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On this page: Hyperion – Hypermnestra – Hyperoon – Hypnos – Hyporchema – Hyposcenium – Hypsipyle – Iachus – Iambic Poetry

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HYPERION——IAMBIC POETRY.

party. He fled for sanctuary to a temple in jEgina, but was dragged away from it by force, and by order of Antipater put to death at Corinth in 322. Of the seventy-seven speeches which were known to antiquity as the work of Hyperides, only a few fragments were known until recent times ; but in 1847, in a tomb at Thebes, in Egypt, extensive fragments were found of his speech Against Demosthenes, together with a speech For LycSphron and the whole of his speech Against EuxSnippus. In 1856 there was a further discovery in Egypt of an important part of the Funeral Oration delivered in 322 over those who had fallen in the siege of L&mla. [The con­clusion of the speech AgainstPhilippid.es and the whole of that Against Athen6genes were first published in 1891],

Though the speeches of Hyperides never attain to the force and depth of those of Demosthenes, nevertheless they were valued highly on account of the skill of their con­struction and the grace and charm of their expression.

Hypfirion. One of the Titans (g.ti.), father of the Sun-god Helios, who himself is also called Hyperion in Homer.

Hypermnestra. The only one of the daughters of Danaus who spared her hus­band, Lynceus. (See danaus.)

HypSrodn. The upper story of a Greek house. (See house.)

HypnSs. The god of sleep. (See sleep.)

Hyporchema. A species of lyric, choral song in lively rhythms; its subject was generally gay, and contained imitative dance movements. Like the pseans, these choral odes were mostly sung in honour of Apollo.

Hypdsceninm. See theatre.

Hypslpyle. Daughter of Th5as of Lem-nds. The Lemnian women had, from jealousy, killed all the men of the island ; Hypsipyle alone spared her father ThSas, having been the means of aiding his flight. When the Argonauts landed at Lemnos and married the women, Hypsipyle bore twin sons to Jason: Euneits, who in Homer figures as king of Lemnos and carries on trade with the Greeks before Troy ; and Thoas, who is sometimes described as a son of Dionysus. When the news of her father’s escape was rumoured among the Lemnian women, Hypsipyle was forced to flee for her life, and was captured by pirates, who sold her to Lycurgus of Nemea. There, as the nurse of Opheltes, the infant son of the king, she accidentally caused his death (see seven against thebes), and was exposed to the greatest danger, from which she was only rescued by the intervention of her sons, who were sent to her aid by Dionysus.

I

lacchns. A name under which Dionysus was honoured, together with Demeter and Persephone, at the Eleusinian Mysteries. (See dionysus, persephone, and eleu-sinia.)

Iambic Poetry. Iambic poetry, like the elegiac poetry which was also nearly con­temporaneous with it and was similarly cultivated by the lonians of Asia Minor, forms a connecting link between epic and lyric poetry. While elegy however is directly connected, both in metrical form and expression, with epic poetry, iambic poetry is in direct contrast to it, both as regards subject-matter, diction and metre. The difference between the subject-matter of the two is as marked as the distinction was between tragedy and comedy in later times. While the aim of epic poetry is to awake admiration for its heroes, iambic poetry strains all the resources of art and irony, sarcasm and satire, to hold up the faults and weaknesses of human nature to mockery and contempt. This form of

poetry, in keeping with its subject, con­fined itself to the simple, unadorned language of everyday life, and made use of the pliant iambic metre, which lent itself readilv to such language, and had long been popularly employed to clothe in a poetic garb the rail­lery which formed part of the rustic feasts of Demeter. This custom, as well as the application of the word iambus to verses of this kind, was traced to the Thracian maiden Iambs (also called the daughter of Pan and Echo). When the goddess Demeter was plunged in grief for the loss of her daughter PersephSne, on entering the house of Celeus at Eleusis, it was the jests of lambe that forced her to smile and restored her appetite.

Iambic poetry was brought to artistic perfection by Archilochus of ParSs (about 700 b.c.). He did not remain satisfied with the simple repetition of the same iambic verse, but invented the most varied forms, linking the longer iambic measures with the shorter, as well as with dactylic metres,