A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Outline of Universal History

G >> George Park Fisher >> Outline of Universal History




THE BOND OF RACE.--The Greeks, or Hellenes, were not so much a nation
as a united race. Politically divided, they were conscious of a
fraternal bond that connected them, wherever they might be found, and
parted them from the rest of mankind. Their sense of brotherhood is
implied in the fabulous belief in a common ancestor named
_Hellen_. Together with a fellowship in _blood_, there was a
community in _language_, notwithstanding minor differences in
dialect. Moreover, there was a common religion. They worshiped the
same gods. They had the same ritual, and cherished in common the same
beliefs respecting things supernatural. In connection with these ties
of _blood_, of _language_, and of _religion_, they
celebrated together great national festivals, like the Olympic games,
in which Greeks from all parts of the world might take part, and into
which they entered with a peculiar enthusiasm. As the Jews, following
the impulses of a holier faith, went up to Jerusalem to celebrate as
one family their sacred rites; so the Greeks repaired to hallowed
shrines of Zeus or Apollo, assembling from afar on the plain of
Olympia and at the foot of Parnassus.


DIVISIONS OF GREEK HISTORY.

Greek history embraces _three general periods_. The first is the
formative period, and extends to the Persian wars, 500 B.C. The second
period covers the flourishing era of Greece, from 500 B.C. to 359
B.C. The third is the Macedonian period, when the freedom of Greece
was lost,--the era of Philip and Alexander, and of Alexander's
successors.

PERIOD I. is divided into (1) the mythical or prehistoric age,
extending to 776 B.C.; (2) the age of the formation of the principal
states. PERIOD II. includes (1) the Persian wars, 502-479 B.C.; (2)
the period of Athenian supremacy, 478-431 B.C.; (3) the Peloponnesian
war, 431-404 B.C., with the Spartan, followed by the Theban
ascendency, 404-362 B.C. PERIOD III. includes (1) the reigns of Philip
and Alexander, 359-323 B.C.; (2) the kingdoms into which the empire of
Alexander was divided.




PERIOD I. GREECE PRIOR TO THE PERSIAN WARS.




CHAPTER I. THE PREHISTORIC AGE.


ORIGIN OF THE GREEKS--Before the Hellenes parted from their Aryan
ancestry, they had words for "father," "mother," "brother," "son," and
"daughter," as well as for certain connections by marriage. They lived
in houses, pastured flocks and herds, possessed dogs and horses. They
had for weapons, the sword and the bow. "They knew how to work gold,
silver, and copper; they could count up to a hundred; they reckoned
time by the lunar month; they spoke of the sky as the
'heaven-father.'" The differences between the Greek and the Latin
languages prove, also, that the Greeks and Italians, after their
common progenitors broke off from the primitive Aryan stock, had long
dwelt apart. The Greeks, when they first become known to us in
historical times, consist of two great branches, the _Dorians_
and _Ionians,_ together with a less distinct branch, the
_Aeolians,_ which differs less, perhaps, from the parent
_Hellenes_ than do the two divisions just named.

It is a probable opinion of scholars, that the halting-place of the
Hellenes, whence, in successive waves, they passed over into Greece,
was _Phrygia,_ in the north-west of Asia Minor. Preceding the
Greeks both in northern Greece and in Peloponnesus, and spread over
the coasts and islands of the Archipelago, was a people of whom they
had an indistinct knowledge, whom they called _Pelasgians._ They
were husbandmen or herdsmen. Their national sanctuary was at
_Dodona,_ in Epirus. The "Cyclopean" ruins, composed of huge
polygonal blocks of stone, which they left behind in various places,
are the remnant of their walls and fortifications. The Greeks looked
back on these Pelasgian predecessors as different from themselves. Yet
no reminiscences existed of any hostility towards them. It is
plausibly conjectured that this prehistoric people were emigrants from
the region of Phrygia at a more ancient date, and that the Hellenes, a
more energetic and gifted branch of the same stock, followed them,
and, without force or conflict, became the founders and leaders of a
new historic movement, in which the Pelasgians disappeared from
view. In this second migration, the ancestors of the _Ionians_
went down from Phrygia to the coast of Asia Minor, and began the
career which made them a maritime and commercial people. The
_Dorians_ crossed over to the highlands of northern Greece, where
they became hardy mountaineers, not addicted to the sea. The one tribe
were to be eventually the founders of _Athens_; the other, of
_Sparta_. Besides these two main tribes, the _Aeolians_
occupied Thessaly, Boeotia, Aetolia, and other districts. To them the
_Achaeans_, who were supreme in Peloponnesus in the days of
Homer, were allied.

