diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:24:03 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:24:03 -0700 |
| commit | 5f705a39b738317a687e0ff3f53ac7c297ef1b18 (patch) | |
| tree | 2f0e401d22d6e863d50feb8da02d0c65bdefd88d | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-0.txt | 8544 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 187114 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 6113749 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/4716-h.htm | 11094 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 319542 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig01.jpg | bin | 0 -> 247829 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig02.jpg | bin | 0 -> 229367 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig03.jpg | bin | 0 -> 230587 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig04.jpg | bin | 0 -> 124886 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig05.jpg | bin | 0 -> 225589 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig06.jpg | bin | 0 -> 133546 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig07.jpg | bin | 0 -> 207713 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig08.jpg | bin | 0 -> 244544 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig09.jpg | bin | 0 -> 222176 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig10.jpg | bin | 0 -> 109679 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig11.jpg | bin | 0 -> 244436 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig12.jpg | bin | 0 -> 225289 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig13.jpg | bin | 0 -> 157717 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig14.jpg | bin | 0 -> 250903 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig15.jpg | bin | 0 -> 227656 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig16.jpg | bin | 0 -> 237707 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig17.jpg | bin | 0 -> 245694 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig18.jpg | bin | 0 -> 185110 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig19.jpg | bin | 0 -> 154971 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig20.jpg | bin | 0 -> 237787 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig21.jpg | bin | 0 -> 197708 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig22.jpg | bin | 0 -> 236933 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig23.jpg | bin | 0 -> 259638 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig24.jpg | bin | 0 -> 245602 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig25.jpg | bin | 0 -> 228696 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/fig26.jpg | bin | 0 -> 234082 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/lines.jpg | bin | 0 -> 31691 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4716-h/images/spurs.jpg | bin | 0 -> 37890 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/4716-8.txt | 8724 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/4716-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 187887 bytes |
38 files changed, 28378 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4716-0.txt b/4716-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f205d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8544 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Day In Old Athens, by William Stearns Davis + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: A Day In Old Athens + +Author: William Stearns Davis + +Release Date: March 6, 2002 [eBook #4716] +[Most recently updated: September 29, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: William Fishburne and Kestrell + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY IN OLD ATHENS *** + +[Illustration] + + + + +A Day In Old Athens + +by William Stearns Davis + +Professor of Ancient History in the University of Minnesota + + + + +Preface + + +This little book tries to describe what an intelligent person would see +and hear in ancient Athens, if by some legerdemain he were translated +to the fourth century B.C. and conducted about the city under competent +guidance. Rare happenings have been omitted and sometimes, to avoid +long explanations, _probable_ matters have been stated as if they were +ascertained facts; but these instances are few, and it is hoped no +reader will be led into serious error. + +The year 360 B.C. has been selected for the hypothetical time of this +visit, not because of any special virtue in that date, but because +Athens was then architecturally almost perfect, her civic and her +social life seemed at their best, the democratic constitution held its +vigor, and there were few outward signs of the general decadence which +was to set in after the triumph of Macedon. + +I have endeavored to state no facts and to make no allusions, that will +not be fairly obvious to a reader who has merely an elementary +knowledge of Greek annals, such information, for instance, as may be +gained through a good secondary school history of ancient times. This +naturally has led to comments and descriptions which more advanced +students may find superfluous. + +The writer has been under a heavy debt to the numerous and excellent +works on Greek “Private Antiquities” and “Public Life” written in +English, French, or German, as well as to the various great Classical +Encyclopædias and Dictionaries, and to many treatises and monographs +upon the topography of Athens and upon the numerous phases of Attic +culture. It is proper to say, however, that the material from such +secondary sources has been merely supplementary to a careful +examination of the ancient Greek writers, with the objects of this book +kept especially in view. A sojourn in modern Athens, also, has given +me an impression of the influence of the Attic landscape upon the +conditions of old Athenian life, an impression that I have tried to +convey in this small volume. + +I am deeply grateful to my sister, Mrs. Fannie Davis Gifford, for +helpful criticism of this book while in manuscript; to my wife, for +preparing the drawings from Greek vase-paintings which appear as +illustrations; and to my friend and colleague, Professor Charles A. +Savage, for a kind and careful reading of the proofs. Thanks also are +due to Henry Holt and Company for permission to quote material from +their edition of Von Falke’s “Greece and Rome.” + +W. S. D. + +University of Minnesota, +Minneapolis, Minnesota. +May, 1914. + + +Contents + + Chapter I. The Physical Setting of Athens. + 1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History + 2. Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant + 3. The Small Size and Sterility of Attica + 4. The Physical Beauty of Attica + 5. The Mountains of Attica + 6. The Sunlight in Attica + 7. The Topography of the City of Athens + 8. 360 B.C.—The Year of the Visit to Athens + + Chapter II. The First Sights in Athens. + 9. The Morning Crowds bound for Athens + 10. The Gate and the Street Scenes + 11. The Streets and House Fronts of Athens + 12. The Simplicity of Athenian Life + + Chapter III. The Agora and its Denizens. + 13. The Buildings around the Agora + 14. The Life in the Agora + 15. The Booths and Shops in the Agora + 16. The Flower and the Fish Vendors + 17. The Morning Visitors to the Agora + 18. The Leisured Class in Athens + 19. Familiar Types around the Agora + 20. The Barber Shops + + Chapter IV. The Athenian House and its Furnishings. + 21. Following an Athenian Gentleman Homeward + 22. The Type and Uses of a Greek House + 23. The Plan of a Greek House + 24. Modifications in the Typical Plan + 25. Rents and House Values + 26. The Simple yet Elegant Furnishings of an Athenian House + + Chapter V. The Women of Athens. + 27. How Athenian Marriages are Arranged + 28. Lack of Sentiment in Marriages + 29. Athenian Marriage Rites + 30. The Mental Horizon of Athenian Women + 31. The Honor paid Womanhood in Athens + 32. The Sphere of Action of Athenian Women + + Chapter VI. Athenian Costume. + 33. The General Nature of Greek Dress + 34. The Masculine Chiton, Himation, and Chlamys + 35. The Dress of the Women + 36. Footwear and Head Coverings + 37. The Beauty of the Greek Dress + 38. Greek Toilet Frivolities + + Chapter VII. The Slaves. + 39. Slavery an Integral Part of Greek Life + 40. The Slave Trade in Greece + 41. The Treatment of Slaves in Athens + 42. Cruel and Kind Masters + 43. The “City Slaves” of Athens + + Chapter VIII. The Children. + 44. The Desirability of Children in Athens + 45. The Exposure of Infants + 46. The Celebration of a Birth + 47. Life and Games of Young Children + 48. Playing in the Streets + 49. The First Stories and Lessons + 50. The Training of Athenian Girls + + Chapter IX. The Schoolboys of Athens. + 51. The Athenians Generally Literate + 52. Character Building the Aim of Athenian Education + 53. The Schoolboy’s Pedagogue + 54. An Athenian School + 55. The School Curriculum + 56. The Study of the Poets + 57. The Greeks do not study Foreign Languages + 58. The Study of “Music” + 59. The Moral Character of Greek Music + 60. The Teaching of Gymnastics + 61. The Habits and Ambitions of Schoolboys + 62. The “Ephebi” + + Chapter X. The Physicians of Athens. + 63. The Beginnings of Greek Medical Science + 64. Healing Shrines and their Methods + 65. An Athenian Physician’s Office + 66. The Physician’s Oath + 67. The Skill of Greek Physicians + 68. Quacks and Charlatans + + Chapter XI. The Funerals. + 69. An Athenian’s Will + 70. The Preliminaries of a Funeral + 71. Lamenting the Dead + 72. The Funeral Procession + 73. The Funeral Pyre + 74. Honors to the Memory of the Dead + 75. The Beautiful Funeral Monuments + + Chapter XII. Trade, Manufactures, and Banking. + 76. The Commercial Importance of Athens + 77. The Manufacturing Activities of Athens + 78. The Commerce of Athens + 79. The Adventurous Merchant Skippers + 80. Athenian Money-changers and Bankers + 81. A Large Banking Establishment + 82. Drawbacks to the Banking Business + 83. The Pottery of Athens + 84. Athenian Pottery an Expression of the Greek Sense of Beauty + + Chapter XIII. The Armed Forces of Athens. + 85. Military Life at Athens + 86. The Organization of the Athenian Army + 87. The Hoplites and the Light Troops + 88. The Cavalry and the Peltasts + 89. The Panoply of the Hoplites + 90. The Weapons of a Hoplite + 91. Infantry Maneuvers + 92. The Preliminaries of a Greek Battle + 93. Joining the Battle + 94. The Climax and End of the Battle + 95. The Burial Truce and the Trophy after the Battle + 96. The Siege of Fortified Towns + 97. The Introduction of New Tactics + + Chapter XIV. The Peiræus and the Shipping. + 98. The “Long Walls” down to the Harbor Town + 99. Munychia and the Havens of Athens + 100. The Glorious View from the Hill of Munychia + 101. The Town of Peiræus + 102. The Merchant Shipping + 103. The Three War Harbors and the Ship Houses + 104. The Great Naval Arsenal + 105. An Athenian Trierarch + 106. The Evolution of the Trireme + 107. The Hull of a Trireme + 108. The Rowers’ Benches of a Trireme + 109. The Cabins, Rigging, and Ram of a Trireme + 110. The Officers and Crew of a Trireme + 111. A Trireme at Sea + 112. The Tactics of a Naval Battle + 113. The Naval Strength of Athens + + Chapter XV. An Athenian Court Trial. + 114. The Frequency of Litigation in Athens + 115. Prosecutions in Athens + 116. The Preliminaries to a Trial + 117. The Athenian Jury Courts + 118. The Juryman’s Oath + 119. Opening The Trial. The Plaintiff’s Speech + 120. The Defendant’s Speech. Demonstrations by the Jury + 121. The First Verdict + 122. The Second and Final Verdict + 123. The Merits and Defects of the Athenian Courts + 124. The Usual Punishments in Athens + 125. The Heavy Penalty of Exile + 126. The Death Penalty of Athens + + Chapter XVI. The Ecclesia of Athens. + 127. The Rule of Democracy in Athens + 128. Aristocracy and Wealth. Their Status and Burdens + 129. Athenian Society truly Democratic up to a Certain Point + 130. The Voting Population of Athens + 131. Meeting Times of the Ecclesia + 132. The Pnyx (Assembly Place) at Athens + 133. The Preliminaries of the Meeting + 134. Debating a Proposition + 135. Voting at the Pnyx + 136. The Ecclesia as an Educational Instrument + + Chapter XVII. The Afternoon at the Gymnasia. + 137. The Gymnasia. Places of General Resort + 138. The Road to the Academy + 139. The Academy + 140. The Social Atmosphere and Human Types at the Academy + 141. Philosophers and Cultivated Men at the Gymnasia + 142. The Beautiful Youths at the Academy + 143. The Greek Worship of Manly Beauty + 144. The Detestation of Old Age + 145. The Greeks unite Moral and Physical Beauty + 146. The Usual Gymnastic Sports and their Objects + 147. Professional Athletes: the Pancration + 148. Leaping Contests + 149. Quoit Hurling + 150. Casting the Javelin + 151. Wrestling + 152. Foot Races + 153. The Pentathlon: the Honors paid to Great Athletes + + Chapter XVIII. Athenian Cookery and the Symposium. + 154. Greek Meal Times + 155. Society desired at Meals + 156. The Staple Articles of Food + 157. Greek Vintages + 158. Vegetable Dishes + 159. Meat and Fish Dishes + 160. Inviting Guests to a Dinner Party + 161. Preparing for the Dinner: the Sicilian Cook + 162. The Coming of the Guests + 163. The Dinner Proper + 164. Beginning the Symposium + 165. The Symposiarch and his Duties + 166. Conversation at the Symposium + 167. Games and Entertainments + 168. Going Home from the Feast: Midnight Revelers + + Chapter XIX. Country Life around Athens. + 169. The Importance of his Farm to an Athenian + 170. The Country by the Ilissus: the Greeks and Natural Beauty + 171. Plato’s Description of the Walk by the Ilissus + 172. The Athenian Love of Country Life + 173. Some Features of the Attic Country + 174. An Attic Farmstead + 175. Plowing, Reaping, and Threshing + 176. Grinding at the Mill + 177. The Olive Orchards + 178. The Vineyards + 179. Cattle, Sheep, and Goats + 180. The Gardens and the Shrine + + Chapter XX. The Temples and Gods of Athens. + 181. Certain Factors in Athenian Religion + 182. What constitutes “Piety” in Athens + 183. The Average Athenians Idea of the Gods + 184. Most Greeks without Belief in Immortality + 185. The Multitude of Images of the Gods + 186. Greek Superstition + 187. Consulting Omens + 188. The Great Oracles + 189. Greek Sacrifices + 190. The Route to the Acropolis + 191. The Acropolis of Athens + 192. The Use of Color Upon Athenian Architecture and Sculptures + 193. The Chief Buildings on the Acropolis + 194. The Parthenon + 195. A Sacrifice on the Acropolis + 196. The Interior of the Parthenon and the Great Image of Athena + 197. Greek Prayers + + Chapter XXI. The Great Festival of Athens. + 198. The Frequent Festivals in Athens + 199. The Eleusinia + 200. The Holy Procession to Eleusis + 201. The Mysteries of Eleusis + 202. The Greater Dionysia and the Drama + 203. The Theater of Dionysus + 204. The Production of a Play + 205. The Great Panathenaic Procession + 206. The View from the Temple of Wingless Victory + + Index + +[Illustration: Athenian Acropolis] + +Maps, Plans, and Illustrations. + + 1. Athenian Acropolis + 2. Sketch Map of Attica + 3. Sketch Map of Athens + 4. Peasant going to Market + 5. At the Street Fountain + 6. A Wayside Herm + 7. A Carpenter + 8. Conjectural Plan for the house of a Wealthy Athenian + 9. Spinning + 10. The Maternal Slipper + 11. Athenian Funeral Monument + 12. At the Smithy + 13. Hoplite in Armor + 14. The Town of Peiræus and the Harbors of Athens + 15. Fishermen + 16. An Athenian Trireme + 17. The Race in Armor + 18. Itinerant Piper with his Dog + 19. Women pounding Meal + 20. Gathering the Olive Harvest + 21. Rural Sacrifice to a Wooden Statue of Dionysus + 22. Sketch Map of the Acropolis of Athens + 23. Sacrificing a Pig + 24. Athena Parthenos + 25. Comic Actors dressed as Ostriches + 26. Actor in Costume as a Fury + + + + +A Day in Old Athens + + + + +Chapter I. +The Physical Setting of Athens. + + +1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History.—To three ancient nations +the men of the twentieth century owe an incalculable debt. To the Jews +we owe most of our notions of religion; to the Romans we owe traditions +and examples in law, administration, and the general management of +human affairs which still keep their influence and value; and finally, +to the Greeks we owe nearly all our ideas as to the fundamentals of +art, literature, and philosophy, in fact, of almost the whole of our +intellectual life. These Greeks, however, our histories promptly teach +us, did not form a single unified nation. They lived in many +“city-states” of more or less importance, and some of the largest of +these contributed very little directly to our civilization. Sparta, +for example, has left us some noble lessons in simple living and +devoted patriotism, but hardly a single great poet, and certainly never +a philosopher or sculptor. When we examine closely, we see that the +civilized life of Greece, during the centuries when she was +accomplishing the most, was peculiarly centered at Athens. Without +Athens, Greek history would lose three quarters of its significance, +and modern life and thought would become infinitely the poorer. + + +2. Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant.—Because, then, the +contributions of Athens to our own life are so important, because they +touch (as a Greek would say) upon almost every side of “the true, the +beautiful, and the good,” it is obvious that the outward conditions +under which this Athenian genius developed deserve our respectful +attention. For assuredly such personages as Sophocles, Plato, and +Phidias were not isolated creatures, who developed their genius apart +from, or in spite of, the life about them, but rather were the ripe +products of a society, which in its excellences and weaknesses presents +some of the most interesting pictures and examples in the world. To +understand the Athenian civilization and genius it is not enough to +know the outward history of the times, the wars, the laws, and the +lawmakers. We must see Athens as the average man saw it and lived in +it from day to day, and _then_ perhaps we can partially understand how +it was that during the brief but wonderful era of Athenian freedom and +prosperity[*], Athens was able to produce so many men of commanding +genius as to win for her a place in the history of civilization which +she can never lose. + +[*] That era may be assumed to begin with the battle of Marathon (490 +B.C.), and it certainly ended in 322 B.C., when Athens passed +decisively under the power of Macedonia; although since the battle of +Chæroneia (338 B.C.) she had done little more than keep her liberty on +sufferance. + + +3. The Small Size and Sterility of Attica.—Attica was a very small +country according to modern notions, and Athens the only large city +therein. The land barely covered some 700 square miles, with 40 square +miles more, if one includes the dependent island of Salamis. It was +thus far smaller than the smallest of our American “states” (Rhode +Island = 1250 square miles), and was not so large as many American +counties. It was really a triangle of rocky, hill-scarred land thrust +out into the Ægean Sea, as if it were a sort of continuation of the +more level district of Bœotia. Yet small as it was, the hills inclosing +it to the west, the seas pressing it form the northeast and south, gave +it a unity and isolation all its own. Attica was not an island; but it +could be invaded only by sea, or by forcing the resistance which could +be offered at the steep mountain passes towards Bœotia or Megara. +Attica was thus distinctly separated from the rest of Greece. Legends +told how, when the half-savage Dorians had forced themselves southward +over the mainland, they had never penetrated into Attica; and the +Athenians later prided themselves upon being no colonists from afar, +but upon being “earth-sprung,”—natives of the soil which they and their +twenty-times grandfathers had held before them. + + +[Illustration: Sketch map of Attica] + + +This triangle of Attica had its peculiar shortcomings and virtues. It +was for the most part stony and unfertile. Only a shallow layer of +good soil covered a part of its hard foundation rock, which often in +turn lay bare on the surface. The Athenian farmer had a sturdy +struggle to win a scanty crop, and about the only products he could +ever raise in abundance for export were olives (which seemed to thrive +on scanty soil and scanty rainfall) and honey, the work of the mountain +bees. + + +4. The Physical Beauty of Attica.—Yet Attica had advantages which more +than counterbalanced this grudging of fertility. All Greece, to be +sure, was favored by the natural beauty of its atmosphere, seas, and +mountains, but Attica was perhaps the most favored portion of all, +Around her coasts, rocky often and broken by pebbly beaches and little +craggy peninsulas, surged the deep blue Ægean, the most glorious +expanse of ocean in the world. Far away spread the azure +water[*],—often foam-crested and sometimes alive with the dolphins +leaping at their play,—reaching towards a shimmering sky line where +rose “the isles of Greece,” masses of green foliage, or else of tawny +rock, scattered afar, to adapt the words of Homer, “like shields laid +on the face of the glancing deep.” + +[*] The peculiar blueness of the water near Attica is probably caused +by the clear rocky bottom of the sea, as well as by the intensity of +the sunlight. + + +Above the sea spread the noble arch of the heavens,—the atmosphere +often dazzlingly bright, and carrying its glamour and sparkle almost +into the hearts of men. The Athenians were proud of the air about +their land. Their poets gladly sung its praises, as, for example, +Euripides[*], when he tells how his fellow countrymen enjoy being— + +Ever through air clear shining brightly +As on wings uplifted, pacing lightly. + + +[*] Medea:829. + + +5. The Mountains of Attica.—The third great element, besides the sea +and the atmosphere of Athens, was the mountains. One after another the +bold hills reared themselves, cutting short all the plainlands and +making the farmsteads often a matter of slopes and terraces. Against +the radiant heavens these mountains stood out boldly, clearly; +revealing all the little gashes and seams left from that long-forgotten +day when they were flung forth from the bowels of the earth. None of +these mountains was very high: Hymettus, the greatest, was only about +3500 feet; but rising as they often did from a close proximity to the +sea, and not from a dwarfing table-land, even the lower hills uplifted +themselves with proud majesty. + +These hills were of innumerable tints according to their rocks, the hue +of the neighboring sea, and the hour of the day. In spring they would +be clothed in verdant green, which would vanish before the summer +heats, leaving them rosy brown or gray. But whatever the fundamental +tone, it was always brilliant; for the Athenians lived in a land where +blue sky, blue sea, and the massive rock blent together into such a +galaxy of shifting color, that, in comparison, the lighting of almost +any northern or western landscape would seem feeble and tame. The +Athenians absorbed natural beauty with their native air. + + +6. The Sunlight in Athens.—The Athenian loved sunshine, and Helios the +Sun God was gracious to his prayers. In the Athens of to-day it is +reckoned that the year averages 179 days in which the sun is not +concealed by clouds one instant; and 157 days more when the sun is not +hidden more than half an hour[*]. Ancient Athens was surely not more +cloudy. Nevertheless, despite this constant sunshine and a southern +latitude, Athens was stricken relatively seldom with semitropical heat. + The sea was a good friend, bringing tempering breezes. In the short +winter there might be a little frost, a little snow, and a fair supply +of rain. For the rest of the year, one golden day was wont to succeed +another, with the sun and the sea breeze in ever friendly rivalry. + +[*] The reason for these many clear days is probably because when the +moist west and southwest winds come in contact with the dry, heated air +of the Attic plain, they are at once volatilized and dispersed, not +condensed (as in northern lands); therefore the day resolves itself +into brilliant sunshine. + + +The climate saved the Athenians from being obliged to wage a stern +warfare with nature as did the northern peoples. Their life and +civilization could be one developed essentially “in the open air”; +while, on the other hand, the bracing sea breeze saved them from that +enervating lethargy which has ruined so many southern folk. The scanty +soil forced them to struggle hard to win a living; unless they yielded +to the constant beckoning of the ocean, and sought food, adventure, +wealth, and a great empire across the seas. + + +7. The Topography of the City of Athens.—So much for the land of Attica +in general; but what of the setting of the city of Athens itself? The +city lay in a plain, somewhat in the south central part of Attica, and +about four miles back from the sea. A number of mountains came +together to form an irregular rectangle with the Saronic Gulf upon the +south. To the east of Athens stretched the long gnarled ridge of +Hymettus, the wildest and grayest mountain in Attica, the home of bees +and goatherds, and (if there be faith in pious legend) of innumerable +nymphs and satyrs. To the west ran the lower, browner mountains, +Ægaleos, across which a road (the “Sacred Way”) wound through an easy +pass towards Eleusis, the only sizable town in Attica, outside of +Athens and its harbors. To the rear of the plain rose a noble pyramid, +less jagged than Hymettus, more lordly than Ægaleos; its summits were +fretted with a white which turned to clear rose color under the sunset. + This was Pentelicus, from the veins whereof came the lustrous marble +for the master sculptor. Closer at hand, nearer the center of the +plain, rose a small and very isolated hill,—Lycabettus, whose peaked +summit looked down upon the roofs of Athens. And last, but never +least, about one mile southwest of Lycabettus, upreared a natural +monument of much greater frame,—not a hill, but a colossal rock. Its +shape was that of an irregular oval; it was about 1000 feet long, 500 +feet wide, and its level summit stood 350 feet above the plain. This +steep, tawny rock, flung by the Titans, one might dream, into the midst +of the Attic plain, formed one of the most famous sites in the world, +for it was the Acropolis of Athens. Its full significance, however, +must be explained later. From the Acropolis and a few lesser hills +close by, the land sloped gently down towards the harbors and the +Saronic Bay. + + +[Illustration: Sketch map of Athens] + + +These were the great features of the outward setting of Athens. One +might add to them the long belt of dark green olive groves winding down +the westward side of the plain, where the Cephisus (which along among +Attic rivulets did not run dry in summer) ran down to the sea. There +was also a shorter olive belt west of the city, where the weaker +Ilissus crept, before it lost itself amid the thirsty fields. + +Sea, rock, and sky, then, joined together around Athens as around +almost no other city in the world. The landscape itself was adjusted +to the eye with marvelous harmony. The colors and contours formed one +glorious model for the sculptor and the painter, one perpetual +inspiration for the poet. Even if Athens had never been the seat of a +famous race, she would have won fame as being situated in one of the +most beautiful localities in the world. Rightly, therefore, did its +dwellers boast of their city as the “Violet-crowned” (_Iostephanos_). + + +8. 360 B.C.—The Year of the Visit to Athens.—This city let us visit in +the days of its greatest outward glory. We may select the year 360 +B.C. At that time Athens had recovered from the ravages of the +Peloponnesian War, while the Macedonian peril had not as yet become +menacing. The great public buildings were nearly all completed. No +signs of material decadence were visible, and if Athens no longer +possessed the wide naval empire of the days of Pericles, her fleets and +her armies were still formidable. The harbors were full of commerce; +the philosophers were teaching their pupils in the groves and +porticoes; the democratic constitution was entirely intact. With +intelligent vision we will enter the city and look about us. + + + + +Chapter II. +The First Sights in Athens. + + +9. The Morning Crowds bound for Athens.—It is very early in the +morning. The sun has just pushed above the long ridge of Hymettus, +sending a slanting red bar of light across the Attic plain, and +touching the opposite slopes of Ægaleos with livid fire. Already, +however, life is stirring outside the city. Long since, little market +boats have rowed across the narrow strait from Salamis, bringing the +island farmer’s produce, and other farmers from the plain and the +mountain slopes have started for market. In the ruddy light the marble +temples on the lofty Acropolis rising ahead of these hurrying rustics +are standing out clearly; the spear and helmet of the great brazen +statue of the Athena Promachos are flashing from the noble citadel, as +a kind of day beacon, beckoning onward toward the city. From the +Peiræus, the harbor town, a confused hum of mariners lading and +unlading vessels is even now rising, but we cannot turn ourselves +thither. Our route is to follow the farmers bound for market. + +The most direct road from the Peiræus to Athens is hidden indeed, for +it leads between the towering ramparts of the “Long Walls,” two mighty +barriers which run parallel almost four miles from the inland city to +the harbor, giving a guarded passage in wartime and making Athens safe +against starvation from any land blockade; but there is an outside road +leading also to Athens from the western farmsteads, and this we can +conveniently follow. Upon this route the crowd which one meets is +certainly not aristocratic, but it is none the less Athenian. Here +goes a drover, clad in skins, his legs wound with woolen bands in lieu +of stockings; before him and his wolf-like dog shambles a flock of +black sheep or less manageable goats, bleating and baaing as they are +propelled toward market. After him there may come an unkempt, +long-bearded farmer flogging on a pack ass or a mule attached to a +clumsy cart with solid wheels, and laden with all kinds of market +produce. The roadway, be it said, is not good, and all carters have +their troubles; therefore, there is a deal of gesticulating and profane +invocation of Hermes and all other gods of traffic; for, early as it +is, the market place is already filling, and every delay promises a +loss. There are still other companions bound toward the city: +countrymen bearing cages of poultry; others engaged in the uncertain +calling of driving pigs; swarthy Oriental sailors, with rings in their +ears, bearing bales of Phœnician goods from the Peiræus; respectable +country gentlemen, walking gravely in their best white mantles and +striving to avoid the mud and contamination; and perhaps also a small +company of soldiers, just back from foreign service, passes, clattering +shields and spear staves. + + +[Illustration: Peasant going to Market] + + +10. The Gate and the Street Scenes.—The crowds grow denser as everybody +approaches the frequented “Peiræus Gate,” for nearly all of Attica +which lies within easy reach of Athens has business in the Market Place +every morning. On passing the gate a fairly straight way leads through +the city to the market, but progress for the multitude becomes slow. +If it is one of the main thoroughfares, it is now very likely to be +almost blocked with people. There are few late risers at Athens; the +Council of Five Hundred[*], the huge Jury Courts, and the Public +Assembly (if it has met to-day[+]) are appointed to gather at sunrise. +The plays in the theater, which, however, are given only on certain +festivals, begin likewise at sunrise. The philosophers say that “the +man who would accomplish great things must be up while yet it is dark.” + Athenians, therefore, are always awake and stirring at an hour when +men of later ages and more cold and foggy climes will be painfully +yawning ere getting out of bed. + +[*] The “Boule,” the great standing committee of the Athenian people to +aid the magistrates in the government. + + +[+] In which case, of course, the regular courts and the Council would +hardly meet. + + +[Illustration: At the Street Fountain] + + +The Market Place attracts the great masses, but by no means all; hither +and thither bevies of sturdy slave girls, carrying graceful pitchers on +their heads, are hurrying towards the fountains which gush cool water +at most of the street corners. Theirs is a highly necessary task, for +few or no houses have their own water supply; and around each fountain +one can see half a dozen by no means slatternly maidens, splashing and +flirting the water one at another, while they wait their turn with the +pitchers, and laugh and exchange banter with the passing farmers’ lads. + Many in the street crowds are rosy-cheeked schoolboys, walking +decorously, if they are lads of good breeding, and blushing modestly +when they are greeted by their fathers’ acquaintances. They do not +loiter on the way. Close behind, carrying their writing tablets, follow +the faithful ‘pedagogues,’ the body-servants appointed to conduct them +to school, give them informal instruction, and, if need be, correct +their faults in no painless manner. Besides the water maids and the +schoolboys, from the innumerable house doors now opening the respective +masters are stepping forth—followed by one, two, or several serving +varlets, as many as their wealth affords. All these join in the crowd +entering from the country. “Athenian democracy” always implies a +goodly amount of hustling and pushing. No wonder the ways are a busy +sight! + + +11. The Streets and House Fronts of Athens.—Progress is slower near the +Market Place because of the extreme narrowness of the streets. They are +only fifteen feet wide or even less,—intolerable alleys a later age +would call them,—and dirty to boot. Sometimes they are muddy, more +often extremely dusty. Worse still, they are contaminated by great +accumulations of filth; for the city is without an efficient sewer +system or regular scavengers. Even as the crowd elbows along, a house +door will frequently open, an ill-favored slave boy show his head, and +with the yell, “Out of the way!” slap a bucket of dirty water into the +street. There are many things to offend the nose as well as the eyes +of men of a later race. It is fortunate indeed that the Athenians are +otherwise a healthy folk, or they would seem liable to perpetual +pestilence; even so, great plagues have in past years harried the +city[*]. + +[*] The most fearful thereof was the great plague of 430 B.C. (during +the Peloponnesian War), which nearly ruined Athens. + + +The first entrance to Athens will thus bring to a stranger, full of the +city’s fame and expectant of meeting objects of beauty at every turn, +almost instant disappointment. The narrow, dirty, ill-paved streets +are also very crooked. One can readily be lost in a labyrinth of +filthy little lanes the moment one quits the few main thoroughfares. +High over head, to be sure, the red crags of the Acropolis may be +towering, crowned with the red, gold, and white tinted marble of the +temples, but all around seems only monotonous squalor. The houses seem +one continuous series of blank walls; mostly of one, occasionally of +two stories, and with flat roofs. These walls are usually spread over +with some dirty gray or perhaps yellow stucco. For most houses, the +only break in the street walls are the simple doors, all jealously +barred and admitting no glance within. There are usually no street +windows, if the house is only one story high. If it has two stories, a +few narrow slits above the way may hint that here are the apartments +for the slaves or women. There are no street numbers. There are often +no street names. “So-and-so lives in such-and-such a quarter, near the +Temple of Heracles;” that will enable you to find a householder, after +a few tactful questions from the neighbors; and after all, Athens is a +relatively small city[*] (as great cities are reckoned), very closely +built, and her regular denizens do not feel the need of a directory. + +[* ]Every guess at the population of Athens rests on mere conjecture; +yet, using the scanty data which we possess, it seems possible that +_the population of all Attica_ at the height of its prosperity was +about _200,000 free persons_ (including the _metics_—resident +foreigners without citizenship); and a rather smaller number of +slaves—say 150,000 or less. Of this total of some 350,000, probably +something under one half resided in the city of Athens during times of +peace, the rest in the outlying farms and villages. _Athens may be +imagined as a city of about 150,000_—possibly a trifle more. During +serious wars there would be of course a general removal into the city. + + +So the crowd elbows its way onward: now thinning, now gaining, but the +main stream always working towards the Market Place. + + +12. The Simplicity of Athenian Life.—It is clear we are entering a +city where nine tenths of what the twentieth century will consider the +“essential conveniences” of life are entirely lacking; where men are +trying to be civilized—or, as the Greeks would say, to lay hold upon +“the true, the beautiful, and the good,” without even the absolute +minimum of those things which people of a later age will believe +separate a “civilized man” from a “barbarian.” The gulf between old +Athens and, for instance, new Chicago is greater than is readily +supposed[*]. It is easy enough to say that the Athenians lacked such +things as railways, telephones, gas, grapefruit, and cocktails. All +such matters we realize were not known by our fathers and grandfathers, +and we are not yet so removed from _them_ that we cannot transport +ourselves in imagination back to the world of say 1820 A.D.; but the +Athenians are far behind even our grandfathers. When we investigate, +we will find conditions like these—houses absolutely without plumbing, +beds without sheets, rooms as hot or as cold as the outer air, only far +more drafty. We must cross rivers without bridges; we must fasten our +clothes (or rather our “two pieces of cloth”) with two pins instead of +with a row of buttons; we must wear sandals without stockings (or go +barefoot); must warm ourselves over a pot of ashes; judge plays or +lawsuits on a cold winter morning sitting in the open air; we must +study poetry with very little aid from books, geography without real +maps, and politics without newspapers; and lastly, “we must learn how +to be civilized without being comfortable!”[+] + +[*] See the very significant comment on the physical limitations of the +old Athenian life in Zimmern’s “_The Greek Commonwealth_,” p. 209. + + +[+] Zimmern, _ibid_. + + +Or, to reverse the case: we must understand that an Athenian would +have pronounced our boasted “civilization” hopelessly artificial, and +our life so dependent on outward material props and factors as to be +scarcely worth the living. He would declare himself well able to live +happily under conditions where the average American or Englishman would +be cold, semi-starved, and miserable. He would declare that _his_ woe +or happiness was retained far more under his own control than we retain +ours, and that we are worthy of contemptuous pity rather than of +admiration, because we have refined our civilization to such a point +that the least accident, _e.g._ the suspension of rail traffic for a +few days, can reduce a modern city to acute wretchedness. + +Probably neither the twentieth century in its pride, nor the fourth +century B.C. in its contempt, would have all the truth upon its +side.[*] The difference in viewpoint, however, must still stand. +Preëminently Athens may be called the “City of the Simple Life.” +Bearing this fact in mind, we may follow the multitude and enter the +Marketplace; or, to use the name that stamps it as a peculiarly Greek +institution,—the Agora. + +[*] The mere matter of _climate_ would of course have to come in as a +serious factor. The Athenian would have found his life becoming +infinitely more complex along the material side when he tried to live +like a “_kalos-k’agathos_”—_i.e._ a “noble and good man,” or a +“gentleman,”—in a land where the thermometer might sink to 15° below +zero Fahrenheit (or even lower) from time to time during the winter. + + + + +Chapter III. +The Agora and its Denizens. + + +13. The Buildings around the Agora.—Full market time![*] The great +plaza of the Agora is buzzing with life. The contrast between the +dingy, dirty streets and this magnificent public plaza is startling. +The Athenians manifestly care little for merely private display, rather +they frown upon it; their wealth, patriotism, and best artistic energy +seem all lavished upon their civic establishments and buildings. + +[*] Between nine and twelve A.M. + + +The Agora is a square of spacious dimensions, planted here and there +with graceful bay trees. Its greatest length runs north and south. +Ignoring for the time the teeming noisy swarms of humanity, let our +eyes be directed merely upon the encircling buildings. The place is +almost completely enclosed by them, although not all are of equal +elegance or pretension. Some are temples of more or less size, like +the temple of the “Paternal Apollo” near the southwestern angle; or the +“Metroön,” the fane of Cybele “the Great Mother of the Gods,” upon the +south. Others are governmental buildings; somewhat behind the Metroön +rise the imposing pillars of the Council House, where the Five Hundred +are deliberating on the policy of Athens; and hard by that is the +Tholos, the “Round House,” with a peaked, umbrella-shaped roof, beneath +which the sacred public hearth fire is ever kept burning, and where the +presiding Committee of the Council[*] and certain high officials take +their meals, and a good deal of state business is transacted. The +majority of these buildings upon the Agora, however, are covered +promenades, porticoes, or stoæ. + +[*] This select committee was known technically as the “_Prytanes_.” + + +The stoæ are combinations of rain shelters, shops, picture galleries, +and public offices. Turn under the pillars of the “Royal Stoa” upon +the west, and you are among the whispering, nudging, intent crowd of +listeners, pushing against the barriers of a low court. Long rows of +jurors are sitting on their benches; the “King Archon” is on the +president’s stand, and some poor wight is being arraigned on a charge +of “Impiety”[*]; while on the walls behind stand graved and ancient +laws of Draco and Solon. + +[*] The so-called “King Archon” had special cognizance of most cases +involving religious questions; and his court was in this stoa. + + +[Illustration: A Wayside Herm] + + +Cross the square, and on the opposite side is one of the most +magnificent of the porticoes, the “Painted Porch” (“_Stoa Poikilë_”), a +long covered walk, a delightful refuge alike from sun and rain. Almost +the entire length of the inner walls (for it has columns only on the +side of the Agora) is covered with vivid frescoes. Here Polygnotus and +other master painters have spread out the whole legendary story of the +capture of Troy and of the defeat of the Amazons; likewise the more +historical tale of the battle of Marathon. Yet another promenade, the +“Stoa of Zeus,” is sacred to Zeus, Giver of Freedom. The walls are not +frescoed, but hung with the shields of valiant Athenian warriors. + +In the open spaces of the plaza itself are various altars, _e.g._ to +the “Twelve Gods,” and innumerable statues of local worthies, as of +Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the tyrant-slayers; while across the +center, cutting the Market Place from east to west, runs a line of +stone posts, each surmounted with a rude bearded head of Hermes, the +trader’s god; and each with its base plastered many times over with all +kinds of official and private placards and notices. + + +14. The Life in the Agora.—So much for the physical setting of the +Agora: of far greater interest surely are the people. The whole +square is abounding with noisy activity. If an Athenian has no actual +business to transact, he will at least go to the Agora to get the +morning news. Two turns under the “Painted Porch” will tell him the +last rumor as to the foreign policy of Thebes; whether it is true that +old King Agesilaus has died at Sparta; whether corn is likely to be +high, owning to a failure of crops in the Euxine (Black Sea) region; +whether the “Great King” of Persia is prospering in his campaign +against Egypt. The crowd is mostly clad in white, though often the +cloaks of the humbler visitors are dirty, but there is a sprinkling of +gay colors,—blue, orange, and pink. Everybody is talking at once in +melodious Attic; everybody (since they are all true children of the +south) is gesticulating at once. To the babel of human voices is added +the wheezing whistle of donkeys, the squealing of pigs, the cackle of +poultry. Besides, from many of the little factories and workshops on +or near the Agora a great din is rising. The clamor is prodigious. +Criers are stalking up and down the square, one bawling out that +Andocides has lost a valuable ring and will pay well to recover it; +another the Pheidon has a desirable horse that he will sell cheap. One +must stand still for some moments and let eye and ear accustom +themselves to such utter confusion. + + +15. The Booths and Shops in the Agora.—At length out of the chaos +there seems to emerge a certain order. The major part of the square is +covered with little booths of boards and wicker work, very frail and +able to be folded up, probably every night. There are little lanes +winding amid these booths; and each manner of huckster has its own +especial “circle” or section of the market. “Go to the wine,” “to the +fish,” “to the myrtles” (_i.e._ the flowers), are common directions for +finding difficult parts of the Agora. Trade is mostly on a small +scale,—the stock of each vendor is distinctly limited in its range, and +Athens is without “department stores.” Behind each low counter, laden +with its wares, stands the proprietor, who keeps up a din from leathern +lungs: “Buy my oil!” “Buy charcoal!” “Buy sausage!” etc., until he is +temporarily silenced while dealing with a customer. + + +[Illustration: A Carpenter] + + +In one “circle” may be found onions and garlic (a favorite food of the +poor); a little further on are the dealers in wine, fruit, and garden +produce. Lentils and peas can be had either raw, or cooked and ready +to eat on the spot. An important center is the bread market. The huge +cylindrical loaves are handed out by shrewd old women with proverbially +long tongues. Whosoever upsets one of their delicately balanced piles +of loaves is certain of an artistic tongue lashing. Elsewhere there is +a pottery market, a clothes market, and, nearer the edge of the Agora, +are “circles,” where objects of real value are sold, like jewelry, +chariots, good furniture. In certain sections, too, may be seen +strong-voiced individuals, with little trays swung by straps before +them, pacing to and fro, and calling out, not foods, but medicines, +infallible cure-alls for every human distemper. Many are the unwary +fools who patronize them. + + +16. The Flower and the Fish Vendors.—Two circles attract especial +attention, the Myrtles and the Fish. Flowers and foliage, especially +when made up into garlands, are absolutely indispensable to the average +Greek. Has he a great family festival, _e.g._ the birth of a son, then +every guest should wear a crown of olives; is it a wedding, then one of +flowers.[*] Oak-leaves do the honors for Zeus; laurel for Apollo; +myrtle for Aphrodite (and is not the Love-Goddess the favorite?). To +have a social gathering without garlands, in short, is impossible. The +flower girls of Athens are beautiful, impudent, and not at all prudish. + Around their booths press bold-tongued youths, and not too discreet +sires; and the girls can call everybody familiarly by name. Very +possibly along with the sale of the garlands they make arrangements (if +the banquet is to be of the less respectable kind) to be present in the +evening themselves, perhaps in the capacity of flute girls. + +[*] The Greeks lacked many of our common flowers. Their ordinary +flowers were white violets, narcissus, lilies, crocuses, blue +hyacinths, and roses (“the Flower of Zeus”). The usual garland was +made of myrtle or ivy and then entwined with various flowers. + + +More reputable, though not less noisy, is the fish market. Athenians +boast themselves of being no hearty “meat eaters” like their Bœotian +neighbors, but of preferring the more delicate fish. No dinner party +is successful without a seasonable course of fish. The arrival of a +fresh cargo from the harbor is announced by the clanging of a bell, +which is likely to leave all the other booths deserted, while a crowd +elbows around the fishmonger. He above all others commands the +greatest flow of billingsgate, and is especially notorious for his +arrogant treatment of his customers, and for exacting the uttermost +farthing. The “Fish” and the “Myrtles” can be sure of a brisk trade on +days when all the other booth keepers around the Agora stand idle. + +All this trade, of course, cannot find room in the booths of the open +Agora. Many hucksters sit on their haunches on the level ground with +their few wares spread before them. Many more have little stands +between the pillars of the stoæ; and upon the various streets that +converge on the market there is a fringe of shops, but these are +usually of the more substantial sort. Here are the barbers’ shops, the +physicians’ offices (if the good leech is more than an itinerant +quack), and all sorts of little factories, such as smithies, where the +cutler’s apprentices in the rear of the shop forge the knives which the +proprietor sells over the counter, the slave repositories, and finally +wine establishments of no high repute, where wine may not merely be +bought by the skin (as in the main Agora), but by the potful to be +drunk on the premises. + + +17. The Morning Visitors to the Agora.—The first tour of inspection +completed, several facts become clear to the visitor. One is the +extraordinarily large proportion of _men_ among the moving multitudes. +Except for the bread women and the flower girls, hardly one female is +to be found among the sellers. Among the purchasers there is not a +single reputable lady. No Athenian gentlewoman dreams of frequenting +the Agora. Even a poor man’s wife prefers to let her spouse do the +family marketing. As for the “men folk,” the average gentleman will go +daily indeed to the Agora, but if he is really pretentious, it will be +merely to gossip and to meet his friends; a trusted servant will attend +to the regular purchasing. Only when an important dinner party is on +hand will the master take pains to order for himself. If he does +purchase in person, he will never _carry_ anything himself. The slaves +can attend to that; and only the slaveless (the poorest of all) must +take away their modest rations of boiled lentils, peas, beans, onions, +and garlic, usually in baskets, though yonder now is a soldier who is +bearing off a measure of boiled peas inside his helmet. + +Another thing is striking. The average poor Athenian seems to have no +purse. Or rather he uses the purse provided by nature. At every booth +one can see unkempt buyers solemnly taking their small change from +their mouths.[*] Happy the people that has not learned the twentieth +century wisdom concerning microbes! For most Athenians seem +marvelously healthy. + +[*] A wealthier purchaser would, of course, have his own pouch, or more +probably one carried for him by a slave. + + +Still one other fact is brought home constantly. “Fixed prices” are +absolutely unknown. The slightest transaction involves a war of +bargaining. Wits are matched against wits, and only after a vast deal +of wind do buyer and seller reach a fair compromise. All this makes +retail trade in the Agora an excellent school for public affairs or +litigation. + + +18. The Leisured Class in Athens.—Evidently Athens, more than many +later-day cities, draws clear lines between the workers and the +“gentlemen of leisure.” There is no distinction of dress between the +numerous slaves and the humbler free workers and traders; but there is +obvious distinction between the artisan of bent shoulders who shambles +out of yonder pungent tannery, with his scant garments girded around +him, and the graceful gentleman of easy gestures and flowing drapery +who moves towards the Tholos. There is great _political_ democracy in +Athens, but not so much _social_ democracy. “Leisure,” _i.e._ exemption +from every kind of sordid, money-getting, hard work, is counted the +true essential for a respectable existence, and to live on the effort +of others and to devote oneself to public service or to letters and +philosophy is the open satisfaction or the private longing of every +Athenian. + +A great proportion of these, therefore, who frequent the Agora are not +here on practical business, unless they have official duties at the +government offices.[*] But in no city of any age has the gracious art +of doing nothing been brought to such perfection. The Athenians are an +intensely gregarious people. Everybody knows everybody else. Says an +orator, “It is impossible for a man to be either a rascal or an honest +man in this city without your all knowing it.” Few men walk long +alone; if they do keep their own company, they are frowned on as +“misanthropes.” The morning visit to the Agora “to tell or to hear +some new thing”[+] will be followed by equally delightful idling and +conversation later in the day at the Gymnasia, and later still, +probably, at the dinner-party. Easy and unconventional are the +personal greetings. A little shaking out of the mantle, an +indescribable flourish with the hands. A free Greek will despise +himself for “bowing,” even to the Great King. To clasp hands implies +exchanging a pledge, something for more than mere salutation. + +“_Chaire_, Aristomenes!” + +“_Chaire_, Cleandros!” + +Such is the usual greeting, using an expressive word which can mean +equally well “hail!” and “farewell!” + +[*] To serve the state in any official capacity (usually without any +salary attached to the office) would give the highest satisfaction to +any Greek. The desire for participation in public affairs might be +described as a mania. + + +[+] Acts of the Apostles, 17:21. + + +19. Familiar Types around the Agora.—These animated, eager-faced men +whose mantles fall in statuesque folds prefer obviously to walk under +the Painted Porch, or the blue roof of heaven, while they evolve their +philosophies, mature their political schemes, or organize the material +for their orations and dramas, rather than to bend over desks within +close offices. Around the Athenian Agora, a true type of this +preference, and busy with this delightful idleness, half a century +earlier could have been seen a droll figure with “indescribable nose, +bald head, round body, eyes rolling and twinkling with good humor,” +scantily clad,—an incorrigible do-nothing, windbag, and hanger-on, a +later century might assert,—yet history has given to him the name of +Socrates. + +Not all Athenians, of course, make such justifiable use of their +idleness. There are plenty of young men parading around in long +trailing robes, their hair oiled and curled most effeminately, their +fingers glittering with jewels,—“ring-loaded, curly-locked coxcombs,” +Aristophanes, the comic poet, has called them,—and they are here only +for silly display. Also there are many of their elders who have no +philosophy or wit to justify their continuous talking; nevertheless, +all considered, it must be admitted that the Athenian makes a use of +their dearly loved “leisure,” which men of a more pragmatic race will +do well to consider as the fair equivalent of much frantic zeal for +“business.” Athenian “leisure” has already given the world Pericles, +Thucydides, Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Socrates, and Plato, not to +name such artists as Phidias, whose profession cannot exempt them from +a certain manual occupation. + + +20. The Barber Shops.—This habit of genteel idleness naturally +develops various peculiar institutions. For example, the barber shops +are almost club rooms. Few Hellenes at this time shave their +beards[*], but to go with unkempt whiskers and with too long hair is +most disgraceful. The barber shops, booths, or little rooms let into +the street walls of the houses, are therefore much frequented. The good +tonsors have all the usual arts. They can dye gray hair brown or +black; they can wave or curl their patrons’ locks (and an artificially +curled head is no disgrace to a man). Especially, they keep a good +supply of strong perfumes; for many people will want a little scent on +their hair each morning, even if they wish no other attention. But it +is not an imposition to a barber to enter his shop, yet never move +towards his low stool before the shining steel mirror. Anybody is +welcome to hang around indefinitely, listening to the proprietor’s +endless flow of talk. He will pride himself on knowing every possible +bit of news or rumor: Had the Council resolved on a new fleet-building +program? Had the Tyrant of Syracuse’s “four” the best chance in the +chariot race in the next Olympic games? The garrulity of barbers is +already proverbial. + +[*] Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.) required his soldiers to be +shaved (as giving less grasp for the enemy!), and the habit then spread +generally through the whole Hellenic world. + + +“How shall I cut your hair, sir?” once asked the court tonsure of King +Archeläus of Macedon. + +“In silence,” came the grim answer. + +But the proprietor will not do all the talking. Everybody in the +little room will join. Wits will sharpen against wits; and if the +company is of a grave and respectable sort, the conversation will grow +brisk upon Plato’s theory of the “reality of ideas,” upon Euripides’s +interpretation of the relations of God to man, or upon the spiritual +symbolism of Scopas’s bas-reliefs at Halicarnassus. + +The barber shops by the Agora then are essential portions of Athenian +social life. Later we shall see them supplemented by the Gymnasia;—but +the Agora has detained us long enough. The din and crowds are +lessening. People are beginning to stream homeward. It lacks a little +of noon according to the “time-staff” (_gnomon_), a simple sun dial +which stands near one of the porticoes, and we will now follow some +Athenian gentleman towards his dwelling. + + + + +Chapter IV. +The Athenian House and its Furnishings. + + +21. Following an Athenian Gentleman Homeward.—Leaving the Agora and +reëntering the streets the second impression of the residence districts +becomes more favorable. There are a few bay trees planted from block +to block; and ever and anon the monotonous house walls recede, giving +space to display some temple, like the Fane of Hephæstos[*] near the +Market Place, its columns and pediment flashing not merely with white +marble, but with the green, scarlet, and gold wherewith the Greeks did +not hesitate to decorate their statuary. + +[*] Wrongly called the “Theseum” in modern Athens. + + +At street corners and opposite important mansions a Hermes-bust like +those in the plaza rises, and a very few houses have a couple of +pillars at their entrances and some outward suggestion of hidden +elegance. + +We observe that almost the entire crowd leaving the Agora goes on foot. + To ride about in a chariot is a sign of undemocratic presumption; +while only women or sick men will consent to be borne in a litter. We +will select a sprucely dressed gentleman who has just been anointed in +a barber’s shop and accompany him to his home. He is neither one of the +decidedly rich, otherwise his establishment would be exceptional, not +typical, nor is he of course one of the hard-working poor. Followed by +perhaps two clean and capable serving lads, he wends his way down +several of the narrow lanes that lie under the northern brow of the +Acropolis[*]. Before a plain solid house door he halts and cries, +“_Pai! Pai!_” [“Boy! Boy!”]. There is a rattle of bolts and bars. A +low-visaged foreign-born porter, whose business it is to show a surly +front to all unwelcome visitors, opens and gives a kind of salaam to +his master; while the porter’s huge dog jumps up barking and pawing +joyously. + +[*] This would be a properly respectable quarter of the city, but we do +not know of any really “aristocratic residence district” in Athens. + + +As we enter behind him (carefully advancing with right foot foremost, +for it is bad luck to tread a threshold with the _left_) we notice +above the lintel some such inscription as “Let no evil enter here!” or +“To the Good Genius,” then a few steps through a narrow passage bring +us into the _Aula_, the central court, the indispensable feature of +every typical Greek house. + + +22. The Type and use of a Greek House.—All domestic architecture, +later investigators will discover, falls into two great categories—of +the northern house and the southern house. The northern house begins +with a single large room, “the great hall,” then lesser rooms are added +to it. It gets its light from windows in the outer walls, and it is +covered by a single steep roof. The southern (Greek and Oriental) +house is a building inclosing a rectangular court. The rooms, many or +few, get their light from this court, while they are quite shut off +from the world outside. All in all, for warm climates this style of +house is far more airy, cool, comfortable than the other. The wide +open court becomes the living room of the house save in very inclement +weather. + +Socrates is reported to have uttered what was probably the average +sensible view about a good house.[*] The good house, he thought, +should be cool in summer, and warm in winter, convenient for the +accommodation of the family and its possessions. The central rooms +should therefore be lofty and should open upon the south, yet for +protection in summer there should be good projecting eaves (over the +court) and again the rooms on the northern exposure should be made +lower. All this is mere sense, but really the average male Athenian +does not care a great deal about his dwelling. He spends surprisingly +little money beautifying it. Unless he is sick, he will probably be at +home only for sleeping and eating. The Agora, the Public Assembly, the +Jury Courts, the Gymnasium, the great religious festivals consume his +entire day. “I never spend my time indoors,” says Xenophon’s model +Athenian, “my wife is well able to run the household by herself.”[+] +Such being the case, even wealthy men have very simple establishments, +although it is at length complained (_e.g._ by Demosthenes) that people +are now building more luxurious houses, and are not content with the +plain yet sufficient dwellings of the great age of Pericles.[@] + +[*] In Xenophon’s _Memorabilia_, III. 8, §§ 9,10. + + +[+] Xenophon, “_Economics_,” VII. 3. + + +[@] Very probably in such outlying Greek cities as Syracuse, Taras +(Tarentum), etc., more elegant houses could be found than any at this +time in Athens. + + +23. The Plan of a Greek House.—The plan of a Greek house naturally +varies infinitely according to the size of the land plot, the size of +the owner’s family, his own taste, and wealth. It will usually be +rectangular, with the narrower side toward the street; but this is not +invariable. In the larger houses there will be two courts (_aulæ_), +one behind the other, and each with its own circuit of dependent +chambers. The court first entered will be the _Andronitis_ (the Court +of the Men), and may be even large enough to afford a considerable +promenade for exercise. Around the whole of the open space run lines +of simple columns, and above the opening swings an awning if the day is +very hot. In the very center rises a small stone altar with a statue +of Zeus the Protector (_Zeus Herkeïos_), where the father of the family +will from time to time offer sacrifice, acting as the priest for the +household. Probably already on the altar there has been laid a fresh +garland; if not, the newcomers from the Agora have now fetched one. + + +[Illustration: Conjectural Plan for the House of A Wealthy Athenian. +A = Altar of Zeus Herkelos. +B = Altar of Hestia. +C = Entrance Hall. +D = Kitchen. +T = Thalmos. +T′ = Anti-thalmos. +X = Rooms for the Men. +Y = Rooms for the Women.] + + +The Andronitis is the true living room of the house: here the master +will receive his visitors, here the male slaves will work, and the +women also busy themselves (promptly retiring, however, on the +appearance of masculine strangers). The decoration is very plain: the +walls are neatly tinted with some kind of wash; the floor is of simple +plaster, or, in a humbler house, common earth pounded hard. Under the +colonnade at all four sides open the various chambers, possibly twelve +in all. They really are cells or compartments rather than rooms, small +and usually lighted only by their doors. Some are used for storerooms, +some for sleeping closets for the male slaves and for the grown-up sons +of the house, if there are any. Dark, ill ventilated, and most +scantily furnished, it is no wonder that the average Athenian loves the +Agora better than his chamber. + +The front section of the house is now open to us, but it is time to +penetrate farther. Directly behind the open court is a sizable chamber +forming a passage to the inner house. This chamber is the _Andron_, +the dining hall and probably the most pretentious room in the house. +Here the guests will gather for the dinner party, and here in one +corner smokes the family hearth, once the real fire for the whole +household cooking, but now merely a symbol of the domestic worship. It +is simply a little round altar sacred to Hestia, the hearth goddess,[*] +and on its duly rekindled flame little “meat offerings and drink +offerings” are cast at every meal, humble or elaborate. + +[*] Who corresponds to the Roman goddess _Vesta_. + + +In the rear wall of the Andron facing the Andronitis is a solid door. +We are privileged guests indeed if we pass it. Only the father, sons, +or near male kinsmen of the family are allowed to go inside, for it +leads into the _Gynæconitis_, the hall of the women. To thrust oneself +into the Gynæconitis of even a fairly intimate friend is a studied +insult at Athens, and sure to be resented by bodily chastisement, +social ostracism, and a ruinous legal prosecution. The Gynæconitis is +in short the Athenian’s holy of holies. Their women are forbidden to +participate in so much of public life that their own peculiar world is +especially reserved to them. To invade this world is not bad breeding; +it is social sacrilege. + +In the present house, the home of a well-to-do family, the Gynæconitis +forms a second pillared court with adjacent rooms of substantially the +same size and shape as the Andronitis. One of the rooms in the very +rear is proclaimed by the clatter of pots and pans and the odor of a +frying turbot to be the kitchen; others are obviously the sleeping +closets of the slave women. On the side nearest to the front of the +house, but opening itself upon this inner court, is at least one bed +chamber of superior size. This is the _Thalamos_, the great bedroom of +the master and mistress, and here are kept all the most costly +furnishings and ornaments in the house. If there are grown-up +unmarried daughters, they have another such bedroom (_anti-thalamos_) +that is much larger than the cells of the slave girls. Another special +room is set apart for the working of wool, although this chief +occupation of the female part of the household is likely to be carried +on in the open inner court itself, if the weather is fine. Here, +around a little flower bed, slave girls are probably spinning and +embroidering, young children playing or quarreling, and a tame quail is +hopping about and watching for a crumb. There are in fact a great many +people in a relatively small space; everything is busy, chattering, +noisy, and confusing to an intruding stranger. + + +24. Modifications in the Typical Plan.—These are the essential +features of an Athenian house. If the establishment is a very +pretentious one, there may be a small garden in the rear carefully +hedged against intruders by a lofty wall.[*] More probably the small +size of the house lot would force simplifications in the scheme already +stated. In a house one degree less costly, the Gynæconitis would be +reduced to a mere series of rooms shut off in the rear. In more simple +houses still there would be no interior section of the house at all. +The women of the family would be provided for by a staircase rising +from the main hall to a second story, and here a number of upper +chambers would give the needful seclusion.[+] Of course as one goes +down the social scale, the houses grow simpler and simpler. Small +shops are set into the street wall at either side of the entrance door, +and on entering one finds himself in a very limited and utterly dingy +court with a few dirty compartments opening thence, which it would be +absurd to dignify by the name of “rooms.” Again one ceases to wonder +that the male Athenians are not “home folk” and are glad to leave their +houses to the less fortunate women! + +[*] Such a luxury would not be common in city houses; land would be too +valuable. + + +[+] Houses of more than two stories seem to have been unknown in +Athens. The city lacked the towering rookeries of tenements (_insulæ_) +which were characteristic of Rome; sometimes, however, a house seems to +have been shared between several families. + + +25. Rents and House Values.—Most native Athenians own their houses. +Houses indeed can be rented, usually by the foreign traders and +visitors who swam into the city; and at certain busy seasons one can +hire “lodgings” for a brief sojourn. Rents are not unreasonable, 8% or +8 1/3% of the value of the house being counted a fair annual return. +But the average citizen is also a householder, because forsooth houses +are very cheap. The main cost is probably for the land. The chief +material used in building, sun-dried brick, is very unsubstantial,[*] +and needs frequent repairs, but is not expensive. Demosthenes the +Orator speaks of a “little house” (doubtless of the kind last +described) worth only seven minæ [about $126.00 (1914) or $2,242.80 +(2000)], and this is not the absolute minimum. A very rich banker has +had one worth 100 minæ [about $1,800.00 (1914) or $32,040.00 (2000)], +and probably this is close to the maximum. The rent question is not +therefore one of the pressing problems at Athens. + +[*] This material was so friable and poor that the Greek burglar was +known as a “Wall-digger.” It did not pay him to pick a lock; it was +simpler for him to quarry his way through the wall with a pickax. + + +26. The Simple yet Elegant Furnishings of an Athenian Home.—These +houses, even owned by the lordly rich, are surprisingly simple in their +furnishings. The accumulation of heavy furniture, wall decorations, +and bric-a-brac which will characterize the dwellings of a later age, +would be utterly offensive to an Athenian—contradicting all his ideas +of harmony and “moderation.” The Athenian house lacks of course +bookcases and framed pictures. It probably too lacks any genuine +closets. Beds, couches, chairs (usually backless), stools, footstools, +and small portable tables,—these alone seem in evidence. In place of +bureaus, dressers and cupboards, there are huge chests, heavy and +carved, in which most of the household gear can be locked away. In +truth, the whole style of Greek household life expresses that +simplicity on which we have already commented. Oriental carpets are +indeed met with, but they are often used as wall draperies or couch +covers rather than upon the floors. Greek costume (see p. 43) is so +simple that there is small need for elaborate chests of drawers, and a +line of pegs upon the wall cares for most of the family wardrobe. + +All this is true; yet what furniture one finds is fashioned with +commendable grace. There is a marked absence of heavy and unhealthful +upholstery; but the simple bed (four posts sustaining a springless +cushion stuffed with feathers or wool) has its woodwork adorned with +carving which is a true mean betwixt the too plain and the too ornate; +and the whole bed is given an elegant effect by the magnificently +embroidered scarlet tapestry which overspreads it. The lines of the +legs of the low wooden tables which are used at the dinner parties will +be a lesson (if we have time to study them) upon just proportion and +the value of subtle curves. Moreover, the different household vessels, +the stone and bronze lamps, the various table dishes, even the common +pottery put to the humblest uses, all have a beauty, a chaste elegance, +a saving touch of deft ornamentation, which transforms them out of +“kitchen ware” into works of art. Those black water pots covered with +red-clay figures which the serving maids are bearing so carelessly into +the scullery at the screaming summons of the cook will be some day +perchance the pride of a museum, and teach a later age that costly +material and aristocratic uses are not needful to make an article +supremely beautiful. + +Of course the well-to-do Athenian is proud to possess certain +“valuables.” He will have a few silver cups elegantly chased, and at +least one diner’s couch in the _andron_ will be made of rare imported +wood, and be inlaid with gilt or silver. On festival days the house +will be hung with brilliant and elaborately wrought tapestries which +will suddenly emerge from the great chests. Also, despite frowns and +criticisms, the custom is growing of decorating one’s walls with +bright-lined frescoes after the manner of the Agora colonnades. In the +course of a few generations the homes of the wealthier Greeks will come +to resemble those of the Romans, such as a later age has resurrected at +Pompeii. + + + + +Chapter V. +The Women of Athens. + + +27. How Athenian Marriages are Arranged.—Over this typical Athenian +home reigns the wife of the master. Public opinion frowns upon +celibacy, and there are relatively few unmarried men in Athens. An +Athenian girl is brought up with the distinct expectation of +matrimony.[*] Opportunities for a romance almost never will come her +way; but it is the business of her parents to find her a suitable +husband. If they are kindly people of good breeding, their choice is +not likely to be a very bad one. If they have difficulties, they can +engage a professional “matchmaker,” a shrewd old woman who, for a fee, +will hunt out an eligible young man. Marriage is contracted primarily +that there may be legitimate children to keep up the state and to +perpetuate the family. That the girl should have any will of her own +in the matter is almost never thought of. Very probably she has never +seen “Him,” save when they both were marching in a public religious +procession, or at some rare family gathering (a marriage or a funeral) +when there were outside guests. Besides she will be “given away” when +only about fifteen, and probably has formed no intelligent opinion or +even prejudices on the subject. + +[*] The vile custom of exposing unwelcome female babies probably +created a certain preponderance of males in Attica, and made it +relatively easy to marry off a desirable young girl. + + +If a young man (who will marry at about thirty) is independent in life, +the negotiations will be with him directly. If he is still dependent +on the paternal allowance, the two sets of parents will usually arrange +matters themselves, and demand only the formal consent of the +prospective bridegroom. He will probably accept promptly this bride +whom his father has selected; if not, he risks a stormy encounter with +his parents, and will finally capitulate. He has perhaps never seen +“Her,” and can only hope things are for the best; and after all she is +so young that his friends tell him that he can train her to be very +useful and obedient if he will only take pains. The parents, or, +failing them, the guardians, adjust the dowry—the lump sum which the +bride will bring with her towards the new establishment.[*] Many +maxims enjoin “marry only your equal in fortune.” The poor man who +weds an heiress will not be really his own master; the dread of losing +the big dowry will keep him in perpetual bondage to her whims. + +[*]The dowry was a great protection to the bride. If her husband +divorced her (as by law he might), the dowry must be repaid to her +guardians with 18 per cent. interest. + + +28. Lack of Sentiment in Marriages.—Sometimes marriages are arranged +in which any sentiment is obviously prohibited. A father can betroth +his daughter by will to some kinsman, who is to take her over as his +bride when he takes over the property. A husband can bequeath his wife +to some friend who is likely to treat her and the orphan children with +kindness. Such affairs occur every day. Do the Athenian women revolt +at these seemingly degrading conditions, wherein they are handed around +like slaves, or even cattle?—According to the tragic poets they do. +Sophocles (in the _Tereus_) makes them lament, + +“We women are nothing;—happy indeed is our childhood, for _then_ we are +thoughtless; but when we attain maidenhood, lo! we are driven away from +our homes, sold as merchandise, and compelled to marry and say ‘All’s +well.’” + +Euripides is even more bitter in his _Medea:_— + +Surely of creatures that have life and wit, +We women are of all things wretchedest, +Who first must needs, as buys the highest bidder, +Thus buy a husband, and our body’s master.[*] + + +[*] Way’s translation. + + +29. Athenian Marriage Rites.—However, thus runs public custom. At about +fifteen the girl must leave her mother’s fostering care and enter the +house of the stranger. The wedding is, of course, a great ceremony; +and here, if nowhere else, Athenian women can surely prepare, flutter, +and ordain to their heart’s content. After the somewhat stiff and +formal betrothal before witnesses (necessary to give legal effect to +the marriage), the actual wedding will probably take place,—perhaps in +a few days, perhaps with a longer wait till the favorite marriage month +Gamelion [January].[*] Then on a lucky night of the full moon the +bride, having, no doubt tearfully, dedicated to Artemis her childish +toys, will be decked in her finest and will come down, all veiled, into +her father’s torchlit aula, swarming now with guests. Here will be at +last that strange master of her fate, the bridegroom and his best man +(_paranymphos_). Her father will offer sacrifice (probably a lamb), +and after the sacrifice everybody will feast on the flesh of the +victim; and also share a large flat cake of pounded sesame seeds +roasted and mixed with honey. As the evening advances the wedding car +will be outside the door. The mother hands the bride over to the +groom, who leads her to the chariot, and he and the groomsman sit down, +one on either side, while with torches and song the friends go with the +car in jovial procession to the house of the young husband. + +[*] This winter month was sacred to Hera, the marriage guardian. + + +“Ho, Hymen! Ho, Hymen! Hymenæous! Io!” + + +So rings the refrain of the marriage song; and all the doorways and +street corners are crowded with onlookers to shout fair wishes and +good-natured raillery. + +At the groom’s house there is a volley of confetti to greet the happy +pair. The bride stops before the threshold to eat a quince.[*] There +is another feast,—possibly riotous fun and hard drinking. At last the +bride is led, still veiled, to the perfumed and flower-hung marriage +chamber. The doors close behind the married pair. Their friends sing +a merry rollicking catch outside, the _Epithalamium_. The great day has +ended. The Athenian girl has experienced the chief transition of her +life. + +[*] The symbol of fertility. + + +30. The Mental Horizon of Athenian Women.—Despite the suggestions in +the poets, probably the normal Athenian woman is neither degraded nor +miserable. If she is a girl of good ancestry and the usual bringing +up, she has never expected any other conditions than these. She knows +that her parents care for her and have tried to secure for her a +husband who will be her guardian and solace when they are gone. +Xenophon’s ideal young husband, Ischomachus, says he married his wife +at the age of fifteen.[*] She had been “trained to see and to hear as +little as possible”; but her mother had taught her to have a sound +control of her appetite and of all kinds of self-indulgence, to take +wool and to make a dress of it, and to manage the slave maids in their +spinning tasks. She was at first desperately afraid of her husband, +and it was some time before he had “tamed” her sufficiently to discuss +their household problems freely. Then Ischomachus made her join with +him in a prayer to the gods that “he might teach and she might learn +all that could conduce to their joint happiness”; after which they took +admirable counsel together, and her tactful and experienced husband +(probably more than twice her age) trained her into a model housewife. + +[*] See Xenophon’s “The Economist,” VII ff. The more pertinent +passages are quoted in W. S. Davis’s _Readings in Ancient History_, +Vol. I, pp. 265-271. + + +31. The Honor paid Womanhood in Athens.—Obviously from a young woman +with a limited intellectual horizon the Athenian gentleman can expect +no mental companionship; but it is impossible that he can live in the +world as a keenly intelligent being, and not come to realize the +enormous value of the “woman spirit” as it affects all things good. +Hera, Artemis, Aphrodite, above all Pallas-Athena,—city-warder of +Athens,—who are they all but idealizations of that peculiar genius +which wife, mother, and daughter show forth every day in their homes? +An Athenian never allows his wife to visit the Agora. She cannot +indeed go outside the house without his express permission, and only +then attended by one or two serving maids; public opinion will likewise +frown upon the man who allowed his wife to appear in public too +freely[*]; nevertheless there are compensations. Within her home the +Athenian woman is within her kingdom. Her husband will respect her, +because he will respect himself. Brutal and harsh he may possibly be, +but that is because he is also brutal and harsh in his outside +dealings. In extreme cases an outraged wife can sue for divorce before +the archon. And very probably in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred +the Athenian woman is contented with her lot: partly because she knows +of nothing better; partly because she has nothing concrete whereof to +complain. + +[*] Hypereides, the orator, says, “The woman who goes out of her own +home ought to be of such an age that when men meet her, the question is +not ‘Who is her husband?’ but ‘Whose mother is she?’” Pericles, in the +great funeral oration put in his mouth by Thucydides, says that the +best women are those who are talked of for good or ill the very least. + + +Doubtless it is because an Athenian house is a “little oasis of +domesticity,” tenderly guarded from all insult,—a miniature world whose +joys and sorrows are not to be shared by the outer universe,—that the +Athenian treats the private affairs of his family as something seldom +to be shared, even with an intimate friend. Of individual women we +hear and see little in Athens, but of _noble womanhood_ a great deal. +By a hundred tokens, delightful vase paintings, noble monuments, poetic +myths, tribute is paid to the self-mastery, the self-forgetfulness, the +courage, the gentleness “of the wives and mothers who have made Athens +the beacon of Hellas”; and there is one witness better than all the +rest. Along the “Street of Tombs,” by the gate of the city, runs the +long row of stelæ (funeral monuments), inimitable and chaste memorials +to the beloved dead; and here we meet, many times over, the portrayal +of a sorrow too deep for common lament, the sorrow for the lovely and +gracious figures who have passed into the great Mystery. Along the +Street of the Tombs the wives and mothers of Athens are honored not +less than the wealthy, the warriors, or the statesmen. + + +32. The Sphere of Action of Athenian Women.—Assuredly the Athenian +house mother cannot match her husband in discussing philosophy or +foreign politics, but she has her own home problems and confronts them +well. A dozen or twenty servants must be kept busy. From her, all the +young children must get their first education, and the girls probably +everything they are taught until they are married. Even if she does not +meet many men, she will strive valiantly to keep the good opinion of +her husband. If she has shapely feet and hands (whereupon great stress +is laid in Hellas), she will do her utmost to display them to the +greatest advantage[*]; and she has, naturally, plenty of other vanities +(see § 38). Her husband has turned over to her the entire management +of the household. This means that if he is an easy-going man, she soon +understands his home business far better than he does himself, and +really has him quite at her mercy. Between caring for her husband’s +wants, nursing the sick slaves, acting as arbitress in their inevitable +disputes, keeping a constant watch upon the storeroom, and finally in +attending to the manufacture of nearly all the family clothing, she is +not likely to rust in busy idleness, or sit complaining of her lot. At +the many great public festivals she is always at least an onlooker and +often she marches proudly in the magnificent processions. She is +allowed to attend the tragedies in the theater.[+] Probably, too, the +family will own a country farm, and spend a part of the year thereon. +Here she will be allowed a delightful freedom of movement, impossible +in the closely built city. All in all, then, she will complain of too +much enforced activity rather than of too much idleness. + +[*] The custom of wearing sandals instead of shoes of course aided the +developing of beautiful feet. + + +[+] Not the comedies—they were too broad for refined women. But the +fact that Athenian ladies seem to have been allowed to attend the +tragedies is a tribute to their intellectual capacities. Only an acute +and intelligent mind can follow Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. + + +[Illustration: Spinning] + + +Nevertheless our judgment upon the Athenian women is mainly one of +regret. Even if not discontented with their lot, they are not +realizing the full possibilities which Providence has placed within the +reach of womanhood, much less the womanhood of the mothers of the +warriors, poets, orators, and other immortals of Athens. One great +side of civilization which the city of Athens might develop and realize +is left unrealized. _this civilization of Athens is too masculine;_ it +is therefore one sided, and in so far it does not realize that ideal +“Harmony” which is the average Athenian’s boast. + + + + +Chapter VI. +Athenian Costume. + + +33. The General Nature of Greek Dress.—In every age the important +kingdom of dress has been reserved for the peculiar sovereignty of +woman. This is true in Athens, though not perhaps to the extent of +later ages. Still an Athenian lady will take an interest in “purple +and fine linen” far exceeding that of her husband, and where is there a +more fitting place than this in which to answer for an Athenian, the +ever important question “wherewithal shall I be clothed”? + +Once again the Athenian climate comes in as a factor, this time in the +problem of wardrobe. Two general styles of garment have divided the +allegiance of the world,—the clothes that are _put on_ and the clothes +that are _wrapped around_. The former style, with its jackets, +trousers, and leggings, is not absolutely unknown to the +Athenians,—their old enemies, the Persians, wear these[*]; but such +clumsy, inelegant garments are despised and ridiculed as fit only for +the “Barbarians” who use them. They are not merely absurdly homely; +they cannot even be thrown off promptly in an emergency, leaving the +glorious human form free to put forth any noble effort. The Athenians +wear the wrapped style of garments, which are, in final analysis, one +or two large square pieces of cloth flung skillfully around the body +and secured by a few well-placed pins. This costume is infinitely +adjustable; it can be expanded into flowing draperies or contracted +into an easy working dress by a few artful twitches. It can be nicely +adjusted to meet the inevitable sense of “beauty” bred in the bone of +every Athenian. True, on the cold days of midwinter the wearers will go +about shivering; but cold days are the exception, warm days the rule, +in genial Attica.[+] + +[*] The Persians no doubt learned to use this style of garment during +their life on the cold, windy steppes of Upper Asia, before they won +their empire in the more genial south. + + +[+] The whole civilization of Athens was, of course, based on a climate +in which artificial heat would be very little needed. A pot of glowing +charcoal might be used to remove the chill of a room in the very +coldest weather. Probably an Athenian would have regarded a climate in +which furnace heat was demanded nearly eight months in the year as +wholly unfit for civilized man. + + +This simplicity of costume has produced certain important results. +There are practically no tailors in Athens, only cloth merchants, +bleachers, and dyers. Again fashions (at least in the cut of the +garments) seldom change. A cloak that was made in the days of +Alcibiades (say 420 B.C.) can be worn with perfect propriety to-day +(360 B.C.) if merely it has escaped without severe use or moth holes. +It may be more usual this year to wear one’s garments a little higher +or a little more trailing than formerly; but _that_ is simply a matter +for a shifting of the pins or of the girdle. + +As a result, the Athenian seldom troubles about his “spring” or +“winter” suit. His simple woolen garments wear a very long time; and +they have often been slowly and laboriously spun and woven by his wife +and her slave girls. Of course even a poor man will try to have a few +changes of raiment,—something solid and coarse for every day, something +of finer wool and gayer color for public and private festivals. The +rich man will have a far larger wardrobe, and will pride himself on not +being frequently seen in the same dress; yet even his outfit will seem +very meager to the dandies of a later age. + + +34. the Masculine Chiton, Himation, and Chlamya.—The essential +garments of an Athenian man are only two—the _chiton_ and the +_himation_. The chiton may be briefly described as an oblong of woolen +cloth large enough to wrap around the body somewhat closely, from the +neck down to just above the knees. The side left open is fastened by +fibulæ—elegantly wrought pins perhaps of silver or gold; in the closed +side there is a slit for the arm. There is a girdle, and, if one +wishes, the skirt of the chiton may be pulled up through it, and +allowed to hang down in front, giving the effect of a blouse. The man +of prompt action, the soldier, traveler, worker, is “well girded,”—his +chiton is drawn high, but the deliberate old gentleman who parades the +Agora, discussing poetry or statecraft, has his chiton falling almost +to a trailing length. Only occasionally short sleeves were added to +this very simple garment; they are considered effeminate, and are not +esteemed. If one’s arms get cold, one can protect them by pulling up +the skirt, and wrapping the arms in the blouse thus created. + +An Athenian gentleman when he is in the house wears nothing but his +chiton; it is even proper for him to be seen wearing nothing else upon +the streets, but then more usually he will add an outer cloak,—his +_himation_. + +The himation is even simpler than the chiton. It is merely a generous +oblong woolen shawl. There are innumerable ways of arranging it +according to the impulse of the moment; but usually it has to be worn +without pins, and that involves wrapping it rather tightly around the +body, and keeping one of the hands confined to hold the cloak in place. + That is no drawback, however, to a genteel wearer. It proclaims to the +world that _he_ does not have to work, wearing his hands for a living; +therefore he can keep them politely idle.[*] The adjustment of the +himation is a work of great art. A rich man will often have a special +slave whose business it is to arrange the hang and the folds before his +master moves forth in public; and woe to the careless fellow if the +effect fails to display due elegance and dignity! + +[*] Workingmen often wore no himation, and had a kind of chiton (an +exömis) which was especially arranged to leave them with free use of +their arms. + + +There is a third garment sometimes worn by Athenians. Young men who +wish to appear very active, and genuine travelers, also wear a +_chlamys_, a kind of circular mantle or cape which swings jauntily over +their shoulders, and will give good protection in foul weather. + +There are almost no other masculine garments. No shirts (unless the +chiton be one), no underwear. In their costume, as in so many things +else, the Athenians exemplify their oft-praised virtue of simplicity. + + +35. The Dress of the Women.—The dress of the women is like that of the +men, but differs, of course, in complexity. They also have a +chiton,[*] which is more elaborately made, especially in the +arrangement of the blouse; and probably there is involved a certain +amount of real _sewing;_[+] not merely of _pinning_. + +[*] This robe was sometimes known by the Homeric name of _peplos_. + + +[+] Probably with almost all Greek garments the main use of the needle +was in the embroidery merely, or in the darning of holes and rents. It +was by no means an essential in the real manufacture. + + +Greater care is needed in the adjustment of the “zone” (girdle), and +half sleeves are the rule with women, while full sleeves are not +unknown. A Greek lady again cannot imitate her husband, and appear in +public in her chiton only. A himation, deftly adjusted, is absolutely +indispensable whenever she shows herself outside the house. + +These feminine garments are all, as a rule, more elaborately +embroidered, more adorned with fringes and tassels, than those of the +men. In arranging her dress the Athenian lady is not bound by the +rigid precepts of fashion. Every separate toilette is an opportunity +for a thousand little niceties and coquetries which she understands +exceedingly well. If there is the least excuse for an expedition +outside the house, her ladyship’s bevy of serving maids will have a +serious time of it. While their mistress cools herself with a huge +peacock-feather fan, one maid is busy over her hair; a second holds the +round metallic mirror before her; a third stands ready to extend the +jewel box whence she can select finger rings, earrings, gold armlets, +chains for her neck and hair, as well as the indispensable brooches +whereon the stability of the whole costume depends. When she rises to +have her himation draped around her, the directions she gives reveal +her whole bent and character. A dignified and modest matron will have +it folded loosely around her entire person, covering both arms and +hands, and even drawing it over her head, leaving eyes and nose barely +visible. Younger ladies will draw it close around the body so as to +show the fine lines of their waists and shoulders. And in the summer +heat the himation (for the less prudish) will become a light shawl +floating loose and free over the shoulders, or only a kind of veil +drawn so as to now conceal, now reveal, the face. + +Children wear miniature imitations of the dress of their elders. Boys +are taught to toughen their bodies by refraining from thick garments in +cold weather. In hot weather they can frequently be seen playing about +with very little clothing at all! + + +36. Footwear and Head Coverings.—Upon his feet the Athenian frequently +wears nothing. He goes about his home barefoot; and not seldom he +enjoys the delight of running across the open greensward with his +unsandaled feet pressing the springing ground; but normally when he +walks abroad, he will wear _sandals_, a simple solid pair of open soles +tied to his feet by leather thongs passing between the toes. For hard +country walking and for hunting there is something like a high leather +boot,[*] though doubtless these are counted uncomfortable for ordinary +wear. As for the sandals, simple as they are, the Attic touch of +elegance is often upon them. Upon the thongs of the sandals there is +usually worked a choice pattern, in some brilliant color or even gilt. + +[*] Actors, too, wore a leather boot with high soles to give them extra +height—the _cothurnus_. + + +The Athenians need head coverings even less than footgear. Most of +them have thick hair; baldness is an uncommon affliction; everybody is +trained to walk under the full glare of Helios with little discomfort. +Of course certain trades require hats, _e.g._ sailors who can be almost +identified by their rimless felt caps. Genteel travelers will wear +wide-brimmed hats; but the ladies, as a rule, have no headgear besides +their tastefully arranged hair, although they will partly atone for the +lack, by having a maid walk just behind them with a gorgeously +variegated parasol. + + +37. The Beauty of the Greek Dress.—Greek Costume, then, is something +fully sharing in the national characteristics of harmony, simplicity, +individuality. It is easy to see how admirably this style of dress is +adapted to furnish over ready models and inspiration for the +sculptor.[*] Unconventional in its arrangement, it is also +unconventional in its color. A masculine crowd is not one unmitigated +swarm of black and dark grays or browns, as with the multitude of a +later age. On the contrary, white is counted as theoretically the most +becoming color on any common occasion for either sex;[+] and on +festival days even grave and elderly men will appear with chitons +worked with brilliant embroidery along the borders, and with splendid +himatia of some single clear hue—violet, red, purple, blue, or yellow. +As for the costume of the groom at a wedding, it is far indeed from the +“conventional black” of more degenerate days. He may well wear a +purple-edged white chiton of fine Milesian wool, a brilliant scarlet +himation, sandals with blue thongs and clasps of gold, and a chaplet of +myrtle and violets. His intended bride is led out to him in even more +dazzling array. Her white sandal-thongs are embroidered with emeralds, +rubies, and pearls. Around her neck is a necklace of gold richly +set,—and she has magnificent golden armlets and pearl eardrops. Her +hair is fragrant with Oriental nard, and is bound by a purple fillet +and a chaplet of roses. Her ungloved fingers shine with jewels and +rings. Her main costume is of a delicate saffron, and over it all, +like a cloud, floats the silvery tissue of the nuptial veil. + +[*] “The chiton became the mirror of the body,” said the late writer +Achilles Tatius. + + +[+] No doubt farmers and artisans either wore garments of a +non-committal brown, or, more probably, let their originally white +costume get utterly dirty. + + +38. Greek Toilet Frivolities.—From the standpoint of inherent fitness +and beauty, this Athenian costume is the noblest ever seen by the +world. Naturally there are ill-advised creatures who do not share the +good taste of their fellows, or who try to deceive the world and +themselves as to the ravages of that arch-enemy of the Hellene,—Old +Age. Athenian women especially (though the men are not without their +follies) are sometimes fond of rouge, false hair, and the like. Auburn +hair is especially admired, and many fine dames bleach their tresses in +a caustic wash to obtain it. The styles of feminine hair dressing seem +to change from decade to decade much more than the arrangements of the +garments. Now it is plaited and crimped hair that is in vogue, now the +more beautiful “Psyche-knots”; yet even in their worst moods the +Athenian women exhibit a sweet reasonableness. They have not yet +fallen into the clutches of the Parisian hairdresser. + +The poets, of course, ridicule the foibles of the fair sex.[*] +Says one:— + +The golden hair Nikylla wears + Is hers, who would have thought it? +She swears ’tis hers, and true she swears + For I know where she bought it! + + +And again:— + +You give your cheeks a rosy stain, +With washes dye your hair; +But paint and washes both are vain +To give a youthful air. +An art so fruitless then forsake, +Which, though you much excel in, +You never can contrive to make +Old Hecuba young Helen. + + +[*] Translated in Falke’s _Greece and Rome_ (English translation, p. +69). These quotations probably date from a time considerably later +than the hypothetical period of this sketch; but they are perfectly +proper to apply to conditions in 360 B.C. + + +But enough of such scandals! All the best opinion—masculine and +feminine—frowns on these follies. Let us think of the simple, +dignified, and æsthetically noble costume of the Athenians as not the +least of their examples to another age. + + + + +Chapter VII. +The Slaves. + + +39. Slavery an Integral Part of Greek Life.—An Athenian lady cares for +everything in her house,—for the food supplies, for the clothing, yet +probably her greatest task is to manage the heterogeneous multitude of +slaves which swarm in every wealthy or even well-to-do mansion.[*] + +[*] The Athenians never had the absurd armies of house slaves which +characterized Imperial Rome; still the numbers of their domestic +servants were, from a modern standpoint, extremely large. + + +Slaves are everywhere: not merely are they the domestic servants, but +they are the hands in the factories, they run innumerable little shops, +they unload the ships, they work the mines, they cultivate the farms. +Possibly there are more able-bodied male slaves in Attica than male +free men, although this point is very uncertain. Their number is the +harder to reckon because they are not required to wear any distinctive +dress, and you cannot tell at a glance whether a man is a mere piece of +property, or a poor but very proud and important member of the +“Sovereign Demos [People] of Athens.” + +No prominent Greek thinker seems to contest the righteousness and +desirability of slavery. It is one of the usual, nay, inevitable, +things pertaining to a civilized state. Aristotle the philosopher puts +the current view of the case very clearly. “The lower sort of mankind +are _by nature_ slaves, and it is better for all inferiors that they +should be under the rule of a master. The use made of slaves and of +tame animals is not very different; for both by their bodies minister +to the needs of life.” The intelligent, enlightened, progressive +Athenians are naturally the “masters”; the stupid, ignorant, sluggish +minded Barbarians are the “inferiors.” Is it not a plain decree of +Heaven that the Athenians are made to rule, the Barbarians to serve?—No +one thinks the subject worth serious argument. + +Of course the slave cannot be treated quite as one would treat an ox. +Aristotle takes pains to point out the desirability of holding out to +your “chattel” the hope of freedom, if only to make him work better; +and the great philosopher in his last testament gives freedom to five +of his thirteen slaves. Then again it is recognized as clearly against +public sentiment to hold fellow Greeks in bondage. It is indeed done. +Whole towns get taken in war, and those of the inhabitants who are not +slaughtered are sold into slavery.[*] Again, exposed children, whose +parents have repudiated them, get into the hands of speculators, who +raise them “for market.” There is also a good deal of kidnapping in +the less civilized parts of Greece like Ætolia. Still the proportion +of genuinely _Greek_ slaves is small. The great majority of them are +“Barbarians,” men born beyond the pale of Hellenic civilization. + +[*] For example, the survivors, after the capture of Melos, in the +Peloponesian War. + + +40. The Slave Trade in Greece.—There are two great sources of slave +supply: the Asia Minor region (Lydia and Phrygia, with Syria in the +background), and the Black Sea region, especially the northern shores, +known as Scythia. It is known to innumerable heartless “traders” that +human flesh commands a very high price in Athens or other Greek cities. + Every little war or raid that vexes those barbarous countries so +incessantly is followed by the sale of the unhappy captives to +speculators who ship them on, stage by stage, to Athens. Perhaps there +is no war; the supply is kept up then by deliberately kidnapping on a +large scale, or by piracy.[*] In any case the arrival of a chain gang +of fettered wretches at the Peiræus is an everyday sight. Some of +these creatures are submissive and tame (perhaps they understand some +craft or trade); these can be sold at once for a high price. Others +are still doltish and stubborn. They are good for only the rudest kind +of labor, unless they are kept and trained at heavy expense. These +brutish creatures are frequently sold off to the mines, to be worked to +death by the contractors as promptly and brutally as one wears out a +machine; or else they become public galley slaves, when their fate is +practically the same. But we need not follow such horrors. + +[*] A small but fairly constant supply of slaves would come from the +seizure of the persons and families of bankrupt debtors, whose +creditors, especially in the Orient, might sell them into bondage. + + +The remainder are likely to be purchased either for use upon the farm, +the factory, or in the home. There is a regular “circle” at or near +the Agora for traffic in them. They are often sold at auction. The +price of course varies with the good looks, age,[*] or dexterity of the +article, or the abundance of supply. “Slaves will be high” in a year +when there has been little warfare and raiding in Asia Minor. “Some +slaves,” says Xenophon, “are well worth two minæ [$36.00 (1914) or +$640.80 (2000)] and others barely half a mina [$9.00 (1914) or $160.20 +(2000)]; some sell up to five minæ [$90.00 (1914) or $1,602.00 (2000)] +and even for ten [$180.00 (1914) or $3,204.00 (2000)]. Nicias, the son +of Nicaretus, is said to have given a talent [over $1,000.00 (1914) or +$17,800.00 (2000)] for an overseer in the mines.”[+] The father of +Demosthenes owned a considerable factory. He had thirty-two sword +cutters worth about five minæ each, and twenty couch-makers (evidently +less skilled) worth together 40 minæ [about $720.00 (1914) or +$12,816.00 (2000)]. A girl who is handsome and a clever flute player, +who will be readily hired for supper parties, may well command a very +high price indeed, say even 30 minæ [about $540.00 (1914) or $9,612.00 +(2000)]. + +[*] There was probably next to no market for old women; old men in +broken health would also be worthless. Boys and maids that were the +right age for teaching a profitable trade would fetch the most. + + +[+] Xenophon, _Memorabilia_, ii. 5, § 2. + + +41. The Treatment of Slaves in Athens.—Once purchased, what is the +condition of the average slave? If he is put in a factory, he probably +has to work long hours on meager rations. He is lodged in a kind of +kennel; his only respite is on the great religious holidays. He cannot +contract valid marriage or enjoy any of the normal conditions of family +life. Still his evil state is partially tempered by the fact that he +has to work in constant association with free workmen, and he seems to +be treated with a moderate amount of consideration and good +camaraderie. On the whole he will have much less to complain of (if he +is honest and industrious) than his successors in Imperial Rome. + +In the household, conditions are on the whole better. Every Athenian +citizen tries to have at least _one_ slave, who, we must grant, may be +a starving drudge of all work. The average gentleman perhaps counts +ten to twenty as sufficient for his needs. We know of households of +fifty. There must usually be a steward, a butler in charge of the +storeroom or cellar, a marketing slave, a porter, a baker, a cook,[*] a +nurse, perhaps several lady’s maids, the indispensable attendant for +the master’s walks (a graceful, well-favored boy, if possible), the +pedagogue for the children, and in really rich families, a groom, and a +mule boy. It is the business of the mistress to see that all these +creatures are kept busy and reasonably contented. If a slave is +reconciled to his lot, honest, cheerful, industrious, his condition is +not miserable. Athenian slaves are allowed a surprising amount of +liberty, so most visitors to the city complain. A slave may be flogged +most cruelly, but he cannot be put to death at the mere whim of his +master. He cannot enter the gymnasium, or the public assembly; but he +can visit the temples. As a humble member of the family he has a small +part usually in the family sacrifices. But in any case he is subject +to one grievous hardship: when his testimony is required in court he +must be “put to the question” by torture. On the other hand, if his +master has wronged him intolerably, he can take sanctuary at the Temple +of Theseus, and claim the privilege of being sold to some new owner. A +slave, too, has still another grievance which may be no less galling +because it is sentimental. His name (given him arbitrarily perhaps by +his master) is of a peculiar category, which at once brands him as a +bondsman: Geta, Manes, Dromon, Sosias, Xanthias, Pyrrhias,—such names +would be repudiated as an insult by a citizen. + +[*] Who, however, could not be trusted to cook a formal dinner. For +such purpose an expert must be hired. + + +42. Cruel and Kind Masters.—Slavery in Athens, as everywhere else, is +largely dependent upon the character of the master; and most Athenian +masters would not regard crude brutality as consistent with that love +of elegance, harmony, and genteel deliberation which characterizes a +well-born citizen. There do not lack masters who have the whip +continually in their hands, who add to the raw stripes fetters and +branding, and who make their slaves unceasingly miserable; but such +masters are the exception, and public opinion does not praise them. +Between the best Athenians and their slaves there is a genial, friendly +relation, and the master will put up with a good deal of real +impertinence, knowing that behind this forwardness there is an honest +zeal for his interests. + +Nevertheless the slave system of Athens is not commendable. It puts a +stigma upon the glory of honest manual labor. It instills domineering, +despotic habits into the owners, cringing subservience into the owned. +Even if a slave becomes freed, he does not become an Athenian citizen; +he is only a “metic,” a resident foreigner, and his old master, or some +other Athenian, must be his patron and representative in every kind of +legal business. It is a notorious fact that the _mere state_ of +slavery robs the victim of his self-respect and manhood. Nevertheless +nobody dreams of abolishing slavery as an institution, and the +Athenians, comparing themselves with other communities, pride +themselves on the extreme humanity of their slave system. + + +43. The “City Slaves” of Athens.—A large number of nominal “slaves” in +Athens differ from any of the creatures we have described. The +community, no less than an individual, can own slaves just as it can +own warships and temples. Athens owns “city slaves” (_Demosioi_) of +several varieties. The clerks in the treasury office, and the checking +officers at the public assemblies are slaves; so too are the less +reputable public executioners and torturers; in the city mint there is +another corps of slave workers, busy coining “Athena’s owls”—the silver +drachmas and four-drachma pieces. But chiefest of all, _the city owns +its public police force_. The “Scythians” they are called from their +usual land of origin, or the “bowmen,” from their special weapon, which +incidentally makes a convenient cudgel in a street brawl. There are +1200 of them, always at the disposal of the city magistrates. They +patrol the town at night, arrest evil-doers, sustain law and order in +the Agora, and especially enforce decorum, if the public assemblies or +the jury courts become tumultuous. They have a special cantonment on +the hill of Areopagus near the Acropolis. “Slaves” they are of course +in name, and under a kind of military discipline; but they are highly +privileged slaves. The security of the city may depend upon their +loyal zeal. In times of war they are auxiliaries. Life in this police +force cannot therefore be burdensome, and their position is envied by +all the factory workers and the house servants. + + + + +Chapter VIII. +The Children. + + +44. The Desirability of Children in Athens.—Besides the oversight of +the slaves the Athenian matron has naturally the care of the children. +A childless home is one of the greatest of calamities. It means a +solitary old age, and still worse, the dying out of the family and the +worship of the family gods. There is just enough of the old +superstitious “ancestor worship” left in Athens to make one shudder at +the idea of leaving the “deified ancestor” without any descendants to +keep up the simple sacrifices to their memory. Besides, public opinion +condemns the childless home as not contributing to the perpetuation of +the city. How Corinth, Thebes, or Sparta will rejoice, if it is plain +that Athens is destroying herself by race suicide! So at least _one_ +son will be very welcome. His advent is a day of happiness for the +father, of still greater satisfaction for the young mother. + + +45. The Exposure of Infants.—How many more children are welcome +depends on circumstances. Children are expensive luxuries. They must +be properly educated and even the boys must be left a fair fortune.[*] +The girls must always have good dowries, or they cannot “marry +according to their station.” Public opinion, as well as the law, +allows a father (at least if he has one or two children already) to +exercise a privilege, which later ages will pronounce one of the +foulest blots on Greek civilization. After the birth of a child there +is an anxious day or two for the poor young mother and the faithful +nurses.—Will he ‘nourish’ it? Are there boys enough already? Is the +disappointment over the birth of a daughter too keen? Does he dread +the curtailment in family luxuries necessary to save up for an +allowance or dowry for the little stranger? Or does the child promise +to be puny, sickly, or even deformed? If any of these arguments carry +adverse weight, there is no appeal against the father’s decision. He +has until the fifth day after the birth to decide. In the interval he +can utter the fatal words, “Expose it!” The helpless creature is then +put in a rude cradle, or more often merely in a shallow pot and placed +near some public place; _e.g._ the corner of the Agora, or near a +gymnasium, or the entrance to a temple. Here it will soon die of mere +hunger and neglect unless rescued. If the reasons for exposure are +evident physical defects, no one will touch it. Death is certain. If, +however, it seems healthy and well formed, it is likely to be taken up +and cared for. Not out of pure compassion, however. The harpies who +raise slaves and especially slave girls, for no honest purposes, are +prompt to pounce upon any promising looking infant. They will rear it +as a speculation; if it is a girl, they will teach it to sing, dance, +play. The race of light women in Athens is thus really recruited from +the very best families. The fact is well known, but it is constantly +winked at. Aristophanes, the comic poet, speaks of this exposure of +children as a common feature of Athenian life. Socrates declares his +hearers are vexed when he robs them of pet ideas, “like women who have +had their children taken from them.” There is little or nothing for +men of a later day to say of this custom save condemnation.[+] + +[*] The idea of giving a lad a “schooling” and then turning him loose +to earn his own living in the world was contrary to all Athenian theory +and practice. + + +[+] About the only boon gained by this foul usage was the fact that, +thanks to it, the number of physically unfit persons in Athens was +probably pretty small, for no one would think of bringing up a child +which, in its first babyhood, promised to be a cripple. + + +46. The Celebration of a Birth.—But assuredly in a majority of cases, +the coming of a child is more than welcome. If a girl, tufts of wool +are hung before the door of the happy home; if a boy, there is set out +an olive branch. Five days after the birth, the nurse takes the baby, +wrapped almost to suffocation in swaddling bands, to the family hearth +in the _andron_, around which she runs several times, followed +doubtless, in merry, frolicking procession, by most of the rest of the +family. The child is now under the care of the family gods. There is +considerable eating and drinking. Exposure now is no longer possible. +A great load is off the mind of the mother. But on the “tenth day” +comes the real celebration and the feast. This is the “name day.” All +of the kinsmen are present. The house is full of incense and garlands. + The cook is in action in the kitchen. Everybody brings simple gifts, +along with abundant wishes of good luck. There is a sacrifice, and +during the ensuing feast comes the naming of the child. Athenian names +are very short and simple.[*] A boy has often his father’s name, but +more usually his grandfather’s, as, _e.g._, Themistocles, the son of +Neocles, the son of Themistocles: the father’s name being usually +added in place of a surname. In this way certain names will become a +kind of family property, and sorrowful is the day when there is no +eligible son to bear them! + +The child is now a recognized member of the community. His father has +accepted him as a legitimate son, one of his prospective heirs, +entitled in due time to all the rights of an Athenian citizen. + +[*] Owing to this simplicity and the relatively small number of +Athenian names, a directory of the city would have been a perplexing +affair. + + +47. Life and Games of Young Children.—The first seven years of a Greek +boy’s life are spent with his nurses and his mother. Up to that time +his father takes only unofficial interest in his welfare. Once past the +first perilous “five days,” an Athenian baby has no grounds to complain +of his treatment. Great pains are taken to keep him warm and well +nourished. A wealthy family will go to some trouble to get him a +skilful nurse, those from Sparta being in special demand, as knowing +the best how to rear healthy infants. He has all manner of toys, and +Aristotle the philosopher commends their frequent donation; otherwise, +he says, children will be always “breaking things in the house.” +Babies have rattles. As they grow older they have dolls of painted +clay or wax, sometimes with movable hands and feet, and also toy +dishes, tables, wagons, and animals. Lively boys have whipping toys, +balls, hoops, and swings. There is no lack of pet dogs, nor of all +sorts of games on the blind man’s bluff and “tag” order.[*] Athenian +children are, as a class, very active and noisy. Plato speaks +feelingly of their perpetual “roaring.” As they grow larger, they +begin to escape more and more from the narrow quarters of the courts of +the house, and play in the streets. + +[*] It is not always easy to get the exact details of such ancient +games, for the “rules” have seldom come down to us; but generally +speaking, the games of Greek children seem extremely like those of the +twentieth century. + + +[Illustration: The Maternal Slipper] + + +48. Playing in the Streets.—Narrow, dirty, and dusty as the streets +seem, children, even of good families, are allowed to play in them. +After a rain one can see boys floating toy boats of leather in every +mud puddle, or industriously making mud pies. In warm weather the +favorite if cruel sport is to catch a beetle, tie a string to its legs, +let it fly off, then twitch it back again. Leapfrog, hide-and-seek, +etc., are in violent progress down every alley. The streets are not +all ideal playgrounds. Despite genteel ideas of dignity and +moderation, there is a great deal of foul talk and brawling among the +passers, and Athenian children have receptive eyes and ears. Yet on +the other hand, there is a notable regard and reverence for childhood. +With all its frequent callousness and inhumanity, Greek sentiment +abhors any brutality to young children. Herodotus the historian tells +of the falling of a roof, whereby one hundred and twenty school +children perished, as being a frightful calamity,[*] although +recounting cold-blooded massacres of thousands of adults with never a +qualm; and Herodotus is a very good spokesman for average Greek +opinion. + +[*] Herodotus, VI. 27. + + +49. The First Stories and Lessons.—Athens has no kindergartens. The +first teaching which children will receive is in the form of fables and +goblin tales from their mothers and nurses,—usually with the object of +frightening them into “being good,”—tales of the spectral Lamiæ, or of +the horrid witch Mormo who will catch nasty children; or of Empusa, a +similar creature, who lurks in shadows and dark rooms; or of the +Kabaloi, wild spirits in the woods. Then come the immortal fables of +Æsop with their obvious application towards right conduct. Athenian +mothers and teachers have no two theories as to the wisdom of corporeal +punishment. The rod is never spared to the spoiling of the child, +although during the first years the slipper is sufficient. Greek +children soon have a healthy fear of their nurses; but they often learn +to love them, and funeral monuments will survive to perpetuate their +grateful memory. + + +50. The Training of Athenian Girls.—Until about seven years old +brothers and sisters grow up in the _Gynæconitis_ together. Then the +boys are sent to school. The girls will continue about the house until +the time of their marriage. It is only in the rarest of cases that the +parents feel it needful to hire any kind of tutor for _them_. What the +average girl knows is simply what her mother can teach her. Perhaps a +certain number of Athenian women (of good family, too) are downright +illiterate; but this is not very often the case. A normal girl will +learn to read and write, with her mother for school mistress.[*] Very +probably she will be taught to dance, and sometimes to play on some +instrument, although this last is not quite a proper accomplishment for +young women of good family. Hardly any one dreams of giving a woman +any systematic intellectual training.[+] Much more important it is +that she should know how to weave, spin, embroider, dominate the cook, +and superintend the details of a dinner party. She will have hardly +time to learn these matters thoroughly before she is “given a husband,” +and her childhood days are forever over (see § 27). + +[*] There has come down to us a charming Greek terra-cotta (it is true, +not from Athens) showing a girl seated on her mother’s knee, and +learning from a roll which she holds. + + +[+] Plato suggested in his _Republic_ (V. 451 f.) that women should +receive the same educational opportunities as the men. This was a +proposition for Utopia and never struck any answering chord. + + +Meantime her brother has been started upon a course of education which, +both in what it contains and in what it omits, is one of the most +interesting and significant features of Athenian life. + + + + +Chapter IX. +The Schoolboys of Athens. + + +51. Athenians Generally Literate.—Education is not compulsory by law +in Athens, but the father who fails to give his son at least a modicum +of education falls under a public contempt, which involves no slight +penalty. Practically all Athenians are at least literate. In +Aristophanes’s famous comedy, _The Knights_, a boorish “sausage-seller” +is introduced, who, for the purposes of the play, must be one of the +very scum of society, and he is made to cry, “Only consider now my +education! I can but barely read, just in a kind of way.”[*] +Evidently if illiterates are not very rare in Athens, the fellow should +have been made out utterly ignorant. “He can neither swim[+] nor say +his letters,” is a common phrase for describing an absolute idiot. +When a boy has reached the age of seven, the time for feminine rule is +over; henceforth his floggings, and they will be many, are to come from +firm male hands. + +[*] Aristophanes, “Knights”, II. 188-189. + + +[+] Swimming was an exceedingly common accomplishment among the Greeks, +naturally enough, so much of their life being spent upon or near the +sea. + + +52. Character Building the Aim of Athenian Education.—The true +education is of course begun long before the age of seven. _Character +not book-learning, is the main object of Athenian Education_, _i.e._ to +make the boy self-contained, modest, alert, patriotic, a true friend, a +dignified gentleman, able to appreciate and participate in all that is +true, harmonius and beautiful in life. To that end his body must be +trained, not apart from, but along with his mind. Plato makes his +character Protagoras remark, “As soon as a child understands what is +said to him, the nurse, the mother, the pedagogue, and the father vie +in their efforts to make him good, by showing him in all that he does +that ‘_this_ is right,’ and ‘_that_ is wrong’; ‘this is pretty,’ and +‘that is ugly’; so that he may learn what to follow and what to shun. +If he obeys willingly—why, excellent. If not, then try by threats and +blows to correct him, as men straighten a warped and crooked sapling.” +Also after he is fairly in school “the teacher is enjoined to pay more +attention to his morals and conduct than to his progress in reading and +music.” + + +53. The Schoolboy’s Pedagogue.—It is a great day for an Athenian boy +when he is given a pedagogue. This slave (perhaps purchased especially +for the purpose) is not his teacher, but he ought to be more than +ordinarily honest, kindly, and well informed. His prime business is to +accompany the young master everywhere out-of-doors, especially to the +school and to the gymnasium; to carry his books and writing tablets; to +give informal help upon his lessons; to keep him out of every kind of +mischief; to teach him social good manners; to answer the thousand +questions a healthy boy is sure to ask; and finally, in emergencies, if +the schoolmaster or his father is not at hand, to administer a needful +whipping. A really capable pedagogue can mean everything to a boy; but +it is asking too much that a purchased slave should be an ideal +companion.[*] Probably many pedagogues are responsible for their +charges’ idleness or downright depravity. It is a dubious system at +the best. + +[*] No doubt frequently the pedagogue would be an old family servant of +good morals, loyalty, and zeal. In that case the relation might be +delightful. + + +The assigning of the pedagogue is simultaneous with the beginning of +school days; and the Athenians are not open to the charge of letting +their children waste their time during possible study hours. As early +as Solon’s day (about 590 B.C.) a law had to be passed forbidding +schools to open _before_ daybreak, or to be kept open after dusk. This +was in the interest not of good eyesight, but of good morals. +Evidently schools had been keeping even longer than through the +daylight. In any case, at gray dawn every yawning schoolboy is off, +urged on by his pedagogue, and his tasks will continue with very little +interruption through the entire day. It is therefore with reason that +the Athenian lads rejoice in the very numerous religious holidays. + + +54. An Athenian School.—Leaving the worthy citizen’s home, where we +have lingered long chatting on many of the topics the house and its +denizens suggest, we will turn again to the streets to seek the school +where one of the young sons of the family has been duly conducted +(possibly, one may say, driven) by his pedagogue. We have not far to +go. Athenian schools have to be numerous, because they are small. To +teach children of the poorer classes it is enough to have a modest room +and a few stools; an unrented shop will answer. But we will go to a +more pretentious establishment. There is an anteroom by the entrance +way where the pedagogues can sit and doze or exchange gossip while +their respective charges are kept busy in the larger room within. The +latter place, however, is not particularly commodious. On the bare +wall hang book-rolls, lyres, drinking vessels, baskets for books, and +perhaps some simple geometric instruments. The pupils sit on rude, low +benches, each lad with his boxwood tablet covered with wax[*] upon his +lap, and presumably busy, scratching letters with his stylus. The +master sits on a high chair, surveying the scene. He cultivates a grim +and awful aspect, for he is under no delusion that “his pupils love +him.” “He sits aloft,” we are told, “like a juryman, with an +expression of implacable wrath, before which the pupil must tremble and +cringe.”[+] + +[*] This wax tablet was practically a slate. The letters written could +be erased with the blunt upper end of the metallic stylus, and the +whole surface of the tablet could be made smooth again by a judicious +heating. + + +[+] The quotation is from the late writer Libanius, but it is perfectly +true for classic Athens. + + +Athenian schoolboys have at least their full share of idleness, as well +as of animal spirits. There is soon a loud whisper from one corner. +Instantly the ruling tyrant rises. “Antiphon! I have heard you. Come +forward!” If Antiphon is wise, he will advance promptly and submit as +cheerfully as possible to a sound caning; if folly possesses him, he +will hesitate. At a nod from the master two older boys, who serve as +monitors, will seize him with grim chuckles. He will then be fortunate +if he escapes being tied to a post and flogged until his back is one +mass of welts, and his very life seems in danger. It will be useless +for him to complain to his parents. A good schoolmaster is supposed to +flog frequently to earn his pay; if he is sparing with the rod or lash, +he is probably lacking in energy. Boys will be boys, and there is only +one remedy for juvenile shortcomings. + +This diversion, of course, with its attendant howling, interrupts the +course of the school, but presently matters again become normal. The +scholars are so few that probably there is only one teacher, and +instruction is decidedly “individual,” although poetry and singing are +very likely taught “in concert.” + + +55. The School Curriculum.—As to the subjects studied, the Athenian +curriculum is well fixed and limited: letters, music, and gymnastics. +Every lad must have a certain amount of all of these. They gymnastics +will be taught later in the day by a special teacher at a “wrestling +school.” The “music” may also be taught separately. The main effort +with a young boy is surely to teach him to read and write. And here +must be recalled the relative infrequency of complete books in classic +Athens.[*] To read public placards, inscriptions of laws, occasional +epistles, commercial documents, etc., is probably, for many Athenians, +reading enough. The great poets he will learn by ear rather than by +eye; and he may go through a long and respected life and never be +compelled to read a really sizable volume from end to end. So the +teaching of reading is along very simple lines. It is perhaps +simultaneous with the learning of writing. The twenty-four letters are +learned by sheer power of memory; then the master sets lines upon the +tablets to be copied. As soon as possible the boy is put to learning +and writing down passages from the great poets. Progress in mere +literacy is very rapid. There is no waste of time on history, +geography, or physical science; and between the concentration on a +singly main subject and the impetus given by the master’s rod the +Athenian schoolboy soon becomes adept with his letters. Possibly a +little arithmetic is taught him, but only a little. In later life, if +he does not become a trader or banker, he will not be ashamed to reckon +simple sums upon his fingers or by means of pebbles; although if his +father is ambitious to have him become a philosopher, he may have him +taught something of geometry. + +[*] One gets the impression that books—in the sense of complete +volumes—were much rarer in Athens than in Imperial Rome, or in later +Middle Ages up to the actual period of the invention of printing. + + +Once more we see the total absence of “vocational studies” in this +Athenian education. The whole effort is to develop a fair, noble, +free, and lofty character, not to earn a living. To set a boy to study +with an eye to learning some profitable trade is counted illiberal to +the last degree. It is for this reason that practical arithmetic is +discouraged, yet a little knowledge of the art of outline drawing is +allowed; for though no gentleman intends to train his son to be a great +artist, the study will enable him to appreciate good sculpture and +painting. Above all the schoolmaster, who, despite his brutal +austerity, ought to be a clear-sighted and inspiring teacher, must lose +no opportunity to instill moral lessons, and develop the best powers of +his charges. Theoginis, the old poet of Megara, states the case well:— + +To rear a child is easy; but to teach +Morals and manners is beyond our reach. +To make the foolish wise, the wicked good, +That science never yet understood. + + +56. The Study of the Poets.—It is for the developing of the best moral +and mental qualities in the lads that they are compelled to memorize +long passages of the great poets of Hellas. Theoginis, with his pithy +admonitions cast in semi-proverb form, the worldly wisdom of Hesiod, +and of Phocylides are therefore duly flogged into every Attic +schoolboy.[*] But the great text-book dwarfing all others, is +Homer,—“the Bible of the Greeks,” as later ages will call it. Even in +the small school we visit, several of the pupils can repeat five or six +long episodes from both the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_, and there is one +older boy present (an extraordinary, but by no means an unprecedented +case) who can repeat _both_ of the long epics word for word.[+] +Clearly the absence of many books has then its compensations. The +average Athenian lad has what seems to be a simply marvelous memory. + +[*] Phocylides, whose gnomic poetry is now preserved to us only in +scant fragments, was an Ionian, born about 560 B.C. His verses were in +great acceptance in the schools. + + +[+] For such an attainment see Xenophon’s _Symposium_, 3:5. + + +And what an admirable text-book and “second reader” the Homeric poems +are! What characters to imitate: the high-minded, passionate, yet +withal loyal and lovable Achilles who would rather fight gloriously +before Troy (though death in the campaign is certain) than live a long +life in ignoble ease at home at Phthia; or Oysseus, the “hero of many +devices,” who endures a thousand ills and surmounts them all; who lets +not even the goddess Calypso seduce him from his love to his “sage +Penelope”; who is ever ready with a clever tale, a plausible lie, and, +when the need comes, a mighty deed of manly valor. The boys will all +go home to-night with firm resolves to suffer all things rather than +leave a comrade unavenged, as Achilles was tempted to do and nobly +refused, and to fight bravely, four against forty, as Odysseus and his +comrades did, when at the call of duty and honor they cleared the house +of the dastard suitors. True, philosophers like Plato complain: “Homer +gives to lads very undignified and unworthy ideas of the gods”; and men +of a later age will assert: “Homer has altogether too little to say +about the cardinal virtues of truthfulness and honesty.”[*] But making +all allowances the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ are still the two grandest +secular text-books the world will ever know. The lads are definitely +the better for them. + +[*] The virtue of unflinching _honesty_ was undoubtedly the thing least +cultivated by the Greek education. Successful prevarication, _e.g._ in +the case of Odysseus, was put at altogether too high a premium. It is +to be feared that the average Athenian schoolboy was only partially +truthful. The tale of “George Washington and the cherry tree” would +never have found favor in Athens. The great Virginian would have been +blamed for failing to concoct a clever lie. + + +Three years, according to Plato, are needed to learn the rudiments of +reading and writing before the boys are fairly launched upon this study +of the poets. For several years more they will spend most of their +mornings standing respectfully before their master, while he from his +chair reads to them from the roll of one author or another,—the pupils +repeating the lines, time and again, until they have learned them, +while the master interrupts to explain every nice point in mythology, +in real or alleged history, or a moot question in ethics. + + +57. The Greeks do not study Foreign Languages.—As the boys grow older +the scope of their study naturally increases; but in one particular +their curriculum will seem strangely limited. _The study of foreign +languages has no place in a Greek course of study._ That any gentleman +should learn say Persian, or Egyptian (unless he intended to devote +himself to distant travel), seems far more unprofitable than, in a +later age, the study of say Patagonian or Papuan will appear.[*] Down +at the Peiræus there are a few shipmasters, perhaps, who can talk +Egyptian, Phœnecian, or Babylonish. They need the knowledge for their +trade, but even they will disclaim any cultural value for their +accomplishment. The euphonious, expressive, marvelously delicate +tongue of Hellas sums up for the Athenian almost all that is valuable +in the world’s intellectual and literary life. What has the outer, the +“Barbarian,” world to give him?—Nothing, many will say, but some gold +darics which will corrupt his statesmen, and some spices, carpets, and +similar luxuries which good Hellenes can well do without. The Athenian +lad will never need to crucify the flesh upon Latin, French, and +German, or an equivalent for his own Greek. Therein perhaps he may be +heavily the loser, save that his own mother tongue is so intricate and +full of subtle possibilities that to learn to make the full use thereof +is truly a matter for lifelong education. + +[*] This fact did not prevent the Greeks from having a considerable +respect for the traditions and lore of, _e.g._, the Egyptians, and from +borrowing a good many non-Greek usages and inventions; but all this +could take place without feeling the least necessity for studying +foreign languages. + + +58. The Study of “Music.”—But the Athenian has a substitute for this +omission of foreign language study: _Music_. This is something more +comprehensive than “the art of combining tones in a manner to please +the ear” [Webster]. It is practically the study of whatever will +develop the noble powers of the emotions, as contrasted to the mere +intellect.[*] Indeed everything which comes within the ample provinces +of the nine Muses, even sober history, might be included in the term. +However, for special purposes, the study of “Music” may be considered +as centering around playing instruments and singing. The teacher very +likely resides in a house apart from the master of the school of +letters. Aristophanes gives this picture of the good old customs for +the teaching of music. “The boys from the same section of the town +have to march thinly clad and draw up in good order—though the snow be +thick as meal—to the house of the harp master. There he will teach +them [some famous tune] raising a mighty melody. If any one acts silly +or turns any quavers, he gets a good hard thrashing for ‘banishing the +Muses!’”[+] + +[*] Aristotle [_Politics_, V. (or VIII.) 1] says that the literary +education is to train the mind; while music, though of no practical +use, “provides a noble and liberal employment of leisure.” + + +[+] Aristophanes’s _The Clouds_. The whole passage is cited in Davis’s +_Readings in Ancient History_, vol. I, pp. 252-255. + + +Learning to sing is probably the most important item, for every boy and +man ought to be able to bear his part in the great chorals which are a +notable element in most religious festivals; besides, a knowledge of +singing is a great aid to appreciating lyric poetry, or the choruses in +tragedy, and in learning to declaim. To learn to sing elaborate solo +pieces is seldom necessary,—it is not quite genteel in grown-up +persons, for it savors a little too much of the professional. So it is +also with instrumental music. The Greeks lack the piano, the organ, +the elaborate brass instruments of a later day. Their flutes and +harps, although very sweet, might seem thin to a twentieth-century +critic. But one can gain considerable volume by the great _number_ of +instruments, and nearly everybody in Athens can pick at the lyre after +a fashion. The common type of harp is the lyre, and it has enough +possibilities for the average boy. The more elaborate _cithera_ is +usually reserved for professionals.[*] An Athenian lad is expected to +be able to accompany his song upon his own lyre and to play in concert +with his fellows. + +[*] For the details of these harp types of instruments see Dictionary +of Antiquities. + + +The other instrument in common use is the _flute_. At its simplest, +this is a mere shepherd’s pipe. Anybody can make one with a knife and +some rushes. Then come elaborations; two pipes are fitted together +into one wooden mouthpiece. Now, we really have an instrument with +possibilities. But it is not in such favor in the schools as the lyre. + You cannot blow day after day upon the flute and not distort your +cheeks permanently. Again the gentleman’s son will avoid +“professionalism.” There are amateur flute players moving in the best +society, but the more fastidious frown upon the instrument, save for +hired performers. + + +59. The Moral Character of Greek Music.—Whether it is singing, harp +playing, or flute playing, a most careful watch is kept upon the +_character_ of the music taught the lads. The master who lets his +pupils learn many soft, dulcet, languishing airs will find his charges’ +parents extremely angry, even to depriving him of their patronage. +Very soft music, in “Lydian modes,” is counted effeminate, fit only for +the women’s quarters and likely to do boys no good. The riotous type +also, of the “Ionic mode,” is fit only for drinking songs and is even +more under the ban.[*] What is especially in favor is the stern, +strenuous Dorian mode. This will make boys hardy, manly, and brave. +Very elaborate music with trills and quavers is in any case frowned +upon. It simply delights the trained ear, and has no reaction upon the +character; and of what value is a musical presentation unless it leaves +the hearers and performer better, worthier men? Let the average +Athenian possess the opportunity, and he will infallibly stamp with +disapproval a great part of both the popular and the classical music of +the later ages.[+] + +[*] The “Phrygian mode” from which the “Ionic” was derived was still +more demoralizing; it was counted “orgiastic,” and proper only in +certain excited religious rhapsodies. + + +[+] We have extremely few Greek melodies preserved to us and these few +are not attractive to the modern ear. All that can fairly be said is +that the Hellenes were obvious such æsthetic, harmoniously minded +people that it is impossible their music should have failed in +nobility, beauty, and true melody. + + +60. The Teaching of Gymnastics.—The visits to the reading school and +to the harp master have consumed a large part of the day; but towards +afternoon the pedagogues will conduct their charges to the third of the +schoolboys’ tyrants: the gymnastic teacher. Nor do his parents count +this the least important of the three. Must not their sons be as +physically “beautiful” (to use the common phrase in Athens) as +possible, and must they not some day, as good citizens, play their +brave part in war? The _palæstras_ (literally “wrestling grounds”) are +near the outskirts of the city, where land is cheap and a good-sized +open space can be secured. Here the lads are given careful instruction +under the constant eye of an expert in running, wrestling, boxing, +jumping, discus hurling, and javelin casting. They are not expected to +become professional athletes, but their parents will be vexed if they +do not develop a healthy tan all over their naked bodies,[*] and if +they do not learn at least moderate proficiency in the sports and a +certain amount of familiarity with elementary military maneuvers. Of +course boys of marked physical ability will be encouraged to think of +training for the various great “games” which culminate at Olympia, +although enlightened opinion is against the promoting of professional +athletics; and certain extreme philosophers question the wisdom of any +extensive physical culture at all, “for (say they) is not the human +mind the real thing worth developing?”[+] + +[*] To have a pale, untanned skin was “womanish” and unworthy of a free +Athenian citizen. + + +[+] The details of the boys’ athletic games, being much of a kind with +those followed by adults at the regular public gymnasia, are here +omitted. See Chap. XVII. + + +Weary at length and ready for a hearty meal and sleep, the boys are +conducted homeward by their pedagogues. + +As they grow older the lads with ambitious parents will be given a more +varied education. Some will be put under such teachers of the new +rhetoric and oratory, now in vogue, as the famous Isocrates, and be +taught to play the orator as an aid to inducing their fellow citizens +to bestow political advancement. Certain will be allowed to become +pupils of Plato, who has been teaching his philosophy out at the groves +of the Academy, or to join some of his rivals in theoretical wisdom. +Into these fields, however, we cannot follow them. + + +61. The Habits and Ambitions of Schoolboys.—It is a clear fact, that +by the age say of thirteen, the Athenian education has had a marked +effect upon the average schoolboy. Instead of being “the most +ferocious of animals,” as Plato, speaking of his untutored state +describes him, he is now “the most amiable and divine of living +beings.” The well-trained lad goes now to school with his eyes cast +upon the ground, his hands and arms wrapped in his chiton, making way +dutifully for all his elders. If he is addressed by an older man, he +stands modestly, looking downward and blushing in a manner worthy of a +girl. He has been taught to avoid the Agora, and if he must pass it, +never to linger. The world is full of evil and ugly things, but he is +taught to hear and see as little of them as possible. When men talk of +his healthy color, increasing beauty, and admire the graceful curves of +his form at the wrestling school, he must not grow proud. He is being +taught to learn relatively little from books, but a great deal from +hearing the conversation of grave and well-informed men. As he grows +older his father will take him to all kinds of public gatherings and +teach him the working details of the “Democratic Government” of Athens. + He becomes intensely proud of his city. It is at length his chief +thought, almost his entire life. A very large part of the loyalty +which an educated man of a later age will divide between his home, his +church, his college, his town, and his nation, the Athenian lad will +sum up in two words,—“my _polis_”; _i.e._ the city of Athens. His home +is largely a place for eating and sleeping; his school is not a great +institution, it is simply a kind of disagreeable though necessary +learning shop; his church is the religion of his ancestors, and this +religion is warp and woof of the government, as much a part thereof as +the law courts or the fighting fleet; his town and his nation are alike +the sovran city-state of Athens. Whether he feels keenly a wider +loyalty to Hellas at large, as against the Great King of Persia, for +instance, will depend upon circumstances. In a real crisis, as at +Salamis,—yes. In ordinary circumstances when there is a hot feud with +Sparta,—no. + + +62. The “Ephebi.”—The Athenian education then is admirably adapted to +make the average lad a useful and worthy citizen, and to make him +modest, alert, robust, manly, and a just lover of the beautiful, both +in conduct and in art. It does not, however, develop his individual +bent very strongly; and it certainly gives him a mean view of the +dignity of labor. He will either become a leisurely gentleman, whose +only proper self-expression will come in warfare, politics, or +philosophy; or—if he be poor—he will at least envy and try to imitate +the leisure class. + +By eighteen the young Athenian’s days of study will usually come to a +close. At that age he will be given a simple festival by his father +and be formally enrolled in his paternal _deme_.[*] His hair, which +has hitherto grown down toward his shoulders, will be clipped short. +He will allow his beard to grow. At the temple of Aglaurus he will +(with the other youths of his age) take solemn oath of loyalty to +Athens and her laws. For the next year he will serve as a military +guard at the Peiræus, and receive a certain training in soldiering. +The next year the state will present him with a new shield and spear, +and he will have a taste of the rougher garrison duty at one of the +frontier forts towards Bœtia or Megara.[+] Then he is mustered out. +He is an ephebus no longer, but a full-fledged citizen, and all the +vicissitudes of Athenian life are before him. + +[*] One of the hundred or more petty townships or precincts into which +Attica was divided. + + +[+] These two years which the _ephebi_ of Athens had to serve under +arms have been aptly likened to the military service now required of +young men in European countries. + + + + +Chapter X. +The Physicians of Athens. + + +63. The Beginnings of Greek Medical Science.—As we move about the city +we cannot but be impressed by the high average of fine physiques and +handsome faces. Your typical Greek is fair in color and has very +regular features. The youths do not mature rapidly, but thanks to the +gymnasia and the regular lives, they develop not merely admirable, but +healthy, bodies. The proportion of hale and hearty _old_ men is great; +and probably the number of invalids is considerably smaller than in +later times and in more artificially reared communities.[*] +Nevertheless, the Athenians are certainly mortal, and subject to bodily +ills, and the physician is no unimportant member of society, although +his exact status is much less clearly determined than it will be in +subsequent ages. + +[*] A slight but significant witness to the general healthiness of the +Greeks is found in the very rare mention in their literature of such a +common ill as _toothache_. + + +Greek medicine and surgery, as it appears in Homer, is simply a certain +amount of practical knowledge gained by rough experience, largely +supplemented by primitive superstition. It was quite as important to +know the proper prayers and charms wherewith to approach “Apollo the +Healer,” as to understand the kind of herb poultice which would keep +wounds from festering. Homer speaks of Asclepius; however, in early +days he was not a god, but simply a skilful leach. Then as we approach +historic times the physician’s art becomes more regular. Asclepius is +elevated into a separate and important deity, although it is not till +420 B.C. that his worship is formally introduced into Athens. Long ere +that time, however, medicine and surgery had won a real place among the +practical sciences. The sick man stands at least a tolerable chance of +rational treatment, and of not being murdered by wizards and fanatical +exorcists. + + +64. Healing Shrines and their Methods.—There exist in Athens and in +other Greek cities real sanataria[*]; these are temples devoted to the +healing gods (usually Asclepius, but sometimes Apollo, Aphrodite, and +Hera). Here the patient is expected to sleep over night in the temple, +and the god visits him in a dream, and reveals a course of treatment +which will lead to recovery. Probably there is a good deal of sham and +imposture about the process. The canny priests know more than they +care to tell about how the patient is worked into an excitable, +imaginative state; and of the very human means employed to produce a +satisfactory and informing dream.[+] Nevertheless it is a great deal to +convince the patient that he is sure of recovery, and that nobody less +than a god has dictated the remedies. The value of mental therapeutics +is keenly appreciated. Attached to the temple are skilled physicians to +“interpret” the dream, and opportunities for prolonged residence with +treatment by baths, purgation, dieting, mineral waters, sea baths, all +kinds of mild gymnastics, etc. Entering upon one of these temple +treatments is, in short anything but surrendering oneself to +unmitigated quackery. Probably a large proportion of the former +patients have recovered; and they have testified their gratitude by +hanging around the shrine little votive tablets,[$] usually pictures of +the diseased parts now happily healed, or, for internal maladies, a +written statement of the nature of the disease. This is naturally very +encouraging to later patients: they gain confidence knowing that many +cases similar to their own have been thus cured. + +[*] The most famous was at Epidaurus, where the Asclepius cult seems to +have been especially localized. + + +[+] The “healing sleep” employed at these temples is described, in a +kind of blasphemous parody, in Aristophanes’s _Plutus_. (Significant +passages are quoted in Davis’s _Readings in Ancient History_, vol. I, +pp. 258-261.) + + +[$] Somewhat as in the various Catholic pilgrimage shrines (_e.g._ +Lourdes) to-day. + + +These visits to the healing temples are, however, expensive: not +everybody has entire faith in them; for many lesser ills also they are +wholly unnecessary. Let us look, then, at the regular physicians. + + +65. An Athenian Physician’s Office.—There are salaried public medical +officers in Athens, and something like a public dispensary where free +treatment is given citizens in simple cases; but the average man seems +to prefer his own doctor.[*] We may enter the office of Menon, a +“regular private practitioner,” and look about us. The office itself +is a mere open shop in the front of a house near the Agora; and, like a +barber’s shop is something of a general lounging place. In the rear +one or two young disciples (doctors in embryo) and a couple of slaves +are pounding up drugs in mortars. There are numbers of bags of dried +herbs and little glass flasks hanging on the walls. Near the entrance +is a statue of Asclepius the Healer, and also of the great human +founder of the real medical science among the Greeks—Hippocrates. + +[*] We know comparatively little of these public physicians; probably +they were mainly concerned with the health of the army and naval force, +the prevention of epidemics, etc. + + +Menon himself is just preparing to go out on his professional calls. +He is a handsome man in the prime of his life, and takes great pains +with his personal appearance. His himation is carefully draped. His +finger rings have excellent cameos. His beard has been neatly trimmed, +and he has just bathed and scented himself with delicate Assyrian nard. + He will gladly tell you that he is in no wise a fop, but that it is +absolutely necessary to produce a pleasant personal impression upon his +fastidious, irritable patients. Menon himself claims to have been a +personal pupil of the great Hippocrates,[*] and about every other +reputable Greek physician will make the same claim. He has studied +more or less in a temple of Asclepius, and perhaps has been a member of +the medical staff thereto attached. He has also become a member of the +Hippocratic brotherhood, a semi-secret organization, associated with +the Asclepius cult, and cheerfully cherishing the dignity of the +profession and the secret arts of the guild. + +[*] Who was still alive, an extremely old man. He died in Thessaly in +357 B.C., at an alleged age of 104 years. + + +66. The Physician’s Oath.—The oath which all this brotherhood has +sworn is noble and notable. Here are some of the main provisions:— + +“I swear by Apollo the Physician, and Asclepius and Hygeia; a [Lady +Health] and Panaceia [Lady All-Cure] to honor as my parents the master +who taught me this art, and to admit to my own instruction only his +sons, my own sons, and those who have been duly inscribed as pupils, +and who have taken the medical oath, and no others. I will prescribe +such treatment as may be for the benefit of my patients, according to +my best power and judgment, and preserve them from anything hurtful or +mischievous. I will never, even if asked, administer poison, nor +advise its use. I will never give a criminal draught to a woman. I +will maintain the purity and integrity of my art. Wherever I go, I +will abstain from all mischief or corruption, or any immodest action. +If ever I hear any secret I will not divulge it. If I keep this oath, +may the gods give me success in life and in my art. If I break this +oath, may all the reverse fall upon me.”[*] + +[*] For the unabridged translation of this oath, see Smith’s +_Dictionary of Antiquities_ (revised edition), vol. II, p. 154. + + +67. The Skill of Greek Physicians.—Menon’s skill as a physician and +surgeon is considerable. True, he has only a very insufficient +conception of anatomy. His _theoretical_ knowledge is warped, but he +is a shrewd judge of human nature and his _practical_ knowledge is not +contemptible. In his private pharmacy his assistants have compounded a +great quantity of drugs which he knows how to administer with much +discernment. He has had considerable experience in dealing with wounds +and sprains, such as are common in the wars or in the athletic games. +He understands that Dame Nature is a great healer, who is to be +assisted rather than coerced; and he dislikes resorting to violent +remedies, such as bleedings and strong emetics. Ordinary fevers and +the like he can attack with success. He has no modern anæsthetics or +opium, but has a very insufficient substitute in mandragora. He can +treat simple diseases of the eye; and he knows how to put gold filling +into teeth. His surgical instruments, however, are altogether too +primitive. He is personally cleanly; but he has not the least idea of +antiseptics; the result is that obscure internal diseases, calling for +grave operations, are likely to baffle him. He will refuse to operate, +or if he does operate the chances are against the patient.[*] In other +words, his medical skill is far in advance of his surgery. + +[*] Seemingly a really serious operation was usually turned over by the +local physician to a traveling surgeon, who could promptly disappear +from the neighborhood if things went badly. + + +Menon naturally busies himself among the best families of Athens, and +commands a very good income. He counts it part of his equipment to be +able to persuade his patients, by all the rules of logic and rhetoric, +to submit to disagreeable treatment; and for that end has taken lessons +in informal oratory from Isocrates or one of his associates. Some of +Menon’s competitors (feeling themselves less eloquent) have actually a +paid rhetorician whom they can take to the bedside of a stubborn +invalid, to induce him by irrefutable arguments to endure an +amputation.[*] + +[*] Plato tells how Gorgias, the famous rhetorician, was sometimes thus +hired. A truly Greek artifice—this substitution of oratory for +chloroform! + + +No such honor of course is paid to the intellects of the poorer fry, +who swarm in at Menon’s surgery. Those who cannot pay to have him +bandage them himself, perforce put up with the secondary skill and +wisdom of the “disciples.” The drug-mixing slaves are expected to +salve and physic the patients of their own class; but there seems to be +a law against allowing them to attempt the treatment of free-born men. + + +68. Quacks and Charlatans.—Unluckily not everybody is wise enough to +put up with the presumably honest efforts of Menon’s underlings. There +appears to be no law against anybody who wishes to pose as a physician, +and to sell his inexperience and his quack nostrums. Vendors of every +sort of cure-all abound, as well as creatures who work on the +superstitions and pretend to cure by charms and hocus-pocus. In the +market there is such a swarm of these charlatans of healing that they +bring the whole medical profession into contempt. Certain people go so +far as to distrust the efficacy of any part of the lore of Asclepius. +Says one poet tartly:— + +The surgeon Menedemos, as men say, + Touched as he passed a Zeus of marble white; + Neither the marble nor his Zeus-ship might +Avail the god—they buried him to-day. + + +And again even to dream of the quacks is dangerous:— + +Diophantes, sleeping, saw + Hermas the physician: +Diophantes never woke + From that fatal vision.[*] + + +[*] Both of these quotations probably date from later than 360 B.C., +but they are perfectly in keeping with the general opinion of Greek +quackery. + + +All in all, despite Menon’s good intentions and not despicable skill, +it is fortunate the gods have made “Good Health” one of their commonest +gifts to the Athenians. Constant exercise in the gymnasia, occasional +service in the army, the absence of cramping and unhealthful office +work, and a climate which puts out-of-door existence at a premium, +secure for them a general good health that compensates for most of the +lack of a scientific medicine. + + + + +Chapter XI. +The Funerals. + + +69. An Athenian’s Will.—All Menon’s patient’s are to-day set out upon +the road to recovery. Hipponax, his rival, has been less fortunate. A +wealthy and elderly patient, Lycophron, died the day before yesterday. +As the latter felt his end approaching, he did what most Athenians may +put off until close to the inevitable hour—he made his will, and called +in his friends to witness it; and one must hope there can be no doubt +about the validity, the signets attached, etc., for otherwise the heirs +may find themselves in a pretty lawsuit. + +The will begins in this fashion: “The Testament of Lyophron the +Marathonian.[*] May all be well:—but if I do not recover from this +sickness, thus do I bestow my estate.” Then in perfectly cold-blooded +fashion he proceeds to give his young wife and the guardianship of his +infant daughter to Stobiades, a bachelor friend who will probably marry +the widow within two months or less of the funeral. Lycophron gives +also specific directions about his tomb; he gives legacies of money or +jewelry to various old associates; he mentions certain favorite slaves +to receive freedom, and as specifically orders certain others (victims +of his displeasure) to be kept in bondage. Lastly three reliable +friends are names as executors. + +[*] In all Athenian legal documents, it was necessary to give the deme +of the interested party or parties. + + +70. The Preliminaries of a Funeral.—An elaborate funeral is the last +perquisite of every Athenian. Even if Lycophron had been a poor man he +would now receive obsequies seemingly far out of proportion to his +estate and income. It is even usual in Greek states to have laws +restraining the amount which may be spent upon funerals,—otherwise +great sums may be literally “burned up” upon the funeral pyres. When +now the tidings go out that Lycophron’s nearest relative has “closed +his mouth,” after he has breathed his last, all his male kinsfolk and +all other persons who _hope_ to be remembered in the will promptly +appear in the Agora in black himatia[*] and hasten to the barber shops +to have their heads shaved. The widow might shave her hair likewise, +with all her slave maids, did not her husband, just ere his death, +positively forbid such disfigurements. The women of the family take the +body in charge the minute the physician has declared that all is over. +The customary obol is put in the mouth of the corpse,[+] and the body +is carefully washed in perfumed water, clothed in festal white; then +woolen fillets are wound around the head, and over these a crown of +vine leaves. So arrayed, the body is ready to be laid out on a couch +in the front courtyard of the house, with the face turned toward the +door so as to seem to greet everybody who enters. In front of the +house there stands a tall earthen vase of water, wherewith the visitors +may give themselves a purifying sprinkling, after quitting the +polluting presence of a dead body. + +[*] In the important city of Argos, however, _white_ was the proper +funeral color. + + +[+] This was not originally (as later asserted) a fee to Charon the +ferryman to Hades, but simply a “minimum precautionary sum, for the +dead man’s use” (Dr. Jane Harrison), placed in the mouth, where a Greek +usually kept his small change. + + +71. Lamenting of the Dead.—Around this funeral bed the relatives and +friends keep a gloomy vigil. The Athenians after all are southern +born, and when excited seem highly emotional people. There are stern +laws dating from Solon’s day against the worst excesses, but what now +occurs seems violent enough. The widow is beating her breast, tearing +her hair, gashing her cheeks with her finger nails. Lycophron’s +elderly sister has ashes sprinkled upon her gray head and ever and anon +utters piteous wails. The slave women in the background keep up a +hideous moaning. The men present do not think it undignified to utter +loud lamentation and to shed frequent tears. Least commendable of all +(from a modern standpoint) are the hired dirge singers, who maintain a +most melancholy chant, all the time beating their breasts, and giving a +perfect imitation of frantic grief. This has probably continued day +and night, the mourners perhaps taking turns by relays. + +All in all it is well that Greek custom enjoins the actual funeral, at +least, on the second day following the death.[*] The “shade” of the +deceased is not supposed to find rest in the nether world until after +the proper obsequies.[+] To let a corpse lie several days without +final disposition will bring down on any family severe reproach. In +fact, on few points are the Greeks more sensitive than on this subject +of prompt burial or cremation. After a land battle the victors are +bound never to push their vengeance so far as to refuse a “burial +truce” to the vanquished; and it is a doubly unlucky admiral who lets +his crews get drowned in a sea fight, without due effort to recover the +corpses afterward and to give them proper disposition on land. + +[*] It must be remembered that the Greeks had no skilled embalmers at +their service, and that they lived in a decidedly warm climate. + + +[+] See the well-known case of the wandering shade of Patroclus +demanding the proper obsequies from Achilles (_Iliad_, XXIII. 71). + + +72. The Funeral Procession.—The day after the “laying-out” comes the +actual funeral. Normally it is held as early as possible in the +morning, before the rising of the sun. Perhaps while on the way to the +Agora we have passed, well outside the city, such a mournful +procession. The youngest and stoutest of the male relatives carry the +litter: although if Lycophron’s relatives had desired a really +extravagant display they might have employed a mule car. Ahead of the +bier march the screaming flute players, earning their fees by no +melodious din. Then comes the litter itself with the corpse arrayed +magnificently for the finalities, a honey cake set in the hands,[*] a +flask of oil placed under the head. After this come streaming the +relatives in irregular procession: the widow and the chief heir (her +prospective second husband!) walking closest, and trying to appear as +demonstrative as possible: nor (merely because the company is noisy +and not stoical in its manner) need we deny that there is abundant +genuine grief. All sorts of male acquaintances of the deceased bring +up the rear, since it is good form to proclaim to wide Athens that +Lycophon had hosts of friends.[+] + +[*] The original idea of the honey cake was simply that it was a +friendly present to the infernal gods; later came the conceit that it +was a sop to fling to the dog Cerberus, who guarded the entrance to +Hades. + + +[+] Women, unless they were over sixty years of age, were not allowed +to join in funeral processions unless they were first cousins, or +closer kin, of the deceased. + + +73. The Funeral Pyre.—So the procession moves through the still gloomy +streets of the city,—doubtless needing torch bearers as well as flute +players,—and out through some gate, until the line halts in an open +field, or better, in a quiet and convenient garden. Here the great +funeral pyre of choice dry fagots, intermixed with aromatic cedar, has +been heaped. The bier is laid thereon. There are no strictly +religious ceremonies. The company stands in a respectful circle, while +the nearest male kinsman tosses a pine link upon the oil-soaked wood. +A mighty blaze leaps up to heaven, sending its ruddy brightness against +the sky now palely flushed with the bursting dawn. The flutists play +in softer measures. As the fire rages a few of the relatives toss upon +it pots of rare unguents; and while the flames die down, thrice the +company shout their farewells, calling their departed friend by +name—“Lycophron! Lycophron! Lycophron!” + +So fierce is the flame it soon sinks into ashes. As soon as these are +cool enough for safety (a process hastened by pouring on water or wine) +the charred bones of the deceased are tenderly gathered up to be placed +in a stately urn. The company, less formally now, returns to Athens, +and that night there will probably be a great funeral feast at the +house of the nearest relative, everybody eating and drinking to +capacity “to do Lycophron full honor”; for it is he who is imagined as +being now for the last time the host. + + +74. Honors to the memory of the Dead.—Religion seems to have very +little place in the Athenian funeral: there are no priests present, no +prayers, no religious hymns. But the dead man is now conceived as +being, in a very humble and intangible way, a deity himself: his good +will is worth propitiating; his memory is not to be forgotten. On the +third, ninth, and thirtieth days after the funeral there are simple +religious ceremonies with offerings of garlands, fruits, libations and +the like, at the new tomb; and later at certain times in the year these +will be repeated. The more enlightened will of course consider these +merely graceful remembrances of a former friend; but there is a good +deal of primitive ancestor worship even in civilized Athens. + +_Burning_ is the usual method for the Greeks to dispose of their dead, +but the burial of unburned bodies is not unknown to them. Probably, +however, the rocky soil and the limited land space around Athens make +regular cemeteries less convenient than elsewhere: still it would have +been nothing exceptional if Lycophron had ordered in his will that he +be put in a handsome pottery coffin to be placed in a burial ground +pertaining to his family. + + +[Illustration: ATHENIAN FUNERAL MONUMENT +A lady is gazing upon her casket of jewels before bidding them eternal +farewell. Note the admirable restraint yet pathos of the scene.] + + +75. The Beautiful Funeral Monuments.—If the noisy funeral customs +permitted to the Athenians may repel a later day observer, there can be +only praise for the Athenian tombs, or rather the funeral monuments +(_stëlæ_) which might be set over the urns or ashes or the actual +coffins. Nearly every Athenian family has a private field which it +uses for sepulchral purposes: but running outside of the city, near +the Itonian Gate along the road to the Peiræus, the space to either +side of the highway has been especially appropriated for this purpose. +Walking hither along this “Street of the Tombs” we can make a careful +survey of some of the most touching memorials of Athenian life. + +The period of hot, violent grief seems now over; the mourners have +settled down in their dumb sense of loss. This spirit of calm, noble +resignation is what is expressed upon these monuments. All is chaste, +dignified, simple. There are no labored eulogies of the deceased; no +frantic expressions of sorrow; no hint (let it be also said) of any +hope of reunions in the Hereafter. Sometimes there is simply a plain +marble slab or pillar marked with the name of the deceased; and with +even the more elaborate monuments the effort often is to concentrate, +into one simple scene, the best and worthiest that was connected with +the dear departed. Here is the noble mother seated in quiet dignity +extending her hand in farewell to her sad but steadfast husband, while +her children linger wonderingly by; here is the athlete, the young man +in his pride, depicted not in the moment of weakness and death, but +scraping his glorious form with his strigil, after some victorious +contest in the games; here is the mounted warrior, slain before Corinth +whilst battling for his country, represented in the moment of +overthrowing beneath his flying charger some despairing foe. We are +made to feel that these Athenians were fair and beautiful in their +lives, and that in their deaths they were not unworthy. And we marvel, +and admire these monuments the more when we realize that they are not +the work of master sculptors but of ordinary paid craftsmen. We turn +away praising the city that could produce such noble sculpture and call +it mere handicraft, and praising also the calm poise of soul, +uncomforted by revealed religion, which could make these monuments +common expressions of the bitterest, deepest, most vital emotions which +can ever come to men.