forms, in order to give strength and variety
to his verse, or to accommodate the
peculiarity of his metre. Pindar also indulged
in a high state of religious sentiment.
Entertaining a profound reverence for the
gods, he rejects those forms of ancient
legends which ascribed to them mortal
frailties, and conduct of equivocal morality.
He dedicated a temple to the Great Mother
near his own house in Thebes:  and erected
statues to Jupiter Ammon and Mercury
in the market-place. We have reason to
regret that we have secured no more of his
works than the Epinician or triumphal
odes, and that of his hymns, dithyrambic
poems, dirges, drinking-songs, mimic
dancing-lyrics, songs of maidens, panegyrics
on princes, and other similar compositions,
we possess only fragments. He
has been named, from the boldness of his
conceptions and the daring sublimity of his
metaphors, the Æschylus of lyric poetry.

Anacreon, though earlier in date than
Pindar, belongs to the third group of
poets, namely, to those who wrote in the
dialect of Ionia. We have already intimated
that his lyrics were amatory in character,
and devoted to celebrating the pains
and pleasures of love. Amatory poetry
was much cultivated by the Greeks.
Alcman, or Alcmæon, who lived at Sparta
about four hundred and seventy years
before the Christian era, is regarded as the
father of Greek erotic poetry, and wrote
a class of poems called Parthenia, or
praises of virgins, which were popular
with the Spartans, and sung by them at
table with those of Terpander. The last-
named poet composed what were called
scholia, or perhaps only the music to which
they were sung. The scholia belonged to
a kind of poetry which appeared before
the time of Solon, and flourished especially
in the period between him and Alexander.
It was simply a peculiar form of the lyric,
consisting of little songs, designed for
social purposes, and particularly employed
at banquets and festive entertainments.
The word scholion properly signifies
something crooked, or irregular. Now the
Greeks had three modes of singing at the
table:  First, all the guests formed a joint
chorus, chanting a pæan, accompanied by
the harp, in honour of some deity. Secondly,
the harp was passed from guest to
guest, beginning with the one occupying
the chief place, and each was requested to
sing some sonnet from Simonides,
Stesichorus, Anacreon, or other favourite author.
Those who declined to play might sing
without the harp, holding in their hand a
branch of myrtle. Thirdly, the harp was
absolutely required, and with it a harpist's
skill. In this case the harp did not
pass in order from guest to guest;  the
performer finished some couplets, then
presented the myrtle branch, with the cup or
vase, to another, who continued the song
and the music, and he transferred it to a
third. This mode of passing the harp it
was that appears to have been considered
irregular. But Plutarch states that the
scholia were accompanied with the sound
of the lyre, and that this instrument was
presented to each guest, and those who
were unable to sing or play could refuse to
take it. The myrtle, also, passed from
couch to couch in a peculiar manner, the
first guest on the first couch passing it to
the first on the second, and he on to the
first on the third;  when it was returned to
the first couch, and the guest occupying
the second place there having sung and
played, passed it to the second on the
second couch, and thus, by means of this
crooked manœuvring, it went through the
whole company.

Others think it more natural that the
name should have referred to the irregularity
of metre, the scholion having unlimited
license in this respect. The subjects
of these songs were various, treating
often of serious matters, and burdened
frequently with the praises of the gods,
and sometimes including songs for popular
use, such as those designed for enlivening
manual labour and domestic care—songs,
for instance, of shepherds, reapers, weavers,
nurses, &c. Besides Terpander, as author
of such pieces, were Citagorus the
Lacedæmonian, Hybrias of Crete, Timocreon of
Rhodes, Archilochus of Paros, and other
lyric poets. For lyric poetry was not, from
the beginning, absolutely confined to the
praises of the gods and to the religious
festivals, but enthusiasm had been awakened
by the revolutions in favour of liberty, and
the tumult and excitement of republican
contests and hazards were congenial to
its spirit. Lyric poetry admitted a free
license and variety of metres, and suited
every topic in turn. Rapidly it extended
to almost every concern of life;  the weaver
at the loom, the drawer of water at the
well, the sailor at his oars, and even the
beggar in his wandering, had each his
appropriate song, usually accompanied with
the lyre.

Anacreon lived about five hundred and
thirty-six years before the Christian era,