The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1914-07-02
COLUMBIA COMPARED
WITH The ILLISUS
lFrom Portland. Ore. Journall

"Athens and the Art Of Greece, "
was the subject Of all illustrated lee
ture given recently before the Y. NJ. c.
A. by Professor J. b. Horner, of the
Oregon Agricultural College. The lee.
ture was a Sunday afternoon trip
through Athens, which the speaker
mentioned as the alma mater of poetry
and religious art.
The river lllisus, on which Athens is
located, is famed in mythology and his
tory; yet in the month of August the
entire stream flowing into an ordinary
bathtub would fill il in about five min
utes. If Homer made so little river
famous, the query arises, what could
he have done had he seen a Columbia
to write about? But while the Greeks
had Homer, they have no Columbia.
We have a Columbia but no Homer.
Yet the time is coming when we shall
have not only Columbia. but also. a
Homer. Then the Columbia will be-
come classic.
The king and queen sit on their
thrones at the head of the great sta
dlum at Athens, because it is known
that the Grecian youth stand the test
better when they know the eyes of the
king and the queen are upon them.
Hence the Importance of the royal
presence at the stadium.
The commonest Greek at the stadium
has heard of Forrest SmithsOn, the
oregon boy who was discovered and
trained by the masterful Trine on the
Oregon Agricultural college campus.
in hn poanaAaltok,
games to award the'prize to the win
ming tribe in the name of the leader
and trainer--a practice which may yet
be adopted by colleges and universities
in Oregon.
Ruins of the temple of Esculapius at
the foot of the Acropolis are amply in
evidence. Here the sick came to con-
suit the noted physician, for the temple
had become essentially hospital. The
patients were placed upon couches
when they slept, after imbibing a quaff
of water from the spring near by. On
the following morning they were asked
to relate their dreams of the night.
These dreams were carefully diagnosed
and Esculapius prescribed accordingly.
Such was the beginning of medical
pfdCllCe III Or6ece.
The parthenon was alluded to as a
virgins chamber, having been erected
in honor of Athena, the beloved god
dess. The audience was then reminded
that virgin was the benefactress of
Moses, the champion and deliverer of
his race; the vestal virgin attended the
sacred fire at Rome, very high relig-
ious office; and the mother of the Sa-
vlor was virgin. Hence the Greeks
in their masterpiece-the parthenon-.
were abreast of the world in their trib-
ute to the chastity of virginity.
The prison of Socrates, having been
chiseled in stone, is well preserved, and
it is visited more than any other prison
in Greece, because it was in this prison
that the aged philosopher, unaided by
the Bible or inspiration, thought out
the Immortality of the soul, which is
regarded as the greatest mental act
ever performed by man.
The speaker dwelt at length upon
the advancement that is being made in
modern sculpture, alluding particularly
to the monument to Grecian Triumphs,
designed by George Bonanos, of Ath-
ems. The structure, when completed,
will be 60 feet high and 100 feet long,
nd it will be the most ambitious Greek
structure since the completion of hte
parthenon. Numerous pieces of modern
sculpture which are on exhibition in
the museums and art galleries of Eu-
rope were cited as evidence that the
Greek mind is rising again to the con-
temptation of the divine. which it once
chiseled in stune.