New Chapters in the History of Greek Literature
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PA 3061 PI 3 9005 0452 9776 3 ■P'' III New Chapters in the History of Greek Literature OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai HUMPHREY MILFORD Publisher to the University (2445) 3{ew Chapters in the History of Greek Literature RECENT DISCOVERIES IN GREEK POETRY AND PROSE OF THE FOURTH AND FOLLOWING CENTURIES B.C. EDITED BY J. U. POWELL and E. A. BARBER OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1921 PREFACE When Mr. Evelyn Abbott wrote with truth in his glowing preface to Hellenica (1879), 'We have not done with the Hellenes yet . ; we have not entered into full possession of the inheritance bequeathed to us', he had in his mind, as he goes on to show, the significance of Greek history and literature, rather than additions to our knowledge due to the discovery of new texts. But although some years were to elapse, his words in another sense have come true. Twelve years in 1 1 a new of Greek afterwards, 89 , epoch scholarship opened, not only in this country, but in others ; for in that year Professor Mahaffy published the first part of the Petrie Papyri which Professor Flinders Petrie had discovered, containing parts of the Phaedo of Plato and of the Antiope of Euripides, with fragments of Homer, and other pieces ; while the Trustees of the British Museum published Aristotle's ' Athenian Con stitution', the Mimes of Herondas, who had been hitherto little more than a name, and part of a new speech by Hyperides. Other discoveries followed ; six years later, in 1897, the British Museum pub lished the Odes of Bacchylides, and Messrs. Gren- fell and Hunt began the series of discoveries at Oxyrhynchus, the publication of which has proceeded up to the present time. Nor must we forget the VI PREFACE important accessions from Inscriptions, such as Isyllus of Epidaurus, and the Hymns of Aristonous and others from Delphi. It is a misfortune to British scholarship that our histories of Greek Literature, with the exception of Professor Mahaffy's books, stop short with the death of Demosthenes, or treat but briefly of the succeeding centuries. We have nothing like the admirable and comprehensive history of MM. Croiset in France. But although the following pages do not profess to give an ' ' account of what is called the Alexandrian age of Greek Literature, we hope that, through the new texts which are treated of in them, they will make large additions to our knowledge of the literature during the fourth and following centuries b. c. up to the beginning of the Roman Era in the Greek world (which may conveniently be dated with the formation of the Province of Achaea after the capture of Corinth in and 146 b.c), may encourage future writers on the subject to lengthen their range. The number of the additions is surprisingly large. We may also hope that the Oxford and Continental which Papyri have been, or may be, recovered from and Egypt Herculaneum, will provide new material even more valuable and interesting than that which is to presented the reader, in most cases for the first in the time, following pages. A revised text of most of the discoveries mentioned in the first and second sections of the table of contents is ready for the press. A convenient summary of Greek Papyri and their PREFACE vn contribution to classical literature is given by Sir F. G. Kenyon in a paper bearing that title, published by the Cambridge. University Press in 191 8, and also printed in the Jotirnal ofHellenic Studies, vol. xxxix, pp. 1 sqq. ; and in his article 'Greek Papyri and Recent Discoveries', Quarterly Review, vol. 208, p. 333. See also a paper ' by Professor Grenfell on The Value of Papyri for the Textual Criticism of Extant Greek Authors', Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. xxxix, pp. 16 sqq. The fullest account is given in the various numbers of Archiv filr Papyrusforschung, edited by U. Wilcken, and by W. Schubart in Einfuhrung in die Papyruskunde, Berlin, 1918. There is no collection of the new poems which have been preserved in Inscriptions. It may be added, that, while exercising a general supervision over the articles, we have allowed to each contributor the expression of his individual opinions. J. U. P. E. A. B. Oxford, May 192 1. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. THE MORALISTS Cercidas. By E. A. Barber page 2 Phoenix of 12 Colophon. ,, p. Anonymous Fragments in the Heidelberg, London, and Bodleian Papyri. By E. A. Barber p. 16 Chares. By J. U. Powell p. 18 18 Pseud-Epicharmea. ,, p. Philodemus. By J- L. Stocks p. 21 Polystratus. „ p. 29 Appendix: The later Epicureanism: Diogenes of Oenoanda. By J. L. Stocks p. 31 The later Stoicism: Hierocles. By F.W. Hall p. 36 On some of the contents of the Library at Herculaneum. By J. L. Stocks p. 40 II. LYRIC POETRY 1. 