The song is a fine one, and was very popular-national; it struck forcibly a single key that vibrated to the core of the people's heart. Chanted by a manly voice, with accompaniment of suitable action, and the singer like a hero at some festal entertainment, where all the guests were full of wine and patriotism, the effect must have been magnificent, and at its close sublime the muttered thunder of 'Death to all tyrants.' But on most occasions a little poetry will suffice to rouse the imagination of a great assemblage to heights of noblest daring; and there is but little poetry in this famous strain. It is of a higher mood doubtless than our own King's Anthem; yet we remember the time when loyalty was with us a national virtue and a national passion, and when the voices of many hundreds of as noble men as ever sat at an Athenian feast often shook the theatre in a transport at these three no very august lines→→ Send him victorious, God save the King! “But let us take a critical glance at the translations. Our own is a mere attempt to versify the original literally; and while we give it as an example of the style in which the song should be translated, we admit that it is poorly done, and nearly an entire failure. Cumberland's is spirited, and it will be noticed that he supposes the song to consist of but three stanzas. Denman's versions are both good; but faulty as well in particular lines as in the general conception. Thus, the second line of the first version, "The sword that laid the tyrant low,' is incorrect; that is asking the spectators and auditors to believe too much, at least more than Callistratus. The second line of the second stanza is utter nonsense; "Thou ne'er shalt feel the stroke of death.' Harmodius was killed on the spot. The song says, 'Thou art not dead;' nor was he, for he was in the Islands of the Blest-but he had felt the stroke of death. The spirit of the two following lines is destroyed by the use of the future tenseThe heroes' happy isles shall be.' They were-σe paoìv eivai—and so believed all who lived under Minerva. While Freedom's name is understood,' is poor, in comparison with deì kar' alav, and the song was not addressed formally to the wise and good,' of whom there is no mention, because no thought, but to all who had ears to hear the names of the deliverers. In the second version line second, 'noble and brave,' is but so so; 'the poets exultingly tell' is insuffer able; buried his pride in the grave' is vastly fine: all that about Minerva is good in itself, but lugged in ad libitum; and 'may your bliss be immortal on high' is a sad slip in a classical scholar. Yet, as a paraphrase, the composition is certainly above mediocrity, and may be read at any time with pleasure, at times with delight. Sandford's is free from such faults, and is a fine-a noble version. But does not the power of the Greek song dwell in the names and in the proud repetition-the loving iteration of the names of the destroyers? They are in every stanza-the lines they fill are the words of the spell. Drop them, and the charm is broken-the singer absurd with his myrtle and sword. You might just as well in translating into another language Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled, omit Wallace and Bruce, and give us 'the noble and brave.' Elton felt that; and therefore his version has not only bones, which the others have, and soul, which they have too, but the soul of the poet and the patriot, as it is flung into his exulting and threatening song of vengeance, triumph and restoration. For that, and for its general flow and glow, we pronounce Elton's version, which is free but not paraphrastic, by far the best." To some part of this criticism I assent, but not to all. I agree that Sandford's is a noble paraphrase. Denman's versions have not very much to recommend them. Elton's is undoubtedly the best: its fault is, that it is somewhat too stately both in style and versification. The simplicity, the easy flow and song-like character of the verses should be preserved in the translation, if possible. I present my own attempt with diffidence With myrtle I shade my falchion-blade And his patriot comrade bold, When they made the tyrant bleed And Athens from thraldom freed. Harmodius, our pride, thou hast not died! In eternal peace and rest With Achilles and Tydeus' son With myrtle I shade my falchion-blade And his patriot comrade bold, When Athene's day beheld How the tyrant's might they quell'd. Harmodius, lays of your country's praise For a crown of glory shall be To Aristogiton and thee; For ye made the tyrant bleed And Athens from thraldom freed. Last I shall present to the reader Sir William Jones' Ode in imitation of Callistratus. The reviewer calls it a long leaf of tinsel. I certainly don't admire the first line; yet (on the whole) there is as much spirit about it as in most of the above translations. SIR WILLIAM JONES. Verdant myrtle's branchy pride Whose, when Britain sighs for aid, Verdant myrtle's branchy pride They the base Hipparchus slew Gods! how swift their poniards flew ! Equal laws and liberty; Nurse of arts and age of Greece! APPENDIX VI. ATHENIAN FESTIVALS. XENOPHON in his treatise on the Athenian republic (iii. 8) says that there were twice as many festivals at Athens as in any other city of Greece. And not only in the number of festivals, but in their costliness and splendour they greatly surpassed all their neighbours. Were the Athenians more pious than the rest of the Greeks? were they more deeply impressed with a sense of religious duties? This was their boast, and there may have been much truth in it. But piety was not the only reason which induced them to worship the gods with greater solemnity than others. Love of (1) Josephus (contra Apionem, ii. 11,) says that the Lacedæmonians were the bravest of the Greeks, and the Athenians the most pious. That the Athenians themselves should make it their boast, is not surprising. Thus, Lycurgus cont. Leocrat. 