Among the many diverse forms of expression in which the Greek genius hasbeen revealed to us, that which is preserved in the lyrics of theanthology most typically reflects the familiar life of men, the thoughtand feeling of every day in the lost ancient world. These little flowersof song reveal, as does no other phase of that great literature, apersonal outlook on life, kindly, direct and simple, the tendernesswhich characterised family relations, the reciprocal affection of masterand slave, sympathy with the domestic animals, a generous sense of theobligations of friendship, a gentle piety and a close intimacy with thenature gods, of whose presence, malignant or benign, the Greek was eversensitively conscious. For these reasons they still make so vivid anappeal to us after a long silence of many centuries. To myself who havelived for some years in that enchanted world of Greece, and have sailedfrom island to island of its haunted seas, the shores have seemed stillquick with the voices of those gracious presences who gave exquisiteform to their thoughts on life and death, their sense of awe and beautyand love. There indeed poetry seems the appropriate expression of theenvironment, and there even still to-day, more than anywhere else in theworld, the correlation of our life with nature may be feltinstinctively; the human soul seems nearest to the soul of the world.
The poems, of which some renderings are here offered to those who cannotread the originals, cover a period of about a thousand years, broken byone interval during which the lesser lyre is silent. The poets of theelegy and the melos appear in due succession after those of theepic and, significant perhaps of the transition, there are found inthe first great period of the lyric the names of two women, Sappho ofLesbos, acknowledged by the unanimous voice of antiquity, which isconfirmed by the quality of a few remaining fragments, to be among thegreatest poets of all times, and Corinna of Tanagra, who contended withPindar and rivalled Sappho's mastery. The canon of Alexandria does notinclude among the nine greater lyrists the name of Erinna of Rhodes, whodied too young, in the maiden glory of her youth and fame. The earlierpoets of the melos were for the most part natives of
'the sprinkled isles,
Lily on lily that overlace the sea.'
Theirs is the age of the austerer mood, when the clean-cut marbleoutlines of a great language matured in its noblest expression. Then acentury of song is followed by the period of the dramatists during whichthe lyric muse is almost silent, in an age of political and intellectualintensity.
A new epoch of lyrical revival is inaugurated by the advent ofAlexander, and the wide extension of Hellenic culture to more distantareas of the Mediterranean. Then follows the long succession of poetswho may generally be classified as of the school of Alexandria. Amongthem are three other women singers of high renown, Anyte of Tegea,Nossis of Locri in southern Italy, and Moero of Byzantium. The laterwriters of this period had lost the graver purity of the first lyricoutburst, but they had gained by a wider range of sympathy and a closertouch with nature. This group may be said to close with Meleager, whowas born in Syria and educated at Tyre, whose contact with the easternworld explains a certain suggestive and exotic fascination in his poetrywhich is not strictly G