An abridged history of Greek literature

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CHAPTER PAGB

I. Origins 1

II. Beginnings op Heroic Poetry. Homer and the Ho-

Chapter I Origins 1

1. The Race : its Origin and rormation. 2. First Creations of Greek Genius. Legendary Traditions; Thracian Minstrels, Orpheus, Musseus, etc.jDelian Poetry, Olen ; EarJy Hymns. 3. Historic Indications of a Primitive Poetry. 4. Most Ancient Forms of Narrative Poetry. 5. Other Forms of Poetry. Beginnings of Lyric Song.

1. The Race : its Origin and Formation. — The Hellenic race belongs to the great Aryan family, and it forms, together with the Italian race, a distinct group, characterized by two things : a close affinity of idioms and similar fundamental religious conceptions.

How and when was this race established on Greek soil ? What have been the phases of its development there? By what course has its original character little by little extricated itself from barbarism? Upon all these points we lack precise and trustworthy information. Yet, by combining the oral traditions preserved among the Greeks with the revelations of archaeology and the evidences furnished by Egyptian monuments or by the Bible, we arrive at an opinion that is almost a certainty.

The race from which the Greeks of history sprang appears between the twentieth and fifteenth centuries, scattered in tribes of various names, on the coast of Asia Minor, in the islands of the ^Egean Sea, in Thrace, Macedonia, and the Hellenic Peninsula. Apparently that race came from the Orient and gained possession of these territories little by little, now by land and now by sea. Although tradition would seem to unite the tribes under the common term of Pelasgi,

1 For a general account of the Greek race, its origins and its migrations, vie refer merely to the more recent histories of Greece, particularly those of Beloch, Busolt, Pohlmann, and Holm. On the dialects consult R. Meister, Die griechischen DiaUkte ; and Smyth, Sounds and Inflections of the Greek Dialects. The older histories of Grote and Curtius are still worthy of the most careful attention.

B 1 we can be sure that they do not constitute one people. For the only bond between them was that of a common origin and language. But even this community allowed some obvious differences among the various groups — differences which were to be felt more and more as each tribe developed under its own peculiar conditions. Tor, varying with differences of locality, there were agricultural tribes, warlike tribes, mountaineers, seamen, shepherds, and hunters. The Pelasgic period, then, was one of confused elaboration, during which the future Greek race seems to have lived, if one may so put it, in an inorganic state.

From about the fifteenth century until the twelfth, however, one sees rising from this obscure background, probably under the influence of Egypt, Phoenicia, Assyria, and Phrygia, certain groups of peoples with more distinctly marked characters. Each is already assuming its historic individuality. One may call the period pre- Hellenic, since it comes between the Pelasgic age and that which we call Hellenic. The groups of Asia, under the names of Dardanians, Lycians, Carians, and Leleges, come to be more Asiatic ; while those in the islands and in Greece proper, especially on the eastern shore, begin to take on an Ionic aspect. These latter, though somewhat inclined toward the Orient, are separate from it, and they are open to receive from elsewhere and to cultivate at home the precious elements of civilization. In certain quarters, communities of warriors and strong and energetic royal houses soon spring up among them. Thus in Phthiotis and the Peloponnesus we find the Achaean dynasties ; in Crete, the power of Minos ; in Bceotia, the Minyan principalities. There follows a period of three or four centuries of heroic life, great enterprises, and wars ; and also of intellectual, religious, economic, and social development. During these centuries, the material is gathering for the poetry of later days. This is the age of the Argonauts, the Theban expeditions, Troy, Heracles, Theseus, and the houses of Pelops and Labdacus. Events and names are idealized into greatness. At the present time we know them only through legend; yet we feel that behind these legends teemed an activity like a thunder-storm.

