direct presentment of the trials of human life. That any clear doctrine of immortality was taught in the Eleusinian mysteries is not certain, for their secret has been well kept, but that they profoundly influenced the minds of the initiated is beyond question. Musæus. The great mythical poet of the Eleusinian mysteries was Musæus (see page 8). The poems attributed to him are Oracles, Remedies for Diseases, Initiations, Purifications, a Theogony, and Hymns, espccially a Hymn to Demeter. Of all these only a few verses are preserved. As some of these works are mentioned by writers of the fifth century B. C., they were probably composed as early as the sixth century. Abaris, The religious movement which developed the great importance of the mysteries and mystic sects in the sixth century had its influence also upon the general public, whether initiated or not, and traces of this influence are visible in the works of the poets and philosophers of the sixth and fifth centuries. The half-mythical Abaris, who is said to have written a poem on Apollo among the Hyperboreans, and Aristeas of Proconnesus, who wrote a history of the fabulous oneeyed Arimaspians, both belong to the sixth century, and both wrote, if Abaris wrote at all, poems of mystic character. Other poets whose works are not mystical show traces of the influence of the mystic religious movement of the times, and for this reason, although the mystic poems of the sixth century are lost, and the extant fragments show no great literary excellence, the development of the mysteries and of mysticism can not be passed by in silence. CHAPTER XIII THE BEGINNINGS OF PROSE LITERATURE THE EARLY PHILOSOPHERS Late development of prose-The Seven Wise Men-Pherecydes of Syros, about 550 B. C.-Cadmus of Miletus, early sixth century B. C. -Thales, 624 (?)–547 (?) B. C.—Anaximander, 611 to about 545 B. C.—Anaximenes, about 560 B. C.-Pythagoras, second half of the sixth century B. C.-Xenophanes, about 600–500 в. c.—Heraclitus, born about 540 B. C.—Parmenides, born about 515 B. C.-Empedocles, about 492–432 B. C. -Leucippus, first half of the fifth century B. C.-Anaxagoras, 500-428 B. C.-Diogenes of Apollonia, about 450 B. C.-Democritus, 460 (?)–360 B. C.—Philolaus, middle of the fifth century B. C.--Archytas, middle of the fifth century B. C.--Hippocrates, about 430 B. C. Reasons for the late rise ature. FOR various reasons Greek prose literature developed. much later than poetry. In the first place, poetry can attain to a considerable degree of excellence without the aid of writing, and it can be handed of prose liter- down by tradition, can be sung and recited, for generations before reading and writing become common accomplishments. There can be no doubt that poems were thus handed down among the Greeks before the introduction of writing and during the long period when writing was known, to be sure, but was the accomplishment of comparatively few, and reading was a matter of such difficulty that literature had to be cast in rhythmical form to appeal to the ear and memory of the people. So the habit of associating the poetic form with all literature grew up and hindered the growth of prose. Moreover, the subject-matter of early Greek literature, the myths of the gods and he roes, the feelings of the poet, encouragement to do battle, praise of the dead or of victors in the games, lends itself readily to expression in epic or lyric verse. There were, to be sure, lists of various kinds kept in the temples, and there were also laws engraved upon stone or bronze tablets at an early date, but these are not literature. Prose literature could only arise when, as civilization advanced, men's minds grew more reflective, and writers wished to express collected facts and deductions drawn from such facts or speculations based upon them. This stage was reached in Greece in the sixth century B. C., the period in which the beginnings of historical and philosophical prose were made. The Seven Prose literature did not arise without previous indications of the state of mind to which its origin was due. Several of the earliest philosophers and scientists wrote in verse, thereby showing the power which the poetical form of expression still held over men's minds; while on the other hand the new interest in the realities of life found an expression in the sayings attributed to the Seven Wise Men. The list of the seven is not given in the same form by all the ancient authorities,1 but four names are always included: those of Thales, Bias, Pittacus, and Solon. These men are distinguished as men of affairs, practical men, of clear and sound judgment. To them are attributed various maxims, some of which were graven upon the walls of the temple at Delphi, maxims of practical wisdom, such as "Know thyself," and "Nothing too much." The Seven Wise Men of any of the lists which have come down to us were not strictly contemporaries, and the stories of their meeting in friendly association are fabrications of a later time (probably of the fifth century B. C.), but there is in them this ele 1 Plato, Protagoras, p. 343 A, mentions Thales, Pittacus, Bias, Solon, Cleobulus, Myson, and Chilon. The names of Periander of Corinth, the Scythian Anacharsis, Epimenides of Crete, and some others are sometimes given instead of those of Cleobulus, Myson, and Chilon. ment of truth, that at the beginning of the sixth century, the time to which the Seven Wise Men are assigned, there was in Greece an awakening of the practical and investigating spirit, which had much to do with the origin of prose literature. Whether the fables of Æsop were written in prose as early as the sixth century is doubtful (see page 86). Pherecydes of Syros. Cadmus Whether history or philosophy took the lead in the creation of prose literature can not now be determined in the absence of exact dates as well as of accurate information about the contents of some of the lost works. Pherecydes of Syros, who was classed among the philosophers, was really neither an historian nor a philosopher, but a mystic (see page 144). The few fragments of his writing, the title of which appears to have been Heptamychos (The Sevenfold Cavern, or something of the sort), show that his prose was much affected by the poetic style. His claim to be the first writer of Greek prose is opposed by that of Cadmus of Miletus, who is said to have written a work on the Founding of Miletus, or perhaps on Ionia in general. No fragments of his work exist in the original form, and it is even somewhat doubtful whether he himself ever existed. If it is true that he explained the inundations of the Nile as the result of the melting of the snow on the mountains of central Africa, he showed the rational and scientific spirit which was awakening in his time-the early sixth century B. C. But whether the first prose writer was an historian or a philosopher matters little. It is well to keep the two classes of writers distinct, and as some of the earlier philosophers wrote in verse it is natural to speak of them before the historians. of Miletus. The word "philosopher" means "lover of wisdom," and was invented by Pythagoras to apply to himself and others who devoted themselves to study and investigation. Before the invention of this word such men were called sophoi, "wise men," or sophists, "men versed in wisdom," and these words continued in common use long after the days of Pythagoras. The Greek philosophers did not confine their studies to one kind of investigation, but the The Greek wisdom they sought was as various as the powphilosophers. ers of their own minds. We shall find them therefore studying things which belong in modern times in the domain of physical science or of statecraft rather than in that of philosophy, but we shall also see that at any one time the chief attention of most philosophers was devoted to some one problem or series of problems, the stages in the development of philosophy being marked by the rise of new problems when those that formerly engrossed attention have been solved or found insoluble. The history of Greek philosophy is a large subject, which can not be properly treated in a handbook of the history of Greek literature; but the works of the philosophers belong to literature and can not be understood as literary productions without some knowledge of their contents. It will therefore be necessary to devote some space to the doctrines of the early philosophers, especially as those doctrines influenced to a greater or less extent the writings of contemporary and later authors. But as the works of the early philosophers have disappeared, leaving only a few fragments quoted by later writers, it will be possible to treat them briefly. The origin of the universe. The problem which chiefly interested the earliest Greek philosophers was the same which had interested some of the still earlier poets-the origin of the universe. Hesiod and other poets had assumed that the universe existed before the gods, but was at first mere chaos; that then one god after another came into being, and that in the end the world was regulated by these gods. This mythical account of the world's origin was no longer satisfactory in the sixth century, and the philosophers tried to discover a more rational explanation of things. In some details the systems of some of the early Greek thinkers resemble what we know of the beliefs of |