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Title: A Day In Old Athens

Author: William Stearns Davis

Release Date: December, 2003 [EBook #4716] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 6, 2002]

Edition: 10

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1)

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A Day in Old Athens

By William Stearns Davis
Professor of Ancient History in the University of Minnesota

Preface

This little book tries to describe what an intelligent person would see and hear in ancient Athens, if by some legerdemain he were translated to the fourth century B.C. and conducted about the city under competent guidance. Rare happenings have been omitted and sometimes, to avoid long explanations, PROBABLE matters have been stated as if they were ascertained facts; but these instances are few, and it is hoped no reader will be led into serious error.

The year 360 B.C. has been selected for the hypothetical time of this visit, not because of any special virtue in that date, but because Athens was then architecturally almost perfect, her civic and her social life seemed at their best, the democratic constitution held its vigor, and there were few outward signs of the general decadence which was to set in after the triumph of Macedon.

I have endeavored to state no facts and to make no allusions, that will not be fairly obvious to a reader who has merely an elementary knowledge of Greek annals, such information, for instance, as may be gained through a good secondary school history of ancient times. This naturally has led to comments and descriptions which more advanced students may find superfluous.

The writer has been under a heavy debt to the numerous and excellent works on Greek "Private Antiquities" and "Public Life" written in English, French, or German, as well as to the various great Classical Encyclopćdias and Dictionaries, and to many treatises and monographs upon the topography of Athens and upon the numerous phases of Attic culture. It is proper to say, however, that the material from such secondary sources has been merely supplementary to a careful examination of the ancient Greek writers, with the objects of this book kept especially in view. A sojourn in modern Athens, also, has given me an impression of the influence of the Attic landscape upon the conditions of old Athenian life, an impression that I have tried to convey in this small volume.

I am deeply grateful to my sister, Mrs. Fannie Davis Gifford, for helpful criticism of this book while in manuscript; to my wife, for preparing the drawings from Greek vase-paintings which appear as illustrations; and to my friend and colleague, Professor Charles A. Savage, for a kind and careful reading of the proofs. Thanks also are due to Henry Holt and Company for permission to quote material from their edition of Von Falke's "Greece and Rome."

W. S. D.

University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
May, 1914.

Contents.

                                                                    Page
Maps, Plans, and Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii

Chapter I. The Physical Setting of Athens.

Section 1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2. Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant . . . . . . . . 1 3. The Small Size and Sterility of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 4. The Physical Beauty of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5. The Mountains of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6. The Sunlight in Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 7. The Topography of the City of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 8. 360 B.C.—The Year of the Visit to Athens . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter II. The First Sights in Athens.

9. The Morning Crowds bound for Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 10. The Gate and the Street Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 11. The Streets and House Fronts of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 12. The Simplicity of Athenian Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter III. The Agora and its Denizens.

13. The Buildings around the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 14. The Life in the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 15. The Booths and Shops in the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 16. The Flower and the Fish Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 17. The Morning Visitors to the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 18. The Leisured Class in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 19. Familiar Types around the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 20. The Barber Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Chapter IV. The Athenian House and its Furnishings.

21. Following an Athenian Gentleman Homeward . . . . . . . . . . . 26 22. The Type and Uses of a Greek House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 23. The Plan of a Greek House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 24. Modifications in the Typical Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 25. Rents and House Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 26. The Simple yet Elegant Furnishings of an Athenian House . . . . 32

Chapter V. The Women of Athens.

27. How Athenian Marriages are Arranged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 28. Lack of Sentiment in Marriages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 29. Athenian Marriage Rites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 30. The Mental Horizon of Athenian Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 31. The Honor paid Womanhood in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 32. The Sphere of Action of Athenian Women . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Chapter VI. Athenian Costume.

33. The General Nature of Greek Dress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 34. The Masculine Chiton, Himation, and Chlamys . . . . . . . . . . 44 35. The Dress of the Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .