She was skilful also in the Greek language, of a quick and lively wit, and conversant in divers kinds of learning.

ARCHILOCHUS, a famous Greek poet and musician, was, according to Herodotus, contemporary with Candaules and Gyges, king of Lydia, who flourished about the fourteenth Olympiad, and B. C. 724.

He was born at Paros, one of the Cyclades. His father, Telesicles, was in so respectable a station, that he was chosen by his countrymen to consult the oracles at Delphos concerning the sending a colony to Thaos; but his mother Euripo, was a slave, whom Telesicles, notwithstanding his high rank, made his wife. Though Archilochus showed an early attachment to poetry and music, these arts did not prevent his going into the army; but at the first engagement at which he was present, the young poet, like Horace, and our own Suckling, lost his buckler, though he saved his life by the help of his heels. "It is much

easier,” said he, " to get a new buckler than to get a new existence.' This pleasantry, however, did not save his reputation; nor could his poetry or prayers prevail upon Lycambes, the father of his mistress, to let him marry his daughter, though she had long been promised to him. After these mortifications, his life seems to have been one continued tissue of disgrace and resentment, so that the rage of Archilochus became proverbial; and the provoking of this satirist was compared to the treading on a serpent; a comparison not too severe, if it be true that Lycambes and his three daughters were so mortified by his satire, as to be driven to the consolation of a halter. In this piece, many adventures are mentioned, full of defamation, and out of the knowledge of the public. There were likewise many loose passages in it; and it is said to have been on account of these that the Lacedæmonians laid a prohibition on verses. However, Plutarch says, there is no bard of antiquity by whom the two arts of poetry and music have been so much advanced as by Archilochus. To him is attributed particularly the sudden transition from one rhythm to another of a different kind; and the manner of accompanying those irregular measures upon the lyre. Heroic poetry, in hexameter verse, seems to have been solely in use among the more ancient poets and musicians; and the transition from one rhythm to another, which lyric poetry required, was unknown to them; so that if Archilochus was the first author of this mixture, he might with propriety be styled the inventor of lyric poetry, which after his time became a species of versification, wholly distinct from heroic. To him is likewise ascribed the invention of epodes. He is also generally reckoned among the first victors of the Pythic games; and we learn from Pindar, that his muse was not always a termagant; and though no mortal escaped her rage, yet she was at times sufficiently tranquil and pious to dictate hymns in praise of the

gods and heroes. One in particular, written in honour of Hercules, acquired him the acclamations of all Greece; for he sung it in full assembly at the olympic games, and had the satisfaction of receiving from the judges the crown of victory consecrated to real merit. The hymn, or ode, was afterwards sung in honour of every victor at Olympia, who had no poet to celebrate his particular exploits. Archilochus was at last slain by one Callondas Corax, of the island of Naxos; who, though he did it in battle, according to the laws of war, was driven out of the temple of Delphi, by command of the oracle, for having deprived of life a man consecrated to the muses. The name of Archilochus and Homer were equally revered and celebrated in Greece, as the two most excellent poets which the nation had ever produced. This appears from an epigram in the Anthologia; and from Cicero, who ranks him with poets of the first class, and in his Epistles tells us, that the grammarian Aristophanes, the most rigid and scrupulous critic of his time, used to say, that the longest poem of Archilochus always appeared to him the most excellent.

LYCAMBES, the father of Neobule. He promised his daughter in marriage to the poet Archilochus, and afterwards refused to fulfil his engagement when she had been courted by a man whose opulence had more influence than the fortune of the poet. This irritated Archilochus, who wrote a bitter invective against Lycambes and his daughter, and rendered them both so desperate by the satire of his composition, that they hanged themselves.

ALCMAN, a lyric poet, was born at Sparta, and flourished in the twenty-seventh Olympiad, B. C. 668. He composed several poems, of which only some fragments remain, quoted by Athenæus and some other ancient writers. He was very

amorous, accounted the father of gallant poesy; and is said to have been the first that introduced the custom of singing love songs in company. He is reported to have been one of the greatest eaters of his age.

MEGALOSTRATA, a Grecian poetess, friend of Alcman, the lyrist. None of her poems remain; but there are satires written against her.

