Greece in the age of Pericles
Grant, A. J. (Arthur James), 1862-1948
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LOGIC, INDUCTIVE AND DEDUCTIVE. By William Minto. Net, $1.25. OUTLINES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. By William Renton. Net, $1.00. GREECE IN THE AGE OF PERICLES. By A. J. Grant. $1.25. THE JACOBEAN POETS. By Edmund Gosse. In Press. SHAKESPEARE AND HIS PREDECESSORS IN THE ENGLISH DRAMA. By F. S. Boas. In Press. PERICLES. {From a Bust in, the British Museum.) THE UNIVERSITY SERIES Greece in the Age of Pericles By ARTHUR J. GRANT OF king's college, CAMBRIDGE ,* STAFF LECTURER IN HISTORY TO THl CAMBRIDGE LOCAL LECTURES SYNDICATE NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1893 48 65 55 JUL 1 8 1942 PREFACE. In writing this book I have had two objects in view. Firstly, I have tried to make my account of Greece as comprehensive as possible, and to omit none of the main forces that helped to mould Greek civilisation. I have therefore given a good deal of prominence to the social and religious conditions of the country. And next I have tried to treat of Greek history in relation to the general history of Europe. I feel that he who only knows Greek history does not know even that, and that it is only by connecting and comparing Greece with other European states contemporary and subse- quent that we can duly appreciate her immense services to civilisation, and distinguish what is permanent and important in her work from what is temporary and trivial. I am conscious that my knowledge is not sufficient to allow me properly to execute so difficult a task, but I have felt that the attempt ought to be made. I have not given any bibliography of the subject. For the mass of literature dealing with Greece is so large that what is most necessary now is to vi Prefc ace distinguish what is more valuable from what is less so, and from what is of merely technical or antiquarian interest. I have given, however, a few words in estimate of the greatest books that deal with the subject, and I must here add that besides those authors mentioned in the text I am much indebted to Holm and Busolt. In the preparation of this book I have had the advantage of much valuable assistance from Miss Thompson, of Scarborough ; Mr. J. W. Headlam, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge ; and Mr. R. G. Mayor, of King's College, Cambridge. They are in no way answerable for the opinions expressed in the book ; but I have to thank them for much useful criticism, and for the detection of many errors. A. J. GRANT. A, INTRODUCTORY NOTE \ ON THE ,^ HISTORIANS OF GREECE. This book is only intended as an introduction to Greek History. At the end, therefore, of the chapters notes have been appended giving some information about books and directions for further reading on each division of the subject. Here it seems well to say a few words about the books that deal with the whole subject. The chief authorities of the period treated of in this volume are the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides. Next in importance and value come certain Lives of Plutarch. I have assumed throughout that I am writing mainly for those who have little or no know^ledge of the original Greek. But this does*not prevent me from urging those who desire a further acquaintance with the subject to go at once to the fountain-head, and turn rather to translations of these original authorities than to modern histories. Much, doubtless, even of a prose author, is lost in translation. His style cannot be exactly reproduced, and his style must and ought partly to influence us in the importance that we attach to his statements. But a translation of a historian gives the facts, and we get from Thucydides and Herodotus a viii Introductory Note on more vivid impression of the reality of what we read than we can from any modern history. Herodotus was born during the course of the Persian wars. He was a native of Halicarnassus, in Caria ; lived during the middle of his life in Athens ; and afterwards emigrated to Thurii, in Italy, where he wrote his history and died. He thus came in contact with the Persians, as well as with the state that had played the chief part in the defence of Greece. The personal narratives of those who had fought in the war are the main source of his information. He is the prince of story-tellers, as well as the father of history. The charm of his style and the general trustworthiness of his record have received general recognition. The story of the Persian wars is not given in this book, but I would strongly urge those who desire a further knowledge of Greece to read Herodotus rather than any other author. Better than any one else he allows us to realise the variety and the charm of Hellenic life. *^ He has caught," says Mr. Myers, "the smile upon the face of Greece." There are many translations of Herodotus; that by Rawlinson (4 vols.) is the most readable; there is also an accurate ^ if rather