LIFE IN ANCIENT ATHENS IN THE TIME OF PERICLES
I. A WALK IN ANCIENT ATHENS
Almost in the centre of Attica lies a plain surrounded in the
distance by hills: towards the East, Mount Hymettus, the home of
goats, purple with thyme and filled with the murmur of bees; and
to the North, Mount Pentelicus, famous for its shining white
marble, that gleamed a rosy-red when the sun went down. Rising
straight out of the plain is a great oval-shaped rock, the famous
Acropolis of Athens, once its citadel and fortress, but
transformed by Pericles into a great shrine for Athena. From
this rock the land sloped gently to the sea. The plain was
watered by the Cephisus, the only stream in Attica which did not
run dry in the summer, and along its banks were olive groves,
adding their touch of dark grey-green to the landscape. In the
centre of this plain, at the foot of the Acropolis, was Athens.
[Illustration: ATHENS, WITH THE ACROPOLIS.]
Roads from all directions led to Athens, but the Greeks, unlike
the Romans, were not great road-makers, and except for those used
for processions {191} on festivals, such as the Sacred Way that
led to Eleusis, the roads in Attica were not in good repair, and
foot-passengers when they went on a journey generally preferred
the shorter paths over the hills. In the early morning, the
roads outside the city were thronged with people coming in from
the country on various kinds of business. Chief of these were
the farmers, bringing their fruit and vegetables and other
produce to sell in the market, but merchants from distant lands
were also to be seen bringing their wares along the road from the
Peiraeus. The city was entered by gates in the great wall which
had been built by Themistocles after the Persian Wars, and from
the gates, the streets all led to the Market Place, or Agora, as
it was called by the Greeks. The streets were narrow, crooked
and dark, and were not paved, and the houses on each side
presented a very dull appearance, for the windows rarely faced
the street. The streets were dirty, too, for all kinds of refuse
were thrown into them. This absence of light and air did not
make for health, and so very often pictures of Apollo, the
Bringer of Health, were painted on the walls. The Athenians
spent their wealth on their great public buildings, and there was
very little to distinguish one private house from another.
Demosthenes, writing at a later time, said of the Athenians of
the age of Pericles:
The public buildings they constructed for us; the number and
beauty of the temples, and of the offerings they contained, are
such that their successors can never {192} surpass them; but in
private life they practised so great a moderation, that even if
any of you knew which was the house of Aristeides or Miltiades or
any of the famous men of old, you would find it no more
pretentious than those of its neighbours.
The water in Athens came from wells and springs and fountains, many
of which were at the street corners, and it was the task of the slave
maidens to draw the water from the fountain and to carry it home in
vessels which they carried on their heads.
It is evident that Athens was a city very different from a
well-equipped modern city, and that it lacked a great deal of what we
consider necessary. But the Athenian of the fifth century B.C. had
extraordinarily little use for _things_, and he laid no stress on
comfort. He was content to have houses without drains, beds without
sheets or springs, and rooms as cold or as hot as the open air. He
could tell the time without a clock, cross the sea without a compass,
fasten his clothes (or rather his two pieces of cloth) with two pins
instead of rows of buttons, and wear sandals without stockings or
even go barefoot. He warmed himself over a pot of ashes, judged
law-suits in the open air on a cold winter's morning, studied poetry
without books, learned geography without maps, and politics without a
newspaper. The Athenians were civilized without being
comfortable.[1] Of course much of this simple life was possible
because of the climate, and modern {193} standards of cleanliness
need in no way conflict with a simple life; nevertheless it is the
glory of the Athenians that they not only believed but practised the
belief, that the things of the mind and spirit are greater than those
of the body.
