 Chapter 16 of Hellenic history. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jane Bennett, Melbourne, Australia. Hellenic history by George Willis, Botsford. Chapter 16, The Age of Pericles, 3. Society and Public Works. 1. Society and Economy. Conservative Eupatrids. In this democratic world, many of the old nobility found themselves totally out of place. Their bitter complaints were given voice in pamphlets issued by one of their number shortly after the death of Pericles, the earliest extant political treatise in any language. Unknown by name, the author has aptly been styled Old Oligarch. Characteristically, he laments the decline of those arts in which his class took chief pride. Citizens giving their time to gymnastics and music are not to be found at Athens. The commons have abolished them, not from disbelief in the beauty and honour of such training, but recognising the cultivation of these arts to be beyond their powers. Formerly, rich men alone enjoyed such luxuries, but now the people have built at public cost a number of palestras, dressing rooms and bathing establishments for their own use, and the mob, rather than the few choice and well-to-do people, get the chief benefit of them. It is equally a shame that in dramatic festivals, the rich man trains the chorus and the people reap the enjoyment. He laments even more the growth of the naval power with its sailor crowd at the expense of the heavy infantry, composed of respectable middle-class citizens, the tyrannical treatment of the Allies, the oppression of the wealthy throughout the empire by the levy of taxes and by favouritism towards the poor, evils he has greatly exaggerated. The fact that everywhere more consideration is shown to the base, the poor and the common folk, than to persons of good quality, far from being a matter of surprise, is evidently the keystone of the democracy. All this is natural, he argues, when you consider the character of the ruling class in the imperial city. Within the ranks of the people will be found the utmost ignorance, disorderliness and rascality, traceable chiefly to poverty. He reaches the very heart of the class conflict when he says, the people do not want the city to be well-governed and themselves in slavery, they desire to be free and to be masters. It is these poor people, this common folk, this riff-raff, whose prosperity and increasing numbers enhance democracy, whereas the shifting of fortune to the wealthy and the better class would bring into control a strong party opposed to popular rule. If you want good legislation, you will see the most intelligent members of the community making laws for the rest, and then the better class will curb and chastise the lower orders. The better class will sit in council in behalf of the state and not suffer crack-brained fellows to belong to the council or to speak in the assembly. But under the weight of such blessings the people will shortly fall into slavery. These hard words reveal the existence of a class of men strong in wealth, social standing and intelligence, who were watching their opportunity to usurp the government and enslave the populace, who would hesitate at no violence or treason to gain their ends. Under Pericles they could only indulge in mutual grumblings or in indirect attacks upon the leading statesmen. After time was to see examples of their political methods. The Eupatreds maintain their leadership. Notwithstanding such men, the commons still cherish profound respect for the nobility. In fact, Athenian culture thus far was chiefly their creation, and Eupatreds, not men from the masses, had taken the lead in democratising the government, while no considerations of birth had long disappeared from the constitution, the Arkanships were still monopolised by the good old families, and no one but a noble could command the votes necessary for an election to the general ship. This social group formed a small minority of the population. There were in the first and second property classes about 2,500 men above 18 years of age, or including women and children three times that number. The Thetis, their social and economic condition. The poor, whom the oligarchs so despised, were not paupers, but the smallest land proprietors, shepherds, shopkeepers, artisans, day labourers and sailors. In general, the Thetis. Of the 60,000 men, women and children belonging to the lowest property class, the great majority were absolutely self-sustaining. The growing complexity of economic conditions, however, created by the development of commerce and industry, and making greater and greater demands upon the intelligence, produced an increasing number of persons who were incompetent to earn a living for themselves. Under an aristocracy, they would have died of want or have fallen into slavery. The broader and more humane democracy, however, faced the problem of lifting this submerged class to the plane of respectable citizenship. Thousands were placed in comfortable circumstances through colonisation, and thousands more were engaged in the military and civil service. The great public works too furnished employment to a vast number of skilled and unskilled labourers. The children of patriots who fell in battle were maintained of public expense. This is the substantial prize with which, as with a garland, Athens crowns her sons living and dead. Disabled persons received a small pension, and that all might be able to attend the religious festivals, the state furnished the needy with food on such occasions. For a time, these efforts of the government, reinforced by unusual prosperity, eliminated poverty from Athens. The state benevolence which provided thus carefully for the poor, although far broader than any aristocratic conception of humanity, limited itself strictly to citizens. The ziugite, people of moderate property. Higher than the thetis and altogether beyond the need or the desire of state aid, were the ziugite, who constituted the heavy infantry. This class now comprised about 33,000 of military age, including the colonists, or with the old men, women and children, 100,000 souls. The majority were freeholders of little farms, tilling their fields with the help of the family, or at best of a slave or two. On the stony mountain slopes they cultivated olives and pastured their sheep and goats. In the plain, too, they had their orchards, but these lands gave a double return, for grain and vegetables grew among the trees. As they were still ignorant of the rotation of crops, they had to allow the land to lie fallow in alternate years. Probably not more than 12% of the total area of Attica was thus available in any year for grain and vegetables, but these small patches of arable soil were intensely weak. The increasing population of Athens and Piraeus, and the inflow of money from the empire to its capital, guaranteed rising prices for rural products and brought the farming class to its highest reach of prosperity. The estates were well stocked, and the dwellings and barns were better than in any other Hellenic country. Reasons for the conservatism of the Zygite. These people of Middle Station, whose material happiness was now greater than in earlier ages, constituted the element of stability, the chief conservative force in the state. This character, however, was due to no passing condition but fundamentally to the narrow limitations upon the hopes and ambitions of the farmer of moderate wealth in every age and every part of Hellas. The slight scope afforded to enterprise and inventiveness. The necessity of waiting upon nature for her favours gave him patience and resignation. Then too, the small total area of arable land in Greece and the force of public opinion against the accumulation of greater estates kept far from him the thought of self-aggrandizement at the expense of neighbours. Generally, therefore, he was content to support his family well above the condition of wanton misery and to perform his military duty. Against all radicalism in politics and public economy, against wars with neighbours and peace with Persia, he was firmly set. Herein, his sympathies were with the old-landed aristocracy in opposition to the city population, industrialism and absolute democracy. To this class accordingly was due the steadiness and the conservatism of Athens amid the forces that made powerfully for innovation. Metics, alien residents. However strong in numbers and in purpose, this class could not greatly retard the upbuilding of a city economy with its concomitant inflow of aliens and slaves. From the time of Solon, Athens had attracted artisans from other Greek lands by giving them easy access to the citizenship and Kleisthenes had enrolled in the tribes a great number of metics. In this liberality, Athens sought a cure for the poverty that had long cramped her life. The growth of manufacturing gave remunerative work to an increasing number of hands and the exchange of wares for foreign grain made possible an indefinite increase in the population. After Kleisthenes, Athens rarely admitted strangers to citizenship, yet themistically encouraged their coming by exempting them from the sojourner's tax. This favour was temporary, but the attraction was too great for them to resist and they were heartily welcome. As a typical case, maybe mention the invitation given by Pericles to Sophalos of Cyracus, an armourer, to come to Attica and set up his establishment in Piraeus. Although there were now in Attica about 40,000 alien residents including women and children, they were not given direct aid by the government but were protected equally with the citizens and stood on a social level with them. A contemporary writes, we have established inequality between metics and citizens because the city stands in need of her resident aliens to meet the requirements of so many arts and of the Navy. Of the attitude of the state towards the various classes of immigrants, Isocrates could say, she ordered her administration in such a spirit of welcome to strangers and of friendliness to all as to suit both those who were in want of money and those who desired to enjoy the wealth they possessed. And she failed in serving neither the prosperous nor those who were unfortunate in their own states but so acted that each of these classes finds with us a delightful