Melos: Ancient Greek Lyric Poetry in Theory and Practice

By William Henderson

Although both sources are preserved in a severely fragmented state, there is sufficient material to
form viable conclusions.

Teachers and students in Classics or Ancient Greek, as well as students and researchers of lyric poetry in other languages, or comparative literature in general, will all find interest and benefit from this book. The work offers a useful vademecum for quick reference to these sources as well as an accessible textbook for discussions on the nature of lyric poetry. In total 559 testimonia are presented, together with discussion and relevant literature. In addition, there are two bibliographies, one of editions and translations of texts, the other of critical discussions.

About the Author

Dr Henderson is Emeritus Professor in Greek and Latin Studies in the Department of Languages, Culture and Applied Linguistics at the University of Johannesburg. He has published articles in academic journals and collective volumes locally and abroad, as well as six volumes of translations of Greek poetry into Afrikaans verse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Henderson
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005576318

William Henderson

I have come to understand that happiness is a byproduct of working at something you enjoy and not a goal in itself. It can be anything, a sport, musical instrument or hobby, as long as it takes effort and discipline. Some time ago I realized that one of the things that truly made me happy was writing.Anything that gets people, especially young people to read is wonderful. However, it is tragic that we have separated and withdrawn from the real world to such an extent that we no longer see the mystery and wonders of nature that are our birthright.The Lex & Ricky Mysteries are meant to expose young people to the wonders of the natural world and our collective native heritage. An awareness of sustainability issues is provided along with questioning the cost of trading away our inheritance for short lived "prosperity," often to people who do not live in our communities. Most people cannot possibly imagine the rich natural and spiritual life they are denying themselves.

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MELOS

MELOS

Ancient Greek Lyric Poetry in Theory and Practice

William Henderson

Copyright © 2022 William Henderson

Published by William Henderson Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

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Published by William Henderson using Reach Publishers’ services,

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William Henderson

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Dedicated to the memory of my beloved and loving wife Ann (10 January 1937 ‒ 29 July 2021)

Table of Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

1. The Theory of Lyric

2. The Performance of Lyric

3. The Form of Lyric

4. The Kinds of Lyric

Bibliography

Index A: Lyric Poets, Singers and Lyre Players

Index B: Testimonia

Preface

The lyric poem as a literary phenomenon reveals itself in so many forms and disguises as to demand countless attempts to understand it and defies any single effort to confine it to definitions and theories. The present study concentrates on its ancient Greek version, the melic poem (as distinct from elegy and iambic), and aims to examine the essential elements of ancient Greek lyric as a literary genre. This is therefore not a history of Greek lyric poetry, a survey of individual poets or a comparative treatment of the concept ‘lyric’ in general. Of course, historical perspective, analysis of individual poets and an awareness of ‘lyric’ as a genre provide the necessary foundations of such a study. However, the work has been conceived as a handbook on ancient Greek lyric for a non-specialist reader: undergraduate and graduate students in Greek literature, those embarking for the first time on a study of the ancient Greek lyric poets, those working in the field of comparative literature or literary theory. Any reader from these categories can easily be daunted by the amount and complexity of the secondary literature on texts already difficult to handle and riddled with problems. If this work can act as a key to both the remnants of Greek lyric poetry and the surviving views of ancient theorists and critics, it will have served its purpose.

Given that the intended reader is unlikely to need or be able to handle the original Greek texts, it seemed practical to omit the original Greek and Latin texts and provide only translations and transcriptions. Editions of the original texts and translations used are listed in the bibliography. Access to the Greek texts is readily available online in the latest edition of the Thesaurus Graecae Linguae or on websites such as archive, open library or Diogenes. Though I have consulted many translations, I have tried to present my own versions by keeping as close to the originals as the English language allows.

This study started life as a revision of the significant contribution made by Hans Färber whose dissertation Die Lyrik in der Kunsttheorie der Antike (Munich 1936), collected a large number of the testimonia – what later critics wrote about these texts – that form the core of the present study. The exclusion of the original Greek and Latin texts has meant I could deviate from Färber’s format of placing the testimonia together in a separate section at the end and instead place the testimonia and comment together without adversely affecting its readability. Wherever possible, I have taken more recent editions and translations into account (listed in the bibliography) and included additional testimonia not found in Färber. Douglas Gerber (1993:17) evaluated Färber’s work in these words: "The main value of Färber’s dissertation lies in the thorough compilation and discussion of the ancient testimonia for the various categories of lyric composition. It is essentially a source-book, however, and takes no account of surviving examples of the relevant categories". I have tried to correct this deficiency by listing and briefly commenting on surviving poetry in the relevant categories.

