mmmmnim Ummmim ■*■ ft* if h sift f mm 811 mi I ill ills mm ■mm m mm •*~*\* J tA HOMERIC SOCIETY HOMERIC SOCIETY A Sociological Study of the Iliad and Odyssey BY ALBERT GALLOWAY KELLER, Ph.D. • « » INSTRUCTOR IN SOCIAL SCIENCE IN YALE UNIVERSITY LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK LONDON AND BOMBAY I902 Copyright, jgo2, By Longmans, Green, and Co. All rights reserved GENERAL UNIVERSITY PRESS • JOHN WILSON AND SON • CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. Pa M- _ INTRODUCTION THE following study starts out from two main working-hypotheses ; first, that the evidence of Homer concerning the " Homeric Age " is direct and accurate, and second, that this evidence has to do with a single culture-epoch and, in the main, with a single people. / Primarily, the Iliad and Odyssey give the impression of spontaneity and an entire freedom from artificiality or historical * reconstruction "\ there also appear to be no strik- ing incongruities ^between the two epics or between parts of the same epic. In the course of this study, it is hoped that further grounds for these hypoth- eses may appear, and that the position taken, in /regarding the Iliad and Odyssey as direct documen- tary evidence, may be further justified, j The treatment of Homeric social factors and ten- dencies has been, first of all, systematic ; based upon sociological categories which owe their formulation to a comparative study of human societies and their development. 1 Arrangement has been dictated en- tirely by considerations of systematic classification 1 Several staudard authors have been followed, as the references will show, but the whole treatment of the essay is modelled on the as yet unpublished system of Professor Sumner. Only occasional reference can be given this system under the title of Unpublished Lectures. 101928 vi HOMERIC SOCIETY and sequence. The same considerations have pre- vented the citation of a multiplicity of instances in the text ; those regarded as most characteristic and suggestive have been quoted, and corroborative and slightly variant instances have been referred to in the notes. 1 For the sake of perspective, unessential detail has been sacrificed, and the full content of passages selected for citation has not always been developed. In cases of variation of evidence, that testimony has been accepted which appeared most in consonance with the general social setting of the age and people. .For reasons that would appeal to any student of ethnography or culture-history, the writer has been led to emphasise the importance of Eastern influ- ences upon Homeric society. It is scarcely conceiv- able that later Greek civilisation was a suddenly evolved, indigenous product ; the development of a high civilisation from semi-barbarism, like that of a superior variety of fruit or grain from a wild variety, is a matter of long ages and tedious selec- tion. On the other hand, however, there is nothing to prevent the rapid increase ojTSransplanted fruit of the highest grade, or of transferred civilisation, if the ground is good. There is no evidence in (Jonler to disprove I the presence of strong Eastern influence upon the Greek society of his time ; Yather is such influence 1 A single note will often include references to several allied points in the text, the order of the references or groups of refer- ences corresponding to the sequence of the argument on the page above. INTRODUCTION vii emphasised and set forth. And what is more likely on general principles than the speedy dissemination and increase of civilisation in Greece and toward the West, given two centres of advanced culture such as; Chalda?a and EgypVand a nation of alert and adroit traders such as the Phoenicians ? Until archaeological finds shall be proved contemporary with Homeric evidence, 1 and clearly subversive of it, the hypothesis of Eastern influence upon early Greece, put forth by some of the older writers such as Movers, can scarcely be overthrown. The presump- tion is always in favour of normal versus catastrophic evolution ; upon those who assert the latter rests the burden of proof until the existence of the irregular can be convincingly established. In any case, the final solution of these vexed questions of origins and development, if it ever comes, will not be entirely clear of indebtedness to those preceding hypotheses to whose inadequacy it gives the coup de grdce. The Teubner text (Lipsiae, MDCCCXC) has been used; references to the several books are given by number, the large Koman numerals referring to the Iliad and the small ones to the Odyssey. 1 "... If we apply our minds calmly to compare the series of facts obtained from Mycenean sites on the one hand, and from the Homeric poems on the other, we shall find that many of the dis- crepancies are not trivial, but are really such as those on which we base wide distinctions in race and time, as we study the history of other peoples and other regions of Europe and Asia." Ridgeway, 1,82. viii HOMERIC SOCIETY. Acknowledgments are here due and are grate- fully rendered to Professor William G. Sumner, Professor Thomas D. Seymour, and Mr. John G. Adams, of Yale University, for their valuable sug- gestions and criticisms touching the matter and form of the present volume. A. G. K. New Haven, Nov. 1, 1901. CONTENTS Page Introduction v Chap. I. Ethnic Environment 1 II. Industrial Organisation .... 29 III. Religious Ideas anj> Usages . . . 101 IV. Property 189 V. Marriage and the Family . . . 200 VI. Government, Classes, Justice, etc. 248 References 315 Indices Representative Passages — Iliad . . . 319 " " Odyssey . . 322 Subject Index 327 Hi UNIVERSITV OF UfOWW HOMERIC SOCIETY CHAPTER I ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT THE character of a society, like that of an in- dividual, is a product of environment. v One may distinguish the share to be attributed to race- reaction on environmental" influences of the past (i e., race-character) from the portion he allots to direct and contemporary reaction on present condi- tions ; or he may subdivide in such manner as to ex- hibit in contrast the parallel influences of physical and of societal environment. The main body of the following chapters is intended to show what manner of man the Homeric Greek was, to what stage in the conquest of physical nature he had attained. It seems impossible, however, to do justice to his re- lations with his ethnic environment without first calling attention to the general character of the peoples by whom he was surrounded. A minor interest attaches to those remoter tribes in comparison with whom the Homeric Greeks felt themselves superior in culture and the arts. Evi- dence in the poems goes to show an acquaintance, 2 HOMERIC SOCIETY by actual contact or through rumour, with several peoples whose character bears the stamp of crude- ness and barbarism. Before considering the influ- ences of the great Eastern empires, it would not be out of place to examine some of these barbarous peoples and observe the attitude of Homer toward them. Far in the North dwell those tribes which live on the milk of horses (Hippomolgoi), together with the strong Mysian fighters and the Abioi, "the most just of men." x Possibly the Scythians are meant, in- at least the first two cases. 2 The epithet applied to the Abioi 3 may refer to their greater care and fear of the gods and ghosts, or possibly it may con- nect them with some " peace-station " in the North of which the Phoenicians had brought a vague rumour. 4 The etymology a-bioi (bowless) or a-bia (peaceful) 5 might afford some support to the latter explanation. It is a commpn thing.in. Homer for far away tribes to be loved by the god^. The * Aithiopes (dark men) are often hosts of the gods and the Gigantes and Cyclopes are " near " to them. 6 Perhaps, as sug- gested above, the formal piety of these tribes, their stricter attendance to the requirements of sacrifice — evidences of a livelier fear and a more punctilious propitiation — caused the Greeks to regard them as " most justified." 1 XIII, 5-6. 6 Friedreich, Real., art. 17. 2 Naegelsbach, H. T., 274. 6 1, 423-424 ; i, 22 ff ; vii, 205- 3 See p. 299 f for use of " dikaios." 206. 4 Lippert, Kg., I, 459 ; 473. ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 3 The vagueness of the location of these peoples suggests that they existed in Homer's mind only as he had heard of them through rumour. The like is the case in regard to the Pygmies and the Cim- merians. 1 A dwarf-lij^ people does live in the South of Egypt whither the cranes fly, and certainly there are lands in the West noted for their thick clouds and fog. Confused geographical rumours led also to the conception of the Lsestrygonians. 2 These tribes are not entirely crude ; the Lsestry- gonians have an assembly and the Cimmerians' a town. It is only when we come to the troglodytic Cyclopes that we find a negation of all bonds of union and culture. The Gigantes are classed with these in contrast to the mild Phaeacians. 3 Again, there are those listless vegetarians, the Lotus-eaters, 4 and ignorant inlanders who do not know the sight of oar or the taste of salt, 6 the rough-voiced Sintians of Lemnos, dear to Hephaestus, 6 and robber tribes of Thrace and Thessaly. 7 What lack of culture means to Homer t can be best seen in the case of the Cyclopes. To a great degree they are devoid of a providence of life, and neither sow nor reap, trusting .to luck for crops. They have neither councils nor hereditary precedents, but dwell with their flocks in caves on the summits of mountains, the various patriarchs ruling their own 1 III, 6ff; xi, 13-19. * ix, 84 ff. ' XIII, 298-302. 2 Cf. Keane, Eth., 245 ; x, 82 ff. 6 xi, 122-128. 8 vi, 4 ff ; vii, 59 ; 205-206. 6 I, 594 ; viii, 284 ; 294. 4 HOMERIC SOCIETY wives and children and paying no attention to each other. 1 They have no ships nor ship-builders and, consequently, no external communications. Their courtyards are built with huge uncut stones, with tall pines and mighty n |ft- They pasture their flocks alone, are tremendous in stature and haughty in mind — " like not so much to men as to Gigan- tes." 2 They have no horned cattle — merely sheep — and greedily feed on cheese, milk, and whey. They care nothing for the gods and boast them- selves stronger than they ; they dishonour the gods by cruelty to guests, whom they even devour raw, as wild beasts are wont to do. They are armed with clubs, are dull of mind and. like most savages, they drink not for pleasure, temperately, but for the beastly satisfaction of gross appetites. 3 In short, they present, as the following pages will show, an exact antithesis to what the Greeks of Homer regard as culture and piety. <§ Turning now to the nations of the East, this somewhat contemptuous attitude of the Greeks is found to be quite reversed. Kespect and wonder before what are to them superhuman achievements are varied only by a natural irritation at being force*} to endure the discomfitures of imposition and deceit The attitude is quite that of the more ignorant and plundered people. The Iliad and Odyssey have, therefore, for the science of society, this peculiar 1 ix, 106-115 ff. 2 ix, 187-189; x, 120. 8 ix, 219-223; 275-276; 288-293; 319; 355 ff. ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 5 and exceptional interest, that they are the record of the contact of two unequally advanced culture-stages, viewed from the standpoint of the lower of these stages. The great empires of the East and South- east were pouring forth their products and traders along that line of Western movement which has been the road of advancing culture through the ages. Nearest to the doors of the older culture-states, attractive to their emigrants and merchants, was Greece, the land of a people ready and eager to learn, and possessed of a splendid receptivity in so far as a less cultured people may receive the civilisa- tion of an older and more polished nation. The civilisation of these wonderfully developed races was just beginning to exert its influence with power upon Greece when Homer's Iliad and Odyssey came into being. The field in which the influence of the Eastern nations was most effectively extended was that of the industrial organisation. Modification of sec- ondary social forms, such as the system of property- holding, marriage, government, and class-division has always involved the utmost pain and effort and has seldom, if ever, been genuinely effected. Apart from conquest and consequent amalgamation under coercion the direct influence of an alien society upon these forms is but slight. They are dependent almost exclusively upon slowly chang- ing economic conditions, anjj are really and per- manently altered only through modification of 6 HOMERIC SOCIETY society's economic basis. Upon religion also exter- nal peoples would have less influence than upon this industrial organisation. Eeligion is conserva- tive where the industrial organisation is progres- sive ; it has been found impossible to transfer the spirit of a highly developed religion to peoples of a much lower civilisation, while products and pro- cesses pass with some easa Yet, considering the similarity that prevailed in all the Eastern cults, it is not hard to see how there might have been mu- tual modification here, and incorporation of detail. The politic trader, as represented by the Phoenician, never suffered his religion to stand in the way of gain ; while the Greeks, as well as all the other semi-civilised peoples of the time, were credulous, and often needed new gods to preside over functions newly arisen in their society. It is not strange, therefore, that, without any proselytising, out of the conditions of the case, there were reciprocal modifications in the religions of Assyria, Egypt, Phoenicia and Greece. Above all else, however, influence was brought to bear upon the simplest terms of life, the struggle for existence and then for luxury — that is, upon the industrial organisation. That the Homeric Greeks had practically nothing of the arts and of luxury, and that the Phoenicians were bringing gradually into their horizon more and more of the culture of those civilisations at which the world of to-day cannot cease to wonder, are, in a word, the ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 7 reasons why the effect of this contact was so power- ful in the material world. In the domain of things advance is not so hard, especially if the less cultured race is an "active" race, restless in the effort to gratify an ever-increasing body of wants, as the Greeks certainly were. 1 # The appreciation of the value of the higher civilisation's simpler gifts was immediate, and the desire to possess the more com- plicated products and facilities grew apace. Self- interest, vanity, love of beauty — these and other elemental passions of the Greek were aroused, and spurred him to assimilate to himself what might aid him in the struggle. for existence and in the expression of individuality. It is no wonder, there- fore, that here, as elsewhere, those ethnic relations in which all the possibilities of effectful influence toward higher forms of social life inhere, are found to root in the better supply of every -day needs and desires. Homer does not name the Chaldaeans; there is nothing to indicate that he was aware of the mighty civilisation long existent, even at his time, in the Euphrates valley. Much less do we find mention of India or the Farther East. Of Egypt several notices are found which witness to at least a general knowledge of the country and the people, seemingly through direct contact. 2 Egypt was to 1 See Lippert, Kg. I, 43 ff for the distinction between active and passive races. 2 Eeferences to the Egyptians are found in IX, 381 ff ; iii, 300- 301 ; iv, 125 ff ; xiv, 243 ff. See Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, 1, 149-155 and p. 21 below. 8 HOMERIC SOCIETY Homer a land of dense population and great wealth ; the Egyptians were not nautical and resisted pirates only by land ; they were hospitable to strangers and not implacable to enemies. Their agriculture was splendid and they were masters of metal-work — one easily sees in what features of Egyptian life the interest of Homer centred. Realising the supe- riority of the Egyptian civilisation over the Greek of the early periods, it is not strange to find the lower culture-stage imputing the accomplishments of the higher to supernatural powers. 1 It is not impossible that Greek traders had, in early times, established posts along the Egyptian coast ; at any rate the fact that a cenotaph was erected to Agamemnon in Egypt indicates that Greek affairs were of some repute there. Such a memorial would scarcely have been erected in an utterly strange land. 2 These few notices constitute the sum of Homer's direct evidence as to the civilisations of the East. In a comparison of the Assyrian, Egyptian, and Homeric social organisations, and more especially of their religions and industrial systems, many analogies of more or less significance emerge, but such study is fraught with all the dangers of ex- aggeration and fancifulness. It is wellnigh impos- sible to fix the exact provenance of any particular set of ideas or customs, even though one may be reasonably certain that they originated in the 1 iv, 584 ; Gladstone, J. M., 129. 2 iv, 229-232. ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 9 East. It is safe to say that star-magic spread from Chaldsea, not only to Greece, but to the whole Western world ; 1 that certain Chaldaean, Egyptian, and Greek conceptions of cosmology are enough alike to establish the fact of mutual modification ; 2 that certain plants and animals, originally domesti- cated in Chaldsea, must have arrived in Greece by some sort of transfer ; 3 that the art of irrigation may have been borrowed from the Egyptians, who had been trained to the best methods by the annual necessity of detaining the overflow of the Nile. 4 But if any attempt is made to go beyond such generalities, a sort of criticism is challenged which it is not easy to refute. 6 If, however, we are content to know that such and such an idea or product came merely "from the East," the labour of investigation is at once light- 1 A. Lehmann, Overtro og Trolddom, I, 65-66 ; Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, 778. Chaldaean culture generally passed through both Egypt and Phoenicia before reaching the West. Maspero, Hist. Anc. 82 ; 85 ; 146-158; Lehmann, II, 35 ff. 2 The ocean-stream flowing about the earth, the metal sky supported by pillars, the eternal waters upholding the universe, etc., were common to both Chaldaean and Egyptian cosmology. These and other striking analogies with Homeric ideas are given in Maspero, 1). of C, 16 ff; 542 ff. Cf V, 504, XVII, 425; XVIII, G07-608; iii, 2; xv, 329;- xvii, 565. 8 Maspero, 1). of C, 601 ff ; 718 ff ; 756 ff. * Ibid., 68 ff. 6 Lehmann and Maspero give much information concerning the religious and economic life of the Assyrian and Egyptians; this is invaluable from the comparative standpoint, in the study of Homeric society, even if one is disinclined to accept Eastern forms as types after which Homeric forms were modelled. Speck (Hg., I, chs. Ill, V, and VI) treats Assyrian, Egyptian, and Phoe- nician trade briefly and comprehensively. 10 HOMERIC SOCIETY ened and its certainty better assured. The study is narrowed down to the commercial history of a single people ; for, since neither Chaldsea nor Egypt could possess adequate shipping, and since the Homeric Greeks themselves made no attempt to approach the East as merchants, any transfer of Eastern civilisation toward the West must have been the service of the only maritime people of remote antiquity — the Phoenicians. It was in their hands that the currents of Eastern influence were confined in a single channel, later to be re- leased and disseminated from the Hellespont to lands beyond the pillars of Hercules. It is here at the " narrows " that the stream of ideas, products, and processes may be most satisfactorily viewed, and the general influence of the Eastern Empires on Homeric civilisation may be, at least in its broadest lines, determined. It would be far beyond the province of this essay to attempt to show in any exhaustive manner the peculiar fitness of the trader as a culture-carrier and disseminator, his superiority to the soldier and the missionary and even to the beneficently disposed government of a " higher " nation. It may be said, however, that the Phoenicians, though the first of maritime traders on the grand scale, exemplify in a very high degree this characteristic culture-mission of the cold-hearted, self-interested merchant. Un- fortunately for the world, but little is known of their history; but the far-reaching results of their ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 11 life and activity find witnesses in all the peoples who now represent European civilisation. " Europe would never have become what it is to-day without the Phoenicians." ' Bounded on either hand by a great culture-empire and endowed above each with advantages of geo- graphical position and with the possession of mate- rials for the construction of ships, the attention of the Phoenicians was early directed toward an inter- mediary trade between Chaldaea and Egypt. 2 With the advance of civilisation toward the West, they found their country the staple of the whole world ; they were enabled to seize at the outset and to hold for ages that lucrative frontier-trade which reaps its enormous gains from a double exchange of com- modities between markets of widely diverse con- junctures. To all appearance these rare advantages were offered to a people ready to profit by them to the utmost. A national character was present or was speedily evolved which at once fell in with the national opportunities and destiny, and contributed in a degree hardly to be exaggerated to the dissemi- nation of Eastern civilisation over the then known world. For no sentiments or prejudices of any kind, religious or patriotic, were allowed to hamper 1 Gumplowicz, Rassenk., 330; cf. Pietschmann, 12 ff. 2 Movers, II, pt. 3, 19-20; 127 ff; Pietschmann, 10 ff; 141 ff; 249 ; 291-292 ; Meyer, I, 237 ff. Movers, though old, is a splendid authority ; his data have been constantly checked by reference to Jater works. . .. . 12 HOMERIC SOCIETY the Phoenicians in the development of their trade ; all that pertains to national identity was readily renounced in the pursuit of material gain. Where their neighbours, the Hebrews, have clung through ages of misery and oppression to their integrity of blood and to their distinctive national characteris- tics, the Phoenicians have so completely sacrificed all these as to have lost all national identity and to have ceased as a people to exist. 1 Conquest by foreign powers disturbed Phoenician equanimity but slightly ; for centuries Assyrian and Egyptian domi- nation alternated in the land, experiencing little resistance from a people which, for example, during the invasion of Seti I, " found that a voluntarily paid tribute would cost less than a war against the Pharaohs, and consoled themselves amply for the loss of their independence in getting control of the maritime commerce of Egypt." 2 It is not strange, therefore, that the Phoenicians should have successively absorbed the ideas, pro- ducts and processes of the two great empires of the East. They assimilated foreign elements so rapidly and permanently that " the civilisation of the Phoe- nician people lacked in almost all respects the ele- ment of independence." 3 One can scarcely conceive 1 Gumplowicz, Rassenk., 332-333. 2 Maspero, H. A., 214 ; cf. Movers, II, pt. 1, 250 ; Pietschmann, 252 ff (see note p. 19) ; Meyer, I, 253 ff . 3 Movers, II, pt. 1, 251. The boundaries of Phoenician trading privileges were regularly widened under foreign conquest. Cf. Movers, II, pt. 1, 221 ff ; Pietschmann, 7 ff ; 252 ff . ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 13 of a people better equipped for the dissemination of a complex of culture which would contain the best then known on earth. The same qualities which lent them this power also made them effective, as we shall see, in the naturalness and tactfulness of their method of distribution. The Phoenicians came into contact with the less developed peoples of the West in their trading-posts and colonies. They were first lured to sea in the search for the murex hrandaris, a mollusk from which the much-prized purple dye of the time was extracted. This attempt to supply Oriental demand taught them to sail the seas more daringly and skilfully ; it also led them to the establishment of numerous trading-stations, from the best of which were later formed the founded colonies, permanent footholds of culture in the foreign land. The establishment of settlements of a permanent nature dates back to a remote antiquity ; they were situated generally at the mouth of a river or in some equally accessible place. Many of them must have become flourishing colonies before the Homeric age ; we know that the African and Spanish coasts were partially occupied by emigrants before that period. 1 Homer himself shows signs of having known Phoe- nicians for some generations. . 1 Movers, II, pt. 2, 26 ff ; 133 ff ; pt. 3, 16 ff (cf. xv, 415 ff) ; Mas- pero, Hist. Anc. 244-246 ; Meyer, I, 230 ff ; Pietschraann, 27 ; 240 £f ; 279 ff. The name Sidon means " Fish-catching." Movers, II, pt. I, 86 ; Pietschmann, 25. 14 HOMERIC SOCIETY It should be remarked here that the political stability of these colonial establishments of the Phoenicians was not such as to assure their racial integrity — least* of all their continued expansion through extensive conquest of adjacent territory. The government of the colonies, like that of the metropolis, its prototype, was feeble and vacil- lating, possessing no such stamina as that lent to the Eoman settlements by the power of a dominant patriarchal system. The inherent weakness and lack of power of expansion, typical of the ma- triarchate, was the fatal feature of the Phoenician system; 1 its destiny before the well-knit organi- sation of the father-rule could never be long in doubt. The possibility of rapid amalgamation in the presence of any strong, even if barbaric, government, lay always before the Phoenician colonies. Fortunately, the political permanence of the Phoenician settlements had little import for the dissemination of civilisation. The extent and char- acter of their trade were all important here. A glance at the commercial methods of these middle- men shows that no means or avenues of gain re- mained hidden to their sharpened business-sense; their commercial methods were perfectly con- sistent with their character as outlined above. The Phoenicians were first of all pirates. If they were 1 Lipperfc, I, 608; Pietschmann, 26; 132 ff; 288; Movers, II, pt. 1, 559-561 ; pt. 2, 34-39 ; 51-52. Ethnic environment 15 in force, they pillaged, burned, took slaves, and robbed temples ; if they were not in force, they debarked their goods peaceably, 1 and by less open means contrived to gain a scarcely inferior advan- tage over an unsophisticated people. The name " Phoenician," therefore, became synonymous with liar, thief, and kidnapper, and the Phoenicians won the hatred of all nationsr^'We shall find this at- titude clearly displayed in Horner. 2 ^ But however much the Phoenicians, and consequently their busi- ness, were despised, they had to be tolerated. " Led by impulses of pure self-interest, striving ever, with deceit and trickery, after material gain, they none the less performed the greatest services in spreading culture for mankind in general, and especially for the European." 3 The Phoenicians were, par ex- cellence, the culture-carriers of' the ancient world. They did not know this; it lay in the nature of things. As Movers says : 4 "To the merchant of the ancient, as of the modern world, there is nothing more foreign than to appear as an apostle of religion, culture, and morals; he has no other object than gain." The weight of advanced morals and canons was therefore not forced upon the western peoples ; through motives of mutual self- interest the natural forces of development were 1 Maspero, Hist. Anc. 248 ff. 2 Movers, II, pt. 3,83; 104-105; 126; xiv,288ff ; xv,416. 8 Gumplowicz, Kassenk., 330; cf. Pietschmann, 12ff. 4 II, pt. 3, p. 4. 16 HOMERIC SOCIETY allowed to take their natural course, and as a result, these "lower" peoples, well-represented by the Greeks, did not die out, nor were they thrown into bewilderment, but lived on into a splendid national future. In those days the social and moral systems of his customers were nothing to the trader ; he might despise them, but he never was impolitic enough to display his feelings, nor had he any thought of attempting to alter them in a proselytising spirit. There were no souls to be saved, no "ideals," social or other, to be realised, if necessary through perse- cution and bloodshed. Systems of marriage, prop- erty-holding, etc., were not interfered with, nor was there any meddling with religious systems. In the domain of religion, however, since dread of the supernatural entered into all affairs of life, keeping men ever on the alert for some " Unknown God " who might unless recognised and propitiated, ex- ercise some malevolent influence on life, it is likely that contact with the Phoenicians exercised some influence. If so, it was an unconscious one, taking effect through the initiative and volition of the less cultured race. In the field of the industrial or- ganisation, however, it was the trader's business to spread abroad the products of civilisation. His religious views might be suppressed for commercial purposes; here, the policy was not to conceal and modify, but to contrast and exhibit national pro- ducts and ideas. ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 17 The Phoenician religion was a composite ; the Phoe- nicians had many chances to learn the religious ideas of other lands, 1 and, for the sake of trade-advan- tages, they had no hesitation in conforming to them. In Egypt, according to Movers, they practised cir- cumcision, and so gained privileges over competitors ; in Greece they attempted to avoid unpopularity by concealing the practice. 2 Where the personalities of the gods and their cults were not much different, assimilation was easy. The complicated personali- ties of the gods, which arose in later times, attest the origin of this assimilation-process in remote ages. Movers says the Phoenician religion was per- meated with Chaldasan and Egyptian ideas, and that only the history of the foreign additions could explain such complicated conceptions of divinity, as, for instance, that of Bel or Astarte ; that, however, all these Eastern conceptions were so much alike that, for all this interchange of minor modifications, the fundamental character of any particular divinity was not altered. 3 From the East, therefore, the 1 Movers, T, 56. 2 Ibid., 61. 8 It is a well-known fact of ethnography that simple peoples will readily accept strangers' gods into a subordinate place in their the- ology, provided their own chief gods are not molested thereby. It is ever an impossibility to say just what elements belong to each of two mutually assimilating religions; yet in the creation of the Aphrodite-Astarte (Ashtoreth, Mylitta, Mitra, Kypris, Kythereia), the evidence favours Phoenicia with the bulk of responsibility. The religions of those early ages, as we have seen, were different rather in degree of refinement than in kind; in any case it was not a politic move to try to introduce any great changes in. the cult of good 18 HOMERIC SOCIETY Phoenicians gained new functions for their old gods, and, in turn, carried the process on toward the West. The most genuine and lasting service which the Phoenicians performed for civilisation lay in the dissemination of the actual products and processes of industry ; the Greeks were among the first, both in time and in degree, to profit by this activity. The Phoenicians were the skippers of the ancient world and had the best ships, not only heavy ves- sels of burden, but also those that were light, long, and swift, according to standards of the time. They sailed by night as well as by day, directing their course by the polar (called Phoenician) star, while the Greeks, in their rare night sails, steered less surely by a constellation. More than that, the Phoenicians had learned to sail into the wind, a feat little short of miraculous in those days. 1 They enjoyed a great reputation among their contempora- ries, and could not have been without influence upon the whole of the later development of ships and navigation. Evolution of trade went hand in hand with advance in nautical art. There was no article too humble for the Phoeni- cian trading-list. Tin from Britain was gotten with customers ; hence it is probable that the majority of Phoenician additions to a local cult lay in embellishments no longer to be de- tected. Cf. Movers, I, 12 ; 52 ; 82 ; II, pt. 2, 271 ; Naegelsbach, H. T., 85 ff; Gladstone, J. M., 313-319; Pietschmann, 152 ff ; 184-185; 284 ; Meyer, I, 250 ff. i Movers, II, pt. 3, 158 ff ; 184-186 ; Pietschmann, 27 ; 34 ff ; 283. ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 19 iron kettles from the Chalybians. Wares were pur- chased at low prices in the East where they were plenty, and sold for fabulous advances in the West, where the demand was practically infinite ; then, in the West, valuable raw goods were purchasable for almost nothing, while in the East they realised very high prices. 1 This was the general character of the Phoenician trade. Under the head of manufactured articles for ex- port would be included : prepared fabrics, wines, oil, and intoxicants ; papyrus articles, linen (an exceed- ingly important product), ointments, prepared spices, incense, embalming-mixtures, perfumes, dyes, and drugs from Egypt, and the various products of metal work, ornaments and weapons of a superior quality. 2 Together with these products there came vague ideas of the processes of their manufacture ; though the latter, in general, could be better learned from the Phoenician settlers. From them the Greeks could gain also something of the art of construction in wood and stone, of ship-building, etc. The second class of culture-products brought by the Phoenicians, consisted of things in nature, into whose being there had been infused, by the effoit of man, an element of refinement and superiority, i. e., varieties of domesticated animals and plants. Besides wine and oil, there came the cultivated 1 Movers, II, pt. 3, 87 ff ; Pietschmann, 291. 2 Lippert, I, 298 ; 603 ff ; 623 ; 630 ff ; Movers, II, pt. 3, 96 ff ; 317 ; 321 ff: Pietschmann, 148. 20 HOMERIC SOCIETY vine and olive, raised, Lippert thinks, in Attica and Boeotia by the settler-smiths. 1 Fruit was ever a considerable factor in the Phoenician export- trade, and after it followed many noble trees, such as the fig, pomegranate, and date-palm. Peaches and plums, which early found a thriving-place in Babylonia and Syria, must have been carried toward the West in later times. 2 The finest grains of the ancient world — wheat, barley, etc. — took their origin in the fertile peninsula of Mesopotamia, and gradually supplanted the cruder varieties of the West. 3 Chaldseans and Egyptians early discovered those great weapons of primitive and modern domesti- cators, the bola and the lasso ; and were in the pos- session of selected breeds of horses, asses, and cattle 4 at an early period. These breeds were car- ried out by the Phoenicians freely ; to this day the finest horses in the world have come originally from Chaldsea through Arabia. The cult-selection prac- tised upon kine in Egypt worthily supplemented that of the East. The powerful breeds of hunting- dogs and the feebler " ornamental " dogs 5 of the Greeks probably originated in the dog-cult of the East. Presence of dogs, horses, and cattle seems to 1 Lippert, I, 604 ; 630 ; II, 220 ; 222. 2 Id I, 606 ff ; Movers, II, pt. 3, 90 if ; cf. " Pf irsche " (Persian) ; "damson," (Damascus). 8 Lippert, I, 584 ff. 4 Id. I, 303 ; Movers, II, pt. 3, 5 ; 92 ff. 6 See pp.38, 169 below. ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 21 mark an advanced culture ; sheep and goats alone are found among lower tribes, like the Cyclopes. The processes and arts of domestication and breeding of plants and animals came in the train of the products themselves ; already in Homer the least technical of these methods are known. 1 But by far jthe most important element in Phoe- nician commerce, as far as the teaching of the arts was concerned, was the slave-trade. 2 Kidnapping was one of the most profitable operations of the trader, and, as we have seen, he did not hesitate to take slaves by force. Thus Egyptians, Syrians, Assyrians, and Hebrews made their way to the boundaries of civilisation. Phrygians and Lydians taught their masters what they themselves knew, from simpler things, like the process of boiling 3 to the highest operations of the arts. Also Greeks spent years of captivity in Sidon and Egypt, 4 and perhaps escaped at last with a wealth of observa- tion and experience. Thus individual pain and distress were the most potent factors in the ad- vance of culture ; slavery was both bad and good. The trade of Phoenicia established in the ancient world a route of industrial culture which has been taken in later times by movements of thought, art, and morals, and by Christianity itself. From the line of direct contact back into the primeval forests 1 See p. 35 below. 2 Movers, II, pt. 3, 6 ; 83 ; Pietschmann, 28 ff. 8 Lippert, I, 349. 4 xiv, 200 ff. V OF THE OF ULIFO! ««' 22 HOMERIC SOCIETY of Europe and into the deserts of Africa, was estab- lished a gradation of culture, plainly discernible, together with a sharp distinction between nearest and remotest. 1 Along this stream of trade were prevalent like arts and sciences, products and pro- cesses ; like weights and measures, articles of barter (in later times, silver money), ships and shipping; and approximately similar ways of thinking and acting — elements all that worked toward a soli- darity, union, and growth, which in turn reacted with power to increase the momentum of civili- sation's advance. As people became more alike they felt for each other a larger toleration and sympathy. The imports destined for home-consumption or to supply Phoenician industries consisted chiefly of grain, and of various kinds of raw goods to be worked up; wool, metals, etc. As a gainful oper- ation, this importation and manufacture were doubt- less less profitable than the favourite intermediary trade — the Phoenicians were carriers first and always. They exchanged goods between barbarous peoples and levied a liberal toll for the service. They exchanged slaves between nations and made clear profits, such gains assuring the great popularity of the slave-trade among them. 2 But, indirectly or directly gathered and whatever their destination, the final eastward-bound cargoes 1 Cf. Movers, II, pt. 3, p. 3 ; Pietschmann, 285. 2 Movers, II, pt. 3, 83 ; 87. ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 23 were of a consistent type — mostly metals. Copper, gotten from Cyprus and other stations and skilfully wrought, gave Sidon a reputation for articles made from this metal. 1 Tin, then ranked as a noble metal, later made the manufacture of bronze pos- sible ; tin came almost entirely from the West. 2 Chief in importance, however, were gold and sil- ver: 3 and, in general estimation, the latter metal was of the greater value. Silver was scarce in the East ; it could not be gathered from the river-beds, like gold; 4 it demanded mining, a laborious and ex- pensive operation. Silver became later the money of Phoenicia, and so of the world. Silver and gold, at this time of barter-trade, were valuable as commodities ; fluctuations in their value were like fluctuations in the value of any other commodity. As commodities, there was great de- mand for them for religious purposes and in the arts. Only by means of their offer of the noble metals in exchange, it is said, did the Phoenicians force an entrance into the trade of rich countries like India, 5 countries which otherwise were self- sufficient, needing nothing beyond what they them- selves produced. Trade in gold and silver, therefore, greatly enhanced the wealth of the Phoenicians. 1 Maspero, Hist. Anc, 234 ff; Pietschmann, 245 ff; cf. xv, 425. 8 Movers, II, pt. 3, 27-28 ; 62 ; Pietschmann, 287 ; Meyer, I, 226. 8 Movers, II, pt. 3, 28 ; Pietschmann, 291-292. 4 Movers, II, pt 3, 35. 5 Ibid., 27. 24 HOMERIC SOCIETY From this sketch some idea can be gained of the mission of the Phoenicians, their fitness for it, and their tact and success in its accomplishment. We have noticed the environment of Phoenicia and the gradual moulding of the people's character to that environment ; how they improved splendid chances and reaped the inevitable rewards ; how they little by little came to subordinate all to their one motive, and thus, disappearing themselves among the peo- ples they were civilising, passed away, as a nation, forever. It is not strange, then, that much which might have originated in Chaldsea or Egypt came to Homer as a Phoenician gift, and that credit was accorded by him to the middleman which should have been referred to the principal. 1 Painstaking accuracy as to origins was a matter of complete indifference in those days ; nor is it indispensable at the present time in a study of the broad movements of civilisation. The line of thought has been to show how the Phoenicians, gathering from the East, dispersed toward the West the seeds of future civilisations. If we may pause by the way to deduce one general lesson in social development from the history of the contact of these unequally advanced civilisations, it is this : that cold self- interest, working through trade upon the material basis of less developed societies, has produced a maximum of result, with a minimum of pain, fruit- less effort, and retrogression. 1 Cf. Gladstone, J. M., 129. ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 25 What Homer knew of the Phoenicians As has been said, Homer knows the Phoenicians from the standpoint of the lower civilisation. He makes little distinction between Phoenician and Greek as to government, property-ideas, and mar- riage-customs. Distinctions in religion are vaguely and perhaps unconsciously made. The , practical mind of Homer is interested in things rather than in ideas ; in the material possessions of society rather than in secondary, and for the most part, un- consciously developed social forms. In Homer the Phoenician is a lustful, lying, but wonderfully wise trader ; * the inquiry is carried little further. The products and processes, domesticated animals and plants, and the slavery which Homer has come to know through the Phoenicians, will be treated in their places in some detail. To speak in general, all the most wonderful products and processes of the industrial organisation are regularly assigned to foreigners, and generally the responsibility of the Phoenician is not far to seek. From the Phoenicians Homer also gains his vague knowledge of exterjor geography and his scarcely more accurate ideas con- cerning the great Eastern civilisations. The regions beyond his actual experience Homer peoples with gods and men who often bear an unmistakably Ori- ental stamp; for instance, the Phseacians and the Egyptian Proteus, who knows all the seas and is a 1 xiv, 288-289 ; xv, 420 ff j 440 £f ; 459. J 26 HOMERIC SOCIETY symbolic skipper. * What Homer has learned excites his imagination, and as a result we have the wonder- tales of the two poems ; the shield of Achilles, the homes of Circe and Calypso, the island of iEolus, and especially the island of Scheria are described with the Phoenicians and Phoenician stories in mind. 2 Of these creations, that of the Phseacian people best illustrates Homer's idea of a cultured foreign nation ; how far it is conceived in Phoenician terms may be judged from a summary of Homer's description. The Phseacians are a people " near to the gods " ; they sacrifice at all times, and the gods sit and eat with them. They do not fear to meet the gods face to face. 3 They build regular temples and highly honour Hermes as the god of convoy. 4 Poseidon has given them ships, and they are masters of sea- manship. 6 Near their finely arranged harbour is a rope-walk and a ship-yard, at which Odysseus won- ders much. 6 On their ships they have once fled from their home-land, because their neighbours, the Cyclopes (who own no ships), have harassed them. 7 These ships are " swift as a wing or as a thought," and perform the trip to far away Euboea, returning 1 iv, 384 ff; Naegelsbach, 85 ff. 2 " Wherever the Phoenicians had been, the grandeur and auda- city of their enterprises had left ineffaceable traces in the imagina- tion of the people." Maspero, Hist. Anc, 234. 3 v, 35 ; vii, 163-165 ; 191 ; 203-205. 4 vi, 10; vii, 136-138. 6 vi, 268-269. 6 v, 386 ; vii, 34-39 ; viii, 247. 7 vi, 4-10. ETHNIC ENVIRONMENT 27 the same day. 1 Phseacian names are almost without exception derived from the sea, ships, or the arts. 2 The Phseacians are a people of convoyers, unwarlike, rejoicing in the sea ; their ships are endowed with a certain intelligence and know all lands and men. 3 The Phaeacian women are as superior at the loom as the men are in nautical matters. 4 The city of the Phseacians is strongly walled, and they have no fear of enemies. They are immensely rich, have won- derful houses and the best of metal-work. Their gardens, vineyards, and orchards are models of va- riety and beauty, and yield great increase. 5 The leader of the colony becomes king, builds temples, and divides the fields. 6 The Phasacians are fond of games of swiftness and skill, are not boxers or wrestlers, but always to them " the feast is dear, and the cithara and choral dances, and changes of raiment, and warm baths and couches." Their juggling and dancing are in- tricate and pleasing, and astonish Odysseus out of all measure. 7 The whole picture is one of an Oriental, maritime, and industrial people. Homer could scarcely have gotten the material for his" imagination to work upon elsewhere than from the Phoenicians. In like 1 vii, 36; 321-326. 2 vi, 7; 17; viii, 111-114; 116. 3 vi, 205 ; 270-272 ; viii, 31 ; 559 ff. * vii, 108-111. 5 vi, 201-205 ; 279 ; vii, 43-45 ; 84 ff ; 1 12-132. 6 vi, 4-10. 7 viii, 246-249; 265. 28 HOMERIC SOCIETY manner such creations as the Shield of Achilles, where fact and fancy are so blended, and where no knowledge of process is betrayed, indicate as their originals some Eastern-made products of the arts, which had come into the poet's field of observation a few times, but concerning the real composition of which he was ignorant. In the study of the religion and industrial organ- isation of Homeric society, it will of course be impossible to distinguish all, or nearly all, that is native from that which is foreign in origin; but what has been said of the national environment of Greece may throw an occasional sidelight upon its social forms. CHAPTEK II INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION HUNTING AND FISHING THE people of Homer and their ancestors for many generations back, had prevailed in the struggle for existence to the extent of emancipating themselves from primitive uncertainty and irreg- ularity in food-supply. Hunting and fishing, as affording the possibility of living, were employ- ments of the remote past. Hunting, however, was kept up to a considerable extent and was well systematised. 1 Men hunted for the sake of food, especially in time of need, for hides, 2 and doubtless often for the sake of the ex- citement in it. Pursuit of marauding wild beasts is a large chapter in the annals of Homeric hunt- ing. 3 Legends of Orion and of Heracles 4 point to the former prevalence of the chase in Greece. A powerful breed of dogs had been trained as assist- ants to man ; hunters were called " leaders of dogs." 5 Nooses were used to snare thrushes and wild pigeons. 6 There seem to have been profes- 1 XII, 43-48. 2 IX, 544-548 ; X, 23 ; 29 ; 177 ; 334 ; ix, 156 ff. 3 IX, 533 ff ; cf. p. 45 below. 5 ix, 120 ; xix, 436-437. 4 xi, 572-575 ; 601 ff. 6 xxii, 468-470. 30 HOMERIC SOCIETY sional hunters, using spear and bow, said to have been taught by Artemis herself. 1 That the Greeks were good hunters is indicated by their strikingly accurate knowledge of wild beasts and their char- acteristic actions. 2 Fishing was less popular than hunting, and was carried on chiefly by the common people among whom fishing, combined with passenger-carrying by boat, constituted a regular trade. 3 Fish were speared, caught with hook, line and pole, or in nets of linen cord. 4 By the more fastidious classes fishing was resorted to only when all other pro- vision failed. 5 CATTLE-RAISING Hunting and fishing were only occasional pursuits ; but cattle-raising was a business in which a man of any importance was always deeply interested. Homeric social forms witness the long-continued presence of the nomadic stage, now passing away as a result of changed environment. It is probable that the dominant peoples of Greece and Asia Minor were a detachment of those nomadic conquerors who ever and anon swept forth from the plains of Cen- tral Asia, infusing fresh blood and vigour into the societies with which they came into contact. 6 Such were the Hyksos of Egypt ; and they may have had 1 V, 51 ; ix, 156 ff. 6 iv, 368-369 ; xii, 330-331. 2 V, 137-141 ; XI, 173 ff. « Lippert, I, 181 ff ; II, 82 ff. 8 xvi, 349 ; xxii, 384 ff ; xxiv, 419. 4 V, 487 ; x, 124 ; xii, 251-255. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 31 many parallels of which there are no existing records. In such cases, sedentary life, in districts ill-fitted for the maintenance of great, roaming cattle-herds, was likely to cause a weakening of that strong patriarchate which we are accustomed to connect with a nomadic existence. That such conditions were leading to this result in early Greece, seems to be indicated by the evidence of Homer. At the outset we find agriculture a more distinctive mark of civilisation than cattle-raising ; agriculture is absent among the most barbarous tribes which Homer knew ; but for all that, cattle-raising was the prevalent occupation of Homer's time. Priority is assignable to the raising of goats, sheep } and swine. What little there may be of totemism in Homer indicates that it was a primarily goat- raising people that overcame the older inhabitants of the land. The ranking god of the Greek system bore the iEgis, which was a terror to all foes. Also, in what he says of barbarous peoples, Homer shows a sense of the priority of sheep and goats to horses and oxen ; in this according with the conclusions of modern investigators. 1 The use of milk, at first goat's-milk, was one of the " earliest forces which aided growth of population, and thus led to migra- tions. 2 The Homeric cult offers some indications of the priority of goats, sheep, and swine. The finest sheep, according to Homer, were found, not in Greece, but in Lybia ; there births occurred i Lippert, I, 502 ff. 2 Ibid., 74 ff. 32 HOMERIC SOCIETY three times a year and there was never a lack of milk. 1 Polyphemus also had splendid sheep, and his lambs were divided into three grades with re- spect to age. 2 Flocks of sheep generally wandered in the mountains; 3 the cotes were often far from the dwellings and were exposed, as were the scattered flocks, to the numerous attacks of wild beasts. 4 These cotes were sometimes quite pretentious estab- lishments; 5 the shepherds lived there during the pasturing season, enduring much labour, and no small danger from lions and other predatory animals, and from the frequent raids of neighbouring tribes. 6 They possessed, as helpers in their service, a large, fierce breed of dogs. Sheep were regarded as wealth, and rapid increase of flocks was prosperity. 7 About the same description applies to swine-raising. Swine were sent off to the mountains to be fattened, re- turning in the winter ; their food was acorns and the like. 8 Sheep were raised for fleeces and wool, as well as for food, but swine only for eating pur- poses ; pigskin was not in use. There was a special term for a fatted swine. Swine seem to have 1 iv, 85-89. 2 ix, 221-222. 3 XVI, 352-354 ; XVIII, 589 ; ix, 315. 4 XII, 301-303; XIX, 376-377; iv, 639-640; XV, 324-325; XVI, 352-354. 6 XVIII, 589 ; xiv, 5 ff. 6 XI, 677 if ; see p. 293 below. 7 See p. 98 below ; II, 106 ; 605 ; 696 ; IV, 433 ; V, 613 ; cf. xix, 113. 8 XXI, 282-283 ; x, 242-243. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 33 received less care than sheep, spending cold and stormy nights in the lee of a convenient rock. 1 More important than the raising of sheep and goats on the one hand, and than agriculture on the other, was the raising of oxen and cows. The regular sacrifice was an ox; the unit of the money of ac- count was the ox ; eventide was " the loosing of the oxen " ; 2 and a verb, meaning literally " to pasture oxen " was used also of horses. 3 The Homeric age was one where the absence of agriculture, rather than the presence of goats and sheep, was regarded as a mark of barbarism. But the possession of oxen and horses, as an evidence of culture, seems to have ranked with agriculture rather than with sheep- raising, for Homer's cruder tribes did not possess the larger quadrupeds. 4 The cows were pastured and then driven to pens which were apparently never cleaned, and their young admitted to them. 5 As in the case of sheep and swine, numerous births seem to have been the desideratum. Cows were butchered for food, but there is no instance of their being milked. The herds were attended by special neat-herds, as sheep were under shepherds and swine under swine-herds. 6 Dogs were used in tending cows as well as sheep. 7 1 IX, 208; ii, 300; xiv, 533. 2 XVI, 779 ; ix, 58. 8 Much as we say " brass andirons," for example ; XX, 221. 4 See pp. 3-4 above and references. 6 XVIII, 573ff;x,410-414. 6 XVI, 352-354 ; iv, 640 ; xi, 293. 7 XVIII, 573 ff . 3 34 HOMERIC SOCIETY Kine were wealth to a man or country, as were sheep ; values were reckoned in head of cattle. 1 The care of cattle was a noble occupation, especially among the Trojans, and Apollo pastured the oxen of Laomedon for wages. Oxen and sheep belonged to the droves of Hyperion, 2 which points to cult-selec- tion. Oxen were valuable draught-animals, and everywhere beef appears as an esteemed food. It is evident that the value of sheep and kine lay chiefly in their contributions to man's food and clothing, the ox aiding him also in his work. In the horse we find an animal which furnished to the Greeks neither food nor clothing, but which was used exclusively for war, travel, and ornament. Legends of the " Hippomolgoi " prove what the horse was to the tribes of the North ; 3 some evi- dence goes to show the former prevalence of horse- sacrifice ; but to the Greeks of Homer the horse was the friend of man, and scarcely his servant. He was not used in the hunt, neither did he draw the plough. The horse and dog were the only animals to which names were given. 4 The horse is said to have been begotten or given by a god, 5 and many immortal breeds are mentioned. We learn that 1 IX, 154; see pp. 96-97 below. 2 V, 313; VI, 23-25; 423-424; XX, 91 ff ; XXI, 448-449; xii, 129-131. 8 XIII, 5-6. 4 Horse; VIII, 185; XVI, 149; 152; XXIII, 295; 346; xxiii, 246 : Dog ; xvii, 292. 6 XVI, 149-151 ; 866-867 ; XX, 223-225 ; XXIII, 276-278. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 35 Phrygia was a great horse-raising country. 1 All such facts tend to prove the comparatively late introduc- tion of the horse into Greece. The personal connection between men and their steeds was close. Evidently the most careful study had been given to the horse, for many of his charac- teristic instincts and actions were well known ; his fear of corpses, if unaccustomed to them, his impatience of a strange driver, 2 etc. The manes of horses were washed and anointed with oil ; " Eepay Andromache's care ! " Hector exhorts his steeds, " let us take the enemy ! " 3 The Greeks were really connoisseurs of horses, loving them for beauty and swiftness ; the pedigree of noble horses was well- kept, and sometimes a fine breed was stolen, 4 this proving that the Greeks knew something of domesti- cation and breeding. The best of mortal horses came from Thessaly. The immortal ones shared the pains and sorrows of men, and Zeus pitied them as he saw them mourning for the dead Patroclus. All this shows the dignity and value of the animal ; in some respects the horse was more than human ; 6 in no respect did the Greek treat him as a far inferior being. Horses were used chiefly to draw the war-chariot. No mention is made of their being shod, but they 1 III, 185. 2 V, 231-234 ; X, 490-492. 8 VIII, 186 ft; XXIII, 281-282. * II, 763 ff ; VI, 506 ff; V, 223 ff ; 263 ff. * II, 763 ff; XVII, 427 ff; XIX, 404-420. 36 HOMERIC SOCIETY are called " strong-hoofed." *■ They ran in threes before the chariot, two drawing it, and one as side- runner and substitute ; the four-span was unusual. 2 There was no horse-back riding in battle — proba- bly the heavy armour hindered that — but it was practised commonly in every-day life, as it is the subject of at least one homely simile. 3 Horse-racing was indulged in with great zest, and prize-horses were very valuable. 4 Trick-riding is found, where a man passes from back to back of four horses running at full speed along the highway. 5 The whip and goad were necessary for good speed. 6 The horse could not be raised in all parts of Greece. He demanded grazing-ground and grass ; in Ithaca, the rockiness of the soil caused the horses to be pastured on the mainland opposite. No Ithacan or Phaeacian names are derived from the horse. 7 Lotos, kupeiron, puroi, zeiai, and kri are mentioned as food of the horse. 8 Abundance of horses made a man wealthy, and prize-winning racers earned one great gains. 9 The horse was the nolle animal, and the work which he came later to do, was done in Homer's time by the ox, ass, and mule. The ass is men- 1 V, 321 ; 329. 2 VIII, 87; 185; XVI, 474-475; cf. XI, 699 ff ; xiii, 81; Buch- holz, I, pt. 2, 177. 8 v, 371 ; cf. X, 498 ff. * XXIII, 262 ff ; XI, 696-700. 8 iv, 602-607. 5 XV, 679-684. 9 XX, 220-222; IX, 125-127. 6 XXIII, 384 ; 387. 7 iv, 602-607 ; 635-637 ; Gladstone, J. M., 307. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 37 tioned but once, 1 the gender being masculine ; but this indicates little concerning the number of asses in use, for work and breeding purposes. The mule came into account quite frequently; was called ■ half-ass," and was generally bred from a male ass and a female horse, 2 the gender of the word for mule being feminine. Mules were the best beasts of burden and draught-animals ; and better than the ox in ploughing. 3 They had another name, seem- ingly derived from the word for mountain; 4 in Greece a sure-footed mountain climber would have been of great value. Priam is said to have had some very fine mules from the Mysians, 5 which statement may indicate the direction whence the mules came into Greece. Mules carried burdens on their backs, or drew wagons, or dragged beams from the hills ; 6 they were called the " hard-work- ing " mules, and worked in harness ; they were ex- tremely hard to break. 7 In view of the attitude of Homer toward the ox, the horse, and the mule, it is probable that all these came to the Greeks after their Western migration and settlement ; we know that these animals spread from Central Asia at a comparatively late period. 8 1 XI, 558-562. 8 Lippert, Kg. I, 508 ff. 2 XXIII, 265-266 ; cf. iv. 635-637. 8 X, 352-353. * I, 50. 5 XXIV, 277-278. 6 XXIII, 111; 120-121; XXIV, 277 ff; vi, 57-58; 81 ff ; XVII, 742-744. 7 XXIII, 654 ; iv, 635-637; XXIV, 277 ; XXIII, 654-655. 38 HOMERIC SOCIETY The dog of all varieties is found in Homer. He was the companion of the hunt, where his keenness of scent, swiftness, and courage commended him. Then he was used in watching and defending the flocks and helped to herd them; for this purpose, a breed of large, fierce dogs was trained, which were like wild beasts and would tear a stranger to pieces. 1 The shepherd himself carried a javelin, " a defender from dogs and men," and kept them off the stranger only by stoning them. 2 This was the useful variety of dog; there was another, kept for ornament. Odysseus, at seeing his old hound Argos, asked, " Was he swift, too, finely formed as he is, or was he merely like men's table-dogs, which their masters keep for display ? " Table-dogs were kept in the house of Priam ; and a hero would often be accompanied by two white dogs as he went about the city or to assembly. 3 In such cases dogs seem to have been a symbol of authority. The table-dog is the only animal Homer designates as exclusively ornamental. The dog ate dead bodies, and was a symbol of shamelessness and greed ; 4 he figures also among the cult-animals. Fowls in a domesticated state were few; even the cock fails of mention. Penelope had a flock i 111,26; VIII, 338ff; XV,579-581; xvii, 315-317 ; X, 183- 185 ; XI, 549 ; XVIII, 578 ; xiv, 21 ft. 2 xiv, 29-38; 531. 8 xvii, 308-310 (quoted); XXII, 69; also XXIII, 173; ii, 11. * I, 5; 159; XVII, 558 ; XXII, 69; III, 180; cf. "kunteron" (VIII, 483). INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 39 of white geese in the courtyard, but they seem to have been kept for ornament rather than for food. Several towns are mentioned which were rich in doves, and these birds apparently had a certain religious office. 1 Wild species of all these animals and fowl, ex- cept oxen, horses, and dogs, were well known ; and, in some cases, like that of the fowls, it is im- possible to tell whether domestication was com- plete, i. e., whether they bred in captivity. Sheep and goats, horses, asses, and dogs bred freely in captivity, so their domestication might be regarded as accomplished. It is unlikely that the Greeks themselves domesticated oxen, horses, and asses ; at any rate, since we know that the Chaldseans and Egyptians did domesticate them, and that the Phoe- nicians brought them, it is simpler to suppose their domestication foreign. AGRICULTURE The physical geography of Greece was such as to produce a mighty change in the methods of life of nomad settlers. There were no wide plains in which to roam ; sedentary conditions were imposed, for cattle-raising was restricted to certain fixed boundaries. Thus, negatively, agriculture was en- couraged. Influences from the East completed the work in a positive way, until, in the time of Homer, i xv, 161 ff (cf. Lippert, 1,567-568; 574); 11,502; 582; xii, 63. 40 HOMERIC SOCIETY agriculture was the sign of civilisation, the eye was ever open to indications of fertility, and rich land, uncultivated, was a painful sight. 1 It is likely that all the fine grains came from the East ; their development was no easy process and it needed all the fertility of Mesopotamia 2 and cen- turies of selection, practised under favourable condi- tions, to create the refined product. If there had been native Greek grains, they would have suc- cumbed to the superiority of seed from the East, before Homer's time. It is a hard and uncertain task to identify grains of the ancient time ; but, to take the surest, we have barley and wheat 3 as men's food, and lotos, parsley, marshgrass, and spelt 4 for horses. It is probable that Homeric wheat was inferior to that of the present day, 5 and perhaps barley was held in greater honour by the Greeks ; certainly it was the cult-grain, and was as highly esteemed as wheat. Erom wheat and barley, flour was made. 6 Vegetables are found sporadically in Homer; on- ions, beans, and pease, 7 for instance. Elax is not mentioned. The poppy was raised in the garden ; 8 its use is not mentioned, and, since narcotics were 1 ix, 130-135. 2 Lippert, I, 584 ff. 3 V, 196 ; VIII, 564 ; XI, 69 ; iv, 602-604. * II, 776-777 ; iv, 602-604. 5 Buchholz, I, pt. 2, 226. 6 See pp. 45-46 below ; ii 290 ; cf . Lippert, I, 584 ff ; Buchholz, I, pt. 2, 227. 7 XI, 630 ; xix, 233 ; XIII, 588-590. 8 VIII, 306. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 41 so wonderful to Homer, and since it is expressly- stated that they came from Egypt, it is likely that the Greeks did not understand the qualities of this plant. The above products demanded no fixed, sedentary life ; when we come to vines and trees, we first find ourselves in the domain of a more farsighted provi- dence of life ; for oftentimes trees must have been set out and vines started that would not bear fruit for the planter himself. The planting of vineyards and orchards is an antithesis of nomadic life, and shows an intention of taking up permanent abode for one's self and one's children. The chief fruit-trees were the fig, olive, pear, and apple. 1 To these were added infrequently the pomegranate. 2 Wild species of the olive and fig 3 were known. The date-palm is mentioned but once, 4 as having been seen at the shrine of Apollo in Delos, and so noticed that it could not have been in common cultivation. It will be observed that the fig, olive, date-palm, and pomegranate needed con- siderable artificial aid in propagation, perhaps even to the extent of artificial fertilisation. 6 The case of the date-palm mentioned points conclusively to cult- selection and cultivation as the first means of rear- ing and spreading these fine trees. But the nature of the fig, olive, and other more common trees was 1 xxiv, 246-247 ; 340. * vi, 162-163 ; cf. Pietschmann, 14. 2 vii, 115. 6 Lippert, I, 602 ff. 8 v, 477; xiii, 102; VI, 433; xii, 103. 42 HOMERIC SOCIETY well understood by the layman ; the possessor of trees was proud of them and spent such loving care in the rearing of a young tree that, to emphasise a child's careful raising, it was compared with the care expended upon an olive-shoot. 1 The impor- tance of the orchard is shown in the epithet of a rich farm or garden, " full of trees." 2 The trees were planted in some order, and the ground about their roots carefully loosened from time to time ; even the young children were early encouraged to take interest in the raising of fruit. 3 The finest trees were found in the garden of the Phseacian king. 4 Trees also played a part in the cult. Vineyards and wine were to Homer even more than were trees and fruit ; it was a high honour to a country to be " vineclad," 5 and the possession of good vines and wine was a sign of culture. Great mirth and good-feeling prevailed at the vintage, when youths and maidens gathered the fruit. 6 The best orchard and vineyard in Homer is that of Alcinous ; " there grew tall and flourishing trees, pears and pomegranates and apple-trees bearing fine fruit, and sweet figs and blooming olives." 7 In this orchard there was fruit the year around; pear grew close on pear, and fig on fig. Grapes were growing in all stages of ripeness : some were being 1 XVIII, 438 ; cf. XVII, 53-56. 2 iv, 737 ; xxiii, 139. * XVIII, 561-572. 3 xxiv, 226-227 ; 336-344. 7 vii, 114-116. 4 vii, 112ff. 6 III, 184; xv, 406. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 43 dried in a sunny spot, others were being plucked or pressed or turned to the sun ; some were unripe and some just ripening. Vines were arranged in orderly rows, and next to them were plots of gayly blooming flowers. 1 This vineyard and orchard are, of course, in large part fanciful ; they belong to that class of creations which are based on slight knowledge and report, and point to the Phoenicians and the East as the origin of tree and vine-culture. This view is also supported by the fact that orchards and vineyards clung to the sea-coast and were found chiefly in those spots where Phoenician influences might have been strongly at work. The towns or regions de- nominated " vineclad " were regularly coast-towns or districts, in lands frequented by Phoenicians, or they were towns or districts of the East itself, or pictures of fancy. 2 As superior vines and orchards were a mark of an Eastern culture-people, so inferior vines and a lack of fruit-trees distinguished segregated barbarians. Especially was this true of the Cyclopes, whose isolation we know ; for by their lack of shipping they were quite shut out of the civilised world. 3 On Homer's evidence it is there- fore very likely that the culture of the finest trees and vines was introduced by the Phoenicians from the East. Putting together the significance of the name 1 vii, 117-128. 2 II, 507; 537; 561; IX, 152-153; 577-579 xxiv, 205 ff; III, 184; v, 69; vii, 112 ff. 3 ix, 106 ff: 125-129. 44 HOMERIC SOCIETY " phoinix " * for the date-palm, and what has been learned of this tree in Delos, we have a good example of the spread of a culture-product from the plant or animal world. This dissemination was still in- complete, for it had yet to reach the common people. The processes connected with husbandry and fruit-raising come into Homer's notice very often, and are depicted in detail on the Shield. There is sketched the thrice-ploughed field, over which the ploughmen hasten their teams to gain a cup of wine at the furrow's end; likewise the field of deep grain, in which the sharp sickles of the reapers are plying. Close behind them follow the binders, and last of all children, gleaning. 2 The plough was a composite piece, not a single stick ; and was drawn by oxen or mules. 3 The grain was mowed by seizing a handful of stalks and severing them with a curved sickle. 4 It is probable that farm- tools were of iron, for farmers had to go to the city for this metal, from time to time. Eeaping and ploughing were manly occupations, and matches are spoken of. 5 Beans and the like were winnowed by being thrown up against the wind with a oar- like shovel, on a winnowing-floor, while grain was trodden out by oxen. 6 The process of fertilisation 1 Movers, II, pt. 1, p. 3. 2 XVIII, 541-560; cf. v, 127. 3 XIII, 702-703; viii, 124. 4 XVIII, 551-552 (cf. " dragmata," 552, 555) ; xviii, 368. * XXIII, 832 ff ; xviii, 366 ff. « V, 499 ff ; XX, 495-497 ; xxiii, 275. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 45 by the use of manure was well-known and irriga- tion of crops by means of small canals was com- mon. 1 Vermin were a plague which a god with a special function was supposed to avert. 2 Fruit-trees were fostered by careful digging around their roots, and vines were set to climb trellises and arbours. 3 Vines and trees were planted in rows, whence the name orchatos. A rich man's vines and trees were heavy with fruit ; this, with many births in the flocks, with plenty of grain and fish, was good fortune. 4 Upon private estates the workers were mostly slaves ; hired labourers are also mentioned. 5 As these, however received little beyond clothing and food, with probably only occasional employment, their lot was worse than that of the slaves. Achilles men- tions as the most deplorable lot that of being a hired labourer under a poor master. 6 FOOD AND ITS PREPARATION From the preceding pages we already know some- thing of what the Homeric Greeks ate and drank. From their flocks and herds they drew a regular supply of meat, which was their chief article of diet. From barley and wheat they had flour; it was ground in hand-mills and called "the marrow 1 xvii, 297-299 ; XXI, 257-262. 2 I, 39. 8 xxiv, 227 ; XVIII, 561-572. * xix, 111 ff. 6 xxiv, 208-210; xviii, 357-361. 6 x j f 489-491. 46 HOMERIC SOCIETY of men." 1 How this was prepared we can only guess ; considering the manner of cooking of the time, it is supposable that the " bread " was a kind of unleavened cake baked in the ashes. The word sitos came to stand for food in general, which indicates that a good deal of grain was eaten. The Greeks so often made a meal of a sacrifice that meat, the chief article of sacrifice played a great part in their diet. They knew the best cuts and were fond of blood and fat. 2 Beef, mutton, and pork, and the wild meats, such as venison, 3 were eaten. Fowls were kept as pets ; eggs are not mentioned. Of the vegetables, onions preserved their original use, as a relish. Other relishes or combinations, probably of a vegetable variety, were prepared. 4 The legend of the Lotus-eaters seems to point to the listlessness and lack of energy due to a food entirely vegetable and not very nourishing at that. 5 Honey, the oldest condiment, was much prized and was the symbol of sweetness. It was probably wild honey, gotten by hunters, though we find bees depositing their stores in the stone jars of the nymphs. 6 It was used in combinations with wine and figured in the treatment of the dead. 7 There is clear proof in Homer of the fact that the 1 xx, 106 ff. 7 x> 234; 519 ; xx. 69. 2 viii, 475-476 ; xviii, 44-45. 8 XVIII, 319. 4 Lippert, I, 583 ; IX, 489 ; iii, 479-480. 6 ix, 94-97 ; cf . Lippert, I, 453 ft. 6 I, 249 ; XVIII, 109 ; xx, 69 ; XII, 170 ; xiii, 104-108. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 47 taste for salt is an acquired one, for inlanders did not use it. It is not mentioned in regular sacrifice. 1 The entire supply of salt seems to have come from sea-water or through commerce. Though salt was a symbol of cheapness, it was called " divine." 2 It is remarkable how little use was made of milk at this time. The food of young children was tender meat, marrow, relishes, fat, and wine. 3 No mention is made of milking cows ; aside from the horse's milk, used by " milk-eaters " of the North, we hear only of goat's milk. 4 Homer seems to have thought it a piece of luxury that master and man in Libya had plenty of milk ; it is strange that this plenty occurs along with impossible fancies like that of horned lambs, and that the verb " thesthai " is used. The Cyclopes too had plenty of milk and drank it " unmixed." 5 All this seems to point to a scarcity of the article in Greece. Hard cheese seems also to have been regarded as something of a delicacy, and was used chiefly to grate into wine. 6 It is hard to reconcile all this with great herds of goats and kine, and .with " pails full of milk." 7 Milk was curdled with the sap of the wild iig-tree ; and we find it given to the dead in Hades. 8 1 xi, 122-125; cf. IX, 214 ff. 2 xvii, 455-457 ; IX, 214. 8 IX, 489-491 ; XXII, 501 ; xvi, 443-444. 4 XIII, 5-6 ; IV, 433-434. 5 iv, 85-89 ; ix, 297. 6 xx, 69 ; XI, 639-640 ; x, 234-235. 7 XVI, 642-643. 8 V, 902-903 ; xi, 27. 48 HOMERIC SOCIETY Polyphemus had baskets of curdled milk and drank whey, as did all poor slaves in Greece itself ; 1 possibly the milk was used chiefly for making this soft cheese, though little evidence is present on the point. Fish were eaten in times of necessity, 2 but seem to have been regarded rather as the food of the poorer classes. As has been said above, there was a regular class of poor fishermen and ferrymen in Ithaca. The fish might have been an " old " food ; the epithet " sacred " seems to denote this. 3 Of drinks, wine was the great and only staple. Water was admired as an element, but was not used by itself as a drink ; ships were rarely pro- visioned with water. 4 Wines were sweet, perhaps because often mixed with honey, and different grades were known. 5 Wine for drinking was diluted with water ; the finest and strongest, in the proportion of 1 : 20. 6 The effect of age on wine was well-known. 7 Drinking was libation and libation drinking, and in several other ways wine was employed in the cult. The finest wine of the poems was procured from a priest of Thrace, a country noted in the oldest times 1 ix, 222 ; 246-247 ; xvii, 225. 2 See p. 30 above and references. » Lippert, I, 580 ff ; XVI, 407. 4 ii, 290 ff ; v, 265-266 ; cf. iv, 359. 6 xx, 69 ; VII, 467 ff ; XI, 639 ; XII, 320 ; ii, 350 ; ix, 20G ff. 6 No doubt an exaggerated estimate, aiming at effect, i, 110 j ix, 209. 7 ii, 340-342; iii, 391. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 49 for its wines. 1 Wine " refreshes and strengthens," but drunkenness is found only a few times in the poems and is much reprehended by the narrator. 2 A combination of Pramneian wine with grated cheese, honey, and barley-meal was very popular. 3 In the matter of food-preparation comes first the manner of dealing with the fire. The fire was " kept," especially in the sparsely-settled country, where, if it went out, the loser had to take a long journey to borrow coals with which to re-kindle it. " — As when one hides a brand in the black ashes, one who dwells on a far-away field with no neigh- bours, preserving the seed of the fire, that he may not be forced to seek it elsewhere." 4 No mention is made of any methods of igniting, though the boring-tools of the builder were well-known. 5 In cooking, the processes were very simple ; roasting on spits, and in the ashes. Eoasting only is mentioned, in connection with food-preparation and sacrifice. 6 The Greeks had good copper and other vessels, however, and water was boiled for baths ; fat also was boiled. 7 Possibly the metal of the pots would have injured the meats ; at any rate, boiling went no further. A variation of the roast- 1 ix, 206 ff ; cf. Buchholz, I, 80. 2 VI, 260-261 ; 265. 8 XI, 639-640; x, 234-235. * v, 488-490; xx, 123 ff. 5 See p. 58 below ; for the general development of tools, me- chanical processes, etc., see Tylor, Anth., 182 ff passim. 6 IX, 213 ff; 1,466. * XVIII, 346-349 ; XXI, 362-364 ; cf. Lippert, I, 347 ff. 50 . HOMERIC SOCIETY ing-process is found, where the meat was cooked in the skin or stomach of the slain animal. 1 This seems to have been the only cooking-vessel used; and, probably because it saved the blood and fat, the method was highly esteemed. MANUFACTUKES The influence of other nations upon Greece in the matter of the arts- and their products has been sketched above. In Homer's period, foreign pro- ducts, rather than processes, were known, though the latter were making headway ; what was foreign and what native can be distinguished only in the broadest lines. The metals and metallic processes have always gained a great share of attention among peoples advancing in civilisation. Homer uses eight terms which may refer to metals ; four of these are accepted as meaning gold, silver, lead, and iron ; there is doubt as to the nature of the substances corresponding to the terms : chalJcos, Jcassiteros, Jcyanos, and elektros. Regarding the first of these, the question is — "Did the Homeric Greeks possess bronze, or is this metal merely copper ? " If copper were hard and resisting, or if we knew some simple process for rendering it so, there would be no reason for assuming bronze at all. The one strong argument for bronze is, that it is far superior to pure copper 1 xviii, 44-45 ; xx, 25-27 ; cf. Lippert, I, 358-361. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION , 51 in hardness and power of holding a cutting-edge, and so would be valuable in tools and weapons where copper, as we know it, would be practically- useless. Other peoples, however, have got along with copper, and there are several difficulties to be explained away before accepting bronze as Homeric. First, chalkos is " ruddy ; " l bronze could scarcely bear such description. Also the second constituent of bronze, tin, was very rare; and when it was scarce and dear in Sidon, it is not likely that foreigners were in possession of a large, usable quantity. At a much later period tin was regarded as an almost noble metal, and, from all reference to it in Homer, the conclusion is, that it was used almost exclusively for itself alone, as ornament. 2 From a mechanical point of view, it is doubtful if the contrivances of the time could more than soften copper. For the fusion of this metal a very high temperature is needed. 3 Common bellows could not produce this heat ; yet there is no men- tion of difficulty in working copper, while iron, which can be fused at a much lower temperature, and easily worked at 700 degrees C. is called jpoly- kmetos* Strongest of all proof, however, rests in the silence of Homer concerning so wonderful a 1 IX, 365, cf. XIX, 38. 2 Lehmann, II, 67 ; XI, 25 ; 34 ; XVIII, 565 ; 574 ; XXIII, 503; 561. ? 1100° C. and above; see Lippert, II, 224. 4 I. e., " wrought with much labour " ; VI, 48. Cf . Tylor, 279. 52 HOMERIC SOCIETY process as the artificial union of two metals. To alchemists of the Middle Ages the process, though well-known, was something almost supernatural. 1 Horner, who draws from the whole domain of the arts, has no word or phrase that can point to the fact or process of alloy. Chalkos, the most common metal in Homer, and the one from which the smith derives his name, is always mentioned as a single element. If chalkos means bronze, there is no special word for copper in the poems. 2 On the whole, it seems easier to accept " copper " for chalkos, and there are some aids to this view. None of the early metals, even of mediaeval alche- mists, 3 were used in a pure state. The copper of the Homeric Greeks may well have held some hardening element ; if this was the case, the ques- tion of copper versus bronze resolves itself into a question of natural versus artificial alloy. 4 If this is the issue, one need scarcely hesitate to support the former alternative. Probably the imported weapons, etc., of the Greeks were often of bronze ; and very likely a generic name (cf. the Latin "ses") might cover all combinations whose base was copper ; but the Greeks themselves knew only copper, rendered hard, perhaps, by reason of some natural alloy. 6 1 Lehmann, II, 155 ff. 2 Cf. Gladstone, J. M., 535. 3 Lehmann, II, 65. 4 See Ridgeway, 596 ff. 5 It is softer than iron and stone ; IV, 510-511 ; cf. Ill, 348 ; VII, 259: XI, 237. DUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 53 is used chiefly for ornament to lur. 1 ' It is likely, therefore, that it was shining ancWhowy. It is called " flexible " and affords a colour-contrast, not to silver, but to gold, copper, and kyanos. 2 All these characteristics point to tin. It is not likely that the Phoenicians, who catered so zealously to the desires of the barbarians, 3 neglected occasionally to tempt their good customers, the Greeks, with small quantities of this metal, always a good drawing-card in the frontier-trade. Proba- bly, then, the Greeks had tin in small quantities, used almost entirely for ornament. Kyanos is primarily an adjective of colour ; dark- blue. There is also a substance bearing the name, which is used with metals, and appears to be a dec- orative material. On account of its colour it has been called "steel." 4 This is unlikely, for if it were steel, it would not be used exclusively, if at all, for ornament ; and though we know of the tem- pering of iron, 5 we know of no process like cemen- tation, which would infuse the proper amount of carbon to produce steel. It is probably one of the imported Egyptian enamels mentioned by Maspero. 6 Mektros has come to be distinguished from elektron (amber). It was once regarded as a natural mix- i XI, 25; 34; XVIII, 564-565; 613; XX, 271 ; XXI, 592. 2 XVIII, 613; XI, 24-25; 34-35; XXIII, 560-561. 8 Cf. Lippert. I, 298 ; 603-604. * I, 528; XIII, 563; XX, 224; XXII, 401-402; XXIII, 188; cf. XI, 35 ; Buchholz, I, 341. * ix, 391 ff. 6 D. of C, 358 ; cf. Ridgeway, I, 21. 54 HOMERIC SOCIETY scious storrel ture of gold and silver in the proportl also it is taken to mean " jewel," " precii For the latter view several facts speak. First, no jewels are otherwise mentioned in Homer, though Egyptians had succeeded in making imitations of precious stones in the . earliest times ; 2 also the word elektros is used in the plural, a fact unpar- alleled in the cases of the other metals ; and, lastly, these articles (plural of elektros) are " set " in neck- laces. 3 Elektros does not occur in the Iliad, and in the Odyssey comes regularly from foreign parts ; it also occurs with gold, silver, and copper, among enumerated articles of wealth and magnificence. 4 Probably, then, the Greeks possessed six metals, — gold, silver, iron, lead, tin, and copper. There is no evidence as to the mining of any of these metals, and probably they were chiefly of foreign importa- tion. Gold and silver were especially plentiful in Egyptian Thebes, Sidon, Alybe, and Cyprus. 5 Alybe was the great silver station ; and both Alybe and Cyprus were Phoenician colonies. Copper came from Temese, possibly a Phoenician colony on the island of Cyprus. 6 Beyond this, there is no direct evidence as to the origin of the metals. Tin, we know, came from the West in those times. It is likely that i Pliny, Hist. Nat., XXXIII, 4. 2 Lehmaun, II, 66. 8 xv, 459-460; xviii, 294-295 ; cf. Friedreich, p. 90, and art. 90. 4 iv, 71 ff. 6 IX, 381 ff ; iv, 12.3 ff ; 617 ff ; II, 857 ; iv, 83 ff. 6 i, 182 ff; ef. " cuprum"; "aes Cyprium." INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 55 iron was a native metal ; ships from Taphos carried it to Cyprus to trade for copper. It was evidently worked up from the rough, or from the ore, in Greece. 1 Some idea of the metallic processes may be gained from a knowledge of the tools of the smith. They are : anvil and block, a large crushing-hammer, a smaller hammer, bellows, tongs, and choanoi, which term is taken to mean " smelting-oven." 2 The material of these tools is not specified. These are the tools which Hephaestus takes to make the shield of Achilles, so that they doubtless embody the highest instruments of the smith's art known to Homer. The crushing-hammer suggests the break- ing of the ore for smelting. This smelting is prob- ably not melting, but a softening of the ore, so that the dross can be hammered out. 3 Melting and moulds are quite improbable, for they would surely have been mentioned , the metals taken to make the Shield are thrown directly into the fire. All early metal-work depended chiefly on hammering, with or without heating the metal. In the case of gold, silver, tin, and copper, this was simple because of the softness of these metals in an unalloyed state. Be- yond the method of shaping (and probably riveting) 4 fire-softened metals with the hammer, no other can be clearly shown in Homer. No further informa- 1 i, 184 ff ; cf. Friedreich, 291 ; XXIII, 832 ff. 2 XVIII, 468 ff. 8 Lippert, II, 224 ff. * Ranke, Der Mensch, II, 609 ; XVIII, 379 ff. 56 HOMERIC SOCIETY tion on processes is obtainable, except in the case of iron, where the smith understands the hardening effect on an iron tool of a plunge in cold water. 