Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece. Vol I., by J.A. St. John

14. Λέλεγας γάρ φασι πρότερον αὐτοὺς προσαγωρευομένους, διὰ τὸ ἀποκεντῆσαι τοὺς ἵππους προσαγορευθῆναι Ἱπποκενταύρους. Sch. Pind. Pyth. ii. 78. Cf. Schœll. Hist. de la Lit. Grecq. i. 4. seq.

15. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 1024. Cf. Winkel. Hist. de l’Art. i. 317.

16. Strab. x. 3. p. 349.

17. Strab. x. 3. p. 349. Sch. Pind. Olymp. iii. 19. Pliny, iv. 2. Eustath. ad Il. β. 637. Certain ancient writers maintained that the Ætolians were called Curetes by Homer; and at a still earlier period Hyantes, and the country Hyantis.—Steph. Byzant. v. Αἰτωλ Αἰτωλ. p. 71. a. Palm. G. Ant. p. 426.—Acarnania itself was formerly called Curetis.—Demet. ap. Steph. v. Ἀθῆν. p. 45. a. Hard. ad Plin. iv. 2. p. 7.

18. Strab. vii. 7. p. 124. seq. Hesiod. Frag. 54. et 124. Gœttl.—A second Dodona is supposed to have existed in Thessaly.—See Thirl. Hist. of Greece, i. 36.—Cf. Buttm. Diss. de orac. Dodon. Orat. Att. vii. 133. sqq.

21. Justin. vii. 1. Thucyd. ii. 99.

22. Müller, Dor. i. 2.

23. Herod, i. 57.—On the situation of this city see Poppo, Proleg. ad Thucyd. ii. p. 383.

24. Justin, vii. 1. Æsch. Supp. p. 261. Cf. Thucyd. iv. 109.

25. Diod. v. p. 396. Wesseling.

26. Steph. Byz. v. Χαονία, p. 753. g.

27. Hermann, however, (Polit. Ant. p. 14,) imagines that the Caucons, Leleges, &c. were independent races, though less civilised and illustrious than the Pelasgi.

29. Schol. ad Aristoph. Eq. 78.

30. Aristot. Meteorol. i. 14. p. 39.—Il. π. 234. seq.

31. Steph. Byz. v. Ἔφυρα, p. 367. c. Strab. vii. 7 p. 119. See also Müll. Dor. i. 6. Plut. Pyrrh. 1.—See the authorities collected by Niebuhr, i. 26.

32. Dolops was the son of Hermes, and dying in the city of Magnesia in Thessaly, had there a tomb erected by the sea-shore. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 587. 558.

33. Palmer. Exercit. p. 527.—Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 500.—Dion. Hal. i. 3. 1.

35. Serv. ad. Æn. viii. 725.

36. Paus. iv. 36. 1. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1239.

37. Pliny, iv. 14.—Even Phthiotis itself, one of the earliest cradles of the Hellenes, is recorded to have been a Pelasgian settlement. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 14.—Cf. ad. i. 40. 580.

38. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 26.; i. 906. 580.

39. Steph. Byzant. v. Λάρισσ. p. 511. b, c, d. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 40.

40. That the Dryopes were Pelasgi, appears from this:—they received their national appellation from Dryops, son of Lycaon, (Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 1218,) who was himself the son of Pelasgos.—Suid. v. Λυκ. Cf. Etym. Mag. 154, 7. 288, 32. Paus. viii. 2. 1.

41. Just. xiii. 4.—The Epicnemidian Locrians were anciently called Leleges, and by them the channel of the Cephissos was opened to the sea.—Pliny, iv. 12. Solin. vii. p. 55. Bipont. Hesiod. Frag. 25. Gœttl. Strab. vii. 7. p. 115; ix. 1. p. 248. Scymn. Chius, p. 24.—Phot. Bib. 321. b.

