Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/84

 The People. 63 bringing into existence, on the one hand, the Hellenic body, and on the other the Phrygian and Lydian kingdoms, as well as the townships of Caria and Lycia. At first all these tribes were mixed up together and had no fixed abode ; they roved about and pressed forward in bands wherever they thought they could best live, settling down on spots made attractive by the fertility of the soil and the facility it afforded for barter. Gradually, however, and within the historical period, the several groups con- stituted themselves and got a firm foothold in the lands to which they attached their names. The migrating wave was first from east to west, from the Asiatic coasts to the shores of Europe. From their strongholds which guarded the entrance to the Helles- pont, Dardanians and Ilians allowed themselves to be wafted by the breeze towards the southern sea, in quest of adventure and booty. They were in truth hardy mariners and pirates. This is attested by the rape of Helen, and still more by the names of Troy and Ilium, of Simois and Scamander, scattered along the coasts.^ The Phrygians were supposed to have given kings to Argolis and carried thither their treasures. Cupola-tombs are found both around the Bay of Smyrna, in the old kingdom of Tantalus, and the eastern shores of Hellas. The chief build- ings of the Leleges are to be seen on the Asiatic continent ; tombs and fortified walls which meet us in Lycia and Caria, and bear upon them unmistakable signs of hoary antiquity, were attributed to them. So, too, they were held at Miletus as having been the earliest inhabitants of the country ; Homer makes Priam fetch a Lelegian wife from the woody heights of Ida;* and their passage is to be traced also all over the shores of the Hellenic peninsula, notably along the coasts of iElis, Messenia, and Laconia. The latter, it was affirmed, originally bore the name of Lelegia. At Megara, the hero Lelex headed the list of princes enumerated in the local history. As to the Carians, who may be called the doubles of the Leleges, they were spoken of as having been at Megara, whilst certain noble Athenian families claimed Carians among their ancestors. Again, they ruled that the Carians had once held undisputed sway over the Archipelago, during a period not otherwise specified, ^ See Klausen, juntas und die Penaten^ where all the sites bearing the names refenred to are carefully marked out. 2 Iliad, xxi. 85-88.