This
deity appears in the Iliad among the inhabitants of
Olympus (//.
deity appears in the Iliad among the inhabitants of
Olympus (//.
Charles - 1867 - Classical Dictionary
Players were not unfrequenlly sent, as the
representatives of the republic, on embassies and dep-
utations. Hence they became in old, as not unfre-
quently in modern times, self-conceited and domineer-
ing, utl&v iwavrai, says Aristotle, tuv ltotnruv ol
KKuspiTai. (Rhet. ,3,]. ) They were, however, as a
body, men of loose and dissipated character, and, as
sx. ch, were regarded with an unfavourable eye by the
ncralists and philosophers of that age.
6. Chorus.
The chorus, once the sole matter of exhibition,
though successively diminished by Thespis and JEm-
chyIns, was yet a very essential part of the drama du-
ring tho best days of the Greek theatre. The splen-
doui of the dresses, the music, the dancing, combined
with the loftiest poetry, formed a spectacle peculiarly
gratifying to the eye, ear, and intellect of an Attic au-
dience. The number of tho tragic chorus for the
whole trilogy appears to have been 50; the comic
chorus consisted of 34. The chorus of the tetralogy
was bioken into four sub-choruses, two of 15, one of
12, and a Satyric chorus of 8. When the chorus of
15 entered in ranks three abreast, it was said to be
divided nard Jvyd; when it was distributed into three
files or five, it was said to be Kara aroixovc. The
rituation assigned to the chorus was the orchestra,
whence it always took a part in the action of the dra-
ma, joining in the dialogue through the medium of
its mopvfaloc, or leader. The choristers entered the
orchestra preceded by a player on the flute, who reg-
alatcd their steps, sometimes in single file, more fre-
quently three in front and five in depth (Kara aroi-
jrovc), or vice versa (noro (yyu), in tragedy; and four
in front by sL in depth, or inversely, in comedy. Its
? ? first entrance was called rrapoioe; its occasional de-
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? THEATRUM
THE
(10 vestments; each of which Julius Pollux has sep-
arately and minutely described in a chapter devoted
to the subject. This writer divides the tragic masks
alone into twenty-six classes (4, 133, seqq. ). The
comic maeka were much more numerous. He speci-
fies only four or five kinds of Satyric masks. Most
of the male wigs were collected into a foretop (oyxoc),
which was an angular piopction abcve the forehead,
<<hap>>'J tike a A, and was probably borrowed from the
xpuCvXov of the old Athenians. {Jul. Poll. , 4, 133.
--Thucyd. , 1, 6. ) The female masks, however, wero
often surmounted in a similar manner. The object
of this projection was to give the actor a height pro-
portioned to the size of the theatre, an object for which
the cothurnus was also intended. It appears from
Pollux (4,. 141) that the masks were coloured; and
? he art of enamelling or painting bronze seems to have
been one of great esteem in the time of iEschylus.
(JSschyl. , Agam. , 623. --Wefcier, Nachtrag. , p. 42. )
--Another peculiarity which distinguished the Greek
manner of acting from our own, was the probable neg-
lect of everything like by-play and making points,
which are so effective on the modern stage. The
distance at which the spectators were, placed would
prevent them from seeing those little movements, and
hearing those low tones, which have made the fortune
of many a modern actor. The mask, too, precluded
all attempts at varied expression; and it is probable
that nothing more was expected from the performer
than good recitation--The buskin, or cothurnus (ko-
Oopvoc), was the ancient Cretic hunting boot. For
tragic use it was soled with several layers of cork, to
the thickness of three inches. It was laced up in front
as high as the calf, which kept the whole tight and
firm, in spite of the enormous sole. --It was not worn
by all tragic characters, nor on all occasions. Aga-
memnon is introduced by . *Eschylus in sandal*. The
sandal raised by a cork sole was called lp6arric. The
ladies and the chorus had also the buskin, but that of
the latter had only an ordinary sole. These buskins
were of various colours. White was commonly the
colour for ladies, red for warriors. Those of Bacchus
wero purple. Slaves wore the low shoe called the
seek, which was also the ordinary covering for the
foot of the comic actor. --As the cork sole of the co-
thurnus gave elevation to the stature, so the KoK-nupa,
or stuffings, swelled out the person to heroic dimen-
sions. Judiciously managed, it added expansion to the
chest and shoulders, muscular fulness to arm and limb.
--The dresses were very various. There was the
Xtruv noiripric for gods, heroes, and old men. That
fbr hunters, travellers, and young nobles and warriors
when unarmed, was shorter, and sat close to the neck.
The girdle for heroes was that called the Persian. It
was very broad, made of scarlet stuff, and fringed at
the lower edge. Goddesses and ladies wore one broad
and plain, of purple and gold. The cvppa was a long
purple robe for queens and princesses, with a train
which swept the ground. The lower part of the sleeve
was broidered with white. --The Xvarin was a short
train with short sleeves drawn over the ^irwv rtoSn-
frf/c. Slaves wore the Ipartov, a kind of short shirt,
or the l? upi(, a shirt with only one sleeve for the right
arm; the left was bare to the shoulder. Herdsmen
and shepherds were clad in the 6i$d? pa, a kind of goat-
skin tunic without sleeves. Hunters had the Ipartov,
and a short horseman's cloak of a dark colour. If
? ? they were great personages, they were dressed in a
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? THEB. E.
THEB*
Cassander. when the Athenians arc said to have gen-j
annuiy contributed their aid in rebuilding the walls, an
Biaiupic which was followed by other places. (Pau-
ran. , 9, 7. --PUt. , Polit. Pracep. , p. 814, B. ) Sub-
sequently we find that Thebes was twice taken by
Demctrirs Poliorceies. (Ptut. , Vit. Demetr. , c. 39. )
Dicaeaicbus has given a very detailed and interesting
account of this great city about this period. {Slat. ,
Or. , p. 14. ) At a later period Thebes was greatly
reduced and impoverished by the rapacious Sylla.
(Pausaa. , 9, 7 ) Strabo affirms, that in his time it
was little more than a village. (Strait. , 403. ) Thebes,
though nearly deserted towards tho decline of the Ro-
man empire, appears to have been of some note in the
middle ages (Nicct. , Ann. , 2, p. 60. --Lcune. , Ann. ,
p. 267), and it is still one of the most populous towns
of northern Greece. The natives call it Thioa. It
retains, however, according to Dodwcll, scarcely any
traces of its former magnificence. Of the walls of-the
Cadmeia a few fragments remain, which are regularly
constructed. These were probably erected by the
Athenians when Cassander restored the town. (Tout,
vol. 1, p. 264. --Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 2, p. 223,
teqq. )--HI. Phthiotica? , a city of Thessaly, in the dis-
trict of Phthiotis. situate, according to Polybius, about
300 stadia from Larissa, and not far from the sea. In
a military point of view its importance was great, as
It commanded the avenues of Magnesia and Thessaly,
from its vicinity to Demetrius, Pherse, and Pharsalus.