MUSIC.

TERPANDER, one of the most renowned musicians of antiquity. It is recorded in the Oxford Marbles, that he was the inventor of characters to express musical sounds in the several genera; which event is placed about six hundred and seventy years before the Christian era. Indeed all writers who mention the progressive state of music in Greece, are unanimous

in celebrating the talents of Terpander. The Marbles inform us likewise, that "he taught the nomes, or airs, of the lyre and flute, which he performed himself upon this last instrument, in concert with other players on the flute." Several writers tell us, that he added three strings to the lyre, which before his time had but four; and in confirmation of this, Euclid and Strabo quote two verses, which they attribute to Terpander himself.

"The tetrachord's restraint we now despise,

The seven-stringed lyre a noble strain supplies."

If the hymn to Mercury, which is ascribed to Homer, and in which the seven stringed lyre is mentioned, be genuine, it robs Terpander of this glory. The learned, however, have great doubts concerning its authenticity. Among the many signal services which Terpander is said to have done to music, none was of more importance than the notation that is ascribed to him for ascertaining and preserving melody, which was before traditional, and wholly dependent on memory. The invention, however, of musical characters, has been attributed by Alyficus and Jandentius, two Greek writers on music, and, upon their authority, by Boethius, to Pythagoras, who flourished full two centuries after Terpander. It will be necessary, therefore, to tell the reader upon what grounds this useful discovery has been bestowed upon him. Plutarch, from Heraclides of Pontus, assures us that Terpander, the inventor of nomes for the Cithera, in hexameter verse, "set them to music," as well as the verses of Homer, in order to sing them at the public games. And Clemens Alexandrinus, in telling us that this musician wrote the laws of Lycurgus in verse, and "set them to music," makes use of the same expression as Plutarch, which seems clearly to imply a written melody.

PAINTING.

CYDIAS, an ancient Greek painter, who made a painting of the Argonauts in the eleventh Olympiad. This celebrated piece was bought by the orator Hortensius for 164 talents.

ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE.

HERMOGENES, the first and most celebrated architect of antiquity, was, according to Vitruvius, born at Alandada, a city in Caria. He built a temple of Diana at Magnesia, another of

Bacchus at Tros; and was the inventor of several parts of architecture. He wrote a book on the subject, which is lost,

CLEETA, an ancient Greek architect and sculptor. He built the Palæstra, or large court near Olympius, used for the horse and chariot races at the celebrated Olympic games, which were held in this place at the close of every olympiad, that is, every fifth year. It was magnificently decorated with porticos and other ornaments; and the author was so proud of his performances, that he introduced the following inscription under one of the statues which he had made on Athens; "Cleeta, the son of Aristocles, who invented the Palæstra of Olympius, did this."

634 Cyaxares besieges Nineveh, but is obliged to raise the siege by an incursion of the Scythians, who remained masters of Asia for twenty-eight years.

624 Draco published his inhuman laws at Athens.

610 Pharaoh Necho attempted to make a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, but failed.

G07 By his order some Phoenicians sailed from the Red Sea round Africa, and returned by the Mediterranean.

606 The first captivity of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar. Nineveh destroyed by Cyaxares.

THIS period is remarkable for producing those characters who brought about the total ruin of the Jewish monarchy. The kingdom of Israel had fallen B. C. 717, after it had subsisted 264 years. The kingdom of Judah still continued, but B. C. 514; it was also demolished after it had existed 468 years, from the beginning of the reign of David; and 388 years from the separation of Judah and the ten tribes.

GOVERNMENT.

JOSIAH, king of Judah, renowned for his wisdom and piety, and memorable for the events that occurred in the course of his reign. He succeeded to the throne, upon the assassination of his father Amon, at the age of eight years, in the year B. C. 640, and at a period when idolatry and wickedness, encouraged by his father's profligate example, very generally prevailed. Josiah, who manifested the influence of pious and virtuous principles at a very early age, began in his sixteenth year to project the reformation of the kingdom, and to adopt means for restoring the worship of the true God; at the age of twenty years he vigorously pursued the execution of the plans