Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/257

IX] CLASSIC METRE AND CHRISTIAN EMOTION 239 each hemistich. This regular recurrence of emphasis in an elegiac couplet renders its sententiousness defi- nite and its expression of feeling strikingly measured. Some examples may be taken. The following couplet of Theognis summarizes much Greek ethics : — JAridiv Ayav airevSeiv • vdrrtav fiia Apiffra • Kal ourws, These lines express the universal Greek warning, fxrjSiv dyavf " nothing excessively " ; also the converse positive ideal of the " mean," and the relation of these principles to the achievement of excellence which is difficult to gain. The stress in the pentameter falls on the final syllables nyv and ttov, which are the strong syllables of emphatic words. Simonides' epitaph on the Spartan dead at Ther- mopylae illustrates the preparatory anacrusis function of the hexameter line, and the weightiness of the pentameter : — O fetK*, d77AXeii' AaKcSaifwvlois, Sti T^8e KeifieOa, rois Kclvtav (n^fiaai xeiddfievoi.^ And, finally, the beautiful epitaph on the Eretrian exiles, ascribed to Plato, exemplifies the measure, the control, the exquisite rhythm of pathos, which the elegiac metre might contain.' 1 Bergk, Anthol. Lyrica, Theognis, 335: " Not too much eager- ness ; best of all is the mean ; thus, Komos, shalt thou have excel- lence, which is so hard to catch." < " Stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that here We lie, to their laws obedient." ' OtJ« wot' AiyotoiO fiapvfiponov olifia Atirorrtff 'EKfiaravwr wtiitf K*ifji*9' ivi fitainf. Xa(^« «AvT»j wort narfnt 'F.ptrpia, x^^P*^ *A#ifi»at, ~BxB<2K, Anthol. Lyrica, Plato, 9.