Two kinds of ancient texts are examined to build up material for the (re)construction of ancient lyric practice and theory. From the poems themselves we can garner the poets’ pronouncements about their and others’ poetry (their credo), but we can also attempt to recreate a kind of poetic and genre theory from the poets’ actual poetic praxis. Given the fragmented state of the lyric texts, the evidence of the scattered and often deficient testimonia needs to be harvested to supplement (though never complete) the reconstruction. This approach requires the poetic text and critical evaluation by later writers to be presented and juxtaposed for comparison and synthesis. In reality creative practice precedes theory; in this study we shall be looking back at ancient Greek lyric through the eyes of the ancient critics. Though they worked on texts already several centuries old and created in different literary, political, social and historical conditions, they had one crucial advantage: they had a greater body of texts and complete poems at their disposal. We cannot fully trust our immediate responses to the fragments of ancient Greek lyric; we need the ancient testimony to establish context, content, style and references, even though in many cases their information is partial and inaccurate and requires careful handling.

However, it is insufficient to reconstruct the theory and practice of lyric performance; ideally, each individual poet’s achievement vis-à-vis the generic tradition should be taken into account. Such an aim would have been too ambitious for the present study; the main focus will therefore be on only the generic elements of particular poems. What is presented here is intended as a starting point for discussion and further examination of the surviving lyric texts. For fuller analyses of the poems and fragments, the surveys of Gerber (1989, 1990, 1994) and contributions in the two recent companions to ancient Greek lyric poetry edited by Gerber (1997) and Budelmann (2009) are essential research instruments. The arrival of the internet means the massive body of secondary literature is now readily accessible worldwide. Researchers can update the bibliography, interpretation and critique; a task I have been unable in retirement and during the Covid-19 pandemic to perform.

A study like this owes a great deal to the work of others. The primary acknowledgement must go to the numerous scholars who have collected, restored, edited and commented on the poems and fragments. Where I am aware of a specific debt, I have noted it in the footnotes and bibliography, but it has become almost impossible to trace the parentage and subsequent career of every idea on the subject to give the necessary acknowledgement.

I wish to express my gratitude to the late Prof. Bruno Gentili of the University of Urbino, for the hospitality and facilities I enjoyed during extended periods of sabbatical leave in 1976, 1983 and 1989. My thanks are also due to Prof. Joachim Latacz of the University of Basel and Prof. Douglas E. Gerber of the University of Western Ontario where I spent further periods of study in 1993 and 1997 respectively. Then I wish to thank the Centre for Scientific Development of the Human Sciences Research Council (now the National Research Foundation) for grants that enabled me to undertake much of this research abroad. I must also thank the University of Johannesburg (formerly the Rand Afrikaans University) for study-leave, financial support, research facilities and library services. I have been fortunate to make use of the excellent facilities of the University of Leiden Library on several visits. For access and assistance I wish to thank the librarian and subject assistants. I am grateful to my former colleagues in the Department of Languages, Cultural Studies and Applied Linguistics (Section: Greek and Latin Studies) for advice and criticism during departmental seminars and for shouldering additional teaching during my periods of absence.

A special word of thanks and appreciation goes to my daughter Catherine for her assistance with the cover design, her personal tribute to her late mother.

My gratitude is also extended to Nicola Jenvey and Sian Sigamoney and staff for their excellent editing of a difficult and unfamiliar text.

Abbreviations

1. In the footnotes the names and works of Greek and Latin authors are abbreviated as in Liddel, Scott & Jones (LSJ) and Lewis & Short (LS); elsewhere they are expanded for easier recognition by non-specialist readers. The Greek Anthology (Anthologia Palatina and Anthologia Planudea) are abbreviated as AP and APl respectively.

2. The names of journals are abbreviated according to l’Année Philologique.

3. Books are abbreviated with the names of the author and the year of the edition used.

4. The poems and fragments of the Greek lyric poets are numbered according to the edition used (further details can be found in the bibliography):

5. The following abbreviations have been used for reference works:

I

The Theory of Lyric

1. Lyric and Greek Society

Testimonia 1.1-21

1.1 Herodotus 1.23

This Arion, they say, spent most of his time at the court of Periander ...

