Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/40

xxxviii character of his teacher is in harmony with such a conclusion.

For the twelve years that followed we are left almost entirely to conjecture. All that we know of the bright promise of his youth and the high perfection of his manhood leads us to think of it as a time of deliberate self-culture for the work to which he intended to devote himself. It was significant of the impulse given to all national activity at Athens by its victory over Persia, that among the new buildings that rose in more stately form from the ruins of the old city, one of the earliest and most conspicuous was a stone theatre of Dionysos. Hitherto the drama had received no such recognition of its permanent place in the life of the people, and the feasts were more crowded than ever, and the representations themselves of a higher character than before. And at the head of the list of all dramatic poets was the great name of Æschylos, with everything to command the reverence and admiration of the people. With gifts lofty and wonderful above all that went before or followed, he was also a true Athenian. He himself and his brothers had fought at Marathon and Salamis, and he counted that a greater glory than his highest triumph as a poet.