[*] + +[*] As Von Falke (_Greece and Rome_, p. 141) well says of these +monuments, “No skeleton, no scythe, no hour-glass is in them to bring a +shudder to the beholder. As they [the departed] were in life, mother +and daughter, husband and wife, parents and children, here they are +represented together, sitting or standing, clasping each other’s hands +and looking at one another with love and sympathy as if it were their +customary affectionate intercourse. What the stone perpetuates is the +love and happiness they enjoyed together, while yet they rejoiced in +life and the light of day.” + + + + +Chapter XII. +Trade, Manufactures, and Banking. + + +76. The Commercial Importance of Athens.—While the funeral mourners +are wending their slow way homeward we have time to examine certain +phases of Athenian life at which we have previously glanced, then +ignored. Certain it is, most “noble and good” gentlemen delight to be +considered persons of polite uncommercial leisure; equally certain it +is that a good income is about as desirable in Athens as anywhere else, +and many a stately “Eupatrid,” who seems to spend his whole time in +dignified walks, discoursing on politics or philosophy, is really +keenly interested in trades, factories, or farms, of which his less +nobly born stewards have the active management. Indeed one of the +prime reasons for Athenian greatness is the fact that Athens is the +richest and greatest commercial city of Continental Hellas, with only +Corinth as a formidable rival.[*] + +[*] Syracuse in distant Sicily was possibly superior to Athens in +commerce and economic prosperity, although incomparably behind her in +the empire of the arts and literature. + + +To understand the full extent of Athenian commercial prosperity we must +visit the Peiræus, yet in the main city itself will be found almost +enough examples of the chief kinds of economic activity. + + +77. The Manufacturing Activities of Athens.—Attica is the seat of much +manufacturing. Go to the suburbs: everywhere is the rank odor of the +tanneries; down at the harbors are innumerable ship carpenters and sail +and tackle makers, busy in the shipyards; from almost every part of the +city comes the clang of hammer and anvil where hardware of all kinds is +being wrought in the smithies; and finally the potter makers are so +numerous as to require special mention hereafter. But no list of all +the manufacturing activities is here possible; enough that practically +every known industry is represented in Athens, and the “industrial” +class is large.[*] A very large proportion of the industrial laborers +are slaves, but by no means all. A good many are real Athenian +citizens; a still larger proportion are “metics” (resident foreigners +without political rights). The competition of slave labor, however, +tends to keep wages very low. An unskilled laborer will have to be +content with his 3 obols (9 cents [1914] or $1.51 [2000]) per day; but +a trained workman will demand a drachma (18 cents [1914] or $3.02 +[2000]) or even more. There are no labor unions or trade guilds. A +son usually, though not invariably, follows his father’s profession. +Each industry and line of work tends to have its own little street or +alley, preferably leading off the Agora. “The Street of the Marble +Workers,” the “Street of the Box Makers,” and notably the “Street of +the Potters” contain nearly all the workshops of a given kind. Probably +you can find no others in the city. Prices are regulated by custom and +competition; in case any master artisan is suspected of “enhancing” the +price of a needful commodity, or his shady business methods seem +dangerous to the public, there is no hesitation in invoking an old law +or passing a new one in the Assembly to bring him to account. + +[*] For a very suggestive list of the numerous kinds of Greek +industries (practically all of which would be represented in Athens) +see H. J. Edwards, in Whibley’s _Companion to Greek Studies_, p. 431. + + +[Illustration: At the Smithy] + + +Manufacturers are theoretically under a social ban, and indeed yonder +petty shoemaker, who, with his two apprentices, first makes up his +cheap sandals, then sells them over the low counter before his own +ship, is very far from being a “leisurely” member of the “noble and the +good.” But he who, like the late Lycophron, owns a furniture factory +employing nigh threescore slaves, can be sure of lying down on his +couch at a dinner party among the very best; for, as in twentieth +century England, even manufacture and “trade,” if on a sufficiently +large scale, cover a multitude of social sins.[*] + +[*] Plato, probably echoing thoughtful Greek opinion, considered it bad +for manufacturers to be either too wealthy or too poor; thus a potter +getting too rich will neglect his art, and grow idle; if, however, he +cannot afford proper tools, he will manufacture inferior wares, and his +sons will be even worse workmen then he. Such comment obviously comes +from a society where most industrial life is on a small scale. + + +78. The Commerce of Athens.—Part of Athenian wealth comes from the +busy factories, great and small, which seem everywhere; still more +riches come in by the great commerce which will be found centered at +the Peiræus. Here is the spacious _Deigma_, a kind of exchange-house +where ship masters can lay out samples of their wares on display, and +sell to the important wholesalers, who will transmit to the petty +shopkeepers and the “ultimate consumer.”[*] + +[*] Of course a very large proportion of Greek manufactures wares were +never exported, but were sold direct by the manufacturer to the +consumer himself. This had various disadvantages; but there was this +large gain: _only one profit_ was necessary to be added to the mere +cost of production. This aided to make Greece (from a modern +standpoint) a paradise of low prices. + + +There are certain articles of which various districts make a specialty, +and which Athens is constantly importing: Bœtia sends chariots; +Thessaly, easy chairs; Chios and Miletos, bedding; and Miletos, +especially, very fine woolens. Greece in general looks to Syria and +Arabia for the much-esteemed spices and perfumes; to Egypt for papyri +for the book rolls; to Babylonia for carpets. To discuss the whole +problem of Athenian commerce would require a book in itself; but +certain main facts stand out clearly. One is that Attica herself has +extremely few natural products to export—only her olive oil, her +Hymettus honey, and her magnificent marbles—dazzling white from +Pentelicos, gray from Hymettus, blue or black from Eleusis. Again we +soon notice the great part which _grain_ plays in Athenian commerce. +Attica raises such a small proportion of the necessary breadstuffs, and +so serious is the crisis created by any shortage, that all kinds of +measures are employed to compel a steady flow of grain from the Black +Sea ports into the Peiræus. Here is a law which Domsthenes quotes to +us:— + +“It shall not be lawful for any Athenian or any metic in Attica, or any +person under their control [_i.e._ slave or freedman] to lend out money +on a ship which is not commissioned to bring grain to Athens.” + +A second law, even more drastic, forbids any such person to transport +grain to any harbor but the Peiræus. The penalties for evading these +laws are terrific. At set intervals also the Public Assembly +(Ecclesia) is in duty bound to consider the whole state of the grain +trade: while the dealers in grain who seem to be cornering the market, +and forcing up the price of bread, are liable to prompt and disastrous +prosecution. + + +79. The Adventurous Merchant Skippers.—Foreign trade at Athens is +fairly well systematized, but it still partakes of the nature of an +adventure. The name for “skipper” (nauklëros) is often used +interchangeably for “merchant.” Nearly all commerce is by sea, for +land routes are usually slow, unsafe, and inconvenient[*]; the average +foreign trader is also a shipowner, probably too the actual working +captain. He has no special commodity, but will handle everything which +promises a profit. A war is breaking out in Paphlagonia. Away he +sails thither with a cargo of good Athenian shields, swords, and +lances. He loads up in that barbarous but fertile country with grain; +but leaves enough room in his hold for some hundred skins of choice +wine which he takes aboard at Chios. The grain and wine are disembarked +at the Piræus. Hardly are they ashore ere rumor tells him that salt +herring[+] are abundant and especially cheap at Corcyra; and off he +goes for a return cargo thereof, just lingering long enough to get on a +lading of Athenian olive oil. + +[*] Naturally there was a safe land route from Athens across the +Isthmus to Corinth and thence to Sparta or towards Ellis; again, there +would be fair roads into Bœtia. + + +[+] Salt fish were a very usual and important article of Greek +commerce. + + +80. Athenian Money-changers and Bankers.—An important factor in the +commerce of Athens is the “Money-changer.” There is no one fixed +standard of coinage for Greece, let alone the Barbarian world. Athens +strikes its money on a standard which has very wide acceptance, but +Corinth has another standard, and a great deal of business is also +transacted in Persian gold darics. The result is that at the Peiræus +and near the Agora are a number of little “tables” where alert +individuals, with strong boxes beside them, are ready to sell foreign +coins to would-be travelers, or exchange darics for Attic drachmæ, +against a pretty favorable commission. + +This was the beginning of the Athenian banker; but from being a mere +exchanger he has often passed far beyond, to become a real master of +credit and capital. There are several of these highly important +gentlemen who now have a business and fortune equal to that of the +famous Pasion, who died in 370 B.C. While the firm of Pasion and +Company was at its height, the proprietor derived a net income of at +least 100 minæ (over $1,800 [1914] or $30,248.07 [2000]) per year from +his banking; and more than half as much extra from a shield factory.[*] + +[*] These sums seem absurdly small for a great money magnate, but the +very high purchasing power of money in Athens must be borne in mind. +We know a good deal about Pasion and his business from the speeches +which Deosthenes composed in the litigation which arose over his +estate. + + +81. A Large Banking Establishment.—Enter now the “tables” of Nicanor. +The owner is a metic; perhaps he claims to come from Rhodes, but the +shrewd cast of his eyes and the dark hue of his skin gives a suggestion +of the Syrian about him. In his open office a dozen young half-naked +clerks are seated on low chairs—each with his tablet spread out upon +his knees laboriously computing long sums.[*] The proprietor himself +acts as the cashier. He has not neglected the exchange of foreign +moneys; but that is a mere incidental. His first visitor this morning +presents a kind of letter of credit from a correspondent in Syracuse +calling for one hundred drachmæ. “Your voucher?” asks Nicanor. The +stranger produces the half of a coin broken in two across the middle. +The proprietor draws a similar half coin from a chest. The parts match +exactly, and the money is paid on the spot. the next comer is an old +acquaintance, a man of wealth and reputation; he is followed by two +slaves bearing a heavy talent of coined silver which he wishes the +banker to place for him on an advantageous loan, against a due +commission. The third visitor is a well-born but fast and idle young +man who is squandering his patrimony on flute girls and chariot horses. + He wishes an advance of ten minæ, and it is given him—against the +mortgage of a house, at the ruinous interest of 36 per cent, for such +prodigals are perfectly fair play. Another visitor is a careful and +competent ship merchant who is fitting for a voyage to Crete, and who +requires a loan to buy his return cargo. Ordinary interest, well +secured, is 18 per cent, but a sea voyage, even at the calmest season, +is counted extra hazardous. The skipper must pay 24 per cent at least. +A poor tradesman also appears to raise a trifle by pawning two silver +cups; and an unlucky farmer, who cannot meet his loan, persuades the +banker to extend the time “just until the next moon”[+]—of course at an +unmerciful compounding of interest. + +[*] Without the Arabic system of numerals, elaborate bookkeeping surely +presented a sober face to the Greeks. Their method of numeration was +very much like that with the so-called Roman numerals. + + +[+] “Watching the moon,” _i.e._ the end of the month when the debts +became due, appears to have been the melancholy recreation of many +Athenian debtors. See Aristophanes’s _Clouds_, I. 18. + + +82. Drawbacks to the Banking Business.—Nicanor has no paper money to +handle, no stocks, no bonds,—and the line between legitimate interest +and scandalous usury is by no means clearly drawn. There is at least +one good excuse for demanding high interest. It is notoriously hard to +collect bad debts. Many and many a clever debtor has persuaded an +Athenian jury that _all_ taking of interest is somewhat immoral, and +the banker has lost at least his interest, sometimes too his principal. + So long as this is the case, a banker’s career has its drawbacks; and +Demosthenes in a recent speech has commended the choice by Pasion’s son +of a factory worth 60 minæ per year, instead of his father’s banking +business worth nominally 100. The former was so much more secure than +an income depending on “other people’s money!” + +Finally it must be said that while Nicanor and Pasion have been +honorable and justly esteemed men, many of their colleagues have been +rogues. Many a “table” has been closed very suddenly, when its owner +absconded, or collapsed in bankruptcy, and the unlucky depositors and +creditors have been left penniless, during the “rearrangement of the +tables,” as the euphemism goes. + + +83. The Potter of Athens.—There is one other form of economic activity +in Athens which deserves our especial notice, different as it is from +the bankers’ tables,—the manufacture of earthen vases. A long time +might be spent investigating the subject; here there is room only for a +hasty glance. For more than two hundred years Attica has been +supplying the world with a pottery which is in some respects superior +to any that has gone before, and also (all things considered) to any +that will follow, through night two and a half millenniums. The +articles are primarily tall vases and urns, some for mere ornament or +for religious purposes,—some for very humble household utility; +however, besides the regular vases there is a great variety of dishes, +plates, pitchers, bowls, and cups all of the same general pattern,—a +smooth, black glaze[*] covered with figures in the delicate red of the +unglazed clay. At first the figures had been in black and the +background in red, but by about 500 B.C. the superiority of the black +backgrounds had been fully realized and the process perfected. For a +long time Athens had a monopoly of this beautiful earthenware, but now +in 360 B.C. there are creditable manufactories in other cities, and +especially in the Greek towns of Southern Italy. The Athenian industry +is, however, still considerable; in fifty places up and down the city, +but particularly in the busy quarter of the Ceramicus, the potters’ +wheels are whirling, and the glazers are adding the elegant patterns. + +[*] Sometimes this glaze tended to a rich olive green or deep brown. + + +84. Athenian Pottery an Expression of the Greek Sense of +Beauty.—Athens is proud of her traditions of naval and military glory; +of the commerce of the Peiræus; of her free laws and constitution; of +her sculptured temples, her poets, her rhetoricians and philosophers. +Almost equally well might she be proud of her vases. They are not +made—let us bear clearly in mind—by avowed artists, servants of the +Muses and of the Beautiful; they are the regular commercial products of +work-a-day craftsmen. But what craftsmen! In the first place, they +have given to every vase and dish a marvelous individuality. There +seems to be absolutely no duplication of patterns.[*] Again, since +these vases are made for Greeks, they must—no matter how humble and +commonplace their use—be made beautiful—elegantly shaped, well glazed, +and well painted: otherwise, no matter how cheap, they will never find +a market. + +[*] It is asserted that of the many thousands of extant Greek vases +that crowd the shelves of modern museums, there are nowhere two +patterns exactly alike. + + +The process of manufacture is simple, yet it needs a masterly touch. +After the potter has finished his work at the wheel and while the clay +is still soft, the decorator makes his rough design with a +blunt-pointed stylus. A line of black glaze is painted around each +figure. Then the black background is freely filled in, and the details +within the figure are added. A surprisingly small number of deft lines +are needed to bring out the whole picture.[*] Sometimes the glaze is +thinned out to a pale brown, to help in the drawing of the interior +contours. When the design is completed, we have an amount of life and +expression which with the best potters is little short of startling. +The subjects treated are infinite, as many as are the possible phases +of Greek life. Scenes in the home and on the farm; the boys and their +masters at school; the warriors, the merchants, the priests +sacrificing, the young gallants serenading a sweet-heart; all the +tales, in short of poet-lore and mythology,—time would fail to list one +tenth of them. Fairly we can assert that were all the books and formal +inscriptions about the Athenians to be blotted out, these vase +paintings almost photographs one might say, of Athenian daily life, +would give us back a very wide knowledge of the habits of the men in +the city of Athena. + +[*] In this respect the Greek vase paintings can compete with the best +work in the Japanese prints. + + +The potters are justly proud of their work; often they do not hesitate +to add their signatures, and in this way later ages can name the +“craftsmen” who have transmitted to them these objects of abiding +beauty. The designers also are accommodating enough to add descriptive +legends of the scenes which they depict,—Achilles, Hercules, Theseus, +and all the other heroes are carefully named, usually with the words +written above or beside them. + +The pottery of Athens, then, is truly Athenian; that is to say, it is +genuinely elegant, ornamental, simple, and distinctive. The best of +these great vases and mixing bowls are works of art no less than the +sculptures of Phidias upon the Parthenon. + + + + +Chapter XIII. +The Armed Forces of Athens. + + +85. Military Life at Athens.—Hitherto we have seen almost nothing save +the peaceful civic side of Athenian life, but it is a cardinal error to +suppose that art, philosophy, farming, manufacturing, commerce, and +bloodless home politics sum up the whole of the activities of Attica. +Athens is no longer the great imperial state she was in the days of +Pericles, but she is still one of the greatest military powers in +Greece,[*] and on her present armed strength rests a large share of her +prestige and prosperity. Her fleet, which is still her particular +boast, must of course be seen at the Peiræus; but as we go about the +streets of the main city we notice many men, who apparently had +recently entered their house doors as plain, harmless citizens, now +emerging, clad in all the warrior’s bravery, and hastening towards one +of the gates. Evidently a review is to be held of part of the citizen +army of Athens. If we wish, we can follow and learn much of the Greek +system of warfare in general and of the Athenian army in particular. + +[*] Of course the greatest military power of Greece had been Sparta +until 371 B.C., when the battle of Leuctra made Thebes temporarily “the +first land power.” + + +Even at the present day, when there is plenty of complaint that +Athenians are not willing to imitate the sturdy campaigning of their +fathers, the citizens seem always at war, or getting ready for it. +Every citizen, physically fit, is liable to military service from his +eighteenth to his sixtieth year. To make efficient soldiers is really +the main end of the constant physical exercise. If a young man takes +pride in his hard and fit body, if he flings spears at the stadium, and +learns to race in full armor, if he goes on long marches in the hot +sun, if he sleeps on the open hillside, or lies on a bed of rushes +watching the moon rise over the sea,—it is all to prepare himself for a +worthy part in the “big day” when Athens will confront some old or new +enemy on the battlefield. A great deal of the conversation among the +younger men is surely not about Platonic ideals, Demosthenes’s last +political speech, nor the best fighting cocks; it is about spears, +shield-straps, camping ground, rations, ambuscades, or the problems of +naval warfare. + +It is alleged with some show of justice that by this time Athenians are +so enamored with the pleasures of peaceful life that they prefer to pay +money for mercenary troops rather than serve themselves on distant +expeditions; and certain it is that there are plenty of Arcadians, +Thracians, and others, from the nations which supply the bulk of the +mercenaries, always in Athenian pay in the outlying garrisons. Still +the old military tradition and organization for the citizens is kept +up, and half a generation later, when the freedom of Athens is blasted +before Philip the Macedonian at Chæroneia, it will be shown that if the +Athenian militia does not know how to conquer, it at least knows how to +die. So we gladly follow to the review, and gather our information. + + +86. The Organization of the Athenian Army.—After a young “ephebus” has +finished his two years of service in the garrisons he returns home +subject to call at the hour of need. When there is necessity to make +up an army, enough men are summoned to meet the required number and no +more. Thus for a small force only the eligibles between say twenty and +twenty-four years of age would be summoned; but in a crisis all the +citizens are levied up to the very graybeards. The levy is conducted by +the ten _Strategi_ (at once ‘generals,’ ‘admirals,’ and ‘war +ministers’) who control the whole armed power of Athens. The recruits +summoned have to come with three days’ rations to the rendezvous, +usually to the Lyceum wrestling ground just outside the city. In case +of a general levy the old men are expected to form merely a home guard +for the walls; the young men must be ready for hard service over seas. + +The organization of the Athenian army is very simple; each of the ten +Attic tribes sends its own special battalion or _taxis_, which is large +or small according to the total size of the levy.[*] These _taxeis_ +are subdivided into companies or _lochoi_, of about an average of 100 +men each. The _taxeis_ are each under a tribal-colonel (_taxiarch_), +and each company under its captain (_locharch_). The ten strategi +theoretically command the whole army together, but since bitter +experience teaches that ten generals are usually nine too many, a +special decree of the people often entrusts the supreme command of a +force to one commander, or at most to not over three. The other +strategi must conduct other expeditions, or busy themselves with their +multifarious home duties. + +[*] Thus if 3000 men were called out, the average “taxis” would be 300 +strong, but if 6000, then 600. + + +87. The Hoplites and the Light Troops.—The unit of the Athenian +citizen army, like practically all Greek armies, is the heavy armed +infantry soldier, the _hoplite_. An army of “three thousand men” is +often an army of so many hoplites, unless there is specific statement +to the contrary. But really it is of six thousand men, to be entirely +accurate: for along with every hoplite goes an attendant, a +“light-armed man,” either a poor citizen who cannot afford a regular +suit of armor,[*] or possibly a trusted slave. These “light-armed men” +carry the hoplites’ shields until the battle, and most of the baggage. +They have javelins, and sometimes slings and bows. They act as +skirmishers before the actual battle: and while the hoplites are in +the real death-grip they harass the foe as they can, and guard the +camp. When the fight is done they do their best to cover the retreat, +or slaughter the flying foe if their own hoplites are victorious. + +[*] The hoplite’s panoply (see description later) was sufficiently +expensive to imply that its owner was at least a man in tolerable +circumstances. + + +88. The Cavalry and the Peltasts.—There are certain divisions of the +army besides the hoplites and this somewhat ineffective light infantry. + There is a cavalry corps of 1000. Wealthy young Athenians are proud +to volunteer therein; it is a sign of wealth to be able to provide your +war horse. The cavalry too is given the place of honor in the great +religious processions; and there is plenty of chance for exciting +scouting service on the campaign. Again, the cavalry service has +something to commend it in that it is accounted _much safer_ than the +infantry![*] The cavalry is, however, a rather feeble fighting +instrument. Greek riders have no saddles and no stirrups. They are +merely mounted on thin horse pads, and it is very hard to grip the +horse with the knees tightly enough to keep from being upset +ignominiously while wielding the spear. The best use for the cavalry +perhaps is for the riders to take a sheaf of javelins, ride up and +discharge them at the foe as skirmishers, then fall back behind the +hoplites; though after the battle the horsemen will have plenty to do +in the retreat or the pursuit. + +[*] Greeks could seldom have been brought to imitate the reckless +medieval cavaliers. The example of Leonidas at Thermopylæ was more +commended than imitated. Outside of Sparta at least, few Greeks would +have hesitated to flee from a battlefield, when the day (despite their +proper exertions) had been wholly lost. + + +The Athenians have of course the Scythian police archers to send into +any battle near Athens; they can also hire mercenary archers from +Crete, but the Greek bows are relatively feeble, only three or four +feet long—by no means equal to the terrible yew bows which will win +glory for England in the Middle Ages. There has also come into vogue, +especially since the Peloponnesian war, an improved kind of +light-javelin-men,—the “Peltasts,”—with small shields, and light armor, +but with extra long lances. In recent warfare this type of soldier, +carefully trained and agile, has been known to defeat bodies of the +old-style over-encumbered hoplites.[*] Nevertheless, most veteran +soldiers still believe that the heavy infantryman is everything, and +the backbone of nearly every Greek army is still surely the hoplite. +He will continue to be the regular fighting unit until the improved +“phalanx,” and the “Companion Cavalry” of Philip and Alexander of +Macedon teach the captains of the world new lessons. + +[*] Especially the Athenian general Iphicrates was able to cut to +pieces a _mora_ (brigade) of Spartan hoplites, in 392 B.C., by skillful +use of a force of peltasts. + + +89. The Panoply of the Hoplite.—We have passed out one of the gates +and are very likely in a convenient open space south and east of the +city stretching away toward the ever visible slopes of gray Hymettus. +Here is a suitable parade ground. The citizen soldiers are slipping on +their helmets and tightening up their cuirasses. Trumpets blow from +time to time to give orders to “fall in” among the respective _lochoi_ +and _taxeis_. There is plenty of time to study the arms and armor of +the hoplites during these preliminaries. + +A very brief glance at the average infantryman’s defensive weapons +tells us that to be able to march, maneuver, and fight efficiently in +this armor implies that the Athenian soldier is a well-trained athlete. + The whole panoply weighs many pounds.[*] The prime parts in the armor +are the helmet, the cuirass, the greaves, and the shield. Every +able-bodied citizen of moderate means has this outfit hanging in his +andronitis, and can don it at brief notice. The _helmet_ is normally of +bronze; it is cut away enough in front to leave the face visible, but +sometimes a cautious individual will insist on having movable plates +(which can be turned up and down) to protect the cheeks.[+] Across the +top there runs a firm metal ridge to catch any hard down-right blow, +and set into the ridge is a tall nodding crest either of horsehair or +of bright feathers—in either case the joy and glory of the wearer. + +[*] Possibly fifty or more—we have no correct means for an exact +estimate. + + +[+] The “Corinthian” type of helmets came more closely over the face, +and the cheek protectors were not movable; these helmets were much like +the closed helms of the medieval knights. The Spartans, in their +contempt for danger, wore plain pointed steel caps which gave +relatively little protection. + + +[Illustration: Hoplite in Armor] + + +Buckled around the soldier’s body is the _cuirass_. It comprises a +breastplate and a back piece of bronze, joined by thongs, or by straps +with a buckle. The metal comes down to the hips. Below it hangs a +thick fringe of stout strips of leather strengthened with bright +metallic studs, and reaching halfway to the knees. From this point to +the knees the legs are bare, but next come the _greaves_, thin pliable +plates of bronze fitted to the shape of the leg, and opening at the +back. They have to be slipped on, and then are fastened at the knees +and ankle with leathern straps. + +But the warrior’s main protection is his _shield_. With a strong, +large shield you can fight passing well without any regular body armor; +while with the best outfit of the latter you are highly vulnerable +without your shield. To know how to swing your shield so as to catch +every possible blow, to know how to push and lunge with it against an +enemy, to know how to knock a man down with it, if needs be, _that_ is +a good part of the soldier’s education. The shield is sometimes round, +but more often oval. It is about four feet by the longest diameter. +It is made of several layers of heavy bull’s hide, firmly corded and +riveted together, and has a good metal rim and metal boss in the +center. On the inside are two handles so that it can be conveniently +wielded on the left arm.[*] These shields are brilliantly painted, and +although the Greeks have no heraldic devices, there are all manner of +badges and distinguishing marks in vogue. Thus all Theban shields are +blazoned with a club; Sicyonian shields are marked with the initial +“Sigma” (Σ), and we note that the Athenian shields are all marked Alpha +(A).[+] + +[*] Earlier Greek shields seem to have been very large and +correspondingly heavy. These had only a single handle; and to aid in +shifting them they were swung on straps passed over the left shoulder. + + +[+] This last is a matter of safe inference rather than of positive +information. + + +90. The Weapons of a Hoplite.—The hoplites have donned their armor. +Now they assume their offensive weapons. Every man has a lance and a +sword. The _lance_ is a stout weapon with a solid wooden butt, about +six feet long in all. It is really too heavy to use as a javelin. It +is most effective as a pike thrust fairly into a foeman’s face, or past +his shield into a weak spot in his cuirass. The sword is usually kept +as a reserve weapon in case the lance gets broken. It is not over 25 +inches in length, making rather a huge double-edged vicious knife than +a saber; but it is terrible for cut and thrust work at very close +quarters. Simple as these weapons are, they are fearful instruments of +slaughter in well-trained hands, and the average Greek has spent a +considerable part of his life in being taught how to use them. + + +91. Infantry Maneuvers.—The final trumpets have blown, and the troops +fall into their places. Each tribal _taxis_ lines up its _lochoi_. +The Greeks have no flags nor standards. There is a great deal of +shouting by the subaltern officers, and running up and down the ranks. +Presently everything is in formal array. The hoplites stand in close +order, each man about two feet from the next,[*] leaving no gaps +between each division from end to end of the lines. The men are set in +eight long ranks. This is the normal _phalanx_[+] order. Only those +in front can actually lunge and strike at the enemy. The men in the +rear will add to the battering force of the charge, and crowding in +closely, wedge themselves promptly to the front, when any of the first +rank goes down. + +[*] The object would be to give each man just enough distance to let +him make fair use of his lance, and yet have his shield overlap that of +his neighbor. + + +[+] The “phalanx” is sometimes spoken of as a Macedonian invention, but +Philip and Alexander simply improved upon an old Greek military +formation. + + +It is an imposing sight when the strategos in charge of the maneuvers, +a stately man in a red chlamys, gives the final word “March!” + +Loud pipes begin screaming. The long lines of red, blue, and orange +plumes nod fiercely together. The sun strikes fire out of thousands of +brandished lance tips. The phalanx goes swinging away over the dusty +parade ground, the subalterns up and down the files muttering angrily +to each inapt recruit to “Keep your distance:” or “Don’t advance your +shield.” The commandant duly orders the “Half turn:” “Left” or “Right +turn:” “Formation by squares,” and finally the critical “Change front +to rear.” If this last maneuver is successfully accomplished, the +strategos will compliment the drill sergeants; for it is notoriously +difficult to turn a ponderous phalanx around and yet make it keep good +order. The drilling goes on until the welcome order comes, “Ground +arms!” and every perspiring soldier lets his heavy shield slip from his +arm upon the ground. + + +92. The Preliminaries of a Greek Battle.—Later in the day, if these +are happy times of peace, the whole phalanx, so bristling and +formidable, will have resolved itself into its harmless units of honest +citizens all streaming home for dinner. + +Our curiosity of course asks how does this army act upon the campaign; +what, in other words, is a typical Greek battle? This is not hard to +describe. Greek battles, until lately, have been fought according to +set formulæ in which there is little room for original generalship, +though much for ordinary circumspection and personal valor. A battle +consists in the charging together of two phalanxes of hoplites of about +equal numbers. If one army greatly overmatches the other, the weaker +side will probably retire without risking a contest. With a common +purpose, therefore, the respective generals will select a broad stretch +of level ground for the struggle, since stony, hilly, or uneven ground +will never do for the maneuvering of hoplites. The two armies, after +having duly come in sight of one another, and exchanged defiances by +derisive shouts, catcalls, and trumpetings, will probably each pitch +its camp (protected by simple fortifications) and perhaps wait over +night, that the men may be well rested and have a good dinner and +breakfast. The soldiers will be duly heartened up by being told of any +lucky omens of late,—how three black crows were seen on the right, and +a flash of lightning on the left; and the seers and diviners with the +army will, at the general’s orders, repeat any hopeful oracles they can +remember or fabricate, _e.g._ predicting ruin for Thebes, or victory +for Athens. In the morning the soldiers have breakfast, then the lines +are carefully arrayed a little beyond bowshot from the enemy, who are +preparing themselves in similar fashion. Every man has his arms in +order, his spear point and sword just from the whetstone, and every +buckle made fast. The general (probably in sight of all the men) will +cause the seers to kill a chicken, and examine its entrails. “The +omens are good; the color is favorable; the gods are with us!”[*] he +announces; and then, since he is a Greek among Greeks, he delivers in +loud voice an harangue to as many as can hear him, setting forth the +patriotic issues at stake in the battle, the call of the fatherland to +its sons, the glory of brave valor, the shame of cowardice, probably +ending with some practical directions about “Never edging to the +right!” and exhorting his men to raise as loud a war-cry as possible, +both to encourage themselves and to demoralize the enemy. + +[*] It may be suspected that it was very seldom the omens were +_allowed_ to be unfavorable when the general was really resolved on +battle. + + +93. Joining the Battle.—The troops answer with a cheer then join in +full chorus in the “_Pæan_—” a fierce rousing charging-song that makes +every faint-heart’s blood leap faster. Another pæan bellowed from the +hostile ranks indicates that similar preliminaries have been disposed +of there. The moment the fierce chorus ends, the general (who probably +is at the post of danger and honor—the right wing) nods to his corps of +pipers. The shrill flutes cut the air. The whole phalanx starts +forward like one man, and the enemy seem springing to meet it. The +tossing color, the flashing arms and armor, make it a sight for men and +gods. If the enemy has a powerful archery force, as had the Persians +at Marathon, then the phalanx is allowed to advance on the run,—for at +all costs one must get through the terrible zone of the arrow fire and +come to grips; but if their bowmen are weak, the hoplites will be +restrained,—it is better not to risk getting the phalanx disorganized. +Running or marching the troops will emit a terrible roaring: either +the slow deep “_A! la! la! la!_” or something quicker, “_Eleleū!_” +“_Eleleū!_” and the flutes will blow all the while to give the time for +the marching. + +Closer at hand the two armies will fairly spring into unfriendly +embrace. The generals have each measured his enemy’s line and extended +his own to match it.[*] With files of about equal depth, and +well-trained men on both sides, the first stage of the death grapple is +likely to be a most fearful yet indecisive pushing: the men of the +front ranks pressing against each other, shield to shield, glaring out +of their helmets like wild beasts against the foeman three feet away, +and lunging with their lances at any opening between the hostile +shields or above them. The comrades behind wedge in the front ranks +closer and closer. Men are crushed to death, probably without a wound, +just by this hellish impact. The shouts and yells emitted are +deafening. There is an unearthly clashing of steel weapons on bronze +armor. Every now and then a shrill, sharp cry tells where a soldier +has been stabbed, and has gone down in the press, probably trampled to +death instantly. In this way the two writhing, thrusting phalanxes +continue to push on one another at sheer deadlock, until a cool +observer might well wonder whether the battle would not end simply with +mutual extermination. + +[*] Any sudden attempt to extend your line _beyond_ the foe’s, so as to +outflank him, would probably have produced so much confusion in your +own phalanx as to promise certain disaster. Of course for an inferior +force to accept battle by thinning its line, to be able by extending to +meet the long lines of the enemy, would involve the greatest risk of +being broken through at the center. The best remedy for inferior +numbers was manifestly to decline a decisive battle. + + +94. The Climax and End of the Battle.—But look away now from the +center, towards the two wings. What the generals of _both_ contending +armies have feared and warned against has come to pass. Every hoplite +is admirably covered by his great shield on his left side; but his +right is unprotected. It is almost impossible to resist the impulse to +take a step toward the right to get under the cover of a comrade’s +shield. And he in turn has been edging to the right likewise. The whole +army has in fact done so, and likewise the whole phalanx of the enemy. +So after a quarter of an hour of brisk fighting, the two hosts, which +began by joining with lines exactly facing each other, have each edged +along so much that each overlaps the other on the right wing, thus: + +[Illustration] + +What will happen now is easy to predict with assurance up to a certain +point. The overlapping right wings will _each_ promptly turn the left +flank of their enemies, and falling upon the foe front and rear catch +them almost helpless. The hoplite is an admirable soldier when +standing shoulder to shoulder with his comrades facing his foe; but +once beset in the rear he is so wedged in by the press that it is next +to impossible for him to turn and fight effectively. Either he will be +massacred as he stands or the panic will spread betimes, and +simultaneously both left wings will break formation and hurry off the +field in little better than flight. + +Now will come the real test of discipline and deliberate valor. Both +centers are holding stoutly. Everything rests on the respective +victorious right wings. Either they will foolishly forget that there +is still fighting elsewhere on the field, and with ill-timed huzzaing +pursue the men they have just routed, make for their camp to plunder +it, or worse still, disperse to spoil the slain; or, if they can heed +their general’s entreaties, keep their ranks, and wheeling around come +charging down on the rear of the enemy’s center. If one right wing +does this, while the hostile right wing has rushed off in heedless +pursuit, the battle is infallibly won by the men who have kept their +heads; but if both right wings turn back, then the real death grapple +comes when these two sets of victors in the first phase of the contest +clash together in a decisive grapple. + +By this time the original phalanx formations, so orderly, and +beautiful, have become utterly shattered. The field is covered by +little squares or knots of striking, cursing, raging men—clashing +furiously together. If there are any effective reserves, now is the +time to fling them into the scale. The hitherto timorous light troops +and armor bearers rush up to do what they can. Individual bravery and +valor count now to the uttermost. Little by little the contest turns +against one side or the other. The crucial moment comes. The losing +party begins to fear itself about to be surrounded. Vain are the last +exhortations of the officers to rally them. “Every man for himself!” +rings the cry; and with one mad impulse the defeated hoplites rush off +the field in a rout. Since they have been at close grip with their +enemies, and now must turn their ill-protected backs to the pursuing +spears, the massacre of the defeated side is sometimes great. Yet not +so great as might be imagined. Once fairly beaten, you must strip off +helmet and cuirass, cast away shield and spear, and run like a hare. +You have lightened yourself now decidedly. But your foe must keep +_his_ ponderous arms, otherwise he cannot master you, if he overtakes +you. Therefore the vanquished can soon distance the victors unless the +latter have an unusually efficient cavalry and javelin force. However, +the victors are likely to enter the camp of the vanquished, and to +celebrate duly that night dividing the plunder. + + +95. The Burial Truce and the Trophy after the Battle.—A few hours after +the battle, while the victors are getting breath and refreshing +themselves, a shamefaced herald, bearing his sacred wand of office, +presents himself. He is from the defeated army, and comes to ask a +burial truce. This is the formal confession of defeat for which the +victors have been waiting. It would be gross impiety to refuse the +request; and perhaps the first watch of the night is spent by +detachments of both sides in burying or burning the dead. + +The fates of prisoners may be various. They may be sold as slaves. If +the captors are pitiless and vindictive, it is not contrary to the laws +of war to put the prisoners to death in cold blood; but by the fourth +century B.C. Greeks are becoming relatively humane. Most prisoners will +presently be released against a reasonable ransom paid by their +relatives. + +The final stage of the battle is the trophy: the visible sign on the +battlefield that here such-and-such a side was victorious. The limbs +are lopped off a tree, and some armor captured from the foe is hung +upon it. After indecisive battles sometimes both sides set up +trophies; in that case a second battle is likely to settle the +question. Then when the victors have recovered from their own happy +demoralization, they march into the enemy’s country; by burning all the +farmsteads, driving off the cattle, filling up the wells, girdling the +olive and fruit trees, they reduce the defeated side (that has fled to +its fortified town) to desperation. If they have any prisoners, they +threaten to put them to death. The result, of course, is frequently a +treaty of peace in favor of the victors. + + +96. The Siege of Fortified Towns.—If, however, one party cannot be +induced to risk an open battle; or if, despite a defeat, it allows the +enemy to ravage the fields, and yet persists in defending the walls of +its town,—the war is likely to be tedious and indecisive. It is +notorious that Greeks dislike hard sieges. The soldiers are the fellow +townsmen of the generals. If the latter order an assault with scaling +ladders and it is repulsed with bloody loss, the generals risk a +prosecution when they get home for “casting away the lives of their +fellow citizens.”[*] In short, fifty men behind a stout wall and “able +to throw anything” are in a position to defy an army. + +[*] In siege warfare Oriental kings had a great advantage over Greek +commanders. The former could sacrifice as many of their “slaves” as +they pleased, in desperate assaults. The latter had always to bear in +mind their accountability at home for any desperate and costly attack. + + +The one really sure means of taking a town is to build a counter wall +around it and starve it out,—a slow and very expensive, though not +bloody process. Only when something very great is at stake will a Greek +city-state attempt this.[*] There is always another chance, however. +Almost every Greek town has a discontented faction within its walls, +and many a time there will be a traitor who will betray a gate to the +enemy; and then the siege will be suddenly ended in one murderous +night. + +[*] As in the siege of Potidea (432-429 B.C.), when if Athens had +failed to take the place, her hold upon her whole empire would have +been jeopardized. + + +97. The Introduction of New Tactics.—Greek battles are thus very +simple things as a rule. It is the general who, accepting the typical +conditions as he finds them, and avoiding any gross and obvious +blunders, can put his men in a state of perfect fitness, physical and +moral, that is likely to win the day. Of late there has come indeed a +spirit of innovation. At Leuctra (371 B.C.) Epaminodas the Theban +defeated the Spartans by the unheard-of device of massing a part of his +hoplites fifty deep (instead of the orthodox eight or twelve) and +crushing the Spartan right wing by the sheer weight of his charge, +before the rest of the line came into action at all. If the experiment +had not succeeded, Epaminondas would probably have been denounced by +his own countrymen as a traitor, and by the enemy as a fool, for +varying from the time-honored long, “even line” phalanx; and the +average general will still prefer to keep to the old methods; then if +anything happens, _he_ at least will not be blamed for any undue +rashness. Only in Macedon, King Philip II (who is just about to come +to the throne) will not hesitate to study the new battle tactics of +Epaminondas, and to improve upon them. + +The Athenians will tell us that their citizen hoplites are a match for +any soldiers in Greece, except until lately the Spartans, and now +(since Leuctra) possibly the Thebans. But Corinthians, Argives, +Sicyonians, they can confront more readily. They will also add, quite +properly, that the army of Athens is in the main for home defense. She +does not claim to be a preëminently military state. The glory of Athens +has been the mastery of the sea. Our next excursion must surely be to +the Peiræus. + + + + +Chapter XIV. +The Peiræus and the Shipping. + + +98. The “Long Walls” down to the Harbor Town.—It is some five miles +from the city to the Peiræus, and the most direct route this time lies +down the long avenue laid between the Long Walls, and running almost +directly southwest.[*] The ground is quite level. If we could catch +glimpses beyond the walls, we would see fields, seared brown perhaps by +the summer sun, and here and there a bright-kerchiefed woman gleaning +among the wheat stubble. The two walls start from Athens close +together and run parallel for some distance, then they gradually +diverge so as to embrace within their open angle a large part of the +circumference of the Peiræus. This open space is built up with all +kinds of shops, factories, and houses, usually of the less aristocratic +kind. In fact, all the noxious sights and odors to be found in Athens +seem tenfold multiplied as we approach the Peiræus. + +[*] These were the walls whereof a considerable section was thrown down +by Lysander after the surrender of Athens [404 B.C.]. The demolition +was done to the “music of flute girls,” and was fondly thought by the +victors to mean the permanent crippling of Athens, and therefore “the +first day of the liberty of Greece.” In 393 B.C., by one of the +ironies of history, Conon, an Athenian admiral, but in the service of +the king of Persia, who was then at war with Sparta, appeared in the +Peiræus, and _with Persian men and money_ rebuilt the walls amid the +rejoicings of the Athenians. + + +The straight highroad is swarming with traffic: clumsy wagons are +bringing down marble from the mountains; other wains are headed toward +Athens with lumber and bales of foreign wares. Countless donkeys laden +with panniers are being flogged along. A great deal of the carrying is +done by half-naked sweating porters; for, after all, slave-flesh is +almost as cheap as beast-flesh. So by degrees the two walls open away +from us: before us now expands the humming port town; we catch the +sniff of the salt brine, and see the tangle of spars of the +multifarious shipping. Right ahead, however, dominating the whole +scene, is a craggy height,—the hill of Munychia, crowned with strong +fortifications, and with houses rising terrace above terrace upon its +slopes. At the very summit glitters in its white marble and color work +the temple of Artemis Munychia, the guardian goddess of the port town +and its citadel.[*] + +[*] This fortress of Munychia, rather than the Acropolis in Athens was +the real citadel of Attica. It dominated the all-important harbors on +which the very life of the state depended. + + +[Illustration: The Town of Peiræus and the Harbors of Athens] + + +99. Munychia and the Havens of Athens.—Making our way up a steep lane +upon the northwestern slope, we pass within the fortifications, the +most formidable near Athens. A band of young ephebi of the garrison +eye us as we enter; but we seem neither Spartans nor Thebans and are +not molested. From a convenient crag near the temple, the whole scheme +of the harbors of Athens is spread out before us, two hundred and +eighty odd feet below. Behind us is the familiar plain of Athens with +the city, the Acropolis, and the guardian mountains. Directly west +lies the expanse of roof of the main harbor town, and then beyond is +the smooth blue expanse of the “Port of the Peiræus,” the main +mercantile harbor of Athens. Running straight down from Munychia, +southwest, the land tapers off into a rocky promontory, entirely girt +with strong fortifications. In this stretch of land are two deep round +indentations. Cups of bright water they seem, communicating with the +outer sea only by narrow entrances which are dominated by stout +castles. “Zea” is the name of the more remote; the “haven” of +“Munychia” is that which seems opening almost at our feet. These both +are full of the naval shipping, whereof more hereafter. To the +eastward, and stretching down the coast, is a long sandy beach whereon +the blue ripples are crumbling between the black fishing boats drawn up +upon the strand. This is Phaleron, the old harbor of Athens before +Themistocles fortified the _Peiræus_—merely an open roadstead in fact, +but still very handy for small craft, which can be hauled up promptly +to escape the tempest. + + +100. The Glorious View from the Hill of Munychia.—These are the chief +points in the harbors; but the view from Munychia is most extensive. +Almost everything in sight has its legend or its story in sober +history. Ten miles away to the southward rise the red rocky hills of +Ægina, Athens’ old island enemy; and the tawny headlands of the Argolic +coasts are visible yet farther across he horizon. Again as we follow +the purplish ridge of Mount Ægaleos as it runs down the Attic coast to +westward, we come to a headland then to a belt of azure water, about a +mile wide, then the reddish hills of an irregular island. Every idler +on the citadel can tell us all the story. On that headland on a certain +fateful morning sat Xerxes, lord of the Persians, with his sword-hands +and mighty men about him and his ships before him, to look down on the +naval spectacle and see how his slaves would fight. The island beyond +is “holy Salamis,” and in this narrow strip of water has been the +battle which saved the life of Hellas. Every position in the contest +seems clearly in sight, even the insignificant islet of Psytteleia, +where Aristeides had landed his men after the battle, and massacred the +Persians stationed there “to cut off the Greeks who tried to escape.” + +The water is indescribably blue, matching the azure of the sky. Ships +of all kinds under sails or oars are moving lightly over the havens and +the open Saronic bay. It is matchless spectacle—albeit very peaceful. +We now descend to the Peiræus proper and examine the merchant shipping +and wharves, leaving the navy yards and the fighting triremes till +later. + + +101. The Town of Peiræus.—The Peiræus has all the life of the Athenian +Agora many times multiplied. Everywhere there is work and bustle. +Aristophanes has long since described the impression it makes on +strangers,[*]—sailors clamoring for pay, rations being served out, +figureheads being burnished, men trafficking for corn, for onions, for +leeks, for figs,—“wreaths, anchovies, flute girls, blackened eyes, the +hammering of oars from the dock yards, the fitting of rowlocks, +boatswains’ pipes, fifes, and whistling.” There is such confusion one +can hardly analyze one’s surroundings. However, we soon discover the +Peiræus has certain advantages over Athens itself. The streets are much +wider and are quite straight,[+] crossing at right angles, unlike the +crooked alleys of old Athens which seem nothing but built-up cow +trails. Down at the water front of the main harbor (“the Peiræus” +harbor to distinguish it from Zea and Munychia) we find about one +third, nearest the entrance passage and called the Cantharus, reserved +for the use of the war navy. This section is the famous _Emporium_, +which is such a repository of foreign wares that Isocrates boasts that +here one can easily buy all those things which it is extremely hard to +purchase anywhere else in Hellas. Along the shore run five great stoas +or colonnades, all used by the traders for different purposes;—among +them are the Long Stoa (_Makra_′ _Stoa_′), the _Deigma_ (see section +78) used as a sample house by the wholesalers, and the great Corn +Exchange built by Pericles. Close down near the wharves stands also a +handsome and frequented temple, that of Athena Euploia (Athena, Giver +of good Voyages), to whom many a shipman offers prayer ere hoisting +sail, and many another comes to pay grateful vows after surviving a +storm.[&] Time fails us for mentioning all the considerable temples +farther back in the town. The Peiræus in short is a semi-independent +community; with its shrines, its agoras, its theaters, its court rooms, +and other public buildings. The population contains a very high +percentage of metics, and downright Barbarians,—indeed, long-bearded +Babylonians, clean bronze Egyptians, grinning Ethiopians, never awaken +the least comment, they are so familiar. + +[*] _Acharn._ 54 ff. + + +[+] Pericles employed the famous architect Hippodamus to lay out the +Peiræus. It seems to have been arranged much like many of the newer +American cities. + + +[&] There seems to have been still another precinct, sacred to “Zeus +and Athena the Preservers,” where it was very proper to offer +thanksgivings after a safe voyage. + + +[Illustration: Fishermen] + + +102. The Merchant Shipping.—We can now cast more particular eyes upon +the shipping. Every possible type is represented. The fishing craft +just now pulling in with loads of shining tunnies caught near Ægina are +of course merely broad open boats, with only a single dirty orange sail +swinging in the lagging breeze. Such vessels indeed depend most of the +time upon their long oars. Also just now there goes across the glassy +surface of the harbor a slim graceful rowing craft, pulling eight +swiftly plying oars to a side. She is a _Lembus:_ probably the private +cutter of the commandant of the port. Generally speaking, however, we +soon find that all the larger Greek ships are divided into two +categories, the “long ships” and the “round ships.” The former depend +mainly on oars and are for war; the latter trust chiefly to sail power +and are for cargo. The craft in the merchant haven are of course +nearly all of this last description. + +Greeks are clever sailors. They never feel really happy at a great +distance from the sea which so penetrates their little country; +nevertheless, they have not made all the progress in navigation which, +considering the natural ingenuity of the race, might well be expected. +The prime difficulty is that Greek ships very seldom have comfortable +cabins. The men expect to sleep on shore every night possible. Only +in a great emergency, or when crossing an exceptionally wide gulf or +channel,[*] can a captain expect the average crew to forego the +privilege of a warm supper and bivouac upon the strand. This means +(since safe anchorages are by no means everywhere) the ships must be so +shallow and light they can often be hauled up upon the beach. Even +with a pretty large crew, therefore, the limit to a manageable ship is +soon reached; and during the whole of the winter season all +long-distance voyaging has to be suspended; while, even in summer, nine +sailors out of ten hug close to the land, despite the fact that often +the distance of a voyage is thereby doubled. + +[*] For example, the trip from Crete to Cyrene—which would be demanded +first, before coasting along to Egypt. + + +However, the ships at Peiræus, if not large in size, are numerous +enough. Some are simply big open boats with details elaborated. They +have a small forecastle and poop built over, but the cargo in the hold +is exposed to all wind and weather. The propulsion comes from a single +unwieldy square sail swinging on a long yard the whole length of the +vessel. Other ships are more completely decked, and depend on two +square sails in the place of one. A few, however, are real “deep sea” +vessels—completely decked, with two or even three masts; with cabins of +tolerable size, and forward and aft curious projections, like +turrets,—the use whereof is by no means obvious, but we soon gather +that pirates still abound on the distant seas, and that these turrets +are useful when it comes to repelling boarders. The very biggest of +these craft run up to 250 gross tons (later day register),[*] although +with these ponderous defense-works they seem considerably larger. The +average of the ships, however, will reckon only 30 to 40 tons or even +smaller. It is really a mistake, any garrulous sailor will tell us, to +build merchant ships much bigger. It is impossible to make sailing +vessels of the Greek model and rig sail very close to the wind; and in +every contrary breeze or calm, recourse must be had to the huge oars +piled up along the gunwales. Obviously it is weary work propelling a +large ship with oars unless you have a huge and expensive crew,—far +better then to keep to the smaller vessels. + +[*] The Greeks reckoned their ships by their capacity in talents (= +about 60 lbs.), _e.g._ a ship of 500 talents, of 2000, or (among the +largest) 10,000. + + +103. The Three War Harbors and the Ship House.—Many other points about +these “round ships” interest us; but such matters they share with the +men-of-war, and our inspection has now brought us to the navy yard. +There are strictly three separate navy yards, one at each of the +harbors of Munychia, Zea, and Cantharus, for the naval strength of +Athens is so great that it is impossible to concentrate the entire +fleet at one harbor. Each of these establishments is protected by +having two strong battlements or breakwaters built out, nearly closing +the respective harbor entrances. At the end of each breakwater is a +tower with parapets for archers, and capstans for dragging a huge chain +across the harbor mouth, thus effectively sealing the entrance to any +foe.[*] The Zea haven has really the greatest warship capacity, but +the Cantharus is a good type for the three.[+] As we approach it from +the merchant haven, we see the shelving shore closely lined with +curious structures which do not easily explain themselves. There are a +vast number of dirty, shelving roofs, slightly tilted upward towards +the land side, and set at right angles to the water’s edge. They are +each about 150 feet long, some 25 feet wide, about 20 feet high, and +are set up side by side with no passage between. On close inspection +we discover these are ship houses. Under each of the roofs is +accommodated the long slim hull of a trireme, kept safe from sea and +weather until the time of need, when a few minutes’ work at a tackle +and capstan will send it down into harbor, ready to tow beside a wharf +for outfitting. + +[*] Ancient harbors were much harder to defend than modern ones, +because there was no long-range artillery to prevent an enemy from +thrusting into an open haven among defenseless shipping. + + +[+] Zea had accommodation for 196 triremes, Munychia, 82, and the +Cantharus, 94. + + +104. The Great Naval Arsenal.—The ship houses are not the only large +structures at the navy yard. Here is also the great naval arsenal, a +huge roofed structure open at the sides and entirely exposed to public +inspection. Here between the lines of supporting columns can be seen +stacked up the staple requisites for the ships,—great ropes, sail +boxes, anchors, oars, etc. Everybody in Athens is welcome to enter and +assure himself that the fleet can be outfitted at a minute’s notice[*]; +and at all times crews of half-naked, weather-beaten sailors are +rushing hither and yon, carrying or removing supplies to and from the +wharves where their ships are lying. + +[*] This arsenal was replaced a little later than the hypothetical time +of this narrative by one designed by the famous architect, Philo. It +was extremely elegant as well as commodious, with handsome columns, +tiled roofs, etc. In 360 B.C., however, the arsenal seems to have been +a strictly utilitarian structure. + + +105. An Athenian Triearch.—Among this unaristocratic crowd we observe +a dignified old gentleman with an immaculate himation and a long +polished cane. Obsequious clerks and sailing masters are hanging about +him for his orders; it is easy to see that he is a _trierarch_—one of +the wealthiest citizens on whom it fell, in turn, at set intervals, to +provide the less essential parts of a trireme’s outfit, and at least +part of the pay for the crew for one year, and to be generally +responsible for the efficiency and upkeep of the vessel.[*] This is a +year of peace, and the patriotic pressure to spend as much on your +warship as possible is not so great as sometimes; still Eustatius, the +magnate in question, knows that he will be bitterly criticized (nay, +perhaps prosecuted in the courts) if he does not do “the generous +thing.” He is therefore ordering an extra handsome figurehead; +promising a bonus to the rowing master if he can get his hands to row +in better rhythm than the ordinary crew; and directing that wine of +superior quality be sent aboard for the men.[+] It will be an anxious +year in any case for Eustathius. He has ill wishers who will watch +carefully to see if the vessel fails to make a creditable record for +herself during the year, and whether she is returned to the ship house +or to the next trierarch in a state of good repair. If the craft does +not then appear seaworthy, her last outfitter may be called upon to +rebuild her completely, a matter which will eat up something like a +talent. Public service therefore does not provide beds of roses for the +rich men of Athens. + +[*] Just how much of the rigging and what fraction of the pay of the +crew the government provided is by no means clear from our evidence. +It is certain that a public-spirited and lavish trierarch could almost +ruin himself (unless very wealthy) during the year he was responsible +for the vessel. + + +[+] According to various passages in Demosthenes, the cost of a +trierachy for a year varied between 40 minæ (say $540 [1914 or +$9,304.20 in 2000]) and a talent (about $1000 [1914 or $17,230 in +2000]), very large sums for Athenians. The question of the amount of +time spent in active service in foreign waters would of course do much +to determine the outlay. + + +Eustathius goes away towards one of the wharves, where his trireme, the +_Invincible_, is moored with her crew aboard her. Let us examine a +typical Athenian warship. + + +106. The Evolution of the Trireme.—The genesis of the trireme was the +old _penteconter_ (“fifty-oar ship”) which, in its prime features, was +simply a long, narrow, open hull, with slightly raised prow and stern +cabins, pulling twenty-five oars to a side. There are a few +penteconters still in existence, though the great naval powers have +long since scorned them. It was a good while before the battle of +Salamis that the Greek sea warriors began to feel the need of larger +warships. It was impossible to continue the simple scheme of the +penteconter. To get more oars all on one tier you must make a longer +boat, but you could not increase the beam, for, if you did, the whole +craft would get so heavy that it would not row rapidly; and the +penteconter was already so long in relation to its beam as to be +somewhat unsafe. A device was needed to get more oars into the water +without increasing the length over much. The result was the _bireme_ +(two-banker) which was speedily replaced by the still more efficient +_trireme_ (three-banker), the standard battleship of all the Greek +navies.[*] + +[*] By the end of the fourth century B.C., vessels with four and five +banks of oars (quadriremes and quinqueremes) had become the regular +fighting ships, but they differed probably only in size, not in +principle, from the trireme. + + +[Illustration: AN ATHENIAN TRIREME +The scheme for the sails is conjectural, and no attempt is made to show +the exact number of oars.] + + +107. The Hull of a Trireme.—The _Invincible_ has a hull of fir +strengthened by a solid oak keel, very essential if she is to be hauled +up frequently. Her hull is painted black, but there is abundance of +scarlet, bright blue, and gilding upon her prow, stern, and upper +works. The slim hull itself is about 140 feet long, 14 feet wide, and +rides the harbor so lightly as to show it draws very little water; for +the warship, even more perhaps than the merchantman, is built on the +theory that her crew must drag her up upon the beach almost every +night. + +While we study the vessel we are soon told that, although triremes have +been in general use since, say, 500 B.C., nevertheless the ships that +fought at Salamis were decidedly simpler affairs than those of three +generations later. In those old “aphract” vessels the upper tier of +rowers had to sit exposed on their benches with no real protection from +the enemy’s darts; but in the new “cataphract” ships like the +_Invincible_ there is a stout solid bulwark built up to shield the +oarsmen from hostile sight and missiles alike. All this makes the +ships of Demosthene’s day much handsomer, taller affairs than their +predecessors which Themistocles commanded; nevertheless the old and the +new triremes have most essentials in common. The day is far off when a +battleship twenty years old will be called “hopelessly obsolete” by the +naval critics.[*] + +[*] There is some reason for believing that an Athenian trireme was +kept in service for many years, with only incidental repairs, and then +could still be counted as fit to take her place in the line of battle. + + +The upper deck of the trireme is about eleven feet above the harbor +waves, but the lowest oar holes are raised barely three feet. Into the +intervening space the whole complicated rowing apparatus has to be +crammed with a good deal of ingenuity. Running along two thirds of the +length of the hull nearly the whole interior of the vessel is filled +with a series of seats and foot rests rising in sets of three. Each +man has a bench and a kind of stool beneath him, and sits close to a +porthole. The feet of the lowest rower are near the level of the water +line; swinging two feet above him and only a little behind him is his +comrade of the second tier; higher and behind in turn is he of the +third.[*] Running down the center of the ship on either side of these +complicated benches is a broad, central gangway, just under the upper +deck. Here the supernumeraries will take refuge from the darts in +battle, and here the regular rowers will have to do most of their +eating, resting, and sleeping when they are not actually on the benches +or on shore. + +[*] The exact system by which these oar benches were arranged, the crew +taught to swing together (despite the inequalities in the length of +their oars), and several other like problems connected with the +trireme, have received no satisfactory solution by modern +investigators. + + +108. The Rowers’ Benches of a Trireme.—With her full complement of +rowers the benches of the _Invincible_ fairly swarm with life. There +are 62 rowers to the upper tier (_thranites_), 58 for the middle tier +(_zygites_), and 54 for the lower (_thalamites_), each man with his own +individual oar. The _thranites_ with the longest oars (full 13 feet 6 +inches) have the hardest pull and the largest pay, but not one of the +174 oarsmen holds a sinecure. In ordinary cruising, to be sure, the +trireme will make use of her sails, to help out a single bank of oars +which must be kept going almost all the time. Even then it is weary +work to break your back for a couple of hours taking your turn on the +benches. But in battle the trireme almost never uses sails. She +becomes a vast, many-footed monster, flying over the foam; and the pace +of the three oar banks, swinging together, becomes maddening. Behind +their bulwarks the rowers can see little of what is passing. +Everything is dependent upon their rowing together in absolute rhythm +come what may, and giving instant obedience to orders. The trireme is +in one sense like a latter-day steamer in her methods of propulsion; +but the driving force is 174 straining, panting humans, not insensate +water vapor and steel. + + +109. The Cabins, Rigging, and Ram of a Trireme.—Forward and aft of the +rowers’ benches and the great central gangway are the fore and stern +cabins. They furnish something akin to tolerable accommodations for +the officers and a favored fraction of the crew. Above the forecastle +rises a carved proudly curing prow, and just abaft it are high bulwarks +to guard the javelin men when at close quarters with the foe. There is +also on either side of the prow a huge red or orange “eye” painted +around the hawse holes for the anchors. Above the stern cabin is the +narrow deck reserved for the pilot, the “governor” of the ship, who +will control the whole trireme with a touch now on one, now on the +other, of the huge steering paddles which swing at the sides near the +stern. Within the stern cabin itself is the little altar, sacred to +the god or goddess to whom the vessel is dedicated, and on which +incense will be burned before starting on a long cruise and before +going into battle. Two masts rise above the deck, a tall mainmast +nearly amidships, and a much smaller mast well forward. On each of +these a square sail (red, orange, blue, or even, with gala ships, +purple) will be swung from a long yard, while the vessel is cruising; +but it is useless to set sails in battle. One could never turn the +ship quickly enough to complete the maneuvers. The sails and yards +will ordinarily be sent ashore as the first measure when the admiral +signals “clear ship for action.” + +We have now examined all of the _Invincible_ except for her main +weapon,—her beak; for the trireme is really herself one tremendous +missile to be flung by the well-trained rowers at the ill-starred foe. +Projecting well in front of the prow and close to the water line are +three heavy metal spurs serrated one above the other, somewhat thus[*]: + +[Illustration] + +Let this fang once crush against a foeman’s broadside, and his timbers +are crushed in like eggshells. + +[*] Probably at Salamis and in the earlier Athenian army the ram had +been composed of a single long, tapering beak. + + +110. The Officers and Crew of a Trireme.—So much for the _Invincible_ +herself, but obviously she is a helpless thing without an efficient +crew. The life of an oarsman is far from luxurious, but the pay seems +to be enough to induce a goodly number of _thetes_ (the poorest class +of the Athenian citizens) to accept service, and the rest can be +supplied by hired metics or any kind of foreign nondescript who can be +brought into discipline. The rowers are of course the real heart and +soul of the trireme; but they are useless without proper training. +Indeed it was the superior discipline of the Athenian crews which in +the days of Themistocles and Pericles gave Athens the supremacy of the +seas. The nominal, and sometimes actual, commander of the trireme is +her trierarch; but obviously a cultivated old gentleman like Eustathius +is no man to manage the ship in a sea fight. He will name some deputy, +perhaps a stout young friend or a son, for the real naval work. Even +he may not possess great experience. The real commander of the +_Invincible_ is the “governor” (_kybernates_), a gnarled old seaman, +who has spent all his life upon the water. Nominally his main duty is +to act as pilot, but actually he is in charge of the whole ship; and in +battle the trierarch (if aboard) will be very glad to obey all his +“suggestions.” Next to the “governor” there is the _proireus_, another +experienced sailor who will have especial charge of the forecastle in +battle. Next in turn are two “oar-masters” (_toixarchoi_), who are +each responsible for the discipline and working of one of the long +rowers’ benches; and following in grade, though highly important, are +the _keleustēs_, and the _triērraulēs_, who, by voice and by flute +respectively, will give the time and if needs be encouragement to the +rowers. These are all the regular officers, but naturally for handling +the sails and anchors some common sailors are desirable. The +_Invincible_ carries 17 of these. She also has 10 marines (_epibatœ_), +men trained to fight in hoplite’s armor and to repel boarders. The +Persian ships at Salamis carried 30 such warriors, and often various +Greek admirals have crowded their decks with these heavy marines; but +the true Athenian sea warrior disdains them. Given a good helmsman and +well-trained rowers, and you can sink your opponent with your ram, +while he is clumsily trying to board you. Expert opinion considers the +_epibatœ_ somewhat superfluous, and their use in most naval battles as +disgracefully unscientific. + + +111. A Trireme at Sea.—A trireme, then is an heroic fighting +instrument. She goes into battle prepared literally to do or die. If +her side is once crushed, she fills with water instantly, and the enemy +will be too busy and too inhumane to do anything but cheer lustily when +they see the water covered with struggling wretches. But the trireme is +also a most disagreeable craft before and after the battle. Her light +draft sets her tossing on a very mild sea. In the hot southern climate, +with very little ventilation beneath the upper deck, with nigh two +hundred panting, naked human beings wedged in together below so closely +that there is scarce room for one more, the heat, the smells, the +drudgery, are dreadful. No wonder the crew demanded that the trierarch +and governor “make shore for the night,” or that they weary of the +incessant grating of the heavy oars upon the thole-pins. + +Thus the _Invincible_ will seem to any squeamish voyager, but not so to +the distant spectator. For him a trireme is a most marvelous and +magnificent sight. A sister ship, the _Danaë_,[*] is just entering the +Peiræus from Lemnos (an isle still under the Athenian sovereignty). +Her upper works have been all brightened for the home-coming. Long, +brilliant streams trail from her sail yards and poop. The flute player +is blowing his loudest. The marines stand on the forecastle in +glittering armor. A great column of foam is spouting from her bow.[+] +Her oars, eighty-seven to the side, pumiced white and hurling out the +spray, are leaping back and forth in perfect unison. The whole vessel +seems a thing of springing, ardent life. It is, indeed, a sight to +stir the blood. No later sailing ship in her panoply of canvas, no +steam battleship with her grim turrets and smoking funnels can ever +match the spectacle of a trireme moving in her rhythm and glory. + +[*] The Greek ships seem to have been named either for mythological +characters, or for desirable qualities and virtues. + + +[+] At her best a trireme seems to have been capable of making 8 to 9 +knots per hour. + + +112. The Tactics of a Naval Battle.—Imagination can now picture a Greek +naval battle, fifty, a hundred, two hundred, or more of these splendid +battleships flying in two hostile lines to the charge.[*] Round and +round they will sail, each pilot watching the moment when an unlucky +maneuver by the foe will leave a chance for an attack; and then will +come the sudden swinging of the helm, the frantic “Pull hard!” to the +oarsmen, the rending crash and shock as the ram tears open the +opponents side, to be followed by almost instant tragedy. If the direct +attack on the foe’s broadside fails, there is another maneuver. Run +down upon your enemy as if striking bow to bow; the instant before +contact let your aim swerve—a little. Then call to your men to draw in +their oars like lightning while the enemy are still working theirs. If +your oarsmen can do the trick in time, you can now ride down the whole +of the foemen’s exposed oar bank, while saving your own. He is left +crippled and helpless, like a huge centipede with all the legs on one +side stripped away. You can now back off deliberately, run out your +oars, and in cold blood charge his exposed flank. If he does not now +surrender, his people are dead men. Excellent to describe! Not always +so excellent in performance. Everything depends on the perfect +discipline and handiness of your crew. + +[*] A more detailed picture of an ancient naval battle and its tactics +can be found in the author’s historical novel, _A Victor of Salamis_ +(Chap. XXIX). + + +113. The Naval Strength of Athens.—The strength of Athens is still +upon the sea. Despite her defeats in the Peloponnesian War she has +again the first navy in Hellas. All in all she can send out 400 +triremes and since each trireme represents a crew of over 200 men, this +means that Athens can dispose of over 80,000 souls in her navy, +whereof, however, only a minor fraction are Athenian citizens. Athens +is quite right in thus laying stress upon her sea power. Her long +walls and the Peiræus make her practically an island. Even after +Chæroneia, Philip of Macedon will be obliged to give her honorable +terms,—she has still her great navy. Only after the defeat of her +fleet at Amorgos in 322 B.C. will she have to know all the pangs of +vassalage to Macedon. + + + + +Chapter XV. +An Athenian Court Trial. + + +114. The Frequency of Litigation in Athens.—The visit to the Peiræus +and the study of the shipping have not been too long to prevent a brief +visit to one of the most characteristic scenes of Athenian life—a law +court. Athens is notorious for the fondness which her citizens display +for litigation. In fact it is a somewhat rare and exceptionally +peaceable, harmless, and insignificant citizen who is not plaintiff or +defendant in some kind of action every few years or so. Says +Aristophanes, “The cicada [grasshopper] sings for only a month, but the +people of Athens are buzzing with lawsuits and trials their whole life +long.” In the jury courts the contentious, tonguey man can spread +himself and defame his enemies to his heart’s content; and it must be +admitted that in a city like Athens, where everybody seems to know +everybody else’s business almost every citizen is likely to have a +number both of warm friends and of bitter enemies. Athenians do not +have merely “cold acquaintances,” or “business rivals,” as will men of +the twentieth century. They make no pretenses to “Christian charity.” +They freely call an obnoxious individual their “personal foe” +(_echthros_), and if they can defeat, humiliate, and ruin him, they +bless the gods. The usual outlet for such ill-feeling is a fierce and +perhaps mutually destructive lawsuit. + +Then too, despite Athenian notions of what constitutes a gentleman, +many citizens are people of utterly penurious, niggardly habits. +Frequently enough the fellow who can discuss all Socrates’s theories +with you is quarreling with his neighbor over the loan of salt or a +lamp wick or some meal for sacrifice.[*] If one of the customary +“club-dinners”[+] is held at his house, he will be caught secreting +some of the vinegar, lamp oil, or lentils. If he has borrowed +something, say some barley, take care; when he returns it, he will +measure it out in a vessel with the bottom dented inward. A little ill +feeling, a petty grievance carefully cultivated,—the end in due time +will be a lawsuit, costly far out of proportion to the originating +cause. + +[*] Persons of this kidney are delineated to us as typical characters +by Theophrastus. + + +[+] The nearest modern equivalent is a “basket lunch.” + + +115. Prosecutions in Athens.—Athens does not draw a sharp line between +public and private litigation. There is no “state” or “district +attorney” to prosecute for the offenses against public order. Any full +citizen can prosecute anybody else upon such a criminal charge as +murder, no less than for a civil matter like breach of contract. All +this leads to the growth of a mischievous clan—the _sycophants_. These +harpies are professional accusers who will prosecute almost any rich +individual upon whom they think they can fasten some technical offense. + Their gains are from two quarters. If they convict the defendant, +about half of the fine or property taken will go to the informer. But +very likely there will be no trial. The victim (either consciously +guilty, or innocent but anxious to avoid the risk) will pay a huge +blackmail at the first threat of prosecution, and the case is hushed +up. + +It is true there are very heavy penalties for trumped-up cases, for +unwarranted threat of legal proceedings, for perjured evidence; still +the abuse of the sycophants exists, and a great many of the lawsuits +originate with this uncanny tribe. + + +116. The Preliminaries to a Trial.—There are official arbitrators to +settle petty cases, but it is too often that one or both parties +declare “the dicasts must settle it,” and the lawsuit has to take its +way. Athenian legal methods are simple. Theoretically there are no +professional lawyers, and every man must look out for himself. The +first business is to file your complaint with one of the magistrates +(usually one of nine _archons_), and then with two witnesses give +formal summons to your opponent, the defendant, to appear on a set day +in court. If he has defaulted, the case is usually ended then in your +favor. This hearing before the magistrate is in any event an important +part of the trial. Here each side proffers the laws it cites to +sustain its claims, and brings its witnesses, who can be more or less +cross-examined. All the pertinent testimony is now written down, and +the tablets sealed up by the magistrate. At the final trial this +evidence will be merely _read_ to the jury, the witness in each +instance standing up before the court and admitting when duly asked, +“This is my testimony on the case.” + +Free men testify under oath, but a slave’s oath is counted worthless. +The slaves may be the only important witnesses to a given act, but +under only one condition can they testify. With the consent of their +master they may testify _under torture_. It is a critical moment at +this hearing when a litigant who is confident of his case proudly +announces, “I challenge my enemy to put my slaves under torture”; or +the other, attacking first, cries out, “I demand that my enemy submit +his slaves to torture.” Theoretically the challenged party might +refuse, practically a refusal is highly dangerous. “If his slaves +didn’t know something bad, why were they kept silent?” the jury will +ask. So the rack is brought forth. The wretched menials are stretched +upon it. One must hope that often the whole process involves more show +of cruelty than actual brutality. What now the slaves gasp out between +their twists and howls is duly taken down as “important evidence,” and +goes into the record.[*] + +[*] Athenian opinion was on the whole in favor of receiving as valid +testimony the evidence extorted thus from slaves by mere animal fear. +Antiphon the orator speaks of how truth may be wrung from slaves by +torture; “by which they are compelled to speak the truth though they +must die for it afterward [at the hands of the master they have +incriminated], for the present necessity is to each stronger than the +future.” This has been well called one of the few cases of extreme +_stupidity_ on the part of the Athenians. + + +117. The Athenian Jury Courts.—A convenient interval has elapsed since +one of these preliminary hearings. To-day has been set for the actual +trial before a member of the archons in the “Green” court. Ariston, a +wealthy olive farmer, is suing Lamachus, an exporter of the Peiræus, +for failing to account for the proceeds of a cargo of olives lately +shipped to Naxos. To follow the trial in its entirety we should have +been at the courthouse at first dawn. Then we would have seen the +jurymen come grumbling in, some from the suburbs, attended by link +boys. These jurors represent a large fraction of the whole Athenian +people. There are about six thousand in all. Pretty nearly every +citizen above thirty years of age can give in his name as desiring jury +duty; but naturally it is the elderly and the indolent who must prefer +the service. One thousand of the six act as mere substitutes; the rest +serve as often as the working of a complicated system of drawing by lot +assigns them to sit as jurors on a particular case. It is well there +are five thousand always thus available, for Athenian juries are very +large; 201, 401, 501, 1001 are numbers heard of, and sometimes even +greater.[*] The more important the case, the larger the jury; but +_Ariston_ v. _Lamachus_ is only a commonplace affair; 401 jurors are +quite enough. Even with that “small court,” the audience which the +pleaders now have to address will seem huge to any latter-day lawyer +who is accustomed to his “twelve men in a box”; and needless to say, +quite different methods must be used in dealing with such a company. + +[*] The odd unit was no doubt added to prevent a tie. + + +Each “dicast” (to use the proper name) has a boxwood tablet to show at +the entrance as his voucher to the Scythian police-archers on duty; he +has also a special staff of the color of the paint on the door of the +court room.[*] The chamber itself is not especially elegant; a long +line of hard benches rising in tiers for the dicasts, and facing these +a kind of pulpit for the presiding magistrates, with a little platform +for orators, a small altar for the preliminary sacrifice, and a few +stools for attendants and witnesses complete the simple furnishings. +There are open spaces for spectators, though no seats; but there will +be no lack of an audience today, for the rumor has gone around, +“Hypereides has written Ariston’s argument.” The chance to hear a +speech prepared by that famous oration-monger is enough to bring every +dicast out early, and to summon a swarm of loiterers up from the not +distant Agora. + +[*] Each court room had its distinguishing color. There were about ten +regular court rooms, besides some for special tribunals; _e.g._ the +Areopagus for the trial of homicides. + + +118. The Juryman’s Oath.—The dicasts are assumed to approach their +duty with all due solemnity. They have sworn to vote according to the +laws of Athens, never to vote for a repudiation of debts, nor to +restore political exiles, nor to receive bribes for their votes, nor +take bribes in another’s behalf, nor let anybody even tempt them with +such proffers. They are to hear both sides impartially and vote +strictly according to the merits of the case: and the oath winds up +awfully—“Thus do I invoke Zeus, Poseidon, and Demeter to smite with +destruction me and my house if I violate any of these obligations, but +if I keep them I pray for many blessings.”[*] + +[*] We have not the exact text of all the dicasts’ oath, but we can +reproduce it fairly completely from Demosthenes’s _Oration against +Timocrates_. + + +119. Opening the Trial. The Plaintiff’s Speech.—The oath is admirable, +but the dicasts are not in a wholly juridical state of mind. Just +before the short sacrifice needful to commence proceedings, takes +place, old Zenosthenes on the second row nudges his neighbor: “I don’t +like the looks of that Lamachus. I shall vote against him.” “And I—my +wife knows his wife, and—” The archon rises. The crier bids, +“Silence!” The proceedings begin: but all through the hearing there is +whispering and nudging along the jurors’ benches. The litigants are +quite aware of the situation and are trying their best to win some +advantage therefrom. + +Ariston is the first to speak. He has taken great pains with the folds +of his himation and the trim of his beard this morning. He must be +thoroughly genteel, but avoid all appearances of being a dandy. In +theory every man has to plead his own case in Athens, but not every man +is an equally good orator. If a litigant is very inept, he can simply +say a few words, then step aside with “My friend so-and-so will +continue my argument”; and a readier talker will take his place.[*] +Ariston, however, is a fairly clever speaker. Having what he conceives +a good case, he has obtained the indirect services of Hypereides, one +of the first of the younger orators of Athens. Hypereides has written a +speech which he thinks is suitable to the occasion, Ariston has +memorized it, and delivers it with considerable gusto. He has solid +evidence, as is proved from time to time when he stops to call, “Let +the clerk read the testimony of this or that.” There often is a certain +hum of approbation from the dicasts when he makes his points. He +continues bravely, therefore, ever and anon casting an eye upon the +_clepsydra_ near at hand, a huge water-clock which, something like an +hour glass, marks off the time allotted him. Some of his arguments seem +to have nothing to do with the alleged embezzlement. He vilifies his +opponent: calls Lamachus’s mother coarse names, intimates that as a boy +he had no decent schooling, charges him with cowardice in the recent +Mantinea campaign in which he served, hints that he has quarreled with +his relatives. On the other hand, Ariston grandiloquently praises +_himself_ as well born, well educated, an honorable soldier and +citizen, a man any Athenian would be glad to consider a friend. It is +very plain all these personalia delight the jury.[+] When Ariston’s +“water has run out” and he concludes his speech, there is a loud murmur +of applause running along the benches of the dicasts. + +[*] These “friends,” however, were never regularly professional +advocates; it would have been ruinous to let the jury get the +impression that an orator was being directly hired to speak to them. + + +[+] For the depths of personal insult into which Greek litigants could +descend there is no better instance than Demosthenes’s (otherwise +magnificent) _Oration on the Crown_, wherein he castigates his foe +Æschines. + + +120. The Defendant’s Speech. Demonstrations by the Jury.—It is now +Lamachus’s turn. He also has employed a professional speech-writer +(_logographos_) of fame, Isæus, to prepare his defense. But almost at +the outset he is in difficulties. Very likely he has a bad case to +begin with. He makes it worse by a shrill, unpleasant voice and +ungainly gestures. Very soon many dicasts are tittering and whispering +jibes to their companions. As his harangue proceeds, the presiding +archon (who has really very little control of the dicasts) is obliged +“to remind the gentlemen of the jury that they have taken solemn oath +to hear both sides of the question.” + +Lamachus fights doggedly on. Having put in all his real arguments, he +takes refuge also in blackguarding his opponent. Did Ariston get his +wealth honestly? was not his father a rascally grain dealer who starved +the people? Yet there is still more impatience among the dicasts. +Lamachus now uses his last weapon. Upon the pleader’s stand clamber +his five young children clad in black mourning garments. They all weep +together, and when not wiping their eyes, hold out their hands like +religious suppliants, toward the dicasts.[*] + +[*] For such an appeal to an Athenian dicastery, see Aristophanes’s +_Wasps_. The pertinent passages are quoted in _Readings in Ancient +History_, vol. I, p. 238-40. + + +“Ah! Gentlemen of the jury,” whines their father, “if you are moved by +the voices of your lambs at home, pity these here. Acquit me for +_their_ sakes. Do not find against me and plunge these innocent +darlings into want and misery, by impoverishing their father.” + +Appeals like this have swayed more than one jury during the last year, +but the fates are all against Lamachus. From a back bench comes a +dreaded shout that is instantly caught up by the front tiers also: + +“_Katába! Katába!_—Go down! Go Down!” + +Lamachus hesitates. If he obeys, he loses all the rest of his defense. + If he continues now, he enrages many of the dicasts, who will be +absolutely sure to find against him. The presiding archon vainly +rises, and tries to say something about “fair play.” Useless. The +uproar continues. Like a flock of scared doves Lamachus and all his +five children flee incontinently from the tribune, amid ironical cheers +and laughter. + + +121. The First Verdict.—There is silence at length. “The dicasts will +proceed to vote,” announces the court crier. The huge urns (one of +bronze, one of wood) with narrow mouths are passed among the benches. +Each juror has two round bronze disks, one solid, one with a hole bored +in the middle. The solid acquit, the pierced ones convict. A juror +drops the ballot he wishes to count into the bronze urn; the other goes +into the wooden urn. The bronze urn is carried to the archon, and +there is an uneasy hush while the 401 ballots are counted by the court +officers. As expected, more than 300 dicasts vote that Ariston is +entitled to damages against Lamachus as an embezzler. + + +122. The Second and Final Verdict.—Ariston is smiling; his friends are +congratulating him, but the trial is by no means over. If Lamachus had +been found guilty of something for which the law provided an absolute +fixed penalty, this second part of the proceedings would be omitted. +But here, although the jury has said _some_ damage or penalty or +penalties are due, it has still to fix the amount. Ariston has now to +propose to the dicasts a sum which he thinks is adequate to avenge his +wrongs and losses; Lamachus can propose a smaller sum and try to +persuade the court that it is entirely proper. Each side must act +warily. Athenian jurors are fickle folk. The very men who have just +howled down Lamachus may, in a spasm of repentance, vote for absurdly +low damages. Again, Lamachus must not propose anything obviously +inadequate, otherwise the jurors who have just voted against him may +feel insulted, and accept Ariston’s estimate.[*] Ariston therefore +says that he deserves at least a talent. Lamachus rejoins that half a +talent is more than ample, even conceding Arison’s alleged wrongs. The +arguments this time are shorter and more to the point. Then comes the +second balloting. A second time a majority (smaller this time, but +enough) is in favor of Ariston. The better cause has conquered; and +there is at least this advantage to the Athenian legal system, there +will be no appeal nor tedious technicalities before a “higher court.” +The verdict of the dicastery is final. + +[*] Undoubtedly Socrates would have escaped with his life, if (after +his original condemnation) he had proposed a real penalty to the jury, +instead of an absurdly small fine. The only alternative for the +dicasts was to accept the proposition of his opponents,—in his case, +death. + + +123. The Merits and Defects of the Athenian Courts.—No doubt injustice +is sometimes done. Sometimes it is the honest man who hears the +dreaded “_Kataba!_” Sometimes the weeping children have their intended +effect. Sometimes it is the arguments about “My opponent’s scoundrelly +ancestry” which win the verdict. At the same time, your Athenian +dicast is a remarkably shrewd and acute individual. He can distinguish +between specious rhetoric and a real argument. He is probably honestly +anxious to do justice. In the ordinary case where his personal +interests or prejudices do not come into play, the decision is likely +to match with justice quite as often perhaps as in the intricate court +system of a great republic many centuries after the passing of Athens. + +Certain features of some Athenian trials have not explained themselves +in the example just witnessed. To prevent frivolous or blackmailing +litigation it is provided that, if the plaintiff in a suit gets less +than one fifth of the ballots in his favor (thus clearly showing he had +no respectable case), he is liable to a heavy fine or, in default +thereof, exile. Again, we have not waited for the actual closing +scene—the dicasts each giving up his colored staff as a kind of voucher +to the court officers, and in return getting his three obols (9 cents) +daily jury fee, which each man claps promptly in his cheek, and then +goes off home to try the case afresh at the family supper. + + +124. The Usual Punishments in Athens.—Trials involving murder or +manslaughter come before the special court of Areopagus, and cannot +well be discussed here, but most other criminal cases are tried before +the dicasts in much the same way as a civil trial. When the law does +not have a set penalty, the jury virtually has to sentence the +defendant after convicting him, choosing between one of two proposed +penalties. Greek courts can inflict death, exile, fines, but almost +never imprisonment. There is no “penitentiary” or “workhouse” in +Athens; and the only use for a jail is to confine accused persons whom +it is impossible to release on bail before their trial. The Athens +city jail (“The House,” as it is familiarly called—_Oikēma_) is a very +simple affair, one open building, carelessly guarded and free to +visitors all through the daylight. The inmates have to be kept in heavy +fetters, otherwise they would be sure to take flight; and indeed +escapes from custody are somewhat common. + + +125. The Heavy Penalty of Exile.—An Athenian will regard locking a +criminal up for a term of years as a very foolish and expensive +proceeding. If he has nothing wherewith to pay a round fine, why, +simply send him into exile. This penalty is direful indeed to a Greek. + The exile has often no protector, no standing in the courts of the +foreign city, no government to avenge any outrage upon him. He can be +insulted, starved, stripped, nay, murdered, often with impunity. Worse +still, he is cut off from his friends with whom all his life is tied +up; he is severed from the guardian gods of his childhood,—“_the_ +City,” the city of his birth, hopes, longings, exists no more for him. +If he dies abroad, he is not sure of a decent funeral pyre; and +meanwhile his children may be hungering at home. So long as the +Athenians have this tremendous penalty of exile at their disposal, they +do not feel the need of penitentiaries. + + +126. The Death Penalty at Athens.—There are also the stocks and +whipping posts for meting out summary justice to irresponsible +offenders. When the death penalty is imposed (and the matter often +lies in the discretion of the dicasts), the criminal, if of servile or +Barbarian blood, may be put to death in some hideous manner and his +corpse tossed into the Barathron, a vile pit on the northwest side of +Athens, there to be dishonored by the kites and crows. The execution +of Athenian citizens, however, is extremely humane. The condemned is +given a cup of poisonous hemlock juice and allowed to drink it while +sitting comfortably among his friends in the prison. Little by little +his body grows numb; presently he becomes senseless, and all is over +without any pain.[*] The friends of the victim are then at liberty to +give his body a suitable burial. + +[*] No one can read the story of the death of Socrates in the prison, +as told by Plato in the _Phædo_, without feeling (aside from the noble +philosophical setting) how much more humane were such executions by +hemlock than is the modern gallows or electric chair. + + +An Athenian trial usually lasts all day, and perhaps we have been able +to witness only the end of it. It may well happen, however, that we +cannot attend a dicastery at all. This day may be one which is devoted +to a meeting of the public assembly, and duty summons the jurors, not +in the court room, but to the Pnyx. This is no loss to us, however. +We welcome the chance to behold the Athenian Ecclesia in action. + + + + +Chapter XVI. +The Ecclesia of Athens. + + +127. The Rule of Democracy in Athens.—The Ecclesia, or Public +Assembly, of Athens is something more than the chief governmental organ +in the state. It is the great leveling engine which makes Athens a +true democracy, despite the great differences in wealth between her +inhabitants, and the marked social pretensions of “the noble and the +good”—the educated classes. At this time Athens is profoundly wedded +to her democratic constitution. Founded by Solon and Clisthenes, +developed by Themistocles and Pericles, it was temporarily overthrown +at the end of the Peloponnesian War; but the evil rule then of the +“Thirty Tyrants” has proved a better lesson on the evils of oligarchic +rule than a thousand rhetoricians’ declamations upon the advantages of +the “rule of the many” as against the “rule of the few.” Attica now +acknowledges only one Lord—_King Demos_—“King Everybody”—and until the +coming of bondage to Macedon there will be no serious danger of an +aristocratic reaction. + + +128. Aristocracy and Wealth. Their Status and Burdens.—True, there are +old noble families in Athens,—like the Alcmæonidæ whereof Pericles +sprang, and the Eumolpidæ who supply the priests to Demeter, the Earth +Mother. But these great houses have long since ceased to claim +anything but _social_ preëminence. Even then one must take pains not +to assume airs, or the next time one is litigant before the dicastery, +the insinuation of “an undemocratic, oligarchic manner of life” will +win very many adverse votes among the jury. Nobility and wealth are +only allowed to assert themselves in Athens when justified by an +extraordinary amount of public service and public generosity. + +Xenophon in his _Memorabilia_ makes Socrates tell Critobuls, a wealthy +and self-important individual, that he is really so hampered by his +high position as to be decidedly poor. “You are obliged,” says +Socrates, “to offer numerous and magnificent sacrifices; you have to +receive and entertain sumptuously a great many strangers, and to feast +[your fellow] citizens. You have to pay heavy contributions towards +the public service, keeping horses and furnishing choruses in peace +times and in war bearing the expense of maintaining triremes and paying +the special war taxes; and if you fail to do all this, they will punish +you with as much severity as if you were caught stealing their money.” + + +129. Athenian Society Truly Democratic up to a Certain Point.—Wealth, +then, means one perpetual round of public services and obligations, +sweetened perhaps with a little empty praise, an inscription, an +honorary crown, or best of all, an honorary statue “to the public +benefactor” as the chief reward. On the other hand one may be poor and +be a thoroughly self-respecting, nay, prominent citizen. Socrates had +an absurdly small invested fortune and the gods knew that he did little +enough in the way of profitable labor.[*] He had to support his wife +and three children upon this income. He wore no chiton. His himation +was always an old one, unchanged from summer to winter. He seems to +have possessed only one pair of good sandals all his life. His rations +were bread and water, save when he was invited out. Yet this man was +welcome in the “very best society.” Alcibiades, leader of the fast, +rich set, and many more of the gilded youth of Athens dogged his heels. + One meets not the slightest evidence that his poverty ever prevented +him from carrying his philosophic message home to the wealthy and the +noble. There is no snobbishness, then, in this Athenian society. +Provided a man is not pursuing a base mechanic art or an ignoble trade, +provided he has a real message to convey,—whether in literature, +philosophy, or statecraft,—there are no questions “who was your +father?” or “what is your income?”[+] Athens will hear him and accept +his best. For this open-mindedness—almost unique in ancient +communities—one must thank King Demos and his mouthpiece, the Ecclesia. + +[*] Socrates’s regular income from invested property seems to have been +only about $12 per year. It is to be hoped his wife, Xanthippe, had a +little property of her own! + + +[+] Possibly the son of a man whose parents notoriously had been slaves +in Athens would have found many doors closed to him. + + +Athenians are intensely proud of their democracy. In Æschylus’s +_Persians_, Atossa, the Barbarian queen, asks concerning the +Athenians:— + +“Who is the lord and shepherd of their flock?” + + +Very prompt is the answer:— + +“They are not slaves, they bow to no man’s rule.” + + +Again in Euripides’s _Supplicants_ there is this boast touching +Athens:— + + “No will of one +Holdeth this land: it is a city and free. +The whole folk year by year, in parity of service is our king.” + + +130. The Voting Population of Athens.—Nevertheless when we ask about +this “whole folk,” and who the voters are, we soon discover that Athens +is very far from being a pure democracy. The multitudes of slaves are +of course without votes, and so is the numerous class of the important, +cultivated, and often wealthy metics. To get Athenian citizenship is +notoriously hard. For a stranger (say a metic who had done some +conspicuous public service) to be given the franchise, a special vote +must be passed by the Ecclesia itself; even then the new citizen may be +prosecuted as undeserving before a dicastery, and disfranchised. +Again, only children both of whose parents are free Athenian citizens +can themselves be enrolled on the carefully guarded lists in the deme +books. The status of a child, one of whose parents is a metic, is +little better than a bastard.[*] + +[*] Of course women were entirely excluded from the Ecclesia, as from +all other forms of public life. The question of “woman’s rights” had +been agitated just enough to produce comedies like Aristophanes’s +_Parliament of Women_, and philosophical theories such as appear in +Plato’s _Republic_. + + +Under these circumstances the whole number of voters is very much less +than at a later day will appear in American communities of like +population. Before the Peloponnesian War, when the power of Athens was +at its highest point, there were not less than 30,000 full citizens and +possibly as many as 40,000. But those days of imperial power are now +ended. At present Athens has about 21,000 citizens, or a few more. It +is impossible, however, to gather all these in any single meeting. A +great number are farmers living in the remote villages of Attica; many +city dwellers also will be too busy to think the 3-obol (9-cent [1914 +or $1.55 2000]) fee for attendance worth their while.[*] Six thousand +seems to be a good number for ordinary occasions and no doubt much +business can be dispatched with less, although this is the legal quorum +set for most really vital matters. Of course a great crisis, _e.g._ a +declaration of war, will bring out nearly every voter whose farm is not +too distant. + +[*] Payment for attendance at the Pnyx seems to have been introduced +about 390 B.C. The original payment was probably only one obol, and +then from time to time increased. It was a sign of the relative decay +of political interest in Athens when it became needful thus to reward +the commonalty for attendance at the Assembly. + + +131. Meeting Time of the Ecclesia.—Four times in every prytany[*] the +Ecclesia must be convened for ordinary business, and oftener if public +occasion requires. Five days’ notice has to be given of each regular +meeting, and along with the notice a placard announcing the proposals +which are to come up has to be posted in the Agora. But if there is a +sudden crisis, formalities can be thrown to the winds; a sudden bawling +of the heralds in the streets, a great smoky column caused by burning +the traders’ flimsy booths in the Agora,—these are valid notices of an +extraordinary meeting to confront an immediate danger. + +[*] “A prytany” was one tenth of a year, say 35 or 36 days, during +which time the 50 representatives of one of the ten Athenian tribes +then serving as members of the Council of 500 (each tribe taking its +turn) held the presidency of the Council and acted as a special +executive committee of the government. There were thus at least 40 +meetings of the Ecclesia each year, as well as the extraordinary +meetings. + + +If this has been a morning when the Ecclesia has been in session, +nothing unusual has occurred at first in the busy Agora, except that +the jury courts are hardly in action, and a bright flag is whipping the +air from the tall flagpole by the Pnyx (the Assembly Place). Then +suddenly there is a shouting through the Agora. The clamor of traffic +around the popular flower stalls ceases; everybody who is not a slave +or metic (and these would form a large fraction of the crowd of +marketers) begins to edge down toward one end of the Agora. Presently +a gang of Scythian police-archers comes in sight. They have a long +rope sprinkled with red chalk wherewith they are “netting” the Agora. +The chalk will leave an infallible mark on the mantle of every tardy +citizen, and he who is thus marked as late at the meeting will lose his +fee for attendance, if not subject himself to a fine. So there is a +general rush away from the Agora and down one of the various avenues +leading to the Pnyx. + + +132. The Pnyx (Assembly Place) at Athens.—The Pnyx is an open space of +ground due west from the Acropolis. It originally sloped gently away +towards the northeast, but a massive retaining wall had been built +around it, in an irregular semicircle, and the space within filled with +solidly packed earth sloping inwards, making a kind of open air +auditorium. It is a huge place, 394 feet long, and 213 feet at the +widest. The earthen slope is entirely devoid of seats; everybody casts +himself down sprawling or on his haunches, perhaps with an old himation +under him. Directly before the sitters runs a long ledge hewn out of +the rock, forming, as it were, the “stage” side of the theater. Here +the rock has been cut away, so as to leave a sizable stone pulpit +standing forth, with a small flight of steps on each side. This is the +_Bema_, the orator’s stand, whence speak the “demagogues,”[*] the +molders of Athenian public opinion. In front of the Bema there is a +small portable altar for the indispensable sacrifices. In the rear of +the Bema are a few planks laid upon the rock. Here will sit the fifty +_Prytanes_ in charge of the meeting. There is a handsome chair for the +presiding officer upon the Bema itself. These are all the furnishings +of the structure wherein Athens makes peace and war, and orders her +whole civil and foreign policy. The Hellenic azure is the only roof +above her sovran law makers. To the right, as the orators stand on the +Bema, they can point toward the Acropolis and its glittering temples; +to the left towards the Peiræus, and the blue sea with the inevitable +memories of glorious Salamis. Surely it will be easy to fire all hearts +with patriotism! + +[*] A “demagogue” ( = people-leader) might well be a great statesman, +and not necessarily a cheap and noisy politician. + + +133. The Preliminaries of the Meeting.—Into this space the voters +swarm by hundreds—all the citizens of Athens, from twenty years and +upward, sufficiently interested to come. At each crude entrance stands +a crops of watchful LEXIARCHS and their clerks, checking off those +present and turning back interlopers. As the entering crowds begin to +thin, the entrance ways are presently closed by wicker hurdles. The +flag fluttering on high is struck. The Ecclesia is ready for action. + +Much earlier than this, the farmers and fishmen from the hill towns or +from Salamis have been in their places, grumbling at the slowness of +the officials. People sit down where they can; little groups and clans +together, wedged in closely, chattering up to the last minute, watching +every proceeding with eyes as keen as cats’. All the gossip left over +from the Agora is disposed of ere the prytanes—proverbially +late—scramble into their seats of honor. The police-archers move up and +down, enforcing a kind of order. Amid a growing hush a suckling pig is +solemnly slaughtered by some religious functionary at the altar, and +the dead victim carried around the circuit of the Pnyx as a symbolic +purification of the audience. + +“Come inside the purified circuit,” enjoins a loud herald to the little +groups upon the edge.[*] + +[*] Aristophanes’s _Acharnians_ (ll. 50 ff.) gives a valuable picture +of this and other proceedings at the Pnyx, but one should never forget +the poet’s exaggerations for comedy purposes, nor his deliberate +omission of matters likely to be mere tedious detail to his audience. + + +Then comes a prayer invoking the gods’ favor upon the Athenians, their +allies, and this present meeting in particular, winding up (the herald +counts this among the chief parts of his duty) with a tremendous curse +on any wretch who should deceive the folk with evil counsel. After +this the real secular business can begin. Nothing can be submitted to +the Ecclesia which has not been previously considered and matured by +the Council of 500. The question to be proposed is now read by the +heralds as a _Pro-bouleuma_—a suggested ordinance by the Council. Vast +as is the audience, the acoustic properties of the Pnyx are excellent, +and all public officers and orators are trained to harangue multitudes +in the open air, so that the thousands get every word of the +proposition. + + +134. Debating a Proposition.—“Resolved by the Boule, the tribe Leontis +holding the prytany, and Heraclides being clerk, upon the motion of +Timon the son of Timon the Eleusinian,[*] that”—and then in formal +language it is proposed to increase the garrison of the allied city of +Byzantium by 500 hired Arcadian mercenaries, since the king of Thrace +is threatening that city, and its continued possession is absolutely +essential to the free import of grain into Attica. + +[*] This seems to have been the regular form for beginning a +_probouleuma_ although nearly all our information comes from the texts +of proposals _after_ they have been made formal decrees by the sovran +Demos. + + +There is a hush of expectancy; a craning of necks. + +“Who wishes to speak?” calls the herald. + +After a decent pause Timon, the mover of the measure, comes forward. He +is a fairly well-known character and commands a respectable faction +among the Demos. There is some little clapping, mixed with jeering, as +he mounts the Bema. The president of the prytanes—as evidence that he +has now the right to harangue—hands him a myrtle wreath which he +promptly claps on his head, and launches into his argument. Full +speedily he has convinced at least a large share of the audience that +it was sheer destruction to leave Byzantium without an efficient +garrison. Grain would soon be at famine prices if the town were taken, +etc., etc. The only marvel is that the merciful gods have averted the +disaster so long in the face of such neglect.—Why had the board of +strategi, responsible in such matters, neglected this obvious duty? +[Cheers intermixed with catcalls.] This was not the way the men who +won Marathon had dealt with dangers, nor later worthies like Nicias or +Thrasybulus. [More cheers and catcalls.] He winds up with a splendid +invocation to Earth, Sky, and Justice to bear witness that all this +advice is given solely with a view to the weal of Athens. + +“He had Isocrates teach him how to launch that peroration,” mutters a +crabbed old citizen behind his peak-trimmed beard, as Timon descends +amid mingled applause and derision. + +“Very likely; Iphicrates is ready to answer him,” replies a fellow. + +“Who wishes to speak?” the herald demands again. From a place directly +before the Bema a well-known figure, the elderly general, Iphicrates, +is rising. At a nod from the president, he mounts the Bema and assumes +the myrtle. He has not Timon’s smooth tones nor oratorical manner. He +is a man of action and war, and no tool of the Agora coteries. A salvo +of applause greets him. Very pithily he observes that Byzantium will +be safe enough if the city will only be loyal to the Athenian alliance. + Athens needs all her garrisons nearer home. Timon surely knows the +state of the treasury. Is he going to propose a special tax upon his +fellow countrymen to pay for those 500 mercenaries? [Loud laughter and +derisive howls directed at Timon.] Athens needs to keep her strength +for _real_ dangers; and those are serious enough, but not at Byzantium. + At the next meeting he and the other strategi will recommend—etc., +etc. When Iphicrates quits the Bema there is little left of Timon’s +fine “Earth, Sky and Justice.” + + +135. Voting at the Pnyx.—But other orators follow on both sides. Once +Timon, egged on by many supporters, tries to gain the Bema a second +time, but is told by the president that one cannot speak twice on the +same subject. Once the derision and shouting becomes so violent that +the president has to announce, “Unless there is silence I must adjourn +the meeting.” Finally, after an unsuccessful effort to amend the +proposal, by reducing the garrison at Byzantium to 250, the movers of +the measure realize that the votes will probably be against them. They +try to break up the meeting. + +“I hear thunder!” “I feel rain!” they begin shouting, and such ill +omens, if really in evidence, would be enough to force an adjournment; +but the sky is delightfully clear. The president simply shrugs his +shoulders; and now the Pnyx is fairly rocking with the yell, “A vote! +A vote!” + +The president rises. Taking the vote in the Ecclesia is a very simple +matter when it is a plain question of “yes” or “no” on a +proposition.[*] + +[*] When an _individual_ had to be voted for, then ballots were used. + + +“All who favor the _probouleuma_ of Timon will raise the right hand!” + +A respectable but very decided minority shows itself. + +“Those who oppose.” + +The adverse majority is large. The morning is quite spent. There is a +great tumult. Men are rising, putting on their himatia, ridiculing +Timon; while the herald at a nod from the president declares the +Ecclesia adjourned. + + +136. The Ecclesia as an Educational Instrument.—Timon and his friends +retire crestfallen to discuss the fortunes of war. They are not +utterly discouraged, however. The Ecclesia is a fickle creature. What +it withholds to-day it may grant to-morrow. Iphicrates, whose words +have carried such weight now, may soon be howled down and driven from +the Bema much as was the unfortunate litigant in the jury court. +Still, with all its faults, the Ecclesia is the great school for the +adults of Athens. All are on terms of perfect equality. King Demos is +not the least respecter of wealth or family. Sophistries are usually +penetrated in a twinkling by some coarse expletive from a remote corner +of the Pnyx. Every citizen understands the main issues of the public +business. _He is part of the actual working government_, not once per +year (or less often) at the ballot box, but at least forty times +annually; and dolt he would be, did he not learn at least all the +superficialities of statecraft. He may make grievous errors. He may +be misled by mob prejudice or mob enthusiasm; but he is not likely to +persist in a policy of crass blundering very long. King Demos may +indeed rule a fallible human monarchy, but it is thanks to him, and to +his high court held at the Pnyx, that Athens owes at least half of that +sharpness of wit and intelligence which is her boast. + + + + +Chapter XVII. +The Afternoon at the Gymnasia. + + +137. The Gymnasia. Places of General Resort.—The market is thinning +after a busy day; the swarms of farmer-hucksters with their weary asses +are trudging homeward; the schoolrooms are emptying; the dicasteries or +the Ecclesia, as the case may be, have adjourned. Even the slave +artisans in the factories are allowed to slacken work. The sun, a ball +of glowing fire, is slowly sinking to westward over the slopes of +Ægaleos; the rock of the Acropolis is glowing as if in flame; intense +purple tints are creeping over all the landscape. The day is waning, +and all Athenians who can possibly find leisure are heading towards the +suburbs for a walk, a talk, and refreshment of soul and body at the +several Gymnasia. + +Besides various establishments and small “wrestling schools” for the +boys, there are three great public Gymnasia at Athens,—the Lyceum to +the east of the town; the Cynosarges[*] to the southward; and last, but +at all least, the Academy. This is the handsomest, the most famous, +the most characteristic. We shall do well to visit it. + +[*] The Cynosarges was the only one of these freely opened to such +Athenians as had non-Athenian mothers. The other two were reserved for +the strictly “full citizens.” + + +138. The Road to the Academy.—We go out toward the northwest of the +city, plunging soon into a labyrinth of garden walls, fragrant with the +fruit and blossoms within, wander amid dark olive groves where the +solemn leaves of the sacred trees are talking sweetly; and presently +mount a knoll by some suburban farm buildings, then look back to find +that slight as is the elevation, here is a view of marvelous beauty +across the city, the Acropolis, and the guardian mountains. From the +rustling ivy coverts come the melodious notes of birds. We are glad to +learn that this is the suburb of Colonus, the home of Sophocles the +tragedian, and here is the very spot made famous in the renowned chorus +of his _Œdipous at Colonus_. It is too early, of course, to enjoy the +nightingale which the poet asserts sings often amid the branches, but +the scene is one of marvelous charm. We are not come, however, to +admire Colonus. The numerous strollers indicate our direction. +Turning a little to the south, we see, embowered amid the olive groves +which line the unseen stream of the Cephissos, a wall, and once beyond +it find ourselves in a kind of spacious park combined with an athletic +establishment. This is the Academy,—founded by Hipparchus, son of +Peisistratus the tyrant, but given its real embellishments and beauty +by Cimon, the son of Militiades the victor of Marathon. + + +139. The Academy.—The Academy is worthy of the visit. The park itself +is covered with olive trees and more graceful plane trees. The grass +beneath us is soft and delightful to the bare foot (and nearly +everybody, we observe, has taken off his sandals). There are marble and +bronze statues skillfully distributed amid the shrubbery—shy nymphs, +peeping fauns, bold satyrs. Yonder is a spouting fountain surmounted by +a noble Poseidon with his trident; above the next fountain rides the +ocean car of Amphitrite. Presently we come to a series of low +buildings. Entering, we find them laid out in a quadrangle with +porticoes on every side, somewhat like the promenades around the Agora. +Inside the promenades open a series of ample rooms for the use of +professional athletes during stormy weather, and for the inevitable +bathing and anointing with oil which will follow all exercise. This +great square court formed by the “gymnasium” proper is swarming with +interesting humanity, but we pass it hastily in order to depart by an +exit on the inner side and discover a second more conventionally laid +out park. Here to right and to left are short stretches of soft sand +divided into convenient sections for wrestling, for quoit hurling, for +javelin casting, and for jumping; but a loud shout and cheering soon +draw us onward. At the end of this park we find the stadium; a great +oval track, 600 feet (a _stadium_) for the half circuit, with benches +and all the paraphernalia for a foot race. The first contests have just +ended. The racers are standing, panting after their exertions, but +their friends are talking vehemently. Out in the sand, near the statue +of Hermes (the patron god of gymnasia) is a dignified and +self-conscious looking man in a purple edged chiton—the gymnasiarch, +the official manager of the Academy. While he waits to organize a +second race we can study the visitors and habitués of the gymnasium. + + +140. The Social Atmosphere and Human Types at the Academy.—What the +Pnyx is to the political life of Athens, this the Academy and the other +great gymnasia are to its social and intellectual as well as its +physical life. Here in daily intercourse, whether in friendly contest +of speed or brawn, or in the more valuable contest of wits, the youth +of Athens complete their education after escaping from the rod of the +schoolmaster. Here they have daily lessons on the mottoes, which (did +such a thing exist) should be blazoned on the coat of arms of Greece, +as the summing up of all Hellenic wisdom:— + +“Know thyself,” + + +and again:— + +“Be moderate.” + + +Precept, example, and experience teach these truths at the gymnasia of +Athens. Indeed, on days when the Ecclesia is not in session, when no +war is raging, and they are not busy with a lawsuit, many Athenians +will spend almost the whole day at the Academy. For whatever are your +interests, here you are likely to find something to engross you. + +It must be confessed that not everybody at the Academy comes here for +physical or mental improvement. We see a little group squatting and +gesticulating earnestly under an old olive tree—they are obviously +busy, not with philosophic theory, but with dice. Again, two young men +pass us presenting a curious spectacle. They are handsomely dressed and +over handsomely scented, but each carries carefully under each arm a +small cock; and from time to time they are halted by fiends who admire +the birds. Clearly these worthies’ main interests are in cockfighting; +and they are giving their favorites “air and exercise” before the +deadly battle, on which there is much betting, at the supper party that +night. Also the shouting and rumbling from a distance tells of the +chariot course, where the sons of the more wealthy or pretentious +families are lessening their patrimonies by training a “two” or a +“four” to contend at the Isthmian games or at Olympia. + + +141. Philosophers and Cultivated Men at the Gymnasia.—All these things +are true, and Athens makes full display here of the usual crop of +knaves or fools. Nevertheless this element is in the minority. Here a +little earlier or a little later than our visit (for just now he is in +Sicily) one could see Plato himself—walking under the shade trees and +expounding to a little trailing host of eager-eyed disciples the +fundamental theories of his ideal Commonwealth. Here are scores of +serious bearded faces, and heads sprinkled with gray, moving to and fro +in small groups, discussing in melodious Attic the philosophy, the +poetry, the oration, which has been partly considered in the Agora this +morning, and which will be further discussed at the symposium to-night. + Everything is entirely informal. Even white-haired gentlemen do not +hesitate to cast off chiton and himation and spring around nimbly upon +the sands, to “try their distance” with the quoits, or show the young +men that they have not forgotten accuracy with the javelin, or even, +against men of their own age, to test their sinews in a mild wrestling +bout. It is undignified for an old man to attempt feats beyond his +advanced years. No one expects any great proficiency from most of +those present. It is enough to attempt gracefully, and to laugh +merrily if you do not succeed. Everywhere there is the greatest good +nature, and even frolicking, but very little of the really boisterous. + + +142. The Beautiful Youths at the Academy.—Yet the majority of the +visitors to the Academy have an interest that is not entirely summed up +in proper athletics, or in the baser sports, or in philosophy. Every +now and then a little whisper runs among the groups of strollers or +athlete “There he goes!—a new one! How beautiful!”—and there is a +general turning of heads. + +A youth goes by, his body quite stripped, and delicately bronzed by +constant exposure to the sun. His limbs are graceful, but vigorous and +straight, his chest is magnificently curved. He lifts his head +modestly, yet with a proud and easy carriage. His hair is dark blonde; +his profile very “Greek”—nose and forehead joining in unbroken straight +line. A little crowd is following him; a more favored comrade, a +stalwart, bearded man, walks at his side. No need of questioning now +whence the sculptors of Athens get their inspiration. This happy +youth, just out of the schoolroom, and now to be enrolled as an armed +ephebus, will be the model soon for some immortal bronze or marble. +Fortunate is he, if his humility is not ruined by all the admiration +and flattery; if he can remember the injunctions touching “modesty,” +which master and father have repeated so long; if he can remember the +precept that true beauty of body can go only with true beauty of soul. +Now at least is his day of hidden or conscious pride. All Athens is +commending him. He is the reigning toast, like the “belle” of a later +age. Not the groundlings only, but the poets, rhetoricians, +philosophers, will gaze after him, seek an introduction, compliment him +delicately, give themselves the pleasure of making him blush +deliciously, and go back to their august problems unconsciously +stimulated and refreshed by this vision of “the godlike.”[*] + +[*]For pertinent commentary on the effect of meeting a beautiful youth +upon very grave men, see, _e.g._, Plato’s _Charmides_ (esp. 158 a) and +_Lysis_ (esp. 206 d). Or better still in Xenophon’s _Symposium_ (I.9), +where we hear of the beautiful youth Autolycus, “even as a bright light +at night draws every eye, so by _his_ beauty drew on him the gaze of +all the company [at the banquet]. Not a man was present who did not +feel his emotions stirred by the sight of him.” + + +143. The Greek Worship of Manly Beauty.—The Greek worship of the +beautiful masculine form is something which the later world will never +understand. In this worship there is too often a coarseness, a sensual +dross, over which a veil is wisely cast. But the great fact of this +worship remains: to the vast majority of Greeks “beauty” does not imply +a delicate maid clad in snowy drapery; it implies a perfectly shaped, +bronzed, and developed youth, standing forth in his undraped manhood +for some hard athletic battle. This ideal possesses the national life, +and effects the entire Greek civilization. Not beauty in innocent +weakness, but beauty in resourceful strength—before this beauty men bow +down.[*] + +[*] Plato (_Republic_, p. 402) gives the view of enlightened Greek +opinion when he states “There can be no fairer spectacle than that of a +man who combines the possession of _moral_ beauty in his soul, with +_outward_ beauty of body, corresponding and harmonizing with the +former, because the same great pattern enters into both.” + + +It is this masculine type of beauty, whether summed up in a physical +form or translated by imagery into the realm of the spirit, that +Isocrates (a very good mouthpiece for average enlightened opinion) +praises in language which strains even his facile rhetoric. “[Beauty] +is the first of all things in majesty, honor, and divineness. Nothing +devoid of beauty is prized; the admiration of virtue itself comes to +this, that of all manifestations of life, virtue is the most beautiful. +The supremacy of beauty over all things can be seen in our own +disposition toward it, and toward them. Other things we merely seek to +attain as we need them, but beautiful things inspire us with love, +_love_ which is as much stronger than _wish_ as its object is better. +To the beautiful alone, as to the gods, we are never tired of doing +homage; delighting to be their slaves rather than to be the rulers of +others.” + +Could we put to all the heterogeneous crowd in the wide gymnasium the +question, “What things do you desire most?” the answer “To be +physically beautiful” (not “handsome” merely, but “beautiful”) would +come among the first wishes. There is a little song, very popular and +very Greek. It tells most of the story. + +The best of gifts to mortal man is health; + The next the bloom of beauty’s matchless flower; +The third is blameless and unfraudful wealth; + The fourth with friends to spend youths’ joyous hour.[*] + + +[*] Translation by Milman. The exact date of this Greek poem is +uncertain, but its spirit is entirely true to that of Athens in the +time of this sketch. + + +Health and physical beauty thus go before wealth and the passions of +friendship,—a true Greek estimate! + + +144. The Detestation of Old Age.—Again, we are quick to learn that +this “beauty” is the beauty of youth. It is useless to talk to an +Athenian of a “beautiful old age.” Old age is an evil to be borne with +dignity, with resignation if needs be, to be fought against by every +kind of bodily exercise; but to take satisfaction in it?—impossible. +It means a diminishing of those keen powers of physical and +intellectual enjoyment which are so much to every normal Athenian. It +means becoming feeble, and worse than feeble, ridiculous. The +physician’s art has not advanced so far as to prevent the frequent loss +of sight and hearing in even moderate age. No hope of a future renewal +of noble youth in a happier world gilds the just man’s sunset. Old age +must, like the untimely passing of loved ones, be endured in becoming +silence, as one of the fixed inevitables; but it is gloomy work to +pretend to find it cheerful. Only the young can find life truly happy. +Euripides in _The Mad Heracles_ speaks for all his race:— + +Tell me not of the Asian tyrant, + Or of palaces plenished with gold; +For such bliss I am not an aspirant, + If _youth_ I might only behold:— +Youth that maketh prosperity higher, +And ever adversity lighter.[*] + + +[*] Mahaffy, translator. Another very characteristic lament for the +passing of youth is left us by the early elegiac poet Mimnermus. + + +145. The Greeks unite Moral and Physical Beauty.—But here at the +Academy, this spirit of beautiful youth, and the “joy of life,” is +everywhere dominant. All around us are the beautiful bodies of young +men engaged in every kind of graceful exercise. When we question, we +are told that current belief is that in a great majority of instances +there is a development and a symmetry of mind corresponding to the +glory of the body. It is contrary to all the prevalent notions of the +reign of “divine harmony” to have it otherwise. The gods abhor all +gross contradictions! Even now men will argue over a strange breach of +this rule;—why did heaven suffer Socrates to have so beautiful a soul +set in so ugly a body?—Inscrutable are the ways of Zeus! + +However, we have generalized and wandered enough. The Academy is a +place of superabounding activities. Let us try to comprehend some of +them. + + +146. The Usual Gymnastic Sports and their Objects.—Despite all the +training in polite conversation which young men are supposed to receive +at the gymnasium, the object of the latter is after all to form places +of athletic exercise. The Athenians are without most of these +elaborate field games such as later ages will call “baseball” and +“football”; although, once learned, they could surely excel in these +prodigiously. They have a simple “catch” with balls, but it hardly +rises above the level of a children’s pastime. The reasons for these +omissions are probably, first, because so much time is devoted to the +“palæstra” exercises; secondly, because military training eats up about +all the time not needed for pure gymnastics. + +The “palæstra” exercises, taught first at the boys’ training +establishments and later continued at the great gymnasia, are nearly +all of the nature of latter-day “field sports.” They do not depend on +the costly apparatus of the twentieth century athletic halls; and they +accomplish their ends with extremely simple means. The aim of the +instructor is really twofold—to give his pupils a body fit and apt for +war (and we have seen that to be a citizen usually implies being a +hoplite), and to develop a body beautiful to the eye and efficient for +civil life. The naturally beautiful youth can be made more beautiful; +the naturally homely youth can be made at least passable under the care +of a skilful gymnastic teacher. + + +147. Professional Athletes: the Pancration.—Athletics, then, are a +means to an end and should not be tainted with professionalism. True, +as we wander about the Academy we see heavy and over brawny individuals +whose “beauty” consists in flattened noses, mutilated ears, and mouths +lacking many teeth, and who are taking their way to the remote quarter +where boxing is permitted. Here they will wind hard bull’s hide thongs +around their hands and wrists, and pummel one another brutally, often +indeed (if in a set contest) to the very risk of life. These men are +obviously professional athletes who, after appearing with some success +at the “Nemea,” are in training for the impending “Pythia” at Delphi. +A large crowd of youths of the less select kind follows and cheers +them; but the better public opinion frowns on them. They are denounced +by the philosophers. Their lives no less than their bodies “are not +beautiful”—_i.e._ they offend against the spirit of harmony inherent in +every Greek. Still less are they in genteel favor when, the +preliminary boxing round being finished, they put off their boxing +thongs and join in the fierce _Pancration_, a not unskillful +combination of boxing with wrestling, in which it is not suffered to +strike with the knotted fist, but in which, nevertheless, a terrible +blow can be given with the bent fingers. Kicking, hitting, catching, +tripping, they strive together mid the “_Euge! Euge!_—Bravo! Bravo!” of +their admirers until one is beaten down hopelessly upon the sand, and +the contest ends without harm. Had it been a real Pancration, however, +it would have been desperate business, for it is quite permissible to +twist an opponent’s wrist, and even to break his fingers, to make him +give up the contest. Therefore it is not surprising that the +Pancration, even more than boxing, is usually reserved for professional +athletes. + + +148. Leaping Contests.—But near at hand is a more pleasing contest. +Youths of the ephebus age are practicing leaping. They have no +springboard, no leaping pole, but only a pair of curved metal +dumb-bells to aid them. One after another their lithe brown bodies, +shining with the fresh olive oil, come forward on a lightning run up +the little mound of earth, then fly gracefully out across the soft +sands. There is much shouting and good-natured rivalry. As each lad +leaps, an eager attendant marks his distance with a line drawn by the +pickaxe. The lines gradually extend ever farther from the mound. The +rivalry is keen. Finally, there is one leap that far exceeds the +rest.[*] A merry crowd swarms around the blushing victor. A grave +middle-aged man takes the ivy crown from his head, and puts it upon the +happy youth. “Your father will take joy in you,” he says as the knot +breaks up. + +[*] If the data of the ancients are to be believed, the Greeks achieved +records in leaping far beyond those of any modern athletes, but it is +impossible to rely on data of this kind. + + +149. Quoit Hurling.—Close by the leapers is another stretch of yellow +sand reserved for the quoit throwers. The contestants here are +slightly older,—stalwart young men who seem, as they fling the heavy +bronze discus, to be reaching out eagerly into the fullness of life and +fortune before them. Very graceful are the attitudes. Here it was the +sculptor Miron saw his “Discobolus” which he immortalized and gave to +all the later world; “stooping down to take aim, his body turned in the +direction of the hand which holds the quoit, one knee slightly bent as +though he meant to vary the posture and to rise with the throw.”[*] +The caster, however, does not make his attempt standing. He takes a +short run, and then the whole of his splendid body seems to spring +together with the cast. + +[*] The quotation is from Lucian (Roman Imperial period). + + +150. Casting the javelin.—The range of the quoit hurlers in turn seems +very great, but we cannot delay to await the issue. Still elsewhere in +the Academy they are hurling the javelin. Here is a real martial +exercise, and patriotism as well as natural athletic spirit urges young +men to excel. the long light lances are being whirled at a distant +target with remarkable accuracy; and well they may, for every +contestant has the vision of some hour when he may stand on the poop of +a trireme and hear the dread call, “All hands repel boarders,” or need +all his darts to break up the rush of a pursuing band of hoplites. + + +151. Wrestling.—The real crowds, however, are around the wrestlers and +the racers. Wrestling in its less brutal form is in great favor. It +brings into play all the muscles of a man; it tests his resources both +of mind and body finely. It is excellent for a youth and it fights +away old age. The Greek language is full of words and allusions taken +from the wrestler’s art. The palæstras for the boys are called “the +wrestling school” par excellence. It is no wonder that now the ring on +the sands is a dense one and constantly growing. Two skilful amateurs +will wrestle. One—a speedy rumor tells us—is, earlier and later in the +day, a rising comic poet; the other is not infrequently heard on the +Bema. Just at present, however, they have forgotten anapests and +oratory. A crowd of cheering, jesting friends thrusts them on. Forth +they stand, two handsome, powerful men, well oiled for suppleness, but +also sprinkled with fine sand to make it possible to get a fair grip in +the contest. + +For a moment they wag their sharp black beards at each other defiantly, +and poise and edge around. Then the poet, more daring, rushes in, and +instantly the two have grappled—each clutching the other’s left wrist +in his right hand. The struggle that follows is hot and even, until a +lucky thrust from the orator’s foot lands the poet in a sprawling heap; +whence he rises with a ferocious grin and renews the contest. The +second time they both fall together. “A tie!” calls the long-gowned +friend who acts as umpire, with an officious flourish of his cane. + +The third time the poet catches the orator trickily under the thigh, +and fairly tears him to the ground; but at the fourth meeting the +orator slips his arm in decisive grip about his opponent’s wrist and +with a might wrench upsets him. + +“Two casts out of three, and victory!” + +Everybody laughs good-naturedly. The poet and the orator go away arm in +arm to the bathing house, there to have another good oiling and rubbing +down by their slaves, after removing the heavily caked sand from their +skin with the strigils. Of course, had it been a real contest in the +“greater games,” the outcome might have been more serious for the rules +allow one to twist a wrist, to thrust an arm or foot into the foeman’s +belly, or (when things are desperate) to dash your forehead—bull +fashion—against your opponent’s brow, in the hope that his skull will +prove weaker than yours. + + +152. Foot Races.—The continued noise from the stadium indicates that +the races are still running; and we find time to go thither. The simple +running match, a straight-away dash of 600 feet, seems to have been the +original contest at the Olympic games ere these were developed into a +famous and complicated festival; and the runner still is counted among +the favorites of Greek athletics. As we sit upon the convenient benches +around the academy stadium we see at once that the track is far from +being a hard, well-rolled “cinder path”; on the contrary, it is of soft +sand into which the naked foot sinks if planted too firmly, and upon it +the most adept “hard-track” runner would at first pant and flounder +helplessly. The Greeks have several kinds of foot races, but none that +are very short. The shortest is the simple _stadium_ (600 feet), a +straight hard dash down one side of the long oval; then there is the +“double course” (_diaulos_) down one side and back; the “horse +race”—twice clear around (2400 feet); and lastly the hard-testing “long +course” (_dolichos_) which may very in length according to +arrangement,—seven, twelve, twenty, or even twenty-four stadia, we are +told; and it is the last (about three miles) that is one of the most +difficult contests at Olympia. + + +[Illustration: The Race in Armor] + + +At this moment a party of four hale and hearty men still in the young +prime are about to compete in the “double race.” They come forward all +rubbed with the glistening oil, and crouch at the starting point behind +the red cord held by two attendants. The gymnasiarch stands watchfully +by, swinging his cane to smite painfully whoever, in over eagerness, +breaks away before the signal. All is ready; at his nod the rope +falls. The four fly away together, pressing their elbows close to +their sides, and going over the soft sands with long rhythmic leaps, +rather than with the usual rapid running motion. A fierce race it is, +amid much exhortation from friends and shouting. At length, as so +often—when speeding back towards the stretched cord,—the rearmost +runner suddenly gathers amazing speed, and, flying with prodigious +leaps ahead of his rivals, is easily the victor. His friends are at +once about him, and we hear the busy tongues advising, “You must surely +race at the Pythia; the Olympia; etc.” + +This simple race over, a second quickly follows: five heavy, powerful +men this time, but they are to run in full hoplite’s armor—the +ponderous shield, helmet, cuirass, and greaves. This is the exacting +“Armor Race” (_Hoplitodromos_), and safe only for experienced soldiers +or professional athletes.[*] Indeed, the Greeks take all their foot +races seriously, and there are plenty of instances when the victor has +sped up to the goal, and then dropped dead before the applauding +stadium. There are no stop watches in the Academy; we do not know the +records of the present or of more famous runners; yet one may be +certain that the “time” made, considering the very soft sand, has been +exceedingly fast. + +[*] It was training in races like these which enabled the Athenians at +Marathon to “charge the Persians on the run” (Miltiades’ orders), all +armored though they were, and so get quickly through the terrible zone +of the Persian arrow fire. + + +153. The Pentathlon: the Honors paid to Great Athletes.—We have now +seen average specimens of all the usual athletic sports of the Greeks. +Any good authority will tell us, however, that a truly capable athlete +will not try to specialize so much in any one kind of contest that he +cannot do justice to the others. As an all around well-trained man he +will try to excel in the _Pentathlon_, the “five contests.” Herein he +will successfully join in running, javelin casting, quoit throwing, +leaping, and wrestling.[*] As the contest proceeds the weaker athletes +will be eliminated; only the two fittest will be left for the final +trial of strength and skill. Fortunate indeed is “he who overcometh” +in the Pentathlon. It is the crown of athletic victories, involving, as +it does, no scanty prowess both of body and mind. The victor in the +Pentathlon at one of the great Pan-Hellenic games (Olympian, Pythian, +Isthmian, or Nemean) or even in the local Attic contest at the +Panathenæa is a marked man around Athens or any other Greek city. +Poets celebrate him; youths dog his heels and try to imitate him; his +kinsfolk take on airs; very likely he is rewarded as a public +benefactor by the government. But there is abundant honor for one who +has triumphed in ANY of the great contests; and even as we go out we +see people pointing to a bent old man and saying, “Yes; he won the +quoit hurling at the Nema when Ithycles was archon.”[+] + +[*] The exact order of these contests, and the rules of elimination as +the games proceeded, are uncertain—perhaps they varied with time and +place. + + +[+] This would make it 398 B.C. The Athenians dated their years by the +name of their “first Archon” (_Archon eponymos_). + + +…The Academy is already thinning. The beautiful youths and their +admiring “lovers” have gone homeward. The last race has been run. We +must hasten if we would not be late to some select symposium. The birds +are more melodious than ever around Colonus; the red and golden glow +upon the Acropolis is beginning to fade; the night is sowing the stars; +and through the light air of a glorious evening we speed back to the +city. + + + + +Chapter XVIII. +Athenian Cookery and the Symposium. + + +154. Greek Meal Times.—The streets are becoming empty. The Agora has +been deserted for hours. As the warm balmy night closes over the city +the house doors are shut fast, to open only for the returning master or +his guests, bidden to dinner. Soon the ways will be almost silent, to +be disturbed, after a proper interval, by the dinner guests returning +homeward. Save for these, the streets will seem those of a city of the +dead: patrolled at rare intervals by the Scythian archers, and also +ranged now and then by cutpurses watching for an unwary stroller, or +miscreant roisterers trolling lewd songs, and pounding on honest men’s +doors as they wander from tavern to tavern in search of the lowest +possible pleasures. + +We have said very little of eating or drinking during our visit in +Athens, for, truth to tell, the citizens try to get through the day +with about as little interruption for food and drink as possible. But +now, when warehouse and gymnasium alike are left to darkness, all +Athens will break its day of comparative fasting. + +Roughly speaking, the Greeks anticipate the latter-day “Continental” +habits in their meal hours. The custom of Germans and of many +Americans in having the heartiest meal at noonday would never appeal to +them. The hearty meal is at night, and no one dreams of doing any +serious work after it. When it is finished, there may be pleasant +discourse or varied amusements, but never real business; and even if +there are guests, the average dinner party breaks up early. Early to +bed and early to rise, would be a maxim indorsed by the Athenians. + +Promptly upon rising, our good citizen has devoured a few morsels of +bread sopped in undiluted wine; that has been to him what “coffee and +rolls” will be to the Frenchmen,—enough to carry him through the +morning business, until near to noon he will demand something more +satisfying. He then visits home long enough to partake of a +substantial déjeuner (_ariston_, first breakfast = _akratisma_). He has +one or two hot dishes—one may suspect usually warmed over from last +night’s dinner—and partakes of some more wine. This _ariston_ will be +about all he will require until the chief meal of the day—the regular +dinner (_deïpnon_) which would follow sunset. + + +155. Society desired at Meals.—The Athenians are a gregarious sociable +folk. Often enough the citizen must dine alone at home with “only” his +wife and children for company, but if possible he will invite friends +(or get himself invited out). Any sort of an occasion is enough to +excuse a dinner-party,—a birthday of some friend, some kind of family +happiness, a victory in the games, the return from, or the departure +upon, a journey:—all these will answer; or indeed a mere love of good +fellowship. There are innumerable little eating clubs; the members go +by rotation to their respective houses. Each member contributes either +some money or has his slave bring a hamper of provisions. In the fine +weather picnic parties down upon the shore are common.[*] “Anything to +bring friends together”—in the morning the Agora, in the afternoon the +gymnasium, in the evening the symposium—that seems to be the rule of +Athenian life. + +[*] Such excursions were so usual that the literal expression “Let us +banquet at the shore” σήμερον ἀκτάσωμεν came often to mean simply “Let +us have a good time.” + + +However, the Athenians seldom gather to eat for the mere sake of animal +gorging. They have progressed since the Greeks of the Homeric Age. +Odysseus[*] is made to say to Alcinoüs that there is nothing more +delightful than sitting at a table covered with bread, meat, and wine, +and listening to a bard’s song; and both Homeric poems show plenty of +gross devouring and guzzling. There is not much of this in Athens, +although Bœotians are still reproached with being voracious, swinish +“flesh eaters,” and the Greeks of South Italy and Sicily are considered +as devoted to their fare, though of more refined table habits. +Athenians of the better class pride themselves on their light diet and +moderation of appetite, and their neighbors make considerable fun of +them for their failure to serve satisfying meals. Certain it is that +the typical Athenian would regard a twentieth century _table d’hôte_ +course dinner as heavy and unrefined, if ever it dragged its slow +length before him. + +[*] _Odyssey_, IX. 5-10. + + +156. The Staple Articles of Food.—However, the Athenians have honest +appetites, and due means of silencing them. The diet of a poor man is +indeed simple in the extreme. According to Aristophanes his meal +consists of a cake, bristling with bran for the sake of economy, along +with an onion and a dish of sow thistles, or of mushrooms, or some +other such wretched vegetables; and probably, in fact, that is about +all three fourths of the population of Attica will get on ordinary +working days, always with the addition of a certain indispensable +supply of oil and wine. + +Bread, oil, and wine, in short, are the three fundamentals of Greek +diet. With them alone man can live very healthfully and happily; +without them elaborate vegetable and meat dishes are poor substitutes. +Like latter-day Frenchmen or Italians with their huge loaves or +macaroni, _bread_ in one form or another is literally the stuff of life +to the Greek. He makes it of wheat, barley, rye, millet, or spelt, but +preferably of the two named first. The barley meal is kneaded (not +baked) and eaten raw or half raw as a sort of porridge. Of wheat +loaves there are innumerable shapes on sale in the Agora,—slender +rolls, convenient loaves, and also huge loaves needing two or three +bushels of flour, exceeding even those made in a later day in Normandy. + At every meal the amount of bread or porridge consumed is enormous; +there is really little else at all substantial. Persian visitors to +the Greeks complain that they are in danger of rising from the table +hungry. + +But along with the inevitable bread goes the inevitable _olive oil_. No +latter-day article will exactly correspond to it. First of all it takes +the place of butter as the proper condiment to prevent the bread from +being tasteless.[*] It enters into every dish. The most versatile cook +will be lost without it. Again, at the gymnasium we have seen its great +importance to the athletes and bathers. It is therefore the Hellenic +substitute for soap. Lastly, it fills the lamps which swing over every +dining board. It takes the place of electricity, gas, or petroleum. No +wonder Athens is proud of her olive trees. If she has to import her +grain, she has a surplus for export of one of the three great +essentials of Grecian life. + +[*] There was extremely little cow’s butter in Greece. Herodotus (iv. +2) found it necessary to explain the process of “cow-cheese-making” +among the Scythians. + + +The third inevitable article of diet is _wine_. No one has dreamed of +questioning its vast desirability under almost all circumstances. Even +drunkenness is not always improper. It may be highly fitting, as +putting one in a “divine frenzy,” partaking of the nature of the gods. +Musæus the semi-mythical poet is made out to teach that the reward of +virtue will be something like perpetual intoxication in the next world. + Æschines the orator will, ere long, taunt his opponent Demosthenes in +public with being a “water drinker”; and Socrates on many occasions has +given proof that he possessed a very hard head. Yet naturally the +Athenian has too acute a sense of things fit and dignified, too noble a +perception of the natural harmony, to commend drunkenness on any but +rare occasions. Wine is rather valued as imparting a happy moderate +glow, making the thoughts come faster, and the tongue more witty. Wine +raises the spirits of youth, and makes old age forget its gray hairs. +It chases away thoughts of the dread hereafter, when one will lose +consciousness of the beautiful sun, and perhaps wander a “strengthless +shade” through the dreary underworld. + +There is a song attributed to Anacreon, and nearly everybody in Athens +approves the sentiment:— + +Thirsty earth drinks up the rain, +Trees from earth drink that again; +Ocean drinks the air, the sun +Drinks the sea, and him, the moon. +Any reason, canst thou think, +I should thirst, while all these drink?[*] + + +[*] Translation from Von Falke’s _Greece and Rome_. + + +157. Greek Vintages.—All Greeks, however, drink their wine so diluted +with water that it takes a decided quantity to produce a “reaction.” +The average drinker takes three parts water to two of wine. If he is a +little reckless the ratio is four of water to three of wine; equal +parts “make men mad” as the poet says, and are probably reserved for +very wild dinner parties. As for drinking pure wine no one dreams of +the thing—it is a practice fit for Barbarians. There is good reason, +however, for this plentiful use of water. In the original state Greek +wines were very strong, perhaps almost as alcoholic as whisky, and the +Athenians have no Scotch climate to excuse the use of such +stimulants.[*] + +[*] There was a wide difference of opinion as to the proper amount of +dilution. Odysseus (_Odyssey_, IX. 209) mixed his fabulously strong +wine from Maron in Thrace with twenty times its bulk of water. Hesiod +abstemiously commended three parts of water to one of wine. Zaleucus, +the lawgiver of Italian Locri, established the death penalty for +drinking unmixed wine save by physicians’ orders (_Athenæus_, X. 33). + + +No wine served in Athens, however, will appeal to a later-day +connoisseur. It is all mixed with resin, which perhaps makes it more +wholesome, but to enjoy it then becomes an acquired taste. There are +any number of choice vintages, and you will be told that the local +Attic wine is not very desirable, although of course it is the +cheapest. Black wine is the strongest and sweetest; white wine is the +weakest; rich golden is the driest and most wholesome. The rocky isles +and headlands of the Ægean seem to produce the best vintage—Thasos, +Cos, Lesbos, Rhodes, all boast their grapes; but the best wine beyond a +doubt is from Chios.[*] It will fetch a mina ($18 [1914 or $310.14 +2000]) the “metreta,” _i.e._ nearly 50 cents [1914 or $8.62 2000] per +quart. At the same time you can buy a “metreta” of common Attic wine +for four drachmae (72 cents [1914 or $12.41 2000]), or say two cents +[1914 or 34 cents 2000] per quart. The latter—when one considers the +dilution—is surely cheap enough for the most humble. + +[*] Naturally certain foreign vintages had a demand, just because they +were foreign. Wine was imported from Egypt and from various parts of +Italy. It was sometimes mixed with sea water for export, or was made +aromatic with various herbs and berries. It was ordinarily preserved +in great earthen jars sealed with pitch. + + +158. Vegetable Dishes.—Provided with bread, oil, and wine, no Athenian +will long go hungry; but naturally these are not a whole feast. As +season and purse may afford they will be supplanted by such vegetables +as beans (a staple article), peas, garlic, onions, radishes, turnips, +and asparagus; also with an abundance of fruits,—besides figs (almost a +fourth indispensable at most meals), apples, quinces, peaches, pears, +plums, cherries, blackberries, the various familiar nuts, and of course +a plenty of grapes and olives. The range of selection is in fact +decidedly wide: only the twentieth century visitor will miss the +potato, the lemon, and the orange; and when he pries into the mysteries +of the kitchen a great fact at once stares him in the face. The Greek +must dress his dishes without the aid of sugar. As a substitute there +is an abundant use of the delicious Hymettus honey,—“fragrant with the +bees,”—but it is by no means so full of possibilities as the white +powder of later days. Also the Greek cook is usually without fresh +cow’s milk, and most goat’s milk probably takes its way to cheese. No +morning milk carts rattle over the stones of Athens. + + +159. Meat and Fish Dishes.—Turning to the meat dishes, we at once +learn that while there is a fair amount of farm poultry, geese, hares, +doves, partridges, etc., on sale in the market, there is extremely +little fresh beef or even mutton, pork, and goat’s flesh. It is quite +expensive, and counted too hearty for refined diners. The average poor +man in fact hardly tastes flesh except after one of the great public +festivals; then after the sacrifice of the “hecatomb” of oxen, there +will probably be a distribution of roast meat to all the worshipers, +and the honest citizen will take home to his wife an uncommon luxury—a +piece of roast beef. But the place of beef and pork is largely usurped +by most excellent fish. The waters of the Ægean abound with fish. The +import of salt fish (for the use of the poor) from the Propontis and +Euxine is a great part of Attic commerce. A large part of the business +at the Agora centers around the fresh fish stalls, and we have seen how +extortionate and insolent were the fishmongers. Sole, tunny, mackerel, +young shark, mullet, turbot, carp, halibut, are to be had, but the +choicest regular delicacies are the great Copaic eels from Bœotia; +these, “roasted on the coals and wrapped in beet leaves,” are a dish +fit for the Great King. Lucky is the host who has them for his dinner +party. Oysters and mussels too are in demand, and there is a +considerable sale of snails, “the poor man’s salad,” even as in +present-day France. + +Clearly, then, if one is not captious or gluttonous, there should be no +lack of good eating in Athens, despite the reputation of the city for +abstemiousness. Let us pry therefore into the symposium of some good +citizen who is dispensing hospitality to-night. + + +160. Inviting Guests to a Dinner Party.— + +Who loves thee, him summon to thy board; Far off be he who hates. + + +This familiar sentiment of Hesiod, one Prodicus, a well-to-do +gentleman, had in mind when he went to the Agora this morning to +arrange for a dinner party in honor of his friend Hermogenes, who was +just departing on a diplomatic mission to the satrap of Mysia. While +walking along the Painted Porch and the other colonnades he had no +difficulty in seeing most of the group he intended to invite, and if +they did not turn to greet him, he would halt them by sending his slave +boy to run and twitch at their mantles, after which the invitation was +given verbally. Prodicus, however, deliberately makes arrangements for +one or two more than those he has bidden. It will be entirely proper +for his guests to bring friends of their own if they wish; and very +likely some intimate whom he has been unable to find will invite +himself without any bidding. + +At the Agora Prodicus has had much to do. His house is a fairly large +and well-furnished one, his slaves numerous and handy, but he has not +the cook or the equipment for a really elaborate symposium. At a +certain quarter on the great square he finds a contractor who will +supply all the extra appointments for a handsome dinner party—tables, +extra lamps, etc. Then he puts his slave boy to bawling out: + +“Who wants an engagement to cook a dinner?” + +This promptly brings forward a sleek, well-dressed fellow whose dialect +declares that he is from Sicily, and who asserts he is an expert +professional cook. Prodicus engages him and has a conference with him +on the profound question of “whether the tunnies or the mullets are +better to-day, or will there be fresh eels?” This point and similar +minor matters settled, Prodicus makes liberal purchases at the fish and +vegetable stalls, and his slaves bear his trophies homeward. + + +161. Preparing for the Dinner. The Sicilian Cook.—All that afternoon +the home of Prodicus is in an uproar. The score of slaves show a +frantic energy. The aula is cleaned and scrubbed: the serving girls are +busy hanging festoons of leaves and weaving chaplets. The master’s +wife—who does not dream of actually sharing in the banquet—is +nevertheless as active and helpful as possible; but especially she is +busy trying to keep the peace between the old house servants and the +imported cook. This Sicilian is a notable character. To him cookery is +not a handicraft: it is the triumph, the quintessence of all science +and philosophy. He talks a strange professional jargon, and asserts +that he is himself learned in astronomy—for that teaches the best +seasons, _e.g._ for mackerel and haddock; in geometry,—that he might +know how a boiler or gridiron should be set to the best advantage; in +medicine, that he might prepare the most wholesome dishes. In any case +he is a perfect tyrant around the kitchen, grumbling about the +utensils, cuffing the spit-boy, and ever bidding him bring more +charcoal for the fire and to blow the bellows faster.[*] + +[*] The Greeks seem to have cooked over a rather simple open fireplace +with a wood or charcoal fire. They had an array of cooking utensils, +however, according to all our evidence, elaborate enough to gladden a +very exacting modern _chef_. + + +By the time evening is at hand Prodicus and his house are in perfect +readiness. The bustle is ended; and the master stands by the entrance +way, clad in his best and with a fresh myrtle wreath, ready to greet +his guests. No ladies will be among these. Had there been any women +invited to the banquet, they would surely be creatures of no very +honest sort; and hardly fit, under any circumstances, to darken the +door of a respectable citizen. The mistress and her maids are “behind +the scenes.” There may be a woman among the hired entertainers +provided, but for a refined Athenian lady to appear at an ordinary +symposium is almost unthinkable.[*] + +[*] In marriage parties and other strictly family affairs women were +allowed to take part; and we have an amusing fragment of Menander as to +how, on such rare occasions, they monopolized the conversation. + + +162. The Coming of the Guests.—As each guest comes, he is seen to be +elegantly dressed, and to wear now, if at no other time, a handsome +pair of sandals.[*] He has also taken pains to bathe and to perfume +himself. As soon as each person arrives his sandals are removed in the +vestibule by the slaves and his feet are bathed. No guest comes alone, +however: every one has his own body servant with him, who will look +after his footgear and himation during the dinner, and give a certain +help with the serving. The house therefore becomes full of people, and +will be the scene of remarkable animation during the next few hours. + +[*] Socrates, by way of exception to his custom, put on some fine +sandals when he was invited to a banquet. + + +Prodicus is not disappointed in expecting some extra visitors. His +guest of honor, Hermogenes, has brought along two, whom the host greets +with the polite lie: “Just in time for dinner. Put off your other +business. I was looking for you in the Agora and could not find +you.”[*] Also there thrusts in a half genteel, half rascally fellow, +one Palladas, who spends all his evenings at dinner parties, being +willing to be the common butt and jest of the company (having indeed +something of the ability of a comic actor about him) in return for a +share of the good things on the table. These “Parasites” are regular +characters in Athens, and no symposium is really complete without them, +although often their fooleries cease to be amusing.[+] + +[*] It is with such a white fib that the host Agathon salutes +Aristodemus, Socrates’s companion in Plato’s _Symposium_. + + +[+] Of these “Parasites” or “Flies” (as owing to their migratory habits +they were sometimes called), countless stories were told, whereof the +following is a sample: there was once a law in Athens that not over +thirty guests were to be admitted to a marriage feast, and an officer +was obliged to count all the guests and exclude the superfluous. A +“fly” thrust in on one occasion, and the officer said: “Friend, you +must retire. I find one more here than the law allows.” “Dear +fellow,” quoth the “fly,” “you are utterly mistaken, as you will find, +if you kindly count again—only _beginning with me_.” + + +163. The Dinner Proper.