BACCHYLIDES, Greek lyric poet, was born at Iulis, in the island of Ceos. His father's name was probably Meidon; his mother was a sister of Simonides, himself a native of Iulis. Eusebius says that Bacchylides "flourished" OK saq"ev) in 01. 78. 2 (467 B.C.). As the term i)Kµa?"ev commonly refers to about the 40th year we may suppose that Bacchylides was born circa 507 B.C. He would thus have been some 49 years younger than Simonides, and some 15 years younger than Pindar.
Bacchylides, like Simonides and Pindar, visited the court of Hieron I. of Syracuse (478-467). Ode iii. (468 B.c.) was possibly written at Syracuse, as verses 15 and 16 suggest. He there pays a high compliment to Hieron's taste in poetry (ver. 3 ff.) . A scholium on Pyth. ii. 90 (166) avers that Hieron preferred the Odes of Bacchylides to those of Pindar. The Alexandrian scholars interpreted a number of passages in Pindar as hostile allusions to Bacchylides or Simonides. If the scholiasts are right, it would appear that Pindar regarded the younger of the two Cean poets as a jealous rival (see 01. ii. 91-11o). Yet it would be rash to assume that this tradition rested merely on surmise. It is tolerably certain that the three poets were visitors at Hieron's court at about the same time : Pindar and Bacchylides wrote odes of the same kind in his honour; and there was a tradition that he preferred the younger poet. It is noteworthy that, whereas in 476 and 470 both he and Bacchylides celebrated Hieron's victories, in 468 (the most important occasion of all) Bacchylides alone was commissioned to do so; although in that year Pindar composed an ode (Olymp. vi.) for another Syracusan victor at the same festival. Nor is it difficult to conceive that a despot such as Hieron may have found the genial Ionian a more agreeable courtier than Pindar, an aristocrat of the Boeoto-Aeolic type. But, whatever may have been the true bearing of Pindar's occasional innuendoes, it is at any rate pleasant to find that in the extant work of Bacchylides there is not the faintest semblance of hostile allusion to any rival.
Plutarch (de Exilio, p. 605 c) names Bacchylides in a list of writers, who after they had been banished from their native cities, were active and successful in literature. The passage implies that Peloponnesus was the region where the poet's genius ripened and where he did the work which established his fame. This points to a residence of considerable length ; and it may be noted that some of the poems illustrate their author's intimate knowledge of Peloponnesus (e.g., Odes viii., x., and dithyramb The Alexandrian scholars included Bacchylides in their "canon" of the nine lyric poets. The Alexandrian grammarian Didymus (circa 3o B.c.) wrote a commentary on the epinikian odes of Bacchylides. Horace studied his works and imitated him (ac cording to Porphyrion) in Odes, i. 15, where Nereus predicts the destruction of Troy. Quotations from Bacchylides, or ref erences to him, occur in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Plutarch, Stobaeus, Athenaeus, Aulus Gellius, Zenobius, Hephaes tion, Clement of Alexandria, and various grammarians or scholiasts. Ammianus Marcellinus (xxv. 4) says that the em peror Julian enjoyed reading Bacchylides. It is clear, then, that this poet continued to be popular during at least the first four centuries of our era. The only definite estimate of him by an ancient critic occurs in the treatise IIepi "Til'ovs ("On the Sub lime") ascribed to Cassius Longinus (circ. A.D. 26o), but more probably due to some writer of the first century of our era. In chapter xxxiii. of that treatise, the author asks whether we ought to prefer "greatness" in literature, with some attendant faults, to flawless merit on a lower level, and of course replies in the affirmative. In lyric poetry, he asks, who would be Bacchylides rather than Pindar? Yet Bacchylides is "faultless, with a style of perfect elegance and finish." In short, the essayist regards Bacchylides as a thoroughly finished poet of the second class, who never commits glaring faults, but never reaches the loftier heights.
The first and most general quality of style in Bacchylides is his perfect simplicity and clearness. Where the text is not cor rupt, there are few sentences which are not lucid in meaning and simple in structure. This lucidity is partly due, no doubt, to the fact that he seldom attempts imagery of the bolder kind, and never has thoughts of a subtle or complex order. Yet it would be very unjust to regard such clearness as merely a com pensatory merit of lyric mediocrity, or to ignore its intimate connection with the man's native grace of mind, with the artist's feeling for expression, with, the poet's delicate skill.
Another prominent trait in the style of Bacchylides is his love of picturesque detail. This characteristic marks the fragment by which, before the discovery of the 1896 ms., he was best known—a passage, from one of his paeans, on the blessings of peace (fr. 13, Bergk; 3, Jebb) ; and it frequently appears in the Odes, especially in the mythical narratives. Observation and elegance do more for him than grasp or piercing insight ; but his work is often of very high excellence in its own kind. In his treatment of simile Bacchylides is intent on the decorative value of the details themselves. There are occasional flashes of bril liancy in his imagery, when it is lit up by his keen sense of beauty or splendour in external nature. A radiance, "as of fire," streams from the forms of the Nereids (xvi. 103 ff.). An athlete shines out among his fellows like "the bright moon of the mid-month night" among the stars (viii. 27 ff.). The sudden gleam of hope which comes to the Trojans by the withdrawal of Achilles is like a ray of sunshine "from beneath the edge of a storm-cloud" (xii. 105 ff.). The shades of the departed, as seen by Heracles on the banks of the Cocytus, are compared to the countless leaves fluttering in the wind on "the gleaming headlands of Ida" (v. 65 ff.)—an image not unworthy of Dante or of Milton.
