{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_67984/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_67984","id":"gutenberg_67984","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67984","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Travel Writing","Greece -- Description and travel","Greek literature -- History and criticism"],"text":"------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Note:\n\nThis version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.\nItalics are delimited with the \u2018_\u2019 character as _italic_.\n\nFootnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are\nreferenced.\n\nMinor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please\nsee the transcriber\u2019s note at the end of this text for details regarding\nthe handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.\n\n\n\n\n GREEK LANDS AND LETTERS\n\n[Illustration:\n\n THE PROPYL\u00c6A\n From within, looking toward Salamis. From a painting by H. R. Cross\n]\n\n GREEK LANDS AND\n LETTERS\n\n BY\n\n FRANCIS GREENLEAF ALLINSON\n (_Professor of Classical Philology in Brown University_)\n\n AND\n\n ANNE C. E. ALLINSON\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n BOSTON AND NEW YORK\n HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY\n =The Riverside Press Cambridge=\n MDCCCCIX\n\n\n\n\n COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY FRANCIS G. ALLINSON\n AND ANNE C. E. ALLINSON\n\n ALL RIGHTS RESERVED\n\n _Published December 1909_\n\n\n\n\n TO\n A. C. E.\n AND\n S. C. A.\n\n\n\n\n PREFACE\n\n\nThe purpose of this book is to interpret Greek lands by literature, and\nGreek literature by local associations and the physical environment.\nThose who possess an intimate acquaintance with Greek or who have the\ngood fortune to stay long in Greece will be able to draw upon their own\nresources. Many travellers, however, must curtail their visit to a few\nweeks or months, and it is hoped that to them this book may prove useful\nas a companion in travel, while to a wider range of readers it may prove\nsuggestive in appraising what is most vital in our \u201cHellenic heritage.\u201d\n\nTo keep within reasonable bounds it has seemed necessary to limit our\nsurvey to those portions of the mainland of Greece and those islands,\nimmediately adjacent in the Gulf of \u00c6gina, which may be easily visited\nduring a short stay in Athens as headquarters. But the visitor cannot be\ntoo strongly urged to avail himself of opportunities to visit the\nremoter islands and the shores of Asia Minor, which are so beautiful a\npart of the Greek world and have played so brilliant a r\u00f4le in Greek\nhistory and literature.\n\nIn quoting or summarizing the literature the limitations of space are\nobvious. Selections have been made which to us seemed most fairly to\ninterpret the countries and sites. It is hoped that these will not only\nprove representative when taken together but will recall much that has\nperforce been omitted.\n\nPurely learned treatises in Greek have not been cited except by way of\nillustration. The historical geographer Strabo, of the time of Augustus,\nhas offered suggestive material; and Pausanias, of the second century of\nour era, the pious and often charming writer of the \u201cGuidebook to\nGreece,\u201d has, as was inevitable, been the _cicerone_ in many places.\n\nHistory it has seemed proper to use chiefly to explain the literature,\nor, especially in the case of Herodotus and Thucydides, as itself part\nof the noblest prose literature. But in different chapters emphasis has\nbeen laid, to some extent, upon different elements, such as myth and\nlegend, prehistoric tradition, the history of certain epochs in classic\ntimes, the demands of religion, the growth of the artistic impulse or\nthe bloom of the Attic period. By this means we have hoped, without too\nmuch repetition, to suggest a fairly adequate outline of the different\nfactors in Greek civilization. The introductory chapter is intended to\nprovide the essential background for the others.\n\nForms of art other than literature are only incidentally touched upon.\nArch\u00e6ological information or discussion, except as illustration, is\nprecluded by the purpose of the book, which deals with the literature\nand the land as being permanent possessions that are not essentially\nmodified by the successive data of arch\u00e6ology, necessarily shifting from\nmonth to month.\n\nIn translating Greek authors it has seemed best, as a rule, to offer new\nversions, rendering the thought as literally as is consistent with our\nidiom or, in the case of poetry, with the exigencies of English verse.\nThe anap\u00e6stic dimeters and, in the dialogue parts of the drama, the\nsix-stress iambic verse have been retained; less uniformly the elegiac\ncouplet; and, occasionally only, the heroic hexameter. Elsewhere poetry\nhas been usually turned by rhymed verse or by rhythmic prose.\n\nSome existing translations or paraphrases have been used, for which\ncredit has been given in the text or the footnotes. Moreover, in most of\nthe citations from Pausanias Mr. Frazer\u2019s admirable translation has been\nused without explicit mention, and for this we make acknowledgment here.\nIn translating Pindar many turns of expression have been taken from the\nbeautiful translation of Ernest Myers, although, when they are not\nexpressly credited, the versions have been rewritten. While it is hoped\nthat full credit has thus been given wherever it is due, there are\ndoubtless expressions here and there remaining in the memory from\nnumerous commentators on Greek authors that form a common stock in trade\nfor the translator.\n\nIn transliterating Greek names we have followed, as a rule, familiar\nEnglish usage.\n\nAmong many books of reference there are a few to which we are especially\nindebted. We have used constantly Mr. J. G. Frazer\u2019s \u201cCommentary on\nPausanias,\u201d which includes a wealth of outside references, as, for\nexample, citations from other travellers beginning with Dic\u00e6archus, the\nentertaining geographer of the fourth century b. c. We are also indebted\nto Curtius\u2019s \u201cHistory of Greece\u201d and Tozer\u2019s \u201cGeography of Greece\u201d; Dr.\nW. Judeich\u2019s \u201cTopographie von Athen\u201d (especially for Pir\u00e6us); Professor\nErnest Gardner\u2019s \u201cAncient Athens,\u201d which should be in the hands of every\nvisitor to Athens; and Miss J. E. Harrison\u2019s \u201cPrimitive Athens.\u201d\nProfessor J. B. Bury\u2019s \u201cHistory of Greece\u201d has been constantly\nsuggestive. On modern Greece Schmidt\u2019s \u201cDas Volksleben der Neugriechen\u201d\nand Sir Rennell Rodd\u2019s \u201cCustoms and Lore of Modern Greece\u201d have\nfurnished definite material.\n\nAmong the numerous editions of Greek authors necessarily consulted we\nare under special obligations to Professor Gildersleeve\u2019s \u201cPindar, the\nOlympian and Pythian Odes,\u201d and to Professor Smyth\u2019s \u201cMelic Poets.\u201d\nCertain quotations in the text, not provided for in the footnotes, are\nacknowledged in the Appendix, in which are also given, for the sake of\ncomparison, exact references to the Greek.\n\nOur personal thanks are due to Professor J. Irving Manatt, of Brown\nUniversity, for valuable suggestions and criticism of several chapters,\nand to Professor Walter G. Everett for his discussion of the section on\nGreek philosophy. We are also especially indebted to Professor Herbert\nRichard Cross of Washington University, St. Louis, for placing at our\ndisposal his water-color sketch of the Propyl\u00e6a, from which the\nfrontispiece is taken, and to Professors C. B. Gulick and G. H. Chase of\nHarvard University for assistance in obtaining the impression of the\ncoin upon the cover of this book.\n\n F. G. A.\n A. C. E. A.\n\nProvidence, October, 1909.\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n I. THE WIDESPREAD LAND OF HELLAS 1\n\n II. PIR\u00c6US, THE HARBOUR TOWN 32\n\n III. ATHENS: FROM SOLON TO SALAMIS 57\n\n IV. THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS 74\n\n V. ATHENS: FROM SALAMIS TO MENANDER 91\n\n VI. OLD GREECE IN NEW ATHENS 126\n\n VII. ATTICA 144\n\n VIII. ELEUSIS 171\n\n IX. \u00c6GINA 186\n\n X. MEGARA AND CORINTH: THE GULF OF CORINTH 192\n\n XI. DELPHI 218\n\n XII. FROM DELPHI TO THEBES 250\n\n XIII. THEBES AND B\u0152OTIA 266\n\n XIV. B\u0152OTIA, CONTINUED 296\n\n XV. THERMOPYL\u00c6 316\n\n XVI. ARGOLIS 323\n\n XVII. ARCADIA 358\n\n XVIII. OLYMPIA 388\n\n XIX. MESSENIA 425\n\n XX. SPARTA 431\n\n APPENDIX 453\n\n INDEX 463\n\n\n\n\n ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n THE PROPYL\u00c6A _Frontispiece_\n From within looking toward Salamis\n _From a painting by H. R. Cross_\n\n MAP OF GREECE AND THE \u00c6GEAN 1\n\n MAP OF PIR\u00c6US 32\n\n RENAN ON THE ACROPOLIS 74\n _From a French painting_\n\n S. COLONNADE OF THE PARTHENON 88\n _From a photograph by R. A. Rice_\n\n AREOPAGUS 104\n\n STREET OF THE TOMBS 114\n Monument of Hegeso\n\n AFTER POLYGNOTUS 134\n\n THE PANATHEN\u00c6A CONTINUED 134\n\n MAP OF ATTICA 144\n\n MENANDER 152\n _From bust in Boston Museum of Fine Arts_\n\n SUNIUM 162\n Temple of Poseidon. _From a photograph by S. C. A._\n\n OLIVE TREES ON THE WAY TO ELEUSIS 178\n _From a photograph by E. G. Radeke_\n\n \u00c6GINA 188\n Temple of Aph\u00e6a\n\n CORINTH 202\n Temple of Apollo and Acrocorinth\n\n DELPHI AND THE ROAD TO ARACHOVA 250\n\n MAP OF B\u0152OTIA 266\n\n A GALLERY OF THE ACROPOLIS OF TIRYNS 324\n\n CALAURIA 356\n Temple of Poseidon. Scene of the death of Demosthenes\n\n OLYMPIA 388\n Kronos Hill. The ruins of the Altis\n\n TA\u0178GETUS 432\n\n -------\n\n NIKE OF SAMOTHRACE, reproduced on the front cover, is\n from a coin in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University.\n\n\n\n\n GREEK LANDS AND LETTERS\n\n[Illustration: Greece and the Aegean Sea]\n\n\n\n\n GREEK LANDS AND LETTERS\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I\n INTRODUCTORY: THE WIDESPREAD LAND OF\n HELLAS\n\n \u201cGreek literature is read by almost all nations.\u201d\n CICERO, _Pro Archia_.\n\n\nCicero, at one time studying Greek oratory in Rhodes, at another\nspeaking Greek as the language best adapted to a Sicilian audience,\nsuggests with sufficient definiteness the eastern and western boundaries\nof ancient Hellas. Leaving out of consideration more remote colonies, we\nmay content ourselves with including in the Greater Greece of antiquity\nall the Mediterranean lands and waters from Sicily and Lower Italy, in\nthe west, to Cyprus and the coast of Asia Minor, in the east. The\nRiviera, or seaboard of the eastern side of the \u00c6gean, is sharply\ndifferentiated from the continuous highlands of the interior, which\nsuggest, a short distance inland, a boundary line between Europe and\nAsia. For a maritime people like the Greeks this was a barrier more\neffectual than the highway of the Bosphorus. In the early historic\ntimes, when the sun rose over these mountains of Asia Minor he left\nbehind him the Oriental and looked down at once upon the Cis-montane\nGreeks, and it was upon Greeks that he was still shining when his\nsetting splendour lit up the Bay of Naples\u2014the \u201cNew-town\u201d of that day\u2014or\nthe ancient Cum\u00e6 and the heights of Anacapri or the islands of the\nSirens and the golden brown columns of Poseidon\u2019s temple at P\u00e6stum.\n\nThe seaboard, too, of Macedonia and Thrace belonged to Greece by reason\nof their water-front on the \u00c6gean. And to the south, the encroachments\nof the Greeks upon the preserves of the Nile-god were so extensive for\ncenturies before the time of Alexander that we need not wonder either at\nEgyptian reminiscences in Greek art or at the increasing evidences of\nHellenic life in Egypt.\n\nThe Greeks, compared with the hoary antiquity of the Egyptians, are late\ncomers. The essential difference, however, is not a matter of centuries\nor millennia. The Egyptians, perhaps because the details are\nforeshortened by the vast distance, seem to possess a chronology, but no\nreal history. There were revolutions, rather than evolution. The Greeks\nwere young, too, individually as well as chronologically. From Homer\ndown through the classic period we hear \u201cthe everlasting wonder-song of\nyouth.\u201d Plato makes an Egyptian priest say to the Athenian law-giver: \u201cO\nSolon, Solon, you Hellenes are ever children; no Hellene is ever old!\u201d\nWe find the Greeks of the historic period on the intellectual watershed\nbetween antiquity and the modern world. From data now well established\nwe may push back their life far beyond recorded chronology, and, if we\nanticipate even by a little the nucleus of the Homeric poems, we possess\na practically unbroken continuity of their history and language for\nthree thousand years down to the present day. Greek history is often\nconfined within perfectly arbitrary dates. In reality, the death of\nAlexander in 323 B. C., the closing of the schools of philosophy in 529\nA. D., and the fall of Constantinople in 1453 A. D. only break its\ncourse into convenient chapters.\n\nThe Greek language is itself one of the greatest creations of Greek art.\nDiscarding some superfluities, retained or over-emphasized by others of\nour common Indo-European family, the Greeks developed an instrument for\nthe expression of thought unsurpassed, if not unequalled, among any\nother people. \u201cThe whole language resembles the body of an artistically\ntrained athlete, in which every muscle is called into full play, where\nthere is no trace of flaccid tumidity, and all is power and life.\u201d The\n\u201ccommon dialect\u201d already dominated the eastern Mediterranean before the\nRomans took physical possession. Its direct legatee is the modern Greek,\nthat had sprung up in lusty independence some three centuries before the\nTurks put an end to senile Byzantium and its crabbed ecclesiastical\nspeech.\n\nOf creative literature the same unbroken continuity cannot be\npredicated. The early literature, beginning with Homer, extends through\nthe first quarter of the fifth century B. C. It includes the great epic\npoetry, the elegiac and iambic, the beginnings of philosophy, and seven\nof the ten greatest lyric poets. No fact in Greek literature is more\nconspicuous than the shortness and the richness of the next period,\nwhich may be conveniently called the \u201cAttic,\u201d although some of the\ngreatest writers came from outside of Attica\u2014from B\u0153otia, from the\nislands, from beyond the \u00c6gean, or from Sicily. Within this brief period\nof only 183 years, if we close it with the death of Menander in 292 B.\nC., all the additional types of the literature either culminated or\noriginated.\n\nThe next period of 150 years, commonly known as the Alexandrian period,\nhas within its early limits the name of Theocritus, whose quality\nentitles him to rank with the writers of the Classic period, as does\nthat of his two legatees, Bion and Moschus, and also Herodas, whose\nwritings, recovered in the fortunate year 1891, have now made him a part\nof the Greek Classics. But in the Alexandrian period, and in the\nGr\u00e6co-Roman period from 146 B. C. to 529 A. D., the great names are, as\na rule, not so great, and they are spread over a long time. Few of them,\nexcept Lucian in the second century of our era, and Plutarch immediately\npreceding him, successfully compete for a prominent place as writers of\npure literature.\n\nWith a few exceptions, the great original work in Greek literature had\nbeen done before the death of Menander. The Greek anthology, however,\nmust not be ignored. It ranges over more than one thousand years and\nleaves no century in all that time without at least some minor\nrepresentative of great beauty. Like a cord twisted of dull strands and\ngolden, it binds together the Attic age with the whole of the subsequent\ntime down to the year 550 of our era, the golden strand reappearing\nsufficiently often to assure us of its continuity. The next nine\ncenturies of Byzantine Greek, ecclesiastical and profane, are little\nknown to most classical scholars. The contributions of the modern Greek,\nbefore and since the days of Byron, are significant, and the friends of\nthe new kingdom await with cordial expectation the rise of new writers\nto give to the lore of the peasant and the struggles of the patriot a\nworthy literary form. Of the lacun\u00e6 in the literature, in spite of the\ncontinuity of the language, Professor Hatzidakis of Athens has well\nsaid: \u201cThe Greek language is as little to be blamed for this as could be\nthe marble quarries of Mount Pentelicus, because in those times no one\nfashioned from them a Hermes of Praxiteles or a Venus of Melos.\u201d\n\nA glance at the map will show how accessible was the mainland of Greece,\nupon the east and south, to seafaring visitors from across the \u00c6gean,\nwho would naturally find here their first landing-places. Except for the\ngreat gash of the Corinthian Gulf, the western coast is indented only\nwith smaller, though good, harbours, while the whole southern and\neastern seaboard from Messenia in the southwest to Thrace is a ragged\nfringe of promontories, large and small, welcoming into the interior the\nwaters that suggested sea-business of war and commerce.\n\nBut this interlacing of land and water, that brought the insinuating\n\u201ccall of the sea,\u201d was not the only factor that predetermined the\ncharacter of the Greek cantons. The Greeks were mountaineers as well as\nmariners. One is, indeed, almost tempted to speak of Greece as\nconsisting of only mountains and _marina_. There are of course some\nrelatively large plains, notably the fertile granary of Thessaly, but\nthe general impression of the land from any bird\u2019s-eye view is a\nsuccession of lofty ridges, peaks, and spurs. Only by many shiftings of\nthe place of outlook do these partially resolve themselves into ranges\ncontinuous in certain general directions, though with many sharp angles\nand curves and buttressed by uncompromising cross ridges. These mountain\nbarriers make clear the history of the Greek peoples, both how they\ncombined temporarily to resist foreign invasion and, above all, why they\ndeveloped and cherished in tiny cantons their characteristic\nindividualism, which has been by turns a bane and a blessing.\n\nThessaly and Mount Olympus to the north belong geographically to the\nKingdom of Greece. On either side of Thessaly irregular mountain chains\nrun southward and preserve a general connection through Central Greece\nand Attica, and, despite the submerging water, may be identified as\nreappearing in the islands far out in the \u00c6gean. Olympus on the\nnortheast\u2014hardly interrupted by the river Peneius, which has rent its\nway through the precipitous ca\u00f1on known as the \u201cVale\u201d of Tempe\u2014is\ncontinued along the east coast by Mount Ossa and Mount Pelion. Then\nacross the narrow entrance to the Pagas\u00e6an and Malian gulfs the system\nis continued by the sharp dorsal fins of the island of Eub\u0153a, that\nstretches like a sea-monster along the shores of Locris, B\u0153otia, and\nAttica, to reappear at intervals far to the southeast in the islands\nAndros, Tenos, Myconos, Delos, Naxos, Amorgos, and Astypal\u00e6a. On the\nwest of Thessaly the great Pindus ridge, descending through the centre\nof northern Greece, details on the rugged system of peaks and ranges\nwhich fill central Greece southward to the Gulf of Corinth and which in\ngeneral run from west to east. One of these ranges, called the Othrys\nMountains, bounds the Thessalian countries on the south and ends at the\nGulf of Pagas\u00e6. Another, Mount \u0152ta, is continued by the high mountains\nthat shut off Thermopyl\u00e6 to the north and runs on as the boundary\nbetween Locris and B\u0153otia. Still another range, running out of the\ncentral complex, has its culmination in Parnassus, 8070 feet high, and\nis continued, though more interrupted and with a more irregular course,\nby Mount Helicon in B\u0153otia and the frontier hills of Attica, from\nHelicon to Parnes, and bends around into the massive ridge of Mount\nPentelicus, from whose summit the spectator can see the prolongation in\nthe islands of Ceos, Cythnos, Seriphos, and others beyond.\n\nThe narrow neck that divides the Corinthian from the Saronic Gulf and\nconnects Attica and B\u0153otia with the Peloponnesus, lifts up among its\nrugged hills in Megara the picturesque twin peaks of the Kerata. South\nof the isthmus itself, with its narrow plain and the deep cutting\nnecessary for the canal, rises the splendid acropolis of Acrocorinth,\nkeeping guard at the entrance to the \u201cIsland of Pelops.\u201d\n\nThe Peloponnesus, or Morea, is a rugged complex of mountains that by\nturns shut out and admit the sea. Of its four irregular peninsulas,\njutting out southward in the Argolis and in Laconia and Messenia, each\nhas its mountain system; the more broken hills in the Argolid plain; the\nridge of Parnon to the east of the plain of Laced\u00e6mon; the imposing\nbarrier of Taygetus between Sparta and Messenia. In Messenia itself are\nfertile plains. One is in the midland, as the name Messenia originally\nimplied, among offshoots of the Arcadian Lyc\u00e6us; while the great\nmountain fortress of Ithome, 2600 feet high, where crops could be reared\nand an army supported, towering above the hills and plains of central\nMessenia, looks down on another larger plain, almost tropical in its\nproducts, that stretches southward to the gulf.\n\nThe centre and west of the Peloponnesus is a mass of peaks and mountain\nridges tangled up at abrupt angles but bounded on the north by a\nformidable chain, generally parallel with the Gulf of Corinth and\ndominated by Erymanthus and Cyllene to the west and east respectively.\nAround and against this chain great mountains are piled up like\npetrified billows. In this part of Greece plains few but important are\ninterspersed, as at Megalopolis or Olympia. Along the northwest coast\nthere is the wider sea-margin of \u201cHollow\u201d Elis, while along the\nCorinthian Gulf \u00c6gialus, the \u201ccoast-land,\u201d seems often little more than\na grudging _marina_ subjacent to the foothills of Erymanthus and\nCyllene.\n\nFrom north to south, from east to west the Greek landscape lends itself\nto panoramic views. Lucian in his \u201cCharon\u201d makes Hermes seat himself on\none of the twin peaks of Parnassus and Charon upon the other. With eyes\nanointed with Homeric eye-salve, the Ferryman, on his furlough from the\nunder-world, is able to see not only the Greater Greece outspread around\nhim,\u2014from Asia Minor to Sicily, from the Danube to Crete,\u2014but to look\noff beyond to the Orient and to Egypt. These wide outlooks are enhanced\nby the distinctness of the sky-line, everywhere an important factor.\n\u201cThe hard limestone of which the mountains are composed is apt to break\naway, and thus produces those sharply-cut outlines which stand out so\nclearly against the transparent sky of Greece.\u201d\n\nSo large a troupe of actors played their parts in Greek history that the\nimagination demands a roomy stage. But the country is small. Were it not\nfor the mountain barriers, the scale of distances would seem trivial. It\nis, for example, only some thirty miles in an air line from Thermopyl\u00e6\nto the Gulf of Corinth. Even on the leisurely and winding Pir\u00e6us,\nAthens, and Peloponnesus Railway, it is only one day\u2019s ride from Athens\nvia the Isthmus down to Kalamata on the Bay of Messenia. The degrees of\nlatitude that include the mainland of Central and Southern Greece span\nin the west only the Lipari Islands and Sicily; the thirty-eighth\nparallel that passes south of Palermo and the straits of Messina runs a\nlittle north of Athens; while the thirty-seventh parallel, running just\nsouth of Syracuse, passes still farther south of Kalamata and Sparta.\n\nNot only is the mainland of Greece contained in narrow geographical\nlimits, but the \u00c6gean itself is almost an inland lake enclosed within\nneighbouring coasts. In clear weather the sailor, without adventuring\nupon open sea, might pass from mainland to mainland as he watched from\nhis advancing prow another island lift above the horizon before losing\nsight of the harbour left astern. In Greek literature there is no more\nstriking reminder of the contiguity of the Asian coast to Greece proper\nthan the well-known passage in the \u201cAgamemnon\u201d of \u00c6schylus describing\nthe swift telegraphy of the beacon signals that brought to Argos the\nnews of the capture of Troy. The ten years\u2019 absence of Agamemnon\u2019s host\ntends to an instinctive extension of the distance, if the imagination is\nnot checked by the actual scale of miles. Troy seems farther from Argos\nthan the Holy Land from the homes of the Crusaders.\n\nBeacon telegraphy is a time-honored device. Many bright beacons\ndoubtless blazed before Agamemnon, as well as since his time.\nCommentators have been at pains to justify by modern experiments with\nbeacon fires on lofty heights the severest strain upon our optic nerves\nwhich \u00c6schylus makes in the case of the light that leaped from Mount\nAthos to the high ridges of Eub\u0153a. The distance is more than 100 miles,\nbut, bearing in mind that the Eub\u0153an mountain is some 4000 feet high and\nAthos more than 6000, we need not apply for any special license for our\npoet\u2019s imagination. The devious course of the fire signals from Eub\u0153a to\nArgos is one of the best illustrations of the jagged surface that Greece\nlifts skywards. As one stands on Mount Pentelicus and looks across to\nEub\u0153a, the intervening arm of the sea is hemmed in for the eye into\nnarrow inland lakes. And \u00c6schylus, sufficiently, though not officiously,\nrealistic, makes the firelight zigzag irregularly to dodge the\ninterfering ridges till it falls upon the palace roof at Argos,\u2014not at\nMycen\u00e6, as is the not infrequent misrepresentation of the \u00c6schylean\nstory.\n\nClytemnestra, to the chorus asking who could have brought the news so\nquickly, replies:\u2014\n\n \u201cHeph\u00e6stus, on from Ida sending brilliant gleam,\n And hither beacon beacon sped with courier flame.\n First Ida to the Herm\u00e6an crag of Lemnos sent,\n Then from the island was received the mighty flame\n By Athos, Zeus\u2019s mount, as third: this over-passed\u2014\n So that it skimmed the sea\u2019s broad back,\u2014the torch\u2019s might,\n A joyous traveller, the pine\u2019s gold gleam, sun-like,\n To watching Mount Macistus brought its flashing news.\n Macistus then, delaying not, nor foolishly\n Foredone with sleep, as messenger pass\u2019d on his share.\n The beacon\u2019s gleam unto Euripus flowing far\n Then came and signal to Messapium\u2019s pickets made.\n They too gave back a flame and ever onward sent\n The news by lighting up a heap of heather gray.\n The Torch then, strong to run, nor dimm\u2019d as yet, leap\u2019d on\n Like radiant moon across Asopus and his plain\n And came unto Cith\u00e6ron\u2019s crags, awaking there\n A new relay of courier flame: nor did the guard\n Disown the far-escorted light, but escort flame\n In turn made soar aloft into the ether high.\n Then over Lake Gorgopis smote the gleam and came\n Unto Mount \u00c6giplanctus urging that the flame\n Ordain\u2019d should fail not. Lighting with ungrudging strength\n They send a mighty beard of fire. O\u2019er the height\n That overlooks the Saronic Gulf it onward flared,\n Until, when it had reach\u2019d the Arachn\u00e6an steep,\n It lighted on the outposts neighbour to our town;\n Then on this roof of the Atreid\u00e6 falls this light,\n The long-descended grandchild of the Id\u00e6an flame!\u201d\n\nFrom the very smallness of Greece results the overcrowding of\nassociations that almost oppress the spectator standing at one or\nanother place of vantage. But if his historic horizon is as clearly\ndefined as the physical he will come back to the sea-level with a\nclearer understanding of the interdependence between the scene and the\naction of the great dramas here enacted. The country is not only a\nbackground but a cause for the literature. Neither can be fully\nunderstood without the other.\n\nIt must not be assumed from the smallness of the land that the spurs to\nthe imagination of the Greeks were few. On the contrary, within their\nnarrow borders, nature was prodigal of her inspiration. In the few miles\nfrom Thessaly to the Messenian Gulf are offered a variety of climate and\nan alternation of products well-nigh unparalleled for such a limited\narea. The warm air of the sea penetrating into sheltered valleys favours\nan almost tropical vegetation, while the lofty mountain ridges offer\nalmost an Alpine climate. In Attica, in early spring, snow may\noccasionally be seen sprinkled on Hymettus and glistening white on Mount\nPentelicus, while oranges hang on the trees in Athens. Taygetus in the\nsouth maybe a snow-covered mountain even as late as May while in the\nMessenian plain below grows the palm and, more rarely, the edible date.\nIn the Argolis are groves of lemons and oranges, and in Naxos, in the\nsame latitude as Sparta, the tender lime ripens in the gardens. The\ngray-green olive is familiar throughout Central and Southern Greece. If\nwe extend the survey farther north, the beeches of the Pindus range,\nwest of Thessaly, are surrounded by the vegetation rather of northern\nEurope; in the interior of Thessaly the olive tree does not flourish;\nthe northern shores of the \u00c6gean have the climate of Central Germany,\nwhile Mount Athos, whose marble walls jut far out into the \u00c6gean and\nrise 6400 feet above the sea, offers on its slopes nearly all species of\nEuropean trees in succession.\n\nThe different parts of Greece offer a varying development in literature.\nIn this particular some districts, like Acarnania, \u00c6tolia, and Ach\u00e6a,\nthough possessed of great natural beauty, are negligible. Arcadia,\nthough itself unproductive, inspired poetry; others, also, like Phocis,\nLocris, and Messenia, are inevitably drawn into the associations of\nliterature and history. In Epirus we find at Dodona the first known\nsanctuary of Zeus, the supreme god of the Greeks. In Thessaly the\nearliest Greeks, or Ach\u00e6ans, may have first forged in the fire of their\nyoung imagination the tempered steel of the hexameter. Here was the home\nof Achilles, and here, perhaps, we must look for the kernel of the\nIliad. Here most fitly, close to Olympus where dwelt the immortals,\ncould the sons of men be \u201cnear-gods.\u201d\n\nFrom the north and northwest successive waves of population descended\ninto lower Greece to conquer, merge with, or become subject to the\nprevious comers. But prehistoric peoples, whether alien or Greek, like\nthe Eteo-Cretans, the Pelasgi, the Miny\u00e6, the Leleges, the Hellenes, the\nAch\u00e6ans, and even great movements like the Dorian and Ionian migrations,\nare all foreshortened on a scenic background, as equidistant to the\nGreeks of the classic periods as is the vault of heaven to the eyes of\nchildren. One star, indeed, differed from another. The Dorian, for\nexample, was of the first magnitude. But the relations of apparent\nmagnitude and real distance were ignored or na\u00efvely confused in the\nfanciful constellations of myth and saga, distant yet ever present,\nbending around them to their explored horizon. Heroic figures impalpable\nbut real as the gods themselves intervened continually, controlling\ndecisions, shaping policies, or determining disputed boundaries among\neven the most intellectual of the Greeks. Royalty, oligarchy, democracy,\nand tyranny alike must reckon with personified tradition.\n\nWhen we emerge into the light of more authentic records it is well, in\nthe confusing maze of inter-cantonal contentions, to focus the mind, for\nthe purpose of appreciating the literature, upon certain broader\nrelations and more clearly defined epochs in Greek history, like the\nso-called \u201cAge of the Despots\u201d within the seventh and sixth centuries,\nthe Persian wars, and the conflicts between Attica as a pivot and the\nPeloponnese, Thebes, and Macedon.\n\nIt might be expected from the variety of natural charm offered by\nHellenic lands, from Ilium to Sicily, from Mount Olympus to Crete, that\nthe Greeks would show in their literature a pervasive love of nature.\nThis was, in fact, the case. The modern eye has not been the first to\ndiscover the beauty of form and colour in the Greek flowers and birds,\nmountains, sky and sea. Modern critics, ignoring all historical\nperspective and assuming as a procrustean standard the one-sided and\nsophisticated attitude that has played a leading r\u00f4le in modern\nliterature, announced as axiomatic that ancient Greek poets had no\nfeeling for nature and found no pleasure in looking at the beauties of a\nlandscape. This superficial idea still keeps cropping up, although\nthoughtful readers of Greek literature have long since pointed out the\nnecessity both of a chronological analysis of the literature and of a\nmore inclusive statement of the various forms in which a sentiment for\nthe natural world is evinced.[1] It is a far cry from Homer to\nTheocritus, and, as might well be expected in a range of six centuries\nand more, new elements appear from time to time, due both to changing\nconditions of life and civilization and also to the personal equation.\n\nFootnote 1:\n\n Cf. Fairclough, _The Attitude of the Greek Tragedians toward Nature_.\n\nA na\u00efve feeling for nature is uppermost in the descriptive comparisons\nand similes of Homer and, generally speaking, in the myth-making of the\nGreeks. The concrete embodiment of natural phenomena and objects in some\nNature-divinity often obviated the necessity for elaborate description\nand summarized their conceptions as if by an algebraic formula. The\nmystical element was not lacking, but by this myth-making process it\nbecame objective and real. The sympathetic feeling for nature becomes\nmore and more apparent in lyric poetry and the drama until in Euripides\nthere emerges, almost suddenly, the \u201cmodern\u201d romanticism. In the\nHellenistic and imperial times, finally, the sentimental element is\nnatural to men who turn to the country for relief from the stress of\nlife in a city. One generalization for the classic periods may be safely\nmade. Although the Greeks from Homer to Euripides thought of the world\nas the environment of man, yet they stopped short of a sentimental\nself-analysis. Charles Eliot Norton, more than thirty years ago, pointed\nout that the expression of a sentiment like Wordsworth\u2019s\u2014\n\n \u201cTo me the meanest flower that blows can give\n Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears\u201d\u2014\n\nis foreign to the clear-eyed Hellene, reared amongst the distinct\noutlines of his mountains and from the cradle to the grave at home upon\nthe blue and windswept \u00c6gean. Certainly this is true until the\nspeculative questionings of the Ionic philosophers had time to react\nupon literature. As the Greeks accepted their pedigrees from the gods\nand heroes, so they accepted their environment of beauty. They were not\nunlike the child, content to betray by a stray word or caress his\nunanalyzed admiration for his mother\u2019s face.\n\nEmphasis has often been laid, and rightly, upon the keen sensitiveness\nof the Greeks to beauty of form in sculpture, architecture, and\nliterature. It is urged that they made this sense of form and proportion\nso paramount that they were blind to the beauty of colouring and\nindifferent to the prodigal variety of Nature\u2019s compositions. It may be\nreadily admitted that this is a vital distinction between the ancient\nand modern attitudes. Both the craving for perfection of form and the\npreference given to man before nature come out in the pre\u00ebminent\ndevelopment of sculpture by the Greeks. Their admiration of the beauty\nof the human form, unlike the sensitive shrinking of moderns, was\nextended even to the lifeless body. \u00c6schylus speaks of the warriors who\nhave found graves before Troy as still \u201cfair of form.\u201d\n\nBut a prevailing tendency does not necessarily exclude other elements.\nHowever meagre the vocabulary of the Greeks in sharp distinction of\nshades of colour, their love for a bright colour-scheme is shown not\nonly by the brilliancy of their clothing and their use of colouring in\nstatuary and architecture,\u2014for even in these mere form was not\nenough,\u2014but in unnumbered expressions like Alcman\u2019s \u201csea-purple bird of\nthe springtime.\u201d\n\nA few of the more obvious passages, illustrating the Greek attitude\ntoward nature, are here given in general historic sequence. Others will\nbe found in the subsequent chapters in connection with particular\nlandscapes. Very often such references are casual and subordinate to\nsome controlling idea, but they none the less reflect habitual\nobservation. Even when we speak of Homeric \u201ctags,\u201d like the\n\u201csaffron-robed\u201d or \u201crosy-fingered,\u201d or of Sappho\u2019s \u201cgolden-sandalled\u201d\nDawn, as \u201cstanding epithets,\u201d we are implying that these epithets made a\ngeneral appeal. The na\u00efve insertions in Homer of comparisons drawn from\nbirds and beasts, from night and storm and other familiar elements of\nnature, would seem like an intrusive delay of the story did they not\ncarry with them the conviction that both poet and hearers alike were\nwell content to linger by the way and observe the objects of daily life\nindoors and out. Thus in the Odyssey:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe lion mountain-bred, with eyes agleam, fares onward in the rain\n and wind to fall upon the oxen or the sheep or wilding deer.\u201d\n\nOr, again:\u2014\n\n \u201cHermes sped along the waves like sea-mew hunting fish in awesome\n hollows of the sea unharvested and wetting his thick plumage in the\n brine.\u201d\n\nOne of the longer and best known comparisons is the description in the\nIliad of the Trojan encampment by night:\u2014\n\n \u201cNow they with hearts exultant through the livelong night sat by the\n space that bridged the moat of war, their watch-fires multitudinous\n alight. And just as in the sky the stars around the radiant moon shine\n clear; when windless is the air; when all the peaks stand out, the\n lofty forelands and the glades; when breaketh open from the sky the\n ether infinite and all the stars are seen and make the shepherds glad\n at heart\u2014so manifold appeared the watch-fires kindled by the Trojan\n men in front of Ilios betwixt the streams of Xanthus and the ships. So\n then a thousand fires burned upon the plain and fifty warriors by the\n side of each were seated in the blazing fire\u2019s gleam the while the\n horses by the chariots stood and champed white barley and the spelt\n and waited for the throned Dawn.\u201d\n\nSappho\u2019s fragments are redolent of flowers; her woven verse, a \u201crich-red\nchlamys\u201d in the sunshine, has a silver sheen in the moonlight. We hear\nthe full-throated passion of \u201cthe herald of the spring, the\nnightingale\u201d; the breeze moves the apple boughs, the wind shakes the oak\ntrees. Her allusions to \u201cthe hyacinths, darkening the ground, when\ntrampled under foot of shepherds\u201d; the \u201cfine, soft bloom of grass,\ntrodden by the tender feet of Cretan women as they dance\u201d; or the\n\u201cgolden pulse growing on the shore,\u201d\u2014all these seem inevitable to one\nwho has seen the acres of bright flowers that carpet the islands or the\nnearby littoral of the Asian coast. Her comparison of a bridegroom to \u201ca\nsupple sapling\u201d recalls how Nausica\u00e4, vigorous, tall, and straight as\nthe modern athletic maiden, is likened by Odysseus to the \u201cyoung shaft\nof a palm tree\u201d that he had once seen \u201cspringing up in Delos by Apollo\u2019s\naltar.\u201d In her Lesbian orchards the sweet quince-apple is still left\nhanging \u201csolitary on the topmost bough, upon its very end\u201d; and there is\nheard \u201ccool murmuring through apple boughs while slumber floateth down\nfrom quivering leaves.\u201d Nor need we attribute Sappho\u2019s love of natural\nbeauty wholly to her passionate woman\u2019s nature. All the gentler emotions\nspringing from an habitual observation of nature recur in poets of the\nsterner sex. \u201cThe Graces,\u201d she says, \u201cturn their faces from those who\nwear no garlands.\u201d And at banquets wreaths were an essential also for\nmasculine full-dress. Pindar, in describing Elysian happiness, leads up\nto the climax of the companionship with the great and noble dead by\ntelling how \u201cround the islands of the Blest the ocean breezes blow and\nflowers of gold are blooming: some from the land on trees of splendour\nand some the water feedeth; with wreaths whereof they twine their heads\nand hands.\u201d[2] Against the green background passes Evadne with her\nsilver pitcher and her girdle of rich crimson woof, and her child is\nseen \u201chidden in the rushes of the thicket unexplored, his tender flesh\nall steeped in golden and deep purple light from pansy flowers.\u201d\n\nFootnote 2:\n\n Translation (modified) by E. Myers.\n\nTo follow through the poetry of the Greeks the unfailing delight in the\nradiance of the moon would be to follow her diurnal course as she passes\nover Greek lands from east to west. The full moon looked down on all the\nOlympian festivals and Pindar\u2019s pages are illuminated with her\nglittering argentry. The Lesbian nights inspire Sappho as did all things\nbeautiful.\n\n \u201cThe clustering stars about the radiant moon avert their faces bright\n and hide, what time her orb is rounded to the full and touches earth\n with silver.\u201d\n\nWordsworth could take this thought from Sappho: \u201cThe moon doth with\ndelight look round her when the heavens are bare,\u201d but the Lesbian\ncertainly did not finish the fragment by lamenting that \u201cthere has\npassed away a glory from the earth.\u201d\n\nThe night and the day alike claimed the attention of the poets and the\ninterchange of dusk and dawn appealed to the sculptor also. In the east\ngable of the Parthenon the horses of the Sun and of the Moon were at\neither end. Nature\u2019s sleep is a favourite topic. Alcman\u2019s description is\nunusual only for its detail:\u2014\n\n \u201cSleep the peaks and mountain clefts;\n Forelands and the torrents\u2019 rifts;\n All the creeping things are sleeping,\n Cherished in the black earth\u2019s keeping;\n Mountain-ranging beast and bee;\n Fish in depths of the purple sea;\n Wide-winged birds their pinions droop\u2014\n Sleep now all the feathered troop.\u201d\n\nGoethe, in his well-known paraphrase,\u2014\n\n \u201cUeber allen Gipfeln\n Ist Ruh,\u201d\u2014\n\ncannot refrain from adding the subjective conclusion of the whole\nmatter:\u2014\n\n \u201cDie V\u00f6gelein schweigen im Walde.\n Warte nur, balde\n Ruhest du auch.\u201d\n\nThe great dramatists display an observation of the beauty of the\nexternal world not always sufficiently emphasized. In \u00c6schylus an\nintense feeling is evident; none the less because it is subordinated to\nhis theme or used to point, by way of contrast, some awe-inspiring or\npathetic situation or some scene of blood. Clytemnestra describes how\nshe murdered her husband. His spattering blood, she says,\u2014\n\n \u201cKeeps striking me with dusky drops of murd\u2019rous dew,\n Aye, me rejoicing none the less than God\u2019s sweet rain\n Makes glad the corn-land at the birth-pangs of the buds.\u201d\n\nComparisons, similes, and epithets drawn from the sea reappear\ncontinually in the warp and woof of Greek, and especially of Athenian,\nliterature. \u00c6schylus, like the rest, knew the sea in all its moods,\nterrible in storm, deceitful in calm, beautiful at all times and the\npathway for commerce and for war. The returning herald in the\n\u201cAgamemnon\u201d rehearses the soldiers\u2019 hard bivouac in summer and in\nwinter:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd should one tell of winter, dealing death to birds,\n What storms unbearable swept down from Ida\u2019s snow,\n Or summer\u2019s heat when, ruffled by no rippling breeze,\n Ocean slept waveless, on his midday couch laid prone.\u201d\n\nWith the first lines of \u201cPrometheus Bound\u201d we are carried far from the\nhaunts of men:\u2014\n\n \u201cUnto this far horizon of earth\u2019s plain we\u2019ve come,\n This Scythian tract, this desert by man\u2019s foot untrod.\u201d\n\nHeph\u00e6stus reluctant, compelled by Zeus\u2019s order, rivets his kin-god, the\nFire-bringer, to the desolate North Sea crag and withdraws leaving\nPrometheus in fetters to \u201cwrestle down the myriad years of time.\u201d The\nnight shuts off the warmth and light, drawing over him her\n\u201cstar-embroidered robe,\u201d and the fierce sun-god returns with blazing\nrays to \u201cdeflower his fair skin\u201d bared of the white counterpane of\n\u201cfrost of early dawn.\u201d Not until the emissaries of Zeus have departed\ndoes Prometheus deign to speak. Then he \u201ccommunes with Nature.\u201d He has\nno hope of help from God, none from the \u201chelpless creatures of a day\u201d\nwhom he has helped. Alone with the forces of nature he utters that\noutcry unsurpassed in sublimity and in pathos:\u2014\n\n \u201cO upper air divine and winds on swift wings borne;\n Ye river-springs; innumerous laughter of the waves\n Of Ocean; thou, Earth, the mother of us all;\n And thou, all-seeing orb of the Sun\u2014to you I cry:\n Behold me what I\u2019m suffering, a god from gods!\u201d\n\nSophocles, too, lets Philoctetes, in his misery and loneliness on the\nrocky island of Lemnos, call out to the wild beasts and the landscape:\u2014\n\n \u201cHarbours and headlands; and ye mountain-ranging beasts,\n Companions mine; ye gnawed and hanging cliffs! Of this\n To you I cry aloud, for I have none save you\u2014\n You ever present here\u2014to whom to make my cry.\u201d\n\nIn his famous ode on the Attic Colonus he describes the natural beauty\nof his home with particularizing exactness. He has also a wealth of\nglittering epithet used for local colouring, for symbolism and\npersonification. The contrast of day and night offers to him a welcome\n_mise-en-sc\u00e8ne_. The sun\u2019s rays are Apollo\u2019s golden shafts and the\nmoon\u2019s light seems to filter through the trees as Artemis roams the\nuplands:\u2014\n\n \u201cO God of the light, from the woven gold\n Of the strings of thy bow, I am fain to behold\n Thy arrows invincible, showered around,\n As champions smiting our foes to the ground.\n And Artemis, too, with her torches flaring,\n Gleams onward through Lycian uplands faring.\u201d\n\nBacchus, also, the \u201cgod of the golden snood,\u201d \u201clifts his pine-knot\u2019s\nsparkle\u201d and, roaming with his M\u00e6nads, seems to visualize for men the\nsoul of Nature.\n\nAristophanes with his common-sense objectivity was averse to the\nsentimental and romantic in Euripides, which seemed to him effeminate.\nHis love for nature was clear-eyed and Hellenic. His lyrics shine like a\nbird\u2019s white wing in the sunlight. The self-invocation of the Clouds is\nalive with the radiance of the Attic atmosphere. A translation can only\nserve to illustrate the elements used in the description:\u2014\n\n CHORUS OF CLOUDS\n\n \u201cCome ever floating, O Clouds, anew,\n Let us rise with the radiant dew\n Of our nature undefiled\n From father Ocean\u2019s billows wild.\n The tree-fringed peak\n Of hill upon lofty hill let us seek\n That we may look on the cliffs far-seen,\n And the sacred land\u2019s water that lends its green\n To the fruits, and the whispering rush of the rivers divine\n And the clamorous roar of the dashing brine.\n For Ether\u2019s eye is flashing his light\n Untired by glare as of marble bright.\u201d\n\nThe \u201cmeteor eyes\u201d of the sun gaze \u201csanguine\u201d and unblinking upon the\ncloud-palisades, glaring bright as the marble of Mount Pentelicus.\nReaders of the Greek will recognize here and there how an Aristophanic\nepithet or thought has been precipitated and recombined by Shelley into\nnew and radiant shapes that drift through his own cloud-land,\u2014\u201cI change\nbut I cannot die!\u201d\n\nAristophanes\u2019s observation of nature is varied and exact. He had nothing\nbut ridicule for the pale student within doors, and only a man who kept\nup an intimacy with \u201cthe open road\u201d could have made the naturalistic\npainting in the \u201cPeace\u201d of the serenity of country life:\u2014\n\n \u201cWe miss the life of days gone by, the pressed fruit-cakes, the figs,\n the myrtles and the sweet new wine, the olive trees, the violet bed\n beside the well.\u201d\n\nEuripides in his attitude toward nature has all the qualities of the\nother tragedians except sublimity, to which he more rarely attains. Many\nqualities are much more conspicuous. His range of colour is wider. His\nallusions to rivers and to the plant and animal world are more detailed.\nPicturesque scenes and setting delight him. Beyond all this the\nreflection in nature of human emotion, occasional in his predecessors,\nplays in his verse almost a leading part. Modern romanticism, in short,\nis no longer exceptional.\n\nHippolytus, the acolyte of Artemis, and his attendants address the\nvirgin goddess who ranges the woods and mountains and who, as \u00c6schylus\nsays, is \u201ckindly unto all the young things suckled at the breast of\nwild-wood roaming beasts.\u201d The \u201cmodern\u201d element in the original loses\nnothing in this paraphrase by Mallock:\u2014\n\n \u201cHail, O most pure, most perfect, loveliest one!\n Lo, in my hand I bear,\n Woven for the circling of thy long gold hair,\n Culled leaves and flowers, from places which the sun\n The Spring long shines upon,\n Where never shepherd hath driven flock to graze,\n Nor any grass is mown;\n But there sound throughout the sunny, sweet warm days,\n \u2019Mid the green holy place\n The wild bee\u2019s wings alone.\u201d\n\nIn one of the despairing chorals of the \u201cTrojan Women\u201d the\npersonification of nature blends with the spirit of mythology. The name\nof Tithonus, easily supplied by a Greek hearer, is inserted for English\nreaders in Gilbert Murray\u2019s beautiful paraphrase:\u2014\n\n \u201cFor Zeus\u2014O leave it unspoken:\n But alas for the love of the Morn;\n Morn of the milk-white wing\n The gentle, the earth-loving,\n That shineth on battlements broken\n In Troy, and a people forlorn!\n And, lo, in her bowers Tithonus,\n Our brother, yet sleeps as of old:\n O, she too hath loved us and known us,\n And the Steeds of her star, flashing gold,\n Stooped hither and bore him above us;\n Then blessed we the Gods in our joy.\n But all that made them to love us\n Hath perished from Troy.\u201d\n\nWhen Dionysus addresses his Bacchantes, Euripides, in lines reminiscent\nof Alcman, imposes upon outward nature the solemn expectancy of the\ninward mind:\u2014\n\n \u201cHushed was the ether; in hushed silence whispered not\n Leaves in the coppice nor the blades of meadow grass;\n No cry at all of any wild things had you heard.\u201d\n\nThe formal banns of the open wedlock of man and nature were declared in\nEuripides. Thereafter the treatment became more and more a matter of\npersonal equation. In Plato\u2019s dialogues, for example, the ethical\nelement inevitably appears. In the famous scene beside the Ilissus,\nSocrates and young Ph\u00e6drus talk through the heated hours beneath the\nshade of the wide-spreading plane tree, where the agnus castus is in\nfull bloom, where water cool to the unsandalled feet flows by, and in\nthe branches the cicad\u00e6, \u201cprophets of the Muses,\u201d contribute of their\nwisdom.\n\nThe Anthology, stretched through the centuries of Greek literature,\nlinks the old and the newer, the antique reserve and the fainness of\nmodern romanticism. One of the epigrams attributed to Plato will serve\nto indicate the emergence of the latter:\u2014\n\n \u201cOn the stars thou art gazing, my Star;\n Would that the sky I might be,\n For then from afar\n With my manifold eyes I would gaze upon thee.\u201d\n\nAnother seems like an artist\u2019s preliminary sketch for the picture by the\nIlissus, the deeper motive not yet painted in:\u2014\n\n \u201cSit thee down by this pine tree whose twigs without number\n Whisper aloft in the west wind aquiver.\n Lo! here by my stream as it chattereth ever\n The Panpipe enchanteth thy eyelids to slumber.\u201d\n\nFrom this we pass without break to the piping shepherds and the country\ncharms with which Theocritus filled his Idyls for city-jaded men:\u2014\n\n ... \u201cThere we lay\n Half buried in a couch of fragrant reed\n And fresh-cut vine leaves, who so glad as we?\n A wealth of elm and poplar shook o\u2019erhead;\n Hard by, a sacred spring flowed gurgling on\n From the Nymphs\u2019 grot, and in the sombre boughs\n The sweet cicada chirped laboriously.\n Hid in the thick thorn-bushes far away\n The treefrog\u2019s note was heard; the crested lark\n Sang with the goldfinch; turtles made their moan,\n And o\u2019er the fountain hung the gilded bee.\u201d[3]\n\nFootnote 3:\n\n Translated by C. S. Calverly.\n\nNotwithstanding the variety in landscape and the lack of unified\nnationality in the long centuries of Greek history, there is a unity in\nthe impression of ancient life left upon the mind by a visit to Greece.\nThis is in part due to the comparative meagreness of remains from\nperiods subsequent to classic times. The long obliteration of medi\u00e6val\nand modern constructive civilization leaves more clear the outlines of\nantiquity.\n\nThis is true even though the sum total of the remains of Byzantine and\nmedi\u00e6val life, on islands and on mainland, is large and claims the\nattention from time to time. In Athens the traveller will come upon the\nsmall Metropolis church with its ancient Greek calendar of festivals,\nlet in as a frieze above the entrance and metamorphosed into Byzantine\nsanctity by the inscribing of Christian crosses. As he journeys to and\nfro in Greece he may see the venerable \u201chundred-gated\u201d church on the\nisland of Paros, recalling in certain details the proscenium of an\nancient theatre; Monemvasia with its vast ruins, the home of Byzantine\necclesiasticism and a splendour of court life that vied with the pomp\nand magnificence of western Europe; or the ivy-clad ruins of Mistra, an\nepitome of Gr\u00e6co-Byzantine art from the thirteenth to the fifteenth\ncentury; the frowning hill and castle of Karyt\u00e6na that guards the\napproach to the mountain fastnesses of Arcadia; or the ancient acropolis\nof Lindus on the island of Rhodes with the impregnable fortress of the\nKnights of St. John.\n\nNor will the visitor ignore the reminders of the War of Independence and\nthe renascence of life in modern Greece. Mesolonghi, Nauplia, and\nArachova have contributed fresh chapters to human history. Aligned with\nancient names are those of modern heroes in the nomenclature of the\nstreets and of public squares, like the Karaiskakis Place that welcomes\nthe traveller as he disembarks at Pir\u00e6us.\n\nBut all of these, whether medi\u00e6val or modern, fail to blur the\nunderstanding of antiquity. They do not obtrude themselves. Often they\neven illustrate ancient life. The same wisdom that transferred\nallegiance from the Saturnalia to the Christmas festival has here also\nbeen careful to use for Byzantine churches the site of ancient shrines\nor temples: St. Elias is a familiar name on high mountains where once\nstood altars of the Olympians; the cult of Dionysus has been skilfully\ntransformed, in vine-rearing Naxos, into that of St. Dionysius; SS.\nCosmo and Damiano, patrons of medicine, and known as the \u201cfeeless\u201d\nsaints, have established their free dispensary in place of an\nAsklepieion; the twelve Apostles have replaced the \u201cTwelve Gods\u201d; and\nchurches dedicated to St. Demetrius have been substituted for shrines of\nDemeter.\n\nThe thoughtful student of the literature of the Greeks, no matter how\nenthusiastic he may be, will not fail to draw warnings as well as\ninspiration from their history. But no defects of the Greeks nor\nachievements of posterity can dispossess Hellas of her peculiar lustre.\n\n\u201cNo other nation,\u201d as Mr. Ernest Myers has said with particular\nreference to the age of Pindar, \u201chas ever before or since known what it\nwas to stand alone immeasurably advanced at the head of the civilization\nof the world.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER II\n PIR\u00c6US, THE HARBOUR TOWN\n\n \u201cReturning from Asia Minor and voyaging from \u00c6gina toward Megara\n I began to look on the places round about me. Behind me was\n \u00c6gina; before me Megara; on the right Pir\u00e6us; on the left\n Corinth\u2014cities once flourishing, now prostrate and in ruins.\u201d\n\n SERVIUS SULPICIUS _to_ Cicero.\n\n\nThe sail in bright sunshine up the Gulf of \u00c6gina, the ancient Saronic\nGulf, will have fulfilled the traveller\u2019s anticipations of the beauty of\nGreece and will have quickened the historic imagination. History and\nantiquity, however, will give place to the insistent claims of modern\nGreek life, as the steamer enters the busy port and passes through the\nnarrow opening between the welcoming arms of the ancient moles which\nstill protect the harbour and serve at night to hold up the green and\nred signal lights for mariners.\n\n[Illustration: PIR\u00c6US]\n\nIn this harbour meet the Orient and the Occident. One may see here craft\nof all kinds from all parts of the Mediterranean and from beyond the\nStraits; modern steamers, big and little; gunboats, native or foreign;\nsailing vessels from the Greek islands or Turkish possessions, laden\nwith bright cargoes of yellow lemons and Cretan oranges, great grapes\npurple and white, or \u201ctunnies steeped in brine\u201d; here a steamer packed\nwith pilgrims for a religious festival on Tenos; here, perhaps, another\nvessel crowded with American tourists to Jerusalem.\n\nUpon landing, most visitors go immediately to Athens, but no one should\nfail to return once and again to Pir\u00e6us in order to see the extant\nremains of the ship-houses; of the gateways and walls to the northwest\nof the Great Harbour; of the walls that skirt the whole peninsula; of\nthe theatres and other scanty traces of the old life within the city.\nEven to a traveller innocent of the facts of Greek history, the drive at\nsunset along the rim of the peninsula and the indenting harbours will be\none of the best remembered experiences in the neighbourhood of Athens,\nby reason of the sheer physical beauty of land and sea, islands and\ndistant mountains.\n\nThe terminus of the electric railroad from Athens to Pir\u00e6us is in the\nnorthwest corner of the modern town between the lines now assumed for\nthe \u201cThemistocles Wall\u201d and the \u201cWall of Conon,\u201d dating, respectively,\nfrom the two most significant epochs in the history of Pir\u00e6us. Although\nthe tyrant Hippias had begun to fortify the Munychia hill in the sixth\ncentury B. C., his undertaking was interrupted, and it was left for\nThemistocles, in the early part of the fifth century, to begin, and\nfinally to carry well on the way to completion, the transformation into\na sea-fortress of this natural vantage-ground. Later, he was for\nremoving Athens itself to Pir\u00e6us. Failing in this, he shifted the\nhabitat for the new fleet from the open roadstead of Phalerum, which was\nnearer Athens, to the land-locked harbours of Pir\u00e6us. But the return of\nthe Persians, ten years after Marathon, surprised the Athenians with\ntheir preparations incomplete, and Athens was transferred, not indeed to\nPir\u00e6us, but to the \u201cwooden walls\u201d of the triremes themselves.\n\nWhen, under Pericles, Athens reached the acme of her intellectual,\nartistic, and material power, around the harbours at Pir\u00e6us had been\nbuilt a well-planned city, with stately avenues and dwellings for\nwealthy men and wealthier gods. The port had been completely fortified\neither by the restoration and carrying out of the interrupted building\nor by the extension of the plans of Themistocles. A massive wall\ninclosed the three harbours within its circuit, and strong moles,\nlasting on into modern times, guarded their entrances. Ship-houses had\nalso been built, and doubtless an arsenal, though a less pretentious one\nthan the great structure afterwards erected. In short, all the\nparaphernalia existed for offensive and defensive naval operations. The\n\u201cLong Walls,\u201d actually built soon after the banishment of Themistocles\nin 472 B. C., had united Athens and its port into a dual city. No\ngreater proof of the vital union of the two cities could be cited than\nthe rage and grief felt by the citizens when, at the end of the\nPeloponnesian War, in 404 B. C., the Spartans razed the Long Walls. It\nwas amputating the very feet of the imperial Queen of the \u00c6gean.\n\nSome ten years later, the Long Walls were rebuilt and the restoration of\nthe Pir\u00e6us fortifications was taken in hand. Of the remains now visible,\nthe major part belongs to this rebuilding at the beginning of the fourth\ncentury. A little less than a century had elapsed since Marathon, and we\nnow find Athens allied with her old enemy, Persia, against another Greek\nstate. Conon the Athenian, victorious over the Spartans in the naval\nbattle of Cnidus, sent back Persian gold to fortify the Pir\u00e6us anew, and\nthe circuit wall, of which such extensive remains are extant, was called\nby his name.\n\nOn issuing from the electric railroad station, the visitor sees before\nhim, a few yards distant, the Great Harbour\u2019s smaller, inner fold, known\nin antiquity as \u201cThe Marsh\u201d (Port d\u2019Hal\u00e6) or, perhaps, as the \u201cBlind\u201d\nHarbour. This inner harbour, roughly a third of a mile by a sixth in\nsize, now furnishes ample accommodation for smaller craft and a\nconvenient landing-place, although in Conon\u2019s day it was probably more\nof a marshy barrier than a navigable sheet of water. If the whole\ncontour of the two harbours together suggested the designation of\n\u201cCantharus,\u201d it may have been from either the meaning \u201cBeetle,\u201d or that\nof \u201cTwo-handled Cup.\u201d Until recently, the name was identified with the\nsouthernmost portion only of the Great Harbour. The _locus classicus_ is\nthe \u201cPeace\u201d of Aristophanes. D\u00e6dalus and Icarus with their\nflying-machines had long since anticipated the modern a\u00ebroplane, and in\nthis comedy Tryg\u00e6us in search of Peace starts out to navigate Zeus\u2019s\nether on his \u201cbeetle.\u201d Then, as now, a safe landing-place for the\nairship was a desideratum, and Tryg\u00e6us states that he will have as a\nsafe mooring \u201cthe Cantharus harbour in Pir\u00e6us.\u201d[4]\n\nFootnote 4:\n\n The Cantharus, or beetle, of Tryg\u00e6us is likened in the comedy to a\n Naxian boat, a resemblance easily recognized in the drinking-cup\n called \u201cCantharus,\u201d with its two projecting handles for bow and stern.\n\nSkirting now the northern margin of the inner harbour, the route will\nfollow in part the probable line of the demolished wall of Themistocles,\nwhich extended on and reached the water outside both the peninsula of\nEetioneia and the outer bay of Krommydaru, where traces of the more\nancient fortifications are still extant. Close by the modern station of\nthe Larisa railway, however, will be found the very considerable ruins\nof a gateway identified with the Conon walls. This alone is an ample\nreward for the long d\u00e9tour around the harbour.\n\nIf time and energy permit, it is well worth while, instead of crossing\nby boat to Akte, to return to the starting-point and to saunter along\nthe whole margin of the Great Harbour. Particularly picturesque are the\ngreat sloops, laden with lemons and oranges, moored in behind the\nKaraiskakis square, which only the pedestrian would be likely to\ndiscover. As one lingers along the quays, however, modern warships and\nall the craft for commerce and travel will give place to the memories\nevoked from the greater past. This harbour of commerce will, in\nimagination, be once more crowded with triremes, brought around from the\ntwo war-harbours on the other side, to be inspected one after the other\nby the Council of the Five Hundred. As official inspectors of the\ntriremes, when made ready to set out for conquest or defeat, this\nCouncil held its sittings on the Choma, probably a little promontory\nthat juts southward from the Karaiskakis Place. One may recall, with the\nhelp of Thucydides, the setting out of the ill-starred Sicilian\nexpedition. No such vast array had ever left the harbour for so distant\nand protracted a warfare. All the citizens of Athens as well as of\nPir\u00e6us are here to witness the departure of sons and friends. High hopes\nof imperial expansion feed the imagination of the multitude. Some rest\ntheir confidence on divine favour sure to accompany the pious, though\nreluctant, Nicias; others put faith in the warrior Lamachus; more in the\nbrilliant Alcibiades, still idolized though accused of sharing in the\nmutilation of the Herm\u00e6. The great fleet of swift triremes is ready,\ntogether with the transports for heavy-armed soldiers, equipments, and\nsupplies. Now the men are all on board and a hush falls upon the throng\nat a sudden blast of the trumpet. The prayers, according to established\nritual, are offered by the united squadron. At a concerted sign, the\nmixing-bowls are crowned throughout the whole host and the men and\ngenerals pour libations from gold and silver cups. The throngs upon the\nland, both citizens and foreign well-wishers, join in the service. The\nhymn of triumph sung, the libations poured, the ships weigh anchor and\nput to sea. But before the last trireme has passed through the moles,\nand while the ear still catches the notes of the flute and the voice of\nthe _Keleust\u00e6_, giving the time to the crews, a revulsion of grim\npresentiment overmasters many of the watchers on the shore. The\nexpedition now no longer seems what they so lightly voted in the\nassembly. The ever-recurrent Greek feeling that \u201chigh things annoy the\ngod\u201d calls up the warning words of \u00c6schylus, uttered a generation\nbefore, in the year of the unlucky Egyptian expedition sent out on a\nsimilar venture:\u2014\n\n \u201cGrown Insolence is wont to breed\n Young Insolence midst mortals\u2019 sorrow,\n Then, then, when to th\u2019 implanted seed\n There comes the birth-light\u2019s destined morrow.\u201d\n\nOr else his immortal lament \u201cover the unreturning brave\u201d comes unbidden\nto their lips:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhom one sent forth to war one knows, but, in the stead of men, come\n back unto the homes of each but urns and ashes.\u201d\n\nThe mysterious mutilation of the Herm\u00e6 is fresh in mind and the fear of\nangered gods reasserts its sway. But no presentiment of ill could\nanticipate the reality of the disaster in the harbour of Syracuse or the\nslow tortures of living death in its stone quarries. A chance for\nretaliation in kind was indeed to come. In a Pir\u00e6us stone quarry\nSyracusan captives were in turn imprisoned a few years later, but they,\nmore lucky than the Athenians, cut their way to freedom from their\nrock-bound prison.\n\nDespite the imperious insolence of Athens and her unrighteous schemes\nfor aggrandizement, our sympathy in the tragedy is ever fresh. By the\nharbour side we mourn to-day the predestined doom of the gallant\nsquadron and the stricken city. Through the ebb and flow of hope and\ndisaster, the thought sweeps on to the close of the war and the\nhumiliation of Athens at the hands of Sparta; the destruction of the\nLong Walls, their rebuilding and the refortification of Pir\u00e6us under\nConon; the aftermath of Athenian power; the brilliant age of Plato and\nthe orators; the struggle with Philip; the fall of Greek liberty; the\nsway of Macedon; the Roman conquest, with the long, stubborn siege of\nPir\u00e6us so graphically described by Appian. Sulla, exasperated by the\nlong defence of the Mithridatic army, with whom the Athenians had cast\nin their lot, burnt the arsenal and docks and razed the fortifications\nso utterly that the Roman governor, Sulpicius, in writing to his friend\nCicero in 45 B. C., could describe Pir\u00e6us as the \u201ccorpse\u201d of a great\ncity. In the second century of our era it had resumed a semblance of\ncommercial prosperity. Lucian, in his dialogue, \u201cWhen My Ship Comes In,\u201d\ngoes down to Pir\u00e6us with a friend to admire a great grain transport that\nhas just put into harbour on its way from Egypt to Rome. For a\nmerchantman it is large; some 180 feet long, 45 in beam, and over 40\nfeet in depth to the hold. The prow stretches out long, and at the stern\nis the gilded figure-head of a goose with its graceful curving neck. The\ntwo friends wonder at a sailor mounting nimbly by the swaying ropes and\nrunning out nonchalantly along the great yardarm, as he holds on by the\nyardsheets. But the generous cargo of grain, enough, as we are told, to\nfeed Athens for a year, is destined for Rome. Athens was no longer the\nemporium of the eastern Mediterranean. She had become a way-station. No\nlonger could she enforce the old law, mentioned by Aristotle, which\nrequired that two thirds of the cargo of every grain-ship that put into\nPir\u00e6us must be carried up to the metropolis.\n\nAfter Roman times, in the long atrophy of the Byzantine age, Pir\u00e6us\ndwindled to a group of fishermen\u2019s huts. It revived somewhat under De la\nRoche in the fourteenth century, and thereafter, at least was known as\nPorto Leone from the seated figure of a marble lion that kept guard\namong the ruins like the majestic lion that still sentinels the\nbattlefield of Ch\u00e6ronea. In the seventeenth century, the Venetians\ncarried off this Pir\u00e6us lion, and now, seated by another arsenal in\nanother seaport, careless of the passing tourist, it looks grimly over\nthe Adriatic where steamers come and go between the neighbouring Trieste\nand its native land.\n\nLeaving now the Great Harbour and our meditations on the vicissitudes of\nhistory, we resume our inspection of the fan-shaped peninsula. Without a\nspecial permit the visitor is excluded from the western end and from the\nRoyal Garden which encloses the most probable site of the Tomb of\nThemistocles, if indeed his bones were ever brought back from burial in\nexile. His official tomb was in Magnesia in Caria. A public interment in\nhis native land could not be granted to one exiled as a traitor.\nThucydides knows only of a secret burial of his bones in Attica. The\nremains of the monument in question stand on the point of Akte near the\nentrance to the outermost harbour. From this tomb the great admiral\u2019s\nspirit could still watch over the Athenian sea-power. Skepticism about\nthe site is forgotten when we read the fragment, meagre as it is, of the\ncomic poet Plato:\u2014\n\n \u201cFair is the outlook where thy mounded tomb is placed.\n For it will signal merchantmen from here and yon,\n It will behold the sailors faring out and in,\n Will be spectator of the triremes\u2019 racing oars.\u201d\n\nThis \u201ccontest of the triremes\u201d may allude to the boat-race in which the\ncourse lay from Cantharus harbour around the whole peninsula to\nMunychia. These races in sacred ships were part of the systematic\ntraining of the Attic youths.\n\nThe public road leads over the shoulder of the hill and, in descending\nagain to the coast, offers a beautiful view to the west and south over\nthe Saronic Gulf. The driveway then runs along the water\u2019s edge around\nthe promontory, keeping close inside the ruined \u201cWall of Conon.\u201d\nAlthough the remains of this encircling wall rise nowhere more than\nabout eight feet above ground, and usually much less, yet the very\ncontinuity of the ruins is imposing. Practically in an unbroken line the\nsolid masonry hems the irregular rim of the peninsula from the mouth of\nthe Great Harbour to a point not far distant from the war-harbour of Zea\non the opposite side and may be traced again intermittently around to\nthe Bay of Phalerum. Solid tower buttresses are interposed at frequent\nintervals. On this southern shore of Akte, where the modern town does\nnot intrude, the spectator is free to divide his attention between the\nbeauty of the sea view and thoughts of the past.\n\nThe picturesque land-locked harbours of Zea and Munychia next claim our\ninterest. The pear-shaped Zea basin, now known by the Turco-Greek name\nof Pashalimani, makes into the neck of the peninsula between the\npromontory hill of Akte and the Acropolis of Munychia. Behind it and\nclose to it was erected in the fourth century the great Arsenal, and at\nvarious points beneath its transparent water may still be seen distinct\nremains of 38 of the ship-ways that ran down from the ancient\nship-houses where the triremes were drawn up. Inscriptions tell us that\nthere were originally 372 in all, of which 82 were in Munychia, 94 in\nthe Great Harbour, and the remainder in Zea. No other relic of antiquity\nbrings us into closer touch with the naval power of Athens and her\nempire on the \u00c6gean. The covered sheds themselves can only be\nreconstructed in imagination. Some broken columns of the ship-houses and\nportions of the launching piers remain _in situ_. To accommodate the 196\ntriremes, 130-165 feet long, assigned to the Zea Harbour, some of the\nhouses must have been constructed so as to dock the boats in at least\ntwo tiers. At Syracuse, the formidable Pir\u00e6us of the west, remains of\nship-sheds have been found, and at Carthage, the bitter foe of Syracuse,\nthey remained for Appian to describe. Dry-docks may have existed near\nthe harbour entrance. This narrow neck of the pear-shaped harbour was\nstill further guarded at the inner opening by projecting moles, which\nhere also are still extant. The entrance was actually closed, in case of\nneed, by chains extended across at the surface of the water. Of the\nproud warships themselves, those chargers of the sea stabled in Zea,\nthere remains one realistic reminder. Their timbers have long since\nrotted away, the gulfs have washed down all such small objects of\ndurable material as bronze nails and clamps, but some heavy plates of\nParian marble have been found in the harbour. These were set into the\nbows of the warships, and upon them were painted the vessel\u2019s eyes that\nused to keep fierce outlook for the enemy or peer through the gloom of\nnight and storm for the first sight of the shoreward lights of Pir\u00e6us.\nDanaus at Argos, in the \u201cSuppliants\u201d of \u00c6schylus, as he sees the\napproaching ship, exclaims:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe bellying sails I see; the ox-hide bulwarks stretched\n Along the vessel\u2019s sides; the prow that with its eyes\n Peers forward o\u2019er the course.\u201d\n\nOn the marble plates actually recovered the iris is painted bright red\nor blue, and a vacant hole in the middle suggests the head of a\nburnished bronze nail that served at once as the pupil of the eye and to\nrivet on the plate. These eyes are common in representations of ancient\nvessels, and only in recent years are they disappearing from use among\nSicilian and Italian boatmen.\n\nThe most casual survey of this protected haven will justify the sagacity\nof Themistocles in concentrating his energy upon Pir\u00e6us. His proposition\nto transfer Athens altogether to the seaport was strategically wise. The\nextent of the Long Walls, uniting the two into a double city, was a\nsource of weakness, as it drained the defenders away from both towns.\nBut it was a true instinct of the Athenians, which posterity endorses,\nto cling to the sentiments evoked by their ancient city and in it to\ndevelop to the full their intellectual empire.\n\nIt is probable that the extant traces of the ship-sheds in the two\nwar-harbours date back only as far as the fourth century B. C., but the\nnumber and size fairly represent the older Periclean constructions. The\nThirty Tyrants destroyed the former ship-sheds, as Isocrates tells us,\nand sold for three talents (about $3100) the material of these buildings\nupon which the city had spent more than one thousand talents.\n\nThe ruins of the \u201cWall of Conon\u201d can still be traced for some distance\nto the east after leaving the harbour of Zea, and at the southeastern\npromontory the ruins of ancient fortifications are again to be seen. The\nharbour of Munychia (modern _Phanari_) is smaller than that of Zea. Its\ncontour is so perfect an oval as to seem artificial. It had space to\naccommodate only eighty-two triremes in ship-houses, scanty remains of\nwhich are here visible under the water.\n\nAt the east side the ruined wall may again be traced to the Bay of\nPhal\u0113rum or (Greek) Ph\u00e0leron, and beyond, curving around the Munychia\nacropolis to complete the circuit to the north of the town.\n\nFurther east, on the open bay of Phaleron, is New Phaleron, a bathing\nresort as frankly modern as the Lido at Venice. The exact site of Old\nPhaleron is open to dispute, but the walk between it and Athens was a\nfavourite constitutional in Plato\u2019s time. Many a classic conversation\nwas held here on the way. In the \u201cSymposium\u201d of Plato, Glaucon asks\nApollodorus: \u201cIsn\u2019t the road to Athens just made for conversation?\u201d Now\nthe banality and the bareness of the city\u2019s outskirts intrude sadly upon\nthe pedestrian\u2019s philosophic equipoise, both here and on the other road\nbetween Athens and Pir\u00e6us where Lucian and his friend, in the second\ncentury of our era, could still find shelter from the hot sun under some\nolive trees by the wayside and \u201csit down to rest upon an overturned\nstel\u00e9.\u201d\n\nThe focus of the inner city life was the splendid Agora laid out by the\nfamous architect Hippodamus. Here ended the road from Athens. This\nsquare was probably west of Munychia north of the Zea harbour, perhaps\nabout where the present Athena street intersects Munychia avenue. Near\nit were probably grouped various sanctuaries. Xenophon tells how in the\ncivil war the patriotic party, \u201cthe men from Phyle,\u201d unable to exclude\n\u201cthe City party\u201d from the whole of Pir\u00e6us, fell back on the Munychia\nhill, and the men from Athens blocked up the avenue that leads to the\ntemple of Bendis and to the sanctuary of Munychian Artemis. By this\nMarket-place, too, houses of rich residents were probably built.\n\nThe Pir\u00e6us was essentially a democratic stronghold. It was the\nrendezvous for the patriotic anti-Spartan party; and Plato, with all his\naristocratic leanings, chose to lay at Pir\u00e6us the opening scene and\nsetting for his greatest dialogue, the \u201cRepublic.\u201d It was the fitting\npropyl\u00e6a for his ideal city as well as for the real Athens. \u201cI went down\nyesterday,\u201d Socrates begins, \u201cto Pir\u00e6us with Glaucon, both to make a\nprayer to the goddess and to take a look at the festival to see how they\nwould carry it off, inasmuch as they are now celebrating it for the\nfirst time.\u201d The Thracian residents, it seems, had just introduced a\ncelebration in honour of their goddess Bendis, and the natives had\nunited with them. The whole port was _en f\u00eate_ with processions\nconducted both by the hospitable native citizens and the Thracians\nthemselves. In the evening there was to be a torch-race followed by an\nall-night festival. Socrates, who was on the point of returning to\nAthens after witnessing the daylight processions, was easily persuaded\nby Polemarchus to stay over for the torch-race, dining first at the\nhouse of his father, the rich and hospitable old metic, Cephalus. At the\nhouse Socrates finds another son, Lysias, who was soon to become famous\nas an orator. For the Thirty were to plunder the property bequeathed by\nCephalus to his sons, all the ready money, the shield factory, and the\nslaves; were to put summarily to death young Polemarchus; and were to\nforce Lysias, reduced to sudden poverty, to betake himself to\nspeech-writing for a living. His crowning effort was an arraignment of\nhis brother\u2019s murderers. Most skilful of narrators, he tells of the fate\nof Polemarchus; how his house was plundered; how his wife was robbed of\nthe very ear-rings from her ears; and how after his execution,\nnotwithstanding the just title of the family to large holdings of real\nestate, he was buried from a hired shed, one friend providing a robe,\nanother a pillow, for the corpse. He tells, too, of his own arrest at\nhis home by the emissaries of the Thirty: how he bargained for his life\nwith a sum of ready money; how one of his captors followed him into the\ninner room, looked over his shoulder into the money-chest, and took not\nonly the price agreed upon but all the contents of the strong box; how\nhe was taken to another house of a Pir\u00e6us acquaintance; and how, while\nhis captors were keeping guard at the peristyle door in front, he had\nescaped by a back door to the house of a friend, the shipmaster, with\nthe appropriate name of Archenaus. So, while his less fortunate brother,\nPolemarchus, is led off to Athens, thrown into prison, and \u201cbidden by\nthe Thirty their usual bidding\u2014to drink hemlock,\u201d Lysias, by the aid of\nhis nautical friend, is embarked for Megara under cover of night. We\nshould like to have fuller details of that escape of the young Lysias,\nyesterday a wealthy manufacturer, to-day a plundered fugitive but\ndestined to become one of the greatest of the \u201cten\u201d orators and a master\narchitect of Attic style. Perhaps a small boat put off from some lonely\nspot on Akte, perhaps from the Great Harbour itself, shooting through\nthe moles in the darkness and, wind and weather permitting, kept to\nstarboard of the Psyttaleia reef, passed up through the strait of\nSalamis, on through the beautiful Bay of Eleusis, and landed the\nfugitive at Megara.\n\nPlato\u2019s account of the visit of Socrates to the Pir\u00e6us homestead carries\nus back to the days of security before the reign of the Thirty. We see\nold Cephalus welcoming Socrates cordially, delivering a monologue on his\nown gracious old age, telling a story about Sophocles in his later\nyears, and finally withdrawing to supervise a sacrifice to the gods.\n\nThe introduction of a foreign divinity like Bendis of the Thracians was\nnot unusual. The celebration, described at the opening of the Republic,\nwas at least no more exotic than a St. Patrick\u2019s day in America.\nForeigners and natives united in it as they did in the celebration of\nthe Mother of the Gods. The customs inspection of foreign deities was\nlenient. The Greeks were free traders both in art and religion, though\nthe finished product imported was likely enough to be used as new\nmaterial. Into the smelting furnace of the classic period was cast the\nold, the new, the foreign, and the domestic, to reappear in fairer form,\nstamped with the Hellenic hall-mark. Among the various imported deities,\nCybele is well vouched for at Pir\u00e6us where a number of marble votive\nshrines of the Great Mother have been found. One of these archaic Cybele\nreliefs, brought from Pir\u00e6us to the National Museum in Athens, shows the\ngoddess with her lion in her lap, her cymbals in her hand. The \u201cnew\ntheology,\u201d fostered by Euripides and domiciled in daily life by the \u201cNew\nComedy,\u201d could treat these cymbals as typical of \u201ca creed out-worn.\u201d One\nof Menander\u2019s characters exclaims:\u2014\n\n \u201cNo god, my wife, saves one man through another\u2019s help,\n For if a human being can by cymbals\u2019 clash\n Deflect the god to whatsoever is desired,\n Then greater than the god is he that doeth this.\u201d\n\nAmong various resident colonists who may have occupied distinct sections\nof the city, like a medi\u00e6val Ghetto or a modern Italian quarter, the\nworship of home divinities was kept alive. It is known, for example,\nthat the Egyptian resident merchants, perhaps as early as the end of the\nfifth century, had received a special license to erect an Isis sanctuary\nand the Cyprians instituted a similar cult of Adonis and Aphrodite.\n\nRemains of the old gateway in the northern circuitwall, just where the\nnorth Long Wall joined on, are still extant. Within a century, the\ntraces of the Long Walls themselves have been disappearing. Enough is\nleft, however, to mark their course at various points, and the remains\nare particularly plain of the \u201cSouth\u201d Long Wall, where it nears the\nMunychia acropolis. Ascending Munychia, we may imagine the Long Walls\nstill reaching up to Athens. We may picture them either in time of war,\nwith defenders within and foes without, or in time of peace, with the\nstream of pedestrians bent upon pleasure or business. Outside the North\nWall was one of the places of execution. Plato illustrates the contest\nbetween the brute in man and his higher reason by the story of a certain\nLeontius who one day was walking up from Pir\u00e6us and saw some dead bodies\nfallen prostrate by the side of the executioner. He loathes the sight\nbut is fain to look. Vulgar curiosity gains the mastery; he runs up to\nthe dead bodies and, holding his eyelids wide open, exclaims: \u201cThere\nwretches! Take your fill of the fine spectacle!\u201d\n\nTurning from the course of the Long Walls, the eye surveys the whole\npanorama of the harbours and the city. Just within the old wall, on the\nwest slope of the Munychia hill, is the old Theatre in a ruined\ncondition. But we can think of the harbour folk in days of peace\nenjoying on these same rising seats the plays of a Menander or Euripides\nor see convened there in the times of grim civil strife a hurried\nassembly of the patriotic party.\n\nSomewhere close by the north side of Zea was the famous arsenal which,\nthough not built till near the end of the fourth century, has entirely\ndisappeared. Luckily, however, in 1882 there was discovered near the Zea\nharbour a slab of Hymettus marble containing the directions given to the\ncontractors for its construction. It was built to contain the rigging,\ntackle, sails, cables for undergirding the ships, etc., while the masts,\nspars, oars, rudders, and other wooden gear seem to have been kept in\nthe ship-sheds themselves alongside of the ships. This arsenal of Philo\nreplaced an older and less elaborate one. It was a large building, four\nhundred by five hundred feet within, and provided for a roomy arcade\nwhere the populace, screened from the burning heat without, could\npromenade and gaze at the suggestive evidences of their sea power.\n\nOf the many private and public buildings, temples and colonnades\nmentioned by classic authors, but few can be positively located. In the\nColonnade of the Exchange\u2014the Deigma\u2014Theophrastus, Menander\u2019s friend and\nthe successor of Aristotle, represents his \u201cBoastful Man,\u201d a\nshipping-merchant, as bragging about his great ventures and cargoes at\nsea. Meanwhile his balance at the banker\u2019s actually amounts to about\ntwenty cents. That this Deigma, where gossip was coined and bargains\nstruck around the money-changers\u2019 tables, must have been close to the\nedge of the Great Harbour is evident from Xenophon, who says that one\nday twelve Laced\u00e6monian ships swept into the harbour suddenly, landed a\nparty and carried off from the Exchange a group of sea-captains and\nmerchants.\n\nThe site of the Asklepieion, partly church, partly sanatorium, has been\nidentified in the remains west of Zea. Aphrodite, born of the foam, is a\npopular goddess with sailor-folk. To her were dedicated, it would seem,\nno less than three sanctuaries at Pir\u00e6us.\n\nLastly, there was the famous _Hieron_ or Sanctuary of Zeus and Athena.\nEven its site cannot now be identified, but it must have been one of the\nmost frequented centres of Pir\u00e6us life in the fifth century. An\ninscription records that into the treasury of this sanctuary went the\ntax of a drachma on every vessel that put into the port. Incidentally\nmany a further contribution was levied on the newly landed sailor, who\nwas as much a fish out of water among the land-sharks as is the modern\nJack Tar on ship\u2019s leave. The comic poet Diphilus tells how one of these\nharbour caterers used to select his victims: \u201cFor example there\u2019s the\nskipper who grudgingly pays off a vow made under stress of weather when\nthe mast went by the board or when he had snapped the rudder-sweeps of\nthe ship or else was forced by water rising in the hold to hurl his\ncargo overboard. A wide berth I give to a fellow like him. Such a man\nwill not be free-handed; my best chance is with the captain who has made\na quick, safe voyage from Byzantium, who, all excitement over his gain\nof ten or twelve per cent for three days\u2019 risk, is loud in his chatter\nabout freights and usuries.\u201d He\u2019s the man for the purposes of this\nshark, and no sooner is he landed than our keeper of the Sailors\u2019 Snug\nRetreat goes up to him, takes his hand, and reminds him that a sacrifice\nat the temple of Zeus Preserver would be in order. He thoughtfully\nrelieves the skipper of any care, making the purchases, superintending\nthe offering, and sharing the commission with the priests of the Hieron.\nAnd human nature was much the same five hundred years later, when we\nagain meet a skipper whose performance, once he is safe at Pir\u00e6us, falls\nfar short of the vows made in storm and peril. Lucian, in his \u201cZeus the\nTragedian,\u201d gives details. The Olympian Father, alarmed at the signs of\nincreasing irreligiousness and the consequent stringency in the\nsacrificial market, calls an assembly of the gods. After some difficult\npoints of precedence as to order of seating have been temporarily waived\nand half-naturalized divinities like Mithras and our Thracian Bendis\nhave been admitted, Zeus makes a speech. He begins fluently enough with\na mosaic of oratorical phrases which he has memorized from Demosthenes.\nPresently, however, he exclaims: \u201cBut my Demosthenes is giving out. I\nmust tell you in plain Greek what has troubled me.\u201d He reminds them of\nthe dinner in which some of them\u2014\u201cas many as had been invited\u201d\u2014had\nparticipated the day before, when \u201cMnesitheus, the ship-owner, had given\nthem a Thanksgiving banquet at Pir\u00e6us on account of the preservation of\nhis vessel that had come within an ace of being wrecked off Eub\u0153a.\u201d\n\u201cThat evening,\u201d he continues, \u201cwhile taking a constitutional, I kept\nthinking over the stinginess of Mnesitheus who undertook to entertain\nsixteen gods by sacrificing a single cock\u2014and that, too, a wheezy old\nrooster!\u2014with four little lumps of frankincense so mouldy that they went\nout forthwith on the coals, without giving even the tip of my nose a\nwhiff of the smoke. That\u2019s what he did, though he was for promising\nwhole hecatombs when his boat was driving on the cliff and was already\nencircled by reefs.