CALLINUS.

Flourished B.C. 730. Contemp. 2 Kings xviii., 2 Chronicles xxix., Nahum, Isaiah. Callinus of Ephesus was the earliest Greek elegiac poet. Of his elegies one only, consisting of twenty-one lines, is extant.

Flourished B.C. 680–668.

TYRTEUS.

Contemp. 2 Kings xxi., 2 Chronicles xxxiii.

The poems of Tyrtæus are of two kinds, namely, elegies inciting to constancy and courage, and songs which were intended to be sung by soldiers when on their march, and which were accompanied by the music of the flute. The design of his poems was to animate the courage of the Spartans in their conflict with the Messenians.

MIMNERMUS.

Flourished B.C. 634-600. Contemp. 2 Kings xxiii., 2 Chronicles xxxiv.-xxxvi.,

Zephaniah, Habakkuk.

An elegiac poet, a native of Smyrna. The instability of human happiness, the helplessness of man, the cares and miseries of life, and the wretchedness of old age, form the subject of his lays; the poet's maxim being very like that referred to by St. Paul, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."

Flourished B.C. 611-590.

ALCEUS.

Contemp. 2 Kings xxiv.-xxv., 2 Chronicles xxxvi.,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel.

The earliest of the Æolian lyric poets, born at Mytilene, in Lesbos.

His odes were

of a warlike character. Some fragments of them remain; imitations of others are to be found in Horace. The time of his death is uncertain.

SAPPHO.

Flourished B.C. 610-592. Contemp. 2 Kings xxiv.-xxv., 2 Chronicles xxxvi.,

Jeremiah, Ezekiel.

A native of Mytilene. Sappho composed nine books in lyric verses, besides epigrams, elegies, &c. : of all these only some few fragments are extant. Plutarch compares the inspiration of her poems to that of the Pythoness. The Lesbians esteemed her verses so highly that after her death they raised temples and altars, and paid divine honours to her. Her most important poem is a splendid ode to Venus.

ANACREON.

Flourished B.C. 559-478. Contemp. Ezra, Esther, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah.

A celebrated lyric poet, of whose poems only a few genuine fragments have come down to us. He is represented as a consummate voluptuary, and his songs, which treat of love and wine, confirm this character. He was a native of Teos, in Asia Minor. His death was characteristic, being caused, it is said, by swallowing a grape stone while in the act of drinking.

THEOGNIS.

Flourished B.C. 548-490. Contemp. Ezra i.-vi., Esther, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah.

An elegiac and gnomic poet. Many of his verses are of a political nature, others of a social and festive character. They contain much that is highly poetical in thought, and elegant, as well as forcible, in expression. They abound also in prudential maxims and moral precepts.

PHOCYLIDES.

Flourished B.C. 544. Contemp. See Theognis.

An Ionian poet, of whose writings only some fragments, eighteen in number, are

extant.

PYTHAGORAS.

Flourished B.C. 540-510. Contemp. see Theognis.

Pythagoras is said by Plutarch never to have written anything. He was the founder of a sect of philosophers who flourished till the end of the reign of Alexander, and the

Golden verses, Aurea carmina, attributed to him, are supposed to express his doctrines and opinions as written down and preserved by his disciples. He seems to have maintained that the world had a beginning, and was made by God, the principle of all things, and that the soul was immortal, and a part of the divine essence.

This great man is supposed to have introduced into Greece the doctrine of the hypostases of the Trinity. He also treats of the divine nature under the term of a Tetrad or Tetractys, by which he perhaps intended to express the TETRAGRAMMATON, or Hebrew name of JEHOVAH.

Pythagoras was educated at Samos, and during his travels in search of knowledge visited Jerusalem, Egypt, Crete, Sparta, and Italy, conversing with Pherecydes, Thales, and other sages. He made himself acquainted with the laws of Zoroastres, Minos, and Lycurgus, and was distinguished for his efforts in the cause of truth, morality, and virtue. The Pythagoreans held the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which was regarded chiefly as a process of purification. Souls under the dominion of sensuality were either passed into the bodies of animals or, if incurable, were thrust down into Tartarus. The pure were exalted to a higher state of life, and at last to an incorporeal existence. The most noted Pythagoreans were men of great uprightness, conscientiousness, and self-restraint.

Many of the Golden Verses appear to have been derived from the laws and precepts of Moses.

