[274] This chapter was written with the purpose of simply illustrating the æsthetic spirit of the Greeks. I had no intention of writing a complete essay on the spirit of the Greeks as displayed in their history and philosophy. Nor did I, in what I said about the illustrative uses of Greek sculpture, seek to sketch the outlines of a systematic study of that art. Therefore I chose examples freely from all periods without regard to chronology or antiquarian distinctions.
[275] But, while we tell of these good things, we must not conceal the truth that they were planted, like exquisite exotic flowers, upon the black, rank soil of slavery. That is the dark background of Greek life. Greek slaves may not have been worse off than other slaves—may indeed most probably have been better treated than the serfs of feudal Germany and Spanish Mexico. Yet who can forget the stories of Spartan helotry, or the torments of Syracusan stone-quarries, or the pale figure of Phædon rescued, true-born Elean as he was, by Socrates from an Athenian house of shame?
[276] See the introduction to my chapter on Athens in Sketches in Italy and Greece for the characteristic quality given to Attic landscapes by gray limestone mountain ranges.
[277] This statue, usually called the Apoxyomenos, may possibly be a copy in marble of the Athlete of Lysippus which Tiberius wished to remove from the Baths of Agrippa. The Romans were so angry at the thought of being deprived of their favorite that Tiberius had to leave it where it stood.
[278] Engraved in Müller's Denkmäler der alten Kunst, plate xli.
[279] Neapolitan Museum.
[280] British Museum.
Ah, vain and thoughtless men, who wail the dead,
But not one tear for youth's frail blossom shed!
[282] Of this statue there are many slightly different copies. The best is in the Vatican.