Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/106

 62 General History oj Europe feet, doing their bidding ; but he was also the god of trade and commerce. The goddess of love the Greeks called Aphrodite. 88. Human Traits of the Gods. All these divinities the Greeks pictured in human form, possessing human traits, both good and bad. Homer describes to us the family quarrels between the august Zeus and his wife Hera, just as such things must have occurred in the household life of the Greeks. The gods were not likely, therefore, to require anything better in the conduct of men. One reason why the Greeks did not yet think that the gods required right conduct of men was their notion of life after death. They believed that all men passed at death into a gloomy kingdom beneath the earth (Hades), where the fate of good men did not differ from that of the wicked. As a special favor of the gods, the heroes, men of mighty and godlike deeds, were granted im- mortality and permitted to enjoy a life of endless bliss in the beautiful Elysian Fields or in the Islands of the Blest, somewhere far to the west, toward the unexplored ocean. 89. Summary of the Age of the Kings. In this period the Greeks, after conquering their predecessors the ^geans and largely destroying their higher civilization, gradually changed from a wandering shepherd life to a settled life in and around small towns. Thus arose the little city-kingdoms, the most im- portant form of organized life among the Greeks. At the same time, with the rise of the hero songs and the introduction of an oriental alphabet, the Greeks produced the earliest European literature which has survived. In general, then, the Age of the Kings saw the barbarian Greek shepherds forming civilized states, with government, writing, and literature (1000-750 B.C.). IV. GREEK COLONIES AND BUSINESS 90. Greek Colonization (vso-eoo B.C.). The Greeks gradually became traders and began to establish colonies about the year 750 B.C. Many of those who had been trying to gain a living by cultivating the land emigrated to the new colonies. By 600 B. c. the Greeks had established settlements all around the Black Sea.