FOREIGN INFLUENCES.--Besides Phrygia, the legends of the Greeks bear
traces of a foreign influence from _Phoenicia_ and
_Egypt_. The Phoenicians were unquestionably early connected with
the Greeks, first by commercial visits to Greek ports, to which they
brought foreign merchandise. The story of _Cadmus_, who is said
to have founded _Thebes_, and to have brought in the Phoenician
alphabet, is fabulous. But it is probable, that, as early as the close
of the ninth century B.C., the _alphabet_ was introduced by
Phoenicians, and diffused over Greece. Another legend is that of
_Cecrops_, conceived of later as an Egyptian, who is said to have
built a citadel at Athens, and to have imported the seeds of
civilization and religion. _Danaus_, another emigrant from Egypt,
coming with his fifty daughters, is said to have built the citadel of
_Argos_. In the later times, the Greeks were fond of tracing
their knowledge of the arts to Egyptian sources. It is remarkable that
the agents by whom germs of civilization were said to have been
imported from abroad, though foreign, are nevertheless depicted as
thoroughly Greek in their character. Whatever the Greeks may have owed
to Egypt, it is probable was mainly derived from Ionians who had
previously planted themselves in that country.

THE DORIAN EMIGRATION.--It was in the prehistoric time that the
Dorians left their homes in northern Greece, and migrated into
Peloponnesus, where they proved themselves stronger than the Ionians
and the Achaeans dwelling there. They left the Achaeans on the south
coast of the Corinthian Gulf, in the district called Achaia. Nor did
they conquer Arcadia. But of most of Peloponnesus they became
masters. This is the portion of historic truth contained in the myth
of the _Return of the Heraclidae_, the descendants of Hercules,
to the old kingdom of their ancestor.

MIGRATIONS TO ASIA MINOR.--The Dorian conquest is said to have been
the cause of three distinct migrations to Asia Minor. The Achaeans,
with their Aeolic kinsmen on the north, established themselves on the
north-west coast of Asia Minor, _Lesbos_ and _Cyme_ being
their strongholds, and by degrees got control in _Mysia_ and the
_Troad_. Ionic emigrants from Attica joined their brethren on the
same coast. The Dorians settled on the south-west coast; they also
settled _Cos_ and _Rhodes_, and at length subdued
_Crete_. The Dorian conquest of Peloponnesus, and the migrations
just spoken of, were slow in their progress, and possibly stretched
over centuries.

CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS.--_Originality_ is a distinguishing trait
of the Greeks. Whatever they borrowed from others they made their own,
and reproduced in a form peculiar to themselves. They were never
servile copyists. All the products of the Greek mind, whether in
government, art, literature, or in whatever province of human
activity, wear a peculiar stamp. When we leave Asiatic ground, and
come into contact with the Greeks, we find ourselves in another
atmosphere. A spirit of humanity, in the broad sense of the term,
pervades their life. A regard for reason, a sense of order, a
disposition to keep every thing within measure, is a marked
characteristic. Their sense of form--including a perception of beauty,
and of harmony and proportion--made them in politics and letters the
leaders of mankind. "Do nothing in excess," was their favorite
maxim. They hated every thing that was out of proportion. Their
language, without a rival in flexibility and symmetry and in
perfection of sound, is itself, though a spontaneous creation, a work
of art. "The whole language resembles the body of an artistically
trained athlete, in which every muscle, every sinew, is developed into
full play, where there is no trace of tumidity or of inert matter, and
all is power and life." The great variety of the spiritual gifts of
this people, the severest formulas of science, the loftiest flights of
imagination, the keenest play of wit and humor, were capable of
precise and effective expression in this language "as in ductile
play." The use of the language, so lucid and so nice in its
discriminations, was itself an education for the young who grew up to
hear it and to speak it. In a genial yet invigorating climate, in a
land where breezes from the mountain and the sea were mingled, the
versatile Greeks produced by physical training that vigor and grace of
body which they so much admired; and they developed the civil polity,
the artistic discernment, and the complex social life, which made them
the principal source of modern culture. Their moral traits are not so
admirable. As a race they were less truthful, and less marked for
their courage and loyalty, than some other peoples below them in
intellect.

RELIGION.--In the early days, when Greece was open to foreign
influences, the simple religion of the Aryan fathers was enlarged by
new elements from abroad. The Tyrian deity, Melkart, appears at
Corinth as _Melicertes_. Astarte becomes _Aphrodite_
(Venus), who springs from the sea. The myth of _Dionysus_ and the
worship of _Demeter_ (Ceres) may be of foreign
origin. _Poseidon_ (Neptune), the god of the sea, and
_Apollo_, the god of light and of healing, whose worship carried
in it cheer and comfort, though they were brought into Greece, were
previously known to the lonians. By _Homer_ and _Hesiod_,
the great poets of the prehistoric age, the gods in these successive
dynasties, their offices and mutual relations, were depicted. In
Hesiod they stand in a connected scheme or theogony.

1. There are the twelve great gods and goddesses of Olympus, who
were named by the Greeks,--Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Arês, Hêphaestos,
Hermês, Hêrê, Athênê, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hestia,
Dêmêtêr. 2. Numerous other divinities, not included among the
Olympic, but some not less important than the twelve. Such are
Hadês, Hêlíos, Dionysus, the Charites, the Muses, the Nereids, the
Nymphs, etc. 3. Deities who perform special service to the greater
gods,--Iris, Hêbe, the Horae;, etc. 4. Deities whose personality is
less distinct,--Atê, Eris, Thanatos, Hypnos, etc. 5. Monsters,
progeny of the gods,--the Harpies, the Gorgons, Pegasus, Chimaera,
Cerberus, Scylla and Charybdis, the Centaurs, the Sphinx. Below the
gods are the demigods or heroes.

LEGENDS OF HEROES.--The space which precedes the beginning of
authentic records, the Greeks filled up with mythical tales, in which
gods and heroes are the central figures. The heroes are partly of
divine parentage. They are in near intercourse with the deities. Their
deeds are superhuman, and embody those ideals of character and of
achievement which the early Greeks cherished. The production of a
lively imagination, before the dawn of the critical faculty or the
growth of reflection, these tales may yet include a nucleus of
historical incident or vague reminiscences of historical relations and
changes. To attempt to extract these from the fictitious form in which
they are embodied, is for the most part hopeless.

