All that was common, prattling, coarse, sensual and spluttering in the Greek, (and we know from Aristophanes how strong these lower elements were in the Athenian people), never shows a trace of its influence in Balaustion.

Made of the finest clay, exquisite and delicate in grain, she is yet strong, when the days of trouble come, to meet them nobly and to change their sorrows into spiritual powers.
And the _mise-en-scene_ in which she is placed exalts her into a heroine, and adds to her the light, colour and humanity of Greek romance.

Born at Rhodes, but of an Athenian mother, she is fourteen when the news arrives that the Athenian fleet under Nikias, sent to subdue Syracuse, has been destroyed, and the captive Athenians driven to labour in the quarries.

All Rhodes, then in alliance with Athens, now cries, "Desert Athens, side with Sparta against Athens." Balaustion alone resists the traitorous cry.

"What, throw off Athens, be disloyal to the source of art and intelligence-- to the life and light Of the whole world worth calling world at all!" And she spoke so well that her kinsfolk and others joined her and took ship for Athens.