dull translation in one volume by Henry Gary (Bohn's Library). Thucydides is a still greater name. He has written an account of nearly the whole course of the Pelopon- nesian war. As supplementary to the present volume the first book, which sketches the history of Greece between the Persian and the Peloponnesian wars, and the second, which contains the Funeral Oration of Pericles and the account of the plague and the death of Pericles, are perhaps the most important. He was a contemporary of the events that he relates, and himself The Historians of Greece ix a prominent actor in many of them. Born in Athens, he retired into exile during the course of the war, and, communicating freely with both sides in the great contest, was admirably qualified to write its history. His accuracy and truthfulness are undisputed. He refrains, as a rule, from all direct comment on the events he describes, and confines himself exclusively to the political and military aspects of the period that he relates. And yet the ethical tone of the book and the insight it gives us into the character of Greek city- life are among its great recommendations. Less attractive than Herodotus, and, to one who wishes to gain a comprehensive view of ancient Greece, less valuable, Thucydides is in matters of fact more trustworthy, and to the student of politics and society of much greater importance. There are many translations : that by Professor Jowett is far the most readable. These two historians have all the importance that comes from contemporary knowledge of what they describe. Plutarch's Lives have no such recommendation. His precise date is not ascertainable, but the active years of his life are from about 50 to 100 a.d. In writing of the Periclean age, therefore, he is separated from what he writes of by a period greater than that which lies between us and the age of the Tudors. Further, he does not profess to write history, but biography. He explains what he means by the distinction in his Life of Alexander. He chooses those events, he tells us, which serve best to bring out the character of his hero, rather than those which are of importance in developing the lives of states. His value as a historical authority arises solely from the fact that he had recourse to many authorities that have now disappeared. His knowledge X Introductory Note 07i of Greek literature was immense : his Lives are loaded with quotations from authors great and small ; and his substantial accuracy in the cases where we can compare the quotation with the original gives us confidence in the rest. The Lives, as a whole, have been almost one of-the Bibles of the world. The praises of Montaigne, of Rousseau, and of Emerson, and the use to which the Lives were put by Shakespeare, give convincing testi- mony to their value and interest. For the study of Greek History they form a most important authority, though one that must always be used with caution. They have been constantly translated. Where I have quoted them it has been from the translation by Stewart and Long. Of the great modern histories of Greece, the most important of those that are accessible to English students are Grote's and Curtius'. Grote's great work is a counterblast to those writers, such as Mitford, who saw in Greek History nothing but a condemnation of the republican and democratic system. Against this view Grote protests in nearly every page of his twelve volumes. His work has for this reason been called a political pamphlet on a gigantic scale ; and if this partisanship makes him dwell on certain features and subjects at too great a length, it never has induced him to misread or to misrepresent evidence, and it adds greatly to the interest of the book. Himself a Member of Parliament, he enters into the political life of Athens as a statesman, not as an antiquarian. His work must be pronounced weakest where he deals with the art and poetry of Greece, or where he omits to deal with them ; and his defence of the Athenian democracy does not meet many modern objections. Yet Thucydides The Historians of Greece xi is not more decidedly the first of ancient historians of Greece than Grote is of modern. Curtius has not Grote's political experience, nor his conscientiousness in distinguishing between the deduc- tions from evidence and the results of conjecture. Yet his history is perhaps the most comprehensive and most generally attractive of all that have been written ; the religion, art, and geography of Greece are admirably treated. Mr. Evelyn Abbott's History of Greece gives, within reasonable limits, the results of the never-ceasing investi- gations and inquiries into the history of Greece that have been prosecuted of late years in England and Germany. It makes few pretensions to style, and does not present a continuous narrative. It can never dis- place Curtius or Grote. But its corrections, additions, and occasional comments give it a great value to careful students of Greek History. TABLE OF CONTENTS, PAGE Preface and Introduction ...... .v — xi CHAPTER I. The Essentials of Greek Civilisation . . . I — lo The Greek and the Modern Conceptions of tht State contrasted ........ 