1€4 



Ep'grams, Fragments, ^cfrotn the Greek. [Sept. I, 



afteiwaids to produce a few fpecimens 

 that may tend to give lu an idea of the 

 compaiLitive merits of thofe of ihe othrr 

 poets whole names are mentioned, who 

 moit avo«ed]y employed tlieir talents on 

 the fame (ubjefl, and who are leaft fami- 

 liar to the ear of an Englifli reader. 



The age cf Alcman has been fixed to 

 the 27th Olympiad. The place of his 

 birth has given occaficn to a difpu'e 

 among very ancient n'ri'ers, into the par- 

 ticulars of which it is neither my province 

 nor my inclination to enter at large ; 

 though I will beg leave to ftaiea fe.v rea- 

 fons which would rather incline me to af- 

 lign him, with Suioas and others, of Sjiar- 

 tan origin, than to hel'eve, with Crates, 

 Paterculus, and TElian, that ht- was a 

 native of Sardis. In the fii.^ pl'^ce, he 

 ul'rd the native diilefl of Sparta ; which, 

 though it may be faid he would probably 

 have done as an adopted citizen, ytt it re- 

 ceives fonie corrohoraiicn from a fecond 

 circumlfance, which i«, that many of the 

 works comp?fed by him were in honour of 

 Spartan heroes and tutelar deities, and ce- 

 lebrate or defcribe places in the neigli- 

 bourhood of Sparta; and we well know 

 that the la d of our birth is the firlt oh- 

 jei5t of veneration to thr gei uine poetical 

 fpirit. A poem cf his is mentK nnl by 

 Paulanias in praile of Ctiltor a.ul P'jHux. 

 He reccrds 'in it all the circumttances at- 

 tending the nativi'y of tbofe heroes, which 

 he places in the little .fland of Pephnos, 

 en the Laconian coaft ; and that this was 

 a wcll-knuwn tradition among the inhabi- 

 tants appears from a very remarkable fu- 

 perftitii^n recorded to have prevailed 

 among them concerning the facied images 

 of the biotheis which v,fere kept upon that 

 rock, and which, it was believed, no 

 ftorms nor lempefts, nor dafhing of the 

 waves which inccfiantly break over it, 

 Oukl ever fli 'ke from their foundations. 

 In another poem (probably a Hymn to tiie 

 Graces) he ctlehrated the temples of 

 Phaei^za and Cle.ae, built to them on the 

 banks of the little river Tiafa, whiJi ivas 

 a tributary fti earn to the Eurotas, or (ac- 

 cording to the popular donrine of the 

 ■day) the daughter cf that rivet-deity. — 

 It may be woith v.hik to notice a fmgu- 

 lar coincidence remarked by Bayle, aid 

 which, in my opinion, adds weight 10 the 

 argimients which lend to prove the Spar. 

 tan birt : of Aicinan. Another Alcman 

 has bern conjured up, a nativeof McfTere, 

 to whom a faulty pali.ige ir! Suidas appears 

 to have given birth. But our poet is elle- 

 wliere faid to have been born at Meffoa, 



which was the naine of a fuburb at Sparta. 

 Of this fecond perfonage Suidas fays no- 

 thing i it is therefore very reafonable t» 

 fuppole that they were the faine, and that 

 Mcfiene is only a falfe reading for Meffoa. 



Ot the life of Aicman fe^v memoirs have 

 reached our days. Heraciides Pontxus 

 jnfoims us that he was in his youth a 

 flave, and that his extraordinary genius 

 procured him his freedom. His intiru- 

 ments were the citbira and t'ae flute. He 

 is reputed to have been the inventor of 

 iTiufic for choral dances, and the firft who 

 excluded the heroic meafure from lyric 

 poems. 



The Spartans were flrongly imprefTed 

 with a fejifc cf the power of mulic to fti- 

 mulate to heroic aftior.s and the love of 

 our cou'try. The figure which Tyrtjeus 

 makes in their hiftory is (hikingly ho- 

 nourable to the poetical charafler ; but it 

 is not a folitary inftance. In one of the 

 greatelf exigencies of theftate, the flu'eof 

 Alcman was called in to animate the fink- 

 ing fpirits of their warricrs ; and as the 

 experiment was repeated, we may conclude 

 that itanfweredcxpti'iatioii, though thepar- 

 ticular circumliances of the diitiefs which 

 cccaficned it, orofths viftory whichitpro- 

 cured, are unknown to us. But that which 

 has rendered him m^ft celebrated, is, that 

 (as I have l':'.id before) he was by the an- 

 cients confidered as the father ot amorous 

 poetry 5 though the very few lines here 

 and there intcri'perfed in the workof Athe- 

 njeus, and which are the only veltigcs of 

 his compofitioiis, do not enable us to 

 judge of their peculiar nature or merits.— 

 He introduced the cuftom, which long 

 maintained itfelf amon:', the Greeks, of 

 chanting love-verles at banquets and af- 

 fembliea. The name cf the beauty ia 

 who'e honour he fung, and who was her- 

 felf a votary of the Mules, is pitfeived in 

 a fiTiill fragment of his works; and his 

 love for her is reprefented 10 have been of 

 the puieft and mcft honourable kind.— . 

 •' Again (fays the amorous pnci) has the 

 fweet child of Venus entered my f.ul and 

 gladdened all witr.iii me. Thefe lays a 

 heavenly virgin has infpired, Mcgaloftra- 

 ta with the golden hair." 



Un!or!:unatcly this " noble flame" did 

 not preferve him from the influence of 

 more fenfual paflion. To omit all fur- 

 ther mention of his gallantries, and to 

 fic;i(!i this fkctch, I will only add, that he 

 was immoi'trately addifted to the pita- 

 fures of the table, as liifHciently appears 

 from the fragments of his writings. 



The Spartans were not infcnfibJe to fli« 

 n;crit« 



