A General History for Colleges and High Schools

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[Illustration: HOMER.]

DATE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE HOMERIC POEMS.--Until the rise of modern German
criticism, the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ were almost universally
ascribed to a single bard named Homer, who was believed to have lived
about the middle of the ninth or tenth century B.C., one or two centuries
after the events commemorated in his poems. Though tradition represents
many cities as contending for the honor of having been his birthplace,
still he was generally regarded as a native of Smyrna, in Asia Minor. He
travelled widely (so it was believed), lost his sight, and then, as a
wandering minstrel, sang his immortal verses to admiring listeners in the
different cities of Hellas.

But it is now the opinion of many scholars that the _Iliad_ and the
_Odyssey_, as they stand today, are not, either of them, the creation
of a single poet. They are believed to be mosaics; that is, to be built up
out of the fragments of an extensive ballad literature that grew up in an
age preceding the Homeric. The "Wrath of Achilles," which forms the
nucleus of the _Iliad_ as we have it, may, with very great probability, be
ascribed to Homer, whom we may believe to have been the most prominent of
a brotherhood of bards who flourished about 850 or 750 B.C.

THE HESIODIC POEMS.--Hesiod, who lived a century or more after the age
that gave birth to the Homeric poems, was the poet of nature and of real
life, especially of peasant life, in the dim transition age of Hellas. The
Homeric bards sing of the deeds of heroes, and of a far-away time when
gods mingled with men. Hesiod sings of common men, and of every-day,
present duties. His greatest poem, a didactic epic, is entitled _Works
and Days_. This is, in the main, a sort of farmers' calendar, in which
the poet points out to the husbandman the lucky and unlucky days for doing
certain kinds of work, eulogizes industry, and intersperses among all his
practical lines homely maxims of morality and beautiful descriptive
passages of the changing seasons.

LYRIC POETRY: PINDAR.--The AEolian island of Lesbos was the hearth and home
of the earlier lyric poets. Among the earliest of the Lesbian singers was
the poetess Sappho, whom the Greeks exalted to a place next to Homer.
Plato calls her the Tenth Muse. Although her fame endures, her poetry,
except some mere fragments, has perished.

Anacreon was a courtier at the time of the Greek tyrannies. He was a
native of Ionia, but passed much of his time at the court of Polycrates of
Samos. He seems to have enjoyed to the full the gay and easy life of a
courtier, and sung so voluptuously of love and wine and festivity that the
term "Anacreontic" has come to be used to characterize all poetry over-
redolent of these themes.

But the greatest of the Greek lyric poets, and perhaps the greatest of all
lyric poets of every age and race, was Pindar (about 522-443 B.C.). He was
born at Thebes, but spent most of his time in the cities of Magna Graecia.
Such was the reverence in which his memory was held that when Alexander,
one hundred years after Pindar's time, levelled the city of Thebes to the
ground on account of a revolt, the house of the poet was spared, and left
standing amid the general ruin (see p. 161). The greater number of
Pindar's poems were inspired by the scenes of the national festivals. They
describe in lofty strains the splendors of the Olympian chariot-races, or
the glory of the victors at the Isthmian, the Nemean, or the Pythian
games.

Pindar insists strenuously upon virtue and self-culture. With deep meaning
he says, "Become that which thou art;" that is, be that which you are made
to be.

2. THE DRAMA AND DRAMATISTS.

ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA.--The Greek drama, in both its branches of
tragedy and comedy, grew out of the songs and dances instituted in honor
of the god of wine--Dionysus (the same as the Roman Bacchus).

Tragedy (goat-song, possibly from the accompanying sacrifice of a goat)
sprang from the graver songs, and comedy (village-song) from the lighter
and more farcical ones. Gradually, recital and dialogue were added, there
being at first but a single speaker, then two, and finally three, which
last was the classical number. Thespis (about 536 B.C.) is said to have
introduced this idea of the dialogue; hence the term "Thespian" applied to
the tragic drama.

[Illustration: BACCHIC PROCESSION.]

Owing to its origin, the Greek drama always retained a religious
character, and further, presented two distinct features, the chorus (the
songs and dances) and the dialogue. At first, the chorus was the all-
important part; but later, the dialogue became the more prominent portion,
the chorus, however, always remaining an essential feature of the
performance. Finally, in the golden age of the Attic stage, the chorus
dancers and singers were carefully trained, at great expense, and the
dialogue became the masterpiece of some great poet,--and then the Greek
drama, the most splendid creation of human genius, was complete.