The daily life of Athens centred in the Agora. If the streets
approaching it were mean and dirty, the Agora itself, the centre of
public life, was wide and spacious and surrounded by dignified and
beautiful buildings. In shape it was a great open square, two sides
of which were taken up with public buildings and temples. On the
remaining sides were the Stoas or Porches. These consisted of a roof
supported by a row of columns in front and a wall at the back. Each
stoa was a covered walk, protected from the glare of the sun, the
biting of the cold wind, and from the rain, and whatever the weather
might be, the Athenian could always find a pleasant sheltered place
where he could walk and talk with his friends. One of these Porches
was known as the King's Porch. It was used as one of the law-courts,
and on the wall at the back were inscribed the laws of Solon, and it
was here that every archon had to take his oath of office. The most
frequented of the stoas was the _Painted Porch_, so called because
its wall was decorated with frescoes, one of which was a great
painting of the battle of Marathon.
The centre of the Agora was a great open space, part of it free for
the public to walk in, and part of it full of booths and stalls where
was sold everything needed by the Athenians.
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There were three classes of people in Athens: the citizens, who were
all free-born Athenians; the foreign residents who were called
metics; and the slaves. In outward appearance there was often very
little difference between them, but only the citizens might vote, and
they alone had any privileges. The metics were generally well-to-do;
they were merchants and bankers and helped very largely to create the
wealth which made Athens great.
The morning life of Athens centred in the Agora, but when the
afternoon came, this was gradually deserted, and the Athenians who
had gathered there earlier in the day went along the roads that led
out of the city to the different Gymnasia. These were originally
places devoted to the games practised by all Athenians, but they
gradually became used more as parks, where the young men played games
and the older men watched and talked. The Academy was the greatest
of the gymnasia, and philosophers used to frequent it, and with their
pupils discuss all the many things in which the keen and adventurous
minds of the Athenians were interested. Plato, one of the greatest
of the philosophers, was a well-known figure at the Academy.
Rising above the city, watching over it and guarding it, was the
Acropolis, crowned by temples and statues. A great statue of Athena
looked down upon the city at her feet, at the busy Agora and the
public buildings in which the government of the state was carried on,
at the narrow streets lined with the houses of the citizens, and,
beyond the {195} walls, at the pleasant roads leading, on one side,
out to the gymnasia and the country beyond, and, on the other, down
to the harbour busy with the trade of Athens and where the galleys
went in and out on their voyages all over the Mediterranean world.
II. ATHENIAN DRESS
A visitor to the Agora in the morning would have found Athenians of
all kinds going about their daily business and he would have had
opportunity to see how they dressed. The morning crowd in the Agora
consisted almost entirely of men; to see Athenian women a stranger
would have to be invited to their houses, a rare privilege but seldom
accorded, or to have visited Athens during a festival, when women
were allowed to take part in the great processions which went up to
the shrine of Athena on the Acropolis. But men of all classes could
be seen every day in the Agora: the working-man going to his work,
the countryman selling the produce of his farm, slaves doing the
daily marketing for the household, and men of leisure walking about
and talking to their friends.
The chief garment worn by all these men was the _chiton_ or tunic.
It was made by taking an oblong piece of cloth, cutting it the
required length and then folding it round the body, so that it hung
from the neck to the knees. It was fastened at the neck with a pin,
sometimes beautifully wrought in gold, in such a way that arm-holes
were made, and one {196} side was always left open. A girdle kept
the folds of the chiton in place, and it was generally tight enough
to disguise the fact that one side was open. A man's chiton seldom
came below his knees, but the wearer could always regulate the
length, and workmen and all those engaged in active occupations were
generally _well-girded_, that is, they pulled up the chiton, so that
it was short, with part of it hanging over the girdle. Older men
usually allowed the chiton to hang to its full length.
In the house, the chiton was the only garment required, and workmen
and all young men engaged in active pursuits seldom wore anything
else out of doors, but out of the house, the older men generally
added a mantle known as the _himation_. This was another oblong
piece of cloth, but larger than that used for the chiton, which was
thrown over the left shoulder, brought round under the right arm to
the front of the body, and then thrown again over the left shoulder.
The himation was not, as a rule, pinned and so it had to be very
carefully adjusted in order that its folds might hang well. It was a
very difficult thing to put on a himation gracefully, and it was
often the work of a special slave to arrange it before his master
went out of doors. The folds had to hang well, and it had to be of
the right length, for if it was too short, the Athenian thought the
wearer looked like a rustic come to the city for the first time, and
to wear it too long was a sign of ostentation and needless display.
