Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/94

72 72 HISTORV OF THE freer from guilt, and thereby become more worthy of glory. Diomed and Sthenelus, the sons of the wild Tydeus and the reckless Capaneus, equalled their fathers in power, while they surpassed them in modera- tion and respect for the gods. Even these few, but authentic accounts exhibit glorious materials for genuine poetry ; and they were treated in a style which had not de- generated from Homer; the only difference being that an exalted heroic life was not, as in the Iliad and Odyssey, exhibited in one great action, and as accomplishing its appointed purpose : but a longer series of events was developed before the listeners, externally connected by their reference to one enterprise, and internally by means of certain general moral reflections and mythico-philosophical ideas. CHAPTER VII. § 1. General character of the Homeric Hymns, or Procemia. — § 2. Occasions on which they were sung: Poets by whom, and times at which, they were composed. — §3. Hymn to the Delian Apollo. — § 4. Hymn to the Pythian Apollo. — § 5. Hymn to Hermes. — § 6. Hymn to Aphrodite — § 7. Hymn to Demeter. § 1. One essential part of the epic style of poetry consisted of hymns. Those hymns which were recited by the epic poets, and which we com- prehend under the name of Homeric, were called by the ancients proosmia, that is preludes, or overtures. They evidently in part owed this name to their having served the rhapsodists as introductory strains for their recitations : a purpose to which the final verses often clearly refer; as, "Beginning with thee I will now sing the race of the demi- gods, or the exploits of the heroes, which the poets are wont to cele- brate*." But the longer hymns of this class could hardly have served such a purpose ; as they sometimes are equal in extent to the rhapsodies into which the grammarians divided the Iliad and Odyssey, and they even contain very detailed narratives of particular legends, which are sufficient to excite an independent interest. These must be considered as preludes to a whole series of epic recitations, in other words, as intro- ductions to an entire contest of rhapsodists ; making, as it were, the transition from the preceding festival of the gods, with its sacrifices, prayers, and sacred chaunts, to the subsequent competition of the singers of heroic poetry. The manner in which it was necessary to shorten one of these long hymns, in order to make it serve as a procemium of a single poem, or part of a poem, may be seen from the ttilpuv bpi&av, and XXXll. 18. olo o ag%o/nivo; x.ia, tparav affo/acei hfi'6itdi uv xXllovir' hy/tar amlc'i. A prayer for victory also sometimes occurs: x^i iXixofrxitpugi, yXu- xvuilXiYi, 3<;s d' i" uy*vt nixriv t£os (QioiaQcii, Hymn vi, 19.
 * See, for example, Hymn xxxi. 18. x aio S' ao%a.fiiv6s x.Xnliriu /ago'-rav yUos