COLLEGE GREEK COURSE IN ENGLISH.
Articles on Plato may be found in the following works: Plato’s “Republic,” De Quincey; “Plato,” Encyclopædia Britannica; Smith’s “Greek and Roman Biography,” at the beginning of the various editions of his works; Mahaffey’s “Classical Greek Literature;” Müller’s “Literature of Ancient Greece;” “Against the Atheists,” Christian Examiner, vol. xl, p. 108; “Life of Plato,” Methodist Quarterly, vol. xx, p. 368; “On the Immortality of the Soul,” Christian Repository, vol. xxii, p. 507; “Platonism,” Baptist Quarterly, vol. i, p. 22; “Ethical Philosophy,” American Church Repository, vol. xxii, p. 175.
P. 86.—“Cicero,” etc. The “De Republica” was a dialogue on what is the best form of the state; the “City of God” treats of the body of Christians in distinction from the City of the World, or those out of the church. St. Augustine wrote this book after the sack of Rome by Alaric to answer the assertion that the destruction of the country was a punishment for the desertion of the pagan deities; “Utopia” is the story of an imaginary land supposed to have been discovered by a companion of Amerigo Vespucci, where the laws were perfect; the “New Atlantis” was an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where Bacon represents himself to have been shipwrecked, and where he found societies for cultivating art and the sciences.
P. 96.—“Dæmon.” “This demon or genius of Socrates, which was not personified by himself, was regarded by Plutarch as an intermediate being between gods and men, by the fathers of the church as an evil spirit, by Le Clerc as one of the fallen angels, by Ficino and Dacier as a good angel, and by later writers as a personification of conscience or practical instinct, or individual tact.”
P. 98.—“Origen.” (185?-254?) This eminent writer of the early church fathers made an effort to reconcile Platonism with Christianity, and in his commentaries on the Scriptures used the allegorical method almost entirely. “The literal sense is always secondary; and the critic never fails where it is possible to find in the simplest fact or the plainest exhortation some hidden meaning.”
P. 99.—“Lemma.” When in demonstrating a proposition a second proposition is introduced and assumed as true, or demonstrated for immediate use, it is called a lemma.
P. 100.—“Oneida Community.” A society founded at Oneida, New York State, by one John Humphrey Noyes, a perfectionist. He introduced into this community his peculiar views, persuading them to practice a community of women and of goods, to allow women equal business and social privileges with the men, and to live in a “unitary home.”
P. 104.—“Silenus.” An attendant of Bacchus. He is represented as a very ugly old man, fat, with a bald head and pug nose, and always intoxicated. Generally he rode an ass or was carried by the satyrs. Silenus was also represented as an inspired prophet. When drunk and asleep he was in the power of mortals who could compel him to sing and prophesy by surrounding him with chains of flowers.
P. 105.—“Marsyas.” See C. L. S. C. Notes, page 57 of The Chautauquan for October.
“Corybantian reveler.” So called from the Corybantes, the priests of Cybele in Phrygia. They celebrated her worship in the wildest, most frenzied dances. The drum and cymbal accompanied this dance.
P. 107.—“Brasidas.” The most famous of the Spartan leaders in the Peloponnesian War. After taking many Athenian cities in Macedonia he was killed at Amphipolis, where he defeated Cleon. He was honored by the inhabitants as a hero.
“Nestor.” An aged Greek hero of the Trojan war, whose wisdom and advice were considered equal to the gods. “Antenor” held a position among the Trojans similar to that of Nestor among the Greeks. His advice, however, was not followed by his countrymen, and he offered to deliver the city to the Greeks. Upon the capture of Troy he was spared by the victors.
P. 108.—“Boreas.” The North Wind was fabled to live in Thrace. The allusion here is to the story that he carried away Orithyia, the daughter of the king of Attica, for his wife.
“Agra;” the demus south of Attica was called Agra. It contained two temples; one to Diana, the other to Ceres.
“Typhon.” A monster born of Tartarus and Gæa, who attempted to revenge the overthrow of the Titans. His head reached to heaven, his eyes poured forth flame, and serpents were twined about his body. Jupiter killed him with lightning.
P. 109.—“Agnus Castus,” or the “chaste tree,” the name given to a plant native to the Mediterranean countries, which became associated with the idea of chastity, it is said, from the similarity of the name agnus to the Greek word chaste. Grecian matrons strewed their couches with its leaves during the feast of Ceres, and in the convents of Southern Europe a syrup made of its fruit was used by the nuns.
“Achelous.” A river god—a son of Oceanus—from the earliest times worshiped generally throughout Greece. At one time he took the form of a bull in a fight with Hercules, who conquered him and took one of his horns. This horn the Naiads afterward changed into the horn of plenty.