\u201d\n\nSometimes the fisher-folk preferred to go up to Athens and dedicate\nvotive offerings in the Parthenon. Lucian, in \u201cThe Fisher,\u201d when angling\nover the edge of the Acropolis for the scaly philosophers of the second\ncentury, borrows of the Priestess of the Parthenon a rod, hook, and line\nthat \u201cthe fisherman from Pir\u00e6us had dedicated\u201d as a thank-offering.\n\nOf the many epigrams in the Greek Anthology on shipwrecked mariners, the\nmost appropriate to our harbour town is perhaps the one written by\nAntipater of Sidon for the tomb of a certain Aristagoras who was drowned\nafter reaching harbour at Scarphe. We are reminded of the Pir\u00e6us temple\nto Aphrodite of the Fair Voyage by the bitterness with which the poet\nuses the epithet:\u2014\n\n \u201cEver the sea is the sea. It is idle to blame\n Cyclades\u2019 waves or the Needles or Narrows of Helle;\n Them I escaped to be drowned in the harbour of Scarphe.\n Vain is their fame.\n Pray, if you will, for a fair voyaging homeward, but say:\n Here in his tomb Aristagoras knows of the sea and its way\u2014\n Ever the same.\u201d\n\nIt requires no great stretch of the imagination to reproduce the thrill\nof pride and delight with which the Attic demesman, whether sailor or\nsoldier, fisherman or merchant, returning from abroad sighted the\nheights of Akte and the Munychia acropolis and sailed up to the\nbeautiful, dignified city built around its strong, fortified harbours.\nEven after independent Athens had been incorporated in the Macedonian\nempire, Menander could record this patriotic delight. In a fragment from\nhis \u201cFishers\u201d a sailor, returning perhaps to Pir\u00e6us, falls down and\nkisses the earth, exclaiming:\u2014\n\n \u201cGreeting, O dear my country, long the time gone by\n Till now I see and kiss thee. Not to every land\n Would I do this, but only when I see my own,\n The land that bred me is a goddess in my eyes.\u201d\n\nWe think of Menander himself as a frequent visitor to the harbour town.\nTradition says that he was drowned while bathing at the harbour and his\ncountrymen gave him a tomb and an epitaph on the road from Pir\u00e6us to\nAthens by the Long Walls. There, too, was the cenotaph of Euripides, who\nhad sailed away to the court of the Macedonian king, never again to\nenter through the harbour\u2019s arms that welcomed so many returning\nvoyagers.\n\nAnd the Athenian of the third century, returning as we do now, from a\nvisit to Pir\u00e6us, would see these tombs as he left the harbour walls and\nperhaps find compensation for the loss of external liberty in realizing\nthat the great sea-fortress and the maritime empire of Themistocles, of\nPericles, and of Conon had buttressed well a Greater Athens; that\nneither Spartan jealousy and civil discord, nor even the foreign rule of\nMacedon itself could destroy the real power of this Mother city and\nobliterate her sway over the human mind. But it required the perspective\nof longer time and the idealism of a Shelley boldly to interpret\ndisaster in terms of victory and to proclaim Athens as mistress of a sea\nwider than the \u00c6gean:\u2014\n\n \u201cGreece and her foundations are\n Laid below the tides of war,\n Based on the crystalline sea\n Of thought and its eternity.\u201d\n\nThe launching-ways of the ancient triremes, still seen beneath the clear\nwater, symbolize that continued hegemony.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER III\n ATHENS: FROM SOLON TO THE BATTLE OF\n SALAMIS\n\n \u201cHere, stranger, seek no tyrant. This our state is ruled Not of\n one man. \u2019Tis free. The people year by year As kings succeed\n each other, never yield they most To Wealth, but even he that\u2019s\n poor has equal share.\u201d\n\n EURIPIDES, _Supplices_.\n\n\nMany a visitor, led to Athens by interest in its associations and its\nart, has been surprised by its great physical beauty. The drive from\nPir\u00e6us, through the banal outskirts of the growing city, is, indeed, a\ndisenchanting approach, but one has only to walk to the Corinthian\ncolumns of the Olympieum to obtain a satisfying view of the Acropolis,\nembedded like a crystal in its proper matrix of encompassing air and\nplain and sea and mountains. Future journeys in Greece will but\nre\u00ebnforce the conviction of the noble loveliness of the Attic plain. The\natmosphere is singularly clear and vibrant, and within it colour and\nform are sharply defined. The \u00c6gean at its shores adds movement and\nspace. And here more than anywhere else Sir Richard Jebb\u2019s description\nof the Greek hills seems inevitable. Their forms \u201care at once so bold\nand so chastened, the onward sweep of their ranges is at once so elastic\nand so calm, each member of every group is at once so individual and so\nfinely helpful to the ethereal expressiveness of the rest, that the\nharmony of their undulations and the cadences in which they fall combine\nthe charm of sculpture with the life and variety of a sunlit sea.\u201d\n\nIn making such a study of this city as is demanded for turning the quick\nappreciation of its external charm into the more permanent possession of\nits underlying qualities, we must submit to some analysis of the great\nmoments in its history and its literature.\n\nWhen Athenian literature begins with Solon, in the sixth century, B. C.,\nthe Greeks have emerged from a dim antiquity. In the two preceding\ncenturies, the mother cities of Ach\u00e6an and Dorian Greece had been\nsending out colonists east and west, not merely in a spirit of Ph\u0153nician\ncommercialism, but also with adventuresome, intellectual curiosity. The\nheroes of their earliest traditional literature sailed with them.\nAssociations half slumbering in the popular consciousness thrilled them\nas they steered again over the course of the Argo or as they followed\nonce more the later track of Odysseus to the west, and in lower Italy\nand Sicily re\u00ebstablished Great Hellas as an integral part of Hellenic\ncivilization.\n\nIn this earlier colonization Athens participated only vicariously, but\nit was into this larger Hellas that Solon the lawgiver and poet was\nborn. Fire, brought from the mother cities, was blazing on the hearths\nof Greek colonies from the Crimea to Sicily. The Ionians of Asia Minor\nhad long since joined in the movement of expansion; they were presently\nto colonize the site of modern Marseilles; they were already converting\nto their own use the distant outposts of the \u201cTyrian trader.\u201d Athens\nmeanwhile was slowly developing. Later she would herself be mistress of\nthe sea.\n\nThe Athenians, more than most Greeks, could boast that they were\nautochthonous, earth-born children of their own soil. Isocrates in his\n\u201cPanegyricus\u201d makes proudly the claim: \u201cWe dwell in the land not after\nexpelling others, nor even finding it a desert, nor even coming as a\nmixed breed collected from many nations, but ... sprung from the soil\nand able to address our city by the same names as we give to the closest\nrelations.\u201d The prehistoric Greek invaders of Attica had fused with\nrather than driven out the former occupants, the Pelasgians or whoever\nthey may have been. Erichthonius, Erechtheus, or Poseidon, \u201cone form for\nmany names,\u201d was born of Earth but mothered on Athena, and it would have\nbeen as futile as it was impious to challenge the pedigree of the\nErechtheid\u00e6. Erechtheus-Poseidon might coil forever undisturbed beneath\nthe sheltering shield of the Virgin-goddess. Cecrops, too, the mythical\nking and Attic hero, owned a perpetual ground-rent on the Acropolis and\nthe Athenians were Cecropid\u00e6. They were also the \u201cSons of Heph\u00e6stus,\u201d\nwho was often associated with Athena, a partnership of the heavenly\nwisdom with the arts and crafts. An ancient festival of the whole city,\nheld in honour of Athena, became afterwards specialized among the\nartisans, under the name of Chalkeia, in honour of Heph\u00e6stus; and the\ngod may yet win back as his own \u201cHeph\u00e6steum\u201d the so-called \u201cTheseum\u201d on\nthe hill above the classic market-place.\n\nThe age of the heroes merges with that of the Kings. Theseus moves, a\ngrandiose figure, through art and literature. Thus when the \u201cHill party\u201d\nof Pisistratus became pre\u00ebminent, Theseus, the aristocrat, came into\nprominence in vase painting. He appears in all the forms of didactic\nsculpture, and the \u201cCity of Theseus,\u201d the older Athens, is recalled\nagain in the Roman renaissance by the Arch of Hadrian. This still offers\nto the modern pilgrim, on the west side facing the Acropolis, the\ninscription: \u201cThis is the Athens of Theseus, the old city,\u201d and on the\nother, facing the Olympieum of Hadrian: \u201cThis is the City of Hadrian and\nnot the City of Theseus.\u201d Thus meet the old and the new, with classic\nAthens ignored.\n\nTo understand the literature of the sixth century, we must remember that\nthe ancient citadel town of the prehistoric kings had long since\noverflowed into the district at its immediate base, absorbing, as time\nwent on, various original townships adjacent to the Acropolis. Although\nthe name of king and some relics of royal authority survived in the\nperson of the King Archon, yet, unlike the relation of Sparta to Laconia\nor Thebes to B\u0153otia, Athens was not a mere royal centre for the Attic\ndemesmen. All Attica was Athens. All its free inhabitants, class by\nclass, became included in the citizenship, albeit the republic was an\naristocracy, first of birth, then of wealth. Solon\u2019s readjustment of the\nlaws for rich and poor determined the trend towards government by the\npeople, and even the inevitable tyranny, postponed by Solon, only\nserved, when it came, to retard the current and to dam up a reservoir of\nirresistible democratic consciousness which was to sweep away the\ntyrants and to render the Attica of Marathon inaccessible to the\nreturning despot.\n\nThe picture of the old city of Theseus is vague to our imagination, but\nthe Athens of Solon\u2019s administration emerges somewhat more clearly as we\ntake away, one after another, some of the prominent features of the\nlater Athens that we know best. The Acropolis lacked the Propyl\u00e6a, the\nParthenon, and the Erechtheum, its barrenness being relieved by little\nsave the \u201cold\u201d temple of Athena Polias. Not only the Dionysiac theatre,\nbut even its earliest forerunner were things of the future. The drama\nwas yet unborn. The Market-place of later centuries, adorned with\nstatues and stoas, was represented by a simpler centre of civic life at\nthe west end of the Acropolis, where were the public buildings of\nadministration, the communal winepress of the Len\u00e6um and the old\nCallirrho\u00eb spring.\n\nYet Solon calls Athens a great city, and he was to make it still\ngreater. Into that early Market-place he came and, if we accept the\npicturesque details handed down by tradition, feigning madness in order\nto violate with impunity the law forbidding citizens to re-open the\nquestion of conquering Salamis, he cried:\u2014\n\n \u201cForward to Salamis, forward, to fight for the isle that we yearn for,\n Thrusting dishonour aside, casting off grievous disgrace.\u201d\n\nThe Athenians were aroused. They went with him across the narrow strait,\nand Salamis, the \u201clovely island,\u201d thenceforward was their own, destined\nto serve them as refuge in their hour of greatest need. Solon used his\npopularity, thus acquired, in no self-seeking way. Chosen archon and\nvirtual dictator he moulded proletariat and noble to his own noble will.\nAgain and again his verse re\u00ebnforces his pedestrian arguments. \u201cThe\nblack earth is enslaved,\u201d he says, and presently the mortgage stones,\ndotted over the farms, are mere cancelled records. Many such, of a later\ndate, have been found. The \u201cPenurious Man\u201d in Theophrastus \u201cinspects his\nboundary stones daily to make sure that they are in place.\u201d Solon\nproudly appeals to the constituency of the future to justify his laws:\u2014\n\n \u201cBe witness unto this before the bar of time,\n Thou greatest Mother of the gods Olympian\u2014\n Aye witness best\u2014black Earth, whose mortgage border-stones\n Fixed here and there on every side, I took away,\n And she who erst was slave is set at liberty.\u201d\n\nAgain, even more proudly, he says:\u2014\n\n \u201cI set myself as border stone inscribed betwixt\n Contending factions.\u201d\n\nThe citizens, he says, by their folly and their greed would themselves\ndestroy the city, but Athena, the Watcher, is there upon the hill:\u2014\n\n \u201cNever by Zeus\u2019s decree nor by will of the blessed immortals\n Ruin shall come to our town, causing our city to fall.\n Never, while yonder that great-hearted Guardian, sired majestic,\n Pallas Athena above stretches her sheltering hands.\u201d\n\nIn the Athenian memory as well as in these vigorous elegiacs he embedded\nthe epithet of \u201cGuardian\u201d (\u1f10\u03c0\u03af\u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c0\u03bf\u03c2) that would in after days lend\nsignificance to the great bronze statue, overlooking the city and sea,\nand would remain after Macedon had come and gone as a semi-official\ntitle of the goddess.\n\nLegend tells us that Solon in his old age, when the tyranny had now\ncome, piled his armour in front of his house door\u2014probably near the\nMarket-place of Pisistratus\u2014and turned from politics to a serene\nenjoyment of the pleasures of ear and eye and intellect to which he had,\nindeed, never been a stranger. His life had always been consistent with\nhis own epigram:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd still as I age, learning many a lesson.\u201d\n\nLike many of his countrymen subsequently, he combined active\nparticipation in public affairs with the character of poet and writer.\nIn literature, as in political life, he had his preferences. Perhaps\nnothing more distinctly places him in the old Athens than his\ndisapprobation of the Tragedy that was born in his later years. He is\nsaid to have taken Thespis to task for the falsehood of the drama. On\nthe other hand the direct sincerity of lyric poetry accorded with his\nmanner of thought. From \u00c6lian\u2019s variegated patch-work the story drifts\ndown to us that to Solon, seated one day over his wine, his nephew sang\none of Sappho\u2019s songs. Solon at once commanded the boy to teach him the\nsong, and when a bystander asked why he was so eager, he replied: \u201cWhen\nI have learned it, then that I may die!\u201d\n\nTo subsequent generations he seemed the embodiment of wisdom over\nagainst excess, and readers of Herodotus who were not troubled by the\nchronological difficulties must have especially enjoyed the story of his\ninterview with Cr\u0153sus and his reproof of the rich king for his\nexultation in his wealth. The famous apothegm, \u201cOne must wait for the\nend before praising,\u201d was repeated in one form or another by Simonides,\n\u00c6schylus, and Sophocles. Of Solon\u2019s own end a dramatic story is\nmentioned by Plutarch, although he refuses to lend it his credence:\n\u201cThat his ashes, after his body was burned, were scattered about the\nisland of Salamis is a story absolutely mythical and incredible by\nreason of its outlandishness. It stands recorded, however, both by other\nnoteworthy men and by Aristotle the philosopher.\u201d\n\nAfter years of varying fortune Pisistratus finally (540 or 539 B. C.)\nestablished himself as Tyrant of Athens. But tyranny at Athens was never\nmore than an episode. The inbred spirit of freedom must be reckoned\nwith. Pisistratus respected popular rights, and after the accession of\nhis sons the suspicion of a tendency to introduce such measures as were\nacquiesced in, for example, at Corinth, brought death to the one and\nsubsequent banishment to the other. But the result of the tyranny of\nPisistratus was beneficent. Under him and his sons the city began to\ntake on both externally and intellectually more of the characteristics\nwhich are in mind when we think of Athens. Architect, sculptor, and\npainter began to contribute enriching details to the Acropolis,\nincluding the first Propyl\u00e6a. Engineers skilfully brought water from\nnear and far into the old Market-place, and in front of the town spring\nof Callirrho\u00eb Pisistratus built the spacious \u201cNine Spouts\u201d\u2014the\nEnneakrounos\u2014where women filled their water-jars and stayed to gossip.\nThe newer market-place, to the north of the Areopagus, was developed. A\ngreat Olympieum was begun on the site of the present columns, which date\nfrom Hadrian\u2019s time. Gymnasium life became important and the Academy was\nmade ready as if in anticipation of its great future. Doubtless within\nthis lovely grove many a youth of the period might have served as a\nmodel for Aristophanes\u2019s fifth-century picture of pal\u00e6stra life in the\ngood old times:\u2014\n\n \u201cBut you will go enter as Academe sprinter and under the olives contend\n With your chaplet of reed, in a contest of speed with some excellent\n rival and friend:\n All fragrant with yew and leisure time too, and the leaf which the white\n poplars fling\n When the plane whispers love to the elm in the grove in the beautiful\n season of spring.\u201d[5]\n\nFootnote 5:\n\n _Clouds_, 992, translation (modified) by Rogers.\n\nA distinctive part of Pisistratus\u2019s policy was the encouragement of\ncountry life and of agriculture. All over the Attic plain the olive\norchards were cultivated, to become an important source of revenue to\nthe Athenian state and immeasurably to enhance the charm of its\nenvironment. Herodotus recounts that a tall, handsome woman named Phye,\nfrom the hill country, had impersonated Athena come down in mortal guise\nand, riding in a chariot with Pisistratus, had lent divine sanction to\nhis original _coup d\u2019\u00e9tat_. The Attic demesmen might still more easily\naccept this new measure as a command transmitted from Athena who had\nherself first created the olive tree and taught its culture on the\nAcropolis:\u2014\n\n \u201cA heaven-sent grey-gleaming crown for her Athens,\n Her city of light.\u201d\n\nAristotle, in his \u201cConstitution of Athens,\u201d lays great stress on the\neffort of Pisistratus to develop the prosperity of the farmers. He tells\nhow Pisistratus, walking in the country and seeing one digging among the\nrocks, asked what sort of a crop grew there, and the man, unaware that\nit was the Tyrant, replied: \u201cSuch a crop of evils and pain that it were\nright that Pisistratus should have his tithe of them.\u201d Pisistratus,\npleased both with his industry and his free speech, relieved the farmer\nof his burdens. And so, Aristotle continues, he was not troubled during\nhis reign but could secure peace and quiet and \u201cthe word was often on\nthe lips of many that the tyranny of Pisistratus was a regular life\nunder Kronos,\u201d or Golden Age.\n\nPisistratus did much toward securing for Athens the intellectual\nhegemony of Greece. Whatever the Panathen\u00e6a, inherited from Theseus (or\neven from Erichthonius), may have been previously, the Greater\nPanathenaic festival was now solemnized every four years with more\nmagnificence and became at Athens the necessary and dignified offset to\nthe quadrennial games at Olympia and Delphi. Games, sacrifices, and\namusements of varied character were added from time to time. Horse,\nchariot, torch, and foot races were included. Visitors came from abroad.\nBut neither local nor intercantonal athletics gave the keynote.\nRhapsodists recited Homer, and flute, cithara, and song were heard.\nEverything tended to focus itself upon the worship of Athena, who was\nthe Athenian consciousness glorified and made objective.\n\nUnder Pisistratus or his sons (or, less probably, under Solon) Homer was\nrecalled from Ionia and domiciled on the mainland. Whatever may be the\ndetails about a formal recension and publication at this time,\nrecitations from Homer were made an integral part of the public\nfestivals, and Athens became the clearing-house for an intellectual\ncurrency good throughout all Hellas. The name \u201cPan-Athenian,\u201d passing\neven beyond Pan-Ionian, was to be equated with a culture that was\nPan-Hellenic. This befitted the epic breadth transcending mere local\ntraditions. \u201cThe Iliad was not composed for any king or tyrant. If it is\naristocratic, its appeal is not to any given set of noble families, but\nto all brave men of Greek legend.\u201d And the spirit in which this epic\ntrust was administered tallies well with the restraint of Pisistratus in\nrespecting, as far as possible, the laws of Solon. If there were Attic\ninterpolations in the poems, they do not glorify his house. In the\n\u201cCatalogue of the Ships\u201d the Athenians received honourable but not\nexcessive mention. The brief reference to the ships from Salamis, as\nranged under the command of the Athenians, would seem to suggest the\nrecent conquest of the island under Solon or even the suspicion that\nSolon had himself interpolated it beforehand as proof of the ancient\nsuzerainty of Athens:\u2014\n\n \u201cTwelve ships from Salamis Aias commanded. He brought them and placed\n them there where Athenian squadrons were marshalled.\u201d\n\nBut perhaps the easiest solution of all questions in regard to\ninterpolations in the Homeric poems is to pin our uncritical faith to\nthe authenticity of Lucian\u2019s interview with Homer in Elysium: \u201cI went up\nto Homer the poet, when we were both at leisure, and after making other\ninquiries ... I asked him further about the rejected verses, whether\nthey were written by him. And he declared that he wrote them all!\u201d\n\nThe greatest and most characteristically Attic contribution of the sixth\ncentury was the fostering of the drama, in connection with the worship\nof Dionysus. This Thracian divinity, on his journey southwards, had been\nwelcomed in the villages of Attica, where vineyard and winepress awaited\nhis blessing. The Pisistratid\u00e6, who have been called \u201cthe providential\ndefenders of the faith of Dionysus\u201d against the aristocratic disdain\nfelt for a peasant\u2019s god, invited him to a new temple in the Len\u00e6a\u2014the\nMarshes\u2014below the Acropolis, where, at the time of the winter solstice,\nthe Feast of the Winepress once more identified the capital with the\ncountry it had outgrown. But Pisistratus went further in establishing\nthe City Dionysia, a spring festival destined to a long life and\nsplendid renown. Instead of private performances at rural feasts, the\ndrama now became part of the official administration of the city. The\nfirst dated performance of a play by Thespis was in 534 B. C. This may\nhave been on the occasion of the opening of the \u201corchestra,\u201d north of\nthe Areopagus, near the new Market-place, where the spectators\nhenceforth found seats on wooden scaffolding until the more permanent\ntheatre was erected south of the Acropolis. Athens was now ready for the\ngreat dramatists. The wine-god looms up as a rival to Athena, as may be\nseen by his ubiquity on the vase paintings and his dominant presence in\nthe Attic calendar. \u201cIn the actual religious ritual Dionysus became of\nmore importance at Athens than Zeus, Apollo, or even Athena.\u201d\n\nThus in diverse ways does Pisistratus present a fair claim for having\nmade Athens greater, in steady progression from the wise policies of\nSolon. Solon himself must often have feared an excess of luxury and\nsplendour. No one of his generation could have dreamed of a regretful\nmodern desire to have seen, because of its charming simplicity, \u201cthe\nlittle earlier Athens of Pisistratus.\u201d But many a Periclean Greek may\nhave forestalled it. Aristophanes was forever seeking for a revival of\u2014\n\n \u201cthe precepts which taught\n The heroes of old to be hardy and bold, and the men who at Marathon\n fought!\u201d[6]\n\nThese were the precepts which taught \u00c6schylus. We are apt to think of\nhim only in his maturity, a fighter at Marathon, a seasoned warrior at\nSalamis, a poet of the post-Persian epoch. But his childhood fell in the\ntime of the Pisistratid\u00e6, and it is by no means idle to speculate on the\ninfluences which then encompassed him. The memory of Solon\u2019s ethics and\nvocabulary he carried with him through life. Foreign poets also,\nattracted to Athens by the sons of Pisistratus, must have seemed to him\nimportant personages. Two of the \u201cten\u201d lyric poets were at this time\nidentified with the city. Anacreon, when Polycrates, the tyrant of\nSamos, had no longer a home to offer him, was brought in triumph to\nAthens in a fifty-oared galley sent by Hipparchus. And Simonides of\nCeos, who was to be the chief mouthpiece of liberated Greece, was well\ncontent to enjoy the patronage of the despot.\n\nFootnote 6:\n\n _Clouds_, 973, translated by Rogers.\n\n\u00c6schylus was fifteen when Hippias was expelled. Hipparchus had been\nassassinated earlier, at one of the celebrations of the Panathen\u00e6a, by\nHarmodius and Aristogeiton, but their failure to dispose of both tyrants\nat one blow had caused them to be ignominiously put to death and their\nmemory ignored. Now, in the new enthusiasm for freedom, they were hailed\nas liberators of their city. Their memory became a cult. Their statues\nwere set up by the Agora, and the boy \u00c6schylus, as each anniversary of\ntheir deed came around and the Panathenaic procession wound up to the\nAcropolis, must have been fired by the thought of them. At twenty-five\nhe may have lustily joined in the new drinking song which, commemorating\ntheir deed, took the town by storm. It continued to be sung for\ncenturies. To Aristophanes it was a hackneyed classic and part of his\ncomic stock in trade.\n\n \u201cIn a wreath of myrtle I\u2019ll wear my glaive,\n Like Harmodius and Aristogeiton brave,\n When the twain on Athena\u2019s day\n Did the tyrant Hipparchus slay.\n\n \u201cFor aye shall your fame in the land be told,\n Harmodius and Aristogeiton bold,\n Who, striking the tyrant down,\n Made Athens a freeman\u2019s town.\u201d[7]\n\nFootnote 7:\n\n Callistratus, translated by Conington. For the complete song see\n Symonds, \u201cGreek Poets,\u201d chap. x.\n\nWith the victory at Marathon Athens came of age. The struggle between\nOrientalism and Hellenism was just begun. Salamis and Plat\u00e6a and\nEurymedon were yet to be. But the Greeks with a divine improvidence\ndiscounted their ultimate success. Their twenty years of democratic\neducation made impossible any compromise with despotism. Whatever\nnecessary vagueness may still have existed at Athens in the attempted\nfusion of polytheistic tradition with the awakening conception of\nmonotheism, there now stands forth in a law-abiding conscience the\nbarrier of Law, clear and bold as the outline of Pentelicus above\nMarathon. The contemporary Athenian feeling is reflected by \u00c6schylus in\nthe answer of the old Persian men to Darius\u2019s widowed queen, who has\nasked about the Greeks:\u2014\n\n ATOSSA\n\n \u201c\u2018And who\u2019s their herdsman? Who the people\u2019s overlord?\u2019\n\n CHORUS\n\n \u2018There\u2019s no man\u2019s name they bear as slaves and underlings.\u2019\u201d\n\nAt this time another country god was naturalized at Athens, a friend and\ncomrade of Dionysus in secret mountain places, but not intruding upon\nhim in the formalities of city worship. Pan had helped the Athenians at\nMarathon and had stopped the swift courier Pheidippides, sent to hurry\nre\u00ebnforcements from Sparta, and bidden him ask his people \u201cwhy they made\nno account of him, although he had been useful to them many times\nalready and would be again.\u201d The Athenians at once \u201cdedicated a\nsanctuary to Pan under the brow of the Acropolis and in consequence of\nthis message they propitiated him by yearly sacrifices and a torch\nrace.\u201d His cave at the northwest end of the Acropolis still exists to\nconvince the sceptic. He lived on here, overlooking the Areopagus and\nAgora, to come forth, \u201chorned, panpipe in hand, with his shaggy legs,\u201d\nand greet the lady Justice sent by Zeus to investigate the charlatan\nphilosophers of Athens in Lucian\u2019s day. Pan gives Justice a fluent\naccount of their frailties and is about to add certain details, when her\nsense of propriety cuts him short. \u201cIf I must,\u201d says he, \u201ctell the truth\nin full, without holding anything back\u2014for I live, as you see, where I\ncan take a bird\u2019s-eye view\u2014many\u2019s the time I\u2019ve seen scores of them,\nwell along towards evening\u2014\u201d (_Justice_) \u201cStop there, Pan!\u201d\n\nWhile Pan was accumulating details of the \u201cPrivate Life of the\nAthenians,\u201d as they passed and repassed before his grotto, the public\nenergy of the city was transmuted into enduring memorials above him on\nthe calm heights of the Acropolis.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IV\n THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS\n\n \u201cAll this pursuit of the arts has this function, even a recall\n of the noblest in the soul to a vision of the most excellent in\n the ideal.\u201d\n\n PLATO, _Republic_.\n\n\nTo speak of the Acropolis of Athens with due Hellenic restraint is\ndifficult for any one who has lived long under its habitual sway. At the\nfirst visit three sets of impressions break down the most obdurate\nimpassiveness. The associations acquired by a study of history engender\na vicarious but active sympathy with the Greeks themselves. There is an\nimmediate impact of beauty from marble gateway and temples and sculpture\nwhich the procession of years has only incorporated more intimately with\nthe beauty of sea and land and circumambient air. And, finally, there is\nthe involuntary sense of coming back to one\u2019s own\u2014to an intellectual\nbirthright. Even the Turkish conquerors did not fail to recognize that\nall western civilizations consider the Acropolis an integral part of\ntheir joint heritage. Dr. Howe quotes from an intercepted letter of\nKiutahi Pashaw, the opponent of the Greek patriot, Karaiskakis, in 1826:\n\u201cThe citadel of Athens, as is known to you, was built of old on a high\nand inaccessible rock; not to be injured by a mine nor accessible to\nassault.... From it went out of yore many famous philosophers; it has\nmany works of art very old, which make the learned men of Europe wonder;\nand for this reason all the Europeans and the other nations of\nunbelievers regard the citadel as their own house.\u201d\n\n[Illustration:\n\n RENAN ON THE ACROPOLIS\n From a French painting\n]\n\nThe attitude of the ancient Greeks toward the Acropolis is only casually\nexpressed in their extant literature. No Greek Victor Hugo has given to\nmen distant in place and time as vivid a picture of the Parthenon as we\npossess of Notre Dame. In trying to imagine what the Greeks saw, as they\ncame up to their citadel, we must first differentiate between the main\nhistorical epochs. Of the Acropolis in the earliest age we can form a\npartial conception. The impressive remains of polygonal masonry still\nextant, in the massive citadel walls; the traces of the old \u201cKings\u2019\nCity\u201d around the Erechtheum, and even within the groundplan of the old\nAthena temple; the remains of the ancient stairway, northeast of the\nErechtheum, leading to the postern gate\u2014all fit in with and fill out a\nreconstruction based on our conception of other ancient strongholds,\nlike Mycen\u00e6 or Tiryns.\n\nWhen we think of the citadel in the age of Pisistratus and the time\nprevious to the Persian Wars we are fairly sure of the main\ncharacteristics. We can picture the old Athena temple, simple yet\ndignified, in the middle of the plateau, adorned with coloured\nsculptures (some of which may be seen in the Museum to-day), sacred\nshrines, precincts and altars with a wealth of dedicatory offerings, and\nalso the older Propyl\u00e6a let in between the massive \u201cPelasgic\u201d walls and\napproached by a way that wound down through a complex of outworks to\nmeet the old Agora.\n\nThis Acropolis, far simpler than the Periclean citadel but beautiful and\nadorned, was devastated by the Persians. Then for more than a quarter of\na century after Salamis we must imagine it as scarred and patched, with\nperhaps only one temple, half restored, to house the sacred image within\nits blackened walls.\n\nIn general, when we speak of the Acropolis, it is of the citadel as it\nappeared towards the close of the fifth century to Sophocles and\nEuripides and Aristophanes, to Thucydides and Xenophon, to Isocrates and\nLysias, to Socrates and Plato. This citadel we can restore to our\nimagination from the descriptions of Pausanias (controlled by\ninformation from other sources) who, in spite of erratic omissions,\nfortunately describes many things with a fulness of detail quite foreign\nto the writers of the classical period.\n\nWhen Socrates, too robust at seventy to know the fatigue of the ascent,\nclimbed the approach to the hill he must often have been inspired by the\nbeauty of art, as he had been by the beauty of nature on the banks of\nthe Ilissus, to renew the prayer: \u201cDear Pan, and ye other gods, make me\nbeautiful in the inward man.\u201d Born into a generation and among a people\nwhere external and physical beauty was assumed as corollary to the\nbeauty of the ideal, there escapes him, thus incidentally, the echo of\nhis self-conquest over his own Silenus-like exterior, so out of keeping\nwith the charm of his environment. Perhaps he went up the hill the\nevening before his trial to take a last look at what he had loved long\nand well. He knew in advance that his \u201capology\u201d to the court was to be a\nreassertion of individual liberty of conscience that would most probably\nresult for him in the hemlock draught. The majestic columns of the great\ngateways rose before him on either side, the wings extended like\nwelcoming arms. He would turn to the left and stand in the picture\ngallery. Perhaps he would pause longest before Alcibiades, his\npernicious disciple, pictured in arrogant beauty as victor at the Nemean\ngames. Turning to the other side of the gateway, he would stand on the\nbastion before the Nike temple and would look out over the familiar\ncity, the Attic plain and harbour-town. As he passed on now to enter the\ngateway, and his eye fell upon the sculptured Hermes and the Graces,\nlittle would he dream of the perplexed debate of modern critics as to a\npossible connection of this group with the handiwork of a young sculptor\nor stone-cutter, \u201cSocrates the son of Sophroniscus.\u201d\n\nUnder or just within the Propyl\u00e6a he would note various familiar\nobjects, and when he had passed through he would see before him to the\nright and left the Parthenon and the Erechtheum. The intervening space\nwould not be as it is now a floe of marble blocks. Two orderly avenues\nof votive offerings traversed the plateau before him. Against a column\nof the Propyl\u00e6a still stands an inscribed basis of a statue dedicated to\nAthena, the Giver of Health, set up by Pericles in gratitude for the\nrecovery of one of his injured workmen, one perhaps whose skill he could\nill spare in the completion of his large designs. Close by, a marble\nboy, made by a son or disciple of the great Myron, held out a bowl of\nholy water as at the entrance of a cathedral. Socrates, whose reverence\nexceeded that of all his accusers, would not scorn this symbol of\npurification, least of all when about to journey away, as he expressed\nit, from Athens to another life. Before him towered up the bronze\nAthena, the warrior goddess, whose gleaming helmet could be seen by\nhomeward voyagers as soon as they had passed the intercepting shoulder\nand foot-hills of Hymettus. Near by was the Lemnian Athena, goddess of\nthe arts of peace, held by the Greeks themselves as more beautiful even\nthan the great gold-ivory statue within the Parthenon. The three\nembodied the conceptions of Phidias, as in a trilogy. Near by was a\nportrait-herm of Pericles himself. There, too, was the \u201cwooden horse,\u201d a\ncolossal bronze, with the Greeks (not forgetting the sons of Theseus)\npeeping out from its side. And when, passing along this Panathenaic\nroad, lined with statues and votive offerings, he had threaded his way\naround to the east front of the Parthenon, he would enter between the\ncolumns, and in the cool twilight, lit by the gleam of gold and ivory,\nhe would look up to the Victory on the extended hand of Athena. Perhaps\nfor a moment the goddess may have lifted the veil of the future to\nreveal that the defeat of the morrow would be a victory of far greater\nimport than even that of Marathon or Salamis.\n\nTo-day the visitor, as he goes up to the Acropolis, carries with him the\naccumulated associations of centuries. On the bastion of the Temple of\nVictory, unsurpassed in its miniature charm, he watches with \u00c6geus for\nTheseus returning in triumph from slaying the Minotaur. At the sight of\nthe black sail, left unfurled by inadvertence, the old king plunged from\nthe rock to his death. \u00c6geus and the other kings passed away and other\nmen from this rock watched fleets hostile and friendly come and go in\nyonder bay and enemies scour the surrounding plain of Attica. Byron,\nfinally, brooded here over a renascent Hellas.\n\nIf any work of man\u2019s hands can purge the mind of the commonplace, it is\nthe Propyl\u00e6a, imposing in its grand proportions, yet enticing by its\nbeauty. Through this the pilgrim now passes and is alone with Greek\nlife. Although the plateau is deserted, the temple in ruins, there is no\nsense of death. There is rather a sudden sense of Beauty set free from\nthe trammels of daily life. The fortunate isolation of the hilltop\ncontributes to this effect. Byzantine makeshifts, Turkish hovels and\nminarets, have all been swept away\u2014even the intruding Roman is left\noutside with the disfiguring pedestal of Agrippa\u2019s statue. The\nforeground of the modern city is sunk out of sight behind the rim of the\nplateau. There is to be seen on all sides only the same Attic plain, the\nsame \u00c6gean sea, and the same horizon of mountains, which the eyes of\nkings and democrats, artists, orators and philosophers have looked upon\nin days gone by.\n\nIn this harmony of surroundings, the eye and thought rest undisturbed\nupon the Parthenon. The tributes of the centuries have probably left the\nvisitor unprepared for his own emotion. Like a wind on the mountain,\nfelling the strong oak trees, the heavenly Eros, Plato\u2019s Love of Beauty,\ndescends upon him. Bayard Taylor\u2019s first impressions, in spite of an\nenthusiasm permissible fifty years ago but now well-nigh out of print,\nare worth recalling for the sake of a figure evoked by the appalling\nruin of beauty. Beyond a sea \u201cof hewn and sculptured marble, drums of\npillars, pedestals, capitals, cornices, friezes, triglyphs and sunken\npanel-work,\u201d he saw the Parthenon against the sky, and it seemed to him\nas if it lay \u201cbroken down to the earth in the middle like a ship which\nhas struck and parted, with the roof, cornices and friezes mostly gone\nand not a single column unmutilated, and yet with the tawny gold of two\nthousand years staining its once spotless marble, sparkling with\nsnow-white marks of shot and shell, and with its soaring pillars\nembedded in the dark blue ether.\u201d\n\nBut since Morosini\u2019s sacrilegious bomb did its work the generations have\nrefused to accept as the ultimate fact the shipwreck of this temple in\nwhich culminated the plastic arts of ancient Greece and in which were\ntypified her loftiest ideas. Poet and philosopher have sat before it in\nfruitful meditation, and commoners have paced its great colonnades,\nunregardful of the ways and marts of men amid the austere majesty and\nroyal repose of the Doric pillars.\n\nFrom the imperious beauty of the Parthenon the eye turns gratefully to\nthe lovely Erechtheum. Although this is but a torso of the architect\u2019s\ndesign and its complex structure defies preconceived conventions, its\nIonic charm satisfies in each detail. The eastern columns, the Porch of\nthe Maidens, the exquisite tracery of the doorway set within the\nperfectly proportioned northern porch present a series rather than a\nunity of graceful designs.\n\nThe other remnants\u2014fragmentary and broken\u2014of the vanished life upon this\nhill must be identified with pious care. Then the thought turns to such\nreferences in literature as have been transmitted to us. These also are\nfragmentary, seeming sometimes like the patches of blue and red and gold\nnot yet wholly effaced from the marbles.\n\nThe Iliad, as we know it, preserves an Athenian tradition of the\nprehistoric kingly Acropolis. Among the warriors bound for Troy are\nlisted:\u2014\n\n \u201cThey that had Athens, the citadel goodly, the holding of great-heart\n Erechtheus to whom on a time, as fostering nurse, was Zeus\u2019s daughter,\n Athena (though the seed-land, giver of grain, was the mother who bore\n him), and at Athens she made him to dwell, in her own habitation of\n plenty. There the Athenian youths with bulls and with rams do him\n honour, year after year in the seasons returning.\u201d\n\nAnd here under the Greek heaven, on this hill left lonely by men but\neasily accessible to gods, it would hardly seem incredible if Athena\nherself were suddenly to appear once more. In the Odyssey, when she had\nventured to leave Odysseus to his own cunning among the Ph\u00e6acians, she\nreturned by a course, strangely devious for an air line, by way of\nMarathon to Athens:\u2014\n\n \u201cThen with these words the bright-eyed Athena departed over the\n harvestless seas and behind her left Scheria lovely. She came unto\n Marathon then and the wide-wayed Athenian city, and entered the\n massive-built house of Erechtheus.\u201d\n\nAs we look upon the meagre traces of the prehistoric city, we should\nlike to see the princess maidens appear in the simplicity of the kingly\ntimes. Like the women described by Pherecrates, the comic poet, they had\nno slaves:\u2014\n\n \u201cNo one then possessed a Sambo, no one had a maid-slave then,\n Every bit of household labour must the girls themselves perform.\u201d\n\nHerodotus tells us how they used to go down and out from the protecting\ngateways, to draw water at Callirrho\u00eb beyond the Agora, and how the\nrough Pelasgians, banished from this their ancient home, would now and\nagain rush down from Hymettus to carry them off.\n\nThe old Erechtheus worship, the snake, the ancient image of Athena, and\nthe allied precincts, lost none of their sanctity as time went on. From\nHerodotus we learn that Themistocles was materially aided before\nSalamis, in persuading the Athenians to abandon the city, by the sudden\ndisappearance of the sacred snake. \u201cThe Athenians,\u201d he gravely reports,\n\u201csay that a large snake dwells in the sacred precinct as guardian of the\nAcropolis. And they not only say this but they make offerings to him\nmonth by month, setting them out for him as actually there. These\nconsist of a honey-cake. Now this honey-cake, although heretofore it had\nalways been consumed, remained at this time untasted, so the Athenians,\nwhen the priestess reported the fact, made the more eager haste to leave\nthe city, on the ground that the goddess had abandoned her citadel.\u201d The\nsacred olive tree, however, which Xerxes had burned with the rest of the\nprecinct, put forth the very next day a new shoot one cubit long. By the\ntime of Pausanias the guide said \u201ctwo\u201d cubits. But the essential point\nis the continued care of the goddess, and as for the snake, he soon\nresumed his dwelling on the Acropolis. In the \u201cLysistrata\u201d of\nAristophanes, the women who have seized and barricaded the Acropolis\nmake excuses for leaving, complaining that they cannot sleep, one on\naccount of the hooting of Athena\u2019s owls, another by reason of her\nterror:\u2014\n\n \u201cSince I clapped eyes upon the snake that dwelleth there.\u201d\n\nWhen in the \u201cEumenides\u201d of \u00c6schylus the scene shifts from Delphi to the\nAcropolis, we find Orestes seated as suppliant before Athena\u2019s most\nancient image. This we may think of, in default of any other temple then\nexisting, as placed in the old Hecatompedon, whose foundations are seen\nadjoining the Erechtheum on the south. This temple, burned by the\nPersians, but partially restored, may have been in use even after the\nParthenon was dedicated in 438 B. C., twenty years after this play was\nbrought out, and perhaps until the completion many years later of the\nAthena Polias chamber in the Erechtheum. An Athenian could not well\nconceive of his city as safe without this ancient statue; even the birds\nin their new Cloud-cuckoo-town must needs debate whether they shall not\nkeep Athena Polias as their protector.\n\nNo Roman Catholic ever accepted more loyally the established glory of\nSt. Peter\u2019s and the Vatican than the Athenians accepted their citadel.\nThe new gateways were spoken of with undisguised pride. A comic poet,\nPh\u0153nicides of neighbouring Megara, when ridiculing Athens, incidentally\nadmits that the Athenians cared as much for their Propyl\u00e6a as their\npalates. He says:\u2014\n\n \u201cOf myrtle berries and their honey, too, they talk,\n And praise their Propyl\u00e6a. Last, not least, dried figs.\n I sailed and forthwith had a taste of all of these,\n Including Propyl\u00e6a! Not one single thing\n Upon this bill of fare could ever match our grouse!\u201d\n\nIn one of the anonymous fragments, those riderless Pegasi of Greek\nliterature, another comic poet combines the Pir\u00e6us and the Parthenon in\nan outburst of civic pride. Nor does he forget the olive groves and\nradiant air:\u2014\n\n \u201cMistress of all, Queen City of Athenians,\n How fair thy docks, how fair to view thy Parthenon!\n And thy Pir\u00e6us, too, is fair. And then again\n What other city ever yet had groves like thine?\n And, as they say, the very sky, thy sky, is fair.\u201d\n\nAnd Demosthenes, not deterred by any shrinking from hackneyed allusion,\nrefers expressly to the Propyl\u00e6a and the Parthenon, when he speaks of\n\u201cthose things upon which we all naturally pride ourselves.\u201d\nAristophanes, seeking to recall his fellow-citizens to the ideals of\nMarathon days, shows us in his \u201cKnights\u201d the Propyl\u00e6a and the freshly\nboiled-over and rejuvenated Demos,\u2014the avatar of true Democracy,\u2014seated\nwithin the unclosing doors of the gateway, dressed in the brilliant garb\nof a gentleman of the good old Marathon type: \u201cJust such as he used to\nbe when he messed with Aristides and Miltiades,\u201d his hair caught up with\nthe golden cicada pin, emblem of Attic autochthony.\n\nIn the \u201cLysistrata\u201d the Athenian men, ignorant that at a future day\ntheir Parliament was to be controlled by suffragettes, feel that the\nlimit of the legitimate boycott is over-passed when the women seize and\nbarricade their Acropolis. The old chorus leader says:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn life\u2019s long stretch of time, are many things unlooked for\u2014Woe is\n me! For who had ever thought to hear that women whom we keep (a\n mischief manifest) should get Athena\u2019s sacred image in their hands;\n should seize my citadel; the Propyl\u00e6a barricade with bolts and bars?\u201d\n\nIn this play, too, we catch a glimpse of the more intimate interweaving\nof an Athenian maiden\u2019s life with the Acropolis ritual. One of this same\n_sans-culotte_ garrison looks about her and reviews her girlhood; how\nshe had been selected among the best-born girls to carry the mysterious\nburden in the Arrephoria, had ground the meal for the sacred cakes for\nAthena Archegetis; had impersonated a bear in the worship of Artemis;\nand, finally, had gained the coveted privilege of being basket-bearer in\nthe Panathenaic procession. Explaining her personal gratitude to the\ncity, the woman says:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen seven years old an Arrephoros I;\n And when I was ten\n I ground the meal for our Lady-on-High;\n In my next r\u00f4le then\n I figured as Bear in Brauronian show,\n And the saffron wore;\n Then as full-grown maid\u2014quite pretty you know\u2014\n The Basket I bore.\u201d\n\nThe barren precinct of Artemis Brauronia adjoins the south corner of the\nPropyl\u00e6a, and a small dedicatory bear, found somewhere near, now sits in\nthe Acropolis Museum, brooding in stony silence over by-gone glories at\nthe Brauronia. But the maiden with the saffron robe and all her girl\ncompanions have long since disappeared \u201cdown the back entry of time.\u201d\n\nIf it could be granted us to have restored one portion of the Parthenon\nor its appurtenances, our choice would probably fall, not upon the\nfamous gold-ivory statue of Athena, but first upon the pediment\nsculptures; next, it may be, upon the great continuous frieze. If its\nshattered fragments could be restored, and the slabs now in Paris and\nLondon could be recalled from exile and united to those still in place,\nit would be an easier task for the imagination to reconstruct from these\nthan from the piecemeal references in the literature an abridged\nidealization of the glory of the actual Panathenaic procession. As it\nis, from what is left still in place there emerges something far more\nsignificant than the details of any cult or festival. The dismounted\nyouth adjusting his sandal; the horse with leisurely nose bent to his\nfore-leg; the mounted horsemen; the rams and oxen led to the sacrifice,\nremain, like Keats\u2019s \u201cheifer lowing at the skies,\u201d to tell the hurrying\ngenerations that once, at least, there has existed, and may exist again,\nwherever men are strong to feel and know, the harmony between the\ntemporal and the eternal.\n\nThe Parthenon remained practically intact for centuries, lending its\ninspiration both to the creative Greeks and to the imagination of the\nRomans, the executors of the Hellenic realty. Even the chryselephantine\nAthena seems to have held undisturbed possession of her temple for more\nthan eight centuries, from the dedication in 438 B. C. to about 430 A.\nD., when it disappears from Athenian records.\n\nPlutarch, a Greek gentleman of the first Christian century, speaks with\nenthusiasm of the creations of Pericles. \u201cThere blooms upon them a\ncertain freshness untouched by time, as if there dwelt within them an\never-animating spirit, a life that never grows old.\u201d In the next\ncentury, under the successors of Hadrian, who had inaugurated a new era\nfor Athens, Pausanias, a foreigner, came and saw and was conquered by\nthe wealth of detail on the Acropolis. At the same time, that generous\ncitizen from Marathon, Herodes Atticus, was building against the side of\nthe Acropolis his gorgeous Italian opera-house, while Lucian, the Syrian\nAtticist, with a higher, if impossible, ideal, was striving to revive\nthe old Platonic grace by quarrying from the Pentelicus of classic\nliterature. When, in the r\u00f4le of a \u201cTruthful James,\u201d he is acquitted of\nblasphemy against true philosophy, he enters the east door of the\nParthenon to make thanksgiving to the goddess, or, more specifically, to\nthe winged Victory, six feet high, upon her hand. His devotion takes the\nform of the prayer appended to three of Euripides\u2019s dramas:\u2014\n\n \u201cO majestical Victory, shelter my life\n Neath thy covert of wings.\n Aye, cease not to grant me thy crowning.\u201d\n\nThus, like many another later foreigner, he pays the time-honoured\ntribute to the outward embodiment of the ideal.\n\n[Illustration: S. COLONNADE OF THE PARTHENON]\n\nThe charm of the Acropolis changes with the changing light. See it, if\nyou will, at dawn from the opposite hillside, near the \u201cPrison of\nSocrates,\u201d as the sun rises over Hymettus and the Pentelic columns of\nthe Parthenon change from the gray of unsympathetic silhouettes to the\nluminous chromes of the irradiated marbles. See it at a later hour and\nwonder that it does not fade into the light of common day. Or visit it\nwhen the sunset light turns to burnished copper the unadorned hills in\nthe west, beyond Salamis, and on the choir of the encircling mountains\nthe supramundane charm of the violet atmosphere falls like a robe with\nempurpling shadows in its folds. Go when the night has fallen, and sit\nin the mysterious darkness, lit only by the marble columns white against\nthe dark outlines of Hymettus, until the full moon looks over the\nmountain\u2019s rim, tipping architrave and capital with silver, and then, as\nit swings free from Hymettus, merging the wreck of the Parthenon in the\nbeauty of the landscape to which the scarred and yawning sides of the\ntemple seem to open with intent. Presently the whole hill-top with its\nmoraine of prostrate columns and marble fragments is lit up and the\npillars of the Propyl\u00e6a flower into whiteness. Or finally, bizarre as it\nmay sound, see it when\u2014artificially illuminated after the Olympic\nGames\u2014the ruined temple and the serrated contour of the plateau are\netched in mid-air by the white light against a gulf of darkness, a\nveritable city of the skies.\n\nThe Acropolis, crowned with perfect art, crowded with the loftier\nphantoms of our elder kin, is a light-house for all time. Liberty and\nLaw are its keepers. \u201cKnowledge comes but Wisdom lingers,\u201d and this\ncitadel is to every thoughtful man in some sense a symbol of his goal.\nIts stately Propyl\u00e6a welcomes all. No sincere pilgrim of Truth is an\nalien in the long Pancosmic procession of statesman and scientist,\ninventor and poet, artisan and artist that winds up the steep ascent to\nlay an ever freshly woven peplus at the feet of Wisdom.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER V\n ATHENS: FROM THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS TO\n MENANDER\n\n \u201cKnow that our city has the greatest name amongst all men\n because she never yields to her misfortunes. And even should we\n ever be compelled to yield a little\u2014for it is nature\u2019s way that\n all things bloom to suffer loss\u2014there will abide a memory that\n we made our dwelling-place to be a city dowered with all things,\n and the mightiest of all.\u201d\n\n THUCYDIDES, _Oration of Pericles in the Assembly_.\n\n\nAfter the battles of Salamis and Plat\u00e6a the Athenians brought back their\nfamilies to Attica. Athens was a scene of desolation: the walls\ndestroyed, the dwelling-houses ruined heaps, the sanctuaries burnt, the\nstatues and other dedicatory offerings broken or carried off by the\nPersians. But the invaders had not carried off Athena Nike. \u00c6schylus\nputs his own triumphant feeling into the mouth of the Persian messenger\nwho brings the news of the defeat of Xerxes to Queen Atossa:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe city of the goddess Pallas gods preserve.\n\n (QUEEN)\n\n What say\u2019st? The city? Athens? Is it still unsacked?\n\n (MESSENGER)\n\n Yes, in its living men its bulwark stands secure.\u201d\n\nEuripides, also, re\u00ebchoes this word of \u00c6schylus and denies the sack of\nAthens. As a matter of fact little remained save a few houses used as\nPersian headquarters. But the blackened walls of the old temple on the\nAcropolis still stood in grim protest against the violation of the\nVirgin\u2019s home and as an appeal to the citizens to provide her with a\nfairer abode. The appeal was not disregarded. In the fifth century the\ncity was extended and the Acropolis was adorned with monuments of\nsculpture and architecture. The gods and the public needs came first.\nPrivate dwellings in the fifth century were not imposing. The old\nMarathon fighters and their immediate descendants were content with\nprivate simplicity. In the fourth century, however, private luxury came\nuppermost. Demosthenes contrasts the unequalled splendour of the\ntemples, statues and public buildings of the old time with the\nmoderation in private life, which, he says, was so marked \u201cthat if any\nof you perchance knows what sort of a house was the dwelling of\nAristides or Miltiades or any of those then eminent, he sees that it was\nno whit more stately than those next door\u2014while to-day upstarts have\nbuilt themselves private houses more stately than the public buildings.\u201d\n\nSystematically to discuss the fifth and fourth century references to\nspecific sites\u2014buildings public and private, stoas, temples, theatres,\ngymnasia, music-halls, courtrooms, sanctuaries and statues, walls and\ngates, the place of the Assembly, the market-place and the markets,\nfountains, streets, and wards, would require several volumes. And\nalthough it is possible to present by inference a reasonably clear\npicture of the environment and daily life of the citizens, yet the exact\nidentification of the majority of the sites in the remains existing\nto-day is either impossible or a matter of conjecture. Apart from the\nAcropolis buildings but few conspicuous ruins or memorials of these two\ngreat centuries are left for actual inspection. The continuous\noccupation of Athens by successive generations of changing masters has\nobliterated or buried (perhaps for future identification) the greater\npart of the city that lay around the base of the Acropolis. It is only\nsurprising that so much remains. It is not meagre except in comparison\nwith what has disappeared.\n\nAround or over all that is left of Classic, Hellenistic, or Roman Athens\nis the modern city, effacing itself in patches at the behest of the\narch\u00e6ologist, or developing slowly in accordance with its own needs.\n\nIn this chapter, however, we have to do directly only with the Athens of\nthe fifth or fourth centuries. If the physical remains from this period\nare fragmentary, the literature, although itself but fragments of the\nwhole, is the great bulk of existing classic Greek literature outside of\nthe epic, the earlier philosophers, and the lyric. And this _corpus_ of\nliterature was in large part native Attic. At the same time the talent\nfrom without gravitated also to Athens. Herodotus from the Dorian\nHalicarnassus not only wrote in Ionic, but adopted the Athenian attitude\nso largely as to vitiate in part his value as an independent historian.\nHippocrates, the great Ionian physician, visited Athens. The Sophists,\nthough coming from the North, the West, or the islands, found in Athens\nthe appropriate environment for a \u201ccircuit\u201d faculty of an unarticulated\nfederal university. Prose, seasoned and adorned, became henceforth an\nasset of the Athenian intellect and was made ready for the use of\nhistorian, orator, and philosopher. Athens, mistress of the seas, and\nherself producer of art and literature, needed no protective tariff\nagainst intellectual imports.\n\nThis very wealth of fifth and fourth century literature imposes\nlimitations, more rigid than our uncertainty about this, that, or the\nother site, upon the effort to interpret the external Athens from the\nmore enduring monuments of her thinkers. Nor is it true that the nexus\nbetween Athens and her literature may be made clear only by definite\nlocalization. We do not wish the conditions reversed. Although, for\nexample, the courtrooms and the Lyceum have disappeared, we may, as we\nwander about Athens to-day, come much nearer the Greeks of the classic\nage than if, while the buildings had remained intact, the words of the\norators and of the great Peripatetic could no longer reach our ears. The\nso-called \u201cTheseum,\u201d largely perfect as it is and invaluable for\narchitectural and artistic suggestion, leaves us cold in the lack of\nliterary association as compared with the Propyl\u00e6a where many an\nold-time Athenian rubs elbows with us as we pass in and out between its\nstately columns. But in a wider sense we may \u201clocalize,\u201d here on this\nAttic plain around the Acropolis and here under this Attic sky, the\npoetry and prose of the fifth and fourth centuries.\n\nA brief summary of this poetry and prose will perhaps suggest more\nclearly the larger pattern from which, almost arbitrarily, selections\nmay be made.\n\nIn the fifth century, lyric was brought to its perfection by singers not\nof Athens. But Ceos, the birthplace of two of them, was moored close to\nAttica. Simonides, the poet-laureate of the Persian wars, was much in\nAthens, and his nephew Bacchylides took the Attic Theseus for the theme\nof two of his extant poems, wrote one of his epinician odes in honour of\nan Athenian victor, and composed another poem expressly in laudation of\nAthens. Pindar himself studied in Athens, and afterwards, to his own\ntownspeople\u2019s disgust, praised her in no grudging terms. The Athenian\ndrama itself, in the chorals of tragedy and of Aristophanes, contributed\nmuch of the greatest lyric extant in Greek literature.\n\nTragedy in the fifth century grew from infancy to maturity at Athens.\nWhen \u00c6schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides had completed their work it had\nreceived its final form for the Greeks, and was so transmitted to the\ngreat actors and the lesser playwrights of the fourth century.\n\nComedy likewise culminated with Aristophanes in the fifth century. More\nflexible than tragedy, however, it could humour successfully the\nchanging moods of the body politic and retain its vigour through the\nwhole of the fourth century. Even under Macedon, Menander in the New\nComedy could recast much that Euripides had tried, with varying success,\nto embody within the canonized limits of orthodox tragedy.\n\nHistory was the gift of the fifth century. Herodotus after the Persian\nwars bridged with his epic prose the \u00c6gean, and we reach _terra firma_\nin Thucydides\u2019s history in the latter part of the century. In the first\npart of the fourth century we have Xenophon, the historian, biographer,\nessay-writer, and historical novelist. These were precursors of a line\nof historians appearing sporadically even down through Byzantine times.\n\nOratory, an inalienable inheritance of the Hellene even before Athena\ncoached the crafty Odysseus, received at Athens a certain finality of\nform, or forms, that has imposed its influence upon the occidental,\nwhether Roman or Englishman, lawyer or epideictic speaker. The unwritten\nword of statesmen like Pericles, fusing the persuasion of the politician\nwith the keener rationalism of Anaxagoras and the raucous, but not\nwholly unpatriotic, opportunism of demagogues like Cleon or Hyperbolus,\nwas paired with the more decently draped pragmatism of the Sophists, and\nresulted in the selected group of the \u201cten\u201d orators, of the fifth and\nfourth centuries. There was the somewhat archaic Antiphon, the dignified\ncriminal lawyer; Andocides, who brought his rough and ready style to\nbear upon burning questions of contemporary politics; Lysias, the son of\nan alien, but truly Attic, the younger friend of Socrates, the lucid\nnarrator, the relentless prosecutor; Is\u00e6us, the capable testamentary\nbarrister; Isocrates, who both saw the building of the Erechtheum and\noutlived the battle of Ch\u00e6ronea, and whose over-finished oratory\ntransmitted the florid adornment of Gorgias to the schools in which\nCicero was trained; Demosthenes, greatest of all, whether in private\nsuits or in his arraignment of public foes, whose terrorizing cleverness\nwas quick to strike or counter like the flashing arms of the athlete\nimpeded with no ounce of florid superfluity; \u00c6schines, his great\nantagonist; Lycurgus; Hyperides; and Dinarchus.\n\nPhilosophy as a native Attic product matured last of all. Ionia had\nproduced the great \u201cphysical\u201d philosophers, and Pythagoras had gone in\nthe sixth century to Italy; but in the first half of the fifth century\nthe so-called \u201ccolonial\u201d philosophers, like the foreign Sophists,\ninfluenced Athenian thought\u2014some of them by personal visits. They came\nfrom the East and from the West. Parmenides came from Italy, and his\ninfluence was felt by Socrates and transmitted to Plato and Aristotle.\nThe aristocratic Empedocles came on a visit from Sicily. Anaxagoras from\nIonia settled at Athens in his youth. His \u201cchaos-controlling mind\u201d\u2014the\nprimal force of reason\u2014impregnated the statesmanship of Pericles and\nengendered the rationalism of Euripides. The Athenians might banish the\nphilosopher, but his \u201cprimal force of reason\u201d was already busy in\nrearranging the chaos of traditional beliefs. It emerges clearly in\nPlato as intelligent Mind. Socrates, though not himself a writer, is the\ncentral figure of philosophic literature. Pre-Socratic thought focussed\nin him as in a burning-glass. From him shoot out the divergent rays of\nthe Academics and Peripatetics, the Cynics and the precursors of the\nEpicureans, Stoics, and Skeptics. No one of his disciples reproduced his\nviews with any exactness, but he stimulated self-examination and\nindependent thought. Each took from him what he could or would, and\ndeveloped differing or mutually exclusive schools. Like the rivers of\nGreece, coursing for a time through the underground \u201ckatavothras,\u201d\npre-Socratic speculative thought on physics and metaphysics flowed on\nbeneath the open devotion of Socrates to ethical questions, and\nreappears in his successors.\n\nPlato in the fourth century constituted himself the ethical and\nphilosophic executor of Socrates. Loyalty and a wide vision alike\ncombined to perpetuate his master\u2019s name in the intellectual output of\nthe great Platonic dialogues. It has been the work of centuries to\ndisentangle the real views of this sleeping partner from those of\nPlato\u2019s own constructive intellect, which built, pulled down, and reared\nanew the dwelling-places for the minds of many men in many generations.\n\nAristotle, like Anaxagoras, came as an alien and settled in Athens in\nhis youth. After the death of his master, Plato, he left Athens,\ntravelled, and became the tutor of Alexander. After the accession of his\nroyal pupil to the throne, he established at Athens in the Lyceum a\nrival school to the Academy.\n\nAntisthenes, half Athenian, half Thracian, the faithful follower of\nSocrates, had before this established the Cynic school in another\ngymnasium, the Cynosarges, where the victors fresh from Marathon had\nencamped. Socrates, the barefoot friar, the new avatar of Heracles, was\nhis patron saint. Later in the century Zeno the Stoic set up his\neclectic school in the Painted Porch of the Agora, and Epicurus, of an\nAttic father though born at Samos, established his school in his own\nGardens near the Dipylon.\n\nTheophrastus, the friend of Epicurus and of Menander, gives us in his\n\u201cCharacters,\u201d at the close of this period, vivid portraits of Athenian\nlife which supplement the fragments of Menander and the other writers of\nthe New Comedy, and also, as pupil and successor of Aristotle, carried\non his master\u2019s teachings in the Lyceum. Thus one pupil busied himself\nin transmitting through his intellectual heirs the esoteric thought of\nhis master, while Alexander, another pupil, had constructed on lines\nthat paralleled the intellectual imperialism of his teacher a material\n_organon_ of Empire (utterly at variance with his master\u2019s conception of\nthe ideal state) that no successor could wield alone until Rome reached\nforth and grasped it in her iron hand.\n\nBut to understand at all the meaning of the literature, it is also\nnecessary to remind ourselves of some of the more striking features of\nthe history of these two centuries. They are crowded with conspicuous\nfigures and with events significant to the philosophic student of\npolitical institutions.\n\nIn general the fifth century exhibits the rise and downfall of the\nimperialistic policy, the fourth century the rehabilitation of a\nchastened democracy, with sporadic echoes of a federalizing ideal. But\nno one policy can be predicated of the fifth century. It varied with the\ngreat leaders, Themistocles, Cimon, Pericles, and others\u2014the old in\nconflict with the new; conservative, aristocratic democracy against\nimperialism; democracy against oligarchy; ochlocracy against democracy.\nWhen the Persian peril was thrust back, the irrepressible conflict\nbetween Sparta and Athens emerged. The struggle for the hegemony between\nthem, or between varying combinations of the Greek states, was to\ncontinue at intervals until the time when all the old powers of Greece\nwere to succumb to Macedon.\n\nThemistocles, the hero of Salamis, was ostracized from Athens within\neight years of the great sea-fight, but his spirit still animated his\ncountrymen, and his policies were afterwards revived or expanded. His\nrival Aristides guided affairs at home, and Cimon, the son of Miltiades,\nsailed with the conquering Athenian navy. His victory at Eurymedon in\n468 B. C. made it possible to fortify Athens and Pir\u00e6us and to merge the\nConfederacy of Delos in the Athenian Empire. In seven years more Cimon\nin turn was ostracized, but at the end of another seven years the rich\ntreasure of Delos could be transferred to Athens and the empire formally\nestablished. It was to last until the disaster at \u00c6gospotami, in 405 B.\nC. Pericles, after successfully competing with the reactionary\npatriotism of statesmen like Thucydides, obtained, at the ostracism of\nthe latter in 442 B. C., the controlling power at Athens, which he\nguided by his regal persuasion for the next fifteen years. The\nimperialism of Pericles realized the policy of Themistocles on the seas,\nreaped the harvest of the great Cimon\u2019s victories, and transmuted the\ntreasure of Delos into the sinews of war and the monuments of the\nglorified Acropolis. He reshaped the civic life, even curtailing the\nsacred powers of the Areopagus, and by popular changes in the complexion\nof Council, Assembly, and Law Courts, prepared the way for the uneven\nrule of demagogues after his own strong hand should be withdrawn. He had\ngreat odds to contend with. After the renewal of the Peloponnesian wars\nin 431 B. C., with the succession of victories and reverses, the Great\nPlague came to assert an unlooked-for hegemony. On the suffering and\ndisasters of the city followed the trial and condemnation of Pericles\nhimself. He was indeed reinstated as indispensable, but his death in the\nfollowing year left Athens at the mercy of the demagogues\u2014with\nAlcibiades to follow. The Sicilian expedition, the crowning venture of\nimperialism, issued\u2014as was to be expected with no real successor of\nPericles to direct it\u2014in the disaster of 413 B. C., when the brave\nSyracusans, with the willing help of Sparta, dissipated the Athenian\ndream of vast colonial expansion.\n\nThe next ten years was for Athens a losing struggle at home and abroad.\nThe short-lived oligarchy of the Four Hundred in 411 B. C., the\nstrenuous but vain efforts of Theramenes to reconcile oligarchy and\ndemocracy, the civic strife and war with the powerful Lysander, the\ncrushing defeat at \u00c6gospotami, the intervention of Sparta, the brief but\nterrible r\u00e9gime of the Thirty Tyrants, completed, in 404 B. C., the\nfinal overthrow of imperial Athens. But Sparta, with politic generosity,\nwhile doing away with the empire, left Athens free to establish a more\nstable democracy that was to last through the greater part of the fourth\ncentury. Oligarchy could no more find a hearing, and, although Hellenic\nfederations were eloquently advocated by the orators and actually\nformed, despotic empire was no longer feasible for the Athenians. Their\nnew leader, Conon, however, the foe of Sparta, could succeed after\nLysander\u2019s death in making Athens independent and strong. We come upon\nhis work now and again in Athens and in Pir\u00e6us, and in the renascent\ncivic life the intellectual life went on with new vigour. The imperial\ndream finally came true, but from the outside. The Macedonian, though\nsneered at as barbarian by Demosthenes, confirmed at the Olympic games\nthe validity of his Hellenic claim that he had asserted at Ch\u00e6ronea. The\nfitful struggle against the sway of Macedon only resulted, under a\nsuccessor less philhellenic than Philip, in the forced suicide of the\ngreat Demosthenes and the execution of Hypereides, whose funeral\noration, pronounced over the dead heroes of the \u201clost cause,\u201d carries us\nbeyond the great speech of Pericles\u2014pronounced on a similar but less\nhopeless occasion\u2014back to the heroes of Marathon and Salamis. Speaking\nof the dead leader Leosthenes, he says: \u201cIn the dark under-world\u2014suffer\nus to ask\u2014who are they that will stretch forth a right hand to the\ncaptain of our dead?... There, I deem, will be Miltiades and\nThemistocles, and those others who made Hellas free, to the credit of\ntheir city, to the glory of their names.\u201d[8]\n\nFootnote 8:\n\n Translated by Jebb, _Attic Orators_.\n\nWe sit to-day beneath a Greek sky on the rising tiers of the modern\ncenturies, and the drama of Athenian life is reproduced before our eyes.\nThe greater protagonists of literature and life play out their r\u00f4les.\nMany another actor plays his less prominent but essential part. The\n\u201cmutes\u201d contribute. The chorus of democracy is seldom absent from the\nscene. The binoculars of modern historians penetrate behind paint and\nmask and robe, and the squalor of the real actor is at times laid bare.\nWe may choose, however, to ignore minuti\u00e6 and to give ourselves up to\nthe more satisfying perspective of the literature, and to let sweep\nbefore us the bright procession of form and colour, the song and saga,\nthe Dionysiac revel and tragic mimicry that fill out the real drama of\nlife.\n\n\u00c6schylus connects the old and the new Athens. Before Marathon he\nproduced his first play; in the interval before Salamis he gained a\nfirst prize; and he brought out his greatest dramas in the time of the\nRenascence, of which he was a great part.\n\nThe bare hill of the Areopagus claims attention as we descend from the\nPropyl\u00e6a. It rises as a physical barrier between the deserted site of\nthe old city of Theseus and that of Classic or of Modern Athens. With\nthe sanctity attaching to the time-honoured prerogatives of its\nvenerable court it was also a moral barrier between the old and the new\nin the days when Pericles was reshaping the civic life. And \u00c6schylus in\nhis \u201cEumenides,\u201d the third play of his great trilogy, strove as best he\ncould to reconcile old traditions with the inevitable readjustment to\nthe life of imperial Athens. He spoke with the authority of a Hebrew\nprophet. Whatever else was changed, blood-guiltiness must be judged.\nOnly within the mysterious gloom of the cleft beneath the Areopagus\ncould the dread and ancient Furies, spawn of Night, be transformed into\nwilling coadjutors of the goddess of Wisdom.\n\n[Illustration: AREOPAGUS]\n\nThe Furies in hot haste have pursued from Delphi Orestes, the\nmother-murderer. Confidently anticipating the verdict, they cry:\u2014\n\n \u201cOver the victim thus we chaunt,\n A frenzy and madness his mind to daunt,\n A hymn of the Furies to fetter the mind,\n A withering blight to human kind.\u201d\n\nThe god Apollo himself appears for the defendant, and when the decision\ngoes against the Furies by Athena\u2019s casting vote in the Areopagus Court,\ntheir bitterness against the \u201cnew\u201d gods shoots forth like the serpents\nuncoiling in their hair:\u2014\n\n \u201cAh upstart gods and parvenu!\n My ancient laws your hoof-beats spurn.\n Ye wrested them from out my hand,\n Alas for you!\n I, though dishonoured and distressed,\n Upon this land\n The grievous weight of my wrath shall turn\n And from my breast\n Shoot venom on venom, woe for woe,\n Drop upon drop of a poison flow\n For Earth unbearable, unblest.\u201d\n\nAthena pacifies the Furies by promising them a local sanctuary and the\nreverence of the citizens for all time. The old order is reconciled with\nthe new, and the Furies, now the Eumenides\u2014the Propitious Ones\u2014are\nescorted to their dwelling in the cleft of the Areopagus by Athena\u2019s own\nattendants, boys, maidens, and matrons, with ceremonious honour equal to\nthe Panathenaic procession:\u2014\n\n \u201cFare ye on to your home in your emulous might\n With our loyal attendance, ye children of Night.\n (O my countrymen, bless them and praise them!)\n\n \u201cIn the caverns of eld, in the womb of the Earth\n With the offerings of honour befitting your worth.\n (O my demesmen, now bless them and praise them!)\n\n \u201cNay, then, righteous and gracious in mind to our land,\n Come, come, O ye Dread Ones, take joy in our band.\n (Cry aloud now! Exult in your singing!)\n\n \u201cAs the torches attend, let libations be poured,\n Thus the all-seeing Zeus and the Moir\u00e6 as ward\n To the people of Pallas their presence afford.\n (Cry aloud now! Exult in your singing!)\u201d\n\nThe great mass broken off from the east end of the Areopagus rock has\npartially blocked the cleft into which the chorus conducts home the\nDread Goddesses. As the procession, chanting its hymn, sweeps around the\nshoulder of the hill, the faded picture of ancient Athens regains its\noutlines as if under some powerful reagent. Wine-press and fountain,\nprecincts and temples, rise again from their ruins; the throbbing life\nof the eager citizens reappears. But the gaily-dressed people have\nhushed jest and carping under the sense of awe evoked by \u00c6schylus. The\nAthenians were then, as St. Paul on this same Areopagus called them long\nafterwards, \u201cvery scrupulous,\u201d and it was no unworthy superstition that\nmade it imperative to harmonize the cruder conceptions of the immutable\nlaws of Retribution with the new and expansive wisdom of Athena.\nSwinburne, with keen insight into the universal application of the great\ndrama, brings the \u201cshadows of our deeds\u201d under wisdom\u2019s searching but\nnot unkindly light:\u2014\n\n \u201cLight whose law bids home those childless children of eternal night,\n Soothed and reconciled and mastered and transmuted in men\u2019s sight\n Who behold their own souls, clothed with darkness once, now clothed with\n light.\u201d\n\nThe visitor who takes his stand to-day immediately in front of the south\nside of the Areopagus is completely sequestered from the modern city.\nHere the Acropolis and the Areopagus rock make practically a continuous\nbarrier to the close-built streets that on the northern side come\ncrowding up their slopes. He is encircled with hills, and this ancient\nquarter of the city of Theseus lies waste and silent around him. The\nground is harrowed and scarred by the spade of the arch\u00e6ologist. Only\nthe foundations of sanctuaries and fountains, houses and cisterns, may\nbe distinguished.\n\nThe rock-chambers opposite, called by courtesy the \u201cPrison of Socrates,\u201d\nwill, however, recall us to classic Athens. While waiting for the return\nof the mission-ship from Delos to bring the day of execution, Crito and\nthe rest listened to Socrates\u2019s demonstrations of immortality. Plato\nsent his reason out as far into the invisible as reason can go. In the\n\u201cPh\u00e6do,\u201d after his half-playful periegesis of the underworld, Socrates\nis made to say: \u201cWhosoever seem to have excelled in holy living, these\nare they who are set free and released from these earthly places as from\nprisons and fare upward to that pure habitation and make their\ndwelling-place in yonder land.... Therefore we must do our utmost to\ngain in life a share in virtue and wisdom. For the prize is noble and\nthe hope is great!\u201d or, as he adds presently, \u201cThe risk is fair.\u201d And\nSocrates, like Pindar before him, finds the crowning joy of a blessed\nimmortality neither in the unlaborious sunlit life by night and day, nor\nin the ocean breezes, nor in the flowers of gold blooming on trees of\nsplendour, but in the company of the great and noble dead with whom to\nlive \u201c\u2019twere more of happiness than tongue can tell.\u201d\n\nOn the Pnyx hill we may recall the Athenian Assembly, and may turn in\nfancy the voluminous pages of Congressional Records filled with\npatriotism and jealousy; we listen to Pericles and his persuasive\nschemes for imperial expansion; or to Socrates, president for the day,\nrefusing, amidst the clamours of _demos_ and demagogues, to put to vote\nthe illegal proposition to condemn in a body the ten generals; or to\nDemosthenes pleading, denouncing, planning for the welfare of the city.\nOr in the half-light before dawn we may see the suffragettes of\nAristophanes\u2019s \u201cEcclesiazus\u00e6\u201d filing up the hill. More wily than their\nmodern sisters, they have disguised themselves with beards and have\ndressed in the shoes and cloaks distrained from their husbands,\nimprisoned at home by naked necessity. With no man to oppose, the women\nquickly transfer the whole control of the State to themselves, and\ninstitute reforms that would put to shame the most radical of modern\nsocialists. A slave, in the \u201cWasps\u201d of Aristophanes, once had a dream by\nno means respectful to the Athenian legislature. Some sheep, with cloaks\nand staves, sat huddled together like just so many Athenians on the\nseats of the Pnyx, holding an Assembly. To-day the hill is left lonely,\nand the wandering goats, with their solemn faces and long beards, might\nrenew the sittings unmolested.\n\nIn the face of the hill fronting towards the Acropolis, the rock-chamber\nof the Callirrho\u00eb spring, with its sloping entrance and the parapet\nwithin, has been suggested as the original of the famous cave in Plato\u2019s\n\u201cRepublic.\u201d The Vari Cave, on the south side of Hymettus, might have\nmade less of a strain, as has been urged, upon Plato\u2019s imagination.\nHowever faint the resemblance of the Callirrho\u00eb cave to Plato\u2019s complex\nsetting, it is enough to emphasize the vitality of this realistic\nfigure, which has become typical, in modern poetry and prose, of the\ndenizens of earth watching and naming the shadows thrown by the\nfire-light upon the cave\u2019s wall, unable by reason of fetters to look\naround at the objects moving behind them, much less to rise and climb\nthe long ascent to the brighter light above.\n\nThe innocent-looking ravine west of the Hill of the Nymphs is identified\nwith the Barathrum. In antiquity its fame had penetrated to the\nunderworld, where the innkeeper\u2019s maid threatened to pitch the\nPseudo-Heracles \u201cinto the Barathrum.\u201d And Herodotus\u2019s apocryphal story\nis at least _ben trovato_. He relates that, when the ambassadors of\nDarius came asking tokens of submission from the Greeks: \u201cSome [the\nAthenians] took the messengers and threw them into the Barathrum, others\n[the Spartans] into a well, and bade them take earth and water from\nthere to their King.\u201d Miltiades, the hero of Marathon, if we are to\nbelieve the allusion in the \u201cGorgias,\u201d barely escaped with a fine and\nbanishment instead of the criminal\u2019s end in this same pit.\n\nIf even the skeleton of the Athenian Market-place could be resurrected,\nlike that of the Roman Forum, many scores of allusions would take on a\nlocal habitation. The Agora was the centre of life. In classic times it\nprobably lay in the depression west of the \u201cTheseum\u201d hill, and extended,\nfrom the slopes of the Areopagus, northward about to the modern Hadrian\nstreet. Pindar, with no idle flattery, spoke of the \u201cfair-famed Agora,\nin sacred Athens, inlaid with cunning workmanship.\u201d Sculptor, painter,\nand architect gave of their best. The Prytaneum, close to, or in the\nAgora, was the city\u2019s fireside. Distinguished foreigners and citizens\nhere and in the Tholus enjoyed, temporarily or for life, the public\nhospitality. Socrates ironically suggests to his judges that the\nsentence really fitting his case would be: \u201cMaintenance in the\nPrytaneum, much more so indeed than if any one of you has come off\nvictor at Olympia with a race horse, a pair, or a four-horse team.\u201d\nPlutarch relates that Aristides, far from enriching himself from the\npublic purse, left not even enough for his funeral expenses, and that\nthe Athenians \u201cmarried off his daughters from the Prytaneum at the\npublic cost\u2014voting a dowry of three thousand drachmas to each.\u201d In the\nstoas that faced upon the Agora the citizens heard and discussed many a\nnew thing, from the days when the great painting of the battle of\nMarathon was fresh in the Painted Porch, to the time when the Stoics\nappropriated this colonnade. In time of war a man would look fearfully\nat the bulletin board near by, to see if his name was posted for\nmilitary duty; or in time of truce would feel that yonder beautiful\ngroup of Peace with the child Wealth best reproduced to the eyes the\nblessings so often absent during the wearisome Peloponnesian\nwars,\u2014blessings which Bacchylides, the admiring neighbour of Athens, had\ncelebrated:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd now for mortals Peace, the mighty mother, giveth birth\n To Wealth and bears culled flowers of honey\u2019d minstrelsy.\n She makes on sculptured altars of the gods to blaze\n Thigh pieces, in the yellow flame, of bullocks and of thick-fleeced\n lambs,\n And lets the youths give thought to athletes\u2019 toil and flutes and\n revelry.\n Now in the steel-bound hand-loops of the shield\n Are stretched the dusk-red spiders\u2019 woven tapestries;\n The barb\u00e8d spears, the two-edged swords are cankered o\u2019er;\n The trumpet\u2019s brazen blare is still.\u201d\n\nTo be near the Agora was a desideratum. The cripple, in Lysias\u2019s\noration, asking the Senate to continue his pension, refers to the fact\nthat every one in Athens has his favourite lounging place: \u201cOne\nfrequents the perfume-seller\u2019s, another the barber\u2019s, another the\ncobbler\u2019s; and as a rule the most of them lounge into the shops set up\nnearest the Agora, and the very fewest resort to those most remote from\nit.\u201d Socrates, too, seeking his audience where the crowds gravitated,\nwas often heard talking \u201cin the Market-place near the bankers\u2019 tables.\u201d\nAristophanes, together with the other comic writers, and Lysias and\nTheophrastus tell not only of other resorts\u2014like the fuller\u2019s shop, the\nshield-and-spear-maker\u2019s\u2014but of many special sub-markets. Thus there\nwere by the Agora the \u201cPottery\u201d and the \u201cVegetable\u201d Market, and,\nsomewhere near, the \u201cGreen-cheese,\u201d the \u201cGarlic,\u201d the \u201cWine,\u201d the \u201cOil,\u201d\nthe \u201cFish\u201d markets. Of the Bird-market we hear in some detail in\nAristophanes,\u2014the live pigeons in cages, strings of ortolans, thrushes\nabnormally inflated, and blackbirds with \u201cfeathers shamefully inserted\nin their nostrils\u201d! In time of war the country folk thronged into town\nto escape the armies that were devastating Attica. In times of peace,\ntoo, they came trooping in on the first of the month, and to the\noft-recurring festivals. Menander, with his blended Stoicism and\nEpicureanism, looks around in the crowded Agora and compares human life\nto a festival or market-fair:\u2014\n\n \u201cThat man, O Parmeno, I count most fortunate\n Who quickly whence he came returns, when he, unvexed,\n Has looked on these majestic sights\u2014the common sun,\n Water and clouds, the stars and fire. If thou shalt live\n An hundred years, or if a very few, thou\u2019lt always see\n These same sights present, grander ones thou\u2019lt ne\u2019er behold.\n So reckon thou this time I\u2019m speaking of as though\n Some market-fair or trip to town, where one may see\n The crowd, the market, dice and loungers\u2019 haunts;\n Then, if thou\u2019rt first unto thy lodgings, with more gold\n Thou\u2019lt go upon thy travels and shalt pick no brawl;\n While he that tarries longer, worn, his money gone,\n Grows old and wretched, and forever knows some lack,\n A wandering vagrant finding enemies and plots,\n And gains no death that\u2019s easy, staying out his time.\u201d\n\nA broad avenue, flanked with porticoes, ran from the Market-place\nnorthwest to the Dipylon gate. This double gateway, impressive even from\nthe remains of its foundations, quickens the memory to recall the\ngenerations of citizens and foreigners that have passed this way. Along\nthe roads from Colonus and the Academy and the Sacred Way from Eleusis,\nconverging outside the gates, will come a motley throng of Athenian\nghosts, gay or scurrilous, militant or philosophic, to blot out the\nconsciousness of the modern city. Outside the Dipylon, in the \u201cOuter\nCerameicus,\u201d is \u201cthe Street of the Tombs.\u201d Some of the beautiful\nmonuments are still _in situ_ to stimulate a detailed study of the rich\nmaterial in the National Museum. It was here that the Athenians usually\nburied their dead. The roll-call of great names stirs the imagination\nhere as in Westminster Abbey. This is no exclusive privilege of one\nplace or people. But there is often an appropriate _genius loci_. As one\nlingers along the Appian Way, for example, deciphering inscriptions and\npausing before the weather-beaten faces on the monuments, there is a\nlurking pessimism and an insidious melancholy that flow in from the\nbeauty of the Roman Campagna. Here, however, in this _proastion_ of\nAthens, this Suburb of the Dead, the memorials still in place, with\ntheir unpretentious sincerity, give rather a sensation of beauty and\nhope in perpetuating scenes from actual life. Even a scene of parting\nhas less of hopeless finality. The warrior on his horse, the woman with\nher jewel-box, suggests life and love, not death and lamentation. Along\nyonder road from Eleusis came many an initiate fresh from the Mysteries,\nand some may well have been ready to listen with hope to Pindar\u2019s\n\u201ctrumpet-blast for immortality\u201d:\u2014\n\n \u201cFor them the night all through,\n In that broad realm below,\n The splendour of the sun spreads endless light;\n \u2019Mid rosy meadows bright,\n Their city of the tombs with incense-trees,\n And golden chalices\n Of flowers, and fruitage fair,\n Scenting the breezy air,\n Is laden. There with horses and with play,\n With games and lyres, they while the hours away.\u201d[9]\n\nFootnote 9:\n\n Translated by J. A. Symonds.\n\nWhether or no we choose to identify with Charon the old man in the boat,\nrepresented on one of the stel\u00e6 still standing, Death and Life here\nconfront each other. \u00c6schylus, in his early allusion to Charon\u2019s boat,\ndraws the contrast by an antithesis of the black sails of the ship of\nTheseus to the god of Light, and speaks of the \u201crowing\u201d of the mourners\u2019\narms causing\u2014\n\n \u201cthat dark-sailed mission-ship, upon whose deck Apollo treads not and\n the sunlight falls not, through Acheron to pass unto that shore unseen\n where all must lodging find.\u201d\n\nAnd Euripides prepares his audience for the pathetic departure of\nAlcestis to the underworld by a sharp dialogue between Apollo and Death,\nwho is at once as old and as lusty as Death in the Morality plays.