EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

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[Illustration: SILVER FRAGMENT FROM MYCENAE (National Museum, Athens)
A siege scene showing the bows, slings, and huge shields of Mycenaean
warriors. In the background are seen the masonry of the city wall and the
flat-roofed houses.]

ANTIQUITY OF AEGEAN CIVILIZATION

These discoveries in the Aegean enable us to place another venerable
center of civilized life by the side of Babylonia and Egypt. As early as
3000 B.C. the primitive inhabitants of the Aegean were giving up the use
of stone tools and weapons for those of metal. Bronze soon came into
general use, as is shown by the excavations. The five centuries between
1600 and 1100 B.C. appear to have been the time when the civilization of
the Aegean Age reached its highest development.

THE FINE ARTS

Remarkable progress took place during Aegean times in some of the fine
arts. We find imposing palaces, often splendidly adorned and arranged for
a life of comfort. Wall paintings, plaster reliefs, and fine carvings in
stone excite our admiration. Aegean artists made beautiful pottery of many
shapes and cleverly decorated it with plant and animal forms. They carved
ivory, engraved gems, and excelled in the working of metals. Some of their
productions in gold, silver, and bronze were scarcely surpassed by Greek
artists a thousand years later. [6]

COMMERCE

There was much intercourse throughout the Mediterranean during this
period. Products of Aegean art have been found as far west as Sicily,
Italy, and Spain, Aegean pottery has frequently been discovered in
Egyptian tombs. Some objects unearthed in Babylonia are apparently of
Aegean workmanship. In those ancient days Crete was mistress of the seas.
Cretan merchants preceded the Phoenicians as carriers between Asia and
Europe. [7] Trade and commerce thus opened up the Mediterranean world to
all the cultural influences of the Orient.

[Illustration: A CRETAN GIRL (Museum of Candia, Crete)
A fresco painting from the palace of Gnossus. The girl's face is so
astonishingly modern in treatment that one can scarcely believe that the
picture belongs to the sixteenth century B.C.]

DOWNFALL OF AEGEAN CIVILIZATION

Aegean civilization did not penetrate beyond the shores of Asia Minor, the
islands, and the coasts of Continental Greece. The interior regions of the
Greek peninsula remained the home of barbarous tribes, which had not yet
learned to build cities, to create beautiful objects of art, or to traffic
on the seas. By 1100 B.C. their destructive inroads brought the Aegean Age
to an end.

23. THE HOMERIC AGE (ABOUT 1100-750 B.C.)

COMING OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS

The barbarians who overthrew Aegean civilization seem to have entered
Greece from the north, perhaps from the region the Danube River. They
pushed gradually southward, sometimes exterminating or enslaving the
earlier inhabitants of the country, but more often settling peaceably
in their new homes. Conquerors and conquered slowly intermingled and so
produced the one Greek people which is found at the dawn of history. These
Greeks, as we shall call them henceforth, also occupied the islands of the
Aegean Sea and the coast of Asia Minor. The entire basin of the Aegean
thus became a Greek world.

[Illustration: AEGEAN SNAKE GODDESS (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
A gold and ivory statuette found in Crete. Dates from the sixteenth
century B.C. The goddess wears the characteristic Cretan dress, with low-
cut jacket and full skirt with five plaited flounces. On her head is an
elaborate crown.]

THE HOMERIC EPICS

The period between the end of the Aegean Age and the opening of historic
times in Greece is usually called the Homeric Age, because many features
of its civilization are reflected in two epic poems called the _Iliad_ and
the _Odyssey_. The former deals with the story of a Greek expedition
against Troy; the latter describes the wanderings of the hero Odysseus on
his return from Troy. The two epics were probably composed in Ionia, and
by the Greeks were attributed to a blind bard named Homer. Many modern
scholars, however, consider them the work of several generations of poets.
The references in the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ to industry, social life,
law, government, and religion give us some idea of the culture which the
historic Greeks received as their inheritance.

