Illustrated history of ancient literature, oriental and classicalQuackenbos, John D. (John Duncan)
History
Illustrated history of ancient literature, oriental and classical
Quackenbos, John D. (John Duncan)
Classical literature -- History and criticism; Oriental literature -- History and criticism
“Had you for Greece been strong, as wise you were,
The Macedonians had not conquered her.”
=Æschines= (389-314 B.C.), of whose early life little is known, after
his defeat at the hands of Demosthenes, went into exile. We are told
that his victorious rival magnanimously forgave him, and even offered
him money for the journey; which led Æschines to exclaim: “How I regret
leaving a country where I have found an enemy so generous that I must
despair of ever meeting with a friend who shall be like him!”
Æschines afterward established himself as a teacher of oratory in
Rhodes. Here he once repeated to his pupils his famous oration against
Ctesiphon in the contest for the crown, which filled them with wonder
that so able an orator should have been defeated. But when at their
request he read the reply of Demosthenes, his audience rose to their
feet with eager acclamations; and the orator, forgetting all jealousy
in his admiration, cried: “What would you have said, had you heard the
wild beast himself roaring it out?”
The oration against Ctesiphon is one of three familiarly known in
antiquity as “the Three Graces”—a title indicative of the refinement
and easy flow of the author’s style, deficient as it was in the energy
and vehemence of his great rival.
MINOR DRAMATIC AND LYRIC POETS.
ION (flourished 450 B.C.): a history and lyrics, as well as
tragedies; called “the Eastern Star,” from the first words of an ode
he was composing when death overtook him.
ACHÆUS (born 484 B.C.): tragic and satirical pieces.
AG’ATHON the Athenian: received his first tragic prize, 416 B.C.; his
masterpiece was “the Flower.”
CALLIS’TRATUS (flourished 420 B.C.): author of the convivial ode
celebrating the memory of Harmodius and Aristogiton (p. 158).
CRATI’NUS (519-423 B.C.): called the _Cup-lover_ from his excesses;
21 comedies; 9 prizes; with his last comedy, “the Wine-flask,” he
gained the first prize, triumphing over “the Clouds” of Aristophanes.
EU’POLIS: 15 plays; his first comedy was represented 429 B.C.
CRATES (450 B.C.): 14 comedies; the first poet to represent
drunkenness on the Athenian stage.
* * * * *
METON, the Athenian astronomer (flourished 430 B.C.): founder of the
Lunar Cycle of 19 solar years, which he discovered to be nearly equal
to 235 revolutions of the moon round the earth. From the “Metonic
Cycle” the Greeks computed their festivals; it is still used by the
Western churches in fixing Easter.
HIPPOC’RATES (460-357 B.C.), born on the island of Cos, “the Father
of Medicine:” knew little of anatomy; discovered the critical days in
fevers.
NOTES ON GREEK EDUCATION, ETC.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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