The Life of Greece

by Will Durant

  But the lover of philosophy will only reluctantly yield to science and art the supreme places in our Grecian heritage. Greek science itself was a child of Greek philosophy—of that reckless challenge to legend, that youthful love of inquiry, which for centuries united science and philosophy in one adventurous quest. Never had men examined nature so critically and yet so affectionately: the Greeks did no dishonor to the world in thinking that it was a cosmos of order and therefore amenable to understanding. They invented logic for the same reason that they made perfect statuary: harmony, unity, proportion, form, in their view, provided both the art of logic and the logic of art. Curious of every fact and every theory, they not only established philosophy as a distinct enterprise of the European mind, but they conceived nearly every system and every hypothesis, and left little to be said on any major problem of our life. Realism and nominalism, idealism and materialism, monotheism, pantheism, and atheism, feminism and communism, the Kantian critique and the Schopenhaurian despair, the primitivism of Rousseau and the immoralism of Nietzsche, the synthesis of Spencer and the psychoanalysis of Freud—all the dreams and wisdom of philosophy are here, in the age and land of its birth. And in Greece men not only talked of philosophy, they lived it: the sage, rather than the warrior or the saint, was the pinnacle and ideal of Greek life. Through all the centuries from Thales that exhilarating philosophical bequest has come down to us, inspiring Roman emperors, Christian Fathers, Scholastic theologians, Renaissance heretics, Cambridge Platonists, the rebels of the Enlightenment, and the devotees of philosophy today. At this moment thousands of eager spirits are reading Plato, perhaps in every country on the earth.

  Civilization does not die, it migrates; it changes its habitat and its dress, but it lives on. The decay of one civilization, as of one individual, makes room for the growth of another; life sheds the old skin, and surprises death with fresh youth. Greek civilization is alive; it moves in every breath of mind that we breathe; so much of it remains that none of us in one lifetime could absorb it all. We know its defects—its insane and pitiless wars, its stagnant slavery, its subjection of woman, its lack of moral restraint, its corrupt individualism, its tragic failure to unite liberty with order and peace. But those who cherish freedom, reason, and beauty will not linger over these blemishes. They will hear behind the turmoil of political history the voices of Solon and Socrates, of Plato and Euripides, of Pheidias and Praxiteles, of Epicurus and Archimedes; they will be grateful for the existence of such men, and will seek their company across alien centuries. They will think of Greece as the bright morning of that Western civilization which, with all its kindred faults, is our nourishment and our life.

  TO THOSE WHO HAVE COME THUS FAR:

  THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNSEEN BUT EVER FELT COMPANIONSHIP.

  Glossary

  Aperçus—instinctive insights.

  Bizarreries—strange or extravagant expressions or actions.

  Bourgeoisie—the middle classes.

  Cujus regio ejus religio—the religion of the region must be that of the ruler.

  De nobis fabula narrabitur—about us the story will be told.

  Deus ex machina—the god from the machine.

  Élan—spirited vitality.

  In medias res—into the middle of things, or into the heart of the subject.

  La Parisienne—The Parisian Woman.

  Mater Dolorosa—The Sorrowful Mother.

  Mise en scène—the surrounding situation.

  Nouveaux riches—the newly rich.

  Oikoumene (sc. ge)—the inhabited world.

  Pace—despite, begging the pardon of.

  Pinakotheka—picture gallery.

  Plein air—open air.

  Pornaia—brothels.

  Soferim—scholars.

  Bibliography

  Of Books Referred to in Text or Notes

  The starred volumes are recommended for further study.

  ADAMS, B.: The New Empire. N. Y., 1903.

  *AESCHYLUS: The Oresteia. Tr. G. Murray. London, 1928.

  ANDERSON, W. J., and SPIERS, R. P.: The Architecture of Greece and Rome. London, 1902.

  ARISTOPHANES: The Eleven Comedies. 2v. N. Y., 1928.

  ARISTOPHANES: The Frogs, and Three Other Plays. Tr. Frere, etc., Everyman Library.

  ARISTOTLE: Art of Rhetoric. Loeb Classical Library.

  ARISTOTLE: Metaphysics. 2v. Loeb Library.

  ARISTOTLE: Metaphysics. Tr. M’Mahon. London, 1857.

