A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

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CHAPTER XVIII
THE AGE OF PERICLES
I. Pericles: Family and Education
Family and Pericles was descended from the noblest families in
pearance. Athens, on both his father's and mother's side. His
father, Xanthippus, defeated the Persian generals at
Mycale, while his mother, Agariste, was a descendant
Plutarch, of Cleisthenes, who drove the sons of Peisistratus out of
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Athens,
\Vorid!iii-
put an end to their despotic rule, and established
3- nsw constitution admirably calculated to reconcile all
41- parties and save the country. . . . His body was sym-
The true metrical, but his head was long out of all proportion
reason is that , . i ,, i • •
i
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he was a hcnce m nearly all his statues he is represented wearing
generaL
^ helmet, as the sculptors did not wish, I suppose, to reproach
him with this blemish. The Attic poets called him
squill-head, and the comic poet, Cratinus, in his play
"Cheirones'^ says.
From Cronos old and faction,
Is sprung a tyrant dread,
And all Olympus calls him,
The man-compelling head.
Telecleides, too, speaks of him as sitting,
Bowed down,
With a dreadful frown,
Because matters of state have gone wrong,
Until at last,
From his head so vast,
His ideas burst forth in a throng. . . .
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