ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the contribution of Athens herself to the literature of Greece, in consequence of which she became for some two hundred years the centre of the whole nations thought and expression, the Greece of Greece as a well-known epigram styles her. The geographical position of Attica made it easy for the inhabitants to enter into relations at once with their kinsfolk in Ionia and with the neighbouring peoples of Boiotia and the Peloponnesos. The chapter presents the prevalence of competitive or agonistic festivals, especially in connexion with the very popular cult of Dionysos. At these festivals all manner of feats of physical and mental skill were performed for prizes of one kind. The chapter shows the remarkable expansion of Athenian power and the rise of their state to a leading place in Greece. The downfall of the Peisistratidai was followed by the establishment of democracy, a form of government which above all others demands strong and wise leaders.
