The ancients themselves were not always able to distinguish between pæans, dithyrambs, and hyporchemes in the absence of the music or of tradition, and we can not expect to be wiser in such matters than they. The poems have, however, many points of similarity, and probably they are all dithyrambs. Certainly the fourth, with its dialogue between the chorus and a singer, agrees with what we know of the dithyramb in its half-dramatic character.

Style of
Bacchylides.

Among the previously known fragments of Bacchylides, one of the longest, from a paæan, praises the advantages of peace, enumerating in pleasing and elegant verse the songs at the altars, the sacrifices, the games, revels, and songs of the young, and describing the arms rusting on the walls. Another fragment, from a drinking-song, tells of the happy dreams of the drinker, how he thinks he is a king, dreams that he dwells in marble halls, and sees his ships come from Egypt laden with wealth. In these, as in the newly found poems, Bacchylides shows himself a master of easy and graceful diction, a poet of charming fancy, a perfect artist in the use of language. There is nothing obscure or difficult in his manner of expression, no struggling to utter thoughts too deep or too new for ready utterance. Everything is polished, finished, and brilliant-so brilliant and finished that if there is any lack of strength one hardly notices it. We feel, to be sure, that power is not the chief element in the poetry of Bacchylides, but we do not feel that it is lacking. One of the chief charms of his diction is the brilliant use he makes of compound words. These are for the most part adjectives, such as "tirelessly-flowing," "seadwelling," "bronze-walled," and the like, though other compounds are of frequent occurrence. Many of these compounds occur nowhere in all Greek literature except in the poems of Bacchylides, and his free use of new words of this kind shows how great was the liberty accorded to a Greek poet even as late as the fifth century B. C. Pindar also uses

many new words, and it may be that Bacchylides merely adopted a fashion established by Pindar or perhaps by Simonides; but even in that case there is much originality and beauty in the compounds used by Bacchylides, and they add greatly to the charm of his poetry, making his descriptions more brilliantly clear, and his narrative more rapid, without any appearance of haste or lack of detail.

The longest of Bacchylides's epinicia (Ode V) celebrates the victory won at the Olympic games in 476 B. c. by Pherenicus, the horse of Iliero of Syracuse. It consists of five triads of strophe, antistrophe, and epode, two hundred lines in all. The poem begins with the praise of Hiero:

The fifth epinician ode.

Fortunate ruler of Syracuse with its circling horses, thou wilt know, if any one of living mortals, the sweet-gifted glory of the violet-crowned Muses rightly. Rest thy righteously-judging mind from cares, and look hither with thy thought where thy guest-friend, the famous servant of gold-circleted Urania, with the deep-girdled Graces has woven a song and sends it from a sacred isle to your glorious city. Now he wishes, pouring a song from his breast, to praise Hiero; but cutting the deep air on high with swift, tawny wings, the eagle, messenger of wide-ruling, loud-crashing Zeus, is bold, trusting in his mighty strength; while the shrill-voiced birds shrink in fear. The heights of the great earth hold him not, nor the terrible waves of the unwearied sea; he hovers in the boundless Chaos, with the zephyrs, of fine and delicate plumage, easily distinguished

for men to see.

This is the first strophe and antistrophe. In the first epode the poet turns to the victories of Pherenicus, but ends the second strophe with the words:

Blessed he to whom God grants a share of blessings and to live a life of plenty with enviable fortune; for no one of mortals is happy in all things.

This serves as an introduction to the myth; for the antistrophe begins:

They say that once the gate-o'erturning invincible son of Zeus of the bright lightning descended to the realms of slender-ankled Per

sephone to bring to the light from Hades the sharp-toothed dog, son of unapproachable Echidna.

Then follows the story of a meeting between Heracles and Meleager in the lower world, a story not elsewhere told in Greek literature. Meleager tells Heracles the tale of the Calydonian boar and his own death. Suddenly, with the beginning of the fifth antistrophe, the poet breaks off :

White-armed Calliope, stop the well-made chariot here, sing of Zeus the son of Cronus, the Olympian leader of the gods, and Alpheus, unwearied in his flowing, and the might of Pelops, and Pisa, where the famous Pherenicus, winning with his feet the victory in the race, gave glory to fair-towered Syracuse, bringing to Hiero the wreath of happiness.