INDUSTRY

The Greeks as described in the Homeric epics were in a transitional stage
between the life of shepherds and that of farmers. Wealth consisted
chiefly of flocks and herds, though nearly every freeman owned a little
plot of land on which he cultivated grain and cared for his orchard and
vineyard. There were few skilled workmen, for almost everything was made
at home. A separate class of traders had not yet arisen. Commerce was
little followed. The Greeks depended on Phoenician sailors to bring to
their shores the commodities which they could not produce themselves. Iron
was known and used, for instance, in the manufacture of farm tools. During
Homeric times, however, that metal had not yet displaced copper and
bronze. [8]

SOCIAL LIFE

Social life was very simple. Princes tended flocks and built houses;
princesses carried water and washed clothes. Agamemnon, Odysseus, and
other heroes were not ashamed to be their own butchers and cooks. The
Homeric knights did not ride on horseback, but fought from chariots. They
sat at table instead of reclining at meals, as did the later Greeks.
Coined money was unknown. Trade was by barter, values being reckoned in
oxen or in lumps of gold and silver. Men bought their wives by making
gifts of cattle to the parents. The art of writing is mentioned only once
in the Homeric poems, and doubtless was little used.

[Illustration: A CRETAN CUPBEARER (Museum of Candia, Crete)
A fresco painting from the palace of Gnossus. The youth carries a silver
cup ornamented with gold. His waist is tightly drawn in by a girdle, his
hair is dark and curly, his profile is almost classically Greek.]

LAW AND MORALITY

The times were rude. Wars, though petty, were numerous and cruel. The
vanquished suffered death or slavery. Piracy, flourishing upon the
unprotected seas, ranked as an honorable occupation. It was no insult to
inquire of a seafaring stranger whether he was pirate or merchant. Murders
were frequent. The murderer had to dread, not a public trial and
punishment, but rather the personal vengeance of the kinsmen of his
victim. The Homeric Greeks, in fact, exhibited the usual defects and vices
of barbarous peoples.

HOMERIC GEOGRAPHY

The _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ disclose a considerable acquaintance with
peninsular Greece and the coasts of Asia Minor. Cyprus, Egypt, and Sicily
are also known in part. The poet imagines the earth as a sort of flat
shield, with Greece lying in the center. [9] The Mediterranean, "The Sea,"
as it is called by Homer, and its continuation, the Euxine, [10] divided
the world into two equal parts. Surrounding the earth was "the great
strength of the Stream of Ocean," [11] a river, broad and deep, beyond
which lay the dark and misty realm of the mythical Cimmerians. The
underworld of Hades, home of the dead, was beneath the surface of the
earth.

[Illustration: Map, THE WORLD according to HOMER (900 B.C.)]

[Illustration: Map, GREEK CONQUESTS AND MIGRATIONS]

24. EARLY GREEK RELIGION

THE OLYMPIAN COUNCIL

We may learn from the Homeric poems what were the religious ideas held by
the early Greeks. The greater gods and goddesses were not numerous. Less
than a score everywhere received worship under the same names and in all
the temples. Twelve of the chief deities formed a select council, which
was supposed to meet on the top of snow-crowned Olympus. The Greeks,
however, did not agree as to what gods and goddesses should be included in
this august assemblage.

ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITIES

Many of the Olympian deities appear to have been simply personifications
of natural phenomena. Zeus, "father of gods and men," as Homer calls him,
was a heaven god, who gathered the clouds in storms and hurled the
lightning bolt. Apollo, a mighty god of light, who warded off darkness and
evil, became the ideal of manly beauty and the patron of music, poetry,
and healing. Dionysus was worshiped as the god of sprouting and budding
vegetation. Poseidon, brother of Zeus, ruled the sea. Hera, the wife of
Zeus, represented the female principle in nature. Hence she presided over
the life of women and especially over the sacred rites of marriage.
Athena, who sprang full-grown from the forehead of Zeus, embodied the idea
of wisdom and all womanly virtues. Aphrodite, who arose from the foam of
the sea, was the goddess of love and beauty. Demeter, the great earth-
mother, watched over seed-time and harvest. Each deity thus had a kingdom
and a function of its own.

[Illustration: GREEK GODS AND GODDESSES
ZEUS OTRICOLI, Vatican Gallery, Rome
HERA, Ludovisi Villa, Rome
APOLLO OF THE BELVEDERE, Vatican Gallery, Rome
APHRODITE OF CNIDUS, Glyptothek, Munich]

[Illustration: THE APHRODITE OF MELOS (Louvre, Paris)
More commonly known as the "Venus of Milo." The statue was discovered in
1820 A.D. on the island of Melos. It consists of two principal pieces
joined together across the folds of the drapery. Most art critics date
this work about 100 B.C. The strong serene figure of the goddess sets
forth the Greek ideal of female loveliness.]

