Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/185

167 fEELINGS EXCITED AT ATHENS. 0? sympathy, and guardianship of Hermes became absociated with most of the manifestations of corjjunct life at Athens, political, social, commercial, or gymnastic. Moreover, the quadrangular fashion of these statues, employed occasionally for other gods besides Hermes, was a most ancient relic handed down from the primitive rudeness of Pelasgian workmanship and was popular in Arcadia as well as peculiarly frequent in Athens. 1 About the end of May, 415 B.C., in the course of one and the same night, all these Hermne, one of the most peculiar marks of the city, were mutilated by unknown hands. Their characteristic features were knocked off or levelled, so that nothing was left except a mass of stone with no resemblance to humanity or deity. All were thus dealt with in the same way, save and except very few : nay, Andokides affirms, and I incline to believe him, that there was but one which escaped unharmed. 2 It is of course impossible for any one to sympathize fully with the feelings of a religion not his own : indeed, the sentiment with story, as illustrated in this History, vol. iii, ch. ix, p. 34 ; also Xenophon, Ilcllen. vi, 4-7 ; Livy, xxxviii, 43. In an Inscription in Boeckh's Corp. Insc. (part ii. No. 190, p. 320) a list of the names of Prytaneis, appears, at the head of which list figures the name of Athene Polias. 1 Pausanias, i, 24, 3 ; iv, 33, 4 ; viii, 31,4; viii, 48, 4 ; viii, 41,4; Plutarch, An Scni sit Gerenda Eespubl. ad finem; Aristophan. Plut. 1153, and Schol. : compare O. Miiller, Archaologie der Kunst, sect. 67 ; K. F. Hermann, Got- tesdienstl. Alterth. der Griechen, sect. 15; Gerhard, De Religione Henna- rum. Berlin, 1845. 2 Thucyd. vi, 27. oaoi 'Eppal fyaav /U'tftvot ev ry jroXsi ry 'A.$7jvaiuv. . . . uip WKrl oi TT/letoTot irepieKomjaav TU npoauira. Andokides (DeMyst. sect. 63) expressly states that only a single one was spared KOI 6iu ravra 6 'Epwjf bv opdre vravrcf, 6 a-apu TTJV irarpuav oiKiav rf,v ijfiETepav, ov irepiEKoirri, fiovof TUV 'Epuuv TUV 'Atf^vycri. Cornelius Nepos (Alkibiad. c. 3) and Plutarch (Alkib.c. 13) copy Andok- ides : in his life of Nikias (c. 18) the latter uses ilie expression of Thucyd- ides ol irhsiaTot. This expression is noway at variance with Andokides, though it stops short of his affirmation. There is great mixture of truth and falsehood in the Oration of Andokides ; but I think that he is to be trusted K3 to this point. Diodorus (xiii, 2) says that all the Hernias were mutilated, not recogniz- ing a single exception. Cornelius Nepos, by a singular inaccuracy, talk* itbout the ITermsc as having been all thrown down (dejicerentur).