cult to arrive at any certain conclusion when we have to deal, not with facts, but speculations. Yet so far as critics and scholars have sifted the internal evidence, there appears to be a tolerable consensus at the present time for believing in the unity of authorship and vindicating his laurels for old Homer.

HESIOD.

The next Greek author who comes before us after Homer is Hesiod. Three works have come down to us with his name: the Works and Days,' the Theogony,' and the 'Shield of Achilles.' Hesiod is called a didactic, as contrasted with the heroic poets. He is marked by much homely hearty simplicity and earnest good sense, and would probably have written in prose, but that literature was in that early stage in which all regular compositions take a poetical form. The Works and Days' gives pictures of nature and rural economy, and describes the peaceful life of the Boeotian peasantry. There is much simplicity and purity in his sentiments, and it has been truly said that some of them embody fundamental dogmas of the Christian moral code. "The road to Vice," to quote one famous passage, "may easily be travelled by crowds; for it is smooth and her dwelling is nigh. But the path of Virtue is long, and steep, and rugged." The Theogony' is a much less valuable and original poem, and serious doubt has been cast upon its authenticity as a work of Hesiod's. It gives us the old Greek cosmogony and the traditions respecting the origin of the gods and heroes. The Shield of Achilles' forsakes didactic for heroic poetry, and on this and other accounts its authenticity is still more doubtful than that of the Theogony.' A variety of other works are attributed to Hesiod, none of which are now extant.

Hesiod has told us various particulars respecting himself in his 'Works and Days.' He was born at Ascra, at the foot of Mount Helicon in Boeotia, whither his father had emigrated from the Eolian town of Cuma in Asia Minor. In this wild wintry region he used to lead his father's flock upon the mountain, and only once crossed the Euripus, to attend a funeral solemnity, where he was a successful competitor in a contest of rival poets. He had a brother called Perses, who bribed unrighteous judges to give an unjust decree in the division of their common heritage. This unfriendly brother afterwards fell into poverty, and applied to Hesiod for relief, who addressed to him the Works and Days,' in which he gives him many precepts of conduct. In legend a violent death is said to have befallen him. Hesiod is the solitary poet of Locris and Boeotia.

There has been a great deal of discussion respecting the comparative antiquity of Homer and Hesiod. He is accounted a contemporary of Homer, and also both his senior and junior. The more prevalent belief at present is, that he flourished several generations later than Homer.

In addition to the works of Homer and Hesiod, there was some miscellaneous epic poetry belonging to the period, into which, howver, it is unnecessary to enter. (See Col. Mure, book ii. c. 22.)

THE DAWN OF GREEK HISTORY.

THE Homeric poems bring before us a vivid picture of early Greek society, of a mixed feudal and patriarchal kind. They afford us, in fact, the earliest chapter of Greek history; but it is a history which needs verification; and though the general impression is, on the whole, truthful, we cannot surely separate the facts from their incrustation of fable. We have mentioned the tendency of the Greek communities to infinite division and subdivision, which makes the history complex and deprives it of unity. On the other hand there were certain causes of attraction and coherence which tended to cement the Hellenic family, and effectually did so in

various important particulars. To such an extent, indeed, did the Hellenic feeling prevail, that they called everything non-Hellenic, barbarian. The chief influence which counteracts what may be called the centrifugal tendencies of the Greek race was that of community of language. All varieties of speech used by the Greeks were merely dialects of the common Hellenic tongue.

Another important element is to be found in those Amphictyonic assemblies, which, commencing in legendary obscurity, belong also to regular history. Originally the word Amphictyones simply denoted neighbours. Probably there were at first many Amphictyonies whose memory is now lost; in course of time the name was appropriated to one such assemblage alone. The famous Amphictyonic Council used to assemble twice a year; in the spring, at Delphi, and in the autumn, at Thermopyle. The Council chiefly legislated in matters belonging to religion, especially those relating to Apollo, in whose temple they assembled at Delphi. There were twelve tribes, and each tribe sent two deputies to the Council. Each tribe included several independent cities or states. The form of oath which they took has come down to us. Each swore "never to raze any of the Amphictyonic cities, nor to prohibit them from running water in war or peace; and, if any one transgress this, to make war upon him and raze his cities; and if any one despoil what belongs to the god (the Delphian Apollo) or be cognizant thereof, or devise aught against that which is in the temple, to punish him with foot and hand and voice and with all my might." The superiority of this Amphictyony was probably derived from the great wealth and importance which belonged to the temple at Delphi, and the Council is rarely mentioned except in connection with the temple. It was in no sense a federal or national congress, although it is not impossible that at first it may have been something of the kind. It was supposed that a perfect equality existed among the tribes, and thus places of which we scarcely know anything had an equal vote with Sparta or Argos. The very names of the tribes are a proof of the high antiquity of the Council, since