—The Greeks have not anticipated the Romans in +their custom of making the standard dinner party nine persons on three +couches,—three guests on each. Prodicus has about a dozen guests, two +on a couch. They “lie down” more or less side by side upon the +cushioned divans, with their right arms resting on brightly striped +pillows and the left arms free for eating. The slaves bring basis of +water to wash their hands, and then beside each couch is set a small +table, already garnished with the first course, and after the casting +of a few bits of food upon the family hearth fire,—the conventional +“sacrifice” to the house gods,—the dinner begins. + +Despite the elaborate preparations of the Sicilian cook, Prodicus +offers his guests only two courses. The first consists of the +substantial dishes—the fish, the vegetables, the meat (if there is +any). Soups are not unknown, and had they been served might have been +eaten with spoons; but Athens like all the world is innocent of forks, +and fingers take their place. Each guest has a large piece of soft +bread on which he wipes his fingers from time to time and presently +casts it upon the floor.[*] When this first course is finished, the +tables are all taken out to be reset, water is again poured over the +hands of the guests, and garlands of flowers are passed. The use of +garlands is universal, and among the guests, old white headed and +bearded Sosthenes will find nothing more undignified in putting himself +beneath a huge wreath of lilies than an elderly gentleman of a later +day will find in donning the “conventional” dress suit. The +conversation,—which was very scattering at first,—becomes more +animated. A little wine is now passed about. Then back come the +tables with the second course—fruits, and various sweetmeats and +confectionary with honey as the staple flavoring. Before this +disappears a goblet of unmixed wine is passed about, and everybody +takes a sip: “To the Good Genius,” they say as the cup goes round. + +[*] Napkins were not used in Greece before Roman days. + + +164. Beginning the Symposium.—Prodicus at length gives a nod to the +chief of his corps of servers. + +“Bring in the wine!” he orders. The slaves promptly whisk out the +tables and replace them with others still smaller, on which they set +all kinds of gracefully shaped beakers and drinking bowls. More +wreaths are distributed, also little bottles of delicate ointment. +While the guests are praising Prodicus’s nard, the servants have +brought in three huge “mixing bowls” (_craters_) for the wines which +are to furnish the main potation. + +So far we have witnessed not a symposium, but merely a dinner; and many +a proper party has broken up when the last of the dessert has +disappeared; but, after all, the drinking bout is the real crown of the +feast. It is not so much the wine as the things that go with the wine +that are so delightful. As to what these desirable condiments are, +opinions differ. Plato (who is by no means too much of a philosopher +to be a real man of the world) says in his _Protagoras_ that mere +conversation is _the_ thing at a symposium. “When the company are real +gentlemen and men of education, you will see no flute girls nor dancing +girls nor harp girls; they will have no nonsense or games, but will be +content with one another’s conversation.”[*] But this ideal, though +commended, is not always followed in decidedly intellectual circles. +Zenophon[+] shows us a select party wherein Socrates participated, in +which the host has been fain to hire in a professional Syracusian +entertainer with two assistants, a boy and a girl, who bring their +performance to a climax by a very suggestive dumb-show play of the +story of Bacchus and Ariadne. Prodicus’s friends, being solid, +somewhat pragmatic men—neither young sports nor philosophers—steer a +middle course. There is a flute girl present, because to have a good +symposium without some music is almost unimaginable; but she is +discreetly kept in the background. + +[*] Plato again says (_Politicus_, 277 _b_), “To intelligent persons, a +living being is more truly delineated by language and discourse than by +any painting or work of art.” + + +[+] In his _Symposium_—which is far less perfect as literature than +Plato’s, but probably corresponds more to the average instance. + + +165. The Symposiarch and his Duties.—“Let’s cast for our Symposiarch!” +is Prodicus’s next order, and each guest in turn rattles the dice box. +Tyche (Lady Fortune) gives the presidency of the feast to Eunapius, a +bright-eyed, middle-aged man with a keen sense of humor, but a correct +sense of good breeding. He assumes command of the symposium; takes the +ordering of the servants out of Prodicus’s hands, and orders the wine +to be mixed in the craters with proper dilution. He then rises and +pours out a libation from each bowl “to the Olympian Gods,” “to the +Heroes,” and “to Zeus the Saviour,” and casts a little incense upon the +altar. The guests all sing a _Pæan_, not a warrior’s charging song +this time, but a short hymn in praise of the Wine-God, some lilting +catch like Alcæus’s + +In mighty flagons hither bring + The deep red blood of many a vine, +That we may largely quaff and sing + The praises of the God of wine. + + +166. Conversation at the Symposium.—After this the symposium will +proceed according to certain general rules which it is Eunaius’s duty +to enforce; but in the main a “program” is something to be avoided. +Everybody must feel himself acting spontaneously and freely. He must +try to take his part in the conversation and neither speak too seldom +nor too little. It is not “good form” for two guests to converse +privately among themselves, nor for anybody to dwell on unpleasant or +controversial topics. Aristophanes has laid down after his way the +proper kind of things to talk about.[*] “[Such as]‘how Ephudion fought +a fine pancratium with Ascondas though old and gray headed, but showing +great form and muscle.’ This is the talk usual among refined people +[or again] ‘some manly act of your youth; for example, how you chased a +boar or a hare, or won a torch race by some bold device.’ [Then when +fairly settled at the feast] straighten your knees and throw yourself +in a graceful and easy manner upon the couch. Then make some +observations upon the beauty of the appointments, look up at the +ceiling and praise the tapestry of the room.” + +[*] _Wasps_, 1174-1564. + + +As the wine goes around, tongues loosen more and more. Everybody +gesticulates in delightful southern gestures, but does not lose his +inherent courtesy. The anecdotes told are often very egoistic. The +first personal pronoun is used extremely often, and “I” becomes the +hero of a great many exploits. The Athenian, in short, is an adept at +praising himself with affected modesty, and his companions listen +good-humoredly, and retaliate by praising themselves. + + +167. Games and Entertainments.—By the time the craters are one third +emptied the general conversation is beginning to be broken up. It is +time for various standard diversions. Eunapius therefore begins by +enjoining on each guest in turn to sing a verse in which a certain +letter must not appear, and in event of failure to pay some ludicrous +forfeit. Thus the bald man is ordered to begin to comb his hair; the +lame man (halt since the Mantinea campaign), to stand up and dance to +the flute player, etc. There are all kinds of guessing of riddles—often +very ingenious as become the possessors of “Attic salt.” Another +diversion is to compare every guest present to some mythical monster, a +process which infallibly ends by getting the “Parasite” likened to +Cerberus, the Hydra, or some such dragon, amid the laughter of all the +rest. At some point in the amusement the company is sure to get to +singing songs:—“Scolia”—drinking songs indeed, but often of a serious +moral or poetic character, whereof the oft-quoted song in praise of +Harmodius and Aristogeiton the tyrant-slayers is a good example.[*] No +“gentleman” will profess to be a public singer, but to have a deep, +well-trained voice, and to be able to take one’s part in the symposium +choruses is highly desirable, and some of the singing at Prodicus’s +banquet is worth hearing. + +[*] Given in _Readings in Ancient History_, Vol. I, p. 117, and in many +other volumes. + + +Before the evening is over various games will be ordered in, especially +the _cottabus_, which is in great vogue. On the top of a high stand, +something like a candelabrum, is balanced rather delicately a little +saucer of brass. The players stand at a considerable distance with +cups of wine. The game is to toss a small quantity of wine into the +balanced saucer so smartly as to make the brass give out a clear +ringing sound, and to tilt upon its side.[+] Much shouting, merriment, +and a little wagering ensues. While most of the company prefer the +cottabus, two, who profess to be experts, call for a gaming board and +soon are deep in the “game of towns”—very like to latter-day +“checkers,” played with a board divided into numerous squares. Each +contestant has thirty colored stones, and the effort is to surround +your opponent’s stones and capture them. Some of the company, however, +regard this as too profound, and after trying their skill at the +cottabus betake themselves to the never failing chances of dice. Yet +these games are never suffered (in refined dinner parties) to banish +the conversation. That after all is the center, although it is not +good form to talk over learnedly of statecraft, military tactics, or +philosophy. If such are discussed, it must be with playful abandon, +and a disclaimer of being serious; and even very grave and gray men +remember Anacreon’s preference for the praise of “the glorious gifts of +the Muses and of Aphrodite” rather than solid discussions of “conquest +and war.” + +[+] This was the simplest form of the _cottabus_ game; there were +numerous elaborations, but our accounts of them are by no means clear. + + +168. Going Home from the Feast: Midnight Revellers.—At length the oil +lamps have begun to burn dim. The tired slaves are yawning. Their +masters, despite Prodicus’s intentions of having a very proper +symposium, have all drunk enough to get unstable and silly. Eunapius +gives the signal. All rise, and join in the final libation to Hermes. +“Shoes and himation, boy,” each says to his slave, and with thanks to +their host they all fare homeward. + +Such will be the ending to an extremely decorous feast. With gay young +bloods present, however, it might have degenerated into an orgy; the +flute girl (or several of them) would have contributed over much to the +“freedom”; and when the last deep crater had been emptied, the whole +company would have rushed madly into the street, and gone whirling away +through the darkness,—harps and flutes sounding, boisterous songs +pealing, red torches tossing. Revellers in this mood would be ready +for anything. Perhaps they would end in some low tavern at the Peiræus +to sleep off their liquor; perhaps their leader would find some other +Symposium in progress, and after loud knockings, force his way into the +house, even as did the mad Alcibiades, who (once more to recall Plato) +thrust his way into Agathon’s feast, staggering, leaning on a flute +girl, and shouting, “Where’s Agathon!” Such an inroad would be of +course the signal for more and ever more hard drinking. The wild +invaders might make themselves completely at home, and dictate all the +proceedings: the end would be even as at Agathon’s banquet, where +everybody but Socrates became completely drunken, and lay prone on the +couches or the floor. One hopes that the honest Prodicus has no such +climax to his symposium. + +…At length the streets grow quiet. Citizens sober or drunken are now +asleep: only the vigilant Scythian archers patrol the ways till the +cocks proclaim the first gray of dawn. + + + + +Chapter XIX. +Country Life Around Athens + + +169. Importance of his Farm to an Athenian.—We have followed the +doings of a typical Athenian during his ordinary activities around the +city, but for the average gentleman an excursion outside the town is +indispensable at least every two or three days, and perhaps every day. +He must visit his farm; for his wealth and income are probably tied up +there, rather than in any unaristocratic commercial and manufacturing +enterprises. Homer’s “royal” heroes are not ashamed to be skilful at +following the plow[*]: and no Athenian feels that he is contaminating +himself by “trade” when he supervises the breeding of sheep or the +raising of onions. We will therefore follow in the tracks of certain +well-to-do citizens, when we turn toward the Itonian gate sometime +during the morning, while the Agora is still in a busy hum, even if +thus we are curtailing our hypothetical visits to the Peiræus or to the +bankers. + +[*] See Odysseus’s boasts, _Odyssey_, XVIII. 360 et passim. The +gentility of farming is emphasized by a hundred precepts from Hesiod. + + +170. The Country by the Ilissus: the Greeks and Natural Beauty.—Our +companions are on horseback (a token of tolerable wealth in Athens), +but the beasts amble along not too rapidly for nimble grooms to run +behind, each ready to aid his respective master. Once outside the gate +the regular road swings down to the south towards Phalerum; we, +however, are in no great haste and desire to see as much as possible. +The farms we are seeking lie well north of the city, but we can make a +delightful circuit by skirting the city walls with the eastern shadow +of the Acropolis behind us, and going at first northeast, along the +groves and leafy avenues which line the thin stream of the Ilissus,[*] +the second “river” of Athens. + +[*] The Ilissus, unlike its sturdier rival, the Cephisus, ran dry +during the summer heats; but there was enough water along its bed to +create a dense vegetation. + + +Before us through the trees came tantalizing glimpses of the open +country running away towards shaggy gray Hymettus. Left to itself the +land would be mostly arid and seared brown by the summer sun; but +everywhere the friendly work of man is visible. One can count the +little green oblong patches, stretching even up the mountain side, +marked with gleaming white farm buildings or sometimes with little +temples and chapels sacred to the rural gods. Once or twice also we +notice a plot of land which seems one tangled waste of trees and +shrubbery. This is a sacred “temenos,” an inviolate grove, set apart +to some god; and within the fences of the compound no mortal dare set +foot under pain of direful sacrilege and pollution. + +Following a kind of bridle path, however, we are soon amid the groves +of olive and other trees, while the horses plod their slow way beside +the brook. Not a few citizens going or coming from Athens meet us, for +this is really one of the parks and breathing spaces of the closely +built city. The Athenians and Greeks in general live in a land of such +natural beauty that they take this loveliness as a matter of course. +Very seldom do their poets indulge in deliberate descriptions of +“beautiful landscapes”; but none the less the fair things of nature +have penetrated deeply into their souls. The constant allusions in +Homer and the other masters of song to the great storm waves, the deep +shades of the forest, the crystal brooks, the pleasant rest for +wanderers under the shade trees, the plains bright with spring flowers, +the ivy twining above a grave, the lamenting nightingale, the chirping +cicada, tell their own story; men seldom describe at length what is +become warp and woof of their inmost lives. The mere fact that the +Greeks dwell _constantly_ in such a beautiful land, and have learned to +love it so intensely, makes frequent and set descriptions thereto seem +trivial. + + +171. Plato’s Description of the Walk by the Ilissus.—Nevertheless +occasionally this inborn love of the glorious outer world must find its +expression, and it is of these very groves along he Ilissus that we +have one of the few “nature pieces” in Athenian literature. As the +plodding steeds take their way let us recall our Plato—his _Phædrus_, +written probably not many years before this our visit. + +Socrates is walking with Phædrus outside the walls, and urges the +latter: “Let us go to the Ilissus and sit down in some quiet spot.” “I +am fortunate,” answers Phædrus, “in not having my sandals on, and, as +you never have any, we may go along the brook and cool our feet. This +is the easiest way, and at midday is anything but unpleasant.” He adds +that they will go on to the tallest plane tree in the distance, “where +are shade and gentle breezes, and grass whereon we may either sit or +lie…. The little stream is delightfully clear and bright. I can fancy +there might well be maidens playing near [according to the local myth +of Boreas’s rape of Orithyia].” And so at last they come to the place, +when Socrates says: “Yes indeed, a fair and shady resting place it is, +full of summer sounds and scents. There is the lofty and spreading +plane tree, and the agnus castus, high and clustering in the fullest +blossom and the greatest fragrance, and the stream which flows beneath +the plane tree is deliciously cool to the feet. Judging by the +ornaments and images [set] about, this must be a spot sacred to +Achelous and the Nymphs; moreover there is a sweet breeze and the +grasshoppers are chirruping; and the greatest charm of all is the grass +like a pillow, gently sloping to the head.”[*] + +[*] Jewett, translator; slightly altered. + + +172. The Athenian Love of Country Life.—So the two friends had sat +them down to delve in delightful profundities; but following the bridle +path, the little brook and its groves end for us all too soon. We are +in the open country around Athens, and the fierce rays of Helios beat +strongly on our heads. We are outside the city, but by no means far +from human life. Farm succeeds farm, for the land around Athens has a +goodly population to maintain, and there is a round price for +vegetables in the Agora. Truth to tell, the average Athenian, though +he pretends to love the market, the Pnyx, the Dicasteries, and the +Gymnasia, has a shrewd hankering for the soil, and does not care to +spend more time in Athens then necessary. Aristophanes is full of the +contrasts between “country life” and “city life” and almost always with +the advantage given the former. Says his Strepsiades (in _The Clouds_), +“A country life for me—dirty, untrimmed, lolling around at ease, and +just abounding in bees and sheep and oil cake.” His Diceæpolis +(_Acharnians_) voices clearly the independence of the farmer: “How I +long for peace.[*] I’m disgusted with the city; and yearn for my own +farm which never bawled out [as in the markets] ‘buy my coals’ or ‘buy +my vinegar’ or ‘oil,’ or _knew_ the word ‘buy,’ but just of itself +produced everything.” And his Trygæus (in _The Peace_) states the case +better yet: “Ah! how eager I am to get back into the fields, and break +up my little farm with the mattock again…[for I remember] what kind of +a life we had there; and those cakes of dried fruits, and the figs, and +the myrtles, and the sweet new wine, and the violet bed next to the +well, and the olives we so long for!” + +[*] _I.e._ the end of the Peloponnesian War, which compelled the +farming population to remove inside the walls. + + +There is another reason why the Athenians rejoice in the country. The +dusty streets are at best a poor playground for the children, the inner +court of the house is only a respectable prison for the wife. In the +country the lads can enjoy themselves; the wife and the daughters can +roam about freely with delightful absence of convention. There will be +no happier day in the year than when the master says, “Let us set out +for the farm.” + + +173. Some Features of the Attic Country.—Postponing our examination of +Athenian farmsteads and farming methods until we reach some friendly +estate, various things strike us as we go along the road. One is the +skilful system of irrigation,—the numerous watercourses drawn +especially from the Cephisus, whereby the agriculturists make use of +every possible scrap of moisture for the fields, groves, and vineyards. + Another is the occasional olive tree we see standing, gnarled and +venerable, but carefully fenced about; or even (not infrequently) we +see fences only with but a dead and utterly worthless stump within. Do +not speak lightly of these “stumps,” however. They are none the less +“moriai”—sacred olive trees of Athena, and carefully tended by public +wardens.[*] Contractors are allowed to take the fruit of the olive +trees under carefully regulated conditions; but no one is allowed to +remove the stumps, much less hew down a living tree. An offender is +tried for “impiety” before the high court of the Areopagus, and his +fate is pretty surely death, for the country people, at least, regard +their sacred trees with a fanatical devotion which it would take long +to explain to a stranger. + +[*] Athenians loved to dwell on the “divine gift” of the olive. Thus +Euripides sang (_Troades_, 799):— + + +In Salamis, filled with the foaming + Of billows and murmur of bees, +Old Telamon stayed from his roaming + Long ago, on a throne of the seas, +Looking out on the hills olive laden, + Enchanted, where first from the earth +The gray-gleaming fruit of the Maiden + Athena had birth. + + +—MURRAY, translator. + + +The hero Telamon was reputed an uncle of Achilles and one of the early +kings of Salamis. + + +Also upon the way one is pretty sure to meet a wandering beggar—a +shrewd-eyed, bewhiskered fellow. He carries, not a barrel organ and +monkey, but a blinking tame crow perched on his shoulder, and at every +farmstead he halts to whine his nasal ditty and ask his dole. + +Good people, a handful of barley bestow +On the child of Apollo, the sleek sable crow; +Or a trifle of whet, O kind friends, give;— +Or a wee loaf of bread that the crow may live. + + +It is counted good luck by the housewife to have a chance to feed a +“holy crow,” and the owner’s pickings are goodly. By the time we have +left the beggar behind us we are at the farm whither our excursion has +been tending. + + +[Illustration: Itinerant Piper with his Dog] + + +174. An Attic Farmstead.—We are to inspect the landed estate of +Hybrias, the son of Xanthippus. It lies north of Athens on the slopes +of Anchesmus, one of the lesser hills which roll away toward the +marble-crowned summits of Pentelicus. Part of the farm lands lie on +the level ground watered by the irrigation ditches; part upon the +hillsides, and here the slopes have been terraced in a most skilful +fashion in order to make the most of every possible inch of ground, and +also to prevent any of the precious soil from being washed down by the +torrents of February and March. The owner is a wealthy man, and has an +extensive establishment; the farm buildings—once whitewashed, but now +for the most part somewhat dirty—wander away over a large area. There +are wide courts, deep in manure, surrounded by barns; there are sties, +haymows, carefully closed granaries, an olive press, a grain mill, all +kinds of stables and folds, likewise a huge irregularly shaped house +wherein are lodged the numerous slaves and the hired help. The general +design of this house is the same as of a city house—the rooms opening +upon an inner court, but naturally its dimensions are ampler, with the +ampler land space. + +Just now the courtyard is a noisy and animated sight. The master has +this moment ridden in, upon one of his periodic visits from Athens; the +farm overseer has run out to meet him and report, and half a dozen +long, lean hunting dogs—Darter, Roarer, Tracker, Active, and +more[*]—are dancing and yelping, in the hope that their owner will +order a hare hunt. The overseer is pouring forth his usual burden of +woe about the inefficient help and the lack of rain, and Hybrias is +complaining of the small spring crop—“Zeus send us something better +this summer!” While these worthies are adjusting their troubles we may +look around the farm. + +[*] For an exhaustive list of names for Greek dogs, see Xenophon’s +curious _Essay on Hunting_, ch. VII, § 5. + + +175. Plowing, Reaping, and Threshing.—Thrice a year the Athenian farmer +plows, unless he wisely determines to let his field lie fallow for the +nonce; and the summer plowing on Hybrias’s estate is now in progress. +Up and down a wide field the ox team is going.[*] The plow is an +extremely primitive affair—mainly of wood, although over the sharpened +point which forms the plowshare a plate of iron has been fitted. Such a +plow requires very skilful handling to cut a good furrow, and the +driver of the team has no sinecure. + +[*] Mules were sometimes used for drawing the plow, but horses, it +would seem, never. + + +[Illustration: Women pounding Meal] + + +In a field near by, the hinds are reaping a crop of wheat which was +late in ripening.[*] The workers are bending with semicircular sickles +over their hot task; yet they form a merry, noisy crowd, full of homely +“harvest songs,” nominally in honor of Demeter, the Earth Mother, but +ranging upon every conceivable rustic topic. Some laborers are cutting +the grain, others, walking behind, are binding into sheaves and piling +into clumsy ox wains. Here and there a sheaf is standing, and we are +told that this is left “for luck,” as an offering to the rural Field +Spirit; for your farm hand is full of superstitions. Also amid the +workers a youth is passing with a goodly jar of cheap wine, to which +the harvesters make free to run from time to time for refreshment. + +[*] The regular time for reaping the October-sown wheat was May or +June. + + +Close by the field is the threshing floor. More laborers—not a few +bustling country lasses among them—are spreading out the sheaves with +wooden forks, a little at a time, in thin layers over this circular +space, which is paved with little cobblestones. More oxen and a +patient mule are being driven over it—around and around—until every +kernel is trodden out by their hoofs. Later will come the tossing and +the winnowing; and, when the grain has been thoroughly cleaned, it will +be stored in great earthen jars for the purpose of sale or against the +winter. + + +176. Grinding at the Mill.—Nearer the farmhouses there rises a dull +grinding noise. It is the mill preparing the flour for the daily +baking, for seldom—at least in the country—will a Greek grind flour +long in advance of the time of use. There the round upper millstone is +being revolved upon an iron pivot against its lower mate and turned by +a long wooden handle. Two nearly naked slave boys are turning this +wearily—far pleasanter they consider the work of the harvesters, and +very likely this task is set them as a punishment. As the mill +revolves a slave girl pours the grain into a hole in the center of the +upper millstone. As the hot, slow work goes on, the two toilers chant +together a snatch from an old mill song, and we catch the monotonous +strain:— + +Grind, mill, grind, +For Pittacus did grind— +Who was king over great Mytilene. + + +It will be a long time before there is enough flour for the day. The +slaves can at least rejoice that they live on a large farm. If Hybrias +owned a smaller estate, they would probably be pounding up the grain +with mortar and pestle—more weary yet. + + +177. The Olive Orchards.—We, at least, can leave them to their work, +and escape to the shade of the orchards and the vineyards. Like every +Athenian farmer, Hybrias has an olive orchard. The olives are sturdy +trees. They will grow in any tolerable soil and thrive upon the +mountain slopes up to as far as 1800 feet above sea level. They are +not large trees, and their trunks are often grotesquely gnarled, but +there is always a certain fascination about the wonderful shimmer of +their leaves, which flash from gray to silver-white in a sunny wind. +Hybrias has wisely planted his olives at wide intervals, and in the +space between the ground has been plowed up for grain. Olives need +little care. Their harvest comes late in the autumn, after all the +other crops are out of the way. They are among the most profitable +products of the farm, and the owner will not mind the poor wheat +harvest “if only the olives do well.”[*] + +[*] The great drawback to olive culture was the great length of time +required to mature the trees—sixteen years. The destruction of the +trees, _e.g._ in war by a ravaging invader, was an infinitely greater +calamity than the burning of the standing grain or even of the +farmhouses. Probably it was the ruin of their olive trees which the +Athenians mourned most during the ravaging of Attica in the +Peloponnesian War. + + +[Illustration: Gathering the Olive Harvest] + + +178. The Vineyards.—The fig orchard forms another great part of the +farm, but more interesting to strangers are the vineyards. Some of the +grapes are growing over pointed stakes set all along the upland +terraces; a portion of the vineyards, however, is on level ground. +Here a most picturesque method has been used for training the vines. +Tall and graceful trees have been set out—elm, maple, oak, poplar. The +lower limbs of the trees have been cut away and up their trunks and +around their upper branches now swing the vines in magnificent +festoons. The growing vines have sprung from tree to tree. The warm +breeze has set the rich clusters—already turning purple or +golden—swaying above our heads. The air is filled with brightness, +greenery, and fragrance. The effect of this “vineyard grove” is +magical. + + +179. Cattle, Sheep, and Goats.—There is also room in the orchards for +apples, pears, and quinces, but there is nothing distinctive about +their culture. If we are interested in cattle, however, we can spend a +long time at the barns, or be guided out to the upland pasture where +Hybrias’s flocks and herds are grazing. Horses are a luxury. They are +almost never used in farm work, and for riding and cavalry service it +is best to import a good courser from Thessaly; no attempt, therefore, +is made to breed them here. But despite the small demand for beef and +butter a good many cattle are raised; for oxen are needed for the +plowing and carting, oxhides have a steady sale, and there is a regular +call for beeves for the hecatombs at the great public sacrifices. Sheep +are in greater acceptance. Their wool is of large importance to a land +which knows comparatively little of cotton. They can live on scanty +pasturage where an ox would starve. Still more in favor are goats. +Their coarse hair has a thousand uses. Their flesh and cheese are among +the most staple articles in the Agora. Sure-footed and adventurous, +they scale the side of the most unpromising crags in search of herbage +and can sometimes be seen perching, almost like birds, in what seem +utterly inaccessible eyries. Thanks to them the barren highlands of +Attica are turned to good account,—and between goat raising and bee +culture an income can sometimes be extracted from the very summits of +the mountains. As for the numerous swine, it is enough to say that they +range under Hybrias’s oak forest and fatten on acorns, although their +swineherd, wrapped in a filthy sheepskin, is a far more loutish and +ignoble fellow than the “divine Eumæus” glorified in the _Odyssey_. + + +[Illustration: Rural Sacrifice to a Wooden Statue of Dionysus] + + +180. The Gardens and the Shrine.—Did we wish to linger, we could be +shown the barnyard with its noisy retinue of hens, pheasants, guinea +fowl, and pigeons; and we would be asked to admire the geese, cooped up +and being gorged for fattening, or the stately peacocks preening their +splendors. We would also hear sage disquisitions from the “oldest +inhabitants” on the merits of fertilizers, especially on the uses of +mixing seaweed with manure, also we would be told of the almost equally +important process of burying a toad in a sealed jar in the midst of a +field to save the corn from the crows and the field mice. Hybrias +laughs at such superstitions—“but what can you say to the rustics?” +Hybrias himself will display with more refined pride the gardens used +by his wife and children when they come out from Athens,—a fountain +feeding a delightful rivulet; myrtles, roses, and pomegranate trees +shedding their perfumes, which are mingled with the odors from the beds +of hyacinths, violets, and asphodel. In the center of the gardens +rises a chaste little shrine with a marble image and an altar, always +covered with flowers or fruit by the mistress and her women. “To +Artemis,” reads the inscription, and one is sure that the virgin +goddess takes more pleasure in this fragrant temple than in many +loftier fanes.[*] + +[*] For the description of a very beautiful and elaborate country +estate, with a temple thereon to Artemis, see Xenophon’s _Anabasis_, +bk. V. 3. + + +We are glad to add here our wreaths ere turning away from this +wholesome, verdant country seat, and again taking our road to Athens. + + + + +Chapter XX. +The Temples and Gods of Athens. + + +181. Certain Factors in Athenian Religion.—We have seen the Athenians +in their business and in their pleasure, at their courts, their +assemblies, their military musters, and on their peaceful farms; yet +one great side of Athenian life has been almost ignored—the religious +side. A “Day in Athens” spent without taking account of the gods of +the city and their temples would be a day spent with almost half-closed +eyes.[*] + +[*] No attempt is made in this discussion to enumerate the various gods +and demigods of the conventional mythology, their regular attributes, +etc. It is assumed the average history or manual of mythology gives +sufficient information. + + +It is far easier to learn how the Athenians arrange their houses than +how the average man among them adjusts his attitude toward the gods. +While any searching examination of the fundamentals of Greek cultus and +religion is here impossible, two or three facts must, nevertheless, be +kept in mind, if we are to understand even the OUTWARD side of this +Greek religion which is everywhere in evidence about us. + +First of all we observe that the Greek religion is a religion of purely +natural growth. No prophet has initiated it, or claimed a new +revelation to supplement the older views. It has come from primitive +times without a visible break even down to the Athens of Plato. This +explains at once why so many time-honored stories of the Olympic +deities are very gross, and why the gods seem to give countenance to +moral views which the best public opinion has long since called +scandalous and criminal. The religion of Athens, in other words, may +justly claim to be judged by its best, not by its worst; by the +morality of Socrates, not of Homer. + +Secondly, this religion is not a church, nor a belief, but is part of +the government. Every Athenian is born into accepting the fact that +Athena Polias is the divine warder of the city, as much as he is born +into accepting the fact that it is his duty to obey the strategi in +battle. To repudiate the gods of Athens, _e.g._ in favor of those of +Egypt, is as much iniquity as to join forces against the Athenians if +they are at war with Egypt;—the thing is sheer treason, and almost +unthinkable. For countless generations the Athenians have worshipped +the “Ancestral Gods.” They are proud of them, familiar with them; the +gods have participated in all the prosperity of the city. Athena is as +much a part of Attica as gray Hymettus or white-crowned Pentelicus; and +the very fact that comedians, like Aristophanes, make good-natured fun +of the divinities indicates that “they are members of the family.” + +Thirdly, notice that this religion is one mainly of outward reverence +and ceremony. There is no “Athenian church”; nobody has drawn up an +“Attic creed”—“I believe in Athena, the City Warder, and in Demeter, +the Earth Mother, and in Zeus, the King of Heaven, etc.” Give outward +reverence, participate in the great public sacrifices, be careful in +all the minutiæ of private worship, refrain from obvious +blasphemies—you are then a sufficiently pious man. What you _believe_ +is of very little consequence. Even if you privately believe there are +no gods at all, it harms no one, provided your outward conduct is pious +and moral. + + +182. What constitutes “Piety” in Athens.—Of course there have been +some famous prosecutions for “impiety.” Socrates was the most +conspicuous victim; but Socrates was a notable worshipper of the gods, +and certainly all the charges of his being an “atheist” broke down. +What he was actually attacked with was “corrupting the youth of +Athens,” _i.e._ giving the young men such warped ideas of their private +and public duties that they ceased to be moral and useful citizens. +But even Socrates was convicted only with difficulty[*]; a generation +has passed since his death. Were he on trial at present, a majority of +the jury would probably be with him. + +[*] It might be added that if Socrates had adopted a really worldly +wise line of defense, he would probably have been acquitted, or +subjected merely to a mild pecuniary penalty. + + +The religion of Athens is something very elastic, and really every man +makes his own creed for himself, or—for paganism is almost never +dogmatic—accepts the outward cultus with everybody else, and speculates +at his leisure on the nature of the deity. The great bulk of the +uneducated are naturally content to accept the old stories and +superstitions with unthinking credulity. It is enough to know that one +must pray to Zeus for rain, and to Hermes for luck in a slippery +business bargain. There are a few philosophers who, along with +perfectly correct outward observance, teach privately that the old +Olympian system is a snare and folly. They pass around the daring word +which Xenophanes uttered as early as the sixth century B.C.:— + +One God there is, greatest of gods and mortals, +Not like to man is he in mind or in body. +All of him sees, all of him thinks, and all of him harkens. + + +This, of course, is obvious pantheism, but it is easy to cover up all +kinds of pale monotheism or pantheism under vague reference to the +omnipotence of “Zeus.” + + +183. The Average Athenian’s Idea of the Gods.—The average intelligent +citizen probably has views midway between the stupid rabble and the +daring philosophers. To him the gods of Greece stand out in full +divinity, honored and worshipped because they are protectors of the +good, avengers of the evil, and guardians of the moral law. They +punish crime and reward virtue, though the punishment may tarry long. +They demand a pure heart and a holy mind of all that approach them, and +woe to him who wantonly defies their eternal laws. This is the +morality taught by the master tragedians, Æschylus and Sophocles, and +accepted by the best public opinion at Athens; for the insidious doubts +cast by Euripides upon the reality of any divine scheme of governance +have never struck home. The scandalous stories about the domestic +broils on Olympus, in which Homer indulges, only awaken good-natured +banter. It is no longer proper—as in Homeric days—to pride oneself on +one’s cleverness in perjury and common falsehood. Athenians do not +have twentieth century notions about the wickedness of lying, but +certain it is the gods do not approve thereof. In short, most of the +better class of Athenians are genuinely “religious”; nevertheless they +have too many things in this human world to interest them to spend +overmuch time in adjusting their personal concepts of the deity to any +system of theology. + + +184. Most Greeks without belief in Immortality.—Yet one thing we must +add. This Greek religious morality is built up without any clear belief +in a future life. Never has the average Hellene been able to form a +satisfactory conception of the soul’s existence, save dwelling within a +mortal body and under the glorious light of belovèd Helios. To Homer +the after life in Hades was merely the perpetuation of the shadows of +departed humanity, “strengthless shades” who live on the gloomy plains +of asphodel, feeding upon dear memories, and incapable of keen emotions +or any real mental or physical progress or action. Only a few great +sinners like Tantalus, doomed to eternal torture, or favored beings +like Menelaus, predestined to the “Blessed Isles,” are ordained to any +real immortality. As the centuries advanced, and the possibilities of +this terrestrial world grew ever keener, the hope of any future state +became ever more vague. The fear of a gloomy shadow life in Hades for +the most part disappeared, but that was only to confirm the belief that +death ends all things. + +Where’er his course man tends, +Inevitable death impends, +And for the worst and for the best, +Is strewn the same dark couch of rest.[*] + + +[*] Milman, Translator. + + +So run the lines of a poet whose name is forgotten, but who spoke well +the thought of his countrymen. + +True there has been a contradiction of this gloomy theory. The “Orphic +Mysteries,” those secret religious rites which have gained such a hold +in many parts of Greece, including Athens, probably hold out an earnest +promise to the “initiates” of a blessed state for them hereafter. The +doctrine of a real elysium for the good and a realm of torment for the +evil has been expounded by many sages. Pindar, the great bard of +Thebes, has set forth the doctrine in a glowing ode.[*] Socrates, if +we may trust the report Plato gives of him, has spent his last hours +ere drinking the hemlock, in adducing cogent, philosophic reasons for +the immortality of the soul. All this is true,—and it is also true +that these ideas have made no impression upon the general Greek +consciousness. They are accepted half-heartedly by a relatively few +exceptional thinkers. Men go through life and face death with no real +expectation of future reward or punishment, or of reunion with the dear +departed. If the gods are angry, you escape them at the grave; if the +gods are friendly, all they can give is wealth, health, honor, a hale +old age, and prosperity for your children. The instant after death the +righteous man and the robber are equal. This fundamental deduction +from the Greek religion must usually, therefore, be made—it is a +religion for _this world only_. Let us see what are its usual outward +operations. + +[*] Quoted in _Readings in Ancient History_, vol. I, pp. 261-262, and +in many works in Greek literature. + + +185. The Multitude of Images of the Gods.—Gods are everywhere in +Athens. You cannot take the briefest walk without being reminded that +the world is full of deities. There is a “Herm”[*] by the main door of +every house, as well as a row of them across the Agora. At many of the +street crossings there are little shrines to Hecate; or statues of +Apollo Agyieus, the street guardian; or else a bay tree stands there, a +graceful reminder of this same god, to which it is sacred. In every +house there is the small altar whereon garlands and fruit offerings are +daily laid to Zeus Herkeios, and another altar to Hestia. On one or +both of these altars a little food and a little wine are cast at every +meal. All public meetings or court sessions open with sacrifice; in +short, to attempt any semi-important public or private act without +inviting the friendly attention of the deity is unthinkable. To a +well-bred Athenian this is second instinct; he considers it as +inevitable as the common courtesies of speech among gentlemen. Plato +sums up the current opinion well, “All men who have any decency, in the +attempting of matters great or small, always invoke divine aid.”[+] + +[*] A stone post about shoulder high, surmounted by a bearded head. +Contrary to modern impression, the average Greek did not conceive of +Hermes as a beautiful youth. He was a grave, bearded man. The +youthful aspect came through the manipulation of the Hermes myths by +the master sculptors—_e.g._ Praxiteles. + + +[+] _Timæus_, p. 27 c. + + +186. Greek Superstition.—In many cases, naturally, piety runs off into +crass superstition. The gods, everybody knows, frequently make known +future events by various signs. He who can understand these signs will +be able to adjust his life accordingly and enjoy great prosperity. +Most educated men take a sensible view of “omens,” and do not let them +influence their conduct absurdly. Some, however, act otherwise. There +is, for instance, Laches, one of the greatest at Prodicus’s feast. He +lives in a realm of mingled hopes and fears, although he is wealthy and +well-educated.[*] He is all the time worried about dreams, and paying +out money to the sharp and wily “seer” (who counts him his best client) +for “interpretations.” If a weasel crosses his path he will not walk +onward until somebody else has gone before him, or until he has thrown +three stones across the road. He is all the time worrying about the +significance of sudden noises, meteors, thunder; especially he is +disturbed when he sees birds flying in groups or towards unlucky +quarters of the heavens.[+] Laches, however, is not merely +religious—although he is always asking “which god shall I invoke now?” +or “what are the omens for the success of this enterprise?” His own +associates mock him as being superstitious, and say they never trouble +themselves about omens save in real emergencies. Still it is “bad luck” +for any of them to stumble over a threshold, to meet a hare suddenly, +or especially to find a snake (the companion of the dead) hidden in the +house. + +[*] See Theophratus’s character, “_The Superstitious Man_.” + + +[+] The birds of clearest omen were the great birds of prey—hawks, +“Apollo’s swift messengers,” and eagles, “the birds of Zeus.” It was a +good omen if the birds flew from left to right, a bad omen if in the +reverse direction. + + +187. Consulting Omens.—Laches’s friends, however, all regularly +consult the omens when they have any important enterprise on hand—a +voyage, a large business venture, a marriage treaty, etc. There are +several ways, not expensive; the interpreters are not priests, only +low-born fellows as a rule, whose fees are trifling. You can find out +about the future by casting meal upon the altar fire and noticing how +it is burned, by watching how chickens pick up consecrated grain,[*] by +observing how the sacrificial smoke curls upward, etc. The best way, +however, is to examine the entrails of the victim after a sacrifice. +Here everything depends on the shape, size, etc., of the various +organs, especially of the liver, bladder, spleen, and lungs, and really +expert judgment by an experienced and high-priced seer is desirable. +The man who is assured by a reliable seer, “the livers are large and in +fine color,” will go on his trading voyage with a confident heart. + +[*] A very convenient way,—for it was a good sign if the chickens ate +eagerly and one could always get a fair omen by keeping the fowls +hungry a few hours ere “putting the question”! + + +188. The Great Oracles.—Assuredly there is a better way still to read +the future; at least so Greeks of earlier ages have believed. Go to one +of the great oracles, whereof that of Apollo at Delphi is the supreme, +but not the unique, example. Ask your question in set form from the +attendant priests, not failing to offer an elaborate sacrifice and to +bestow all the “gifts” (golden tripods, mixing bowls, shields, etc.) +your means will allow. Then (at Delphi) wait silent and awe-stricken +while the lady Pythia, habited as a young girl, takes her seat on a +tripod over a deep cleft in the rock, whence issues an intoxicating +vapor. She inhales the gas, sways to and fro in an ecstasy, and now, +duly “inspired,” answers in a somewhat wild manner the queries which +the priest will put in behalf of the supplicants. Her incoherent words +are very hard to understand, but the priest duly “interprets” them, +_i.e._ gives them to the suppliant in the form of hexameter verses. +Sometimes the meaning of these verses is perfectly clear. Very often +they are truly “Delphic,” with a most dubious meaning—as in that +oft-quoted instance, when the Pythia told Crœsus if he went to war with +Cyrus, “he would destroy a mighty monarchy,” and lo, he destroyed his +own! + +Besides Delphi, there are numerous lesser oracles, each with its +distinctive method of “revelation.” But there is none, at least of +consequence, within Attica, while a journey to Delphi is a serious and +highly expensive undertaking. And as a matter of fact Delphi has +partially lost credit in Athens. In the great Persian War Delphi +unpatriotically “medized”—gave oracles friendly to Xerxes and utterly +discouraging to the patriot cause. Then after this conviction of false +prophesy, the oracle fell, for most of the time, into the hands of +Sparta, and was obviously very willing to “reveal” things only in the +Lacedæmonian interest. Hellenes generally and the Spartans in +particular have still much esteem for the utterances of the Pythia, but +Athenians are not now very partial to her. Soon will come the seizure +of Delphi by the Phœnicians and the still further discrediting of this +once great oracle. + + +189. Greek Sacrifices.—The two chief elements of Greek worship, +however, are not consideration of the future, but sacrificial and +prayer. Sacrifices in their simple form, as we have seen, take place +continually, before every routine act. They become more formal when +the proposed action is really important, or when the suppliant wishes +to give thanks for some boon, or, at rarer intervals, to desire +purification from some offense. There is no need of a priest for the +simpler sacrifices. The father of the family can pour out the +libation, can burn the food upon the altar, can utter the prayer for +all his house; but in the greater sacrifices a priest is desirable, not +as a sacred intermediary betwixt god and man, but as an expert to +advise the worshipper what are the competent rites, and to keep him +from ignorantly angering heaven by unhappy words and actions.[*] + +[*] There were almost no hereditary priesthoods in Attica (outside the +Emolpidæ connected with the mystical cult of Eleusis). Almost anybody +of good character could qualify as a priest with due training, and +there was little of the sacrosanct about the usual priestly office. + + +Let us witness a sacrifice of this more formal kind, and while doing so +we can tread upon the spot we have seemed in a manner to shun during +our wanderings through Athens, the famous and holy Acropolis. + + +190. The Route to the Acropolis.—Phormion, son of Cresphontes, has +been to Arcadia, and won the pentathlon in some athletic contests held +at Mantinea. Although not equal to a triumph in the “four great +Panhellenic contests,” it was a most notable victory. Before setting +out he vowed a sheep to Athena the Virgin if he conquered. The goddess +was kind, and Phormion is very grateful. While the multitudes are +streaming out to the Gymnasia, the young athlete, brawny and handsome, +surrounded by an admiring coterie of friends and kinsmen, sets out for +the Acropolis. + +Phormion’s home is in the “Ceramicus,” the so-called “potters’ +quarter.” His walk takes him a little to the west of the Agora, and +close to the elegant temple of Hephæstos,[*] but past this and many +other fanes he hastens. It was not the fire god which gave him fair +glory at Mantinea. He goes onward until he is forced to make a detour +to the left, at the craggy, rough hill of Areopagus which rises before +him. Here, if time did not press, he might have tarried to pay +respectful reverence before a deep fissure cleft in the side of the +rock. In front of this fissure stands a little altar. All Phormion’s +company look away as they pass the spot, and they mutter together “Be +propitious, O Eumenides!” (literally, Well-minded Ones). For like true +Greeks they delight to call foul things with fair and propitious names; +and that awful fissure and altar are sacred to the Erinyes (Furies), +the horrible maidens, the trackers of guilt, the avengers of murder; +and above their cave, on these rude rocks, sits the august court of the +Aeropagus when it meets as a “tribunal of blood” to try cases of +homicide. + +[*] This temple, now called the _Theseum_, is the only well preserved +ancient temple in modern Athens. + + +Phormion’s party quicken their steps and quit this spot of ill omen. +Then their sight is gladdened. The whole glorious Acropolis stands out +before them. + + +[Illustration: Sketch Map of the Acropolis of Athens] + + +191. The Acropolis of Athens.—Almost every Greek city has its own +formidable citadel, its own _acropolis_,—for “citadel” is really all +this word conveys. Corinth boasts of its “Acro-Corinthus,” Thebes of +its “Cadmeia,”—but _the_ Acropolis is in Athens. The later world will +care little for any other, and the later world will be right. The +Athenian stronghold has long ceased to be a fortress, though still it +rises steep and strong. It is now one vast temple compound, covered +with magnificent buildings. Whether considered as merely a natural +rock commanding a marvelous view, or as a consecrated museum of +sculpture and architecture, it deserves its immortality. We raise our +eyes to _the Rock_ as we approach it. + +The Acropolis dominates the plain of Athens. All the city seems to +adjust itself to the base of its holy citadel. It lifts itself as +tawny limestone rock rising about 190 feet above the adjacent level of +the town.[*] In form it is an irregular oval with its axis west and +east. It is about 950 feet long and 450 feet at its greatest breadth. +On every side but the west the precipice falls away sheer and defiant, +rendering a feeble garrison able to battle with myriads.[+] To the +westward, however, the gradual slope makes a natural pathway always +possible, and human art has long since shaped this with convenient +steps. Nestling in against the precipice are various sanctuaries and +caves; _e.g._ on the northwestern side, high up on the slope beneath +the precipice, open the uncanny grottoes of Apollo and of Pan. On the +southern side, close under the very shadow of the citadel, is the +temple of Asclepius, and, more to the southeast, the great open theater +of Dionysus has been scooped out of the rock, a place fit to contain an +audience of some 15,000.[&] + +[*] It is nearly 510 feet above the level of the sea. + + +[+] Recall the defense which the Acropolis was able to make against +Xerxes’s horde, when the garrison was small and probably ill organized, +and had only a wooden barricade to eke out the natural defenses. + + +[&] The stone seats of this theater do not seem to have been built till +about 340 B.C. Up to that time the surface of the ground sloping back +to the Acropolis seems simply to have been smoothed off, and probably +covered with temporary wooden seats on the days of the great dramatic +festivals. + + +So much for the bare “bones” of the Acropolis; but now under the +dazzling sunshine how it glitters with indescribable splendor! Before +us as we ascend a whole succession of buildings seem lifting +themselves, not singly, not in hopeless confusion, but grouped +admirably together by a kind of wizardry, so that the harmony is +perfect,—each visible, brilliant column and pinnacle, not merely +flashing its own beauty, but suggesting another greater beauty just +behind. + + +192. The Use of Color upon Athenian Architecture and Sculptures.—While +we look upward at this group of temples and their wealth of sculptures, +let us state now something we have noticed during all our walks around +Athens, but have hitherto left without comment. Every temple and statue +in Athens is not left in its bare white marble, as later ages will +conceive is demanded by “Greek Architecture” and statuary, but is +decked in brilliant color—“painted,” if you will use an almost +unfriendly word. The columns and gables and ceilings of the buildings +are all painted. Blue, red, green, and gold blaze on all the members +and ornaments. The backgrounds of the pediments, metopes, and frieze +are tinted some uniform color on which the sculptured figures in relief +stand out clearly. The figures themselves are tinted or painted, at +least on the hair, lips, and eyes. Flesh-colored warriors are fighting +upon a bright red background. The armor and horse trappings on the +sculptures are in actual bronze. The result is an effect indescribably +vivid. Blues and reds predominate: the flush of light and color from +the still more brilliant heavens above adds to the effect. Shall we +call it garish? We have learned to know the taste of Athenians too +well to doubt their judgment in matters of pure beauty. And they are +right. _Under an Athenian sky_ temples and statues demand a wealth of +color which in a somber clime would seem intolerable. The brilliant +lines of the Acropolis buildings are the just answer of the Athenian to +the brilliancy of Helios. + + +193. The Chief Buildings on the Acropolis.—And now to ascend the +Acropolis. We leave the discussion of the details of the temples and +the sculpture to the architects and archæologists. The whole plateau of +the Rock is covered with religious buildings, altars, and statues. We +pass through the Propylæa, the worthy rival of the Parthenon behind, a +magnificent portal, with six splendid Doric columns facing us; and as +we go through them, to right and to left open out equally magnificent +columned porticoes.[*] As we emerge from the Propylæa the whole vision +of the sacred plateau bursts upon us simultaneously. We can notice only +the most important of the buildings. At the southwestern point of the +Acropolis on the angle of rock which juts out beyond the Propylæa is +the graceful little temple of the “Wingless Victory,” built in the +Ionic style. The view commanded by its bastion will become famous +throughout the world. Behind this, nearer the southern side, stands the +less important temple of Artemis Braurōnia. Nearer the center and +directly before the entrance rises a colossal brazen +statue—“monstrous,” many might call its twenty-six feet of height, save +that a master among masters has cast the spell of his genius over it. +This is the famous Athena Promachos,[+] wrought by Phidias out of the +spoils of Marathon. The warrior goddess stands in full armor and rests +upon her mighty lance. The gilded lance tip gleams so dazzlingly we may +well believe the tale that sailors use it for a first landmark as they +sail up the coast from Cape Sunium. + +[*] That to the north was the larger and contained a kind of picture +gallery. + + +[+] Athena Foremost in Battle. + + +Looking again upon the complex of buildings we single out another on +the northern side: an irregularly shaped temple, or rather several +temples joined together, the Erechtheum, wherein is the sanctuary of +Athena Polias (the revered “City Warden”), the ancient wooden statue, +grotesque, beloved, most sacred of all the holy images in Athens. And +here on the southern side of this building is the famous Caryatid +porch; the “Porch of the Maidens,” which will be admired as long as +Athens has a name. But our eyes refuse to linger long on any of these +things. Behind the statue of the Promachos, a little to the southern +side of the plateau, stands the Parthenon—the queen jewel upon the +crown of Athens. + + +194. The Parthenon.—Let others analyze its sculptures and explain the +technical reasons why Ictinus and Callicrates, the architects, and +Phidias, the sculptor, created here the supreme masterpiece for the +artistic world. We can state only the superficialities. It is a noble +building by mere size; 228 feet measure its side, 101 feet its front. +Forty-six majestic Doric columns surround it; they average thirty-four +feet in height, and six feet three inches at the base. All these +facts, however, do not give the soul of the Parthenon. Walk around it +slowly, tenderly, lovingly. Study the elaborate stories told by the +pediments,—on the east front the birth of Athena, on the west the +strife of Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Athens. Trace down +the innumerable lesser sculptures on the “metopes” under the +cornice,—showing the battles of the Giants, Centaurs, Amazons, and of +the Greeks before Troy; finally follow around, on the whole inner +circuit of the body of the temple, the frieze,[*] showing in bas-relief +the Panathenaic procession, with the beauty, nobility, and youth of +Athens marching in glad festival; comprehend that these sculptures will +never be surpassed in the twenty-four succeeding centuries; that here +are supreme examples for the artists of all time,—and _then_, in the +face of this final creation, we can realize that the Parthenon will +justify its claim to immortality. + +[*] This, of course, is on the outside wall of the “cella,” but inside +the surrounding colonnade. + + +One thing more. There are hardly any straight lines in the Parthenon. +To the eye, the members and the steps of the substructure may seem +perfectly level; but the measuring rod betrays marvelously subtle +curves. As nature abhors right angles in her creations of beauty, so +have these Greeks. Rigidity, unnaturalness, have been banished. The +Parthenon stands, not merely embellished with inimitable sculptures, +but perfectly adjusted to the natural world surrounding.[*] + +[*] It was an inability to discover and execute these concealed curves +which give certain of the modern imitations of the Parthenon their +unpleasant impressions of harness and rigidity. + + +We have seen only the exterior of the Parthenon. We must wait now ere +visiting the interior, for Phormion is beginning his sacrifice. + + +195. A Sacrifice on the Acropolis.—Across the sacred plateau advances +the little party. As it goes under the Propylæa a couple of idle +temple watchers[*] give its members a friendly nod. The Acropolis rock +itself seems deserted, save for a few worshippers and a party of +admiring Achæan visitors who are being shown the glories of the +Parthenon.[+] There seems to be a perfect labyrinth of statues of +gods, heroes, and departed worthies, and almost as many altars, great +and small, placed in every direction. Phormion leads his friends +onward till they come near to the wide stone platform somewhat in the +rear of the Parthenon. Here is the “great altar” of Athena, whereon +the “hecatombs” will be sacrificed, even a hundred oxen or more,[&] at +some of the major public festivals; and close beside it stands also a +small and simple altar sacred to Athena Parthenos, Athena the Virgin. +Suitable attendants have been in readiness since dawn waiting for +worshippers. One of Phormion’s party leads behind him a bleating white +lamb “without blemish.”[$] It is a short matter now to bring the +firewood and the other necessaries. The sacrifice takes place without +delay. + +[*] The most important function of these watchers seems to have been to +prevent dogs from entering the Acropolis. Probably they were +inefficient old men favored with sinecure offices. + + +[+] The Acropolis seems to have become a great “show place” for +visitors to Athens soon after the completion of the famous temples. + + +[&] We know by an inscription of 169 oxen being needed for a single +Athenian festival. + + +[$] This was a very proper creature to sacrifice to a great Olympian +deity like Athena. Goats were not suitable for her, although desirable +for most of the other gods. It was unlawful to sacrifice swine to +Aphrodite. When propitiating the gods of the underworld,—Hades, +Persephone, etc.,—a _black_ victim was in order. Poor people could +sacrifice doves, cocks, and other birds. + + +First a busy “temple sweeper” goes over the ground around the altar +with a broom; then the regular priest, a dignified gray-headed man with +a long ungirt purple chiton, and a heavy olive garland, comes forward +bearing a basin of holy water. This basin is duly passed to the whole +company as it stands in a ring, and each in turn dips his hand and +sprinkles his face and clothes with the lustral water. Meantime the +attendant has placed another wreath around the head of the lamb. The +priest raises his hand. + +“Let there be silence,” he commands (lest any unlucky word be spoken); +and in a stillness broken only by the auspicious twittering of the +sparrows amid the Parthenon gables, he takes barley corns from a +basket, an sprinkles them on the altar and over the lamb. With his +sacred knife he cuts a lock of hair from the victims head and casts it +on the fire. Promptly now the helper comes forward to complete the +sacrifice. Phormion and his friends are a little anxious. Will the +lamb take fright, hang back, and have to be dragged to its unwilling +death? The clever attendant has cared for that. A sweet truss of +dried clover is lying just under the altar. The lamb starts forward, +bleating joyously. As it bows its head[*] as if consenting to its fate +the priest stabs it dexterously in the neck with his keen blade. The +helper claps a bowl under the neck to catch the spurting blood. A +flute player in readiness, but hitherto silent, suddenly strikes up a +keen blast to drown the dying moans of the animal. Hardly has the lamb +ceased to struggle before the priest and the helper have begun to cut +it up then and there. Certain bits of the fat and small pieces from +each limb are laid upon the altar, and promptly consumed. These are +the goddess’s peculiar portion, and the credulous at least believe that +she, though unseen, is present to eat thereof; certainly the sniff of +the burning meat is grateful to her divine nostrils. The priest and +the helpers are busy taking off the hide and securing the best +joint—these are their “fees” for professional services. All the rest +will be duly gathered up by Phormion’s body servant and borne home,—for +Phormion will give a fine feast on “sacred mutton” that night.[+] + +[*] If a larger animal—an ox—failed to bow its head auspiciously, the +omen could be rectified by suddenly splashing a little water in the +ears. + + +[+] As already suggested (section 159) a sacrifice (public, or, if on a +large scale, private) was about the only occasion on which Athenians +tasted beef, pork, or mutton. + + +[Illustration: Sacrificing a Pig] + + +Meantime, while the goddess’s portion burns, Phormion approaches the +altar, bearing a shallow cup of unmixed wine, and flings it upon the +flame. + +“Be propitious, O Lady,” he cries, “and receive this my drink +offering.”[*] + +[*] The original intention of this libation at the sacrifice was very +clearly to provide the gods with wine to “wash down” their meat. + + +The sacrifice is now completed. The priest assures Phormion that the +entrails of the victim foretokened every possible favor in future +athletic contests—and this, and his insinuating smile, win him a silver +drachma to supplement his share of the lamb. Phormion readjusts the +chaplet upon his own head, and turns towards the Parthenon. After the +sacrifice will come the prayer. + + +196. The Interior of the Parthenon and the Great Image of Athena.—The +whole Acropolis is the home of Athena. The other gods harbored thereon +are only her inferior guests. Upon the Acropolis the dread goddess +displays her many aspects. In the Erechtheum we worship her as Athena +Polias, the ancient guardian of the hearths and homes of the city. In +the giant Promachus, we see her the leader in war,—the awful queen who +went with her fosterlings to the deadly grappling at Marathon and at +Salamis; in the little temple of “Wingless Victory”[*] we see her as +Athena the Victorious, triumphant over Barbarian and Hellenic foe; but +in the Parthenon we adore in her purest conception—the virgin queen, +now chaste and clam, her battles over, the pure, high incarnations of +all “the beautiful and the good” that may possess spirit and mind,—the +sovran intellect, in short, purged of all carnal, earthy passion. It +is meet that such a goddess should inhabit such a dwelling as the +Parthenon.[+] + +[*] The term “Wingless Victory” (_Nikē Apteros_) has reference to a +special type and aspect of Athena, not to the goddess _Nikē_ (Victory) +pure and simple. + + +[+] There was still another aspect in which Athena was worshipped on +the Acropolis. She had a sacred place (_temenos_), though without a +temple, sacred to her as _Athena Erganē_—Athena Protectress of the +Arts. + + +[Illustration: Athena Parthenos] + + +Phormion passes under the eastern porch, and does not forget (despite +the purification before the sacrifice) to dip the whisk broom, lying by +the door, in the brazen laver of holy water and again to sprinkle +himself. He passes out of the dazzling sunlight into a chamber that +seems at first to be lost in a vast, impenetrable gloom. He pauses and +gazes upward; above him, as little by little his eyes get their +adjustment, a faint pearly light seems streaming downward. It is coming +through the translucent marble slabs of the roof of the great +temple.[*] Then out of the gloom gleam shapes, objects,—a face. He +catches the glitter of great jewels and of massy gold, as parts of the +rich garments and armor of some vast image. He distinguishes at length +a statue,—the form of a woman, nearly forty feet in height. Her left +wrist rests upon a mighty shield; her right hand holds a winged +“Victory,” itself of nigh human size. Upon her breast is the awful +ægis, the especial breastplate of the high gods. Around the foot of her +shield coils a serpent. Upon her head is a mighty helmet. And all the +time that these things are becoming manifest, evermore clearly one +beholds the majestic face,—sweetness without weakness, intellectuality +without coldness, strength mingled justly with compassion. This is the +Athena Parthenos, the handiwork of Phidias.[+] + +[*] This seems to be the most reasonable way to assume that the “cella” +of the Parthenon was lighted, in view of the danger, in case of open +skylights, of damage to the holy image by wind and rain. + + +[+] Of this statue no doubt there could be said what Dion Chrysostomos +said of the equally famous “Zeus” erected by Phidias at Olympia. “The +man most depressed with woes, forgot his ills whilst gazing on this +statue, so much light and beauty had Phidias infused within it.” +Besides the descriptions in the ancient writers we get a clear idea of +the general type of the Athena Parthenos from recently discovered +statuettes, especially the “Varvakeion” model (40½ inches high). This +last is cold and lifeless as a work of art, but fairly accurate as to +details. + + +We will not heap up description. What boots it to tell that the arms +and vesture of this “chryselephantine” statue are of pure gold; that +the flesh portions are of gleaming ivory; that Phidias has wrought the +whole so nobly together that this material, too sumptuous for common +artists, becomes under his assembling the perfect substance for the +manifestation of deity? + +…Awestruck by the vision, though often he has seen it, Phormion stands +long in reverent silence. Then at length, casting a pinch of incense +upon the brazier, constantly smoking before the statue, he utters his +simple prayer. + + +197. Greek Prayers.—Greek prayers are usually very pragmatic. “Who,” +asks Cicero, who can speak for both Greeks and Romans in this +particular, “ever thanked the gods that he was a good man? Men are +thankful for riches, honor, safety…. We beg of the sovran God [only] +what makes us safe, sound, rich and prosperous.”[*] Phormion is simply +a very average, healthy, handsome young Athenian. While he prays he +stretches his hands on high, as is fitting to a deity of Olympus.[+] +His petition runs much as follows:— + +“Athena, Queen of the Ægis, by whatever name thou lovest best,[&] give +ear. + +[*] Cicero, _De Nat. Deor_, ii. 36. + + +[+] In praying to a deity of the lower world the hands would be held +down. A Greek almost _never_ knelt, even in prayer. He would have +counted it degrading. + + +[&] This formula would be put in, lest some favorite epithet of the +divinity be omitted. + + +“Inasmuch as thou dids’t heed my vow, and grant me fair glory at +Mantinea, bear witness I have been not ungrateful. I have offered to +thee a white sheep, spotless and undefiled. And now I have it in my +mind to attempt the pentathlon at the next Isthmia at Corinth. Grant me +victory even in that; and not one sheep but five, all as good as this +to-day, shall smoke upon thine altar. Grant also unto me, my kinsmen +and all my friends, health, riches and fair renown.” + +A pagan prayer surely; and there is a still more pagan epilogue. +Phormion has an enemy, who is not forgotten. + +“And oh! gracious, sovran Athena, blast my enemy Xenon, who strove to +trip me foully in the foot race. May his wife be childless or bear him +only monsters; may his whole house perish; may all his wealth take +flight; may his friends forsake him; may war soon cut him off, or may +he die amid impoverished, dishonored old age. If this my sacrifice has +found favor in thy sight, may all these evils come upon him +unceasingly. And so will I adore thee and sacrifice unto thee all my +life.”[*] + +[*] Often a curse would become a real substitute for a prayer; _e.g._ +at Athens, against a rascally and traitorous general, a solemn public +curse would be pronounced at evening by all the priests and priestesses +of the city, each shaking in the air a red cloth in token of the bloody +death to which the offender was devoted. + + +The curse then is a most proper part of a Greek prayer! Phormion is +not conscious of blasphemy. He merely follows invariable custom. + +It is useless to expect “Christian sentiments” in the fourth century +B.C., yet perhaps an age should be judged not by its average, but by +its best. Athenians can utter nobler prayers than those of the type of +Phormion. Xenophon makes his model young householder Ishomenus pray +nobly “that I may enjoy health and strength of body, the respect of my +fellow citizens, honorable safety in times of war, and wealth honestly +increased.”[*] + +[*] Xenophon, _The Economist_, xi, p. 8. + + +There is a simple little prayer also which seems to be a favorite with +the farmers. Its honest directness carries its own message. + +“Rain, rain, dear Zeus, upon the fields of the Athenians and the +plains.”[*] + +[*] It was quoted later to us by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who adds, +“In truth, we ought not to pray at all, or we ought to pray in this +simple and noble fashion.” + + +Higher still ascends the prayer of Socrates, when he begs for “the +good” merely, leaving it to the wise gods to determine what “the good” +for him may be; and in one prayer, which Plato puts in Socrates’s +mouth, almost all the best of Greek ideals and morality seems uttered. +It is spoken not on the Acropolis, but beside the Ilissus at the close +of the delightful walk and chat related in the _Phædrus_. + +“Beloved Pan, and all ye other gods who haunt this place, give me the +beauty of the inward soul, and may the outward and the inward man be +joined in perfect harmony. May I reckon the wise to be wealthy, and +may I have such a quantity of gold as none but the temperate can carry. + Anything more?—That prayer, I think, is enough for me.” + +Phormion and his party are descending to the city to spend the evening +in honest mirth and feasting, but we are fain to linger, watching the +slow course of the shadows as they stretch across the Attic hills. Sea, +sky, plain, mountains, and city are all before us, but we will not +spend words upon them now. Only for the buildings, wrought by Pericles +and his mighty peers, we will speak out our admiration. We will gladly +confirm the words Plutarch shall some day say of them, “Unimpaired by +time, their appearance retains the fragrance of freshness, as though +they had been inspired by an eternally blooming life and a never aging +soul.”[*] + +[*] Plutarch wrote this probably after 100 A.D., when the Parthenon had +stood for about five and half centuries. + + + + +Chapter XXI. +The Great Festivals of Athens. + + +198. The Frequent Festivals at Athens.—Surely our “Day in Athens” has +been spent from morn till night several times over, so much there is to +see and tell. Yet he would be remiss who left the city of Athena before +witnessing at least several of the great public festivals which are the +city’s noble pride. There are a prodigious number of religious +festivals in Athens.[*] They take the place of the later “Christian +Sabbath” and probably create a somewhat equal number of rest days +during the year, although at more irregular intervals. They are far +from being “Scotch Sundays,” however. On them the semi-riotous “joy of +life” which is part of the Greek nature finds its fullest, ofttimes its +wildest, expression. They are days of merriment, athletic sports, great +civic spectacles, chorals, public dances.[+] To complete our picture of +Athens we must tarry for a swift cursory glance upon at least three of +these fête days of the city of Pericles, Sophocles, and Phidias. + +[*] In Gulick (_Life of the Ancient Greeks_, pp. 304-310) there is a +valuable list of Attic festivals. The Athenians had over thirty +important religious festivals, several of them, _e.g._, the +Thesmorphoria (celebrated by the women in honor of Demeter), extending +over a number of days. + + +[+] It is needless to point out that to the Greeks, as to many other +ancient peoples,—for example, the Hebrews,—_dancing_ often had a +religious significance and might be a regular part of the worship of +the gods. + + +199. The Eleusinia.—Our first festival is the Eleusinia, the festival +of the Eleusinian mysteries. It is September, the “19th of +Boēdromiōn,” the Athenians will say. Four days have been spent by the +“initiates” and the “candidates” in symbolic sacrifices and +purifications.[*] On one of these days the arch priest, the +“Hierophant,” has preached a manner of sermon at the Painted Porch in +the Agora setting forth the awfulness and spiritual efficacy of these +Mysteries, sacred to Demeter the Earth Mother, to her daughter +Persephone, and also to the young Iacchus, one of the many incarnations +of Dionysus, and who is always associated at Elusis with the divine +“Mother and Daughter.” The great cry has gone forth to the +Initiates—“To the Sea, ye Mystæ!” and the whole vast multitude has gone +down to bathe in the purifying brine. + +[*] Not all Athenians were among the “initiated,” but it does not seem +to have been hard to be admitted to the oaths and examination which +gave one participation in the mysteries. About all a candidate had to +prove was blameless character. Women could be initiated as well as +men. + + +Now on this fifth day comes the sacred procession from Athens across +the mountain pass to Eleusis. The participates, by thousands, of both +sexes and of all ages, are drawn up in the Agora ere starting. The +Hierophant, the “Torchbearer,” the “Sacred Herald,” and the other +priests wear long flowing raiment and high mitres like Orientals. They +also, as well as the company, wear myrtle and ivy chaplets and bear +ears of corn and reapers’ sickles. The holy image of Iacchus is borne +in a car, the high priests marching beside it; and forth with pealing +shout and chant they go,—down the Ceramicus, through the Dipylon gate, +and over the hill to Eleusis, twelve miles away. + + +200. The Holy Procession to Eleusis.—Very sacred is the procession, +but not silent and reverential. It is an hour when the untamed animal +spirits of the Greeks, who after all are a young race and who are +gripped fast by natural instinct, seem uncurbed. Loud rings the +“orgiastic” cry, “_Iacchë! Iacchë! evoë!_” + +There are wild shouts, dances, jests, songs,[*] postures. As the +marchers pass the several sanctuaries along the road there are halts +for symbolic sacrifices. So the multitude slowly mounts the long +heights of Mount Ægaleos, until—close to the temple of Aphrodite near +the summit of the pass—the view opens of the broad blue bay of Eleusis, +shut in by the isle of Salamis, while to the northward are seen the +green Thrasian plain, with the white houses of Eleusis town[+] near the +center, and the long line of outer hills stretching away to Megara and +Bœotia. + +[*] We do not possess the official chant of the Mystæ used on their +march to Eleusia. Very possibly it was of a swift riotous nature like +the Bacchinals’ song in Euripides’s _Bacchinals_ (well translated by +Way or by Murray). + + +[+] This was about the only considerable town in Attica outside of +Athens. + + +The evening shadows are falling, while the peaceful army sweeps over +the mountain wall and into Eleusis. Every marcher produces a torch, +and bears it blazing aloft as he nears his destination. Seen in the +dark from Eleusis, the long procession of innumerable torches must +convey an effect most magical. + + +201. The Mysteries of Eleusis.—What follows at Eleusis? The +“mysteries” are “mysteries” still; we cannot claim initiation and +reveal them. There seem to be manifold sacrifices of a symbolic +significance, the tasting of sacred “portions” of food and drink—a dim +foreshadowing of the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist; especially +in the great hall of the Temple of the Mystæ in Eleusis there take +place a manner of symbolic spectacles, dramas perhaps one may call +them, revealing the origins of Iacchus, the mystical union of +Persephone and Zeus, and the final joy of Demeter. + +This certainly we can say of these ceremonies. They seem to have +afforded to spiritually minded men a sense of remission of personal sin +which the regular religion could never give; they seem also to have +conveyed a fair hope of immortality, such as most Greeks doubted. +Sophocles tells thus the story: “Thrice blessed are they who behold +these mystical rites, ere passing to Hades’ realm. They alone have +life there. For the rest all things below are evil.”[*] And in face of +imminent death, perhaps in hours of shipwreck, men are wont to ask one +another, “Have you been initiated at Eleusis?” + +[*] Sophocles, _Frag._ 719. + + +202. The Greater Dionysia and the Drama.—Again we are in Athens in the +springtime: “The eleventh of Elapheboliön” [March]. It is the third day +of the Greater Dionysia. The city has been in high festival; all the +booths in the Agora hum with redoubled life; strangers have flocked in +from outlying parts of Hellas to trade, admire, and recreate; under +pretext of honoring the wine god, inordinate quantities of wine are +drunk with less than the prudent mixture of water. There is boisterous +frolicking, singing, and jesting everywhere. It is early blossom time. +All whom you meet wear huge flower crowns, and pelt you with the +fragrant petals of spring.[*] + +[*] Pindar (_Frag._ 75) says thus of the joy and beauty of this fête: +“[Lo!] this festival is due when the chamber of the red-robed Hours is +opened and odorous plants wake to the fragrant spring. then we scatter +on undying earth the violet, like lovely tresses, and twine roses in +our hair; then sound the voice of song, the flute keeps time, and +dancing choirs resound the praise of Semele.” + + +So for two days the city has made merry, and now on the third, very +early, “to the theater” is the word on every lip. Magistrates in their +purple robes of office, ambassadors from foreign states, the priests +and religious dignitaries, are all going to the front seats of honor. +Ladies of gentle family, carefully veiled but eager and fluttering, are +going with their maids, if the productions of the day are to be +tragedies not comedies.[*] All the citizens are going, rich and poor, +for here again we meet “Athenian democracy”; and the judgment and +interest of the tatter-clad fishermen seeking the general “two-obol” +seats may be almost as correct and keen as that of the lordly Alcmænoid +in his gala himation. + +[*] It seems probable (on our uncertain information) that Athenian +ladies attended the moral and proper tragedies. It was impossible for +them to attend the often very coarse comedies. Possibly at the +tragedies they sat in a special and decently secluded part of the +theater. + + +203. The Theater of Dionysus.—Early dawn it is when the crowds pour +through the barriers around the Theater of Dionysus upon the southern +slope of the Acropolis. They sit (full 15,000 or more) wedged close +together upon rough wooden benches set upon the hill slopes.[*] At the +foot of their wide semicircle is a circular space of ground, beaten +hard, and ringed by a low stone barrier. It is some ninety feet in +diameter. This is the _orchestra_, the “dancing place,” wherein the +chorus may disport itself and execute its elaborate figures. Behind the +orchestra stretches a kind of tent or booth, the _skenë_. Within this +the actors may retire to change their costumes, and the side nearest to +the audience is provided with a very simple scene,—some kind of +elementary scenery painted to represent the front of a temple or +palace, or the rocks, or the open country. This is nearly the entire +setting.[+] If there are any slight changes of this screen, they must +be made in the sight of the entire audience. The Athenian theater has +the blue dome of heaven above it, the red Acropolis rock behind it. +Beyond the “skenë” one can look far away to the country and the hills. +The keen Attic imagination will take the place of the thousand arts of +the later stage-setter. Sophocles and his rivals, even as Shakespeare +in Elizabeth’s England, can sound the very depths and scale the +loftiest heights of human passion, with only a simulacrum of the +scenery, properties, and mechanical artifices which will trick out a +very mean twentieth century theater. + +[*] These benches (before the stone theater was built in 340 B.C.) may +be imagined as set up much like the “bleachers” at a modern baseball +park. We know that ancient audiences wedged in very close. + + +[+] I think it is fairly certain that the classical Attic theater was +without any stage, and that the actors appeared on the same level as +the chorus. As to the extreme simplicity of all the scenery and +properties there is not the least doubt. + + +[Illustration: Comic Actors dressed as Ostriches] + + +204. The production of a Play.—The crowds are hushed and expectant. +The herald, ere the play begins, proclaims the award of a golden crown +to some civic benefactor: a moment of ineffable joy to the recipient; +for when is a true Greek happier than when held up for public +glorification? Then comes the summons to the first competing poet. + +“Lead on your chorus.”[*] The intellectual feast of the Dionysia has +begun. + +[*] In the fourth century B.C. when the creation of original tragedies +was in decline, a considerable part of the Dionysia productions seem to +have been devoted to the works of the earlier masters, Æschylus, +Sophocles, and Euripides. + + +To analyze the Attic drama is the task of the philosopher and the +literary expert. We observe only the superficialities. There are +never more than _three_ speaking actors before the audience at once. +They wear huge masques, shaped to fit their parts. The wide +mouthpieces make the trained elocution carry to the most remote parts +of the theater. The actors wear long trailing robes and are mounted on +high shoes to give them sufficient stature before the distant audience. + When a new part is needed in the play, an actor retires to the booth, +and soon comes forth with a changed masque and costume—an entirely new +character. In such a costume and masque, play of feature and easy +gesture is impossible; but the actors carry themselves with a stately +dignity and recite their often ponderous lines with a grace which +redeems them from all bombast. An essential part of the play is the +chorus; indeed the chorus was once the main feature of the drama, the +actors insignificant innovations. With fifteen members for the +tragedy, twenty-four for the comedy,[*] old men of Thebes, Trojan +dames, Athenian charcoal burners, as the case may demand—they +sympathize with the hard-pressed hero, sing lusty choral odes, and +occupy the time with song and dance while the actors are changing +costume. + +[*] In the “Middle” and “Later” comedy, so called, the chorus entirely +disappears. The actors do everything. + + +[Illustration: Actor in Costume as a Fury] + + +The audience follows all the philosophic reasoning of the tragedies, +the often subtle wit of the comedies, with that same shrewd alertness +displayed at the jury courts of the Pnyx. “_Authis! Authis!_” (again! +again!) is the frequent shout, if approving. Date stones and pebbles as +well as hootings are the reward of silly lines or bad acting. At noon +there is an interlude to snatch a hasty luncheon (perhaps without +leaving one’s seat). Only when the evening shadows are falling does the +chorus of the last play approach the altar in the center of the +orchestra for the final sacrifice. A whole round of tragedies have been +given.[*] The five public judges announce their decision: an ivy wreath +to the victorious poet; to his _choregus_ (the rich man who has +provided his chorus and who shares his glory) the right to set up a +monument in honor of the victory. Home goes the multitude,—to quarrel +over the result, to praise or blame the acting, to analyze the +remarkable acuteness the poet’s handling of religious, ethical, or +social questions. + +[*] Comedies, although given at this Dionysia, were more especially +favored at the Lenæa, an earlier winter festival. + + +The theater, like the dicasteries and the Pnyx, is one of the great +public schools of Athens. + + +205. The Great Panathenaic Procession.—Then for the last time let us +visit Athens, at the fête which in its major form comes only once in +four years. It is the 28th of Metageitniön (August), and the eighth day +of the Greater Panathenæa, the most notable of all Athenian festivals. +By it is celebrated the union of all Attica by Theseus, as one happy +united country under the benign sway of mighty Athena,—an ever +fortunate union, which saved the land from the sorrowful feuds of +hostile hamlets such as have plagued so many Hellenic countries. On the +earlier days of the feast there have been musical contests and +gymnastic games much after the manner of the Olympic games, although +the contestants have been drawn from Attica only. There has been a +public recital of Homer. Before a great audience probably at the Pnyx +or the Theater a rhapsodist of noble presence—clad in purple and with a +golden crown—has made the Trojan War live again, as with his +well-trained voice he held the multitude spellbound by the music of the +stately hexameters. + +Now we are at the eighth day. All Athens will march in its glory to the +Acropolis, to bear to the shrine of Athena the sacred “peplos”—a robe +specially woven by the noble women of Athens to adorn the image of the +guardian goddess.[*] The houses have opened; the wives, maids, and +mothers of gentle family have come forth to march in the procession, +all elegantly wreathed and clad in their best, bearing the sacred +vessels and other proper offerings. The daughters of the “metics,” the +resident foreigners, go as attendants of honor with them. The young men +and the old, the priests, the civil magistrates, the generals, all have +their places. Proudest of all are the wealthy and high-born youths of +the cavalry, who now dash to and fro in their clattering pride. The +procession is formed in the outer Ceramicus. Amid cheers, chants, +chorals, and incense smoke it sweeps through the Agora, and slowly +mounts the Acropolis. Center of all the marchers is the glittering +peplos, raised like a sail upon a wheeled barge of state—“the ship of +Athena.” Upon the Acropolis, while the old peplos is piously withdrawn +from the image and the new one substituted, there is a prodigious +sacrifice. A mighty flame roars heavenward from the “great altar”; +while enough bullocks[+] and kine[&] have been slaughtered to enable +every citizen—however poor—to bear away a goodly mess of roasted meat +that night. + +[*] Note that this robe was for the revered ancient and wooden image of +Athena Polias, not for the far less venerable statue of Athena +Parthenos. + + +206. The View from the Temple of Wingless Victory.—We will not wait +for the feasting but rather will take our way to the Temple of Wingless +Victory, looking forth to the west of the Acropolis Rock. So many +things we see which we would fain print on the memory. Behind us we +have just left the glittering Parthenon, and the less august but hardly +less beautiful Erechtheum, with its “Porch of the Maidens.” To our +right is the wide expanse of the roofs of the city and beyond the dark +olive groves of Colonus, and the slopes of Ægaleos. In the near +foreground, are the red crags of Areopagus and the gray hill of the +Pnyx. But the eye will wander farther. It is led away across the +plainland to the bay of Phaleron, the castellated hill of Munychia, the +thin stretch of blue water and the brown island seen across it—Salamis +and its strait of the victory. Across the sparkling vista of the sea +rise the headlands of Ægina and of lesser isles; farther yet rise the +lordly peaks of Argolis. Or we can look to the southward. Our gaze +rounds down the mountainous Attic coast full thirty miles to where +Sunium thrusts out its haughty cape into the Ægean and points the way +across the island-studded sea. + +Evening is creeping on. Behind us sounds the great pæan, the solemn +chant to Athena, bestower of good to men. As the sun goes down over +the distant Argolic hills his rays spread a clear pathway of gold +across the waters. Islands, seas, mountains far and near, are touched +now with shifting hues,—saffron, violet, and rose,—beryl, topaz, +sapphire, amethyst. There will never be another landscape like unto +this in all the world. Gladly we sum up our thoughts in the cry of a +son of Athens, Aristophanes, master of song, who loved her with that +love which the land of Athena can ever inspire in all its children, +whether its own by adoption or by birth:— + +“_Oh, thou, our Athens! Violet-crowned, brilliant, most enviable of +cities!_” + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY IN OLD ATHENS *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where + you are located before using this eBook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that: + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without +widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + diff --git a/4716-0.zip b/4716-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f97d009 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-0.zip diff --git a/4716-h.zip b/4716-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..39403a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h.zip diff --git a/4716-h/4716-h.htm b/4716-h/4716-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8fe4d46 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/4716-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11094 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Day In Old Athens, by William Stearns Davis</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.right {text-align: right; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +sup { vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.6em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +p.caption {font-weight: bold; + text-align: center; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Day In Old Athens, by William Stearns Davis</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: A Day In Old Athens</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: William Stearns Davis</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: March 6, 2002 [eBook #4716]<br /> +[Most recently updated: September 29, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: William Fishburne and Kestrell</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY IN OLD ATHENS ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:65%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<h1>A Day In Old Athens</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by William Stearns Davis</h2> + +<p class="center"> +Professor of Ancient History in the University of Minnesota +</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>Preface</h2> + +<p> +This little book tries to describe what an intelligent person would +see and hear in ancient Athens, if by some legerdemain he were +translated to the fourth century B.C. and conducted about the city +under competent guidance. Rare happenings have been omitted and +sometimes, to avoid long explanations, <i>probable</i> matters have been +stated as if they were ascertained facts; but these instances are +few, and it is hoped no reader will be led into serious error. +</p> + +<p> +The year 360 B.C. has been selected for the hypothetical time of +this visit, not because of any special virtue in that date, but +because Athens was then architecturally almost perfect, her civic +and her social life seemed at their best, the democratic constitution +held its vigor, and there were few outward signs of the general +decadence which was to set in after the triumph of Macedon. +</p> + +<p> +I have endeavored to state no facts and to make no allusions, that +will not be fairly obvious to a reader who has merely an elementary +knowledge of Greek annals, such information, for instance, as may be +gained through a good secondary school history of ancient times. +This naturally has led to comments and descriptions which more +advanced students may find superfluous. +</p> + +<p> +The writer has been under a heavy debt to the numerous and excellent +works on Greek “Private Antiquities” and “Public Life” written in +English, French, or German, as well as to the various great Classical +Encyclopædias and Dictionaries, and to many treatises and monographs +upon the topography of Athens and upon the numerous phases of Attic +culture. It is proper to say, however, that the material from +such secondary sources has been merely supplementary to a careful +examination of the ancient Greek writers, with the objects of this +book kept especially in view. A sojourn in modern Athens, also, +has given me an impression of the influence of the Attic landscape +upon the conditions of old Athenian life, an impression that I have +tried to convey in this small volume. +</p> + +<p> +I am deeply grateful to my sister, Mrs. Fannie Davis Gifford, for +helpful criticism of this book while in manuscript; to my wife, +for preparing the drawings from Greek vase-paintings which appear +as illustrations; and to my friend and colleague, Professor Charles +A. Savage, for a kind and careful reading of the proofs. Thanks +also are due to Henry Holt and Company for permission to quote +material from their edition of Von Falke’s “Greece and Rome.” +</p> + +<p class="right"> +W. S. D. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +University of Minnesota,<br /> +Minneapolis, Minnesota.<br /> +May, 1914. +</p> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01"><b>Chapter I. The Physical Setting of Athens.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect01">1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect02">2. Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect03">3. The Small Size and Sterility of Attica</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect04">4. The Physical Beauty of Attica</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect05">5. The Mountains of Attica</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect06">6. The Sunlight in Attica</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect07">7. The Topography of the City of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect08">8. 360 B.C.—The Year of the Visit to Athens</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02"><b>Chapter II. The First Sights in Athens.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect09">9. The Morning Crowds bound for Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect10">10. The Gate and the Street Scenes</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect11">11. The Streets and House Fronts of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect12">12. The Simplicity of Athenian Life</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03"><b>Chapter III. The Agora and its Denizens.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect13">13. The Buildings around the Agora</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect14">14. The Life in the Agora</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect15">15. The Booths and Shops in the Agora</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect16">16. The Flower and the Fish Vendors</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect17">17. The Morning Visitors to the Agora</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect18">18. The Leisured Class in Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect19">19. Familiar Types around the Agora</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect20">20. The Barber Shops</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04"><b>Chapter IV. The Athenian House and its Furnishings.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect21">21. Following an Athenian Gentleman Homeward</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect22">22. The Type and Uses of a Greek House</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect23">23. The Plan of a Greek House</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect24">24. Modifications in the Typical Plan</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect25">25. Rents and House Values</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect26">26. The Simple yet Elegant Furnishings of an Athenian House</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05"><b>Chapter V. The Women of Athens.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect27">27. How Athenian Marriages are Arranged</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect28">28. Lack of Sentiment in Marriages</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect29">29. Athenian Marriage Rites</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect30">30. The Mental Horizon of Athenian Women</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect31">31. The Honor paid Womanhood in Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect32">32. The Sphere of Action of Athenian Women</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06"><b>Chapter VI. Athenian Costume.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect33">33. The General Nature of Greek Dress</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect34">34. The Masculine Chiton, Himation, and Chlamys</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect35">35. The Dress of the Women</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect36">36. Footwear and Head Coverings</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect37">37. The Beauty of the Greek Dress</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect38">38. Greek Toilet Frivolities</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07"><b>Chapter VII. The Slaves.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect39">39. Slavery an Integral Part of Greek Life</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect40">40. The Slave Trade in Greece</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect41">41. The Treatment of Slaves in Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect42">42. Cruel and Kind Masters</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect43">43. The “City Slaves” of Athens</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08"><b>Chapter VIII. The Children.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect44">44. The Desirability of Children in Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect45">45. The Exposure of Infants</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect46">46. The Celebration of a Birth</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect47">47. Life and Games of Young Children</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect48">48. Playing in the Streets</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect49">49. The First Stories and Lessons</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect50">50. The Training of Athenian Girls</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09"><b>Chapter IX. The Schoolboys of Athens.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect51">51. The Athenians Generally Literate</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect52">52. Character Building the Aim of Athenian Education</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect53">53. The Schoolboy’s Pedagogue</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect54">54. An Athenian School</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect55">55. The School Curriculum</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect56">56. The Study of the Poets</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect57">57. The Greeks do not study Foreign Languages</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect58">58. The Study of “Music”</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect59">59. The Moral Character of Greek Music</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect60">60. The Teaching of Gymnastics</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect61">61. The Habits and Ambitions of Schoolboys</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect62">62. The “Ephebi”</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10"><b>Chapter X. The Physicians of Athens.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect63">63. The Beginnings of Greek Medical Science</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect64">64. Healing Shrines and their Methods</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect65">65. An Athenian Physician’s Office</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect66">66. The Physician’s Oath</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect67">67. The Skill of Greek Physicians</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect68">68. Quacks and Charlatans</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11"><b>Chapter XI. The Funerals.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect69">69. An Athenian’s Will</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect70">70. The Preliminaries of a Funeral</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect71">71. Lamenting the Dead</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect72">72. The Funeral Procession</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect73">73. The Funeral Pyre</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect74">74. Honors to the Memory of the Dead</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect75">75. The Beautiful Funeral Monuments</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12"><b>Chapter XII. Trade, Manufactures, and Banking.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect76">76. The Commercial Importance of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect77">77. The Manufacturing Activities of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect78">78. The Commerce of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect79">79. The Adventurous Merchant Skippers</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect80">80. Athenian Money-changers and Bankers</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect81">81. A Large Banking Establishment</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect82">82. Drawbacks to the Banking Business</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect83">83. The Pottery of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect84">84. Athenian Pottery an Expression of the Greek Sense of Beauty</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13"><b>Chapter XIII. The Armed Forces of Athens.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect85">85. Military Life at Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect86">86. The Organization of the Athenian Army</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect87">87. The Hoplites and the Light Troops</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect88">88. The Cavalry and the Peltasts</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect89">89. The Panoply of the Hoplites</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect90">90. The Weapons of a Hoplite</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect91">91. Infantry Maneuvers</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect92">92. The Preliminaries of a Greek Battle</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect93">93. Joining the Battle</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect94">94. The Climax and End of the Battle</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect95">95. The Burial Truce and the Trophy after the Battle</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect96">96. The Siege of Fortified Towns</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect97">97. The Introduction of New Tactics</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap14"><b>Chapter XIV. The Peiræus and the Shipping.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect98">98. The “Long Walls” down to the Harbor Town</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect99">99. Munychia and the Havens of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect100">100. The Glorious View from the Hill of Munychia</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect101">101. The Town of Peiræus</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect102">102. The Merchant Shipping</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect103">103. The Three War Harbors and the Ship Houses</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect104">104. The Great Naval Arsenal</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect105">105. An Athenian Trierarch</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect106">106. The Evolution of the Trireme</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect107">107. The Hull of a Trireme</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect108">108. The Rowers’ Benches of a Trireme</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect109">109. The Cabins, Rigging, and Ram of a Trireme</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect110">110. The Officers and Crew of a Trireme</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect111">111. A Trireme at Sea</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect112">112. The Tactics of a Naval Battle</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect113">113. The Naval Strength of Athens</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap15"><b>Chapter XV. An Athenian Court Trial.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect114">114. The Frequency of Litigation in Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect115">115. Prosecutions in Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect116">116. The Preliminaries to a Trial</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect117">117. The Athenian Jury Courts</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect118">118. The Juryman’s Oath</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect119">119. Opening The Trial. The Plaintiff’s Speech</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect120">120. The Defendant’s Speech. Demonstrations by the Jury</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect121">121. The First Verdict</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect122">122. The Second and Final Verdict</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect123">123. The Merits and Defects of the Athenian Courts</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect124">124. The Usual Punishments in Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect125">125. The Heavy Penalty of Exile</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect126">126. The Death Penalty of Athens</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap16"><b>Chapter XVI. The Ecclesia of Athens.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect127">127. The Rule of Democracy in Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect128">128. Aristocracy and Wealth. Their Status and Burdens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect129">129. Athenian Society truly Democratic up to a Certain Point</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect130">130. The Voting Population of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect131">131. Meeting Times of the Ecclesia</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect132">132. The Pnyx (Assembly Place) at Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect133">133. The Preliminaries of the Meeting</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect134">134. Debating a Proposition</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect135">135. Voting at the Pnyx</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect136">136. The Ecclesia as an Educational Instrument</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap17"><b>Chapter XVII. The Afternoon at the Gymnasia.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect137">137. The Gymnasia. Places of General Resort</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect138">138. The Road to the Academy</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect139">139. The Academy</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect140">140. The Social Atmosphere and Human Types at the Academy</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect141">141. Philosophers and Cultivated Men at the Gymnasia</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect142">142. The Beautiful Youths at the Academy</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect143">143. The Greek Worship of Manly Beauty</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect144">144. The Detestation of Old Age</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect145">145. The Greeks unite Moral and Physical Beauty</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect146">146. The Usual Gymnastic Sports and their Objects</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect147">147. Professional Athletes: the Pancration</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect148">148. Leaping Contests</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect149">149. Quoit Hurling</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect150">150. Casting the Javelin</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect151">151. Wrestling</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect152">152. Foot Races</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect153">153. The Pentathlon: the Honors paid to Great Athletes</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap18"><b>Chapter XVIII. Athenian Cookery and the Symposium.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect154">154. Greek Meal Times</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect155">155. Society desired at Meals</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect156">156. The Staple Articles of Food</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect157">157. Greek Vintages</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect158">158. Vegetable Dishes</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect159">159. Meat and Fish Dishes</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect160">160. Inviting Guests to a Dinner Party</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect161">161. Preparing for the Dinner: the Sicilian Cook</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect162">162. The Coming of the Guests</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect163">163. The Dinner Proper</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect164">164. Beginning the Symposium</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect165">165. The Symposiarch and his Duties</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect166">166. Conversation at the Symposium</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect167">167. Games and Entertainments</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect168">168. Going Home from the Feast: Midnight Revelers</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap19"><b>Chapter XIX. Country Life around Athens.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect169">169. The Importance of his Farm to an Athenian</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect170">170. The Country by the Ilissus: the Greeks and Natural Beauty</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect171">171. Plato’s Description of the Walk by the Ilissus</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect172">172. The Athenian Love of Country Life</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect173">173. Some Features of the Attic Country</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect174">174. An Attic Farmstead</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect175">175. Plowing, Reaping, and Threshing</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect176">176. Grinding at the Mill</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect177">177. The Olive Orchards</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect178">178. The Vineyards</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect179">179. Cattle, Sheep, and Goats</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect180">180. The Gardens and the Shrine</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap20"><b>Chapter XX. The Temples and Gods of Athens.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect181">181. Certain Factors in Athenian Religion</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect182">182. What constitutes “Piety” in Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect183">183. The Average Athenians Idea of the Gods</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect184">184. Most Greeks without Belief in Immortality</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect185">185. The Multitude of Images of the Gods</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect186">186. Greek Superstition</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect187">187. Consulting Omens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect188">188. The Great Oracles</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect189">189. Greek Sacrifices</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect190">190. The Route to the Acropolis</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect191">191. The Acropolis of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect192">192. The Use of Color Upon Athenian Architecture and Sculptures</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect193">193. The Chief Buildings on the Acropolis</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect194">194. The Parthenon</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect195">195. A Sacrifice on the Acropolis</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect196">196. The Interior of the Parthenon and the Great Image of Athena</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect197">197. Greek Prayers</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap21"><b>Chapter XXI. The Great Festival of Athens.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect198">198. The Frequent Festivals in Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect199">199. The Eleusinia</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect200">200. The Holy Procession to Eleusis</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect201">201. The Mysteries of Eleusis</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect202">202. The Greater Dionysia and the Drama</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect203">203. The Theater of Dionysus</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect204">204. The Production of a Play</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect205">205. The Great Panathenaic Procession</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#sect206">206. The View from the Temple of Wingless Victory</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> Index</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus01"></a> +<img src="images/fig01.jpg" width="600" height="383" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Athenian Acropolis</p> +</div> + +<h2>Maps, Plans, and Illustrations.</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus01">1. Athenian Acropolis</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus02">2. Sketch Map of Attica</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus03">3. Sketch Map of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus04">4. Peasant going to Market</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus05">5. At the Street Fountain</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus06">6. A Wayside Herm</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus07">7. A Carpenter</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus08">8. Conjectural Plan for the house of a Wealthy Athenian</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus09">9. Spinning</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus10">10. The Maternal Slipper</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus11">11. Athenian Funeral Monument</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus12">12. At the Smithy</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus13">13. Hoplite in Armor</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus14">14. The Town of Peiræus and the Harbors of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus15">15. Fishermen</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus16">16. An Athenian Trireme</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus17">17. The Race in Armor</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus18">18. Itinerant Piper with his Dog</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus19">19. Women pounding Meal</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus20">20. Gathering the Olive Harvest</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus21">21. Rural Sacrifice to a Wooden Statue of Dionysus</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus22">22. Sketch Map of the Acropolis of Athens</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus23">23. Sacrificing a Pig</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus24">24. Athena Parthenos</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus25">25. Comic Actors dressed as Ostriches</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus26">26. Actor in Costume as a Fury</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>A Day in Old Athens</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>Chapter I.<br /> +The Physical Setting of Athens.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect01"></a> +<b>1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History.</b>—To three ancient +nations the men of the twentieth century owe an incalculable debt. +To the Jews we owe most of our notions of religion; to the Romans +we owe traditions and examples in law, administration, and the +general management of human affairs which still keep their influence +and value; and finally, to the Greeks we owe nearly all our ideas +as to the fundamentals of art, literature, and philosophy, in +fact, of almost the whole of our intellectual life. These Greeks, +however, our histories promptly teach us, did not form a single +unified nation. They lived in many “city-states” of more or less +importance, and some of the largest of these contributed very little +directly to our civilization. Sparta, for example, has left us +some noble lessons in simple living and devoted patriotism, but +hardly a single great poet, and certainly never a philosopher or +sculptor. When we examine closely, we see that the civilized life +of Greece, during the centuries when she was accomplishing the most, +was peculiarly centered at Athens. Without Athens, Greek history +would lose three quarters of its significance, and modern life and +thought would become infinitely the poorer. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect02"></a> +<b>2. Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant.</b>—Because, +then, the contributions of Athens to our own life are so important, +because they touch (as a Greek would say) upon almost every side +of “the true, the beautiful, and the good,” it is obvious that +the outward conditions under which this Athenian genius developed +deserve our respectful attention. For assuredly such personages +as Sophocles, Plato, and Phidias were not isolated creatures, who +developed their genius apart from, or in spite of, the life about +them, but rather were the ripe products of a society, which in its +excellences and weaknesses presents some of the most interesting +pictures and examples in the world. To understand the Athenian +civilization and genius it is not enough to know the outward history +of the times, the wars, the laws, and the lawmakers. We must see +Athens as the average man saw it and lived in it from day to day, +and <i>then</i> perhaps we can partially understand how it was that during +the brief but wonderful era of Athenian freedom and prosperity[*], +Athens was able to produce so many men of commanding genius as to +win for her a place in the history of civilization which she can +never lose. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] That era may be assumed to begin with the battle of Marathon +(490 B.C.), and it certainly ended in 322 B.C., when Athens passed +decisively under the power of Macedonia; although since the battle +of Chæroneia (338 B.C.) she had done little more than keep her +liberty on sufferance. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect03"></a> +<b>3. The Small Size and Sterility of Attica.</b>—Attica was a very small +country according to modern notions, and Athens the only large city +therein. The land barely covered some 700 square miles, with 40 +square miles more, if one includes the dependent island of Salamis. +It was thus far smaller than the smallest of our American “states” +(Rhode Island = 1250 square miles), and was not so large as many +American counties. It was really a triangle of rocky, hill-scarred +land thrust out into the Ægean Sea, as if it were a sort of +continuation of the more level district of Bœotia. Yet small as it +was, the hills inclosing it to the west, the seas pressing it form +the northeast and south, gave it a unity and isolation all its own. +Attica was not an island; but it could be invaded only by sea, or +by forcing the resistance which could be offered at the steep mountain +passes towards Bœotia or Megara. Attica was thus distinctly separated +from the rest of Greece. Legends told how, when the half-savage +Dorians had forced themselves southward over the mainland, they +had never penetrated into Attica; and the Athenians later prided +themselves upon being no colonists from afar, but upon being +“earth-sprung,”—natives of the soil which they and their twenty-times +grandfathers had held before them. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus02"></a> +<img src="images/fig02.jpg" width="433" height="500" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Sketch map of Attica</p> +</div> + +<p> +This triangle of Attica had its peculiar shortcomings and virtues. +It was for the most part stony and unfertile. Only a shallow layer +of good soil covered a part of its hard foundation rock, which +often in turn lay bare on the surface. The Athenian farmer had a +sturdy struggle to win a scanty crop, and about the only products +he could ever raise in abundance for export were olives (which seemed +to thrive on scanty soil and scanty rainfall) and honey, the work +of the mountain bees. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect04"></a> +<b>4. The Physical Beauty of Attica.</b>—Yet Attica had advantages which +more than counterbalanced this grudging of fertility. All Greece, +to be sure, was favored by the natural beauty of its atmosphere, +seas, and mountains, but Attica was perhaps the most favored portion +of all, Around her coasts, rocky often and broken by pebbly beaches +and little craggy peninsulas, surged the deep blue Ægean, the most +glorious expanse of ocean in the world. Far away spread the azure +water[*],—often foam-crested and sometimes alive with the dolphins +leaping at their play,—reaching towards a shimmering sky line +where rose “the isles of Greece,” masses of green foliage, or else +of tawny rock, scattered afar, to adapt the words of Homer, “like +shields laid on the face of the glancing deep.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The peculiar blueness of the water near Attica is probably caused +by the clear rocky bottom of the sea, as well as by the intensity +of the sunlight. +</p> + +<p> +Above the sea spread the noble arch of the heavens,—the atmosphere +often dazzlingly bright, and carrying its glamour and sparkle almost +into the hearts of men. The Athenians were proud of the air about +their land. Their poets gladly sung its praises, as, for example, +Euripides[*], when he tells how his fellow countrymen enjoy being— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Ever through air clear shining brightly<br /> +As on wings uplifted, pacing lightly. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Medea:829. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect05"></a> +<b>5. The Mountains of Attica.</b>—The third great element, besides the +sea and the atmosphere of Athens, was the mountains. One after +another the bold hills reared themselves, cutting short all the +plainlands and making the farmsteads often a matter of slopes and +terraces. Against the radiant heavens these mountains stood out +boldly, clearly; revealing all the little gashes and seams left from +that long-forgotten day when they were flung forth from the bowels +of the earth. None of these mountains was very high: Hymettus, +the greatest, was only about 3500 feet; but rising as they often +did from a close proximity to the sea, and not from a dwarfing +table-land, even the lower hills uplifted themselves with proud +majesty. +</p> + +<p> +These hills were of innumerable tints according to their rocks, +the hue of the neighboring sea, and the hour of the day. In spring +they would be clothed in verdant green, which would vanish before +the summer heats, leaving them rosy brown or gray. But whatever +the fundamental tone, it was always brilliant; for the Athenians +lived in a land where blue sky, blue sea, and the massive rock blent +together into such a galaxy of shifting color, that, in comparison, +the lighting of almost any northern or western landscape would +seem feeble and tame. The Athenians absorbed natural beauty with +their native air. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect06"></a> +<b>6. The Sunlight in Athens.</b>—The Athenian loved sunshine, and Helios +the Sun God was gracious to his prayers. In the Athens of to-day +it is reckoned that the year averages 179 days in which the sun is +not concealed by clouds one instant; and 157 days more when the sun +is not hidden more than half an hour[*]. Ancient Athens was surely +not more cloudy. Nevertheless, despite this constant sunshine and +a southern latitude, Athens was stricken relatively seldom with +semitropical heat. The sea was a good friend, bringing tempering +breezes. In the short winter there might be a little frost, a +little snow, and a fair supply of rain. For the rest of the year, +one golden day was wont to succeed another, with the sun and the +sea breeze in ever friendly rivalry. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The reason for these many clear days is probably because when +the moist west and southwest winds come in contact with the dry, +heated air of the Attic plain, they are at once volatilized and +dispersed, not condensed (as in northern lands); therefore the day +resolves itself into brilliant sunshine. +</p> + +<p> +The climate saved the Athenians from being obliged to wage a stern +warfare with nature as did the northern peoples. Their life and +civilization could be one developed essentially “in the open air”; +while, on the other hand, the bracing sea breeze saved them from +that enervating lethargy which has ruined so many southern folk. +The scanty soil forced them to struggle hard to win a living; unless +they yielded to the constant beckoning of the ocean, and sought +food, adventure, wealth, and a great empire across the seas. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect07"></a> +<b>7. The Topography of the City of Athens.</b>—So much for the land of +Attica in general; but what of the setting of the city of Athens +itself? The city lay in a plain, somewhat in the south central +part of Attica, and about four miles back from the sea. A number +of mountains came together to form an irregular rectangle with the +Saronic Gulf upon the south. To the east of Athens stretched the +long gnarled ridge of Hymettus, the wildest and grayest mountain +in Attica, the home of bees and goatherds, and (if there be faith +in pious legend) of innumerable nymphs and satyrs. To the west +ran the lower, browner mountains, Ægaleos, across which a road (the +“Sacred Way”) wound through an easy pass towards Eleusis, the only +sizable town in Attica, outside of Athens and its harbors. To the +rear of the plain rose a noble pyramid, less jagged than Hymettus, +more lordly than Ægaleos; its summits were fretted with a white which +turned to clear rose color under the sunset. This was Pentelicus, +from the veins whereof came the lustrous marble for the master +sculptor. Closer at hand, nearer the center of the plain, rose +a small and very isolated hill,—Lycabettus, whose peaked summit +looked down upon the roofs of Athens. And last, but never least, +about one mile southwest of Lycabettus, upreared a natural monument +of much greater frame,—not a hill, but a colossal rock. Its +shape was that of an irregular oval; it was about 1000 feet long, +500 feet wide, and its level summit stood 350 feet above the plain. +This steep, tawny rock, flung by the Titans, one might dream, +into the midst of the Attic plain, formed one of the most famous +sites in the world, for it was the Acropolis of Athens. Its full +significance, however, must be explained later. From the Acropolis +and a few lesser hills close by, the land sloped gently down towards +the harbors and the Saronic Bay. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus03"></a> +<img src="images/fig03.jpg" width="500" height="429" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Sketch map of Athens</p> +</div> + +<p> +These were the great features of the outward setting of Athens. One +might add to them the long belt of dark green olive groves winding +down the westward side of the plain, where the Cephisus (which +along among Attic rivulets did not run dry in summer) ran down to +the sea. There was also a shorter olive belt west of the city, +where the weaker Ilissus crept, before it lost itself amid the +thirsty fields. +</p> + +<p> +Sea, rock, and sky, then, joined together around Athens as around +almost no other city in the world. The landscape itself was adjusted +to the eye with marvelous harmony. The colors and contours formed +one glorious model for the sculptor and the painter, one perpetual +inspiration for the poet. Even if Athens had never been the seat +of a famous race, she would have won fame as being situated in one +of the most beautiful localities in the world. Rightly, therefore, did +its dwellers boast of their city as the “Violet-crowned” (<i>Iostephanos</i>). +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect08"></a> +<b>8. 360 B.C.—The Year of the Visit to Athens.</b>—This city let us +visit in the days of its greatest outward glory. We may select the +year 360 B.C. At that time Athens had recovered from the ravages +of the Peloponnesian War, while the Macedonian peril had not as +yet become menacing. The great public buildings were nearly all +completed. No signs of material decadence were visible, and if +Athens no longer possessed the wide naval empire of the days of +Pericles, her fleets and her armies were still formidable. The +harbors were full of commerce; the philosophers were teaching their +pupils in the groves and porticoes; the democratic constitution was +entirely intact. With intelligent vision we will enter the city +and look about us. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>Chapter II.<br /> +The First Sights in Athens.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect09"></a> +<b>9. The Morning Crowds bound for Athens.</b>—It is very early in the +morning. The sun has just pushed above the long ridge of Hymettus, +sending a slanting red bar of light across the Attic plain, and +touching the opposite slopes of Ægaleos with livid fire. Already, +however, life is stirring outside the city. Long since, little +market boats have rowed across the narrow strait from Salamis, +bringing the island farmer’s produce, and other farmers from the +plain and the mountain slopes have started for market. In the +ruddy light the marble temples on the lofty Acropolis rising ahead +of these hurrying rustics are standing out clearly; the spear +and helmet of the great brazen statue of the Athena Promachos are +flashing from the noble citadel, as a kind of day beacon, beckoning +onward toward the city. From the Peiræus, the harbor town, a +confused hum of mariners lading and unlading vessels is even now +rising, but we cannot turn ourselves thither. Our route is to +follow the farmers bound for market. +</p> + +<p> +The most direct road from the Peiræus to Athens is hidden indeed, +for it leads between the towering ramparts of the “Long Walls,” +two mighty barriers which run parallel almost four miles from the +inland city to the harbor, giving a guarded passage in wartime and +making Athens safe against starvation from any land blockade; but +there is an outside road leading also to Athens from the western +farmsteads, and this we can conveniently follow. Upon this route +the crowd which one meets is certainly not aristocratic, but it +is none the less Athenian. Here goes a drover, clad in skins, his +legs wound with woolen bands in lieu of stockings; before him and +his wolf-like dog shambles a flock of black sheep or less manageable +goats, bleating and baaing as they are propelled toward market. +After him there may come an unkempt, long-bearded farmer flogging on +a pack ass or a mule attached to a clumsy cart with solid wheels, +and laden with all kinds of market produce. The roadway, be it +said, is not good, and all carters have their troubles; therefore, +there is a deal of gesticulating and profane invocation of Hermes +and all other gods of traffic; for, early as it is, the market +place is already filling, and every delay promises a loss. There +are still other companions bound toward the city: countrymen +bearing cages of poultry; others engaged in the uncertain calling +of driving pigs; swarthy Oriental sailors, with rings in their +ears, bearing bales of Phœnician goods from the Peiræus; respectable +country gentlemen, walking gravely in their best white mantles +and striving to avoid the mud and contamination; and perhaps also +a small company of soldiers, just back from foreign service, passes, +clattering shields and spear staves. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus04"></a> +<img src="images/fig04.jpg" width="360" height="400" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Peasant going to Market</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect10"></a> +<b>10. The Gate and the Street Scenes.</b>—The crowds grow denser +as everybody approaches the frequented “Peiræus Gate,” for nearly +all of Attica which lies within easy reach of Athens has business +in the Market Place every morning. On passing the gate a fairly +straight way leads through the city to the market, but progress for +the multitude becomes slow. If it is one of the main thoroughfares, +it is now very likely to be almost blocked with people. There are +few late risers at Athens; the Council of Five Hundred[*], the huge +Jury Courts, and the Public Assembly (if it has met to-day[+]) are +appointed to gather at sunrise. The plays in the theater, which, +however, are given only on certain festivals, begin likewise at +sunrise. The philosophers say that “the man who would accomplish +great things must be up while yet it is dark.” Athenians, therefore, +are always awake and stirring at an hour when men of later ages and +more cold and foggy climes will be painfully yawning ere getting +out of bed. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The “Boule,” the great standing committee of the Athenian people +to aid the magistrates in the government. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] In which case, of course, the regular courts and the Council +would hardly meet. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus05"></a> +<img src="images/fig05.jpg" width="367" height="400" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">At the Street Fountain</p> +</div> + +<p> +The Market Place attracts the great masses, but by no means all; +hither and thither bevies of sturdy slave girls, carrying graceful +pitchers on their heads, are hurrying towards the fountains which +gush cool water at most of the street corners. Theirs is a highly +necessary task, for few or no houses have their own water supply; +and around each fountain one can see half a dozen by no means +slatternly maidens, splashing and flirting the water one at another, +while they wait their turn with the pitchers, and laugh and exchange +banter with the passing farmers’ lads. Many in the street crowds +are rosy-cheeked schoolboys, walking decorously, if they are lads +of good breeding, and blushing modestly when they are greeted +by their fathers’ acquaintances. They do not loiter on the way. +Close behind, carrying their writing tablets, follow the faithful +‘pedagogues,’ the body-servants appointed to conduct them to +school, give them informal instruction, and, if need be, correct +their faults in no painless manner. Besides the water maids +and the schoolboys, from the innumerable house doors now opening +the respective masters are stepping forth—followed by one, two, +or several serving varlets, as many as their wealth affords. All +these join in the crowd entering from the country. “Athenian +democracy” always implies a goodly amount of hustling and pushing. +No wonder the ways are a busy sight! +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect11"></a> +<b>11. The Streets and House Fronts of Athens.</b>—Progress is slower near +the Market Place because of the extreme narrowness of the streets. +They are only fifteen feet wide or even less,—intolerable alleys +a later age would call them,—and dirty to boot. Sometimes they +are muddy, more often extremely dusty. Worse still, they are +contaminated by great accumulations of filth; for the city is without +an efficient sewer system or regular scavengers. Even as the crowd +elbows along, a house door will frequently open, an ill-favored +slave boy show his head, and with the yell, “Out of the way!” slap +a bucket of dirty water into the street. There are many things to +offend the nose as well as the eyes of men of a later race. It is +fortunate indeed that the Athenians are otherwise a healthy folk, +or they would seem liable to perpetual pestilence; even so, great +plagues have in past years harried the city[*]. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The most fearful thereof was the great plague of 430 B.C. (during +the Peloponnesian War), which nearly ruined Athens. +</p> + +<p> +The first entrance to Athens will thus bring to a stranger, full of +the city’s fame and expectant of meeting objects of beauty at every +turn, almost instant disappointment. The narrow, dirty, ill-paved +streets are also very crooked. One can readily be lost in a +labyrinth of filthy little lanes the moment one quits the few main +thoroughfares. High over head, to be sure, the red crags of the +Acropolis may be towering, crowned with the red, gold, and white +tinted marble of the temples, but all around seems only monotonous +squalor. The houses seem one continuous series of blank walls; +mostly of one, occasionally of two stories, and with flat roofs. +These walls are usually spread over with some dirty gray or perhaps +yellow stucco. For most houses, the only break in the street walls +are the simple doors, all jealously barred and admitting no glance +within. There are usually no street windows, if the house is only +one story high. If it has two stories, a few narrow slits above +the way may hint that here are the apartments for the slaves or +women. There are no street numbers. There are often no street +names. “So-and-so lives in such-and-such a quarter, near the +Temple of Heracles;” that will enable you to find a householder, +after a few tactful questions from the neighbors; and after all, +Athens is a relatively small city[*] (as great cities are reckoned), +very closely built, and her regular denizens do not feel the need +of a directory. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[* ]Every guess at the population of Athens rests on mere conjecture; +yet, using the scanty data which we possess, it seems possible +that <i>the population of all Attica</i> at the height of its prosperity +was about <i>200,000 free persons</i> (including the <i>metics</i>—resident +foreigners without citizenship); and a rather smaller number of +slaves—say 150,000 or less. Of this total of some 350,000, probably +something under one half resided in the city of Athens during times +of peace, the rest in the outlying farms and villages. <i>Athens may +be imagined as a city of about 150,000</i>—possibly a trifle more. +During serious wars there would be of course a general removal into +the city. +</p> + +<p> +So the crowd elbows its way onward: now thinning, now gaining, +but the main stream always working towards the Market Place. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect12"></a> +<b>12. The Simplicity of Athenian Life.</b>—It is clear we are entering +a city where nine tenths of what the twentieth century will consider +the “essential conveniences” of life are entirely lacking; where +men are trying to be civilized—or, as the Greeks would say, to lay +hold upon “the true, the beautiful, and the good,” without even the +absolute minimum of those things which people of a later age will +believe separate a “civilized man” from a “barbarian.” The gulf +between old Athens and, for instance, new Chicago is greater than +is readily supposed[*]. It is easy enough to say that the Athenians +lacked such things as railways, telephones, gas, grapefruit, +and cocktails. All such matters we realize were not known by our +fathers and grandfathers, and we are not yet so removed from <i>them</i> +that we cannot transport ourselves in imagination back to the +world of say 1820 A.D.; but the Athenians are far behind even our +grandfathers. When we investigate, we will find conditions like +these—houses absolutely without plumbing, beds without sheets, +rooms as hot or as cold as the outer air, only far more drafty. We +must cross rivers without bridges; we must fasten our clothes (or +rather our “two pieces of cloth”) with two pins instead of with +a row of buttons; we must wear sandals without stockings (or go +barefoot); must warm ourselves over a pot of ashes; judge plays or +lawsuits on a cold winter morning sitting in the open air; we must +study poetry with very little aid from books, geography without +real maps, and politics without newspapers; and lastly, “we must +learn how to be civilized without being comfortable!”[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] See the very significant comment on the physical limitations +of the old Athenian life in Zimmern’s “<i>The Greek Commonwealth</i>,” p. +209. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Zimmern, <i>ibid</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Or, to reverse the case: we must understand that an Athenian would +have pronounced our boasted “civilization” hopelessly artificial, +and our life so dependent on outward material props and factors +as to be scarcely worth the living. He would declare himself well +able to live happily under conditions where the average American +or Englishman would be cold, semi-starved, and miserable. He would +declare that <i>his</i> woe or happiness was retained far more under his own +control than we retain ours, and that we are worthy of contemptuous +pity rather than of admiration, because we have refined our +civilization to such a point that the least accident, <i>e.g.</i> the +suspension of rail traffic for a few days, can reduce a modern city +to acute wretchedness. +</p> + +<p> +Probably neither the twentieth century in its pride, nor the fourth +century B.C. in its contempt, would have all the truth upon its +side.[*] The difference in viewpoint, however, must still stand. +Preëminently Athens may be called the “City of the Simple Life.” +Bearing this fact in mind, we may follow the multitude and enter +the Marketplace; or, to use the name that stamps it as a peculiarly +Greek institution,—the Agora. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The mere matter of <i>climate</i> would of course have to come in as +a serious factor. The Athenian would have found his life becoming +infinitely more complex along the material side when he tried +to live like a “<i>kalos-k’agathos</i>”—<i>i.e.</i> a “noble and good man,” or +a “gentleman,”—in a land where the thermometer might sink to 15° +below zero Fahrenheit (or even lower) from time to time during the +winter. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>Chapter III.<br /> +The Agora and its Denizens.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect13"></a> +<b>13. The Buildings around the Agora.</b>—Full market time![*] The great +plaza of the Agora is buzzing with life. The contrast between the +dingy, dirty streets and this magnificent public plaza is startling. +The Athenians manifestly care little for merely private display, +rather they frown upon it; their wealth, patriotism, and best +artistic energy seem all lavished upon their civic establishments +and buildings. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Between nine and twelve A.M. +</p> + +<p> +The Agora is a square of spacious dimensions, planted here and +there with graceful bay trees. Its greatest length runs north and +south. Ignoring for the time the teeming noisy swarms of humanity, +let our eyes be directed merely upon the encircling buildings. The +place is almost completely enclosed by them, although not all are +of equal elegance or pretension. Some are temples of more or less +size, like the temple of the “Paternal Apollo” near the southwestern +angle; or the “Metroön,” the fane of Cybele “the Great Mother +of the Gods,” upon the south. Others are governmental buildings; +somewhat behind the Metroön rise the imposing pillars of the Council +House, where the Five Hundred are deliberating on the policy of +Athens; and hard by that is the Tholos, the “Round House,” with a +peaked, umbrella-shaped roof, beneath which the sacred public hearth +fire is ever kept burning, and where the presiding Committee of +the Council[*] and certain high officials take their meals, and a +good deal of state business is transacted. The majority of these +buildings upon the Agora, however, are covered promenades, porticoes, +or stoæ. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This select committee was known technically as the “<i>Prytanes</i>.” +</p> + +<p> +The stoæ are combinations of rain shelters, shops, picture galleries, +and public offices. Turn under the pillars of the “Royal Stoa” +upon the west, and you are among the whispering, nudging, intent +crowd of listeners, pushing against the barriers of a low court. +Long rows of jurors are sitting on their benches; the “King Archon” +is on the president’s stand, and some poor wight is being arraigned +on a charge of “Impiety”[*]; while on the walls behind stand graved +and ancient laws of Draco and Solon. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The so-called “King Archon” had special cognizance of most cases +involving religious questions; and his court was in this stoa. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus06"></a> +<img src="images/fig06.jpg" width="313" height="400" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">A Wayside Herm</p> +</div> + +<p> +Cross the square, and on the opposite side is one of the most +magnificent of the porticoes, the “Painted Porch” (“<i>Stoa Poikilë</i>”), +a long covered walk, a delightful refuge alike from sun and rain. +Almost the entire length of the inner walls (for it has columns +only on the side of the Agora) is covered with vivid frescoes. Here +Polygnotus and other master painters have spread out the whole +legendary story of the capture of Troy and of the defeat of the +Amazons; likewise the more historical tale of the battle of Marathon. +Yet another promenade, the “Stoa of Zeus,” is sacred to Zeus, Giver +of Freedom. The walls are not frescoed, but hung with the shields +of valiant Athenian warriors. +</p> + +<p> +In the open spaces of the plaza itself are various altars, <i>e.g.</i> to +the “Twelve Gods,” and innumerable statues of local worthies, as +of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the tyrant-slayers; while across the +center, cutting the Market Place from east to west, runs a line of +stone posts, each surmounted with a rude bearded head of Hermes, +the trader’s god; and each with its base plastered many times over +with all kinds of official and private placards and notices. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect14"></a> +<b>14. The Life in the Agora.</b>—So much for the physical setting of +the Agora: of far greater interest surely are the people. The +whole square is abounding with noisy activity. If an Athenian has +no actual business to transact, he will at least go to the Agora +to get the morning news. Two turns under the “Painted Porch” will +tell him the last rumor as to the foreign policy of Thebes; whether +it is true that old King Agesilaus has died at Sparta; whether corn +is likely to be high, owning to a failure of crops in the Euxine +(Black Sea) region; whether the “Great King” of Persia is prospering +in his campaign against Egypt. The crowd is mostly clad in white, +though often the cloaks of the humbler visitors are dirty, but there +is a sprinkling of gay colors,—blue, orange, and pink. Everybody +is talking at once in melodious Attic; everybody (since they are +all true children of the south) is gesticulating at once. To the +babel of human voices is added the wheezing whistle of donkeys, +the squealing of pigs, the cackle of poultry. Besides, from many +of the little factories and workshops on or near the Agora a great +din is rising. The clamor is prodigious. Criers are stalking +up and down the square, one bawling out that Andocides has lost a +valuable ring and will pay well to recover it; another the Pheidon +has a desirable horse that he will sell cheap. One must stand +still for some moments and let eye and ear accustom themselves to +such utter confusion. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect15"></a> +<b>15. The Booths and Shops in the Agora.</b>—At length out of the chaos +there seems to emerge a certain order. The major part of the square +is covered with little booths of boards and wicker work, very frail +and able to be folded up, probably every night. There are little +lanes winding amid these booths; and each manner of huckster has +its own especial “circle” or section of the market. “Go to the +wine,” “to the fish,” “to the myrtles” (<i>i.e.</i> the flowers), are +common directions for finding difficult parts of the Agora. Trade +is mostly on a small scale,—the stock of each vendor is distinctly +limited in its range, and Athens is without “department stores.” Behind +each low counter, laden with its wares, stands the proprietor, who +keeps up a din from leathern lungs: “Buy my oil!” “Buy charcoal!” +“Buy sausage!” etc., until he is temporarily silenced while dealing +with a customer. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus07"></a> +<img src="images/fig07.jpg" width="407" height="400" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">A Carpenter</p> +</div> + +<p> +In one “circle” may be found onions and garlic (a favorite food +of the poor); a little further on are the dealers in wine, fruit, +and garden produce. Lentils and peas can be had either raw, or +cooked and ready to eat on the spot. An important center is the +bread market. The huge cylindrical loaves are handed out by shrewd +old women with proverbially long tongues. Whosoever upsets one of +their delicately balanced piles of loaves is certain of an artistic +tongue lashing. Elsewhere there is a pottery market, a clothes +market, and, nearer the edge of the Agora, are “circles,” where +objects of real value are sold, like jewelry, chariots, good +furniture. In certain sections, too, may be seen strong-voiced +individuals, with little trays swung by straps before them, pacing +to and fro, and calling out, not foods, but medicines, infallible +cure-alls for every human distemper. Many are the unwary fools +who patronize them. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect16"></a> +<b>16. The Flower and the Fish Vendors.</b>—Two circles attract especial +attention, the Myrtles and the Fish. Flowers and foliage, especially +when made up into garlands, are absolutely indispensable to the +average Greek. Has he a great family festival, <i>e.g.</i> the birth +of a son, then every guest should wear a crown of olives; is it a +wedding, then one of flowers.[*] Oak-leaves do the honors for Zeus; +laurel for Apollo; myrtle for Aphrodite (and is not the Love-Goddess +the favorite?). To have a social gathering without garlands, in +short, is impossible. The flower girls of Athens are beautiful, +impudent, and not at all prudish. Around their booths press +bold-tongued youths, and not too discreet sires; and the girls can +call everybody familiarly by name. Very possibly along with the +sale of the garlands they make arrangements (if the banquet is +to be of the less respectable kind) to be present in the evening +themselves, perhaps in the capacity of flute girls. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The Greeks lacked many of our common flowers. Their ordinary +flowers were white violets, narcissus, lilies, crocuses, blue +hyacinths, and roses (“the Flower of Zeus”). The usual garland +was made of myrtle or ivy and then entwined with various flowers. +</p> + +<p> +More reputable, though not less noisy, is the fish market. Athenians +boast themselves of being no hearty “meat eaters” like their Bœotian +neighbors, but of preferring the more delicate fish. No dinner +party is successful without a seasonable course of fish. The arrival +of a fresh cargo from the harbor is announced by the clanging of +a bell, which is likely to leave all the other booths deserted, +while a crowd elbows around the fishmonger. He above all others +commands the greatest flow of billingsgate, and is especially notorious +for his arrogant treatment of his customers, and for exacting the +uttermost farthing. The “Fish” and the “Myrtles” can be sure of +a brisk trade on days when all the other booth keepers around the +Agora stand idle. +</p> + +<p> +All this trade, of course, cannot find room in the booths of the +open Agora. Many hucksters sit on their haunches on the level +ground with their few wares spread before them. Many more have +little stands between the pillars of the stoæ; and upon the various +streets that converge on the market there is a fringe of shops, +but these are usually of the more substantial sort. Here are the +barbers’ shops, the physicians’ offices (if the good leech is more +than an itinerant quack), and all sorts of little factories, such +as smithies, where the cutler’s apprentices in the rear of the shop +forge the knives which the proprietor sells over the counter, the +slave repositories, and finally wine establishments of no high +repute, where wine may not merely be bought by the skin (as in the +main Agora), but by the potful to be drunk on the premises. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect17"></a> +<b>17. The Morning Visitors to the Agora.</b>—The first tour of inspection +completed, several facts become clear to the visitor. One is the +extraordinarily large proportion of <i>men</i> among the moving multitudes. +Except for the bread women and the flower girls, hardly one female +is to be found among the sellers. Among the purchasers there is +not a single reputable lady. No Athenian gentlewoman dreams of +frequenting the Agora. Even a poor man’s wife prefers to let her +spouse do the family marketing. As for the “men folk,” the average +gentleman will go daily indeed to the Agora, but if he is really +pretentious, it will be merely to gossip and to meet his friends; +a trusted servant will attend to the regular purchasing. Only when +an important dinner party is on hand will the master take pains to +order for himself. If he does purchase in person, he will never +<i>carry</i> anything himself. The slaves can attend to that; and only +the slaveless (the poorest of all) must take away their modest +rations of boiled lentils, peas, beans, onions, and garlic, usually +in baskets, though yonder now is a soldier who is bearing off a +measure of boiled peas inside his helmet. +</p> + +<p> +Another thing is striking. The average poor Athenian seems to +have no purse. Or rather he uses the purse provided by nature. At +every booth one can see unkempt buyers solemnly taking their small +change from their mouths.[*] Happy the people that has not learned +the twentieth century wisdom concerning microbes! For most Athenians +seem marvelously healthy. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] A wealthier purchaser would, of course, have his own pouch, or +more probably one carried for him by a slave. +</p> + +<p> +Still one other fact is brought home constantly. “Fixed prices” +are absolutely unknown. The slightest transaction involves a war of +bargaining. Wits are matched against wits, and only after a vast +deal of wind do buyer and seller reach a fair compromise. All +this makes retail trade in the Agora an excellent school for public +affairs or litigation. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect18"></a> +<b>18. The Leisured Class in Athens.</b>—Evidently Athens, more than +many later-day cities, draws clear lines between the workers and the +“gentlemen of leisure.” There is no distinction of dress between +the numerous slaves and the humbler free workers and traders; but +there is obvious distinction between the artisan of bent shoulders +who shambles out of yonder pungent tannery, with his scant garments +girded around him, and the graceful gentleman of easy gestures +and flowing drapery who moves towards the Tholos. There is great +<i>political</i> democracy in Athens, but not so much <i>social</i> democracy. +“Leisure,” <i>i.e.</i> exemption from every kind of sordid, money-getting, +hard work, is counted the true essential for a respectable existence, +and to live on the effort of others and to devote oneself to public +service or to letters and philosophy is the open satisfaction or +the private longing of every Athenian. +</p> + +<p> +A great proportion of these, therefore, who frequent the Agora are +not here on practical business, unless they have official duties +at the government offices.[*] But in no city of any age has the +gracious art of doing nothing been brought to such perfection. +The Athenians are an intensely gregarious people. Everybody knows +everybody else. Says an orator, “It is impossible for a man to +be either a rascal or an honest man in this city without your all +knowing it.” Few men walk long alone; if they do keep their own +company, they are frowned on as “misanthropes.” The morning visit +to the Agora “to tell or to hear some new thing”[+] will be followed +by equally delightful idling and conversation later in the day at +the Gymnasia, and later still, probably, at the dinner-party. Easy +and unconventional are the personal greetings. A little shaking +out of the mantle, an indescribable flourish with the hands. A +free Greek will despise himself for “bowing,” even to the Great +King. To clasp hands implies exchanging a pledge, something for +more than mere salutation. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Chaire</i>, Aristomenes!” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Chaire</i>, Cleandros!” +</p> + +<p> +Such is the usual greeting, using an expressive word which can mean +equally well “hail!” and “farewell!” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] To serve the state in any official capacity (usually without any +salary attached to the office) would give the highest satisfaction +to any Greek. The desire for participation in public affairs might +be described as a mania. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Acts of the Apostles, 17:21. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect19"></a> +<b>19. Familiar Types around the Agora.</b>—These animated, eager-faced +men whose mantles fall in statuesque folds prefer obviously to walk +under the Painted Porch, or the blue roof of heaven, while they +evolve their philosophies, mature their political schemes, or +organize the material for their orations and dramas, rather than to +bend over desks within close offices. Around the Athenian Agora, +a true type of this preference, and busy with this delightful +idleness, half a century earlier could have been seen a droll +figure with “indescribable nose, bald head, round body, eyes rolling +and twinkling with good humor,” scantily clad,—an incorrigible +do-nothing, windbag, and hanger-on, a later century might assert,—yet +history has given to him the name of Socrates. +</p> + +<p> +Not all Athenians, of course, make such justifiable use of their +idleness. There are plenty of young men parading around in long +trailing robes, their hair oiled and curled most effeminately, +their fingers glittering with jewels,—“ring-loaded, curly-locked +coxcombs,” Aristophanes, the comic poet, has called them,—and +they are here only for silly display. Also there are many of their +elders who have no philosophy or wit to justify their continuous +talking; nevertheless, all considered, it must be admitted that +the Athenian makes a use of their dearly loved “leisure,” which +men of a more pragmatic race will do well to consider as the fair +equivalent of much frantic zeal for “business.” Athenian “leisure” has +already given the world Pericles, Thucydides, Æschylus, Sophocles, +Euripides, Socrates, and Plato, not to name such artists as Phidias, +whose profession cannot exempt them from a certain manual occupation. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect20"></a> +<b>20. The Barber Shops.</b>—This habit of genteel idleness naturally +develops various peculiar institutions. For example, the barber +shops are almost club rooms. Few Hellenes at this time shave their +beards[*], but to go with unkempt whiskers and with too long hair +is most disgraceful. The barber shops, booths, or little rooms let +into the street walls of the houses, are therefore much frequented. +The good tonsors have all the usual arts. They can dye gray hair +brown or black; they can wave or curl their patrons’ locks (and +an artificially curled head is no disgrace to a man). Especially, +they keep a good supply of strong perfumes; for many people will +want a little scent on their hair each morning, even if they wish +no other attention. But it is not an imposition to a barber to +enter his shop, yet never move towards his low stool before the +shining steel mirror. Anybody is welcome to hang around indefinitely, +listening to the proprietor’s endless flow of talk. He will pride +himself on knowing every possible bit of news or rumor: Had the +Council resolved on a new fleet-building program? Had the Tyrant +of Syracuse’s “four” the best chance in the chariot race in the +next Olympic games? The garrulity of barbers is already proverbial. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.) required his soldiers to be +shaved (as giving less grasp for the enemy!), and the habit then +spread generally through the whole Hellenic world. +</p> + +<p> +“How shall I cut your hair, sir?” once asked the court tonsure of +King Archeläus of Macedon. +</p> + +<p> +“In silence,” came the grim answer. +</p> + +<p> +But the proprietor will not do all the talking. Everybody in the +little room will join. Wits will sharpen against wits; and if the +company is of a grave and respectable sort, the conversation will +grow brisk upon Plato’s theory of the “reality of ideas,” upon +Euripides’s interpretation of the relations of God to man, or upon +the spiritual symbolism of Scopas’s bas-reliefs at Halicarnassus. +</p> + +<p> +The barber shops by the Agora then are essential portions of +Athenian social life. Later we shall see them supplemented by the +Gymnasia;—but the Agora has detained us long enough. The din and +crowds are lessening. People are beginning to stream homeward. +It lacks a little of noon according to the “time-staff” (<i>gnomon</i>), +a simple sun dial which stands near one of the porticoes, and we +will now follow some Athenian gentleman towards his dwelling. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>Chapter IV.<br /> +The Athenian House and its Furnishings.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect21"></a> +<b>21. Following an Athenian Gentleman Homeward.</b>—Leaving the Agora +and reëntering the streets the second impression of the residence +districts becomes more favorable. There are a few bay trees planted +from block to block; and ever and anon the monotonous house walls +recede, giving space to display some temple, like the Fane of +Hephæstos[*] near the Market Place, its columns and pediment flashing +not merely with white marble, but with the green, scarlet, and gold +wherewith the Greeks did not hesitate to decorate their statuary. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Wrongly called the “Theseum” in modern Athens. +</p> + +<p> +At street corners and opposite important mansions a Hermes-bust +like those in the plaza rises, and a very few houses have a couple +of pillars at their entrances and some outward suggestion of hidden +elegance. +</p> + +<p> +We observe that almost the entire crowd leaving the Agora goes +on foot. To ride about in a chariot is a sign of undemocratic +presumption; while only women or sick men will consent to be borne +in a litter. We will select a sprucely dressed gentleman who has +just been anointed in a barber’s shop and accompany him to his home. +He is neither one of the decidedly rich, otherwise his establishment +would be exceptional, not typical, nor is he of course one of +the hard-working poor. Followed by perhaps two clean and capable +serving lads, he wends his way down several of the narrow lanes that +lie under the northern brow of the Acropolis[*]. Before a plain +solid house door he halts and cries, “<i>Pai! Pai!</i>” [“Boy! Boy!”]. +There is a rattle of bolts and bars. A low-visaged foreign-born +porter, whose business it is to show a surly front to all unwelcome +visitors, opens and gives a kind of salaam to his master; while +the porter’s huge dog jumps up barking and pawing joyously. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This would be a properly respectable quarter of the city, but +we do not know of any really “aristocratic residence district” in +Athens. +</p> + +<p> +As we enter behind him (carefully advancing with right foot foremost, +for it is bad luck to tread a threshold with the <i>left</i>) we notice +above the lintel some such inscription as “Let no evil enter here!” +or “To the Good Genius,” then a few steps through a narrow passage +bring us into the <i>Aula</i>, the central court, the indispensable feature +of every typical Greek house. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect22"></a> +<b>22. The Type and use of a Greek House.</b>—All domestic architecture, +later investigators will discover, falls into two great categories—of +the northern house and the southern house. The northern house begins +with a single large room, “the great hall,” then lesser rooms are +added to it. It gets its light from windows in the outer walls, +and it is covered by a single steep roof. The southern (Greek and +Oriental) house is a building inclosing a rectangular court. The +rooms, many or few, get their light from this court, while they +are quite shut off from the world outside. All in all, for warm +climates this style of house is far more airy, cool, comfortable +than the other. The wide open court becomes the living room of +the house save in very inclement weather. +</p> + +<p> +Socrates is reported to have uttered what was probably the average +sensible view about a good house.[*] The good house, he thought, +should be cool in summer, and warm in winter, convenient for the +accommodation of the family and its possessions. The central rooms +should therefore be lofty and should open upon the south, yet for +protection in summer there should be good projecting eaves (over +the court) and again the rooms on the northern exposure should be +made lower. All this is mere sense, but really the average male +Athenian does not care a great deal about his dwelling. He spends +surprisingly little money beautifying it. Unless he is sick, he +will probably be at home only for sleeping and eating. The Agora, +the Public Assembly, the Jury Courts, the Gymnasium, the great +religious festivals consume his entire day. “I never spend my time +indoors,” says Xenophon’s model Athenian, “my wife is well able +to run the household by herself.”