eyes of the blind.

* * * * *

Cicero, in speaking of the influence of Peisistratos on literature,
says: "He is said to have arranged in their present order the works of
Homer, which were previously in confusion." He arranged them not for
what we should call "publication," but for public recitation, and
another tradition adds that he or his son fixed the order of their
recitation at the great festival of "All Athens," the Panathenaia.
Homer, of course, was known before in Athens in a scrappy way; now he
was publicly, officially promulgated. It is probable, though not
certain, that the "Homer" which Peisistratos prescribed for recitation
at the Panathenaia was just our _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, and that the rest
of the heroic cycle, all the remaining "slices" from the heroic banquet,
remained as material for dithyrambs and dramas. The "tyranny" of
Peisistratos and his son lasted from 560 to 501 B.C.; tradition said
that the first dramatic contest was held in the new theatre built by
Peisistratos in 535 B.C., when Thespis won the prize. AEschylus was born
in 525 B.C.; his first play, with a plot from the heroic saga, the
_Seven Against Thebes_, was produced in 467 B.C. It all came very
swiftly, the shift from the dithyramb as Spring Song to the heroic drama
was accomplished in something much under a century. Its effect on the
whole of Greek life and religion--nay, on the whole of subsequent
literature and thought--was incalculable. Let us try to see why.

* * * * *

Homer was the outcome, the expression, of an "heroic" age. When we use
the word "heroic" we think vaguely of something brave, brilliant,
splendid, something exciting and invigorating. A hero is to us a man of
clear, vivid personality, valiant, generous, perhaps hot-tempered, a
good friend and a good hater. The word "hero" calls up such figures as
Achilles, Patroklos, Hector, figures of passion and adventure. Now such
figures, with their special virtues, and perhaps their proper vices, are
not confined to Homer. They occur in any and every heroic age. We are
beginning now to see that heroic poetry, heroic characters, do not arise
from any peculiarity of race or even of geographical surroundings, but,
given certain social conditions, they may, and do, appear anywhere and
at any time. The world has seen several heroic ages, though it is,
perhaps, doubtful if it will ever see another. What, then, are t