Antiphon Synonyms

Parsons, like William Byrd a Roman Catholic, showed the influence of the psalm motet and votive antiphon in his work.

The text is from the Magnificat antiphon of second Vespers at the feast of Corpus Christi.

It speaks well for the patriotic devotion and discipline of her commons that Athens, weakened by plague and military disasters, should have withstood for so long the blows of her numerous enemies from without, and the damage inflicted by traitors within her walls (see Antiphon, Theramenes).

As such he would have soon ceased to be respected in a society where literature was not recognized as a separate profession, where a Socrates served in the infantry, a Sophocles commanded fleets, a Thucydides was general of an army, and an Antiphon was for a time at the head of the state.

Lysias was the first to make this adaptation really artistic. His skill can be best appreciated if we turn from the easy flow of his graceful language to the majestic emphasis of Antiphon, or to the self-revealing art of Isaeus.