The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [279]
12. There is a sort of bloom of newness upon those works of his, preserving them from the touch of time,
13. As if they had some perennial essence and undying vitality mingled in the composition of them.
14. Phidias was in charge of all the works as surveyor-general, though upon the various parts other great masters and workmen were employed.
15. Callicrates and Ictinus built the Parthenon;
16. The hall at Eleusis, where the festivals were celebrated, was begun by Coroebus, who erected the pillars that stand upon the floor or pavement, and joined them to the architraves;
17. And after his death Metagenes of Xypete added the frieze and the upper line of columns;
18. Xenocles of Cholargus roofed or arched the lantern on top of the monument to Castor and Pollux;
19. And the long wall, which Socrates says he himself heard Pericles propose to the people, was undertaken by Callicrates.
20. The Odeum, or music room, which in its interior was full of seats and ranges of pillars,
21. And outside had its roof made to slope and descend from one single point at the top,
22. Was constructed in imitation of the King of Persia’s Pavilion; this likewise by Pericles’ order;
23. Which Cratinus in his comedy called The Thracian Women made an occasion of raillery:
24. ‘So, we see here, long-pate Pericles appear, since ostracism time, he’s laid aside his head, and wears the new Odeum in its stead.’
25. Pericles, also eager for distinction, then first obtained the decree for a contest in musical skill to be held yearly at the Panathenaea,
26. And he himself, being chosen judge, arranged the order and method in which the competitors should sing and play on the flute and on the harp.
27. And both at that time, and at other times also, they sat in this music room to see and hear all such trials of skill.
28. The propylaea, or entrances to the Acropolis, were finished in five years, Mnesicles being the principal architect.
29. Phidias had the whole work under his charge, along with the oversight over all the artists and workmen, through Pericles’ friendship for him;
30. And this, indeed, made him much envied, and his patron shamefully slandered with stories,
31. As if Phidias were in the habit of receiving, for Pericles’ use, freeborn women that came to see the works.
32. The comic writers of the town, when they got hold of this story, made much of it, and bespattered him with all the ribaldry they could invent,
33. Charging him falsely with the wife of Menippus, one who was his friend and served as lieutenant under him in the wars;
34. And with the birds kept by Pyrilampes, an acquaintance of Pericles, who, they pretended, used to give presents of peacocks to Pericles’ female friends.
35. And how can one wonder at any number of strange assertions from men whose whole lives were devoted to mockery,
36. And who were ready at any time to sacrifice the reputation of their superiors to vulgar envy and spite,
37. When even Stesimbrotus the Thracian has dared to lay to the charge of Pericles a monstrous and fabulous piece of criminality with his son’s wife?
38. So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history,
39. When, on the one hand, those who afterwards write it find long periods of time intercepting their view,
40. And, on the other hand, the contemporary records of any actions and lives,
41. Partly through envy and ill-will, partly through favour and flattery, pervert and distort truth.
Chapter 36
1. When the orators who sided with Thucydides and his party were crying out against Pericles,
2. As one who squandered away the public money, and made havoc of the state revenues,
3. He rose in the open assembly and put the question to the people, whether they thought he had laid out much;
4. And they saying, ‘Too much, a great deal,’ ‘Then,’ said he, ‘since it is so, let the cost not go to your account,
5. ‘But to mine; and let the inscription upon the buildings stand in my name.’
6. When they heard him say this,