1 By this it is not meant to assert that the origi- nals of such structures as the shield of Achilles, the work-basket of Helen, 2 etc., were all formed by this poor process. This was the way the Greek thought it must have been done, as he knew no other methods of attaining such results. The very vague- ness with which Homer describes the process of the shield-making, for instance, indicates its compara- tive unfamiliarity to him. All the finest metallic products are foreign ; that imagination enters largely into the poet's account of them, is shown in such fancies as the golden servants of Hephaestus, his net, his automatic bellows, 3 etc. Products of metal-work will be mentioned from time to time below ; for the present a word may be said on the general use of the metals. Gold seems to be more valuable than silver, though the differ- ence is apparently slight. Gold is the great metal of ornament, of course ; 4 it is more lustrous, does not tnrnish, is more costly, and, in the comparatively pure state in which the Homeric Greeks used it, more malleable. Divine possessions are represented, 1 ix, 391 ff. 3 iv, 131 ff. 8 XVIII, 417 ff; 468 ff; viii, 274 ff. 4 I, 15 ; VI, 235-236; VIII, 43 ; X, 294; XVIII, 373 ff; XXIV, 795 ; i, 142 ; iii, 384 ; iv, 58 ; 131 ; 615-616 ; v, 231-232; x, 543 ; xi, 91 ; xix, 226-229 ; xxiv, 74. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 57 reasonably or not, 1 as made of gold and silver. Tin, as has been said, is ornamental. Copper is the metal of weapons, offensive and defensive, and of tools. 2 It seems to rate to gold somewhere nearly as 9 : 100. 3 Iron appears to be plentiful and to be used chiefly in agricultural implements, though often in weapons and cutting tools. 4 Use of lead is men- tioned but once : as material of sinkers for fishing- lines. 6 Next in importance to metal-working comes wood-working. The tools of the wood-worker are the well-whetted, double-edged axe and the hatchet, both generally of copper, 6 with which the trees are cut down and the beams shaped. Axes and hatchets of iron are also found. Smaller tools and weapons are generally of ironJ The olive-wood handles of these tools are fitted into holes in the heads. Besides these instruments, the wood-worker has an adze, a scraper, and a chalk-line. 8 The most complicated tool is the auger, which could be used by one man or by several. No mention is made of 1 VIII, 442 ; XVI, 183 ; XVIII, 417-418 ; XXIV, 340-341 ; cf. 1,49. 2 IV, 461 ; XI, 16, etc.; I, 236; v, 234-235; cf. XI, 639-640; 630; XVIII, 349. 8 VI. 235-236. * XXIII, 832 ff; IV, 123; V, 723; VII, 141; XVIII, 34 ; XXIII, 30 ; xxi, 97 ; cf. Ridgeway, 294 ft. 6 XXIV, 80. 6 XIII, 391 ; XXIII, 114 ff , V, 234-235. 7 XXIII, 850-851 ; xix, 573 ff ; Leaf, C. to H., 299. 58 HOMERIC SOCIETY the material of the auger; of course it could have been no more than a bar of wood or metal, pointed or ring-shaped at the end. When worked by several operators, a strap was wound about the shaft and drawn in turn by two men, while the third bore down on the top ; 1 an arrangement whose prototype was the primitive fire-drill. Since no other method of working the auger is mentioned, it is likely that, in the case of a single operator, the process was analogous. J A better idea of work in metals and wood can probably be gained by the aid of some examples of products, which will appear under various heads below. Much of the skill of the early ages was employed in the fabrications of arms and armour. Several primitive weapons appear here and there in Homer, chiefly among the barbarous tribes. The Cyclops and Orion carried wooden clubs and a war-mace of iron is mentioned. 2 In one case, a copper axe, with a long olive helve, is said to have been carried as a secondary weapon by a Trojan. 3 The sling, once a noble weapon, had sunk to the use of the common soldier: no hero carried one. The bow and the sling were used by the Locrians, who did not understand other kinds of fighting tools. 4 The bow was made of horn ; in one case described, the horns 1 v, 246-247 ; ix, 383-386. 2 ix, 319ff ; xi, 575 ; VII, 138-141. 8 XIII, 612-613. * XII, 599-600; 713 ff ; XIII, 713-716. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 59 of a wild goat, each sixteen palms long, were joined together base to base by a short shaft, 1 probably a bar of wood, which was apparently run into both horns to a certain distance. The bow-string was a sinew, well twisted. 2 The arrows were of reed, with heavy copper or iron heads, bound in the shaft with sinew, and generally barbed. 3 A quiver, closed at both ends, was used by Apollo to carry his arrows. 4 The position of the bow is peculiar in Homer. It was used chiefly by Trojans and Trojan allies ; its patron god was the Lycian Apollo ; 5 among Greeks the best archers were almost always those who dwelt near the sea, in districts open to foreign in- fluence — Teucer of Salamis, Philoctetes of Thessaly, Meriones of Crete, and Odysseus of Ithaca 6 were the great bowmen. This would point to a foreign origin of the bow and its honour. On the other hand, the heroes of a former generation, Heracles and Eurytus, were said to have been far more skilful with the bow than their descendants. 7 This fact would designate the bow as an " old " weapon, rapidly grow- ing obsolete. Here is then a partial contradiction, 1 xxi, 395 ; IV, 105 ff ; XI, 375. 2 IV, 118; XV, 463. 3 XI, 584; IV, 151 ; XIII, 650; XV, 465; IV, 151 ; V, 393; VIII, 297 ; XI, 507. 4 I, 45. , 5 11,848; IV, 196-197; 1,45 ff; V, 103-105. 6 XIII, 313-314; II, 718; viii, 219; XXIII, 860 ff; xxi, xxii. 7 viii, 223-224. 60 HOMERIC SOCIETY with the bulk of the evidence pointing to the bow as a foreign introduction ; perhaps it could not be naturalised in Greece. It appears from many indications that the bow was somewhat despised. In the Theomachy, Hera beat Artemis with her own arrows and expressed great contempt for her and her weapon ; Paris almost always carried a bow, and the bow and he were held alike in contempt. 1 Pandarus regretted trusting to the bow; with it he wounded Menelaus and broke the truce; the moment he deserted the bow for a manlier weapon he was killed. 2 The bow was relegated to hunting and games, 3 and appears to have been going out of use for purposes of war. Odysseus used poisoned arrows, but the public opinion and the religion of the Greek race had evidently been long turned against the custom, for Odysseus found it impossible to get poison from god-fearing men. He got it finally from a Phoeni- cian neighbourhood. 4 The noble weapons of the time were spear and sword. " Spearman " is the commonest word for warrior. 5 The spear was generally of ash, quite long, sometimes eleven cubits, its copper point held in place by a ring, in some cases, of gold. The butt was blunt-pointed for sticking in the ground. 1 XXI, 481 ff ; III, 17 ; XI, 385-387, 505-507 ; 2 V, 205 ft; 290 ff; IV, 104 ff. 8 XXIII, 850 ff;ix, 156. 4 i, 261 ff. Cf. Tylor, 221. 6 1,290; VII, 281. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 61 It was used for throwing and thrusting. 1 The sword was a secondary weapon, usually of copper, which broke before it bent. There were several sizes of swords, one of the largest being the Thra- cian. Swords were carried in sheaths or holders of ivory, and probably also of metal, and had deco- rated hilts. 2 These were the regular weapons of war ; on occasion, axes, hatchets, and boat-hooks were used, 3 and, in default of anything better, especially where weight was wanted, jagged boulders were resorted to. 4 The order of weapons was, generally, first spear and sword, and then rocks or fists. 5 The heroes of Homer fought regularly from a two-horse war-chariot. This car consisted of a box with raised rim in front, a seemingly springy floor of woven straps, an oaken or metal axle, spoked wheels with rims of bent wood, tires, sometimes of copper, and a pole, to the end of which the yoke was attached. 6 The horses were yoked and con- fined in a somewhat complicated harness. Two men rode in the box, one driving and the other fighting. 7 To resist the bounding and bumping, these chariots must have been very heavy or 1 VI, 319-320; 449; X, 153; XV, 278. 2 III, 334-335; 363; x, 261-262; XIII, 576-577; XXIII, 808; viii, 404 ; I, 194 ; XV, 713 ; I, 219, XI, 29-31. » XV,*711; 677. * III, 80 ; V, 582 ; XII, 178 ; 445 ff. 5 III, 355 ff ; VII, 264 ff ; XI, 265 ff. 6 V, 722-731 ; 836 ; XI, 537 ; XVII, 440 ; XXIV, 266-274. 7 XVII, 440 ; XIX, 393 ; XXIV, 266-274 ; see Autenrieth sub " zugon"; V, 835 ff. 62 HOMERIC SOCIETY very strongly built. Chariots were also used in travelling. 1 Armour was very necessary in those hand-to-hand fights ; even under the greatest provocation a hero would not appear unarmed. 2 The head was pro- tected by a helmet of metal or leather, strengthened by knobs of metal, covering most of the face and strapped under the chin. The helmet had a crest of horse-hair to increase the fearfulness of the warrior's appearance, and was sometimes adorned with teeth of animals. 3 The body was covered with metal plates, belts, etc., 4 extending the pro- tection toward the knee ; below the knee were buckled greaves. 5 The feet were, apparently, un- protected. Leather, linen, and felt, besides metal, supplied material for armour. 6 The shield was the great defensive piece, and reached from neck to ankle. Shields were generally made of heavy leather with a sheet of copper on the outside ; the shield of Ajax had seven sheets of leather, piled one upon the other, with an outer covering of metal; the whole resembling a tower in form. 7 From the lower rim of the shield depended an apron of untanned leather ; the metal-surface of 1 XXIII, 368-369 ; iii, 486 ff. 2 XVII, 711. » 111,371-372; IV, 459; XII, 183; V, 182; VI, 469 ; X, 263- 264. * IV, 132 ff; VIII, 195; XI, 24-28; XV, 530. 5 III, 330-331. « II, 529, 830 ; X, 258 ; 335 : XVII, 492-493. 7 VI, 117-118; XV, 479, etc. ; VII, 219-223. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 63 the shield was embossed for strength, and it was carried by means of bars on the inside. 1 On the shield, as on the breast-plate, were worked devices, some possibly totemic in original significance; the finest work of this kind was foreign in origin, the best example of it being the shield of Achilles. 2 Aside from the arms of war, we find many domes- tic utensils, etc., in the possession of the Greeks. A wagon with four wheels, drawn by mules, was in use. 3 Of utensils about the house, copper tripods with ears were much in use and very valuable ; wonderful tripods of gold, were the work of Hephsestus. 4 Mixing-bowls, basins, pitchers, and cups, of copper, silver, and gold were com- mon. 5 Copper jars with covers, copper baskets, copper graters, silver bath-tubs, milk-pails, meat- dressers, golden torch-holders, andirons, funeral urns, etc., 6 were in use ; this list will give some idea of the work in metals and of the articles of import from the East. A silver basket on wheels, or a finely decorated bowl, 7 would sometimes come directly as gifts from noble persons in Egypt or 1 IV, 448; V, 453 ; VIII, 193; xxii, 122. 2 Cf. the Mgis; XI, 24-28; 33-40; XVIII, 478-479. 8 XXIV, 189-190; vi, 70 ff. * VIII, 290 ; XVIII, 346-349 ; XXII, 443 ; XXIII, 40 ; 264 5 702-703 ; XVIII, 373 ff. 6 I, 471; 584; 598; III, 247; IX, 123; 469; XI, 632-638; XXII, 494; XXIII, 267-268; 741-743; 885; XXIV, 234-235; 304-305. 6 V, 387; IX, 206; 214-215; X, 576; XI, 630; 640; XVI, 642-643 ; XXIII, 91-92; ii, 353; iv, 128 ; ix, 222 ff ; xxiv, 74-75. 7 iv, 125 ff ; 615 ff. 64 HOMERIC SOCIETY Sidon, such utensils being often the work of Hephaestus. The Greeks had also skin bags to preserve liquids, bowls (perhaps of wood) woven baskets, oil-cans, etc. 1 Jewelry, which probably included some cheap stones or imitations, and was often of complicated metal-work, came from the East or belonged to the gods. 2 A strange thing is the absence of clay vessels in Homer; the potter's wheel is mentioned, but, aside from this, references to work in clay are few and uncertain. 3 Weaving of baskets was one of the homely occupations. The wood-worker was regularly the ship-builder, though small boats were not beyond the construc- tive skill of the one who happened to need them. We know how small boats were built from the de- scription of Odysseus's operations ; 'processes in the case of larger craft were doubtless much the same. Odysseus used levers in launching his boat, and the same mechanical device is mentioned elsewhere. 4 In general, the ship was built on a keel, and ribs were fitted symmetrically ; 5 a sort of half-deck was extended over the rear end of the craft, upon which pilot and ship-master sat, and benches 6 were fixed 1 v, 265-267 ; x, 19 ; ix, 346 ; XVIII, 568 ; ix, 247 ; vi, 79. 2 xv, 460 ff ; xix, 226-231 ; XIV, 180 ff. 3 XVIII, 600-601 ; V, 387 ; IX, 469. * v, 234-240 ; 243-261 ; XII, 448. 6 v, 130; xix, 574; see various cuts in Autenrieth. 6 XI, 600 ; XV, 676; 728-729; ii, 417-420; xii, 411-412; XX, 247. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 65 below for the oarsmen. The pine oars were bound by straps in their tholes, and the rudder was only a broader oar. 1 The sails were probably loom-woven at home and the rigging was generally of leather, though sometimes of braided papyrus. 2 The pine mast was arranged to stand in a mast-holder and was held by stays fore and aft; 3 when the wind was weak or adverse, or when approaching land, the mast was let down and the sails stowed in the ship. 4 When a good breeze sprung up, rowing was promptly suspended, the mast was raised and the sails spread. Stones were used for anchors. 5 The ships were fitted with pikes and poles ; that one man could push a ship off from the shallows with a pole indicates the size of the vessels in those days. 6 Ships were painted, usually red or black, 7 and were of various kinds. The ship of burden was wider and larger than the ordinary craft; a ship carrying fifty oarsmen was very large, though one fleet of fifty ships is said to have carried one- hundred and twenty each. 8 The power of ships as to speed and resistance will be mentioned below. 1 VII, 4-6; xii, 172; iv, 782; viii, 53; VII, 88; viii, 37; xii, 203-204; ix, 540; xii, 218; iii, 281. 2 xii, 423 ; xxi, 390-391. 3 I, 434 ; ii, 424 ; xii, 409-410. 4 I, 432 ff; iii, 11 ; xii, 170-172. 5 1,436; XIV, 76-77. 6 XV, 388-389; 677-678; ix, 487-488. 7 II, 637 ; vi, 269. 8 v, 249-250; ix, 322-323; II, 509-510; XX, 247. 5 66 HOMERIC SOCIETY In house-building more or less stone-work was executed. There is no mention of fine masonry done by the Greeks, and it is thought by some that all stone-work was Phoenician. Aside from its ordinary uses to men, stone is mentioned twice in Homer as the material of possessions which belong to the nymphs ; stone looms on which they worked marvellous things, and stone jars in which bees deposited honey for them. 1 This points to the former use of stone utensils. The Cyclopean walls 2 suggest something the same line of thought. In practical Greek life, stone was used chiefly for buildings, for tombstones, for hand-mills, etc. Anchor-stones were probably bored, as were the stone landings in Scheria. 3 Habitations were little variable in type. The ruder forms of dwellings are found in but a few cases. Calypso and the nymphs lived in caves, which fact, in connection with other of their char- acteristics, may point to a former time when such habitations were more common. The Cyclops was also a cave-dweller ; he built merely a court of huge boulders about the mouth of his dwelling for his flocks. 4 Aside from a few examples, however, the houses were substantially alike and of the dis- tinctly Southern type. They were roofed by con- 1 xii, 105-106; xiii, 107-108. 2 ix, 184 ff; cf. Lippert, II, 173; 190. 3 VII, 270; XII, 161; vii, 104; xx, 106 ; xiii, 77. * v, 57 ff ; ix, 183 ff; xiii, 104-108. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 67 verging extensions from the side-walls, which were supported by pillars and left an opening in the centre. There were no windows, and the house grew from within outward. The development of the house-plan was by a series of halls, commenc- ing with the court-yard, and passing through the pillared porch, or fore-hall, to the megaron, from which small rooms opened to the rear. There seems to have been no important lateral growth to the Homeric house ; it is longitudinal, and, in developed forms, vertical. 1 The fundamental form of the house is best seen in the temporary structures of camp-life. The Myrmidons built for Achilles a somewhat preten- tious " hut " of pine, roofed with reeds ; about it was a great court-yard enclosed with a hedge of thick stakes and a single door, fitted with a strong pine bar. Before the living-room of the house stretched a fore-hall where visitors slept on occasion. Next to this porch was the main room, and further within, a secluded sleeping apartment, 2 where the master and his wife slept. Other houses were merely complicated forms of this, the ground-plan of the Southern house. In the permanent struc- tures, the heavier woods were used; ash, cypress, and cedar, 3 and more rooms and a second story were added. Under the patriarchal system of the time, i Lippert, II, 175 ff ; cf. Jebb, Homer, 57 ff. * XXIV, 449 ff; 673-674; IX, 663 ff. 8 Friedreich, 300. 68 HOMERIC SOCIETY the sons generally stayed with the father ; this house-plan, therefore, was likely to be augmented by the addition of small chambers, built by the sons for themselves and wives. 1 To enter somewhat more into detail. 2 The whole establishment was surrounded by a fairly high wall with one gate, directly in front of the house, and leading into the court-yard. This gate usually opened upon a road. 3 In the court, flocks were kept, and its condition was far from clean or sani- tary. Near the gate was a small out-building. 4 In the midst of the court was the altar of Zeus Herkeios, where sacrifices and libations were per- formed. Cooking was also done in the court. 5 The fore-hall lay entirely open to the court and seems to have been scarcely divided from it. Cat- tle and sheep were tethered here, pending sacrifice. 6 The name aithousa probably indicates the smoky appearance of the place. In this porch the young unmarried men generally slept; also the humbler guests. 7 The megaron had a floor of hard-trodden earth, which was cleaned by sprinkling and sweeping, and 1 xxiii, 178 fE. 2 Cf. Autenrieth, plate III. 8 IX, 476; xviii, 100 ff; i, 103-104; iv, 20-22; XVIII, 496. 4 IV, 433; xv, 161 ff; xx, 164; XXIV, 164-165; 640 ; xvii, 297-299 ; xxii, 466. 6 XXIV, 306 ; XVI, 231-232 ; xxii, 333-336 ; 376-379 ; XI, 773-775; ii, 300. 6 xx, 176 ; 186. 7 iii, 399-401 ; iv, 297-305 ; xx, 1 ff. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 69 on occasion, by hoeing. 1 The spilled wine of liba- tion, blood of beasts, and ashes, left it none too clean. 2 The front door was the only direct exit, although there were long, narrow passages running from the rear of the house to the court in front. 3 Pillars supported the ceiling, which was blackened by smoke. The smoke was intended to go out of an aperture in the centre of the roof, but that it generally filled the room is indicated by the epi- thet " smoky," and other evidences. 4 This smoke came from the braziers and torches 5 which were used for cooking and lighting in those days. Meals were generally eaten in this megaron, and the hearth lay at its inner end. 6 At the lower end of the megaron were openings leading into the smaller rear rooms, and to the steep ladder or staircase. On the upper floor were rooms, likewise with pillars, where weapons, etc., were stored ; here were also the women's rooms, where the spinning and weaving were done. 7 Seemingly to the rear of all was the secret chamber of the man and wife ; in Odysseus' s house it was the one which he had built on to the main floor. 8 A trea- 1 See Autenrieth, sub u megaron " ; also plate III ; xxiii, 46 ; xx, 149-150; xxii, 455-456. 2 XXIV, 621 ff ; xix, 63-64. 3 Cf. xxii, 2 ff ; 76 -77 ; 126-143 passim. 4 viii, 66 ; II, 414-415 ; xxii, 239-240 ; xix, 7-9 ; 18. 6 i, 428 ; ii, 105 ; xviii, 307-311. 6 i, 126 ff; 144 ff; vii, 139; 153. 7 i, 330; 356 ff ; xxii, 176. 8 xxiii, 178 ff. 70 HOMERIC SOCIETY sure-room is also mentioned, to which there was a descent, and which was to be entered by the use of a certain hook or key. 1 Doors were often furnished with simple locks or latches, and were swung on hinges that worked on the pivot principle. Frequent epithets point to the fact that the Ho- meric house was strongly constructed ; the Suitors made no attempt to break through the walls. Yet it was not infrequently built by the owner himself, with some aid, perhaps, from the professional builder. 2 These dwellings must have been fairly large also ; the megaron of Odysseus is said to have held over one hundred men, when the Suitors and their fol- lowing were all there. The houses were generally plain, but were sometimes decorated with metal plates, carved torch-holders of gold, and golden dogs ; 3 it is needless to say that this magnificence was foreign, or derived from foreign sources. The house of Priam was peculiar in itself, seem- ing more like a " long-house " than do any of the others of Homer. It was made of polished stone, with sixty-two chambers of the same material, with- in; these chambers were built side by side, and occupied by the married children of the king. This is really a patriarchal long-house, and is further remarkable in being built entirely, or almost en- tirely, of stone. Such building implies considerable 1 VT, 288-289 ; ii, 337 ; 344-345 ; xxi, 6-7. 2 i, 333: xxii, 24 ; VI, 313-315. 8 xvi, 245 ff ; iv, 71-75 ; vii, 86 ff ; 91 ff ; 102. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 71 skill in stone-cutting. Only occasionally is there a difference so marked between Trojans and Greeks. Stone houses are found, in general, where foreign influence might have been strongly at work, or in pictures of the fancy, such as that of the house of Circe. 1 The furniture of the Homeric house presents an- other good example of Southern, as contrasted with Northern development. 2 Chairs and tables were the chief furniture of the living-room ; and in ac- cordance with the Southern type, the chairs were heavy and immovable, while the tables were merely platters on legs, drawn up to the chairs. 3 No dishes were used; the food was eaten directly from the tables, which were afterward washed with sponges. 4 The chairs were of two varieties, not dissimilar, and fitted often with footstools, joined to the chair- body. 6 Stools were also used separately. 6 Spear- racks, chests, etc., 7 completed the regular furniture of the megaron. Skins and rugs were used to sit and recline upon, and in the women's room was a kind of lounge. 8 1 VI, 243-250; x, 210-211. 2 Lippert, II, 199. 8 XIV, 238-241; xix, 56-58 ; cf. i, 145 ; IX, 216; XI, 628 ; XXIV, 476; i, 111-112; 138; iv, 51 ff ; v, 196; vii, 174; x, 354 ; xii, 20 ; 74-75. 4 i, 111-112; xx, 151-152. 5 XXIV, 515 ; 597 ; cf. Buchholz, II, pt. 2, 143 ; IX, 219 ; XIV, 238-241 ; i, 131. • iv, 717 ; xvii, 330. 7 i, 128 ; XVI, 221 ff. 8 i, 108 ; IX, 200 ; xviii, 190. 72 HOMERIC SOCIETY Beds were set up on posts, and the frame-work bored and strung with leather straps and decorated with gold, silver, and ivory. They stood directly on the ground; Odysseus is said to have made a bed-post of an olive stump rooted in the floor of his chamber. 1 Beds were also laid on the floor of the megaron and fore-hall ; rugs and skins served for coverings. 2 Articles of furniture were sometimes decorated with ivory, and leather was frequently used in their manufacture. It is remarkable that there was no bone-working in Homer's time, as far as his evidence goes ; and horn, apart from its use in the making of bows, is found only in an allegorical con- nection. 3 Ivory was, of course, a foreign product, and was polished and coloured. 4 Leather was made from the skins of the ox, goat, dog, and weasel. No mention is made of tanning, but the epithet " un- tanned " implies a knowledge of the process. Hides were stretched in a primitive way, by the hand- power of several persons. 5 Leather was used for ropes, shields, helmets, buskins, and gloves. 6 Skins of domesticated animals were worn; also those of the lion, panther, and wolf. 7 - 1 xxiii, 189 ff; 201 ; cf. i, 437-440. 2 XXIV, 644-646 ; xiv, 49-51 ; xix, 599. 8 xix, 563. 4 viii, 404 ; IV, 141 ff. 5 X, 335 ; 458 ; xx, 2 ; XVII, 389-393. 6 xii, 423 ; VII, 222 ; XII, 22 ; XIII, 160-161 ; XVI, 360 ; xvi, 296 ; X, 257-258 ; 335 ; xiv, 24 ; xxiv, 230. 7 X, 23 ; 177 ; III, 17 ; X, 29 ; 334. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 73 The textile industry in Greece was confined al- most, if not quite exclusively, to wool. Spinning, combing, and weaving were done by the women and slaves at home ; 1 it was one of the chief duties of the housewife to make the clothes of her family. Very little is said about the spindle and loom in themselves ; though the spindle is not described at all, it is likely that the distaff-and- weight arrange- ment was in use. Of the loom, we learn that it was upright, and that the weaver moved back and forth before it, drawing the threads of the woof through those of the warp, which were probably weighted at the end. The thread of the woof was carried on a shuttle, and was driven home with a small rod. 2 Probably oil was used to give the cloth a gloss. 3 Double webs are mentioned, and some in which figures and the like were worked ; probably this was done " by inserting tufts of coloured wool by hand in the web as it advances in the loom." 4 The process employed in linen-weaving was essen- tially the same, as far as the Greeks knew it ; linen is found in connection with the East or Phoenician colonies, 5 and it is doubtful if it was woven much in Greece. Of linen were the fine peploi and 1 xviii, 316; xxii, 422-423; ii, 94-95; 104-105, etc. 2 I, 31 ; XXIIL 761 ; v, 62 ; cf. Autenrieth, sub "histos." 3 III, 392; XVIII, 595-596; vii, 107. 4 III, 125-126; X, 133-134; XXII, 440-441 ; xiii, 224; Leaf, 92. 5 11,529; 830; III, 141; VI, 289-295; VIII, 441 ; XVIII, 595-596 ; XXII, 511 ; v, 232 ; vi', 100; vii, 107. 74 HOMERIC SOCIETY veils. In the making of fabrics full recognition of superiority was accorded to Sidon and the East; women-slaves from these localities did this kind of work best, and were consequently highly prized. 1 In Homer's time clothing was generally woollen and of domestic manufacture. The distinction be- tween Southern and Northern clothing lies in the amount of material and in the closeness of the fit ; clothing of ornament versus clothing of need. 2 Greek clothing was not wholly the one or the other : men and women wore a short, close-fitting tunic next the body and, of course, in war all flowing drapery was out of place ; but beyond this, the tendency toward ornamental dress, here as elsewhere, found its expres- sion in quantity of material. 3 Men wore a cloak over the tunic, which cloak during the night commonly became a bed-covering, 4 thus betraying its character as a cloth rather than a garment. In the case of the women, the regular motives to ornament prevailed, and the robes were sweeping. 5 The peploi were gen- erally of linen and of a foreign manufacture, and the veils were of a still more delicate workmanship. 6 Possibly the epithet " deep-girdled " refers to extra quantity in dress. 7 Webs were often coloured, gener- 1 VI, 289 ff. 2 Lippert, I, 413-414 ; 428. 3 Buchholz, II, pt. 2, 266 ; cf. xix, 232-233 ; Lippert, I, 410 ff. 4 XXIV, 644-646 ; xiv, 513 ff. 5 XXII, 105 ; etc. VI, 289 ff; III, 141; etc. 7 VI, 294 ; XVIII, 122; cf. Lippert, I, 410 ff. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 75 ally purple, 1 though as a rule clothing was " shining white." Clothes were washed (by stamping upon them) in rivers or springs, and dried on the rocks and grass. 2 Skins were used as clothing, especially in rough weather. 3 Clothes were held on the person by vari- ous ornamental devices, such as clasps and buckles. 4 Girdles were embroidered richly; other ornaments were ear-rings, necklaces, frontlets, and the like, 5 all the best being in some way connected with the gods or foreigners. Ornament was one of the great Phoenician trading-articles, naturally enough. Sandals were worn, but only on stony ground and for ornament; various buskins and gloves 6 were in use with those who worked in the brush or among thorns. Olive-oil was employed constantly as a beauti- fying and useful ointment. 7 No oil from butter is mentioned ; the Greeks probably made no butter, and would have regarded such ointment as a mark of barbarism. 8 The indications are that perfumes, derived, of course, from the East, were in great demand. 9 In its perception of colour the Greek eye was not 1 III, 125-126 ; X, 133-134; xix, 242. « XXII, 147 ff ; vi, 59 ; 92 ff. 3 III, 17 ; X, 23 ; 29 ; 177 ; 334 ; xiv, 530. 4 V, 425; X, 133 ; XIV, 178 ff ; xviii, 293. 5 XIV, 178ff ; XXII, 468-470; v, 231; xv, 460. • XIV, 178-186; xv, 550; xiv, 23-24; xxiv, 229-230. 7 X, 577 ; vi, 220 ; etc. 8 Lippert, I, 538-540. » VI, 483. 76 HOMERIC SOCIETY discriminating in a high degree ; the chief distinc- tions recognised were between white and black, dark and light. Red also was prominent, as among all semi-civilised peoples, and its companion, purple, was probably only a slightly darker shade of red. The blue of the sky and sea is not referred to, nor is the green of foliage, nor is any other of the colours of the spectrum distinctly noticed. There is no reason for suspecting more than an untrained colour-sense and an undeveloped terminology. Gladstone says ; " As a general proposition, then, I should say that the Homeric colours are really the modes and forms of light, and of its opposite, or rather negative, dark- ness : . . . and here and there ... an inceptive effort, as it were, to get hold of the other ideas of colour." 1 The prominence of red is marked by the fact that ships were painted bright red and that clothing, especially of kings, was dyed purple. 2 Remembering the purple-fisheries of the Mediterranean, it is not hard to guess whence the colouring substances used in dyes were derived. To conclude the products of the industrial organ- isation, the following may be named at random. Hardened fat was put up in round cakes or wheels ; the Suitors used it to limber up Odysseus's bow. Wax also was put up in cakes for use ; 3 the composition of this wax is not revealed. Pitch is mentioned i Gladstone, J. M., 489. 2 II, 637; VI, 219 ; X, 133; XV, 538. 8 xxi, 178-180; xii, 173. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 77 once, as is felt (from Boeotia). 1 Sponges were regularly used in cleaning. 2 Sulphur was a great purifier, then as ever. 3 Narcotic drugs came from Egypt and poisons probably from a Phoeni- cian source. From Egypt the papyrus for rigging might well have been derived. 4 No saltworks are mentioned, but salt was evidently made from the sea-water. The Greeks engaged to some extent in collective undertakings, which have their bearing on the idea one should get concerning the Greek industrial or- ganisation. War brought the need of fortifications, such as the wall of the Greek camp. This was a structure of logs and stones, covered, at least part way, with a mound of earth. There was before it. a ditch, planted with stakes, and upon it were towers. Double gates, strong and well-fitted, swung on hinges, and were fastened by crossing bolts. The structure was braced with beams. The undertaking was so magnificent that it rendered the gods jealous, especially as it had been built without due sacri- fices. 5 A wall built by Athena and the Trojans to protect Heracles, is mentioned. Cities were also walled ; Ilion's battlements were built for pay by Poseidon and Apollo. High towers surmounted the 1 IV, 277 ; X, 265. 2 XVIII, 414; i, 111; xx, 151. 3 XVI, 228; xxii, 481-482. 4 iv, 227 ff ; i, 260-262 ; ii, 328-329; xxi, 391. 6 VII, 337-342; XII, 29; 258-261; 386; 454-459; VII, 446 ff; XII, 17 ff. 78 ' HOMERIC SOCIETY gates, which were fitted with strong double-doors. 1 Amphion and Zethus walled in the city of Thebes. Against fortifications no battering-rams were used ; assault seems to have been the only means of sur- mounting them. 2 Further we find extensive dikes and dams, to hold rivers in their course. The breaking of these meant devastation. 3 The word for dike is the one later used for bridge ; this fact may indicate the origin of the latter structure, which is not mentioned in Homer. The use of the word is carried over figuratively into war, and from the noun, a verb " to dam up," " fill up " (and so bridge over) seems to have been derived. The closest approach to a real bridge in Homer, is where a great elm falls into a river, blocking its fair stream with thick branches and " damming " it over. 4 It cannot be supposed that roads were artificially treated in early times ; lack of roads in Persia, at a much later date, virtually brought disintegration to the Empire. But well-beaten and frequently followed routes are a great social advance ; and these the Homeric Greeks had. Koads varied from simple paths to respectable wagon-roads. 5 Eegular i XX, 145-148; VII, 452-453; VI, 386; XVIII, 275-276. 2 xi, 264-265 ; VI, 433 ft. 8 V, 88-92. * IV, 371; VIII, 378; 553; XI, 160; XX, 427; XV, 357; XXI, 243-246. 6 XXI, 137 ; xvii, 234 ; XIII, 335 ; XXII, 146 ; XXIII, 330 ; 419; 427; x, 103-104; 158; xiii, 123-124. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 79 streets in the settlements and towns were familiar enough, and the houses generally fronted closely on them, while permanent wagon and other roads between towns were evidently in use, and performed a respectable social function. 1 That roads were " dusty " indicates that they were well-worn and / much-travelled. Apparently little care was ex-/ pended on road- mending. 2 In the construction of settlements and towns the Greeks were orderly. The camp before Ilion had its tiers of ships, its paths and assembly-place. The settlement was by contingents and the posts of danger were assigned to the most capable fighters. The whole situation was favourable for defence, lying as it did between two headlands. 3 In the selection of sites for settlement, in those days of violence, the same desiderata obtained. Towns were founded on high ground or around an elevation, 4 which, in case of the storming of the place, was the last standing-ground. Settlements would naturally be located near a water-supply ; and for towns along the sea, a fine harbourage was a feature. 5 Houses fronted on a road and appear to have been within hearing distance of each other ; 1 VI, 391 ; XV, 682-684; XVIII, 493 ff; XX, 254 xxiii, 136; VI, 15; cf. 202. 2 XIII, 335; XXIII, 420 ff. 3 I, 328 ; VIII, 222-226 ; X, 66 ; XIV, 33-36. 4 II, 538 ; 573 ; 581 ; XX, 216-218 ; cf. Ilion ; xix, 432 ; etc. 6 II, 522-523; 533; XXII, 147 ff; vii, 129-131; xvii, 205- 206; I, 431 ff; i, 185-186; ii, 391. 80 HOMERIC SOCIETY fire could sweep over a number of dwellings. 1 Settle- ments were the centres for supplies, and so must have had some merchant population. The cities of Egypt and those connected with the East were the finest and richest; Egyptian Thebes had one hundred gates and Boeotian Thebes, seven. Popu- lation was little concentrated, however ; Crete was renowned for her ninety towns in Homer's time. 2 In the study of processes and products a certain idea of the craftsmen has been obtained. It remains to consider the industrial class with reference to division of labour and differentiation of industry. Specialisation of craft or trade is found only on the broadest lines ; often the Homeric hero could turn his hand to anything with good success. 3 In agriculture there was no specialisation of function of any permanence or importance; the slaves were men-of-all-work, and the free labourers no better. The first distinct specialisation is that of the smith, who did almost all the work done in metals. 4 The smith derives his name and the names of his tools from the metal copper, 5 but his operations were by no means confined exclusively to that metal. He worked in gold, silver, tin, and iron ; and his function did not stop even there. He sewed i II, 29; 133; xxiii, 136; XVII, 737-738; XXI, 522-523. 2 XXIII, 832-835; IX, 381 ff; 402-403; IV, 406; xix, 172 ff. 8 v, 234 ff; xxiii, 189 ff. 4 Cf. IV, 485 ff ; xxiii, 200. 6 iii, 432 ; 433 ; xviii, 328. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 81 the leather parts of shields, etc., and otherwise sup- plemented his main work. There is in Homer no clearly marked case of a division of labour in the manufacture of a single product. The metal with which he worked was given to the smith by his employer, and there is no case of a smith receiving pay for his work. We can only guess at the nature of his remuneration ; in some cases he may have been a client. 1 The antecedents of the smith point to a foreign origin, at least in the case of the best workmen. Hephaestus was most at home on the island of Lemnos. 2 It is thought by Lippert that the smith, at least the copper-smith, was a Phoenician product, along with the vineyards and olive-orchards which he cultivated. The early smith is supposed by him to have united the business of wine-selling with his regular occupation ; his house was the inn or lounging-place of the settlement. 3 This would indi- cate that the smiths were not itinerant, but main- tained a definite location. Other evidence seems to show that they moved about more freely ; at any rate, they were not confined to the region of the ore-deposits. Another craftsman, regarded as even more impor- tant than the smith, was the " building-man," — he had no special name as yet. The term was a broad 1 IV, 187 ; XII, 295-297 j iii, 432 fE. 2 I, 594 ; viii, 283-284. 8 Lippert, I, 604 ; 630 ; II, 220-222 ; cf. xviii, 328. 6 82 HOMERIC SOCIETY one ; the tekton made everything whose material was wood and also handled accessory materials, decorative and the like. The whole craft of wood- working was little specialised within itself; the builder regularly went to the mountain for the wood he needed, and cut it down himself ; 2 though some- times wood-cutters were apparently a separate class. 2 There was a qualitative distinction between skilful and less skilful builders, a fact which proves that a number of men were engaged in this trade. The lord of a house and a people was his own master- workman in some cases. 3 The builder was also ship-builder and made even the sails ; he made chairs, and worked in gold and ivory in decorating them ; and he was the regular house-builder. 4 The chariot-maker was not called tekton and seems to have been a separate craftsman ; he did the work in iron, leather, etc., which the chariot-making required. A prince is also found working at his own chariot. 5 The stone-work in Homer's time was apparently but little shaped, and was done, in general, by un- trained workmen. The hand-mills and stone wash- ing-troughs, if they were artificial, would probably have demanded some skill and tools. In the houses 1 IV, 485-486 ; XIII, 389-391 ; XVI, 482-484. 2 XIII, 180; XVI, 633-634 ; XXIII, 315. 3 VI, 314-315 ; xxiii, 188 ft. 4 V, 62 ; XIII, 389-391 ; XV, 410-412; v, 243 ff; ix, 126-127 ; xix, 56 fE ; VI, 314-315 ; XXIII, 712 ; xvii, 340-341. 6 IV, 485-486 ; XXI, 37-38. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 83 of Priam and Circe, 1 all of polished stone, high skill was evidently at work, but it was probably not Greek. It is unlikely that there were regular stone- masons among the Homeric Greeks. A shield-cutter from Bceotia is mentioned, who would, of course, have worked in leather; most leather-work and sewing, however, was domestic. 2 Grain was " broken " regularly in hand-mills by the female slaves. 3 Pottery and the potter receive little attention. Basket- weaving, rope-twisting, tanning, etc., 4 as well as all the other crafts mentioned above, presented little specialisation ; these operations could be easily grouped under home-industry, smithery, and building. There were no special classes of merchants and sailors. The heroes and their followers rowed their own ships and traded but little, as we shall see. The word " sailor " referred rather to a sea-voyager than to a professional seaman, when it was used of a Greek. 5 In the Greek force before Ilion there were pilots, steersmen, and stewards, who seldom came to the assembly. It is unlikely that there was any specialisation of importance here ; most of these were mere servants or followers, and the pilots could have been of but small use in strange waters, if the Greeks had to have a prophet to show them 1 XVI, 212-213; xxiii, 188 ff; VII, 270; ii, 355; vii, 104; xx, 108; XXII, 154-155; VI, 242 ff ; x, 253. 2 VII, 221 ; XVII, 389 ff ; ii, 354 ; xiv, 23-24. 3 XI, 631 ; XIII, 322 ; vii, 104 ; xx, 108. 4 ix, 247 ; x, 166-167 ; xx, 2. 5 XV, 627 ; cf. i, 171-172. 84 HOMERIC SOCIETY the way to Ilion. Those steered and piloted who were the most skilful at it ; it was not a profession. 1 There was a regular class of fishermen among the poor, who became carriers when the chance offered ; and for the getting of sponges and shell-fish there were divers. 2 It is hard to say upon just what social footing all these craftsmen were; but there was certainly a class of free wage-earners. Very likely the fishermen and others of the above-mentioned craftsmen were free also. The gods appear as wage-earners, as does Heracles ; 3 Heracles was to be paid in horses. We find two gold talents paid for watch-service for one year, 4 probably to one of the employer's comites. A poor woman weighed the wool she was spinning, carefully, " to gain a scanty wage for her children." 5 In this case it is uncertain whether the work was done with the worker's own material or the em- ployer's, though from analogy the latter arrangement would be the more probable. Wages on a farm were clothing and food. 6 The wage-earners were called thetes, which name may possibly refer to some conditional arrangement. Apollo and Poseidon served for an (orally) stipulated wage; no work was assigned until the arrangement was concluded. No oath or promise was exacted, apparently, and 1 XIX, 42-45 ; I, 71-72 ; iii, 279 ff. 2 xvi, 349; xxii, 384; xxiv, 419; XVI, 745-748; 750; XII, 385 ; xii, 413. 8 V, 642 ff. 5 XII, 433-435. 4 iv, 525-526. 6 x> 84 _ 85 . ^iviii, 357 ff. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 85 when the work was done, the mortal task-master refused to pay, and sent the gods off with threats of slavery or mutilation. The same Laomedon cheated Heracles in a like case ; 1 all of which casts light upon the stability of the beginnings of the contract- system. The workers for hire were, as we have seen, more miserable than the slaves. In view of later developments in Greece, it is interesting to notice that manual labour, in Homer, is the employ- ment of princes and nobles, and that it is something of an honour to be a good workman. For cattle- raising, agriculture, and manufacture only the great- est respect and admiration were expressed; these vocations were the preservers of life and the givers of luxury, and their best forms were as yet too new and attractive to be regarded with indifference or contempt. TRADE What has already been said about ships and shipping shows that a sea-faring life was far from safe in Homer's time, and there are other reasons why the sea came to be known as a barrier 2 rather than as an avenue of communication. The Greeks deplored any death which was not followed by funeral rites and cremation, and drowning was re- garded as inglorious. 