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 GREECE (LANGUAGE AND LITEKATUKE) 213 eus about 540; Bacchylides was the nephew of Simonides. We come now to the greatest master of the Dorian lyric style, and perhaps the greatest lyric poet of all ages, Pindar, born at Cynoscephalao in Boeotia -about 522. Of his numerous compositions, we have only the four series of epinician odes, i. e., odes written in commemoration of victories gained at the four national festivals, the Olympic, Pythian, Ne- mean, and Isthmian. These are the most im- portant specimens that have come down to us from the lyrical age. We say the lyrical age, because lyrical composition was the character- istic style during this period, although it con- tinued to be cultivated with other species in the subsequent times. The earliest writers of prose were those who first engaged in philo- sophical speculations. Of their writings only a few fragments have been preserved. Thales was the founder of the Ionic philosophy, to which belonged Pherecydes, Anaximander, An- aximenes, Anaxagoras, &c. Pythagoras es- tablished the Italian school, and was followed by Alcmseon, Tima3us, Epicharmus, Theages, Archytas, and others. In histqry the lonians took the lead. Cadmus of Miletus, about 540, is the earliest; Acesilaus of Argos soon fol- lowed. Hecatasus of Miletus came somewhat later ; Pherecydes of Leros, Charon of Lampsa- cus, Hellanicus of Mitylene, Dionysius of Mile- tus, all preceded Herodotus, but were rather chroniclers than historians in the proper sense of the word. The first great historian was Herodotus of Halicarnassus (born in 484), who, though a Dorian by birth, wrote in the Ionic dialect. His delightful work is preserved, and its extraordinary merits have given him justly the name of the " father of history." Litera- ture was cultivated later in Athens than in the Asiatic colonies; but the foundations were more deeply laid, and that famous city must always be regarded as the teacher of the world in arts and letters. We have already men- tioned Solon among the elegiac poets. The Athenians were of Ionian descent, and their literature may be regarded as the continuation and perfection of the literature of that race. But the characteristic form of Athenian poetry was the dramatic. During the long period of democratic Athens, especially in the time of Pisistratus, much was done for the patronage of literature and literary men. The Homeric poems were carefully revised, and the regular reading of them was one of the public enter- tainments of the Panathenaic festival. Dra- matic poetry, in a partially developed form, had already existed elsewhere ; the dithyram- bic tragedy had made its appearance. The dramatic element in the Homeric epics, espe- cially the Iliad, could not fail to strike the lis- teners at the festivals, and to suggest the idea of representing instead of narrating events ; of exhibiting persons in action rather than de- scribing them. The dramatic pageantry of the Dionysiac worship furnished another suggestion of the dramatic form. The actual starting point of the Greek drama was the choral song, tragedy springing from the dithyramb and comedy from the phallic representation. But the direction given to the new style was determined by the several influences we have mentioned. Thespis took the first step (535), by adding action to the chorus. He was fol- lowed by Phrynichus, who was the first to bring female characters upon the stage; his " Capture of Miletus " was performed in 498. Chcerilus was his contemporary and rival. Pratinas of Phlius lived in the same period. ^Eschylus, the perfecter of tragic art, was born at Eleusis in 525. This great poet added a second actor, and lived to see the tragic art raised to its highest point of excellence by his own genius and that of Sophocles, who added a third. Greek tragedy is well represented by the remaining works of ^Eschylus, Sophocles (born in 495), and Euripides (480). Of each of the two former only seven plays are in ex- istence; of the last there are 19, viz. : IT tra- gedies, one tragi-comedy, and one satyric drama. It was the practice of the tragic writers to com- bine in one representation three tragedies, and a kind of farce, called a satyric drama, he- cause the chorus consisted of satyrs. But in- stead of a satyric drama, the Alcestis of Eurip- ides shows that sometimes the representation was closed by a piece resembling the modern tragi-comedy. The three tragedies were called a trilogy, and the four pieces together a tetral- ogy. Of the tragic poets who succeeded the three great masters, or were their contempo- raries, only the titles of plays and brief frag- ments remain. Comedy went along with tragedy, and sustained very peculiar relations to it. It originated probably among the Do- rians, and was brought into regular form by Epicharmus about 500 B. C., and he is there- fore justly called the inventor of comedy. Of the proper Attic comedy Chionides and Magnes were among the earliest writers ; but of their works only a few titles remain. Cratinus first exhibited about 450 ; 38 titles of his comedies have been collected. Crates wrote about the same year, and Phrynichus the comic poet lived a little before the Peloponnesian war; the names of 10 of his comedies are extant. Eupolis exhibited for the first time in 429 ; he was a contemporary and rival of Aristophanes. Of the 54 comedies which Aristophanes wrote (according to Suidas), only 11 have come down to us. His first recorded exhibition was in 427, and his last in 388. From these plays, 10 of which belong to the old comedy, i. e., to that period of Attic comedy in which public and pri- vate characters were introduced by name, we can form a distinct idea of the character and tendencies of this branch of the Attic drama. There were many other writers of the old comedy, but only their names and a few frag- ments have been preserved. The middle com- edy is that form which comedy assumed when it was forbidden by law to introduce living persons by name. Thirty-four poets belonging