A Smaller History of Greece | Page 5

numerous islands which line the Grecian shores, the most
important was Euboea, stretching along the coasts of Boeotia and
Attica. South of Euboea was the group of islands called the
CYCLADES, lying around Delos as a centre; and east of these were the
SPORADES, near the Asiatic coast. South of these groups are the large
islands of CRETE and RHODES.
The physical features of the country exercised an important influence
upon the political destinies of the people. Greece is one of the most
mountainous countries of Europe. Its surface is occupied by a number
of small plains, either entirely surrounded by limestone mountains or
open only to the sea. Each of the principal Grecian cities was founded
in one of these small plains; and, as the mountains which separated it
from its neighbours were lofty and rugged, each city grew up in solitary
independence. But at the same time it had ready and easy access to the
sea, and Arcadia was almost the only political division that did not
possess some territory upon the coast. Thus shut out from their
neighbours by mountains, the Greeks were naturally attracted to the sea,
and became a maritime people. Hence they possessed the love of
freedom and the spirit of adventure, which have always characterised,
more or less the inhabitants of maritime districts.



CHAPTER II
.
ORIGIN OF THE GREEKS AND THE HEROIC AGE.
No nation possesses a history till events are recorded in written
documents; and it was not till the epoch known by the name of the First

Olympiad, corresponding to the year 776 B.C., that the Greeks began to
employ writing as a means for perpetuating the memory of any
historical facts. Before that period everything is vague and uncertain;
and the exploits of the heroes related by the poets must not be regarded
as historical facts.
The PELASGIANS are universally represented as the most ancient
inhabitants of Greece. They were spread over the Italian as well as the
Grecian peninsula; and the Pelasgic language thus formed the basis of
the Latin as well as of the Greek. They were divided into several tribes,
of which the Hellenes were probably one: at any rate, this people, who
originally dwelt in the south of Thessaly, gradually spread over the rest
of Greece. The Pelasgians disappeared before them, or were
incorporated with them, and their dialect became the language of
Greece. The Hellenes considered themselves the descendants of one
common ancestor, Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. To Hellen
were ascribed three sons, Dorus, Xuthus, and AEolus. Of these Dorus
and AEolus gave their names to the DORIANS and AEOLIANS; and
Xuthus; through his two sons Ion and Achaeus, became the forefather
of the IONIANS and ACHAEANS. Thus the Greeks accounted for the
origin of the four great divisions of their race. The descent of the
Hellenes from a common ancestor, Hellen, was a fundamental article in
the popular faith. It was a general practice in antiquity to invent
fictitious persons for the purpose of explaining names of which the
origin was buried in obscurity. It was in this way that Hellen and his
sons came into being; but though they never had any real existence, the
tales about them may be regarded as the traditional history of the races
to whom they gave their names.
The civilization of the Greeks and the development of their language
bear all the marks of home growth, and probably were little affected by
foreign influence. The traditions, however, of the Greeks would point
to a contrary conclusion. It was a general belief among them that the
Pelasgians were reclaimed from barbarism by Oriental strangers, who
settled in the country and introduced among the rude inhabitants the
first elements of civilization. Attica is said to have been indebted for
the arts of civilized life to Cecrops, a native of Sais in Egypt. To him is
ascribed the foundation of the city of Athens, the institution of marriage,
and the introduction of religious rites and ceremonies. Argos, in like

manner, is said to have been founded by the Egyptian Danaus, who fled
to Greece with his fifty daughters, to escape from the persecution of
their suitors, the fifty sons of his brother AEgyptus. The Egyptian
stranger was elected king by the natives, and from him the tribe of the
Danai derived their name, which Homer frequently uses as a general
appellation for the Greeks. Another colony was the one led from Asia
by Pelops, from whom the southern peninsula of Greece derived its
name of Peloponnesus. Pelops is represented as a Phrygian, and the son
of the wealthy king Tantalus. He became king of Mycenae, and the
founder of a powerful dynasty, one of the most renowned in the Heroic
age of Greece. From him