2 Greek Civilisation Non-Industrial 6 Labour in Greece performed by Slaves .... 8 Greek Civilisation referred almost exclusively to Males . 9 The Religion of Greece . 10 CHAPTER II. The Religion of the Greeks .....  the Greeks . 18 1. The Priesthood 18 2. The Oracles 20 3. The Great Games of Greece .... 26 4. The Mysteries ....... 33 Some Considerations  Position and Early History of Sparta ... 43 The Social Discipline of Sparta 46 XIV Contents The Political Institutions of Sparta The Subject Populations of Sparta. The Results of the Spartan System Argos Corinth ...... Thebes .."... PAGE 55 58 61 63 64 CHAPTER IV. The Earlier History of Athens .... 66 91 The Situation of Athens 66 The Legislation of Solon 70 The T3Tanny at Athens 77 The Democratic Reforms of Clisthenes .... 84 CHAPTER V. The Rivalry of Athens and Sparta . . .92- The First Differences between Athens and Sparta. The Treason of Pausanias and the Transference of the Naval Leadership to Athens Themistocles in the Peloponnese Complete Rupture between Athens and Sparta -115 97 lOI 106 109 CHAPTER VI, Civil Wars in Greece 116— 143 125 Athens loses her Land-Empire The Development  c Democratic Changes in Athens since the Persian War . 138 CHAPTER VII. The Athenian Democracy. The Ecclesia. The Election of Officers. The Council of Five Hundred The Officials of the State Financial Administration. 44—178 146 149 153 156 159 Contents XV The Administration of the Law ..... The Athenian Method of making Laws .... The Funeral Oration of Pericles Later Contemporary Criticism of the Athenian Democracy A Criticism of the Athenian Democracy .... PAGE 162 166 168 170 ^1Z CHAPTER VIIL Pericles : His Policy and His Friends Pericles' Private Life Pericles as a Statesman. The Political Position of Pericles Pericles' Policy 1. Athens and Sparta 2. The Treatment of the Allied States 3. The Domestic Policy of Pericles. 179—208 179 189 190 193 193 196 200 CHAPTER IX. Society in Greece The Occupations of the People Slaves in Greece The Position of Women in Greece The Characteristics of the Greeks 209—238 209 . 219 . 226 • 233 CHAPTER X. The Peloponnesian War to the Death of Pericles . 239 — 268 The Quarrel between Corcyra and Corinth, and the Interference of Athens The Debates on the Question of War Pericles and the War The First Year of the War The Plague and the Death of Pericles 243 247 251 259 261 CHAPTER XI. The Peloponnesian War ...... 269—294 From the Death of Pericles to the Peace of Nicias . . 270 The Sicilian Expedition ....... 277 The End of the War 286 XVI Contents CHAPTER XII Thought and Art in Athens Greek Education The Sophists. Socrates . . ,. The Theatre at Athens. The Prose Writers of the Periclean Age Index PAGE 295—325 298 301 306 310 316 327 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Pericles Frontispiece West End of the Acropolis ^restored) i North Side of the Acropolis {restored) 10 ElEUSIS II Mount Parnassus from Delphi 21 Plain of Olympia 41 Plain of Sparta 42 Bridge over the Eurotas 66 Athens from the Road to the Piraeus ...... 71 View of the Plain from the Areopagus 91 Temple of Zeus Olympus 92 ACRO CORINTHUS Il6 View over the Pnyx i44 Stone Bema 178 East End of the Parthenon {restored) 179 Plan of Athens to face page 180 A.TUiL'n^ {restored by C. R. Cockerelly R,A.) 209 Athens from the Gardens of the Academy 239 Temple of Athena at Sunium 269 Temple of Theseus 294 Athenian Theatre 295 Lion Gate, Mycena: 325 Plan of the Acropolis to face page 200 Map of Greece At the end Rkstoration of the West End of the Acropolis. &- s^ CHAPTER I. THE ESSENTIALS OF GREEK CIVILISATION. "The whole series of human generations during the course of ages should be regarded as one man ever living and ever learning," said Pascal in the seventeenth century. No phrase could more excellently emphasise that continuity and identity of the existence of the human race from which the study of history derives the whole of its meaning and value. But in this pro- cess of '' living and learning " so vast are the changes — political, social, religious — that we have at times some difficulty in recognising the kinship between far distant generations unless we have studied the intervening period. And, on the other hand, nothing is more fruit- ful in false historical judgments than the ignoring of the 2 Greece in the Age of Pe fides [Ch. I. differences in the very bases of social order that separate one period from the other. If, for instance, we transfer to Greek history our own ideas on morality, politics, or religion, we fail to understand the problems that Greek statesmen and thinkers tried to solve, nor can we possibly rightly estimate their solution of them. Here, then, some attempt will be made to exhibit shortly some of the chief differences between the civilisation of Greece in the fifth century B.C. and