1.2 Plato, Gorg. 501e

Socrates: Let’s first examine pipe-playing. Don’t you think, Callicles, this art form aims only at our pleasure, without considering anything else? Callicles: I think so. Soc.: And surely all such arts, for example lyre-playing in the contests? Cal.: Yes. Soc.: What about the training of choruses and the composition of dithyrambs? Don’t they seem the same to you? Do you suppose Cinesias son of Meles considers at all how to say something as a result of which the audience would become better, or because he wishes to become popular with the crowd of spectators? Cal.: The latter, Socrates, is clearly Cinesias’ concern. Soc.: And what about his father Meles? Do you think he played the lyre with an eye on the highest quality? Or did he not even regard the highest pleasure? For he upset the audience when he sang. But anyway: don’t you think that both lyre-playing as a whole and the composition of dithyrambs were invented for the sake of pleasure? Cal.: I do.

1.3 Plato, Ep. 2.311a

For example, when men talk about Hiero or Pausanias of Sparta, they like to mention their association with Simonides and what he did and said to them.

1.4 Ps.-Plato, Hipp. 228b-c

... to Peisistratus’ son Hipparchus ..., who was the eldest and wisest of Peisistratus’ sons, and who in many other fine deeds showed his wisdom: he was the first to bring the epics of Homer to this country and ordered the rhapsodes to recite them in relays from beginning to end at the Panathenaic Festival as these people now still do; he also sent a 50-oared galley to Anacreon of Teos to bring him to Athens; and he kept Simonides of Ceos always in his presence, persuading him with large payments and gifts. He did all this, wishing to educate the citizens, so he could rule over the best subjects there were, because, as a noble and good man, he thought no-one should be deprived of wisdom.

1.5 Apollonius, Hist. mirac. 40

The musician Aristoxenus, in his Life of Telestes (Fr. 117 Wehrli), says that, at the time when he happened to be in Italy, some incidents occurred, of which one unusual one concerned events involving women. For they suffered such distractions that sometimes, when seated and dining, they answered as if someone were calling, then became unruly and rushed out and ran outside the city. When the inhabitants of Locri and Rhegium consulted the oracle for relief from the affliction, the god told them to sing [12] spring paeans [per day] for 60 days. As a result of this, he says, there were many composers of paeans in Italy.

1.6 Plutarch, Lyc. 4

With favour and friendship (Lycurgus) persuaded one of those (Cretans) then considered wise and statesmanlike to travel to Sparta. This was Thales who appeared to be a composer of lyric poems and made this skill a screen, but in fact performed his task like the best of the lawgivers; for his songs were exhortations to obedience and harmony by means of melodies and rhythms that had a great deal of order and tranquillity. Hearing them, people unconsciously became peaceful in their behaviour and joined together in zeal for the good, leaving the malevolence towards one another that came regularly at that time. So (Thales) in a way prepared the way for Lycurgus in his teaching of the Spartans.

1.7 Plutarch, Lyc. 21.3

In short, anyone who has studied poetry among the Spartans, some of which was still preserved in my time, and picked up the marching rhythms they used to the accompaniment of the pipe as they set upon their enemies, would conclude that both Terpander and Pindar (Fr. 199 S-M) were right to connect courage with music. For the former has composed the following about the Lacedaemonians ... (Fr. 6 Bergk).

1.8 Plutarch, Lyc. 28.5

Thus they also say that later, during the Theban expedition against Laconia, the captured Helots, when ordered to sing songs of Terpander, Alcman and Spendon the Laconian, begged not to, saying their masters did not allow it.

1.9 Ps.-Plutarch, De mus. 42 = Mor. 1146b-c

That the best organised among the city-states have taken care to pay attention to noble music can be attested by a great deal of other evidence. One could take Terpander, who ended the strife that had at the time arisen among the Spartans; and Thales of Crete, who they say had arrived among the Spartans in accordance with an oracle and, through his music, cured them and delivered Sparta from the plague that gripped it, as Pratinas says (Fr. 713 iii PMG).

1.10 Pausanias 1.2.3

At that time, then, poets lived with kings and yet earlier Anacreon consorted with Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, and Aeschylus and Simonides travelled to Hero of Syracuse.

