dicated. The chiefest of all was Mythology. In the ideal legendary world of gods and heroes, the Choral Ode in its perfection lived and moved and had its being. The loves and wars of deities, the fabled glories of old heroic houses—
"Thebes and Pelops' line,
And the tale of Troy divine;"—
such were the themes from which its poets mainly drew their inspiration. The princes and nobles, in whose honour Encomia and Epinicia were performed, boasted descent from the supernatural beings by whom this ideal world was peopled, and their exploits were described by the Choric poet, not merely as attesting their divine ancestry, but as, to some extent, lifting them into the world of gods and heroes, and making them partakers in its life. In the opening stanzas of the Sixth Nemean Ode, the physical and intellectual achievements of man are described as bridging over, in part, the gulf which separates him from the gods, whose blood he shares.
"One is the race of men and gods: one womb
Teemed with us all that breathe with vital breath.
But oh, how widely severed is our doom!
We naught, and good for naught;
They—for their home the brazen heaven is wrought,
A home that knows nor change nor death.
Yet somewhat we approach the immortal kind
In stalwart strength and mighty mind."—(S.)
Accordingly, the exploits of a divinely-descended noble were regarded as the sequel and continuation of those
