"Look! on the Ægean shore a city stands,
Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil.
Athens! the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence, native to famous wits,
Or hospitable in her sweet recess.
City or suburban studious walks and shades!
See there the olive groves of Academe,
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird
Thrills her thick-warbled notes the summer long.
There, flowery hill, Hymettus, with the sound
Of bees, industrious murmur, oft invites
To studious musing; there Ilissus rolls
His whispering stream. Within the walls then view
The schools of ancient sages; his who bred
Great Alexander to subdue the world.
Lyceum there and painted Stoa next."--MILTON.
The Athenians thought themselves the original inhabitants of Attica; for
which reason they were called "Sons of the Earth;" and "grasshoppers."
They sometimes, therefore, wore golden grasshoppers in their hair, as
badges of honour, to distinguish themselves from the people of later
origin and less noble extraction; because these insects are supposed to
be sprung from the ground. "Our origin," said Socrates, "is so
beautiful, that none of the Greeks can give such pure appellations to
their country as we can. We can truly style the earth on which we tread
our nurse, our mother, our father."
[Illustration: ATHENS]