Sir W. Gell describes some ruins between Armiro
and Volo, which he suspects to be those of this town
(Ilin. , p. 258-- Cramers Ane. Greece, vol. 1, p. 402. )
--IV. A celebrated city of Upper Egypt, the capital
of Thebais. The name is corrupted from the Tapi of
the Coptic, which,. in the Memphitic dialect of that
language, is pronounced Theba. Pliny in one place
writes the name of Thebes in the singular: "Thebc
portarum centum nobilis fama" (5, 9). The appella-
tion of Diospolis, often applied to it by the Greeks,
s a translation of Amunei, or "the abode of Am-
ain," who represents the Egyptian Jupiter. Another
? ame given to it by the Greeks was Hecatompylos,
which will be considered below. The origin of this
great city is lost amid the obscurity of lable. By
some it was ascribed to Osiris, by others to one of
tho earliest of the Egyptian kings. Tho probability
is, that it was at first a sacerdotal establishment, con-
nected with commercial operations, like so many of
the early cities of Egypt, and that it gradually attained
to its vast dimensions in consequence of the additions
madu by successive monarchs. The Egyptians, how-
over, according to Diodorus (1, 50), believed Thebes
to have been the first city founded upon the earth;
and, in truth, we have no account at the present day
of any of earlier origin. Its most flourishing period
appears to have been prior to the building of Memphis,
when Thebes was the capital of all Egypt, the royal
residence, and abode of the highest sacerdotal college
in the land. It must, from its very situation, have
been the middle point for the caravan trade to the
south, and through it passed, very probably, all the pro-
ductions and wares of Asia. Homer, therefore, who
describes it as a powerful city, containing a hundred
gates, must have derived his information from the Phoe-
nicians engage. ' in the overland trade. It is idle to
suppose that the poet himself had been there in person,
when of the rest of Egypt he knew nothing but the
? ? mere name, and had but a confused idea even of the
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? Ihh
THE
lumps ol asphaltum about two pounds in weight.
The case is covered with a cement resembling plas-
ter of Paris, in which various figures are c. ast. The
whole is painted, generally with a yellow ground, on
which are hieroglyphics and figures of green. --But to
return to the ruin of Thebes: on the east side of the
Nile, at Karnac and Luxor, amid a multitude of tem-
ples, there are no tombs; these are confined to the
west bank. An iron sickle was lately found under
nue of the buried statues, nearly of the shape of those
which are now in use, though thicker; it is supposed
to have lain there since the invasion of Cambyses,
when the idols were concealed by the superstitious to
save them from destruction. Belzoni and others un-
covered and carried away many specimens of these
antique remains, such as sphinxes, obelisks, and stat-
ues. On this same side of the river, no palaces or
traces of ancient human habitations are met with;
whereas, on the western side, at Medinet Abou, there
are not only propyiasa and temples highly valued by
'he antiquarian, but dwelling-houses, which seem to
point out that place as having been once a royal resi-
dence. (Manncrt, Geogr. , vol. 10, pt. 1, p. 334,
seqq. -- WUkimon, Topography of Thebe*, London,
1835. 8vo. )
Thebais, I. the southernmost division of Egypt, of
which Thebes was the capital. (Vid. . Egyptus, page
3Y, col. 1, v 4. )--II. The title of a poem by Statius.
<Vid. Statius. )
Thibb. Vid. ThcbsB.
Thebe, the wife of Alexander, tyrant of Phcrae.
r>hc assassinated him. (Vid. Alexander I. ,page 109,
col. 2, $ 6. )
Themis, the goddess of Justice or Law.
This
deity appears in the Iliad among the inhabitants of
Olympus (//. , 15, 87. --lb. , 20, 4); and in the Odys-
sey (2, 68) she is named as presiding over the assem-
blies of men, but nothing is said respecting her rank
or origin. By Hesiod (Theog. , 135, 901, seqq. ), she
is said to be a Titancss, one of the daughters of
Heaven and Earth, and to have borne to Jupiter the
Fates, and the Seasons, Peace, Order, Justice, the
natural progeny of Law (Oifuc), and all deities benefi-
cial to mankind. In Pindar and the Homcridan
hymns, Themis sits by Jupiter, on his throne, to give
him counsel. Themis is said to have succeeded her
mother Eaith in the possession of the Delphic oracle,
and to have voluntarily resigned it to her sister Phoebe,
who gave it as a natal-gift unto Phoebus Apollo. --
Wclcker says that Themis is merely an epithet of
Garth. (Tnl. , p. 39. ) Hermann also makes Themis
8 physical being, rendering her name Slatina; while
Bottiger, with apparently more justice, says, " She is
Ihe oldest purely allegorical personification of a vir-
tue. " (Kunst-Mythol. , 2, nO. --KcigUlcy's Mt/tholo-
py, p. 198. )
Themiscyra, a city of Pontus, capital of a district
of the same name. The town of Themiscyra appears
to have been one of very early origin. Scylax men-
tions it as a Grecian state, and Herodotus also speaks
>>f it. (Scylax, p. 33. -- Herod. , 4, 86. ) Both of
these writers, however, place it at the mouth of the
Therunodon; whereas Ptolemy locates it in the centre
<<f the district Themiscyra, that is, more inland. This
place appears to hive t<<en destroyed in the course of
the Mithradatic war. (Appian, B. Mithrad. , c. 78. )
Hence Strabo makes no mention of it; and Mela
? ? merely states, that, in the territory around the Ther-
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? THE
wnom these measnrea were exceedingly displeasing,
iddressed the emperor upon the subject in an elo-
quent speech, in which he represented the diversity of
ipinions among the Christians as inconsiderable com-
pared with that of the pagan philosophers, and plead-
ed that this diversity could not be displeasing to God,
since it did not prevent men from worshipping him
with true piety. By these and other arguments The-
mistius prevailed upon the emperor to treat the Trin-
itarians with greater lenity. --Themistius illustrated
several of the works of Aristotle, particularly the Ana-
lytics, the Physics, and the Book on the Soul. --Of
his discourses Photius enumerates thirty-six: we have
only, at the present day, thirty-three, and one other, the
thirty-third, in a Latin translation. An edition of ihe
entire remains of Themistius appeared from the A i
line press in 1534, fol. Of the orations, the best edi-
tion used to be that of Petavius (Petau), Parit, 1634,
lol. ; but now, for the text of Themistius, the best
edition is that of Dindorf, Cnobloch, 1832, 8vo.
