A Day in Old Athens

Chapter I. The Physical Setting of Athens.

1.  The Importance of Athens in Greek History.—­To three ancient nations the men of the twentieth century owe an incalculable debt.  To the Jews we owe most of our notions of religion; to the Romans we owe traditions and examples in law, administration, and the general management of human affairs which still keep their influence and value; and finally, to the Greeks we owe nearly all our ideas as to the fundamentals of art, literature, and philosophy, in fact, of almost the whole of our intellectual life.  These Greeks, however, our histories promptly teach us, did not form a single unified nation.  They lived in many “city-states” of more or less importance, and some of the largest of these contributed very little directly to our civilization.  Sparta, for example, has left us some noble lessons in simple living and devoted patriotism, but hardly a single great poet, and certainly never a philosopher or sculptor.  When we examine closely, we see that the civilized life of Greece, during the centuries when she was accomplishing the most, was peculiarly centered at Athens.  Without Athens, Greek history would lose three quarters of its significance, and modern life and thought would become infinitely the poorer.

2.  Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant.—­Because, then, the contributions of Athens to our own life are so important, because they touch (as a Greek would say) upon almost every side of “the true, the beautiful, and the good,” it is obvious that the outward conditions under which this Athenian genius developed deserve our respectful attention.  For assuredly such personages as Sophocles, Plato, and Phidias were not isolated creatures, who developed their genius apart from, or in spite of, the life about them, but rather were the ripe products of a society, which in its excellences and weaknesses presents some of the most interesting pictures and examples in the world.  To understand the Athenian civilization and genius it is not enough to know the outward history of the times, the wars, the laws, and the lawmakers.  We must see Athens as the average man saw it and lived in it from day to day, and then perhaps we can partially understand how it was that during the brief but wonderful era of Athenian freedom and prosperity[*], Athens was able to produce so many men of commanding genius as to win for her a place in the history of civilization which she can never lose.

[*]That era may be assumed to begin with the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.), and it certainly ended in 322 B.C., when Athens passed decisively under the power of Macedonia; although since the battle of Cheroneia (338 B.C.) she had done little more than keep her liberty on sufferance.