Toward the twelfth century, again, there were important movements among these pre-Hellenic tribes, and then began the real period of Hellenization. That period continued till about the middle of the eighth century, when the era of the Olympiads began. Thus, though there was no destruction of the original distinctions, a Hellenic unity was formed : the Greeks became really one people. For instance the settlement of the Dorians in the Peloponnesus led to the formation of a certain number of regular states, with laws for the govern-

Origins 3

ment of society, and a firmly established power. In self-defence, the neighboring tribes organized themselves more thoroughly. Attica, in particular, became a state, and its Ionic character appeared in strong contrast with the Doric character of Sparta. Many of the old inhabitants of Greece proper, driven from their homes in the course of these invasions, established themselves on the shores of Asia, where long before peoples of the same origin had settled. Here there sprang up a sort of new Greece, even more active and enterprising than the old. But while all these changes were going on, the original affinities, as they gave direction to the currents of migration and the forming of alliances, assumed more and more importance. The Dorians and lonians appeared, henceforth, as rival groups, each with its own character. The former were more attached to tradition, better disciplined, more austere, and more self-centred; the latter more changeable, fonder of personal freedom, given to innovations, and open to influences from without. As for the other tribes, who leagued themselves neither with the Dorians nor with the lonians, usage tends to group them under the name of .iEolians. This artificial grouping brings the different elements together, though only by opposing the old Pelasgic to the new ethnic unities. Dorians, lonians, jEolians, all, as opposed to the "barbarians" whom they encountered in the march of civilizar tion, became more and more clearly conscious of their likeness of origin. The name of Hellenes, used first in the North, and probably introduced into central Greece by the Delphic Amphictyony, became rapidly more popular. And because of its antique religious character it quickly superseded the particular designations that divided tribes and states. Little by little it was accepted or was forced into general use. It both attested the national unity and served to promote it. And this national unity was, moreover, sealed by the institution and rapid development of great pre-Hellenic festivals. The commencement of the Olympiads marks the time when the Hellenic world consciously entered upon its history.

The race thus formed had perhaps the most refined taste in matters of art ever possessed by a whole people. Alertness, vividness of conceptions, readiness of intelligence, and fondness for argument, were united in them with creative force of imagination, a true appreciation of what is lifelike, and a remarkable instinct for beauty. A happy balance of faculties predisposed them to a love of rhythm. They knew how to use their eyes and ears, to observe, and to keep themselves perpetually in touch with nature. Yet they never lost their poise; on the contrary, their active spirit mastered nature, simplifying, idealizing, appropriating by a systematic procedure, or imitating with an art that was intelligent and free. With certainty of intuition and admirable self-confidence, this people opened all the highways of human thinking, and created forms of art which seem likely never to be surpassed. The distinguishing characteristic of its literature is that of being at once speculative and artistic. Without in any way disdaining practical utility, they looked instinctively beyond, either to scientific investigation, or to the production of the beautiful.

2. First Creations of Greek Genius. Legendary Traditions ; Thracian Minstrels, Orpheus, Musffius, etc. ; Delian Poetry, Olen ; Early Hymns.— The first efforts of the Greek race to hand down orally its thoughts are almost beyond our power to trace. Per us the most ancient monument of Hellenic literature is the Iliad; but apparently no part of that goes back beyond the ninth, or at all events the tenth, century. Yet the Iliad is the product of an art already well advanced. We must presuppose a long period of evolution of which it is the result. We are safe in saying that the evolution was the work of centuries ; but beyond this, we know nothing. Even in antiquity, when literary history began, men had nothing to say about how literature arose. And so the only thing that can be done to-day, using the facts at our disposal, is to sketch this evolution in rough outline.

Greek tradition represents that in primitive times there lived a certain number of sacred bards, sons of the gods or favorites of the Muses. Such were Orpheus, Linus, Musaeus, Pamphus, Eumolpus, and Thamyris. The tales about them were purely legendary, and the works attributed to them were apocryphal compositions, produced many centuries later. Their names seem to be, on the whole, purely fictitious. But whatever the manner in which these names were put into circulation, they served to explain or sanction certain rites; for almost all of them are connected with the history of Greek religion. They really do not belong to that of literature.

Still, this tradition may not be wholly disregarded ; for it points us to the north of Greece, to Thrace and Pieria, as the home of most of these legendary bards, and the original source of the oldest known hymns. Herein it coincides with other traditions that represent Pieria as the birthplace of the Muses. It is possible to conjecture that from these regions, in times very remote, were brought certain forms of cults that called for religious song.