[+] Such being the case, even +wealthy men have very simple establishments, although it is at length +complained (<i>e.g.</i> by Demosthenes) that people are now building more +luxurious houses, and are not content with the plain yet sufficient +dwellings of the great age of Pericles.[@] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] In Xenophon’s <i>Memorabilia</i>, III. 8, §§ 9,10. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Xenophon, “<i>Economics</i>,” VII. 3. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[@] Very probably in such outlying Greek cities as Syracuse, Taras +(Tarentum), etc., more elegant houses could be found than any at +this time in Athens. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect23"></a> +<b>23. The Plan of a Greek House.</b>—The plan of a Greek house naturally +varies infinitely according to the size of the land plot, the size +of the owner’s family, his own taste, and wealth. It will usually +be rectangular, with the narrower side toward the street; but this +is not invariable. In the larger houses there will be two courts +(<i>aulæ</i>), one behind the other, and each with its own circuit of +dependent chambers. The court first entered will be the <i>Andronitis</i> +(the Court of the Men), and may be even large enough to afford a +considerable promenade for exercise. Around the whole of the open +space run lines of simple columns, and above the opening swings an +awning if the day is very hot. In the very center rises a small +stone altar with a statue of Zeus the Protector (<i>Zeus Herkeïos</i>), +where the father of the family will from time to time offer sacrifice, +acting as the priest for the household. Probably already on the +altar there has been laid a fresh garland; if not, the newcomers +from the Agora have now fetched one. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus08"></a> +<img src="images/fig08.jpg" width="336" height="500" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Conjectural Plan for the House of A Wealthy Athenian.<br /> +A = Altar of Zeus Herkelos.<br /> +B = Altar of Hestia.<br /> +C = Entrance Hall.<br /> +D = Kitchen.<br /> +T = Thalmos.<br /> +T′ = Anti-thalmos.<br /> +X = Rooms for the Men.<br /> +Y = Rooms for the Women.<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p> +The Andronitis is the true living room of the house: here the +master will receive his visitors, here the male slaves will work, +and the women also busy themselves (promptly retiring, however, +on the appearance of masculine strangers). The decoration is very +plain: the walls are neatly tinted with some kind of wash; the +floor is of simple plaster, or, in a humbler house, common earth +pounded hard. Under the colonnade at all four sides open the +various chambers, possibly twelve in all. They really are cells +or compartments rather than rooms, small and usually lighted only +by their doors. Some are used for storerooms, some for sleeping +closets for the male slaves and for the grown-up sons of the +house, if there are any. Dark, ill ventilated, and most scantily +furnished, it is no wonder that the average Athenian loves the +Agora better than his chamber. +</p> + +<p> +The front section of the house is now open to us, but it is time +to penetrate farther. Directly behind the open court is a sizable +chamber forming a passage to the inner house. This chamber is the +<i>Andron</i>, the dining hall and probably the most pretentious room in +the house. Here the guests will gather for the dinner party, and +here in one corner smokes the family hearth, once the real fire for +the whole household cooking, but now merely a symbol of the domestic +worship. It is simply a little round altar sacred to Hestia, the +hearth goddess,[*] and on its duly rekindled flame little “meat +offerings and drink offerings” are cast at every meal, humble or +elaborate. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Who corresponds to the Roman goddess <i>Vesta</i>. +</p> + +<p> +In the rear wall of the Andron facing the Andronitis is a solid +door. We are privileged guests indeed if we pass it. Only the +father, sons, or near male kinsmen of the family are allowed to go +inside, for it leads into the <i>Gynæconitis</i>, the hall of the women. +To thrust oneself into the Gynæconitis of even a fairly intimate +friend is a studied insult at Athens, and sure to be resented by +bodily chastisement, social ostracism, and a ruinous legal prosecution. +The Gynæconitis is in short the Athenian’s holy of holies. Their +women are forbidden to participate in so much of public life that +their own peculiar world is especially reserved to them. To invade +this world is not bad breeding; it is social sacrilege. +</p> + +<p> +In the present house, the home of a well-to-do family, the Gynæconitis +forms a second pillared court with adjacent rooms of substantially +the same size and shape as the Andronitis. One of the rooms in +the very rear is proclaimed by the clatter of pots and pans and +the odor of a frying turbot to be the kitchen; others are obviously +the sleeping closets of the slave women. On the side nearest to +the front of the house, but opening itself upon this inner court, +is at least one bed chamber of superior size. This is the <i>Thalamos</i>, +the great bedroom of the master and mistress, and here are kept all +the most costly furnishings and ornaments in the house. If there +are grown-up unmarried daughters, they have another such bedroom +(<i>anti-thalamos</i>) that is much larger than the cells of the slave +girls. Another special room is set apart for the working of wool, +although this chief occupation of the female part of the household +is likely to be carried on in the open inner court itself, if the +weather is fine. Here, around a little flower bed, slave girls +are probably spinning and embroidering, young children playing or +quarreling, and a tame quail is hopping about and watching for a +crumb. There are in fact a great many people in a relatively small +space; everything is busy, chattering, noisy, and confusing to an +intruding stranger. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect24"></a> +<b>24. Modifications in the Typical Plan.</b>—These are the essential +features of an Athenian house. If the establishment is a very +pretentious one, there may be a small garden in the rear carefully +hedged against intruders by a lofty wall.[*] More probably the +small size of the house lot would force simplifications in the +scheme already stated. In a house one degree less costly, the +Gynæconitis would be reduced to a mere series of rooms shut off in +the rear. In more simple houses still there would be no interior +section of the house at all. The women of the family would be +provided for by a staircase rising from the main hall to a second +story, and here a number of upper chambers would give the needful +seclusion.[+] Of course as one goes down the social scale, the +houses grow simpler and simpler. Small shops are set into the +street wall at either side of the entrance door, and on entering +one finds himself in a very limited and utterly dingy court with +a few dirty compartments opening thence, which it would be absurd +to dignify by the name of “rooms.” Again one ceases to wonder +that the male Athenians are not “home folk” and are glad to leave +their houses to the less fortunate women! +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Such a luxury would not be common in city houses; land would be +too valuable. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Houses of more than two stories seem to have been unknown +in Athens. The city lacked the towering rookeries of tenements +(<i>insulæ</i>) which were characteristic of Rome; sometimes, however, a +house seems to have been shared between several families. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect25"></a> +<b>25. Rents and House Values.</b>—Most native Athenians own their houses. +Houses indeed can be rented, usually by the foreign traders and +visitors who swam into the city; and at certain busy seasons one can +hire “lodgings” for a brief sojourn. Rents are not unreasonable, +8% or 8 1/3% of the value of the house being counted a fair annual +return. But the average citizen is also a householder, because +forsooth houses are very cheap. The main cost is probably for +the land. The chief material used in building, sun-dried brick, +is very unsubstantial,[*] and needs frequent repairs, but is +not expensive. Demosthenes the Orator speaks of a “little house” +(doubtless of the kind last described) worth only seven minæ [about +$126.00 (1914) or $2,242.80 (2000)], and this is not the absolute +minimum. A very rich banker has had one worth 100 minæ [about +$1,800.00 (1914) or $32,040.00 (2000)], and probably this is close +to the maximum. The rent question is not therefore one of the +pressing problems at Athens. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This material was so friable and poor that the Greek burglar +was known as a “Wall-digger.” It did not pay him to pick a lock; +it was simpler for him to quarry his way through the wall with a +pickax. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect26"></a> +<b>26. The Simple yet Elegant Furnishings of an Athenian Home.</b>—These +houses, even owned by the lordly rich, are surprisingly simple +in their furnishings. The accumulation of heavy furniture, wall +decorations, and bric-a-brac which will characterize the dwellings +of a later age, would be utterly offensive to an Athenian—contradicting +all his ideas of harmony and “moderation.” The Athenian house +lacks of course bookcases and framed pictures. It probably too +lacks any genuine closets. Beds, couches, chairs (usually backless), +stools, footstools, and small portable tables,—these alone seem +in evidence. In place of bureaus, dressers and cupboards, there +are huge chests, heavy and carved, in which most of the household +gear can be locked away. In truth, the whole style of Greek +household life expresses that simplicity on which we have already +commented. Oriental carpets are indeed met with, but they are +often used as wall draperies or couch covers rather than upon the +floors. Greek costume (see p. 43) is so simple that there is small +need for elaborate chests of drawers, and a line of pegs upon the +wall cares for most of the family wardrobe. +</p> + +<p> +All this is true; yet what furniture one finds is fashioned with +commendable grace. There is a marked absence of heavy and unhealthful +upholstery; but the simple bed (four posts sustaining a springless +cushion stuffed with feathers or wool) has its woodwork adorned +with carving which is a true mean betwixt the too plain and the +too ornate; and the whole bed is given an elegant effect by the +magnificently embroidered scarlet tapestry which overspreads it. +The lines of the legs of the low wooden tables which are used at +the dinner parties will be a lesson (if we have time to study them) +upon just proportion and the value of subtle curves. Moreover, +the different household vessels, the stone and bronze lamps, the +various table dishes, even the common pottery put to the humblest +uses, all have a beauty, a chaste elegance, a saving touch of deft +ornamentation, which transforms them out of “kitchen ware” into +works of art. Those black water pots covered with red-clay figures +which the serving maids are bearing so carelessly into the scullery +at the screaming summons of the cook will be some day perchance +the pride of a museum, and teach a later age that costly material +and aristocratic uses are not needful to make an article supremely +beautiful. +</p> + +<p> +Of course the well-to-do Athenian is proud to possess certain +“valuables.” He will have a few silver cups elegantly chased, +and at least one diner’s couch in the <i>andron</i> will be made of rare +imported wood, and be inlaid with gilt or silver. On festival +days the house will be hung with brilliant and elaborately wrought +tapestries which will suddenly emerge from the great chests. Also, +despite frowns and criticisms, the custom is growing of decorating +one’s walls with bright-lined frescoes after the manner of the Agora +colonnades. In the course of a few generations the homes of the +wealthier Greeks will come to resemble those of the Romans, such +as a later age has resurrected at Pompeii. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>Chapter V.<br /> +The Women of Athens.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect27"></a> +<b>27. How Athenian Marriages are Arranged.</b>—Over this typical Athenian +home reigns the wife of the master. Public opinion frowns upon +celibacy, and there are relatively few unmarried men in Athens. +An Athenian girl is brought up with the distinct expectation of +matrimony.[*] Opportunities for a romance almost never will come +her way; but it is the business of her parents to find her a suitable +husband. If they are kindly people of good breeding, their choice +is not likely to be a very bad one. If they have difficulties, +they can engage a professional “matchmaker,” a shrewd old woman +who, for a fee, will hunt out an eligible young man. Marriage is +contracted primarily that there may be legitimate children to keep +up the state and to perpetuate the family. That the girl should +have any will of her own in the matter is almost never thought of. +Very probably she has never seen “Him,” save when they both were +marching in a public religious procession, or at some rare family +gathering (a marriage or a funeral) when there were outside guests. +Besides she will be “given away” when only about fifteen, and +probably has formed no intelligent opinion or even prejudices on +the subject. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The vile custom of exposing unwelcome female babies probably +created a certain preponderance of males in Attica, and made it +relatively easy to marry off a desirable young girl. +</p> + +<p> +If a young man (who will marry at about thirty) is independent in +life, the negotiations will be with him directly. If he is still +dependent on the paternal allowance, the two sets of parents will +usually arrange matters themselves, and demand only the formal +consent of the prospective bridegroom. He will probably accept +promptly this bride whom his father has selected; if not, he risks +a stormy encounter with his parents, and will finally capitulate. +He has perhaps never seen “Her,” and can only hope things are for +the best; and after all she is so young that his friends tell him +that he can train her to be very useful and obedient if he will only +take pains. The parents, or, failing them, the guardians, adjust +the dowry—the lump sum which the bride will bring with her towards +the new establishment.[*] Many maxims enjoin “marry only your equal +in fortune.” The poor man who weds an heiress will not be really +his own master; the dread of losing the big dowry will keep him in +perpetual bondage to her whims. +</p> + +<p> +[*]The dowry was a great protection to the bride. If her husband +divorced her (as by law he might), the dowry must be repaid to her +guardians with 18 per cent. interest. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect28"></a> +<b>28. Lack of Sentiment in Marriages.</b>—Sometimes marriages are +arranged in which any sentiment is obviously prohibited. A father +can betroth his daughter by will to some kinsman, who is to take +her over as his bride when he takes over the property. A husband +can bequeath his wife to some friend who is likely to treat her and +the orphan children with kindness. Such affairs occur every day. +Do the Athenian women revolt at these seemingly degrading conditions, +wherein they are handed around like slaves, or even cattle?—According +to the tragic poets they do. Sophocles (in the <i>Tereus</i>) makes +them lament, +</p> + +<p> +“We women are nothing;—happy indeed is our childhood, for <i>then</i> we +are thoughtless; but when we attain maidenhood, lo! we are driven +away from our homes, sold as merchandise, and compelled to marry +and say ‘All’s well.’” +</p> + +<p> +Euripides is even more bitter in his <i>Medea:</i>— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Surely of creatures that have life and wit,<br /> +We women are of all things wretchedest,<br /> +Who first must needs, as buys the highest bidder,<br /> +Thus buy a husband, and our body’s master.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Way’s translation. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect29"></a> +<b>29. Athenian Marriage Rites.</b>—However, thus runs public custom. +At about fifteen the girl must leave her mother’s fostering care +and enter the house of the stranger. The wedding is, of course, +a great ceremony; and here, if nowhere else, Athenian women can +surely prepare, flutter, and ordain to their heart’s content. After +the somewhat stiff and formal betrothal before witnesses (necessary +to give legal effect to the marriage), the actual wedding will +probably take place,—perhaps in a few days, perhaps with a longer +wait till the favorite marriage month Gamelion [January].[*] Then +on a lucky night of the full moon the bride, having, no doubt +tearfully, dedicated to Artemis her childish toys, will be decked +in her finest and will come down, all veiled, into her father’s +torchlit aula, swarming now with guests. Here will be at last +that strange master of her fate, the bridegroom and his best man +(<i>paranymphos</i>). Her father will offer sacrifice (probably a lamb), +and after the sacrifice everybody will feast on the flesh of the +victim; and also share a large flat cake of pounded sesame seeds +roasted and mixed with honey. As the evening advances the wedding +car will be outside the door. The mother hands the bride over to +the groom, who leads her to the chariot, and he and the groomsman +sit down, one on either side, while with torches and song the +friends go with the car in jovial procession to the house of the +young husband. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This winter month was sacred to Hera, the marriage guardian. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Ho, Hymen! Ho, Hymen! Hymenæous! Io!” +</p> + +<p> +So rings the refrain of the marriage song; and all the doorways +and street corners are crowded with onlookers to shout fair wishes +and good-natured raillery. +</p> + +<p> +At the groom’s house there is a volley of confetti to greet the +happy pair. The bride stops before the threshold to eat a quince.[*] +There is another feast,—possibly riotous fun and hard drinking. At +last the bride is led, still veiled, to the perfumed and flower-hung +marriage chamber. The doors close behind the married pair. Their +friends sing a merry rollicking catch outside, the <i>Epithalamium</i>. +The great day has ended. The Athenian girl has experienced the +chief transition of her life. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The symbol of fertility. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect30"></a> +<b>30. The Mental Horizon of Athenian Women.</b>—Despite the suggestions +in the poets, probably the normal Athenian woman is neither degraded +nor miserable. If she is a girl of good ancestry and the usual +bringing up, she has never expected any other conditions than +these. She knows that her parents care for her and have tried to +secure for her a husband who will be her guardian and solace when +they are gone. Xenophon’s ideal young husband, Ischomachus, says +he married his wife at the age of fifteen.[*] She had been “trained +to see and to hear as little as possible”; but her mother had taught +her to have a sound control of her appetite and of all kinds of +self-indulgence, to take wool and to make a dress of it, and to +manage the slave maids in their spinning tasks. She was at first +desperately afraid of her husband, and it was some time before he +had “tamed” her sufficiently to discuss their household problems +freely. Then Ischomachus made her join with him in a prayer to +the gods that “he might teach and she might learn all that could +conduce to their joint happiness”; after which they took admirable +counsel together, and her tactful and experienced husband (probably +more than twice her age) trained her into a model housewife. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] See Xenophon’s “The Economist,” VII ff. The more pertinent +passages are quoted in W. S. Davis’s <i>Readings in Ancient History</i>, +Vol. I, pp. 265-271. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect31"></a> +<b>31. The Honor paid Womanhood in Athens.</b>—Obviously from a young +woman with a limited intellectual horizon the Athenian gentleman +can expect no mental companionship; but it is impossible that he +can live in the world as a keenly intelligent being, and not come +to realize the enormous value of the “woman spirit” as +it affects all things good. Hera, Artemis, Aphrodite, above +all Pallas-Athena,—city-warder of Athens,—who are they all +but idealizations of that peculiar genius which wife, mother, and +daughter show forth every day in their homes? An Athenian never +allows his wife to visit the Agora. She cannot indeed go outside +the house without his express permission, and only then attended by +one or two serving maids; public opinion will likewise frown upon +the man who allowed his wife to appear in public too freely[*]; +nevertheless there are compensations. Within her home the Athenian +woman is within her kingdom. Her husband will respect her, because +he will respect himself. Brutal and harsh he may possibly be, but +that is because he is also brutal and harsh in his outside dealings. +In extreme cases an outraged wife can sue for divorce before the +archon. And very probably in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred +the Athenian woman is contented with her lot: partly because she +knows of nothing better; partly because she has nothing concrete +whereof to complain. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Hypereides, the orator, says, “The woman who goes out of her +own home ought to be of such an age that when men meet her, the +question is not ‘Who is her husband?’ but ‘Whose mother is she?’” +Pericles, in the great funeral oration put in his mouth by Thucydides, +says that the best women are those who are talked of for good or +ill the very least. +</p> + +<p> +Doubtless it is because an Athenian house is a “little oasis +of domesticity,” tenderly guarded from all insult,—a miniature +world whose joys and sorrows are not to be shared by the outer +universe,—that the Athenian treats the private affairs of his +family as something seldom to be shared, even with an intimate +friend. Of individual women we hear and see little in Athens, but +of <i>noble womanhood</i> a great deal. By a hundred tokens, delightful +vase paintings, noble monuments, poetic myths, tribute is paid to +the self-mastery, the self-forgetfulness, the courage, the gentleness “of +the wives and mothers who have made Athens the beacon of Hellas”; +and there is one witness better than all the rest. Along the +“Street of Tombs,” by the gate of the city, runs the long row of +stelæ (funeral monuments), inimitable and chaste memorials to the +beloved dead; and here we meet, many times over, the portrayal of +a sorrow too deep for common lament, the sorrow for the lovely and +gracious figures who have passed into the great Mystery. Along +the Street of the Tombs the wives and mothers of Athens are honored +not less than the wealthy, the warriors, or the statesmen. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect32"></a> +<b>32. The Sphere of Action of Athenian Women.</b>—Assuredly the Athenian +house mother cannot match her husband in discussing philosophy or +foreign politics, but she has her own home problems and confronts +them well. A dozen or twenty servants must be kept busy. From +her, all the young children must get their first education, and the +girls probably everything they are taught until they are married. +Even if she does not meet many men, she will strive valiantly to +keep the good opinion of her husband. If she has shapely feet and +hands (whereupon great stress is laid in Hellas), she will do her +utmost to display them to the greatest advantage[*]; and she has, +naturally, plenty of other vanities (see § 38). Her husband has +turned over to her the entire management of the household. This +means that if he is an easy-going man, she soon understands his +home business far better than he does himself, and really has him +quite at her mercy. Between caring for her husband’s wants, nursing +the sick slaves, acting as arbitress in their inevitable disputes, +keeping a constant watch upon the storeroom, and finally in attending +to the manufacture of nearly all the family clothing, she is not +likely to rust in busy idleness, or sit complaining of her lot. At +the many great public festivals she is always at least an onlooker +and often she marches proudly in the magnificent processions. She +is allowed to attend the tragedies in the theater.[+] Probably, +too, the family will own a country farm, and spend a part of the +year thereon. Here she will be allowed a delightful freedom of +movement, impossible in the closely built city. All in all, then, +she will complain of too much enforced activity rather than of too +much idleness. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The custom of wearing sandals instead of shoes of course aided +the developing of beautiful feet. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Not the comedies—they were too broad for refined women. But +the fact that Athenian ladies seem to have been allowed to attend +the tragedies is a tribute to their intellectual capacities. Only +an acute and intelligent mind can follow Æschylus, Sophocles, and +Euripides. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus09"></a> +<img src="images/fig09.jpg" width="368" height="400" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Spinning</p> +</div> + +<p> +Nevertheless our judgment upon the Athenian women is mainly one +of regret. Even if not discontented with their lot, they are not +realizing the full possibilities which Providence has placed within +the reach of womanhood, much less the womanhood of the mothers of +the warriors, poets, orators, and other immortals of Athens. One +great side of civilization which the city of Athens might develop +and realize is left unrealized. <i>this civilization of Athens is +too masculine;</i> it is therefore one sided, and in so far it does not +realize that ideal “Harmony” which is the average Athenian’s boast. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>Chapter VI.<br /> +Athenian Costume.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect33"></a> +<b>33. The General Nature of Greek Dress.</b>—In every age the important +kingdom of dress has been reserved for the peculiar sovereignty of +woman. This is true in Athens, though not perhaps to the extent of +later ages. Still an Athenian lady will take an interest in “purple +and fine linen” far exceeding that of her husband, and where is there +a more fitting place than this in which to answer for an Athenian, +the ever important question “wherewithal shall I be clothed”? +</p> + +<p> +Once again the Athenian climate comes in as a factor, this time +in the problem of wardrobe. Two general styles of garment have +divided the allegiance of the world,—the clothes that are <i>put on</i> +and the clothes that are <i>wrapped around</i>. The former style, with +its jackets, trousers, and leggings, is not absolutely unknown to +the Athenians,—their old enemies, the Persians, wear these[*]; +but such clumsy, inelegant garments are despised and ridiculed as +fit only for the “Barbarians” who use them. They are not merely +absurdly homely; they cannot even be thrown off promptly in an +emergency, leaving the glorious human form free to put forth any +noble effort. The Athenians wear the wrapped style of garments, +which are, in final analysis, one or two large square pieces of cloth +flung skillfully around the body and secured by a few well-placed +pins. This costume is infinitely adjustable; it can be expanded +into flowing draperies or contracted into an easy working dress +by a few artful twitches. It can be nicely adjusted to meet the +inevitable sense of “beauty” bred in the bone of every Athenian. +True, on the cold days of midwinter the wearers will go about +shivering; but cold days are the exception, warm days the rule, in +genial Attica.[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The Persians no doubt learned to use this style of garment during +their life on the cold, windy steppes of Upper Asia, before they +won their empire in the more genial south. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] The whole civilization of Athens was, of course, based on a +climate in which artificial heat would be very little needed. A +pot of glowing charcoal might be used to remove the chill of a +room in the very coldest weather. Probably an Athenian would have +regarded a climate in which furnace heat was demanded nearly eight +months in the year as wholly unfit for civilized man. +</p> + +<p> +This simplicity of costume has produced certain important results. +There are practically no tailors in Athens, only cloth merchants, +bleachers, and dyers. Again fashions (at least in the cut of the +garments) seldom change. A cloak that was made in the days of +Alcibiades (say 420 B.C.) can be worn with perfect propriety to-day +(360 B.C.) if merely it has escaped without severe use or moth +holes. It may be more usual this year to wear one’s garments a +little higher or a little more trailing than formerly; but <i>that</i> is +simply a matter for a shifting of the pins or of the girdle. +</p> + +<p> +As a result, the Athenian seldom troubles about his “spring” or +“winter” suit. His simple woolen garments wear a very long time; +and they have often been slowly and laboriously spun and woven by +his wife and her slave girls. Of course even a poor man will try +to have a few changes of raiment,—something solid and coarse for +every day, something of finer wool and gayer color for public and +private festivals. The rich man will have a far larger wardrobe, +and will pride himself on not being frequently seen in the same +dress; yet even his outfit will seem very meager to the dandies of +a later age. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect34"></a> +<b>34. the Masculine Chiton, Himation, and Chlamya.</b>—The essential +garments of an Athenian man are only two—the <i>chiton</i> and the <i>himation</i>. +The chiton may be briefly described as an oblong of woolen cloth +large enough to wrap around the body somewhat closely, from the +neck down to just above the knees. The side left open is fastened +by fibulæ—elegantly wrought pins perhaps of silver or gold; in the +closed side there is a slit for the arm. There is a girdle, and, +if one wishes, the skirt of the chiton may be pulled up through it, +and allowed to hang down in front, giving the effect of a blouse. +The man of prompt action, the soldier, traveler, worker, is “well +girded,”—his chiton is drawn high, but the deliberate old gentleman +who parades the Agora, discussing poetry or statecraft, has his +chiton falling almost to a trailing length. Only occasionally short +sleeves were added to this very simple garment; they are considered +effeminate, and are not esteemed. If one’s arms get cold, one can +protect them by pulling up the skirt, and wrapping the arms in the +blouse thus created. +</p> + +<p> +An Athenian gentleman when he is in the house wears nothing but +his chiton; it is even proper for him to be seen wearing nothing +else upon the streets, but then more usually he will add an outer +cloak,—his <i>himation</i>. +</p> + +<p> +The himation is even simpler than the chiton. It is merely a generous +oblong woolen shawl. There are innumerable ways of arranging it +according to the impulse of the moment; but usually it has to be +worn without pins, and that involves wrapping it rather tightly +around the body, and keeping one of the hands confined to hold the +cloak in place. That is no drawback, however, to a genteel wearer. +It proclaims to the world that <i>he</i> does not have to work, wearing +his hands for a living; therefore he can keep them politely idle.[*] +The adjustment of the himation is a work of great art. A rich man +will often have a special slave whose business it is to arrange +the hang and the folds before his master moves forth in public; +and woe to the careless fellow if the effect fails to display due +elegance and dignity! +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Workingmen often wore no himation, and had a kind of chiton (an +exömis) which was especially arranged to leave them with free use +of their arms. +</p> + +<p> +There is a third garment sometimes worn by Athenians. Young men +who wish to appear very active, and genuine travelers, also wear +a <i>chlamys</i>, a kind of circular mantle or cape which swings jauntily +over their shoulders, and will give good protection in foul weather. +</p> + +<p> +There are almost no other masculine garments. No shirts (unless +the chiton be one), no underwear. In their costume, as in so many +things else, the Athenians exemplify their oft-praised virtue of +simplicity. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect35"></a> +<b>35. The Dress of the Women.</b>—The dress of the women is like that +of the men, but differs, of course, in complexity. They also have +a chiton,[*] which is more elaborately made, especially in the +arrangement of the blouse; and probably there is involved a certain +amount of real <i>sewing;</i>[+] not merely of <i>pinning</i>. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This robe was sometimes known by the Homeric name of <i>peplos</i>. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Probably with almost all Greek garments the main use of the +needle was in the embroidery merely, or in the darning of holes +and rents. It was by no means an essential in the real manufacture. +</p> + +<p> +Greater care is needed in the adjustment of the “zone” (girdle), +and half sleeves are the rule with women, while full sleeves are +not unknown. A Greek lady again cannot imitate her husband, and +appear in public in her chiton only. A himation, deftly adjusted, +is absolutely indispensable whenever she shows herself outside the +house. +</p> + +<p> +These feminine garments are all, as a rule, more elaborately +embroidered, more adorned with fringes and tassels, than those of +the men. In arranging her dress the Athenian lady is not bound +by the rigid precepts of fashion. Every separate toilette is an +opportunity for a thousand little niceties and coquetries which she +understands exceedingly well. If there is the least excuse for an +expedition outside the house, her ladyship’s bevy of serving maids +will have a serious time of it. While their mistress cools herself +with a huge peacock-feather fan, one maid is busy over her hair; a +second holds the round metallic mirror before her; a third stands +ready to extend the jewel box whence she can select finger rings, +earrings, gold armlets, chains for her neck and hair, as well as the +indispensable brooches whereon the stability of the whole costume +depends. When she rises to have her himation draped around her, +the directions she gives reveal her whole bent and character. A +dignified and modest matron will have it folded loosely around her +entire person, covering both arms and hands, and even drawing it +over her head, leaving eyes and nose barely visible. Younger ladies +will draw it close around the body so as to show the fine lines of +their waists and shoulders. And in the summer heat the himation +(for the less prudish) will become a light shawl floating loose +and free over the shoulders, or only a kind of veil drawn so as to +now conceal, now reveal, the face. +</p> + +<p> +Children wear miniature imitations of the dress of their elders. +Boys are taught to toughen their bodies by refraining from thick +garments in cold weather. In hot weather they can frequently be +seen playing about with very little clothing at all! +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect36"></a> +<b>36. Footwear and Head Coverings.</b>—Upon his feet the Athenian +frequently wears nothing. He goes about his home barefoot; and not +seldom he enjoys the delight of running across the open greensward +with his unsandaled feet pressing the springing ground; but normally +when he walks abroad, he will wear <i>sandals</i>, a simple solid pair of +open soles tied to his feet by leather thongs passing between the +toes. For hard country walking and for hunting there is something +like a high leather boot,[*] though doubtless these are counted +uncomfortable for ordinary wear. As for the sandals, simple as +they are, the Attic touch of elegance is often upon them. Upon the +thongs of the sandals there is usually worked a choice pattern, in +some brilliant color or even gilt. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Actors, too, wore a leather boot with high soles to give them +extra height—the <i>cothurnus</i>. +</p> + +<p> +The Athenians need head coverings even less than footgear. Most of +them have thick hair; baldness is an uncommon affliction; everybody +is trained to walk under the full glare of Helios with little +discomfort. Of course certain trades require hats, <i>e.g.</i> sailors +who can be almost identified by their rimless felt caps. Genteel +travelers will wear wide-brimmed hats; but the ladies, as a rule, +have no headgear besides their tastefully arranged hair, although +they will partly atone for the lack, by having a maid walk just +behind them with a gorgeously variegated parasol. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect37"></a> +<b>37. The Beauty of the Greek Dress.</b>—Greek Costume, then, is +something fully sharing in the national characteristics of harmony, +simplicity, individuality. It is easy to see how admirably this +style of dress is adapted to furnish over ready models and inspiration +for the sculptor.[*] Unconventional in its arrangement, it is +also unconventional in its color. A masculine crowd is not one +unmitigated swarm of black and dark grays or browns, as with the +multitude of a later age. On the contrary, white is counted as +theoretically the most becoming color on any common occasion for +either sex;[+] and on festival days even grave and elderly men +will appear with chitons worked with brilliant embroidery along the +borders, and with splendid himatia of some single clear hue—violet, +red, purple, blue, or yellow. As for the costume of the groom at +a wedding, it is far indeed from the “conventional black” of more +degenerate days. He may well wear a purple-edged white chiton of +fine Milesian wool, a brilliant scarlet himation, sandals with blue +thongs and clasps of gold, and a chaplet of myrtle and violets. +His intended bride is led out to him in even more dazzling array. +Her white sandal-thongs are embroidered with emeralds, rubies, and +pearls. Around her neck is a necklace of gold richly set,—and +she has magnificent golden armlets and pearl eardrops. Her hair +is fragrant with Oriental nard, and is bound by a purple fillet +and a chaplet of roses. Her ungloved fingers shine with jewels +and rings. Her main costume is of a delicate saffron, and over it +all, like a cloud, floats the silvery tissue of the nuptial veil. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] “The chiton became the mirror of the body,” said the late writer +Achilles Tatius. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] No doubt farmers and artisans either wore garments of a +non-committal brown, or, more probably, let their originally white +costume get utterly dirty. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect38"></a> +<b>38. Greek Toilet Frivolities.</b>—From the standpoint of inherent +fitness and beauty, this Athenian costume is the noblest ever seen +by the world. Naturally there are ill-advised creatures who do +not share the good taste of their fellows, or who try to deceive +the world and themselves as to the ravages of that arch-enemy of +the Hellene,—Old Age. Athenian women especially (though the men +are not without their follies) are sometimes fond of rouge, false +hair, and the like. Auburn hair is especially admired, and many +fine dames bleach their tresses in a caustic wash to obtain it. +The styles of feminine hair dressing seem to change from decade to +decade much more than the arrangements of the garments. Now it is +plaited and crimped hair that is in vogue, now the more beautiful +“Psyche-knots”; yet even in their worst moods the Athenian women +exhibit a sweet reasonableness. They have not yet fallen into the +clutches of the Parisian hairdresser. +</p> + +<p> +The poets, of course, ridicule the foibles of the fair sex.[*]<br /> +Says one:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +The golden hair Nikylla wears<br /> + Is hers, who would have thought it?<br /> +She swears ’tis hers, and true she swears<br /> + For I know where she bought it! +</p> + +<p> +And again:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +You give your cheeks a rosy stain,<br /> +With washes dye your hair;<br /> +But paint and washes both are vain<br /> +To give a youthful air.<br /> +An art so fruitless then forsake,<br /> +Which, though you much excel in,<br /> +You never can contrive to make<br /> +Old Hecuba young Helen. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Translated in Falke’s <i>Greece and Rome</i> (English translation, +p. 69). These quotations probably date from a time considerably +later than the hypothetical period of this sketch; but they are +perfectly proper to apply to conditions in 360 B.C. +</p> + +<p> +But enough of such scandals! All the best opinion—masculine and +feminine—frowns on these follies. Let us think of the simple, +dignified, and æsthetically noble costume of the Athenians as not +the least of their examples to another age. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>Chapter VII.<br /> +The Slaves.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect39"></a> +<b>39. Slavery an Integral Part of Greek Life.</b>—An Athenian lady cares +for everything in her house,—for the food supplies, for the clothing, +yet probably her greatest task is to manage the heterogeneous +multitude of slaves which swarm in every wealthy or even well-to-do +mansion.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The Athenians never had the absurd armies of house slaves which +characterized Imperial Rome; still the numbers of their domestic +servants were, from a modern standpoint, extremely large. +</p> + +<p> +Slaves are everywhere: not merely are they the domestic servants, +but they are the hands in the factories, they run innumerable little +shops, they unload the ships, they work the mines, they cultivate +the farms. Possibly there are more able-bodied male slaves in +Attica than male free men, although this point is very uncertain. +Their number is the harder to reckon because they are not required +to wear any distinctive dress, and you cannot tell at a glance +whether a man is a mere piece of property, or a poor but very proud +and important member of the “Sovereign Demos [People] of Athens.” +</p> + +<p> +No prominent Greek thinker seems to contest the righteousness and +desirability of slavery. It is one of the usual, nay, inevitable, +things pertaining to a civilized state. Aristotle the philosopher +puts the current view of the case very clearly. “The lower sort +of mankind are <i>by nature</i> slaves, and it is better for all inferiors +that they should be under the rule of a master. The use made of +slaves and of tame animals is not very different; for both by their +bodies minister to the needs of life.” The intelligent, enlightened, +progressive Athenians are naturally the “masters”; the stupid, +ignorant, sluggish minded Barbarians are the “inferiors.” Is it +not a plain decree of Heaven that the Athenians are made to rule, +the Barbarians to serve?—No one thinks the subject worth serious +argument. +</p> + +<p> +Of course the slave cannot be treated quite as one would treat an +ox. Aristotle takes pains to point out the desirability of holding +out to your “chattel” the hope of freedom, if only to make him work +better; and the great philosopher in his last testament gives freedom +to five of his thirteen slaves. Then again it is recognized as +clearly against public sentiment to hold fellow Greeks in bondage. +It is indeed done. Whole towns get taken in war, and those of +the inhabitants who are not slaughtered are sold into slavery.[*] +Again, exposed children, whose parents have repudiated them, get +into the hands of speculators, who raise them “for market.” There +is also a good deal of kidnapping in the less civilized parts of +Greece like Ætolia. Still the proportion of genuinely <i>Greek</i> slaves +is small. The great majority of them are “Barbarians,” men born +beyond the pale of Hellenic civilization. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] For example, the survivors, after the capture of Melos, in the +Peloponesian War. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect40"></a> +<b>40. The Slave Trade in Greece.</b>—There are two great sources of +slave supply: the Asia Minor region (Lydia and Phrygia, with Syria +in the background), and the Black Sea region, especially the northern +shores, known as Scythia. It is known to innumerable heartless +“traders” that human flesh commands a very high price in Athens +or other Greek cities. Every little war or raid that vexes those +barbarous countries so incessantly is followed by the sale of the +unhappy captives to speculators who ship them on, stage by stage, +to Athens. Perhaps there is no war; the supply is kept up then +by deliberately kidnapping on a large scale, or by piracy.[*] In +any case the arrival of a chain gang of fettered wretches at the +Peiræus is an everyday sight. Some of these creatures are submissive +and tame (perhaps they understand some craft or trade); these can +be sold at once for a high price. Others are still doltish and +stubborn. They are good for only the rudest kind of labor, unless +they are kept and trained at heavy expense. These brutish creatures +are frequently sold off to the mines, to be worked to death by the +contractors as promptly and brutally as one wears out a machine; +or else they become public galley slaves, when their fate is +practically the same. But we need not follow such horrors. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] A small but fairly constant supply of slaves would come from +the seizure of the persons and families of bankrupt debtors, whose +creditors, especially in the Orient, might sell them into bondage. +</p> + +<p> +The remainder are likely to be purchased either for use upon the +farm, the factory, or in the home. There is a regular “circle” +at or near the Agora for traffic in them. They are often sold at +auction. The price of course varies with the good looks, age,[*] +or dexterity of the article, or the abundance of supply. “Slaves +will be high” in a year when there has been little warfare and +raiding in Asia Minor. “Some slaves,” says Xenophon, “are well +worth two minæ [$36.00 (1914) or $640.80 (2000)] and others barely +half a mina [$9.00 (1914) or $160.20 (2000)]; some sell up to five +minæ [$90.00 (1914) or $1,602.00 (2000)] and even for ten [$180.00 +(1914) or $3,204.00 (2000)]. Nicias, the son of Nicaretus, is +said to have given a talent [over $1,000.00 (1914) or $17,800.00 +(2000)] for an overseer in the mines.”[+] The father of Demosthenes +owned a considerable factory. He had thirty-two sword cutters +worth about five minæ each, and twenty couch-makers (evidently less +skilled) worth together 40 minæ [about $720.00 (1914) or $12,816.00 +(2000)]. A girl who is handsome and a clever flute player, who will +be readily hired for supper parties, may well command a very high +price indeed, say even 30 minæ [about $540.00 (1914) or $9,612.00 +(2000)]. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] There was probably next to no market for old women; old men in +broken health would also be worthless. Boys and maids that were +the right age for teaching a profitable trade would fetch the most. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Xenophon, <i>Memorabilia</i>, ii. 5, § 2. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect41"></a> +<b>41. The Treatment of Slaves in Athens.</b>—Once purchased, what is +the condition of the average slave? If he is put in a factory, he +probably has to work long hours on meager rations. He is lodged +in a kind of kennel; his only respite is on the great religious +holidays. He cannot contract valid marriage or enjoy any of the +normal conditions of family life. Still his evil state is partially +tempered by the fact that he has to work in constant association +with free workmen, and he seems to be treated with a moderate amount +of consideration and good camaraderie. On the whole he will have +much less to complain of (if he is honest and industrious) than +his successors in Imperial Rome. +</p> + +<p> +In the household, conditions are on the whole better. Every Athenian +citizen tries to have at least <i>one</i> slave, who, we must grant, may +be a starving drudge of all work. The average gentleman perhaps +counts ten to twenty as sufficient for his needs. We know of +households of fifty. There must usually be a steward, a butler in +charge of the storeroom or cellar, a marketing slave, a porter, +a baker, a cook,[*] a nurse, perhaps several lady’s maids, +the indispensable attendant for the master’s walks (a graceful, +well-favored boy, if possible), the pedagogue for the children, +and in really rich families, a groom, and a mule boy. It is the +business of the mistress to see that all these creatures are kept +busy and reasonably contented. If a slave is reconciled to his +lot, honest, cheerful, industrious, his condition is not miserable. +Athenian slaves are allowed a surprising amount of liberty, so +most visitors to the city complain. A slave may be flogged most +cruelly, but he cannot be put to death at the mere whim of his +master. He cannot enter the gymnasium, or the public assembly; but +he can visit the temples. As a humble member of the family he has +a small part usually in the family sacrifices. But in any case he is +subject to one grievous hardship: when his testimony is required +in court he must be “put to the question” by torture. On the +other hand, if his master has wronged him intolerably, he can take +sanctuary at the Temple of Theseus, and claim the privilege of being +sold to some new owner. A slave, too, has still another grievance +which may be no less galling because it is sentimental. His name +(given him arbitrarily perhaps by his master) is of a peculiar +category, which at once brands him as a bondsman: Geta, Manes, +Dromon, Sosias, Xanthias, Pyrrhias,—such names would be repudiated +as an insult by a citizen. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Who, however, could not be trusted to cook a formal dinner. For +such purpose an expert must be hired. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect42"></a> +<b>42. Cruel and Kind Masters.</b>—Slavery in Athens, as everywhere +else, is largely dependent upon the character of the master; and +most Athenian masters would not regard crude brutality as consistent +with that love of elegance, harmony, and genteel deliberation +which characterizes a well-born citizen. There do not lack masters +who have the whip continually in their hands, who add to the raw +stripes fetters and branding, and who make their slaves unceasingly +miserable; but such masters are the exception, and public opinion +does not praise them. Between the best Athenians and their slaves +there is a genial, friendly relation, and the master will put up +with a good deal of real impertinence, knowing that behind this +forwardness there is an honest zeal for his interests. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless the slave system of Athens is not commendable. It +puts a stigma upon the glory of honest manual labor. It instills +domineering, despotic habits into the owners, cringing subservience +into the owned. Even if a slave becomes freed, he does not become +an Athenian citizen; he is only a “metic,” a resident foreigner, +and his old master, or some other Athenian, must be his patron and +representative in every kind of legal business. It is a notorious +fact that the <i>mere state</i> of slavery robs the victim of his self-respect +and manhood. Nevertheless nobody dreams of abolishing slavery as +an institution, and the Athenians, comparing themselves with other +communities, pride themselves on the extreme humanity of their +slave system. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect43"></a> +<b>43. The “City Slaves” of Athens.</b>—A large number of nominal “slaves” +in Athens differ from any of the creatures we have described. The +community, no less than an individual, can own slaves just as it +can own warships and temples. Athens owns “city slaves” (<i>Demosioi</i>) +of several varieties. The clerks in the treasury office, and the +checking officers at the public assemblies are slaves; so too are +the less reputable public executioners and torturers; in the city +mint there is another corps of slave workers, busy coining “Athena’s +owls”—the silver drachmas and four-drachma pieces. But chiefest +of all, <i>the city owns its public police force</i>. The “Scythians” +they are called from their usual land of origin, or the “bowmen,” +from their special weapon, which incidentally makes a convenient +cudgel in a street brawl. There are 1200 of them, always at the +disposal of the city magistrates. They patrol the town at night, +arrest evil-doers, sustain law and order in the Agora, and especially +enforce decorum, if the public assemblies or the jury courts become +tumultuous. They have a special cantonment on the hill of Areopagus +near the Acropolis. “Slaves” they are of course in name, and +under a kind of military discipline; but they are highly privileged +slaves. The security of the city may depend upon their loyal zeal. +In times of war they are auxiliaries. Life in this police force +cannot therefore be burdensome, and their position is envied by +all the factory workers and the house servants. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>Chapter VIII.<br /> +The Children.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect44"></a> +<b>44. The Desirability of Children in Athens.</b>—Besides the oversight +of the slaves the Athenian matron has naturally the care of the +children. A childless home is one of the greatest of calamities. +It means a solitary old age, and still worse, the dying out of the +family and the worship of the family gods. There is just enough +of the old superstitious “ancestor worship” left in Athens to make +one shudder at the idea of leaving the “deified ancestor” without +any descendants to keep up the simple sacrifices to their memory. +Besides, public opinion condemns the childless home as not contributing +to the perpetuation of the city. How Corinth, Thebes, or Sparta +will rejoice, if it is plain that Athens is destroying herself by +race suicide! So at least <i>one</i> son will be very welcome. His advent +is a day of happiness for the father, of still greater satisfaction +for the young mother. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect45"></a> +<b>45. The Exposure of Infants.</b>—How many more children are welcome +depends on circumstances. Children are expensive luxuries. They +must be properly educated and even the boys must be left a fair +fortune.[*] The girls must always have good dowries, or they cannot +“marry according to their station.” Public opinion, as well as +the law, allows a father (at least if he has one or two children +already) to exercise a privilege, which later ages will pronounce +one of the foulest blots on Greek civilization. After the birth +of a child there is an anxious day or two for the poor young mother +and the faithful nurses.—Will he ‘nourish’ it? Are there boys +enough already? Is the disappointment over the birth of a daughter +too keen? Does he dread the curtailment in family luxuries necessary +to save up for an allowance or dowry for the little stranger? Or +does the child promise to be puny, sickly, or even deformed? If +any of these arguments carry adverse weight, there is no appeal +against the father’s decision. He has until the fifth day after +the birth to decide. In the interval he can utter the fatal words, +“Expose it!” The helpless creature is then put in a rude cradle, +or more often merely in a shallow pot and placed near some public +place; <i>e.g.</i> the corner of the Agora, or near a gymnasium, or the +entrance to a temple. Here it will soon die of mere hunger and +neglect unless rescued. If the reasons for exposure are evident +physical defects, no one will touch it. Death is certain. If, +however, it seems healthy and well formed, it is likely to be +taken up and cared for. Not out of pure compassion, however. The +harpies who raise slaves and especially slave girls, for no honest +purposes, are prompt to pounce upon any promising looking infant. +They will rear it as a speculation; if it is a girl, they will +teach it to sing, dance, play. The race of light women in Athens +is thus really recruited from the very best families. The fact +is well known, but it is constantly winked at. Aristophanes, the +comic poet, speaks of this exposure of children as a common feature +of Athenian life. Socrates declares his hearers are vexed when +he robs them of pet ideas, “like women who have had their children +taken from them.” There is little or nothing for men of a later +day to say of this custom save condemnation.[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The idea of giving a lad a “schooling” and then turning him loose +to earn his own living in the world was contrary to all Athenian +theory and practice. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] About the only boon gained by this foul usage was the fact that, +thanks to it, the number of physically unfit persons in Athens +was probably pretty small, for no one would think of bringing up +a child which, in its first babyhood, promised to be a cripple. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect46"></a> +<b>46. The Celebration of a Birth.</b>—But assuredly in a majority +of cases, the coming of a child is more than welcome. If a girl, +tufts of wool are hung before the door of the happy home; if a boy, +there is set out an olive branch. Five days after the birth, the +nurse takes the baby, wrapped almost to suffocation in swaddling +bands, to the family hearth in the <i>andron</i>, around which she runs +several times, followed doubtless, in merry, frolicking procession, +by most of the rest of the family. The child is now under the care +of the family gods. There is considerable eating and drinking. +Exposure now is no longer possible. A great load is off the mind +of the mother. But on the “tenth day” comes the real celebration +and the feast. This is the “name day.” All of the kinsmen are +present. The house is full of incense and garlands. The cook is +in action in the kitchen. Everybody brings simple gifts, along with +abundant wishes of good luck. There is a sacrifice, and during +the ensuing feast comes the naming of the child. Athenian names +are very short and simple.[*] A boy has often his father’s name, +but more usually his grandfather’s, as, <i>e.g.</i>, Themistocles, the +son of Neocles, the son of Themistocles: the father’s name being +usually added in place of a surname. In this way certain names +will become a kind of family property, and sorrowful is the day +when there is no eligible son to bear them! +</p> + +<p> +The child is now a recognized member of the community. His father +has accepted him as a legitimate son, one of his prospective heirs, +entitled in due time to all the rights of an Athenian citizen. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Owing to this simplicity and the relatively small number of +Athenian names, a directory of the city would have been a perplexing +affair. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect47"></a> +<b>47. Life and Games of Young Children.</b>—The first seven years of a +Greek boy’s life are spent with his nurses and his mother. Up to +that time his father takes only unofficial interest in his welfare. +Once past the first perilous “five days,” an Athenian baby has +no grounds to complain of his treatment. Great pains are taken +to keep him warm and well nourished. A wealthy family will go to +some trouble to get him a skilful nurse, those from Sparta being +in special demand, as knowing the best how to rear healthy infants. +He has all manner of toys, and Aristotle the philosopher commends +their frequent donation; otherwise, he says, children will be +always “breaking things in the house.” Babies have rattles. As +they grow older they have dolls of painted clay or wax, sometimes +with movable hands and feet, and also toy dishes, tables, wagons, +and animals. Lively boys have whipping toys, balls, hoops, and +swings. There is no lack of pet dogs, nor of all sorts of games on +the blind man’s bluff and “tag” order.[*] Athenian children are, +as a class, very active and noisy. Plato speaks feelingly of their +perpetual “roaring.” As they grow larger, they begin to escape +more and more from the narrow quarters of the courts of the house, +and play in the streets. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] It is not always easy to get the exact details of such ancient +games, for the “rules” have seldom come down to us; but generally +speaking, the games of Greek children seem extremely like those of +the twentieth century. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus10"></a> +<img src="images/fig10.jpg" width="348" height="400" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">The Maternal Slipper</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect48"></a> +<b>48. Playing in the Streets.</b>—Narrow, dirty, and dusty as the +streets seem, children, even of good families, are allowed to play +in them. After a rain one can see boys floating toy boats of +leather in every mud puddle, or industriously making mud pies. In +warm weather the favorite if cruel sport is to catch a beetle, tie +a string to its legs, let it fly off, then twitch it back again. +Leapfrog, hide-and-seek, etc., are in violent progress down every +alley. The streets are not all ideal playgrounds. Despite genteel +ideas of dignity and moderation, there is a great deal of foul talk +and brawling among the passers, and Athenian children have receptive +eyes and ears. Yet on the other hand, there is a notable regard +and reverence for childhood. With all its frequent callousness and +inhumanity, Greek sentiment abhors any brutality to young children. +Herodotus the historian tells of the falling of a roof, whereby one +hundred and twenty school children perished, as being a frightful +calamity,[*] although recounting cold-blooded massacres of thousands +of adults with never a qualm; and Herodotus is a very good spokesman +for average Greek opinion. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Herodotus, VI. 27. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect49"></a> +<b>49. The First Stories and Lessons.</b>—Athens has no kindergartens. +The first teaching which children will receive is in the form of +fables and goblin tales from their mothers and nurses,—usually +with the object of frightening them into “being good,”—tales of the +spectral Lamiæ, or of the horrid witch Mormo who will catch nasty +children; or of Empusa, a similar creature, who lurks in shadows +and dark rooms; or of the Kabaloi, wild spirits in the woods. Then +come the immortal fables of Æsop with their obvious application +towards right conduct. Athenian mothers and teachers have no +two theories as to the wisdom of corporeal punishment. The rod +is never spared to the spoiling of the child, although during the +first years the slipper is sufficient. Greek children soon have +a healthy fear of their nurses; but they often learn to love them, +and funeral monuments will survive to perpetuate their grateful +memory. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect50"></a> +<b>50. The Training of Athenian Girls.</b>—Until about seven years old +brothers and sisters grow up in the <i>Gynæconitis</i> together. Then the +boys are sent to school. The girls will continue about the house +until the time of their marriage. It is only in the rarest of +cases that the parents feel it needful to hire any kind of tutor +for <i>them</i>. What the average girl knows is simply what her mother +can teach her. Perhaps a certain number of Athenian women (of good +family, too) are downright illiterate; but this is not very often +the case. A normal girl will learn to read and write, with her +mother for school mistress.[*] Very probably she will be taught +to dance, and sometimes to play on some instrument, although this +last is not quite a proper accomplishment for young women of good +family. Hardly any one dreams of giving a woman any systematic +intellectual training.[+] Much more important it is that she +should know how to weave, spin, embroider, dominate the cook, and +superintend the details of a dinner party. She will have hardly +time to learn these matters thoroughly before she is “given a +husband,” and her childhood days are forever over (see § 27). +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] There has come down to us a charming Greek terra-cotta (it is +true, not from Athens) showing a girl seated on her mother’s knee, +and learning from a roll which she holds. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Plato suggested in his <i>Republic</i> (V. 451 f.) that women should +receive the same educational opportunities as the men. This was +a proposition for Utopia and never struck any answering chord. +</p> + +<p> +Meantime her brother has been started upon a course of education +which, both in what it contains and in what it omits, is one of +the most interesting and significant features of Athenian life. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>Chapter IX.<br /> +The Schoolboys of Athens.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect51"></a> +<b>51. Athenians Generally Literate.</b>—Education is not compulsory by +law in Athens, but the father who fails to give his son at least a +modicum of education falls under a public contempt, which involves no +slight penalty. Practically all Athenians are at least literate. +In Aristophanes’s famous comedy, <i>The Knights</i>, a boorish +“sausage-seller” is introduced, who, for the purposes of the play, +must be one of the very scum of society, and he is made to cry, +“Only consider now my education! I can but barely read, just in +a kind of way.”[*] Evidently if illiterates are not very rare in +Athens, the fellow should have been made out utterly ignorant. “He +can neither swim[+] nor say his letters,” is a common phrase for +describing an absolute idiot. When a boy has reached the age of +seven, the time for feminine rule is over; henceforth his floggings, +and they will be many, are to come from firm male hands. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Aristophanes, “Knights”, II. 188-189. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Swimming was an exceedingly common accomplishment among the +Greeks, naturally enough, so much of their life being spent upon +or near the sea. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect52"></a> +<b>52. Character Building the Aim of Athenian Education.</b>—The true +education is of course begun long before the age of seven. <i>Character +not book-learning, is the main object of Athenian Education</i>, <i>i.e.</i> +to make the boy self-contained, modest, alert, patriotic, a true +friend, a dignified gentleman, able to appreciate and participate +in all that is true, harmonius and beautiful in life. To that end +his body must be trained, not apart from, but along with his mind. +Plato makes his character Protagoras remark, “As soon as a child +understands what is said to him, the nurse, the mother, the pedagogue, +and the father vie in their efforts to make him good, by showing +him in all that he does that ‘<i>this</i> is right,’ and ‘<i>that</i> is wrong’; +‘this is pretty,’ and ‘that is ugly’; so that he may learn what to +follow and what to shun. If he obeys willingly—why, excellent. +If not, then try by threats and blows to correct him, as men +straighten a warped and crooked sapling.” Also after he is fairly +in school “the teacher is enjoined to pay more attention to his +morals and conduct than to his progress in reading and music.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect53"></a> +<b>53. The Schoolboy’s Pedagogue.</b>—It is a great day for an Athenian +boy when he is given a pedagogue. This slave (perhaps purchased +especially for the purpose) is not his teacher, but he ought to be +more than ordinarily honest, kindly, and well informed. His prime +business is to accompany the young master everywhere out-of-doors, +especially to the school and to the gymnasium; to carry his books +and writing tablets; to give informal help upon his lessons; to +keep him out of every kind of mischief; to teach him social good +manners; to answer the thousand questions a healthy boy is sure to +ask; and finally, in emergencies, if the schoolmaster or his father +is not at hand, to administer a needful whipping. A really capable +pedagogue can mean everything to a boy; but it is asking too much +that a purchased slave should be an ideal companion.[*] Probably +many pedagogues are responsible for their charges’ idleness or +downright depravity. It is a dubious system at the best. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] No doubt frequently the pedagogue would be an old family servant +of good morals, loyalty, and zeal. In that case the relation might +be delightful. +</p> + +<p> +The assigning of the pedagogue is simultaneous with the beginning +of school days; and the Athenians are not open to the charge +of letting their children waste their time during possible study +hours. As early as Solon’s day (about 590 B.C.) a law had to be +passed forbidding schools to open <i>before</i> daybreak, or to be kept +open after dusk. This was in the interest not of good eyesight, +but of good morals. Evidently schools had been keeping even longer +than through the daylight. In any case, at gray dawn every yawning +schoolboy is off, urged on by his pedagogue, and his tasks will +continue with very little interruption through the entire day. +It is therefore with reason that the Athenian lads rejoice in the +very numerous religious holidays. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect54"></a> +<b>54. An Athenian School.</b>—Leaving the worthy citizen’s home, where +we have lingered long chatting on many of the topics the house and +its denizens suggest, we will turn again to the streets to seek +the school where one of the young sons of the family has been duly +conducted (possibly, one may say, driven) by his pedagogue. We +have not far to go. Athenian schools have to be numerous, because +they are small. To teach children of the poorer classes it is +enough to have a modest room and a few stools; an unrented shop +will answer. But we will go to a more pretentious establishment. +There is an anteroom by the entrance way where the pedagogues can +sit and doze or exchange gossip while their respective charges are +kept busy in the larger room within. The latter place, however, +is not particularly commodious. On the bare wall hang book-rolls, +lyres, drinking vessels, baskets for books, and perhaps some simple +geometric instruments. The pupils sit on rude, low benches, each +lad with his boxwood tablet covered with wax[*] upon his lap, and +presumably busy, scratching letters with his stylus. The master +sits on a high chair, surveying the scene. He cultivates a grim +and awful aspect, for he is under no delusion that “his pupils +love him.” “He sits aloft,” we are told, “like a juryman, with an +expression of implacable wrath, before which the pupil must tremble +and cringe.”[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This wax tablet was practically a slate. The letters written +could be erased with the blunt upper end of the metallic stylus, +and the whole surface of the tablet could be made smooth again by +a judicious heating. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] The quotation is from the late writer Libanius, but it is +perfectly true for classic Athens. +</p> + +<p> +Athenian schoolboys have at least their full share of idleness, as +well as of animal spirits. There is soon a loud whisper from one +corner. Instantly the ruling tyrant rises. “Antiphon! I have +heard you. Come forward!” If Antiphon is wise, he will advance +promptly and submit as cheerfully as possible to a sound caning; +if folly possesses him, he will hesitate. At a nod from the master +two older boys, who serve as monitors, will seize him with grim +chuckles. He will then be fortunate if he escapes being tied to a +post and flogged until his back is one mass of welts, and his very +life seems in danger. It will be useless for him to complain to +his parents. A good schoolmaster is supposed to flog frequently to +earn his pay; if he is sparing with the rod or lash, he is probably +lacking in energy. Boys will be boys, and there is only one remedy +for juvenile shortcomings. +</p> + +<p> +This diversion, of course, with its attendant howling, interrupts +the course of the school, but presently matters again become normal. +The scholars are so few that probably there is only one teacher, +and instruction is decidedly “individual,” although poetry and +singing are very likely taught “in concert.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect55"></a> +<b>55. The School Curriculum.</b>—As to the subjects studied, the +Athenian curriculum is well fixed and limited: letters, music, and +gymnastics. Every lad must have a certain amount of all of these. +They gymnastics will be taught later in the day by a special +teacher at a “wrestling school.” The “music” may also be taught +separately. The main effort with a young boy is surely to teach +him to read and write. And here must be recalled the relative +infrequency of complete books in classic Athens.[*] To read public +placards, inscriptions of laws, occasional epistles, commercial +documents, etc., is probably, for many Athenians, reading enough. +The great poets he will learn by ear rather than by eye; and he +may go through a long and respected life and never be compelled to +read a really sizable volume from end to end. So the teaching of +reading is along very simple lines. It is perhaps simultaneous +with the learning of writing. The twenty-four letters are learned +by sheer power of memory; then the master sets lines upon the +tablets to be copied. As soon as possible the boy is put to learning +and writing down passages from the great poets. Progress in mere +literacy is very rapid. There is no waste of time on history, +geography, or physical science; and between the concentration on a +singly main subject and the impetus given by the master’s rod the +Athenian schoolboy soon becomes adept with his letters. Possibly +a little arithmetic is taught him, but only a little. In later life, +if he does not become a trader or banker, he will not be ashamed +to reckon simple sums upon his fingers or by means of pebbles; +although if his father is ambitious to have him become a philosopher, +he may have him taught something of geometry. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] One gets the impression that books—in the sense of complete +volumes—were much rarer in Athens than in Imperial Rome, or in later +Middle Ages up to the actual period of the invention of printing. +</p> + +<p> +Once more we see the total absence of “vocational studies” in this +Athenian education. The whole effort is to develop a fair, noble, +free, and lofty character, not to earn a living. To set a boy +to study with an eye to learning some profitable trade is counted +illiberal to the last degree. It is for this reason that practical +arithmetic is discouraged, yet a little knowledge of the art +of outline drawing is allowed; for though no gentleman intends to +train his son to be a great artist, the study will enable him to +appreciate good sculpture and painting. Above all the schoolmaster, +who, despite his brutal austerity, ought to be a clear-sighted +and inspiring teacher, must lose no opportunity to instill moral +lessons, and develop the best powers of his charges. Theoginis, +the old poet of Megara, states the case well:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +To rear a child is easy; but to teach<br /> +Morals and manners is beyond our reach.<br /> +To make the foolish wise, the wicked good,<br /> +That science never yet understood. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect56"></a> +<b>56. The Study of the Poets.</b>—It is for the developing of the best +moral and mental qualities in the lads that they are compelled to +memorize long passages of the great poets of Hellas. Theoginis, +with his pithy admonitions cast in semi-proverb form, the worldly +wisdom of Hesiod, and of Phocylides are therefore duly flogged +into every Attic schoolboy.[*] But the great text-book dwarfing +all others, is Homer,—“the Bible of the Greeks,” as later ages +will call it. Even in the small school we visit, several of the +pupils can repeat five or six long episodes from both the <i>Iliad</i> +and the <i>Odyssey</i>, and there is one older boy present (an extraordinary, +but by no means an unprecedented case) who can repeat <i>both</i> of the +long epics word for word.[+] Clearly the absence of many books has +then its compensations. The average Athenian lad has what seems +to be a simply marvelous memory. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Phocylides, whose gnomic poetry is now preserved to us only in +scant fragments, was an Ionian, born about 560 B.C. His verses +were in great acceptance in the schools. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] For such an attainment see Xenophon’s <i>Symposium</i>, 3:5. +</p> + +<p> +And what an admirable text-book and “second reader” the Homeric poems +are! What characters to imitate: the high-minded, passionate, yet +withal loyal and lovable Achilles who would rather fight gloriously +before Troy (though death in the campaign is certain) than live a +long life in ignoble ease at home at Phthia; or Oysseus, the “hero +of many devices,” who endures a thousand ills and surmounts them +all; who lets not even the goddess Calypso seduce him from his +love to his “sage Penelope”; who is ever ready with a clever tale, +a plausible lie, and, when the need comes, a mighty deed of manly +valor. The boys will all go home to-night with firm resolves to +suffer all things rather than leave a comrade unavenged, as Achilles +was tempted to do and nobly refused, and to fight bravely, four +against forty, as Odysseus and his comrades did, when at the call +of duty and honor they cleared the house of the dastard suitors. +True, philosophers like Plato complain: “Homer gives to lads very +undignified and unworthy ideas of the gods”; and men of a later +age will assert: “Homer has altogether too little to say about +the cardinal virtues of truthfulness and honesty.”[*] But making +all allowances the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> are still the two grandest +secular text-books the world will ever know. The lads are definitely +the better for them. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The virtue of unflinching <i>honesty</i> was undoubtedly the thing least +cultivated by the Greek education. Successful prevarication, <i>e.g.</i> +in the case of Odysseus, was put at altogether too high a premium. +It is to be feared that the average Athenian schoolboy was only +partially truthful. The tale of “George Washington and the cherry +tree” would never have found favor in Athens. The great Virginian +would have been blamed for failing to concoct a clever lie. +</p> + +<p> +Three years, according to Plato, are needed to learn the rudiments +of reading and writing before the boys are fairly launched upon +this study of the poets. For several years more they will spend +most of their mornings standing respectfully before their master, +while he from his chair reads to them from the roll of one author +or another,—the pupils repeating the lines, time and again, until +they have learned them, while the master interrupts to explain +every nice point in mythology, in real or alleged history, or a +moot question in ethics. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect57"></a> +<b>57. The Greeks do not study Foreign Languages.</b>—As the boys +grow older the scope of their study naturally increases; but in +one particular their curriculum will seem strangely limited. <i>The +study of foreign languages has no place in a Greek course of study.</i> +That any gentleman should learn say Persian, or Egyptian (unless +he intended to devote himself to distant travel), seems far more +unprofitable than, in a later age, the study of say Patagonian +or Papuan will appear.[*] Down at the Peiræus there are a few +shipmasters, perhaps, who can talk Egyptian, Phœnecian, or Babylonish. +They need the knowledge for their trade, but even they will disclaim +any cultural value for their accomplishment. The euphonious, +expressive, marvelously delicate tongue of Hellas sums up for the +Athenian almost all that is valuable in the world’s intellectual +and literary life. What has the outer, the “Barbarian,” world +to give him?—Nothing, many will say, but some gold darics which +will corrupt his statesmen, and some spices, carpets, and similar +luxuries which good Hellenes can well do without. The Athenian +lad will never need to crucify the flesh upon Latin, French, and +German, or an equivalent for his own Greek. Therein perhaps he +may be heavily the loser, save that his own mother tongue is so +intricate and full of subtle possibilities that to learn to make +the full use thereof is truly a matter for lifelong education. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This fact did not prevent the Greeks from having a considerable +respect for the traditions and lore of, <i>e.g.</i>, the Egyptians, and +from borrowing a good many non-Greek usages and inventions; but +all this could take place without feeling the least necessity for +studying foreign languages. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect58"></a> +<b>58. The Study of “Music.”</b>—But the Athenian has a substitute for +this omission of foreign language study: <i>Music</i>. This is something +more comprehensive than “the art of combining tones in a manner to +please the ear” [Webster]. It is practically the study of whatever +will develop the noble powers of the emotions, as contrasted to +the mere intellect.[*] Indeed everything which comes within the +ample provinces of the nine Muses, even sober history, might be +included in the term. However, for special purposes, the study of +“Music” may be considered as centering around playing instruments +and singing. The teacher very likely resides in a house apart +from the master of the school of letters. Aristophanes gives this +picture of the good old customs for the teaching of music. “The +boys from the same section of the town have to march thinly clad +and draw up in good order—though the snow be thick as meal—to the +house of the harp master. There he will teach them [some famous +tune] raising a mighty melody. If any one acts silly or turns any +quavers, he gets a good hard thrashing for ‘banishing the Muses!’”[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Aristotle [<i>Politics</i>, V. (or VIII.) 1] says that the literary +education is to train the mind; while music, though of no practical +use, “provides a noble and liberal employment of leisure.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Aristophanes’s <i>The Clouds</i>. The whole passage is cited in +Davis’s <i>Readings in Ancient History</i>, vol. I, pp. 252-255. +</p> + +<p> +Learning to sing is probably the most important item, for every +boy and man ought to be able to bear his part in the great chorals +which are a notable element in most religious festivals; besides, +a knowledge of singing is a great aid to appreciating lyric poetry, +or the choruses in tragedy, and in learning to declaim. To learn +to sing elaborate solo pieces is seldom necessary,—it is not quite +genteel in grown-up persons, for it savors a little too much of the +professional. So it is also with instrumental music. The Greeks +lack the piano, the organ, the elaborate brass instruments of a +later day. Their flutes and harps, although very sweet, might seem +thin to a twentieth-century critic. But one can gain considerable +volume by the great <i>number</i> of instruments, and nearly everybody +in Athens can pick at the lyre after a fashion. The common type of +harp is the lyre, and it has enough possibilities for the average boy. +The more elaborate <i>cithera</i> is usually reserved for professionals.[*] +An Athenian lad is expected to be able to accompany his song upon +his own lyre and to play in concert with his fellows. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] For the details of these harp types of instruments see Dictionary +of Antiquities. +</p> + +<p> +The other instrument in common use is the <i>flute</i>. At its simplest, +this is a mere shepherd’s pipe. Anybody can make one with a knife +and some rushes. Then come elaborations; two pipes are fitted +together into one wooden mouthpiece. Now, we really have an +instrument with possibilities. But it is not in such favor in the +schools as the lyre. You cannot blow day after day upon the flute +and not distort your cheeks permanently. Again the gentleman’s +son will avoid “professionalism.” There are amateur flute players +moving in the best society, but the more fastidious frown upon the +instrument, save for hired performers. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect59"></a> +<b>59. The Moral Character of Greek Music.</b>—Whether it is singing, +harp playing, or flute playing, a most careful watch is kept upon +the <i>character</i> of the music taught the lads. The master who lets +his pupils learn many soft, dulcet, languishing airs will find his +charges’ parents extremely angry, even to depriving him of their +patronage. Very soft music, in “Lydian modes,” is counted effeminate, +fit only for the women’s quarters and likely to do boys no good. +The riotous type also, of the “Ionic mode,” is fit only for drinking +songs and is even more under the ban.[*] What is especially in +favor is the stern, strenuous Dorian mode. This will make boys +hardy, manly, and brave. Very elaborate music with trills and +quavers is in any case frowned upon. It simply delights the trained +ear, and has no reaction upon the character; and of what value is +a musical presentation unless it leaves the hearers and performer +better, worthier men? Let the average Athenian possess the +opportunity, and he will infallibly stamp with disapproval a great +part of both the popular and the classical music of the later +ages.[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The “Phrygian mode” from which the “Ionic” was derived was still +more demoralizing; it was counted “orgiastic,” and proper only in +certain excited religious rhapsodies. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] We have extremely few Greek melodies preserved to us and these +few are not attractive to the modern ear. All that can fairly be +said is that the Hellenes were obvious such æsthetic, harmoniously +minded people that it is impossible their music should have failed +in nobility, beauty, and true melody. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect60"></a> +<b>60. The Teaching of Gymnastics.</b>—The visits to the reading school +and to the harp master have consumed a large part of the day; but +towards afternoon the pedagogues will conduct their charges to the +third of the schoolboys’ tyrants: the gymnastic teacher. Nor do +his parents count this the least important of the three. Must not +their sons be as physically “beautiful” (to use the common phrase +in Athens) as possible, and must they not some day, as good citizens, +play their brave part in war? The <i>palæstras</i> (literally “wrestling +grounds”) are near the outskirts of the city, where land is cheap +and a good-sized open space can be secured. Here the lads are +given careful instruction under the constant eye of an expert in +running, wrestling, boxing, jumping, discus hurling, and javelin +casting. They are not expected to become professional athletes, +but their parents will be vexed if they do not develop a healthy +tan all over their naked bodies,[*] and if they do not learn at +least moderate proficiency in the sports and a certain amount of +familiarity with elementary military maneuvers. Of course boys +of marked physical ability will be encouraged to think of training +for the various great “games” which culminate at Olympia, although +enlightened opinion is against the promoting of professional +athletics; and certain extreme philosophers question the wisdom of +any extensive physical culture at all, “for (say they) is not the +human mind the real thing worth developing?”[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] To have a pale, untanned skin was “womanish” and unworthy of a +free Athenian citizen. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] The details of the boys’ athletic games, being much of a kind +with those followed by adults at the regular public gymnasia, are +here omitted. See Chap. XVII. +</p> + +<p> +Weary at length and ready for a hearty meal and sleep, the boys +are conducted homeward by their pedagogues. +</p> + +<p> +As they grow older the lads with ambitious parents will be given +a more varied education. Some will be put under such teachers of +the new rhetoric and oratory, now in vogue, as the famous Isocrates, +and be taught to play the orator as an aid to inducing their fellow +citizens to bestow political advancement. Certain will be allowed +to become pupils of Plato, who has been teaching his philosophy +out at the groves of the Academy, or to join some of his rivals in +theoretical wisdom. Into these fields, however, we cannot follow +them. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect61"></a> +<b>61. The Habits and Ambitions of Schoolboys.</b>—It is a clear fact, +that by the age say of thirteen, the Athenian education has had a +marked effect upon the average schoolboy. Instead of being “the +most ferocious of animals,” as Plato, speaking of his untutored +state describes him, he is now “the most amiable and divine of +living beings.” The well-trained lad goes now to school with his +eyes cast upon the ground, his hands and arms wrapped in his chiton, +making way dutifully for all his elders. If he is addressed by an +older man, he stands modestly, looking downward and blushing in a +manner worthy of a girl. He has been taught to avoid the Agora, +and if he must pass it, never to linger. The world is full of +evil and ugly things, but he is taught to hear and see as little of +them as possible. When men talk of his healthy color, increasing +beauty, and admire the graceful curves of his form at the wrestling +school, he must not grow proud. He is being taught to learn relatively +little from books, but a great deal from hearing the conversation +of grave and well-informed men. As he grows older his father will +take him to all kinds of public gatherings and teach him the working +details of the “Democratic Government” of Athens. He becomes +intensely proud of his city. It is at length his chief thought, +almost his entire life. A very large part of the loyalty which +an educated man of a later age will divide between his home, his +church, his college, his town, and his nation, the Athenian lad +will sum up in two words,—“my <i>polis</i>”; <i>i.e.</i> the city of Athens. +His home is largely a place for eating and sleeping; his school +is not a great institution, it is simply a kind of disagreeable +though necessary learning shop; his church is the religion of his +ancestors, and this religion is warp and woof of the government, +as much a part thereof as the law courts or the fighting fleet; +his town and his nation are alike the sovran city-state of Athens. +Whether he feels keenly a wider loyalty to Hellas at large, as +against the Great King of Persia, for instance, will depend upon +circumstances. In a real crisis, as at Salamis,—yes. In ordinary +circumstances when there is a hot feud with Sparta,—no. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect62"></a> +<b>62. The “Ephebi.”</b>—The Athenian education then is admirably adapted +to make the average lad a useful and worthy citizen, and to make +him modest, alert, robust, manly, and a just lover of the beautiful, +both in conduct and in art. It does not, however, develop his +individual bent very strongly; and it certainly gives him a mean +view of the dignity of labor. He will either become a leisurely +gentleman, whose only proper self-expression will come in warfare, +politics, or philosophy; or—if he be poor—he will at least envy +and try to imitate the leisure class. +</p> + +<p> +By eighteen the young Athenian’s days of study will usually come +to a close. At that age he will be given a simple festival by +his father and be formally enrolled in his paternal <i>deme</i>.[*] His +hair, which has hitherto grown down toward his shoulders, will be +clipped short. He will allow his beard to grow. At the temple +of Aglaurus he will (with the other youths of his age) take solemn +oath of loyalty to Athens and her laws. For the next year he will +serve as a military guard at the Peiræus, and receive a certain +training in soldiering. The next year the state will present +him with a new shield and spear, and he will have a taste of the +rougher garrison duty at one of the frontier forts towards Bœtia or +Megara.[+] Then he is mustered out. He is an ephebus no longer, +but a full-fledged citizen, and all the vicissitudes of Athenian +life are before him. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] One of the hundred or more petty townships or precincts into +which Attica was divided. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] These two years which the <i>ephebi</i> of Athens had to serve under +arms have been aptly likened to the military service now required +of young men in European countries. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>Chapter X.<br /> +The Physicians of Athens.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect63"></a> +<b>63. The Beginnings of Greek Medical Science.</b>—As we move about +the city we cannot but be impressed by the high average of fine +physiques and handsome faces. Your typical Greek is fair in color +and has very regular features. The youths do not mature rapidly, +but thanks to the gymnasia and the regular lives, they develop not +merely admirable, but healthy, bodies. The proportion of hale and +hearty <i>old</i> men is great; and probably the number of invalids is +considerably smaller than in later times and in more artificially +reared communities.[*] Nevertheless, the Athenians are certainly +mortal, and subject to bodily ills, and the physician is no unimportant +member of society, although his exact status is much less clearly +determined than it will be in subsequent ages. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] A slight but significant witness to the general healthiness of +the Greeks is found in the very rare mention in their literature +of such a common ill as <i>toothache</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Greek medicine and surgery, as it appears in Homer, is simply a +certain amount of practical knowledge gained by rough experience, +largely supplemented by primitive superstition. It was quite as +important to know the proper prayers and charms wherewith to approach +“Apollo the Healer,” as to understand the kind of herb poultice +which would keep wounds from festering. Homer speaks of Asclepius; +however, in early days he was not a god, but simply a skilful leach. +Then as we approach historic times the physician’s art becomes +more regular. Asclepius is elevated into a separate and important +deity, although it is not till 420 B.C. that his worship is formally +introduced into Athens. Long ere that time, however, medicine and +surgery had won a real place among the practical sciences. The +sick man stands at least a tolerable chance of rational treatment, +and of not being murdered by wizards and fanatical exorcists. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect64"></a> +<b>64. Healing Shrines and their Methods.</b>—There exist in Athens and +in other Greek cities real sanataria[*]; these are temples devoted +to the healing gods (usually Asclepius, but sometimes Apollo, +Aphrodite, and Hera). Here the patient is expected to sleep over +night in the temple, and the god visits him in a dream, and reveals +a course of treatment which will lead to recovery. Probably there +is a good deal of sham and imposture about the process. The canny +priests know more than they care to tell about how the patient is +worked into an excitable, imaginative state; and of the very human +means employed to produce a satisfactory and informing dream.[+] +Nevertheless it is a great deal to convince the patient that he +is sure of recovery, and that nobody less than a god has dictated +the remedies. The value of mental therapeutics is keenly appreciated. +Attached to the temple are skilled physicians to “interpret” the +dream, and opportunities for prolonged residence with treatment by +baths, purgation, dieting, mineral waters, sea baths, all kinds of +mild gymnastics, etc. Entering upon one of these temple treatments +is, in short anything but surrendering oneself to unmitigated quackery. +Probably a large proportion of the former patients have recovered; +and they have testified their gratitude by hanging around the +shrine little votive tablets,[$] usually pictures of the diseased +parts now happily healed, or, for internal maladies, a written +statement of the nature of the disease. This is naturally very +encouraging to later patients: they gain confidence knowing that +many cases similar to their own have been thus cured. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The most famous was at Epidaurus, where the Asclepius cult seems +to have been especially localized. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] The “healing sleep” employed at these temples is described, in +a kind of blasphemous parody, in Aristophanes’s <i>Plutus</i>. (Significant +passages are quoted in Davis’s <i>Readings in Ancient History</i>, vol. +I, pp. 258-261.) +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[$] Somewhat as in the various Catholic pilgrimage shrines (<i>e.g.</i> +Lourdes) to-day. +</p> + +<p> +These visits to the healing temples are, however, expensive: not +everybody has entire faith in them; for many lesser ills also they +are wholly unnecessary. Let us look, then, at the regular physicians. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect65"></a> +<b>65. An Athenian Physician’s Office.</b>—There are salaried public +medical officers in Athens, and something like a public dispensary +where free treatment is given citizens in simple cases; but the +average man seems to prefer his own doctor.[*] We may enter the +office of Menon, a “regular private practitioner,” and look about +us. The office itself is a mere open shop in the front of a house +near the Agora; and, like a barber’s shop is something of a general +lounging place. In the rear one or two young disciples (doctors +in embryo) and a couple of slaves are pounding up drugs in mortars. +There are numbers of bags of dried herbs and little glass flasks +hanging on the walls. Near the entrance is a statue of Asclepius +the Healer, and also of the great human founder of the real medical +science among the Greeks—Hippocrates. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] We know comparatively little of these public physicians; probably +they were mainly concerned with the health of the army and naval +force, the prevention of epidemics, etc. +</p> + +<p> +Menon himself is just preparing to go out on his professional +calls. He is a handsome man in the prime of his life, and takes +great pains with his personal appearance. His himation is carefully +draped. His finger rings have excellent cameos. His beard has +been neatly trimmed, and he has just bathed and scented himself +with delicate Assyrian nard. He will gladly tell you that he is +in no wise a fop, but that it is absolutely necessary to produce +a pleasant personal impression upon his fastidious, irritable +patients. Menon himself claims to have been a personal pupil of +the great Hippocrates,[*] and about every other reputable Greek +physician will make the same claim. He has studied more or less +in a temple of Asclepius, and perhaps has been a member of the +medical staff thereto attached. He has also become a member of +the Hippocratic brotherhood, a semi-secret organization, associated +with the Asclepius cult, and cheerfully cherishing the dignity of +the profession and the secret arts of the guild. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Who was still alive, an extremely old man. He died in Thessaly +in 357 B.C., at an alleged age of 104 years. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect66"></a> +<b>66. The Physician’s Oath.</b>—The oath which all this brotherhood has +sworn is noble and notable. Here are some of the main provisions:— +</p> + +<p> +“I swear by Apollo the Physician, and Asclepius and Hygeia; a +[Lady Health] and Panaceia [Lady All-Cure] to honor as my parents +the master who taught me this art, and to admit to my own instruction +only his sons, my own sons, and those who have been duly inscribed +as pupils, and who have taken the medical oath, and no others. I +will prescribe such treatment as may be for the benefit of my +patients, according to my best power and judgment, and preserve +them from anything hurtful or mischievous. I will never, even if +asked, administer poison, nor advise its use. I will never give +a criminal draught to a woman. I will maintain the purity and +integrity of my art. Wherever I go, I will abstain from all mischief +or corruption, or any immodest action. If ever I hear any secret +I will not divulge it. If I keep this oath, may the gods give me +success in life and in my art. If I break this oath, may all the +reverse fall upon me.”[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] For the unabridged translation of this oath, see Smith’s +<i>Dictionary of Antiquities</i> (revised edition), vol. II, p. 154. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect67"></a> +<b>67. The Skill of Greek Physicians.</b>—Menon’s skill as a physician +and surgeon is considerable. True, he has only a very insufficient +conception of anatomy. His <i>theoretical</i> knowledge is warped, but +he is a shrewd judge of human nature and his <i>practical</i> knowledge +is not contemptible. In his private pharmacy his assistants have +compounded a great quantity of drugs which he knows how to administer +with much discernment. He has had considerable experience in dealing +with wounds and sprains, such as are common in the wars or in the +athletic games. He understands that Dame Nature is a great healer, +who is to be assisted rather than coerced; and he dislikes resorting +to violent remedies, such as bleedings and strong emetics. Ordinary +fevers and the like he can attack with success. He has no modern +anæsthetics or opium, but has a very insufficient substitute in +mandragora. He can treat simple diseases of the eye; and he knows +how to put gold filling into teeth. His surgical instruments, +however, are altogether too primitive. He is personally cleanly; +but he has not the least idea of antiseptics; the result is that +obscure internal diseases, calling for grave operations, are likely +to baffle him. He will refuse to operate, or if he does operate +the chances are against the patient.[*] In other words, his medical +skill is far in advance of his surgery. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Seemingly a really serious operation was usually turned over +by the local physician to a traveling surgeon, who could promptly +disappear from the neighborhood if things went badly. +</p> + +<p> +Menon naturally busies himself among the best families of Athens, +and commands a very good income. He counts it part of his equipment +to be able to persuade his patients, by all the rules of logic and +rhetoric, to submit to disagreeable treatment; and for that end +has taken lessons in informal oratory from Isocrates or one of his +associates. Some of Menon’s competitors (feeling themselves less +eloquent) have actually a paid rhetorician whom they can take to +the bedside of a stubborn invalid, to induce him by irrefutable +arguments to endure an amputation.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Plato tells how Gorgias, the famous rhetorician, was sometimes +thus hired. A truly Greek artifice—this substitution of oratory +for chloroform! +</p> + +<p> +No such honor of course is paid to the intellects of the poorer fry, +who swarm in at Menon’s surgery. Those who cannot pay to have him +bandage them himself, perforce put up with the secondary skill and +wisdom of the “disciples.” The drug-mixing slaves are expected to +salve and physic the patients of their own class; but there seems +to be a law against allowing them to attempt the treatment of +free-born men. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect68"></a> +<b>68. Quacks and Charlatans.</b>—Unluckily not everybody is wise enough +to put up with the presumably honest efforts of Menon’s underlings. +There appears to be no law against anybody who wishes to pose as +a physician, and to sell his inexperience and his quack nostrums. +Vendors of every sort of cure-all abound, as well as creatures who +work on the superstitions and pretend to cure by charms and hocus-pocus. +In the market there is such a swarm of these charlatans of healing +that they bring the whole medical profession into contempt. Certain +people go so far as to distrust the efficacy of any part of the +lore of Asclepius. Says one poet tartly:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +The surgeon Menedemos, as men say,<br /> + Touched as he passed a Zeus of marble white;<br /> + Neither the marble nor his Zeus-ship might<br /> +Avail the god—they buried him to-day. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And again even to dream of the quacks is dangerous:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Diophantes, sleeping, saw<br /> + Hermas the physician:<br /> +Diophantes never woke<br /> + From that fatal vision.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Both of these quotations probably date from later than 360 B.C., +but they are perfectly in keeping with the general opinion of Greek +quackery. +</p> + +<p> +All in all, despite Menon’s good intentions and not despicable +skill, it is fortunate the gods have made “Good Health” one of +their commonest gifts to the Athenians. Constant exercise in the +gymnasia, occasional service in the army, the absence of cramping +and unhealthful office work, and a climate which puts out-of-door +existence at a premium, secure for them a general good health that +compensates for most of the lack of a scientific medicine. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>Chapter XI.<br /> +The Funerals.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect69"></a> +<b>69. An Athenian’s Will.</b>—All Menon’s patient’s are to-day set +out upon the road to recovery. Hipponax, his rival, has been less +fortunate. A wealthy and elderly patient, Lycophron, died the +day before yesterday. As the latter felt his end approaching, he +did what most Athenians may put off until close to the inevitable +hour—he made his will, and called in his friends to witness it; +and one must hope there can be no doubt about the validity, the +signets attached, etc., for otherwise the heirs may find themselves +in a pretty lawsuit. +</p> + +<p> +The will begins in this fashion: “The Testament of Lyophron the +Marathonian.[*] May all be well:—but if I do not recover from +this sickness, thus do I bestow my estate.” Then in perfectly +cold-blooded fashion he proceeds to give his young wife and the +guardianship of his infant daughter to Stobiades, a bachelor friend +who will probably marry the widow within two months or less of the +funeral. Lycophron gives also specific directions about his tomb; +he gives legacies of money or jewelry to various old associates; +he mentions certain favorite slaves to receive freedom, and as +specifically orders certain others (victims of his displeasure) +to be kept in bondage. Lastly three reliable friends are names as +executors. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] In all Athenian legal documents, it was necessary to give the +deme of the interested party or parties. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect70"></a> +<b>70. The Preliminaries of a Funeral.</b>—An elaborate funeral is the +last perquisite of every Athenian. Even if Lycophron had been a poor +man he would now receive obsequies seemingly far out of proportion +to his estate and income. It is even usual in Greek states to have +laws restraining the amount which may be spent upon funerals,—otherwise +great sums may be literally “burned up” upon the funeral pyres. +When now the tidings go out that Lycophron’s nearest relative has +“closed his mouth,” after he has breathed his last, all his male +kinsfolk and all other persons who <i>hope</i> to be remembered in the +will promptly appear in the Agora in black himatia[*] and hasten +to the barber shops to have their heads shaved. The widow might +shave her hair likewise, with all her slave maids, did not her +husband, just ere his death, positively forbid such disfigurements. +The women of the family take the body in charge the minute the +physician has declared that all is over. The customary obol is put +in the mouth of the corpse,[+] and the body is carefully washed in +perfumed water, clothed in festal white; then woolen fillets are +wound around the head, and over these a crown of vine leaves. So +arrayed, the body is ready to be laid out on a couch in the front +courtyard of the house, with the face turned toward the door so +as to seem to greet everybody who enters. In front of the house +there stands a tall earthen vase of water, wherewith the visitors +may give themselves a purifying sprinkling, after quitting the +polluting presence of a dead body. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] In the important city of Argos, however, <i>white</i> was the proper +funeral color. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] This was not originally (as later asserted) a fee to Charon the +ferryman to Hades, but simply a “minimum precautionary sum, for the +dead man’s use” (Dr. Jane Harrison), placed in the mouth, where a +Greek usually kept his small change. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect71"></a> +<b>71. Lamenting of the Dead.</b>—Around this funeral bed the relatives +and friends keep a gloomy vigil. The Athenians after all are +southern born, and when excited seem highly emotional people. There +are stern laws dating from Solon’s day against the worst excesses, +but what now occurs seems violent enough. The widow is beating +her breast, tearing her hair, gashing her cheeks with her finger +nails. Lycophron’s elderly sister has ashes sprinkled upon her gray +head and ever and anon utters piteous wails. The slave women in +the background keep up a hideous moaning. The men present do not +think it undignified to utter loud lamentation and to shed frequent +tears. Least commendable of all (from a modern standpoint) are the +hired dirge singers, who maintain a most melancholy chant, all the +time beating their breasts, and giving a perfect imitation of frantic +grief. This has probably continued day and night, the mourners +perhaps taking turns by relays. +</p> + +<p> +All in all it is well that Greek custom enjoins the actual funeral, +at least, on the second day following the death.[*] The “shade” +of the deceased is not supposed to find rest in the nether world +until after the proper obsequies.[+] To let a corpse lie several +days without final disposition will bring down on any family severe +reproach. In fact, on few points are the Greeks more sensitive +than on this subject of prompt burial or cremation. After a land +battle the victors are bound never to push their vengeance so far +as to refuse a “burial truce” to the vanquished; and it is a doubly +unlucky admiral who lets his crews get drowned in a sea fight, +without due effort to recover the corpses afterward and to give +them proper disposition on land. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] It must be remembered that the Greeks had no skilled embalmers +at their service, and that they lived in a decidedly warm climate. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] See the well-known case of the wandering shade of Patroclus +demanding the proper obsequies from Achilles (<i>Iliad</i>, XXIII. 71). +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect72"></a> +<b>72. The Funeral Procession.</b>—The day after the “laying-out” comes +the actual funeral. Normally it is held as early as possible in +the morning, before the rising of the sun. Perhaps while on the +way to the Agora we have passed, well outside the city, such a +mournful procession. The youngest and stoutest of the male relatives +carry the litter: although if Lycophron’s relatives had desired +a really extravagant display they might have employed a mule car. +Ahead of the bier march the screaming flute players, earning their +fees by no melodious din. Then comes the litter itself with the +corpse arrayed magnificently for the finalities, a honey cake set +in the hands,[*] a flask of oil placed under the head. After this +come streaming the relatives in irregular procession: the widow and +the chief heir (her prospective second husband!) walking closest, +and trying to appear as demonstrative as possible: nor (merely +because the company is noisy and not stoical in its manner) need +we deny that there is abundant genuine grief. All sorts of male +acquaintances of the deceased bring up the rear, since it is good +form to proclaim to wide Athens that Lycophon had hosts of friends.[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The original idea of the honey cake was simply that it was a +friendly present to the infernal gods; later came the conceit that +it was a sop to fling to the dog Cerberus, who guarded the entrance +to Hades. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Women, unless they were over sixty years of age, were not allowed +to join in funeral processions unless they were first cousins, or +closer kin, of the deceased. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect73"></a> +<b>73. The Funeral Pyre.</b>—So the procession moves through the still +gloomy streets of the city,—doubtless needing torch bearers as +well as flute players,—and out through some gate, until the line +halts in an open field, or better, in a quiet and convenient garden. +Here the great funeral pyre of choice dry fagots, intermixed with +aromatic cedar, has been heaped. The bier is laid thereon. There +are no strictly religious ceremonies. The company stands in +a respectful circle, while the nearest male kinsman tosses a pine +link upon the oil-soaked wood. A mighty blaze leaps up to heaven, +sending its ruddy brightness against the sky now palely flushed +with the bursting dawn. The flutists play in softer measures. As +the fire rages a few of the relatives toss upon it pots of rare +unguents; and while the flames die down, thrice the company shout +their farewells, calling their departed friend by name—“Lycophron! +Lycophron! Lycophron!” +</p> + +<p> +So fierce is the flame it soon sinks into ashes. As soon as these +are cool enough for safety (a process hastened by pouring on water +or wine) the charred bones of the deceased are tenderly gathered +up to be placed in a stately urn. The company, less formally now, +returns to Athens, and that night there will probably be a great +funeral feast at the house of the nearest relative, everybody +eating and drinking to capacity “to do Lycophron full honor”; for +it is he who is imagined as being now for the last time the host. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect74"></a> +<b>74. Honors to the memory of the Dead.</b>—Religion seems to have +very little place in the Athenian funeral: there are no priests +present, no prayers, no religious hymns. But the dead man is now +conceived as being, in a very humble and intangible way, a deity +himself: his good will is worth propitiating; his memory is not +to be forgotten. On the third, ninth, and thirtieth days after +the funeral there are simple religious ceremonies with offerings +of garlands, fruits, libations and the like, at the new tomb; and +later at certain times in the year these will be repeated. The +more enlightened will of course consider these merely graceful +remembrances of a former friend; but there is a good deal of +primitive ancestor worship even in civilized Athens. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Burning</i> is the usual method for the Greeks to dispose of their +dead, but the burial of unburned bodies is not unknown to them. +Probably, however, the rocky soil and the limited land space around +Athens make regular cemeteries less convenient than elsewhere: still +it would have been nothing exceptional if Lycophron had ordered in +his will that he be put in a handsome pottery coffin to be placed +in a burial ground pertaining to his family. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus11"></a> +<img src="images/fig11.jpg" width="434" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">A<small>THENIAN</small> F<small>UNERAL</small> M<small>ONUMENT</small><br /> +A lady is gazing upon her casket of jewels before bidding them eternal +farewell. Note the admirable restraint yet pathos of the scene.</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect75"></a> +<b>75. The Beautiful Funeral Monuments.</b>—If the noisy funeral customs +permitted to the Athenians may repel a later day observer, there +can be only praise for the Athenian tombs, or rather the funeral +monuments (<i>stëlæ</i>) which might be set over the urns or ashes or the +actual coffins. Nearly every Athenian family has a private field +which it uses for sepulchral purposes: but running outside of +the city, near the Itonian Gate along the road to the Peiræus, the +space to either side of the highway has been especially appropriated +for this purpose. Walking hither along this “Street of the Tombs” +we can make a careful survey of some of the most touching memorials +of Athenian life. +</p> + +<p> +The period of hot, violent grief seems now over; the mourners have +settled down in their dumb sense of loss. This spirit of calm, +noble resignation is what is expressed upon these monuments. All +is chaste, dignified, simple. There are no labored eulogies of +the deceased; no frantic expressions of sorrow; no hint (let it +be also said) of any hope of reunions in the Hereafter. Sometimes +there is simply a plain marble slab or pillar marked with the name +of the deceased; and with even the more elaborate monuments the +effort often is to concentrate, into one simple scene, the best and +worthiest that was connected with the dear departed. Here is the +noble mother seated in quiet dignity extending her hand in farewell +to her sad but steadfast husband, while her children linger wonderingly +by; here is the athlete, the young man in his pride, depicted not +in the moment of weakness and death, but scraping his glorious form +with his strigil, after some victorious contest in the games; here +is the mounted warrior, slain before Corinth whilst battling for +his country, represented in the moment of overthrowing beneath +his flying charger some despairing foe. We are made to feel that +these Athenians were fair and beautiful in their lives, and that +in their deaths they were not unworthy. And we marvel, and admire +these monuments the more when we realize that they are not the work +of master sculptors but of ordinary paid craftsmen. We turn away +praising the city that could produce such noble sculpture and +call it mere handicraft, and praising also the calm poise of soul, +uncomforted by revealed religion, which could make these monuments +common expressions of the bitterest, deepest, most vital emotions +which can ever come to men.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] As Von Falke (<i>Greece and Rome</i>, p. 141) well says of these +monuments, “No skeleton, no scythe, no hour-glass is in them to +bring a shudder to the beholder. As they [the departed] were in +life, mother and daughter, husband and wife, parents and children, +here they are represented together, sitting or standing, clasping +each other’s hands and looking at one another with love and sympathy +as if it were their customary affectionate intercourse. What the +stone perpetuates is the love and happiness they enjoyed together, +while yet they rejoiced in life and the light of day.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>Chapter XII.<br /> +Trade, Manufactures, and Banking.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect76"></a> +<b>76. The Commercial Importance of Athens.</b>—While the funeral mourners +are wending their slow way homeward we have time to examine certain +phases of Athenian life at which we have previously glanced, then +ignored. Certain it is, most “noble and good” gentlemen delight +to be considered persons of polite uncommercial leisure; equally +certain it is that a good income is about as desirable in Athens +as anywhere else, and many a stately “Eupatrid,” who seems to +spend his whole time in dignified walks, discoursing on politics +or philosophy, is really keenly interested in trades, factories, +or farms, of which his less nobly born stewards have the active +management. Indeed one of the prime reasons for Athenian greatness +is the fact that Athens is the richest and greatest commercial city +of Continental Hellas, with only Corinth as a formidable rival.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Syracuse in distant Sicily was possibly superior to Athens in +commerce and economic prosperity, although incomparably behind her +in the empire of the arts and literature. +</p> + +<p> +To understand the full extent of Athenian commercial prosperity we +must visit the Peiræus, yet in the main city itself will be found +almost enough examples of the chief kinds of economic activity. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect77"></a> +<b>77. The Manufacturing Activities of Athens.</b>—Attica is the seat +of much manufacturing. Go to the suburbs: everywhere is the rank +odor of the tanneries; down at the harbors are innumerable ship +carpenters and sail and tackle makers, busy in the shipyards; from +almost every part of the city comes the clang of hammer and anvil +where hardware of all kinds is being wrought in the smithies; and +finally the potter makers are so numerous as to require special +mention hereafter. But no list of all the manufacturing activities +is here possible; enough that practically every known industry is +represented in Athens, and the “industrial” class is large.[*] A +very large proportion of the industrial laborers are slaves, but +by no means all. A good many are real Athenian citizens; a still +larger proportion are “metics” (resident foreigners without political +rights). The competition of slave labor, however, tends to keep +wages very low. An unskilled laborer will have to be content with +his 3 obols (9 cents [1914] or $1.51 [2000]) per day; but a trained +workman will demand a drachma (18 cents [1914] or $3.02 [2000]) +or even more. There are no labor unions or trade guilds. A son +usually, though not invariably, follows his father’s profession. +Each industry and line of work tends to have its own little street +or alley, preferably leading off the Agora. “The Street of the Marble +Workers,” the “Street of the Box Makers,” and notably the “Street +of the Potters” contain nearly all the workshops of a given kind. +Probably you can find no others in the city. Prices are regulated +by custom and competition; in case any master artisan is suspected +of “enhancing” the price of a needful commodity, or his shady business +methods seem dangerous to the public, there is no hesitation in +invoking an old law or passing a new one in the Assembly to bring +him to account. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] For a very suggestive list of the numerous kinds of Greek industries +(practically all of which would be represented in Athens) see H. +J. Edwards, in Whibley’s <i>Companion to Greek Studies</i>, p. 431. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus12"></a> +<img src="images/fig12.jpg" width="500" height="299" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">At the Smithy</p> +</div> + +<p> +Manufacturers are theoretically under a social ban, and indeed +yonder petty shoemaker, who, with his two apprentices, first makes +up his cheap sandals, then sells them over the low counter before +his own ship, is very far from being a “leisurely” member of the +“noble and the good.” But he who, like the late Lycophron, owns +a furniture factory employing nigh threescore slaves, can be sure +of lying down on his couch at a dinner party among the very best; +for, as in twentieth century England, even manufacture and “trade,” if +on a sufficiently large scale, cover a multitude of social sins.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Plato, probably echoing thoughtful Greek opinion, considered it +bad for manufacturers to be either too wealthy or too poor; thus +a potter getting too rich will neglect his art, and grow idle; +if, however, he cannot afford proper tools, he will manufacture +inferior wares, and his sons will be even worse workmen then he. +Such comment obviously comes from a society where most industrial +life is on a small scale. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect78"></a> +<b>78. The Commerce of Athens.</b>—Part of Athenian wealth comes from +the busy factories, great and small, which seem everywhere; still +more riches come in by the great commerce which will be found +centered at the Peiræus. Here is the spacious <i>Deigma</i>, a kind +of exchange-house where ship masters can lay out samples of their +wares on display, and sell to the important wholesalers, who will +transmit to the petty shopkeepers and the “ultimate consumer.”[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Of course a very large proportion of Greek manufactures wares +were never exported, but were sold direct by the manufacturer to +the consumer himself. This had various disadvantages; but there +was this large gain: <i>only one profit</i> was necessary to be added +to the mere cost of production. This aided to make Greece (from +a modern standpoint) a paradise of low prices. +</p> + +<p> +There are certain articles of which various districts make a +specialty, and which Athens is constantly importing: Bœtia sends +chariots; Thessaly, easy chairs; Chios and Miletos, bedding; and +Miletos, especially, very fine woolens. Greece in general looks +to Syria and Arabia for the much-esteemed spices and perfumes; to +Egypt for papyri for the book rolls; to Babylonia for carpets. To +discuss the whole problem of Athenian commerce would require a book +in itself; but certain main facts stand out clearly. One is that +Attica herself has extremely few natural products to export—only her +olive oil, her Hymettus honey, and her magnificent marbles—dazzling +white from Pentelicos, gray from Hymettus, blue or black from +Eleusis. Again we soon notice the great part which <i>grain</i> plays in +Athenian commerce. Attica raises such a small proportion of the +necessary breadstuffs, and so serious is the crisis created by any +shortage, that all kinds of measures are employed to compel a steady +flow of grain from the Black Sea ports into the Peiræus. Here is +a law which Domsthenes quotes to us:— +</p> + +<p> +“It shall not be lawful for any Athenian or any metic in Attica, +or any person under their control [<i>i.e.</i> slave or freedman] to lend +out money on a ship which is not commissioned to bring grain to +Athens.” +</p> + +<p> +A second law, even more drastic, forbids any such person to +transport grain to any harbor but the Peiræus. The penalties for +evading these laws are terrific. At set intervals also the Public +Assembly (Ecclesia) is in duty bound to consider the whole state +of the grain trade: while the dealers in grain who seem to be +cornering the market, and forcing up the price of bread, are liable +to prompt and disastrous prosecution. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect79"></a> +<b>79. The Adventurous Merchant Skippers.</b>—Foreign trade at Athens +is fairly well systematized, but it still partakes of the nature +of an adventure. The name for “skipper” (nauklëros) is often used +interchangeably for “merchant.” Nearly all commerce is by sea, +for land routes are usually slow, unsafe, and inconvenient[*]; the +average foreign trader is also a shipowner, probably too the actual +working captain. He has no special commodity, but will handle +everything which promises a profit. A war is breaking out in +Paphlagonia. Away he sails thither with a cargo of good Athenian +shields, swords, and lances. He loads up in that barbarous but +fertile country with grain; but leaves enough room in his hold for +some hundred skins of choice wine which he takes aboard at Chios. +The grain and wine are disembarked at the Piræus. Hardly are they +ashore ere rumor tells him that salt herring[+] are abundant and +especially cheap at Corcyra; and off he goes for a return cargo +thereof, just lingering long enough to get on a lading of Athenian +olive oil. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Naturally there was a safe land route from Athens across the +Isthmus to Corinth and thence to Sparta or towards Ellis; again, +there would be fair roads into Bœtia. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Salt fish were a very usual and important article of Greek +commerce. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect80"></a> +<b>80. Athenian Money-changers and Bankers.</b>—An important factor in the +commerce of Athens is the “Money-changer.” There is no one fixed +standard of coinage for Greece, let alone the Barbarian world. Athens +strikes its money on a standard which has very wide acceptance, +but Corinth has another standard, and a great deal of business is +also transacted in Persian gold darics. The result is that at the +Peiræus and near the Agora are a number of little “tables” where +alert individuals, with strong boxes beside them, are ready to sell +foreign coins to would-be travelers, or exchange darics for Attic +drachmæ, against a pretty favorable commission. +</p> + +<p> +This was the beginning of the Athenian banker; but from being a mere +exchanger he has often passed far beyond, to become a real master +of credit and capital. There are several of these highly important +gentlemen who now have a business and fortune equal to that of the +famous Pasion, who died in 370 B.C. While the firm of Pasion and +Company was at its height, the proprietor derived a net income of +at least 100 minæ (over $1,800 [1914] or $30,248.07 [2000]) per year +from his banking; and more than half as much extra from a shield +factory.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] These sums seem absurdly small for a great money magnate, but +the very high purchasing power of money in Athens must be borne in +mind. We know a good deal about Pasion and his business from the +speeches which Deosthenes composed in the litigation which arose +over his estate. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect81"></a> +<b>81. A Large Banking Establishment.</b>—Enter now the “tables” +of Nicanor. The owner is a metic; perhaps he claims to come from +Rhodes, but the shrewd cast of his eyes and the dark hue of his skin +gives a suggestion of the Syrian about him. In his open office a +dozen young half-naked clerks are seated on low chairs—each with +his tablet spread out upon his knees laboriously computing long +sums.[*] The proprietor himself acts as the cashier. He has +not neglected the exchange of foreign moneys; but that is a mere +incidental. His first visitor this morning presents a kind of letter +of credit from a correspondent in Syracuse calling for one hundred +drachmæ. “Your voucher?” asks Nicanor. The stranger produces the +half of a coin broken in two across the middle. The proprietor +draws a similar half coin from a chest. The parts match exactly, +and the money is paid on the spot. the next comer is an old +acquaintance, a man of wealth and reputation; he is followed by +two slaves bearing a heavy talent of coined silver which he wishes +the banker to place for him on an advantageous loan, against a due +commission. The third visitor is a well-born but fast and idle +young man who is squandering his patrimony on flute girls and +chariot horses. He wishes an advance of ten minæ, and it is given +him—against the mortgage of a house, at the ruinous interest of +36 per cent, for such prodigals are perfectly fair play. Another +visitor is a careful and competent ship merchant who is fitting +for a voyage to Crete, and who requires a loan to buy his return +cargo. Ordinary interest, well secured, is 18 per cent, but a sea +voyage, even at the calmest season, is counted extra hazardous. +The skipper must pay 24 per cent at least. A poor tradesman also +appears to raise a trifle by pawning two silver cups; and an unlucky +farmer, who cannot meet his loan, persuades the banker to extend +the time “just until the next moon”[+]—of course at an unmerciful +compounding of interest. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Without the Arabic system of numerals, elaborate bookkeeping surely +presented a sober face to the Greeks. Their method of numeration +was very much like that with the so-called Roman numerals. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] “Watching the moon,” <i>i.e.</i> the end of the month when the debts +became due, appears to have been the melancholy recreation of many +Athenian debtors. See Aristophanes’s <i>Clouds</i>, I. 18. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect82"></a> +<b>82. Drawbacks to the Banking Business.</b>—Nicanor has no paper money +to handle, no stocks, no bonds,—and the line between legitimate +interest and scandalous usury is by no means clearly drawn. There +is at least one good excuse for demanding high interest. It +is notoriously hard to collect bad debts. Many and many a clever +debtor has persuaded an Athenian jury that <i>all</i> taking of interest +is somewhat immoral, and the banker has lost at least his interest, +sometimes too his principal. So long as this is the case, a banker’s +career has its drawbacks; and Demosthenes in a recent speech has +commended the choice by Pasion’s son of a factory worth 60 minæ +per year, instead of his father’s banking business worth nominally +100. The former was so much more secure than an income depending +on “other people’s money!” +</p> + +<p> +Finally it must be said that while Nicanor and Pasion have been +honorable and justly esteemed men, many of their colleagues have +been rogues. Many a “table” has been closed very suddenly, when +its owner absconded, or collapsed in bankruptcy, and the unlucky +depositors and creditors have been left penniless, during the +“rearrangement of the tables,” as the euphemism goes. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect83"></a> +<b>83. The Potter of Athens.</b>—There is one other form of economic +activity in Athens which deserves our especial notice, different as +it is from the bankers’ tables,—the manufacture of earthen vases. +A long time might be spent investigating the subject; here there +is room only for a hasty glance. For more than two hundred years +Attica has been supplying the world with a pottery which is in +some respects superior to any that has gone before, and also (all +things considered) to any that will follow, through night two and +a half millenniums. The articles are primarily tall vases and +urns, some for mere ornament or for religious purposes,—some for +very humble household utility; however, besides the regular vases +there is a great variety of dishes, plates, pitchers, bowls, and +cups all of the same general pattern,—a smooth, black glaze[*] +covered with figures in the delicate red of the unglazed clay. At +first the figures had been in black and the background in red, but +by about 500 B.C. the superiority of the black backgrounds had been +fully realized and the process perfected. For a long time Athens +had a monopoly of this beautiful earthenware, but now in 360 B.C. +there are creditable manufactories in other cities, and especially +in the Greek towns of Southern Italy. The Athenian industry is, +however, still considerable; in fifty places up and down the city, +but particularly in the busy quarter of the Ceramicus, the potters’ +wheels are whirling, and the glazers are adding the elegant patterns. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Sometimes this glaze tended to a rich olive green or deep brown. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect84"></a> +<b>84. Athenian Pottery an Expression of the Greek Sense of +Beauty.</b>—Athens is proud of her traditions of naval and military +glory; of the commerce of the Peiræus; of her free laws and +constitution; of her sculptured temples, her poets, her rhetoricians +and philosophers. Almost equally well might she be proud of her +vases. They are not made—let us bear clearly in mind—by avowed +artists, servants of the Muses and of the Beautiful; they are the +regular commercial products of work-a-day craftsmen. But what +craftsmen! In the first place, they have given to every vase +and dish a marvelous individuality. There seems to be absolutely +no duplication of patterns.[*] Again, since these vases are made +for Greeks, they must—no matter how humble and commonplace their +use—be made beautiful—elegantly shaped, well glazed, and well +painted: otherwise, no matter how cheap, they will never find a +market. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] It is asserted that of the many thousands of extant Greek vases +that crowd the shelves of modern museums, there are nowhere two +patterns exactly alike. +</p> + +<p> +The process of manufacture is simple, yet it needs a masterly touch. +After the potter has finished his work at the wheel and while the +clay is still soft, the decorator makes his rough design with a +blunt-pointed stylus. A line of black glaze is painted around each +figure. Then the black background is freely filled in, and the +details within the figure are added. A surprisingly small number +of deft lines are needed to bring out the whole picture.[*] Sometimes +the glaze is thinned out to a pale brown, to help in the drawing +of the interior contours. When the design is completed, we have an +amount of life and expression which with the best potters is little +short of startling. The subjects treated are infinite, as many as +are the possible phases of Greek life. Scenes in the home and on +the farm; the boys and their masters at school; the warriors, the +merchants, the priests sacrificing, the young gallants serenading +a sweet-heart; all the tales, in short of poet-lore and mythology,—time +would fail to list one tenth of them. Fairly we can assert that +were all the books and formal inscriptions about the Athenians to +be blotted out, these vase paintings almost photographs one might +say, of Athenian daily life, would give us back a very wide knowledge +of the habits of the men in the city of Athena. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] In this respect the Greek vase paintings can compete with the +best work in the Japanese prints. +</p> + +<p> +The potters are justly proud of their work; often they do not +hesitate to add their signatures, and in this way later ages can +name the “craftsmen” who have transmitted to them these objects +of abiding beauty. The designers also are accommodating enough to +add descriptive legends of the scenes which they depict,—Achilles, +Hercules, Theseus, and all the other heroes are carefully named, +usually with the words written above or beside them. +</p> + +<p> +The pottery of Athens, then, is truly Athenian; that is to say, +it is genuinely elegant, ornamental, simple, and distinctive. The +best of these great vases and mixing bowls are works of art no less +than the sculptures of Phidias upon the Parthenon. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a>Chapter XIII.<br /> +The Armed Forces of Athens.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect85"></a> +<b>85. Military Life at Athens.</b>—Hitherto we have seen almost nothing +save the peaceful civic side of Athenian life, but it is a cardinal +error to suppose that art, philosophy, farming, manufacturing, commerce, +and bloodless home politics sum up the whole of the activities of +Attica. Athens is no longer the great imperial state she was in +the days of Pericles, but she is still one of the greatest military +powers in Greece,[*] and on her present armed strength rests a +large share of her prestige and prosperity. Her fleet, which is +still her particular boast, must of course be seen at the Peiræus; +but as we go about the streets of the main city we notice many men, +who apparently had recently entered their house doors as plain, +harmless citizens, now emerging, clad in all the warrior’s bravery, +and hastening towards one of the gates. Evidently a review is to +be held of part of the citizen army of Athens. If we wish, we can +follow and learn much of the Greek system of warfare in general +and of the Athenian army in particular. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Of course the greatest military power of Greece had been Sparta +until 371 B.C., when the battle of Leuctra made Thebes temporarily +“the first land power.” +</p> + +<p> +Even at the present day, when there is plenty of complaint that +Athenians are not willing to imitate the sturdy campaigning of their +fathers, the citizens seem always at war, or getting ready for it. +Every citizen, physically fit, is liable to military service from +his eighteenth to his sixtieth year. To make efficient soldiers +is really the main end of the constant physical exercise. If a +young man takes pride in his hard and fit body, if he flings spears +at the stadium, and learns to race in full armor, if he goes on +long marches in the hot sun, if he sleeps on the open hillside, or +lies on a bed of rushes watching the moon rise over the sea,—it +is all to prepare himself for a worthy part in the “big day” when +Athens will confront some old or new enemy on the battlefield. A +great deal of the conversation among the younger men is surely not +about Platonic ideals, Demosthenes’s last political speech, nor +the best fighting cocks; it is about spears, shield-straps, camping +ground, rations, ambuscades, or the problems of naval warfare. +</p> + +<p> +It is alleged with some show of justice that by this time Athenians +are so enamored with the pleasures of peaceful life that they prefer +to pay money for mercenary troops rather than serve themselves on +distant expeditions; and certain it is that there are plenty of +Arcadians, Thracians, and others, from the nations which supply +the bulk of the mercenaries, always in Athenian pay in the outlying +garrisons. Still the old military tradition and organization for +the citizens is kept up, and half a generation later, when the freedom +of Athens is blasted before Philip the Macedonian at Chæroneia, it +will be shown that if the Athenian militia does not know how to +conquer, it at least knows how to die. So we gladly follow to the +review, and gather our information. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect86"></a> +<b>86. The Organization of the Athenian Army.</b>—After a young “ephebus” +has finished his two years of service in the garrisons he returns +home subject to call at the hour of need. When there is necessity +to make up an army, enough men are summoned to meet the required +number and no more. Thus for a small force only the eligibles +between say twenty and twenty-four years of age would be summoned; +but in a crisis all the citizens are levied up to the very graybeards. +The levy is conducted by the ten <i>Strategi</i> (at once ‘generals,’ +‘admirals,’ and ‘war ministers’) who control the whole armed power +of Athens. The recruits summoned have to come with three days’ +rations to the rendezvous, usually to the Lyceum wrestling ground +just outside the city. In case of a general levy the old men are +expected to form merely a home guard for the walls; the young men +must be ready for hard service over seas. +</p> + +<p> +The organization of the Athenian army is very simple; each of the +ten Attic tribes sends its own special battalion or <i>taxis</i>, which +is large or small according to the total size of the levy.[*] These +<i>taxeis</i> are subdivided into companies or <i>lochoi</i>, of about an +average of 100 men each. The <i>taxeis</i> are each under a tribal-colonel +(<i>taxiarch</i>), and each company under its captain (<i>locharch</i>). The +ten strategi theoretically command the whole army together, but +since bitter experience teaches that ten generals are usually nine +too many, a special decree of the people often entrusts the supreme +command of a force to one commander, or at most to not over three. +The other strategi must conduct other expeditions, or busy themselves +with their multifarious home duties. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Thus if 3000 men were called out, the average “taxis” would be +300 strong, but if 6000, then 600. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect87"></a> +<b>87. The Hoplites and the Light Troops.</b>—The unit of the Athenian +citizen army, like practically all Greek armies, is the heavy armed +infantry soldier, the <i>hoplite</i>. An army of “three thousand men” +is often an army of so many hoplites, unless there is specific +statement to the contrary. But really it is of six thousand men, +to be entirely accurate: for along with every hoplite goes an +attendant, a “light-armed man,” either a poor citizen who cannot +afford a regular suit of armor,[*] or possibly a trusted slave. +These “light-armed men” carry the hoplites’ shields until the battle, +and most of the baggage. They have javelins, and sometimes slings +and bows. They act as skirmishers before the actual battle: and +while the hoplites are in the real death-grip they harass the foe +as they can, and guard the camp. When the fight is done they do +their best to cover the retreat, or slaughter the flying foe if +their own hoplites are victorious. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The hoplite’s panoply (see description later) was sufficiently +expensive to imply that its owner was at least a man in tolerable +circumstances. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect88"></a> +<b>88. The Cavalry and the Peltasts.</b>—There are certain divisions of +the army besides the hoplites and this somewhat ineffective light +infantry. There is a cavalry corps of 1000. Wealthy young Athenians +are proud to volunteer therein; it is a sign of wealth to be able +to provide your war horse. The cavalry too is given the place of +honor in the great religious processions; and there is plenty of +chance for exciting scouting service on the campaign. Again, the +cavalry service has something to commend it in that it is accounted +<i>much safer</i> than the infantry![*] The cavalry is, however, a rather +feeble fighting instrument. Greek riders have no saddles and no +stirrups. They are merely mounted on thin horse pads, and it is +very hard to grip the horse with the knees tightly enough to keep +from being upset ignominiously while wielding the spear. The best +use for the cavalry perhaps is for the riders to take a sheaf of +javelins, ride up and discharge them at the foe as skirmishers, +then fall back behind the hoplites; though after the battle the +horsemen will have plenty to do in the retreat or the pursuit. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Greeks could seldom have been brought to imitate the reckless +medieval cavaliers. The example of Leonidas at Thermopylæ was more +commended than imitated. Outside of Sparta at least, few Greeks +would have hesitated to flee from a battlefield, when the day +(despite their proper exertions) had been wholly lost. +</p> + +<p> +The Athenians have of course the Scythian police archers to send +into any battle near Athens; they can also hire mercenary archers +from Crete, but the Greek bows are relatively feeble, only three +or four feet long—by no means equal to the terrible yew bows which +will win glory for England in the Middle Ages. There has also come +into vogue, especially since the Peloponnesian war, an improved +kind of light-javelin-men,—the “Peltasts,”—with small shields, +and light armor, but with extra long lances. In recent warfare +this type of soldier, carefully trained and agile, has been known +to defeat bodies of the old-style over-encumbered hoplites.[*] +Nevertheless, most veteran soldiers still believe that the heavy +infantryman is everything, and the backbone of nearly every Greek +army is still surely the hoplite. He will continue to be the regular +fighting unit until the improved “phalanx,” and the “Companion +Cavalry” of Philip and Alexander of Macedon teach the captains of +the world new lessons. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Especially the Athenian general Iphicrates was able to cut +to pieces a <i>mora</i> (brigade) of Spartan hoplites, in 392 B.C., by +skillful use of a force of peltasts. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect89"></a> +<b>89. The Panoply of the Hoplite.</b>—We have passed out one of the +gates and are very likely in a convenient open space south and east +of the city stretching away toward the ever visible slopes of gray +Hymettus. Here is a suitable parade ground. The citizen soldiers +are slipping on their helmets and tightening up their cuirasses. +Trumpets blow from time to time to give orders to “fall in” among +the respective <i>lochoi</i> and <i>taxeis</i>. There is plenty of time to +study the arms and armor of the hoplites during these preliminaries. +</p> + +<p> +A very brief glance at the average infantryman’s defensive weapons +tells us that to be able to march, maneuver, and fight efficiently +in this armor implies that the Athenian soldier is a well-trained +athlete. The whole panoply weighs many pounds.[*] The prime +parts in the armor are the helmet, the cuirass, the greaves, and +the shield. Every able-bodied citizen of moderate means has this +outfit hanging in his andronitis, and can don it at brief notice. +The <i>helmet</i> is normally of bronze; it is cut away enough in front +to leave the face visible, but sometimes a cautious individual will +insist on having movable plates (which can be turned up and down) +to protect the cheeks.[+] Across the top there runs a firm metal +ridge to catch any hard down-right blow, and set into the ridge is +a tall nodding crest either of horsehair or of bright feathers—in +either case the joy and glory of the wearer. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Possibly fifty or more—we have no correct means for an +exact estimate. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] The “Corinthian” type of helmets came more closely over the face, +and the cheek protectors were not movable; these helmets were much +like the closed helms of the medieval knights. The Spartans, in +their contempt for danger, wore plain pointed steel caps which gave +relatively little protection. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus13"></a> +<img src="images/fig13.jpg" width="341" height="400" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Hoplite in Armor</p> +</div> + +<p> +Buckled around the soldier’s body is the <i>cuirass</i>. It comprises +a breastplate and a back piece of bronze, joined by thongs, or by +straps with a buckle. The metal comes down to the hips. Below it +hangs a thick fringe of stout strips of leather strengthened with +bright metallic studs, and reaching halfway to the knees. From this +point to the knees the legs are bare, but next come the <i>greaves</i>, +thin pliable plates of bronze fitted to the shape of the leg, and +opening at the back. They have to be slipped on, and then are +fastened at the knees and ankle with leathern straps. +</p> + +<p> +But the warrior’s main protection is his <i>shield</i>. With a strong, +large shield you can fight passing well without any regular body +armor; while with the best outfit of the latter you are highly +vulnerable without your shield. To know how to swing your shield +so as to catch every possible blow, to know how to push and lunge +with it against an enemy, to know how to knock a man down with it, +if needs be, <i>that</i> is a good part of the soldier’s education. The +shield is sometimes round, but more often oval. It is about four +feet by the longest diameter. It is made of several layers of heavy +bull’s hide, firmly corded and riveted together, and has a good +metal rim and metal boss in the center. On the inside are two +handles so that it can be conveniently wielded on the left arm.[*] +These shields are brilliantly painted, and although the Greeks have +no heraldic devices, there are all manner of badges and distinguishing +marks in vogue. Thus all Theban shields are blazoned with a club; +Sicyonian shields are marked with the initial “Sigma” (Σ), and we +note that the Athenian shields are all marked Alpha (A).[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Earlier Greek shields seem to have been very large and +correspondingly heavy. These had only a single handle; and to aid +in shifting them they were swung on straps passed over the left +shoulder. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] This last is a matter of safe inference rather than of positive +information. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect90"></a> +<b>90. The Weapons of a Hoplite.</b>—The hoplites have donned their +armor. Now they assume their offensive weapons. Every man has a +lance and a sword. The <i>lance</i> is a stout weapon with a solid wooden +butt, about six feet long in all. It is really too heavy to use +as a javelin. It is most effective as a pike thrust fairly into a +foeman’s face, or past his shield into a weak spot in his cuirass. +The sword is usually kept as a reserve weapon in case the lance +gets broken. It is not over 25 inches in length, making rather a +huge double-edged vicious knife than a saber; but it is terrible +for cut and thrust work at very close quarters. Simple as these +weapons are, they are fearful instruments of slaughter in well-trained +hands, and the average Greek has spent a considerable part of his +life in being taught how to use them. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect91"></a> +<b>91. Infantry Maneuvers.</b>—The final trumpets have blown, and the +troops fall into their places. Each tribal <i>taxis</i> lines up its +<i>lochoi</i>. The Greeks have no flags nor standards. There is a +great deal of shouting by the subaltern officers, and running up +and down the ranks. Presently everything is in formal array. The +hoplites stand in close order, each man about two feet from the +next,[*] leaving no gaps between each division from end to end of +the lines. The men are set in eight long ranks. This is the normal +<i>phalanx</i>[+] order. Only those in front can actually lunge and +strike at the enemy. The men in the rear will add to the battering +force of the charge, and crowding in closely, wedge themselves +promptly to the front, when any of the first rank goes down. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The object would be to give each man just enough distance to +let him make fair use of his lance, and yet have his shield overlap +that of his neighbor. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] The “phalanx” is sometimes spoken of as a Macedonian invention, +but Philip and Alexander simply improved upon an old Greek military +formation. +</p> + +<p> +It is an imposing sight when the strategos in charge of the maneuvers, +a stately man in a red chlamys, gives the final word “March!” +</p> + +<p> +Loud pipes begin screaming. The long lines of red, blue, and orange +plumes nod fiercely together. The sun strikes fire out of thousands +of brandished lance tips. The phalanx goes swinging away over the +dusty parade ground, the subalterns up and down the files muttering +angrily to each inapt recruit to “Keep your distance:” or “Don’t +advance your shield.” The commandant duly orders the “Half turn:” +“Left” or “Right turn:” “Formation by squares,” and finally the +critical “Change front to rear.” If this last maneuver is successfully +accomplished, the strategos will compliment the drill sergeants; +for it is notoriously difficult to turn a ponderous phalanx around +and yet make it keep good order. The drilling goes on until the +welcome order comes, “Ground arms!” and every perspiring soldier +lets his heavy shield slip from his arm upon the ground. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect92"></a> +<b>92. The Preliminaries of a Greek Battle.</b>—Later in the day, if +these are happy times of peace, the whole phalanx, so bristling +and formidable, will have resolved itself into its harmless units +of honest citizens all streaming home for dinner. +</p> + +<p> +Our curiosity of course asks how does this army act upon the +campaign; what, in other words, is a typical Greek battle? This +is not hard to describe. Greek battles, until lately, have been +fought according to set formulæ in which there is little room for +original generalship, though much for ordinary circumspection and +personal valor. A battle consists in the charging together of two +phalanxes of hoplites of about equal numbers. If one army greatly +overmatches the other, the weaker side will probably retire without +risking a contest. With a common purpose, therefore, the respective +generals will select a broad stretch of level ground for the +struggle, since stony, hilly, or uneven ground will never do for +the maneuvering of hoplites. The two armies, after having duly +come in sight of one another, and exchanged defiances by derisive +shouts, catcalls, and trumpetings, will probably each pitch its camp +(protected by simple fortifications) and perhaps wait over night, +that the men may be well rested and have a good dinner and breakfast. +The soldiers will be duly heartened up by being told of any lucky +omens of late,—how three black crows were seen on the right, and +a flash of lightning on the left; and the seers and diviners with +the army will, at the general’s orders, repeat any hopeful oracles +they can remember or fabricate, <i>e.g.</i> predicting ruin for Thebes, +or victory for Athens. In the morning the soldiers have breakfast, +then the lines are carefully arrayed a little beyond bowshot from +the enemy, who are preparing themselves in similar fashion. Every +man has his arms in order, his spear point and sword just from the +whetstone, and every buckle made fast. The general (probably in +sight of all the men) will cause the seers to kill a chicken, and +examine its entrails. “The omens are good; the color is favorable; +the gods are with us!”[*] he announces; and then, since he is +a Greek among Greeks, he delivers in loud voice an harangue to as +many as can hear him, setting forth the patriotic issues at stake +in the battle, the call of the fatherland to its sons, the glory +of brave valor, the shame of cowardice, probably ending with some +practical directions about “Never edging to the right!” and exhorting +his men to raise as loud a war-cry as possible, both to encourage +themselves and to demoralize the enemy. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] It may be suspected that it was very seldom the omens were +<i>allowed</i> to be unfavorable when the general was really resolved on +battle. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect93"></a> +<b>93. Joining the Battle.</b>—The troops answer with a cheer then join +in full chorus in the “<i>Pæan</i>—” a fierce rousing charging-song that +makes every faint-heart’s blood leap faster. Another pæan bellowed +from the hostile ranks indicates that similar preliminaries have been +disposed of there. The moment the fierce chorus ends, the general +(who probably is at the post of danger and honor—the right wing) +nods to his corps of pipers. The shrill flutes cut the air. The +whole phalanx starts forward like one man, and the enemy seem springing +to meet it. The tossing color, the flashing arms and armor, make +it a sight for men and gods. If the enemy has a powerful archery +force, as had the Persians at Marathon, then the phalanx is allowed +to advance on the run,—for at all costs one must get through the +terrible zone of the arrow fire and come to grips; but if their +bowmen are weak, the hoplites will be restrained,—it is better +not to risk getting the phalanx disorganized. Running or marching +the troops will emit a terrible roaring: either the slow deep “<i>A! +la! la! la!</i>” or something quicker, “<i>Eleleū!</i>” “<i>Eleleū!</i>” and the +flutes will blow all the while to give the time for the marching. +</p> + +<p> +Closer at hand the two armies will fairly spring into unfriendly +embrace. The generals have each measured his enemy’s line and +extended his own to match it.[*] With files of about equal depth, +and well-trained men on both sides, the first stage of the death +grapple is likely to be a most fearful yet indecisive pushing: +the men of the front ranks pressing against each other, shield to +shield, glaring out of their helmets like wild beasts against the +foeman three feet away, and lunging with their lances at any opening +between the hostile shields or above them. The comrades behind +wedge in the front ranks closer and closer. Men are crushed to +death, probably without a wound, just by this hellish impact. The +shouts and yells emitted are deafening. There is an unearthly +clashing of steel weapons on bronze armor. Every now and then a +shrill, sharp cry tells where a soldier has been stabbed, and has +gone down in the press, probably trampled to death instantly. In +this way the two writhing, thrusting phalanxes continue to push +on one another at sheer deadlock, until a cool observer might +well wonder whether the battle would not end simply with mutual +extermination. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Any sudden attempt to extend your line <i>beyond</i> the foe’s, so as +to outflank him, would probably have produced so much confusion in +your own phalanx as to promise certain disaster. Of course for an +inferior force to accept battle by thinning its line, to be able +by extending to meet the long lines of the enemy, would involve +the greatest risk of being broken through at the center. The best +remedy for inferior numbers was manifestly to decline a decisive +battle. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect94"></a> +<b>94. The Climax and End of the Battle.</b>—But look away now from the +center, towards the two wings. What the generals of <i>both</i> contending +armies have feared and warned against has come to pass. Every hoplite is +admirably covered by his great shield on his left side; but his right is +unprotected. It is almost impossible to resist the impulse to take a step +toward the right to get under the cover of a comrade’s shield. And he in +turn has been edging to the right likewise. The whole army has in fact done so, +and likewise the whole phalanx of the enemy. So after a quarter of an hour of +brisk fighting, the two hosts, which began by joining with lines exactly facing +each other, have each edged along so much that each overlaps the other on the +right wing, thus: +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/lines.jpg" width="700" height="55" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +</div> + +<p> +What will happen now is easy to predict with assurance up to a +certain point. The overlapping right wings will <i>each</i> promptly turn +the left flank of their enemies, and falling upon the foe front +and rear catch them almost helpless. The hoplite is an admirable +soldier when standing shoulder to shoulder with his comrades facing +his foe; but once beset in the rear he is so wedged in by the press +that it is next to impossible for him to turn and fight effectively. +Either he will be massacred as he stands or the panic will spread +betimes, and simultaneously both left wings will break formation +and hurry off the field in little better than flight. +</p> + +<p> +Now will come the real test of discipline and deliberate valor. Both +centers are holding stoutly. Everything rests on the respective +victorious right wings. Either they will foolishly forget that +there is still fighting elsewhere on the field, and with ill-timed +huzzaing pursue the men they have just routed, make for their camp +to plunder it, or worse still, disperse to spoil the slain; or, +if they can heed their general’s entreaties, keep their ranks, +and wheeling around come charging down on the rear of the enemy’s +center. If one right wing does this, while the hostile right +wing has rushed off in heedless pursuit, the battle is infallibly +won by the men who have kept their heads; but if both right wings +turn back, then the real death grapple comes when these two sets +of victors in the first phase of the contest clash together in a +decisive grapple. +</p> + +<p> +By this time the original phalanx formations, so orderly, and +beautiful, have become utterly shattered. The field is covered by +little squares or knots of striking, cursing, raging men—clashing +furiously together. If there are any effective reserves, now is +the time to fling them into the scale. The hitherto timorous light +troops and armor bearers rush up to do what they can. Individual +bravery and valor count now to the uttermost. Little by little the +contest turns against one side or the other. The crucial moment +comes. The losing party begins to fear itself about to be surrounded. +Vain are the last exhortations of the officers to rally them. +“Every man for himself!” rings the cry; and with one mad impulse +the defeated hoplites rush off the field in a rout. Since they +have been at close grip with their enemies, and now must turn +their ill-protected backs to the pursuing spears, the massacre of +the defeated side is sometimes great. Yet not so great as might +be imagined. Once fairly beaten, you must strip off helmet and +cuirass, cast away shield and spear, and run like a hare. You +have lightened yourself now decidedly. But your foe must keep <i>his</i> +ponderous arms, otherwise he cannot master you, if he overtakes +you. Therefore the vanquished can soon distance the victors unless +the latter have an unusually efficient cavalry and javelin force. +However, the victors are likely to enter the camp of the vanquished, +and to celebrate duly that night dividing the plunder. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect95"></a> +<b>95. The Burial Truce and the Trophy after the Battle.</b>—A few hours +after the battle, while the victors are getting breath and refreshing +themselves, a shamefaced herald, bearing his sacred wand of office, presents +himself. He is from the defeated army, and comes to ask a burial truce. This is +the formal confession of defeat for which the victors have been waiting. It +would be gross impiety to refuse the request; and perhaps the first watch of +the night is spent by detachments of both sides in burying or burning the dead. +</p> + +<p> +The fates of prisoners may be various. They may be sold as slaves. +If the captors are pitiless and vindictive, it is not contrary to +the laws of war to put the prisoners to death in cold blood; but +by the fourth century B.C. Greeks are becoming relatively humane. +Most prisoners will presently be released against a reasonable +ransom paid by their relatives. +</p> + +<p> +The final stage of the battle is the trophy: the visible sign on +the battlefield that here such-and-such a side was victorious. The +limbs are lopped off a tree, and some armor captured from the foe +is hung upon it. After indecisive battles sometimes both sides +set up trophies; in that case a second battle is likely to settle +the question. Then when the victors have recovered from their +own happy demoralization, they march into the enemy’s country; by +burning all the farmsteads, driving off the cattle, filling up the +wells, girdling the olive and fruit trees, they reduce the defeated +side (that has fled to its fortified town) to desperation. If +they have any prisoners, they threaten to put them to death. The +result, of course, is frequently a treaty of peace in favor of the +victors. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect96"></a> +<b>96. The Siege of Fortified Towns.</b>—If, however, one party cannot +be induced to risk an open battle; or if, despite a defeat, it allows +the enemy to ravage the fields, and yet persists in defending the +walls of its town,—the war is likely to be tedious and indecisive. +It is notorious that Greeks dislike hard sieges. The soldiers +are the fellow townsmen of the generals. If the latter order an +assault with scaling ladders and it is repulsed with bloody loss, +the generals risk a prosecution when they get home for “casting +away the lives of their fellow citizens.”[*] In short, fifty men +behind a stout wall and “able to throw anything” are in a position +to defy an army. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] In siege warfare Oriental kings had a great advantage over Greek +commanders. The former could sacrifice as many of their “slaves” +as they pleased, in desperate assaults. The latter had always to +bear in mind their accountability at home for any desperate and +costly attack. +</p> + +<p> +The one really sure means of taking a town is to build a counter wall around it +and starve it out,—a slow and very expensive, though not bloody process. +Only when something very great is at stake will a Greek city-state attempt +this.[*] There is always another chance, however. Almost every Greek town has a +discontented faction within its walls, and many a time there will be a traitor +who will betray a gate to the enemy; and then the siege will be suddenly ended +in one murderous night. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] As in the siege of Potidea (432-429 B.C.), when if Athens had +failed to take the place, her hold upon her whole empire would have +been jeopardized. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect97"></a> +<b>97. The Introduction of New Tactics.</b>—Greek battles are thus very +simple things as a rule. It is the general who, accepting the +typical conditions as he finds them, and avoiding any gross and +obvious blunders, can put his men in a state of perfect fitness, +physical and moral, that is likely to win the day. Of late there +has come indeed a spirit of innovation. At Leuctra (371 B.C.) +Epaminodas the Theban defeated the Spartans by the unheard-of +device of massing a part of his hoplites fifty deep (instead of +the orthodox eight or twelve) and crushing the Spartan right wing +by the sheer weight of his charge, before the rest of the line +came into action at all. If the experiment had not succeeded, +Epaminondas would probably have been denounced by his own countrymen +as a traitor, and by the enemy as a fool, for varying from the +time-honored long, “even line” phalanx; and the average general will +still prefer to keep to the old methods; then if anything happens, +<i>he</i> at least will not be blamed for any undue rashness. Only in +Macedon, King Philip II (who is just about to come to the throne) +will not hesitate to study the new battle tactics of Epaminondas, +and to improve upon them. +</p> + +<p> +The Athenians will tell us that their citizen hoplites are a match +for any soldiers in Greece, except until lately the Spartans, and +now (since Leuctra) possibly the Thebans. But Corinthians, Argives, +Sicyonians, they can confront more readily. They will also add, +quite properly, that the army of Athens is in the main for home +defense. She does not claim to be a preëminently military state. +The glory of Athens has been the mastery of the sea. Our next +excursion must surely be to the Peiræus. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a>Chapter XIV.<br /> +The Peiræus and the Shipping.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect98"></a> +<b>98. The “Long Walls” down to the Harbor Town.</b>—It is some five +miles from the city to the Peiræus, and the most direct route this +time lies down the long avenue laid between the Long Walls, and +running almost directly southwest.[*] The ground is quite level. +If we could catch glimpses beyond the walls, we would see fields, +seared brown perhaps by the summer sun, and here and there a +bright-kerchiefed woman gleaning among the wheat stubble. The two +walls start from Athens close together and run parallel for some +distance, then they gradually diverge so as to embrace within their +open angle a large part of the circumference of the Peiræus. This +open space is built up with all kinds of shops, factories, and +houses, usually of the less aristocratic kind. In fact, all the +noxious sights and odors to be found in Athens seem tenfold multiplied +as we approach the Peiræus. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] These were the walls whereof a considerable section was thrown +down by Lysander after the surrender of Athens [404 B.C.]. The +demolition was done to the “music of flute girls,” and was fondly +thought by the victors to mean the permanent crippling of Athens, +and therefore “the first day of the liberty of Greece.” In 393 +B.C., by one of the ironies of history, Conon, an Athenian admiral, +but in the service of the king of Persia, who was then at war with +Sparta, appeared in the Peiræus, and <i>with Persian men and money</i> +rebuilt the walls amid the rejoicings of the Athenians. +</p> + +<p> +The straight highroad is swarming with traffic: clumsy wagons are +bringing down marble from the mountains; other wains are headed +toward Athens with lumber and bales of foreign wares. Countless +donkeys laden with panniers are being flogged along. A great deal +of the carrying is done by half-naked sweating porters; for, after +all, slave-flesh is almost as cheap as beast-flesh. So by degrees +the two walls open away from us: before us now expands the humming +port town; we catch the sniff of the salt brine, and see the tangle +of spars of the multifarious shipping. Right ahead, however, +dominating the whole scene, is a craggy height,—the hill of Munychia, +crowned with strong fortifications, and with houses rising terrace +above terrace upon its slopes. At the very summit glitters in its +white marble and color work the temple of Artemis Munychia, the +guardian goddess of the port town and its citadel.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This fortress of Munychia, rather than the Acropolis in Athens +was the real citadel of Attica. It dominated the all-important +harbors on which the very life of the state depended. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus14"></a> +<img src="images/fig14.jpg" width="500" height="359" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">The Town of Peiræus and the Harbors of Athens</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect99"></a> +<b>99. Munychia and the Havens of Athens.</b>—Making our way up a steep +lane upon the northwestern slope, we pass within the fortifications, +the most formidable near Athens. A band of young ephebi of +the garrison eye us as we enter; but we seem neither Spartans nor +Thebans and are not molested. From a convenient crag near the +temple, the whole scheme of the harbors of Athens is spread out +before us, two hundred and eighty odd feet below. Behind us is +the familiar plain of Athens with the city, the Acropolis, and the +guardian mountains. Directly west lies the expanse of roof of the +main harbor town, and then beyond is the smooth blue expanse of +the “Port of the Peiræus,” the main mercantile harbor of Athens. +Running straight down from Munychia, southwest, the land tapers off +into a rocky promontory, entirely girt with strong fortifications. +In this stretch of land are two deep round indentations. Cups +of bright water they seem, communicating with the outer sea only +by narrow entrances which are dominated by stout castles. “Zea” +is the name of the more remote; the “haven” of “Munychia” is that +which seems opening almost at our feet. These both are full of +the naval shipping, whereof more hereafter. To the eastward, and +stretching down the coast, is a long sandy beach whereon the blue +ripples are crumbling between the black fishing boats drawn up +upon the strand. This is Phaleron, the old harbor of Athens before +Themistocles fortified the <i>Peiræus</i>—merely an open roadstead in +fact, but still very handy for small craft, which can be hauled up +promptly to escape the tempest. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect100"></a> +<b>100. The Glorious View from the Hill of Munychia.</b>—These are the +chief points in the harbors; but the view from Munychia is most extensive. +Almost everything in sight has its legend or its story in sober history. Ten +miles away to the southward rise the red rocky hills of Ægina, Athens’ +old island enemy; and the tawny headlands of the Argolic coasts are visible yet +farther across he horizon. Again as we follow the purplish ridge of Mount +Ægaleos as it runs down the Attic coast to westward, we come to a headland then +to a belt of azure water, about a mile wide, then the reddish hills of an +irregular island. Every idler on the citadel can tell us all the story. On that +headland on a certain fateful morning sat Xerxes, lord of the Persians, with +his sword-hands and mighty men about him and his ships before him, to look down +on the naval spectacle and see how his slaves would fight. The island beyond is +“holy Salamis,” and in this narrow strip of water has been the +battle which saved the life of Hellas. Every position in the contest seems +clearly in sight, even the insignificant islet of Psytteleia, where Aristeides +had landed his men after the battle, and massacred the Persians stationed there +“to cut off the Greeks who tried to escape.” +</p> + +<p> +The water is indescribably blue, matching the azure of the sky. +Ships of all kinds under sails or oars are moving lightly over the +havens and the open Saronic bay. It is matchless spectacle—albeit +very peaceful. We now descend to the Peiræus proper and examine +the merchant shipping and wharves, leaving the navy yards and the +fighting triremes till later. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect101"></a> +<b>101. The Town of Peiræus.</b>—The Peiræus has all the life of the +Athenian Agora many times multiplied. Everywhere there is work and bustle. +Aristophanes has long since described the impression it makes on +strangers,[*]—sailors clamoring for pay, rations being served out, +figureheads being burnished, men trafficking for corn, for onions, for leeks, +for figs,—“wreaths, anchovies, flute girls, blackened eyes, the +hammering of oars from the dock yards, the fitting of rowlocks, +boatswains’ pipes, fifes, and whistling.” There is such confusion +one can hardly analyze one’s surroundings. However, we soon discover the +Peiræus has certain advantages over Athens itself. The streets are much wider +and are quite straight,[+] crossing at right angles, unlike the crooked alleys +of old Athens which seem nothing but built-up cow trails. Down at the water +front of the main harbor (“the Peiræus” harbor to distinguish it +from Zea and Munychia) we find about one third, nearest the entrance passage +and called the Cantharus, reserved for the use of the war navy. This section is +the famous <i>Emporium</i>, which is such a repository of foreign wares that +Isocrates boasts that here one can easily buy all those things which it is +extremely hard to purchase anywhere else in Hellas. Along the shore run five +great stoas or colonnades, all used by the traders for different +purposes;—among them are the Long Stoa (<i>Makra</i>′ +<i>Stoa</i>′), the <i>Deigma</i> (see section 78) used as a sample house +by the wholesalers, and the great Corn Exchange built by Pericles. Close down +near the wharves stands also a handsome and frequented temple, that of Athena +Euploia (Athena, Giver of good Voyages), to whom many a shipman offers prayer +ere hoisting sail, and many another comes to pay grateful vows after surviving +a storm.[&] Time fails us for mentioning all the considerable temples +farther back in the town. The Peiræus in short is a semi-independent community; +with its shrines, its agoras, its theaters, its court rooms, and other public +buildings. The population contains a very high percentage of metics, and +downright Barbarians,—indeed, long-bearded Babylonians, clean bronze +Egyptians, grinning Ethiopians, never awaken the least comment, they are so +familiar. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] <i>Acharn.</i> 54 ff. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Pericles employed the famous architect Hippodamus to lay out +the Peiræus. It seems to have been arranged much like many of the +newer American cities. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[&] There seems to have been still another precinct, sacred to +“Zeus and Athena the Preservers,” where it was very proper to offer +thanksgivings after a safe voyage. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus15"></a> +<img src="images/fig15.jpg" width="500" height="272" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Fishermen</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect102"></a> +<b>102. The Merchant Shipping.</b>—We can now cast more particular +eyes upon the shipping. Every possible type is represented. The +fishing craft just now pulling in with loads of shining tunnies +caught near Ægina are of course merely broad open boats, with only +a single dirty orange sail swinging in the lagging breeze. Such +vessels indeed depend most of the time upon their long oars. Also +just now there goes across the glassy surface of the harbor a slim +graceful rowing craft, pulling eight swiftly plying oars to a side. +She is a <i>Lembus:</i> probably the private cutter of the commandant +of the port. Generally speaking, however, we soon find that all +the larger Greek ships are divided into two categories, the “long +ships” and the “round ships.” The former depend mainly on oars +and are for war; the latter trust chiefly to sail power and are +for cargo. The craft in the merchant haven are of course nearly +all of this last description. +</p> + +<p> +Greeks are clever sailors. They never feel really happy at a great +distance from the sea which so penetrates their little country; +nevertheless, they have not made all the progress in navigation +which, considering the natural ingenuity of the race, might well +be expected. The prime difficulty is that Greek ships very seldom +have comfortable cabins. The men expect to sleep on shore every +night possible. Only in a great emergency, or when crossing an +exceptionally wide gulf or channel,[*] can a captain expect the +average crew to forego the privilege of a warm supper and bivouac +upon the strand. This means (since safe anchorages are by no means +everywhere) the ships must be so shallow and light they can often +be hauled up upon the beach. Even with a pretty large crew, +therefore, the limit to a manageable ship is soon reached; and +during the whole of the winter season all long-distance voyaging +has to be suspended; while, even in summer, nine sailors out of ten +hug close to the land, despite the fact that often the distance of +a voyage is thereby doubled. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] For example, the trip from Crete to Cyrene—which would be +demanded first, before coasting along to Egypt. +</p> + +<p> +However, the ships at Peiræus, if not large in size, are numerous enough. Some +are simply big open boats with details elaborated. They have a small forecastle +and poop built over, but the cargo in the hold is exposed to all wind and +weather. The propulsion comes from a single unwieldy square sail swinging on a +long yard the whole length of the vessel. Other ships are more completely +decked, and depend on two square sails in the place of one. A few, however, are +real “deep sea” vessels—completely decked, with two or even +three masts; with cabins of tolerable size, and forward and aft curious +projections, like turrets,—the use whereof is by no means obvious, but we +soon gather that pirates still abound on the distant seas, and that these +turrets are useful when it comes to repelling boarders. The very biggest of +these craft run up to 250 gross tons (later day register),[*] although with +these ponderous defense-works they seem considerably larger. The average of the +ships, however, will reckon only 30 to 40 tons or even smaller. It is really a +mistake, any garrulous sailor will tell us, to build merchant ships much +bigger. It is impossible to make sailing vessels of the Greek model and rig +sail very close to the wind; and in every contrary breeze or calm, recourse +must be had to the huge oars piled up along the gunwales. Obviously it is weary +work propelling a large ship with oars unless you have a huge and expensive +crew,—far better then to keep to the smaller vessels. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The Greeks reckoned their ships by their capacity in talents +(= about 60 lbs.), <i>e.g.</i> a ship of 500 talents, of 2000, or (among +the largest) 10,000. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect103"></a> +<b>103. The Three War Harbors and the Ship House.</b>—Many other points +about these “round ships” interest us; but such matters they share +with the men-of-war, and our inspection has now brought us to the +navy yard. There are strictly three separate navy yards, one at +each of the harbors of Munychia, Zea, and Cantharus, for the naval +strength of Athens is so great that it is impossible to concentrate +the entire fleet at one harbor. Each of these establishments is +protected by having two strong battlements or breakwaters built +out, nearly closing the respective harbor entrances. At the end of +each breakwater is a tower with parapets for archers, and capstans +for dragging a huge chain across the harbor mouth, thus effectively +sealing the entrance to any foe.[*] The Zea haven has really the +greatest warship capacity, but the Cantharus is a good type for +the three.[+] As we approach it from the merchant haven, we see +the shelving shore closely lined with curious structures which do +not easily explain themselves. There are a vast number of dirty, +shelving roofs, slightly tilted upward towards the land side, and +set at right angles to the water’s edge. They are each about 150 +feet long, some 25 feet wide, about 20 feet high, and are set up side +by side with no passage between. On close inspection we discover +these are ship houses. Under each of the roofs is accommodated the +long slim hull of a trireme, kept safe from sea and weather until +the time of need, when a few minutes’ work at a tackle and capstan +will send it down into harbor, ready to tow beside a wharf for +outfitting. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Ancient harbors were much harder to defend than modern ones, +because there was no long-range artillery to prevent an enemy from +thrusting into an open haven among defenseless shipping. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Zea had accommodation for 196 triremes, Munychia, 82, and the +Cantharus, 94. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect104"></a> +<b>104. The Great Naval Arsenal.</b>—The ship houses are not the only +large structures at the navy yard. Here is also the great naval +arsenal, a huge roofed structure open at the sides and entirely +exposed to public inspection. Here between the lines of supporting +columns can be seen stacked up the staple requisites for the +ships,—great ropes, sail boxes, anchors, oars, etc. Everybody +in Athens is welcome to enter and assure himself that the fleet +can be outfitted at a minute’s notice[*]; and at all times crews +of half-naked, weather-beaten sailors are rushing hither and yon, +carrying or removing supplies to and from the wharves where their +ships are lying. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This arsenal was replaced a little later than the hypothetical +time of this narrative by one designed by the famous architect, +Philo. It was extremely elegant as well as commodious, with handsome +columns, tiled roofs, etc. In 360 B.C., however, the arsenal seems +to have been a strictly utilitarian structure. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect105"></a> +<b>105. An Athenian Triearch.</b>—Among this unaristocratic crowd we +observe a dignified old gentleman with an immaculate himation and +a long polished cane. Obsequious clerks and sailing masters are +hanging about him for his orders; it is easy to see that he is a +<i>trierarch</i>—one of the wealthiest citizens on whom it fell, in turn, +at set intervals, to provide the less essential parts of a trireme’s +outfit, and at least part of the pay for the crew for one year, +and to be generally responsible for the efficiency and upkeep of +the vessel.[*] This is a year of peace, and the patriotic pressure +to spend as much on your warship as possible is not so great as +sometimes; still Eustatius, the magnate in question, knows that he +will be bitterly criticized (nay, perhaps prosecuted in the courts) +if he does not do “the generous thing.” He is therefore ordering +an extra handsome figurehead; promising a bonus to the rowing master +if he can get his hands to row in better rhythm than the ordinary +crew; and directing that wine of superior quality be sent aboard for +the men.[+] It will be an anxious year in any case for Eustathius. +He has ill wishers who will watch carefully to see if the vessel +fails to make a creditable record for herself during the year, and +whether she is returned to the ship house or to the next trierarch +in a state of good repair. If the craft does not then appear +seaworthy, her last outfitter may be called upon to rebuild her +completely, a matter which will eat up something like a talent. +Public service therefore does not provide beds of roses for the +rich men of Athens. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Just how much of the rigging and what fraction of the pay +of the crew the government provided is by no means clear from our +evidence. It is certain that a public-spirited and lavish trierarch +could almost ruin himself (unless very wealthy) during the year he +was responsible for the vessel. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] According to various passages in Demosthenes, the cost of +a trierachy for a year varied between 40 minæ (say $540 [1914 or +$9,304.20 in 2000]) and a talent (about $1000 [1914 or $17,230 in +2000]), very large sums for Athenians. The question of the amount +of time spent in active service in foreign waters would of course +do much to determine the outlay. +</p> + +<p> +Eustathius goes away towards one of the wharves, where his trireme, +the <i>Invincible</i>, is moored with her crew aboard her. Let us +examine a typical Athenian warship. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect106"></a> +<b>106. The Evolution of the Trireme.</b>—The genesis of the trireme was +the old <i>penteconter</i> (“fifty-oar ship”) which, in its prime +features, was simply a long, narrow, open hull, with slightly raised prow and +stern cabins, pulling twenty-five oars to a side. There are a few penteconters +still in existence, though the great naval powers have long since scorned them. +It was a good while before the battle of Salamis that the Greek sea warriors +began to feel the need of larger warships. It was impossible to continue the +simple scheme of the penteconter. To get more oars all on one tier you must +make a longer boat, but you could not increase the beam, for, if you did, the +whole craft would get so heavy that it would not row rapidly; and the +penteconter was already so long in relation to its beam as to be somewhat +unsafe. A device was needed to get more oars into the water without increasing +the length over much. The result was the <i>bireme</i> (two-banker) which was +speedily replaced by the still more efficient <i>trireme</i> (three-banker), +the standard battleship of all the Greek navies.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] By the end of the fourth century B.C., vessels with four and +five banks of oars (quadriremes and quinqueremes) had become the +regular fighting ships, but they differed probably only in size, +not in principle, from the trireme. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus16"></a> +<img src="images/fig16.jpg" width="600" height="283" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">A<small>N</small> A<small>THENIAN</small> T<small>RIREME</small><br /> +The scheme for the sails is conjectural, and no attempt is made to show +the exact number of oars.</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect107"></a> +<b>107. The Hull of a Trireme.</b>—The <i>Invincible</i> has a hull of fir +strengthened by a solid oak keel, very essential if she is to be hauled +up frequently. Her hull is painted black, but there is abundance +of scarlet, bright blue, and gilding upon her prow, stern, and +upper works. The slim hull itself is about 140 feet long, 14 feet +wide, and rides the harbor so lightly as to show it draws very little +water; for the warship, even more perhaps than the merchantman, is +built on the theory that her crew must drag her up upon the beach +almost every night. +</p> + +<p> +While we study the vessel we are soon told that, although triremes +have been in general use since, say, 500 B.C., nevertheless the +ships that fought at Salamis were decidedly simpler affairs than +those of three generations later. In those old “aphract” vessels +the upper tier of rowers had to sit exposed on their benches with +no real protection from the enemy’s darts; but in the new “cataphract” +ships like the <i>Invincible</i> there is a stout solid bulwark built up +to shield the oarsmen from hostile sight and missiles alike. All +this makes the ships of Demosthene’s day much handsomer, taller +affairs than their predecessors which Themistocles commanded; +nevertheless the old and the new triremes have most essentials in +common. The day is far off when a battleship twenty years old will +be called “hopelessly obsolete” by the naval critics.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] There is some reason for believing that an Athenian trireme was +kept in service for many years, with only incidental repairs, and +then could still be counted as fit to take her place in the line +of battle. +</p> + +<p> +The upper deck of the trireme is about eleven feet above the harbor +waves, but the lowest oar holes are raised barely three feet. Into +the intervening space the whole complicated rowing apparatus has +to be crammed with a good deal of ingenuity. Running along two +thirds of the length of the hull nearly the whole interior of the +vessel is filled with a series of seats and foot rests rising in +sets of three. Each man has a bench and a kind of stool beneath +him, and sits close to a porthole. The feet of the lowest rower +are near the level of the water line; swinging two feet above him +and only a little behind him is his comrade of the second tier; +higher and behind in turn is he of the third.[*] Running down +the center of the ship on either side of these complicated benches +is a broad, central gangway, just under the upper deck. Here the +supernumeraries will take refuge from the darts in battle, and here +the regular rowers will have to do most of their eating, resting, +and sleeping when they are not actually on the benches or on shore. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The exact system by which these oar benches were arranged, the +crew taught to swing together (despite the inequalities in the +length of their oars), and several other like problems connected +with the trireme, have received no satisfactory solution by modern +investigators. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect108"></a> +<b>108. The Rowers’ Benches of a Trireme.</b>—With her full complement +of rowers the benches of the <i>Invincible</i> fairly swarm with life. +There are 62 rowers to the upper tier (<i>thranites</i>), 58 for the middle +tier (<i>zygites</i>), and 54 for the lower (<i>thalamites</i>), each man with +his own individual oar. The <i>thranites</i> with the longest oars (full +13 feet 6 inches) have the hardest pull and the largest pay, but +not one of the 174 oarsmen holds a sinecure. In ordinary cruising, +to be sure, the trireme will make use of her sails, to help out a +single bank of oars which must be kept going almost all the time. +Even then it is weary work to break your back for a couple of hours +taking your turn on the benches. But in battle the trireme almost +never uses sails. She becomes a vast, many-footed monster, flying +over the foam; and the pace of the three oar banks, swinging +together, becomes maddening. Behind their bulwarks the rowers can +see little of what is passing. Everything is dependent upon their +rowing together in absolute rhythm come what may, and giving instant +obedience to orders. The trireme is in one sense like a latter-day +steamer in her methods of propulsion; but the driving force is 174 +straining, panting humans, not insensate water vapor and steel. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect109"></a> +<b>109. The Cabins, Rigging, and Ram of a Trireme.</b>—Forward and aft of +the rowers’ benches and the great central gangway are the fore and +stern cabins. They furnish something akin to tolerable accommodations +for the officers and a favored fraction of the crew. Above the +forecastle rises a carved proudly curing prow, and just abaft it +are high bulwarks to guard the javelin men when at close quarters +with the foe. There is also on either side of the prow a huge red +or orange “eye” painted around the hawse holes for the anchors. +Above the stern cabin is the narrow deck reserved for the pilot, +the “governor” of the ship, who will control the whole trireme with +a touch now on one, now on the other, of the huge steering paddles +which swing at the sides near the stern. Within the stern cabin +itself is the little altar, sacred to the god or goddess to whom +the vessel is dedicated, and on which incense will be burned before +starting on a long cruise and before going into battle. Two masts +rise above the deck, a tall mainmast nearly amidships, and a much +smaller mast well forward. On each of these a square sail (red, +orange, blue, or even, with gala ships, purple) will be swung from +a long yard, while the vessel is cruising; but it is useless to set +sails in battle. One could never turn the ship quickly enough to +complete the maneuvers. The sails and yards will ordinarily be +sent ashore as the first measure when the admiral signals “clear +ship for action.” +</p> + +<p> +We have now examined all of the <i>Invincible</i> except for her main +weapon,—her beak; for the trireme is really herself one tremendous +missile to be flung by the well-trained rowers at the ill-starred +foe. Projecting well in front of the prow and close to the water +line are three heavy metal spurs serrated one above the other, +somewhat thus[*]: +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/spurs.jpg" width="300" height="188" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +</div> + +<p> +Let this fang once crush against a foeman’s broadside, and his +timbers are crushed in like eggshells. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Probably at Salamis and in the earlier Athenian army the ram +had been composed of a single long, tapering beak. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect110"></a> +<b>110. The Officers and Crew of a Trireme.</b>—So much for the <i>Invincible</i> +herself, but obviously she is a helpless thing without an efficient +crew. The life of an oarsman is far from luxurious, but the pay +seems to be enough to induce a goodly number of <i>thetes</i> (the poorest +class of the Athenian citizens) to accept service, and the rest +can be supplied by hired metics or any kind of foreign nondescript +who can be brought into discipline. The rowers are of course the +real heart and soul of the trireme; but they are useless without proper +training. Indeed it was the superior discipline of the Athenian +crews which in the days of Themistocles and Pericles gave Athens +the supremacy of the seas. The nominal, and sometimes actual, +commander of the trireme is her trierarch; but obviously a cultivated +old gentleman like Eustathius is no man to manage the ship in a +sea fight. He will name some deputy, perhaps a stout young friend +or a son, for the real naval work. Even he may not possess great +experience. The real commander of the <i>Invincible</i> is the “governor” +(<i>kybernates</i>), a gnarled old seaman, who has spent all his life upon +the water. Nominally his main duty is to act as pilot, but actually +he is in charge of the whole ship; and in battle the trierarch (if +aboard) will be very glad to obey all his “suggestions.” Next to +the “governor” there is the <i>proireus</i>, another experienced sailor +who will have especial charge of the forecastle in battle. Next in +turn are two “oar-masters” (<i>toixarchoi</i>), who are each responsible +for the discipline and working of one of the long rowers’ benches; +and following in grade, though highly important, are the <i>keleustēs</i>, +and the <i>triērraulēs</i>, who, by voice and by flute respectively, will +give the time and if needs be encouragement to the rowers. These +are all the regular officers, but naturally for handling the sails +and anchors some common sailors are desirable. The <i>Invincible</i> +carries 17 of these. She also has 10 marines (<i>epibatœ</i>), men trained +to fight in hoplite’s armor and to repel boarders. The Persian +ships at Salamis carried 30 such warriors, and often various Greek +admirals have crowded their decks with these heavy marines; but +the true Athenian sea warrior disdains them. Given a good helmsman +and well-trained rowers, and you can sink your opponent with your +ram, while he is clumsily trying to board you. Expert opinion +considers the <i>epibatœ</i> somewhat superfluous, and their use in most +naval battles as disgracefully unscientific. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect111"></a> +<b>111. A Trireme at Sea.</b>—A trireme, then is an heroic fighting +instrument. She goes into battle prepared literally to do or die. +If her side is once crushed, she fills with water instantly, and +the enemy will be too busy and too inhumane to do anything but cheer +lustily when they see the water covered with struggling wretches. +But the trireme is also a most disagreeable craft before and after +the battle. Her light draft sets her tossing on a very mild sea. +In the hot southern climate, with very little ventilation beneath +the upper deck, with nigh two hundred panting, naked human beings +wedged in together below so closely that there is scarce room for +one more, the heat, the smells, the drudgery, are dreadful. No +wonder the crew demanded that the trierarch and governor “make +shore for the night,” or that they weary of the incessant grating +of the heavy oars upon the thole-pins. +</p> + +<p> +Thus the <i>Invincible</i> will seem to any squeamish voyager, but not +so to the distant spectator. For him a trireme is a most marvelous +and magnificent sight. A sister ship, the <i>Danaë</i>,[*] is just +entering the Peiræus from Lemnos (an isle still under the Athenian +sovereignty). Her upper works have been all brightened for the +home-coming. Long, brilliant streams trail from her sail yards +and poop. The flute player is blowing his loudest. The marines +stand on the forecastle in glittering armor. A great column of +foam is spouting from her bow.[+] Her oars, eighty-seven to the +side, pumiced white and hurling out the spray, are leaping back +and forth in perfect unison. The whole vessel seems a thing of +springing, ardent life. It is, indeed, a sight to stir the blood. +No later sailing ship in her panoply of canvas, no steam battleship +with her grim turrets and smoking funnels can ever match the +spectacle of a trireme moving in her rhythm and glory. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The Greek ships seem to have been named either for mythological +characters, or for desirable qualities and virtues. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] At her best a trireme seems to have been capable of making 8 to +9 knots per hour. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect112"></a> +<b>112. The Tactics of a Naval Battle.</b>—Imagination can now picture a +Greek naval battle, fifty, a hundred, two hundred, or more of these splendid +battleships flying in two hostile lines to the charge.[*] Round and round they +will sail, each pilot watching the moment when an unlucky maneuver by the foe +will leave a chance for an attack; and then will come the sudden swinging of +the helm, the frantic “Pull hard!” to the oarsmen, the rending +crash and shock as the ram tears open the opponents side, to be followed by +almost instant tragedy. If the direct attack on the foe’s broadside +fails, there is another maneuver. Run down upon your enemy as if striking bow +to bow; the instant before contact let your aim swerve—a little. Then +call to your men to draw in their oars like lightning while the enemy are still +working theirs. If your oarsmen can do the trick in time, you can now ride down +the whole of the foemen’s exposed oar bank, while saving your own. He is +left crippled and helpless, like a huge centipede with all the legs on one side +stripped away. You can now back off deliberately, run out your oars, and in +cold blood charge his exposed flank. If he does not now surrender, his people +are dead men. Excellent to describe! Not always so excellent in performance. +Everything depends on the perfect discipline and handiness of your crew. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] A more detailed picture of an ancient naval battle and its +tactics can be found in the author’s historical novel, <i>A Victor +of Salamis</i> (Chap. XXIX). +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect113"></a> +<b>113. The Naval Strength of Athens.</b>—The strength of Athens is +still upon the sea. Despite her defeats in the Peloponnesian War +she has again the first navy in Hellas. All in all she can send +out 400 triremes and since each trireme represents a crew of over +200 men, this means that Athens can dispose of over 80,000 souls +in her navy, whereof, however, only a minor fraction are Athenian +citizens. Athens is quite right in thus laying stress upon her +sea power. Her long walls and the Peiræus make her practically an +island. Even after Chæroneia, Philip of Macedon will be obliged +to give her honorable terms,—she has still her great navy. Only +after the defeat of her fleet at Amorgos in 322 B.C. will she have +to know all the pangs of vassalage to Macedon. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap15"></a>Chapter XV.<br /> +An Athenian Court Trial.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect114"></a> +<b>114. The Frequency of Litigation in Athens.</b>—The visit to the +Peiræus and the study of the shipping have not been too long to +prevent a brief visit to one of the most characteristic scenes of +Athenian life—a law court. Athens is notorious for the fondness +which her citizens display for litigation. In fact it is a somewhat +rare and exceptionally peaceable, harmless, and insignificant +citizen who is not plaintiff or defendant in some kind of action +every few years or so. Says Aristophanes, “The cicada [grasshopper] +sings for only a month, but the people of Athens are buzzing with +lawsuits and trials their whole life long.” In the jury courts the +contentious, tonguey man can spread himself and defame his enemies +to his heart’s content; and it must be admitted that in a city like +Athens, where everybody seems to know everybody else’s business almost +every citizen is likely to have a number both of warm friends and +of bitter enemies. Athenians do not have merely “cold acquaintances,” +or “business rivals,” as will men of the twentieth century. They +make no pretenses to “Christian charity.” They freely call an +obnoxious individual their “personal foe” (<i>echthros</i>), and if they +can defeat, humiliate, and ruin him, they bless the gods. The +usual outlet for such ill-feeling is a fierce and perhaps mutually +destructive lawsuit. +</p> + +<p> +Then too, despite Athenian notions of what constitutes a gentleman, +many citizens are people of utterly penurious, niggardly habits. +Frequently enough the fellow who can discuss all Socrates’s theories +with you is quarreling with his neighbor over the loan of salt or +a lamp wick or some meal for sacrifice.[*] If one of the customary +“club-dinners”[+] is held at his house, he will be caught secreting +some of the vinegar, lamp oil, or lentils. If he has borrowed +something, say some barley, take care; when he returns it, he will +measure it out in a vessel with the bottom dented inward. A little +ill feeling, a petty grievance carefully cultivated,—the end in +due time will be a lawsuit, costly far out of proportion to the +originating cause. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Persons of this kidney are delineated to us as typical characters +by Theophrastus. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] The nearest modern equivalent is a “basket lunch.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect115"></a> +<b>115. Prosecutions in Athens.</b>—Athens does not draw a sharp line +between public and private litigation. There is no “state” or +“district attorney” to prosecute for the offenses against public +order. Any full citizen can prosecute anybody else upon such +a criminal charge as murder, no less than for a civil matter like +breach of contract. All this leads to the growth of a mischievous +clan—the <i>sycophants</i>. These harpies are professional accusers +who will prosecute almost any rich individual upon whom they think +they can fasten some technical offense. Their gains are from two +quarters. If they convict the defendant, about half of the fine +or property taken will go to the informer. But very likely there +will be no trial. The victim (either consciously guilty, or +innocent but anxious to avoid the risk) will pay a huge blackmail +at the first threat of prosecution, and the case is hushed up. +</p> + +<p> +It is true there are very heavy penalties for trumped-up cases, +for unwarranted threat of legal proceedings, for perjured evidence; +still the abuse of the sycophants exists, and a great many of the +lawsuits originate with this uncanny tribe. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect116"></a> +<b>116. The Preliminaries to a Trial.</b>—There are official arbitrators +to settle petty cases, but it is too often that one or both parties +declare “the dicasts must settle it,” and the lawsuit has to take +its way. Athenian legal methods are simple. Theoretically there are +no professional lawyers, and every man must look out for himself. +The first business is to file your complaint with one of the magistrates +(usually one of nine <i>archons</i>), and then with two witnesses give +formal summons to your opponent, the defendant, to appear on a set +day in court. If he has defaulted, the case is usually ended then +in your favor. This hearing before the magistrate is in any event +an important part of the trial. Here each side proffers the laws +it cites to sustain its claims, and brings its witnesses, who can +be more or less cross-examined. All the pertinent testimony is +now written down, and the tablets sealed up by the magistrate. At +the final trial this evidence will be merely <i>read</i> to the jury, the +witness in each instance standing up before the court and admitting +when duly asked, “This is my testimony on the case.” +</p> + +<p> +Free men testify under oath, but a slave’s oath is counted worthless. +The slaves may be the only important witnesses to a given act, +but under only one condition can they testify. With the consent +of their master they may testify <i>under torture</i>. It is a critical +moment at this hearing when a litigant who is confident of his case +proudly announces, “I challenge my enemy to put my slaves under +torture”; or the other, attacking first, cries out, “I demand that +my enemy submit his slaves to torture.” Theoretically the challenged +party might refuse, practically a refusal is highly dangerous. “If +his slaves didn’t know something bad, why were they kept silent?” +the jury will ask. So the rack is brought forth. The wretched +menials are stretched upon it. One must hope that often the whole +process involves more show of cruelty than actual brutality. What +now the slaves gasp out between their twists and howls is duly +taken down as “important evidence,” and goes into the record.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Athenian opinion was on the whole in favor of receiving as valid +testimony the evidence extorted thus from slaves by mere animal +fear. Antiphon the orator speaks of how truth may be wrung from +slaves by torture; “by which they are compelled to speak the truth +though they must die for it afterward [at the hands of the master +they have incriminated], for the present necessity is to each +stronger than the future.” This has been well called one of the +few cases of extreme <i>stupidity</i> on the part of the Athenians. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect117"></a> +<b>117. The Athenian Jury Courts.</b>—A convenient interval has elapsed +since one of these preliminary hearings. To-day has been set for +the actual trial before a member of the archons in the “Green” court. +Ariston, a wealthy olive farmer, is suing Lamachus, an exporter of +the Peiræus, for failing to account for the proceeds of a cargo of +olives lately shipped to Naxos. To follow the trial in its entirety +we should have been at the courthouse at first dawn. Then we would +have seen the jurymen come grumbling in, some from the suburbs, +attended by link boys. These jurors represent a large fraction of +the whole Athenian people. There are about six thousand in all. +Pretty nearly every citizen above thirty years of age can give in +his name as desiring jury duty; but naturally it is the elderly +and the indolent who must prefer the service. One thousand of the +six act as mere substitutes; the rest serve as often as the working +of a complicated system of drawing by lot assigns them to sit as +jurors on a particular case. It is well there are five thousand +always thus available, for Athenian juries are very large; 201, +401, 501, 1001 are numbers heard of, and sometimes even greater.[*] +The more important the case, the larger the jury; but <i>Ariston</i> v. +<i>Lamachus</i> is only a commonplace affair; 401 jurors are quite enough. +Even with that “small court,” the audience which the pleaders now +have to address will seem huge to any latter-day lawyer who is +accustomed to his “twelve men in a box”; and needless to say, quite +different methods must be used in dealing with such a company. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The odd unit was no doubt added to prevent a tie. +</p> + +<p> +Each “dicast” (to use the proper name) has a boxwood tablet to show +at the entrance as his voucher to the Scythian police-archers on +duty; he has also a special staff of the color of the paint on the +door of the court room.[*] The chamber itself is not especially +elegant; a long line of hard benches rising in tiers for the dicasts, +and facing these a kind of pulpit for the presiding magistrates, +with a little platform for orators, a small altar for the preliminary +sacrifice, and a few stools for attendants and witnesses complete +the simple furnishings. There are open spaces for spectators, +though no seats; but there will be no lack of an audience today, +for the rumor has gone around, “Hypereides has written Ariston’s +argument.” The chance to hear a speech prepared by that famous +oration-monger is enough to bring every dicast out early, and to +summon a swarm of loiterers up from the not distant Agora. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Each court room had its distinguishing color. There were about ten regular +court rooms, besides some for special tribunals; <i>e.g.</i> the Areopagus for +the trial of homicides. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect118"></a> +<b>118. The Juryman’s Oath.</b>—The dicasts are assumed to approach their +duty with all due solemnity. They have sworn to vote according to +the laws of Athens, never to vote for a repudiation of debts, nor +to restore political exiles, nor to receive bribes for their votes, +nor take bribes in another’s behalf, nor let anybody even tempt +them with such proffers. They are to hear both sides impartially +and vote strictly according to the merits of the case: and the oath +winds up awfully—“Thus do I invoke Zeus, Poseidon, and Demeter to +smite with destruction me and my house if I violate any of these +obligations, but if I keep them I pray for many blessings.”[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] We have not the exact text of all the dicasts’ oath, but we can +reproduce it fairly completely from Demosthenes’s <i>Oration against +Timocrates</i>. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect119"></a> +<b>119. Opening the Trial. The Plaintiff’s Speech.</b>—The oath +is admirable, but the dicasts are not in a wholly juridical state +of mind. Just before the short sacrifice needful to commence +proceedings, takes place, old Zenosthenes on the second row nudges +his neighbor: “I don’t like the looks of that Lamachus. I shall +vote against him.” “And I—my wife knows his wife, and—” The +archon rises. The crier bids, “Silence!” The proceedings begin: +but all through the hearing there is whispering and nudging along +the jurors’ benches. The litigants are quite aware of the situation +and are trying their best to win some advantage therefrom. +</p> + +<p> +Ariston is the first to speak. He has taken great pains with the folds of his +himation and the trim of his beard this morning. He must be thoroughly genteel, +but avoid all appearances of being a dandy. In theory every man has to plead +his own case in Athens, but not every man is an equally good orator. If a +litigant is very inept, he can simply say a few words, then step aside with +“My friend so-and-so will continue my argument”; and a readier +talker will take his place.[*] Ariston, however, is a fairly clever speaker. +Having what he conceives a good case, he has obtained the indirect services of +Hypereides, one of the first of the younger orators of Athens. Hypereides has +written a speech which he thinks is suitable to the occasion, Ariston has +memorized it, and delivers it with considerable gusto. He has solid evidence, +as is proved from time to time when he stops to call, “Let the clerk read +the testimony of this or that.” There often is a certain hum of +approbation from the dicasts when he makes his points. He continues bravely, +therefore, ever and anon casting an eye upon the <i>clepsydra</i> near at hand, +a huge water-clock which, something like an hour glass, marks off the time +allotted him. Some of his arguments seem to have nothing to do with the alleged +embezzlement. He vilifies his opponent: calls Lamachus’s mother coarse +names, intimates that as a boy he had no decent schooling, charges him with +cowardice in the recent Mantinea campaign in which he served, hints that he has +quarreled with his relatives. On the other hand, Ariston grandiloquently +praises <i>himself</i> as well born, well educated, an honorable soldier and +citizen, a man any Athenian would be glad to consider a friend. It is very +plain all these personalia delight the jury.[+] When Ariston’s +“water has run out” and he concludes his speech, there is a loud +murmur of applause running along the benches of the dicasts. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] These “friends,” however, were never regularly professional +advocates; it would have been ruinous to let the jury get the +impression that an orator was being directly hired to speak to +them. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] For the depths of personal insult into which Greek litigants could +descend there is no better instance than Demosthenes’s (otherwise +magnificent) <i>Oration on the Crown</i>, wherein he castigates his foe +Æschines. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect120"></a> +<b>120. The Defendant’s Speech. Demonstrations by the Jury.</b>—It +is now Lamachus’s turn. He also has employed a professional speech-writer +(<i>logographos</i>) of fame, Isæus, to prepare his defense. But almost at the +outset he is in difficulties. Very likely he has a bad case to begin with. He +makes it worse by a shrill, unpleasant voice and ungainly gestures. Very soon +many dicasts are tittering and whispering jibes to their companions. As his +harangue proceeds, the presiding archon (who has really very little control of +the dicasts) is obliged “to remind the gentlemen of the jury that they +have taken solemn oath to hear both sides of the question.” +</p> + +<p> +Lamachus fights doggedly on. Having put in all his real arguments, +he takes refuge also in blackguarding his opponent. Did Ariston +get his wealth honestly? was not his father a rascally grain dealer +who starved the people? Yet there is still more impatience among +the dicasts. Lamachus now uses his last weapon. Upon the pleader’s +stand clamber his five young children clad in black mourning +garments. They all weep together, and when not wiping their eyes, +hold out their hands like religious suppliants, toward the dicasts.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] For such an appeal to an Athenian dicastery, see Aristophanes’s +<i>Wasps</i>. The pertinent passages are quoted in <i>Readings in Ancient +History</i>, vol. I, p. 238-40. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah! Gentlemen of the jury,” whines their father, “if you are moved +by the voices of your lambs at home, pity these here. Acquit me +for <i>their</i> sakes. Do not find against me and plunge these innocent +darlings into want and misery, by impoverishing their father.” +</p> + +<p> +Appeals like this have swayed more than one jury during the last +year, but the fates are all against Lamachus. From a back bench +comes a dreaded shout that is instantly caught up by the front +tiers also: +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Katába! Katába!</i>—Go down! Go Down!” +</p> + +<p> +Lamachus hesitates. If he obeys, he loses all the rest of his +defense. If he continues now, he enrages many of the dicasts, who +will be absolutely sure to find against him. The presiding archon +vainly rises, and tries to say something about “fair play.” Useless. +The uproar continues. Like a flock of scared doves Lamachus and +all his five children flee incontinently from the tribune, amid +ironical cheers and laughter. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect121"></a> +<b>121. The First Verdict.</b>—There is silence at length. “The dicasts +will proceed to vote,” announces the court crier. The huge urns +(one of bronze, one of wood) with narrow mouths are passed among +the benches. Each juror has two round bronze disks, one solid, +one with a hole bored in the middle. The solid acquit, the pierced +ones convict. A juror drops the ballot he wishes to count into +the bronze urn; the other goes into the wooden urn. The bronze +urn is carried to the archon, and there is an uneasy hush while the +401 ballots are counted by the court officers. As expected, more +than 300 dicasts vote that Ariston is entitled to damages against +Lamachus as an embezzler. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect122"></a> +<b>122. The Second and Final Verdict.</b>—Ariston is smiling; his +friends are congratulating him, but the trial is by no means over. +If Lamachus had been found guilty of something for which the +law provided an absolute fixed penalty, this second part of the +proceedings would be omitted. But here, although the jury has +said <i>some</i> damage or penalty or penalties are due, it has still to +fix the amount. Ariston has now to propose to the dicasts a sum +which he thinks is adequate to avenge his wrongs and losses; Lamachus +can propose a smaller sum and try to persuade the court that it is +entirely proper. Each side must act warily. Athenian jurors are +fickle folk. The very men who have just howled down Lamachus may, +in a spasm of repentance, vote for absurdly low damages. Again, +Lamachus must not propose anything obviously inadequate, otherwise +the jurors who have just voted against him may feel insulted, +and accept Ariston’s estimate.[*] Ariston therefore says that he +deserves at least a talent. Lamachus rejoins that half a talent +is more than ample, even conceding Arison’s alleged wrongs. The +arguments this time are shorter and more to the point. Then comes +the second balloting. A second time a majority (smaller this time, +but enough) is in favor of Ariston. The better cause has conquered; +and there is at least this advantage to the Athenian legal system, +there will be no appeal nor tedious technicalities before a “higher +court.” The verdict of the dicastery is final. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Undoubtedly Socrates would have escaped with his life, if (after +his original condemnation) he had proposed a real penalty to the +jury, instead of an absurdly small fine. The only alternative for +the dicasts was to accept the proposition of his opponents,—in +his case, death. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect123"></a> +<b>123. The Merits and Defects of the Athenian Courts.</b>—No doubt +injustice is sometimes done. Sometimes it is the honest man who +hears the dreaded “<i>Kataba!</i>” Sometimes the weeping children have +their intended effect. Sometimes it is the arguments about “My +opponent’s scoundrelly ancestry” which win the verdict. At the +same time, your Athenian dicast is a remarkably shrewd and acute +individual. He can distinguish between specious rhetoric and a +real argument. He is probably honestly anxious to do justice. In +the ordinary case where his personal interests or prejudices do +not come into play, the decision is likely to match with justice +quite as often perhaps as in the intricate court system of a great +republic many centuries after the passing of Athens. +</p> + +<p> +Certain features of some Athenian trials have not explained +themselves in the example just witnessed. To prevent frivolous or +blackmailing litigation it is provided that, if the plaintiff in +a suit gets less than one fifth of the ballots in his favor (thus +clearly showing he had no respectable case), he is liable to a heavy +fine or, in default thereof, exile. Again, we have not waited for +the actual closing scene—the dicasts each giving up his colored +staff as a kind of voucher to the court officers, and in return +getting his three obols (9 cents) daily jury fee, which each man +claps promptly in his cheek, and then goes off home to try the case +afresh at the family supper. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect124"></a> +<b>124. The Usual Punishments in Athens.</b>—Trials involving murder or +manslaughter come before the special court of Areopagus, and cannot +well be discussed here, but most other criminal cases are tried +before the dicasts in much the same way as a civil trial. When the +law does not have a set penalty, the jury virtually has to sentence +the defendant after convicting him, choosing between one of two +proposed penalties. Greek courts can inflict death, exile, fines, +but almost never imprisonment. There is no “penitentiary” or +“workhouse” in Athens; and the only use for a jail is to confine +accused persons whom it is impossible to release on bail before +their trial. The Athens city jail (“The House,” as it is familiarly +called—<i>Oikēma</i>) is a very simple affair, one open building, +carelessly guarded and free to visitors all through the daylight. +The inmates have to be kept in heavy fetters, otherwise they would +be sure to take flight; and indeed escapes from custody are somewhat +common. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect125"></a> +<b>125. The Heavy Penalty of Exile.</b>—An Athenian will regard locking +a criminal up for a term of years as a very foolish and expensive +proceeding. If he has nothing wherewith to pay a round fine, why, +simply send him into exile. This penalty is direful indeed to a +Greek. The exile has often no protector, no standing in the courts +of the foreign city, no government to avenge any outrage upon him. +He can be insulted, starved, stripped, nay, murdered, often with +impunity. Worse still, he is cut off from his friends with whom +all his life is tied up; he is severed from the guardian gods of +his childhood,—“<i>the</i> City,” the city of his birth, hopes, longings, +exists no more for him. If he dies abroad, he is not sure of a +decent funeral pyre; and meanwhile his children may be hungering +at home. So long as the Athenians have this tremendous penalty of +exile at their disposal, they do not feel the need of penitentiaries. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect126"></a> +<b>126. The Death Penalty at Athens.</b>—There are also the stocks and +whipping posts for meting out summary justice to irresponsible +offenders. When the death penalty is imposed (and the matter +often lies in the discretion of the dicasts), the criminal, if of +servile or Barbarian blood, may be put to death in some hideous +manner and his corpse tossed into the Barathron, a vile pit on the +northwest side of Athens, there to be dishonored by the kites and +crows. The execution of Athenian citizens, however, is extremely +humane. The condemned is given a cup of poisonous hemlock juice +and allowed to drink it while sitting comfortably among his friends +in the prison. Little by little his body grows numb; presently +he becomes senseless, and all is over without any pain.[*] The +friends of the victim are then at liberty to give his body a suitable +burial. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] No one can read the story of the death of Socrates in the prison, +as told by Plato in the <i>Phædo</i>, without feeling (aside from the +noble philosophical setting) how much more humane were such executions +by hemlock than is the modern gallows or electric chair. +</p> + +<p> +An Athenian trial usually lasts all day, and perhaps we have been +able to witness only the end of it. It may well happen, however, +that we cannot attend a dicastery at all. This day may be one which +is devoted to a meeting of the public assembly, and duty summons +the jurors, not in the court room, but to the Pnyx. This is no +loss to us, however. We welcome the chance to behold the Athenian +Ecclesia in action. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap16"></a>Chapter XVI.<br /> +The Ecclesia of Athens.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect127"></a> +<b>127. The Rule of Democracy in Athens.</b>—The Ecclesia, or Public +Assembly, of Athens is something more than the chief governmental +organ in the state. It is the great leveling engine which makes +Athens a true democracy, despite the great differences in wealth +between her inhabitants, and the marked social pretensions of “the +noble and the good”—the educated classes. At this time Athens +is profoundly wedded to her democratic constitution. Founded by +Solon and Clisthenes, developed by Themistocles and Pericles, it +was temporarily overthrown at the end of the Peloponnesian War; +but the evil rule then of the “Thirty Tyrants” has proved a better +lesson on the evils of oligarchic rule than a thousand rhetoricians’ +declamations upon the advantages of the “rule of the many” as +against the “rule of the few.” Attica now acknowledges only one +Lord—<i>King Demos</i>—“King Everybody”—and until the coming of bondage to +Macedon there will be no serious danger of an aristocratic reaction. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect128"></a> +<b>128. Aristocracy and Wealth. Their Status and Burdens.</b>—True, +there are old noble families in Athens,—like the Alcmæonidæ +whereof Pericles sprang, and the Eumolpidæ who supply the priests +to Demeter, the Earth Mother. But these great houses have long +since ceased to claim anything but <i>social</i> preëminence. Even then +one must take pains not to assume airs, or the next time one is +litigant before the dicastery, the insinuation of “an undemocratic, +oligarchic manner of life” will win very many adverse votes among +the jury. Nobility and wealth are only allowed to assert themselves +in Athens when justified by an extraordinary amount of public +service and public generosity. +</p> + +<p> +Xenophon in his <i>Memorabilia</i> makes Socrates tell Critobuls, a +wealthy and self-important individual, that he is really so hampered +by his high position as to be decidedly poor. “You are obliged,” +says Socrates, “to offer numerous and magnificent sacrifices; you +have to receive and entertain sumptuously a great many strangers, +and to feast [your fellow] citizens. You have to pay heavy contributions +towards the public service, keeping horses and furnishing choruses +in peace times and in war bearing the expense of maintaining triremes +and paying the special war taxes; and if you fail to do all this, +they will punish you with as much severity as if you were caught +stealing their money.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect129"></a> +<b>129. Athenian Society Truly Democratic up to a Certain Point.</b>—Wealth, +then, means one perpetual round of public services and obligations, +sweetened perhaps with a little empty praise, an inscription, an +honorary crown, or best of all, an honorary statue “to the public +benefactor” as the chief reward. On the other hand one may be +poor and be a thoroughly self-respecting, nay, prominent citizen. +Socrates had an absurdly small invested fortune and the gods knew +that he did little enough in the way of profitable labor.[*] He +had to support his wife and three children upon this income. He +wore no chiton. His himation was always an old one, unchanged +from summer to winter. He seems to have possessed only one pair +of good sandals all his life. His rations were bread and water, +save when he was invited out. Yet this man was welcome in the “very +best society.” Alcibiades, leader of the fast, rich set, and many +more of the gilded youth of Athens dogged his heels. One meets not +the slightest evidence that his poverty ever prevented him from +carrying his philosophic message home to the wealthy and the noble. +There is no snobbishness, then, in this Athenian society. Provided +a man is not pursuing a base mechanic art or an ignoble trade, +provided he has a real message to convey,—whether in literature, +philosophy, or statecraft,—there are no questions “who was +your father?” or “what is your income?”[+] Athens will hear him +and accept his best. For this open-mindedness—almost unique in +ancient communities—one must thank King Demos and his mouthpiece, +the Ecclesia. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Socrates’s regular income from invested property seems to have +been only about $12 per year. It is to be hoped his wife, Xanthippe, +had a little property of her own! +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Possibly the son of a man whose parents notoriously had been +slaves in Athens would have found many doors closed to him. +</p> + +<p> +Athenians are intensely proud of their democracy. In Æschylus’s +<i>Persians</i>, Atossa, the Barbarian queen, asks concerning the +Athenians:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Who is the lord and shepherd of their flock?” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Very prompt is the answer:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“They are not slaves, they bow to no man’s rule.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Again in Euripides’s <i>Supplicants</i> there is this boast touching +Athens:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + “No will of one<br /> +Holdeth this land: it is a city and free.<br /> +The whole folk year by year, in parity of service is our king.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect130"></a> +<b>130. The Voting Population of Athens.</b>—Nevertheless when we ask +about this “whole folk,” and who the voters are, we soon discover +that Athens is very far from being a pure democracy. The multitudes +of slaves are of course without votes, and so is the numerous +class of the important, cultivated, and often wealthy metics. To +get Athenian citizenship is notoriously hard. For a stranger (say +a metic who had done some conspicuous public service) to be given +the franchise, a special vote must be passed by the Ecclesia itself; +even then the new citizen may be prosecuted as undeserving before +a dicastery, and disfranchised. Again, only children both of whose +parents are free Athenian citizens can themselves be enrolled on the +carefully guarded lists in the deme books. The status of a child, +one of whose parents is a metic, is little better than a bastard.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Of course women were entirely excluded from the Ecclesia, as from +all other forms of public life. The question of “woman’s rights” +had been agitated just enough to produce comedies like Aristophanes’s +<i>Parliament of Women</i>, and philosophical theories such as appear +in Plato’s <i>Republic</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Under these circumstances the whole number of voters is very much less than at +a later day will appear in American communities of like population. Before the +Peloponnesian War, when the power of Athens was at its highest point, there +were not less than 30,000 full citizens and possibly as many as 40,000. But +those days of imperial power are now ended. At present Athens has about 21,000 +citizens, or a few more. It is impossible, however, to gather all these in any +single meeting. A great number are farmers living in the remote villages of +Attica; many city dwellers also will be too busy to think the 3-obol (9-cent +[1914 or $1.55 2000]) fee for attendance worth their while.[*] Six thousand +seems to be a good number for ordinary occasions and no doubt much business can +be dispatched with less, although this is the legal quorum set for most really +vital matters. Of course a great crisis, <i>e.g.</i> a declaration of war, will +bring out nearly every voter whose farm is not too distant. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Payment for attendance at the Pnyx seems to have been introduced +about 390 B.C. The original payment was probably only one obol, +and then from time to time increased. It was a sign of the relative +decay of political interest in Athens when it became needful thus +to reward the commonalty for attendance at the Assembly. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect131"></a> +<b>131. Meeting Time of the Ecclesia.</b>—Four times in every prytany[*] +the Ecclesia must be convened for ordinary business, and oftener +if public occasion requires. Five days’ notice has to be given of +each regular meeting, and along with the notice a placard announcing +the proposals which are to come up has to be posted in the Agora. +But if there is a sudden crisis, formalities can be thrown to the +winds; a sudden bawling of the heralds in the streets, a great +smoky column caused by burning the traders’ flimsy booths in the +Agora,—these are valid notices of an extraordinary meeting to +confront an immediate danger. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] “A prytany” was one tenth of a year, say 35 or 36 days, during +which time the 50 representatives of one of the ten Athenian tribes +then serving as members of the Council of 500 (each tribe taking +its turn) held the presidency of the Council and acted as a special +executive committee of the government. There were thus at least +40 meetings of the Ecclesia each year, as well as the extraordinary +meetings. +</p> + +<p> +If this has been a morning when the Ecclesia has been in session, +nothing unusual has occurred at first in the busy Agora, except +that the jury courts are hardly in action, and a bright flag is +whipping the air from the tall flagpole by the Pnyx (the Assembly +Place). Then suddenly there is a shouting through the Agora. The +clamor of traffic around the popular flower stalls ceases; everybody +who is not a slave or metic (and these would form a large fraction +of the crowd of marketers) begins to edge down toward one end of +the Agora. Presently a gang of Scythian police-archers comes in +sight. They have a long rope sprinkled with red chalk wherewith +they are “netting” the Agora. The chalk will leave an infallible +mark on the mantle of every tardy citizen, and he who is thus marked +as late at the meeting will lose his fee for attendance, if not +subject himself to a fine. So there is a general rush away from +the Agora and down one of the various avenues leading to the Pnyx. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect132"></a> +<b>132. The Pnyx (Assembly Place) at Athens.</b>—The Pnyx is an open +space of ground due west from the Acropolis. It originally sloped +gently away towards the northeast, but a massive retaining wall +had been built around it, in an irregular semicircle, and the space +within filled with solidly packed earth sloping inwards, making a +kind of open air auditorium. It is a huge place, 394 feet long, +and 213 feet at the widest. The earthen slope is entirely devoid +of seats; everybody casts himself down sprawling or on his haunches, +perhaps with an old himation under him. Directly before the sitters +runs a long ledge hewn out of the rock, forming, as it were, the +“stage” side of the theater. Here the rock has been cut away, so +as to leave a sizable stone pulpit standing forth, with a small +flight of steps on each side. This is the <i>Bema</i>, the orator’s +stand, whence speak the “demagogues,”[*] the molders of Athenian +public opinion. In front of the Bema there is a small portable +altar for the indispensable sacrifices. In the rear of the Bema +are a few planks laid upon the rock. Here will sit the fifty +<i>Prytanes</i> in charge of the meeting. There is a handsome chair +for the presiding officer upon the Bema itself. These are all the +furnishings of the structure wherein Athens makes peace and war, +and orders her whole civil and foreign policy. The Hellenic azure +is the only roof above her sovran law makers. To the right, as +the orators stand on the Bema, they can point toward the Acropolis +and its glittering temples; to the left towards the Peiræus, and +the blue sea with the inevitable memories of glorious Salamis. +Surely it will be easy to fire all hearts with patriotism! +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] A “demagogue” ( = people-leader) might well be a great statesman, +and not necessarily a cheap and noisy politician. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect133"></a> +<b>133. The Preliminaries of the Meeting.</b>—Into this space the voters +swarm by hundreds—all the citizens of Athens, from twenty years +and upward, sufficiently interested to come. At each crude entrance +stands a crops of watchful LEXIARCHS and their clerks, checking +off those present and turning back interlopers. As the entering +crowds begin to thin, the entrance ways are presently closed by wicker +hurdles. The flag fluttering on high is struck. The Ecclesia is +ready for action. +</p> + +<p> +Much earlier than this, the farmers and fishmen from the hill +towns or from Salamis have been in their places, grumbling at the +slowness of the officials. People sit down where they can; little +groups and clans together, wedged in closely, chattering up to the +last minute, watching every proceeding with eyes as keen as cats’. +All the gossip left over from the Agora is disposed of ere the +prytanes—proverbially late—scramble into their seats of honor. +The police-archers move up and down, enforcing a kind of order. +Amid a growing hush a suckling pig is solemnly slaughtered by some +religious functionary at the altar, and the dead victim carried +around the circuit of the Pnyx as a symbolic purification of the +audience. +</p> + +<p> +“Come inside the purified circuit,” enjoins a loud herald to the +little groups upon the edge.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Aristophanes’s <i>Acharnians</i> (ll. 50 ff.) gives a valuable +picture of this and other proceedings at the Pnyx, but one should +never forget the poet’s exaggerations for comedy purposes, nor his +deliberate omission of matters likely to be mere tedious detail to +his audience. +</p> + +<p> +Then comes a prayer invoking the gods’ favor upon the Athenians, +their allies, and this present meeting in particular, winding up +(the herald counts this among the chief parts of his duty) with +a tremendous curse on any wretch who should deceive the folk with +evil counsel. After this the real secular business can begin. +Nothing can be submitted to the Ecclesia which has not been previously +considered and matured by the Council of 500. The question to be +proposed is now read by the heralds as a <i>Pro-bouleuma</i>—a suggested +ordinance by the Council. Vast as is the audience, the acoustic +properties of the Pnyx are excellent, and all public officers and +orators are trained to harangue multitudes in the open air, so that +the thousands get every word of the proposition. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect134"></a> +<b>134. Debating a Proposition.</b>—“Resolved by the Boule, the tribe +Leontis holding the prytany, and Heraclides being clerk, upon the +motion of Timon the son of Timon the Eleusinian,[*] that”—and then +in formal language it is proposed to increase the garrison of the +allied city of Byzantium by 500 hired Arcadian mercenaries, since +the king of Thrace is threatening that city, and its continued +possession is absolutely essential to the free import of grain into +Attica. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This seems to have been the regular form for beginning a +<i>probouleuma</i> although nearly all our information comes from the +texts of proposals <i>after</i> they have been made formal decrees by the +sovran Demos. +</p> + +<p> +There is a hush of expectancy; a craning of necks. +</p> + +<p> +“Who wishes to speak?” calls the herald. +</p> + +<p> +After a decent pause Timon, the mover of the measure, comes forward. +He is a fairly well-known character and commands a respectable +faction among the Demos. There is some little clapping, mixed with +jeering, as he mounts the Bema. The president of the prytanes—as +evidence that he has now the right to harangue—hands him a myrtle +wreath which he promptly claps on his head, and launches into his +argument. Full speedily he has convinced at least a large share +of the audience that it was sheer destruction to leave Byzantium +without an efficient garrison. Grain would soon be at famine +prices if the town were taken, etc., etc. The only marvel is that +the merciful gods have averted the disaster so long in the face of +such neglect.—Why had the board of strategi, responsible in such +matters, neglected this obvious duty? [Cheers intermixed with +catcalls.] This was not the way the men who won Marathon had dealt +with dangers, nor later worthies like Nicias or Thrasybulus. [More +cheers and catcalls.] He winds up with a splendid invocation to +Earth, Sky, and Justice to bear witness that all this advice is +given solely with a view to the weal of Athens. +</p> + +<p> +“He had Isocrates teach him how to launch that peroration,” mutters +a crabbed old citizen behind his peak-trimmed beard, as Timon +descends amid mingled applause and derision. +</p> + +<p> +“Very likely; Iphicrates is ready to answer him,” replies a fellow. +</p> + +<p> +“Who wishes to speak?” the herald demands again. From a place +directly before the Bema a well-known figure, the elderly general, +Iphicrates, is rising. At a nod from the president, he mounts the +Bema and assumes the myrtle. He has not Timon’s smooth tones nor +oratorical manner. He is a man of action and war, and no tool of +the Agora coteries. A salvo of applause greets him. Very pithily +he observes that Byzantium will be safe enough if the city will only +be loyal to the Athenian alliance. Athens needs all her garrisons +nearer home. Timon surely knows the state of the treasury. Is +he going to propose a special tax upon his fellow countrymen to +pay for those 500 mercenaries? [Loud laughter and derisive howls +directed at Timon.] Athens needs to keep her strength for <i>real</i> +dangers; and those are serious enough, but not at Byzantium. At +the next meeting he and the other strategi will recommend—etc., +etc. When Iphicrates quits the Bema there is little left of Timon’s +fine “Earth, Sky and Justice.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect135"></a> +<b>135. Voting at the Pnyx.</b>—But other orators follow on both sides. +Once Timon, egged on by many supporters, tries to gain the Bema +a second time, but is told by the president that one cannot speak +twice on the same subject. Once the derision and shouting becomes +so violent that the president has to announce, “Unless there is +silence I must adjourn the meeting.” Finally, after an unsuccessful +effort to amend the proposal, by reducing the garrison at Byzantium +to 250, the movers of the measure realize that the votes will +probably be against them. They try to break up the meeting. +</p> + +<p> +“I hear thunder!” “I feel rain!” they begin shouting, and such ill +omens, if really in evidence, would be enough to force an adjournment; +but the sky is delightfully clear. The president simply shrugs +his shoulders; and now the Pnyx is fairly rocking with the yell, +“A vote! A vote!” +</p> + +<p> +The president rises. Taking the vote in the Ecclesia is a very +simple matter when it is a plain question of “yes” or “no” on a +proposition.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] When an <i>individual</i> had to be voted for, then ballots were used. +</p> + +<p> +“All who favor the <i>probouleuma</i> of Timon will raise the right +hand!” +</p> + +<p> +A respectable but very decided minority shows itself. +</p> + +<p> +“Those who oppose.” +</p> + +<p> +The adverse majority is large. The morning is quite spent. There +is a great tumult. Men are rising, putting on their himatia, +ridiculing Timon; while the herald at a nod from the president +declares the Ecclesia adjourned. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect136"></a> +<b>136. The Ecclesia as an Educational Instrument.</b>—Timon and his +friends retire crestfallen to discuss the fortunes of war. They +are not utterly discouraged, however. The Ecclesia is a fickle +creature. What it withholds to-day it may grant to-morrow. +Iphicrates, whose words have carried such weight now, may soon be +howled down and driven from the Bema much as was the unfortunate +litigant in the jury court. Still, with all its faults, the Ecclesia +is the great school for the adults of Athens. All are on terms of +perfect equality. King Demos is not the least respecter of wealth +or family. Sophistries are usually penetrated in a twinkling +by some coarse expletive from a remote corner of the Pnyx. Every +citizen understands the main issues of the public business. <i>He is +part of the actual working government</i>, not once per year (or less +often) at the ballot box, but at least forty times annually; and +dolt he would be, did he not learn at least all the superficialities +of statecraft. He may make grievous errors. He may be misled by +mob prejudice or mob enthusiasm; but he is not likely to persist +in a policy of crass blundering very long. King Demos may indeed +rule a fallible human monarchy, but it is thanks to him, and to +his high court held at the Pnyx, that Athens owes at least half of +that sharpness of wit and intelligence which is her boast. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap17"></a>Chapter XVII.<br /> +The Afternoon at the Gymnasia.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect137"></a> +<b>137. The Gymnasia. Places of General Resort.</b>—The market is thinning +after a busy day; the swarms of farmer-hucksters with their weary +asses are trudging homeward; the schoolrooms are emptying; the +dicasteries or the Ecclesia, as the case may be, have adjourned. +Even the slave artisans in the factories are allowed to slacken +work. The sun, a ball of glowing fire, is slowly sinking to westward +over the slopes of Ægaleos; the rock of the Acropolis is glowing +as if in flame; intense purple tints are creeping over all the +landscape. The day is waning, and all Athenians who can possibly +find leisure are heading towards the suburbs for a walk, a talk, +and refreshment of soul and body at the several Gymnasia. +</p> + +<p> +Besides various establishments and small “wrestling schools” for +the boys, there are three great public Gymnasia at Athens,—the +Lyceum to the east of the town; the Cynosarges[*] to the southward; +and last, but at all least, the Academy. This is the handsomest, +the most famous, the most characteristic. We shall do well to +visit it. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The Cynosarges was the only one of these freely opened to such +Athenians as had non-Athenian mothers. The other two were reserved +for the strictly “full citizens.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect138"></a> +<b>138. The Road to the Academy.</b>—We go out toward the northwest of +the city, plunging soon into a labyrinth of garden walls, fragrant +with the fruit and blossoms within, wander amid dark olive groves +where the solemn leaves of the sacred trees are talking sweetly; +and presently mount a knoll by some suburban farm buildings, then +look back to find that slight as is the elevation, here is a view +of marvelous beauty across the city, the Acropolis, and the guardian +mountains. From the rustling ivy coverts come the melodious notes +of birds. We are glad to learn that this is the suburb of Colonus, +the home of Sophocles the tragedian, and here is the very spot made +famous in the renowned chorus of his <i>Œdipous at Colonus</i>. It is +too early, of course, to enjoy the nightingale which the poet asserts +sings often amid the branches, but the scene is one of marvelous +charm. We are not come, however, to admire Colonus. The numerous +strollers indicate our direction. Turning a little to the south, we +see, embowered amid the olive groves which line the unseen stream +of the Cephissos, a wall, and once beyond it find ourselves in +a kind of spacious park combined with an athletic establishment. +This is the Academy,—founded by Hipparchus, son of Peisistratus +the tyrant, but given its real embellishments and beauty by Cimon, +the son of Militiades the victor of Marathon. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect139"></a> +<b>139. The Academy.</b>—The Academy is worthy of the visit. The park +itself is covered with olive trees and more graceful plane trees. The grass +beneath us is soft and delightful to the bare foot (and nearly everybody, we +observe, has taken off his sandals). There are marble and bronze statues +skillfully distributed amid the shrubbery—shy nymphs, peeping fauns, bold +satyrs. Yonder is a spouting fountain surmounted by a noble Poseidon with his +trident; above the next fountain rides the ocean car of Amphitrite. Presently +we come to a series of low buildings. Entering, we find them laid out in a +quadrangle with porticoes on every side, somewhat like the promenades around +the Agora. Inside the promenades open a series of ample rooms for the use of +professional athletes during stormy weather, and for the inevitable bathing and +anointing with oil which will follow all exercise. This great square court +formed by the “gymnasium” proper is swarming with interesting +humanity, but we pass it hastily in order to depart by an exit on the inner +side and discover a second more conventionally laid out park. Here to right and +to left are short stretches of soft sand divided into convenient sections for +wrestling, for quoit hurling, for javelin casting, and for jumping; but a loud +shout and cheering soon draw us onward. At the end of this park we find the +stadium; a great oval track, 600 feet (a <i>stadium</i>) for the half circuit, +with benches and all the paraphernalia for a foot race. The first contests have +just ended. The racers are standing, panting after their exertions, but their +friends are talking vehemently. Out in the sand, near the statue of Hermes (the +patron god of gymnasia) is a dignified and self-conscious looking man in a +purple edged chiton—the gymnasiarch, the official manager of the Academy. +While he waits to organize a second race we can study the visitors and habitués +of the gymnasium. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect140"></a> +<b>140. The Social Atmosphere and Human Types at the Academy.</b>—What +the Pnyx is to the political life of Athens, this the Academy and +the other great gymnasia are to its social and intellectual as +well as its physical life. Here in daily intercourse, whether in +friendly contest of speed or brawn, or in the more valuable contest +of wits, the youth of Athens complete their education after escaping +from the rod of the schoolmaster. Here they have daily lessons +on the mottoes, which (did such a thing exist) should be blazoned +on the coat of arms of Greece, as the summing up of all Hellenic +wisdom:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Know thyself,” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +and again:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Be moderate.” +</p> + +<p> +Precept, example, and experience teach these truths at the gymnasia +of Athens. Indeed, on days when the Ecclesia is not in session, +when no war is raging, and they are not busy with a lawsuit, many +Athenians will spend almost the whole day at the Academy. For +whatever are your interests, here you are likely to find something +to engross you. +</p> + +<p> +It must be confessed that not everybody at the Academy comes here for physical +or mental improvement. We see a little group squatting and gesticulating +earnestly under an old olive tree—they are obviously busy, not with +philosophic theory, but with dice. Again, two young men pass us presenting a +curious spectacle. They are handsomely dressed and over handsomely scented, but +each carries carefully under each arm a small cock; and from time to time they +are halted by fiends who admire the birds. Clearly these worthies’ main +interests are in cockfighting; and they are giving their favorites “air +and exercise” before the deadly battle, on which there is much betting, +at the supper party that night. Also the shouting and rumbling from a distance +tells of the chariot course, where the sons of the more wealthy or pretentious +families are lessening their patrimonies by training a “two” or a +“four” to contend at the Isthmian games or at Olympia. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect141"></a> +<b>141. Philosophers and Cultivated Men at the Gymnasia.</b>—All these +things are true, and Athens makes full display here of the usual +crop of knaves or fools. Nevertheless this element is in the +minority. Here a little earlier or a little later than our visit +(for just now he is in Sicily) one could see Plato himself—walking +under the shade trees and expounding to a little trailing host +of eager-eyed disciples the fundamental theories of his ideal +Commonwealth. Here are scores of serious bearded faces, and heads +sprinkled with gray, moving to and fro in small groups, discussing +in melodious Attic the philosophy, the poetry, the oration, which +has been partly considered in the Agora this morning, and which +will be further discussed at the symposium to-night. Everything +is entirely informal. Even white-haired gentlemen do not hesitate +to cast off chiton and himation and spring around nimbly upon the +sands, to “try their distance” with the quoits, or show the young +men that they have not forgotten accuracy with the javelin, or +even, against men of their own age, to test their sinews in a mild +wrestling bout. It is undignified for an old man to attempt feats +beyond his advanced years. No one expects any great proficiency +from most of those present. It is enough to attempt gracefully, +and to laugh merrily if you do not succeed. Everywhere there is +the greatest good nature, and even frolicking, but very little of +the really boisterous. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect142"></a> +<b>142. The Beautiful Youths at the Academy.</b>—Yet the majority of +the visitors to the Academy have an interest that is not entirely +summed up in proper athletics, or in the baser sports, or in +philosophy. Every now and then a little whisper runs among the +groups of strollers or athlete “There he goes!—a new one! How +beautiful!”—and there is a general turning of heads. +</p> + +<p> +A youth goes by, his body quite stripped, and delicately bronzed by +constant exposure to the sun. His limbs are graceful, but vigorous +and straight, his chest is magnificently curved. He lifts his head +modestly, yet with a proud and easy carriage. His hair is dark +blonde; his profile very “Greek”—nose and forehead joining in +unbroken straight line. A little crowd is following him; a more +favored comrade, a stalwart, bearded man, walks at his side. No +need of questioning now whence the sculptors of Athens get their +inspiration. This happy youth, just out of the schoolroom, and +now to be enrolled as an armed ephebus, will be the model soon for +some immortal bronze or marble. Fortunate is he, if his humility +is not ruined by all the admiration and flattery; if he can remember +the injunctions touching “modesty,” which master and father have +repeated so long; if he can remember the precept that true beauty +of body can go only with true beauty of soul. Now at least is his +day of hidden or conscious pride. All Athens is commending him. +He is the reigning toast, like the “belle” of a later age. Not the +groundlings only, but the poets, rhetoricians, philosophers, will +gaze after him, seek an introduction, compliment him delicately, +give themselves the pleasure of making him blush deliciously, +and go back to their august problems unconsciously stimulated and +refreshed by this vision of “the godlike.”[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*]For pertinent commentary on the effect of meeting a beautiful +youth upon very grave men, see, <i>e.g.</i>, Plato’s <i>Charmides</i> (esp. +158 a) and <i>Lysis</i> (esp. 206 d). Or better still in Xenophon’s +<i>Symposium</i> (I.9), where we hear of the beautiful youth Autolycus, +“even as a bright light at night draws every eye, so by <i>his</i> beauty +drew on him the gaze of all the company [at the banquet]. Not a +man was present who did not feel his emotions stirred by the sight +of him.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect143"></a> +<b>143. The Greek Worship of Manly Beauty.</b>—The Greek worship of the +beautiful masculine form is something which the later world will never +understand. In this worship there is too often a coarseness, a sensual dross, +over which a veil is wisely cast. But the great fact of this worship remains: +to the vast majority of Greeks “beauty” does not imply a delicate +maid clad in snowy drapery; it implies a perfectly shaped, bronzed, and +developed youth, standing forth in his undraped manhood for some hard athletic +battle. This ideal possesses the national life, and effects the entire Greek +civilization. Not beauty in innocent weakness, but beauty in resourceful +strength—before this beauty men bow down.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Plato (<i>Republic</i>, p. 402) gives the view of enlightened Greek +opinion when he states “There can be no fairer spectacle than that +of a man who combines the possession of <i>moral</i> beauty in his soul, +with <i>outward</i> beauty of body, corresponding and harmonizing with +the former, because the same great pattern enters into both.” +</p> + +<p> +It is this masculine type of beauty, whether summed up in a physical form or +translated by imagery into the realm of the spirit, that Isocrates (a very good +mouthpiece for average enlightened opinion) praises in language which strains +even his facile rhetoric. “[Beauty] is the first of all things in +majesty, honor, and divineness. Nothing devoid of beauty is prized; the +admiration of virtue itself comes to this, that of all manifestations of life, +virtue is the most beautiful. The supremacy of beauty over all things can be +seen in our own disposition toward it, and toward them. Other things we merely +seek to attain as we need them, but beautiful things inspire us with love, +<i>love</i> which is as much stronger than <i>wish</i> as its object is better. +To the beautiful alone, as to the gods, we are never tired of doing homage; +delighting to be their slaves rather than to be the rulers of others.” +</p> + +<p> +Could we put to all the heterogeneous crowd in the wide gymnasium +the question, “What things do you desire most?” the answer “To +be physically beautiful” (not “handsome” merely, but “beautiful”) +would come among the first wishes. There is a little song, very +popular and very Greek. It tells most of the story. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +The best of gifts to mortal man is health;<br /> + The next the bloom of beauty’s matchless flower;<br /> +The third is blameless and unfraudful wealth;<br /> + The fourth with friends to spend youths’ joyous hour.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Translation by Milman. The exact date of this Greek poem is +uncertain, but its spirit is entirely true to that of Athens in +the time of this sketch. +</p> + +<p> +Health and physical beauty thus go before wealth and the passions +of friendship,—a true Greek estimate! +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect144"></a> +<b>144. The Detestation of Old Age.</b>—Again, we are quick to learn +that this “beauty” is the beauty of youth. It is useless to talk +to an Athenian of a “beautiful old age.” Old age is an evil to +be borne with dignity, with resignation if needs be, to be fought +against by every kind of bodily exercise; but to take satisfaction +in it?—impossible. It means a diminishing of those keen powers +of physical and intellectual enjoyment which are so much to every +normal Athenian. It means becoming feeble, and worse than feeble, +ridiculous. The physician’s art has not advanced so far as to +prevent the frequent loss of sight and hearing in even moderate age. +No hope of a future renewal of noble youth in a happier world gilds +the just man’s sunset. Old age must, like the untimely passing +of loved ones, be endured in becoming silence, as one of the fixed +inevitables; but it is gloomy work to pretend to find it cheerful. +Only the young can find life truly happy. Euripides in <i>The Mad +Heracles</i> speaks for all his race:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Tell me not of the Asian tyrant,<br /> + Or of palaces plenished with gold;<br /> +For such bliss I am not an aspirant,<br /> + If <i>youth</i> I might only behold:—<br /> +Youth that maketh prosperity higher,<br /> +And ever adversity lighter.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Mahaffy, translator. Another very characteristic lament for +the passing of youth is left us by the early elegiac poet Mimnermus. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect145"></a> +<b>145. The Greeks unite Moral and Physical Beauty.</b>—But here at the +Academy, this spirit of beautiful youth, and the “joy of life,” +is everywhere dominant. All around us are the beautiful bodies +of young men engaged in every kind of graceful exercise. When +we question, we are told that current belief is that in a great +majority of instances there is a development and a symmetry of +mind corresponding to the glory of the body. It is contrary to all +the prevalent notions of the reign of “divine harmony” to have it +otherwise. The gods abhor all gross contradictions! Even now men +will argue over a strange breach of this rule;—why did heaven +suffer Socrates to have so beautiful a soul set in so ugly a +body?—Inscrutable are the ways of Zeus! +</p> + +<p> +However, we have generalized and wandered enough. The Academy is +a place of superabounding activities. Let us try to comprehend +some of them. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect146"></a> +<b>146. The Usual Gymnastic Sports and their Objects.</b>—Despite all +the training in polite conversation which young men are supposed +to receive at the gymnasium, the object of the latter is after all +to form places of athletic exercise. The Athenians are without +most of these elaborate field games such as later ages will call +“baseball” and “football”; although, once learned, they could +surely excel in these prodigiously. They have a simple “catch” +with balls, but it hardly rises above the level of a children’s +pastime. The reasons for these omissions are probably, first, +because so much time is devoted to the “palæstra” exercises; +secondly, because military training eats up about all the time not +needed for pure gymnastics. +</p> + +<p> +The “palæstra” exercises, taught first at the boys’ training +establishments and later continued at the great gymnasia, are nearly +all of the nature of latter-day “field sports.” They do not depend +on the costly apparatus of the twentieth century athletic halls; +and they accomplish their ends with extremely simple means. The +aim of the instructor is really twofold—to give his pupils a body +fit and apt for war (and we have seen that to be a citizen usually +implies being a hoplite), and to develop a body beautiful to the +eye and efficient for civil life. The naturally beautiful youth +can be made more beautiful; the naturally homely youth can be made +at least passable under the care of a skilful gymnastic teacher. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect147"></a> +<b>147. Professional Athletes: the Pancration.</b>—Athletics, then, are +a means to an end and should not be tainted with professionalism. +True, as we wander about the Academy we see heavy and over brawny +individuals whose “beauty” consists in flattened noses, mutilated +ears, and mouths lacking many teeth, and who are taking their way +to the remote quarter where boxing is permitted. Here they will +wind hard bull’s hide thongs around their hands and wrists, and +pummel one another brutally, often indeed (if in a set contest) +to the very risk of life. These men are obviously professional +athletes who, after appearing with some success at the “Nemea,” are +in training for the impending “Pythia” at Delphi. A large crowd +of youths of the less select kind follows and cheers them; but +the better public opinion frowns on them. They are denounced by +the philosophers. Their lives no less than their bodies “are not +beautiful”—<i>i.e.</i> they offend against the spirit of harmony inherent +in every Greek. Still less are they in genteel favor when, the +preliminary boxing round being finished, they put off their boxing +thongs and join in the fierce <i>Pancration</i>, a not unskillful +combination of boxing with wrestling, in which it is not suffered +to strike with the knotted fist, but in which, nevertheless, +a terrible blow can be given with the bent fingers. Kicking, +hitting, catching, tripping, they strive together mid the “<i>Euge! +Euge!</i>—Bravo! Bravo!” of their admirers until one is beaten down +hopelessly upon the sand, and the contest ends without harm. Had +it been a real Pancration, however, it would have been desperate +business, for it is quite permissible to twist an opponent’s wrist, +and even to break his fingers, to make him give up the contest. +Therefore it is not surprising that the Pancration, even more than +boxing, is usually reserved for professional athletes. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect148"></a> +<b>148. Leaping Contests.</b>—But near at hand is a more pleasing +contest. Youths of the ephebus age are practicing leaping. They +have no springboard, no leaping pole, but only a pair of curved +metal dumb-bells to aid them. One after another their lithe brown +bodies, shining with the fresh olive oil, come forward on a lightning +run up the little mound of earth, then fly gracefully out across +the soft sands. There is much shouting and good-natured rivalry. +As each lad leaps, an eager attendant marks his distance with a +line drawn by the pickaxe. The lines gradually extend ever farther +from the mound. The rivalry is keen. Finally, there is one leap +that far exceeds the rest.[*] A merry crowd swarms around the +blushing victor. A grave middle-aged man takes the ivy crown from +his head, and puts it upon the happy youth. “Your father will take +joy in you,” he says as the knot breaks up. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] If the data of the ancients are to be believed, the Greeks achieved +records in leaping far beyond those of any modern athletes, but it +is impossible to rely on data of this kind. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect149"></a> +<b>149. Quoit Hurling.</b>—Close by the leapers is another stretch of +yellow sand reserved for the quoit throwers. The contestants here +are slightly older,—stalwart young men who seem, as they fling the +heavy bronze discus, to be reaching out eagerly into the fullness +of life and fortune before them. Very graceful are the attitudes. +Here it was the sculptor Miron saw his “Discobolus” which he +immortalized and gave to all the later world; “stooping down to +take aim, his body turned in the direction of the hand which holds +the quoit, one knee slightly bent as though he meant to vary the +posture and to rise with the throw.”[*] The caster, however, does +not make his attempt standing. He takes a short run, and then the +whole of his splendid body seems to spring together with the cast. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The quotation is from Lucian (Roman Imperial period). +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect150"></a> +<b>150. Casting the javelin.</b>—The range of the quoit hurlers in turn +seems very great, but we cannot delay to await the issue. Still +elsewhere in the Academy they are hurling the javelin. Here is a +real martial exercise, and patriotism as well as natural athletic +spirit urges young men to excel. the long light lances are being +whirled at a distant target with remarkable accuracy; and well they +may, for every contestant has the vision of some hour when he may +stand on the poop of a trireme and hear the dread call, “All hands +repel boarders,” or need all his darts to break up the rush of a +pursuing band of hoplites. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect151"></a> +<b>151. Wrestling.</b>—The real crowds, however, are around the wrestlers +and the racers. Wrestling in its less brutal form is in great +favor. It brings into play all the muscles of a man; it tests +his resources both of mind and body finely. It is excellent for +a youth and it fights away old age. The Greek language is full of +words and allusions taken from the wrestler’s art. The palæstras +for the boys are called “the wrestling school” par excellence. +It is no wonder that now the ring on the sands is a dense one and +constantly growing. Two skilful amateurs will wrestle. One—a +speedy rumor tells us—is, earlier and later in the day, a rising +comic poet; the other is not infrequently heard on the Bema. Just +at present, however, they have forgotten anapests and oratory. A +crowd of cheering, jesting friends thrusts them on. Forth they +stand, two handsome, powerful men, well oiled for suppleness, but +also sprinkled with fine sand to make it possible to get a fair +grip in the contest. +</p> + +<p> +For a moment they wag their sharp black beards at each other +defiantly, and poise and edge around. Then the poet, more daring, +rushes in, and instantly the two have grappled—each clutching the +other’s left wrist in his right hand. The struggle that follows +is hot and even, until a lucky thrust from the orator’s foot lands +the poet in a sprawling heap; whence he rises with a ferocious grin +and renews the contest. The second time they both fall together. +“A tie!” calls the long-gowned friend who acts as umpire, with an +officious flourish of his cane. +</p> + +<p> +The third time the poet catches the orator trickily under the thigh, +and fairly tears him to the ground; but at the fourth meeting the +orator slips his arm in decisive grip about his opponent’s wrist +and with a might wrench upsets him. +</p> + +<p> +“Two casts out of three, and victory!” +</p> + +<p> +Everybody laughs good-naturedly. The poet and the orator go away arm in arm to +the bathing house, there to have another good oiling and rubbing down by their +slaves, after removing the heavily caked sand from their skin with the +strigils. Of course, had it been a real contest in the “greater +games,” the outcome might have been more serious for the rules allow one +to twist a wrist, to thrust an arm or foot into the foeman’s belly, or +(when things are desperate) to dash your forehead—bull +fashion—against your opponent’s brow, in the hope that his skull +will prove weaker than yours. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect152"></a> +<b>152. Foot Races.</b>—The continued noise from the stadium indicates +that the races are still running; and we find time to go thither. +The simple running match, a straight-away dash of 600 feet, seems +to have been the original contest at the Olympic games ere these +were developed into a famous and complicated festival; and the +runner still is counted among the favorites of Greek athletics. +As we sit upon the convenient benches around the academy stadium +we see at once that the track is far from being a hard, well-rolled +“cinder path”; on the contrary, it is of soft sand into which the +naked foot sinks if planted too firmly, and upon it the most adept +“hard-track” runner would at first pant and flounder helplessly. +The Greeks have several kinds of foot races, but none that are very +short. The shortest is the simple <i>stadium</i> (600 feet), a straight +hard dash down one side of the long oval; then there is the “double +course” (<i>diaulos</i>) down one side and back; the “horse race”—twice +clear around (2400 feet); and lastly the hard-testing “long course” +(<i>dolichos</i>) which may very in length according to arrangement,—seven, +twelve, twenty, or even twenty-four stadia, we are told; and it +is the last (about three miles) that is one of the most difficult +contests at Olympia. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus17"></a> +<img src="images/fig17.jpg" width="600" height="282" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">The Race in Armor</p> +</div> + +<p> +At this moment a party of four hale and hearty men still in the +young prime are about to compete in the “double race.” They come +forward all rubbed with the glistening oil, and crouch at the +starting point behind the red cord held by two attendants. The +gymnasiarch stands watchfully by, swinging his cane to smite painfully +whoever, in over eagerness, breaks away before the signal. All +is ready; at his nod the rope falls. The four fly away together, +pressing their elbows close to their sides, and going over the soft +sands with long rhythmic leaps, rather than with the usual rapid +running motion. A fierce race it is, amid much exhortation from +friends and shouting. At length, as so often—when speeding back +towards the stretched cord,—the rearmost runner suddenly gathers +amazing speed, and, flying with prodigious leaps ahead of his +rivals, is easily the victor. His friends are at once about him, +and we hear the busy tongues advising, “You must surely race at +the Pythia; the Olympia; etc.” +</p> + +<p> +This simple race over, a second quickly follows: five heavy, powerful +men this time, but they are to run in full hoplite’s armor—the +ponderous shield, helmet, cuirass, and greaves. This is the exacting +“Armor Race” (<i>Hoplitodromos</i>), and safe only for experienced +soldiers or professional athletes.[*] Indeed, the Greeks take all +their foot races seriously, and there are plenty of instances when +the victor has sped up to the goal, and then dropped dead before +the applauding stadium. There are no stop watches in the Academy; +we do not know the records of the present or of more famous runners; +yet one may be certain that the “time” made, considering the very +soft sand, has been exceedingly fast. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] It was training in races like these which enabled the Athenians at +Marathon to “charge the Persians on the run” (Miltiades’ orders), +all armored though they were, and so get quickly through the terrible +zone of the Persian arrow fire. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect153"></a> +<b>153. The Pentathlon: the Honors paid to Great Athletes.</b>—We have +now seen average specimens of all the usual athletic sports of the +Greeks. Any good authority will tell us, however, that a truly +capable athlete will not try to specialize so much in any one kind +of contest that he cannot do justice to the others. As an all +around well-trained man he will try to excel in the <i>Pentathlon</i>, +the “five contests.” Herein he will successfully join in running, +javelin casting, quoit throwing, leaping, and wrestling.[*] As +the contest proceeds the weaker athletes will be eliminated; only +the two fittest will be left for the final trial of strength and +skill. Fortunate indeed is “he who overcometh” in the Pentathlon. +It is the crown of athletic victories, involving, as it does, no +scanty prowess both of body and mind. The victor in the Pentathlon +at one of the great Pan-Hellenic games (Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, +or Nemean) or even in the local Attic contest at the Panathenæa is +a marked man around Athens or any other Greek city. Poets celebrate +him; youths dog his heels and try to imitate him; his kinsfolk take +on airs; very likely he is rewarded as a public benefactor by the +government. But there is abundant honor for one who has triumphed +in ANY of the great contests; and even as we go out we see people +pointing to a bent old man and saying, “Yes; he won the quoit +hurling at the Nema when Ithycles was archon.”[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The exact order of these contests, and the rules of elimination +as the games proceeded, are uncertain—perhaps they varied with +time and place. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] This would make it 398 B.C. The Athenians dated their years by +the name of their “first Archon” (<i>Archon eponymos</i>). +</p> + +<p> +…The Academy is already thinning. The beautiful youths and their +admiring “lovers” have gone homeward. The last race has been run. +We must hasten if we would not be late to some select symposium. +The birds are more melodious than ever around Colonus; the red and +golden glow upon the Acropolis is beginning to fade; the night is +sowing the stars; and through the light air of a glorious evening +we speed back to the city. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap18"></a>Chapter XVIII.<br /> +Athenian Cookery and the Symposium.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect154"></a> +<b>154. Greek Meal Times.</b>—The streets are becoming empty. The +Agora has been deserted for hours. As the warm balmy night closes +over the city the house doors are shut fast, to open only for the +returning master or his guests, bidden to dinner. Soon the ways +will be almost silent, to be disturbed, after a proper interval, by +the dinner guests returning homeward. Save for these, the streets +will seem those of a city of the dead: patrolled at rare intervals +by the Scythian archers, and also ranged now and then by cutpurses +watching for an unwary stroller, or miscreant roisterers trolling +lewd songs, and pounding on honest men’s doors as they wander from +tavern to tavern in search of the lowest possible pleasures. +</p> + +<p> +We have said very little of eating or drinking during our visit in +Athens, for, truth to tell, the citizens try to get through the day +with about as little interruption for food and drink as possible. +But now, when warehouse and gymnasium alike are left to darkness, +all Athens will break its day of comparative fasting. +</p> + +<p> +Roughly speaking, the Greeks anticipate the latter-day “Continental” +habits in their meal hours. The custom of Germans and of many +Americans in having the heartiest meal at noonday would never appeal +to them. The hearty meal is at night, and no one dreams of doing +any serious work after it. When it is finished, there may be +pleasant discourse or varied amusements, but never real business; +and even if there are guests, the average dinner party breaks up +early. Early to bed and early to rise, would be a maxim indorsed +by the Athenians. +</p> + +<p> +Promptly upon rising, our good citizen has devoured a few morsels +of bread sopped in undiluted wine; that has been to him what “coffee +and rolls” will be to the Frenchmen,—enough to carry him through +the morning business, until near to noon he will demand something +more satisfying. He then visits home long enough to partake of a +substantial déjeuner (<i>ariston</i>, first breakfast = <i>akratisma</i>). +He has one or two hot dishes—one may suspect usually warmed over +from last night’s dinner—and partakes of some more wine. This +<i>ariston</i> will be about all he will require until the chief meal of +the day—the regular dinner (<i>deïpnon</i>) which would follow sunset. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect155"></a> +<b>155. Society desired at Meals.</b>—The Athenians are a gregarious +sociable folk. Often enough the citizen must dine alone at home with +“only” his wife and children for company, but if possible he will +invite friends (or get himself invited out). Any sort of an occasion is enough +to excuse a dinner-party,—a birthday of some friend, some kind of family +happiness, a victory in the games, the return from, or the departure upon, a +journey:—all these will answer; or indeed a mere love of good fellowship. +There are innumerable little eating clubs; the members go by rotation to their +respective houses. Each member contributes either some money or has his slave +bring a hamper of provisions. In the fine weather picnic parties down upon the +shore are common.[*] “Anything to bring friends together”—in +the morning the Agora, in the afternoon the gymnasium, in the evening the +symposium—that seems to be the rule of Athenian life. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Such excursions were so usual that the literal expression “Let +us banquet at the shore” +σήμερον +ἀκτάσωμεν +came often to mean simply “Let us have a good time.” +</p> + +<p> +However, the Athenians seldom gather to eat for the mere sake +of animal gorging. They have progressed since the Greeks of the +Homeric Age. Odysseus[*] is made to say to Alcinoüs that there is +nothing more delightful than sitting at a table covered with bread, +meat, and wine, and listening to a bard’s song; and both Homeric +poems show plenty of gross devouring and guzzling. There is not +much of this in Athens, although Bœotians are still reproached with +being voracious, swinish “flesh eaters,” and the Greeks of South +Italy and Sicily are considered as devoted to their fare, though +of more refined table habits. Athenians of the better class pride +themselves on their light diet and moderation of appetite, and +their neighbors make considerable fun of them for their failure to +serve satisfying meals. Certain it is that the typical Athenian +would regard a twentieth century <i>table d’hôte</i> course dinner as +heavy and unrefined, if ever it dragged its slow length before him. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] <i>Odyssey</i>, IX. 5-10. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect156"></a> +<b>156. The Staple Articles of Food.</b>—However, the Athenians have +honest appetites, and due means of silencing them. The diet of a +poor man is indeed simple in the extreme. According to Aristophanes +his meal consists of a cake, bristling with bran for the sake +of economy, along with an onion and a dish of sow thistles, or of +mushrooms, or some other such wretched vegetables; and probably, in +fact, that is about all three fourths of the population of Attica +will get on ordinary working days, always with the addition of a +certain indispensable supply of oil and wine. +</p> + +<p> +Bread, oil, and wine, in short, are the three fundamentals of Greek +diet. With them alone man can live very healthfully and happily; +without them elaborate vegetable and meat dishes are poor +substitutes. Like latter-day Frenchmen or Italians with their huge +loaves or macaroni, <i>bread</i> in one form or another is literally the +stuff of life to the Greek. He makes it of wheat, barley, rye, +millet, or spelt, but preferably of the two named first. The barley +meal is kneaded (not baked) and eaten raw or half raw as a sort of +porridge. Of wheat loaves there are innumerable shapes on sale in +the Agora,—slender rolls, convenient loaves, and also huge loaves +needing two or three bushels of flour, exceeding even those made +in a later day in Normandy. At every meal the amount of bread or +porridge consumed is enormous; there is really little else at all +substantial. Persian visitors to the Greeks complain that they +are in danger of rising from the table hungry. +</p> + +<p> +But along with the inevitable bread goes the inevitable <i>olive oil</i>. No +latter-day article will exactly correspond to it. First of all it takes the +place of butter as the proper condiment to prevent the bread from being +tasteless.[*] It enters into every dish. The most versatile cook will be lost +without it. Again, at the gymnasium we have seen its great importance to the +athletes and bathers. It is therefore the Hellenic substitute for soap. Lastly, +it fills the lamps which swing over every dining board. It takes the place of +electricity, gas, or petroleum. No wonder Athens is proud of her olive trees. +If she has to import her grain, she has a surplus for export of one of the +three great essentials of Grecian life. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] There was extremely little cow’s butter in Greece. Herodotus (iv. +2) found it necessary to explain the process of “cow-cheese-making” +among the Scythians. +</p> + +<p> +The third inevitable article of diet is <i>wine</i>. No one has dreamed +of questioning its vast desirability under almost all circumstances. +Even drunkenness is not always improper. It may be highly fitting, +as putting one in a “divine frenzy,” partaking of the nature of +the gods. Musæus the semi-mythical poet is made out to teach that +the reward of virtue will be something like perpetual intoxication +in the next world. Æschines the orator will, ere long, taunt his +opponent Demosthenes in public with being a “water drinker”; and +Socrates on many occasions has given proof that he possessed a +very hard head. Yet naturally the Athenian has too acute a sense +of things fit and dignified, too noble a perception of the natural +harmony, to commend drunkenness on any but rare occasions. Wine +is rather valued as imparting a happy moderate glow, making the +thoughts come faster, and the tongue more witty. Wine raises the +spirits of youth, and makes old age forget its gray hairs. It +chases away thoughts of the dread hereafter, when one will lose +consciousness of the beautiful sun, and perhaps wander a “strengthless +shade” through the dreary underworld. +</p> + +<p> +There is a song attributed to Anacreon, and nearly everybody in +Athens approves the sentiment:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Thirsty earth drinks up the rain,<br /> +Trees from earth drink that again;<br /> +Ocean drinks the air, the sun<br /> +Drinks the sea, and him, the moon.<br /> +Any reason, canst thou think,<br /> +I should thirst, while all these drink?[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Translation from Von Falke’s <i>Greece and Rome</i>. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect157"></a> +<b>157. Greek Vintages.</b>—All Greeks, however, drink their wine so +diluted with water that it takes a decided quantity to produce a +“reaction.” The average drinker takes three parts water to two of +wine. If he is a little reckless the ratio is four of water to +three of wine; equal parts “make men mad” as the poet says, and are +probably reserved for very wild dinner parties. As for drinking +pure wine no one dreams of the thing—it is a practice fit for +Barbarians. There is good reason, however, for this plentiful +use of water. In the original state Greek wines were very strong, +perhaps almost as alcoholic as whisky, and the Athenians have no +Scotch climate to excuse the use of such stimulants.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] There was a wide difference of opinion as to the proper amount +of dilution. Odysseus (<i>Odyssey</i>, IX. 209) mixed his fabulously +strong wine from Maron in Thrace with twenty times its bulk of +water. Hesiod abstemiously commended three parts of water to one +of wine. Zaleucus, the lawgiver of Italian Locri, established the +death penalty for drinking unmixed wine save by physicians’ orders +(<i>Athenæus</i>, X. 33). +</p> + +<p> +No wine served in Athens, however, will appeal to a later-day +connoisseur. It is all mixed with resin, which perhaps makes it +more wholesome, but to enjoy it then becomes an acquired taste. +There are any number of choice vintages, and you will be told that +the local Attic wine is not very desirable, although of course it +is the cheapest. Black wine is the strongest and sweetest; white +wine is the weakest; rich golden is the driest and most wholesome. +The rocky isles and headlands of the Ægean seem to produce the +best vintage—Thasos, Cos, Lesbos, Rhodes, all boast their grapes; +but the best wine beyond a doubt is from Chios.[*] It will fetch +a mina ($18 [1914 or $310.14 2000]) the “metreta,” <i>i.e.</i> nearly 50 +cents [1914 or $8.62 2000] per quart. At the same time you can +buy a “metreta” of common Attic wine for four drachmae (72 cents +[1914 or $12.41 2000]), or say two cents [1914 or 34 cents 2000] +per quart. The latter—when one considers the dilution—is surely +cheap enough for the most humble. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Naturally certain foreign vintages had a demand, just because +they were foreign. Wine was imported from Egypt and from various +parts of Italy. It was sometimes mixed with sea water for export, +or was made aromatic with various herbs and berries. It was +ordinarily preserved in great earthen jars sealed with pitch. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect158"></a> +<b>158. Vegetable Dishes.</b>—Provided with bread, oil, and wine, no +Athenian will long go hungry; but naturally these are not a whole +feast. As season and purse may afford they will be supplanted by +such vegetables as beans (a staple article), peas, garlic, onions, +radishes, turnips, and asparagus; also with an abundance of +fruits,—besides figs (almost a fourth indispensable at most meals), +apples, quinces, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, blackberries, +the various familiar nuts, and of course a plenty of grapes and +olives. The range of selection is in fact decidedly wide: only +the twentieth century visitor will miss the potato, the lemon, and +the orange; and when he pries into the mysteries of the kitchen a +great fact at once stares him in the face. The Greek must dress +his dishes without the aid of sugar. As a substitute there is an +abundant use of the delicious Hymettus honey,—“fragrant with the +bees,”—but it is by no means so full of possibilities as the white +powder of later days. Also the Greek cook is usually without fresh +cow’s milk, and most goat’s milk probably takes its way to cheese. +No morning milk carts rattle over the stones of Athens. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect159"></a> +<b>159. Meat and Fish Dishes.</b>—Turning to the meat dishes, we at once +learn that while there is a fair amount of farm poultry, geese, +hares, doves, partridges, etc., on sale in the market, there is +extremely little fresh beef or even mutton, pork, and goat’s flesh. +It is quite expensive, and counted too hearty for refined diners. +The average poor man in fact hardly tastes flesh except after one +of the great public festivals; then after the sacrifice of the +“hecatomb” of oxen, there will probably be a distribution of roast +meat to all the worshipers, and the honest citizen will take home +to his wife an uncommon luxury—a piece of roast beef. But the +place of beef and pork is largely usurped by most excellent fish. +The waters of the Ægean abound with fish. The import of salt fish +(for the use of the poor) from the Propontis and Euxine is a great +part of Attic commerce. A large part of the business at the Agora +centers around the fresh fish stalls, and we have seen how extortionate +and insolent were the fishmongers. Sole, tunny, mackerel, young +shark, mullet, turbot, carp, halibut, are to be had, but the choicest +regular delicacies are the great Copaic eels from Bœotia; these, +“roasted on the coals and wrapped in beet leaves,” are a dish +fit for the Great King. Lucky is the host who has them for his +dinner party. Oysters and mussels too are in demand, and there is +a considerable sale of snails, “the poor man’s salad,” even as in +present-day France. +</p> + +<p> +Clearly, then, if one is not captious or gluttonous, there should +be no lack of good eating in Athens, despite the reputation of the +city for abstemiousness. Let us pry therefore into the symposium +of some good citizen who is dispensing hospitality to-night. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect160"></a> +<b>160. Inviting Guests to a Dinner Party.</b>— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Who loves thee, him summon to thy board; +Far off be he who hates. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This familiar sentiment of Hesiod, one Prodicus, a well-to-do +gentleman, had in mind when he went to the Agora this morning to +arrange for a dinner party in honor of his friend Hermogenes, who +was just departing on a diplomatic mission to the satrap of Mysia. +While walking along the Painted Porch and the other colonnades he +had no difficulty in seeing most of the group he intended to invite, +and if they did not turn to greet him, he would halt them by sending +his slave boy to run and twitch at their mantles, after which the +invitation was given verbally. Prodicus, however, deliberately +makes arrangements for one or two more than those he has bidden. +It will be entirely proper for his guests to bring friends of their +own if they wish; and very likely some intimate whom he has been +unable to find will invite himself without any bidding. +</p> + +<p> +At the Agora Prodicus has had much to do. His house is a fairly +large and well-furnished one, his slaves numerous and handy, but he +has not the cook or the equipment for a really elaborate symposium. +At a certain quarter on the great square he finds a contractor +who will supply all the extra appointments for a handsome dinner +party—tables, extra lamps, etc. Then he puts his slave boy to +bawling out: +</p> + +<p> +“Who wants an engagement to cook a dinner?” +</p> + +<p> +This promptly brings forward a sleek, well-dressed fellow whose +dialect declares that he is from Sicily, and who asserts he is an +expert professional cook. Prodicus engages him and has a conference +with him on the profound question of “whether the tunnies or the +mullets are better to-day, or will there be fresh eels?” This +point and similar minor matters settled, Prodicus makes liberal +purchases at the fish and vegetable stalls, and his slaves bear +his trophies homeward. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect161"></a> +<b>161. Preparing for the Dinner. The Sicilian Cook.</b>—All that +afternoon the home of Prodicus is in an uproar. The score of slaves show a +frantic energy. The aula is cleaned and scrubbed: the serving girls are busy +hanging festoons of leaves and weaving chaplets. The master’s +wife—who does not dream of actually sharing in the banquet—is +nevertheless as active and helpful as possible; but especially she is busy +trying to keep the peace between the old house servants and the imported cook. +This Sicilian is a notable character. To him cookery is not a handicraft: it is +the triumph, the quintessence of all science and philosophy. He talks a strange +professional jargon, and asserts that he is himself learned in +astronomy—for that teaches the best seasons, <i>e.g.</i> for mackerel and +haddock; in geometry,—that he might know how a boiler or gridiron should +be set to the best advantage; in medicine, that he might prepare the most +wholesome dishes. In any case he is a perfect tyrant around the kitchen, +grumbling about the utensils, cuffing the spit-boy, and ever bidding him bring +more charcoal for the fire and to blow the bellows faster.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The Greeks seem to have cooked over a rather simple open fireplace +with a wood or charcoal fire. They had an array of cooking utensils, +however, according to all our evidence, elaborate enough to gladden +a very exacting modern <i>chef</i>. +</p> + +<p> +By the time evening is at hand Prodicus and his house are in +perfect readiness. The bustle is ended; and the master stands by +the entrance way, clad in his best and with a fresh myrtle wreath, +ready to greet his guests. No ladies will be among these. Had +there been any women invited to the banquet, they would surely +be creatures of no very honest sort; and hardly fit, under any +circumstances, to darken the door of a respectable citizen. The +mistress and her maids are “behind the scenes.” There may be a woman +among the hired entertainers provided, but for a refined Athenian +lady to appear at an ordinary symposium is almost unthinkable.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] In marriage parties and other strictly family affairs women were +allowed to take part; and we have an amusing fragment of Menander +as to how, on such rare occasions, they monopolized the conversation. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect162"></a> +<b>162. The Coming of the Guests.</b>—As each guest comes, he is seen +to be elegantly dressed, and to wear now, if at no other time, a +handsome pair of sandals.[*] He has also taken pains to bathe and +to perfume himself. As soon as each person arrives his sandals +are removed in the vestibule by the slaves and his feet are bathed. +No guest comes alone, however: every one has his own body servant +with him, who will look after his footgear and himation during +the dinner, and give a certain help with the serving. The house +therefore becomes full of people, and will be the scene of remarkable +animation during the next few hours. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Socrates, by way of exception to his custom, put on some fine +sandals when he was invited to a banquet. +</p> + +<p> +Prodicus is not disappointed in expecting some extra visitors. His +guest of honor, Hermogenes, has brought along two, whom the host +greets with the polite lie: “Just in time for dinner. Put off +your other business. I was looking for you in the Agora and could +not find you.”[*] Also there thrusts in a half genteel, half +rascally fellow, one Palladas, who spends all his evenings at +dinner parties, being willing to be the common butt and jest of the +company (having indeed something of the ability of a comic actor +about him) in return for a share of the good things on the table. +These “Parasites” are regular characters in Athens, and no symposium +is really complete without them, although often their fooleries +cease to be amusing.[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] It is with such a white fib that the host Agathon salutes +Aristodemus, Socrates’s companion in Plato’s <i>Symposium</i>. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Of these “Parasites” or “Flies” (as owing to their migratory +habits they were sometimes called), countless stories were told, +whereof the following is a sample: there was once a law in Athens +that not over thirty guests were to be admitted to a marriage feast, +and an officer was obliged to count all the guests and exclude the +superfluous. A “fly” thrust in on one occasion, and the officer +said: “Friend, you must retire. I find one more here than the +law allows.” “Dear fellow,” quoth the “fly,” “you are utterly +mistaken, as you will find, if you kindly count again—only <i>beginning +with me</i>.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect163"></a> +<b>163. The Dinner Proper.</b>—The Greeks have not anticipated the Romans +in their custom of making the standard dinner party nine persons on +three couches,—three guests on each. Prodicus has about a dozen +guests, two on a couch. They “lie down” more or less side by side +upon the cushioned divans, with their right arms resting on brightly +striped pillows and the left arms free for eating. The slaves bring +basis of water to wash their hands, and then beside each couch is +set a small table, already garnished with the first course, and +after the casting of a few bits of food upon the family hearth +fire,—the conventional “sacrifice” to the house gods,—the dinner +begins. +</p> + +<p> +Despite the elaborate preparations of the Sicilian cook, Prodicus +offers his guests only two courses. The first consists of the +substantial dishes—the fish, the vegetables, the meat (if there is +any). Soups are not unknown, and had they been served might have +been eaten with spoons; but Athens like all the world is innocent +of forks, and fingers take their place. Each guest has a large +piece of soft bread on which he wipes his fingers from time to time +and presently casts it upon the floor.[*] When this first course +is finished, the tables are all taken out to be reset, water is +again poured over the hands of the guests, and garlands of flowers +are passed. The use of garlands is universal, and among the +guests, old white headed and bearded Sosthenes will find nothing +more undignified in putting himself beneath a huge wreath of lilies +than an elderly gentleman of a later day will find in donning +the “conventional” dress suit. The conversation,—which was +very scattering at first,—becomes more animated. A little wine +is now passed about. Then back come the tables with the second +course—fruits, and various sweetmeats and confectionary with +honey as the staple flavoring. Before this disappears a goblet of +unmixed wine is passed about, and everybody takes a sip: “To the +Good Genius,” they say as the cup goes round. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Napkins were not used in Greece before Roman days. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect164"></a> +<b>164. Beginning the Symposium.</b>—Prodicus at length gives a nod to +the chief of his corps of servers. +</p> + +<p> +“Bring in the wine!” he orders. The slaves promptly whisk out the +tables and replace them with others still smaller, on which they +set all kinds of gracefully shaped beakers and drinking bowls. More +wreaths are distributed, also little bottles of delicate ointment. +While the guests are praising Prodicus’s nard, the servants have +brought in three huge “mixing bowls” (<i>craters</i>) for the wines +which are to furnish the main potation. +</p> + +<p> +So far we have witnessed not a symposium, but merely a dinner; and +many a proper party has broken up when the last of the dessert has +disappeared; but, after all, the drinking bout is the real crown +of the feast. It is not so much the wine as the things that go +with the wine that are so delightful. As to what these desirable +condiments are, opinions differ. Plato (who is by no means too +much of a philosopher to be a real man of the world) says in his +<i>Protagoras</i> that mere conversation is <i>the</i> thing at a symposium. +“When the company are real gentlemen and men of education, you +will see no flute girls nor dancing girls nor harp girls; they will +have no nonsense or games, but will be content with one another’s +conversation.”[*] But this ideal, though commended, is not always +followed in decidedly intellectual circles. Zenophon[+] shows us +a select party wherein Socrates participated, in which the host +has been fain to hire in a professional Syracusian entertainer with +two assistants, a boy and a girl, who bring their performance to a +climax by a very suggestive dumb-show play of the story of Bacchus +and Ariadne. Prodicus’s friends, being solid, somewhat pragmatic +men—neither young sports nor philosophers—steer a middle course. +There is a flute girl present, because to have a good symposium +without some music is almost unimaginable; but she is discreetly +kept in the background. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Plato again says (<i>Politicus</i>, 277 <i>b</i>), “To intelligent persons, +a living being is more truly delineated by language and discourse +than by any painting or work of art.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] In his <i>Symposium</i>—which is far less perfect as literature than +Plato’s, but probably corresponds more to the average instance. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect165"></a> +<b>165. The Symposiarch and his Duties.</b>—“Let’s cast for our Symposiarch!” +is Prodicus’s next order, and each guest in turn rattles the dice +box. Tyche (Lady Fortune) gives the presidency of the feast to +Eunapius, a bright-eyed, middle-aged man with a keen sense of humor, +but a correct sense of good breeding. He assumes command of the +symposium; takes the ordering of the servants out of Prodicus’s +hands, and orders the wine to be mixed in the craters with proper +dilution. He then rises and pours out a libation from each bowl +“to the Olympian Gods,” “to the Heroes,” and “to Zeus the Saviour,” +and casts a little incense upon the altar. The guests all sing a +<i>Pæan</i>, not a warrior’s charging song this time, but a short hymn +in praise of the Wine-God, some lilting catch like Alcæus’s +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +In mighty flagons hither bring<br /> + The deep red blood of many a vine,<br /> +That we may largely quaff and sing<br /> + The praises of the God of wine. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect166"></a> +<b>166. Conversation at the Symposium.</b>—After this the symposium will +proceed according to certain general rules which it is Eunaius’s +duty to enforce; but in the main a “program” is something to be +avoided. Everybody must feel himself acting spontaneously and freely. +He must try to take his part in the conversation and neither speak +too seldom nor too little. It is not “good form” for two guests +to converse privately among themselves, nor for anybody to dwell +on unpleasant or controversial topics. Aristophanes has laid down +after his way the proper kind of things to talk about.[*] “[Such +as]‘how Ephudion fought a fine pancratium with Ascondas though old +and gray headed, but showing great form and muscle.’ This is the +talk usual among refined people [or again] ‘some manly act of your +youth; for example, how you chased a boar or a hare, or won a torch +race by some bold device.’ [Then when fairly settled at the feast] +straighten your knees and throw yourself in a graceful and easy +manner upon the couch. Then make some observations upon the beauty +of the appointments, look up at the ceiling and praise the tapestry +of the room.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] <i>Wasps</i>, 1174-1564. +</p> + +<p> +As the wine goes around, tongues loosen more and more. Everybody +gesticulates in delightful southern gestures, but does not lose +his inherent courtesy. The anecdotes told are often very egoistic. +The first personal pronoun is used extremely often, and “I” becomes +the hero of a great many exploits. The Athenian, in short, is an +adept at praising himself with affected modesty, and his companions +listen good-humoredly, and retaliate by praising themselves. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect167"></a> +<b>167. Games and Entertainments.</b>—By the time the craters are one +third emptied the general conversation is beginning to be broken up. It is time +for various standard diversions. Eunapius therefore begins by enjoining on each +guest in turn to sing a verse in which a certain letter must not appear, and in +event of failure to pay some ludicrous forfeit. Thus the bald man is ordered to +begin to comb his hair; the lame man (halt since the Mantinea campaign), to +stand up and dance to the flute player, etc. There are all kinds of guessing of +riddles—often very ingenious as become the possessors of “Attic +salt.” Another diversion is to compare every guest present to some +mythical monster, a process which infallibly ends by getting the +“Parasite” likened to Cerberus, the Hydra, or some such dragon, +amid the laughter of all the rest. At some point in the amusement the company +is sure to get to singing songs:—“Scolia”—drinking +songs indeed, but often of a serious moral or poetic character, whereof the +oft-quoted song in praise of Harmodius and Aristogeiton the tyrant-slayers is a +good example.[*] No “gentleman” will profess to be a public singer, +but to have a deep, well-trained voice, and to be able to take one’s part +in the symposium choruses is highly desirable, and some of the singing at +Prodicus’s banquet is worth hearing. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Given in <i>Readings in Ancient History</i>, Vol. I, p. 117, and in +many other volumes. +</p> + +<p> +Before the evening is over various games will be ordered in, especially +the <i>cottabus</i>, which is in great vogue. On the top of a high +stand, something like a candelabrum, is balanced rather delicately +a little saucer of brass. The players stand at a considerable +distance with cups of wine. The game is to toss a small quantity +of wine into the balanced saucer so smartly as to make the brass +give out a clear ringing sound, and to tilt upon its side.[+] Much +shouting, merriment, and a little wagering ensues. While most of +the company prefer the cottabus, two, who profess to be experts, call +for a gaming board and soon are deep in the “game of towns”—very +like to latter-day “checkers,” played with a board divided into +numerous squares. Each contestant has thirty colored stones, and +the effort is to surround your opponent’s stones and capture them. +Some of the company, however, regard this as too profound, and +after trying their skill at the cottabus betake themselves to the +never failing chances of dice. Yet these games are never suffered +(in refined dinner parties) to banish the conversation. That +after all is the center, although it is not good form to talk over +learnedly of statecraft, military tactics, or philosophy. If such +are discussed, it must be with playful abandon, and a disclaimer of +being serious; and even very grave and gray men remember Anacreon’s +preference for the praise of “the glorious gifts of the Muses and +of Aphrodite” rather than solid discussions of “conquest and war.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] This was the simplest form of the <i>cottabus</i> game; there were +numerous elaborations, but our accounts of them are by no means +clear. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect168"></a> +<b>168. Going Home from the Feast: Midnight Revellers.</b>—At length the +oil lamps have begun to burn dim. The tired slaves are yawning. +Their masters, despite Prodicus’s intentions of having a very +proper symposium, have all drunk enough to get unstable and silly. +Eunapius gives the signal. All rise, and join in the final libation +to Hermes. “Shoes and himation, boy,” each says to his slave, and +with thanks to their host they all fare homeward. +</p> + +<p> +Such will be the ending to an extremely decorous feast. With gay +young bloods present, however, it might have degenerated into an +orgy; the flute girl (or several of them) would have contributed +over much to the “freedom”; and when the last deep crater had been +emptied, the whole company would have rushed madly into the street, +and gone whirling away through the darkness,—harps and flutes +sounding, boisterous songs pealing, red torches tossing. Revellers +in this mood would be ready for anything. Perhaps they would end in +some low tavern at the Peiræus to sleep off their liquor; perhaps +their leader would find some other Symposium in progress, and after +loud knockings, force his way into the house, even as did the mad +Alcibiades, who (once more to recall Plato) thrust his way into +Agathon’s feast, staggering, leaning on a flute girl, and shouting, +“Where’s Agathon!” Such an inroad would be of course the signal +for more and ever more hard drinking. The wild invaders might make +themselves completely at home, and dictate all the proceedings: +the end would be even as at Agathon’s banquet, where everybody but +Socrates became completely drunken, and lay prone on the couches or +the floor. One hopes that the honest Prodicus has no such climax +to his symposium. +</p> + +<p> +…At length the streets grow quiet. Citizens sober or drunken +are now asleep: only the vigilant Scythian archers patrol the ways +till the cocks proclaim the first gray of dawn. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap19"></a>Chapter XIX.<br /> +Country Life Around Athens</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect169"></a> +<b>169. Importance of his Farm to an Athenian.</b>—We have followed the +doings of a typical Athenian during his ordinary activities around +the city, but for the average gentleman an excursion outside the +town is indispensable at least every two or three days, and perhaps +every day. He must visit his farm; for his wealth and income are +probably tied up there, rather than in any unaristocratic commercial +and manufacturing enterprises. Homer’s “royal” heroes are not +ashamed to be skilful at following the plow[*]: and no Athenian +feels that he is contaminating himself by “trade” when he supervises +the breeding of sheep or the raising of onions. We will therefore +follow in the tracks of certain well-to-do citizens, when we turn +toward the Itonian gate sometime during the morning, while the +Agora is still in a busy hum, even if thus we are curtailing our +hypothetical visits to the Peiræus or to the bankers. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] See Odysseus’s boasts, <i>Odyssey</i>, XVIII. 360 et passim. The +gentility of farming is emphasized by a hundred precepts from +Hesiod. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect170"></a> +<b>170. The Country by the Ilissus: the Greeks and Natural Beauty.</b>—Our +companions are on horseback (a token of tolerable wealth in Athens), +but the beasts amble along not too rapidly for nimble grooms to +run behind, each ready to aid his respective master. Once outside +the gate the regular road swings down to the south towards Phalerum; +we, however, are in no great haste and desire to see as much as +possible. The farms we are seeking lie well north of the city, but +we can make a delightful circuit by skirting the city walls with +the eastern shadow of the Acropolis behind us, and going at first +northeast, along the groves and leafy avenues which line the thin +stream of the Ilissus,[*] the second “river” of Athens. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The Ilissus, unlike its sturdier rival, the Cephisus, ran dry +during the summer heats; but there was enough water along its bed +to create a dense vegetation. +</p> + +<p> +Before us through the trees came tantalizing glimpses of the open +country running away towards shaggy gray Hymettus. Left to itself +the land would be mostly arid and seared brown by the summer sun; +but everywhere the friendly work of man is visible. One can count +the little green oblong patches, stretching even up the mountain +side, marked with gleaming white farm buildings or sometimes with +little temples and chapels sacred to the rural gods. Once or +twice also we notice a plot of land which seems one tangled waste +of trees and shrubbery. This is a sacred “temenos,” an inviolate +grove, set apart to some god; and within the fences of the compound +no mortal dare set foot under pain of direful sacrilege and pollution. +</p> + +<p> +Following a kind of bridle path, however, we are soon amid the groves of olive +and other trees, while the horses plod their slow way beside the brook. Not a +few citizens going or coming from Athens meet us, for this is really one of the +parks and breathing spaces of the closely built city. The Athenians and Greeks +in general live in a land of such natural beauty that they take this loveliness +as a matter of course. Very seldom do their poets indulge in deliberate +descriptions of “beautiful landscapes”; but none the less the fair +things of nature have penetrated deeply into their souls. The constant +allusions in Homer and the other masters of song to the great storm waves, the +deep shades of the forest, the crystal brooks, the pleasant rest for wanderers +under the shade trees, the plains bright with spring flowers, the ivy twining +above a grave, the lamenting nightingale, the chirping cicada, tell their own +story; men seldom describe at length what is become warp and woof of their +inmost lives. The mere fact that the Greeks dwell <i>constantly</i> in such a +beautiful land, and have learned to love it so intensely, makes frequent and +set descriptions thereto seem trivial. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect171"></a> +<b>171. Plato’s Description of the Walk by the Ilissus.</b>—Nevertheless +occasionally this inborn love of the glorious outer world must find +its expression, and it is of these very groves along he Ilissus +that we have one of the few “nature pieces” in Athenian literature. +As the plodding steeds take their way let us recall our Plato—his +<i>Phædrus</i>, written probably not many years before this our visit. +</p> + +<p> +Socrates is walking with Phædrus outside the walls, and urges the +latter: “Let us go to the Ilissus and sit down in some quiet spot.” +“I am fortunate,” answers Phædrus, “in not having my sandals on, +and, as you never have any, we may go along the brook and cool +our feet. This is the easiest way, and at midday is anything but +unpleasant.” He adds that they will go on to the tallest plane +tree in the distance, “where are shade and gentle breezes, and +grass whereon we may either sit or lie…. The little stream is +delightfully clear and bright. I can fancy there might well be +maidens playing near [according to the local myth of Boreas’s rape +of Orithyia].” And so at last they come to the place, when Socrates +says: “Yes indeed, a fair and shady resting place it is, full of +summer sounds and scents. There is the lofty and spreading plane +tree, and the agnus castus, high and clustering in the fullest +blossom and the greatest fragrance, and the stream which flows +beneath the plane tree is deliciously cool to the feet. Judging +by the ornaments and images [set] about, this must be a spot sacred +to Achelous and the Nymphs; moreover there is a sweet breeze and +the grasshoppers are chirruping; and the greatest charm of all is +the grass like a pillow, gently sloping to the head.”[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Jewett, translator; slightly altered. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect172"></a> +<b>172. The Athenian Love of Country Life.</b>—So the two friends had +sat them down to delve in delightful profundities; but following +the bridle path, the little brook and its groves end for us all too +soon. We are in the open country around Athens, and the fierce +rays of Helios beat strongly on our heads. We are outside the city, +but by no means far from human life. Farm succeeds farm, for the +land around Athens has a goodly population to maintain, and there +is a round price for vegetables in the Agora. Truth to tell, the +average Athenian, though he pretends to love the market, the Pnyx, +the Dicasteries, and the Gymnasia, has a shrewd hankering for the +soil, and does not care to spend more time in Athens then necessary. +Aristophanes is full of the contrasts between “country life” and +“city life” and almost always with the advantage given the former. +Says his Strepsiades (in <i>The Clouds</i>), “A country life for me—dirty, +untrimmed, lolling around at ease, and just abounding in bees and +sheep and oil cake.” His Diceæpolis (<i>Acharnians</i>) voices clearly +the independence of the farmer: “How I long for peace.[*] I’m +disgusted with the city; and yearn for my own farm which never +bawled out [as in the markets] ‘buy my coals’ or ‘buy my vinegar’ +or ‘oil,’ or <i>knew</i> the word ‘buy,’ but just of itself produced +everything.” And his Trygæus (in <i>The Peace</i>) states the case +better yet: “Ah! how eager I am to get back into the fields, and +break up my little farm with the mattock again…[for I remember] +what kind of a life we had there; and those cakes of dried fruits, +and the figs, and the myrtles, and the sweet new wine, and the +violet bed next to the well, and the olives we so long for!” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] <i>I.e.</i> the end of the Peloponnesian War, which compelled the +farming population to remove inside the walls. +</p> + +<p> +There is another reason why the Athenians rejoice in the country. +The dusty streets are at best a poor playground for the children, +the inner court of the house is only a respectable prison for the +wife. In the country the lads can enjoy themselves; the wife and +the daughters can roam about freely with delightful absence of +convention. There will be no happier day in the year than when +the master says, “Let us set out for the farm.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect173"></a> +<b>173. Some Features of the Attic Country.</b>—Postponing our examination +of Athenian farmsteads and farming methods until we reach some +friendly estate, various things strike us as we go along the road. +One is the skilful system of irrigation,—the numerous watercourses +drawn especially from the Cephisus, whereby the agriculturists make +use of every possible scrap of moisture for the fields, groves, and +vineyards. Another is the occasional olive tree we see standing, +gnarled and venerable, but carefully fenced about; or even +(not infrequently) we see fences only with but a dead and utterly +worthless stump within. Do not speak lightly of these “stumps,” +however. They are none the less “moriai”—sacred olive trees of +Athena, and carefully tended by public wardens.[*] Contractors +are allowed to take the fruit of the olive trees under carefully +regulated conditions; but no one is allowed to remove the stumps, +much less hew down a living tree. An offender is tried for +“impiety” before the high court of the Areopagus, and his fate is +pretty surely death, for the country people, at least, regard their +sacred trees with a fanatical devotion which it would take long to +explain to a stranger. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Athenians loved to dwell on the “divine gift” of the olive. +Thus Euripides sang (<i>Troades</i>, 799):— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +In Salamis, filled with the foaming<br /> + Of billows and murmur of bees,<br /> +Old Telamon stayed from his roaming<br /> + Long ago, on a throne of the seas,<br /> +Looking out on the hills olive laden,<br /> + Enchanted, where first from the earth<br /> +The gray-gleaming fruit of the Maiden<br /> + Athena had birth. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +—M<small>URRAY</small>, translator. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +The hero Telamon was reputed an uncle of Achilles and one of the early kings of +Salamis. +</p> + +<p> +Also upon the way one is pretty sure to meet a wandering beggar—a +shrewd-eyed, bewhiskered fellow. He carries, not a barrel organ +and monkey, but a blinking tame crow perched on his shoulder, and +at every farmstead he halts to whine his nasal ditty and ask his +dole. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Good people, a handful of barley bestow<br /> +On the child of Apollo, the sleek sable crow;<br /> +Or a trifle of whet, O kind friends, give;—<br /> +Or a wee loaf of bread that the crow may live. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +It is counted good luck by the housewife to have a chance to feed +a “holy crow,” and the owner’s pickings are goodly. By the time +we have left the beggar behind us we are at the farm whither our +excursion has been tending. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus18"></a> +<img src="images/fig18.jpg" width="386" height="400" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Itinerant Piper with his Dog</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect174"></a> +<b>174. An Attic Farmstead.</b>—We are to inspect the landed estate of +Hybrias, the son of Xanthippus. It lies north of Athens on the +slopes of Anchesmus, one of the lesser hills which roll away toward +the marble-crowned summits of Pentelicus. Part of the farm lands +lie on the level ground watered by the irrigation ditches; part +upon the hillsides, and here the slopes have been terraced in a +most skilful fashion in order to make the most of every possible +inch of ground, and also to prevent any of the precious soil from +being washed down by the torrents of February and March. The owner +is a wealthy man, and has an extensive establishment; the farm +buildings—once whitewashed, but now for the most part somewhat +dirty—wander away over a large area. There are wide courts, deep +in manure, surrounded by barns; there are sties, haymows, carefully +closed granaries, an olive press, a grain mill, all kinds of stables +and folds, likewise a huge irregularly shaped house wherein are +lodged the numerous slaves and the hired help. The general design +of this house is the same as of a city house—the rooms opening +upon an inner court, but naturally its dimensions are ampler, with +the ampler land space. +</p> + +<p> +Just now the courtyard is a noisy and animated sight. The master +has this moment ridden in, upon one of his periodic visits from +Athens; the farm overseer has run out to meet him and report, and +half a dozen long, lean hunting dogs—Darter, Roarer, Tracker, +Active, and more[*]—are dancing and yelping, in the hope that +their owner will order a hare hunt. The overseer is pouring forth +his usual burden of woe about the inefficient help and the lack of +rain, and Hybrias is complaining of the small spring crop—“Zeus +send us something better this summer!” While these worthies are +adjusting their troubles we may look around the farm. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] For an exhaustive list of names for Greek dogs, see Xenophon’s +curious <i>Essay on Hunting</i>, ch. VII, § 5. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect175"></a> +<b>175. Plowing, Reaping, and Threshing.</b>—Thrice a year the Athenian +farmer plows, unless he wisely determines to let his field lie fallow for the +nonce; and the summer plowing on Hybrias’s estate is now in progress. Up +and down a wide field the ox team is going.[*] The plow is an extremely +primitive affair—mainly of wood, although over the sharpened point which +forms the plowshare a plate of iron has been fitted. Such a plow requires very +skilful handling to cut a good furrow, and the driver of the team has no +sinecure. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Mules were sometimes used for drawing the plow, but horses, it would seem, +never. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus19"></a> +<img src="images/fig19.jpg" width="394" height="400" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Women pounding Meal</p> +</div> + +<p> +In a field near by, the hinds are reaping a crop of wheat which was late in +ripening.[*] The workers are bending with semicircular sickles over their hot +task; yet they form a merry, noisy crowd, full of homely “harvest +songs,” nominally in honor of Demeter, the Earth Mother, but ranging upon +every conceivable rustic topic. Some laborers are cutting the grain, others, +walking behind, are binding into sheaves and piling into clumsy ox wains. Here +and there a sheaf is standing, and we are told that this is left “for +luck,” as an offering to the rural Field Spirit; for your farm hand is +full of superstitions. Also amid the workers a youth is passing with a goodly +jar of cheap wine, to which the harvesters make free to run from time to time +for refreshment. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The regular time for reaping the October-sown wheat was May or June. +</p> + +<p> +Close by the field is the threshing floor. More laborers—not a few +bustling country lasses among them—are spreading out the sheaves +with wooden forks, a little at a time, in thin layers over this +circular space, which is paved with little cobblestones. More oxen +and a patient mule are being driven over it—around and around—until +every kernel is trodden out by their hoofs. Later will come the +tossing and the winnowing; and, when the grain has been thoroughly +cleaned, it will be stored in great earthen jars for the purpose +of sale or against the winter. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect176"></a> +<b>176. Grinding at the Mill.</b>—Nearer the farmhouses there rises a +dull grinding noise. It is the mill preparing the flour for the +daily baking, for seldom—at least in the country—will a Greek +grind flour long in advance of the time of use. There the round +upper millstone is being revolved upon an iron pivot against its +lower mate and turned by a long wooden handle. Two nearly naked +slave boys are turning this wearily—far pleasanter they consider +the work of the harvesters, and very likely this task is set them +as a punishment. As the mill revolves a slave girl pours the grain +into a hole in the center of the upper millstone. As the hot, slow +work goes on, the two toilers chant together a snatch from an old +mill song, and we catch the monotonous strain:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Grind, mill, grind,<br /> +For Pittacus did grind—<br /> +Who was king over great Mytilene. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +It will be a long time before there is enough flour for the day. +The slaves can at least rejoice that they live on a large farm. +If Hybrias owned a smaller estate, they would probably be pounding +up the grain with mortar and pestle—more weary yet. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect177"></a> +<b>177. The Olive Orchards.</b>—We, at least, can leave them to their +work, and escape to the shade of the orchards and the vineyards. +Like every Athenian farmer, Hybrias has an olive orchard. The +olives are sturdy trees. They will grow in any tolerable soil and +thrive upon the mountain slopes up to as far as 1800 feet above +sea level. They are not large trees, and their trunks are often +grotesquely gnarled, but there is always a certain fascination +about the wonderful shimmer of their leaves, which flash from gray +to silver-white in a sunny wind. Hybrias has wisely planted his +olives at wide intervals, and in the space between the ground has +been plowed up for grain. Olives need little care. Their harvest +comes late in the autumn, after all the other crops are out of the +way. They are among the most profitable products of the farm, and +the owner will not mind the poor wheat harvest “if only the olives +do well.”[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The great drawback to olive culture was the great length of time +required to mature the trees—sixteen years. The destruction of +the trees, <i>e.g.</i> in war by a ravaging invader, was an infinitely +greater calamity than the burning of the standing grain or even +of the farmhouses. Probably it was the ruin of their olive trees +which the Athenians mourned most during the ravaging of Attica in +the Peloponnesian War. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus20"></a> +<img src="images/fig20.jpg" width="500" height="379" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Gathering the Olive Harvest</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect178"></a> +<b>178. The Vineyards.</b>—The fig orchard forms another great part +of the farm, but more interesting to strangers are the vineyards. +Some of the grapes are growing over pointed stakes set all along +the upland terraces; a portion of the vineyards, however, is on +level ground. Here a most picturesque method has been used for +training the vines. Tall and graceful trees have been set out—elm, +maple, oak, poplar. The lower limbs of the trees have been cut +away and up their trunks and around their upper branches now swing +the vines in magnificent festoons. The growing vines have sprung +from tree to tree. The warm breeze has set the rich clusters—already +turning purple or golden—swaying above our heads. The air is +filled with brightness, greenery, and fragrance. The effect of +this “vineyard grove” is magical. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect179"></a> +<b>179. Cattle, Sheep, and Goats.</b>—There is also room in the orchards +for apples, pears, and quinces, but there is nothing distinctive about their +culture. If we are interested in cattle, however, we can spend a long time at +the barns, or be guided out to the upland pasture where Hybrias’s flocks +and herds are grazing. Horses are a luxury. They are almost never used in farm +work, and for riding and cavalry service it is best to import a good courser +from Thessaly; no attempt, therefore, is made to breed them here. But despite +the small demand for beef and butter a good many cattle are raised; for oxen +are needed for the plowing and carting, oxhides have a steady sale, and there +is a regular call for beeves for the hecatombs at the great public sacrifices. +Sheep are in greater acceptance. Their wool is of large importance to a land +which knows comparatively little of cotton. They can live on scanty pasturage +where an ox would starve. Still more in favor are goats. Their coarse hair has +a thousand uses. Their flesh and cheese are among the most staple articles in +the Agora. Sure-footed and adventurous, they scale the side of the most +unpromising crags in search of herbage and can sometimes be seen perching, +almost like birds, in what seem utterly inaccessible eyries. Thanks to them the +barren highlands of Attica are turned to good account,—and between goat +raising and bee culture an income can sometimes be extracted from the very +summits of the mountains. As for the numerous swine, it is enough to say that +they range under Hybrias’s oak forest and fatten on acorns, although +their swineherd, wrapped in a filthy sheepskin, is a far more loutish and +ignoble fellow than the “divine Eumæus” glorified in the +<i>Odyssey</i>. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus21"></a> +<img src="images/fig21.jpg" width="450" height="403" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Rural Sacrifice to a Wooden Statue of Dionysus</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect180"></a> +<b>180. The Gardens and the Shrine.</b>—Did we wish to linger, we could +be shown the barnyard with its noisy retinue of hens, pheasants, +guinea fowl, and pigeons; and we would be asked to admire the geese, +cooped up and being gorged for fattening, or the stately peacocks +preening their splendors. We would also hear sage disquisitions from +the “oldest inhabitants” on the merits of fertilizers, especially +on the uses of mixing seaweed with manure, also we would be told of +the almost equally important process of burying a toad in a sealed +jar in the midst of a field to save the corn from the crows and +the field mice. Hybrias laughs at such superstitions—“but what +can you say to the rustics?” Hybrias himself will display with +more refined pride the gardens used by his wife and children when +they come out from Athens,—a fountain feeding a delightful rivulet; +myrtles, roses, and pomegranate trees shedding their perfumes, which +are mingled with the odors from the beds of hyacinths, violets, +and asphodel. In the center of the gardens rises a chaste little +shrine with a marble image and an altar, always covered with flowers +or fruit by the mistress and her women. “To Artemis,” reads the +inscription, and one is sure that the virgin goddess takes more +pleasure in this fragrant temple than in many loftier fanes.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] For the description of a very beautiful and elaborate country +estate, with a temple thereon to Artemis, see Xenophon’s <i>Anabasis</i>, +bk. V. 3. +</p> + +<p> +We are glad to add here our wreaths ere turning away from this +wholesome, verdant country seat, and again taking our road to +Athens. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap20"></a>Chapter XX.<br /> +The Temples and Gods of Athens.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect181"></a> +<b>181. Certain Factors in Athenian Religion.</b>—We have seen the +Athenians in their business and in their pleasure, at their courts, +their assemblies, their military musters, and on their peaceful farms; +yet one great side of Athenian life has been almost ignored—the +religious side. A “Day in Athens” spent without taking account of +the gods of the city and their temples would be a day spent with +almost half-closed eyes.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] No attempt is made in this discussion to enumerate the various +gods and demigods of the conventional mythology, their regular +attributes, etc. It is assumed the average history or manual of +mythology gives sufficient information. +</p> + +<p> +It is far easier to learn how the Athenians arrange their houses +than how the average man among them adjusts his attitude toward +the gods. While any searching examination of the fundamentals of +Greek cultus and religion is here impossible, two or three facts +must, nevertheless, be kept in mind, if we are to understand even +the OUTWARD side of this Greek religion which is everywhere in +evidence about us. +</p> + +<p> +First of all we observe that the Greek religion is a religion of +purely natural growth. No prophet has initiated it, or claimed +a new revelation to supplement the older views. It has come from +primitive times without a visible break even down to the Athens of +Plato. This explains at once why so many time-honored stories of +the Olympic deities are very gross, and why the gods seem to give +countenance to moral views which the best public opinion has long +since called scandalous and criminal. The religion of Athens, in +other words, may justly claim to be judged by its best, not by its +worst; by the morality of Socrates, not of Homer. +</p> + +<p> +Secondly, this religion is not a church, nor a belief, but is part +of the government. Every Athenian is born into accepting the fact +that Athena Polias is the divine warder of the city, as much as +he is born into accepting the fact that it is his duty to obey the +strategi in battle. To repudiate the gods of Athens, <i>e.g.</i> in favor +of those of Egypt, is as much iniquity as to join forces against +the Athenians if they are at war with Egypt;—the thing is sheer +treason, and almost unthinkable. For countless generations the +Athenians have worshipped the “Ancestral Gods.” They are proud of +them, familiar with them; the gods have participated in all the +prosperity of the city. Athena is as much a part of Attica as +gray Hymettus or white-crowned Pentelicus; and the very fact that +comedians, like Aristophanes, make good-natured fun of the divinities +indicates that “they are members of the family.” +</p> + +<p> +Thirdly, notice that this religion is one mainly of outward reverence +and ceremony. There is no “Athenian church”; nobody has drawn up +an “Attic creed”—“I believe in Athena, the City Warder, and in +Demeter, the Earth Mother, and in Zeus, the King of Heaven, etc.” +Give outward reverence, participate in the great public sacrifices, +be careful in all the minutiæ of private worship, refrain from +obvious blasphemies—you are then a sufficiently pious man. What +you <i>believe</i> is of very little consequence. Even if you privately +believe there are no gods at all, it harms no one, provided your +outward conduct is pious and moral. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect182"></a> +<b>182. What constitutes “Piety” in Athens.</b>—Of course there have +been some famous prosecutions for “impiety.” Socrates was the +most conspicuous victim; but Socrates was a notable worshipper of +the gods, and certainly all the charges of his being an “atheist” +broke down. What he was actually attacked with was “corrupting +the youth of Athens,” <i>i.e.</i> giving the young men such warped ideas +of their private and public duties that they ceased to be moral +and useful citizens. But even Socrates was convicted only with +difficulty[*]; a generation has passed since his death. Were he +on trial at present, a majority of the jury would probably be with +him. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] It might be added that if Socrates had adopted a really worldly +wise line of defense, he would probably have been acquitted, or +subjected merely to a mild pecuniary penalty. +</p> + +<p> +The religion of Athens is something very elastic, and really every +man makes his own creed for himself, or—for paganism is almost +never dogmatic—accepts the outward cultus with everybody else, and +speculates at his leisure on the nature of the deity. The great +bulk of the uneducated are naturally content to accept the old +stories and superstitions with unthinking credulity. It is enough +to know that one must pray to Zeus for rain, and to Hermes for luck +in a slippery business bargain. There are a few philosophers who, +along with perfectly correct outward observance, teach privately +that the old Olympian system is a snare and folly. They pass +around the daring word which Xenophanes uttered as early as the +sixth century B.C.:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +One God there is, greatest of gods and mortals,<br /> +Not like to man is he in mind or in body.<br /> +All of him sees, all of him thinks, and all of him harkens. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This, of course, is obvious pantheism, but it is easy to cover up +all kinds of pale monotheism or pantheism under vague reference to +the omnipotence of “Zeus.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect183"></a> +<b>183. The Average Athenian’s Idea of the Gods.</b>—The average +intelligent citizen probably has views midway between the stupid +rabble and the daring philosophers. To him the gods of Greece +stand out in full divinity, honored and worshipped because they +are protectors of the good, avengers of the evil, and guardians +of the moral law. They punish crime and reward virtue, though the +punishment may tarry long. They demand a pure heart and a holy +mind of all that approach them, and woe to him who wantonly defies +their eternal laws. This is the morality taught by the master +tragedians, Æschylus and Sophocles, and accepted by the best public +opinion at Athens; for the insidious doubts cast by Euripides upon +the reality of any divine scheme of governance have never struck +home. The scandalous stories about the domestic broils on Olympus, +in which Homer indulges, only awaken good-natured banter. It is +no longer proper—as in Homeric days—to pride oneself on one’s +cleverness in perjury and common falsehood. Athenians do not +have twentieth century notions about the wickedness of lying, but +certain it is the gods do not approve thereof. In short, most of +the better class of Athenians are genuinely “religious”; nevertheless +they have too many things in this human world to interest them to +spend overmuch time in adjusting their personal concepts of the +deity to any system of theology. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect184"></a> +<b>184. Most Greeks without belief in Immortality.</b>—Yet one thing we +must add. This Greek religious morality is built up without any clear belief in +a future life. Never has the average Hellene been able to form a satisfactory +conception of the soul’s existence, save dwelling within a mortal body +and under the glorious light of belovèd Helios. To Homer the after life in +Hades was merely the perpetuation of the shadows of departed humanity, +“strengthless shades” who live on the gloomy plains of asphodel, +feeding upon dear memories, and incapable of keen emotions or any real mental +or physical progress or action. Only a few great sinners like Tantalus, doomed +to eternal torture, or favored beings like Menelaus, predestined to the +“Blessed Isles,” are ordained to any real immortality. As the +centuries advanced, and the possibilities of this terrestrial world grew ever +keener, the hope of any future state became ever more vague. The fear of a +gloomy shadow life in Hades for the most part disappeared, but that was only to +confirm the belief that death ends all things. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Where’er his course man tends,<br /> +Inevitable death impends,<br /> +And for the worst and for the best,<br /> +Is strewn the same dark couch of rest.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Milman, Translator. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So run the lines of a poet whose name is forgotten, but who spoke +well the thought of his countrymen. +</p> + +<p> +True there has been a contradiction of this gloomy theory. The +“Orphic Mysteries,” those secret religious rites which have gained +such a hold in many parts of Greece, including Athens, probably +hold out an earnest promise to the “initiates” of a blessed state +for them hereafter. The doctrine of a real elysium for the good and +a realm of torment for the evil has been expounded by many sages. +Pindar, the great bard of Thebes, has set forth the doctrine in a +glowing ode.[*] Socrates, if we may trust the report Plato gives +of him, has spent his last hours ere drinking the hemlock, in adducing +cogent, philosophic reasons for the immortality of the soul. All +this is true,—and it is also true that these ideas have made no +impression upon the general Greek consciousness. They are accepted +half-heartedly by a relatively few exceptional thinkers. Men +go through life and face death with no real expectation of future +reward or punishment, or of reunion with the dear departed. If +the gods are angry, you escape them at the grave; if the gods are +friendly, all they can give is wealth, health, honor, a hale old +age, and prosperity for your children. The instant after death the +righteous man and the robber are equal. This fundamental deduction +from the Greek religion must usually, therefore, be made—it is a +religion for <i>this world only</i>. Let us see what are its usual outward +operations. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Quoted in <i>Readings in Ancient History</i>, vol. I, pp. 261-262, +and in many works in Greek literature. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect185"></a> +<b>185. The Multitude of Images of the Gods.</b>—Gods are everywhere in +Athens. You cannot take the briefest walk without being reminded +that the world is full of deities. There is a “Herm”[*] by the main +door of every house, as well as a row of them across the Agora. At +many of the street crossings there are little shrines to Hecate; +or statues of Apollo Agyieus, the street guardian; or else a bay +tree stands there, a graceful reminder of this same god, to which +it is sacred. In every house there is the small altar whereon +garlands and fruit offerings are daily laid to Zeus Herkeios, and +another altar to Hestia. On one or both of these altars a little +food and a little wine are cast at every meal. All public meetings +or court sessions open with sacrifice; in short, to attempt any +semi-important public or private act without inviting the friendly +attention of the deity is unthinkable. To a well-bred Athenian +this is second instinct; he considers it as inevitable as the common +courtesies of speech among gentlemen. Plato sums up the current +opinion well, “All men who have any decency, in the attempting of +matters great or small, always invoke divine aid.”[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] A stone post about shoulder high, surmounted by a bearded head. +Contrary to modern impression, the average Greek did not conceive +of Hermes as a beautiful youth. He was a grave, bearded man. The +youthful aspect came through the manipulation of the Hermes myths +by the master sculptors—<i>e.g.</i> Praxiteles. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] <i>Timæus</i>, p. 27 c. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect186"></a> +<b>186. Greek Superstition.</b>—In many cases, naturally, piety runs +off into crass superstition. The gods, everybody knows, frequently +make known future events by various signs. He who can understand +these signs will be able to adjust his life accordingly and +enjoy great prosperity. Most educated men take a sensible view +of “omens,” and do not let them influence their conduct absurdly. +Some, however, act otherwise. There is, for instance, Laches, +one of the greatest at Prodicus’s feast. He lives in a realm of +mingled hopes and fears, although he is wealthy and well-educated.[*] +He is all the time worried about dreams, and paying out money +to the sharp and wily “seer” (who counts him his best client) for +“interpretations.” If a weasel crosses his path he will not walk +onward until somebody else has gone before him, or until he has +thrown three stones across the road. He is all the time worrying +about the significance of sudden noises, meteors, thunder; especially +he is disturbed when he sees birds flying in groups or towards +unlucky quarters of the heavens.[+] Laches, however, is not merely +religious—although he is always asking “which god shall I invoke +now?” or “what are the omens for the success of this enterprise?” +His own associates mock him as being superstitious, and say they +never trouble themselves about omens save in real emergencies. +Still it is “bad luck” for any of them to stumble over a threshold, +to meet a hare suddenly, or especially to find a snake (the companion +of the dead) hidden in the house. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] See Theophratus’s character, “<i>The Superstitious Man</i>.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] The birds of clearest omen were the great birds of prey—hawks, +“Apollo’s swift messengers,” and eagles, “the birds of Zeus.” It +was a good omen if the birds flew from left to right, a bad omen +if in the reverse direction. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect187"></a> +<b>187. Consulting Omens.</b>—Laches’s friends, however, all regularly +consult the omens when they have any important enterprise on hand—a +voyage, a large business venture, a marriage treaty, etc. There +are several ways, not expensive; the interpreters are not priests, +only low-born fellows as a rule, whose fees are trifling. You +can find out about the future by casting meal upon the altar fire +and noticing how it is burned, by watching how chickens pick up +consecrated grain,[*] by observing how the sacrificial smoke curls +upward, etc. The best way, however, is to examine the entrails +of the victim after a sacrifice. Here everything depends on the +shape, size, etc., of the various organs, especially of the liver, +bladder, spleen, and lungs, and really expert judgment by an experienced +and high-priced seer is desirable. The man who is assured by a +reliable seer, “the livers are large and in fine color,” will go +on his trading voyage with a confident heart. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] A very convenient way,—for it was a good sign if the chickens +ate eagerly and one could always get a fair omen by keeping the +fowls hungry a few hours ere “putting the question”! +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect188"></a> +<b>188. The Great Oracles.</b>—Assuredly there is a better way still to +read the future; at least so Greeks of earlier ages have believed. +Go to one of the great oracles, whereof that of Apollo at Delphi +is the supreme, but not the unique, example. Ask your question +in set form from the attendant priests, not failing to offer an +elaborate sacrifice and to bestow all the “gifts” (golden tripods, +mixing bowls, shields, etc.) your means will allow. Then (at +Delphi) wait silent and awe-stricken while the lady Pythia, habited +as a young girl, takes her seat on a tripod over a deep cleft in +the rock, whence issues an intoxicating vapor. She inhales the gas, +sways to and fro in an ecstasy, and now, duly “inspired,” answers +in a somewhat wild manner the queries which the priest will put in +behalf of the supplicants. Her incoherent words are very hard to +understand, but the priest duly “interprets” them, <i>i.e.</i> gives them +to the suppliant in the form of hexameter verses. Sometimes the +meaning of these verses is perfectly clear. Very often they are +truly “Delphic,” with a most dubious meaning—as in that oft-quoted +instance, when the Pythia told Crœsus if he went to war with Cyrus, +“he would destroy a mighty monarchy,” and lo, he destroyed his own! +</p> + +<p> +Besides Delphi, there are numerous lesser oracles, each with its +distinctive method of “revelation.” But there is none, at least of +consequence, within Attica, while a journey to Delphi is a serious +and highly expensive undertaking. And as a matter of fact Delphi +has partially lost credit in Athens. In the great Persian War +Delphi unpatriotically “medized”—gave oracles friendly to Xerxes +and utterly discouraging to the patriot cause. Then after this +conviction of false prophesy, the oracle fell, for most of the +time, into the hands of Sparta, and was obviously very willing +to “reveal” things only in the Lacedæmonian interest. Hellenes +generally and the Spartans in particular have still much esteem for +the utterances of the Pythia, but Athenians are not now very partial +to her. Soon will come the seizure of Delphi by the Phœnicians +and the still further discrediting of this once great oracle. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect189"></a> +<b>189. Greek Sacrifices.</b>—The two chief elements of Greek worship, +however, are not consideration of the future, but sacrificial and +prayer. Sacrifices in their simple form, as we have seen, take +place continually, before every routine act. They become more formal +when the proposed action is really important, or when the suppliant +wishes to give thanks for some boon, or, at rarer intervals, to +desire purification from some offense. There is no need of a priest +for the simpler sacrifices. The father of the family can pour +out the libation, can burn the food upon the altar, can utter the +prayer for all his house; but in the greater sacrifices a priest +is desirable, not as a sacred intermediary betwixt god and man, +but as an expert to advise the worshipper what are the competent +rites, and to keep him from ignorantly angering heaven by unhappy +words and actions.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] There were almost no hereditary priesthoods in Attica (outside +the Emolpidæ connected with the mystical cult of Eleusis). Almost +anybody of good character could qualify as a priest with due +training, and there was little of the sacrosanct about the usual +priestly office. +</p> + +<p> +Let us witness a sacrifice of this more formal kind, and while doing +so we can tread upon the spot we have seemed in a manner to shun +during our wanderings through Athens, the famous and holy Acropolis. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect190"></a> +<b>190. The Route to the Acropolis.</b>—Phormion, son of Cresphontes, has +been to Arcadia, and won the pentathlon in some athletic contests +held at Mantinea. Although not equal to a triumph in the “four +great Panhellenic contests,” it was a most notable victory. Before +setting out he vowed a sheep to Athena the Virgin if he conquered. +The goddess was kind, and Phormion is very grateful. While the +multitudes are streaming out to the Gymnasia, the young athlete, +brawny and handsome, surrounded by an admiring coterie of friends +and kinsmen, sets out for the Acropolis. +</p> + +<p> +Phormion’s home is in the “Ceramicus,” the so-called “potters’ +quarter.” His walk takes him a little to the west of the Agora, +and close to the elegant temple of Hephæstos,[*] but past this and +many other fanes he hastens. It was not the fire god which gave +him fair glory at Mantinea. He goes onward until he is forced to +make a detour to the left, at the craggy, rough hill of Areopagus +which rises before him. Here, if time did not press, he might have +tarried to pay respectful reverence before a deep fissure cleft +in the side of the rock. In front of this fissure stands a little +altar. All Phormion’s company look away as they pass the spot, +and they mutter together “Be propitious, O Eumenides!” (literally, +Well-minded Ones). For like true Greeks they delight to call foul +things with fair and propitious names; and that awful fissure and +altar are sacred to the Erinyes (Furies), the horrible maidens, the +trackers of guilt, the avengers of murder; and above their cave, +on these rude rocks, sits the august court of the Aeropagus when +it meets as a “tribunal of blood” to try cases of homicide. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This temple, now called the <i>Theseum</i>, is the only well preserved +ancient temple in modern Athens. +</p> + +<p> +Phormion’s party quicken their steps and quit this spot of ill +omen. Then their sight is gladdened. The whole glorious Acropolis +stands out before them. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus22"></a> +<img src="images/fig22.jpg" width="500" height="433" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Sketch Map of the Acropolis of Athens</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect191"></a> +<b>191. The Acropolis of Athens.</b>—Almost every Greek city has its own +formidable citadel, its own <i>acropolis</i>,—for “citadel” is really +all this word conveys. Corinth boasts of its “Acro-Corinthus,” +Thebes of its “Cadmeia,”—but <i>the</i> Acropolis is in Athens. The later +world will care little for any other, and the later world will be +right. The Athenian stronghold has long ceased to be a fortress, +though still it rises steep and strong. It is now one vast temple +compound, covered with magnificent buildings. Whether considered +as merely a natural rock commanding a marvelous view, or as a +consecrated museum of sculpture and architecture, it deserves its +immortality. We raise our eyes to <i>the Rock</i> as we approach it. +</p> + +<p> +The Acropolis dominates the plain of Athens. All the city seems +to adjust itself to the base of its holy citadel. It lifts itself +as tawny limestone rock rising about 190 feet above the adjacent +level of the town.[*] In form it is an irregular oval with its +axis west and east. It is about 950 feet long and 450 feet at its +greatest breadth. On every side but the west the precipice falls +away sheer and defiant, rendering a feeble garrison able to battle +with myriads.[+] To the westward, however, the gradual slope makes +a natural pathway always possible, and human art has long since +shaped this with convenient steps. Nestling in against the precipice +are various sanctuaries and caves; <i>e.g.</i> on the northwestern side, +high up on the slope beneath the precipice, open the uncanny grottoes +of Apollo and of Pan. On the southern side, close under the very +shadow of the citadel, is the temple of Asclepius, and, more to +the southeast, the great open theater of Dionysus has been scooped +out of the rock, a place fit to contain an audience of some 15,000.[&] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] It is nearly 510 feet above the level of the sea. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Recall the defense which the Acropolis was able to make against +Xerxes’s horde, when the garrison was small and probably ill +organized, and had only a wooden barricade to eke out the natural +defenses. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[&] The stone seats of this theater do not seem to have been built +till about 340 B.C. Up to that time the surface of the ground +sloping back to the Acropolis seems simply to have been smoothed +off, and probably covered with temporary wooden seats on the days +of the great dramatic festivals. +</p> + +<p> +So much for the bare “bones” of the Acropolis; but now under the +dazzling sunshine how it glitters with indescribable splendor! +Before us as we ascend a whole succession of buildings seem lifting +themselves, not singly, not in hopeless confusion, but grouped +admirably together by a kind of wizardry, so that the harmony is +perfect,—each visible, brilliant column and pinnacle, not merely +flashing its own beauty, but suggesting another greater beauty just +behind. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect192"></a> +<b>192. The Use of Color upon Athenian Architecture and Sculptures.</b>—While +we look upward at this group of temples and their wealth of +sculptures, let us state now something we have noticed during all +our walks around Athens, but have hitherto left without comment. +Every temple and statue in Athens is not left in its bare white +marble, as later ages will conceive is demanded by “Greek Architecture” +and statuary, but is decked in brilliant color—“painted,” if you +will use an almost unfriendly word. The columns and gables and +ceilings of the buildings are all painted. Blue, red, green, and +gold blaze on all the members and ornaments. The backgrounds of +the pediments, metopes, and frieze are tinted some uniform color +on which the sculptured figures in relief stand out clearly. The +figures themselves are tinted or painted, at least on the hair, +lips, and eyes. Flesh-colored warriors are fighting upon a bright +red background. The armor and horse trappings on the sculptures +are in actual bronze. The result is an effect indescribably vivid. +Blues and reds predominate: the flush of light and color from the +still more brilliant heavens above adds to the effect. Shall we +call it garish? We have learned to know the taste of Athenians +too well to doubt their judgment in matters of pure beauty. And +they are right. <i>Under an Athenian sky</i> temples and statues demand +a wealth of color which in a somber clime would seem intolerable. +The brilliant lines of the Acropolis buildings are the just answer +of the Athenian to the brilliancy of Helios. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect193"></a> +<b>193. The Chief Buildings on the Acropolis.</b>—And now to ascend the +Acropolis. We leave the discussion of the details of the temples and the +sculpture to the architects and archæologists. The whole plateau of the Rock is +covered with religious buildings, altars, and statues. We pass through the +Propylæa, the worthy rival of the Parthenon behind, a magnificent portal, with +six splendid Doric columns facing us; and as we go through them, to right and +to left open out equally magnificent columned porticoes.[*] As we emerge from +the Propylæa the whole vision of the sacred plateau bursts upon us +simultaneously. We can notice only the most important of the buildings. At the +southwestern point of the Acropolis on the angle of rock which juts out beyond +the Propylæa is the graceful little temple of the “Wingless +Victory,” built in the Ionic style. The view commanded by its bastion +will become famous throughout the world. Behind this, nearer the southern side, +stands the less important temple of Artemis Braurōnia. Nearer the center and +directly before the entrance rises a colossal brazen +statue—“monstrous,” many might call its twenty-six feet of +height, save that a master among masters has cast the spell of his genius over +it. This is the famous Athena Promachos,[+] wrought by Phidias out of the +spoils of Marathon. The warrior goddess stands in full armor and rests upon her +mighty lance. The gilded lance tip gleams so dazzlingly we may well believe the +tale that sailors use it for a first landmark as they sail up the coast from +Cape Sunium. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] That to the north was the larger and contained a kind of picture +gallery. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Athena Foremost in Battle. +</p> + +<p> +Looking again upon the complex of buildings we single out another +on the northern side: an irregularly shaped temple, or rather +several temples joined together, the Erechtheum, wherein is the +sanctuary of Athena Polias (the revered “City Warden”), the ancient +wooden statue, grotesque, beloved, most sacred of all the holy +images in Athens. And here on the southern side of this building +is the famous Caryatid porch; the “Porch of the Maidens,” which +will be admired as long as Athens has a name. But our eyes refuse +to linger long on any of these things. Behind the statue of the +Promachos, a little to the southern side of the plateau, stands +the Parthenon—the queen jewel upon the crown of Athens. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect194"></a> +<b>194. The Parthenon.</b>—Let others analyze its sculptures and explain +the technical reasons why Ictinus and Callicrates, the architects, +and Phidias, the sculptor, created here the supreme masterpiece +for the artistic world. We can state only the superficialities. +It is a noble building by mere size; 228 feet measure its side, +101 feet its front. Forty-six majestic Doric columns surround it; +they average thirty-four feet in height, and six feet three inches +at the base. All these facts, however, do not give the soul of +the Parthenon. Walk around it slowly, tenderly, lovingly. Study +the elaborate stories told by the pediments,—on the east front +the birth of Athena, on the west the strife of Athena and Poseidon +for the possession of Athens. Trace down the innumerable lesser +sculptures on the “metopes” under the cornice,—showing the battles +of the Giants, Centaurs, Amazons, and of the Greeks before Troy; +finally follow around, on the whole inner circuit of the body of +the temple, the frieze,[*] showing in bas-relief the Panathenaic +procession, with the beauty, nobility, and youth of Athens marching +in glad festival; comprehend that these sculptures will never be +surpassed in the twenty-four succeeding centuries; that here are +supreme examples for the artists of all time,—and <i>then</i>, in the +face of this final creation, we can realize that the Parthenon will +justify its claim to immortality. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This, of course, is on the outside wall of the “cella,” but +inside the surrounding colonnade. +</p> + +<p> +One thing more. There are hardly any straight lines in the Parthenon. +To the eye, the members and the steps of the substructure may seem +perfectly level; but the measuring rod betrays marvelously subtle +curves. As nature abhors right angles in her creations of beauty, +so have these Greeks. Rigidity, unnaturalness, have been banished. +The Parthenon stands, not merely embellished with inimitable +sculptures, but perfectly adjusted to the natural world surrounding.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] It was an inability to discover and execute these concealed +curves which give certain of the modern imitations of the Parthenon +their unpleasant impressions of harness and rigidity. +</p> + +<p> +We have seen only the exterior of the Parthenon. We must wait now +ere visiting the interior, for Phormion is beginning his sacrifice. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect195"></a> +<b>195. A Sacrifice on the Acropolis.</b>—Across the sacred plateau +advances the little party. As it goes under the Propylæa a couple +of idle temple watchers[*] give its members a friendly nod. The +Acropolis rock itself seems deserted, save for a few worshippers +and a party of admiring Achæan visitors who are being shown the +glories of the Parthenon.[+] There seems to be a perfect labyrinth +of statues of gods, heroes, and departed worthies, and almost as +many altars, great and small, placed in every direction. Phormion +leads his friends onward till they come near to the wide stone +platform somewhat in the rear of the Parthenon. Here is the “great +altar” of Athena, whereon the “hecatombs” will be sacrificed, even +a hundred oxen or more,[&] at some of the major public festivals; +and close beside it stands also a small and simple altar sacred +to Athena Parthenos, Athena the Virgin. Suitable attendants have +been in readiness since dawn waiting for worshippers. One of +Phormion’s party leads behind him a bleating white lamb “without +blemish.”[$] It is a short matter now to bring the firewood and +the other necessaries. The sacrifice takes place without delay. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The most important function of these watchers seems to have been +to prevent dogs from entering the Acropolis. Probably they were +inefficient old men favored with sinecure offices. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] The Acropolis seems to have become a great “show place” for +visitors to Athens soon after the completion of the famous temples. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[&] We know by an inscription of 169 oxen being needed for a single +Athenian festival. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[$] This was a very proper creature to sacrifice to a great Olympian +deity like Athena. Goats were not suitable for her, although desirable +for most of the other gods. It was unlawful to sacrifice swine to +Aphrodite. When propitiating the gods of the underworld,—Hades, +Persephone, etc.,—a <i>black</i> victim was in order. Poor people could +sacrifice doves, cocks, and other birds. +</p> + +<p> +First a busy “temple sweeper” goes over the ground around the altar +with a broom; then the regular priest, a dignified gray-headed man +with a long ungirt purple chiton, and a heavy olive garland, comes +forward bearing a basin of holy water. This basin is duly passed +to the whole company as it stands in a ring, and each in turn dips +his hand and sprinkles his face and clothes with the lustral water. +Meantime the attendant has placed another wreath around the head +of the lamb. The priest raises his hand. +</p> + +<p> +“Let there be silence,” he commands (lest any unlucky word be +spoken); and in a stillness broken only by the auspicious twittering +of the sparrows amid the Parthenon gables, he takes barley corns +from a basket, an sprinkles them on the altar and over the lamb. +With his sacred knife he cuts a lock of hair from the victims head +and casts it on the fire. Promptly now the helper comes forward +to complete the sacrifice. Phormion and his friends are a little +anxious. Will the lamb take fright, hang back, and have to be +dragged to its unwilling death? The clever attendant has cared +for that. A sweet truss of dried clover is lying just under the +altar. The lamb starts forward, bleating joyously. As it bows its +head[*] as if consenting to its fate the priest stabs it dexterously +in the neck with his keen blade. The helper claps a bowl under +the neck to catch the spurting blood. A flute player in readiness, +but hitherto silent, suddenly strikes up a keen blast to drown the +dying moans of the animal. Hardly has the lamb ceased to struggle +before the priest and the helper have begun to cut it up then and +there. Certain bits of the fat and small pieces from each limb +are laid upon the altar, and promptly consumed. These are the +goddess’s peculiar portion, and the credulous at least believe +that she, though unseen, is present to eat thereof; certainly the +sniff of the burning meat is grateful to her divine nostrils. The +priest and the helpers are busy taking off the hide and securing +the best joint—these are their “fees” for professional services. +All the rest will be duly gathered up by Phormion’s body servant +and borne home,—for Phormion will give a fine feast on “sacred +mutton” that night.[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] If a larger animal—an ox—failed to bow its head auspiciously, +the omen could be rectified by suddenly splashing a little water +in the ears. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] As already suggested (section 159) a sacrifice (public, or, if +on a large scale, private) was about the only occasion on which +Athenians tasted beef, pork, or mutton. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus23"></a> +<img src="images/fig23.jpg" width="394" height="400" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Sacrificing a Pig</p> +</div> + +<p> +Meantime, while the goddess’s portion burns, Phormion approaches +the altar, bearing a shallow cup of unmixed wine, and flings it +upon the flame. +</p> + +<p> +“Be propitious, O Lady,” he cries, “and receive this my drink +offering.”[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The original intention of this libation at the sacrifice was very +clearly to provide the gods with wine to “wash down” their meat. +</p> + +<p> +The sacrifice is now completed. The priest assures Phormion that +the entrails of the victim foretokened every possible favor in +future athletic contests—and this, and his insinuating smile, win +him a silver drachma to supplement his share of the lamb. Phormion +readjusts the chaplet upon his own head, and turns towards the +Parthenon. After the sacrifice will come the prayer. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect196"></a> +<b>196. The Interior of the Parthenon and the Great Image of Athena.</b>—The +whole Acropolis is the home of Athena. The other gods harbored +thereon are only her inferior guests. Upon the Acropolis the dread +goddess displays her many aspects. In the Erechtheum we worship +her as Athena Polias, the ancient guardian of the hearths and homes +of the city. In the giant Promachus, we see her the leader in +war,—the awful queen who went with her fosterlings to the deadly +grappling at Marathon and at Salamis; in the little temple of +“Wingless Victory”[*] we see her as Athena the Victorious, triumphant +over Barbarian and Hellenic foe; but in the Parthenon we adore in +her purest conception—the virgin queen, now chaste and clam, her +battles over, the pure, high incarnations of all “the beautiful and +the good” that may possess spirit and mind,—the sovran intellect, +in short, purged of all carnal, earthy passion. It is meet that +such a goddess should inhabit such a dwelling as the Parthenon.[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] The term “Wingless Victory” (<i>Nikē Apteros</i>) has reference to a +special type and aspect of Athena, not to the goddess <i>Nikē</i> (Victory) +pure and simple. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] There was still another aspect in which Athena was worshipped on +the Acropolis. She had a sacred place (<i>temenos</i>), though without +a temple, sacred to her as <i>Athena Erganē</i>—Athena Protectress of +the Arts. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus24"></a> +<img src="images/fig24.jpg" width="218" height="500" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Athena Parthenos</p> +</div> + +<p> +Phormion passes under the eastern porch, and does not forget (despite the +purification before the sacrifice) to dip the whisk broom, lying by the door, +in the brazen laver of holy water and again to sprinkle himself. He passes out +of the dazzling sunlight into a chamber that seems at first to be lost in a +vast, impenetrable gloom. He pauses and gazes upward; above him, as little by +little his eyes get their adjustment, a faint pearly light seems streaming +downward. It is coming through the translucent marble slabs of the roof of the +great temple.[*] Then out of the gloom gleam shapes, objects,—a face. He +catches the glitter of great jewels and of massy gold, as parts of the rich +garments and armor of some vast image. He distinguishes at length a +statue,—the form of a woman, nearly forty feet in height. Her left wrist +rests upon a mighty shield; her right hand holds a winged +“Victory,” itself of nigh human size. Upon her breast is the awful +ægis, the especial breastplate of the high gods. Around the foot of her shield +coils a serpent. Upon her head is a mighty helmet. And all the time that these +things are becoming manifest, evermore clearly one beholds the majestic +face,—sweetness without weakness, intellectuality without coldness, +strength mingled justly with compassion. This is the Athena Parthenos, the +handiwork of Phidias.[+] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] This seems to be the most reasonable way to assume that the +“cella” of the Parthenon was lighted, in view of the danger, in case +of open skylights, of damage to the holy image by wind and rain. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] Of this statue no doubt there could be said what Dion Chrysostomos +said of the equally famous “Zeus” erected by Phidias at Olympia. +“The man most depressed with woes, forgot his ills whilst gazing +on this statue, so much light and beauty had Phidias infused within +it.” Besides the descriptions in the ancient writers we get a +clear idea of the general type of the Athena Parthenos from recently +discovered statuettes, especially the “Varvakeion” model (40½ +inches high). This last is cold and lifeless as a work of art, but +fairly accurate as to details. +</p> + +<p> +We will not heap up description. What boots it to tell that the +arms and vesture of this “chryselephantine” statue are of pure +gold; that the flesh portions are of gleaming ivory; that Phidias +has wrought the whole so nobly together that this material, too +sumptuous for common artists, becomes under his assembling the +perfect substance for the manifestation of deity? +</p> + +<p> +…Awestruck by the vision, though often he has seen it, Phormion +stands long in reverent silence. Then at length, casting a pinch +of incense upon the brazier, constantly smoking before the statue, +he utters his simple prayer. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect197"></a> +<b>197. Greek Prayers.</b>—Greek prayers are usually very pragmatic. +“Who,” asks Cicero, who can speak for both Greeks and Romans in +this particular, “ever thanked the gods that he was a good man? Men +are thankful for riches, honor, safety…. We beg of the sovran +God [only] what makes us safe, sound, rich and prosperous.”[*] +Phormion is simply a very average, healthy, handsome young Athenian. +While he prays he stretches his hands on high, as is fitting to a +deity of Olympus.[+] His petition runs much as follows:— +</p> + +<p> +“Athena, Queen of the Ægis, by whatever name thou lovest best,[&] +give ear. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Cicero, <i>De Nat. Deor</i>, ii. 36. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] In praying to a deity of the lower world the hands would be held +down. A Greek almost <i>never</i> knelt, even in prayer. He would have +counted it degrading. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[&] This formula would be put in, lest some favorite epithet of the +divinity be omitted. +</p> + +<p> +“Inasmuch as thou dids’t heed my vow, and grant me fair glory at +Mantinea, bear witness I have been not ungrateful. I have offered +to thee a white sheep, spotless and undefiled. And now I have it +in my mind to attempt the pentathlon at the next Isthmia at Corinth. +Grant me victory even in that; and not one sheep but five, all as +good as this to-day, shall smoke upon thine altar. Grant also unto +me, my kinsmen and all my friends, health, riches and fair renown.” +</p> + +<p> +A pagan prayer surely; and there is a still more pagan epilogue. +Phormion has an enemy, who is not forgotten. +</p> + +<p> +“And oh! gracious, sovran Athena, blast my enemy Xenon, who strove to +trip me foully in the foot race. May his wife be childless or bear him only +monsters; may his whole house perish; may all his wealth take flight; may his +friends forsake him; may war soon cut him off, or may he die amid impoverished, +dishonored old age. If this my sacrifice has found favor in thy sight, may all +these evils come upon him unceasingly. And so will I adore thee and sacrifice +unto thee all my life.”[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Often a curse would become a real substitute for a prayer; <i>e.g.</i> +at Athens, against a rascally and traitorous general, a solemn +public curse would be pronounced at evening by all the priests and +priestesses of the city, each shaking in the air a red cloth in +token of the bloody death to which the offender was devoted. +</p> + +<p> +The curse then is a most proper part of a Greek prayer! Phormion +is not conscious of blasphemy. He merely follows invariable custom. +</p> + +<p> +It is useless to expect “Christian sentiments” in the fourth century +B.C., yet perhaps an age should be judged not by its average, but +by its best. Athenians can utter nobler prayers than those of +the type of Phormion. Xenophon makes his model young householder +Ishomenus pray nobly “that I may enjoy health and strength of body, +the respect of my fellow citizens, honorable safety in times of +war, and wealth honestly increased.”[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Xenophon, <i>The Economist</i>, xi, p. 8. +</p> + +<p> +There is a simple little prayer also which seems to be a favorite +with the farmers. Its honest directness carries its own message. +</p> + +<p> +“Rain, rain, dear Zeus, upon the fields of the Athenians and the +plains.”[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] It was quoted later to us by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who +adds, “In truth, we ought not to pray at all, or we ought to pray +in this simple and noble fashion.” +</p> + +<p> +Higher still ascends the prayer of Socrates, when he begs for “the +good” merely, leaving it to the wise gods to determine what “the +good” for him may be; and in one prayer, which Plato puts in +Socrates’s mouth, almost all the best of Greek ideals and morality seems +uttered. It is spoken not on the Acropolis, but beside the Ilissus at the close +of the delightful walk and chat related in the <i>Phædrus</i>. +</p> + +<p> +“Beloved Pan, and all ye other gods who haunt this place, give me +the beauty of the inward soul, and may the outward and the inward +man be joined in perfect harmony. May I reckon the wise to be +wealthy, and may I have such a quantity of gold as none but the +temperate can carry. Anything more?—That prayer, I think, is +enough for me.” +</p> + +<p> +Phormion and his party are descending to the city to spend the evening in +honest mirth and feasting, but we are fain to linger, watching the slow course +of the shadows as they stretch across the Attic hills. Sea, sky, plain, +mountains, and city are all before us, but we will not spend words upon them +now. Only for the buildings, wrought by Pericles and his mighty peers, we will +speak out our admiration. We will gladly confirm the words Plutarch shall some +day say of them, “Unimpaired by time, their appearance retains the +fragrance of freshness, as though they had been inspired by an eternally +blooming life and a never aging soul.”[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Plutarch wrote this probably after 100 A.D., when the Parthenon +had stood for about five and half centuries. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap21"></a>Chapter XXI.<br /> +The Great Festivals of Athens.</h2> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect198"></a> +<b>198. The Frequent Festivals at Athens.</b>—Surely our “Day in +Athens” has been spent from morn till night several times over, so much +there is to see and tell. Yet he would be remiss who left the city of Athena +before witnessing at least several of the great public festivals which are the +city’s noble pride. There are a prodigious number of religious festivals +in Athens.[*] They take the place of the later “Christian Sabbath” +and probably create a somewhat equal number of rest days during the year, +although at more irregular intervals. They are far from being “Scotch +Sundays,” however. On them the semi-riotous “joy of life” +which is part of the Greek nature finds its fullest, ofttimes its wildest, +expression. They are days of merriment, athletic sports, great civic +spectacles, chorals, public dances.[+] To complete our picture of Athens we +must tarry for a swift cursory glance upon at least three of these fête days of +the city of Pericles, Sophocles, and Phidias. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] In Gulick (<i>Life of the Ancient Greeks</i>, pp. 304-310) there is +a valuable list of Attic festivals. The Athenians had over thirty +important religious festivals, several of them, <i>e.g.</i>, the Thesmorphoria +(celebrated by the women in honor of Demeter), extending over a +number of days. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] It is needless to point out that to the Greeks, as to many other +ancient peoples,—for example, the Hebrews,—<i>dancing</i> often had a +religious significance and might be a regular part of the worship +of the gods. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect199"></a> +<b>199. The Eleusinia.</b>—Our first festival is the Eleusinia, the +festival of the Eleusinian mysteries. It is September, the “19th +of Boēdromiōn,” the Athenians will say. Four days have been spent +by the “initiates” and the “candidates” in symbolic sacrifices +and purifications.[*] On one of these days the arch priest, the +“Hierophant,” has preached a manner of sermon at the Painted Porch +in the Agora setting forth the awfulness and spiritual efficacy +of these Mysteries, sacred to Demeter the Earth Mother, to her +daughter Persephone, and also to the young Iacchus, one of the many +incarnations of Dionysus, and who is always associated at Elusis +with the divine “Mother and Daughter.” The great cry has gone +forth to the Initiates—“To the Sea, ye Mystæ!” and the whole vast +multitude has gone down to bathe in the purifying brine. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Not all Athenians were among the “initiated,” but it does not +seem to have been hard to be admitted to the oaths and examination +which gave one participation in the mysteries. About all a candidate +had to prove was blameless character. Women could be initiated as +well as men. +</p> + +<p> +Now on this fifth day comes the sacred procession from Athens across +the mountain pass to Eleusis. The participates, by thousands, of +both sexes and of all ages, are drawn up in the Agora ere starting. +The Hierophant, the “Torchbearer,” the “Sacred Herald,” and the other +priests wear long flowing raiment and high mitres like Orientals. +They also, as well as the company, wear myrtle and ivy chaplets and +bear ears of corn and reapers’ sickles. The holy image of Iacchus +is borne in a car, the high priests marching beside it; and forth +with pealing shout and chant they go,—down the Ceramicus, through +the Dipylon gate, and over the hill to Eleusis, twelve miles away. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect200"></a> +<b>200. The Holy Procession to Eleusis.</b>—Very sacred is the procession, +but not silent and reverential. It is an hour when the untamed +animal spirits of the Greeks, who after all are a young race and +who are gripped fast by natural instinct, seem uncurbed. Loud +rings the “orgiastic” cry, “<i>Iacchë! Iacchë! evoë!</i>” +</p> + +<p> +There are wild shouts, dances, jests, songs,[*] postures. As the +marchers pass the several sanctuaries along the road there are halts +for symbolic sacrifices. So the multitude slowly mounts the long +heights of Mount Ægaleos, until—close to the temple of Aphrodite +near the summit of the pass—the view opens of the broad blue bay +of Eleusis, shut in by the isle of Salamis, while to the northward +are seen the green Thrasian plain, with the white houses of Eleusis +town[+] near the center, and the long line of outer hills stretching +away to Megara and Bœotia. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] We do not possess the official chant of the Mystæ used on their march to +Eleusia. Very possibly it was of a swift riotous nature like the +Bacchinals’ song in Euripides’s <i>Bacchinals</i> (well translated +by Way or by Murray). +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] This was about the only considerable town in Attica outside of Athens. +</p> + +<p> +The evening shadows are falling, while the peaceful army sweeps +over the mountain wall and into Eleusis. Every marcher produces +a torch, and bears it blazing aloft as he nears his destination. +Seen in the dark from Eleusis, the long procession of innumerable +torches must convey an effect most magical. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect201"></a> +<b>201. The Mysteries of Eleusis.</b>—What follows at Eleusis? The +“mysteries” are “mysteries” still; we cannot claim initiation and +reveal them. There seem to be manifold sacrifices of a symbolic +significance, the tasting of sacred “portions” of food and drink—a +dim foreshadowing of the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist; +especially in the great hall of the Temple of the Mystæ in Eleusis +there take place a manner of symbolic spectacles, dramas perhaps +one may call them, revealing the origins of Iacchus, the mystical +union of Persephone and Zeus, and the final joy of Demeter. +</p> + +<p> +This certainly we can say of these ceremonies. They seem to have +afforded to spiritually minded men a sense of remission of personal +sin which the regular religion could never give; they seem also +to have conveyed a fair hope of immortality, such as most Greeks +doubted. Sophocles tells thus the story: “Thrice blessed are they +who behold these mystical rites, ere passing to Hades’ realm. They +alone have life there. For the rest all things below are evil.”[*] +And in face of imminent death, perhaps in hours of shipwreck, men +are wont to ask one another, “Have you been initiated at Eleusis?” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Sophocles, <i>Frag.</i> 719. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect202"></a> +<b>202. The Greater Dionysia and the Drama.</b>—Again we are in Athens in +the springtime: “The eleventh of Elapheboliön” [March]. It is the +third day of the Greater Dionysia. The city has been in high festival; all the +booths in the Agora hum with redoubled life; strangers have flocked in from +outlying parts of Hellas to trade, admire, and recreate; under pretext of +honoring the wine god, inordinate quantities of wine are drunk with less than +the prudent mixture of water. There is boisterous frolicking, singing, and +jesting everywhere. It is early blossom time. All whom you meet wear huge +flower crowns, and pelt you with the fragrant petals of spring.[*] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Pindar (<i>Frag.</i> 75) says thus of the joy and beauty of this fête: +“[Lo!] this festival is due when the chamber of the red-robed Hours +is opened and odorous plants wake to the fragrant spring. then +we scatter on undying earth the violet, like lovely tresses, and +twine roses in our hair; then sound the voice of song, the flute +keeps time, and dancing choirs resound the praise of Semele.” +</p> + +<p> +So for two days the city has made merry, and now on the third, +very early, “to the theater” is the word on every lip. Magistrates +in their purple robes of office, ambassadors from foreign states, +the priests and religious dignitaries, are all going to the front +seats of honor. Ladies of gentle family, carefully veiled but eager +and fluttering, are going with their maids, if the productions of +the day are to be tragedies not comedies.[*] All the citizens are +going, rich and poor, for here again we meet “Athenian democracy”; +and the judgment and interest of the tatter-clad fishermen seeking +the general “two-obol” seats may be almost as correct and keen as +that of the lordly Alcmænoid in his gala himation. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] It seems probable (on our uncertain information) that Athenian +ladies attended the moral and proper tragedies. It was impossible +for them to attend the often very coarse comedies. Possibly at +the tragedies they sat in a special and decently secluded part of +the theater. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect203"></a> +<b>203. The Theater of Dionysus.</b>—Early dawn it is when the crowds +pour through the barriers around the Theater of Dionysus upon the southern +slope of the Acropolis. They sit (full 15,000 or more) wedged close together +upon rough wooden benches set upon the hill slopes.[*] At the foot of their +wide semicircle is a circular space of ground, beaten hard, and ringed by a low +stone barrier. It is some ninety feet in diameter. This is the +<i>orchestra</i>, the “dancing place,” wherein the chorus may +disport itself and execute its elaborate figures. Behind the orchestra +stretches a kind of tent or booth, the <i>skenë</i>. Within this the actors may +retire to change their costumes, and the side nearest to the audience is +provided with a very simple scene,—some kind of elementary scenery +painted to represent the front of a temple or palace, or the rocks, or the open +country. This is nearly the entire setting.[+] If there are any slight changes +of this screen, they must be made in the sight of the entire audience. The +Athenian theater has the blue dome of heaven above it, the red Acropolis rock +behind it. Beyond the “skenë” one can look far away to the country +and the hills. The keen Attic imagination will take the place of the thousand +arts of the later stage-setter. Sophocles and his rivals, even as Shakespeare +in Elizabeth’s England, can sound the very depths and scale the loftiest +heights of human passion, with only a simulacrum of the scenery, properties, +and mechanical artifices which will trick out a very mean twentieth century +theater. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] These benches (before the stone theater was built in 340 B.C.) +may be imagined as set up much like the “bleachers” at a modern +baseball park. We know that ancient audiences wedged in very close. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[+] I think it is fairly certain that the classical Attic theater +was without any stage, and that the actors appeared on the same +level as the chorus. As to the extreme simplicity of all the +scenery and properties there is not the least doubt. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus25"></a> +<img src="images/fig25.jpg" width="600" height="273" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Comic Actors dressed as Ostriches</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect204"></a> +<b>204. The production of a Play.</b>—The crowds are hushed and expectant. +The herald, ere the play begins, proclaims the award of a golden +crown to some civic benefactor: a moment of ineffable joy to the +recipient; for when is a true Greek happier than when held up for +public glorification? Then comes the summons to the first competing +poet. +</p> + +<p> +“Lead on your chorus.”[*] The intellectual feast of the Dionysia +has begun. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] In the fourth century B.C. when the creation of original tragedies was in +decline, a considerable part of the Dionysia productions seem to have been +devoted to the works of the earlier masters, Æschylus, Sophocles, and +Euripides. +</p> + +<p> +To analyze the Attic drama is the task of the philosopher and the +literary expert. We observe only the superficialities. There are +never more than <i>three</i> speaking actors before the audience at once. +They wear huge masques, shaped to fit their parts. The wide +mouthpieces make the trained elocution carry to the most remote +parts of the theater. The actors wear long trailing robes and are +mounted on high shoes to give them sufficient stature before the +distant audience. When a new part is needed in the play, an actor +retires to the booth, and soon comes forth with a changed masque +and costume—an entirely new character. In such a costume and +masque, play of feature and easy gesture is impossible; but the +actors carry themselves with a stately dignity and recite their often +ponderous lines with a grace which redeems them from all bombast. +An essential part of the play is the chorus; indeed the chorus +was once the main feature of the drama, the actors insignificant +innovations. With fifteen members for the tragedy, twenty-four for +the comedy,[*] old men of Thebes, Trojan dames, Athenian charcoal +burners, as the case may demand—they sympathize with the hard-pressed +hero, sing lusty choral odes, and occupy the time with song and +dance while the actors are changing costume. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] In the “Middle” and “Later” comedy, so called, the +chorus entirely disappears. The actors do everything. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus26"></a> +<img src="images/fig26.jpg" width="170" height="500" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Actor in Costume as a Fury</p> +</div> + +<p> +The audience follows all the philosophic reasoning of the tragedies, the often +subtle wit of the comedies, with that same shrewd alertness displayed at the +jury courts of the Pnyx. “<i>Authis! Authis!</i>” (again! again!) +is the frequent shout, if approving. Date stones and pebbles as well as +hootings are the reward of silly lines or bad acting. At noon there is an +interlude to snatch a hasty luncheon (perhaps without leaving one’s +seat). Only when the evening shadows are falling does the chorus of the last +play approach the altar in the center of the orchestra for the final sacrifice. +A whole round of tragedies have been given.[*] The five public judges announce +their decision: an ivy wreath to the victorious poet; to his <i>choregus</i> +(the rich man who has provided his chorus and who shares his glory) the right +to set up a monument in honor of the victory. Home goes the multitude,—to +quarrel over the result, to praise or blame the acting, to analyze the +remarkable acuteness the poet’s handling of religious, ethical, or social +questions. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Comedies, although given at this Dionysia, were more especially +favored at the Lenæa, an earlier winter festival. +</p> + +<p> +The theater, like the dicasteries and the Pnyx, is one of the great +public schools of Athens. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect205"></a> +<b>205. The Great Panathenaic Procession.</b>—Then for the last time let +us visit Athens, at the fête which in its major form comes only once in four +years. It is the 28th of Metageitniön (August), and the eighth day of the +Greater Panathenæa, the most notable of all Athenian festivals. By it is +celebrated the union of all Attica by Theseus, as one happy united country +under the benign sway of mighty Athena,—an ever fortunate union, which +saved the land from the sorrowful feuds of hostile hamlets such as have plagued +so many Hellenic countries. On the earlier days of the feast there have been +musical contests and gymnastic games much after the manner of the Olympic +games, although the contestants have been drawn from Attica only. There has +been a public recital of Homer. Before a great audience probably at the Pnyx or +the Theater a rhapsodist of noble presence—clad in purple and with a +golden crown—has made the Trojan War live again, as with his well-trained +voice he held the multitude spellbound by the music of the stately hexameters. +</p> + +<p> +Now we are at the eighth day. All Athens will march in its glory to the +Acropolis, to bear to the shrine of Athena the sacred +“peplos”—a robe specially woven by the noble women of Athens +to adorn the image of the guardian goddess.[*] The houses have opened; the +wives, maids, and mothers of gentle family have come forth to march in the +procession, all elegantly wreathed and clad in their best, bearing the sacred +vessels and other proper offerings. The daughters of the “metics,” +the resident foreigners, go as attendants of honor with them. The young men and +the old, the priests, the civil magistrates, the generals, all have their +places. Proudest of all are the wealthy and high-born youths of the cavalry, +who now dash to and fro in their clattering pride. The procession is formed in +the outer Ceramicus. Amid cheers, chants, chorals, and incense smoke it sweeps +through the Agora, and slowly mounts the Acropolis. Center of all the marchers +is the glittering peplos, raised like a sail upon a wheeled barge of +state—“the ship of Athena.” Upon the Acropolis, while the old +peplos is piously withdrawn from the image and the new one substituted, there +is a prodigious sacrifice. A mighty flame roars heavenward from the +“great altar”; while enough bullocks[+] and kine[&] have been +slaughtered to enable every citizen—however poor—to bear away a +goodly mess of roasted meat that night. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[*] Note that this robe was for the revered ancient and wooden image +of Athena Polias, not for the far less venerable statue of Athena +Parthenos. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +<a name="sect206"></a> +<b>206. The View from the Temple of Wingless Victory.</b>—We will not +wait for the feasting but rather will take our way to the Temple +of Wingless Victory, looking forth to the west of the Acropolis +Rock. So many things we see which we would fain print on the memory. +Behind us we have just left the glittering Parthenon, and the less +august but hardly less beautiful Erechtheum, with its “Porch of +the Maidens.” To our right is the wide expanse of the roofs of the +city and beyond the dark olive groves of Colonus, and the slopes +of Ægaleos. In the near foreground, are the red crags of Areopagus +and the gray hill of the Pnyx. But the eye will wander farther. +It is led away across the plainland to the bay of Phaleron, the +castellated hill of Munychia, the thin stretch of blue water and +the brown island seen across it—Salamis and its strait of the +victory. Across the sparkling vista of the sea rise the headlands +of Ægina and of lesser isles; farther yet rise the lordly peaks of +Argolis. Or we can look to the southward. Our gaze rounds down the +mountainous Attic coast full thirty miles to where Sunium thrusts +out its haughty cape into the Ægean and points the way across the +island-studded sea. +</p> + +<p> +Evening is creeping on. Behind us sounds the great pæan, the +solemn chant to Athena, bestower of good to men. As the sun goes +down over the distant Argolic hills his rays spread a clear pathway +of gold across the waters. Islands, seas, mountains far and near, +are touched now with shifting hues,—saffron, violet, and rose,—beryl, +topaz, sapphire, amethyst. There will never be another landscape +like unto this in all the world. Gladly we sum up our thoughts +in the cry of a son of Athens, Aristophanes, master of song, who +loved her with that love which the land of Athena can ever inspire +in all its children, whether its own by adoption or by birth:— +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Oh, thou, our Athens! Violet-crowned, brilliant, most enviable +of cities!</i>” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY IN OLD ATHENS ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. +</div> + +<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br /> +<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: +</div> + +<blockquote> + <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most + other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions + whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms + of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online + at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you + are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws + of the country where you are located before using this eBook. + </div> +</blockquote> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: +</div> + +<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + </div> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +</div> + +</div> + +</body> + +</html> + + diff --git a/4716-h/images/cover.jpg b/4716-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f90c79a --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig01.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig01.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9cba24e --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig01.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig02.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig02.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b478fdc --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig02.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig03.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig03.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..81b8647 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig03.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig04.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig04.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5609a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig04.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig05.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig05.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc8bc2f --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig05.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig06.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig06.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..972da30 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig06.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig07.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig07.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..75a0c14 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig07.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig08.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig08.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b671e98 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig08.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig09.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig09.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce04a68 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig09.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig10.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig10.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a4b859 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig10.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig11.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig11.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d106bae --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig11.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig12.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig12.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..275b532 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig12.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig13.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig13.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..358a44d --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig13.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig14.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig14.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7626a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig14.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig15.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig15.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..48d9d17 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig15.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig16.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig16.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffdb5f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig16.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig17.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig17.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9942170 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig17.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig18.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig18.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7456454 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig18.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig19.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig19.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..37c49f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig19.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig20.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig20.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd56c4b --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig20.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig21.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig21.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6fb091 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig21.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig22.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig22.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..850d63e --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig22.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig23.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig23.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7a88c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig23.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig24.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig24.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7fd45e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig24.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig25.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig25.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..877b1c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig25.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/fig26.jpg b/4716-h/images/fig26.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e77c77f --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/fig26.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/lines.jpg b/4716-h/images/lines.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ad9900 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/lines.jpg diff --git a/4716-h/images/spurs.jpg b/4716-h/images/spurs.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..20913f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/4716-h/images/spurs.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2a8fca --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #4716 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4716) diff --git a/old/4716-8.txt b/old/4716-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b3e452 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/4716-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8724 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Day In Old Athens +by William Stearns Davis +(#1 in our series by William Stearns Davis) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: A Day In Old Athens + +Author: William Stearns Davis + +Release Date: December, 2003 [EBook #4716] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 6, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) + +*** + + + +A Day in Old Athens + +By William Stearns Davis +Professor of Ancient History in the University of Minnesota + + + + + +Preface + + + + +This little book tries to describe what an intelligent person would +see and hear in ancient Athens, if by some legerdemain he were +translated to the fourth century B.C. and conducted about the city +under competent guidance. Rare happenings have been omitted and +sometimes, to avoid long explanations, PROBABLE matters have been +stated as if they were ascertained facts; but these instances are +few, and it is hoped no reader will be led into serious error. + +The year 360 B.C. has been selected for the hypothetical time of +this visit, not because of any special virtue in that date, but +because Athens was then architecturally almost perfect, her civic +and her social life seemed at their best, the democratic constitution +held its vigor, and there were few outward signs of the general +decadence which was to set in after the triumph of Macedon. + +I have endeavored to state no facts and to make no allusions, that +will not be fairly obvious to a reader who has merely an elementary +knowledge of Greek annals, such information, for instance, as may be +gained through a good secondary school history of ancient times. +This naturally has led to comments and descriptions which more +advanced students may find superfluous. + +The writer has been under a heavy debt to the numerous and excellent +works on Greek "Private Antiquities" and "Public Life" written in +English, French, or German, as well as to the various great Classical +Encyclopdias and Dictionaries, and to many treatises and monographs +upon the topography of Athens and upon the numerous phases of Attic +culture. It is proper to say, however, that the material from +such secondary sources has been merely supplementary to a careful +examination of the ancient Greek writers, with the objects of this +book kept especially in view. A sojourn in modern Athens, also, +has given me an impression of the influence of the Attic landscape +upon the conditions of old Athenian life, an impression that I have +tried to convey in this small volume. + +I am deeply grateful to my sister, Mrs. Fannie Davis Gifford, for +helpful criticism of this book while in manuscript; to my wife, +for preparing the drawings from Greek vase-paintings which appear +as illustrations; and to my friend and colleague, Professor Charles +A. Savage, for a kind and careful reading of the proofs. Thanks +also are due to Henry Holt and Company for permission to quote +material from their edition of Von Falke's "Greece and Rome." + + +W. S. D. + +University of Minnesota, +Minneapolis, Minnesota. +May, 1914. + + + + + +Contents. + + + + + Page +Maps, Plans, and Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii + +Chapter I. The Physical Setting of Athens. + +Section + 1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + 2. Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant . . . . . . . . 1 + 3. The Small Size and Sterility of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 + 4. The Physical Beauty of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 + 5. The Mountains of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 + 6. The Sunlight in Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 + 7. The Topography of the City of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 + 8. 360 B.C.--The Year of the Visit to Athens . . . . . . . . . . . 8 + +Chapter II. The First Sights in Athens. + + 9. The Morning Crowds bound for Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 + 10. The Gate and the Street Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 + 11. The Streets and House Fronts of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 + 12. The Simplicity of Athenian Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + +Chapter III. The Agora and its Denizens. + + 13. The Buildings around the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 + 14. The Life in the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 + 15. The Booths and Shops in the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 + 16. The Flower and the Fish Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 + 17. The Morning Visitors to the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + 18. The Leisured Class in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 + 19. Familiar Types around the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 + 20. The Barber Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 + +Chapter IV. The Athenian House and its Furnishings. + + 21. Following an Athenian Gentleman Homeward . . . . . . . . . . . 26 + 22. The Type and Uses of a Greek House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 + 23. The Plan of a Greek House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 + 24. Modifications in the Typical Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 + 25. Rents and House Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 + 26. The Simple yet Elegant Furnishings of an Athenian House . . . . 32 + +Chapter V. The Women of Athens. + + 27. How Athenian Marriages are Arranged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 + 28. Lack of Sentiment in Marriages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 + 29. Athenian Marriage Rites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 + 30. The Mental Horizon of Athenian Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 + 31. The Honor paid Womanhood in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 + 32. The Sphere of Action of Athenian Women . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 + +Chapter VI. Athenian Costume. + + 33. The General Nature of Greek Dress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 + 34. The Masculine Chiton, Himation, and Chlamys . . . . . . . . . . 44 + 35. The Dress of the Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 + 36. Footwear and Head Coverings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 + 37. The Beauty of the Greek Dress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 + 38. Greek Toilet Frivolities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 + +Chapter VII. The Slaves. + + 39. Slavery an Integral Part of Greek Life . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 + 40. The Slave Trade in Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 + 41. The Treatment of Slaves in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 + 42. Cruel and Kind Masters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 + 43. The "City Slaves" of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 + +Chapter VIII. The Children. + + 44. The Desirability of Children in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + 45. The Exposure of Infants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + 46. The Celebration of a Birth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 + 47. Life and Games of Young Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 + 48. Playing in the Streets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 + 49. The First Stories and Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 + 50. The Training of Athenian Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + +Chapter IX. The Schoolboys of Athens. + + 51. The Athenians Generally Literate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 + 52. Character Building the Aim of Athenian Education . . . . . . . 63 + 53. The Schoolboy's Pedagogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 + 54. An Athenian School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 + 55. The School Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 + 56. The Study of the Poets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 + 57. The Greeks do not study Foreign Languages . . . . . . . . . . . 70 + 58. The Study of "Music" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 + 59. The Moral Character of Greek Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 + 60. The Teaching of Gymnastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 + 61. The Habits and Ambitions of Schoolboys . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 + 62. The "Ephebi" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + +Chapter X. The Physicians of Athens. + + 63. The Beginnings of Greek Medical Science . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 + 64. Healing Shrines and their Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 + 65. An Athenian Physician's Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 + 66. The Physician's Oath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 + 67. The Skill of Greek Physicians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 + 68. Quacks and Charlatans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 + +Chapter XI. The Funerals. + + 69. An Athenian's Will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 + 70. The Preliminaries of a Funeral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 + 71. Lamenting the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 + 72. The Funeral Procession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 + 73. The Funeral Pyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 + 74. Honors to the Memory of the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 + 75. The Beautiful Funeral Monuments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + +Chapter XII. Trade, Manufactures, and Banking. + + 76. The Commercial Importance of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 + 77. The Manufacturing Activities of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 + 78. The Commerce of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 + 79. The Adventurous Merchant Skippers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 + 80. Athenian Money-changers and Bankers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 + 81. A Large Banking Establishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 + 82. Drawbacks to the Banking Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 + 83. The Pottery of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 + 84. Athenian Pottery an Expression of the Greek Sense of Beauty . . 99 + +Chapter XIII. The Armed Forces of Athens. + + 85. Military Life at Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 + 86. The Organization of the Athenian Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 + 87. The Hoplites and the Light Troops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 + 88. The Cavalry and the Peltasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 + 89. The Panoply of the Hoplites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 + 90. The Weapons of a Hoplite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 + 91. Infantry Maneuvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 + 92. The Preliminaries of a Greek Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 + 93. Joining the Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 + 94. The Climax and End of the Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 + 95. The Burial Truce and the Trophy after the Battle . . . . . . . 114 + 96. The Siege of Fortified Towns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 + 97. The Introduction of New Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 + +Chapter XIV. The Peirus and the Shipping. + + 98. The "Long Walls" down to the Harbor Town . . . . . . . . . . . 117 + 99. Munychia and the Havens of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 +100. The Glorious View from the Hill of Munychia . . . . . . . . . . 119 +101. The Town of Peirus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 +102. The Merchant Shipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 +103. The Three War Harbors and the Ship Houses . . . . . . . . . . . 124 +104. The Great Naval Arsenal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 +105. An Athenian Trierarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 +106. The Evolution of the Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 +107. The Hull of a Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 +108. The Rowers' Benches of a Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 +109. The Cabins, Rigging, and Ram of a Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . 129 +110. The Officers and Crew of a Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 +111. A Trireme at Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 +112. The Tactics of a Naval Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 +113. The Naval Strength of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 + +Chapter XV. An Athenian Court Trial. + +114. The Frequency of Litigation in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 +115. Prosecutions in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 +116. The Preliminaries to a Trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 +117. The Athenian Jury Courts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 +118. The Juryman's Oath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 +119. Opening The Trial. The Plaintiff's Speech . . . . . . . . . . 140 +120. The Defendant's Speech. Demonstrations by the Jury . . . . . . 141 +121. The First Verdict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 +122. The Second and Final Verdict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 +123. The Merits and Defects of the Athenian Courts . . . . . . . . . 144 +124. The Usual Punishments in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 +125. The Heavy Penalty of Exile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 +126. The Death Penalty of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 + +Chapter XVI. The Ecclesia of Athens. + +127. The Rule of Democracy in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 +128. Aristocracy and Wealth. Their Status and Burdens . . . . . . . 147 +129. Athenian Society truly Democratic up to a Certain Point . . . . 148 +130. The Voting Population of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 +131. Meeting Times of the Ecclesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 +132. The Pnyx (Assembly Place) at Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 +133. The Preliminaries of the Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 +134. Debating a Proposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 +135. Voting at the Pnyx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 +136. The Ecclesia as an Educational Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . 156 + +Chapter XVII. The Afternoon at the Gymnasia + +137. The Gymnasia. Places of General Resort . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 +138. The Road to the Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 +139. The Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 +140. The Social Atmosphere and Human Types at the Academy . . . . . 160 +141. Philosophers and Cultivated Men at the Gymnasia . . . . . . . . 161 +142. The Beautiful Youths at the Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 +143. The Greek Worship of Manly Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 +144. The Detestation of Old Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 +145. The Greeks unite Moral and Physical Beauty . . . . . . . . . . 165 +146. The Usual Gymnastic Sports and their Objects . . . . . . . . . 166 +147. Professional Athletes: the Pancration . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 +148. Leaping Contests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 +149. Quoit Hurling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 +150. Casting the Javelin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 +151. Wrestling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 +152. Foot Races . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 +153. The Pentathlon: the Honors paid to Great Athletes . . . . . . 172 + +Chapter XVIII. Athenian Cookery and the Symposium + +154. Greek Meal Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 +155. Society desired at Meals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 +156. The Staple Articles of Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 +157. Greek Vintages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 +158. Vegetable Dishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 +159. Meat and Fish Dishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 +160. Inviting Guests to a Dinner Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 +161. Preparing for the Dinner: the Sicilian Cook . . . . . . . . . 182 +162. The Coming of the Guests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 +163. The Dinner Proper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 +164. Beginning the Symposium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 +165. The Symposiarch and his Duties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 +166. Conversation at the Symposium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 +167. Games and Entertainments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 +168. Going Home from the Feast: Midnight Revelers . . . . . . . . . 189 + +Chapter XIX. Country Life around Athens. + +169. The Importance of his Farm to an Athenian . . . . . . . . . . . 191 +170. The Country by the Ilissus: the Greeks and Natural Beauty . . 191 +171. Plato's Description of the Walk by the Ilissus . . . . . . . . 193 +172. The Athenian Love of Country Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 +173. Some Features of the Attic Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 +174. An Attic Farmstead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 +175. Plowing, Reaping, and Threshing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 +176. Grinding at the Mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 +177. The Olive Orchards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 +178. The Vineyards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 +179. Cattle, Sheep, and Goats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 +180. The Gardens and the Shrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 + +Chapter XX. The Temples and Gods of Athens. + +181. Certain Factors in Athenian Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 +182. What constitutes "Piety" in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 +183. The Average Athenians Idea of the Gods . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 +184. Most Greeks without Belief in Immortality . . . . . . . . . . . 207 +185. The Multitude of Images of the Gods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 +186. Greek Superstition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 +187. Consulting Omens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 +188. The Great Oracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 +189. Greek Sacrifices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 +190. The Route to the Acropolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 +191. The Acropolis of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 +192. The Use of Color Upon Athenian Architecture and Sculptures . . 216 +193. The Chief Buildings on the Acropolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 +194. The Parthenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 +195. A Sacrifice on the Acropolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 +196. The Interior of the Parthenon and the Great Image of Athena . . 222 +197. Greek Prayers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 + +Chapter XXI. The Great Festival of Athens. + +198. The Frequent Festivals in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 +199. The Eleusinia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 +200. The Holy Procession to Eleusis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 +201. The Mysteries of Eleusis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 +202. The Greater Dionysia and the Drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 +203. The Theater of Dionysus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 +204. The Production of a Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 +205. The Great Panathenaic Procession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 +206. The View from the Temple of Wingless Victory . . . . . . . . . 237 + +Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 + + + + +Maps, Plans, and Illustrations. + + + + 1. Athenian Acropolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece + Page + 2. Sketch Map of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 + 3. Sketch Map of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 + 4. Peasant going to Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 + 5. At the Street Fountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 + 6. A Wayside Herm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 + 7. A Carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 + 8. Conjectural Plan for the house of a Wealthy Athenian . . . . . . 29 + 9. Spinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 +10. The Maternal Slipper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 +11. Athenian Funeral Monument . . . . . . . . . . . . . FACING PAGE 88 +12. At the Smithy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 +13. Hoplite in Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 +14. The Town of Peirus and the Harbors of Athens . . . . . . . . . 118 +15. Fishermen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 +16. An Athenian Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 +17. The Race in Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 +18. Itinerant Piper with his Dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 +19. Women pounding Meal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 +20. Gathering the Olive Harvest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 +21. Rural Sacrifice to a Wooden Statue of Dionysus . . . . . . . . . 202 +22. Sketch Map of the Acropolis of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 +23. Sacrificing a Pig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 +24. Athena Parthenos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 +25. Comic Actors dressed as Ostriches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 +26. Actor in Costume as a Fury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 + + + + + +A Day in Old Athens + + + + +Chapter I. The Physical Setting of Athens. + + + + +1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History.--To three ancient +nations the men of the twentieth century owe an incalculable debt. +To the Jews we owe most of our notions of religion; to the Romans +we owe traditions and examples in law, administration, and the +general management of human affairs which still keep their influence +and value; and finally, to the Greeks we owe nearly all our ideas +as to the fundamentals of art, literature, and philosophy, in +fact, of almost the whole of our intellectual life. These Greeks, +however, our histories promptly teach us, did not form a single +unified nation. They lived in many "city-states" of more or less +importance, and some of the largest of these contributed very little +directly to our civilization. Sparta, for example, has left us +some noble lessons in simple living and devoted patriotism, but +hardly a single great poet, and certainly never a philosopher or +sculptor. When we examine closely, we see that the civilized life +of Greece, during the centuries when she was accomplishing the most, +was peculiarly centered at Athens. Without Athens, Greek history +would lose three quarters of its significance, and modern life and +thought would become infinitely the poorer. + + +2. Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant.--Because, +then, the contributions of Athens to our own life are so important, +because they touch (as a Greek would say) upon almost every side +of "the true, the beautiful, and the good," it is obvious that +the outward conditions under which this Athenian genius developed +deserve our respectful attention. For assuredly such personages +as Sophocles, Plato, and Phidias were not isolated creatures, who +developed their genius apart from, or in spite of, the life about +them, but rather were the ripe products of a society, which in its +excellences and weaknesses presents some of the most interesting +pictures and examples in the world. To understand the Athenian +civilization and genius it is not enough to know the outward history +of the times, the wars, the laws, and the lawmakers. We must see +Athens as the average man saw it and lived in it from day to day, +and THEN perhaps we can partially understand how it was that during +the brief but wonderful era of Athenian freedom and prosperity[*], +Athens was able to produce so many men of commanding genius as to +win for her a place in the history of civilization which she can +never lose. + +[*]That era may be assumed to begin with the battle of Marathon +(490 B.C.), and it certainly ended in 322 B.C., when Athens passed +decisively under the power of Macedonia; although since the battle +of Chroneia (338 B.C.) she had done little more than keep her +liberty on sufferance. + + +3. The Small Size and Sterility of Attica.--Attica was a very small +country according to modern notions, and Athens the only large city +therein. The land barely covered some 700 square miles, with 40 +square miles more, if one includes the dependent island of Salamis. +It was thus far smaller than the smallest of our American "states" +(Rhode Island = 1250 square miles), and was not so large as many +American counties. It was really a triangle of rocky, hill-scarred +land thrust out into the gean Sea, as if it were a sort of +continuation of the more level district of Botia. Yet small as it +was, the hills inclosing it to the west, the seas pressing it form +the northeast and south, gave it a unity and isolation all its own. +Attica was not an island; but it could be invaded only by sea, or +by forcing the resistance which could be offered at the steep mountain +passes towards Botia or Megara. Attica was thus distinctly separated +from the rest of Greece. Legends told how, when the half-savage +Dorians had forced themselves southward over the mainland, they +had never penetrated into Attica; and the Athenians later prided +themselves upon being no colonists from afar, but upon being +"earth-sprung,"--natives of the soil which they and their twenty-times +grandfathers had held before them. + +This triangle of Attica had its peculiar shortcomings and virtues. +It was for the most part stony and unfertile. Only a shallow layer +of good soil covered a part of its hard foundation rock, which +often in turn lay bare on the surface. The Athenian farmer had a +sturdy struggle to win a scanty crop, and about the only products +he could ever raise in abundance for export were olives (which seemed +to thrive on scanty soil and scanty rainfall) and honey, the work +of the mountain bees. + + +4. The Physical Beauty of Attica.--Yet Attica had advantages which +more than counterbalanced this grudging of fertility. All Greece, +to be sure, was favored by the natural beauty of its atmosphere, +seas, and mountains, but Attica was perhaps the most favored portion +of all, Around her coasts, rocky often and broken by pebbly beaches +and little craggy peninsulas, surged the deep blue gean, the most +glorious expanse of ocean in the world. Far away spread the azure +water[*],--often foam-crested and sometimes alive with the dolphins +leaping at their play,--reaching towards a shimmering sky line +where rose "the isles of Greece," masses of green foliage, or else +of tawny rock, scattered afar, to adapt the words of Homer, "like +shields laid on the face of the glancing deep." + +[*]The peculiar blueness of the water near Attica is probably caused +by the clear rocky bottom of the sea, as well as by the intensity +of the sunlight. + +Above the sea spread the noble arch of the heavens,--the atmosphere +often dazzlingly bright, and carrying its glamour and sparkle almost +into the hearts of men. The Athenians were proud of the air about +their land. Their poets gladly sung its praises, as, for example, +Euripides[*], when he tells how his fellow countrymen enjoy being-- + + +Ever through air clear shining brightly +As on wings uplifted, pacing lightly. + + +[*]Medea:829. + + +5. The Mountains of Attica.--The third great element, besides the +sea and the atmosphere of Athens, was the mountains. One after +another the bold hills reared themselves, cutting short all the +plainlands and making the farmsteads often a matter of slopes and +terraces. Against the radiant heavens these mountains stood out +boldly, clearly; revealing all the little gashes and seams left from +that long-forgotten day when they were flung forth from the bowels +of the earth. None of these mountains was very high: Hymettus, +the greatest, was only about 3500 feet; but rising as they often +did from a close proximity to the sea, and not from a dwarfing +table-land, even the lower hills uplifted themselves with proud +majesty. + +These hills were of innumerable tints according to their rocks, +the hue of the neighboring sea, and the hour of the day. In spring +they would be clothed in verdant green, which would vanish before +the summer heats, leaving them rosy brown or gray. But whatever +the fundamental tone, it was always brilliant; for the Athenians +lived in a land where blue sky, blue sea, and the massive rock blent +together into such a galaxy of shifting color, that, in comparison, +the lighting of almost any northern or western landscape would +seem feeble and tame. The Athenians absorbed natural beauty with +their native air. + + +6. The Sunlight in Athens.--The Athenian loved sunshine, and Helios +the Sun God was gracious to his prayers. In the Athens of to-day +it is reckoned that the year averages 179 days in which the sun is +not concealed by clouds one instant; and 157 days more when the sun +is not hidden more than half an hour[*]. Ancient Athens was surely +not more cloudy. Nevertheless, despite this constant sunshine and +a southern latitude, Athens was stricken relatively seldom with +semitropical heat. The sea was a good friend, bringing tempering +breezes. In the short winter there might be a little frost, a +little snow, and a fair supply of rain. For the rest of the year, +one golden day was wont to succeed another, with the sun and the +sea breeze in ever friendly rivalry. + +[*]The reason for these many clear days is probably because when +the moist west and southwest winds come in contact with the dry, +heated air of the Attic plain, they are at once volatilized and +dispersed, not condensed (as in northern lands); therefore the day +resolves itself into brilliant sunshine. + +The climate saved the Athenians from being obliged to wage a stern +warfare with nature as did the northern peoples. Their life and +civilization could be one developed essentially "in the open air"; +while, on the other hand, the bracing sea breeze saved them from +that enervating lethargy which has ruined so many southern folk. +The scanty soil forced them to struggle hard to win a living; unless +they yielded to the constant beckoning of the ocean, and sought +food, adventure, wealth, and a great empire across the seas. + + +7. The Topography of the City of Athens.--So much for the land of +Attica in general; but what of the setting of the city of Athens +itself? The city lay in a plain, somewhat in the south central +part of Attica, and about four miles back from the sea. A number +of mountains came together to form an irregular rectangle with the +Saronic Gulf upon the south. To the east of Athens stretched the +long gnarled ridge of Hymettus, the wildest and grayest mountain +in Attica, the home of bees and goatherds, and (if there be faith +in pious legend) of innumerable nymphs and satyrs. To the west +ran the lower, browner mountains, galeos, across which a road (the +"Sacred Way") wound through an easy pass towards Eleusis, the only +sizable town in Attica, outside of Athens and its harbors. To the +rear of the plain rose a noble pyramid, less jagged than Hymettus, +more lordly than galeos; its summits were fretted with a white which +turned to clear rose color under the sunset. This was Pentelicus, +from the veins whereof came the lustrous marble for the master +sculptor. Closer at hand, nearer the center of the plain, rose +a small and very isolated hill,--Lycabettus, whose peaked summit +looked down upon the roofs of Athens. And last, but never least, +about one mile southwest of Lycabettus, upreared a natural monument +of much greater frame,--not a hill, but a colossal rock. Its +shape was that of an irregular oval; it was about 1000 feet long, +500 feet wide, and its level summit stood 350 feet above the plain. +This steep, tawny rock, flung by the Titans, one might dream, +into the midst of the Attic plain, formed one of the most famous +sites in the world, for it was the Acropolis of Athens. Its full +significance, however, must be explained later. From the Acropolis +and a few lesser hills close by, the land sloped gently down towards +the harbors and the Saronic Bay. + +These were the great features of the outward setting of Athens. One +might add to them the long belt of dark green olive groves winding +down the westward side of the plain, where the Cephisus (which +along among Attic rivulets did not run dry in summer) ran down to +the sea. There was also a shorter olive belt west of the city, +where the weaker Ilissus crept, before it lost itself amid the +thirsty fields. + +Sea, rock, and sky, then, joined together around Athens as around +almost no other city in the world. The landscape itself was adjusted +to the eye with marvelous harmony. The colors and contours formed +one glorious model for the sculptor and the painter, one perpetual +inspiration for the poet. Even if Athens had never been the seat +of a famous race, she would have won fame as being situated in one +of the most beautiful localities in the world. Rightly, therefore, did +its dwellers boast of their city as the "Violet-crowned" (Iostephanos). + + +8. 360 B.C.--The Year of the Visit to Athens.--This city let us +visit in the days of its greatest outward glory. We may select the +year 360 B.C. At that time Athens had recovered from the ravages +of the Peloponnesian War, while the Macedonian peril had not as +yet become menacing. The great public buildings were nearly all +completed. No signs of material decadence were visible, and if +Athens no longer possessed the wide naval empire of the days of +Pericles, her fleets and her armies were still formidable. The +harbors were full of commerce; the philosophers were teaching their +pupils in the groves and porticoes; the democratic constitution was +entirely intact. With intelligent vision we will enter the city +and look about us. + + + + + +Chapter II. The First Sights in Athens. + + + + +9. The Morning Crowds bound for Athens.--It is very early in the +morning. The sun has just pushed above the long ridge of Hymettus, +sending a slanting red bar of light across the Attic plain, and +touching the opposite slopes of galeos with livid fire. Already, +however, life is stirring outside the city. Long since, little +market boats have rowed across the narrow strait from Salamis, +bringing the island farmer's produce, and other farmers from the +plain and the mountain slopes have started for market. In the +ruddy light the marble temples on the lofty Acropolis rising ahead +of these hurrying rustics are standing out clearly; the spear +and helmet of the great brazen statue of the Athena Promachos are +flashing from the noble citadel, as a kind of day beacon, beckoning +onward toward the city. From the Peirus, the harbor town, a +confused him of mariners lading and unlading vessels is even now +rising, but we cannot turn ourselves thither. Our route is to +follow the farmers bound for market. + +The most direct road from the Peirus to Athens is hidden indeed, +for it leads between the towering ramparts of the "Long Walls," +two mighty barriers which run parallel almost four miles from the +inland city to the harbor, giving a guarded passage in wartime and +making Athens safe against starvation from any land blockade; but +there is an outside road leading also to Athens from the western +farmsteads, and this we can conveniently follow. Upon this route +the crowd which one meets is certainly not aristocratic, but it +is none the less Athenian. Here goes a drover, clad in skins, his +legs wound with woolen bands in lieu of stockings; before him and +his wolf-like dog shambles a flock of black sheep or less manageable +goats, bleating and baaing as they are propelled toward market. +After him there may come an unkempt, long-bearded farmer flogging on +a pack ass or a mule attached to a clumsy cart with solid wheels, +and laden with all kinds of market produce. The roadway, be it +said, is not good, and all carters have their troubles; therefore, +there is a deal of gesticulating and profane invocation of Hermes +and all other gods of traffic; for, early as it is, the market +place is already filling, and every delay promises a loss. There +are still other companions bound toward the city: countrymen +bearing cages of poultry; others engaged in the uncertain calling +of driving pigs; swarthy Oriental sailors, with rings in their +ears, bearing bales of Phnician goods from the Peirus; respectable +country gentlemen, walking gravely in their best white mantles +and striving to avoid the mud and contamination; and perhaps also +a small company of soldiers, just back from foreign service, passes, +clattering shields and spear staves. + + +10. The Gate and the Street Scenes.--The crowds grow denser +as everybody approaches the frequented "Peirus Gate," for nearly +all of Attica which lies within easy reach of Athens has business +in the Market Place every morning. On passing the gate a fairly +straight way leads through the city to the market, but progress for +the multitude becomes slow. If it is one of the main thoroughfares, +it is now very likely to be almost blocked with people. There are +few late risers at Athens; the Council of Five Hundred[*], the huge +Jury Courts, and the Public Assembly (if it has met to-day[+]) are +appointed to gather at sunrise. The plays in the theater, which, +however, are given only on certain festivals, begin likewise at +sunrise. The philosophers say that "the man who would accomplish +great things must be up while yet it is dark." Athenians, therefore, +are always awake and stirring at an hour when men of later ages and +more cold and foggy climes will be painfully yawning ere getting +out of bed. + +[*]The "Boule," the great standing committee of the Athenian people +to aid the magistrates in the government. + +[+]In which case, of course, the regular courts and the Council +would hardly meet. + +The Market Place attracts the great masses, but by no means all; +hither and thither bevies of sturdy slave girls, carrying graceful +pitchers on their heads, are hurrying towards the fountains which +gush cool water at most of the street corners. Theirs is a highly +necessary task, for few or no houses have their own water supply; +and around each fountain one can see half a dozen by no means +slatternly maidens, splashing and flirting the water one at another, +while they wait their turn with the pitchers, and laugh and exchange +banter with the passing farmers' lads. Many in the street crowds +are rosy-cheeked schoolboys, walking decorously, if they are lads +of good breeding, and blushing modestly when they are greeted +by their fathers' acquaintances. They do not loiter on the way. +Close behind, carrying their writing tablets, follow the faithful +'pedagogues,' the body-servants appointed to conduct them to +school, give them informal instruction, and, if need be, correct +their faults in no painless manner. Besides the water maids +and the schoolboys, from the innumerable house doors now opening +the respective masters are stepping forth--followed by one, two, +or several serving varlets, as many as their wealth affords. All +these join in the crowd entering from the country. "Athenian +democracy" always implies a goodly amount of hustling and pushing. +No wonder the ways are a busy sight! + + +11. The Streets and House Fronts of Athens.--Progress is slower near +the Market Place because of the extreme narrowness of the streets. +They are only fifteen feet wide or even less,--intolerable alleys +a later age would call them,--and dirty to boot. Sometimes they +are muddy, more often extremely dusty. Worse still, they are +contaminated by great accumulations of filth; for the city is without +an efficient sewer system or regular scavengers. Even as the crowd +elbows along, a house door will frequently open, an ill-favored +slave boy show his head, and with the yell, "Out of the way!" slap +a bucket of dirty water into the street. There are many things to +offend the nose as well as the eyes of men of a later race. It is +fortunate indeed that the Athenians are otherwise a healthy folk, +or they would seem liable to perpetual pestilence; even so, great +plagues have in past years harried the city[*]. + +[*]The most fearful thereof was the great plague of 430 B.C. (during +the Peloponnesian War), which nearly ruined Athens. + +The first entrance to Athens will thus bring to a stranger, full of +the city's fame and expectant of meeting objects of beauty at every +turn, almost instant disappointment. The narrow, dirty, ill-paved +streets are also very crooked. One can readily be lost in a +labyrinth of filthy little lanes the moment one quits the few main +thoroughfares. High over head, to be sure, the red crags of the +Acropolis may be towering, crowned with the red, gold, and white +tinted marble of the temples, but all around seems only monotonous +squalor. The houses seem one continuous series of blank walls; +mostly of one, occasionally of two stories, and with flat roofs. +These walls are usually spread over with some dirty gray or perhaps +yellow stucco. For most houses, the only break in the street walls +are the simple doors, all jealously barred and admitting no glance +within. There are usually no street windows, if the house is only +one story high. If it has two stories, a few narrow slits above +the way may hint that here are the apartments for the slaves or +women. There are no street numbers. There are often no street +names. "So-and-so lives in such-and-such a quarter, near the +Temple of Heracles;" that will enable you to find a householder, +after a few tactful questions from the neighbors; and after all, +Athens is a relatively small city[*] (as great cities are reckoned), +very closely built, and her regular denizens do not feel the need +of a directory. + +[*]Every guess at the population of Athens rests on mere conjecture; +yet, using the scanty data which we possess, it seems possible +that THE POPULATION OF ALL ATTICA at the height of its prosperity +was about 200,000 FREE PERSONS (including the METICS--resident +foreigners without citizenship); and a rather smaller number of +slaves--say 150,000 or less. Of this total of some 350,000, probably +something under one half resided in the city of Athens during times +of peace, the rest in the outlying farms and villages. ATHENS MAY +BE IMAGINED AS A CITY OF ABOUT 150,000--possibly a trifle more. +During serious wars there would be of course a general removal into +the city. + +So the crowd elbows its way onward: now thinning, now gaining, +but the main stream always working towards the Market Place. + + + +12. The Simplicity of Athenian Life.--It is clear we are entering +a city where nine tenths of what the twentieth century will consider +the "essential conveniences" of life are entirely lacking; where +men are trying to be civilized--or, as the Greeks would say, to lay +hold upon "the true, the beautiful, and the good," without even the +absolute minimum of those things which people of a later age will +believe separate a "civilized man" from a "barbarian." The gulf +between old Athens and, for instance, new Chicago is greater than +is readily supposed[*]. It is easy enough to say that the Athenians +lacked such things as railways, telephones, gas, grapefruit, +and cocktails. All such matters we realize were not known by our +fathers and grandfathers, and we are not yet so removed from THEM +that we cannot transport ourselves in imagination back to the +world of say 1820 A.D.; but the Athenians are far behind even our +grandfathers. When we investigate, we will find conditions like +these--houses absolutely without plumbing, beds without sheets, +rooms as hot or as cold as the outer air, only far more drafty. We +must cross rivers without bridges; we must fasten our clothes (or +rather our "two pieces of cloth") with two pins instead of with +a row of buttons; we must wear sandals without stockings (or go +barefoot); must warm ourselves over a pot of ashes; judge plays or +lawsuits on a cold winter morning sitting in the open air; we must +study poetry with very little aid from books, geography without +real maps, and politics without newspapers; and lastly, "we must +learn how to be civilized without being comfortable!"[+] + +[*]See the very significant comment on the physical limitations +of the old Athenian life in Zimmern's "The Greek Commonwealth," p. +209. + +[+]Zimmern, ibid. + +Or, to reverse the case: we must understand that an Athenian would +have pronounced our boasted "civilization" hopelessly artificial, +and our life so dependent on outward material props and factors +as to be scarcely worth the living. He would declare himself well +able to live happily under conditions where the average American +or Englishman would be cold, semi-starved, and miserable. He would +declare that HIS woe or happiness was retained far more under his own +control than we retain ours, and that we are worthy of contemptuous +pity rather than of admiration, because we have refined our +civilization to such a point that the least accident, e.g. the +suspension of rail traffic for a few days, can reduce a modern city +to acute wretchedness. + +Probably neither the twentieth century in its pride, nor the fourth +century B.C. in its contempt, would have all the truth upon its +side.[*] The difference in viewpoint, however, must still stand. +Preminently Athens may be called the "City of the Simple Life." +Bearing this fact in mind, we may follow the multitude and enter +the Marketplace; or, to use the name that stamps it as a peculiarly +Greek institution,--the Agora. + +[*]The mere matter of CLIMATE would of course have to come in as +a serious factor. The Athenian would have found his life becoming +infinitely more complex along the material side when he tried +to live like a "kalos-k'agathos"--i.e. a "noble and good man," or +a "gentleman,"--in a land where the thermometer might sink to 15 +below zero Fahrenheit (or even lower) from time to time during the +winter. + + + + + +Chapter III. The Agora and its Denizens. + + + + +13. The Buildings around the Agora.--Full market time![*] The great +plaza of the Agora is buzzing with life. The contrast between the +dingy, dirty streets and this magnificent public plaza is startling. +The Athenians manifestly care little for merely private display, +rather they frown upon it; their wealth, patriotism, and best +artistic energy seem all lavished upon their civic establishments +and buildings. + +[*]Between nine and twelve A.M. + +The Agora is a square of spacious dimensions, planted here and +there with graceful bay trees. Its greatest length runs north and +south. Ignoring for the time the teeming noisy swarms of humanity, +let our eyes be directed merely upon the encircling buildings. The +place is almost completely enclosed by them, although not all are +of equal elegance or pretension. Some are temples of more or less +size, like the temple of the "Paternal Apollo" near the southwestern +angle; or the "Metron," the fane of Cybele "the Great Mother +of the Gods," upon the south. Others are governmental buildings; +somewhat behind the Metron rise the imposing pillars of the Council +House, where the Five Hundred are deliberating on the policy of +Athens; and hard by that is the Tholos, the "Round House," with a +peaked, umbrella-shaped roof, beneath which the sacred public hearth +fire is ever kept burning, and where the presiding Committee of +the Council[*] and certain high officials take their meals, and a +good deal of state business is transacted. The majority of these +buildings upon the Agora, however, are covered promenades, porticoes, +or sto. + +[*]This select committee was known technically as the "Prytanes." + +The sto are combinations of rain shelters, shops, picture galleries, +and public offices. Turn under the pillars of the "Royal Stoa" +upon the west, and you are among the whispering, nudging, intent +crowd of listeners, pushing against the barriers of a low court. +Long rows of jurors are sitting on their benches; the "King Archon" +is on the president's stand, and some poor wight is being arraigned +on a charge of "Impiety"[*]; while on the walls behind stand graved +and ancient laws of Draco and Solon. + +[*]The so-called "King Archon" had special cognizance of most cases +involving religious questions; and his court was in this stoa. + +Cross the square, and on the opposite side is one of the most +magnificent of the porticoes, the "Painted Porch" ("Stoa Poikil"), +a long covered walk, a delightful refuge alike from sun and rain. +Almost the entire length of the inner walls (for it has columns +only on the side of the Agora) is covered with vivid frescoes. Here +Polygnotus and other master painters have spread out the whole +legendary story of the capture of Troy and of the defeat of the +Amazons; likewise the more historical tale of the battle of Marathon. +Yet another promenade, the "Stoa of Zeus," is sacred to Zeus, Giver +of Freedom. The walls are not frescoed, but hung with the shields +of valiant Athenian warriors. + +In the open spaces of the plaza itself are various alters, e.g. to +the "Twelve Gods," and innumerable statues of local worthies, as +of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the tyrant-slayers; while across the +center, cutting the Market Place from east to west, runs a line of +stone posts, each surmounted with a rude bearded head of Hermes, +the trader's god; and each with its base plastered many times over +with all kinds of official and private placards and notices. + + +14. The Life in the Agora.--So much for the physical setting of +the Agora: of far greater interest surely are the people. The +whole square is abounding with noisy activity. If an Athenian has +no actual business to transact, he will at least go to the Agora +to get the morning news. Two turns under the "Painted Porch" will +tell him the last rumor as to the foreign policy of Thebes; whether +it is true that old King Agesilaus has died at Sparta; whether corn +is likely to be high, owning to a failure of crops in the Euxine +(Black Sea) region; whether the "Great King" of Persia is prospering +in his campaign against Egypt. The crowd is mostly clad in white, +though often the cloaks of the humbler visitors are dirty, but there +is a sprinkling of gay colors,--blue, orange, and pink. Everybody +is talking at once in melodious Attic; everybody (since they are +all true children of the south) is gesticulating at once. To the +babel of human voices is added the wheezing whistle of donkeys, +the squealing of pigs, the cackle of poultry. Besides, from many +of the little factories and workshops on or near the Agora a great +din is rising. The clamor is prodigious. Criers are stalking +up and down the square, one bawling out that Andocides has lost a +valuable ring and will pay well to recover it; another the Pheidon +has a desirable horse that he will sell cheap. One must stand +still for some moments and let eye and ear accustom themselves to +such utter confusion. + + +15. The Booths and Shops in the Agora.--At length out of the chaos +there seems to emerge a certain order. The major part of the square +is covered with little booths of boards and wicker work, very frail +and able to be folded up, probably every night. There are little +lanes winding amid these booths; and each manner of huckster has +its own especial "circle" or section of the market. "Go to the +wine," "to the fish," "to the myrtles" (i.e. the flowers), are +common directions for finding difficult parts of the Agora. Trade +is mostly on a small scale,--the stock of each vendor is distinctly +limited in its range, and Athens is without "department stores." Behind +each low counter, laden with its wares, stands the proprietor, who +keeps up a din from leathern lungs: "Buy my oil!" "Buy charcoal!" +"Buy sausage!" etc., until he is temporarily silenced while dealing +with a customer. + +In one "circle" may be found onions and garlic (a favorite food +of the poor); a little further on are the dealers in wine, fruit, +and garden produce. Lentils and peas can be had either raw, or +cooked and ready to eat on the spot. An important center is the +bread market. The huge cylindrical loaves are handed out by shrewd +old women with proverbially long tongues. Whosoever upsets one of +their delicately balanced piles of loaves is certain of an artistic +tongue lashing. Elsewhere there is a pottery market, a clothes +market, and, nearer the edge of the Agora, are "circles," where +objects of real value are sold, like jewelry, chariots, good +furniture. In certain sections, too, may be seen strong-voiced +individuals, with little trays swung by straps before them, pacing +to and fro, and calling out, not foods, but medicines, infallible +cure-alls for every human distemper. Many are the unwary fools +who patronize them. + + +16. The Flower and the Fish Vendors.--Two circles attract especial +attention, the Myrtles and the Fish. Flowers and foliage, especially +when made up into garlands, are absolutely indispensable to the +average Greek. Has he a great family festival, e.g. the birth +of a son, then every guest should wear a crown of olives; is it a +wedding, then one of flowers.[*] Oak-leaves do the honors for Zeus; +laurel for Apollo; myrtle for Aphrodite (and is not the Love-Goddess +the favorite?). To have a social gathering without garlands, in +short, is impossible. The flower girls of Athens are beautiful, +impudent, and not at all prudish. Around their booths press +bold-tongued youths, and not too discreet sires; and the girls can +call everybody familiarly by name. Very possibly along with the +sale of the garlands they make arrangements (if the banquet is +to be of the less respectable kind) to be present in the evening +themselves, perhaps in the capacity of flute girls. + +[*]The Greeks lacked many of our common flowers. Their ordinary +flowers were white violets, narcissus, lilies, crocuses, blue +hyacinths, and roses ("the Flower of Zeus"). The usual garland +was made of myrtle or ivy and then entwined with various flowers. + +More reputable, though not less noisy, is the fish market. Athenians +boast themselves of being no hearty "meat eaters" like their Botian +neighbors, but of preferring the more delicate fish. No dinner +party is successful without a seasonable course of fish. The arrival +of a fresh cargo from the harbor is announced by the clanging of +a bell, which is likely to leave all the other booths deserted, +while a crowd elbows around the fishmonger. He above all others +commands the greatest flow of billingsgate, and is especially notorious +for his arrogant treatment of his customers, and for exacting the +uttermost farthing. The "Fish" and the "Myrtles" can be sure of +a brisk trade on days when all the other booth keepers around the +Agora stand idle. + +All this trade, of course, cannot find room in the booths of the +open Agora. Many hucksters sit on their haunches on the level +ground with their few wares spread before them. Many more have +little stands between the pillars of the sto; and upon the various +streets that converge on the market there is a fringe of shops, +but these are usually of the more substantial sort. Here are the +barbers' shops, the physicians' offices (if the good leech is more +than an itinerant quack), and all sorts of little factories, such +as smithies, where the cutler's apprentices in the rear of the shop +forge the knives which the proprietor sells over the counter, the +slave repositories, and finally wine establishments of no high +repute, where wine may not merely be bought by the skin (as in the +main Agora), but by the potful to be drunk on the premises. + + +17. The Morning Visitors to the Agora.--The first tour of inspection +completed, several facts become clear to the visitor. One is the +extraordinarily large proportion of MEN among the moving multitudes. +Except for the bread women and the flower girls, hardly one female +is to be found among the sellers. Among the purchasers there is +not a single reputable lady. No Athenian gentlewoman dreams of +frequenting the Agora. Even a poor man's wife prefers to let her +spouse do the family marketing. As for the "men folk," the average +gentleman will go daily indeed to the Agora, but if he is really +pretentious, it will be merely to gossip and to meet his friends; +a trusted servant will attend to the regular purchasing. Only when +an important dinner party is on hand will the master take pains to +order for himself. If he does purchase in person, he will never +CARRY anything himself. The slaves can attend to that; and only +the slaveless (the poorest of all) must take away their modest +rations of boiled lentils, peas, beans, onions, and garlic, usually +in baskets, though yonder now is a soldier who is bearing off a +measure of boiled peas inside his helmet. + +Another thing is striking. The average poor Athenian seems to +have no purse. Or rather he uses the purse provided by nature. At +every booth one can see unkempt buyers solemnly taking their small +change from their mouths.[*] Happy the people that has not learned +the twentieth century wisdom concerning microbes! For most Athenians +seem marvelously healthy. + +[*]A wealthier purchaser would, of course, have his own pouch, or +more probably one carried for him by a slave. + +Still one other fact is brought home constantly. "Fixed prices" +are absolutely unknown. The slightest transaction involves a war of +bargaining. Wits are matched against wits, and only after a vast +deal of wind do buyer and seller reach a fair compromise. All +this makes retail trade in the Agora an excellent school for public +affairs or litigation. + + +18. The Leisured Class in Athens.--Evidently Athens, more than +many later-day cities, draws clear lines between the workers and the +"gentlemen of leisure." There is no distinction of dress between +the numerous slaves and the humbler free workers and traders; but +there is obvious distinction between the artisan of bent shoulders +who shambles out of yonder pungent tannery, with his scant garments +girded around him, and the graceful gentleman of easy gestures +and flowing drapery who moves towards the Tholos. There is great +POLITICAL democracy in Athens, but not so much SOCIAL democracy. +"Leisure," i.e. exemption from every kind of sordid, money-getting, +hard work, is counted the true essential for a respectable existence, +and to live on the effort of others and to devote oneself to public +service or to letters and philosophy is the open satisfaction or +the private longing of every Athenian. + +A great proportion of these, therefore, who frequent the Agora are +not here on practical business, unless they have official duties +at the government offices.[*] But in no city of any age has the +gracious art of doing nothing been brought to such perfection. +The Athenians are an intensely gregarious people. Everybody knows +everybody else. Says an orator, "It is impossible for a man to +be either a rascal or an honest man in this city without your all +knowing it." Few men walk long alone; if they do keep their own +company, they are frowned on as "misanthropes." The morning visit +to the Agora "to tell or to hear some new thing"[+] will be followed +by equally delightful idling and conversation later in the day at +the Gymnasia, and later still, probably, at the dinner-party. Easy +and unconventional are the personal greetings. A little shaking +out of the mantle, an indescribable flourish with the hands. A +free Greek will despise himself for "bowing," even to the Great +King. To clasp hands implies exchanging a pledge, something for +more than mere salutation. + +"Chaire, Aristomenes!" + +"Chaire, Cleandros!" + +Such is the usual greeting, using an expressive word which can mean +equally well "hail!" and "farewell!" + +[*]To serve the state in any official capacity (usually without any +salary attached to the office) would give the highest satisfaction +to any Greek. The desire for participation in public affairs might +be described as a mania. + +[+]Acts of the Apostles, 17:21. + + +19. Familiar Types around the Agora.--These animated, eager-faced +men whose mantles fall in statuesque folds prefer obviously to walk +under the Painted Porch, or the blue roof of heaven, while they +evolve their philosophies, mature their political schemes, or +organize the material for their orations and dramas, rather than to +bend over desks within close offices. Around the Athenian Agora, +a true type of this preference, and busy with this delightful +idleness, half a century earlier could have been seen a droll +figure with "indescribable nose, bald head, round body, eyes rolling +and twinkling with good humor," scantily clad,--an incorrigible +do-nothing, windbag, and hanger-on, a later century might assert,--yet +history has given to him the name of Socrates. + +Not all Athenians, of course, make such justifiable use of their +idleness. There are plenty of young men parading around in long +trailing robes, their hair oiled and curled most effeminately, +their fingers glittering with jewels,--"ring-loaded, curly-locked +coxcombs," Aristophanes, the comic poet, has called them,--and +they are here only for silly display. Also there are many of their +elders who have no philosophy or wit to justify their continuous +talking; nevertheless, all considered, it must be admitted that +the Athenian makes a use of their dearly loved "leisure," which +men of a more pragmatic race will do well to consider as the fair +equivalent of much frantic zeal for "business." Athenian "leisure" has +already given the world Pericles, Thucydides, schylus, Sophocles, +Euripides, Socrates, and Plato, not to name such artists as Phidias, +whose profession cannot exempt them from a certain manual occupation. + + +20. The Barber Shops.--This habit of genteel idleness naturally +develops various peculiar institutions. For example, the barber +shops are almost club rooms. Few Hellenes at this time shave their +beards[*], but to go with unkempt whiskers and with too long hair +is most disgraceful. The barber shops, booths, or little rooms let +into the street walls of the houses, are therefore much frequented. +The good tonsors have all the usual arts. They can dye gray hair +brown or black; they can wave or curl their patrons' locks (and +an artificially curled head is no disgrace to a man). Especially, +they keep a good supply of strong perfumes; for many people will +want a little scent on their hair each morning, even if they wish +no other attention. But it is not an imposition to a barber to +enter his shop, yet never move towards his low stool before the +shining steel mirror. Anybody is welcome to hang around indefinitely, +listening to the proprietor's endless flow of talk. He will pride +himself on knowing every possible bit of news or rumor: Had the +Council resolved on a new fleet-building program? Had the Tyrant +of Syracuse's "four" the best chance in the chariot race in the +next Olympic games? The garrulity of barbers is already proverbial. + +[*] Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.) required his soldiers to be +shaved (as giving less grasp for the enemy!), and the habit then +spread generally through the whole Hellenic world. + +"How shall I cut your hair, sir?" once asked the court tonsure of +King Archelus of Macedon. + +"In silence," came the grim answer. + +But the proprietor will not do all the talking. Everybody in the +little room will join. Wits will sharpen against wits; and if the +company is of a grave and respectable sort, the conversation will +grow brisk upon Plato's theory of the "reality of ideas," upon +Euripides's interpretation of the relations of God to man, or upon +the spiritual symbolism of Scopas's bas-reliefs at Halicarnassus. + +The barber shops by the Agora then are essential portions of +Athenian social life. Later we shall see them supplemented by the +Gymnasia;--but the Agora has detained us long enough. The din and +crowds are lessening. People are beginning to stream homeward. +It lacks a little of noon according to the "time-staff" (gnomon), +a simple sun dial which stands near one of the porticoes, and we +will now follow some Athenian gentleman towards his dwelling. + + + + + +Chapter IV. The Athenian House and its Furnishings. + + + + +21. Following an Athenian Gentleman Homeward.--Leaving the Agora +and rentering the streets the second impression of the residence +districts becomes more favorable. There are a few bay trees planted +from block to block; and ever and anon the monotonous house walls +recede, giving space to display some temple, like the Fane of +Hephstos[*] near the Market Place, its columns and pediment flashing +not merely with white marble, but with the green, scarlet, and gold +wherewith the Greeks did not hesitate to decorate their statuary. + +[*]Wrongly called the "Theseum" in modern Athens. + +At street corners and opposite important mansions a Hermes-bust +like those in the plaza rises, and a very few houses have a couple +of pillars at their entrances and some outward suggestion of hidden +elegance. + +We observe that almost the entire crowd leaving the Agora goes +on foot. To ride about in a chariot is a sign of undemocratic +presumption; while only women or sick men will consent to be borne +in a litter. We will select a sprucely dressed gentleman who has +just been anointed in a barber's shop and accompany him to his home. +He is neither one of the decidedly rich, otherwise his establishment +would be exceptional, not typical, nor is he of course one of +the hard-working poor. Followed by perhaps two clean and capable +serving lads, he wends his way down several of the narrow lanes that +lie under the northern brow of the Acropolis[*]. Before a plain +solid house door he halts and cries, "Pai! Pai!" ["Boy! Boy!"]. +There is a rattle of bolts and bars. A low-visaged foreign-born +porter, whose business it is to show a surly front to all unwelcome +visitors, opens and gives a kind of salaam to his master; while +the porter's huge dog jumps up barking and pawing joyously. + +[*]This would be a properly respectable quarter of the city, but +we do not know of any really "aristocratic residence district" in +Athens. + +As we enter behind him (carefully advancing with right foot foremost, +for it is bad luck to tread a threshold with the LEFT) we notice +above the lintel some such inscription as "Let no evil enter here!" +or "To the Good Genius," then a few steps through a narrow passage +bring us into the Aula, the central court, the indispensable feature +of every typical Greek house. + + +22. The Type and use of a Greek House.--All domestic architecture, +later investigators will discover, falls into two great categories--of +the northern house and the southern house. The northern house begins +with a single large room, "the great hall," then lesser rooms are +added to it. It gets its light from windows in the outer walls, +and it is covered by a single steep roof. The southern (Greek and +Oriental) house is a building inclosing a rectangular court. The +rooms, many or few, get their light from this court, while they +are quite shut off from the world outside. All in all, for warm +climates this style of house is far more airy, cool, comfortable +than the other. The wide open court becomes the living room of +the house save in very inclement weather. + +Socrates is reported to have uttered what was probably the average +sensible view about a good house.[*] The good house, he thought, +should be cool in summer, and warm in winter, convenient for the +accommodation of the family and its possessions. The central rooms +should therefore be lofty and should open upon the south, yet for +protection in summer there should be good projecting eaves (over +the court) and again the rooms on the northern exposure should be +made lower. All this is mere sense, but really the average male +Athenian does not care a great deal about his dwelling. He spends +surprisingly little money beautifying it. Unless he is sick, he +will probably be at home only for sleeping and eating. The Agora, +the Public Assembly, the Jury Courts, the Gymnasium, the great +religious festivals consume his entire day. "I never spend my time +indoors," says Xenophon's model Athenian, "my wife is well able +to run the household by herself."[+] Such being the case, even +wealthy men have very simple establishments, although it is at length +complained (e.g. by Demosthenes) that people are now building more +luxurious houses, and are not content with the plain yet sufficient +dwellings of the great age of Pericles.[@] + +[*]In Xenophon's "Memorabilia," III. 8, 9,10. + +[+]Xenophon, "Economics," VII. 3. + +[@]Very probably in such outlying Greek cities as Syracuse, Taras +(Tarentum), etc., more elegant houses could be found than any at +this time in Athens. + + +23. The Plan of a Greek House.--The plan of a Greek house naturally +varies infinitely according to the size of the land plot, the size +of the owner's family, his own taste, and wealth. It will usually +be rectangular, with the narrower side toward the street; but this +is not invariable. In the larger houses there will be two courts +(aul), one behind the other, and each with its own circuit of +dependent chambers. The court first entered will be the Andronitis +(the Court of the Men), and may be even large enough to afford a +considerable promenade for exercise. Around the whole of the open +space run lines of simple columns, and above the opening swings an +awning if the day is very hot. In the very center rises a small +stone alter with a statue of Zeus the Protector (Zeus Herkeos), +where the father of the family will from time to time offer sacrifice, +acting as the priest for the household. Probably already on the +alter there has been laid a fresh garland; if not, the newcomers +from the Agora have now fetched one. + + ++---------------------+ +| | +| GARDEN | +| | ++----+-----------+----+ Conjectural Plan for the House +| Y | D | Y | of A Wealthy Athenian. +| | | | ++--+=+-----=-----+=+--+ A = Alter of Zeus Herkelos. +| | | | B = Alter of Hestia. +|Y = o o o o = Y| C = Entrance Hall. +| | o o | | D = Kitchen. ++--+ GYNAECONITIS +--+ T = Thalmos. +| | o o | | T' = Anti-thalmos. +|Y = o o o o = Y| X = Rooms for the Men. +| | | | Y = Rooms for the Women. ++--+=+-----=-+---+=+--+ +| | |B o| | +| T | +---+ T' | +| | ANDRON | | ++----+ +----+ +| X | | X | ++--+=+----' '----+=+--+ +|X = o o o o = X| ++--+ o A o +--+ +|X = o O o = X| ++--+ ANDRONITIS +--+ +|X = o o o o = X| ++--+=+-=-+ +-=-+=+--+ +| | | | | | +| X | X | C | X | X | +| | | | | | ++----+---+===+---+----+ + + +The Andronitis is the true living room of the house: here the +master will receive his visitors, here the male slaves will work, +and the women also busy themselves (promptly retiring, however, +on the appearance of masculine strangers). The decoration is very +plain: the walls are neatly tinted with some kind of wash; the +floor is of simple plaster, or, in a humbler house, common earth +pounded hard. Under the colonnade at all four sides open the +various chambers, possibly twelve in all. They really are cells +or compartments rather than rooms, small and usually lighted only +by their doors. Some are used for storerooms, some for sleeping +closets for the male slaves and for the grown-up sons of the +house, if there are any. Dark, ill ventilated, and most scantily +furnished, it is no wonder that the average Athenian loves the +Agora better than his chamber. + +The front section of the house is now open to us, but it is time +to penetrate farther. Directly behind the open court is a sizable +chamber forming a passage to the inner house. This chamber is the +Andron, the dining hall and probably the most pretentious room in +the house. Here the guests will gather for the dinner party, and +here in one corner smokes the family hearth, once the real fire for +the whole household cooking, but now merely a symbol of the domestic +worship. It is simply a little round alter sacred to Hestia, the +hearth goddess,[*] and on its duly rekindled flame little "meat +offerings and drink offerings" are cast at every meal, humble or +elaborate. + +[*]Who corresponds to the Roman goddess Vesta. + +In the rear wall of the Andron facing the Andronitis is a solid +door. We are privileged guests indeed if we pass it. Only the +father, sons, or near male kinsmen of the family are allowed to go +inside, for it leads into the Gynconitis, the hall of the women. +To thrust oneself into the Gynconitis of even a fairly intimate +friend is a studied insult at Athens, and sure to be resented by +bodily chastisement, social ostracism, and a ruinous legal prosecution. +The Gynconitis is in short the Athenian's holy of holies. Their +women are forbidden to participate in so much of public life that +their own peculiar world is especially reserved to them. To invade +this world is not bad breeding; it is social sacrilege. + +In the present house, the home of a well-to-do family, the Gynconitis +forms a second pillared court with adjacent rooms of substantially +the same size and shape as the Andronitis. One of the rooms in +the very rear is proclaimed by the clatter of pots and pans and +the odor of a frying turbot to be the kitchen; others are obviously +the sleeping closets of the slave women. On the side nearest to +the front of the house, but opening itself upon this inner court, +is at least one bed chamber of superior size. This is the Thalamos, +the great bedroom of the master and mistress, and here are kept all +the most costly furnishings and ornaments in the house. If there +are grown-up unmarried daughters, they have another such bedroom +(anti-thalamos) that is much larger than the cells of the slave +girls. Another special room is set apart for the working of wool, +although this chief occupation of the female part of the household +is likely to be carried on in the open inner court itself, if the +weather is fine. Here, around a little flower bed, slave girls +are probably spinning and embroidering, young children playing or +quarreling, and a tame quail is hopping about and watching for a +crumb. There are in fact a great many people in a relatively small +space; everything is busy, chattering, noisy, and confusing to an +intruding stranger. + +24. Modifications in the Typical Plan.--These are the essential +features of an Athenian house. If the establishment is a very +pretentious one, there may be a small garden in the rear carefully +hedged against intruders by a lofty wall.[*] More probably the +small size of the house lot would force simplifications in the +scheme already stated. In a house one degree less costly, the +Gynconitis would be reduced to a mere series of rooms shut off in +the rear. In more simple houses still there would be no interior +section of the house at all. The women of the family would be +provided for by a staircase rising from the main hall to a second +story, and here a number of upper chambers would give the needful +seclusion.[+] Of course as one goes down the social scale, the +houses grow simpler and simpler. Small shops are set into the +street wall at either side of the entrance door, and on entering +one finds himself in a very limited and utterly dingy court with +a few dirty compartments opening thence, which it would be absurd +to dignify by the name of "rooms." Again one ceases to wonder +that the male Athenians are not "home folk" and are glad to leave +their houses to the less fortunate women! + +[*]Such a luxury would not be common in city houses; land would be +too valuable. + +[+]Houses of more than two stories seem to have been unknown +in Athens. The city lacked the towering rookeries of tenements +(insul) which were characteristic of Rome; sometimes, however, a +house seems to have been shared between several families. + + +25. Rents and House Values.--Most native Athenians own their houses. +Houses indeed can be rented, usually by the foreign traders and +visitors who swam into the city; and at certain busy seasons one can +hire "lodgings" for a brief sojourn. Rents are not unreasonable, +8% or 8 1/3% of the value of the house being counted a fair annual +return. But the average citizen is also a householder, because +forsooth houses are very cheap. The main cost is probably for +the land. The chief material used in building, sun-dried brick, +is very unsubstantial,[*] and needs frequent repairs, but is +not expensive. Demosthenes the Orator speaks of a "little house" +(doubtless of the kind last described) worth only seven minu [about +$126.00 (1914) or $2,242.80 (2000)], and this is not the absolute +minimum. A very rich banker has had one worth 100 minu [about +$1,800.00 (1914) or $32,040.00 (2000)], and probably this is close +to the maximum. The rent question is not therefore one of the +pressing problems at Athens. + +[*]This material was so friable and poor that the Greek burglar +was known as a "Wall-digger." It did not pay him to pick a lock; +it was simpler for him to quarry his way through the wall with a +pickax. + + +26. The Simple yet Elegant Furnishings of an Athenian Home.--These +houses, even owned by the lordly rich, are surprisingly simple +in their furnishings. The accumulation of heavy furniture, wall +decorations, and bric-a-brac which will characterize the dwellings +of a later age, would be utterly offensive to an Athenian--contradicting +all his ideas of harmony and "moderation." The Athenian house +lacks of course bookcases and framed pictures. It probably too +lacks any genuine closets. Beds, couches, chairs (usually backless), +stools, footstools, and small portable tables,--these alone seem +in evidence. In place of bureaus, dressers and cupboards, there +are huge chests, heavy and carved, in which most of the household +gear can be locked away. In truth, the whole style of Greek +household life expresses that simplicity on which we have already +commented. Oriental carpets are indeed met with, but they are +often used as wall draperies or couch covers rather than upon the +floors. Greek costume (see p. 43) is so simple that there is small +need for elaborate chests of drawers, and a line of pegs upon the +wall cares for most of the family wardrobe. + +All this is true; yet what furniture one finds is fashioned with +commendable grace. There is a marked absence of heavy and unhealthful +upholstery; but the simple bed (four posts sustaining a springless +cushion stuffed with feathers or wool) has its woodwork adorned +with carving which is a true mean betwixt the too plain and the +too ornate; and the whole bed is given an elegant effect by the +magnificently embroidered scarlet tapestry which overspreads it. +The lines of the legs of the low wooden tables which are used at +the dinner parties will be a lesson (if we have time to study them) +upon just proportion and the value of subtle curves. Moreover, +the different household vessels, the stone and bronze lamps, the +various table dishes, even the common pottery put to the humblest +uses, all have a beauty, a chaste elegance, a saving touch of deft +ornamentation, which transforms them out of "kitchen ware" into +works of art. Those black water pots covered with red-clay figures +which the serving maids are bearing so carelessly into the scullery +at the screaming summons of the cook will be some day perchance +the pride of a museum, and teach a later age that costly material +and aristocratic uses are not needful to make an article supremely +beautiful. + +Of course the well-to-do Athenian is proud to possess certain +"valuables." He will have a few silver cups elegantly chased, +and at least one diner's couch in the andron will be made of rare +imported wood, and be inlaid with gilt or silver. On festival +days the house will be hung with brilliant and elaborately wrought +tapestries which will suddenly emerge from the great chests. Also, +despite frowns and criticisms, the custom is growing of decorating +one's walls with bright-lined frescoes after the manner of the Agora +colonnades. In the course of a few generations the homes of the +wealthier Greeks will come to resemble those of the Romans, such +as a later age has resurrected at Pompeii. + + + + + +Chapter V. The Women of Athens. + + + +27. How Athenian Marriages are Arranged.--Over this typical Athenian +home reigns the wife of the master. Public opinion frowns upon +celibacy, and there are relatively few unmarried men in Athens. +An Athenian girl is brought up with the distinct expectation of +matrimony.[*] Opportunities for a romance almost never will come +her way; but it is the business of her parents to find her a suitable +husband. If they are kindly people of good breeding, their choice +is not likely to be a very bad one. If they have difficulties, +they can engage a professional "matchmaker," a shrewd old woman +who, for a fee, will hunt out an eligible young man. Marriage is +contracted primarily that there may be legitimate children to keep +up the state and to perpetuate the family. That the girl should +have any will of her own in the matter is almost never thought of. +Very probably she has never seen "Him," save when they both were +marching in a public religious procession, or at some rare family +gathering (a marriage or a funeral) when there were outside guests. +Besides she will be "given away" when only about fifteen, and +probably has formed no intelligent opinion or even prejudices on +the subject. + +[*]The vile custom of exposing unwelcome female babies probably +created a certain preponderance of males in Attica, and made it +relatively easy to marry off a desirable young girl. + +If a young man (who will marry at about thirty) is independent in +life, the negotiations will be with him directly. If he is still +dependent on the paternal allowance, the two sets of parents will +usually arrange matters themselves, and demand only the formal +consent of the prospective bridegroom. He will probably accept +promptly this bride whom his father has selected; if not, he risks +a stormy encounter with his parents, and will finally capitulate. +He has perhaps never seen "Her," and can only hope things are for +the best; and after all she is so young that his friends tell him +that he can train her to be very useful and obedient if he will only +take pains. The parents, or, failing them, the guardians, adjust +the dowry--the lump sum which the bride will bring with her towards +the new establishment.[*] Many maxims enjoin "marry only your equal +in fortune." The poor man who weds an heiress will not be really +his own master; the dread of losing the big dowry will keep him in +perpetual bondage to her whims. + +[*]The dowry was a great protection to the bride. If her husband +divorced her (as by law he might), the dowry must be repaid to her +guardians with 18 per cent. interest. + + +28. Lack of Sentiment in Marriages.--Sometimes marriages are +arranged in which any sentiment is obviously prohibited. A father +can betroth his daughter by will to some kinsman, who is to take +her over as his bride when he takes over the property. A husband +can bequeath his wife to some friend who is likely to treat her and +the orphan children with kindness. Such affairs occur every day. +Do the Athenian women revolt at these seemingly degrading conditions, +wherein they are handed around like slaves, or even cattle?--According +to the tragic poets they do. Sophocles (in the "Tereus") makes +them lament, + + +"We women are nothing;--happy indeed is our childhood, for THEN we +are thoughtless; but when we attain maidenhood, lo! we are driven +away from our homes, sold as merchandise, and compelled to marry +and say 'All's well.'" + + +Euripides is even more bitter in his "Medea":-- + + +Surely of creatures that have life and wit, +We women are of all things wretchedest, +Who first must needs, as buys the highest bidder, +Thus buy a husband, and our body's master.[*/ + + +[*]Way's translation. + + +29. Athenian Marriage Rites.--However, thus runs public custom. +At about fifteen the girl must leave her mother's fostering care +and enter the house of the stranger. The wedding is, of course, +a great ceremony; and here, if nowhere else, Athenian women can +surely prepare, flutter, and ordain to their heart's content. After +the somewhat stiff and formal betrothal before witnesses (necessary +to give legal effect to the marriage), the actual wedding will +probably take place,--perhaps in a few days, perhaps with a longer +wait till the favorite marriage month Gamelion [January].[*] Then +on a lucky night of the full moon the bride, having, no doubt +tearfully, dedicated to Artemis her childish toys, will be decked +in her finest and will come down, all veiled, into her father's +torchlit aula, swarming now with guests. Here will be at last +that strange master of her fate, the bridegroom and his best man +(paranymphos). Her father will offer sacrifice (probably a lamb), +and after the sacrifice everybody will feast on the flesh of the +victim; and also share a large flat cake of pounded sesame seeds +roasted and mixed with honey. As the evening advances the wedding +car will be outside the door. The mother hands the bride over to +the groom, who leads her to the chariot, and he and the groomsman +sit down, one on either side, while with torches and song the +friends to with the car in jovial procession to the house of the +young husband. + +[*]This winter month was sacred to Hera, the marriage guardian. + + +"Ho, Hymen! Ho, Hymen! Hymenous! Io!" + + +So rings the refrain of the marriage song; and all the doorways +and street corners are crowded with onlookers to shout fair wishes +and good-natured raillery. + +At the groom's house there is a volley of confetti to greet the +happy pair. The bride stops before the threshold to eat a quince.[*] +There is another feast,--possibly riotous fun and hard drinking. At +last the bride is led, still veiled, to the perfumed and flower-hung +marriage chamber. The doors close behind the married pair. Their +friends sing a merry rollicking catch outside, the Epithalamium. +The great day has ended. The Athenian girl has experienced the +chief transition of her life. + +[*]The symbol of fertility. + + +30. The Mental Horizon of Athenian Women.--Despite the suggestions +in the poets, probably the normal Athenian woman is neither degraded +nor miserable. If she is a girl of good ancestry and the usual +bringing up, she has never expected any other conditions than +these. She knows that her parents care for her and have tried to +secure for her a husband who will be her guardian and solace when +they are gone. Xenophon's ideal young husband, Ischomachus, says +he married his wife at the age of fifteen.[*] She had been "trained +to see and to hear as little as possible"; but her mother had taught +her to have a sound control of her appetite and of all kinds of +self-indulgence, to take wool and to make a dress of it, and to +manage the slave maids in their spinning tasks. She was at first +desperately afraid of her husband, and it was some time before he +had "tamed" her sufficiently to discuss their household problems +freely. Then Ischomachus made her join with him in a prayer to +the gods that "he might teach and she might learn all that could +conduce to their joint happiness"; after which they took admirable +counsel together, and her tactful and experienced husband (probably +more than twice her age) trained her into a model housewife. + +[*]See Xenophon's "The Economist," VII ff. The more pertinent +passages are quoted in W. S. Davis's "Readings in Ancient History," +Vol. I, pp. 265-271. + + +31. The Honor paid Womanhood in Athens.--Obviously from a young +woman with a limited intellectual horizon the Athenian gentleman +can expect no mental companionship; but it is impossible that he +can live in the world as a keenly intelligent being, and not come +to realize the enormous value of the "woman spirit" as +it affects all things good. Hera, Artemis, Aphrodite, above +all Pallas-Athena,--city-warder of Athens,--who are they all +but idealizations of that peculiar genius which wife, mother, and +daughter show forth every day in their homes? An Athenian never +allows his wife to visit the Agora. She cannot indeed go outside +the house without his express permission, and only then attended by +one or two serving maids; public opinion will likewise frown upon +the man who allowed his wife to appear in public too freely[*]; +nevertheless there are compensations. Within her home the Athenian +woman is within her kingdom. Her husband will respect her, because +he will respect himself. Brutal and harsh he may possibly be, but +that is because he is also brutal and harsh in his outside dealings. +In extreme cases an outraged wife can sue for divorce before the +archon. And very probably in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred +the Athenian woman is contented with her lot: partly because she +knows of nothing better; partly because she has nothing concrete +whereof to complain. + +[*]Hypereides, the orator, says, "The woman who goes out of her +own home ought to be of such an age that when men meet her, the +question is not 'Who is her husband?' but 'Whose mother is she?'" +Pericles, in the great funeral oration put in his mouth by Thucydides, +says that the best women are those who are talked of for good or +ill the very least. + +Doubtless it is because an Athenian house is a "little oasis +of domesticity," tenderly guarded from all insult,--a miniature +world whose joys and sorrows are not to be shared by the outer +universe,--that the Athenian treats the private affairs of his +family as something seldom to be shared, even with an intimate +friend. Of individual women we hear and see little in Athens, but +of NOBLE WOMANHOOD a great deal. By a hundred tokens, delightful +vase paintings, noble monuments, poetic myths, tribute is paid to +the self-mastery, the self-forgetfulness, the courage, the gentleness "of +the wives and mothers who have made Athens the beacon of Hellas"; +and there is one witness better than all the rest. Along the +"Street of Tombs," by the gate of the city, runs the long row of +stel (funeral monuments), inimitable and chaste memorials to the +beloved dead; and here we meet, many times over, the portrayal of +a sorrow too deep for common lament, the sorrow for the lovely and +gracious figures who have passed into the great Mystery. Along +the Street of the Tombs the wives and mothers of Athens are honored +not less than the wealthy, the warriors, or the statesmen. + + +32. The Sphere of Action of Athenian Women.--Assuredly the Athenian +house mother cannot match her husband in discussing philosophy or +foreign politics, but she has her own home problems and confronts +them well. A dozen or twenty servants must be kept busy. From +her, all the young children must get their first education, and the +girls probably everything they are taught until they are married. +Even if she does not meet many men, she will strive valiantly to +keep the good opinion of her husband. If she has shapely feet and +hands (whereupon great stress is laid in Hellas), she will do her +utmost to display them to the greatest advantage[*]; and she has, +naturally, plenty of other vanities (see 38). Her husband has +turned over to her the entire management of the household. This +means that if he is an easy-going man, she soon understands his +home business far better than he does himself, and really has him +quite at her mercy. Between caring for her husband's wants, nursing +the sick slaves, acting as arbitress in their inevitable disputes, +keeping a constant watch upon the storeroom, and finally in attending +to the manufacture of nearly all the family clothing, she is not +likely to rust in busy idleness, or sit complaining of her lot. At +the many great public festivals she is always at least an onlooker +and often she marches proudly in the magnificent processions. She +is allowed to attend the tragedies in the theater.[+] Probably, +too, the family will own a country farm, and spend a part of the +year thereon. Here she will be allowed a delightful freedom of +movement, impossible in the closely built city. All in all, then, +she will complain of too much enforced activity rather than of too +much idleness. + +[*]The custom of wearing sandals instead of shoes of course aided +the developing of beautiful feet. + +[+]Not the comedies--they were too broad for refined women. But +the fact that Athenian ladies seem to have been allowed to attend +the tragedies is a tribute to their intellectual capacities. Only +an acute and intelligent mind can follow schylus, Sophocles, and +Euripides. + +Nevertheless our judgment upon the Athenian women is mainly one +of regret. Even if not discontented with their lot, they are not +realizing the full possibilities which Providence has placed within +the reach of womanhood, much less the womanhood of the mothers of +the warriors, poets, orators, and other immortals of Athens. One +great side of civilization which the city of Athens might develop +and realize is left unrealized. THIS CIVILIZATION OF ATHENS IS +TOO MASCULINE; it is therefore one sided, and in so far it does not +realize that ideal "Harmony" which is the average Athenian's boast. + + + + + +Chapter VI. Athenian Costume. + + + + +33. The General Nature of Greek Dress.--In every age the important +kingdom of dress has been reserved for the peculiar sovereignty of +woman. This is true in Athens, though not perhaps to the extent of +later ages. Still an Athenian lady will take an interest in "purple +and fine linen" far exceeding that of her husband, and where is there +a more fitting place than this in which to answer for an Athenian, +the ever important question "wherewithal shall I be clothed"? + +Once again the Athenian climate comes in as a factor, this time +in the problem of wardrobe. Two general styles of garment have +divided the allegiance of the world,--the clothes that are PUT ON +and the clothes that are WRAPPED AROUND. The former style, with +its jackets, trousers, and leggings, is not absolutely unknown to +the Athenians,--their old enemies, the Persians, wear these[*]; +but such clumsy, inelegant garments are despised and ridiculed as +fit only for the "Barbarians" who use them. They are not merely +absurdly homely; they cannot even be thrown off promptly in an +emergency, leaving the glorious human form free to put forth any +noble effort. The Athenians wear the wrapped style of garments, +which are, in final analysis, one or two large square pieces of cloth +flung skillfully around the body and secured by a few well-placed +pins. This costume is infinitely adjustable; it can be expanded +into flowing draperies or contracted into an easy working dress +by a few artful twitches. It can be nicely adjusted to meet the +inevitable sense of "beauty" bred in the bone of every Athenian. +True, on the cold days of midwinter the wearers will go about +shivering; but cold days are the exception, warm days the rule, in +genial Attica.[+] + +[*]The Persians no doubt learned to use this style of garment during +their life on the cold, windy steppes of Upper Asia, before they +won their empire in the more genial south. + +[+]The whole civilization of Athens was, of course, based on a +climate in which artificial heat would be very little needed. A +pot of glowing charcoal might be used to remove the chill of a +room in the very coldest weather. Probably an Athenian would have +regarded a climate in which furnace heat was demanded nearly eight +months in the year as wholly unfit for civilized man. + +This simplicity of costume has produced certain important results. +There are practically no tailors in Athens, only cloth merchants, +bleachers, and dyers. Again fashions (at least in the cut of the +garments) seldom change. A cloak that was made in the days of +Alcibiades (say 420 B.C.) can be worn with perfect propriety to-day +(360 B.C.) if merely it has escaped without severe use or moth +holes. It may be more usual this year to wear one's garments a +little higher or a little more trailing than formerly; but THAT is +simply a matter for a shifting of the pins or of the girdle. + +As a result, the Athenian seldom troubles about his "spring" or +"winter" suit. His simple woolen garments wear a very long time; +and they have often been slowly and laboriously spun and woven by +his wife and her slave girls. Of course even a poor man will try +to have a few changes of raiment,--something solid and coarse for +every day, something of finer wool and gayer color for public and +private festivals. The rich man will have a far larger wardrobe, +and will pride himself on not being frequently seen in the same +dress; yet even his outfit will seem very meager to the dandies of +a later age. + + +34. the Masculine Chiton, Himation, and Chlamya.--The essential +garments of an Athenian man are only two--the CHITON and the HIMATION. +The chiton may be briefly described as an oblong of woolen cloth +large enough to wrap around the body somewhat closely, from the +neck down to just above the knees. The side left open is fastened +by fibul--elegantly wrought pins perhaps of silver or gold; in the +closed side there is a slit for the arm. There is a girdle, and, +if one wishes, the skirt of the chiton may be pulled up through it, +and allowed to hang down in front, giving the effect of a blouse. +The man of prompt action, the soldier, traveler, worker, is "well +girded,"--his chiton is drawn high, but the deliberate old gentleman +who parades the Agora, discussing poetry or statecraft, has his +chiton falling almost to a trailing length. Only occasionally short +sleeves were added to this very simple garment; they are considered +effeminate, and are not esteemed. If one's arms get cold, one can +protect them by pulling up the skirt, and wrapping the arms in the +blouse thus created. + +An Athenian gentleman when he is in the house wears nothing but +his chiton; it is even proper for him to be seen wearing nothing +else upon the streets, but then more usually he will add an outer +cloak,--his HIMATION. + +The himation is even simpler than the chiton. It is merely a generous +oblong woolen shawl. There are innumerable ways of arranging it +according to the impulse of the moment; but usually it has to be +worn without pins, and that involves wrapping it rather tightly +around the body, and keeping one of the hands confined to hold the +cloak in place. That is no drawback, however, to a genteel wearer. +It proclaims to the world that HE does not have to work, wearing +his hands for a living; therefore he can keep them politely idle.[*] +The adjustment of the himation is a work of great art. A rich man +will often have a special slave whose business it is to arrange +the hang and the folds before his master moves forth in public; +and woe to the careless fellow if the effect fails to display due +elegance and dignity! + +[*]Workingmen often wore no himation, and had a kind of chiton (an +exmis) which was especially arranged to leave them with free use +of their arms. + +There is a third garment sometimes worn by Athenians. Young men +who wish to appear very active, and genuine travelers, also wear +a CHLAMYS, a kind of circular mantle or cape which swings jauntily +over their shoulders, and will give good protection in foul weather. + +There are almost no other masculine garments. No shirts (unless +the chiton be one), no underwear. In their costume, as in so many +things else, the Athenians exemplify their oft-praised virtue of +simplicity. + + +35. The Dress of the Women.