The exploits of _Heracles_ (Hercules) have a prominent place in
the legends. This hero of Argos submitted to serve a cruel tyrant,
but, by prodigious labors (twelve in number), delivered men from
dangerous beasts,--the Lernaean hydra, the Nemean lion, etc.,--and
performed other miraculous services. _Theseus_, the national hero
of Attica, cleared the roads of savage robbers, and delivered his
country from bondage. _Minos_, the mythical legislator of Crete,
cleared the sea of pirates, and founded a maritime state. Of the
legendary stories, three of the most famous are _The Seven against
Thebes The Argonautic Expedition_, and _The Trojan
War_. I. _Laius_, king of Thebes, was told by an oracle that
he should be killed by his son. He exposed him, therefore, as soon as
he was born, on Mount Cithaeron. Saved by a herdsman, Oedipus was
brought up by Polybus, king of Corinth, as his own son. Warned by the
oracle that he should kill his father, and marry his mother, the son
forsook Corinth, and made his abode at Thebes. Meeting Laius in a
narrow pass, and provoked by his attendants, he slew them and him. At
Thebes there was a female monster, the Sphinx, who propounded a
riddle, and each day devoured a man until it should be solved. Oedipus
won the prize which the Queen _Jocaste_ had offered; namely, the
crown and her own hand to whomsoever should free the city. When his
two sons and daughters had grown up, a pestilence broke out; and the
oracle demanded that the murderer of Laius should be
banished. Oedipus, in spite of the warnings of the blind priest,
_Tiresias_, finds out the truth. He puts out his eyes, and is
driven into exile by his sons, whom he curses. Under the guidance of
his daughter _Antigone_, he finds a resting-place at
_Colonus_, a suburb of Athens, in a grove of the
_Eumenides_, whose function it was to avenge such crimes as his.
He received expiation at the hands of _Theseus_, and died in a
calm and peaceful way. This legend was the basis of some of the finest
of the Greek dramas, "Oedipus Tyrannus," and the "Oedipus at Colonus"
of _Sophocles_, and "The Seven against Thebes" of
_Aeschylus_. The curse of Oedipus still rested on his sons. The
story of _Antigone_, defying the tyrant _Creon_, and burying
her slain brother, _Polynices_, is the foundation of the drama of
_Sophocles_, bearing her name. Finally, the _Epigoni_,
descendants of the Seven who had fought Thebes, captured and destroyed
that city.

2. _Argonauts_ were described as a band of heroes, who, through
perilous and unknown seas, sailed from Iolcos in Thessaly, in the ship
"Argo," to Colchis, whence they brought away the golden fleece which
had been stolen, and which they found nailed to an oak, and guarded by
a sleepless dragon. _Jason_, the leader, was accompanied on his
return by the enchantress, _Medea_, who had aided him. She, in
order to delay their pursuers, killed her brother _Absyrtus_, and
threw his body, piece by piece, into the sea. Her subsequent story
involves various other tragic events.

3. The most noted of the legends is the story of the Trojan war. The
deeds of the heroes of this war are the subject of the
_Iliad_. _Paris_, son of Priam, king of _Ilios_ (Troy),
in Asia Minor, carried off _Helen_, the wife of _Menelaus_,
king of Sparta. To recover her, the Greeks united in an expedition
against Troy, which they took after a siege of ten years. Agamemnon,
Achilles, Odysseus (Ulysses), Ajax son of Telamon, and Ajax son of
Oileus, Diomedes, and Nestor were among the chiefs on the Greek
side. Troy had its allies. The "Odyssey" relates to the long journey
of _Odysseus_ on his return to Ithaca, his home. That there was
an ancient city, Troy, is certain. A conflict between the Greeks and a
kindred people there, is probable. Not unlikely, there was a military
expedition of Grecian tribes. Every thing beyond this is either
plainly myth, or incapable of verification.

UNIONS OF TRIBES.--During the period when the Greek population was
dispersing itself in the districts which its different fractions
occupied in the historic ages, there arose unions among tribes near
one another, for religious purposes. They preceded treaties and
alliances of the ordinary kind. Such tribes agreed to celebrate, in
common, certain solemn festivals. Deputies of these tribes met at
stated intervals to look after the temple and the lands pertaining to
it. Out of these unions, there grew stipulations relative to the mode
of conducting war and other matters of common interest. Treaties of
peace and of mutual defense might follow. Thus arose combinations of
states, in which one state, the strongest, would have the
_hegemony_, or lead. This became an established characteristic of
Greek political life. It was a system of federal unions under the
headship of the most powerful member of the confederacy. When such a
union was formed, it established a common worship or festival.