3 Besides this, the unknown seas were fraught with terror; if the predecessors of Vasco da Gama dreaded the equator and its belt 1 XXI, 444-457 ; V, 642 ff. 2 I, 155 ff. 8 XXI, 281 ff ; i, 234 ff. 86 HOMERIC SOCIETY of monsters, much more did the early Greeks fear the awe-inspiring Unknown. They believed that the sea was full of great monsters, and peopled the straits with creatures like Scylla and Charybdis. Great courage was necessary for the undertaking of even a short voyage. 1 In those days, men also believed that the outlying parts of the world, to which any sailor might be carried by a tempest, were inhabited by savage races, which were terrific in stature, knew no pity for strangers, and were fond of human flesh. And if one escaped all these, there still remained the Phoenician kidnappers and pirates, a danger scarcely less, capture by whom meant life- long slavery in a foreign land. 2 It is a proof of great courage that the early Greeks dared to sail the seas at all. 3 Journeys by sea were not made by night except in great exigencies ; 4 the regular practice was to beach the boats at evening and proceed on the course the next morning. Circuitous routes, which kept the land always in sight, were the regular ones; to strike straight across the iEgsean, for instance, was a piece of great daring, to be under- taken only under guidance of well-propitiated gods. At the first sign of rough weather, a run was made to the nearest inlet or harbour, the ship was beached, and the crew waited for calmer weather and a good 1 xii, 85 ft; ii, 361-365 ; xvi, 142-145. 2 See pp. 3-4 above ; xv, 415 ff. » Cf. Horace, Odes, I, iii. 4 ii, 434 ; v, 270 ff. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 87 breeze. 1 The ship was a prey to the tempests because it was small and low and scantily decked over; and owing to ignorance of the operation of sailing into the wind, ships were often wind- bound for many days, until starvation was im- minent. Eounding a promontory was an extremely hazardous feat; Odysseus and Menelaus were both blown off to sea while attempting to double Cape Maleia. 2 Achilles says that with a good breeze he could reach home (about 200 miles, direct) in something less than three days ; estimating from this and other vague data 3 *we can only say that voyages, especially over the favoured circuitous routes, must have been very long and slow. These examples were taken under favourable conditions ; rowing was still slower, and, against a heavy wind, apparently impossible. It is not necessarily by a poetic fiction, therefore, that a man should have been gone from home ten years, or should have wandered ten years over the earth, and that the bravest should have feared the sea. All this explains, too, why the Greeks at Troy were so in ignorance concerning happenings at home. 4 Yet, in spite of it all, the age of Homer knew some travellers and emigrants ; 1 iii, 159 if ; iv, 360 ff. 2 xii, 325 ff ; ix, 80 ; xix, 187 ; iii, 287. 3 IX, 363 ff; ii, 395 ff; iii, 169 ff; xiv, 257 ff; cf. Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, III, 276-280. 4 xvi, 18; cf. cases of Odysseus and Menelaus; 111,240-244; iii, 305 ff; xviii, 261-264. 88 HOMERIC SOCIETY it knew some embassies from distant lands, and a great expedition on the sea. It is needless to say that the gods were supplicated fervently on oc- casion of long sea-voyages. 1 It cannot be said that the Greeks were a mer- chant-people in Homer's time. There was no ship- trade carried on by the Greeks; it was only by mishap that they got to Egypt or Sidon. 2 Greeks joined the pirates or Taphians for raids ; Achilles sent prisoners to Lemnos; and Odysseus went to Ephyre for poison 3 (with no export cargo) ; but of a Greek carrying-trade there were only the first beginnings. The Greeks were those to whom the Eastern merchants came; they were the sought, and had not as yet become seekers. They were the lower culture-stage, exploited and imposed upon by those who wanted their goods. Homeric trade was, therefore, somewhat one-sided, as is all frontier- trade ; and its history casts light upon the contact of Greek and foreigner only as such approach took place upon Greek soil. Before discussing the trade, it is in order to consider the land-communication of the time. No land-trade is mentioned beyond the interchange of country and city commodities. 4 Booty-raids and tribal wars were frequent enough to render land- 1 i,3; VI, 152 ff; XXIII, 296-299; VI, 168 ff; iii, 178 ff; cf . iv, 351 ff. 2 iii, 285 ff ; but cf. xiv, 246 ff ; VI, 290-292. 8 xvi, 426 ff ; xvii, 425-426 ; XXI, 40 ; i, 260-261. * XXIII, 832 ff. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 89 trade very uncertain and perilous. Yet it is certain that the remotest parts of Greece were more or less closely in communication ; marriage was contracted between a woman of Sparta and a man of Phthia, the royal houses of Greece and their genealogies were widely known, and the Trojan Expedition gathered forces from almost all the districts of Greece, under the system of guest-friendship. 1 In guest-friendship we shall find both the cause and result of much of this mutual knowledge ; amidst all the turmoil of an age of violence, there is noth- ing to indicate that mutual friendly relations had arisen under the enforced peace of a single great king's sway. And, apparently, interrelation never took the form of trade ; travels inland were mostly cattle-raids and visits. Journeys were made with a chariot and pair. 2 To return to trade, then, which was virtually confined to the sea. The Phoenician trade was divided above into the carrying of manufactures, of cultivated plants and animals, and of slaves. In Homer the culture-plants and animals do not appear in the direct trade ; proofs of their Eastern origin are less direct. A great number of manu- factured articles, on the other hand, were brought into Greece; but it is noticeable that the most valuable and complicated of them were regularly 1 iv, 5; cf. 798; XI, 222-224; VI, 145 ff; VII, 125-128; XI, 769 ff. 2 xxiii v 357 ; xv, 80-85 ; iii, 481 ff. 90 HOMERIC SOCIETY introduced otherwise than through trade ; they were gifts from famous Phoenician or Egyptian hosts, brought home by Greek wanderers. Such articles apparently never came through the common trad- ers ; these traders must therefore have dealt rather in the commoner metal utensils and ornament, in unworked metals, etc. 1 It seems fair also to suppose that most of the Greek metals and metal utensils came through the Phoenician trade. No smiths are introduced as making tripods, etc. ; the processes of the Greeks would have made it a very long and laborious task to construct metal utensils at all ; and it would have been much easier to buy such utensils with their abundant grains from the Phoe- nicians, who were evidently frequent visitors. The conclusion, for manufactured imports, would be, then, that unworked metals, together with utensils and fabrics of the simpler kinds, formed the chief components of trade from the importer's standpoint. The slave-trade was popular; Greeks bought Phoenicians' slaves promptly — through these slaves they were getting the Eastern pro- cesses themselves. There is no doubt that the Greeks understood the advantages of this trade with the Phoenicians, despite all its drawbacks. This is shown, among other evidences, by their preference for cities on the sea-coast. 2 The Greeks were not unsophisti- 1 Cf. i, 183-184. 2 II, 538; 575; 584; 640; 697; IX, 153. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 91 cated ; they called the Phoenicians " cheats " and "sneaks," 1 and their attitude was rather one of tolerance for the sake of benefits derived. The story of the slave Eumseus illustrates the frontier- trade in its earlier stages, together with many Phoe- nician characteristics which there has been occasion to mention before. Eumseus was the son of the king of Syrie, an island rich in flocks, grains, and vines. To this island came the "Phoenician rogues, fine seamen, bringing numberless trinkets in their black ship." The father of Eumaeus had in his house a Phoeni- cian woman-slave, whom a lustful sailor violated. She herself had been kidnapped by Taphians and sold to her present owner; and readily agreed to steal her master's son and valuables for passage- money, if the Phoenicians would take her home again. The utmost pains were taken to conceal the relations between the woman and her con- federates, lest the master should destroy them all. The traders meanwhile hastened the return- cargo and filled the ship with goods, remaining a whole year in the place and frequenting the town. The members of the crew peddled their wares to the various households ; the women looked them over and handled them, " promising the price." When the ship was groaning full, a signal was given to the Phoenician woman, who carried off' the boy and several valuable utensils to the ship. 1 xiv, 288-289 ; xv, 419. 92 HOMERIC SOCIETY On their return homewards, the Phoenicians touched at Ithaca, and Laertes brought Eumaeus " with his (Laertes's) possessions" and made him a swine- herd. 1 Phoenician trade did not delay in accommodating itself to irregular and favourable chances. From Lemnos, a centre of trade in those days, ships plied to the great camp about Ilion, carrying wine ; from Thrace also, they came very frequently, likewise with wine. 2 It is distinctive of such trading- conditions that the merchants virtually bought the privileges of trade by fine presents to the chiefs. 3 Other trading- voyages between iEgsean ports occur, and there are indications of a passenger-carrying business, where a fare was paid. 4 With a strange mixture of duplicity and honesty, Phoenicians set the pseudo-Odysseus ashore at the wrong place, yet with all his goods intact. 5 It has been said that the Phoenicians did not hesitate to sack and burn, instead of trading, when the opportunity was offered. The age was one of vio- lence; booty-wars were a regular practice on land, and were not dishonourable. On the sea and coast, piracy was as common and as little reprehended. The sea-going stranger was either merchant or 1 xv, 403-484. 2 Buchholz, II, pt. I, 173 ; VII, 467-468 ; IX, 71-73 3 VII, 470-471 ; XXIII, 744-745. 4 i, 183-184 ; ii, 318-320; xiv, 334-335 ; xv, 449 ff ; xxiv, 300- 301. 6 xiii, 272 ff. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 93 pirate, welcome in either case, if he came in peace. " Oh, strangers, who are ye ? " the greeting was, "whence sail ye the watery paths? Is it on busi- ness, or do ye wander recklessly over the sea, like pirates, who roam about, staking their lives and bearing ill to men of another land ? " * It is notice- able that piracy was practised upon foreigners ; this indicates that the practice came with mari- time trade and a realisation of the value of cargoes. Friedreich 2 thinks the Phoenician trade stimulated the Greeks to piracy because that was an easy way to get goods. In Homer's time, Greek pirates were not often found ; if the Taphians were real Greeks, which is doubtful, it would seem that Greek trade on the sea began with piracy. In Homer is found the first note of contempt for the merchant-class ; whether it arose from disgust with the rapacious Phoenicians, or otherwise, is not clear. When Odysseus refused to enter the Phaea- cian athletic contests, Euryalus awoke his deep re- sentment by taunting him with being a mercenary supercargo, " a leader of sailors that are merchants." i In the development of exchange, various means of measuring and various standards of value came into play. Weighing was naturally enough con- nected with the precious metals, especially with gold. The unit of weight was the talent (this name being the same as the term for scales), and the i See pp. 293 ff below; iii, 71-74 ; ix, 252-255. 2 Real., 277. 8 viii, 159-164. 94 HOMERIC SOCIETY weighing apparatus used was of the beam-and-pan variety. 1 These scales are employed in Homer only in weighing gold and wool, and, figuratively, in weighing the fates of men. 2 Measures were, in general, derived from objects and forces in nature — from the body, bodily strength, etc. In linear measure, we find the palm, cubit, and foot; 3 besides these there was the pel- ethron, fathom, the cast of a discus, a shepherd's staff, a stone or a spear, the carrying-power of the voice, the length of a furrow made by two mules in a fallow field, etc. 4 Of course several of these are merely rough estimates of distance. In square measure there were circumlocutions with some of the above linear terms, and the gyon. In meas- uring capacity only the indefinite " measure " was used. 6 There were regular measuring staffs, and a regular verbal form for the process of measuring. 6 In actual counting the decimal system was in use ; counting on the fingers, by fives, is found in an iso- lated case. 7 Of writing the genuine Greeks were ignorant; 1 XXIII, 269 ; 751 ; VIII, 69-72 ; XII, 433-435 ; XXII, 209-212. 2 XIX, 223-224 ; XXII, 209-212. 8 IV, 109; XV, 678; xi, 311 ; XV, 729; XXIII, 164. * XXI, 407; xi, 577; XXIII, 327; ix, 325; x, 167; xi, 312; XXIII, 431 ; 523 ; 845; III, 12 ; XV, 358 ; XVI, 589; v,400; viii, 124. 5 XXIII, 164; xi, 25; IX, 579; VII, 471 ; XXIII, 264; 268; ii, 355. 6 XII, 422; iii, 179; xii, 428. 7 11,510; 516; 523; 556; etc.; iv, 412. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 95 the word later used for the process means merely to "scratch" or "graze" in Homer. 1 The super- cargo seems to have kept track of his goods by memory, and agreements were oral. Certain signs, identifiable only by the man who made them, were put on lots in lot-casting. 2 There is one case which seems to go much further. Proetus was en- raged at Bellerophon because of the alleged advances of the latter toward Prcetus's wife. Proetus sent him off to his wife's father to be killed : " He sent him to Lycia and gave him tokens of ruin, scratch- ing on a folded tablet many fatal signs, and bade him show it to his (Prcetus's) wife's father, that he might perish." The messenger arrived at his desti- nation and was entertained ; in due time, and as a matter of course, his message was asked for. Its import was at once apparent to the host. Of course this evidence is far from sufficient for the establish- ment of any categorical conclusions ; high authority inclines to the view that these signs were "ideo- grams " or the like, 3 which, of course, would have been universally understandable. They may have been more highly developed " signs " than this ; in the case before us, these signs, many in number, 1 IV, 139; XI, 388; XIII, 553; XVII, 599; XXI, 166; xxii, 280 ; cf . xxiv, 229. 2 viii, 163 ; XXI, 445 ; VII, 175 ; 183 ff. 8 VI, 168 ff ; cf. J. R. S. Sterrett, "Tokens of Woe/' Nation (N. Y.), Sept. 9, 1897 ; he says : " — the bent arm holding a scim- itar-like weapon was amply sufficient to indicate to the king of Lycia what his worthy son-in-law expected of him in the matter of Bellerophon." See Ridgeway, 209 ff. 96 HOMERIC SOCIETY were evidently clear in their meaning to the recip- ient of the message, but, it must be supposed, en- tirely unintelligible to the bearer. The messenger, for various reasons, would have had considerable interest in investigating the contents of his message, and the king would hardly have exposed his pur- poses in a pictograph whose meaning was obvious to any one. Again, the host of the story was accus- tomed to receive such messages. In this case the appearances speak for an alphabet, known to Proetus and his father-in-law. Proetus seems to have been a usurper, and the location of his wife's home indicates Eastern affiliations. We know that the Greek and all other European alphabets date back to the Phoenician ; * therefore it is likely that Phoe- nician settlers in Greece would have been able to use an alphabet while the Greeks were as yet igno- rant of such an art. However the question is viewed, the conclusion as respects the Greeks them- selves can scarcely vary ; to them the art of writing was yet to come. The trade of Homer was carried on through barter. Any commodity was money ; there was no idea of using metals alone — the talent was merely a weight. Copper, iron, skins, cows, and slaves were traded for wine ; one bought " with his posses- sions." 2 But the money of account was regularly 1 Maspero, Hist. Anc, 599 ff ; Pietschmann, 285 ; Meyer, 237 if ; Tylor, ch. vii. 2 VII, 467 ff ; i, 430 ; xiv, 115; xv, 483. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 97 the ox ; things were valued at so many " oxen's- worth." l This selection was a natural one ; the ox was chosen from the list of commodities as any- standard of value is ; oxen were a universal form of property, and stood for a real, tangible value. The following are some examples of value-rating in Homer. A tripod was worth two horses and a chariot, or a female slave ; or it was worth twelve bulls. When a tripod was worth twelve oxen, a female slave who "knew many works " was valued at only four. 2 Four prize-horses with chariots were worth a herd of kine and three hundred sheep with their shepherds. A prisoner brought the worth of one hundred oxen to his captor; afterwards he bought himself from his purchaser for thrice the amount. A basin that had not been exposed to the fire was worth an ox. 3 There was no banking, of course ; treasures were kept in treasure-rooms at home. But the temples were very rich 4 and so appear to have been at least preparing for their later function. Guest-friendship made the host his guest's banker, in as far as the term is applicable to Homeric conditions. The distinction between poor and rich was accen- tuated. The hired farm-labourer was wretched, and some men were too poor to have sufficient 1 VI, 236 ; VII, 467-475 ; XXI, 79 ; XXIII, 702-705 ; xxii, 57-59 ; i, 430-431. 2 VIII, 290-291 ; XXIII, 703-705. 3 XI, 696-700 ; XXI, 79-80 ; XXIII, 885. 4 IX, 404-405. 7 98 HOMERIC SOCIETY bedclothes for themselves and guests; beggars were not infrequently met with, and servants were not burdened with a surplus of raiment. 1 On the other hand, some men were immensely rich; they had much gold and copper, much clothing, many flocks, horses, and slaves, much grain and many orchards and vines, much treasure in utensils and fine large houses. 2 Any of the products mentioned in preceding pages, possessed in quantity, consti- tuted wealth. As an example of possessions : Odysseus is said to have had as much as any other twenty men ; twelve herds of kine, twelve flocks of sheep, twelve droves of swine, twenty-three flocks of goats, and, in addition, other nine hundred and sixty swine. 3 A herd of three thousand horses is mentioned as great riches ; and fifty herds of kine, fifty flocks of sheep, fifty droves of swine, fifty flocks of goats, and one hundred and fifty horses (all females with colts) was considered rich booty. Fanciful pictures, no doubt, but they give an idea of what Homeric wealth was. Kings were regularly reputed wealthy; their riches, no doubt, aided in their elevation. 4 There appears to have been no extreme misery or slavery in consequence of debt, in Homer's time ; there seem to have been no particular objects for 1 iii, 348-350? xiv, 513-514 ; xviii, 1 ff. 3 X, 315; i, 165; iv, 72-74; XXIII, 549-550; XIV, 122-124: xv, 405; XVIII, 288-292; XXIV, 317-318; iv, 72-74; vi, 300 ff. 3 xiv, 96-104. * XX, 220-223 ; XI, 672 ff ; XVI, 596 ; XXIV, 536, etc. INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION 99 which a man needed to incur debt, except for his daily bread. Possibly the misery of the free labour- ers was due to JfflB|e such cause, but there is really no warrant for^BFerting this view. "Debt" was confined to lack of reparation for a raid. 1 In the case of the Pylians and Eleans this is illustrated ; when the return raid to collect the "debt" had been successfully made by the Pylians, heralds called together all those " to whom debt was owing in Elis," and a division was made, the king having first choice from the captured property. The king's part in this debt lay in the retention of four fine horses flh chariots, formerly sent by him to the games ^WElis. Sometimes the injured community would send an ambassador to demand reparation. 2 It is probable that other debts were owed to men by members of a near tribe with whom they had had business relations 3 and that such debts might run on for long periods. Adultery-fines were due to Hephaestus from Ares ; and he would not loose the culprit till Poseidon promised surety. There was, therefore, no idea of contract, nor of a law which would enforce the fines or the given word, for Hephaestus expected Ares to elude payment, if he let him go. 4 Lastly, there are found instances of extreme \ venality in Homer's people. Promises of gifts and 1 xxi, 16-21 ; cf. force of "ra." 2 XI, 682-688; 696 ff; xxi, 20-21. 8 iii, 366-368 ; cf. iv,^e£5-637 ; xiv, 102 ff. 4 viii, 351 ff. 100 HOMERIC SOCIETY favour caused Pandarus to break- the truce, and Antimachus to urge the death of Menelaus when the latter came to Ilion as aj^aassador. These examples are Trojan, we nofll A seer was charged with expecting favour for prophesying in a certain way ; a woman even betrayed her husband for gold. 1 It is not easy to indicate in one phrase the attitude of a people; but in the study of Homeric Greece the conviction is almost forced upon one that the age is one of heginnings in the appropria- tion of gifts from an older culture-world. The lower culture-stage is alert and eager ^Bhreceive, the older civilisation as alert and eagiMPo give ; for in that giving lies its own reward, influence is exerted with exceeding strength upon the eco- nomic basis of society ; but not as yet do marked changes in the secondary social forms betray this fundamental modification. i IV, 97 ff; XI, 124; 139-141 ; ii, 186; xi, 326-327. CHAPTEE III RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES THE religion of Homer was by no means a primitive one. It had already divested itself of the grosser forms of early religious belief and had developed a character of its own. What has been said of the Phoenician religion might be said of it : accessions to it, however numerous, had not yet materially modified its ground-plan. None the less, it presents a phase of belief, of "the struggle for self-maintenance carried beyond the grave," 1 which is not qualitatively different from other early re- ligious systems. It affords another example to prove that all religion arose from like beliefs with respect to death, spirits, and the continued existence of the " soul." Death and death-like states meant to Homer what they have ever popularly meant : the absence of the soul from the body. In death the soul was absent forever; in fainting it was breathed forth, later to return. Such explanations of death-like states were not figurative, nor were they rational- ised. In regard to sleep and dreams alone had rationalisation succeeded in unseating primitive 1 Sumner, U. L. 102 HOMERIC SOCIETY ideas ; the soul apparently was not regarded as absent from the body in sleep, and its actions and feelings in dreams were considered unreal. 1 From this universal idea of the soul's absence there has always arisen a body of notions and be* liefs. In Homer a number of these deductions remain clearly marked; others appear as survivals or are all but rationalised away. In tracing these religious beliefs and their evolution into social theories, especially in so developed and receptive a society as that of Homer, a number of contradictions and inconsistencies will appear; logical deduction took now one road, now another. These very divergences, however, were a necessary part of the thought-evolution of the age, and demand no recon- ciliation. The main line of development is clearly enough marked ; inconsistencies often serve to com- plete the picture in its details. The prevalent Homeric terms for "soul" are words derived from "breath" or '"'wind." 2 This soul was connected with various parts of the body ;> the diaphragm, heart, head, pupil of the eye, and the blood. 3 It was regarded as the energising princi- ple of the body ; yet the body was that with which the personality of the man was identified. The body was the autos ; the only other term for the i IX, 408-409 ; V, 697 ff ; XIV, 436-439 ; XV, 1 ; XXII, 467 ff ; xxiv, 348-349 ; xix, 547 ; xx, 90. 2 I, 3 ; 24 ; cf . XX, 440 ; xii, 400 ; 408 ; L. & S. Lex. ■ I, 103; 608; 1,44; VIII, 281; XI, 55; XVII, 242 ; XVIII, 82; Friedreich, 140-143. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 103 living body in Homer is a circumlocution. 1 Hence it seems that the soul was a separate being for the continued possession of which a man would strive. The soul and the man were a sort of dual person- ality ; when the hero in distress poetically "ad- dressed his noble soul," it was a survival of this dualism. Thus there was a close bond between a man and his soul ; a strong man had a strong soul, and a weak coward a contemptible one. 2 The soul had various ways of leaving the body. In fainting it was breathed out, and returned," apparently the same way, when the afflicted person recovered. 3 In death, the soul departed regularly by the mouth, sometimes>il^a flow of blood; at other times it followed the spear as it was drawn from the wound. 4 In all cases, it " flies " in haste through the air, the souls of great heroes departing with mourning. " And from his limbs his soul was gone in flight to the home of Hades, mourning its fate, leaving behind both manliness and youth." 5 When the soul had once "passed the bulwark of the teeth," it returned no more to vivify the body. It became an eidolon, incorporeal, but like in other respects to the man as he had been in life, a being 1 Seymour, H. L. & V., 23 ; demas means rather the " figure " or " build " of the body. 2 Cf. i, 5 ; XVII, 442 ; xx, 18; cf. I, 3; Seymour's note to II, 212. 8 V, 696 ff ; XV, 252 ; XXII, 467 ff. 4 IX, 408-409 ; XX, 403 ; XIV, 518-519 ; XVI, 504-505. 6 XIII, 671-672; XVI, 606-607; XXIII, 880; cf. xi, 57-58; XVI, 856-857 ; XXII, 362-363. 104 HOMERIC SOCIETY which, if the dead body were treated carelessly, might return to earth. 1 If the body was properly cared for, the soul departed at once for the spirit-world. Existence in this spirit-world was conceived in terms of existence during life ('* other-worldliness ") ; for instance, the hunter Orion in the spirit-world chased the souls of the animals which he had himself slain in life. 2 In the after-life all things were mere eidola of what existed on earth. The dead were fitted out with an extensive equipment, such as they used in life, and sometimes with companions of the journey. They were supposed to cherish the same human feelings as living men ; desire for property, love and pride, jealousy, pain, etc. ; 3 they even bore their old wounds, and by action and appearance indicated their former station in life. Spirits which in life were together were not separated in death; kings and judges ruled and judged their people beneath the earth. 4 And yet these souls were mere eidola, flying beneath the earth with thin cries, huddling and clinging together like bats dislodged from the roof of a cave, disappearing like smoke, " like a shadow or a dream," " without mind," and forgetful of all. 6 1 XXIII, 65-69 ; 107. 2 xi, 572-575. » XXII, 509-513; XXIII, 50-51- 177; XXIV, 592-595; xi, 540; 544 ; 554 ; xxiv, 21 ; 199 ff. * xi, 387-388 ; 568-571 ; 491. 6 XXIII, 100-104; xxiv, 1-10; xi, 206-208; xi, 218-222. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 105 It has been said that the soul was closely con- nected with the blood. The soul was even able to regain memory and a semblance of being by drink- ing the blood of a sheep. Thus, Odysseus allowed one after another of the departed souls to approach and drink blood, and then the soul conversed with him and knew him, and was for a time as was the man or the woman in life. 1 Such were in general the ideas of Homer regard- ing the soul. Something has already been indicated as to the spirit-world. This land of the departed was in the West, its entrance obscured by dark- ness, clouds, and eternal night. ^One sailed through the Ocean-stream to reach it ; the way lay through the land of dreams, and at the entrance of the dis- mal country were groves of poplars and willows. Four streams with ominous names, the Acheron, Pyriphlegethon, Cocytus, and Styx, their waters or fires impassable for spirits, intervened to restrain the exit. 2 Besides these, the dog (as yet unnamed) discharged the function of his race as spirit-queller and restrainer. 3 The house of Hades was subter- ranean ; a dismal, cheerless abode, hateful alike to gods and men. There, in an asphodel meadow, the souls wandered about, most of them undergoing no real suffering. Yet the thought of Hades and his home was fraught with great fear to the Homeric 1 xi, 147 ff. 2 x, 508-5?5; xi, 13-22; cf. Lippert, II, 241 ff ; 244. • VIII, 368; xi, 623-626; cf. Lippert, I, 490 ff. 106 HOMERIC SOCIETY Greek ; no honours after death could compensate for the loss of life. " Of death do not speak lightly . . . I would prefer to serve a poor master as a field- labourer . . . rather than to rule over all the departed dead." It was a deed of greatest daring to approach this dread abode and was seldom accomplished by a living man. 1 There were, however, seemingly happier person- ages in the lower world ; Minos, the judge, wielded a power like that of life, and to Teiresias, the seer, was granted to retain his mind and to continue to prophesy. A strange case is that of Castor and Polydeuces; they gained great honour from Zeus, and it was granted to them to live every other day, an honour " equal to that of the gods." Still more strange is the dual personality of Heracles; "And after this one I saw the mighty Heracles — his shade; but he himself was with the immortal gods." 2 All these were somewhat better off than the ordinary souls; others were more unfortunate. Sisyphus, Tityus, and Tantalus suffered " strong agonies." Another possible case of suffering is where the dead, fleeing like birds, were a mark for the archer Heracles. 3 Apart from all this region of misery and semi-existence lay the plain of Elysium. Here life was easy and pleasant; entrance to this 1 XX, 61-65; cf. VI, 19 ; 282-284 ; 411 ; XX, 294 ; XXII, 482 ; xxiv, 204; xi, 539; xxiv, 13; x, 496-499; 566-568; 570; xx, 81 ; xi, 488-491 ; VIII, 368 ff ; xi, 156 ; 475-476; 623-626. 2 x, 492-495; xi, 90-150; 301-304; 569-571 ; 601-602. 8 xi, 576-600; 605 ff. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 107 paradise, however, was far from being a matter of good life and morals. Menelaus gained his title to it by being the husband of Helen, the daughter of Zeus. " There is the easiest life for men ; there is no snow, nor much winter, nor ever rain, but Ocean always sends up the shrilly breathing gusts of Zephyrus to cool mankind." 1 The spirit-world of Homer, while constructed upon the universal basis of " other-worldliness," yet differs from many another semi-civilised conception in that it introduces the elements of degeneracy, gloom, and terror. Such conceptions often belong to a higher culture-stage ; and from the little that has been said above concerning the Chaldseans' and Egyptians' ideas of the spirit-world, we see how strongly marked such characteristics were in their conceptions. No doubt Greek ideas regarding spirits and their treatment were modified by influences from the East ; the secret of the growing strength of this influence was that it was exerted upon the simplest and primary forms of belief, that it worked from beneath upward in the logical way. Of course Homer's spirit- world was a Greek one and "none but Hellenic and naturalised shades" were to be found there. 2 The process of evolution from spirit to god is indicated here and there, in such stories as those of Castor and Polydeuces and of Heracles. Im- 1 iv, 561 ff ; 565-568. 8 Gladstone, Hm. & Em. Age I, 241. 108 HOMERIC SOCIETY possible as it is to trace such processes after cen- turies of myth-complication and modification, still in the nature of the Greek gods were many marks of their origin from mankind. The Homeric gods were men of a larger being and power. They had human form, they had weight, could fall, could be bound with chains, could feel intense physical pain, and they could be, if not mortally, certainly very painfully wounded, even by men. 1 They possessed this physical distinction from men, that they had no blood, but a divine fluid, ichor, in their veins ; and that, though they united with men in devouring sacrifices, still they regularly ate no flesh and grain, nor drank wine. They ate and drank immortality. Further, they possessed all the emotions and passions of men, on a grander scale ; they feared, hated, and envied, and were jealous, vain, and lustful beyond the measure of the man. 2 There were many children born of unions of gods with mortals. 3 Though in general described as " blessed," " happy," still the gods were a prey to sorrow and pain of mind, and to disappointment ; they were baffled and insulted and felt the emotions natural to that state. The society of the gods was made unpleasant by mutual quarrels and bickerings ; they were not omniscient or omnip- otent, and their state was not stable. The entire 1 I, 399 ff ; 592-594 ; V, 315 ff ; 383-400 ; 835-837; VIII, 404 ff ; XXI, 406-417. 2 V, 339-342; 1,406; V, 406-415; VII, 446 ff; VIII, 2ff; XIV, 313 ff; XXIV, 605-608. 8 xi, 235 ff passim ; etc. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 109 ground-work of the Homeric system was anthropo- morphic; gods were different from men chiefly in degree. The power of the gods for good or ill was, of course, far greater than that of man. Their physical force was thousands of times greater than his, and in addition, they generally possessed vari- ous attributes of spirits ; quickness of movement, power of existence in various elements, etc. Be- sides all this, they were vested with magical powers, 1 and were rulers over natural phenomena ; in short, they were Power in the superlative. The spirits of the dead and the gods were practi- cally the only supernatural elements in Homer's time to which the people paid much attention. And since the dead, once disposed of, returned no more, interest was turned almost exclusively to the gods. Very few traces of other spirits occur in Homer. Of course there was a multitude of nymphs, river-gods, etc., but these came really under the head of lesser gods and were worshipped. When the word daimon occurs, it is generally used of a particular god, or in a case where it is uncertain just what god is in question. Possibly all cases could be brought under these heads; 2 none the less, the practices of the people implied a present or former belief in the existence of certain unknown and evil powers, aside from the gods. 1 Cf. V, 860; XIV, 148; I, 47; 221; 532; VI, 136; for magic, see pp. 172-175 below ; XIV, 347-351. 2 iii, 27 ; 166 ; iv, 275 ; xv, 261 ; ix, 381 ; x, 64 ; xii, 169 ; but cf. IX, 600-601 ; v, 396 ; xi, 587 ; xix, 200-201 ; xxiv, 149. 110 HOMERIC SOCIETY In general, the gods were not ill-disposed toward men ; if they were angry, there was some reason, however trivial, and propitiation was gener- ally possible. Hades alone was inexorable, but his range of active power lay in the beyond. Inferior gods and nymphs were good-natured, 1 and localised monsters, like Scylla and Charybdis do not come into the discussion. There were, however, unnamed evil daimons, mentioned in connections where it is hardly possible that a god could have been meant, 2 and there were certain survivals and practices that witnessed a desire to be rid of some interfering supernatural agency. Such were the ideas of Homer on supernatural beings ; these ideas worked out into a daimonology and cult which, in their turn, throw back light upon their origins. The superior powers ruled all life ; nothing was foreign to their influence, for good or ill. If a person acted strangely, he was spoken of, more or less figuratively, as possessed of a god or spirit. So Dionysus was " mad." 3 Everything was due to agency ; fear and bravery, storm and calm ; and especially the sudden and inexplicable, like rumour or crowd-sentiments. 1 Like the Norse " skytsaander ; " Lehmann, I, 67 ff ; 100. 3 IX, 600-601 ; v, 396; xi, 587 ; xix, 200-201 ; xxiv, 149. 8 XVII, 210-212; XXI, 5; xviii, 406; xix, 71; xxiii, 166; 174 ; 264 ; VI, 131 f£ ; cf. XXII, 460. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 111 From the gods were death and pestilence. 1 In the case of men's destinies, the agency of the gods was plainly marked; after rehearsing the woes due to the quarrel of Agamemnon and Achilles, in which "the will of Zeus was accomplished," the narrator asks: "Who then of the gods incited these two to contend ? " 2 It must have been one of the gods who did this; any other hypothesis was excluded at once Again, ill-fortune was at once assigned to the agency of a god, even if one could remember no transgression ; " I must have sinned against the immortals who hold the broad heaven. But do thou tell me — the gods know all things — which one of the immortals delays me and binds me from my path." 3 This implicit belief in agency was rationalised a little by Homer. The evils ©f life had been so often blamed to the gods that this had become a good way of putting aside responsibility. The fact that Homer saw the unreasonableness of this practice only confirms the evidence as to its frequency. He makes Zeus say, " Ah me, how now do mortals take the gods to task ! For they say that their evils are from us ; while they themselves, because of their own acts of blind folly, suffer woes beyond i V, 185; VI, 108-109; XIII, 222-225; 812; xii, 169; xix, 200-201 ; i, 282-283 ; II, 451-454 ; XI, 544 ; VI, 205 ; 428 ; XIX. 59 ; I, 10. 2 I, 8; cf. the force of "ar." « iv, 377-380. 4 i, 32-34 ; cf. XIX, 86-89. 112 ' . HOMERIC SOCIETY CULT If, then, the gods and spirits were the sources of all fortune, good and ill, it became the whole philosophy of life to stand well with the gods and gain their favour, and, if possible, to banish irrec- oncilable powers from one's sphere. 1 Thus arose the two main .forms of cult : the banishing and compelling, and* the prgpitiative. ' , The first form is represented chiefly by survivals in Homer. The banning effect of fire and water was Well understood, as is proved by the location of rivers of fire and water as barriers of the. spirit- world. Entrance was impossible to Hades's home until one had had his " share of the fire ; " and fire was used with sulphur in purification. 2 Water was in more common use for the .latter object, however ; it was regularly poured over the hands preceding a religious function, or a bath was taken for purifi- cation. 3 Altars were sometimes located near the water. 4 Some devices for frightening away evil spirits, very common in the East, may have been imitated in the use of tassels and fringe. The iEgis with its hundred tassels was shaken to produce a terrorising effect. The sick were not abandoned through fear of the evil spirits which possessed 1 Sumner, U. L. 2 XXIII, 69 ff ; x, 513-514 ; xi, 74 ; xxiii, 50-51. 8 III, 270 ; i, 136-137 ; iv, 49 ff ; I, 313-314 ; xvii, 48 ff. * II, 305-308. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 113 them, though Philoctetes.was left behind, suffering from the bite of a serpent. 1 The souls of the dead were not encouraged to linger among the living; the utmost haste was made to speed them off to the spirit-world, though this was partly for their own sakes, as will appear later. An unburied friend or companion was a shame and a cause of the gods' wrath to one. 2 Mourning-customs show a few common survivals of ghost-avoidance, in the disfigurement of the body by wounds or dust ; black is also mentioned in mourning. 3 Silence in the presence of a god was enjoined, and no one would gaze at a divinity ; in sacrificing to the dead, Odysseus turned his head away. 4 Of operative magic — exorcism — there is not a word in Homer ; that was to come later from the •Chaldseans. But the name-fetich, as a compelling agency, was not unknown. 5 Ajax, before an ordeal duel, bade the Achaeans pray " in silence, to your- selves, lest the Trojans hear " the formula, doubtless, or the name, and so get the god away. He then corrected himself in a feeling of confidence, on the ground that there was nothing to fear. Tne same 1 II, 448; XIV, 181 ; XV, 318-322; XVI, 803; II, 722. 2 VII, 409-410; iii, 284-285; xi, 52-54; XXII, 386; xi, 73. 8 11,700; XI, 393; XVIII, 23 ff; XIX, 284-285; XXII, 33 ; 77; 406; 414; XXIV, 161-166; 711; iv, 541 ; x, 499 ; xxiv, 315-317 ; XXIV, 93-94. 4 v, 346-350; xvi, 179 ; xix, 42-43 ; x, 427-428. 6 Lehmann, I, 67-77 ; 84 ; cf . 100. 8 114 HOMERIC SOCIETY regard for the " word " as a compelling or summon- ing power is shown in the injunction to avoid un- lucky words in a religious ceremony; also it is remotely indicated in the epithet " unnamable " or " of evil name," applied to horrible things. 1 The above instances scarcely apply to the gods, as Homer knew them, and are largely cult-survi- vals. But there was one very living danger from the gods that must be avoided as far as possible, — the gods would not brook exceeding prosperity. 2 Their natures were jealous, and they would allow to man but a moderate share of good fortune. Because Achilles's lot was so noble, his life was short and bitter ; while Odysseus, having endured many suf- ferings, was to end a long life in peace and happi- ness. 3 Possibly because bards were so fortunate in being gifted with song, their sight was sometimes removed ; after great prosperity, Bellerophon went mad. 4 Worst ^of all, however, was undue boasting and a desire to minimise divine power. 5 Ajax boasted that he had escaped drowning in spite of the gods ; Poseidon, angry at these words, split the rock " upon which Ajax was sitting when he became greatly infatuated," and Ajax was drowned in the 1 VII, 193-196 ; cf. Leaf, 155 ; IX, 71 ; VI, 255 ; xix, 260; 571. 2 iv, 181 ; xx, 66-78 ; xxiii, 211-212. 8 IX, 410ff; cf. Gladstone, lira. & Hm. Age, II, 375; xxiii, 281-284. 4 II, 599 ff; viii, 63-64; VI, 200 ff. 6 II, 599 ff ; XXIV, 605-608 ; viii, 227-228 ; 565-569 ; ix, 523 ft; xiii, 129 ff. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 115 sea. "Short-lived are those who fight with the immortal gods." ' Therefore men were ever on their guard to avoid transgression in this respect and to turn aside all " envy." 2 One should receive the gifts of the gods in silence ; compliments were turned off with some deprecatory remark ; gradually there arose a sort of doctrine of excess, and, later, the conception of " nemesis," which, however, is not so designated in Homer. 3 The great bulk of Homeric cult-operations lay in propitiatory rites. The Homeric gods were in gen- eral well-disposed, if treated generously, and the line of least resistance was propitiation rather than theurgy. 4 It will have been noticed in the above that the great object of the defensive operations was to avoid evil. The evils of life are many, even to Homer ; to him man was the most miserable of all beings, " as many as breathe and creep upon the earth." "For thus the gods have fated it to wretched mortals, to live in woe." 5 In Homer's time, as in all times, man's absorJaing- thought was to lighten his load or shift it. His idea was, indeed, to gain luck, but still more was it to avoid ill-fortune. 