GREECE--THE WORLD'S TEACHER.
Nothing so impresses the visitor to Greece--not the waters of the
Ægean sea, with their myriad hues; not the Acropolis, eloquent with
ruins; not even the lovely site of Athens itself--as the part which
little Greece has played in the instruction of the world. With an
area of less than twenty-five thousand square miles, not half of
which is productive, and with a population of less than two and
a half millions, this diminutive nation has a history without a
parallel.
There is scarcely a department of thought in which Greece has not
been the pioneer, and in many things she has set an example which
subsequent generations have but imperfectly followed. If in Egypt
one is awed by the evidences of antiquity; if in Palestine he is
made reverent by the spiritual association connected with Judea,
Galilee and Samaria; in Greece he bows with profound respect to the
mighty influence exerted by this single people upon civilization.
The signs along the streets recall the alphabet with which the
student of the classics struggles when he takes up the dead
languages--and yet, the Greek language can hardly be called dead,
for while it is the spoken tongue of but a comparatively small
number, it has found a glorious resurrection in nearly all the
languages of Europe. In fact, it has so many merits that we are
constantly complimenting it by returning to it for the nomenclature
of philosophy, science and art.
Of those who still speak the language of Herodotus, Homer, Socrates
and Demosthenes, a majority live outside of Greece, for the Greek
colonies planted around the eastern end of the Mediterranean form a
considerable, as well as an influential, portion of the population.
Greek colonization, by the way, was of an enduring kind. Those
who went out into distant fields did not go as individual bees
(official or commercial) to gather honey and return with it to
the parent hive; they went out rather in swarms to found cities,
develop countries and establish new centers for the spread of Greek
influence. They identified themselves with the land to which they
went; they became an integral part of the population, and, by
virtue of their inherent superiority, they gradually substituted the
language, the ideas, and the customs of their native land for those
which they found. So securely did they build that neither the Roman
nor the Turk was able to obliterate their work. The people bowed
before the storm, but continued Greek, and to-day in Alexandria,
Asia Minor and Constantinople, Hellenic influence is still felt.
[Illustration: THE PARTHENON.]
The ancient Greeks sought to perfect the human form, and it is not
to be wondered at that the marble models of strength, grace and
beauty have been unearthed where the Olympian games inspired a
rivalry in physical development. The games were established nearly
eight hundred years before the beginning of the Christian era, and
during the nation's independent existence they were held in such
high esteem that the laurel wreath of victory was the greatest
reward within the reach of the youth of the country. Each city
had its stadium, some of them of immense size. The one at Athens
seated fifty thousand spectators, and the enthusiasm aroused by
the contests was scarcely less than that which at Rome greeted the
gladiators. By the generosity of a rich Greek the stadium at Athens
has recently been restored at a cost of more than a million dollars.
The race course is six hundred and seventy feet long and a little
more than a hundred feet in width, and the seats are of Pentelic
marble. Notwithstanding its great capacity it can not contain the
crowds that assemble to witness the athletic games, renewed there
in 1896 by the International Athletic Association. Our country has
the distinction of having led in the contest of 1896 and again in
the contest held at Athens last April. Our representatives won
eleven prizes each time, and I found that these victories had very
favorably impressed the people of Athens.
The stadium is not the only splendid monument to the public spirit
of the modern Greeks. The academy of science and the library are
magnificent buildings, each costing more than the restoration of
the stadium. They illustrate the best in Grecian architecture,
reproducing the Corinthian, the Doric, and the Ionic. They are of
Pentelic marble and would be worthy of a place in any city of the
world. The library contains several hundred thousand volumes and has
all the modern equipment. Athens has a population of but little more
than a hundred thousand, and it is doubtful whether there is another
city of its size that can boast of as large an expenditure of
private capital in public buildings. The mountain which has supplied
Athens with marble for twenty-five hundred years is only a few miles
from the city and its quarries are still unexhausted.
[Illustration: THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS.]
Modern Athens is very attractive; its streets are paved and clean;
its business houses are large and well built; its government
buildings are substantial, and its private residences give evidence
of taste. We were there in the season of flowers and we saw them
blooming in profusion everywhere. Numerous statues adorn the streets
and parks, the most noted being the statue of Byron, erected in
memory of his unselfish devotion to Greek independence.