42. Mnaseas of Patræ ap. Sch. Pind. Pyth. iv. 104.—Dion. Hal. (Ant. Rom. i. 31) is one of those writers who considers the Pelasgi miserable because they were wanderers. Upon this notion Palmerius remarks judiciously: “Sed si tales migrationes miseræ sunt, miserrimi olim Galli majores nostri, qui usque in Asiam, post multas errores, armis victricibus penetrâsse historiæ omnes testantur, et hoc seculo miserrimi Tartari et Arabes, qui Nomadice vivunt, et sedes identidem mutantes, non se miseros existimant, et id genus vitæ Attalicis conditionibus mutare recusarent.”—Græc. Antiq. p. 60.

43. According to the reading of Callisthenes, Homer himself fixes their residence in Paphlagonia.—Cf. Strab. xiii. p. 16. viii. p. 157. Sch. Hom. Υ. 329.—Unless we adopt this reading we must suppose with the Scholiast, that they were not separately mentioned in the catalogue, because Homer confounded them with the Leleges, or because they arrived late in the war.

44. Οἱ μὲν Σκύθας φασὶν, οἱ δὲ τῶν Μακεδόνων τινὰς, οἱ δὲ τῶν Πελασγῶν. Strab. xiii. p. 16.—To the same tradition alludes the Scholiast: Ἔθνος Παφλαγονίας, οἱ δὲ Σκυθίας· οἱ δὲ τοὺς λεγομένους Καυνίους εἴπον. Il. κ. 429.

45. In the dialect of the Dryopes, this mountain was known by the name of Βηλὸς, by which word the Chaldæans denoted the highest circle of the heavens.—Etym. Mag. 196. 19 seq.

47. Paus. viii. 38. 2. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 599. Meurs. Cypr. i. 28. p. 76. Steph. Byzant. v. Ὄλυμπ. p. 612. e.—Mention, moreover, is made of an eighth Olympos in Cilicia. (Sch. Apoll. ut sup.)—A ninth in Lycia. (Plin. xxi. 7.)

48. Phot. Bib. 139. a. 12. 25. Herod. vii. 42. cf. i. 57. Pomp. Mela. i. 19.

49. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 40.

51. Plato, Cratyl. I. iv. p. 58.—See, likewise, Müller (Dor. i. 9–11), where, however, too much ingenuity by far is displayed. Another proof of relationship is supplied by Homer (Il. ρ. 288) who represents Hippothoös, a Pelasgian, insulting the body of Patroclos.—Strab. xiii. 3. p. 142.—Niebuhr (i. 28) conjectures that the Trojans were not a Phrygian, but a Pelasgian tribe; though, in reality, both Phrygians and Trojans sprang from the same stock.

52. Strab. xiii. 3. p. 144.

53. Paus. vii. 2. 8.

54. W. f. 7. p. 114.—The Carians themselves are said to have lived habitually amid inaccessible rocks.—Schol. Arist. Av. 292.

57. Paus. vii. 2. 8. Steph. Byzant. v. Ἀγύλλα, p. 30, d. Ed. Berkel.

58. Athen. xv. 12. Thirl. Hist. of Greece, i. 43. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 14.

59. Pliny, ii. 31. Steph. de Urb. v. Μίλετ. p. 559. b. c. Eustath. in Dion. Perieg. 825. 456. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 186.

60. Il. φ. 86. Cf. Sch. ad κ. 429.

61. A glimpse of this fact is obtained from a tradition preserved by Hecatæos:—Τοὺς δὲ Λέλεγας τινὲς μὲν τοὺς αὐτοὺς Καρσὶν εἰκὰζουσιν. Strab. vii. 7. p. 114. From other authorities we learn that the Carians were regarded as Pelasgians.—Habitator incertæ originis. Alii indigenas, sunt qui Pelasgos, quidam Cretas existimant. Pomp. Mela, i. 16.—See likewise Barnes ad Eurip. Heracl. 317. But the strongest testimony is that of Herodotus, i. 171.

62. Strabo, xiv. 2. p. 208. Thucyd. i. 8.

63. Strabo, viii. 6. p. 204.

64. Strab. ap. Palmer. Gr. Ant. i. 10, p. 65. Serv. ad Æn. viii. 725. We again find these two people united at Troy; but not mentioned in the catalogue, because their leader had fallen and there were few of them left to be ranged under Hector. Their leaders were Helicon and his sons. Their capital city “Thebes with lofty gates” had been sacked by Achilles. Strab. xiii. 3. p. 141.

