himself was its harbinger, when the contrast between Greek and barbarian should be thought to swallow up all other distinctions in the human race. II. The laws and institutions of a people can never be wholly separated from the history of its manners, and are most intimately connected with it in a period, when, as among the Greeks of the heroic age, law and custom have not yet been discriminated, and are both expressed by the same word. Still it is in the relations which afford the widest range for individual freedom, that national character is most clearly unfolded. We shall here touch on a few, which may serve to mark the character of the Greeks, and the stage which society had reached among them, in the period which Homer describes. CHAP. VI. B.C. 1184. relations of the sexes. The intercourse between the sexes, though much Mutual more restricted than by modern European usages, was perhaps subject to less restraint than in the later times of Greece. If it is entirely destitute of the chivalrous devotion which has left so deep a tinge in our manners, it displays more of truth and simplicity in the degree of respect which the stronger sex pays to the weaker. Before marriage, young persons of different sex and family saw each other only in public, and then at a distance, except when some festival might chance to bring them nearer to each other: as a picture of public rejoicing in the Iliad exhibits youths and virgins of rank linked together in the dance, as well as promiscuously joining in a vintage procession.' But the simplicity of the heroic way of life not unfrequently drew the maiden out of doors to discharge various household offices, which were afterwards confined to slaves; for it was thought no more degrading to a young princess to carry her urn to the fountain 2, than 'xviii. 567.593. Od. vii. 20. x. 107. Pindar, Ol. vi. 67. Od. xv. 428. CHAP. for her brother to tend his father's flocks and herds.1 It was to an occasion still more homely, according to B.C. 1184. modern prejudices, that Ulysses is represented as owing his first meeting with the daughter of king Alcinous. And it seems to have been not unusual for young women of the highest quality to attend on the guests of the family in situations which appear strangely revolting to modern delicacy.2 The father disposed of the maiden's hand with absolute authority: but yet it does not seem that the marriage contract was commonly regarded in the light of a bargain and sale.3 Presents were interchanged, probably proportioned on both sides to the means of the parties. If the connection was dissolved by the wife's infidelity, her friends seem to have been bound to restore what they had received; and if the wife or the widow 6 was forced, without her fault, to return to her father's house, she was entitled to carry her portion back with her. in this age of heroic enterprise, wealth, and even rank or birth, did not perhaps more powerfully recommend a suitor, than strength, courage, and dexterity 1 Od. xiii. 223., and Eustathius, Il. vi. 25. But 2 Thus in Od. iii. 464., Nestor's daughter is said to have assisted Telemachus in bathing, anointing, and dressing himself; and in Il. v. 905., Hebe appears to render like services to Mars. In Od. vi. 210., we find Nausicaa ordering her female attendants to attend on Ulysses for the same purpose; but the hero declines their assistance, expressly on the motive which, according to our feelings, should have prevented it from being offered. Yet almost immediately after, in the house of Alcinous, he gladly accepts from them the same attendance which his son is described as receiving from Pericaste. A comparison of these data seems to prove that the common usage cannot have included any thing grossly offensive, even to our more refined conceptions of decency. 3 Compare, however, Od. xv. 367. xviii. 279. with the constant epithet ἀλφεσίβοιαι. 4 Il. ix. 146. xiii. 366. In the second of these passages Schneider (Lex. s. v.) thinks that the word avάedvov, which in the former passage clearly refers to the presents made by the bridegroom, relates to the marriage portion, and is equivalent to ampоikos; and so it was understood by some of the ancients (see Eustath.). But this interpretation seems very questionable: it would rather appear that the aid promised by Othryoneus was to supply the place of the ordinary presents. But the former of these passages alone would show the necessity of qualifying Aristotle's assertion (De Rep. I. 5.) σιδηροφοροῦντό τε γὰρ οἱ Ἕλληνες, καὶ τὰς γυναίκας éwvouvто Tаp' àλλýλwv. on which Van Limburg Brouwer (Civilisation des Grecs, i. p. 160.) appears to lay too much stress. Od. viii. 318. 