CHAPTER III. CHAP. FOREIGN SETTLERS IN GREECE. - Authority of the Traditions concerning Foreign Settlers in - of the traditions foreign In a comparatively late period, that which followed Authority the rise of a historical literature among the Greeks, we find a belief generally prevalent, both in the people concerning and among the learned, that in ages of very remote settlers in antiquity, before the name and dominion of the Pelas- Greece. gians had given way to that of the Hellenic race, foreigners had been led by various causes from distant lands to the shores of Greece, and there had planted colonies, founded dynasties, built cities, and introduced useful arts and social institutions, before unknown to the ruder natives. The same belief has been almost universally adopted by the learned of modern times, many of whom, regarding the general fact as sufficiently established, have busied themselves in discovering fresh traces of such migrations, or in investigating the effects produced by them on the moral and intellectual character, the religious or political condition, of the Greeks. It required no little boldness to venture even to throw out a doubt as to CHAP. III. the truth of an opinion sanctioned by such high authority, and by the prescription of such a long and undisputed possession of the public mind; and perhaps it might never have been questioned, if the inferences drawn from it had not provoked a jealous inquiry into the grounds on which it rests. When however this spirit was once awakened, it was perceived that the current stories of these ancient settlements afforded great room for reasonable distrust, not merely in the marvellous features they exhibit, but in the still more suspicious fact, that with the lapse of time their number seems to increase and their details to be more accurately known, and that the further we go back the less we hear of them, till, on consulting the Homeric poems, we lose all traces of their existence. We can here neither affect to disregard the controversies that are still agitated on this subject, and repeat the common traditions without warning the reader of their questionable character, nor can we discuss the arguments of either side. But as it seems possible, and even necessary, to take a middle course between the old and the new opinions, it will be proper to explain why we cannot embrace either with an unqualified assent. A slight inspection of the Greek stories about the foreign settlers seems sufficient to show, that neither the authority on which they rest, nor their internal evidence, is such as to satisfy a cautious inquirer. We must here briefly notice their leading features. The principal colonies brought to Greece from the East are said to have been planted in Argolis, on the Legend of opposite side of the Saronic gulf, and in Boeotia. The Pelasgians were still masters of the plain of Argos, when Danaus, driven out of Egypt by domestic feuds, landed on the coast, was raised to the throne by the consent of the natives, and founded a town, afterwards the citadel of Argos, and known by the Pe Danaus. lasgian name Larissa. He is said to have given his name to the warlike Danai, once so celebrated, that Homer uses this as a general appellation for the Greeks, when that of Hellenes was still confined to a narrow range. The later Argives showed his tomb in their market-place, and many other monuments of his presence. The popular belief is confirmed by the testimony of Herodotus, who mentions the migration of Danaus without any distrust, and even learnt in Egypt the name of the city from which he came : and the historian's evidence appears to be backed by an independent tradition, which he found existing at Rhodes, that Danaus had landed there on his passage, and founded a temple at Lindus, which was dedicated to the goddess Athene, whom, with the Romans, we name Minerva, and to which, in the sixth century B.C., Amasis king of Egypt sent offerings in honour of its Egyptian origin. This is the naked abstract of the tradition; and when so related, stripped of all its peculiar circumstances, it may seem perfectly credible, as well as amply attested. On the other hand, the popular legend exhibits other features, apparently original, and not to be separated from its substance, which are utterly incredible, and can scarcely be explained without transporting the whole narrative out of the sphere of history into that of religious fable. All authors agree that Danaus fled to Greece, accompanied by a numerous family of daughters (fifty is the received poetical number,) to escape from the persecution of their suitors, the sons of his brother Egyptus. This is an essential part of the story, which cannot be severed from the rest without the most arbitrary violence. The Danaids, according 1 Accordingly Heffter (Die Goetterdienste auf Rhodus), p. 87., admits that, unless the whole be rejected, it must, and he conceives that it may, be accepted as a literal fact; but he has offered no explanation to reconcile others to this suppo CHAP. III. СНАР. III. Its local features. 