Ancient States and Empires Part 9

These various sections, or provinces, or states, into which Greece was divided, claim a short notice.

(M287) The largest and most northerly State was Epirus, containing four thousand two hundred and sixty square miles, bounded on the north by Macedonia, on the east by Thessaly, on the south by Acarnania, and on the west by the Ionian Sea. Though mountainous, it was fertile, and produced excellent cattle and horses. Of the interesting places of Epirus, memorable in history, ranks first Dodona, celebrated for its oracle, the most ancient in Greece, and only inferior to that of Delphi. It was founded by the Pelasgi before the Trojan war and was dedicated to Jupiter.

The temple was surrounded by a grove of oak, but the oracles were latterly delivered by the murmuring of fountains. On the west of Epirus is the island of Corcyra (Corfu), famous for the shipwreck of Ulysses, and for the gardens of Aleinous, and for having given rise to the Peloponnesian war. Epirus is also distinguished as the country over which Pyrrhus ruled.

The Acheron, supposed to communicate with the infernal regions, was one of its rivers.

(M288) West of Epirus was Thessaly, and next to it in size, containing four thousand two hundred and sixty square miles. It was a plain inclosed by mountains; next to Botia, the most fertile of all the States of Greece, abounding in oil, wine, and corn, and yet one of the weakest and most insignificant politically. The people were rich, but perfidious. The river Peneus flowed through the entire extent of the country, and near its mouth was the vale of Tempe, the most beautiful valley in Greece, guarded by four strong fortresses.

(M289) At some distance from the mouth of the Peneus was Larissa, the city of Achilles, and the general capital of the Pelasgi. At the southern extremity of the lake Caelas, the largest in Thessaly, was Pherae, one of the most ancient cities in Greece, and near it was the fountain of Hyperia. In the southern part of Thessaly was Pharsalia, the battle-ground between Caesar and Pompey, and near it was Pyrrha, formerly called h.e.l.las, where was the tomb of h.e.l.len, son of Deucalion, whose descendants, aeolus, Dorus and Ion, are said to have given name to the three nations, aeolians, Dorians, and Ionians, Still further south, between the inaccessible cliffs of Mount ta and the marshes which skirt the Maliaeus Bay, were the defiles of Thermopylae, where Leonidas and three hundred heroes died defending the pa.s.s, against the army of Xerxes, and which in one place was only twenty-five feet wide, so that, in so narrow a defile, the Spartans were able to withstand for three days the whole power of Persia. In this famous pa.s.s the Amphictyonic council met annually to deliberate on the common affairs of all the States.

(M290) South of Epirus, on the Ionian Sea, and west of aetolia, was Acarnania, occupied by a barbarous people before the Pelasgi settled in it. It had no historic fame, except as furnishing on its waters a place for the decisive battle which Augustus gained over Antony, at Actium, and for the islands on the coast, one of which, Ithaca, a rugged and mountainous island, was the residence of Ulysses.

(M291) aetolia, to the east of Acarnania, and south of Thessaly, and separated from Achaia by the Corinthian Gulf, contained nine hundred and thirty square miles. Its princ.i.p.al city was Thermon, considered impregnable, at which were held splendid games and festivals. The aetolians were little known in the palmy days of Athens and Sparta, except as a hardy race, but covetous and faithless.

(M292) Doris was a small tract to the east of aetolia, inhabited by one of the most ancient of the Greek tribes-the Dorians, called so from Dorus, son of Deucalion, and originally inhabited that part of Thessaly in which were the mountains of Olympus and Ossa. From this section they were driven by the Cadmeans. Doris was the abode of the Heraclidae when exiled from the Peloponnesus, and which was given to Hyllas, the son of Hercules, in grat.i.tude by aegiminius, the king, who was reinstated by the hero in his dispossessed dominion.

(M293) Locri Ozolae was another small State, south of Doris, from which it is separated by the range of the Parna.s.sus situated on the Corinthian Gulf, the most important city of which was Salona, surrounded on all sides by hills. Naupactus was also a considerable place, known in the Middle Ages as Lepanto, where was fought one of the decisive naval battles of the world, in which the Turks were defeated by the Venetians. It contained three hundred and fifty square miles.

(M294) Phocis was directly to the east, bounded on the north by Doris and the Locri Epicnemidii, and south by the Corinthian Gulf. This State embraced six hundred and ten square miles. The Phocians are known in history from the sacred or Phocian war, which broke out in 357 B.C., in consequence of refusing to pay a fine imposed by the Amphictyonic council.

The Thebans and Locrians carried on this war successfully, joined by Philip of Macedon, who thus paved the way for the sovereignty of Greece.

