There

to whom Jove has given the sceptre and the authority.' was another important purpose for which the Agora was summoned. It was in the Agora that justice was administered by the king, sometimes alone and sometimes with the assistance of his nobles. It may be remarked in passing that this public administration of justice must have had a powerful tendency to check corruption and secure righteous judgments.

§ 4. The Greeks in the Heroic age were divided into the three classes of nobles, common freemen,† and slaves. The nobles were raised far above the rest of the community in honour, power, and wealth. They were distinguished by their warlike prowess, their large estates, and their numerous slaves. The condition of the general mass of freemen is rarely mentioned. They possessed portions of land as their own property, which they` cultivated themselves: but there was another class of poor freemen, called Thētes, who had no land of their own, and who worked for hire on the estates of others. Among the freemen we find certain professional persons, whose acquirements and knowledge raised them above their class, and procured for them the respect of the nobles. Such were the seer, the bard, the herald, and likewise the smith and the carpenter, since in that age a knowledge of the mechanical arts was confined to a few.

Slavery was not so prevalent in the Heroic age as in republican Greece, and it appears in a less odious aspect. The nobles alone possessed slaves, and they treated them with a degree of kindness, which frequently secured for the masters their affectionate attachment.

§ 5. The state of social and moral feeling in the Heroic age presents both bright and dark features. Among the Greeks, as among every people which has just emerged from barbarism, the family relations are the grand sources of lasting union and devoted attachment. The paternal authority was highly reverenced, and nothing was so much dreaded as the curse of an offended father. All the members of a family or a clan were connected by the closest ties, and were bound to revenge with their united strength an injury offered to any individual of the race. The women were allowed greater liberty than they possessed in republican Greece; and to Penelope, Andromache, and other women of the Heroic age there is an interest attaching, which we never feel in the women of the historical period. The wife occupied a station of great dignity and influence in the family, but was purchased by her husband from her parents by valuable presents,§ a custom which Iliad, ii. 203-206. † δῆμος, λαοί, + duwes. § Called ἔεδνα, οι ἕδνα.

prevailed among the ancient Jews and the barbarous nations of Germany. In the Heroic age, as in other early stages of society, we find the stranger treated with generous hospitality. The chief welcomes him to his house, and does not inquire his name nor the object of his journey till he has placed before him his best cheer. If the stranger comes as a suppliant, he has a still greater claim upon his host-although this tie may expose the latter to difficulty and danger, and may even bring upon him the hostility of a more powerful neighbour; for Jove punishes without mercy the man who disregards the prayer of a suppliant.

The three facts we have mentioned the force of the family relations, hospitality to the stranger, and protection to the suppliant-form the bright features in the social and moral feelings of the age. We now turn to the darker side of the picture.

The poems of Homer represent a state of society in which the protection of law is practically unknown. The chief who cannot defend himself is plundered and maltreated by his more powerful neighbour. The occupation of a pirate is reckoned honourable; homicides are of frequent occurrence; and war is conducted with the most ferocious cruelty. Quarter is rarely given; the fallen foe is stripped of his armour, which becomes the spoil of his conqueror, and if the naked corpse remains in the power of the latter, it is cast out to beasts of prey. The poet ascribes to his greatest heroes savage brutalities. Achilles sacrifices twelve human victims on the tomb of Patroclus, and drags the corpse of Hector around the walls of Troy, while the Greek chiefs pierce it with their spears.

§ 6. The society of the Heroic age was marked by simplicity of manners. The kings and nobles did not consider it derogatory to their dignity to acquire skill in the manual arts. Ulysses is represented as building his own bed-chamber and constructing his own raft, and he boasts of being an excellent mower and ploughman. Like Esau, who made savoury meat for his father Isaac, the Heroic chiefs prepared their own meals and prided themselves on their skill in cookery. Kings and private persons partook of the same food, which was of the simplest kind. Beef, mutton, and goat's flesh were the ordinary meats, and cheese, flour, and sometimes fruits, also formed part of the banquet. Bread was brought on in baskets, and the guests were supplied with wine diluted with water. Before drinking, some of the wine was poured on the ground as a libation to the gods, and the guests then pledged each other with their cups. But their entertainments were never disgraced by intemperance, like those of our northern ancestors. The enjoyment of the banquet was heightened by the song and the dance, and the chiefs took more

delight in the lays of the minstrel than in the exciting influence of the wine.

The wives and daughters of the chiefs, in like manner, did not deem it beneath them to discharge various duties which were afterwards regarded as menial. Not only do we find them constantly employed in weaving, spinning, and embroidery, but like the daughters of the patriarchs they fetch water from the well and assist their slaves in washing garments in the river.