Other minstrels of like character, more especially devoted to Apollo, such as Olen, Phcebammon, and Chrysothemis, are represented as coming from the isles of the ^gean Sea, particularly Delos and Crete. The poetry attributed to them derived its first inspiration from Lycia. The best-known of these poets was Olen, who was said

Origins 5

to have come from Lycia to Delos. The Delian women, in the time of Herodotus (fifth century), still sang hymns that he was thought to have composed.

The Greeks of historic times had preserved in these legends a vague memory of some very ancient poetry connected with cults that came from the north and east ; and it was the hymns of these ancient minstrels that the Greeks considered as the prelude to their own epic poems. No idea is more probable in itself. But even setting aside the evidence of the legends, one comes, by the study of known facts, to conclusions very much resembling the accounts therein contained.

3. Historic Indications of a Primitive Poetry. — Archaeology has by the study of monuments established the fact that plastic arts had flourished in Greece from the pre-Hellenic period. At Orchomenos, Tiryns, Mycenae, and various other places in Attica, Laconia, and the Islands, there have been found remains of fortified enclosures, foundation walls of palaces, and sepulchres, with a mass of objects in gold, silver, copper, incised stones, colored glass, or terra cotta, which make it possible to reconstruct almost fully the life of the princes of the time. They seem to have loved luxury ; yet it was not, even at that day, a luxury of gaudy ostentation, but was already impressed with a feeling for art. These princes were warriors and hunters. When they celebrated the ceremonies of their religion, or assembled their retainers in the great halls of their palaces, made brilliant with paintings and suits of metal, we cannot suppose that they deprived themselves of the poets that would chant the legends of their gods and sing the glories of their ancestors.

The poems of the Homeric age are based on a whole cycle of myths and heroic tales, which must have been elaborated step by step. The oldest of them show that, at the time of their production, the cycle was well developed. The genealogical relations of the gods and their essential attributes already furnished material for an ample series of traditions. Moreover, the traditions were not connected with the region where the poems were produced, that is, with Asiatic Greece ; but many of them pointed to definite localities in continental Greece. This is a suificient reason for believing that they came from there and had grown up there. It was in the simple chants accompanying sacrifices that these traditions must have received their earliest form. What is true of the gods is true also of the heroes. Ionic epic poetry is founded on a mythical history that goes back to the Achaean, Minyan, and Cadmsean dynasties, that is to say, to the pre-Hellenic period and to Greece proper ; and from the moment of its appearance it used this history as both well known and ancient. Thus we are led to believe that at its birth, epic received the heritage of a preceding poetry which had flourished m Greece under the influence of the early dynasties.

The form of the Homeric epic leads, moreover, to the same conclusions. It employs a complex versification, which, before attaining its perfection, must have been rendered flexible by long usage. In addition to this form it employs an immense number of set phrases, which have assumed definite shape even in the earliest examples of Greek epic. This phraseology is used in designating gods and their attributes, describing heroes and their family relar tions, and narrating the principal events of heroic life, such as combats and assemblies. The most decisive proof, however, is that, though the poems are Ionic, the phraseology is largely ^olic in form. Undoubtedly; then, the Homeric epic was brought into Asiatic Greece by the descendants of the Achseans, though given form by their ancestors on Greek soil, in the centuries immediately preceding the migrations.

4. Most Ancient Forms of Narrative Poetry. — What has just been said makes it possible to distinguish by their essential differences the various forms of pre-Homeric poetry.

The original source was the hymns or rather the chants in honor of the gods, probably recited during sacrifice. In a time when, as yet, human thinking had not advanced beyond very simple phases, these hymns must have consisted chiefly of enumerations of attributes, outlines of genealogies, short liturgical expressions, and formulas of prayer.

Side by side with the hymns, and probably under their influence, there would begin to be historic legends tracing the origin of princely families and tribes, the genealogy of heroes and their principal exploits, the foundation of cities, and their alliances and wars. These narratives already belonged to epic ; but it was a rudimentary, diffuse epic, doubtless without long episodes, pictures, or detailed painting of sentiments, confining itself to a naive story, and giving no details or amplifications.