THE THREE GREAT TRAGIC POETS.--There are three great names in Greek
tragedy,--AEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. These dramatists all wrote
during the splendid period which followed the victories of the Persian
war, when the intellectual life of all Hellas, and especially that of
Athens, was strung to the highest tension. This lent nervous power and
intensity to almost all they wrote, particularly to the tragedies of
AEschylus and Sophocles. Of the two hundred and more dramas produced by
these poets, only thirty-two have escaped the accidents of time.

AEschylus (525-456 B.C.) knew how to touch the hearts of the generation
that had won the victories of the Persian war; for he had fought with
honor both at Marathon and at Salamis. But it was on a very different
arena that he was destined to win his most enduring fame. Eleven times did
he carry off the prize in tragic composition. The Athenians called him the
"Father of Tragedy."

[Illustration: AESCHYLUS.]

The central idea of his dramas is that "no mortal may dare raise his heart
too high,"--that "Zeus tames excessive lifting up of heart." _Prometheus
Bound_ is one of his chief works. Another of his great tragedies is
_Agamemnon_, thought by some to be his masterpiece. The subject is
the crime of Clytemnestra (see p. 96). It is a tragedy crowded with
spirit-shaking terrors, and filled with more than human crimes and woes.
Nowhere is portrayed with greater power the awful vengeance with which the
implacable Nemesis is armed.

Sophocles (495-405 B.C.) while yet a youth gained the prize in a poetic
contest with AEschylus. Plutarch says that AEschylus was so chagrined by his
defeat that he left Athens and retired to Sicily. Sophocles now became the
leader of tragedy at Athens. In almost every contest he carried away the
first prize. He lived through nearly a century, a century, too, that
comprised the most brilliant period of the life of Hellas. His dramas were
perfect works of art. The leading idea of his pieces is the same as that
which characterizes those of AEschylus; namely, that self-will and insolent
pride arouse the righteous indignation of the gods, and that no mortal can
contend successfully against the will of Zeus.

[Illustration: SOPHOCLES.]

Euripides (485-406 B.C.) was a more popular dramatist than either AEschylus
or Sophocles. His fame passed far beyond the limits of Greece. Herodotus
asserts that the verses of the poet were recited by the natives of the
remote country of Gedrosia; and Plutarch says that the Sicilians were so
fond of his lines that many of the Athenian prisoners, taken before
Syracuse, bought their liberty by teaching their masters his verses.

COMEDY: ARISTOPHANES.--Foremost among all writers of comedy must be placed
Aristophanes (about 444-380 B.C.). He introduces us to the every-day life
of the least admirable classes of Athenian society. Four of his most noted
works are the _Clouds_, the _Knights_, the _Birds_, and the _Wasps_.

In the comedy of the _Clouds_, Aristophanes especially ridicules the
Sophists, a school of philosophers and teachers just then rising into
prominence at Athens, of whom the satirist unfairly makes Socrates the
representative.

The aim of the _Knights_ was the punishment and ruin of Cleon, whom
we already know as one of the most conceited and insolent of the
demagogues of Athens.

[Illustration: EURIPIDES.]

The play of the _Birds_ is "the everlasting allegory of foolish sham
and flimsy ambition." It was aimed particularly at the ambitious Sicilian
schemes of Alcibiades; for at the time the play appeared, the Athenian
army was before Syracuse, and elated by good news daily arriving, the
Athenians were building the most gorgeous air-castles, and indulging in
the most extravagant day-dreams of universal dominion.

In the _Wasps_, the poet satirizes the proceedings in the Athenian
law-courts, by showing how the great citizen-juries, numbering sometimes
five or six hundred, were befooled by the demagogues. But Aristophanes was
something more than a master of mere mirth-provoking satire and ridicule:
many of the choruses of his pieces are inexpressibly tender and beautiful.

[Illustration: HERODOTUS.]

3. HISTORY AND HISTORIANS.

Poetry is the first form of literary expression among all peoples. So we
must not be surprised to find that it was not until several centuries
after the composition of the Homeric poems--that is, about the sixth
century B.C.--that prose-writing appeared among the Greeks. Historical
composition was then first cultivated. We can speak briefly of only three
historians,--Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon,--whose names were
cherished among the ancients, and whose writings are highly valued and
carefully studied by ourselves.

