Invention of the Iambic Metre.--Archilochus.--His Parentage and Life.--His Fame among the Ancients.--Ancient and Modern Modes of Judging Artists.--The Originality of Archilochus as a Poet.--Simonides of Amorgos.--His Satire on Women.--The Ionian Contempt for Women.--Hipponax.--Limping Iambics.--Differences between the Satire of the Greeks and Romans Page 274 CHAPTER X. _THE LYRIC POETS._ The Æsthetic Instinct of the Greeks in their Choice of Metres.--Different Species of Lyrical Poetry.--The Fragments in Bergk's Collection.--Proemia.--Prosodia.--Parthenia.--Pæan.--Hyporchem.-- Dithyramb.--Phallic Hymn.--Epinikia.--Threnoi.--Scolia.--Æolian and Dorian Lyrists.--The Flourishing Period of Lesbos.--Sappho.--Alcæus.--Anacreon.--Nationality of the Dorian Lyrists.--Spartan Education.--Alcman.--Arion.--Stesichorus.--Ibycus.--Simonides.--Greek Troubadours.--Style of Simonides.--Pindar.--Later Literary Odes Page 287 CHAPTER XI. _PINDAR._ His Life.--Legends connected with him.--The Qualities of his Poetry.--The Olympic Games.--Pindar's Professional Character.--His Morality.--His Religious Belief.--Doctrine of a Future State.--Rewards and Punishments.--The Structure of his Odes.--The Proemia to his Odes.--His Difficulty and Tumidity of Style Page 340 CHAPTER XII. _ÆSCHYLUS._ Life of Æschylus.--Nature of his Inspiration.--The Theory of Art in the _Ion_ of Plato.--Æschylus and Sophocles.--What Æschylus accomplished for the Attic Drama.--His Demiurgic Genius.--Colossal Scale of his Work.--Marlowe.--Oriental Imagery.--Absence of Love as a Motive in his Plays.--The Organic Vitality of his Art.--Opening Scenes.--Messenger.--Chorus.--His Theology.--Destiny in Æschylus.--The Domestic Curse.--His Character-drawing.--Clytemnestra.--Difficulty of Dealing with the _Prometheus_.--What was his Fault?--How was Zeus justified?--Shelley's Opinion.--The Last Trilogy of _Prometheus_.--Middle Plays in Trilogies.--Attempt to Reconstruct a _Prometheis_.--The Part of Herakles.--Obscurity of the Promethean Legend.--The Free Handling of Myths Permitted to the Dramatist.--The _Oresteia_.--Its Subject.--The Structure of the Three Plays.--The _Agamemnon_.---Its Imagery.--Cassandra.--The Cry of the King.--The Chorus.--Iphigeneia at the Altar.--Menelaus abandoned by Helen.--The Dead Soldiers on the Plains of Troy.--The _Persæ_.--The Crime of Xerxes.--Irony of the Situation.--Description of the Battle of Salamis.--The Style of Æschylus.--His Religious Feeling 372