ASIA MINOR IN THE TIME OE THE SEVEN WISE MEN 



Ul 



mostly proverbs, and also fables. .ZEsop 

 and his fables belong to that era, although 

 ^sop himself, who is one of our most 

 precious literary heroes, is, I regret to 

 say, tottering somewhat under the attacks 

 of historical criticism. 



HOW GREEK POETRY WAS PRESERVED 



Culture was certainly not measured by 

 book-learning, but every educated man or 

 woman had to be ready with his lyre, 

 when called upon after dinner, to accom- 

 pany an improvisation, which might be 

 good or bad, according to his ability. If 

 he could not improvise, he repeated some 

 of the wonderful poetry which was the 

 inheritance of the age, for the highest 

 expression of the culture of the time was 

 in its poetry. 



The older epic poetry and the lyric 

 poetry of the era of the Wise Men would 

 furnish the means of culture to any age. 

 There was a freshness in the thought and 

 delicacy in the use of words in the Greek 

 lyrics different from anything found in 

 later literature, and it is in the poetry that 

 we find the real soul of the age. Many 

 fragments of it have been preserved, not 

 by any special effort at the time, but be- 

 cause it was a part of the life of the 

 people and must live. 



Greek lyrics were the result of many 

 generations of poetical and musical ex- 

 pression, and they show the real creative 

 work of the era and furnish us with the 

 most subtle refinement of word pictures 

 that the world has ever known. 



Musical and poetical contests were 

 common, in which the music and poetry 

 were given together and depended on 

 each other for the complete effect desired, 

 and it is difficult to know which was the 

 more important, the music or the poetry. 



We are familiar in classic study with 

 the names of many of the great lyric 

 poets of that period, but they themselves 

 were as frequently called musicians as 

 poets. For instance, the poet Alkaios had 

 the reputation of being one of the great- 

 est musicians who had ever lived. 



A profound moral and physical influ- 

 ence was attributed to music. Good 

 music was considered to have the power 

 to reform the character and to heal dis- 

 ease, and to interpret poetry and make it 



intelligible to the inner nature. The art 

 of music was, therefore, one of the finest 

 things in the education of that time. It 

 was much simpler than the music of mod- 

 ern times and was entirely subordinate to 

 the words sung or repeated. 



The charm of the music of this age 

 seems to have been partly in the extreme 

 precision of rhythmic treatment and in a 

 protracted dwelling of the voice on one 

 syllable. When the words which the 

 music accompanied were improvised, the 

 improvising took place under definite 

 rules, and the learning of these rules 

 formed the most important part of the 

 education of a poet. 



To the reciting and the music there was 

 also added a rhythmic motion of the body, 

 so that the entire personality of the per- 

 former was absorbed in the attempt to 

 express the thought of the poem. The 

 music was constant though subordinate, 

 and the whole performance produced 

 effects of which the most melodious of 

 modern poets could never dream, 



MANY MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 



There were many kinds of musical in- 

 struments, but the cithara and the lyre 

 were the ones commonly used in accom- 

 panying poetry, while the flute was played 

 by both men and women, in furnishing 

 martial music to the soldiers in time of 

 war. Musical bands marched to war with 

 the soldiers and played on flutes, pipes, 

 and harps. 



For private use, the lyre and the harp 

 were preferred, for it was thought that 

 they did not prevent one from remaining 

 master of himself — a free and thinking 

 man or woman — while the flute, pipe, or 

 clarinet put the man beside himself and 

 obscured reason. 



There is a story of a harpist which 

 might belong to any age. He started a 

 school in which to teach harp-playing 

 He had in his school nine statues of the 

 nine muses and one of Apollo, but only 

 two pupils. When some one asked him, 

 however, how many pupils he had, he 

 said: "Gods and all, twelve!" 



There were extensive choirs, whose 

 music was distinctly connected with the 

 religious life of the people. These choirs 

 were composed of both men and women 



