Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/83

 62 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. At Thera, amidst the rubbish of dwellings older than the volcanic eruptions, are found vases whose shapes and ornamental forms will still be reproduced with pleasure by the art of an age within the historical cycle. Is not this a strong presumption in favour of the conjecture propounded by ancient tradition, and confirmed moreover by the finds of modern research ? Nor is this by any means the sum of what tradition and archaeology alike permit us to divine of that dim past ; they are not content with giving us a faint vision of the life which began to stir in the Archipelago in those early days, whose remoteness it would be vain to try and fix, even though in a vague and hypothetical fashion, or to affirm that in all likelihood the race which gave the impetus was the same which led the movement to its ultimat;e goal, and drew from it the most brilliant civiliz- ation the world has yet seen. By the light of this double torch we can mount further back still ; we can confidently assert that this race was originally divided into numerous small nationalities, and that during a period whose duration is not specified, they incessantly whirled round a sea pre-eminently favourable by its configuration to perpetual displacements. Some among these peoples, the Leleges and Ilians for example, vanished, leaving no trace after them save a name. Others, such as the Phrygians, Carians, and Lydians, after a long sea-faring and adventurous life settled down peacefully in the west and south of Asia Minor, where they founded states of a certain importance. Finally, others whom fortuitous circumstances brought in close proximity to one another, were further gathered together by community of civil and religious institutions. They built up the Greek nation. The separation and the differences which served to mark them from their kinsmen, whose destiny was to be so different, did not take place until very late. Homer does not yet oppose the Greeks to the Barbarians. Reading the Ih'ad we might think that all the actors in the drama, no matter the side on which they fight or the country whence they come, speak the same language and worship the same gods. If this is so, it is not so much because the poet in his simplicity is as little concerned as our old chansoniers de geste with what is called local colouring, as that the world in which he lives is as yet destitute of those sharply-defined differences and strong contrasts which a twofold concentration of these tribes was. later to produce,