1.11 Pausanias 1.14.4

Thales who stopped the plague for the Spartans ...; Polymnestus of Colophon, who composed epic verses on him for the Spartans, says Thales was from Gortyn.

1.12 Pausanias 4.27.7

They worked to no other music than Boeotian and Argive pipes; the melodies of Sacadas and Pronomus, in particular, were at that time involved in rivalry.

1.13 Aelian, VH 12.50

The Spartans were ignorant of music; for their interest lay in physical training and weapons. Whenever they needed help from the Muses, because they were suffering disease or insanity or any other such public malady, they summoned strangers, such as doctors or purifiers, in accordance with the Pythian oracle. Thus, they summoned Terpander, Thales, Tyrtaeus, Nymphaeus of Cydonia, and Alcman (who was a Lydian).

1.14 Athenaeus 14.627a

Thus the poet Alcaeus, who was highly skilled in music if anyone was, puts the concerns of courage before those of poetry, becoming more war-like than was proper. Therefore, taking pride in such themes, he says: ... (Fr. 140 L-P).

1.15 Athenaeus 14.632f

Among the Greeks, the Spartans preserved the art of music the best, practising it widely, and lyric poets being numerous among them. Even today they carefully preserve the old songs and are also expert and strict concerning them. Hence Pratinas says: (Fr. 709 PMG).

1.16 Aristides Quintilianus 2.4, 6

Why, then, are we astonished if it happened that the ancients made the greatest improvement through music? For they saw both the strength of this activity and its operation in accordance with nature. Therefore, just as they paid attention to other things of concern to us – I speak of health and good habits, trying to maintain some things, undertaking to increase other things, and limiting as far as is profitable the things that go to excess − so also, therefore, was it impossible to hinder the things in songs and dances that accrue by nature to all children, nor was it necessary to remove nature herself; but, cultivating little by little and imperceptibly, they designed an orderly course combined with pleasure and made something useful out of something useless.

There is, therefore, no activity among humans that is carried out without music. Sacred hymns and offerings are adorned with music, particular feasts, and the festal assemblies of cities delight in it; wars and travels are both excited and made calm through music. It also makes sailing and rowing and the most difficult of the handicraft-tasks not burdensome by being a relief from the toil. It has even been adopted by some of the non-Greeks in their funeral rites to break off the height of pain with melody. Indeed, (the ancients) saw we do not turn to singing for just one reason, but some sing out of pleasure during festivities, others out of pain during times of grief and yet others out of divine frenzy when possessed by divine impulse and inspiration; or even when these are mixed with one another by certain accidents and circumstances or when children, because of their age, or even those advanced in age, because of weakness of nature, are led on by such feelings. ...

(6) Seeing these things, the ancients therefore contended that it was necessary to practice music from childhood throughout life and they used approved songs, rhythms and dances, having ordained by law, in private festivities and public sacred feasts, certain customary songs, which they also called nomoi, having caused the religious ceremony to be a kind of instrument of security for them (the nomoi = laws). They also pledged by this name (nomos) that the songs remain inviolable. ... For while all education produces encouragement either through feelings, such as education from the nomoi, or through persuasion, such as that in assemblies, music prevails by both means, both enslaving the hearer by word and melody, and drawing him on, by varied changes both of sound and forms, by the relationship of the things expressed. The ancients therefore employed educational music for even up to 100 days, but music for relaxation only up to 30 days; and with solemn melody and dance, they taught the more esteemed people, who were either watching or were themselves participating; and with pleasant music they relaxed the multitudes. For where all the guardians of the city-state were serious, as in wise Plato, there was need only of songs of earnest intent for education; but where various people were welding together the totality of the community, as in other cities, there was also need of amusement suitable to each.

1.17 Himerius, Or. 27.24 Colonna

For Anacreon adorns the city of Teos with his lyric poems and from it draws his loves; and Alcaeus adorns Lesbos and introduces Mytilene into his poetry. Simonides and Bacchylides focus their attention on Iulis; and Stesichorus not only makes Sicilian Himera free from tyrants, but also adorns it with his words.

1.18 Himerius, Or. 29.35 Colonna

Polycrates was then a young man; the elder Polycrates (his father) was king not only of Samos, but of all the seas of Greece bounded by the land. Now the younger Polycrates of Rhodes (?) loved music and lyric poetry and persuaded his father to help him in his passion for music. His father summoned the lyric poet Anacreon and presented him to his son to teach him what he desired. Under his guidance, the boy worked hard at royal virtue by means of the lyre ...