65. Travels of Ali Bey.

66. Phot. Bib. 141. a.

67. According, however, to a tradition preserved by Ephoros, the city of Karides, in this island, was founded by those who escaped with Macar from the Deluge of Deucalion. Athen. iii. 66.

70. Suid. v. Ἑρμώνιος χάρις. t. i. p. 1044.

71. Herm. Pol. Antiq. p. 13. Herod. vi. 138, 140. v. 26.

73. Thucyd. i. 98. cum not. Wass.

74. Phot. Bib. 139. a.

75. Phot. Bib. 141. a. Both the island of Lesbos, and its city Himera were called Pelasgia. Pliny, v. 39.

76. Serv. ad Æn. iii. 131. Strabo, x. 3. Pelasgic remains are still found in the island. Pashley, Trav. in Crete, i. 152.

77. Apollod. ii. 1. Keightley, Mythol. 405.

78. Cf. Athen. xiv. 63.

79. Tzet. ad Lyc. 177. Plin. iv. 5. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 1024. Nic. Damasc. in Exc. p. 492.

80. Sch. Eurip. Orest. 1245.

81. Æsch. Supp. 642. 919.

82. Strab. viii. 6. p. 202. Müll. Dor. i. 90. Frag. Incert. Pind. p. 660. Diss.

83. Aristot. Meteorol. i. 14. p. 38.

84. Strab. viii. 6. p. 204.

85. Which Strabo (viii. 3, 157,) says was the original seat of the Caucons.

86. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 264.

87. Clem. Alex. i. 6.

88. Herod. i. 146. Pliny iv. 10. Nic. Damasc. in Exc. p. 494. Paus. viii. 1. 4.

89. Paus. iii. 12. 5.—i. 1. The country, moreover, obtained the name of Lelegia, iv. i. 1.

90. Apollod. iii. 10. 3.

91. Strab. vii. 7. p. 115.

92. From whom the people were called Leleges. Paus. i. 39. 6. He was said to be the son of Poseidon and Libya, and his tomb was shown near the sea-shore, 44. 3.

93. Thirl. Hist. of Greece, i. 38.

94. Paus. iv. 1. Müll. Dor. i. 116.

95. Paus. iv. 36. i.

96. Strab. viii. 3. 156.

97. Ibid. viii. 3. 152.

98. Ibid. viii. 3. 157.

99. Ibid. viii. 3. 151.

100. Ibid. viii. 3. 157.

101. Ibid. viii. 3. 151. The Caucons, however, mentioned by Athena in the Odyssey (θ. 366.) were different from those of Triphylia. The Triphylian Caucons held all the land lying south-east of Pylos on the way to Lacedæmon. Strab. viii. 3. 157.

102. Strab. viii. 3. 157.

104. Herod. vii. 14.

105. Paus. i. 14. 2.

106. Müll. Dor. i. 12.

107. Sch. Arist. Acharn. 75.—Nubb. 971.

108. Herod. i. 56. vii. 161. Lesbon. Protrept. ii. 22. f. Conf. Wessel. ad Herod. p. 26.

109. Herod. i. 57. viii. 44.

110. Suid. v. Κραν. t. i. p. 1518. d.

111. Strab. vii. 7. p. 114.

112. Palmer. Græc. Antiq. p. 62.

113. Paus. ii. 8. 3. Philoch. p. 13. Siebel. Herod. ii. 51. seq.

114. Æschyl. Suppl. 259. sqq.

