William Howard Taft - "Ethics in Service"

Hippolyte A. Taine - "The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4"

Grace Christie - "Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving"

William Shakespeare - "Othello, the Moor of Venice"

Editorial
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

A General History for Colleges and High Schools

P >> P. V. N. Myers >> A General History for Colleges and High Schools




Minos, king of Crete, was one of the greatest tribal heroes of the
Dorians. Legend makes him a legislator of divine wisdom, the suppressor of
piracy in the Grecian seas, and the founder of the first great maritime
state of Hellas.

THE ARGONAUTIC EXPEDITION.--Besides the labors and exploits of single
heroes, the legends of the Greeks tell of several memorable enterprises
conducted by bands of heroes. Among these were the Argonautic Expedition
and the Siege of Troy.

The tale of the Argonautic Expedition is told with many variations in the
legends of the Greeks. Jason, a prince of Thessaly, with fifty companion
heroes, among whom were Heracles, Theseus, and Orpheus, the latter a
musician of superhuman skill, the music of whose lyre moved brutes and
stones, set sail in "a fifty-oared galley," called the _Argo_ (hence
the name _Argonauts_, given to the heroes), in search of a "golden
fleece" which was fabled to be nailed to a tree and watched by a dragon,
in the Grove of Ares, on the eastern shores of the Euxine, an inhospitable
region of unknown terrors. The expedition is successful, and, after many
wonderful adventures, the heroes return in triumph with the sacred relic.

Different meanings have been given to this tale. In its primitive form it
was doubtless a pure myth of the rain-clouds; but in its later forms we
may believe it to symbolize the maritime explorations in the eastern seas,
of some of the tribes of Pelasgian Greece.

THE TROJAN WAR (legendary date 1194-1184 B.C.).--The Trojan War was an
event about which gathered a great circle of tales and poems, all full of
an undying interest and fascination.

Ilios, or Troy, was the capital of a strong empire, represented as Grecian
in race and language, which had grown up in Asia Minor, along the shores
of the Hellespont. The traditions tell how Paris, son of Priam, king of
Troy, visited the Spartan king Menelaus, and ungenerously requited his
hospitality by secretly bearing away to Troy his wife Helen, famous for
her rare beauty.

All the heroes of Greece flew to arms to avenge the wrong. A host of one
hundred thousand warriors was speedily gathered. Agamemnon, brother of
Menelaus and "king of men," was chosen leader of the expedition. Under him
were the "lion-hearted Achilles," of Thessaly, the "crafty Ulysses"
(Odysseus), king of Ithaca, Ajax, "the swift son of Oileus," the
Telamonian Ajax, the aged Nestor, and many more--the most valiant heroes
of all Hellas. Twelve hundred galleys bore the gathered clans from Aulis
in Greece, across the AEgean to the Trojan shores.

For ten years the Greeks and their allies hold in close siege the city of
Priam. On the plains beneath the walls of the capital, the warriors of the
two armies fight in general battle, or contend in single encounter. At
first, Achilles is foremost in every fight; but a fair-faced maiden, who
fell to him as a prize, having been taken from him by his chief,
Agamemnon, he is filled with wrath, and sulks in his tent. Though the
Greeks are often sorely pressed, still the angered hero refuses them his
aid. At last, however, his friend Patroclus is killed by Hector, eldest
son of Priam, and then Achilles goes forth to avenge his death. In a
fierce combat he slays Hector, fastens his body to his chariot wheels, and
drags it thrice around the walls of Troy.

The city is at last taken through a device of the "crafty Ulysses." Upon
the plain in sight of the walls is built a wooden statue of a horse, in
the body of which are hidden several Grecian warriors. Then the Greeks
retire to their ships, as though about to abandon the siege. The Trojans
issue from the gates and gather in wondering crowds about the image. They
believe it to be an offering sacred to Athena, and so dare not destroy it;
but, on the other hand, misled by certain omens and by a lying Greek named
Sinon, they level a place in the walls of their city, and drag the statue
within. At night the concealed warriors issue from the horse, open the
gates of the city to the Grecians, and Troy is sacked, and burned to the
ground. The aged Priam is slain, after having seen his sons and many of
his warriors perish before his face. AEneas, with his aged father,
Anchises, and a few devoted followers, escapes, and, after long
wanderings, becomes the fabled founder of the Roman race in Italy.

It is a matter of difficulty to point out the nucleus of fact in this the
most elaborate and interesting of the Grecian legends. Some believe it to
be the dim recollection of a prehistoric conflict between the Greeks and
the natives of Asia Minor, arising from the attempt of the former to
secure a foothold upon the coast. That there really existed in prehistoric
times such a city as Troy, has been placed beyond doubt by the excavations
and discoveries of Dr. Schliemann.

