on the same day, and even placed the head of Archilocnus on the same bust with that of Homer. The few fragments of his poetry which are yet extant give us no proper means of deciding how far this lofty estimation was justly applied; but the general verdict of antiquity must be accepted as evidence of marked ability.

His style is praised by the ancients for its novelty, variety, and satirical bitterness. This latter quality, in fact, seems to have been a distinguishing characteristic of his works, "Archilochian bitterness" having become a byword in ancient Greece. His enemies he assailed without mercy, maliciously satirizing their most sensitive points, and taking the sting from their counter-accusations of cowardice by himself humorously describing the loss of his shield in battle.

"Rejoice, some Saián, who my shield may find,
Which in some hedge, unhurt, I left behind.
Farewell my shield; now I myself am free.
I'll buy another, full as good as thee."

One story, which strikingly shows the unbounded violence of his satire, is that Lycam'bes, a citizen of Paros, who had broken his promise to give his daughter Neobu'le in marriage to the poet, was so bitterly assailed that both father and daughter were driven to suicide to escape this merciless ridicule.

Judging, however, from the very high position assigned him, this vehemence of satire could not have been the whole of his merit, but must have been combined with a lofty degree of poetic skill. The extant fragments of his poetry, in fact, display only a philosophic spirit, with no indications of satire.

He is the reputed inventor of Iambic verse, the word Iambus being employed before his time to denote a species of rude raillery, to which the inspiration of the Bacchic and other festivals gave rise. These irregular forms of verse he first reduced to fixed rules. We subjoin a few of his remaining verses.

ON AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.

"Nought now can pass belief; in Nature's ways
No strange anomaly our wonder raise.

Th' Olympian Father hangs a noon-day night
O'er the sun's disk, and veils its glittering light.
Fear falls on man. Hence miracles before
Incredible, are counted strange no more.

Stand not amazed if beasts exchange the wood
With dolphins; and exist amidst the flood;
These the firm land forsake for sounding waves,

And these find pleasure in the mountain caves."- Elton.

EQUANIMITY.

"Spirit, thou Spirit, like a troubled sea,

Ruffled with deep and hard calamity,
Sustain the shock: a daring heart oppose:
Stand firm, amidst the charging spears of foes:
If conquering, vaunt not in vain-glorious show;
If conquered, stoop not, prostrated in woe:
Moderate, in joy, rejoice; in sorrow, mourn:

Muse on man's lot; be thine discreetly borne.”— Elton.

EXHORTATION TO FORTITUDE UNDER CALAMITY.

"Groans rise on griefs, O Pericles! nor they

Who feed the woe, in wine or feast are grey.

The billow of the many-roaring deep

Has borne these pleasures in its whelming sweep.

Our grief-swollen hearts now draw their breath in vain; Yet blessings, O my friend! will smile again.

The Gods reserve for seeming-cureless woe

A balm, and antidotes on grief bestow.

In turn the cure and suffering take their round,
And we now groaning feel the bleeding wound;
Now other breasts the shifting tortures know;
Endure; nor droop thus womanish in woe."— Elton.

THE STORM.

"Behold, my Glaucus! how the deep

Heaves, while the sweeping billows howl;

And round the promontory-steep

The big black clouds portentious scowl,

With thunder fraught, and lightning glare,
While terror rules, and wild despair." -Merivale.

THE MIND OF MAN.

"The mind of man is such as Jove

Ordains by his immortal will;
He moulds it, in the courts above,
His heavenly purpose to fulfill."-Merivale.

TWO MILITARY PORTRAITS.

"Boast me not your valiant captain,

Strutting fierce with measured stride,
Glorying in his well-trimmed beard, and
Wavy ringlets' clustered pride.
Mine be he that's short of stature,

Firm of foot, with curvéd knee;

Heart of oak in limb and feature,

And a courage bold and free."-Merivale.

TYRTE'US.

FLOURISHED ABOUT 670 B.C.

Tyrtæ'us, the second of the lyric poets, was in part the contemporary of Archilochus. Like all the poets whom we have so far considered, he appears in a new field, being celebrated for his political elegies and marching songs.

His history lies hidden under the same cloud of past time which obscures the lives of all these early writers, more fable than truth showing through the mist of oblivion. According to one account, he was a native of Attica, while another tradition makes him a Lacedæmonian.

The story goes that the Spartans, humiliated in their war with the Messenians, applied to the Delphic oracle to learn how they might become successful. The oracle replied that the Messenians would continue to triumph until the Spartans headed their troops with an Athenian general.

With a bitter swallowing of their pride, the haughty Spartans obeyed the oracle, and applied to Athens for a leader. The Athenians sent them, in derision, it is said, the lame schoolmaster and poet Tyrtæus as the leader of their armies.

Whatever was the purpose of the Athenians, he rendered the Lacedæmonians most efficient service, stilling their discords at home with his elegies, and rousing their spent courage with his war lyrics, till, inspired to ardor by the stirring songs of their poet leader, they became everywhere victorious, reducing the Messenians to complete submission and servitude. The following is one of his war elegies.

"Not on the lips, nor yet in memory's trace

Should that man live, though rapid in the race,
And firm in wrestling; though Cyclopean might
Be his, and fleetness like a whirlwind's flight;
Though than Titho'nus lovelier to behold;
Like Cin'arus, or Mi'das, graced with gold;
Than Pe'lop's realm more kingly his domain;
More sweet his language than Adras'tus' strain;
Not though he boast all else of mortal praise,
Yet want the glory of the warrior's bays.
He is not brave who not endures the sight
Of blood; nor, man to man, in closest fight,
Still pants to press the foe; here bravery lies;
And here of human fame the chiefest prize.
Firm and unyielding when the arméd man
Still presses on, and combats in the van,
He breaks the bristling phalanx from afar;
His foresight rules the floating wave of war;
Fallen in the foremost ranks, he leaves a name,
His father's glory, and his country's fame.
Old men and youths let fall the sorrowing tear,
And a whole people mourns around his bier.
But if, escaping the long sleep of death,

He wins the splendid battle's glorious wreath,
Him, with fond gaze, gray sires and youths behold,
And life is pleasant, till his days are old."-Elton.

Contemporary with these were several poets of less fame, yet each of whom, as, in fact, all the early Greek writers, of whose works we possess examples, can claim the honor of originating a special school of poetry. Such was the activity of the Hellenic mind at this epoch, that, with rapid succession, it originated and excelled in every form of poetical literature.

The poets in question were Terpan' der, Alc'man and Stesich'orus. Of these, Terpan' der invented the gay and festive kind of lyric poetry. He is credited with having gained the musical prize in many successive contests. He was not, however, highly esteemed by posterity, and we are unable to judge of his merits, as his works have all perished. Alc'man was a native of Sardis; was a man of very amorous disposition; was the earliest writer of love songs, and is thought to have been the first to introduce the practice of singing them in public. The fragment which follows is nearly the whole of his poetic remains :

TO MEGALOSTRATA.

“Again sweet love, by Venus led,

Hath all my soul possessed;

Again delicious rapture shed

In torrents o'er my breast.

Now, Megalostrata the fair,

Of all the virgin train

Most blessed,— with her yellow hair,—

Hath brought me to the Muse's fane."-Merivale.

Stesich'orus, a native of Sicily, is said to have received this name from being the first to teach the chorus to dance to the lyre. Hence the strophe, antistrophe, and epode of the chorus became associated throughout Greece with his name. He has been extravagantly praised by ancient writers, but of all his works only a few scattered fragments have been preserved. We give the following specimens.