24 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



the same thing with more self-conscious art and set purpose ; but the 

 men of this age carried their disregard of the individual as compared 

 with the state even into that form of poetry which had been most indi- 

 vidualistic. Even the sepulchral epigrams are no exception. When 

 grief is expressed it is the grief of the state, rarely of individuals.^i 

 It is sometimes said that Simonides brought in a new kind of epi- 

 gram.^2 Whether Simonides wrote all the epigrams attributed to him 

 is a matter for dispute, but it cannot be disputed that not Simonides 

 but the spirit and purpose of the age furnished the material for those 

 epigrams. Eloquence and grandeur of expression he or some other 

 poet may have contributed, but the spirit was the spirit of all Greece.^^ 

 The epigram at this period reached the height of its splendor. 83, 

 one of the noblest that have come down to us, is indeed strikingly 

 simple : 



Q ^ei'f, (uvbpov TTOK fvaiojies narv Onpiudov 

 viiv b ufie A'lauTos vaaos t'x^' SuXci/xi's, 



but this simplicity is of a different kind from that of 17 and 20. With 

 set purpose the pride of the dead is, as it were, imitated in the verses, 

 and thus the very simplicity becomes the most perfect art. That this 

 is characteristic of the fifth century is shown by the fact that two epi- 

 grams attributed to Simonides, originally consisting each of one simple 

 distich, were lengthened by later writers, and thus lost much of their 

 magnificence.^* 



91 Cf. 77 c, 79, 86, 87, 88 with 1, 2, 6, 7. 



82 On the eingiams of Simonides, see Kaibel, Junghahn, Hiller, Ilauvette, Bergk, 

 Boas, Wilaniowitz, Wilhehn (see n. 1). 



93 Cf. Keitzenstein, p. 106 : Der Ycrsnch ans der Oescliichte dcs Epigranims die 

 entscheidende PersiJnliclikeit des Simonides zn streichen, indein man ihiii nur lii^st, 

 was der diirren und diirftigcn Form aus dcm sechsten Jahrlnindort von namenlosen 

 Privatleiiten gesetzten Inschriften entsjiricht, weist die iiberraschende Fortliildung 

 des Fjpigramms und die Bildinig der nencn anf Jahrhundcrte hinaus wirksamen 

 Formen nur nicht di'ni grossen Dichter, wclchen liierfiir das Altcrtum Iccniit, sondern 

 namenlosen, wenig jiingoren Zeitgenosseu dessclhen zu. 



Cf. Wilamowitz "(Goett. Nachr.), 1897, p. 320: Der danials ziemlirh allcrorten in 

 Hellas fiir die mctrischen Aufschriften geltendc Stil verdient das liohe Loli, das bis- 

 her der Person des Simonides gezollt ward. 



9* 83 and 125. To these Willielm (JOAI 2, pp. 221 IT.) would add (with groat prob- 

 ability) 99 and 193, and (less likely) 101, 105, 109. See also Wilamowitz (Goctt. 

 Nachr., 1897, pp. 306 IT.). Boas (p. 109) has shown that the later addition to 83 

 was imitated from 99, and the spurious part of 99 from the genuine lines of 33. The 

 motive wliieh caused the lengthening of 83 and 125 was evidently the desire to give 

 in the ej)igrani certain definite and imjxirtant facts which were often found in inscrip- 

 tions. Tlic additions (?) in 99 and 193 could be accounted for in the same way, but 

 such is not the case with 101, 105, 109, where the last verses do not add facts at all. 



