long chain: and all of them derive their
power of suspension from the original stone. In like manner the Muse
first of all inspires men herself; and from these inspired persons a
chain of other persons is suspended, who take the inspiration. For all
good poets, epic as well as lyric, compose their beautiful poems not by
art, but because they are inspired and possessed. And as the Corybantian
revellers when they dance are not in their right mind, so the lyric
poets are not in their right mind when they are composing their
beautiful strains: but when falling under the power of music and metre
they are inspired and possessed; like Bacchic maidens who draw milk and
honey from the rivers when they are under the influence of Dionysus but
not when they are in their right mind. And the soul of the lyric poet
does the same, as they themselves say; for they tell us that they bring
songs from honeyed fountains, culling them out of the gardens and dells
of the Muses; they, like the bees, winging their way from flower to
flower. And this is true. For the poet is a light and winged and holy
thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and
is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has
not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his
oracles. Many are the noble words in which poets speak concerning the
actions of men; but like yourself when speaking about Homer, they do
not speak of them by any rules of art: they are simply inspired to utter
that to which the Muse impels them, and that only; and when inspired,
one of them will make dithyrambs, another hymns of praise, another
choral strains, another epic or iambic verses--and he who is good at
one is not good at any other kind of verse: for not by art does the poet
sing, but by power divine. Had he learned by rules of art, he would have
known how to speak not of one theme only, but of all; and therefore God
takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he
also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them
may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless
words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God himself is the
speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us. And Tynnichus
the Chalcidian affords a striking instance of what I am saying: he wrote
nothing that any one would care to remember but the famous paean which
is in every one's mouth, one of t