Excerpt from Greek Melic Poets IT is usually the fate of the maker of an anthology to please none of the judicious because each is convinced that his taste is superior to that of the editor. The possibility of escaping this fate on the part of the author of the present volume, which aims at collecting those fragments of the song - writers of Greece that have a distinctly human interest, is all too great: an untoward chance has bequeathed to us such a meagre portion of the wealth of Greek song that the task of selection is comparatively easy. The triumphal odes of Pindar have indeed been handed down fairly complete and are elsewhere accessible. Only in the case of Bacchylides, who has now almost passed from his position as a fragmentary poet, is the material over abundant for the purpose of an anthology. If I have not included all that is best in him, it is because a few of his finer odes are mutilated in parts beyond all hope of certain restoration. Of the rest of the song-poetry of Greece only broken columns and ruined architraves remain to attest the beauty of the un shattered edifice. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.