the civilisation of Europe in the nineteenth century a.d. The Greek and the Modern Conceptions of the State Contrasted. In the modern world the state and the nation are, as a rule, identical, but this was far from being the case in ancient Greece. By Greece or Hellas we do not mean any political unity such as is implied by the expressions Great Britain, France, or Germany. The word bears rather the same sort of meaning that is conveyed by Europe. It indicates a very large number of quite independent states in Italy, Africa, Greece Proper, Asia Minor, which, despite many minor variations in religion, society, and government, were nevertheless bound to- gether by the practical identity of race, religion, and language. ^'Europe," says Professor Seeley, "considered as Christendom, has had, and still has, a certain unity which would show itself plainly and quickly enough if Europe was threatened by a barbarian and heathen enemy.'' This was the unity that Hellas possessed : the behaviour of Europe in the face of the Saracenic invasion parallels very closely the behaviour of Hellas when the danger from Persia approached. It is of the utmost importance to one who first Ch. I.] The Essentials of Greek Civilisation 3 approaches Greek history that he should understand how large was the number of these independent states,, how. complete was their independence. The district of Bceotia is not larger than a very moderate-sized English county; yet va historical times we can count in Boeotia eight states, which, though later on coerced into union by Thebes, regarded complete independence as their right, and desired to be related to one another, not as one English town to another, but as France to England. Again, in the island of Ceos, which is not more than twelve miles in length by eight in breadth, we find four different states fully organised with separate governments? constitutions, armies, communicating with one another by means of heralds, making treaties with one another, fighting with one another. And every considerable city in Greece either possessed or desired this independence. For next it must be carefully noted that all these states were city states. To the Greek world, as indeed to the Roman, the nation state was quite unknow^n. Citizenship meant that a man possessed the freedom and privileges of a city. The only way in w^hich the Greek mind could conceive of a very large state would be through the conquest of much adjacent territory by some single city, w^hich would then hold that territory as muni- cipal property. If so large a state as England had existed in the Greek world, all the dwellers in the provinces and in the provincial towns would either have possessed the franchise of London or they would have been subject to London. And another striking actual example may be given. When Rome, originally a small city state by the banks of the Tiber, had extended her conquests until the Mediterranean w^as a Roman lake, all these vast dominions were the property of the city of Rome, and 4 Greece in the Age of Pericles [Ch. i. were managed simply by the municipal authorities of the city. The prime reason for the overthrow of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Empire, is to be found in the impossibility of governing a worldwide empire by the forms and methods that had suited Rome while yet she was a small city state. For the world of Greece and Rome knew nothing of the idea of Representation. So fertile is the Greek mind in ideas, so true is it that most of the moving forces of the modern world are Greek in their origin, that we are surprised to find that the re- presentative idea did not spring from them. And indeed it does just make its appearance, but ineffectually and not for long. The only way in which a citizen could make his citizenship effective, or exercise any influence on the government and policy of the state, was by presenting himself in person at the time of the transaction of pubHc business and the election of officers, and giving his vote in person. Beyond this idea the greatest thinkers of Greece never rose. Aristotle in his Politics, the greatest and indeed the only work on comparative politics that the world knew until late in the eighteenth century, compares the various constitutions that the Greek world contained in order to arrive at some con- clusion as to the best form of government. When he considers how large a state ought to be, his conclusions emphasise, as nothing else can. the smallness of the Greek city states. All the citizens must be able to gather together in one place to listen to a public orator, or at any rate to catch the announcements of the town crier. He goes on to say: '* Just as a boat can no more be two furlongs long than a span long, so a state can no more consist of one hundred thousand than of ten citizens. . . . If just legal decisions are to be given, and if Ch I.] The Essentials of Greek Civilisation 5 office is to be apportioned to men according to