149. Πλεῖστον διαφέρετε τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων τῷ τε πρὸς τοὺς Θεούς, εὐσεβῶς καὶ πρὸς τοὺς γονεῖς ὁσίως καὶ πρὸς τὴν πατρίδα φιλοτίμως ἔχειν. : feasting and amusement had certainly quite as much to do with the matter. Of those magnificent sacrifices provided at the public cost for Zeus, Athene, Artemis, and other of the tenants of Olympus, the Athenian multitude partook more largely than did the divinities themselves and if a hecatomb was immolated to the Father of the Gods, a considerable number of poor citizens, who never tasted meat at their ordinary meals, were sumptuously regaled without spending an obol of their own money.' When we consider too the intense delight which they took in the shows, games, processions, and dramatic exhibitions, the cost of all which was defrayed partly out of the public purse, and partly by a few wealthy individuals, can we wonder that the grand festivals, on which these amusements were provided gratis for the people, were regarded by them as the brightest days in the calendar? Böckh observes, that the celebration of these festivals in the best times of the Athenian republic created a profuseness of expenditure not inferior to that of the most luxurious princes. That there was a mixture of good and evil in it, cannot be doubted. The dramatic and musical contests were calculated to refine and to elevate the national mind; while, on the other hand, the too frequent recurrence of public amusements and the dissolute character of many of them had a tendency to demoralise and enervate. We have seen how Demosthenes reproves his countrymen for their devotion to spectacles and sacrifices; how he complains not only of the spirit of idleness which they engendered, but of the loss occasioned to the revenue. Plutarch in his Essay on the Glory of Athens, while he dilates on the grandeur of her theatrical entertainments, relates the opinion expressed by a Lacedæmonian upon the subject—namely— "that the Athenians made serious matters of trifles and lavished on the theatre sums sufficient for the equipment of large fleets and the maintenance of great armies: that, if it were calculated what each play cost them, it would be found they had spent more treasure upon Bacches and Phænisses and Antigones and the woes of Medea and Electra, than upon wars waged for empire and deliverance from the barbarians." The following is a list of the principal Athenian festivals which are known to us. We must bear in mind that, besides all these religious (1) At the thanksgiving for the battle of Marathon, five hundred kids were sacrificed to Artemis Agrotera: to which Aristophanes jestingly alludes, when he makes the sausage-seller propose to sacrifice a thousand, if sprats should become cheap, (Equites 660.) Τῇ δ' Αγροτέρᾳ κατὰ χιλίων παρῄνεσα This was an extraordinary number: but hecatombs were not uncommon, and each on an average cost a talent. Böckh says we may judge of the number of the great sacrifices at Athens from the fact, that the money received for skins in the third year of the hundred and eleventh Olympiad was more than five thousand drachms for seven months. (Public Economy of Athens, Translation, p. 283.) (2) See particularly the third Olynthiac, this Translation, vol. i. p. 59: and the first Philippic, ibid. p. 69. (3) Cited by Böckh, ibid. p. 280. celebrations at home, there were the Theoria, or festal missions to Delos and other places, and those to the great games of Greece, which were conducted generally with all due pomp and magnificence. A brief explanation will be given of these, following the alphabetical order for the sake of convenience. ADONIA. The feast of Adonis, celebrated by women only, in the month Munychion. It lasted for two days. The first was a day of mourning, when they brought images into the streets, representing the corpse of Adonis, and uttered the cries and lamentations customary at funerals. The second was a day of rejoicing for the supposed restoration of Adonis to life at the entreaty of Venus. The mourning for Adonis occurring on the eve of the Sicilian expedition was considered an unlucky omen, as we are informed by Plutarch.' These rites, founded on the tale so familiar to all, were brought into Greece from Syria or Egypt.2 Adonis was the Syrian Thammuz, whose worship found its way even to Jerusalem, as we know from the prophet Ezekiel, (viii. 14.) “Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was towards the north; and behold, (1) Plutarch, Vit. Alcib. 18. Aristophanes alludes to the same thing in the Lysistrata, v. 389. (2) See Faber on the Origin of Pagan Idolatry, vol. ii. p. 256. |