time when the Birds was produced. That he was a clerk is hinted in v. 1024, where the Episkopos, asked by Tépwv B who had sent him on his mission, replies φαύλον βιβλίον Τελέου τι. The γραμματεῖς were often low persons, morally depraved and socially insignificant,1 hence all recollection of his office was lost later. The scholiast at 1024 makes no mention of it. By flattery and servility Teleas had worked himself into favor with the authorities. At the same festival (ev aσTEL, March, 414 B.C.) at which Aristophanes brought out the Birds, we find Phrynichus in the Movóтpotos classing Teleas with the obtrusive foreigner Execestides in the following manner (Frag. 20 K.): Α. μεγάλους πιθήκους οἶδ ̓ ἑτέρους τινὰς λέγειν, Β. ἀνωμάλους εἶπας πιθήκους ... ὃ μέν γε δειλός, ὃ δὲ κόλαξ, ὃ δὲ νόθος. Here ἀνωμάλους, capricious, well characterizes τοὺς πετομένους, and if ô μév ye decλós may refer to Lyceas (not otherwise known), & dè Kóλa proclaims Teleas as a time-server and trimmer, in accordance with ἀτέκμαρτος and ἀστάθμητος. Teleas, however, was not a foreigner, any more than Pisander was, although his family may have been obscure. His full name was Τελέας Τελενίκου Περγασῆθεν. This makes Kock's proposed change impossible, for the father's name was Teλévɩkos,* and not a name ending in -ένης or - μένης. Further, it would appear that he had been concerned in some embezzlement of the funds of Athena, if we may trust the phrase kaì voodioμ, which, however, is omitted in Ravennas. At any rate, he was greedy and forward (Pac. 1003 ff.), a hungry glutton, like most rhetors in Aristophanes (cf. Av. 1694 ff.), and a heeler of the most despicable type. the 1 Boeckh, Staatshaushaltung3 I, 227. 2 Also held up to ridicule Av. 11, 764, 1527. This throws a curious light on way in which the same obnoxious characters are attacked at the same time by different comic poets. 8 C.I.A. I, 127, 128, 159, 183. 4 A Teλévikos is mentioned in the list of persons implicated in the mutilation of the Hermae, Andoc. de Myst. 35. A STUDY OF THE DAPHNIS-MYTH. BY H. W. PRESCOTT. N this paper an attempt is made to trace the development of the Daphnis-myth in Greek literature down to the time of Longus.1 It is not my purpose to offer any theories about the mythological significance of the whole or of any part of the myth. At the close of a comparatively full account of the Daphnis-myth, Aelian says: Stesichorus of Himera was the first to introduce this sort of lyrical composition: καὶ Στησίχορόν γε τὸν Ιμεραῖον τῆς τοιαύτης μελοποιίας ὑπάρξασθαι. Before attempting to interpret these words, let us see what Aelian says before them. Concisely, his statements are these: Daphnis was a neatherd; some say a favorite of Hermes, others, a son; he was born of a nymph; exposed in a laurel tree, whence his name; the cattle he tended were sisters of the cattle of Helios; a nymph fell in love with him while he was tending his herd in Sicily, and associated with him; for he was handsome, young, with youthful down on his cheeks; he made a compact with her not to have intercourse with any other woman; and she threatened him, saying that he should be blinded if he broke his promise; soon afterwards a king's daughter fell in love with him, and under the influence of wine he broke his compact. Aelian then says: k δὲ τούτου τὰ βουκολικὰ μέλη πρῶτον ᾔσθη, καὶ εἶχεν ὑπόθεσιν τὸ πάθος τὸ κατὰ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ. These words must mean: "From this circumstance pastoral songs came to be sung, and they had as their subject the affliction to his eyes." Then follow the words in question: καὶ Στησίχορόν γε τὸν Ιμεραῖον τῆς τοιαύτης μελοποιίας ὑπάρξασθαι. There can be no question, I think, that these words do not immediately mean that Stesichorus ever wrote a poem about Daphnis. 1 The article by Stoll in Roscher's Lexikon leaves much to be desired. The words simply say: "Lyric poetry of this sort." Of what sort? Bucolic poetry in general? Poetry in which faithless lovers are blinded? Or poetry in which the romantic element predominates? The possibility that rouúry refers to bucolic poetry may be dismissed; we have no evidence elsewhere, so far as I know, that Stesichorus originated bucolic poetry as a form of literature. Did Stesichorus treat especially of blinded lovers? It will be remembered that Stesichorus, according to one tradition, was himself blinded because of some rather ungracious references to Helen, and that he then wrote a palinode1 recanting what he had said, and was relieved of his blindness. Those who maintain that Stesichorus wrote about Daphnis suggest that in his palinode, the poet, describing his own plight, inserted the story of Daphnis.2 Though this were true, it would hardly be sufficient warrant for Aelian's statement that Stesichorus introduced the blinding of faithless lovers, or of any other sort of people, into the subject-matter of melic poetry. Does Aelian mean that Stesichorus introduced the romantic element into melic poetry? That is, does the Daphnis-story, in Aelian's mind, serve as a type, and does he mean to say that Stesichorus is responsible for that typical form of lyric poetry? Athenaeus,3 in speaking of μéλn pwтikά, says that Stesichorus also, being somewhat given to love, composed this sort of song. The statement of Athenaeus is sufficiently confirmed by other testimony. Aristoxenus, according to Athenaeus, stated that the heroine of one of Stesichorus's poems was Calyce; that, according to the poem, she fell in love with one Euathlus, prayed Aphrodite that she might marry him, and, on the young man's scorning her suit, threw herself down a precipice. The poet, if we are to believe Aristoxenus, made the girl's character very modest; she was not unduly anxious to associate with the young man, but prayed simply that she might be his wedded wife or die. Strabo tells of Rhadine, the heroine of Stesi 1 Bergk, P. L. G.4 III. pp. 214-215, n. 2 Stoll in Roscher, s.v. Daphnis. 