1.19 Macrobius, Sat. 5.22.4

Alexander of Aetolia, the famous poet, in his book entitled The Muses, relates with what enthusiasm the population of Ephesus, at the dedication of their temple to Diana, ensured with prizes offered that the most talented poets of the time should compose various songs in honour of the goddess. In Alexander’s verses, Diana herself, and not Diana’s companion, is called Opis. Well, he is speaking, as I said, of the people of Ephesus (Fr. 4 Powell):

But hearing that everywhere Timotheus was dear to Greeks for his skill in lyre and songs, they asked the famous man, Thersander’s son, for gold shekels to sing of the sacred millennium and of Opis, shooter of swift arrows, who has her precious house along the Cenchreius.

1.20 Suda, s.v. Ibykos (2.607 Adler)

Ibycus ... by birth of Rhegium. From there he went to Samos when the father of the tyrant Polycrates ruled over it.

1.21 Suda, s.v. metá Lésbion ôidón (3.370 Adler)

‘Next to the Lesbian singer’: a proverb used of those who take second place; for the Spartans invited the Lesbian kithára-singers first; for when their city was in a state of unrest, the oracle advised them to summon the Lesbian singer; so, having summoned Terpander, who was in exile from Antissa because of a murder, they listened to him at their public banquets and became calm. Or because the Spartans, when there was unrest, summoned from Lesbos the musician Terpander, who composed their minds and stopped the strife. So after that, whenever the Spartans listened to some musician, they used to say ‘next to the Lesbian singer’.

See also 2.12; 5.7, 11, 12; 11.2; 13.11; 14.6, 7, 8.

Comment

Music played an important role in every facet of ancient Greek lives over many centuries. It accompanied their religious festivals, warfare, state occasions, education and everyday activities. It was for them one of the most essential requirements of civilised life. The largest part of this music was the setting of poetic texts. Music and poetry were one.

The Greeks’ local and national religious and secular festivals, where lyric poets found their most frequent inspiration, content and exposure, offer an insight into the large part lyric poetry played in particular city-states and in Greek society as a whole. Of course, a great deal was meant simply for pleasure (1.2, 16), but lyric poetry also played a central and pervasive role in education as the reservoir of the folk encyclopaedia, the moral, social, political, historical and religious codes and experience accumulated over many generations by the community. There were other more specific functions. Literally thousands of lyrics were composed annually in the Hellenic world for various occasions. Apart from the more official, national religious occasions such as festivals in honour of specific deities, in specific places or seasons, or the dedication of temples and sanctuaries, there were the social and family-orientated occasions such as weddings, funerals and banquets, or the celebration of athletic, political and military achievements by influential and wealthy aristocrats and ruling families, such as the tyrants of Sicily. Thus Arion spent most of his life at the court of Periander of Corinth (1.1); Simonides of Ceos was richly rewarded by Hipparchus, son of Peisistratus and tyrant of Athens (1.4), and also made his poetic talent available to Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse (1.3, 10); Philoxenus of Cythera had a more hazardous career at the court of Dionysius of Syracuse where he chose to be critical of the tyrant’s efforts at poetry and Anacreon, from Teos on the west coast of Asia Minor, and Ibycus from Rhegium in southern Italy, made a living with their poetry at the court of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos (1.20, 17, 18). There was a constant need for professional poets who, commissioned and remunerated, created suitable lyric poems for an occasion. According to Athenaeus (1.15), Sparta led the other Greek states in preserving and practising traditional songs.

