| Show + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + I + + S THE HERALDS + + + + Home Study Ciide + + + + + + S Copyright ISM by Seymour Eaton + + Directed by Prof Seymour Eaton + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + HISTORIC CITIES OF EUROPE L ATHENS BY EDWIN A GROSVEXOR M A The name of Athens Is the synonym of ancient literature and art No other city was the birthplace or became the residence of so many superior men Nor was there a department of mental activity ac-tivity history oratory philosophy tragedy comedy architecture sculpture sculp-ture painting in which her native or adopted sons were not the acknowledged acknowl-edged masters It was the intellectual life of Athens which made her renowned re-nowned This Indeed was but one among her other glories but it washer I was-her chief glory In the eyes of posterity poster-ity thIs preeminence redeems the follies j i fol-lies and crimes of her inconstant populace popu-lace eclipses all her many other claims j to distinction and renders her name immortal I i mortal In her peculiar realm she is I unique and unrivaled In development i of Imperial power and law she yields 1 to Rome in the creation or molding I i of the worlds religions to Jerusalem in the assembling within a definite area I of the cosmopolitan in nature and race to Constantinople But in the dominion I domin-ion of mind she is the acknowledged ACROPOLIS OP I S queen No other city of any age disputes I dis-putes her crown No other flashes with so many stars I As we trace her checkered history through thousands of years down from the huts of Cecrops to the resurrected I royal capital of today always present S is the dominating consciousness of what i the Athenian mind has been and has I achieved The precious contributions 1 of Athens to human liberty at Marathon Mara-thon and Salamis and even that passion 1 pas-sion for liberty of which those victories I were the result seem relegated to an I inferior plane Her adventurous maritime mari-time and commercial daring which found an occasion forexploits on every sea Is almost forgotten Omnipresent and overshadowing is the realization of that wonderful classic spirit which f made nature no less than human speech tributary in the expression of great thougths and truths and thereby preserved pre-served them as a legacy for all time As college graduates look back each with grateful reverence to his alma mater so do the nations look back to her for in the childhood of the race she was the teacher of mankind Is it difficult to realize that her brilliant bril-liant period was of so short duration inasmuch a its light is so dazzling and shines so far I continued indeed for gerenatlons for a few brief centuries centu-ries yet in comparison with the long cycles of history it was meteoric in its splendor Though succeeded by other burst of lesser radiance its real Hashing Hash-ing had ended before the Christian era Why destiny is so economical of great epochs it is impossible to tell There have been few since man appeared upon up-on the globe None of them have lasted long They have come wjthout anticipation antici-pation and unheralded Not contemporaries contempo-raries but men of later times have recognized their intensity Not in the present of their existence but in the after future has their full influence been felt So was it with that marvel i ous age which gave Athens its Immortality S Immor-tality Europe and America 2000 years I afterward are more really its debtors j i than were the men then alive nt r na Nor has national Influence I been measured meas-ured by extended territory or teeming population The area of Greece which seems so large upon the horizon of imagination was less than that of Indiana or Maine Upon the map of continental Europe it occupies only an insignificant spot at the southern extremity ex-tremity The province of Attica o which Athens was the capital and heart and soul Included a territory of less than SOO square miles Athens itself and when its even when most powerful a Is navies whitened every sea never embraced em-braced within its walls a population of more than 200000 people There are twentythree cities in the United States today which boast a larger number of Inhabitants than Athens ever possessed in its proudest days Ever the marvel prows that so small a group of human beings crowded within a contracted space could have been and have done so much Attica Is the most eastern of the Attc twenty petty districts or provinces which make up ancient Greece A narrow nar-row triangular peninsula united at the north to the mainland it stretches southeastward into the Aegean se I Nearly in the middle of this district Is a plain inclosed on threesides by mountains and on the west reaching to the Saronlc gulf Not far from the center of the plain rises an enormous rock more than 1100 feet long GOO broad and 150 high Precipitous on the northeast north-east and south it is accessible only on the west According to tradition it was once torn by a mighty earthquake from the neighboring masses of the Pnyx and Lyeabettus and left in majesty ma-jesty as the craggy monarch of the plain A Gibraltar towers above the sca so does this tower above the lowlands low-lands at Us baS On that rock the life of Athens began I > > v in a remote age to which authentic history does not reach and which mythology invests with misty grandeur gran-deur From the beginning Athens has been that rock and that rock has been Athens Around It as a axis Athenian Athen-ian events have revolved I is the worldfamous Acropolis The meaning of the name Is the upper city or citadel cit-adel The name has since been often applied to the highest or fortified part of other cities Still when one speaks of the Acropolis always the great rock Athens is meant To that rock the Athenian poets and orators always referred with pride and reverence In the heroic age when the pagan gods were thought to dwell with men and when men rivaled the gods It was the reputed scene of divine exploits ex-ploits Neptune and Minerva or a the Greeks called her Pallas Athena were both desirous to become the tutelar deity