  ARISTOTLE: Nicomachean Ethics. Tr. Chase. Everyman Library.

  ARISTOTLE (?): Oeconomica and Magna Moralia. Loeb Library.

  ARISTOTLE: On the Constitution of Athens. Tr. E. Poste. London, 1891.

  ARISTOTLE: Physics. 2v. Loeb Library.

  ARISTOTLE: Poetics. Loeb Library.

  *ARISTOTLE: Politics. Tr. Lindsay. Everyman Library.

  ARISTOTLE: Works. Tr. Smith and Ross. Oxford, 1931.

  ARNOLD, M.: Essays in Criticism. A. L. Burt, N. Y., n.d.

  ARRIAN: Anabasis of Alexander; Indica. London, 1893.

  ATHENAEUS: The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned. 3v. London, 1854.

  *BACON, F.: Philosophical Works. Ed. J. M. Robertson. London, 1905.

  BAEDEKER, K.: Greece. Leipzig, 1909.

  BAIKIE, J.: The Sea-Kings of Crete. London, 1926.

  BAKEWELL, C.: Source Book in Ancient Philosophy. N. Y., 1909.

  BALL, W. W. R.: Short Account of the History of Mathematics. London, 1888.

  BARON, S. W.: Social and Religious History of the Jews. 3v. N. Y., 1937.

  BEBEL, A.: Woman under Socialism. N. Y., 1923.

  BECKER, W. A.: Charicles. Tr. Metcalfe. London, 1886.

  BENSON, E. F.: Life of Alcibiades. N. Y., 1929.

  BENTWICH, N.: Hellenism. Phila., 1919.

  BERRY, A.: Short History of Astronomy. N. Y., 1909.

  BEVAN, E. R.: House of Seleucus. 2v. London, 1902.

  BEVAN, E. R., and SINGER, C., eds.: The Legency of Israel. Oxford, 1927.

  BIBLE, THE

  BLAKENEY, J. A.: Smaller Classical Dictionary. Everyman Library.

  BOTSFORD, G. W.: The Athenian Constitution. N. Y., 1893.

  BOTSFORD, G. W., and SIHLER, E. G.: Hellenic Civilization. N. Y., 1920.

  BRECCIA, E.: Alexandrea ad Aegyptum. Bergamo, 1922.

  BRIFFAULT, R.: The Mothers. 3v. N. Y., 1927.

  BROWNE, H.: Handbook of Homeric Study. London, 1908.

  BURY, J. B.: Ancient Greek Historians. N. Y., 1909.

  *BURY, J. B.: History of Greece. London, 1931.

  CALHOUN, G. M.: Business Life of Ancient Athens. Chicago, 1926.

  CAMBRIDGE ANCIENT HISTORY (CAH): Vols. I-VIII. N. Y., 1924f.

  CAPES, W.: University Life in Ancient Athens. N. Y., 1922.

  CARPENTER, E.: Pagan and Christian Creeds. N. Y., 1920.

  CARREL, A.: Man the Unknown. N. Y., 1935.

  CARROLL, N.: Greek Women. Phila., 1908.

  CHILDE, V. G.: Dawn of European Civilization. N. Y., 1925.

  CICERO: De Finibus. Loeb Library.

  CICERO: De Natura Deorum. Loeb Library.

  CICERO: De Re Publica. Loeb Library.

  CICERO: Tusculan Disputations. Loeb Library.

  COOK, A. B.: Zeus. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1914.

  COTTERILL, H. B.: History of Art. 2v. N. Y., 1922.

  COULANGES, F.DE: The Ancient City. Boston, 1901.

  CURTIUS, E.: Griechische Geschichte. 3v. Berlin, 1887f.

  DAY, C.: History of Commerce. London, 1926.

  DEMOSTHENES: On the Crown, etc. Loeb Library.

  DEWEY, JOHN, etc.: Studies in the History of Ideas. N. Y., 1935.

  DICKINSON, G. L.: The Greek View of Life. N. Y., 1928.

  DIODORUS SICULUS: Library of History. 3v. Loeb Library.

  DIODORUS SICULUS: Historical Library. 2v. London, 1814.

  *DIOGENES LAERTIUS: Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers. London, 1853.

  DRAPER, J. W.: History of the Intellectual Developmen
t of Europe. 2v. N. Y., 1876.