merit, it is necessary for citizens to have a knowledge of each other's characters, since where this is not the case things must needs go wrong with the appointment of officials and the administration of law." We seem to be speaking of some large club rather than of a state. From what we have seen, it follows directly that a large state was necessarily a state of low political organi- sation. In a large state the citizens could obviously not constantly flock to the centre to give their opinion on measures or men. The large states of antiquity there- fore, whatever name their governments may bear, are necessarily despotisms. Further, not only was the idea of the ancient state different from that of the modern, but its spirit and its objects were different. The state was then considered not merely as a piece of machinery to secure the property and prosperity of citizens, but was regarded as some- thing other than and higher than the individuals com- posing the state. The interest of the individual was regarded as entirely subordinate to that of the state. The state was idealised, and no virtue was so universally recognised as the duty of self-sacrifice on behalf of the state. This idealisation of the ancient state is probably to be explained by the necessity of procuring loyalty that rested on firmer grounds than the self-interest of the moment. It gives to ancient patriotism an elevation and a purity which its modern counterpart too often does not possess. The exclusiveness of the ancient state is con- nected with this idealisation. The entrance to citizenship was not thrown open to all, as it is with us. A man could not change his citizenship by changing his domicile and subscribing to a few easy conditions. Except on 6 Greece in the Age of Pericles [Ch. i. quite rare and extraordinary occasions, during the zenith of Greece's greatness citizenship was not granted except to those who ckimed it by right of birth from citizen parents, and the tendency as time went on was rather to render entrance to the ranks of citizens more difficult than otherwise. As a rule no fully legitimate marriage \ could be contracted between the members of two separate city states. A treaty recognising the validity of such marriages was one of the greatest proofs of friendship between cities. Lastly, the ancient state proposed to itself an object different from that of the modern state. Of the dis- tinction between the spiritual and temporal powers that is one of the distinctive products of the middle ages, Greece knew nothing. The state proposed to itself to watch, not only over the material, but also over the moral and religious welfare of the citizens. *' Not. life, but a good life,'' says Aristotle, is its object. By sumptuary laws, by moral-religious censorship, the Greek state undertook the moral guidance of the citizens ; not as the supporter of any church or priesthood, but of its own initiative. Greek Civilisation Won-Industrial. Very rapidly, during the last two centuries, have all European states, and such as have carried European civilisation into other continents, become industrial. Not only have more and more time and attention been given to the production of wealth ; not only have all the agents of industry, high and low, rapidly and surely advanced in public estimation, but more and more have modern civilisations embraced industrial and eschewed military objects. Herodotus, who represents better than any other author the average opinion of Greece, says (ii. 167) Ch. I.] The Essentials of Greek Civilisation 7 that the Greeks "hold the citizens who practise trades and their children in less repute than the rest, while they esteem as noble those who keep aloof from handi- crafts, and especially honour such as are given wholly to war." Here we have a point of much importance. The civilisation of Greece was military in its basis. The objects of the Greek policy were military. There were indeed some industries in Greece. There was, of course agriculture, the first, greatest, and among the Greeks the most honourable of industries ; there were pottery, tanning, bootmaking, on a fairly large scale. But the amount of industry was not great, and before the state and the individual there was no industrial ideal whatever. A thoroughly self-respecting man could not harden his hands with the plough or the potter's wheel. For him the idleness of the marketplace was the only quite honourable alternative to political or military employ- ments. Seeing then that among the Greeks industry, so far as it existed, was despised ; seeing that society rested on a military basis, we may not think of war in the ancient world as we must think of it in our own country. In our society, now almost wholly industrial in character, war is a complete anomaly, which would be supremely ridiculous were it not so terrible. It fulfils no social function and acts only as a disturbing force. But this verdict, so obvious now, may not be transferred to earlier centuries. In