Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/54

32 32 HISTORY OF THE bard Thamyris, who, on his road from Eurytus, the powerful ruler of (Echalia, was struck blind at Dorium by the Muses, and deprived of his entire art, because he had boasted of his ability to contend even with the Muses*. The Boeotian minstrel of the " Works and Days " gives an account of his own voyage to the games at Chalcis, which the sons of Amphidamas had celebrated at the funeral of their father ; and says, that among the prizes which were there held out, he carried off a tripod, and consecrated it to the Muses on Mount Helicon f. Later authors converted this into a contest between Hesiod and Homer. Finally, the author of the Delian Hymn to Apollo, which stands the first amongst those attributed to Homer, entreats the Delian virgins (who were them- selves well versed in the song, and probably obeyed him with pleasure), that when a stranger should inquire what bard had pleased them most, they would answer the blind man of Chios, whose poetry every where held the first rank. It is beyond doubt that at the festivals, with which the Ionians celebrated the birth of Apollo at Delos, contests of rhapso- dists were also introduced, just as we find them spread throughout Greece, at a time when Grecian history assumes a more connected form J; and, as may be inferred with respect to the earlier period, from numerous allusions in the Homeric hymns. § 3. The mention of rhapsodists leads us to consider the circum- stance from whence that name is derived, and from which alone we can collect a clear and lively idea of epic poetry, viz., the manner in which these compositions were delivered. Homer everywhere applies the term aoihr) to the delivery of poems, whilst tirr) merely denotes the every-day conversation of common life ; on the other hand, later authors, from Pindar downwards, use the term tVj/ frequently to designate poetry, and especially epic, in contradistinction to lyric. Indeed, in that primitive and simple age, a great deal passed under the name of 'Aoiciij, or song, which in later times would not have been considered as such ; for in- stance, any high-pitched sonorous recitation, with certain simple modu- lations of the voice. The Homeric minstrel makes use of a stringed instrument, which is I Contests of rhapsodists at Sicyon, in the time of the tyrant Clisthenes, Herod, v. 77 ; at the same time at the Panatheneea, according to well known accounts ; in Syracuse, about Olymp. 69, Schol. Pind. Nem. ii. 1 ; at the Asclepiea in Epidaurus, Plato, Ion, p. 530 ; in Attica also, at the festival of the Brauronian Artemis, Hesych. in B^av/ianoi; ; at the festival of the Charites in Orchomenos ; that of the Muses at Thespice, and that of Apollo Ptous at Acrcephia, Boeckh. Corp. Inscript. Gr., Nos. 1583 — ,1587,'vol. i. p. 762 — 770 ; in Chios, in later times, but doubtless from ancient custom, Corp. Inscript. Gr. No. 2214, vol. ii. p. 201; in Teos, under the name uirofloXr,; kvru.-xol>Utus, according to Boeckh. Prooem. Lect. Berol. aestiv. 1834. Poems were likewise sometimes rhapsodised in O'ympia, Diog. Laert. viii. 6, 63 ; Diod. xiv. 109. Contests of rhapsodists also suited the festivals of Dionysus, Athenaeus, vii. p. 275 ; and those of all gods, which it is right to remark for the proper compre- hension of the Homeric hymns.
 * Iliad, ii. 594, seq. f v. 654, seq, compare above p. 31, note §.