GRAGG. — THE GREEK EPIGRAM BEFORE 300 B. C. 25 



More ornate are 77 b, c, 81, SO, 132, 138. 



In this century tragedy and rhetoric were coming more and more to 

 the front, and we can begin to trace their inlhience in the epigram. 

 This appears at first more in general sentiment and style of composition 

 than in particular words or phrases. The tragic poets have had their 

 eft'ect on such epitaphs as 77 c, 79-81, 8(5. Cf any one of these with 90, 

 — an epigram quite untouched by this influence and carrying on the 

 somewhat rude simplicity together with the phraseology of earlier 

 inscriptions. Tragedy and rhetoric alike have helped to give us the 

 antitheses and the metaphors in 77 b, Aldfjp fxefj. yj/vxos . . . aunara 8e 



xOdiv ;^^ 11 C,"Av8pas fiefi . . . yl/v)(as Se, ^v\as 8 uvrlppona Oeures rj[W]a- 



^avT dpfTTjv.^^ That this influence should appear first in epitaphs is 

 natural enough, since the emotions of pity, grief, and affection are 

 capable of more poetic treatment than the somewhat cool gratitude of 

 the dedicatory inscriptions. However, in a few of the dedications 

 preserved in MSS. we find poetic touches.^^ 



In the inscriptions of this century the same formulas appear repeat- 

 edly, and not only those that are simple and almost essential, but often 

 those that are more elaborate and original. ^^ 



The epigrams which are preserved in MSS. show the same tendencies 

 as the inscriptions. A few are very simple. So — 



110« 2^/xa Qf6yvi86i dpi StrcoTreoy, co p' eTTedrjKev 

 TXai/Kos eraipeiTji avrl TToXvxfOfiov. 



153. TavT dno ^vcrpevkutv MtjSwi' vavrai AioSapov 

 ottX' dvedep Aarol prapara vavpa)(iai.^^ 



Some are diluted, e. g. 175.1''*' Some are made more ornate, e. g. 

 liS.i^'i In some, as in 148, new material is added. 102 Elaborate and 



but merely pad what has gone before. It is, moreover, impossible to base upon the 

 evidence of two poems (which alone ave ^^roved to have been lengthened) any conclu- 

 sions that will enable us to detect with certainty similar pieces of patchwork among 

 the epigrams i)reserved only in MSS., especially as we possess inscriptions of the 

 fifth century which eontain genuine lines of much the same character as the spurious 

 lines of 83 and 125 (e. g. 75 and 79). Without the proof, which discovery of the 

 actual stones alone can give, we have only the merest conjecture to go upon. 



^' Cf. Eur. Suppl. 543, irvevpa piv irpbs aldipa, t6 crtD/xa 5' ii yrjv. The Suppliants 

 was produced twelve years after the battle commemorated in ep. 77, but the senti- 

 ment of the inscription is tragic. See G. H. Macurdy, Classical Weekly, March 6, 

 1909, p. 139. 



^^ Cf. Aesch. Ag. 438: 6 xpi'<''aM<"/36s 5"'A/3r;s o-tofidruv 

 Kal ToKavTovxo^ iv pdxv 5op6s. 



" E. g. 145, 148, 164. " See Table III. 



" Cf. Ill, 149, 150. "0 Cf. 109, 157, 168. 



"1 Cf. 96, 102, 103, 105, 108, 112, 152. "2 Cf. 102, 164, 167, 169. 