1 iv, 502 ff; V, 38#; 403; 406-415; cf. 434-442. 2 v, 212-213; 215-218. 3 xviii, 141-142 ; X, 243 ff ; xv, 69-70; 394 ff ; xvi, 202-203 ; " nemesis " means "censure " or "anger" in Homer. 4 Lehmann, I, 67-69. 5 xviii,130-131 (cf. XVII, 443-447) ; XXIV, 525-526. 116 HOMERIC SOCIETY As in all ages of the world, good luck was forgot- ten in ill, the evil was exaggerated over the good, 1 and it was in times of trouble that men turned to the gods. While all went smoothly, the Greek was sufficient unto himself; when it was necessary to avoid an evil, then he sought the protection of the higher powers. Thus, cult-operations were mostly in avoidance of evil. The propitiatory cult was, in its simplest form, mere self-defence. The gods and ghosts, in conse- quence of anthropomorphic natures, had wants and needs as multitudinous and diverse as those of men. These needs had the sanction of the higher power, fear of which, to the Greek, was a great part of life ; " Easy it is for the gods, who hold the broad heaven, either to exalt a mortal man, or to do him ill." 2 The desires of the dead and the gods had the force of rights ; and the supply of these needs by the living had the force of duties, because rights and duties regularly distribute themselves accord- ing to power and weakness respectively. 3 The first sacrifices to the wants of the higher powers wert therefore without return, — purely defensive oper- ations. Such were the sacrifices to the dead. To gain a clear idea concerning the duties of the living to the newly dead, it will be necessary to pass in review several further notions regarding i Cf. XIV, 70 ff. * xvi, 211-212; IV,31ff; V, 178; XX, 56; XXIV, 170. 3 Cf. Guinplowicz, Soc, pt. Ill, art. 2; 12; pp. 110-120; 153- 154; Starcke, Samv., 171-173. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 111 the disembodied soul. The comfort of the soul in the future life depended largely upon the dis- position made of the body after death. Lack of funeral ceremonies was a terrible misfortune ; thus, death by drowning was a pitiful and inglorious one, as was death far away from friends, for in either case, the soul entered the next life without possessions of any kind. It would have been better for Odysseus to have died at Troy, for there he would have been magnificently buried. 1 There was also an idea that the soul which had not gained " a share of the fire " could not pass the river and associate with the shades of those gone before. 2 Worse than all this, however, was the misfortune of having the body devoured by dogs and birds of prey, or defiled by insects or worms. 3 Just what effect this was supposed to have on the soul is not clear, but it was terribly feared, and a threat of the dogs would bring a dying warrior to earnest entreaty for mercy. Decay or defilement of the body was in one case prevented by divine means ; by the use of ambrosia which was introduced into the nostrils. Some actual process of which this is the idealisation, together with the practice of fill- 1 XXI, 281 ; 320-323; i, 234-241. 2 " Cremation was not practised in Egypt, Phamicia, Palestine, Asia Minor, or Cyprus, save to a small extent by Greeks, or under Greek influence, and that in late times." Ridgeway, I, 484; cf. ch. VII. 8 XVII, 126-127; XXII, 74-76; 509; XXIV, 409; iii, 258- 261 ; cf. Lippert, I, 113. 118 HOMERIC SOCIETY ing wounds of the dead with ointment, might have been a clumsy imitation of Egyptian embalming processes. 1 Along with mutilations of dead bodies by dogs, etc., went maltreatment by men; the object of such maltreatment must have been to render pain to the soul in some way, as it obvi- ously proceeded from motives of revenge. No Greek stood beside the corpse of Hector without wounding it; every one present had debts of re- venge to pay him. 2 The above ideas explain the terrible fights over the dead bodies of warriors ; 3 one side trying to rescue the body for the soul's sake, the other to wound the soul in the fate of the body, or to hold the body for a large ransom such as the supersti- tion of the time would easily grant. Beyond pro- tection of a dead comrade's body, the living also owed him vengeance ; when possible, there was provided a " follower " in the person of his slayer or some other enemy. Also the notions of " otherworldliness " made a provision of property, etc., imperative. The most detailed account of discharge of duties toward the dead is found in the story of the death and burial of Patroclus. How exceedingly impor- tant all these duties to the dead were, is amply indicated by the fact that Homer motives the reconciliation of Achilles by his feeling for the i XVIII, 349-353 ; XIX, 39. 2 XXII, 371-375; XXIV, 420-421. 8 IV, 467 ff ; V, 298 ; 561 ff ; 610 ff ; XI, 145 ff ; XIII, 203 ff ; XX, 394 ; 499. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 119 dead Patroclus. Throughout the story there are to he found new instances of otherworldliness, pro- pitiation, etc., illustrating statements made above. The proceedings are described so fully and in such sequence that recapitulation of detail seems unne- cessary; attention may be called, however, to sev- eral salient features of the story. 1 The rescue of the body from Hector's intended insults, the mourning of Achilles, his desire for vengeance and his vow il- lustrate the attitude of friend and enemy toward the dead. The feeling that vengeance must be limited was evidently growing up in the mores, for Achilles was blamed for dishonouring " the dull earth." 2 That vengeance was directed not only against the perpetrator of the murder, but upon his family and countrymen as well, is characteristic of the Homeric phase of social development. It is noticeable that the dead man was laid with his feet toward the door, and that the soul was provided with all things such as the dead were supposed to need " beneath the shadowy West." The appearance of the soul (like even in clothing to the dead man) to Achilles as he lay on the sea-beach is noteworthy, for it came to speed the funeral and cremation, that it might cross the river and mingle with those souls which as yet held the newcomer afar. 3 1 XVII (fight over body) ; XVIII, 1-242 ; XIX, 1-39 ; 276- 339; XXII, 261-272; 330-404; XXIII; XXIV, 1-54; 576-595. 2 XXIV, 53-54. 8 XXIII, 50-51 ; 65-67. 120 HOMERIC SOCIETY Sacrifices to the recently dead took here the form of renunciation, exuvial sacrifice (of the hair), 1 and offerings of horses, " table-dogs," and Trojan pris- oners ; the animals and men forming a " grave- fol- lowing " which should serve the dead man in the life to come. The human sacrifice Homer calls an "evil deed." 2 The pouring of wine about the pyre and the calling of the dead are other ex- pressions of the Greek theory concerning spirits and their personality. After the pyre had been extinguished (with wine), the bones gathered in fat, and the games played, the soul was still sup- posed to feel and know the things of earthly life ; last of all we hear Achilles cry : " Continue not thy anger, Patroclus, if thou dost know in Hades's home that I have loosed Hector ; I received much ransom and thou shalt have thy share." 3 This funeral was of the military type, with the usual features of the classical funeral, — procession, " hate- ful" funeral-feast, etc., — well carried out; it took only a few days, however, in accord with war-custom. That of Hector took eleven days, and was supple- mented with dirges of praise, and choruses. 4 The most magnificent funeral was that of Achilles, which occupied, mourning and all, over seven- teen days and nights. These latter funerals ap- proach the type of burial under conditions of 1 Achilles placed his shorn locks in the hand of Patroclus (XXIII, 132-141). 2 XXIII, 176. 8 XXIV, 592-595. 4 XIX, 225-229 ; XXIV, 656-804 RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 121 peace. Splendid tombs were erected ; the narrator adds (to Achilles) : " Thou hast come upon many a burial of brave men, but never hast thou seen such funeral games at the death of any king as those at thine own funeral." 1 These examples of funeral rites are so complete in detail that they leave little additional to sup- ply from other cases. Fights over the slain and the stripping of armour were regular practices ; mutilation of the dead was not uncommon. The same great fear of being eaten by the dogs appears again and again ; calling upon the soul, mutilations of the mourners' bodies and hair, and disfigurement with dust and dirt occur regularly in mourning. 2 " Urave-f olio wings " are mentioned elsewhere, and the prevalence of vengeance-debts for fallen com- rades implies such a custom. Sometimes agree- ments were made to return an enemy's body. 3 Cutting of hair, giving of gifts, making of funeral shrouds, placing of stones upon the graves, — all these different usages of mourning occur in approximately similar forms. 4 Allied to regular burial were the cenotaph and gifts given to the unburied dead ; 6 the latter, in the case of Hector, 1 xxiv, 36-92; quotation, 87-92. * XXII, 33 ; 77 ; 406 ; 414 ; XXIV, 161-166 ; iv, 194-198 ; 539 ; 541 ; 716-719; ix, 64-66. 3 VII, 76 ff. 4 XVI, 456-457; XXII, 509-513; ii, 97-102; iv, 195-198; v, 311; xi, 31; 74; 77-78. 6 XXII, 509-513; i, 289 ff; iv, 584. 122 HOMERIC SOCIETY would " do him no good." Evidently the dead man was conceived of as taking all such things with him. Few failures in duty to the dead are registered. Odysseus left the body of a companion behind, un- mourned and unburied, as he hastened on his ship-journey to the spirit- world. When he arrived there, the first shade he saw was that of his neglected follower, Elpenor. As Odysseus asked him how he died, it is hardly supposable that neglect was intentional, especially as we have cases which indicate that no business was so important as to justify neglect of the dead. 1 Elpenor in this case begged Odysseus by all that was sacred to him not to leave his body unburied, lest he become a cause of the gods' wrath to Odysseus. He urged Odysseus to bury him with his armour and build a tomb upon the seashore ; in place of a tombstone there was to be planted the oar which the dead man had swung in life. All this was scrupulously done, and a stone raised besides 2 The Greeks of Homer's time were upon that happy stage of religious belief where, by adroit treatment, the ghost was forever propitiated; ghost- fear is scarcely more than hinted at. It was only by exception that a funeral was accorded to an enemy; his soul was not feared enough to make precautions necessary. Orestes, as a son who had fulfilled a terrible duty, made a funeral for his 1 iii, 284-285. » xi, 51 ff ; xii, 9-15. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 123 mother and iEgisthus ; but Menelaus would not have done this. 1 We must, therefore, regard the mortuary rites in their complexity as a remnant or survival of the superstition of a former age. There was still enough force in the ideas whence these rites sprung to make the survivors hasten to speed the departing soul to its rest, and to enable them to shoulder cheerfully the great burdens coincident with so great a funeral waste. Though these rites were not exactly the projection into social forms of the ideas of Homer's own time, still they present a wholly consistent picture, and, except in the minor details, such as those which may refer to em- balming, drying the body, 2 etc. , little effect of foreign influence was present. The sacrifice to the dead in funerals is, of course, merely defensive in original intention. Still in many particulars it passes over into the bargain- sacrifice, which in Homer is a common form in use with respect to the gods. Such a bargain-sacrifice was the one promised by Odysseus to the dead in return for immunity from harm and for actual aid. 3 The influence of the dead on life was not great ; after the funeral it was virtually nil. Therefore sacrifices to the dead were offered, in general, only on the one occasion, that of the funeral. With the i^ods, however, there entered an ever active element 1 iii, 309-310; cf. 256-261. 2 XVI, 456-457. 8 x, 517 ff ; xi, 25 ff. 124 HOMERIC SOCIETY of the supernatural, which penetrated all human life and demanded constant care and attention. Men's affairs were decided, not according to any ideas of abstract justice, but by a "balance of power" among the gods. 1 To render the struggle for existence less hard, " all men had need of the gods." 2 This need of assistance lay rather in avoid- ance of evil than in gaining of good ; it was insur- ance and took several diverse forms. First of all, the gods seem to have levied a sort of neutrality-toll upon all proceedings of men. To receive sacrifices was a right of theirs, apart from any aid they might bestow ; it was in payment for not opposing or injuring men, 3 — for "keeping hands off." For all the gods were ready to injure men unless their " rights " were properly acknowl- edged. Because men thought the power of the gods so great and fearful, propitiation of them became a necessity if one were to live with some immunity from pain and loss; and thus the gods gained the right of having their needs supplied by men. They must have food, drink, clothing, etc., and, since they were not by nature ill-disposed as were the Chaldsean daimons, a man who sacri : ficed regularly and generously to them might be fairly sure of comfort and success. 4 On the other hand, neglect of the gods, or infringement upon i Cf. Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, II, 386. 2 iii, 47-48. 8 XXIV, 70; iv, 351 ff, etc. * i, 65-67. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 125 their prerogatives, constituted Sin, whose punish- ment was death or heavy misfortune. In this kind of sacrifice the defensive intention is clear ; it may be added that generous fulfilment of the ritual which insured the rights of the gods, rendered a man "justified;" under such conditions he became a sort of favourite with the gods, who would in most cases protect him from evil, and, in many cases, actively aid him. 1 In connection with regular offerings came repara- tion-sacrifices, in consequence' of sin. Sin was the violation of any one of the multitudinous rights of the gods ; failure in sacrifice and the like, or transgression against any of the norms of life which had received the sanction of the superior powers. The oncoming of a sudden and great calamity enabled one to deduce at once the fact of sin; 2 all evil was due to sin. One who had transgressed was no longer justified with the gods, and was exposed to endless misfortune ; the only course to pursue was to find out at once which god was angry, and then to make all efforts to appease that wrath and to justify one's self. Sin was a matter entirely of form ; no repentance was required. The gods were not inexorable, and rich reparation and praise procured instant justification. 1 XIII, 6; XX, 298-299; XXIII, 205-207; XXIV, 66-70; vi, 119-121 ; xiv, 420-421 ; 433 ; I, 216-218 ; V, 23-24; xiii, 300- 301 ; xvi, 260-265 ; xxiii, 335-336. 2 I, 59-67 ; iv, 377-380. 126 HOMERIC SOCIETY The sin of one man, especially of an important man might descend upon a whole community and make it unclean, in which case reparation was made by the community. 1 Such sacrifices had a more or less general char- acter ; there were other offerings having to do with particular times and occasions. These sacrifices were in the nature of contracts, actual or implied, and in which one or both parties might be bound. In a regular bargain, the sacrifice-payment to the gods was conditional upon their actual fulfilment of some request ; in the other variety, the offering was made to the gods in the hope that they would grant the request, 2 though they might take the offering and still add to the former calamity. Thus all the risk came upon the man ; for him there was no assurance at all after his property had been consumed upon the altar. None the less, this latter, less sure form was the commoner way of insuring one's life against evil. To catalogue the occasions for such sacrifice would be to name all the undertakings of life. Dangerous trips across the sea, raids, battles, conclusions of truces, 3 — all these greater operations were pre- ceded by sacrifice. Also the more commonplace practices and customs were ever sanctioned by reli- gious acts: meals were generally sacrifices, and i I, 9ff; iv, 351 ff. 2 VI, 305-310, etc.; 11,412-420. 3 IX, 357; iii, 159-160; xv, 222-223; III, 268 ff; XI, 706- 707; 727-729. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 127 sacrifices meals ; 1 drinking was likewise insepa- rable from libation. In all these offerings there was an implied bind- ing of the god ; if he did not protect the sacrificer, he was promptly blamed and even abused. 2 From the words of the gods themselves, it was only with regret that they failed a " just " man. " He was the dearest to the gods of mortals who are in Ilion"; Zeus says of Hector: "dearest to me also, since he never failed in acceptable gifts. For never did my altar lack a proper feast, neither libation nor savour." And of Odysseus likewise : " How then could I be unmindful of the godlike Odysseus, who exceeds men in wisdom, and who surpasses in the sacrifices which he offers to the immortals." 3 In the real bargain, however, precautions were taken to assure one's self against useless loss ; the principle of contract was in its infancy. 4 Harvest- sacrifices and the like were probably of this kind, pointing rather to the year to come than to the past year; the offerings of the first fruits indicate the same purpose. 6 Undertakings begun without sacrifice or promise of sacrifice were open to all the displeasure of the gods ; and to secure a return of favour, it was necessary to begin again at the 1 IX, 219-220; ii, 56-57; xiv, 28; 74; 250-251 ; xx, 390-391. 2 III, 365 ; xiii, 417 ; xx, 201-202. « XXIV, 66-70; i, 65-67 ; cf. XXII, 169-170; i, 67 ff. 4 IV, 101-103; XV, 372-377; XXIII, 862-879; cf. XXIV, 306 ff; iii, 159; ix, 551 ; xxi, 265. & IX, 534 ff; cf. XVIII, 550ff; cf. Lippert, II, 315 ff. 128 HOMERIC SOCIETY point of omission and perform the rites as they should have been performed. 1 A strange kind of bargain-sacrifice was where Odysseus's men pro- posed to kill the cattle of Hyperion, sacrifice them to him, incidentally feasting themselves, and atone for it all by erecting a temple to the god on their return home. 2 It is needless to say that the terms were not accepted. This insurance, therefore, was the chief and really the only object at the bottom of all the cult-rites. In no cases are there clear indications of thanks- giving for favours accorded without the asking. The whole relation is a sort of debit and credit account, where satisfaction is given for value received. Yet there is a rationalisation upon all this in the con- cept of Fate, under its various forms. Fate was the " portion " assigned to man ; for example, men were " long ago fated to die." 3 Fate was both superior and inferior to the gods. " If we ask how . . . Zeus himself is bound by Fate, we come only upon a rough form of the general problem of free-will and determinism, such as certainly would have been unintelligible in an age which had not yet thought out even the relation of cause and effect." 4 What- ever Fate was, however, it was inexorable ; but the gods, though beings of exceeding power, could be won over. Therefore the ground-plan of the cult was to insure one's self against the adverse side of 1 iv, 351-352; 472-480; 582-586. s XVI, 441. 2 xii, 343-347. 4 Leaf, 162. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 129 life's element of chance, by propitiating the gods, even at endless waste and expense. The sacrifice itself, under whatever theory it was performed, was of a consistent type. Human sacri- fice had virtually passed away. Beyond the one case of the enraged Achilles, 1 all other evidence is in the line of survivals and inference. Exuvial sac- rifice points ever to a former custom of sacrificing the whole body. 2 A case of this kind, possessing a certain wider interest, is where Peleus promised to the river Spercheios the hair of his son on that son's return from Ilion ; as Achilles was very young when he left his country, this ceremony probably had something to do with assumption of societal obliga- tions. 3 Eelics of cannibalism of course point to the same fact of human sacrifice. This custom is found in actual and common existence only in the ruder tribes mentioned by Homer; among the Greeks themselves it was only in isolated cases of extreme anger toward an enemy that a savage desire to de- vour his flesh might arise. 4 This is the extremity of hatred, and implies -an ill effect to the soul of a person if a part of his body was eaten ; no special part of the body except the liver is mentioned in this connection. 5 The bloodthirstiness of the god Ares sometimes has a cannibalistic tinge. But i XXIII, 175-176. 2 X, 15-16 ; cf. Wilken, Vk., 317. 3 XXIII, 144ff ; cf. Lippert, II, 341 ff. * IV, 35 ; XXII, 346-347 ; XXIV, 212-214. 6 XXIV, 212 ; cf. XXI, 203 ; Lippert, 1, 481-482 ; II, 283 ff. 130 HOMERIC SOCIETY among the Greeks, as Homer knew them, the prac- tice was held in great abhorrence, and direst need did not reduce them to so shameful an act. The whole force of the cult was thrown against it, and it is thus relegated to a somewhat remote past. Only an occasional sacrifice of the first-born of animals recalls redemption and substitution. 1 The dog, though intimately connected with the spirit-world, was not sacrificed to the gods; but horses were sunk in the eddies of the Scamander as an offering to that river. 2 All other sacrifice was confined to sheep, goats, swine, oxen, and cows, wine, honey, grains, and fruits, and incense ; of course clothing and the like were offered. Grain, honey, etc., were not sacrificed alone, as meat was ; they were always supplementary to the latter. It seems, however, that there were such things as incense- sacrifices, where no victim was offered. That par- ticular animals were sacrificed to particular gods is sometimes maintained. 8 The choice of victims was not sharply defined ; the chief condition was that they should be " un- blemished." 4 Swine were used in taking oaths by the older gods or by those which had to do with the lower world, and were sometimes sacrificed by the poor. Something the same may be said of sheep, 5 1 V, 289 ; XXIII, 1 76 ; ix, 478-479 ; first-born lambs ; IV, 102 ; XXIII, 863-865 ; cf. Lippert, II, 315 ff. 2 XXI, 130-132. 8 VI, 269-270 ; IX, 499 ; Buchholz, III, pt. 2, 300. * I, 66; etc. 6 XIX, 197 ff ; xiv, 414ff; III, 103-104. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 131 though their use cannot be subjected to any restric- tions. Usually dark-coloured victims were offered to the underground deities or to the dead, but at the funeral of Patroclus we find white animals slain. Usually also male animals were sacrificed to male gods and female animals to female divinities. In one case a barren cow was promised to the dead. 1 Oxen and cows formed the commonest sacrifice ; the word "hecatomb" (one hundred bulls, or cows) was used of sheep as well as kine. In the fact that the oxen and cows offered were so often " ungoaded " or " unbroken," we probably find the familiar cus- tom of preserving the work-animals from the altar. The prevalence of this custom is supported by the lack of ass and horse sacrifice, and by several direct statements. 2 Wine was used freely in all sacrifices ; in case of its lack, water took its place. Of the grains, barley alone was offered, and in the lack of all grain, ten- der oak-leaves were substituted. 3 Salt is not men- tioned in regular sacrifice, and its use did not form an essential part in any of the cult-operations ; but honey, the original condiment, occurs, especially in sacrifices to the dead and in funeral ceremonies ; 4 milk was not offered. Gold was sometimes fastened 1 x, 572; xi, 23; 32-33; XXIII, 30 ; 111,103-104; X, 292- 294; XI, 727-729; XX, 404-405; x, 522. 2 IV, 102; VI, 94; X, 292-294 ; Lippert, I, 536 ff. "Uncas- trated" victims are mentioned (XXIII, 147). 8 xii, 357-363. 4 But cf. IX, 214 ; xi, 26-33; XXIII, 170. 132 HOMERIC SOCIETY to the horns of a victim, and, in rare cases, raiment was offered. 1 The cult seems very clear in regard to barley and honey being " old " foods, and one is inclined to place the smaller quadrupeds in the same category. All these smaller animals were freely eaten in Homer's time, as well as the larger ; there was no distinction such as existed in Egypt. 2 The ceremony of sacrifice is consistent through- out Homer. One ceremony is a model of another, with few and unimportant variations. The Greek army's atonement-sacrifice for Agamemnon's sin is as typical as any. Here the sacred hecatomb was arranged about the altar in order. The participants of the sacrifice then washed their hands and took up grains of barley, and the priest, in whose person the god had been injured, prayed loudly, with up- lifted hands, beseeching the divinity to remove pes- tilence from the army. After the prayer, the barley grains were " cast forward," the throats of the victims were cut, and they were flayed. The thigh- bones 3 were cut out and wrapped in a double layer of fat, and upon this bundle were laid small pieces of raw meat. These thigh-pieces the old priest burned upon billets of wood, pouring wine upon them ever and anon, while young men held the pieces with five-tined forks. 4 When the pieces were burned away, the participants merely tasted 1 X, 292-294 ; iii, 437-438 ; VI, 302-303 ; iii, 274. 2 Lippert, I, 545-546. 8 Or, perhaps, " thigh-pieces," including soine flesh. 4 Cf. Friedreich, 443. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 133 the vitals, and then began a feast upon the remainder of the offering. They cut up the meat and roasted it carefully on spits, and were provided with abun- dant wine. All day they feasted and propitiated the god (Apollo), singing a paean of praise which delighted him. In full good- will he sent them off with a favourable breeze the next morning. 1 The speedy reconciliation of the god erstwhile so en- raged, is striking. Further illustrations might supplement this one in various details. The sacrifice performed by Nestor in Pylos is a distinctly patriarchal affair ; the old warrior and his sous carry out the ceremony with no external aid, and the sacrifice presents several details not present in the preceding, such as catching blood in a sacrificial dish, cutting hairs from the victim's head and burning them preceding the real sacrifice, and the eating of the "outer flesh " (probably as distinguished from the vitals). 2 From these examples may be derived the general form of Homeric sacrifice. As we shall see, the latter example is the more typical in one respect, — in the absence of the professional priest. In the first illustration, the holy man was at his own shrine, and at such places only do we find regular priests. The ceremonial cleansing, the use of the barley, the prayer before the gift, are all regular. The detail of cutting out the thigh-pieces, covering them with fat, and then making them deceptively 1 I, 447-479. 2 iii, 404-472. 134 HOMERIC SOCIETY attractive by laying pieces of meat on the top, looks very much like a stereotyped attempt to avoid sacrificial waste and to deceive the gods, a de- vice very common throughout the world. 1 Forks, we notice, were used as cult-implements, though they are not met with in the ordinary occupations of life ; they may have been a specialty of religious invention and under a religious tabu. A sur- vival appears in the tasting, i. e., ceremonial eating, of the vitals, which points to the primitive appetite for blood. 2 Further noticeable is the close connec- tion between sacrifice and eating; the sentiments of the sacrificer were not solely those of awe and re- nunciation. Cutting off the hair from the victim's head is, with the burning of the thigh-pieces, sym- bolic of the sacrifice of the whole animal; the Homeric Greeks had learned to save the most and best of the victim for themselves. To this sacrifice the honoured god came ; he was present in the midst, albeit unseen. Sacrifices were sometimes con- cluded by casting the tongues of the victims into the flames and by libation. 3 Thus the ceremony of sacrifice was a quite simple one ; variations were of detail and trifling. A few more instances may be presented which will throw light upon Homeric sacrifice from several sides. A case is mentioned where a swine was slain for a 1 Sumner, U. L. — Instances with ref. in Letourneau, Prop., 87; 320. 2 Lippert, II, 286. 8 iii, 332-333 ; 338-341. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 135 meal. But the slayer " did not forget the immortals, for he had a right mind." He cut hairs from the swine's head, cast them into the fire and prayed, then killed the animal, cut small pieces of flesh from all its limbs, " through the rich fat," sprinkled these pieces with barley- meal, and cast them into the fire. The meat he divided into three shares, two for himself and his guest, and one for the nymphs and Hermes. After this came more sacri- fice of meat, and libations. It is not hard to see how the man in question was " right-minded ; " how little sacrifice differed from mere eating is clear from this and many other examples. 1 We find also that a man had to be impartial in his sacrifices. CEneus omitted Artemis when he made offerings to the rest of the gods, and she sent a wild boar to lay waste his rich orchards and vine- yards ; in the hunt for this boar a cumulation of woe arose from the anger of the offended goddess, which led to a destructive war. This all happened in con- sequence of neglect, due to forgetfulness or careless- ness, which was a great error of judgment. 2 It is noticeable that only exceptionally do women appear at sacrifices ; if they were there, they were of no account in the proceedings. It is therefore ex- ceptional to find women in Ilion discharging the function of a public prayer to Athena; they were even directed by a priestess. They proceeded to 1 xiv, 420-448 ; cf. xiv, 250-251 ; xix, 198. 2 IX, 533-549. 136 HOMERIC SOCIETY a temple and laid a costly robe " upon the knees " of the goddess, requesting aid, and promising twelve sleek, ungoaded kine in event of such aid being granted. Being placed upon the knees of Athena, the robe was evidently not burned. In this case the deity refused the request. 1 Thank-offerings are very seldom found, if at all. Examples suggested can be more consistently ex- plained as the fulfilments of previous vows, spoken or implied. Such a sacrifice was that made by the Achaeans after the virtual victory of Ajax over Hector; and a similar one is where the Trojans looked forward to giving offerings for freedom and peace, if the Greeks should depart. 2 In this very wish they virtually promised a payment to the gods. A peculiar instance of sacrifice is that made by JEgis- thus after he had killed Agamemnon and married his wife ; he sacrificed many animals at the altars, and hung up much raiment and gold in the sacred places, because he had accomplished a "great work" which he had never hoped to effect. These offerings, however, as he had been warned by the gods not to pur- sue the above-mentioned crimes, are to be taken rather as a buying-off of punishment for disobedience. In this case it was entirely ineffective. 3 The instance illustrates how the gods became sanctions for human 1 VI, 269-277; 297-311. 2 VII, 314 ff; VI, 526-529; cf. XI, 706 ff; iii, 179. 8 iii, 273-275 ; i, 37-39. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 137 morals, and were personally affronted by transgres- sions against norms which custom had established. A further sacrifice, connected with a symbolic ceremony of propitiation^wa^Jiat which Odysseus made on his escape frwi^^^Tong wanderings. To appease the sea-god's wrath, he was to take an oar and proceed inland until h§ came to those men who did not know the sea or ships, and used no salt with their food. The sign given was that a wayfarer whom he should meet would mistake the oar for a winn owing-shovel. Odysseus was then to fix the oar in the earth, sacrifice generously to Poseidon and return home, there to sacrifice to all the gods in turn. When this was done, troubles would be over, and a kindly old age, followed by a quiet death on land , amidst a happy people, would succeed to all the former hardships. 1 The ritual in all these examples is not complicated; beyond what has been mentioned, there is an injunc- tion to avoid unlucky words, and there are other ceremonies of purification : for example, the cleans- ing of a sacrificial cup with sulphur and water, hy Achilles. In general the cult-impleme-nts were, like the ceremonies, simple. Possibly the forks and blood-basins, like the cup just mentioned, were under a special tabu. But the sacrificer did not hesitate to use his weapons in sacrifice and special- ised cult-implements were few. There was a sacri- ficial knife which the king always carried, and fillets 1 xxiii, 267 ff. 138 HOMERIC SOCIETY of the gods, upon a staff, may have figured in sacri- fice; thyrsi are mentioned in connection with the "mad" Dionysus. There seems to have been no special cult-metal used in the manufacture of sacri- ficial knives. 1 Besides the sacrifice of occasion there is one clear case of a religious festival, and possibly others, 2 but this form of worship was exceptional. Of course in funerals and sacrifices, especially in the former, the waste was great. So it was in liba- tions, as we shall see. It is clear from what has been said that the Homeric Greeks were an intensely religious people, by their whole philosophy of life committed to constant service of the supernatural powers — the " dead hand. " Obedience to the gods marked the perfect man ; " whoever obeys the gods, to him they harken." 3 A man was justified accord- ing to the amount of his contributions to the desires of the gods 4 and, even allowing a liberal discount to the high colouring of the poet, and realising that cattle were at that time possessed in great num- bers, still the burden of the cult must have been ex- ceedingly heavy. A case is mentioned of a sacrifice of eighty-one oxen at a time ; sacrifices succeeded each other closely ; sometimes all the gods had to be propitiated in order. The term " hecatomb," though 1 IX, 171; XVI, 228-229; cf. xi, 24; III, 271-272; I, 14-15; VI, 134 ; III, 292 ; XXIII, 30. 2 xxi, 258 ff; II, 550-551. 8 I, 218; cf. V, 800 ff; XXIV, 139-140. * XXII, 169 ff; XXIV, 66-70; i, 65-67. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 139 used no longer by Homer in its original signification, either of number or kind of animals, points to great prodigality. 1 Of course, giving chiefly, as he does, the ideal record of the richer classes, Homer could make the sacrifices to the gods lavish, and yet they would cause no visible distress. But any stage of society groans under the load of cult-obligations and suffers- from the attendant loss ; and the lavish - ness of the Homeric heroes, even though it was not all waste, could not fail to have its weighty conse- quences. How civilisation struggles forward under such economic loads is only to be explained by the reflex action of the cult itself. The burdens, though grievously heavy, are carried by the body rather than by the mind. The mind is untroubled by the strain of doubts, since justification is a matter of works. The advantages attained are worth the cost. In addition, the very burden of superstition forces a higher devel- opment of thought, which, in turn, advances culture. Libations were really another form of sacrifice, though accompanied with little ceremony. When of a formal character, libation was preceded by careful purification in clear water, and was often performed at the altar of Zeus in the middle of the court. Wine was the regular means of libation used, though honey, sweet wine, and water were offered to the dead, along with barley. 2 This points 1 iii, 5ff; 380-384; 430 ff; IX, 534 ff; xxiii, 279-281; cf . I, 309 ff; IV, 102; etc. 2 XXIV, 303-307 ; xi, 27-28. 140 HOMERIC SOCIETY again to these as " old " forms of food and drink. Libations were often informal, and the connection between libation and drinking was very close ; all libation was not necessarily drinking, but almost, if not quite all, drinking appears to have been accom- panied by libation. 1 The occasions for libation were almost as diverse as those for sacrifice, though they were generally less important. Where sacrifice could not well be offered, on shipboard, for instance, libation was its substitute. 2 Wine was poured dur- ing dangerous voyages, at the departure on a mis- sion, at the departure of a friend, for the safety of a friend, at the breaking-up of a company of guests, as conclusion of regular sacrifice, on the arrival of a suppliant, on recalling past griefs, etc. 3 It was sometimes accompanied with a blessing, and in one case a special cup is mentioned, devoted exclusively to the pouring of libations to Zeus. 4 Prayers and vows were much the same thing ; as the word for prayer indicates, prayers were mostly vows. 6 These vows were then followed by a re- quest, and thus belong really to the machinery of the bargain-sacrifice. Promises of sacrifice were held binding by the gods, who might conceive great 1 vii, 136-138; 183-184; xiii, 55-56; xviii, 419; 426-427. 2 ii, 431-433. 3 IX, 171-177; 656-657; XXIV, 303-307; xiii, 50-52; 57-62; xv, 149 ff; IX, 712; vii, 136-138; XVI, 220 ft; iii, 332-333; 338-341 ; 390-395 ; vii, 164-165; viii, 87-89. 4 xiii, 57-62 ; XVI, 225-232. 5 x, 526; cf. XXIII, 863-864; 872-873; xi, 29-35; xiii, 355- 358; xvii, 50-51. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 141 anger if they were not performed. 1 The prayer was often preceded by ceremonial hand-washing, or by a bath and putting on of clean clothes. It was gen- erally pronounced aloud, with hands reached out to the god ; indeed, the expression " lift up the hands " is equivalent to " pray." Yet prayer might be uttered " in the heart ; " and before the enemy it was the part of caution to pray in silence. 2 Prayer was offered in need to the god likely to be nearest at hand. It was a good time to pray when the gods' attention was attracted towards one's vicinity, that is, when an omen occurred. 3 It is remarked by Gladstone 4 that almost all the prayers were ad- dressed to Zeus, Athena, or Apollo, and none to Aphrodite, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, De meter, or even Hera. One prayer we find offered, conditional on fate, and another, asking for an omen. 6 Of course there were blessings and curses : blessings for kindness, at parting, etc., and sometimes condi- tional upon the granting of some request; curses for various crimes, social and other. The parties cursed evidently expected the curses to be ful- filled; such fulfilment was the special duty of the Erinyes, together with Hades and Persephone. > I, 65 ff. 2 ii, 261; iv, 750-752; xvii, 48 ff; XV, 371; ix, 527 f; VI, 257; VII, 130; XXIII, 769 ff; cf. xii, 333-337; VII, 195- 196. 3 IX, 183; xiii, 356-358; xx, 112 ff. * J. M., 281. 6 ix, 527 ff ; xx, 97-98. 142 HOMERIC SOCIETY who were called, apparently, by beating upon the earth. 1 Prayer was, with few exceptions, egoistic, and there are in Homer no prayers of thanksgiving which may not be more simply interpreted as prom- ises or the like. Naegelsbach gives several stock formulas for prayer, of which the following is typi- cal : (a) Invocation of the deity ; (b) Eeview of reasons establishing a claim for answer ; (c) Object of the request. 2 It is not hard to see in prayer, as well as in sacrifice, the entrance of the element of contract in dealing with the higher powers. Not alone were food and drink made sacred to the gods. One case has been cited of hanging up presents in the holy place ; we also find trophies thus disposed. Hector intended, if he should con- quer in the single combat with Ajax, to hang the latter's armour in the house of Apollo. Probably his object in wishing to cut off the points or beaks of the Greek ships was something of the same kind. Other trophies had no religious significance in Homer. 3 Mention has already been made of " temples " 4 1 vi, 180-182; viii, 408-413; xiii, 44-46; 59-62; xv, 341-342 ; xxiv, 402 ; vii, 148-152 ; 331-333 ; III, 298 ff ; VI, 281-285 ; XIII, 232-233 ; xvii, 475-476 ; 494-497 ; IX, 454 ff ; 565-573. 2 Buchholz, III, pt. 2, 257 ; Naegelsbach, art. 13 : he gives as examples I, 37 ff ; X, 278 ff ; iv, 762 ff ; III, 298 ff; XXIII, 770 ff; xvii, 354 ff ; VI, 305 ff; 445 ff; III, 351 ff. 3 iii, 274 ; VII, 83 ; IX, 241 ; VII, 146-149 ; XIII, 260-265. 4 Of course these " temples " were for the most part very simple affairs, as will be seen. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 143 sacred to one or the other of the gods. Preceding the temple, however, came the altar, and the earliest altar was the hearth. The hearth retained its char- acter as a religious fetich in Homer's time, as will appear below ; also there was a regular altar to Zeus in the court of the house. 1 Many altars seem to have existed where there were as yet no build- ings of any kind ; there were altars of Zeus on the way to Ilion, altars were built for rivers, at their sources, and were located in the place of assembly. 2 A shrine of Apollo existed at Delos, where grew the wondrous date-palm ; and an altar to the nymphs was established not far from the town of Ithaca, where passers-by might sacrifice. 3 How many of the " altars " were really temples, one cannot say, but in these cases no buildings are men- tioned. There were, however, sacred buildings, which were " not to be entered," and which may have been mere booth-like structures, roofed over by the priest himself. 4 Other shrines were grander ; one of Apollo in Ilion, was located upon the citadel, and was very rich, while Zeus had an altar and priest on Mount Ida, and also in Ilion. 5 Aphrodite had in Paphos a smoking altar ; and the men who ate the holy cattle of Hyperion proposed to build 1 XVI, 231 ; XXIV, 306 ; xxii, 333-336. 2 VIII, 238-241 ; XXIII, 147-148; XI, 807-808. 3 vi, 162-163; xvii, 205-211. * V, 512; 1,39. 6 V, 446-448 ; 512 ; VII, 83 ; VIII, 48 ; XVI, 604-605 ; XXII, 171-172. 144 HOMERIC SOCIETY him a " rich temple " in Ithaca and fill it with good things. 1 A shrine of Athena in Ilion was called a " holy home," was fitted with large double doors and secured by bolts and a hook or lock. It con- tained, apparently, a seated statue, and a priestess presided over it. The " house of Erechtheus," one of Athena's favourite haunts, was a well-built struc- ture in Athens. 2 Mentions of temple-building and temples occur several other times, and certain places called " holy " probably contained the dwell- ing of some god. 3 The temple of Apollo in Pytho is mentioned twice ; in the Iliad it is an extremely rich shrine, with stone threshold, and no oracle is mentioned. The name of this holy place was synonymous with wealth. In the Odyssey, the oracle is spoken of and seems to be in great repute; no priests are men- tioned. 