several of them have scarcely any mention in historical times. Practically, however, the Dorian vote was that of Sparta, and the Ionian vote that of Athens. But the league was formed at a time when Sparta was only one Dorian city out of several not much less important, and Athens, in the same way, only one Ionian city of others equally powerful; at a later period the Council was made an important political engine.

One of the earliest wars of which we read in Greek history is the First Sacred War, undertaken by the Amphictyonic Council, to punish the people of Crissa. Crissa, or Cirrha, was a town on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, near the temple at Delphi, which had a fertile territory stretching down to that part of the Corinthian Bay which is called the Gulf of Cirrha. It was charged against the Crisseans that they committed violence and robbery upon pilgrims who had landed at their port, and were passing through their territory to the temple. Complaint being made, the Amphictyons declared war against the city, which was carried out by the Thessalians. It is said that the war lasted ten years, and in the issue Cirrha was razed to the ground, the harbour choked up, and the plain turned into a wilder

ness.

This Temple of Delphi, so closely connected with the Amphictyonic Council, formed an important link of connection among the Greeks. The first Amphictyon was supposed to be the brother of the legendary Hellen, and this tended towards the permanence of the Hellenic name. This community of religious sentiments, localities, and sacrifices, is what Herodotus names as a bond of union among the Greeks. The Temple of Delphi is mentioned in the Iliad, and its existence doubtless extends back to a period far beyond historical knowledge. The Oracle at Delphi received presents and honours not only from people of the Hellenic race, but from Lydians, Phrygians, Etruscans, and Romans. A Greek hardly ventured to take any important step in life until he had procured the approbation of the oracle, if, indeed, a clear approbation could be extracted from the dubious enigmatic language in which the oracle was generally delivered. The priestess sat on a tripod, and under the

influence of a vapour exhaling from the rock, gave answers, far from intelligible, in hexameter verse.

At Dodona, the other famous oracular shrine, the priestesses gave their answers sitting under an oak. It is to the credit of the Greeks that, amid all their superstitions, they did not sanction the practice of human sacrifices in any Hellenic city, although we read of such in legendary poems; nor yet of mutilation, nor polygamy, nor selling into slavery-practices which unhappily abound. in the history of contemporary nations.

The great festivals of Greece were peculiarly calculated to elicit and foster a sense of kinsmanship and nationality. The oldest and most conspicuous of all these was the Olympian festival. It is probable that these games possessed in the first instance only a local interest, and were confined to a few neighbouring villages. In process of time they expanded into an immense national festival, open to all Greeks, to which came those who claimed Hellenic origin from all parts of the known world. The Olympian Games were post-Homeric, for we find no mention of them in epic poetry, and they serve as the original landmark for historical computations. An Olympiad was the clear period of four years which elapsed between each return of the festival. The festival was therefore celebrated every fifth year on the banks of the Alpheus, in the territory of Elis, and lasted for four days. A sacred truce was proclaimed at the period of celebration, to last during the games, and for a period sufficient to enable strangers to return home in safety. The whole regulation of the festival was confided to the Eleans. They appointed the judges of the contests (Hellanodica), who received a long special training for their duties. Originally, Pisa claimed an equal share in the administration of affairs, and this led to a lasting feud between the two states, which only terminated in the annihilation of Pisa. The games, remote in their origin, were said to have been revived by Iphitus, king of Elis, and Lycurgus, the Spartan legislator. The first year of the first Olympiad corresponds to the date 776 B.C.

At these games there were various trials of strength and skill. There were races on foot, with horses and