115. Gœttl. ad Hes. Theog. 311. 1014. Οἱ Τυρσηνοὶ δὲ, Πελασγοί. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. 580. The Pelasgi were the founders of Agylla, afterwards Cære in Etruria. Steph. Byzant. v. Ἀγύλλα, p. 30. d. Plin. iii. 8. Serv. ad Æn. viii. 479, who also gives another tradition according to which Agylla was built by Tyrrhenians from Lydia. Cf. Vibius, Sequest. 421, who says that the Tuscans were Pelasgi. The Poseidoniatæ, a Tuscan tribe, entirely forgot their original language, the manners of their country, and all its festivals, save one, in which they assembled to repeat the ancient names of kings, and recall the remembrance of their original home. They then separated with groans, cries, and mingling together their tears.—Athen. xiv. 81. The Bruttii are said to have been driven out of their country by the Pelasgi (Plin. iii. 8); who also settled in Lucania and Bruttium (9, 10). Pelasgi came out of Peloponnesos into Latium, settled on the Sarna, called themselves Sarrhastes, and built, among others, the town of Nuceria.—Serv. ad Æn. vii. 738. A different tradition brings them from Attica; another from Thessaly, because of the many Pelasgian relics found there.—Idem. viii. 600. Dion. Hal. i. 33.

116. Nieb. i. 22. Steph. Byzant. v. Χῖος, p. 758. b. Victor. Var. Lect. i. 10. Athen. vi. 101.

117. See Nieb. i. 24.

118. Paus. viii. 1. 5.

119. Herod. ii. 32. 51. Plato, Tim. t. vii. 22–31. 96. 142.

121. Paus. iii. 20. 5.

122. We find mention, too, of a Pelasgian Hera, Alex. ab. Alex. p. 321. Sch. Apol. Rhod. i. 14.

123. Strab. xiii. 3. p. 144.

124. Serv. ad Æn. vi. 630. Winkelmann, ii. 557. On the Cyclopian walls of Crotona. Mus. Cortonen. pl. i. Rom. 1756.

125. Palm. Gr. Ant. p. 60. Herm. Pol. Ant. p. 13.

126. Palm. Gr. Ant. p. 72.

127. δ. 142. Sch. Apol. Rhod. iii. 1323. Natal. Com. 611.

128. Phot. Bib. 320. b.

129. They were the inventors of the trumpet. Πελασγιὰς ἔβρεμε σάλπιγξ, Nonn. Dion. 47. 568. Cf. Paus. ii. 21. 3. Gœttl. ad Hes. Theog. 311.

130. Serv. ad Æn. ix. 505.

132. Palm. Gr. Ant. p. 55.

133. See, however, the question discussed in Palmerius, Gr. Ant. p. 49. sqq. Conf. Eustath. ad Il. β. 841.

134. Plin. vii. 56. Tacit. Annal. xi. 14. et Rupert ad loc. Hygin. Fab. 277. p. 336.

135. Serv. ad Æn. ii. 4.

136. Aristot. Meteorol. i. 14. p. 39.

137. Palm. Gr. Ant. 5.

139. See Mitford (Hist. of Greece, 81. ff.) who is full of these colonies. Herod. i. 2. Conf. Thirl. i. 185. Keightley, Hist. of Greece, p. 11. Müll. Dor. i. 16.

140. Cf. Plut. Pericl. § 13.

141. See Man. Moschop. ap Arist. Nubb. 982.

142. Respect for old age is still a remarkable feature in the Greek character. Thiersch. Etat Actuel de la Grèce, i. 292. On the same trait in their ancestors see Mitf. i. 186. Odyss. ω. 254. Plat. Repub. vi. p. 6. f. Æsch. cont. Tim. § 7.

143. See Thirlwall i. 180. sqq. and Mitford i. 181.—Among the Sauromatæ, in the time of Hippocrates, even the women mounted on horseback and fought in battle. They were not allowed to marry until they had slain three enemies.—De Aër. et. Loc. § 78. A circumstance is related of the Parthian court, illustrative of the ferocity which prevailed generally in antiquity. The monarch, it is said, kept a humble friend, whom he fed like a dog, and whipped till the blood flowed, for the slightest offence at table, apparently for the amusement of the guests.—Athen. iv. 38. This trait of barbarism was imitated by the Czar Peter, by servile historians denominated the Great, who used brutally to maltreat the princess Galitzin before his whole court.—Mem. of the Margrav. of Bayreuth, vol. i. p. 34.

