Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/253

 HELLENIC PEOPLE GENERALLY. 237 Comprised in it. At first, it seemed to have expressed more cf repugnance than of contempt, and repugnance especially towards the sound of a foreign language. 1 Afterwards, a feeling of their own superior intelligence (in part well justified) arose among the Greeks, and their term barbarian was used so as to imply a low state of the temper and intelligence ; in which sense it was retained by the semi-Hellenized Romans, as the proper antithesis to their state of civilization. The want of a suitable word, cor- responding to barbarian, as the Greeks originally used it, is so inconvenient in the description of Grecian phenomena and senti- ments, that I may be obliged occasionally to use the word in its primitive sense. The Hellens were all of common blood and parentage, were all descendants of the common patriarch Hellen. In treat- ing of the historical Greeks, we have to accept this as a datum : it represents the sentiment under the influence of which they moved and acted. It is placed by Herodotus in the front rank, as the chief of those four ties which bound together the Hellenic aggregate: 1. Fellowship of blood ; 2. Fellowship of language ; 3. Fixed domiciles of gods, and sacrifices, common to all ; 4. Like manners and dispositions. These (say the Athenians, in their reply to the Spartan envoys, in the very crisis of the Persian invasion) " Athens will never disgrace herself by betraying." And Zeus Hellenius was recog- Grecks ; he proscribes their medicine altogether, and admits only a slight taste of their literature : " Quod bonum sit eorum literas inspicere, non per discere Jurarunt inter se, Barbaras necare omnes medicinal, sed hoc ipsum mercede faciunt, ut fides iis sit et facile disperdant. Nos quoque dictitant Barbaras ct spurios, nosque magis quam alios, Opicos appellatione foedant." 1 Kapuv iiyriaaTo (3ap[3aoo<puvuv, Homer, Iliad, ii. 867. Homer does not nse the word pap(3apoi, or any words signifying either a Hellen generally or a non-Hellen generally (Thucyd. i. 3). Compare Strabo, viii. p. 370; and xiv. p. 662. Ovid reproduces the primitive sense of the word /3upf3apof, when he speaks of himself as an exile at Tomi (Trist. v. 10-37) : " Barbaras hie ego sum, quia non intelligor ulli." The Egyptians had a word in thei language, the exact equivalent of pap- this sense (Herod, ii. 158).