But these primitive compositions, whether hymns or narratives, were couched in a language which, by force of circumstances, must have rapidly assumed a semi-conventional character. It may be that poetry was more conservative of ancient forms than everyday conversation ; or it may be that it aimed instinctively at being dignified. The poems were all in verse ; for verse, of necessity, is the first form of literary art among all peoples. It had been created by the melody and rhythm of the chant, from which, at that time poetry never was separated. Whatever the precise rules and succes-

Origins 7

sive stages of this poetry, it gave rise to the Homeric hexameter. The chant was accompanied by a stringed instrument of very simple character, which had at first four tones, and later seven. This was the phorminx or cithara, whose invention was ascribed to Hermes, though sometimes to Apollo.

5. Other Forms of Poetry. Origins of Lyric Song. — Besides the heroic, or hieratic, poetry, there is no doubt that popular instinct had led, even in these remote times, to the composition of other chants appropriate to certain circumstances of domestic life. The most ancient epic poetry, for instance, attests the existence of funeral dirges, or threnodies {dp^voi); nuptial chants, or hymeneals (i/^ei/aiot) ; chants of praise to the gods, or pseans (irataves) ; and various kinds of rustic songs in conjunction with the labors of the country. The words of these chants must have been quite simple ; for the human mind was still far from knowing how to analyze its feelings. Phrases in repetition were all that it required as a balm for sorrow. The melodies themselves, no doubt, were not all indigenous to Greek soil ; perhaps some came from other countries and, on being found acceptable, were accorded popularity. Melodies and chants together constituted an elementary form of poetry that had a character all its own, not narrative lilie that we have already been discussing. It expressed directly the real sentiments of those who employed it ; and the sentiments were collective; that is, common to a group of relatives, friends, brothers in arms, or companions in toil. Really we find here the germ of the future choral lyric.

So, even in prehistoric times, we see in Greece, under the form of hymns, heroic tales, and chants of varied character, a primitive growth of poetry springing up. Its young and vigorous branches were to grow apace ; and, though growing together, were to develop separate individualities. The first to come to brilliance was the epic. Let us now examine the process of its growth.

CHAPTER II BEGINNINGS OF HEROIC POETRY Homer and the Hombrides

1. Eise of Epic Poetry in Asiatic Greece after the Migrations. 2. JEolic and Ionic Periods. Smyrna and Chios. 3. Homer. 4. The Bards and their Auditors. Epic Recitations. 5. Length of the Epic Recitations. General Account of the Formation of the Great Epics. 6. Transmission of Epic Chants. The Homerides. Duration of the Epic Period. 7. General Characteristics of Epic Art.

1. Rise of Epic Poetry in Asiatic Greece after the Migrations. — The

event which seems to have brought about a flourishing period of epic poetry in the tenth century b.c. was that series of migrations which had brought to the borders of Asia, in the course of the eleventh century, part of the energetic peoples whom the Dorians had driven from Greece.

Thrust from their native land and still discontented in their new home, these Greeks clung passionately to their traditions, which were for them a reminder of their country. Besides, the very circumstances of their settlement in Asia tended to renew and develop certain of their legends. The ^olians, who were established at Lesbos and in the Troad, were forced to wage war on the peoples who had occupied these countries. The Achaean chiefs who commanded them were in a condition to renew there the exploits which their legends attributed to Agamemnon and his companions. So the old lays which commemorated the exploits of these heroes suddenly assumed an unexpected reality, in that they neglected the past to idealize the events of the day. They served to satisfy and ennoble the sentiments with which men's hearts were filled.

2. .ffiolic and Ionic Periods. Smyrna and Chios. — "We see, then, why the epic chant was first cultivated in the ^olic part of Asia Minor. Nowhere else were favorable moral forces so powerful. And, too, the bards, who in Greece proper had been attached to the Achaean princes, must have accompanied them when they emigrated. Thus, if one may use the language of legend, the head and lyre of Orpheus came to Lesbos. Of this ^olic period of epic life, however, we know nothing. The Greek epic, after becoming Ionic, forgot its origin. But this forgotten origin had, notwithstanding, been indelibly imprinted on it. For in its new form it preserved traces of the dialect -which was doubtless used in Greece proper, and which continued in use in Molic Asia ; moreover, its most ancient and beautiful production, the Iliad, is, at bottom, an ^olic lay, since it particularly celebrates the Thessalian Achilles and the ancestors of the chiefs who had led the expedition from ^Eolis.

