Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/114

 The People. 93 to mind the whole of the northern lands in which the Selli of Dodona and the Phthiotian Hellenes held so large a place, and on the other Peloponnesus, often called ** Archaic Argolis/' Henceforth Hellas meant Greece beyond the Isthmus, or the half of European Greece. Towards the end of the ninth or the opening years of the eighth century B.C., Hesiod uses the designation in the sense which it will have with all classic writers.^ He too, long before the Lyric poets, employs again and again the expression ** Panhellenes," with exactly the same meaning as the Athenian orators of that and the present day.^ If the name became general, it was because it supplied a want. Step by step, through commercial progress and softening of manners, more intimate relations were established between the clans of the same race scattered round the Archipelago ; they found out that with a little trouble they could understand one another's speech, whereas beyond their own borders they met nations whose language was unintelligible to them. They were further persuaded that although local cults were undeniably pos- sessed of features which were not shared by their neighbours, in the main they had the same gods, and many of their creeds were common to all. The closer they looked into one another, the more they were convinced that resemblances far outweighed differences; the latter after all were of little account. If un- fortunately they quarrelled rather too often, as sisters they could always make it up again. As soon as they became conscious of their primordial unity, they cast about for a generic name which should separate them from people whom they called " Barbarians," stammerers, the folk whose language they did not understand. This name the lonians seemed pre-eminently qualified to furnish ; and at first sight they look as if they had a much better right thereto than the uncouth mountaineers of Hellopia. If matters turned out differently, it was because the need of a common name was first felt on continental Greece, where the several groups which collectively built up the Greek nation were thickly pressed together, and consequently had to live in closer proximity the one to the other. In Europe, the main, the decisive action 1 Hesiod, Works and Days, Thucydides, whilst endeavouring to account for the reasons why the name should not only have been diffused but have prevailed, admits that considerable time was required to bring it about. 2 Hesiod, Works and Days.