else, though the name points to Thessaly. Polymnastos is said to have written a laudation of Thales (Thaletas?) for the Lakedaimonians; but a distinct and separate poem in praise of a living poet as early as the first half of the seventh century is not to be credited. The use by Alkaios (Frag. 94) and Anakreon (Frag. 70) of the enkomologic metre ) is untrustworthy

evidence of the existence of a monodic 'revel-song.' Eurylochos of Larissa, the leader in the Sacred War, after he had conquered Krissa and renewed the Pythian games, was saluted by the maidens of Delphi with a choral song that Bergk regarded as an example of the primitive enkomion.1

But the innovation of Simonides depends not so much on these isolated antecedents as on the gradual transformation that had come over the spirit of choral poetry. In the time of Alkman the partheneion was in part devoted to the laudation of demigods and of mortals. Stesichoros dispossessed the gods of their exclusive control of the hymn proper, and the chorals of Ibykos in praise of the beautiful youths of the court of Polykrates gave the final impetus to Simonides, who in the epinikion, as in the enkomion, produced a form of choral melic whose main purpose was the glorification of the human, though not to the abasement of the divinea secular hymn that recognized the privilege of men who had reached the summit of human splendour or renown to share in the poetry that had heretofore been consecrated to the gods or heroes. The time was auspicious. With the passing away, in the latter part of the sixth century, of the tyrannies in central Greece and in the islands, private persons came into positions of wealth and importance that stimu

1 The poem is called an inïos by Euphorion.

lated a rivalry with the art-loving princes who had been displaced; and wherever tyrannies maintained their strength, as in Thessaly, or attained to new splendour, as in Sicily, the panegyric ode was in high favour. The increasing fame of the great games likewise focussed the attention of the entire Greek world upon men who had proved by the severity of their physical and moral training that they were entitled to claim a share of the poet's praise.

Our knowledge concerning the manner of presenting an enkomion is inadequate. The band of singers sometimes sang and danced during the banquet; or their revelry was transferred to the strects, where they paraded with torches and merrymaking. The more formal enkomion was probably sung and danced by a body of trained singers during or after the banquet. Information is lacking as to the musical modes that were employed, but it is probable that the Dorian was preferred, while the Lydian may also have been adopted. The extant fragments are composed in dactylo-epitrites, which took over the enkomologikon, and in logaoedics, There is no evidence to support Crusius' contention that the enkomia of Pindar, as well as those of the Hellenistic period (Theokr. 17), followed the seven-fold division of the Terpandreian nome.

Only the poets of the universal melic are authors of enkomia. Simonides is the first to be credited with the composition of the new form of melic, but, of the poems in question, the eulogy on the heroes of Thermopylai might with better right be called a threnody, were it not the poet's intention to praise their heroism rather than bewail their death. The poem on Skopas (ii.) partakes rather of the nature of an enkomion than of a skolion. Simonides may have composed an enkomion in honour of Xenokrates of Agrigentum. From Pindar's single book we have

fragment xiv. to Alexander of Makedon, nos. 118, 119 to Theron of Agrigentum; Bergk regarded xv. as belonging to this class, and Fennell does the like with the 11th Nemean. Diagoras eulogized Arianthes and Nikodoros, Ion wrote in praise of Skythiades; and Euripides' panegyric of Alkibiades is cited both as an enkomion and as an epinikion. Timotheos closes the list of classical writers of enkomia. In the Alexandrian age Theokritos (17) sings of Ptolemy. Late Boiotian inscriptions occasionally refer to composers of panegyrics, who regularly took part in the musical contests: thus we find an ἐγκ. εἰς Μούσας C. I. G. S. 1773. 13 (second century A.D.), èук. Éttɩkóv, which is not identical with a rhapsody, ib. 416. 9, èyk. λογικόν 419. 11 (ἐγκ. καταλογάδην 418. 2), all of the first century B.C. An ἐγκωμιογράφος appears at the festival of Aphrodisias C. I. G. 2759 (about 200 A.D.), an ἐγκωμιογράφος εἰς τὸν Αὐτοκράτορα C. I. G. S. 1773. 11. An eyκúμov to Apollo has already been mentioned.

