Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/131

 no Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. impetuous torrents, the palace where the father of gods and men — Zeus pater — held his court. The state of affairs which followed on the Dorian invasion and the foundation of New Ionia maintained itself down to the Macedonian conquest ; its character is well defined, in so far at least as the term is applicable to the private individuals and human societies composing it. Of course a day will come when Asiatic Hellas, first subdued by the Mermnadae, then by the Achemenidae, will lose the start she had obtained in early times ; when the true head-centres of the Greek world will be found in Europe, on continental Greece, because she possesses the enor- mous advantage of being covered against Oriental attacks by that sea which long familiarity turned into the most faithful ally the Greeks ever had. Many cities, Sparta, Thebes, and Athens, will strive for supremacy, and each succeed in turn ; con- federations of shorter or longer duration will gather around one or other of the centres laying claims to " hegemony " ; balance however will be assured to the several ethnic groups, and their stability will remain unshaken through every change, lonians, ^Eolians, and Dorians, whether in Asia or Europe, will retain the territorial situation which the return of the Heracleids and the displacements inherent thereto had given them. The distribution of these primitive elements will not be modified, nor will balance of forces be seriously disturbed by the destruction of two or three towns, in that like the Messenians and Plataeans they will be sure to return sooner or later to their former homes. What remains is a constituted Greece, set upon bases that will keep steadfast throughout the great movements of expansion and colonization of the eighth and seventh centuries b.c, when wider horizons shall open to Greek activity, especially towards the west, where the diameter within which its creative genius moves will be lengthened out to an enormous extent. Our conception of the first period of this history has been briefly indicated ; it may be called its prologue, whilst our notion of it will be found in the picture we shall subsequently trace of the successive phases which industry and the arts of drawing underwent among tribes of Hellenic speech and blood. All we could do in this place was to note its main lines and general results; details and critical analysis must be sought elsewhere. In regard to Greek