GENERAL SURVEY OF THE GREEK PEOPLE--NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
The Greeks, as we have already seen, were divided into many independent
communities, but several causes bound them together as one people. Of
these the most important were community of blood and
language--community of religious rites and festivals--and community of
manners and character.
All the Greeks were descended from the same ancestor and spoke the same
language. They all described men and cities which were not Grecian by
the term BARBARIAN. This word has passed into our own language, but
with a very different idea; for the Greeks applied it indiscriminately
to every foreigner, to the civilized inhabitants of Egypt and Persia,
as well as to the rude tribes of Scythia and Gaul.
The second bond of union was a community of religious rites and
festivals. From the earliest times the Greeks appear to have
worshipped the same gods; but originally there were no religious
meetings common to the whole nation. Such meetings were of gradual
growth, being formed by a number of neighbouring towns, which entered
into an association for the periodical celebration of certain religious
rites. Of these the most celebrated was the AMPHICTYONIC COUNCIL. It
acquired its superiority over other similar associations by the wealth
and grandeur of the Delphian temple, of which it was the appointed
guardian. It held two meetings every year, one in the spring at the
temple of Apollo at Delphi, and the other in the autumn at the temple
of Demeter (Ceres) at Thermopylae. Its members, who were called the
Amphictyons, consisted of sacred deputies sent from twelve tribes, each
of which contained several independent cities or states. But the
Council was never considered as a national congress, whose duty it was
to protect and defend the common interests of Greece; and it was only
when the rights of the Delphian god had been violated that it invoked
the aid of the various members of the league.
The Olympic Games were of greater efficacy than the amphictyonic
council in promoting a spirit of union among the various branches of
the Greek race, and in keeping alive a feeling of their common origin.
They were open to all persons who could prove their Hellenic blood, and
were frequented by spectators from all parts of the Grecian world.
They were celebrated at Olympia, on the banks of the Alpheus, in the
territory of Elis. The origin of the festival is lost in obscurity;
but it is said to have been revived by Iphitus, king of Elis, and
Lycurgus the Spartan legislator, in the year 776 B.C.; and,
accordingly, when the Greeks at a later time began to use the Olympic
contest as a chronological era, this year was regarded as the first
Olympiad. It was celebrated at the end of every four years, and the
interval which elapsed between each celebration was called an Olympiad.
The whole festival was under the management of the Eleans, who
appointed some of their own number to preside as judges, under the name
of the Hellanodicae. During the month in which it was celebrated all
hostilities were suspended throughout Greece. At first the festival
was confined to a single day, and consisted of nothing more than a
match of runners in the stadium; but in course of time so many other
contests were introduced, that the games occupied five days. They
comprised various trials of strength and skill, such as wrestling
boxing, the Pancratium (boxing and wrestling combined), and the
complicated Pentathlum (including jumping, running, the quoit, the
javelin, and wrestling), but no combats with any kind of weapons.
There were also horse-races and chariot-races; and the chariot-race,
with four full-grown horses, became one of the most popular and
celebrated of all the matches.
The only prize given to the conqueror was a garland of wild olive; but
this was valued as one of the dearest distinctions in life. To have
his name proclaimed as victor before assembled Hellas was an object of
ambition with the noblest and the wealthiest of the Greeks. Such a
person was considered to have conferred everlasting glory upon his
family and his country, and was rewarded by his fellow-citizens with
distinguished honours.
During the sixth century before the Christian era three other national
festivals--the Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games--which were at first
only local became open to the whole nation. The Pythian games were
celebrated in every third Olympic year, on the Cirrhaean plain in
Phocis, under the superintendence of the Amphictyons. The games
consisted not only of matches in gymnastics and of horse and chariot
races, but also of contests in music and poetry. They soon acquired
celebrity, and became second only to the great Olympic festival. The
Nemean and Isthmian games occurred more frequently than the Olympic and
Pythian. They were celebrated once in two years--the Nemean in the
valley of Nemea between Phlius and Cleonae--and the Isthmian by the
Corinthians, on their isthmus, in honour of Poseidon (Neptune). As in
the Pythian festival, contests in music and in poetry, as well as
gymnastics and chariot-races, formed part of these games. Although the
four great festivals of which we have been speaking had no influence in
promoting the political union of Greece, they nevertheless were of
great importance in making the various sections of the race feel that
they were all members of one family, and in cementing them together by
common sympathies and the enjoyment of common pleasures. The frequent
occurrence of these festivals, for one was celebrated every gear,
tended to the same result.
The Greeks were thus annually reminded of their common origin, and of
the great distinction which existed between them and barbarians. Nor
must we forget the incidental advantages which attended them. The
concourse of so large a number of persons from every part of the
Grecian world afforded to the merchant opportunities for traffic, and
to the artist and the literary man the best means of making their works
known. During the time of the games a busy commerce was carried on;
and in a spacious hall appropriated for the purpose, the poets,
philosophers, and historians were accustomed to read their most recent
works.
The habit of consulting the same oracles in order to ascertain the will
of the gods was another bond of union. It was the universal practice
of the Greeks to undertake no matter of importance without first asking
the advice of the gods; and there were many sacred spots in which the
gods were always ready to give an answer to pious worshippers. The
oracle of Apollo at Delphi surpassed all the rest in importance, and
was regarded with veneration in every part of the Grecian world. In
the centre of the temple of Delphi there was a small opening in the
ground, from which it was said that a certain gas or vapour ascended.
Whenever the oracle was to be consulted, a virgin priestess called
PYTHIA took her seat upon a tripod which was placed over the chasm.
The ascending vapour affected her brain, and the words which she
uttered in this excited condition were believed to be the answer of
Apollo to his worshippers. They were always in hexameter verse, and
were reverently taken down by the attendant priests. Most of the
answers were equivocal or obscure; but the credit of the oracle
continued unimpaired long after the downfall of Grecian independence.
A further element of union among the Greeks was the similarity of
manners and character. It is true the difference in this respect
between the polished inhabitants of Athens and the rude mountaineers of
Acarnania was marked and striking; but if we compare the two with
foreign contemporaries, the contrast between them and the latter is
still more striking. Absolute despotism human sacrifices, polygamy,
deliberate mutilation of the person as a punishment, and selling of
children into slavery, existed in some part or other of the barbarian
world, but are not found in any city of Greece in the historical times.
The elements of union of which we have been speaking only bound the
Greeks together in common feelings and sentiments: they never produced
any political union. The independent sovereignty of each city was a
fundamental notion in the Greek mind. This strongly rooted feeling
deserves particular notice. Careless readers of history are tempted to
suppose that the territory of Greece was divided among comparatively
small number of independent states, such as Attica, Arcadia, Boeotia,
Phocis, Locris, and the like; but this is a most serious mistake, and
leads to a total misapprehension of Greek history. Every separate city
was usually an independent state, and consequently each of the
territories described under the general names of Arcadia, Boeotia,
Phocis, and Locris, contained numerous political communities
independent of one another. Attica, it is true, formed a single state,
and its different towns recognised Athens as their capital and the
source of supreme power; but this is an exception to the general rule.