The soldiers and policemen have adopted the costume of the ancient
Greeks, but otherwise the people dress like the people of northern
Europe.
As one approaches Athens for the first time, his eye is sure to
search for the "temple-crowned" Acropolis--the hill which art and
religion combined to make immortal. It rises from the plain much as
Chapultepec rises from the plain of Mexico. It is about five hundred
feet high and, at the top, two hundred yards in length. It must have
been surpassingly beautiful when the Parthenon was completed--that
great treasury which has not only supplied the art galleries of the
world with marvels of beauty in stone, but has given law to the
architects from that day to this. Pericles, who deserves the credit
for the construction of the Parthenon, can be pardoned for exulting
in his work.
To-day, the Acropolis is a picture of desolation, but the few
columns that remain bear witness to its departed glory. Lord
Elgin carried away at one time two hundred and fifty feet of the
sculptured frieze, and scarcely any of its columns, capitals,
cornice and pediment would have remained but for the size and
weight of the masses of marble. The pillage that for nearly twenty
centuries has been robbing Greece of her priceless works of art can
be understood when it is stated that one Roman conqueror celebrated
his victory by exhibiting in his triumphant procession two hundred
and fifty wagon loads of Greek pictures and statues, and that these
wagons were followed by three thousand men each bearing some trophy
taken from the cities of Greece.
And yet in spite of the grand larceny which has been perpetrated
against this unfortunate land the museum at Athens contains enough
of the beautiful in marble and bronze to make any nation conspicuous
in the realm of art. Within two years some notable additions have
been made to the collection; a life-sized bronze statue has been
unearthed and a marble figure, half buried in the sands of the sea,
has been rescued. The latter is perfect in the portions protected by
the sand but was disintegrating where it came into contact with the
waves.
The readers of these articles are too well informed in regard to the
discoveries of Dr. Schliemann to make it necessary to refer to his
work in detail. One room of the museum contains the gold ornaments
which he gathered from five tombs, and they are sufficient to show
the extended use made of this metal in the arts. They consist of
ear rings, finger rings, bracelets, necklaces, head ornaments,
vases, cups, coins, etc. A pair of cups which attract special
attention bear in relief the figures of bulls--the animals being
equal in form to the best breeds of to-day. On one cup they are
being led to the sacrifice and on the other they are bound at the
altar.
Besides these statues of renown and the casts of those which have
been removed, there are many specimens of ancient pottery by which
one can trace the rise in artistic taste and skill. Some of the
earliest statues in stone and clay bear a striking resemblance to
those of Egypt.
Second only in interest to the Acropolis is Mars Hill, a rocky
summit two-thirds of the height of the Acropolis. Here the ancient
court of the Areopagus, composed of the most eminent of the
Athenians, held its sessions. Here under the dome of the sky the
most important cases were tried and life and death hung upon the
decree of the court. Here, also, Paul's great speech to the "men of
Athens" was delivered, his text being found in the altar erected to
"the unknown god."
[Illustration: MARS HILL.]
Only a little distance from Mars Hill is the stone platform
from which the orators of Greece addressed the people. A level,
shelf-like space was formed near the top of the hill where a few
thousand could congregate, and here the citizens listened while
the greatest of all public speakers poured forth his eloquence.
It was worth a trip to Athens to view the spot where Demosthenes
delivered the oration on the Crown and the Philippics, which have
been the pattern set before the student for twenty-two hundred
years. In the marshalling of facts, in the grouping of arguments,
in the use of invective and in the arranging of climaxes he is
still the teacher. Someone has drawn a distinction between Cicero
and Demosthenes, saying that when the former spoke the people said:
"How well Cicero speaks," while, when Demosthenes spoke, they said:
"Let us go against Phillip!" Demosthenes' style was more convincing
than ornate; his purpose was to arouse, not merely to please, and
from the accounts that have come down to us his delivery was suited
to his language. He, in fact, gave to action the highest place
among the requisites of effective speech. We recalled the saying
of Demosthenes when we listened to the excited tones and watched
the gesticulations of the boatmen who thronged about our ship in
the harbor of Piræus. The physician who came aboard to examine the
passengers gave us even a better illustration of "action," although
his gestures were more forcible than graceful, possibly because
he addressed himself to the captain of the ship instead of to the
multitude.