TuEMiSTdci. es, a celebrated Athenian statesman
mil leader. His father Neocles was a man of high
cirili after the Athenian standard, but his mother was
not a citizen, and, according to most accounts, not
even a Greek. His patrimony seems to hav'e been
ample for a man of less aspiring temper. The anec-
dotes related of his youthful wilfulness and wayward-
ness; of his earnest application to the pursuit of use-
ful knowledge ; of his neglect of the elegant arts, which
already formed part of the Athenian education ; of his
profusion and his avarice; of the sleepless nights in
which he meditated on the trophies of Miltiades, all
point, with more or less of particular truth, the same
way; to a soul early bent on great objects, and form-
"<i to pursue them with steady resolution, incapable
af being diverted by trifles, embarrassed by scruples,
r deterred by difficulties. The end he aimed at
was not merely the good of bis country, still less
was it any petty mark of selfish cupidity. The pur-
pose of his life was to make Athens great and pow-
erful, that he himself might move and command in a
large sphere. The genius with which nature had en-
dowed him warranted this noble ambition, and it was
marvellously suited to the critical circumstances in
which he was placed by fortune. The peculiar faculty
of his mind, which Thucydides contemplated with ad-
miration, was the quickness with which it seized every
object that came in its way, perceived the course of
action required by new situations and sudden junc-
tures, and penetrated into remote consequences.
Such were the abilities which, at the period when he
came forward, were most needed for the service of
Athens. At the time when Themistocles was be-
ginning to rise into credit with his fellow-citizens, an-
other man of very different character already possessed
their respect and confidence. This was Aristides, son
of Lysitnachus. (fid. Aristides. ) Like Themisto-
cles, he loo had the welfare of Athens at heart, but
limply and singly, not as an instrument, but as an
? . ml. On this he kept his eye, without looking to any
mark beyond it, or stooping to any private advantage
that lay on his road. It is not surprising that a man
of such a mould should have come into frequent con-
flict with a statesman like Themistocles, though their
immediate object was the same, and though there was
no great discordance between their general views of
the public interest When Aristides, without having
incurred accusation or reproach, without teing sus-
? ? pected of any ambitious designs, was serf hy the os-
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? THEMISTOCLES.
Themiatocles now urged the commanders to remain,
both on account of the advantage which the narrow
? traits of Salamis gave to the Greeks, inferior as well
:n the speed as in the number of their ships, and also
because, by so doing, they would preserve Megara,
Salamis, and JCgina, with the Athenian women and
children deposited in the latter places. When he
found them still obstinate, he declared that the Athe-
nians, if their feelings atid interests, after all they had
done, were so little regarded, would abandon the arma-
ment, and, taking on board their families, would seek
a settlement elsewhere. This threat prevailed, and it
was agreed to remain; but at the approach of the en-
emy the Peloponnesians again were eager to depart and
provide for the defence of their own territories; on
which Themistocles, to prevent the mischiefs he fore-
saw, and partly, also, with the double policy which
marked his character, to secure to himself, in case of
defeat, an interest with the conquerors, sent private
information to the Persian admiral of the flight which
was meditated by the Greeks, and advised him to
guard against it by occupying both ends of the strait
between Salamis and the main-land. After the glori-
ous day of Salamis, when the remnant of the Persian
fleet had been pursued as far as the island of Andros,
Themistocles proposed to continue the chase, and then
to sail to the Hellespont and break down the bridge.
Eurybiades opposed him, on the ground that there was
danger lest the Persians, being rendered desperate,
might yet be successful; and the Peloponnesians gen-
erally agreeing with Eurybiades, the proposal was re-
'ected. On this, Themistocles persuaded the Atheni-
ans, who had been most eager for pursuit, to acqui-
esce; while, if we believe in the motives commonly
ascribed to him, he took advantage of the incident to
secure for himself, in case of banishment, a refuge in
Persia, by sending a secret messenger to Xerxes, to
inform him of the plan which had been proposed, and
? ay that Themistocles, through friendship to him, had
procured its rejection. This view of the case, howev-
er, can hardly be the correct one. It may be easily
conceived that a man like Themistocles loved the arts
in which, he excelled for their own sake, and might ex-
ercise the faculties with which In- was pre-eminently
gifted upon very slight occasions. In devising a plan,
conducting an intrigue, surmounting a difficulty, in
leading men to his ends without their knowledge and
against their will, he might find a delight which might
often be in itself a sufficient motive of action. We
should be led, therefore, to suppose that this was the
inducement which caused him to send this other secret
message to Xerxes. For that, in the very moment of
victory, when he had just risen to the highest degree
of reputation and influence among his countrymen, he
should have foreseen the changes which fortune had in
store for him, and have conceived the thought of pro-
viding a place of refuge among the barbarians, to which
he might fly if he should be driven out of Greece, is a
conjeclure that might very naturally be formed after
the event, but would scarcely have been thought prob-
able before it. --All Greece now resounded with the
fame of Themistocles. The deliverance just effected
was universally ascribed, next to the favour of the
gods, to his foresight and presence of mind; and when
tho Grecian commanders met in the temple of Neptune
on tho Isthmus, to award the palm of individual merit,
ii i one was generous enough to resign the first place
te another, but most were just enough to award the
? ? tecond to Themistocles. Still higher honours, how-
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? THEMISTOCLES.
THEMISTOCLES.
was predominant, and his power consequi ntly great
wherever the ascendancy of Athens was acknowledg-
ed: and he did not always scrapie to convert the glory
with which he ought to have been satisfied into a
lource of petty profit. Immediately after iho retreat
J( Xerxes, he exacted contributions from the islanders
who had sided with the barbarians, as the price of di-
verting from them the resentment of the Greeks. An-
other opportunity for enriching himself he found in the
tactions by which many of the maritime states were
divided. Almost everywhere there was a party or in-
dividuals who needed the aid of his authority, and were
willing to purchase his mediation. Thetnistocles, in
short, accumulated extraordinary wealth on a less than
moderate fortune. When his troubles had commen-
ced, a great part of his property was secretly conveyed
into Asia by his friends; but that part which was dis-
tovered and confiscated is estimated by Theopompus
it a hundred talents, by Theophrastus at eighty;
? hough, before he engaged in public affairs, all he pos-
sessed did not amount to so much as three talents.