  DUPRÉEL, E.: La Légende Socratique. Bruxelles, 1922.

  DYER, T. H.: Ancient Athens. London, 1873.

  ELLIS, H.: Studies in the Psychology of Sex. 6v. Phila., 1911.

  ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 14th ed. N. Y., 1929.

  EURIPIDES: Electra. Tr. G. Murray. Oxford, 1907.

  EURIPIDES: Iphigenia in Tauris. Tr. G. Murray. Oxford, 1930.

  *EURIPIDES: Medea. Tr.G. Murray. Oxford, 1912.

  EURIPIDES: Text and tr. by A. S. Way. 4v. Loeb Library.

  *EURIPIDES: Trojan Women. Tr. G. Murray. Oxford, 1914.

  EVANS, SIR A.: The Palace of Minos. 4v. in 6. London, 1921f.

  FARNELL, L.R.: Greece and Babylon. Edinburgh, 1911.

  FERGUSON, W. M.: Greek Imperialism. Boston, 1913.

  FLICKINGER, R. C.: The Greek Theatre. Chicago, 1918.

  FRAZER, SIR J. G.: Adonis, Attis, Osiris. 1935.

  FRAZER, SIR J. G.: The Dying God. N. Y., 1935.

  FRAZER, SIR J. G.: The Magic Art. 2v. N. Y., 1935.

  FRAZER, SIR J. G.: The Scapegoat. N. Y., 1935.

  FRAZER, SIR J. G.: Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild. 2v. N. Y., 1935.

  FRAZER, SIR J. G.: Studies in Greek Scenery, Legend, and History. London, 1931.

  FREEMAN, E. A.: The Story of Sicily. N. Y., 1892.

  GARDINER, E. N.: Athletics of the Ancient World. Oxford, 1930.

  GARDINER, PERCY: New Chapters in Greek History. N. Y., 1892.

  GARDINER, PERCY: Principles of Greek Art. N. Y., 1914.

  GARDNER, E. A.: Ancient Athens. N. Y., 1902.

  GARDNER, E. A.: Handbook of Greek Sculpture. London, 1920.

  GARDNER, E. A.: Six Greek Sculptors. London, 1910.

  GARRISON, F. H.: History of Medicine. Phila., 1929.

  GIBBON, E.: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 6v. Everyman Library.

  GLOTZ, G.: Aegean Civilization. N. Y., 1925.

  GLOTZ, G.: Ancient Greece at Work. N. Y., 1926.

  GLOTZ, G.: The Greek City. London, 1929.

  GLOVER, T. R.: Democracy in the Ancient World. Cambridge, Eng., 1927.

  GOETHE, J. W. VON: Poetical Works. N. Y., 1902.

  GOMME, A.W.: Population of Athens. Oxford, 1933.

  GRAETZ, H.: History of the Jews. 6v. Phila., 1891f.

  GREEK ANTHOLOGY: Tr. Shane Leslie. N. Y., 1929.

  GREEK ANTHOLOGY: Tr. R. G. MacGregor. London, n.d.

  GREEK DRAMAS: Tr. E. B. Browning, etc. N. Y., 1912.

  GROTE, G.: Aristotle. 2v. London, 1872.

  GROTE, G.: History of Greece. 12v. Everyman Library.

  GROTE, G.: Plato and the Other Companions of Socrates. 3v. London, 1875.

  HAGGARD, H. W.: Devils, Drugs, and Doctors. N. Y., 1929.

  HAIGH, A.E.: The Attic Theatre. Oxford, 1907.

  HALL, H. R.: Civilization of Greece in the Bronze Age. N. Y., 1927.

  HALL, M. P.: Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic, and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy. San Francisco, 1928.

  HARRISON, J. E.: Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion. Cambridge, Eng., 1922.

  HARRISON, J. E.: Themis. Cambridge, Eng., 1927.

  HEATH, SIR T.: Aristarchus of Samos. Oxford, 1913.

  HEATH, SIR T.: History of Greek Mathematics. 2v. Oxford, 1921.

  HEITLAND, W. E.: Agricola: A Study of Agriculture and Rustic Life in the Greco-Roman World. Cambridge, Eng., 1921.

  HERACLEITUS ON THE UNIVERSE. Tr. W. H. S. Jones. Loeb Library.