[Illustration: DEMOSTHENES' PLATFORM.]
On the shore of the Ægean sea, between Athens and the harbor, at a
place where Demosthenes may have tested his voice against the tumult
of the waves, I gathered some pebbles. I can not prove that they are
the identical ones used by him to overcome the impediment in his
speech, but they are at least a reminder of the toilsome struggle
through which he passed before his name was known to fame.
It was a disappointment to find so little to mark the site of
the academy where Socrates and Plato met their disciples. These
philosophers have made such an impression upon the thought of the
world that I had hoped to find some spot clearly identified as the
place where they taught. An old house now stands on a treeless
tract over which they are said to have walked in their daily
discussions, but it is a modern one. A gate admits to the grounds,
although no wall incloses them. It is much easier to picture
Demosthenes speaking from the rostrum which still remains, than to
imagine Socrates propounding here his questions and elaborating the
method of reasoning to which his name has been given.
There is an old cemetery within the limits of the present city where
recent excavation has brought to light numerous tombs ornamented
with sculpture. Some of the groups of statuary and urns have been
left where they were found, while others have been given a place in
the museum. These are additional proof of the number of those who
handled the chisel in the days of Phidias.
No spot is identified with Herodotus, the Father of History, or with
Thucydides who, with Herodotus, has been the instructor of later
chroniclers. Except the remains of the theatres, there is nothing
to recall the tragedies of Euripides, Æschylus and Sophocles or the
comedies of the Aristophanes; and no place is pointed out as the
site of the studio of Parrhasius or Zeuxis, though the lessons which
they taught the world have not been forgotten. While the guide does
not pretend to know the house in which Homer lived or where he wrote
his deathless songs, the traveler who passes through the Hellespont
can see the plains of ill-fated Troy, and during his stay in Greece
his memory runs over the heroes of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
There are no physical evidences of the life work of Lycurgus and
Solon, yet the laws which they promulgated are the heritage of
mankind. Salamis remains, and if the naval battle which Themistocles
won had had no other effect than to furnish Pericles with a theme
for his great funeral orations, it would still have been worthy
of remembrance. The battlefield of Marathon which gave Miltiades
a place among the world's generals is also unchanged. It is about
twenty-five miles from Athens, and the story, told in marble, of
the Greek who carried the news of the victory to Athens and died
from exhaustion amid the shouts of his countrymen, has led to the
incorporation of a twenty-five mile race in the athletic games when
they are held at Athens. In 1896 the race was won by a Greek (much
to the satisfaction of the audience), who made the run from Marathon
to the city in two hours and forty-five minutes.
The pass at Thermopylæ is also to be seen, and the heroism of the
three hundred Spartans who, under the leadership of Leonidas,
offered up their lives there for their country, continues to be an
inspiration. They failed to stay the onward march of Xerxes, but
who can measure the value of their example?
Corinth, as of old, still guards the entrance to the Peloponnesus;
but notwithstanding the canal, which, at this point, connects the
Ægean Sea with the Gulf of Corinth, the city has only a small
population.
Corinth brings to memory the part Greece played in the spread of
Christianity. It was not enough that this country led the world in
statecraft and oratory, in poetry and history, in philosophy and
literature, in art and in athletics, she was also one of the first
mission fields of the apostles. It was to the Corinthians that Paul
wrote the Epistles in which love is given the first place among the
virtues, and it was Greece that gave her name to one of the great
branches of the Christian Church.
A democrat may be pardoned for cherishing a high regard for the land
that coined the word, democracy. The derivation of the word--from
_demos_, the people, and _kratein_, to rule--makes it an appropriate
one to describe a government based upon popular will. And as
governments more and more recognize the citizen as the sovereign,
and the people as the source of all political power, the world's
debt to Greece will be more and more fully appreciated. She not
only gave to language a word accurately expressing the idea of
self-government, but she proved by experience the wisdom of trusting
the people with the management of all public affairs.
[Illustration: FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON]