A history of classical Greek literature / by the Rev. J.P. Mahaffy.

John Pentland Mahaffy

Date:: 1908

Credit: A history of classical Greek literature / by the Rev. J.P. Mahaffy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

19/328 page 3

$CH. I. GRADUAL GROWTH OF POETRY. such a piece of work cannot be the first hesitating attempt of any people, however gifted, at literary composition. But throughout the various shorter episodes of which the Ihad may be composed, there is such a harmony in the drawing of the various heroes who appear on the scene, that {6) eVu£n lf °ne Sreat master did not sketch them all there must have been recognised types, which had long since as sumed a definite and fixed shape for a school or series of poets, each of whom was able to express this type with ade- quate consistency. Either theory implies long and gradual preparation, many lesser attempts that have faded, and many aulty pictures which have disappeared, because they departed rom the once fixed and recognised features of known cha- r&ctcrs. will§ I3' The ambltIOUS and elaborate structure of these epics will cleariy appear when we come to discuss them more fully m detail. It is here sufficient to insist that such composition! can in no wise represent the first attempts of the nation to frame a literature. In all the other fine arts, which the Greek! SUCCeSS’ they began with rude and even childish efforts, which possessed no beauty, and were evidently the work of artists who had as yet obtained but little control ver the material upon which they wrought. We have still rema,n]ng archaic specimens of architecture, and of scuLure \ hich strike us as almost ludicrous ; nor do the various accounts .early painting and music handed down to us leave a shadow of doubt that these arts went through a similarly gradual deve opment. The use of harmony in music was a late discovery after many generations had been content with an accomnani ment played note for note with the voice. The laws o/np spective were not made out and introduced into plt$

A history of classical Greek literature / by the Rev. J.P. Mahaffy.

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