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BACCHYLIDES
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BACCHYLIDES , See also:Greek lyric poet, was See also:born at Iulis, in the See also:island of See also:Ceos. His See also:father's name was probably Meidon; his See also:mother was a See also:sister of Sirnonides, himself a native of Iulis. See also:Eusebius says that Bacchylides, " flourished " (ika,uq-ev) in Ol. 78. 2 (467 B.C.). As the See also:term 'Kµaq"EV refers to the See also:physical See also:prime, and was commonly placed at about the fortieth See also:year, we may suppose that Bacchylides was born circa 507 B.C. Among his Odes the earliest that can be approximately dated is which may belong to 481 or 479 B.C.; the latest is vi., of which the date is fixed by the recently found fragment of the Olympic See also:register to 01. 82. (452 B.c.). He would thus have been some See also:forty-nine years younger than his See also:uncle See also:Simonides, and some fifteen years younger than See also:Pindar. Elsewhere Eusebius states that Bacchylides " was of repute " (iyvcop tero) in 01. 87. 2 (431 B.C.); and Georgius See also:Syncellus, using the same word, gives 01. 88 (428–425 B.c.). The phrase would mean that he was then in the fulness of years and of fame. There is nothing improbable in the supposition that he survived the beginning of the Peloponnesian See also:war. Bacchylides, like Simonides and Pindar, visited the See also:court of See also:Hiero I. of See also:Syracuse (478–467). In his fifth See also:Ode (476 B.c.), the word Efeos (v. 11) has been taken to mean that he had already been the See also:guest of the See also:prince; and, as Simonides went to See also:Sicily in or about 477 B.C., that is not unlikely. Ode iii. (468 B.c.) was possibly written at Syracuse, as verses 15 and 16 suggest. He there pays a high compliment to Hiero's See also:taste in See also:poetry (ver. 3 ff.). A scholium on Pyth. ii. 90 (166) avers that Hiero preferred the Odes of Bacchylides to those of Pindar. The Alexandrian scholars interpreted a number of passages in Pindar as hostile allusions to Bacchylides or Simonides. If the scholiasts 1 The references are given according to the numbering in See also:Jebb's edition. are right, it would appear that Pindar regarded the younger of the two Cean poets as a jealous See also:rival, who disparaged him to their See also:common See also:patron (schol. Pyth. ii. 52 f.), and as one whose poetical skill was due to study rather than to See also:genius (01. ii. 91-r 1o). In Olymp. ii. 96 the dual yapverov, if it does not refer to the uncle and See also:nephew, remains mysterious; nor does it admit of probable emendation.' One would gladly reject this tradition, to which the scholia so frequently refer; yet it would be rash to assume that it rested merely on surmise. The Alexandrians may have possessed See also:evidence on the subject which is now lost. It is tolerably certain that the three poets were visitors at Hiero's court at about the same See also:time: Pindar and Bacchylides wrote odes of the same See also:kind in his See also:honour; and there was a tradition that he preferred the younger poet. There is thus no See also:intrinsic improbability in the See also:hypothesis that Pindar's haughty spirit had suffered, or imagined, some See also:mortification. It is noteworthy that, whereas in 476 and 470 both he and Bacchylides celebrated Hiero's victories, in 468 (the most important occasion of all) Bacchylides alone was commissioned to do so; although in that year Pindar composed an ode (Olymp. vi.) for another Syracusan See also:victor at the same festival. Nor is it difficult to conceive that a See also:despot such as Hiero, whose constitutional position was See also:ill-defined, and who was perhaps all the more exigent of deference on that See also:account, may have found the genial Ionian a more agreeable courtier than Pindar, an aristocrat of the Boeoto-Aeolic type, not unmindful of " his fathers the Aegidae," and rather prone to See also:link the praises of his patron with a lofty intimation of his own claims (see, e.g., Olymp. i. ad fin.). But, what-ever may have been the true bearing of Pindar's occasional innuendoes, it is at any See also:rate pleasant to find that in the extant See also:work of Bacchylides there is not the faintest semblance of hostile allusion to any rival. See also:Nay, one might almost imagine a compliment to Pindar, when, in mentioning See also:Hesiod, he calls him Bows-3s av$p. See also:Plutarch (de Exilio, p. 605 c) names Bacchylides in a See also:list of writers, who after they had been banished from their native cities, were active and successful in literature. It was See also:Peloponnesus that afforded a new See also:home to the exiled poet. The passage gives no See also:clue to date or circumstance; but it implies that Peloponnesus was the region where the poet's genius ripened and where he did the work which established his fame. This points to a See also:residence