One among the most noted places was Crissa, famed for the Pythian games, and Delphi, renowned for its oracle sacred to Apollo. The priestess, Pythia, sat on a sacred tripod over the mouth of a cave, and p.r.o.nounced her oracles in verse or prose. Those who consulted her made rich presents, from which Delphi became vastly enriched. Above Delphi towers Parna.s.sus, the highest mountain in central Greece, near whose summit was the supposed residence of Deucalion.

(M295) Botia was the richest State in Greece, so far as fertility of soil can make a State rich. It was bounded on the north by the territory of the Locri, on the west by Phocis, on the south by Attica, and on the east by the Euban Sea. It contained about one thousand square miles. Its inhabitants were famed for their stolidity, and yet it furnished Hesiod, Pindar, Corinna, and Plutarch to the immortal catalogue of names. Its men, if stupid, were brave, and its women were handsome. It was originally inhabited by barbarous tribes, all connected with the Leleges. In its southwestern part was the famous Helicon, famed as the seat of Apollo and the Muses, and on the southern border was Mount Cithaeron, to the north of which was Platea, where the Persians were defeated by the confederate Greeks under Pausanias. Botia contained the largest lake in Greece-Copaias, famed for eels. On the borders of this lake was Coronea, where the Thebans were defeated by the Spartans. To the north of Coronea was Chaeronea, where was fought the great battle with Philip, which subverted the liberties of Greece. To the north of the river aesopus, a sluggish stream, was Thebes, the capital of Botia, founded by Cadmus, whose great generals, Epaminondas and Pelopidas, made it, for a time, one of the great powers of Greece.

(M296) The most famous province of Greece was Attica, bounded on the north by the mountains Cithaeron and Parnes, on the west by the bay of Saronicus, on the east by the Myrtoum Sea. It contained but seven hundred square miles. It derived its name from Atthis, a daughter of Cranaus; but its earliest name was Cecropia, from its king, Cecrops. It was divided, in the time of Cecrops, into four tribes. On its western extremity, on the sh.o.r.es of the Saronic Gulf, stood Eleusis, the scene of the Eleusinian mysteries, the most famous of all the religious ceremonials of Greece, sacred to Ceres, and celebrated every four years, and lasting for nine days.

Opposite to Eleusis was Salamis, the birthplace of Ajax, Teucer, and Solon. There the Persian fleet of Xerxes was defeated by the Athenians.

The capital, Athens, founded by Cecrops, 1556 B.C., received its name from the G.o.ddess Neith, an Egyptian deity, known by the Greeks as Athena, or Minerva. Its population, in the time of Pericles, was one hundred and twenty thousand. The southernmost point of Attica was Sunium, sacred to Minerva; Marathon, the scene of the most brilliant victory which the Athenians ever fought, was in the eastern part of Attica. To the southeast of Athens was Mount Hymettus, celebrated for its flowers and honey.

Between Hymettus and Marathon was Mount Pentelicus, famed for its marbles.

(M297) Megaris, another small State, was at the west of Attica, between the Corinthian and the Saronican gulfs. Its chief city, Megara, was a considerable place, defended by two citadels on the hills above it. It was celebrated as the seat of the Megaric school of philosophy, founded by Euclid.

(M298) The largest of the Grecian States was the famous peninsula known as the Peloponnesus, entirely surrounded by water, except the isthmus of Corinth, four geographical miles wide. On the west was the Ionian Sea; on the east the Saronic Gulf and the Myrtoum Sea; on the north the Corinthian Gulf. It contained six thousand seven hundred and forty-five square miles.

It was divided into several States. It was said to be left by Hercules on his death to the Heraclidae, which they, with the a.s.sistance of the Dorians, ultimately succeeded in regaining, about eighty years after the Trojan war.

Of the six States into which the Peloponnesus was divided, Achaia was the northernmost, and was celebrated for the Achaean league, composed of its princ.i.p.al cities, as well us Corinth, Sicyon, Phlius, Arcadia, Argolis, Laconia, Megaris, and other cities and States.

(M299) Southwest of Achaia was Elis, on the Ionian Sea, in which stood Olympia, where the Olympic games were celebrated every four years, inst.i.tuted by Hercules.

(M300) Arcadia occupied the centre of the Peloponnesus, surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains-a rich and pastoral country, producing fine horses and a.s.ses. It was the favorite residence of Pan, the G.o.d of shepherds, and its people were famed for their love of liberty and music.

