1 88 OiLtlines of European History the beach, and how a desperate Persian raised his ax and slashed off the hand of the brave Greek. Perhaps among the group of eager listeners he might notice one questioning the veteran carefully and making full notes of all that he can learn from the graybeard. The questioner is Herodotus, the " father of histor}^" the first great prose writer to devote himself to the story of the past. He is collecting from survivors the tale of the Persian wars for a history which he is writing (p. 203). Architecture The citizen wanders on toward the theater. Above him towers the height of the Acropolis crowned with the Parthenon (Plate IV, p. 190, and Fig. 91), a noble temple to Athena, whose protecting arm is always stretched out over her beloved Athens. There on the Pnyx (Fig. 89) Pericles made the splendid speech in which he laid before the Assembly of the people his plans for the beautification of the Acropolis and the restoration of the temples which the Persians had burned. As he passes the Hill of the Areopagus the citizen remembers the discontented mut- terings of the old men in the ancient council which convenes on its summit (Fig. 91), when they heard the vast expenses required for Pericles' building plans, and he smiles in satisfaction as he reflects that this unprogressive old body, once so influential in Athens, has been deprived of its powers to obstruct the will of the people in anything they wish to do. Here before him rise the imposing marble colonnades of the magnificent monumental • approach to the Acropolis (Fig. 91). It is still unfinished, and the architect Mnesicles, with a roll of plans under his arm, is perhaps at the moment directing a group of workmen to their task. The tinkle of many distant hammers from the height above tells where the stone cutters are shaping the marble blocks for the still unfinished Parthenon (Fig. 91 and Plate III, p. 180) ; and there, too, the people often see Pericles intently in- specting the work, as Phidias the sculptor and Ictinus the archi- tect of the building pace up and down the inclosure, explaining to him the progress of the work. In these wondrous Greek buildings architect and sculptor work hand in hand.
