758 POE 
Gumption in afpiring to the poffeflion of a prieftefs of 
Venus. Leander penetrates through her feigned anger, 
and replies to her reproof by a declaration of his love, 
which the poet has conceived in a drain of the mod im- 
pafiioned eloquence. The rhetoric of the youth is not 
lod upon his midrefs, who imbibes deeply the y\vv.vmypov, 
the “ bitter fweet” poifon of love, as the author expreifes 
it. In an altered tone (he now remondrates with him 
principally upon the almod invincible obdacles to their 
withes, the nature of her functions, the oppofition of her 
parents, and more particularly her lonely habitation, fe- 
parated from his place of refidence by the intervening fea. 
To thefe objections the lover anfwers with the fervour of 
ardent affeCfion: 
Ylap^zve, aov SI zpcShx. y.cti a.yp\ov 01 Spa. 
’Ei wt/pi wa<pX«£oi 1 o, xml a.TtXoo'i zaaercci vSvp' 
Ov rpopscii £xpv %evfAa. tv/iv i/attccvivs^vo^ ivvr,v, 
’Ov Spoj/.ov vi^Yizrra. (SupvySov ttoiovv ^aXocaan * 
AW a. iei EsiTui voaTcir (popsvpevoq vypo$ axoiT^j, 
N»j^epcoi EWniamorrov uXuppoov. 
For thy dear fake I’ll crofs the threat’ning fea, 
Though lightning’s flafh, and dorms obftruft my way; 
Nor fear the fwelling wave thy bed to gain, 
Nor the hoarfe thunder of the roaring main ; 
But, Hellefpontus’ draits by fwimming crofs’d. 
A fea-borne fpoufe, I’ll nightly feek thy coad. 
Having thus announced his intentions, he requeds her 
to have a light burning at the top of the tower to ferve 
him as a guide in his perilous enterprife. She promifes 
to do fo, and the lovers part for the prefent. Leander’s 
frd vifit to Hero, the darknefs of the night, and the 
gloomy afpeCVof the waves, his appeal for protection to 
Venus, as being herfelf the goddefs of love and fprung 
from the fea, are all admirable, but too long forextrafting. 
The enamoured youth fearlefsly defies all danger, plunges 
into the fea, and, 
Aajv.Tropus'ov S' za’KzvSm azt, xulevai/ha Xvyvov 
’At flog iuvlpiTng, but oroAo;, avro /j-uTog vyvg' 
He hadens tow’rds the light by Hero diown, 
Tiie veflel, pilot, rower, all in one. 
He reaches her abode, is received with the cordial 
welcome of affeCtion, and obtains the confummation of 
his defires. There is fomething truly pathetic and 
affecting in the poet’s picture of their clandedine union : 
Such were the nuptials of the youthful pair : 
Nor fedive choir nor holy hymn were there ; 
No torches d’er the couch diffus’d their light, 
Nor poet’s lay proclaim’d the bridal rite; 
There were no nimble dancers’ fportive train, 
Nor parents fung the Hymeneal drain ; 
But filence brooded o’er the marriage-bed, 
In love’s congenial hours of darknefs fpread, 
Night only deck’d their couch ; by break of day, 
He from the well-known fpot was far away. 
The detail of Leander’s lad fatal attempt, and his 
melancholy end, is one of the mod powerful paflages to 
be found in the whole range of poetry. The agitation of 
the temped-dirred fea, is depicted with awful minutenefs, 
and the fruitlefs efforts of the unfortunate lover to 
druggie againd its violence, are defcribed with a touch¬ 
ing fidelity. The conclufion of the poem is marked by 
that exquifite fimplicity which appears almod unattain¬ 
able in modern languages, but which conditutes one of 
the greated charms of ancient poetry : 
'Hpw teSp^xe aw oWvfAzvct) irczpctv.oiTri' 
AWyiXoiv S'airovavTo y.ccz iv ttv/jocotu vrep oXzSpcj. 
Thus a like fate with his did Hero prove, 
Nor death itfelf could difunite their love. 
