conventionality to his work. This impression is
somewhat strengthened by the fact that many [v.03 p.0123] of the epithets
are long compound words, not found elsewhere and (in some cases at least)
probably invented by the poet; words which suggest a deliberate effort to
vary the stock repertory.

The poems contained in the MS. of Bacchylides found (see below) in 1896 are
of two classes: I. _Odes of Victory_; II. _Dithyrambs_. The Ode of Victory,
[Greek: epinikion (melos] or [Greek: epinikos (humnos], is a form derived
from the [Greek: humnos], which was properly a song in praise of a deity.
Stesichorus (c. 610 B.C.) seems to have been the first who composed hymns
in honour, not of gods, but of heroes; the next step was to write hymns in
celebration of victories by living men. This custom arose in the second
half of the 6th century B.C., the age in which the games at the four great
Greek festivals reached the fulness of their popularity. Simonides (b. c.
556 B.C.) was the earliest recorded writer of _epinikia_. His odes of this
class are now represented only by a few very small fragments, some twenty
lines in all. Two of these fragments, belonging to the description of a
chariot-race, warrant the belief that Simonides, in his epinikia, differed
from Pindar in dwelling more on the incidents of the particular victory.
The same characteristic is found in the epinikia of Bacchylides. His fifth
ode, and Pindar's first _Olympian_, alike celebrate the victory of the
horse Pherenicus; but, while Pindar's reference to the race itself is
slight and general (vv. 20-22), Bacchylides describes the running of the
winner much more vividly and fully (vv. 37-49).

The MS. contains fourteen epinikia, or thirteen if Blass be right in
supposing that Odes vi. and vii., as numbered by Kenyon in the _editio
princeps_, are parts of a single ode (for Lachon of Ceos). Four (or on the
view just stated, three) of the odes relate to the Olympian festival; two
to the Pythian; three to the Isthmian; three to the Nemean; and one to a
Thessalian festival called the [Greek: Petraia]. This comes last. The order
in which the MS. arranges the other epinikia seems to be casual; at least
it does not follow (1) the alphabetical sequence of the victors' names, or
of the names of their cities; nor (2) chronological sequence; nor (3)
classification by contests; nor (4) classification by festivals--except
that the four great festivals precede the _Petraea_. The fir