The Greek View of Life
Produced by Tonya Allen, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.
1909
The following pages are intended to serve as a general introduction to Greek literature and thought, for those, primarily, who do not know Greek. Whatever opinions may be held as to the value of translations, it seems clear that it is only by their means that the majority of modern readers can attain to any knowledge of Greek culture; and as I believe that culture to be still, as it has been in the past, the most valuable element of a liberal education, I have hoped that such an attempt as the present to give, with the help of quotations from the original authors, some general idea of the Greek view of life, will not be regarded as labour thrown away.
It has been essential to my purpose to avoid, as far as may be, all controversial matter; and if any classical scholar who may come across this volume should be inclined to complain of omissions or evasions, I would beg him to remember the object of the book and to judge it according to its fitness for its own end.
The Greek View of Life, no doubt, is a question-begging title, but I believe it to have a quite intelligible meaning; for varied and manifold as the phases may be that are presented by the Greek civilization, they do nevertheless group themselves about certain main ideas, to be distinguished with sufficient clearness from those which have dominated other nations. It is these ideas that I have endeavoured to bring into relief; and if I have failed, the blame, I submit, must be ascribed rather to myself than to the nature of the task I have undertaken.
From permission to make the extracts from translations here printed my best thanks are due to the following authors and publishers:—Professor Butcher, Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. E. D. A. Morshead, Mr. B. B. Rogers, Dr. Verrall, Mr. A. S. Way, Messrs. George Bell and Sons, the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, Oxford, Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Mr. John Murray, and Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston and Co.—I have also to thank the Master and Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford, for permission to quote at considerable length from the late Professor Jowett's translations of Plato and Thucydides.
G. Lowes Dickinson
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THE GREEK VIEW OF LIFE
PREFACE
LIST OF TRANSLATIONS USED
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.—THE GREEK VIEW OF RELIGION
CHAPTER II.—THE GREEK VIEW OF THE STATE
CHAPTER III.—THE GREEK VIEW OF THE INDIVIDUAL
CHAPTER IV.—THE GREEK VIEW OF ART
CHAPTER V.—CONCLUSION
THE GREEK VIEW OF LIFE
Section 1. Introductory.
Section 2. Greek Religion an Interpretation of Nature.
Section 3. Greek Religion an Interpretation of the Human Passions.
Section 4. Greek Religion the Foundation of Society.
Section 5. Religious Festivals.
Section 6. The Greek Conception of the Relation of Man to the Gods.
Section 7. Divination, Omens, Oracles.
Section 8. Sacrifice and Atonement.
Section 9. Guilt and Punishment.
Section 10. Mysticism.
Section 11. The Greek View of Death and a Future Life.
Section 12. Critical and Sceptical Opinion in Greece.
Section 13. Ethical Criticism.
Section 14. Transition to Monotheism.
Section 15. Metaphysical Criticism.
Section 16. Metaphysical Reconstruction—Plato.
Section 17. Summary.
CHAPTER II
Section 1. The Greek State a "City."
Section 2. The Relation of the State to the Citizen.
Section 3. The Greek View of Law.
Section 4. Artisans and Slaves.
Section 5. The Greek State Primarily Military, not Industrial.
Section 6. Forms of Government in the Greek State.
Section 7. Faction and Anarchy.
Section 8. Property and the Communistic Ideal.
Section 9. Sparta.
Section 10. Athens.
Section 11. Sceptical Criticism of the Basis of the State.
Section 12. Summary.
CHAPTER III
Section 1. The Greek View of Manual Labour and Trade.
Section 2. Appreciation of External Goods.
Section 3. Appreciation of Physical Qualities.
Section 4. Greek Athletics.
Section 5. Greek Ethics—Identification of the Aesthetic and Ethical Points of View.
Section 6. The Greek View of Pleasure.
Section 7. Illustrations—Ischomachus; Socrates.
Section 8. The Greek View of Woman.
Section 9. Protests against the Common View of Woman.
Section 10. Friendship.
Section 11. Summary.
CHAPTER IV
Section 1. Greek Art an Expression of National Life.
Section 2. Identification of the Aesthetic and Ethical Points of View.
Section 3. Sculpture and Painting.
Section 4. Music and the Dance.
Section 5. Poetry.
Section 6. Tragedy.
Section 7. Comedy.
Section 8. Summary.
CHAPTER V