of considerable length; and it may be noted that some of the poems illustrate their author's intimate know-ledge of Peloponnesus. Thus in Ode viii., for Automedes of Phlius, he draws on the legends connected with the Phliasian See also:river Asopus. In Ode x., starting from the Argive See also:legend of Proetus and Acrisius, he tells how the Arcadian cult of See also:Artemis 'H,*a was founded. In one of his dithyrambs (xix.) he treated the legend of See also:Idas (a Messenian See also:hero) and Marpessa in the See also:form of a hymenaeus sung by maidens of See also:Sparta. The Alexandrian scholars, who See also:drew up select lists of the best writers in each kind, included Bacchylides in their " See also:canon of the nine lyric poets, along with Altman, See also:Sappho, See also:Alcaeus, See also:Stesichorus, See also:Ibycus, See also:Anacreon, Simonides and Pindar. The Alexandrian grammarian See also:Didymus (circ. 30 B.C.) wrote a commentary on the epinikian odes of Bacchylides. See also:Horace, a poet in some respects of kindred genius, was a student of his See also:works, and imitated him (according to Porphyrion) in Odes, i. 15, where See also:Nereus predicts the destruction of See also:Troy. Quotations from Bacchylides, or references to him, occur in See also:Dionysius of See also:Halicarnassus, See also:Strabo, Plutarch, See also:Stobaeus, See also:Athenaeus, Aulus See also:Gellius, See also:Zenobius, See also:Hephaestion, See also:Clement of See also:Alexandria, and various grammarians or scholiasts. See also:Ammianus See also:Marcellinus (See also:xxv. 4) says that she See also:emperor See also:Julian enjoyed See also:reading Bacchylides. It is clear, then, that this poet continued to be popular during at least the first four centuries of our era. No inference adverse to his repute can fairly be See also:drawn from the fact that no mention of him occurs in the extant work of any See also:Attic writer. The only definite estimate of him by an See also:ancient critic occurs in the See also:treatise See also:Hopi "T}Govs commonly translated " On the See also:Sublime," but meaning rather, 1 For other explanations suggested, see Jebb's edition, Introd. p. 18. " On the See also:Sources of See also:Elevation in See also:Style "; a work ambiguously ascribed to See also:Cassius See also:Longinus (circ. A.D. 260), but more probably due to some writer of the first See also:century of our era. In See also:chapter xxxiii. of that treatise, the author asks whether we ought to prefer " greatness " in literature, with some attendant faults, to flawless merit on a See also:lower level, and of course replies in the affirmative. In tragedy, he asks, who would be See also:Ion of See also:Chios rather than See also:Sophocles; or in lyric poetry, Bacchylides rather than Pindar? Yet Bacchylides and Ion are "faultless, with a style of perfect elegance and finish." In See also:short, the essayist regards Bacchylides as a thoroughly finished poet of the second class, who never commits glaring faults, but never reaches the loftier heights. The first and most See also:general quality of style in Bacchylides is his perfect simplicity and clearness. Where the See also:text is not corrupt, there are few sentences which are not lucid in meaning and See also:simple in structure. This lucidity is partly due, no doubt, to the fact that he seldom attempts imagery of the bolder kind, and never has thoughts of a subtle or complex See also:order. Yet it would be very unjust to regard such clearness as merely a compensatory merit of lyric mediocrity, or to ignore its intimate connexion with the See also:man's native See also:grace of mind, with the artist's feeling for expression, with the poet's delicate skill. How many readers, who could enjoy and appreciate Pindar if he were less difficult, are stopped on the See also:threshold by the aspect of his style, and are See also:fain to See also:save their self-esteem by concluding that he is at once turgid and shallow! A pellucid style must always have been a source of wide, though modest, popularity for Bacchylides. If it be true that Hiero preferred him to Pindar, and that he was a favourite with Julian, those instances suggest the See also:charm which he must always have had for cultivated readers to whom affairs did not leave much leisure for study, and who rejoiced in a poet with whom they could live on such easy terms. Another prominent trait in the style of Bacchylides is his love of picturesque detail. This characteristic marks the fragment by which, before the See also:discovery of the 1896 MS., he was best known —a passage, from one of his paeans, on the blessings of See also:peace (fr. 13, See also:Bergk, 3, Jebb); and it frequently appears in the Odes, especially in the mythical narratives. Greater poets can make an See also:image flash upon the mind, as. Pindar sometimes does, by a magic phrase, or by throwing one or two salient points into strong See also:relief. The method of Bacchylides is usually quieter; he