PINDARUS.

Born B.C. 522. Died B.C. 442. Contemp. Ezra v.-vi., Esther, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah. Pindar, the greatest lyric poet of Greece, was born at Thebes, in Boeotia, of a noble family celebrated for its skill in music. The only poems which survive entire are the Epinicia or triumphal odes, viz., the Olympic, the Pythian, the Nemean, and the Isthmian. Pindar appears to have embraced the Pythagorean philosophy: he represents the deities as of the same origin as men, both being derived from a common mother; but he speaks of a supreme God whom he denominates the most powerful, the lord and cause of all things. He describes the soul as immaterial, and alludes to the happy condition of men in a future state of reward. Clement of Alexandria affirms that Pindar borrowed many things from the sacred writings, and chiefly from the Proverbs of Solomon.

This celebrated tragic poet was born at Eleusis, in Attica. He is said to have written seventy tragedies, of which seven only are extant. He appears to have been a Pythagorean in his opinions, and makes a distinction between Jupiter and the other gods; but Plato observes that his works ought not to be read by the young, because he speaks of the gods with too little respect. In his mythology there is a general reference to principles originating in revelation; and the history of Prometheus contains passages so striking that some of the fathers of the Church regarded them as bearing a mysterious reference to the passion of our Saviour and to the benefits resulting from it to mankind.

The proverbs and forms of speech which are used by Prometheus, and which are in some instances nearly the same as those employed by the Evangelists, can be regarded only as accidental coincidences of thought and expression.

SOPHOCLES.

Born B.C. 495. Died B.C. 406. Contemp. Ezra vi., Esther, Nehemiah.

Sophocles, a native of Colone, in Attica, was distinguished both as a poet and a statesman. He wrote for the stage with great applause, and obtained the poetical prize on twenty different occasions. Of 120, or as some say, 70 tragedies which Sophocles composed, only seven are extant. His Edipus rex is considered to be the finest tragedy of antiquity. He appears to have taken delight in describing noble characters and in expressing generous affections. He speaks of the Supreme God in a manner superior to the vulgar notions of his time, and which seems to raise the great object of adoration with distinction above the deities of the heathen. There are some modes of expression and sentiment in Sophocles which harmonise with passages in Scripture. He commends piety as acceptable to God and imperishable.

EURIPIDES.

Born B.C. 480; Died B.C. 406. Contemp. see Sophocles.

Euripides was born at Salamis, on the very day of the Grecian victory near that island. He received a costly education, studying physics under Anaxagoras, and rhetoric under Prodicus. Anaxagoras taught the principles of Thales at Athens, and maintained that the universe did not result from chance or necessity, but was the work of an eternal and incorporeal mind, by which all things were created and preserved. Euripides lived on terms of intimacy with Socrates, who was his fellow-student, as was also Pericles. The tragedies of Euripides were upwards of ninety in number, but only nineteen of them are extant. He appears to have aimed at the instruction of his hearers, and to have endeavoured to promote piety, constancy, and prudence: there are some passages in his plays which assert the providence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the doctrine of future punishments. Many of the characters in the plays of Euripides are supposed to have been derived from sacred originals. There are also expressions and forms of speech which bear a strong resemblance to those of Scripture.

HERODOTUS.

Born B.C. 484; Died B.C. 408. Contemp. see Sophocles.

Herodotus, the father of history, was born at Halicarnassus, of a noble family; but left his native city at an early age in order to escape from the oppressive government of the tyrant Lygdamis. He spent many years in travelling, and visited nearly every country and city of note, in order to collect materials, for his great historical work. He travelled through Egypt, Lybia, Asia Minor, and Syria; visited the cities of Babylon, Ecbatana, and Susa, explored the whole of Greece proper, and most of the islands, and penetrated northwards as far as Thrace, and the borders of the Black Sea. His observations were made with much judgment, and the accuracy of his descriptions is remarkable. The History of Herodotus is divided into nine books, which bear the names of the nine Muses it contains an account of the wars of the Persians against the Greeks, from the age of Cyrus to the defeat of Xerxes at Mycale. The whole work is pervaded by a deep religious sentiment, and gives evidence of a most profound reverence for everything sacred or divine.

Amongst the variety of relations which this historian furnishes of ancient times, many particulars may be collected which bear testimony to facts mentioned by the sacred writers; and there are frequent general notices and allusions which tend to corroborate the narratives of sacred history.

