The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 2 of 2

by Karl Otfried Müller

When Atreus' son harangued the list'ning train,

Just was his sense, and his expression plain,

His words succinct, yet full, without a fault;

He spoke no more than just the thing he ought.[1764]

In which lines the poet evidently transfers the peculiarity of the Doric Laconians to the earlier inhabitants of that country.[1765] In adopting this mode of expression, [pg 388] the Dorians may be conceived, in the first place, to have wished to avoid all ornament of speech, and to have contented themselves with the simplest manner of conveying their thoughts; as Stesimbrotus the Thasian opposes to the adroit and eloquent Athenian the openness and simplicity of the Peloponnesian, who was plain and unadorned, but of an honest and guileless disposition.[1766] Or, secondly, it was intended to have double force by the contrast of the richness of the thought, with the slight expense of words. Probably, however, both these motives had their weight; though the latter perhaps predominated. In a dialogue of Plato,[1767] Socrates says, half in joke and half in earnest, that “of all the philosophical systems in Greece, that established in Crete and Lacedæmon was the most ancient and copious, and there the sophists were most numerous; but they concealed their skill, and pretended to be ignorant. And hence, on conversing with the meanest Lacedæmonian, at first indeed he would appear awkward in his language, but when he perceived the drift of the conversation, he would throw in, like a dexterous lancer, some short and nervous remark, so as to make the other look no better than a child. Nor in these cities is such a manner of speaking confined to the men, but it extends also to women.”

That in this concise manner of speaking there was a kind of wit and epigrammatic point, may be easily seen from various examples; but it cannot be traced [pg 389] to the principles which we have just laid down. Sometimes it arises from the simplicity of the Doric manners, as contrasted with the more polished customs of other nations; of which kind is the answer of the Spartan, who, taking a fish to be cooked, and being asked where the cheese, oil, and vinegar were, replied, “If I had all these things, I should not have bought a fish.”[1768] Or it is a moral elevation, viewed from which, things appear in a different light; thus the saying of Dieneces, that “if the Persians darkened the air with their arrows, they should fight in the shade.” Sometimes it is an ironical expression of bitterness and censure, which gains force by being concealed under a semblance of praise; as in the judgment of the Laconian on Athens, where every kind of trade and industry was tolerated, “Everything is beautiful there.”[1769] Or it is the combination of various ridiculous ideas into one expression, as in the witty saying of a husband who found his wife, whom he detested, in the arms of an adulterer; “Unhappy man, who forced you to do this?”[1770]

At Sparta, however, an energetic, striking, and figurative mode of speaking must have been generally in use; which may be perceived in the style of all the Spartans who are mentioned by Herodotus.[1771] And [pg 390] this, I have no doubt, was one of the most ancient customs of the Doric race. In Crete it had been retained, according to the testimony of Sosicrates, a Cretan author, in the town of Phæstus, in which place the boys were early practised in joking; and the apophthegms of Phæstus were celebrated over the whole island.[1772] In Sparta too this peculiar mode of expression was implanted in boys; the youths (ἔφηβοι) proposing them questions, to which they were to give ready and pointed answers;[1773] and they were taught to impart a peculiar sharpness and also brilliancy to their sayings.[1774] Later in life this tendency was fostered and confirmed by the many occasions on which the public manners prescribed ridicule as a means of improvement:[1775] at the festival of the Gymnopædia in particular, full vent seems to have been allowed to wit and merriment.[1776] In common life, laughter and ridicule were not unfrequent at the public tables;[1777] to be able to endure ridicule was considered the mark of a Lacedæmonian spirit; yet any person who took it ill might ask his antagonist to desist, who was then forced to comply.[1778] In early times, similar customs existed in other places besides Sparta; thus the suitors of Agariste, in the house of Cleisthenes the tyrant of Sicyon, contended after the meal in musical skill and conversation,[1779] with which we might perhaps compare the passage in the Hymn to Mercury, where it is said that [pg 391] youths at table attack one another in mutual jests,[1780] and the practice among the ancient Germans, of jesting with freedom at table, alluded to in a verse of the Niebelungen Lied.[1781] But this primitive custom having been retained longer in Sparta than elsewhere, it struck all foreigners as a peculiarity, of which the antique polish was sometimes rather offensive. Still, if we justly estimate the manners of that city, they do not deserve the name of needless austerity and strictness; it was the only Greek state in which a statue was erected to Laughter:[1782] in late times even Agesilaus[1783] and Cleomenes III.[1784] amidst all the changes of their life, cheered their companions with wit and playfulness.

3. This national mode of expression had likewise a considerable effect on the progress of literature in Greece. Plato properly calls the Seven Sages, imitators and scholars of the Lacedæmonian system, and points out the resemblance between their sayings and the Laconian method of expression.[1785] Of these, three, or, if we reckon both Myson and Periander, four, were of Doric descent, and Cheilon was a Spartan;[1786] there were also perhaps at the same time others of the same character, as Aristodemus the Argive.[1787] The sayings attributed [pg 392] to these sages were not so much the discoveries of particular individuals, as the indications of the general opinion of their contemporaries. And hence the Pythian Apollo, directed by the national ideas of the Dorians, particularly countenanced their philosophers, to whose sententious mode of expression his own oracles bore a certain resemblance.[1788] It appears also that the Amphictyons caused some of their apophthegms to be inscribed on the temple of Delphi;[1789] and the story of the enumeration of the Seven Sages by the oracle, although fabulously embellished, is founded on a real fact.[1790]

4. Since in this apophthegmatic and concise style of speaking the object was not to express the meaning in a clear and intelligible manner, it was only one step further altogether to conceal it. Hence the griphus or riddle was invented by the Dorians, and, as well as the epigram, was much improved by Cleobulus the Rhodian,[1791] and his daughter Cleobulina.[1792] It was also a favourite amusement with the Spartans,[1793] and [pg 393] in the ancient times of Greece was generally a common pastime.[1794]

5. This leads us to speak of the symbolical maxims of the Pythagoreans, which might be called riddles, if they had been proposed as such, and not put in that form merely to make them more striking and impressive. So attached indeed do these philosophers appear to have been to the symbolical method of expression, that not only their language, but even their actions acquired a symbolical character.[1795] The system of Pythagoras has by modern writers been correctly considered as the Doric philosophy: yet it is singular that it should have originated with a native of the Ionic Samos. It should, however, be remembered, that the family of Pythagoras, which seems to have lived with other Samians in the island of Samothrace, among the Tyrrhenians,[1796] originally came from Phlius in Peloponnesus,[1797] and always kept up a certain degree of communication with that city;[1798] and again, that although Pythagoras doubtless brought with him to Croton the form of his philosophy, its subsequent expansion and growth were in great part owing to the [pg 394] character of the Dorians and Doric Achæans, among whom he lived. Its connexion with the chief branch of the Doric religion, the worship of Apollo,[1799] and his temple at Delphi,[1800] has been already pointed out; and it has been shown that the political institution of his league was founded on Doric principles.[1801] Other points of resemblance are the universal education of the female followers of Pythagoras, such as Theano, Phintys, and Arignote,[1802] the employment of music to appease passion, the public tables, the use of silence as a means of education, &c. It appears also, that the philosophers of this school always found a welcome reception at Sparta, as well as those whose character was somewhat similar, as the enthusiastic and religious sages, Abaris,[1803] Epimenides,[1804] and Pherecydes;[1805] Anaximander[1806] likewise and Anaximenes[1807] lived for some time in that city, and lastly, in the lists of the Pythagorean philosophers (which are not entirely devoid of credit), there are, besides Italian Greeks, generally Lacedæmonians, Argives, Sicyonians, Phliasians, and sometimes women of Sparta, Argos, and Phlius.[1808] [pg 395] And this is a fresh confirmation of the position, which we have frequently maintained, that up to the time of the Persian war all mental excellence, so far from being banished from Sparta, flourished there in the utmost perfection.