145. Il. ρ. 212. seq. The word ξένος signified, actively and passively, the host and the guest. The rights of hospitality were hereditary, the descendants of men being compelled to entertain the descendants of those with whom their forefathers had contracted hospitable ties. Πρόξενοι sometimes signified persons who publicly received ambassadors, as Antenor among the Trojans. Agamemnon had hospitable ties with the Phrygians, because he came of Phrygian ancestors. Damm. v. ξένος. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 347. Cf. Virg. Æn. viii. 165. et Serv. ad loc. Plat. Soph. t. iv. p. 125, where Socrates alludes to a passage in Homer, in which Zeus is said to be the companion of the wanderer, observing jocularly that the Eleatic stranger might probably have been some deity in disguise. Cf. Tomas. Tess. Hosp. c. 23. ap. Gronov. Thesaur. ix. 266. sqq. It was a proverb at Athens that the doors of the Prytaneion would keep out no stranger.—Sch. Aristoph. Ach. 127. The Lucanians had a law thus expressed: “If a stranger arriving at sunset ask a lodging of any one, let him who refuses to be his host be fined for want of hospitality.” The object, I imagine, of the law, says Ælian (Var. Hist. iv. i.) was at once to avenge the stranger and Hospitable Zeus.

146. According to Hippocrates, the inhabitants of lofty mountains, well watered, are generally hardy and of tall stature, but fierce and ferocious. In saying this, the philosopher describes the Arcadians without naming them. De Aër. et Loc. § 120.

148. Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p. 355. l. 12. Wink. Hist. de l’Art, i. 316.

149. Among the ancient Scythians an extraordinary uniformity of feature was observable, as also among the Egyptians, (the same is the case at present,) supposed to proceed, in the one case from the rigour, in the other from the extreme heat, of the climate. Hippoc. de Aër. et Loc. § 91. But in every country, the climate being alike for all, the same effect ought to be produced on the whole population. The similitude is chiefly to be traced to the absence of all mixture with foreign races; and the equal indevelopement of the mind.

151. Aristot. de Gen. Anim. v. i.

152. Cf. Hippoc. de Aër. et Loc. § 125, seq. § 23, seq. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 94. seq.

153. This wind, wherever it prevails, increases the appetite; and the Greeks were a hearty-eating people.—Aristot. Probl. xxvi. 45. The wind Ornithias was often so cold as to strike birds dead on the wing. Schol. Aristoph. Ach. 842.

154. Aristot. Probl. xx. 20. The black myrtle, which is much larger than the white, grew wild about the hills. (xx. 36.) The southern breezes were considered highly salutary to the plants of the Thriasian plain. (xxvi. 18.)

155. See the savage anecdote of Stratocles in Plutarch. Demet. § 12.

156. Thucyd. iii. 70. sqq.

157. Ælian. Var. Hist. vi. 7. Cf. Eurip. Andr. 445. seq.

159. Thucyd. ii. 67.

160. Pausan. ix. 32. 9.

161. Thucyd. v. 126; iii. 50.

162. Thucyd. v. 32; iv. 57.

163. Heracl. Pont. ap. Athen. xii. 26.

164. Cf. Wink. Hist. de l’Art, i. 320. Thiersch, Etat. Act. de la Grèce, i. p. 290. sqq; and for their disinterestedness, Pashley, Trav. in Crete, i. 221.

165. Loud laughter was nevertheless considered vulgar among the Greeks.—Plat. Repub. t. vi. 112. The Athenians were addicted to the language of shrugging and nodding, κ.τ.λ. To nod upwards was to deny, downwards to confess. Sch. Aristoph. Ach. 112.

166. Aristotle says that the orators of Athens, who governed the people, passed sometimes the whole of the day seeing mountebanks or jugglers, or talking with those who had travelled as far as the Phasis or Borysthenes; and that they never read anything save the Supper of Philoxenos and that not all.—Athen. i. 10. It was in the opinion of these persons perhaps, that “a great book was a great evil.”—Id. iii. 1.

