Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/169

 RETURN OF SOLON TO ATHENS. 153 of the bystanders, the flame was found unquenchable, and Croesus would still have been burned, had he not implored with prayers and tears the succor of Apollo, to whose Delphian and Theban temples he had given such munificent presents. His prayers were heard, the fair sky was immediately overcast, and a profuse rain descended, sufficient to extinguish the flames. 1 The life of Croesus was thus saved, and he became afterwards the confiden- tial friend and adviser of his conqueror. Such is the brief outline of a narrative which Herodotus has given with full development and with impressive effect. It would have served as a show-lecture to the youth of Athens, not less admirably than the well-known fable of the Choice of Herakles, which the philosopher Prodikus,' 3 a junior contemporary of He- rodotus, delivered with so much popularity. It illustrates forcibly the religious and ethical ideas of antiquity; the deep sense of the jealousy of the gods, who would not endure pride in any one except themselves ; :i the impossibility, for any man, of realizing to himself more than a very moderate share of happiness ; the danger from reactionary nemesis, if at any time he had over- pa-sed such limit ; and the necessity of calculations taking in the whole of life, as a basis for rational comparison of different indi- viduals ; and as a practical consequence from these feelings, a constant protest on the part of the moralists against vehement impulses and unrestrained aspirations. The more valuable this narrative appears, in its illustrative character, the less can we presume to treat it as a history. It is much to be regretted that we have no information respect- ing events in Attica immediately after the Solonian laws and constitution, which were promulgated in 594 B. c., so as to under- stand better the practical effect of these changes. What we next hear respecting Solon in Attica refers to a period immediate!? preceding the first usurpation of Peisistratus in 560 B. c., and 1 Herodot. i, 86, 87 : compare Plutarch, Solon, 27-28. See a similar story about Gygos king of Lydia (Valerius Maxim, vii, 1, 2). Trspl 'tlpaK^sorf, o-fp <!/) teal TT/.eiaToie iTudeiKvvTai, etc. 3 Herodot. vii, 10. (ftiXeet yup 6 i?edf TU {nrfpf^ovra irdvra nohoitiv ob yb<; ev ry ffvy/pujiftaTL r$