DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0708
672 CONCLUSION.
CONCL US ION.
WE have now endeavoured to follow the career of Greek Art from its
first infancy passed in the swaddling bands and leading strings of
Oriental nurses, through the periods of vigorous and daring youth,
of independent and glorious manhood, down to its corruption and
decline in the bonds of Roman masters. We claim for the sub-
ject a very high and not merely an artistic interest; for the history of
Greek art runs parallel with the history of the Greek people ; that is
with the history of the development of the human mind as exemplified
in the career of the most gifted race of the ancient world.
The real genius and character of a nation may be best learned
from a consideration of the way in which it employs its leisure—in
other words, of its pastimes and amusements. What men work at
is generally determined by influences outside themselves—by the
exigencies of human life in general, and of the peculiar position in
which their lot is cast. But when men play they follow the natural
bent and predilections of their minds and hearts. The Greeks of old
had more leisure than any other European race, and employed it in a
nobler manner. When we regard them from this point of view, in
how favourable a light do they appear, as compared with other
nations of antiquity—for example, with the Romans. Nothing was
more popular among the Greek people than public games, and the
display of feats of strength and agility; and manliness{apsri)) was their
name for virtue. But nothing was so abhorrent to them as the bloody
arena of the Romans—the enforced contests of miserable slaves with
slaves, or doomed criminals with savage beasts, to the sight of which
the highest and the lowest of the Roman people rushed with intem-
perate delight. Compare the eager but friendly contests of rival
athletes at Olympia with the bloody butcheries of the Coliseum at
CONCL US ION.
WE have now endeavoured to follow the career of Greek Art from its
first infancy passed in the swaddling bands and leading strings of
Oriental nurses, through the periods of vigorous and daring youth,
of independent and glorious manhood, down to its corruption and
decline in the bonds of Roman masters. We claim for the sub-
ject a very high and not merely an artistic interest; for the history of
Greek art runs parallel with the history of the Greek people ; that is
with the history of the development of the human mind as exemplified
in the career of the most gifted race of the ancient world.
The real genius and character of a nation may be best learned
from a consideration of the way in which it employs its leisure—in
other words, of its pastimes and amusements. What men work at
is generally determined by influences outside themselves—by the
exigencies of human life in general, and of the peculiar position in
which their lot is cast. But when men play they follow the natural
bent and predilections of their minds and hearts. The Greeks of old
had more leisure than any other European race, and employed it in a
nobler manner. When we regard them from this point of view, in
how favourable a light do they appear, as compared with other
nations of antiquity—for example, with the Romans. Nothing was
more popular among the Greek people than public games, and the
display of feats of strength and agility; and manliness{apsri)) was their
name for virtue. But nothing was so abhorrent to them as the bloody
arena of the Romans—the enforced contests of miserable slaves with
slaves, or doomed criminals with savage beasts, to the sight of which
the highest and the lowest of the Roman people rushed with intem-
perate delight. Compare the eager but friendly contests of rival
athletes at Olympia with the bloody butcheries of the Coliseum at