A History of Greece, Volume 1

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Longmans, 1835 - Greece

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Page 184 - Tartarus ; while, on the other hand, only the most exalted heroes are, after their death, endowed with a new body and enjoy the pleasures of Elysium. But these are very exceptional cases : ' When a man is dead,' says the shade of Anticlea, 'the flesh and the bones are left to be consumed by the flames, but the soul passes away like a dream.
Page 181 - Their other affections correspond to the grossness of these animal appetites. Capricious love and hatred, anger and jealousy, often disturb the calm of their bosoms ; the peace of the Olympian state might be broken by factions, and even by conspiracies formed against its chief. He himself cannot keep perfectly aloof from their quarrels ; he occasionally wavers in his purpose, is overruled by artifice, blinded by desires, and hurried by resentment into unseemly violence.
Page 393 - ... though the highest offices of the state might be reserved to a privileged class. But a finished democracy, that which fully satisfied the Greek notion, was one in which every attribute of sovereignty might be shared, without respect to rank or property, by every freeman.
Page 169 - The ruthless steel, impatient of delay, Forbade the sire to linger out the day : It struck the bending father to the earth, And cropt the wailing infant at the birth. Can innocents the rage of parties know, And they who ne'er offended find a foe ?
Page 16 - Œnus the Eurotas flows through a very deep and narrow valley, which near Sparta is so much contracted as to leave room for little more than the channel of the river. After it leaves Sparta the hills recede farther from the river ; but near...
Page 226 - ... poet's words : but if admitted , it only proves, what could hardly be questioned even without this evidence, [?] that the poet was not so ignorant of the art as never to have heard of its existence. * * * And on the other hand, if the tablet contained only a picture or a series of imitative pictures, it would be evident that where the want of alphabetical writing was so felt, and had begun to be so supplied by drawing, the step by which the Greeks adopted the Phoenician characters must have been...
Page 372 - The contests carried on at these games consisted of exhibitions displaying almost every • mode of bodily activity ; they included races on foot, and with horses and chariots ; contests in leaping, throwing, wrestling, and boxing, and some in which several of these exercises were combined ; but no combats with any kind of weapon. The...
Page 373 - ... poetry. He also received still more substantial rewards. He was generally relieved from the payment of taxes, and had a right to the front seat at all public games and spectacles. An Athenian victor in the Olympic games received, in accordance with one of Solon's laws, a prize of...
Page 145 - ... been a contemporary of those who had fought under Achilles, but it is not the less true, that he describes his principal hero as the son of a sea-goddess. He and his hearers most probably looked upon epic song as a vehicle of history, and therefore it required a popular tradition for its basis.
Page 226 - ... acutely observes, that it "has been the subject of controversy, perhaps, more earnest than the case deserved. It has been disputed whether the tablet contained alphabetical characters or mere pictures. The former seems to be the simplest and easiest interpretation of the poet's words : but if admitted, it only proves, what could hardly be questioned even without this evidence, [?] that the poet was not so ignorant of the art as never to have heard of its existence. * * * And on the other hand,...

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