REGULATIONS OF SOL'JN. 153 Upon this theory we may remark, first, that it stands opposed to the testimony existing respecting the regulations of Solon; who, before the time of Peisistratus, had enforced a fixed order of recitalion on the rhapsodes of the Iliad at the Panathenaic festival ; not only directing that they should go through the rhapsodies seriatim, and without omission or corruption, but also establishing a prompter or censorial authority to insure obedience, 1 of Lachmann goes farther than either Wolf or "William Miiller. (See Wolf, Prolegomen. pp. cxli-cxlii, and W. Miiller, Homerische Vorschule, Absch nitt. vii. pp. 96, 98, 100, 102.) The latter admits that neither Peisistratus nor the Diaskeuasts could have made any considerable changes in the Iliaa and Odyssey, either in the way of addition or of transposition ; the poems as aggregates being too well known, and the Homeric vein of invention too completely extinct, to admit of such novelties. I confess, I do not see how these last-mentioned admissions can be recon- ciled with the main doctrine of Wolf, in so far as regards Peisistratus. 1 Diogen. Laert. i. 57. Tti 6e 'O/*#/iov f vTto[3o?t,r/e ysypa pafyudela-dai, olov OTTOV 6 Trpwrof i^^ev, EKei&ev ap^fcri9at rbv aif <j>7]cr(. Aievxidaf iv roif MeyapiKoif. Respecting Hipparchus, son of Peisistratus, the Pseudo-Plato tells us (in the dialogue so called, p. 228), KOI TU 'Ofiijpov CTTJ? Trowrof sKo/uaev elf rfjv yrjv ravTtjvl, Kal ^iiyKaae rovf paiffudDvi: U.ava^rivaioig ef turoA^y EU C i<ps^?if avTu fii'isvai, uairep vvv ITI oWe iroiovat.. These words have provoked multiplied criticisms from all the learned men who have touched upon the theory of the Homeric poems, to deter- mine what was the practice which Solon found existing, and what was the change which he introduced. Our information is too scanty to pretend *o certainty, but I think the explanation of Hermann the most satisfactory (" Quid sit vrto^o^r) et virof}%7]dr]v." Opuscula, torn. v. p. 300, torn, vii. p. 162). 'TTro/JoAei'c is the technical term for the prompter at a theatrical represen- tation (Plutarch, Prsecept. gcrend. Reip. p. 813) ; vTro(3ohq and VKofluhfaiv have corresponding meanings, of aiding the memory of a speaker and kcep- inf him in accordance with a certain standard, in possession of the prompter : see the words It; tin-o/3oA^c, Xenophon. Cyropsed. iii. 3, 37. 'Y7ro/3o/.#, there- fore, has no necessary connection with a series of rhapsodes, but would apply just as much to one alone ; although it happens in this case to be brought to bear upon several in succession. 'Tfl-oA^f, again, means " the taking up in succession of one rhapsode by another :" though the two words, there- fore, have not the same meaning, yet the proceeding described in the two passages, in reference both to Solon and Hipparchus, appears to be in substance the same, i.e. to insure, by compulsory supervision, a cone' 1 ! 7*
