Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/418

BACCHUS. meetings of the association throughout Italy. The result of the judicial inquiry was that the majority of the members were sentenced to death, and others to life imprisonment, while by a decree of the Senate all such associations were forbidden in Italy. The decree (Senatus Consultum dc Bacchanalibus) has been preserved in a single copy, Corpus Inscription mil Latitmrum, I., 196-X. 104.

On the vegetation spirits and their worship, consult: iiannhardt, ^Vald iind Feldkulte (Berlin. 1875-77). On Dionysus, consult: Roscher, Jjcxikon der griechischen iind romischen Mythologie. Vol. 1. (Leipzig, 1884-00) ; Preller-Robert, Griechische Mythologie, Vol. I. (Berlin, 1894) ; and B. I. Tieeler, Dionysos and Immortality (Boston, 1899).

BACCHUS AND A'RIAD'NE. A painting by Titian, foimded on the Greek myth of the marriage of Dionysus to the wife of Theseus, after she had been deserted by the slayer of the Minotaur upon the Island of Naxos. The picture hangs in the National Gallery. London. Set in a background of thicket and sedge and ocean, Ariadne is turning away, filled with maidenly confusion, as the leopard-drawn chariot, surrounded by satyrs and mipnads. descends, bearing the god. Its date is 1523.

BACCHYLIDES, bak-kil'i-dez (Gk. paKxv-y.idrig, Bakcln/Iidcs). A Greek lyric poet, born at lulis on Ccos, at the end of the Sixth Century, b.c., who flourished between B.C. 490 and 400. He was a nephew and pupil of Simonides and the rival of Pindar, according to well-established tradition. He lived for a time at the court of Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, who greatly admired him, and whom he celebrated in three of his poems. When exiled from his native town, presumably by political opponents, Bacclijdides resided in Peloponnesus, and records of many of his victories in dithyrambic contests at Athens have been preserved. As the youngest, he was placed last in the list of nine lyric poets deemed worthy of immortality by the canon of the Alexandrian critics, who admired his grace and sweetness. He shared the fate of the canonized poets, whose works, with the exception of Pindar's, were all lost to posterity. Only 107 lines were preserved in quotations, the longest one of 12 verses only. In 1897, the British Museum acquired, in Egypt, 200 fragments of a papyrus of Bacchylides. Pieced together they formed 1070 lines. Thus 6 poems were recovered practically entire, 8 others with lacunas, and 6 in considerable fragments. Fourteen are epinikia, of which 2 in honor of Hiero and 1 in honor of Pythias of ^9!lgina, duplicate odes of Pindar for the same occasions. The remaining 6 are the unique extant specimens of one department of Greek lyric poetry — pfeans, dithyrambs, and hymns. One poem (XVII.) is the first recovered literary treatment of a subject common on vases — the descent of Theseus to the depths of the sea to prove his sonship to Poseidon. Not so powerful, brilliant, or original as Pindar, lie is a true and typical Greek poet in his smoothness, grace, and finish. His language has less of the .'Eolic admixture on the foundation of Doric than is the case with Pindar. The MS., in fine uncials, belongs to the First Century B.C., and the accents and breathings are generally carefully marked. The text was first edited by Kcnyon (London, 1897), with an introdrotion and extensive notes. Another is by Blass (Leipzig, 189S). Consult: Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, Bakchylides (Berlin, 1898), and Jehh,BacchyIidcs (London, 1898).

BACCIO D'AGNOLO, bli'cho da-nyo'16. See B.GLIONI.

BACCIO BELLA PORTA, del'la por'ta. See Bartolommeo, Fba.

BACH, bä G. The name of a family originating in Wechmar, near Gotha, Thuringia, famous in music and presenting the most remarkable instance of hereditary genius in all history. In seven generations, there are found to be 49 musicians, 20 of whom, from Veit Bach (died 1619) down to Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach (died, Berlin, 1845), have been more or less prominent musically, and one of them, Johann Sebastian Bach, is one of the great masters of music and the greatest of the Contrapuntal School. Veit Bach was a baker by trade, but devoted much of his spare time to zither-playing. The best-known of the early Bachs was Johann Christoph, son of Heinrich and a great-grandson of Veit. This Johann Christoph (1642-1703) was one of the important composers and organists of the Seventeenth Century, far surpassing his German contemporaries. None of his works were published, and many are lost; but his choral compositions (MSS. in the Berlin Royal Library) prove him the forerunner of Johann Sebastian and Handel.

BACH,, Baron (1813-93). An Austrian statesman. He was born at Loosdorf, in Lower Austria, where his father held a judicial office. At the age of 24 he was made a doctor of laws, and then entered the Imperial service, where he remained for nine years. Although he favored a departure from the absolute system of Metternich, Bach was not prepared to go so far as the Revolutionists of 1848 wished. Popular opposition, in fact, drove him into the conservative ranks. In 1848, and again from 1849 to 1859, he was in the ministry, at first in the department of justice, and later in that of the interior. He stood for a strong and absolute central government, and opposed all measures that savored of liberalism and concession to other nationalities than the German. He however carried out some salutary measures, such as the emancipation of the peasants from their feudal obligations. From 1859 to 1867 he was ambassador at Rome. Consult Springer, Geschichte Oesterreichs seit dem Wiener Frieden (Leipzig, 1863-65).

BACH, (1685-1750). The greatest master of the Contrapuntal School of musical composition and the founder of German music. He was born at Eisenach, March 31 (Old Style 21), 1685. He came of a Thuringian family, which presented a remarkable example of the principle of heredity. (See .) Bach's father, Johann Ambrosius, was a violin-player in the town-band of Eisenach. His mother was Elizabeth Lämmerhirt, daughter of a furrier of Erfurt, where Johann Ambrosius had held a position previous to that at Eisenach. The boy was his father's pupil in violin-playing until he was nearly 10 years old. After his father's death, in January, 1695 (two months after contracting a second marriage), he went to live with his elder brother, Johann Christoph, a pupil of Pachelbel and organist in the little town of Ohrdruf.