In short, the story of Greek life is a story not only of moderation
but also of simplicity. ``Things,'' chairs and tables and
books and houses and carriages, are apt to take up a great
deal of their owner's time. In the end they invariably make
him their slave and his hours are spent looking after their
wants, keeping them polished and brushed and painted. The
Greeks, before everything else, wanted to be ``free,'' both in
mind and in body. That they might maintain their liberty, and
be truly free in spirit, they reduced their daily needs to the
lowest possible point.
THE GREEK THEATRE
THE ORIGINS OF THE THEATRE, THE FIRST
FORM OF PUBLIC AMUSEMENT
AT a very early stage of their history the Greeks had begun
to collect the poems, which had been written in honor of
their brave ancestors who had driven the Pelasgians out of
Hellas and had destroyed the power of Troy. These poems were
recited in public and everybody came to listen to them. But
the theatre, the form of entertainment which has become almost
a necessary part of our own lives, did not grow out of these
recited heroic tales. It had such a curious origin that I must
tell you something about it in a separate chapter
The Greeks had always been fond of parades. Every
year they held solemn processions in honor of Dionysos the
God of the wine. As everybody in Greece drank wine (the
Greeks thought water only useful for the purpose of swimming
and sailing) this particular Divinity was as popular as a God
of the Soda-Fountain would be in our own land.
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