Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/188

170 170 HISTORY 0* GRRECE. Accordingly, they drew from the mutilation of the Hennae th*> inference, not less natural than terrifying, that heavy public misfortune was impending over the city, and that the political constitution to which they were attached was in imminent danger of being subverted. 1 Such was the mysterious incident which broke in upon the eager and bustling movement of Athens, a few days before the Sicilian expedition was in condition for starting. In reference to that expedition it was taken to heart as a most depressing omen. 2 It would doubtless have been so determined, had it been a mere undesigned accident happening to any venerated religious object, just as we are told that similar misgivings were occasioned by the occurrence, about this same time, of the melancholy festival of the Adonia, wherein the women loudly bewailed the untimely death of Adonis. 3 The mutilation of the Hermoe, however, was something much more ominous than the worst accident. It pro- claimed itself as the deliberate act of organized conspirators, not inconsiderable in number, whose names and final purpose were 1 Dr. Thirhvall observes, in reference to the feeling at Athens after the mutilation of the Hermae : " We indeed see so little connection between acts of daring impiety and designs against the state, that we can hardly understand how they could have been associated together as they were in the minds of the Athenians. But perhaps the difficulty may not without reason have appeared much less to the contemporaries of Alcibiades, who were rather disposed by their views of religion to regard them as inseparable." (Ilist. Gr. ch. xxv, vol iii, p. 394.) This remark, like so many others in Dr. Thirlwall's history, indicates a tone of liberality forming a striking contrast with "VVachsmuth ; and rare indeed among the learned men who have undertaken to depict the democ- racy of Athens. It might, however, have been stated far more strongly-. for an Athenian citizen would have had quite as much difficulty in compre- hending our disjunction of the two ideas, as we have in comprehending his association of the two. oiuvbf I&OK.EL clvat, Koi inl gvvufioaia ufj.a vsurspuv Tcpaynuruv Kal (Jj^zoi Cornelius Nepos, Alcibiad. c. 3. " Hoc quum appareret non fine magnl mullorum consensione csse factam," etc. 3 Plutarch, Alkibiad. c. 18 ; Therekrates, Fr. Inc. 84, cd. Meintke ; Frag mcnt. Comic. Grasc. vol. ii, p. 358, also p. 11 64 ; Aristoph. Frag. Inc. 130.
 * Thucyd. vi, 27. Ka? TO xpdyna fiei6vuc eXufj-pavov TOV re -yap ^/CTT^OB