THUCYDIDES.

Born B.C. 471; Died B.c. 401.

The author of the History of the Peloponnesian War was an Athenian, of whom Lucian relates that while yet a boy, being present at the Olympic games, when Herodotus read his history to the Greeks, he was so touched by the applause bestowed upon the historian that he burst into tears. Thucydides bore a part in the Peloponnesian war, and the expedition which he commanded for the relief of Amphipolis having been unsuccessful, he was banished from Athens. His history was written in Thrace, during the twenty years of his exile, and was interrupted by his death. He wrote in the Attic dialect, and stands unrivalled for the conciseness, vigour, and energy of his narration.

Thucydides appears to have been a man of great probity and modesty; and the candour and impartiality which he displays in his history are remarkable.

ARISTOPHANES.

Born B.C. 444; Died B.C. 380.

The comedies of Aristophanes are of the highest historical interest, on account of the pictures they present, though caricatured and exaggerated, of the leading men of Athens, and of the social condition of that city, of which he was most probably a native. Aristophanes, with all his buffoonery, was a zealous patriot, and opposed himself to the powerful misleaders of the people, and to the new theories of the sophists by whom both the religious creed and moral principles of the Athenians were endangered. Suidas says that Aristophanes was the author of fifty-four plays, of which eleven only are now in existence.

Many casual references, which appear to have been derived from sacred history, are to be found in the writings of Aristophanes, and there are some forms of expression which bear a striking resemblance to passages of holy writ.

XENOPHON.

Born B.C. 444; Died B.C. 360.

An Athenian, celebrated as a general, historian, and philosopher. He is said to have become, at an early age, a pupil of Socrates, and a fellow-disciple with Plato, whom he emulated. At the battle of Delium, having fallen from his horse, Socrates, who had been himself dismounted, and compelled to fly, lifted him from the ground and carried him on his shoulders a considerable distance; a service which Xenophon appears never to have forgotten. He adhered with fidelity to his preceptor and preserver through life, defended him against his traducers, and transmitted his doctrines and opinions in a most impressive manner to succeeding times.

Xenophon accompanied the younger Cyrus in his march against his brother Artaxerxes, and after the failure and death of Cyrus, being compelled either to surrender or retreat, he conducted the division of the army under his command in the most masterly, skilful, and courageous manner, through a vast tract of the enemy's country, pursued by foes and beset by traitors, until he had brought them to a place of safety. Xenophon subsequently attached himself to Agesilaus, and served under him in Asia, and at the battle of Coronea; after an active life spent in military service, having incurred the jealousy of his countrymen, he was banished from Athens, and spent the remainder of his days in exile. His death is supposed to have occurred at Corinth; but the place and date are not positively known.

The works of Xenophon now extant are upwards of thirty in number: of these the following are the most important:-The Anabasis; a history of the expedition of Cyrus, above mentioned: it contains much curious information on the country that was traversed by the retreating Greeks, and on the manners of the people. The Hellenica, a history of the affairs of Greece during a period of forty-eight years, terminating with the battle of Mantinea, B.C. 362. The Cyropædia, which has been characterised as a political romance based on the history of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy. The Memorabilia of Socrates, in which the philosopher is vindicated from the charge of corrupting the youth of Athens by irreligious teaching. It professes to exhibit in a series of conversations the doctrines of Socrates as enunciated by himself. The Apology of Socrates, and the Symposium, or Banquet of Philosophers, which were written with a similar object: the latter is interesting as a picture of an Athenian drinking party and of the conversation with which it was enlivened. In the Economics Socrates is again introduced, giving instruction in the art of managing a household, and in the duties which belong to private property.

The works of Xenophon do not indicate any particular acquaintance with the sacred writings; but they afford in many instances strong confirmation of the truth of Scripture history. His account of the death of Belshazzar and the taking of Babylon are exactly in accordance with the prophecies of Jeremiah and Daniel. Many of his descriptions of the countries which he traversed will also be found to correspond with similar notices in the sacred volume.

PLATO.

Born B.C. 429-Died B.C. 347. Contemp. Nehemiah; Malachi ?