--The dress of the women is like that +of the men, but differs, of course, in complexity. They also have +a chiton,[*] which is more elaborately made, especially in the +arrangement of the blouse; and probably there is involved a certain +amount of real SEWING[+]; not merely of PINNING. + +[*]This robe was sometimes known by the Homeric name of PEPLOS. + +[+]Probably with almost all Greek garments the main use of the +needle was in the embroidery merely, or in the darning of holes +and rents. It was by no means an essential in the real manufacture. + +Greater care is needed in the adjustment of the "zone" (girdle), +and half sleeves are the rule with women, while full sleeves are +not unknown. A Greek lady again cannot imitate her husband, and +appear in public in her chiton only. A himation, deftly adjusted, +is absolutely indispensable whenever she shows herself outside the +house. + +These feminine garments are all, as a rule, more elaborately +embroidered, more adorned with fringes and tassels, than those of +the men. In arranging her dress the Athenian lady is not bound +by the rigid precepts of fashion. Every separate toilette is an +opportunity for a thousand little niceties and coquetries which she +understands exceedingly well. If there is the least excuse for an +expedition outside the house, her ladyship's bevy of serving maids +will have a serious time of it. While their mistress cools herself +with a huge peacock-feather fan, one maid is busy over her hair; a +second holds the round metallic mirror before her; a third stands +ready to extend the jewel box whence she can select finger rings, +earrings, gold armlets, chains for her neck and hair, as well as the +indispensable brooches whereon the stability of the whole costume +depends. When she rises to have her himation draped around her, +the directions she gives reveal her whole bent and character. A +dignified and modest matron will have it folded loosely around her +entire person, covering both arms and hands, and even drawing it +over her head, leaving eyes and nose barely visible. Younger ladies +will draw it close around the body so as to show the fine lines of +their waists and shoulders. And in the summer heat the himation +(for the less prudish) will become a light shawl floating loose +and free over the shoulders, or only a kind of veil drawn so as to +now conceal, now reveal, the face. + +Children wear miniature imitations of the dress of their elders. +Boys are taught to toughen their bodies by refraining from thick +garments in cold weather. In hot weather they can frequently be +seen playing about with very little clothing at all! + + +36. Footwear and Head Coverings.--Upon his feet the Athenian +frequently wears nothing. He goes about his home barefoot; and not +seldom he enjoys the delight of running across the open greensward +with his unsandaled feet pressing the springing ground; but normally +when he walks abroad, he will wear SANDALS, a simple solid pair of +open soles tied to his feet by leather thongs passing between the +toes. For hard country walking and for hunting there is something +like a high leather boot,[*] though doubtless these are counted +uncomfortable for ordinary wear. As for the sandals, simple as +they are, the Attic touch of elegance is often upon them. Upon the +thongs of the sandals there is usually worked a choice pattern, in +some brilliant color or even gilt. + +[*]Actors, too, wore a leather boot with high soles to give them +extra height--the COTHURNUS. + +The Athenians need head coverings even less than footgear. Most of +them have thick hair; baldness is an uncommon affliction; everybody +is trained to walk under the full glare of Helios with little +discomfort. Of course certain trades require hats, e.g. sailors +who can be almost identified by their rimless felt caps. Genteel +travelers will wear wide-brimmed hats; but the ladies, as a rule, +have no headgear besides their tastefully arranged hair, although +they will partly atone for the lack, by having a maid walk just +behind them with a gorgeously variegated parasol. + + +37. The Beauty of the Greek Dress.--Greek Costume, then, is +something fully sharing in the national characteristics of harmony, +simplicity, individuality. It is easy to see how admirably this +style of dress is adapted to furnish over ready models and inspiration +for the sculptor.[*] Unconventional in its arrangement, it is +also unconventional in its color. A masculine crowd is not one +unmitigated swarm of black and dark grays or browns, as with the +multitude of a later age. On the contrary, white is counted as +theoretically the most becoming color on any common occasion for +either sex;[+] and on festival days even grave and elderly men +will appear with chitons worked with brilliant embroidery along the +borders, and with splendid himatia of some single clear hue--violet, +red, purple, blue, or yellow. As for the costume of the groom at +a wedding, it is far indeed from the "conventional black" of more +degenerate days. He may well wear a purple-edged white chiton of +fine Milesian wool, a brilliant scarlet himation, sandals with blue +thongs and clasps of gold, and a chaplet of myrtle and violets. +His intended bride is led out to him in even more dazzling array. +Her white sandal-thongs are embroidered with emeralds, rubies, and +pearls. Around her neck is a necklace of gold richly set,--and +she has magnificent golden armlets and pearl eardrops. Her hair +is fragrant with Oriental nard, and is bound by a purple fillet +and a chaplet of roses. Her ungloved fingers shine with jewels +and rings. Her main costume is of a delicate saffron, and over it +all, like a cloud, floats the silvery tissue of the nuptial veil. + +[*]"The chiton became the mirror of the body," said the late writer +Achilles Tatius. + +[+]No doubt farmers and artisans either wore garments of a +non-committal brown, or, more probably, let their originally white +costume get utterly dirty. + + +38. Greek Toilet Frivolities.--From the standpoint of inherent +fitness and beauty, this Athenian costume is the noblest ever seen +by the world. Naturally there are ill-advised creatures who do +not share the good taste of their fellows, or who try to deceive +the world and themselves as to the ravages of that arch-enemy of +the Hellene,--Old Age. Athenian women especially (though the men +are not without their follies) are sometimes fond of rouge, false +hair, and the like. Auburn hair is especially admired, and many +fine dames bleach their tresses in a caustic wash to obtain it. +The styles of feminine hair dressing seem to change from decade to +decade much more than the arrangements of the garments. Now it is +plaited and crimped hair that is in vogue, now the more beautiful +"Psyche-knots"; yet even in their worst moods the Athenian women +exhibit a sweet reasonableness. They have not yet fallen into the +clutches of the Parisian hairdresser. + +The poets, of course, ridicule the foibles of the fair sex.[*] +Says one:-- + + +The golden hair Nikylla wears + Is hers, who would have thought it? +She swears 'tis hers, and true she swears + For I know where she bought it! + + +And again:-- + + +You give your cheeks a rosy stain, +With washes dye your hair; +But paint and washes both are vain +To give a youthful air. +An art so fruitless then forsake, +Which, though you much excel in, +You never can contrive to make +Old Hecuba young Helen. + + +[*]Translated in Falke's "Greece and Rome" (English translation, +p. 69). These quotations probably date from a time considerably +later than the hypothetical period of this sketch; but they are +perfectly proper to apply to conditions in 360 B.C. + +But enough of such scandals! All the best opinion--masculine and +feminine--frowns on these follies. Let us think of the simple, +dignified, and sthetically noble costume of the Athenians as not +the least of their examples to another age. + + + + + +Chapter VII. The Slaves. + + + + +39. Slavery an Integral Part of Greek Life.--An Athenian lady cares +for everything in her house,--for the food supplies, for the clothing, +yet probably her greatest task is to manage the heterogeneous +multitude of slaves which swarm in every wealthy or even well-to-do +mansion.[*] + +[*]The Athenians never had the absurd armies of house slaves which +characterized Imperial Rome; still the numbers of their domestic +servants were, from a modern standpoint, extremely large. + +Slaves are everywhere: not merely are they the domestic servants, +but they are the hands in the factories, they run innumerable little +shops, they unload the ships, they work the mines, they cultivate +the farms. Possibly there are more able-bodied male slaves in +Attica than male free men, although this point is very uncertain. +Their number is the harder to reckon because they are not required +to wear any distinctive dress, and you cannot tell at a glance +whether a man is a mere piece of property, or a poor but very proud +and important member of the "Sovereign Demos [People] of Athens." + +No prominent Greek thinker seems to contest the righteousness and +desirability of slavery. It is one of the usual, nay, inevitable, +things pertaining to a civilized state. Aristotle the philosopher +puts the current view of the case very clearly. "The lower sort +of mankind are BY NATURE slaves, and it is better for all inferiors +that they should be under the rule of a master. The use made of +slaves and of tame animals is not very different; for both by their +bodies minister to the needs of life." The intelligent, enlightened, +progressive Athenians are naturally the "masters"; the stupid, +ignorant, sluggish minded Barbarians are the "inferiors." Is it +not a plain decree of Heaven that the Athenians are made to rule, +the Barbarians to serve?--No one thinks the subject worth serious +argument. + +Of course the slave cannot be treated quite as one would treat an +ox. Aristotle takes pains to point out the desirability of holding +out to your "chattel" the hope of freedom, if only to make him work +better; and the great philosopher in his last testament gives freedom +to five of his thirteen slaves. Then again it is recognized as +clearly against public sentiment to hold fellow Greeks in bondage. +It is indeed done. Whole towns get taken in war, and those of +the inhabitants who are not slaughtered are sold into slavery.[*] +Again, exposed children, whose parents have repudiated them, get +into the hands of speculators, who raise them "for market." There +is also a good deal of kidnapping in the less civilized parts of +Greece like tolia. Still the proportion of genuinely GREEK slaves +is small. The great majority of them are "Barbarians," men born +beyond the pale of Hellenic civilization. + +[*]For example, the survivors, after the capture of Melos, in the +Peloponesian War. + + +40. The Slave Trade in Greece.--There are two great sources of +slave supply: the Asia Minor region (Lydia and Phrygia, with Syria +in the background), and the Black Sea region, especially the northern +shores, known as Scythia. It is known to innumerable heartless +"traders" that human flesh commands a very high price in Athens +or other Greek cities. Every little war or raid that vexes those +barbarous countries so incessantly is followed by the sale of the +unhappy captives to speculators who ship them on, stage by stage, +to Athens. Perhaps there is no war; the supply is kept up then +by deliberately kidnapping on a large scale, or by piracy.[*] In +any case the arrival of a chain gang of fettered wretches at the +Peirus is an everyday sight. Some of these creatures are submissive +and tame (perhaps they understand some craft or trade); these can +be sold at once for a high price. Others are still doltish and +stubborn. They are good for only the rudest kind of labor, unless +they are kept and trained at heavy expense. These brutish creatures +are frequently sold off to the mines, to be worked to death by the +contractors as promptly and brutally as one wears out a machine; +or else they become public galley slaves, when their fate is +practically the same. But we need not follow such horrors. + +[*]A small but fairly constant supply of slaves would come from +the seizure of the persons and families of bankrupt debtors, whose +creditors, especially in the Orient, might sell them into bondage. + +The remainder are likely to be purchased either for use upon the +farm, the factory, or in the home. There is a regular "circle" +at or near the Agora for traffic in them. They are often sold at +auction. The price of course varies with the good looks, age,[*] +or dexterity of the article, or the abundance of supply. "Slaves +will be high" in a year when there has been little warfare and +raiding in Asia Minor. "Some slaves," says Xenophon, "are well +worth two min [$36.00 (1914) or $640.80 (2000)] and others barely +half a mina [$9.00 (1914) or $160.20 (2000)]; some sell up to five +min [$90.00 (1914) or $1,602.00 (2000)] and even for ten [$180.00 +(1914) or $3,204.00 (2000)]. Nicias, the son of Nicaretus, is +said to have given a talent [over $1,000.00 (1914) or $17,800.00 +(2000)] for an overseer in the mines."[+] The father of Demosthenes +owned a considerable factory. He had thirty-two sword cutters +worth about five min each, and twenty couch-makers (evidently less +skilled) worth together 40 min [about $720.00 (1914) or $12,816.00 +(2000)]. A girl who is handsome and a clever flute player, who will +be readily hired for supper parties, may well command a very high +price indeed, say even 30 min [about $540.00 (1914) or $9,612.00 +(2000)]. + +[*]There was probably next to no market for old women; old men in +broken health would also be worthless. Boys and maids that were +the right age for teaching a profitable trade would fetch the most. + +[+]Xenophon, "Memorabilia," ii. 5, 2. + + +41. The Treatment of Slaves in Athens.--Once purchased, what is +the condition of the average slave? If he is put in a factory, he +probably has to work long hours on meager rations. He is lodged +in a kind of kennel; his only respite is on the great religious +holidays. He cannot contract valid marriage or enjoy any of the +normal conditions of family life. Still his evil state is partially +tempered by the fact that he has to work in constant association +with free workmen, and he seems to be treated with a moderate amount +of consideration and good camaraderie. On the whole he will have +much less to complain of (if he is honest and industrious) than +his successors in Imperial Rome. + +In the household, conditions are on the whole better. Every Athenian +citizen tries to have at least ONE slave, who, we must grant, may +be a starving drudge of all work. The average gentleman perhaps +counts ten to twenty as sufficient for his needs. We know of +households of fifty. There must usually be a steward, a butler in +charge of the storeroom or cellar, a marketing slave, a porter, +a baker, a cook,[*] a nurse, perhaps several lady's maids, +the indispensable attendant for the master's walks (a graceful, +well-favored boy, if possible), the pedagogue for the children, +and in really rich families, a groom, and a mule boy. It is the +business of the mistress to see that all these creatures are kept +busy and reasonably contented. If a slave is reconciled to his +lot, honest, cheerful, industrious, his condition is not miserable. +Athenian slaves are allowed a surprising amount of liberty, so +most visitors to the city complain. A slave may be flogged most +cruelly, but he cannot be put to death at the mere whim of his +master. He cannot enter the gymnasium, or the public assembly; but +he can visit the temples. As a humble member of the family he has +a small part usually in the family sacrifices. But in any case he is +subject to one grievous hardship: when his testimony is required +in court he must be "put to the question" by torture. On the +other hand, if his master has wronged him intolerably, he can take +sanctuary at the Temple of Theseus, and claim the privilege of being +sold to some new owner. A slave, too, has still another grievance +which may be no less galling because it is sentimental. His name +(given him arbitrarily perhaps by his master) is of a peculiar +category, which at once brands him as a bondsman: Geta, Manes, +Dromon, Sosias, Xanthias, Pyrrhias,--such names would be repudiated +as an insult by a citizen. + +[*]Who, however, could not be trusted to cook a formal dinner. For +such purpose an expert must be hired. + + +42. Cruel and Kind Masters.--Slavery in Athens, as everywhere +else, is largely dependent upon the character of the master; and +most Athenian masters would not regard crude brutality as consistent +with that love of elegance, harmony, and genteel deliberation +which characterizes a well-born citizen. There do not lack masters +who have the whip continually in their hands, who add to the raw +stripes fetters and branding, and who make their slaves unceasingly +miserable; but such masters are the exception, and public opinion +does not praise them. Between the best Athenians and their slaves +there is a genial, friendly relation, and the master will put up +with a good deal of real impertinence, knowing that behind this +forwardness there is an honest zeal for his interests. + +Nevertheless the slave system of Athens is not commendable. It +puts a stigma upon the glory of honest manual labor. It instills +domineering, despotic habits into the owners, cringing subservience +into the owned. Even if a slave becomes freed, he does not become +an Athenian citizen; he is only a "metic," a resident foreigner, +and his old master, or some other Athenian, must be his patron and +representative in every kind of legal business. It is a notorious +fact that the MERE STATE of slavery robs the victim of his self-respect +and manhood. Nevertheless nobody dreams of abolishing slavery as +an institution, and the Athenians, comparing themselves with other +communities, pride themselves on the extreme humanity of their +slave system. + + +43. The "City Slaves" of Athens.--A large number of nominal "slaves" +in Athens differ from any of the creatures we have described. The +community, no less than an individual, can own slaves just as it +can own warships and temples. Athens owns "city slaves" (Demosioi) +of several varieties. The clerks in the treasury office, and the +checking officers at the public assemblies are slaves; so too are +the less reputable public executioners and torturers; in the city +mint there is another corps of slave workers, busy coining "Athena's +owls"--the silver drachmas and four-drachma pieces. But chiefest +of all, THE CITY OWNS ITS PUBLIC POLICE FORCE. The "Scythians" +they are called from their usual land of origin, or the "bowmen," +from their special weapon, which incidentally makes a convenient +cudgel in a street brawl. There are 1200 of them, always at the +disposal of the city magistrates. They patrol the town at night, +arrest evil-doers, sustain law and order in the Agora, and especially +enforce decorum, if the public assemblies or the jury courts become +tumultuous. They have a special cantonment on the hill of Areopagus +near the Acropolis. "Slaves" they are of course in name, and +under a kind of military discipline; but they are highly privileged +slaves. The security of the city may depend upon their loyal zeal. +In times of war they are auxiliaries. Life in this police force +cannot therefore be burdensome, and their position is envied by +all the factory workers and the house servants. + + + + + +Chapter VIII. The Children. + + + + +44. The Desirability of Children in Athens.--Besides the oversight +of the slaves the Athenian matron has naturally the care of the +children. A childless home is one of the greatest of calamities. +It means a solitary old age, and still worse, the dying out of the +family and the worship of the family gods. There is just enough +of the old superstitious "ancestor worship" left in Athens to make +one shudder at the idea of leaving the "deified ancestor" without +any descendants to keep up the simple sacrifices to their memory. +Besides, public opinion condemns the childless home as not contributing +to the perpetuation of the city. How Corinth, Thebes, or Sparta +will rejoice, if it is plain that Athens is destroying herself by +race suicide! So at least ONE son will be very welcome. His advent +is a day of happiness for the father, of still greater satisfaction +for the young mother. + + +45. The Exposure of Infants.--How many more children are welcome +depends on circumstances. Children are expensive luxuries. They +must be properly educated and even the boys must be left a fair +fortune.[*] The girls must always have good dowries, or they cannot +"marry according to their station." Public opinion, as well as +the law, allows a father (at least if he has one or two children +already) to exercise a privilege, which later ages will pronounce +one of the foulest blots on Greek civilization. After the birth +of a child there is an anxious day or two for the poor young mother +and the faithful nurses.--Will he 'nourish' it? Are there boys +enough already? Is the disappointment over the birth of a daughter +too keen? Does he dread the curtailment in family luxuries necessary +to save up for an allowance or dowry for the little stranger? Or +does the child promise to be puny, sickly, or even deformed? If +any of these arguments carry adverse weight, there is no appeal +against the father's decision. He has until the fifth day after +the birth to decide. In the interval he can utter the fatal words, +"Expose it!" The helpless creature is then put in a rude cradle, +or more often merely in a shallow pot and placed near some public +place; e.g. the corner of the Agora, or near a gymnasium, or the +entrance to a temple. Here it will soon die of mere hunger and +neglect unless rescued. If the reasons for exposure are evident +physical defects, no one will touch it. Death is certain. If, +however, it seems healthy and well formed, it is likely to be +taken up and cared for. Not out of pure compassion, however. The +harpies who raise slaves and especially slave girls, for no honest +purposes, are prompt to pounce upon any promising looking infant. +They will rear it as a speculation; if it is a girl, they will +teach it to sing, dance, play. The race of light women in Athens +is thus really recruited from the very best families. The fact +is well known, but it is constantly winked at. Aristophanes, the +comic poet, speaks of this exposure of children as a common feature +of Athenian life. Socrates declares his hearers are vexed when +he robs them of pet ideas, "like women who have had their children +taken from them." There is little or nothing for men of a later +day to say of this custom save condemnation.[+] + +[*]The idea of giving a lad a "schooling" and then turning him loose +to earn his own living in the world was contrary to all Athenian +theory and practice. + +[+]About the only boon gained by this foul usage was the fact that, +thanks to it, the number of physically unfit persons in Athens +was probably pretty small, for no one would think of bringing up +a child which, in its first babyhood, promised to be a cripple. + + +46. The Celebration of a Birth.--But assuredly in a majority +of cases, the coming of a child is more than welcome. If a girl, +tufts of wool are hung before the door of the happy home; if a boy, +there is set out an olive branch. Five days after the birth, the +nurse takes the baby, wrapped almost to suffocation in swaddling +bands, to the family hearth in the "andron," around which she runs +several times, followed doubtless, in merry, frolicking procession, +by most of the rest of the family. The child is now under the care +of the family gods. There is considerable eating and drinking. +Exposure now is no longer possible. A great load is off the mind +of the mother. But on the "tenth day" comes the real celebration +and the feast. This is the "name day." All of the kinsmen are +present. The house is full of incense and garlands. The cook is +in action in the kitchen. Everybody brings simple gifts, along with +abundant wishes of good luck. There is a sacrifice, and during +the ensuing feast comes the naming of the child. Athenian names +are very short and simple.[*] A boy has often his father's name, +but more usually his grandfather's, as, e.g., Themistocles, the +son of Neocles, the son of Themistocles: the father's name being +usually added in place of a surname. In this way certain names +will become a kind of family property, and sorrowful is the day +when there is no eligible son to bear them! + +The child is now a recognized member of the community. His father +has accepted him as a legitimate son, one of his prospective heirs, +entitled in due time to all the rights of an Athenian citizen. + +[*]Owing to this simplicity and the relatively small number of +Athenian names, a directory of the city would have been a perplexing +affair. + +47. Life and Games of Young Children.--The first seven years of a +Greek boy's life are spent with his nurses and his mother. Up to +that time his father takes only unofficial interest in his welfare. +Once past the first perilous "five days," an Athenian baby has +no grounds to complain of his treatment. Great pains are taken +to keep him warm and well nourished. A wealthy family will go to +some trouble to get him a skilful nurse, those from Sparta being +in special demand, as knowing the best how to rear healthy infants. +He has all manner of toys, and Aristotle the philosopher commends +their frequent donation; otherwise, he says, children will be +always "breaking things in the house." Babies have rattles. As +they grow older they have dolls of painted clay or wax, sometimes +with movable hands and feet, and also toy dishes, tables, wagons, +and animals. Lively boys have whipping toys, balls, hoops, and +swings. There is no lack of pet dogs, nor of all sorts of games on +the blind man's bluff and "tag" order.[*] Athenian children are, +as a class, very active and noisy. Plato speaks feelingly of their +perpetual "roaring." As they grow larger, they begin to escape +more and more from the narrow quarters of the courts of the house, +and play in the streets. + +[*]It is not always easy to get the exact details of such ancient +games, for the "rules" have seldom come down to us; but generally +speaking, the games of Greek children seem extremely like those of +the twentieth century. + + +48. Playing in the Streets.--Narrow, dirty, and dusty as the +streets seem, children, even of good families, are allowed to play +in them. After a rain one can see boys floating toy boats of +leather in every mud puddle, or industriously making mud pies. In +warm weather the favorite if cruel sport is to catch a beetle, tie +a string to its legs, let it fly off, then twitch it back again. +Leapfrog, hide-and-seek, etc., are in violent progress down every +alley. The streets are not all ideal playgrounds. Despite genteel +ideas of dignity and moderation, there is a great deal of foul talk +and brawling among the passers, and Athenian children have receptive +eyes and ears. Yet on the other hand, there is a notable regard +and reverence for childhood. With all its frequent callousness and +inhumanity, Greek sentiment abhors any brutality to young children. +Herodotus the historian tells of the falling of a roof, whereby one +hundred and twenty school children perished, as being a frightful +calamity,[*] although recounting cold-blooded massacres of thousands +of adults with never a qualm; and Herodotus is a very good spokesman +for average Greek opinion. + +[*]Herodotus, VI. 27. + + +49. The First Stories and Lessons.--Athens has no kindergartens. +The first teaching which children will receive is in the form of +fables and goblin tales from their mothers and nurses,--usually +with the object of frightening them into "being good,"--tales of the +spectral Lami, or of the horrid witch Mormo who will catch nasty +children; or of Empusa, a similar creature, who lurks in shadows +and dark rooms; or of the Kabaloi, wild spirits in the woods. Then +come the immortal fables of sop with their obvious application +towards right conduct. Athenian mothers and teachers have no +two theories as to the wisdom of corporeal punishment. The rod +is never spared to the spoiling of the child, although during the +first years the slipper is sufficient. Greek children soon have +a healthy fear of their nurses; but they often learn to love them, +and funeral monuments will survive to perpetuate their grateful +memory. + + +50. The Training of Athenian Girls.--Until about seven years old +brothers and sisters grow up in the Gynconitis together. Then the +boys are sent to school. The girls will continue about the house +until the time of their marriage. It is only in the rarest of +cases that the parents feel it needful to hire any kind of tutor +for THEM. What the average girl knows is simply what her mother +can teach her. Perhaps a certain number of Athenian women (of good +family, too) are downright illiterate; but this is not very often +the case. A normal girl will learn to read and write, with her +mother for school mistress.[*] Very probably she will be taught +to dance, and sometimes to play on some instrument, although this +last is not quite a proper accomplishment for young women of good +family. Hardly any one dreams of giving a woman any systematic +intellectual training.[+] Much more important it is that she +should know how to weave, spin, embroider, dominate the cook, and +superintend the details of a dinner party. She will have hardly +time to learn these matters thoroughly before she is "given a +husband," and her childhood days are forever over (see 27). + +[*]There has come down to us a charming Greek terra-cotta (it is +true, not from Athens) showing a girl seated on her mother's knee, +and learning from a roll which she holds. + +[+]Plato suggested in his "Republic" (V. 451 f.) that women should +receive the same educational opportunities as the men. This was +a proposition for Utopia and never struck any answering chord. + +Meantime her brother has been started upon a course of education +which, both in what it contains and in what it omits, is one of +the most interesting and significant features of Athenian life. + + + + + +Chapter IX. The Schoolboys of Athens. + + + + +51. Athenians Generally Literate.--Education is not compulsory by +law in Athens, but the father who fails to give his son at least a +modicum of education falls under a public contempt, which involves no +slight penalty. Practically all Athenians are at least literate. +In Aristophanes's famous comedy, "The Knights," a boorish +"sausage-seller" is introduced, who, for the purposes of the play, +must be one of the very scum of society, and he is made to cry, +"Only consider now my education! I can but barely read, just in +a kind of way."[*] Evidently if illiterates are not very rare in +Athens, the fellow should have been made out utterly ignorant. "He +can neither swim[+] nor say his letters," is a common phrase for +describing an absolute idiot. When a boy has reached the age of +seven, the time for feminine rule is over; henceforth his floggings, +and they will be many, are to come from firm male hands. + +[*]Aristophanes, "Knights", II. 188-189. + +[+]Swimming was an exceedingly common accomplishment among the +Greeks, naturally enough, so much of their life being spent upon +or near the sea. + + +52. Character Building the Aim of Athenian Education.--The true +education is of course begun long before the age of seven. CHARACTER +NOT BOOK-LEARNING, IS THE MAIN OBJECT OF ATHENIAN EDUCATION, i.e. +to make the boy self-contained, modest, alert, patriotic, a true +friend, a dignified gentleman, able to appreciate and participate +in all that is true, harmonius and beautiful in life. To that end +his body must be trained, not apart from, but along with his mind. +Plato makes his character Protagoras remark, "As soon as a child +understands what is said to him, the nurse, the mother, the pedagogue, +and the father vie in their efforts to make him good, by showing +him in all that he does that 'THIS is right,' and 'THAT is wrong'; +'this is pretty,' and 'that is ugly'; so that he may learn what to +follow and what to shun. If he obeys willingly--why, excellent. +If not, then try by threats and blows to correct him, as men +straighten a warped and crooked sapling." Also after he is fairly +in school "the teacher is enjoined to pay more attention to his +morals and conduct than to his progress in reading and music." + + +53. The Schoolboy's Pedagogue.--It is a great day for an Athenian +boy when he is given a pedagogue. This slave (perhaps purchased +especially for the purpose) is not his teacher, but he ought to be +more than ordinarily honest, kindly, and well informed. His prime +business is to accompany the young master everywhere out-of-doors, +especially to the school and to the gymnasium; to carry his books +and writing tablets; to give informal help upon his lessons; to +keep him out of every kind of mischief; to teach him social good +manners; to answer the thousand questions a healthy boy is sure to +ask; and finally, in emergencies, if the schoolmaster or his father +is not at hand, to administer a needful whipping. A really capable +pedagogue can mean everything to a boy; but it is asking too much +that a purchased slave should be an ideal companion.[*] Probably +many pedagogues are responsible for their charges' idleness or +downright depravity. It is a dubious system at the best. + +[*]No doubt frequently the pedagogue would be an old family servant +of good morals, loyalty, and zeal. In that case the relation might +be delightful. + +The assigning of the pedagogue is simultaneous with the beginning +of school days; and the Athenians are not open to the charge +of letting their children waste their time during possible study +hours. As early as Solon's day (about 590 B.C.) a law had to be +passed forbidding schools to open BEFORE daybreak, or to be kept +open after dusk. This was in the interest not of good eyesight, +but of good morals. Evidently schools had been keeping even longer +than through the daylight. In any case, at gray dawn every yawning +schoolboy is off, urged on by his pedagogue, and his tasks will +continue with very little interruption through the entire day. +It is therefore with reason that the Athenian lads rejoice in the +very numerous religious holidays. + + +54. An Athenian School.--Leaving the worthy citizen's home, where +we have lingered long chatting on many of the topics the house and +its denizens suggest, we will turn again to the streets to seek +the school where one of the young sons of the family has been duly +conducted (possibly, one may say, driven) by his pedagogue. We +have not far to go. Athenian schools have to be numerous, because +they are small. To teach children of the poorer classes it is +enough to have a modest room and a few stools; an unrented shop +will answer. But we will go to a more pretentious establishment. +There is an anteroom by the entrance way where the pedagogues can +sit and doze or exchange gossip while their respective charges are +kept busy in the larger room within. The latter place, however, +is not particularly commodious. On the bare wall hang book-rolls, +lyres, drinking vessels, baskets for books, and perhaps some simple +geometric instruments. The pupils sit on rude, low benches, each +lad with his boxwood tablet covered with wax[*] upon his lap, and +presumably busy, scratching letters with his stylus. The master +sits on a high chair, surveying the scene. He cultivates a grim +and awful aspect, for he is under no delusion that "his pupils +love him." "He sits aloft," we are told, "like a juryman, with an +expression of implacable wrath, before which the pupil must tremble +and cringe."[+] + +[*]This wax tablet was practically a slate. The letters written +could be erased with the blunt upper end of the metallic stylus, +and the whole surface of the tablet could be made smooth again by +a judicious heating. + +[+]The quotation is from the late writer Libanius, but it is +perfectly true for classic Athens. + +Athenian schoolboys have at least their full share of idleness, as +well as of animal spirits. There is soon a loud whisper from one +corner. Instantly the ruling tyrant rises. "Antiphon! I have +heard you. Come forward!" If Antiphon is wise, he will advance +promptly and submit as cheerfully as possible to a sound caning; +if folly possesses him, he will hesitate. At a nod from the master +two older boys, who serve as monitors, will seize him with grim +chuckles. He will then be fortunate if he escapes being tied to a +post and flogged until his back is one mass of welts, and his very +life seems in danger. It will be useless for him to complain to +his parents. A good schoolmaster is supposed to flog frequently to +earn his pay; if he is sparing with the rod or lash, he is probably +lacking in energy. Boys will be boys, and there is only one remedy +for juvenile shortcomings. + +This diversion, of course, with its attendant howling, interrupts +the course of the school, but presently matters again become normal. +The scholars are so few that probably there is only one teacher, +and instruction is decidedly "individual," although poetry and +singing are very likely taught "in concert." + + +55. The School Curriculum.--As to the subjects studied, the +Athenian curriculum is well fixed and limited: letters, music, and +gymnastics. Every lad must have a certain amount of all of these. +They gymnastics will be taught later in the day by a special +teacher at a "wrestling school." The "music" may also be taught +separately. The main effort with a young boy is surely to teach +him to read and write. And here must be recalled the relative +infrequency of complete books in classic Athens.[*] To read public +placards, inscriptions of laws, occasional epistles, commercial +documents, etc., is probably, for many Athenians, reading enough. +The great poets he will learn by ear rather than by eye; and he +may go through a long and respected life and never be compelled to +read a really sizable volume from end to end. So the teaching of +reading is along very simple lines. It is perhaps simultaneous +with the learning of writing. The twenty-four letters are learned +by sheer power of memory; then the master sets lines upon the +tablets to be copied. As soon as possible the boy is put to learning +and writing down passages from the great poets. Progress in mere +literacy is very rapid. There is no waste of time on history, +geography, or physical science; and between the concentration on a +singly main subject and the impetus given by the master's rod the +Athenian schoolboy soon becomes adept with his letters. Possibly +a little arithmetic is taught him, but only a little. In later life, +if he does not become a trader or banker, he will not be ashamed +to reckon simple sums upon his fingers or by means of pebbles; +although if his father is ambitious to have him become a philosopher, +he may have him taught something of geometry. + +Once more we see the total absence of "vocational studies" in this +Athenian education. The whole effort is to develop a fair, noble, +free, and lofty character, not to earn a living. To set a boy +to study with an eye to learning some profitable trade is counted +illiberal to the last degree. It is for this reason that practical +arithmetic is discouraged, yet a little knowledge of the art +of outline drawing is allowed; for though no gentleman intends to +train his son to be a great artist, the study will enable him to +appreciate good sculpture and painting. Above all the schoolmaster, +who, despite his brutal austerity, ought to be a clear-sighted +and inspiring teacher, must lose no opportunity to instill moral +lessons, and develop the best powers of his charges. Theoginis, +the old poet of Megara, states the case well:-- + + +To rear a child is easy; but to teach +Morals and manners is beyond our reach. +To make the foolish wise, the wicked good, +That science never yet understood. + + +56. The Study of the Poets.--It is for the developing of the best +moral and mental qualities in the lads that they are compelled to +memorize long passages of the great poets of Hellas. Theoginis, +with his pithy admonitions cast in semi-proverb form, the worldly +wisdom of Hesiod, and of Phocylides are therefore duly flogged +into every Attic schoolboy.[*] But the great text-book dwarfing +all others, is Homer,--"the Bible of the Greeks," as later ages +will call it. Even in the small school we visit, several of the +pupils can repeat five or six long episodes from both the "Iliad" +and the "Odyssey," and there is one older boy present (an extraordinary, +but by no means an unprecedented case) who can repeat BOTH of the +long epics word for word.[+] Clearly the absence of many books has +then its compensations. The average Athenian lad has what seems +to be a simply marvelous memory. + +[*]Phocylides, whose gnomic poetry is now preserved to us only in +scant fragments, was an Ionian, born about 560 B.C. His verses +were in great acceptance in the schools. + +[+]For such an attainment see Xenophon's "Symposium," 3:5. + +And what an admirable text-book and "second reader" the Homeric poems +are! What characters to imitate: the high-minded, passionate, yet +withal loyal and lovable Achilles who would rather fight gloriously +before Troy (though death in the campaign is certain) than live a +long life in ignoble ease at home at Phthia; or Oysseus, the "hero +of many devices," who endures a thousand ills and surmounts them +all; who lets not even the goddess Calypso seduce him from his +love to his "sage Penelope"; who is ever ready with a clever tale, +a plausible lie, and, when the need comes, a mighty deed of manly +valor. The boys will all go home to-night with firm resolves to +suffer all things rather than leave a comrade unavenged, as Achilles +was tempted to do and nobly refused, and to fight bravely, four +against forty, as Odysseus and his comrades did, when at the call +of duty and honor they cleared the house of the dastard suitors. +True, philosophers like Plato complain: "Homer gives to lads very +undignified and unworthy ideas of the gods"; and men of a later +age will assert: "Homer has altogether too little to say about +the cardinal virtues of truthfulness and honesty."[*] But making +all allowances the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are still the two grandest +secular text-books the world will ever know. The lads are definitely +the better for them. + +[*]The virtue of unflinching HONESTY was undoubtedly the thing least +cultivated by the Greek education. Successful prevarication, e.g. +in the case of Odysseus, was put at altogether too high a premium. +It is to be feared that the average Athenian schoolboy was only +partially truthful. The tale of "George Washington and the cherry +tree" would never have found favor in Athens. The great Virginian +would have been blamed for failing to concoct a clever lie. + +Three years, according to Plato, are needed to learn the rudiments +of reading and writing before the boys are fairly launched upon +this study of the poets. For several years more they will spend +most of their mornings standing respectfully before their master, +while he from his chair reads to them from the roll of one author +or another,--the pupils repeating the lines, time and again, until +they have learned them, while the master interrupts to explain +every nice point in mythology, in real or alleged history, or a +moot question in ethics. + + +57. The Greeks do not study Foreign Languages.--As the boys +grow older the scope of their study naturally increases; but in +one particular their curriculum will seem strangely limited. THE +STUDY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES HAS NO PLACE IN A GREEK COURSE OF STUDY. +That any gentleman should learn say Persian, or Egyptian (unless +he intended to devote himself to distant travel), seems far more +unprofitable than, in a later age, the study of say Patagonian +or Papuan will appear.[*] Down at the Peirus there are a few +shipmasters, perhaps, who can talk Egyptian, Phnecian, or Babylonish. +They need the knowledge for their trade, but even they will disclaim +any cultural value for their accomplishment. The euphonious, +expressive, marvelously delicate tongue of Hellas sums up for the +Athenian almost all that is valuable in the world's intellectual +and literary life. What has the outer, the "Barbarian," world +to give him?--Nothing, many will say, but some gold darics which +will corrupt his statesmen, and some spices, carpets, and similar +luxuries which good Hellenes can well do without. The Athenian +lad will never need to crucify the flesh upon Latin, French, and +German, or an equivalent for his own Greek. Therein perhaps he +may be heavily the loser, save that his own mother tongue is so +intricate and full of subtle possibilities that to learn to make +the full use thereof is truly a matter for lifelong education. + +[*]This fact did not prevent the Greeks from having a considerable +respect for the traditions and lore of, e.g., the Egyptians, and +from borrowing a good many non-Greek usages and inventions; but +all this could take place without feeling the least necessity for +studying foreign languages. + + +58. The Study of "Music."--But the Athenian has a substitute for +this omission of foreign language study: MUSIC. This is something +more comprehensive than "the art of combining tones in a manner to +please the ear" [Webster]. It is practically the study of whatever +will develop the noble powers of the emotions, as contrasted to +the mere intellect.[*] Indeed everything which comes within the +ample provinces of the nine Muses, even sober history, might be +included in the term. However, for special purposes, the study of +"Music" may be considered as centering around playing instruments +and singing. The teacher very likely resides in a house apart +from the master of the school of letters. Aristophanes gives this +picture of the good old customs for the teaching of music. "The +boys from the same section of the town have to march thinly clad +and draw up in good order--though the snow be thick as meal--to the +house of the harp master. There he will teach them [some famous +tune] raising a mighty melody. If any one acts silly or turns any +quavers, he gets a good hard thrashing for 'banishing the Muses!'"[+] + +[*]Aristotle ["Politics," V. (or VIII.) 1] says that the literary +education is to train the mind; while music, though of no practical +use, "provides a noble and liberal employment of leisure." + +[+]Aristophanes's "The Clouds". The whole passage is cited in +Davis's "Readings in Ancient History," vol. I, pp. 252-255. + +Learning to sing is probably the most important item, for every +boy and man ought to be able to bear his part in the great chorals +which are a notable element in most religious festivals; besides, +a knowledge of singing is a great aid to appreciating lyric poetry, +or the choruses in tragedy, and in learning to declaim. To learn +to sing elaborate solo pieces is seldom necessary,--it is not quite +genteel in grown-up persons, for it savors a little too much of the +professional. So it is also with instrumental music. The Greeks +lack the piano, the organ, the elaborate brass instruments of a +later day. Their flutes and harps, although very sweet, might seem +thin to a twentieth-century critic. But one can gain considerable +volume by the great NUMBER of instruments, and nearly everybody +in Athens can pick at the lyre after a fashion. The common type of +harp is the lyre, and it has enough possibilities for the average boy. +The more elaborate CITHERA is usually reserved for professionals.[*] +An Athenian lad is expected to be able to accompany his song upon +his own lyre and to play in concert with his fellows. + +[*]For the details of these harp types of instruments see Dictionary +of Antiquities. + +The other instrument in common use is the FLUTE. At its simplest, +this is a mere shepherd's pipe. Anybody can make one with a knife +and some rushes. Then come elaborations; two pipes are fitted +together into one wooden mouthpiece. Now, we really have an +instrument with possibilities. But it is not in such favor in the +schools as the lyre. You cannot blow day after day upon the flute +and not distort your cheeks permanently. Again the gentleman's +son will avoid "professionalism." There are amateur flute players +moving in the best society, but the more fastidious frown upon the +instrument, save for hired performers. + + +59. The Moral Character of Greek Music.--Whether it is singing, +harp playing, or flute playing, a most careful watch is kept upon +the CHARACTER of the music taught the lads. The master who lets +his pupils learn many soft, dulcet, languishing airs will find his +charges' parents extremely angry, even to depriving him of their +patronage. Very soft music, in "Lydian modes," is counted effeminate, +fit only for the women's quarters and likely to do boys no good. +The riotous type also, of the "Ionic mode," is fit only for drinking +songs and is even more under the ban.[*] What is especially in +favor is the stern, strenuous Dorian mode. This will make boys +hardy, manly, and brave. Very elaborate music with trills and +quavers is in any case frowned upon. It simply delights the trained +ear, and has no reaction upon the character; and of what value is +a musical presentation unless it leaves the hearers and performer +better, worthier men? Let the average Athenian possess the +opportunity, and he will infallibly stamp with disapproval a great +part of both the popular and the classical music of the later +ages.[+] + +[*]The "Phrygian mode" from which the "Ionic" was derived was still +more demoralizing; it was counted "orgiastic," and proper only in +certain excited religious rhapsodies. + +[+]We have extremely few Greek melodies preserved to us and these +few are not attractive to the modern ear. All that can fairly be +said is that the Hellenes were obvious such sthetic, harmoniously +minded people that it is impossible their music should have failed +in nobility, beauty, and true melody. + + +60. The Teaching of Gymnastics.--The visits to the reading school +and to the harp master have consumed a large part of the day; but +towards afternoon the pedagogues will conduct their charges to the +third of the schoolboys' tyrants: the gymnastic teacher. Nor do +his parents count this the least important of the three. Must not +their sons be as physically "beautiful" (to use the common phrase +in Athens) as possible, and must they not some day, as good citizens, +play their brave part in war? The palstras (literally "wrestling +grounds") are near the outskirts of the city, where land is cheap +and a good-sized open space can be secured. Here the lads are +given careful instruction under the constant eye of an expert in +running, wrestling, boxing, jumping, discus hurling, and javelin +casting. They are not expected to become professional athletes, +but their parents will be vexed if they do not develop a healthy +tan all over their naked bodies,[*] and if they do not learn at +least moderate proficiency in the sports and a certain amount of +familiarity with elementary military maneuvers. Of course boys +of marked physical ability will be encouraged to think of training +for the various great "games" which culminate at Olympia, although +enlightened opinion is against the promoting of professional +athletics; and certain extreme philosophers question the wisdom of +any extensive physical culture at all, "for (say they) is not the +human mind the real thing worth developing?"[+] + +[*]To have a pale, untanned skin was "womanish" and unworthy of a +free Athenian citizen. + +[+]The details of the boys' athletic games, being much of a kind +with those followed by adults at the regular public gymnasia, are +here omitted. See Chap. XVII. + +Weary at length and ready for a hearty meal and sleep, the boys +are conducted homeward by their pedagogues. + +As they grow older the lads with ambitious parents will be given +a more varied education. Some will be put under such teachers of +the new rhetoric and oratory, now in vogue, as the famous socrates, +and be taught to play the orator as an aid to inducing their fellow +citizens to bestow political advancement. Certain will be allowed +to become pupils of Plato, who has been teaching his philosophy +out at the groves of the Academy, or to join some of his rivals in +theoretical wisdom. Into these fields, however, we cannot follow +them. + + +61. The Habits and Ambitions of Schoolboys.--It is a clear fact, +that by the age say of thirteen, the Athenian education has had a +marked effect upon the average schoolboy. Instead of being "the +most ferocious of animals," as Plato, speaking of his untutored +state describes him, he is now "the most amiable and divine of +living beings." The well-trained lad goes now to school with his +eyes cast upon the ground, his hands and arms wrapped in his chiton, +making way dutifully for all his elders. If he is addressed by an +older man, he stands modestly, looking downward and blushing in a +manner worthy of a girl. He has been taught to avoid the Agora, +and if he must pass it, never to linger. The world is full of +evil and ugly things, but he is taught to hear and see as little of +them as possible. When men talk of his healthy color, increasing +beauty, and admire the graceful curves of his form at the wrestling +school, he must not grow proud. He is being taught to learn relatively +little from books, but a great deal from hearing the conversation +of grave and well-informed men. As he grows older his father will +take him to all kinds of public gatherings and teach him the working +details of the "Democratic Government" of Athens. He becomes +intensely proud of his city. It is at length his chief thought, +almost his entire life. A very large part of the loyalty which +an educated man of a later age will divide between his home, his +church, his college, his town, and his nation, the Athenian lad +will sum up in two words,--"my polis"; i.e. the city of Athens. +His home is largely a place for eating and sleeping; his school +is not a great institution, it is simply a kind of disagreeable +though necessary learning shop; his church is the religion of his +ancestors, and this religion is warp and woof of the government, +as much a part thereof as the law courts or the fighting fleet; +his town and his nation are alike the sovran city-state of Athens. +Whether he feels keenly a wider loyalty to Hellas at large, as +against the Great King of Persia, for instance, will depend upon +circumstances. In a real crisis, as at Salamis,--yes. In ordinary +circumstances when there is a hot feud with Sparta,--no. + + +62. The "Ephebi."--The Athenian education then is admirably adapted +to make the average lad a useful and worthy citizen, and to make +him modest, alert, robust, manly, and a just lover of the beautiful, +both in conduct and in art. It does not, however, develop his +individual bent very strongly; and it certainly gives him a mean +view of the dignity of labor. He will either become a leisurely +gentleman, whose only proper self-expression will come in warfare, +politics, or philosophy; or--if he be poor--he will at least envy +and try to imitate the leisure class. + +By eighteen the young Athenian's days of study will usually come +to a close. At that age he will be given a simple festival by +his father and be formally enrolled in his paternal deme.[*] His +hair, which has hitherto grown down toward his shoulders, will be +clipped short. He will allow his beard to grow. At the temple +of Aglaurus he will (with the other youths of his age) take solemn +oath of loyalty to Athens and her laws. For the next year he will +serve as a military guard at the Peirus, and receive a certain +training in soldiering. The next year the state will present +him with a new shield and spear, and he will have a taste of the +rougher garrison duty at one of the frontier forts towards Btia or +Megara.[+] Then he is mustered out. He is an ephebus no longer, +but a full-fledged citizen, and all the vicissitudes of Athenian +life are before him. + +[*]One of the hundred or more petty townships or precincts into +which Attica was divided. + +[+]These two years which the ephebi of Athens had to serve under +arms have been aptly likened to the military service now required +of young men in European countries. + + + + + +Chapter X. The Physicians of Athens. + + + + +63. The Beginnings of Greek Medical Science.--As we move about +the city we cannot but be impressed by the high average of fine +physiques and handsome faces. Your typical Greek is fair in color +and has very regular features. The youths do not mature rapidly, +but thanks to the gymnasia and the regular lives, they develop not +merely admirable, but healthy, bodies. The proportion of hale and +hearty OLD men is great; and probably the number of invalids is +considerably smaller than in later times and in more artificially +reared communities.[*] Nevertheless, the Athenians are certainly +mortal, and subject to bodily ills, and the physician is no unimportant +member of society, although his exact status is much less clearly +determined than it will be in subsequent ages. + +[*]A slight but significant witness to the general healthiness of +the Greeks is found in the very rare mention in their literature +of such a common ill as TOOTHACHE. + +Greek medicine and surgery, as it appears in Homer, is simply a +certain amount of practical knowledge gained by rough experience, +largely supplemented by primitive superstition. It was quite as +important to know the proper prayers and charms wherewith to approach +"Apollo the Healer," as to understand the kind of herb poultice +which would keep wounds from festering. Homer speaks of Asclepius; +however, in early days he was not a god, but simply a skilful leach. +Then as we approach historic times the physician's art becomes +more regular. Asclepius is elevated into a separate and important +deity, although it is not till 420 B.C. that his worship is formally +introduced into Athens. Long ere that time, however, medicine and +surgery had won a real place among the practical sciences. The +sick man stands at least a tolerable chance of rational treatment, +and of not being murdered by wizards and fanatical exorcists. + + +64. Healing Shrines and their Methods.--There exist in Athens and +in other Greek cities real sanataria[*]; these are temples devoted +to the healing gods (usually Asclepius, but sometimes Apollo, +Aphrodite, and Hera). Here the patient is expected to sleep over +night in the temple, and the god visits him in a dream, and reveals +a course of treatment which will lead to recovery. Probably there +is a good deal of sham and imposture about the process. The canny +priests know more than they care to tell about how the patient is +worked into an excitable, imaginative state; and of the very human +means employed to produce a satisfactory and informing dream.[+] +Nevertheless it is a great deal to convince the patient that he +is sure of recovery, and that nobody less than a god has dictated +the remedies. The value of mental therapeutics is keenly appreciated. +Attached to the temple are skilled physicians to "interpret" the +dream, and opportunities for prolonged residence with treatment by +baths, purgation, dieting, mineral waters, sea baths, all kinds of +mild gymnastics, etc. Entering upon one of these temple treatments +is, in short anything but surrendering oneself to unmitigated quackery. +Probably a large proportion of the former patients have recovered; +and they have testified their gratitude by hanging around the +shrine little votive tablets,[$] usually pictures of the diseased +parts now happily healed, or, for internal maladies, a written +statement of the nature of the disease. This is naturally very +encouraging to later patients: they gain confidence knowing that +many cases similar to their own have been thus cured. + +[*]The most famous was at Epidaurus, where the Asclepius cult seems +to have been especially localized. + +[+]The "healing sleep" employed at these temples is described, in +a kind of blasphemous parody, in Aristophanes's "Plutus." (Significant +passages are quoted in Davis's "Readings in Ancient History," vol. +I, pp. 258-261.) + +[$]Somewhat as in the various Catholic pilgrimage shrines (e.g. +Lourdes) to-day. + +These visits to the healing temples are, however, expensive: not +everybody has entire faith in them; for many lesser ills also they +are wholly unnecessary. Let us look, then, at the regular physicians. + + +65. An Athenian Physician's Office.--There are salaried public +medical officers in Athens, and something like a public dispensary +where free treatment is given citizens in simple cases; but the +average man seems to prefer his own doctor.[*] We may enter the +office of Menon, a "regular private practitioner," and look about +us. The office itself is a mere open shop in the front of a house +near the Agora; and, like a barber's shop is something of a general +lounging place. In the rear one or two young disciples (doctors +in embryo) and a couple of slaves are pounding up drugs in mortars. +There are numbers of bags of dried herbs and little glass flasks +hanging on the walls. Near the entrance is a statue of Asclepius +the Healer, and also of the great human founder of the real medical +science among the Greeks--Hippocrates. + +[*]We know comparatively little of these public physicians; probably +they were mainly concerned with the health of the army and naval +force, the prevention of epidemics, etc. + +Menon himself is just preparing to go out on his professional +calls. He is a handsome man in the prime of his life, and takes +great pains with his personal appearance. His himation is carefully +draped. His finger rings have excellent cameos. His beard has +been neatly trimmed, and he has just bathed and scented himself +with delicate Assyrian nard. He will gladly tell you that he is +in no wise a fop, but that it is absolutely necessary to produce +a pleasant personal impression upon his fastidious, irritable +patients. Menon himself claims to have been a personal pupil of +the great Hippocrates,[*] and about every other reputable Greek +physician will make the same claim. He has studied more or less +in a temple of Asclepius, and perhaps has been a member of the +medical staff thereto attached. He has also become a member of +the Hippocratic brotherhood, a semi-secret organization, associated +with the Asclepius cult, and cheerfully cherishing the dignity of +the profession and the secret arts of the guild. + +[*]Who was still alive, an extremely old man. He died in Thessaly +in 357 B.C., at an alleged age of 104 years. + +66. The Physician's Oath.--The oath which all this brotherhood has +sworn is noble and notable. Here are some of the main provisions:-- + + +"I swear by Apollo the Physician, and Asclepius and Hygeia; a +[Lady Health] and Panaceia [Lady All-Cure] to honor as my parents +the master who taught me this art, and to admit to my own instruction +only his sons, my own sons, and those who have been duly inscribed +as pupils, and who have taken the medical oath, and no others. I +will prescribe such treatment as may be for the benefit of my +patients, according to my best power and judgment, and preserve +them from anything hurtful or mischievous. I will never, even if +asked, administer poison, nor advise its use. I will never give +a criminal draught to a woman. I will maintain the purity and +integrity of my art. Wherever I go, I will abstain from all mischief +or corruption, or any immodest action. If ever I hear any secret +I will not divulge it. If I keep this oath, may the gods give me +success in life and in my art. If I break this oath, may all the +reverse fall upon me."[*] + + +[*]For the unabridged translation of this oath, see Smith's +"Dictionary of Antiquities" (revised edition), vol. II, p. 154. + + +67. The Skill of Greek Physicians.--Menon's skill as a physician +and surgeon is considerable. True, he has only a very insufficient +conception of anatomy. His THEORETICAL knowledge is warped, but +he is a shrewd judge of human nature and his PRACTICAL knowledge +is not contemptible. In his private pharmacy his assistants have +compounded a great quantity of drugs which he knows how to administer +with much discernment. He has had considerable experience in dealing +with wounds and sprains, such as are common in the wars or in the +athletic games. He understands that Dame Nature is a great healer, +who is to be assisted rather than coerced; and he dislikes resorting +to violent remedies, such as bleedings and strong emetics. Ordinary +fevers and the like he can attack with success. He has no modern +ansthetics or opium, but has a very insufficient substitute in +mandragora. He can treat simple diseases of the eye; and he knows +how to put gold filling into teeth. His surgical instruments, +however, are altogether too primitive. He is personally cleanly; +but he has not the least idea of antiseptics; the result is that +obscure internal diseases, calling for grave operations, are likely +to baffle him. He will refuse to operate, or if he does operate +the chances are against the patient.[*] In other words, his medical +skill is far in advance of his surgery. + +[*]Seemingly a really serious operation was usually turned over +by the local physician to a traveling surgeon, who could promptly +disappear from the neighborhood if things went badly. + +Menon naturally busies himself among the best families of Athens, +and commands a very good income. He counts it part of his equipment +to be able to persuade his patients, by all the rules of logic and +rhetoric, to submit to disagreeable treatment; and for that end +has taken lessons in informal oratory from Isocrates or one of his +associates. Some of Menon's competitors (feeling themselves less +eloquent) have actually a paid rhetorician whom they can take to +the bedside of a stubborn invalid, to induce him by irrefutable +arguments to endure an amputation.[*] + +[*]Plato tells how Gorgias, the famous rhetorician, was sometimes +thus hired. A truly Greek artifice--this substitution of oratory +for chloroform! + +No such honor of course is paid to the intellects of the poorer fry, +who swarm in at Menon's surgery. Those who cannot pay to have him +bandage them himself, perforce put up with the secondary skill and +wisdom of the "disciples." The drug-mixing slaves are expected to +salve and physic the patients of their own class; but there seems +to be a law against allowing them to attempt the treatment of +free-born men. + + +68. Quacks and Charlatans.--Unluckily not everybody is wise enough +to put up with the presumably honest efforts of Menon's underlings. +There appears to be no law against anybody who wishes to pose as +a physician, and to sell his inexperience and his quack nostrums. +Vendors of every sort of cure-all abound, as well as creatures who +work on the superstitions and pretend to cure by charms and hocus-pocus. +In the market there is such a swarm of these charlatans of healing +that they bring the whole medical profession into contempt. Certain +people go so far as to distrust the efficacy of any part of the +lore of Asclepius. Says one poet tartly:-- + + +The surgeon Menedemos, as men say, + Touched as he passed a Zeus of marble white; + Neither the marble nor his Zeus-ship might +Avail the god--they buried him to-day. + + +And again even to dream of the quacks is dangerous:-- + + +Diophantes, sleeping, saw + Hermas the physician: +Diophantes never woke + From that fatal vision.[*] + + +[*]Both of these quotations probably date from later than 360 B.C., +but they are perfectly in keeping with the general opinion of Greek +quackery. + +All in all, despite Menon's good intentions and not despicable +skill, it is fortunate the gods have made "Good Health" one of +their commonest gifts to the Athenians. Constant exercise in the +gymnasia, occasional service in the army, the absence of cramping +and unhealthful office work, and a climate which puts out-of-door +existence at a premium, secure for them a general good health that +compensates for most of the lack of a scientific medicine. + + + + + +Chapter XI. The Funerals. + + + + +69. An Athenian's Will.--All Menon's patient's are to-day set +out upon the road to recovery. Hipponax, his rival, has been less +fortunate. A wealthy and elderly patient, Lycophron, died the +day before yesterday. As the latter felt his end approaching, he +did what most Athenians may put off until close to the inevitable +hour--he made his will, and called in his friends to witness it; +and one must hope there can be no doubt about the validity, the +signets attached, etc., for otherwise the heirs may find themselves +in a pretty lawsuit. + +The will begins in this fashion: "The Testament of Lyophron the +Marathonian.[*] May all be well:--but if I do not recover from +this sickness, thus do I bestow my estate." Then in perfectly +cold-blooded fashion he proceeds to give his young wife and the +guardianship of his infant daughter to Stobiades, a bachelor friend +who will probably marry the widow within two months or less of the +funeral. Lycophron gives also specific directions about his tomb; +he gives legacies of money or jewelry to various old associates; +he mentions certain favorite slaves to receive freedom, and as +specifically orders certain others (victims of his displeasure) +to be kept in bondage. Lastly three reliable friends are names as +executors. + +[*]In all Athenian legal documents, it was necessary to give the +deme of the interested party or parties. + + +70. The Preliminaries of a Funeral.--An elaborate funeral is the +last perquisite of every Athenian. Even if Lycophron had been a poor +man he would now receive obsequies seemingly far out of proportion +to his estate and income. It is even usual in Greek states to have +laws restraining the amount which may be spent upon funerals,--otherwise +great sums may be literally "burned up" upon the funeral pyres. +When now the tidings go out that Lycophron's nearest relative has +"closed his mouth," after he has breathed his last, all his male +kinsfolk and all other persons who HOPE to be remembered in the +will promptly appear in the Agora in black himatia[*] and hasten +to the barber shops to have their heads shaved. The widow might +shave her hair likewise, with all her slave maids, did not her +husband, just ere his death, positively forbid such disfigurements. +The women of the family take the body in charge the minute the +physician has declared that all is over. The customary obol is put +in the mouth of the corpse,[+] and the body is carefully washed in +perfumed water, clothed in festal white; then woolen fillets are +wound around the head, and over these a crown of vine leaves. So +arrayed, the body is ready to be laid out on a couch in the front +courtyard of the house, with the face turned toward the door so +as to seem to greet everybody who enters. In front of the house +there stands a tall earthen vase of water, wherewith the visitors +may give themselves a purifying sprinkling, after quitting the +polluting presence of a dead body. + +[*]In the important city of Argos, however, WHITE was the proper +funeral color. + +[+]This was not originally (as later asserted) a fee to Charon the +ferryman to Hades, but simply a "minimum precautionary sum, for the +dead man's use" (Dr. Jane Harrison), placed in the mouth, where a +Greek usually kept his small change. + + +71. Lamenting of the Dead.--Around this funeral bed the relatives +and friends keep a gloomy vigil. The Athenians after all are +southern born, and when excited seem highly emotional people. There +are stern laws dating from Solon's day against the worst excesses, +but what now occurs seems violent enough. The widow is beating +her breast, tearing her hair, gashing her cheeks with her finger +nails. Lycophron's elderly sister has ashes sprinkled upon her gray +head and ever and anon utters piteous wails. The slave women in +the background keep up a hideous moaning. The men present do not +think it undignified to utter loud lamentation and to shed frequent +tears. Least commendable of all (from a modern standpoint) are the +hired dirge singers, who maintain a most melancholy chant, all the +time beating their breasts, and giving a perfect imitation of frantic +grief. This has probably continued day and night, the mourners +perhaps taking turns by relays. + +All in all it is well that Greek custom enjoins the actual funeral, +at least, on the second day following the death.[*] The "shade" +of the deceased is not supposed to find rest in the nether world +until after the proper obsequies.[+] To let a corpse lie several +days without final disposition will bring down on any family severe +reproach. In fact, on few points are the Greeks more sensitive +than on this subject of prompt burial or cremation. After a land +battle the victors are bound never to push their vengeance so far +as to refuse a "burial truce" to the vanquished; and it is a doubly +unlucky admiral who lets his crews get drowned in a sea fight, +without due effort to recover the corpses afterward and to give +them proper disposition on land. + +[*]It must be remembered that the Greeks had no skilled embalmers +at their service, and that they lived in a decidedly warm climate. + +[+]See the well-known case of the wandering shade of Patrocius +demanding the proper obsequies from Achilles (Iliad, XXIII. 71). + + +72. The Funeral Procession.--The day after the "laying-out" comes +the actual funeral. Normally it is held as early as possible in +the morning, before the rising of the sun. Perhaps while on the +way to the Agora we have passed, well outside the city, such a +mournful procession. The youngest and stoutest of the male relatives +carry the litter: although if Lycophron's relatives had desired +a really extravagant display they might have employed a mule car. +Ahead of the bier march the screaming flute players, earning their +fees by no melodious din. Then comes the litter itself with the +corpse arrayed magnificently for the finalities, a honey cake set +in the hands,[*] a flask of oil placed under the head. After this +come streaming the relatives in irregular procession: the widow and +the chief heir (her prospective second husband!) walking closest, +and trying to appear as demonstrative as possible: nor (merely +because the company is noisy and not stoical in its manner) need +we deny that there is abundant genuine grief. All sorts of male +acquaintances of the deceased bring up the rear, since it is good +form to proclaim to wide Athens that Lycophon had hosts of friends.[+] + +[*]The original idea of the honey cake was simply that it was a +friendly present to the infernal gods; later came the conceit that +it was a sop to fling to the dog Cerberus, who guarded the entrance +to Hades. + +[+]Women, unless they were over sixty years of age, were not allowed +to join in funeral processions unless they were first cousins, or +closer kin, of the deceased. + + +73. The Funeral Pyre.--So the procession moves through the still +gloomy streets of the city,--doubtless needing torch bearers as +well as flute players,--and out through some gate, until the line +halts in an open field, or better, in a quiet and convenient garden. +Here the great funeral pyre of choice dry fagots, intermixed with +aromatic cedar, has been heaped. The bier is laid thereon. There +are no strictly religious ceremonies. The company stands in +a respectful circle, while the nearest male kinsman tosses a pine +link upon the oil-soaked wood. A mighty blaze leaps up to heaven, +sending its ruddy brightness against the sky now palely flushed +with the bursting dawn. The flutists play in softer measures. As +the fire rages a few of the relatives toss upon it pots of rare +unguents; and while the flames die down, thrice the company shout +their farewells, calling their departed friend by name--"Lycophron! +Lycophron! Lycophron!" + +So fierce is the flame it soon sinks into ashes. As soon as these +are cool enough for safety (a process hastened by pouring on water +or wine) the charred bones of the deceased are tenderly gathered +up to be placed in a stately urn. The company, less formally now, +returns to Athens, and that night there will probably be a great +funeral feast at the house of the nearest relative, everybody +eating and drinking to capacity "to do Lycophron full honor"; for +it is he who is imagined as being now for the last time the host. + + +74. Honors to the memory of the Dead.--Religion seems to have +very little place in the Athenian funeral: there are no priests +present, no prayers, no religious hymns. But the dead man is now +conceived as being, in a very humble and intangible way, a deity +himself: his good will is worth propitiating; his memory is not +to be forgotten. On the third, ninth, and thirtieth days after +the funeral there are simple religious ceremonies with offerings +of garlands, fruits, libations and the like, at the new tomb; and +later at certain times in the year these will be repeated. The +more enlightened will of course consider these merely graceful +remembrances of a former friend; but there is a good deal of +primitive ancestor worship even in civilized Athens. + +BURNING is the usual method for the Greeks to dispose of their +dead, but the burial of unburned bodies is not unknown to them. +Probably, however, the rocky soil and the limited land space around +Athens make regular cemeteries less convenient than elsewhere: still +it would have been nothing exceptional if Lycophron had ordered in +his will that he be put in a handsome pottery coffin to be placed +in a burial ground pertaining to his family. + + +75. The Beautiful Funeral Monuments.--If the noisy funeral customs +permitted to the Athenians may repel a later day observer, there +can be only praise for the Athenian tombs, or rather the funeral +monuments (stl) which might be set over the urns or ashes or the +actual coffins. Nearly every Athenian family has a private field +which it uses for sepulchral purposes: but running outside of +the city, near the Itonian Gate along the road to the Peirus, the +space to either side of the highway has been especially appropriated +for this purpose. Waling hither along this "Street of the Tombs" +we can make a careful survey of some of the most touching memorials +of Athenian life. + +The period of hot, violent grief seems now over; the mourners have +settled down in their dumb sense of loss. This spirit of calm, +noble resignation is what is expressed upon these monuments. All +is chaste, dignified, simple. There are no labored eulogies of +the deceased; no frantic expressions of sorrow; no hint (let it +be also said) of any hope of reunions in the Hereafter. Sometimes +there is simply a plain marble slab or pillar marked with the name +of the deceased; and with even the more elaborate monuments the +effort often is to concentrate, into one simple scene, the best and +worthiest that was connected with the dear departed. Here is the +noble mother seated in quiet dignity extending her hand in farewell +to her sad but steadfast husband, while her children linger wonderingly +by; here is the athlete, the young man in his pride, depicted not +in the moment of weakness and death, but scraping his glorious form +with his strigil, after some victorious contest in the games; here +is the mounted warrior, slain before Corinth whilst battling for +his country, represented in the moment of overthrowing beneath +his flying charger some despairing foe. We are made to feel that +these Athenians were fair and beautiful in their lives, and that +in their deaths they were not unworthy. And we marvel, and admire +these monuments the more when we realize that they are not the work +of master sculptors but of ordinary paid craftsmen. We turn away +praising the city that could produce such noble sculpture and +call it mere handicraft, and praising also the calm poise of soul, +uncomforted by revealed religion, which could make these monuments +common expressions of the bitterest, deepest, most vital emotions +which can ever come to men.[*] + +[*]As Von Falke (Greece and Rome, p. 141) well says of these +monuments, "No skeleton, no scythe, no hour-glass is in them to +bring a shudder to the beholder. As they [the departed] were in +life, mother and daughter, husband and wife, parents and children, +here they are represented together, sitting or standing, clasping +each other's hands and looking at one another with love and sympathy +as if it were their customary affectionate intercourse. What the +stone perpetuates is the love and happiness they enjoyed together, +while yet they rejoiced in life and the light of day." + + + + + +Chapter XII. Trade, Manufactures, and Banking. + + + + +76. The Commercial Importance of Athens.--While the funeral mourners +are wending their slow way homeward we have time to examine certain +phases of Athenian life at which we have previously glanced, then +ignored. Certain it is, most "noble and good" gentlemen delight +to be considered persons of polite uncommercial leisure; equally +certain it is that a good income is about as desirable in Athens +as anywhere else, and many a stately "Eupatrid," who seems to +spend his whole time in dignified walks, discoursing on politics +or philosophy, is really keenly interested in trades, factories, +or farms, of which his less nobly born stewards have the active +management. Indeed one of the prime reasons for Athenian greatness +is the fact that Athens is the richest and greatest commercial city +of Continental Hellas, with only Corinth as a formidable rival.[*] + +[*]Syracuse in distant Sicily was possibly superior to Athens in +commerce and economic prosperity, although incomparably behind her +in the empire of the arts and literature. + +To understand the full extent of Athenian commercial prosperity we +must visit the Peirus, yet in the main city itself will be found +almost enough examples of the chief kinds of economic activity. + + +77. The Manufacturing Activities of Athens.--Attica is the seat +of much manufacturing. Go to the suburbs: everywhere is the rank +odor of the tanneries; down at the harbors are innumerable ship +carpenters and sail and tackle makers, busy in the shipyards; from +almost every part of the city comes the clang of hammer and anvil +where hardware of all kinds is being wrought in the smithies; and +finally the potter makers are so numerous as to require special +mention hereafter. But no list of all the manufacturing activities +is here possible; enough that practically every known industry is +represented in Athens, and the "industrial" class is large.[*] A +very large proportion of the industrial laborers are slaves, but +by no means all. A good many are real Athenian citizens; a still +larger proportion are "metics" (resident foreigners without political +rights). The competition of slave labor, however, tends to keep +wages very low. An unskilled laborer will have to be content with +his 3 obols (9 cents [1914] or $1.51 [2000]) per day; but a trained +workman will demand a drachma (18 cents [1914] or $3.02 [2000]) +or even more. There are no labor unions or trade guilds. A son +usually, though not invariably, follows his father's profession. +Each industry and line of work tends to have its own little street +or alley, preferably leading off the Agora. "The Street of the Marble +Workers," the "Street of the Box Makers," and notably the "Street +of the Potters" contain nearly all the workshops of a given kind. +Probably you can find no others in the city. Prices are regulated +by custom and competition; in case any master artisan is suspected +of "enhancing" the price of a needful commodity, or his shady business +methods seem dangerous to the public, there is no hesitation in +invoking an old law or passing a new one in the Assembly to bring +him to account. + +[*]For a very suggestive list of the numerous kinds of Greek industries +(practically all of which would be represented in Athens) see H. +J. Edwards, in Whibley's "Companion to Greek Studies," p. 431. + +Manufacturers are theoretically under a social ban, and indeed +yonder petty shoemaker, who, with his two apprentices, first makes +up his cheap sandals, then sells them over the low counter before +his own ship, is very far from being a "leisurely" member of the +"noble and the good." But he who, like the late Lycophron, owns +a furniture factory employing night threescore slaves, can be sure +of lying down on his couch at a dinner party among the very best; +for, as in twentieth century England, even manufacture and "trade," if +on a sufficiently large scale, cover a multitude of social sins.[*] + +[*]Plato, probably echoing thoughtful Greek opinion, considered it +bad for manufacturers to be either too wealthy or too poor; thus +a potter getting too rich will neglect his art, and grow idle; +if, however, he cannot afford proper tools, he will manufacture +inferior wares, and his sons will be even worse workmen then he. +Such comment obviously comes from a society where most industrial +life is on a small scale. + + +78. The Commerce of Athens.--Part of Athenian wealth comes from +the busy factories, great and small, which seem everywhere; still +more riches come in by the great commerce which will be found +centered at the Peirus. Here is the spacious Deigma, a kind +of exchange-house where ship masters can lay out samples of their +wares on display, and sell to the important wholesalers, who will +transmit to the petty shopkeepers and the "ultimate consumer."[*] + +[*]Of course a very large proportion of Greek manufactures wares +were never exported, but were sold direct by the manufacturer to +the consumer himself. This had various disadvantages; but there +was this large gain: ONLY ONE PROFIT was necessary to be added +to the mere cost of production. This aided to make Greece (from +a modern standpoint) a paradise of low prices. + +There are certain articles of which various districts make a +specialty, and which Athens is constantly importing: Btia sends +chariots; Thessaly, easy chairs; Chios and Miletos, bedding; and +Miletos, especially, very fine woolens. Greece in general looks +to Syria and Arabia for the much-esteemed spices and perfumes; to +Egypt for papyri for the book rolls; to Babylonia for carpets. To +discuss the whole problem of Athenian commerce would require a book +in itself; but certain main facts stand out clearly. One is that +Attica herself has extremely few natural products to export--only her +olive oil, her Hymettus honey, and her magnificent marbles--dazzling +white from Pentelicos, gray from Hymettus, blue or black from +Eleusis. Again we soon notice the great part which GRAIN plays in +Athenian commerce. Attica raises such a small proportion of the +necessary breadstuffs, and so serious is the crisis created by any +shortage, that all kinds of measures are employed to compel a steady +flow of grain from the Black Sea ports into the Peirus. Here is +a law which Domsthenes quotes to us:-- + +"It shall not be lawful for any Athenian or any metic in Attica, +or any person under their control [i.e. slave or freedman] to lend +out money on a ship which is not commissioned to bring grain to +Athens." + +A second law, even more drastic, forbids any such person to +transport grain to any harbor but the Peirus. The penalties for +evading these laws are terrific. At set intervals also the Public +Assembly (Ecclesia) is in duty bound to consider the whole state +of the grain trade: while the dealers in grain who seem to be +cornering the market, and forcing up the price of bread, are liable +to prompt and disastrous prosecution. + + +79. The Adventurous Merchant Skippers.--Foreign trade at Athens +is fairly well systematized, but it still partakes of the nature +of an adventure. The name for "skipper" (nauklros) is often used +interchangeably for "merchant." Nearly all commerce is by sea, +for land routes are usually slow, unsafe, and inconvenient[*]; the +average foreign trader is also a shipowner, probably too the actual +working captain. He has no special commodity, but will handle +everything which promises a profit. A war is breaking out in +Paphlagonia. Away he sails thither with a cargo of good Athenian +shields, swords, and lances. He loads up in that barbarous but +fertile country with grain; but leaves enough room in his hold for +some hundred skins of choice wine which he takes aboard at Chios. +The grain and wine are disembarked at the Pirus. Hardly are they +ashore ere rumor tells him that salt herring[+] are abundant and +especially cheap at Corcyra; and off he goes for a return cargo +thereof, just lingering long enough to get on a lading of Athenian +olive oil. + +[*]Naturally there was a safe land route from Athens across the +Isthmus to Corinth and thence to Sparta or towards Ellis; again, +there would be fair roads into Btia. + +[+]Salt fish were a very usual and important article of Greek +commerce. + + +80. Athenian Money-changers and Bankers.--An important factor in the +commerce of Athens is the "Money-changer." There is no one fixed +standard of coinage for Greece, let alone the Barbarian world. Athens +strikes its money on a standard which has very wide acceptance, +but Corinth has another standard, and a great deal of business is +also transacted in Persian gold darics. The result is that at the +Peirus and near the Agora are a number of little "tables" where +alert individuals, with strong boxes beside them, are ready to sell +foreign coins to would-be travelers, or exchange darics for Attic +drachm, against a pretty favorable commission. + +This was the beginning of the Athenian banker; but from being a mere +exchanger he has often passed far beyond, to become a real master +of credit and capital. There are several of these highly important +gentlemen who now have a business and fortune equal to that of the +famous Pasion, who died in 370 B.C. While the firm of Pasion and +Company was at its height, the proprietor derived a net income of +at least 100 min (over $1,800 [1914] or $30,248.07 [2000]) per year +from his banking; and more than half as much extra from a shield +factory.[*] + +[*]These sums seem absurdly small for a great money magnate, but +the very high purchasing power of money in Athens must be borne in +mind. We know a good deal about Pasion and his business from the +speeches which Deosthenes composed in the litigation which arose +over his estate. + + +81. A Large Banking Establishment.--Enter now the "tables" +of Nicanor. The owner is a metic; perhaps he claims to come from +Rhodes, but the shrewd cast of his eyes and the dark hue of his skin +gives a suggestion of the Syrian about him. In his open office a +dozen young half-naked clerks are seated on low chairs--each with +his tablet spread out upon his knees laboriously computing long +sums.[*] The proprietor himself acts as the cashier. He has +not neglected the exchange of foreign moneys; but that is a mere +incidental. His first visitor this morning presents a kind of letter +of credit from a correspondent in Syracuse calling for one hundred +drachm. "Your voucher?" asks Nicanor. The stranger produces the +half of a coin broken in two across the middle. The proprietor +draws a similar half coin from a chest. The parts match exactly, +and the money is paid on the spot. the next comer is an old +acquaintance, a man of wealth and reputation; he is followed by +two slaves bearing a heavy talent of coined silver which he wishes +the banker to place for him on an advantageous loan, against a due +commission. The third visitor is a well-born but fast and idle +young man who is squandering his patrimony on flute girls and +chariot horses. He wishes an advance of ten min, and it is given +him--against the mortgage of a house, at the ruinous interest of +36 per cent, for such prodigals are perfectly fair play. Another +visitor is a careful and competent ship merchant who is fitting +for a voyage to Crete, and who requires a loan to buy his return +cargo. Ordinary interest, well secured, is 18 per cent, but a sea +voyage, even at the calmest season, is counted extra hazardous. +The skipper must pay 24 per cent at least. A poor tradesman also +appears to raise a trifle by pawning two silver cups; and an unlucky +farmer, who cannot meet his loan, persuades the banker to extend +the time "just until the next moon"[+]--of course at an unmerciful +compounding of interest. + +[*]Without the Arabic system of numerals, elaborate bookkeeping surely +presented a sober face to the Greeks. Their method of numeration +was very much like that with the so-called Roman numerals. + +[+]"Watching the moon," i.e. the end of the month when the debts +became due, appears to have been the melancholy recreation of many +Athenian debtors. See Aristophanes's "Clouds," I. 18. + + +82. Drawbacks to the Banking Business.--Nicanor has no paper money +to handle, no stocks, no bonds,--and the line between legitimate +interest and scandalous usury is by no means clearly drawn. There +is at least one good excuse for demanding high interest. It +is notoriously hard to collect bad debts. Many and many a clever +debtor has persuaded an Athenian jury that ALL taking of interest +is somewhat immoral, and the banker has lost at least his interest, +sometimes too his principal. So long as this is the case, a banker's +career has its drawbacks; and Demosthenes in a recent speech has +commended the choice by Pasion's son of a factory worth 60 min +per year, instead of his father's banking business worth nominally +100. The former was so much more secure than an income depending +on "other people's money!" + +Finally it must be said that while Nicanor and Pasion have been +honorable and justly esteemed men, many of their colleagues have +been rogues. Many a "table" has been closed very suddenly, when +its owner absconded, or collapsed in bankruptcy, and the unlucky +depositors and creditors have been left penniless, during the +"rearrangement of the tables," as the euphemism goes. + + +83. The Potter of Athens.--There is one other form of economic +activity in Athens which deserves our especial notice, different as +it is from the bankers' tables,--the manufacture of earthen vases. +A long time might be spent investigating the subject; here there +is room only for a hasty glance. For more than two hundred years +Attica has been supplying the world with a pottery which is in +some respects superior to any that has gone before, and also (all +things considered) to any that will follow, through night two and +a half millenniums. The articles are primarily tall vases and +urns, some for mere ornament or for religious purposes,--some for +very humble household utility; however, besides the regular vases +there is a great variety of dishes, plates, pitchers, bowls, and +cups all of the same general pattern,--a smooth, black glaze[*] +covered with figures in the delicate red of the unglazed clay. At +first the figures had been in black and the background in red, but +by about 500 B.C. the superiority of the black backgrounds had been +fully realized and the process perfected. For a long time Athens +had a monopoly of this beautiful earthenware, but now in 360 B.C. +there are creditable manufactories in other cities, and especially +in the Greek towns of Southern Italy. The Athenian industry is, +however, still considerable; in fifty places up and down the city, +but particularly in the busy quarter of the Ceramicus, the potters' +wheels are whirling, and the glazers are adding the elegant patterns. + +[*]Sometimes this glaze tended to a rich olive green or deep brown. + + +84. Athenian Pottery an Expression of the Greek Sense of +Beauty.--Athens is proud of her traditions of naval and military +glory; of the commerce of the Peirus; of her free laws and +constitution; of her sculptured temples, her poets, her rhetoricians +and philosophers. Almost equally well might she be proud of her +vases. They are not made--let us bear clearly in mind--by avowed +artists, servants of the Muses and of the Beautiful; they are the +regular commercial products of work-a-day craftsmen. But what +craftsmen! In the first place, they have given to every vase +and dish a marvelous individuality. There seems to be absolutely +no duplication of patterns.[*] Again, since these vases are made +for Greeks, they must--no matter how humble and commonplace their +use--be made beautiful--elegantly shaped, well glazed, and well +painted: otherwise, no matter how cheap, they will never find a +market. + +[*]It is asserted that of the many thousands of extant Greek vases +that crowd the shelves of modern museums, there are nowhere two +patterns exactly alike. + +The process of manufacture is simple, yet it needs a masterly touch. +After the potter has finished his work at the wheel and while the +clay is still soft, the decorator makes his rough design with a +blunt-pointed stylus. A line of black glaze is painted around each +figure. Then the black background is freely filled in, and the +details within the figure are added. A surprisingly small number +of deft lines are needed to bring out the whole picture.[*] Sometimes +the glaze is thinned out to a pale brown, to help in the drawing +of the interior contours. When the design is completed, we have an +amount of life and expression which with the best potters is little +short of startling. The subjects treated are infinite, as many as +are the possible phases of Greek life. Scenes in the home and on +the farm; the boys and their masters at school; the warriors, the +merchants, the priests sacrificing, the young gallants serenading +a sweet-heart; all the tales, in short of poet-lore and mythology,--time +would fail to list one tenth of them. Fairly we can assert that +were all the books and formal inscriptions about the Athenians to +be blotted out, these vase paintings almost photographs one might +say, of Athenian daily life, would give us back a very wide knowledge +of the habits of the men in the city of Athena. + +[*]In this respect the Greek vase paintings can compete with the +best work in the Japanese prints. + +The potters are justly proud of their work; often they do not +hesitate to add their signatures, and in this way later ages can +name the "craftsmen" who have transmitted to them these objects +of abiding beauty. The designers also are accommodating enough to +add descriptive legends of the scenes which they depict,--Achilles, +Hercules, Theseus, and all the other heroes are carefully named, +usually with the words written above or beside them. + +The pottery of Athens, then, is truly Athenian; that is to say, +it is genuinely elegant, ornamental, simple, and distinctive. The +best of these great vases and mixing bowls are works of art no less +than the sculptures of Phidias upon the Parthenon. + + + + + +Chapter XIII. The Armed Forces of Athens. + + + + +85. Military Life at Athens.--Hitherto we have seen almost nothing +save the peaceful civic side of Athenian life, but it is a cardinal +error to suppose that art, philosophy, farming, manufacturing, commerce, +and bloodless home politics sum up the whole of the activities of +Attica. Athens is no longer the great imperial state she was in +the days of Pericles, but she is still one of the greatest military +powers in Greece,[*] and on her present armed strength rests a +large share of her prestige and prosperity. Her fleet, which is +still her particular boast, must of course be seen at the Peirus; +but as we go about the streets of the main city we notice many men, +who apparently had recently entered their house doors as plain, +harmless citizens, now emerging, clad in all the warrior's bravery, +and hastening towards one of the gates. Evidently a review is to +be held of part of the citizen army of Athens. If we wish, we can +follow and learn much of the Greek system of warfare in general +and of the Athenian army in particular. + +[*]Of course the greatest military power of Greece had been Sparta +until 371 B.C., when the battle of Leuctra made Thebes temporarily +"the first land power." + +Even at the present day, when there is plenty of complaint that +Athenians are not willing to imitate the sturdy campaigning of their +fathers, the citizens seem always at war, or getting ready for it. +Every citizen, physically fit, is liable to military service from +his eighteenth to his sixtieth year. To make efficient soldiers +is really the main end of the constant physical exercise. If a +young man takes pride in his hard and fit body, if he flings spears +at the stadium, and learns to race in full armor, if he goes on +long marches in the hot sun, if he sleeps on the open hillside, or +lies on a bed of rushes watching the moon rise over the sea,--it +is all to prepare himself for a worthy part in the "big day" when +Athens will confront some old or new enemy on the battlefield. A +great deal of the conversation among the younger men is surely not +about Platonic ideals, Demosthenes's last political speech, nor +the best fighting cocks; it is about spears, shield-straps, camping +ground, rations, ambuscades, or the problems of naval warfare. + +It is alleged with some show of justice that by this time Athenians +are so enamored with the pleasures of peaceful life that they prefer +to pay money for mercenary troops rather than serve themselves on +distant expeditions; and certain it is that there are plenty of +Arcadians, Thracians, and others, from the nations which supply +the bulk of the mercenaries, always in Athenian pay in the outlying +garrisons. Still the old military tradition and organization for +the citizens is kept up, and half a generation later, when the freedom +of Athens is blasted before Philip the Macedonian at Chroneia, it +will be shown that if the Athenian militia does not know how to +conquer, it at least knows how to die. So we gladly follow to the +review, and gather our information. + + +86. The Organization of the Athenian Army.--After a young "ephebus" +has finished his two years of service in the garrisons he returns +home subject to call at the hour of need. When there is necessity +to make up an army, enough men are summoned to meet the required +number and no more. Thus for a small force only the eligibles +between say twenty and twenty-four years of age would be summoned; +but in a crisis all the citizens are levied up to the very graybeards. +The levy is conducted by the ten "Strategi" (at once 'generals,' +'admirals,' and 'war ministers') who control the whole armed power +of Athens. The recruits summoned have to come with three days' +rations to the rendezvous, usually to the Lyceum wrestling ground +just outside the city. In case of a general levy the old men are +expected to form merely a home guard for the walls; the young men +must be ready for hard service over seas. + +The organization of the Athenian army is very simple; each of the +ten Attic tribes sends its own special battalion or "taxis," which +is large or small according to the total size of the levy.[*] These +"taxeis" are subdivided into companies or "lochoi," of about an +average of 100 men each. The "taxeis" are each under a tribal-colonel +("taxiarch"), and each company under its captain ("locharch"). The +ten strategi theoretically command the whole army together, but +since bitter experience teaches that ten generals are usually nine +too many, a special decree of the people often entrusts the supreme +command of a force to one commander, or at most to not over three. +The other strategi must conduct other expeditions, or busy themselves +with their multifarious home duties. + +[*]Thus if 3000 men were called out, the average "taxis" would be +300 strong, but if 6000, then 600. + + +87. The Hoplites and the Light Troops.--The unit of the Athenian +citizen army, like practically all Greek armies, is the heavy armed +infantry soldier, the HOPLITE. An army of "three thousand men" +is often an army of so many hoplites, unless there is specific +statement to the contrary. But really it is of six thousand men, +to be entirely accurate: for along with every hoplite goes an +attendant, a "light-armed man," either a poor citizen who cannot +afford a regular suit of armor,[*] or possibly a trusted slave. +These "light-armed men" carry the hoplites' shields until the battle, +and most of the baggage. They have javelins, and sometimes slings +and bows. They act as skirmishers before the actual battle: and +while the hoplites are in the real death-grip they harass the foe +as they can, and guard the camp. When the fight is done they do +their best to cover the retreat, or slaughter the flying foe if +their own hoplites are victorious. + +[*]The hoplite's panoply (see description later) was sufficiently +expensive to imply that its owner was at least a man in tolerable +circumstances. + + +88. The Cavalry and the Peltasts.--There are certain divisions of +the army besides the hoplites and this somewhat ineffective light +infantry. There is a cavalry corps of 1000. Wealthy young Athenians +are proud to volunteer therein; it is a sign of wealth to be able +to provide your war horse. The cavalry too is given the place of +honor in the great religious processions; and there is plenty of +chance for exciting scouting service on the campaign. Again, the +cavalry service has something to commend it in that it is accounted +MUCH SAFER than the infantry![*] The cavalry is, however, a rather +feeble fighting instrument. Greek riders have no saddles and no +stirrups. They are merely mounted on thin horse pads, and it is +very hard to grip the horse with the knees tightly enough to keep +from being upset ignominiously while wielding the spear. The best +use for the cavalry perhaps is for the riders to take a sheaf of +javelins, ride up and discharge them at the foe as skirmishers, +then fall back behind the hoplites; though after the battle the +horsemen will have plenty to do in the retreat or the pursuit. + +[*]Greeks could seldom have been brought to imitate the reckless +medieval cavaliers. The example of Leonidas at Thermopyl was more +commended than imitated. Outside of Sparta at least, few Greeks +would have hesitated to flee from a battlefield, when the day +(despite their proper exertions) had been wholly lost. + +The Athenians have of course the Scythian police archers to send +into any battle near Athens; they can also hire mercenary archers +from Crete, but the Greek bows are relatively feeble, only three +or four feet long--by no means equal to the terrible yew bows which +will win glory for England in the Middle Ages. There has also come +into vogue, especially since the Peloponnesian war, an improved +kind of light-javelin-men,--the "Peltasts,"--with small shields, +and light armor, but with extra long lances. In recent warfare +this type of soldier, carefully trained and agile, has been known +to defeat bodies of the old-style over-encumbered hoplites.[*] +Nevertheless, most veteran soldiers still believe that the heavy +infantryman is everything, and the backbone of nearly every Greek +army is still surely the hoplite. He will continue to be the regular +fighting unit until the improved "phalanx," and the "Companion +Cavalry" of Philip and Alexander of Macedon teach the captains of +the world new lessons. + +[*]Especially the Athenian general Iphicrates was able to cut +to pieces a "mora" (brigade) of Spartan hoplites, in 392 B.C., by +skillful use of a force of peltasts. + +89. The Panoply of the Hoplite.--We have passed out one of the +gates and are very likely in a convenient open space south and east +of the city stretching away toward the ever visible slopes of gray +Hymettus. Here is a suitable parade ground. The citizen soldiers +are slipping on their helmets and tightening up their cuirasses. +Trumpets blow from time to time to give orders to "fall in" among +the respective "lochoi" and "taxeis." There is plenty of time to +study the arms and armor of the hoplites during these preliminaries. + +A very brief glance at the average infantryman's defensive weapons +tells us that to be able to march, maneuver, and fight efficiently +in this armor implies that the Athenian soldier is a well-trained +athlete. The whole panoply weighs many pounds.[*] The prime +parts in the armor are the helmet, the cuirass, the greaves, and +the shield. Every able-bodied citizen of moderate means has this +outfit hanging in his andronitis, and can don it at brief notice. +The HELMET is normally of bronze; it is cut away enough in front +to leave the face visible, but sometimes a cautious individual will +insist on having movable plates (which can be turned up and down) +to protect the cheeks.[+] Across the top there runs a firm metal +ridge to catch any hard down-right blow, and set into the ridge is +a tall nodding crest either of horsehair or of bright feathers--in +either case the joy and glory of the wearer. + +[*]Possibly fifty or more--we have no correct means for an +exact estimate. [A note from Brett: Looking at web sites where +reconstruction of the armor has been done and estimates made (ca. +1999) there seems to be a consistent top end of 70 pounds. Scholarly +circles (e.g. Rudolph Storch of the University of Maryland) seem +to lock the estimate more tightly, with the consensus saying that +a fully armored Hoplite carried between 60 and 70 pounds. Most +of this weight seems to be in the cuirass, which in some cases +was linen and weighed only 10-15 pounds (the actual thickness is +unknown, so the broad range of weight estimate covers the minimum +to maximum reasonable thickness). For reference, a modern (2000) +soldier is generally limited to 50 pounds of gear when fighting +and 70 pounds when marching.] + +[+]The "Corinthian" type of helmets came more closely over the face, +and the cheek protectors were not movable; these helmets were much +like the closed helms of the medieval knights. The Spartans, in +their contempt for danger, wore plain pointed steel caps which gave +relatively little protection. + +Buckled around the soldier's body is the CUIRASS. It comprises +a breastplate and a back piece of bronze, joined by thongs, or by +straps with a buckle. The metal comes down to the hips. Below it +hangs a thick fringe of stout strips of leather strengthened with +bright metallic studs, and reaching halfway to the knees. From this +point to the knees the legs are bare, but next come the GREAVES, +thin pliable plates of bronze fitted to the shape of the leg, and +opening at the back. They have to be slipped on, and then are +fastened at the knees and ankle with leathern straps. + +But the warrior's main protection is his SHIELD. With a strong, +large shield you can fight passing well without any regular body +armor; while with the best outfit of the latter you are highly +vulnerable without your shield. To know how to swing your shield +so as to catch every possible blow, to know how to push and lunge +with it against an enemy, to know how to knock a man down with it, +if needs be, THAT is a good part of the soldier's education. The +shield is sometimes round, but more often oval. It is about four +feet by the longest diameter. It is made of several layers of heavy +bull's hide, firmly corded and riveted together, and has a good +metal rim and metal boss in the center. On the inside are two +handles so that it can be conveniently wielded on the left arm.[*] +These shields are brilliantly painted, and although the Greeks have +no heraldic devices, there are all manner of badges and distinguishing +marks in vogue. Thus all Theban shields are blazoned with a club; +Sicyonian shields are marked with the initial "Sigma" (S), and we +note that the Athenian shields are all marked Alpha (A).[+] + +[*]Earlier Greek shields seem to have been very large and +correspondingly heavy. These had only a single handle; and to aid +in shifting them they were swung on straps passed over the left +shoulder. + +[+]This last is a matter of safe inference rather than of positive +information. + + +90. The Weapons of a Hoplite.--The hoplites have donned their +armor. Now they assume their offensive weapons. Every man has a +lance and a sword. The LANCE is a stout weapon with a solid wooden +butt, about six feet long in all. It is really too heavy to use +as a javelin. It is most effective as a pike thrust fairly into a +foeman's face, or past his shield into a weak spot in his cuirass. +The sword is usually kept as a reserve weapon in case the lance +gets broken. It is not over 25 inches in length, making rather a +huge double-edged vicious knife than a saber; but it is terrible +for cut and thrust work at very close quarters. Simple as these +weapons are, they are fearful instruments of slaughter in well-trained +hands, and the average Greek has spent a considerable part of his +life in being taught how to use them. + + +91. Infantry Maneuvers.--The final trumpets have blown, and the +troops fall into their places. Each tribal "taxis" lines up its +"lochoi." The Greeks have no flags nor standards. There is a +great deal of shouting by the subaltern officers, and running up +and down the ranks. Presently everything is in formal array. The +hoplites stand in close order, each man about two feet from the +next,[*] leaving no gaps between each division from end to end of +the lines. The men are set in eight long ranks. This is the normal +"phalanx"[+] order. Only those in front can actually lunge and +strike at the enemy. The men in the rear will add to the battering +force of the charge, and crowding in closely, wedge themselves +promptly to the front, when any of the first rank goes down. + +[*]The object would be to give each man just enough distance to +let him make fair use of his lance, and yet have his shield overlap +that of his neighbor. + +[+]The "phalanx" is sometimes spoken of as a Macedonian invention, +but Philip and Alexander simply improved upon an old Greek military +formation. + +It is an imposing sight when the strategos in charge of the maneuvers, +a stately man in a red chlamys, gives the final word "March!" + +Loud pipes begin screaming. The long lines of red, blue, and orange +plumes nod fiercely together. The sun strikes fire out of thousands +of brandished lance tips. The phalanx goes swinging away over the +dusty parade ground, the subalterns up and down the files muttering +angrily to each inapt recruit to "Keep your distance:" or "Don't +advance your shield." The commandant duly orders the "Half turn:" +"Left" or "Right turn:" "Formation by squares," and finally the +critical "Change front to rear." If this last maneuver is successfully +accomplished, the strategos will compliment the drill sergeants; +for it is notoriously difficult to turn a ponderous phalanx around +and yet make it keep good order. The drilling goes on until the +welcome order comes, "Ground arms!" and every perspiring soldier +lets his heavy shield slip from his arm upon the ground. + + +92. The Preliminaries of a Greek Battle.--Later in the day, if +these are happy times of peace, the whole phalanx, so bristling +and formidable, will have resolved itself into its harmless units +of honest citizens all streaming home for dinner. + +Our curiosity of course asks how does this army act upon the +campaign; what, in other words, is a typical Greek battle? This +is not hard to describe. Greek battles, until lately, have been +fought according to set formul in which there is little room for +original generalship, though much for ordinary circumspection and +personal valor. A battle consists in the charging together of two +phalanxes of hoplites of about equal numbers. If one army greatly +overmatches the other, the weaker side will probably retire without +risking a contest. With a common purpose, therefore, the respective +generals will select a broad stretch of level ground for the +struggle, since stony, hilly, or uneven ground will never do for +the maneuvering of hoplites. The two armies, after having duly +come in sight of one another, and exchanged defiances by derisive +shouts, catcalls, and trumpetings, will probably each pitch its camp +(protected by simple fortifications) and perhaps wait over night, +that the men may be well rested and have a good dinner and breakfast. +The soldiers will be duly heartened up by being told of any lucky +omens of late,--how three black crows were seen on the right, and +a flash of lightning on the left; and the seers and diviners with +the army will, at the general's orders, repeat any hopeful oracles +they can remember or fabricate, e.g. predicting ruin for Thebes, +or victory for Athens. In the morning the soldiers have breakfast, +then the lines are carefully arrayed a little beyond bowshot from +the enemy, who are preparing themselves in similar fashion. Every +man has his arms in order, his spear point and sword just from the +whetstone, and every buckle made fast. The general (probably in +sight of all the men) will cause the seers to kill a chicken, and +examine its entrails. "The omens are good; the color is favorable; +the gods are with us!"[*] he announces; and then, since he is +a Greek among Greeks, he delivers in loud voice an harangue to as +many as can hear him, setting forth the patriotic issues at stake +in the battle, the call of the fatherland to its sons, the glory +of brave valor, the shame of cowardice, probably ending with some +practical directions about "Never edging to the right!" and exhorting +his men to raise as loud a war-cry as possible, both to encourage +themselves and to demoralize the enemy. + +[*]It may be suspected that it was very seldom the omens were +ALLOWED to be unfavorable when the general was really resolved on +battle. + + +93. Joining the Battle.--The troops answer with a cheer then join +in full chorus in the "Pan--" a fierce rousing charging-song that +makes every faint-heart's blood leap faster. Another pan bellowed +from the hostile ranks indicates that similar preliminaries have been +disposed of there. The moment the fierce chorus ends, the general +(who probably is at the post of danger and honor--the right wing) +nods to his corps of pipers. The shrill flutes cut the air. The +whole phalanx starts forward like one man, and the enemy seem springing +to meet it. The tossing color, the flashing arms and armor, make +it a sight for men and gods. If the enemy has a powerful archery +force, as had the Persians at Marathon, then the phalanx is allowed +to advance on the run,--for at all costs one must get through the +terrible zone of the arrow fire and come to grips; but if their +bowmen are weak, the hoplites will be restrained,--it is better +not to risk getting the phalanx disorganized. Running or marching +the troops will emit a terrible roaring: either the slow deep "A! +la! la! la!" or something quicker, "Eluleu!" "Eluleu!" and the +flutes will blow all the while to give the time for the marching. + +Closer at hand the two armies will fairly spring into unfriendly +embrace. The generals have each measured his enemy's line and +extended his own to match it.[*] With files of about equal depth, +and well-trained men on both sides, the first stage of the death +grapple is likely to be a most fearful yet indecisive pushing: +the men of the front ranks pressing against each other, shield to +shield, glaring out of their helmets like wild beasts against the +foeman three feet away, and lunging with their lances at any opening +between the hostile shields or above them. The comrades behind +wedge in the front ranks closer and closer. Men are crushed to +death, probably without a wound, just by this hellish impact. The +shouts and yells emitted are deafening. There is an unearthly +clashing of steel weapons on bronze armor. Every now and then a +shrill, sharp cry tells where a soldier has been stabbed, and has +gone down in the press, probably trampled to death instantly. In +this way the two writhing, thrusting phalanxes continue to push +on one another at sheer deadlock, until a cool observer might +well wonder whether the battle would not end simply with mutual +extermination. + +[*]Any sudden attempt to extend your line BEYOND the foe's, so as +to outflank him, would probably have produced so much confusion in +your own phalanx as to promise certain disaster. Of course for an +inferior force to accept battle by thinning its line, to be able +by extending to meet the long lines of the enemy, would involve +the greatest risk of being broken through at the center. The best +remedy for inferior numbers was manifestly to decline a decisive +battle. + + +94. The Climax and End of the Battle.--Boot look away now from the +center, towards the two wings. What the generals of BOTH contending +armies have feared and warned against has come to pass. Every +hoplite is admirably covered by his great shield on his left side; +but his right is unprotected. It is almost impossible to resist +the impulse to take a step toward the right to get under the cover +of a comrade's shield. And he in turn has been edging to the +right likewise. The whole army ahs in fact done so, and likewise +the whole phalanx of the enemy. So after a quarter of an hour of +brisk fighting, the two hosts, which began by joining with lines +exactly facing each other, have each edged along so much that each +overlaps the other on the right wing, thus: + + ++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | + | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | + +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ + + +What will happen now is easy to predict with assurance up to a +certain point. The overlapping right wings will EACH promptly turn +the left flank of their enemies, and falling upon the foe front +and rear catch them almost helpless. The hoplite is an admirable +soldier when standing shoulder to shoulder with his comrades facing +his foe; but once beset in the rear he is so wedged in by the press +that it is next to impossible for him to turn and fight effectively. +Either he will be massacred as he stands or the panic will spread +betimes, and simultaneously both left wings will break formation +and hurry off the field in little better than flight. + +Now will come the real test of discipline and deliberate valor. Both +centers are holding stoutly. Everything rests on the respective +victorious right wings. Either they will foolishly forget that +there is still fighting elsewhere on the field, and with ill-timed +huzzaing pursue the men they have just routed, make for their camp +to plunder it, or worse still, disperse to spoil the slain; or, +if they can heed their general's entreaties, keep their ranks, +and wheeling around come charging down on the rear of the enemy's +center. If one right wing does this, while the hostile right +wing has rushed off in heedless pursuit, the battle is infallibly +won by the men who have kept their heads; but if both right wings +turn back, then the real death grapple comes when these two sets +of victors in the first phase of the contest clash together in a +decisive grapple. + +By this time the original phalanx formations, so orderly, and +beautiful, have become utterly shattered. The field is covered by +little squares or knots of striking, cursing, raging men--clashing +furiously together. If there are any effective reserves, now is +the time to fling them into the scale. The hitherto timorous light +troops and armor bearers rush up to do what they can. Individual +bravery and valor count now to the uttermost. Little by little the +contest turns against one side or the other. The crucial moment +comes. The losing party begins to fear itself about to be surrounded. +Vain are the last exhortations of the officers to rally them. +"Every man for himself!" rings the cry; and with one mad impulse +the defeated hoplites rush off the field in a rout. Since they +have been at close grip with their enemies, and now must turn +their ill-protected backs to the pursuing spears, the massacre of +the defeated side is sometimes great. Yet not so great as might +be imagined. Once fairly beaten, you must strip off helmet and +cuirass, cast away shield and spear, and run like a hare. You +have lightened yourself now decidedly. But your foe must keep HIS +ponderous arms, otherwise he cannot master you, if he overtakes +you. Therefore the vanquished can soon distance the victors unless +the latter have an unusually efficient cavalry and javelin force. +However, the victors are likely to enter the camp of the vanquished, +and to celebrate duly that night dividing the plunder. + + +95. The Burial Truce and the Trophy after the Battle.--A few +hours after the battle, while the victors are getting breath and +refreshing themselves, a shamefaced herald, bearing his sacred +wand of office, presents himself. He is from the defeated army, +and comes to ask a burial truce. This is the formal confession of +defeat for which the victors have been waiting. It would be gross +impiety to refuse the request; and perhaps the first watch of the +nigh is spent by detachments of both sides in burying or burning +the dead. + +The fates of prisoners may be various. They may be sold as slaves. +If the captors are pitiless and vindictive, it is not contrary to +the laws of war to put the prisoners to death in cold blood; but +by the fourth century B.C. Greeks are becoming relatively humane. +Most prisoners will presently be released against a reasonable +ransom paid by their relatives. + +The final stage of the battle is the trophy: the visible sign on +the battlefield that here such-and-such a side was victorious. The +limbs are lopped off a tree, and some armor captured from the foe +is hung upon it. After indecisive battles sometimes both sides +set up trophies; in that case a second battle is likely to settle +the question. Then when the victors have recovered from their +own happy demoralization, they march into the enemy's country; by +burning all the farmsteads, driving off the cattle, filling up the +wells, girdling the olive and fruit trees, they reduce the defeated +side (that has fled to its fortified town) to desperation. If +they have any prisoners, they threaten to put them to death. The +result, of course, is frequently a treaty of peace in favor of the +victors. + + +96. The Siege of Fortified Towns.--If, however, one party cannot +be induced to risk an open battle; or if, despite a defeat, it allows +the enemy to ravage the fields, and yet persists in defending the +walls of its town,--the war is likely to be tedious and indecisive. +It is notorious that Greeks dislike hard sieges. The soldiers +are the fellow townsmen of the generals. If the latter order an +assault with scaling ladders and it is repulsed with bloody loss, +the generals risk a prosecution when they get home for "casting +away the lives of their fellow citizens."[*] In short, fifty men +behind a stout wall and "able to throw anything" are in a position +to defy an army. + +[*]In siege warfare Oriental kings had a great advantage over Greek +commanders. The former could sacrifice as many of their "slaves" +as they pleased, in desperate assaults. The latter had always to +bear in mind their accountability at home for any desperate and +costly attack. + +The one really sure means of taking a town is to build a counter +wall around it and starve it out,--a slow and very expensive, +thought not bloody process. Only when something very great is at +stake will a Greek city-state attempt this.[*] There is always +another chance, however. Almost every Greek town has a discontented +faction within its walls, and many a time there will be a traitor +who will betray a gate to the enemy; and then the siege will be +suddenly ended in one murderous night. + +[*]As in the siege of Potidea (432-429 B.C.), when if Athens had +failed to take the place, her hold upon her whole empire would have +been jeopardized. + + +97. The Introduction of New Tactics.--Greek battles are thus very +simple things as a rule. It is the general who, accepting the +typical conditions as he finds them, and avoiding any gross and +obvious blunders, can put his men in a state of perfect fitness, +physical and moral, that is likely to win the day. Of late there +has come indeed a spirit of innovation. At Leuctra (371 B.C.) +Epaminodas the Theban defeated the Spartans by the unheard-of +device of massing a part of his hoplites fifty deep (instead of +the orthodox eight or twelve) and crushing the Spartan right wing +by the sheer weight of his charge, before the rest of the line +came into action at all. If the experiment had not succeeded, +Epaminondas would probably have been denounced by his own countrymen +as a traitor, and by the enemy as a fool, for varying from the +time-honored long, "even line" phalanx; and the average general will +still prefer to keep to the old methods; then if anything happens, +HE at least will not be blamed for any undue rashness. Only in +Macedon, King Philip II (who is just about to come to the throne) +will not hesitate to study the new battle tactics of Epaminondas, +and to improve upon them. + +The Athenians will tell us that their citizen hoplites are a match +for any soldiers in Greece, except until lately the Spartans, and +now (since Leuctra) possibly the Thebans. But Corinthians, Argives, +Sicyonians, they can confront more readily. They will also add, +quite properly, that the army of Athens is in the main for home +defense. She does not claim to be a preminently military state. +The glory of Athens has been the mastery of the sea. Our next +excursion must surely be to the Peirus. + + + + + +Chapter XIV. The Peirus and the Shipping. + + + + +98. The "Long Walls" down to the Harbor Town.--It is some five +miles from the city to the Peirus, and the most direct route this +time lies down the long avenue laid between the Long Walls, and +running almost directly southwest.[*] The ground is quite level. +If we could catch glimpses beyond the walls, we would see fields, +seared brown perhaps by the summer sun, and here and there a +bright-kerchiefed woman gleaning among the wheat stubble. The two +walls start from Athens close together and run parallel for some +distance, then they gradually diverge so as to embrace within their +open angle a large part of the circumference of the Peirus. This +open space is built up with all kinds of shops, factories, and +houses, usually of the less aristocratic kind. In fact, all the +noxious sights and odors to be found in Athens seem tenfold multiplied +as we approach the Peirus. + +[*]These were the walls whereof a considerable section was thrown +down by Lysander after the surrender of Athens [404 B.C.]. The +demolition was done to the "music of flute girls," and was fondly +thought by the victors to mean the permanent crippling of Athens, +and therefore "the first day of the liberty of Greece." In 393 +B.C., by one of the ironies of history, Conon, an Athenian admiral, +but in the service of the king of Persia, who was then at war with +Sparta, appeared in the Peirus, and WITH PERSIAN MEN AND MONEY +rebuilt the walls amid the rejoicings of the Athenians. + +The straight highroad is swarming with traffic: clumsy wagons are +bringing down marble from the mountains; other wains are headed +toward Athens with lumber and bales of foreign wares. Countless +donkeys laden with panniers are being flogged along. A great deal +of the carrying is done by half-naked sweating porters; for, after +all, slave-flesh is almost as cheap as beast-flesh. So by degrees +the two walls open away from us: before us now expands the humming +port town; we catch the sniff of the salt brine, and see the tangle +of spars of the multifarious shipping. Right ahead, however, +dominating the whole scene, is a craggy height,--the hill of Munychia, +crowned with strong fortifications, and with houses rising terrace +above terrace upon its slopes. At the very summit glitters in its +white marble and color work the temple of Artemis Munychia, the +guardian goddess of the port town and its citadel.[*] + +[*]This fortress of Munychia, rather than the Acropolis in Athens +was the real citadel of Attica. It dominated the all-important +harbors on which the very life of the state depended. + + +99. Munychia and the Havens of Athens.--Making our way up a steep +lane upon the northwestern slope, we pass within the fortifications, +the most formidable near Athens. A band of young ephebi of +the garrison eye us as we enter; but we seem neither Spartans nor +Thebans and are not molested. From a convenient crag near the +temple, the whole scheme of the harbors of Athens is spread out +before us, two hundred and eighty odd feet below. Behind us is +the familiar plain of Athens with the city, the Acropolis, and the +guardian mountains. Directly west lies the expanse of roof of the +main harbor town, and then beyond is the smooth blue expanse of +the "Port of the Peirus," the main mercantile harbor of Athens. +Running straight down from Munychia, southwest, the land tapers off +into a rocky promontory, entirely girt with strong fortifications. +In this stretch of land are two deep round indentations. Cups +of bright water they seem, communicating with the outer sea only +by narrow entrances which are dominated by stout castles. "Zea" +is the name of the more remote; the "haven" of "Munychia" is that +which seems opening almost at our feet. These both are full of +the naval shipping, whereof more hereafter. To the eastward, and +stretching down the coast, is a long sandy beach whereon the blue +ripples are crumbling between the black fishing boats drawn up +upon the strand. This is Phaleron, the old harbor of Athens before +Themistocles fortified the "Peirus"--merely an open roadstead in +fact, but still very handy for small craft, which can be hauled up +promptly to escape the tempest. + + +100. The Glorious View from the Hill of Munychia.--These are +the chief points in the harbors; but the view from Munychia is +most extensive. Almost everything in sight has its legend or its +story in sober history. Ten miles away to the southward rise the +red rocky hills of gina, Athens' old island enemy; and the tawny +headlands of the Argolic coasts are visible yet farther across he +horizon. Again as we follow the purplish ridge of Mount galeos +as it runs down the Attic coast to westward, we come to a headland +then to a belt of azure water, about a mile wide, then the reddish +hills of an irregular island. Every idler on the citadel can tell +us all the story. On that headland on a certain fateful morning +sat Xerxes, lord of the Persians, with his sword-hands and mighty +men about him and his ships before him, to look down on the naval +spectacle and see how his slaves would fight. The island beyond +is "holy Salamis," and in this narrow strip of water has been +the battle which saved the life of Hellas. Every position in the +contest seems clearly in sight, even the insignificant islet of +Psytteleia, where Aristeides had landed his men after the battle, +and massacred the Persions stationed there "to cut off the Greeks +who tried to escape." + +The water is indescribably blue, matching the azure of the sky. +Ships of all kinds under sails or oars are moving lightly over the +havens and the open Saronic bay. It is matchless spectacle--albeit +very peaceful. We now descend to the Peirus proper and examine +the merchant shipping and wharves, leaving the navy yards and the +fighting triremes till later. + + +101. The Town of Peirus.--The Peirus has all the life of the +Athenian Agora many times multiplied. Everywhere there is work +and bustle. Aristophanes has long since described the impression +it makes on strangers,[*]--sailors clamoring for pay, rations +being served out, figureheads being burnished, men trafficking for +corn, for onions, for leeks, for figs,--"wreaths, anchovies, flute +girls, blackened eyes, the hammering of oars from the dock yards, +the fitting of rowlocks, boatswains' pipes, fifes, and whistling." +There is such confusion one can hardly analyze one's surroundings. +However, we soon discover the Peirus has certain advantages over +Athens itself. The streets are much wider and are quite straight,[+] +crossing at right angles, unlike the crooked alleys of old Athens +which seem nothing but built-up cow trails. Down at the water +front of the main harbor ("the Peirus" harbor to distinguish it +from Zea and Munychia) we find about one third, nearest the entrance +passage and called the Cantharus, reserved for the use of the +war navy. This section is the famous "Emporium," which is such +a repository of foreign wares that Isocrates boasts that here one +can easily buy all those things which it is extremely hard to purchase +anywhere else in Hellas. Along the shore run five great stoas or +colonnades, all used by the traders for different purposes;--among +them are the Long Stoa (Makra' Stoa'), the "Deigma" (see section +78) used as a sample house by the wholesalers, and the great Corn +Exchange built by Pericles. Close down near the wharves stands also +a handsome and frequented temple, that of Athena Euploia (Athena, +Giver of good Voyages), to whom many a shipman offers prayer +ere hoisting sail, and many another comes to pay grateful vows +after surviving a storm.[&] Time fails us for mentioning all the +considerable temples farther back in the town. The Peirus in +short is a semi-independent community; with its shrines, its agoras, +its theaters, its court rooms, and other public buildings. The +population contains a very high percentage of metics, and downright +Barbarians,--indeed, long-bearded Babylonians, clean bronze Egyptians, +grinning Ethiopians, never awaken the least comment, they are so +familiar. + +[*]"Acharn." 54 ff. + +[+]Pericles employed the famous architect Hippodamus to lay out +the Peirus. It seems to have been arranged much like many of the +newer American cities. + +[&]There seems to have been still another precinct, sacred to +"Zeus and Athena the Preservers," where it was very proper to offer +thanksgivings after a safe voyage. + + +102. The Merchant Shipping.--We can now cast more particular +eyes upon the shipping. Every possible type is represented. The +fishing craft just now pulling in with loads of shining tunnies +caught near gina are of course merely broad open boats, with only +a single dirty orange sail swinging in the lagging breeze. Such +vessels indeed depend most of the time upon their long oars. Also +just now there goes across the glassy surface of the harbor a slim +graceful rowing craft, pulling eight swiftly plying oars to a side. +She is a "Lembus:" probably the private cutter of the commandant +of the port. Generally speaking, however, we soon find that all +the larger Greek ships are divided into two categories, the "long +ships" and the "round ships." The former depend mainly on oars +and are for war; the latter trust chiefly to sail power and are +for cargo. The craft in the merchant haven are of course nearly +all of this last description. + +Greeks are clever sailors. They never feel really happy at a great +distance from the sea which so penetrates their little country; +nevertheless, they have not made all the progress in navigation +which, considering the natural ingenuity of the race, might well +be expected. The prime difficulty is that Greek ships very seldom +have comfortable cabins. The men expect to sleep on shore every +night possible. Only in a great emergency, or when crossing an +exceptionally wide gulf or channel,[*] can a captain expect the +average crew to forego the privilege of a warm supper and bivouac +upon the strand. This means (since safe anchorages are by no means +everywhere) the ships must be so shallow and light they can often +be hauled up upon the beach. Even with a pretty large crew, +therefore, the limit to a manageable ship is soon reached; and +during the whole of the winter season all long-distance voyaging +has to be suspended; while, even in summer, nine sailors out of ten +hug close to the land, despite the fact that often the distance of +a voyage is thereby doubled. + +[*]For example, the trip from Crete to Cyrene--which would be +demanded first, before coasting along to Egypt. + +However, the ships at Peirus, if not large in size, are numerous +enough. Some are simply big open boats with details elaborated. +They have a small forecastle and poop built over, but the cargo in +the hold is exposed to all wind and weather. The propulsion comes +from a single unwieldy square sail swinging on a long yard the whole +length of the vessel. Other ships are more completely decked, and +depend on two square sails in the place of one. A few, however, +are real "deep sea" vessels--completely decked, with two or even +three masts; with cabins of tolerable size, and forward and aft +curious projections, like turrets,--the use whereof is by no means +obvious, but we soon gather that pirates still abound on the distant +seas, and that these turrets are useful when it comes to repelling +boarders. The very biggest of these craft run up to 250 gross tons +(later day register),[*] although with these ponderous defense-works +they seem considerably larger. The average of the ships, however, +will reckon only 30 to 40 tons or even smaller. It is really a +mistake, any garrulous sailor will tell us, to build merchant ships +much bigger. It is impossible to make sailing vessels of the Greek +model and rig sail very close to the wind; and in every contrary +breeze or calm, recourse must be had to the huge oars pile up along +the gunwales. Obviously it is weary work propelling a large ship +with oars unless you have a huge and expensive crew,--far better +then to keep to the smaller vessels. + +[*]The Greeks reckoned their ships by their capacity in talents +(= about 60 lbs.), e.g. a ship of 500 talents, of 2000, or (among +the largest) 10,000. + + +103. The Three War Harbors and the Ship House.--Many other points +about these "round ships" interest us; but such matters they share +with the men-of-war, and our inspection has now brought us to the +navy yard. There are strictly three separate navy yards, one at +each of the harbors of Munychia, Zea, and Cantharus, for the naval +strength of Athens is so great that it is impossible to concentrate +the entire fleet at one harbor. Each of these establishments is +protected by having two strong battlements or breakwaters built +out, nearly closing the respective harbor entrances. At the end of +each breakwater is a tower with parapets for archers, and capstans +for dragging a huge chain across the harbor mouth, thus effectively +sealing the entrance to any foe.[*] The Zea haven has really the +greatest warship capacity, but the Cantharus is a good type for +the three.[+] As we approach it from the merchant haven, we see +the shelving shore closely lined with curious structures which do +not easily explain themselves. There are a vast number of dirty, +shelving roofs, slightly tilted upward towards the land side, and +set at right angles to the water's edge. They are each about 150 +feet long, some 25 feet wide, about 20 feet high, and are set up side +by side with no passage between. On close inspection we discover +these are ship houses. Under each of the roofs is accommodated the +long slim hull of a trireme, kept safe from sea and weather until +the time of need, when a few minutes' work at a tackle and capstan +will send it down into harbor, ready to tow beside a wharf for +outfitting. + +[*]Ancient harbors were much harder to defend than modern ones, +because there was no long-range artillery to prevent an enemy from +thrusting into an open haven among defenseless shipping. + +[+]Zea had accommodation for 196 triremes, Munychia, 82, and the +Cantharus, 94. + + +104. The Great Naval Arsenal.--The ship houses are not the only +large structures at the navy yard. Here is also the great naval +arsenal, a huge roofed structure open at the sides and entirely +exposed to public inspection. Here between the lines of supporting +columns can be seen stacked up the staple requisites for the +ships,--great ropes, sail boxes, anchors, oars, etc. Everybody +in Athens is welcome to enter and assure himself that the fleet +can be outfitted at a minute's notice[*]; and at all times crews +of half-naked, weather-beaten sailors are rushing hither and yon, +carrying or removing supplies to and from the wharves where their +ships are lying. + +[*]This arsenal was replaced a little later than the hypothetical +time of this narrative by one designed by the famous architect, +Philo. It was extremely elegant as well as commodious, with handsome +columns, tiled roofs, etc. In 360 B.C., however, the arsenal seems +to have been a strictly utilitarian structure. + + +105. An Athenian Triearch.--Among this unaristocratic crowd we +observe a dignified old gentleman with an immaculate himation and +a long polished cane. Obsequious clerks and sailing masters are +hanging about him for his orders; it is easy to see that he is a +TRIERARCH--one of the wealthiest citizens on whom it fell, in turn, +at set intervals, to provide the less essential parts of a trireme's +outfit, and at least part of the pay for the crew for one year, +and to be generally responsible for the efficiency and upkeep of +the vessel.[*] This is a year of peace, and the patriotic pressure +to spend as much on your warship as possible is not so great as +sometimes; still Eustatius, the magnate in question, knows that he +will be bitterly criticized (nay, perhaps prosecuted in the courts) +if he does not do "the generous thing." He is therefore ordering +an extra handsome figurehead; promising a bonus to the rowing master +if he can get his hands to row in better rhythm than the ordinary +crew; and directing that wine of superior quality be sent aboard for +the men.[+] It will be an anxious year in any case for Eustathius. +He has ill wishers who will watch carefully to see if the vessel +fails to make a creditable record for herself during the year, and +whether she is returned to the ship house or to the next trierarch +in a state of good repair. If the craft does not then appear +seaworthy, her last outfitter may be called upon to rebuild her +completely, a matter which will eat up something like a talent. +Public service therefore does not provide beds of roses for the +rich men of Athens. + +[*]Just how much of the rigging and what fraction of the pay +of the crew the government provided is by no means clear from our +evidence. It is certain that a public-spirited and lavish trierarch +could almost ruin himself (unless very wealthy) during the year he +was responsible for the vessel. + +[+]According to various passages in Demosthenes, the cost of +a trierachy for a year varied between 40 min (say $540 [1914 or +$9,304.20 in 2000]) and a talent (about $1000 [1914 or $17,230 in +2000]), very large sums for Athenians. The question of the amount +of time spent in active service in foreign waters would of course +do much to determine the outlay. + +Eustathius goes away towards one of the wharves, where his trireme, +the "Invincible," is moored with her crew aboard her. Let us +examine a typical Athenian warship. + + +106. The Evolution of the Trireme.--The genesis of the trireme +was the old PENTECONTER ("fifty-oar ship") which, in its prime +features, was simply a long, narrow, open hull, with slightly raised +prow and stern cabins, pulling twenty-five oars to a side. There +are a few penteconters still in existence, though the great naval +powers have long since scorned them. It was a good while before +the battle of salamis that the Greek sea warriors began to feel the +need of larger warships. It was impossible to continue the simple +scheme of the penteconter. To get more oars all on one tier you +must make a longer boat, but you could not increase the beam, for, +if you did, the whole craft would get so heavy that it would not +row rapidly; and the penteconter was already so long in relation +to its beam as to be somewhat unsafe. A device was needed to get +more oars into the water without increasing the length over much. +The result was the BIREME (two-banker) which was speedily replaced +by the still more efficient TRIREME (three-banker), the standard +battleship of all the Greek navies.[*] + +[*]By the end of the fourth century B.C., vessels with four and +five banks of oars (quadriremes and quinqueremes) had become the +regular fighting ships, but they differed probably only in size, +not in principle, from the trireme. + + +107. The Hull of a Trireme.--The "Invincible" has a hull of fir +strengthened by a solid oak keel, very essential if she is to be hauled +up frequently. Her hull is painted black, but there is abundance +of scarlet, bright blue, and gilding upon her prow, stern, and +upper works. The slim hull itself is about 140 feet long, 14 feet +wide, and rides the harbor so lightly as to show it draws very little +water; for the warship, even more perhaps than the merchantman, is +built on the theory that her crew must drag her up upon the beach +almost every night. + +While we study the vessel we are soon told that, although triremes +have been in general use since, say, 500 B.C., nevertheless the +ships that fought at Salamis were decidedly simpler affairs than +those of three generations later. In those old "aphract" vessels +the upper tier of rowers had to sit exposed on their benches with +no real protection from the enemy's darts; but in the new "cataphract" +ships like the "Invincible" there is a stout solid bulwark built up +to shield the oarsmen from hostile sight and missiles alike. All +this makes the ships of Demosthene's day much handsomer, taller +affairs than their predecessors which Themistocles commanded; +nevertheless the old and the new triremes have most essentials in +common. The day is far off when a battleship twenty years old will +be called "hopelessly obsolete" by the naval critics.[*] + +[*]There is some reason for believing that an Athenian trireme was +kept in service for many years, with only incidental repairs, and +then could still be counted as fit to take her place in the line +of battle. + +The upper deck of the trireme is about eleven feet above the harbor +waves, but the lowest oar holes are raised barely three feet. Into +the intervening space the whole complicated rowing apparatus has +to be crammed with a good deal of ingenuity. Running along two +thirds of the length of the hull nearly the whole interior of the +vessel is filled with a series of seats and foot rests rising in +sets of three. Each man has a bench and a kind of stool beneath +him, and sits close to a porthole. The feet of the lowest rower +are near the level of the water line; swinging two feet above him +and only a little behind him is his comrade of the second tier; +higher and behind in turn is he of the third.[*] Running down +the center of the ship on either side of these complicated benches +is a broad, central gangway, just under the upper deck. Here the +supernumeraries will take refuge from the darts in battle, and here +the regular rowers will have to do most of their eating, resting, +and sleeping when they are not actually on the benches or on shore. + +[*]The exact system by which these oar benches were arranged, the +crew taught to swing together (despite the inequalities in the +length of their oars), and several other like problems connected +with the trireme, have received no satisfactory solution by modern +investigators. [Note from Brett: Between 1985 and 1987 John +Morrison and John Coates oversaw a reproduction of a trireme which +has an excellent study of bench arrangements and several other +problems connected with the trireme were likely solved.] + + +108. The Rowers' Benches of a Trireme.--With her full complement +of rowers the benches of the "Invincible" fairly swarm with life. +There are 62 rowers to the upper tier (thranites), 58 for the middle +tier (zygites), and 54 for the lower (thalamites), each man with +his own individual oar. The TRHANITES with the longest oars (full +13 feet 6 inches) have the hardest pull and the largest pay, but +not one of the 174 oarsmen holds a sinecure. In ordinary cruising, +to be sure, the trireme will make use of her sails, to help out a +single bank of oars which must be kept going almost all the time. +Even then it is weary work to break your back for a couple of hours +taking your turn on the benches. But in battle the trireme almost +never uses sails. She becomes a vast, many-footed monster, flying +over the foam; and the pace of the three oar banks, swinging +together, becomes maddening. Behind their bulwarks the rowers can +see little of what is passing. Everything is dependent upon their +rowing together in absolute rhythm come what may, and giving instant +obedience to orders. The trireme is in one sense like a latter-day +steamer in her methods of propulsion; but the driving force is 174 +straining, panting humans, not insensate water vapor and steel. + + +109. The Cabins, Rigging, and Ram of a Trireme.--Forward and aft of +the rowers' benches and the great central gangway are the fore and +stern cabins. They furnish something akin to tolerable accommodations +for the officers and a favored fraction of the crew. Above the +forecastle rises a carved proudly curing prow, and just abaft it +are high bulwarks to guard the javelin men when at close quarters +with the foe. There is also on either side of the prow a huge red +or orange "eye" painted around the hawse holes for the anchors. +Above the stern cabin is the narrow deck reserved for the pilot, +the "governor" of the ship, who will control the whole trireme with +a touch now on one, now on the other, of the huge steering paddles +which swing at the sides near the stern. Within the stern cabin +itself is the little altar, sacred to the god or goddess to whom +the vessel is dedicated, and on which incense will be burned before +starting on a long cruise and before going into battle. Two masts +rise above the deck, a tall mainmast nearly amidships, and a much +smaller mast well forward. On each of these a square sail (red, +orange, blue, or even, with gala ships, purple) will be swung from +a long yard, while the vessel is cruising; but it is useless to set +sails in battle. One could never turn the ship quickly enough to +complete the maneuvers. The sails and yards will ordinarily be +sent ashore as the first measure when the admiral signals "clear +ship for action." + +We have now examined all of the "Invincible" except for her main +weapon,--her beak; for the trireme is really herself one tremendous +missile to be flung by the well-trained rowers at the ill-starred +foe. Projecting well in front of the prow and close to the water +line are three heavy metal spurs serrated one above the other, +somewhat thus[*]: + + |_______ + |=======\ + |====|___ + |========\ + =====|______ /=============\ / / */ + +Let this fang once crush against a foeman's broadside, and his +timbers are crushed in like eggshells. + +[*]Probably at Salamis and in the earlier Athenian army the ram +had been composed of a single long, tapering beak. + + +110. The Officers and Crew of a Trireme.--So much for the "Invincible" +herself, but obviously she is a helpless thing without an efficient +crew. The life of an oarsman is far from luxurious, but the pay +seems to be enough to induce a goodly number of THETES (the poorest +class of the Athenian citizens) to accept service, and the rest +can be supplied by hired metics or any kind of foreign nondescript +who can be brought into discipline. The rowers are of course the +real heart and soul of the trireme; but they are useless without proper +training. Indeed it was the superior discipline of the Athenian +crews which in the days of Themistocles and Pericles gave Athens +the supremacy of the seas. The nominal, and sometimes actual, +commander of the trireme is her trierarch; but obviously a cultivated +old gentleman like Eustathius is no man to manage the ship in a +sea fight. He will name some deputy, perhaps a stout young friend +or a son, for the real naval work. Even he may not possess great +experience. The real commander of the "Invincible" is the "governor" +(KYBERNATES), a gnarled old seaman, who has spent all his life upon +the water. Nominally his main duty is to act as pilot, but actually +he is in charge of the whole ship; and in battle the trierarch (if +aboard) will be very glad to obey all his "suggestions." Next to +the "governor" there is the PROIREUS, another experienced sailor +who will have especial charge of the forecastle in battle. Next in +turn are two "oar-masters" (TOIXARCHOI), who are each responsible +for the discipline and working of one of the long rowers' benches; +and following in grade, though highly important, are the KELEUSTS, +and the TRIRAULS, who, by voice and by flute respectively, will +give the time and if needs be encouragement to the rowers. These +are all the regular officers, but naturally for handling the sails +and anchors some common sailors are desirable. The "Invincible" +carries 17 of these. She also has 10 marines (EPIBAT), men trained +to fight in hoplite's armor and to repel boarders. The Persian +ships at Salamis carried 30 such warriors, and often various Greek +admirals have crowded their decks with these heavy marines; but +the true Athenian sea warrior disdains them. Given a good helmsman +and well-trained rowers, and you can sink your opponent with your +ram, while he is clumsily trying to board you. Expert opinion +considers the EPIBAT somewhat superfluous, and their use in most +naval battles as disgracefully unscientific. + + +111. A Trireme at Sea.--A trireme, then is an heroic fighting +instrument. She goes into battle prepared literally to do or die. +If her side is once crushed, she fills with water instantly, and +the enemy will be too busy and too inhumane to do anything but cheer +lustily when they see the water covered with struggling wretches. +But the trireme is also a most disagreeable craft before and after +the battle. Her light draft sets her tossing on a very mild sea. +In the hot southern climate, with very little ventilation beneath +the upper deck, with nigh two hundred panting, naked human beings +wedged in together below so closely that there is scarce room for +one more, the heat, the smells, the drudgery, are dreadful. No +wonder the crew demanded that the trierarch and governor "make +shore for the night," or that they weary of the incessant grating +of the heavy oars upon the thole-pins. + +Thus the "Invincible" will seem to any squeamish voyager, but not +so to the distant spectator. For him a trireme is a most marvelous +and magnificent sight. A sister ship, the "Dana,"[*] is just +entering the Peirus from Lemnos (an isle still under the Athenian +sovereignty). Her upper works have been all brightened for the +home-coming. Long, brilliant streams trail from her sail yards +and poop. The flute player is blowing his loudest. The marines +stand on the forecastle in glittering armor. A great column of +foam is spouting from her bow.[+] Her oars, eighty-seven to the +side, pumiced white and hurling out the spray, are leaping back +and forth in perfect unison. The whole vessel seems a thing of +springing, ardent life. It is, indeed, a sight to stir the blood. +No later sailing ship in her panoply of canvas, no steam battleship +with her grim turrets and smoking funnels can ever match the +spectacle of a trireme moving in her rhythm and glory. + +[*]The Greek ships seem to have been named either for mythological +characters, or for desirable qualities and virtues. + +[+]At her best a trireme seems to have been capable of making 8 to +9 knots per hour. + + +112. The Tactics of a Naval Battle.--Imagination can now picture +a Greek naval battle, fifty, a hundred, two hundred, or more of these +splendid battleships flying in two hostile lines to the charge.[*] +Round and round they will sail, each pilot watching the moment when +an unlucky maneuver by the foe will leave a chance for an attack; +and then will come the sudden swinging of the helm, the frantic +"Pull hard!" to the oarsmen, the rending crash and shock as the +ram tears open the opponents side, to be followed by almost instant +tragedy. If the direct attack on the foe's broadside fails, there +is another maneuver. Run down upon your enemy as if striking bow +to bow; the instant before contact let your aim swerve--a little. +Then call to your men to draw in their oars like lightning while +the enemy are still working theirs. If your oarsmen can do the +trick in time, you can now ride down the whole of the foemen's +exposed oar bank, while saving your own. He is left crippled +and helpless, like a huge centipede with all the legs on one side +stripped away. You can now back off deliberately, run out your +oars, an in cold blood charge his exposed flank. If he does not +now surrender, his people are dead men. Excellent to describe! +Not always so excellent in performance. Everything depends on the +perfect discipline and handiness of your crew. + +[*]A more detailed picture of an ancient naval battle and its +tactics can be found in the author's historical novel, "A Victor +of Salamis" (Chap. XXIX). + + +113. The Naval Strength of Athens.--The strength of Athens is +still upon the sea. Despite her defeats in the Peloponnesian War +she has again the first navy in Hellas. All in all she can send +out 400 triremes and since each trireme represents a crew of over +200 men, this means that Athens can dispose of over 80,000 souls +in her navy, whereof, however, only a minor fraction are Athenian +citizens. Athens is quite right in thus laying stress upon her +sea power. Her long walls and the Peirus make her practically an +island. Even after Chroneia, Philip of Macedon will be obliged +to give her honorable terms,--she has still her great navy. Only +after the defeat of her fleet at Amorgos in 322 B.C. will she have +to know all the pangs of vassalage to Macedon. + + + + + +Chapter XV. An Athenian Court Trial. + + + + +114. The Frequency of Litigation in Athens.--The visit to the +Peirus and the study of the shipping have not been too long to +prevent a brief visit to one of the most characteristic scenes of +Athenian life--a law court. Athens is notorious for the fondness +which her citizens display for litigation. In fact it is a somewhat +rare and exceptionally peaceable, harmless, and insignificant +citizen who is not plaintiff or defendant in some kind of action +every few years or so. Says Aristophanes, "The cicada [grasshopper] +sings for only a month, but the people of Athens are buzzing with +lawsuits and trials their whole life long." In the jury courts the +contentious, tonguey man can spread himself and defame his enemies +to his heart's content; and it must be admitted that in a city like +Athens, where everybody seems to know everybody else's business almost +every citizen is likely to have a number both of warm friends and +of bitter enemies. Athenians do not have merely "cold acquaintances," +or "business rivals," as will men of the twentieth century. They +make no pretenses to "Christian charity." They freely call an +obnoxious individual their "personal foe" (ECHTHROS), and if they +can defeat, humiliate, and ruin him, they bless the gods. The +usual outlet for such ill-feeling is a fierce and perhaps mutually +destructive lawsuit. + +Then too, despite Athenian notions of what constitutes a gentleman, +many citizens are people of utterly penurious, niggardly habits. +Frequently enough the fellow who can discuss all Socrates's theories +with you is quarreling with his neighbor over the loan of salt or +a lamp wick or some meal for sacrifice.[*] If one of the customary +"club-dinners"[+] is held at his house, he will be caught secreting +some of the vinegar, lamp oil, or lentils. If he has borrowed +something, say some barley, take care; when he returns it, he will +measure it out in a vessel with the bottom dented inward. A little +ill feeling, a petty grievance carefully cultivated,--the end in +due time will be a lawsuit, costly far out of proportion to the +originating cause. + +[*]Persons of this kidney are delineated to us as typical characters +by Theophrastus. + +[+]The nearest modern equivalent is a "basket lunch." + + +115. Prosecutions in Athens.--Athens does not draw a sharp line +between public and private litigation. There is no "state" or +"district attorney" to prosecute for the offenses against public +order. Any full citizen can prosecute anybody else upon such +a criminal charge as murder, no less than for a civil matter like +breach of contract. All this leads to the growth of a mischievous +clan--the SYCOPHANTS. These harpies are professional accusers +who will prosecute almost any rich individual upon whom they think +they can fasten some technical offense. Their gains are from two +quarters. If they convict the defendant, about half of the fine +or property taken will go to the informer. But very likely there +will be no trial. The victim (either consciously guilty, or +innocent but anxious to avoid the risk) will pay a huge blackmail +at the first threat of prosecution, and the case is hushed up. + +It is true there are very heavy penalties for trumped-up cases, +for unwarranted threat of legal proceedings, for perjured evidence; +still the abuse of the sycophants exists, and a great many of the +lawsuits originate with this uncanny tribe. + + +116. The Preliminaries to a Trial.--There are official arbitrators +to settle petty cases, but it is too often that one or both parties +declare "the dicasts must settle it," and the lawsuit has to take +its way. Athenian legal methods are simple. Theoretically there are +no professional lawyers, and every man must look out for himself. +The first business is to file your complaint with one of the magistrates +(usually one of nine ARCHONS), and then with two witnesses give +formal summons to your opponent, the defendant, to appear on a set +day in court. If he has defaulted, the case is usually ended then +in your favor. This hearing before the magistrate is in any event +an important part of the trial. Here each side proffers the laws +it cites to sustain its claims, and brings its witnesses, who can +be more or less cross-examined. All the pertinent testimony is +now written down, and the tablets sealed up by the magistrate. At +the final trial this evidence will be merely READ to the jury, the +witness in each instance standing up before the court and admitting +when duly asked, "This is my testimony on the case." + +Free men testify under oath, but a slave's oath is counted worthless. +The slaves may be the only important witnesses to a given act, +but under only one condition can they testify. With the consent +of their master they may testify UNDER TORTURE. It is a critical +moment at this hearing when a litigant who is confident of his case +proudly announces, "I challenge my enemy to put my slaves under +torture"; or the other, attacking first, cries out, "I demand that +my enemy submit his slaves to torture." Theoretically the challenged +party might refuse, practically a refusal is highly dangerous. "If +his slaves didn't know something bad, why were they kept silent?" +the jury will ask. So the rack is brought forth. The wretched +menials are stretched upon it. One must hope that often the whole +process involves more show of cruelty than actual brutality. What +now the slaves gasp out between their twists and howls is duly +taken down as "important evidence," and goes into the record.[*] + +[*]Athenian opinion was on the whole in favor of receiving as valid +testimony the evidence extorted thus from slaves by mere animal +fear. Antiphon the orator speaks of how truth may be wrung from +slaves by torture; "by which they are compelled to speak the truth +though they must die for it afterward [at the hands of the master +they have incriminated], for the present necessity is to each +stronger than the future." This has been well called one of the +few cases of extreme STUPIDITY on the part of the Athenians. + + +117. The Athenian Jury Courts.--A convenient interval has elapsed +since one of these preliminary hearings. To-day has been set for +the actual trial before a member of the archons in the "Green" court. +Ariston, a wealthy olive farmer, is suing Lamachus, an exporter of +the Peirus, for failing to account for the proceeds of a cargo of +olives lately shipped to Naxos. To follow the trial in its entirety +we should have been at the courthouse at first dawn. Then we would +have seen the jurymen come grumbling in, some from the suburbs, +attended by link boys. These jurors represent a large fraction of +the whole Athenian people. There are about six thousand in all. +Pretty nearly every citizen above thirty years of age can give in +his name as desiring jury duty; but naturally it is the elderly +and the indolent who must prefer the service. One thousand of the +six act as mere substitutes; the rest serve as often as the working +of a complicated system of drawing by lot assigns them to sit as +jurors on a particular case. It is well there are five thousand +always thus available, for Athenian juries are very large; 201, +401, 501, 1001 are numbers heard of, and sometimes even greater.[*] +The more important the case, the larger the jury; but "Ariston v. +Lamachus" is only a commonplace affair; 401 jurors are quite enough. +Even with that "small court," the audience which the pleaders now +have to address will seem huge to any latter-day lawyer who is +accustomed to his "twelve men in a box"; and needless to say, quite +different methods must be used in dealing with such a company. + +[*]The odd unit was no doubt added to prevent a tie. + +Each "dicast" (to use the proper name) has a boxwood tablet to show +at the entrance as his voucher to the Scythian police-archers on +duty; he has also a special staff of the color of the paint on the +door of the court room.[*] The chamber itself is not especially +elegant; a long line of hard benches rising in tiers for the dicasts, +and facing these a kind of pulpit for the presiding magistrates, +with a little platform for orators, a small alter for the preliminary +sacrifice, and a few stools for attendants and witnesses complete +the simple furnishings. There are open spaces for spectators, +though no seats; but there will be no lack of an audience today, +for the rumor has gone around, "Hypereides has written Ariston's +argument." The chance to hear a speech prepared by that famous +oration-monger is enough to bring every dicast out early, and to +summon a swarm of loiterers up from the not distant Agora. + +[*]Each court room had is distinguishing color. There were about +ten regular court rooms, besides some for special tribunals; e.g. +the Areopagus for the trial of homicides. + + +118. The Juryman's Oath.--The dicasts are assumed to approach their +duty with all due solemnity. They have sworn to vote according to +the laws of Athens, never to vote for a repudiation of debts, nor +to restore political exiles, nor to receive bribes for their votes, +nor take bribes in another's behalf, nor let anybody even tempt +them with such proffers. They are to hear both sides impartially +and vote strictly according to the merits of the case: and the oath +winds up awfully--"Thus do I invoke Zeus, Poseidon, and Demeter to +smite with destruction me and my house if I violate any of these +obligations, but if I keep them I pray for many blessings."[*] + +[*]We have not the exact text of all the dicasts' oath, but we can +reproduce it fairly completely from Demosthenes's "Oration against +Timocrates." + + +119. Opening the Trial. The Plaintiff's Speech.--The oath +is admirable, but the dicasts are not in a wholly juridical state +of mind. Just before the short sacrifice needful to commence +proceedings, takes place, old Zenosthenes on the second row nudges +his neighbor: "I don't like the looks of that Lamachus. I shall +vote against him." "And I--my wife knows his wife, and--" The +archon rises. The crier bids, "Silence!" The proceedings begin: +but all through the hearing there is whispering and nudging along +the jurors' benches. The litigants are quite aware of the situation +and are trying their best to win some advantage therefrom. + +Ariston is the first to speak. He has taken great pains with the +folds of his himation and the trim of his beard this morning. He +must be thoroughly genteel, but avoid all appearances of being a +dandy. In theory every man has to plead his own case in Athens, +but not every man is an equally good orator. If a litigant is +very inept, he can simply say a few words, then step aside with "My +friend so-and-so will continue my argument"; and a readier talker +will take his place.[*] Ariston, however, is a fairly clever +speaker. Having what he conceives a good case, he has obtained the +indirect services of Hypereides, one of the first of the younger +orators of Athens. Hyperedies has written a speech which he thinks +is suitable to the occasion, Ariston has memorized it, and delivers +it with considerable gusto. He has solid evidence, as is proved +from time to time when he stops to call, "Let the clerk read +the testimony of this or that." There often is a certain hum of +approbation from the dicasts when he makes his points. He continues +bravely, therefore, ever and anon casting an eye upon the CLEPSYDRA +near at hand, a huge water-clock which, something like an hour +glass, marks off the time allotted him. Some of his arguments seem +to have nothing to do with the alleged embezzlement. He vilifies +his opponent: calls Lamachus's mother coarse names, intimates that +as a boy he had no decent schooling, charges him with cowardice +in the recent Mantinea campaign in which he served, hints that +he has quarreled with his relatives. On the other hand, Ariston +grandiloquently praises HIMSELF as well born, well educated, an +honorable soldier and citizen, a man any Athenian would be glad to +consider a friend. It is very plain all these personalia delight +the jury.[+] When Ariston's "water has run out" and he concludes +his speech, there is a loud murmur of applause running along the +benches of the dicasts. + +[*]These "friends," however, were never regularly professional +advocates; it would have been ruinous to let the jury get the +impression that an orator was being directly hired to speak to +them. + +[+]For the depths of personal insult into which Greek litigants could +descend there is no better instance than Demosthenes's (otherwise +magnificent) "Oration on the Crown," wherein he castigates his foe +schines. + + +120. The Defendant's Speech. Demonstrations by the Jury.