A Day in Old Athens; a Picture of Athenian Life

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;

on. 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 Gre

es, 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 time

nded in 322 B.C., when Athens passed decisively under the power of Macedonia; although since t

y a triangle of rocky, hill-scarred land thrust out into the ?gean Sea, as if it were a sort of continuation of the more level district of Botia. Yet small as it was, the hills inclosing it to the west, the seas pressing it form the northeast and south, gave it a unity and isolation all its own. Attica was not an island; but it could be invaded only by sea, or by forcing the resistance which could be offered at the steep mount

of its hard foundation rock, which often in turn lay bare on the surface. The Athenian farmer had a sturdy struggle to win a scanty crop, and about the only pro

portion of all, Around her coasts, rocky often and broken by pebbly beaches and little craggy peninsulas, surged the deep blue ?gean, the most glorious expanse of ocean in the world. Far away spread the azure water[*],-often foam-crested and sometimes alive

is probably caused by the clear rocky bottom of th

amour and sparkle almost into the hearts of men. The Athenians were proud of the air about their land. Their po

air clear shi

uplifted, pa

edea

ter of slopes and terraces. Against the radiant heavens these mountains stood out boldly, clearly; revealing all the little gashes and seams left from that long-forgotten day when they were flung forth from the bowels of the earth. None of

ummer heats, leaving them rosy brown or gray. But whatever the fundamental tone, it was always brilliant; for the Athenians lived in a land where blue sky, blue sea, and the massive rock blent together

e when the sun is not hidden more than half an hour[*]. Ancient Athens was surely not more cloudy. Nevertheless, despite this constant sunshine and a southern latitude, Athens was stricken relatively seldom with semitropical heat. The sea was a good fr

come in contact with the dry, heated air of the Attic plain, they are at once volatilized and disper

ially "in the open air"; while, on the other hand, the bracing sea breeze saved them from that enervating lethargy which has ruined so many southern folk. The scanty soil fo

leos, across which a road (the "Sacred Way") wound through an easy pass towards Eleusis, the only sizable town in Attica, outside of Athens and its harbors. To the rear of the plain rose a noble pyramid, less jagged than Hymettus, more lordly than ?galeos; its summits were fretted with a white which turned to clear rose color under the sunset. This was Pentelicus, from the veins whereof came the lustrous marble for the master sculptor. Closer at hand, nearer the center of the plain, rose a small and very isolated hill,-Lycabettus, whose peaked summit looked down upon the roofs of Athens. And last, but never least,

down the westward side of the plain, where the Cephisus (which along among Attic rivulets did not run dry in summer) ran down to the se

and contours formed one glorious model for the sculptor and the painter, one perpetual inspiration for the poet. Even if Athens had never been the seat of a famous race, she would

ril had not as yet become menacing. The great public buildings were nearly all completed. No signs of material decadence were visible, and if Athens no longer possessed the wide naval empire of the days of Pericles, her fleets and her armies w