A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

TIMOTHEUS. TIMOTHEUS. 1149
ascribed to the Ephor is so characteristic of the and took now one direction, now another; prestate of Spartan feelings with reference to the ferring, however, to seize on such points as gave
ancient music, that we may easily believe such an room for an immediate imitation in tones, and
incident to have occurred every time that the admitting a mode of description which luxuriated
attempt was made to violate that feeling; so that in sensual charms." And a little above (p. 60)the two stories rather confirm one another; and, " At the same time the dithyramb assumed a demoreover, they are mentioned together, as two scriptive, or, as Aristotle says, a mimetic character
distinct events, by Plutarch (Agis, 10). The tra- (ueeraeoAhs). The natural phenomena which it
dition is also embodied, with other particulars of described were imitated by means of tulles and
the innovations of Timotheus, in the alleged decree rhythms and the pantomimic gesticulations of the
of the Spartans, preserved by Boithius (de Mus. actors (as in the antiquated Hyporchemle); and
l. c.). It has been, however, very clearly proved, this was very much aided by a powerful instruthat this decree is the forgery of a grammarian of mental accompaniment, which sought to represent
an unknown date. (See especially Miller, Dor. with its loud full tones the raging elements, the
b. iv. c. 6. ~ 3, vol. ii. pp. 316-319, ed. Schnei- voices of wild beasts, and other sounds. A parasite
dewin). Still it is of importance, as embodying wittily observed of one of these storm-dithyrambs
what the grammarian, who forged it, had collected of Timlotheus, that' he had seen greater storms
from the ancient writers respecting the musical than those which Timotheus made in many a kettle
innovations of Timotheus. The substance of it is of boiling water' (Ath. viii. p. 338, a.)." A
an order to the Ephors to censure Timotheus the striking example of this mimetic and sensuous mode
Milesian, for that he had dishonoured the ancient of representation is furnished by the dithyramb
music, and had corrupted the ears of the youth by of Timotheus, entitled " the Travail of Semele"
deserting the seven-stringed lyre, and introducing (eE/h'As &vliv), which is censured in the pseudoa multiplicity of strings, and a novelty of melodies, Lacedaemonian decree already quoted, and on one
in which ignoble and diversified strains took the passage of which Stratonicus is said to have asked,
place of the old simple and sustained movements, " If she had been bringing forth a mechanic, and
and by changing the genus from the Enharmonic not a god, what sort of cries would she have
to the Chromatic as an Antistrophic variation, and uttered?" (Ath. viii. p. 352, a.; comp. Dio Chryalso for that, when invited to perform at the festival sost. Orat. 77, p. 426, ed. Reiske.)
of the Eleusinian Demeter, he had given an indecent The language of Timotheus was redundant and
representation of the myth, and had improperly luxuriant, as we see by a fragment from his
taught the youth the travail of Semele; and, besides Cyclops, preserved by Athenaeus (xi. p. 465,
this censure, lie was to be ordered to cut away the d.). Of the boldness of his metaphors we have
strings of his lyre which exceeded seven. a specimen, in his calling a shield piahmAv'Apeos,
Suidas (s. v.) describes his style irn general terms for which he was attacked by the comic poet
as a softening of the ancient music (rvI' &apXalav Antiphanes (Ath. x. p. 433, c.), and which ArituovenKc' -Ir'rb rahAaK'c6oepov /ei'7a'yYev). And stotle has noticed no less than three times (Poet.
Plutarch mentions him,withCrexus and Philoxenus, xxi. 12, Rhet. iii. 4, 11). There is another exand the other poets of that age, as (pop'tKUC6'epo alnple of his bold figures in a fragment of Ana.
Kal PhLAKcaLvot, and as especially addicted to the xandrides (Ath. x. p. 455, f.). In the celebrated
style called Tbv pLrX&aYpwa7rov Kal ~rl~auTtKdV (de passage of Aristotle respecting the representation
Mus. 12. p. 11 35, d.). of actual and ideal characters, in poetry and paintWith regard to the subjects of his compositions, ing (Poet: 2), reference is made to " the Persae
and the manner in which he treated them, we have and Cyclopes of Timotheus and Philoxenus;"
abundant evidence that he even went beyond the but unfortunately there is nothing in the present
other musicians of the period in theliberties which text to show which of the two poets Aristotle
he took with the ancient myths, in the attempt to meant to represent as the more ideal.
make his music imitative as well as expressive, Like all the dithyrambic poets of the age, Timoand in the confusion of the different subjects and theus composed works in every species of lyric
department of lyric poetry; in one word, in the poetry, and that in such a manner as to confound
application of that false principle, which also misled the distinctions between the several species,
his friend Euripides, that pleasure is the end of mingling Threnes with Hymns, Paeans with Dipoetry. Unfortunately the fragments of the poems thlyrambs, and even performing on the lyre the
of Timotheus and the other musicians of the period music intended for the flute (Plato, de Legg. 1. c.).
are insufficient to guide us to a full knowledge of The crowning step in this process appears to have
their style; but we can judge of its general cha- been that which is ascribed to Timotheus alone,
racter by the choral parts of the tragedies of namely, the giving a dithyramlbic tone and exEuripides, and by the description of Plato (de Legg. pression to the Nomes, which seem to have been
iii. p. 700, e.), aided by the ancient testimonies, and hitherto preserved almost in their original form,
the few fragments collected by later writers. The and the adapting them to be sung by a chorus,
subject is well, though briefly, treated by Muller instead of by a single performer (Plut. de Mus. 4,
(Hist. of Lit. of Aec. Greece, vol. ii. pp. 61, 62), p. 1132, d.; Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p. 365).
who remarks that in the late dithyramb " there The account which has now been given of the
was no unity of thought; no one tone pervading character of Timotheus as a musician and a poet
the whole poem, so as to preserve in the minds of must not be misunderstood. It is one thing to
the hearers a consistent train of feelings; no subor- judge an artist by pure aesthetic standards, or by
dination of the story to certain ethical ideas; no a comparison with the severe simplicity of an early
artificially constructed system of verses regulated stage of the development of his art; it is quite
by fixed laws; but a loose and wanton play of another thing to form a genial estimate of his chalyrical sentiments, which were set in motion by racter with reference to the prevailing taste of the
the accidental impulses of some mythical story, times in which he lived, or Io the impression he