The Greek View of LifeDickinson, G. Lowes (Goldsworthy Lowes)
Religion
The Greek View of Life
Dickinson, G. Lowes (Goldsworthy Lowes)
Greece -- Civilization
"Lo, I have given thee wings wherewith to fly
Over the boundless ocean and the earth;
Yea, on the lips of many shalt thou lie,
The comrade of their banquet and their mirth.
Youths in their loveliness shall bid thee sound
Upon the silver flute's melodious breath;
And when thou goest darkling underground
Down to the lamentable house of death,
Oh yet not then from honour shalt thou cease
But wander, an imperishable name,
Kurnus, about the seas and shores of Greece,
Crossing from isle to isle the barren main.
Horses thou shalt not need, but lightly ride
Sped by the Muses of the violet crown,
And men to come, while earth and sun abide,
Who cherish song shall cherish thy renown.
Yea, I have given thee wings, and in return
Thou givest me the scorn with which I burn."
[Footnote: Theognis 237.]
It was his insistence on friendship as an incentive to a noble life that
was the secret of the power of Socrates. Listen, for example, to the
account which Plutarch gives of his influence upon the young Alcibiades:
"Alcibiades, listening now to language entirely free from every thought
of unmanly fondness and silly displays of affection, finding himself
with one who sought to lay open to him the deficiencies of his mind, and
repress his vain and foolish arrogance,
'Dropped like the craven cock his conquered wing.'
He esteemed these endeavours of Socrates as most truly a means which the
gods made use of for the care and preservation of youth, and began to
think meanly of himself, and to admire him; to be pleased with his
kindness, and to stand in awe of his virtue; and, unawares to himself,
there became formed in his mind that reflex image and reciprocation of
love, or Anteros, that Plato talks of..... Though Socrates had many and
powerful rivals, yet the natural good qualities of Alcibiades gave his
affection the mastery. His words overcame him so much, as to draw tears
from his eyes, and to disturb his very soul. Yet sometimes he would
abandon himself to flatterers, when they proposed to him varieties of
pleasure, and would desert Socrates; who then would pursue him, as if he
had been a fugitive slave. He despised every one else, and had no
reverence or awe for any but him." [Footnote: Plut. Alc. ch. 4.--Ed. by
Clough.] The relation thus established may be further illustrated by the
following graceful little anecdote. Socrates and Alcibiades were fellow-
soldiers at Potidaea and shared the same tent. In a stiff engagement
both behaved with gallantry. At last Alcibiades fell wounded, and
Socrates, standing over him, defended and finally saved him. For this he
might fairly have claimed the customary prize of valour; but he insisted
on resigning it to his friend, as an incentive to his "ambition for
noble deeds."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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