of the nascent city On the broad surface of the rock they contended con-tended for mastery Their rivalry ende with the triumph of the goddess god-dess From her the city was called Athenae or Athens The Athenians believed they enjoyed the peculiar and tender protection of Pallas Athena Every religion has a large part in determining the character and acts of its followers A people though always inferior to the object fIts f-its adoration takes on something of I the nature of the object adored The intimate devotion of the Athenians to Intmate their divine patron was no less marked in its results Except among the Hebrews He-brews nowhere In antiquity was religion relig-ion so interwoven with and so influential influ-ential over daily life and thought as among the Greeks Athena was the goddess of wisdom in its most comprehensive hensive sense Whatever the mind I could conceive and the hand execute in creation of the useful and the elegant I was ascribed to her She herself was form I i reason incarnate in a divine Though the twelve gods of Olympus claimed the worship of every Greek at I heart at Athens Athena with her transcendent personality overshadowed i I overshad-owed all the rest That which she represented rep-resented and of which she was the I glorified type was ever prominent I for j the constant and almost undivided veneration ven-eration of a people vivacious and mercurial 1 I mer-curial but devout Argos was consecrated conse-crated to Juno Corinth to Venus Athens i Ath-ens to Athena Inevitably each city in time revealed something of the attributes attri-butes of the being I most worshiped Not a single deity of the Greek Olympus Olym-pus has one worshiper today But when their existence was believed in their Influence In-fluence was Immense In its passionate tuence in the broadminded Athena equally wise and pure the Athenian I Intellect found its original inspiration Intelect Therefrom it received its first impulse I toward the beautiful in nature and art Thereby I was made to differ in its I ideal from the intellect of every other ancient people This was the Just I cause of Athenian greatness The halflegendary Codrus is the last of the ancient Athenian kings The hostile I hos-tile Dorians had invaded Attica The I oracle declared victor certain for that people whose king should perish first Codrus assuming a disguise entered I the Dorian camp and provoked a quarrel quar-rel in which he was slain The invad I ere were panicstricken when they 1 I I I TH TEMPLE OF VICTORY AND TH PROPYLEA I learned the identity of their victim and retired in consternation Thereupon the I grateful Athenians abolished the royal olllce declarIng that thenceforth no one should bear the same title a their I deliverer A new office was created tilled by a magistrate called orchon tled magstrte cale achon or I ruler First one archon elected for life then an archon elected for ten years and finally nine archons elected annually I annu-ally for one year exercised the supreme authority But the inhabitants consisted of three I classesthe nobles the freemen and the slaves All political power was In the hands of the frt class The freemen were really a disfranchised as were the slaves They were sullen and discontented dis-contented The strife began which was eventually to end in the success of the Athenian democracy That strife was I I bitter and longcontinued There were no written laws Draco one of the I nobles was Intrusted with the compilation compi-lation of a code Because of their severity se-verity the laws he framed were said to be written In blood and have become be-come a proverb At last Solon appeared A soldier a statesman and a patriot he was able to Introduce timely legislation His measures were marked by wonderful tact He strove to disregard the claims of birth and to mae every citizen an Interested participant In public affairs By a curious provision he declared that any man was dishonored and should be disfranchised who intime of party strife remained Indifferent and did nut act with either side Up to tat tIme tme In no other state had the attempt been so efficiently made to Identify all In some degree with the general welfare None the less the extension of the suffrage gave opportunity for the schemes O demagogues The crafty and unscrupulous PIsIstratus the ostensible os-tensible champion of the lower classes seized the Acropolis For thlrtythrep yea though twice expelled he rule Athens as Us master His Illegal des < 5 r C < < potism was enlightened and oii the whole beneficent He governed mildly favored literature and arts erected numerous nu-merous splendid public buildings xnd greatly enriched and adorned the city His two sons continued his rule but did not enjoy like success The one wosassassinated and the other exiled four years afterward For half a century the constitution of Solon though not repealed had not been enforced It was now revived Clisthenes had become the most prominent promi-nent man In the state and the leader of the common people or freemen Against him was pitted Isagoras the chief of the aristocratic faction Henceforth for centuries the spectacle was to be seen In Athens of two parties each following a leader and employing every device to secure supremacy Clisthenes won by still further popularizing the constitution constitu-tion and J > y rendering the Athenian government still more democratic If > agoras a-goras stinging with dEfeat sought the help of Sparta The mutual hostility of Athens and Sparta was traditional Sparta belonged to the Dorian family of Greeks which was conservative and aristocratic Ath ens was Ionian and democratic Either would gladly seize a pretext to humble or weaken the other Sparta accepted the overure of Isagoras but her Interference In-terference only caused her ignominious defeat The Athenian democracy vrus firmly established In Athens each freeman free-man was to have part In the honor a the responsibility of power The established I estab-lished principle and practice of self government by the people was the second sec-ond cause of Athenian greatness Note This study will be concluded Tuesday June 27 I |