Our sources preserve several anecdotes encapsulating the role, function and importance of the lyric poet in the Greek mentality. Plutarch refers to the Spartans’ use of marching songs in battle (1.7) and notes the reluctance of the Helots to sing these patriotic songs (1.8). Athenaeus (1.14) refers to Alcaeus’ exhortations to courage support for his political actions. There were more peaceful applications. Lyric poets were employed to celebrate the dedication of the temple of Diana at Ephesus (1.19). Building operations were accompanied by music on pipes and songs of Sacadas and Pronomus (1.12). Plutarch relates (1.6) a traditional tale of the lyric poet Thales (or Thaletas) of Crete, who was invited to Sparta by the lawgiver Lycurgus because his poems inspired the citizens to harmony and obedience of the law. Lyric poets are reported to have healed Sparta of plague and other ills (1.11, 13). Thales ended a plague in Sparta. The Ps.-Plutarch (1.9) explains that the story illustrates how the best organised states are serious about good music (= poetry). Thaletas was invited to Sparta on the advice of a Delphic oracle to heal the Spartans and drive out the plague from their city with his music. He also mentions the case of Terpander of Lesbos who was brought to Sparta to end a rebellion. Apollonius (1.5) cites Aristoxenus’ biography of Telestes for the story about how the women of Locri and Rhegium in southern Italy were plagued by an unusual malady: at table they felt an irresistible urge, as if someone were calling them; they leapt up and ran out into the streets. The oracle’s solution was spring paeans be sung for 60 days. This, according to Apollonius, explained the large number of paean-writers in Italy. Aelian (1.13) provides yet more details: the Spartans were inexperienced in the musical arts because they preferred to practice gymnastics and weapon-skills; and in times of crisis, such as diseases of body and mind, summoned strangers on the oracle’s advice. Poets such as Thales, Tyrtaeus, Nymphaeus of Cydonia and Alcman of Sardis in Lydia came to Sparta. The Suda (1.21) rationalises the manner in which the songs of these poets could heal the citizens: the citizens heard Terpander’s music during their public banquets and ended their disputes or his music rendered their minds harmonious and ended the conflict.

These anecdotes are not historical reports, but come from the folk tradition and were believed and preserved by the Greeks themselves. They reflect clearly enough the deeply experienced role and influence of the combination of word, dance and music (of the lyric) in Hellenic religion and daily life, a role and influence with roots in the oral tradition and tribally based socio-political structure. Aristides Quintilianus (1.16) provides an extensive account of the educational role of music in Greek society: its contribution to health, behaviour and well-being; enhancement of work, play and worship; encouragement in war and consolation in grief. Music achieves this by its power to captivate and enchant; encourage, console, persuade and amuse.

Greek lyric poetry cannot be studied and understood in a vacuum, as an autonomous form of Wortkunst, since this form of poetry was in essence occasional. The reader or researcher must take due account, to the extent the surviving material allows, of the particular occasion for which the poem was composed and during which it was performed, namely the function and context of the communication or publication in a predominantly oral culture. A performance poetica must be reconstructed. It is this situation in a specific occasion that determined the essential form, content and style of early Greek as well as Western lyric verse.

In Greek tragedies, sorrow is seen in terms of a negation of or end of music and evocations of evil are characterised by the absence of or hostility to music, musical instruments, choral song and dance, hymns and wedding-songs.

2. The Kinds of Poetry

Testimonia 2.1-22

2.1 Plato, Resp. 3.392d-399d

(392d) Do not all things told by myth-writers or poets happen to be a narrative of either events that have occurred or are occurring or going to occur? ... And surely these are accomplished either by simple narrative, or by imitation, or by both?

(393b) ... And nearly all the other narrative is created thus in the case of the events in the Iliad and in Ithaca and the entire Odyssey.

(394b, c) Now suppose, I said, on the other hand the opposite of this takes place, when someone removes the poet’s (choral) passages in between and leaves only the dialogue. I understand this too, he said, this is about tragedy. You have understood perfectly, I said, and now I believe what was previously unclear to you, is now clear: there is one kind of poetry and mythology created entirely by imitation, as you say, tragedy and comedy, but there is also a kind consisting of a recital of the poet himself − you will find this especially in dithyrambs − and another kind again which is a combination of both, namely in epic poetry, and often also elsewhere, if you understand me.

(398c, d) At any rate, I said, you can readily tell, in the first place, a song is composed of three elements: words, melody and rhythm.

(399c, d) Then surely, I said, we shall not need multiple chords and the pan-harmonic scale in the odes and songs. I don’t think so, he said. And surely we shall not maintain makers of three-cornered pêktis-lyres and all instruments that have many chords and harmonies. We don’t think so. But what of this: would you accept pipe-makers and pipe-players into the city? Surely not when this pipe-music has the most tones and the instruments that produce all the harmonies happen themselves to be an imitation of the pipe? Clearly not, he said. Then, I said, only the lyre and the kithára remain for use in the city and besides some kind of syrinx-pipe would be permissible for shepherds in the fields.

