=Socrates and the Philosophers.=—­Socrates, an old man of Athens, undertook to combat the sophists.  He was a poor man, ugly, and without eloquence.  He opened no school like the sophists but contented himself with going about the city, conversing with those he met, and leading them by the force of his questions to discover what he himself had in mind.  He sought especially the young men and gave them instruction and counsel.  Socrates made no pretensions as a scholar:  “All my knowledge,” said he, “is to know that I know nothing.”  He would call himself no longer a sage, like the others, but a philosopher, that is to say, a lover of wisdom.  He did not meditate on the nature of the world nor on the sciences; man was his only interest.  His motto was, “Know thyself.”  He was before all a preacher of virtue.

As he always spoke of morals and religion, the Athenians took him for a sophist.[82] In 399 he was brought before the court, accused “of not worshipping the gods of the city, of introducing new gods, and of corrupting the youth.”  He made no attempt to defend himself, and was condemned to death.  He was then seventy years old.

Xenophon, one of his disciples, wrote out his conversations and an apology for him.[83] Another disciple, Plato, composed dialogues in which Socrates is always the principal personage.  Since this time Socrates has been regarded as the “father of philosophy.”  Plato himself was the head of a school (429-348); Aristotle (384-322), a disciple of Plato, summarized in his books all the science of his time.  The philosophers that followed attached themselves to one or the other of these two masters:  the disciples of Plato called themselves Academicians,[84] those of Aristotle, Peripatetics.[85]

=The Chorus.=—­It was an ancient custom of the Greeks to dance in their religious ceremonies.  Around the altar dedicated to the god a group of young men passed and repassed, assuming noble and expressive attitudes, for the ancients danced with the whole body.  Their dance, very different from ours, was a sort of animated procession, something like a solemn pantomime.  Almost always this religious dance was accompanied by chants in honor of the god.  The group singing and dancing at the same time was called the Chorus.  All the cities had their festival choruses in which the children of the noblest families participated after long time of preparation.  The god required the service of a troop worthy of him.

=Tragedy and Comedy.=—­In the level country about Athens the young men celebrated in this manner each year religious dances in honor of Dionysos, the god of the vintage.  One of these dances was grave; it represented the actions of the god.  The leader of the chorus played Dionysos, the chorus itself the satyrs, his companions.  Little by little they came to represent also the life of the other gods and the ancient heroes.  Then some one (the Greeks call him Thespis) conceived the idea of setting up a stage on which the actor could play while the chorus rested.  The spectacle thus perfected was transferred to the city near the black poplar tree in the market.  Thus originated Tragedy.