GRAGG. — THE GREEK EPIGRAM BEFORE 300 B. C. 27 



So 171 and 174, in spite of a few happy touches, for the most part 

 drag hopelessly. 



Ill epigrams earlier than ;}()() we have almost nothing of that half- 

 reverential, half-intimate affection for nature which is part of the 

 charm of so much of the later work. We find in the fifth century but 

 one metaphor drawn from nature, — that of the harvest of war (81). 

 When special localities are mentioned, now and then a picturesque 

 word or phrase accompanies them ; e. g. Ino Kpordcfiois eXikcovos (t)8), 

 Alp(f)v()s vTTo nrvxi (l<>l), <TKoiTfKoiaLv''h6a) (163). IDl is the first epigram 

 which I'rankly enlarges on the beauty of nature, and 164 first expresses 

 the simple confidence of man in natural forces : 



164. EvBrjixos Tov vqov (tt aypov toVS' aveStjKev 

 TM ndvTwv avipuiv TnoTaTto ZfCpvpa, 

 (V^apiuo) yap ol i]X6f ^aadooi, o(jypa rdxtO'Ta 

 XiKpfjarj TiiTTovuiv KapTTov air daraxvav. 



The general tone of this epigram is so strikingly like that of many later 

 verses ^^^ that it is tempting to assign it to the third century, espe- 

 cially as even the fourth century offers no parallels to it. There is in it, 

 however, nothing which we can fairly say could not have been written 

 in the fifth century, and Jebb ^^^ decides that there is nothing to pre- 

 vent its having been written by Bacchylides himself 



We possess, too, many epigrams attributed to the fifth century which 

 were never meant to be inscribed. These are of various sorts. The 

 well-known 188 is a true iralyviov ; 



AKpov lriTp6v"AKpa>v, ^ AKpaynvTivov narpos aKpov, 

 KpvTTTei Kprjpvos uKpos naTpidos aKpoTarr]! — 



but there are no good grounds for rejecting it, especially when we 

 remember that Lasus is said to have indulged in a similar tou?- deforce 

 in the shape of a poem which did not contain the letter o-.io® 

 189 is the first epitaph that we have a right to call epideictic : 



TToXXa ipaycbv Ka\ TToXXa nicov Koi TroXXct kok finuv 

 dvOpwirovs, Kflfxai Tt/io/cpewv 'PdStos. 



Anyone can see that this was not meant to be inscribed, but it imi- 

 tates an inscription so far as the form is concerned. Of the same 

 character is 190, which obviously parodies 189. Such poems could be 

 composed when the sepulchral epigram was considered an ornament 



1®* Cf. Mackail's section II. "' In his edition of Bacchylides. 



"6 See Christ, Gr. Lit.-Ges.* p. 193. 