sojourn and a safe refuge. Slaves. Whereas to the alien residents the democracy brought great gain, the burden of the new development rested more and more heavily upon the slaves. In pre-Persian Athens when her economy was chiefly rural, freehands performed nearly all labour apart from domestic service in the homes of the rich. After the war, as Athens entered upon her industrial career, the number of slaves rapidly increased. The conditions found in Miletus, in Calcas, in Aegina and in other centres of industry in the 7th and 6th centuries were now repeated on a larger scale in Athens. Men were eager to invest their capital small or great in slaves whom they employed in productive labour in the fields, shops, on the public works and especially in the mines. Nisaius, the general who was the wealthiest Athenian of his time owned a thousand slaves engaged in mining. They were under a manager who paid to the master an obola day for each slave making an annual income of ten talents. Most slaves at Athens in this age were non-Greeks obtained by war, kidnapping and purchase. The stronger and more intractable were sent to the mines where they rapidly died from the unhealthful conditions. The docile, generally the younger men, were trained to feel labour and industry. For increasing their efficiency to the highest point the masters found it wise to treat them kindly and keep them happy. Sometimes we find a group so attached to a shop as to be bought and sold with it. Others were rented out but the more reliable were left free to make their own engagements on condition of paying their masters periodically a specified sum. With energy and thrift such person might in time save enough to purchase his freedom. Other slaves were the trusty managers of their master's business. There were state slaves. Three hundred purchased Scythian archers constituted the police force of the city. Unfree clerks and stewards occupied responsible positions. All the better class of slaves, public and private were encouraged to usefulness and loyalty by the hope or the promise of freedom. Legal provision was made for their protection. A mistreated slave could take refuge at the shrine of Thesias or of the Furies and demand to be sold to a more humane master. In complaining of their good treatment as an evil of the times the old oligarch pays an unintentional compliment to the democracy. Another point is the extraordinary liberty allowed to slaves and medics at Athens where a blow is illegal and a slave will not step aside and let you pass him in the street. The reason is if it were legal for a slave, medic or freedman to be beaten by a citizen it would often happen that an Athenian might be mistaken for a slave or medic and suffer a flogging seeing that the Athenians are not better closed than slaves or superior in personal appearance. Slavery at Athens relatively estimated. Imperically in Athens slavery as well as industrialism was still in its infancy the number in servitude constituting undoubtedly a minority of the population. At least outside the mines they were treated with more kindness and consideration than have been accorded even to common citizens under oligarchies or we may safely say to modern factory hands and the denizens of sweatshops by modern employers. The civilisation of Athens was due to the labour of men who were free or at least who worked in the hope of freedom. These conditions were the fruit of liberal ideas by directing their activity to manufacturing and commerce democracy revealing to the Greeks their destiny provided them with a moderate degree of material wealth and opened a field for the full development of their genius. At the same time it endowed them with a broader sympathy and a larger conception of human duty than the world had known before. The shops there was no organisation of industry at Athens the largest establishment known to us was the Armoury of Kefalus manned by 120 slaves. From a modern point of view business was on a diminutive scale there were no factories but shops merely often a part of the dwelling was used for the purpose the proprietor worked with his own hands initiating his sons and perhaps the sons of neighbours into the mysteries of his trade and with the expansion of his business rented or purchased slaves as further aides. Women too kept shoppers, bakers, diets and dealers in ribbons or flowers. Many craftsmen lacked the capital for accumulating a stock of products but manufactured articles merely as they were wanted by neighbours whereas the larger shops produced ways for exportation. A market feature of the fifth century shop was the spirit of equality between employer and employed between freemen and slaves. This happy atmosphere belonged to the shop as an outgrowth from the family and was an essential condition to the production of work of high merit. The skilled labourer was proud of his profession. All craftsmen, slave and free alike wrought not for mere subsistence or gain but in a true artistic spirit for the creation of the beautiful. In other words, the Greek mechanic was an artist. Hence it is that the extant products of his craft from grave reliefs to pots and pictures are all works of genuine art. The thing inseparable from true art is individuality and in our modern age of mechanical production it is difficult for us to appreciate this fact that the Greek apprentice, slave or free aimed not at a servile imitation of the patent but at the creation of something new something with a character and a beauty of its own. Significantly the thousands of Greek vases still extant express in their endless variety the free versatile spirit of Hellas. Organization and pay of labour on public works. The Greek love of individual liberty prevented the formation of large industrial companies. Hence when the state projected a great public work like the Parthenon its committee of supervisors elected in assembly had to divide the entire labour into a multitude of diminutive parts and let out the several parts by contract to the masters of the shops or stone yards above described. The contractor agreed in writing to bring with him a specified number of labourers to do work of a quality satisfactory to the committee and to be responsible for damages to the material. In the grant of the same daily wage to slave, medic and freemen to underling and contractor and architect may be found further evidence of the lack of distinction between artist and artisan and a further expression of the democratic spirit. To public works and art the Greek idea of beauty the spirit of the age found its highest expression in the creation of the beautiful as the Greeks themselves understood it. Beauty in the perfectly rounded physical and moral development of the individual and in the order and harmony of a well-regulated government and social life as well as in artistic public buildings and sculptures in systematic thought and in historical and dramatic literature. A symmetrical city the idea of a symmetrical city with broad straight avenues crossing each other at right angles was first conceived by Hippodamus of Miletus a philosopher and practical scientist and applied to the reconstruction of Piraeus. The provisional character of the private houses and the absence of traditional associations in the port town made this work possible. About the same time the temporary dockyards erected by Themistocles were replaced at a cost of a thousand talents by substantial buildings greatly enlarged for the accommodation of the growing navy. Relatively to the financial means of the Athenians this outlay was enormous. Planned for the restoration of Hellenic temples about 456. Thus far little had been done in Greece to restore the shrines demolished by the Persians. After the battle of Inafaita which seemed to Pericles to assure to his city a place in central Greece like that of Sparta in Peloponnesus it occurred to him that the moment was opportune for calling a general Hellenic Congress at Athens for the purpose of taking united action in restoring such temples of paying to the gods the honors vowed in that crisis and of adopting measures for the security of commerce on the seas. At the same time his own city set aside a fund for the building of temples. This magnificent plan of uniting Hellas on a basis of common interest and religious sympathy was foiled by the Lacedemonians and the work of Pericles in temple building had to be limited to Attica. The Odium Music Hall about 445. Among his earliest buildings was the Odium intended for the musical contests of the Panathenae and serving therefore a religious purpose. It was situated on the declivity of the Acropolis immediately to the east of the theater. Constructed mainly of wood only with interior columns of stone it was given a conical roof in imitation of Xerxes' tent. As judge of the Panathenaeic contests Pericles laid down the rules for the competitions in singing and in playing on the pipe and lyre. Since the building was completed no long time before the banishment of Thucydides Crotinas the comic poet could present a caricature of Pericles proudly wearing on his head the Music Hall in token of his political victory. Our Zeus with lofty skull appears the Odium on his head he wears because he fears the Ostracan no more. Temple of Hephaestus Near the close of his administration he began the misnamed Thesium which still stands northwest of the Acropolis on a slight elevation overlooking the marketplace. It is a curious fact that the best preserved of all Greek temples cannot with certainty be identified. Probably it belonged to Hephaestus whose shrine stood in this vicinity looking down upon the metal market and in that case it was dedicated in 421. The Metopei sculptures represent the exploits of Heracles and of Thesias whom the growing pride of Athens had elevated to a place beside the older hero. The temple is built of Pentelec marble in the Doric style modified by strong Ionic influence. Traces of colour still remaining afford a conception of the general principles of painting employed in architecture. The great spaces as the columns and architrave were left plain whereas the detailed work was painted generally red and blue. If this were the only classical building remaining in Athens it would undoubtedly impress us as a model of beauty but in fact