RELIGION    AND    EDUCATION	x
such as were used by the orators, the sophists and the poli-
ticians of the day.1 These were words which only 'drove by
car', being too big to be carned3 a kind of refined and artificial
speech that could be likened to the most elaborate works of
sculpture/ Among the up-to-date upper classes 'solemn
speeches' were liked, and the usual 'welcome' was replaced as
a form of greeting by an affected CI greet you', while on the
other hand Kleon was criticized because he introduced the
private form 'welcome' into an official letter 3 Elegance and
artificiality of speech and style, however, do not preclude vul-
gar ideas, in proof of which Euripides is cited, who elsewhere
is said to be able to use those 'refined' and 'urban' phrases
which Dionysos expects that both of the competing poets will
use.4 Dikaiopohs, when he is dressed up in the rags of the
Euripidean Telephos, is glad and proud to be 'filled with pet
phrases'.5 All these allusions show the importance attached to
language and style.
We have passed from literary to linguistic subjects, that is
to a matter in which the sophists were most keenly interested.
Glotta^ 'Language', appears in the Clouds among the gods of
Sokrates.8 Language was apparently the bridge which
enabled the average citizen to approach, in some degree, the
intellectual sphere of the sophists. Even a coarse fellow like
Herakles learns the importance of speech.7 The art and study
of speech dominated the educational work of the sophists, as
their aims were chiefly those of political education We shall
deal in a later chapter with the part the orators played in
political life.8 Here it may suffice to point to the almost
innumerable passages in Euripides, in which the poet either
theoretically or by practical application shows the impact of
rhetoric on his poetry as well as on his views. They also bear
strong witness to the general interest in rhetoric As early as
the end of the 'nineties Isokrates could stress the fact that a
1 frg. 198.
4 Kantharos I D, Polyzelos r D, adesp 836 •— frg. 699.
aW.ii74ff — Xafc£lv replaced by ficnrijoucci, PI 322ff, cf. €1145,
3.1377, PI 1042 — Eupolis 308.
4Ki375ff — frg. 471 — F9ooff, 905^
8 A.444,447. This is how Liddell and Scott translate ^tjjicctioc. The reference
seems clearly to some quotations from Telephos, and they would be another
thin disguise of Dikaiopolis
* C 424.	» Pkt 51-53	8 See Chapter XIII, 2.