GRAGG. — THE GREEK E;PIGRAM BEFORE 300 B.C. 15 



It is not only that these verses are far more charming than any yet 

 quoted, but we can see in them the beginnings of that {)rincii)le whicli 

 characterizes the elegy in contrast to the epic. For the epic, with all 

 its simplicity and directness of construction, depends for much of its 

 effect on sonorous and splendid words, while the charm of the elegy is 

 in familiar, even intimate sentiment never overshadowed by mere 

 magnificence of vocabulary. Even in these poems, bare and brief as 

 they are, it is the personal feeling of the writer that is expressed, and 

 expressed with pathos all the more touching because of the simple 

 means emplo3'ed. In hexameters, even those which express grief, the 

 writer is telling a story, he is objective ; in the elegiacs he is subjective. 

 Cf. the following poems. 



Upa^iTfXfi Todf fivafxa F'ktccv iroiFrjm 6avo\vTi • 

 t\ovto d' eriiipoi (Tajxa x^'"' t^"[p]f'^ <TTfva)(ovTfi, 

 Fepy(x>v avT ay\a\6uiv, KrjTrafKpov f^€Te\e(T((r)av.^^ 



nat[Sor dTrn](f)6ifxevoio K[Xfot]rou tov Mfveaaixfjiov 

 fiv^fi' icropa>i> niKTip' ws kuXos a)u (6ave,^^ 



Passion as well as pathos is expressed in elegiacs and the author of 38 

 went so far as to threaten the enemies of the dedicator with human or 

 divine anger, for the general sense is plain, though the last verse is 

 mutilated. 



ot T6 Xey[ov]crt \oyovs ab'iK\ovs\ '^ev8as Ka[T ] «(ic[€iVou. 



In 8 the writer even comes forward in the first person. 



These examples are enough to show that as early as the sixth century 

 men entrusted to the stones their thoughts and griefs and desires. ®i 

 Compressed and restrained though most of the epigrams are, there is 

 in them the personal element, the lyric quality, which comes out more 

 freely in the work of the fourth century and later. 



The first traces of poetic color come less, perhaps, from deliberate art 

 than from almost unconscious imitation. In 6 — ou 6avaro[s 8aKpv]6fts 

 Ka6[f]xei — and in IGA 15 (= K 463a. add.), rov&Xfae ttoi/tos 0^4517^, the 

 well-known epic vocabulary shows the absence of originality in the 

 writer. The words or phrases were ready to his hand as familiar 

 to his readers as to himself, and he is a poet because he chose to use 

 them in his verses, not because he made them or used them in any 



" lA 800. «o 7. Cf. 1 and 2. 



^^ Cf. also CIA IV. p. 118 (= K 19), the only hexameter inscription which 

 belongs to this class. 



'Ec^dS' dvqp w/j.o(a)ev to. fidpKia traiSos €pa[<T]6[e'\ls 



veiKea (n/y/xe[i]cr[7et«'] iroXefiSf 6' d/xa SaKpvofVTa, k. t. X. 