The only other garment sometimes worn by men was the _chlamys_, a
short cloak worn by the {197} young men. It was circular, gathered
round the neck and fastened by a pin or clasp, and hung over the back
and left shoulder reaching to the waist. The chlamys was generally
of a bright colour; the chiton and himation were more often white,
though sometimes colours were used, but beautifully designed borders
were frequently embroidered in colours on both the chiton and
himation, and an Athenian crowd presented a bright and gay scene.
Athenian men seldom wore anything on their heads, unless they were
travelling, when they wore a close-fitting cap, either with or
without a brim, but they generally wore sandals on their feet, though
this was not considered absolutely necessary.
The dress of the Athenian women consisted, like that of the men, of a
chiton and himation, but the woman's chiton was longer; it reached to
her feet and was fuller, and it often had short sleeves. No Athenian
woman could ever appear out of doors without her himation, and this
was often so arranged that it was drawn over her head, forming a
hood. This was generally the only form of head covering worn by
Athenian women, though if they went out in the sun they sometimes
took parasols.
Athenian women probably used more colours in their dress than the
men; a particularly beautiful saffron-yellow was a favourite colour,
especially for their bridal dresses, and on such occasions their
dress was enriched by gold ornaments, necklaces, bracelets and rings.
Ornaments of various kinds were freely used by the Athenian women in
their dress, but the Greeks disliked anything that had no {198}
purpose but show, and their jewels were so arranged as to enrich
their appearance without taking away from its simple dignity and
beauty.
III. THE ATHENIAN HOUSE
"I do not spend my days indoors," said an Athenian once, "my wife is
quite capable of managing our domestic affairs without my aid."[2]
This probably expressed the feeling of most Athenian men, for they
gave very little time to their houses. These were the places where
the women of the family spent nearly all their hours, but where the
men did little more than sleep and have their meals. In the summer
time an Athenian house was probably a pleasant place, though we
should have found it lacking in nearly everything that we consider
necessary, but in the winter it would have been uncomfortably chilly
and draughty.
It has already been noticed that an Athenian house usually presented
a blank wall to the street, for it was built round a court on to
which all the rooms opened. The houses were generally of one story
only, though a few occasionally had more, and the rooms drew all
their light and air from the court. Socrates once said that a
perfect house should be one that was cool in summer and warm in
winter, and of such a convenient size that the owner could keep all
his possessions in it with ease and security.
The front door was always kept carefully shut and {199} bolted, but a
knocker, often in the form of a ring in a lion's mouth, announced the
visitor, who was admitted by the porter, a slave who sat in a small
room just inside the door. The door opened into a courtyard, which
in a good-sized house would be fairly large, but badly paved. This
was the men's court. A row of columns all round the sides supported
a roof which made a kind of verandah, from which small rooms opened.
These rooms do not seem to have had any light or air except that
which entered from the court, and they must have been dark and
uncomfortable. They were used only by the grown sons of the family
and by the male slaves.
In the middle of the court stood an altar to Zeus the Protector of
the Home, on which fragrant incense always burned, and fresh garlands
of flowers and leaves would be placed on it every day.
Leading out of the men's court was the dining-hall. There would be
no table, for the guest did not go to the table, but the table, a low
one, was brought to him as he sat or reclined on a beautifully carved
couch. The most sacred spot in the house was in this room, the altar
of Hestia, on which burned the sacred fire of the family hearth.
There might be a row of large vases against one wall, and if one of
them bore the inscription, "I am from the Games at Athens," the
family would take care to preserve it as one of their greatest
treasures, for the words meant that the vase had been a prize won by
some member of the family in the Athenian Games.
A door opposite that which led from the men's {200} court into the
dining room, opened into another court, that of the women. This was
similar to the men's court, but more often planted with flowers and
shrubs. The women's rooms, nearly as small and dark and
uncomfortable as those of the men, opened from the women's court, and
the kitchen was probably at the back of it. On one side of this
court there was a large chamber, the best furnished in the house,
where the master and mistress slept.
