Κύκλωπας Polyphemus must have been a stock-subject in literature, as there were dramas with the title Κύκλωψ by Epicharmus, Aristias, and Antiphanes, as well as the existing play of Euripides. The plural here denotes not several Cyclopses, but Polyphemus as treated in different poems. For the Κύκλωψ ἢ Γαλάτεια of Philoxenus see Bergk, LG. 3 p. 609 . It seems to have been a covert satire on the elder Dionysius; we may suppose, then, that Philoxenus made his Cyclops an ignoble personage, χείρων ἢ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς.

2.6 Il en est de mème des Poëtes qui ont compoſe des Dithyrambes & des Nomes.) ¹

2.6 C'est ainsi que Timothée & que Philoxene ont imité les Perſes & les Cyclopes.] ²

2.6 Philoxene.] ³

2.6 P. 68. SO, AGAIN, WITH RESPECT TO DITHYRAMBICS AND NOMES.

The expression, in this passage, is too general, and too little is known of the examples mentioned in it, to admit of perfect satisfaction, with respect to any thing farther than its general meaning; i. e. that both Dithyrambic and Nomic Poetry admitted the same differences in the objects of their imitation. For so, I think, the sense requires us to understand ¹ ; not, that the imitation of heroic characters was appropriated to the one, and that of light characters to the other. Both these species of Poetry were hymns; and though the Dithyrambic, or hymn to Bacchus, might, indeed, from its wild and free character, be privileged with a greater latitude and variety of imitation, yet I know of no authority that will warrant our going so far, as to suppose, that they were essentially distinguished from each other in this respect, like Tragedy and Comedy.

The construction of the Greek I understand to be this:— . I am astonished, that any commentators should have taken either of the compositions here mentioned for dramas; an idea totally repugnant to the plain sense of the whole passage, and to the evident purpose for which these examples are cited. With respect to the , the passage of Pausanias may be regarded as decisive;—

Πυλαδε ἀδοντο Τιμόθεει ΝΟΜΟΝ, τε Μιλησία, ΠΕΡΣΑΣ

Paus. Arcad. —And the Poem began with an hexameter verse which is there quoted. Yet Fabricius calls it a Tragedy. The Poem of Philoxenus here meant must, clearly, have been either a Nome, or a Dithyrambic Poem; most probably, the latter. Philoxenus is recorded as a Dithyrambic Poet; and Aristotle's illustration will be more complete, if we understand him to exemplify in each of the kinds of Poetry in question. It is by no means certain, that the Cyclops of Philoxenus mentioned by Athenæus , Ælian , and others, is the piece here alluded to: and, if it were, which, undoubtedly, appears rather probable, I know of no sufficient proof that it was a Drama, as it has been repeatedly called. If Ælian is to be regarded, it certainly was not; for he calls it —a term appropriated to Lyric Poetry.— . ²

I mentioned, in the conclusion of NOTE 1 . a problem of Aristotle, from which it appears, that the Dithyrambic Poetry was not originally imitative, but became so by degrees. It is the 15th of the Harmonic Problems, Sect. 19. It is there said, that the Dithyrambs, after they became imitative, laid aside the antistrophical form, (i. e. the division into corresponding stanzas ³ ,) in which, before, they had been composed. ⁴ And the reason assigned for this is, that, originally, these Dithyrambic hymns were performed by chorusses of gentlemen, [ ] who could not sing in the style of artists, and professors: [ :] the words were, therefore, set to the simplest kind of melody, ⁵ such as that, in which the same air is repeated to similar stanzas, as in our ballads. ⁶ But afterwards, it seems, the performance of these hymns, like that of the Nomes, was left to professed musicians, the , or masters of the art, who contended with each other in trials of skill, and who were, of course, to exert all their imitative powers. The symmetry of strophe and antistrophe, and the simplicity of air regularly repeated, were ill adapted to this purpose, which required length, variety, and frequent changes of metre, melody, rhythm, mode, genus, &c. ⁷ in conformity to the various subjects of imitation, and transitions of expression. ⁸ This account, which affords some little glimpse of curious information, with respect both to the Nomic and Dithyrambic hymn, is confirmed, as far as the latter is concerned, by Dionysius Halicarn. De Structura Orat. Sect. 19 . He there traces the progress of all this Lyric corruption, and names TIMOTHEUS and PHILOXENUS as the principal authors of these licentious and wicked innovations— he says, ⁹