Greece certainly war performed important social functions. Peace does not now mean listlessness or idleness, it means rather the turning of energy from destructive to productive channels. But in Greece, where military occupations were everywhere the most honourable, a long period of peace meant apathy, sluggishness, and nearly always 8 Greece in the Age of Pericles [Ch. i. moral deterioration. When, during the fourth century B.C., the Athenians transferred to mercenaries the task of defending their possessions both by sea and land, the state received a blow from which it never recovered. For it is true of the ancient world, though not true now, that from war were derived many virtues that had then little other support, such as obedience, loyalty, trustiness, and the sentiment of honour. Labour in Greece performed by Slaves. Here is one of the most obvious differences between ancient and modern society : the civilisation of the Greeks rested on slave labour, ours on free or contract labour. In Athens there were probably four times as many slaves as freemen ; in Corinth perhaps twice that proportion. The condition of Greek slaves and the in- fluence of slavery upon the Greek state will be more fully treated of in a subsequent chapter. Here perhaps it will be well to notice that, as a result, the democracies of the ancient world do not deserve the name according to our modern ideas. It is true, indeed, that in some respects, subsequently to be noted, there is a striking resemblance between the methods and tendencies of Greek and modern democracies. But there are many meanings included in the modern vague use of the word Democracy which can- not be attached to the word in its Greek use. The first and most obvious difference is that, seeing that in the states of Greece the slave population was larger, and usually much larger, than the free, the government was in the hands of a small minority of the total male inhabitants of the state, and deserves rather to be called an oligarchy. But, further, the word in its modern use implies the dignifying of labour by the entry of the labourers into Ch. I.] The Essentials of Greek Civilisation 9 the circle of citizenship ; it means the transference of power mainly into the hands of the hand-workers. Of all this there is no trace at all in ancient Greece. It is possible to produce from the poets and philosophers of Athens a few passages in which it is maintained that any kind of useful labour is better than idleness. But these do not indicate any popular opinion in that direction. The Greek world knew nothing of the dignity of labour. The government of Athens was in the hands of people who were engaged in no productive occupation, and those took the greatest share in the government who had least occupation of any kind. The democratic citizens of Athens, though in relation to each other upon a footing of the most absolute equality, were, with reference to the whole population, slave-holders and despots. Greek Civilisation referred almost exclusively to Males. The position of women in Greece, like the question of slavery, is reserved, for further discussion in a subsequent chapter. But the complete subordination of women is a feature of Greek life that must not be omitted in this prehminary sketch. Everywhere in the ancient world women held a position of less liberty and influence than the modern world demands ; and in Greece the position of women was, according to our ideas, one of degrading subordination. It is not of importance to consider here whether the fact was due to the military basis of civilisation, or to the religious ideas of the Greeks. The fact only need here be noted. Not only were politics and war wholly untouched by female influence, but the art, thought, and education of Greece were almost exclusively for men. 10 Greece in the Age of Pei'icles [Ch. I. The Religion of Greece. From this general survey of Greek civiHsation religion must not be excluded, though here for the present it must be dismissed in a few lines. A further examination of the subject will follow in the next chapter. Greek Paganism has been defined by a modern thinker as ** the frank acceptance of pleasure." Goethe spoke of mediaeval Christianity as *^the divine worship of sorrow." If it be true that in ' considering the development of civilisation social forces are more important than political, and religious more important than social, how wide a difference between Greek civilisation and the Christian centuries does this divergence in the fundamental ideas of religion imply ! It is a point that should be borne in mind in all comparisons that are instituted between Greek and modern life. Note. — This chapter admits of no definite references. But there is an essay in Hellenica (Rivington's, edited by Evelyn Abbott), on ''Aristotle's Conception of the State," from which much useful information may be gained. G. O. Trevelyan's A Holiday among some Old F7'ie)ids (Bohn's Library) illustrates wittily tbe