All the furniture in these rooms was simple, but of beautiful design.
The chief things used were couches, footstools, low chairs and tables
and chests. The latter took the place of closets and cupboards.
There were lamps and bronze candelabra, and large numbers of cases
used by the Athenians as ordinary water-jugs, wine jars and drinking
cups, all of the most graceful shapes and forms and beautifully
painted.
The life of the Athenian house centred in the women's court, though
during the daytime when the men of the house were absent, the women
used the men's court almost as much as their own. The moment,
however, they heard the sound of the knocker on the front door, they
fled to their own part of the house, lest they should be caught
unawares by a male visitor.
Such was probably the house of a well-to-do Athenian, a very much
more comfortable and well-furnished house than that of the Spartan,
yet lacking in almost everything that we associate with the idea of
comfort. But the Athenian succeeded in being civilized without being
comfortable; his {201} well-being was in no way dependent on
_things_, and believing that his wealth was something to be used for
the good of the whole community, he spent it on the temples and
public buildings of the city rather than on his own private dwelling.
It may be true that the little use the Athenian made of his own house
made him less interested in it than in the other buildings of the
city, but whether he carried it to an extreme or not, it was his
public-spirited point of view that gave him that greater interest in
the public welfare than in his own private affairs.
IV. ATHENIAN TRADE
The earlier Greeks believed that a state should be self-supporting,
that the farmers should produce enough food, and the craftsmen
everything needed in daily life. But from the time of Solon onwards
this became increasingly difficult in Athens, for owing to the
arrival of settlers who came from many different places, attracted by
the possibilities of work in the growing state, the population
increased, and it became impossible to produce enough food. This had
a very important influence on Athens, for instead of being
self-sufficing and secure within her own walls, she became dependent
for her life on the food supplies, and especially on the corn, that
came to her from Egypt and the Black Sea colonies, and in the time of
war it was absolutely necessary that the routes to these places
should be kept open. Very strict laws were passed to regulate the
corn trade and to make sure that enough would always {202} be brought
to Athens. No Athenian merchant might take corn to any other harbour
than the Peiraeus, and none might leave Egypt or the Black Sea ports
unless he had a certain amount of corn on board his ship.
The fact that the Athenian merchant had to go to distant places for
corn increased his trade in other articles. He was at home on the
sea, and his many-oared ship passed swiftly over the waters of the
Aegean, stopping at many places: at the ports of Ionian colonies,
where he found his kinsfolk, eager to hear the latest news from the
mainland and especially from Athens; at the ports of the Barbarians,
where he rejoiced that he was a Greek and did not dwell amongst these
strangers. The Athenian merchant sailed in his own ship, and beyond
his final destination, generally had no definite route in mind. He
was guided by the favourable winds, or by rumours of suitable trading
ports where he would find good opportunities for exchanging his
goods. He left Athens with oil, honey from Hymettus, and the
far-famed Athenian pottery, the chief exports, and he exchanged these
for the corn and fish of the Black Sea ports, the wool of Miletus,
the perfumes and spices of Syria, the linen and papyrus and the
all-important corn of Egypt, the wine of Chios, the cypress wood of
Crete, the dates of Phoenicia, the rugs and cushions of Carthage;
while in such ports as Carthage and Miletus he found articles which
had reached these places by caravans from still more distant lands.
In Carthage he obtained ivory and ebony from Africa, {203} and in
Miletus richly woven carpets and rugs from Babylon.
All this trade brought wealth to Athens, and it taught the quick
Athenian mind, always alert and interested in any new thing, "new
ways of enjoying life."
V. ATHENIAN POTTERY
Most of the industries carried on in any large city were to be found
in Athens, but the industry for which she was best known throughout
the Mediterranean world was that of the potter, and Athenian vases
were exported in very large quantities. But these vases were not
mere ornaments; each had its own particular use as a household
utensil, an offering to a god, or as an offering at a tomb.