Plutarch , too, in the Dialogue Περι Μεσικης , speaks exactly the same language. Timotheus and Philoxenus are there repeatedly stigmatized as corrupters of the good old music; and the and , is opposed to the , ¹⁰ with a zeal similar to that, with which, in modern music, we sometimes hear the style of Corelli and Geminiani opposed and preferred to the heterodox novelties of Haydn and Boccherini . ¹¹

The manner, in which Aristotle, in this Problem, speaks of the Nomes, when compared with his expressions relative to the Dithyrambics, rather leads one to suppose, that the former were not, even originally, composed in the antistrophic form ¹² : the least, however, that can be inferred from it, is, that they discarded that form, and, consequently, became complicated, artificial, and imitative, long before a similar revolution took place in the Dithyrambic Poetry and Music. I may, also, observe that the variety of imitation, and changes of expression, clearly attributed by Aristotle to the Nomes, seem to confirm what I said above—that they did not exclude the same variety, in the objects of their imitation, which the Dithyrambic Poem confessedly admitted.

I will just add, that this Problem of Aristotle throws light upon a passage in his Rhetoric , which has embarrassed his commentators. He there [ lib. iii. cap. 9. ] compares the diction that is divided into periods, to the Antistrophic Odes but, the , in which the sentence has no other unity than that which copulatives give it ¹³ , nor any other measure than the completion of the sense, and the necessity of taking breath ¹⁴ , or, as Cicero , in few words, so admirably describes it, ¹⁵ —this Aristotle compares to what he calls the in Dithyrambic Poetry; meaning, I think, evidently, the long, irregular, protracted Odes of the more modern Dithyrambic Poets; such as those, of which he speaks in the Problem. For the word, , here, does not, I believe, signify exordium, proæmium, as usually understood, but was, probably, the name by which these were distinguished, and opposed to the old and simple Dithyrambic in stanzas.

ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ περὶ τοὺς διθυράμβους καὶ τοὺς νόμους μιμήσαιτο ἄν τις: imitandi differentiam modo expositam exemplisque illustratam etiam in lyrico genere (pro ipso genere duas species ponit) adhiberi posse dicit, exempla tamen nulla producit, sive de-... erant sive hoc lam sponte liquere existimabat. sic omnia se satis bene habent: sed ecce, post τοὺς νόμους interturbant ὡς Πέρσας καὶ Κύκλωπας Τιμόθεος καὶ Φιλόξενος, in quibus Aristotelem ego agnoscere non possum. Πέρσας Timotheus inscripsit carmen quoddam ( νόμον, non διθύραμβον) ad celebrandam Graecorum de Persis victoriam a se ad citharam compositum. testis est Pausanias VIII, 50, 3. μετὰ δὲ οὐ πολὺ ἀγόντων Νέμεια ᾿Αργείων, ἔτυχε μὲν τῶν κιθαρῳδῶν τῷ ἀγῶνι ὁ Φιλοποίμην παρών. Πυλάδου τότε δὲ ᾄδοντος Τιμοθέου νόμον τοῦ Μιλησίου Πέρσας καὶ καταρξαμένου τῆς ᾠδῆς “ κλεινὸν ἐλευθερίας τεύχων μέγαν Ἑλλάδι κόσμον,” ἀπεῖδεν ἐς τὸν Φιλοποίμενα τὸ Ἑλληνικόν, καὶ ἐπε σημήναντο τὸ κρότῳ φέρειν εἰς ἐκεῖνον τὸ ᾄσμα, conf. Plutarch. Philopoет. с. 11. Cyclopis nomine Philoxenus nobilem dithyrambum conscripserat. vid. Athen. I. p. 6 F. - p. 7 A. XIII. p. 564 E. Aelian. V. H. XII, 44. Plutarch. Quaestion. conviv. I, 5. scholiastae ad Plutum Aristophanis v. 290. 298. ad Theocrit. VI, 7. XI, 1. Tzetzes Chiliad. X, 841. etiam Timothei Cyclops memoratur ab Athenaeo XI. p. 465 C. et ab Eustathio p. 1631, 61. iam quaero quid sibi velint verba illa interposita ? nimirum ut discant lectores quid sint nomi et dithyrambi, iis unum aliquem ex nomis et unum aliquem ex dithyrambis 2) in memoriam revocant, sed quid inde ad illustrandam lucramur triplicem illam imitandi differentiam? nihil, prorsus nihil. inepta sunt igitur et ab aliena manu inserta. sed quaeritur, num forte emendandi quodam periculo verba illa sustentari possint, eo magis quod ὡς Πέρα σας a codicibus non satis tutum videtur esse. ad hoc proxime accedit ὡς περγᾶς ut in Ac, paulo minus ὥσπερ γᾶς ut in Be et Na. quod ex Mediceis XIV et 14 ὡς περσᾶς affertur, id vitium typographi videtur esse pro ὡς περγᾶς. in libro Veneto et Guelpherbytano ὡς Πέρσας inesse Burgesius 2) Qui illa interposuit, is Timothei Cyclopem non respexisse vel omnino non cognitum videtur habuisse, sed ut Timothei nomen ad Πέρσας sic Philoxeni ad Κύκλωπας rettulit.apud Tyrwhittum p. 240. narrat, sed hunc falli de Guelpherbytano Buhlius testatur. Victorius Πέρσας se debere conie cturae Francisci Medices professus est. ceteri codices cum Bekkerianis illis consentiunt aut paululum ab iis discedunt. sed utcumque est, ὡς Πέρσας veram esse scripturam dubitare vix licet, sive codicum vestigia sive Pausaniae verba supra a nobis transcripta consideramus, certe Tyrwhitti coniectura multum posthabenda videatur. ille enim scribendum suasit ὥσπερ ᾿Αργᾶς Κύκλωπας καὶ Τιμόθεος καὶ Φιλόξενος, ut Argas Cyclopem deteriorem, Philoxenus parem, Timotheus celsiorem effinxisse dicantur. quae contra moneam haec habeo. 1. Argas quidem ab Athenaeo XIV. p. 638 B. (cf. IV. p. 131 B) et a Plutarcho in vita Demosthenis c. 4. poeta pravorum nomorum ( ποιητής μοχθηρῶν νόμων) nominatur, sed nemo veterum Cyclopem ab eo scriptum esse tradit. 2. cum Cyclops quem composuit Philoxenus et is quem Timotheus, dithyrambus fuerit, Argam quoque dithyramborum poetam fuisse ex hoc loco consequeretur: sed Argas erat νομοποιός, non διθυραμβοποιός. 3. qui imitatur peiores, eum pravos facere nomos nihil est quod cogat, immo in suo genere optimus esse poeta potest, ut Athenaei et Plutarchi verba nullum illi coniecturae praesidium praebeant. 4. Philoxenus Cyclopem suum non parem fecit sed infra mythi dignitatem quam maxime deiectum, quod partim ex fragmentis partim ex veterum testimoniis apparet: contra ex uno frustulo Cyclopis a Timotheo editi non liquet eum celsiorem et ad dignitatem carminis Homerici expressum fuisse, quod credidit statuitque Tyrwhittus. Hermannus coniecturam Tyrwhitti ita adoptavit ut ab illa transpositione particulae καὶ abstinens scriberet ὥσπερ ᾿Αργᾶς, καὶ Κύκλωπας Τιμόθεος καὶ Φιλόξενος. sic ex difficultatibus modo enumeratis prima et secunda removetur, sed ad duas relicuas nova accedit ex verborum constructione nimium impedita. postremo, ut redeam ad vulgatam, huc attendi velim, quam ex levi recordatione interpolator scripserit ὡς Πέρσας καὶ Κύκλωπας Τιμόθεος καὶ Φιλόξενος: scilicet quemadmodum Timotheus Persas devictos car-COMMEMTARIVS mine suo ( νόμῳ) cecinit, sic non item Philoxenus Cyclopum catervam sed unum Polyphemum dithyrambo suo descripsit. itaque non Κύκλωπας scribere debuit, sed Κύκλωπα. hoc ipsum qui reponere cum Reizio audebit, is insanabile ulcus in hunc locum non librarii oscitantia sed hominis male docti diligentia illatum lippis oculis paulum obscurabit, sed Aristoteli sua non restituet.