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THEOGNIS AND HIS POEMS. I. Theognis, Theagenes, ami Megara. THE collection of elegiac poems which bears the name of Theognis offers" one of the most interesting problems in the literary history of Greece, and, in spite of many tentative solutions, it must be admitted that the origin and composition of this anthology still remain a mystery. We know that the Theognidea include poems composed by Tyrtaeus, Mimnermus, and Solon, and it is therefoi-e by no means unlikely that they also include a great number of other elegies that can no longer be traced to their proper sources. As the object of the following article is to discuss a few points connected with the poet's life and political surroundings, we must first of all discover some test which will enable us to distinguish the genuine poems of Theognis from those of other poets represented in the collection. We can safely assume that Theognis is the author of all the elegies in Book I. which contain the name of Cyrnus, the young noble to whom the poet addressed so many of his didactic and political poems. For the name of Cyrnus is the o-^prjyfc1 referred to by the poet in elegy 19-26, as something which will lead to the detection of the theft, if the poems are stolen. The o-Qprjyi? cannot, as some suppose, be the name of the poet himself: the mere insertion of the name of Theognis at the beginning or end of a collection of disconnected poems would afford no protection against plagiarism. What was wanted was a mark attached to each poem, and it is to serve this purpose that the vocative Kvpve is so frequently introduced.2 1 19 Kvpve, ao(pi£op.4v(p fxev e/*ol fftppyyls £iri- rov Meyapeos' irdvTas Se KCIT* Kfitrdoi ovonaaros,' TOiV5' tirfrriv, \-titrei 8' otiiroT€ K\€ITT6- aarToiciv 8' OUTTCC Ttafftv atieiv Siiyajj-ar [xGva, ovStp QO.VIXO.GT6V, TloXviraiSri' ov8e yhp 6 oi>54 TLS a\\a£ft K&Ktov rovadXov trap- Zevs fovros' oii$' lioiv TrdpTecr<r' ai'fidvei Q^T w8e tie vas TIS eper ' @eiyvi$6s i<mv 2 It occurs over 75 times. H.S.—VOL. XX11I. • 2 T. HUDSON WILLIAMS Sitzler in his edition of Theognis certainly goes too far when he rejects almost every poem that does not bear this ' seal': for an elegy may often be a mere fragment, and we need not suppose that Theognis affixed the ' seal' to all the poems he ever composed. But as material to illustrate the poet's life the remaining poems in the collection must be used with the greatest caution, and mere occurrence in the collection should never induce us to accept a poem as genuine. Outside the Theognidea, we have no trustworthy information about the poet himself, and every reference to him in the works of ancient writers has been the subject of violent controversy. The ancients could not agree even on the question of his home and birthplace. In v. 23 he calls himself ' Theognis the Megarian.' The poems contain such clear references 3 to the Nisaean Megara on the Isthmus of Corinth that most modern scholars agree in regarding Theognis as a native of that town. The ancients, it is true, were divided in their opinions, and many preferred the claims of Megara in Sicily. The latter had the support of Plato, who* refers to Theognis as 5 TTOXITIJV rwv iv "2,i/ce\iq Meyapemv: in spite of many ingenious suggestions 3 M^apeus ' without an adjective ' naturally difficulty by accepting the suggestion of a scholi- means ' a native of the Megara' and no one ast (quoted by Sitzler, Theognidis Reliquiae, will deny the claim of Nisaean Megara to that addenda to p. 49) ri tit ixdhvev airbv 4K distinction. piv tlvai TTJS Meyapitios, airi\86vra 5e ei The political situation described in the as 7) iffTopia. ?X6'i ytviaSai v6fiy Me^apea £/cei, iis Theognidea corresponds closely with the KOI rbv Tupraiov AaKeBat/iSviov ; Plato, they say, accounts of Megara given by Aristotle and knew that Theognis was a native of Nisaean Plutarch. Many expressions in the poems un- Megara, and in the passage under discussion he doubtedly refer to Nisaean Megara, but we tells us that the poet had received the franchise cannot be always certain that Theognis is the in the Sicilian city. Had Plato meant this, he author of the poems in question. would surely have added the word y*v6ii.evov to The opening couplet of elegy 773-782 con- •xoAhriv (as in the case of Tyrtaeus). Welcker tains a reference to continental Megara, and its (followed by Sitzler) removes the difficulty by patron Apollo. assuming