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n STREET OF THE TOMBS\n Monument of Hegeso\n]\n\nAfter the battle of Ch\u00e6ronea Philip sent back the ashes of the dead\nAthenians, and Demosthenes counted it the highest honour to deliver\ntheir funeral oration. But the noblest association with this spot is the\ngreat oration of Pericles, who was chosen in the course of the\nPeloponnesian War to pronounce the public eulogy over the dead warriors.\nThese were borne along in cypress chests, with one empty litter to\nrepresent those whose bodies had not been recovered. The long speech is\nthe incarnation of the Athenian spirit and of Pericles\u2019s own undaunted\npolicy. Thucydides represents him as saying:\u2014\n\n\u201cThey received praise that grows not old and a most illustrious tomb;\nnot that in which they here are laid but wherever, as occasion arises,\nthere remaineth the ever-living glory of their word and work. For the\nwhole earth is the sepulchre of famous men, and not only in their own\nland does an inscription upon columns tell of it, but in other lands an\nunwritten memory dwells within the mind of all.\u201d\n\nThe \u201cCerameicus\u201d was soon to receive Pericles. The great plague carried\noff the orator\u2019s sons, and, overcome by grief and the shipwreck of his\nplans, he died himself in the next year.\n\nThucydides describes the plague with appalling vigour. The misery and\ndanger were aggravated by the congestion of the country folk crowding in\nto escape the Peloponnesian invaders. Bivouacked in stifling \u201cshacks\u201d\nduring the hot summer, they died uncared-for and lay where they fell,\ndying upon one another, at home, in the streets, or by the fountains\nwhere they had tried in vain to quench their fever.\n\nIn the \u201c\u0152dipus Tyrannus\u201d of Sophocles the plague at Thebes is pictured\nin terms certainly reminiscent, at least here and there, of what must\nhave been the most awful memory of the poet\u2019s life. The blight that has\nfallen alike on the land and on its inhabitants is described by the\nChorus:\u2014\n\n \u201cNay, for no longer the glorious Earth\n Yieldeth her young; nor by ever a birth\n Of a child do our women change sorrow to mirth.\n You may see how they\u2019re flocking like birds of unrest\n Or swifter than fire\u2019s unquenchable quest,\n Afar to the shore of the God in the West.\n\n \u201cThey are unnumbered, dead and dying,\n The city\u2019s children, unpitied they\u2019re lying,\n With no one to mourn them, outstretched on the ground,\n Death and pestilence spreading around.\u201d\n\nThucydides relates, too, that the Athenians discussed an ancient oracle\nwhich told how a \u201cDorian war will befall and a pestilence come as\ncompanion\u201d; and that in the midst of their despair they could debate\nwhether the oracle said \u201cpestilence\u201d (\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9\u03bc\u03cc\u03c2) or \u201cfamine\u201d (\u03bb\u03b9\u03bc\u03cc\u03c2),\neither word being appropriate enough. History repeats itself. At Athens\nin 1906, during a virulent outbreak of smallpox, with the pest-houses\noverflowing, the newspapers calmly turned to the really vital question\nof the proper Greek word for the disease\u2014whether it should be evloyi\u00e1\n(\u03b5\u1f50\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03b9\u03ac), or effloyi\u00e1 (\u03b5\u1f50\u03c6\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03b9\u03ac).\n\nAmidst the splendour of the public buildings the dwelling-houses long\nremained insignificant. The streets were dark at night. The houses had\nfew windows to let out such light as might come from the \u201cdim and stingy\nwick\u201d of some miser watching his hoards, or from that of a perplexed\nfather reckoning up his son\u2019s horse-racing debts, as we find old\nStrepsiades doing in the \u201cClouds\u201d of Aristophanes:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe month\u2019s end\u2019s coming and the interest rolling up.\n I say, slave, light a lamp and bring my ledger here.\n . . . . . . . . .\n SLAVE (_entering_).\n\n There\u2019s scarce a drop of oil in this here lamp of ours.\n\n STREPSIADES.\n\n O my! Why did you, tell me, light that thirsty lamp?\n Come here that you may get a weeping!\n\n SLAVE.\n\n And why so?\n\n STREPSIADES.\n\n Because you put in one of those fat, greedy wicks.\u201d\n\nIn the \u201cWasps\u201d the jurors, out before dawn to secure a job at the\ncourt-room, pick their way along the dark streets with only the\nlink-boys to guard them against stumbling-stones and refuse.\n\n MEMBER OF CHORUS.\n\n \u201cLet\u2019s march by the lamp and everywhere look well about, around us,\n Lest here or there should be some stone to trip us and confound us.\n\n BOY.\n\n Watch out there, father, father, for this dirt, watch out!\n\n MEMBER OF CHORUS.\n\n Pick up a chip here from the ground and snuff the lamp.\n\n BOY.\n\n No, with my finger _thus_ I choose to snuff the lamp!\n\n MEMBER OF CHORUS.\n\n What\u2019s got into your head, with hand to shove the wick,\n And that when oil\u2019s so scanty? There, you fool, take that!\u201d\n\nThe flat-roofed houses were low. Highwaymen could sit on the roofs and\njump down on their victims. Burglars, who preferred a change from the\nconventional method of digging through the soft bricks, could climb over\nthe house-wall. The street-mire and \u201cApaches\u201d were familiar in\nviolet-crowned Athens. Demosthenes on occasion loads his terrible\nGatling gun with details picked up from the street. In his oration\n\u201cAgainst Conon\u201d he describes a brawl. The plaintiff recites how the said\nConon and his crew had met him near the Leocorion at the Agora, tripped\nup his legs, trampled him in the mire, cut his lip, and bunged up his\neyes; how, finally, as he lay there, Conon was egged on by the others to\nflap his arms like wings and to crow over him like a victorious rooster.\n\nThe Gymnasia of Athens emphasize one of the most characteristic features\nof Athenian life\u2014the close interrelation of the physical and the\nintellectual. Here the youths were trained in their naked beauty; here\nthe philosophers collected their data; here they afterwards taught their\ndoctrines. To-day, unhappily, we must content ourselves with recalling\nthe natural beauty surrounding the Academy at Colonus, or reconstructing\nscenes like those in the \u201cEuthydemus,\u201d the \u201cCharmides,\u201d the \u201cLaches,\u201d or\n\u201cLysis\u201d of Plato. At the opening of the \u201cLysis\u201d Socrates is making his\nway close under the outside of the north wall of the city, bound from\nthe Academy for the Lyceum, which was probably somewhere east of the\npresent King\u2019s Gardens. Thus the path between Plato\u2019s Academy and the\nfuture school of Aristotle was worn by the footsteps of their great\npredecessor. Socrates on this occasion, however, was deflected by an\neager youth to enter a new pal\u00e6stra just opened near the fountain of\nPanops, possibly near the gate of Diochares now placed by conjecture\nnear the intersection of the Street of the Muses and Boul\u00e8 Street. He is\npersuaded without difficulty and holds a discussion on Friendship with\nthe handsome youths gathered there. In the \u201cCharmides\u201d likewise he goes\nto another pal\u00e6stra, Taureas, which was near the Itonian gate, probably\nnot far from the Olympieum. He had just come back the evening before\nfrom the engagement at Potid\u00e6a, and is eagerly questioned about the\nbattle. As usual, he guides the talk into other channels and there\nfollows a discussion upon Temperance.\n\nAlthough the sites of the courts are uncertain, we know what went on in\nthem. The Athenian passion for litigation is a commonplace. Lucian\u2019s\nIcaromenippus, looking down from the moon on the kingdoms of the classic\nworld, characterizes the inhabitants thus: \u201cI could see the nomad Scyths\nin their wagons; the Egyptian farming; the Cilician buccaneering; the\nSpartan flogging; and the Athenian pettifogging.\u201d So, in the newly\norganized Bird-town of Aristophanes, one of the first visitors,\nfollowing hard after the parricide, is a Law-suit-hatcher. He \u201ccannot\ndig,\u201d but is not ashamed of his blackmailing trade. He comes to the\nbirds for wings to bear him around among the Isles as \u201cSummoner.\u201d\n\nThe \u201cWasps\u201d is a comedy directed against this frailty of the Athenians.\nThe old Philocleon (demagogue-lover), on account of his inordinate\npassion for sitting on juries, is forcibly detained at home by his son\nwho, to console his father, arranges a trial of the dog Labes (Snap) who\nhas rushed into the kitchen and devoured a Sicilian cheese. The trial is\nconducted with detailed and rigorous conventionality. The defendant is\nfinally acquitted, thanks to the puppies, who are brought into court and\n\u201cwhining beg him off, entreat and weep!\u201d\u2014a parody on the common but\nillegal method of influencing a jury, which Socrates scorned to adopt\nwhen on trial for his life.\n\nWith the exception of the Acropolis itself, the great Dionysiac Theatre\nperhaps offers most to allure the visitor. Although in its present\nstate, with the later disfigurements of Roman times, we can only with\ndifficulty form a detailed picture of its structure even in the fourth\ncentury, yet the slight traces of the circular orchestra, now identified\nbeneath it, entitle the visitor to associate with this site the classic\ndrama and to give free play to not unnatural sentiment. It is an epitome\nof the Athenian drama. It interprets, and is interpreted by, a wide\nrange of literature. Here, too, in later times were gathered popular\nassemblies. Here, looking over plain and sea, sat generations of\ncitizens and guests to be moved to laughter or to tears. Here the\n\u201cShameless Man\u201d of Theophrastus managed to get himself and his children\nin for nothing by manipulating the places which he had purchased for his\nforeign visitors.\n\nAnd not only could the philosopher Theophrastus find subjects for his\ncharacter sketches among the theatre-goers, and turn the critics into\nmaterial for his critique, but his friend, the playwright Menander,\ncould in his comedy use the dramatic troupe as matter for his\nsententious characterization. Already in the time of Aristophanes the\nchorus was unequally constituted: some members trained as star\nperformers to take a more active part, others to move as mutes in the\nbackground. Menander utilizes this custom to illustrate, in a fragment\npreserved to us, the workers and the drones of life:\u2014\n\n \u201cJust as in choruses not every one doth sing,\n But certain two or three mere speechless dummies stand\n Filling the rows, so here \u2019tis somehow similar:\n _These_ fill a space, while these, to whom God grants it, _live_!\u201d\n\nThe precinct of the Asclepieum, adjoining the Theatre, was a Sanatorium\nwhere religion and faith-cures were combined with actual medical skill.\nIn the \u201cPlutus\u201d of Aristophanes the blind god, Wealth, is restored to\ndiscriminating vision. His head was covered by \u201cPanacea\u201d with a purple\ncloth, and two expert snakes operated upon his eyes.[10] This comic\nscene is not, it may easily be credited, too much of a burlesque upon\nsome of the practices at such places. Magic miracles, including the\n\u201cabsent treatment\u201d of recalcitrant lovers, are not unknown in other\nages. But a visit to the famous health-resort of the great school of\nHippocrates, on the island of Cos, will tend to inspire a respect for\nGreek therapeutics. The \u201copen-air\u201d treatment on the mountain terrace\noverlooking the sea may have been modern enough, and, along with the use\nof the sulphur spring, suggests both technical knowledge and common\nsense.\n\nFootnote 10:\n\n See Gardner, _Ancient Athens_, pp. 429 ff., for a vivid account of\n this scene and subject.\n\nClose by the Theatre to the east, hemmed in by modern houses, the\nbeautiful little circular shrine, the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates,\nreminds us of the cost and rivalry attendant upon bringing out the\ndramas. The weathered sculpture around the top speaks once again of the\ninseparable connection of Athenian life and literature. It carries us\nback to the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus. The pirates who kidnapped the god\nare here undergoing punishment; some, already half changed into\ndolphins, are diving into the sea. In the hymn the pirates, who have\ncarried off the youth in his purple robe, deem him a rich prize for\nransom. But the vine with clustering grapes that presently entwines sail\nand yards proclaims the god. He transformed himself into a bear, then a\nlion, and they at the sight,\u2014\n\n \u201cAll of them shunning the doom that was on them, together out-springing,\n Leaped to the water divine and, leaping, were turned into dolphins.\u201d\n\nThe combination at Athens of natural beauty and material splendour with\nmoral and intellectual worth called forth praise from both guests and\ncitizens. To Bacchylides of Ceos the city is \u201cspacious Athens,\u201d\n\u201csplendour-loving.\u201d The Graces \u201cwreath-winning and violet-eyed\u201d are to\ndower his songs with honour when he addresses himself to its specific\npraise:\u2014\n\n \u201cBrooding thought of the Cean isle\n Poet\u2019s care men praised erst-while,\n Weave me now a web of song\n Resplendent, fit for Athens strong\n Where love and loveliness belong.\u201d\n\nAnd Pindar, fresh from the gardens of Thebes, was impressed by the\nbeauty of Athens at the vernal Dionysia:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe portals of the chamber of the Hours open wide, and growing\n plants, now nectar sweet, perceive the advent of the fragrant Spring;\n then, then on earth immortal shower the lovely tufts of violets, then\n in the hair the roses are entwined.\u201d\n\nA guest-present most highly prized by the Athenians is preserved in\nanother fragment from Pindar:\u2014\n\n \u201cRadiant, violet-crowned, by minstrels sung,\n Bulwark of Hellas, Athens illustrious.\u201d\n\nBut Aristides the Just might have as easily escaped ostracism as could\nthis overworked epithet, \u201cviolet-crowned,\u201d escape the irreverence of\nAristophanes. Whenever foreign envoys, he says, wish to cheat us\nAthenians, they call us \u201cviolet-crowned,\u201d and forthwith we are all\nattention.\n\nAmong all the native poets no one has given freer expression to his\nfeeling for the beauty of Athens than Euripides, unhappy in his personal\nlife and iconoclastic in his attitude towards old traditions. He\nbreathes the air, stainless and of a more ethereal violet than the sea,\nand sings of the concord of Wisdom and the Heavenly Aphrodite:\u2014\n\n \u201cBlest are the children of Erechtheus of the olden time, the children\n of the happy gods, who from a land inviolate and sacred feed on wisdom\n famed afar, and go upon their way forever, daintily enfolded by that\n bright, bright air.\n\n \u201cAnd Cypris, drawing water from Ceph\u012bsus flowing fair, breathes down\n upon the land the gentle breath of winds with sweetness laden and ever\n with her hair encompassed with blown roses\u2019 fragrant coronals keeps\n sending down the Loves who have their seat by side of Wisdom,\n coadjutors they of Virtue manifold.\u201d\n\nThrough the transparent candour of the philosopher\u2019s robe the soul of\nthe poet Plato is ever shining. But like \u00c6schylus he is a poet militant.\nIf he walks by the Ilissus he interprets in terms of the spiritual the\nphysical charm of tree and water and the chirping insect; if he goes\ndown to Phaleron, the \u00c6gean does not bring in for him \u201cthe eternal note\nof sadness,\u201d but his soul has \u201csight of that immortal sea which brought\nus hither\u201d; and in the heaven\u2019s vault, overarching Attica, he sees \u201cmany\nways to and fro\u201d where drive the chariots of the gods whom \u201che who will\nand can\u201d may follow, \u201cfor from the choir divine all grudging stands\naloof!\u201d If to Plato the Athens of the fourth century seemed imperfect,\nif he was even embittered by the judicial murder of his master, it was\nwith the truest patriotism that he turned to construct an ideal state.\nHis sense of law and order was deep-rooted. It was with lofty optimism\nthat he urged his hearers not to rest content with politics as they are,\nbut to look to \u201cthe pattern that is laid up in heaven for him who wills\nto see and, seeing, so to plant his dwelling.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VI\n OLD GREECE IN NEW ATHENS\n\n \u201cBorn into life!\u2014\u2019tis we,\n And not the world, are new.\u201d\n MATTHEW ARNOLD.\n\n\nTravellers fresh from Italy perceive an Oriental picturesqueness in\nmodern Athens, but the immediate impression of its Occidental character\ngained by those who come from Egypt or Constantinople is the correct\none. The old narrow streets, reminiscent of the Turkish period, are few\nin number and lie on the northern side of the Acropolis. Back of them,\nfurther to the north and west, lies a very clean and well-planned town\nwhich boasts of being a little Paris. The substantial houses and hotels,\nthe dignified palaces of the royal princes and the buildings of the\nUniversity and Museum, the conventional shops and public squares, the\nboulevards and gardens, give to Athens the general appearance of any\nEuropean city that is moving fast toward and beyond a population of two\nhundred thousand, and is not yet disfigured by the smoke-stacks of\nfactories. A welcome individuality of taste is shown chiefly in the\nclassical architecture of the group of University buildings and of the\nMuseum.\n\nEven to pilgrims and strangers the modern city reveals an eager and, in\nmany aspects, a charming life. But a special relationship follows in the\nwake of familiarity with the new, added to knowledge of the old, Athens.\nThe student of Greek literature finds that he need not always seek the\nruins of antiquity or the permanent stage-setting of Nature when he\ndesires a sense of fellowship with the past. At any street corner this\nsense may be quickened by some person or object which is an integral\npart of the city\u2019s modern life. Ancient literature not only gleams, like\n\u201ca stately palace hall, with golden pillars of song,\u201d but also mirrors\ncommon things, trivial or serious, which subtly unite the times of Homer\nwith those of Pericles, and both with our own.\n\nGreek gentlemen conspicuously engaged in having their boots blacked\nshare the habits if not the politics of Aristophanes\u2019s dicast who was\nalways seeking the sponge and the basin of oil-mixed pitch for his dusty\nshoes. Street-venders from Rhodes, who beguile foreign ladies with\nembroideries, are plying the craft of the Ph\u0153nician peddler at the home\nof Eum\u00e6us, then a happy princelet and later the swineherd of Odysseus.\nThe peddler displayed to Eum\u00e6us\u2019s lady mother and her maidens a golden\nchain set here and there with amber beads, and \u201cthey offered him their\nprice.\u201d Bargaining, the basis of all transactions, is not always as\namiable as it is in Rome. An Athenian cab-driver in search of drachmas\ncan be as obstinate as the corpse in Aristophanes\u2019s \u201cFrogs,\u201d whom\nDionysus asked to take his luggage to Hades:\u2014\n\n DIONYSUS.\n\n \u201cYou there! You dead man! You, I mean! I\u2019m calling you.\n Good fellow, wilt to Hades carry down my traps?\n\n CORPSE.\n\n How many?\n\n DIONYSUS.\n\n These.\n\n CORPSE.\n\n Wilt make it a two drachma job?\n\n DIONYSUS.\n\n Not I, by Zeus, but less.\n\n CORPSE (_to the bearers_).\n\n Start up the funeral, you!\n\n DIONYSUS.\n\n Good sir, one moment! See if we can\u2019t come to terms.\n\n CORPSE.\n\n You\u2019ll put down drachmas two, or else don\u2019t talk to me.\n\n DIONYSUS.\n\n One drachma and a half? A bargain? Come, take that.\n\n CORPSE.\n\n May I be\u2014resurrected, if I do!\n\n XANTHIAS.\n\n What airs!\n The cursed scamp! Plague take him! I will go myself.\u201d\n\nDionysus and his servant had made their entrance with a donkey, ridden\nby Xanthias who was carrying the traps on a pole over his shoulder. No\nage has allowed the donkey to escape his manifest destiny of bearing\nburdens, nor has age or custom exhausted his capacity of occasional\nrevolt. The persevering attack of the Trojans on Ajax could be likened\nonly to the cudgelling by boys of a lazy ass which has strayed into a\ncornfield and will not desist from wasting the deep crop\u2014an episode as\nmodern as it is Homeric. But for the most part the little beasts carry\npatiently everything that is portable, as they did when, in the annual\ntransportation of the properties used in the Eleusinian Mysteries, their\ndull share in a great business became proverbial. Their panniers of\nlemons and oranges and crates of water-jars are both antique and modern,\nand a famous lost picture of Polygnotus comes to life in a donkey loaded\nwith fresh green boughs, moving toward the spectator.\n\nThat Dionysus, in search of a carrier, so conveniently saw a corpse in\nthe street was due to the Athenian custom of bearing the dead to the\ngrave on open biers. The same custom, shocking to foreign observers,\nprevails to-day; and at almost any hour, in any thoroughfare, may be\nseen one of these funeral processions, with the cover of the coffin\ncarried in front and the uncovered face exposed to the curious and the\nindifferent. Thus exposed, the dead Alcestis was brought out from her\npalace, and the cort\u00e8ge, with which the modern procession seems to\nmingle, moves off the stage with prayers that Hermes and Persephone may\nkindly welcome this traveller to their realm. These deities have been\nforgotten, but their business is transferred to him who was once their\ngrim agent. To the modern Greek peasant Charon is Death. Alcestis\ndreaded him as a messenger and ferryman:\u2014\n\n \u201cI see, I see the two-oar\u2019d skiff. With hand on pole\n Charon, the ferryman of the dead, thus calleth me:\n \u2018Why dost thou loiter? Hasten! Thou\u2019rt delaying us.\u2019\n With words like these in angry haste he urgeth me.\u201d\n\nTo-day he rides in his own might:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhy are the mountains so dark, and why so woebegone?\n Is it the wind at war there, or does the rain-storm scourge them?\n It is not the wind at war there, it is not the rain that scourges,\n It is only Charon passing across them with the dead;\n He drives the youths before him, the old folk drags behind,\n And he bears the tender little ones in a line at his saddle-bow.\u201d[11]\n\nFootnote 11:\n\n Greek peasant song, translated by Passow. Cf. Sir Rennell Rodd, _The\n Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, p. 286.\n\nAround the next corner, especially toward the end of Lent when spring\nlamb is due in the markets and shepherds troop to town, another song\nfrom the \u201cAlcestis\u201d may displace the strain of melancholy. For Apollo,\nPythian lord of song, once served Admetus,\u2014\n\n \u201cLike a shepherd, piping, piping,\n Hymeneal echoes raising\n Down along the sloping hillside\n Where the woolly flocks are grazing.\u201d\n\nIn the guise of a young man, the herdsman of a flock, most delicate, as\nare the sons of kings, Athena once appeared to Odysseus. And it was to a\nman who was pasturing his flocks on many-fountained Ida that Aphrodite\ngave her immortal heart. Perhaps thereafter in the streets of Troy\nAnchises made people think suddenly of early dawns on the mountain-side\nwhen the silver car of the moon hangs low over the sea and the\nnightingale sings and the bleating flocks answer the pipe\u2019s ethereal\ncry. In Athens a transient shepherd, with his crook and his coat of\nfleece, may fling the townsman\u2019s thoughts abroad to the men he has seen\namong the hills of Arcadia, where as of old a misty night is hateful to\nshepherds and goatherds, and a bright moon their heart\u2019s delight; or in\nLesbos, where still in mountain pastures the hyacinth is trampled under\nfoot and darkens the ground. A flock of sheep following the bellwether\nfrom the country to the town is a reminder that the Greeks before Troy\nwere ordered about like a great flock of white ewes by the thick-fleeced\nleader, Odysseus; and that the astute one, in the course of his later\nadventures, saved himself from the wrath of blind Polyphemus by clinging\nface upwards and with a steady heart, beneath the shaggy belly of his\nbest and goodliest ram. Aristophanes in the \u201cWasps\u201d parodies the Homeric\nram. Here it is the family donkey which, led out to be sold, is\nsmuggling under its shaggy belly the old man imprisoned by his son to\ncure him of the \u201cjury habit.\u201d The dejected donkey is addressed by the\nson:\u2014\n\n \u201cPackass! why weepest thou? Because thou shalt be sold\n To-day? Come, double-quick! Why these repeated groans\n Unless, perchance, that some Odysseus thou dost bear?\u201d\n\nAthens is a bustling capital, but to the on-looker every Easter lamb\nbecomes a Golden Fleece, and\u2014\n\n \u201cA story lingereth yet,\n A voice of the mountains old.\u201d[12]\n\nThe Easter feast is of great importance in Greece because the Lenten\nfast is so scrupulously observed. At all times the working people are\ntemperate enough to have pleased Aristophanes, who liked to dwell on the\nsimple living of a generation before his own, when from the country\ndistricts men trooped in to the assembly,\u2014\n\n \u201cEach with his own little\n Goatskin of wine,\n Each with three olives, two\n Onions, one loaf in his\n Wallet, to dine.\u201d[13]\n\nBut during parts of Lent even vegetables are forbidden, and a man who\nhas guided you up Pentelicus will accept from your lunch-basket only a\nfew olives and an orange to supplement his own piece of coarse bread.\n\nThe markets are in the older and most picturesque part of the city, but\nonly a modern Aristophanes could make them into scenes of rollicking\nfarce shot through with political purpose. Provincial Megarians with\npigs to sell, uncouth B\u0153otians bringing in vegetables and game, knavish\nAthenians offering garlic and salt and anchovies from Phaleron\u2014probably\nthe types are still here, dialects, morals and all, awaiting their\nsacred bard.\n\nFootnote 12:\n\n Euripides, _Electra_, 701, translated by Gilbert Murray.\n\nFootnote 13:\n\n _Ecclesiazusae_, 306, translated by Rogers.\n\nIn the same district lies the bazaar known as Shoe Lane, where cobblers\nand tailors and carpenters work in the open, protected by awnings.\nSocrates, keen-eyed for handicraft and homely illustrations, often must\nhave watched their forebears. Not far from the shoemakers, the\ncoppersmiths, in the same district as of old, are suitably gathered in\nHeph\u00e6stus Street, whence the sound of ringing hammers echoes afar. The\nHomeric picture of Heph\u00e6stus in his forge on Olympus is duplicated in\nany little forge along the modern street, when a workman rises from his\nanvil and with a sponge wipes his face and hand and sturdy neck and\nshaggy breast. In more than one part of the city the \u201cbankers\u2019 tables,\u201d\nat which also Socrates used to seek his crowd, are reproduced in the\nmuch frequented tables of the money changers.\n\nThe open-air bakeries of his day also exist again and tempt with their\nbread and plain cakes the exhausted sight-seer, whatever his philosophy.\nBut a Platonist is deterred at the threshold of a pastry-cook\u2019s in the\nfashionable shopping district by the remembrance that in the ideal life\nthere is no place for \u201cthose celebrated delicacies, the Athenian\nconfectionery.\u201d\n\nModern Athens is too arid to afford many public fountains, but women\nstill draw water from the meagre spring Callirrho\u00eb, on the edge of the\nIlissus, not far from the Zeus columns. This spring, in name and\nsituation, is still identified by some experts with the town-spring of\nprimitive Athens and the later Nine Spouts. The traveller who throws in\nhis fortunes with the arch\u00e6ological opposition must at least find in the\nlesser Callirrho\u00eb the Athenian counterpart of the fountains which in so\nmany of the towns and villages of Greece perpetuate, in usefulness and\ncharm, an antique life of homely activities transmuted into poetry. The\ntownspeople of Odysseus drew their water just outside the city from a\nwayside spring deep in an alder thicket, where a basin had been\nfashioned to catch the cold stream falling from a cliff. In the old days\nof peace, when the plain was safe, the wives and daughters of the men of\nTroy had washed the family clothes in broad stone troughs beside the two\nsprings that fed the Scamander. Nausica\u00e4 of Ph\u00e6acia and her maidens did\nthe palace washing so far from the town that the occasion involved a\nday\u2019s excursion and a generous lunch-basket packed by the Queen. But\nthere was a spring of drinking water nearer, for, when Odysseus was\nentering the city, Athena met him in the form of a young girl carrying a\npitcher. At Eleusis, also, in the royal age, the king\u2019s fawnlike\ndaughters, their crocus-yellow hair dancing on their shoulders, drew\nwater for the palace in vessels of bronze from the Maiden Well. In\nclassical Athens, as to-day, only the poorer women went for their own\nwater, and perhaps it was after meeting one who looked tired and\nhopeless that Euripides made Electra, Agamemnon\u2019s daughter, given in\nmarriage to a peasant in Argos to further her mother\u2019s schemes, cry\naloud to the night:\u2014\n\n \u201cO Night, dark foster-mother of the golden stars,\n Thy shelter folds me while this jar bows low my head\n As to and from the river-springs I come and go.\u201d\n\nOnly in the Panathenaic procession did the carrying of water-jars become\nennobled. To-day a working girl may be seen in a pose suggesting that of\nthe maidens of the Phidian frieze.\n\n[Illustration: AFTER POLYGNOTUS]\n\n[Illustration: THE PANATHEN\u00c6A CONTINUED]\n\nThe folk-lore and customs of modern Greece, as heirs of the past, have\nbeen carefully scrutinized. Any knowledge that can be culled from\nspecial treatises will everywhere increase the traveller\u2019s sense of\nhistoric continuity and will enrich his pleasure in meeting the country\nfolk. But by means of only a modicum of Greek poetry he may discover for\nhimself in Athens certain ancient beliefs and practices. On the first of\nMarch, associated like the May Day of colder climates with the\nblossoming of spring, bands of boys go about the streets carrying the\nwooden image of a bird, singing a carol which announces the arrival of\nthe swallow, and begging gifts. One of these songs from Thessaly\nbegins:\u2014\n\n \u201cShe is here, she is here, the swallow!\n Cometh another of honey\u2019d song,\n She percheth, twittereth all day long,\n Sweet are her notes that follow.\u201d\n\nThat the same custom, no newer than the recurrence of Nature\u2019s happiest\ngifts, enchanted the boys of ancient Athens we may infer from our\nknowledge of it in \u201cseagirt\u201d Rhodes. There the carol began:\u2014\n\n \u201cShe is here, she is here, the swallow!\n Fair seasons bringing, fair years to follow!\n Her belly is white,\n Her back black as night!\n From your rich house\n Roll forth to us\n Tarts, wines and cheese:\n Or if not these,\n Oatmeal and barley cake\n The swallow deigns to take.\u201d[14]\n\nWhen the spring was late, Aristophanes\u2019s peevish old man was probably\nnot the only one to say: \u201cZeus! is the swallow never going to come?\u201d Nor\nunder a punctual March sun was his sneak thief the only one to talk\nabout the weather:\u2014\n\n \u201cHaunting about the butcher\u2019s shops, the weather being mild,\n \u2018See, boys,\u2019 says I, \u2018the swallow there! why, summer\u2019s come,\u2019 I say,\n And when they turned to gape and stare I snatched a steak away.\u201d[15]\n\nFootnote 14:\n\n Translated by J. A. Symonds.\n\nFootnote 15:\n\n _Knights_, 570, translated by Frere.\n\nIn graver poetry the dusky swallow of Simonides shared with the\nlovely-voiced nightingale of Sappho the honour of announcing the\nfragrant spring.\n\nOther seasons in Athens had their crop of mendicant carols, and the\nboyish custom of celebrating Apollo at one of his summer festivals by\ngoing about from house to house and singing songs of good wishes is\nsuggested in the modern celebration of New Year\u2019s or St. Basil\u2019s day. It\nis even possible that the rough little model of a ship carried by the\nboys, as if to illustrate the sea-journey of the saint \u201ccome from\nC\u00e6sarea,\u201d is a late descendant of the ship that was carried in the\nPanathenaic procession, the origin of which lay in Theseus\u2019s journey to\nCrete, and the sail of which was Athena\u2019s own peplos.\n\nWith Easter come the most elaborate of the peasant dances that accompany\nall kinds of local religious festivals. Close at hand are the famous\ndances of Megara, but in defiance of tradition the Athenian sojourner\nmay elect to visit those at Menidi, a large village about three miles to\nthe north, whose _panegyris_ or fair is not overrun by non-participants.\nThere are several varieties of peasant dances, and a technical knowledge\nof the accompanying music will be of great service in interpreting them;\nbut whatever their particular measure may be, and whether they are\nperformed by men and women together or by women alone, they all possess\na dignity and gravity which mark them off as something quite different\nfrom the gratification of a lively humour. The religious impulse is not\nwholly forgotten in the delights of a carnal holiday, and the dances are\nthe expression, in unison, of a public feeling which in origin, at\nleast, was reverential. Save for the leader, no individual assumes\nliberty of movement. In long lines or semi-circles the dancers link\nhands and sway in monotonous harmony.\n\nReaders of ancient Greek literature will remember how important dances\nwere in the religious festivals of all epochs. Their variety and their\nancestral relation to the modern dances are subjects for technical\nstudy, but the spectator at Menidi is at liberty to let his imagination\ntravel the Sacred Way to Eleusis, or cross the \u00c6gean to Delos, or seek\nout Argos and distant Sparta. The modern inheritance is a limited one,\nfor it recalls only the grave choral movements that originated in\nSparta, and discards the license of the Dionysiac worship. And\naltogether preventive of any real reconstruction of the past is the fact\nthat now only peasants at a country fair exhibit an art which once was\nan important element in city as well as in village religion, and which\ntested the grace of the gentlest born. It is a far call from a country\nfield and the daughters of Menidi, bedight though they are with\nembroideries and necklaces and often fair of form and face, to the chief\ntemple in Sparta and the choicest maidens of the Spartan state. But one\ncertain bond there is between the girls of to-day and the princesses of\nyesterday. The Easter fair serves the purpose of a market for brides,\nand many a wedding follows it. Dancing is a part of this happy festival\nas it was in antiquity in all ranks of society. And were the maidens of\nMenidi exiled to America, they would long for the village green and the\nbridal feasts, even as Iphigeneia and her comrades, exiled among the\nnorthern Taurians, longed for Agamemnon\u2019s palace and their Argive\nplayfellows:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s O! that I could soar down the splendour-litten floor\n Where the sun drives the chariot steeds of light.\n And it\u2019s O! that I were come o\u2019er the chambers of my home,\n And were folding the swift pinions of my flight.\n And that, where at royal wedding the bridesmaids\u2019 feet are treading\n Through the measure, I were gliding in the dance;\n Through its maze of circles sweeping,\n With mine older playmates keeping\n Truest time with waving arms and feet that glance.\n And it\u2019s O! for the loving rivalry,\n For the sweet forms costly arrayed,\n For the raiment of cunningest broidery,\n For the challenge of maid to maid,\n For the veil light tossing, the loose curl crossing\n My cheek with its flicker of shade.\u201d[16]\n\nFootnote 16:\n\n Euripides, _Iphigeneia among the Taurians_, 1137. Paraphrased by Way.\n\nAthens, like most southern cities, impresses an Anglo-Saxon as having\nmany holidays which \u201cinterrupt business\u201d; but only during the New Year\nand Easter festivals can he begin to imagine a resemblance to the civic\nlife of ancient Athens, which was almost a continuous pageant. \u201cThe\ngods,\u201d said Plato, \u201cin pity for the life of toil, man\u2019s natural\ninheritance, appointed holy festivals whereby men alternate their labour\nwith rest.\u201d But at certain seasons, especially in the spring and autumn,\nthe festivals were so congested that the days of labour must have been\nfar from burdensome. Almost all the festivals had a religious origin,\ncelebrating deities and heroes of political importance, like Athena or\nTheseus, or forces of nature embodied in Dionysus or Demeter. But, like\nChristmas, they gave abundant opportunity both for public enjoyment and\nfor the cultivation of communal and family sentiment. Sophocles had in\nmind all their human charm when he made the blind \u0152dipus lament the\nfuture of his little daughters:\u2014\n\n \u201cFor to what gath\u2019rings of your townsfolk shall you come,\n Or to what festivals from whence you shall not turn\n Back homeward bathed in tears, instead of any share\n In all the holiday?\u201d\n\nThe festivals were often connected with the activities of country folk,\nwith planting and reaping, the vintage and the winepress, and yet at the\nsame time played an important part in a highly cultivated city life.\nSome of them were confined to women, like the Thesmophoria, celebrated\nby matrons in honour of Demeter, the patroness of fruitful marriages,\nand used by Aristophanes as occasion and stage-setting for an attack on\nthe misogyny of Euripides; or like the Tauropolia, in honour of Artemis,\nwhich suggested to Menander a lover\u2019s opportunity. Others, such as the\nHerm\u00e6a, at which Socrates first met the young Lysis and discoursed on\nfriendship, were celebrated by young men at the pal\u00e6stras, or by\nschool-boys. The \u201cMean Man\u201d of Theophrastus was \u201capt not to send his\nchildren to school when there was a festival of the Muses, but to say\nthat they were sick, in order that they might not contribute.\u201d Still\nothers, like the Panathen\u00e6a, which occurred in July, the first month of\nthe calendar year, united all classes and ages in a magnificent display\nof civic loyalty. Public taste at its highest made the presentation of\nplays the chief element in the Greater Dionysia in March, but the drama\nhad originated in the December festival of the country Dionysia, which\ncontinued to be celebrated with a jollity and abandon that probably lost\nnothing in the descriptions of Aristophanes. The same poet also found\nplenty of material to his liking in the Anthesteria, another Dionysiac\ncelebration, in which Pots and Pitchers figured in drinking competitions\nand in offerings to the dead. The statue of Dionysus in the Marshes was\nescorted to the outer Cerameicus, and by the time it was brought back\nagain, a day later, the crowd was doubtless in the state described by\nthe chorus of Frogs in the underworld:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe song we used to love in the Marshland up above\n In praise of Dionysus to produce,\n Of Nys\u00e6an Dionysus, son of Zeus,\n When the revel tipsy throng, all crapulous and gay,\n To our precinct reeled along on the holy Pitcher day.\n Brekekekex, ko-ax ko-ax.\u201d[17]\n\nFootnote 17:\n\n Translated by Rogers.\n\nThe license of some of the Dionysiac holidays was in reality a break in\nthe even tenor of Athenian temperance. At other times there seems to\nhave been little more drunkenness among them than among the Spartans,\nwhose uninterrupted self-restraint aroused the admiration of Plato.\n\nFrom the crapulous and often naked verses of Aristophanes to the\nausterely beautiful marbles of Phidias is a gamut that includes all the\ncharacteristics of ancient festivals, in their appeal to both the\nnatural and the spiritual man. Religious sincerity, civic pride, and\nbuffoonery, jostled one another. Music, literature, and athletics added\ndiscipline and beauty.\n\nThese things as a coherent whole are long since dead. The Easter\nfestival of to-day, like the Panathen\u00e6a, absorbs the entire city and has\nits hours of gaiety as well as its hours of solemnity, but it lacks the\nattendant contests in music, poetry, and gymnastics. If, however, it\nincludes less of a citizen\u2019s life than Athena\u2019s festival, it is more\nPanhellenic than even the Eleusinian Mysteries, its prototype in\nreligious significance. The Mysteries appealed to all Greeks, but\ninvited them to gather at one spot. Those who have seen Easter ushered\nin at midnight by King and Metropolitan in front of the Cathedral of\nAthens, and who have also shared with peasant and parish priest in the\nannouncement within some village church on a lone island of the \u00c6gean,\nrealize that in every part of modern Greece as never in old Greece all\nclasses and conditions of men are at the same hour engaged in a common\nobservance.\n\nBut the excited crowds that fill the city streets and make the Cathedral\nSquare look like a deep cornfield stirred by a strong west wind, and the\ngathering of villagers in the open place in front of their tiny church\nalike betray one quality that is no more Christian and new than it is\nPagan and old. An unquestioning and swift hospitality to strangers is as\nmuch in evidence as is the lighted taper borne by each man, woman, and\nchild. In Athens this is but a proof on a crucial occasion of a temper\nwhich reveals itself in response to every need. By this Ionic grace,\ninherited from the noble civilization of Homer and eagerly exemplified\nby the open-minded Athenians at the height of their prosperity, the\nforeigner is transported back to the old city more surely than by the\nstreet names and signs in the alphabet of Xenophon, or even than by the\nvision, wherever his eye turns, of the ageless rock of the Acropolis.\n\n[Illustration: ATTICA]\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VII\n ATTICA\n\n \u201cThe country of Cecrops, favoured of heroes, rich in its loveliness.\u201d\n ARISTOPHANES, _Clouds_.\n\n\n\n\nModern Athens climbs up around the lower slopes of Mount Lycabettus,\nwhich rises on the east like an index finger above the Attic plain.\nAlthough this peak is less than one thousand feet high, its isolated\nposition opens out an unrivalled panorama of the Cephisian plain from\nParnes and Pentelicus down to Pir\u00e6us and the bay, with Salamis, the\nmountains of the Megarid, the Isthmus, Argolis and \u00c6gina beyond. In the\n\u201cFrogs\u201d of Aristophanes \u00c6schylus\u2019s many-jointed compounds are likened to\n\u201cgreat Lycabettuses.\u201d Athena, it is said, while carrying Lycabettus\nthrough the air to fortify her Acropolis, dropped it suddenly in its\npresent exclusive position; but, if we are to believe Plato, who had a\nvague inkling of the geologic truth, her rival, the earth-shaker, rent\nit asunder from the Acropolis, with which it was once continuous. From\nLycabettus, it would appear, the stream of the Eridanus made its way\nnorth of the Acropolis and flowed out by the channel now laid bare near\nthe Dipylon gate. The Ilissus, rising on the slopes of Hymettus, flows\nsouth of the city and, first uniting with the Eridanus, joins, between\nAthens and Pir\u00e6us, the Cephisus, which draws its waters from the\nPentelicus and Parnes ranges. This configuration of the landscape, with\narable plain-land watered by mountain streams, was the important factor\nin country life about Athens. Clouds on Hymettus, as Theophrastus tells\nus, were a sign of rain. The altar of \u201cShower-giving Zeus,\u201d whether on\nHymettus or, as Pausanias says, on Mount Parnes, would have no lack of\nsuppliants in times of drought. The Clouds, in a fragment of the lost\nedition of Aristophanes\u2019s play, vanish adown Lycabettus and go off to\nthe top of Parnes. In the play as preserved, the mock Socrates,\ninstructing his thick-headed scholar, points out the cloud-goddesses:\u2014\n\n \u201cNow please to look here by Parnes anear, now I see they\u2019ll be gently\n descending.\u201d\n\nAnd the Clouds, leaving B\u0153otia behind, come over Parnes, showering down\nthe praises that Aristophanes delighted to bestow on the Attic country:\u2014\n\n \u201cLet us, maidens, that bring fresh showers, go unto Pallas\u2019s brilliant\n land to turn our eyes on the country of Cecrops, favoured of heroes,\n rich in its loveliness, there where is honour to consecrate secrets;\n there where the temple that welcomes its votaries flings wide its\n doors at the mysteries sacred; there where are gifts for the gods up\n in heaven; stately-roofed temples and statues of splendour; there are\n processionals unto the blessed ones, hallowed exceedingly; fair are\n the chaplets entwining the offerings unto the deities; ever recurring\n the festivals, season by season; and, when the spring cometh on,\n there\u2019s the grace of the Bromian god and incitements to choirs\n melodious; aye and the Muse with the music of deep-voic\u00e8d flutings.\u201d\n\nColonus, the birthplace of Sophocles, lay a little more than a mile\nnorthwest of Athens. The hill is now disappointingly bald. Verdure and\nthe song of the nightingale must be sought by the banks of the Cephisus\nnear by, but the famous lines of Sophocles retouch the faded picture.\nThe chorus of old men of Attica address the aged \u0152dipus:\u2014\n\n \u201cThou\u2019rt come, O guest, unto the fairest of earth\u2019s dwellings in this\n land that hath good breed of horses\u2014this our white Colonus, where the\n clear-voiced nightingale from covert of green dells sends out her\n oft-repeated warblings murmurous and makes her dwelling in the\n wine-dark ivy or the god\u2019s impenetrable foliage with countless\n fruitage laden; where the sun\u2019s rays strike not nor bloweth any wind\n of all the blasts of winter; where Dionysus ever in rapt frenzy fares\n along, consorting with the nymphs that nursed him at the breast.\n\n \u201cAnd fed by heaven\u2019s dew, day in, day out, blooms the narcissus\n clustering fair in wreaths from days of yore inwoven for the twain\n Great Goddesses; blooms, too, the crocus with its gleam of gold. Nor\n ever fail the sleepless fountains of Cephisus and his wandering\n streams.\u201d\n\nThe ramparts of the city of Theseus, seen by Antigone at the opening of\nthe play, are for Sophocles in reality the Acropolis and walls of his\nown day. Antigone describes the sacred grove to her blind father:\u2014\n\n \u201cThis place is sacred, for it teems with laurel, olive, and the vine.\n Within its very heart a multitude of feathered nightingales make\n music.\u201d\n\nThe venerable olive trees, self propagated through generations from the\nparent stump, are, indeed, a feature in the Attic landscape. Sophocles\ndoes not fail to include them in his catalogue of Attic blessings:\u2014\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s no such shoot on the Asian coast, of none such do I hear in\n Doris great, in Pelops-isle\u2014a plant unvanquished, self-renewing,\n terror unto foemen\u2019s spears\u2014nay, none like this, child-nurturing, that\n groweth greatest in our land, the gray-green olive\u2019s foliage.\u201d\n\nAnd in the neighbouring Academy the youths ran off their races beneath\nthe sacred olive trees. To the joyous associations that for nearly two\ncenturies had been accumulating about the Academy Plato added the\novershadowing greatness of his own name and teaching. He has\nincidentally perpetuated the name of the original modest freeholder,\nAcademus, to be a part of the vocabulary of every school-boy. Near the\nAcademy, making a fitting goal for the avenue leading from the Dipylon\ngate between the monuments of illustrious dead, the Athenians gave Plato\nmagnificent interment. An epigram by Antipater transfers to Plato the\nindifference expressed by Socrates in regard to his untenanted body when\nhe says in the prison death-scene:\u2014\n\n\u201cBury me however you will,\u2014if you can catch me\u2014for, when I drink the\npoison, I shall not remain here with you, but shall make my way to a\nblissful life with the Blessed.... So don\u2019t let Crito be vexed on my\nbehalf when he sees my body being burnt or buried as though I were\nhaving some awful experience.\u201d\n\nShelley in his fine paraphrase of the epigram inexactly substitutes\nAthens for Attica and fails to include the epithet \u201cearth-born,\u201d the\nconventional boast of the autochthonous men of Attica:\u2014\n\n \u201cEagle! why soarest thou above that tomb?\n To what sublime and starry-paven home\n Floatest thou?\n \u2018I am the image of swift Plato\u2019s spirit\n Ascending heaven:\u2014Athens doth inherit\n His corpse below.\u2019\u201d\n\nIf we follow up the Cephisus towards its sources we pass through the\nancient deme of Acharn\u00e6 and come on the north to Decelea on the slopes\nof Mount Parnes, or, turning to the right, to Kephisia at the south of\nPentelicus, also called Brilessus by the ancients.\n\nUpon the Parnes range, on the northern frontier of Attica, is the\npartially ruined fortress of Phyle. Few places offer a more attractive\ncombination of scenery and association. There is, as at Delphi, a union\nof grandeur and beauty. In addition to the view that awaits us above,\nthe ascent amidst trees and flowers by the running stream makes this a\nfitting introduction to the more intimate charm of Attic landscape, and\nthe rugged gorges, skirted by the climbing pathway, are even\nawe-inspiring. Once within the massive walls and towers, built on a\nmountain spur commanding the junction of ravines and passes between\nAttica and B\u0153otia, no extended explanation is necessary of the part\nplayed here (in 404 to 403 B. C.) during the civil war between the\npatriots and the Thirty Tyrants. Across the shoulder of \u00c6galeus the\nplain of the Cephisus is unrolled to view, with Athens lying below\nHymettus. In the background are the Saronic Gulf and the Peloponnesian\nmountains. Thrasybulus, the hero of the Restoration, is great even among\nthe great names of Greek history. We can imagine him first seizing the\nfortress with his handful of seventy followers, and then, through months\nof waiting and fighting and watching, looking down on the desired city,\nplanning how he shall restore the exiled patriots to Athens, and Athens\nto herself. We can picture the fierce snow-storm, filling those wild\ngorges, which aided in driving back the knights and hoplites of the\nThirty. Later he swoops down to Acharn\u00e6, surprises and routs the\nunpatriotic Athenians together with the Spartan garrison which the\nThirty, to their dishonour, had admitted to the Acropolis. Finally he\ndescends to Pir\u00e6us, joins battle with the \u201cCity Party,\u201d breaks the power\nof the Thirty and makes the name of \u201cthe men from Phyle\u201d a symbol of\npatriotism which, see it where we may on the pages of Lysias or\nXenophon, claims the eye like illuminated initials and rubrics of\nhonour.\n\nAt Chasia, the farming village of the foothills whence the path ascends\nto Phyle, women, standing in their doorways with busy distaff in hand,\nor energetic but courteous men, ready to discuss politics or crops,\nrecall the simplicity and charm of country life of hill and plain known\nto us from Aristophanes and Menander.\n\nAcharn\u00e6 itself must have occupied the district between Epano-Liossia,\nthe nearest railway station to Chasia, and the charming modern village\nof Menidi whose unspoiled peasants, close to the outskirts of Athens,\nretain many a reminder of the country demesmen. The charcoal-burners of\nAristophanes or Menander would now be compelled to go further up the\nmountain slopes to obtain the tree-stumps for their \u201cParnesian coals.\u201d\nNor is the famous ivy of Acharn\u00e6 now in evidence. The Acharnians, as\nPausanias tells us, called Dionysus =\u201cIvy\u201d= because the ivy plant first\nappeared on their soil. In the Greek Anthology we learn that Sophocles\noften wore a wreath of Acharnian ivy, and in an epigram of Simmias the\nivy climbs over his tomb which, as it was alleged, had its place in the\nburying ground of the Sophocles family beside the neighbouring road to\nDecelea:\u2014\n\n \u201cGently, ivy, gently twine,\n With pale tresses creep and seize\n On the tomb of Sophocles;\n Where the soft and clustering vine\n Droops its tendrils to the ground.\n Petals of the rose, around\n Spread your fragrant anodyne\n For his gracious speech profound,\n Muses and the Graces blending,\n Honeyed charm to wisdom lending.\u201d\n\nIn the \u201cAcharnians\u201d of Aristophanes the demesman Dic\u00e6opolis, shut up in\nthe city by the war, grows tired of hearing: \u201cBuy, buy!\u201d when he would\nhave \u201ccoals, vinegar or oil,\u201d commodities to be had for nothing at home\nin the country. He therefore makes a private and personal treaty of\npeace, goes back to Acharn\u00e6 and proceeds to celebrate the rural\nDinoysia. The revel is on and the wife and mother warns the daughter,\nwho is to officiate as basket-bearer, to take precautions,\u2014\n\n \u201cLest some one ere you know it nibble off your gold.\u201d\n\nTo-day the peasant girls of Menidi without fear display on their persons\nat the Easter dances their abundant dowries of gold and silver. As the\nPhallic procession moves off, Dic\u00e6opolis wisely sends his pretty wife to\na place of safety:\u2014\n\n \u201cYou, wife, up with you to the roof and watch from there;\n And _you_, lead on!\u201d\n\nAt this juncture the chorus of Acharnian men rush in, with the bosoms of\ntheir gowns full of stones, indignant at the thought of peace when their\nvines have been cut by the enemy. They are a sturdy lot. They had\ncontributed a Highland regiment at Marathon; they are regular \u201cold\nHickories,\u201d \u201chardwood-charcoal men, tough as oak, hard-maple men,\u201d and\nthey are ready to stone Dic\u00e6opolis. He gains time, however, for a parley\nby seizing for a hostage a basket of their charcoals and dressing it up\nas a baby.\n\n[Illustration: MENANDER]\n\nMenander, also, in his recently discovered \u201cArbitration\u201d scene, gives\ndetails of an encounter between a shepherd and a charcoal man somewhere\nin this Acharn\u00e6 district, evidently in the public \u201cclearings\u201d lying\nbetween the farm-lands and the undisturbed forests. The shepherd Daos\ntells a well-to-do property owner, who happens by and is selected to\narbitrate the dispute, how,\u2014\n\n \u201cWithin this bushy thicket here, hard by this place,\n My flock I was a-herding, now, perhaps, good sir,\n Some thirty days gone by, and I was all alone,\n When I came on a little infant child exposed\n With necklaces and some such other trumpery.\u201d\n\nHe debates whether he can afford to save and rear the child. Next\nmorning, still perplexed, \u201cI go,\u201d he says,\u2014\n\n \u201cback unto my flock again\n At daybreak. Comes this fellow\u2014he\u2019s a charcoal-man\u2014\n Unto this self-same place to cut out stumps of trees.\n Now he had had acquaintance with me back of this,\n And so we talked together.\u201d\n\nOne of the main sources of the Cephisus is at the foot of Pentelicus.\nHere the village of Kephisia with its generous spring and noble plane\ntree still retains its charm and recalls the \u201cAttic Nights\u201d of Aulus\nGellius. As terminus of a short railway from Athens, it is a convenient\nstarting-place for various excursions in Attica. An easy drive northward\nacross the plain brings one to Tato\u00ef where King George has his summer\nresidence at the ancient Decelea, which the Spartans occupied in the\nPeloponnesian War to cut off the grain supply which came by this way\nfrom Eub\u0153a. But cruel memories of the contest with Sparta are forgotten\namidst the unusual charm of the surroundings. The magnificent\nlow-spreading pine trees are a surprise to many visitors unaccustomed to\nthis variety, and, as one looks southward, Pentelicus, usually seen from\nAthens as a long ridge, confronts the spectator, head on, with\nunfamiliar and uncompromising majesty. In the near foreground olive\ngroves and luxuriant fields of anemones and poppies invite to a long\nlethe.\n\nThe Oropus district on the Euripus, north of Parnes, belongs\ngeographically to B\u0153otia. As one descends on the northern side of the\nmountain the view is more suggestive of Switzerland than of rugged\nAttica. The fertile plain of the Asopus is green and wooded; the Euripus\nwinding between the hedgerows of mountains on either side seems, even\nfrom the lofty summit of Pentelicus, more like a series of inland lakes\nthan a continuous arm of the sea; beyond, the dorsal spine of the Delph,\ngleaming white with snow, crowns the blue Eub\u0153an mountains. A marble\nrelief, found at the port of Oropus, recalls the principal literary\nassociation outside of the shifting scenes in military history.\nAmphiaraus, the seer and hero, is represented in his chariot as he is\nabout to disappear in the earth and his horses start back from the\nyawning chasm. In the \u00c6schylean story Amphiaraus \u201cthe one just man\u201d is\nincluded against his will among the invaders, the \u201cSeven against\nThebes,\u201d and is represented as falling with the rest at Thebes. Of him\nwere written the famous lines which, when spoken in the Athenian\ntheatre, turned the eyes of all the spectators upon \u201cAristides the\nBest\u201d:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Now as for me, know well, I shall enrich this land,\n A priest entomb\u00e8d deep beneath this hostile soil.\n Let\u2019s fight. No death dishonour bringing I await.\u2019\n Thus spoke the seer while brandishing his good round shield\n Of solid bronze. But no device was on his shield,\n For not to seem the best he wishes, but to be,\n While harvesting the fertile furrow of his mind\n Wherefrom an honest crop of counsels springs to birth.\u201d\n\nAmphiaraus was deified throughout Greece, but he had his chief sanctuary\nnear Oropus in a glen where the nightingales sing among the plane trees\nand the oleanders. Here may be seen the remains of his temple, as god of\nhealing; the great altar; the sacred spring by the plane trees where the\ngrateful convalescents threw in their thanksgiving coins. Here were\nfound, in the ruined theatre, five gracefully carved chairs of honour,\nlike the three found at Rhamnus.\n\nRhamnus is on the coast near the southern mouth of the Euripus, and is\none of the most beautiful and secluded places in the whole peninsula. As\na visit to this northeast corner is needful to complete the physical\noutline of Attica, so the contours of Greek character will be sharpened\nhere in the sanctuary of Nemesis, the dread goddess of Retribution,\nwhose warning presence hovered continually in the background of Greek\nconsciousness. Her beautiful statue, made perhaps by Phidias or his\npupils, was fittingly set up in this place near the mouth of the Euripus\nwhere the Persian fleet had sailed through to the crushing rebuke at\nMarathon. Pausanias calmly states that this statue, dedicated to \u201cthe\ngoddess most inexorable of all towards overweening men,\u201d was made by\nPhidias out of some \u201cParian marble which the Persians, as if the victory\nwere already won, carried with them for the erection of a trophy.\u201d If we\ncould credit this statement it would enlarge the itinerary of the meagre\nfragments of the colossal statue now in the British Museum.\n\nAt Rhamnus are to be seen the remains of two temples, one dedicated to\nNemesis, and the other probably to Themis, the mother of Prometheus, and\nidentified by \u00c6schylus, following Attic tradition, with Mother Earth\nherself\u2014\u201cone form for many names.\u201d Situated at the head of a glen,\nbanked-up by a marble terrace and shaded by myrtle, green fir trees and\nshrubbery, the ruins look down upon the marble walls and towers of the\nancient acropolis of Rhamnus occupying a rocky, self-fortified hill that\njuts out into the channel. Beyond the Euripus the mountains fill in the\nbackground.\n\nUnwary speech, insolent success or immoderate, though innocent, good\nfortune might call down the retribution of Nemesis. Like our\nsuperstitious formula, \u201cKnock on wood,\u201d it was a common device in Greek\nto deprecate the divine envy towards arrogant speech, by saying: \u201cI\nbeing but human make obeisance to Adrasteia,\u201d or, the equivalent, \u201cto\nNemesis.\u201d Pindar describes the happy Hyperboreans as set free from this\nscrupulous anxiety, ever present to mortal men:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd for that sacred race nor pestilence, nor deadening age is blended\n in their lot. Apart from war and toil they dwell, acquittal winning\n from exacting Nemesis.\u201d\n\nNear the cheerful modern village of Marathona in the valley of Avlona\nabove the plain of Marathon are remains of an ancient gateway to the\nvilla of Herodes Atticus. The inscription placed over his portal by this\nbeneficent humanist and teacher was: \u201cThe Gate of Immortal Unanimity.\u201d A\nfew miles to the southwest, on the northern slope of Pentelicus, the\nAmerican school excavated on an upland farm, called Dionyso, the remains\nof the ancient Icaria, the earliest Attic home of Dionysus and the\nbirthplace of Thespis, the father of Attic tragedy. An epigram in the\nAnthology by Dioscorides records the claims of Thespis:\u2014\n\n \u201cThespis am I, who the tragedy strain\n Shaped for the masque and was first to combine\n Charms that were new when Bacchus would fain\n Marshal his chorus, stained with wine.\n Figs Attic grown, or a goat was the prize\n Won in the contests, till new I devise.\n They that come after all this will revise,\n Myriad years reshape, refine,\n Little it troubles me\u2014mine are mine.\u201d\n\nNothing adventitious is needed to call forth a certain solemn elation at\nthe first sight of the plain of Marathon. But the sunlight of a February\nday, when the anemones are bright by the wayside, will blend an\nunforgettable natural beauty with the suggestions of a great moment in\nhuman history. The level plain is hemmed in by an amphitheatre of\nmountains; the promontory Cynosura runs down like a natural breakwater\nfrom the north, and the shore curves gracefully inward as if enticing\nseafarers to beach their galleys where the blue water breaks in soft\nwhite upon the shining sand. When we climb the isolated \u201csoros,\u201d the\ngreat mound heaped up over the dead warriors, and pass in review the\nvivid details of the battle as given by Herodotus, there emerges, even\nafter all exaggeration has been neutralized by the strictures of some\nmodern iconoclast, a grateful and redoubled admiration for the\nunflinching loyalty to liberty displayed by the individual soldiers and\neven more for the consummate skill of the commanders. The Athenians with\nthe help of the Plat\u00e6ans repelled forever the re\u00ebstablishing of a despot\nin Attica, and Athens herself unconsciously entered upon what was to be\nthe intellectual and moral trusteeship of Occidental civilization.\nDemosthenes, more than a century later, amidst the ruins of political\nliberty, could foreshadow a destiny greater than material success. He\ncites the great words of Simonides that had drifted down from Marathon\nand could be used with pathetic propriety of the dead at Ch\u00e6ronea. He\nbids his fellow citizens bow, if need be, under the strokes of unfeeling\nfortune, but reject all thought of having erred in their patriotic\nstruggle against Macedon. He bursts forth with that impassioned oath by\nthe dead heroes that thrills each generation born to cherish, or to long\nfor liberty: \u201cIt cannot be, it cannot be, Athenians, that ye erred in\nbraving danger on behalf of freedom and the safety of us all. No, by\nthose of our fathers, fore-fighters in the battle\u2019s brunt at Marathon!\nNo, by those who stood shoulder unto shoulder at Plat\u00e6a! No, by those\nwho fought the naval fights at Salamis or in the ships off Artemisium!\u201d\n\nMarathon, as opening the great contest with Persia, had given the\nAthenians the proud distinction of being champions in the van for\nHellas. Simonides had so hailed them:\u2014\n\n \u201cAthenians, fore-fighters for the Hellenes all, laid low at Marathon\n the power of the gold-decked Medes.\u201d\n\nWithin the mound beneath our feet lies buried with the rest Cynegirus\nthe valiant brother of \u00c6schylus. The poet himself fought in the battle\nand lived to immortalize his city and himself by his Titanic genius. But\nin far off Sicily, when his death approached, ignoring his fame as a\npoet, he turned with eager longing to the distant day and plain of\nMarathon. To him the battlefield was a consecrated close, an \u201cAlsos\u201d\nlike the Altis of Olympia. Almost as if envying his brother and other\ncompanions-in-arms, buried on the battlefield in their native land, he\nwrites as his own epitaph:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u00c6schylus, son of Euphorion, here an Athenian lieth,\n Wheatfields of Gela his tomb waving around and above;\n Marathon\u2019s glebe-land could tell you the tale of his valour approv\u00e8d,\n Aye and the long-haired Mede knew of it, knew of it well.\u201d\n\nThe carriage road that leads back to Athens around the southern end of\nPentelicus again combines beautiful landscape with historic association.\nBy this road the Persians had thought to move with unimpeded might upon\nunwalled Athens. Instead, the soldier Eucles[18] (or perhaps Thersippus)\nbrought the swift news to the rejoicing city, followed soon by the\nAthenian army, who marched from their camp by the Marathonian Heracleum\nand encamped in the Cynosarges gymnasium, also dedicated to Heracles,\nsouth-west of Athens. Here looking down upon the Saronic Gulf they were\nready to repel the great host of Persia which was already rounding\nSunium. Games in honour of Heracles were celebrated at Marathon, and\nEuripides, in his \u201cHeracleid\u00e6,\u201d alludes, though vaguely, to the\nMarathonian tetrapolis as one of the great Attic centres of the worship\nof Heracles. The Plat\u00e6ans by their presence at Marathon won the lasting\nand active friendship of Athens, and it was their city that gave the\nname to the final crushing defeat of the Persians under the combined\nGreek allies. The Spartans, detained at home by convenient scruples\nuntil the full moon gave them the signal to start, arrived at Athens too\nlate for the battle of Marathon, but, as Herodotus charmingly remarks,\n\u201cthey none the less wished to take a look at the Medes and, going out to\nMarathon, they had a look.\u201d\n\nFootnote 18:\n\n See chapter xviii, p. 422. This incident, not given by Herodotus, is\n recorded by Plutarch (_De Gloria Atheniensium_, 3), who says that most\n authorities give the name of the runner as Eucles but Heracleides\n Ponticus calls him Thersippus. The soldier, as he tells us, ran the\n twenty-six miles in full armour and, on reaching the city, with his\n last breath exclaimed: \u03a7\u03b1\u03af\u03c1\u03b5\u03c4\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c7\u03b1\u03af\u03c1\u03bf\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd, \u201cFare well! we are faring\n well,\u201d or\u2014the double meaning is elusive\u2014\u201cGreetings! Rejoice, we too\n are rejoicing!\u201d Browning followed Lucian\u2019s later version, which is\n apparently a _contaminatio_ with the story of Phidippides, the courier\n between Sparta and Athens, for which see chapter iii, p. 72.\n\nOn the east coast of Attica, between Marathon and Sunium, are Brauron,\n\u201clovely\u201d Prasi\u00e6, and Thoricus. These with Markopoulo and other sites in\nthe southern inland plain, Mesogia, have been yielding a wealth of\nprehistoric remains that fill out more and more the dim background of\nantiquity. Thoricus, a bay some six miles north of Sunium, was the\nbirthplace of Philonis, \u201cthe daughter of the morning star,\u201d and\ngrandmother of Thamyris, the Thracian bard who dared to contend with the\nMuses. The inhabitants were not unmindful of their traditions and built\na theatre, unique by reason of its oval orchestra. It is in ruins, but\nthe absence of all traces of a stage seem to date it as of the best\nclassic period. Laurium, just below, is the terminus of the railroad.\nIts silver mines, now worked chiefly for lead, play an important r\u00f4le in\nGreek history. The chorus in the \u201cPersians\u201d of \u00c6schylus explains to\nQueen Atossa that the source of the Athenian sinews of war is\u2014\n\n \u201cA fountain running silver, treasure of the land.\u201d\n\nThe standard coins of Athens, of various denominations, stamped with an\narchaic Athena head on the obverse and the owl on the reverse, are\nreferred to in the \u201cBirds\u201d of Aristophanes as Lauriot owls:\u2014\n\n \u201cFirst, what every Judge amongst you most of all desires to win,\n Little Lauriotic owlets shall be always flocking in.\n Ye shall find them all about you, as the dainty brood increases,\n Building nests within your purses, hatching little silver pieces.\u201d[19]\n\nWhen the Spartans occupied Attica in 413 B. C., they cut off Athenian\naccess to the mines, and Plutarch tells us how a slave described a hoard\nof Athenian money secreted by the Spartan Gylippus under his roof-tiles\nas \u201cnumerous owls roosting under his Cerameicus.\u201d\n\nFootnote 19:\n\n Translated by Rogers.\n\nThe promontory of Sunium, the prow of Attica, breasts the \u00c6gean, and the\nwhite temple columns, beautiful in their ruin, stand up boldly like the\nSamothracian Nike upon an advancing trireme. The view from the\nprecipitous bluff is one of surpassing beauty, with the glistening white\nof the marble against the nearer foreground of green and against the\nblue of the overarching sky and of the wide expanse of water. The eye\nsweeps from \u00c6gina to the opposite shore of Argolis and around to the\n\u201cglittering Cyclades\u201d scattered over the \u00c6gean, while far to the south,\nseventy miles away, Mount St. Elias on Melos in clear weather lifts its\nlofty cone into view, the outline of the island being sunk, like a\nvessel\u2019s hull, below the horizon. On the Acropolis at Athens was\npreserved the memory of the contest between Athena and Poseidon, and at\nSunium each of these divinities had a temple. Poseidon has here retained\nthe supremacy, as was fitting, and only the foundation walls remain of\nAthena\u2019s temple on the lower terrace. The Athenians dedicated at Sunium\nto Poseidon one of the triremes captured at Salamis, and here, on\noccasion of the quadrennial festival held in honour of the sea-god, the\n\u00c6ginetans seized the festal galley full of Athenian dignitaries. A\ndefendant, in one of Lysias\u2019s speeches, tells how he had \u201cwon in the\ntrireme race off Sunium,\u201d which was part of the _panegyris_. In\nAristophanes the chorus of Knights cry out to \u201cPoseidon, lord of horses,\nrejoicing in the bronze-shod hoof-beats and the neigh of steeds and\nswift blue prows of triremes,\u201d\u2014\n\n \u201cCome hither to our chorus,\n Raise thy golden trident for us,\n Thee at Sunium we praise\n Whom the dolphin band obeys.\u201d\n\n[Illustration:\n\n SUNIUM\n Temple of Poseidon. The \u00c6gean Sea\n]\n\nTo catalogue the ships, famous in Greek story, that have sighted or\nrounded this headland would cause to pass in review a mighty and a\nmotley fleet. Nestor tells Telemachus how, sailing home with Menelaus\nfrom Troy, they lost their pilot,\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen that we came unto Sunium sacred, the headland of Athens.\u201d\n\nAnd Sophocles\u2019s chorus of Salaminian sailors long in Troyland for their\nnative shores:\u2014\n\n \u201cO there I would I might be,\n Where Sunium\u2019s spreading foreland\n Hangs over the surge of the sea,\n That straightway our Athens, the holy,\n Might be greeted and hailed by me.\u201d\n\nVessels of commerce or war would double it, bound from Athens to the\n\u00c6gean or to Ionia, and grain transports sailing to Athens from the\nEuxine. The Persian warships backing out from the inhospitable bay of\nMarathon \u201csailed around Sunium, making haste to anticipate the Athenians\nin arriving at the city.\u201d The vessel of Theseus sailed past it bringing\nback safe from Crete the Athenian youths and maidens, and, in after\ndays, the look-out, posted at Sunium, hastened back to Athens to say\nthat the mission-ship from Delos had been sighted and was beating its\nway up the Saronic gulf to put an end, on its arrival, at once to the\nsacred holiday and to the life of Socrates.\n\nOn the west coast of Attica the place of chief interest, in connection\nwith Greek letters, is Vari, near the promontory of Zoster, where Mount\nHymettus comes down to the sea. Herodotus tells us that the frightened\nPersians, escaping from Salamis, thought that the long rocks running out\nat Zoster were some more hostile ships and \u201cwent fleeing for a long\ndistance\u201d until they recognised their mistake. Some little distance\ninland on the side of Hymettus, back of the town of Vari, is a grotto\ndedicated to the Nymphs and also sacred to the Graces, to Pan, and to\nApollo. There is a tradition that the infant Plato was taken to Hymettus\nby his parents, who there sacrificed on his behalf to Pan, the Nymphs\nand Apollo.\n\nThe straits which interrupt the continuity of Mount \u00c6galeus with Salamis\ncould not avail to dissever the island from Attica. The northwestern\npromontory, indeed, comes even closer to the outjutting Nis\u00e6an peninsula\nof the Megarid, and it was inevitable that Megara and Athens should\ncontend for this \u201cisland of desire.\u201d The energy of Solon at the\nbeginning of the sixth century adjudicated the dispute with finality,\nand Salamis was permanently incorporated as an essential part of Attica.\nTo a seafaring folk triremes and sailing craft could annul the\ninterrupting sea, and the mainland and island were still more firmly\ncemented by the blood of Persian and Greek at the great sea-fight.\n\nThe ancestral hero of Salamis was Aias (\u201cAjax\u201d), the son of Telamon.\nPausanias saw a stone near the harbour upon which Telamon sat, as it was\nsaid, looking after his children departing to join the Greek fleet at\nAulis. When Aias fell upon his sword before Troy the hyacinth, according\nto the usual tale, sprang up inscribed with the exclamation of woe \u201cAi!\nai!\u201d the first syllable of his name. But, as Pausanias would have it, a\nlocal flower, different from the hyacinth, made its appearance in\nSalamis inscribed with the same letters. Ajax, as was to be expected,\nappeared and offered divine aid to the Greeks at the battle of Salamis.\nIn his honour the \u201cAianteia\u201d festival was celebrated, and the young\nAthenian ephebi used to go over annually to contend at Salamis in\nfriendly rivalry with the Salaminian youth in foot-races and in\nboat-races resembling those rowed from Munychia to the Cantharus harbour\nin Pir\u00e6us. In addition to the Ajax traditions, here, as elsewhere, other\nsagas were invented or reshaped to give personification to the remote\npast and to be handed down to satisfy the pride of succeeding\ngenerations. Solon was a more tangible memory, and Demosthenes, in\nspeaking of his statue standing in the market-place of Salamis, quotes\nthe Salaminians as saying: \u201cThis statue was set up not yet fifty years\nago.\u201d\n\nBut the dominant memory evoked by the name of Salamis is, naturally, the\ndefeat of the Persians in the narrow straits. For the Athenians\neverything was at stake. The wives and children who had not been sent to\nthe Peloponnesus were on the island. Euripides, according to an enticing\ntradition, was born there at the time of the battle. Xerxes sat on his\nthrone on the mainland to overawe disaffection and to watch the\nspectacle. He had no doubt as to the outcome. His fleet was numerous\nenough to allow him to detach the Egyptian squadron for guarding the\nnarrow exit of the northwest channel and still to leave more ships than\ncould be used for closing in the eastern approaches. The Greeks were\nthus hemmed in, and the unwilling allies from the Peloponnesus were\nforced to remain and give battle instead of withdrawing to the Isthmus.\nThemistocles, the great admiral, had his will.\n\nTo-day, if one sails in a small boat across from Pir\u00e6us to the harbour\nof the modern Ambelaki, the details of the battle as narrated by\n\u00c6schylus and Herodotus explain themselves. The long, bare reef of\nPsyttaleia cumbers the entrance to the channel. The messenger, in the\n\u201cPersians\u201d of \u00c6schylus, in describing to the Queen Mother the scene\nenacted on this tiny island, introduces Pan, the old ally at Marathon:\u2014\n\n \u201cAn island lies before the shores of Salamis;\n \u2019Tis small, for ships a risky mooring, but its reef,\n Sea-swept, dance-loving Pan frequents.\u201d\n\nHere Xerxes stationed a picked body of Persians to save their friends\nand to slay the Greeks escaping from the wreckage, which, it was plain\nto foresee, would come bearing down upon the reef.\n\nBeyond Psyttaleia and overlapping it is the long spit of land Cynosura\n(\u201cDog\u2019s-tail\u201d), like in name and shape to the promontory at Marathon.\nThe result of the contest in this narrow channel is not so surprising as\nis the foresight of Themistocles and the courage of the Greeks in\navailing themselves with irresistible daring of the overconfidence of\nXerxes. \u00c6schylus\u2019s account betrays the vivid memories of an actual\neye-witness. The vessels took position by night. Across the desolated\nplain of Attica the new Day, \u201cby white steeds drawn, her radiance fair\nto see, held all the land.\u201d To the astonishment of the Persians, the\nGreeks, instead of fleeing, raised high their shout of happy omen, and\nEcho, mate of dance-loving Pan, \u201cback from the island rock returned a\nshrill and pealing cry of joy.\u201d The Persian messenger continues:\u2014\n\n \u201cFell fear on all of us barbarians, deceived\n In expectation. For the Greeks a noble hymn\n Were singing, not as though in flight, but like to men\n Starting for battle with courageous heart. And then\n The trumpet\u2019s blare set all of them aflame. Therewith\n The even dash of oar-blades, at the word, bit deep\n The brine and quickly all of them were visible.\n The right wing in good order first led forth, and next\n Came out and on the armament entire. Aye then,\n As they came onward, loud the cry that reached our ears:\n \u2018Sons of the Hellenes! On! Set free your native land!\n Your children free, your wives, ancestral shrines of gods\n And tombs of fathers\u2019 fathers! Now for all we strive!\u2019\u201d\n\nThe \u201cjargon\u201d of the Persian host rolled back reply. A Greek ship was the\nfirst to grapple. Bronze beak smote beak. Triremes turned keel\nuppermost,\u2014\n\n \u201cUntil the water was no longer to be seen,\n With wreckage of slain men and splintered vessels packed.\n The corpses beached. They filled the ridges and the shores.\u201d\n\nWhether dead or alive the Persians found no refuge upon land. Aristides\nwith his men, instead of the picked Persians, was now on Psyttaleia to\nsave or to destroy. The chorus of Persian women, as they hear the news,\nimagine their dead now floating with the tide, now, like struggling\nswimmers, rising to the waves. The leader cries:\u2014\n\n \u201cWoe, woe is me!\n Our dear ones lost,\n By the sea\u2019s swell tossed\n Their bodies, borne along the main,\n Rise and dip, and rise again!\u201d\n\nIt was not unnatural that the ineffaceable memory of the sea covered\nwith wreckage and the dead should reappear, when \u00c6schylus, in the\n\u201cAgamemnon,\u201d describes the morning after the storm that wrecked the\nships returning from Troy:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen rose the brilliant light of Helios, we see\n Th\u2019 \u00c6gean, spread out far and wide, a-blossoming\n With wrecks of ships and corpses of Ach\u00e6an men.\u201d\n\nApart from the details of the battle, the \u201cPersians\u201d is noticeable for\nthe method by which the poet introduces his ethical lesson. The ghost of\nthe great Darius suddenly appears in the orchestra and attributes the\ndefeat of Xerxes to his presumption in fettering \u201clike a slave\u201d the\n\u201csacred\u201d Hellespont. \u00c6schylus reiterates his favourite doctrine: \u201cWhen\nInsolence puts forth the bloom of At\u00e8, the harvest reaped is one of many\ntears.\u201d And when later Xerxes himself arrives, the chorus with\nun-oriental frankness says: \u201cXerxes has packed Hades full with\nPersians.\u201d\n\nThe \u201cPers\u00e6\u201d of Timotheus, a sensational find of the year 1902, with its\nfantastic and overloaded epithets and the half-comic scene of the\ndrowning Persian spitting out bitter brine and reproaches together, is a\ncurious scholium upon \u00c6schylus\u2019s poem. The description of the dead upon\nthe sea is thus retouched:\u2014\n\n \u201cChoked was the sea, star-spangled with the corpses reft of souls\n departing with the failing breath. The beaches were weighed down.\n Other some upon the jutting spits of land were seated all a-shiver in\n their nakedness.\u201d\n\nThe love of free men for a free country saved Attica. Euripides, despite\nthe devastation of the country, might well call his land \u201cunsacked,\u201d\n\u201cinviolate.\u201d It was true of the unyielding citizens who, whether upon\nthe mainland or self-exiled upon their triremes, refused all dealings\nwith the despot. Plutarch tells us that Xerxes after Salamis sought to\ndetach the Athenians from the national cause by promises of liberty and\nriches for themselves. The Laced\u00e6monians, fearing lest they might yield\nto the royal bribery, attempted to remonstrate, but Aristides bade the\nambassadors say at Sparta: \u201cNeither above ground nor below is there\nenough gold for the Athenians to accept in preference to the liberty of\nthe Hellenes.\u201d\n\nIt may be that the visitor to Salamis, as his little craft scuds swiftly\nhome past Cynosura and Psyttaleia, sees the dark clouds, from which but\nnow came rain, roll off towards Eleusis, while Attica, the islands, and\nthe western mountains merge once more in the accustomed beauty of the\ntranslucent atmosphere. He may, perhaps, harbour the thought that under\nsuch a sky, when the war-clouds had finally withdrawn, the demesmen of\ncountry and of town came back to their devastated but ransomed Attica.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII\n ELEUSIS\n\n \u201cThat torch-lit strand whereon the Goddesses rever\u00e8d foster\n mystic rites and dread for mortal men whose lips the ministrant\n Eumolpid\u00e6 have locked in golden silence.\u201d\n\n SOPHOCLES, _\u0152dipus Coloneus_.\n\n \u201cGo thou to Attica,\n Fail not to see those great nights of Demeter,\n Mystical, holy.\n There thou shalt win thee a mind that is care-free\n Even while living,\n And when thou joinest that major assembly\n Light shall thy heart be.\u201d\n\n CRINAGORAS, _Greek Anthology_.\n\n\nEleusis, like Delphi, was a centre of Greek religious life, but its\nPanhellenism was of a later date and a direct consequence of the power\nof Athens within whose territory it lay. Although the worship of\nnature\u2019s productivity, under the form of Demeter losing her daughter\nPersephone within the earth and recovering her again, was indigenous\namong the early Pelasgic dwellers in Eleusis, and although upon this\nnative cult were grafted religious beliefs and practices imported from\nThrace, it is yet true that the Eleusinian Mysteries waxed famous only\nas Athens waxed great. Once established by the most powerful city of\nGreece as its highest expression of religious feeling, they drew to\ntheir modest birthplace in the recurring Septembers of many centuries\nthe pious and the curious from all Greek lands. The right of initiation,\noriginally open only to citizens of Attica, was extended to all Greeks\nand later to their Roman conquerors. In this repudiation of \u201cbarbarians\u201d\nEleusis resembled Olympia rather than Delphi, where Persian or Scyth or\nAfrican might consult Apollo.\n\nBut these three centres of Panhellenic life alike present a history\nwhich begins in the dim age of mythology and ends, several centuries\nafter the beginning of our era, in the final clash of Christianity with\nPaganism. Perhaps the history of Eleusis best deserves the name of\n\u201csacred.\u201d Playing no appreciable part in secular events, the town was\nrepeatedly the scene of religious events which were of unequalled\nspiritual importance. Here an early nature cult, sister to savage rites\nin many parts of the world, became not only a beautified worship of the\nphysical universe but also an expression of a hope in immortality. \u201cThe\nfable of Kore (the Daughter) is as much the image of the destiny of man\nafter death as it is that of the reproduction of vegetative life by\nmeans of the seed committed to the earth.\u201d[20]\n\nFootnote 20:\n\n See articles by Fran\u00e7ois Lenormant in the _Contemporary Review_, 1880.\n\nExcept for the proximity of Eleusis to Athens there was nothing in the\nphysical qualities of the town to make the Eleusinian mysteries greater\nthan any others. Its loveliness befitted rather than promoted the\nworship of the Earth Goddesses. Their story clung also to the seaward\nlooking ledges of \u201csteep Cnidos,\u201d where was found the noble statue of\nDemeter that is now in the British Museum, and to the blossoming fields\nof Sicilian Enna. The Corn-Mother had her shrines on B\u0153otian farms and\nin the mountain caverns of Arcadia, and in more than one locality her\nworship was as mysterious and secret as the processes of nature. And yet\nthe religious genius of Athens could have had no more exquisite stage\nthan Eleusis for its larger operations. Sheltered by hills, washed by\nthe sea and commanding a goodly plain, it is still, even in its poverty,\none of the fairest places in Greece. The Thriasian plain, in the\nsouthwestern portion of which, on a low hill, lies the town, is\nseparated from the plain of Athens by the long ridge of Mount \u00c6galeus\nand from the plain of Megara by the chain of hills that ends in the twin\npeaks of the Kerata, or \u201cHorns,\u201d familiar objects in the westward view\nfrom the Acropolis of Athens. The mountains of Salamis also seem to\ncontribute to the girdling of Eleusis, so near do they rise across the\ncurving and almost landlocked bay. Empurpled by shadows, the mountains\nand the sea are like the deep blue robe of the mourning Demeter. Subdued\nto the delicate and luminous tint of the sky they seem like the veil\nwithin whose folds gleamed the cornlike yellow of her hair. Near the\nsea, close around Eleusis, there are still fertile grain fields to\nrecall that\u2014\n\n \u201cHere first the fruitful corn upreared its bristling ears.\u201d\n\nThe historical development of the Eleusinian mysteries naturally\nfollowed the general development of Greek religious thought. To the\nprimitive duality of Demeter and Persephone was added Dionysus, lord of\nthe elements, when he had once been accepted by the Athens of\nPisistratus. At Eleusis he appeared as the child Iacchus. Later, under\nthe influences of the strange school of thought known as \u201cOrphic,\u201d at\nonce mystical and gross, this multiple god became Zagreus, through whose\nsavage death man, otherwise destined to be forever brute, came to\npartake of the divine nature. But in all periods the mysteries \u201cwere\nfounded on the adoration of nature, its forces and phenomena, conceived\nrather than observed, interpreted by the imagination and not by reason,\ntransformed into divine figures and histories by a kind of theological\npoetry which went off into pantheism on the one side and into\nanthropomorphism on the other.\u201d\n\nIn this theological poetry the position of power was held by the long\nHomeric Hymn to Demeter, although it antedates the presence of Iacchus\nat Eleusis and at least overlooks the importance of Triptolemus, the\nyoung prince of the city, to whom the Earth-Mother gave the first\nseed-corn and the commission to teach the art of husbandry throughout\nthe world. The representation of this act was left for fifth century\nsculpture, if we may so interpret the beautiful relief discovered at\nEleusis and preserved in the National Museum. Nor is there more than\ncasual mention of Eumolpus, the legendary first priest and the eponymous\nancestor of the priestly family in Athens which was charged with the\ncare of Demeter\u2019s worship. But the Hymn told flawlessly the central\nstory of Demeter and Persephone: the ravishment of Persephone by Hades\nas she was picking roses and crocuses, violets and irises and the\nmarvelous narcissus which the earth bore to be her snare; the grief of\nDemeter as she heard the mountain peaks and the deep sea echo her\nchild\u2019s cry, her wandering search, her unrecognised sojourn at fragrant\nEleusis in the courteous household of the king, and her retarding of the\nfruits of the earth; the reunion of mother and daughter for two thirds\nof the year, and the sending up once more of the grain from the rich\nfields and the burgeoning of the leaves and flowers; and, finally, the\ncommand of the Goddess that the people of Eleusis should build her a\ngreat temple and an altar below the town and the steep wall, above the\nspring Callichorus on the jutting rock.\n\nHomer himself had not known this story. Hesiod had lacked the Ionic gift\nto tell it. Euripides, in a later generation, was led astray by his\nstrain of Orphic imagination which needed the roar of rivers and the\nthunder of the sea, the wail of flutes and the clatter of the tambourine\nto mark the frenzy of a suffering godhead. The Greeks as a people\npreferred a story in which nature perishes and blooms again, in which\ngrief and love fight with death, while the dignity of life is\nunassailed, and the beauty of hills and sea, flowers and welling springs\nirradiates its tragedies.\n\nOnly the external facts concerning the celebrations are open to us. The\nsecrets of the two successive initiations, one preparatory to the other,\nwere so jealously hidden by the ancient initiates that the keenest\nscholarship has not been able to discover them in literature or in art.\nAlcibiades, idolized as he was, could not secure acquittal from the\nsuspicion of having parodied the mysteries. Silence was enjoined by\nreligion, enforced by law. This reserve about holy things, which has\nappealed to some moderns as the \u201cchief lesson and culminating grace\nderived from Eleusis,\u201d was proclaimed not only as a necessary condition\nbut also as an integral part of initiation, \u201cimitating,\u201d as Strabo\nexpressed it, \u201cthe nature of the godhead which is forever eluding our\nsenses.\u201d Knowledge of the outward events of the festival has been\npainstakingly gathered from passages in Athenian literature, a few\ninscriptions, the excavated ruins, vases and other works of art, and\nfrom the controversial literature, both Christian and pagan, of the\nearly centuries of our era.