The first is undoubtedly the note of humanity. In his introduction to,
"The Rise of the Greek Epic,"(21) Gilbert Murray emphasizes the idea of
service to the community as more deeply rooted in the Greeks than in
us. The question they asked about each writer was, "Does he help to make
better men?" or "Does he make life a better thing?" Their aim was to
be useful, to be helpful, to make better men in the cities, to correct
life, "to make gentle the life of the world." In this brief phrase were
summed up the aspirations of the Athenians, likewise illuminated in that
remarkable saying of Prodicus (fifth century B.C.), "That which benefits
human life is God." The Greek view of man was the very antithesis of
that which St. Paul enforced upon the Christian world. One idea pervades
thought from Homer to Lucian-like an aroma--pride in the body as a
whole. In the strong conviction that "our soul in its rose mesh" is
quite as much helped by flesh as flesh by the soul the Greek sang his
song--"For pleasant is this flesh." Just so far as we appreciate the
value of the fair mind in the fair body, so far do we apprehend ideals
expressed by the Greek in every department of life. The beautiful soul
harmonizing with the beautiful body was as much the glorious ideal of
Plato as it was the end of the education of Aristotle.
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