General History for Colleges and High Schools Part 10

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 h.e.l.las. Twelve hundred galleys bore the gathered clans from Aulis in Greece, across the aegean to the Trojan sh.o.r.es.

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 G.o.ds 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 sh.o.r.e 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 sh.o.r.es of Asia Minor and the adjoining islands.

The northwestern sh.o.r.e 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 sh.o.r.e 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 sh.o.r.es, 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 n.o.bles. The king listened to what the n.o.bles 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 a.s.sembly, 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 a.s.sembly 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 n.o.bles. Slavery existed, but the slaves did not const.i.tute as numerous a cla.s.s 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_, a.s.sures 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 cla.s.ses.

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 n.o.bles 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 sh.o.r.es. 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 inst.i.tutions of the ancient Greeks, we should find very many pa.s.sages 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 pa.s.sages, 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 bra.s.s 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-G.o.d, 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 G.o.ds and as many G.o.ddesses. The male deities were Zeus, the father of G.o.ds and men; Poseidon, ruler of the sea; Apollo, or Phoebus, the G.o.d of light, of music, and of prophecy; Ares, the G.o.d of war; Hephaestus, the deformed G.o.d of fire, and the forger of the thunderbolts of Zeus; Hermes, the wing-footed herald of the celestials, the G.o.d of invention and commerce, himself a thief and the patron of thieves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 G.o.ddess of wisdom, and the patroness of the domestic arts; Artemis, the G.o.ddess of the chase; Aphrodite, the G.o.ddess of love and beauty, born of the sea-foam; Hestia, the G.o.ddess of the hearth; Demeter, the earth- mother, the G.o.ddess 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 h.e.l.lenes 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 surpa.s.s 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 G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses that const.i.tuted 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 G.o.d of wine; the G.o.ddess 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sions 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 G.o.ds 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 pa.s.sed 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.d of prophecy, the Revealer.

Not everywhere, but only in chosen places, did these G.o.ds 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d.