ANCIENT GREECE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 190, 13 August 1931, Page 12

ANCIENT GREECE

LESSONS OF ITS SPIRIT EFFECT ON MODERN LIFE SIMPLE GUIDES TO GREATNESS. Many interesting analogies between - the civilisation of ancient Greece and i that of the "world to-day were drawn i by the Rev. W. A. Constable in an ad- j dress on “The Spirit of Ancient | Greece/ ’ given at a recent luncheon : of the Auckland Rotary Ciub. “What has the spirit of ancient i Greece to do with life here in New ' Zealand in the lT(Jth century?’’ Air. ’• Constable said it might be asked. i “For the answer look around you. Our most beautiful building, the War Memorial Museum, is founded on Greek ■ architecture and its splendid inscrip- | tion—“The- whole earth is the se- i pulchre of famous men. They are com- j memorated not only by columns and i inscriptions in their own country, but tn foreign lands, and by memorials, • graven not on stone, but on the heartsg of men’—is taken from a speech of ! Pericles, an Athenian statesman of the fifth century before Christ. “A general election is upon us, and each of the parties will appeal to the democracy. The word ‘ democracy ’ and the fundamental idea underlying it are ; Greek. It is winter, and there is a great deal of disease about—the foundation of nicdi’eine as a science, freed from the superstition that diseases were due to the influence of gods or possession by devils, goes back to Greece. And the fact that a decent doctor will not take advantage of his position is partly due to the high moral standard set by Hippocrates. Foundation of Sciences, “Again we regard our age as the i age of science/’ Mr. Constable con- ; tinned. “But consider for a moment ' how many of the sciences go back to Greece for their foundations. Mathematics is a Greek science—old Euclid is not yet outgrown even after 2000 j years. The foundations of astronomy ' are Greek and the foundations of ' science and natural history were securely laid by Aristotle. Although he made what to us seem obvious inis- ’ takes, some of his descriptions of birds* = beasts and fishes are even at this day ; being verified by the latest research.’’ And this was only one side of Aris- | totle’s work, for to the study of his : j philosophy and ethics our oldest uni- . j versifies in England and Europe owed I : their almost sole origin. The New j I Testament was originally written in i i Greek, and it was partly through the ‘ | influence of later Greek thought, par- : l ticularly that of St. Paul, the author in ; I the Fourth Gospel, that Christianity ' i broadened from a Jewish sect into a ! , world religion. “Surely then it is I i worth our while to glance at this coun- i I try of Greece in .its zenith and its J ; creative powers in the fifth century before Christ,” said the speaker. Women Kept in Background. While one spoke of the Greek demo- ; eracy it was weil to remember that a j i Greek, at any rate in the fifth century, I , would not have dreamt of speaking of ' l the equality of man. For him, it was : | equal rights for the citizen. But citi- ' i zenship was restricted to Greeks and to : men. There was a large populace of j | slaves, generally taken as prisoners of i j war, who did menial work. The serf- J dom of women was more deep-rooted. ' And yet the great Athenian statesman, ■ Pericles, believed in their emancipa- ' tion, for he violated social propriety by | having Aspasia at the head of his ; house and by permitting her to receive • company and discuss social and moral ; questions with intellectual men. But the general ’feeling among the Greeks, with few exceptions, was to keep their ' womenfolk secluded. This serfdom, of , women led to an unhealthy home life which was one of the greatest evils of I Greek civilisation. “When we name their faults it is ’ important to realise how near they ■ were in time to their savage ancestry, ” Mr. Constable continued. “The Greeks i owed little to foreign influence. They ‘ built up their civilisation for them- > selves. The foreign influence was ; simply that supplied by resisting the ‘ Persian bid for world power.'” « ‘ Responsibility of Citizens. After outlining the events connected ; with this external stimulus to Greek ; development at the beginning of the sth i century, Mr .Constable referred to the isolated and individual development of , which there had been a Certain amount ( in the Greek States. Many years before, he said, there had been the great j epic poet Homer. Their architecture I and statuary had been nearly all in ; wood, but it was a beginning. Greek ! philosophy had started with Thales. I By the beginning of the century the : Sophists were coming into prominence I with their teaching about wisdom and I virtue. Physical training already , played an important part in the ideas ' of early Greek statesmen. These States were chiefly city States, which developed the personality of : their leaders and regarded it as a i solemn responsibility of all citizens to take part in public affairs. The Persian invasion brought these city States together and, above all, gave Athens the political and intellectual leadership of Greece. Athens attracted the brighter and more gifted spirits in every sphere and there began “the most extraordinary intellectual awaki cning known in human history.” ; “The theatre flourished,” said Mr. Constable. “On the day of the fes- ! tival of Dionysus each year 30,000 ■citizens of Athens flocked to hear the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, whose plays have only once be4n equalled, and that by Shakespeare alone, in the whole history of the world’s drama. They sat on stone seats in the open air to Lear what we would call frightfully ‘high-brow’ drama.” Spirit of a Nation. The description he had given, Mr. Constable said, was a brief one of a century of artistic anil spiritual development in a country no larger than the North Island of New Zealand, and quite as mountainous and more difficult to traverse from place to place and particularly a city which, even counting its slaves, was no larger than Auckland. “The characteristics which marked their life, and made them great were, moreover, very simp'e,” Mr. Constable said. ‘‘They were simplicity, truthfulness, the instinct for beauty and temperance in all things. Those are the main qualities that caused one of the greatest intellectual and artistic achievements in history. Surely they

arc not beyond our reach in New Zealand. This great achievement began in one war an.l ended in another, and the simple fact is that it depends upon the spirit and vision of the nation whether the Great War is to be followed here in New Zealand as elsewhere by greatness and glory or bydeterioration. Which is it to be? It is for you to answer.”