Albeit in dreamland, and oblivion's plain."—(D.)
The verses seem to be instinct with a hauteur bred from consciousness of his aristocratic connections, even whilst the singer's dependence upon his own talents rather than on hired minstrelsy bespeaks him a citizen of the world. But, apart from such scenes and such entertainments in hospitable Thebes, our poet found time there for schemes of revenge and reprisals, and for the refugee's proverbial solace, the pleasures of hope. Whilst a portion of his day was spent in the congenial society of the cultivated noble—the contretemps at whose house does not seem to have interrupted their friendship—another portion was devoted to projects of return, which a fellow-feeling would prevent from appearing tedious to the ear of his partner in exile, Cyrnus. To him it is amusing to find him comparing his hardships to those of Ulysses, and gathering hope of vengeance from the sequel of the wanderings of that mythical hero:—
Yet he returned and viewed his home again,
And wreaked his vengeance on the plundering crew,
The factious, haughty suitors, whom he slew:
Whilst all the while, with steady faith unfeigned,
The prudent, chaste Penelope remained
With her fair son, waiting a future hour
For his arrival and return to power."—(F.)
According, indeed, to Theognis's testimony, it should seem that his Penelope at Megara was as blameless as