To render still clearer the point we have been insisting on in the foregoing chapter, it may be useful to take a rapid survey of the geography of the country, and enter somewhat more at length into its peculiar configuration and productions.^[167] Considered as a whole, the most remarkable feature in the aspect of Greece consists in the great variety of forms which its surface assumes in the territories of the numerous little states into which the country was anciently divided. Of these no two resemble each other, whether in physical structure, climate or productions; so that it may be said that in general the atmosphere of Greece is mild,^[168] but not in every part, for within its narrow boundaries are found nearly all grades of temperature. The inhabitants of Elis and the valley of the Eurotas are exposed to a degree of heat little inferior to that of Egypt, while the settlers about Olympos, Pindos and Dodona, with the rough goat-herds of Parnassos, Doris and the Arcadian mountains experience the rigours of an almost Scandinavian winter. In this extraordinary country the palm tree and the myrtle flourish within sight of the pine, the larch, and the silver fir of the north. In several of the islands and on parts of the continent certain tropical birds, as the peacock and the golden pheasant, have long been naturalised, while in other districts snipes and woodcocks ^[169] appear early; storms of sleet and hail are frequent, and the summits of mountains are capped with eternal snow.^[170] A no very elevated range of hills separates the marsh miasmata and wit-withering fogs of Bœotia,^[171] the home of gluttony and stupidity, from the bland transparent cheerful atmosphere and sweet wholesome soil of Attica, where, as a dwelling-place for man, earth has reached her highest culminating point of excellence, and where, accordingly, her noblest fruits, wisdom and beauty, have ripened most kindly.

To proceed, however, with an outline of the country: along the shores, more especially towards the west, rugged cliffs of great elevation impend over the deep, and in stormy weather present an appearance highly desolate and forbidding. But descending the Ionian sea, and doubling Cape Crio, the south westernmost promontory of Crete, the approach towards the tropics is felt both in the air and in the landscape. The nights are beyond description lovely, the stars appear with increased size and brilliancy,^[172] and morning spreads over both land and wave a beauty but faintly reflected even in poetry. Every rock and headland, clothed with the double light of mythology and the sun, emerges from the obscurities of the dawn glittering with dew and fresh as at the creation. The slopes of the mountains, feathered with hanging woods, lead the eye upwards to those aspiring peaks, the cradle of many a Hellenic legend, where snows pale and shining as those of Mont Blanc,^[173] descending on all sides in wavy gradations to meet the forests, rest for ever, and at the opening and the close of day exhibit that crimson blush which we observe among the higher Alps. All the lowlands at their base are meantime covered, perhaps, with heavy mists, while lighter and more fleecy vapours hang here and there upon the mountain tops, augmenting their grandeur by allowing the imagination like a Titan to pile them up as high as it pleases towards heaven. The coasts of eastern Hellas, including those of Eubœa, along the whole line of Thessaly to the confines of Macedonia, are bold and rocky, frowning like the ramparts of freedom upon the slaves of the Asiatic plains.

Traversed in almost every direction by mountain chains infinitely ramified and towering in many places to a vast height, Greece has, likewise, its elevated table-lands, lakes, bogs, morasses, with extensive open downs and heaths. Lying between the thirty-sixth and forty-first degrees of north latitude, and excepting on the Illyrian and Macedonian frontier everywhere surrounded by the sea, it may in many respects be said to enjoy the most advantageous position on the globe. From the barbarian countries of Macedonia and Illyria it is divided by a series of contiguous mountain ridges, which commencing with Olympos, (covered all the year round with snow, amid which the poet Orpheus ^[174] was interred,) and including the Cambunian range, with the lofty peak of Lacmos, stretches westward across the continent, and terminates in the stormy Acroceraunian promontory. The most northern provinces of Hellas, immediately within this boundary and west of the Pindos range, were Chaonia and Molossia, and towards the east Thessaly—a circular valley of exceeding fertility, encompassed by chains of lofty mountains. This province contains the largest and richest plains in Greece; and many of the names most hallowed by its religious traditions and most renowned in poetry, belong to Thessaly. Here, in fact, was the supposed cradle of the Hellenes. From hence sailed the Argo and incomparably the greatest of all the heroes who fought at Troy

CHAPTER III. GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE.

CHAPTER III.
GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE.