Barrows, Samuel J.: The isles and shrines of Greece (Boston, 1898)

248 THE ISLES AND SHRINES OF GREECE

as it seemed to be away back in that Greek town.
Tanagra had its tragedies. It was the scene of a
bloody battle between the Spartans and the Athenians,
457 B.C., in which the town must have suffered; but
the memorials which these people have left have not
been of sadness and sorrow, but of the joy and grace
and poetry of life. No collection of statuettes in the
world is more charming than the Tanagra figurines
in the museum at Athens. Though Greece has been
robbed of a great many of her treasures, and a great
deal of Tanagra art has gone abroad, she has pre-
served these; and nowhere have such charming,
graceful representations of human life been put into
clay. If these people did not think life worth living,
who did?

X

THE GREEK CALENDAR

WRITING from Athens, I found myself, like a
pendulum, swinging between the old calendar and
the new. The Greek calendar is twelve days behind
the reckoning of Europe. Thus, when it is the first
of the month in Greece, it is the thirteenth of the
month in Europe and America. It is not easy to
become accustomed to this difference. The Greeks
frequently date their letters in both calendars; but I
find it hard enough to remember one date and one
calendar. It is quite flattering to find, on arriving in
Greece, that you are twelve days younger than you
had thought. It disposes one to adopt the Greek
calendar. It may be of decided advantage in taking
out a life insurance policy.