Thus Plato, too, was a citizen of the old world, at whose
threshold stood universal sexual intercourse, tolerating nothing
personal, knowing of no individuals, acknowledging only unchecked,
uncontrollable instinct, and whose decline was again characterised by
the extreme impersonality of ideas. It had traversed the path of human
existence in a huge cycle. Starting from an unconscious existence in
complete harmony with nature, it had passed through individualised man
to the loftiest spiritual conceptions in the impersonal world of ideas.
The Hellenic ideal of beauty was almost invariably realised in the male
form. The Greeks of the classical period disdained woman; she was for
them inseparably connected with base sensuality, but their contempt had
its source partly in a feeling of horror. The days when matriarchy was
the form of government were not very remote; it survived in a great
number of myths and also, subconsciously perhaps, in the soul of man. To
the Greek mind woman was the embodiment of the dark side of love, and it
was merely the logical conclusion of this conception when, at a later
period, she was regarded as the devil's tool.
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