CONCEPTIONS OF THE DEITIES

The Greeks made their gods and goddesses after themselves. The Olympian
divinities are really magnified men and women, subject to all human
passions and appetites, but possessed of more than human power and endowed
with immortality. They enjoy the banquet, where they feast on nectar and
ambrosia; they take part in the struggles of the battle field; they marry
and are given in marriage. The gods, morally, were no better than their
worshipers. They might be represented as deceitful, dissolute, and cruel,
but they could also be regarded as upholders of truth and virtue. Even
Homer could say, "Verily the blessed gods love not evil deeds, but they
reverence justice and the righteous acts of men." [12]

[Illustration: THE FRANCOIS VASE (Archaeological Museum, Florence)
Found in an Etruscan grave in 1844 A.D. A black-figured terra cotta vase
of about 600 B.C. It is nearly three feet in height and two an one half
feet in diameter. The figures on the vase depict scenes from Greek
mythology.

Calydonian boar hunt
Games at the funeral of Patroclus
Peleus Thetis and the gods
Pursuit of Troilus by Achilles
Animal scenes, sphinxes, etc.]

IDEAS OF THE OTHER WORLD

Greek ideas of the other world were dismal to an extreme. The after-life
in Hades was believed to be a shadowy, joyless copy of the earthly
existence. In Hades the shade of great Achilles exclaims sorrowfully,
"Nay, speak not comfortably to me of death. Rather would I live on earth
as the hireling of another, even with a landless man who had no great
livelihood, than bear sway among all the dead." [13] It was not until
several centuries after Homer that happier notions of the future life were
taught, or at least suggested, in the Eleusinian mysteries. [14]

25. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS: ORACLES AND GAMES

ORACLE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI

The Greeks believed that communications from the gods were received from
certain inspired persons at places called oracles. The oracle of Apollo at
Delphi in Phocis enjoyed the utmost veneration. It lay within a deep cave
on the rocky side of Mount Parnassus. Out of a chasm rose a volcanic vapor
which had a certain intoxicating power. The Pythia, or prophetess of
Apollo, sat on a tripod over the steaming cleft and inhaled the gas. The
words she uttered in delirium were supposed to come from the god. They
were taken down by the attendant priests, written out in verse, and
delivered to the suppliants.

INQUIRIES AT THE ORACLE

The fame of Apollo as the patron of inspiration and prophecy spread
throughout Greece and penetrated to foreign lands. Every year thousands of
visitors made their way to Apollo's shrine. Sick men prayed for health,
childless men prayed for offspring. Statesmen wished to learn the fate of
their political schemes; ambassadors sent by kings and cities sought
advice as to weighty matters of peace and war. Above all, colonists came
to Delphi in order to obtain directions as to the best country in which to
settle. Some of the noblest cities of the Greek world, Cyrene and
Byzantium, for example, [15] had their sites fixed by Apollo's guidance.

[Illustration: CONSULTING THE ORACLE AT DELPHI]

CHARACTER OF THE RESPONSES

The priests who managed the oracle and its responses were usually able to
give good advice to their inquirers, because news of every sort streamed
into Delphi. When the priests were doubtful what answer to give, the
prophecy of the god was sometimes expressed in such ambiguous fashion
that, whatever the outcome, neither Apollo nor his servants could be
charged with deceit. For instance, when Croesus, the Lydian king, was
about to attack Cyrus, he learned from the oracle that "if he warred with
the Persians he would overthrow a mighty empire" [16]--but the mighty
empire proved to be his own. [17]

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

Athletic games were held in different parts of Greece from a remote
period. The most famous games were those in honor of Zeus at Olympia in
Elis. They took place every fourth year, in midsummer. [18] A sacred truce
was proclaimed for an entire month, in order that the thousands of
spectators from every part of Greece might arrive and depart in safety. No
one not of Greek blood and no one convicted of crime or of the sin of
impiety might participate in the contests. The candidates had also to
prove that they were qualified for the severe tests by a long and hard
training. Once accepted as competitors, they could not withdraw. The man
who shrank back when the hour of trial arrived was considered a coward and
was punished with a heavy fine.

THE CONTESTS

The games occupied five days, beginning with the contests in running.
There was a short-distance dash through the length of the stadium, a
quarter-mile race, and also a longer race, probably for two or three
miles. Then followed a contest consisting of five events: the long jump,
hurling the discus, throwing the javelin, running, and wrestling. It is
not known how victory in these five events taken together was decided. In
the long jump, weights like dumb-bells were held in the hands, the swing
of the weights being used to assist the spring. The discus, which weighed
about twelve pounds, was sometimes hurled more than one hundred feet. The
javelin was thrown either by the hand alone or with the help of a thong
wound about the shaft and held in the fingers. In wrestling, three falls
were necessary for a victory. The contestants were free to get their grip
as best they could. Other contests included boxing, horse races, and
chariot races. Women were apparently excluded from the games, yet they
were allowed to enter horses for the races and to set up statues in honor
of the victors.