§ 7. Although the Heroic age is strongly marked by martial ferocity and simplicity of habits, it would be an error to regard it as one essentially rude and barbarous. On the contrary, the Greeks in this early period had already made considerable advances in civilization, and had successfully cultivated many of the arts which contribute to the comfort and refinement of life. Instead of living in scattered villages like the barbarians of Gaul and Germany, they were collected in fortified towns, which were surrounded by walls and adorned with palaces and temples. The houses of the nobles were magnificent and costly, glittering with gold, silver, and bronze, while the nobles themselves were clothed in elegant garments and protected by highly wrought armour. From the Phoenician merchants they obtained the finest products of the Sidonian loom, as well as tin, iron, and electrum. They travelled with rapidity in chariots drawn by high-bred steeds, and they navigated the sea with ease in fiftyoared galleys. Property in land was transmitted from father to son; agriculture was extensively practised, and vineyards carefully cultivated. It is true that Homer may have occasionally drawn upon his imagination in his brilliant pictures of the palaces of the chiefs and of their mode of living, but the main features must have been taken from life, and we possess even in the present day memorials of the Heroic age which strikingly attest its grandeur. The remains of Mycena and Tiryns and the emissaries of the lake Copais belong to this period. The massive ruins of these two cities, and the sculptured lions on the gate of Mycenæ, still excite the wonder of the beholder.* The emissaries or tunnels which the inhabitants of Orchomenus constructed to carry off the waters of the lake Copais in Bœotia, are even more striking proofs of the civilization of the age. A people who felt the necessity of such works, and who possessed sufficient industry and skill to execute them, must have already made great advances in social life.t

§ 8. Commerce, however, was little cultivated, and was not * See drawings on pp. 10, 25.

One of these tunnels is nearly four English miles in length, with numerous shafts let down into it. One shaft is about 150 feet deep.

much esteemed. It was deemed more honourable for a man to enrich himself by robbery and piracy than by the arts of peace. The trade of the Mediterranean was then exclusively in the hands of the Phoenicians, who exchanged the commodities of the East for the landed produce and slaves of the Greek chiefs. Commerce was carried on by barter; for coined money is not mentioned in the poems of Homer. Statuary was already cultivated in this age, as we see from the remains of Mycena, already mentioned; and although no paintings are spoken of in Homer, yet his descriptions of the works of embroidery prove that his contemporaries must have been acquainted with the art of design. Whether the Greeks were acquainted at this early period with the art of writing is a question that has given rise to much dispute, and which will demand our attention when we come to speak of the origin of the Homeric poems. Poetry, however, was cultivated with success, though yet confined to epic strains, or the narration of the exploits and adventures of the Heroic chiefs. The bard sung his own song, and was always received with welcome and honour in the palaces of the nobles.

§ 9. In the state of society already described, men had not yet begun to study those phænomena of nature which form the basis of the physical sciences. They conceived the earth to be a plane surface surrounded by an ever-flowing river called Oceanus, from which every other river and sea derived their waters. The sky was regarded as a solid vault supported by Atlas, who kept heaven and earth asunder. Their geographical knowledge was confined to the shores of Greece and Asia Minor and the principal islands of the Egean sea. Beyond these limits all was uncertain and obscure. Italy appears to have been unknown to Homer, and Sicily he peoples with the fabulous Cyclops. Libya, Egypt, and Phoenicia were known only by vague hearsay, while the Euxine is not mentioned at all.

§ 10. In the battles of the Heroic age, as depicted in the poems of Homer, the chiefs are the only important combatants, while the people are introduced as an almost useless mass, frequently put to rout by the prowess of a single hero. The chief is mounted in a war-chariot drawn by two horses, and stands by the side of his charioteer, who is frequently a friend. He carries into battle two long spears, and wears a long sword and a short dagger; his person is protected by shield, helmet, breastplate, and greaves. In the wars, as in the political system, of the Heroic age, the chiefs are everything and the people nothing.

SW

Hercules and Bull. (From a bas-relief in the Vatican.)

CHAPTER IV.

RETURN OF THE HERACLIDE INTO PELOPONNESUS, AND FOUNDATION OF THE EARLIEST GREEK COLONIES.

§ 1. The mythical character of the narrative of these events. § 2. Migration of the Boeotians from Thessaly into Boeotia. § 3. Conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians. § 4. The legendary account of this event. The invasion. § 5. The legendary account continued. The division of Peloponnesus among the conquerors. § 6. Remarks upon the legendary account. § 7. Foundation of the Greek colonies in Asia Minor. § 8. The Eolic colonies. § 9. The Ionic colonies. § 10. The Doric colonies. § 11. Colonization of Crete by the Dorians. § 12. Conclusion of the Mythical age.

§ 1. Ar the commencement of Grecian history in the first Olympiad we find the greater part of Peloponnesus occupied by tribes of Dorian conquerors, and the western shores of Asia Minor covered by Greek colonies. The time at which these settlements were made is quite uncertain. They belong to a period long antecedent to all historical records, and were known to the Greeks of a later age by tradition alone. The accounts given of them are evidently fabulous, but at the same time these stories are founded upon a basis of historical truth. That Peloponnesus was at some early period conquered by the Dorians, and that Greek colonies were planted in Asia, are facts which admit of no dis