6 Od. ii. 133., and the commentators. VI. in manly sports and martial exercises; and these CHAP. qualities seem often to have been tried by a public competition, or by the undertaking of some difficult B.C. 1184. adventure.1 It accords with this usage, that in many parts of Greece, as among the ancient Romans, the nuptial ceremony wore the show of a forcible abduction of the bride.2 character. Homer has drawn a pleasing picture of maidenly Female simplicity, filial tenderness, and hospitable kindness, in the person of the Phæacian princess Nausicaa, one of his most amiable creations: yet he seems to dwell with still greater satisfaction on the matronly dignity and conjugal devotion, which command our respect and admiration in a Penelopé, an Areté, and an Andromaché. If indeed we should draw our notions as to the state of domestic society in the heroic age from these characters, we might be in danger of estimating it too favourably. But the poet himself furnishes hints which may serve to correct this impression, especially when combined with certain mythical traditions, which, however fabulous in their origin, show the view which the later Greeks took of the manners of their ancestors. The stories of the loves of the gods, the adventures of a crowd of heroines, like Tyro, and Æthra, Creusa, and Coronis, seem clearly to intimate, that female purity was not very highly valued. Nausicaa calmly declares, that she herself disapproves of stolen interviews between maidens and their lovers, and that she is therefore the more desirous of avoiding the suspicions which she would certainly incur, if she were seen accompanied by a stranger on her return into the town. In like manner numberless tales of the heroic mytho 1 Apollod. 1. 9. 12. 1. Dio. Chrys. i. p. 325. Reisk. * This may be inferred, not merely from the Spartan and Cretan usages, but from the religious rites and legends founded on this custom, as to which see Welcker,, Ueber eine Kretische Kolonie in Theben, p. 68. It is interesting to observe the close resemblance between the Spartan usage described by Plutarch (Lycurg. c. 15.) and that of the modern Circassians related by Klaproth, Tableau du Caucase, p. 80. CHAP. B.C. 1184. Friendship. logy, such as those of Helen, and Clytemnestra, Antæa, Phædra, and Alcmena, suggest the conclusion, that the faithlessness of the wife-which was undoubtedly often provoked, as in the family of Phonix 1, by the inconstancy of the husband was not considered either as an event of rare occurrence, or an offence of great enormity. And here again the Homeric poems seem to confirm the inference, not only by the respect with which we find Helen treated by the family of her paramour, but by the manner in which she is introduced in the Odyssey, which still more plainly marks the wide difference between the feelings of the ancient Greeks, and those of modern civilised Europeans, in this respect. She there appears restored to her home and to her rank, enjoying the unabated confidence and esteem of her injured husband, and neither afflicted by the consciousness of her fault, nor blushing to allude to it. One of the noblest and most amiable sides of the Greek character is the readiness with which it lent itself to contract intimate and durable friendships; and this is a feature no less prominent in the earliest, than in later times. It was indeed connected with the comparatively low estimation in which female society was held: but the devotedness and constancy with which these attachments were maintained, was not the less admirable and engaging. The heroic companions whom we find celebrated, partly by Homer, and partly in traditions, which if not of equal antiquity, were grounded on the same feeling, seem to have but one heart and soul, with scarcely a wish or object apart, and only to live, as they are always ready to die, for one another. It is true that the relation between them is not always one of perfect equality but this is a circumstance, which, while it often adds a peculiar charm to the poetical descrip 1I. ix. 450. Compare Od. i. 433. II. v. 71. Athen. xiii. p. 556. C. CHAP. VI. tion, detracts little from the dignity of the idea which it presents. Such were the friendships of Hercules and Iolaus, of Theseus and Pirithous, of Orestes and B.C. 1184. Pylades: and though these may owe the greater part of their fame to the later epic, or even dramatic, poetry, the moral groundwork undoubtedly subsisted in the period to which the traditions are referred. The argument of the Iliad mainly turns on the affection of Achilles for Patroclus, whose love for the greater hero is only tempered by reverence for his higher birth and his unequalled prowess. But the mutual regard which united Idomeneus and Meriones, Diomedes and Sthenelus, though, as the persons themselves are less important, it is kept more in the back-ground, is manifestly viewed by the poet in the same light. The idea of a Greek hero seems not to have been thought complete, without such a brother in arms by his side. It was a natural effect of the unsettled state of Hospitality. society in this period, that every stranger was looked upon either as an enemy or a guest. If he threw himself on those among whom he came, no other title was requisite to insure him a hospitable reception. When a traveller appears at the threshold of a princely hall, the only anxiety of the master of the house is, lest he should have been kept waiting at his gate. No question is asked as to the occasion of his coming, until he has partaken of the best cheer which the mansion can furnish: and then the inquiries addressed to him imply friendly curiosity, rather than suspicion or distrust. Indeed it was scarcely possible that any disclosure of his condition and purposes could defeat his claim to friendly entertainment. When Telemachus arrives at Pylus by sea, after he has shared the banquet of the Pylians, Nestor asks him whether he is voyaging with any fixed object, or merely roving over the sea as a pirate, bent |