\n\nThe \u201cMysteries\u201d lasted nine days, the time of Demeter\u2019s wanderings.\nPrior to them the youths\u2014ephebi\u2014of Athens went to Eleusis and brought\nthence certain sacred objects which were to be used in the later\nprocession. On the 15th of Boedromion, or September, near the time of\nsowing, the \u201cmyst\u00e6,\u201d who in the early spring month of Anthesterion, the\nseason of planting, had participated in the Lesser Mysteries in a suburb\nof Athens, were assembled at the Stoa P\u0153cile to listen to sundry\nproclamations. The following day was one of purification. The cry went\nout, \u201cseawards, O myst\u00e6,\u201d and every candidate washed himself and his\nsacrificial pig in the bay near Eleusis, following the Greek feeling\nthat the sea purges from the evils of earth. For two more days\nsacrifices were carried on at Athens. And then on the 19th or the 20th\ncame the great procession to escort the image of the child Iacchus,\nmyrtle-crowned and carrying in his hand a torch, back to his Eleusinian\nhome. The day was a public holiday. Great crowds gathered along the\nSacred Way to watch the long line of ephebi, mystics, priests and\nofficials, who, wearing myrtle and bearing torches, left the Dipylon\nGate early in the morning and reached the precinct at Eleusis after\nnightfall, when the mysterious shadows were dispelled only by the yellow\nglare of thousands upon thousands of torches and by the lights that\nstreamed from the sacred buildings.\n\nThe modern highroad follows very nearly the Sacred Way. Few travellers\nnow brave the heat and dust of an Attic September, but in some \u201cmonth of\nflowers\u201d gain their impressions of the beauty of the road, which still\nleads over the Cephisus, past gray-green olive groves, up through the\npine-clad pass of Mount \u00c6galeus, and down again to wind closely beside\nthe curved shore of the sea. In antiquity the Sacred Way was lined with\ntombs and temples and shrines. Moderns are detained only by the lovely\nmedi\u00e6val Convent of Daphne, at the top of the pass, but the ancient\nprocession lingered not only at the Temple of Apollo which occupied this\nspot, but at many other sacred stations, to offer sacrifices, sing\nhymns, and engage in dances, solemn or joyous or wild. This was the\nreason for leaving Athens so early to cover only thirteen miles before\nanother sunrise. The last part of the way followed the \u201ctorchlit strand\u201d\nby night. The \u201cvoices of the night,\u201d the moving feet of the multitude\nowned Iacchus as lord, with whom the stars also danced, the stars whose\nbreath is fire. And to the stars of Sophocles Euripides added the\nelemental joy of moon and sea:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen the stars of the ether of Zeus lead out,\n And the moon glides on as the dancers\u2019 queen,\n And the daughters of Nereus join the rout\n Adown the sea or along the swirl\n Of the rivers eternal that rush and whirl\u2014\n The ether, the moon, and the streams and the sea\n They dance to honour Persephone,\n The maiden crowned with the golden sheen,\n And Demeter the Mother\u2014ah, Dread is she!\u201d\n\n[Illustration: OLIVE TREES ON THE WAY TO ELEUSIS]\n\nThe singing of the vast throngs, breaking out at sunrise, changing its\nthemes in fresh enthusiasms through the long day and swelling by night\ninto triumphant volume, must have been unforgettable. Herodotus relates\nthat in the gloomy time when Athens was abandoned, and its plain laid\nwaste by Xerxes, even a Medizing exile was haunted by its ghostly\nechoes. Dic\u00e6us of Athens chanced to be in the Thriasian plain with\nDemaratus of Sparta, and saw a cloud of dust advancing from Eleusis,\nsuch as a host of thirty thousand men might raise. As he was wondering\nwho the men could possibly be, a sound reached his ear and he thought\nthat he recognised the mystic hymn of Iacchus. Even as they looked, the\ndust became a cloud and sailed away to Salamis, making for the station\nof the Grecian fleet. This was a sign to the Athenian that the gods of\nEleusis would destroy the fleet of Xerxes. To us an echo of the singing\ncomes through the serious lyrics in the \u201cFrogs\u201d of Aristophanes. At the\nportals of Hades a band of mystics sing over again the processional\nhymns they had often sung on earth, beginning with the sunrise summons\nto Iacchus to leave his Athenian shrine:\u2014\n\n \u201cO Iacchus, O Iacchus,\n Morning star that shinest nightly,\n Lo, the mead is blazing brightly,\n Age forgets its years and sadness,\n Aged knees curvet for gladness,\n Lift thy flashing torches o\u2019er us,\n Marshal all thy blameless train,\n Lead, O lead the way before us; lead the lovely youthful Chorus\n To the marshy flowery plain.\u201d[21]\n\nFootnote 21:\n\n Translated by Rogers.\n\nThe days at Eleusis were probably only pauses between the \u201cgreat nights\u201d\nof the worship of Demeter. The nightly proceedings seem to have\nconsisted of three elements. The first was an imitation of Demeter\u2019s\nwanderings. The initiates went up and down the shore by the sea, their\nrestless torches appearing from a distance like great \u201cswarms of\nfireflies.\u201d They sat too upon the Joyless Rock, and by meditation\nendeavoured to enter into the passion of the Goddess. The second element\nwas some sacrament of food and drink in commemoration of the fact that\nDemeter was finally persuaded by the merry Iambe to break her fast.\nFinally came a series of dramatic representations in the great Hall of\nInitiation, by means of which the divine story was unfolded.\n\nIt would be a mistake to suppose that if we knew more details about\nthese celebrations we should understand more clearly the influence that\nthey exerted on the minds and spirits of the celebrants. In the\nmysteries, we are assured by Aristotle, the initiates did not learn\nanything precisely, but received impressions, were put into a certain\nframe of mind for which they had been prepared. The value of subtle\ninfluences like these can never be apprehended save by those who have\nbeen subjected to them. In no age, under no sanction, have men been able\nto create sacred rites, whether secret or open, that could not be\nconstrued as mummery, not only by those of a different age but even by\ncontemporaries who stood outside the circle of the elect. Were every\n\u201csecret\u201d of the Eleusinian Mysteries to be recovered, we should still be\nuninitiated into their higher wisdom. We should still be thrown back, as\nwe are at present, upon a vicarious sympathy with those who have borne\nwitness to the quickening of their spirits in the Eleusinian nights.\nFortunately this testimony comes from a few of the most gifted among the\nGreeks. The often quoted statement of Cicero, that initiation taught men\nnot only to live happily but to die with a fairer hope, only repeats\nwhat was said by his literary master, Isocrates: \u201cThose who have\nparticipated in the mysteries possess sweeter hopes about death and\nabout the whole of life.\u201d Strangely enough, \u00c6schylus, who was born in\nEleusis and whose plays in later times were acted there because of their\nreligious character, seems never to have been initiated. But Pindar and\nSophocles and Euripides and Aristophanes harboured personal hopes that\nthose who knew the mysteries were \u201cblessed\u201d in the hour of death and in\nthe life to come. In the \u201cFrogs\u201d the dead mystics end their song in\nsolemn peace:\u2014\n\n \u201cO happy mystic chorus,\n The blessed sunshine o\u2019er us\n On us alone is smiling,\n In its soft sweet light;\n On us who strive forever\n With holy, pure endeavour\n Alike by friend and stranger\n To guide our steps aright.\u201d[22]\n\nFootnote 22:\n\n Translated by Rogers.\n\nThe impulse that was derived from Eleusis to lead the earthly life\naright must have had as many different results as there were\ntemperaments among the initiates. Andocides, merchant and orator,\nreminded the Athenian judges that they had contemplated the sacred rites\nin order that they might punish the guilty and save the innocent. Plato\nfelt that he whose memory of initiation was still fresh and who at\nEleusis had been the spectator of \u201cmany glories in the other world\u201d must\nsee in every beautiful face or form that he encountered an imitation of\ndivine or absolute beauty toward which his spirit would go out in\nreverential love.\n\nThe excavated remains of ancient Eleusis consist of ground foundations\nor even fainter traces of buildings and porticoes dating from the\n\u201cMycen\u00e6an\u201d period to the age of the Antonines. Pisistratus, Cimon,\nPericles and Hadrian have left fragmentary records in stone of their\ninterest in this religious centre. The Temple of the Mysteries, which\nwas a great hall rather than a sanctuary, saw many changes in the course\nof the centuries. The older structure of Pisistratus\u2019s day, destroyed by\nthe Persians, was replaced by Pericles, perhaps according to plans by\nIctinus. Left unfinished by him, it was added to by Greek and Roman\nuntil its boastful splendour aroused the anger of the Gothic monks who\ncame south with Alaric and compassed its final ruin.\n\nHomelier memories centre in the Spring of Fair Dances (Callichorus), now\nidentified. Here, Pausanias tells us, \u201cthe Eleusinian women first danced\nand sang in honour of the goddess,\u201d decked perhaps like the Doric\nmaidens whose worship of the same goddess charmed the eyes of Alcman:\u2014\n\n \u201cWe came to great Demeter\u2019s fane, we nine,\n All maidens, all in goodly raiment clad;\n In goodly raiment clad, with necklace bright\n Of carven ivory, a radiant gleam.\u201d\n\nA fortunate dream prevented Pausanias from relating to the uninitiated\nwhat he saw within the sacred precinct. In unpoisoned content,\ntherefore, lured by the beauty of the \u201cwhite spring\u201d which Callimachus,\nthe Alexandrian, included among Demeter\u2019s gifts, the modern traveller\nmay sit on the temple steps and abandon thought, even as many an ancient\nmystic in the autumnal days between the holy nights must have mounted to\nsome place of outlook whence he could watch the deep blue sea break into\nfoam delicate and white as the face of Persephone.\n\nThe mysteries ended on the 24th, with a public festival. At Athens games\nwere held, called the Eleusinia, offering as a prize a measure of barley\nreaped from the field of Rharos close to the walls of Eleusis where the\nfirst seed corn had fructified. In later times, with the general\nincrease of holidays, this festival was prolonged, but in the greatest\ndays of Athens the procession of mystics returned to the city on the\n25th, with ceremonies of farewell to Persephone now leaving her mother\nto return to her gloomy lord, like summer nearing the embrace of winter;\nand with some final ritual, performed, it may be, at the Dipylon Gate\nrather than at Eleusis, of prayer to sky and earth that the one might\nimpregnate and the other bear. On the curb of a sacred well before the\ncity gate has been found the very ancient formula, not yet outlived by\nthe generations of men who live upon the fruits of the earth.\n\nThe day of return gave one last opportunity for a public\ndemonstration\u2014this time of hilarity. Justified by the quips and cranks\nof Iambe, the initiates yielded to the impulse which in the natural man\nfollows close upon exaltation. At the bridge over the Cephisus the\npeople of the city, wearing masks, met the procession, and a carnival of\nscurrilous wit ensued, which was a savoury memory to Aristophanes\u2019s\nmystics in the world of shadows. To us the recollection may bring a\nsudden distrust of the sympathy with the past which, within the\nunfretted silence of Eleusis, seemed completely to possess us. Like the\nspectators in the comedy we get a whiff of pork. The light of the\ntorches reveals the vulgarities of a revelling crowd. The cymbals of the\npriests, clashed only at this spot, drown the voices \u201cof no tone.\u201d Is\nit, after all, true, as the early Christians believed, that orgies, not\nprayers, have busied these men and women?\n\nBut with the crossing of the bridge the mood vanishes. The western sun\nis once more adorning the Athenian Acropolis. Not only Pindar and Plato\nfaced this hill with a new reverence after their Eleusinian nights, but\nmany a simpler man and woman must have come home comforted and hopeful\nto take up old burdens on the morrow. If, viewed by a Plato from the\nheights of \u201ctrue philosophy,\u201d thousands who came from Eleusis were still\nblind, or only partially aware of the meaning of life and death, this\nwas but the Greek manifestation of a universal fact: \u201cMany are the\nthyrsus-bearers but few are the mystics.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IX\n \u00c6GINA\n\n \u201cNot far off from the Graces\u2019 favour falls this island\u2019s lot.\n She keepeth civic faith and hath attained to glory in the valour\n of the sons of \u00c6acus. Flawless is her fame from the beginning;\n for she is sung as nurse of heroes, foremost in prize-winning\n contests numerous, foremost in swift war.\u201d\n\n PINDAR.\n\n\nPindar\u2019s praise of \u00c6gina must have been as wormwood to the Athenians,\nfor her Dorian blood and commercial supremacy made her their natural\nrival, and her proximity fanned rivalry into hatred. Athens conquered in\nthe end, and time and tourists have completed the victory by turning the\nisland into one of the \u201cexcursions in Attica.\u201d No longer the \u201ceye-sore\nof Pir\u00e6us,\u201d as Pericles called it, it now immeasurably enhances the\nAttic landscape and beckons to its own shores those who day by day have\nwatched its mountainous beauty across the estranging gulf. Only on the\nwestern side of the island, where the town of \u00c6gina occupies the site of\nthe ancient capital, is the coast free from steep cliffs, and the entire\nsurface, as it is seen from Athens, consists of mountain-ridges crowned\nby the high peak of Oros, once sacred to Zeus Panhellenios and now\nbearing a chapel to Saint Elias. Toward these \u00c6ginetan hills the eye\ninevitably turns whether the sullen rain-clouds are gathering, as of\nold, about the highest summit, or Zeus unrolls his bluest canopy above\nthe deeper azure of their slopes, or whether, against the changing\nsunsets, they darken into stormy purple or delicately veil themselves in\namethystine, shot with rose.\n\n\u00c6gina\u2019s lodestone for modern travellers is the Doric temple on a hill\nabove the Bay of Marina in the northeastern part of the island. Regular\nboats ply between Pir\u00e6us and the harbour-town of \u00c6gina, the route taken\nby Lucian\u2019s group of friends who hired a tiny boat at four obols a head\nin order to see the islanders celebrating their famous Festival of\nHecate. From the town the temple may be reached by a ride of several\nhours across the rough but fertile northern districts of the island.\nExcursion boats, however, for those who have but a day, cross directly\nfrom Pir\u00e6us to the Bay of Marina, a route more nearly akin to that\nfollowed by the Athenian ships which began the mad expedition to Sicily\nby a race \u201cas far as \u00c6gina,\u201d and then turned their prows toward the open\nsea. From the shore of the bay it is an easy walk to the isolated\nhill-top upon which the ruined temple stands. On an April day this\napproach is one of vivid beauty, the bright new green of fig trees\nglistening among resinous pines and the ground rioting in the colour of\nmany flowers. The hill-top itself offers a scene which is unsurpassed\neven among the remoter islands of the Greek seas. The intense brilliance\nof the very white marble columns under the cloudless sky is tempered by\nthe somewhat sombre green of neighbouring trees. Afar are seen the\nbroken coast and the varied mountains of the mainland from Megara to\nSunium. Below, in capricious loveliness, now a tranquil plain of\nultramarine, now a restless surface of sparkling crystal, stretches the\nSaronic Gulf.\n\nThe temple was erected to Aph\u00e6a, protectress of women. Of the outer\ncolonnade enough is intact to reveal the dignity of the original\nstructure, but it was in the pediment sculptures that the art of \u00c6gina\nwas best expressed. Preserved now in the Munich Museum, they are heirs\nto the ancient fortune of many \u00c6ginetan products which were shipped to\nthe north and to the south, to Egypt and to the barbarous shores of the\nBlack Sea. These pediment groups, well known as examples of the work of\nthe \u00c6ginetan school of sculpture in the early part of the fifth century,\nprobably represented episodes of the Trojan War. This would seem to\nindicate that they were produced after the victory at Salamis which\ninspired so many symbolistic expressions in art and literature of the\nconquest of barbarians by Greeks. \u00c6gina distinguished herself at\nSalamis, her sailors being awarded the first honours for valour. And her\nolder heroes had fought conspicuously in the Trojan War, the earlier act\nof the long drama.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n \u00c6GINA\n Temple of Aph\u00e6a\n]\n\nBut it was the personal bravery of the \u00c6ginetans rather than their\nnational policy which brought them glory at Salamis. The\nisland-commonwealth was inclined to aid the Persians, and it was the\ninterference of Athens at this crisis which brought on the open war\nbetween the two maritime powers. By the middle of the fifth century\n\u00c6gina was completely conquered and made a member of the Confederacy of\nDelos. Twenty years later the Dorian inhabitants were expelled and the\nisland freshly settled from Attica.\n\n\u00c6gina\u2019s heyday had antedated that of Athens by two centuries. Her\nargosies had been known in all ports where men bought or sold. Her\nsystem of coinage and of weights and measures had set the standards for\nthe Greek world. At home her people displayed their restless energies in\nboth industrial and artistic pursuits. In literature alone were they\nbarren. Their claim to poetry lies only in the inspiration which one\nmanifestation of their energy yielded to a foreign poet.\n\nThe \u00c6ginetans were remarkable athletes as well as fighters, and Pindar\nboasted that he held up a mirror to their noble deeds, and wrought for\nthem a necklace of the Muses, \u201cwith white ivory and gold inlaid and\ncoral of the lily flower gathered \u2019neath the ocean dew.\u201d The young\nPytheas, indeed, who won the pancratium at Nemea, was celebrated by both\nPindar and Bacchylides, and in the ode of the latter poet there lurks\nthe memory of some spring visit to \u00c6gina when the young flowers and\nreeds were made into garlands, and bare-footed girls bounded like young\nfawns toward the flowery hills. Pindar, in the eleven extant odes which\nhe wrote for \u00c6ginetan youths, mingled a \u201cfitting draught as meed for\ntheir toil upon the highway clear of god-inspired deeds.\u201d His\nwillingness to use his best gifts in their behalf he explained by the\nancient friendship between the island and his native city, typified by\nthe sisterhood of the nymphs Thebe and \u00c6gina, both beloved by Zeus. And\nalthough he praised the athletic spirit of the \u00c6ginetans and their\njustice, their defence of strangers, and the deliverance wrought by them\nat Salamis \u201cwhen Zeus was showering destruction far and wide and death\ncame thick as hail upon unnumbered men,\u201d his most frequent theme was the\nglory of their legendary heroes.\n\nThe nymph \u00c6gina had borne \u00c6acus, who was so just a king that at his\ndeath the gods made him a judge in Hades. His sons were Peleus and\nTelamon, their sons were Achilles and Ajax and Teucer.\n\n \u201cBeyond the sources of the Nile and through the Hyperboreans they\n pass, nor is there any city so barbarian or confused in speech that it\n knoweth not the hero Peleus and his fame nor that of Ajax, son of\n Telamon, whom on his ships Alcmena\u2019s son led forth to Troy.\u201d\n\nLords of wide adventure, they drifted away from \u00c6gina\u2019s shores. Teucer,\nson of Telamon, ruled in Cyprus, a new land, and Ajax held the Salamis\nof his father. Peleus ruled in Thessalian Pthia. In the Euxine Sea\nAchilles won a \u201cshining isle,\u201d and his son was prince in \u201cEpirus, famed\nafar, where, from Dodona on, the cattle-pasturing headlands, jutting\nhigh, lie out against the Ionian Sea.\u201d But at the invocation of Pindar\nthey gather once more in their ancient home.\n\nNor was the significance of human greatness absent from Pindar\u2019s mind:\u2014\n\n \u201cWithin a little space the joys of man spring up; so too they fall\n again to earth when shaken by an adverse doom. We creatures of a day!\n What\u2019s man? What is he not?\u2014a shadow\u2019s dream! But when there comes a\n glory sent of God there rests on men a bright light and an age\n serene.\u201d\n\nThus to a youth of \u00c6gina who was lifted on the wings of hope and valour\nthe poet gave a warning and a larger hope.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER X\n MEGARA AND CORINTH\u2014THE GULF OF CORINTH\n\n \u201cCities which were great aforetime now as a rule are mean, and\n those formerly were small which in my day have become great.\n Therefore, since I know that human prosperity never remains\n stationary, of both alike I shall make mention.\u201d\n\n HERODOTUS.\n\n\nOn the neck of land that unites Attica to the Peloponnesus two Dorian\ncities attained to prominence in the centuries intervening between\nHomeric civilization and the rivalries of Sparta and Athens, those great\nrepresentatives of the Dorian and Ionian races who reduced all other\ncities to the position of allies or satellites. Only before the middle\nof the sixth century were Corinth and Megara powers of the first rank.\n\nThey are now stations on the way to Athens for those who enter Greece at\nPatras. The railroad journey between these cities, along the coasts of\nthe Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs, ought to be taken in one direction or\nthe other by every visitor to Greece, for scarcely any other displays to\nbetter advantage the combination of mountain, plain, and sea, which are\nthe triad of Greek landscape. The waters of the Corinthian Gulf, in\nswift response to sun, wind, and cloud, vary from pellucid blue to\nvivid, foam-flecked emerald, marked by strange bands of deep wine red.\nAlong its northern coast the mountains pile up in restrained and\nharmonious masses of blue or purple, crowned in winter or in spring with\nsnowy white. At times the west wind from the ocean sweeps up this long\nnarrow gulf as if through a ca\u00f1on, beating the waves into fury and\nfilling the air with cold moisture, even while the sun or the moon\ndenies the presence of a storm. On the other side of the Isthmus the\nSaronic Gulf pushes far asunder the coasts of Attica and the\nPeloponnesus and skirts on the north the littoral of Megara. From its\nplacid evening surface the mountains of \u00c6gina and Salamis rise in curves\nand sharp peaks of cool violet and rose. Beyond the Bay of Eleusis the\neye that has not yet seen Athens turns inland in strained waiting for\nthe Acropolis. Rising out of a still distant plain and bearing upon its\ncrest the half-realized ruins of the Parthenon, the hill of the\npilgrim\u2019s desires becomes a reality\u2014\u201cand from a dream, behold, it is a\nwaking vision.\u201d\n\nThis journey, of scarcely eight hours, serves also to reveal a\nsurprising amount of Greek territory. Taking it in the reverse\ndirection, the train passes through Attica, Megara, the Isthmus and\nArgolis, and follows the entire northern coast line of Ach\u00e6a. The\nmountains across the Corinthian Gulf include not only Helicon and\nCith\u00e6ron of B\u0153otia, and Parnassus of Phocis, but also unfamiliar peaks,\nbarren of the Muses, belonging to Locris, \u00c6tolia, and Acarnania. From\nPatras can be seen the low coast of the \u00c6tolian bay on which lies\nMesolonghi, the burial-place of Byron\u2019s heart. Near it, although unseen\nfrom Patras, is Calydon, the scene of Meleager\u2019s boar hunt, celebrated\nby Homer and Bacchylides, Euripides and Swinburne.\n\nPatras, the western seaport of Greece and surpassed in commercial\nimportance only by Athens and Pir\u00e6us, is in Ach\u00e6a. The name of this\nprovince evokes Homeric memories only because it was settled by Ach\u00e6ans\nfrom Thessaly. Its chief contribution to Greek life lay in the \u201cAch\u00e6an\nLeague\u201d against Rome which, as Pausanias says, rose on the ruins of\nGreece \u201clike a fresh shoot on a blasted and withered trunk.\u201d Patras\nitself was unimportant until the time of Augustus, and its most valuable\nassociations are with the early history of Christianity. In physical\nbeauty, however, it is thoroughly Greek\u2014\u201cbeautiful Patras,\u201d Lucian\ncalled it, by way of contrast to the knavishness of one of its\ninhabitants. The epithet doubtless included not only the adornments\nadded by the Roman emperors but also the natural charms of its\nsituation. The fruitful plain, the height of Mount Vo\u00efdia in the\nbackground, the splendid waterfront facing the mountainous \u00c6tolian coast\ncombine to give a suitable welcome to Greece. This entrance is never\nfairer than in the hour when the silver gray of dawn is obliterated by\nthe clear bloom in the sky that heralds the rising sun. The morning\nlight reveals outlines in naked distinctness, and tinges all surfaces\nwith a colour so fresh and buoyant that an immediate conviction arises\nof the joyous nobility of Greek scenery and of the youthfulness which a\nrace so nurtured might maintain.\n\nThe plain of Megara is separated from Attica by the Kerata and from the\nIsthmus by Mount Geraneia, a massive range extending across the Megarian\nterritory from the Corinthian to the Saronic Gulf and interposing a\nrough and lofty bulwark between Central Greece and the Peloponnesus.\n\nMegara is now an unpretentious village with very white houses which\ngleam from a distance among the encircling mountains. Its site is that\nof the ancient city, on the double summit of a hill above the plain\nfilled with vineyards, olive orchards, and bright green fields of wheat,\nrye and barley. A good road leads to the coast, little more than a mile\naway, where once the harbour of Nis\u00e6a focused the large sea business of\nMegara. The name of the harbour kept alive the memory of Nisus, son of\nAthenian Pandion, the first king of Megara (the Ionians perhaps preceded\nthe Dorians in its occupation), as the \u201cisland of Minoa,\u201d[23] now the\npromontory of St. George, recalled the invasion by Minos of Crete. The\nking\u2019s daughter, out of love for his enemy, betrayed her father. The\nchorus in the \u201cCho\u00ebphoroi\u201d of \u00c6schylus uses the story as a warning to\nClytemnestra:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnother murd\u2019rous maid is sung in story and calls forth our hate. Led\n on by foeman lover, won by gifts of Minos, gold-wrought Cretan\n necklaces, she slew a man beloved and sheared the lock immortal from\n the head of Nisus while he breathed in unsuspecting sleep. But Hermes\n overtook her!\u201d\n\nFootnote 23:\n\n The frequent occurrence of Minoa as a place name in Greece both\n indicates the widespread influences of Crete in prehistoric times and\n is also one of the arguments for the adoption, at least tentatively,\n of the technical term \u201cMinoan\u201d civilization.\n\nThe history of Megara was influenced now by Athens and now by Corinth.\nAt times neighbourhood quarrels with Corinth turned her toward Athens,\nbut in crises the bonds of race proved stronger. Her great epoch,\nhowever, was in the eighth and seventh centuries, before the balance of\npower had been shifted by the Athenian conquest of Salamis. During these\ncenturies Megara rivalled Corinth in colonial expansion, and from Nis\u00e6a\nadventurers set sail to found Megara Hybl\u00e6a in Sicily, Heraclea on the\nEuxine, and above all Byzantium on the Bosphorus, which long before its\nchristening as Constantinople had forgotten its mother city.\n\nIn arts and letters Megara\u2019s achievements were slight, although\ntradition assigned to her the creation of comedy. Only one of her poets,\nTheognis, belongs to our canon of Greek literature. A contemporary of\nSolon, he exhibited the same tendency to use poetry as a medium of\npolitical discussion, but he was totally opposed to the democratic\ninfluences which in his city, as elsewhere, were making headway against\nthe aristocracy. Oligarchy and tyranny had been succeeded by this larger\nstruggle. Although Theognis was in the thick of the fight, his wide\ninfluence in later centuries was due rather to his sententious\nutterances on ethics, which classed him with the \u201cgnomic poets.\u201d\nXenophon called the poetry of Theognis \u201ca comprehensive treatment\nconcerning men,\u201d and as such it was used with the works of Homer and\nHesiod in the educational system of fourth-century Athens. Moderns will\nfind in the extant fragments little of the power which saves a poet\u2019s\npolitics and ethics from becoming in a later age either outworn or\ncommonplace. But in the public square of the village, the old hillside\nmarket-place, we acquire a sympathy for his personal life and his love\nof home. Here he stood and looked down upon the fields of his\nconfiscated estates, wasted in the riotous living of new masters. The\nshrill cry of a bird, announcing the autumnal harvests, reminded him\nthat no longer for him were mules drawing the curved plough through the\nfurrows. The sea, lying at the door of Megara, bore him into exile, and\nwith Alc\u00e6us and Plato (and their Roman and modern imitators) he likened\nthe State to a ship in danger, sailed by an evil crew, threatened by\nleaping waves.\n\nIn the Persian wars Megara made a brave show, sinking all animosity\ntoward Athens in the great need of Hellas. But fifty years later a\nbitter quarrel with Athens became one of the precipitating causes of the\nPeloponnesian War. The Athenians had passed a decree excluding the\nMegarians from their markets and from all the harbours in their\ndominions. The Spartans demanded its revocation, and the Athenians,\ninfluenced by Pericles, refused. Opinions differed as to his\ndisinterestedness. In the judgment of Thucydides he was moved solely by\nreasons of state. The more popular opinion that he was involved by\nAspasia in a scandalous affair affecting both cities appears in\nAristophanes, who also does not fail to see the comic side of a\nsituation which forced the impoverished Megarians to work their way\nsecretly into the Athenian markets bringing cucumbers and sucking pigs\nand garlic under their cloaks. The later comic poets made a butt of the\nMegarians, and the Megarian\u2019s sneer about the Athenian figs and Propyl\u00e6a\nwas doubtless only one of many retorts.\n\nAfter the Peloponnesian War we have a happier picture of Megara as the\nhome of philosophy. Plato in his first grief over the death of his\nmaster went there to visit Eucleides, who had been wont to creep into\nAthens by night, in defiance of the decree, to talk with Socrates. And\nfrom the vivid opening scene of the \u201cThe\u00e6tetus,\u201d a severely metaphysical\ndialogue written a few years later, we know that Eucleides and his\nphilosophical friends used to meet each other in the market-place (where\nnow the peasant women dance at Easter) or go to the harbour to greet a\nfriend _en route_ from Corinth to Athens, or gather at home for readings\nand conversations. Isocrates praised in Megara a domestic prosperity\nfiner than the lust for empire which had ruined Athens and Sparta.\n\nThe Megarians shared the Greek lot at Ch\u00e6ronea. The later fate of the\ncity is summed up in the reflections of the Roman governor, Sulpicius,\nwho, coming from \u00c6gina, gazed at its ruins from his vessel\u2019s prow and\nargued from them the brevity of human glory.\n\nIn antiquity travellers by land made their way from Megara to Corinth\neither over the difficult heights of Geraneia or close along the shore\nof the Saronic Gulf. The railroad follows the direction of this coast\nroute, and from a high bridge the old road can be seen below, skirting\nthe foot of the precipices in which the spurs of Geraneia end. These\nprecipices crowd so close to the sea that the space for the road is\nexceedingly narrow, and the resulting dangers gave to the pass in modern\ndays the name of Kake Skala. Even in the nineteenth century robbers made\nuse of the natural difficulties of the site as they did in Roman times.\nHadrian thought it important to widen the road as much as possible. To\nthe ancients the steep precipices were known as the Scironian Cliffs,\nand the Athenian story ran that a robber, Sciron, dwelt beside them and\nhurled every wayfarer into the sea, where a huge tortoise devoured him.\nTheseus killed the villain and threw him down to his old ally. The sea\nthat surged below the road took its own toll of travellers. Among the\nunfortunates in the fifth century one was either rich or distinguished\nenough to have an inscription by Simonides upon his cenotaph:\u2014\n\n \u201cGeraneia, cruel scar,\n Where the mist of morning creeps,\n Would that thou on Ister far\n Ward wert keeping, or where sweeps\n Scythian stream of Tana\u00efs.\n Wert not here where snow-storms\u2019 scourges\n Fill Moluriad\u2019s rocky gorges;\n Wert not here above the surges\n On Scironian rocks that hiss.\n As it is, his corpse the Ocean\n Death-chilled swings in restless motion;\n Mocks his voyage a bitter laugh\n Echoing from his cenotaph.\u201d\n\nThis spot of frequent shipwrecks had also its sea deities. The Moluriad\nRock, a part of the Scironian Cliffs, was the scene of Ino\u2019s payment of\nher share in the curse laid upon her father, Cadmus of Thebes. Chased by\nan angry husband down the mountain ridges, she plunged into the sea with\nher infant son Melicertes, or, as Euripides said, in comparing her to\nMedea, with two children in her arms:\u2014\n\n \u201cOne woman only have I known\n Of all before us, one alone,\n Lay hand upon her children dear:\n God-maddened Ino, from her home\n By Zeus\u2019s wife sent forth to roam,\n With impious murder to the mere,\n Ah wretched one! from headland springing\n Her children twain and self out-flinging,\n She perished with them in the foam.\u201d\n\nIno became Leucothea, the kindly goddess of Odysseus\u2019s journey, and\nMelicertes became Pal\u00e6mon, the Greek representative of the Ph\u0153nician\nMelkart, worshipped on the Isthmus. To them, in the Anthology, sailors\nprayed on their way to the \u201csweet shore of Pir\u00e6us\u201d and fishermen\ndedicated strange sea creatures that came up in their nets or were found\nupon the shore.\n\nThe train keeps on its way by the Saronic Gulf, crosses the canal on a\nbridge and reaches New Corinth on the Corinthian Gulf.\n\nThe destiny of Corinth was so peculiarly the result of its situation\nthat to describe the one is to foreshadow the other. Aristotle might\nhave illustrated by this city the physical qualities which he considered\ndesirable. It had \u201ca native abundance of streams and fountains\u201d to\npromote health, and its acropolis was one of the strongest in Greece.\nMost of all, it was \u201cwell situated in regard both to sea and land.\u201d Thus\nit was \u201ca strategic centre for protecting the whole district,\u201d and was\n\u201cconvenient for receiving the crops and also for the bringing in of\ntimber and any other natural products.\u201d Corinth commanded two ports, one\non either side of the Isthmus, and stood also at the entrance to the\nPeloponnesus. As \u201cgod-built portal of the bright island of Pelops\u201d she\ncontrolled the land routes for the exports and imports of southern\nGreece, and as a city \u201cof two seas\u201d she was mistress of the trade of the\nfar east and the far west. At the beginning of the Peloponnesian War she\nurged the Dorian allies to remember that if they did not protect her\nseaboard they would find it difficult to carry their produce to the sea\nor to barter in return for the goods which the sea gives to the land.\nAlready in Homer Corinth was \u201crich,\u201d and her later history was one of\ncommerce, colonization, invention, and the arts and crafts rather than\nof literature. For that reason the pathos of her present desolation is\nunrelieved by thoughts of a rescued legacy.\n\nNew Corinth, lying close to the shore of the Gulf, several miles from\nthe ancient western harbour, is a town of hopeful energy and ambition,\nits railroad station and steamboat quay indicating a potential capacity\nfor growth. Old Corinth, three and a half miles inland, consists of a\nfew poor houses unified into a certain village dignity by a great plane\ntree that shadows the \u201cpublic square.\u201d These houses have gathered near\nthe spot to which tourists make their way on foot or by carriage from\nthe seashore town. Before the excavations of the American School were\nbegun in 1896, they came in order to ascend the massive rock of\nAcrocorinth and to see the remaining monoliths of a Doric temple which\nantedates the classical period of Greek architecture. The excavations\nhave added sites deserving of close attention, but without effect on the\ngeneral features of the landscape. Acrocorinth rules the Isthmian plain,\nand its summit offers an outlook, from Strabo\u2019s time the theme of many\npanegyrics, over wide-flung country and sea to the mountain crests of\nDelphi and Arcadia, of Attica and B\u0153otia. The plateau on the north and\neast of this acropolis was the site of the ancient city. Apollo\u2019s\ncolumns, which saw its greatest power and have withstood its successive\nblights, alone compete with the impressiveness of the citadel. Seated on\nthe steps of the temple and watching the mists break away from the\nimpatient heights of Acrocorinth, we may recount to ourselves the tale\n\u201cof Corinth blest, the vestibule of Isthmian Poseidon, nurse of manly\nsplendour.\u201d\n\n[Illustration:\n\n CORINTH\n Temple of Apollo, and Acrocorinth\n]\n\nThe diversity of legends concerning the pre-Dorian origin of Corinth\nillustrates the hospitality of the Greek mind toward incompatible\nstories. Ephyre, daughter of Ocean, in Homer gave her name to the city.\nSisyphus, the son of \u00c6olus, the son of Hellen, was introduced as founder\nin the effort to trace historical development. The Corinthians\nthemselves set great store by an eponymous hero, Corinthus, the son of\nZeus. Their reiteration of this exasperating claim became proverbial\namong the other Greeks. When the Aristophanic Dionysus arrives in Hades\nand bids his servant take up the wraps again and carry them inside,\nXanthias exclaims:\u2014\n\n \u201cAye, pick \u2019em up! now there it goes again,\n They\u2019ve Zeus\u2019s Corinth in \u2019em, that is plain!\u201d\n\nSisyphus and his descendants owe a long debt to the poets, if posthumous\nfame be a recompense for vicissitudes. Sisyphus was found by Odysseus in\nHades in \u201cstrong torment,\u201d pushing a monstrous stone up the hill only to\nhave it roll back again. A great-great-grandson fought among the Lycians\non Priam\u2019s side at Troy and, questioned by Diomede of his ancestry, made\nthe famous comparison which betrays the melancholy already lurking in\nthe youth of Hellas:\u2014\n\n \u201cAs with the leaves\u2019 generations so it is with the passing of mortals.\n Some of the leaves the wind strews on the ground while others the\n trees of the forest, budding and blooming, put forth when the spring\n cometh on in its season. Thus with the races of mortals, one blooms\n and another one ceases.\u201d\n\nHe also told the story of his grandfather, Bellerophon of Corinth: his\nrefusal of a queen\u2019s love, his hard labours in punishment, his rise to\nfame and power, and his ultimate failure to retain the favour of the\ngods, so that he ended his life far from the paths of men, devouring his\nown heart in desolate northern plains. Pindar took up the Homeric legend\nand shifted the emphasis to the winged Pegasus, tamed by Bellerophon,\nwith Athena\u2019s aid, at Peirene, the city fountain, and finally stabled in\nthe stalls of Olympus, after he had aided his master \u201cfrom out the\ndesert bosom of the ether chill\u201d to \u201csmite and slay the woman brood of\narcher Amazons, Chim\u00e6ra breathing fire, and the Solymi.\u201d\n\nIn the history of Corinth two periods are of special interest and might\nserve as the bases for a study of important epochs in the larger history\nof Greece. These periods, separated by more than four hundred years,\nwere dominated respectively by the \u201ctyrants\u201d and the Romans.\n\nAlthough historians now avoid the restrictive term \u201cage of the despots,\u201d\nit is true that from the eighth to the sixth centuries tyrannies arose\nin Greek cities on the Asiatic coast, on the islands of the \u00c6gean, and\nin Greece proper, implying the same conditions of public life. The\ntyranny of Corinth, beginning with Cypselus in the seventh century and\nending with his grandnephew, Psammetichus, in the sixth, was one of the\nlongest and most notorious. Any tyranny which endured until the third\ngeneration was remarkable, for, in spite of its apparent vigour, this\nform of government was suited to no Greek people. Everywhere democracy\nand oligarchy were united in hatred of an hereditary ruler. In Athens\nthe short-lived despotism was itself greatly modified, and the picture\nof the tyrant in Athenian literature, in Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon,\nwas drawn from the more violent models known from the histories of\nCorinth or Sicyon or Miletus, or seen contemporaneously in Syracuse.\nPlato not only as a philosopher but as a Greek interpreted the tyrant\u2019s\nlife as one of mental misery: \u201cIn good truth he turns out a pauper, if\none but knows how to contemplate the soul in its entirety; and all his\nlife long he is loaded down with fear, all a-quiver with convulsions and\nwith pangs, at least if he is like the disposition of the state over\nwhich he holds sway, ... and he must needs, by reason of his rule, ever\nmore and more become envious, distrusted, unjust, friendless, unholy,\nand of every vice the host and nurse; and by reason of all this he must\nfirst of all become unhappy and then must make like to himself those\nnear him.\u201d\n\nIn Corinth Periander was the typical despot, powerful and violent,\nkilling his wife and earning the hatred of his sons, overriding the\nsensibilities of his people, crushing the stronger and richer citizens.\nAnd yet by masterly statesmanship, a cultivated taste, and careful\npaternalism, he brought about the peaceful prosperity which more than\none nation in history has preferred to liberty, and created a\ncivilization in which brilliant achievement and temperate life were not\nincompatible. At no other time was Corinth so great a city. In addition\nto the older colonies of Syracuse and Corcyra, trading posts were\nobtained along the northwestern coast of Greece, controlling the\ncommerce of the Adriatic. Rivalry with the cities of Eub\u0153a and with\n\u00c6gina was succeeded by unquestioned superiority. Alliances were\ncontracted in Asia Minor and in Egypt. At home the enervation of luxury\nwas guarded against by sumptuary laws. That some of these outlived the\nperiod may be gathered from a fragment of the comic poet Diphilus, a\ncontemporary of Menander, in which, apparently, a Corinthian reproaches\na foreign spendthrift who has come to town and cornered the vegetable\nmarket so that the natives have to struggle for the parsley as at the\nIsthmian games:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2019Tis here the law, good sir, with us Corinthians,\n If we see anybody in the market-place\n Forever making showy purchases, to ask\n On what he lives? By doing what? And then if he\n Has capital of which the income balances\n The outlay, to permit him to enjoy his mode\n Of life. But if it turns out that beyond his means\n He\u2019s spending money, they shut down on this forthwith,\n And if he disobeys, impose a fine. And if\n A man, possessing nothing, lives expensively\n They hand him over to the executioner!\u201d\n\nPeriander also, desirous, as Aristotle suggests, of keeping his people\ntoo busy to think, stimulated the artistic skill which they had always\npossessed. A persistent tradition has asserted that Corinthian\narchitects at an early date invented the roof-tiles by means of which\ntemple roofs could be made to slope, thus forming the pediment or\n\u201ceagle.\u201d The Temple of Apollo was probably built at Periander\u2019s\ninstigation. Corinthian workmanship in terra-cotta, wood, and metal was\nfamous from prehistoric to Roman times. Periander dedicated at Olympia\nthe chest (_cypsele_) in which his father Cypselus had been concealed in\ninfancy, made of cedar wood, gold, and ivory, ornately and exquisitely\ncarved, in Pausanias\u2019s time still one of the finest sights of the place.\nNo bronze was better than that dipped in Peirene, and long before the\nvases of Corinthian artists were imported or stolen by Roman capitalists\nthey were a part of the conventional display of the _bon vivant_ in\nAthens.\n\nIn literature Periander could accomplish little. The absence of the\nliterary gift among the Corinthians is strikingly shown by the fact that\nthe name of only one native poet, Eumelus, has been handed down to us,\nand that he belonged to the ancient oligarchy of the eighth century. Two\nlyric lines traditionally assigned to him survive, the only fragment of\nCorinthian literature. Their imputed authorship indicates that Eumelus\nwas not without fame, since the Doric Messenians, even less literary\nthan the Corinthians, chose him to compose a song to Apollo to be sung\nby their embassy at the great Ionian festival at Delos. But embedded in\nthe most important literature of Greece is an element which probably\ncame into life in Corinth under Periander\u2019s patronage. The choruses of\nthe drama and the so-called dithyrambs or Dionysiac songs written by\nsuch lyric poets as Pindar, Simonides, and Bacchylides, seem equally to\ngo back to some outgrowth of the stray wine-songs extemporized by\nrevellers. A favourite tradition assigned this new form to a poet called\nArion, who, though a Lesbian by birth, \u201ccomposed, named, and taught the\ndithyramb at Corinth.\u201d Herodotus adds a story which takes Arion out of\nthe mists of tradition and places him, a sunlit figure, on the\nquarter-deck of a Corinthian ship rounding Cape T\u00e6narum on its way back\nfrom Sicily. He had gone thither and made money, and on the return\njourney the Corinthian sailors, in whom he had thought he could most\nsafely confide, gave him his choice of killing himself outright, if he\nwished a grave on dry land, or of leaping overboard into the Ionian Sea.\nIn this strait Arion \u201cbegged of them, since such was their\ndetermination, that they would give him leave to take his stand dressed\nin his full regalia on the quarter-deck, and promised that from there he\nwould sing to them and then would make away with himself. To the sailors\nit seemed a pleasant thing if they might hear the best of living\nsingers, and from the stern they drew off amidships. And Arion, clad in\nhis full costume, took his cithara and, stationed on the planking, went\nthrough with the Orthian strain, and, when the strain was concluded,\nflung himself into the sea, just as he was, in full costume dressed. Now\nthe ship\u2019s crew sailed off to Corinth, but a dolphin, as they say, took\nup Arion and carried him to T\u00e6narum and he, alighting, went off, regalia\nand all, to Corinth and told, on his arrival, everything that had\nbefallen.\u201d\n\nPeriander\u2019s successor was assassinated after a brief reign, and the\ntyranny was succeeded by an aristocracy of merchants. Corinth joined the\nSpartan confederacy, and her life continued to be one of commerce and\npeace. Her part in the Persian wars was modest, but a recently\ndiscovered commemorative inscription for her sons who died at Salamis is\nof peculiar interest as an example of the \u201cmany epitaphs composed by\nnameless authors in those days of joy and sorrow in various parts of\nGreece, all marked by the simplicity of a great age, whose reserve, as\nhas been said truly, is the pride of strong men under the semblance of\nmodesty.\u201d The inscription runs: \u201cSalamis the isle of Ajax holds us now,\nwho once dwelled in the city of Corinth between her waters.\u201d[24]\n\nFootnote 24:\n\n Quoted by J. B. Bury, _History of Greece_, p. 284.\n\nThe brilliant and varied energies of the Cypselids had given way to the\ndulness of habitual prosperity. But a light from the past must have\nseemed to shine again upon Corinth when Pindar, \u201csailing a mere private\nin her ship of state,\u201d drew upon the wealth of all her experiences in\npraising her as the native city of an Olympian victor:\u2014\n\n \u201cTherein dwelleth Order and\u2014a sure foundation for the state\u2014her sister\n Justice, aye and Peace kin-bred, wealth\u2019s stewards for mankind.\u201d\n\n \u201cFlow\u2019ring richly, oft on you the hours have bestowed the splendour\n crowning victory of men pre\u00ebminent in valour at the sacred games, and\n often in their manly hearts inspired subtleties of old. Whoever hath\n devised, to him belongs the deed. Whence came to light the gracious\n gifts of Dionysus with the dithyramb that wins the ox? Nay, who set\n measured check upon the harnessed steeds or on the gables of the gods\n the twofold eagle spread?\u201d\n\nThirty-three years after Pindar\u2019s ode Euripides produced his \u201cMedea.\u201d\nThis is the only Attic drama which has Corinth as its scene, and in it\nthe local allusions are but vague. Until the writing of St. Paul\u2019s\nepistles no other great literature concerned itself with Corinth.\n\nThe city\u2019s policies and life from the Persian wars until the battle of\nCh\u00e6ronea, though dictated by its trading interests, centred about the\nfortunes of Athens, Sparta, and Thebes. After Ch\u00e6ronea followed the\ncommon Macedonian domination. The subsequent Roman occupation of Corinth\nconstitutes the second great period of its history. In 146 B. C. a last\neffort at rebellion against Rome resulted in savage vengeance executed\nby Lucius Mummius. Cicero was \u201cmoved\u201d by the \u201cruins\u201d of Corinth; and\nAntipater of Sidon, not long after the destruction, bewailed its\ndesolation:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhere is thy beauty exciting men\u2019s wonder,\n Dorian Corinth, and ramparts that crowned thee?\n Where are the blessed ones\u2019 columns, whereunder\n Sisyphid wives from their dwellings around thee\n Came with glad thousands to meet and to sunder?\n Bides not a trace of thee, luckless, devoured,\n Ravaged of war! We alone undeflowered,\n Nereids, halcyons, daughters of Ocean,\n Wait on thy woes with our loyal devotion.\u201d\n\nThe existence of the temple of Periander\u2019s age, if nothing else, betrays\nthe poet\u2019s exaggeration. Pausanias says that the remarkable objects in\nthe city of his day included \u201csome remains of ancient Corinth.\u201d Most of\nthem, however, dated from the restoration. Julius C\u00e6sar rebuilt the\ncity, repopulated it with freedmen from Rome, and made it the seat of\nthe proconsul of the \u201cprovince of Ach\u00e6a.\u201d Corinth is the proper centre\nfrom which to study the Romanized Greek world. In wealth the Roman city\nbegan to equal and to outstrip the Greek city. But the old moderation in\nprivate life, imposed by Periander, was gone. The Romans of the empire\nhad outlived the precepts of their own republican Cato, and the riches\neasily acquired at Corinth enabled them to satisfy their coarsened\ndesires. Greek refinement was never native to the masters of the world,\nand into a nation, once satisfied at public festivals with beautiful\nprocessions and serious dramatic representations, were imported\ngladiatorial shows and all the excesses of a brutalized taste. The Greek\nCorinth had been regarded by the Athenians as rich and immoral. The\nRoman Corinth would have seemed to Plato a cave filled with\npassion-driven men lost to the sunlight of wisdom. It was into this\nCorinth that Paul came \u201cin weakness and in fear and in much trembling.\u201d\n\nAcrocorinth saw the Roman pass and the Byzantine, the Venetian and the\nTurk. It may again see in \u201cNew Corinth\u201d a powerful Greek city. The\nexcavations at Old Corinth have uncovered but slight traces of the\nsuccessive centuries of robust living, but the imaginative observer will\nsoon perceive the arch\u00e6ologist\u2019s success. Although the harbours of\nLech\u00e6um and Cenchre\u00e6 are deserted and although the walls that connected\nthem with the city are invisible, yet there are traces of a \u201cpaved\nstreet to Lech\u00e6um\u201d with colonnades on either side, to bring to life\nagain the crowds of sailors, merchants, and visitors from all parts of\nthe ancient world who passed and repassed between the city and its\nports. Aristotle, with characteristic distrust of cosmopolitanism,\nquestioned the political advantage of such intercourse, but to Corinth\nit was the breath of life.\n\nThe trade within the city is suggested by the traces of \u201cshops\u201d and by\nthe ruins of the Propyl\u00e6um of the Agora and of fine colonnades and\nstoas. Of buildings almost nothing remains, and, save for the\nfoundations of a small unidentified temple, the Temple of Apollo alone\nrepresents the numerous sacred precincts of ancient and restored\nCorinth. The scanty ruins of a theatre recall picturesque stories. The\nCorinthian theatre of the sixth century, according to Plutarch, was the\nscene of the discovery of the murderers of the poet Ibycus, an important\nfigure in the history of Greek lyric. A native of Rhegium, he led an\nadventurous life in harmony with his passionate temperament, and was\nfinally killed by robbers on some lonely unknown shore. In dying he\ncalled upon a flock of cranes above his head to avenge him. Their sudden\nappearance over the theatre at Corinth so startled the assassins that\nthey betrayed themselves, and thus the cranes kept their promise to a\npoet who had sung with equal ardour of birds and flowers and of the\nbeauty of youth. In the Roman auditorium, according to a story\nattributed to Lucian, Nero had his servants crush in with the sharp\nedges of their writing tablets the larynx of a popular professional who\nhad the temerity to out-sing the royal amateur.\n\nLucian also tells a delightful story connected with the Craneum\u2014Skull\nPlace\u2014a frequented suburb of Corinth, where Diogenes the Cynic had set\nup his jar (not the \u201ctub\u201d of English tradition). When the news came that\nPhilip of Macedon was advancing on the city, the Corinthians, in a fever\nof anxiety, set to work on their defences. Diogenes, mocking their\nactivity, girded up his blanket, and with a great show of energy went\nbowling his jar up and down the Craneum. When some of his intimates\nasked him \u201cWhy do you do this, Diogenes?\u201d he said, \u201cI too roll my jar so\nas not to be the only idle one among so many workers.\u201d\n\nThe most fortunate result of the excavations at Corinth was the\nuncovering of the well-house of Peirene. This spring, compared with\nwhich the temple columns are young, shared with Acrocorinth the ancient\nsolitude of the plain; gave its waters to the first nameless adventurers\nwho made their way from north and east; served the city of Dorians and\nRomans; and before the excavators enclosed it was still being used by\nthe washer-women of the neighbouring hamlet. From Periander to the\nByzantines, the grateful inhabitants were ever and again moved to build\nfor Peirene a suitable enclosure, and traces of six building periods\nhave been discovered. In the fifth century B. C. the natural rock was\nhewn into shape. Later generations added architectural panels, fa\u00e7ades\nand colonnades.\n\nThe name Peirene seems to have belonged not only to the city fountain\nbut also to another spring, crystal clear, a little below the summit of\nAcrocorinth, which, like Hippocrene on Helicon, was struck out by the\nhoof of Pegasus. In a translation of Euripides\u2019s \u201cTrojan Women,\u201d Mr.\nMurray goes beyond his original in specifying this upper Peirene,\nvividly including in the women\u2019s dread anticipation of their Greek\nslavery the steep climb up Acrocorinth:\u2014\n\n \u201cOr pitchers to and fro to bear\n To some Peirene on the hill\n Where the proud water craveth still\n Its broken-hearted minister.\u201d\n\nTwo other fountains have also been discovered in Corinth, one the spring\nof Glauke, Medea\u2019s rival, and the other an unnamed well-house with\nbronze lion heads still _in situ_. It is no wonder that St. Clement in\nhis epistle to the Corinthians, when he enumerated the blessings of God,\nremembered especially the perennial fountains, shaped for pleasure and\nhealth, which give their breasts to sustain the life of men.\n\nThe canal across the Isthmus recalls several periods of Corinth\u2019s\nhistory. Periander conceived the idea of making a canal, inspired\nperhaps by the engineering marvels he had seen in Egypt, and probably\nthe lack of slave labour, rather than the popular Greek feeling of\nimpiety, prevented him from joining the \u201ctwo seas\u201d on either side of the\nnarrow isthmus. Julius C\u00e6sar also thought of undertaking the work, but\nNero was the first to begin its execution. His vanity saw in it an\nopportunity for dramatic display. Suetonius relates that he appeared in\nperson, chanted hymns in honour of the deities of the sea, and with a\ngolden pick-axe made a few motions before the thousands of soldiers and\nprisoners who were to do the cutting. Troubles at Rome, however,\ndeflected his attention, and the making of the canal was left for the\nFrench engineers of 1881. Two cuttings made by Nero\u2019s workmen were still\nvisible when the French began.\n\nThe absence of a canal in antiquity was not so inconvenient as might be\nsupposed, for light ships could be transferred on land from one port to\nanother by means of a portage or tramway, of which traces are still\nvisible. This \u201cDiolkos\u201d was invented even before the age of the tyrants,\nwhen the Corinthians were first developing their naval resources. At\nLech\u00e6um they built the first artificial harbour, and at its docks the\ntrireme was gradually perfected through the necessity of protecting the\nslow and heavy merchantmen by a fighting convoy. Thucydides refers to\nthe Diolkos in describing the events of 412 B. C., when a general revolt\nagainst Athens began under Chios. The Spartans had sent word that\nthirty-nine ships lying at anchor at Lech\u00e6um must be dragged across the\nIsthmus as quickly as possible to the port on the Gulf of \u00c6gina and\nthence despatched to Chios. Twenty-one had been transferred and were\neager to set sail, but the Corinthians insisted on waiting till the\nIsthmian Games had been celebrated. The result was that the Athenians\nwho went to the games discovered what was going on and Athens was able\nto balk her enemies.\n\nThe Isthmian Games were held biennially in the Corinthian territory less\nthan a mile southwest of the little modern town of Isthmia, at the\neastern end of the canal. The Athenians frequented them especially\nbecause they were said to have been instituted by Theseus. Socrates\nvisited them on the only occasion of his leaving Athens \u201cexcept with the\ncolours.\u201d The sacred precinct, excavated by the French, has yielded\nsmall remains of the temples and statues, theatre and stadium, and\nPindar\u2019s Isthmian odes are still the noblest memorial of the ancient\ncontests. In the Stadium, now but a natural hollow, two dramatic events\ntook place. In 336 B. C. Alexander had himself proclaimed leader of the\nGreeks before his Persian expedition, and in 196 B. C. Flaminius\nannounced to the Greeks their \u201cfreedom.\u201d It was probably also here, at\nleast it was at the Isthmian Games, that Nero perpetrated his mocking\nrenewal of Greek independence.\n\nIn this Stadium, within reach of the two seas which had been highways\nfor wealth and luxury, vigorous youths from century to century gave\nproof of restrained and temperate living. Even those Corinthians to whom\nPaul\u2019s preaching was \u201cfoolishness\u201d would be hospitable to his\nillustration:\u2014\n\n\u201cKnow ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth\nthe prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for\nthe mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a\ncorruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XI\n DELPHI\n\n \u201cWhen to Apollo\u2019s world-famed land we came,\n Three radiant courses of the sun we gave\n To gazing and with beauty filled our eyes.\u201d\n EURIPIDES, _Andromache_.[25]\n\nFootnote 25:\n\n Translation (modified) by Way.\n\n\nIf leisure is the nurse of sympathetic understanding, \u201cthree radiant\ncourses of the sun\u201d are none too many to give to Delphi. The inner\nmeaning of this centre of Greece needs not only to be quarried out of\nhistory and literature, but also to be garnered from the abundant beauty\nof a landscape which created as well as framed a unique religious life.\n\nAt the chief oracular seat of the God of Prophecy antiquarian curiosity\nabout its early legends and primitive cults makes way for the\nrealization of Apollo, \u201cthe Far-Darter, ruling the glorious temple\nwherein all men find welcome.\u201d A modern journey is a successor to the\njourneys and pilgrimages undertaken through many centuries by the men\nand peoples who sought from his omniscience foreknowledge and advice.\n\nEven the protagonists of shadowy antiquity were brought thither by their\nhopes and fears. Heracles, the national hero of Greece, driven by Hera\nto madness and murder, asked at Delphi where he should make his home,\nand was sent by the oracle to begin his twelve labours. Agamemnon,\nanxious lord of the Greek armies, sought advice of the god. Io was\nstarted on her long wanderings over the earth and through literature\nbecause her father was commanded by Apollo\u2019s ministers to drive her from\nher home and her country. Because of a Delphic response, the infant son\nof Laius of Thebes was exposed on Mount Cith\u00e6ron. \u0152dipus, on the fatal\nday when he killed Laius, was on his way back from Delphi, whither he\nhad gone to ask if he were son of the Corinthian king who had reared him\nand where he had received the ambiguous answer that he was fated to slay\nhis father. It was when, as king of Thebes, he sent to \u201cthe Pythian\nhouse of Ph\u0153bus to learn by what deed or word he might deliver his\npestilence-stricken city\u201d that he unconsciously invoked his own doom.\nAnd it was again the Delphic oracle which closed the pitiful story by\nprophesying \u0152dipus\u2019s final reconciliation with the eternal will.\n\nBut these ancient demigods and kings move in a world only half realized\nby us. Their dooms and their emotions have the remote nobility, the\nsuperb universality of the Attic drama through which chiefly they are\nportrayed. It is in the vivacious pages of the charmingly pious\nHerodotus that the desires of living men and women seem to surge, in\nfailure or fruition, about the Delphic tripod. From the foreign kingdoms\nof Asia, from Greek colonies in Africa and Italy, from rock-bound island\nharbours, ships were constantly spreading sails at the impulse of\nnational distress or personal ambition, to furl them in the port that\nlay below Delphi. From Laced\u00e6mon, deep in the hollow of the southern\nhills, from Thrace\u2019s widespread plains, swept by the northern tempests,\nfrom the wild mountains of Arcadia, from rich Corinth and bright Athens\nand every other city of Hellas, men made their way in chariots, on\nmules, and on foot, to the knees of Apollo. Mountains and rivers, rude\nvalleys and hostile villages offered no obstacles, nor were the\nsuppliants repelled by the \u201cdark sayings, dim and hard to know,\u201d which\nwere often their only reward. Kings hurried off embassies at the first\nsigns of rivalry. Adventurers stopped to question the god before\ncarrying new colonies beyond the seas. Quarrelsome states and cities\nasked for advice in their fratricidal plots. Wealthy cities desired to\nknow if they could always count on their revenues. Ghost-haunted towns\nasked the meaning of their spectres. Agricultural communities were eager\nto learn how to restore dying crops. Ambitious politicians sought\nencouragement in their pursuit of power. Sick men prayed for health,\nchildless men for offspring. Indeed, to the irreverent the Pythian\npriestess must often have seemed to carry a load of oracles as jumbled\nas that of Aristophanes\u2019s sausage seller who came staggering into the\nmarket-place at Athens with \u201cresponses\u201d to sell,\u2014\n\n \u201cFull of Athenians, and of lentil-porridge too;\n Of Spartans; of fresh tunny fish; and of the men\n Who in the market measure false the barley-groats;\n Of you; of me, and of affairs in general.\u201d\n\nBut Aristophanes himself was at heart as conservative a believer in\nreligion as Herodotus had been. And to piety like theirs, existing from\ngeneration to generation, was due the position that Delphi held not only\nas a source of knowledge but as the conscience of Greece. Sometimes in\npublic affairs this conscience seemed to recommend prudence rather than\nrighteousness, as in the wretched advice distributed at the time of the\nPersian invasion. In private affairs, such as athletics or the use of\ntrust money, the oracle was always on the side of honour.\n\nIt must be borne in mind that along with the widespread acceptance of\nthe oracular responses went a rationalizing independence of judgment\nwhich sometimes overruled the religious instinct. Cases of obstinate\nself-seeking in spite of the plain injunction of the god betray the\nexercise of this judgment on a low plane. But, soiled though it\nsometimes was by ignoble use, the mental independence of the Athenians,\nat least, was a magnificent possession. It saved Hellas when Crete and\nArgos and all the lesser brood followed the prudent warnings from\nDelphi. It chose an uneven fight for national freedom in the very face\nof the accepted conscience of the whole Greek world. Only an\nunderstanding of the noblest aspects of the r\u00f4le played by the Delphic\noracle in Greek history and life can throw into sufficiently high relief\nthe splendid revolt of Athens, when Persia threatened her liberty,\nagainst an ecclesiastical authority which had become debased. The\nhistorian who is the best guide to a dutiful belief in Pythian Apollo\ntells the story with implicit sympathy: \u201cNot even the terrifying oracles\nthat came from Delphi and plunged them into fear persuaded them to\nabandon Hellas. They plucked up courage to await the invader of their\nland.\u201d\n\nNor is there here any inconsistency. The faithful in all religions have\nrefused to identify the sins and follies of the priests with the will of\nthe gods. The Persians might intimidate or buy the ministers of Apollo.\nThe Alcm\u00e6onid\u00e6, exiled from Athens, might bribe them to do their selfish\nwill. Cleomenes of Sparta might purchase his throne from them. But the\npious had always the refuge created by Sophocles for Iocasta when she\ndeclared the oracle was false: \u201cIt came not from Ph\u0153bus but from his\nservants.\u201d When the Persians had been defeated, Athens, on the flood\ntide of victory, freedom, and power, raised noble memorials of her\nstruggle in the sacred precinct of the oracle which had advised her not\nto fight. When the modern traveller has brought himself to see that this\nwas not done in grim humour but in unbewildered piety, he is ready to\nundertake his own journey to Delphi.\n\nOf all the possible approaches none can be happier than a drive on a\nmoonlight night up from the little port of Itea, the inglorious terminus\nof the eight hours\u2019 sail from Pir\u00e6us through the canal and along the\nGulf of Corinth. The comfortable carriage road winds through the\n\u201cmoon-blanched\u201d olive orchards and vineyards of the ancient Cris\u00e6an\nplain, mounting gradually toward the steep slopes of Parnassus and its\nattendant mountains, and twisting in long courses among shadowy\nhillsides which only hint at rude crags and deep ravines. Perhaps it was\nsome such night as this that led the writer of the Homeric Hymn to\nArtemis to see the sister of Apollo, \u201cslackening her fair-curved bow and\ngoing to the mighty hall of Ph\u0153bus in the Delphians\u2019 rich deme and\narraying there the Muses\u2019 and the Graces\u2019 lovely dance.\u201d The exquisite\ngrace of the landscape, half hidden, half revealed through the fragile\nveil of silver light, seems like a gentle preparation for the epiphany,\nexpected on the morrow, of the god of the golden blade.\n\nThe carriage passes very early by Amphissa, the capital of modern Phocis\nas it was of ancient Locris, and an hour later halts, to rest the\nhorses, at a dim corner of the village of Chryso, a name which preserves\nthat of the Crisa of antiquity. All this drowsy territory has been the\nstage of one of the significant dramas of history. The modern demarch\nhospitably presses water from the village fountain upon modern\nwayfarers, but the Cris\u00e6ans once used their strategic position as owners\nof the whole wide plain to plunder pilgrims on their way to the shrine.\nThis evil monopoly gave way, early in the sixth century, to the powerful\nconfederation of twelve Greek states, known as the Delphic Amphictyony,\nwhose representatives met at Delphi twice a year and ruled the affairs\nof the sacred domain. During almost one hundred and fifty years, with\nunquestioned right, whatever internecine wars were in progress,\ndelegates from Thessaly and B\u0153otia, from Athens and Sparta, from Phocis\nitself and from other lesser states could pass and repass through Crisa,\nwhile the fertile plain went untilled. Even after war invaded the\nprotected territory the existence of the Council was not endangered. But\nthe constitution of the delegates changed with the fortunes of battles.\nBy the middle of the fourth century the Phocians were struck from the\nlist and the Macedonians added. Philip had become the chief actor,\nseizing his opportunity when the men of Delphi, at the instigation of\nthe Athenian delegate, \u00c6schines, attacked the men of Amphissa because\nthey were turning the consecrated wilderness of the plain into\ncorn-fields and olive groves and filling up the empty places with\nprosperous houses and busy little potteries. A series of easy steps led\nto the overthrow of Greek freedom.\n\nBut under the compassionate moon the sentimentalist continues his way,\nin wilful oblivion of the catastrophe of the drama, to the point nearest\nancient Delphi. This is the tiny village of Kastri, which less than\ntwenty years ago was plying its life on the unconscious surface of earth\nspread over the ruins of the sacred site. At great expense of money and\ntrouble it was picked up by the French excavators and deposited, safe\nand whole, a little farther to the west around the sharp corner of the\nmountain, where, in fear of slipping into the deep valley below, it\ncurls close to Parnassus\u2019s side. Here lodgings may be obtained either in\na conventional hostelry or, preferably, in a low-eaved peasant house,\nwhere on cool nights a wood fire glows in a big stone fireplace and the\nlight of candles is eked out by diminutive copper lamps which would have\nseemed primitive to Agamemnon.\n\nThe popular time for ancient pleasure-seekers to visit Delphi was in the\nmiddle of August, when games were held in honour of Apollo. At that\nseason, if ever, the slopes and peaks of Parnassus were accessible, but\nthe burning heat as the rocks reflected the sun\u2019s rays, alternating with\nheavy thunderstorms as the wind rushed up from the valley, must have\nmodified the comfort of visitors. In the spring the modern traveller\nwill find an equable and pleasant climate. And also, prepared as he may\nbe for the solemnity and the lonely grandeur of the scenery about\nDelphi, he will discover unanticipated qualities in the landscape which\nare illuminative of certain elements in the significance of the place. A\nwalk along the highway that leads from Kastri to and through the ruined\nprecinct reveals both the expected and the new. Toward the southwest\nlies the Cris\u00e6an plain filled with olive groves. Beyond its gray-green\nbreadth gleams the Corinthian Gulf with the far-off mountains of Arcadia\ngirding the horizon. Directly in the west the snow-capped mountains of\nLocris, the highest in Central Greece, fret the sky. Southeastward\nplunges the valley of Delphi, formed by Mount Parnassus on the north and\nby Mount Cirphis on the south, and watered by the river Plistus which in\na long line of gleaming argent seeks its westerly home in the bay of\nItea.\n\nThe valley of the Plistus lies in full sight after the Cris\u00e6an plain and\nthe gulf beyond it have been blotted out by a turn in the road which\nleads sharply around a large, rocky ridge, the barrier between the new\ntown and the old. This ridge formed the western wall that isolated\nDelphi in lonely remoteness between the bare steep rocks of Cirphis and\nthe cliffs of massive Parnassus, which spreads its huge buttresses over\nthe surrounding country. Rising two thousand feet above the level of the\nsea, these cliffs present a magnificent expanse of gray and red\nlimestone, and still reflect the brilliant morning sun, true to their\nancient name of the \u201cShining Rocks.\u201d Where they bend around, in their\nlong course, a deep gorge is formed from which the storied spring of\nCastalia still issues. Above the gorge, invisible when one stands under\nthe cliffs but conspicuous from lower levels, rise twin peaks, seeking a\nproud supremacy.\n\nSuperb mountains, precipitous cliffs, deep ravines, lonely valley, all\nare here. But here too, softening, transfiguring, some unforeseen\ninfluence is at work. Over the mountains a friendly, familiar sunshine\ncasts a gentle glamour. Olive trees fearlessly silver the long slopes\nthat stretch from the shining rocks to the glistening river. In jocund\nprofusion, tripping through the valley and climbing up the steep places,\npink and white almond trees flower like blushing dryads. The Far-Darter\nhas chosen this hour to lay aside his bow. No longer does he come,\u2014\n\n \u201cangered in heart, with his bow on his shoulders and close-covered\n quiver, while in his anger the shafts on his shoulders are clanging,\n and like to the Night is his coming,\u201d\u2014\n\nbut he lifts the \u201cgolden lyre\u201d that quencheth even the lightning spear,\nthe bolt of Zeus\u2019s immortal fire.\n\nOr perhaps Apollo has abdicated for a time and it is Dionysus who is\nconcealing the terror of the oracle beneath the sparkling audacity of\nspring. For the worship of this multiform god had a strong hold on\nDelphi, and the \u201cbeat of his unseen feet\u201d as he was wont to lead his\nM\u00e6nads in furious dance among the uplands of Parnassus echoes through\nGreek poetry. According to one set of legends, Dionysus was the first to\nhold the oracle. According to another, Apollo regularly departed for\nthree months each year, leaving the more fiery god of inspiration in\ncharge of the sacred tripod. In any case the relation between the divine\nbrothers seems to have been very amicable. An old vase-painting\nrepresents them as affectionately shaking hands under a palm tree.\n\nThe scene of the Dionysiac revels was the broad table-land which lies,\nmore than three thousand feet above the level of the sea, between the\nShining Rocks and the peaks of Parnassus. Here amid the wooded ravines\nand open meadows the flashing, flowing Dionysus, god of all ardent life,\nlord of the ichor of spring, held one of his many courts. It is\nsignificant of the unparalleled inclusiveness of Greek ideals that not\nonly on \u201cthe topmost heights of Caucasus\u201d and in the \u201cvales of Lydia,\u201d\nbut also above Apollo\u2019s temple where were inscribed in letters of gold\nthe maxims of the seven sages, \u201cKnow thyself\u201d and \u201cNothing too much,\u201d\nthe god of mad impulse and unchartered freedom should have been seen to\nleap and dance, and give \u201cto his female followers the note for the\nBacchic tune.\u201d Every two years, \u201cwhen spring flashed out for the first\ntime\u201d and sorrow might be swallowed up in joy, a torch festival was held\nin his honour by women of the surrounding country. Even from Attica\nwomen made their way to join in the celebration, travelling over the\nsame \u201cSacred Way\u201d by which the Athenians periodically sent their\nofferings to Delphi, and which Apollo had taken on his civilizing march\nthrough the wild places of men, escorted with great reverence by the\nroad-making people of Athens. The passionate desire for the mad\nnocturnal revels which awaited the Bacchantes at the end of their long\njourney was attributed by Euripides, who must often have seen the\nprocession starting out from Athens, to Tyrian women on their way to the\nservice of Ph\u0153bus at Delphi. Detained in Thebes by the civil war of\n\u0152dipus\u2019s sons, they tease their imaginations with visions of the rock\nthat flasheth a splendour of light and the cloven tongue of the torches\u2019\nflame, of the vine that each morning offers up its giant cluster to brim\nthe cup of the mystic ritual, of the snow-smitten, lonely ridges where,\nwith souls unafraid, they might be wreathing the happy dance.[26]\n\nFootnote 26:\n\n Cf. Way\u2019s translation of the _Ph\u0153niss\u00e6_, 219 ff.\n\nBut mortal women were not the only companions of Dionysus. The exuberant\nplay of nature, the change from death to life as winter made way for\nspring, not only goaded human hearts with a divine torture, but peopled\nthe hills with lithe nymphs of untouched soul, rollicking with Pan and\neven with the greater god whose joy, to spirits touched to finer issues,\nwas more terrible than sweet. Pan and the nymphs had their special\ndwelling-place in the Corycian Cave, which Pausanias mentions as one of\nthe four most famous caverns of the whole world, \u201camong a total number\npast finding out.\u201d It was certainly the most remarkable one in Greece, a\ncountry abounding in \u201ccaves that open upon the beach or in the deep\nsea,\u201d and in mountain caverns due to the frequent honeycombing by\nearthquake and subterranean currents. Very large and containing two\nchambers, it lies about seven miles northeast of Delphi, near the top of\none of the low hills which form the northern boundary of the Parnassian\nuplands. According to the descriptions of travellers, the greater\nchamber has slender stalactites hanging from the roof at both ends, and\nat the inner end stalagmites rise from the ground to meet them. The\nother chamber, like a remote shrine, must be reached through a narrow\npassage and lies in almost total darkness. At the mouth of the cave an\ninscription was found containing a dedication to Pan and the nymphs.\nCertainly a fit abode for divine embodiments of soulless nature was this\nvaulted, echoing grotto, whose cavernous mouth opens upon the widespread\nbeauty of an untamed world. \u00c6schylus may have seen the \u201cCorycian Rock\u201d\nor he may have trusted to the eyes of others in describing its hollow\nloneliness, \u201cthe home of birds, and the resort of deities.\u201d\n\nIf it is difficult to disentangle the myths which connect several gods\nwith one place, it is still more difficult to understand the legends\nwhich hint at the infinite complexity of each god in any one of his own\nseveral spheres. In studying the Delphic Apollo, the clear outlines of\nthe great god as he governed the Greek world will best be preserved by\nnoticing those stories which have been preferred by the poets. It was\nnatural that \u00c6schylus should penetrate beyond any individualized form of\ndivine activity to primeval forces, following the legend which made\nApollo a late heir to the first owners of the oracle, to Earth herself\nand to her daughter, holy Law. It was equally characteristic that\nEuripides, with his eye for vivid detail, should have been attracted by\nthe story which begins with Leto\u2019s golden-haired son coming from the\nfruitful meadows of his birthplace, Delos, to the Dionysus-haunted\nsummit of Parnassus. Under its shadow, amid the thick-leaved laurel, lay\nas guardian of the holy place a dragon with gleaming talons. This horrid\nmonster the young god slew, thereafter taking his seat upon the golden\ntripod. Earth, appearing only as the mother of the dragon, sought to\nwrest from him the right of prophecy. But, swift of foot, he fled to\nOlympus and the throne of Zeus, and the king of the gods laughed and\nshook his awful hair and gave to his youthful son in perpetuity the\nsovereignty over the Delphic abode.\n\nThe Homeric Hymn to Apollo, which contains the oldest account of the\nkilling of the dragon, also relates that the god chose Cretans to be his\nfirst ministers. Whatever the historical basis of this story may be, its\ntelling gives the riotous Ionian poet a chance to transform Ph\u0153bus\nApollo into a dolphin deflecting from its course a swift ship sent out\nfrom Cretan Cnossus to Pylos on the border of the Ionian Sea. The\ndolphin caused it to traverse strange waters, beyond Peloponnesus and\nthe ford of Alpheus, past the steep ridge of Ithaca and wooded\nZacynthus, into the harbour of Crisa. Here the dolphin disappeared and\nthe god leaped from the ship in the guise of a star at high noon, while\nsparks of frequent fire flew from him and flash of splendour reached the\nsky. On shore he appeared as a man, lusty and strong, and persuaded the\nCretans to dance in his train and to take charge of the temple. By\nsuggesting that they might use for themselves the flocks brought for\nsacrifice, he overcame their fear that they would fare but meagrely in a\ncountry neither vine-bearing nor rich in meadows.\n\nThe story of the hymn is too confused to be worthy of Apollo. He was no\nmusic-hall performer, making lightning transformations, but lord, in\nsimplicity and dignity, of music and all harmonies, elder brother and\nguide in the paths of conduct. So at least he reveals himself on a\nspring morning beneath the Shining Rocks lit by his sunlight from the\nsouth.\n\nBut homelier memories also come to life. It may have been in the\n\u201cfragrant dawn\u201d of a day like this that the boy Odysseus, while he was\non a visit to his grandfather, went hunting with his uncles in the windy\nhollows of wood-clad Parnassus and killed a great boar. From its white\ntusks he had received a wound which was to leave an indelible scar and\nyears later betray his identity to his aged nurse. Certainly it must\nhave been on such a morning that another boy, Ion the acolyte, was\nperforming his early tasks for the temple when visitors from Athens\narrived to question him about the sights. They were women who had\naccompanied the queen Creusa when she and her husband, like many others,\ncame to Delphi in their childlessness. In her youth, before her marriage\nto Xuthus, she had been loved by Apollo and had borne him a son in his\ncave below the Athenian Acropolis. The baby had been abandoned by her,\nbut a servant had carried it to Delphi and left it as a foundling with\nthe priestess. Unknown to Creusa, he had grown into the boyish minister\nof his divine father. The plot of the Euripidean drama which uses the\nstory is sensational, including attempted murders and many complications\nbefore mother and child recognize and accept each other. But the boy Ion\nis one of the happiest creations of a poet whom Aristophanes accused of\nskepticism. His unstained youth consecrates his daily work of sweeping\nthe temple floor, adorning the doorway with fresh wreaths and laurel\nboughs and driving away the wild pigeons. Reared by a holy woman in the\nremote quiet of the sanctuary, he has become a vessel, crystal clear, to\nhold the purest essence of religious feeling. His morning hymn reflects\nthe unspoiled reverence with which, among the greedy hordes, many must\nhave turned to Delphi:\u2014\n\n \u201cLo! the radiant Sun, his four horses a-span!\n Now with splendour his car flingeth light o\u2019er the earth,\n And the stars from the sky at this dazzle of fire\n Flee for refuge and hide in the temple of Night,\n And inviolate peaks of Parnassus are lit\n As they welcome the Day\u2019s car for mortals.\n And the wilderness myrrh to Apollo\u2019s high roof\n Curls fragrant and dim,\n And from tripod divine now the Delphian dread\n For the Hellenes intones with oracular cries\n What Apollo proclaims from his portals.\n\n \u201cUp, ye Delphians all who to Ph\u0153bus give aid!\n To Castalian fount with its silvery whirl\n Go, wash ye, be cleansed in its pure running stream,\n And enter the shrine,\n Your lips guarding well, that in silence refrained,\n Or with words that are good, you interpret his voice\n Unto those who his counsels would follow.\n While I\u2019ll serve at the tasks which from childhood are mine\n And with consecrate wreaths and with branches of bay\n I will make the ways pure to Apollo within.\n\n For a motherless child and unfathered I dwell\n As a ministrant here in the fostering care\n Of the temple of Ph\u0153bus Apollo.\u201d\n\nThis unstudied rapture is interrupted by the worldly women, exclaiming\nover the wonderful sculptured metopes of the temple. Euripides, with the\nusual license of the Greek dramatists, put before his legendary\ncharacters the works of art that he himself might have seen in the\nlatter part of the fifth century before Christ, when a rich civic and\nartistic life was occupying the stage of the vast theatre into which, as\nStrabo observed, Nature had moulded the site of Delphi. The semicircular\nvalley opens only on the east, and from it terraces, like tiers of\nseats, rise from the Plistus to Parnassus. The ancient city of Delphi\nlay in two portions along the base of the Shining Rocks. The modern\nhighroad approximately marks the division between the upper terraces,\nwhich held the sacred precinct, and the lower, where were the houses and\nbusiness buildings of the permanent inhabitants, and also, east of\nCastalia, a few temples and other public structures. It is the upper\nterraces, west of Castalia, which enchain our attention, although all\nthat is left even here, save for the small re\u00ebrected Treasury of the\nAthenians, made of Parian marble, are remnants of walls, low-lying\nfoundations, traces of pavement, broken bases, and pieces of graven\nstone. But they represent sacred ways and buildings, monuments and\nstatues which made glorious one of the richest centres of Greece, from\nlong before the time of Euripides to the destructive epoch of Nero and\nbeyond. Delphi became the pride of the Macedonians as it had been of the\nAthenians and the Spartans, and under their sovereignty the Delphic\nAmphictyony continued and the oracle was the centre of the new\nwidespread Hellenic world. The Gauls attacked Delphi in the third\ncentury B. C. as vainly as the Persians had attacked it in the fifth\ncentury. Even the ruthlessness of Rome brought no immediate destruction.\n\u00c6milius Paulus, the final conqueror of Macedon, set up near Apollo\u2019s\ntemple, in the most conspicuous place of the entire precinct, a monument\nto his victory. Even Nero seems to have wished to repair the temple, but\nthe story that he afterwards tore it down because of an oracular\nresponse which reflected upon his moral character is at least _ben\ntrovato_. He divided the Cris\u00e6an plain among his soldiers and carried\noff an enormous number of statues from Delphi. But a still greater\nnumber was left, and the glory of the god\u2019s dwelling place had not\nvanished. Under Hadrian, the imperial apostle of culture, new treasures\nwere added, and a little later Pausanias saw more than he could\ndescribe. It was not until two more centuries had passed that the oracle\nitself with one last cry became dumb forever. To the ambassador of\nJulian the Apostate, who was seeking advice in his wars with the\nPersians, the message was given:\u2014\n\n \u201cSay to the King now that levelled to earth is the temple of splendour,\n Ph\u0153bus no more has a roof for his head nor the laurel prophetic;\n Gone is the voice of the fountain and dried is the chattering water.\u201d\n\nTheodosius put a formal end to the Delphic cult as well as to the\nOlympic games.\n\nFrom Apollo\u2019s slaying of the earth-born dragon to the Byzantine\nemperor\u2019s destruction of the oracle is a long stretch of centuries.\nWithin them fell the brilliant epochs which filled Delphi with the\nopulence of all the arts. As Greek and barbarian brought hither their\nwell-wrought schemes and passionate desires, so they brought also, in\nofferings to the god, their best skill in architecture and sculpture and\npainting, their rarest workmanship in marble and bronze and gold and\nsilver. Ghostly proofs of the existence of some of these offerings the\nFrench excavators have within twenty years evoked from the reluctant\nsoil. Gallic precision and insight have even made of ruined walls and\nbroken stones an orderly array easily perceived by the traveller who is\npatient enough to follow his guidebook. The Museum supplements the\nground foundations by several important sculptural details.\n\nThere were many localities and objects made holy by legendary\nassociations, like the tomb of Neoptolemus, Achilles\u2019s red-haired son,\nwhose murder is described by Euripides and whose quadrennial worship\nbrought crowds of Thessalians to Delphi; or like the marble Omphalos, or\nnavel stone, flanked, in Pindar\u2019s day, by golden eagles which marked the\nmeeting place of the winged explorers sent east and west by Zeus in\nsearch of the exact centre of the earth. But of paramount importance in\nthe religious life of Delphi was the Temple of Apollo, built above the\ndeep cleft in the ground that held the sacred spring of prophecy. The\nPriestess sat upon a tripod in the adyton or holy of holies, directly\nover the fissure from which a natural vapour issued, and her ravings\nwere transmitted by the priests in ambiguous hexameters. The site of the\nfirst primitive temple was preserved, but upon it rose successive\nstructures. The temple that was seen by Herodotus and Thucydides, by\nPindar, by \u00c6schylus and Euripides was built in the latter half of the\nsixth century to replace an older one destroyed by fire. In the fourth\ncentury an earthquake necessitated still another, and it is to this one\nthat the existing foundations are attributed, although fragments of the\nother are not wanting. Owing to the shifting history of the fourth\ncentury, this temple was long in building and was not yet completed when\nDemosthenes thundered out his scorn that the barbarian of Macedon had\nassumed the \u201chonours of the temple,\u201d to which even all the Greeks could\nnot pretend. The work had been undertaken by an international\ncommission, and inscriptional records of the contributions are richly\nsuggestive of the private life of the times. Many individuals and some\nstates promised first fruits. An actor and a physician of Athens sent a\ntithe of their earnings. Among individuals the Peloponnesians were the\nmost pious, although contributions straggled in from Attica, B\u0153otia,\nNorthern Greece, the islands, Africa, and Sicily. Collectors went from\nhouse to house, and by far the larger number of contributors gave no\nmore than a drachma. Doubtless in many cases this modesty was due to\npoverty rather than to indifference, and the religious sentiment\nprompting the gifts must often have been comparable to that which reared\nthe arches and illuminated the windows of the Cathedral of Chartres. For\nthe sake of such contributors one could wish that after the Roman\nrestorations the Delphic temple had not been allowed to crumble under\nearthquakes, corroding rains, and the tread of the unnumbered years. Of\nadyton and oracular chasm the excavators have found no smallest trace,\nand not even one column rises from the low foundations to give evidence\nof things unseen. But, at least, unlike the Parthenon and many another\ngreat shrine, it was never converted into a church of an alien faith.