Trophies of many a well-fought field He won in glory’s sacred cause, The Theban tripod, brazen shield At Argos, and Arcadia’s vase. Her palms Bœotia’s genuine contests yield; Six times Ægina’s prize he gained, As oft Pellene’s robe obtained, And graved in characters of fame, Thy column, Megara, records his name. Great sire of all, immortal Jove! On Atabyris’ mount enshrined, Oh! still may thy propitious mind The encomiastic hymn approve, Which celebrates in lawful strain The victor on Olympia’s plain, Whose valorous arm the cestus knows to wield. Protected by thy constant care, In citizens’ and strangers’ eyes Still more exalted shall he rise Whose virtuous deeds thy favor share: Since he, to violence and fraud unknown, Treads the straight paths of equity alone; His fathers’ counsels mindful to pursue, And keep their bright example still in view. Then let not inactivity disgrace The well-earned fame of thine illustrious race, Who sprang from great Calli’anax, and crown The Erat’idæ with splendor all their own. With joy and festal hymns the streets resound— But soon, as shifts the ever-varying gale, The storms of adverse fortune may assail— Then, Rhodians, be your mirth with sober temperance crowned.”—WHEELWRIGHT. =Antimachus.=—An elegiac poet of the golden age was Amtim’achus of Col’ophon, whose “Ly’de,” an elegy on his lost love, enjoyed considerable celebrity. When, however, Antim’achus undertook to read his long “Theba’is” to an audience, their patience became exhausted and one after another departed, until finally he had but a single listener left,—the young Plato. ‘ DRAMATIC POETRY. =Rise of the Attic Drama.=—The Greek drama, like the Hindoo, had a religious origin. In the festivals of Bacchus, the wine-god, which consisted of licentious dances and songs round his altar by persons disguised in goat-skins as fauns and satyrs (beings half-man and half-goat), we must look for its earliest phase. From the dress of those who composed the chorus, or because a goat was sacrificed, or a goat-skin of wine awarded to the poet who wrote the best ode for the occasion, such ode was called a _tragedy_ (_goat-song_); and the name was afterward extended to the entire department of dramatic poetry to which these rude hymns gave rise. Comedy, on the contrary, was elaborated from the _village-songs_ rife during the gala-days of the vintage, when companies of noisy revellers (in Greek, _kōmoi_), their cheeks stained with wine-lees, went about from town to town, plunging into all kinds of excesses, and garnishing their songs with jokes at the expense of the spectators.