“And it’s O! that I could soar down the splendour-litten floor Where the sun drives the chariot steeds of light. And it’s O! that I were come o’er the chambers of my home, And were folding the swift pinions of my flight. And that, where at royal wedding the bridesmaids’ feet are treading Through the measure, I were gliding in the dance; Through its maze of circles sweeping, With mine older playmates keeping Truest time with waving arms and feet that glance. And it’s O! for the loving rivalry, For the sweet forms costly arrayed, For the raiment of cunningest broidery, For the challenge of maid to maid, For the veil light tossing, the loose curl crossing My cheek with its flicker of shade.”[16] Footnote 16: Euripides, _Iphigeneia among the Taurians_, 1137. Paraphrased by Way. Athens, like most southern cities, impresses an Anglo-Saxon as having many holidays which “interrupt business”; but only during the New Year and Easter festivals can he begin to imagine a resemblance to the civic life of ancient Athens, which was almost a continuous pageant. “The gods,” said Plato, “in pity for the life of toil, man’s natural inheritance, appointed holy festivals whereby men alternate their labour with rest.” But at certain seasons, especially in the spring and autumn, the festivals were so congested that the days of labour must have been far from burdensome. Almost all the festivals had a religious origin, celebrating deities and heroes of political importance, like Athena or Theseus, or forces of nature embodied in Dionysus or Demeter. But, like Christmas, they gave abundant opportunity both for public enjoyment and for the cultivation of communal and family sentiment. Sophocles had in mind all their human charm when he made the blind Œdipus lament the future of his little daughters:— “For to what gath’rings of your townsfolk shall you come, Or to what festivals from whence you shall not turn Back homeward bathed in tears, instead of any share In all the holiday?”