it is overshadowed by the presence on the Acropolis of a temple of grander and more harmonious proportions and of far more skillful execution. An appreciation of other architecture is made difficult by a view of the Parthenon. The Parthenon, its builders. The great temple to Athena which the Athenians had been planning but continually deferring since the time of Claesthenes was left to Pericles to take definitely in hand and bring to completion. The work began in the year 447-6 probably before the disaster at Coronia at a time when Athens was at peace with her neighbours and seemingly in a short control of her continental alliance. A commission of supervisors was elected to engage the artists and labourers and to oversee the work. Pericles was a member of the commission. The architects were Calichrates who had built one of the long walls and Ictinus evidently a younger man to whose originality the new features of the temple seem to have been largely due. Pericles' chief advisor for the decorative sculptures was Phidias. The two men were friends and social equals. For in that age the artist was not thought unfit for refined society. Nine years later, 438-7 the cellar walls and roof were sufficiently complete to protect the statue of Athena at that time set on its pedestal. But the work continued to the year before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. The rooms and their uses. The temple comprised two rooms. The smaller on the west served as a store chamber for the goddess and was named Parthenon, Maiden's chamber for what reason we are not informed. It was not till after the age of Demosthenes that the name Parthenon extended to the entire building. The larger room named Hecatompidos hundred foot chamber on the east the cellar in the narrower scenes contained the statue of the deity and served therefore as her dwelling place. Within the cellar a colonnade supported a higher series of columns reaching to the paneled wooden ceiling. In the storeroom there was a similar arrangement of four supporting columns. The columns curved lines. The temple was amphipro style. The door at each end opened upon a porch supported by a row of six columns. The building was also peripteral as it was entirely surrounded by columns eight on each end and seventeen to the side counting those on the corners twice. The columns which contribute to the temple its chief elements of beauty are in themselves a perfect blend of strength and grace. They taper from stylobate to capital in a harmonious outward curve barely perceptible to the eye and incline slightly toward the cellar. There is the same gentle swell in the echinus. In fact we find no long straight lines in any part of the temple. The stylobate is slightly convex and other parts show deviation from rigidly straight or plumb lines. The curves were probably not computed mathematically but instinctively adopted as most expressive at once of symmetry and variety. The use of curves was not only to correct an error of vision as in the stylobate and appearance of sagging but especially to present to the eye in place of a stiff mechanical structure a delicate harmony of lines and a pleasing combination of strength with elasticity. The metopes Among the sculptures of the Parthenon the metopes claim our first attention because they seem to have been finished before the rest and especially because they embody a more primitive and elemental idea than any of the other groups. They represent physical contests and show even to exaggeration the liveliest interest in athletic forms and attitudes and in the tension and play of muscles. They lead our thought immediately back to Myron who died too early to have a hand in the work whose genius however had revolutionized athletic sculpture along the lines followed by the artists of these metopes. The stupendous improvement in Hellenic art within a period of about 150 years may well be appreciated by comparing a Parthenon metope with one from the earliest temple at Salinas. In the latter group we find not a mere succession of figures but an organic whole whose lines are graceful curves whose human and animal forms are in a high degree natural and living. The subjects of the individual metopes and their relative location must have been determined by a supervising artist or by the commission whereupon their construction was let out separately to the masters of stone yards mentioned early in this chapter. Hence we find great individuality and a wide range of merit in their treatment. Interpretation of the sculptures In our review of the Parthenon sculptures we shall attempt to discover the meaning of the several groups. First it is to be noted that all have reference to Athena. They symbolize epochs so to speak in the history of her connection with Athens. The metopes represent conflicts one between Lapiths and Centaurs two between Greeks and Amazons three between gods and giants in general between the powers of order and the forces of chaos. It is the first chapter in the religious history of Athens the period anterior to Athena's present orderly rule the pediments. The second chapter is filled with the birth of Athena from the head of her father's use. An event of primary importance in Athenian religious history it occupies the most conspicuous place the east pediment above the cellar door and facing the rising sun. The goddess stands full grown and armed by the throne of Zeus in the midst of a group of deities. In the third chapter presented by the west pediment Athena strives with Poseidon for supremacy over Athens. The sea god strikes the earth with his trident thus causing a spring to bubble forth. Athena however by creating the olive tree wins the victory in the presence of a group of gods who fill the pediment. She becomes accordingly queen of the city and first born of the citizens. The general design of the pedimental groups must have been due to a single master artist probably Phidias. The individual figures were undoubtedly the creation of separate artists who according to their genius wrought in the Phidian spirit. Many of the figures have perished. Those which survive though badly mutilated are unrivaled among sculpture in the round. They show a nobility of form and attitude a quiet majesty a perfect naturalness free from every exaggeration and affectation a delicacy combined with truth in the rendering of flesh and muscle and of the different textures of drapery an absolute mastery of the material and an unerring sense of simple dignified beauty matchless in the realm of art the ionic freeze. The fourth and final chapter is filled by the ionic freeze a continuous band of low relief extending around the temple walls within the colonnade. The band divides naturally into groups of persons. The subject of the whole is the Panathenaic Festival held in July in honor of the goddess. To avoid the monotony of a procession the master artist has arranged the groups not uniformly in actual March but often in various preparations for it. We see for example magistrates and priests in their official attire men leading animals for the sacrifice youths bringing jars of water girls carrying baskets of other necessities for the religious services knights with their spirited horses and groups of deities seated inspecting the changing scene Though the parts vary in artistic merit the freeze as a whole has no rival among reliefs the sculptors alike of pediment and freeze did not aim to produce in any popular sense the utmost grace or physical loveliness in these qualities they were surpassed by later artists their object was a beauty that would appeal to the highest intellectual and moral perception of the age that would make the spectators think of pure and noble things prime requisites were dignity sobriety and self-restraint these were the qualities of a people who were not to revel in the luxuries of peace and wealth or yield to individualistic self-indulgence but were to practice submission to strict discipline in peace as well as in war to apply themselves to the noble task of ruling an empire in wisdom and justice and to making their city a patent for Hellas their art expressed and fostered these aspirations Athena Parthenos the statue of Athena Parthenos for the temple was the work of Phidias the unclad parts were of ivory the garments of gold covering a wooden frame it was a colossus 30 feet in height on a pedestal of eight feet the goddess wore a chiton of Doric style draped in heavy folds which hid the details of the person as compared with the other sculptures above mentioned this work seems to us R.K. quality however which adds to the strength and dignity of its character the room was lighted only through the double door and except for a brief time after sunrise it must have remained throughout the day in constant twilight in this semi-darkness the soft gleam of the ivory and gold the colossal grandeur of the statue its quiet dignified attitude the simplicity and sobriety of dress all worthily became the goddess who from this home of the beautiful ruled in might and in glory over an earnest ambitious race of men architecture is a true expression of character of a nation race or age thus the Doric order is typical of the sturdy growth of the peninsula Greek temperament as contrasted with the lighter ionic style which belongs to Asia Minor so too the Hellenic temple contrasts with the Gothic cathedral as pagan with Christian as the ancients with the moderns the simplicity and symmetry of the Greek temple have their counterpart in Greek intellect and character and the Hellenic shrine nestles close to earth as if perfectly content with this goodly world but the vastness and the complexity of the Gothic cathedral are equally typical of modern life while it spires lift the devout thought to the treasures of heaven where neither moth nor rust corrupt notable is the antithesis between worldly intellectual beauty and spiritual aspiration End of Chapter 16 Chapter 17 of Hellenic history This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jane Bennett, Melbourne, Australia Hellenic history by George Willis Botsford Chapter 17, Age of Pericles 4, Thought, Culture and Character Part 1, Science and Philosophy Scientific Progress, Technical Writings and Astronomy The scientific spirit awakened in the 6th century in Ionia