Among the minor features of this poet's style the most re markable is his use of epithets. A god or goddess nearly always receives some ornamental epithet; sometimes, indeed, two or even three (e.g. v. g8 f.). Such a trait is in unison with the epic manner, the straightforward narrative, which we find in some of the larger poems (as in v., x., and xvi.). On the other hand the copious use of such ornament has the disadvantage that it sometimes gives a tinge of conventionality to his work.
The poems contained in the ms. of Bacchylides found (see below) in 1896 are of two classes: I. Odes of Victory or epinikia; II. Dithyrambs. Simonides (b. c. 556 B.c.) was the earliest recorded writer of epinikia. His odes of this class are now rep resented only by a few very small fragments, some 20 lines in all. Two of these fragments, belonging to the description of a chariot race, warrant the belief that Simonides, in his epinikia, differed from Pindar in dwelling more on the incidents of the particular victory. The same characteristic is found in the epinikia of Bacchylides. His fifth ode, and Pindar's first Olympian, alike celebrate the victory of the horse Pherenicus ; but, while Pindar's reference to the race itself is slight and general (vv. 20-22), Bacchylides describes the running of the winner much more vividly and fully (vv. The ms. contains 14 epinikia, or 13 if Blass be right in sup posing that Odes vi. and vii., as numbered by Kenyon in the editio princeps, are part of a single ode (for Lachon of Ceos). Four (or on the view just stated, three) of the odes relate to the Olympian festival; two to the Pythian; three to the Isthmian, three to the Nemean; and one to a Thessalian festival called the IIE-rpaia. This comes last. The order in which the ms. arranges the other epinikia seems to be casual; at least it does not follow (1) the alphabetical sequence of the victor's names or of the names of their cities; nor (2) chronological sequence; nor (3 ) classification by contests; nor (4) classification by festivals- except that the four great festivals precede the Petraea. The first ode, celebrating a victory of the Cean Argeios at the Isthmus, may possibly have been placed there for a biographical reason, viz., because the poet treated in it the early legends of his native island.
A mythical narrative, connected in some way with the victor or his city, usually occupies the central part of the Pindaric ode. Pindar's habit is to select certain moments or scenes of a legend, which he depicts with great force and vividness. Bacchylides, on the other hand, has a gentle flow of simple epic narrative; he relies on the interest of the story as a whole, rather than on his power of presenting situations. Another element, always present in the longer odes of victory, is that which may be called the "gnomic." Here, again, there is a contrast between the two poets. Pindar packs his 'yvc7)µac, his maxims or moral sentiments, into terse and sometimes obscure epigrams. The moralizing of Bacchylides is rather an utterance of quiet meditation sometimes recalling the strain of Ionian gnomic elegy.
The epinikia of Bacchylides are followed in the ms. by six compositions which the Alexandrians classed under the general name of ScObpaµ/3oc (dithyrambs), using the word in a wide sense, as denoting simply a lyric poem occupied with a mythical narra tive. The six dithyrambs of Bacchylides are arranged in (ap proximately) alphabetical order: 'Avrrlvopilac, `Hpaai s, 'Hi6Eoc e9QEbs, erlaEbs, 'IW, "Has, The principal feature, best exempli fied by the first and third, is necessarily epic narrative—often adorned with touches of picturesque detail, and animated by short speeches in the epic manner.
Several other classes of composition are represented by those fragments of Bacchylides, preserved in ancient literature, which were known before the discovery of the new ms. (I) iiµvoc. Among these we hear of the airoirEµirrucoi, hymns speeding some god on his way at the season when he passed from one haunt to another. (2) iracavEfls, represented by the well-known fragment on the blessings of peace. (3) irpoao&ca, choral odes sung during processions to temples. (4) vrropX7i7Mara, lively dance-songs for religious festivals. (5) represented by five fragments of a class akin to creoXta, drinking-songs. Under this head come some lively and humorous verses on the power of wine, imitated by Horace (Odes, iii. 21. It may be conjectured that the facile grace and bright fancy of Bacchylides were seen to especial advantage in light compositions of this kind. (6) The elegiacs of Bacchylides are represented by two avaOrlµaruca, each of four lines, in the Palatine Anthology. The first (Anth. vi. 313) is an inscription for an offering commemora tive of a victory gained by a chorus with a poem written by Bacchylides. The second (Anth. vi. 53) is an inscription for a shrine to Zephyrus. Its authenticity has been questioned.
The papyrus containing the odes of Bacchylides was found in Egypt by natives, and reached the British Museum in the autumn of 1896. It was then in about 200 pieces. By the skill and industry of Mr. F. G. Kenyon, the editor of the editio princeps (1897), the ms. was reconstructed from these lacerated members.