Nevertheless it is in Ionic Asia Minor that the epic seems really to have been developed. The language of the Iliad and Odyssey is, on the whole, Ionic ;^ the manners, the cast of thought, and the sentiment have an Ionic coloring ; in short, important elements of Ionic tradition are intimately associated in the two poems with others of jiEolic origin. The only hypothesis explaining this is the admission that the old epic chants, after having seen a rapid and brilliant development in ^olia at the close of the migrations, passed thence into Ionia ; and that the Ionic genius adopted them and developed from them the epic properly so called.

This view, moreover, is confirmed indirectly by the ancient traditions, which are almost unanimous in assigning Ionia as the fatherland of Homer, the greatest representative of primitive epic. It is true that they hesitate to decide among several Ionic cities ; but for us this is of no importance. The doubt is a superficial matter ; for if we disregard merely fanciful conjectures, it is easy to see that tradition points out but two cities, Smyrna and Chios. Now Smyrna, a city of .^olic origin, which afterward became Ionic, is precisely the place for an easy fusion of the ^olic and Ionic elements, the traces of which we have just recognized ; and the neighboring island of Chios, inhabited by lonians, but in constant relation with ^olis, was no less suited to the appropriation by lonians of an ^olic art.

If Ionia had the privilege of collecting what had been made ready long before, and of giving to Greece the first work in which the real lustre of its genius is shown, she owed the privilege to certain natural advantages. She had the richest lands along the Asiatic coast. The banks of her rivers, her alluvial plains, her sunny declivities, were all easy of cultivation. Then, in spite of the wars with Lydia, the occupation of the country here had cost less blood. She enjoyed, also, unusual luxury and peace; and these favor an art which is to be developed within splendid palaces, amid scenes of

1 On the language of Homer and its component elements, see particularly the prolegomena of Christ, Iliadis Oarmina, Leipsio, 1884 ; Monro, Homeric Grammar, Oxford, 1891 ; and Seymour, Introduction to the Language and Verse of Homer, Boston, 1892.

festivity. Above all, the Greeks of the region, because of their relations with Lydia, Phrygia, Phoenicia, and so with the interior of Asia, seem to have been animated by a spirit of innovation and progress ; and because of all these advantages their poetry was the gainer.

3. Homer.i — There is a well-established tradition which attributes the first creation of the epic to one great poet, of whom antiquity almost made a god. That poet was Homer.

He had no history. Ho one knew exactly the place of his birth or death, nor even the time when he flourished. Several Ionic cities contended for the honor of being his birthplace ; others were anxious to believe that they had at least received him as a guest. All this, however, was mere rumor, based on local pretension and arbitrary conjecture. He was represented as a blind singer, who had lived in poverty, wandering from city to city, paying his hosts with poems — here received with favor, there repulsed. The various biographical notices which have come to us about him all date from the period of the Empire. They have preserved, with unimportant losses, the simple legends which were long taught in the Greek schools ; but to these no man of sense attributed real historical value. Men believed in the existence of Homer because of the evidence of his immortal works ; but no one knew anything certain or definite about him.

Modern criticism, in the face of such vague tradition, could not escape certain doubts. Without entering here upon an involved discussion, we may set forth briefly their foundation. The Iliad in its present state appears, as we shall see, to be the result of the successive labors of several poets ; but scholars are more and more agreed in the belief that the poem was at least sketched by the most ancient of them, and that he can be considered as its principal author. So then, at the beginning of the poem's evolution, there must have existed a man of genius who, by the incomparable grandeur of his invention, became the father of Greek epic. He was an Ionian, for his work was Ionic. ¥rom what is said above, we judge that he composed at Smyrna or at Chios. Smyrna granted him a cult which lasted into historic times; Chios regarded him as the eponymous ancestor of one of her most ancient families. It is not absolutely certain that his name was Homer ; for all the old poems were anony-

1 BioGKAPHT : The ancient notices are brought together in 'Westermann Vitarum Scriptores, I- VIII, Brunswick, 1841 ; and in some of the editions See also Harpocration's Lexicon, s.v. 'O/njpldai.

