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From Specimens of the Poets and Poetry of Greece and Rome by Various Translators, edited by William Peter, A. M. of Christ-church, Oxford; Philadelphia: Carey and Hart; 1847; pp. 38-39.


[38]

STESICHORUS

[Born 632 — Died, 556, B. C.]

A NATIVE of Himera in Sicily, and contemporary with Sappho and Alceæus. It is said that his original name was Tisias, and that he acquired the more expressive one by which he is known, from having first established, and generally arranged the movements of the Chorus, or from having first introduced the episode or stationary union of the two parts or divisions. Whatever may be thought of this (says Mr. Coleridge,) certain it is, that the Strophe, Antistrophe, and Epode of the Chorus became associated throughout Greece, with the name of Stesichorus. His principal poems were the “Destruction of Troy,” — the “Orestea,” — the “Rhadine,” — the “Syclla,” — and the “Geryonëis,”* — of which the titles, with a few scattered fragments, are all that have descended to us. He was the inventor of the fable of “the Horse and the Stag,” which has been imitated by Horace and other poets, and which he wrote in order to prevent his countrymen from making an alliance, with the tyrant, Phalaris. His poems have been highly extolled by ancient writers, and there are few who will not join in the regret expressed by a modern one for the loss of them. “Utinam profecto (says Lowth,) Stesichorum non invidisset nobis vetustas, cujus gravitatem et magnificentiam omnes prædicant; quem præ cæteris laudat Dionysius quod et argumenta sumeret grandia imprimis et splendide, et in iis tractandis mores et personarum dignitatem egregiè servaret.”







*  The Geryonëis was a poem on the story of the expedition of Hercules against the Spanish monster Geryon, who lived in Cadiz; in the fragment which remains of it, is the earliest mention of that ancient mystic legend of the sun’s passing over the sea in a golden cup, which was lent to Hercules for his voyage through the Mediterranean, and which has given occasion to more learned criticism than any other cup, heathen or Christian, glass, metal, or wood, ever fabricated of dreamed of.




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FROM “THE GERYONEIS.”

VOYAGE OF THE SUN.

Translated by J. H. Merivale

BUT now the sun, great Hyperion’s child,
     Embarked again upon his golden chalice,
And westward steered where, far o’er ocean wild,
     Sleeps the dim Night in solitary valleys,
Where dwell his mother and his consort mild,
     And infant sons, in this sequestered palace;
39 Whilst onward through the laurel-shaded grove,
Moved, with firm step, the hero son of Jove.





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FROM “THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY”.

THE SACRIFICE OF TYNDARUS.

Translated by H. N. Coleridge

    . . . . . For whereas Tyndarus,
Midst all his rites to all the gods above,
             Alone forgot
That giver of sweet gifts, the Queen of Love, —
Wroth with the daughters for the father’s sake,
    The goddess caused them straight,
Thrice, thrice, their nuptial bonds to break,
    And each desert her mate.







[According to Murray, in the Revised Edition of his Manual Of Mythology, p. 331, Tyndareus or Tyndareos (Tyndarus above is not used for this man in Peck or Murray), was the foster-father of Helen of Troy. When so many people wished to marry her because of her beauty, he was afraid of the resultant fury of any rejected suitor if he made the decision. He gave Helen the choice, “But first he called upon them all to take an oath, not only that they would be satisfied with her choice, but would assist her husband then and after in whatever danger or difficulty he might be placed. She chose Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon, her sister’s huband, and the marriage was celebrated with great pomp. Tyndeareus, however, had omitted to offer a sacrifice to Aphrodite, who, to punish him, made the heart of his foster-daughter readily accessible to unbridled love.” Peck does not mention this at all, but does say that Tyndaris is sometimes used to mean Helen in literature, as Tyndareus (or Tyndareos) was her foster-father. — Elf.Ed.




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THE PROCESSION.

Translated by J. H. Merivale

BEFORE the regal chariot, as it past,
     Were bright Cydonian apples scattered round,
And myrtle, leaves, in showers of fragrance cast,
     And many wreath was there, with roses bound,
And many a coronal, wherein were set,
Like gems, rich rows of purple violet.





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A FRAGMENT

Translated by J. H. Merivale

VAIN it is for those to weep
Who repose in death’s last sleep.
With Mans’ life ends all the story
Of his wisdom, wit, and glory.






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