diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/4716-8.txt | 8724 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/4716-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 187887 bytes |
2 files changed, 8724 insertions, 0 deletions
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 +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. + + + + + 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 Peiræus 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 Peiræus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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 Peiræus 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 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 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 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. + +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 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 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 Phnician 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. + + +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. + +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. + +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 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 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 alter 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 +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 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 minuæ [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 minuæ [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! 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. + +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. + + +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. + +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, 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 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 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 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 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 +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 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 (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. 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 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. + +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 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: 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 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 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 +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. [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 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, "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 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. + + +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 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 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. + + +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 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 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. + + +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 KELEUSTËS, +and the TRIËRAULËS, 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 "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, 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 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 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 +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 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 "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 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 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 "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 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, 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 "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 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 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 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 "sêmeron aktasômen"]) 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 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'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 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. 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 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 +"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 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 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 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 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 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 +Eumæus" 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 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 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. + +[+]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 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 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 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 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. + + +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 Braurönia. 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 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. + +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" (Nikë Apteros) has reference to a +special type and aspect of Athena, not to the goddess Nikë (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 Erganë--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 ægis, 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 Ægis, 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 +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. + +[+][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 Boëdromiön," 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 Botia. + +[*]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 "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 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 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 +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 "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. + + +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. + +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 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 +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 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 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 |