RETURN OF THE GRECIAN CHIEFTAINS.--After the fall of Troy, the Grecian
chieftains and princes returned home. The poets represent the gods as
withdrawing their protection from the hitherto favored heroes, because
they had not respected the altars of the Trojans. So, many of them were
driven in endless wanderings over sea and land. Homer's _Odyssey_ portrays
the sufferings of the "much-enduring" Odysseus (Ulysses), impelled by
divine wrath to long journeyings through strange seas.

In some cases, according to the tradition, advantage had been taken of the
absence of the princes, and their thrones had been usurped. Thus at Argos,
AEgisthus had won the unholy love of Clytemnestra, wife and queen of
Agamemnon, who on his return was murdered by the guilty couple. In
pleasing contrast with this we have exhibited to us the constancy of
Penelope, although sought by many suitors during the absence of her
husband Ulysses.

THE DORIAN INVASION, OR THE RETURN OF THE HERACLIDAE (legendary date 1104
B.C.).--We set the tradition of the return of the Heraclidae apart from the
legends of the enterprises just detailed, for the reason that it
undoubtedly contains quite a large historical element. The legend tells
how Heracles, an Achaean, in the times before the Trojan War, ruled over
the Peloponnesian Achaeans. Just before that event his children were driven
from the land. Eighty years after the war, the hundred years of exile
appointed by the Fates having expired, the descendants of the hero, at the
head of the Dorians from Northern Greece, returned, and with their aid
effected the conquest of the greater part of the Peloponnesus, and
established themselves as conquerors and masters in the land that had
formerly been ruled by their semi-divine ancestor.

This legend seems to be a dim remembrance of a prehistoric invasion of the
Peloponnesus by the Dorians from the north of Greece, and the expulsion or
subjugation of the native inhabitants of the peninsula.

Some of the dispossessed Achaeans, crowding towards the north of the
Peloponnesus, drove out the Ionians who occupied the southern shore of the
Corinthian Gulf, and settling there, gave the name _Achaia_ to all that
region.

Arcadia, in the centre of the Peloponnesus, was another district which did
not fall into the hands of the Dorians. The people here, even down to the
latest times, retained their primitive customs and country mode of life;
hence _Arcadian_ came to mean rustic and artless.

MIGRATIONS TO ASIA MINOR.--The Greek legends represent that the Dorian
invasion of the Peloponnesus resulted in three distinct migrations from
the mother-land to the shores of Asia Minor and the adjoining islands.

The northwestern shore of Asia Minor was settled, mainly, by Aeolian
emigrants from Boeotia. The neighboring island of Lesbos became the home
and centre of AEolian culture in poetry and music.

The coast to the south of the AEolians was occupied by Ionian emigrants,
who, uniting with their Ionian kinsmen already settled upon that shore,
built up twelve splendid cities (Ephesus, Miletus, etc.), which finally
united to form the celebrated Ionian confederacy.

South of the Ionians, all along the southwestern shore of Asia Minor, the
Dorians established their colonies. They also settled the important
islands of Cos and Rhodes, and conquered and colonized Crete.

The traditions of these various settlements represent them as having been
effected in a very short period; but it is probable that the movement
embraced several centuries,--possibly a longer time than has been occupied
by the English race in colonizing the different lands of the Western
World.

With these migrations to the Asiatic shores, the Legendary Age of Greece
comes to an end. From this time forward we tread upon fairly firm historic
ground.

SOCIETY IN THE HEROIC AGE.--In Homeric times the Greeks were ruled by
hereditary kings, who were believed to be of divine or superhuman lineage.
The king was at once the lawgiver, the judge, and the military leader of
his people. He was expected to prove his divine right to rule, by his
courage, strength, wisdom, and eloquence. When he ceased to display these
qualities, "the sceptre departed from him."

The king was surrounded by an advisory council of chiefs or nobles. The
king listened to what the nobles had to say upon any measure he might
propose, and then acted according to his own will or judgment, restrained
only by the time-honored customs of the community.

Next to the council of chiefs, there was a general assembly, called the
_Agora_, made up of all the common freemen. The members of this body
could not take part in any debate, nor could they vote upon any question.
This body, so devoid seemingly of all authority in the Homeric age, was
destined to become the all-powerful popular assembly in the democratic
cities of historic Greece.

