[Illustration]
A Day In Old Athens
by William Stearns Davis
Professor of Ancient History in the University of Minnesota
Preface
This little book tries to describe what an intelligent person would see
and hear in ancient Athens, if by some legerdemain he were translated
to the fourth century B.C. and conducted about the city under competent
guidance. Rare happenings have been omitted and sometimes, to avoid
long explanations, _probable_ matters have been stated as if they were
ascertained facts; but these instances are few, and it is hoped no
reader will be led into serious error.
The year 360 B.C. has been selected for the hypothetical time of this
visit, not because of any special virtue in that date, but because
Athens was then architecturally almost perfect, her civic and her
social life seemed at their best, the democratic constitution held its
vigor, and there were few outward signs of the general decadence which
was to set in after the triumph of Macedon.
I have endeavored to state no facts and to make no allusions, that will
not be fairly obvious to a reader who has merely an elementary
knowledge of Greek annals, such information, for instance, as may be
gained through a good secondary school history of ancient times. This
naturally has led to comments and descriptions which more advanced
students may find superfluous.
The writer has been under a heavy debt to the numerous and excellent
works on Greek “Private Antiquities” and “Public Life” written in
English, French, or German, as well as to the various great Classical
Encyclopædias and Dictionaries, and to many treatises and monographs
upon the topography of Athens and upon the numerous phases of Attic
culture. It is proper to say, however, that the material from such
secondary sources has been merely supplementary to a careful
examination of the ancient Greek writers, with the objects of this book
kept especially in view. A sojourn in modern Athens, also, has given
me an impression of the influence of the Attic landscape upon the
conditions of old Athenian life, an impression that I have tried to
convey in this small volume.
I am deeply grateful to my sister, Mrs. Fannie Davis Gifford, for
helpful criticism of this book while in manuscript; to my wife, for
preparing the drawings from Greek vase-paintings which appear as
illustrations; and to my friend and colleague, Professor Charles A.
Savage, for a kind and careful reading of the proofs. Thanks also are
due to Henry Holt and Company for permission to quote material from
their edition of Von Falke’s “Greece and Rome.”
W. S. D.
University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
May, 1914.
Contents
Chapter I. The Physical Setting of Athens.
1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History
2. Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant
3. The Small Size and Sterility of Attica
4. The Physical Beauty of Attica
5. The Mountains of Attica
6. The Sunlight in Attica
7. The Topography of the City of Athens
8. 360 B.C.—The Year of the Visit to Athens
Chapter II. The First Sights in Athens.
9. The Morning Crowds bound for Athens
10. The Gate and the Street Scenes
11. The Streets and House Fronts of Athens
12. The Simplicity of Athenian Life
Chapter III. The Agora and its Denizens.
13. The Buildings around the Agora
14. The Life in the Agora
15. The Booths and Shops in the Agora
16. The Flower and the Fish Vendors
17. The Morning Visitors to the Agora
18. The Leisured Class in Athens
19. Familiar Types around the Agora
20. The Barber Shops
Chapter IV. The Athenian House and its Furnishings.
21. Following an Athenian Gentleman Homeward
22. The Type and Uses of a Greek House
23. The Plan of a Greek House
24. Modifications in the Typical Plan
25. Rents and House Values
26. The Simple yet Elegant Furnishings of an Athenian House
Chapter V. The Women of Athens.
27. How Athenian Marriages are Arranged
28. Lack of Sentiment in Marriages
29. Athenian Marriage Rites
30. The Mental Horizon of Athenian Women
31. The Honor paid Womanhood in Athens
32. The Sphere of Action of Athenian Women
Chapter VI. Athenian Costume.
33. The General Nature of Greek Dress
34. The Masculine Chiton, Himation, and Chlamys
35. The Dress of the Women
36. Footwear and Head Coverings
37. The Beauty of the Greek Dress
38. Greek Toilet Frivolities
Chapter VII. The Slaves.
39. Slavery an Integral Part of Greek Life
40. The Slave Trade in Greece
41. The Treatment of Slaves in Athens
42. Cruel and Kind Masters
43. The “City Slaves” of Athens
Chapter VIII. The Children.
44. The Desirability of Children in Athens
45. The Exposure of Infants
46. The Celebration of a Birth
47. Life and Games of Young Children
48. Playing in the Streets
49. The First Stories and Lessons
50. The Training of Athenian Girls
Chapter IX. The Schoolboys of Athens.