--It is +now Lamachus's turn. He also has employed a professional speech-writer +("logographos") of fame, Isus, to prepare his defense. But almost +at the outset he is in difficulties. Very likely he has a bad case +to begin with. He makes it worse by a shrill, unpleasant voice +and ungainly gestures. Very soon many dicasts are tittering and +whispering jibes to their companions. As his harangue proceeds, +the presiding archon (who has really very little control of the +dicasts) is obliged "to remind the gentlemen of the jury that the +have taken solemn oath to hear both sides of the question." + +Lamachus fights doggedly on. Having put in all his real arguments, +he takes refuge also in blackguarding his opponent. Did Ariston +get his wealth honestly? was not his father a rascally grain dealer +who starved the people? Yet there is still more impatience among +the dicasts. Lamachus now uses his last weapon. Upon the pleader's +stand clamber his five young children clad in black mourning +garments. They all weep together, and when not wiping their eyes, +hold out their hands like religious suppliants, toward the dicasts.[*] + +[*]For such an appeal to an Athenian dicastery, see Aristophanes's +"Wasps." The pertinent passages are quoted in "Readings in Ancient +History," vol. I, p. 238-40. + +"Ah! Gentlemen of the jury," whines their father, "if you are moved +by the voices of your lambs at home, pity these here. Acquit me +for THEIR sakes. Do not find against me and plunge these innocent +darlings into want and misery, by impoverishing their father." + +Appeals like this have swayed more than one jury during the last +year, but the fates are all against Lamachus. From a back bench +comes a dreaded shout that is instantly caught up by the front +tiers also: + +"Kataba! Kataba!--Go down! Go Down!" + +Lamachus hesitates. If he obeys, he loses all the rest of his +defense. If he continues now, he enrages many of the dicasts, who +will be absolutely sure to find against him. The presiding archon +vainly rises, and tries to say something about "fair play." Useless. +The uproar continues. Like a flock of scared doves Lamachus and +all his five children flee incontinently from the tribune, amid +ironical cheers and laughter. + + +121. The First Verdict.--There is silence at length. "The dicasts +will proceed to vote," announces the court crier. The huge urns +(one of bronze, one of wood) with narrow mouths are passed among +the benches. Each juror has two round bronze disks, one solid, +one with a hole bored in the middle. The solid acquit, the pierced +ones convict. A juror drops the ballot he wishes to count into +the bronze urn; the other goes into the wooden urn. The bronze +urn is carried to the archon, and there is an uneasy hush while the +401 ballots are counted by the court officers. As expected, more +than 300 dicasts vote that Ariston is entitled to damages against +Lamachus as an embezzler. + + +122. The Second and Final Verdict.--Ariston is smiling; his +friends are congratulating him, but the trial is by no means over. +If Lamachus had been found guilty of something for which the +law provided an absolute fixed penalty, this second part of the +proceedings would be omitted. But here, although the jury has +said SOME damage or penalty or penalties are due, it has still to +fix the amount. Ariston has now to propose to the dicasts a sum +which he thinks is adequate to avenge his wrongs and losses; Lamachus +can propose a smaller sum and try to persuade the court that it is +entirely proper. Each side must act warily. Athenian jurors are +fickle folk. The very men who have just howled down Lamachus may, +in a spasm of repentance, vote for absurdly low damages. Again, +Lamachus must not propose anything obviously inadequate, otherwise +the jurors who have just voted against him may feel insulted, +and accept Ariston's estimate.[*] Ariston therefore says that he +deserves at least a talent. Lamachus rejoins that half a talent +is more than ample, even conceding Arison's alleged wrongs. The +arguments this time are shorter and more to the point. Then comes +the second balloting. A second time a majority (smaller this time, +but enough) is in favor of Ariston. The better cause has conquered; +and there is at least this advantage to the Athenian legal system, +there will be no appeal nor tedious technicalities before a "higher +court." The verdict of the dicastery is final. + +[*]Undoubtedly Socrates would have escaped with his life, if (after +his original condemnation) he had proposed a real penalty to the +jury, instead of an absurdly small fine. The only alternative for +the dicasts was to accept the proposition of his opponents,--in +his case, death. + + +123. The Merits and Defects of the Athenian Courts.--No doubt +injustice is sometimes done. Sometimes it is the honest man who +hears the dreaded "Kataba!" Sometimes the weeping children have +their intended effect. Sometimes it is the arguments about "My +opponent's scoundrelly ancestry" which win the verdict. At the +same time, your Athenian dicast is a remarkably shrewd and acute +individual. He can distinguish between specious rhetoric and a +real argument. He is probably honestly anxious to do justice. In +the ordinary case where his personal interests or prejudices do +not come into play, the decision is likely to match with justice +quite as often perhaps as in the intricate court system of a great +republic many centuries after the passing of Athens. + +Certain features of some Athenian trials have not explained +themselves in the example just witnessed. To prevent frivolous or +blackmailing litigation it is provided that, if the plaintiff in +a suit gets less than one fifth of the ballots in his favor (thus +clearly showing he had no respectable case), he is liable to a heavy +fine or, in default thereof, exile. Again, we have not waited for +the actual closing scene--the dicasts each giving up his colored +staff as a kind of voucher to the court officers, and in return +getting his three obols (9 cents) daily jury fee, which each man +claps promptly in his cheek, and then goes off home to try the case +afresh at the family supper. + + +124. The Usual Punishments in Athens.--Trials involving murder or +manslaughter come before the special court of Areopagus, and cannot +well be discussed here, but most other criminal cases are tried +before the dicasts in much the same way as a civil trial. When the +law does not have a set penalty, the jury virtually has to sentence +the defendant after convicting him, choosing between one of two +proposed penalties. Greek courts can inflict death, exile, fines, +but almost never imprisonment. There is no "penitentiary" or +"workhouse" in Athens; and the only use for a jail is to confine +accused persons whom it is impossible to release on bail before +their trial. The Athens city jail ("The House," as it is familiarly +called--"Oikema") is a very simple affair, one open building, +carelessly guarded and free to visitors all through the daylight. +The inmates have to be kept in heavy fetters, otherwise they would +be sure to take flight; and indeed escapes from custody are somewhat +common. + + +125. The Heavy Penalty of Exile.--An Athenian will regard locking +a criminal up for a term of years as a very foolish and expensive +proceeding. If he has nothing wherewith to pay a round fine, why, +simply send him into exile. This penalty is direful indeed to a +Greek. The exile has often no protector, no standing in the courts +of the foreign city, no government to avenge any outrage upon him. +He can be insulted, starved, stripped, nay, murdered, often with +impunity. Worse still, he is cut off from his friends with whom +all his life is tied up; he is severed from the guardian gods of +his childhood,--"THE City," the city of his birth, hopes, longings, +exists no more for him. If he dies abroad, he is not sure of a +decent funeral pyre; and meanwhile his children may be hungering +at home. So long as the Athenians have this tremendous penalty of +exile at their disposal, they do not feel the need of penitentiaries. + + +126. The Death Penalty at Athens.--There are also the stocks and +whipping posts for meting out summary justice to irresponsible +offenders. When the death penalty is imposed (and the matter +often lies in the discretion of the dicasts), the criminal, if of +servile or Barbarian blood, may be put to death in some hideous +manner and his corpse tossed into the Barathron, a vile pit on the +northwest side of Athens, there to be dishonored by the kites and +crows. The execution of Athenian citizens, however, is extremely +humane. The condemned is given a cup of poisonous hemlock juice +and allowed to drink it while sitting comfortably among his friends +in the prison. Little by little his body grows numb; presently +he becomes senseless, and all is over without any pain.[*] The +friends of the victim are then at liberty to give his body a suitable +burial. + +[*]No one can read the story of the death of Socrates in the prison, +as told by Plato in the "Phdo," without feeling (aside from the +noble philosophical setting) how much more humane were such executions +by hemlock than is the modern gallows or electric chair. + +An Athenian trial usually lasts all day, and perhaps we have been +able to witness only the end of it. It may well happen, however, +that we cannot attend a dicastery at all. This day may be one which +is devoted to a meeting of the public assembly, and duty summons +the jurors, not in the court room, but to the Pnyx. This is no +loss to us, however. We welcome the chance to behold the Athenian +Ecclesia in action. + + + + + +Chapter XVI. The Ecclesia of Athens. + + + + +127. The Rule of Democracy in Athens.--The Ecclesia, or Public +Assembly, of Athens is something more than the chief governmental +organ in the state. It is the great leveling engine which makes +Athens a true democracy, despite the great differences in wealth +between her inhabitants, and the marked social pretensions of "the +noble and the good"--the educated classes. At this time Athens +is profoundly wedded to her democratic constitution. Founded by +Solon and Clisthenes, developed by Themistocles and Pericles, it +was temporarily overthrown at the end of the Peloponnesian War; +but the evil rule then of the "Thirty Tyrants" has proved a better +lesson on the evils of oligarchic rule than a thousand rhetoricians' +declamations upon the advantages of the "rule of the many" as +against the "rule of the few." Attica now acknowledges only one +Lord--KING DEMOS--"King Everybody"--and until the coming of bondage to +Macedon there will be no serious danger of an aristocratic reaction. + + +128. Aristocracy and Wealth. Their Status and Burdens.--True, +there are old noble families in Athens,--like the Alcmonid +whereof Pericles sprang, and the Eumolpid who supply the priests +to Demeter, the Earth Mother. But these great houses have long +since ceased to claim anything but SOCIAL preminence. Even then +one must take pains not to assume airs, or the next time one is +litigant before the dicastery, the insinuation of "an undemocratic, +oligarchic manner of life" will win very many adverse votes among +the jury. Nobility and wealth are only allowed to assert themselves +in Athens when justified by an extraordinary amount of public +service and public generosity. + +Xenophon in his "Memorabilia" makes Socrates tell Critobuls, a +wealthy and self-important individual, that he is really so hampered +by his high position as to be decidedly poor. "You are obliged," +says Socrates, "to offer numerous and magnificent sacrifices; you +have to receive and entertain sumptuously a great many strangers, +and to feast [your fellow] citizens. You have to pay heavy contributions +towards the public service, keeping horses and furnishing choruses +in peace times and in war bearing the expense of maintaining triremes +and paying the special war taxes; and if you fail to do all this, +they will punish you with as much severity as if you were caught +stealing their money." + + +129. Athenian Society Truly Democratic up to a Certain Point.--Wealth, +then, means one perpetual round of public services and obligations, +sweetened perhaps with a little empty praise, an inscription, an +honorary crown, or best of all, an honorary statue "to the public +benefactor" as the chief reward. On the other hand one may be +poor and be a thoroughly self-respecting, nay, prominent citizen. +Socrates had an absurdly small invested fortune and the gods knew +that he did little enough in the way of profitable labor.[*] He +had to support his wife and three children upon this income. He +wore no chiton. His himation was always an old one, unchanged +from summer to winter. He seems to have possessed only one pair +of good sandals all his life. His rations were bread and water, +save when he was invited out. Yet this man was welcome in the "very +best society." Alcibiades, leader of the fast, rich set, and many +more of the gilded youth of Athens dogged his heels. One meets not +the slightest evidence that his poverty ever prevented him from +carrying his philosophic message home to the wealthy and the noble. +There is no snobbishness, then, in this Athenian society. Provided +a man is not pursuing a base mechanic art or an ignoble trade, +provided he has a real message to convey,--whether in literature, +philosophy, or statecraft,--there are no questions "who was +your father?" or "what is your income?"[+] Athens will hear him +and accept his best. For this open-mindedness--almost unique in +ancient communities--one must thank King Demos and his mouthpiece, +the Ecclesia. + +[*]Socrates's regular income from invested property seems to have +been only about $12 per year. It is to be hoped his wife, Xanthippe, +had a little property of her own! + +[+]Possibly the son of a man whose parents notoriously had been +slaves in Athens would have found many doors closed to him. + +Athenians are intensely proud of their democracy. In schylus's +"Persians," Atossa, the Barbarian queen, asks concerning the +Athenians:-- + + +"Who is the lord and shepherd of their flock?" + + +Very prompt is the answer:-- + + +"They are not slaves, they bow to no man's rule." + + +Again in Euripides's "Supplicants" there is this boast touching +Athens:-- + + + "No will of one +Holdeth this land: it is a city and free. +The whole folk year by year, in parity of service is our king." + + +130. The Voting Population of Athens.--Nevertheless when we ask +about this "whole folk," and who the voters are, we soon discover +that Athens is very far from being a pure democracy. The multitudes +of slaves are of course without votes, and so is the numerous +class of the important, cultivated, and often wealthy metics. To +get Athenian citizenship is notoriously hard. For a stranger (say +a metic who had done some conspicuous public service) to be given +the franchise, a special vote must be passed by the Ecclesia itself; +even then the new citizen may be prosecuted as undeserving before +a dicastery, and disfranchised. Again, only children both of whose +parents are free Athenian citizens can themselves be enrolled on the +carefully guarded lists in the deme books. The status of a child, +one of whose parents is a metic, is little better than a bastard.[*] + +[*]Of course women were entirely excluded from the Ecclesia, as from +all other forms of public life. The question of "woman's rights" +had been agitated just enough to produce comedies like Aristophanes's +"Parliament of Women," and philosophical theories such as appear +in Plato's "Republic." + +Under these circumstances the whole number of voters is very much +less than at a later day will appear in American communities of +like population. Before the Peloponneisan War, when the power of +Athens was at its highest point, there were not less than 30,000 +full citizens and possibly as many as 40,000. But those days of +imperial power are now ended. At present Athens has about 21,000 +citizens, or a few more. It is impossible, however, to gather all +these in any single meeting. A great number are farmers living +in the remote villages of Attica; many city dwellers also will be +too busy to think the 3-obol (9-cent [1914 or $1.55 2000]) fee for +attendance worth their while.[*] Six thousand seems to be a good +number for ordinary occasions and no doubt much business can be +dispatched with less, although this is the legal quorum set for most +really vital matters. Of course a great crisis, e.g. a declaration +of war, will bring out nearly every voter whose farm is not too +distant. + +[*]Payment for attendance at the Pnyx seems to have been introduced +about 390 B.C. The original payment was probably only one obol, +and then from time to time increased. It was a sign of the relative +decay of political interest in Athens when it became needful thus +to reward the commonalty for attendance at the Assembly. + + +131. Meeting Time of the Ecclesia.--Four times in every prytany[*] +the Ecclesia must be convened for ordinary business, and oftener +if public occasion requires. Five days' notice has to be given of +each regular meeting, and along with the notice a placard announcing +the proposals which are to come up has to be posted in the Agora. +But if there is a sudden crisis, formalities can be thrown to the +winds; a sudden bawling of the heralds in the streets, a great +smoky column caused by burning the traders' flimsy booths in the +Agora,--these are valid notices of an extraordinary meeting to +confront an immediate danger. + +[*]"A prytany" was one tenth of a year, say 35 or 36 days, during +which time the 50 representatives of one of the ten Athenian tribes +then serving as members of the Council of 500 (each tribe taking +its turn) held the presidency of the Council and acted as a special +executive committee of the government. There were thus at least +40 meetings of the Ecclesia each year, as well as the extraordinary +meetings. + +If this has been a morning when the Ecclesia has been in session, +nothing unusual has occurred at first in the busy Agora, except +that the jury courts are hardly in action, and a bright flag is +whipping the air from the tall flagpole by the Pnyx (the Assembly +Place). Then suddenly there is a shouting through the Agora. The +clamor of traffic around the popular flower stalls ceases; everybody +who is not a slave or metic (and these would form a large fraction +of the crowd of marketers) begins to edge down toward one end of +the Agora. Presently a gang of Scythian police-archers comes in +sight. They have a long rope sprinkled with red chalk wherewith +they are "netting" the Agora. The chalk will leave an infallible +mark on the mantle of every tardy citizen, and he who is thus marked +as late at the meeting will lose his fee for attendance, if not +subject himself to a fine. So there is a general rush away from +the Agora and down one of the various avenues leading to the Pnyx. + + +132. The Pnyx (Assembly Place) at Athens.--The Pnyx is an open +space of ground due west from the Acropolis. It originally sloped +gently away towards the northeast, but a massive retaining wall +had been built around it, in an irregular semicircle, and the space +within filled with solidly packed earth sloping inwards, making a +kind of open air auditorium. It is a huge place, 394 feet long, +and 213 feet at the widest. The earthen slope is entirely devoid +of seats; everybody casts himself down sprawling or on his haunches, +perhaps with an old himation under him. Directly before the sitters +runs a long ledge hewn out of the rock, forming, as it were, the +"stage" side of the theater. Here the rock has been cut away, so +as to leave a sizable stone pulpit standing forth, with a small +flight of steps on each side. This is the "Bema," the orator's +stand, whence speak the "demagogues,"[*] the molders of Athenian +public opinion. In front of the Bema there is a small portable +altar for the indispensable sacrifices. In the rear of the Bema +are a few planks laid upon the rock. Here will sit the fifty +"Pryantes" in charge of the meeting. There is a handsome chair +for the presiding officer upon the Bema itself. These are all the +furnishings of the structure wherein Athens makes peace and war, +and orders her whole civil and foreign policy. The Hellenic azure +is the only roof above her sovran law makers. To the right, as +the orators stand on the Bema, they can point toward the Acropolis +and its glittering temples; to the left towards the Peirus, and +the blue sea with the inevitable memories of glorious Salamis. +Surely it will be easy to fire all hearts with patriotism! + +[*]A "demagogue" (=people-leader) might well be a great statesman, +and not necessarily a cheap and noisy politician. + + +133. The Preliminaries of the Meeting.--Into this space the voters +swarm by hundreds--all the citizens of Athens, from twenty years +and upward, sufficiently interested to come. At each crude entrance +stands a crops of watchful LEXIARCHS and their clerks, checking +off those present and turning back interlopers. As the entering +crowds begin to thin, the entrance ways are presently closed by wicker +hurdles. The flag fluttering on high is struck. The Ecclesia is +ready for action. + +Much earlier than this, the farmers and fishmen from the hill +towns or from Salamis have been in their places, grumbling at the +slowness of the officials. People sit down where they can; little +groups and clans together, wedged in closely, chattering up to the +last minute, watching every proceeding with eyes as keen as cats'. +All the gossip left over from the Agora is disposed of ere the +prytanes--proverbially late--scramble into their seats of honor. +The police-archers move up and down, enforcing a kind of order. +Amid a growing hush a suckling pig is solemnly slaughtered by some +religious functionary at the altar, and the dead victim carried +around the circuit of the Pnyx as a symbolic purification of the +audience. + +"Come inside the purified circuit," enjoins a loud herald to the +little groups upon the edge.[*] + +[*]Aristophanes's "Acharnians" (ll. 50 ff.) gives a valuable +picture of this and other proceedings at the Pnyx, but one should +never forget the poet's exaggerations for comedy purposes, nor his +deliberate omission of matters likely to be mere tedious detail to +his audience. + +Then comes a prayer invoking the gods' favor upon the Athenians, +their allies, and this present meeting in particular, winding up +(the herald counts this among the chief parts of his duty) with +a tremendous curse on any wretch who should deceive the folk with +evil counsel. After this the real secular business can begin. +Nothing can be submitted to the Ecclesia which has not been previously +considered and matured by the Council of 500. The question to be +proposed is now read by the heralds as a "Pro-bouleuma"--a suggested +ordinance by the Council. Vast as is the audience, the acoustic +properties of the Pnyx are excellent, and all public officers and +orators are trained to harangue multitudes in the open air, so that +the thousands get every word of the proposition. + + +134. Debating a Proposition.--"Resolved by the Boule, the tribe +Leontis holding the prytany, and Heraclides being clerk, upon the +motion of Timon the son of Timon the Eleusinian,[*] that"--and then +in formal language it is proposed to increase the garrison of the +allied city of Byzantium by 500 hired Arcadian mercenaries, since +the king of Thrace is threatening that city, and its continued +possession is absolutely essential to the free import of grain into +Attica. + +[*]This seems to have been the regular form for beginning a +"probouleuma" although nearly all our information comes from the +texts of proposals AFTER they have been made formal decrees by the +sovran Demos. + +There is a hush of expectancy; a craning of necks. + +"Who wishes to speak?" calls the herald. + +After a decent pause Timon, the mover of the measure, comes forward. +He is a fairly well-known character and commands a respectable +faction among the Demos. There is some little clapping, mixed with +jeering, as he mounts the Bema. The president of the prytanes--as +evidence that he has now the right to harangue--hands him a myrtle +wreath which he promptly claps on his head, and launches into his +argument. Full speedily he has convinced at least a large share +of the audience that it was sheer destruction to leave Byzantium +without an efficient garrison. Grain would soon be at famine +prices if the town were taken, etc., etc. The only marvel is that +the merciful gods have averted the disaster so long in the face of +such neglect.--Why had the board of strategi, responsible in such +matters, neglected this obvious duty? [Cheers intermixed with +catcalls.] This was not the way the men who won Marathon had dealt +with dangers, nor later worthies like Nicias or Thrasybulus. [More +cheers and catcalls.] He winds up with a splendid invocation to +Earth, Sky, and Justice to bear witness that all this advice is +given solely with a view to the weal of Athens. + +"He had Isocrates teach him how to launch that peroration," mutters +a crabbed old citizen behind his peak-trimmed beard, as Timon +descends amid mingled applause and derision. + +"Very likely; Iphicrates is ready to answer him," replies a fellow. + +"Who wishes to speak?" the herald demands again. From a place +directly before the Bema a well-known figure, the elderly general, +Iphicrates, is rising. At a nod from the president, he mounts the +Bema and assumes the myrtle. He has not Timon's smooth tones nor +oratorical manner. He is a man of action and war, and no tool of +the Agora coteries. A salvo of applause greets him. Very pithily +he observes that Byzantium will be safe enough if the city will only +be loyal to the Athenian alliance. Athens needs all her garrisons +nearer home. Timon surely knows the state of the treasury. Is +he going to propose a special tax upon his fellow countrymen to +pay for those 500 mercenaries? [Loud laughter and derisive howls +directed at Timon.] Athens needs to keep her strength for REAL +dangers; and those are serious enough, but not at Byzantium. At +the next meeting he and the other strategi will recommend--etc., +etc. When Iphicrates quits the Bema there is little left of Timon's +fine "Earth, Sky and Justice." + + +135. Voting at the Pnyx.--But other orators follow on both sides. +Once Timon, egged on by many supporters, tries to gain the Bema +a second time, but is told by the president that one cannot speak +twice on the same subject. Once the derision and shouting becomes +so violent that the president has to announce, "Unless there is +silence I must adjourn the meeting." Finally, after an unsuccessful +effort to amend the proposal, by reducing the garrison at Byzantium +to 250, the movers of the measure realize that the votes will +probably be against them. They try to break up the meeting. + +"I hear thunder!" "I feel rain!" they begin shouting, and such ill +omens, if really in evidence, would be enough to force an adjournment; +but the sky is delightfully clear. The president simply shrugs +his shoulders; and now the Pnyx is fairly rocking with the yell, +"A vote! A vote!" + +The president rises. Taking the vote in the Ecclesia is a very +simple matter when it is a plain question of "yes" or "no" on a +proposition.[*] + +[*]When an INDIVIDUAL had to be voted for, then ballots were used. + +"All who favor the 'probouleuma' of Timon will raise the right +hand!" + +A respectable but very decided minority shows itself. + +"Those who oppose." + +The adverse majority is large. The morning is quite spent. There +is a great tumult. Men are rising, putting on their himatia, +ridiculing Timon; while the herald at a nod from the president +declares the Ecclesia adjourned. + + +136. The Ecclesia as an Educational Instrument.--Timon and his +friends retire crestfallen to discuss the fortunes of war. They +are not utterly discouraged, however. The Ecclesia is a fickle +creature. What it withholds to-day it may grant to-morrow. +Iphicrates, whose words have carried such weight now, may soon be +howled down and driven from the Bema much as was the unfortunate +litigant in the jury court. Still, with all its faults, the Ecclesia +is the great school for the adults of Athens. All are on terms of +perfect equality. King Demos is not the least respecter of wealth +or family. Sophistries are usually penetrated in a twinkling +by some coarse expletive from a remote corner of the Pnyx. Every +citizen understands the main issues of the public business. HE IS +PART OF THE ACTUAL WORKING GOVERNMENT, not once per year (or less +often) at the ballot box, but at least forty times annually; and +dolt he would be, did he not learn at least all the superficialities +of statecraft. He may make grievous errors. He may be misled by +mob prejudice or mob enthusiasm; but he is not likely to persist +in a policy of crass blundering very long. King Demos may indeed +rule a fallible human monarchy, but it is thanks to him, and to +his high court held at the Pnyx, that Athens owes at least half of +that sharpness of wit and intelligence which is her boast. + + + + + +Chapter XVII. The Afternoon at the Gymnasia. + + + + +137. The Gymnasia. Places of General Resort.--The market is thinning +after a busy day; the swarms of farmer-hucksters with their weary +asses are trudging homeward; the schoolrooms are emptying; the +dicasteries or the Ecclesia, as the case may be, have adjourned. +Even the slave artisans in the factories are allowed to slacken +work. The sun, a ball of glowing fire, is slowly sinking to westward +over the slopes of galeos; the rock of the Acropolis is glowing +as if in flame; intense purple tints are creeping over all the +landscape. The day is waning, and all Athenians who can possibly +find leisure are heading towards the suburbs for a walk, a talk, +and refreshment of soul and body at the several Gymnasia. + +Besides various establishments and small "wrestling schools" for +the boys, there are three great public Gymnasia at Athens,--the +Lyceum to the east of the town; the Cynosarges[*] to the southward; +and last, but at all least, the Academy. This is the handsomest, +the most famous, the most characteristic. We shall do well to +visit it. + +[*]The Cynosarges was the only one of these freely opened to such +Athenians as had non-Athenian mothers. The other two were reserved +for the strictly "full citizens." + + +138. The Road to the Academy.--We go out toward the northwest of +the city, plunging soon into a labyrinth of garden walls, fragrant +with the fruit and blossoms within, wander amid dark olive groves +where the solemn leaves of the sacred trees are talking sweetly; +and presently mount a knoll by some suburban farm buildings, then +look back to find that slight as is the elevation, here is a view +of marvelous beauty across the city, the Acropolis, and the guardian +mountains. From the rustling ivy coverts come the melodious notes +of birds. We are glad to learn that this is the suburb of Colonus, +the home of Sophocles the tragedian, and here is the very spot made +famous in the renowned chorus of his "dipous at Colonus." It is +too early, of course, to enjoy the nightingale which the poet asserts +sings often amid the branches, but the scene is one of marvelous +charm. We are not come, however, to admire Colonus. The numerous +strollers indicate our direction. Turning a little to the south, we +see, embowered amid the olive groves which line the unseen stream +of the Cephissos, a wall, and once beyond it find ourselves in +a kind of spacious park combined with an athletic establishment. +This is the Academy,--founded by Hipparchus, son of Peisistratus +the tyrant, but given its real embellishments and beauty by Cimon, +the son of Militiades the victor of Marathon. + + +139. The Academy.--The Academy is worthy of the visit. The park +itself is covered with olive trees and more graceful plane trees. +The grass beneath us is soft and delightful to the bare foot (and +nearly everybody, we observe, has taken off his sandals). There +are marble and bronze statues skillfully distributed amid the +shrubbery--shy nymphs, peeping fauns, bold satyrs. Yonder is a +spouting fountain surmounted by a noble Poseidon with his trident; +above the next fountain rides the ocean car of Amphitrite. Presently +we come to a series of low buildings. Entering, we find them laid +out in a quadrangle with porticoes on every side, somewhat like the +promenades around the Agora. Inside the promenades open a series +of ample rooms for the use of professional athletes during stormy +weather, and for the inevitable bathing and anointing with oil +which will follow all exercise. This great square court formed by +the "gymnasium" proper is swarming with interesting humanity, but +we pass it hastily in order to depart by an exit on the inner side +and discover a second more conventionally laid out park. Here to +right and to left are short stretches of soft sand divided into +convenient sections for wrestling, for quoit hurling, for javelin +casting, and for jumping; but a loud shout and cheering soon draw +us onward. At the end of this park we find the stadium; a great +oval track, 600 feet (a "stadium") for the half circuit, with benches +and all the paraphernalia for a foot race. The first contest have +just ended. The races are standing, panting after their exertions, +but their friends are talking vehemently. Out in the sand, near +the statue of Hermes (the patron god of gymnasia) is a dignified +and self-conscious looking man in a purple edged chiton--the +gymnasiarch, the official manager of the Academy. While he waits +to organize a second race we can study the visitors and habitus +of the gymnasium. + + +140. The Social Atmosphere and Human Types at the Academy.--What +the Pnyx is to the political life of Athens, this the Academy and +the other great gymnasia are to its social and intellectual as +well as its physical life. Here in daily intercourse, whether in +friendly contest of speed or brawn, or in the more valuable contest +of wits, the youth of Athens complete their education after escaping +from the rod of the schoolmaster. Here they have daily lessons +on the mottoes, which (did such a thing exist) should be blazoned +on the coat of arms of Greece, as the summing up of all Hellenic +wisdom:-- + + +"Know thyself," + + +and again:-- + + +"Be moderate." + + +Precept, example, and experience teach these truths at the gymnasia +of Athens. Indeed, on days when the Ecclesia is not in session, +when no war is raging, and they are not busy with a lawsuit, many +Athenians will spend almost the whole day at the Academy. For +whatever are your interests, here you are likely to find something +to engross you. + +It must be confessed that not everybody at the Academy comes here +for physical or mental improvement. We see a little group squatting +and gesticulating earnestly under an old olive tree--they are +obviously busy, not with philosophic theory, but with dice. Again, +two young men pass us presenting a curious spectacle. They are +handsomely dressed and over handsomely scented, but each carries +carefully under each arm a small cock; and from time to time they +are halted by fiends who admire the birds. Clearly these worthies' +main interests are in cockfighting; and they are giving their +favorites "air and exercise" before the deadly battle, on which +there is much betting, a the supper party that night. Also the +shouting and rumbling from a distance tells of the chariot course, +where the sons of the more wealthy or pretentious families are +lessening their patrimonies by training a "two" or a "four" to +contend at the Isthmian games or at Olympia. + + +141. Philosophers and Cultivated Men at the Gymnasia.--All these +things are true, and Athens makes full display here of the usual +crop of knaves or fools. Nevertheless this element is in the +minority. Here a little earlier or a little later than our visit +(for just now he is in Sicily) one could see Plato himself--walking +under the shade trees and expounding to a little trailing host +of eager-eyed disciples the fundamental theories of his ideal +Commonwealth. Here are scores of serious bearded faces, and heads +sprinkled with gray, moving to and fro in small groups, discussing +in melodious Attic the philosophy, the poetry, the oration, which +has been partly considered in the Agora this morning, and which +will be further discussed at the symposium to-night. Everything +is entirely informal. Even white-haired gentlemen do not hesitate +to cast off chiton and himation and spring around nimbly upon the +sands, to "try their distance" with the quoits, or show the young +men that they have not forgotten accuracy with the javelin, or +even, against men of their own age, to test their sinews in a mild +wrestling bout. It is undignified for an old man to attempt feats +beyond his advanced years. No one expects any great proficiency +from most of those present. It is enough to attempt gracefully, +and to laugh merrily if you do not succeed. Everywhere there is +the greatest good nature, and even frolicking, but very little of +the really boisterous. + + +142. The Beautiful Youths at the Academy.--Yet the majority of +the visitors to the Academy have an interest that is not entirely +summed up in proper athletics, or in the baser sports, or in +philosophy. Every now and then a little whisper runs among the +groups of strollers or athlete "There he goes!--a new one! How +beautiful!"--and there is a general turning of heads. + +A youth goes by, his body quite stripped, and delicately bronzed by +constant exposure to the sun. His limbs are graceful, but vigorous +and straight, his chest is magnificently curved. He lifts his head +modestly, yet with a proud and easy carriage. His hair is dark +blonde; his profile very "Greek"--nose and forehead joining in +unbroken straight line. A little crowd is following him; a more +favored comrade, a stalwart, bearded man, walks at his side. No +need of questioning now whence the sculptors of Athens get their +inspiration. This happy youth, just out of the schoolroom, and +now to be enrolled as an armed ephebus, will be the model soon for +some immortal bronze or marble. Fortunate is he, if his humility +is not ruined by all the admiration and flattery; if he can remember +the injunctions touching "modesty," which master and father have +repeated so long; if he can remember the precept that true beauty +of body can go only with true beauty of soul. Now at least is his +day of hidden or conscious pride. All Athens is commending him. +He is the reigning toast, like the "belle" of a later age. Not the +groundlings only, but the poets, rhetoricians, philosophers, will +gaze after him, seek an introduction, compliment him delicately, +give themselves the pleasure of making him blush deliciously, +and go back to their august problems unconsciously stimulated and +refreshed by this vision of "the godlike."[*] + +[*]For pertinent commentary on the effect of meeting a beautiful +youth upon very grave men, see, e.g., Plato's "Charmides" (esp. +158 a) and "Lysis" (esp. 206 d). Or better still in Xenophon's +"Symposium" (I.9), where we hear of the beautiful youth Autolycus, +"even as a bright light at night draws every eye, so by HIS beauty +drew on him the gaze of all the company [at the banquet]. Not a +man was present who did not feel his emotions stirred by the sight +of him." + + +143. The Greek Worship of Manly Beauty.--The Greek worship of the +beautiful masculine form is something which the later world will +never understand. In this worship there is too often a coarseness, +a sensual dross, over which a veil is wisely cast. but the great +fact of this worship remains: to the vast majority of Greeks +"beauty" does not imply a delicate maid clad in snowy drapery; it +implies a perfectly shaped, bronzed, and developed youth, standing +forth in his undraped manhood for some hard athletic battle. The +ideal possess the national life, and effects the entire Greek +civilization. Not beauty in innocent weakness, but beauty in +resourceful strength--before this beauty men bow down.[*] + +[*]Plato ("Republic," p. 402) gives the view of enlightened Greek +opinion when he states "There can be no fairer spectacle than that +of a man who combines the possession of MORAL beauty in his soul, +with OUTWARD beauty of body, corresponding and harmonizing with +the former, because the same great pattern enters into both." + +It is this masculine type of beauty, whether summed up in a physical +form or translated by imagery into the realm of the spirit, that +Isocrates (a very good mouthpieces for average enlightened opinion) +praises in language which strains even his facile rhetoric. "[Beauty] +is the first of all things in majesty, honor, and divineness. Nothing +devoid of beauty is prized; the admiration of virtue itself comes +to this, that of all manifestations of life, virtue is the most +beautiful. The supremacy of beauty over all things can be seen in +our own disposition toward it, and toward them. Other things we +merely seek to attain as we need them, but beautiful things inspire us +with love, LOVE which is as much stronger than WISH as its object +is better. To the beautiful alone, as to the gods, we are never +tired of doing homage; delighting to be their slaves rather than +to be the rulers of others." + +Could we put to all the heterogeneous crowd in the wide gymnasium +the question, "What things do you desire most?" the answer "To +be physically beautiful" (not "handsome" merely, but "beautiful") +would come among the first wishes. There is a little song, very +popular and very Greek. It tells most of the story. + + +The best of gifts to mortal man is health; + The next the bloom of beauty's matchless flower; +The third is blameless and unfraudful wealth; + The fourth with friends to spend youths' joyous hour.[*] + +[*]Translation by Milman. The exact date of this Greek poem is +uncertain, but its spirit is entirely true to that of Athens in +the time of this sketch. + + +Health and physical beauty thus go before wealth and the passions +of friendship,--a true Greek estimate! + + +144. The Detestation of Old Age.--Again, we are quick to learn +that this "beauty" is the beauty of youth. It is useless to talk +to an Athenian of a "beautiful old age." Old age is an evil to +be borne with dignity, with resignation if needs be, to be fought +against by every kind of bodily exercise; but to take satisfaction +in it?--impossible. It means a diminishing of those keen powers +of physical and intellectual enjoyment which are so much to every +normal Athenian. It means becoming feeble, and worse than feeble, +ridiculous. The physician's art has not advanced so far as to +prevent the frequent loss of sight and hearing in even moderate age. +No hope of a future renewal of noble youth in a happier world gilds +the just man's sunset. Old age must, like the untimely passing +of loved ones, be endured in becoming silence, as one of the fixed +inevitables; but it is gloomy work to pretend to find it cheerful. +Only the young can find life truly happy. Euripides in "The Mad +Heracles" speaks for all his race:-- + + +Tell me not of the Asian tyrant, + Or of palaces plenished with gold; +For such bliss I am not an aspirant, + If YOUTH I might only behold:-- +Youth that maketh prosperity higher, +And ever adversity lighter.[*] + +[*]Mahaffy, translator. Another very characteristic lament for +the passing of youth is left us by the early elegiac poet Mimnermus. + + +145. The Greeks unite Moral and Physical Beauty.--But here at the +Academy, this spirit of beautiful youth, and the "joy of life," +is everywhere dominant. All around us are the beautiful bodies +of young men engaged in every kind of graceful exercise. When +we question, we are told that current belief is that in a great +majority of instances there is a development and a symmetry of +mind corresponding to the glory of the body. It is contrary to all +the prevalent notions of the reign of "divine harmony" to have it +otherwise. The gods abhor all gross contradictions! Even now men +will argue over a strange breach of this rule;--why did heaven +suffer Socrates to have so beautiful a soul set in so ugly a +body?--Inscrutable are the ways of Zeus! + +However, we have generalized and wandered enough. The Academy is +a place of superabounding activities. Let us try to comprehend +some of them. + + +146. The Usual Gymnastic Sports and their Objects.--Despite all +the training in polite conversation which young men are supposed +to receive at the gymnasium, the object of the latter is after all +to form places of athletic exercise. The Athenians are without +most of these elaborate field games such as later ages will call +"baseball" and "football"; although, once learned, they could +surely excel in these prodigiously. They have a simple "catch" +with balls, but it hardly rises above the level of a children's +pastime. The reasons for these omissions are probably, first, +because so much time is devoted to the "palstra" exercises; +secondly, because military training eats up about all the time not +needed for pure gymnastics. + +The "palstra" exercises, taught first at the boys' training +establishments and later continued at the great gymnasia, are nearly +all of the nature of latter-day "field sports." They do not depend +on the costly apparatus of the twentieth century athletic halls; +and they accomplish their ends with extremely simple means. The +aim of the instructor is really twofold--to give his pupils a body +fit and apt for war (and we have seen that to be a citizen usually +implies being a hoplite), and to develop a body beautiful to the +eye and efficient for civil life. The naturally beautiful youth +can be made more beautiful; the naturally homely youth can be made +at least passable under the care of a skilful gymnastic teacher. + + +147. Professional Athletes: the Pancration.--Athletics, then, are +a means to an end and should not be tainted with professionalism. +True, as we wander about the Academy we see heavy and over brawny +individuals whose "beauty" consists in flattened noses, mutilated +ears, and mouths lacking many teeth, and who are taking their way +to the remote quarter where boxing is permitted. Here they will +wind hard bull's hide thongs around their hands and wrists, and +pummel one another brutally, often indeed (if in a set contest) +to the very risk of life. These men are obviously professional +athletes who, after appearing with some success at the "Nemea," are +in training for the impending "Pythia" at Delphi. A large crowd +of youths of the less select kind follows and cheers them; but +the better public opinion frowns on them. They are denounced by +the philosophers. Their lives no less than their bodies "are not +beautiful"--i.e. they offend against the spirit of harmony inherent +in every Greek. Still less are they in genteel favor when, the +preliminary boxing round being finished, they put off their boxing +thongs and join in the fierce "Pancration," a not unskillful +combination of boxing with wrestling, in which it is not suffered +to strike with the knotted fist, but in which, nevertheless, +a terrible blow can be given with the bent fingers. Kicking, +hitting, catching, tripping, they strive together mid the "Euge! +Euge!--Bravo! Bravo!" of their admirers until one is beaten down +hopelessly upon the sand, and the contest ends without harm. Had +it been a real Pancration, however, it would have been desperate +business, for it is quite permissible to twist an opponent's wrist, +and even to break his fingers, to make him give up the contest. +Therefore it is not surprising that the Pancration, even more than +boxing, is usually reserved for professional athletes. + + +148. Leaping Contests.--But near at hand is a more pleasing +contest. Youths of the ephebus age are practicing leaping. They +have no springboard, no leaping pole, but only a pair of curved +metal dumb-bells to aid them. One after another their lithe brown +bodies, shining with the fresh olive oil, come forward on a lightning +run up the little mound of earth, then fly gracefully out across +the soft sands. There is much shouting and good-natured rivalry. +As each lad leaps, an eager attendant marks his distance with a +line drawn by the pickaxe. The lines gradually extend ever farther +from the mound. The rivalry is keen. Finally, there is one leap +that far exceeds the rest.[*] A merry crowd swarms around the +blushing victor. A grave middle-aged man takes the ivy crown from +his head, and puts it upon the happy youth. "Your father will take +joy in you," he says as the knot breaks up. + +[*]If the data of the ancients are to be believed, the Greeks achieved +records in leaping far beyond those of any modern athletes, but it +is impossible to rely on data of this kind. + + +149. Quoit Hurling.--Close by the leapers is another stretch of +yellow sand reserved for the quoit throwers. The contestants here +are slightly older,--stalwart young men who seem, as they fling the +heavy bronze discus, to be reaching out eagerly into the fullness +of life and fortune before them. Very graceful are the attitudes. +Here it was the sculptor Miron saw his "Discobolus" which he +immortalized and gave to all the later world; "stooping down to +take aim, his body turned in the direction of the hand which holds +the quoit, one knee slightly bent as though he meant to vary the +posture and to rise with the throw."[*] The caster, however, does +not make his attempt standing. He takes a short run, and then the +whole of his splendid body seems to spring together with the cast. + +[*]The quotation is from Lucian (Roman Imperial period). + + +150. Casting the javelin.--The range of the quoit hurlers in turn +seems very great, but we cannot delay to await the issue. Still +elsewhere in the Academy they are hurling the javelin. Here is a +real martial exercise, and patriotism as well as natural athletic +spirit urges young men to excel. the long light lances are being +whirled at a distant target with remarkable accuracy; and well they +may, for every contestant has the vision of some hour when he may +stand on the poop of a trireme and hear the dread call, "All hands +repel boarders," or need all his darts to break up the rush of a +pursuing band of hoplites. + + +151. Wrestling.--The real crowds, however, are around the wrestlers +and the racers. Wrestling in its less brutal form is in great +favor. It brings into play all the muscles of a man; it tests +his resources both of mind and body finely. It is excellent for +a youth and it fights away old age. The Greek language is full of +words and allusions taken from the wrestler's art. The palstras +for the boys are called "the wrestling school" par excellence. +It is no wonder that now the ring on the sands is a dense one and +constantly growing. Two skilful amateurs will wrestle. One--a +speedy rumor tells us--is, earlier and later in the day, a rising +comic poet; the other is not infrequently heard on the Bema. Just +at present, however, they have forgotten anapests and oratory. A +crowd of cheering, jesting friends thrusts them on. Forth they +stand, two handsome, powerful men, well oiled for suppleness, but +also sprinkled with fine sand to make it possible to get a fair +grip in the contest. + +For a moment they wag their sharp black beards at each other +defiantly, and poise and edge around. Then the poet, more daring, +rushes in, and instantly the two have grappled--each clutching the +other's left wrist in his right hand. The struggle that follows +is hot and even, until a lucky thrust from the orator's foot lands +the poet in a sprawling heap; whence he rises with a ferocious grin +and renews the contest. The second time they both fall together. +"A tie!" calls the long-gowned friend who acts as umpire, with an +officious flourish of his cane. + +The third time the poet catches the orator trickily under the thigh, +and fairly tears him to the ground; but at the fourth meeting the +orator slips his arm in decisive grip about his opponent's wrist +and with a might wrench upsets him. + +"Two casts out of three, and victory!" + +Everybody laughs good-naturedly. The poet and the orator go away +arm in arm to the bathing house, there to have another good oiling +and rubbing down by their slaves, after removing the heavily caked +sand from their skin with the stirgils. Of course, had it been a +real contest in the "greater games," the outcome might have been +more serious for the rules allow one to twist a wrist, to thrust an +arm or foot into the foeman's belly, or (when things are desperate) +to dash your forehead--bull fashion--against your opponent's brow, +in the hope that his skull will prove weaker than yours. + + +152. Foot Races.--The continued noise from the stadium indicates +that the races are still running; and we find time to go thither. +The simple running match, a straight-away dash of 600 feet, seems +to have been the original contest at the Olympic games ere these +were developed into a famous and complicated festival; and the +runner still is counted among the favorites of Greek athletics. +As we sit upon the convenient benches around the academy stadium +we see at once that the track is far from being a hard, well-rolled +"cinder path"; on the contrary, it is of soft sand into which the +naked foot sinks if planted too firmly, and upon it the most adept +"hard-track" runner would at first pant and flounder helplessly. +The Greeks have several kinds of foot races, but none that are very +short. The shortest is the simple "stadium" (600 feet), a straight +hard dash down one side of the long oval; then there is the "double +course" ("diaulos") down one side and back; the "horse race"--twice +clear around (2400 feet); and lastly the hard-testing "long course" +("dolichos") which may very in length according to arrangement,--seven, +twelve, twenty, or even twenty-four stadia, we are told; and it +is the last (about three miles) that is one of the most difficult +contests at Olympia. + +At this moment a part of four hale and hearty men still in the +young prime are about to compete in the "double race." They come +forward all rubbed with the glistening oil, and crouch at the +starting point behind the red cord held by two attendants. The +gymnasiarch stands watchfully by, swinging his cane to smite painfully +whoever, in over eagerness, breaks away before the signal. All +is ready; at his nod the rope falls. The four fly away together, +pressing their elbows close to their sides, and going over the soft +sands with long rhythmic leaps, rather than with the usual rapid +running motion. A fierce race it is, amid much exhortation from +friends and shouting. At length, as so often--when speeding back +towards the stretched cord,--the rearmost runner suddenly gathers +amazing speed, and, flying with prodigious leaps ahead of his +rivals, is easily the victor. His friends are at once about him, +and we hear the busy tongues advising, "You must surely race at +the Pythia; the Olympia; etc." + +This simple race over, a second quickly follows: five heavy, powerful +men this time, but they are to run in full hoplite's armor--the +ponderous shield, helmet, cuirass, and greaves. This is the exacting +"Armor Race" ("Hoplitodromos"), and safe only for experienced +soldiers or professional athletes.[*] Indeed, the Greeks take all +their foot races seriously, and there are plenty of instances when +the victor has sped up to the goal, and then dropped dead before +the applauding stadium. There are no stop watches in the Academy; +we do not know the records of the present or of more famous runners; +yet one may be certain that the "time" made, considering the very +soft sand, has been exceedingly fast. + +[*]It was training in races like these which enabled the Athenians at +Marathon to "charge the Persians on the run" (Miltiades' orders), +all armored though they were, and so get quickly through the terrible +zone of the Persian arrow fire. + + +153. The Pentathlon: the Honors paid to Great Athletes.--We have +now seen average specimens of all the usual athletic sports of the +Greeks. Any good authority will tell us, however, that a truly +capable athlete will not try to specialize so much in any one kind +of contest that he cannot do justice to the others. As an all +around well-trained man he will try to excel in the "Pentathlon," +the "five contests." Herein he will successfully join in running, +javelin casting, quoit throwing, leaping, and wrestling.[*] As +the contest proceeds the weaker athletes will be eliminated; only +the two fittest will be left for the final trial of strength and +skill. Fortunate indeed is "he who overcometh" in the Pentathlon. +It is the crown of athletic victories, involving, as it does, no +scanty prowess both of body and mind. The victor in the Pentathlon +at one of the great Pan-Hellenic games (Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, +or Nemean) or even in the local Attic contest at the Panathena is +a marked man around Athens or any other Greek city. Poets celebrate +him; youths dog his heels and try to imitate him; his kinsfolk take +on airs; very likely he is rewarded as a public benefactor by the +government. But there is abundant honor for one who has triumphed +in ANY of the great contests; and even as we go out we see people +pointing to a bent old man and saying, "Yes; he won the quoit +hurling at the Nema when Ithycles was archon."[+] + +[*]The exact order of these contests, and the rules of elimination +as the games proceeded, are uncertain--perhaps they varied with +time and place. + +[+]This would make it 398 B.C. The Athenians dated their years by +the name of their "first Archon" ("Archon eponymos"). + +...The Academy is already thinning. The beautiful youths and their +admiring "lovers" have gone homeward. The last race has been run. +We must hasten if we would not be late to some select symposium. +The birds are more melodious than ever around Colonus; the red and +golden glow upon the Acropolis is beginning to fade; the night is +sowing the stars; and through the light air of a glorious evening +we speed back to the city. + + + + + +Chapter XVIII. Athenian Cookery and the Symposium. + + + + +154. Greek Meal Times.--The streets are becoming empty. The +Agora has been deserted for hours. As the warm balmy night closes +over the city the house doors are shut fast, to open only for the +returning master or his guests, bidden to dinner. Soon the ways +will be almost silent, to be disturbed, after a proper interval, by +the dinner guests returning homeward. Save for these, the streets +will seem those of a city of the dead: patrolled at rare intervals +by the Scythian archers, and also ranged now and then by cutpurses +watching for an unwary stroller, or miscreant roisterers trolling +lewd songs, and pounding on honest men's doors as they wander from +tavern to tavern in search of the lowest possible pleasures. + +We have said very little of eating or drinking during our visit in +Athens, for, truth to tell, the citizens try to get through the day +with about as little interruption for food and drink as possible. +But now, when warehouse and gymnasium alike are left to darkness, +all Athens will break its day of comparative fasting. + +Roughly speaking, the Greeks anticipate the latter-day "Continental" +habits in their meal hours. The custom of Germans and of many +Americans in having the heartiest meal at noonday would never appeal +to them. The hearty meal is at night, and no one dreams of doing +any serious work after it. When it is finished, there may be +pleasant discourse or varied amusements, but never real business; +and even if there are guests, the average dinner party breaks up +early. Early to bed and early to rise, would be a maxim indorsed +by the Athenians. + +Promptly upon rising, our good citizen has devoured a few morsels +of bread sopped in undiluted wine; that has been to him what "coffee +and rolls" will be to the Frenchmen,--enough to carry him through +the morning business, until near to noon he will demand something +more satisfying. He then visits home long enough to partake of a +substantial djeuner ("ariston," first breakfast = "akratisma"). +He has one or two hot dishes--one may suspect usually warmed over +from last night's dinner--and partakes of some more wine. This +"ariston" will be about all he will require until the chief meal of +the day--the regular dinner ("depnon") which would follow sunset. + + +155. Society desired at Meals.--The Athenians are a gregarious +sociable folk. Often enough the citizen must dine alone at home +with "only" his wife and children for company, but if possible he +will invite friends (or get himself invited out). Any sort of an +occasion is enough to excuse a dinner-party,--a birthday of some +friend, some kind of family happiness, a victory in the games, the +return from, or the departure upon, a journey:--all these will answer; +or indeed a mere love of good fellowship. There are innumerable +little eating clubs; the members go by rotation to their respective +houses. Each member contributes either some money or has his slave +bring a hamper of provisions. In the find weather picnic parties +down upon the shore are common.[*] "Anything to bring friends +together"--in the morning the Agora, in the afternoon the gymnasium, +in the evening they symposium--that seems to be the rule of Athenian +life. + +[*]Such excursions were so usual that the literal expression "Let +us banquet at the shore" ([Note from Brett: The Greek letters +are written out here as there is no way to portray them properly] +sigma eta mu epsilon rho omicron nu [next word] alpha kappa tau +alpha sigma omega mu epsilon nu [here is a rough transliteration +into English letters "smeron aktasmen"]) came often to mean simply +"Let us have a good time." + +However, the Athenians seldom gather to eat for the mere sake +of animal gorging. They have progressed since the Greeks of the +Homeric Age. Odysseus[*] is made to say to Alcinos that there is +nothing more delightful than sitting at a table covered with bread, +meat, and wine, and listening to a bard's song; and both Homeric +poems show plenty of gross devouring and guzzling. There is not +much of this in Athens, although Botians are still reproached with +being voracious, swinish "flesh eaters," and the Greeks of South +Italy and Sicily are considered as devoted to their fare, though +of more refined table habits. Athenians of the better class pride +themselves on their light diet and moderation of appetite, and +their neighbors make considerable fun of them for their failure to +serve satisfying meals. Certain it is that the typical Athenian +would regard a twentieth century "table d'hte" course dinner as +heavy and unrefined, if ever it dragged its slow length before him. + +[*]"Odyssey," IX. 5-10. + + +156. The Staple Articles of Food.--However, the Athenians have +honest appetites, and due means of silencing them. The diet of a +poor man is indeed simple in the extreme. According to Aristophanes +his meal consists of a cake, bristling with bran for the sake +of economy, along with an onion and a dish of sow thistles, or of +mushrooms, or some other such wretched vegetables; and probably, in +fact, that is about all three fourths of the population of Attica +will get on ordinary working days, always with the addition of a +certain indispensable supply of oil and wine. + +Bread, oil, and wine, in short, are the three fundamentals of Greek +diet. With them alone man can live very healthfully and happily; +without them elaborate vegetable and meat dishes are poor +substitutes. Like latter-day Frenchmen or Italians with their huge +loaves or macaroni, BREAD in one form or another is literally the +stuff of life to the Greek. He makes it of wheat, barley, rye, +millet, or spelt, but preferably of the two named first. The barley +meal is kneaded (not baked) and eaten raw or half raw as a sort of +porridge. Of wheat loaves there are innumerable shapes on sale in +the Agora,--slender rolls, convenient loaves, and also huge loaves +needing two or three bushels of flour, exceeding even those made +in a later day in Normandy. At every meal the amount of bread or +porridge consumed is enormous; there is really little else at all +substantial. Persian visitors to the Greeks complain that they +are in danger of rising from the table hungry. + +But along with the inevitable bread goes the inevitable OLIVE OIL. +No latter-day article will exactly correspond to it. First of all +it takes the place of butter as the proper condiment to prevent +the bread from being tasteless.[*] It enters into every dish. +The most versatile cook will be lost without it. Again, at the +gymnasium we have seen its great importance to the athletes and +bathers. It is therefore the Hellenic substitute for soap. Lastly, +it fills the lamps which swing over very dining board. It takes +the place of electricity, gas, or petroleum. No wonder Athens +is proud of her olive trees. If she has to import her grain, she +has a surplus for export of one of the three great essentials of +Grecian life. + +[*]There was extremely little cow's butter in Greece. Herodotus (iv. +2) found it necessary to explain the process of "cow-cheese-making" +among the Scythians. + +The third inevitable article of diet is WINE. No one has dreamed +of questioning its vast desirability under almost all circumstances. +Even drunkenness is not always improper. It may be highly fitting, +as putting one in a "divine frenzy," partaking of the nature of +the gods. Musus the semi-mythical poet is made out to teach that +the reward of virtue will be something like perpetual intoxication +in the next world. schines the orator will, ere long, taunt his +opponent Demosthenes in public with being a "water drinker"; and +Socrates on many occasions has given proof that he possessed a +very hard head. Yet naturally the Athenian has too acute a sense +of things fit and dignified, too noble a perception of the natural +harmony, to commend drunkenness on any but rare occasions. Wine +is rather valued as imparting a happy moderate glow, making the +thoughts come faster, and the tongue more witty. Wine raises the +spirits of youth, and makes old age forget its gray hairs. It +chases away thoughts of the dread hereafter, when one will lose +consciousness of the beautiful sun, and perhaps wander a "strengthless +shade" through the dreary underworld. + +There is a song attributed to Anacreon, and nearly everybody in +Athens approves the sentiment:-- + + +Thirsty earth drinks up the rain, +Trees from earth drink that again; +Ocean drinks the air, the sun +Drinks the sea, and him, the moon. +Any reason, canst thou think, +I should thirst, while all these drink?[*] + +[*]Translation from Von Falke's "Greece and Rome." + + +157. Greek Vintages.--All Greeks, however, drink their wine so +diluted with water that it takes a decided quantity to produce a +"reaction." The average drinker takes three parts water to two of +wine. If he is a little reckless the ratio is four of water to +three of wine; equal parts "make men mad" as the poet says, and are +probably reserved for very wild dinner parties. As for drinking +pure wine no one dreams of the thing--it is a practice fit for +Barbarians. There is good reason, however, for this plentiful +use of water. In the original state Greek wines were very strong, +perhaps almost as alcoholic as whisky, and the Athenians have no +Scotch climate to excuse the use of such stimulants.[*] + +[*]There was a wide difference of opinion as to the proper amount +of dilution. Odysseus ("Odyssey," IX. 209) mixed his fabulously +strong wine from Maron in Thrace with twenty times its bulk of +water. Hesiod abstemiously commended three parts of water to one +of wine. Zaleucus, the lawgiver of Italian Locri, established the +death penalty for drinking unmixed wine save by physicians' orders +("Athenus," X. 33). + +No wine served in Athens, however, will appeal to a later-day +connoisseur. It is all mixed with resin, which perhaps makes it +more wholesome, but to enjoy it then becomes an acquired taste. +There are any number of choice vintages, and you will be told that +the local Attic wine is not very desirable, although of course it +is the cheapest. Black wine is the strongest and sweetest; white +wine is the weakest; rich golden is the driest and most wholesome. +The rocky isles and headlands of the gean seem to produce the +best vintage--Thasos, Cos, Lesbos, Rhodes, all boast their grapes; +but the best wine beyond a doubt is from Chios.[*] It will fetch +a mina ($18 [1914 or $310.14 2000]) the "metreta," i.e. nearly 50 +cents [1914 or $8.62 2000] per quart. At the same time you can +buy a "metreta" of common Attic wine for four drachmae (72 cents +[1914 or $12.41 2000]), or say two cents [1914 or 34 cents 2000] +per quart. The latter--when one considers the dilution--is surely +cheap enough for the most humble. + +[*]Naturally certain foreign vintages had a demand, just because +they were foreign. Wine was imported from Egypt and from various +parts of Italy. It was sometimes mixed with sea water for export, +or was made aromatic with various herbs and berries. It was +ordinarily preserved in great earthen jars sealed with pitch. + + +158. Vegetable Dishes.--Provided with bread, oil, and wine, no +Athenian will long go hungry; but naturally these are not a whole +feast. As season and purse may afford they will be supplanted by +such vegetables as beans (a staple article), peas, garlic, onions, +radishes, turnips, and asparagus; also with an abundance of +fruits,--besides figs (almost a fourth indispensable at most meals), +apples, quinces, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, blackberries, +the various familiar nuts, and of course a plenty of grapes and +olives. The range of selection is in fact decidedly wide: only +the twentieth century visitor will miss the potato, the lemon, and +the orange; and when he pries into the mysteries of the kitchen a +great fact at once stares him in the face. The Greek must dress +his dishes without the aid of sugar. As a substitute there is an +abundant use of the delicious Hymettus honey,--"fragrant with the +bees,"--but it is by no means so full of possibilities as the white +powder of later days. Also the Greek cook is usually without fresh +cow's milk, and most goat's milk probably takes its way to cheese. +No morning milk carts rattle over the stones of Athens. + + +159. Meat and Fish Dishes.--Turning to the meat dishes, we at once +learn that while there is a fair amount of farm poultry, geese, +hares, doves, partridges, etc., on sale in the market, there is +extremely little fresh beef or even mutton, pork, and goat's flesh. +It is quite expensive, and counted too hearty for refined diners. +The average poor man in fact hardly tastes flesh except after one +of the great public festivals; then after the sacrifice of the +"hecatomb" of oxen, there will probably be a distribution of roast +meat to all the worshipers, and the honest citizen will take home +to his wife an uncommon luxury--a piece of roast beef. But the +place of beef and pork is largely usurped by most excellent fish. +The waters of the gean abound with fish. The import of salt fish +(for the use of the poor) from the Propontis and Euxine is a great +part of Attic commerce. A large part of the business at the Agora +centers around the fresh fish stalls, and we have seen how extortionate +and insolent were the fishmongers. Sole, tunny, mackerel, young +shark, mullet, turbot, carp, halibut, are to be had, but the choicest +regular delicacies are the great Copaic eels from Botia; these, +"roasted on the coals and wrapped in beet leaves," are a dish +fit for the Great King. Lucky is the host who has them for his +dinner party. Oysters and mussels too are in demand, and there is +a considerable sale of snails, "the poor man's salad," even as in +present-day France. + +Clearly, then, if one is not captious or gluttonous, there should +be no lack of good eating in Athens, despite the reputation of the +city for abstemiousness. Let us pry therefore into the symposium +of some good citizen who is dispensing hospitality to-night. + + +160. Inviting Guests to a Dinner Party.-- + + +Who loves thee, him summon to they board; +Far off be he who hates. + + +This familiar sentiment of Hesiod, one Prodicus, a well-to-do +gentleman, had in mind when he went to the Agora this morning to +arrange for a dinner party in honor of his friend Hermogenes, who +was just departing on a diplomatic mission to the satrap of Mysia. +While walking along the Painted Porch and the other colonnades he +had no difficulty in seeing most of the group he intended to invite, +and if they did not turn to greet him, he would halt them by sending +his slave boy to run and twitch at their mantles, after which the +invitation was given verbally. Prodicus, however, deliberately +makes arrangements for one or two more than those he has bidden. +It will be entirely proper for his guests to bring friends of their +own if they wish; and very likely some intimate whom he has been +unable to find will invite himself without any bidding. + +At the Agora Prodicus has had much to do. His house is a fairly +large and well-furnished one, his slaves numerous and handy, but he +has not the cook or the equipment for a really elaborate symposium. +At a certain quarter on the great square he finds a contractor +who will supply all the extra appointments for a handsome dinner +party--tables, extra lamps, etc. Then he puts his slave boy to +bawling out: + + +"Who wants an engagement to cook a dinner?" + + +This promptly brings forward a sleek, well-dressed fellow whose +dialect declares that he is from Sicily, and who asserts he is an +expert professional cook. Prodicus engages him and has a conference +with him on the profound question of "whether the tunnies or the +mullets are better to-day, or will there be fresh eels?" This +point and similar minor matters settled, Prodicus makes liberal +purchases at the fish and vegetable stalls, and his slaves bear +his trophies homeward. + + +161. Preparing for the Dinner. The Sicilian Cook.--All that +afternoon the home of Prodicus is in an uproar. The score of +slaves show a frantic energy. The aula is cleaned and scrubbed: +the serving girls are busy handing festoons of leaves and weaving +chaplets. The master's wife--who does not dream of actually sharing +in the banquet--is nevertheless as active and helpful as possible; +but especially she is busy trying to keep the peace between the old +house servants and the imported cook. This Sicilian is a notable +character. To him cookery is not a handicraft: it is the triumph, +the quintessence of all science and philosophy. He talks a strange +professional jargon, and asserts that he is himself learned in +astronomy--for that teaches the best seasons, e.g. for mackerel and +haddock; in geometry,--that he might know how a boiler or gridiron +should be set to the best advantage; in medicine, that he might +prepare the most wholesome dishes. In any case he is a perfect +tyrant around the kitchen, grumbling about the utensils, cuffing +the spit-boy, and ever bidding him bring more charcoal for the fire +and to blow the bellows faster.[*] + +[*]The Greeks seem to have cooked over a rather simple open fireplace +with a wood or charcoal fire. They had an array of cooking utensils, +however, according to all our evidence, elaborate enough to gladden +a very exacting modern CHEF. + +By the time evening is at hand Prodicus and his house are in +perfect readiness. The bustle is ended; and the master stands by +the entrance way, clad in his best and with a fresh myrtle wreath, +ready to greet his guests. No ladies will be among these. Had +there been any women invited to the banquet, they would surely +be creatures of no very honest sort; and hardly fit, under any +circumstances, to darken the door of a respectable citizen. The +mistress and her maids are "behind the scenes." There may be a woman +among the hired entertainers provided, but for a refined Athenian +lady to appear at an ordinary symposium is almost unthinkable.[*] + +[*]In marriage parties and other strictly family affairs women were +allowed to take part; and we have an amusing fragment of Menander +as to how, on such rare occasions, they monopolized the conversation. + + +162. The Coming of the Guests.--As each guest comes, he is seen +to be elegantly dressed, and to wear now, if at no other time, a +handsome pair of sandals.[*] He has also taken pains to bathe and +to perfume himself. As soon as each person arrives his sandals +are removed in the vestibule by the slaves and his feet are bathed. +No guest comes alone, however: every one has his own body servant +with him, who will look after his footgear and himation during +the dinner, and give a certain help with the serving. The house +therefore becomes full of people, and will be the scene of remarkable +animation during the next few hours. + +[*]Socrates, by way of exception to his custom, put on some fine +sandals when he was invited to a banquet. + +Prodicus is not disappointed in expecting some extra visitors. His +guest of honor, Hermogenes, has brought along two, whom the host +greets with the polite lie: "Just in time for dinner. Put off +your other business. I was looking for you in the Agora and could +not find you."[*] Also there thrusts in a half genteel, half +rascally fellow, one Palladas, who spends all his evenings at +dinner parties, being willing to be the common butt and jest of the +company (having indeed something of the ability of a comic actor +about him) in return for a share of the good things on the table. +These "Parasites" are regular characters in Athens, and no symposium +is really complete without them, although often their fooleries +cease to be amusing.[+] + +[*]It is with such a white fib that the host Agathon salutes +Aristodemus, Socrates's companion in Plato's "Symposium." + +[+]Of these "Parasites" or "Flies" (as owing to their migratory +habits they were sometimes called), countless stories were told, +whereof the following is a sample: there was once a law in Athens +that not over thirty guests were to be admitted to a marriage feast, +and an officer was obliged to count all the guests and exclude the +superfluous. A "fly" thrust in on one occasion, and the officer +said: "Friend, you must retire. I find one more here than the +law allows." "Dear fellow," quoth the "fly," "you are utterly +mistaken, as you will find, if you kindly count again--only BEGINNING +WITH ME." + + +163. The Dinner Proper.--The Greeks have not anticipated the Romans +in their custom of making the standard dinner party nine persons on +three couches,--three guests on each. Prodicus has about a dozen +guests, two on a couch. They "lie down" more or less side by side +upon the cushioned divans, with their right arms resting on brightly +striped pillows and the left arms free for eating. The slaves bring +basis of water to wash their hands, and then beside each couch is +set a small table, already garnished with the first course, and +after the casting of a few bits of food upon the family hearth +fire,--the conventional "sacrifice" to the house gods,--the dinner +begins. + +Despite the elaborate preparations of the Sicilian cook, Prodicus +offers his guests only two courses. The first consists of the +substantial dishes--the fish, the vegetables, the meat (if there is +any). Soups are not unknown, and had they been served might have +been eaten with spoons; but Athens like all the world is innocent +of forks, and fingers take their place. Each guest has a large +piece of soft bread on which he wipes his fingers from time to time +and presently casts it upon the floor.[*] When this first course +is finished, the tables are all taken out to be reset, water is +again poured over the hands of the guests, and garlands of flowers +are passed. The use of garlands is universal, and among the +guests, old white headed and bearded Sosthenes will find nothing +more undignified in putting himself beneath a huge wreath of lilies +than an elderly gentleman of a later day will find in donning +the "conventional" dress suit. The conversation,--which was +very scattering at first,--becomes more animated. A little wine +is now passed about. Then back come the tables with the second +course--fruits, and various sweetmeats and confectionary with +honey as the staple flavoring. Before this disappears a goblet of +unmixed wine is passed about, and everybody takes a sip: "To the +Good Genius," they say as the cup goes round. + +[*]Napkins were not used in Greece before Roman days. + + +164. Beginning the Symposium.--Prodicus at length gives a nod to +the chief of his corps of servers. + +"Bring in the wine!" he orders. The slaves promptly whisk out the +tables and replace them with others still smaller, on which they +set all kinds of gracefully shaped beakers and drinking bowls. More +wreaths are distributed, also little bottles of delicate ointment. +While the guests are praising Prodicus's nard, the servants have +brought in three huge "mixing bowls" ("craters") for the wines +which are to furnish the main potation. + +So far we have witnessed not a symposium, but merely a dinner; and +many a proper party has broken up when the last of the dessert has +disappeared; but, after all, the drinking bout is the real crown +of the feast. It is not so much the wine as the things that go +with the wine that are so delightful. As to what these desirable +condiments are, opinions differ. Plato (who is by no means too +much of a philosopher to be a real man of the world) says in his +"Protagoras" that mere conversation is "the" thing at a symposium. +"When the company are real gentlemen and men of education, you +will see no flute girls nor dancing girls nor harp girls; they will +have no nonsense or games, but will be content with one another's +conversation."[*] But this ideal, though commended, is not always +followed in decidedly intellectual circles. Zenophon[+] shows us +a select party wherein Socrates participated, in which the host +has been fain to hire in a professional Syracusian entertainer with +two assistants, a boy and a girl, who bring their performance to a +climax by a very suggestive dumb-show play of the story of Bacchus +and Ariadne. Prodicus's friends, being solid, somewhat pragmatic +men--neither young sports nor philosophers--steer a middle course. +There is a flute girl present, because to have a good symposium +without some music is almost unimaginable; but she is discreetly +kept in the background. + +[*]Plato again says ("Politicus," 277 b), "To intelligent persons, +a living being is more truly delineated by language and discourse +than by any painting or work of art." + +[+]In his "Symposium"--which is far less perfect as literature than +Plato's, but probably corresponds more to the average instance. + + +165. The Symposiarch and his Duties.--"Let's cast for our Symposiarch!" +is Prodicus's next order, and each guest in turn rattles the dice +box. Tyche (Lady Fortune) gives the presidency of the feast to +Eunapius, a bright-eyed, middle-aged man with a keen sense of humor, +but a correct sense of good breeding. He assumes command of the +symposium; takes the ordering of the servants out of Prodicus's +hands, and orders the wine to be mixed in the craters with proper +dilution. He then rises and pours out a libation from each bowl +"to the Olympian Gods," "to the Heroes," and "to Zeus the Saviour," +and casts a little incense upon the altar. The guests all sing a +"Pan," not a warrior's charging song this time, but a short hymn +in praise of the Wine-God, some lilting catch like Alcus's + + +In mighty flagons hither bring + The deep red blood of many a vine, +That we may largely quaff and sing + The praises of the God of wine. + + +166. Conversation at the Symposium.--After this the symposium will +proceed according to certain general rules which it is Eunaius's +duty to enforce; but in the main a "program" is something to be +avoided. Everybody must feel himself acting spontaneously and freely. +He must try to take his part in the conversation and neither speak +too seldom nor too little. It is not "good form" for two guests +to converse privately among themselves, nor for anybody to dwell +on unpleasant or controversial topics. Aristophanes has laid down +after his way the proper kind of things to talk about.[*] "[Such +as]'how Ephudion fought a fine pancratium with Ascondas though old +and gray headed, but showing great form and muscle.' This is the +talk usual among refined people [or again] 'some manly act of your +youth; for example, how you chased a boar or a hare, or won a torch +race by some bold device.' [Then when fairly settled at the feast] +straighten your knees and throw yourself in a graceful and easy +manner upon the couch. Then make some observations upon the beauty +of the appointments, look up at the ceiling and praise the tapestry +of the room." + +[*] "Wasps," 1174-1564. + +As the wine goes around, tongues loosen more and more. Everybody +gesticulates in delightful southern gestures, but does not lose +his inherent courtesy. The anecdotes told are often very egoistic. +The first personal pronoun is used extremely often, and "I" becomes +the hero of a great many exploits. The Athenian, in short, is an +adept at praising himself with affected modesty, and his companions +listen good-humoredly, and retaliate by praising themselves. + + +167. Games and Entertainments.--By the time the craters are one +third emptied the general conversation is beginning to be broken +up. It is time for various standard diversions. Eunapius therefore +begins by enjoining on each guest in turn to sing a verse in which +a certain letter must not appear, and in event of failure to pay +some ludicrous forfeit. Thus the bald man is ordered to begin to +comb his hair; the lame man (halt since the Mantinea campaign), to +stand up and dance to the flute player, etc. There are all kinds of +guessing of riddles--often very ingenious as become the possessors +of "Attic salt." Another diversion is to compare every guest +present to some mythical monster, a process which infallibly ends +by getting the "Parasite" likened to Cerberus, the Hydra, or some +such dragon, amid the laughter of all the rest. At some point in the +amusement the company is sure to get to singing songs:--"Scolia"--drinking +songs indeed, but often of a serious moral or poetic character, +whereof the oft-quoted song in praise of Harmodius and Aristogeiton +the tyrant-slayers is a good example.[*] No "gentleman" will profess +to be a public singer, but to have a deep, well-trained voice, and +to be able to take one's part in the symposium choruses is highly +desirable, and some of the singing at Proicus's banquet is worth +hearing. + +[*]Given in "Readings in Ancient History," Vol. I, p. 117, and in +many other volumes. + +Before the evening is over various games will be ordered in, especially +the "cottabus," which is in great vogue. On the top of a high +stand, something like a candelabrum, is balanced rather delicately +a little saucer of brass. The players stand at a considerable +distance with cups of wine. The game is to toss a small quantity +of wine into the balanced saucer so smartly as to make the brass +give out a clear ringing sound, and to tilt upon its side.[+] Much +shouting, merriment, and a little wagering ensues. While most of +the company prefer the cottabus, two, who profess to be experts, call +for a gaming board and soon are deep in the "game of towns"--very +like to latter-day "checkers," played with a board divided into +numerous squares. Each contestant has thirty colored stones, and +the effort is to surround your opponent's stones and capture them. +Some of the company, however, regard this as too profound, and +after trying their skill at the cottabus betake themselves to the +never failing chances of dice. Yet these games are never suffered +(in refined dinner parties) to banish the conversation. That +after all is the center, although it is not good form to talk over +learnedly of statecraft, military tactics, or philosophy. If such +are discussed, it must be with playful abandon, and a disclaimer of +being serious; and even very grave and gray men remember Anacreon's +preference for the praise of "the glorious gifts of the Muses and +of Aphrodite" rather than solid discussions of "conquest and war." + +[+]This was the simplest form of the COTTABUS game; there were +numerous elaborations, but our accounts of them are by no means +clear. + + +168. Going Home from the Feast: Midnight Revellers.--At length the +oil lamps have begun to burn dim. The tired slaves are yawning. +Their masters, despite Prodicus's intentions of having a very +proper symposium, have all drunk enough to get unstable and silly. +Eunapius gives the signal. All rise, and join in the final libation +to Hermes. "Shoes and himation, boy," each says to his slave, and +with thanks to their host they all fare homeward. + +Such will be the ending to an extremely decorous feast. With gay +young bloods present, however, it might have degenerated into an +orgy; the flute girl (or several of them) would have contributed +over much to the "freedom"; and when the last deep crater had been +emptied, the whole company would have rushed madly into the street, +and gone whirling away through the darkness,--harps and flutes +sounding, boisterous songs pealing, red torches tossing. Revellers +in this mood would be ready for anything. Perhaps they would end in +some low tavern at the Peirus to sleep off their liquor; perhaps +their leader would find some other Symposium in progress, and after +loud knockings, force his way into the house, even as did the mad +Alcibiades, who (once more to recall Plato) thrust his way into +Agathon's feast, staggering, leaning on a flute girl, and shouting, +"Where's Agathon!" Such an inroad would be of course the signal +for more and ever more hard drinking. The wild invaders might make +themselves completely at home, and dictate all the proceedings: +the end would be even as at Agathon's banquet, where everybody but +Socrates became completely drunken, and lay prone on the couches or +the floor. One hopes that the honest Prodicus has no such climax +to his symposium. + +...At length the streets grow quiet. Citizens sober or drunken +are now asleep: only the vigilant Scythian archers patrol the ways +till the cocks proclaim the first gray of dawn. + + + + + +Chapter XIX. Country Life Around Athens + + + + +169. Importance of his Farm to an Athenian.--We have followed the +doings of a typical Athenian during his ordinary activities around +the city, but for the average gentleman an excursion outside the +town is indispensable at least every two or three days, and perhaps +every day. He must visit his farm; for his wealth and income are +probably tied up there, rather than in any unaristocratic commercial +and manufacturing enterprises. Homer's "royal" heroes are not +ashamed to be skilful at following the plow[*]: and no Athenian +feels that he is contaminating himself by "trade" when he supervises +the breeding of sheep or the raising of onions. We will therefore +follow in the tracks of certain well-to-do citizens, when we turn +toward the Itonian gate sometime during the morning, while the +Agora is still in a busy hum, even if thus we are curtailing our +hypothetical visits to the Peirus or to the bankers. + +[*]See Odysseus's boasts, "Odyssey," XVIII. 360 et passim. The +gentility of farming is emphasized by a hundred precepts from +Hesiod. + + +170. The Country by the Ilissus: the Greeks and Natural Beauty.--Our +companions are on horseback (a token of tolerable wealth in Athens), +but the beasts amble along not too rapidly for nimble grooms to +run behind, each ready to aid his respective master. Once outside +the gate the regular road swings down to the south towards Phalerum; +we, however, are in no great haste and desire to see as much as +possible. The farms we are seeking lie well north of the city, but +we can make a delightful circuit by skirting the city walls with +the eastern shadow of the Acropolis behind us, and going at first +northeast, along the groves and leafy avenues which line the thin +stream of the Ilissus,[*] the second "river" of Athens. + +[*]The Ilissus, unlike its sturdier rival, the Cephisus, ran dry +during the summer heats; but there was enough water along its bed +to create a dense vegetation. + +Before us through the trees came tantalizing glimpses of the open +country running away towards shaggy gray Hymettus. Left to itself +the land would be mostly arid and seared brown by the summer sun; +but everywhere the friendly work of man is visible. One can count +the little green oblong patches, stretching even up the mountain +side, marked with gleaming white farm buildings or sometimes with +little temples and chapels sacred to the rural gods. Once or +twice also we notice a plot of land which seems one tangled waste +of trees and shrubbery. This is a sacred "temenos," an inviolate +grove, set apart to some god; and within the fences of the compound +no mortal dare set foot under pain of direful sacrilege and pollution. + +Following a kind of bridle path, however, we are soon amid the +groves of olive and other trees, while the horses plod their slow +way beside the brook. Not a few citizens going or coming from +Athens meet us, for this is really one of the parks and breathing +spaces of the closely built city. The Athenians and Greeks in +general live in a land of such natural beauty that they take this +loveliness as a matter of course. Very seldom do their poets +indulge in deliberate descriptions of "beautiful landscapes"; but +none the less the fair things of nature have penetrated deeply +into their souls. The constant allusions in Homer and the other +masters of song to the great storm waves, the deep shades of the +forest, the crystal books, the pleasant rest for wanderers under +the shade trees, the plains bright with spring flowers, the ivy +twining above a grave, the lamenting nightingale, the chirping +cicada, tell their own story; men seldom describe at length what +is become warp and woof of their inmost lives. The mere fact that +the Greeks dwell CONSTANTLY in such a beautiful land, and have +learned to love it so intensely, makes frequent and set descriptions +thereto seem trivial. + + +171. Plato's Description of the Walk by the Ilissus.--Nevertheless +occasionally this inborn love of the glorious outer world must find +its expression, and it is of these very groves along he Ilissus +that we have one of the few "nature pieces" in Athenian literature. +As the plodding steeds take their way let us recall our Plato--his +"Phdrus," written probably not many years before this our visit. + +Socrates is walking with Phdrus outside the walls, and urges the +latter: "Let us go to the Ilissus and sit down in some quiet spot." +"I am fortunate," answers Phdrus, "in not having my sandals on, +and, as you never have any, we may go along the brook and cool +our feet. This is the easiest way, and at midday is anything but +unpleasant." He adds that they will go on to the tallest plane +tree in the distance, "where are shade and gentle breezes, and +grass whereon we may either sit or lie.... The little stream is +delightfully clear and bright. I can fancy there might well be +maidens playing near [according to the local myth of Boreas's rape +of Orithyia]." And so at last they come to the place, when Socrates +says: "Yes indeed, a fair and shady resting place it is, full of +summer sounds and scents. There is the lofty and spreading plane +tree, and the agnus castus, high and clustering in the fullest +blossom and the greatest fragrance, and the stream which flows +beneath the plane tree is deliciously cool to the feet. Judging +by the ornaments and images [set] about, this must be a spot sacred +to Achelous and the Nymphs; moreover there is a sweet breeze and +the grasshoppers are chirruping; and the greatest charm of all is +the grass like a pillow, gently sloping to the head."[*] + +[*]Jewett, translator; slightly altered. + + +172. The Athenian Love of Country Life.--So the two friends had +sat them down to delve in delightful profundities; but following +the bridle path, the little brook and its groves end for us all too +soon. We are in the open country around Athens, and the fierce +rays of Helios beat strongly on our heads. We are outside the city, +but by no means far from human life. Farm succeeds farm, for the +land around Athens has a goodly population to maintain, and there +is a round price for vegetables in the Agora. Truth to tell, the +average Athenian, though he pretends to love the market, the Pnyx, +the Dicasteries, and the Gymnasia, has a shrewd hankering for the +soil, and does not care to spend more time in Athens then necessary. +Aristophanes is full of the contrasts between "country life" and +"city life" and almost always with the advantage given the former. +Says his Strepsiades (in "The Clouds"), "A country life for me--dirty, +untrimmed, lolling around at ease, and just abounding in bees and +sheep and oil cake." His Dicepolis ("Acharnians") voices clearly +the independence of the farmer: "How I long for peace.[*] I'm +disgusted with the city; and yearn for my own farm which never +bawled out [as in the markets] 'buy my coals' or 'buy my vinegar' +or 'oil,' or KNEW the word 'buy,' but just of itself produced +everything." And his Trygus (in "The Peace") states the case +better yet: "Ah! how eager I am to get back into the fields, and +break up my little farm with the mattock again...[for I remember] +what kind of a life we had there; and those cakes of dried fruits, +and the figs, and the myrtles, and the sweet new wine, and the +violet bed next to the well, and the olives we so long for!" + +[*]I.e. the end of the Peloponnesian War, which compelled the +farming population to remove inside the walls. + +There is another reason why the Athenians rejoice in the country. +The dusty streets are at best a poor playground for the children, +the inner court of the house is only a respectable prison for the +wife. In the country the lads can enjoy themselves; the wife and +the daughters can roam about freely with delightful absence of +convention. There will be no happier day in the year than when +the master says, "Let us set out for the farm." + + +173. Some Features of the Attic Country.--Postponing our examination +of Athenian farmsteads and farming methods until we reach some +friendly estate, various things strike us as we go along the road. +One is the skilful system of irrigation,--the numerous watercourses +drawn especially from the Cephisus, whereby the agriculturists make +use of every possible scrap of moisture for the fields, groves, and +vineyards. Another is the occasional olive tree we see standing, +gnarled and venerable, but carefully fenced about; or even +(not infrequently) we see fences only with but a dead and utterly +worthless stump within. Do not speak lightly of these "stumps," +however. They are none the less "moriai"--sacred olive trees of +Athena, and carefully tended by public wardens.[*] Contractors +are allowed to take the fruit of the olive trees under carefully +regulated conditions; but no one is allowed to remove the stumps, +much less hew down a living tree. An offender is tried for +"impiety" before the high court of the Areopagus, and his fate is +pretty surely death, for the country people, at least, regard their +sacred trees with a fanatical devotion which it would take long to +explain to a stranger. + + +[*]Athenians loved to dwell on the "divine gift" of the olive. +Thus Euripides sang ("Troades," 799):-- + +In Salamis, filled with the foaming + Of billows and murmur of bees, +Old Telamon stayed from his roaming + Long ago, on a throne of the seas, +Looking out on the hills olive laden, + Enchanted, where first from the earth +The gray-gleaming fruit of the Maiden + Athena had birth. + + --Murray, translator. + +The hero Telamon was reputed an uncle of Achilles and one of the +early kings of Salami. + + +Also upon the way one is pretty sure to meet a wandering beggar--a +shrewd-eyed, bewhiskered fellow. He carries, not a barrel organ +and monkey, but a blinking tame crow perched on his shoulder, and +at every farmstead he halts to whine his nasal ditty and ask his +dole. + + +Good people, a handful of barley bestow +On the child of Apollo, the sleek sable crow; +Or a trifle of whet, O kind friends, give;-- +Or a wee loaf of bread that the crow may live. + + +It is counted good luck by the housewife to have a chance to feed +a "holy crow," and the owner's pickings are goodly. By the time +we have left the beggar behind us we are at the farm whither our +excursion has been tending. + + +174. An Attic Farmstead.--We are to inspect the landed estate of +Hybrias, the son of Xanthippus. It lies north of Athens on the +slopes of Anchesmus, one of the lesser hills which roll away toward +the marble-crowned summits of Pentelicus. Part of the farm lands +lie on the level ground watered by the irrigation ditches; part +upon the hillsides, and here the slopes have been terraced in a +most skilful fashion in order to make the most of every possible +inch of ground, and also to prevent any of the precious soil from +being washed down by the torrents of February and March. The owner +is a wealthy man, and has an extensive establishment; the farm +buildings--once whitewashed, but now for the most part somewhat +dirty--wander away over a large area. There are wide courts, deep +in manure, surrounded by barns; there are sties, haymows, carefully +closed granaries, an olive press, a grain mill, all kinds of stables +and folds, likewise a huge irregularly shaped house wherein are +lodged the numerous slaves and the hired help. The general design +of this house is the same as of a city house--the rooms opening +upon an inner court, but naturally its dimensions are ampler, with +the ampler land space. + +Just now the courtyard is a noisy and animated sight. The master +has this moment ridden in, upon one of his periodic visits from +Athens; the farm overseer has run out to meet him and report, and +half a dozen long, lean hunting dogs--Darter, Roarer, Tracker, +Active, and more[*]--are dancing and yelping, in the hope that +their owner will order a hare hunt. The overseer is pouring forth +his usual burden of woe about the inefficient help and the lack of +rain, and Hybrias is complaining of the small spring crop--"Zeus +send us something better this summer!" While these worthies are +adjusting their troubles we may look around the farm. + +[*]For an exhaustive list of names for Greek dogs, see Xenophon's +curious "Essay on Hunting," ch. VII, 5. + + +175. Plowing, Reaping, and Threshing.--Thrice a year the Athenian +farmer plows, unless he wisely determines to let his field lie +fallow for the nonce; and the summer plowing on hybrias's estate is +now in progress. Up and down a wide field the ox team is going.[*] +The plow is an extremely primitive affair--mainly of wood, although +over the sharpened point which forms the plowshare a plate of iron +has been fitted. Such a plow requires very skilful handling to +cut a good furrow, and the driver of the team has no sinecure. + +[*]Mules were sometimes used for drawing the plow, but horses, it +would seem, never. + +In a field near by, the hinds are reaping a crop of wheat which +was late in ripening.[*] The workers are bending with semicircular +sickles over their hot task; yet they form a merry, noisy crowd, +full of homely "harvest songs," nominally in honor of Demeter, +the Earth Mother, but ranging upon every conceivable rustic topic. +Some laborers are cutting the grain, others, walking behind, are +binding into sheaves and piling into clumsy ox wains. Here and +there a sheaf is standing, and we are told that this is left "for +luck," as an offering to the rural Field Spirit; for your farm +hand is full of superstitions. Also amid the workers a youth is +passing with a goodly jar of cheap wine, to which the harvesters +make free to run from time to time for refreshment. + +Close by the field is the threshing floor. More laborers--not a few +bustling country lasses among them--are spreading out the sheaves +with wooden forks, a little at a time, in thin layers over this +circular space, which is paved with little cobblestones. More oxen +and a patient mule are being driven over it--around and around--until +every kernel is trodden out by their hoofs. Later will come the +tossing and the winnowing; and, when the grain has been thoroughly +cleaned, it will be stored in great earthen jars for the purpose +of sale or against the winter. + + +176. Grinding at the Mill.--Nearer the farmhouses there rises a +dull grinding noise. It is the mill preparing the flour for the +daily baking, for seldom--at least in the country--will a Greek +grind flour long in advance of the time of use. There the round +upper millstone is being revolved upon an iron pivot against its +lower mate and turned by a long wooden handle. Two nearly naked +slave boys are turning this wearily--far pleasanter they consider +the work of the harvesters, and very likely this task is set them +as a punishment. As the mill revolves a slave girl pours the grain +into a hole in the center of the upper millstone. As the hot, slow +work goes on, the two toilers chant together a snatch from an old +mill song, and we catch the monotonous strain:-- + + +Grind, mill, grind, +For Pittacus did grind-- +Who was king over great Mytilene. + + +It will be a long time before there is enough flour for the day. +The slaves can at least rejoice that they live on a large farm. +If Hybrias owned a smaller estate, they would probably be pounding +up the grain with mortar and pestle--more weary yet. + + +177. The Olive Orchards.--We, at least, can leave them to their +work, and escape to the shade of the orchards and the vineyards. +Like every Athenian farmer, Hybrias has an olive orchard. The +olives are sturdy trees. They will grow in any tolerable soil and +thrive upon the mountain slopes up to as far as 1800 feet above +sea level. They are not large trees, and their trunks are often +grotesquely gnarled, but there is always a certain fascination +about the wonderful shimmer of their leaves, which flash from gray +to silver-white in a sunny wind. Hybrias has wisely planted his +olives at wide intervals, and in the space between the ground has +been plowed up for grain. Olives need little care. Their harvest +comes late in the autumn, after all the other crops are out of the +way. They are among the most profitable products of the farm, and +the owner will not mind the poor wheat harvest "if only the olives +do well."[*] + +[*]The great drawback to olive culture was the great length of time +required to mature the trees--sixteen years. The destruction of +the trees, e.g. in war by a ravaging invader, was an infinitely +greater calamity than the burning of the standing grain or even +of the farmhouses. Probably it was the ruin of their olive trees +which the Athenians mourned most during the ravaging of Attica in +the Peloponnesian War. + + +178. The Vineyards.--The fig orchard forms another great part +of the farm, but more interesting to strangers are the vineyards. +Some of the grapes are growing over pointed stakes set all along +the upland terraces; a portion of the vineyards, however, is on +level ground. Here a most picturesque method has been used for +training the vines. Tall and graceful trees have been set out--elm, +maple, oak, poplar. The lower limbs of the trees have been cut +away and up their trunks and around their upper branches now swing +the vines in magnificent festoons. The growing vines have sprung +from tree to tree. The warm breeze has set the rich clusters--already +turning purple or golden--swaying above our heads. The air is +filled with brightness, greenery, and fragrance. The effect of +this "vineyard grove" is magical. + + +179. Cattle, Sheep, and Goats.--There is also room in the orchards +for apples, pears, and quinces, but there is nothing distinctive +about their culture. If we are interested in cattle, however, we +can spend a long time at the barns, or be guided out to the upland +pasture where Hybrias's flocks and herds are grazing. Horses are +a luxury. They are almost never used in farm work, and for riding +and cavalry service it is best to import a good courser from +Thessaly; no attempt, therefore, is made to breed them here. But +despite the small demand for beef and butter a good many cattle are +raised; for oxen are needed for the plowing and carting, oxhides +have a steady sale, and there is a regular call for beehives for +the hecatombs at the great public sacrifices. Sheep are in greater +acceptance. Their wool is of large importance to a land which knows +comparatively little of cotton. They can live on scanty pasturage +where an ox would starve. Still more in favor are goats Their +coarse hair has a thousand uses. Their flesh and cheese are among +the most staple articles in the Agora. Sure-footed and adventurous, +they scale the side of the most unpromising crags in search of +herbage and can sometimes be seen perching, almost like birds, in +what seem utterly inaccessible eyries. Thanks to them the barren +highlands of Attica are turned to good account,--and between goat +raising and bee culture an income can sometimes be extracted from +the very summits of the mountains. As for the numerous swine, it +is enough to say that they range under Hybrias's oak forest and +fatten on acorns, although their swineherd, wrapped in a filthy +sheepskin, is a far more loutish and ignoble fellow than the "divine +Eumus" glorified in the "Odyssey." + + +180. The Gardens and the Shrine.--Did we wish to linger, we could +be shown the barnyard with its noisy retinue of hens, pheasants, +guinea fowl, and pigeons; and we would be asked to admire the geese, +cooped up and being gorged for fattening, or the stately peacocks +preening their splendors. We would also hear sage disquisitions from +the "oldest inhabitants" on the merits of fertilizers, especially +on the uses of mixing seaweed with manure, also we would be told of +the almost equally important process of burying a toad in a sealed +jar in the midst of a field to save the corn from the crows and +the field mice. Hybrias laughs at such superstitions--"but what +can you say to the rustics?" Hybrias himself will display with +more refined pride the gardens used by his wife and children when +they come out from Athens,--a fountain feeding a delightful rivulet; +myrtles, roses, and pomegranate trees shedding their perfumes, which +are mingled with the odors from the beds of hyacinths, violets, +and asphodel. In the center of the gardens rises a chaste little +shrine with a marble image and an altar, always covered with flowers +or fruit by the mistress and her women. "To Artemis," reads the +inscription, and one is sure that the virgin goddess takes more +pleasure in this fragrant temple than in many loftier fanes.[*] + +[*]For the description of a very beautiful and elaborate country +estate, with a temple thereon to Artemis, see Xenophon's "Anabasis," +bk. V. 3. + +We are glad to add here our wreaths ere turning away from this +wholesome, verdant country seat, and again taking our road to +Athens. + + + + + +Chapter XX. The Temples and Gods of Athens. + + + + +181. Certain Factors in Athenian Religion.--We have seen the +Athenians in their business and in their pleasure, at their courts, +their assemblies, their military musters, and on their peaceful farms; +yet one great side of Athenian life has been almost ignored--the +religious side. A "Day in Athens" spent without taking account of +the gods of the city and their temples would be a day spent with +almost half-closed eyes.[*] + +[*]No attempt is made in this discussion to enumerate the various +gods and demigods of the conventional mythology, their regular +attributes, etc. It is assumed the average history or manual of +mythology gives sufficient information. + +It is far easier to learn how the Athenians arrange their houses +than how the average man among them adjusts his attitude toward +the gods. While any searching examination of the fundamentals of +Greek cultus and religion is here impossible, two or three facts +must, nevertheless, be kept in mind, if we are to understand even +the OUTWARD side of this Greek religion which is everywhere in +evidence about us. + +First of all we observe that the Greek religion is a religion of +purely natural growth. No prophet has initiated it, or claimed +a new revelation to supplement the older views. It has come from +primitive times without a visible break even down to the Athens of +Plato. This explains at once why so many time-honored stories of +the Olympic deities are very gross, and why the gods seem to give +countenance to moral views which the best public opinion has long +since called scandalous and criminal. The religion of Athens, in +other words, may justly claim to be judged by its best, not by its +worst; by the morality of Socrates, not of Homer. + +Secondly, this religion is not a church, nor a belief, but is part +of the government. Every Athenian is born into accepting the fact +that Athena Polias is the divine warder of the city, as much as +he is born into accepting the fact that it is his duty to obey the +strategi in battle. To repudiate the gods of Athens, e.g. in favor +of those of Egypt, is as much iniquity as to join forces against +the Athenians if they are at war with Egypt;--the thing is sheer +treason, and almost unthinkable. For countless generations the +Athenians have worshipped the "Ancestral Gods." They are proud of +them, familiar with them; the gods have participated in all the +prosperity of the city. Athena is as much a part of Attica as +gray Hymettus or white-crowned Pentelicus; and the very fact that +comedians, like Aristophanes, make good-natured fun of the divinities +indicates that "they are members of the family." + +Thirdly, notice that this religion is one mainly of outward reverence +and ceremony. There is no "Athenian church"; nobody has drawn up +an "Attic creed"--"I believe in Athena, the City Warder, and in +Demeter, the Earth Mother, and in Zeus, the King of Heaven, etc." +Give outward reverence, participate in the great public sacrifices, +be careful in all the minuti of private worship, refrain from +obvious blasphemies--you are then a sufficiently pious man. What +you BELIEVE is of very little consequence. Even if you privately +believe there are no gods at all, it harms no one, provided your +outward conduct is pious and moral. + + +182. What constitutes "Piety" in Athens.--Of course there have +been some famous prosecutions for "impiety." Socrates was the +most conspicuous victim; but Socrates was a notable worshipper of +the gods, and certainly all the charges of his being an "atheist" +broke down. What he was actually attacked with was "corrupting +the youth of Athens," i.e. giving the young men such warped ideas +of their private and public duties that they ceased to be moral +and useful citizens. But even Socrates was convicted only with +difficulty[*]; a generation has passed since his death. Were he +on trial at present, a majority of the jury would probably be with +him. + +[*]It might be added that if Socrates had adopted a really worldly +wise line of defense, he would probably have been acquitted, or +subjected merely to a mild pecuniary penalty. + +The religion of Athens is something very elastic, and really every +man makes his own creed for himself, or--for paganism is almost +never dogmatic--accepts the outward cultus with everybody else, and +speculates at his leisure on the nature of the deity. The great +bulk of the uneducated are naturally content to accept the old +stories and superstitions with unthinking credulity. It is enough +to know that one must pray to Zeus for rain, and to Hermes for luck +in a slippery business bargain. There are a few philosophers who, +along with perfectly correct outward observance, teach privately +that the old Olympian system is a snare and folly. They pass +around the daring word which Xenophanes uttered as early as the +sixth century B.C.:-- + + +One God there is, greatest of gods and mortals, +Not like to man is he in mind or in body. +All of him sees, all of him thinks, and all of him harkens. + + +This, of course, is obvious pantheism, but it is easy to cover up +all kinds of pale monotheism or pantheism under vague reference to +the omnipotence of "Zeus." + + +183. The Average Athenian's Idea of the Gods.--The average +intelligent citizen probably has views midway between the stupid +rabble and the daring philosophers. To him the gods of Greece +stand out in full divinity, honored and worshipped because they +are protectors of the good, avengers of the evil, and guardians +of the moral law. They punish crime and reward virtue, though the +punishment may tarry long. They demand a pure heart and a holy +mind of all that approach them, and woe to him who wantonly defies +their eternal laws. This is the morality taught by the master +tragedians, schylus and Sophocles, and accepted by the best public +opinion at Athens; for the insidious doubts cast by Euripides upon +the reality of any divine scheme of governance have never struck +home. The scandalous stories about the domestic broils on Olympus, +in which Homer indulges, only awaken good-natured banter. It is +no longer proper--as in Homeric days--to pride oneself on one's +cleverness in perjury and common falsehood. Athenians do not +have twentieth century notions about the wickedness of lying, but +certain it is the gods do not approve thereof. In short, most of +the better class of Athenians are genuinely "religious"; nevertheless +they have too many things in this human world to interest them to +spend overmuch time in adjusting their personal concepts of the +deity to any system of theology. + + +184. Most Greeks without belief in Immortality.--Yet one thing we +must add. This Greek religious morality is built up without any +clear belief in a future life. Never has the average Hellene been +able to form a satisfactory conception of the soul's existence, +save dwelling within a mortal body and under the glorious light of +belovd Helios. To Homer the after life in Hades was merely the +perpetuation of the shadows of departed humanity, "strengthless +shades" who live on the gloomy plains of asphodel, feeding upon +dear memories, and incapable of keen emotions or any real mental or +physical progress or action. Only a few great sinners like Tantalus, +doomed to eternal torture, or favored being like Menelaus, predestined +to the "Blessed Isles," are ordained to any real immortality. As +the centuries advanced, and the possibilities of this terrestrial +world grew ever keener, the hope of any future state became ever +more vague. The fear of a gloomy shadow life in Hades for the +most part disappeared, but that was only to confirm the belief that +death ends all things. + + +Where'er his course man tends, +Inevitable death impends, +And for the worst and for the best, +Is strewn the same dark couch of rest.[*] + +[*]Milman, Translator. + + +So run the lines of a poet whose name is forgotten, but who spoke +well the thought of his countrymen. + +True there has been a contradiction of this gloomy theory. The +"Orphic Mysteries," those secret religious rites which have gained +such a hold in many parts of Greece, including Athens, probably +hold out an earnest promise to the "initiates" of a blessed state +for them hereafter. The doctrine of a real elysium for the good and +a realm of torment for the evil has been expounded by many sages. +Pindar, the great bard of Thebes, has set forth the doctrine in a +glowing ode.[*] Socrates, if we may trust the report Plato gives +of him, has spent his last hours ere drinking the hemlock, in adducing +cogent, philosophic reasons for the immortality of the soul. All +this is true,--and it is also true that these ideas have made no +impression upon the general Greek consciousness. They are accepted +half-heartedly by a relatively few exceptional thinkers. Men +go through life and face death with no real expectation of future +reward or punishment, or of reunion with the dear departed. If +the gods are angry, you escape them at the grave; if the gods are +friendly, all they can give is wealth, health, honor, a hale old +age, and prosperity for your children. The instant after death the +righteous man and the robber are equal. This fundamental deduction +from the Greek religion must usually, therefore, be made--it is a +religion for THIS WORLD ONLY. Let us see what are its usual outward +operations. + +[*]Quoted in "Readings in Ancient History," vol. I, pp. 261-262, +and in many works in Greek literature. + + +185. The Multitude of Images of the Gods.--Gods are everywhere in +Athens. You cannot take the briefest walk without being reminded +that the world is full of deities. There is a "Herm"[*] by the main +door of every house, as well as a row of them across the Agora. At +many of the street crossings there are little shrines to Hecate; +or statues of Apollo Agyieus, the street guardian; or else a bay +tree stands there, a graceful reminder of this same god, to which +it is sacred. In every house there is the small alter whereon +garlands and fruit offerings are daily laid to Zeus Herkeios, and +another altar to Hestia. On one or both of these altars a little +food and a little wine are cast at every meal. All public meetings +or court sessions open with sacrifice; in short, to attempt any +semi-important public or private act without inviting the friendly +attention of the deity is unthinkable. To a well-bred Athenian +this is second instinct; he considers it as inevitable as the common +courtesies of speech among gentlemen. Plato sums up the current +opinion well, "All men who have any decency, in the attempting of +matters great or small, always invoke divine aid."[+] + +[*]A stone post about shoulder high, surmounted by a bearded head. +Contrary to modern impression, the average Greek did not conceive +of Hermes as a beautiful youth. He was a grave, bearded man. The +youthful aspect came through the manipulation of the Hermes myths +by the master sculptors--e.g. Praxiteles. + +[+]Timus, p. 27 c. + + +186. Greek Superstition.--In many cases, naturally, piety runs +off into crass superstition. The gods, everybody knows, frequently +make known future events by various signs. He who can understand +these signs will be able to adjust his life accordingly and +enjoy great prosperity. Most educated men take a sensible view +of "omens," and do not let them influence their conduct absurdly. +Some, however, act otherwise. There is, for instance, Laches, +one of the greatest at Prodicus's feast. He lives in a realm of +mingled hopes and fears, although he is wealthy and well-educated.[*] +He is all the time worried about dreams, and paying out money +to the sharp and wily "seer" (who counts him his best client) for +"interpretations." If a weasel crosses his path he will not walk +onward until somebody else has gone before him, or until he has +thrown three stones across the road. He is all the time worrying +about the significance of sudden noises, meteors, thunder; especially +he is disturbed when he sees birds flying in groups or towards +unlucky quarters of the heavens.[+] Laches, however, is not merely +religious--although he is always asking "which god shall I invoke +now?" or "what are the omens for the success of this enterprise?" +His own associates mock him as being superstitious, and say they +never trouble themselves about omens save in real emergencies. +Still it is "bad luck" for any of them to stumble over a threshold, +to meet a hare suddenly, or especially to find a snake (the companion +of the dead) hidden in the house. + +[*]See Theophratus's character, "The Superstitious Man." + +[+]The birds of clearest omen were the great birds of prey--hawks, +"Apollo's swift messengers," and eagles, "the birds of Zeus." It +was a good omen if the birds flew from left to right, a bad omen +if in the reverse direction. + + +187. Consulting Omens.--Laches's friends, however, all regularly +consult the omens when they have any important enterprise on hand--a +voyage, a large business venture, a marriage treaty, etc. There +are several ways, not expensive; the interpreters are not priests, +only low-born fellows as a rule, whose fees are trifling. You +can find out about the future by casting meal upon the altar fire +and noticing how it is burned, by watching how chickens pick up +consecrated grain,[*] by observing how the sacrificial smoke curls +upward, etc. The best way, however, is to examine the entrails +of the victim after a sacrifice. Here everything depends on the +shape, size, etc., of the various organs, especially of the liver, +bladder, spleen, and lungs, and really expert judgment by an experienced +and high-priced seer is desirable. The man who is assured by a +reliable seer, "the livers are large and in fine color," will go +on his trading voyage with a confident heart. + +[*]A very convenient way,--for it was a good sign if the chickens +ate eagerly and one could always get a fair omen by keeping the +fowls hungry a few hours ere "putting the question"! + + +188. The Great Oracles.--Assuredly there is a better way still to +read the future; at least so Greeks of earlier ages have believed. +Go to one of the great oracles, whereof that of Apollo at Delphi +is the supreme, but not the unique, example. Ask your question +in set form from the attendant priests, not failing to offer an +elaborate sacrifice and to bestow all the "gifts" (golden tripods, +mixing bowls, shields, etc.) your means will allow. Then (at +Delphi) wait silent and awe-stricken while the lady Pythia, habited +as a young girl, takes her seat on a tripod over a deep cleft in +the rock, whence issues an intoxicating vapor. She inhales the gas, +sways to and fro in an ecstasy, and now, duly "inspired," answers +in a somewhat wild manner the queries which the priest will put in +behalf of the supplicants. Her incoherent words are very hard to +understand, but the priest duly "interprets" them, i.e. gives them +to the suppliant in the form of hexameter verses. Sometimes the +meaning of these verses is perfectly clear. Very often they are +truly "Delphic," with a most dubious meaning--as in that oft-quoted +instance, when the Pythia told Crsus if he went to war with Cyrus, +"he would destroy a mighty monarchy," and lo, he destroyed his own! + +Besides Delphi, there are numerous lesser oracles, each with its +distinctive method of "revelation." But there is none, at least of +consequence, within Attica, while a journey to Delphi is a serious +and highly expensive undertaking. And as a matter of fact Delphi +has partially lost credit in Athens. In the great Persian War +Delphi unpatriotically "medized"--gave oracles friendly to Xerxes +and utterly discouraging to the patriot cause. Then after this +conviction of false prophesy, the oracle fell, for most of the +time, into the hands of Sparta, and was obviously very willing +to "reveal" things only in the Lacedmonian interest. Hellenes +generally and the Spartans in particular have still much esteem for +the utterances of the Pythia, but Athenians are not now very partial +to her. Soon will come the seizure of Delphi by the Phnicians +and the still further discrediting of this once great oracle. + + +189. Greek Sacrifices.--The two chief elements of Greek worship, +however, are not consideration of the future, but sacrificial and +prayer. Sacrifices in their simple form, as we have seen, take +place continually, before every routine act. They become more formal +when the proposed action is really important, or when the suppliant +wishes to give thanks for some boon, or, at rarer intervals, to +desire purification from some offense. There is no need of a priest +for the simpler sacrifices. The father of the family can pour +out the libation, can burn the food upon the altar, can utter the +prayer for all his house; but in the greater sacrifices a priest +is desirable, not as a sacred intermediary betwixt god and man, +but as an expert to advise the worshipper what are the competent +rites, and to keep him from ignorantly angering heaven by unhappy +words and actions.[*] + +[*]There were almost no hereditary priesthoods in Attica (outside +the Emolpid connected with the mystical cult of Eleusis). Almost +anybody of good character could qualify as a priest with due +training, and there was little of the sacrosanct about the usual +priestly office. + +Let us witness a sacrifice of this more formal kind, and while doing +so we can tread upon the spot we have seemed in a manner to shun +during our wanderings through Athens, the famous and holy Acropolis. + + +190. The Route to the Acropolis.--Phormion, son of Cresphontes, has +been to Arcadia, and won the pentathlon in some athletic contests +held at Mantinea. Although not equal to a triumph in the "four +great Panhellenic contests," it was a most notable victory. Before +setting out he vowed a sheep to Athena the Virgin if he conquered. +The goddess was kind, and Phormion is very grateful. While the +multitudes are streaming out to the Gymnasia, the young athlete, +brawny and handsome, surrounded by an admiring coterie of friends +and kinsmen, sets out for the Acropolis. + +Phormion's home is in the "Ceramicus," the so-called "potters' +quarter." His walk takes him a little to the west of the Agora, +and close to the elegant temple of Hephstos,[*] but past this and +many other fanes he hastens. It was not the fire god which gave +him fair glory at Mantinea. He goes onward until he is forced to +make a detour to the left, at the craggy, rough hill of Areopagus +which rises before him. Here, if time did not press, he might have +tarried to pay respectful reverence before a deep fissure cleft +in the side of the rock. In front of this fissure stands a little +altar. All Phormion's company look away as they pass the spot, +and they mutter together "Be propitious, O Eumenides!" (literally, +Well-minded Ones). For like true Greeks they delight to call foul +things with fair and propitious names; and that awful fissure and +altar are sacred to the Erinyes (Furies), the horrible maidens, the +trackers of guilt, the avengers of murder; and above their cave, +on these rude rocks, sits the august court of the Aeropagus when +it meets as a "tribunal of blood" to try cases of homicide. + +[*]This temple, now called the "Theseum," is the only well preserved +ancient temple in modern Athens. + +Phormion's party quicken their steps and quit this spot of ill +omen. Then their sight is gladdened. The whole glorious Acropolis +stands out before them. + + +191. The Acropolis of Athens.--Almost every Greek city has its own +formidable citadel, its own "acropolis,"--for "citadel" is really +all this word conveys. Corinth boasts of its "Acro-Corinthus," +Thebes of its "Cadmeia,"--but THE Acropolis is in Athens. The later +world will care little for any other, and the later world will be +right. The Athenian stronghold has long ceased to be a fortress, +though still it rises steep and strong. It is now one vast temple +compound, covered with magnificent buildings. Whether considered +as merely a natural rock commanding a marvelous view, or as a +consecrated museum of sculpture and architecture, it deserves its +immortality. We raise our eyes to THE ROCK as we approach it. + +The Acropolis dominates the plain of Athens. All the city seems +to adjust itself to the base of its holy citadel. It lifts itself +as tawny limestone rock rising about 190 feet above the adjacent +level of the town.[*] In form it is an irregular oval with its +axis west and east. It is about 950 feet long and 450 feet at its +greatest breadth. On every side but the west the precipice falls +away sheer and defiant, rendering a feeble garrison able to battle +with myriads.[+] To the westward, however, the gradual slope makes +a natural pathway always possible, and human art has long since +shaped this with convenient steps. Nestling in against the precipice +are various sanctuaries and caves; e.g. on the northwestern side, +high up on the slope beneath the precipice, open the uncanny grottoes +of Apollo and of Pan. On the southern side, close under the very +shadow of the citadel, is the temple of Asclepius, and, more to +the southeast, the great open theater of Dionysus has been scooped +out of the rock, a place fit to contain an audience of some 15,000.[&] + +[*]It is nearly 510 feet above the level of the sea. + +[+]Recall the defense which the Acropolis was able to make against +Xerxes's horde, when the garrison was small and probably ill +organized, and had only a wooden barricade to eke out the natural +defenses. + +[&]The stone seats of this theater do not seem to have been built +till about 340 B.C. Up to that time the surface of the ground +sloping back to the Acropolis seems simply to have been smoothed +off, and probably covered with temporary wooden seats on the days +of the great dramatic festivals. + +So much for the bare "bones" of the Acropolis; but now under the +dazzling sunshine how it glitters with indescribable splendor! +Before us as we ascend a whole succession of buildings seem lifting +themselves, not singly, not in hopeless confusion, but grouped +admirably together by a kind of wizardry, so that the harmony is +perfect,--each visible, brilliant column and pinnacle, not merely +flashing its own beauty, but suggesting another greater beauty just +behind. + + +192. The Use of Color upon Athenian Architecture and Sculptures.--While +we look upward at this group of temples and their wealth of +sculptures, let us state now something we have noticed during all +our walks around Athens, but have hitherto left without comment. +Every temple and statue in Athens is not left in its bare white +marble, as later ages will conceive is demanded by "Greek Architecture" +and statuary, but is decked in brilliant color--"painted," if you +will use an almost unfriendly word. The columns and gables and +ceilings of the buildings are all painted. Blue, red, green, and +gold blaze on all the members and ornaments. The backgrounds of +the pediments, metopes, and frieze are tinted some uniform color +on which the sculptured figures in relief stand out clearly. The +figures themselves are tinted or painted, at least on the hair, +lips, and eyes. Flesh-colored warriors are fighting upon a bright +red background. The armor and horse trappings on the sculptures +are in actual bronze. The result is an effect indescribably vivid. +Blues and reds predominate: the flush of light and color from the +still more brilliant heavens above adds to the effect. Shall we +call it garish? We have learned to know the taste of Athenians +too well to doubt their judgment in matters of pure beauty. And +they are right. UNDER AN ATHENIAN SKY temples and statues demand +a wealth of color which in a somber clime would seem intolerable. +The brilliant lines of the Acropolis buildings are the just answer +of the Athenian to the brilliancy of Helios. + + +193. The Chief Buildings on the Acropolis.--And now to ascend the +Acropolis. We leave the discussion of the details of the temples +and the sculpture to the architects and archologists. The whole +plateau of the Rock is covered with religious buildings, altars, +and statues. We pass through the Propyla, the worthy rival of +the Parthenon behind, a magnificent portal, with six splendid Doric +columns facing us; and as we go through them, to right and to left +open out equally magnificent columned porticoes.[*] As we emerge +from the Propyla the whole vision of the sacred plateau bursts +upon us simultaneously. We can notice only the most important of +the buildings. At the southwestern point of the Acropolis on the +angle of rock which juts out beyond the Propyla is the graceful +little temple of the "Wingless Victory," built in the Ionic style. +The view commanded by its bastion will become famous throughout the +world. Behind this, nearer the southern side, stands the less +important temple of Artemis Braurnia. Nearer the center and directly +before the entrance rises a colossal brazen statue--"monstrous," +many might call its twenty-six feet of height, save that a master +among masters has cast the spell of his genius over it. This is +the famous Athena Promachos,[+] wrought by Phidias out of the spoils +of Marathon. The warrior goddess stands in full armor and rests +upon her mighty lance. The gilded lance tip gleams so dazzlingly +we may well believe the tale that sailors use it for a first landmark +as they sail up the coast from Cape Sunium. + +[*]That to the north was the larger and contained a kind of picture +gallery. + +[+]Athena Foremost in Battle. + +Looking again upon the complex of buildings we single out another +on the northern side: an irregularly shaped temple, or rather +several temples joined together, the Erechtheum, wherein is the +sanctuary of Athena Polias (the revered "City Warden"), the ancient +wooden statue, grotesque, beloved, most sacred of all the holy +images in Athens. And here on the southern side of this building +is the famous Caryatid porch; the "Porch of the Maidens," which +will be admired as long as Athens has a name. But our eyes refuse +to linger long on any of these things. Behind the statue of the +Promachos, a little to the southern side of the plateau, stands +the Parthenon--the queen jewel upon the crown of Athens. + + +194. The Parthenon.--Let others analyze its sculptures and explain +the technical reasons why Ictinus and Callicrates, the architects, +and Phidias, the sculptor, created here the supreme masterpiece +for the artistic world. We can state only the superficialities. +It is a noble building by mere size; 228 feet measure its side, +101 feet its front. Forty-six majestic Doric columns surround it; +they average thirty-four feet in height, and six feet three inches +at the base. All these facts, however, do not give the soul of +the Parthenon. Walk around it slowly, tenderly, lovingly. Study +the elaborate stories told by the pediments,--on the east front +the birth of Athena, on the west the strife of Athena and Poseidon +for the possession of Athens. Trace down the innumerable lesser +sculptures on the "metopes" under the cornice,--showing the battles +of the Giants, Centaurs, Amazons, and of the Greeks before Troy; +finally follow around, on the whole inner circuit of the body of +the temple, the frieze,[*] showing in bas-relief the Panathenaic +procession, with the beauty, nobility, and youth of Athens marching +in glad festival; comprehend that these sculptures will never be +surpassed in the twenty-four succeeding centuries; that here are +supreme examples for the artists of all time,--and THEN, in the +face of this final creation, we can realize that the Parthenon will +justify its claim to immortality. + +[*]This, of course, is on the outside wall of the "cells," but +inside the surrounding colonnade. + +One thing more. There are hardly any straight lines in the Parthenon. +To the eye, the members and the steps of the substructure may seem +perfectly level; but the measuring rod betrays marvelously subtle +curves. As nature abhors right angles in her creations of beauty, +so have these Greeks. Rigidity, unnaturalness, have been banished. +The Parthenon stands, not merely embellished with inimitable +sculptures, but perfectly adjusted to the natural world surrounding.[*] + +[*]It was an inability to discover and execute these concealed +curves which give certain of the modern imitations of the Parthenon +their unpleasant impressions of harness and rigidity. + +We have seen only the exterior of the Parthenon. We must wait now +ere visiting the interior, for Phormion is beginning his sacrifice. + + +195. A Sacrifice on the Acropolis.--Across the sacred plateau +advances the little party. As it goes under the Propyla a couple +of idle temple watchers[*] give its members a friendly nod. The +Acropolis rock itself seems deserted, save for a few worshippers +and a party of admiring Achan visitors who are being shown the +glories of the Parthenon.[+] There seems to be a perfect labyrinth +of statues of gods, heroes, and departed worthies, and almost as +many altars, great and small, placed in every direction. Phormion +leads his friends onward till they come near to the wide stone +platform somewhat in the rear of the Parthenon. Here is the "great +altar" of Athena, whereon the "hecatombs" will be sacrificed, even +a hundred oxen or more,[&] at some of the major public festivals; +and close beside it stands also a small and simple altar sacred +to Athena Parthenos, Athena the Virgin. Suitable attendants have +been in readiness since dawn waiting for worshippers. One of +Phormion's party leads behind him a bleating white lamb "without +blemish."[$] It is a short matter now to bring the firewood and +the other necessaries. The sacrifice takes place without delay. + +[*]The most important function of these watchers seems to have been +to prevent dogs from entering the Acropolis. Probably they were +inefficient old men favored with sinecure offices. + +[+]The Acropolis seems to have become a great "show place" for +visitors to Athens soon after the completion of the famous temples. + +[&]We know by an inscription of 169 oxen being needed for a single +Athenian festival. + +[$]This was a very proper creature to sacrifice to a great Olympian +deity like Athena. Goats were not suitable for her, although desirable +for most of the other gods. It was unlawful to sacrifice swine to +Aphrodite. When propitiating the gods of the underworld,--Hades, +Persephone, etc.,--a BLACK victim was in order. Poor people could +sacrifice doves, cocks, and other birds. + +First a busy "temple sweeper" goes over the ground around the altar +with a broom; then the regular priest, a dignified gray-headed man +with a long ungirt purple chiton, and a heavy olive garland, comes +forward bearing a basin of holy water. This basin is duly passed +to the whole company as it stands in a ring, and each in turn dips +his hand and sprinkles his face and clothes with the lustral water. +Meantime the attendant has placed another wreath around the head +of the lamb. The priest raises his hand. + +"Let there be silence," he commands (lest any unlucky word be +spoken); and in a stillness broken only by the auspicious twittering +of the sparrows amid the Parthenon gables, he takes barley corns +from a basket, an sprinkles them on the altar and over the lamb. +With his sacred knife he cuts a lock of hair from the victims head +and casts it on the fire. Promptly now the helper comes forward +to complete the sacrifice. Phormion and his friends are a little +anxious. Will the lamb take fright, hang back, and have to be +dragged to its unwilling death? The clever attendant has cared +for that. A sweet truss of dried clover is lying just under the +altar. The lamb starts forward, bleating joyously. As it bows its +head[*] as if consenting to its fate the priest stabs it dexterously +in the neck with his keen blade. The helper claps a bowl under +the neck to catch the spurting blood. A flute player in readiness, +but hitherto silent, suddenly strikes up a keen blast to drown the +dying moans of the animal. Hardly has the lamb ceased to struggle +before the priest and the helper have begun to cut it up then and +there. Certain bits of the fat and small pieces from each limb +are laid upon the altar, and promptly consumed. These are the +goddess's peculiar portion, and the credulous at least believe +that she, though unseen, is present to eat thereof; certainly the +sniff of the burning meat is grateful to her divine nostrils. The +priest and the helpers are busy taking off the hide and securing +the best joint--these are their "fees" for professional services. +All the rest will be duly gathered up by Phormion's body servant +and borne home,--for Phormion will give a fine feast on "sacred +mutton" that night.[+] + +[*]If a larger animal--an ox--failed to bow its head auspiciously, +the omen could be rectified by suddenly splashing a little water +in the ears. + +[+]As already suggested (section 159) a sacrifice (public, or, if +on a large scale, private) was about the only occasion on which +Athenians tasted beef, pork, or mutton. + +Meantime, while the goddess's portion burns, Phormion approaches +the altar, bearing a shallow cup of unmixed wine, and flings it +upon the flame. + +"Be propitious, O Lady," he cries, "and receive this my drink +offering."[*] + +[*]The original intention of this libation at the sacrifice was very +clearly to provide the gods with wine to "wash down" their meat. + +The sacrifice is now completed. The priest assures Phormion that +the entrails of the victim foretokened every possible favor in +future athletic contests--and this, and his insinuating smile, win +him a silver drachma to supplement his share of the lamb. Phormion +readjusts the chaplet upon his own head, and turns towards the +Parthenon. After the sacrifice will come the prayer. + + +196. The Interior of the Parthenon and the Great Image of Athena.--The +whole Acropolis is the home of Athena. The other gods harbored +thereon are only her inferior guests. Upon the Acropolis the dread +goddess displays her many aspects. In the Erechtheum we worship +her as Athena Polias, the ancient guardian of the hearths and homes +of the city. In the giant Promachus, we see her the leader in +war,--the awful queen who went with her fosterlings to the deadly +grappling at Marathon and at Salamis; in the little temple of +"Wingless Victory"[*] we see her as Athena the Victorious, triumphant +over Barbarian and Hellenic foe; but in the Parthenon we adore in +her purest conception--the virgin queen, now chaste and clam, her +battles over, the pure, high incarnations of all "the beautiful and +the good" that may possess spirit and mind,--the sovran intellect, +in short, purged of all carnal, earthy passion. It is meet that +such a goddess should inhabit such a dwelling as the Parthenon.[+] + +[*]The term "Wingless Victory" (Nik Apteros) has reference to a +special type and aspect of Athena, not to the goddess Nik (Victory) +pure and simple. + +[+]There was still another aspect in which Athena was worshipped on +the Acropolis. She had a sacred place ("temenos"), though without +a temple, sacred to her as Athena Ergan--Athena Protectress of +the Arts. + +Phormion passes under the eastern porch, and does not forget +(despite the purification before the sacrifice) to dip the whisk +broom, lying by the door, in the brazen laver of holy water and +again to sprinkle himself. He passes out of the dazzling sunlight +into a chamber that seems at first to be lost in a vast, impenetrable +gloom. He pauses and gazes upward; above him, as little by little +his eyes get their adjustment, a faint pearly light seems streaming +downward. It is coming through the translucent marble slabs of the +roof of the great temple.[*] Then out of the gloom gleam shapes, +objects,--a face. He catches the glitter of great jewels and of +massy gold, as parts of the rich garments and armor of some vast +image. He distinguishes at length a statue,--the form of a woman, +nearly forty feet in height. Her left wrist rests upon a mighty +shield; her right hand holds a winged "Victory," itself of nigh human +size. Upon her breast is the awful gis, the especial breastplate +of the high gods. Around the foot of her shield coils a serpent. +Upon her head is a might helmet. And all the time that these things +are becoming manifest, evermore clearly one beholds the majestic +face,--sweetness without weakness, intellectuality without coldness, +strength mingled justly with compassion. This is the Athena +Parthenos, the handiwork of Phidias.[+] + +[*]This seems to be the most reasonable way to assume that the +"cella" of the Parthenon was lighted, in view of the danger, in case +of open skylights, of damage to the holy image by wind and rain. + +[+]Of this statue no doubt there could be said what Dion Chrysostomos +said of the equally famous "Zeus" erected by Phidias at Olympia. +"The man most depressed with woes, forgot his ills whilst gazing +on this statue, so much light and beauty had Phidias infused within +it." Besides the descriptions in the ancient writers we get a +clear idea of the general type of the Athena Parthenos from recently +discovered statuettes, especially the "Varvakeion" model (401/2 +inches high). This last is cold and lifeless as a work of art, but +fairly accurate as to details. [Note from Brett: In 2001, this +remains the best statue ever found representing Athena Parthenos +and a detailed analysis of the effect of the original statue on the +populous can be found at http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/CC96/lapatin.htm. +The statuette itself is currently in the Athens Museum.] + +We will not heap up description. What boots it to tell that the +arms and vesture of this "chryselephantine" statue are of pure +gold; that the flesh portions are of gleaming ivory; that Phidias +has wrought the whole so nobly together that this material, too +sumptuous for common artists, becomes under his assembling the +perfect substance for the manifestation of deity? + +...Awestruck by the vision, though often he has seen it, Phormion +stands long in reverent silence. Then at length, casting a pinch +of incense upon the brazier, constantly smoking before the statue, +he utters his simple prayer. + + +197. Greek Prayers.--Greek prayers are usually very pragmatic. +"Who," asks Cicero, who can speak for both Greeks and Romans in +this particular, "ever thanked the gods that he was a good man? Men +are thankful for riches, honor, safety.... We beg of the sovran +God [only] what makes us safe, sound, rich and prosperous."[*] +Phormion is simply a very average, healthy, handsome young Athenian. +While he prays he stretches his hands on high, as is fitting to a +deity of Olympus.[+] His petition runs much as follows:-- + + +"Athena, Queen of the gis, by whatever name thou lovest best,[&] +give ear. + +"Inasmuch as thou dids't heed my vow, and grant me fair glory at +Mantinea, bear witness I have been not ungrateful. I have offered +to thee a white sheep, spotless and undefiled. And now I have it +in my mind to attempt the pentathlon at the next Isthmia at Corinth. +Grant me victory even in that; and not one sheep but five, all as +good as this to-day, shall smoke upon thine altar. Grant also unto +me, my kinsmen and all my friends, health, riches and fair renown." + +[*]Cicero, "De Nat. Deor," ii. 36. + +[+]In praying to a deity of the lower world the hands would be held +down. A Greek almost NEVER knelt, even in prayer. He would have +counted it degrading. + +[&]This formula would be put in, lest some favorite epithet of the +divinity be omitted. + +A pagan prayer surely; and there is a still more pagan epilogue. +Phormion has an enemy, who is not forgotten. + +"And oh! gracious, sovran Athena, blast my enemy Xenon, who strove +to trip me foully in the foot race. May his wife be childless or +bear him only monsters; may his whole house perish; may all his +wealth take flight; may his friends forsake him; may war soon cut +him off, or may he die amid impoverished, dishonored old age. If +this my sacrifice has found favor in thy sight, may all these evils +come upon him unceasingly. And so will I adore the and sacrifice +unto thee all my life."[*] + +[*]Often a curse would become a real substitute for a prayer; e.g. +at Athens, against a rascally and traitorous general, a solemn +public curse would be pronounced at evening by all the priests and +priestesses of the city, each shaking in the air a red cloth in +token of the bloody death to which the offender was devoted. + +The curse then is a most proper part of a Greek prayer! Phormion +is not conscious of blasphemy. He merely follows invariable custom. + +It is useless to expect "Christian sentiments" in the fourth century +B.C., yet perhaps an age should be judged not by its average, but +by its best. Athenians can utter nobler prayers than those of +the type of Phormion. Xenophon makes his model young householder +Ishomenus pray nobly "that I may enjoy health and strength of body, +the respect of my fellow citizens, honorable safety in times of +war, and wealth honestly increased."[*] + +[*]Xenophon, "The Economist," xi, p. 8. + +There is a simple little prayer also which seems to be a favorite +with the farmers. Its honest directness carries its own message. + +"Rain, rain, dear Zeus, upon the fields of the Athenians and the +plains."[*] + +[*]It was quoted later to us by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who +adds, "In truth, we ought not to pray at all, or we ought to pray +in this simple and noble fashion." + +Higher still ascends the prayer of Socrates, when he begs for +"the good" merely, leaving it to the wise gods to determine what +"the good" for him may be; and in one prayer, which Plato puts in +Socrates's mouth, almost all the best of Greek ideals and morality +seems uttered. It is spoken not on the Acropolis, but beside the +Ilissus at the close of the delightful walk and chat related in +the "Phdrus." + +"Beloved Pan, and all ye other gods who haunt this place, give me +the beauty of the inward soul, and may the outward and the inward +man be joined in perfect harmony. May I reckon the wise to be +wealthy, and may I have such a quantity of gold as none but the +temperate can carry. Anything more?--That prayer, I think, is +enough for me." + +Phormion and his party are descending to the city to spend the +evening in honest mirth and feasting, but we are fain to linger, +watching the slow course of the shadows as they stretch across the +Attic hills. Sea, sky, plain, mountains, and city are all before +us, but we will not spend words upon them now. Only for the +buildings, wrought by Pericles and his might peers, we will speak +out our admiration. We will gladly confirm the words Plutarch +shall some day say of them, "Unimpaired by time, their appearance +retains the fragrance of freshness, as though they had been inspired +by an eternally blooming life and a never aging soul."[*] + +[*]Plutarch wrote this probably after 100 A.D., when the Parthenon +had stood for about five and half centuries. + + + + + +Chapter XXI. The Great Festivals of Athens. + + + + +198. The Frequent Festivals at Athens.--Surely our "Day in Athens" +has been spent from morn till night several times over, so much +there is to see and tell. Yet he would be remiss who left the city +of Athena before witnessing at least several of the great public +festivals which are the city's noble pride. There are a prodigious +number of religions festivals in Athens.[*] They take the place +of the later "Christian Sabbath" and probably create a somewhat +equal number of rest days during the year, although at more irregular +intervals. They are far from being "Scotch Sundays,"[+] however. +On them the semi-riotous "joy of life" which is part of the Greek +nature finds its fullest, ofttimes its wildest, expression. They +are days of merriment, athletic sports, great civic spectacles, +chorals, public dances.[&] To complete our picture of Athens we +must tarry for a swift cursory glance upon at least three of these +fte days of the city of Pericles, Sophocles, and Phidias. + +[*]In Gulick ("Life of the Ancient Greeks," pp. 304-310) there is +a valuable list of Attic festivals. The Athenians had over thirty +important religious festivals, several of them, e.g., the Thesmorphoria +(celebrated by the women in honor of Demeter), extending over a +number of days. + +[+][NOTE from Brett: A "Scotch Sunday" refers to the practice of +the Sabbath day in Scotland. During the Sabbath day (at the time +of the author of this work) in Scotland no activity goes on except +for Church. There is no travel, no telecommunication, no cooking, +not allowed to read the newspaper, etc. A "Scotch Sunday" therefore, +represents a day of religious austerity.] + +[&]It is needless to point out that to the Greeks, as to many other +ancient peoples,--for example, the Hebrews,--DANCING often had a +religious significance and might be a regular part of the worship +of the gods. + + +199. The Eleusinia.--Our first festival is the Eleusinia, the +festival of the Eleusinian mysteries. It is September, the "19th +of Bodromin," the Athenians will say. Four days have been spent +by the "initiates" and the "candidates" in symbolic sacrifices +and purifications.[*] On one of these days the arch priest, the +"Hierophant," has preached a manner of sermon at the Painted Porch +in the Agora setting forth the awfulness and spiritual efficacy +of these Mysteries, sacred to Demeter the Earth Mother, to her +daughter Persephone, and also to the young Iacchus, one of the many +incarnations of Dionysus, and who is always associated at Elusis +with the divine "Mother and Daughter." The great cry has gone +forth to the Initiates--"To the Sea, ye Myst!" and the whole vast +multitude has gone down to bathe in the purifying brine. + +[*]Not all Athenians were among the "initiated," but it does not +seem to have been hard to be admitted to the oaths and examination +which gave one participation in the mysteries. About all a candidate +had to prove was blameless character. Women could be initiated as +well as men. + +Now on this fifth day comes the sacred procession from Athens across +the mountain pass to Eleusis. The participates, by thousands, of +both sexes and of all ages, are drawn up in the Agora ere starting. +The Hierophant, the "Torchbearer," the "Sacred Herald," and the other +priests wear long flowing raiment and high mitres like Orientals. +They also, as well as the company, wear myrtle and ivy chaplets and +bear ears of corn and reapers' sickles. The holy image of Iacchus +is borne in a car, the high priests marching beside it; and forth +with pealing shout and chant they go,--down the Ceramicus, through +the Dipylon gate, and over the hill to Eleusis, twelve miles away. + + +200. The Holy Procession to Eleusis.--Very sacred is the procession, +but not silent and reverential. It is an hour when the untamed +animal spirits of the Greeks, who after all are a young race and +who are gripped fast by natural instinct, seem uncurbed. Loud +rings the "orgiastic" cry, "Iacch! Iacch! evo!" + +There are wild shouts, dances, jests, songs,[*] postures. As the +marchers pass the several sanctuaries along the road there are halts +for symbolic sacrifices. So the multitude slowly mounts the long +heights of Mount galeos, until--close to the temple of Aphrodite +near the summit of the pass--the view opens of the broad blue bay +of Eleusis, shut in by the isle of Salamis, while to the northward +are seen the green Thrasian plain, with the white houses of Eleusis +town[+] near the center, and the long line of outer hills stretching +away to Megara and Botia. + +[*]We do not possess the official chant of the Myst used on their +march to Eleusia. Very possibly it was of a swift riotous nature +like the Bacchinals' song in Euripides "Bacchinals" (well translated +by Way or by Murray). + +[+]This was about the only considerable town in Attica outside of +Athens. + +The evening shadows are falling, while the peaceful army sweeps +over the mountain wall and into Eleusis. Every marcher produces +a torch, and bears it blazing aloft as he nears his destination. +Seen in the dark from Eleusis, the long procession of innumerable +torches must convey an effect most magical. + + +201. The Mysteries of Eleusis.--What follows at Eleusis? The +"mysteries" are "mysteries" still; we cannot claim initiation and +reveal them. There seem to be manifold sacrifices of a symbolic +significance, the tasting of sacred "portions" of food and drink--a +dim foreshadowing of the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist; +especially in the great hall of the Temple of the Myst in Eleusis +there take place a manner of symbolic spectacles, dramas perhaps +one may call them, revealing the origins of Iacchus, the mystical +union of Persephone and Zeus, and the final joy of Demeter. + +This certainly we can say of these ceremonies. They seem to have +afforded to spiritually minded men a sense of remission of personal +sin which the regular religion could never give; they seem also +to have conveyed a fair hope of immortality, such as most Greeks +doubted. Sophocles tells thus the story: "Thrice blessed are they +who behold these mystical rites, ere passing to Hades' realm. They +alone have life there. For the rest all things below are evil."[*] +And in face of imminent death, perhaps in hours of shipwreck, men +are wont to ask one another, "Have you been initiated at Eleusis?" + +[*]Sophocles, "Frag." 719. + + +202. The Greater Dionysia and the Drama.--Again we are in Athens +in the springtime: "The eleventh of Elaphebolin" [March]. It is +the third day of the Greater Dionysia. The city has been in high +festival; all the booths in the Agora hum with redoubled life; +strangers have flocked in from outlying pars of Hellas to trade, +admire, and recreate; under pretext of honoring the wine god, +inordinate quantities of wine are drunk with less than the prudent +mixture of water. There is boisterous frolicking, singing, and +jesting everywhere. It is early blossom time. All whom you meet +wear huge flower crowns, and pelt you with the fragrant petals of +spring.[*] + +[*]Pindar ("Frag." 75) says thus of the joy and beauty of this fte: +"[Lo!] this festival is due when the chamber of the red-robed Hours +is opened and odorous plants wake to the fragrant spring. then +we scatter on undying earth the violet, like lovely tresses, and +twine roses in our hair; then sound the voice of song, the flute +keeps time, and dancing choirs resound the praise of Semele." + +So for two days the city has made merry, and now on the third, +very early, "to the theater" is the word on every lip. Magistrates +in their purple robes of office, ambassadors from foreign states, +the priests and religious dignitaries, are all going to the front +seats of honor. Ladies of gentle family, carefully veiled but eager +and fluttering, are going with their maids, if the productions of +the day are to be tragedies not comedies.[*] All the citizens are +going, rich and poor, for here again we meet "Athenian democracy"; +and the judgment and interest of the tatter-clad fishermen seeking +the general "two-obol" seats may be almost as correct and keen as +that of the lordly Alcmnoid in his gala himation. + +[*]It seems probable (on our uncertain information) that Athenian +ladies attended the moral and proper tragedies. It was impossible +for them to attend the often very coarse comedies. Possibly at +the tragedies they sat in a special and decently secluded part of +the theater. + + +203. The Theater of Dionysus.--Early dawn it is when the crowds +pour through the barriers around the Theater of Dionysus upon the +southern slope of the Acropolis. They sit (full 15,000 or more) +wedged close together upon rough wooden benches set upon the hill +slopes.[*] At the foot of their wide semicircle is a circular +space of ground, beaten hard, and ringed by a low stone barrier. +It is some ninety feet in diameter. This is the "orchestra," the +"dancing place," wherein the chorus may disport itself and execute +its elaborate figures. Behind the orchestra stretches a kind +of tent or booth, the "sken." Within this the actors may retire +to change their costumes, and the side nearest to the audience is +provided with a very simple scene,--some kind of elementary scenery +panted to represent the front of a temple or palace, or the rocks, +or the open country. This is nearly the entire setting.[+] If +there are any slight changes of this screen, they must be made in +the sight of the entire audience. The Athenian theater has the blue +dome of heaven above it, the red Acropolis rock behind it. Beyond +the "sken" one can look far away to the country and the hills. +The keen Attic imagination will take the place of the thousand +arts of the later stage-setter. Sophocles and his rivals, even as +Shakespeare in Elizabeth's England, can sound the very depths and +scale the loftiest heights of human passion, with only a simulacrum +of the scenery, properties, and mechanical artifices which will +trick out a very mean twentieth century theater. + +[*]These benches (before the stone theater was built in 340 B.C.) +may be imagined as set up much like the "bleachers" at a modern +baseball park. We know that ancient audiences wedged in very close. + +[+]I think it is fairly certain that the classical Attic theater +was without any stage, and that the actors appeared on the same +level as the chorus. As to the extreme simplicity of all the +scenery and properties there is not the least doubt. + + +204. The production of a Play.--The crowds are hushed and expectant. +The herald, ere the play begins, proclaims the award of a golden +crown to some civic benefactor: a moment of ineffable joy to the +recipient; for when is a true Greek happier than when held up for +public glorification? Then comes the summons to the first competing +poet. + +"Lead on your chorus."[*] The intellectual feast of the Dionysia +has begun. + +[*]In the fourth century B.C. when the creation of original tragedies +was in decline, a considerable part of the dionysia productions +seem to have been devoted to the works of the earlier masters, +schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. + +To analyze the Attic drama is the task of the philosopher and the +literary expert. We observe only the superficialities. There are +never more than THREE speaking actors before the audience at once. +They wear huge masques, shaped to fit their parts. The wide +mouthpieces make the trained elocution carry to the most remote +parts of the theater. The actors wear long trailing robes and are +mounted on high shoes to give them sufficient stature before the +distant audience. When a new part is needed in the play, an actor +retires to the booth, and soon comes forth with a changed masque +and costume--an entirely new character. In such a costume and +masque, play of feature and easy gesture is impossible; but the +actors carry themselves with a stately dignity and recite their often +ponderous lines with a grace which redeems them from all bombast. +An essential part of the play is the chorus; indeed the chorus +was once the main feature of the drama, the actors insignificant +innovations. With fifteen members for the tragedy, twenty-four for +the comedy,[*] old men of Thebes, Trojan dames, Athenian charcoal +burners, as the case may demand--they sympathize with the hard-pressed +hero, sing lusty choral odes, and occupy the time with song and +dance while the actors are changing costume. + +[*]In the "Middle" and "Later" comedy, so called, the chorus entirely +disappears. The actors do everything. + +The audience follows all the philosophic reasoning of the tragedies, +the often subtle wit of the comedies, with that same shrewd alertness +displayed at the jury courts of the Pnyx. "Authis! Authis!" +(again! again!) is the frequent shout, if approving. Date stones +and pebbles as well as hootings are the reward of silly lines or bad +acting. At noon there is an interlude to snatch a hasty luncheon +(perhaps without leaving one's seat). Only when the evening +shadows are falling does the chorus of the last play approach the +altar in the center of the orchestra for the final sacrifice. A +whole round of tragedies have been given.[*] The five public judges +announce their decision: an ivy wreath to the victorious poet; to +his "choregus" (the rich man who has provided his chorus and who +shares his glory) the right to set up a monumnet in honor of the +victory. Home goes the multitude,--to quarrel over the result, +to praise or blame the acting, to analyze the remarkable acuteness +the poet's handling of religious, ethical, or social questions. + +[*]Comedies, although given at this Dionysia, were more especially +favored at the Lena, an earlier winter festival. + +The theater, like the dicasteries and the Pnyx, is one of the great +public schools of Athens. + + +205. The Great Panathenaic Procession.--Then for the last time +let us visit Athens, at the fte which in its major form comes only +once in four years. It is the 28th of Metageitnin (August), and +the eighth day of the Greater Panathena, the most notable of all +Athenian festivals. By it is celebrated the union of all Attica +by Theseus, as one happy united country under the benign sway of +might Athena,--an ever fortunate union, which saved the land from +the sorrowful feuds of hostile hamlets such as have plagued so many +Hellenic countries. On the earlier days of the feast there have +been musical contests and gymnastic games much after the manner of +the Olympic games, although the contestants have been drawn from +Attica only. There has been a public recital of Homer. Before a +great audience probably at the Pnyx or the Theater a rhapsodist of +noble presence--clad in purple and with a golden crown--has made +the Trojan War live again, as with his well-trained voice he held +the multitude spellbound by the music of the stately hexameters. + +Now we are at the eighth day. All Athens will march in its glory +to the Acropolis, to bear to the shrine of Athena the sacred +"peplos"--a robe specially woven by the noble women of Athens to +adorn the image of the guardian goddess.[*] The houses have opened; +the wives, maids, and mothers of gentle family have come forth to +march in the procession, all elegantly wreathed and clad in their +best, bearing the sacred vessels and other proper offerings. The +daughter of the "metics," the resident foreigners, go as attendants +of honor with them. The young men and the old, the priests, the +civil magistrates, the generals, all have their places. Proudest +of all are the wealthy and high-born youths of the cavalry, who +now dash to and fro in their clattering pride. The procession is +formed in the outer Ceramicus. Amid cheers, chants, chorals, and +incense smoke it sweeps through the Agora, and slowly mounts the +Acropolis. Center of all the marchers is the glittering peplos, +raised like a sail upon a wheeled barge of state--"the ship +of Athena." Upon the Acropolis, while the old peplos is piously +withdrawn from the image and the new one substituted, there is a +prodigious sacrifice. A might flame roars heavenward from the "great +altar"; while enough bullocks[+] and kine[&] have been slaughtered +to enable every citizen--however poor--to bear away a goodly mess +of roasted meat that night. + +[*]Not that this robe was for the revered ancient and wooden image +of Athena Polias, not for the far less venerable statue of Athena +Parthenos. + +[+][NOTE from Brett: A bullock is a young, possibly castrated, +bull.] + +[&][NOTE from Brett: kine is the archaic plural form of "cow."] + + +206. The View from the Temple of Wingless Victory.--We will not +wait for the feasting but rather will take our way to the Temple +of Wingless Victory, looking forth to the west of the Acropolis +Rock. So many things we see which we would fain print on the memory. +Behind us we have just left the glittering Parthenon, and the less +august but hardly less beautiful Erechtheum, with its "Porch of +the Maidens." To our right is the wide expanse of the roofs of the +city and beyond the dark olive groves of Colonus, and the slopes +of galeos. In the near foreground, are the red crags of Areopagus +and the gray hill of the Pnyx. But the eye will wander farther. +It is led away across the plainland to the bay of Phaleron, the +castellated hill of Munychia, the thin stretch of blue water and +the brown island seen across it--Salamis and its strait of the +victory. Across the sparkling vista of the sea rise the headlands +of gina and of lesser isles; farther yet rise the lordly peaks of +Argolis. Or we can look to the southward. Our gaze rounds down the +mountainous Attic coast full thirty miles to where Sunium thrusts +out its haughty cape into the gean and points the way across the +island-studded sea. + +Evening is creeping on. Behind us sounds the great pan, the +solemn chant to Athena, bestower of good to men. As the sun goes +down over the distant Argolic hills his rays spread a clear pathway +of gold across the waters. Islands, seas, mountains far and near, +are touched now with shifting hues,--saffron, violet, and rose,--beryl, +topaz, sapphire, amethyst. There will never be another landscape +like unto this in all the world. Gladly we sum up our thoughts +in the cry of a son of Athens, Aristophanes, master of song, who +loved her with that love which the land of Athena can ever inspire +in all its children, whether its own by adoption or by birth:-- + +"OH, THOU, OUR ATHENS! VIOLET-CROWNED, BRILLIANT, MOST ENVIABLE +OF CITIES!" + + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of A Day in Old Athens + + +*** + +End of The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Day In Old Athens +by William Stearns Davis + +******This file should be named 4716-8.txt or 4716-8.zip****** + +Typed by William Fishburne (william.fishburne@verizon.net) proofed by Kestrell (aeryadne@theworld.com) + +*** + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +https://gutenberg.org or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these eBooks are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/4716-8.zip b/old/4716-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a999d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/4716-8.zip |