4 The shrine of Zeus at Dodona was, how- ever, the most developed of the holy places; it was attended by priests who practised the characteristic rites of ascetics and prophets, not washing the feet, and sleeping upon the ground. This seems to be the only case where mediums, rendered holy by rites and renunciatory practices, were needed to approach the gods. Consultation of the oracle of Zeus is not mentioned in the Iliad, but in the 1 viii, 363 ; xii, 346-347. 2 VI, 88-89 ; 269 ff ; 379 ; vii, 81. 8 II, 549 ; vi, 10 ; I, 38 ; 252 ; 366 ; 390 j II, 508; 520; cf. 535 ; IV, 46 ; 378 ; V, 446 ; iii, 278. * IX, 404-405 ; viii, 79-81. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 145 Odyssey it is apparently a common thing to learn the will of Zeus from the tall oak of Dodona. 1 Hills were sometimes sacred to the gods ; indeed most shrines were on high ground. Further, groves of the gods were common. Perhaps they might be included in the tracts of land around the holy places ; such demesnes are mentioned a number of times. 2 Thus the power of the main morte extended over all the possessions and life of the people, and the living were in large measure servants of the dead. And yet their state was far less onerous than that of the surrounding older civilisations. They were at least delivered from a sacerdotal caste-system and a developed priesthood. It is clear from what has been said that Homeric ceremonies and ritual were remarkably simple, and relations with the gods exceptionally direct. The cause for the priest's existence is thus removed. The reason for the shaman's power in all cases is that there must be one who has been initiated into the possession of mystic power ; who knows just what to do and especially what to say, — what formula of many complicated formulas to use under given conditions ; and for such a functionary the simple Greek ceremonies had no need. Men dealt directly with their gods ; among some devout peo- 1 XVI, 233-235 ; xiv, 327-330. 2 xvi, 471; II, 506; vi, 266; 291-292; ix, 200; x, 509-510; xvii, 205-211 ; xx, 278; cf. 11,696; VIII, 48; XXIII, 148; viii, 363. 10 146 HOMERIC SOCIETY pies, the gods appeared openly as companions, or had done so in the not remote past. The patriarch was the priest of his family, and the king discharged the functions of public sacrifice ; even the common soldier could be his own priest. 1 There were very few reasons, therefore, on ac- count of which the priest should be a man apart, a sanctified and holy man. Even the cult-language was simple; though the gods called several things by names different from the terms employed by men, 2 it is not conceivable that a religious jargon was in use. Beyond the ascetic priests, mentioned in connection with the shrine at Dodona, the rest of the profession had to seek other distinction than that of possessing superhuman knowledge acquired in states of mental aberration, — states commonly induced hypnotically or by the influence of drugs, or by hunger and physical collapse. There were no professional secrets-of-the-trade. The priest was generally a man who had by repeated sacrifice and services rendered himself dear to a god, and had then established an altar on his own account ; or he was a noble whom his fellow-tribesmen had elevated to the care of a com- mon shrine. In general, priests were not itinerant, but were connected with a fixed locality and shrine, and with a special god. 3 The priests of great 1 I, 594 ; i, 22-26 ; vii, 201-206 , xix, 179 ; II, 400-401. 2 I, 403-404; II, 813-814 ; XIV, 291 ; XX, 73-74 ; xii, 61. 3 Naegelsbach, IV, 198; I, 11; V, 9-10; 77; VI, 298; XVI, 234-235 ; 604 ; ix, 197-198 ; cf . Friedreich, art. 143. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 147 temples were regularly of noble birth. Though priests were apparently immune from military ser- vice, and very rich and honoured, still the dis- tinction was individual, not hereditary. The sons of great priests appeared on the battlefield ; also, if the sacerdotal office was elective, claimants could easily be set aside, and consequently all opportunity of forming an hereditary guild or caste was removed. 1 Priests were almost invariably male ; one woman, a Thracian, had been " made " priestess of Athena by the Trojans; she was the wife of a noble Trojan, and discharged her family duties as other women did. 2 However uncertain the priest's office was, he was an important man in the state, and in its way the priesthood was a profession. 3 The priest was the representative on earth of some god, even if that meant merely that he was the god's favourite ; and in him and his insignia, his god was reverenced or dishonoured. In case of the priest's dishonour, the wrath of his god was aroused as by a personal wrong. The story of the plague in the Greek camp before Ilion well illustrates this. Chryses, priest of Apollo, inhabiting a holy town where he had built an altar and " roofed over a temple," came to the Greek camp to request the return of his daughter, a prisoner and concubine of Agamemnon. He came i V, 9 ff ; VI, 300 ; XVI, 604-605 ; cf. Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, III, 177-187. 2 VI, 300; cf. V, 70-71 ; XI, 222-224. 3 I, 62 ; IX, 574-575 ; XXIV, 221. 148 HOMERIC SOCIETY " with the fillets of the Farshooter, upon a golden staff," and, not by haughty command, as is the wont of primitive priests, but by beseeching and with ransom, sought to obtain his request. This en- treaty and the consequent refusal of the king wit- ness to a weakness of the priesthood. But when the request had been refused, the priest's prayer for vengeance met instant answer from his patron, and the Greeks were forced to bear the consequences of their king's sin until reparation was made and the daughter humbly returned "without ransom and without price." 1 At these altars and temples, the priests seem to have had the general function of "pray-er," which would indicate that there were occasions when a man would prefer to have his praying done by a favourite of the god. No doubt emolument of some kind was derived from such sacrifices or prayers offered through the priest's agency ; at any rate, all priests were rich to Homer, and one of them possessed the finest " dark " wine of which he knew. 2 There was an inferior kind of priest or sacrifice- observer, who did the praying for the Suitors; in the absence of the need of regular mediums between gods and men, religious functions tended thus to degenerate into augury and the like. Priests are il, 12 ff. 2 Cf. the word for priest (I, 11); V, 9; cf. 77-78; ix, 196 ff ; 359. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 149 spoken of with soothsayers and augurs as not al- ways reliable. 1 The Homeric cult, therefore, starting from the hypothesis of immediate and easy, if expensive " laying " of the soul, worked itself out to a compar- atively comfortable relation of gdds and men. The trend of nature and environment saved the early Greeks from the terrible nightmare of balancing good and evil spirits, where the daimons of ill were ever watchful and the higher, protective powers not always available. To this more kindly view the Greek religion owes its more genial form. It is indeed a regime of fear and submission, but it is sunshine and happiness when compared with the Chaldasan and other Eastern religions, with their bloody rites and savage gloom, their unbearable onus of sacrifice and perennial demands of a minutely differentiated and domineering priesthood. Nothing could more clearly prove the genius of the Homeric cult to be genuinely Hellenic than the sharpness of this broad contrast; and if contrast were carried into strict detail, the proof would be the more convincing. In the simple machinery of the Homeric cult there is scarcely a mark of East- ern influence; conservatism is ever the character- istic of religion, and nowhere is conservatism stronger than in the maintenance of forms of cult- procedure, which have been handed down from gen- eration to generation. 1 xxi, 145-146 ; xxii, 321 ff ; XXIV, 220-222. 150 HOMERIC SOCIETY If success in life lay in keeping on good terms with the higher powers, and if sin against the rights and desires of these powers was visited with so stern a punishment, sacrifices were not always enough assurance for man. It was necessary in case of doubt to learn beforehand the attitude of the gods towards a projected undertaking, to gain advice that would save from misfortune and loss. This questioning of the future took various forms. Belief in the prophetic nature of dreams was very strong, though less implicit than in other methods of prophecy. 1 The dream was a shadowy creature, sent by one or other of the gods, generally Zeus, which assumed the form of some well-known per- son ; it stood at the head of the sleeper and spoke the will of the deity ; or it prophesied or acted in such manner that an omen could easily be drawn. A deceptive dream was sent by Zeus to Agamem- non ; the god summoned the dream : " Up ! go to the camp of the Achseans and bid Agamemnon pre- pare the people for war, for now he may take Ilion." The dream departed and stood at the head of the king in the form of the wise old counsellor, Nestor. When the message of Zeus had been repeated, the dream left the waking king, who arose and acted at once upon the advice given ; the rest of the chiefs had no doubt of the significance of the dream, inas- much as a king had seen it. 2 It is noticeable that there was no misapprehension whatever regarding l Cf. 1,62-63. 2 II, 8ff. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 151 the unreality of the vision ; dreams were called by the same name as the souls of the dead — eidola — and were also " mindless." They could slip through the strap-hole of a door, and were as incorporeal and dim as were souls ; 'the demos of dreams was located near the entrance to the spirit-world. 1 Dreams were sometimes created on the spot by a di- vinity, and were regularly "divine;" it was well known at what period of sleep they are wont to come, and a person was then said to be in the " dream-gates." 2 How the dreams passed over into augury is illustrated by the complicated vision of Penelope, ominous of the return of Odysseus and the destruc- tion of the Suitors. Penelope had twenty white geese which she kept in the court ; in this dream a great eagle swooped down from the mountain and broke the necks of them all ; they were scattered, dead, throughout the court, and the eagle flew away. Penelope cried out, and the women of the house gathered about her, — all in the dream. The eagle then returned and perched upon the edge of the roof, saying with human voice : " Be of good cheer ; it is not a dream, but actuality. The geese were the Suitors, the eagle was I myself, and now I, your husband, return to inflict unseemly destruction upon all the Suitors." The disguised Odysseus, to whom Penelope told 1 xix, 562; iv, 802 ; 38; 824 ; xxiv, 12. 2 iv, 796 ; 809 ; xiv, 495. 152 HOMERIC SOCIETY this dream, replied that it was impossible to inter- pret the dream otherwise than as the dream-Odys- seus had done. 1 It is noticeable that Homer did not believe implicitly in dreams ; there were "baleful dreams," which might allure one to his destruction ; the distinction between onar and hupar points to some doubt. Penelope, in the case mentioned, answered Odysseus that dreams were both true and false ; according to the symbolism of her expression, this was according as they proceeded through the horn or ivory gates. 2 None the less, Homer, in his privilege of " prophecy after the act," took pains to make dreams foreshadow reality. Whether the belief in dreams was implicit or not, all dreams were acted upon at once ; or the senti- ments appropriate to the content of the vision were at once displayed on waking. 3 Dreams were generally interpreted by the dreamer; but there were men who bore the name of dream-interpreters. They do not appear to have been a special class, and were probably merely men of more than common imagination and keenness in plausible interpretation. One of the very few similes of Homer which turn upon habits of mental action is derived from a characteristic of dream-life. 4 But omens derived from the visible world played the greatest part in Homeric prophecy. They might 1 xix : 536-558. 2 II, 6 ff ; xix, 547 ; xx, 87-90 ; xix, 560-567. 8 II, 36 ff ; iv, 840 ; vi, 20 ff. * I, 63 ; V, 149-150 ; XXII, 199 ; cf. Jebb, 31. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 153 happen at any time, though more especially on the eve of some important undertaking ; they might be requested or occur of themselves. Omens from the gods were really threats and warnings, or approval and promise of success. Hence they were watched for anxiously, and if they were unfavourable the gods were at once propitiated and besought in intense fear. There is something pitiful in the abject terror of brave men, listening to the heavy thundering of Zeus, foreboding from it great ill, and not daring to drink their wine before pouring a libation to the blustering power in whose presence they felt so helpless : " All night Zeus the counsellor meditated evil against them, thundering terribly. And pale fear seized them, and they poured wine from their cups upon the ground, nor did any one dare to drink before he had poured a libation to the exalted son of Kronos." 1 These men had done nothing wrong; the petty personal grievances of the higher powers had brought them together to fight each other, to suffer wounds and fear, and to die far from home and friends, food for the dogs and birds of prey, and destined to endure untimely the dreariness of the home of Hades. 2 At the most insignificant omen of ill-fortune the stoutest hero trembled ; at the breaking of a new bow-string, or the loss of a spear-head, 3 — for such an omen indi- cated a withdrawal of the gods' protection and a 1 VII, 478-481. 8 XV, 466-470 ; XVI, 114 ff. 2 Cf . I, 1-9. 154 HOMERIC SOCIETY possibility of their anger, against which man was utterly impotent. Omens were drawn chiefly from aerial sources, from the regions above the earth. Thunder, especially on a cloudless day, was the great omen of Zeus ; if heard on the right, it was favourable. Such an omen was sometimes asked for by one side in a combat, and might be mistaken by the other for a portent to themselves. 1 The thunderbolt, gleaming with flame and emitting strong odours of sulphur, was cast to the earth before the feet of men and gods as a warning to desist at once from an undertaking displeasing to Zeus. Men were in this case " smitten with pale fear." Another ethereal portent was the rainbow, which meant either war or a fierce winter which would make an end of men's works and injure the sheep. 2 The snowstorm also was an omen from Zeus, who was " showing to men those weapons of his." Certain stars were ominous of fever and disaster ; such was in particular the autumn-star, the dog of Orion; and shooting-stars were also portentous. Showers and dew of blood foretold death. 3 * Omens were also derived from the accidental actions of men; sneezing, an involuntary blessing or an involuntary prayer in favour of an inceptive 1 xx, 112-114 ; VIII, 170-171 ; XIII, 242-244 ; XVII, 595 ; xxi, 412-415 ; II, 353 ; IX, 236 ; XV, 377-380. 2 VIII, 75-77; 133f£; xxiv, 539-540 ; XVII, 547-550. 8 XII. 280; XXII, 26-31 ; IV, 75-77; XI, 53-55; XVI, 459- 460. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 155 undertaking, etc. 1 Before the killing of the Suitors, Odysseus requested a double omen from Zeus, one within and one without the house. Thunder, it is said, rolled immediately from the snowy peaks of Olympus, and Odysseus rejoiced. The omen within the house was given by a poor woman-slave, who paused in her grinding of grain and prayed to Zeus that, as he was then giving an omen to some one, he would pity her too, and deliver the house of the Suitors whose presence made her labour so heavy. She prayed that on that very night they might eat their last meal in Odysseus's house, and Odysseus, hearing her prayer, "rejoiced in the omen and in the thunder of Zeus ; for he thought he would get vengeance on the wrongdoers." 2 It was evidently a good time to pray when the gods were in a granting humour, especially for one whose lowly position and poverty could not be expected to re- ceive any consideration from the venal divinities. Faith in this omen, as usual, was immediate and implicit. Other portents were the turning into stone of a serpent, and of a sbftp ; 3 in the latter case, the prod- igy was the beginning of a prophesied punishment, and the threatened people hastened to beg off from the rest of the chastisement with sacrifices and vows. Again, when the followers of Odysseus 1 xvii, 541 -546; ii, 34-35. 2 xx, 100 ff; 120-121 quoted. 8 11,318-319; xiii, 163 ff. 156 HOMERIC SOCIETY had killed the cattle of Hyperion, and were roasting the meat, the skins, we are told, crept about and " the flesh, both the cooked and the raw, bellowed upon the spits, and the voice was as that of bulls. " 1 The weirdest omen in Homer is that given by Athena when she smote the minds of the Suitors. 2 The seer Theoclymenus observed the strange actions of the men, and saw the forehall and court full of ei- dola, " hastening to Erebus beneath the West." He left the house to avoid the terrible wrath and the pollution of death about to descend. One prevalent form of omen remains yet to be considered. The Greeks looked much to the heavens for hints as to the will of the gods, and the move- ments of birds became ominous in an exceedingly high degree. As dreams and omens came most commonly from Zeus (as a sort of agent of fate), so augury was based chiefly upon the birds sent by Zeus. As the thunder, coming from the king of the gods, was the chief of omens, so in auspices was the eagle of Zeus the chief of birds. The usual rules regarding lucky and unlucky directions obtain here also ; the thunder of a favourable omen came from the right, and, in the flight of birds, right was lucky and left unlucky. This distinc- tion between right and left was of the utmost im- portance among the Chaldaeans, and among the Greeks it is further witnessed in several ceremo- nies of serving and drinking, where the custom of 1 xii, 394-396. 2 xx, 345-357. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 157 passing the cup toward the right was scrupulously maintained. 1 Before the beginning of an undertaking, the omen of the birds' flight might occur, either asked in prayer with sacrifice or libation, or unasked. It was at once accepted as authentic and conclusive by the pious. 2 But the omen was not always con- fined to the mere flight of the birds ; it was, in im- portant cases, more complicated, consisting of a symbolic action on the part of the birds them- selves, which was then interpreted. Such omens were generally, but not always, accepted with sac- rifices, libation, or prayer. 3 As the Trojans, for ex- ample, stood victorious before the Greek wall, an eagle came up on their left carrying a bloody snake, alive and gasping. The snake turned and struck the eagle, which dropped it and flew off with a cry ; the snake fell into the midst of the crowd of Trojans, who shuddered with fear. The inter- pretation was that when the Trojans had taken the wall, they could not hold it, but would be driven off with pain and loss. 4 Several of these complicated omens occurred pre- ceding the return of Odysseus and the death of the Suitors. They were all essentially alike, three ap- pearing to the friends of Odysseus, and one to the Suitors ; in the omen to the latter, of course, the 1 Lehmann, I, 62 ; I, 597 ; xvii, 365. 2 XIII, 821-823 ; XXIV, 292-295 ; 315-321 ; xxiv, 311-313. 8 VIII, 247 ft; X, 274-277. * XII, 199-208 ; 218 ft. 158 HOMERIC SOCIETY birds flew on the left. Some of the men warned were inclined to give up their object, but finally all persisted, thus disregarding divine advice. All the omens given to Odysseus's family naturally turned upon the destruction of the Suitors, in some symbolic way. 1 In general, then, the belief was strong in the significance of the flight of birds. This is illus- trated also by colloquial usage : " Be not a bird of ill omen to me." 2 But under the influence of mar- tial excitement, or in the blindness of sin preced- ing destruction, the birds were sometimes spoken of with apparent indifference. After one of the omens concerning the return of Odysseus, Eurymachus de- clared that not all birds were portentous. Conflict of authority, as well as military ardour, led Hector to reject the omen unfavourable to the Trojan occu- pation of the Greek camp. Zeus had assured him of success on that day ; therefore he thought that those who advised him to obey the birds, rather than the sender of the birds, were fools. Hector even went so far as to say that he cared naught for the omens of birds. 3 Thus was the conflict of authority evaded ; yet the omen was accom- plished. Hector evidently overstated the power given by Zeus, and the impression left is that the omens were trustworthy, but the weak human 1 xx, 242 ff; ii, 146-156; xv, 160-165; 174-178; 525-528. 2 XXIV, 218-219. 8 ii, 181-182; XI, 192-194; XII, 234-243. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 159 mind at fault. Perhaps dramatic considerations led Homer ominously to foreshadow the return of Odysseus, as he did the deaths of Hector and Achilles in the Iliad ; none the less this expedient, if it was one, was well-chosen and is a witness that deference to portents was deep-rooted in the people. The means of questioning the future thus far de- scribed dealt with the unconscious in man, and with nature, and interpretation was generally a private affair. Before we come to that prophecy which deals with no external signs, there are still a few examples of omens which were too complicated for the common man to interpret and which demanded the superior knowledge of the prophet. We have seen that the prophet Calchas was also the best of omen-interpreters ; l he it was who was called upon to explain the omen of the snake and sparrows, symbolic of the fate of the Trojan expedition. The story is that while the Greeks were sacrificing at Aulis, before the start, a " great sign " appeared. A terrible serpent, blood-red on the back, was seen to glide out from beneath the altar and climb an adja- cent plane-tree. Upon the topmost branches of this tree was the nest of a sparrow, containing eight fledglings. These, with the mother-bird, the serpent devoured, and then was suddenly turned to stone by Zeus who had sent him. The rest of the "people stood in amazement and wonder ; but Calchas was able to i I, 69. 160 HOMERIC SOCIETY prophesy the nine years' war about Ilion, and its fall in the tenth. The tale runs on how in the tenth year the omen and prophecy were recalled by Odys- seus, who urged the army to remain and see "if Calchas prophesied truly or not." 1 It is evident that long waiting and ill-success had engendered a certain scepticism. In like manner the prophet Halitherses, while the rest were dumb, interpreted an omen concerning the return of Odysseus, recall- ing a prophecy he himself had made twenty years be- fore, and boasting that he was "not inexperienced." 2 Since the gods ruled all life, prophecy was a spe- cial function of theirs ; they knew all the future. 3 They sent dreams, omens, and birds to reveal parts of the future to men. And not only in this sym- bolic and roundabout way did they make known their will ; by a species of possession they entered into living beings, and caused them to speak out concerning coming events. Perhaps the oak of Zeus at Dodona spoke or rustled in prophecy; at any rate, the horse of Achilles, inspired by Hera, re- vealed the future with human utterance. 4 It is not just plain how a man became the mouth- piece of the gods. It is stated of a prophet merely that such and such a god loved him, or that " Apollo endowed him with the gift of prophecy." 5 But i II, 300 ff. 2 ii, 155 ff. 3 VIII, 473-474 ; IX, 410 ff; XVII, 408-409; XVIII, 94-96; XX, 339. * xiv, 327-328 ; XIX, 404-417. 6 I, 72 ; xv, 245-246. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 161 from the fact that prophetic force was given to the utterances of the dying, and that the souls of the dead could reveal the future, it is not unreasonable to conclude that "second sight" generally came in some such state of bodily collapse. When one prophesied " not as a prophet," he said " what the gods put into his heart." 1 The seer did possess a second sight 2 and was a man apart. Prophecy was a thing of the inner man ; a direct communication from the god, if not a possession by him, and had no necessary connection with external portents. Explanation of omens was merely an avocation of the prophet. Therefore prophecy, as nothing else in the Greek religion, de- manded specially qualified men. Such were the priests of Zeus at Dodona, men qualified for their office by tests and privations. Ascetic practices are almost inseparable from auto-hypnotic trances and ecstasies induced by fasting, fatigue, and the use of narcotics and poisons. 3 In some such way, probably, the early Greek seers were initiated into direct relations with the gods. Concerning the origin of the prophet, no indications beyond these vague ones are to be found. The fact remains, however, that the prophets were the mouthpieces of the gods, and therefore that prophecy was the voice of the gods in its clearest 1 XVI, 852-854; XXII, 359-360; XXIII, 80-81 ; cf. x, 492 ff ; i, 200-202. 2 xx, 355-356. 8 Lehmann, III & IV ("Psychology of Magic"), passim; cf. Lippert, I, 625 ff . 11 162 HOMERIC SOCIETY tone. The order of declining importance seems to have been : prophet, priest, dream-interpreter. 1 The prophet was supposed to " perceive in his heart " the will of the gods ; when Athena and Apollo arranged a duel between champions of the Greeks and Tro- jans, Helenus, the seer, " felt it in his heart " and persuaded Hector to a challenge, telling him it was not yet his time to die. 2 The knowledge of the prophet extended also with especial accuracy into the past and the present ; his knowledge was universal. Calchas was by far the best of the seers of the Greek force, for he "knew the present, the future, and the past " and had led the way for the ships to Troy " through his gift of prophecy which Phcebus Apollo gave him." 3 The weak spot in the Trojan wall may have been discovered with the aid of a seer. 4 As has been seen, prophecies were made whose fulfilment was to be postponed many years. There was an ancient prophecy to the Phaeacians of Poseidon's wrath, which was so old that it had ceased to be feared until the beginning of its fulfil- ment had brought on a terrible calamity. It had been "long ago" foretold to Polyphemus that he would lose his eye, by a seer who " was of surpass- ing skill in prophecy and grew old while dwelling among and foretelling the future for the Cyclopes." This was another case where the carelessness that came with continued non-fulfilment of a prophecy 1 I, 62-63. f I, 69-70; 72. 2 VII, 44-53. * VI, 438. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 163 really led to its full completion. It was never well to risk the passing over of a prophecy; one who embarked upon a course of action wherein his death was prophesied, never came through safe ; it was the custom to avoid the fulfilment of such prophecies by promptly giving up the questionable projects. 1 Prophecy in Hades extended even to the disclosing of one's whole future life. 2 Something has been said above as to the character of the seer ; he has been found to have been a man apart from other men in his superior knowledge and "gift" of prophecy, 3 though he might accom- pany armies and fight with the rest, and is found resident among a tribe in a sort of professional function. His main business was direct inter- vention between gods and men in the matter of revealing the future, although he often interpreted omens. He was even associated with priests in sacrificial duties and was sometimes very rich. In general, he was highly honoured as a valuable member of society, though inferior by far to the king and held accountable for crime. 4 The great seer Teiresias was honoured as a prince in the spirit- world, and retained by favour of Persephone his mind and gifts of prophecy ; to him Odysseus 1 II, 300 ff; ii, 170-172; viii, 565-569; xiii, 163 ff; ix, 507- 510; XI, 329 ff; 794-795. 2 xi, 100-137. 8 XI, 329 ff ; II, 832 ; 858. * Cf. XIII, 70 ; 663-664 ; xvii, 383-384 ; I, 80 ff ; cf. 33 ff ; xv, 223 ff. 164 HOMERIC SOCIETY resorted, even in the house of Hades. There was however, an inferior kind of seer who was " called in " on occasion and was not very valuable ; for his prophecy no one cared. Occasionally it is hinted that a prophet is partial or corruptible, 1 but the prophet is promptly justified by Homer. Further evidence of the seer's special mission to earth is the fact that prophetic gifts might (excep- tionally) be continued in one family for generations. In the family of the noted Amphiaraus, his death was succeeded by the appointment (by Apollo) of a successor in the person of his father's cousin. This prophetic gift, then, descended, with no mention of further selection by Apollo, upon the son of this successor, the seer Theoclymenus. In the narrative of the latter's flight before avengers of blood, the names of his ancestors and relatives mentioned are significant of some close connection with the gods, and one of them, because of his beauty, lived among the immortals. 2 Thus the family was a favoured one, and in it prophecy tended to become an hereditary profession. This is the only case of the kind in Homer ; as a rule, prophetic gifts were individual only. This would point to special qualities of mind or special initiation, rather than to hereditary secret knowledge, as the origin of the Homeric seer. 1 x, 492-495 ; xi, 91 ff ; i, 415-416; cf. XXIV, 220-222 ; 1, 106 ff ; ii, 186. 2 xv, 223 ff: 250-253. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 165 Other means and methods for discovering the will of the gods were possessed in the casting of lots and in the ordeal. In lot-casting, small pieces of wood or other material were marked and shaken in a helmet till the lucky one flew out. Lots were cast for position in horse-races and turn in archery- trials ; by brothers, to find who should go to war ; to decide who should undergo a danger for his comrades ; in the division of property ; and, among the gods, by Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades in their joint partition of the universe. 1 Lots were shaken for the first shot in an ordeal-duel ; and, in the selection by lot of a champion to meet Hector's challenge, the Greeks showed the religious character of the ordeal by praying that the gods would desig- nate one of their greatest warriors. 2 Of the ordeal-trial there is at least one good example. Greeks and Trojans, under solemn oaths and truce, agreed to leave the settlement of their disputes to the duel of the injured Menelaus and the seducer Alexander. This duel was to end the war. As the gods had been solemnly called upon to sanctify the oaths of truce, so they were present to conclude the ordeal. So much trust was placed in the outcome of the trial, that Greeks and Trojans, in defiance of their own knowledge as to who was the guilty party, could pray ; " Whoever brought on 1 XXIII, 352-355 ; 861 ; XXIV, 400; ix, 331 ; x, 206 ; xiv, 209 ; cf. " kleron " (xiv, 63) ; XV, 190 ff. ■ 111,316; VII, 171 ff. 166 HOMERIC SOCIETY these woes, let him die." The outcome of the combat itself was a just one ; Menelaus had Paris at his mercy. But Aphrodite snatched him away ; and so the trial had not the literal decision neces- sary, though it was claimed upon the advantage of the Greek champion, and even Paris acknowledged that the gods had decided against him. 1 The duel of Hector and Ajax was, in its way, an ordeal-trial, as are all duels, in that it symbolised the positions of the two armies and peoples. There was no result attained, as the battle was a draw ; it was stopped by the gods and concluded with mutual gifts by the combatants. 2 These were the various means by which the Homeric Greeks assured themselves as to the will of the gods, that they might be enabled to "justify" themselves before the higher powers by adjusting all actions to their will. The motive which led to the ceremonials and customs of sacrifice, omen- reading, etc., was, on the whole, avoidance of evil ; insurance against the calamities of life, or an attempt to foresee them. Homeric religious rites represent a struggle for existence against super- natural power where force cannot be employed and where propitiation is the policy of success. There were in Homeric life various objects which, from association more or less remote with the cult, had acquired a certain sacred character. They were fetiches in the broadest sense; that is, they had 1 III, 69 ff ; 320-323 ; 439 ; 457 ff . 2 VII, 39 ff. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 167 come to be regarded with reverence as dwellings of spirits, or as in some way endowed with a bit of a spirit's personality. ■ It is easy to see that, as a god lingered about the shrine and altar, objects closely connected with these would be regarded as particu- larly holy. Implements and emblems were of such nature, and in survivals this sacredness extended still further. Fetiches had mostly to do with the dead. In life, besides his body, whatever a primitive man owned or used frequently, became invested with his personality — became himself y in a way. His " haunts " were also in a certain degree himself, and after death he was supposed to take no less an interest in them than he did in life. The Homeric Greek was not a " primitive " man ; but, like all other men, he came under the domination of a cult whose conservatism registered the past with strokes so deep that when the reason for usages was long forgotten, the usages themselves remained. First, there were a few usages which had to do with the living alone. Certain parts of the body seem to have been under a " tabu ; " and armour, sceptres, etc., were personal emblems. 1 Further, superstitions have even clung about the "name." Examples given above of the compelling power of the name show it closely connected with the personality of its bearer ; the Cyclops, seemingly, could not curse Odysseus until he had found out his name. Heroes 1 XXII, 75 ; XXIII, 147 ; xviii, 86-88 ; xxii, 475-477 ; cf. II, 261 ff ; VI, 230-231 ; VII, 304-305; I, 185-187. 168 HOMERIC SOCIETY were very anxious to have a name live after them. 1 The personality of the departed received perpetua- tion at the hearth and threshold. The hearth was the centre of the home and was presided over by the wife. It was once believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to share with the survivors the kindly warmth and family life, 2 and though in Homer this notion is never expressed, still the hearth was a sanctuary. He who, as a suppliant, took his seat by the hearth, thus placing himself under the protection of the family's ancestral gods, was free from harm. After beseeching the queen of the Phseacians, Odysseus seated himself in the ashes of the hearth, by the fire. 3 Oaths were taken by the " hospitable table and hearth," and occasion- ally the hearth was the place of sacrifice. The threshold also seems to have been a sanctuary for beggars and suppliants. 4 The tombs of the dead became, to a certain extent, invested with their authority and personality. The graves of old rulers and ancestors became land- marks, and war-councils were held about them. 5 These tombs readily became a sort of " Mai " or communal meetingplace ; sitting upon polished i ix, 355 ; 504; 530 ff; iv, 710; cf. XII, 70 ; XIII, 227. 2 iii, 234 ; vii, 248 ; xxiii, 55 ; vi, 305 ff ; Lippert, II, 144 ff. 8 vii, 153-154 ; cf. 162-165. * xiv, 158-159 ; 420 ff ; x, 62-63 ; xvii, 278-279 ; 339-340. 5 X, 415; cf. II, 604; 793; 814; XI, 166; 371-372 ; XXIV, 349; xxiv, 80-84. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 169 stones, in a sacred circle, the elders were wont to dispense judgment. Likewise the Phaeacians sat in assembly upon polished stones. 1 In a family gather- ing at Pylos, the head of the house sat upon " white stones shining with ointment," with his royal sceptre in his hand, as his father had once sat before him. 2 Caves and mountains likewise became holy, pos- sibly because connected with some ancient burial- practices ; we have seen how regularly shrines were located on the heights. 3 Animals also became holy for various reasons ; concerning dogs and fish, which " buried " men, there seem to have arisen certain religious notions. Fish were "holy," were a food for the poor, and only in need eaten by the nobles and rich. The victim slain to commemorate an oath was thrown to the fish to be eaten. 4 The dog, in Homer, as elsewhere, maintained his character of ghost-watcher ; he saw spirits when men could not see them, or could see them only with divine aid. When Athena came into the courtyard of Odysseus, only he and the dogs saw her; the dogs did not bark, but whined and fled. 5 The dog appears in the lower world as the restrainer of spirits ; the use of 1 X Vltl, 503-506 ; viii, 5-6 ; cf. vi, 267 ; Lippert, II, 148 ; 379 ff ; Letourueau, Polit., 105. 2 iii, 406-412 ; cf. Pietschmann, 166. 8 Spencer, Soc. I, ch. XV, art. llOff ; i, 15; xiii, 349-350; I, 18; 44; VII, 202; VIII, 47-48. 4 XVI, 407 ; cf. XXI, 122-127 ; 203-204 ; XIX, 268. 5 Lippert, I, 490-498; xvi, 159-163 ; the particle "ra"(162) marks this as a common or natural thing ; cf. Seymour, H. L. & V., 29. 170 HOMERIC SOCIETY " dog " as a term of shame so often, possibly points to his having once been a cult- victim, afterwards superseded. 1 The eagle of Zeus and the hawk of Apollo were probably sacred as givers of omens. Snakes had a religious importance, appearing fre- quently in omens, as, for example, the terrible ser- pent sent by Zeus, while the Greeks were sacrificing at Aulis. 2 , Holy animals were not always connected immedi- ately with the dead. Cult-introduction and selec- tion might afford this sacred character, even in the case of an animal but lately acquired. For instance, the story of the cattle of Hyperion points to cult- selection and tabu. The epithet "cow-eyed" of Hera (and, possibly, "owl-eyed" of Athena) may witness for a former class of animal-headed deities. In the case of the horse, the evidence is clearer. The horse might be endowed with prophecy, thus coming into very close relation with the god ; sacri- fice of horses indicates the great cult-import of this animal, and, as has been mentioned, the horse was not used as a work-animal, but was employed for higher purposes. 3 Besides animals, trees and plants came into the ceremonies and machinery of the cult. The oak was a tree sacred to Zeus, and a prophetic oak grew at Dodona. Such oaks became landmarks; their 1 See p. 105 above ; Lippert, I, 491 ff ; cf. 543 ft. 2 II, 300 ff ; cf. Friedreich, 473 ; Lippert, II, 403 ff. 3 xi, 108-109; xii, 262 ff; cf. Lippert, I, 573 ff; XIX, 404 ff; XXI, 132. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 171 acorns were fed to swine, and were probably an " old " food, and their tender leaves were used, in absence of barley, for purposes of sacrifice. 1 Wild fig-trees were likewise landmarks ; poplars and wil- lows grew in Persephone's grove and elsewhere in holy places. 2 Other sacred trees were the elm, planted upon graves, the plane-tree, and the date- palm, the last of which was a novelty and tended by the priests. The wild olive also may have been a sacred tree. 3 As in the case of the animals, so in that of the trees, the oldest and the newest were sacred : the oldest because once they furnished food and shelter for earlier generations ; the newest because strange varieties of trees were generally spread abroad by the tenders of the cult. It is noticeable that the wild species of trees were the favourites in the cult; while the absence of wheat and vines, the earlier gifts of the Phoenicians, is significant. The importance of the " word " has been touched upon above ; also the distinction between right and left, or lucky and unlucky. In number also there was a sort of fetichism. The regular system of counting was the decimal, but there were certain round numbers which, in all likelihood, originated in ceremonial and ritual of some kind. Nine is the most common round number; victims in sacrifice 1 xiv, 327-328 ; cf . xix, 1 63 ; V, 693 ; VI, 237 ; VII, 22 ; xii, 357- 358; Lippert, 1,580 ff. 2 VI, 433 ; xii, 103 ; 432 ff ; vi, 266 ; 291-292 ; x, 510 ; xvii, 208. 3 VI, 419-420 ; II, 307 ; vi, 162-167 ; xiii, 372. 172 HOMERIC SOCIETY were sometimes counted by nines, and nine was the number of the Muses. Three was the next most important round number, while three and nine were sometimes used together. 1 What magic the Greeks knew was chiefly con- nected with the location of supernatural power in things ; these repositories of power were, of course, another species of fetich. The Greeks knew no the- urgic magic, because there were no evil spirits of any power to be compelled, and the gods were open only to propitiation. Therefore Homeric magic took the form of direct action upon a thing's nature. 2 Such influence was generally exercised through some fetich-like object, as has been said, and through drugs. The staff or wand was an important implement of magic. By the touch of a wand, Poseidon restored the strength of the two Ajaxes. Hermes always carried a wand as compeller of the dead ; with it he could make the senses of men sluggish and cause them to sleep, and could rouse them again. When he led the dead, he waved this staff. Athena, with the stroke of a wand, changed Odysseus into an old man with ragged clothes and dim eyes; by the same means she afterward re- stored him to his natural form. 3 The girdle of Aphrodite was a sort of exuvial 1 iii, 7-8; xxiv, 60; VIII, 169-170; XXIV, 16; 454; XVI, 784-785. 2 Lehmann, I, 84; 100. 8 XIII, 59 ff; v, 47-48; 87; xxiv, 5; XXIV, 343-344; xiii, 429-433; xiv, 172-176; 456 ff. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 173 fetich, conveying all the charms of love; the tas- selled JEgis, on the other hand, inspired terror and dismay, when shaken before the eyes of the foe. Magic sandals carried a god over land and sea like the wind, and the magic veil of Ino buoyed up Odysseus amidst an angry sea. 1 The latter was to be cast back into the waves with averted face. The magic of Circe was a complete system. Her house was surrounded with wolves and lions, ren- dered tame by her drugs, which fawned upon a newcomer like dogs. To change men to animals she mixed a certain drug with their food, then struck them with her wand and ordered them to her pens ; thus the companions of Odysseus be- came swine and ate swine's food, though their minds were intact. The story runs on, telling how Odysseus, starting out to rescue his men, was met by Hermes, who described to him the methods of Circe, and gave him a " good herb " to nullify the effects of those which Circe should give him. This herb was dark of root, with a flower like milk, and was called by the gods " moly." Here is, in a modified form, a contest of a good with a bad spirit. 2 Odysseus scrupulously carried out the programme recommended by Hermes, threatening Circe with his sword, and exacting a promise that she would not deprive him of his virility, before 1 XIV, 215 ff; XV, 318 ft; v, 44-46 ; 346-350. 