2.2 Aristotle, Poetica 3.1448a20-24

For one can also imitate with the same media and the same objects, either by narrating one moment and becoming another person the next, as Homer does, or with the same person without changing, or with all the persons performing [the imitation], that is, acting.

2.3 Scholia Londinensia (AE) on Dionysius of Thrace (450.3-9 Hilgard)

There are three types of poetry: narrative, dramatic and mixed. In narrative poetry, the characters being represented are distinguished, but their parts are spoken by the poets themselves. In dramatic poetry, the poet’s person is separate and the parts are spoken by the persons being represented. Mixed poetry is the synthesis of the two.

There are four types of narrative and mixed poetry: epic, elegiac, iambic and melic; there are three types of dramatic poetry: tragic, comic and satyric.

2.4 Accius, fr. 13 Morel (8 Funaioli, Gram. Rom. Fr. 1.27), Didascalicorum IX

For learn Baebius how various the kinds of poems are and how widely they differ from one another.

2.5 Philodemus, Poem. 2.35

Comedy and tragedy and lyric poetry.

2.6 Cicero, Orat. 55.183

When the singing has been taken away from certain metres, the speech seems to be free; this is especially the case also in the best among the poets, who are called lyrikoi by the Greeks; when you deprive them of the singing, almost bare speech remains.

2.7 Cicero, De opt. gener. orat. 1

Each type of poetry – tragic, comic, epic, melic and also dithyrambic – is different from the rest.

2.8 Horace, AP 73-85

In what metre the deeds of kings and generals, and grim wars could be written, Homer showed; in verses joined unequally, at first lamentation, later too the expression of a granted wish were cast; But who first uttered lowly elegiacs, scholars argue and the case is still before the court; Anger armed Archilochus with his own iambic verse; comic socks and high buskins adopted this foot, suited to alternate speeches and conquering the crowd’s noise and born for acted events; the Muse gave to strings to tell of gods and children of gods, and the victorious boxer, and the horse first in the race, and the cares of youths, and liberating wine.

2.9 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, De comp. verb. 22.38-44 Usener- Radermacher

Of this type of composition there were many keen exponents,in poetry, history and public speaking, but outstanding above the rest were in epic poetry, Antimachus of Colophon and Empedocles the natural philosopher, in lyric poetry Pindar, in tragedy Aeschylus, in history Thucydides, and in public speaking Antiphon.

2.10 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, De comp. verb. 23.43-49 Usener-Radermacher

Of the epic poets, then, Hesiod seems to me to have best accomplished this type; of the lyric poets Sappho, and after her Anacreon and Simonides; of the tragedians only Euripides; of the historians none exactly, but Ephorus and Theopompus more than the majority; and of the orators Isocrates.

2.11 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, De comp. verb. 24.21-26 Usener-Radermacher

Of the others, those who pursued the same middle path would seem a long way behind Homer when compared with him, but if one were to consider them by themselves, they are well worth looking at: among lyric poets Stesichorus and Alcaeus; among tragedians Sophocles; among historians Herodotus.

2.12 Dio Chrysostomos, Orat. 18.18 (Von Arnim 2.253ff.)

Melic songs and elegies and iambic poems and dithyrambs are greatly suited to someone conducting a school.

2.13 Quintilian 10.1.46-61.

Therefore we think we should properly start from Homer. ... Then there will be room to deal with elegy, whose chief exponent is considered to be Callimachus. ... And so of the three writers of iambic poems transmitted in Aristarchus’ judgement one especially will achieve permanent status, Archilochus. ... But of the nine lyric poets by far the chief is Pindar ...

2.14 Caesius Bassus (6.312 Keil)

Types of Latin poetry

Epic or dactylic, epigram, iambic, lyric, tragic, satire, indigenous drama (fabula praetextata), comedy, low-class comedy, popular farce (fabula Atellana), travestied tragedy, mime.

2.15 Excerpts after Caesius Bassus, Frag. 6-10 (6.274 Keil)

There are three kinds of poetry: action, narrative, combined. The action type is what the Greeks call representing action, where the poet ... (gap followed by Caesius Bassus’ list, 2.14)

2.16 Tacitus, Dial. 10

Indeed, I consider all eloquence and all its subdivisions sacred and worthy of respect, not only your tragedy or the sound of heroic song, but also the pleasure of the lyric poets and the wantonness of the elegists and the bitterness of the iambic poets and the playfulness of the epigrammatists and I believe whatever other type eloquence may have, is to be set above the remaining pursuits of other arts.

