Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/113

 HEROIC LEGENDS.- GENEALOGY OP ARGOS. 81 alogy was made to satisfy at once the appetite of the Greeks for romantic adventure, and their demand for an unbroken line of fil- iation between themselves and the gods. The eponymous person- age, from whom the community derive their name, is sometimes the begotten son of the local god, sometimes an indigenous man sprung from the earth, which is indeed itself divinized. It will be seen from the mere description of these genealogies that they included elements human and historical, as well as ele- ments divine and extra-historical. And if we could determine the time at which any genealogy was first framed, we should be able to assure ourselves that the men then represented as present, to- gether with their fathers and grandfathers, were real persons ot flesh and blood. But this is a point which can seldom be ascertain- ed ; moreover, even if it could be ascertained, we must at once set it aside, if we wish to look at the genealogy in the point of view of the Greeks. For to them, not only all the members were alike real, but the gods and heroes at the commencement were in a cer- tain sense the most real ; at least, they were the most esteemed and indispensable of all. The value of the genealogy consisted, not in its length, but in its continuity ; not (according to the feel- ing of modern aristocracy) in the power of setting out a prolong- ed series of human fathers and grandfathers, but in the sense of ancestral union with the primitive god. And the length of the series is traceable rather to humility, inasmuch as the same per- son who was gratified with the belief that he was descended from a god in the fifteenth generation, would have accounted it crimi- nal insolence to affirm that a god was his father or grandfather. In presenting to the reader those genealogies which constitute the supposed primitive history of Hellas, I make no pretence to dis- tinguish names real and historical from fictitious creations ; partly because I have no evidence upon which to draw the line, and part- ly because by attempting it I should altogether depart from the genuine Grecian point of view. Nor is it possible to do more than exhibit a certain selection of such as were most current and interesting ; for the total number of them which found place in Grecian faith exceeds computation. As a general rule, every deme, every gens, every aggregate of men accustomed to combined action, religious or political, had its own. The small and unimportant demes into which Attica wn? VOL. i. 4* Goc.