Tyrtaeus belongs to hidory, rather than to fable. He 
was born at Miletus, but lived at Athens, where he 
maintained himfelf by his elegiac mufic, his pipe, and his 
T R Y. 
fchool. His w'orks were, the “ Polity of the Lacedemo¬ 
nians,” and feveral Elegies and Odes, fome fragments only 
of which are now extant. 
Archilochus is the fuppofed author of Iambic verfe; 
but, as it (hould feem upon no other tedimony than this 
of Horace; ‘Archilochum proprio rabies armavit Iambod 
For it appears from Aridotle, that this verfe was confi- 
derably more ancient than Archilochus, and that the 
Margites of Homer was of that defcription. Upon his 
merit as a poet, Quintilian has this obfervation : “ He 
excels in energy of.dyle; his periods are drong, com- 
prefied, and brilliant, replete with life and vigour; (o 
that, if he be fecond to any, it is from defefit of fubjeft, 
not from natural inferferity of genius.” He appears to 
have written Elegies, Satires, Odes, and Epigrams; but 
of all thefe we have only tw'o epigrams left. 
Of Alcaeus there remain only a few fragments collected 
by FulviusUrfinus. They were never printed feparately, 
but may be found in the various editions of the early 
lyric poets. 
Of nine books of Odes, befides elegies, epigrams, 
iambics, epithalamiums, and other pieces, there is nothing 
remaining entire of the works of Sappho, but the Hymn 
to Venus, which we find in Dionyfius of Halicarnaffiis, 
and an Ode addreffed to a Young Maiden, preferved in 
Longinus, and trandated by Addifon. The ftyie of this 
ode feems to favour the tradition fo common among the 
ancients, that the warmth of Sappho’s difpofition hurried 
her into an improper pafllon for her own fex. The 
remains of Sappho are certainly fufficient to juffify her 
great celebrity as a poet. There is an uncommon foftnefs 
in her ftyie ; with all that luxurious warmth of tender- 
nefs which charafferifed her difpofition. She excels all 
the Greek poets in fweetnefs of verfe; and, though Ca¬ 
tullus and Ovid profeiTedly drive to imitate her, it is rare¬ 
ly, if ever, that they fucceed. 
Of the late lyric poets, Pindar and Anacreon, we have 
more important relics. 
Pindar was occupied chiefly in the compofition of Odes 
which celebrated the far-famed games of the ancients; 
a fubjeff which, it muff be recollected, was not of the 
flight importance a firft confideration might induce us to 
fuppofe. The games w'ere wifely inftituted, as means of 
exciting and perpetuating manly and heroic fentiments 
in time of peace, and of rendering courage, perfonal 
beauty, and ftrength, objects of defire among the Grecian 
youth. Thefe games are praCfifed not by the low and 
vulgar, but by the high and noble ; and the common people 
believed that gods had inftituted them. To gain a prize 
in the games was an honour equal to the achievement of 
a victory in war. The magnificent preparations that were 
made at their celebration, and the elegant and noble com¬ 
pany which aflembled, all confpired to make the Ode which 
celebrated the Olympian or Pythian viftor of the higheft: 
calf, and to allow pure religion and didaCtic inftruCtions 
to form a natural and agreeable part of their compofition. 
Thefe faCts muff be kept in mind, or we (hall be apt to 
think that Pindar wafted his talents on an unimportant 
fubjeft. 
The works w'hich remain of this illuftrious poet, 
confift of Four Books of Odes, or triumphal hymns; each 
of which derives-its title from the games which it cele¬ 
brates; fuch as the Olympic, the Pythian, the NemaeSn, 
and the Ilfhmian. He is fuppofed to have alfo written 
Tragedies, Paians, Dithyrambics, Epics, Epigrams, and 
other poems; in the whole, feventeen diftinff works. 
There are fourteen Olympic Odes, twelve Pythian, eleven 
Nemaean, and eight Ilfhmian, remaining. “ Tlfey are of 
fo difficult a chara< 5 Ier,” obferves Dr. Kennet, “ that the 
greatelf judges are commonly fatisfied with confirming 
his general title, of Prince and Father of Lyrics, without 
engaging in the fearch of his particular excellencies.” 
The charadleriftic beauties of Pindar are, an imagination 
in the higheft degree poetical, a warm and enthufiaftic 
genius, a bold and figurative expreflion, a concife and 
fententious 