Vases for different purposes were made of different shapes; each was
beautiful in form, but with its beauty it combined usefulness. The
handles on the water jars are placed just where they are most needed,
the oil pours out of the narrow neck of the oil jug drop by drop so
that the quantity could be easily regulated, and the drinking cup has
a slight curve to the rim, so that one can drink out of it quite
easily without spilling the liquid.
There are certain well known forms of these vases: the Amphora is a
large two-handled vase which was used for storing oil and other
liquids; the Hydria has three handles and was used for carrying
water; the Krater is a large vase in which wine and water were mixed;
the Lekythos is a jug {204} with a narrow neck used for pouring out
oil slowly in small quantities; and the Kylix is a wide and shallow
drinking cup. A large amphora, often full of oil, was given as a
prize for some of the athletic contests at the Panathenaic games held
in Athens. Such an amphora can always be recognized, as it bears on
one side the figure of Athena with the inscription: "I am from the
Games at Athens," and on the other a painting depicting the contest
for which the vase was a prize.
The quarter in Athens given up to the potters was known as the
Cerameicus, and here there were a number of workshops owned by
different vase-makers. At the head of each establishment was the
master; but he was a craftsman as well as manager and was able to do
everything connected with the industry: he could not only make the
vase, but also design and paint it. His workmen, however, did most
of the turning, shaping and polishing of the vases. When the vase
had been made, it was given to the artist who painted the design on
it, after which it had to be dried, baked and glazed. The black
glaze that was used in Athens was one of the great discoveries of the
ancient potters' art. Time never spoiled it, and it seems as fresh
today as when it was first put on the vases. In some cases it has
peeled off in small flakes, but that only happens when the clay
beneath is damp; otherwise it remains unchanged.
[Illustration: GREEK VASES. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of
Art.]
The earlier vases were painted in black on the red background of the
clay; later, the artist sketched his design on the red clay and gave
the vase back to {205} the workman, who painted in the background in
black and then returned it to the artist, who retouched his design
and in some cases added here and there a touch of colour.
Besides the rooms for the workmen and artists, and the court where
the ovens were placed, a potter's workshop required storerooms where
the finished vases were kept, and a room where the master received
his customers and sold his pottery.
The subjects of the paintings on the vases were always carefully
chosen and were suited to the use to which the vase was to be put.
The large vases had graver and more serious subjects, the kylix had
more animated scenes. This cup was used at banquets and on festive
occasions, and so the artists painted gay and merry scenes on it, and
as they tried to attract buyers by the novelty of their designs, the
kylix paintings show a great deal of originality. The subjects were
taken from mythology, or showed battle scenes, or subjects connected
with daily life. If all our other sources of knowledge of life in
Athens were suddenly lost to us, the vases would still be a rich mine
of information, as in one way or another they represent all the
varied experiences of human life.
In all their art the Greeks were chiefly interested in representing
the human form. They themselves did not realize that in doing this
they were taking a step onward in man's great adventure of learning
how to live, but in all the many ways in which they represented man,
they showed him going forth into the outside world of nature,
conscious that he had {206} the power to make of it a world in which
he felt at home. Part of the greatness of the Greeks came from the
fact that they did this unconsciously. The craftsmen and
vase-painters themselves were in no way regarded as the equals of the
great sculptors. The Athenians regarded them as quite lowly workers,
but they were artists nevertheless, proved so by the fact that though
there was often copying of a general design, the artist never copied
mechanically, but put into his work something that was his own. In
all the great quantity of Greek vases in the world today no two have
been found exactly alike, and so the craftsmen, though they were
unconscious of how later ages would regard their work, knew the
satisfaction that comes from creating beauty in any form, and they
said of their work that "there is no sweeter solace in life for human
ills than craftsmanship; for the mind, absorbed in its study, sails
past all troubles and forgets them."[3]
[1] A. E. Zimmern: _The Greek Commonwealth_.
[2] Xenophon: _The Economist_.
[3] Amphis: quoted by G. M. A. Richter in _The Craft of Athenian
Pottery_.
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