  HERODES (HERODAS), CERCIDAS, AND THE GREEK CHOLIAMBIC POETS. Loeb Library.

  *HERODOTUS: History. Tr. G. Rawlinson. 4v. London, 1862.

  HESIOD, CALLIMACHUS, and THEOGNIS: Works. London, 1856.

  HIMES, N. E.: Medical History of Contraception. Baltimore, 1936.

  HIPPOCRATES: Works. 4v. Loeb Library.

  HOBHOUSE, L. T.: Morals in Evolution. N. Y., 1916.

  HOGARTH, D. G.: Ionia and the East. Oxford, 1909.

  *HOMER: Iliad. Tr. W. C. Bryant. Boston, 1898.

  HOMER: Iliad. Text and tr. by A. T. Murray. 2v. Loeb Library.

  *HOMER: Odyssey. Text and tr. by A. T. Murray. 2v. Loeb Library.

  ISOCRATES: Works. 2v. Loeb Library.

  JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA. N. Y., 1901.

  JONES, H. S.: Ancient Writers on Greek Sculpture. London, 1895.

  JONES, W. H. S.: Malaria and Greek History. Manchester, Eng., 1909.

  JOSEPHUS, F.: Works. 2v. Boston, 1811.

  JOURNAL OF HELLENIC STUDIES. London, 1882f.

  KELLER, A. G.: Homeric Society. N. Y., 1902.

  KIRSTEIN, L.: Dance: A Short History. N. Y., 1935.

  KÖHLER, C: History of Costume. N. Y., 1928.

  LACROIX, P.: History of Prostitution. 2v. N. Y., 1931.

  LANGE, F. E.: History of Materialism. N. Y., 1925.

  LESSING, G. E.: Laocoön. London, 1874.

  LEWES, G. H.: Aristotle. A Chapter in the History of Science. London, 1864.

  LINFORTH, I. M.: Solon the Athenian. Berkeley, Cal., 1919.

  LIPPERT, J.: Evolution of Culture. N. Y., 1931.

  LITCHFIELD, F.: Illustrated History of Furniture. Boston, 1922.

  *LIVINGSTONE, R.W.: The Greek Genius. Oxford, 1915.

  LIVINGSTONE, R. W., ed.: The Legacy of Greece. Oxford, 1924.

  LIVY: History of Rome. 6v. Everyman Library.

  LOCY, W. A.: Growth of Biology. N. Y., 1925.

  LONGINUS: On the Sublime. Loeb Library.

  LUCIAN: Works. 4v. Oxford, 1905.

  *LUCRETIUS: De Rerum Natura. Loeb Library.

  LUDWIG, E.: Schliemann. Boston, 1931.

  LYRA GRAECA: 3v. Loeb Library.

  MAHAFFY, J.P.: Empire of the Ptolemies. London, 1895.

  MAHAFFY, J. P.: Greek Life and Thought. London, 1887.

  MAHAFFY, J. P.: History of Classical Greek Literature. 4v. London, 1908.

  MAHAFFY, J. P.: Old Greek Education. N. Y., n.d.

  MAHAFFY, J. P.: Progress of Hellenism in Alexander’s Empire. Chicago, 1905.

  *MAHAFFY, J. P.: Social Life in Greece. London, 1925.

  MAHAFFY, J. P.: What Have the Greeks Done for Modern Civilization? N. Y., 1909.

  MASON, W. A.: History of the Art of Writing. N. Y., 1920.

  MCCLEES, H.: Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans. N. Y., 1928.

  MCCRINDLE, J. W.: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian. Calcutta, 1877.

  MENANDER: Principal Fragments. Loeb Library.

  MEYER, E.: Geschichte des Altertums. 4v. Stuttgart, 1884f.

  MOMMSEN, T.: History of Rome. 5v. London, 1901.

  MULLER, K. O.: The Dorians. 2v. Oxford, 1830.

  MULLER-LYER, F.: Evolution of Modern Marriage. N. Y., 1930.

  MULLER-LYER, F.: The Family. N. Y., 1931.

  MURRAY, A. S.: History of Greek Sculpture. 2v. London, 1890.

  MURRAY, G.: Aristophanes. N. Y., 1933.

  *MURRAY, G.: Euripides and His Age. N. Y., 1913.

