We can scarcely understand some of the fancies indulged in at the time, which contain no salt at all—­“Sports,” Hephaestio calls them.  Of these devices may be mentioned the “Wings of Love” by Simmias, a Rhodian, who lived before 300 B.C.  The verses are graduated so as to form a pair of wings.  “The first altar,” written by Dosiadas of Rhodes, is the earliest instance of a Greek acrostic, or of any one which formed words.  An acrostic is a play upon spelling, as a pun is upon sound; and in both cases the complication is too slight for real humour.  They are rather to be considered as ingenious works of fancy.  The first specimens are those in the Psalms—­twelve of which have twenty-two verses beginning with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  The 119th Psalm is a curious specimen of this conceit; it is divided into twenty-two stanzas, and a letter of the alphabet in regular order begins each of them.  The initial letters of “The First Altar” of Dosiadas of Rhodes, form four words, and seem to be addressed to some “Olympian,” who, the dedicator hopes “may live to offer sacrifice for many years.”  The altar states that it is not stained with the blood of victims, nor perfumed with frankincense, that it is not made of gold and silver; but formed by the hand of the Graces and the Muses.  In the “Second Altar,” also usually attributed to Dosiadas of Rhodes, we find not only a fanciful outline formed by long and short verses, but also a studious avoidance of proper names.  Not one is mentioned, although thirteen persons are designated.  It is evident that this “Altar” was a work of ingenuity, and intended to be enigmatical.  Probably the substitutions were also considered to be somewhat playful and amusing, as in Antiphanes—­a comic poet, said to have died from an apple falling on his head—­we read,

  A. Shall I speak of rosy sweat
       From Bacchic spring?

  B. I’d rather you’d say wine.

  A. Or shall I speak of dusky dewy drops?

  B. No such long periphrasis—­say plainly water.

  A. Or shall I praise the cassia breathing fragrance
       That scents the air.

  B. No, call it myrrh.

Another conceit in the form of a Sphinx or Pandean pipe has been attributed to Theocritus—­perhaps without good foundation.

In the “Egg” there is not only the form of the lines, which gradually expand and then taper downwards, but there is also a great amount of similitude—­the literary egg being compared to a real egg, and the poet to the nightingale that laid it.  There is also a remarkable involution in form—­the last line succeeding the first, and so on; and this alternation of the verses is compared to the leaping of fawns.  The Axe or Hatchet is apparently a sort of double axe, being nearly in the form of wings; and is supposed to be a dedicatory inscription written to Minerva on the axe of Epeus, who made the wooden horse by which Troy was taken.