Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/264

* GREEK LITERATURE. 230 GREEK LITERATURE. (3) The Attic Period; (4) The Alexandrian Age; (5) The Gncco-Roniau Period; (0) The Byzantine Period. ( 1 ) The Age of Epic Poetuv. This extends to the sixth century n.c. At llie threshold of Greek literature we find two indefectible prod- ucts of Greek genius, the Iliad and the Odyssei/. But the very perfection of these poems shows that, far from being early elVurts of a people un- skilled in poetic composition, they represent the culmination of a long development in the art; furtlicrmore. the contents prove that at least two, and probably tliree, kinds of poetic composition had been practiced from an unknown period. The earliest artistic compositions were probably hieratic in character; that is, they formed part of the service of the gods. The earliest singers were 'servants of the Muses,' the god- desses who dwelt with the other celestials on Olympus in Thessaly. With the migrations of the llcllenic tribes to the south, a new centre of the Pluses' worship developed on Helicon, be- tween Boeotia and Attica. Tradition gave the names of certain mythical singers, among whom the most famous were Orpheus, JIusa'us, Eumol- pus, and Thamyris. Closely connected with hjTnns in honor of the gods were the hymeneal song and dirge for the dead, both of which were known to Homer. There also developed, among the different stocks, sagas celebrating the ex- ploits of hero-princes who led their peoples in war- like undertakings: and the material for epic song was greatly enriclved by the great struggles and movements at the end of the second millennium B.C., consequent on the migrations of Thessalian and Dorian peoples toward the south. It is clear from the two great epics preserved to us that a. long period had preceded them in which shorter epics had been sung by minstrels at courts and in the market-place. In these epics of the dif- ferent tribes, the deeds of the national heroes were celebrated — of Achilles among the .Eolians, of the Atrida? among the Acha?ans ; among the Dorians the favorite subject was the exploits of Heracles. The struggle of the Seven against Thebes, the voyage of the Argo, and the siege of Troy were other frequent themes. To the Trojan cycle of legends, probably the youngest of all, belong the Iliad and the Odi/sse;/. The storj' of the siege of Troy has as its historical basis the struggles of the .Eolian colonists in Asia Minor with the earlier Phrygian inhabitants. In the Iliad the chief figure is Achilles, the hero of the -Eolians, native in Southern Thessaly. With the story of his deeds were combined short- er epics treating the deeds of other heroes. The whole is an incident in the tenth year of the war; the action covers but forty-nine days. The Odii.isr;/ belongs to the cycle of myths dealing with the return of the heroes from Troy. Al- though the action is confined to forty-one days, the composer, by his skillful device of having Odysseus tell the storA' of his wanderings at the court of the friendly King of the Phicacians, has succeeded in giving us a complete account of the hero's adventures diiring the ten years after the fall of Troy, as well as the narrative of his dra- matic return to his home. In antiquity these immortal poems w^re as- cribed to a blind hard. Homer: but among the learned of the Alexandrian Age some claimed that the two epics were not by the same poet. In modem times the 'Homeric Question' has been a burning one since the publication of Wolf's I'rolcijomena in 175)5. (For an account of the (ontrover.sy, the work done on the [loeiiis at the orders of Pisistratus, and the details of the general subject, reference must be made to the article on Homer.) Conservative opinion now inclines to regard the poems as works of the same poetic school, and each in the main the creation of a single poet who drew freely on current epics, many of which may well have come into existence long before his time. That the poems have sutl'ered from later interpolations is certain. The date of composition is the ninth or eighth century n.c; the place of origin was apparently Western Asia Minor, on the borders of -Eolis and Ionia. These two great epics covered but a portion of the legends about the Trojan War. Other parts were treated liy an Ionian school of epic poets which flourished from the eighth to the sixth century n.c. These bards — known in mod- ern limes as the cyclic poets — joined their poems to the Iliad and the Odyssey as introductions or continuations. Of their works we have only the scantiest fragments and some prose abstracts. Other cycles of myths than the Trojan were handled by later epic poets, but of their worlcs we have little knowledge. There has further been preserved to us a col- lection of thirty-four Homeric hymns, in honor of various divinities. These are not hymns in the strict sense of the word, but rather preludes for rhapsodists before beginning their proper recitals. The name is misleading, as they have nothing to do with Homer, but are the product of a later time; the earliest, the hymn to the Delian Apollo, can hardly have been composed before the latter part of the eighth century B.C., and the latest is not earlier than B.C. .500. There were also current under Homer's name some sportive species composed in epic form. The most famous are the Maryitcs, of which we have a few lines, and the Batrachomyomachia (Battle of the Frogs and Mice), of which some three hun- dred verses are preserved. It is one of the ear- liest examples of parody in Greek literature. Scholars disagree as to its date, some placing it as early as the Persian wars, others regarding it 3S a product of the Alexandrian Age. The other great poet of the first period is Kesiod of Ascra, in Boeotia, near Mount Helicon, who flourished toward the end of the eighth cen- tury B.C. The Hesiodic poetry is distinguished from the imaginative Homeric epics primarily by its homely character: the chief poem, the Worlcs and Days, deals with the daily life of the farmer, and gives him directions for his work. It is the earliest didactic poem known to vis. Other works ascribed to Hesiod — the Theogony and the Shield of Heracles — are of doubtful authenticity. (2) The Lyrtc Pertod. Elegiac and lamlic Poetry. — Important economic and social changes took place in Greece during the period from the eighth to the fifth century n.c. Increase of population and development of manufactures led to the planting of Greek colonies all along the shores of the Mediterranean and Black seas; and within most of the home cities the govern- ment passed successively from monarchy to oli- garchy, then to tyranny and democracy. The old preeminence of the aristocracy was greatly di- minished, and a powerful moneyed class developed. With these changes the importance of the individu-