\n\nSecular buildings followed in the wake of the religious importance of\nDelphi. The Amphictyonic Council had a hall for its meetings to the west\nof the sacred precinct, on or near the site now occupied by the little\nchapel of St. Elias. Here, in sight of the Cris\u00e6an plain, the incendiary\nspeech of \u00c6schines had its full effect. Within the precinct, safe from\nattack in times of war, public treasuries were erected by Asiatic kings\nand Greek tyrants, by Greek states in Asia Minor and colonies in Italy,\nand by sovereign cities like Athens and Thebes.\n\nThe erection of a treasury often followed upon some public success, but\nother monuments and statues also rose at the feet of Apollo to mark the\ntidal flow of national fortunes. A study of all such memorials, known to\nhave existed at Delphi, would be equivalent to a detailed study of Greek\nhistory. The repulse of the Persians from the mainland and of the\nCarthaginians from Sicily, and the stemming of the later invasions of\nGallic barbarians required thank-offerings to the Delphic god. The rise\nof Athens, the struggle of Ionian and Dorian, the victory of Sparta, the\nlate hegemony of Thebes are here commemorated; and with these the lesser\nquarrels of Sparta with Argos and Arcadia and of Athens with Megara, and\nthe petty warfare of Phocians and Thessalians.\n\nA myriad of statues and monuments commemorated personal interests or\nfeeling. From a haul of tunny fish to the discovery of stolen goods, no\nevent was too prosaic to inspire an offering from island or village.\nAnd, throughout Greece, from Macedonia to Crete, towns delighted to\nexpress their reverence by gifts of marble and bronze. Midas from Asia\nMinor sent a chair of state and Cr\u0153sus sent a golden lion and silver\nbowls. Arcesilas of Cyrene in northern Africa, in the fifth century,\ncelebrated a Pythian victory by the gift of a sculptured chariot and\ncharioteer. The statue still remains, the most famous single object\ndiscovered at Delphi. Dominating one room in the Museum, he seems in his\nbronze dignity as untroubled by the chilling silence of to-day as was\nhis living prototype, in the hippodrome in the plain below, by the noise\nand tumult of the day of victory. The description by Sophocles of the\nDelphic chariot race in which Orestes was supposed to be killed\nreproduces the excitement against which many a charioteer must have had\nto steady his nerves.[27]\n\nFootnote 27:\n\n The passage is quoted in chapter xviii, p. 406.\n\nOf statues of mortals dedicated by themselves or by their admirers there\nwas no end. Among these persons were the great rhetorician Gorgias, to\nwhose teaching Greek prose owed its first artistic development, and\nPhryne, the famous courtesan of Thespi\u00e6. With her statue, seen by men of\nDemosthenes\u2019s age between the figures of the Spartan king Archidamus and\nPhilip of Macedon, we may surrender the effort to distinguish the links\nin the mighty chains which, as in Plato\u2019s vision, bound the Greek earth\nto a heavenly throne.\n\nIt is less difficult to understand the Greek harmony between the graver\nand brighter needs of the common life which added to the temples and\ntreasuries of Delphi buildings for recreation and enjoyment. A\nclub-house was erected by the rich Cnidians, where conversation, the\nfavourite amusement of all Greeks, could be carried on. Centuries later\nPlutarch made it the scene of his dialogue on the decay of oracles. If\nthe age of the Antonines showed a loss of faith, art at least held its\nown, and the talkers must have added to the pleasure of skeptical\nspeculation a delight in the decorations which dated from the fifth\ncentury before Christ. They consisted of pictures by Polygnotus of the\ncapture of Troy and Odysseus\u2019s journey to hell. Now only bits of stucco\npainted blue betray their presence, and fragmentary stones alone are\nleft of the splendid building. Little more is left of the beautiful\ncolonnades which furnished protection from sun and rain to the frequent\ncrowds. In fairly good preservation still is the Theatre, where, as in\nall the religious centres of Greece, dramatic representations added\nliterature to the pageant of artistic gifts. Equally inevitable was a\nGymnasium; but most important of all was the Stadium, in which the\nquadrennial games were held.\n\nThis Stadium lay far beyond the sacred precinct to the west, and\noccupied a lofty and magnificent situation. In what Pausanias calls \u201cthe\nhighest part of the city\u201d the slopes of Parnassus break sufficiently to\nleave a narrow shelf of flat ground. Every foot of this was used for the\nerection of the structure, the northern side being bounded by the\nprecipices of the great mountain, the southern side being supported by a\nwall of polygonal masonry. Part of this wall is still left, and in the\ninterior there are tiers of seats to tempt the dreamer. The marble with\nwhich Herodes Atticus is said to have faced them in the second century\nafter Christ is now all gone. But one may yet sit on the original stone\nand see not only the valley of the Plistus far below, but westward a\nbright strip of the Corinthian Gulf. Here once gathered eager thousands\nto watch the foot races and the wrestling matches, and to hear the\ncontesting flutes and the rival lyres. Originally, before the Cris\u00e6an\nwar, the Pythian festival had occurred only once in eight years and had\nconsisted of a contest in singing, to the accompaniment of the lyre, a\nhymn to Apollo. The early musical festival found its aftermath in the\ncombination of musical with athletic contests in the more frequent\n\u201cGames\u201d instituted by the Amphictyons after they had taken Delphi under\ntheir common charge. This was a part of that general reorganization in\nthe sixth century by which the Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean, and\nespecially the Olympic games were thrown into high relief among the\nmultitudinous festivals of Greece. At Delphi a hymn in honour of the god\nof the golden lyre continued to be an important part of the proceedings.\nAmong the most conspicuous discoveries of the French are three fragments\nof such hymns, engraved on stone, two of them accompanied by musical\nnotation. The hymns are late ones, of no especial merit, but their\nscores have furnished a key to that art which played so large a part in\nGreek education, literature, and philosophy, and which made the Pythian\nfestival a reminder of the lord of music.\n\nOf the hymns in honour of mortals victorious in the games we still have\nsome of the greatest representatives in the Pythian odes of Bacchylides\nand Pindar. Pindar may well boast that his song of triumph was a\nsplendour in the Pythian crown of Hiero of Syracuse; that he would come\nto him over the deep sea, a light shining farther than any heavenly\nstar. For only through a victory at some one of the four great festivals\nof Greece was even a tyrant sure of any Panhellenic honour. The\ncentrifugal forces of Greek life found an antidote in these expressions\nof common ideals. It has, indeed, been often said that the only other\nantidote lay in the political organization of Delphi itself. But this\npolitical unity was limited, and, if Delphi focused Greek interests in\nany way that even Olympia could not, the reason must be sought in facts\nthat lay beneath a particular form of government. In the lofty Stadium\nmen from cities whose disparate and jealous memorials lay below united\nin self-forgetful applause of all the victors.\n\nHere the traveller may pause to grasp, amid the chaos of swift\nimpressions, a picture of the Delphic life. In it religion and politics,\nart and amusement coalesced into a stream of almost illimitable\ninfluence. From month to month without cessation pilgrims sought the\noracle. The store of information about public and private matters thus\nbrought to the oracular seat gave to the priests a knowledge of\npolitical conditions which they could easily transmute into an\napparently supernatural wisdom and a unique power in public life. Hand\nin hand with this political power went an ethical sovereignty due to the\nessential religiousness of the Greeks. And lastly, the more continuous\ninflux of visitors, over against an infrequent and congested festival,\nmay easily have rendered the artistic influence of Delphi more insistent\nthan that of Olympia. Xerxes was better acquainted with what was worthy\nof note at Delphi than even with what he had left in his own house, for\nmany of those about him were continually describing the treasures. Often\nthe seed of such descriptions, or of actual sight, must have fallen on\nricher soil than an Oriental despot\u2019s imagination. Who knows what\nvillage smithy in Thessaly or Arcadia was stimulated to a finer output\nby the iron stand made by Glaucus of Chios to hold the big silver bowl\nsent to Delphi by Cr\u0153sus\u2019s father? Indeed, the wonderful animals and\nplants wrought in relief for the first time upon welded iron may have\ninspired many a designer in Athens and Corinth. And many a young\nsculptor must have taken home from his Pythian pilgrimage a knowledge of\nPhidias and Praxiteles and Lysippus.\n\nThus was the world forever pouring itself into Delphi and again, like a\nretreating wave, bearing something of Delphi away with it, something\nlarger and richer even than the golden honours that were symbolized by\nthe crown of laurel so eagerly borne home by the victors in the games.\nAnd yet there was a further significance in the fragile wreath itself,\nhowever infrequently realized by athletes and spectators, which pointed\nbeyond the artistic and moral power of the Pythian God. The wreath was\nmade of leaves brought from, the Vale of Tempe, where Apollo had plucked\nhis own crown of victory, when, as lord of light, he had vanquished the\npowers of darkness and had been purified from the evil which the\nstruggle had entailed. Laurel (or bay) trees grew in the valley of\nDelphi itself, lingering on until the middle of the nineteenth century,\nwhen the last one is said to have drooped and died in the little garden\nof the church of St. Nicholas which, before Kastri was removed, stood in\nfront of the spring of Cassotis. This spring, not yet exhausted, was the\nfeeder of the oracular chasm and watered the grove of Apollo,\n\u201cfreshening with an ever-living stream the undying gardens\u201d from which\nIon gathered his laurel broom. Not only did the acolytes use laurel in\ntheir simple tasks, but the Priestess fumigated herself with burning\nboughs before she sat upon the tripod, and chewed laurel leaves before\nshe delivered her prophecies. But the meaning of Apollo\u2019s crowning, from\nwhich the sacred uses of the laurel sprang, was beyond the reach of Ion,\nuntroubled \u201cworshipper within the Temple\u2019s inner shrine.\u201d Nor to moderns\nis the revelation likely to come until the Shining Rocks grow pale and\nnight obliterates the lively daylight of the spring. Into the dark void\nleft by the withdrawal of Apollo swings the moon, no longer\ncompassionate but majestic. Suddenly upon the receptive imagination\ndescends the Delphic awe. The almond trees slip into shadowy\ninsignificance. The hills stand out dark and brooding, while their\nravines deepen unfathomably. And through the fearful silence sounds the\nprophetic voice of an unseen god vaster than the consciousness of the\nrace which created him. The quality of sublimity and awfulness now\napparent in the landscape explains the influence of that ideal of\nomnipotent righteousness which, among a singularly intellectual people,\ngradually formed for itself a living centre. For an understanding of\nsuch a god at Delphi one must turn to \u00c6schylus. To him Apollo was a god\n\u201cwho knew not how to do unrighteousness,\u201d in whose hands were loosed the\ntangled skeins of human sin. Sophocles, in his dramas of \u0152dipus\u2019s life,\nrepresented the folly and wrong-doing of a noble nature forgiven by the\nPythian god after the willing endurance of a just punishment. But\n\u00c6schylus, in the \u201cEumenides,\u201d deals with a much subtler aspect of divine\nlaw. That its opening scene is laid at Delphi is appropriate to the\novershadowing importance of its religious meaning. Orestes had been told\nby the oracle to kill his mother, as a divinely ordained punishment for\nher murder of her husband. But there is no slaying that does not involve\nguilt, as Apollo himself knew when he slew the foul dragoness. The awful\nFuries hound Orestes from Argos to the altar in the innermost shrine of\nthe Delphic temple. Here is laid the \u00c6schylean scene. The Furies, with\ntheir hair of coiling snakes, mutter in a savage sleep, ready at a\nsignal to fall once more upon the wretch who has obeyed the god against\nthe human conscience. The suppliant Orestes, doubting and hopeless,\ncrouches at the altar steps. And towering over them all stands the\nsaving God who had once, in a fair vale of purification, put upon his\nown head the crown of victorious goodness. He promises Orestes no easy\nrescue from the earthly consequences of his god-directed act. He must be\npursued once more by the hateful spawn of Darkness over the sea and\nthrough sea-girt cities. But at last he shall come to Athens, a\nsuppliant of Athena, and Apollo himself will come and gain for him\nfreedom and the forgiveness of his kind, and justice among men shall be\nforever established. This is no mere praise, however splendid, of the\nwisdom and the justice of Athens. It is rather the embodiment of the\nidea which to the Greeks shone as a \u201cfar-off heavenly star\u201d above all\nthe expedients of practical religion, or all the necessities of worldly\npower. Among the hills and cliffs of Delphi dwelt a god whose ways were\npast finding out, whose commands led to terror but whose service led to\npeace.\n\nThus with the lengthening of day into night rises the flood tide of\nfragmentary realizations of ancient thought. But the tide ebbs with the\nsinking moon. The cold night air draws the dreamer back to the waiting\nfires and hospitable copper lamps of Kastri. As he makes his homeward\nway through the low dark ruins, which are all that the intrepid\narch\u00e6ologists could summon from the grave of centuries, he is moved to\nwonder whether Delphi, save for its natural beauty by day and by night,\nhas any place in modern thought. The ancient interpretation of its\nimportance was by no means only a religious one. The Greeks cannot be\nunderstood only through an \u00c6schylus of profound spiritual insight, or an\nHerodotus of intelligent piety. Thucydides, amid the bustle of its life,\nwas as rationalizing in his ideas about Delphi as we can be amid its\ndead ruins. To him as to us, its oracular power was a matter of\nsuperstition. He would have attributed Socrates\u2019s faith in it to his\ngoodness rather than his knowledge, and doubtless anticipated the modern\nexplanation of the wisdom of the priests. And yet Thucydides accepted\nwithout question the political and civic value of such a centre for the\nGreek world. Now that that value has disappeared with the world it\nserved, we are left to find a new value in the imperishable human\nthoughts which were inspired by Delphi and have outlived its marbles,\nits silver and gold, its laurel crowns and echoing lyres. For any\nsubsequent religion has but created, _mutatis mutandis_, the differing\ntypes of men through whom we know the pagan god. If the oracle is dumb,\nand Apollo but an antique fable, yet men of the twentieth century may\nstill find in the poets and thinkers of Greece expressions of their own\nfaith or their own doubt. They may find also that blending in one mind\nof belief born of idealism with unbelief born of experience which is\nfamiliar to the modern world. Pindar\u2019s piety was such that \u201cat Delphi\nthey kept with reverence his iron chair, and the priest of Apollo cried\nnightly as he closed the temple, \u2018Let Pindar the poet go in unto the\nsupper of the god.\u2019\u201d And yet he uttered the universal lament:\u2014\n\n \u201cMuch tossed, now rise, now sink the hopes of men, the while they\n cleave the waves of baffling falsity, and never yet hath any one on\n earth obtained from God a token sure of anything to come. Blind is the\n verdict of the future.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XII\n FROM DELPHI TO THEBES\n\n \u201cYe triple pathways, shrouded crypt of woodland vale,\n Coppice, and narrowing pass where three roads meet! O ye\n Who drank my father\u2019s blood\u2014my own\u2014from these my hands,\n Do ye, perchance, remember what ye saw me do?\u201d\n SOPHOCLES, _\u0152dipus Tyrannus_.\n\n\n\u0152dipus on his way from Delphi and Laius on his way from Thebes met at\nthe Forked Roads\u2014the \u201cCleft Way\u201d\u2014in a lonely valley. The traveller who\nwishes to see the scene of the ensuing tragedy will have the opportunity\nto pass through a country of extraordinary beauty and variety and also\nto know the leisured charm of travel by horse or mule. With the\nmultiplication of railroads these opportunities are growing rarer year\nby year, except for those whom adventure or professional interests lead\ninto the less famous parts of Greece. The major portion of the country\nthat attracts students of Greek life at its highest is as easy to\ntraverse as Italy. It is true that the days which there have long since\nreceded into historical perspective seem in Greece strangely mingled\nwith the present, because the same traveller who to-day can take the\ntrain from Athens to Thebes was forced, ten years ago, to ride or drive\nover the passes of Cith\u00e6ron. But already in the books of Greek travel\nwritten in the second half of the nineteenth century we begin to\nperceive that delicate aroma of a more primitive past which pervades\nGoethe\u2019s \u201cItalienische Reise.\u201d In addition to railroads, the matured\npolice power of the government has been a transforming agency. Not only\nbetween Athens and Corinth but practically everywhere in Greece\nbrigandage is now unknown. And, finally, the onslaughts of dirt and\nvermin have been greatly modified, both by the increasing number of\ncreditable inns in the larger places and by the ability of the peasants\nin remoter villages to understand the prejudices of foreigners. Not very\nlong ago a request for information about almost any route that led away\nfrom Athens might have been couched in the words of Dionysus asking\nabout the trip to Hades:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd tell me too the havens, fountains, shops,\n Roads, resting places, and refreshment rooms,\n Towns, lodgings, hostesses with whom are found\n The fewest bugs.\u201d[28]\n\nFootnote 28:\n\n Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 112; translation (modified) by Rogers.\n\n[Illustration: DELPHI AND THE ROAD TO ARACHOVA]\n\nNow, in villages which are near important sites of antiquity, the rough\nand ready traveller may meet with nothing more unfamiliar to him than\nthe Aristophanic flea that hops in the blankets like a dancing girl,\nwhile those who take a dragoman, at a moderate price, and mattresses and\nsupplies from Athens may escape even this enemy, as well as beds of hard\nboards and coarsely cooked food. A knowledge of modern Greek enables the\ntrue Philhellene to dispense with a middleman and to receive proofs in\nunexpected places of the unfailing hospitality and the alternating\nintegrity and guile of the Greek peasant.\n\nPerched on the crest that forms the watershed between the eastern and\nwestern lengths of the valley of the Plistus, the lovely village of\nArachova serves as a way-station on the pilgrimage from Kastri to the\nForked Roads. The first part of the road leads familiarly through the\nprecinct of Delphi, past the clump of plane trees which keep green the\nmemory of their ancestor planted by Agamemnon, and past Castalia, whose\nwaters, emerging from the gorge below the Shining Rocks, are as \u201csweet\nto drink\u201d as Pausanias found them and as clear as when they purified the\nsuppliants at the oracle and the ministering hands of the priests, or\nlaved the golden hair of the god himself.\n\nAlong the road that now stretches eastward the Persians streamed toward\nDelphi at the time of Xerxes\u2019s invasion. But near the temple of Athena\nPronaia, on the lower terrace, they were repulsed by terrible portents.\nA storm of thunder burst over their heads; at the same time two crags\nsplit off from Mount Parnassus and rolled down upon them with a loud\nnoise, crushing vast numbers beneath their weight, while from the temple\nthere went up the war cry and the shout of victory. The Delphians, who\nwere hiding in the Corycian Cave, seeing their terror, rushed down upon\nthem, causing great slaughter. And barbarian survivors declared\nafterwards that two armed warriors, of a stature more than human,\npursued after their flying ranks, pressing them close and slaying them.\nThese supernatural warriors were two heroes who belonged to Delphi, by\nname Phylacus and Autonous. For their timely aid they received precincts\nand worship, Autonous by the Castalian spring, his comrade hard by the\nroad, practically identical with the modern highway, which ran above the\ntemple of Athena. The traces of this Heroon may yet be seen, faint\nreminders of old-time tumults amid to-day\u2019s oblivious silence. A little\nfarther is the so-called \u201cLogari,\u201d or likeness of a great door chiselled\nin the face of a rock, representing, perhaps, the Gate of Hell. At least\nit seems to have marked the entrance to an ancient cemetery which lay\nbelow the road along the southern slopes now given over to orchards and\nto tillage. Through them a road winds down toward the silvery Plistus,\ntwisting in and out among the gray-green olives and the almond trees. In\nantiquity this was the road to the bustling town of Ambrosus by the pass\nof Dhesphina over Mount Cirphis. Now the donkeys that saunter along it\nare bearing peasant girls and their bags to the mills by the river.\n\nThe road to Arachova leads in a gentle ascent close along the lower\nreaches of Parnassus on the left and high above the deep valley on the\nright. The muleteers may turn aside to shorter mountain paths, but the\neasy highway tempts to leisure while the sun is still warm in the west\nand the brilliant pageant of the valley is but lightly subdued by the\ndelicate reserves of the approaching evening. Either route leads in less\nthan three hours to the foot of high precipices rising at the back of\nwindy Arachova, the representative of Homer\u2019s Anemoreia (Windswept\nTown). These cliffs, now called Petrites, are, perhaps, the Look-Out\nPlace often alluded to in ancient literature, the point of vantage from\nwhich Apollo, the Far-Darter, shot his arrow at the dragon in Delphi.\nThe town itself, two thousand feet above the sea-level, is one of the\nmost typical of modern Greece both in situation and in those racial\ncharacteristics which are forming a new nation out of the roots of the\nold. The houses, interspersed with vivid green trees, gather about each\nother in terraces up the hill to the high-poised church of St. George,\nthat other dragon slayer, while in its turn the little Christian edifice\nis frowned down upon by the rocky mountain-side. The stony, twisted\nstreets, alive with children, often become staircases of rock, up and\ndown which the mules indifferently clatter. Stone courtyards lead to\ndoorways out of which handsome men and women smile an hospitable\nwelcome. The inhabitants of Arachova, perhaps because they live near the\nMuses of Parnassus, possess a charm and courtesy of manner that is not\nduplicated among the rougher peasants of the Peloponnesus. They are also\nfamous for their beauty, the gift of the Greeks from the time of Helen\nand Achilles through all admixtures of foreign blood. The men are tall\nand slim, with the dignity of carriage and chiselled fineness of feature\nwhich distinguishes the Greek peasantry from the livelier Italian, and\nthe beauty of the women is grave and tranquil. The traveller may find\nhimself served by a fair mother and fairer daughter, whose name of\nSappho is belied by the shy, cool loveliness of her parted hair and\ninnocent eyes.\n\nThe Arachovans cherish brave traditions of their part in the War of\nIndependence, but their relation to antiquity is revealed in certain\nelements of their imaginative life. Now, as of old, natural forces are\nidentified with the activities of divine beings. The snowstorms and icy\nwinds of winter are attributed to furious battles waged high up on the\npeaks of Parnassus by the spirits of the mountain. Gentler spirits of\nforest and fountain seem to have descended directly from antique\nprototypes. The Corycian Cave, once the haunt of Pan and his nymphs, is\nstill a favourite resort of the Nereids. And these \u201cMaidens,\u201d as the\nmodern like the ancient Greek often calls them, dwell in many other\npleasant places, lingering in the old trunks of olive or fig trees, like\nhamadryads, or tumbling sportively in mill streams and mountain\ntorrents, like the daughters of ancient Nereus among the waves of the\nsea. Primarily, indeed, the Nereids are still water nymphs, and the\nmodern Greek word for water, _nero_, so often upon the tourist\u2019s tongue,\nechoes their immortal play. Nor has the fashion of their garments\ngreatly changed since the pictures of antiquity represented them with\nlong veils, now bound upon the head, now fluttering freely in the hand.\nThe peasants say that their Nereids wear a head cloth, always of the\nfinest quality but in style like the cloths worn by their own women,\nhanging down over the neck and shoulders. At Arachova the Nereids go\nwith uncovered head and swing the cloth in their hands, as Leucothea\nloosened her veil to give it to Odysseus when she rose like a sea-gull\nfrom the depths of ocean to save his life. The Nereids have pipe-playing\nlovers known as demons, in whom Pan and the satyrs seem to live on. And\nPan has his own special representative in the protective Lord of Hares\nand Wild Goats, who still ranges the slopes of Parnassus. An evil spirit\nin the shape of a he-goat with long beard, who leaps on the goats to\ntheir destruction, hints at that other aspect of Pan revealed in the\nmalignant power of nature.\n\nAnother inheritance from antiquity are the Lami\u00e6. One of these female\nmonsters dwelt in a large cavern in the side of Mount Cirphis, still\naccessible at the end of a blind path beyond the Plistus, and ravaged\nthe country all about until a brave hero put her to death. She, and\nothers of her ilk, were the bugbears of children, and they still live\namong the Greek peasantry as vampirish demons. The name is also used as\na term of reproach for scolding women. But in Arachova, oddly enough,\nthe Lamia has been transformed by some kindly alchemy into a good\nspirit, and is often seen in the dusk striding through the village\nstreets, or spinning at a huge distaff by a fountain\u2019s rim. Her name is\ngiven to handsome, well-behaved women, as beautiful girls are said to be\nNereid-descended or Nereid-eyed.\n\nThe modern Greeks also believe in the Fates or Moir\u00e6, either as three\ndread sisters or as a hierarchy of twelve who delegate the care of a\nspecified number of men to a smaller committee. At Arachova three fates\nappear within three days of an infant\u2019s birth, two known as the bearers\nof good and of ill fortune, who fight the matter out and agree upon a\ndestiny, and the third called the Spinner, who will weave the strands\ninto the web of life.\n\nThus under the very eyes of St. George pagan spirits make common cause\nwith the angels and demons of Christianity. A hoof print on the edge of\na crag may betray the presence of the lord of hares and goats or of the\nunmentionable Devil. An infant who dies unbaptised may claim to be the\nvictim of the ruthless Spinner, or may go to join in the air the imps\nwho war with the angels for the souls of men. Mountains and ether,\nsprings and tree-trunks, are filled with the divine forces created,\nunder the influence of two religions, by a people always sensitive to\nthe intimacy between the physical and spiritual worlds.\n\nThe Cleft Way lies two hours beyond Arachova, and six hours beyond that\nis Ch\u00e6ronea, battlefield and railroad station. On a morning in March the\nmoon may be bright at six o\u2019clock when the mules beat their way out of\nthe rough streets of Arachova to the open. The road descends from the\nvillage and skirts the southern sides of Parnassus, leading through\nvineyards and gorges and winding over a bare and rocky valley. The amber\nmoon grows white, and between the opening hills to the east the rising\nsun sets the sky aflame. Gradually the gold and rose give way to\nintense, brilliant blue. The twin peaks of Parnassus glisten in their\ncovering of snow. A pastoral charm, reminiscent of Theocritus\u2019s Sicilian\nuplands, mingles with the rugged impressiveness of mountain scenery.\nSteep hillsides alternate with pastures, and here and there cool streams\ncurl about the heedless feet of mules and muleteers. Gradually the\nseverity of the landscape predominates. The road from Delphi along which\n\u0152dipus, like ourselves, was coming, descends through a wild pass\nenclosed by the mighty precipices of Parnassus and Cirphis, and in a\nscene of impressive loneliness meets the roads from Daulis and\nThebes.[29] The spot is now called \u201cStavrodromi tou Mega,\u201d or\nCross-Roads of Megas, in memory of a hero who was killed here in the\nmiddle of the nineteenth century while destroying a band of brigands.\nThe story of the ancient deed of violence is put by Sophocles into the\nmouth of \u0152dipus himself. The Delphic oracle had declared that Thebes\ncould be healed of its pestilence only by the punishment of the murderer\nof Laius, the former king, and \u0152dipus had proclaimed the requisite\nsentence against the unknown. Now he has begun to realize that he was\nthe slayer:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd, wife, I\u2019ll speak out truth to thee. When, journeying,\n I came hard by this three-forked road, there met me there,\n Just as thou tellest it, a herald and a man\n Mounted upon a carriage that was drawn by colts.\n And here the leader and the old man, too, himself,\n The pair of them, would thrust me rudely from the path,\n And I, enraged, strike him\u2014the charioteer\u2014who tried\n To push me off. And then the old man, seeing this,\n Fetched me a blow with two-pronged goad full on my head\n As I strode by. No equal penalty he paid,\n Not he. By one swift blow from staff in this my hand\n He\u2019s rolled out straightway from the car upon his back,\n And I slay all of them! So, if there\u2019s any kin\n \u2019Twixt Laius and this stranger, who is wretcheder\n Than this man now before thee? Who? what man, could be\n More hateful to the gods? Whom never any one,\n Or foreigner or citizen, may in his house\n Receive; whom none may speak to, nay, but from his house\n Must thrust! And this\u2014these curses\u2014none except myself\n Brought down upon me!\u201d\n\nFootnote 29:\n\n The local guides sometimes place the Cleft Way a little further along,\n in a very narrow pass, known as the \u201cSteni.\u201d Although this spot in\n some respects better corresponds to the language of Sophocles, the\n balance of authoritative opinion now supports the localization of the\n story at the first cross-roads.\n\nFrom the Forked Roads travellers who must push on to Ch\u00e6ronea will look\nregretfully at the path that leads to \u201clone Daulis\u201d in \u201cthe high\nCephisian vale.\u201d The little town is situated on the uneven summit of a\nmassive hill which rises abruptly from the glens at the eastern foot of\nParnassus, and of its bowery loveliness among pomegranates and olives\nand almonds enticing tales are told. Here, according to a favourite\nGreek legend, was the first home of the nightingale and the scene of\nthat \u201clife enriched with sorrow, which her clear voice, insatiate,\nbemoans.\u201d The savage Tereus, king of Daulis, had married Procne, a\nprehistoric princess of Athens, and after the birth of her son Itylus\nhad cut out her tongue and claimed that she was dead. He then married\nher sister Philomela. The betrayed Procne, however, told Philomela the\ntruth by means of a web into which she had embroidered her story, and\nthe two sisters united in slaying the innocent Itylus and serving him up\nas a meal to his father. The gods, in anger, transformed Procne and\nPhilomela into a nightingale and swallow, forever mourning Itylus, while\nTereus became a pursuing hawk. When spring comes, whether in Daulis or\nIthaca or by the \u201ctranquil Thames,\u201d the \u201cpallid-olive\u201d nightingale pours\nforth her music, \u201cbewailing her dead child.\u201d\n\nThe ride from the Cleft Way to Ch\u00e6ronea, winding through the valley of\nthe Platania, a tributary of the B\u0153otian Cephisus, is rich in interest\nand variety. A little to the west of Ch\u00e6ronea, on the border between\nPhocis and B\u0153otia, lies Hagios Vlasis, a miserable village, known to\nfame only because of its position under the ancient acropolis of\nPanopeus. The importance of Panopeus was the subject of legend and\npoetry rather than of history. From its clay Prometheus fashioned the\nhuman race, and from its people sprang Epeios, the inventor at Troy of\nthe wooden horse. Here also the giant Tityos lived and died. He had\nviolated Leto as she went up to Delphi through Panopeus \u201cof the fair\ndancing places,\u201d and for this sin Odysseus found him in Hades sprawling\nover nine roods of levelled ground, his liver gnawed by vultures.\nPausanias was perplexed by the Homeric epithet for the town until the\ninhabitants explained to him that the M\u00e6nads on their way to Parnassus\nstopped at Panopeus for preliminary dances. Dionysus may have passed\nthis way with his mysterious quickening, as Apollo did with his ordered\ninspiration. Thus the insignificant town was the legendary scene of\nman\u2019s birth and of important episodes in his mental and moral\ndevelopment.\n\nBeyond Hagios Vlasis lies another modern village in the shadow of an\nancient acropolis. Between Phocis and B\u0153otia there is no natural\nboundary, but the large plain of Ch\u00e6ronea sweeps westward into Phocis\nand eastward into B\u0153otia to what used to be the Copaic lake. On the\nnorth and south the plain is enclosed by barren mountains, and the town\nof Ch\u00e6ronea, unlike Panopeus, spread out from the base of its acropolis\nat the foot of the southern and lower hills. Its modern representative\nis the hamlet of Kapr\u00e6na, which displays a few legacies of antiquity and\nfrom which can be seen the two peaks of Petrachus, the sharp and steep\nacropolis. The chapel of Panagia (the Virgin) contains a chair of white\nmarble called the chair of Plutarch. The great biographer was born in\nCh\u00e6ronea, and the worshipful preservation of his name in the little\nChristian church reminds one of the appearance of the equally\nrespectable Plinies on the exterior of the cathedral of their native\nComo.\n\nBut the dominant interest of Ch\u00e6ronea is the battle which, in 338 B. C.,\nwas lost by the forces of Greece united against Philip of Macedon. No\nsingle account of the terrible defeat has been handed down by dramatist\nor historian, as \u00c6schylus and Herodotus immortalized the victories of\nSalamis and Marathon, and only general facts in the struggle are known\nto us from lesser writers. Before the march to Ch\u00e6ronea Demosthenes had\nrisen in the Assembly, at a terrified meeting in the cold and hopeless\ndawn, and persuaded the Athenians to make a hasty alliance with Thebes\nagainst the encroachments of Philip. In the battle the Athenians held\nthe left wing while the right, the post of honour, was given to the\nfamous Sacred Band of the Thebans. Between them were gathered the other\nallies. Against the Thebans at the crucial moment Philip turned his\ncavalry under the command of the young Alexander. As the struggle became\nhopeless the Athenians retreated, but the members of the Sacred Band\nfought until they fell, raising one last memorial to their great\nfounder, Epaminondas, and offering one last atonement for the cowardice\nof Thebes in the Persian wars.\n\nThe victory of Macedon was not so much wrested from the Greek arms as it\nwas due to ineradicable defects in the Greek political character. It was\ncharacteristic of all Greek history that the allies should have formed\nno united and harmonious army under one fully empowered leader. The\nintense individualism which made Greece supreme in the arts and in\nscience and philosophy left her at the mercy of peoples able to\nsubordinate single wills to a national purpose. In the presence of the\narchitecture, sculpture, and literature of the Greeks it is impossible\nto deplore their unthwarted intellectual freedom, their keen\nsensibilities, their genius for personal development. But at Ch\u00e6ronea it\nis easy to see not only the disintegration, but also the demoralization\nof a national life which lacked the heroic sacrifice of self and the\npersistence of a common controlling ideal as much as it lacked\nadministrative genius and political wisdom.\n\nBut it must be remembered that such inclusive strictures on the Greek\ncharacter can be made only when we follow the prejudices of Philip\u2019s\nenemies in excluding Macedon from the Greek states. In the perspective\nof history it is clear that Ch\u00e6ronea opened the way for a new Hellenic\nstate to create a new national life in which discord should give way to\nunity and individualism to a world empire. Nevertheless the rise of\nMacedon was not continuous with the former life of Greece as were the\nsuccessive hegemonies of the older states. The monarchy of Philip\nobliterated not only the existing commonwealths but their modes of\ngovernment. Politically the loss was swallowed up in gain. Aristotle\u2019s\npolity has rightly been called provincial in comparison with his pupil\u2019s\nempire in which there was neither Greek nor barbarian. But in the world\nof ideas no substitution was an adequate atonement. The ideals of\nliberty which the older states had cherished and in which their\nintellectual and artistic life had been nurtured were lost at Ch\u00e6ronea.\nIn this sense the Athenians were right in saying that here ended the\nfreedom of Greece.\n\nMore than two centuries later a lesser victory was won at Ch\u00e6ronea by\nSulla over the forces of Mithridates, king of Pontus. Two trophies were\nerected by the Roman general, and were afterwards seen by Pausanias.\n\u201cBut Philip, the son of Amyntas, set up no trophy, neither at Ch\u00e6ronea,\nnor for any other victory that he won over barbarians or Greeks, for it\nwas not a Macedonian custom to erect trophies.\u201d On this field the only\ntrophy was the one erected by the defeated to the dead. The Athenians\nwho fell were buried in the Cerameicus, and Demosthenes, who had fought\nin the ranks, pronounced over them a funeral oration. The Thebans were\nburied on the field. \u201cNo inscription,\u201d says Pausanias, \u201cis carved on the\ntomb, but a lion is placed on it, perhaps in allusion to the spirit of\nthe men. The reason why there is no inscription I take to be that their\nfortune did not match their valour.\u201d\n\nThis lion may be seen to-day about a quarter of a mile beyond Kapr\u00e6na,\njust before one turns toward the modern railroad station of Ch\u00e6ronea.\nFor centuries it had lain in fragments, but in 1902 the broken pieces\nwere fitted together with a result extraordinarily impressive. Upon a\npedestal ten feet high sits erect a great beast of gray stone, lifting\ninto the free air a massive unbowed head, and rivalling in the\nguardianship of Ch\u00e6ronea the greater Inspector who, possibly after this\nsame battle, was invoked by an unknown poet:\u2014\n\n \u201cO guardian Time, Inspector General\n Of mortals\u2019 doings manifold,\n Be herald of our fate to men, to all,\n How we the holy land of Greece essayed\n To save, and, dying, plains B\u0153otian made\n Renowned in story never old.\u201d\n\nThe road turns at a sharp angle in front of the lion and runs in placid\nmonotony to the station situated near the banks of the Cephisus.\nPausanias closes his chapter on Ch\u00e6ronea by a rare reference to the\ncommon people of his own day, who gathered flowers and from them\ndistilled \u201cbalms for the pains of men.\u201d In a modern chapter the end\ncomes, not with the haunting fragrance through summer fields of plucked\nlilies and healing roses, but with the scream of an engine as the Athens\nexpress breaks into the little station. The train goes straight through\nB\u0153otia to the bright city in the Attic plain. But on the way lies Thebes\nof the seven gates.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIII\n THEBES AND B\u0152OTIA\n\n \u201cO Theb\u00e8 blest, wherein delighteth most thy heart? in which of\n all the noble deeds wrought in thy land in days gone by? Gone\n by, I say, for now the Grace of olden time is fallen upon\n sleep.\u201d\n\n PINDAR.\n\n\nOf B\u0153otia more than of any other province of Greece is our involuntary\njudgment likely to be at fault, for the ancient distinction between the\nquick-witted Athenians and the stupid B\u0153otians has passed into our own\nproverbial language. But our inherited contempt for the B\u0153otian \u201cclowns\u201d\nis rather a tribute to the persistent intellectual domination of the\nAthenians than an accurate reflection of the truth. Indeed, if we\nexamine the sources of the tradition, we find that the original verdict\nwas popular and unreasoned, receiving its literary support in comedy\nwhich deliberately appealed to vulgar prejudices. \u201cIf you have good\nsense, you will avoid B\u0153otia,\u201d was the mocking advice of Pherecrates,\nthe distinguished forerunner of Aristophanes, and to the comic poets of\nthe following centuries B\u0153otian gluttony and B\u0153otian clumsiness were an\nunfailing resource to pleasure the fickle humours of the crowd.\n\n[Illustration: BOEOTIA]\n\nIn the serious literature of the great periods B\u0153otia is treated with\nrespect. Plutarch complains that Herodotus misrepresented Thebes in the\nPersian Wars, and warns his readers that as there are venomous insects\nat the heart of roses so beneath the historian\u2019s delightful and\npersuasive style lurk defamation and vituperation of \u201cthe noblest and\ngreatest cities and men of Greece.\u201d But if Herodotus has diverged from\nthe truth, in this instance a questionable supposition, he has at least\nlooked upon Thebes as an enemy and not overlooked her as a boorish\ncommunity. In the history of Thucydides also, and even of the bigot\nXenophon, B\u0153otian cities make a dignified, if not always virtuous,\nappearance among the actors on the national stage.\n\nIn poetry B\u0153otia receives her full rights as a contributor to the\nimaginative life of Greece. In Homer not only is the B\u0153otian harbour of\nAulis the meeting place of the Greek fleet before it sets sail for\nIlium, but also B\u0153otian landscapes beautify heroic episodes with their\nrivers flowing between green banks, their open meadows and bright\ngroves, their flocks of tame doves and grassy ways. In the Homeric Hymns\nB\u0153otian vineyards and furrows bloom under the swift feet of\ngolden-haired Apollo and mischievous Hermes. Above all, in the Attic\ndramatists B\u0153otian Thebes is the scene of the epiphany of gods and of\nthe sorrows of humanity. The legendary past of this city was crowded\nwith personages whose glories and whose dooms were on so grand a scale\nthat they became to the tragic poets of Athens, and still are to us,\nsymbols of the unceasing conflict between will and destiny. The Theban\nlegends more than any others, save those of Argos, appealed to \u00c6schylus,\nSophocles, and Euripides as fitted for their dramatic purpose of\narousing \u201cpity and terror.\u201d In using this material they displayed a\nfamiliarity with the Thebes of their own day which is a striking proof\nthat men of sense and feeling could delight in B\u0153otia. \u00c6schylus\nperceived the fertility of the land and the fairness of Dirce, goodliest\nof streams. Sophocles seems to have heard and never forgotten the soft\nmurmur of the river Ismenus. And Euripides knew intimately the wild ivy\ngrowing over the city towers and the berries and flowers of the city\ngardens, the golden wheat-fields and cooling springs of the surrounding\ncountry, the \u201cdeep pine greenery\u201d and \u201cfallen oak leaves\u201d within the\nforests of Mount Cith\u00e6ron, the mountain torrents cleaving the narrow,\ncrag-topped glens, the gleaming snow forever resting on the mountain\u2019s\nheights.\n\nFurthermore, B\u0153otia had its own traditions of culture. Although creative\nartistic power was exemplified only in Hesiod, the originator of a new\nliterary movement, and in Pindar, the most eminent lyric poet of Greece,\nthere was revealed in the architecture, sculpture, and painting which\nenriched cities and sanctuaries, and in the poetry and music which were\nconspicuous at festivals, a critical taste as trustworthy as any outside\nof Attica. Educational ideals also tended toward a genuine if not always\nvigorous cultivation. Plutarch\u2019s ripe refinement is a late but not a\nsolitary example.\n\nThus accoutred against prejudice we may hope more fairly to appraise the\ngood and the evil in B\u0153otian life.\n\nB\u0153otia has one of the most fortunate situations in Greece, for its\nfrontiers are either protected by high mountains or border on two arms\nof the sea\u2014the Gulf of Corinth and the Gulf of Eub\u0153a\u2014which in antiquity\nconnected her with the extended maritime life of Greece and put her into\neasy communication with Attica and the Peloponnesus.\n\nWithin the mountain barriers the B\u0153otian country consists of two plains\nseparated by hills. The flatness of the northern plain is unrelieved,\nand the rivers that flow into it, like the Cephisus, find no outlets\nexcept by katavothras or channels which they force for themselves under\nMount Pto\u00f6n in the north. The frequent stoppage of these channels turned\na large part of the plain into the famous Copaic Lake, the drainage of\nwhich moved prehistoric engineers to wonderful feats, tempted to\ncomparative failure the less expert engineers of successive historic\nperiods, and has finally been accomplished by modern skill. Within a few\nyears a British company has reclaimed for the growing energies of modern\nGreece thousands of acres of land that will yield two crops a year.\n\nThe southern basin of B\u0153otia is smaller and also less homogeneous and\nmonotonous than the northern. Thebes occupies a small plateau of its own\non the northern side of a low range of hills that divides it from the\nlarger part of the plain, given over to the beautiful valley of the\nAsopus.\n\nThe fertility and charm of B\u0153otia may still be appreciated. In antiquity\ncities and towns, busied with the industries of the soil and of the sea,\ngave evidence also of the practical resources supplied by Nature. And\nyet it must be admitted that the historical importance of B\u0153otia falls\nsomewhat short of its obvious advantages. Only after Athens and Sparta\nhad risen successively to the hegemony of Greece and again lost their\npower did Thebes play a leading r\u00f4le in national politics. And at no\ntime did B\u0153otians vie either in energy or genius with the people of\nbarren Attica. An explanation often given is that the unhealthful\nclimate and heavy atmosphere of the country modified natural impulses to\nenterprise. The Athenians, as we have seen, laid great stress on the\nbrilliant freshness of their own air as promoting intelligence. But\nanother explanation takes into account the mystery of racial\ncharacteristics. Before B\u0153otia was conquered, sometime in the centuries,\npreceding Homer, by the northern race from Epirus and Thessaly which\ngave the country its name and began the \u201chistoric period,\u201d there existed\nboth in the north and in the south older peoples of evident wealth and\npower. For centuries Orchomenus was the leading city, not only of the\nnorthern plain but of the whole country. Its mighty kings and golden\nsplendour were still a bright memory to Homer, and excavations have\nbrought to life for us indications of the richness of its civilization.\nExceptionally impressive and interesting ruins of a fortress now known\nas Goulas (or Gha or Gla) have been discovered on what used to be the\neastern bank of the Copaic Lake. And at Thebes also we shall find traces\nof a people as advanced as any in prehistoric Greece. In the early ages\nthe air of B\u0153otia does not seem to have prevented conspicuous progress\nin political power or in the arts. The northern invaders, then, would\nseem to have been responsible for the defects of later history, failing\nto construct a civilization equal to the one they had been able to\ndestroy. In the case of the arts especially, it is significant that\nPindar, the only B\u0153otian poet of the first order, was not of unmixed\nB\u0153otian blood, but belonged to a branch of the \u00c6gid\u00e6, who traced their\npedigree back to the pre-B\u0153otian rulers of Thebes. Of this descent,\ndistinguished in the eyes of all Greeks, Pindar was justly proud. And\nyet he was a loyal son of Thebes and assumed his share in the \u201cancient\nreproach\u201d of \u201cB\u0153otian swine.\u201d We are at liberty, therefore, to emphasize\nhis country before his blood.\n\nModern Thebes is huddled on the site of the ancient acropolis, its\npoverty serving as a reminder of the desolation which as early as\nStrabo\u2019s time had fallen upon one of the great cities of Greece.\nPausanias found the lower city deserted, save for the sanctuaries, the\npopulation being restricted to the acropolis, and Dio Chrysostom had\nseen a solitary image standing among the ruins of the old market-place.\nIn the middle ages Fortune returned to Thebes from time to time, but\nunder the Turks deserted her in apparent despair. Doubtless the town\nwill revive as the modern nation gathers its forces. In the mean time it\nserves to indicate the area of the stronghold or acropolis built by the\nprehistoric settlers. Before the middle of the fifth century the city\nhad grown westward to the stream of Dirce, and eastward to the river\nIsmenus. After that time, as is evident from remains of city walls, the\narea was even more extended.\n\nThe mythological past of Thebes was greater than any of its historic\nperiods. Her early citizens shone brilliantly among those\u2014\n\n \u201cLights of the age that rose before our own\n As demigods o\u2019er Earth\u2019s wide region known,\n Yet these dread battle hurried to their end;\n Some, where the sevenfold gates of Thebes ascend,\n Strave for the flocks of \u0152dipus in fight,\n Some war in navies led to Troy\u2019s far shore.\u201d[30]\n\nFootnote 30:\n\n Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 160. Translated by Elton.\n\nThe story of Cadmus, the legendary founder of Thebes, is one of the best\nexamples of the legends by which the Greeks reconstructed their early\nhistory. As if by \u201cshadows of dreams\u201d they were haunted by the memory of\nancient adventures and enterprises, by movements of whole peoples and\nbright deeds of early heroes. And in spite of their arrogant aloofness\nin historic times from all \u201cbarbarians,\u201d they admitted, in the stories\ninto which their racial imagination shaped the formless facts of\nprehistoric life, a close connection with foreign peoples. So Cadmus was\nsaid to be a Ph\u0153nician going forth from his own land and settling in\nB\u0153otia before it was known by that name. Whatever the Ph\u0153nician\nconnection was, whether direct or by way of Crete, whether by\ncolonization or merely by trading stations, it is certain that a\npre-B\u0153otian people occupied Thebes and were displaced by northern\ninvaders, who in their turn, at one time or another, seem to have been\nforced on by the pressure of Illyrians from Epirus. These facts the\nGreek people made into a story of individual adventure, and this story\nGreek poets made dramatic and universal. Cadmus was son of a Ph\u0153nician\nking and brother of the ravished Europa. Sent by his father to find his\nsister, and not daring to return without her, he asked advice of the\nDelphic oracle. He was told to follow a cow until she should lie down.\nThis strange behest led him through Phocis to Thebes. Here, like most\nheroes, including Apollo, who wished to take possession of strange\nearth, he was obliged to slay a dragon. Athena, his special guardian,\nbade him sow the dragon\u2019s teeth, and from these sprang up an armed brood\nof warriors, known thereafter as the \u201cSpartoi\u201d or Sown Men. Cadmus\nwatched them fight with each other until only five were left, with which\ndoughty remnant he built up the Cadmeia, or original Acropolis of\nThebes. Like Apollo again, he was forced to atone for the murder of the\ndragon by serving Ares for a term of years. At the end Ares gave him to\nwife Harmonia, his daughter by Aphrodite, and Cadmus began a glorious\nreign. But his patient bondage to Ares had won only a temporary\npacification, and to his children and grandchildren passed the\nrelentless curse. \u0152dipus was his direct descendant. Even in Cadmus\u2019s\nlifetime two daughters and two grandsons met with violent deaths, and he\nand his queen Harmonia went far away to Illyria and became rulers of the\nEnchelians. There they were changed into serpents, \u201cbright and aged\nsnakes,\u201d and were compelled by fate to lead their barbarian people in an\ninvasion of Greece. Matthew Arnold follows Ovid in making them \u201camong\nthe green Illyrian hills,\u201d\u2014\n\n \u201cWholly forget their first sad life and home,\n And all that Theban woe, and stray\n Forever through the glens, placid and dumb.\u201d\n\nBut Euripides represents the old king as filled with evil presentiment:\u2014\n\n \u201cFar off to barbarous men,\n A grey-haired wanderer, I must take my road.\n And then the oracle, the doom of God,\n That I must lead a raging horde far-flown\n To prey on Hellas; lead my spouse, mine own\n Harmonia, Ares\u2019 child, discorporate\n And haunting forms, dragon and dragon mate,\n Against the tomb and altar stones of Greece,\n Lance upon lance behind us; and not cease\n From toils like other men\u2014nor dream, nor past\n The foam of Acheron find my peace at last.\u201d[31]\n\nPindar in his radiant vision of the future life beyond the foam of\nAcheron places Cadmus with Peleus in the company of the mighty dead who\ndwell at peace forever within the islands of the Blest. The earthly life\nof both heroes he uses to illustrate to Hieron, lord of Syracuse and\nFortune\u2019s favourite, the adage inherited from the men of old: \u201cFor every\nboon to men the gods deal double bane.\u201d\n\nFootnote 31:\n\n _Bacch\u00e6_, 1354. This and the following quotations from this play are\n taken from the translation by Gilbert Murray.\n\n \u201cBlest with life secure was neither Peleus, son of \u00c6acus, nor Cadmus,\n match of gods. And yet, \u2019tis said, of mortals all \u2019t was they who\n gained the highest bliss. For they could hear the golden-snooded\n Muses\u2019 song, or on the mountain-side, or midst the seven gates of\n Thebes, when Cadmus took to wife large-eyed Harmonia and when the\n other wed the glorious Thetis, maiden child of Nereus. Gods shared\n with both their banquet, and they both beheld the sons of Cronos\n seated, kings on thrones of gold, and from them wedding gifts\n received, and Zeus\u2019s grace requited them for former toil, uplifting\n high their hearts. Yet in the after-time sharp anguish of his\n daughters three robbed Cadmus of his share of joy. So too from him,\n whom as her only son immortal Thetis bare in Phthia unto Peleus, fled\n his life, by arrow sped in war.\u201d\n\nPindar\u2019s song of praise \u201cflitting like a bee from tale to tale\u201d paused\noften upon the legends of his \u201cmother Thebes.\u201d Among others he tells the\nstory of Heracles\u2019s birth at Thebes and of his speedy slaying, while yet\nin swaddling clothes, of monstrous snakes that approached his cradle.\nThe most tragic episode of Heracles\u2019s life, his madness and his murder\nof his children, also occurred at Thebes, according to the version of\nthe legend used by Euripides in his drama of \u201cThe Mad Heracles.\u201d But\nthis play is of little poetic importance in comparison with the plays\nthat deal with the curse-haunted house of Cadmus. Neither Euripides nor\nSophocles, in their single extant experiments with the tragedy of\nHeracles, display the sympathetic genius which has given permanent value\nto the stories of Pentheus and \u0152dipus. The two plays, however, which\nrest upon these legends are famous for antipodal reasons. The \u201c\u0152dipus\nTyrannus\u201d of Sophocles was selected by Aristotle as the most perfect\nspecimen, in technical construction, of the Greek drama, and is\ntreasured now as the model of what is most restrained, most profound yet\nclear, most \u201cHellenic\u201d in Greek literature. The \u201cBacch\u00e6\u201d of Euripides,\non the other hand, is more \u201cun-Hellenic\u201d than any play or poem that has\ncome down to us, more resplendent in fancy, more wild in theme, more\nincomprehensible in purpose.\n\nPentheus was the son of Agave and the grandson and successor of Cadmus.\nBut his fame was born of his futile conflict with another daughter\u2019s\ngreater son. Semele, loved by Zeus and at her own request visited by him\nin the full panoply of his splendour, had been consumed in the\nlightning\u2019s fire, and her child Dionysus had been snatched from her womb\nby its divine father and hidden within his own thigh to issue in time as\nthe strangest of all the gods. Popularly known as the \u201cgod of wine,\u201d he\nwas in reality a Lord of Many Voices, a Spirit of Guiding Fire, a\nMountain Bull, a Snake of a Hundred Heads, a Master of the Voices of the\nNight, a Lover of Peace, a Giver of Good Gifts, a God, a Beast, a\nMystery. His worship, originating among the gloomy Thracians and the\nmystical yet sensuous Orientals, was late in winning its place in\ncultivated Athens. Only with very great difficulty can we discover the\nthreads of belief which made out of the newcomer a gracious lord of the\nvintage, a dispeller of care and teacher of mirth, a prophet, a guide in\nall the arts of civilization and, more mysteriously still, a suffering\ngod, both redeemer and redeemed, a companion at Eleusis of Demeter and\nPersephone. Because, however, of the persistent clarity of the Greek\nimagination, the god now and again emerges from amid the chaos of\nfunctions and attributes in a concrete form of beauty. In the Homeric\nHymn written in his praise he is a youth with dark hair and dark and\nsmiling eyes standing on a headland that juts above the unharvested sea,\nwhile the ocean winds blow about his shoulders a purple robe. To\nEuripides he is\u2014\n\n \u201cA man of charm and spell, from Lydian seas,\n A head all gold and cloudy fragrancies,\n A wine-red cheek, and eyes that hold the light\n Of the very Cyprian.\u201d\n\nThe distinguishing feature of all Dionysiac worship was the frenzied\nraving of its votaries. Women especially were mastered by the strange\ndesire to join in the revels, and, since the intellectualized life of\nAthens was hostile to insane manifestations of religious fervor,\nAthenian women made frequent pilgrimages to places where the wildness\nof nature welcomed the wildness in the heart of man. We have already\nseen them travelling to the uplands of Parnassus. Mount Cith\u00e6ron was\nanother favourite gathering place. The women in Aristophanes\u2019s\n\u201cThesmophoriazus\u00e6\u201d cry aloud:\u2014\n\n \u201cSing, evo\u00eb! and sing again,\n Shout for Bacchus the glad refrain.\n Cith\u00e6ron echoes around thee, hark!\n And the mountain coverts green and dark,\n And a roaring comes floating adown, between,\n Through bosky gorge and rocky ravine.\u201d\n\nPerhaps the most adventurous would sometimes make their way to the bleak\nhills near Pella, the capital of Macedonia, where queen and peasant met\nin Bacchic excesses. Euripides spent the last years of his life at\nPella, and it has been thought that there he conceived the idea of\nwriting a play to portray Dionysus\u2019s triumphal entrance into Thebes\nagainst the will of Pentheus. Be this as it may, certainly Thebes and\nCith\u00e6ron are more than a perfunctory _mise-en-sc\u00e8ne_ for the \u201cBacch\u00e6.\u201d\nIn no other Greek play is the reader so conscious of the presence of\nlandscape.\n\nDionysus comes from the East to defend his mother\u2019s memory and to\nestablish his worship in her city. Pentheus opposes him in spite of the\nwisdom of Cadmus and the warnings of the soothsayer Tiresias. The god\nconstrains the women of Thebes, including Pentheus\u2019s mother and her\nsisters, who long ago had tempted the young Semele to her destruction,\nto follow him to Mount Cith\u00e6ron. Pentheus is then led to spy upon their\nrevels. They take him for a wild beast and his own mother tears him to\npieces. At the end, restored to an agonized reason, she becomes an exile\nfrom her home. Cadmus goes to his fate among the Illyrians. Dionysus is\nrapt from mortal sight in a cloud. It is a disputed question whether\nEuripides was moved to this portrayal of a cruel godhead by the subtlest\nimpiety, or by a belated desire to be considered orthodox, or by a\nrealization of the savage power that lies at the heart of life and\ncannot be gainsaid. At any rate he has woven into the plot the pathos of\nwhich he is master, in the reiterated suggestions of the tie between\nparent and child: the young god stirred to triumphant action by the\nmemory of his dead mother; the living mother wildly bringing her son\u2019s\nhead in from the mountain, and calling upon him to come and glory in her\nlion-hunting; the old father deciding to lead his daughter back from the\nshadows of madness, even if the path of truth ends in grief and pain.\nAnd the whole nexus of religion, pathos, and inherited curse is spread\nbefore us in colours of flame.\n\nThe play is pervaded by the dances and the songs of the M\u00e6nads who have\nfollowed Dionysus\u2014\n\n \u201cFrom Asia, from the dayspring that uprises,\u201d\n\nand who irresistibly draw to their ranks the matrons and maidens of\nThebes:\u2014\n\n \u201cAll hail, O Thebes, thou nurse of Semele!\n With Semele\u2019s wild ivy crown thy tresses,\n Oh, burst in bloom of wreathing bryony,\n Berries and leaves and flowers;\n Uplift the dark divine wand,\n The oak-wand and the pine-wand,\n And don thy fawn-skin, fringed in purity\n With fleecy white, like ours.\n\n \u201cOh, cleanse thee in the wands\u2019 waving pride!\n Yea, all men shall dance with us and pray,\n When Bromios his companions shall guide\n Hillward, ever hillward, where they stay,\n The flock of the Believing,\n The maids from loom and weaving\n By the magic of his breath borne away.\u201d\n\nThe picture of the women as they finally have taken possession of\nCith\u00e6ron is painted for Pentheus by a shepherd. Upon this passage and a\nfew others in the play rests Mr. Symonds\u2019s discriminating statement that\n\u201cthe \u2018Bacch\u00e6,\u2019 like the \u2018Birds,\u2019 proves what otherwise we might have\nhardly known, that there lacked not Greeks for whom the \u2018Tempest\u2019 and \u2018A\nMidsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u2019 would have been intelligible.\u201d And for this\nmagic not only Euripides\u2019s brilliant fancy but also Mount Cith\u00e6ron\nitself is responsible.\n\n \u201cOur herded kine were moving in the dawn\n Up to the peaks, the grayest, coldest time,\n When the first rays steal earthward, and the rime\n Yields, when I saw three bands of them. The one\n Autono\u00eb led, one Ino, one thine own\n Mother, Agave. There beneath the trees\n Sleeping they lay, like wild things flung at ease\n In the forest; one half sinking on a bed\n Of deep pine greenery; one with careless head\n Amid the fallen oak leaves; all most cold\n In purity\u2014not as thy tale was told\n Of wine-cups and wild music and the chase\n For love amid the forest\u2019s loneliness.\u201d\n\nThe lowing kine awake them and they gird on their dappled fawn-skins:\u2014\n\n \u201cThen they pressed\n Wreathed ivy round their brows, and oaken sprays\n And flowering bryony. And one would raise\n Her wand and smite the rock, and straight a jet\n Of quick bright water came. Another set\n Her thyrsus in the bosomed earth, and there\n Was red wine that the god sent up to her,\n A darkling fountain. And if any lips\n Sought whiter draughts, with dipping finger-tips\n They pressed the sod, and gushing from the ground\n Came springs of milk. And reed-wands ivy-crowned\n Ran with sweet honey, drop by drop.\u201d\n\nThe curse laid upon Cadmus destroyed all his daughters, and among his\ngrandchildren not only Pentheus but also Act\u00e6on who, because he saw\nArtemis at her bath in one of Cith\u00e6ron\u2019s still pools, was torn to pieces\nby his own hunting dogs. Cadmus\u2019s only son, Polydorus, and his son\u2019s\nson, Labdacus, were strangely spared. Then once more Nemesis rose to the\npursuit. The son of Labdacus was Laius, who was unwittingly murdered by\nhis son, \u0152dipus, and the doom of \u0152dipus is the subject of the \u201c\u0152dipus\nTyrannus.\u201d\n\nCith\u00e6ron still towers on the horizon; in its \u201cwinding glens\u201d the infant\n\u0152dipus had been exposed and rescued by a vagrant hireling in charge of\nmountain flocks. But the play takes us back to the city, with its royal\npalace and temples and market-place. As usual, it is the Thebes of\nSophocles\u2019s day that is used for scenery. The drama opens when the\nfruitful country has been laid waste by a pestilence and her citizens\nare praying to Artemis, whose temple stands in the Agora, to Apollo at\nhis oracular seat by the river Ismenus, and to all the gods by the altar\nin front of the royal palace. But in these few hints all localized\ninterest is exhausted. The austere and disciplined beauty of the\ndramatic structure throws into high relief the pitifulness and the\nterror of a father\u2019s sin at work in the third and fourth generation, and\nof the human struggle against destiny. The universal truth of the\ntragedy as apprehended by Sophocles was as independent of the walls of\nThebes as of the confines of the theatre in Athens. And yet in modern\nThebes, itself the shadow of a greater past, we may realize afresh the\ncatastrophe that befell the ancient king. He had saved the city by\nguessing the riddle of the Sphinx and thus destroying her. He had been\nacclaimed as king in place of Laius, slain by an unknown hand, and had\nmarried Iocasta, Laius\u2019s queen. Now he promises to save his people from\nthe pestilence by obeying the Delphic command that the slayer of Laius\nshall be found and exiled. He discovers that he is the murderer, and, in\na crescendo of horror, that he is the son both of the man he murdered\nand of his own wife. In spite of their effort to kill him in his\ninfancy, he has reappeared, the innocent agent of their destruction, as\nthe irrefutable god of prophecy had foretold. Iocasta hangs herself.\n\u0152dipus\u2019s children face a world that will remember against them the sin\nof their father. He puts out his eyes, and goes into voluntary exile,\ndefeated by fate, a broken-hearted fugitive, not yet conscious that in\nthe surrender of his will to God he may atone and be at peace. Borne\nfrom afar upon the quiet air of to-day we may hear ghostly echoes of the\nsongs of the people that watched him. He was an example of the emptiness\nof life:\u2014\n\n \u201cO generations of mankind,\n How all your life I ever find\n With Naught and Nothingness aligned!\n For who, what man the wide world o\u2019er,\n Of happiness e\u2019er gaineth more\n Than only this\u2014to have his own\n He dreams, and as he dreams \u2019tis gone.\n Thy fate, thine, \u0152dipus, beholding,\n O luckless one, thy wretched fate,\n And from it my opinion moulding\n Naught mortal I congratulate.\u201d\n\nAnd he also exemplified the truth of Solon\u2019s aphorism that no one should\nbe congratulated before the end:\u2014\n\n \u201cYe who dwell in Thebes our city, look, behold this \u0152dipus,\n He who solved the fam\u2019d enigma, and did prove himself the best.\n Now he\u2019s come to what an ocean of calamity and dread!\n Well it were then, being mortal, to that last and awful day\n That we onward turn our vision and count no one fortunate\n Till the race course he has finished and has reached life\u2019s goal\n unscathed.\u201d\n\nIn spite of the repentance of \u0152dipus, the ancient curse fell upon his\nchildren, and their dooms also became the subjects of dramas. \u00c6schylus,\nin the \u201cSeven against Thebes,\u201d deals with the story of Eteocles and\nPolyneices, whose own folly was the immediate cause of their ruin. They\nhad agreed to rule Thebes alternately, but Eteocles once in possession\nrefused to abdicate. Polyneices raises in Argos an army led by Adrastus,\nwith which he advances against his country. Civil war follows, and the\nbrothers kill each other. This story gave \u00c6schylus two dramatic\nopportunities peculiarly suited to his genius. One was the handling of\nthe theme of Nemesis, not with grave calm like Sophocles, but with\ngigantic vigour, with rough-hewn figures of triple-crested waves of\nevil, harvests of blood, chilling frosts of fear, with a penetrating\ninsistence upon the \u201cblack and full-grown curse\u201d which shadows city and\ncitizens. Within its gloom Eteocles fights only with the ardour of\ndespair:\u2014\n\n \u201cSince eagerly God urgeth this affair, draw lot,\n Cocytus draw and, wind astern, sail down his wave!\n Apollo hateth all the race of Labdacus.\u201d\n\nTo relieve this gloom \u00c6schylus uses his other dramatic opportunity, that\nof describing with Homeric eloquence the seven Argive warriors stationed\nat the seven gates and the Theban defenders sent to meet them. In the\nfull-mouthed trimeters of the messenger who has seen the enemy, and of\nEteocles who is undaunted by his report, echo stirringly the epic clash\nof arms, neighing of steeds, and war-cries of men. Shields of many\ndevices and crested helmets bedeck the heroes. Courage adorns them all,\nfrom Amphiaraus, who foresees disaster, to Parthenop\u00e6us, the Arcadian\nmetic, repaying to Argos the cost of his nurture:\u2014\n\n \u201cNow by his spear he swears\u2014which he is confident\n To reverence above the god or his own eyes\u2014\n The town of the Cadmeans he will surely sack\n In spite of Zeus. Thus cries aloud this fair-faced shoot\n Of mother mountain-bred, a man though boy in years.\n His downy beard is just appearing on his cheeks,\n As youth\u2019s prime makes it grow, the thick hair cropping out,\n But he with spirit fierce, no maiden\u2019s namesake this,\n And terrible bright eye, comes up to take his post.\n Nor yet without a vaunt stands he beside the gate,\n For on his bronze-wrought shield, his body\u2019s circled screen,\n Our city\u2019s shame he wields, the raw flesh rav\u2019ning Sphinx,\n Fast riveted with bolts, her body burnish\u2019d-bright\n Repouss\u00e9 work, and under in her grasp she bears\n A man Cadmean, that upon this warrior\n Most thickly fly the bolts. \u2019Tis likely, now he\u2019s come,\n He\u2019ll not be retail-dealer in the trade of war,\n Nor will he bring discredit on his long road\u2019s track.\u201d\n\nEuripides used the same story in his \u201cTyrian Women,\u201d but openly scorned\nthe Homeric note of \u00c6schylus. With the enemy at the gates there is no\ntime to describe the warriors, and the emphasis is shifted from the\nhorror of the curse to the burden on Iocasta\u2019s heart. Still living, she\nseeks to reconcile her sons, and at last kills herself on their dead\nbodies. Polyneices is not only his country\u2019s enemy but a homesick man\nwhose eyes grow wet when he sees the familiar altars and Dirce and the\nold gymnasium, and who begs his mother just before he dies to bury him\nin Thebes. Antigone is brave enough to support her mother, comfort her\nfather, and promise to bury her brother, but so tenderly young that an\nold servant helps her up a cedarn stairway to the palace roof that she\nmay see the Argive army in the plain. Another vision of brave youth is\ngiven in the character of Men\u0153ceus, last virgin descendant of the Sown\nMen. Informed by Tiresias that by a voluntary death he can save Thebes,\nhe evades his father and makes one of the patriotic speeches that never\nfailed to thrill an Athenian audience in the Dionysiac theatre:\u2014\n\n \u201cNow I will go and, standing on the rampart\u2019s heights\n Over the deep dark dragon-pen, the very spot\n The seer described minutely, I myself will slay\n And liberate my country.\u201d\n\nThe fame of Antigone was secured by Sophocles. Thebes seems to have been\nalways noted for the beauty of its women, from Semele, the bride of\nZeus, to the tall yellow-haired ladies admired by Dic\u00e6archus, and\n\u00c6schylus suggests the loveliness of Antigone as Euripides suggests her\nyouthfulness. But through Sophocles we know her unadorned as the\nembodiment of loyalty and courage. On the sunny morning that followed\nthe defeat of the Argives, when the eye of golden day had at last arisen\nover Dirce\u2019s stream, she buried her brother and defied Creon\u2019s edict,\nwhich forbade burial to an enemy of the country, in a noble speech of\njustification:\u2014\n\n \u201cNot Zeus hath published this decree, not Zeus for me,\n Neither hath Justice, house-mate with the gods below,\n Laws like to this defined for men. Nor did I think\n Within these edicts, these of thine, such strength inhered\n That, being a mere mortal, thou could\u2019st override\n Th\u2019 unwritten and unfailing statutes of the gods.\n For not of yesterday nor of to-day their life,\n But ever from all time. None knows their origin.\u201d\n\nThe Athenian reverence for Law made natural an even more magnificent\nreiteration of this idea in the \u201c\u0152dipus Tyrannus:\u201d\u2014\n\n \u201cBe mine the lot to win pure reverence in every word and work for\n which the Laws are set on high, in Heaven\u2019s ether born as children of\n Olympus, him alone; no mortal nature among men gave birth to them nor\n ever shall oblivion lull them to slumber. Great is God within them and\n he grows not old.\u201d\n\nBeneath a neighbouring hill Antigone was walled up in one of the\nrock-cut caverns that abound in Greece. Her lover H\u00e6mon, Creon\u2019s son,\nkills himself within the door. His mother takes her life, and Creon is\nleft to a late and impotent knowledge of the truth. Before the end the\nchorus of Theban girls think of Antigone\u2019s betrothal and in a famous\nhymn to Love flash brief fire upon the lonely moral heights of the play.\nBut suddenly the song dissolves into a lamentation which still haunts\nthe ear in Thebes:\u2014\n\n \u201cBut already I too past all bounds of the law\n Am swept onward myself as I look on this sight,\n And the fount of my tears I no longer can check,\n When Antigone here I behold as she fares\n To that chamber where all shall be resting.\u201d\n\nIn historic Thebes heroism had lost its lustre. When Greece was tested,\nthe result in this city is revealed in the laconic words of Herodotus,\nthat among the Greeks who sent earth and water to Xerxes were the\nThebans and the other B\u0153otians, except the Plat\u00e6ans and the Thespians.\n\u201cThe grace of the olden time is fallen upon sleep,\u201d Pindar complained\nafter recounting the \u201cnoble deeds\u201d of the heroic age. His own sympathy\nwith the national cause is clearly seen in another ode written after the\nexpulsion of the Persians: \u201cSome god has turned aside the stone of\nTantalus from overhead, a load that Hellas might not brook.\u201d\n\nLater, when it was regarded as a political asset to have opposed the\nPersians, the Thebans defended their failure on the ground that they had\nhad neither constitutional government nor popular freedom. A cabal of\nselfish nobles had forced them into an action abhorrent to themselves.\nCertainly it is true that Thebes was always aristocratic rather than\ndemocratic. And it is worth noting that Pindar in his art was the true\nson of such a city. The great festivals of Greece were the immediate\ninspiration of his extant odes, while his life in Athens and his\njourneys to Sicily and to the eastern islands furnished him with much\npoetic material. But as far as the \u201csoaring eagle\u201d is to be identified\nwith a birthplace, we may ascribe to his aristocratic origin and early\nenvironment his persistent selection of the things that were\ndistinguished and splendid.\n\nAt the time of the Peloponnesian War Thebes appears as the bitter\nopponent of Athens. But later the shifting politics of the time brought\nabout an alliance between these two ancient enemies and set Thebes\nagainst Sparta. Her position, however, was one of difficulty and\nhumiliation, buffeted about as she was between the greater powers.\nFinally, in the first quarter of the fourth century, under the influence\nof one man, Thebes entered upon a period of power and distinction. Brief\nas it was, it served to awaken the sleeping glory of the old days and to\nmake men once more mindful of Thebes of the golden shield. Epaminondas\ninspired a young B\u0153otian party, roused the Theban people, opposed Sparta\nand defeated her by new strategic skill at Leuctra in 371 B. C., renewed\nthe ancient confederacy of B\u0153otian towns, won the support of\nneighbouring states and the sympathy of Delphi, and finally marched into\nthe Peloponnesus to oppose the unrighteous designs of Sparta. At the\nbattle of Mantinea in Arcadia he lost his life, before his work for\nThebes and Hellas was finished. It is greatly to be regretted that a\ncareer so admirable and a personality so original should not have been\ninterpreted by some adequate historian or poet. He lived too late for\nthe enthusiasm of Herodotus or the justice of Thucydides. That Xenophon,\nthrough his hatred of Thebes, failed to talk much of the Theban general\nis no great loss to our imaginative understanding of a great man.\nPausanias in his sincere admiration contributes something: \u201cOf the\nfamous captains of Greece Epaminondas may well rank as the first or at\nleast as second to none. For whereas the Laced\u00e6monian and Athenian\ngenerals were seconded by the ancient glories of their countries as well\nas by soldiers of a temper to match, Epaminondas found his country\ndisheartened and submissive to foreign dictation, yet he soon raised\nthem to the highest place.\u201d Plutarch\u2019s \u201cLife of Epaminondas\u201d has not\nbeen preserved, but this loss is partially repaired by his \u201cLife of\nPelopidas,\u201d the companion in arms and the passionate imitator of the\nhero, and by his return now and again in other writings to a\ncontemplation of the character of Epaminondas. Out of slight sketches\nlike these and out of the second-rate histories we must fashion our\nportrait.\n\nEpaminondas was a great soldier and a leader of men. These facts need\nnot be obscured by the other fact that he did not, probably could not,\nestablish a national unity strong enough to live on after him. With him\ndied the hopes of Thebes. His fear of this must have been his heaviest\nburden. Patriotism with him not only excluded satisfaction in his own\npower, but included patience under attack. To us, familiarized with\nmagnanimous patriotism in many nations, this seems more admirable than\nstrange. But against the background of Greek history the statesmen are\nconspicuous who could have entirely understood the obedient spirit in\nwhich Socrates accepted condemnation from the city he had tried to\nserve. In Epaminondas also appear some of those qualities which his\ncontemporary Plato thought essential to a wise king. He loved philosophy\nmore than power, and his early training had been intellectual and moral\nrather than martial. Like Pindar, he belonged to the oldest nobility of\nThebes, tracing his pedigree to Cadmus, but his family had long lived\nmodestly, dissociated from the more vulgar aristocracy, and devoted to\nthe intellectual life. Philosophers exiled from Southern Italy came to\nThebes as well as Athens, and among them Lysis of Tarentum exercised a\ngreat influence upon the young Epaminondas. The boy\u2019s gentle nature and\nhardy will furnished an ideal soil for the seeds of the Pythagorean\ndoctrine, which, before the days of St. Francis of Assisi, taught the\nbeauty of poverty, of temperance, and of humility, and insisted upon a\nmoral earnestness and devotion to duty. Epaminondas, the conqueror and\nliberator, was at all times a \u201cpractical\u201d follower of the religion in\nwhich he had been nurtured. And with something of his own fervour he\ninflamed the Sacred Band, that company of \u201cfriends\u201d like Epaminondas and\nPelopidas, who inspired each other to valour and to virtue and were\nunited in the cause of patriotism. In this appeal to the chivalric\ngallantry of youth Epaminondas was thoroughly Greek. In the unmarred\nconsistency of his own life he was unapproached even by his closest\nfollowers. As Pindar in his generation was \u201cheavy at heart\u201d over Thebes,\nso the martial leader must often have brooded in lonely impotence over\nthe same city. To travellers he may appear, as dusk comes on, in the\nguise in which men found him on an ancient holiday, walking aloof,\nungarlanded and thoughtful. \u201cI am keeping guard,\u201d he said, \u201cthat all of\nyou may be drunk and revel securely.\u201d\n\nThe visible remains of ancient Thebes are at present very few, and\nalthough arch\u00e6ological research may reveal sites and fragments of great\ninterest, we shall never see here ruins still clothed upon with beauty.\nNor is the situation of the town impressive enough to attract travellers\nwho are indifferent to memories of the past. The chief charm of the\nplace is its view of an horizon broken by Cith\u00e6ron, Helicon, and distant\nParnassus; by Mount Pto\u00f6n, where men listened to Apollo, and the\nMountain of the Sphinx.\n\nFragments of walls are all that remain of the city\u2019s fortifications. Of\nthe gates no traces have been found. Pausanias speaks of seeing all\nseven gates, but he describes only three of them, and some scholars have\nargued that the other four were invented by the lost epic writers who\nfirst gave literary form to the Theban legends. Certainly the poets\nthemselves, \u00c6schylus, Euripides, and the later Alexandrians, differ in\ntheir lists. The only important ruins of a building are those recently\nreported to have been discovered by the Greek arch\u00e6ologists near the\nAgora. They represent a palace of the \u201cMycen\u00e6an\u201d period which met its\ndestruction by fire and which has been identified, under the name of\n\u201cThe House of Cadmus,\u201d with the ruins of \u201cthe bridal chambers of\nHarmonia and Semele\u201d seen by Pausanias. From the historic period nothing\nremains, although with the help of broken pieces of marble and stone we\nmay try to imagine the Temple of Ismenian Apollo, second only to Delphi\nas the seat of this oracular god, in the place of the present church of\nSt. Luke on the hill that rises by the river St. John.\n\nDismantled as Thebes was in the time of Pausanias, his guides showed him\nmany places which were associated with Pindar or with the legends\nembodied in the Attic drama. There was the Observatory of Tiresias,\nwhere the blind prophet had listened intently to the sharp cries and\nwhirring wings of the prescient birds. As if ageless in sorrow, he\npervades each drama on the curse of Cadmus with his futile vision of the\ntruth,\u2014\n\n \u201cHis robe drawn over\n His old, sightless head,\n Revolving inly\n The doom of Thebes.\u201d\n\nThere was also the tomb of Men\u0153ceus, and near by a pillar marking the\nscene of the duel between Eteocles and Polyneices. The immediate\nneighbourhood was still called the \u201cDragging of Antigone,\u201d because over\nit Antigone had to drag her brother\u2019s heavy body.\n\nIn addition to the great Temple of Apollo, with its statues by Phidias\nand Scopas, Pausanias saw the Temple of Artemis, with a statue by\nScopas; the Temple of Heracles, the Champion, the gables of which held\nthe representations by Praxiteles of the demi-god\u2019s twelve labours; the\nTemple of Dionysus; and the Temple of Cybele and Pan erected by Pindar\nso near to his own house that he often heard the music of the vesper\nservices. Pindar\u2019s house is as unknown now as if it had not been twice\nsaved when Thebes was sacked, once by the Athenians, who remembered his\npraises of their city, and once by Alexander, who reverenced his genius.\n\nWhile these things are irretrievably lost or await the spade, streams of\nliving water seem to link the present to the past. The little river of\nHagios Johannis has but changed its ancient name of Ismenus, and the\nPlakiotissa, made by several streams which rise south of Thebes, is\neasily transformed into the \u201cDirc\u00e6an streams.\u201d Some old masonry and\ntablets bearing inscriptions mark the tanks which irrigate the\nneighbouring gardens. Thebes still boasts in trees and flowers a\nreminiscence of its ancient fame for bloom and brightness.\n\nDirce was the queen of Thebes who cruelly treated her husband\u2019s niece,\nAntiope. Antiope\u2019s sons, Amphion and Zethus, ordered to execute their\nmother\u2019s sentence, bound Dirce instead to the violent bull. Only a brief\nfragment of the play by Euripides, called \u201cAntiope,\u201d has been preserved,\nbut the sculptured group known as the Farnese Bull has made the story\ntritely familiar. Amphion also raised the walls of Thebes by the music\nof his lyre, a story seized upon by the poets from Homer to Tennyson.\n\nA lively stream now called Paraporti flows into the Plakiotissa on the\nsouthwest, and Theban women use it for their washing, unconcerned with\nits ancient name of \u201cSpring of Ares.\u201d The cave near it was the Dragon\u2019s\nLair, and from the part of the acropolis that rose above it Men\u0153ceus\nplunged to his death. To the northeast, in the tiny suburb of Hagii\nTheodori, bubbles the spring of St. Theodore, anciently called the\nSpring of \u0152dipus because in it the king washed his guilty hands.\n\nThe events of the heroic age, if they are baldly catalogued in prose,\nlose for us their charm and their significance. Their ineffaceable\nreality to the historic Greeks may be illustrated by a story current in\nantiquity. At a conference in Arcadia an Athenian envoy taunted the\nThebans and the Argives with having begotten the patricide \u0152dipus and\nthe matricide Orestes. \u201cYes,\u201d answered Epaminondas, \u201cbut Thebes and\nArgos exiled them and Athens received them.\u201d And yet he would have\nrejoiced could he have known that the genius of Athens, in receiving the\nwandering Theban legends, had given them an immortal life.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIV\n B\u0152OTIA, CONTINUED\n\n \u201cHelicon maidens, the Muses! Their name be my prelude in singing!\n They in their keeping have Helicon\u2019s mountain, majestical, sacred.\n There they go threading the dances by violet pools of the fountain,\n Soft are their feet as they circle the altar of mighty Cron\u012bon.\u201d\n HESIOD, _Theogony_.\n\n\nEpaminondas told the B\u0153otians that their country was the stage of Ares,\nand several battles fought on their soil were of national significance.\nAt Leuctra Epaminondas defeated Sparta. At Tanagra Athenians and\nSpartans first tried their strength against each other. At Delium the\nAthenians were defeated by the B\u0153otians in a struggle in which\nAlcibiades and Socrates took part. Alcibiades, who saved his master\u2019s\nlife, afterwards told their friends that in the retreat Socrates behaved\nexactly as he did in the streets of Athens, \u201cturning his eyes\nobservantly from side to side, though drenched with rain, and calmly\nlooking about on friend and foe.\u201d Above all, at Ch\u00e6ronea and Plat\u00e6a\noccurred momentous events.\n\nLate in September of the year 479 B. C., one hundred and forty-one years\nbefore Greek liberty was surrendered at Ch\u00e6ronea, there was fought near\nPlat\u00e6a, in the plain between Cith\u00e6ron and the Asopus, the last of the\nbattles \u201cwherein the Medes of the crooked bows were overthrown.\u201d The\nwork begun at Marathon was here completed. \u201cThe rest of the army died in\nB\u0153otia\u201d was an \u00c6schylean line calculated to arouse an Athenian audience.\nAnd an exquisite Herodotean story was fostered if not created by the\ndesire of the Greeks to believe that the Persians had a foreboding of\ntheir disaster. Herodotus had the story from Thersander of Orchomenus. A\nTheban gave a dinner to Mardonius and fifty Persian nobles. The Persian\nwho shared Thersander\u2019s couch said to him:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018Since here at table thou hast shared my food and my libation, I would\nleave with thee a memorial of my judgment that thou too, informed\nbeforehand, mayest know how to plan for thy advantage. Dost see these\nPersians feasting here, and that host which we left encamping by the\nriver? Of all these within brief space of time thou wilt behold a few\nsurvivors only.\u2019 And as the Persian spoke these words he let fall many\ntears. Whereat Thersander, struck with wonder at his speech, replied:\n\u2018Well, then, \u2019t were fitting to say this to Mardonius and to those next\nafter him in honour.\u2019 To that the other said: \u2018My friend, what needs\nmust happen by the will of God it is not possible for man to turn aside,\nand then, too, none is wont to yield to warnings, however credible, and\nmany of us Persians, although our eyes are opened, follow on,\nconstrained by necessity. This pang is bitterest of all, for men to know\nmuch and to have power over naught.