51. The Athenians Generally Literate
52. Character Building the Aim of Athenian Education
53. The Schoolboy’s Pedagogue
54. An Athenian School
55. The School Curriculum
56. The Study of the Poets
57. The Greeks do not study Foreign Languages
58. The Study of “Music”
59. The Moral Character of Greek Music
60. The Teaching of Gymnastics
61. The Habits and Ambitions of Schoolboys
62. The “Ephebi”
Chapter X. The Physicians of Athens.
63. The Beginnings of Greek Medical Science
64. Healing Shrines and their Methods
65. An Athenian Physician’s Office
66. The Physician’s Oath
67. The Skill of Greek Physicians
68. Quacks and Charlatans
Chapter XI. The Funerals.
69. An Athenian’s Will
70. The Preliminaries of a Funeral
71. Lamenting the Dead
72. The Funeral Procession
73. The Funeral Pyre
74. Honors to the Memory of the Dead
75. The Beautiful Funeral Monuments
Chapter XII. Trade, Manufactures, and Banking.
76. The Commercial Importance of Athens
77. The Manufacturing Activities of Athens
78. The Commerce of Athens
79. The Adventurous Merchant Skippers
80. Athenian Money-changers and Bankers
81. A Large Banking Establishment
82. Drawbacks to the Banking Business
83. The Pottery of Athens
84. Athenian Pottery an Expression of the Greek Sense of Beauty
Chapter XIII. The Armed Forces of Athens.
85. Military Life at Athens
86. The Organization of the Athenian Army
87. The Hoplites and the Light Troops
88. The Cavalry and the Peltasts
89. The Panoply of the Hoplites
90. The Weapons of a Hoplite
91. Infantry Maneuvers
92. The Preliminaries of a Greek Battle
93. Joining the Battle
94. The Climax and End of the Battle
95. The Burial Truce and the Trophy after the Battle
96. The Siege of Fortified Towns
97. The Introduction of New Tactics
Chapter XIV. The Peiræus and the Shipping.
98. The “Long Walls” down to the Harbor Town
99. Munychia and the Havens of Athens
100. The Glorious View from the Hill of Munychia
101. The Town of Peiræus
102. The Merchant Shipping
103. The Three War Harbors and the Ship Houses
104. The Great Naval Arsenal
105. An Athenian Trierarch
106. The Evolution of the Trireme
107. The Hull of a Trireme
108. The Rowers’ Benches of a Trireme
109. The Cabins, Rigging, and Ram of a Trireme
110. The Officers and Crew of a Trireme
111. A Trireme at Sea
112. The Tactics of a Naval Battle
113. The Naval Strength of Athens
Chapter XV. An Athenian Court Trial.
114. The Frequency of Litigation in Athens
115. Prosecutions in Athens
116. The Preliminaries to a Trial
117. The Athenian Jury Courts
118. The Juryman’s Oath
119. Opening The Trial. The Plaintiff’s Speech
120. The Defendant’s Speech. Demonstrations by the Jury
121. The First Verdict
122. The Second and Final Verdict
123. The Merits and Defects of the Athenian Courts
124. The Usual Punishments in Athens
125. The Heavy Penalty of Exile
126. The Death Penalty of Athens
Chapter XVI. The Ecclesia of Athens.
127. The Rule of Democracy in Athens
128. Aristocracy and Wealth. Their Status and Burdens
129. Athenian Society truly Democratic up to a Certain Point
130. The Voting Population of Athens
131. Meeting Times of the Ecclesia
132. The Pnyx (Assembly Place) at Athens
133. The Preliminaries of the Meeting
134. Debating a Proposition
135. Voting at the Pnyx
136. The Ecclesia as an Educational Instrument
Chapter XVII. The Afternoon at the Gymnasia.
137. The Gymnasia. Places of General Resort
138. The Road to the Academy
139. The Academy
140. The Social Atmosphere and Human Types at the Academy
141. Philosophers and Cultivated Men at the Gymnasia
142. The Beautiful Youths at the Academy
143. The Greek Worship of Manly Beauty
144. The Detestation of Old Age
145. The Greeks unite Moral and Physical Beauty
146. The Usual Gymnastic Sports and their Objects
147. Professional Athletes: the Pancration
148. Leaping Contests
149. Quoit Hurling
150. Casting the Javelin
151. Wrestling
152. Foot Races
153. The Pentathlon: the Honors paid to Great Athletes
Chapter XVIII. Athenian Cookery and the Symposium.
154. Greek Meal Times
155. Society desired at Meals
156. The Staple Articles of Food
157. Greek Vintages
158. Vegetable Dishes
159. Meat and Fish Dishes
160. Inviting Guests to a Dinner Party
161. Preparing for the Dinner: the Sicilian Cook
162. The Coming of the Guests
163. The Dinner Proper
164. Beginning the Symposium
165. The Symposiarch and his Duties
166. Conversation at the Symposium
167. Games and Entertainments
168. Going Home from the Feast: Midnight Revelers
Chapter XIX. Country Life around Athens.