(Plut. , Vit. Themitt. ,0. 25. )--But if he made some
enemies by his selfishness, he provoked others, whose
resentment proved more formidable, by his firm and
enlightened patriotism. Sparta never forgave him the
shame he brought upon her by thwarting her insidious
attempt to suppress the independence of her rival, and
he farther exasperated her animosity by detecting and
baffling another stroke of her artful policy. The Spar-
tans proposed to punish the states which had aided the
barbarians, or had abandoned the cause of Greece, by
depriving them of the right of being represented in the
Atnphictyonic congress. By this measure, Argos,
Thebes, and the northern states, which had hitherto
ebmposed the majority in that assembly, would have
been excluded from it, and the effect would probably
have been that Spartan influence would have prepon-
derated there. Thetnistocles frustrated this attempt
by throwing the weight of Athens into the opposite
scale, and by pointing out the danger of reducing the
council to an instrument in the hands of two or three
of its most powerful members. The enmity which he
thus drew upon himself would have been less honour-
able to him, if there had been any ground for a story,
which apparently was never heard of till it became
current among some late collectors of anecdotes,
from whom Plutarch received it: it has been popular
because it seemed to illustrate the contrast between
the characters of Themistocles and Arislides, and to
display the magnanimity of the Athenians. Themis-
tocles is made to tell the Athenians that he has some-
thing to propose which will be highly beneficial to the
commonwealth, but which must not be divulged. The
people depute Aristides to hear the secret, and to judge
of the merit of the proposal. Themistocles discloses
a plan for firing the allied fleet at Pagasae, or, accord-
ing to another form of the story adopted by Cicero
(Off. , 3, 11), the Lacedaemonian fleet at Gythium.
Upon this, Aristides reports to the assembled people
that nothing could be mora advantageous to Athens
than the counsel of Themistocles, but nothing more
dishonourable and unjust. The generous people re-
ject the proffered advantage, without even being
tempted to inquire *in what it consisted. --Themisto-
cles was gradually supplanted in public favour by men
worthy indeed to be his rivals, but who owed their
victory less to their own merit than to the towering
? ? pre-eminence of his deserts. He himself, as we have
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? THEMISTOCLES.
THE
made himself known to Artaxerxes, who was then on
the Persian throne. In his communication he ac-
knowledged the evil he had inflicted on the royal house
en me defence of his country, but claimed the merit of
having sent the timely warning by which Xerxes was
enabled to effect his retreat from Salamia in safety,
and of having diverted the Greeks from the design of
intercepting him. He ventured to add, that his perse-
cution and exile were owing to his zeal for the inter-
eats of the King of Persia, and that he had the power
ot proving his attachment by still greater services; but
he desired that a year might be allowed him to acquire
! he means of disclosing his plans in person. His re-
quest was granted, and he assiduously applied himself
to study the language and manners ot the country, with
which he became sufficiently familiar to conciliate the
favour of Artaxerxes by his conversation and address,
ro less than by the promises which he held out, and
the prudence of which he gave proofs. If we may be-
lieve Plutarch, he even excited the jealousy of the
Persian courtiers by the superior success with which
he cultivated their arts: he was continually by the
king's side at the chase and in the palace, and was ad-
mitted to the presence of the king's mother, who hon-
oured him wiih especial marks of condescension. He
was at length sent down to the maritime provinces,
perhaps to wait for an opportunity of striking the blow,
by which he was to raise the power of Persia upon the
ruin of his country. In the mean time, a pension was
conferred upon him in the Oriental form; three flour-
ishing towns were assigned to him for his maintenance,
of which Magnesia was to supply him with bread, Myus
with viands, and Lampsacus with the growth of her
celebrated vineyards. He fixed his residence at Mag-
nesia, in the vale of the Maeander, where the royal
grant invested him with a kind of princely rank.
There death overtook him, hastened, as it was com-
monly supposed, by his consciousness of being unable
to perform the promises which he had made to the
iiiug. Thucydides, however, evidently did not believe
the story that he put an end to his own life by poison.
That ftiar of disappointing the Persian king should
have urged him to such an act is indeed scarcely cred-
ible. Yet we can easily conceive that the man who
had been kept awake by the trophies of Miltiades,
must have felt some bitter pangs when he heard of the
rising glory of Gimon. Though his character was not
so strong as his mind, it was great enough to be above
the wretched satisfaction implied in one of Plutarch's
anecdotes: that, amid the splendour of his luxurious
table, he one day exclaimed, " How much we should
have lost, my children, if we had not been ruined. "
It must have been with a far different feeling that he
desired his bones to be secretly conveyed to Attica,
though the uncertainly which hangs over so many ac-
tions of his life extends to the fate of his remains. A
splendid monument was raised to him in the public
place at Magnesia; but a tomb was also pointed out
by the seaside, within the port of Piraeus, which was
generally believed to contain his bones. His descend-
ants continued to enjoy some peculiar privileges at
Magnesia in the time of Plutarch; but neither they
nor his posterity at Athens ever revived the lustre of
his name. Themistocles died In his 65th year, about
449 B. C. (ThirlwoWt Hitlory of Greece, vol. 2, p.
265, acqq )--There are certain letters which go under
the name of Themistocles, and which have come down
? ? lo our times. These letters have been ascribed to the
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? THE
richness and e. egance of bis fancy. While some have
made coarseness an objection to Theocritus, others
have affected to talk of his assigning to his goatherds
? entiments above their station; as if Theocritus were
not the best judge of the manners of his own country-
men. If the allusion to tales of mythology be meant,
. hese were doubtless familiar in the mouths, and cur-
rent in the improviti songs, of the peasants of Sicily.
They who, in conformity with the mawkish modern
theory of pastorals, sit in judgment to decide what idyls
are, and what arc not. legiiimate pastorals, may be told,
in the words of Pope on his own pastorals, while iron-
ically depreciating them in comparison of those of
Philips, to which they are, in fact, inferior, that if cer-
tain idyls be not pastorals, they are something better.
But the term idyl, among the Greeks, was miscella-
neous and general. It designated what we call Fugi-
tive Poetry: and such also among the Latins are the
Eidyllia of Claudian and Ausonius. Thus, in Theocri-
tus, besides the country eclogue, we find under tho title
of idyl the dramatic town-eclogue, the epilhalami-
um, the panegyric, and the tale of heroic mythology.
The coarse indecency of allusion in some passages
may be objected to with better reason; not as unsuit-
able to that innocence of an ideal golden age which
has been foolishly thought essential to pastoral; for
the only pastoral that has either value or intelligible
meaning is, properly, a representation of common life,
rural manners, and rural scenes as they are; but these
passages are objectionablo in every sense. They show
character, indeed; but it is character that were better
hidden: the depraved grossness of manners corrupted,
and of human nature degenerated. " (Specimens of
the Classic Poets, vol. 1, p. 241. )--The best editions
of Theocritus arc, that of Wharton, Oxon. , 1770, 2
vols. 4to; that of Valckenaer, L. Bat. , 1773, dec, 8vo;
that of Gaisford, in the Poet* Minorca (Oxon. , 1818-
20, i vols. 8vo), and that of Kiessling, Lips. , 1819,
8v l, republished, along with Heindorf 's Bion and Mos-
chus, by Valpy, Land. , 1829, 2 vols. 8vo. -- II. An
epigrammatic poet, a native of Chios, who flourished
in the time of Alexander. (Consult Alkcncrus, 6, p.
231, ed. Schweigh, vol. 2, p. 386, and Schbll, Hist.
Lit. Gr. , vol. 3, p. 125. )
Thiodectks, I.
representatives of the republic, on embassies and dep-
utations. Hence they became in old, as not unfre-
quently in modern times, self-conceited and domineer-
ing, utl&v iwavrai, says Aristotle, tuv ltotnruv ol
KKuspiTai. (Rhet. ,3,]. ) They were, however, as a
body, men of loose and dissipated character, and, as
sx. ch, were regarded with an unfavourable eye by the
ncralists and philosophers of that age.
6. Chorus.
The chorus, once the sole matter of exhibition,
though successively diminished by Thespis and JEm-
chyIns, was yet a very essential part of the drama du-
ring tho best days of the Greek theatre. The splen-
doui of the dresses, the music, the dancing, combined
with the loftiest poetry, formed a spectacle peculiarly
gratifying to the eye, ear, and intellect of an Attic au-
dience. The number of tho tragic chorus for the
whole trilogy appears to have been 50; the comic
chorus consisted of 34. The chorus of the tetralogy
was bioken into four sub-choruses, two of 15, one of
12, and a Satyric chorus of 8. When the chorus of
15 entered in ranks three abreast, it was said to be
divided nard Jvyd; when it was distributed into three
files or five, it was said to be Kara aroixovc. The
rituation assigned to the chorus was the orchestra,
whence it always took a part in the action of the dra-
ma, joining in the dialogue through the medium of
its mopvfaloc, or leader. The choristers entered the
orchestra preceded by a player on the flute, who reg-
alatcd their steps, sometimes in single file, more fre-
quently three in front and five in depth (Kara aroi-
jrovc), or vice versa (noro (yyu), in tragedy; and four
in front by sL in depth, or inversely, in comedy. Its
? ? first entrance was called rrapoioe; its occasional de-
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? THEATRUM
THE
(10 vestments; each of which Julius Pollux has sep-
arately and minutely described in a chapter devoted
to the subject. This writer divides the tragic masks
alone into twenty-six classes (4, 133, seqq. ). The
comic maeka were much more numerous. He speci-
fies only four or five kinds of Satyric masks. Most
of the male wigs were collected into a foretop (oyxoc),
which was an angular piopction abcve the forehead,
<<hap>>'J tike a A, and was probably borrowed from the
xpuCvXov of the old Athenians. {Jul. Poll. , 4, 133.
--Thucyd. , 1, 6. ) The female masks, however, wero
often surmounted in a similar manner. The object
of this projection was to give the actor a height pro-
portioned to the size of the theatre, an object for which
the cothurnus was also intended. It appears from
Pollux (4,. 141) that the masks were coloured; and
? he art of enamelling or painting bronze seems to have
been one of great esteem in the time of iEschylus.
(JSschyl. , Agam. , 623. --Wefcier, Nachtrag. , p. 42. )
--Another peculiarity which distinguished the Greek
manner of acting from our own, was the probable neg-
lect of everything like by-play and making points,
which are so effective on the modern stage. The
distance at which the spectators were, placed would
prevent them from seeing those little movements, and
hearing those low tones, which have made the fortune
of many a modern actor. The mask, too, precluded
all attempts at varied expression; and it is probable
that nothing more was expected from the performer
than good recitation--The buskin, or cothurnus (ko-
Oopvoc), was the ancient Cretic hunting boot. For
tragic use it was soled with several layers of cork, to
the thickness of three inches. It was laced up in front
as high as the calf, which kept the whole tight and
firm, in spite of the enormous sole. --It was not worn
by all tragic characters, nor on all occasions. Aga-
memnon is introduced by . *Eschylus in sandal*. The
sandal raised by a cork sole was called lp6arric. The
ladies and the chorus had also the buskin, but that of
the latter had only an ordinary sole. These buskins
were of various colours. White was commonly the
colour for ladies, red for warriors. Those of Bacchus
wero purple. Slaves wore the low shoe called the
seek, which was also the ordinary covering for the
foot of the comic actor. --As the cork sole of the co-
thurnus gave elevation to the stature, so the KoK-nupa,
or stuffings, swelled out the person to heroic dimen-
sions. Judiciously managed, it added expansion to the
chest and shoulders, muscular fulness to arm and limb.
--The dresses were very various. There was the
Xtruv noiripric for gods, heroes, and old men. That
fbr hunters, travellers, and young nobles and warriors
when unarmed, was shorter, and sat close to the neck.
The girdle for heroes was that called the Persian. It
was very broad, made of scarlet stuff, and fringed at
the lower edge. Goddesses and ladies wore one broad
and plain, of purple and gold. The cvppa was a long
purple robe for queens and princesses, with a train
which swept the ground. The lower part of the sleeve
was broidered with white. --The Xvarin was a short
train with short sleeves drawn over the ^irwv rtoSn-
frf/c. Slaves wore the Ipartov, a kind of short shirt,
or the l? upi(, a shirt with only one sleeve for the right
arm; the left was bare to the shoulder. Herdsmen
and shepherds were clad in the 6i$d? pa, a kind of goat-
skin tunic without sleeves. Hunters had the Ipartov,
and a short horseman's cloak of a dark colour. If
? ? they were great personages, they were dressed in a
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? THEB. E.
THEB*
Cassander. when the Athenians arc said to have gen-j
annuiy contributed their aid in rebuilding the walls, an
Biaiupic which was followed by other places. (Pau-
ran. , 9, 7. --PUt. , Polit. Pracep. , p. 814, B. ) Sub-
sequently we find that Thebes was twice taken by
Demctrirs Poliorceies. (Ptut. , Vit. Demetr. , c. 39. )
Dicaeaicbus has given a very detailed and interesting
account of this great city about this period. {Slat. ,
Or. , p. 14. ) At a later period Thebes was greatly
reduced and impoverished by the rapacious Sylla.
(Pausaa. , 9, 7 ) Strabo affirms, that in his time it
was little more than a village. (Strait. , 403. ) Thebes,
though nearly deserted towards tho decline of the Ro-
man empire, appears to have been of some note in the
middle ages (Nicct. , Ann. , 2, p. 60. --Lcune. , Ann. ,
p. 267), and it is still one of the most populous towns
of northern Greece. The natives call it Thioa. It
retains, however, according to Dodwcll, scarcely any
traces of its former magnificence. Of the walls of-the
Cadmeia a few fragments remain, which are regularly
constructed. These were probably erected by the
Athenians when Cassander restored the town. (Tout,
vol. 1, p. 264. --Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 2, p. 223,
teqq. )--HI. Phthiotica? , a city of Thessaly, in the dis-
trict of Phthiotis. situate, according to Polybius, about
300 stadia from Larissa, and not far from the sea. In
a military point of view its importance was great, as
It commanded the avenues of Magnesia and Thessaly,
from its vicinity to Demetrius, Pherse, and Pharsalus.