2 Cf . Lehmann, I, 84 f£. 174 HOMERIC SOCIETY he accepted her proffered couch. Circe recognised at once a god's interference, for her magic herbs were so strong that no man, unaided, could have resisted them. Later, in reversing the spell on the comrades of Odysseus, she drove them from the pens, wand in hand, anointed their heads with "another herb," and at once the bristles fell from their limbs, and they became men again, taller and more beautiful than before. The gifts of Circe also included prophecy and a species of necro- mancy which Odysseus learned from her, and which he practised in the gates of the spirit-world. 1 , One other spell occurs in Homer, where a flow / of blood from a wound was stopped by a magic song. Besides this, we find the transformation powers of Proteus, suggestive of the Orient, and the magical Phaeacian ships endowed with intelli- gence. 2 Gods had golden servants who possessed mind and intelligence, and certain transformations of men occur which were probably referable to the gods. The gods could in all cases bewilder the minds of men. 3 The magic of Homer, therefore, was connected y with the gods, demi-gods, or foreigners. The mir- acles of the gods were not magic to the Greeks : what one's own god does is a miracle; what a foreign god does is magic, as is shown in the story 1 x, 210 ff ; 512 ff; xi, 23 ff ; cf. Lehmann, III, 5. 2 xix, 457-458 ; iv, 455 ff ; viii, 557 ff. 8 XVIII, 417-421; IX, 563; xix, 518 ff; XII, 255; XIII, 435-438 ; etc. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 175 of Moses and the Egyptian magicians. 1 The for- eign ideas, especially if they were quite new, generally appeared under the patronage of a sub- ordinate god; foreign divinities seldom came at once to be great gods. Thus Proteus and Circe, both immortal, had to do with magic, as Hephaes- tus presided over smithery. The use of drugs also seems entirely apart from genuine Greek custom, though perhaps they were employed at oracle- shrines. It appears very evident, therefore, that magic was not a genuine Greek product. It was one of the most attractive and easily learned of foreign religious practices and dexterities, and was probably owed largely to Chaldsea through Phoenicia. The cult had direct bearings upon the social forms of its time. Its sanction extended over custom and its outgrowths, thus involving what was worked out in the line of property, marriage, govern- ment, law, etc. The relation of the religion of the time to these social forms will be taken up in its place. There were, however, several ceremonies, religious or originally religious, which dealt in a more general way with the unification of individual and tribal elements. Such was the ceremony of pledging in wine, probably a dim survival of the drinking of brotherhood in blood ; the ceremony might be accompanied by libation and good wishes. Other such divinely sanctioned contracts were oaths ; to take an oath was to " give the gods " to each 1 Lehmann, I, 13. 176 HOMERIC SOCIETY other, for they were the best guardians of agree- ments. 1 The form of oath was a calling of the gods to witness ; and a penalty was usually attached to perjury in the form of a curse, pronounced upon himself by the one taking oath. A man might swear by his head, his son, his sceptre, etc. 2 This is, then, the general form of oath between man and man ; the deities ordinarily called upon were those of the spirit-world who punished oath-breakers. The gods, in their own swearing, also called upon the older gods, especially upon the Titans, and upon the river Styx, the latter being the greatest oath possible to immortals. As the Styx was symbolic of death, and the Titans of power that had passed away, probably this oath was one which staked both power and immortality. A guest might swear by his host's hearth and hospitality, and oaths were sometimes accompanied with libation. 3 The most important social agreement calling for oaths was the conclusion of a quarrel or war: a reconciliation or a truce. Ceremonies in connec- tion with such oaths had some features peculiar to themselves. When Agamemnon and Achilles were reconciled, and the former swore that Briseis had not been violated while in his possession, the ceremony 1 IX, 224; 670-671 ; XV, 86-88; iii, 41; iv, 59; xviii, 111; 121 ff; 151; XXII, 254-255. 2 xix, 288; II, 259 £ ; VII, 411-412; I, 233 ff; III, 300-301; XXIII, 582-585. 8 XIV, 271-276; cf. XV, 36-41; v, 184-187; Naegelsbach, 40 ; xiv, 158-159 ; xix, 288. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 177 was thought important enough to be worthy of a special victim, a boar. Hairs were cut from the animal, and prayer was made to Zeus by the son of Atreus ; the rest " kept silence fittingly, listening to the king." First, he called Zeus, Earth, Sun, and the Erinyes to witness that what he had said was true, and then cursed himself if it were not so. The throat of the victim was cut, but the flesh was not burned ; it was hurled into the sea " as food for the fish." 1 No fire is mentioned ; evidently the boar symbolised in some degree the quarrel whose ill- feeling was now to be cast away and annihilated. Oath-ceremonies sometimes took on a still greater social import. The " sacred oaths " of truce were of this variety. In the oath-ceremonies preceding the great truce of the Iliad, the victims were to be three in number : from the Trojan side, two lambs, one light-coloured male for the Sun, and one dark female for the Earth. The Greeks were to furnish one for Zeus. The truce was to be concluded by Priam, as the most illustrious of the Trojans in age and honour ; an old man was needed, in so solemn an affair, who could perform or over- see the ceremony correctly, for " the minds of the youth are unstable, but the old man from his wide experience plans the best." All gathered about the kings while the heralds led in the victims and mixed wine. Water was poured over the hands of the princes, and Agamemnon, with his sacrificial 1 XIX, 250-268. 12 178 HOMERIC SOCIETY knife, cut hairs from the heads of the victims, which were distributed to all the noblest of the Greeks and Trojans. Agamemnon then prayed, lifting up his hands, to Sun, Earth, and Eivers, and to the gods of the spirit-world who were wont to punish oath-breakers, invoking them to guard the truce of which they were witnesses, and to fulfil the conditions of the ordeal-trial about to take place. The throats of the lambs were then cut with the copper knife carried always by the king, wine was drawn and distributed, and, as they poured it out upon the earth, the members of both armies cursed the truce-breaker and all his family : tc May their brains run out upon the ground as does this wine." The victims, or at least two of them, were then carried back to Ilion, probably to be buried there after the manner of the founda- tion-sacrifice. 1 The ordeal-trial which follows this ceremony played also a part in these introductory rites, being mentioned from time to time, but the ceremony is in its intention one connected with oath-taking alone. These oath- "sacrifices," taken as a whole, seem to have been really no more than prayers accom- panied by the killing of a victim to guard the sanc- tity of the agreement. Probably such a victim was originally a substitute for a human victim whose disembodied soul, it was believed, stood guard over 1 III, 260-313 (298-301 quoted). RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 179 this kind of social undertaking. 1 Symbolically all were made participants of the ceremony, the chiefs standing for the whole people ; and the use of the wine on this occasion recalls distinctly the drinking of brotherhood, first in blood, and then in substi- tutes for it. 2 The ceremony was at any rate some- thing which witnesses the decay of the narrow bond of blood-kinship and the development of a wider toleration of the outside world. The suppli- cation of the older gods in oath-taking is noticeable ; also the use of the smaller quadrupeds as victims. Besides the culture-plants and animals, the cult had given to early Greece certain knowledge and pseudo-knowledge. In the treatment of wounds and diseases these are strangely mingled. Wounds, that is, hurts that could be seen, were as a rule treated sensibly. " From many places in the Iliad it appears that the Greeks before Ilion had physi- cians who, in all cases of wounds, went to work quite rationally, in that they washed the wounds and bound them with healing herbs." 3 Arrow- wounds seem to have demanded this care most of all. The arrow was drawn or cut out, and the wound sucked or washed, after which soothing herbs were applied. 4 Of course the gods could cure any wound at once, though they had to have the heavenly physi- 1 Sumner, U. L. 2 Lippert, II, 333 ff ; 338. 8 Lehmann, I, 73. Considerable knowledge of anatomy is shown in the " war-books." See Tylor, 330. 4 IV, 190ff; V, 112 ff;" XI, 398; 844-848; XIII, 599-600; XV, 394. 180 HOMERIC SOCIETY cian cure their own ; and thunderbolt-wounds, it is said, required over ten years to heal. 1 Without divine aid, then, wounds were cured by rational means, except in one case mentioned where a spell was sung over a wound to stop the flow of blood ; and even in this case the wounded member was bound, — all was not trusted to the charm. Wine was taken as a, stimulant after being wounded. 2 But in the case of sickness, where no external cause was apparent, there was no thought of treat- ment. Here, if anywhere, an evil spirit was at work ; yet, in general, these sicknesses were regarded as ills sent by the gods, to be averted by prayer, or they were coincident with the appearance of certain stars. 3 Especially is this the case of the plague in the Greek army ; no treatment was possible or thought of. The question was, "How have we sinned against Apollo ? " The real healers of the plague were the prophet who disclosed the sin, and the appeased priest who prayed for its removal. The attack was due to arrows of the enraged god, and the malady stopped short when that god had been propitiated. 4 Sulphur was probably employed only in ceremo- nial purification. 6 Water was used freely in all cases, ceremonial or other, for the Homeric Greeks 1 V, 401-402; 899 ff; XVI, 528 ff ; VIII, 404-405. 2 xix, 456-460; XIV, 5 ; cf. Friedreich, 170. 3 v, 395-396; ix, 411-412; cf. 520-525; xi, 200-201; XXII, 26-31. 4 I, 37 £E. 5 xxii, 481 fE ; cf . XVI, 228. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 181 were extremely cleanly, as compared with many other peoples in a similar stage of civilisation. Even if their field was limited, the leeches were an honoured class, " for a man who heals is equiva- lent to many others." 1 The Greek army before Ilion possessed two physicians, both from Thessaly, and sons of the famous Asklepios. They com- manded contingents, and were not different from other men except that they knew and possessed the herbs which would quell pain. 2 It appears that the profession, as far as it was one, was hereditary ; also the art was taught by Chiron to Achilles, and in turn Achilles taught Patroclus. The herbs used may have been dried; they were crushed in the hand before being applied and the application was called " the bitter (or sharp) root." 3 The profession was, therefore, a simple one, little differentiated, but very valuable to the men of those times, whose ail- ments were commonly wounds. It is noticeable that drugs came almost entirely from Egypt or from possible Phoenician colonies. 4 The land of Egypt was blessed with many physicians ; in fact, every man was one, according to the admiring Homer. Such skill was regarded as superhuman, for all Egyptians were " of the race of Paieon." 5 None of Homer's surgeons were priests ; nor were 1 XI, 514-515. 2 II, 732; IV, 200-202; cf. XI, 518; XIII, 213; XVI, 28. 3 XI, 846. * XI, 739-741 ; iv, 229-232; cf. i, 260 ff; x, 276. 5 iv, 229-232. 182 HOMERIC SOCIETY his bards. Poetry and music went together in those days, and between poet and singer there was really no distinction. Hymns in honour of the gods and about them form all the evidence in Homer that poetry took its origin in the service of the gods. The bard, like the priest, was inspired or possessed by the god who spoke through him. 1 Songs were of various kinds: marriage and festival hymns, 2 dirges, 3 hymns of victory with chorus, 4 hymns of praise, 5 all rather short, and the songs of the "deeds of men," which were narratives of legend or history, and seem in some cases to have constituted an historical cycle, certain parts of which could be given at request, and which was ever in the process of re-forming and augmenting itself as other stirring events arose. 6 These songs were accompanied by simple stringed instruments of various kinds ; pipes also are mentioned. 7 Bards themselves were reverenced as loved by the gods ; they were regarded as important members of society along with the physician, prophet, and 1 XVIII, 569-572; viii, 266 ff ; 1, 1 ; i, 1 ; viii, 63-64; 479-481; xxii, 347-348. 2 I, 603-604; XVIII, 493-495 ; XXIV, 62-63 ; iv, 17-18 ; xvii, 270-271. 3 XXIV, 725 ff; xxiv, 60-62. 4 XXII, 391 ff; chorus, 393-394. 5 I, 472-473. 6 IX, 189 ; i, 326-327 ; 351-352; viii, 73 ; VI, 358; viii, 499 ff; xxiv, 197-198; Jebb, 75-76. ' III, 54 ; i, 153-155 ; xxi, 406-408 ; X, 13 ; XVIII, 219; 493- 495 ; 526. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 183 builder. 1 In that stage of society, where men were isolated and thrown back upon themselves to so great an extent, the bard who diverted their minds or brought them news of the outside world, could not fail of popularity. A man would everlastingly regret the slaying of a bard ; bards were retained in very rich houses, especially in those regions where one would expect Eastern influence. They were a great luxury, and the attention accorded to their song ranked as the closest. 2 A great many of these singers or poets seem to have come from the North originally, and they were in demand and honour on all occasions, even if they were dependents, as they seem generally to have been. 3 Minstrels were a skilled class, and but few who were not specialists could handle the lyre and sing ; Achilles is men- tioned as singing * the deeds of men," but it is supposable that Chiron taught him this, as well as the use of medicinal herbs. Music and song were also connected with dancing, in ceremonies such as that of the harvest-home. 4 This is the evidence of Homer as to his own pro- fession. What his bards did and were, he did and was, but on a grander scale ; he too was the mouth- piece of the Muses. Homer was, to his own and later times, history, geography, genealogy, religion, 1 xvii, 384-385 ; cf. Hi, 267 ff. 2 xxii, 345-348; i, 1 53 ff ; viii, 47 ff ; xvii, 518-520. • Seymour, note to II, 595 ; XVIII, 569-572 ; 604-606 ; i, 336 ff ; 370-371 ; iv, 17-18 ; viii, 47 ff. 4 IX, 189 ; XVI, 182-183; XVIII, 569-572 ; 604-606. 184 HOMERIC SOCIETY morals, politics, — in short, Homer was universal in his influence upon the course of Greek civilisation. 1 This would not perhaps be so wonderful in a congeries of disconnected songs ; Homer's poems beside this are great epics, having dignity of theme, dignity, continuity, and completeness of treatment ; they are as refined a piece of literature as the world has ever seen. They deal universally with the mind and heart, thoughts and passions, joy and pain of men ; there are few details indeed of the life of his times that Homer did not know. And in addition to all this, the Iliad and Odyssey exhibit the simplicity of the highest and most perfect art. 2 Before the contrast between these consummate products and the civilisation whence they sprung, however relatively advanced that might have been, the mind stands amazed. It will perhaps never be known what factors stimulated the growth of such high products of the mind and heart ; doubtless the splendid Greek mind itself, wherever that originated, and perhaps a successful war and consequent national impulse, lay somewhere at the root of this growth. But there was one negatively favourable condition of the greatest moment ; the development of the Iliad and Odyssey was not dwarfed and i I, 1; i, 1; IT, 761; XI, 218 ff ; XVI, 112; Jebb, ch. III. Homer, for his age and time, was singularly free from sacerdotal and military bias. See Amer. Jour, of Sociology, VI, 2, p. 267 ff ; Tylor (376-379) has made an admirable analysis of the scientific value of Homer's evidence as to the life of his time. 2 Cf. M. Arnold, Essays in Criticism (On Translating Homer). RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 185 narrowed and deformed by a restrictive and despotic cult. The free play of initiative, the opening of many avenues for empiric effort, the chance to try and fail and try anew ; these were the privileges of Greek art, freed as it was from a domineering and all conventionalising priesthood. Thus poetry could outgrow its narrow origin and penetrate further and further into human life ; at a time of such national prosperity and widening of horizons, incitement was needed less than freedom from restraint. A part of the pseudo-knowledge of Homer's time was developed in the form of cosmology. The earth, it was thought, rested upon the seas, so that Poseidon was the Earth-sustainer, and, in the case of seismic movements, the Earth-shaker. 1 The heaven, called " copper " and " iron " at times, was sustained upon long pillars in charge of the god Atlas. 2 Around the earth flowed the river Ocean, broad and deep, into which the sun sank at night. 3 Far in the West, across the Ocean -stream, was the gate of ithe spirit-world, leading beneath the earth. Below the abode of Hades was Tartarus, the home of the former gods, dark and gloomy, fitted with iron gates, as far beneath the home of Hades as the aven was above the earth. 4 Olympus was the h * 1 VII, 445 ; 455 ; IX, 183 ; i, 68. 2 V, 504; XVII, 425 ; iii, 2 ; xr, 329 ; xvii, 565 ; i, 52-54. 8 XVIII, 607-608 ; VIII, 485 ; XVIII, 240 ; XIX, 1-2 ; XXI, 195 ff. 4 VIII, 13-16 ; 478-481 ; XIV, 204. 186 HOMERIC SOCIETY mountain upon which the gods gathered or dwelt ; it was not the sky, but much lower than it, and not visited by the rain and snow which distressed men. 1 From what has been said above concerning the Chaldsean and Egyptian notions on cosmology, it seems very likely that the Greeks borrowed a number of these ideas. 2 Such notions were easy to acquire, coming as they did from the great Phoenician travellers, whose knowledge of the earth was believed to be so extensive and whose stories were so wonderful. With Phoenicians and their tales are probably to be associated the monsters of Homer: the Chimsera, a composite of lion, serpent, and goat, slain by the hero Bellerophon, the Gorgon's head, Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens, etc., 3 as well as the savage tribes so vaguely located about the world. v True Greek religion of Homer's time was, like all religions, an effort to escape from or lighten the burdens of life, — a phase of the struggle for self- maintenance. Starting from the belief in superior powers against which resistance was useless, this whole system of placation was worked out in its details. Given the premises, the results were en- tirely logical. There was little more than this in all the ceremonies of Homeric religion. Morals were 1 XV, 192-193 ; vi, 42-46 ; xi, 315-316. 2 Cf. De Greef, Soc, 326. 3 VI, 178-182; VIII, 349 ; XI, 36; xi, 634-635; xii, 89ffJ 167 ff; 235 ff. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND USAGES 187 quite other than religious in origin ; they were social forms which from time to time came under the strong sanctions of the cult and religion. 1 Eeligion was ritualistic and formal; no 'feeling was necessary ex- cept a fear which would lead to the prompt dis- charge of cult-obligations. Sin was but the nega- tion of fear and respect for the gods, which found its expression in disobedience and neglect. 2 There was no remorse over sin, and no regret except in the fact that evil consequences had been borne which could have been averted. The heavy burden of the cult was supported, because it was better to endure a lesser evil constantly than to be ever exposed to the chance of utter loss and ruin. These fundamental ideas of the Homeric religious system were subject to but few modifications. The most elevated of. these rationalistic developments was the conception ' of Fate, inexorable, and con- sequently to be born with manful Kesignation. After all had been done to insure one's safety against mischance, it would yet inevitably come in the shape of death or misery. It is the stout- heartedness with which such evil was met that is one of the noblest legacies of Homer to later and more shrinking ages. Greek comfort was cold and afforded no consoling promises of future reparation 1 Lippert, I, 28 ; Letourneau, Morale, 446 ff ; De Greef, Soc, 177 fE; Gumplowicz, Soc, IV, art. 8; Rassk., 137-154; Starcke, Sarav., 43-66. • 2 Cf. xiii, 200-202; XXIII, 589 ff; XXIV, 157-158; 569- 570 ; i, 32 ff ; iv, 380 ff ; xiii, 213-214 ; xiv, 405-406. 188 HOMERIC SOCIETY for present pain and suffering. It merely urged one to submit himself to the great processes of Nature and, with the dignity of a man, to endure. " Bear up, my soul ! ere this thou hast endured more grievous ill." 1 !xx, 18; cf. IV, 320-321; V, 382 ff ; XXIV, 49; 550-551; i, 354-355 ; v, 221-224 ; vi, 190. CHAPTEK IV PROPERTY IN" dealing with the industrial organisation and with religion, one is brought into contact with the direct action and reaction between man and his real or imaginary environment; the struggle for self-maintenance is, as it were, in its lowest terms. The development of industry means the subjugation of physical environment, while that of religion has to do with insurance against the aleatory element of life, personified in the higher powers. It is primarily upon the economic or industrial basis of society that those secondary social structures are founded, which deal not so much with nature itself, as with the products and developments of the eco- nomic system upon which they depend. These sec- ondary social forms are property, marriage, morals, government, etc. Religion moulds these forms chiefly in its function of sanction of the mores. The prop- erty-system — a complex of ideas and regulations as to how accumulated power in the struggle for self- maintenance is to be distributed^ is perhaps the most direct outgrowth of the economic organisation ; and yet its form is due to a multiplicity of causes. While property-ideas affect ideas of government, 190 HOMERIC SOCIETY forms of marriage, etc., they are in turn subject to reciprocal modification. 1 Therefore, in treating Homeric ideas about property, it will be necessary to anticipate now and then what is later to be said of the state, classes, and justice. In general, what a man could get and hold was his property; the strong hand was the one great guarantee in an age of violence. Booty-warfare was the chief method of acquiring treasure in metals, live-stock, and other forms of wealth, and only vigilance in defence preserved what had been gained. The very old and the very young, unless surrounded by supporters, found great difficulty in preserving the integrity of their possessions. An infringement of a property-right was a matter whose settlement lay almost entirely between man and man, unless some form of greater social import had been violated. 2 Movable property in Homer may be dismissed with a few words. From what has been said con- cerning cattle-raising and commerce, we know that Homeric wealth consisted largely in the possession of live-stock or of metals and metallic products. Important men had large flocks and herds and a treasure of metal in various forms ; with these and with grain they procured what the foreigner had to sell, and among other wares, slaves. Property in persons, to the Homeric Greek, was as 1 Cf. Letourneau, Prop., 22-23. ■ See pp. 288 ff below. PROPERTY 191 rational as property in things ; and, in so far as he was able, each householder provided himself with slaves. Slaves in Greece and among the Greeks were invariably from foreign parts and were mostly women and children. Men were spared and taken prisoners in war, not for the sake of their services as workers, but for their ransom or for their price when sold to foreigners.. The patriarchate, exist- ing in Greece under conditions unfavourable to its stability, could not trust itself to rob numbers of grown men of their will and hold them to obedi- ence. Male slaves were bought when young and trained to acquiescence and fidelity ; l that no up- rising of slaves is chronicled during the Trojan war and the long absence of the chieftains, wit- nesses to the fact that male slaves were few and faithful. 2 The system of slaveholding was a kindly one, where master and man were brought closely to- gether, even at the same table ; and where the female slaves spun and wove under the direct supervision and actual example of the mistress of the house. None the less the slave was mere property; there was no avenger of his blood, and therefore the mas- ter held undisputed power of life and death. That the slave, even though he might become his master's friend and hold property under his master's will, was merely a chattel at the last analysis, is proved 1 IX, 593-594 ; xv, 403 ff ; cf. Lippert, II, 116. « Cf. xiv, 3 ff : 524 ff. 192 HOMERIC SOCIETY by the infliction of terrible punishments and death for unfaithfulness. 1 The question as to property in land, in Homer, is one which has been answered in opposite ways ; some writers are convinced that communal land- tenure and the " open-field " system are clearly indicated, 2 while others regard such views as the result of an attempt to apply universally certain fixed rules of property-development. 3 The latter con- tention has been rendered entirely justifiable by those who have attempted, in the ardour of discovery and enthusiasm, to fit all the facts to the Procrustean bed of systematic classification. It is useless to try to force a single meaning into a passage susceptible of various interpretations ; and unfortunately, the pas- sages upon which opinions diverge most are isolated ones, occurring in similes and fragmentary descrip- tions. 4 Under such conditions the formulation of theories or the attempt rigorously to classify, can be little more than an intellectual exercise. Apparently the best service of the investigator is to set down the evidence as it exists ; it will then be found that the picture of the Homeric system of prop- erty-holding in land is consistent and natural 1 xxiv, 394 ff ; VI, 490 ff ; etc. ; xxii, 465-477. 2 Cf. Leaf, 176; 366; Letourneau, Prop., 240-244; Ridgeway also (p. 678) seems to stand for the "primitive, common-field system." 8 Poehlmann, Fg. bei Hm, 105 ff. * XI, 67 ff; XII, 421 ff; XVIII, 541 ff ; XXI, 405; XXII, 489. PROPERTY 193 enough, even though it cannot he forced into any fixed category. Plots of plough-land, we find, were marked off by boundary-stones, and these boundaries were the sub- jects of hot disputes. In one case, two men are represented as quarrelling over their boundaries, measuring-rods in hand, each striving for an equal share in a small strip. 1 They are said to be in the " common plough-land," whatever that may be. Several measures of land are used which might re- mind one of communal conditions. 2 This is about all the evidence available from the common life of the people ; it is only through a study of the property of the gods and kings that one can arrive at a more definite view of property-holding in Homer's time. It has been mentioned that there was set apart for the god a piece of land about the temple, called a temenos ; 3 this, being under the tabu, was one of the first forms of private property. In Homer the temenos is also a royal possession ; 4 the king and the god were the first holders of private property in 1 XII, 421-423. 2 For instance, the "mules* range" (X, 351 ; viii, 124) or fur row's length ("pelethron ") ; the " point at which the team, having fiuished the furrow, turns " (Autenreith, 242 ; sub "ouron ") ; also the " gyon " (from word for the " curved piece of wood on a plough"), the "tetragyon" (xviii, 374) being "what a strong ploughman with strong oxen can do in a day." Buchholz, II, pt. 1, 96. 8 From temnein = to cut. * XII, 313-314; vi, 293-294; xi, 185; cf. XXI, 36; Leaf, 222. 13 194 HOMERIC SOCIETY land, and there are no clear cases of the temenos be- ing connected with other possessors than these. This piece of ground was regularly given to the king by the people ; where it was given by them to an- other, it conveyed royalty with it, or was a symbol of the bestowal of royal power. Thus, Bellerophon won great glory among the Lycians; he married the king's daughter, received half the honour of the kingship, and a fine temenos. Meleager was besought to defend Caledon, and the citizens empowered him to choose a temenos from the richest land they pos- sessed ; iEneas for defending Ilion might expect a temenos from the Trojans. Thus, the temenos was a public gift for protection, and the givers com- mended their lives and property to its possessor. This land then descended from father to son in the royal family. 1 If this tract of land was to advantage the king at all, he must have at his disposal certain working- forces. Male slaves were uncommon, and wage- earners few ; yet in the king's field there were many ploughmen and harvesters, and it was never neglected. It seems very likely that the people owed certain services to the protecting lord. In one place in Homer there is a picture of plough- ing in a " triply-ploughed " field ; many ploughmen drove their teams back and forth, and were met at the furrow's end by an overseer who gave to each a cup of sweet wine ; thus they hastened to reach the furrow's 1 VI, 194-195; IX, 577-580; XX, 184-185; xi, 184-186. PROPERTY 195 end. 1 There is another picture of the temenos, deep with grain. Mowers plied their sickles, binders fol- lowed, and boys gleaned close behind. Among the workers stood the king, bearing the symbol of his office ; while heralds, the king's special functionaries, 2 slew an ox under an oak-tree, and women prepared a feast for the labourers. Such scenes, with a like one occurring in the vintage-time, 3 remind one of mediaeval customs ; but, though there is nothing to prove that they do not refer to communal crop- gathering, they are most simply explained as de- scriptions of the king's demesne and prerogatives. The king's reciprocal duties included an ever-open hospitality. 4 Other miscellaneous facts concerning the king's landed possessions are the following : they were enclosed by a hedge or some similar barrier, 5 which is not often the case elsewhere ; a king might acquire land of his own, in no way connected with public gift, as Laertes had a farm " far from the town," which he had come to possess through his own exertions. The temenos went to Odysseus when his father retired from the rule, and the latter lived alone upon his own farm. Odysseus, in his absence, turned over his estate to a faithful follower, who was to guard it under the aged father's supervision ; 1 XVIII, 541-547. 2 See p. 274 below. 3 XVIII, 550-560 ; 561-572 ; cf. XI, 67-69. 4 IX, 73; xi, 184-186. 5 XVIII, 564 ; vii, 112 ff; xxiv, 224 ; cf. XT, 558 ff. 196 HOMERIC SOCIETY but during the minority of Telemachus it was wasted lawlessly. 1 An old king had ever to fear the en- croachments of his neighbours, and faithfulness to an absent ruler might be imputed to venal motives. 2 A king appears to have held his temenos and office in undisputed right as long as he was really the most powerful man in the state ; when he was no longer that, revolution became in a measure justified. Doubtless the common people held their houses and the land immediately surrounding them in private possession, the quasi-feudal system extending merely to the agricultural operations and lands. Thus, followers of Odysseus had an oikos ; even the slave might have house and wife and hold other slaves under the master or by his gift. 3 The customs as to inheritance throw some light upon conditions of property-holding. Nowhere is it made clearer that the age was one of violence than in what is said concerning inheritance. The danger to the old man who no longer possessed the "strong hand" has been mentioned; and the story of Telemachus witnesses to the difficulties of a young king's son in establishing his rights. The 1 i, 189-193; xxiv, 206-207; cf. Leaf, 176; ii, 226-227; 312 ff. There seems to be no ground whatever for Lippert's view (I, 240) concerning the retirement of old Laertes to the "winter-house." This is merely a striking example of neglect of context, — a fault into which even experienced scientists, working in so broad a field, are likely to fall. 2 XXIV, 483-489; xi, 494-503; ii, 186. 8 xiv, 62-67 ; 449-452; xxi, 213-216. PROPERTY 197 boundary-stones might be torn up from an orphan's fields; there is nothing however to indicate that this refers to his share of the common field. 1 Inheritance among the common people is. not mentioned. Nowhere was primogeniture estab-; lished, though the oldest son enjoyed a pre-eminence that points toward the system. Property was divided by lot among the legitimate children ; Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades thus partitioned the universe, though this latter case perhaps comes under political succession. 2 The story of Telemachus, who was, unfortunately for a good view of inheritance- customs, an only son, may cast more light upon the system of property-holding and the relation of the king to it. Telemachus was left a mere infant when his father departed on the Trojan Expedition, the estate being in charge of a comes of Odysseus under the direction of the wife and aged father. At the opening of the Odyssey, Telemachus must be conceived of as "just coming of age." For four years the house had been infested by a host of suitors for his mother's hand, who paid no atten- tion to the boy, but, seemingly under the pretext of making use of the royal hospitality, laid waste the estate and its products. In the course of the Odyssey the boy grows from tearful protest to the tearless wrath of a man who will rule his own; 1 XXII, 489 ; cf. Leaf, 366. 2 xiv, 208-210; XV, 187 ff; cf. XIII, 354-355. 198 HOMERIC SOCIETY nevertheless, because he had no brothers or other supporters, 1 because the strong hand, which the people feared and upheld, was absent, he can do little but threaten. " Many woes has the son of an absent father in his halls — one to whom there are given no others as helpers." 2 The lawlessness of the period and the lack of guarantees other than forceful ones are shown by the attempt of the Suitors to kill the heir and divide the property among themselves. The return of Odysseus restored the strong hand and the Suitors fell. Thus the guarantee of Homeric property was force alone ; though the gods reprehended and punished such deeds of violence, their sanction seemed to weigh little with the people at large. 3 It remains to notice one peculiar case of property- rights. We find a man of Ithaca who kept his horses and mules in Elis, since Ithaca was too rocky to afford good pasturage ; so Odysseus had flocks on the mainland which were watched over by his own servants and by xeinoi* This is probably a mere question of pasturing privileges; it is entirely un- likely that Ithacans could own property in the do- mains of another tribe ; yet apparently, even in the case of Odysseus, the xeinoi were not subjects. At any rate it is wonderful to find such extended i ii, 81 ; xvii, 490-491 ; iv, 164-167 ; xvi, 115 ff. 2 iv, 164-165. » ii, 332-336 ; iv, 669 ff ; ii, 64 ff. * iv, 635-637; cf. 601 ff; xiv, 100-102. PROPERTY 199 guarantees and mutual trust in such an age of tribal strifes. If the Greeks were originally a body of nomads from the East, their ideas of property in land must have been, in common with those of all such wanderers, extremely vague and undeveloped, and connected chiefly with the usufruct of vast stretches of ground for grazing purposes. In Greece, owing to the physical character of the country, some at- tempt at delimitation of areas must have been im- posed. With the development of agriculture, and especially of vine and tree-culture, interest in the continuity of possession of certain stretches of soil must have arisen. Later, with the development of commerce and of communication with more ad- vanced nations, it is only natural that earlier and cruder conceptions should have given way, and that a system of land delimitation and tenure should have been evolved, which, in a new country and among a conquered population, would tend at first to approach a feudal type. The social system of Homer has been found to be in many ways a tran- sitional one, and so it appears to be here. Without attempting any special classification of the Homeric property-system, it may be regarded, as far as the question of land-tenure is concerned, as approach- ing, through a quasi-feudal system, the stage of private holdings. CHAPTEE V MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY MAEETAGE, in early times a form of property- holding, strikes its roots deep down into the economic basis of society. Whatever may be said concerning the influence of sex-disproportion, re- ligion, etc., upon marriage-forms, still it is primarily under varying economic conditions that the different phases of marriage as a permanent relation arise and decline. As marriage in its origin was a combina- tion for the purpose of better prosecuting the struggle for self-maintenance, so throughout its history its forms have been dependent upon the economic efficiency of its contracting parties. 1 In its development marriage is very closely con- nected with property ; in many of its forms it be- comes a mere property-relation, and through all its phases it is accompanied and sanctioned by such relations. Until comparatively recent times mar- riage was not truly marriage unless, along with the performance of ceremonies, property passed be- tween certain of the contracting parties. These property-relations are in clear evidence with Homer ; a study of Homeric marriage reveals their presence i Sumner, U. L. ; Lippert, II, 27 ff ; 81 ff. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 201 and effective influence upon all the phases of its development. There is in Homer no trace of promiscuity, nor do there appear, even in the cult, any survivals of the so-called promiscuous state, i. e., hetairism in any of its forms, the " casa das tintas," courtesan- honor, wife-lending, or the like. 1 In the ceremonies of marriage there is no echo of group-marriage, or of the forcible abduction of the bride, or of the bride's or mother's resistance. There is no remote trace of polyandry, no prostitution, none of those sexual excesses so common among early mankind. There are no marriages of trial or term, — in short, there are none of the characteristics of a primitive or tentative system. Under the prevalent father- rule, marriage had become an institution of a set- tled and consistent patriarchal type. If the patriarchate was weak in some respects, it was the weakness of decline, not of early growth ; the field is a priori far from promising to the searcher after survivals of the mother-family and the female line of descent. Instances which afford the most satis- factory evidence along these lines are for the most part disconnected from the contemporary Greek life of the age. In view, however, of the interest which centres about the matriarchate and its survivals, no evidence should be neglected which can reasonably be marshalled under established or plausible socio- logical categories. Some of this evidence, it will be 1 Cf. Lippert, II, 1 flf. 202 HOMERIC SOCIETY seen, is simply cumulative, referring, as it does, to the Phoenician people; other instances witness strongly to the importance of the female line of descent among the Greeks themselves. Naturally these long-past conditions might be expected to appear most clearly in the conservative cult and its machinery of gods and ceremonies. We find, in the first place, a bit of myth common to many savage tribes and regarded as symbolic of the transition from the mother-rule to that of the father; the malignant divinities were largely female. 1 This is more noticeable in the lesser deities and personified powers, that portion of the divine society most likely to hold obsolescent and exotic products. Such evil powers were Ate, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, Circe, Calypso, the Chimsera, the Fates of Death, and the Erinyes. Of these, the Erinyes present the extreme type. They avenged the wrongs of women and of the older, 2 and busied themselves especially in punish- ing oath-breakers. 3 Ate was the oldest daughter of Zeus, and other daimons of this variety had a thinkable origin; the Erinyes were miuistrants of Erebus and are always surrounded with darkness and gloom. They were such symbolic beings as would have upheld the existing order in the last 1 Cf. Lippert, II, 76 ; 260. 2 Women: IX, 566 ff; XXI, 412-414; ii, 134-136; xi, 279- 280 ; older : IX, 454 ff ; XV, 204 ; cf. xvii, 475 ; other cases . XIX, 87-88 ; 418 ; xv, 233-234 ; xx, 78. 8 XIX, 259-260; for Kir, see Tylor, 395. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 203 days of the metrocracy. 1 In the spirit-world where these evil female powers resided, there existed the rule of a woman. Hades was a figure of little im- portance though he was something more than a place ; 2 it was Persephone who exercised sway over the dead and from whom terrors came. 3 The older stratum of gods also has its interest in a question of this kind. To Lippert, the Titans and their mother are significant figures ; this mother was Ge or Gaia, the Earth-mother. 4 She was con- nected with the soil, grains, and agriculture, and so suggests the woman's function in primitive life, whereby she for a time maintained her supremacy- The contest of the new patriarchal order with the old order is typical. " In contest with the sons of the Mother, the Titans, a new race of gods, win the mastery in the Hellenic world ; the sons plunge into the abyss, but for the Mother there is reserved, even in the new kingdom of the younger gods, an honourable place. The Father of gods and men, however, remains the ruler." 5 The battles of the 1 The Orestes tale is not told by Homer in the manner of the tragedians ; it throws all its weight for the patriarchate pure and simple. No mention is made of extended persecutions by the Erinyes, and the conduct of the avenger of his father is fully up- held; the Orestes story, in its later form, is a classic instance of transition from matriarchate to patriarchate, but Homer does not know it as such, i, 298 ; iii, 255 ff ; Lippert, II, 516. 2 Seymour, Iliad, note to I, 3. 3 xi, 213; 217 ; 226; 385-386; 634-635; cf. x, 494-495; Glad- stone, J. M., 311-312. 4 Cf. Demeter (Ge Meter). 5 Lippert, II, 76. 204 HOMERIC SOCIETY ancient heroes were revolutions against the old order, and it was the heroes of former generations who waged wars against such strange tribal sur- vivals as the Amazons and club-fighters. 