Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/132

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fragment on Danae adrift in the chest justifies the admiration of ancient critics for his 'unsurpassed pathos.' On the other hand, he is essentially an Ionian and a man of the world, one of the fathers of the Enlightenment. He has no splendour, no passion, no religious depth. The man who had these stood on the wrong side in his country's life-struggle; and Greece turned to Simonides, not to Pindar, to make the record of its heroic dead.

TIMOCREON

The 'Home for Geniuses' which Hiero's court eventually became, must have been a far from peaceful refuge. Pindar especially was born to misunderstand and dislike Simonides; and though jealousy is not one of the vices laid to the latter's charge, he was a wit and could be severe. When he was attacked by a low poet from Rhodes, TIMOCREON, who is chiefly known by his indecent song of delight at the condemnation of Themistocles as a traitor-"Not Timocreon alone makes compacts with the Medes; I am not the only dock-tail; there are other foxes too!" Simonides answered by writing his epitaph: "Here lies Timocreon of Rhodes, who ate much, drank much, and said many evil things." The poet's poetry is not mentioned.

BACCHYLIDES

Simonides's nephew, BACCHYLIDES, lived also at Hiero's court, and wrote under the influences both of his uncle and of Pindar. He was imitated by Horace, and admired for his moral tone by the Emperor Julian-a large share of 'immortality' for one who is generally reckoned a second-class poet. And it appears that more is i