Kathleen Freeman

Vincent, or the Donkey

The relationship of man to his domestic animals is an ever-fascinating study: they are so near to us, yet so remote, so like us, yet separated from us by an abyss. Of some we make pets; others we merely use, to work for us or to give us food or clothing. To each species we assign a character, and we like or dislike its members according to our prejudice. In studying a people, we cannot ignore their attitude towards the animals which form part of their daily lives. The most revealing relationship is perhaps that between man and the domestic cat; but the cat does not seem to have been known in Greece Proper as a domestic animal; and although it was known in the Greek colonies of southern Italy by the fifth century b.c., it remained almost an Egyptian monopoly until Imperial Roman times. When the αϊλoυρoς in Greece is mentioned, apparently the polecat, the ancestor of our ferret, is meant. The horse and dog are good subjects for this study; but I pass them over for the present, the horse because too much is said of him, the dog because what is said is not particularly interesting. Many pleasant things are said of pigs by the Greeks, the pig being to them the type of clumsiness, bad temper, and stupidity as well as of uncleanliness; for instance, there is ς oἀ ῥo ωv of a brutish fellow in refined surroundings; and the Chorus Leaders threat in the Lysistrata λ σω τἠν ἐμαυτ ς ν shows that the Greeks knew what it was to incur the wrath of a sow.

Pindar—The Function and Technique of Poetry

ALL writers are to some extent consciously interested in the technique of their art; many of them far more so than is generally realized. The majority follow the principle Ars maxima celare artem, and do not allow us more than a glimpse into their workshop; many a lyric that delights us by its apparent spontaneity has been hammered out slowly and shaped and altered until its final form contains hardly a trace of the original creation. The late W. B. Yeats in his Autobiography says:

Plato: The use of Inspiration

It is curious that one of the strongest attacks ever made on poetry and artistic inspiration was made by Plato. Plato was not only a great thinker, but also a peerless literary artist. It is therefore disconcerting to read a dialogue like the Ion , in which he first sets up, and then belabours, a ‘man of inspiration’, with all the resources of his ironic wit.

Portrait of a Millionaire—Callias Son of Hipponicus

Callias , son of Hipponicus, inherited the greatest fortune of his day, lived throughout the latter half of the fifth century and the first thirty years of the fourth century, spent his money lavishly, and died poor, or at least a good deal poorer. He must have been a prominent personage in Athens, yet owing to his lack of interest in politics and war, one hears little of him in history books. He presents a small problem to the biographer: there are two sources of information about him, one friendly, one hostile, and the fitting together of the two into a portrait is an entertaining occupation.