as Phemius and Demodocus, who entertained kings and nobles at meals by the narration of heroic adventures, than a singer devoted to the pious service of the gods and the celebration of their praises in hymns. These remarks naturally lead us to the consideration of the epic style of poetry, of which we shall at once proceed to treat. CHAPTER IV. § 1. Social position of the minstrels or poets in the heroic age.— § 2. Epic poems sung at the feasts of princes and nobles, and at public festivals. — § 3. Manner of reciting epic poems ; explanation of rlutpsodists and rhapsodising. — §4. Metrical form, and poetical character of the epic poetry. — § 5. Perpetuation of the early epic poems by memory and not by writing. — § 6. Subjects and extent of the ante- Ilomeric epic poetry. It is our intention in this chapter to trace the Greek Poetry, as far as we have the means of following its steps, on its migration from the lonely valleys of Olympus and Helicon to all the nations which ruled over Greece in the heroic age, and from the sacred groves of the gods to the banquets of the numerous princes who then reigned in the dif- ferent states of Greece. At the same time we propose, as far as the nature of our information permits, to investigate the gradual develop- ment of the heroic or epic style of poetry, until it reached the high station which it occupies in the poems of Homer. In this inquiry the Homeric poems themselves will form the chief sources of information ; since to them we are especially indebted for a clear, and, in the main, doubtless, a correct picture of the age which we term the heroic. The most important feature in this picture is, that among the three classes of nobles f, common freemen, and serfs §, the first alone enjoyed consideration both in war and peace ; they alone performed exploits in battle, whilst the people appear to be there only that these exploits may be performed upon them. In the assembly of f Called aj/s-TOj, tyurrm, il.va.xris, (ia/nXms, fainns, and many other names. J SqccM (both as a collective and a singular name), lipou avSjs,-.
 * Iliad, ii. 594—600.