Everyday Things in Classical Greece
Everyday Things in Classical Greece. By Marjorie and C.
B. Quennell. (B. T. Botsford, Ltd. 8a.)
No children (nor indeed adults) should be able with a clear conscience to plead ignorance of how the Greeks lived, moved and had their being, now that Mr. and Mrs. Quennell have com- pleted their fascinating trilogy. It is delightfully and enter- tainingly written, and profusely illustrated in such a way as to emphasize the modernity of Greek life, though they have missed one opportunity. (Surely the unkind girl of figure fifty-eight is the precursor of the modern yoyoist.) This modernity is also brought out by apt comparisons in the text, so apt that the reader is impressed not so much by the dissimilarity between the cultures of Greece and our own times, but by the very frequent points of contact. An example will illustrate their unconventional approach : "This position of the frieze is very interesting. It is amazing to us that the sculptors were content so to bide their light under a bushel ; but then the gods see everywhere. You find the same modesty in Gothic work. The bosses on the nave roof of Norwich Cathedral are carved with a complete record of Bible history, from the Creation to the Last Judgement, each one a masterpiece, yet suspended aloft, and hardly to be seen without a good glass—perhaps, like the Parthenon frieze, they were so placed that the pilgrims might have the joy of discovering them. In any case, it is a striking difference to (sic) modem practice where, if we add twopenny-worth of carving to a building, we demand that it shall advertise its presence as a poster of our affluence." Nevertheless the Athenians were not so indifferent to the beauties of their architecture, as the Quennells suggest. The art critics were as vocal then as now, and a formidable volume of criticism and appreciation has come down to us, not only in the opinions of professional critics, but also in the light poems of the epigrammatists. Nowhere do their methods appear to better advantage than in their handling of the trireme question, and it is immaterial whether or not we agree with the solution which their diagram offers. At least it is clear and probable.
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