Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/90

 The People. 69 went that this expedition had been started and carried through by Pelops, the son of Tantalus, a hero who had originally come from Sipylus and his Phrygian kingdom. But although the exact site and the manner in which the union had been effected were forgotten, between the foreign dynasty and the Achaean warriors, after the crossing of the isthmus the fusion was com- plete.^ Ere long these immigrants made for themselves, in their new seats, a large and superior position. The grandsons of Pelops, Menelaus, and Agamemnon rule, one at Sparta, the other at Argos. In the old language Argos had the general signification of strand^ but in time it came to be applied in a special manner to the capital which the Achaeans had built them on the Inachus. It went by the name of ** Achaean Argos," in contradistinction to " Pelasgic Argos" in Thessaly. This denomination covered the plain of Inachus and the whole territory of Agamemnon, that is to say, the peninsula which has kept to this day the name of Pelops, the founder of the Achaean dynasty.^ If the Achaeans left traces of their presence and doings in localities of the Grecian world found wide apart one from the other, nowhere, at least in the beginnings of the Hellenic people's existence, do they appear in compact masses, such as the lonians in Asia, or as the Dorians somewhat later on certain points of Peloponnesus, or as the iEolians, whether in ^Elis, Boeotia, or Thessaly. Accordingly we hear neither of an Achaean language nor of an Achaean art. In fact they do not appear, properly speaking, as a popular body, but rather as a kind of military aristocracy. Rendered famous by deeds of prowess against a distant empire, they had dispersed after this mighty effort, and from that moment they appear as warlike clans, presided over by families around whose names was cast the halo of antiquity. Princes of these families command expeditions organized for the purpose of conquest or simple adventure ; and in their ranks the popular muse will seek the hero whom it will immortalize. This is why, in the majority of cases, the Achaean name in the epic serves to designate the whole army under the orders of Agamemnon ; hence too the expression, ** Sons of Achaeans," to indicate noble descent.* J Strabo, VIII. 2 "Apyoc ffdy TrapadaXdoffiov Trt&oi' (HesycHIUs). ^ CuRTius, Greek History.
 * CuRTius, Greek History ; Homer, Iliad,