Sir W. Gell describes some ruins between Armiro
and Volo, which he suspects to be those of this town
(Ilin. , p. 258-- Cramers Ane. Greece, vol. 1, p. 402. )
--IV. A celebrated city of Upper Egypt, the capital
of Thebais. The name is corrupted from the Tapi of
the Coptic, which,. in the Memphitic dialect of that
language, is pronounced Theba. Pliny in one place
writes the name of Thebes in the singular: "Thebc
portarum centum nobilis fama" (5, 9). The appella-
tion of Diospolis, often applied to it by the Greeks,
s a translation of Amunei, or "the abode of Am-
ain," who represents the Egyptian Jupiter. Another
? ame given to it by the Greeks was Hecatompylos,
which will be considered below. The origin of this
great city is lost amid the obscurity of lable. By
some it was ascribed to Osiris, by others to one of
tho earliest of the Egyptian kings. Tho probability
is, that it was at first a sacerdotal establishment, con-
nected with commercial operations, like so many of
the early cities of Egypt, and that it gradually attained
to its vast dimensions in consequence of the additions
madu by successive monarchs. The Egyptians, how-
over, according to Diodorus (1, 50), believed Thebes
to have been the first city founded upon the earth;
and, in truth, we have no account at the present day
of any of earlier origin. Its most flourishing period
appears to have been prior to the building of Memphis,
when Thebes was the capital of all Egypt, the royal
residence, and abode of the highest sacerdotal college
in the land. It must, from its very situation, have
been the middle point for the caravan trade to the
south, and through it passed, very probably, all the pro-
ductions and wares of Asia. Homer, therefore, who
describes it as a powerful city, containing a hundred
gates, must have derived his information from the Phoe-
nicians engage. ' in the overland trade. It is idle to
suppose that the poet himself had been there in person,
when of the rest of Egypt he knew nothing but the
? ? mere name, and had but a confused idea even of the
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? Ihh
THE
lumps ol asphaltum about two pounds in weight.
The case is covered with a cement resembling plas-
ter of Paris, in which various figures are c. ast. The
whole is painted, generally with a yellow ground, on
which are hieroglyphics and figures of green. --But to
return to the ruin of Thebes: on the east side of the
Nile, at Karnac and Luxor, amid a multitude of tem-
ples, there are no tombs; these are confined to the
west bank. An iron sickle was lately found under
nue of the buried statues, nearly of the shape of those
which are now in use, though thicker; it is supposed
to have lain there since the invasion of Cambyses,
when the idols were concealed by the superstitious to
save them from destruction. Belzoni and others un-
covered and carried away many specimens of these
antique remains, such as sphinxes, obelisks, and stat-
ues. On this same side of the river, no palaces or
traces of ancient human habitations are met with;
whereas, on the western side, at Medinet Abou, there
are not only propyiasa and temples highly valued by
'he antiquarian, but dwelling-houses, which seem to
point out that place as having been once a royal resi-
dence. (Manncrt, Geogr. , vol. 10, pt. 1, p. 334,
seqq. -- WUkimon, Topography of Thebe*, London,
1835. 8vo. )
Thebais, I. the southernmost division of Egypt, of
which Thebes was the capital. (Vid. . Egyptus, page
3Y, col. 1, v 4. )--II. The title of a poem by Statius.
<Vid. Statius. )
Thibb. Vid. ThcbsB.
Thebe, the wife of Alexander, tyrant of Phcrae.
r>hc assassinated him. (Vid. Alexander I. ,page 109,
col. 2, $ 6. )
Themis, the goddess of Justice or Law.
This
deity appears in the Iliad among the inhabitants of
Olympus (//. , 15, 87. --lb. , 20, 4); and in the Odys-
sey (2, 68) she is named as presiding over the assem-
blies of men, but nothing is said respecting her rank
or origin. By Hesiod (Theog. , 135, 901, seqq. ), she
is said to be a Titancss, one of the daughters of
Heaven and Earth, and to have borne to Jupiter the
Fates, and the Seasons, Peace, Order, Justice, the
natural progeny of Law (Oifuc), and all deities benefi-
cial to mankind. In Pindar and the Homcridan
hymns, Themis sits by Jupiter, on his throne, to give
him counsel. Themis is said to have succeeded her
mother Eaith in the possession of the Delphic oracle,
and to have voluntarily resigned it to her sister Phoebe,
who gave it as a natal-gift unto Phoebus Apollo. --
Wclcker says that Themis is merely an epithet of
Garth. (Tnl. , p. 39. ) Hermann also makes Themis
8 physical being, rendering her name Slatina; while
Bottiger, with apparently more justice, says, " She is
Ihe oldest purely allegorical personification of a vir-
tue. " (Kunst-Mythol. , 2, nO. --KcigUlcy's Mt/tholo-
py, p. 198. )
Themiscyra, a city of Pontus, capital of a district
of the same name. The town of Themiscyra appears
to have been one of very early origin. Scylax men-
tions it as a Grecian state, and Herodotus also speaks
>>f it. (Scylax, p. 33. -- Herod. , 4, 86. ) Both of
these writers, however, place it at the mouth of the
Therunodon; whereas Ptolemy locates it in the centre
<<f the district Themiscyra, that is, more inland. This
place appears to hive t<<en destroyed in the course of
the Mithradatic war. (Appian, B. Mithrad. , c. 78. )
Hence Strabo makes no mention of it; and Mela
? ? merely states, that, in the territory around the Ther-
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? THE
wnom these measnrea were exceedingly displeasing,
iddressed the emperor upon the subject in an elo-
quent speech, in which he represented the diversity of
ipinions among the Christians as inconsiderable com-
pared with that of the pagan philosophers, and plead-
ed that this diversity could not be displeasing to God,
since it did not prevent men from worshipping him
with true piety. By these and other arguments The-
mistius prevailed upon the emperor to treat the Trin-
itarians with greater lenity. --Themistius illustrated
several of the works of Aristotle, particularly the Ana-
lytics, the Physics, and the Book on the Soul. --Of
his discourses Photius enumerates thirty-six: we have
only, at the present day, thirty-three, and one other, the
thirty-third, in a Latin translation. An edition of ihe
entire remains of Themistius appeared from the A i
line press in 1534, fol. Of the orations, the best edi-
tion used to be that of Petavius (Petau), Parit, 1634,
lol. ; but now, for the text of Themistius, the best
edition is that of Dindorf, Cnobloch, 1832, 8vo.
