The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-12-20

TN the year 478 B. c., a number OF
l. Greek states, under the leader
ship of Athens, formed a league for
self-protection against Persia.
Athens contributed ships, the
other states money; and since the
common treasury was at the Temple
Of Apollo on the Island Of Delos, the
league came to be called the Delian
Confederacy.
Aristides, known as 1.-THE Just,
was placed In charge Of the finances
of the league.
But years went by, and Persia
made no war. The Athenians,
tempted to imperialism by their
power, transferred the treasury from
Delos to Athens, against the protest
of their allies; and very soon the
league became an empire autocrat-
ically ruled by the democracy of
Athens.
Sparta saw, feared for her own
independence, and set about to form
a rival league. In the midst Of the
greatest age Of art in all history
war raised its head.
PericleS, falling heir, as controller
of the treasury, to the leagues &C
cumulated gold, fretted at the idle
ness of so much wealth, and longed
to use it in some way that might
immortalize his city and his name.
He saw the Sunlit peak Of the
Acropolis. and viSioned for it tenn
pies fairer than any that man had
ever reared to the gods.
He did not care for these deities
as the people did, having too many
sceptics for his friends; but he saw
that they might be made symbols
and inspirations of heroism and
civic pride if they could be refash-
Toned in the image Of the noblest
men.
But who could refashion them?
Where were there artists profound
enough to conceive a Zeus, a Hermes,
an Aphrodite, an Athene, worthy of
an age of poets and philosophers des-
tined to remain for many centuries
unsurpassed?
#@
MOT that there had been no
In great Greek art before, Archi-
lecture had f1ourished in this dry
air, among these mountains SO rich
in perfect stone.
Far back in the seventh century
B. G. the Ionian Greeks of Asia
Minor had built a temple to Artemis
(Diana) at Ephesus; at first of wood,
which the Cimmerians burned; and
then of stone, which Herostratus
destroyed on the day Of Alexander's
birth.
Pisitratus, about $50 B. c., had be-
gun a gigantic temple to Zeus on
the plains of Athens; it had been
left unfinished at his death, and
only in the days of Antiochus Epi-
planes were those fine Corinthian
columns added, to which fifteen still
stand to greet the modern pilgrim.
At Girgenti in Sicily, home Of that
fiery philosopher, Empedocles, Greek
colonists had built Temple of Con-
cord as a gentle emollient of Medit-
erranean pugnacity.
And at Paestum (sone thirty
miles south of Vesuvius) other
Greek colonists had built magnifi-
cent Temple of Poseeidon (ca. $50
B. O., which still ennobIes southern
italy. and rivals the majesty of the
Parthenon.
Sicily and Italy were fortunate;
the Persians did not reach them in
480 g. c., nor sack the capitals. But
xerxes' army destroyed not only
every home in Athens, but every
work of art; when SalamiS was won
the Athenians returned to a city
which had lost half of its wealth and
all its beauty.
It is one Of the marvels Of human
history that the Greeks, who might
we'll have despaired at this quick
undoing of the work of many gen.
erationS, resolutely set to work, I'M
der the guidance of Themistocles,
Cimon and Pericles, to rebuild their
city and make it more beautiful
than before.
1t was his good fortune to find for
his purposes the architectural gen.
ius Of Ictinus and the sculptural
genius of Phidas.
Seldom has supreme talent come
in so abundant a cluster, and seldom
has it bound diverse souls into such
fruitful cooperation.
= =
DHIDIAS-thougll here again It is
u only legend that sneaks-had