that in the above quotation from the 4»Oij8e &va£, avrbs p\v iirvpywffas "K6KIV fttcptii', Laws the words KU\ 7i/j.e7s mean ' we inhabitants 'A\Ka66ip rie'AoTros ircuSl xopifV€I/0J- of Attica.' This would certainly make every- For we know that Apollo helped Alcathous to thing clear, but such a translation is quite rebuild the walls of Megara ; and one of the impossible. Although the speaker is an town's citadels bears the name of Alcathous. Athenian, teal fipe'is (like ri/ius Se two lines (Paus. i. 42). Alcathous is said to have earlier) can only mean 'we,,and those who dedicated a temple to 'Air6k\a>v aypaios and agree with us on this point,' 'we who differ "Aprefus ayporepa (Paus. i. 41). The opening from Tyrtaeus in our views can also bring for- poems of the collection are addressed to deities ward a poet in support of our opinions.' especially connected with Megara, viz. Apollo Theoguis is not brought upon the stage as a and Artemis, who figure prominently on the native of Attica to meet Tyrtaeus the Spartan. bronze and silver coins of the state. Such a contrast is out of question here. Not 4 Laws. 629 a. only would it bo irrelevant and out of place, 'A0. irpo(rT7)(r^/t€0a yovv TvpTatov, rbv <pvff€i but Tyrtaeus himself has at the very outset jiiv 'A8i)vaiov, raicSe tie iroXirt\v yevbptvov. been claimed not merely as a native of Attica, 630 'Ad. 'H/ieis Si ye ayadwv ovrav roiruv tri but as an Athenian. The two poets are intro- <pafj.ep afieivovs elvat teal iro\v rovs iv Ttp iieylffrcp duced to represent not two districts but two To\4fxtf ytyvo^iivovs apioTovs Siatpavws' •nottiTriv shades of opinion on the question at issue, 5e Kal rifj-els [ndpTupa *x°f*ei/> ®eoyviv, TTO\ITT]V viz. the respective merits of (rrdiris and <5 TUV iv Si/ceAi'ct Wltyapiuv. f£a>6ei> ir6\(/ios as tests of a man's good quali- s Most modern critics endeavour to remove the ties. THEOGNIS AND HIS POEMS. 3 it is impossible to reconcile conflicting statements by explaining these words away, and we must admit that Plato looked upon Sicilian Megara as the home of our poet. But the protests of the ancients6 and the testimony of the poems themselves justify us in rejecting the philosopher's statement and accepting the claims of continental Megara on the borders of Attica. So strong is the evidence in support of this vie^v that even the two German critics7 who refuse to regard Nisaean M egara as the home and birthplace of the poet, have found themselves compelled to connect him with that town, and to admit that at least part of his life was spent there. We must next discuss the question of date. In elegy 8 53-60 Theognis deals with the changes in the political situation, and informs us that sovereign power had been taken away from the ' good' i.e. the nobles, and passed into the hands of the ' low,' ' those who before knew not suits or laws, but wore out with their sides the skins of goats, and like stags dwelt outside the city.' This is a reference to the introduction of democracy at Megara: to fix its date we have but very scanty materials at our disposal, but we may still arrive at a fair degree of certainty by examining the statements of Theognis himself and the stray bits of evidence we may gather from the works of Aristotle and Plutarch. We must start with the reign of Theagenes, who raised himself to power by the means commonly adopted by all aspirants to tyranny in those days.9 Posing as the champion of the poor, he attacked the rich landlords who, it would appear, had occupied a particularly fertile tract of land near the river, and there he slaughtered their cattle. With the help of a body-guard furnished by the people 10 he made himself tyrant, and seems, for a time at least, to have been a most successful ruler. How long he ruled we do not know, but .we do know that he was already tyrant when his son-in-law Cylon, with the help of a body of mercenaries sent over from Megara, seized the Acropolis at Athens and endeavoured to make himself master of the city. During his rule Theagenes adorned the city with works of public utility.u His reign cannot have been a long one. Plutarch (Qu. Graecae, 18) 12 tells us that the tyrant was expelled by the people of Megara; some 1S scholars have assumed that the cause of his ex- pulsion was his failure to prevent Salamis falling into the hands of the l! e.g. Didymus, of. Schol. ad Plat. legg. 630 the reference to cavalry in Theog.

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