THE DELPHIC AMPHICTYONY.--In the north of Greece, there was formed, in
early times, a great religious union. It was composed of twelve tribes
banded together for the worship of _Apollo_ at _Delphi_, and
to guard his temple. It was called the Delphic Amphictyony, or "League
of Neighbors." The members of this body agreed not to destroy one
another's towns in war, and not to cut off running water from a town
which they were besieging.

THE DELPHIC ORACLE.--The sanctuary at Delphi, where the Amphictyonic
Council met, became the most famous temple in Greece. Here the oracle
of Apollo gave answers to those who came to consult that divinity. The
priests who managed the temple kept themselves well informed in regard
to occurrences in distant places. Their answers were often discreet
and wholesome, but not unfrequently obscure and ambiguous, and thus
misleading. In early times their moral influence in the nation
promoted justice and fraternal feeling. In later times they lost their
reputation for honesty and impartiality. In civil wars the priests
were sometimes bribed to support one of the contending parties.

THE HOMERIC POEMS.--Within the last century, there has been much
discussion about the authorship of the two poems, the _Iliad_ and
the _Odyssey_. The place where they were composed, whether among
the Ionians in Greece proper or in Asia Minor, is still a matter of
debate. It was probably Asia Minor. Seven places contended for the
honor of having given birth to the blind bard. But nothing is known of
Homer's birthplace or history. It is doubtful whether the art of
writing was much, if at all, in use among the Greeks at the time of
the composition of the Iliad and Odyssey. We know that the custom
existed of repeating poems orally by minstrels or _rhapsodists_
at popular festivals. This may have been the mode in which for a time
the Homeric poems were preserved and transmitted. The Odyssey has more
unity than the Iliad, and seems to be of a somewhat later date. The
nucleus of the Iliad is thought by some scholars to be embedded in the
group of poems which, it is supposed, constitute the work at present;
but there is no evidence making it possible to identify any portion as
the work of Homer. Whatever may be the truth on these questions, the
Iliad and Odyssey present an invaluable picture of Greek life in the
period when they were composed, which was probably as early as 900
B.C.

SOCIAL LIFE IN THE HOMERIC AGE.--(1) _Government._ In the Homeric
portraiture of Greek life, there are towns; but the tribe is
predominant over the town. The tribe is ruled by a king, who is not
like an Eastern despot, but has about him a council of chiefs, and is
bound by the _themistes_, the traditional customs. There is,
besides, the _agora_, or popular assembly, where debates take
place among the chiefs, and to which their decisions, or rather the
decision of the king, on whom it devolves finally to determine every
thing, are communicated. Public speaking, it is seen, is practiced in
the infancy of Greek society. (2) _Customs._ People live in
hill-villages, surrounded by walls. Life is patriarchal, and, as
regards the domestic circle, humane. Polygamy, the plague of Oriental
society, does not exist. Women are held in high regard. Slavery is
everywhere established. Side by side with piracy and constant war, and
the supreme honor given to military prowess, there is a fine and
bountiful hospitality which is held to be a religious duty. In the
Homeric poems, there is often exhibited a noble refinement of thought
and sentiment, and a gentle courtesy. (3) _Arts and Industry_. In
war, the chariot is the engine: cavalry are unknown. The useful arts
are in a rudimental stage. Spinning and weaving are the constant
occupation of women. All garments are made at home: noble women join
with their slaves in washing them in the river. The condition of the
common freeman who took one temporary job after another, was
miserable. Of the condition of those who pursued special
occupations,--as the carpenter, the leather-dresser, the fisherman,
etc.,--we have no adequate information. The principal metals were in
use, and the art of forging them. There was no coined money: payment
was made in oxen. But there is hereditary individual property in land,
cultivated vineyards, temples of the gods, and splendid palaces of the
chiefs. (4) _Geographical Knowledge._ In Homer, there is a
knowledge of Greece, of the neighboring islands, and western Asia
Minor. References to other lands are vague. The earth is a sort of
flat oval, with the River Oceanus flowing round it. _Hesiod_ is
better informed about places: he knows something of the Nile and of
the Scythians, and of some places as far west as Syracuse.