HERODOTUS.--Herodotus (about 484-402 B.C.), born at Halicarnassus, in Asia
Minor, is called the "Father of History." He travelled over much of the
then known world, visiting Italy, Egypt, and Babylonia, and as an eye-
witness describes with a never-failing vivacity and freshness the wonders
of the different lands he had seen. Herodotus lived in a story-telling
age, and he is himself an inimitable story-teller. To him we are indebted
for a large part of the tales of antiquity--stories of men and events
which we never tire of repeating. He was over-credulous, and was often
imposed upon by his guides in Egypt and at Babylon; but he describes with
great care and accuracy what he himself saw. It is sometimes very
difficult, however, to determine just what he actually did see with his
own eyes and experience in his own person; for it seems certain that,
following the custom of the story-tellers of his time, he often related as
his own personal adventures the experiences of others, yet with no thought
of deceiving. In this he might be likened to our modern writers of
historical romances.

The central theme of his great History is the Persian wars, the struggle
between Asia and Greece. Around this he groups the several stories of the
nations of antiquity. In the pictures which the artist-historian draws, we
see vividly contrasted, as in no other writings, the East and the West,
Persia and Hellas.

THUCYDIDES.--Thucydides (about 471-400 B.C.), though not so popular an
historian as Herodotus, was a much more philosophical one. He was born
near Athens. A pretty story is told of his youth, which must be repeated,
though critics have pronounced it fabulous. The tale is that Thucydides,
when only fifteen, was taken by his father to hear Herodotus recite his
history at the Olympian games, and that the reading and the accompanying
applause caused the boy to shed tears, and to resolve to become an
historian.

[Illustration: THUCYDIDES.]

Thucydides was engaged in military service during the first years of the
Peloponnesian War; but, on account of his being unfortunate, possibly
through his own neglect, the Athenians deprived him of his command, and he
went into an exile of twenty years. It is to this circumstance that we are
indebted for his invaluable _History of the War between the Peloponnesians
and the Athenians_.

Through the closest observation and study, he qualified himself to become
the historian of what he from the first foresaw would prove a memorable
war. "I lived," he says, "through its whole extent, in the very flower of
my understanding and strength, and with a close application of my
thoughts, to gain an exact insight into all its occurrences." He died
before his task was completed. The work is considered a model of
historical writing. Demosthenes read and re-read his writings to improve
his own style; and the greatest orators and historians of modern times
have been equally diligent students of the work of the great Athenian.

XENOPHON.--Xenophon (about 445-355 B.C.) was an Athenian, and is known
both as a general and a writer. The works that render his name so familiar
are his _Anabasis_, a simple yet thrilling narrative of the Expedition of
the Ten Thousand Greeks; and his _Memorabilia_, or Recollections of
Socrates. This work by his devoted pupil is the most faithful portraiture
that we possess of that philosopher.

4. ORATORY.

INFLUENCE OF THE PUBLIC ASSEMBLY.--The art of oratory among the Greeks was
fostered and developed by the democratic character of their institutions.
The public assemblies of the democratic cities were great debating clubs,
open to all. The gift of eloquence secured for its possessor a sure pre-
eminence. The law-courts, too, especially the great jury-courts of Athens,
were schools of oratory; for every citizen was obliged to be his own
advocate and to defend his own case. Hence the attention bestowed upon
public speaking, and the high degree of perfection attained by the Greeks
in the difficult art of persuasion. Almost all the prominent Athenian
statesmen were masters of oratory.

THEMISTOCLES AND PERICLES.--We have already become acquainted with
Themistocles and Pericles as statesmen and leaders of Athenian affairs
during the most stirring period of the history of Athens. They both were
also great orators, and to that fact were largely indebted for their power
and influence. Thucydides has preserved the oration delivered by Pericles
in commemoration of those who fell in the first year of the Peloponnesian
War. It is an incomparable picture of the beauty and glory of Athens at
the zenith of her power, and has been pronounced one of the finest
productions of antiquity. The language of the address, as we have it, is
the historian's, but the sentiments are doubtless those of the great
statesman. It was the habit of Thucydides to put speeches into the mouths
of his characters.

DEMOSTHENES AND AESCHINES.--It has been the fortune of Demosthenes (385-322
B.C.) to have his name become throughout the world the synonym of
eloquence. The labors and struggles by which, according to tradition, he
achieved excellence in his art are held up anew to each generation of
youth as guides of the path to success. His first address before the
public assembly was a complete failure, owing to defects of voice and
manner. With indomitable will he set himself to the task of correcting
these. He shut himself up in a cave, and gave himself to the diligent
study of Thucydides. That he might not be tempted to spend his time in
society, he rendered his appearance ridiculous by shaving one side of his
head. To correct a stammering utterance, he spoke with pebbles in his
mouth, and broke himself of an ungainly habit of shrugging his shoulders
by speaking beneath a suspended sword. To accustom himself to the tumult
and interruptions of a public assembly, he declaimed upon the noisiest
seashore.

[Illustration: DEMOSTHENES.]

These are some of the many stories told of the world's greatest orator.
There is doubtless this much truth in them at least--that Demosthenes
attained success, in spite of great discouragements, by persevering and
laborious effort. It is certain that he was a most diligent student of
Thucydides, whose great history he is said to have known by heart. More
than sixty of his orations have been preserved. "Of all human productions
they present to us the models which approach the nearest to perfection."

The latter part of the life of Demosthenes is intertwined with that of
another and rival Athenian orator, AEschines. For his services to the
state, the Athenians proposed to award to Demosthenes a golden crown.
AEschines opposed this. All Athens and strangers from far and near gathered
to hear the rival orators; for every matter at Athens was decided by a
great debate. Demosthenes made the grandest effort of his life. His
address, known as the "Oration on the Crown," has been declared to be "the
most polished and powerful effort of human oratory." AEschines was
completely crushed, and was sent into exile, and became a teacher of
oratory at Rhodes.

He is said to have once gathered his disciples about him and to have read
to them the oration of Demosthenes that had proved so fatal to himself.
Carried away by the torrent of its eloquence, his pupils, unable to
restrain their enthusiasm, burst into applause. "Ah!" said AEschines, who
seemed to find solace in the fact that his defeat had been at the hands of
so worthy an antagonist, "you should have heard the wild beast himself!"

Respecting the orations of Demosthenes against Philip of Macedon, and the
death of the eloquent patriot, we have already spoken (see pp. 160, 174).

5. THE ALEXANDRIAN AGE.

The Alexandrian period of Greek literature embraces the time between the
break-up of Alexander's empire and the conquest of Greece by Rome (300-146
B.C.). During this period Alexandria in Egypt was the centre of literary
activity, hence the term _Alexandrian_, applied to the literature of
the age. The great Museum and Library of the Ptolemies afforded in that
capital such facilities for students and authors as existed in no other
city in the world.

[Illustration: IDEAL SCENE IN THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY]

But the creative age of Greek literature was over. With the loss of
political liberty, literature was cut off from its sources of inspiration.
Consequently the Alexandrian literature lacked freshness and originality.
The writers of the period were grammarians, commentators, and
translators,--in a word, book-worms.

One of the most important literary undertakings of the age was the
translation of the Old Testament into Greek. From the traditional number
of translators (seventy) the version is known as the _Septuagint_ (Latin
for seventy.) The work was probably begun by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and was
completed under his successors.

Among the poets of the period one name, and only one, stands out clear and
pre-eminent. This is that of Theocritus, a Sicilian idyllist, who wrote at
Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus. His idyls are beautiful pictures of
Sicilian pastoral life.

CONCLUSION: GRAECO-ROMAN WRITERS.--After the Roman conquest of Greece, the
centre of Greek literary activity shifted from Alexandria to Rome. Hence
Greek literature now passes into what is known as its Graeco-Roman period
(146 B.C.-527 A.D.).

The most noted historical writer of the first part of this period was
Polybius (about 203-121 B.C.), who wrote a history of the Roman conquests
from 264 to 146 B.C. His work, though the larger part of it has reached us
in a very mutilated state, is of great worth; for Polybius wrote of
matters that had become history in his own day. He had lived to see the
larger part of the world he knew absorbed by the ever-growing power of the
Imperial City.

Plutarch (b. about 40 A.D.), "the prince of ancient biographers," will
always live in literature as the author of the _Parallel Lives_, in
which, with great wealth of illustrative anecdotes, he compares or
contrasts Greek and Roman statesmen and soldiers.

CHAPTER XX.

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE.

THE SEVEN SAGES; THE FORERUNNERS.--About the sixth century B.C. there
lived and taught in different parts of Hellas many philosophers of real or
reputed originality and wisdom. Among these were seven men, called the
"Seven Sages," who held the place of pre-eminence. [Footnote: As in the
case of the Seven Wonders of the World, ancient writers were not always
agreed as to what names should be accorded the honor of enrolment in the
sacred number. Thales, Solon, Periander, Cleobulus, Chilo, Bias, and
Pittacus are, however, usually reckoned as the Seven Wise Men.] To them
belongs the distinction of having first aroused the Greek intellect to
philosophical thought. The wise sayings--such as "Know thyself" and
"Nothing in excess"--attributed to them, are beyond number.

The ethical maxims and practical proverbs ascribed to the sages, while,
like the so-called proverbs of Solomon, they contain a vast amount of
practical wisdom, still do not constitute philosophy proper, which is a
systematic search for the reason and causes of things. They form simply
the introduction or prelude to Greek philosophy.

THE IONIC PHILOSOPHERS.--The first Greek school of philosophy grew up in
the cities of Ionia, in Asia Minor, where almost all forms of Hellenic
culture seem to have had their beginning. The founder of the system was
Thales of Miletus (about 640-550 B.C.), who was followed by Anaximander,
Anaximenes, and Heraclitus.

One tenet held in common by all these philosophers was that matter and
mind are inseparable; or, in other words, that all matter is animate. They
never thought of the soul as something distinct and separable from matter
as we do. Even the soul in Hades was conceived as having a body in every
respect like that the soul possessed in the earthly life, only it was
composed of a subtler substance. This conception of matter as being alive
will help us to understand Greek mythology, which, it will be remembered,
endowed trees, rivers, springs, clouds, the planets, all physical objects
indeed, with intelligence and will.

PYTHAGORAS.--Pythagoras (about 580-500 B.C.) was born on the island of
Samos, whence his title of "Samian Sage." Probable tradition says that he
spent many years of his early life in Egypt, where he became versed in all
the mysteries of the Egyptians. He returned to Greece with a great
reputation, and finally settled at Crotona, in Italy.

Like many another ancient philosopher, Pythagoras sought to increase the
reverence of his disciples for himself by peculiarities of dress and
manner. His uncut hair and beard flowed down upon his shoulders and over
his breast. He never smiled. His dress was a white robe, with a golden
crown. For the first years of their novitiate, his pupils were not allowed
to look upon their master. They listened to his lectures from behind a
curtain. _Ipse dixit_, "he himself said so," was the only argument
they must employ in debate. It is to Pythagoras, according to legend, that
we are indebted for the word _philosopher_. Being asked of what he
was master, he replied that he was simply a "philosopher," that is, a
"lover of wisdom."

Pythagoras held views of the solar system that anticipated by two thousand
years those of Copernicus and his school. He taught, only to his most
select pupils however, that the earth is a sphere; and that, like the
other planets, it revolves about a central globe of fire. From him comes
the pretty conceit of the "music of the spheres." He imagined that the
heavenly spheres, by their swift, rolling motions, produced musical notes,
which united in a celestial melody, too refined, however, for human ears.

He taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, an idea he had
doubtless brought from Egypt. Because of this belief the Pythagoreans were
strict vegetarians, abstaining religiously from the use of all animal
food.

ANAXAGORAS.--Anaxagoras (499-427 B.C.) was the first Greek philosopher who
made _mind_, instead of necessity or chance, the arranging and harmonizing
force of the universe. "Reason rules the world" was his first maxim.

Anaxagoras was the teacher in philosophy of Pericles, and it is certain
that that statesman was greatly influenced by the liberal views of the
philosopher; for in his general conceptions of the universe, Anaxagoras
was far in advance of his age. He ventured to believe that the moon was
somewhat like the earth, and inhabited; and taught that the sun was not a
god, but a glowing rock, as large, probably, as the Peloponnesus.

But for his audacity, the philosopher suffered the fate of Galileo in a
later age; he was charged with impiety and exiled. Yet this did not
disturb the serenity of his mind. In banishment he said, "It is not I who
have lost the Athenians, but the Athenians who have lost me."

EMPEDOCLES AND DEMOCRITUS.--In the teachings of Empedocles (about 492-432
B.C.) and Democritus (about 460-370 B.C.) we meet with many speculations
respecting the constitution of matter and the origin of things which are
startlingly similar to some of the doctrines held by modern scientists.
Empedocles, with the evolutionists of to-day, taught that the higher forms
of life arise out of the lower; Democritus conceived all things to be
composed of invisible atoms, all alike in quality, but differing in form
and combination.

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