Volume 1

Studies of the Greek poets / by John Addington Symonds.

  • John Addington Symonds
Date:
1877-1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Studies of the Greek poets / by John Addington Symonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    insignificant place of his origin world-famous. Of his history we know really nothing more than his own epigrams convey ; the two following couplets from one of his epitaphs record his sojourn during different periods of his life at Tyre and at Ceos : tv Oeonais tfvfipoocre Tvpos Tabaputv 6’ lepa x^^v ' KcSs S’ ipar\] Mepchrcwi/ irpecrfivv eyr)poTp6<pei. ’AAA’ el (lev 2vpos effffl, 'S.aXap.' el S’ ovv (Tvye ^oTvii^, NatStos • el S’ EWrjv, x°“Pe ‘ O’Vrb <ppaaov.* This triple salutation, coming from the son of Gadara and Tyre and Ceos, brings us close to the pure humanity which distin- guished Meleager. Modern men, judging him by the standard of Christian morality, may feel justified in flinging a stone at the poet who celebrated his Muiscos and his Diodes, his Heliodora and his Zenophila, in too voluptuous verse. But those who are content to criticise a pagan by his own rule of right and wrong, will admit that Meleager had a spirit of the subtlest and the sweetest, a heart of the ten- derest, and a genius of the purest that has been ever granted to an elegist of earthly love. While reading his verse, it is impossible to avoid laying down the book and pausing to exclaim : How modern is the phrase, how true the passion, how unique the style ! Though Meleager’s voice has been mute a score of centuries, it yet rings clear and vivid in our ears; because the man was a real poet, feeling intensely, expressing forcibly and beautifully, steeping his style in the fountain of tender sentiment which is eternal. We find in him none of the cynicism which defiles Straton, or of the volup- tuary’s despair which gives to Agathias the morbid splendour of decay, the colours of corruption. All is simple, lively, fresh with joyous experience in his verse. * Who grew to man’s estate in Tyre and Gadara, and found a fair old age in Cos. If then thou art a Syrian, Salaam ! if a Phoenician, Naidios ! if a Hellene, Hail !