Alexandrian times. Hipponax was a bitter and virulent satirist. He attacked many persons, beginning, it is said, with his own parents. He then lampooned two sculptors -Bupalus and Athenis-who he said had made an insulting portrait of him. A painter, Mimnes, is also an object of his mockery. Of these poems enough remains to show that the wit of Hipponax was coarse, but not enough to show why it was effective. Several fragments with the name of Bupalus prove the truth of the story that he was attacked by Hipponax, but teach us nothing further. A few fragments beg for clothing or complain that clothing and other things have not been given to Hipponax, and the belief in his poverty is further strengthened by these lines: "Wealth, for he is blind, came to my house not at all, saying, 'Hipponax, I give you thirty minæ of silver,' and many other things; for he is base of mind." Hipponax shows his temper in the lines: "Two happy days. a woman brings a man: first when he marries her, the second when he bears her to the grave."

Ananius is little more than a name. Neither his birthplace nor his date is known, though he was probably later than Hipponax. Some of his lines end with

Ananius.

two spondees, which may be an attempt to excel those of Hipponax in lameness. The longest extant fragment is a list of fish and viands with remarks on the season when each is best. Besides this, only four brief fragments remain.

Solon.

Solon, as has been said, was a writer of iambic verse, but his elegiac poems are his chief works. In character, his iambics differ from those of Archilochus in being less virulent, and from the extant fragments of Simonides in being more interesting. After Hipponax iambic verse ceased to be cultivated as a distinct kind of poetry, appearing only sporadically in later Greek literature. Somewhat akin to iambic poetry are the beast-fables. The originator

Beast-fables.

of this kind of satirical tale, which represents animals doing the typical deeds of men, was said to be Esop, a foreign and deformed slave, either Thracian, Phrygian, or Ethiopian. Herodotus says he was a slave of Iadmon at Samos, in the time of King Amasis, about the middle of the sixth century. He was said to have traveled much, and to have been murdered at Delphi. Numerous tales of his adventures were current. The fables ascribed to him were transmitted orally, and there is no reason to believe that he ever committed them to writing. In fact, it is not certain that he ever existed, for the Greeks loved to ascribe the invention of everything to some definite person, and Æsop may be simply the mythical inventor of the fable. Tales ascribed to him were, however, very familiar throughout the classical period. Socrates is said to have turned one of these tales into verse, and Aristophanes speaks of it as disgraceful not to know Esop. The tales were handed down in prose, but the earliest extant collections are in verse, by the Greek Babrius, who wrote in the first century after Christ, and the Latin writers Phædrus and Avianus. A prose collection by Demetrius of Phalerum (about 345 to 280 B. C.) has been lost. Many of the fables ascribed to Æsop are to be found in the Panchatantra, the Jātakas, and other ancient writings in India. They migrated in the mouths of the people as well as in written form to different nations, and are not the inventions of Esop, though he may have been the first to make them popular in Europe, thereby gaining the credit of inventing them,

CHAPTER VIII

GREEK MUSIC-MONODIC AND CHORAL POETRY

Hyagnis, Marsyas, Olympus-Terpander, about 700 B. c.-The. nome-Clonas, about 680 (?) B. C.-Musical modes-Melic poetry, monodic and choral—Alcæus, about 600–570 B. C.-Sappho, about 600 B. C.-Anacreon, about 540 B. C.-The Anacreontics.

THE development of Greek lyric poetry is closely connected with the development of music. The elegy probably derived its name from the Phrygian name for the flute, and in other kinds of lyric poetry the impulse toward improvement is due in great measure to the introduction of

Influence of music upon lyric poetry.

new and improved instruments from Phrygia and Lydia. The early history of music is obscure, and much that the Greeks believed about it is mythical, but its influence upon literature was so great that it can not be entirely passed over. The lyre (cithara) of the Homeric poets was a simple instrument, said to have had only four strings, and the flute of the same period was a simple shepherd's pipe. The Phrygians and Lydians had, however, better and more powerful instruments. The men to whom the Greeks ascribed the invention of new and better music apparently adopted these Asiatic instruments, perhaps making some improvements immediately, and certainly some improvements were made by their successors. Hyagnis and the satyr Marsyas are purely mythical. Marsyas is said to have challenged Apollo to a musical contest, in which the satyr with his

Hyagnis,
Marsyas,

and

Olympus.

flute was defeated by the god with his lyre. This can at most mean that when the Phrygian flute was first introduced it was considered inferior to the lyre. The third name mentioned as that of an innovator in flute music is Olympus. He was probably a real person of the eighth century B. C., but just what his innovations were hardly be determined. The airs ascribed to him were probably very early airs, the real author of which was unknown. The airs themselves are now lost, and we know little or nothing of their nature. The names of several pupils of Olympus are recorded, but we know nothing of their music. It is probable that all these early musicians composed words for their airs, but words as well as airs are lost.

The Æolian island of Lesbos, lying close to the shore of Asia Minor, plays an important part in the development of music and of lyric poetry. Here, probably Terpander. at Antissa, was the birthplace of Terpander, to whom many improvements in music and poetry are ascribed. He lived apparently in the reign of King Midas II (738-695 B. C.). He was a player of the lyre, and traveled much, probably playing and singing at the festivals of Apollo, the god of the lyre. It is therefore probable that the reports of his visits to Delphi are founded upon fact. By command of an oracle he was called to Sparta to calm the spirits of the citizens in a time of domestic discord. In this he was successful, and the Spartans granted great honors to him and his descendants. He was henceforth an adopted citizen of Sparta, and his music and poetry are closely associated with that city. He is said to have invented the seven-stringed lyre, supplanting the old lyre of four strings. In all probability the seven-stringed lyre existed already, but Terpander made it known at Sparta and throughout Greece. Perhaps, too, he improved it and made it capable of more varied or more agreeable melodies. His poetry was in part-probably for the most part-in

hexameters, though one short fragment consists entirely of spondees, and many metrical innovations are ascribed to

The nome.

him. Among other things he is said to have improved the kind of sacred poem called the nome, giving it seven divisions instead of three. The origin of the name nome is obscure, and opinions differ somewhat concerning the nature of the nome itself. It was, however, a sacred poem, sung in honor of a god, often the god Apollo, to the accompaniment of the lyre or the flute. Some nomes, perhaps the earliest, were purely instrumental, without words. How the nome differed from the hymn is not quite clear, but perhaps its essential feature was the division into three or-after Terpander-seven parts. Nomes are ascribed to Olympus and his school as well as to Terpander and other early musicians and poets, but the nome as a distinct kind of composition is limited to a brief period.

Clonas.

The most important composer of nomes with flute. accompaniment was Clonas, a native of either Tegea, in Arcadia, or Thebes, in Boeotia. He lived apparently a little later than Terpander. He is said to have been the inventor of nomes to be sung to the flute, and also of processional songs called prosodia. The most that can probably be ascribed to him is improvement, not invention, of these classes of poems. Several other authors of aulodic nomes—that is, nomes accompanied by the flute-are mentioned, but their names have little meaning for us, as almost nothing is known of their works. The Greeks composed their music not only in different keys, but also in different modes. These probably differed

Musical modes.

from one another, somewhat as the minor and major keys differ in modern music, not by height or depth of pitch, but by different arrangements of the intervals between the notes. The Greeks had at least nine such modes, but the best known and most important were the Doric, Phrygian, and Lydian. The