Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/265

* GREEK LITERATURE. 231 GREEK LITERATURE. al increased, knowledge was enlarged, and above all, relieetive thought began to demand a larger poetic expression than had been given it before. New poetic forms, the elegiac and iambic, were developed in Ionia. The elegiac couplet was a slight modihcation of the hexameter, and the older poetry composed in tliis measure was always accompanied by the music of the flute. While early elegy dealt with a great variety of themes, it was always the expression of the thoughts and feelings of the poet himself, and never so passion- ate as iambic verse. This latter was lirst em- plo^'ed for satire, its quick movement suiting it to the expression of pointed thought and of more passionate feeling than the elegiac measure. It was also used for fables. The aiicients disputed as to whether Archilo- chus, Callinus. or iMinmermus was the inventor of the elegy ; but Callinus of Ephesus, who flour- ished in the first half of the seventh century B.C.. is usually reckoned the eai'liest of the elegiac poets. He employed the measure to encourage the lonians in resistance against the barbarian invaders of their land. Tyrtanis, about a genera- tion later, was probably an Ionian immigrant to Sparta, who by his verses inspired the Lacedae- monians to fight against the Jlessenians. Jlimner- nius of Colophon, wlio flourished toward the end of the seventh centurj', introduced new elements — love and sentimentality — into eleg)', and there- fore became a favorite with the Alexandrians and Romans. Solon (c.63L)-c.559 B.C.), the great law- giver of Attica, u.sed the measure after the man- ner of Callinus and T_yrta?us to incite the Atheni- ans against the iMegarians, and later to celebrate the reforms he had carried through. In the hands of Theognis of Megara (c.540 B.C.), of whose works some 1400 verses are e.xtant, elegy became the medium of moral precepts; it was employed for the same purpose also by his con- temporaries Phocylides of ililetus and Demodo- cus of Leros. At the end of this century Xe- noplianes of Colophon employed elegy to express his philosophic thought. From the time of Si- monides of Ceos (b.c. 480), famed chiefly as a lyric poet, elegy became the regular form for epitaphs. Iambic verse was first brought to perfection by Archiloehus of Paros (e.650 B.C.), who em- ployed it with masterly poer as a vehicle of personal satire. He was followed by Simonides of Amorgos, whose satire was general rather than personal. Hipponax of Ephesus ( c.540 B.C.) was called the inventor of parody. By substituting a trochee for an iamb at the end of the verse, he modified the iambic line into the choliambie measure, in which he gave out the venom of his hate. T.yric — or. as the Greeks called it, melie — po- etry was inseparably connected with music. The metres employed show great variety: and many forms of lyric poetry developed, difl'ering accord- ing to the purpose of the poem and the method of its rendition, whether by an individual or by a choral band. Tradition said that Terpander (c.67.5 B.C.) made a great development in music, possibly by adding three strings to the four previously employed on the lyre ; he also devel- oped new measures. The greatest of the early lyric poets were the .Eolians, AlciTus and Sappho of Jlitylene (c.fiOO B.C.). The former's lyrics covered a wide range of subjects, from politicMl themes to the praise of love and wine. Sappho, the single great poetess of Greece, made her verse express her own fierce passions. Anacreon of Teos (C.530 B.C.) wrote in the Ionian dialect in praise of pleasure and sensuous delights. There were also many poets of choral lyric among the Dorians; the most important were Alcman ( C.U30 B.C. ), who introduced lyric forms into Sparta, and, according to tradition, develojjed the strophic structure of choral songs. Arion (c.UOO B.C.) gave the dithy- ramb a finished form, and Stesichorus of llimera {c.(i405")5 B.C.) cultivated lyric poetry in Sicily and contributed to the development of the form of the choral ode. He went beyond the usual l)rovince of lyric poetry in that he ventured to handle epic themes. Ibycus of Rhegium (c.540 B.C.) followed Stesichorus closely. Simonides of Ceos (B.C. 53C-48) was of great importance for the history of lyric poetry, for, combining the strength of Ionian genius with Dorian art, he addressed his lyrics to all Cireeks, and so gave this branch of poetry a universal character. His nephew, Bacchylides, who flourished in the lirst half of the fifth century B.C.. like his uncle at one time a resident at the Court of King Hiero of Syracuse, was famed for his hymns and odes, recently made known in part to us b}' an Egyptian papyrus. But the greatest of all the lyricists w as Pindar ( B.C. 522-442 ), a native of Tliebes, yet in spirit and genius a national poet, whose extant hymns of victory attest his greatness. Pindar covered alnmst every province of lyric poetry, and marks the culmination of this art in Greece. (3) The Attic Period. The prestige which Athens gained in the Persian wars, and the power and wealth which her sea empire brought, soon made her the most prominent State in Greece. At the same time she became the centre of the Greek intellectual life, and maintained this posi- tion until the close of the fourth century. The first great literary development of the fifth centuiy was the drama. Tragedy and comedy alike had their origin in the worship of the god Dionysus, the former, as Aristotle says, develop- ing from the dithyramb, the latter from the license of the phallic song. Tradition made Icaria, an ancient centre of the worship of Diony- S.US in Attica, the birthplace of Attic drama, and named Thespis as the inventor of tragedy. The date given for the first tragic production is B.C. 534. From the end of the sixth century the State undertook the expense of the tragic cho- ru.ses. Of the other tragic poets of the earliest period, Phr,michus (Cth-5th cent.) most de- serves mention. While the drama had as yet but a single actor, so that action in the proper senge of the word was impossible, still the extant titles show that Phrynichus handled a variety of themes. In the Cnpiiire of Miletus he intro- duced the handling of contemporary themes, fol- lowed by .F.schyhis in his Persians. It was .Eschylns (c.525-456 B.C.). however, who developed tragedy from a succession of narrative scenes to a pl.ay of action by the introduction of a second actor. The dialogue now became of more importance than the choral songs, whereas the opposite had been the case in the earlier period. .'Eschylus was nobly horn, and was deep- ly stirred by the dangers which threatened the Greeks from the Orient. He w-as a poet of the hishest order, and a most profound thinker, while his moral and relisious feeling was genuine and intense. Many of his conceptions have a