Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology | Page 9

the
compass of Graeco-Roman civilisation, from the epitaph, magnificent
in its simplicity, sculptured on the grave of Cleoetes the Athenian when
Athens was still a small and insignificant town, to the last outpourings
of the ancient spirit on the tombs reared, among strange gods and
barbarous faces, over Paulina of Ravenna or Vibius Licinianus of
Nîmes.[4]
It has already been pointed out by how slight a boundary the epigram is
kept distinct from other forms of poetry, and how in extreme cases its
essence may remain undefinable. The two fragments of Theognis and
one of Mimnermus included here[5] illustrate this. They are examples
of a large number like them, which are not, strictly speaking, epigrams;

being probably passages from continuous poems, selected, at least in
the case of Theognis, for an Anthology of his works.
The epigrams extant in literature which are not in the Anthology are,
with a few exceptions, collected in the appendix to the edition of
Jacobs, and are reprinted from it in modern texts. They are about four
hundred in number, and raise the total number of epigrams in the
Anthology to about four thousand five hundred; to these must be added
at least a thousand inscriptional epigrams, which increase year by year
as new explorations are carried on. It is, of course, but seldom that
these last have distinct value as poetry. Those of the best period, indeed,
and here the best period is the sixth century B.C., have always a certain
accent, even when simplest and most matter of fact, which reminds us
of the palace whence they came. Their simplicity is more thrilling than
any eloquence. From the exotic and elaborate word-embroidery of the
poets of the decadence, we turn with relief and delight to work like this,
by a father over his son:
{Sema pater Kleoboulos apepsthimeno Xenopsanto
thexe tod ant
aretes ede saopsrosunes}[6]
(This monument to dead Xenophantus his father Cleobulus set up, for
his valour and wisdom);
or this, on an unmarried girl:
{Sema PHrasixleias xoure xexlesomai aiei
anti gamou para theon
touto lakhous onoma}[7]
(The monument of Phrasicleia; I shall for ever be called maiden, having
got this name from the gods instead of marriage.)
So touching in their stately reserve, so piercing in their delicate
austerity, these epitaphs are in a sense the perfection of literature, and
yet in another sense almost lie outside its limits. For the workmanship
here, we feel, is unconscious; and without conscious workmanship
there is not art. In Homer, in Sophocles, in all the best Greek work,
there is this divine simplicity; but beyond it, or rather beneath it and

sustaining it, there is purpose.

[1] Anth. Pal. vii. 249; Hdt. vii. 228.
[2] Ibid. vii. 256.
[3] Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta. Berlin, 1878.
[4] Infra, III. 35, 47; XI. 48.
[5] Infra, XII. 6, 17, 37.
[6] Corp. Inscr. Att. 477 B.
[7] Ibid. 469.
IV
From the invention of writing onwards, the inscriptions on monuments
and dedicated offerings supplied one of the chief materials of historical
record. Their testimony was used by the earliest historians to
supplement and reinforce the oral traditions which they embodied in
their works. Herodotus and Thucydides quote early epigrams as
authority for the history of past times;[1] and when in the latter part of
the fourth century B.C. history became a serious study throughout
Greece, collections of inscribed records, whether in prose or verse,
began to be formed as historical material. The earliest collection of
which anything is certainly known was a work by Philochorus,[2] a
distinguished Athenian antiquary who flourished about 300 B.C.,
entitled Epigramma Attica. It appears to have been a transcript of all
the ancient Attic inscriptions dealing with Athenian history, and would
include the verses engraved on the tombs of celebrated citizens, or on
objects dedicated in the temples on public occasions. A century later,
we hear of a work by Polemo, called Periegetes, or the
"Guidebook-maker," entitled {peri ton xata poleis epigrammaton}.[3]
This was an attempt to make a similar collection of inscriptions
throughout the cities of Greece. Athenaeus also speaks of authors

otherwise unknown, Alcetas and Menetor,[4] as having written treatises
{peri anathematon}, which would be collections of the same nature
confined to dedicatory inscriptions; and, these being as a rule in verse,
the books in question were perhaps the earliest collections of
monumental poetry. Even less is known with regard to a book "on
epigrams" by Neoptolemus of Paris.[5] The history of Anthologies
proper begins for us with Meleager of Gadara.
The collection called the Garland of Meleager, which is the basis of the
Greek Anthology as we possess it, was formed by him in the early part
of the first century B.C. The scholiast on the Palatine MS. says that
Meleager flourished in the reign of the last Seleucus ({ekhmasen epi