Of the condition of the common freemen we know but little; the legendary
tales were concerned chiefly with the kings and nobles. Slavery existed,
but the slaves did not constitute as numerous a class as they became in
historic times.

In the family, the wife held a much more honored position than she
occupied in later times. The charming story of the constant Penelope,
which we find in the _Odyssey_, assures us that the Homeric age cherished
a chivalric feeling for woman.

In all ranks of society, life was marked by a sort of patriarchal
simplicity. Manual labor was not yet thought to be degrading. Ulysses
constructs his own house and raft, and boasts of his skill in swinging the
scythe and guiding the plow. Spinning and weaving were the chief
occupations of the women of all classes.

One pleasing and prominent virtue of the age was hospitality. There were
no public inns in those times, hence a sort of gentle necessity compelled
the entertainment of wayfarers. The hospitality accorded was the same free
and impulsive welcome that the Arab sheik of to-day extends to the
traveller whom chance brings to his tent. But while hospitable, the nobles
of the heroic age were often cruel, violent, and treacherous. Homer
represents his heroes as committing without a blush all sorts of fraud and
villanies. Piracy was considered an honorable occupation.

[Illustration: FORTY-OARED GREEK BOAT. (After a Vase Painting.)]

Art and architecture were in a rudimentary state. Yet some advance had
been made. The cities were walled, and the palaces of the kings possessed
a certain barbaric splendor. Coined money was unknown; wealth was reckoned
chiefly in flocks and herds, and in uncoined metals. The art of writing
was probably unknown, at least there is no certain mention of it; and
sculpture could not have been in an advanced state, as the Homeric poems
make no mention of statues. The state of literature is shown by the poems
of the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_: before the close of the age, epic poetry had
reached a perfection beyond which it has never been carried.

Commerce was yet in its infancy. Although the Greeks were to become a
great maritime people, still in the Homeric age they had evidently
explored the sea but little. The Phoenicians then ruled the waves. The
Greeks in those early times knew scarcely anything of the world beyond
Greece proper and the neighboring islands and shores. Scarcely an echo of
the din of life from the then ancient and mighty cities of Egypt and
Chaldaea seems to have reached their ears.




CHAPTER XI.

RELIGION OF THE GREEKS.


INTRODUCTORY.--Without at least some little knowledge of the religious
ideas and institutions of the ancient Greeks, we should find very many
passages of their history wholly unintelligible. Hence a few remarks upon
these matters will be in place here.

COSMOGRAPHY OF THE GREEKS.--The Greeks supposed the earth to be, as it
appears, a plane, circular in form like a shield. Around it flowed the
"mighty strength of the ocean river," a stream broad and deep, beyond
which on all sides lay realms of Cimmerian darkness and terror. The
heavens were a solid vault, or dome, whose edge shut down close upon the
earth. Beneath the earth, reached by subterranean passages, was Hades, a
vast region, the realm of departed souls. Still beneath this was the
prison Tartarus, a pit deep and dark, made fast by strong gates of brass
and iron. Sometimes the poets represent the gloomy regions beyond the
ocean stream as the cheerless abode of the dead.

The sun was an archer-god, borne in a fiery chariot up and down the steep
pathway of the skies. Naturally it was imagined that the regions in the
extreme east and west, which were bathed in the near splendors of the
sunrise and sunset, were lands of delight and plenty. The eastern was the
favored country of the Ethiopians [Footnote: There was also a western
division of these people.], a land which even Zeus himself so loved to
visit that often he was found absent from Olympus when sought by
suppliants. The western region, adjoining the ocean stream, formed the
Elysian Fields, the abodes of the souls of heroes and of poets. [Footnote:
These conceptions, it will be understood, belong to the early period of
Greek mythology. As the geographical knowledge of the Greeks became more
extended, they modified considerably the topography not only of the upper-
world, but also of the nether-world.]

THE OLYMPIC COUNCIL.--There were twelve members of the celestial council,
six gods and as many goddesses. The male deities were Zeus, the father of
gods and men; Poseidon, ruler of the sea; Apollo, or Phoebus, the god of
light, of music, and of prophecy; Ares, the god of war; Hephaestus, the
deformed god of fire, and the forger of the thunderbolts of Zeus; Hermes,
the wing-footed herald of the celestials, the god of invention and
commerce, himself a thief and the patron of thieves.

[Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HOMER.]

The female divinities were Hera, the proud and jealous queen of Zeus;
Athena, or Pallas,--who sprang full-grown from the forehead of Zeus,--the
goddess of wisdom, and the patroness of the domestic arts; Artemis, the
goddess of the chase; Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, born of
the sea-foam; Hestia, the goddess of the hearth; Demeter, the earth-
mother, the goddess of grains and harvests. [Footnote: The Latin names of
these divinities are as follows: Zeus = Jupiter; Poseidon = Neptune;
Apollo = Apollo; Ares = Mars; Hephaestus = Vulcan; Hermes = Mercury; Hera =
Juno; Athena = Minerva; Artemis = Diana; Aphrodite = Venus; Hestia =
Vesta; Demeter = Ceres.

These Latin names, however, are not the equivalents of the Greek names,
and should not be used as such. The mythologies of the Hellenes and Romans
were as distinct as their languages. Consult Rawlinson's _Religions of
the Ancient World_.]

These great deities were simply magnified human beings, possessing all
their virtues, and often their weaknesses. They give way to fits of anger
and jealousy. "Zeus deceives, and Hera is constantly practising her
wiles." All the celestial council, at the sight of Hephaestus limping
across the palace floor, burst into "inextinguishable laughter"; and
Aphrodite, weeping, moves all to tears. They surpass mortals rather in
power, than in size of body. They can render themselves visible or
invisible to human eyes. Their food is ambrosia and nectar; their
movements are swift as light. They may suffer pain; but death can never
come to them, for they are immortal. Their abode is Mount Olympus and the
airy regions above the earth.

LESSER DEITIES AND MONSTERS.--Besides the great gods and goddesses that
constituted the Olympian council there was an almost infinite number of
other deities, celestial personages, and monsters neither human nor
divine.

Hades (Pluto) ruled over the lower realms; Dionysus (Bacchus) was the god
of wine; the goddess Nemesis was the punisher of crime, and particularly
the queller of the proud and arrogant; AEolus was the ruler of the winds,
which he confined in a cave secured by mighty gates.

There were nine Muses, inspirers of art and song. The Nymphs were
beautiful maidens, who peopled the woods, the fields, the rivers, the
lakes, and the ocean. Three Fates allotted life and death, and three
Furies (Eumenides or Erinnyes) avenged crime, especially murder and
unnatural crimes. The Gorgons were three sisters, with hair entwined with
serpents. A single gaze upon them chilled the beholder to stone. Besides
these there were Scylla and Charybdis, sea-monsters that made perilous the
passage of the Sicilian Straits, the Centaurs, the Cyclops, Cerberus, the
watch-dog of Hades, and a thousand others.

Many at least of these monsters were simply personifications of the human
passions or of the malign and destructive forces of nature. Thus, the
Furies were the embodiment of an aroused and accusing conscience; the
Gorgons were tempests, which lash the sea into a fury that paralyzes the
affrighted sailor; Scylla and Charybdis were dangerous whirlpools off the
coast of Sicily. To the common people at least, however, they were real
creatures, with all the parts and habits given them by the poets.

MODES OF DIVINE COMMUNICATION.--In the early ages the gods were wont, it
was believed, to visit the earth and mingle with men. But even in Homer's
time this familiar intercourse was a thing of the past--a tradition of a
golden age that had passed away. Their forms were no longer seen, their
voices no longer heard. In these later and more degenerate times the
recognized modes of divine communication with men were by oracles, and by
casual and unusual sights and sounds, as thunder and lightning, a sudden
tempest, an eclipse, a flight of birds,--particularly of birds that mount
to a great height, as these were supposed to know the secrets of the
heavens,--the appearance or action of the sacrificial victims, or any
strange coincidence. The art of interpreting these signs or omens was
called the art of divination.

ORACLES.--But though the gods might reveal their will and intentions
through signs and portents, still they granted a more special
communication of counsel through what were known as _oracles_. These
communications, it was believed, were made by Zeus, and especially by
Apollo, who was the god of prophecy, the Revealer.

Not everywhere, but only in chosen places, did these gods manifest their
presence and communicate the divine will. These favored spots were called
oracles, as were also the responses there received. There were twenty-two
oracles of Apollo in different parts of the Grecian world, but a much
smaller number of those of Zeus. These were usually situated in wild and
desolate spots--in dark forests or among gloomy mountains.

The most renowned of the oracles was that of the Pelasgian Zeus at Dodona,
in Epirus, and that of Apollo at Delphi, in Phocis. At Dodona the priests
listened in the dark forests for the voice of Zeus in the rustling leaves
of the sacred oak. At Delphi there was a deep fissure in the ground, which
emitted stupefying vapors, that were thought to be the inspiring breath of
Apollo. Over the spot was erected a splendid temple, in honor of the
oracle. The revelation was generally received by the Pythia, or priestess,
seated upon a tripod placed over the orifice. As she became overpowered by
the influence of the prophetic exhalations, she uttered the message of the
god. These mutterings of the Pythia were taken down by attendant priests,
interpreted, and written in hexameter verse. Sometimes the will of Zeus
was communicated to the pious seeker by dreams and visions granted to him
while sleeping in the temple of the oracle.

