The Greek Theory of the State. 



plain the fact, otherwise well nigh unexplainable, that Athens made 

 such large contribution to the highest literature and art from a body 

 of freemen less than half the population of Albany. In its own peril- 

 ous way, slavery accomplished for Athens what has been more safely 

 gained for modern civilization by the invention of machinery. Leisure 

 and wealth easily gained, bright skies and sunny companionships, 

 helped to quicken the inspiration of poets, orators and philosophers 

 whose thoughts are a living power to-day. The wealth and pride of 

 Athens made it an object of envy to rival states. When the final 

 assaults came, habits of luxury, indolence and extravagance proved a 

 fatal weakness. 



Another weakness was in neglecting to strengthen the family. 

 Faitlit'ul wives and daughters were banished to the rear apartments of 

 the Greek mansion where they had charge of the household slaves, 

 the children, the weaving and the spinning, the baking and brewing, 



and the preparing of sumpt is dinners for the lords of the androniti*. 



Greek women were cumbered with needless household drudgeries, 

 while their sons were pedagogued to schools taught by slaves often 

 better educated than their own mistresses. 



The decay of heroism and chivalry jn Greek character was largely 

 due to this departure from Homer's teachings. Homer's women were 

 exemplary housekeepers, yet they were not excluded from the halls of 

 hospitality. In fact, the words androniti* and <jir„aik»nitis were 

 never used by Homer. They were the coinage of a later period, and 

 each word does the duty of an epitaph, proclaiming the death of Greek- 

 chivalry and the social dethronement of Greek women. 



In the shaping and organizing of public opinion, the functions of 

 the modern press and pulpit were anticipated, after a fashion, by the 

 utterances of the agora, the pnyx, the academy, the portico, the 

 symposium and the theater. The Attic jury system was a popular law 

 school; superficial, but better than none. Each year G,000 jurors 

 were drawn, and 500 were taken for trying an important suit. Inas- 

 much as the jurors decided all points of law, as' well as questions of 

 fact, their power was immense. It would pass for the grand event of 

 a life-time, to have been one of the 500 sworn jurors who gave their 

 pebbles for acquittal, or against it, after hearing iEschines and 

 Demosthenes in their orations De Corona. The theater of the Greeks 

 was another school in which they were literally educated in ethics, 

 social philosophy and political wisdom. As the state gave a generous 

 support to religious rites and festivals, so it supported the theater and 

 dramatic competitions. The theater of Bacchus was large enough to 