had run swiftly through the length and breadth of Hellas to incite in individuals a love of collecting facts and of systematising them on a rational basis Many literary products of this spirit served useful as well as theoretical purposes Works on sculpture and architecture Music and literary criticism were, in part, handbooks for learners of the respective arts From the time of Pythagoras advances were made in arithmetic geometry and astronomy His followers taught the rotundity of Earth, Sun and Moon From a more careful study of the heavens the astronomer Meton of Athens devised a 19-year cycle for bringing the lunar and solar years into harmony In this system, the solar year was estimated at 365 and 519th days about a half hour short of the truth Although he was permitted to set up his calendar on the nicks it was not adopted by his own people till the next century and it extended still more slowly to the rest of the Hellenes Medical progress, Hippocrates, 460 to 377 From the time of Pythagoras II notable progress was made in medicine so that not even the Egyptian physician could any longer compare with the Greek Although cities were woefully backward in sewerage and general sanitation it may be set down to their credit that they supported from the public purse physicians who treated the citizens free of charge While the masses still believed in expelling diseases by charms and prayer or by visits to the shrines of Asclepius the medical profession of the Periclean age had eliminated magic and every form of superstition from theory and practice and stood on the solid ground of scientific observation and experiment Hippocrates, of course, the most celebrated physician of the ancient world was a young man in the beginning of his practice before the close of the age In his family the profession had been hereditary as was generally true of trades or other fields of technical skill In view of the fact that medical knowledge had accumulated at the temples of Asclepius where the sick and the maimed sought divine healing it is significant of the scientific spirit of Hippocrates that in all his writings he never prescribes a visit to such a shrine Every illness he declares has a natural cause and without natural causes nothing ever happens He lays great stress on hygiene, especially diet on the principle that nature is the best physician but he was ready to use drugs or when necessary cutting and cauterizing where drugs fail, steel will cure where steel fails, fire will cure where fire fails, there is no cure It was his achievement to repel from his domain all assaults of sophists and speculative philosophers and while maintaining and expanding the scientific method of his predecessors to uphold for his profession the noblest ideals of devotion to duty and to right Progress in Philosophy Heraclitus died 475 Not only special branches of knowledge were being cultivated but great progress was taking place in the philosophic attitude towards the world as a whole and its problems With Heraclitus of Ephesus, who flourished early in the century philosophy began to concern itself with the motion, change, life of nature Not being, he asserted, but becoming is the fundamental essence of things Meditation on this subject led him to imagine a world-ruling reason, Logos which produces the ever-changing phenomena of the universe This controlling principle can be apprehended only by a few sages like himself who also possess a Logos similar in kind to that of the universe whereas the masses are doomed to eternal ignorance and folly The self-assertive personality of this philosopher added to the evident depth of his mental vision has influenced the thought of the world even to the present day while his obscure, riddling prophetic utterances along with his doctrine of the divine and human Logos gave pronounced encouragement to mysticism Continuation of the Aleatics, Empedocles, about 495-430 In spite of the repudiation of being by Heraclitus and his insistence on becoming as the sole reality the successors of Xenophonies the Aleatic continued more strongly than ever to deny motion and change and to claim for being alone a real existence An attempt was made to harmonise these views by Empedocles of Acragas With the Aleatics he denied absolute origin and decay but unlike them he believed in the plurality of being There are, he asserted, four elements earth, water, air and fire of which all things are composed The forces that combine and separate them are love and hate the poetic antecedents of attraction and repulsion In this way he was able to use both being and becoming in his theory of the formation of the world He paid less attention to the character of his elements than to the processes of nature In accounting for plant and animal forms he enunciated a principle crudely anticipative of the survival of the fittest At the same time he introduced into science the idea of elements which has survived to our own age unlike all his predecessors Empedocles zealously courted popularity He was a politician, a leader of the democracy of his city a prophet and a physician of miraculous power He asserted his ability to heal old age, to raise and calm the winds produce rain and drought and to recall the dead to life Gorgeously arrayed in brilliant robes and adorned with flowers He passed from city to city, everywhere venerated as a god Finally as his friends reported he ascended living to heaven whereas cynical gossip averred rather than he had lept into the crater of Mount Etna The atomists Eucipus and Democritus about 460 to 350 Every new philosopher after learning what his predecessors had to teach attempted to correct the faults of their suppositions or methods with a view to approaching nearer to the truth Thus it was that Eucipus seemingly a younger contemporary of Empedocles began working out the problem of that thinker in a more scientific way Seeing no reason why being should be limited to precisely four elements he assumed instead its division into an indefinite number of minute indivisible particles termed atoms By the side of being, which he interpreted as matter he assumed the existence of void, empty space, in which the atoms moved In place of the mythical love and hate he substituted gravitation, a strictly physical force With being, void and gravitation he proceeded to explain the formation of the world, the processes of nature and even feeling and thought in a purely mechanical way The atomic theory afterward developed into a system by his famous pupil Democritus, was generally denounced by the ancients as materialistic hence as ethically demoralising appreciating its value however the modern world has placed it in the foundation of science and it still holds true accepting that chemists have pushed the analysis of matter far beyond the atom Anaxagoras about 500 to 428 more in accord with the general ethical direction of Greek thought hence more influential was Anaxagoras, a contemporary of Lucipus His lasting contribution to philosophy was to substitute for gravitation an infinite and omniscient intelligence which orders all things He did not consciously think of it as a person or as a deity but regarded it nearly as a directing force If not immaterial it was at least a substance unmixed and in quality unique The religious and ethical consequences of his theory however were left mainly to future thinkers to draw Influence of the philosophers, their limitations The influence of all philosophers was thus far limited to narrow circles of pupils To the public the thinker seemed an odd unnatural being who in his search for the undiscoverable and the unpractical neglected everything that the Greek held dear A subject for ridiculing comedy or for prosecution on the charge of atheism of having substituted whirligig for Zeus Those who braving public opinion became acquainted with the various systems of thought which generally struck by their contradictions The uncertain foundations on which they rested and their utter uselessness in life Thus far in fact, Hellenic thinkers while discovering the most fundamental principles of science and philosophy had pursued the faulty method of generalization on the basis of too few facts Little more could be accomplished without a careful and extensive study of nature Rhetoric and the Sophists Meanwhile with the rise of democracy involving the theory of human equality a demand was created for a technical education that would fit any man who wished for public life Statesmanship once based on imborn gifts of speech and political wisdom had to be democratized This demand called into being the art of rhetoric whose aim was to equip any man however humble his talent for public speaking Shortly after the establishment of democracy in Syracuse, 466 Chorex of that city developed the first method of juridical oratory and from his school was issued the earliest practical treatise on the subject Rhetoric however concerned itself with nothing beyond the communication of thought and the persuasion to a belief or an action It had to be supplemented by a working knowledge of government and society hence arose a class of men who professed to teach not only rhetoric but all knowledge essential to the statesmen Such instructors in wisdom were termed Sophists They travelled from city to city giving exhibitions of their knowledge and of their skill in argument and imparting instruction to all who desired it and who were able to pay the required fee Protagoras about 485 to 14 The earliest of this class and by far the most eminent was Protagoras Though vain of his ability he seems to have possessed an admirable character and to have pursued high aims Young man he is represented as saying to a prospective pupil If you associate with me on the very first day you will return home a better man than you came and better on the second day than on the first and better every day than you were the day before He will learn, the teacher continues, what he came to learn and that is prudence in affairs private as well as public He will learn to order his own house in the best manner and he will be able to speak and act for the best in the affairs of the state Theory of knowledge held by Protagoras The speculations of philosophers had led many to doubt the possibility of knowledge Abandoning all hope of discovering the one true essence of the universe Protagoras boldly declared that man is the measure of all things In other words everything is precisely what it seems to the individual In two respects this declaration opened a new era First it directed attention to the mind and its relation to the outside world thus paving the way to a mental philosophy or psychology Secondly by shifting the center of attention from the world to man it gave along with many cooperating forces a tremendous impetus to the growth of individualism beginnings of political and social science The same thinker had a theory to offer as to the basis of society and the state The desire of self-preservation gathered mankind into cities But when they were gathered together having no art of government they harmed one another and were again in process of dispersion and destruction Zeus feared that the entire race might be exterminated and therefore sent Hermes to them bearing reverence and justice to be the ordering principles of cities and the bonds of friendship and conciliation Hermes asked Zeus how he should impart justice and reverence among men should he distribute them as the arts are distributed that is to a favoured few only one skilled individual having enough of medicine or of any other art for many unskilled ones shall this be the manner in which I am to distribute justice and reverence among men or shall I give it to them all to all said Zeus I should like them all to have a share for cities cannot exist if only a few share in the virtues as in the arts and further make a law by my order that he who has no part in reverence and justice shall be put to death for he is a plague to the state here was the beginning of a line of thought which led to the creation of sociology and political science furthermore Protagoras and his contemporary sophists began the study of grammar phonetics and philology all necessarily in a rudimentary way development of political science Hippodamus political science was taken up at this time by other thinkers and carried much farther it was directed along two principal lines first the criticism of existing constitutions of which an example is mentioned above second the creation of ideal constitutions the first author of such a constitution was Hippodamus the famous engineer who planned Piraeus and Thorii there was little that was peculiar in his system but the beginning he made was in time developed by more inventive thinkers nature versus convention dissolution of the traditional other sophists of the age borrowed from Protagoras his theory of knowledge and with varying motive and ability pursued the same methods all late stress on the distinction between nature whose laws observed by all nations are morally binding and convention man-made customs and statutes for which they cherished no reverence the effect of this principle was to dissolve tradition including the religion and the moral usages of the fathers in their view the past was an age of ignorance and superstition the present alone was worthy of consideration the same principle tended equally to break down the barriers of social class and the boundaries of states by nature all men are brothers and it is wrong for one to enslave another though dissolvents of the established political social and religious order they were preparing the way to a worldwide humanism to more friendly relations among states to federations and empire it is significant that one of the greatest sophists Georgias a Sicilian seeing perhaps dimly the need of a universal language of culture adopted for that purpose the attic dialect part two history and the drama history Herodotus about 484 to 425 the spirit of scientific inquiry naturally involved in eagerness to know the past of the human race and this desire created history the first historian whose works have been preserved was Herodotus we are unable therefore to say definitely how great an advance he made beyond Hecateus his most distinguished predecessor born in the period of the conflict with Persia Herodotus lived through the age of Pericles and the earlier years of the Peloponnesian war his native place was Heliconasus a city of Dorian stock which had adopted the Ionian tongue and which lay on the borderland between Hellas and the Persian Empire he traveled to Egypt into Asia as far as Sousa to the countries about Pontus to Italy in brief to most of the known world everywhere he gathered material which found its way into his work epic origin and dramatic influence as the genealogists were the literary descendants of Hecateus Herodotus was a son of Homer and his history might well be described as a great prose epic influenced to some extent by the contemporary drama a brief preface explains the object of his work this is a presentation of the inquiry Historia of Herodotus of Heliconasus to the end that time may not obliterate the great and marvelous deeds of Helanes and Barbarians and especially that they may not forget the causes for which they waged war with one another in his search for causes he narrates from earliest times the notable achievements of all the peoples who were involved in the war and used that conflict as the unifying element of his work treating Fassive substantially the entire known world his production may be described as a universal history method of research so far as we know Herodotus was the first to apply the word history in its original sense of inquiry to this field of literature it aptly describes his method of gathering information by personal inquiry of those who were supposed to know often unsatisfied with an individual source he pursued his investigation among various authorities thus introducing the comparative method of research the object of his history as he conceived it required him to tell all he had thus heard I am under obligation to tell what is reported though I am not bound altogether to believe it and let this saying hold good for every narrative in the history we find him accordingly often expressing doubt as to what he hears comparing the more with the less credible account or reasoning about the reliability of his source although his work abounds in myths and fictions and although he was often at the mercy of untrustworthy informants he was far from credulous even the fictitious tales whether myths or more recent inventions are of greater value for illustrating the thought and life of the age than would have been a dry enumeration of facts however well-assertained from the point of view here mentioned this feature of his work is a positive merit broad-mindedness another great quality of Herodotus is his broad-mindedness to which his cosmopolitan birthplace and extensive travels contributed he could understand that many foreign customs were at least as good as the Hellenic that there were great and admirable characters among the Barbarians and that monarchy as well as democracy has its good features a comparison of Egyptian with Hellenic tradition taught him the emptiness of the claim of certain Greeks to near-descent from a god in Hellenic tradition the gods continued to connect themselves with the human race by marriage and parentage to nine, eight or even six centuries before the historians' time whereas Egyptian chronology removed such phenomena 15,000 years into the past this comparative study of religion convinced Herodotus that his countrymen entertained many false notions as to their own gods and as to the beginnings of the human race regarding the existence of the gods however and their providential dealings with men the historian betrays no skepticism with other enlightened men of his age he believes in a divine providence who rules the world and in a kindly spirit watching over men revealing his will through omens, dreams and oracles the popular opinion that God is envious of human happiness and therefore always sends evil to counterbalance good luck he puts in the mouths of others but does not himself express like Aeschylus he seems to believe that the downfall of the great for example of Xerxes is in punishment for insolence which unusual prosperity often induces summary the father of history in religion therefore though casting off much that is extraneous he holds firmly to the enlightened orthodoxy of the time while in moral character and purpose he stands on a level with the best men of his century from the point of view of strict historical science while advancing beyond Hecatechus he is still crude and imperfect whereas his broad sympathy and kindly interest in everything human his high religious and moral principles his inexhaustible fund of anecdotes illustrative of customs and character his charming style and genial personality have entitled him to his place as the father of history and have given his literary production a universal and eternal interest Sophocles 496-404 the religious and moral ideas of the age find their best expression in the great attic dramatis Sophocles literature had not yet become a profession as Aeschylus was a soldier Sophocles filled public offices such labours however did not ruffle the serenity or disturb the comfort of an easy life the problems he deals with are less gigantic than those of Aeschylus and his solutions are as a rule more pacific there are however many points of contact like Aeschylus he believes in the omniscience and almighty power of God joined with this belief is the conviction that he is just and merciful Zeus himself in all that he doeth hath mercy for a sharer of his throne he is a providence to whom man may confidently leave his troubles courage my daughter courage great still in heaven is Zeus who sees and governs all leave thy bitter quarrel to him as guardians of right the powers above are punishers of misdeeds slow but sure in their pursuit of the unrighteous the gods of country and of kin especially near and dear are the local spirits gods of the land to whom the returning wanderer first lifts his hands near are the gods of one's race of one blood with the worshipper they who founded the family or genres and are most concerned for its preservation communication between gods and men skepticism great and good and interested in the welfare of man the heavenly powers have found means of communicating their will to him through visions oracles and the mouths of seers it is natural however that the scientific inquiring spirit of the periclean age involving rationalism and religious doubt should reflect itself in the troubled life of the Sophoclean dramas Oedipus though by nature essentially religious doubts the prophetic art of Tiresias and seems to prove his point by irrefutable argument his wife Chakasta rejects even the oracle of Apollo and despising all moral law advise a random heedless life more excusable is the long suffering for loctaties no evil thing has been known to perish no the gods take tender care of such and have a strange joy in turning back from Hades all things villainous and navish while they are forever sending the just and the good out of life how am I to deem of these things or wherein shall I praise them when praising the ways of the gods I find that the gods are evil but in the end all these doubts and complaints are overwhelmed by the catastrophe of the drama prophetic truth and divine providence are fully vindicated only at the close of the Trachiniae Hylus standing over the body of his father Heracles who having toiled through life for the good of mankind and innocent of wrong died a death of unspeakable agony pronounces on the gods a judgment that the audience carried uncontroverted to their homes Mark the great cruelty of the gods in the deeds that are being done they have children and are hailed as fathers and yet they can look upon such sufferings no man foresees the future but the present is fraught with mourning for us and with shame for the powers above and verily with anguish beyond compare for him who endures this doom burial and its rights among the religious rights most sacred are those attending burial it is a great comfort to the dying man to know that his body is not cast forth a prey to dogs and birds a law which the gods have established requires kinsmen to bury their dead with all due ceremony for burying her brother in obedience to this order of heaven Antigone was condemned to interment alive I will bury him well for me to die in doing that I shall rest a loved one with him whom I have loved sinless in my crime for I owe a longer allegiance to the dead than to the living in that world I shall abide forever it was the duty of the king to wash and deck the body to lay it on the funeral pyre to place the ashes in the urn for depositing in the tomb thereafter it was fitting at intervals to pour offerings on the mound and encircle it with garlands of flowers and place there on locks of hair freshly cut from the head no enemy of the dead should join in these ceremonies future life references to future life are vague yet one who like Oedipus has innocently suffered may hope there for recompense many were the sorrows that came to him without cause but in requital a just God shall lift him up for him the nether adamant was riven in love that he might pass on without pain to the world of the dead sufferers in this life preferred to think of death as sleep a perfect rest from pain those who had passed on however were not without feeling and thought the vexing or punishing of their foes gave them pleasure and they had praise for kinsfolk who showed piety to the dead when duly invoked the soul came in kindness from the world below to aid a helpless kinswoman against a powerful enemy ties of kin and marriage strongest of all ties is that of blood to move men to compassion and sucker piety to kin is a higher law than allegiance to the state even as eternity surpasses the span of earthly life the ideal marriage is founded on love like that of Antigone and Hamon a bond whose breaking ruptures life itself love is the greatest of conquerors of destroyers it is a power enthroned in sway beside the eternal laws the wife the change from girlhood to wedded life involves the assumption of grave cares and responsibilities yes the tender plant grows in those sheltered regions of its own and the sun god's heat fixes it not nor rain nor any wind but it rejoices in its sweet untroubled being till such time as the girl is called a wife and finds her portion of anxious thoughts in the night brooding on danger to husband or to children her all absorbing affection brooks no rival in her husband's favor fierce jealousy awakened by the slightest cause drives her to love charms a chance to crime but the good wife is her husband solace and his discreet counselor she warns him to avoid danger and excessive pride or anger and urges upon him a moderate conciliatory temper such wives were jocasta and even more tech messa it is natural for the husband to honor his wife above his fellow citizens and to respect her prudence but the pot demands that as the catastrophe draws near the hero his spirit a flame with misguided passion should brutally override her dearest wishes in the mad on rush to his doom overcome by grief she slays herself her death is the mortal stab in a heart already wounded within sufferable woes alas exclaims creon when he hears the awful news of his wife's suicide I was already as dead and thou hast smitten me anew what is this new message that thou bringest me woe woe is me of a wife's doom slaughter heaped on slaughter not every marriage is desirable the evil wife sharer of home is a joy that soon grows cold for no wound could strike deeper than a false friend like the hardened murderous clitamnestra who treacherously slew her husband and keeps the day of his death with doubts and song and month by month sacrifices sheep to the gods who have wrought her deliverance woman's condition has declined the condition of woman has sunk somewhat below the level of the preceding generation it is true that girls are represented as walking freely out of doors with no one to attend and grown women to take an active part in the councils of family and state yet these activities belong to the theatrical tradition though not wholly a direct reflection of the life of the age at least they do not offend its taste hence they call for no apology from the poet the decline is seen mainly in the increasing emphasis on the inferiority of women to men in strength and efficiency and on the desirability of their remaining at home and of observing silence thus the case is put to Electra by her gentler sister seist thou not? thou art a woman not a man and no match for thy adversaries in strength elsewhere the same thought is echoed nay we must remember that we were born women who should not strive with men King Creon thinks it dastardly to yield to woman's will or persuasion contemptible is the victory one with woman's aid furthermore that a girl should walk in public unprotected is decried as fraught with peril far better to remain indoors than range at large yet even this seclusion is made their approach by one of their sex nay by ever virgin Artemis exclaims Electra I will never stoop to fear women stay at home's vain burdens of the ground akin to this sentiment is the proverb silence graces woman no less widely entertained for being uttered by a madman not withstanding adverse sentiments and repressive customs actual women only in a less degree than the characters of the stage retain their share of speech their participation in religious festivals and while losing ground in society beyond the home make compensatory gains in influence within the family circle the love of kin the bond of love and of comradeship is notably strong between daughter and father the saddest thought of blind edipus and contemplating exile is that of leaving his daughters my two girls poor hapless ones who never knew my table spread apart or lacked their father's presence but ever in all things shared my daily bread I pray thee care for them the same union of love and duty however runs through the family constraining the members to forgiveness of anger and of even greater vexations thus Antigone reminds her father of his duty toward an airing son thou art his sire so that even if he were to wrong thee with the most impious of foul wrongs father it is not lawful for thee to wrong him again a most essential element of such a family as respect for parents obedience to a father is the best of laws the duty of toiling for a parent in need is perfectly fulfilled for her exiled father by Antigone from the time her tender age was passed and she came to a woman's strength she has ever been the old man's guide in weary wanderings oft roaming hungry and barefoot through the wild wood oft saw vexed by rains and scorching heat but regarding not the comforts of home if so her father should have tendons the warping of family affection human limitations these ideal relations among kinsmen may be fearfully warped by sin the doctrine of the hereditary curse its causes operation and results is essentially the same as that of Aeschylus the inner force that impels man to crime is insolence a disposition to flout divine law with all his splendid powers of mind man's chief lesson therefore is to learn his human limitations he must not think himself a god in power or kill fair hope by fretting over transitory ills remember that the son of cronos himself the old disposing king hath not appointed a painless lot for mortals sorrow and joy come round to all as the bear moves in his circling path let the prosperous and the powerful keep in mind the instability of their condition there is no a state of mortal life that I would ever praise or blame as settled fortune raises and fortune humbles the lucky or unlucky from day to day and no one can prophesy to men concerning these things that are appointed what is ordained we can by no means escape dreadful is the mysterious power of fate there is no deliverance from it by wealth or by war by fenced city or by dark sea beaten ships therefore while our eyes wait to see the destined final day we must call no one happy who is of mortal rates until he hath crossed life's border free from pain of times indeed the cup of life holds so much bitterness as to make us doubt the worth of living not to be born is past all prizing best but when a man had seen the light this is next best by far that with all speed he should go thither whence he hath come sufferings are providential for when he hath seen youth go by with its light follies what troubleous affliction is strange to his lot what suffering is not therein envy factions strife battles and slaughters and last of all age claims him for her own age dispraised in firm unsociable unfriended with which all woe of woe abides but sufferings come in the providence of God in the working out of destiny he implants in man wisdom the supreme part of happiness and reverence toward the powers above great words of prideful men are ever punished with great blows which in old age teach the chastened to be wise moreover the afflictions of fellow men afford an opportunity for service man's noblest task is to help others by his best means and powers citizen and state man not only lives his individual and family life but forms part of the state our country is the ship that bears us safe and only in her well-being can the citizens find prosperity it behooves them then to prize the fatherland above all other ties for its security depends upon the citizen when he honors the laws of the land and that justice which he has sworn by the gods to uphold proudly stands his city no city have he who for his rashness dwells with sin not only in self-interest but through gratitude for nurture and protection does the citizen owe the state a kindly loyalty civic virtue his training in civic obligation begins in the family he who does his duty in his own household will be found righteous in the state as well in opposition to the rising spirit of fault-finding with government and magistrates there is enjoined a strict obedience to authority never can laws have prosperous cause in a city where dread has no place but where there is license to insult and to act at will doubt not that such a state though favouring Gaels have sped her someday at last sinks into the depths it is urged with reason that right or wrong the legitimate authority should be obeyed the competent should rule in public life there is need of able men to lead the small without the great can ill be trusted to man the walls lowly legged with great will prosper best great served by less but foolish men cannot learn these truths before their mighty leader they cower still and dumb behind his back they rail against him and chatter like flocking birds here we seem to discover the incipient oculocracy bridled but restive under the strong rule of Pericles though favouring the rule of the ablest Sophocles is no friend of tyranny his ideal government is that of a magistrate whatever his title chosen by the people on the ground of ability and of proved loyalty to the state no God indeed but the first of men both in life's common chances and when mortals have to do with more than man in whose presence even plain folk may enjoy free speech such a magistrate is a man of large sympathy as well as of prudence who cares for his fellow citizens as a father for his children whose pride is in their well-being whose heart goes out to them in distress well what eye that ye suffer all yet sufferers as ye are there is not one of you whose sufferings are as mine your pain comes on each one of you for himself alone and for no other but my soul mourns at once for the city and for myself and for you such a ruler by precept and example leads the citizens on the way to virtue airing for their general character a great load of responsibility for a city as an army hangs wholly on its leaders and when men do lawless deeds it is the council of their leaders that corrupts them interstate relations war and peace particularly in their relations with each other governments have need of prudent guidance for averting useless wars since full many states lightly enter on offense even though their neighbour lives are right it is equally a duty to refrain from usurping power over voluntary allies of war for the protection of the oppressed the poet hardly approves on such an occasion he can glory in the Athenian knighthood in the flesh of steel and the brazen clanger of battle and can long for a bird's eye view of the conflict owe to be a dove with swift strength as the storm that I might reach an eerie cloud with gaze lifted above the fray in his eyes however war is lesser cause of glory than a bringer of sorrow for the slaughter of men the ruin of cities the enslavement and misery of captive women war is essentially an evil as it carries off the fittest passing by the weakling and the coward to be brief I would tell thee this war takes no evil man by choice but good men always better than that all wars should cease when are when will the number of the restless years be full at what term will they cease that bring on me the unending woe of a warrior's toils throughout the wide land of Troy for the sorrow and the shame of Hellas would that the man had passed into the depths of the sky or to all receiving Hades who taught the Hellenes to lead themselves for war in hateful arms are those toils of his from which so many toils have sprung yea it was he who wrote the ruin of men lessons from Sophocles many other lessons that the poet has for mankind but the sum of all is this love for our fellow men thoughts meet for mortals in violet reverence for the supreme being and wisdom the chief part of happiness they who have learned these lessons are loved of the powers above part three the personality of Pericles and his interpretation of Athenian character Pericles in relation to his age in our effort to penetrate into the mind and character of the Athenians we are aided by a study of the man who not only brought his community to a summative civilization never before reached by the human race but also incorporated and expressed in his own personality the highest ideals of his age born of a union of two illustrious gentes he inherited the inspiring traditions of both his father's patriotic achievements in the war with Persia the great constitutional work of his mother's kin the thrilling events of his childhood and youth attending the struggle for freedom and the founding of empire were in him transmuted into force and nobility of character directed to the political, intellectual and moral elevation of his country his education Pericles enjoyed the best education possible in that age music which included not only lessons on the liar but literature and other elementary studies was taught him by Daemon who became his chief political advisor the aristocratic youth practiced singing and lyre playing not chiefly with a view to entertaining himself for his friends in social gatherings but for the moral cultivation of his feelings the lyric song he learned with its triple theme God, blood and Fatherland stirred in the singer and the hearers not individualistic but civic emotions among the teachers of his riper years was Zeno the eliotic philosopher the creator of dialectic pointed systematic conversation directed to the refutation of error and to the establishment of truth more influential was Anaxagoras of Clasaminai mentioned above these philosophers freed his mind from superstition by directing it to a search for natural causes inherent tendency under philosophic cultivation developed into a serenity of temper which no insult or abuse could ruffle his oratory to the same combination of natural character and instruction is due his lofty dignified eloquence which earned for him the name Olympian though he had no instruction in rhetoric which was introduced into Athens too late for his service he took great pains with his language and before delivering a speech he always prayed that nothing unbecoming might fall from his lips his delivery was statuesque scarcely a gesture ruffled the folds of his mantle no theatricality but the weight of his words the majesty of his person his deep earnestness and the confidence of the people in his patriotism wisdom and incorruptibility carried conviction his estate in order to concentrate his whole energy upon public affairs he gave over the management of his inherited estate to an able trusty slave evangelus who sold all the produce in alum and bought for the family the necessities of life as they were required the method was far from economical but Pericles was content with a mere subsistence from his estate without increase or diminution of its value such was the ideal of his social class his family, Aspasia Pericles' wife was a kinswoman, Telacipi the mothers of his sons Santhippus and Paralus but as they could not live happily together Pericles at her request found her another husband afterwards he was attracted to Aspasia a highly accomplished woman from Miletus as Athenian women had merely a domestic education and were now kept more strictly at home than they had been in the past a class of non Athenian women termed companions better educated and more attractive than the natives usurped their place in the society of men under his own law of 451 Pericles could contract no more than an inferior marriage with Aspasia which excluded the children from the citizenship they had a son, Pericles who was given the franchise by a special vote of the assembly this union proved most happy but the high-born dames of Athens regarding Aspasia as a social outcast at first refused to visit her though in time they overcame this prejudice Socrates and other brilliant men of the age gathered at her house to discuss questions of rhetoric, philosophy and practical life with her and brought their wives that they too might benefit by the conversation the best interpreter of his age no one could doubt the competence of this man of clear penetrating vision to interpret the character and ideals of his people this task he sets before himself in the funeral oration delivered over those who fell in the first year of the great war with Peloponnesus 431 as given by Thucydides the essential ideas are those of the statesman but the style is certainly that of the historian who in inserting the oration in his narrative after the close of the war undoubtedly took some liberty even with the thought however that may be it forms one of the most precious documents in the history of civilization democracy and government and society first he explains the political constitution and the manner of life in which the Athenians rose to greatness the government is called a democracy for the administration is in the hands of the many not of the few but while the law secures equal justice to all alike talent is also recognized and when a citizen is in any way distinguished he is preferred for the public service not as a matter of privilege but on grounds of excellence