PT.I. the Poets, Epic and Lyric, with an Appendix on Homer by Prof. Sayce (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... a manly personal appeal from Pylades. So much nearer were the Greeks to nature The actors have tampered a good deal with the text, as may be seen from the many lines rejected by later critics, but our text is exceptionally noted in the MSS. as corrected by a collation of divers copies. The second argzmzent, which discusses why Electra should sit at Orestes' feet, and not his head, is a curious specimen of Alexandrian or rather Byzantine pedantry. There are special recensions by Hermann and Porson. 216. The P/zaenissae seem to have appeared, according to a very corrupt and doubtfully emended prefatory note in a Venetian MS., along with the CE/zomaus and Clzrysippur, ' of which a few fragments remain. It gained the second prize in the archonship of an unknown Nausicrates," probably during Ol. 9 3. It is really a tragedy on the woes of the house of Labrlacus, but is called after its chorus, which is composed of Phoenician maidens op__tLir_way, _to _De_l_phiJ__an_d_stopped _o_nv their passage thf1@H"Thcentsbe ..bz.., @hcents invasion or t1ie.s.centsycents.n.., chiefs under A'dFastus.WiThere would indeed be some difficulty in naming the play otherwise, for it is an qfiisazlie one, consisting of a series of pictures, all connected with Gildipus' family, but without one central figure among the nine characters--an unusual number--who successively appear. The name Thebais, given to it by modern imitators, suggests an epos and not a drama. Perhaps Iocasta is the most prominent figure, but yet her death is, so to speak, only subsidiary to the sacrifice of Menoekeus, and the mutual slaughter of the brothers. All the scenes of the play, though loosely connected, are full of pathos and beauty,