paints See also:cabinet pictures. Observation and elegance do more for him than grasp or piercing insight; but his work is often of very high excellence in its own kind. His treatment of simile is only a See also:special phase of this general tendency. It is exemplified by the touches with which he elaborates the simile of the See also:eagle in Ode v., and that of the See also:storm-tossed mariners in Ode xii. This full development of simile is Homeric in manner, but not Homeric in See also:motive: See also:Homer's aim is vividness; Bacchylides is rather See also:intent on the decorative value of the details themselves. There are occasional flashes of brilliancy in his imagery, when it is lit up by his keen sense of beauty or splendour in See also:external nature. A radiance, " as of See also:fire," streams from the forms of the Nereids (xvi. 103 ff.). An See also:athlete shines out among his See also:fellows like " the See also:bright See also:moon of the See also:mid-See also:month See also:night " among the stars (viii. 27 ff.). The sudden gleam of See also:hope which comes to the Trojans by the withdrawal of See also:Achilles is like a See also:ray of See also:sunshine " from beneath the edge of a storm-See also:cloud " (xii. 105 ff.). The shades of the departed, as seen by Heracles on the See also:banks of the See also:Cocytus, are compared to the countless leaves fluttering in the See also:wind on " the gleaming headlands of See also:Ida " (v. 65 ff.)--an image not unworthy of See also:Dante or of See also:Milton. Among the See also:minor features of this poet's style the most remarkable is his use of epithets. A See also:god or goddess nearly always receives some ornamental epithet; sometimes, indeed, two or even three (e.g. KaXvKocrae456,vou ve,uvas . . . 'Apreyibos X w wAEvov, v. 98 f.). Such a trait is in unison with the epic manner, the straightforward narrative, which we find in some of the larger poems (as in v., x., and xvi.). On the other See also:hand, the copious use of such See also:ornament has the disadvantage that it sometimes gives a tinge of conventionality to his work. This impression is somewhat strengthened by the fact that many of- the epithets are See also:long See also:compound words, not found elsewhere and (in some cases at least) probably invented by the poet; words which suggest a deliberate effort to vary the stock repertory. The poems contained in the MS. of Bacchylides found (see below) in 1896 are of two classes: I. Odes of Victory; II. Dithyrambs. The Ode of Victory, Eir viiwv (naos) or ki.vucos (6µvos), is a form derived from the 6µvos, which was properly a See also:song in praise of a deity. Stesichorus (c. 6so B.C.) seems to have been the first who composed See also:hymns in honour, not of gods, but of heroes; the next step was to write hymns in celebration of victories by living men. This See also:custom arose in the second See also:half of the 6th century B.C., the See also:age in which the See also:games at the four See also:great Greek festivals reached the fulness of their popularity. Simonides (b. c. 556 B.C.) was the earliest recorded writer of epinikia. His odes of this class are now represented only by a few very small fragments, some twenty lines in all. Two of these fragments, belonging to the description of a See also:chariot-See also:race, See also:warrant the belief that Simonides, in his epinikia, differed from Pindar in dwelling more on the incidents of the particular victory. The same characteristic is found in the epinikia of -Bacchylides. His fifth ode, and Pindar's first Olympian, alike celebrate the victory of the See also:horse Pherenicus; but, while Pindar's reference to the race itself is slight and general (vv. 20-22), Bacchylides describes the See also:running of the winner much more vividly and fully (vv. 37-49). The MS. contains fourteen epinikia, or thirteen if See also:Blass be right in supposing that Odes vi. and vii., as numbered by See also:Kenyon in the editio prince ps, are parts of a single ode (for Lachon of Ceos). Four (or on the view just stated, three) of the odes relate to the Olympian festival; two to the Pythian; three to the Isthmian; three to the Nemean; and one to a Thessalian festival called thellerpaia. This comes last. The order in which the MS. arranges the other epinikia seems to be casual; at least it does not follow (I) the alphabetical sequence of the victors' names, or of the names of their cities; nor 2) See also:chronological sequence; nor (3) See also:classification by contests; nor (4) classification by festivals—except that the four great festivals precede the Petraea. The first ode, celebrating a victory of the Cean Argeios at the See also:Isthmus, may possibly have been placed there for a See also:biographical See also:reason, viz., because the poet treated in it the See also:early legends of his native island. A mythical narrative, connected in some way with the victor or his See also:city, usually occupies the central See also:part of the