J. A. M'Clymont

“ The two drums of columns in shadow in the foreground reflect the pure blue of the early morning sky. Over their tops may be seen part of the Propylæa, and the mountains of Daphni and Megara.
Athena appears to have been worshipped as a powerful and beneficent deity in many places, but it was at Athens that the more intellectual aspects of her nature were brought into the greatest prominence. How she came to be so closely associated with Athens as to give her name to the city (previously known as “Cecropia”) is a question that is not easily answered. ”

“ Opinions may differ as to the right interpretation of many of the myths, but whatever explanation we may be disposed to give of them, whether we regard them as allegorical, semi-historical, or purely poetical, they are generally full of human interest, and they were very dear to the Greeks as the embodiment of their earliest thoughts and cherished memories. Embalmed in their poetry, consecrated by their temples, and signalised by many other monuments, the Greek mythology formed for centuries the chief intellectual wealth of the nation. ”

“ The Iliad and Odyssey show to what a high degree of civilisation and culture the Hellenic race had attained not much later than 1000 B.C. In the freeness of their spirit, combined with reverence for law, and in their vivid portraiture of the different members of the Pantheon, seen through the medium of a rich and sympathetic humanity, the poems present a pleasing contrast to all other heathen pictures of things human and divine. Their language is as admirable as the thought,—so rich and flexible, entirely free from the crudities that might have been expected in such primitive literature. ”

“ The friends of those who had fallen, instead of being cast down with grief, went about with a proud and glad mien, as if they knew they were entitled to honour and respect, while the relatives of those who had allowed themselves to be taken prisoners or had made their escape were depressed and sad, as if they had reason to be ashamed in the presence of their neighbours. When tidings of the terrible disaster at Leuctra arrived at Sparta the whole community were engaged in the celebration of the festival of gymnopædia, and the chorus of grown men was at the moment performing in the theatre. ”

“ The event must have made an enormous impression, when even such an illustrious poet as Æschylus regarded it as the greatest honour of his life that he had fought at Marathon, and left directions that that fact, and no other, should be recorded on his tomb.
Ten years later the same peril reappeared in a still more threatening form, and again the men of Athens covered themselves with glory. It might have been expected that when Xerxes and his immense host approached the city they would have prepared for a siege. ”

“ A remorseless work of destruction then ensued, involving the temples and other buildings on the Acropolis in the same fate as had befallen, or was soon to befall, the best of the houses in the city, and its walls. It seemed to the Athenians a terrible calamity at the time, but it proved to be a blessing in disguise, for it led to the restoration of the city on a scale of grandeur unknown before, and made the Acropolis one of the wonders of the world. ”

“ Nowhere has the spade achieved greater triumphs than in this venerated spot. The story of Schliemann’s excavations, both here and at Troy, is one of the romances of the nineteenth century. From his childhood everything mysterious had a fascination for him, and he was possessed with a passionate admiration for the heroes of the Iliad. Though he was early thrown upon his own resources to earn a livelihood, and had a hard struggle for many years, he found time for the study of Greek and other languages, which he mastered chiefly by committing whole books to memory. ”

“ The almost total disappearance of the bright and varied colouring which enhanced the beauty of certain parts of the building, and the loss of so many of the wonderful sculptures, as well as the gaps in the walls and colonnade, detract greatly from the ancient glory of the building. But time has added a golden tinge to the Pentelic marble of which it is composed, and the whole exterior wears a rich and mellow aspect,—especially when seen under the light of the rising or the setting sun,—which affords some compensation for the damage sustained in other respects. ”

“ It would scarcely be possible to over-estimate the importance of the battle of Marathon in Greek history. It virtually saved the country from being overrun by oriental barbarism, and gave the world a signal proof for all time that the military strength of a people depends more on their animating spirit than on their numbers, and that it is possible for a comparatively small nation to preserve its independence if its citizens be united and resolute in devotion to the common cause. ”

“ The whole history of Athens, from the rude beginnings of her civilisation till the age of her imperial glory, may be seen reflected, after a symbolic fashion, in the gradual transition of her worship from the wooden image of Athena Polias, which was said to have fallen from heaven, to the magnificent statue of gold and ivory which Pheidias made for the Parthenon; and one of the most interesting studies in art is to be found in tracing the successive stages through which the majestic virgin-goddess was evolved. ”

“ No hero was credited with more wonderful performances than Theseus both by land and sea, and even in the underground world, though his efforts there were not so successful. His most memorable exploit in the eyes of the Athenians was the destruction of the Minotaur, a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull, which was kept at Knossus, the capital of the Cretan empire of Minos, and to which Athens had to devote a sacrifice of seven youths and seven maidens every nine years. ”

