LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 213 wafted to the ears of mortals. As when, in the wintry moon, Zeus ap- points fourteen days as the sacred brooding time of the gay-plumed halcyons, which the earth-dwellers call the sleep of the winds*." Y ith this smooth and highly polished style of composition every thing in the poetry of Simonides is in the most perfect harmony; the choice of words which seeks, indeed, the noble and the graceful, yet departs less widely from the language of ordinary life than that of Pindar ; and the treatment of the rhythms which is distinguished from that of the Theban poet by a stronger preference for light and flowing measures (more especially the logaoedic) and by less rigorous rules of metre. § 13. Bacciiylides, the nephew of Simonides, adhered closely to the system and the example of his uncle. He flourished towards the close of the life of Simonides, with whom he lived at the court of Hiero in Syracuse; little more of his history is known. That his poetry was but an imitation of one branch of that of Simonides, cultivated with great delicacy and finish, is proved by the opinions of ancient critics; among whom Dionysius adduces perfect correctness and uniform ele- gance as the characteristics of Bacchylides. His genius and art were chiefly devoted to the pleasures of private life, love and wine ; and, when compared with those of Simonides, appear marked by greater sensual grace and less moral elevation. Among the kinds of choral poetry which he employed, besides those of which he had examples in Simonides and Pindar, we find erotic songs: such, for example, as that in which a beautiful maiden is represented, in the game of the Cottabus, as raising her white arm and pouring out the wine for the youths -j- ; a description which could apply only to a Hekera partaking of the ban- quets of men. In other odes, which were probably sung to cheer the feast, and which were transformed into choral odes from scolia, the praise of wine is celebrated as follows | : "A sweet compulsion flows from the wine cups and subdues the spirit, while the wishes of love, which are mingled with the gifts of Dionysus, agitate the heart. The thoughts of men take a lofty flight; they overthrow the embattled walls of cities, and believe themselves monarchs of the world. The houses
- Fr. 1»3. Sehneidewin.
t Athen.xi. p. 782. xvi. p. f>G7. Fr. 23. ed. Neue. I Athen. ii. p. .'39. Fr. 26. Neue. The ode consists of short strophes in the Doric measure, which are to be reduced to the following metre. _/ o o _ o o _£<-> — y. /uo_ou __£ u _ o This arrangement necessitates no other alterations than those which have been for other reasons : except that avroh, • straightways.' should be written tor airii
v. Ii.
