212 GREECE (LANGUAGE AND LITERATUEE) Cretan, Bergmann; on Cypric, Schmidt; on Epic Grafenhan, Lucas, and Berger ; on Ionic, Lobeck. The best lexicons are by Rost and Palm, Kreussler, Keil, Peter, Schneider, Pape, Ramshorn, Jacobitz and Seiler, Benseler, and Lucas. Lexicons for the writings of single authors or groups of authors are : for ^Eschy- 1ns, by Wellauer; for Euripides, by Beck; for flerodotus, by Schweighauser ; for the Ho- meric writings, by Doderlein; for Hyperides, by Westermann; for Plato, by Ast; for So- phocles, by Schneider and Ellendt; and for the tragedians, by Fahse. English scholars of Greek lexicography and grammar are : Green, Lightfoot, Evelyn Abbott, J. B. Mayor, A. A. Vansittart, Kennedy, R. Ellis, E. B. Cowell, Henry Jackson, W. M. Leake, Chandler, Simcox, Wordsworth, Peile, Donaldson, Liddell, Trench, Scott, Yonge, Ferrar, and others. American writers on the Greek language are : Pickering, Anthon, Crosby, Spencer, Hadley, Goodwin, Kendrick, Sophocles, Drisler, and Felton. LITERATURE. In its widest extent, the history of Greek literature is coeval with that of the language. It begins in a period of indefinite antiquity, and comes down to the present day. If we commence with the earliest monuments, we trace it back to nearly 1000 B. 0., where we find the art of poetical composition exist- ing already in the highest perfection, in the form of epic narrative. The admirable struc- ture and the wonderful language of the Ho- meric poems imply a long period of antecedent culture, striking intimations of which are found in the poems themselves. Poetry preceded prose, in the form of hymns to the gods, and songs or ballads in celebration of martial deeds. Of the earliest temple poetry no specimens have been preserved, but the Homeric hymns may give us some idea of their style. Of the earliest ballads also, none have come down to us ; but the song of Demodocus in the Odyssey no doubt very fairly represents their primitive style of composition. The ballads were essentially epic, and led in the course of time to the proper epic, which is found in its perfect type in the Iliad and the Odyssey. The temple poetry appears to have originated in the north of Greece, and in the temples of Dodona, Delphi, and oth- er primeval seats of Greek religious culture. Ballad poetry probably appeared very early on the Greek mainland ; but its full development took place among the Ionian colonies of Asia Minor and the ^Egean islands. The principal names of the legendary minstrels were Am- phion, Orpheus, Thamyris, Eumolpus, Musaeus, Linus, Olen, and Olympus. . The earliest liter- ary documents are the poems known as the Iliad and the Odyssey, founded on the legends of the war of Troy and the return of Ulysses ; but nothing positive is known of the poet, nor where and when they were composed. (See HOMER.) About 50 compositions of various It.-npth, in a style closely resembling that of the Iliad and Odyssey, together with a burlesque poem called Batrachomyomachia, or the " Bat- tle of the Frogs and Mice," have also been at- tributed to Homer. The epic style was con- tinued by a series of poets called the " cyclic," of whose works only the titles, brief abstracts, and fragments have been preserved. The next development of poetry was in Bceotia, in the works of Hesiod, who also employed the epic style. His principal poems are the "Works and Days," and the Theogonia. The next form of Greek poetry was the elegiac, and, in close connection with it, the iambic. The rhythm of the epic poetry was dactylic, and the metre hexameter. The lonians of Asia Minor were also the originators of the elegiac and iambic. The elegiac rhythm was also dac- tylic, and its measure alternately hexameter and pentameter ; or rather, every alternate verse consisted of two catalectic trimeters. The prin- cipal poets in this style were (between TOO and 600 B. C.) Archilochus, Callinus, Simonides of Amorgos, who shares with Archilochus the credit of having invented the iambic trimeter, Tyrtseus, author of the martial elegies, Mim- nermus, and Solon. This species of composi- tion is sometimes ranked with the lyric; but it is more properly to be considered as a tran- sition from the epic to the proper lyric. The principal orders of lyric poetry were paeans, hyposchemas, parcenia, scolia, embateria, and epinicia. The forms of composition were stro- phic, i. e., with divisions called strophes, cor- responding to each other line for line ; and cho- ral, with strophes corresponding by pairs, or with these and proodes, mesodes, and epodes. The rhythms were of the richest variety, and artfully constructed so as to express by their movement the sentiment or passion intended to be conveyed by the language. The strophic composition was usually delivered with a sim- ple musical accompaniment; the choral, with a musical accompaniment and a rhythmical motion, sometimes a dance performed by the trained choreutce, or members of the band who delivered it. Of the lyric style, there were two principal schools, the JEolic and the Doric. The ^Eolic flourished chiefly among the ^olian colonies of Asia Minor, and especially in Les- bos. The Doric was more generally diffused over Greece, Asia Minor, Sicily, and even Italy. The principal writers of the ^Eolian poetry, which was strophic in form, were Alcreus (about 600) and Sappho, his contemporary, both Les- bians. Akin to this school may be considered the lyric poetry of Anacreon (about 500) ; not the odes which pass under his name, but the fragments which alone represent his genuine compositions, and which are rather Ionic than ^Eolic in tone and style. Of the poets who form, as it were, a transition to the proper Dorian choral poets, Alcman and Stesichorus may be placed at the head. Stesichorus (600) was the first to introduce the epode, and to give a greater variety to the rhythm of the strophes than had been customary. His language was the old epic, modified by some Dorian forms. Simonides of Ceos flourished about 500 ; Iby-
