Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/80

 62 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. be asked why Pisistratus and his party, who evidently in their en- croachments on the power of the aristocracy adopted in most cases the policy of the Sicyonian Cleisthenes, should in this particular have deviated from it so far as to encourage the rhapsodes, whom Cleisthenes, on the contrary, sedulously put down on account of the great predilection of the aristocracy for the Epos^ This deserves and requires some additional explanation. Pisistratus was not only a Diacrian or goat- worshipper : he was also a Codrid, and therefore a Neleid ; nay, he bore the name of one of the sons of his mythical ancestor, Nestor : he might, therefore, be excused for feeling some sort of aristocratical respect for the poems which described the wis- dom and valour of his progenitors. Besides, he was born in the deme Philaidse, which derived its name from Phila^us, one of the sons of Ajax, and he reckoned Ajax also among his ancestors : this may have induced him to desire a public commemoration of the glories of the ^antidas, just as the Athenians of the next century looked with delight and interest at the Play of Sophocles^: and we have little doubt but he heard in his youth parts of the Iliad recited at the neighbouring deme of Brauron^. If we add to this, that by introducing into a few passages of the Homeric poems some striking- encomiums on his countrymen, he was able to add considerably to his popularity, and that it is always the policy of a tyrant to en- courage literature^, we shall fully understand why he gave himself so much trouble about these poems in the days of his power ^. Solon also greatly encouraged the rhapsodes, and shares with Pisis- tratus the honour of arranging the rhapsodies according to their natural and poetical sequence^: we must not forget, too, that Solon ^ Wachsmuth, Hell. Alt. ii. 2, 389. 2 See Rheinisch. Mus. for 1829, p. 62. 2 See Nitzsch, Indag. 'per Od. Interpol, prcepar. p. 37; Hist. Horn. p. 165; Welcker, Ep. Cycl. p. 393. •* "Debbe un principe/' says Machiavelli {il Principe, cap. xxi. fin.), *'ne' tempi convenienti dell' anno tenere occupati i popoli con feste e spettacoli ; e perchfe ogni cittk h divisa o in arti o in tribti, debbe tener conto di quelle university." ^ Quis doctior iisdem illis temporibus, aut cujus eloquentia litteris instructior fuisse traditur, quam Pisistrati? qui primus Homeri libros, confuses antea, sic disposuisse dicitur ut nunc habemus. Cicer. de Orat. in. 34. Ileicricrrparos 'iiry] ra 'Ofirjpov hLeaTraajxiva re koL oXkaxov /JLvrjfMovevS/xei'a yjdpoi^eTO. Pausan. vii. 26, p. 594. "Tcrrepov HeiaicTTpaTos avvayayi^u airecprjve T-qv 'IXtdSa Kal T7]u 'Odvacretav. ^lian, V. H. XIII. 14. See also Joseph, c. Ap)ion. 1, 2 ; Liban. Panegyr. in Julian. T. i. p. 170, Eeiske; Suidas, V. "O/jiTjpQs; and Eustath. p. 5. 6 Comp. Diog. Sol. I. 57, with Ps. Plat. Hip-parch, p. 228 B.