[Illustration: THE DISCUS THROWER (DISCOBOLUS) (Lancelotti Palace, Rome)
Marble copy of the bronze original by Myron, a sculptor of the fifth
century B.C. Found in 1781 A.D. on the Esquiline Hill, Rome. The statue
represents a young man, perhaps an athlete at the Olympian games, who is
bending forward to hurl the discus. His body is thrown violently to the
left with a twisting action that brings every muscle into play.]

THE VICTOR'S REWARD

The Olympian festival was profoundly religious, because the display of
manly strength was thought to be a spectacle most pleasing to the gods.
The winning athlete received only a wreath of wild olive at Olympia, but
at home he enjoyed the gifts and veneration of his fellow-citizens. Poets
celebrated his victories in noble odes. Sculptors reproduced his triumphs
in stone and bronze. To the end of his days he remained a distinguished
man.

[Illustration: HERMES AND DIONYSUS (Museum of Olympia)
An original statue by the great sculptor, Praxiteles. It was found in 1877
A.D. at Olympia. Hermes is represented carrying the child Dionysus, whom
Zeus had intrusted to his care. The symmetrical body of Hermes is
faultlessly modeled; the poise of his head is full of dignity; his
expression is refined and thoughtful. Manly strength and beauty have never
been better embodied than in this work.]

[Illustration: ATHLETE USING THE STRIGIL (APOXYOMENUS) (Vatican Gallery,
Rome)

Marble copy of the bronze original by Lysippus, a sculptor of the fourth
century B.C. The statue represents an athlete rubbing his arm with a flesh
scraper to remove the oil and sand of the palestra, or exercising ground.
His slender form suggests quickness and agility rather than great
strength.]

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GAMES

There were few Greeks who at least once in their lives did not attend the
festival. The crowds that gathered before and after the games turned the
camp into a great fair, at which merchants set up their shops and money
changers their tables. Poets recited their lines before admiring audiences
and artists exhibited their masterpieces to intending purchasers. Heralds
read treaties recently formed between Greek cities, in order to have them
widely known. Orators addressed the multitude on subjects of general
interest. The games thus helped to preserve a sense of fellowship among
Greek communities.

26. THE GREEK CITY-STATE

NATURE OF THE CITY STATE

The Greeks in Homeric times had already begun to live in towns and cities.
A Greek city, being independent and self-governing, is properly called a
city-state. Just as a modern nation, it could declare war, arrange
treaties, and make alliances with its neighbors. Such a city-state
included not only the territory within its walls, but also the surrounding
district where many of the citizens lived.

THE CITIZENS

The members of a Greek city-state were very closely associated. The
citizens believed themselves to be descended from a common ancestor and so
to be all related. They were united, also, in the worship of the patron
god or hero who had them under his protection. These ties of supposed
kinship and common religion were of the utmost importance. They made
citizenship a privilege which came to a person only by birth, a privilege
which he lost by removal to another city. Elsewhere he was only a
foreigner without legal rights--a man without a country.

GOVERNMENT OF THE CITY-STATE

The Homeric poems, which give us our first view of the Greek city-state,
also contain the most ancient account of its government. Each city-state
had a king, "the shepherd of the people" [19] as Homer calls him. The king
did not possess absolute authority. He was surrounded by a council of
nobles, chiefly the great landowners of the community. They helped him in
judgment and sacrifice, followed him to war, and filled the principal
offices. Both king and nobles were obliged to consult the common people on
matters of great importance. For this purpose the ruler would summon the
citizens to the market place to hear the deliberations of his council and
to settle such questions as making war or declaring peace. All men of free
birth could attend the assembly, where they shouted assent to the decision
of their leaders or showed disapproval by silence. This public assembly
had little importance in the Homeric Age, but later it became the center
of Greek democracy.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY-STATE

After the middle of the eighth century B.C., when historic times began in
Greece, some interesting changes took place in the government of the city-
states. In some of them, for example, Thebes and Corinth, the nobles
became strong enough to abolish the kingship altogether. Monarchy, the
rule of one, thus gave away to aristocracy, [20] the rule of the nobles.
In other states, for instance, Sparta and Argos, the kings were not driven
out, but their power was much weakened. Some states came under the control
of usurpers whom the Greeks called "tyrants." A tyrant was a man who
gained supreme power by force and governed for his own benefit without
regard to the laws. There were many tyrannies in the Greek world during
the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. Still other states went through an
entire cycle of changes from kingship to aristocracy, from aristocracy to
tyranny, and from tyranny to democracy or popular rule.

