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addressed to divine persons only. Alcman had indeed written hymns to Castor and Pollux, but they were at least demigods, raised above the heroes of human origin. Further, the style of Stesichorus was essentially epic; the poet's personality appeared as little as it does in the Homeric poems; and he used an artificial epic dialect, with only a slight tinge of Dorian. He added an epode to the strophe and antistrophe; an improvement commemorated by a proverbial phrase, "the triad of Stesichorus." This enlargement of the choral structure suited his epic subjects, which required a grand and massive framework. His choral epic hymns gave the first hint of the model on which Pindar's magnificent odes of victory are constructed. He was a precursor of Pindar also in the bold coinage of new compound words. Epic grandeur, in a splendid and spacious choral form, was his charm for the ancient world. Simonides couples him with Homer; Alexander the Great described him as a poet worthy to be read by kings; Quintilian observes that he sustained the burden of epos with the lyre. It should be added that he also broke new ground in two other fields. His lyric treatment of popular love-stories, as in his Rhadina. and Calyca, was the germ of romance, afterwards developed in prose by the Greek novel-writers. And his lyric pastoral, Daphnis, was the earliest example of bucolic poetry.

After Stesichorus, the next considerable name is that of Ibycus, who flourished about 550 B. C.

IBYCUS

Ibycus.

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The place held by Ibycus is in one respect unique. He is the only poet in whom the two great branches of the Greek lyric converge, while they still remain distinct. etical life had two periods. at his native Rhegium in southernmost Italy, and wrote choral lyrics in the epic style of Stesichorus. The legend of the Argonauts and stories from the Trojan cycle were handled by him. During the second period of his career he lived in the Ionian island of Samos, at the court of the tyrant Polycrates; and here he composed love-poetry, which, to judge by the fragments, was more Aeolian in its passion than anything written since the days of Sappho. It recalls Sappho in this, also, that the portrayal of passion is joined to a vivid feeling for the beauties of nature. Thus Ibycus says: "In spring the Cydonian apple-trees put forth blossoms, watered by the river-streams where the Nymphs have their inviolable haunt; and the vine-buds come forth, growing under the foliage of the vine-shoots. But for me Love knows no season of slumber,-like the north wind of Thrace, that rages amid lightnings." Love comes upon Ibycus, "dark as the storm, a stranger to fear;" and he trembles at the god's approach. Similarly, Sappho compares the Love-god to a mountain whirlwind uprooting oaks. The Eros of these poets is a fierce and dreadful power; not the playful boy Eros of later poetry. We are reminded of the words in which Dante describes the apparition

of Love: "There seemed to be in my room a mist of the color of fire, within which I discerned the figure of one of terrible aspect." It was by his later or quasi-Aeolian work, not by his earlier work on epic themes, that Ibycus was best remembered in Greek literature.

Simonides.

The last great name before Pindar is that of Simonides. He was born at Ceos in or about 556 B. C., being some sixteen years younger than Anacreon, and about thirty-four years older than Pindar. An Ionian by birth and by temperament, he chose the Dorian choral form for his lyrics, which were composed in an artificial dialect like that of Stesichorus, epic with a Dorian tinge. As Anacreon is the Ionian of a luxurious Asiatic type, Simonides is the Ionian who has felt the chastening and bracing influence of Athens. He was a poet not only of great gifts, but also, in some directions, of marked originality. Stesichorus extended the scope of the choral hymn from gods to heroes; Simonides was perhaps the first who successfully extended it from the heroes to contemporary men. He wrote odes of victory, "epinicia," celebrating the successes of competitors in the great national games, and in these odes probably dwelt more on the details of the particular victory than Pindar usually does; also "encomia," odes in praise of men notable by position or achievement, which had less of a public character than the odes of victory, and were often intended to be sung at private banquets. One specimen,

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which has come down to us nearly entire, is the "encomium " on the Thessalian tyrant Scopas, whose guest the poet had been. The last ten years of his life were passed with Hieron, the tyrant of Syracuse, where he is said to have died, at the age of ninety, in 467 B. C. Such knowledge as we possess concerning the life and character of Simonides exhibits him as a clever and versatile man of the world, with all the subtle and graceful Ionian gifts, but without much depth of conviction or feeling. His pathetic power in poetry was, indeed, renowned, and in this quality he was ranked even above Pindar. It was Simonides who first made the "threnos," or dirge, an accepted form of lyric poetry. But his pathos was due principally to the perfect purity of style, the unerring sense of proportion, the exquisite feeling for harmony, with which he knew how to adorn the traditional topics of an epitaph. This fact is illustrated by his verses on the heroes of Thermopylae, - verses justly celebrated for a beauty of form which no prose version can even suggest: "Glorious was the fortune of those who died at Thermopylae, and fair is their fate; their tomb is an altar. Others are bewailed, but they are remembered; others are pitied, but they are praised. Such a monument shall never moulder, nor shall it be defaced by all-conquering Time. This sepulchre of brave men has taken the glory of Hellas to dwell with it; be Leonidas the witness, Sparta's king, who has left behind him the great beauty of

prowess and an immortal name.” More famous still is the poet's description of Danaë, with the infant Perseus, afloat in a chest on the stormy sea, under the stars; nothing could be more exquisite than the contrast between the fierce elements that rage around and the fair sleeping child, watched by the young mother, so anxious, so helpless, so forsaken, apparently, by the divine lover, Zeus, withdrawn in the recesses of that starry sky, to whom she makes her timid prayer,

- not for herself, but for her child. Simonides was, in his own sphere, a consummate artist. The slender remains of his work show few traces of fire or passion, but they prove an unsurpassed command of all the graces that can touch and charm.

Bacchylides.

Kindred though less eminent gifts won renown for his sister's son, Bacchylides of Ceos, a lyric poet who also was numbered among the foremost nine. The disciple and imitator of his uncle, Bacchylides was admired especially for smoothness and finish. Like Simonides, he was a welcome guest at the court of Hieron, and wrote an ode of victory on that prince's success in the chariot-race of 472 B. C., the same which is immortalized in Pindar's first Olympian ; but his home, according to Plutarch, was in Peloponnesus. The most distinctive branch of his work was probably that in which he gave a choral treatment to themes of social pleasure; and the fragments, scanty though they are, indicate a vein of genial gaiety which reminds us both of Anacreon and of Horace. His

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