| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: offence[4] committed, whether as concerning those at whose head he
marched, or as towards those others against whom he fought in war.
[3] See Symonds' "Greek Poets," ch. v.
[4] As to the word {anamartetos} so translated, see Breitenbach, Exc.
ad x. 4 of his edition.
XI
It only remains for me, under the form of headings,[1] to review the
topic of this great man's virtue, in hopes that thus his eulogy may
cling to the memory more lastingly.
[1] Or, as others think, "in a summary."
Agesilaus reverenced the shrines and sacred places even of the enemy.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: It is disheartening, at the present day, and after so much has
been finally settled by writers like Grote, Mommsen, and Sir
G. C. Lewis, to come upon such views in the work of a man of
scholarship and intelligence. One begins to wonder how many
more times it will be necessary to prove that dates and events
are of no historical value, unless attested by nearly
contemporary evidence. Pausanias and Plutarch were able men no
doubt, and Thukydides was a profound historian; but what these
writers thought of the Herakleid invasion, the age of Homer,
and the war of Troy, can have no great weight with the
critical historian, since even in the time of Thukydides these
Myths and Myth-Makers |
