A History of Greece, Volume 1

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Harper & brothers, 1845 - Greece

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Page 71 - 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 145 - This is perhaps in one sense more, and in another less than he really attempted, and the opinion seems to affect the character of the Dorians rather than the views of Pythagoras. His leading thought appears to have been, that the state and the individual ought, each in its way, to reflect the image of that order and harmony by which he believed the universe to be sustained and regulated...
Page 71 - ... not the less admirable and engaging. The heroic companions whom we find celebrated, partly by Homer and partly in traditions, which, if not of equal antiquity, were grounded on the same feeling, seem to have but one heart and soul, with scarcely a wish or object apart, and only to live, as they are always ready to die, for one another. It is true that the relation between them is not always one of perfect equality: but this is a circumstance which, while it often adds a peculiar charm to the...
Page 81 - According to every hypothesis the origin of the Homeric poetry is wrapt in mystery; as must be the case with the beginning of a new period when that which precedes it is very obscure. And it would certainly be no unparalleled or surprising coincidence if the production of a great work, which formed the most momentous epoch in the history of Greek literature, should have concurred with either the first introduction, or a new application of the most important of all inventions.
Page 71 - 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. The relation in which he stands to Fate is not uniformly represented in the Homeric poems, and probably the poet had not formed a distinct notion of it. Fate is generally described as emanating from his will, but sometimes he appears to be no more than the minister of a stern necessity, which he wishes in...
Page 66 - If however we reject the traditional occasion of the Trojan war, we are driven to conjecture in order to explain the real connection of the events ; yet not so as to be wholly without traces to direct us. We have already observed that the Argonautic expedition was sometimes represented as connected with the first conflict between Greece and Troy. This was according to the legend which numbered Hercules among the Argonauts and supposed him, on the voyage, to have rendered a service to the Trojan king,...
Page 143 - the remains of a worship which preceded the rise of the Hellenic mythology and its attendant rites, grounded on a view of nature, less fanciful, more earnest, and better fitted to awaken both philosophical thought and religious feeling.
Page 207 - But compare a somewhat different statement inhisLifeofNiciass23. ed his long life in quiet and honour at Lampsacus. The danger which threatened Aspasia was also averted ; but it seems that Pericles, who pleaded her cause, found need for his most strenuous exertions, and that in her behalf* he descended to tears and entreaties, which no similar emergency of his own could ever draw from him.* It was, indeed, probably a trial more of his personal influence than of his eloquence ; and his success, hardly...
Page 201 - More than twenty thousand persons were believed to have been destroyed by the shock.t and the flower of the Spartan youth was overwhelmed by the fall of the building in which they were exercising themselves at the time. It was chiefly the presence of mind displayed on this occasion by King Archidamus that preserved the state from a still more terrible disaster. Many of the Helots assembled, and hastened to the city to take advantage of the defenceless condition in which they hoped to surprise their...
Page xx - upon the established system, if an accidental custom may be so called, as a mass of anomalies, the growth of ignorance and chance, equally repugnant to good taste and to common sense.

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