Pindaric ode. It serves to lift the poem into an ideal region, and to invest it with more than a See also:local or temporary significance. The method of Bacchylides in this See also:department of the epinikion is best illustrated by the myth of See also:Croesus in Ode iii., that of Heracles and See also:Meleager in Ode v., and that of the Proetides in Ode x. Pindar's See also:habit is to select certain moments or scenes of a legend, which he depicts with great force and vividness. Bacchylides, on the other hand, has a See also:gentle flow of simple epic narrative; he relies on the See also:interest of the See also:story as a whole, rather than on his See also:power of presenting situations. Another See also:element, always See also:present in the longer odes of victory, is that which may be called the " gnomic." Here, again, there is a contrast between the two poets. Pindar packs his yviaµat, his See also:maxims or moral sentiments, into terse and sometimes obscure epigrams; he utters them in a didactic See also:tone, as of one who can speak with the commanding See also:voice of Delphic See also:wisdom. The moralizing of Bacchylides is rather an utterance of quiet meditation, sometimes recalling the See also:strain of Ionian gnomic See also:elegy. The epinikia of Bacchylides are followed in the MS. by six compositions which the Alexandrians classed under the general name of &0upaµ(3os, and which we, too, must be content to describe collectively as Dithyrambs. The derivation of &-Obpaµi3os is uncertain: & may be the See also:root seen in Sios (cp. borbXta), and Oi paµ43os another form of Opia 43os, a word by which See also:Cratinus (c. 448 B.C.) denotes some kind of hymn to the See also:wine-god. The " dithyramb," first mentioned by See also:Archilochus (c. 67o B.c.), received a finished and choral form from Anion of See also:Lesbos (c. 600 B.C.). His dithyrambs, produced at See also:Corinth, belonged to the cult of See also:Dionysus, and the members of his See also:chorus (rpayucds xopbs) personated See also:satyrs. Originally concerned with the See also:birth of the god, the dithyramb came to dealwith all his fortunes: then its See also:scope became still larger; it might celebrate, not Dionysus alone, but any god or hero. This last development had taken See also:place before the See also:close of the 6th century B.C. Simonides wrote a dithyramb on See also:Memnon and See also:Tithonus; Pindar, on See also:Orion and on Heracles. Hence the Alexandrian scholars used &.0bpau os in a wide sense, as denoting simply a lyric poem occupied with a mythical narrative. Thus Ode xvii. of Bacchylides (See also:relating the voyage of See also:Theseus to See also:Crete), though it was clearly a 'mats for the Delian See also:Apollo, was classed by the Alexandrians among his " dithyrambs "—as appears not only from its place in our MS., but also from the allusion of Servius (on Aen. vi. 21). The six dithyrambs of Bacchylides are arranged in (approximately) alphabetical order: 'AvrgvopLbaL, 'HpwcX js, 'Hieeos i e0oths, Orloe5s, "ISas. The See also:principal feature, best exemplified by the first and third, is necessarily epic narrative,—often adorned with touches of picturesque detail, and animated by short speeches in the epic manner. Several other classes of See also:composition are represented by those fragments of Bacchylides, preserved in ancient literature, which were known before the discovery of the new MS. (1) "vµvos. Among these we hear of the a7o7reµnrrucof, hymns of pious fare-well, speeding some god on his way at the See also:season when he passed from one haunt to another. (2) aasaves, represented by the well-known fragment on the blessings of peace. (3) srpoaO&a, choral odes sung during processions to temples. (4) 6ropxi scera, lively See also:dance-songs for religious festivals. (5) EpwTLK1t, represented by five fragments of a class akin to (sla a, drinking-songs. Under this See also:head come some lively and humorous verses on the power of wine, imitated by Horace (Odes, iii. 21. 13-20). It may be conjectured that the facile grace and bright See also:fancy of Bacchylides were seen to especial See also:advantage in See also:light compositions of this kind. (6) The elegiacs of Bacchylides are represented by two E1rLypaµµara avaOflµartKa, each of four lines, in the See also:Palatine See also:Anthology. The first (See also:Ana. vi. 313) is an inscription for an offering commemorative of a victory gained by a chorus with a poem written by Bacchylides. The second (Anth. vi. S3) is an inscription for a See also:shrine dedicated to See also:Zephyrus. Its authenticity has been questioned, but not disproved. The See also:papyrus containing the odes of Bacchylides was found in See also:Egypt by natives, and reached the See also:British Museum in the autumn of 1896. It was then in about 200 pieces. By the skill and See also:industry of Mr F. G. Kenyon, the editor of the editio princeps (1897), the MS. was reconstructed from these lacerated members. As now