Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Theognis of Megara

THEOGNIS of Megara was one of the early Greek elegiac poets; he probably flourished about the middle of the 6th century B.C. We derive our knowledge of his life from the poems that bear his name. After the fall of Theagenes, who had made himself tyrant of Megara about 625, the usual struggles between oligarchy and democracy ensued. Theognis was a violent partisan of the oligarch ical faction in his native town, and wrote elegies in which he gave expression to the emotions roused in him by the varying phases of the struggle. He appears on one occasion to have lost his property (verse 345) and been driven into exile: perhaps it was then that he visited Sicily, Euboea, and Sparta (783 sq.). In the end if we may trust 1123 sq. he returned to Megara, and lived, at least for a time, in something like prosperity. The date of his death is unknown. The verses handed down to us under the name of Theognis amount in all to 1389. Not a few of them are ascribed on the evidence of the ancients to Tyrtaeus, Mimnernus, and Solon; modern criticism has made it probable that two of the longer elegies are from the hand of Evenus (467-496 and 667-686); other fragments are demonstrably later than Theognis. It is now generally admitted that the Theognidea were put together long after Theognis possibly even as late as the 4th century B.C. by some compiler who wished to provide a good collection of moral maxims for educational pur poses. To separate the genuine fragments of Theognis from those which were ascribed to him by the reverence of a later age is a hopeless task.

The collection is divided into two books. The first, which is addressed to a youth called Cyrnus, or Polypsedes, opens with a spirited invocation of Apollo and Artemis, along with the Muses and the Graces (vv. 1-18); then follows a passage which has been much discussed in connexion with the early history of writing, recommending Cyrnus to set a seal upon the author's verses, to prevent forgers from passing off spurious lines under his name (see Jevons, Hist, of Greek Lit., p. 46). With verse 27 begins a series of counsels to Cyrnus. On the whole they are remarkable neither for loftiness of tone nor for poetic elevation. Cyrnus is counselled to avoid "the bad" and frequent the society of "the good" men the terms "good" and "bad" being used to denote aristocrats and democrats, just as xoAbs Ka.ya.06s meant an oligarch in the later days of the Pelopouuesiau War. Sometimes the violence of party feeling leads Theognis beyond all bounds, as when he prays that he may "drink the black blood" of his opponents (349; cf. 337339 and 361). One striking feature in these elegies is the continual refrain about the evils of poverty. "To avoid poverty one should even throw oneself into the vasty deep, or from the beetling rocks" (175-176; cf. 266 sq., 351 sq., and 649 sq.). Elsewhere the poet reproaches Zeus with allowing evil men to prosper, and afflicting the good (373 sq.); he also complains that the punishment due to wicked men often falls upon their sons (731 sq.). A pleasing feature is the high value which is placed upon friendship: one is not to part with a friend lightly, or upon some slight occasion of displeasure (323 sq.). At the same time no one knows better than Theognis how quickly friends fail one in adversity (299-300). Life has on the whole few charms for our poet: "the best thing for man is not to be born or look upon the rays of the swift sun; once born it is best for him to pass as soon as possible the gates of death, and lie with a great barrow of earth above him" (425-429). The prevailingly sad tone of the elegies is occasionally broken by a convivial note. "It is shameful," says the poet, "to be drunk when others are sober, or sober when others are drunk " (626627); "among the uproarious I am very uproarious, but among the proper I am the properest of men " (313-314). The only elegy which possesses any considerable poetic merit in the first book is that in which Theognis predicts immortality for his young friend through the fame awaiting his own poems. The second book (1231-1389) consists of a number of amatory elegies addressed to some young friend of the author's. In vigour and harmony of versification they are on the whole superior to the first book; but most if not all of them are probably spurious.

Bergk, Poette Lyrici arxci, ii. 117-236, Leipsic, 1882.