Evening star., 1927-11-27
BY WILL DURANT, Ph. D.,
Author of
''The Story of Philosophy"

servants, or, at pest, tne SupeTlH'
tendents Of servants, and confined IN
every case to the narrow circle or
their prosaic homes. When Xanthippe
reproached her husband. philosopher
and guide, but not her friend. be-
cause he left her in dreary solitude
every day and many nights and led
his life in lofty independence of
her, she represented. however hum
bly. the dissatisfaction which Greek
women felt in their domestic IN
generation.
The other aspects of this national
divorce were the hetairai and Greek
love" A Greek could fall romantical-
ly in love with a woman, as half the
world had done with Helen. But III
the normal routine of Athenian lie
such enthusiasm was exceptional; 1t
was difficult to see a goddess in cook.
and the characteristic attitude OF the
average citizen to women was one OF
secret distaste and scorn. More and
more the custom arose Of channeling
love into passionate friendship within
each sex: half the poetry of love
among the Greeks circled about this
heretical attachment OF man to man.
and las in the Lesbian Sappho) of
woman to woman.
The hetairai were a protest against
this development. They were courte-
sans. but neither such common women
as walked the streets at the Piraeus
athens port), nor such exalted ladies'
as in the temples of Corinth upheld
the ancient trade in service and honor
to the gods; they were women who
had refused to accept the restricted
life of the Greek housewife. and had
combined with their promiscuity a
certain redeeming devotion to letters
and the arts. Some of them were
women of great beauty, who lent their
loveliness to Greek sculptors for the
INSTALLATION of Aphrodite'S grace;
others attached themselves to supreme
writer's like Sophocles and Demos
themes, who spent their modest for
tunes on them: one of them became
student and teacher Of philosophy and
the second wife Of Pericles.
X X *
How profound thinker Aspasia
was we cannot know; courtesy and
cynicism conflict in assigning reasons
for the frequency with which Socrates
and other thinkers sat humbly at her
feet. But we may take it as a rea-
sonable assumption that any woman
for whom Pericles would brave the
sings and arrows Of popular hostility
must have had charms for the mind
as we'll as lures for the flesh. Story
has it that when Pericles confessed to
his wife that he loved Aspasia she con-
sented readily to a separation, having
had her eye upon new romance her.
self. So the dance of life changed
partners. and writer's told how the
enamored statesman, despite his inn
perial dignity, never left or returned
T. Iii Ia ~,
sophical wife.
Here was an admirable opening for
political revenge The oponents of
Pericles discovered that Aspasia was
not as pious as was the beautiful, and
brought against her the charge that
she denied the gods. Pericles himself
conducted the case for Aspasia, and
though he was known as never show
ing strong emotion publicly, he broke
into passion and tears as he pleaded for
the life of his mate. (For according to
Athenian law-seldom used except for
political purposes-refusal to accept
the traditional religion was punish
able with death.) The trial was one Of
the great affairs of Athenian history:
it stirred and stimulated the minds
of thousands, and it made clearer than
ever before the bitter division that
intelligence of Athens and the obscu-
rantism and conservatism of the mob.
X X X X
The Gods of Greece.
What was this religion that chal-
lenged Anaxagoras. exiled Protagoras
and Aristotle, threatened Aspasia and
poisoned Socrates?
1t had begun, Ike most religions
of the ancient world, in the worship
of spirits in trees and stars and
beasts and the plants of the field.
Strange magic rites and charming
myths had grown out Of this simple
animism. So the earth made fertile by
Continued on Fourteenth Page.)