small scale of Greek political life. lt^«s Restoration of the North Side of the Acropolis. ;i:ifU:ii5ff '■"' Eleusis. CHAPTER II. THE RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. That the religion of a people must be known and under- stood in order to know and understand the history of a people, is one of the most obvious generalisations of history. For by religion we mean, whatever else we may mean, a certain conception of the relation of man to the forces of the universe, and the guidance of life that is founded upon that conception. In an age of belief, therefore, we shall clearly find the chief motive power of history in the religious conceptions of the people ; and in an age of unbelief it is almost as important to notice that there is no such motive power. In this chapter an attempt will be made to give some account, firstly, of the 12 Greece in the Age of Pericles [Ch. il. beliefs of the Greeks, and secondly, of the various ways in which those beliefs influenced their lives. And then some considerations on the influence of Greek religion on Greek history will be offered. The Beliefs of the Greeks. It has been often maintained that the Greeks had no sense for the beauties of nature. Although this view does not lack the support of great names, it may be at once dismissed. There is indeed no other argument for the paradox except such as may be found in the fact that they expressed their admiration in ways different from those which are used by the modern world, or rather by the century that has succeeded Rousseau. Beautiful descriptions of nature are to be found in the Greek poets. There is hardly a temple in Greece that does not show a careful selection of the site, with reference, among other things, to the view commanded from it. But the really final argument against the paradox above mentioned is, that the whole of their religion shows an intense feeling for the processes and beauties of nature. When Words- worth wishes to emphasise the dulness of the modern mind to the external world, he does it by contrasting our callousness with Pagan enthusiasm : — **I had rather be A pagan nurtured in a creed outworn : So might I, standing on some pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would leave me less forlorn, Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." The Greeks of an earlier period had explained to themselves the phenomena of the world by attributing to them a personal life. There were in historical times many traces of this fetichistic faith, which regarded stones Ch. ![.] The Religion of the Greeks 13 and trees and all things as themselves sentient beings; but for the most part this form of feeling and faith had come to an end. Men no longer attributed sense and feeling and desire to the phenomena themselves, but to quasi-human beings who were supposed to preside over and to cause the action of all things that were. And so Greek Polytheism, by a spontaneous movement, peopled mountain and stream, air and sea, with a vast number of beings with the loves and hates of men. This was the material out of which Greek theology was developed. " There is perhaps no people," says a recent German historian of Greece,* " whose religion it is so difficult to bring into a system as that of the Greeks ; no people whose religion contains so many contradictions." Upon this fascinating and difficult subject of Greek mythology it is impossible here to embark. It is hoped, however, that the following general statements may not be found inaccurate. In historical times there were a large number of deities who remained vague, characterless impersonations of natural phenomena. To the fellow- citizens of ^schylus mountain and forest and flood were full of non-natural but quasi-human beings, of whom nothing further could be affirmed than that they were the divine dwellers in mountain, forest, or flood. But a large number of gods had acquired attributes and biographies of a more or less definite kind. Various are the influences to which we may trace these developments in mythology. Sometimes these legends are nothing more than the personification of natural processes. Thus Persephone, the goddess of corn, spends half her time under the ground and half above. Thus the sub- terranean disappearance of Greek rivers gave rise to * Holm. 14 Greece in the Age of Pericles [Ch. ii. stories like the legend of Arethusa, who leaps into the sea on the shores of Greece to reappear in Sicily. That is merely a mythological way of saying that a certain fountain in Sicily was believed to be identical with a certain stream in the Peloponnese. And, further, often the stories of the gods are the product of poetic imagina- tion in an age when to translate the imaginings of a poet into a statement of actual fact did not imply deception. Herodotus tells us that Homer and Hesiod were the authors of the mythology of the Greeks by fixing the attributes and the narratives of the gods. And doubtless to these great names many a