8 Athenaeus, 601 A. 4 Ibid. 619 D; cf. Eustathius, Iliad, 1236. 62. 5 Strabo, 8. 347 = Bergk, P. L. G.4 III. p. 222 (Frag. 44 and note). Samos in Elis is the home of the heroine. chorus's poem that began: "Come, clear-voiced Muse, begin the fair-named song, hymning the Samian young folk on thy lovely lyre." Rhadine had been promised in marriage to a tyrant of Corinth, and sailed thither to marry him; her cousin, who was in love with her, started off in a chariot to Corinth after her; the tyrant slew them both, and sent off their bodies in the chariot, but afterwards repented of his deed and buried them.1 From these passages it is evident that Stesichorus was properly regarded as especially interested in the romantic element in melic poetry, and the two plots preserved to us show that he chose stories with grewsome endings not unlike the sad conclusion of the Daphnis-myth. It is possible that we have in this circumstance sufficient explanation of Aelian's words: "Stesichorus introduced into literature romantic stories, of which the Daphnis-myth is a good type.' "2 But it may be said with considerable pertinence: if Stesichorus was interested in such plots, and if in the Calyce-story he used an argument obviously taken from folklore, what can be more likely than that, a Sicilian by residence, he should have introduced into literature the Daphnis-myth, a bit of folklore that is peculiarly Sicilian to begin with. Certainly the probability of such a thing cannot be denied. The fact remains, however, that Aelian chose to say τοιαύτης τῆς μελοποιίας when he might as easily, had he meant it, have said ToÚTOV TOû μéλovs. The fact also remains that, though we have the Daphnis-legend described in various sources from the fourth century B.C. down to a late period, two of these sources being Timaeus and Diodorus, historians of Sicily, and themselves Sicilianborn, yet the only mention, if we grant that it is a mention, of Stesichorus's part in the story, occurs in this one place in Aelian.5 1 Cf. Pausanias, 7. 5. 13. 2 But Archytas, the writer on music (Athenaeus, 600 F), said that Alcman introduced μέλη ἐρωτικά. 3 Cf. Aristoxenus in Athenaeus, 619 D. 4 Stesichorus is called 'Iμepaîos, and the trees that mourn Daphnis's death in Theocritus (7.75) are those that grow by the river Himeras. 5 A study of the credibility of Aelian, and of his accuracy in referring stories to definite authors, would help in settling the question. I simply wish to protest against the over-confidence of those who, merely on the basis of Aelian's state Another fact, of equal importance, must be granted: that, even if Aelian does suggest Stesichorus as the author of the story in literature, there is no reason for supposing that the story, as told in Aelian, is the argument used by the poet.1 If we eliminate Stesichorus from the Daphnis-tradition, almost all our earliest authorities for the legend belong in the Alexandrine period. But the myth is already in such a highly developed form, and exhibits so many variations of details, so many folklore elements, that we cannot suppose that the legend is new, either in oral tradition or in literature. Our sources are of three sorts: historians, who probably preserve for us the older form of the myth; poets, who do not hesitate to give free play to their fancy; and scholiasts, who show faithful grubbing in a mythological handbook. It is difficult to assign priority of date to any of the writers of the Alexandrine period with whom we have to deal. But the Sicilian historian Timaeus (B. C. 352-256) was likely to preserve an old form of the myth, inasmuch as he had at his command the material of earlier historians, like Philistus. The story, as Timaeus reported it, is preserved by Parthenius in his record of the experiences of lovers; 2 briefly, as follows: Daphnis was born in Sicily, a son of Hermes, a clever player on the pipe, and handsome; he did not associate with the great mass of men, but lived as a neatherd on Aetna, winter and summer, in the open air; the nymph Echenais3 loved him and forbade him to approach any other woman, on penalty of losing his sight; he held out for a while, though many loved him madly; at last a Sicilian princess befooled him with wine and enticed him to intercourse; so he suffered the same fate as Thamyras, the Thracian. If we omit for the moment the other Alexandrine sources of the ment, make Stesichorus the father of the myth in literature. The interpretation of Aelian's words presented above is simply the result of an independent study of the passage, and is offered tentatively, until further study of Aelian's peculiarities is possible. 1 Cf. Hiller, n. on Theocritus, I. 19. 2 Parthenius, περὶ ἐρωτικῶν παθημάτων, 29. 8 Reitzenstein, Epigramm und Skolion, p. 199, n. 2, thinks that the name is possibly not from Timaeus, but invented by Parthenius for Gallus's use. |