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This, we believe, represents the true position of Athens during the fifth century before our era in the scheme of general history. But a great art is only the expression of a nation’s moods. As the Greek epigram puts it:

“I sang those songs that gain so much renown: I, Phœbus; Homer merely wrote them down.”

We have therefore only to alter a few phrases to arrive at the real position of Athenian sculpture between 470 and 420 b.c. in the scale of artistic achievement. The proposition may need qualification. If so, we may well prepare ourselves for the task by the most generous appreciation of this—the Golden Age of Sculpture.

So much for panegyric. What are the facts? How closely was sculpture connected with the every-day and all-day lives of the Athenian citizens? We shall find that the art was interwoven with all that was most vital in the nation’s history; that its roots struck down deep into the hearts of the people.

The victory at Marathon, which broke the spell of Persian invincibility, and the brilliant sea fight at Salamis, which settled the future course of civilisation in Western Europe, had made Athens the principal city in Greece. The smaller states in her vicinity and the great trading cities of Asia Minor, attracted by the position of Athens as a sea power, joined the Confederation of which she was the leading spirit. Even those which refrained from a political alliance could not withhold their admiration from the men who had done so much to save Greece from the dreaded hordes from the East.