nameless poet might be added. Indeed, all through Greek poetry we see the mythology of the Greeks being added to and transformed by the poets. And these transformations and additions have their origins sometimes in the poets' creative imagina- tion merely, sometimes in the desire to present to the Greeks objects for admiration and worship, '* a mark above the howling senses' ebb and flow." And by these and other processes out from the vast throng of gods emerge certain prominent figures who are the great gods of Greece. Greatest of all these gods was Zeus, '' Father of gods and men." Originally he was the personification of the sky. Mount Olympus, therefore, the highest mountain that the Greeks knew, rising into the air for nearly ten thousand feet, was specially connected with him. And the calm of the mountain top was particularly char- acteristic of him. He too was the god who wielded the thunder and the lightning. And with this power of his was connected the story of his struggle with the Titans, representative doubtless of some earlier religion, or of the struggle of the local cults to hold their own against Ch. II.] The Religion of the Greeks 15 the worship of the supreme Zeus. They had attempted to scale Olympus, and had been destroyed by the lightnings from the hands of its lord. To Zeus, too, belonged the waters of the heavens. In Homer he is almost always the " collector of the clouds." From him, therefore, come the rivers also. I have mentioned Olympus as the chief seat of his power. But there were also two other celebrated homes of this greatest god. At Dodona, in Epirus, was his oldest sanctuary, and an oracle : these clearly owe their foundation to the period before the movement of the Dorian invasion. In the Peloponnese the plain of Olympia was dedicated to him, and soon became, as will be explained below, one of the chief centres of united Hellas. After Zeus, the god to whom the Greeks turned with most reverence and most hope for help was Apollo. He is the god of light. He was usually represented with a bow and arrows ; and these doubtless were symbols of the sun's rays. And as the rays of the sun disperse the darkness, and as light makes civilisation possible, so with his arrows had Apollo slain many noxious monsters. ^As the god of light he is the god of knowledge. None sees so far into the future as he ; and therefore his oracle at Delphi is of all the most honoured and the most visited. An easy transition makes him the god of healing also. So plague and pestilence are connected with him, and the means of averting them. He was honoured through all Greece, but Delos and Delphi were far the most important of all the places specially dedicated to him. Delos was the central point of the ^gean islanders. A small, bare island, coveted for its soil by none, had perhaps been chosen for that very reason as the place for the god's temple. There, in early times, 1 6 Greece in the Age of Pericles [Ch. ll. as we see in the Homeric hymns, vast concourses had gathered together in honour of the god. But in his- torical times Delphi was a far greater name than Delos. There was the very centre of the world. Two eagles that had been sent out by Zeus from the east and the west had met there ; there Apollo had subdued the python ; there was the great oracular shrine of the god, for some time the real centre of the civilisation of Hellas. Its action will be further considered in the second part of this chapter. Poseidon, the brother of Zeus, is before all things the god of the sea. Yet he has also other functions which seem to contradict his central prerogative. The horse is specially dedicated to him, and he is the god of earth- quakes. The horse may have something to do with the waves that hurry quickly to the shore ; the blows of a heavy sea on a rocky shore may have given him his attribute of *' Earth-shaker." The_sea was the highway of the^jjreeks, and the chief source of their wealth and civilisation; no state could refuse to pay a special worship to such a god. We cannot, therefore, speak of any special home or sanctuary. On very many promon- tories were temples in honour of Poseidon. Athene, the daughter of Zeus, who, according to the grotesque legend, sprang from the head of her father when he had been struck by the axe of Hephaestus, the god of fire, was originally probably the personification of some aspect of the sky. Her especial mark was the head of the Gorgon which she carried on her cegis or shield. That terrible head, upon which no one might look and live, with its encircling snakes, has been thought to represent the thundercloud with flashes of lightning playing round it. She is especially the god of Athens. Ch. II.] The Religion of the Greeks 17 The olive tree, the chief source of the agricultural wealth of the state, was her gift. The owl was her sacred bird, and became the symbol of the city. She is the goddess of knowledge and of wisdom, and thus appropriately found her most famous temple in Athens. 