The Greek View of Life Part 1

The Greek View of Life.

by Goldsworthy Lowes d.i.c.kinson.

PREFACE

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 cla.s.sical 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 t.i.tle, 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.

Appended is a list of the translations from which I have quoted.

LIST OF TRANSLATIONS USED

AESCHYLUS (B.C. 525--456). "The House of Atreus"

(I.E. the "Agamemnon," "Choephorae" and "Eumenides"), translated by E. D. A. MORSHEAD (Warren and Sons).

The "Eumenides," translated by DR. VERRALL (Cambridge, 1885).

ARISTOPHANES (C. B.C. 444--380). "The Acharnians, the Knights, and the Birds," translated by JOHN HOOKHAM FRERE (Morley's Universal Library, Routledge).

[Also the "Frogs" and the "Peace" in his Collected Works, (Pickering)].

The "Clouds," the "Lysistrata" ["Women in Revolt,"]

the "Peace," and the "Wasps," translated by B. B. ROGERS

ARISTOTLE (B.C. 384--322). The "Ethics," the "Politics,"

and the "Rhetoric," translated by J. E. C. WELLDON (Macmillan & Co.).

DEMOSTHENES (B.C. 385--322). "Orations," translated by C. R. KENNEDY (Bell).

EURIPIDES (B.C. 480--406). "Tragedies," translated by A. S. WAY (Macmillan & Co.).

HERODOTUS (B.C. 484-- ). "The History," translated by S. R. RAWLINSON (Murray).

HOMER. The "Iliad," translated by LANG, LEAF AND MYERS; the "Odyssey," translated by BUTCHER & LANG (Macmillan).

PINDAR (B.C. 522--442). "Odes," translated by E. MYERS (Macmillan & Co.).

PLATO (B.C. 430--347). The "Dialogues," translated by B. JOWETT (Clarendon Press).

"The Republic," translated by DAVIES AND VAUGHAN (Macmillan & Co.).

PLUTARCH. "Lives," DRYDEN'S translation, edited by A. CLOUGH (Sampson Low, Marston & Co.).

SOPHOCLES (B.C. 496--406). Edited and Translated by DR. JEBB (Cambridge University Press).

THUCYDIDES (B.C. 471-- ), edited and translated by B. JOWETT (Clarendon Press).

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.--THE GREEK VIEW OF RELIGION

1. Introductory

2. Greek Religion an Interpretation of Nature

3. Greek Religion an Interpretation of the Human Pa.s.sions

4. Greek Religion the Foundation of Society

5. Religious Festivals

6. The Greek Conception of the Relation of Man to the G.o.ds

7. Divination, Omens, Oracles

8. Sacrifice and Atonement

9. Guilt and Punishment

10. Mysticism

11. The Greek View of Death and a Future Life

12. Critical and Sceptical Opinion in Greece

13. Ethical Criticism

14. Transition to Monotheism

15. Metaphysical Criticism

16. Metaphysical reconstruction--Plato

17. Summary

CHAPTER II.--THE GREEK VIEW OF THE STATE