TuEMiSTdci. es, a celebrated Athenian statesman
mil leader. His father Neocles was a man of high
cirili after the Athenian standard, but his mother was
not a citizen, and, according to most accounts, not
even a Greek. His patrimony seems to hav'e been
ample for a man of less aspiring temper. The anec-
dotes related of his youthful wilfulness and wayward-
ness; of his earnest application to the pursuit of use-
ful knowledge ; of his neglect of the elegant arts, which
already formed part of the Athenian education ; of his
profusion and his avarice; of the sleepless nights in
which he meditated on the trophies of Miltiades, all
point, with more or less of particular truth, the same
way; to a soul early bent on great objects, and form-
"<i to pursue them with steady resolution, incapable
af being diverted by trifles, embarrassed by scruples,
r deterred by difficulties. The end he aimed at
was not merely the good of bis country, still less
was it any petty mark of selfish cupidity. The pur-
pose of his life was to make Athens great and pow-
erful, that he himself might move and command in a
large sphere. The genius with which nature had en-
dowed him warranted this noble ambition, and it was
marvellously suited to the critical circumstances in
which he was placed by fortune. The peculiar faculty
of his mind, which Thucydides contemplated with ad-
miration, was the quickness with which it seized every
object that came in its way, perceived the course of
action required by new situations and sudden junc-
tures, and penetrated into remote consequences.
Such were the abilities which, at the period when he
came forward, were most needed for the service of
Athens. At the time when Themistocles was be-
ginning to rise into credit with his fellow-citizens, an-
other man of very different character already possessed
their respect and confidence. This was Aristides, son
of Lysitnachus. (fid. Aristides. ) Like Themisto-
cles, he loo had the welfare of Athens at heart, but
limply and singly, not as an instrument, but as an
? . ml. On this he kept his eye, without looking to any
mark beyond it, or stooping to any private advantage
that lay on his road. It is not surprising that a man
of such a mould should have come into frequent con-
flict with a statesman like Themistocles, though their
immediate object was the same, and though there was
no great discordance between their general views of
the public interest When Aristides, without having
incurred accusation or reproach, without teing sus-
? ? pected of any ambitious designs, was serf hy the os-
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? THEMISTOCLES.
Themiatocles now urged the commanders to remain,
both on account of the advantage which the narrow
? traits of Salamis gave to the Greeks, inferior as well
:n the speed as in the number of their ships, and also
because, by so doing, they would preserve Megara,
Salamis, and JCgina, with the Athenian women and
children deposited in the latter places. When he
found them still obstinate, he declared that the Athe-
nians, if their feelings atid interests, after all they had
done, were so little regarded, would abandon the arma-
ment, and, taking on board their families, would seek
a settlement elsewhere. This threat prevailed, and it
was agreed to remain; but at the approach of the en-
emy the Peloponnesians again were eager to depart and
provide for the defence of their own territories; on
which Themistocles, to prevent the mischiefs he fore-
saw, and partly, also, with the double policy which
marked his character, to secure to himself, in case of
defeat, an interest with the conquerors, sent private
information to the Persian admiral of the flight which
was meditated by the Greeks, and advised him to
guard against it by occupying both ends of the strait
between Salamis and the main-land. After the glori-
ous day of Salamis, when the remnant of the Persian
fleet had been pursued as far as the island of Andros,
Themistocles proposed to continue the chase, and then
to sail to the Hellespont and break down the bridge.
Eurybiades opposed him, on the ground that there was
danger lest the Persians, being rendered desperate,
might yet be successful; and the Peloponnesians gen-
erally agreeing with Eurybiades, the proposal was re-
'ected. On this, Themistocles persuaded the Atheni-
ans, who had been most eager for pursuit, to acqui-
esce; while, if we believe in the motives commonly
ascribed to him, he took advantage of the incident to
secure for himself, in case of banishment, a refuge in
Persia, by sending a secret messenger to Xerxes, to
inform him of the plan which had been proposed, and
? ay that Themistocles, through friendship to him, had
procured its rejection. This view of the case, howev-
er, can hardly be the correct one. It may be easily
conceived that a man like Themistocles loved the arts
in which, he excelled for their own sake, and might ex-
ercise the faculties with which In- was pre-eminently
gifted upon very slight occasions. In devising a plan,
conducting an intrigue, surmounting a difficulty, in
leading men to his ends without their knowledge and
against their will, he might find a delight which might
often be in itself a sufficient motive of action. We
should be led, therefore, to suppose that this was the
inducement which caused him to send this other secret
message to Xerxes. For that, in the very moment of
victory, when he had just risen to the highest degree
of reputation and influence among his countrymen, he
should have foreseen the changes which fortune had in
store for him, and have conceived the thought of pro-
viding a place of refuge among the barbarians, to which
he might fly if he should be driven out of Greece, is a
conjeclure that might very naturally be formed after
the event, but would scarcely have been thought prob-
able before it. --All Greece now resounded with the
fame of Themistocles. The deliverance just effected
was universally ascribed, next to the favour of the
gods, to his foresight and presence of mind; and when
tho Grecian commanders met in the temple of Neptune
on tho Isthmus, to award the palm of individual merit,
ii i one was generous enough to resign the first place
te another, but most were just enough to award the
? ? tecond to Themistocles. Still higher honours, how-
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? THEMISTOCLES.
THEMISTOCLES.
was predominant, and his power consequi ntly great
wherever the ascendancy of Athens was acknowledg-
ed: and he did not always scrapie to convert the glory
with which he ought to have been satisfied into a
lource of petty profit. Immediately after iho retreat
J( Xerxes, he exacted contributions from the islanders
who had sided with the barbarians, as the price of di-
verting from them the resentment of the Greeks. An-
other opportunity for enriching himself he found in the
tactions by which many of the maritime states were
divided. Almost everywhere there was a party or in-
dividuals who needed the aid of his authority, and were
willing to purchase his mediation. Thetnistocles, in
short, accumulated extraordinary wealth on a less than
moderate fortune. When his troubles had commen-
ced, a great part of his property was secretly conveyed
into Asia by his friends; but that part which was dis-
tovered and confiscated is estimated by Theopompus
it a hundred talents, by Theophrastus at eighty;
? hough, before he engaged in public affairs, all he pos-
sessed did not amount to so much as three talents.
