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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1883)
1 i t .4 THE HESPERIAN STUDENT. he Student's &rntjbooh, MKMOlirVS OF THE GREEKS. GrndiintliiB iuUIichk of II. W. Olinstod, ClnBB of 1882. Tlio ancient national character or tlic Greeks may bo studied in llio two long Homeric poems, which, though almost the whole Greek history, were held in much the same esleom and veneration as tlio 13ihlo Is among us. They did not, I imagine, obtain tills pio-emlnent posi tion because of the so-called abstract law of the survival of the ilitist, as s mo have supposed, but because in them wore represented both lh Greek character and an ideal standard of attainment for Grecian conduct. They had come down to those Greeks whom we know in history from an unknown author and an unrecorded age, yet stamped with this, which may bo said to bo tlio only insignia of genius, that they gavo voice to thoughts and sentiments, correlated or (hiding an echo in tho indi vidual experience ami character of tho entire people. In them the representations of the conduct and achieve ments of tlio heroes at the siogo of Troy, of the skill and eloquence of the wandering Odysseus, of tlio famous warr'or Achilks, were but poetically colored yet com plele representations of tlio early national character. And lar darting Phoebus Apollo, who, if I may instance one of the Homeric pictures, went iiko night, and sittinir afar from Agamoinon's army, sent his shafts among thorn, taking vengeance according to the prayer of his priest whom the chief had wronged, until funeral pyres wore heaped continually ; and again, Athena, Goddess of "Wis dom, afterwards tutelary divinity at Alliens, who, in the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, when tho mighty wairior, enraged, had laid li is hand on tho hilt of his sword, hesitating whether to slay his chief, des cended from the Olympic heaven and restrained him; and Zoii3, chief and ruler among the gods, now presiding at the celestial banquet?, now burling his thunderbolts from tho lofty bights of Olyinpia IIiom), and many others, represented at once the Greek ideul and tho Greek reli gion. Tho Greeks, with thoir soliinn festivals and games their theaters for public contests of music and of tlio drama, with their temples and tho matchless statues of thoir gods, with thoir frco social marches, their joyous natures, have stood out the originators of culture and tho authors or civilization; which civilization, after being ob literated for contuiios and revived again in tho Renais sance or now awakening only through tho -records of tho old, should forever render all thanks for its existence to its immortal authors. Many eulogies have been written to tho bravery of those, who, at Marathon and at Platacn, at tho sea fight at Salanius, and at Thermopyhc, preserved Greece from the Persians. And to eulogies gratitude should forever bo added that Greek character and culture was not brought under the dominion and thus swallowed up in tho bar barism and vice of tlio oriental nations. Tho largest army the world has ever produced, ac. cording to the accounts of the historians, two millions of men being sent by tho Persian monarch to overrun Greece, Were disputed at tho narrow pass of Thermopyhc by tho Spartan general Lconidas. On that and tho other battles huug tho fate of all culture aud civilization and progress. And If tlio monument erected In honor of. those throo hundred, who did not think it agreeable to their laws to retreat, and who persisted, alter cutting their way to the conter of tho Persian host, were still standing, the traveler might well pause to read, not wlihoutinany ro. flections, the simplo inscription: "Go, stranger, tell at Lacedaemon that wo died hero In obedience to her laws." After tho Persian wars a custom was Introduced among tho Athenians of tlio public burial of thoso who had fallen in behalf of tlio State. The bodies wero burned on tho field of battle, tho sacred ashes colluded and brought to Athens where, lying in state, floral tributes and costly ornaments wore placed about the coflltis. And not only tlio known ashes wore honored, and not only they who had boon victorious in tho light, but all alike who had perished, having shown with whatsoever abili ity, good-will to tho State, and an empty bier In honor of the unrecognized, was stretched out and convoyed in tho procession. It may with truth ho said that the funeral robes of those public mourners rustled solemnly in the procession, and the perennially beautiful suburb, wnero tho sacred dust was placed to rest, having in itself almost audible, still silent, yoiccs, from tlio surrounding statues of the masters, tho low-bonding brandies of the shady trees, and from tho solemnity itself of the occasion, uttered them, not for Athens' liberty merely, but through Athenian liberty, for tlio freedom and progress of the whole world tluough all following periods of time. Tho government of tlio Greeks whs directed by the poo. plo. At Athens public measures wero discussed and des cided upun in an assembly of the body of the citizens, whero every ono was at liberty to mount tho bema and sot forth his viows with reference to the common advan tage, and where, in tho language of ono of her statesmen, that citizen who kept aloof from state affairs was regard ed not as harmless but as useless. With such an emula tive system of government Athens pursued through tho lapse of centuries a policy of honor and glory among tho surrounding host t-f barbarians; and finally, whenever the GrooH vigor and character was degenerating toward de cay, and the Macedonian power was intrigueing and pressing, a citizen stood forth in this democracy, as it wore, a man bequeathed from tho former Illustrious age, toarrouso his countrymen in what was to bo a final strug gle. And when tho Macedonian was victorious at Chao ronca, add Creel; liberty was forever at an end, and when, given up to the enemy, a refugee in an inviolable temple of Noptliene, the great Athenian saying to his pursuers that they might ceaso acting the part of Croon in tho tragedy and cas.t out hip body unburned, but as for him he called gracious Neptune to witness that lie quit his lomplo while breath was still within him, but his enemies would havo defiled it with murder, then, unablo to reach the entrance, sank from self-given poison by tlio altar. Greek freedom aud character, their lust representative perishing in him, lingered longest in that part of the national life which was called Greek democracy. But the great Athenians, as well as the entire ancient Greek race, have long slnco ceased to be. Yet remem brance of them remains. The mountains and the hills of Greece in solemn silence speak of them. By tho still ness of the vale, by tho echoes from the rocks, by all the voices of nature In that land of story, memory of the Greeks is uttered. On tho shore where stood tho first