2.17 Plutarch, De glor. Athen. 5 = Mor. 348b

The city (of Athens), then, had no famous writer of epic or melic poetry. For Cinesias seems to have been a troublesome poet of dithyrambs; and he himself was without family and fame, but, mocked and jeered at by the comic poets, he gained his share of an unfortunate reputation. But the Athenians regarded the comedy-writing of the dramatic poets so undignified and vulgar, that there was a law that no member of the Areopagus should write comedies.

2.18 Marius Victorinus, Ars gramm. (De metris) 1.11 (6.50.10 Keil)

Therefore the types of metres are four: epic, melic, comic, tragic.

2.19 Diomedes, Ars Gramm. (1.482-483 Keil)

There are three kinds of poetry. For it is either active or imitative, what the Greeks call dramatic or mimetic; or narrative or demonstrative, what the Greeks call exegetic or apangeltic; or common or mixed, what the Greeks call koinon or mikton. The dramatic or active kind is poetry in which characters act alone without any poet speaking in between, as in the case of tragic and comic plots; in this kind is written the first of (Vergil’s) bucolic poems and the one whose beginning is Whither, Moeris, are your feet taking you? (Ecl. 9.1). The exegetic or narrative kind is poetry in which the poet speaks without any character speaking in between, as in the case of the first three books and the first part of the fourth book of (Vergil’s) Georgics, as well as the poetry of Lucretius and others like these. The common or mixed kind is poetry in which the poet speaks and speaking characters are introduced, just as Homer’s entire Iliad and Odyssey and Vergil’s Aeneid, and others like them are written.

... The first type of the common or mixed poetry is the heroic, as in the case of the poetry of the Iliad and the Aeneid. The second type is lyric as in the case of the poetry of Archilochus and Horace.

2.20 Proclus, Bibl. Phot. 319a

(Proclus) continues his examination of poetry in the course of which he shows what difference exists between ethos and pathos. He says one kind of poetry is narrative, another imitative. Narrative poetry comprises epic, iambic and elegiac and lyric poetry; imitative poetry comprises tragedy, satyric drama and comedy.

2.21 Tzetzes, Diff. poet. 34 Kaibel

They intend to begin the poetic words,

wishing to teach, firstly, the differences.

For thus the youth will have a good overview

and indeed it is necessary to read the rest.

Learn, o young man, poetic genre, 5

endure many cuts and divisions.

For one of them bears the name lyric,

another tragic, comic, monody,

as well as satyric and dithyrambic.

The writing of iambics is parallel to these, 10

and a whole poetic type without name.

Every distinguishing mark must be made clear:

the mark of lyric poets is firstly the lyre;

for they sing their songs to lyre-accompaniment.

They had a chorus of fifty members 15

and bulls as a gift while they stood in a circle

Hence someone calls them bull-eaters.

The list of the lyric circle is the following:

Corinna, Sappho, Pindar, Bacchylides,

Anacreon, Ibycus, Alcman, Alcaeus, 20

Stesichorus and also Simonides,

the ten best, universally, completely.

Therefore I must now treat the dithyramb. 142

These poets had the lyric (lyre?), chorus, standing-

position and gift; but ask me the rest.

Those writing words in honour of Dionysus 145

wrote a great deal of twisting song,

which the line itself made exactly clear,

with song-twisters’ multi-directional turning.

They did this in imitation of the turns

of Bacchus and the multi-turning rotations; 150

it got the name dithyramb, my son,

from Dionysus’ bacchic chorus-positions,

which ran out of two doors,

the thigh of Zeus and the belly of Semele.

Say that Philoxenus from Cythera 155

invented the literary form of dithyramb.

2.22 Anonymous, Proleg. (Rabe, Rhet. Graec. 14.38)

For nor must one recite these words as in the case of (epic) poetry, or act them tragically or comically as in the case of drama, or sing them as in the case of lyric poetry.

See also 3.8; 5.11; 7.8, 14; 9.1; 15.6; 17.15, 17, 25.

Comment

Poetry is divided in modern literary theory into epic, lyric and dramatic, though the division is not absolute. Lyric poetry is characterised by subjective emotion, attitude and content. The ancient testimonia reveal a different approach. There are two