Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/113

 SOC1LTY OF LEGENDARY GREECE. 97 altogether to be admitted : it is the protection of society which dictates, and the force of society which inflicts, a measure of punishment calculated to deter for the future. 3. The society of legendary Greece includes, besides the chiefs, the general mass of freemen (AaoJ), among whom stand out by special names certain professional men, such as the car- penter, the smith, the leather-dresser, the leech, the prophet, the bard, and the fisherman. 1 We have no means of appreciating their condition. Though lots of arable land were assigned in special property to individuals, with boundaries both carefully marked and jealously watched, 2 yet the larger proportion of sur- face was devoted to pasture. Cattle formed both the chief item in the substance of a wealthy man, the chief means of making payments, and the common ground of quarrels, bread and meat, in large quantities, being the constant food of every one. 3 The estates of the owners were tilled, and their cattle tended, mostly by bought slaves, but to a certain degree also by poor freemen called Thetes, working for hire and for stated periods. The prin- cipal slaves, who were intrusted with the care of large herds of oxen, swine, or goats, were of necessity men worthy of confidence, their duties placing them away from their master's immediate 1 Odyss. xvii. 384 ; xix. 135. Iliad, iv. 187; vii. 221. I know nothing which better illustrates the idea of the Homeric 6rj/j.ioepyoi, the herald, the prophet, the carpenter, the leech, the bard, etc., than the following descrip- tion of the structure of an East Indian village (Mill's History of British India, b. ii. c. 5, p. 266) : "A village, politically considered, resembles a cor- poration or township. Its proper establishment of officers and servants con- sists of the following descriptions: the potail, or head inhabitant, who settles disputes and collects the revenue, etc. ; the curnum, who keeps the accounts of cultivation, etc. ; the tallier ; the boundary-man ; the superinten- dent of tanks and water-courses ; the Brahman, who performs the village worship ; the schoolmaster ; the calendar Brahman, or astrologer, who pro- claims the lucky or unpropitious periods for sowing or thrashing ; the smith and carpenter; the potter; the washerman ; the barber; the cowkeeper; the doctor ; the dancing-girl who attends at rejoicings ; the musician, and the poet." Each of these officers and scrvantr, (cfy/uofpyd) is remunerated by a defi- nite perquisite so much landed jrodu<:e out of the general crop of tho Tillage (p. 264J. 1 Iliad, xii. 421 ; xxi. 405. 1 Iliad, i. 155 ; ix. 154; xiv. 122 TOL. II. 5 70C.