EPINIKION.

For the almost total wreck of the earlier forms of choral song we are indemnified by the survival of that species which the judgment of the ancients pronounced to be the best. The extant body of triumphal songs in honour of the victors at the national agonistic festivals exceeds in bulk the rest of the remains of Greek melic. The splendour of the contests and the renown that was accorded to the successful competitors inspired the epinikion; and this, the latest creation of the melic art, though of brief duration-its life scarcely compassed more than a century—, so captivated succeeding generations that it was preserved, at least in large part, as the most splendid product of the lyric age; while the more

intimate expressions of the varied personal and national lyric life gradually lost their hold on the popular fancy. The epinikia of Pindar and Bacchylides owe their preservation to their intrinsic merit, though the music of the former was highly esteemed. The other forms of choral song were either too narrow in their range and too local in their cults 1 to awaken the sympathy of the Greeks of the Alexandrian age, who had ceased to cling to the traditional faith; or, as in the case of the dithyramb and the nome, whose success depended on the virtue of their music, neglect was the result of the loss of the melodies. To us, however, the epinikion is at best so distinctively Hellenic, so distinctly the emanation of a particular era and occasion, that it fails to win that spontaneous appreciation which, under the im pulse of a common humanity, we accord to many other forms of Greek song.

A detailed examination of the epinikion from the point of view of its opulent style and of its complicated structure, is beyond the scope of this volume, which, in excluding Pindar, excludes the most individual type. As the commentaries on that poet and the histories of Greek literature, which contain an ampler description of the epinikion than of the other classes of melic, are easily accessible, the following account aims at presenting only the chief facts and such points of approach as will serve as an introduction to the study of Bacchylides.

THE GAMES.

The four great national games were religious festivals (ἀγῶνες ἱεροι).

1Cf. Eust. Proleg. to Pind. (oi èπiviкioi) Tepidyovтai μáλiσTO διὰ τὸ ἀνθρωπικώτεροι εἶναι καὶ ὀλιγόμυθοι καὶ μηδὲ πόνυ ἔχειν ἀσαφῶς κατά γε τὰ ἄλλα.

1. The Olympic games, in honour of Zeus, were celebrated after 776 in uninterrupted succession. Herakles was their mythical, Oxylos their prehistoric, founder. Iphitos of Elis, about a century before the first Olympiad, restored them and made them pentaeteric. The contest took place in the Altis at Elis, near the Alpheios, at the foot of the hill of Kronos, and close to the tomb of Pelops. They were held in July (or August), when the moon was full, and (after 472) lasted for five days. The contests were equestrian and gymnic, in all twelve kinds up to 408. From the seventh Olympiad on the prize was a crown of wild olive, which was adjudged by the Hellanodikai. The victor might erect a statue of

himself at Olympia.

2. The Pythia, in honour of Apollo, date in their renewed form from 582 (or 586) and were held in the middle of August every four years, in the third year of each Olympiad. The contests were musical, gymnic, and equestrian; the prize, a laurel crown; the judges, the Amphiktyons. The musical contest was held at Delphi; the others, in the neighbouring plain of Krissa.

3. The Nemea, in honour of Zeus, were held in July at the time of the new moon, in the second and fourth year of each Olympiad. They are said to have been originally funeral games founded by the seven leaders of the expedition against Thebes; and were renewed in 573. In the classical period the contests were chiefly gymnic, but the race with the four-horse chariot was admitted. The prize was a crown of fresh celery; the umpires, who wore darkcoloured robes, the Kleonaians, and later the Argives.

4. The Isthmia, in honour of Poseidon, took place in April near the gates of Korinth, every second and fourth Olympiad. According to one account they were instituted to commemorate the drowning of