3 to Herodotus1, founded the temple at Lindus, and instructed the Pelasgian women at Argos in the mystic rites of Demeter.2 To them too was ascribed the discovery of the springs, or the wells, which relieved the natural aridity of a part of the Argive soil. Before Herodotus, Eschylus had exhibited on the Attic stage the tragical fate of the sons of Ægyptus, who had pursued the fugitives to Greece, and, after forcing them to the altar, were slain by their hands. And still earlier their adventures had formed the subject of an epic poem. A local legend related that Lerna, the lake or swamp near Argos, had been the scene of the murder, and that the heads of the suitors were there buried, while their bodies were deposited in a separate monument. One of the main streams of Lerna derived its name from Amymoné, one of the sisters, to whom Neptune, softened by her beauty, had revealed the springs which had before disappeared at his bidding. This intimate connection between the popular legend and the peculiar character of the Argive soil, which exhibited a striking contrast between the upper part of the plain and the low grounds of Lerna, must be allowed to give some colour to the conjecture of the bolder critics, who believe the whole I II. 182. 2 II. 171. 3 The Danais, or Danaides (as it is called in the Borgia Marble; see Heeren, Werke, iii. p. 168.) from which two lines are preserved by Clem. Alex. Strom. iv. c. 19., Καὶ τότ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ὑπλίζοντο νοῶς Δαναοῖο θύγατρες Προσθεν ἐϋῤῥεῖος ποταμοῦ Neíλolo vaktos. This highest authority for the story has not been noticed by Voss, Antisymbolik. ii. p. 418., or by Mueller, Orchom. p. 109–113. In his Proleg. p. 186. (p. 125. Engl. Tr.) he expresses a doubt, which seems rather unnatural, whether the epic poet represented Danaus and Egyptus as brothers, and Danaus as coming out of Egypt. Welcker (Ep. Cycl. p. 326.) conceives the poem to have been written not long before the Telegonia of Eugamon (Ol. 53. Eusebius) "about the time when Solon, in the plan of his original poem, The Atlantis, aimed at bringing great ideas, which had been roused by his travels in Egypt, into competition with the old poetry of the heroic nobles, while in another quarter Aristeas was gratifying the natural craving for novelty which the Homeric poems had withstood long enough, by his exhibition of marvellous northern legends." But he avows that this is only an inference from the contents of the poem, the combination of the Danai with the Egyptians. Boekh, Pindar, t. iii. p. 171., still adheres to the old story. 4 Apollod. ii. 1. 5. 11. Pausanias (ii. 24. 2.) inverts the story. story of Danaus to have been of purely Argive origin, and to have sprung up out of these local accidents, though all attempts hitherto made to explain its minuter features seem to have failed.1 The Argive colonies in the east of Asia Minor might be conceived to have contributed something toward the form which it finally assumed even before Egypt was thrown open to the Greeks. But the historian cannot decide between these contending views, and must resign himself to the uncertainty of the fact, unless it can be maintained by some stronger evidence, or more satisfactorily explained. CHAP. III. supposed If we could consent to swell the list of the foreign Other settlers with the conjectures of modern critics, we Egyptian should not consider the arrival of Danaus as an in- colonies in Argolis and sulated fact. We might have spoken of Inachus, who Megaris. is called the first king of Argos, and is said to have given his name to its principal river: hence, in the mythical genealogies, he is described as a son of Oceanus, the common parent of all rivers. Yet on this ground it has sometimes been supposed that he too came to Greece across the sea. We as little venture to rely on such inferences, as to construe the fabled wanderings of Io, the daughter of Inachus, into a proof that, even before the time of Danaus, intercourse subsisted between Greece and Egypt. If, however, we turn northward of the Isthmus, we find another Egyptian prince at Megara, where, according to the tradition which Pausanias heard there, Lelex, having crossed over from Egypt, founded the dynasty which succeeded that of Car, the son of Phoroneus, and gave his name to the Leleges.2 But this solitary and ill-attested legend, which was manifestly occasioned by the ancient rivalry of the Carian and 1 A specimen, not among the least ingenious and plausible, may be found in Rückert's Dienst der Athene, p. 123. |