Consult Nitzsch, Meletematum de Historia Eomeri, fasc. 11, pars altera Kiel, 1834; Sengebusch, Dissertationes Homei-icm, I and II, in the Teubner edition of the Iliad and the Odyssey; and also the histories of Greek literature mous. It is quite possible that the name was borro-wed from some legend or taken from the mythological traditions of some family. That is really unimportant. But if the existence of the poet be established beyond doubt, there is nothing amiss in attributing to him tlie name by which he has always been recognized.

Homer can have for us no character but that which he imprinted on his work. He was a bard like those described in the Odyssey. He received epic traditions from his predecessors and transmitted them to his successors. But upon these he grafted certain elements, wholly personal, whose magnitude we shall consider farther on.

4. The Bards and their Auditors. Epic Recitations.' — In order to understand what Homer was and under what conditions he composed his works, let us bring before us the status of the bards in general, and the customs of the people whom they addressed.

Their auditors were largely the wealthy people of cities and ham-i' lets. Devoted to agriculture, and later to commerce, even to war when that was needful, the heads of families formed an aristocracy, presided over by kings who were thought to have sprung from the gods. Each one lived on a vast estate, surrounded by his sons, and by servants who were slaves or mercenaries. There he had his apartments, his treasuries, and his storehouses. In his palace there was a stately room properly called the megg^pn. It was the great hall in which the chief took his repast with his household or received his guests. The roof, sustained by pillars, had a central opening for the escape of smoke. Beneath this was a hearth, on which the fire was always burning. There the water was set to boil and the meat was roasted. The simplicity of manners accorded with that of the house. People chatted very little in the sense which we give to the word; for they had few ideas to exchange. Their utterances were short, sententious, and ready formed. On all essential ' matters, they had the opinions of tradition ; and these were never called in question.

They were especially pleased with recitations. Little given to discussion, they had no better occupation for their leisure than that of telling one another what they had seen or heard. The stranger who brought news, or who described things little understood, was welcomed with joy. In default of a stranger, professional story-tellers were in demand, who made it their business to grace the reunions of friends by chanting long recitations.

1 Consult :

Classic texts : Odyssey, I, VIII, XXII. On the iiiyapov and the Homeric palace : Buchholz, Somerische Sealien, II, Leipsic, 1883 (second part) ; W. Helbig, Das homerische Epos, Leipsic, 2d ed., 1887; Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de VArt dims VAntiquite, vols. VI and VII, I'aris, 1894 and 1898.

The bard was precisely such a story-teller. He was endowed with unusual abilities, and had educated himself appropriately for his work. He had been taught by a master, perhaps his father, to play the cithara and to declaim in rhythm in a sonorous and musical voice. He had learned the laws of versification and poetic language, and had inherited a whole series of chants composed by his master or by others. The transmission was probably oral ; for it is very doubtful whether the practice of writing was current enough to be employed for the preservation of long narratives. A good bard needed, therefore, an excellent memory. But the store of chants which he had inherited was soon exhausted. The public would consent to listen several times to certain narratives that it admired ; but, on the whole, this repetition was exceptional. To please continuously, he must offer his hearers, as much as possible, what was new. He needed, then, in his turn to compose verse narratives like those he had learned from his masters. Thus epic lays were multiplied, as dramas were multiplied later on. Some bards became renowned because the fertility of their genius made them popular. If the master of the house wished to give his guests a brilliant entertainment, he would call in some bard, just as we would call in a well-known actor or singer; and such a bard was, of course, rewarded in proportion to his fame.

Ordinarily it was at the end of the repast, in the megaron, that the bard began his narrative. When the guests had eaten and drunk their fill, he arose. All were attentive, anxious for the thrilling stories that they were to enjoy, and ready to grow enthusiastic over heroic scenes. There was a prelude, consisting of a few strains on the cithara, intended to bring the listeners to silence, and to mark the rhythm of the recitation. Then, clear and melodious, his voice rose through the great hall, modulating the verses by the mere effect of rhythm, yet not chanting them. He began with a short prayer addressed to Zeus, or to the god whom the circumstances demanded, and then immediately entered upon the story.