169. The Importance of his Farm to an Athenian
170. The Country by the Ilissus: the Greeks and Natural Beauty
171. Plato’s Description of the Walk by the Ilissus
172. The Athenian Love of Country Life
173. Some Features of the Attic Country
174. An Attic Farmstead
175. Plowing, Reaping, and Threshing
176. Grinding at the Mill
177. The Olive Orchards
178. The Vineyards
179. Cattle, Sheep, and Goats
180. The Gardens and the Shrine
Chapter XX. The Temples and Gods of Athens.
181. Certain Factors in Athenian Religion
182. What constitutes “Piety” in Athens
183. The Average Athenians Idea of the Gods
184. Most Greeks without Belief in Immortality
185. The Multitude of Images of the Gods
186. Greek Superstition
187. Consulting Omens
188. The Great Oracles
189. Greek Sacrifices
190. The Route to the Acropolis
191. The Acropolis of Athens
192. The Use of Color Upon Athenian Architecture and Sculptures
193. The Chief Buildings on the Acropolis
194. The Parthenon
195. A Sacrifice on the Acropolis
196. The Interior of the Parthenon and the Great Image of Athena
197. Greek Prayers
Chapter XXI. The Great Festival of Athens.
198. The Frequent Festivals in Athens
199. The Eleusinia
200. The Holy Procession to Eleusis
201. The Mysteries of Eleusis
202. The Greater Dionysia and the Drama
203. The Theater of Dionysus
204. The Production of a Play
205. The Great Panathenaic Procession
206. The View from the Temple of Wingless Victory
Index
[Illustration: Athenian Acropolis]
Maps, Plans, and Illustrations.
1. Athenian Acropolis
2. Sketch Map of Attica
3. Sketch Map of Athens
4. Peasant going to Market
5. At the Street Fountain
6. A Wayside Herm
7. A Carpenter
8. Conjectural Plan for the house of a Wealthy Athenian
9. Spinning
10. The Maternal Slipper
11. Athenian Funeral Monument
12. At the Smithy
13. Hoplite in Armor
14. The Town of Peiræus and the Harbors of Athens
15. Fishermen
16. An Athenian Trireme
17. The Race in Armor
18. Itinerant Piper with his Dog
19. Women pounding Meal
20. Gathering the Olive Harvest
21. Rural Sacrifice to a Wooden Statue of Dionysus
22. Sketch Map of the Acropolis of Athens
23. Sacrificing a Pig
24. Athena Parthenos
25. Comic Actors dressed as Ostriches
26. Actor in Costume as a Fury
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
Chæroneia (338 B.C.) she had done little more than keep her liberty on
sufferance.
3. The Small Size and Sterility of Attica.—Attica was a very small
country according to modern notions, and Athens the only large city
therein. The land barely covered some 700 square miles, with 40 square
miles more, if one includes the dependent island of Salamis. It was
thus far smaller than the smallest of our American “states” (Rhode
Island = 1250 square miles), and was not so large as many American
counties. It was really a triangle of rocky, hill-scarred land thrust
out into the Ægean Sea, as if it were a sort of continuation of the
more level district of Bœotia. 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 mountain passes towards Bœotia or Megara.
Attica was thus distinctly separated from the rest of Greece. Legends
told how, when the half-savage Dorians had forced themselves southward
over the mainland, they had never penetrated into Attica; and the
Athenians later prided themselves upon being no colonists from afar,
but upon being “earth-sprung,”—natives of the soil which they and their
twenty-times grandfathers had held before them.
[Illustration: Sketch map of Attica]
This triangle of Attica had its peculiar shortcomings and virtues. It
was for the most part stony and unfertile. Only a shallow layer of
good soil covered a part 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 products he could
ever raise in abundance for export were olives (which seemed to thrive
on scanty soil and scanty rainfall) and honey, the work of the mountain
bees.
4. The Physical Beauty of Attica.—Yet Attica had advantages which more
than counterbalanced this grudging of fertility. All Greece, to be
sure, was favored by the natural beauty of its atmosphere, seas, and
mountains, but Attica was perhaps the most favored portion of all,
Around her coasts, rocky often and broken by pebbly beaches and little
craggy peninsulas, surged the deep blue Ægean, the most glorious
expanse of ocean in the world. Far away spread the azure
water[*],—often foam-crested and sometimes alive with the dolphins
leaping at their play,—reaching towards a shimmering sky line where
rose “the isles of Greece,” masses of green foliage, or else of tawny
rock, scattered afar, to adapt the words of Homer, “like shields laid
on the face of the glancing deep.”