alone neither is poverty a bar but a man may benefit his country whatever be the obscurity of his condition in social relations prevails a large measure of liberty as we have given free play to all in our public life so in our private intercourse we are not suspicious of one another nor angry with our neighbor if he does what he likes we put on no sour looks at him which though they leave no mark are unpleasant open and friendly in our private intercourse we cherish a spirit of reverence in our public acts we are kept from wrong by respect for authority and the laws particularly those for the protection of the oppressed a happy environment he gives a reason for the festivals more numerous and splendid than in any other Hellenic city we have not forgotten to provide our spirits with many relaxations from toil there are regular games and festivals throughout the year our home life is refined and the delight we daily feel in all these blessings helps banish sadness happiness was not an end in itself but a condition of collective efficiency with all the drudgery of their training the Lacedaemonians he contends are unequal in war to us who without laborious drill win by light hearts and valor their ideals are purely military ours are of a nobler type our city is equally admirable in peace and war for we are lovers of the beautiful yet simple in our tastes and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness wealth to us is not mere material for vain glory but an opportunity for achievement with us to avail poverty is no disgrace the true shame is in doing nothing to avoid it on such principles the Athenians have attained a high degree of mentality and sane judgment if few of us are originators we are all sound judges of policy in our opinion the great impediment to action is not deliberation but the want of knowledge gained by discussion preparatory to action for we have the peculiar power of thinking before we act and of acting too whereas other men are courageous from ignorance but hesitate on reflection a great imperial and international policies such as Pericles was following had to rest not on narrow ignorant selfishness but on a kindly liberal spirit in doing good we are unlike others for we make our friends by conferring not by receiving favours we alone benefit our neighbours not upon a calculation of interest but in the confidence of freedom and in a frank and fearless spirit on all these grounds the citizens and the state afford a patent for other Greeks in a word I claim that Athens is the school of Hellas and that the individual Athenian in his own person clearly possesses the power of adapting himself to the most varied activities with the utmost versatility and grace civic education music and the drama to meet the varied requirements of the citizen in this intense democracy in which more than in any other life was civic duty a man had to be well educated not in books but in public affairs he began his training on a small scale in the Deem where local affairs were freely discussed in town meeting and local officers gave a taste of communal management further experience he gained in one or more of the thousand administrative officers of the state and empire and in the Ecclesia and law courts a practical education in itself narrow and sorted must be broadened and elevated by ideals the Athenians needed the teachings and the inspiration of their great poets and this instruction they received from the choral songs at festivals and particularly from the drama presented in the theater more than 60 days distributed throughout the year were given to festivals including dramatic exhibitions to which must be added the holidays of the Deems the wealthy citizens provided the entertainments spending on the many times the sum required by the state and receiving their reward in the respect and the political support of the masses every year too from one to two thousand boys and men appeared before the public in choruses for the dramatic and other exhibitions which required them these choral services as well as others generally rotated among the qualified citizens thus giving all or nearly all a training in music and some study of literature hence we may understand why it was that the Athenian public in the theater could follow the great tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles and could appreciate literary illusions and fine points in music which have been irrecoverably lost to the world intellectual and moral elevation not simply the artistic taste of the community but the intellectual keenness and grasp of these men who could follow the arguments of orators on complicated questions of foreign policy as well as the great dramas of the age were wonderful from the entire Hellenic race more highly endowed than any other a happy combination of circumstances had selected the Athenian community and had lifted it equally high above the general Greek level the moral plane of life too was nothing mean this fact we discover in the extreme attention paid to manners and morals in education from infancy through childhood and youth by parents, nurse, governor and teachers education and admonition commence in the first years of childhood and last to the very end of life mother and nurse and father and tutor are vying with one another about the improvement of the child as soon as ever he is able to understand what is being said to him he cannot say or do anything without their setting forth to him that this is just and that is unjust this is honourable that is dishonourable this is holy that is unholy do this and abstain from that if he obeys well and good if not he is straightened by threats and blows like a piece of bent or warped wood at a later stage they send him to teachers and enjoin them to see to his manners even more than to his reading and music and the teachers do as they are desired when accordingly the boy has learned his letters and is beginning to understand what is written as before he understood only what was spoken they put into his hands the works of great poets which he reads sitting on a bench in school in these works are contained many admonitions and many tales and praises and eulogies of ancient famous men which he is required to learn by heart in order that he may imitate or emulate them and desire to become like them then again the teachers of the liar take similar care that their young pupil is temperate and gets into no mischief and when they have taught him the use of the liar they introduce him to the poems of other excellent poets who are lyric poets these poems they set to music and make their harmonies and rhythms quite familiar to the children's souls in order that they may learn to be more gentle and harmonious and rhythmical and so more fitted for speech and action for the life of man in every part has need of harmony and rhythm then they send them to the master of gymnastics in order that their bodies may better minister to the virtuous mind and that they may not be compelled through bodily weakness to play the coward in war or on other such occasions this is done by those who have the means, the rich their children begin to go to school soonest and leave off latest good order in the theatre the same high moral standard we see in the perfect order at the theatres there the people gathered not to judge of the music but to receive recreation and instruction and no one dared make a noise expressing approval or the reverse in early time music was divided among us into certain kinds and manners one sort consisted of prayers to the gods which were called hymns and there was another and opposite sort called lamentations and another called peons and another celebrating the birth of Dionysus called I believe Dithyrams they used further the actual word laws for another kind of song and to this kind they added the term Scytheroedic all these and others were duly distinguished nor were the performers allowed to confuse one style with another furthermore the authority which determined and gave judgment and punished the disobedient was not expressed in a hiss nor in the most unmusical shouts of the multitude as in our own days nor in applause and clapping of hands but the directors of public instruction insisted that the spectator should listen in silence to the end and boys and their tutors and the multitude in general were kept quiet by a hint from a stick blemishes and limitations morality is civic further evidence is the appeal of the dramatic poets to a remarkably high moral sense and the lofty moral key in which the funeral oration of Pericles is pitched most of all the moral quality shows itself in the sacrifice of the individual to the good of the community all this does not signify that either private or public life was faultless the blemishes of the civilization show themselves for example in the indecent seas of comedy in the cramping of the lives of native women and the license allowed to the companions of foreign birth in the existence of slavery however good may have been the condition of slaves in the narrowness and exclusiveness of Athenian interests as opposed to those of medics dependent allies Hellenes and the world a selfishness easily explicable by the conditions of the times but nonetheless an imperfection a part of the narrowness here mentioned a part of the strength and weakness of the city state is the fact that her morality was essentially civic the fundamental motive to write conduct as Pericles himself asserts is the good of the state I would have you day by day fix your eyes upon the greatness of Athens till you become filled with the love of her and when you are impressed by the spectacle of her glory reflect that this empire she owes to men with the fighters daring the wise man's understanding of his duty and the good man's self-discipline in its performance to men who if they failed in any ordeal disdain to deprive the city of their services but sacrifice their lives as the best offerings in her behalf the patriotic devotion here required was too intense to be lasting no long time after Pericles the gradual disintegration of the city states resulted in depriving the citizen of his moral basis and compelled him to fight out anew the whole battle of conduct on other very different ground end of chapter 17 and end of the age of Pericles