Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/112

 96 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a. pent to Rhodes he can run in his vessel at almost every point. Moreover, this interpenetration of the sea conduces to healthiness of climate, it facilitates the foundation of cities and the opening of marts, with consequent contact of countries and peoples which seemed separated by nature, but which the sea has brought together. A country so favoured could not fail to become the native home of a race of hardy mariners. As soon as they turned their boats towards the main they beheld before them the coasts of the Hellenic peninsula, towards which they were led by islands close at hand, yielding halting-places from coast to coast. They could thus sail from Thessaly, through the channel of Euboea, to Attica and Argolis without losing sight of land. The European coast, too, offered everywhere safe and spacious anchorages ; here land and air seemed familiar to them, and they hardly realized that they had left their native shores. Contact with the Ionian mariners awakened the spirit of enterprise, tempting the dwellers of the Hellenic coast to quit the paternal home in quest of booty or adventure. If Ionian vessels were the first to follow on the track of the Phoenicians, this was due to the fact that the stream of civilization flowed from east to west. But whatever its origin may have been, once the wave was set in motion it never stopped, but waxed stronger, and penetrated everywhere ; and the JEgean became an inland lake, common to the races settled on the opposite coasts, owning the same descent, the same language, the same alphabet, the same arts, and, with slight differentiation, the same creed. Political and religious revolutions have been powerless to break asunder the intimate connection provided by nature and confirmed by history. If the interior is ruled by the stupid, fanatical Turk, the seaboard is as much of the Greeks as it was of yore ; and an Athenian finds himself as much at home at Smyrna as in his own native city. Intercourse was not confined to this latitude. Before ever vessels were seen on the ^gean, other routes, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, connected Europe with Asia Minor. Here the emi- grants or freebooters could cross, though ignorant of navigation, the twin straits, which are not wider than ordinary rivers. Greek etymology derived Bosphorus from dos, " bull ; " phoreo, (jyopeco, ^epco, '' to carry." The animal was supposed to have swum across it