The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-26
The Glory That Was Greece.

The Glory That Was Greece.
A rhapsodic supplement to history Is
The Greek Spirit by KATE STEPHENS
tSturgis and Walton), a rather fiorld
account not of men and events but of
communal character working out in the
processes OF national evolution, revolu-
ton and circle closing devolution:
! Phases OF Its Progression in Religion,
| Polity. Philosophy and Art" Happily
Tree or impedimenta, notes, references
and photography. the book seems to be
a clever rescansion Of the views OF APP
proved Hellenists. The author has been
assistant professor of Greek at the
University of Kansas. and combines with
PROFESSIONAL authority some Of the Sum
flower glow and exuberance.
History has its dark ages and its
shining epochs; Of the latter was an
cient Hellas. immortal in influence, in
augurator of the new era OF the do
minion of mind over matter" The
/ Helene was the first Occidental to
! think and to know that he was think
| ing. The East fell into monotonous
| routine: In China the wise men dug
| channels of ceremonial for popular life
to flow through; india brooded through
| the centuries into religion of caste.
fatalistic formula. and the Hebrews
CROPPED blindly toward long de-
ferred ethical cult in advance of a sim
pie system based upon the proposition
that tho righteous must prosper and
the wicked be poor Perhaps in the
settling of popular understanding upon
these conventlonally accepted generali-
cations something has been lost of the
real spirit" of ancient Oriental civiliza-
/ tons.
The Fgcan "forerunners" excclled
| in culture. In remote antiquity their
houses of stone were built for comfort
as we'll as shelter and with view TO
sanitary qualities as well as defence.
They had a sense of art forms, limited
by crude instruments OF execution:
and. loving elegance, were not Tapped in
luxury. They were not borrowers.
Broadskull comes from the north. and
Ionan Longhead learns new things
for instance. by the time he becomes
one OF Homers Achaans he has given
over his matrilineal system for
patrlarchal rule. and he has changed his
gods. The simple deity of the produc-
tive principle in nature splits into new
forms and differentiated forces; Zeus,
heroic age of Greece. There is no gloom
in these people; their ideals are radiant,
active, self-assertive. without hint OF the
mysticism that comes with decadenCe.
There is no depressing, Gripping. crush
ing sense of sim; these heroes are the
children, not the creatures, Of their
gods. Traditions came, later. into con-
flict. but the genuine Greek creed is
that which makes the ancestor of the
race son of Zeus." Not in pictorial
or plastic arts nor in architecture nor
in music is the spirit" of this age cX-
pressed: 1t is the age of the epic. The
author might well have gone further
and added to her praise ~ this epic
age that at no other time or place in all
the world or the worlds history has the
formal epic been natural spontaneous,
cherished possession of the people.
Myth and folk song in every land has
its spirit" but not its form. literary
compositions may take its form but
cannot evoke again its spirit. Epic"
is not big enough word to yoke
Homer and Milton.
Confusion, CONFUSION and "the emer
gence upon the forescene OF the great
Greek division that the Hellenes called
Dorian" HOMECOMING democracy; pu-
rltanism; constructive ind.vidualism:
these are the symbols of the new age
cities grow up, and in the city states
oligarchs appear. The people are free
bur, not politically initiative. Expan-
sive impulse plants colonies in the Med
iterranean lands Poetry becomes lyric
The basileus sloughs the priest part
OF his office; then the single arChon
for life becomes one-nlnth of an
state Is planted, and puts forth law
Religion becomes a first concern. vor-
tex of seelhing problems; the old naive
god system will not satisfy the new
orphlsm. What singer had the pas
sion for purtication in Plndar! And
how the aristocrats must have chung
to their cherished Olympianism and
hated the deforming of their ancient
gods. Their gods were non moral; now,
cosmogony revised, they were being
made over into guardians of right
eousness." Mysticism, the Eleusnian
passion play" must have been horror
to tho graybeards
Here Miss Stephens takes up other
departments of the Greek spirit" at
the height Of It's development: philoso-
ply, including physical SCIENCE po- |
etry, and the -IIellen!sm that ex-
pressed itself in the national games, |
competition in athletics and song In |
chapter headed FIFTY Years OF Dis |
tingu,shed Works" the glory of Athens |
is celebrated. The Peloponnesan war |
marks the beginning of the decline the |
beauties of Greek drama were in
clpiently dccadent, and the Sophists, |
"progressives," hasten the process with |
insidious attack upon old ideas and |
ideals force history Into moulds So
crates and Plato are "the pinnacles of |
the Greek ascent; after them the down
grade:
Stll beautiful and arruent, tho spirit OF
Greece declined. After the depict