(M301) Argolis was the eastern portion of the Peloponnesus, watered by the Saronic Gulf, whose original inhabitants were Pelasgi. It boasted of the cities of Argos and Mycenae, the former of which was the oldest city of Greece. Agamemnon reigned at Mycenae, the most powerful of the kings of Greece during the Trojan war.

(M302) Laconia, at the southeastern extremity of the peninsula, was the largest and most important of the States of the Peloponnesus. It was rugged and mountainous, but its people were brave and n.o.ble. Its largest city, Sparta, for several generations controlled the fortune of Greece, the most warlike of the Grecian cities.

(M303) Messenia was the southwestern part of the peninsula-mountainous, but well watered, and abounding in pasture. It was early coveted by the Lacedaemonians, inhabitants of Laconia, and was subjugated in a series of famous wars, called the Messenian.

Such were the princ.i.p.al States of Greece. But in connection with these were the islands in the seas which surrounded it, and these are nearly as famous as the States on the main land.

(M304) The most important of these was Crete, at the southern extremity of the aegean Sea. It was the fabled birthplace of Jupiter. To the south of Thrace were Thasos, remarkable for fertility, and for mines of gold and silver; Samothrace, celebrated for the mysteries of Cybele; Imbros, sacred to Ceres and Mercury. Lemnos, in lat.i.tude forty, equidistant from Mount Athos and the h.e.l.lespont, rendered infamous by the ma.s.sacre of all the male inhabitants of the island by the women. The island of Euba stretched along the coast of Attica, Locris, and Botia, and was exceedingly fertile, and from this island the Athenians drew large supplies of corn-the largest island in the Archipelago, next to Crete. Its princ.i.p.al city was Chalcis, one of the strongest in Greece.

(M305) To the southeast of Euba are the Cyclades-a group of islands of which Delos, Andros, Tenos, Myeonos, Naxos, Paros, Olearos, Siphnos, Melos, and Syros, were the most important. All these islands are famous for temples and the birthplace of celebrated men.

(M306) The islands called the Sporades lie to the south and east of the Cyclades, among which are Amorgo, Ios, Sicinos, Thera, and Anaphe-some of which are barren, and others favorable to the vine.

(M307) Besides these islands, which belong to the continent of Europe, are those which belong to Asia-Tenedos, small but fertile; Lesbos, celebrated for wine, the fourth in size of all the islands of the aegean; Chios, also famed for wine; Samos, famous for the worship of Juno, and the birthplace of Pythagoras; Patmos, used as a place of banishment; Cos, the birthplace of Apelles and Hippocrates, exceedingly fertile; and south of all, Rhodes, the largest island of the aegean, after Crete and Euba. It was famous for the brazen and colossal statue of the sun, seventy cubits high. Its people were great navigators, and their maritime laws were ultimately adopted by all the Greeks and Romans. It was also famous for its schools of art.

Such were the States and islands of Greece, mountainous, in many parts sterile, but filled with a hardy, bold, and adventurous race, whose exploits and arts were the glory of the ancient world.

(M308) The various tribes and nations all belonged to that branch of the Indo-European race to which ethnographers have given the name of Pelasgian. They were a people of savage manners, but sufficiently civilised to till the earth, and build walled cities. Their religion was polytheistic-a personification of the elemental powers and the heavenly bodies. The Pelasgians occupied insulated points, but were generally diffused throughout Greece; and they were probably a wandering people before they settled in Greece. The Greek traditions about their migration rests on no certain ground. Besides this race, concerning which we have no authentic history, were the Leleges and Carians. But all of them were barbarous, and have left no written records. Argos and Sicyon are said to be Pelasgian cities, founded as far back as one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six years before Christ. It is also thought that Oriental elements entered into the early population of Greece. Cecrops imported into Attica Egyptian arts. Cadmus, the Phnician, colonized Botia, and introduced weights and measures. Danaus, driven out of Egypt, gave his name to the warlike Danai, and instructed the Pelasgian women of Argos in the mystic rites of Demetus. Pelope is supposed to have pa.s.sed from Asia into Greece, with great treasures, and his descendants occupied the throne of Argos.

(M309) At a period before written history commences, the early inhabitants of Greece, whatever may have been their origin, which is involved in obscurity, were driven from their settlements by a warlike race, akin, however, to the Pelasgians. These conquerors were the h.e.l.lenes, who were believed to have issued from the district of Thessaly, north of Mount Othrys. They gave their name ultimately to the whole country. Divided into small settlements, they yet were bound together by language and customs, and cherished the idea of national unity. There were four chief divisions of this nation, the Dorians, aeolians, Achaeans, and Ionians, traditionally supposed to be descended from the three sons of h.e.l.len, the son of Deucalion, Dorus, aeolus, and Xuthus, the last the father of Achaeus, and Jon. So the Greek poets represented the origin of the h.e.l.lenes-a people fond of adventure, and endowed by nature with vast capacities, subsequently developed by education.

(M310) Of these four divisions of the h.e.l.lenic race, the aeolians spread over northern Greece, and also occupied the western coast of the Peloponnesus and the Ionian islands. It continued, to the latest times, to occupy the greater part of Greece. The Achaeans were the most celebrated in epic poetry, their name being used by Homer to denote all the h.e.l.lenic tribes which fought at Troy. They were the dominant people of the Peloponnesus, occupying the south and east, and the Arcadians the centre.

The Dorians and Ionians were of later celebrity; the former occupying a small patch of territory on the slopes of Mount ta, north of Delphi; the latter living on a narrow slip of the country along the northern coast of the Peloponnesus, and extending eastward into Attica.

(M311) The princ.i.p.al settlements of the aeolians lay around the Pagasaean Gulf, and were blended with the Minyans, a race of Pelasgian adventurers known in the Argonautic expedition, under aeolian leaders. In the north of Botia arose the city of Orchomenus, whose treasures were compared by Homer to those of the Egyptian Thebes. Another seat of the aeolians was Ephyra, afterward known as Corinth, where the "wily Sisyphus" ruled. He was the father of Phocus, who gave his name to Phocis. The descendants of aeolus led also a colony to Elis, and another to Pylus. In general, the aeolians sought maritime settlements in northern Greece, and the western side of the Peloponnesus.

(M312) The Achaeans were the dominant race, in very early times, of the south of Thessaly, and the eastern side of the Peloponnesus, whose chief seats were Phthia, where Achilles reigned, and Argolis. Thirlwall seems to think they were a Pelasgian, rather than an h.e.l.lenic people. The ancient traditions represent the sons of Achaeus as migrating to Argos, where they married the daughters of Danaus the king, but did not mount the throne.

(M313) The early fortunes of the Dorians are involved in great obscurity, nor is there much that is satisfactory in the early history of any of the h.e.l.lenic tribes. Our information is chiefly traditional, derived from the poets. Dorus, the son of Deucalion, occupied the country over against Peloponnesus, on the opposite side of the Corinthian Gulf, comprising aetolia, Phocis, and the Ozolian Locrians. Nor can the conquests of the Dorians on the Peloponnesus be reconciled upon any other ground than that they occupied a considerable tract of country.

(M314) The early history of the Ionians is still more obscure. Ion, the son of Xuthus, is supposed to have led his followers from Thessaly to Attica, and to have conquered the Pelasgians, or effected peaceable settlements with them. Then follows a series of legends which have more poetical than historical interest, but which will be briefly noticed in the next chapter.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE LEGENDS OF ANCIENT GREECE.

(M315) The Greeks possessed no authentic written history of that period which included the first appearance of the h.e.l.lenes in Thessaly to the first Olympiad, B.C. 776. This is called the heroic age, and is known to us only by legends and traditions, called myths. They pertain both to G.o.ds and men, and are connected with what we call mythology, which possesses no historical importance, although it is full of interest for its poetic life. And as mythology is interwoven with the literature and the art of the ancients, furnishing inexhaustible subjects for poets, painters, and sculptors, it can not be omitted wholly in the history of that cla.s.sic people, whose songs and arts have been the admiration of the world.

(M316) We have s.p.a.ce, however, only for those legends which are of universal interest, and will first allude to those which pertain to G.o.ds, such as appear most prominent in the poems of Hesiod and Homer.

(M317) Zeus, or Jupiter, is the most important personage in the mythology of Greece. Although, chronologically, he comes after Kronos and Uranos, he was called the "father of G.o.ds and men," whose power it was impossible to resist, and which power was universal. He was supposed to be the superintending providence, whose seat was on Mount Olympus, enthroned in majesty and might, to whom the lesser deities were obedient. With his two brothers, Poseidon, or Neptune, and Hades, or Pluto, he reigned over the heavens, the earth, the sea, and h.e.l.l. Mythology represents him as born in Crete; and when he had gained sufficient mental and bodily force, he summoned the G.o.ds to Mount Olympus, and resolved to wrest the supreme power from his father, Kronos, and the t.i.tans. Ten years were spent in the mighty combat, in which all nature was convulsed, before victory was obtained, and the t.i.tans hurled into Tartarus. With Zeus now began a different order of beings. He is represented as having many wives and a numerous offspring. From his own head came Athene, fully armed, the G.o.ddess of wisdom, the patron deity of Athens. By Themis he begat the Horae; by Eurynome, the three Graces; by Mnemosyne, the Muses; by Leto (Latona), Apollo, and Artemis (Diana); by Demeter (Ceres), Persephone; by Here (Juno), Hebe, Ares (Mars), and Eileithyia; by Maia, Hermes (Mercury).

(M318) Under the presidency of Zeus were the twelve great G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses of Olympus-Poseidon (Neptune), who presided over the sea; Apollo, who was the patron of art; Ares, the G.o.d of war; Hephaestos (Vulcan), who forged the thunderbolts; Hermes, who was the messenger of omnipotence and the protector of merchants; Here, the queen of heaven, and general protector of the female s.e.x; Athene (Minerva), the G.o.ddess of wisdom and letters; Artemis (Diana), the protectress of hunters and shepherds; Aphrodite (Venus), the G.o.ddess of beauty and love; Hertia (Vesta), the G.o.ddess of the hearth and altar, whose fire never went out; Demeter (Ceres), mother earth, the G.o.ddess of agriculture.

Scarcely inferior to these Olympian deities were Hades (Pluto), who presided over the infernal regions; Helios, the sun; Hecate, the G.o.ddess of expiation; Dionysus (Bacchus), the G.o.d of the vine; Leto (Latona), the G.o.ddess of the concealed powers; Eos (Aurora), G.o.ddess of the morn; Nemesis, G.o.d of vengeance; aeolus, the G.o.d of winds; Harmonia; the Graces, the Muses, the Nymphs, the Nereids, marine nymphs-these were all invested with great power and dignity.

Besides these were deities who performed special services to the greater G.o.ds, like the Horae; and monsters, offspring of G.o.ds, like the gorgons, chimera, the dragon of the Hesperides, the Lernaean hydra, the Nemean lion, Scylla and Charybdis, the centaurs, the sphinx, and others.

(M319) It will be seen that these G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses represent the powers of nature, and the great attributes of wisdom, purity, courage, fidelity, truth, which belong to man's higher nature, and which are a.s.sociated with the divine. It was these powers and attributes which were worshiped-superhuman and adorable. Homer and Hesiod are the great authorities of the theogonies of the pagan world, and we can not tell how much of this was of their invention, and how much was implanted in the common mind of the Greeks, at an age earlier than 700 B.C. The Orphic theogony belongs to a later date, but acquired even greater popular veneration than the Hesiodic.

(M320) The worship of these divinities was attended by rites more or less elevated, but sometimes by impurities and follies, like those of Bacchus and Venus. Sometimes this worship was veiled in mysteries, like those of Eleusis. To all these deities temples were erected, and offerings made, sometimes of fruits and flowers, and then of animals. Of all these deities there were legends-sometimes absurd, and these were interwoven with literature and religious solemnities. The details of these fill many a large dictionary, and are to be read in dictionaries, or in poems. Those which pertain to Ceres, to Apollo, to Juno, to Venus, to Minerva, to Mercury, are full of poetic beauty and fascination. They arose in an age of fertile imagination and ardent feeling, and became the faith of the people.

(M321) Besides the legends pertaining to G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses, are those which relate the heroic actions of men. Grote describes the different races of men as they appear in the Hesiodic theogony-the offspring of G.o.ds. First, the golden race: first created, good and happy, like the G.o.ds themselves, and honored after death by being made the unseen guardians of men-"terrestrial demons." Second, the silver race, inferior in body and mind, was next created, and being disobedient, are buried in the earth.

Third, the brazen race, hard, pugnacious, terrible, strong, which was continually at war, and ultimately destroyed itself, and descended into Hades, unhonored and without privilege. Fourth, the race of heroes, or demiG.o.ds, such as fought at Thebes and Troy, virtuous but warlike, which also perished in battle, but were removed to a happier state. And finally, the iron race, doomed to perpetual guilt, care, toil, suffering-unjust, dishonest, ungrateful, thoughtless-such is the present race of men, with a small admixture of good, which will also end in due time. Such are the races which Hesiod describes in his poem of the "Works and Days,"-penetrated with a profound sense of the wickedness and degeneracy of human life, yet of the ultimate rewards of virtue and truth. His demons are not G.o.ds, nor men, but intermediate agents, essentially good-angels, whose province was to guard and to benefit the world. But the notions of demons gradually changed, until they were regarded as both good and bad, as viewed by Plato, and finally they were regarded as the causes of evil, as in the time of the Christian writers. Hesiod, who lived, it is supposed, four hundred years before Herodotus, is a great ethical poet, and embodied the views of his age respecting the great mysteries of nature and life.