arranged, the MS. consists of three sections. (r) The first See also:section contains 22 columns of See also:writing. It breaks off after the 8 opening verses of Ode xii. (2) The second section contains columns 23-29. Of these, See also:column 23 is represented only by the last letters of two words. This section comprises what remains of Odes xiii. and xiv. It breaks off before the end of xiv., which is the last of the epinikia. (3) The third section comprises columns 3o-39. It begins with the mutilated opening verses of Ode xv. ('Asrr opt.ac, the first of the dithyrambs), and breaks off after See also:verse 11 of the last dithyramb,"ISas. The number of lines in a column varies from 32 to 36, the usual number being 35, or (though less often) 34. It is impossible to say how much has been lost between the end of column 29 and the beginning of column 30. Probably, however, Ode xiv., if not the last, was nearly the last of the epinikia. It concerns a festival of a merely local See also:character, - the Thessalian [kraals, and was therefore placed after the thirteen other epinikia, which are connected with the four great festivals. The same lacuna leaves it doubtful whether any collective See also:title was prefixed to the &BGpageoi. After the last column (39) of the MS., a See also:good See also:deal has probably been lost. Bacchylides seems to have written at least three other poems of this class (on See also:Cassandra, Laocoonand See also:Philoctetes) ; and these would have come, in alphabetical order, after the last of the extant six (Idas). The writing of the MS. is a See also:fine uncial. It presents some traits of a distinctlyPtolemaic type, though it lacks some features found in the earlier-Ptolemaic See also:MSS. (those of the 3rd or 2nd century B.C.). Among the characteristic forms of letters is the T, with a shallow See also:curve on the See also:top of the upright; a form found in MSS. ascribed to the 1st century B.c., and different from the more fuIIy formed upsilon of the See also:Roman See also:period. Another very significant See also:letter is the written as a form which begins to go out after c. 5o B.c., giving place to one in which the See also:middle stroke is connected with the other two. From these and other indications it is probable that the MS. is not later than the middle of the 1st century B.c. The See also:scribe, though he sometimes corrected his own mistakes, was, on the whole, careless of the sense, as of the See also:metre; he seems to have been a See also:mechanical copyist, excellent in penmanship, but intent only on the letters. The MS. has received corrections or small supplements from at least two different persons. One of them (Kenyon's See also:A2) was contemporary, or nearly so, with the scribe. The other (A3) was considerably later; he wrote a Roman cursive which might belong to the end of the 1st century A.D., or to the early part of the 2nd. The correctors seem to be generally trustworthy; though, like the scribe, they were inattentive to metre, passing over many metrical faults which could easily have been removed. They appear to have compared their MS. with another, or others; but they sometimes made a See also:bad use of such aid, intruding a false reading where their text had the true one. Breathings are generally added, especially rough breathings; the form is usually square, but sometimes partially rounded. Accents are added, not to all words, but only, as a See also:rule, to those which might cause doubt or difficulty to the reader. This was the Alexandrian practice, accents being regarded as See also:aids to correct reading, and more liberally used when the See also:dialect was not Attic. In accordance with the older See also:system, the See also:accent is not written on the last syllable of a word; when the accent falls there, a See also:grave accent is written on the preceding syllable, or on two such syllables (e.g. ,9A'ixpas, vravOd.Arjs). As Kenyon observes, no MS. of equal antiquity is so well supplied with accents. The MS. which comes nearest to it in this respect is the See also:Alcman fragment in the Louvre, which is of similar or slightly higher age, belonging perhaps to the early part of the 1st century A.D.; and in that MS. the comparatively frequent accents were doubtless designed to aid readers unfamiliar with Alcman's Laconian Doric. With regard to other grammatical or metrical signs (7rpacryatat) used in the Racchylides MS., there is not much that calls for special remark. The See also:punctuation, whether by the scribe or by correctors, is. very sparse, and certainly cannot always be regarded as authoritative. The signs denoting the end of a See also:strophe or See also:antistrophe (paragraphus), of an See also:epode (coronis), or of an ode (See also:asterisk), are often omitted by the scribe, and, when employed, are sometimes placed incorrectly, or employed in an irregular manner. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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