  MURRAY, G.: Five Stages of Greek Religion. Oxford, 1930.

  *MURRAY, G.: History of Ancient Greek Literature. N. Y., 1927.

  MURRAY, G.: Rise of the Greek Epic. Oxford, 1924.

  NAPLES MUSEUM, Guide to the Archeological Collections. Naples, 1935.

  NIETZSCHE, F.: Early Greek Philosophy. N. Y., 1911.

  NILSSON, M.: History of Greek Religion. Oxford, 1925.

  NORWOOD, R.: The Greek Drama. N. Y., 1920.

  OLMSTEAD, A.: History of Assyria. N. Y., 1923.

  OVID: Heroides and Amores. Loeb Library.

  OVID: Metamorphoses. Loeb Library.

  OWEN, J.: Evenings with the Sceptics. 2v. London, 1881.

  *OXFORD BOOK OF GREEK VERSE IN TRANSLATION. Oxford, 1938.

  OXFORD HISTORY OF MUSIC: Introductory Volume. Oxford, 1929.

  OXFORDER BUCH DEUTSCHEN DICHTUNG. Oxford, 1936.

  PATER, W.: Plato and Platonism. London, 1910.

  PAUSANIAS: Description of Greece. 2v. London, 1886.

  PFU
HL, E.: Masterpieces of Greek Drawing and Painting. London, 1926f.

  PHILOSTRATUS: Lives of the Sophists. Loeb Library.

  *PIJOAN, J.: History of Art. 3v. N. Y., 1927.

  PINDAR: Odes. Loeb Library.

  PLATO: Dialogues. Tr. Jowett. 4v. N. Y., n.d.

  PLATO: Epistles. Loeb Library.

  PLINY: Natural History. 6v. London, 1855.

  *PLUTARCH: Lives. 3v. Everyman Library.

  PLUTARCH: Moralia. Vols. I-III. Loeb Library.

  PÖHLMANN, R. VON: Geschichte der Sozialen Frage und des Sozialismus in der antikenWelt. 2v. München, 1925.

  POLYBIUS: Histories. 6v. Loeb Library.

  PRATT, W. S.: History of Music. N. Y., 1927.

  QUINTILIAN: Institutio Oratoria. 4v. Loeb Library.

  RAMSAY, SIR WM.: Asianic Elements in Greek Civilization. New Haven, 1928.

  RANDALL-MACIVER, D.: Greek Cities in Italy and Sicily. Oxford, 1931.

  REINACH, S.: Orpheus: A History of Religions. N. Y., 1930.

  RENAN, E.: History of the People of Israel. 5v. N. Y., 1888.

  RICHTER, G.: Handbook of the Classical Collection. Metropolitan Museum Of Art, N. Y., 1922.

  RICKARD, T. A.: Man and Metals. 2v. N. Y., 1932.

  RIDDER, A., and DEONNA, W.: Art in Greece. N. Y., 1927.

  RIDGEWAY, SIR WM.: Early Age of Greece. Cambridge, Eng., 1901.

  ROBINSON, D. M.: Sappho and Her Influence. Boston, 1924.

  RODENWALDT, G.: Die Kunst der Antike. Berlin, 1927.

  ROHDE, E.: Psyche. N. Y., 1925.

  ROSTOVTZEFF, M.: History of the Ancient World. 2v. Oxford, 1930.

  ROSTOVTZEFF, M.: Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire. Oxford, 1926.

  RUSSELL, B.: Principles of Mathematics. 2v. London, 1903.

  *SACHAR, A. L.: History of the Jews. N. Y., 1932.

  SARTON, G.: Introduction to the History of Science. Baltimore, 1930.

  SCHLEGEL, A. W.: Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. London, 1846.

  SCHLIEMANN, H.: Ilios. N. Y., 1881.

  SCHLIEMANN, H.: Mycenae. N. Y., 1878.

  SEDGWICK, W. T., and TYLER, H. W.: Short History of Science. N. Y., 1927.

  SEMPLE, E. C.: Geography of the Mediterranean Region. N. Y., 1931.

  SEXTI EMPIRICI OPERA GRAECE ET LATINE. 2V. Leipzig, 1840.

  SEYMOUR, T. D.: Life in the Homeric Age. N. Y., 1907.