[*] The peculiar blueness of the water near Attica is probably caused
by the clear rocky bottom of the sea, as well as by the intensity of
the sunlight.
Above the sea spread the noble arch of the heavens,—the atmosphere
often dazzlingly bright, and carrying its glamour and sparkle almost
into the hearts of men. The Athenians were proud of the air about
their land. Their poets gladly sung its praises, as, for example,
Euripides[*], when he tells how his fellow countrymen enjoy being—
Ever through air clear shining brightly
As on wings uplifted, pacing lightly.
[*] Medea:829.
5. The Mountains of Attica.—The third great element, besides the sea
and the atmosphere of Athens, was the mountains. One after another the
bold hills reared themselves, cutting short all the plainlands and
making the farmsteads often a matter 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
these mountains was very high: Hymettus, the greatest, was only about
3500 feet; but rising as they often did from a close proximity to the
sea, and not from a dwarfing table-land, even the lower hills uplifted
themselves with proud majesty.
These hills were of innumerable tints according to their rocks, the hue
of the neighboring sea, and the hour of the day. In spring they would
be clothed in verdant green, which would vanish before the summer
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 into such a
galaxy of shifting color, that, in comparison, the lighting of almost
any northern or western landscape would seem feeble and tame. The
Athenians absorbed natural beauty with their native air.
6. The Sunlight in Athens.—The Athenian loved sunshine, and Helios the
Sun God was gracious to his prayers. In the Athens of to-day it is
reckoned that the year averages 179 days in which the sun is not
concealed by clouds one instant; and 157 days more 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 friend, bringing tempering breezes. In the short
winter there might be a little frost, a little snow, and a fair supply
of rain. For the rest of the year, one golden day was wont to succeed
another, with the sun and the sea breeze in ever friendly rivalry.
[*] The reason for these many clear days is probably because when the
moist west and southwest winds come in contact with the dry, heated air
of the Attic plain, they are at once volatilized and dispersed, not
condensed (as in northern lands); therefore the day resolves itself
into brilliant sunshine.
The climate saved the Athenians from being obliged to wage a stern
warfare with nature as did the northern peoples. Their life and
civilization could be one developed essentially “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 forced them to struggle hard to win a living; unless they yielded
to the constant beckoning of the ocean, and sought food, adventure,
wealth, and a great empire across the seas.
7. The Topography of the City of Athens.—So much for the land of Attica
in general; but what of the setting of the city of Athens itself? The
city lay in a plain, somewhat in the south central part of Attica, and
about four miles back from the sea. A number of mountains came
together to form an irregular rectangle with the Saronic Gulf upon the
south. To the east of Athens stretched the long gnarled ridge of
Hymettus, the wildest and grayest mountain in Attica, the home of bees
and goatherds, and (if there be faith in pious legend) of innumerable
nymphs and satyrs. To the west ran the lower, browner mountains,
Ægaleos, 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 Ægaleos; 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, about one mile southwest of Lycabettus, upreared a natural
monument of much greater frame,—not a hill, but a colossal rock. Its
shape was that of an irregular oval; it was about 1000 feet long, 500
feet wide, and its level summit stood 350 feet above the plain. This
steep, tawny rock, flung by the Titans, one might dream, into the midst
of the Attic plain, formed one of the most famous sites in the world,
for it was the Acropolis of Athens. Its full significance, however,
must be explained later. From the Acropolis and a few lesser hills
close by, the land sloped gently down towards the harbors and the
Saronic Bay.
[Illustration: Sketch map of Athens]
These were the great features of the outward setting of Athens. One
might add to them the long belt of dark green olive groves winding 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 sea. There
was also a shorter olive belt west of the city, where the weaker
Ilissus crept, before it lost itself amid the thirsty fields.
Sea, rock, and sky, then, joined together around Athens as around
almost no other city in the world. The landscape itself was adjusted
to the eye with marvelous harmony. The colors 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 have won fame as being situated in one of the
most beautiful localities in the world. Rightly, therefore, did its
dwellers boast of their city as the “Violet-crowned” (_Iostephanos_).
8. 360 B.C.—The Year of the Visit to Athens.—This city let us visit in
the days of its greatest outward glory. We may select the year 360
B.C. At that time Athens had recovered from the ravages of the
Peloponnesian War, while the Macedonian peril 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 were still formidable. The harbors were full of commerce;
the philosophers were teaching their pupils in the groves and
porticoes; the democratic constitution was entirely intact. With
intelligent vision we will enter the city and look about us.