Early European History Part 17

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 surpa.s.sed 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 sh.o.r.es 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AEGEAN SNAKE G.o.dDESS (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) A gold and ivory statuette found in Crete. Dates from the sixteenth century B.C. The G.o.ddess 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 cla.s.s of traders had not yet arisen. Commerce was little followed. The Greeks depended on Phoenician sailors to bring to their sh.o.r.es 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 cla.s.sically 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, THE WORLD according to HOMER (900 B.C.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses 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 G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses should be included in this august a.s.semblage.

ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITIES

Many of the Olympian deities appear to have been simply personifications of natural phenomena. Zeus, "father of G.o.ds and men," as Homer calls him, was a heaven G.o.d, who gathered the clouds in storms and hurled the lightning bolt. Apollo, a mighty G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.ddess 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREEK G.o.dS AND G.o.dDESSES ZEUS OTRICOLI, Vatican Gallery, Rome HERA, Ludovisi Villa, Rome APOLLO OF THE BELVEDERE, Vatican Gallery, Rome APHRODITE OF CNIDUS, Glyptothek, Munich]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 princ.i.p.al 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 G.o.ddess sets forth the Greek ideal of female loveliness.]

CONCEPTIONS OF THE DEITIES

The Greeks made their G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses after themselves. The Olympian divinities are really magnified men and women, subject to all human pa.s.sions and appet.i.tes, 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 G.o.ds, 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 G.o.ds love not evil deeds, but they reverence justice and the righteous acts of men." [12]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 G.o.ds 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 INSt.i.tUTIONS: ORACLES AND GAMES

ORACLE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI

The Greeks believed that communications from the G.o.ds 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 Parna.s.sus. 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 G.o.d. 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; amba.s.sadors 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 n.o.blest cities of the Greek world, Cyrene and Byzantium, for example, [15] had their sites fixed by Apollo's guidance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 G.o.d 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]