Plato is said to have been a native either of Athens or of the neighbouring island of Ægina, and to have traced his descent from Codrus on his father's side, and from Solon on his mother's. When a youth he contended in the Isthmian and other games; but at a later period became a disciple of Socrates, and the most ardent of his admirers. He was instructed in grammar, music, and gymnastics by the most eminent teachers, and after the death of Socrates, travelled in search of knowledge, visiting Egypt, Sicily, and Italy, and according to some writers the interior of Asia, and the countries of the Hebrews, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians. After his return to Athens he began to teach in the Academia, delivering his lectures gratuitously, and chiefly in the form of dialogues or disputations. The most advanced of his disciples assembled in his own private garden; and it was to them, most probably, that the inscription set over the vestibule of the house was addressed— "Let no one enter here who is not acquainted with geometry."

The writings of Plato have been preserved complete. They treat of varions subjects, and may be divided into physical, logical, ethical, and political. He speaks of the Supreme Being in various places with a comprehension and sublimity of thought which seem to rise beyond the highest reach of unassisted reason, considering God as the beginning, middle, and end of all things, and he blames philosophers for attributing to a second cause what ought to be attributed to a first.

Plato maintained the immortality of the soul, and confirmed his views with arguments of so much force as to have brought conviction to the minds of many; although he himself, in his Phaedo, acknowledges that the doctrine could not be demonstrated with certainty unless supported by some more sure reliance than was obtainable, "as by a divine word (λόγου θειου τινὸς).”

There are some traces to be found in Plato of the sacred doctrine of the Trinity. See notes on Matt. iii. 16, and 1 John v. 7.

The moral precepts of Plato are greatly to be admired. He inculcates a patient endurance of calamities, a peaceful and forgiving disposition, and an elevation of the mind, directing itself to things honest and eternal. He is supposed to have derived much of his information from the Jews, and may possibly have had intercourse with the prophets Nehemiah or Malachi. He acknowledges that he received his best and chief' divinity from the Phoenicians, by whom he may perhaps have meant the Hebrews. Clement of Alexandria styles him the Hebrew Philosopher, and both he and Eusebius speak of one Aristobulus, a Jew, who affirmed that Plato followed the Jewish institutions, and curiously examined the several parts thereof. Justin Martyr also says that he drew many things from the Hebrew fountain, especially his pious conceptions concerning God and his worship,

ARISTOTELES.

Born B.C. 384-Died B.C. 323.

Aristotle was the son of Nicomachus, physician in ordinary to Amyntas II., king of Macedonia. At the age of seventeen he was left an orphan, and went to Athens to pursue his studies, where he became a pupil of Plato. Plato distinguished him above all his other disciples, and used to call him "The Mind of the school," and to say when he was absent "The Intellect is not here:" he also designated his house as The house of the Reader." Aristotle continued at Athens twenty years, during the latter ten of which he gave instruction in rhetoric, and published his rhetorical writings. Leaving Athens after the death of Plato, he repaired to Atarneus and afterwards to Mytilene. Philip of Macedon invited him to undertake the instruction of his son Alexander, and at Aristotle's request rebuilt Stagira, the philosopher's native city, in which he founded a gymnasium for him and his disciples. Alexander continued for four years under his tuition, and on his accession to the throne Aristotle returned to Athens, where the Lyceum was assigned to him by the State, in the shady walks of which he delivered his lectures, not sitting, as was usual with other philosophers, but walking to and fro (πeрinатv) whence the name peripatetic, afterwards given to his school. He continued teaching here for fourteen years, and during this time composed the greater part of his works, being assisted by the great liberality of his former pupil Alexander. At a later period mutual jealousies arose between the king and the philosopher, causing an estrangement between them, which continued until the death of Alexander.

The works of Aristotle may be classed under the several heads of-Logic, comprising a variety of treatises usually published together under the title of the Organon ;-Physics, a series of tracts on the phenomena of nature, animate and inanimate ;-Metaphysics, eleven books;-Mathematics;-Ethics, ten books addressed to his son Nicomachus, and called the Nicomachean, or Greater Ethics, and seven books addressed to Eudemus, but of the authenticity of which there is some doubt;-Rhetoric, three books; and-Poetics.

Eusebius remarks that many persons were led by the teaching of Aristotle to adopt the principles of true religion; and so great is the conformity between many of his opinions and the doctrines of Scripture, that some have believed that he was by birth a Jew, and derived much of his knowledge from the works of Solomon, entrusted to him by Alexander, who was said to have obtained possession of them when at Jerusalem.