1 he Paean l he § Hieratic: , liymn. Philodamus of Scarpheia. By J . U. Powell p. 42 Limenius. P- 43 Anonymous Hymn from Delphi P-45 Aristonous. P- 45 Isyllus. p. 46 Paean of Erythrae. P-47 Hymn to the Idaean Dactyls. P- 49 Hymn of the Kouretes. By G. Murray P- 50 Pseud-Alcman. By J. U. Powell P- 53 x TABLE OF CONTENTS § 2. Personal Lyric 'FragmentumGrenfellianum.' By J. U.Powell p. 54 Other from &c. — Fragments Papyri, ,, P- 55 § 3. The Nome. Timotheus's Persae. By C. J. Ellingham p. 59 III. COMEDY The new Menander, and other new Fragments of the New Comedy. By T. W. Lumb p. 66 IV. ELEGIAC AND EPIC WRITERS The new Callimachus. Anonymous p. 99 Fragments of Epyllia and Elegiac Poems. By J. U. Powell p. 106 V. THE MIME Herondas. By G. C. Richards p. 112 Appendix : The later Greek Mime. By E. A. Barber p. 120 VI. HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY The Historian. Oxyrhynchus By E.M.Walker p. 124 The 'Athenian Constitution'. „ P- 133 Other new Fragments of Historians. By J. U. Powell p. 142 Satyrus's Life of Euripides. L. C. St. By A. Lewis p. 144 VII. ORATORY The new Lysias and Hyperides. T. W. By Lumb p. 153 INDEX • P- 163 CONTRIBUTORS Anonymous. E. A. Barber, M.A., Fellow, Tutor and Sub-Rector of Exeter College. C. J. Ellingham, M.A., formerly Scholar of St. John's College, Master at Dulwich College. F. W. Hall, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of St. John's College. L. C. St. A. Lewis, formerly Scholar of St. John's College. The Rev. T. W. Lumb, M.A., formerly Scholar of Jesus College, Master at Merchant Taylors' School. Gilbert Murray, D.Litt, Regius Professor of Greek. J. U. POWELL, M.A., Fellow and Senior Tutor of St. John's College. The Rev. G. C. RICHARDS, B.D., Fellow and Senior Tutor of Oriel College. M.A Fellow and Tutor of St. J. L. STOCKS, , D.S.O., John's College. The Rev. E. M. Walker, M.A., Fellow and Senior Tutor of Queen's College. I THE MORALISTS DURING the last twenty years the laborious researches of scholars and the happy discovery of certain illuminating papyri have thrown much light on the popular philosophy of the Hellenistic period. The great importance in this sphere of the so-called Aiarpi^f] has been generally recognized, and a very considerable store of philosophic commonplaces has been collected from later writers, Greek and Roman, and derived with much probability from the popular teachers of this age. It is admitted that among these teachers the most conspicuous were the Cynic missionaries ; the type which we find fully developed under the Roman Empire, but which was already represented in the third century B. c. At the same time it is a mistake to claim all this moralizing for the Cynic school. By the third century many of the ideas which, in the days of Antisthenes or even Diogenes, were peculiar to that sect, had become the common property of all men, and were given literary expression by authors of any or no philosophic school. Of the two poets to be considered in this section Cercidas is proved by external and internal evidence to have been a Cynic, while Phoenix appears to be no more affected by Cynic ideas than any man who wrote as a popular philosopher in that age was bound to be. In other words, the contempt for the ordinary standards of civilized life, the criticism of society, the exalta had tion of the poor and oppressed, ideas which the Cynics been the first to introduce into Greek literature, became in time the weapons of any democrat with a turn for satire who was against the established order, or for the nonce pretended to be against it. The Diatribe proper is a prose composition, being originally the form which the philosophers of the streets gave to their popular addresses. The topic of each is generally some well- 21*5 B a THE MORALISTS &c, but the worn theme, such as Wealth, Death, Marriage, writer contrives to give it life by vivid metaphors, witty the anecdotes, striking antitheses, or apt quotations from poets. its influence felt It was inevitable that the genre should make of fact we can in the poetry of the age, and as a matter point and to Cynic Tragedies, Satiric Elegies, Epic Parodies, Iambic Moralizings, all of them affected in various degrees the of these facts that by the prose diatribe. It is by light we must interpret the new material. Cercidas. Before the publication of Volume VIII of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri Cercidas was represented by nine fragments only.1 The Papyrus (No.