Thus music came to be regarded as the best means of forming character. It was only necessary to apply the right sort of “harmony” to the young and susceptible personality, and the right “ethos” would be produced. The Dorian was most in request for educational purposes: its merits were universally recognised. For it “suitably represented the notes and accents of a brave man in the presence of war or of any other violent action, going to meet wounds or death or fallen into any other misfortune, facing his fate with unflinching resolution.”[692] Of the others, as has been said, Plato preferred the Phrygian and Aristotle the Lydian.
Not only beautiful music, but beautiful art also, was believed to produce, by an unconscious but irresistible influence, beautiful characters in those who came into contact with it; while, on the other hand, bad art, as well as bad music, was the cause of vice and low moral ideals.[693] This, they naturally thought, was particularly true in the case of children, who are so sensitive to all external influences; moreover, it is the early impressions that make most difference in a man’s life. To serve this educational end, the Hellenes expected every statue and painting, as well as every poem and tune, to have ἦθος [êthos], that is, according to Aristotle’s definition,[694] to be such that its moral purpose was manifest to the average man. For this purpose Hellenic art had to become impersonal: the great statues represent a single trait of character. The smaller individualising traits are omitted: the single trait chosen is then idealised and carried to its utmost possible development. This produced a single and easily intelligible effect. The frieze on the Parthenon represented the perfect knight in various attitudes, not So-and-so and Somebody-else. The same idealised abstractions can be traced in the “Theseus” of the Pediment, and in most of the dramas of Sophocles.