The oracle of Delphi gained a celebrity wide as the world: it was often
consulted by the monarchs of Asia and the people of Rome in times of
extreme danger and perplexity. Among the Greeks scarcely any undertaking
was entered upon without the will and sanction of the oracle being first
sought.

Especially true was this in the founding of colonies. Apollo was believed
"to take delight in the foundation of new cities." No colony could prosper
that had not been established under the superintendence of the Delphian
god.

Some of the responses of the oracle contained plain and wholesome advice;
but very many of them, particularly those that implied a knowledge of the
future, were obscure and ingeniously ambiguous, so that they might
correspond with the event however affairs should turn. Thus, Croesus is
told that, if he undertake an expedition against Persia, he will destroy a
great empire. He did, indeed;--but the empire was his own.

The Delphian oracle was at the height of its fame before the Persian War;
in that crisis it did not take a bold or patriotic stand, and its
reputation was sensibly impaired.

IDEAS OF THE FUTURE.--To the Greeks life was so bright and joyous a thing
that they looked upon death as a great calamity. They therefore pictured
life after death, except in the case of a favored few, as being hopeless
and aimless. [Footnote: Homer makes the shade of the great Achilles in
Hades to say:--
"I would be
A laborer on earth, and serve for hire
Some man of mean estate, who makes scant cheer,
Rather than reign o'er all who have gone down
To death."--_Od._ XI. 489-90 [Bryant's Trans.].] The Elysian Fields,
away in the land of sunset, were, indeed, filled with every delight; but
these were the abode only of the great heroes and benefactors of the race.
So long as the body remained unburied, the soul wandered restless in
Hades; hence the sacredness of the rites of sepulture.

THE SACRED GAMES.--The celebrated games of the Greeks had their origin in
the belief of their Aryan ancestors that the souls of the dead were
gratified by such spectacles as delighted them during their earthly life.
During the Heroic Age these festivals were simply sacrifices or games
performed at the tomb, or about the pyre of the dead. Gradually these grew
into religious festivals observed by an entire city or community, and were
celebrated near the oracle or shrine of the god in whose honor they were
instituted; the idea now being that the gods were present at the festival,
and took delight in the various contests and exercises.

Among these festivals, four acquired a world-wide celebrity. These were
the Olympian, celebrated in honor of Zeus, at Olympia, in the
Peloponnesus; the Pythian, in honor of Apollo, near his shrine and oracle
at Delphi; the Nemean, in honor of Zeus, at Nemea; and the Isthmian, held
in honor of Poseidon, on the isthmus of Corinth.

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES.--Of these four festivals the Olympian secured the
greatest renown. In 776 B.C. Coroebus was victor in the foot-race at
Olympia, and as from that time the names of the victors were carefully
registered, that year came to be used by the Greeks as the starting-point
in their chronology. The games were held every fourth year, and the
interval between two successive festivals was known as an Olympiad.

The contests consisted of foot-races, boxing, wrestling, and other
athletic games. Later, chariot-racing was introduced, and became the most
popular of all the contests. The competitors must be of the Hellenic race;
and must, moreover, be unblemished by any crime against the state or sin
against the gods. Spectators from all parts of the world crowded to the
festival.

The victor was crowned with a garland of wild olive; heralds proclaimed
his name abroad; his native city received him as a conqueror, sometimes
through a breach made in the city walls; his statues, executed by eminent
artists, were erected at Olympia and in his own city; sometimes even
divine honor and worship were accorded to him; and poets and orators vied
with the artist in perpetuating the name and deeds of him who had
reflected undying honor upon his native state.

INFLUENCE OF THE GRECIAN GAMES.--For more than a thousand years these
national festivals exerted an immense influence upon the literary, social,
and religious life of Hellas. They enkindled among the widely scattered
Hellenic states and colonies a common literary taste and enthusiasm; for
into all the four great festivals, excepting the Olympian, were
introduced, sooner or later, contests in poetry, oratory, and history.
During the festivals, poets and historians read their choicest
productions, and artists exhibited their masterpieces. The extraordinary
honors accorded to the victors stimulated the contestants to the utmost,
and strung to the highest tension every power of body and mind. To this
fact we owe some of the grandest productions of the Greek race.

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