- Anaximander (born 610 B.C.),
first map-drawer, and introducer of the sundial. He represented the earth as cylindrical, and as the centre about which the stars and planets revolved; its inhabitants as the result of fermentation caused by the action of the sun’s rays on its marshes. His “Treatise on Nature” (547 B.C.), the first work on biology and the earliest philosophical essay written in Greek. - Anaxim’enes (born 556 B.C.)
made the earth a leaf-shaped mass floating in the air; the sun and moon flat circular bodies; air the elementary principle from which all things were made and to which they returned: the soul, air. - Heracli’tus of Ephesus (505 B.C.)
rejected the nature-worship of his countrymen, and believed in an all-wise, omnipresent Power. He is recorded to have wept continually over the sins of men; hence called the weeping philosopher. Fire the first principle. “No man,” said he in allusion to the never-ceasing changes in the world, “can wade twice in the same stream.”
HISTORIANS.
- Cadmus of Miletus (540 B.C.):
“Primeval History of Miletus and Ionia.” - Acusila’us the Argive (525 B.C.):
“Genealogies,” a prose translation of Hesiod’s “Theogony,” altered in parts to suit the theories of the author. - Hecatæus the Milesian (520-479 B.C.),
“the far-travelled man:” “Genealogies,” a history of the mythical heroes of Greece; and a “Description of the Earth,” containing a summary of his own travels and explorations. - Charon of Lampsacus (500-450 B.C.),
the first historian to record authentic events: “History of the Persian War,” “Annals of Lampsacus,” “Chronicles of the Spartan Kings.” - Hellani’cus of Mytilene, a noted compiler.
- Xanthus the Lydian: “The Lydiaca,” a history of Lydia in four volumes.
SEVEN SAGES AND THEIR MOTTOES.
- Solon of Athens: “Know thyself.”
- Chi’lo of Sparta: “Consider the end.”
- Thales of Miletus: “Who hateth suretyship is sure.”
- Bias of Priene: “Most men are bad.”
- Cleobu’lus of Lindus: “Avoid extremes.”
- Pit’tacus of Mytilene: “Seize time by the forelock.”
- Periander of Corinth: “Nothing is impossible to industry.”
CHAPTER V.
GOLDEN AGE OF GRECIAN LITERATURE.
(480-330 B.C.)
The Attic Period.—In their wars with the Persians (492-479 B.C.), the Hellenic people fully demonstrated their military superiority, vindicating their manhood on the fields of Marathon and Platæa, and in the sea-fight with Xerxes at Salamis. Under the stimulus of these national triumphs, conducing to national unity, as well as of the free institutions now generally established, the Greek mind was awakened to renewed action; literature made unprecedented growth, and in the fifth century B.C. matured its choicest products.
Athens, the laurel-crowned saviour of Greece, hitherto but an indifferent contributor to art and poetry, now became the centre of letters, aspiring through her statesman Pericles (469-429 B.C.) to both literary and political supremacy. Her Attic dialect, nervous but not rough, harmonious without a too effeminate softness—the perfection of the Greek language—materially helped to make her the “mother of eloquence,” the home of poets and philosophers, the school of the nations; while Pericles extended her imperial dominion over many cities and islands, and filled her coffers with their tribute. Her sculptor Phidias devoted his genius to the erection and decoration of public edifices; his grand creations in marble adorned her fanes; and the Parthenon, whose classic beauty has passed into a proverb, owed to him its graceful embellishments as well as its renowned statue of Minerva. Another colossal image of the goddess surmounted the Athenian Acropolis, which was crowned with noble temples; and votaries of the sister art added to the attractions of the city with their brush and colors.
It was at this noonday of Attic glory that Grecian literature reached its meridian. Then lyric verse climbed to heights before unattained; and dramatic poetry, tragic and comic, held its listeners spell-bound. History found distinguished representatives in Herodotus the Ionian, and later in Thucydides and Xenophon, the Athenians. Philosophy, in no other age or clime, has had worthier teachers than Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; while the art of persuasion seemed to be impersonated in Pericles, Isoc’rates, Æschines (es’ke-neez), Demosthenes—all true sons of Attica.