SPARTA AND ATHENS AS TYPES OF THE CITY-STATE

The isolated and independent Greek communities thus developed at an early
period many different kinds of government. To study them all would be a
long task. It is better to fix our attention on the two city-states which
held the principal place in Greek history and at the same time presented
the most striking contrasts in government and social life. These were
Sparta and Athens.

27. THE GROWTH OF SPARTA (TO 500 B.C.)

SPARTA AND THE PELOPONNESIAN LEAGUE

The Greek invaders who entered southern Greece, or the Peloponnesus, [21]
were known as Dorians. They founded the city of Sparta, in the district of
Laconia. By the close of the sixth century B.C. the Spartans were able to
conquer their immediate neighbors and to organize some of the city-states
of the Peloponnesus into a strong confederacy called the Peloponnesian
League. The members of the league did not pay tribute, but they furnished
troops to serve in war under Spartan leaders, and they looked to Sparta
for guidance and protection. Thus this single city became the foremost
power in southern Greece.

SPARTA A MILITARY CAMP

It is clear that the Spartans must have been an extremely vigorous and
warlike people. Their city, in fact, formed a military camp, garrisoned by
soldiers whose whole life was passed in war and in preparation for war.
The Spartans were able to devote themselves to martial pursuits because
they possessed a large number of serfs, called helots. The helots tilled
the lands of the Spartans and gave up to their masters the entire product
of their labor, except what was necessary for a bare subsistence.

GOVERNMENT OF SPARTA

Spartan government also had a military character. In form the state was a
kingdom, but since there were always two kings reigning at once and
enjoying equal authority, neither of them could become very powerful. The
real management of public affairs lay in the hands of five men, known as
ephors, who were elected every year by the popular assembly. The ephors
accompanied the kings in war and directed their actions; guided the
deliberations of the council of nobles and the assembly of freemen;
superintended the education of children; and exercised a general oversight
of the private life of citizens. The ephors had such absolute control over
the lives and property of the Spartans that we may describe their rule as
socialistic and select Sparta as an example of ancient state socialism.
Nowhere else in the Greek world was the welfare of the individual man so
thoroughly subordinated to the interests of the society of which he formed
a unit.

THE SPARTAN BOY

Spartan education had a single purpose--to produce good soldiers and
obedient citizens. A sound body formed the first essential. A father was
required to submit his son, soon after birth, to an inspection by the
elders of his tribe. If they found the child puny or ill-shaped, they
ordered it to be left on the mountain side, to perish from exposure. At
the age of seven a boy was taken from his parents' home and placed in a
military school. Here he was trained in marching, sham fighting, and
gymnastics. He learned to sing warlike songs and in conversation to
express himself in the fewest possible words. Spartan brevity of speech
became proverbial. Above all he learned to endure hardship without
complaint. He went barefoot and wore only a single garment, winter and
summer. He slept on a bed of rushes. Every year he and his comrades had to
submit to a flogging before the altar of the goddess Artemis, and the hero
was the lad who could bear the whipping longest without giving a sign of
pain. It is said that boys sometimes died under the lash rather than utter
a cry. Such ordeals are still a feature of savage life to-day.

THE ADULT SPARTAN

On reaching the age of twenty the youth was considered a warrior. He did
not live at home, but passed his time in barracks, as a member of a
military mess to which he contributed his proper share of food, wine, and
money. At the age of thirty years the young Spartan became a full citizen
and a member of the popular assembly. He was then compelled to marry in
order to raise children for the state. But marriage did not free him from
attendance at the public meals, the drill ground, and the gymnasium. A
Spartan, in fact, enjoyed little home life until his sixtieth year, when
he became an elder and retired from actual service.

EXCELLENCE OF THE SPARTAN SOLDIERY

This exclusive devotion to military pursuits accomplished its object. The
Spartans became the finest soldiers of antiquity. "All the rest of the
Greeks," says an ancient writer, "are amateurs; the Spartans are
professionals in the conduct of war." [22] Though Sparta never produced
great thinkers, poets or artists, her military strength made her the
bulwark of Greece against foreign foes. The time was to come when Greece,
to retain her liberties, would need this disciplined Spartan soldiery.
[23]