RELIGION IN THE HOMERIC AGE.--The Homeric poems give us a full idea of
the early religious ideas and practices, (I) _The Nature of the
Gods_.--The gods in Homer are human beings with greatly magnified
powers. Their dwelling is in the sky above us: their special abode is
Mount Olympus. They experience hunger, but feed on ambrosia and
nectar. They travel with miraculous speed. Their prime blessing is
exemption from mortality. Among themselves they are often discordant
and deceitful. (2) _Relation of the Gods to Men_. They are the
rulers and guides of nations. Though they act often from mere caprice
or favoritism, their sway is, on the whole, promotive of justice. Zeus
is supreme: none can contend with him successfully. The gods hold
communication with men. They also make known their will and intentions
by signs and portents,--such as thunder and lightning, or the sudden
passing of a great bird of prey. They teach men through dreams. (3)
_Service of the Gods_. Sacrifice and supplication are the chief
forms of devotion. There is no dominant hierarchy. The temple has its
priest, but the father is priest in his own household. (4) _Morals
and Religion_. Morality is interwoven with religion. Above all,
_oaths_ are sacred, and oath-breakers abhorred by gods as well as
by men. In the conduct of the divinities, there are found abundant
examples of unbridled anger and savage retaliation. Yet gentle
sentiments, counsels to forbearance and mercy, are not wanting. The
wrath of the gods is most provoked by lawless self-assertion and
insolence. (5) _Propitiation: the Dead_. The sense of sin leads
to the appeasing of the deities by offerings, attended with
prayer. The offerings are gifts to the god, tokens of the honor due to
him. The dead live as flitting shadows in Hades. _Achilles_ is
made to say that he would rather be a miserable laborer on earth than
to reign over all the dead in the abodes below.

GREEK LITERATURE.--The chief types, both of poetry and of prose,
originated with the Greeks. Their writings are the fountainhead of the
literature of Europe. They prized simplicity: they always had an
intense disrelish for obscurity and bombast. The earliest poetry of
the Greeks consisted of _hymns_ to the gods. It was
_lyrical_, an outpouring of personal feeling. The lyrical type
was followed by the _epic_, where heroic deeds, or other events
of thrilling interest, are the theme of song, and the personal emotion
of the bard is out of sight through his absorption in the
subject. Description flows on, the narrator himself being in the
background. This epic poetry culminates in the _Iliad_ and
_Odyssey_ (900-700 B.C.). Their verse is the hexameter. These
poems move on in a swift current, yet without abruptness or
monotony. They are marked by a simplicity and a nobleness, a
refinement and a pathos, which have charmed all subsequent
ages. _Homer_, far more than any other author, was the educator
of the Greeks. There was a class called _Homeridae_, in
_Chios_; but whether they were themselves poets, or reciters of
Homer, or what else may have been their peculiar work, is not
ascertained. There was, however, a class of _Cyclic_ poets, who
took up the legends of Troy, and carried out farther the Homeric
tales. _Hesiod_ was the founder of a more didactic sort of
poetry. He is about a century later than the Iliad. Besides the
_Theogony_, which treats of the origin of the gods and of nature,
his _Works and Days_ relates to the works which a farmer has to
do, and the lucky or unlucky days for doing them. It contains
doctrines and precepts relative to agriculture, navigation, civil and
family life. Hesiod was the first of a Boeotian school of poets. He
lacks the poetic genius of Homer, and the vivacity and cheerfulness
which pervade the Iliad and the Odyssey.

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