The poem ends with praise of truth, a reference to Hesiod, and good wishes for Hiero.

This poem gives a good idea of the style of Bacchylides, the slight connection between the myth and the occasion of the poem in odes of this character, and also of the general arrangement of epinician odes. In the odes of Pindar the myth is sometimes more obviously connected with the subject of the poem than is the case in this instance, but not always. Pindar's transitions are occasionally even more abrupt than here. We may therefore assume that such sudden changes of subject were not only not considered strange, but were a regular part of the composition of such odes.

Bacchylides remained a much-read poet throughout the classical period, and was greatly admired in Alexandrian times. Now that we have recovered so large a part of his works (though a much larger part is probably lost), we can understand the admiration felt in antiquity for his sparkling, brilliant, and beautiful verse, his picturesque language, his imagination, and his technical perfection. In power of mind and originality of thought Bacchylides is, however, inferior to Pindar.

CHAPTER XI

CHORAL LYRIC POETRY-PINDAR

Pindar, 521-441 B. C.-Lesser choral poets.

He

PINAR, the son of Daïphantes and Cleodice, was born at Cynoscephala, a village near Thebes, in Boeotia. He belonged to the ancient and noble family of Pindar. the Ægidæ, and was naturally an aristocrat in his sympathies. How the Theban Ægidæ were related to the Ægidæ at Sparta is not known, but there was probably some connection, and it is therefore probable that the Boeotian Pindar had some Dorian blood in his veins. was born, according to the best evidence, in the spring of 521 B. C., and was therefore older than Bacchylides. He turned to lyric poetry at an early age, under the instruction of the flute-player Scopelinus, and the poetesses Corinna and Myrto. He is also said to have been a pupil of Lasus of Hermione, and to have had some connection with Apollodorus and Simonides. Many stories were told about his early days for instance, that as he was sleeping, bees came and settled on his lips.

Pythian.

The first certain fact in his literary career is the composition of his tenth Pythian ode in 501 B. C., when he was only twenty years of age. The Pythian games The tenth were among the most important games of Greece, and this ode is written for a member of the powerful Thessalian house of the Aleuadæ. It is evident, then, that Pindar attained great reputation at an early age, even though there may have been some special

connection with Delphi which led to the choice of him as poet of the games celebrated there. Several of the other early poems are in honor of Pythian victories.

Pindar was only thirty years old when the Persians first invaded Greece, and but a little over forty at the time of the battle of Salamis. The position of

Pindar's

political views.

Thebes, the greatest Greek city which favored the Persians, was such as to deprive a Theban poet of the opportunity offered by the stirring times for patriotic songs. Pindar was at any rate not a man of action, not a politician, but his convictions may well have been on the side of his native town, and the story that he encouraged his fellow citizens in their course is probably true. Later, when the Persians had been driven back, largely through the energy and self-sacrifice of Athens, Pindar recognized and praised Athenian greatness, though the story that he was fined by the Thebans for so doing is doubtless an invention, and Pindar, like other poets after the Persian wars, speaks with patriotic pride of Platæa and Salamis.

In the years following the retreat of the Persians, Pindar was at the height of his fame, composing odes for the great princes of all parts of the Greek world: Hiero of Syracuse, Theron of Acragas, Arcesilas of Cyrene, Chromius of Acragas, and others. His presence in person was not necessary for the public performance of his poems, and the fact that he composed an ode for a ruler of Cyrene or Syracuse does not show that he traveled to those places. But that he did travel is certain, and he probably made many voyages, including a journey to the court of Hiero at Syracuse, apparently after 476 B. C. He had been invited to Syracuse by Hiero before, but had refused, giving as his reason, "I wish to live for myself, not for others"; but in the end he yielded, and may have spent some years in Sicily, or he may have made the voyage several times. It is not so certain that he vis

Pindar's travels.