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe battle of Plat\u00e6a occurred because Mardonius, the general of Xerxes,\nundertook to oppose the Spartan Pausanias, commander of the Greek\nallies, as he was making his way from the south, over the passes of\nCith\u00e6ron, to attack disloyal Thebes. The Plat\u00e6ans, true to the\npatriotism they had displayed at Marathon and Artemisium, joined the\nGreeks. The battle lasted for some days and was, as usual, retarded and\ncomplicated by the inability of the Greeks to co\u00f6perate; but it ended in\nthe defeat and death of Mardonius, the capture of the luxurious Persian\ncamp, and the final discouragement of the Orient. Herodotus\u2019s account of\nthe battle not only contains strategic details but is full of episodes\nwhich, even if they are but traditional or the creations of his own\naudacious vivacity, illustrate the truth that the conflict was one of\ncivilizations and of ideals. The Persian cavalry leader, Macistius,\nglows in scarlet and gold, and when he is killed his men fill all B\u0153otia\nwith the clamour of their grief. The Greek officers show his naked body\nto their soldiers because it is \u201cworth seeing for its stature and\nbeauty.\u201d Mardonius gallops in on his snow-white charger where the fight\nis hottest and leads to death the picked guard of one thousand men, the\nflower of the Persian army. A Spartan kills him, but Pausanias refuses\nto maltreat his dead body even though the Persians had crucified the\nbody of the Spartan Leonidas at Thermopyl\u00e6. In the camp of Mardonius are\nfound a silver throne, a brass manger for the horses, and countless\nutensils of Oriental luxury. Pausanias orders served on the same spot a\nSpartan supper.\n\nModern historians have complained that Herodotus perpetuated and\n\u201cconsecrated\u201d the illusion of the Athenians that they played a worthy\npart in the battle, while in reality they were but half-hearted and the\nbattle was won by the \u201cdiscipline and prowess of the Spartan hoplites.\u201d\nHerodotus did, however, admit that though the Athenians fought well the\nLaced\u00e6monians fought better, and when, with characteristic Greek\nemphasis on individuals, he discussed which single men were most\ncourageous, he assigned the first four places to Spartans.\n\nIn any case the Spartans did not fail to receive full credit for the\nvictory from their contemporaries. Pindar called Plat\u00e6a the glory of the\nLaced\u00e6monians as Salamis was the glory of the Athenians. And \u00c6schylus,\neven within the Dionysiac theatre, attributed the Persian defeat to the\n\u201cDorian spear.\u201d Perhaps no one regretted that both the Athenian and\nSpartan dead who were buried on the battlefield were honoured in\nepitaphs by Simonides. For the Athenians he wrote with dignity:\u2014\n\n \u201cIf valour\u2019s best apportionment\n Be noble death,\n To us, elect, hath Fortune lent\n This victor wreath.\n For Hellas Freedom\u2019s crown to gain\n We made the quest,\n And ageless glory we attain\n Here laid to rest.\u201d\n\nBut the Spartans inspired his finer eloquence:\u2014\n\n \u201cGlory unquenchable their country\n Hath on her brow,\n But death\u2019s pale cloud the men who crowned her\n Enfoldeth now.\n Yet, dead, they die not. Glory\u2019s herald\n Descends the dome\n And from the halls of Death, triumphant,\n Now leads them home.\u201d\n\nWhen Plat\u00e6a next appears in a great passage of literature she is shorn\nof her glory, the helpless prey of a foreign enemy and a hostile\nneighbour. During the Peloponnesian War, in 431 B. C., the Spartans\nconquered the city and, to please the Thebans, razed it to the ground.\nThucydides\u2019s account of the tragic occurrence includes the speeches made\nto the Spartans by the Plat\u00e6ans, who prayed for their lives, and by the\nThebans, who urged their murder. That no speeches in Thucydides are more\ndramatic has been generally conceded from the time of Dionysius of\nHalicarnassus. They have made it bitter even now to remember that the\nselfish opportunism and merciless rancour of the Thebans prevailed\nagainst the memories of \u201cthe great days of old,\u201d invoked by the\nPlat\u00e6ans: \u201cLook yonder to the sepulchres of your fathers slain by the\nMedes and buried in this land. Them we have honoured year by year with\npublic offerings of raiment and such other things as usage calls for....\nPausanias gave them burial here because he felt that he was placing them\nwith friends and in a friendly land. But you, if you shall slay us and\nshall make Plat\u00e6a Theban land, what do you else in this than leave your\nfathers and your kinsmen, bereft of honours that are theirs, among\nmurderers and in a hostile land? Nay more, you will actually enslave a\ncountry in which the Hellenes won their liberty and bring to desolation\nsanctuaries of the gods in which they prayed before they gained mastery\nover the Medes.\u201d\n\nThe desolation fell. Later the little town was rebuilt, destroyed once\nmore, and finally restored, though somewhat meanly, in the time of\nAlexander. Now not even a modern village brings life to the ancient\nsite. Only ruins of the Alexandrian walls remain.\n\nB\u0153otia had several important religious centres outside of Thebes. More\npenetrating than the trumpet of war were the voices that called the\nGreeks of north and south, and even the barbarians of the east, to the\nsanctuary of oracular Apollo on the slopes of Mount Pto\u00f6n, or to the\noracle of Trophonius (a local deity probably to be identified with Zeus)\nat Lebadeia, which is beautifully situated on the western side of the\nCopaic plain looking toward Helicon and Parnassus. The Pto\u00f6n precinct\nwas already abandoned in Plutarch\u2019s time, and even more deserted than it\nis to-day when arch\u00e6ologists outnumber the occasional shepherds in\nsearch of mountain pasture. But the oracle of Lebadeia retained its\nsanctity into Roman times and was consulted by both Plutarch and\nPausanias. In our day the same river in which the suppliants used to\nbathe, in preparation for the difficult sacred rites, turns the mills\nand factories of one of the busiest industrial centres of northern\nGreece.\n\nReligion in B\u0153otia, as everywhere in Greece, furnished an artistic\nimpulse. Contests of poetry and music were held at almost every centre.\nArchitecture, sculpture, and painting were represented by the most\nfamous masters. A temple renowned for its beauty was that of the Graces\nat Orchomenus. Within it, on a happy day in the fifth century, a chorus\nof boys lustily sang an ode written by Pindar for one of their fellows\nwho had won a foot-race in Pisa\u2019s famous valley. The young champion had\ndoubtless illustrated the influence of his native divinities whom the\npoet celebrates:\u2014\n\n \u201cO ye who have your dwelling in the land of goodly steeds that shares\n the waters of Cephisus, Queens of radiant Orchomenus, O Graces famed\n in song, ye Guardians of the Minyans in ages gone, give ear! To you I\n pray! For by your gift come all things sweet and pleasant unto man\u2014his\n wisdom, beauty, and the sheen of victory. Nay, not the gods themselves\n can lord it over dance or festival without the Graces pure, for as\n comptrollers of all heaven\u2019s deeds they have their thrones beside\n Apollo, Python-slayer with the golden bow, and reverence th\u2019 Olympian\n Father\u2019s majesty eterne.\u201d\n\nTo moderns the most familiar of all the shrines of B\u0153otia is that of the\nMuses on Mount Helicon. So familiar, indeed, has it become through\ntradition and poetry that its geographical position is as unimportant as\nthat of Raphael\u2019s Parnassus. It almost perplexes us to localize Helicon\nas the eastern peak, now called Zagora, of the southern portion of the\ngroup of mountains that lie between the Copaic plain and the Gulf of\nCorinth; and to know that at the northern foot of this peak still\nnestles the valley, green and shady and traversed by a mountain stream,\nwhere once foregathered the iris-haired, golden-snooded Muses.\nHippocrene even, struck out by the hoof of Pegasus as he flew toward\nheaven, is identified with the modern Kryopegadi, a very cold and clear\nperennial spring high up on the eastern side of the mountain within a\nlittle green glade encircled by fir trees. Helicon is still the home of\nfir-woods, oak groves and strawberry shrubs. Pausanias said that nowhere\nelse could the goats find sweeter berries, and nowhere else could be\nfound so many healing herbs. Hellebore, the ancient cure for madness,\ngrew here in abundance.\n\nIn spite of the almost incalculable importance of the worship of the\nMuses and their pervasive presence in poetry, Greek literature scarcely\nconcerns itself with their localized abode. Sophocles breaks the strain\nof the \u201c\u0152dipus Tyrannus\u201d by a fleeting vision of the nymphs sporting\nwith Dionysus on the far-off heights of Helicon. And Hesiod was inspired\nto write his \u201cTheogony\u201d by a vision of the Muses that came to him as he\nslept on the mountain \u201cmajestical, sacred:\u201d\u2014\n\n \u201cHigh on the summit of Helicon chorals they sing to their dancing,\n Lovely, desire-enchaining, yet strong and with supple feet glancing.\n Thence in tumultuous riot, with veils of the darkness enringing,\n Onward they fare in the night, and lovely the voice of their singing.\u201d\n\nFor the most part it is only in Alexandrian poetry, from which Roman\npoetry derived a large part of the material which it passed on to modern\npoetry, that we find Helicon and Hippocrene figuratively used as sources\nof inspiration.\n\nCertain B\u0153otian towns illustrate other traditions of culture. Thespi\u00e6,\nin the territory of Plat\u00e6a, was used by Cicero to illustrate what was so\nlittle understood and so greatly scorned by the Romans\u2014the Greek love of\nart. Nothing could so embitter the conquered people of Greece as to take\nfrom them or pretend to buy from them their works of art. \u201cBelieve me,\u201d\nCicero urges, \u201cno community in the whole of Greece or Asia ever sold of\nits own accord to anybody any statue or picture or civic ornament. For\nthe Greeks take marvellous delight in things which we despise. What\nwould the Thespians take for their Eros, the only thing that attracts\nvisitors to their town?\u201d This was the Praxitelean statue which the\nsculptor himself ranked with his Faun as his best work and which Phryne\nobtained from him and presented to her native city. Eros was the tutelar\ndivinity of the place, originally worshipped in the form of an unwrought\nstone. The statue, called forth by the \u00e6sthetic taste of a later age and\npassionately appreciated by the people, was taken to Rome by Caligula,\nreturned by Claudius, stolen again by Nero. Pausanias saw only a copy\nwhen he was at Thespi\u00e6. Now no copy like the familiar Capitoline copy of\nthe Faun supplies us with half knowledge. But a visible symbol of\nThespi\u00e6\u2019s other claim to remembrance has been left to us, to enrich the\nfragmentary wall and the few foundations that alone at present mark the\nancient site. Not only did the city share in the victory of Plat\u00e6a, but\nmore daringly in earlier years, when the struggle with Persia was on the\n\u201crazor\u2019s edge\u201d of uncertainty, she had sent her strongest men to die\nwith Leonidas at Thermopyl\u00e6. The fragments of a stone lion similar to\nthe lion of Ch\u00e6ronea are thought to mark the grave of these sons of\nThespi\u00e6 who were inspired by\u2014\n\n \u201cAn ardour not of Eros\u2019 lips.\u201d\n\nIn the eastern valley of the Asopus, or Vourieni, lie the not\ninconsiderable remains of ancient Tanagra, a city more popularly known\nto-day for its artistic taste than any other Greek city, except Athens.\nAs early as 1874 excavations of its necropolis began to yield in\nextraordinary abundance the small terra-cotta figures which now adorn\nmany museums, and in copies, more or less successful, have become a\nstaple article of modern trade. These figurines, rough in finish but\nscrupulously lovely in shape, were objects of familiar use to the\nTanagrians, being thrown into graves at burials. Other things in the\ncity implied more civic pride. Pausanias mentions approvingly the\nunusually good taste of the inhabitants in separating their religious\nbuildings from the business and residence portions of the city. And\nDic\u00e6archus is enthusiastic over their fine houses, adorned with\nporticoes and encaustic paintings. Literature also had its place, for\nhere lived Corinna, a woman of no mean poetic talent. Pausanias saw her\ntomb in an honoured place in the city and a picture of her in the\nGymnasium binding on her head a fillet to celebrate a victory over\nPindar at Thebes. With unexpected acumen he remarks that she probably\nowed her victory partly to the fact that she wrote in a dialect\nintelligible to the B\u0153otians, and partly to her beauty. Moderns know her\nthrough the story that she advised Pindar to use mythological allusions,\nand after his first experiment told him that she had meant him to sow\nwith the hand, not with a sack; and through her own haunting fragment of\nsong: \u201cAmong the white-armed women of Tanagra, a city made famous by\nsweet soprano voices.\u201d Such evidences of culture are the more surprising\nwhen we learn from Dic\u00e6archus that Tanagra was a town of farmers. Their\nbluff straightforwardness, their kindliness and their simple living\ngreatly impressed him in comparison with the insolence and dissipation\nof the Thebans.\n\nDic\u00e6archus describes also with a few graphic words the inhabitants of\nAnthedon, a fishing town on the Gulf of Eub\u0153a: \u201cThey are almost all\nfishermen, earning their livelihood by their hooks, by the purple shell,\nand by sponges. They grow old on the beach, among the seaweed and in\ntheir huts. They are all men of ruddy countenance and spare figure;\ntheir nails are worn away by reason of working constantly in the\nsea.\u201d[32] This town,\u2014still lovely, it is said, when the sunset illumines\nthe lilac hills of Eub\u0153a and rose-colour clouds float above the little\nfishing-boats in the bay,\u2014furnished to literature an important character\nin Glaucus, a fisherman who, by eating a certain grass, became a sea-god\nwith the gift of prophecy. Many tales were told of him from time to\ntime, especially by seafaring men. \u00c6schylus wrote two plays, not now\nextant, with him as the central figure, and thence the subject passed\ninto the poetic storehouse of the Alexandrian playwrights. Plato made\nuse of the legend in one of his noblest presentations of idealism. The\nsoul marred by its association with the body and with the evils of human\nlife is like the old sea-god, overgrown with shellfish and seaweed,\nwounded and broken by the action of the waves. But if the soul would\nalways love wisdom and pursue the divine, it would be lifted out of the\nsea in which it now is and be forever disencumbered of its rocky\ncovering.\n\nFootnote 32:\n\n Translated by Frazer.\n\nSouth of Anthedon, on the strait of Euripus, lies Aulis, of stately\nmemory. To us as to Odysseus it is, as it were, but \u201cyesterday or the\nday before\u201d that the Ach\u00e6an ships were gathering in Aulis freighted with\ntrouble for Priam and the Trojans, and hecatombs were being offered on\nthe altars beneath a beautiful plane tree by a stream of bright water.\nHere too Iphigeneia was sacrificed at the altar of Artemis. The story is\ntold by Euripides, in the \u201cIphigeneia in Aulis,\u201d in a way to bring out\nthe latent heroism of the young. Iphigeneia grieves to leave the\nsunlight and clings to her mother, but in the end with splendid daring\noffers herself a willing sacrifice: \u201cMother, hear my words,\u201d she cries,\u2014\n\n \u201cNot for thyself alone, but for the Hellenes all\n Thou barest me.\u201d\n\nIn the lyric recital of \u00c6schylus she is pathetically the victim:\u2014\n\n \u201cFather, father! thus she prayed them,\n But nor tears nor girl\u2019s youth stayed them,\n Umpire captains keen for war.\n To his helpers showed her sire\n How, like kid, above the altar\n Fainting in her robes, still higher\n They should hold her, should not falter,\n And, lest curse his house should blight,\n Ward the fair lips, guard aright,\n With the mouth-gag\u2019s muzzling might.\n\n \u201cHer saffron robe letting sweep to the ground,\n She smote in turn her slayers round\n With bolt from her eyes, as in picture plain,\n Asking for grace. And to speak she was fain,\n For aforetimes oft at the tables laden\n In her father\u2019s halls she would sing as maiden,\n And with virginal voice in his fortune rejoice\n When the happy triple libation was poured,\n With her loving father in loving accord.\n\n \u201cWhat came thereafter I nor saw nor do I say,\n But arts of Calchas knew nor let nor stay.\n Justice freights the scale with woe\n And taught by suffering we know.\u201d\n\nPausanias saw the temple of Artemis, and within it as a revered relic a\npiece of the wood from the Homeric plane tree. The spring was also\npointed out to him, and on a neighbouring hill the threshold of\nAgamemnon\u2019s hut. Those were happy days for sight-seers. To-day a\ntraveller can find only a few remains of the temple, near the ruined\nchapel of St. Nicholas, a little distance up the valley which stretches\ninland from the shore. But he may stand on the beach and watch tides as\nstrange and irregular as they were when \u00c6schylus described the Ach\u00e6an\nhost, troubled and held fast\u2014\n\n \u201cwhere tide \u2019gainst tide comes surging back near by the shores of\n Aulis opposite to Chalkis.\u201d\n\nThe heart of B\u0153otia\u2019s literature lies in the Hesiodic poetry. Hesiod has\na dual personality. As a half mythical \u201ctitulary president\u201d of a school\nof poetry localized near Mount Helicon and rivalling the epic school, in\nAsia Minor and the islands, whose eponymous hero was Homer; as\ntraditional author of the \u201cTheogony,\u201d which was the manual of mythology\nfor the Greeks, ranking in educational value almost with the Iliad and\nOdyssey, and of the \u201cWorks and Days,\u201d which was a collection of widely\naccepted ethical maxims, he seems to lose his home in B\u0153otia and to\nbelong like Homer to the whole of Greece. But unlike Homer he is\nuniversally believed to have existed, and to have written a definite\nbody of poetry which only later came to include many additions by\nunknown hands. We may, then, for our purposes, justly consider him as an\nindividual with local habitation and a name. His family, either before\nhis birth or while he was a child, immigrated from an \u00c6olian colony in\nAsia Minor to \u00c6olian B\u0153otia. They were farmers and lived in the little\ntown of Ascra, which was perched on a conical hill opposite the larger\nmass of Helicon, to the north of the entrance to the valley of the\nMuses. It was destroyed by Thespi\u00e6, and was deserted in Pausanias\u2019s\ntime. But \u201cthe tower\u201d was standing which is still a conspicuous landmark\nand gives to the entire hill the name of Pyrgaki. Modern travellers are\nattracted by the wide and beautiful view which the hill commands.\n\nAscra itself, in Hesiod\u2019s peevish opinion, was a miserable village, bad\nin winter, abominable in summer, good at no time. He could, however,\nwhen a boy, tend his sheep on the slopes of Helicon and see the Muses in\nhis dreams. At some time he had a lawsuit with his brother about his\ninheritance, and became embittered by disappointment. This and the\ndifficulties of his life as a husbandman led him to see the world in the\nhard colours of uncorrected realism. Only a few enthusiasts pretend to\nfind in his \u201cWorks and Days\u201d the beauty of the \u201cGeorgics,\u201d in which\nVirgil was his avowed imitator. The Roman poet combined with a delicate\ntemperament the education of his age, and tried to show to his\ncountrymen, the already weary masters of the world, the victims of an\nover-luxurious civilization, that in farming lay a potent charm and a\nremedial grace. But Hesiod lived in the eighth century B. C. and farmed\nfor his living. To us, grown more democratic than the later Greeks and\nRomans, his chief appeal is that of the \u201cmouthpiece of obscure\nhandworkers in the earliest centuries of Greek history, the poet of\ntheir daily labours, sufferings and wrongs, the singer of their doubts\nand infantine reflections on the world in which they had to toil.\u201d\n\nAs agricultural life is concerned with certain permanent factors in\nhuman experience and is also proverbially conservative, Hesiod\u2019s picture\nof it is probably true, in its broad outlines, of after centuries and of\nmany another place than B\u0153otia. Later Greek writers were not attracted\nby the homely subject, and the \u201cWorks and Days\u201d is the sole specimen in\nGreece of a kind of literature which is practically born out of the soil\nand out of nature\u2019s varied processes.\n\nIn this didactic poem we are introduced to a community whose work and\npleasures were governed by the seasons. The white blossoms of the\nspring, the swallow lifting her wing at dawn, the song of the cuckoo,\nthe tender green of the fig tree, the early rains, all meant the\nplanting and nursing of the seeds. The summer heat that brought the\ncicada\u2019s shrill cry brought, too, a little leisure for picnicking in the\nshade of a rock by a stream, off creamy cake and goat\u2019s milk and wine.\nBut in the cooler hours the corn had to be threshed on the stone floors,\nand the hay stored in the barns. In the autumn the falling leaves and\nthe crane\u2019s migratory call showed that wood must be cut, ploughshares\nmade, the proper servants and steers procured, and the grapes gathered\nand pressed. In the winter the industrious man had to look after his\nhousehold store, much as he was tempted to linger by the forge and\nsaunter in the warm porticoes. For in January the whirlwind of the north\noften swept down from Thrace, the Earth howled and long and loud the\nforests roared. The oaks and pines were hurled from hilltops. The beasts\nof the wild wood crept low to escape the drifting snow, the oxen and\ngoats cowered in their stalls. Only the young daughter in her pretty\nchamber under her mother\u2019s roof was safe. The farmer had to put on\nthicker underclothing and a woollen coat and oxhide shoes lined with\nthick socks, and pull his cap down over his ears as he hurried home at\nnightfall. Thus intertwined in Hesiod\u2019s B\u0153otian mind were poetry and\nprudence. And prudence predominated in his catalogue of the lucky and\nunlucky days which next to the seasons regulated the farmer\u2019s life. From\nsheep-shearing to marriage everything must have its proper day. This was\ntrue also of seafaring life, for which Hesiod gives rather grudging\ndirections. Sailors and fishermen, potters and smiths mingled in\nfriendly intercourse with the husbandmen. Beggars and vagrants came and\nwent. And news of the distant world and a kindling of dull fancy came\nwith the wandering minstrels. Standards in such a world were simple. Men\nate asphodel and mallows and had a creed as pleasing and as natural: to\nwork hard and save a little every year, to be hospitable and\nneighbourly, to be good to one\u2019s parents and faithful to one\u2019s wife,\nnever to abuse a trust and to sacrifice to the gods with clean hands and\na pure heart.\n\nHesiod has little to say of holidays, but as B\u0153otia grew older\ncelebrations of all kinds seem to have flourished conspicuously, even\nfor Greece, which took so kindly to the bright colours, lively crowds,\nand stately processions of feast days. Many of these, occurring\nquadrennially, attracted delegates and visitors from other states, even\nfrom contemptuous Athens. Such were the Mus\u00e6a, the great national\ncontests in poetry and music on Mount Helicon in the valley of the\nMuses; the games and literary competitions at Apollo\u2019s sanctuary on\nMount Pto\u00f6n; and the Eleutheria, the Games of Freedom, at Plat\u00e6a. More\nlocal festivals, also, like the athletic and musical contests at Thespi\u00e6\nknown as the Games of Love, and the Royal Games at Lebadeia in honour of\nKing Zeus, often drew crowds of visitors. But many of us, could we have\nknown ancient B\u0153otia, would have chosen homelier occasions for our\nvisits. We would have sought out Tanagra on the feast day of Hermes, the\nRam-bearer, when the handsomest boy of the town, in memory of a similar\nservice rendered by Hermes at the time of a plague, bore a lamb on his\nshoulders about the city walls. And in the autumn at Plat\u00e6a we would\nhave attended the annual memorial service for those who died in the\ngreat battle. At daybreak myrrh and garlands were carried to the tombs,\nyoung boys chosen for their free birth bore jars of oil and precious\nointment and of wine and milk, and the chief magistrate put on a purple\nrobe and poured out a libation, saying, \u201cI drink to those who lost their\nlives for the liberty of Greece.\u201d Or at the sanctuary of Demeter at\nMycalessus we would have watched the people from the surrounding farms\nlay at the feet of her image all kinds of autumn fruits, which they knew\nwould keep fresh the whole year through.\n\nThis festival of Thanksgiving was doubtless of very ancient origin, as\nwas also the spring festival of the Little D\u00e6dala, celebrated every few\nyears in many B\u0153otian communities. The peasants and townspeople poured\ninto the woods and chose, from certain signs, an oak tree out of which\nthey made an image; and this image they set up and worshipped to the\naccompaniment of festal merriment. The custom originated in Plat\u00e6a, if\nwe may judge from the story believed by the common people. Hera, in a\nnot unwonted fit of temper, had withdrawn to Eub\u0153a, and Zeus could not\npersuade her to come back. But old Cith\u00e6ron, lord of Plat\u00e6a, advised him\nto play on her jealousy by dressing up a wooden image and telling her\nthat he was going to marry Plat\u00e6a, the wife of Asopus. Hera flew back,\nand in memory of the divine reunion the \u201cLittle D\u00e6dala\u201d was instituted.\n\nEvery sixty years all B\u0153otia, its big and little cities, its farmsteads\nand fishing towns, united in the Great D\u00e6dala. The crowds gathered at\nPlat\u00e6a. Long processions, representing each town, bore their own wooden\nimages to the summit of Cith\u00e6ron, seeking a narrow plateau where the\nsnows had melted. Here altars were built and victims burned. And at\nnight the great flames rose into the sky and were seen from afar, so\nthat the young men in Attica and beyond the Gulfs doubtless said to each\nother, \u201cB\u0153otia is celebrating as our fathers said,\u201d and the old men\nshook their heads and remembered brighter fires.\n\nZeus and Hera have been long forgotten, nor are the feet of Dionysus\nheard upon the mountain, but still winter gives way to spring and the\nheart of man is glad. The hard-working people of modern B\u0153otia keep\nholiday when spring blooms anew, and Mount Cith\u00e6ron gives them as of old\nthe soft green of its budding oak leaves, the vivacious laughter of its\nloosened waters.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XV\n THERMOPYL\u00c6\n\n \u201cDic, hospes, Spart\u00e6 nos te hic vidisse iacentes\n Dum sanctis patri\u00e6 legibus obsequimur.\u201d\n CICERO, _translation of a Greek Epitaph_.[33]\n\n\nThermopyl\u00e6 lies due north from Delphi, less than twenty-five miles\ndistant in an air line, but between them lie \u201cmany o\u2019ershadowing\nmountains,\u201d as Achilles might say, or, to be more exact, the great\nParnassus cluster and the continuation of the \u0152ta range, the watershed\nbetween the B\u0153otian Cephisus and the Malian Spercheius. Just where Doris\nand Phocis on the south meet Trachian Malis and Epicnemidian Locris on\nthe north Mount Kallidromos is set like a boundary stone. The ridge that\nunites it with Mount \u0152ta proper is now pierced by the Larissa\nrailway-tunnel, opened in the summer of 1908, through which the northern\nexpress carries the traveller into the gorge and along the steep cliffs\nof the Asopus, the river that flowed down between Xerxes and Leonidas.\nTo the east of the river\u2019s outlet into the Malian gulf was the narrow\ngangway between cliffs and water, called \u201cHot-Gates\u201d from the local\n\u201cThermal,\u201d or hot springs, and the \u201cPylai,\u201d or fortified gateways.\n\nFootnote 33:\n\n Cicero, in this translation of the famous epigram (see below)\n attributed to Simonides, apparently follows a version slightly\n different from that transmitted by Herodotus. A charming old German\n translation is preserved in a Heidelberg manuscript:\u2014\n\n \u201cSag, frembder gast, dem Spartenn land,\n Wir liegen fast hie inn dem sannd,\n Dass wir so schon inn dem gefecht\n Gehalten hon satzung unnd recht.\u201d\n\nIt is not unnatural that the story of Thermopyl\u00e6 should have found in\nthe imagination of men a place more secure than have even the victories\nat Marathon, Salamis, and Plat\u00e6a. The very tragedy of defeat stands out\nmore conspicuously against the background of the moral victory. The\nphysical surroundings, too, are more picturesque. At the narrow entrance\nbetween cliffs and sea individual daring emerges, as in the defence of a\nmedi\u00e6val portcullis, and in the memory remain the details of the by-path\nover Mount Kallidromos; the leaves under foot rustling in the darkness\nand betraying the ascent of the Persians to the Phocian rear-guard; the\ndawn breaking over the blue sea at the foot of the cliffs; and the\nPersian Immortals descending swiftly upon the rear of the few resolute\nmen below. Then the long struggle in the narrow pass comes to an end and\nLeonidas and his men move out into the wider part before the pass. The\n\u201cstrength of the hills\u201d was rendered futile by the traitor guide; the\nwater, faithful ally during the preceding days, would now vainly strive\nto engulf the invaders. The Sun, god of both armies, beat down\nindiscriminately upon the Oriental worshippers of his heavenly fire and\non the heaps of dead Greeks. Somewhere amongst them lay the unaffrighted\nsoldier Dieneces, who had welcomed with Laconic humour the sun-obscuring\nPersian arrows as a grateful shade in the heat of battle.\n\nIt is disappointing, indeed, that now on the spot the actual scene\nrequires certain stage directions. The modern coast line has been pushed\nfar out into the bay by earthquakes and the detritus of the streams. The\nSpercheius now flows through a plain some two miles wide between the\nprecipices and the sea. But the configuration of the land was still\nessentially unchanged when, under Brennus and his Gauls, in the third\ncentury B. C., there was another invasion hardly less formidable than\nthat of the Persians. Before the Gauls reached Delphi there was here at\nThermopyl\u00e6 a repetition of the more famous struggle. The coast line\nstill lay close to the cliffs. The Athenian fleet stood in near enough,\ndespite the rapidly shoaling water, to harass the flank of the enemy,\nwhile the other Greeks in the narrow pass repeated the stubborn\nresistance of the Spartans and their allies just two hundred years\nbefore. Other details, too, were duplicated. The Gauls, unable to force\nthe pass, resorted, as had the Persians, to the mountain path. Again it\nwas the Phocians who strove to stop them, but the invaders, pushing by,\ndescended on the rear of the Greeks, who were saved from the fate of\nLeonidas only by the presence of the Athenian fleet.\n\nThe exact topography of Thermopyl\u00e6 is still a matter of controversy, and\na liberal discount has long since been made from the fabulous total,\ngiven by Herodotus, of Xerxes\u2019s host. Just who and how many of the\nallies remained and died after Leonidas sent the others away is also\nuncertain. Among those remaining with the Spartans of their own free\nwill Pausanias mentions only the seven hundred Thespians and the eighty\nmen from Mycen\u00e6. The inscription written avowedly for all the\nPeloponnesian soldiers exaggerates the number of the Persians and fails\nto state definitely that all of the four thousand fought to the finish:\u2014\n\n \u201cHere on a time four thousand of men from the Peloponnesus,\n Meeting three millions of men, struggled in battle and fought.\u201d\n\nBut all restrictions, made in the interest of historic truth, only serve\nto eliminate the miraculous element. They leave undisturbed the picture\nof a heroism combined with military skill which, if properly\nsupplemented, might well have kept Xerxes shut out from lower Greece\nindefinitely, or as long as the Greek fleet, aided by the elements,\ncould have restrained him from moving south by the sea.\n\nThe allies of Sparta, both those who fell in the four days before the\nbetrayal of the pathway and those who fell at the end, were duly\npraised, but Leonidas and his three hundred have always received, and\njustly, the lion\u2019s share of honour. They represented the Laced\u00e6monians\nat their best. The moral prestige that the Spartans had temporarily\nforfeited by their absence from Marathon was now regained, to be still\nfurther emphasized at Plat\u00e6a. Over the Spartans buried at Thermopyl\u00e6 was\ninscribed:\u2014\n\n \u201cStranger, go unto Sparta, aye go and announce to our people\n Here we their orders obeyed, here we are lying in death.\u201d\n\nIn Laced\u00e6mon also the names of the three hundred were inscribed upon a\npillar, still existing in the time of Pausanias. On the hill at\nThermopyl\u00e6, where the Spartans made their last stand, was set up a\nmarble lion to honour the name of Leonidas. In an epigram, said to have\nbeen written for the monument by Simonides, the lion is represented as\nsaying to the passers-by:\u2014\n\n \u201cI am the strongest of beasts of the wild, but the strongest of mortals\n He it is over whose tomb I as a sentinel stand.\n Were he not Leo in courage, as even my name he possesses,\n Never had I set foot here on the marble above.\u201d\n\nFrom the longer \u201cencomium\u201d by Simonides on the dead at Thermopyl\u00e6 is\nhanded down a fragment worthily translated by Sterling:\u2014\n\n \u201cOf those who at Thermopyl\u00e6 were slain,\n Glorious the doom and beautiful the lot;\n Their tomb an altar; men from tears refrain\n To honour them and praise but mourn them not.\n Such sepulchre nor drear decay\n Nor all-destroying time shall waste; this right have they.\n Within their graves the home-bred glory\n Of Greece was laid: this witness gives\n Leonidas the Spartan in whose story\n A wreath of famous virtue ever lives.\u201d\n\nIn addition to Leonidas there was also singled out for individual honour\nand remembrance the seer Megistias of Acarnania, who claimed descent,\nproud as that of the Levitical priesthood, from the Homeric seer\nMelampus. From sacrifices made before sunrise on that last day, the\npriest gave out in advance the certainty of their impending doom.\nPresently deserters and scouts came in saying that the Persians had\nforced the heights. Leonidas, recognizing that when they were attacked\nin the rear also death was a foregone conclusion, commanded Megistias\nand the greater part of the allies to withdraw while there was still\ntime. But the priest, refusing to depart, remained to die with Leonidas\nand set the seal of religious sanction on the struggle for liberty, as\nthe modern priesthood of Greece, in the war with the Turks, by their\nwords and blood inspired and sanctioned the patriotism of the people.\n\nThe epitaph for the priest was written by Simonides, not by public\ncommission as poet laureate, but, as Herodotus states, by reason of\nguest-friendship. Even this special inscription, however, on the tomb of\nthe Acarnanian seer, closes with a complimentary reference to Sparta. It\nwas Sparta\u2019s day.\n\n \u201cFamous Megistias here is recorded as one whom the Persians,\n Crossing Spercheius\u2019s stream, slew on a day that is gone.\n He was the seer, who, though knowing as certain the Fates that were on\n them,\n Could not endure to desert leaders of Sparta in war.\u201d\n\nA dramatic story is selected by Herodotus to embellish his account of\nthe battle. Two Spartan soldiers, Eurytus and Aristodemus, lay at the\nheadquarters at Alpeni, suffering with severe ophthalmia. When the news\ncame in of the final crisis, Eurytus, putting on his armour with the\nhelp of his helot squire, was led on his blind way into the thick of the\nbattle and fell fighting with the rest, while the helot made good his\nescape. Aristodemus, as might indeed seem natural in the case of a man\nthus incapacitated for service, remained behind and returned home. But\nhis fellow citizens at Sparta, incensed at the contrast between the two,\nrefused him light to kindle fire and nicknamed him the \u201cTrembler.\u201d Nor\ndid any subsequent bravery wipe out his disgrace. Even when, in the\nclosing scene of the great drama at Plat\u00e6a, he surpassed all others in\nthe reckless daring with which he fought and died, he was still excluded\nfrom his country\u2019s roll of honour. Thus imperative did it seem that\nSpartan courage and love of liberty should be proclaimed to all as the\nrule that knew no exception.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVI\n ARGOLIS\n\n \u201cFew for our eyes are the homes of the heroes,\n Lowly these few, they scarce lift from the plain;\n So once I marked thee, O luckless Mycen\u00e6,\n Then, as I passed thee, a desert\u2019s domain.\n Never goat-pasture more lonely, thou\u2019rt merely\n Something they point at, while driving a-fold.\n Said an old herd to me: \u2018Here stood the city\n Built by Cycl\u014dpes, the city of gold.\u2019\u201d\n ALPHEUS OF MITYLENE, _Greek Anthology_.\n\n\nIn the Argolid it seems reasonable to turn aside from history, in its\nnarrower definition, to recall the tales of heroes and the \u201cgrandeur of\nthe dooms imagined for the mighty dead.\u201d The turbulent and uneven course\nof events in which Argolis of historic times appears now as an ally, now\nas an enemy of other powerful states, is of less moment than the legends\nhanded down and crystallized in great literature. Even if the sagas\nwhich may have formed the nucleus of the Iliad sprang from the older\nThessalian \u201cArgos,\u201d the Homeric poems, as known to the classic Greeks\nand to us, concern themselves with the mighty fortresses of the Argolid.\nThe Attic drama re\u00ebnforced the epic tradition, and the interchanging use\nin Homer of Ach\u00e6ans, Danai, and Argives to designate the Greeks,\nsuggests the elements which gave the later poets opportunity for varied\ninterpretation.\n\nArgolis was the outpost of the Peloponnesus, and even of the whole Greek\nmainland, for the prehistoric invaders and traders from Crete, the\nsouthern \u00c6gean or Ph\u0153nicia. The rugged eastern peninsula of Laconia,\nindeed, extends southward nearly a whole degree of latitude further than\nArgolis, but the dangerous promontory, Malea, did not so often entice\nmariners to double it as it served for a beacon to direct their course\nnorthward into the deep shelter of the beautiful Gulf of Argos. It is\neasy to understand how naturally the early captains of commerce or\nconquest would be guided up the long coast until they beached their\nboats under the impregnable rock of Nauplia and the low hill of Tiryns\nlevelled, as it seemed, by the footprint of some god at whose bidding\nthe \u201cCyclopes\u201d reared its prehistoric and superhuman walls.\n\n[Illustration: A GALLERY OF THE ACROPOLIS OF TIRYNS]\n\nBut the southward-facing gulf was not the only approach to Argolis. The\nearth\u2019s crust, pushed up into a ridged peninsula between the Saronic and\nArgolic gulfs, falls away also at the north to the Corinthian Gulf and\nthe Isthmus. From this direction migrating bands of Ach\u00e6ans came\noverland to mingle with the more numerous \u201cPelasgians\u201d and to dominate\nthem by their intellectual power and by their rich and conquering Greek\nspeech. When, after the lapse of long years, Ach\u00e6an imagination,\ncombined with the highly developed \u201cPelasgian\u201d skill in building, had\nreared or developed a fortress on the acropolis of Mycen\u00e6, robber barons\ncould control the mountain gateway. And with the probably earlier\nLarisa, the acropolis of Argos, and with the fortresses of Tiryns and of\nMidea, they could take their toll of all who would enter the Argive\nplain from the north or the south. The masters of these palace castles,\nas their wealth and their wants increased, could afford to be hospitable\nto Cretan art or to the contributions from the \u00c6gean or Asia. They may,\nperhaps, as time went on, have visualized the spoken word in the new\ncharacters of the alphabet, whatever its provenance, whether brought\nover seas to Nauplia by some Palamedes, who might pose as its inventor,\nor by the Ph\u0153nician traders, middlemen between the Greeks and the men of\nCrete and the \u00c6gean who, centuries before, had developed writing from\ntheir picture script.\n\nThe blended prehistoric civilization, with its epochs checked off in\ncenturies or millennia, and, thanks to the arch\u00e6ologists, to-day rapidly\nemerging throughout the Greek world in Attica, B\u0153otia, Asia Minor, the\nislands and the Peloponnesus, has received not unnaturally, if\nprematurely, the general name \u201cMycen\u00e6an\u201d from the great royal tombs and\nsmaller graves and the strong walls of Mycen\u00e6 and from the rich and\namazing treasure recovered from the graves excavated within the Gateway\nof the Lions. Accumulating evidence has indicated the insufficiency of\nthe term to include both the art and the architecture. Successive\nperiods and various origins must yet be disentangled. But Mycen\u00e6 and\nTiryns, as being the most impressive in their entirety, continue to\nrepresent this prehistoric civilization to the majority of visitors, and\nthe term \u201cMycen\u00e6an\u201d may serve until some happier names are suggested to\ndistinguish at once between the home-bred and the imported.\n\nOn the borderland between mere shadowy tradition and an approximately\nexact chronology two events seemed to the Greeks themselves of\npre\u00ebminent importance and were referred by them to the twelfth century\nB. C.\u2014the Fall of Troy, and the Return of the Heracleid\u00e6, or the Dorian\nconquest, as we should now describe this movement. Although Thucydides\nstates that \u201cin the eightieth year after the Trojan War the Dorians, led\nby the Heracleid\u00e6, conquered the Peloponnesus,\u201d it may be found\nnecessary to assume a much longer interval, especially if we allow for a\nseries of Dorian conquests.\n\nThe Dorians were one of the Greek clans pushed down from further north\ninto central Greece in prehistoric times. They have left, as the\nmemorial of this period, their name attached to little Doris wedged in\nbetween Parnassus and Mount \u0152ta. When they were impelled to move still\nfurther south, whether by external pressure or the desire to send out\ncolonies, the Ach\u00e6ans already held the land approach to the Peloponnesus\nand also the littoral of Ach\u00e6a on the opposite side of the Corinthian\nGulf. They were thus forced to take to the sea, and the Dorian\nsettlements in Crete, Thera, Melos, and Asia Minor seem to have been\nfollowed by Dorian invasions of the Peloponnesus from the south and\neast, especially in Laconia and Argolis. In Laconia the invaders\nestablished themselves as conquerors and retained their own character\nalmost unchanged, while in Argolis they amalgamated with the people\nalready in possession. In readjusting pedigrees it was more agreeable to\nnative pride to assume that these invaders were themselves of good old\nPeloponnesian stock, rather than foreign Dorians, and incidentally to\nlocalize the spreading fame of Heracles. Both of these objects were\nprovided for in Argolis when Heracles proved to be of the Perseid line,\nthe original and most distinguished Argive dynasty. Under his\ngrandchildren the invaders merely came back to their own. Thus the\nDorian invasions came to be described by the senseless and confusing\nname of the Return of the Heracleid\u00e6. With this event is perhaps to be\nassociated the sudden destruction of Mycen\u00e6 and Tiryns by fire and the\nreinstatement of Argos and the Larisa citadel as supreme.\n\nBy way of acquiring the chief poet as well as the chief hero of Greece,\nArgos claimed, with other cities, to be the birthplace of Homer\u2014an echo,\ndoubtless, of the dimly remembered sagas of Ach\u00e6an Argos in Thessaly. In\nreality, Argolis, like other Dorian cantons, contributed more subject\nmatter for poets than poetry itself. Yet it was not wholly parasitical.\nIt partially balanced the Dorian debt by sending to Athens two\npoet-musicians whose activity cannot be justly appraised from the meagre\nfragments that have come down to us. The Dorian contributions to music\nmust be kept in mind. The Argives, we are told, furnished many of the\nfamous musicians of Greece.\n\nFrom Hermione on the southern shore of the peninsula came Lasus, who, as\na theoretical and practical musician, did much to develop the dithyramb.\nHe was the teacher of Pindar and, under the cultivated tyrant\nHipparchus, was a rival of Simonides in Athens. The other poet,\nPratinas, came from Phlius, geographically within the northwestern\ncorner of Argolis, although the independent Phliasians long maintained\ntheir autonomy. The city lay in green meadowlands high among the\nmountains on the grassy banks of the Sicyonian Asopus which, according\nto local belief, was generated by the Carian Meander coming under the\nsea to link the two sides of the \u00c6gean together, as the Alpheus, on the\nother side, united Sicily to the mother land. Although Pratinas was\ninevitably drawn by the lure of the intellectual to live at Athens, he\nstands out as a Dorian poet. He is known as the first writer of the\nsatyr dramas, one of which it was for a while the custom to add to the\ntrilogy of tragedies, and he competed even with \u00c6schylus.\n\nThe literature of Ionian Athens lacked one element which developed among\nthe \u00c6olians and Dorians. The more independent life of Dorian women\ncalled forth two poetesses in the Peloponnesus. One of these lived at\nSicyon. This city, lying on the Asopus, which comes tumbling down\nthrough the deep ravine from Phlius, early became Dorian. Once included\nin the widespread kingdom of the Agamemnon of tradition, it was now\nindependent, now dependent on Argos or on Sparta. With the mountains of\nthe Peloponnesus around it and the Corinthian Gulf and Parnassus in\nfront, it is beautiful for situation. Its rich treasure-houses were\namong the notable sights at Delphi and Olympia, and it was famous for\nits schools of painting and of sculpture. Here Praxilla, the Dorian\npoetess _par excellence_, lived in the fifth century B. C. The fame of\nher dithyrambs, a few fragments of which have reached us, survived her,\nand she was deemed worthy of a bronze statue by Lysippus, a later\ncompatriot.\n\nIn aristocratic Argos itself another woman, Telesilla, was honoured both\nas a writer of choral hymns for maidens and as a heroine in war.\nPausanias adds to the Herodotean account of the Argive men massacred by\nthe Spartans in Hera\u2019s grove the story of how Telesilla manned the walls\nwith old men, boys, and slaves, and then drew up the Argive women for\nactual conflict with the Spartans and repulsed them, partly by stout\nfighting, partly by the shame inspired in them by the thought of\ncontending with women. Pausanias saw, furthermore, a carved relief\nrepresenting the warrior poetess, her scrolls scattered at her feet as\nshe gazes at a helmet which she is about to put on.\n\nKydias, also from Hermione the home of Lasus, wrote, in the first half\nof the fifth century, love songs highly esteemed by Plato.\n\nThe Argolid contains more than a dozen places prominent in Greek\nliterature and in history. Among the northern mountains were Phlius,\nCleon\u00e6, and Nemea; overlooking or on the Argive Gulf were Mycen\u00e6, the\nHer\u00e6um, Argos and the Larisa acropolis, Midea, Tiryns, Nauplia, and\nLerna; on the eastern coast of Akte, the old name for the promontory\nthat with other parts merged its name in that of Argos, were Epidaurus,\nTroezen, and Calauria, with Hermione on the south coast; and on the west\nside of the gulf was the narrow strip of land, Cynuria, bone of\ncontention between Sparta and the Wolf of Argos. Of all these places the\nfamous group on the Argive Gulf, together with Epidaurus, is most easily\naccessible from Athens, and travellers who cannot go farther afield may\ngain from this brief excursion in the Argolid an adequate impression\nboth of its prehistoric interest and of its natural beauties.\n\nHerodotus, in leading up to his account of the Persian War, selects as\nthe origin of the rivalry between the Orient and Greece the rape by\nPh\u0153nicians of Io, daughter of Inachus, the personified Argive river.\nThis was doubtless a typical scene on the shores of the Mediterranean.\nThe seamen landed and \u201cundid their corded bales;\u201d the native women\ncrowded about the bargain counter at the vessel\u2019s stern; it was easy for\nthe sailors to seize the handsomest and, launching their vessel, to bear\nthem away. The Ph\u0153nicians, however, were merely an episode, and the\nearly \u201cOutlanders\u201d came into the Argolid over the northern mountains.\n\nIf one were entering Argolis neither by the modern railway nor in\ncompany with one of these instalments of prehistoric Ach\u00e6ans that\ndescended from the north, but were faring along the good highroad from\nCorinth in the days of Mycen\u00e6\u2019s glory, he would follow up the\n_Longopotamo_ River, which flows down west of Acrocorinth into the\nCorinthian Gulf. Before crossing the watershed that slopes to the\nArgolic plain he would have come to Homer\u2019s \u201cwell-built\u201d Cleon\u00e6 in a\nsemi-circle of wooded mountains. Here the ancient roads part, one going\neast of Mount Treton more directly to Mycen\u00e6, the other making a detour\nto the west to the Argive plain and then to Mycen\u00e6, stationed like a\nhuge spider at the centre of its web. When Lucian\u2019s Charon, off on a\nday\u2019s furlough from the Ferry, asks Hermes to point out the famous\ncities of antiquity, the latter shows him Babylon and then adds: \u201cBut\nMycen\u00e6 and Cleon\u00e6 I am ashamed to point out to you, and Ilium above all.\nFor when you go down home again you\u2019ll certainly be throttling Homer for\nhis big boasts. Long ago, to be sure, they were prosperous, but now they\nare dead and gone. For cities, Ferryman, die out just like people, and,\nqueerest of all, whole rivers. For instance, there\u2019s not so much as a\nditch left of the Inachus in Argos now-a-days.\u201d Lucian forgets his quasi\nsixth century perspective in this pessimistic outlook and descends to\nthings as they were in his own time, when his contemporary Pausanias\nexplained the \u201csummer-dried\u201d condition of the Inachus as due to\nPoseidon\u2019s anger because Hera had been given the preference to himself\nin the Argive land. But not even the Lynceus vision, temporarily put at\nthe disposal of Charon by an Homeric incantation, could have been\nexpected to reveal, beneath the oblivious Argive soil of the second\ncentury of our era, the rich treasures of Mycen\u00e6, to which the X-rays of\nthe arch\u00e6ologists have now penetrated.\n\nBefore descending along the bed of the northern tributary of the Inachus\ninto the plain we turn aside to the precinct of Nemea. This lies in a\nvalley of its own between those of Phlius and Cleon\u00e6 and, like them, on\na stream, the Nemea, which also flows down to the Corinthian Gulf. The\ndeep grass, fed by the overflowing waters, gave the name Nemea,\n\u201cpasture-land.\u201d The biennial Nemean games, celebrated on the high\nwatershed at this entrance to the peninsula, were especially\npan-Peloponnesian. They were instituted, according to a charming story,\nby Adrastus and the rest of the \u201cSeven\u201d on their way to Thebes, as an\natonement for the death of the child Opheltes, carelessly left by his\nnurse on a bed of wild parsley (or celery) and slain by a dragon while\nshe fetched water for the warriors. The solemn funereal origin of the\ngames was kept before the mind by the dun-colored raiment worn by the\numpires and emphasized by the cypress grove which in antiquity\nsurrounded the temple. Pindar seems to reflect this feeling when he\nrefers to the \u201csolemn plains\u201d in connection with Adrastus. Elsewhere he\nspeaks of the \u201clovely contests of Nemea.\u201d Where the little Opheltes died\non his bed of wild parsley and the Argive champions passed by to Thebes\nare the lonely ruins of the Temple of Zeus. Three slender columns still\nstand to watch over their fallen companions, stretched upon the ground\nby the Earthshaker whose envy has shaken down so many temples of rivals\nwhile, by the cunning of Athena in sharing with him her precinct, he has\nleft the great rock in Athens unmoved. Zeus, the virile god of the\nAch\u00e6ans, is lord and master at Nemea, while Hera presides in the Argive\nplain as she did originally at Olympia.\n\nThe cave of the Nemean lion slain by Heracles at the bidding of\nEurystheus, king of Mycen\u00e6 or Tiryns, cannot be identified with\ncertainty. Indeed, the king of beasts himself, so far as Argolis is\nconcerned, has been now confined by the excavators within the narrow\nlimits of a Phrygian gem. Heracles, in his search for rare fauna, flora,\nand other exhibits, completed six of his twelve labours in the\nPeloponnesus, two of them within the borders of Argolis, before he was\ncompelled to go abroad for the fruit of the Hesperides or the\nthree-headed hound of Hades. He had already killed a lion on Mount\nCith\u00e6ron and assumed its skin as his conventional uniform, and when the\nspoils of the Nemean lion were delivered at Mycen\u00e6 the king might well,\nit may be thought, have deemed it suitable to commemorate by a \u201ctotem\u201d\non the Gate of the Acropolis the subjugation of this original autochthon\nof Mount Treton, which dominated the two highways leading to the\nfortress.\n\nIn the Homeric poems it is Mycen\u00e6, \u201crich in gold,\u201d and \u201cwell-walled\u201d\nTiryns that are predominant in Argolis. The legendary kingdom of the\nAtreid\u00e6 extended over a large part of the Peloponnesus, and it was\npleasing to Argive pride to reserve Mycen\u00e6 as headquarters for\nAgamemnon, king of men, and to parcel off Laced\u00e6mon to Menelaus when he\nwas not represented as also living in Argolis. Mycen\u00e6 commanded the\nmountain roads to the Corinthian Gulf and the Isthmus, and a prehistoric\nnetwork of roadbeds that focus at Mycen\u00e6 lifts out of the realm of mere\nlegend the controlling influence of the mighty fortress over the\nterritory to the northward. To the south of the mountains it was\nconnected with Tiryns and Argos in a varying sequence of leagues and\nrivalries.\n\nMycen\u00e6 is now as familiar to the modern world as the Acropolis of\nAthens. Its resurrection within our own times has called forth manifold\naccounts and pictures of the \u201cbeehive tombs,\u201d the Cyclopean walls, the\nGate of the Lions (never, indeed, wholly buried), the circle of shaft\ngraves on the acropolis and the treasure found within them.\n\nThe three great dramatists all dealt with scenes from the family history\nof the Atreid\u00e6 or Pelopid\u00e6, the illustrious but blood-stained dynasty\nthat for a few generations only (if we allow the Heracleid\u00e6 their\npedigree) broke in upon the continuity of the Perseid line, descended\nthrough Danaus from Inachus. When Eurystheus was slain, as Thucydides\nrecords, by the Heracleid\u00e6 in Attica, the kingdom passed to his mother\u2019s\nhalf-brother Atreus, the son of Pelops. Agamemnon, his son, or his\ngrandson, is described by the historian as \u201cthe greatest naval potentate\nof his time,\u201d and he cites the Iliad which speaks of him as \u201clording it\nover many ships and over all Argos,\u201d that is, over all the Argolid.\n\nAlthough \u00c6schylus, by reason of a contemporary _rapprochement_ between\nthe Athenians and the Argives, explicitly lays the scene of his\n\u201cAgamemnon\u201d at Argos, the traditional association with Mycen\u00e6, handed\ndown from Homer, has usually prevailed. Sophocles returned to it, and in\nhis \u201cElectra\u201d assumes Mycen\u00e6 as the home of the royal pair, while\nEuripides, in his \u201cElectra,\u201d loosely refers to both cities, although in\nother plays Mycen\u00e6 is uppermost in his mind. Thus Iphigeneia at Aulis,\nabout to be sacrificed, exclaims:\u2014\n\n \u201cO mother mine, Pelasgian land,\n O virgin\u2019s home, Mycen\u00e6!\u201d\n\nAnd amongst the Taurians, overjoyed at her reunion with her brother, her\nthoughts likewise revert to Mycen\u00e6:\u2014\n\n \u201cO home and hearth-stone mine,\n Built by Cyclopic hand,\n Mycen\u00e6, fatherland,\n Our love is thine!\u201d\n\nPausanias speaks of Agamemnon and others of the family as buried within\nthe walls of Mycen\u00e6, and places the tombs of Clytemnestra and her\nparamour without. The various attempts to identify with literary\ntradition the beehive tombs below or the shaft graves discovered by\nSchliemann on the acropolis above involve varying degrees of\nimprobability or of contradiction, and from these ingenious attempts to\nreconcile facts it is a relief to turn to the realities of pure fiction.\n\nThe \u201cAgamemnon\u201d of \u00c6schylus, the greatest of extant Greek dramas, opens\nwith a soldier posted on the palace roof at Argos continuing the ten\nyears\u2019 watch for the beacon signal[34] that is to flash across the \u00c6gean\nthe news of the capture of Troy, in order that the guilty Clytemnestra\nmay not be taken unawares. Presently the beacon flashes out on Mount\nArachneum, seen, as the watcher looks eastward across the plain, between\nthe Her\u00e6um and Tiryns. The long chorals contain the kernel of the poet\u2019s\nthought. The Argive elders enter chanting their anap\u00e6sts:\u2014\n\n \u201cNow this year is the tenth since \u2019gainst Priam of Troy,\n As antagonist great,\n Menelaus the lord, Agamemnon besides\n Holding power two-throned and two-sceptred from Zeus,\n Mighty yoke-pair, two sons they of Atreus their sire,\n Sped forth from this land in a thousand of ships\n Of our Argives a host\n As a warrior band bringing succour.\u201d\n\nThe old men even in the hour of victory are filled with strange\nforeboding of coming ill and with fear of a still unadjusted Nemesis. A\ncurse is inbred in the royal house. \u201cThe fearsome wrath, recurrent,\nhouse-haunting, guileful, unforgetting, exacting vengeance for the\nchildren\u201d more than hints at the grim story of Thyestes fed by Atreus on\nthe flesh of his children. Iphigeneia\u2019s sacrifice at Aulis by\nAgamemnon[35] is skilfully introduced to complicate the ethical\nsituation by giving Clytemnestra a plausible justification for her\nunfaithfulness and for the secret plottings of which the chorus is not\nunaware.\n\nFootnote 34:\n\n See extract from _Agamemnon_ in chapter i, p. 11.\n\nFootnote 35:\n\n See extract from _Agamemnon_, chapter xiv, p. 308.\n\nClytemnestra, intoxicated with the thought that Agamemnon is about to\nfall into her snare, tells the chorus how the beacons, her \u201cracers with\nthe torch,\u201d have brought the news, and then breaks forth with a recital,\nswift and vivid, reminding them how, even while she speaks, the Argive\nwarriors are stalking triumphant through the streets of Troy:\u2014\n\n \u201cTroy the Ach\u00e6ans have and hold this very day!\n Methinks I hear commingling outcries in the town.\u201d\n\nThe captive Trojan women \u201cfrom throats no longer free\u201d bewail their\ndead, while the Argives plunder as they shout or seat themselves at an\nimpromptu breakfast:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn captured Trojan homes they make their dwelling now,\n Set free from roofless bivouac in frost and dew.\n How they, the happy men, will sleep the livelong night\n Unpicketed!\u201d\n\nAgamemnon enters in his chariot, with Cassandra, the captive princess of\nTroy, in his retinue, driving up from Nauplia. He addresses Argos and\nthe gods. He boasts of the capture of Ilium. The interval necessary for\nthe \u00c6gean voyage is minimized\u2014Troy\u2019s ruins still smoulder sulkily:\u2014\n\n \u201cFrom smoke still rising even now conspicuous\n Is seen the captured city; blasts of ruin live;\n From out the smould\u2019ring ashes there keep jetting forth\n Fat puffs of plunder!\u201d\n\nFrom the ruined wealth of Troy the thought is turned to the traditional\ncostly splendour of the Argive palaces. Clytemnestra cunningly avails\nherself of Agamemnon\u2019s only half-concealed vanity to cover her own\nmurderous intent and, if possible, to transfer to his account, in the\neyes of the gods, a certain debit to Nemesis. She would persuade him to\nenter the palace treading presumptuously upon royal purple tapestries,\nand with grim ambiguity she says:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd now to pleasure me, dear heart, down from thy car!\n Set not upon the ground, my lord, that foot of thine\n That hath sack\u2019d Ilium. Maid servants! Why delay\n To strew the foot-path of his road with tapestries?\n Forthwith be purple-paved his way! Let Justice lead\n On to a dwelling where he scarce had hoped to come.\u201d\n\nAgamemnon, flattered, makes a show of resistance, and finally, to ward\noff the evil consequences of presumption, compromises by bidding the\nslaves unloose his shoes:\u2014\n\n \u201cLest bolt of envy from the gods\u2019 eyes from afar\n Shall strike me as the costly purple I tread down.\u201d\n\nAs he yields there surges before the vision of the exultant Clytemnestra\nanother sea:\u2014\n\n \u201cThere is a sea and who shall ever drain it dry?\n It guards the drops of bounteous purple, ever fresh,\n As silver precious, raiment\u2019s dye. Our house, my lord,\n With God\u2019s help hath sufficient store of these. Our halls\n Are far from understanding ways of poverty.\u201d\n\nAs she turns to follow her victim she prays:\u2014\n\n \u201cO Zeus! O Zeus Fulfiller! these my prayers fulfil.\u201d\n\nThe captive Cassandra is left without. Before her searching but futile\ninsight pass by-gone scenes in the bloodguilty palace to which she has\njust come as a stranger. She points to the murdered infants of Thyestes\nand their \u201croasted flesh upon which their father banqueted.\u201d Then her\nprophetic vision forecasts the details presently to be enacted:\nAgamemnon\u2019s death and her own, the welcoming bath, the ensnaring robe,\n\u201chand after hand outstretching blow on blow.\u201d As she goes in to her\ndeath she utters lines unsurpassed in Greek tragedy, if anywhere, for\nthe pathos of self-abnegating contrast between the littleness of the\nindividual and the wider aspects of the universal:\u2014\n\n \u201cO life of mortal men! If that it fareth well,\n \u2019Tis like a painting sketch\u2019d, but, comes adversity,\n The wet sponge, blurring, touches and the picture\u2019s gone!\n And this than that I count more piteous by far.\u201d\n\nTwo solitary outcries from Agamemnon, struck down within the palace,\nfloat out on the waiting silence as the chorus ceases its chant. To the\nelders in their consternation appears Clytemnestra, exultant, glorified\nby success, standing over the dead Agamemnon and Cassandra. One might\nreconstruct the scene from the palace bathroom uncovered at Tiryns. She\nspeaks:\u2014\n\n \u201cHere stand I where I struck him, o\u2019er the finished work,\n And so I managed\u2014no denial will I make\u2014\n That there was no escape nor warding off of fate.\n A netlike wrap without an outlet, as for fish,\n I stake around, the evil bounty of a robe.\n And thereupon I strike him twice and with two groans\n He straight relaxed his limbs and, for him lying thus,\n I add a third blow, thereunto, as votive thanks\n To Hades underground, the corpses\u2019 saviour god.\u201d\n\nA lyrical dialogue between the Queen and the chorus follows: exultation\nand execration; justification and lamentation. Clytemnestra, to the\nindignant question of the chorus, \u201cWho is to bury him?\u201d replies that he\nis her dead and adroitly takes refuge once and again in the necessity of\navenging Iphigeneia. The climax of bitterness is reached when she flings\nforth the taunting suggestion that the murdered child will most\nappropriately welcome her dear father as he disembarks at Charon\u2019s\nferry. The chorus, bemoaning him \u201claid low in the bath, on his pallet\nbedding of silver,\u201d asks again:\u2014\n\n \u201cPraises and requiem who shall be singing,\n Loyal heart to the labour bringing,\n And shower the godlike man with tears?\u201d\n\nAnd Clytemnestra replies:\u2014\n\n \u201cIt becomes not you for this duty to care.\n At my hands he fell down and he lies\u2014down there!\n And \u2019tis I that shall bury him\u2014down below!\n And \u2019tis not with laments of his house he shall go,\n But his Iphigeneia with welcoming grace,\n As \u2019tis just to require, the daughter her sire\n By the swift-flowing Ferry of Groans shall face\n And with locked arms kiss and embrace him!\u201d\n\nThe plays by the three dramatists dealing with the slaying of\nClytemnestra by her son and the meeting and recognition of Orestes and\nhis older sister Electra fill out many a detail of the Argive land and\ncities as they were seen or imagined in the fifth century. Although\nSophocles lays the scene of his \u201cElectra\u201d at \u201copulent Mycen\u00e6,\u201d his\nallusions to the \u201crenowned temple of Hera,\u201d to the \u201cLyc\u00e6an agora of the\nwolf-slaying god,\u201d and to the \u201cgrove of the frenzied daughters of\nInachus\u201d\u2014all as part of the immediate environment\u2014seem to imply\nstage-setting which brought before the spectator the Her\u00e6um and Argos\nitself as well as Mycen\u00e6. In all three plays the tomb of Agamemnon,\naround which the action goes on, seems to be outside of the city.\n\nThe scene of the \u201cElectra\u201d of Euripides is laid on the mountain\nfrontier, by which way the exiled Orestes would naturally arrive from\nPhocis. Not only does this play give a feeling for the Argive landscape,\nchanging little while Mycen\u00e6 rose and fell, but the simple and dignified\npeasant farmer, Electra\u2019s husband in name only, is one of the\ndramatist\u2019s noblest creations. The suggestion of his high-born though\nremote ancestry only emphasizes the chivalry, far removed from\nservility, with which he reverences his nominal wife as a princess of\nthe land. When Electra, in the shadow of the \u201cNight, dark foster mother\nof the golden stars,\u201d goes to fetch water, like any peasant girl, with\nthe water-jar poised on her head, he remonstrates with her, but divining\nher mood, withdraws his objection:\u2014\n\n \u201cNay, go thy way, an so thou wilt, not distant far\n The fountains from our dwelling. I, when breaks the dawn,\n Must with my oxen turn the furrows for the seed.\u201d\n\nIn this play the horror of the mother-murder in the peasant home is\nsensibly heightened by the background of simple hospitality. The deed\nseems more inevitable in the \u201cCho\u00ebphoroi\u201d of \u00c6schylus, in which Orestes\ngoes in to slay his mother just where she had slain his father, and the\nknocking, knocking at the palace doors seems more like the hand of fate,\nor like the two outcries of the king in the \u201cAgamemnon.\u201d The play\ncloses, as it should, just as the \u201cwrathful hounds\u201d of his mother have\nappeared to the matricide.[36] No assurance of the chorus that they are\nunreal fancies of his confused brain can help him. He must away over the\nmountains and the Isthmus by the long pathway to Delphi to seek the\nrestoring purification of Apollo:\u2014\n\n \u201cYou cannot see them, see them there, but I can see.\n I\u2019m driven onward\u2014nay, no longer might I stay.\u201d\n\nFootnote 36:\n\n For extracts from the _Eumenides_, the sequel of the _Cho\u00ebphoroi_, see\n chapter v, p. 104, and p. 105; also see chapter xi, p. 246.\n\nHomer lets Hera, wrangling with Zeus, in regard to Troy, exclaim:\n\u201cVerily three are the dearest to me among cities: wide-wayed Mycen\u00e6 and\nSparta and Argos.\u201d The Her\u00e6um, the ancient sanctuary of the goddess,\nonce belonged to Mycen\u00e6, and traces of the Cyclopean road that connected\nthem are still visible. Here the \u201ckings\u201d took the oath of allegiance\nbefore sailing to Troy with Agamemnon and Menelaus. Here on their return\nthe Argives dedicated the Trojan spoils to Hera. The herald in the\n\u201cAgamemnon\u201d says:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhile speeding over land and sea, to yonder light,\n The sun\u2019s light, it is fitting that we make this vaunt:\n \u2018Once, sacking Troy, an Argive host to gods of Greece\n Nailed up these spoils, a glorious heirloom in their halls.\u2019\u201d\n\nAmong the spoils was the shield of the Trojan hero Euphorbus, slain by\nMenelaus. In the sixth century, Pythagoras, to prove that in a previous\nround of existence he had been Euphorbus, entered the Her\u00e6um and\ninstantly identified the shield as his own.\n\nFrom Argos to the Her\u00e6um it was a distance of more than five miles.\nHerodotus relates how a woman of Argos, wishing to be present at Hera\u2019s\nfestival, was unable to start because the oxen were not forthcoming in\nseason to draw her car. Her two athlete sons put on the yoke and drew\nthe heavy car quickly across the plain and up the hill. When the Argive\nwomen congratulated her on being mother of such sons, she, \u201cexultant\nover their deed and fame, stood before the statue of Hera and prayed\nthat to her sons, Cleobis and Biton, who had honoured her greatly, the\ngoddess would give whatever gift is best for man to have. And the\nyouths, after sacrifice and banquet, lay down to sleep in the sacred\nprecinct itself and rose up no more.\u201d This answer of the goddess so\nimpressed the Argives that they set up the statues of the young men at\nDelphi. It pleases the imagination to identify with these the two\narchaic statues there excavated by the French; and a beautiful Parian\nmarble head of Hera, found by the American excavators of the Her\u00e6um, has\npreserved to us the gracious presentation of the goddess by some great\nsculptor of the fifth century.\n\nThe _dramatis person\u00e6_ of the \u201cSuppliants\u201d of \u00c6schylus vaguely suggest a\nchapter in the early history of Argolis. Danaus with his fifty daughters\ncomes from the south, fleeing over the sea from his brother \u00c6gyptus and\nhis fifty sons. The early Pelasgian inhabitants of Argos are represented\nby the king, Pelasgus, who receives the suppliant fugitives into the\nsafe refuge of his Cyclopean walls, which we may identify with the\nprehistoric Larisa citadel above Argos: \u201cGo get ye to my city fenced\nwith goodly walls, fast locked within the lofty ramparts, subtly\nwrought.\u201d Henceforward, as in Homer, the Argives and Danai are\nconvertible names. All objection to the newcomers as foreigners is\nneutralized by realizing that they have only returned to their original\nhome. Inachus, the river god, was the father of Io, who, half\ntransformed into a heifer by the jealousy of Hera, had been made to\nwander frenzied over land and water until in Egypt she brought forth a\nson, the great-grandfather of this same Danaus.\n\nIn the sequel to the \u201cSuppliants\u201d \u00c6schylus gave his interpretation of\nthe story of the Danaides and their trial for the forty-nine murders of\nthat Saint Bartholomew wedding night. Only fragments of this play\nremain, and the romance of Hypermnestra is familiar to the modern world\nchiefly from Horace\u2019s incomparable ode. In the \u201cPrometheus,\u201d however,\n\u00c6schylus both tells the Io story at length and briefly sketches the\nstory of Hypermnestra, which, with the \u201clovely tale\u201d of Dana\u00eb and the\ninfant Perseus, sheds around the Perseid dynasty of Argos a fragrant\naroma of romance in striking contrast to the gruesome annals of the\nPelopid family, which waft now and again to our nostrils the scent of\nhuman blood and the breath of the charnel vault. Prometheus prophesies\nto Io that, in the fifth generation from her Egyptian-born son, fifty\nmaidens, daughters of Danaus,\u2014\n\n \u201cShall come, not willing it, to Argos back again.\n Wedlock with kinsmen cousins they are fain to shun,\n But these with hearts a-flutter, falcons after doves,\n Not distanced far, shall come to hunt their quarry down,\n Seeking a wedlock that should not be sought. But God\n Shall grudge their mating. In her soil Pelasgia\n Shall give them lodging, slain, laid low by women\u2019s hands,\n Ares-emboldened, waking sentinels of night.\n For wife each husband of his life shall rob, and dye\n Her two-edged sword in murder. May God grant, with love\n Like this, that Cypris come upon my enemies!\n One maiden only shall love soften and forbid\n To slay her love-mate. Nay, her purpose she shall blunt\n And of twain choices offered she shall rather choose\n To bear the name of coward than of murderess.\n From her in Argos shall be bred a royal line.\u201d\n\nLynceus is saved, under cover of night, by Hypermnestra, and escaping,\nas Pausanias tells us, by the Diras gate, he signals back to her his\nsafety by means of a beacon light on Mount Lyrcea, and she replies by\nanother from Larisa. On this Larisa mountain, rising above the plain,\nthere is lavished as a setting for the picturesque ancient and medi\u00e6val\nruins a colour scheme of green, rich reds and brown that delights the\nartist\u2019s eye.\n\nArgos itself, continuously inhabited through the centuries, offers few\nreminders of antiquity except the steep seats of the theatre. The\nbeautiful wolf head on the extant Argive drachmas reminds us of the Wolf\nAgora of Sophocles and of the Wolf Apollo dedicated by Danaus when he\nhad ungratefully snapped away the kingdom from his Pelasgian host. We\nare glad to leave to Pausanias the description of the sights of historic\nArgos and to follow Amymone, one of the Danaids, as she goes down the\nplain of \u201cthirsty Argos,\u201d water-jar on head, to fetch water at Lerna.\nShe went to the fountain once too often, if we may trust the legend.\nLucian describes how Poseidon, inflamed by Triton\u2019s account of her\nbeauty, too impetuous to wait for his royal team, had thrown himself\nhastily on the fastest dolphin available and had come riding up the bay.\nAmymone, as she is carried off, cries out: \u201cFellow, where are you\ncarrying me off to? You\u2019re a kidnapper sent after us, I suppose, by\nuncle \u00c6gyptus. I\u2019ll call my father!\u201d (Triton) \u201cHush, Amymone, it\u2019s\nPoseidon.\u201d (Amymone) \u201cWhat Poseidon are you talking of? Fellow, why do\nyou drag me and force me into the sea? I\u2019ll choke, poor me, as I go\ndown!\u201d Poseidon comforts her by telling her that she shall escape, as\nhis bride, not only her daily five-mile walk as a water-carrier in Argos\nbut her sisters\u2019 futile task in Hades of carrying water in a sieve. He\npromises her also a fountain, called by her name. This promise was kept;\nby leaving the railroad at Myli, the second station below Argos, we can\nstill see the fountain. Here Heracles, her sister\u2019s descendant, slew the\nLern\u00e6an hydra.\n\nIf we coast down the west side of the bay we come to Cynuria, whose\nautochthonous inhabitants would seem to have belonged, like their\nArcadian neighbours, to the pre-Dorian \u201cPelasgic\u201d stock. Herodotus gives\na dramatic account of one of the contests for the possession of this\nterritory between Spartans and Argives, in the sixth century, which\nmight serve as a pendant for the Roman story of the Horatii and the\nCuriatii. Three hundred Spartans and three hundred Argives, chosen as\nchampions, engaged while the main armies withdrew. Two Argives only\nsurvived, and they, thinking the Spartans all dead, ran off home to\nannounce the victory. One half-dead Spartan, however, Othryades, was\nable to write with his blood his name upon a trophy which he erected of\nArgive armour. Each side claimed the victory, with the result that the\nfull armies engaged and the Spartans conquered. Othryades, however,\nashamed to survive his comrades, killed himself on the field.\n\nNauplia, across the bay from Lerna, is full of suggestion for the\nprehistoric settlement of Argolis, and of associations with modern\nhistory. It has fewer direct points of contact with classic literature.\nNauplius, the founder, according to tradition, was the son of Amymone\nand of Poseidon, who was here able to assert himself against the\npredominance of Hera further inland. Hera, indeed, had the Ach\u00e6an Zeus\nto curb on the north and may have been glad to compromise with Poseidon\nfor a safe-conduct permitting her to make her necessary annual visit to\nthe baths of Kanathos, east of Nauplia. By way of Nauplia, as we have\nseen, the alphabet may have entered Greece, and here the less valuable\nbut costly cargoes of Trojan spoils were landed, bringing one and\nanother hint and pattern of trans-\u00c6gean art. Here Menelaus, detained by\nstorm long after his brother, finally landed:\u2014\n\n \u201cBack to the land has Menelaus come from Troy,\n At Nauplia in harbour moored, while near the beach\n The oar-blades fall, returned from his long wandering.\u201d\n\nNo more beautiful mooring-place for home-coming warriors could be found\nthan the water-front of Nauplia, lying beneath the majestic rock of\nPalamidi, guard of the sea-entrance to the Argolid.\n\nOn the low acropolis of Tiryns recent excavations have uncovered the\n\u201cLower Castle\u201d to the north of the Middle and Upper fortresses already\nknown. Pausanias attributed the founding of Tiryns to members of the\nDanaus family, Acrisius remaining in Argos and Pr\u0153tus taking as his\nshare the Her\u00e6um, Midea, Tiryns, and the coast of Argolis. Acrisius, to\nforestall an oracle, according to which he was to be slain by a\ngrandson, shut up Dana\u00eb, his daughter, in a tower of bronze. Zeus\ndescended to her in a shower of gold, and when Perseus was born Acrisius\ncommitted to the sea mother and child in a chest. The translation by\nJohn Addington Symonds of a fragment from Simonides describing this\nevent fully preserves the pathos for which Simonides was famous:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen in the carven chest,\n The winds that blew and waves in wild unrest\n Smote her with fear, she, not with cheeks unwet,\n Her arms of love round Perseus set,\n And said: \u2018O child, what grief is mine!\n But thou dost slumber, and thy baby breast\n Is sunk in rest,\n Here in the cheerless brass-bound bark,\n Tossed amid starless night and pitchy dark.\n Nor dost thou heed the scudding brine\n Of waves that wash above thy curls so deep,\n Nor the shrill winds that sweep,\u2014\n Lapped in thy purple robe\u2019s embrace,\n Fair little face!\n But if this dread were dreadful too to thee,\n Then wouldst thou lend thy listening ear to me;\n Therefore I cry,\u2014Sleep babe, and sea be still,\n And slumber our unmeasured ill!\u2019\u201d\n\nThe Nereids, charmed with the beauty of the child, guided the chest\nsafely into the net of the fishermen of the little island of Seriphos.\nPerseus, on his return to Argos, went up to Larisa, to which Acrisius\nhad retired, and while displaying his skill with the quoit accidentally\nkilled his grandfather. Thus was fulfilled the doom to avoid which\nAcrisius had shut up Dana\u00eb in the bronze tower at Argos. Perseus,\nashamed at this homicide, and perhaps disliking Argos by reason of his\nmother\u2019s ill-treatment, persuaded the son of Pr\u0153tus to change kingdoms\nwith him, and so he came to live at Tiryns, and from there went up the\nplain and founded Mycen\u00e6 where a mushroom (_mykes_) that he pulled up\nwhen thirsty gave him a draught of water. The greater antiquity of\nTiryns implied in this legend is not inconsistent with arch\u00e6ological\nevidence, and the fable that Pr\u0153tus, the first king of Tiryns, imported\nfrom Lycia seven Cyclopes as builders is a vague record of the foreign\ncontribution made to this ancient centre. The Cyclopean walls in\nArgolis, often alluded to in the fifth century, were at least as\nconspicuous at Tiryns as elsewhere, and this acropolis near the sea\nwould fit the situation in the \u201cTrojan Women\u201d of Euripides where the\ncaptive, lamenting her dead husband deprived of burial rites,\nanticipates with dread the landing at Nauplia:\u2014\n\n \u201cBelov\u00e8d, O my husband dear,\n Thou\u2019rt wandering, a spectral fear,\n Unburied and unlaved.\n But me the hull that cleaves the sea\n Shall bear with spread wings far from thee\n To Argos, nurse of steeds,\n Where Cyclop\u0113an walls rear high\n Their giant stones to flaunt the sky.\u201d\n\nTo-day, in the spring, the hill of Tiryns is covered with slender stalks\nof asphodel, while amidst flowers delicate and shadowy as these, along\nthe pathways of the \u201casphodel meadows\u201d below, steal the ghosts of the\nancient masters of these Cyclopean walls and galleries.\n\nMycen\u00e6 and Tiryns, linked in tradition with the name of Perseus, both\nsent men to Plat\u00e6a to fight against the Persians. In a little more than\na decade thereafter they were both captured and destroyed by Argos,\njealous of their proximity and of their place on the national roll of\nhonour from which she had excluded herself. At the end of another decade\n\u00c6schylus chose to flatter the Argives, just then the allies of Athens,\nby transferring from Mycen\u00e6 to their town the scene of the \u201cAgamemnon.\u201d\n\nIn addition to the plain of Argolis the \u201cAkte,\u201d or peninsula proper, has\nits own history and associations. Leaving Tiryns and Nauplia behind, the\nroad to the inland Epidaurus sanctuary is overlooked from the north by\nthe naked ridge of Mount Arachneum, from which flashed to the palace\nroof at Argos the last relay of flame in the chain of beacons. The\nEpidaurian Asclepieum claimed the honour of the birth of the god of\nhealing, the foundling son of Apollo, who was suckled by a goat. From\nthis parent sanatorium others were established throughout Greece. The\nAthenians even called \u201cEpidauria\u201d one of the days used for the worship\nof Asclepius. In a fragmentary hymn to the god, found at Athens,\nreference is made to the oracle quoted by Pausanias as beginning: \u201cGreat\njoy for mortals all thy birth, Asclepius! Thou, love-child of Koronis\nand my own, wast born in rugged Epidaurus!\u201d In the precinct of this\nfamous health-resort was found a tablet inscribed with a hymn by\nIsyllus, an Epidaurian poet, containing the genealogy of the god\u2019s\nmother and telling how Apollo named the child and called him \u201cDestroyer\nof disease, Health-giver, mighty Gift to men.\u201d Homer\u2019s epithet for\nEpidaurus is \u201cabounding in vines,\u201d and in later days Dionysus was not\nneglected. The auditorium, with the circle of the orchestra still\ncompletely marked by a sunken rim of stone, is the most beautiful and\nthe best preserved of the theatres in Greece, and one may here better\nthan at Athens imagine the _mise-en-sc\u00e8ne_ of the great dramas for which\nthe Argolid furnished so largely the subject matter. The opening scene\nof the \u201cIon\u201d of Plato brings before us the star rhapsodist of his day,\nrelating how he is just back from the Asclepius festival at Epidaurus\nwhere the Epidaurians held a contest, not only in his own specialty of\nreciting Homer but in lyric poetry besides. In Epidaurus were celebrated\nthe usual games, as the well-preserved Stadium testifies and as we know\nfrom more than one passage of Pindar. In the Abaton, now more fully\nexcavated, have been found some of the tablets dedicated by grateful\npatients who had been cured by sleeping in the precinct. Cures of\nblindness, palsy, ulcers, dropsy, internal maladies and external wounds\nare recorded in this medical literature, which Strabo tells us was here\ndisplayed in great abundance, as in the great Sanatorium of Hippocrates\non the island of Cos.\n\nTroezen, far down the eastern side of the peninsula, both geographically\nand by its associations, historical and mythological, turns our thoughts\naway from Dorian Argos and across the Saronic Gulf to Athens. It was\nhere that some of the Athenian women and children found a place of\nrefuge during the Persian invasion. In a colonnade of the market-place\nPausanias saw portrait statues of those refugees whose rank and wealth\npermitted this expression of their gratitude. Here in the harbour the\nGreek fleet assembled before sailing to take its position in the Straits\nof Salamis. The ruined remains of the acropolis are insignificant, but\nour vision, like that of the refugees, may range over the wonderful\nlandscape\u2014Parnassus beyond the Isthmus and gulf, mountains and\nheadlands, and the \u00c6gean set with island jewels\u2014back to the fertile\nplain below, which in modern times has welcomed the beauty of the orange\nand the lemon to replace the vanished glory of the kings and heroes of\nantiquity.\n\nPlutarch, in his \u201cLife of Theseus,\u201d relates the well-known story that\nthe young prince in the dawning vigour of manhood is taken by his mother\nto test his strength on the great rock beneath which lie concealed the\ntokens left by his father to guarantee his royal birth. He lifts the\nrock and takes the sword and the sandals. Emulous of the fame of\nHeracles, he rejects the suggestion of the easy voyage across the\nSaronic Gulf, and by the dangerous land route, where wild beasts and\ngiants must be met and slain, he makes his way past the ill-famed\nScironian rocks to Athens, and claims the paternity of \u00c6geus and becomes\nthe national hero of his father\u2019s land.\n\nIn the \u201cHippolytus\u201d of Euripides we find Theseus, self-exiled from\nAthens for a year, again in Troezen, the realm of Pittheus, his maternal\ngrandfather, who has had the rearing of his son, Hippolytus. The\nhandsome youth has been seen at Eleusis by Ph\u00e6dra, his young stepmother,\nwho then and there falls in love with him. He is, however, a somewhat\nintractable compound of a Jehu and a Joseph, wholly absorbed in\ncolourless devotion to Artemis and inaccessible to the blandishments of\nAphrodite, who uses the unlucky Ph\u00e6dra as a cat\u2019s-paw to punish the\nintrusion of the divine huntress into the sphere of influence rightfully\nbelonging to the goddess of love. Ph\u00e6dra, despairing and mortified at\nher rejection by Hippolytus, very properly hangs herself, but by way of\nsecuring her posthumous justification leaves a note for her husband,\naccusing the innocent Hippolytus. Theseus, in his rage, banishes his son\nand invokes a curse by Poseidon. Faring forth in his chariot Hippolytus,\nthough an excellent whip, is unable to cope with the great bull sent up\nfrom the sea. This so terrifies the horses that their driver is thrown\nupon the rocks and dies, after Artemis, a somewhat tardy _dea ex\nmachina_, has appeared to the now remorseful Theseus and has exonerated\nhis son. This favourite drama, in addition to the admirable drawing of\nPh\u00e6dra\u2019s character, combines the grandeur of the sea as it roars up in a\ntidal wave, envisaging the terrible sea-bull, and the loveliness of the\nTroezenian meadows where Hippolytus, a replica of the young Ion in\nApollo\u2019s temple, presented the vision of human beauty, so dear to Greek\neyes, in its appropriate setting of nature\u2019s lonely charm.[37]\n\nFootnote 37:\n\n See chapter i, p. 26, for hymn to Artemis from the _Hippolytus_.\n\nIn addition to these more superficial attractions there was at Troezen\none of the most popular entrances to the lower world. Here Heracles\nfetched up Cerberus, and by this route Dionysus brought back his mother\nSemele. It is also reasonable to suppose that Theseus, from a sense of\nlocal pride, must have passed down this way when he assisted his friend\nPirith\u00f6us in carrying off Persephone.\n\nTroezen, however, had a rival in this underground traffic. Hermione, the\nhome of the poets Lasus and Kydias, on the south coast of the peninsula,\nclaimed the rather dubious advantage of the closest proximity to Hades.\nStrabo, the geographer, records the boast of the people of Hermione that\non their short line Charon\u2019s obol is not exacted of the passengers, \u201cand\ntherefore,\u201d he adds, \u201cthey do not here put in a fare for the corpse.\u201d\nThe cost of travel to Hermione would have overbalanced for people at a\ndistance the Ferryman\u2019s very moderate fee, or perhaps the route may have\nbeen open for local traffic only. At all events this exception was not\nknown in Greece generally. We find in Lucian\u2019s dialogues that the Cynic\nMenippus, with never an obol to his mouth, takes his chance as a\nstowaway or offers to Charon to work his passage, while the corpse of\nthe poor cobbler Micyllus, also unprovided with the necessary fee,\nheedless, since he is dead already, of the risk of drowning, starts in\nto swim.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n CALAURIA\n Temple of Poseidon. Scene of the death of Demosthenes\n]\n\nClose to the Troezen shore is the island of Calauria, the modern Poros,\nwhere \u201coutrageous Fortune\u201d shot home one of her most virulent arrows. On\na high plateau near the middle of the island are the remains of the\nancient precinct and temple of Poseidon. Here, where he could look over\nto Sunium, the \u201cheadland of Athens,\u201d Demosthenes, a fugitive from the\nwrath of Macedon, waited for his pursuers. Plutarch relates that,\ndiscrediting the promises of safety made to lure him from sanctuary, he\nwithdrew within the temple and, after taking the poison which he had\nsecreted, tottered forth to die outside in order to avoid defiling the\nsacred precinct. The Athenians later set up his statue in bronze, and on\nit was inscribed:\u2014\n\n \u201cHad but thy power, Demosthenes,\n Equalled thy will,\n Macedon ne\u2019er had ruled Hellas,\n Free were she still.\u201d\n\nThe great orator whose powerful will had first, as it was said, won\ncontrol over his unruly tongue and weak voice amidst the roar of the\nsea, and who by his words had controlled the still more turbulent\npopulace, died here with unbroken will under the gray shadow of\nPoseidon\u2019s sanctuary. This was one of the oldest stone temples in\nGreece, probably contemporary with the sixth century temple of the\nsea-god at Posidonia, the modern P\u00e6stum. Already dignified by time its\ncolumns looked down on the fleet that put forth for Salamis from the\nneighbouring Troezen, relying now for the sea-fight on the help of\nPoseidon rather than upon the goddess of the Her\u00e6um who had presided\nover the start for Troy, at the time of the preliminary clash, still\nunforgotten, of Asia with Greece.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVII\n ARCADIA\n\n \u201cThe winding valleys deep-withdrawn and ridg\u00e8d crests of Arcady.\u201d\n PINDAR.