P. 118.—“Sunium.” The promontory forming the southern extremity of Attica; a town of the same name stood upon it.
P. 121.—“Swan’s Utterance.” Referring to the fable told of the swan, that it sings its sweetest song at death—“the sweetest song is the last he sings.” Thus in “Othello,” “I will play the swan and die in music.”
P. 127.—The chapter on Æschylus may be supplemented by the following readings: “Theory of Greek Tragedy,” De Quincey; Müller, Mure, and Mahaffy on Æschylus, in their histories of Greek Literature; Talfourd’s “Tragic Poets of Greece,” from “History of Greek Literature;” Symond’s “Studies of the Greek Poets,” Christian Examiner, Vol. xliii, p. 140; Contemporary Magazine, Vol. iii, p. 351; Biblia Sacra, Vol. xvi, p. 354; North American Review, Vol. lxvii, p. 407.
P. 129.—“Cyprid.” A poem, author unknown, called Cyprid or Cypria, “either because the author came from Cyprus, or because it celebrated the Cyprian goddess, Aphrodite, and detailed from the commencement her action in the Trojan war.… The poem was an introduction to the ‘Iliad,’ telling a vast number of myths and leading the reader from the first cause of the war up to the tenth year of its duration. It is easy to see that such a vast subject, loosely connected, must have failed to afford the artistic unity which underlies the course of the ‘Iliad.’”
“Little Iliad.” A poem by Lesches, a Lesbian. It relates the complete story of the sack of Troy, from the contest of Achilles to the fall of Troy. The “Competition for the Arms,” we have had in the “Iliad.” “Philoctetes” was the chief archer of the Greeks, having been instructed by Hercules in the use of the bow. On the voyage to Troy he was bitten by a snake and left on the island of Lemnos. In the tenth year of the war the oracle declared the city could not be taken without the arrows of Hercules. Philoctetes was brought, and having slain Paris, the city was taken. “Neoptolemus,” a son of Achilles, was one of the warriors that the oracle declared necessary for the capture of Troy. He was one of the heroes concealed in the wooden horse. “Eurypylus” who came from Ormenion to Troy, played a prominent part in battle, slaying many Trojans; he was wounded by Paris. “Ulysses Mendicant,” the story of the wanderings of Ulysses. “Lacæna,” the Lacedæmonian woman, referring to Helen. “Illii-persis,” treats of the plundering of Troy after the capture, and “Apoplus,” of the sailing away of the ships. “Sinon.” After the wooden horse was finished, Sinon mutilated his body and allowed himself to be captured by the Trojans. He told them that he had been maltreated by his countrymen, and that if they (the Trojans) would drag the horse into the city they would conquer the Greeks. After the Trojans had followed his advice he let the Greeks out of the horse. “Troades,” the Trojans.
P. 134.—“Trilogy.” A set of three dramas. Each one is in itself complete, but the three are related, one event following or growing out of another, as in Shakspere’s Henry VI.
P. 137.—“New made kings.” This allusion will be explained by reading the story of Cronos and Zeus on page 77 of The Chautauquan for November.
P. 144.—“Sweet Muse-Mother.” See page 73 of “Brief History of Greece.”
P. 145.—“Mantic.” Prophetic; derived from the Greek word for prophetic.
P. 152.—“Protagonist.” One who fills the leading part in a drama, and hence in any enterprise.
P. 153.—“Ettrick Shepherd.” A name given to the Scottish poet, James Hogg. His home was in the Ettrick forest, and when a boy he had been a shepherd. The reference here is to the articles he contributed to the series of papers which appeared in Blackwood between 1822 and 1835, called Noctes Ambrosianæ, and which were principally written by Christopher North.
P. 154.—“Sophocles.” In connection with the chapter on Sophocles the following readings may be used: “Classical Writers,” an essay on his life and writings by Campbell; Talfourd’s “History of Greek Literature,” chapter on “The Tragic Poets of Greece;” Symond’s “Studies of the Greek Poets;” Baptist Quarterly, Jan. 1877; Mahaffy’s “History of Classical Greek Literature;” Mure’s “Critical History of the Language and Literature of Ancient Greece;” an account of the performance of “Ædipus Tyrannus,” at Harvard in May, 1881, will be found in The Century, November, 1881; Harvard Register, April, 1881; Boston Sunday Herald, March 27, 1881; New York Evening Post, April 22, 1881.
P. 173.—“Abæan.” From Abæa, a town of Phocis, where stood a very ancient temple and oracle of Apollo.