Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/87

 66 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. Hermus, Cayster, and Maeander. It cannot be denied that about this time, pressed by a last descent of Highlanders from Pindus into Central Greece and Peloponnesus, a great ** wandering of nations " took place ; and that Greeks from all parts, amongst whom were some of Ionian blood, swarmed towards the coasts of Asia Minor. The latter, however, in all probability were but returning to their cradle-land, to join their brethren who had never stirred from their native homes. Athens was in no mood to remember these events ; whilst the turn she gave to the exodus of the fugitives whom Attica had welcomed and sheltered for a time, soon caused them to be forgotten. This is not the place to take up and discuss the texts and arguments to which Curtius appeals in support of his thesis ; it will be enough if we cite the passage in his Greek History^ wherein they are justified and summed up. Glancing back to remind the reader that the starting-point of the Dorians was known, and that their progress could be traced stage by stage, he concludes thus : ** As to the lonians, no tradition existed. Their spread and settlements accordingly belong to an earlier time. The localities in which they are first found are islands and tracts of coast ; their migrations, as far as they are known, are mari- time expeditions ; their life that of a maritime people, at home on shipboard ; and nothing but the sea unites together their widely- scattered settlements. But before they spread thus far they must assuredly have dwelt together in a common home, where in language and manners they developed all their peculiarities, and found the means for so vast an extension. But a connected great Ionic country is only to be found in Asia Minor." ^ Athens gave herself a literary language which, though bearing the impress of her own personality, betrays its Ionic origin. The farther we carry back the date when the Ionian group constituted itself, the better we shall understand the vastness of the domain over which it diffused its speech, colouring it with its own special hue. Finally, careless of contradicting themselves, the Athenians in their Atthidi or histories of Attica put forth certain statements which not even their ingenuity could reconcile with the system which their pride had so craftily trumped up. The authors of these writings had gathered together all the local traditions sedulously preserved, either by domestic worship or by that of ^ E. Curtius, Greek History.