\n\n\nOf the temples that once adorned the mainland and the islands of Greece\nonly a brave few now rear columns from the ground. Among these the\nTemple of Apollo at Bass\u00e6 constrains the traveller to penetrate to the\nheart of Arcadia. The rewards of the difficult journey are many, and are\nenhanced by a general knowledge of the whole Arcadian territory, into\nwhich the detached impressions of a brief stay may be sympathetically\nfitted.\n\nHomer says that the Arcadians went to Troy in vessels borrowed from\nAgamemnon, because they had none of their own. The most potent fact in\nthe history and development of Arcadia is its isolated position as the\none inland country (save little Doris) of Greece. Only from the heights\nof the encircling mountains could her people catch sight of distant\nseas. Those whom the sea-spell lured with irresistible magic left their\nhills to seek foreign coasts and enlist in foreign navies. The Arcadians\nhave rightly been called the mercenaries of Greece. Those who stayed at\nhome lived the restricted life of a population cut off from intercourse\nwith the larger world. The entire territory is composed of high land,\nits lowest elevation from the sea being more than two thousand feet. In\nthe east are great plains of swampy ground, and lakes drained by\nunderground channels. Towards the west the land becomes an irregular,\nhilly plateau intersected by rivers. In antiquity superb forests of oaks\nand pines, coverts for many a wild beast, contributed to that general\nphysical wildness which prevented a people untouched by foreign ideas\nfrom uniting in a progressive political life. Even against the\nbackground of Greek individualism their history is conspicuously one of\nseparate towns. And of these towns few attained to any eminence.\n\nArcadia contained the oldest and the youngest of all Greek cities. The\nlatter, Megalopolis, is still in civic existence, and is the terminus of\nthe modern railroad ride from Athens for those who are on their way to\nBass\u00e6. It was the last town founded in free Greece, and its\nestablishment originated in the ardent hope of Epaminondas to unite the\nscattered Arcadians under one government. In the same southwestern\nportion of Arcadia, near the young Megalopolis and easily reached from\nit on horses, lie the ruins of old Lycosura, believed by the Greeks to\nbe the most ancient of all their cities and to have served as a model\nfor later foundations.\n\nBut the chief r\u00f4les in the political life of Arcadia were played by\nMantinea and Tegea, cities lying in the wide eastern plains. Near them\nlay Pallantium, and within the territories of these three cities\nflourishes the modern Tripolis, in its origin an important Turkish\nstronghold and now one of the most prosperous towns of the new nation.\nThe sanguinary history of Tripolis in the War of Independence was worthy\nof the ancient character of Mantinea and Tegea.\n\nAlthough Homer called Mantinea \u201clovely,\u201d her life was one of military\nactivity. Mantineans fought at Thermopyl\u00e6, but it is in the pages of the\nhistorians of later periods, of Thucydides, Xenophon, and Polybius, that\nthey chiefly figure, fighting on their own territory against Sparta or\nwith Sparta against Thebes. This evil coalition resulted in the famous\nbattle of 362 B. C., in which Epaminondas fought for the last time. The\ndescription of the battle forms the close of Xenophon\u2019s treatise on\nGreek History, and the chaotic results of the long-anticipated struggle,\nwhereby \u201cneither party, though each claimed to have conquered, was seen\nto gain any more in land or cities or authority than it possessed before\nthe battle was fought,\u201d are set forth by him with considerable\nvividness. But the momentous fact that in this battle the great Theban\ncommander lost his life he disposes of in a subordinate clause. This\npetty injustice is the more singular because the fatal blow was\ngenerally believed to have been struck by Xenophon\u2019s son, Grylus, who\nreceived a public burial and monument at Mantinea. It is Pausanias who\nadmits us to the last scene of a noble life, enacted among the alien,\nwindswept oaks of Arcadia, on the hill now known as Mytika. \u201cWhen\nEpaminondas received his wound, they carried him out of the line of\nbattle. He was still in life. He suffered much, but with his hand\npressed on his wound he kept looking hard at the fight, and the place\nfrom which he watched it was afterwards named \u2018Scope\u2019 (the Lookout). But\nwhen the combat ended indecisively he took his hand from the wound and\nbreathed his last, and they buried him on the battlefield.\u201d\n\nThe memory of Epaminondas inspired a later hero who not only fought at\nanother battle of Mantinea but was himself a son of the Arcadian soil.\nIn the period of the Ach\u00e6an League, Philop\u0153men, born in Megalopolis, was\neight times chosen to be the general of the united forces, and in 206 B.\nC. he met and conquered at Mantinea the recalcitrant Spartans who had\nrefused to join the league. The description of this battle is given to\nus by Polybius, his younger fellow townsman, who at the hero\u2019s death was\nthe youth selected to bear his ashes to the tomb. Because all such\nvictories in the cause of freedom were but fitful gleams of the fire\nwhose flame had been quenched at Ch\u00e6ronea, it is the more necessary to\ngive heed to a character like Philop\u0153men, from the day of whose death,\nPausanias sadly remarks, Greece ceased to be the mother of the brave. He\ncloses the long line of Greeks who led their peoples to liberty. At one\nof the Olympic festivals the whole audience in the theatre rose to greet\nThemistocles, who had saved Greece from Persia. And centuries later a\nsimilar tribute was paid to Philop\u0153men. Not long after his victory over\nthe Spartans it chanced that he was present at the competition of the\nminstrels at the Nemean Games. \u201cPylades, a native of Megalopolis, and\nthe most famous minstrel of his time, who had gained a Pythian victory,\nwas singing an air of Timotheus, the Milesian, called \u2018The Persians.\u2019\nScarcely had he struck up the song, \u2018The glorious crown of freedom who\ngiveth to Greece,\u2019 when all the people turned and looked at Philop\u0153men,\nand with clapping of hands signified that the song referred to him.\u201d\n\nFew men in history are more interesting than Philop\u0153men. From youth to a\nhale old age he lived the life of his choice, combining rugged and\nfearless sincerity with keen military knowledge, and uniting in an\nunusual degree the reckless impulsiveness of a freebooter with the\npatient power of a skilful general. When one term of his generalship had\nexpired, he hurried over to Crete to help in a war which in no way\nconcerned him; but his countrymen, accustomed to depend upon his\nability, summoned him back, and he arrived on the mainland just in time\nto find that the Romans had fitted out a fleet against Sparta, and to\nplunge into the fray. Being no sailor, however, he unwittingly embarked\nin a leaky galley, which reminded the Romans and their allies (in those\ndays every man had read his classics at school) of the verses in the\nCatalogue in which Homer speaks of the Arcadians as ignorant of the sea.\nAfter eight successful generalships and many brilliant exploits, when he\nwas more than seventy years old, Philop\u0153men was captured and poisoned by\nthe Messenians. In him Arcadia lost her greatest son, in whom had lived\nher own wildness and her own patience, her own flaming spirit and her\nown honourable austerity. According to Polybius, he had harboured no\nillusions about the future of his country and of Hellas, but had chosen\nto offer his life, while it lasted, as a bulwark against the inevitable.\n\u201cI know full well,\u201d he said in answer to Arist\u00e6nus\u2019s criticism of his\npolicy of resisting all unjust encroachments from Rome, \u201cthat there will\nhereafter come a time when the Greeks will have to yield obedience under\ncompulsion to every order issued to them. But would one wish to see this\ntime come as quickly as possible or, on the contrary, postponed as late\nas possible? Methinks as late as possible! In this, then, the policy of\nArist\u00e6nus differs from my own. He is eager to see the inevitable come as\nquickly as possible and he helps it on to the best of his ability,\nwhereas I to the best of my power resist and thrust it back.\u201d One false\nhope, according to Pausanias, he did treasure: \u201cHe would fain have\nmodelled his life on the pattern set by the character and deeds of\nEpaminondas, but could not equal him in all things, for while the temper\nof Epaminondas was very gentle, that of the Arcadian was passionate.\u201d\n\nAlthough Arcadia\u2019s part in the Persian wars was not heroic, Tegea, like\nMantinea, proved her bravery at Thermopyl\u00e6, and at Plat\u00e6a, according to\nHerodotus, her citizens struggled with the Athenians for the foremost\npost in the battle. Later wars, civil and foreign, kept her busy through\nseveral centuries. But the arts of peace also flourished within her\nwalls, and Tegea must be honoured for having erected one of the most\ndistinguished temples not only of the Peloponnesus but of all Greece.\nThis was the Temple of Athena Alea, built by Scopas early in the fourth\ncentury. Only a few traces are left of its mingled Doric, Ionic, and\nCorinthian columns. More important are the fragments preserved in the\nNational Museum at Athens of sculptures from the hand of Scopas himself,\nportraying the Calydonian boar-hunt, the heroine of which was the\nArcadian maiden Atalanta. The same Museum contains marble reliefs from\nMantinea, coming probably from the time, if not the workshop, of\nPraxiteles, and very interesting sculptures of disputed date from old\nLycosura. The Arcadians, whose native gift was music, did not lag behind\nthe rest of the Greeks in their appreciation of the plastic arts.\n\nPallantium was not important in Arcadian history, but was reverenced by\nthe Romans as the home of Evander, whose enterprizing colonization of\nthe Palatine Hill was immortalized by Virgil. In filial remembrance of\nthe adventurer the town was rebuilt by Antoninus Pius.\n\nTo the north of the great plain of Mantinea and Tegea lay another marshy\nplain containing three other important cities, Orchomenus, Pheneus, and\nStymphalus. But the train from Athens sweeps far toward the south, and\nruined cities slip out of mind among the \u201cwinding valleys deep-withdrawn\nand ridg\u00e8d crests of Arcady.\u201d The real significance of Arcadia lay in\nits landscape rather than in its towns. If the country contributed few\nlarge centres and few splendid deeds to Greek history, it offered its\nmountains and streams to be peopled by the divine progeny of Greek\nimagination. Pan himself was born amid the \u201cwind-tossed mountain trees\nof steep Cyllene,\u201d and from many another Arcadian hillside thereafter\nhis pipes reached the ears of shepherds tending their flocks in upland\npastures. Artemis, making her pastime the chase of boars and swift deer,\nfairer than the fair wild wood-nymphs attending her, took especial\npleasure in the ridges of Erymanthus and became the reverently\nworshipped Maiden of the Arcadian country.\n\nLater literature in more than one language created a visionary Arcadia\nof uninterrupted pastoral charm and ease, a refuge for the weary, an\nearthly dream of \u201cunlaborious life.\u201d The fashion began in Greek itself\nin the artificial period of Alexandrian civilization when men were sated\nwith city life and began to write chamber poetry about the beauties of\nnature. Arcadia, with its still unspoiled hills and woods and rivers,\nbecame a convenient setting for the delicate and charming fancies of\nlitterateurs. But in the real Arcadia \u201cnature\u201d was a serious force to be\nreckoned with. The frowning mountains, wild ravines, and stretches of\nbarren soil; the gusty storms of winter and the close heat of summer;\nthe difficulties of communication between village and village, and the\nremoteness from the great highway of the sea, all combined to make\nArcadian life rude and elemental. Often the inhabitants were forced to a\nhand to hand struggle with poverty. Sometimes they gave way, as\nHerodotus indicates when he says that \u201csome men from Arcadia who were in\nneed of a livelihood and wanted employment\u201d deserted to the Persians.\nBut oftener the Arcadians fought it out at home, tilling what soil they\ncould, and patiently tending herds and flocks.\n\nSuch a people, busy with the primitive needs of life, found in Pan and\nArtemis saviours and graciously intimate friends rather than fanciful\npresences with which to adorn pastoral poetry. Arcadia was, indeed, a\nvery religious country, teeming both in its cities and on its lonelier\nhillsides with sanctuaries to many of the Olympian hierarchy, and\nespecially to a strange, elusive divinity, known as the \u201cMistress.\u201d But\nthe divinities of life in the open most appealed to them. It is\nindicative of an important and not always recognized element in Greek\ncharacter that some of the most lovely fancies of Greek mythology should\nhave taken root where life was hard. The austerity of work and poverty\nwas never denied by the clear-eyed Greeks. But instead of seeking, like\nthe Celts, to escape from it into dreams of unreal and fairer worlds,\nthey balanced against it the palpable beauty of this world and found\nmuch room for joy and laughter.\n\nPan\u2019s birth in Arcadia was third in an interesting series of events. The\nfirst was the birth of Zeus himself on Mount Lyc\u00e6us, the isolated\nmountain peak which rises northwest of Megalopolis. It is, however, no\nwidespread Hellenic tradition which gave to the king of the gods an\nArcadian birthplace. Of all the places that claimed that honour, perhaps\nCrete most impressed herself upon the Greek world at large. But the\nlegend of Arcadia at least resulted in bestowing upon the ruler of\nOlympus the well-known epithet \u201cLyc\u00e6an,\u201d and in establishing on the\nsummit of the mountain a sanctuary involving sacrifices and festivals.\nHuman sacrifices continued here astonishingly long, and the savagery of\nthe early Arcadians left traces also in tales of werewolves roaming\namong the desert places of the mountain.\n\nA much more engaging story, especially when it is clothed in Ionic mirth\nand grace, brought Zeus as a lover to another mountain peak in Arcadia\nand pictured the second divine birth in the country. The Homeric Hymn to\nHermes, whether it is read in the original or in Shelley\u2019s inimitable\ntranslation, is alive with that witty and audacious fancy which\nfurnished to naughty mortals delightful brothers among the gods. On\nMount Cyllene, towering above the other mountains of Arcadia and\nbulwarking the northeastern portion of the country, dwelt Maia, a\nfair-tressed nymph. Zeus loved her and\u2014\n\n \u201cShe gave to light a babe all babes excelling,\n A schemer subtle beyond all belief,\n A shepherd of thin dreams, a cow-stealing,\n A night-watching, and door-waylaying thief.\u201d\n\nThe precocity of the divine infant is the theme of the story. He is not\nfour days old when he starts for Thessaly to steal the cattle of Apollo.\nBut as he crosses the threshold of his mother\u2019s cave he meets a tortoise\ncreeping along and feeding on the rich grass, a sight which moves him to\nlaughter and gives him a fresh idea. This is no less than the fashioning\nof the lyre out of the tortoise\u2019s shell:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd through the tortoise\u2019s hard stony skin\n At proper distances small holes he made,\n And fastened the cut stems of reeds within,\n And with a piece of leather overlaid\n The open space and fixed the cubits in,\n Fitting the bridge to both, and stretched o\u2019er all\n Symphonious chords of sheep-gut rhythmical.\n\n \u201cWhen he had wrought the lovely instrument,\n He tried the chords, and made division meet\n Preluding with the plectrum, and there went\n Up from beneath his hand a tumult sweet\n Of mighty sounds, and from his lips he sent\n A strain of unpremeditated wit,\n Joyous and wild and wanton\u2014such you may\n Hear among revellers on a holiday.\u201d\n\nWhen he has sung enough and is \u201cseized with a sudden fancy for fresh\nmeat,\u201d he hurries off to the shadowed hills of Pieria and steals fifty\nof the lowing kine which are feeding there on flowering, unmown meadows.\nCunningly reversing their tracks, and making for himself sandals of\ntwigs and leaves that will not betray him, he drives the cattle to the\nriver Alpheus in Arcadia, by whose banks they munch lotus and\nmarsh-marigold. He kills and cooks with lusty appetite, in the serene\nmoonshine, and then at dawn, through a silence broken by no step of god\nor man nor bark of dog, he goes back to the crests of Cyllene and enters\nthe cave, through the hole of the bolt,\u2014\n\n \u201cLike a thin mist or an autumnal blast.\u201d\n\nMeantime Apollo, the Far-darter, has been tracking him from the\nThessalian meadows. To the fragrant Cyllenian hill he comes where sheep\nare peacefully grazing, and finds the little thief wrapped once more in\nswaddling bands, feet, head and hands curled into a small space,\ntortoise shell clasped under his baby arm.\n\n \u201cLatona\u2019s offspring, after having sought\n His herds in every corner, thus did greet\n Great Hermes: \u2018Little cradled rogue, declare,\n Of my illustrious heifers, where they are!\u2019\n\n . . . . . . .\n\n \u201cTo whom thus Hermes slyly answered: \u2018Son\n Of great Latona, what speech is this!\n Why come you here to ask me what is done\n With the wild oxen which it seems you miss?\n I have not seen them, nor from any one\n Have heard a word of the whole business;\n If you should promise an immense reward,\n I could not tell more than you now have heard.\n\n \u201cAn ox-stealer should be both tall and strong,\n And I am but a little new-born thing,\n Who yet, at least, can think of nothing wrong.\n My business is to suck, and sleep, and fling\n The cradle-clothes about me all day long,\u2014\n Or, half asleep, hear my sweet mother sing,\n And to be washed in water clean and warm,\n And hushed and kissed and kept secure from harm.\u2019\u201d\n\nApollo is not deceived, but is forced to laughter. Finally they agree to\nput the case before Zeus on Olympus. There, after Apollo\u2019s attack,\nHermes makes a lying and witty defence, at which his immoral and\nomnipotent father laughs aloud. Both sons are sent off to find the kine,\nand on the way the Cyllenian shows the Far-darter his tortoise-lyre and\nentrances him with its music:\u2014\n\n \u201cunconquerable\n Up from beneath his hand in circling flight\n The gathering music rose\u2014and sweet as Love\n The penetrating notes did live and move\n\n \u201cWithin the heart of great Apollo. He\n Listened with all his soul and laughed for pleasure.\u201d\n\nHermes suggests an exchange, promising the tortoise shell to Apollo, if\nhe may have in return the glittering lash and drive the herd. Thus the\nlyre, invented in Arcadia, passed to the rightful lord of music and to\nan universal sovereignty.\n\nThe two brothers became fast friends and sealed their affection on snowy\nOlympus by mutual promises. The older brother reserves for himself the\nawful gift of prophecy, but in return for the lyre gives to the younger\nlordship over the twisted-horned cattle and horses and toiling mules,\nover the burning eyes of lions, and white-tusked boars and dogs and\nsheep, and, most important of all, makes him herald to lead the dead to\nHades.\n\nAlmost imperceptibly, toward the close of the hymn, the two gods take on\nsomething of the stateliness which clothes them in more serious poetry.\nBut the rollicking infant and his half-angry, half-amused victim must be\nremembered to complete the idea of a religion which left a definite\nplace for humour. While the gravely beautiful Hermes which adorned the\ntemple of Hera at Olympia revealed, in perfect marble, a serious and\nnoble conception of divinity, it may well be that among the many wooden\nor stone statues of the god which stood in orchard closes, by cool\nwayside springs, and in crossways near the gray seashore, more than one\nrecalled his lovable and mischievous boyhood. Certainly it is tempting\nto imagine the infant trickster in the Hermes of the Anthology who\nguarded pleasant playgrounds and to whom boys offered marjoram and\nhyacinth and fresh garlands of violets.\n\nHermes would seem to have frequently returned to his early Arcadian\nhome, and during one of these visits he fell in love with the daughter\nof Dryops, and for her sweet sake became thrall of a mortal man and\nshepherded the fleecy sheep. The fruit of his union with the shepherd\u2019s\ndaughter was Pan, and another Homeric hymn describes his birth:\u2014\n\n \u201cand she in the palace\n Brought forth a son that was dear unto Hermes but strange to her seeing,\n Goat-footed, two-horn\u00e8d, noise-loving, taking his pleasure in laughter.\n\n Fleeing she darted away and her man-child the mother abandoned\n For that she feared at the sight of his visage unlovely, full-bearded.\n Forthwith, however, the luck-bringer, Hermes, accepted the infant.\n Took him and held in his hand and the god had delight without measure.\n Lightly he went with the boy to the homes of the gods ever-living,\n Wrapping him well in the skins of the wild hare that runs on the\n mountains,\n There took his seat near to Zeus and the others, the gods ever-living,\n Showed them the boy as his own and they in their hearts were delighted,\n All the immortals, but chiefly the revelling god, Dionysus.\n Pan then they called him because to the Pantheon all he gave joyance.\u201d\n\nSuch was the pleasant d\u00e9but of the god who was to make glad the hearts\nof men also, bringing laughter into a world of tears, and inspiring amid\nthe difficulties and the ennui of civilization a wholesome passion for\nlife in the open air. Lord was he of every snowy crest and mountain peak\nand rocky path. Soft meadows where crocuses and fragrant hyacinths\nnestled in the grass knew his presence. By still pools within the green\nwoods he would sit contentedly, or lofty crags would tempt his lively\nfeet to adventurous climbing. Over the high white hills he would range\nin the pursuit of wild beasts. And in the evening he would sit on some\njutting rock or by the dusky water of a wayside spring and play on his\nreeds such melodies of honeyed sweetness as even the nightingale\u2019s\nspring song could not surpass. With him the mountain nymphs, the shrill\nsingers, went wandering with light feet, and Echo moaned along the\nmountain crest. Many a lonely shepherd among the hills or tired\nhusbandman in the meadows must have desired to keep the god within his\nhearing. A broken fragment in the Greek Anthology, embedded among frigid\nByzantine conceits, but springing one knows not out of what fresher age,\nseems instinct with such prayers as theirs:\u2014\n\n \u201cWith lips along thy reed pipe straying,\n Dear Pan, abide,\n For in the sunny uplands playing\n Doth Echo hide.\u201d\n\nAlthough Pan dwelt all over Hellas, his Arcadian birth was not disputed,\nand more than one Arcadian mountain was especially distinguished by his\npresence. Among the Nomian hills, to the south of Lyc\u00e6us, he invented\nthe music of his pipes. Mount M\u00e6nalus, near Tripolis, he often visited,\nand on Mount Parthenius he requested recognition at Athens. Over this\nmountain, named for virginal Artemis, ran one of the regular passes from\nthe Argolis into Arcadia, a route followed to-day by the train from\nAthens to Tripolis. The swift Athenian courier was passing this way when\nhe was delayed by the god.\n\nIn the northwestern corner of Arcadia, skirting Ach\u00e6a and Elis, rises\nanother well-known mountain, Erymanthus, the favourite hunting ground of\nArtemis, who as Leader, Saviour, and Fairest received countless shrines\nfrom the Arcadians. The southern and lower continuation of Mount\nErymanthus was known as Mount Pholo\u00eb, to which, as we know from the\n\u201cAnabasis,\u201d Xenophon and his sons and their guests used to come from\nElis for the pleasures of the chase. Its beautiful woodlands were fabled\nto be one of the homes of the Centaurs, whose strange dual nature linked\nthe world of men to the world of beasts. Heracles was entertained by\nthem when, as one of his labours, he came to hunt the wild boar in the\nErymanthian thickets.\n\nThe forests which spread over the plains and darkened the hills of\nArcadia were filled with wild boars and bears and deer. The bear\nespecially gave rise to many legends. The Great Bear in the heavens was\nonce an Arcadian maiden, Callisto, whom jealous Hera turned into a bear\nand whom Artemis, as a favour to her, shot down. But Zeus retransformed\nthe maiden into shining stars, the guides of mariners before and since\nthe night when Odysseus \u201ckept looking ever at the Pleiades and at Bo\u00f6tes\nsetting slow and at the Bear, by surname called the Wain.\u201d Callisto\u2019s\nson was Arcas, or Bear, and he first taught the forest dwellers, in the\ncountry that was to inherit his name, how to raise corn and bake bread.\nThe great oak woods of Arcadia were responsible for the epithet\n\u201cacorn-eating,\u201d which the riddle-loving priestess of Delphi often\napplied to the inhabitants. In the time of Pausanias the Arcadian\nforests were still conspicuous in all parts of the country. Driven\ngradually from the plain to the mountains they are even there at last\nyielding to decay.\n\nBut the waters of Arcadia are as unchanged as the hills. Both the\nAlpheus and the Eurotas rise within its borders, the former turning\nwestward, as of old, to its haunts at Olympia, the latter winding to the\nsouth to delight a new Sparta with its gleaming water and ripple-washed\nreeds. And the Ladon, the northern branch of the Alpheus, flows on with\nthe impetuous charm and beautiful colour which gave it the reputation of\nbeing the loveliest river in Greece. From out of the range of the\nErymanthian hills springs the river Erymanthus, which was especially\nsacred to Pan, as if its reeds above all others could be shaped into\ntuneful pipes. In the river Gortys the nymphs washed the new-born Zeus.\nAnd by the banks of the Aroanius, which flows down a northern valley to\njoin the Ladon, Pausanias, in enviable leisure, awaited Arcadian music.\n\u201cAmongst the fish in the Aroanius,\u201d he tells us, \u201care the so-called\nspotted fish. They say that these spotted fish sing like a thrush. I saw\nthem after they had been caught, but I did not hear them utter a sound,\nthough I tarried by the river till sunset, when they were said to sing\nmost.\u201d\n\nA group of renowned Arcadian waters may be reached in one northward\nexcursion of three days from Tripolis. The first of these is the Lake of\nPheneus, as famous for its strangeness as for its loveliness. It is so\nsurrounded by hills that no stream can escape from it above ground, and\nthe water issues only by two katavothras. The condition of these\nsubterranean channels determines whether the great mountain basin of the\nPheneus is a fertile plain or a broad lake. In ancient times and in our\nown the changes have succeeded each other with the fascination of\nmystery. Pausanias found a plain, and knew the lake only by tradition.\nFrom his day until the beginning of the nineteenth century there were no\nrecords. But with the ensuing careful descriptions of geographers and\ntravellers come baffling alternations of a \u201cswampy plain covered with\nfields of wheat or barley\u201d and a \u201cwide expanse of still water deep among\nthe hills, reflecting black pine woods, gray crags, and sky now crimson\nwith sunset.\u201d\n\nTo the east of Pheneus and separated from it only by a mountain ridge\nthe Lake of Stymphalus is sunk in placid beauty within towering hills.\nIt was the scene of the fifth labour of Heracles, who killed the\nmonstrous man-eating birds that haunted it. They typified, probably, the\npestilence which would arise whenever the underground channel that\nserved as an outlet for the lake became stopped. Heracles was the\nmaster-engineer of mythological times. Later engineers also experimented\nwith the water which flows into the Stymphalian Lake from the\nsurrounding mountains and especially from Cyllene. Its purity and\nabundance led Hadrian to have a supply of it carried by an aqueduct to\nCorinth. And to-day the Athenians are contemplating importing it into\ntheir arid city.\n\nFrom the prosperous village of Solos vigorous and patient pedestrians\nmay reach the most famous of all the waters of Arcadia, and the most\ncharacteristic also of a country in which gentle charms, however real,\nare always subsidiary to a primitive wildness. These waters are the\nFalls of the Styx, as familiar in English as in Greek literature. They\ndescend over a perpendicular cliff amid scenery which some consider\ngrander and more imposing than that at Delphi. The surroundings so\nimpressed themselves on the sensitive Greek imagination that from the\ntime of Homer the Styx was one of the dread rivers of death and the\nlower world, fit companion-piece to nether darkness and the monstrous\nhound of hell, fit invocation even for gods when on their oath. \u201cLet\nearth be witness unto this and heaven broad and yon down-flowing water\nof the Styx, which is the oath the greatest and most terrible among the\nblessed gods,\u201d the immortals, from Zeus to Calypso, are ever exclaiming.\nHesiod contributed the fancy that Iris, in a vessel of gold, brought\nwater from the Styx to Olympus, so that the gods might swear by its\nmaterial presence. The spray of the falls is said to take on at midday\nthe lovely colors of the rainbow, which had its divine personification\nin the fair messenger of the gods. And it has also been pointed out that\nHesiod, in addition to describing accurately the Styx as trickling down\nfrom a high and steep rock, by a fine figure suggests a view in winter\nwhen huge icicles form over the cliff and the clouds settle down so\nclosely upon its summit that the water looks as if it were descending\nstraight from the sky. The Styx, he says, dwelt in \u201cglorious chambers,\nvaulted with long rocks, and round about a colonnade of silver pillars\nreared against the sky.\u201d To him also as to Homer the dweller in this\nicicled palace was \u201cterrible, hated by all the immortals.\u201d\n\nThe traveller who must sacrifice the lakes and rivers of Arcadia to\nseeing the temple of Apollo comes directly by train from Athens to\nMegalopolis in the great south-western plain. Here he is detained only\nby a fourth century theatre and other more fragmentary remains of the\nancient city before turning northward by carriage or horse.\n\nIf he is obliged to ride for several hours and meet a carriage at\nKaryt\u00e6na, the grim guardian of the mountainous road to Andritsena, where\nhe is to spend the night, he will have cause to be thankful for an\nexperience that has put him on more familiar terms with rude Arcadia,\nand has made him more sensitive to the change from monotonous lowland to\nvast, solitary mountains and deep ravines. The town of Karyt\u00e6na lies on\nthe slopes of one of the low hills that form the northern boundary of\nthe plain of Megalopolis. Above it, on the hill\u2019s summit, loom the ruins\nof an old Frankish castle, once the seat of a barony which contributed\nmany a romantic story to the history of the Peloponnesus in the Middle\nAges. Rarely in Greece is the harmony of historical impression\ninterrupted. But here, like highwaymen to challenge intellectual\nsecurity, feudalism and the medi\u00e6val world stalk out upon the unwary.\nThe spectacle is unique. Karyt\u00e6na stands at the point where the flat\nplain startlingly breaks into almost terrifying mountains. Mount Lyc\u00e6us\ntowers on the left, and all around serrated heights rise grandly above\nthe castle, without detracting from its own defiant dignity. Past the\nfoot of the hill flows, on its way to Elis, the Alpheus, here spanned by\na striking bridge of six arches, bearing a Frankish inscription. The\nruins of the old barony of Geoffrey de Villehardouin equal any feudal\nremains in Europe in their reminiscent suggestiveness of the romantic\nand violent life of the Middle Ages. But even while the traveller fears\nthat he will become confused among memories of the Frankish dukes and\nprinces of the Peloponnesus, of donjons and keeps, of chivalry and\nknighthood, of all the insignia and the emotions and the ideals which\nmake the thirteenth century A. D. seem more remote from us than the\nfifth century B. C., he finds himself restrained and pacified. Whatever\nGreece lays her hands upon seems to lose its ephemeral or unrelated\ncharacter and to take its place, individual, to be sure, but tributary\nin an harmonious whole. The ruined medi\u00e6val castle fits into the\nsurrounding landscape as no disturbing factor, but rather as an integral\npart of what had helped also to shape the ancient life of Arcadia into\nits distinguishing forms. The age when the autochthonous Arcadians were\nresisting the inroads of Sparta and the age when the Slavic inhabitants\nwere yielding to the attacks of the irresistible Franks seem to have had\na common parentage in physical conditions. And the brawling stream of\nthe Alpheus below seems to make the jousts and the romances of Geoffrey\nde Karytena\u2019s court as much their own as were the festivals of Zeus and\nthe love affairs of Pan and the nymphs.\n\nThe mountains into which the carriage turns from the six-arched bridge\nare threaded by a long road which, despite its smoothness and safety,\nruns near enough to the tops of precipices and to the sight of noisy\ntorrents in the gloomy ravines below to engender a mood of Arcadian\nwildness. If this mountain region is reached in time, travellers will\nbecome spectators of the charming scenes which are enacted each evening\nover the hills of Greece when the bleating flocks of sheep and goats\ncome home to their folds. Sappho saw them in hilly Lesbos:\u2014\n\n \u201cHesperus, all things thou bringest that brightness of morning had\n scattered,\n Bringest the lamb and the kid, and the child bringest home to his\n mother.\u201d\n\nArcadia is still \u201crich in flocks\u201d and the \u201cmother of sheep,\u201d and to meet\nand greet her shepherds as they turn home from the mountain pastures\nrestores the world of Greek poetry. But if Karyt\u00e6na is scarcely rounded\nbefore \u201cthe sun sets and all the ways are darkened,\u201d then pastoral\nidylls make way for Arcadia\u2019s magnificent solitariness. The medi\u00e6val\ncastle bravely lifts its head above the lonely country, while red clouds\nstretch like tongues of flame over the mountains and the setting sun\nturns into molten gold. Suddenly, perhaps, amid the awful silence of\npurple crags and burning sky, one sign of life asserts itself. A little\nkid is stumbling, lost and dreary, in a patch of green wheat which had\nenticed it from its mother. Doubtless before the night is over one tired\nshepherd who has safely enfolded his ninety and nine will climb the\nsteeps again to find the prodigal. But travellers must pass on in the\neffort to reach Andritsena before midnight. The sky pales and cools into\nnight, and stars of singular brilliance emerge, using the absence of the\nfair moon to \u201cshow their bright faces to men.\u201d As one drives hour after\nhour through the starlit solitude, while \u201cfrom heaven breaketh open the\nether infinite,\u201d all geographical and temporal limitations seem done\naway with, and modernity and antiquity meet within the heart of nature.\nBut finally, as the road from time to time curves outward, the lights of\nhuman habitations begin to twinkle. Andritsena lifts her little evening\nbeacons on a mountain-side to offer shelter and food to pilgrims of the\nnight. The village rivals Arachova in the charm of its situation, with\nits outlook over the verdant hills of the Alpheus valley to the distant\npale blue heights of Erymanthus in the north. Vineyards and mountain\nstreams and trees add their quota. Those who have stayed several days in\nthe town in bright weather, or who have been snowed in, as travellers\nmay easily be as late as April, report many attractions out of doors,\nand many hospitable entertainments within the peasant houses. Even those\nwhose impressions are gained from one night\u2019s lodging may forget\nphysical hardships in the discovery of a Greek inheritance. A girl,\nreproved for stroking the embroidered collar of a guest, says\nexplanatorily, \u201cbut it is so pretty,\u201d even as the old men on the wall at\nTroy said of Helen.\n\nBeds of unyielding boards are exchanged before dawn for hard wooden\nsaddles. The temple of Bass\u00e6 lies two hours away, and those who wish to\nsee it without undue haste and yet return to Megalopolis before\nnight-fall must begin their ride while the stars are still alight.\n\nBass\u00e6, or The Glens, should be thought of in connection with Phigalia,\nalthough probably only those who take the long horseback ride to or from\nOlympia will see the remains of this ancient city, which, measuring by\nthe time involved, lies as far beyond Bass\u00e6 as Bass\u00e6 is beyond\nAndritsena. The surrounding country fell within its territory, but the\ncity itself stood on \u201chigh and mostly precipitous ground,\u201d bounded on\nthe south by the deep gorge of the winding Neda, and partially encircled\non the other sides by high mountains. Here where the air was\ninvigorating and all healthful conditions prevailed it was natural that\nApollo should be worshipped as the Succourer (Epikourios). In the fifth\ncentury the Phigalians were so impressed by reports of the new Parthenon\nin Athens that they determined to erect by popular subscriptions a new\ntemple to their chief divinity and to ask Ictinus, the Parthenon\u2019s\narchitect, to build it for them. Bass\u00e6, where already a more primitive\nshrine existed, was the place chosen, and thither from Andritsena in the\ncool dawn modern pilgrims are taken by their peasant guides. In spite of\nthe promise of the stars, perhaps the day breaks slowly, dark masses of\nclouds impeding the progress of the sun. For an hour and a half the\nhorses make their way along moderate heights, scrambling up small hills\nand clattering noisily down very rocky defiles. The waysides, in March,\nare bright with irises, violets, hyacinths, and white and purple\ncrocuses. Then the wildness of the country begins to increase, and\nculminates in the stony slope of a forbidding hill. In half an hour this\nis scaled by the horses, and becomes a mount of vision. In unusual\npanoramic grandeur, mountains lift their nearer or more distant peaks.\nOn the east are the barren hills that form the western spurs of Mount\nLyc\u00e6us. Farther to the south, beyond the valley of the Neda, are the\nmore thickly wooded slopes of the Nomian hills, and beyond them are seen\nthe snowy summits of the range of Taygetus. To the north Erymanthus and\nCyllene show their crests. And directly in front, far to the south,\nMount Ithome, rising out of the Messenian plain, proudly breaks the\nhorizon line. Nor is the sea wholly wanting, for along the southwestern\nhorizon, as if flowing into the sky itself, stretches a shining length\nof the Ionian waters.\n\nPerhaps from this hill Ictinus looked down upon the place assigned to\nhim by the Phigalians. Even then the situation must have seemed\nimpressively secluded. Now, certainly, on descending the easy slope, a\nmodern is almost overwhelmed, as if by the appearance of a god laying\nclaim to nature\u2019s secrets, by the sudden sight of a majestic Doric\nperistyle. The temple is built on a narrow plateau on the southern side\nof a hill called Cotilius by the ancients. Ictinus\u2019s first approach must\nhave been from Phigalia (where he would have talked with the municipal\nauthorities) up the valley of the Neda, over picturesque and well-wooded\nhills and dales. But he must have studied the situation from all\npossible points of vantage. Perhaps for him, too, some special\nrevelation came when out of dark and threatening clouds the sun, at last\ndivinely swift, cleft the darkness, and he saw how effectively massive\ncolumns of gray limestone would be illumined by Apollo\u2019s radiant shafts.\nProbably the architect\u2019s taste and the Phigalians\u2019 desire united to\nchoose as the material of the temple the native rock that could be\nquarried in the neighbourhood. Marble was imported for the capitals of\nthe inner pillars, for the ceilings of the north and south porticoes,\nfor the roof tiles and for the sculptured frieze which now honours the\nBritish Museum. The columns of the peristyle and the architrave, barren\nof adornment, are singularly noble. They look as if they had sprung from\nthe rocks about them and belonged more to the mountains overshadowing\nthem than to men. Indeed, for many centuries, men forgot the existence\nof the temple. Pausanias, in his day, six hundred years after its\nbuilding, could still describe it as surpassing all the temples in the\nPeloponnesus, save the one at Tegea built a hundred years later, for the\nbeauty of its stone and the symmetry of its proportions. But in time\nearthquakes and iconoclasm wrought their deadly work, and through the\nMiddle Ages and the Renaissance the remaining ruins were known only to\nshepherds. The temple was rediscovered in the eighteenth century, but\nnot until the present time were any efforts made to re\u00ebrect some of the\ninterior portions from the fragments lying on the ground. In the wake of\nthe arch\u00e6ologist follows the tourist, and now any one who will may\nintrude upon Apollo\u2019s long solitude.\n\nUnlike other temples erected to the gods, whom \u00c6schylus describes as\n\u201cfacing the dawn\u201d and flashing back to the worshippers from their\n\u201cgleaming eyes\u201d the sun\u2019s early rays, the temple at Bass\u00e6 lay from north\nto south instead of from east to west. But this was due only to the\ncharacter of the situation and the exigencies of the soil. Long before\nIctinus\u2019s day a primitive shrine had existed facing the east in the\nusual manner. And the new temple seems to have had a special door built\nin its cella in order that the main statue of Apollo, facing the rising\nsun, might still be approached from the side of dawn. The old statue,\nlike the old shrine, was supplanted by a finer one. Later the great\nbronze Apollo was sent to adorn Megalopolis. But when Ictinus lived it\nmay well have formed the centre of his noble architectural design, an\nincarnation of the ideal of physical and of spiritual wholeness realized\nthrough beauty.\n\nOne further fact about the Temple in the Glens has been emphasized by\nthe great topographer Leake: \u201cThat which forms, on reflection, the most\nstriking circumstance of all is the nature of the surrounding country,\ncapable of producing little else than pasture for cattle and offering no\nconveniences for the display of commercial industry either by sea or\nland. If it excites our astonishment that the inhabitants of such a\ndistrict should have had the refinement to delight in works of this\nkind, it is still more wonderful that they should have had the means to\nexecute them. This can only be accounted for by what Horace says of the\nearly Romans:\u2014\n\n \u2018Privatus illis census erat brevis,\n Commune magnum.\u2019\n\nThis is the true secret of national power, which cannot be equally\neffective in an age of selfish luxury.\u201d\n\nBut it must also be pointed out that although the Phigalians had taste\nand patriotism, no architect or artist rose among them to shape their\nstone. Ictinus and his fellow artists must come from Athens worthily to\nincarnate their desires. So a generation earlier they had been obliged\nto persuade Onatas, the master of the \u00c6ginetan school of sculpture, to\ncarve for them a statue of Demeter. Nor were the Phigalians less skilled\nthan other Arcadians. Scopas had to come from Paros to build the temple\nto Athena at Tegea. And it was foreign poets who turned the legends of\nCyllenian Hermes and Pan into literature, and later enshrined in\npastoral verse the tossing mountain forests and the cool rivers of\nArcady.\n\nThis was Arcadia\u2019s destiny, to offer the raw material of her domain to\nthe shaping hand of more gifted races. Her greatest son was a soldier.\nHer own deeds were deeds of blood and strife, her own life was one of\nwork and poverty. But because poets and artists of other blood wrought\nfor her, her name and her inherent beauty have become forever domiciled\nin our own literature, even in our daily speech and commoner affections.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVIII\n OLYMPIA\n\n \u201cWhat time the mid-month moon in golden car flamed back her\n light and lit the eye of Evening full, pure judgment of Great\n Games did Heracles ordain and fifth year\u2019s festival beside\n Alph\u0113us and his holy banks.\u201d\n\n PINDAR.\n\n\nWhatever may be the final decision of arch\u00e6ologists, it was natural for\nPausanias to identify the reclining figures in the east gable of the\nZeus temple at Olympia as the Alpheus and Cladeus. The right angle made\nby the junction of these rivers is in a fertile plain where the Altis,\nthe sacred enclosure of Olympia, lies at the foot of the Kronos hill.\nThe Alpheus river is inseparably connected in Greek literature with the\nGreat Games. For more than one thousand summers successively the full\nmoon looked down upon the myriads of visitors who came from inland or\nfrom island homes, from Tenedos in the East, or from Sicily in the West.\nBy the Alpheus they encamped and sank into dreamless sleep after their\njourneyings or, it may be, one or another, himself a competitor or an\nanxious relative, would be roused up by nightmares and outriders of grim\nTaraxippus, the Horse Frightener, whose ghost long held in mortmain the\ncritical turning point in the Hippodrome. When the contests were ended,\nthe same moon would silver the weather-beaten columns of the old Her\u00e6um\nor light up with its benignant splendour the new and stately shafts of\nthe Zeus temple, the gray-green sacred olive tree, the great wings of\nthe hovering Victory, the Parian marbles and the burnished bronzes, or\nstill more beautiful, the naked ivory of the athletes\u2019 limbs. And then,\ncrowning all, the epinician hymn, newborn from Pindar\u2019s brain, rose up\non the wings of victorious music to the very summit of the Kronos hill.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n OLYMPIA\n Kronos Hill. The ruins of the Altis\n]\n\nThe athletes had not far to journey from their last training place in\nElis. The spectators had come from various directions, some from the\nsea-coast, some, as do the majority of modern visitors, from Patras on\nthe coast of Ach\u00e6a. But then, as now, the direct artery from the heart\nof Greece was the green valley of the Alpheus. The river clamps Arcadia\nand Elis together. Down this valley year by year in antiquity pilgrims\njourneyed to see the games and to attend the great Fair; here in modern\ntimes bands of tourists still pick their way up and down over smooth\nroads and rocky torrent-beds and cross the ford of the swollen stream;\nand a projected railroad, connecting (on paper) Megalopolis and Olympia,\nalso follows the general course of the Alpheus. The river has two main\nsources. Its northern branch, the Ladon, draws its water from the rugged\nmountains of northern Arcadia. The other branch comes flowing down from\nthe northwest end of Taygetus, curves through the plain of Megalopolis,\nplunges through the ravine of Karyt\u00e6na and joins the Ladon near the\nwestern border of Arcadia, and the two united make their way through\nElis to the Ionian sea. Nor even there is its end. In pursuit of the\nfountain nymph, Arethusa, Alpheus must needs reach Sicily. To the Greeks\nthe Mediterranean was their highway, not the \u201csalt, estranging sea.\u201d\nAccording to Lucian, as Alpheus enters the sea, Poseidon, brimming over\nwith curiosity, stops him and enquires: \u201cWhat\u2019s this, Alpheus? You alone\nof all rivers don\u2019t go in for dissipation, and you keep your waters\nfresh and free from brine as you hurry on?\u201d\n\n(Alpheus) \u201cIt\u2019s a love affair, Poseidon, so don\u2019t cross-question me.\nYou\u2019ve been in love yourself and often too!\u201d\n\nThe sea-god on learning of the object of Alpheus\u2019s passion expresses\nmuch approval. But Alpheus cuts him short: \u201cI am pressed with\nengagements. You detain me, Poseidon, by your superfluous questions!\u201d\n\n(Poseidon) \u201cYou\u2019re right. Be off to your Beloved. Rise up from the\nwater, mingle with the fountain and be ye twain one stream.\u201d\n\nLucian\u2019s contemporary Pausanias is troubled with no doubts, and solemnly\nreaffirms the wedlock of Alpheus and Arethusa, although the more\nsceptical Strabo in the preceding century had na\u00efvely argued against the\ncredibility of the popular belief that a cup thrown into the Alpheus\nreappears in the fountain at Syracuse. Antigonus Carystus had stoutly\nmaintained that \u201cwhen the entrails of the victims are thrown into the\nAlpheus the waters of Arethusa in Sicily grow turbid.\u201d\n\nBe all that as it may, Alpheus mingling his waters with the Sicilian\nfountain is typical of the stream of competitors who were constantly\nreturning from the Olympic games to Magna Gr\u00e6cia. Of Pindar\u2019s fourteen\nOlympic odes nine were written for Sicilian or Italian victors. In\ngeneral one of the most noteworthy facts in the history of the games is\nthe widespread distribution of the client\u00e8le. The competitors and\nvisitors converging from Greece; the innumerable votive offerings here\ndedicated; the common motives of religion here illustrated in art and\nliterature generated a centripetal national spirit that could retard\nthough not destroy the centrifugal individualism of the Greeks.\n\nThe only fact more conspicuous than the wide territory represented is\nthe longevity of the Olympic celebrations. The Great Games were\ncontinued both under Macedonian rule and even for long years after the\nHellenic world, east and west, subjugated, dismembered, and rearranged\nlike parti-colored bits of glass in a kaleidoscope, had fallen into\nplace in the imperial pattern of the great Roman mosaic. The splendid\nPhilippeum at Olympia was witness to the eagerness with which Philip and\nAlexander made good their legitimate claim to Hellenic blood. Roman\nemperors, like Tiberius and Nero, by their very presence, however\narrogant, gave one more sign of the Greeks\u2019 intellectual suzerainty over\ntheir captors.\n\nAlthough Elis, even in October after the long hot summer, presents a\ncontrast to the burnt plains and hills about Athens, yet the traveller\nwill be best rewarded if he comes to Olympia by the end of February or\nearly in March. If he comes from Patras and will penetrate a little\ninland from the railroad near the river Stimana, the ancient Larisos, he\nwill find himself in the midst of beautiful woodland scenery. The whole\ncountry, with its fine oak trees, reminded the traveller Mure of \u201cthe\nwilder parts of Windsor Park.\u201d Even at the little stations are seen\nshepherds in their shaggy coats, with conversation-beads and staffs and\nflocks of sheep. At Olympia itself the new green of the trees and grass,\nthe pink of the almond blossoms on the banks of the Alpheus, and all the\nawakening of the early spring help to dissipate the melancholy that is\nwont to invade the mind in a lonely site amidst ruins which record some\nby-gone efflorescence of human activity. This Olympian plain, through\nwhich the Alpheus sweeps down to the sea between fields and vineyards,\noffered ample room for the vast throngs of visitors. There was no city\naccommodation. They must encamp in the open as they do to-day at many a\nmodern festival. But the smiling valley was a fit place to worship Zeus,\nthe god of the open sky. Xenophon, who lived on his estate just beyond\nthe hills which bound the plain to the south, tells in the \u201cAnabasis\u201d\nhow the returning Greeks, when they sighted the Euxine sea from the\nmountain ridge, held impromptu games and races on an impossible slope\nwhere men and horses tumbled amidst the jeers of the spectators. The\nplain of the Alpheus was perfectly adapted both for the games and all\nthat the festival implied. It is easy to see how contests would become\npopular here before they were instituted on the narrow ledges of\nParnassus at Delphi.\n\nFor the Greeks of the classical period the mythical founding of the\ngames in prehistoric times threw back the first contests into a\nconveniently dim perspective. In this penumbra of Greek mythology\nlike-named replicas of gods, heroes, or mortals now blend together, now\nassert their independence. The Cretan Heracles is said to have brought\nthe infant Zeus from Mount Ida to the Kronos hill in the Golden Age and\nto have first instituted the games. Then again it is the national hero\nHeracles, himself Zeus-descended, who cleanses the stables of King\nAugeas in Elis with the help of the Alpheus and the Cladeus river-gods,\nand thereupon founds the games.\n\nTo the reverent Greek his mythology was not an entertaining treasury of\nmere fairy tales. The stories of two contests were selected with intent\nas the theme for the sculptures most prominent of all in the sacred\nenclosure. In the east gable of the Zeus temple was represented\nHippodameia, the daughter of \u0152nomaus. Her father has already in his\nswift chariot overtaken and slain many suitors who had failed to\noutspeed him while contending for his daughter\u2019s hand. At the side of\nHippodameia stands Pelops just starting to win, by the favour of Zeus\nand the treachery of \u0152nomaus\u2019s charioteer, a prehistoric Olympic\nvictory.\n\nIn the west gable was the contest between the Lapiths and the Centaurs.\nThe latter are represented as invading the festival at the marriage of\nanother Hippodameia to Pirithous, whose friend and ally of old was the\nhero, Theseus of Athens. The brute Centaurs presumably symbolize the\nbarbaric power of the Persians, whose defeat by Athens and her allies\nwas here fittingly celebrated as another Olympic victory. This may be\ntaken as the official expression, at the supreme moment of Greek\nhistory, of one of the wider meanings of the games.\n\nThe first view of the excavations at Olympia is disappointing and\nbewildering to the amateur visitor, and a mere topographical survey\nhopelessly confounds history. Even a superficial appreciation of the\nruins presupposes a more special preparation than is necessary, for\nexample, at Pompeii. At Olympia, although it, too, was overwhelmed,\nbeing destroyed by earthquakes and buried in soft earth by the loyal\nriver-gods, the imagination must concern itself with various epochs: the\nprehistoric; the period from the first Olympiad to the Persian wars; the\nage of Pericles; the following century; the Macedonian period; and,\nfinally, that of the Greek world under Roman sway.\n\nAll the buildings for the athletes and for the contests\u2014the Pal\u00e6stra,\nthe Gymnasium, the Stadium, and the Hippodrome\u2014lay outside of the sacred\nenclosure, while the Altis itself was reserved for the real purpose of\nthis consecrated spot, the worship of Zeus, under all his manifold\nactivities, and of the other gods who helped to round out and to satisfy\nthe aspirations, the hopes, and fears of the Greek heart that was \u201cin\nall things very religious.\u201d To cover all possible oversights there was\nat Olympia, as by the Areopagus of St. Paul\u2019s day, or at Phalerum, an\naltar to Unknown Gods. Just as the drama was a religious spectacle, so\nthe games were conducted by the real Greek in the same spirit. The\nathletes went forth from the Altis to the contest, the victors re\u00ebntered\nit to receive the olive crown, and within it their statues and offerings\nwere set up in the immediate presence of the gods.\n\nIn the Altis the ancient Her\u00e6um, with its indications of an earlier\nwooden structure, carries back the thought far beyond the first Olympiad\nin the eighth century B. C. The new god Zeus was just emerging from the\ntutelage of his predecessor on the Kronos hill above. In this early age\nhe seems hardly more than a Prince Consort by the side of Hera who, in\nPindar\u2019s sixth Olympian, is invoked as the \u201cMaiden\u201d or ever Zeus had led\nher to the bridal chamber. One of the least obtrusive ruins in the Altis\nmarks the site near the Her\u00e6um of the great altar of Zeus or, possibly,\nthe common shrine of Zeus and Hera. Annually the priests kneaded with\nwater from the Alpheus the ashes of the thighs of victims offered, as in\nthe Iliad, to the god, and plastered a layer upon this primitive altar.\nOnly the water of the Alpheus was acceptable to the god in preparing\nthis clay, and thus year by year was cemented the union between the\nvisible and the unseen, the beneficent river-god of the land and the\nOlympian god whose dome overarched the widespread land of Hellas.\n\nApproaching historic records we read that Iphitus in 793 B. C. or, by\nthe usual reckoning, in 776 B. C., four hundred and eight years after\nthe traditional capture of Troy, renewed the games which had been\ndiscontinued for twenty-eight Olympiads after the time of Pelops and\nHeracles. The Her\u00e6um, until recently known as the most ancient temple in\nGreece, certainly existed at this time, although differing in material\nand in contents from the temple that Pausanias describes. Both the\nground structure and enough of the lower part of the walls remain to\nenable the expert to reconstruct in imagination the whole building up to\nthe gable upon which rested the terra-cotta acroterion now preserved in\nthe Museum. At the west end of the cella we see the base of the great\nstatues of Hera and Zeus. Suitably enough, while Zeus has disappeared\nthe archaic head of Hera was found and is now in the Museum. And,\nprostrate before one of the side niches, just where Pausanias describes\nit, was found the Hermes of Praxiteles with the infant Dionysus on his\narm. This beautiful statue alone would have repaid the cost of the whole\nexcavation. It unites the beauty of the athlete\u2019s body with the Greek\nconception of divinity in frank, idealizing anthropomorphism.\n\nThe catholicity of Greek polytheism may be illustrated by the rest of\nthe company within the Her\u00e6um as described by Pausanias. It was not that\nevery god \u201chad his day,\u201d like the rotation in office of the Athenian\nprytanes, but there was a precinct and a function for each and every\nmanifestation of pulsating life, from the humblest Nereid to Olympian\nHera. \u201cKnown to each other are all the immortal gods,\u201d as Homer says.\nThey were all entered in their Almanach de Gotha and could upon occasion\nlive in harmony, except when some Eris threw her apple of discord in\ntheir midst or \u201cgolden\u201d Aphrodite struggled in the Council of the Gods\nfor precedence over the mere bigness of the Colossus of Rhodes. At any\nrate, in Hera\u2019s temple were placed statues of the Seasons and of Themis,\ntheir mother, personifying orderly and unchanging Law; the five\nHesperides, stimulating the eager Hellenic mind to reach out after the\nunknown; Athena, goddess in peace and war; the Maid and Demeter,\nembodying the fruitful beneficence of nature and the mysteries of the\nunseen; Apollo and Artemis, welcomed or feared by turns for their arrows\nof light or shafts of destruction; Latona, their mother, whose Delian\nrefuge was firmly moored to every other sacred shrine in Greece. Here\ntoo was Fortune, who had a not insignificant r\u00f4le in Greek as in Roman\nlife, and Dionysus, god of Tragedy and of Comedy, was represented as\naccompanied by a winged Victory.\n\nThe Prytaneum of the Eleans, trustees of the land and of the games, was\nenclosed within the Altis at the northwest corner of the Her\u00e6um. It was\nbuilt over in Roman times, but the Greek structure beneath seems to have\nbeen of very early date. Here were sung ancient songs in the Doric\ndialect, and here, in the banquet-hall, the Olympic victors were\nfeasted.\n\nNext in historic order come the remains of a row of twelve treasuries,\nranged along close to the Kronos hill from the Her\u00e6um to the Stadium\nentrance. They are ascribed to the sixth century B. C. or, in the case\nof part of the most easterly one, to the beginning of the fifth century.\nThese little buildings are of great architectonic and historic import.\nHalf of them were dedicated by communities from over the seas; five by\nItalian and Sicilian Greeks. The fragments from the treasury of Selinus\nrecall at once the archaic temples and sculpture on the shore of Sicily\nthat faces Carthage. The Syracusan Treasury was re-named \u201cCarthaginian\u201d\nby reason of spoils, taken by the Syracusans from their Punic enemies in\nthe battle of Himera and placed here to unite at this common shrine the\nvictors of Salamis with their brothers in the west.\n\nIn the fifth century B. C. the flush of victory at Salamis not only lit\nup the Acropolis at Athens but spread to this green valley in Elis. The\ngreat Zeus temple was built. Its pediments, as we have already seen,\nwere adorned with sculptured myths appealing at once to local pride and\nto wider Hellenic patriotism. In the eastern gable Zeus stood upright as\narbiter in the chariot contest of Pelops; in the western gable the\narchaic yet majestic Apollo appeared as the defender against the\nCentaurs, the barbarian invaders. To emphasize the honour due to Athens\nthere was painted on the throne within the temple a representation of\nPirith\u00f6us, the bridegroom of Hippodameia, and his friend, the Athenian\nTheseus. The victories over the Persians were again symbolized by the\ncontest between Theseus and the Amazons wrought upon the footstool of\nthe seated god, and, as if to put the meaning beyond all doubt, here too\nwere Greece and Salamis personified, the latter holding in her hand the\nfigurehead of a ship. The metope sculptures represented the labours of\nHeracles who, as founder of the games, typified to patriot and athlete\nbodily powers and indomitable will. The cella of the temple was reserved\nfor the great gold-ivory statue of Zeus, who was seated while others\nstood. Phidias established his workshop by the sacred enclosure and\nwrought. And the result of his handiwork was a world\u2019s wonder for long\ncenturies. Into his creation were breathed Homeric dignity, Attic\nbeauty, and Hellenic pride. Dio Chrysostom in the first century of the\nChristian era could say of it: \u201cMethinks that if any one who is\nheavy-laden in mind, who has drained the cup of misfortunes and sorrows\nin life, and whom sweet sleep visits no more, were to stand before this\nimage, he would forget all the griefs and troubles that are incidental\nto the life of man.\u201d\n\nTime and earthquakes and plunderers have worked almost utter ruin. But\nthe ground plan of the temple remains to tell a detailed story, and some\nof the great shafts lie prostrate where they fell. In the Museum is\npreserved, more or less complete, the major part of the gable\nsculptures, fortunately including the very noble figure of Apollo, and\nthe mutilated but beautiful metopes. The gold-ivory statue has\ndisappeared long since. It is possible that it may have been destroyed\nwhen the temple was burnt in the reign of Theodosius II, but a Byzantine\nhistorian claims that the statue was still standing in a palace at\nConstantinople when it was consumed by fire in 475 A. D. In front of the\nZeus temple are still to be seen some blocks of the lofty triangular\ncolumn over which P\u00e6onius caused his winged Nike to hover. The statue\nitself, in large part intact, is set up in the Museum and belongs to the\nmore beautiful of our inheritances from antiquity.\n\nIf now we add, in imagination, the great council hall, possibly lying\nsoutheast from the temple, and the older colonnade bounding the east\nside of the Altis, and if we add the pentagonal Pelopion and the minor\nsanctuaries, and fill in the forest of statues of athletes and of gods,\nwe shall have the more salient features of the sacred enclosure down\nthrough the great period immediately following the Persian wars. To the\nbeginning of the fourth century is attributed the little temple of the\nMother of the Gods east of the Her\u00e6um. Running in a line from this up to\nthe very entrance of the Stadium is a long row of pedestals. Upon these\nstood the Zanes, or bronze statues of Zeus, which were erected from\nfines imposed upon offenders against the rules of the games. They stood\nwhere the contestants must see them just as they passed from the Altis\ninto the Stadium. It is significant that the first recorded serious\nviolation of athletic honour did not occur until 388 B. C., only a half\ncentury before free Greece was crushed at Ch\u00e6ronea, and that the next\noccasion was in the 112th Olympiad, six years after Macedonian rule was\nestablished. This second time it was an Athenian who had bribed his\ncompetitors, and the Athenians, like some modern sympathizers with\nathletic criminals, were shameless enough to press the Eleans to remit\nthe fine. But the god at Delphi compelled the Athenians to submit.\nStanding before the Opisthodomus, the rear porch of the Zeus temple,\nfrom which poet, historian, and philosopher were wont to utter high\nwords on noble themes, the crowd may have looked up at the great Apollo\nwith his hand outstretched and imagined him dictating the inscription\nplaced, on a similar occasion, upon the base of one of the Zanes: \u201cAn\nOlympic victory is to be gained not by money but by fleetness of foot\nand strength of body.\u201d\n\nMacedon also left its records. When Philip had defeated the Greeks at\nCh\u00e6ronea in 338 B. C., his first care was to prove that he was Hellene\nand not the barbarian that Demosthenes considered him. The Philippeum\nwas dedicated, and in it were erected gold-ivory statues of Philip\u2019s\nfather Amyntas, of Philip, of the mother and grandmother of Alexander,\nand of Alexander himself. Alexander\u2019s right to contend at the games was\nvindicated. In this period also was added on the eastern side of the\nAltis the beautiful Echo colonnade with its sevenfold echo.\n\nWhen Greece came under Roman rule, no longer could free-born Greeks\nboast of exclusive right to participate at Olympia. Champions from all\nparts of the empire, Tiberius and Nero among them, took part in the\ngames. Pausanias speaks of a statue of Augustus, made of amber, and a\nstatue of Trajan, dedicated by the Greek nation, and also of one of\nHadrian set up by the Ach\u00e6an confederacy. Nero, who contended both in\nthe Olympic and Pythian games, dedicated four crowns in the Zeus temple.\nUnder the Antonines the external splendour of the Altis and the comfort\nof the visiting throngs were enhanced by the public-spirited Herodes\nAtticus, a Greek from Marathon and the preceptor of the emperor Marcus\nAurelius. Lucian, who was repeatedly at the Games, gives in his \u201cLife\u2019s\nEnd of Peregrinus\u201d a vivid picture of one of the quadrennial\ncelebrations in the time of the Antonines. In place of the deserted\nruins of to-day we can see the temples, statues, marble exedra, the echo\ncolonnade, the athletes, and the thronging crowds gossiping, wrangling,\ngaping after novelty. As the Cynic partisan harangues the people from\nthe pulpit of the Opisthodomus we realize how for centuries Greek life\nhad focused in these gatherings. The festival had become a Greek\nExchange. Here, if we are to believe Lucian, Herodotus first gave to the\npublic his history, the great epinician epic that recounted the triumphs\nof the Greek over the barbarian. Among his audience would be some whose\nbrothers or fathers had fought at Thermopyl\u00e6, and all would hear with\npride how Xerxes asked: \u201cWhat are the Greeks doing?\u201d and how he was\nanswered: \u201cThey are holding the Olympic games, seeing the athletic\nsports and the chariot races;\u201d and then, when Xerxes was told that the\nprize was a mere olive wreath, how a Persian exclaimed: \u201cWhat manner of\nmen are these who contend with one another not for money but for\nhonour!\u201d Brain and brawn were alike praised at Olympia. The sophist\nHippias was Elis-born, and the statue of Gorgias from Sicily was erected\namong those of the athletes. And here rhetoricians from Gorgias to\nLucian delivered their epideictic speeches; artists, painters, and\nmusicians appealed to the eye or the ear; philosophies new or old were\nhotly debated.\n\nBut no Roman patronage could galvanize into real life the dying spirit\nof freedom. Professionalism grew apace. Christianity, established in the\neastern empire, extinguished the fire on the ancient altar of Zeus. The\nfitful return to polytheism under Julian the Apostate only served to\nshow its decadence, and in 393 A. D. the emperor Theodosius finally\nsuppressed the Olympic games. When the \u201ctruce\u201d of the Olympic god no\nlonger interposed a defence, the Altis itself became a Byzantine\nfortress and the monuments were partially destroyed to build its walls.\nAmongst the ruins of the Pal\u00e6stra and the Workshop of Phidias can be\nseen the remains of a Byzantine church. Earthquakes in the sixth century\nthrew down the Zeus temple, and in this and the following century the\nCladeus and the Alpheus, the only gods who still retained their power,\nunited in preserving under deep layers of earth the mutilated monuments\nfor a kindlier age to uncover and to honour. After this destruction and\nburial, for more than one thousand years the summer moons waxed and\nwaned above the desolated valley disturbed only by the hoof-beats of the\nhorses ridden by the vassal bands of the Dukes of the Morea. Here, as\nelsewhere in Greece, temples robbed of their acolytes and statues, no\nlonger symbols of a living religion, forgot the incense of a happy past\nand could look forward to no festal renascence. Sterling, in his\n\u201cD\u00e6dalus,\u201d pictures these orphaned children of Olympus in a loneliness\nonly less pathetic than their irksome imprisonment within unsympathetic\nMuseum walls:\u2014\n\n \u201cStatues, bend your heads in sorrow,\n Ye that glance \u2019mid ruins old,\n That know not a past nor expect a morrow,\n On many a moonlit Grecian wold.\u201d\n\nIn 1875 the German government subsidized the systematic excavations that\nrestored to the modern world some of its most valued treasures and laid\nbare the greater part of the ruined Altis, the adjacent buildings and\nthe entrance to the Stadium.\n\nThe remains excavated outside the Altis bring us to the contests\nthemselves. Close to the western wall of the Altis were the elaborate\nPal\u00e6stra and Gymnasium, where the athletes could keep themselves in form\nfor the contests. From the northeastern corner of the sacred enclosure\nleads the covered way into the Stadium, which has been only partially\nexcavated at the two ends. To the south, or possibly east, of the\nStadium lay the Hippodrome by the bank of the Alpheus. Frazer, contrary\nto the usual belief, thinks it possible that it may still be intact\nnorth of the new bed of the river. From Pausanias, who fortunately\ndescribed the Hippodrome minutely, we can in imagination reconstruct the\nscene: the rising tiers of spectators; the bronze turning-posts, on\nwhich respectively stood statues of Pelops and of Hippodameia, at each\nend of the course around which the chariots drove twelve times; the\numpires at the goal; the chariots waiting ready for the signal given at\nthe hoisting of the bronze eagle and the dropping of the dolphin. For a\ntypical chariot race of the best period we may turn to the \u201cElectra\u201d of\nSophocles, although the scene of the race is laid at Delphi, not at\nOlympia. Sophocles, who himself embodied the Greek perfection of manly\nbeauty, knew how to give essential details to critical hearers. The\ndanger involved and the skill required on the race track made the owner\nof the victorious team, provided he was his own charioteer, a worthy\nrecipient of Olympic honours. There are ten contestants in all, two of\nthem Libyan Greeks. They draw lots for the assignment of inner and outer\ntracks and take their stations at command of the judges, and then\u2014\n\n \u201cAt the bronze trumpet\u2019s signal forth they shot: the men\n Urged on their horses and with both hands loosed the reins.\n Now on a sudden all the race course filled with din\n Of rattling chariots. Up aloft the dust cloud flew,\n Enwrapping all together. Spared they not the goad\n That one might pass the others\u2019 horses snorting foam\n For horses, breathing neck and neck, now smote with flecks,\n Blown backwards, rivals\u2019 flanks and fellies of the wheels.\n But he, just grazing past the post each time, would urge\n The trace-horse on the right and curb the left inside.\n Now thus far all the chariots had fared upright,\n But here the \u00c6nianian\u2019s colts the curb refused,\n Ran off with violence and, swerving from the course,\n (\u2019Twas now the sixth round ended or the seventh now)\n Full on the frontlets of the Libyan\u2019s team they crashed.\n From this mischancing first another and then one\n Fouled with his neighbour, crushing him, till all the course\n Cris\u00e6an filled with wreckage of the chariot teams.\n This noticing, the skilled Athenian charioteer\n Held in and swerved to safer offing to pass by\n The surge of chariot billows wallowing in the midst.\n Last came Orestes driving, holding back his colts,\n Placing his confidence upon the final heat.\n But when he sees the man from Athens left alone\n He stings his swift colts\u2019 ears and whistled shrill the whip\n Pursuing. Now abreast the chariots twain drove on,\n First one team, then the other leading by a neck.\n Now he through all the other laps unscathed had come,\n Ill fated, upright on the upright chariot board,\n But as the horses doubled now the final turn\n He loosed the left rein, recked not of the column\u2019s edge\n And struck upon it full the shivering axle-nave.\n Over the chariot rim he lurched. The severing straps\n Coiled round him. As he fell to earth the colts ran wild\n Along the race course wide. The people, seeing him\n Thus fallen from the team, raise outcries loud and high\n At what the youth had done and then this evil hap.\n Now borne along the ground, now high again upflung\n His legs gleam white, until the charioteers the colts\n Had checked, no easy task, and disentangled him\n So covered o\u2019er with blood that never had a friend,\n Seeing that ruined form, have known him as his own.\u201d\n\nBoth the Olympic and Pythian games were held every four years. The\nNemean and Isthmian came every two years. In all four the prize was\nsimilar: the wreath of wild olive at Olympia; of mountain bay at Delphi;\nof parsley or of native pine at Nemea; of parsley at Corinth. We are,\nindeed, justified in emphasizing, until the period of decadence, the\nabsence of professionalism. The athlete, after undergoing the severest\ntraining, contested, with no degradation of gate-money, merely to win\nthe honour of a simple wreath. But we need not shut our eyes to the fact\nthat the honour did not fade with the wreath. It belonged to the\nathlete\u2019s native place and to all his fellow-citizens. Thinking of the\nevanescent glory of the Isthmian parsley and with the long race in the\nstadium of Eternity in mind, the apostle Paul might indeed point the\ncontrast for his hearers between a \u201ccorruptible crown\u201d and \u201cone that\nfadeth not away;\u201d yet for the shorter race-course of life the emoluments\nof honour and preferment were secure. And, in addition to all these\nhonours, an Olympian victor had a post-mortem value. He might be\nworshipped as a divinity and his statue might heal diseases, like the\nbones of a medi\u00e6val saint. Thus Lucian\u2019s Momus, the god of critics,\nreminds Zeus that their own prestige is endangered by these new\nfaith-cures: \u201cActually,\u201d he says, \u201cthe statues of the athlete Polydamas\nat Olympia and of Theagenes at Thasus are curing fever-stricken\npatients.\u201d\n\nThe athlete\u2019s ambition might issue in a selfish \u201copportunism,\u201d or it\nmight be of the nobler kind to which Pindar, thinking perhaps of the\naltar dedicated in the Altis to the god \u201cOpportunity\u201d (\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u03cc\u03c2), would\nlift the contestant\u2019s ideal in his second Olympian:\u2014\n\n \u201cWinning the contest setteth free the essayer from its care and pain,\n and wealth embroidered o\u2019er with virtues bringeth opportunity for this\n and that, inspiring mood that broodeth deeply upon earnest themes.\u201d\n\nThere was a sacred truce from hostilities amongst all Greeks for a\nmonth, to allow time for distant competitors and visitors to go and come\nin safety. The games were held in summer at the time of a full moon,\nwhether in July or August is uncertain. The September full moon, in\nfact, has been suggested as the date in the even Olympiads. At this\nlater moon the heat might be almost as great as at the summer solstice,\nbut it may be that the earlier date, with the longer day, was in vogue\nas long as the contests were all held upon one day. At any rate, the\nlongest midsummer day was too short for the increasing number of events,\nand after 472 B. C. we hear of five days. The order of the contests is\nuncertain. At first, it would appear, the foot-races had been the only\nevent. Later it seems probable that the foot-races, the long race, the\nshort race, and the double course, came upon one day; on a second day,\nthe wrestling, boxing, and pancratium. The chariot-races and the\npentathlum came on one and the same day. The pentathlum was justly\npopular as calculated to secure an all-round development of the human\nform. It included leaping, the foot-race, discus-throwing,\njavelin-throwing, and wrestling. The Spartans, who were never charged\nwith being effeminate, were said to favour it while discountenancing the\nmore brutal pancratium. We certainly are not much attracted by the\nlicense of the latter, evidently considered legitimate, as we read of\ntwo athletes habitually winning this event by bending back their\nantagonists\u2019 fingers. One of them, Sostratus, was surnamed\n\u201cFinger-bender.\u201d But the judges presided with absolute authority and\nenforced severe penalties against violations of the rules.\n\nWomen were prohibited under pain of death from even crossing the river\nand entering the sacred precinct during the time of the games. Pausanias\nrecords one violation. Kallipateira, or Pherenike (\u201cVictoria\u201d), the\ndaughter of Diagoras, the Rhodian victor immortalized by Pindar, anxious\nto see her son compete, disguised herself as a trainer. In her\nexultation at her son\u2019s success she betrayed her sex. The penalty\nattached was to be hurled from the Typ\u00e6um rock on a mountain south of\nthe Alpheus. In deference to the victories won by her father, her\nbrothers, and her son, she was pardoned, but thereafter the trainers\nwere compelled to enter naked like the athletes themselves.\n\nThe priestess of Demeter, however, was present _ex officio_, and\nPausanias expressly states that virgins also were admitted as\nspectators. This statement is usually rejected, but it may have been\ntrue for certain times under the influence of Sparta, whose customs\nthrew the sanction of public sentiment around the athletic contests of\ntheir maidens, the future mothers of their fighting men.\n\nAlthough the modern reader is apt to think of the chariot-races in\nconnection with Sicilian tyrants, they were, as we have seen from\nSophocles, an integral part of Greek life. Herodotus, in the midst of\nhis account of the battle of Marathon, calmly suspends hostilities while\nhe tells how Cimon, father of Miltiades, won three successive Olympic\nvictories with the same mares and, as fitting climax, adds that the\nmares were buried on the stately avenue of Athenian tombs, facing the\ngrave of Cimon himself. If Herodotus really read this at Olympia the\nincident would not have seemed to his audience an intrusive digression.\n\nIn addition to the four-horse and two-horse chariot-races there was the\nrace with mules\u2014no mean animals in Greece and the Orient. Pindar\nrepeatedly celebrates them in his Olympian odes. There was also the\nsingle race-horse ridden by a jockey. One horse from Syracuse,\nPherenicus (\u201cVictor\u201d), was celebrated in song both by Pindar and\nBacchylides. Pindar tells how he \u201cran the course, his body by the goad\nunurged\u201d and brought victory to Hieron. Bacchylides, reminding us that\nthe horse-races opened the events of the day, exclaims:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe Dawn, who touches earth with gold, saw Pherenicus, wind-swift\n sorrel steed, victorious beside Alpheus eddying wide, and saw him,\n too, victorious at Pytho the divine. And I lay hand on earth and\n swear: Not yet has dust-cloud raised by horses in the lead e\u2019er\n touched him in the race-course as he hastened to the goal.\n\n \u201cNow sing of Zeus, the Kronos son, Olympian ruler of the gods and of\n unweari\u00e8d Alpheus. Sing of mighty Pelops and of Pisa too, where fam\u00e8d\n Pherenicus won with hurrying feet the victory and came back to the\n ramparts firm of Syracuse and brought to Hieron the (olive) leaf of\n fortune fair.\u201d\n\nPausanias tells of a Corinthian race-horse, Aura (\u201cBreeze\u201d), perhaps one\nof the famous \u201cKoppa\u201d[38] breed, sired by Pegasus. The jockey was thrown\nat the beginning of the race, but the mare continued without breaking\nform, rounded the turning stake, quickened her pace at the sound of the\ntrumpet, reached the umpires first, knew that she had won, and stopped.\nThe owner of the riderless horse was proclaimed victor.\n\nFootnote 38:\n\n The old letters Koppa (\u03d9) and Sampi (\u03e1) were used to brand the\n haunches of blooded horses. The letter \u03d9, used as an abbreviation for\n Korinthos, when obsolete in many parts of Greece, was retained in the\n Corinthian alphabet. It had been carried to Italy by the early Greek\n colonists and so passed into our alphabet as the letter Q.\n\n Young Phidippides in the _Clouds_ of Aristophanes had plunged his\n father into debt by his race-track operations and had in his stables a\n racer of this Koppa breed bought with money borrowed from the usurer\n Pasias.\n\nIt would be very unsafe to assert that the eager Greeks, if called back\nto our own age of ingenious mechanisms, would turn uninterested from the\nvicarious competition by motor-cars, or feel nothing but disgust at\nhuman forms crooked into the semblance of brutes over a flying bicycle,\nbut it is safe to emphasize that all their contests, whether exhibiting\nthe development of the perfect human body or the beauty of the horse,\nministered to that sure sense of form and proportion which they demanded\nand obtained from poet, painter, and musician, sculptor, architect, and\nathlete. But horse and chariot-racing involved certain special\ntemptations. As time went on, the \u201canything to win\u201d spirit was sure, now\nand then, to assert itself. The legend of the lynch-pin withdrawn from\nthe chariot of \u0152nomaus by the bribery of Pelops must have called for\nstrenuous casuistry from the priests of Zeus when it was necessary to\npunish offenders for shady practices towards rivals. Pindar\nmagnificently ignores the thought of treachery. With him it is a god\nthat\u2014\n\n \u201cglorified him with the gift of golden chariot and winged untiring\n steeds: mighty \u0152nomaus he overtook and won the maiden for his bride.\u201d\n\nAlthough in later times the peripatetic professional developed and could\nclaim as precedent the victories repeatedly won at various centres by\nthe athletes of old, yet, at least for their own times, Pindar and\nBacchylides were justified in assuming, alike for their Sicilian princes\nor for their boyish winners in the foot-race, the genuine amateur spirit\nof athletic rivalry. In the fourth century B. C. a Cretan, victor in the\nlong race, was bribed to transfer his citizenship to Ephesus. The\nOlympian athlete had not then become, like the modern base-ball pitcher,\na legitimate commodity of interstate commerce, and the Cretans with\njustifiable indignation pronounced the sentence of perpetual exile\nagainst Sotades the offender.\n\nFor Pindar, indeed, it was necessary that every song should rise above\nthe sordid, either in belief or practice. He was at once a supreme\nartist and a herald of the ideal. He even expurgates canonical mythology\nto infuse into his odes some deeper, nobler lesson suggested by the\nexternal and physical victory. And this, although several of his odes\nwere addressed to rich tyrants like Hieron of Syracuse, at whose court\nwere welcomed and honoured \u00c6schylus, Simonides, Pindar, Bacchylides and\nmany more. \u201cHe was to them in some measure what Augustus was to Virgil\nand Horace, what Lorenzo de\u2019 Medici was to the members of the Florentine\nAcademy.\u201d[39] Pindar honestly regarded him as the patron of letters and\nas a bulwark against the barbarians. He had fought under Gelon against\nthe Carthaginians, and, soon after the battles of Himera and Salamis,\nthe Etruscans, who were also threatening Greek supremacy, were, in 474\nB. C., defeated by him. Early in the nineteenth century, from a partial\nexcavation at Olympia, a bronze helmet of Etruscan make found its way to\nthe British Museum. On it is the inscription: \u201cHieron, son of\nDeinomenes, and the Syracusans (dedicated) to Zeus these Tyrrhene spoils\nfrom Cum\u00e6.\u201d It tantalizes with the sequence of historic associations.\nFrom lips within this helmet came words of war in the dead Etruscan\ntongue that still baffles linguistic classification; on it were\ninscribed Greek words in the dialect of the proud Greek colonists in\nSicily; mingled Greek dialects greeted it when dedicated in the sacred\ncentre of the motherland; and now it is again held as spoils by another\nand mightier island folk.\n\nFootnote 39:\n\n Compare Jebb\u2019s _Bacchylides_, p. 200.\n\nPindar could not prophesy the fatal conflict between the tyrants of the\nwest and the greedy imperialism of Athenian demagogues. He could not\npeer into the stone quarries at Syracuse and see the legatees of Salamis\nscorched under the lidless eye of a Sicilian sun. He could not foresee a\nMacedonian ruling over Hellas nor forecast the Greek world under Roman\nsway. He could not have understood how even Plato, with the additional\nperspective of another half century, crowded with disturbing shifts of\nvalue both in literature and government, would seek relief from the\nspectre of tyranny not in democracy but by converting the baser metal of\nthe despot into the pure gold of the philosophic King. Yet Pindar is not\nwithout his misgivings. In words none too vague he warns the ruler,\nwhose gold called forth his songs, of the dangers inherent in power. In\nthe first Olympian he tells Hieron:\u2014\n\n \u201cA man erreth if he thinketh that in doing aught he shall escape God\u2019s\n eyes.... Man\u2019s greatness is of many kinds; the highest is to be\n achieved by Kings. Crane not thy neck for more. And be it thine to\n walk life\u2019s path with lofty tread.\u201d\n\nWith better right and greater force \u00c6schylus, himself warrior of\nMarathon and Salamis, in the \u201cAgamemnon\u201d covertly warns his Athenian\ncontemporaries, then engaged in imperial schemes of expansion in Egypt\nand elsewhere, against the haughty spirit that goeth before a fall. His\nwords easily connect themselves with this Pindaric ode because the\nreturn of the Greek host from Troy brings out on Clytemnestra\u2019s lips the\nmetaphor drawn from the double racecourse\u2014the \u03b4\u03af\u03b1\u03c5\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2. Ilium is but the\nturning-post at the farther end; Argos is both the starting-point and\nthe goal; the stadium is the \u00c6gean sea:\u2014\n\n \u201cBut beware lest some desire\n May fall upon our men, succumbing to their greed,\n To ravage what they should not: they for safe return\n Unto their homes must bend them back again, adown\n The double race-track\u2019s other leg.\u201d\n\nTo make selections from Pindar is to pry out jewels from an antique\nsetting. But his Olympic odes give the best interpretation of the best\nmeaning of the games. Some were impromptu odes crystallized under the\nstress of the victory and sung in the Altis while the full moon shone\nupon the hero of the day. Some were longer and written at leisure for\nthe supplementary celebration at the victor\u2019s home. But in any case the\nthought was not impromptu. The Theban eagle soared habitually and paused\nfor a moment only at Olympia, sent by\u2014\n\n \u201cthe Hours, circling in the dance to music of the lyre\u2019s changing\n notes, to be a witness to the greatest of all games.\u201d\n\nYet with all his soaring Pindar never forgot the gracious beauty of\nhuman life. The Graces are ever near. Victory, he tells us, by the\nGraces\u2019 aid is won, and the charioteers\u2014\n\n \u201cCharis transfigures with the beauty of their fame, as they drive\n foremost in the twelfth round of the race.\u201d\n\nPindar calls his song \u201ca writing tally of the Muses.\u201d Not he that runs\nmay read, but whoever will be at pains to wrap the Greek scroll around\nthe tally-stick can read the cypher and can find the clue to lead him\nsafely through \u201cthe sounding labyrinths of song.\u201d[40] Pindar could\npresuppose an acquaintance with mythology at least as familiar as was to\nevery child of a generation ago the knowledge of the Old Testament.\nConflicting myths lived side by side in the popular consciousness. The\nsculptor and the poet could choose or reject at will. However recondite\nmay seem at times the application of the myth to the Olympic victor in\nquestion, the pages of Pindar are constantly illuminated by some\nflash-light that photographs upon the particular a glimpse of the\nuniversal. From Olympia in Elis we are transported to Olympus. Heracles\nbrought from Olympus the charter for the games; there, too, is both the\nstarting-line and finish of the poet\u2019s courser: \u201cPegasus is stabled in\nOlympus.\u201d Pindar does not belittle the mysteries of the unseen. When the\nfame of Theron of Acragas (Girgenti) is said to over-pass Sicily and to\ntouch the pillars of Heracles, the thought of the pathless ocean\nsuggests a wider and uncharted Cosmos. His search-light projects for a\nmoment its stare into infinity, but it is forthwith checked with\ncharacteristic restraint:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhat lies beyond nor foot of wise man nor unwise has\n ever trod. I will not follow on. My quest were vain.\u201d\n\nFootnote 40:\n\n _Olympian Odes_, i, translated by E. Myers.\n\nPindar\u2019s description of the ancient consecration of the Altis may serve\nto justify the Labours of Heracles carved upon the Zeus temple:\u2014\n\n \u201cHeracles there measured off a sacred grove unto the sovereign father\n and he ordained the plain around for rest and feasting. He honoured\n the Alpheus stream together with the twelve lord gods and he gave\n utterance to the name of Kronos hill, till then unnamed.