Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 60

Jacobs I. 63, 20,--_Simonides_.

SIMONIDES, a renowned Greek lyric poet, was born in the Island of Ceos about 556 B.C., and died about 468 B.C. Some of his famous "Epigrams,"

have come down to our times.

By nature men are nearly alike; by practice they get to be wide apart.

--_Confucius_.

CONFUCIUS, the head of Chinese religious and social philosophy, was born about 551 B.C., and died 478 B.C. He wrote: "a.n.a.lects," etc., and is credited with having compiled the "Ancient Poems." His last work is called "Annals of Lee" or "Spring and Autumn."

Much knowledge of things divine escapes us through want of faith.

--_Herac.l.i.tus_.

HERAc.l.i.tUS, a renowned Greek philosopher, born in Ephesus, about 535 B.C., died about 475 B.C.

Time as he grows old teaches many lessons.

"Prometheus," 981,--_aeschylus_.

aeSCHYLUS, the greatest of the Greek dramatists, was born at Eleusis, Attica, 525 B.C., and died at Gela, Sicily, 456 B.C. Of his numerous works only seven tragedies remain, "The Suppliants," "The Persians,"

"The Seven Against Thebes," "Prometheus Bound," "Agamemnon,"

"Choephori," and "Eumenides."

He is gifted with genius who knoweth much by natural talent.

--_Pindar_.

PINDAR, the greatest of the Greek lyric poets, was born at Cynoscephalae near Boeotian Thebes, 522 B.C., and died at Argos, about 450 B.C. The Alexandrine scholars divided his poems into 17 books, comprising Hymns, Paeans, Dithyrambs, Encomia, and Songs of Victory.

Fortune is not on the side of the faint-hearted.

--_Sophocles_.

SOPHOCLES, the great Greek tragic poet, was born at Colonus near Athens, about 495 B.C.; and died about 405 B.C. His seven great tragedies are: "Antigone," "Electra," "Ajax," "Trachiniae," "Philoctetes," "Oedipus Tyrannus," and "Oedipus at Colonus."

The saying "Call no man happy before he dies" was ascribed to Solon.

--_Herodotus_, I, 32.

HERODOTUS, "The Father of History," was born at Halicarna.s.sus, in Caria, about 490 B.C., and died at Thurii, in Magna Graecia, between 428 B.C.

and 426 B.C. His "Exposition of History" in nine books, won for him everlasting fame.

Moderation, the n.o.blest gift of Heaven.

"Medea," 636,--_Euripides_.

EURIPIDES, a great Greek tragic poet, was born at Athens, about 480 B.C., and died about 406 B.C. Nineteen of his dramas have come down to our time: "Alcestis," "Andromache," "Hecube," "Bacchae," "Helena,"

"Electra," "Heraclidae," "The Mad Hercules," "The Suppliants,"

"Hippolytus," "Iphigenia at Tauris," "Ion," "Iphigenia at Aulis,"

"Medea," "Orestes," "Rhesus," "The Trojan Women," "The Phoenissae," and "Cyclops."

Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases.

Aphorism i,--_Hippocrates_.

HIPPOCRATES, a noted Greek philosopher and writer, termed the "Father of Medicine," was born according to Sora.n.u.s, in Cos, in the first year of the 80th Olimpiad, i.e., in 460 B.C. The earliest Greek edition of the Hippocratic writings is that which was published by Aldus and Asula.n.u.s at Venice in 1526.

You think that upon the score of fore-knowledge and divining I am infinitely inferior to the swans. When they perceive approaching death they sing more merrily than before, because of the joy they have in going to the G.o.d they serve.

"In Phaedo," 77,--_Socrates_.

SOCRATES, the renowned Athenian philosopher, was born at Athens, about 470 B.C., and died 399 B.C. He left no writings, but his philosophical method and his teaching are to be found in the works of his contemporaries and disciples.

Envy doth merit like its shade pursue.

--_Aristophanes_.

ARISTOPHANES, the greatest of the Greek writers of comedy, (448-380 B.C.), was born at Athens. Only eleven of his 44 plays have come down to us. They are: "The Knights," "The Clouds," "The Wasps," "The Acharnians," "The Peace," "The Lyristrate," "The Birds," "The Thesmophoriazusae," "The Frogs," "The Ecclesiazusae," and "Plutus."

Trees and fields tell me nothing, men are my teachers.

--_Plato_.

PLATO, the renowned Greek philosopher, was born at Athens, about 427 B.C., and died there 347 B.C. Among his famous dialogues are: "Apology,"

"Lysis," "Charmides," "Laches," "Protagoras," "Meno," "Gorgias," "Io,"

"Euthyphro," "Crito," "Phaedrus," "The Sophist," "The Politician,"

"Parmenides," "Symposium," "Phaedo," "The Republic," "The Laws," etc.

Excess of grief for the deceased is madness; for it is an injury to the living, and the dead know it not.

--_Xenophon_.

XENOPHON, a famous Greek author, was born at Athens, about 430 B.C., and died in Corinth, about 355 B.C. He is the author of: "Encomium of Agesilaus," "Horsemanship," "Hipparchicus," "Cynegeticus," "Cyropaedeia,"

"Lacedaemonian Polity," "Hieron," "Athenian Finance," "Symposium,"

"Apology of Socrates," "Oeconomicus," and his most celebrated works, the "h.e.l.lenics" and "Anabasis."