“ It is easy to see that in the education of the young it cannot be favourable to vigour or spontaneity of thought if the pupil is denied the use of the words to which he has been accustomed from his earliest years. With such a discord between experience and expression, it is no wonder that the Greek people have produced so little native literature{225} during the last two thousand years, and that they are so largely dependent at the present time on foreign authorship, especially Russian, English, and French. ”

“ The evil omen struck the imagination of his soldiers and their hearts were beginning to sink, when Timoleon, seizing some of the parsley, made a wreath of it and put it on his head, exclaiming that it was their Corinthian emblem of victory which fortune was now putting in their way. His officers followed his example, the result being that the spirits of the army rose, and they went forward to a glorious victory. ”

“ Even if there were no such names in Greek history as Hesiod, Pindar, Pelopidas, and Plutarch, the memory of Epaminondas would be sufficient to redeem Bœotia from the reproach so often cast upon it as a land of dullards. He was not only a consummate general, whose name will always be associated with the irresistible phalanx which anticipated that of Macedonia, [2] but was in every respect a great man—the greatest of the Greeks, according to Cicero. ”

“ Mycenæ is on the flank of the hills, and possesses good springs, that great treasure in the thirsty plains of Argolis. Its fine military position is guarded by rocky defiles. Its watch-towers command every vale from which a land force could attack, and every space of sea-coast that might reveal a pirate’s raid. It is the very gate of the pass that leads from the plain of Argos to the beach of Corinth, and to this day the train takes travellers past its portals from Nauplia to the north-western gulf. ”

“ In the western plain of Arcadia, separated from that of Tegea and Mantinea by the Mænalus range, stood the “great city,” Megalopolis, which owed its existence to the genius and the determination of Epaminondas. He saw that Arcadia would never be secure against Spartan invasion until means could be found to unite its forces. The jealousy between Tegea and Mantinea rendered it impossible for either of these cities to be chosen as the capital, and another site was found by the banks of the Helisson, a tributary of the Alpheus. ”

“ To refresh himself in his long climb under the rays of the sun pouring down upon him from a cloudless sky, Leonidas may help himself so liberally as to get excited and break out into song and story, imperilling the rider’s life, perhaps, by going off the main track and having to turn where the horse has difficulty in keeping its hind feet from slipping down the side of a precipice ”

“ Its scholars are beginning to see that the idea of classical Greek ever becoming a universal language for men of culture is a vain dream, and that a nation’s speech, like its life, must undergo continual modification. ”

“ A walk or ride of a few miles to the west, through an exuberant country, brings you to the foot of a mountain called Mistra, which springs like an offshoot from the roots of Taÿgetus. It looks small compared with the giant range behind, but it is 2000 feet high, and commands one of the most charming views in Greece,{92} across the valley of the Eurotas and down towards the gorge opening on the sea. ”

“ The social system introduced by Lycurgus about the beginning of the eighth century B.C., under the direction, as was believed, of the Delphian oracle, was founded upon a species of communism to which only those were admitted who were full citizens of Sparta, and had sufficient property to contribute their appointed quota to the expenses of the common mess. All the citizens without exception had to conform with the utmost regularity to a rigorous code of discipline, which was fitted to produce habits of courage, strength, endurance, self-denial, and simplicity of life. ”

“ One great defect in the Spartan discipline was the want of a natural home-life for the growth of family affection and social culture. Their city was more like an armed camp in the midst of a hostile population than the capital of a civilised state. ”

“ But you have only to go a short distance to the west and you will find the olive woods, rich in all their ancient charms. For the Greek scholar Colonus will always have a strong attraction as the birthplace of Sophocles, and as the scene of his Œdipus Coloneus; but the ordinary traveller will perhaps find his best reward for the excursion in the very beautiful view which it affords of Athens and the Acropolis. ”

“ Even when history and philosophy had begun to make their influence felt, the old stories, dramatised by the tragic poets, still continued to fill the imagination and to occupy the attention of all classes of the people. Though Plato had a good deal to say against some of them from an ethical point of view, he did not propose in his ideal Republic to do away with them altogether, he only wished them to be so corrected and purified as to promote the interests of a sound morality and a reasonable theology. ”

“ ATHENS AND ITS ACROPOLIS NOWHERE in Greece, nowhere perhaps in the ancient world, were the geographical conditions more favourable to the growth of a genial, intelligent, and energetic community than in Athens. The sky was bright, the air pure, and the climate temperate. The soil, while not so rich as to demoralise the inhabitants or to offer much inducement to an invader, yielded its cultivators the means of subsistence in the form of figs, olives, corn, and wine. ”

“ Herodotus gives a striking instance of its high standard of morality when, in answer to an inquirer who asked whether by repudiating his oath he might claim a large sum of money which had been deposited with him, the prophetess declared that to tempt the god as he had done and to commit the crime was the same thing, and that the divine judgment would descend on him and on his house. For “there is a nameless son of Perjury, who has neither hands nor feet; he pursues swiftly, until he seizes and destroys the whole race and all the house.” ”

“ One of the most sacred obligations of a Greek army after an engagement was to recover the bodies of its dead, and whenever a truce for this purpose was asked by the defeated side it could not be refused without a breach both of honour and of religion. At the interment it was customary for a funeral oration to be delivered in praise of those who had given their lives for their country. ”

“ Politics is the chief occupation of its educated citizens—dust and politics, indeed, are said to be its two plagues. The whole of Greece is remarkable for its consuming interest in politics; and, next to the daily newspapers, of which some thirteen are published in Athens, history is the favourite reading of the people. Unfortunately for the welfare of the country, the interest in politics does not arise so much from zeal for rival principles as from party struggles for place and power. ”

“ That the appointment to public offices should have been made by lot, as a general rule, and that no one, however eminent for ability and experience, should have been eligible as a member of the Council more than twice, shows how the public interests of the state were sacrificed to the theory of personal equality among the citizens. Even the high level of culture at Athens could not justify such a disregard for the inevitable diversity of natural gifts and acquired habits in every community. ”

“ But the rich and varied scenery through which you pass, as you traverse mountain sides bordering on precipitous gorges, and thread your way{68} through umbrageous forests and flowery though often thorny thickets, and ford rivers, and skirt vineyards and cornfields, with an occasional view of far-away summits white with snow glistening in the sun—makes the experience an interesting and vivid recollection. ”

“ Cicero, who, like so many of his countrymen, studied at Athens, speaks with admiration of these monuments; and we can imagine that a walk in the neighbourhood must have been as interesting and inspiring to an Athenian as a visit to Westminster or St. Paul’s is to a modern Briton. Many of the monuments were in honour of large bodies of men who had lost their lives in battle; but, as Pausanias tells, there were also to be seen the tombs of great statesmen like Solon, Cleisthenes, and Pericles; great warriors like Chabrias, Phormio, and Conon; great benefactors like Thrasybulus and Lycurgus ”

“ The fabulous wealth of the place had often tempted the cupidity of foreign foes, but on every occasion the god had been found able to protect himself. When Xerxes sent a detachment of his huge army to despoil the shrine, his soldiers were thrown into a panic and put utterly to flight by great rocks tumbling down upon them from the cliffs of Parnassus in the midst of a terrible thunderstorm. The rocks were shown to Herodotus in the precincts of the temple of Athena,—perhaps the same as are still to be seen in the low ground to the south of the public road. ”

“ Hence the most of the Greek which one reads in current literature bears a strong resemblance to that of the classical authors studied at school and college, and a good Greek scholar has no great difficulty in reading an Athenian newspaper, if he make himself acquainted with a few modern particles of frequent occurrence, and have patience to make out the meaning of the new combinations that have been devised to meet the requirements of modern civilisation. ”

“ The situation is beautiful, especially as one looks west upon the grand range of Taÿgetus, its lower slopes and valleys clothed with the richest vegetation, while its serried peaks, extending for miles towards Cape Matapan on the south, rise into the region of perpetual snow. The site of the ancient city is for the most part covered over with olive-groves and corn-fields and other vegetation. Traces of a large theatre have been found,{90} and there is a massive stone structure which goes by the name of Leonidas’ tomb. There are a few other remains, but none of any great interest. ”

“ His patriotism was equal to his wisdom, and the first thing that won for him the admiration and affection of his fellow-citizens was the fearless enthusiasm with which he appealed to them to make a fresh attempt to regain Salamis from the Megarians. The island had been so completely abandoned by the Athenians that they had decreed the penalty of death against any one who should attempt to rekindle the war, which had proved disastrous. ”

“ Even a greater evil than the personal self-seeking which began to prevail was the collective selfishness by which the Spartans had long been distinguished. As a rule, they were comparatively indifferent to the general interests of the Hellenic race, and on more than one occasion they showed that they were ready to sacrifice these interests for their own immediate advantage, currying favour with the Persians at the cost of the liberties of the Asiatic Greeks, and envying and grieving at the naval empire of Athens, while they failed to take advantage of their own opportunities{85} ”

“ Such disintegrating tendencies were too much even for the consolidating force of a common language and literature, or of voluntary confederations for the purpose of worship or amusement. Occasionally a great national emergency, such as the Persian invasion, might force the Greeks to join together for the resistance of a common foe, but it was almost inevitable that sooner or later they should fall into the hands of a great military power, such as Macedonia, and lose the civic liberties of which they were so proud. The political decay of Greece, however, only widened the scope of its influence. ”