(Plut. , Vit. Themitt. ,0. 25. )--But if he made some
enemies by his selfishness, he provoked others, whose
resentment proved more formidable, by his firm and
enlightened patriotism. Sparta never forgave him the
shame he brought upon her by thwarting her insidious
attempt to suppress the independence of her rival, and
he farther exasperated her animosity by detecting and
baffling another stroke of her artful policy. The Spar-
tans proposed to punish the states which had aided the
barbarians, or had abandoned the cause of Greece, by
depriving them of the right of being represented in the
Atnphictyonic congress. By this measure, Argos,
Thebes, and the northern states, which had hitherto
ebmposed the majority in that assembly, would have
been excluded from it, and the effect would probably
have been that Spartan influence would have prepon-
derated there. Thetnistocles frustrated this attempt
by throwing the weight of Athens into the opposite
scale, and by pointing out the danger of reducing the
council to an instrument in the hands of two or three
of its most powerful members. The enmity which he
thus drew upon himself would have been less honour-
able to him, if there had been any ground for a story,
which apparently was never heard of till it became
current among some late collectors of anecdotes,
from whom Plutarch received it: it has been popular
because it seemed to illustrate the contrast between
the characters of Themistocles and Arislides, and to
display the magnanimity of the Athenians. Themis-
tocles is made to tell the Athenians that he has some-
thing to propose which will be highly beneficial to the
commonwealth, but which must not be divulged. The
people depute Aristides to hear the secret, and to judge
of the merit of the proposal. Themistocles discloses
a plan for firing the allied fleet at Pagasae, or, accord-
ing to another form of the story adopted by Cicero
(Off. , 3, 11), the Lacedaemonian fleet at Gythium.
Upon this, Aristides reports to the assembled people
that nothing could be mora advantageous to Athens
than the counsel of Themistocles, but nothing more
dishonourable and unjust. The generous people re-
ject the proffered advantage, without even being
tempted to inquire *in what it consisted. --Themisto-
cles was gradually supplanted in public favour by men
worthy indeed to be his rivals, but who owed their
victory less to their own merit than to the towering
? ? pre-eminence of his deserts. He himself, as we have
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? THEMISTOCLES.
THE
made himself known to Artaxerxes, who was then on
the Persian throne. In his communication he ac-
knowledged the evil he had inflicted on the royal house
en me defence of his country, but claimed the merit of
having sent the timely warning by which Xerxes was
enabled to effect his retreat from Salamia in safety,
and of having diverted the Greeks from the design of
intercepting him. He ventured to add, that his perse-
cution and exile were owing to his zeal for the inter-
eats of the King of Persia, and that he had the power
ot proving his attachment by still greater services; but
he desired that a year might be allowed him to acquire
! he means of disclosing his plans in person. His re-
quest was granted, and he assiduously applied himself
to study the language and manners ot the country, with
which he became sufficiently familiar to conciliate the
favour of Artaxerxes by his conversation and address,
ro less than by the promises which he held out, and
the prudence of which he gave proofs. If we may be-
lieve Plutarch, he even excited the jealousy of the
Persian courtiers by the superior success with which
he cultivated their arts: he was continually by the
king's side at the chase and in the palace, and was ad-
mitted to the presence of the king's mother, who hon-
oured him wiih especial marks of condescension. He
was at length sent down to the maritime provinces,
perhaps to wait for an opportunity of striking the blow,
by which he was to raise the power of Persia upon the
ruin of his country. In the mean time, a pension was
conferred upon him in the Oriental form; three flour-
ishing towns were assigned to him for his maintenance,
of which Magnesia was to supply him with bread, Myus
with viands, and Lampsacus with the growth of her
celebrated vineyards. He fixed his residence at Mag-
nesia, in the vale of the Maeander, where the royal
grant invested him with a kind of princely rank.
There death overtook him, hastened, as it was com-
monly supposed, by his consciousness of being unable
to perform the promises which he had made to the
iiiug. Thucydides, however, evidently did not believe
the story that he put an end to his own life by poison.
That ftiar of disappointing the Persian king should
have urged him to such an act is indeed scarcely cred-
ible. Yet we can easily conceive that the man who
had been kept awake by the trophies of Miltiades,
must have felt some bitter pangs when he heard of the
rising glory of Gimon. Though his character was not
so strong as his mind, it was great enough to be above
the wretched satisfaction implied in one of Plutarch's
anecdotes: that, amid the splendour of his luxurious
table, he one day exclaimed, " How much we should
have lost, my children, if we had not been ruined. "
It must have been with a far different feeling that he
desired his bones to be secretly conveyed to Attica,
though the uncertainly which hangs over so many ac-
tions of his life extends to the fate of his remains. A
splendid monument was raised to him in the public
place at Magnesia; but a tomb was also pointed out
by the seaside, within the port of Piraeus, which was
generally believed to contain his bones. His descend-
ants continued to enjoy some peculiar privileges at
Magnesia in the time of Plutarch; but neither they
nor his posterity at Athens ever revived the lustre of
his name. Themistocles died In his 65th year, about
449 B. C. (ThirlwoWt Hitlory of Greece, vol. 2, p.
265, acqq )--There are certain letters which go under
the name of Themistocles, and which have come down
? ? lo our times. These letters have been ascribed to the
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? THE
richness and e. egance of bis fancy. While some have
made coarseness an objection to Theocritus, others
have affected to talk of his assigning to his goatherds
? entiments above their station; as if Theocritus were
not the best judge of the manners of his own country-
men. If the allusion to tales of mythology be meant,
. hese were doubtless familiar in the mouths, and cur-
rent in the improviti songs, of the peasants of Sicily.
They who, in conformity with the mawkish modern
theory of pastorals, sit in judgment to decide what idyls
are, and what arc not. legiiimate pastorals, may be told,
in the words of Pope on his own pastorals, while iron-
ically depreciating them in comparison of those of
Philips, to which they are, in fact, inferior, that if cer-
tain idyls be not pastorals, they are something better.
But the term idyl, among the Greeks, was miscella-
neous and general. It designated what we call Fugi-
tive Poetry: and such also among the Latins are the
Eidyllia of Claudian and Ausonius. Thus, in Theocri-
tus, besides the country eclogue, we find under tho title
of idyl the dramatic town-eclogue, the epilhalami-
um, the panegyric, and the tale of heroic mythology.
The coarse indecency of allusion in some passages
may be objected to with better reason; not as unsuit-
able to that innocence of an ideal golden age which
has been foolishly thought essential to pastoral; for
the only pastoral that has either value or intelligible
meaning is, properly, a representation of common life,
rural manners, and rural scenes as they are; but these
passages are objectionablo in every sense. They show
character, indeed; but it is character that were better
hidden: the depraved grossness of manners corrupted,
and of human nature degenerated. " (Specimens of
the Classic Poets, vol. 1, p. 241. )--The best editions
of Theocritus arc, that of Wharton, Oxon. , 1770, 2
vols. 4to; that of Valckenaer, L. Bat. , 1773, dec, 8vo;
that of Gaisford, in the Poet* Minorca (Oxon. , 1818-
20, i vols. 8vo), and that of Kiessling, Lips. , 1819,
8v l, republished, along with Heindorf 's Bion and Mos-
chus, by Valpy, Land. , 1829, 2 vols. 8vo. -- II. An
epigrammatic poet, a native of Chios, who flourished
in the time of Alexander. (Consult Alkcncrus, 6, p.
231, ed. Schweigh, vol. 2, p. 386, and Schbll, Hist.
Lit. Gr. , vol. 3, p. 125. )
Thiodectks, I.