\u201d\n\nHis praise of the discus victor comes to mind when we see a copy of\nMyron\u2019s Discobolus or the graceful throw of a contemporary Greek in the\nStadium of modern Athens:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn distance passing all, Enikeus hurled the stone with circling hand\n and from his warrior mates a mighty cheer swept by.\u201d\n\nAnd we seem ourselves to share in the evening celebration in the Altis\nwhen\u2014\n\n \u201cthe lovely shining of the fair-faced moon illumined it and all the\n precinct rang with song and festal mirth.\u201d\n\nWe can share too in the undertone of pathos in Pindar\u2019s reference to the\ndead father of a young athlete. Asopichus is winner in the boys\u2019\nfootrace, and the news of his victory is sent to his father in Hades.\nThe Arcadian nymph Echo is the messenger:\u2014\n\n \u201cFly, Echo, to the dark-walled palace of Persephone and to his father\n bear the tidings glorious. Seek Cleodamus, tell him how for him his\n son hath crowned his boyish hair with wreaths of th\u2019 ennobling games\n in famous Pisa\u2019s vale.\u201d\n\nPerhaps the most radiant picture of \u201cfestal mirth\u201d is called up by\nPindar\u2019s seventh Olympian, written for Diagoras of Rhodes. Diagoras\u2019s\ntwo sons and his grandson were also Olympic victors. This acted, on at\nleast two occasions, as a family prophylactic. His daughter, as we have\nseen, was pardoned by reason of this for her intrusion in disguise at\nthe Olympic games, and Dorieus, his son, when captured by the Athenians\nin a sea-fight, escaped the only alternatives usual in the case of a\nprisoner of war. He was neither put to death nor forced to pay a ransom,\nbut set free, just as Balaustion, the Rhodian girl, was set free by the\nSyracusans because she delighted her captors by repeating a new drama of\nEuripides. And the Rhodians wrote up Pindar\u2019s ode in letters of gold in\nthe Athena temple on the acropolis of Lindus. The modern visitor to this\nenchanting island climbs up the lofty headland that rises abruptly\nbetween the shining water of the two indenting bays, and, before he\npasses through the ruins of the ancient propyl\u00e6a and the still imposing\nportals of the fortress of the Knights of St. John, he sees upon the\nsolid rock the after part of a huge trireme with the steering-oar and\nthe rippling water carved in stone. He can imagine a trireme of a former\nday entering the harbour below with triumphal sweep of oars, bringing\nDiagoras and his victory back to his townsfolk in this far-off corner of\nthe Greek world. He can picture the procession of Lindians to Athena\u2019s\ntemple; the brilliant colouring of robes and chitons; the choral music;\nthe exultation in their townsman\u2019s physical prowess and their\nintoxication of delight because the greatest of lyric poets is reaching\nout to them, as to the bridegroom at a wedding-feast, a chalice of pure\ngold resplendent, brimming with the \u201cdistilled nectar\u201d of his song.\n\nBut Pindar soars beyond the pride of life even as he universalizes the\nindividual experience. It was not only St. Paul\u2019s idealism that\nperceived the great contest in which humanity is forever engaged. In\nPindar\u2019s second Olympian the athlete\u2019s triumph suggests the victory over\nDeath, and the Kronos hill becomes the \u201ctower of Kronos\u201d to which the\nvictor travels over \u201cthe highway of Olympian Zeus.\u201d So the arch-idealist\nPlato, in closing his great constructive vision of the Ideal State, can\nfind no more fitting comparison for him that overcometh than by likening\nhim to the victors in the Games: \u201cIf we take my advice, believing that\nthe soul is immortal, we shall ever hold to that upward pathway and at\nevery turn shall practice justice joined to intelligence that we may be\nat once friends of ourselves and of the gods and may fare well ... both\nwhile we abide here and when, like the prize-winners, we come to gather\nin the prizes of the games.\u201d\n\nBut aside from lofty thoughts like these, native to the greater\ninterpretative intelligences of Greece, the recently discovered poems of\nBacchylides tell us much of the actual spirit of the games. Bacchylides\nwas nephew of Simonides, the poet-laureate of the nation from Thermopyl\u00e6\nto Plat\u00e6a, and he was also the grandson and namesake of a famous\nathlete. He was qualified to sing both the Games and the Graces. And the\nnative of the little island of Ceos did not hesitate to enter the\ncontest with the splendidly arrogant Theban who could compare his\ninferior rivals to \u201ccrows that chatter against the divine bird of\nZeus.\u201d[41]\n\nFootnote 41:\n\n Pindar, _Olympian Odes_, ii, translated by E. Myers.\n\nOf the twelve epinician odes of Bacchylides three were addressed to\nHieron, at whose court he enjoyed especial favour. Two Olympic odes were\nwritten for Lachon, a young athlete from the poet\u2019s native island. One\nof these is a short serenade sung before the victor\u2019s own house by his\nfellow-citizens. Nothing could better illustrate the intensity of local\npride and enthusiasm. Now the victorious athlete is praised, now his\nvery identity is merged in the personification of his native land. It is\nCeos herself that has won the boxing and the foot-race. Lachon, as the\node reminds us, has already been greeted by the impromptu choral sung at\nOlympia on the evening of his triumph. Now he is welcomed at home by\nanother choral for which there has been ample time to make ready.\nBacchylides may well have written this little serenade not as a paid\ncommission but as a spontaneous outburst of patriotic pride and\naffection for his country and his fellow countrymen. We should prefer to\nhave it so. In any case we feel a human interest in the young athlete\nwhose strong body and swift feet have won the prize:\u2014\n\n \u201cLachon has lot of such renown\n From Zeus most-high as yet had none,\n Enhancing fame with feet that run\n Beside Alph\u0113us flowing down.\n For which e\u2019er this with hair wreath-bound\n Olympic youths sang songs around\n How Ceos, with her vineyards crowned,\n The boxing and the foot-race won.\n\n \u201cThee now song-queen Urania\u2019s hymn\n Ennobles\u2014O thou wind-fleet one,\n Of Aristomenes the son\u2014\n Thy praise as victor homeward bringing\n And here before thy lintel singing\n How thou, thy course through stade-race winging,\n Brought Ceos fame no time shall dim.\u201d\n\nFrom little Ceos, the second in order of those bright stepping-stones\nthat dot the \u00c6gean from Attica to Rhodes, we may quickly cross to the\nmainland and find our way to Marathon. From there to Athens we trace\nthat greatest of all ancient race-courses over which the Greek runner\nran in full armour to give with his dying breath the warning and the\nnews of victory, and to win a memorial beside which the olive-wreath\nmight well turn pale.[42]\n\nFootnote 42:\n\n For this story see chapter vii, p. 159, and note.\n\nWhen the modern Athenians revived the Olympic Games the chariot-races\nwere beyond their resources. Contests of personal, physical strength and\nskill constitute the fitting nucleus of the games held in the old\nStadium, now newly covered with marble from the \u201cmountain that looks on\nMarathon.\u201d And it was a happy and natural thought to add as the closing\nevent the great Marathon race. While perpetuating the glory of the\nAthenians it re\u00ebnforces the loyalty of all the Greeks to their national\ncapital. In this race centres the chief ambition of the Greeks. The\nother events are of secondary importance. If fanciful critics demand any\nfurther excuse for the change of venue from Olympia to Athens, it may be\nenough to remind them that Heracles (according to one tradition) brought\nin the first place from the banks of the Ilissus the original graft of\nthe sacred olive-tree from which, at Olympia, the victor\u2019s crown was cut\nwith the golden sickle. With graceful sentiment, however, the olive\nsprigs are now in turn brought to Athens from Olympia.\n\nDespite all the modern barnacles that encrust the ancient torso, the\nstudent of old Greek life can find much to stimulate him in the revival\nof contests inherited, or directly developed, from ancient times\u2014such as\nthe foot-race, short and long distance; javelin-throwing; leaping; and,\nchief of all, the discus-throw in the ancient style. The interest of the\nGreeks to-day in this latter event is second only to that in the\nMarathon race.\n\nA modern, seated in the Stadium at Athens, has cause for meditation.\nBehind the gaudy hats and parasols of women, the more sombre clothing of\nmen, or the brilliant uniforms of officials gleams Pentelic marble. Over\nmany tens of thousands of spectators, gathered from all Greece and\nEurope and from beyond the Atlantic, float the flags of powerful\nnations: of Turkey; of the lands that look upon the northern seas; of\nthe mighty spawn of the Anglo-Roman; and of the New Atlantis. None of\nthese nations had emerged from barbarism when this same choir of\nencircling hills sang together the triumph song of Salamis. Prometheus,\nthe incarnation of human self-assertion, rebel to the rule of Zeus,\npinioned on a crag overlooking those same northern seas, is made by the\nGreek prophet to utter the pessimistic cry: \u201cNew gods rule Olympus.\u201d\nNow, as a modern Greek remarked to an American visitor, \u201cthe old gods\nhave migrated to a new Olympus.\u201d\n\nBut although the gold-ivory statue of Zeus cannot reappear from the\nruins of Olympia, yet \u201cthe godhead of supernal song\u201d remains in the\nliterature of the Greeks, interpreting and interpreted by the\ncontributions of the arch\u00e6ologists. Swinburne\u2019s words are not mere\npoetic license:\u2014\n\n \u201cDead the great chryselephantine god, as dew last evening shed;\n Dust of earth and foam of ocean is the symbol of his head:\n Earth and ocean shall be shadows when Prometheus shall be dead.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIX\n MESSENIA\n\n \u201cA land where fruit trees blossom, myriad fountains flow\n And flocks and herds are grazing in the meadows fair.\n Nor wintry are the winds of winter, nor too near\n The flaming Sun comes driving in his four-horse car.\u201d\n EURIPIDES, Fragment of the _Cresphontes_.\n\n\nTelemachus, in search of his father, sailed down the western coast of\nthe Peloponnesus, landed at \u201csandy Pylos,\u201d the home of Nestor, and by\nthis old friend was sent across country to Menelaus at Laced\u00e6mon. The\nlong drive was broken by a night at Pher\u00e6. According to a tradition that\nstill has its supporters the modern site of Pylos is Navarino, in the\ncentre of the western coast of Messenia, while Pher\u00e6 is represented by\nKalamata, on the northeastern shore of the Messenian Gulf. A growing\ntendency to push Nestor\u2019s realm further up the coast, out of Messenia,\nand to place Pher\u00e6 in Arcadia is due, in part, to the discrepancy\nbetween the lot of modern travellers on their way from Kalamata to\nSparta and that of the two young princes of the Homeric story.\nTelemachus and the son of Nestor mounted an inlaid chariot at early\ndawn, their two horses, touched lightly by the whip, flew eagerly\nonward, and at sunset, as all the ways were darkening, the wheat-bearing\nplain of Laced\u00e6mon opened before their eyes. Moderns, whether merchants\nor sightseers, must spend an equally long or longer day in riding on\nmules or plodding horses over the difficult paths of Mount Taygetus,\nwhose massive bulk forms an almost impenetrable barrier between Messenia\nand Laconia. The narrow bridle paths of the Gorge of the Nedon, which is\nthe trade route, and the savage beauty of the Langada Gorge exclude\nhighways for royal cars and on-rushing steeds.\n\nWhether or no Kalamata was once an insignificant way-station between two\nprincely domains, it is now one of the most prosperous towns of the new\nnation, separated from Athens only by a day\u2019s ride in an express train,\nand the natural starting point for excursions in Messenia.\n\nFrom this rich southern plain it is easy to reach the confines of the\nmore northern plain, which was the country\u2019s heart. Here was the capital\nof its prehistoric kings, and here about the mountain fortresses of\nIthome and Eira occurred the chief events of its pitiable historic life.\nIthome is one of the highest fortified mountains in Greece, but can be\nascended by roadways which only below the fortress peaks change to rocky\npaths, insecure even for mountain horses. From this summit, by the\nfavour of Zeus of the open sky whose sanctuary it once was, all Messenia\ncan be overlooked. It is indeed a lovely country. The mountain ranges to\nthe north and east have reserved their sterner influences for other\npeoples, while the open sea along the western and southern coasts\nbestows the largess of a perfect climate. The country between Kalamata\nand Ithome is one of great fertility and beauty. Orchards of gray-green\nolives are broken by dark cypresses, while lemon and orange groves,\nunknown to Euripides, add their peculiar radiance to the landscape. In\nthe spring, almond trees delicately lift their pink blossoms above long\nhedges of glistening green cactus, and the green grass of the wayside\nfields nurses buttercups and scarlet anemones, purple and yellow irises,\nand thick clusters of deep blue flowers.\n\nThe loveliness of Messenia decided her history, which was one of\npassionate and futile resistance to foreign greed. The Spartan poet\nTyrt\u00e6us said that the soil of Messenia was \u201cgood to plough and good to\nplant.\u201d Long before his day the Spartans had stretched out their hands\nfor it, and from the eighth century to the fourth they never\nrelinquished their grasp. During the more important epochs of Greek\nhistory Messenia was but a province of Laconia.\n\nBut it was a province capable at any time of revolt. The two early\n\u201cMessenian Wars,\u201d of the eighth and seventh centuries, were the stepping\nstones by which Sparta rose to a place of power in the Peloponnesus.\nBeset by agrarian difficulties, she needed more land, and the most\nfertile land of Greece was to be had for a little blood. Of the second\nwar we have a few fragmentary memorials in the contemporaneous martial\nverses of Tyrt\u00e6us. But in general both wars would be almost obliterated\nfrom history were it not for the fact that Pausanias, having access to\nsome late prose and poetry which repeated the native legends, in an\nunwonted mood of imaginative sympathy gave himself up to recounting the\npathetic efforts of Messenia toward freedom. There is the usual\nmaterial: heroes and fortresses, Aristodemus and Ithome in the first\nwar, Aristomenes and Eira in the second; oracles and portents; fair\nmaidens and faithless wives; kings and cowherd lovers; storms and\nmarvellous escapes; courage and despair. Aristomenes, as Pausanias says,\nshines out like Achilles in the Iliad, \u201cthe first and greatest glory of\nthe Messenian name.\u201d But in spite of his heroic and prolonged defence of\nEira, the Messenians by the sixth century were serfs of the Spartans,\npaying to their masters a half of all the produce raised by their own\nhands from their own farms,\u2014asses, Tyrt\u00e6us called them, worn by\nintolerable loads.\n\nIn the fifth century they took advantage of an earthquake and an\ninsurrection of slaves at Sparta to rise once more and encamp on Ithome.\nThey were defeated and obliged to choose between serfdom and exile. But\nby this time their petty rebellions had become important in the affairs\nof the greater powers of Greece. Ithome was the rock on which the\npolitical life of Cimon of Athens suffered shipwreck.\n\nDuring the next ninety years the nationalism of Messenia was a homeless\nand restless force, seeking, wherever it might, to harm Sparta and to\nglorify itself. During the Peloponnesian War the Messenians by their\nknowledge of the country materially aided the Athenians in the dramatic\nbattle of Sphacteria off the Messenian Pylos, and the surrender of the\nSpartans, Thucydides says, amazed all Hellas.\n\nAt last, about 370 B. C., the \u201cPoland of Greece\u201d found a friend in the\nman whose practical idealism was dominating the period. Epaminondas, in\npursuance of his policy of weakening Sparta by reviving other\nPeloponnesian states, determined to found a new capital of Messenia,\nMessene by name, on the slopes of Ithome. Ruins of this city still\nexist, and the most imposing of them, the fortification known as the\nArcadian Gateway, is famous as an example of skilful Greek engineering.\nLying toward Megalopolis, also a beneficiary of Epaminondas, it seemed\nto reunite in a new hope the old Arcadia and the old Messenia whose\nfriendship had been so futile. To-day, still a strangely impressive\nmonument, it may serve as a symbol of Messenia\u2019s share in the spirit of\nGreece. Impotent in literature and art and unsuccessful even in war, the\nmen of this country conserved through many generations and vicissitudes\nthat intense national feeling which existed at the core of every Greek\nstate, shaping Greek history and penetrating Greek literature. Wherever\nhistory became large and literature became universal the force of\nnational consciousness was likely to become diffused, but in a state\nlike Messenia it was obscured neither by other national gifts nor by its\nown success.\n\nThe Messenians, Pausanias tells us, \u201cwandered for nearly three hundred\nyears far from Peloponnese, and in all that time they are known to have\ndropped none of their native customs, nor did they unlearn their Doric\ntongue.\u201d After the victory at Leuctra \u201cthe Thebans sent messengers to\nItaly, Sicily and the Euesperit\u00e6 inviting all Messenians in any part of\nthe world whither they had strayed to return to Peloponnese. They\nassembled faster than could have been expected, for they yearned towards\nthe land of their fathers and hatred of Sparta still rankled in their\nbreasts.\u201d And for them Epaminondas made a new city, sending \u201cmen who\nwere skilled in laying out streets, building houses and sanctuaries and\nerecting city walls.\u201d The Arcadians sent victims for the sacrifices. The\nexiles, home at last, prayed to their ancient gods and called upon their\nancient heroes to come and dwell among them. \u201cBut loudest of all was the\ncry for Aristomenes, and the whole people joined in it.\u201d This call from\nhis own people has been, we may hope, full compensation to his dead ears\nfor the dumb or sneering lips of history.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XX\n SPARTA\n\n \u201cLaced\u00e6mon\u2019s hollowed vale by mountain-gorges pent.\u201d\n HOMER, _Odyssey_.\n\n\nIn the Spartans\u2019 theory of life adventures abroad or the welcome of\nstrangers into their own territory had no place. Perhaps nothing more\nsharply differentiated them from the Athenians, whose love of roving was\nequalled only by their delight in seeing the rest of the world drawn to\ntheir city. The instinctive and reasoned reserve of the Spartans was\nre\u00ebnforced by the physical conditions of their country. Laconia is\nbulwarked on three sides by mountains, through which, in antiquity, all\nentrances but one were difficult, and its southern boundary is the open\nand stormy sea. The Laconian Gulf splits the country into two\npeninsulas, ending in the famous promontories of T\u00e6narum and Malea, in\nrounding which so many sailors, from the days of Menelaus and Agamemnon\nand Odysseus, have looked for violent winds.\n\nFar inland, within the rifts of the northern hills, lies the plain of\nSparta. By those to whom the sea is not an essential element in Greek\nlandscape this city is held to be more beautifully situated than any\nother in Greece. The brilliant luxuriousness of a southern lowland is\ncombined with the austere grandeur of mountain scenery. Some twenty\nmiles in length, the plain is only five miles broad between the ranges\nof Taygetus and of Parnon, whose bases show extraordinary caverns and\nfissures. Taygetus stretches along the whole western side of Laconia,\nbut rears the highest of its long line of summits just over Sparta.\nThese magnificent summits, covered with snow for two thirds of the year,\nennoble many a landscape outside of Laconia. Below them extend the wide\ntracts of forest where Artemis once took her pleasure, and Spartan\nhunters tracked the wild boar with dogs that shared their \u201cbravery\u201d and\n\u201clove of toil\u201d and won a guerdon of praise from Pindar and Sophocles. In\nfront of these woodlands rise the five peaks which have given to the\nmountain the modern name of Pentedactylon.\n\nIt is characteristic of the Greek attitude toward nature that the\nmountain is not praised in poetry as much as is the beautiful plain,\nrichly fertilized by the river Eurotas on its way from Arcadia to the\nsea. Telemachus, in spite of his greater affection for the rough\ngoat-pastures of his native Ithaca, appreciated the wide courses and the\nmeadowland of Sparta where \u201caboundeth the clover, the marsh grass, the\nwheat and the rye and the broad white ears of the barley.\u201d Euripides\nknew that the reedy bed of the Eurotas, the trees and meadow flowers of\nits banks, its hungry foam in the season of heavy rain and the lovely\ngleam of its calmer waters would haunt the homesick hearts of Helen and\nthe Spartan maidens who shared Iphigeneia\u2019s exile among the Taurians.\n\n[Illustration: TAYGETUS]\n\nModern Sparta, founded after the War of Independence, lies in the\nsouthern district of the Sparta of antiquity. Medi\u00e6val Sparta, called\nMistra, lay some distance west of the old site, very near the entrance\nto the Langada Pass. Homeric Sparta lay to the southeast, across the\nEurotas, at Therapne, later a suburb of the Doric city. Here flourished\nthat noble court which amazed the young Ithacan and the tale of which is\nstill to us \u201ca fountain of immortal drink.\u201d Telemachus arrived just as\nMenelaus was marrying his son to a native princess, and his daughter,\nthe inheritor of her mother\u2019s loveliness, to Thessalian Neoptolemus,\nAchilles\u2019s son. Never could the great vaulted hall of the palace have\ndisplayed a gayer splendour. The son of Odysseus has grown up in no mean\ncastle, but this gleam of gold and silver, like sun and moon, this\nflashing bronze and shining ivory and glowing amber make him feel as if\nhe were on Olympus at the court of Zeus. Tumblers perform wonderful\ntricks. A divine minstrel sings. Silver basins and golden ewers are\npassed around. Supper is served on a polished table in dishes of gold.\nMenelaus, noticing the boy\u2019s charming admiration, tells him how he has\ngathered his wealth in Cyprus and Ph\u0153nicia and Egypt, but how it means\nlittle to him over against the loss of his old comrades and friends. And\nas they talk Helen comes in, like Artemis of the golden arrows, and her\nwilling servants bring her a carved chair and cover it with a rug of\nsoft wool. And sitting there, her white hands busied with the deep blue\nwool wound about her golden distaff and with the dressed yarn heaped in\nher silver basket that runs on little wheels and is rimmed with gold,\nshe talks with them of what happened once in Troy and of Odysseus of the\nhardy heart and, quite easily, of how she had wanted to come home again\nto her own country and her child and to her lord \u201cwho was lacking in\nnaught, nor wisdom, nor beauty of manhood.\u201d And into their drinking cups\nshe put a drug and \u201cthey drank of it, quenching all anger and pain and\nall of their sorrows forgetting.\u201d\n\nThe memory of the royal pair never died in Sparta. Therapne contained a\nsanctuary called the \u201cMenelaeion,\u201d where prayers were offered for the\nphysical beauty which was keenly desired by an athletic people. Helen\nsometimes walked abroad to bestow in turn the gift she had received from\nAphrodite. At least, Herodotus tells a story of a nurse taking a very\nugly girl baby to the temple and meeting a strange woman who insisted\nupon seeing the child and who then gently stroked its head and said,\n\u201cOne day this child shall be the fairest lady in Sparta.\u201d And from that\nvery day her looks began to change and the ugly baby became the beauty\nof the town and married the king.\n\nIt is not difficult to prolong the associations with Homeric Laconia by\nfollowing Helen on her guilty flight southward; lingering to see Amycl\u00e6,\na rich city in Homeric times, and the beehive tomb of Vaphio, which in\n1889 yielded up two incomparable vessels of gold now in the Museum at\nAthens; and going on to the busy seaport town of Gytheion, from whose\ndocks Paris took his stolen bride to the little island of Crana\u00eb, now\nMarathonisi, before spreading his defiant sails for the longer voyage.\nBut sooner or later the fact of the Dorian invasion must be reckoned\nwith, and the resultant birth at Sparta of a civilization totally at\nodds with that which it displaced.\n\nIn Laconia the invasion was one of conquest and subjection, and the\nvictors prided themselves on keeping their blood pure, much as the\nLaconian Maniotes of modern times have clung fiercely to their Spartan\ndescent. Sparta became the Dorian city _par excellence_, the protagonist\nof Dorian ideals, the natural leader of the forces which both in war and\npeace were in opposition to the Ionic elements in Greek life. The\nhistorical events in this development are so interwoven with the history\nof the other states of Greece, especially with that of Athens, that they\nwill already have become familiar to travellers who visit Sparta last.\nThe conquest of Messenia first increased her resources. By the middle of\nthe sixth century she won signal victories over Tegea and Argos and\nbecame the head of the Peloponnesian Confederacy, which included every\nstate in the Peloponnesus except Ach\u00e6a and Argos. Before the end of the\ncentury she was the leading state of Greece, for Thessaly was losing\nground and Athens had not yet risen. In the first part of the fifth\ncentury Sparta was the natural leader of the Greek allies against\nPersia, and in the autumn of 481 B. C. was the head of the congress at\nthe Isthmus. To her generals was given the command of both the army and\nthe navy. But her conduct of the wars at best did not increase her\nprestige, nor did she afterwards exhibit any skill in using new\nconditions. This was the opportunity of Ionic Athens to create the\ngreatest period of Greek history. But Sparta was also strong and\npossessed in Brasidas a general unparalleled among the Laconians for\neager enterprise, trustworthiness and personal popularity. A final\nstruggle was inevitable. The Dorians won, and, at the end of the fifth\ncentury, once more for a generation held the balance of power in Greece.\nBut Sparta\u2019s despotism within the Peloponnesus and her desire for\nforeign aggrandizement created new hostilities. Early in the fourth\ncentury Persia undermined her maritime power, and Greek friendships as\nstrange as the \u00c6schylean truce between fire and water were formed to her\ndetriment. Athens and Thebes, Corinth and Argos forgot old enmities in\nhatred of Sparta, but she maintained her supremacy and forced upon\nGreece the arbitration of the Persian king. For fifteen years Greek\npolitics veered hither and thither, and then at Leuctra Epaminondas\nconquered Sparta and won the leadership of Greece for Thebes. His death\ngave one more opportunity to Athens, but before she could use it Macedon\narose and at Ch\u00e6ronea united her with Sparta in a common humiliation.\nNever again did either Dorian or Ionian state have power to alarm the\nother.\n\nThucydides described Sparta as a straggling village like the ancient\ntowns of Hellas. Polybius added that it was roughly circular in shape\nand level, although it inclosed certain uneven and hilly places. It had\nno real acropolis, but the highest of its several hills received this\nconventional name; and it was not fortified by walls until long after\nthe greatest days of its history. Four districts or wards, Pitane,\napparently the aristocratic quarter, Limn\u00e6, Cynosura, and Mesoa, perhaps\nrepresented an early group of villages which later were united in one\ncity.\n\nThis city was extraordinarily barren of artistic adornment. The citizens\nof no other leading state in the whole of Greece were so indifferent to\nthe value of architecture and sculpture, nor is it likely that they were\nperturbed by the prophecy of Thucydides: \u201cIf the community of Laced\u00e6mon\nshould become a desert with only the temples and ground foundations\nremaining, I think that, after the lapse of much time, men of the future\nwould be very slow to believe that the power of the Laced\u00e6monians was\nequal to their fame. And yet they possess two of the five divisions of\nthe Peloponnesus and hold the hegemony of the whole and of many outside\nallies. But this community is not a city regularly built with costly\ntemples and edifices and would seem rather insignificant.\u201d\n\nTemples and edifices of course there were for the business of life and\nof religion, but the need for them was not, as in Athens, or even in\ncertain cities of rude Arcadia, identified with the larger need of\ninspiring or importing the genius of architect, sculptor, and painter.\nSparta had an early school of sculpture, influenced by Cretan teachers,\nspecimens of whose work may be seen in the Museum. But the impulse\nshrivelled and died in an uncongenial atmosphere. Nor do we find the\nSpartans in the great artistic centuries clamouring for the work of\nforeign artists as did the towns of \u201cstupid\u201d B\u0153otia. The British School\nof Arch\u00e6ology is successfully engaged in the exploration of Sparta, but\nwe cannot anticipate the discovery of statues like the Hermes of Olympia\nor the restoration of buildings like the Treasury of the Athenians at\nDelphi.\n\nWith this chastening of his imagination the traveller may turn his\nattention to the few discoveries which up to this time have been made.\nBy far the most significant of these are fragmentary remains of the\ntemple of Athena Chalki\u0153kos and of the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia.\nAthena\u2019s Brazen House, existing in some form from a very early epoch,\nwas so associated with the public life of the city that it became known\nto foreigners as an object of peculiar national sentiment. Euripides\nmakes the Trojan women attribute to Helen a desire to see it once more\nwhen, praying to die at sea before the consummation of their captivity,\nthey seek to involve her in their own fate:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd, God, may Helen be there,\n With mirrors of gold,\n Decking her face so fair,\n Girl-like; and hear and stare\n And turn death cold,\n Never, ah, never more\n The hearth of her home to see,\n Nor sand of the Spartan shore,\n Nor tombs where her fathers be\n Nor Athena\u2019s Brazen Dwelling\n Nor the towers of Pitane.\u201d[43]\n\nThe discovery of the Temple of Artemis is of great importance, not only\nbecause it was the pivot of the religious life of Sparta but because its\neighth century foundations, excavated beneath the traces of a sixth\ncentury structure, may belong to the earliest temple in Greece. The\nimage, called Orthia because it had been found \u201cupright\u201d in a thicket of\nwillows, was believed by the Spartans to be the ancient wooden one\nbrought by Orestes and Iphigeneia from the land of the Taurians, where\nIphigeneia, rescued by Artemis from the sacrificial altar at Aulis, had\nbeen its priestess and guardian. Euripides naturally preserves the\nAthenian tradition that the image was brought to Brauron. But Pausanias\npresses the Spartan claim and explains the hoary custom of annually\nscourging the boys in front of the image by the \u201crelish for blood\u201d that\nit had acquired in the days when human sacrifices were offered to it in\na barbarian land.\n\nFootnote 43:\n\n Translated by Gilbert Murray.\n\nThe brutality in the training of Spartan youth has bulked so large in\ntradition that local associations with it perhaps impress the traveller\nmore sharply than any others. In the southwestern region of the town,\nnear the large ruins of a Roman bath, lay, it is thought, the Dromos or\nrace course, and the Platanistas or Plane-tree Grove, surrounded by a\nmoat and entered by two bridges, where the boys, as a part of their\neducation, fought very savage battles. This grove is an excellent\nillustration of the danger of claiming too much for the influence on the\nmind of external forms. Plato held that even the shapes of trees might\ninfluence the spirit of those who walked among them, and Walter Pater,\nin his study of Laced\u00e6mon, compresses the idea into a definite\napplication by describing the plane tree, the characteristic tree of\nSparta, as \u201ca very tranquil and tranquillizing object, regally spreading\nits level or gravely curved masses on the air.\u201d Yet within a circle of\nthese tranquillizing objects Cicero, and later Lucian and Pausanias, saw\nthe Spartan boys fighting with incredible fury, kicking, scratching,\nbiting, and dying rather than confess themselves beaten.\n\nIn literature as well as in the plastic arts the Spartans failed to\nexpress themselves. Only four poets of any widespread fame had their\nhomes in Sparta, and no one of these was a native born. Significantly,\ntoo, they all lived at least as early as the seventh century, at the\nonly period when Spartan life showed any pliability. Individual freedom\nwas not wholly repressed, and an acknowledgment of the graces of life\nwas at times permitted. Only under these conditions could art live at\nall, and poetry outran sculpture in permanent achievement. This was,\nperhaps, due to its immediate connection with music (including dancing),\nthe only art which the later Spartans, although they did not give it a\nplace in their educational curriculum, seem to have appreciated.\n\nAccording to tradition, Sparta\u2019s poets all came to her in response to a\ncall for foreign aid in her domestic broils. Terpander of Lesbos and\nThaletas of Crete successively founded two musical epochs in a city that\nwas intent upon controlling its serfs and developing its soil.\nTerpander\u2019s service was almost incalculable, for he modified the\nexisting lyre into an instrument which was universally used until the\nfifth century and which gave the first great impulse to vocal music. But\n\u201cthe strings he fingered are all gone,\u201d and of the verses that he wrote\nwe have only a few fragments to recall his life in Sparta, his\ninvocations at public festivals of Apollo, the chief god of the city,\nand of Castor and Polydeuces, the city\u2019s heroes, and his praise of the\ncity herself:\u2014\n\n \u201cBursts into bloom there the warrior\u2019s ardour,\n Clear lifts the note of the shrill-voic\u00e8d Muse.\n Justice walks down the wide highways as Warder,\n Ever their Helper glory to choose.\u201d\n\nThaletas, coming from an island where the dance had been important from\nprehistoric times, and finding in Sparta the same friendly atmosphere of\nopen Dorian life, introduced the festival of the Gymnop\u00e6dia, in which\nboys displayed the perfected beauty of their naked bodies in athletic\ndances and, by means of formal songs in unison, began the \u201cchoral\nlyric.\u201d This poetic form, passing far beyond its birthplace, became\neverywhere in Greece the chief expression of public worship of gods and\nheroes and stimulated the powers of such poets as Simonides and Pindar\nand Bacchylides. Thaletas was lost sight of in his greater successor\nAlcman, who not only was credited with the creation as well as with the\ncultivation of the choral lyric, but also was adjudged so successful in\nall his work that Alexandrian scholars included him in their canon of\nthe melic poets, with Pindar and Sappho.\n\nTerpander and Thaletas are little more than names, familiar only to\nthose who study origins. Alcman and Tyrt\u00e6us, the poet of the Messenian\nWar, are representatives of the vital poetry which Sparta cherished in\nher supple youth before her ideals had matured and her life had\nirreparably settled into its narrow grooves. Tyrt\u00e6us was probably an\nAthenian, even if it is mere legend that he was a lame schoolmaster sent\nby Athens in derision when Sparta appealed for help in the second\nMessenian War. Alcman was born in Sardis, though probably of Hellenic\nblood. If our traditional dates are correct, some years at least of\ntheir lives must have coincided. Their poetry in general represented\ndifferent modes, Tyrt\u00e6us being the earliest master, outside of Ionia, of\nthe flute-accompanied elegiac distich, the lusty heir of the Homeric\nhexameter, while Alcman established many of the more delicate measures\npermitted by the versatile lyre. Their poetic purposes, however, were\ninfluenced in common by the Dorian atmosphere in which they lived.\n\nIn Tyrt\u00e6us this showed itself in the creation of martial verse, which\nseems to have been powerfully influential in arousing into active\nservice, at a time of need, the courage and the perseverance ingrained\nin the Doric character. But his own racial gift made it impossible that\nhis poetry should be confined to one country. In all parts of Greece,\nthrough many centuries, it expressed the ideal of courage. One of his\nanap\u00e6stic songs, intended to be sung by Spartan soldiers as they marched\nto battle, has been called the Marseillaise of Greece. A fragment of it\nstill stirs the blood:\u2014\n\n \u201cUp! youths of the Spartan nobles,\n Ye citizen sons of the elders!\n With the left hold out your targes,\n And fling your spears with boldness.\n Spare not your lives. To spare them\n Was never known in Sparta.\u201d\n\nThe Dorian element that appealed to Alcman was the publicity of the\ndaily life. Men lived in common, ate at large public tables, trained\ntheir children in groups, and believed always in the sacrifice of the\nindividual to the necessities of the state. Hence they took kindly to\npublic festivals where choruses of men and women, boys and girls could\nsing hymns that gave expression to common and national sentiments. These\nhymns Alcman wrote in great numbers. Especially famous and never\ndisplaced by later poets were his partheneia, written for the choruses\nof Spartan maidens whose share in the athletic training of their\nbrothers made them the most beautiful in Greece. Travellers in Sparta\nwho look at the lifeless ruins of the Temple of Artemis will rejoice\nthat among the broken fragments of Alcman\u2019s poetry exist seven complete\nstrophes of a partheneion which probably was sung before the temple at\none of the festivals of the goddess. Helen as a child had danced at such\na festival, and doubtless many a girl in Alcman\u2019s chorus was pointed out\nby the surrounding crowd as her fit successor. In his vigour the poet\nmust often himself have led the dances of these tall, straight maidens.\nIn his old age, too stiff to keep pace with their lithe movements, he\nadded to a song he wrote for them \u201cdes images aimables\u201d of gallant\nregret:\u2014\n\n \u201cNay, now no longer, ye sweet-voic\u00e8d maidens, lovely in singing,\n Can my limbs bear me. Would God, would to God, that a halcyon were I\n Who with his married mates over the flowering meadows of Ocean\n Fluttereth, heart-free of trouble, the sea-purple bird of the\n spring-time.\u201d\n\nVerses like these betray an un-Dorian element in Alcman\u2019s genius which\ncame from his \u00c6olian ancestry. It crept into his choral lyrics and\nclaimed its own in his lighter verses. Love and feasting and Bacchic joy\nfurnished him with subjects. No other set of lyric fragments contains so\nmany traces of the consciousness of natural beauties. If all his poetry\nwere preserved, it would not surprise us to find in it a complete and\nsensitive response to the extraordinary loveliness amid which he lived.\nWe know already that by night in the valley of the Eurotas he watched\nsleep descend upon the crests and crags of Taygetus and the waiting\nearth,[44] was aware of the dew of moonlit evenings and the songs of\nbirds, and felt the charms of the alternating seasons, especially the\ninvigorating bloom of spring.\n\nFootnote 44:\n\n For this fragment see chapter i, p. 22.\n\nAfter the seventh century Sparta entered the Greek world with an\noffering that excluded art and the consciousness of external beauty.\nThis was her mode of life, dedicated to one austere end. The citizens of\nSparta were a small body of men, of pure Dorian blood, freed from the\ncares of self-support by the serfs or helots who were descendants of the\noriginal possessors of the soil they tilled. The whole time of the\nmasters could be devoted to the state, and the pivotal demand of the\nstate was for strong, brave and skilful soldiers. All life was a vast\nsystem of education directed toward the end of military efficiency. This\nexplains each one of their customs: the exposure of sickly infants on\nthe slopes of Mount Taygetus; the savage training of their boys and the\nsevere training of their girls, who were to be the mothers of soldiers;\nthe repression of personal luxury, the equalizing of rich and poor, the\ndetailed elimination of individual pursuits. Conservatism was the breath\nof their life. Their institutions were of very ancient origin, although\nLycurgus is now regarded as merely a legendary designer, and, once in\npossession of their imaginations, could not be shaken off or essentially\nmodified. At the crucial period following the Peloponnesian War their\ninability to use new conditions played havoc with their political\nopportunities. Exclusiveness and reserve were corollaries of their\nsingle purpose. Indifference to the arts of peace was inevitable in a\nnation consecrated to preparation for war.\n\nThe spectacle presented by the Spartans never failed to excite the\nlively interest of the other Greeks. Men as diverse as Xenophon and\nAristotle wrote about their institutions, and popular judgments were\nalways in evidence. An opinion which was probably held by many just\nbefore the Peloponnesian War is contained in Thucydides\u2019s rehearsal of a\nspeech made in Sparta by a Corinthian delegate to the conference which\nthe allies had forced upon her. Impatiently he tells the Spartans that\nthey do not know how utterly unlike them the Athenians are:\u2014\n\n\u201cThey are revolutionary and swift to plan and to execute whatever they\nconceive, but you are all for conserving the existing state of things,\ninventing no new policy and in action not even coming up to what\nnecessity demands. Again, they are daring beyond their strength and run\nrisks contrary to their judgment, and in the midst of terrors they are\nfull of hope. Whereas your way is to act within your strength, to have\nconfidence not even in your best secured plans and, when terrors\nthreaten, to think that you will never be set free from them. Nay, they\nare energetic and you are laggards; they go abroad while you cling to\nhome.\u201d\n\nThe Spartan king, Archidamus, justified his nation in a speech made in a\nprivate session:\u2014\n\n\u201cWe have ever dwelt in a free and most illustrious state, and this\npolicy of conservative self-control may well be equivalent to sound\nreason. We have become good warriors and wise in counsel by our careful\ndiscipline; good warriors, because self-control best quickens the sense\nof honour, and from this noble sense of shame springs courage; wise in\ncounsel, because we are too unlettered to be superior to the laws, too\nseverely self-controlled to disobey them.\u201d\n\nA generation earlier Herodotus had paid his tribute to the Spartan\nloyalty to law in his story of the conversation between Xerxes,\nmeditating his attack on Greece, and Demaratus, the ruined Spartan king\nwho had fled to the court of Darius. Want, the exile tells the monarch,\nhad always been a fellow-dweller in his land, but courage was an ally\nthey had gained by wisdom and laws. \u201cThe Laced\u00e6monians even when\nfighting man for man are inferior to none, but in a body they are the\nbest of all. For although they are free they are not wholly free, for\nover them there is a master, Law, whom they fear far more than thine\nfear thee. At any rate, they always do his bidding.\u201d And that the\nAthenians, with their reverence for law, were by no means unwilling to\nattribute to the law-abiding Spartans a love of liberty as passionate as\ntheir own is seen in another story of Herodotus. Two young nobles\nvolunteered to go to Xerxes and offer their lives in atonement for the\nmurder of his father\u2019s heralds. On their way to Persia they were\nentertained by the governor Hydarnes, who, calling attention to his own\nprosperity, urged them to make their submission to the king. \u201cHydarnes,\u201d\nthey answered, \u201cthy advice to us is one-sided. Thou hast tried the one\nside, but art inexperienced in the other. For thou knowest how to be a\nslave, but liberty thou hast not tried as yet, whether it be sweet or\nno. Shouldst thou taste it, thou wouldst urge us to fight for it not\nonly with the spear but also with the battle-axe.\u201d\n\nOne base alloy historians and poets alike found in the character of the\nSpartans. This was their corruptibility, their sordid greed of gain, as\nAristophanes called it when angered by their rejection of peace. To the\nsame political period belong savage attacks of Euripides on Spartan\ntreachery and dishonesty. He also takes occasion to question the\nchastity of the daughters of Sparta:\u2014\n\n \u201cNo Spartan maiden, even wishing it, were chaste!\n Not they. Their homes deserting, with their chitons slit\n Along the thigh, with robes loose-girdled, they with youths\n Share in the foot-race and\u2014a thing I can\u2019t endure\u2014\n In wrestling bouts.\u201d\n\nProbably this exactly expressed the sentiment of the average Athenian\ntheatre-goer, accustomed to identify the virtue of women with their\nobedience to conventional restrictions, which men in the fifth century\ninsisted upon as well as the husband in Menander\u2019s play:\u2014\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re overstepping, wife, a married woman\u2019s bounds,\n The front door passing; for to ladies of good birth\n The house door is the limit by convention set.\n This chasing and this running out into the street,\n Your billingsgate still snapping, Rhode, is for dogs!\u201d\n\nMen possessed of these ideas could not appreciate that in Sparta, in the\ngreat periods, freedom and sobriety went hand in hand. Aristotle, in his\narraignment of the license and luxury of the Spartan women as one of the\ndefects of the Spartan system, may have been dealing with some special\nfacts of his own day. In the fourth century Sparta had in certain ways\ndeteriorated.\n\nBut this deterioration could not do more than blur the outlines of a\nsystem of life which for three centuries had stood before the world, a\n\u201cwhole serene creation.\u201d Comic writers might show up the boorishness of\nthe unlearned Spartans, and irritable tragic poets might vent their\nspleen on their country\u2019s enemy, but in the end Spartan institutions had\nto be respected and admired. Indeed, many Athenians affected a special\npredilection for qualities unlike their own and \u201claconized\u201d in dress,\nmanner, and speech. Philosophy flourished in Sparta, Plato tells us, and\nwith it a rare skill in conversation. The typical Spartan, after\npretending that he could not talk, would throw into the discussion,\n\u201clike a clever javelin-thrower,\u201d a remark \u201cworth listening to, brief,\ncompressed.\u201d\n\nThinkers as well as Laconomaniacs displayed enthusiasm for Spartan\nideas. Aristotle, to be sure, while praising the love of education among\nthe Laced\u00e6monians, deplored their absorption in one object and also\ncomplained that they preferred the good they gained to the virtue by\nmeans of which they gained it. But, true as this may be, the nobility of\nthe effort, the flawless harmony of details, the perfect adjustment of\nthe system to the use for which it was intended, resulted in a product\nas truly Greek as is a Doric temple or an Attic trilogy. It is not\nstrange that its apotheosis is found in the ideal state of the great\nvisionary of Athens. Plato\u2019s \u201cRepublic\u201d is Sparta idealized and\ninterpreted by an Athenian.\n\nA state combining the character of the Dorians and the genius of the\nIonians history has failed to produce. Isocrates cherished a hope that\nAthens and Sparta might divide the headship of a gloriously united\nGreece. After Ch\u00e6ronea he was even far-sighted enough to plead for the\nwilling union of Hellas under Philip of Macedon. Hopes like these proved\neither futile or too mean. But his pride in the spiritual achievements\nof his own city has been approved by Time, \u201cthe Inspector-General of\nmen\u2019s deeds.\u201d The institutions of Sparta like every other product of the\nGreek mind went into the crucible of Athens. And this city, triumphing\nbeyond the orator\u2019s boast, \u201chas caused the name of Hellene to seem to be\nmatter no longer of birth but of intellect, and has made them bear it\nwhose claim is that of culture rather than of origins.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n APPENDIX\n\n Usually only the first line of citations is noted.\n\nCHAPTER I. =Page 2= (third paragraph) Cf. Curtius, _Greek History_, I,\np. 23 and _passim_. Plato, _Tim\u00e6us_, 22 B. =3= Quotation from Curtius,\n_Greek History_, I, p. 32. =5= Hatzidakis, _Neugriechische Grammatik_,\np. 4. =9= Quotation from Tozer, _Geography of Greece_, p. 44. Cf.\n_passim_. =10-12= \u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_, 281. =17-18= \u00c6schylus,\n_Agamemnon_, 454. =19= Homer, _Odyssey_, VI, 130; V, 51; _Iliad_, VIII,\n553. =20= Homer, _Odyssey_, VI, 162. Pindar, _Olymp._, II, 70. =21=\nPindar, _Olymp._, VI, 54. =22= \u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_, 1390. =23=\n\u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_, 563; _Prometheus_, I, 88. =24= Sophocles,\n_Philoctetes_, 936; _\u0152dipus Tyrannus_, 204. =25= Aristophanes, _Clouds_,\n275. =26= Aristophanes, _Peace_, 571. \u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_, 142.\nEuripides, _Hippolytus_, 70. =27= Euripides, _Trojan Women_, 845;\n_Bacch\u00e6_, 1084. Plato, _Ph\u00e6drus_, 229, 230. =28= _Greek Anthology_,\nPal., VII, 669. Very probably by Plato; App. Plan., 13, attributed to\nPlato, but probably of later date. Theocritus, _Idyl_, VII, 134.\n\nCHAPTER II. =Page 37= Thucydides, VI, 30. =38= \u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_,\n763; 433. =39= Lucian, _When My Ship Comes In_ (_Navigium_), 5. =43=\n\u00c6schylus, _Suppliants_, 715. =44= Isocrates, _Areopagiticus_, 66. =45=\nPlato, _Symposium_, 173 B. Lucian, _Navigium_, 35. =46= Xenophon,\n_Hellenica_, II, 4, 11. =47-48= Lysias, _Against Eratosthenes_, 4. =49=\nMenander, _Fragments_. =50= Plato, _Republic_, 439, E. 54 _Greek\nAnthology_, Pal., VII, 639.\n\nCHAPTER III. =Page 57= Euripides: _Suppliants_, 403-408. Jebb, _Modern\nGreece_, p. 70. =59= Isocrates, _Panegyricus_, 23, 24. =62= \u00c6lian, _apud\nStob. Serm._, XXIV, 53. For Solon\u2019s apothegm cf. Herodotus, I, 32;\n\u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_, 928. =63= \u201cThe Guardian,\u201d cf. Lucian: _The\nFisher_, 21. =64= Plutarch, _Life of Solon_ (end). =66= Euripides,\n_Trojan Women_, 801. =67= G. Murray, _Rise of the Greek Epic_, p. 173.\n=68= Homer, _Iliad_, II, 557-558. Lucian, _True History_, II, 20. =69=\nDyer, _The Gods in Greece_, p. 125. See Gardner and Jevons, _Greek\nAntiquities_, p. 296. =72= \u00c6schylus, _Persians_, 241-242. Herodotus,\nVII, 105. =73= Lucian, _Twice Accused_, 11.\n\nCHAPTER IV. =Page 74= Plato, _Republic_, 532, C. Howe, _Greek\nRevolution_ (1828), p. 340. =76= Plato, _Ph\u00e6drus_, 279 B. =78= Cf.\nGardner, _Ancient Athens_, p. 256. =80= Bayard Taylor, _Travels in\nGreece and Russia_ (1859), p. 39. =81= Homer, _Iliad_, II, 546-551. =82=\nHomer, _Odyssey_, VII, 78. Herodotus, VI, 137. =83= Herodotus, VIII, 41;\n55. Aristophanes, _Lysistrata_, 758. =84= Aristophanes, _Birds_, 828.\n=85= Demosthenes, 597, 8. Aristophanes, _Knights_, 1321. =85-86=\nAristophanes, _Lysistrata_, 256, 641. =88= Plutarch, _Life of Pericles_,\n13. Lucian, _The Fisher_, 39.\n\nCHAPTER V. =Page 91= Thucydides, II, 64. =92= \u00c6schylus, _Persians_, 347.\nEuripides, _Medea_, 826. Demosthenes, _Olynthiac_, III, 25, 29. =103=\nSecond paragraph, cf. Lucian, _Cock_, 26. =104= \u00c6schylus, _Eumenides_,\n328. =105= \u00c6schylus, _Eumenides_, 778; and 1032. =106= Cf. J. I. Manatt,\n_The Pauline Areopagus, Andover Rev._, 1892. =107= Plato, _Ph\u00e6do_, 114,\nC. ff. Pindar, _Olymp._, II. =108= Plato, _Apology_, 41, C.\nAristophanes, _Wasps_, 31 ff. =109= Plato, _Republic_, 514. See note on\np. 129 of J. Harrison\u2019s _Primitive Athens_, and cf. J. H. Wright, _Harv.\nStud. Class. Phil._, 1906, pp. 131-142. See also below, chap, vii, p.\n164. Barathrum. See Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 574; Herodotus, VII, 133;\nPlato, _Gorgias_, 516, E. =110= Cf. Gardner, _Ancient Athens_, p. 127;\nPlato, _Apology_, 36, D; Plutarch, _Aristides_, 27. =110-111=\nAristophanes, _Peace_, 1183; _Birds_, 450. =111= Bacchylides,\n_Fragments_. Lysias, _Or._ XXIV, 20. =112= Aristophanes, _passim_, and\n_Birds_, 1080-1081. Menander, _Fragments_. =114= \u00c6schylus, _Seven\nAgainst Thebes_, 854. =115= Thucydides, II, 34. =115-116= Thucydides,\nII, 52, 54; Sophocles, _\u0152dipus Tyrannus_, 171. =117= Aristophanes,\n_Clouds_, 17, 18 & 56; _Wasps_, 246. =118= Demosthenes, _Against Conon_,\n9. =120= Lucian, _Icaromenippus_, 16. Aristophanes, _Birds_, 1421;\n_Wasps_, 835. =123= _Homeric Hymn to Dionysus_, 51. Bacchylides, XIX, 5.\n=123-124= Pindar, _Fragments_. Aristophanes, _Acharnians_, 636.\nEuripides, _Medea_, 824. =125= Plato, _Ph\u00e6drus_, 247, A; _Republic_,\n592, A, B.\n\nCHAPTER VI. =Page 127= Pindar, _Olymp._, VI, 1. Aristophanes, _Wasps_,\n600. Homer, _Odyssey_, XV, 459. =128= Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 171. =129=\nHomer, _Iliad_, XI, 558. =130= Euripides, _Alcestis_, 252, 433, 575.\nHomer, _Odyssey_, XIII, 221. =131= _Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite_.\nEuripides (?), _Rhesus_, 546. Homer, _Iliad_, III, 10; VIII, 555; III,\n198. Homer, _Odyssey_, XI, 444. Aristophanes, _Wasps_, 179. =133= Homer,\n_Iliad_, XVIII, 414. Plato, _Republic_, III, 404. =134= Homer,\n_Odyssey_, XVII, 205. Homer, _Iliad_, XXII, 147. Homer, _Odyssey_, VI,\n70; VII, 19. _Homeric Hymn to Demeter_, 105. =135= Euripides, _Electra_,\n54. =136= Aristophanes, _Thesmophoriazus\u00e6_, I. =139= Plato, Laws, 653.\n=140= Sophocles, _\u0152dipus Tyrannus_, 1489. Aristophanes,\n_Thesmophoriazus\u00e6_. Menander, _Epitrepontes_. Plato, _Lysis_.\n\nCHAPTER VII. =Page 144= Aristophanes, _Clouds_, 300. Aristophanes,\n_Frogs_, 1056. Plato, _Critias_, 112. =145= Theophrastus, _De Signis\nTempestatum_, I, 20, 24. Aristophanes, _Clouds_, 299-313; and see chap,\ni, p. 25. =146-147= Sophocles, _\u0152dipus Coloneus_, 668-687; 16-18;\n694-701. =147= Cf. chap. iii, p. 65. =148= Plato, _Ph\u00e6do_, 115, C.\nAntipater, _Anth. Gr\u00e6ca_, ed. ab De Bosch, Lib. III, Tit. xxxii. =149=\nXenophon, _Hellenica_, II, 4, 2-4. =150= Simmias, _Anth. Pal._, VII, 22.\n=151= Aristophanes, _Acharnians_, 34-36; 179; 257-263; 325-348. =152=\nMenander. Parts of four comedies of Menander were found in Egypt 1905,\npublished 1907 (Lefebvre). For translation of this scene _see_ N. Y.\n_Nation_, p. 266, Mar. 19, 1908. =154= \u00c6schylus, _Seven against Thebes_,\n587. =156= Plato, _Republic_, 451, A; Pindar, _Pyth._, X, 41-44.\nDioscorides, _Anth. Pal._, VII, 410. =158= Demosthenes, _De Corona_,\n208. =159= Epitaph of \u00c6schylus. _See_ Vita \u00c6schyli, Medicean MS.\nCynosarges Gymnasium. The site is now put somewhere near the present\nAmerican and British Schools. Cf. Gardner, _Anc. Ath._, 528. =160=\nHerodotus, VI, 120. =161= \u00c6schylus, _Persians_, 238. Plutarch,\n_Lysander_, XVI. =162= Lysias, XXI, 5. Aristophanes, _Knights_, 550-560.\n=163= Homer, _Odyssey_, III, 278. Sophocles, _Ajax_, 1216 ff. Herod.,\nVI, 115. Plato, _Crito_, 43, and _Ph\u00e6do_, 58, B. =164= Zoster:\nHerodotus, VIII, 107. Vari: cf. Frazer on _Paus._, I, xxxii, and see\nnote on chap. v, p. 109. Solon: cf. chap. iii, p. 58. =165= Demosthenes,\n_De Falsa Legatione_, 251. =166-168= \u00c6schylus, _Persians_, 447-449; 386\n_passim_ to 421; 274-277; 821-822; 923; _Agamemnon_, 658-660. =169=\nTimotheus, _Pers\u00e6_, 105. Plutarch, _Aristides_, X.\n\nCHAPTER VIII. =Page 174= Euripides, _Suppliants_, 30. =175= Euripides,\n_Helena_, 1301. =176= Strabo, X, 3, 9. =178= Sophocles, _\u0152dipus\nColoneus_, 1146. Euripides, _Ion_, 1078. Herodotus, VIII, 65. =179=\nAristophanes, _Frogs_, 341. =180= Aristotle, fragment, quoted by\nSynesius. =181= Pindar, fragment. Sophocles, fragment. Euripides,\n_Hercules_ _Furens_, 613. Isocrates, _Panegyricus_, 28. Aristophanes,\n_Frogs_, 455. =182= Andocides, _On the Mysteries_, 31. Plato, _Ph\u00e6drus_,\n251 A. =183= Alcman (probably). =184= Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 338, 397.\n=185= Plato, _Ph\u00e6do_, 69 C.\n\nCHAPTER IX. =Page 186= Pindar, _Pyth._, VIII, 21. Plutarch, _Life of\nPericles_, 156. =187= Lucian, _Navigium_, 15. Thucydides, VI, 32. =189=\nPindar, _Nem._, VII, 78. Bacchylides, _Epinician Odes_, 13. =190=\nPindar, _Isth._, IV, 23; VII, 16; IV, 49; V, 23. Pindar, _Nem._, V, 23.\n=191= Pindar, _Pyth._, VIII, 92.\n\nCHAPTER X. =Page 192= Herodotus, I, 5. =193= Pindar, _Olymp._, XIII, 65.\n=194= Homer, _Iliad_, IX, 529. Bacchylides, _Epinician Odes_, 5.\nEuripides, _Meleager_ (not extant). Lucian, _Life\u2019s-end of Peregrinus_,\n30. =196= \u00c6schylus, _Cho\u00ebphoroi_, 602. =197= Theognis, 667, 825, 1197.\n=198= Thucydides, I, 140. Aristophanes, _Acharnians_, 509. Isocrates,\n_De Pace_, 117. =199= _Greek Anthology_, Pal., VII, 496. =200= Lucian,\n_Marine Dialogues_, 9. Euripides, _Medea_, 1282. =201= _Greek\nAnthology_, Pal., VI, 349; VI, 223. Aristotle, _Politics_, 1327 a, 1330\nb. Bacchylides, Fragment. =202= Homer, _Iliad_, II, 570. =203= Pindar,\n_Olymp._, XIII, 4. Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 439. Homer, _Odyssey_, XI,\n593. =204= Homer, _Iliad_, VI, 144. Pindar, _Olymp._, XIII, 63. =205=\nPlato, _Republic_, IX, 579 E. =208= Herodotus, I, 24. =210= Pindar,\n_Olymp._, XIII, 6. =211= _Greek Anthology_, Pal., IX, 151. =213=\nPlutarch, _On Garrulity_, XIV. Lucian, _How to Write History_, 3. =215=\nEuripides, _Trojan Women_, 205. =216= Thucydides, VIII, 7.\n\nCHAPTER XI. =Page 218= Euripides, _Andromache_, 1085. Pindar, _Pyth._,\nVIII, 61. =219= Homer, _Odyssey_, VIII, 79. \u00c6schylus, _Prometheus_, 679.\nSophocles, _\u0152dipus Tyr._, 70; _\u0152dipus Col._, 84. =220= Homer, _Odyssey_,\nIV, 1. \u00c6schylus, _Persians_, 568. \u00c6schylus, _Prometheus_, 680.\nHerodotus, _passim_. =221= Aristophanes, _Knights_, 1007. =222=\nHerodotus, VII, 139. Sophocles, _\u0152dipus Tyr._, 711. =224= \u00c6schines,\n_Against Ctesiphon_, 115. =227= Homer, _Iliad_, I, 44. Pindar, _Pyth._,\nI, 1. =228= Himerius, quoted in Wharton\u2019s _Sappho_, p. 165. \u00c6schylus,\n_Eumenides_, 13. Plato, _Protagoras_, 343. =230= \u00c6schylus, _Eumenides_,\n23, 1. Euripides, _Iphigeneia in Tauris_, 1234. =232= Homer, _Odyssey_,\nXIX, 392. Euripides, _Ion_, 82. =234= Strabo, IX, 3. =237= Euripides,\n_Andromache_, 1085. Pindar, _Pyth._, IV, 4. Demosthenes, _Philippics_,\nIII. =240= Plato, _Republic_, =X=, 616. =243= Pindar, _Pyth._, III, 75.\n=244= Herodotus, VIII, 35. =248= Cf. Myers, _Pindar_, p. 10. =249=\nPindar, _Olymp._, XII, 5.\n\nCHAPTER XII. =Page 250= Sophocles, _\u0152dipus Tyr._, 1398. =251=\nAristophanes, _Thesmophoriazus\u00e6_, 1180. =252= Herodotus, VIII, 37. =259=\nSophocles, _\u0152dipus Tyr._, 800. =260= \u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_, 1111. Homer,\n_Odyssey_, XIX, 518. =261= Homer, _Odyssey_, XI, 576. =262= Demosthenes,\n_On the Crown_, 218. =265= _Greek Anthology_, Pal., VII, 245.\n\nCHAPTER XIII. =Page 266= Pindar, _Isth._, VI, 1. =267= Plutarch, _On the\nMalice of Herodotus_. Homer, _Iliad_, =IV=, 384; II, 495. _Homeric\nHymns_ to Apollo and Hermes. =268= \u00c6schylus, _Seven Against Thebes_,\n296. Sophocles, _Antigone_, 1124. Euripides, _Bacch\u00e6_, _passim_. =271=\nPindar, _Olymp._, VI, 89. =275= Pindar, _Pyth._, III, 87; _Isth._, I, 1;\n_Nem._, I, 33. =276= Sophocles, _Trachini\u00e6_. Sophocles, _Antigone_,\n1148; Euripides, _Bacch\u00e6_, _passim_. =277= Euripides, _Bacch\u00e6_, 233.\n=278= Aristophanes, _Thesmophoriazus\u00e6_, 990. =279= Euripides, _Bacch\u00e6_,\n64, 105, 677. =281= Sophocles, _\u0152dipus Tyr._, 1026. =283= Sophocles,\n_\u0152dipus Tyr._, 1186, 1524. =284= \u00c6schylus, _Seven Against Thebes_, 524,\n686. =286= Euripides, _Phoiniss\u00e6_, 1009. Sophocles, _Antigone_, 450.\n=287= Sophocles, _\u0152dipus Tyr._, 867. Sophocles, _Antigone_, 781, 800.\n=288= Pindar, _Isth._, VII, 5. =291= Pindar, _Isth._, VII, 5. Plutarch,\n_Apothegms_. =293= Pindar, _Pyth._, III, 79. =295= Plutarch,\n_Apothegms_.\n\nCHAPTER XIV. =Page 296= Hesiod, _Theogony_, I. Plato, _Symposium_, 221\nA. =297= Pindar, _Pyth._, I, 78. \u00c6schylus, _Persians_, 484. Herodotus,\nIX, 16. =298= Herodotus, IX, 25. =299= Pindar, _Pyth._, I, 77. \u00c6schylus,\n_Persians_, 813. Simonides, _Greek Anthology_, Pal., VII, 253, 251.\n=300= Thucydides, III, 53. =301= Plutarch, _On the decay of oracles_.\n_On the d\u00e6mon of Socrates_. A friend of Plutarch, not Plutarch himself,\nvisited the oracle of Trophonius. =302= Pindar, _Olymp._, XIV, 1. =304=\nCicero, _Against Verres_, IV, 2, 59. =307= Plato, _Republic_, X, 611.\nHomer, _Iliad_, II, 303. =308= Euripides, _Iphigeneia in Aulis_, 1386.\n\u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_, 220. =309= \u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_, 181. =310=\nHesiod, _Works and Days_, 640. =311= Cf. Symonds\u2019 _Greek Poets_, I,\nchap. 5. =314= Plutarch, _Life of Aristides_, 21.\n\nCHAPTER XV. =Page 316= _Iliad_, I, 156. =317-322= Herodotus, VII,\n210-233. =318= Cf. Pausanias, I, 4, 1-4; X, xix-xxiii.\n\nCHAPTER XVI. =Page 323= Alpheus of Mitylene, _Anth. Pal._, IX, 101;\nsometimes attributed to Antipater of Thessalonica. =330= Herodotus, I,\n1. =331= Lucian, _Charon_, 23. =332= Pausanias, II, 15, with Frazer\u2019s\nnotes. =333= Pindar, _Nemean_, X, 28; VI, 12. =335= Thucydides, I, 9;\n_Iliad_, II, 108. Euripides, _Iphigeneia in Aul._, 1498. _Iphigeneia in\nT._, 845-846. =336-343= \u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_, 40-47; 320; 154; 334-337;\n818-820; 905-911; 947; 958-962; _passim_, 973; 1327-1330; 1379-1387;\n1548-1559; 577-579. =341= Cf. Browning\u2019s _Agamemnon_ for several\nphrases. =342= Euripides, _Electra_, 54; 77. \u00c6schylus, _Cho\u00ebph._ 1061.\n=343= _Iliad_, IV, 52. Pythagoras: Horace, _Od._, I, 28, 11. Iamblichus,\n_Life of Pythag._, 63, and see Lucian, _Cock_, 16, 17. Herodotus, I, 31.\n=344= \u00c6schylus, _Suppliants_, 954-956. =345= \u00c6schylus, _Prometheus_,\n854-869. =346= Lucian, _Marine Dialogues_, 6. =347= Herodotus, I, 82;\nLucian, _Charon_, 24. =348= Euripides, _Orestes_, 53-55. =349-350=\nLucian, _Marine Dialogues_, 12. Euripides, _Trojan Women_, 1081-1088.\n=352= Isyllus, cf. Smyth, _Melic Poets_, p. 528. =355= Strabo, VII, cap.\n6, 12. =356= Lucian, _Cataplus_, 18. Plutarch, _Life of Demosthenes_,\nXXX.\n\nCHAPTER XVII. =Page 358= Pindar, _Olymp._, III, 27. Homer, _Iliad_, II,\n612. =360= Homer, _Iliad_, II, 607. =361= Polybius, XXIV, 15. =365=\n_Greek Anthology_, App. Plan., 188. =366= Herodotus, VIII, 26. =371=\n_Greek Anthology_, Pal., IX, 314; App. Plan. 188. =374= Xenophon,\n_Anabasis_, 5, 3, 10. Homer, _Odyssey_, V, 272. =377= Hesiod,\n_Theogony_, 775. =380= Pindar, _Olymp._, VI, 100. _Homeric Hymn to Pan_,\n30. Homer, _Odyssey_, III, 497. =381= Sappho; Homer. See chap. i, 19,\n21. =385= \u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_, 519.\n\nCHAPTER XVIII. =Page 388= Pindar, _Olymp._, III, 19. =390= Lucian,\n_Marine Dialog._, 3. Strabo, VI, cap. 2, 4. =391= Antigonus Carystus,\n_Historia Mirab._, 140 (155). =392= Xenophon, _Anabasis_, IV, viii, 26.\n=397= _Odyssey_, V, 79; Lucian, _Jupiter as Tragedian_, 10, 11. =403=\nLucian, _Herodotus_, I. Herodotus, VIII, 26. =408= Lucian, _Council of\nthe Gods_, 12. Pindar, _Olymp._, II, 51. =410= Herodotus, VI, 103. =411=\nPindar, _Olymp._, I, 18. Bacchylides, V, 37-45, and 178-186. =412=\nPindar, _Olymp._, I, 86. =413= Pindar, _Olymp._, I, 28. =415= \u00c6schylus,\n_Agamemnon_, 341. =416= Pindar, _Olymp._, IV, 1; VI, 75; VI, 91. =417=\nPindar, _Olymp._, XIII, 92; III, 44; XI (X), 45. =418= Pindar, _Olymp._,\nXI (X), 72; 73-76; XIV, 20. =419= Pindar, _Olymp._, VII. =420= Plato,\n_Republic_, 621, C, D. =421= Bacchylides, VI. =423= \u00c6schylus,\n_Prometheus_, 95.\n\nCHAPTER XIX. =Page 425= Homer, _Odyssey_, III, 491. =429= Thucydides,\nIV, 40.\n\nCHAPTER XX. =Page 431= Homer, _Odyssey_, IV, 1. =432= Pindar, fragment.\nSophocles, _Ajax_, 8. Homer, _Odyssey_, IV, 603. Euripides, _Helen_,\n348; _Iphigeneia in Tauris_, 132. =433-434= Homer, _Odyssey_, IV.\nHerodotus, VI, 61. =436= \u00c6schylus, _Agamemnon_, 650. =437= Thucydides,\nI, 10. Polybius, V, 22. =440= Lucian, _Anacharsis_, 38. Cicero,\n_Tusculan Disputations_, 5, 27. =446= Thucydides, I, 70. =447=\nHerodotus, VII, 104, 135. =448= Euripides, _Andromache_, 595. =449=\nPlato, _Protagoras_, 342. =450= Aristotle, _Politics_, 1271 B.\nIsocrates, _Letter to Philip_; _Panegyricus_, 51.\n\nNOTE on =pages 154-5= \u2018Euripus.\u2019 Strictly speaking, this applies only to\nthe narrower channel between Aulis and Chalkis. Also used of the whole\nsouthern channel: see Bury\u2019s and Frazer\u2019s Maps of Attica. [Blank Page]\n\n\n\n\n INDEX\n\n\n Acarnania, 13, 193, 321.\n\n Ach\u00e6a, 13, 194, 326, 373, 435.\n\n Ach\u00e6ans, 14, 324.\n\n Acharnae, 148, 150 ff.\n\n Acrocorinth, 8, 212, 214;\n view from, 202.\n\n Acropolis, see under _Athens_.\n\n \u00c6galeus, Mt., 149, 164, 173, 177.\n\n \u00c6gean, 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 13, 17, 57, 325, 353.\n\n \u00c6gina, 144, 162, =186-91=.\n\n \u00c6gospotami, 101, 102.\n\n \u00c6milius Paulus, 235.\n\n \u00c6olians, 328;\n in B\u0153otia, 310.\n\n \u00c6schines, place in literature, 97;\n cited, 224.\n\n \u00c6schylus, at Delphi, 237;\n at Eleusis, 181;\n at Marathon, 158-9;\n character of, 125;\n competition with, 328;\n influence of, 104, 415;\n place in literature, 95;\n treatment of nature, 22;\n youth of, 70 ff.;\n cited, 10, 11, 38, 43, 64, 72, 83-4, 91, 104, 154, 155, 159, 161,\n 166, 167, 168, 196, 230, 246, 268, 283-5, 292, 297, 299, 308, 309,\n 336, 342, 344, 385, 415, 436.\n\n \u00c6tolia, 13, 193.\n\n Africa, 220, 239.\n\n Akte, of Argolis, 330, 351;\n of Pir\u00e6us, 36, 42, 55.\n\n Alcibiades, at Delium, 296;\n influence of, 101;\n parody of Mysteries, 176;\n picture of, 77;\n Sicilian expedition, 37.\n\n Alcman, 442 ff.;\n cited, 18, 22, 182, 444-5.\n\n Alexander, at Ch\u00e6ronea, 262;\n at Isthmus, 217;\n at Olympia, 391;\n death of, 3;\n empire of, 99;\n statue at Olympia, 402.\n\n Alexandrian period, 4.\n\n Alph\u0113us, god and river, 231, 328, 369, 375, 379, 381, =388-91=, 404.\n\n Altis, at Marathon, 158;\n at Olympia, 388, 395, =402-5=.\n\n Amorgos, 7.\n\n Amphiaraus, sanctuary of, 153-4.\n\n Amphictyony, Delphic, 224, 238.\n\n Amphissa, 223.\n\n Amycl\u00e6, 434.\n\n Anacapri, 2.\n\n Anacreon, 70.\n\n Anaxagoras, 96.\n\n Andocides, place in literature, 96;\n cited, 181.\n\n Andritsena, 378, 381-2.\n\n Andros, 7.\n\n Anthedon, 306-7.\n\n Anthesteria, 141.\n\n Anthology, Greek, 4-5;\n cited, 28, 54, 147, 150, 156, 171, 201, 211, 265, 299, 300, 323, 371,\n 373.\n\n Antiphon, 96.\n\n Antisthenes, 99.\n\n Antoninus Pius, 364.\n\n Aph\u00e6a, temple of, 188.\n\n Aphrodite, 397, 434;\n at Pir\u00e6us, 54;\n on Mt. Ida, 131;\n of Melos, 5.\n\n Apollo, at Olympia, 397;\n at Pto\u00f6n, 301;\n Delphic legends, 230 ff.;\n god of prophecy, 218 ff.;\n Hymn to, 231;\n in _Alcestis_, 130;\n in _Eumenides_, 105 ff.;\n in _Hymn to Hermes_, 368 ff.;\n significance at Delphi, 246 ff.;\n statue at Olympia, 399, 400;\n \u2014 at Sparta, 441;\n summer festival of, 136;\n temple at Bass\u00e6, 382 ff.;\n \u2014 at Corinth, 202, 203, 207, 213;\n \u2014 at Delphi, 237-8;\n \u2014 on Sacred Way, 178;\n \u2014 at Thebes, 282, 292;\n \u2014 in Vale of Tempe, 245.\n\n Appian, 43.\n\n Arachneum, Mt., 336.\n\n Arachova, 30, 252, 253 ff., 381.\n\n Arcadia, 14, 29, 131, 220, 239, =358-87=, 425, 429.\n\n Arcesilas, 239.\n\n Archidamus, 240, 447.\n\n Areopagus, see under _Athens_.\n\n Arethusa, 390, 391.\n\n Argolic Gulf, 324, 330.\n\n Argolid, Argolis, 8, 13, 162, =323-57=.\n\n Argos, 10, 11, 221, 239, 325, 327, =329-30=, 346, 435, 436.\n\n Arion, 208-9.\n\n Aristides, 100, 124.\n\n Aristodemus, 428.\n\n Aristogeiton, 71.\n\n Aristomenes, 428, 430.\n\n Aristophanes, place in literature, 95;\n treatment of nature, 24;\n cited, 25, 26, 35, 65, 70, 71, 83, 85-6, 108, 112, 117, 120, 127,\n 128, 131, 132, 136, 144, 145, 150, 151, 161, 162, 179, 184, 221,\n 251, 448.\n\n Aristotle, Lyceum of, 119;\n philosophy, 97 ff.;\n cited, 66, 180, 201, 212, 446, 449, 450.\n\n Aroanius, river, 375.\n\n Artemis, 24;\n at Olympia, 397;\n Brauronia, 86;\n hymn to, 223;\n in Arcadia, 365, 373, 374;\n in _Hippolytus_, 26, 355;\n on Ta\u00ffgetus, 432;\n Orthia, 438-9;\n temple at Aulis, 309;\n \u2014 at Pir\u00e6us, 46;\n \u2014 at Thebes, 282, 293.\n\n Artemisium, 298.\n\n Asclepieum, at Athens, 122;\n at Epidaurus, 352;\n modern substitute for, 30\n\n Ascra, 310.\n\n Asia, 1, 220, 325.\n\n Asia Minor, 1, 9, 239, 325, 327.\n\n Asopus, river, in B\u0153otia, 12, 153, 270, 296, 305;\n in Malis, 317;\n in Sicyon, 328, 329.\n\n Astypal\u00e6a, 7.\n\n Athens (ancient), 10, 13, 436, 442, 450;\n after battle of Salamis, =91-125=;\n before Salamis, =57-73=;\n Academy of, 65, 119, 147;\n Acropolis of, 60, 73, =74-90=, 92, 107, 144, 162, 173, 184, 193, 232;\n Agora, 72, 99, 110 ff.;\n Areopagus of, 69, 72, 99, 104 ff., 110;\n Asclepieum, 122;\n Barathrum, 109;\n Callirrho\u00eb, 61, 65, 109, 133;\n Cynosarges Gymnasium, 65, 99, 159;\n Dipylon Gate, 113, 144, 177, 183;\n Dionysiac Theatre, 120 ff.;\n Erechtheum, 75, 77, 81, 84, 97;\n Gymnasia, 65, 118;\n Len\u00e6um, 61, 69;\n Lyceum, 94, 99, 119;\n Lysicrates Monument, 122;\n Market-place (old), 65;\n Nike temple, 77, 79;\n Old Athena temple, 75, 92;\n olive in, 66;\n Olympieum, 57, 65, 119;\n Parthenon, 77, 78, 80-1, 85, 87-9, 382;\n Pnyx, 108;\n Propyl\u00e6a, 77-78, 79, 85, 89, 94;\n \u2014, old, 65, 76;\n Prison of Socrates, 89, 107;\n Prytaneum, 110;\n Street of Tombs, 113;\n Theseum, 94;\n Tholus, 110;\n \u2014, Modern, 29, =126-43=.\n\n Athena, Alea, 364;\n Archegetis, 86;\n at Pir\u00e6us, 52;\n Chalki\u0153kos, 438;\n importance at Athens, 67;\n old temple of, 75;\n statues on Acropolis, 78-9;\n the Watcher, 62.\n\n Athos, Mt., 11, 13.\n\n Attic age, 5.\n\n Attica, 5-8, 13, 15, =144-70=, 325.\n\n Aulis, 267, =307= ff.\n\n Bacchus, see _Dionysus_.\n\n Bacchylides, place in literature, 420;\n cited, 111, 123, 189, 243, 411, 421.\n\n Bass\u00e6, temple at, 358, 382 ff.\n\n Bendis, festival of, 48 ff.\n\n Bion, 4.\n\n B\u0153otia, 4, 7, 8, 260, =266-315=, 325, 438.\n\n Brasidas, 436.\n\n Brauron, 160.\n\n Brennus, 318.\n\n Byron, 5, 79, 194;\n cited, 422.\n\n Byzantine, churches, 29, 404;\n Greek, 5;\n ruins, 29, 404;\n age, 40, 212.\n\n Cadmus, 200, 272 ff.\n\n C\u00e6sar, Julius, 211, 215.\n\n Calauria, 330, 356.\n\n Caligula, 304.\n\n Callichorus, 175.\n\n Callimachus, cited, 183.\n\n Callirrho\u00eb, see _Athens_.\n\n Calydon, 194.\n\n Calydonian boar hunt, 194, 364.\n\n Carthage, 43, 239, 398.\n\n Cassotis, 245.\n\n Castalia, 226, 252, 253.\n\n Cecrops, 59, 144.\n\n Cenchre\u00e6, 212.\n\n Ceos, 7, 95, 420, 421.\n\n Cephisus, river, Attic, 146, 148, 152, 177, 184;\n B\u0153otian, 260, 265, 269, 316.\n\n Ch\u00e6ronea, 97, 115, 198, 210, 257, 260, =261-5=, 401, 436, 450.\n\n Chasia, 150.\n\n Chryso, 223.\n\n Cicero, 97;\n cited, 1, 32, 181, 211, 304, 316, 440.\n\n Cimon, 100-101;\n at Eleusis, 182;\n in Messenian affairs, 428.\n\n Cirphis, Mt., 226, 253, 256, 258.\n\n Cith\u00e6ron, Mt., 12, 193, 219, 268, 278, 280, 281, 292, 296.\n\n Cladeus, river and god, 388, 393, 404.\n\n Claudius, 304.\n\n Cleft Way, 250, 257 ff.\n\n Clement, St., cited, 215.\n\n Cleon\u00e6, 330, 331.\n\n Cnidus, 35, 173.\n\n Cnossus, 231.\n\n Colonists, 58, 414.\n\n Colonus, 24, 146-7.\n\n Comedy, 95.\n\n Common dialect, 3.\n\n Conington, cited, 71.\n\n Conon, 35, 56, 102;\n Wall of, 33, 36, 39, 41, 44.\n\n Constantinople, fall of, 3;\n foundation of, 196.\n\n Copaic Lake, 269, 271.\n\n Corcyra, 206.\n\n Corinna, 306.\n\n Corinth (New), 201, 202;\n (Old), =201-17=, 220, 436.\n\n Corinthian Gulf, 5, 7, 8, 9, 192 ff., 223, 269, 324, 326, 329, 331.\n\n Corycian Cave, 229, 252, 255.\n\n Cos, 353.\n\n Cotilius, Mt., 384.\n\n Crana\u00eb, 435.\n\n Craneum, 213.\n\n Cretan, 20;\n Cretans, 231, 413;\n Eteo-Cretans, 14.\n\n Crete, 9, 15, 221, 239, 324, 325, 326, 362, 441.\n\n Crimea, 58.\n\n Cris\u00e6an plain, 223-4, 238.\n\n Cum\u00e6, 2.\n\n Cybele, at Pir\u00e6us, 49.\n\n Cyllene, Mt., 8, 9, 365, 367, 369, 376, 383.\n\n Cynuria, 330, 347.\n\n Cyprus, 1, 433.\n\n Cypselus, 205;\n chest of, 207.\n\n Cyrene, 239.\n\n Cythnus, 7.\n\n Danai, 323, 344.\n\n Dances, ancient and modern, 137, 139.\n\n Danube, 9.\n\n Daulis, 258, 259.\n\n Decelea, 148, 150.\n\n Delium, 296.\n\n Delos, 7, 101, 107, 163, 397;\n confederacy of, 100.\n\n Delphi, =218-49=, 289, 344, 401.\n\n Demaratus, 179, 447.\n\n Demeter, at Olympia, 397, 410;\n in Arcadia, 173;\n in B\u0153otia, 173, 314;\n Hymn to, 174-5;\n patroness of marriage, 140;\n shrines of, 30;\n statue of, 173;\n worship of, 173 ff.\n\n Demosthenes, at Ch\u00e6ronea, 262;\n place in literature, 97;\n suicide of, 103, 356-7;\n cited, 85, 92, 118, 158, 165, 237.\n\n Dic\u00e6archus, cited, 286, 306.\n\n Dinarchus, 97.\n\n Dio Chrysostom, 271, 399.\n\n Diogenes the Cynic, 213.\n\n Dionysia, Greater, 69, 140;\n Lesser, 141.\n\n Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 300.\n\n Dionysus, at Athens, 68 ff., 72;\n at Delphi, 227 ff.;\n at Eleusis (Iacchus), 174, 177, 179;\n at Olympia, 397;\n at Panopeus, 261;\n brings Semele from Hades, 355;\n Hymn to, 122, 277;\n infant, 396;\n in _Frogs_, 128, 129, 203;\n in the Marshes, 141;\n old cult, 30;\n on Helicon, 303;\n temple at Thebes, 293.\n\n Diphilus, cited, 52, 206.\n\n Dirce, 272, 294.\n\n Dodona, 14.\n\n Donkeys, 128-9.\n\n Dorians, 326 ff., 328.\n\n Doric, dialect, 398.\n\n Doris, 316, 328, 358.\n\n Easter, festival of, 132, 137, 142.\n\n Echo, 372-3, 418.\n\n Egypt, 9, 433.\n\n Egyptians, 2.\n\n Eira, 426, 428.\n\n Eleusinia, 183.\n\n Eleusis, bay of, 48, 193;\n mysteries, 114, 129, =171-85=;\n town-spring of, 134.\n\n Eleutheria, 313.\n\n Elis, 9, 373, 389, 392.\n\n Elton, cited, 272.\n\n Epaminondas, 262, 295, 296;\n character of, 289 ff., 363;\n death of, 360 ff.;\n founds Messene, 429-30.\n\n Epicurus, 99.\n\n Epidaurus, 330, =351= ff.\n\n Epirus, 14, 270.\n\n Erechtheum, see under _Athens_.\n\n Erechtheus, 59, 83.\n\n Eridanus, river, 144.\n\n Eris, apple of, 397.\n\n Erymanthus, Mt., 8, 9, 373, 381, 383;\n river, 375.\n\n Etruscan, 414.\n\n Eub\u0153a, 7, 11, 153, 206;\n Gulf of, 269.\n\n Eumelus, 208.\n\n Euripides, at Pir\u00e6us, 50;\n cenotaph, 55;\n place in literature, 95-6;\n theology of, 49, 97;\n treatment of Nature, 16, 26;\n cited, 26, 27, 57, 91, 114, 124, 132, 135, 138, 160, 169, 175, 178,\n 200, 210, 215, 218, 228-9, 230-1, 233-4, 268, 274, 276, 277,\n 279-81, 285-6, 292, 308, 354, 425, 432-3, 438-9, 448.\n\n Euripus, 11, 153, 154, 307.\n\n Eurotas, river, 375, 432-3.\n\n Eurymedon, 71.\n\n Excavations by, Americans at Corinth, 202, 212 ff.;\n British at Sparta, 438;\n French at Delphi, 225, 236;\n Germans at Olympia, 404;\n Greeks at Thebes, 292.\n\n Festivals, ancient and modern, 139-142.\n\n Flaminius, 217.\n\n Funerals, ancient and modern, 129-130.\n\n Games, Isthmian, 216-17, 407;\n Nemean, 333, 407;\n Olympic, ancient, 388 ff., 407, =408-13=;\n \u2014, modern, 422-3;\n Pythian, 242 ff., 407.\n\n Gauls, at Delphi, 235;\n at Thermopyl\u00e6, 318.\n\n Geoffrey de Villehardouin, 379.\n\n Geraneia, Mt., 195, 199.\n\n Glaucus, of Chios, 244;\n sea-divinity, 307.\n\n Goethe, cited, 22, 251.\n\n Gorgias, place in literature, 97;\n statue at Delphi, 240;\n \u2014 at Olympia, 403.\n\n Gorgopis, Lake, 12.\n\n Gortys, river, 375.\n\n Goulas (Gha, Gla), 271.\n\n Graces, the, 20, 416, 420;\n temple of, 302.\n\n Gr\u00e6co-Roman period, 4.\n\n Grylus, 360.\n\n Gytheion, 435.\n\n Hadrian, aqueduct, 376;\n at Athens, 60;\n at Delphi, 235;\n at Eleusis, 182;\n at Olympia, 402;\n road of, 199.\n\n Hagios Vlasis, 260.\n\n Harmodius, 71.\n\n Hatzidakis, G. N., cited, 5.\n\n Helicon, Mt., 7, 193, 292, 301, =302-4=, 313.\n\n Heph\u00e6steum, 60.\n\n Heph\u00e6stus, at Athens, 59-60;\n in _Prometheus_, 23;\n street, 133.\n\n Hera, at Olympia, 395-6;\n in Argolis, 329, 348;\n head of, 344.\n\n Heraclea, 196.\n\n Heracles, at Marathon, 159;\n at Olympia, 393, 422;\n birth, 275;\n Cretan, 393;\n journey to Hades, 355;\n labours of, 218-19, 333, 347, 374, 376, 399;\n temple at Thebes, 293.\n\n Her\u00e6um, Argolis, 330, 336, =343-4=, 357;\n at Olympia, 389, 395-8.\n\n Herm\u00e6a, 140.\n\n Hermes, Homeric Hymn to, 367 ff.;\n Ram Bearer, 313;\n statues of, 5, 371, 396.\n\n Hermione, 328, 329, 330, =355=.\n\n Herodas (Herondas), 4.\n\n Herodes Atticus, 156;\n gifts of, 88, 241, 402.\n\n Herodotus, at Athens, 93;\n piety of, 222, 248;\n place in literature, 96;\n cited, 66, 82, 83, 109, 157, 160, 166, 179, 192, 208, 222, 267, 287,\n 297, 299, 319, 321, 330, 343-4, 347, 366, 403, 410, 434, 447-8.\n\n Hesiod, life and works, 268 ff.;\n cited, 272, 296, 303, 309 ff., 377-8.\n\n Hieron of Syracuse, 243, 413-4.\n\n Himera, battle of, 398.\n\n Hipparchus, 70, 328.\n\n Hippias, 33, 70;\n sophist, 403.\n\n Hippocrates, 93, 353.\n\n Hippocrene, 303.\n\n Hippodamus, 45.\n\n History, 3, 14, 15, 96.\n\n Homer, connection with Argolis, 323 ff.;\n with Athens, 67-8;\n treatment of nature, 18 ff.;\n cited, 18, 19, 81-2, 163, 202, 204, 227, 267, 343, 358, 360, 374,\n 377, 397, 431, 433-4.\n\n Homeric Hymns, 267;\n to Apollo, 231;\n to Artemis, 223;\n to Dionysus, 122, 277;\n to Hermes, 367 ff.;\n to Pan, 371 ff.\n\n Horace, cited, 345.\n\n Hydarnes, 448.\n\n Hymettus, Mt., 13, 109, 145, 163.\n\n Hypereides, place in literature, 97;\n cited, 103.\n\n Iacchus, see under _Dionysus_.\n\n Ibycus, 213.\n\n Ictinus, 182, 382, 383, 385, 386.\n\n Ida, Mt., in Asia Minor, 11, 130;\n in Crete, 393.\n\n Ilissus, river, 27, 28, 125, 133, 144, 422.\n\n Inachus, river, 332.\n\n Ionia, 97.\n\n Ionian, 14;\n sea, 383.\n\n Is\u00e6us, 97.\n\n Ismenus, river, 272, 294.\n\n Isocrates, place in literature, 97;\n cited, 59, 181, 198, 450.\n\n Isthmus of Corinth, 10, 144, 193, 201, 215, 324, 334, 353, 436.\n\n Italy, 58, 220.\n\n Itea, 223, 226.\n\n Ithaca, 231, 432.\n\n Ithome, Mt., 8, 383, 426, 428.\n\n Jebb, Sir Richard, cited, 57-8, 103, 413.\n\n Julian the Apostate, 235-6, 403.\n\n Kalamata, 10, 425-7.\n\n Kallidromos, Mt., 317.\n\n Kapr\u00e6na, 261.\n\n Kara\u00efskakis, Place, 30, 36.\n\n Karyt\u00e6na, 29, 378-9;\n Geoffrey de, 379.\n\n Kastri, 224 ff.\n\n Kephisia, 148, 152.\n\n Kerata, Mt., boundary between Attica and Megara, 8, 173, 195.\n\n Kronos Hill, 388 ff.\n\n Kydias, 329.\n\n Laced\u00e6mon, 8, 426, 431.\n\n Laconia, 8, 324, 327, 426, 431, 435.\n\n Laconian Gulf, 431.\n\n Ladon, river, 375, 389, 390.\n\n Langada Gorge, 426.\n\n Language, Greek, 3;\n dialects, 414;\n modern, 5.\n\n Larisa of Argos, 325, 327, 330.\n\n Lasus, 328.\n\n Laurium, 160-1.\n\n Leake, cited, 385-6.\n\n Lebadeia, =301=, 313.\n\n Lech\u00e6um, 212, 216.\n\n Leonidas, 298, 317-321.\n\n Lerna, 330, =346-7=.\n\n Lesbos, 131, 441.\n\n Leuctra, 289, 296, 430.\n\n Lindus, 29, 419.\n\n Lipari Islands, 10.\n\n Literature, Greek, =3-5=; =93-100=.\n\n Locris, 7, 14, 193, 223, 226;\n Epicnemidian, 316.\n\n Lucian, 4;\n cited, 39, 53, 54, 68, 73, 88, 120, 213, 331, 356, 390, 402, 403,\n 408, 440.\n\n Lucius, Mummius, 211.\n\n Lycabettus, Mt., 144.\n\n Lyc\u00e6us, Mt., 8, 367, 373, 378, 383.\n\n Lycosura, 359, 364.\n\n Lycurgus, lawgiver, 446;\n orator, 97.\n\n Lyric poetry, 95.\n\n Lysander, 102.\n\n Lysias, place in literature, 97;\n cited, 47, 76, 111, 149.\n\n Lysippus, 244, 329.\n\n Lysis, disciple of Socrates, 140;\n of Tarentum, 291.\n\n Macedon, 15, 96, 100, 356, 401, 436.\n\n Macedonia, 2, 239.\n\n Macedonian rule, 39, 102, 210, 391, 394, 401, 436.\n\n M\u00e6nalus, Mt., 373.\n\n Malea, 324, 431.\n\n Malis, 316.\n\n Malian Gulf, 7.\n\n Mantinea, 289, =359= ff., 364.\n\n Marathon, 70 ff., 103, =157-60=, 298;\n \u2014 race, 159, 422.\n\n Marathonisi, 435.\n\n Markopoulo, 160.\n\n Meander, river, 328.\n\n Mediterranean, 1, 3, 40, 390.\n\n Megalopolis, 9, =359=, =378=, 382, 385, 429.\n\n Megara, 8, 48, 164, =192-9=;\n \u2014 Hyblaea, 196.\n\n Megarid, 144, 164.\n\n Megistias, 321.\n\n Melicertes, 200.\n\n Melos, 5, 162, 326.\n\n Menander, death, 4;\n friend of Theophrastus, 99;\n place in literature, 96;\n plays of at Pir\u00e6us, 50;\n tomb, 55;\n cited, 49, 55, 112, 121, 152, 449.\n\n Menidhi, 137, 150, 151.\n\n Mesogia, 160.\n\n Mesolonghi, 30, 194.\n\n Messene, 429.\n\n Messenia, 5, 8, 13, 14, =425-30=;\n Bay of, 10, 13.\n\n Messina, Straits of, 10.\n\n Midas, 239.\n\n Midea, 325.\n\n Minoa, in Megarid, 195.\n\n Miny\u00e6, 14, 302.\n\n Mistra, 29, 433.\n\n Moluriad Rock, 200.\n\n Monemvasia, 29.\n\n Morea, 8;\n dukes of, 404.\n\n Moschus, 4.\n\n Munychia, 33, 41, 42, 45, 50, 55.\n\n Murray, Gilbert, cited, 132, 214, 274 ff., 439.\n\n Mus\u00e6a, 313.\n\n Mycalessus, 314.\n\n Mycen\u00e6, 11, 319, 325, 327, 330, 331, 332, =334= ff., 351.\n\n Mycen\u00e6an civilization, 182, 292, =325-6=.\n\n Myconos, 7.\n\n Myron, 78.\n\n Mysteries, see under _Eleusis_.\n\n Mytika, 361.\n\n Nature, Greek treatment of, 15-28.\n\n Nauplia, 30, 324, 325, 330, =348=.\n\n Navarino, 425.\n\n Naxos, 7, 13, 30.\n\n Neda, river, 382, 383, 384.\n\n Nedon, river, Gorge of, 426.\n\n Nemea, 330, =332= ff.\n\n Nemesis, 154 ff.\n\n Nereid, 255-56, 397.\n\n Nero, at Corinth, 213;\n at Delphi, 235;\n at Isthmus, 215, 217;\n at Olympia, 391, 402;\n at Thespi\u00e6 304.\n\n Nike, by P\u00e6onius, 400;\n of Samothrace, 161;\n temple of, see under _Athens_.\n\n Nis\u00e6a, in Megarid, 195.\n\n Nomian Mts., 373, 383.\n\n Norton, Charles Eliot, cited, 16.\n\n \u0152ta, Mt., 7, 316, 326.\n\n Olympia, 9, 243, 382, =388-424=.\n\n Olympus, Mt., 6, 14, 15, 370, 404, 423.\n\n Onatas, 386.\n\n Oratory, 96.\n\n Orchomenus, in Arcadia, 365;\n in B\u0153otia, 270, 302.\n\n Oropus, 153.\n\n Orphic School, 174.\n\n Ossa, Mt., 7.\n\n Othrys Mts., 7.\n\n P\u00e6onius, 400.\n\n P\u00e6stum, 2, 357.\n\n Palermo, 10.\n\n Pallantium, 360, 364.\n\n Pan, at Athens, 72-3;\n _Homeric Hymn_ to, 371 ff.;\n in modern folk-lore, 255;\n at Delphi, 229;\n at Psyttaleia, 166;\n at Thebes, 293.\n\n Panathen\u00e6a, 67, 71, 135, 137, 140.\n\n Panopeus, 260.\n\n Parmenides, 97.\n\n Parnassus, Mt., 7, 193, 223, 225, 226, 227, 232, 234, 253, 254, 256,\n 258, 259, 261, 292, 301, 316, 326, 329, 353, 393.\n\n Parnes, Mt., 7, 144, 148, 153.\n\n Parnon, Mt., 8, 432.\n\n Paros, 29, 386.\n\n Parthenius, Mt., 373.\n\n Parthenon, see under _Athens_.\n\n Patras, 192, 194-5, 392.\n\n Paul, St., 210, 212, 395;\n cited, 106, 217, 407.\n\n Pausanias, general, 298, 299;\n topographer, cited, 76, 88, 145, 150, 165, 183, 207, 235, 241, 264,\n 265, 271, 289, 292, 293, 301, 304, 309, 310, 319, 329, 336, 346,\n 352, 353, 360, 361-2, 374, 375, 376, 384, 390, 405, 411, 428, 430,\n 440.\n\n Pegasus, 204, 214, 303.\n\n Peirene, 204, 207, 214.\n\n Pelasgians, 14, 82, 324, 344, 347.\n\n Pelion, Mt., 7.\n\n Peloponnesian War, 34, 101, 153, 288, 300, 429.\n\n Peloponnesus, 8, 15.\n\n Pelops, 393, 399, 405, 412.\n\n Peneius, river, 7.\n\n Pentedactylon, Mt., 432.\n\n Pentelicus, Mt., 5, 7, 11, 13, 25, 132, 144, 148, 152, 153, 159.\n\n Periander, 206 ff.\n\n Pericles, age of, 394;\n death, 115;\n at Eleusis, 182;\n Megarian decree of, 198;\n oratory of, 96, 108;\n political influence of, 34, 56, 97, 100, 101, 104.\n\n Persephone, 355;\n worship of, 171 ff.\n\n Persian Wars, 15, 96, 100, 197, 210, 317, 330.\n\n Ph\u00e6acia, 134.\n\n Phalerum, 45, 125, 132, 395.\n\n Pheneus, 365;\n lake of, 375-6.\n\n Pher\u00e6, 425.\n\n Pherecrates, cited, 82, 266.\n\n Phidias, 135, 244, 293, 399.\n\n Phigalia, 382.\n\n Phigalians, 383, 386.\n\n Philip, 39, 115, 451;\n at Ch\u00e6ronea, 262;\n in Delphic Amphictyony, 224;\n of Hellenic blood, 102, 391;\n statues of, 240, 401.\n\n Philop\u0153men, 361-3.\n\n Philosophy, 97 ff.;\n closing of schools of, 3.\n\n Phlius, 328, =329=, 330.\n\n Phocis, 14, 223, 260, 316.\n\n Ph\u0153nicia, 324, 433.\n\n Ph\u0153nicians, 127, 273, 330.\n\n Ph\u0153nicides, cited, 84.\n\n Pholo\u00eb, Mt., 373-4.\n\n Phryne, 240, 304.\n\n Pieria, 368.\n\n Pindar, age of, 31;\n art of, 288;\n in Athens, 95;\n descent of, 271;\n house of, 293;\n place in literature, 268;\n treatment of nature, 20-1;\n cited, 20-1, 110, 114, 122, 124, 156, 186, 189, 190, 191, 204, 210,\n 218, 237, 243, 249, 266, 275, 288, 291, 299, 302, 333, 358, 388,\n 408, 410, 411, 412, 415, 420, 432.\n\n Pindus, Mt., 7, 13.\n\n Pir\u00e6us, 30, =32-56=, 85, 100, 102, 145, 186, 187.\n\n Pisistratus, 64 ff., 174, 182.\n\n Plat\u00e6a, 71, 91, =296-301=, 313, 320.\n\n Plato, Academy of, 119, 147;\n age of, 39;\n cave of, 109;\n legend of, 164;\n opinion of Kydias, 330;\n place in philosophy, 98;\n treatment of nature, 28;\n cited, 28, 46-7, 74, 107, 125, 139, 144, 182, 185, 198, 205, 307,\n 352, 414, 420, 449, 450.\n\n Plistus, river, 226, 234, 242, 252, 253.\n\n Plutarch, 4;\n birthplace, 61;\n character of, 268;\n cited, 64, 88, 110, 169, 213, 240, 267, 301, 353, 356.\n\n Polybius, cited, 360, 361, 363, 437.\n\n Polygnotus, 129, 241.\n\n Poros, 356.\n\n Poseidon, at Athens, 59;\n in Argolis, 348;\n in Elis, 390;\n temple of at Calauria, 356;\n \u2014 at P\u00e6stum, 2;\n \u2014 at Sunium, 162.\n\n Potid\u00e6a, 119.\n\n Prasi\u00e6, 160.\n\n Pratinas, 328.\n\n Praxilla, 329.\n\n Praxiteles, 5, 244, 293, 304, =364=, 396.\n\n Propyl\u00e6a, see under _Athens_.\n\n Pto\u00f6n, Mt., 269, 292, 301, 313.\n\n Pylos, 231, 425, 429.\n\n Pythagoras, 97, 291.\n\n Rhamnus, 154 ff.\n\n Rhodes, 1, 29, 127, 135, 419;\n Colossus of, 397.\n\n Rogers, B. B., cited, 70, 132, 141, 161, 179, 181, 251.\n\n Roman rule, 39-40, 172, 211-12, 391, 394, 402, 414.\n\n Romans, 204, 362.\n\n Salamis, 48, 62, 68, 144, 353, 357, 399;\n battle of, 71, 91, 103, =165-70=, 188, 209, 299, 398.\n\n Samos, 70, 99.\n\n Sappho, read by Solon, 64;\n treatment of nature, 18 ff.;\n cited, 18, 19, 20, 21, 136, 380.\n\n Saronic Gulf, 8, 32, 41, 163, 193, 324, 353, 354.\n\n Scamander, 134.\n\n Scironian Cliffs, =199= ff., 354.\n\n Scopas, 293, 364, 386.\n\n Selinus, 398.\n\n Seriphos, 7.\n\n Servius Sulpicius, cited, 32, 199.\n\n Shelley, cited, 25, 56, 148, 368.\n\n Sicily, 1, 9, 10, 15, 58, 239, 328, 388, 390;\n Sicilian Greeks, 391, 398, 414;\n \u2014 expedition, 37, 101, 187.\n\n Sicyon, 329.\n\n Simmias, cited, 150.\n\n Simonides, at Athens, 70, 95;\n poet laureate, 420;\n rival of Lasus, 328;\n cited, 64, 136, 157, 158, 200, 299-300, 320, 321, 349.\n\n Socrates, on Acropolis, 76 ff.;\n in Assembly, 108;\n at Delium, 296;\n at Isthmian Games, 217;\n by Ilissus, 27;\n in Gymnasia, 119, 140;\n in Pir\u00e6us, 46 ff.;\n place in philosophy, 98-9.\n\n Solon, in Egypt, 2;\n influence in Athens, 58 ff.;\n statue at Salamis, 165;\n cited, 62, 63, 283.\n\n Solos, 376.\n\n Sophists, 94, 96, 97.\n\n Sophocles, place in literature, 95;\n tomb of, 150;\n treatment of nature, 24 ff.;\n cited, 24, 116, 140, 146, 163, 171, 178, 222, 240, 250, 268, 276,\n 281-3, 286-7, 303, 335, 341, 405-7, 432.\n\n Sparta, 8, 10, 13, 100, 102, 153, 239, 288, 425, 429, =431-451=.\n\n Spercheius, river, 316, 318.\n\n Sphacteria, 429.\n\n Sphinx, Mt., 292.\n\n Sterling, John, cited, 320, 404.\n\n Strabo, cited, 234, 271, 355, 390.\n\n Stymphalus, 365;\n lake of, 376.\n\n Styx, 377.\n\n Suetonius, cited, 215.\n\n Sunium, =161= ff., 356.\n\n Swinburne, cited, 106, 424.\n\n Symonds, J. A., cited, 114, 136, 349.\n\n Syracusans, 38, 102, 414.\n\n Syracuse, 10, 38, 43, 206, 414.\n\n T\u00e6narum, 208, 431.\n\n Tanagra, 296, =305-6=, 313.\n\n Tato\u00ef, 153.\n\n Tauropolia, 140.\n\n Ta\u00ffgetus, Mt., 8, 13, 383, 389, 426, 432, 445.\n\n Tegea, 359, =363-4=, 435.\n\n Telesilla, 329.\n\n Tempe, Vale of, 7, 245.\n\n Tenedos, 388.\n\n Tenos, 7.\n\n Terpander, cited, 441-2.\n\n Thaletas, 441-2.\n\n Thebes, 15, 229, 239, =266-95=, 436.\n\n Themistocles, fortification of Pir\u00e6us, 33, 34, 36;\n policy of, 44, 101;\n at Olympia, 361;\n at Salamis, 166;\n tomb of, 41.\n\n Theodosius, 236, 403.\n\n Theocritus, 4, 16, 258;\n treatment of nature, cited, 28.\n\n Theognis, 196-7.\n\n Theophrastus, 99;\n cited, 51, 62, 121, 140.\n\n Thera, 326.\n\n Theramenes, 102.\n\n Therapne, 433.\n\n Thermopyl\u00e6, 7, 9, 298, =316-22=, 360.\n\n Theseus, in art and literature, 60, 399;\n Bacchylides on, 95;\n city of, 104, 107, 146;\n in _Hippolytus_, 354 ff.;\n Isthmian Games, 217;\n the Panathen\u00e6a, 67, 137;\n return from Crete, 79, 163.\n\n Thesmophoria, 140.\n\n Thespi\u00e6, 304-5.\n\n Thespians, 288, 313, 319.\n\n Thespis, 63, 156.\n\n Thessaly, 6, 7, 13, 14, 135, 270, 368, 435.\n\n Thoricus, 160.\n\n Thrace, 2, 5, 171, 220.\n\n Thrasybulus, 149.\n\n Thriasian Plain, 173, 179.\n\n Thucydides, historian, at Delphi, 248;\n place in literature, 96;\n cited, 37, 91, 115, 116, 216, 267, 289, 300, 326, 335, 360, 429, 437,\n 446-7;\n statesman, 101.\n\n Tiberius, 391, 402.\n\n Timotheus, cited, 168, 362.\n\n Tiryns, 324, 325, 327, 330, 336, =348-51=.\n\n Tragedy, 95.\n\n Treton, Mt., 331.\n\n Tripolis, 360, 373, 375.\n\n Triptolemus, 174.\n\n Tro\u00ebzen, 330, =353= ff., 358.\n\n Troy, 10, 27, 134, 336, 337, 338, 343, 357.\n\n Tyrt\u00e6us, cited, 427, 428, 443.\n\n Vaphio, 435.\n\n Vari, 163-4.\n\n Virgil, 310, 364.\n\n Way, cited, 139, 218, 229.\n\n Wordsworth, cited, 17, 21.\n\n Xenophon, place in literature, 96;\n treatment of Epaminondas, 289;\n cited, 46, 51, 149, 267, 289, 360, 374, 392, 446.\n\n Xerxes, at Plat\u00e6a, 298;\n at Salamis, 165;\n at Thermopyl\u00e6, 317;\n invasion of Delphi, 252;\n \u2014 of Greece, 447.\n\n Zacynthus, 231.\n\n Zanes, 401.\n\n Zeno, 99.\n\n Zeus, 14, 23, 27;\n birth of, 367, 393;\n at Lebadeia, 301;\n at Nemea, 333;\n at Olympia, 392, 393, 395, 396, 423;\n at Pir\u00e6us, 52;\n temple at Olympia, 398-401.\n\n =The Riverside Press=\n CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS\n U . S . A\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n Footnotes\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Note\n\nErrors deemed most likely to be the printer\u2019s have been corrected, and\nare noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.\n\n 36.1 Zeus\u2019s ether on his \u201cbeetle.[\u201d] Added.\n 232.25 came to Delphi in their childless[n]ess. Inserted.\n 252.1 the true Phi[l]hellene Inserted.\n 350.16 Pr[oe/\u0153]tus, the first king of Tiryns Replaced.\n 394.16 ho[h/p]elessly confounds history Replaced.","title":"Greek Lands and Letters","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":117525}