1 The Amazons are not without special interest here 5 they come into action only in the third epic of the Trojan cycle, but are mentioned several times in the Iliad, where they are assigned to the East and are called " opposers of men." They were to Homer creatures of the past, and their destruction was at the hands of conspicuous patriarchs. Their con- querors were "rich in horses" and of a typical nomad stamp in many ways; one of them is accredited with the destruction of the Chimsera. 2 Ee turning to the gods, we find Hera full of dis- quiet under the rule of Zeus, and always over- interested in his methods of ordering the universe. It is significant to find the Phoenician-appearing Hephaestus abetting her. The story can scarcely be a mere dramatic device or type, for Homer deals in such wares but seldom. The eternal quarrel of Oceanus, the source of all, and Mother Tethys deserves mention here, as do also the scruples of Zeus in offending the ancient goddess of Night. 3 Again, incest with a mother was regarded as a fearful crime; while Zeus and Hera and the sons 1 III, 184ff; VI, 186; VII, 138-145. ' 2 Jebb, 153; III, 184ff; VI, 186; cf. Starcke, P. F., 250 for another view ; II, 813-814 ; VI, 183. 8 IV, 58-61 ; VIII, 205-207 ; XV, 49 ff ; 104 ff ; XXI, 512-513 ; XXIV, 65 ; I, 590; XIV, 246; 259-261 ; 301 ft. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 205 and daughters of ^Eolus present prosperous pictures of fraternal incest. Counting iEolus as a god, it can be said that fraternal incest was confined to divinities, as were many other objectionable prac- tices ; counting him as a man, he belongs to the ranks of the foreigners (Phoenicians) and so to the matriarchal organisation ; and besides, he lived in isolation. Alcinous and Arete were uncle and niece ; and several cases of a like close relationship in marriage, among genuine Greeks, occur. 1 All are unreproved except the CEdipus union. It must be admitted, however, that incest-regulations lend themselves only very reluctantly to classification. 2 In the palace of Alcinous, the figure of Arete, his niece and wife, stands out with a special dignity. She and Alcinous were descended from the king of the Gigantes, and she received special honour from her husband in an apparently monogamous union. The people looked upon her as upon a goddess, and, singularly enough, she "resolved the quarrels of men." Odysseus was to supplicate her, and if he could win her favour, his case was not hopeless. 3 She stood in a remarkably privileged position as mistress of the house, and she it was who bade the Phseacian people prepare gifts for her guest-friend i IV, 58 ff ; XIV, 296 ; x, 7 ; cf. viii, 267 ff ; x, 1 ff ; vii, 63 ff ; V, 412ff;XI, 225 ff. 2 Sumner, U. L. 8 vii, 59-77 passim ; the influence of the caesura in 75 supports the particle in strengthening the preceding word ; cf. Seymour, H. L. & V., art. 40. 206 HOMERIC SOCIETY at his departure ; to her Odysseus handed the pledg- ing-cup at farewell. 1 She seems to have had great power among the people, which no regular Greek king's wife possessed. Beyond these more sustained illustrations, the re- maining evidence implying the public importance of women is fragmentary. In one case we find old women as ministrants in sacrifice, presided over by a married priestess. A beggar child is mentioned who was named by his mother, an exceptional occur- rence in Homers time, though probably of little significance. The proverb " No one knows his own birth " 2 may point to an uncertainty of fatherhood which would be somewhat remarkable under the patriarchate. Further, there is a passage where Lycaon is represented as entreating Achilles for mercy on the ground that he is not the uterine brother of Hector. Inasmuch as this is a case of blood-revenge, where vengeance falls first upon those closest akin to Hector, the slayer, a brother by the same mother is evidently regarded as the closest fraternal relation. It is elsewhere stated that a son or brother-by-the-same-mother is the dearest of one's relations. 3 In the case of Lycaon, it must be remembered that we are dealing with conditions of polygamy in the house of Priam, where the importance of the male line of descent could not be questioned ; hence this evidence does l xi, 338 ff; xiii, 57 ff ; cf. xv, 147-150. 3 VI, 287 ; 297 ff ; xviii, 5 ; i, 216. 3 XXI, 95 ; XXIV, 46-47. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 207 not go to prove the superiority of the female line. But the passage does emphasise the importance of the female line of descent, and in so far, at least, witnesses to a survival of pre-patriarchal ideas. There are no artificial methods of insisting upon the male line, unless the implied birth of Athena from Zeus alone may be taken that way. 1 These are the few instances which point to the importance of women and the female line of descent. Since they occur mostly of the gods or foreigners, it is certain that Greek ideas of the matriarchate must have been exotic or derived from the remote past. Facts of state-organisation — e.g., the preva- lence of wars for booty and revenge, as contrasted with the so-called organisation-wars, — witness rather to the latter stages of the patriarchate, when power had not yet passed definitely into the hands of the state. 2 If indications of the matriarchate are thus rare, the prevalent patriarchate must be the real moulding force of Homeric" marriage forms. Both of these systems are entirely dependent upon economic con- ditions. The patriarchate arises where the economic effectiveness of man is relatively superior to that of woman ; and woman's contribution in the combined struggle for self-maintenance becomes unimportant and negligible when once man has attained to 1 V, 880. 2 Lippert, II, 75 ; 554 ; for Matriarchate and Patriarchate, id. II, chs. 1-3 ; 12-13. 208 HOMERIC SOCIETY the domestication of cattle, especially of the larger quadrupeds. 1 This point of advance had been long passed in Homer's time ; cattle were wealth and money-of-account, and the regime of cattle-raising was still dominant. Besides this, slavery, especially of women, had so far entered the social organisation that the wife's economic function of food-producer was at an end. 2 Hence the domination of man was an established fact, a custom of such long stand- ing that women had learned to submit themselves almost instinctively to its demands. The nomad-patriarchate of the tribes which set- tled Greece, however, was shaken by new condi- tions imposed ; the nature of the country, and forced sedentary habits, gradually crumbled away the struc- tures which were built upon the family ; and, in addition, contact with a higher civilisation had its disintegrating effect. The tribal elements which possessed Greek soil quickly amalgamated, each carrying into the union its quota of ideas and cus- toms. Preliminarily, therefore, one might regard the patriarchate of Homer as supported by the economic organisation and by ancestral tradition, but modified in various ways from its purest form. The distinctive features of this patriarchate will appear in discussing Homeric marriage-customs. The relations of man and woman before marriage were quite free from Oriental restrictions. Maiden and man chatted together, and Nausicaa went off 1 Lippert, II, 36 ; cf. 30. 2 Cf. I, 31 ; xx, 105 ff ; etc. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 209 alone with her maidens, we read, to wash the clothes. Youths and maidens danced together in the vintage-ceremonies, and the daughters of the house met freely with young men who visited their fathers. 1 Nevertheless, as is usual under the patriarchate, strict chastity was demanded of the unmarried woman ; Kausicaa feared evil report if the strange Odysseus should accompany her through the city, and frankly told him that the people would suspect what would be a "shame" to her. 2 Exceptions to this custom of demanding chastity recall familiar ethnographical instances ; relations with a god were far from decreasing the value of a woman. 3 The feeling of shame, as the above instance of Nausicaa shows, was not merely a question of or- nament and its lack; a sense of shame is found elsewhere in its modern type. 4 It was a "shame" for even a married woman to go alone into the presence of men in her own house, though to have two maids with her removed her scruples ; 5 in this case we are in the presence of a patriarchal re- striction, as with the imposition of chastity. A sort of tabu on certain parts of the body may have 1 XXII, 126 ff ; vi, 71 ff; XVIII, 567 ff; 593 ff. 2 vi, 15-19; 109; 276 ff. 3 II, 514 ; XVI, 180 ff ; xi, 235-259. * XIV, 333 ff ; viii, 332 ff ; vi, 136 ff ; diffidence in the latter case may have been due to general appearance (cf. vi, 137), as the feeling is exceptional. 6 xviii, 184 ff. 14 210 HOMERIC SOCIETY been at the root of some of these ideas concerning shame. 1 On the other hand, however, the young women of the households bathed and anointed the young men who were the guests of the house, 2 and one is led to believe that, in the majority of instances, modesty was formal and traditional, founded upon patriarchal restrictions and not yet instinctive. Freedom of expression between the sexes points the same way ; there was little or nothing to con- ceal. Indeed, methods of sexual attraction were most successful when novelties of ornament or dress stimulated the imagination ; a fact abundantly paralleled in ethnography. 3 Beauty and accomplishments in the duties of the house-wife, in woman, and beauty and courage in man, offered mutual attractions between the sexes ; 4 they were desirable in marriage, partly, we sus- pect, for the sake of fine offspring, for hereditary qualities were clearly recognised among men (where regularly the father's part was emphasised) as well as among animals. 5 The desire for children was a great spur to marriage, for dynastic and other reasons. It should be noted here that in the con- 1 Cf. p. 167 above. 2 V, 905 ; iii, 464-468 ; iv, 49 ff ; 252-253. 8 vi, 275 ff ; XIV, 181 ff ; xvi, 416; xviii, 210; Lippert, I, 65: 375 ; 434 ff. * IX, 389; xi, 282; cf. Ill, 156 ff ; 400 ff ; 428 ff ; XIII, 431- 433 ; xviii, 246-249; vi, 244; viii, 310; cf. Westermarck, 157 ff. 6 IV, 400; V, 635; 800 ff (cf. 892); VI, 211; iv, 142-150; xix, 395-398 ; animals : V, 268 ff. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 211 sideration of marriage and the family, from first to last, a distinction must be constantly and sharply drawn between the feelings and customs connected with the chief wife and those having to do with women whose personality did not enter into economic or dynastic calculations. The im- portance of such calculations is paramount in Homer. 1 Concerning the marriage-age we can only guess. The young Nausicaa was nearing her marriage, and we are given to understand that the ceremony took place in the bloom of life. 2 In general, the conditions before marriage were pure and natural. Before young men and maidens stood an alluring ideal of domestic happiness. Celi- bacy was not encouraged, and marriage was longed for as the best thing on earth. The memories of youth and love were dearly cherished, and young men seem to have been singularly free from base passion, which had no part in a well-ordered life. 3 The young looked forward to marriage with whole- some and healthy mind ; even if economic motives were involved, that was chiefly the business of the elders. Passion and flagrant departures from patri- archal norms occurred almost exclusively among the gods, with whom men ever compare favourably, according to our later notions. 1 Cf. xi, 178 ; xviii, 266-270; xix, 525 ff. 2 vi, 25 ff; xx, 74; I, 114. 8 vi, 182 ff ; xv, 126 ; XV, 39 ff ; 47 ; V, 349 ; VI, 161-162 ; IX, 451 ff. 212 HOMERIC SOCIETY The preliminaries of marriage, like the injunc- tions upon the unmarried, were of a distinct patri- archal type. We are called upon to distinguish between the maiden and widow, and between the chief wife and the inferior " wives," in point of preliminary arrangements leading to marriage. The characteristic feature of Homeric marriage-prelimi- naries, in perfect consonance with the patriarchal mode, is wife-purchase. 1 " Women," i. e., concu- bines, had values set upon them, were given as prizes and bought like cattle ; 2 they were mere slaves and treated as such. A wife, on the other hand, was regularly sought with gifts, that is, was bought in a more formal and distinctive way. 3 Gifts in the case of the (supposed) widow Penelope were presented to the woman herself before she made any decision ; they were apparently turned over later to the possession of her husband's house. 4 A wife was called poly dor os, and maidens were " those who bring cattle." 5 These " gifts " to the bride's father and family were usually cattle, and the woman went to the highest bidder. A preliminary meeting of the man- aging parties, for the sake of bargaining and set- tling terms, is indicated. Payment was sometimes 1 Cf. Westermarck, 396 ; 405-406. 2 XXIII, 703 ff; 1,481; etc. 8 XVI, 178; 190; XVIII, 593; XXII, 472; vi, 159; xv, 367; xviii, 275 ff ; xix, 529 ; xxi, 161 ; and ref. below. * xviii, 290 ff; cf xi, 117; xiii, 378; xviii, 281-283. 6 VI, 394 ; XXII, 88 ; xxiv, 294 ; cf. VI, 246 ; i, 36. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 213 made in part and promised in part, and in one case where the bride's father retained a child, some idea of payment may have been in question. 1 Wives were sometimes given to brave men as a reward for services rendered, which is merely another way of saying that the price was commuted for services, — a thing likely to be common in those warlike times. This service might be performed by one man for another's sake. 2 Wherever there were gifts offered with the bride, some idea of recompense was im- plied; sometimes this was done for the sake of good connections. 3 There is absolutely no dower as such in Homer, nor more than the beginning of return-gifts to the bride ; occasionally she got a per- sonal gift of a slave, and sometimes richer gifts, which were apparently hers and her children's, — they were not given to the groom. 4 In Homer the distinction between wife and concubine is, in general, that one is honourably bought and the other cap- tured ; at all events, the wife was bought and taken possession of with ceremonies. 'VEpithets of women indicating that they were worth many cattle were honourable; being bought, in Homer, was about as important to the wife as it was later to be en- 1 XI, 244 ; XVIII, 593; xviii, 278 ff; xxi, 160-162; cf. xv, 16 fl ; xvi, 392; XIII, 379-382 ; cf. 365-369 ; XI, 244 ; 223 ff. 2 XIII, 365-369 ; XIV, 268; (cf. xiv, 211-213; xxi, 214); VI, 192 ; IX, 120 ff ; xi, 287 ff ; xv, 231-238. 3 IX, 120 ff; 157; vii, 313-314; xiv, 211-213. * iv, 735-736 ; xxiii, 228 ; cf. Westermarck, 405-406 j XXII, 49 ff. 214 HOMERIC SOCIETY dowered. 1 How strictly the woman was regarded as property, and to how great an extent property- considerations entered into marriage, are again em- phasised ; also we learn that in a case of adultery the sale was void, and the article and price mutually returnable. 2 The father's power was very great; to him the daughter belonged, and he promised and married her with no thought of her own feeling in the matter' The same power extended to a certain degree over the widowed daughter. Like the Hebrew patri- arch, the father often picked out a wife for his son with the son's material welfare in mind. 3 Pos- sibly the girl was expected to perform some last act of service for the ancestral house before her mar- riage and in preparation for it, and the widow took pains before re-marriage to at least assure her hus- band's father of proper burial 4 Marriage of slaves seems to have been at the master's will. 5 Marriage was not strictly exogamous with respect to gens, though it tended toward that form ; some unions were contracted between parties living at great distances from each other, according to the distance-standards of those days. In the case of Nausicaa, the people of her country would seem to have resented the idea of her marrying a foreigner. i I, 111 ff ; IX, 340-343 ; Westermarck, 415. 2 viii, 317-318. 3 VI, 192; IX, 144 ff; iv, 5-7; cf . XIX, 295-299; xv, 16-21; IX, 394; iv, 10. * vi, 25 ff; xix, 141 ff. 6 xiv, 62-63; xxi, 214. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 215 Marriages were, of course, bonds of political union between kings. 1 Several points regarding the re-marriage of a widow have already beeu touched upon. The status of a married woman and a mother had more of dig- nity than that of a simple maiden, and the question of re-marriage will be better understood after con- sidering the position of the wife in the household. Preliminarily it may be said that her freedom of choice appears greater, although her son could give her away on his accession to the headship of the house. 2 The most interesting point concerning the widow's re-marriage is the apparently continued influence of her father and brothers. Telemachus, driven to despair, declared that he would give rich gifts with his mother, if she would marry ; this was just what the lawless Suitors wished, for all they feared was that Penelope should be sent back to her father, Icarius, in which case gifts would be required from the groom in goodly number, and she would go to the highest bidder. 3 The normal case is, probably, that the widow should re-marry from her former husband's house, 4 and that that house should receive the gifts or purchase-money. This is in better accord with a patriarchal system, — at any rate, the sending back of Penelope to her 1 VIII, 304; XI, 221 ff ; iv, % ff ; 797-798; vi, 282-284; VI, 168 ff; XIII, 173-176. 2 ii, 223. 8 i, 275-278; ii, 52-54 ; cf. 113-114; 195-197; xv, 16ff. * xviii, 269-270 ; xix, 528-529. 216 HOMERIC SOCIETY father was not a marriage preliminary. It had nothing whatever to do with her re-marriage in it- self, but was a last measure for ridding the estate of its parasites, and was an evident disgrace to the wife, — a sort of repudiation which could call down her curses and cause her family to impose a fine. The bow-trial was an attendant feature in the case of Penelope, recalling past customs by which the strongest in a contest won the bride. 1 Such were the conditions and preliminaries of marriage ; for the most part variations of a contract of sale. The relation of marriage and property discovers itself typically in these preliminaries, to be developed more fully in customs and modes of thought having to do with the position of woman in the family, and with inheritance. Married life began with certain ceremonies which were the dim antecedents of later Hellenic marriage- rites. 2 It will be remarked that, as usual, only the juridic marriage — that which had to do with estate and dynasty — was celebrated with ceremonies. The chief wife, the partner of the domestic economy, the wife won with gifts, was the one whose advent called for public recognition ; 3 the position of this head-wife was a social status and demanded a symbol. The wedding-day was celebrated with feasts pro- 1 ii, 130 ff ; xxi, 74-79; cf. Westermarck, 157-164. 2 Friedreich, 202. 8 Cf. i, 36 ; iii, 381 ; 403 ; vii, 53 ; 241 ; xi, 285 ; 345 ; xvi, 332 ; xvii, 583. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 217 vided by the groom, in the house, of the bride's father ; the groom, if he lived far away, might not be present or might be present by proxy. 1 All were decked out in costly raiment and, in general, gifts were given by those present. 2 Dancing and singing formed part of the ceremonies and the bride was led, under the glow of torches, to the house of her future husband. 3 The bride seems to have been veiled — a common survival of the old attempt to avoid angering the ancestral spirits by an unceremonious withdrawal of their servant ; the great marriage-feast, to which all the relations were invited, points the same way. 4 The gods presided over marriage, but there was no priest or sacrifice needed ; 6 there were no ceremonies referable to the custom of bride-cap- ture, nor are ceremonial rites of the wedding-night mentioned. The newly married couple lived regu- larly in an addition built by the groom to his father's house ; the daughters and sons-in-law of a rich prince like Priam might live with him, but such was very rarely the case. 6 Occasionally sons might build houses near that of the father, but not joined to it, and sometimes they lived in quite another city. In 1 i, 226; xviii, 275 ff ; iv, 3ff. 2 XVII, 443; XVIII, 84-85; XXII, 470-471; cf. xv, 126- 128. 3 XXIV, 62-63; iv, 15-19; xxiii, 134-136; XI, 221 ff ; XVIII, 491-496; iii, 272; iv, 5 ff ; 798 ff; xv, 367 ; xix, 399 ff . * Cf. XXII, 470 ff; iv, 3ff ; Lippert, II, 145 ; 238. 6 iv, 7 ; vi, 180 ff ; xv, 26; cf. Westermarck, 426. « XVII, 36; vi, 62-63; xxiii, 189 ff; VI, 249 ff; cf. XI, 739; iii, 387 ff; vii, 313-314. 218 HOMERIC SOCIETY general, however, it was supposed that a man was from his father's town or country. 1 As has been said, the sharp distinction must ever be kept in mind which existed between the chief wife and the others. The prevalence of concubinage, together with one chief wife, marks the form of Homeric marriage as "juridic monogamy," in dis- tinction from factual monogamy, which is, on the whole, quite rare, and as opposed to polygamy, which is demonstrable only in the case of Priam among men. 2 Yet even Priam had a chief wife ; among the gods, as usual, the looser system was more pronounced. 3 All such distinctions must rest upon the presence or absence of public ceremonies ; whether the marriage was an " open " one or not made all the difference in the world in Homer's time. 4 Juridic monogamy allowed freely the gratification of affection, while the solidity and firmness of the house was assured by the offspring of the chief wife ; this system was tempering polygamy toward mo- nogamy in its modern sense. 5 Here again dynastic motives ruled the whole system. Perhaps the clearest case of the distinction be- tween head-wife and concubine lies in the Chryseis- Briseis episode. Agamemnon had a head-wife and 1 VI, 316-317 ; cf. iii, 387 ff ; xi, 254 ff ; xv, 254 ; i, 170. 2 Starke, P. F., sect. II, ch. Ill ; also pp. 263-264 ; Durkheim, 48 ; XXI, 85 ff ; XXII, 46 ff ; XXIV, 495 ff. 8 XIV, 317 ff; viii, 266 ff (cf. XVIII, 383) ; xi, 580; Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, III, 211-212. 4 v, 120; vi, 288. 5 Letourneau, Marr., 161. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 219 Achilles expected one. Entirely apart from these conditions came the fondness for the captives of war, as if affection and marriage were quite distinct ; J the beloved captive was compared with the wife in a way which showed no real affection for the lat- ter. Achilles's tenderness for Briseis has occasioned rhapsodies by those who forget that after all Briseis was no wife. 2 It is clear, however, that in the home-land all the attributes of wife that would imply more than mutual tenderness would go to the ceremonially bought wives ; they were recognised and sanctioned organs for the production of a line of descent and property-inheritance. 8 This separation of affection and economic interests is one more of the finger-marks of the economic organisation upon the marital. If affection and interest in Homer are united, we have a picture that would do credit to any age of the world. When the chief wife was also the loved wife, affection was very strong and true. 4 The pathos of the fate of Hector and Andromache speaks to us across the ages; the fact that such motives of affection and despair were used by the great artist casts a strong light upon the period and its 1 IX, 394; this is marriage (or, rather slavery) by capture (Letourneau, Marr , eh. VI) ; these slaves might be ceremonially married and then become real wives (XIX, 297-299). 2 I, 113 (cf. force of "ra"); 348 ff; IX, 340 ff. Terms for " husband " and " wife " are lax ; cf. Ill, 140 ; 163 ; 325; Autenrieth, sub " alochos." Both terms mean " consort." 8 Westermarck, 433 ; 508; Letourneau, Marr., ch. XII. * VI, 450 ff ; XXII, 477 ff ; v, 215 ff ; vi, 306 ff ; vii, 67 ff. 220 HOMERIC SOCIETY conditions. With this ideal in mind, the crime of Clytsemnestra was the more shameful, and Agamem- non's words were those of sorrowful wonder and horror at the deed, and of deepest reverence for Penelope's faithfulness, as he addressed Odysseus from among the shades. The crime led to bitter words against all women, whose lust, it is said, leads them to misdeeds. 1 The head- wife seemed content with existing con- ditions so long as she was the favourite ; 2 the crime of Clytsemnestra has been sometimes motived by jealousy, and Homer mentions the object of this jealousy, who perished with Agamemnon ; other causes of jealousy were not lacking. 3 In general, man imposed far less continence upon himself than he required of woman. The position of the concubine was one of far fewer rights ; she was a piece of booty, won in war, kid- napped, or bought from some one who had acquired her in one of these ways. 4 War in those times meant that all the resources, vital and other, of the conquered lay absolutely at the disposal of the victor. These Greek victors were not at that point of development of social organisation where they could hold in subjection many times their own num- 1 xi, 405 ff ; cf. 327 ; 444 ff ; xxiv, 192 ff ; xi, 436-443 ; xv, 20 ff ; 420 ff. 2 E. g., Helen ; cf. iv, 11 ; XXIV, 495 ff. 3 xi, 422 ; IX, 447 ff ; XVIII, 117-1 19 ; XIX, 100 ff ; i, 433 ; xi, 405 ff. 4 IX, 128 ; 343 ; XXIII, 263 ; i, 430; etc. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 221 «- ber of men by the very strength of their discipline, and so, in event of capturing a town, they killed the men and took the more docile women and children as slaves. 1 Such persons were property to be used at will ; the difference between concubine and slave was negligible in those times. These women were set to work and kept at it busily, but were not ill- treated; only lack of loyalty to the house and es- pecially assumption of property-rights in their own persons (adultery) met stern punishment. Women- slaves were often nurses of their master's children and entirely devoted to them. 2 The position of the woman, then, was typical of the patriarchate, with the exceptions mentioned above. 3 She was really the head-servant, an over- seer of the female slaves ; women, even princesses, made and washed the clothing of the family. 4 The woman's part in life, with few exceptions, did not extend beyond the house, though her liberty of going and coming was not restricted in what we are wont to call the Oriental manner. 5 In going about, a princess was usually veiled and accompanied by maids ; Penelope seems to have stayed in the upper room of her house chiefly on account of the presence of the Suitors (to whom she appeared only when veiled), yet the upper workroom was distinctly the 1 IX, 592-594. 2 VI, 491 ff; xx, 107 ff; xxii, 421 ff; 462 ff; ii, 428 ff. 8 See pp. 195 ff. « XXII, 154-156 ; vi, 26 ff ; III, 125-127 ; vii, 234-235. 6 Cf. Ill, 384; VI, 237 ff j XXIV, 707. 222 HOMERIC SOCIETY woman's realm. 1 Woman in a society like that of Homer's time needed a defender; alone she was indeed weak, even though she could in a friendly land do something to support herself and her chil- dren j the sorrow and misery of widow and orphan are several times portrayed. 2 Occasionally women discharged a really important social function, — there is one case of a priestess of Athena, and the number of women in the Nekuia shows that woman was an important factor in society — but, on the whole, her sphere was the home. The case of the re-marriage of a widow affords many striking examples of the position of woman in the family and of her relation to the succession. The features of Penelope's story essential for the purpose are briefly the following. A newly-married wife was left alone with a young son and aged father- in-law, as regent over a large property. 3 Sixteen years passed, and, encouraged by the lapse of time, suitors and servants, over one hundred in all, came and established headquarters in her house ; trusting to their number, and probably making pretext of the king's duties of hospitality, they were rapidly laying waste the ancestral possessions. 4 This they did while the son was yet young, and the grand- sire, too old and weak to resist, was apparently forced 1 III, 141 ff; XXII, 460 ff ; i, 330; 356 ff; xviii, 302. 2 xix, 127; XII, 433-435; VI, 450 ff; XXII, 475 ff; viii, 523 ff. 3 iv, 144; xi, 447; xviii, 267 ff. * xvi, 247 ff; i, 231 ff; ii, 55 ff. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 223 by his wounded pride to retire from the scene. 1 The whole weight of the situation fell upon the wife, and, at the opening of the Odyssey, the time was at hand when her regency was over, and when by stay- ing she was merely injuring her son's prospects. 2 The Suitors had promised to remain until she decided on re-marriage, and came every morning from their dwellings round about. 3 The woman could not brook the idea of the " hate-*"' f ul " marriage, having in mind her love for Odysseus and the popular sentiment against re-marriage before tidings of the absent husband's death were verified. 4 The choice rested with her, though her son was master of herself and the house ; for he feared the Erinyes, if he sent her away against her will, and besides he would have to pay the fine due her father in such a case. 5 He had the power to give her away and his loss of property was telling on his patience severely, especially as he believed his father dead. 6 He begged his mother to go, was eager to buy off the Suitors at any price, and offered to give rich gifts with his mother. 7 Between the alternatives the wife was unable to 1 i, 296-297 ; xviii, 267; i, 189ff. 2 ii, 87-88; xix, 158ff; 525 ff; xxi, 103-105. 8 ii, 123-128; i, 245 ff; xx, 155-156. 4 i, 249; xix, 136; 527; xxiii, 149-151. 5 ii, 128; xviii, 269-270 ; ii, 113; 195; 223; xix, 158-161; xxi. 344 ff; ii, 132-133. • ii, 223; xix, 159 ff; 533-534; xxi, 103-105; i, 161-162; ii, 46. i xix, 533-534 ; xx, 342. 224 HOMERIC SOCIETY choose, but mourned and hoped and put off the Suitors by stratagem, striving to "do honour" to her husband and son. 1 Meanwhile the Suitors, who were there merely by lawless force and feared at least exile for it, arrogantly assumed the rights of succession, and proposed to kill Telemachus, divide the movable property, and give the house to Penel- ope and the husband whom she should choose. The heir could not reclaim from them his losses, and had to ask them for a ship in his own land. 2 He had no recourse save to the gods, i. e., to the religious sanctions of justice, and might lose his royal succession which the Suitors hoped to gain with the widow. 3 In the twentieth year Odysseus suddenly re- turned and exacted ample vengeance for the whole persecution ; Penelope's fame became immortal, and her name a synonym of wifely faithfulness and true-heartedness. 4 There is sociological interest in almost every as- pect of this episode, but a few general conclusions may be drawn. The popular sentiment, we find, was distinctly against re-marriage while the pos- sibility of the husband being alive still existed ; the ideal woman would wait indefinitely, even if the husband did not demand it. 5 The fact that Odys- 1 xviii, 160-162; 256; xix, 141 ff. 2 xvi, 381-382 ; ii, 332 ff ; iv, 669 ff '; ii, 70 ff ; 212. 3 ii, 143-145; cf. 161 ff; xv, 522; xxii, 51 ff; JEgisthus did gain the succession with Clytsemnestra, at least for a time (iii, 304-305). 4 xxiv, 194-198. 6 xviii, 269-270. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 225 seus deprecated re-marriage during the minority of his son points to the dynastic succession and the interests of the house as paramount. In her regent- ship the wife was not alone, though great trust was reposed in her; Clytsemnestra also was provided with an advisor. Generally, if it was possible, sons stayed and managed the estate; 1 in Ithaca, and in Mycenae as well, there was only one son and he an infant, facts which led to unstable situations in both cases. We notice the immediate acquiescence of the mother in the son's " accession," and her prompt and proud obedience to that son ; this points to the wife's assimilation with her husband's family, and the evidence is strengthened by the feeling of duty toward the husband's father which we find ex- hibited. 2 It is noticeable that the re-married widow might carry a pretext of succession to her second husband in the matter of the kingship ; this was probably a mere pretext, and since Penelope was, in marrying, to leave her former husband's house, 3 and since her suitors could not expect to divide Odys- seus's property, except in the event of the son's death, it is not likely that a woman could carry the right of inheritance of property. In the matter of actual rights, the woman's position was but slightly guaranteed ; but there were moral restrictions of the man's power, and one of the most important of 1 ii, 225-227 ; iii, 267 ff ; XXIV, 399-400; ii, 17-22. 2 xxi, 350 ff ; xix, 141 ff; xxiv, 134 ff. 8 xviii, 270. 226 HOMERIC SOCIETY these was the consideration owed to the dignity of motherhood. The title of honour which mother- hood gave in Homer's time was the dearest pos- session of women, and a source of reverence and respect commensurate with the passion for children of those ages. 1 Also a degree of affection some- times existed between man and wife which may be favourably compared with that exhibited in any age of the world. The story of Clytsemnestra and iEgisthus has been mentioned from time to time. Though Homer was far too great a poet and artist to deal in mere antitheses of character and situation, still from the merely fragmentary account of the iEgisthus-epi- sode, we can construct, by reading between the lines, a very fair idea of what would have happened in Ithaca if Penelope had yielded while her son was yet a boy. The consequences of such yielding were inevitably the murder of the husband, and the flight or death of the son, when once the usurper had made good his pretensions. 2 There seems to have been one real guarantee, that is, a property-guarantee, of the wife's position ver- sus the concubine's. 3 We read that if Telemachus had sent his mother from her home, there would have been heavy fines due her father Icarius. 4 1 ii, 131 ; cf. Starcke, P. F. f 116. 2 iii, 255 ff; 306-307. 8 Cf. Westermarck, 432. 4 This payment was evidently a fine ; it would be unjustifiable to take it as a return of a (large) dowry in the face of the else- MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 227 W^ Such a proceeding would also have called down the curses of the mother, 1 as it would evidently have been a kind of disgrace to her; only the extremest peril of the estate could lead to such dismissal. A guarantee of this kind is distinctly in accord with that phase of the patriarchate where the wife's father can, and will, stipulate as to her treatment. 2 From the general attitude of the times toward marriage, it is likely that bona fide widows were ex- pected to marry again at once; there are no pas- sages to bear this point out or to refute it. The widows themselves did not think of immediate marriage, and there is no case of the Levirate. Ke- marriage of men was rare, and only one step-mother is mentioned. 3 The treatment accorded to adultery is always a good test of the position of woman in society. Adultery in Homer is, as usual in early societies, assimilated to theft, and is reprehended as the vio- lation of a property-right ; reference to property- criteria alone enables one to decide what was meant where universal custom of wife-buying. Such an interpretation would make ii, 52-53, absurd. The csesural emphasis of the passage in question (ii, 132-133) and the context speak for the above interpretation. Also cf. L. & S. sub u apotinein," and viii, 318 ff. What was given with a daughter remained hers and her children's (cf. p. 213 above) ; it is possible that the fines had some relation with such gifts, though no evidence is at hand. 1 ii, 135-136. 1 Lippert, II, 506-507. 8 XXII, 477 ff; V, 389. 228 HOMERIC SOCIETY by adultery in those times. The Homeric terms for husband and wife and for marriage 1 are so broad that they include sexual relation in general, combined perhaps with actual possession. Thus adultery proper was only possible in the case of the chief wife, the wife of status, from whom the line of succession took its origin ; only in that case were the consequences far-reaching, demand- ing special vengeance, and was the succession endangered. 2 Not even in the case of the chief wife's unfaith- fulness was the husband pitiless. Vergil, in the light of the stern Koman patriarchate, drew Helen in dark colours, 3 but the Greek poet was more leni- ent. There were few harsh words for her save her own, among those who suffered most on her ac- count. All the anger was heaped up against Paris, and the sentiment was " to avenge the longings and groans of Helen." 4 Menelaus pardoned her easily when once material reparation had been ex- acted ; even Priam and Hector were ever kind to her, though the rest of the Trojans at times blamed her for the evils of the siege. 5 Moral reprehension for the adultery itself, considered from the stand- point of what we regard as conjugal rectitude, was utterly lacking. The blame was one of social and i Cf. p. 219, note 2 ; III, 427 ; XXIV, 763 ; i, 36 ; cf. iv, 561-569. 2 Cf. iii, 303 ff. 8 JEneid, II, 575. 4 III, 173 ff, etc. ; cf. 242 ; XIX, 325 ; III, 351, etc. ; II, 356. 6 iv, 274-275 ; III, 164; XXlV, 762 ff; 770. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 229 economic import, for Paris violated the bond of guest-friendship and alienated his host's property. 1 Thus the act is regarded elsewhere in Homer. The plague in the Greek camp had no significance beyond injury of a priest, and Chryses was easily appeased ; he took no thought of the fact that his daughter had been at Agamemnon's disposal for some time. The injured Hephaestus, when he had caught the offending Ares and Aphrodite, called to the gods, " Hither ! that ye may look upon works laughable and not seemly." His great grievance was the contempt which his lameness brought from Aphrodite ; and though from shame the fe- male divinities avoided the sight of the culprits, the gods rushed in and regarded it as wonderfully amusing how the slow and lame Hephaestus had caught the swift Ares, on the whole envying Ares notwithstanding. The culprits departed, when re- leased, in some embarrassment. 2 The gods were uniformly more sensual than men, here as else- where. The anger of Proetus toward the (falsely) accused Bellerophon was the anger of Mene- laus toward a perfidious guest, and the "good mind" with which Bellerophon repelled the ad- vances of this Potiphar's wife refers to the same line of thought. 3 These examples tend to prove that the rule of man was so firm that he did not need to guard his 1 III, 351 ff ; cf. p. 302 below. 2 viii, 266 ff. 3 VI, 160 ff. 230 HOMERIC SOCIETY property with the relentless savagery so common to primitive ages. Men did not mutilate their wives, or render them hideous in any way, a prac- tice met with even in modern times. 1 There were no Margaretes in those days, and love-affairs with other women did not often disturb domestic tran- quillity, as far as feeling was concerned. Quarrels did not occur over isolated amours of the husband, except where material advantage or the wife's position was at stake. 2 In consonance with patri- archal notions, the woman was expected to exer- cise far more self-restraint than the man. The ideal for the woman was single-hearted loyalty, as developed in Andromache and Penelope, and conspicuous by its absence in Clytsernnestra. The woman who best satisfied the patriarch was the wife (or servant) who assumed the least of indi- vidual freedom and power to dispose of herself, knowing that she was really but the property of her husband. In the case of Clytsemnestra, yield- ing came only after long persuasion, for at first she was of " good mind " ; the deeds of ^Egisthus were called shameful, and the sanction of the gods was against them as acts of violence. 3 Faithfulness and submission were the prime virtues of woman. Morals were matters of form, as well in marriage as elsewhere, coupled with little inner feeling, and 1 Cf. Zangwill, Children of the Ghetto, 15. 2 V, 70 ; iv, 11-12; etc. j cf. IX, 449 ff; XIX, 100; i, 433. » iii, 265-266 ; i, 47. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 231 still resting upon the plain basis of economic facts, and upon rights assured by superior power and influence. It will be noticed in connection with this idea of rights versus feeling that a word for "adul- tery does not occur in Homer ; all we have in the Homeric vocabulary to imply the word is "fines for adultery." 2 These adultery-fines, along with the exacting of vengeance for adultery, make still more clear the Homeric conception of the matter. Adul- tery was a violation of contract with respect to the quality of the goods, plus encroachment from a third party upon the acquired property-rights ; the first was atoned for by the mutual return of purchased article and price, and the latter by fines of considerable size. The fines due from Paris were collected in the ruin of his family and city and in direct reprisal ; since he did not pay, his transgression descended in its consequences upon his community. Thus adultery- fines seem to have been a commutation of the talion- punishment or some other. 2 There is really no divorce or repudiation in Homer's story. 3 The closest case is that of He- phaBstus's threat ; the high place of " illegitimate " children in the house made it unnecessary for dy- nastic reasons. Moreover, in Homer, all women are fruitful, as a rule, and though the opposite case is 1 viii, 332. 2 viii, 314; 317 ff; 332 (cf. 269); 348; II, 354-356; IX, 338- 339 ; cf. Ill, 286-291 ; XXII, 114 ff. 3 Westermarck, 523. 232 HOMERIC SOCIETY hinted at, 1 there was no blame or thought of repu- diation for sterility. All these difficulties, like those brought by Helen, were referred to the gods. 2 As respects incest, we find cases of marriage between mother and son, brother and sister, nephew and aunt, uncle and niece. 3 No blame seems to have been attachable to any of these connections save the first, which, though entered into uninten- tionally, was, as a formal sin, terribly punished. Here we should notice that such a form of union as the first named is abominable both to the " genera- tion-grade " system 4 of the matriarchate and to the patriarchal conceptions of over-closeness in union. (Edipus was pursued by the Erinyes of his mother, after she, in despair, had committed suicide by hanging. 5 This case was aggravated by (uninten- tional) patricide. As for fraternal incest, it occurred only among the gods (as did fraternal amours) and in the home of the isolated de mi-god-Phoenician iEolus. 6 This refers the custom to the past and probably to the matriarchate at once. The uncle- niece union was of like type, while the nephew- aunt union, repugnant to the matriarchate, is found among men who stood for genuine patriarchs. 1 iv, 12f£;xi, 249. 2 III, 164; i, 32 fE. 8 xi, 271 ff ; IV, 58-61 ; viii, 306 ff; x, 7 ; XI, 223 ff ; vii, 65 ff. * Lippert, II, 2 ff. 5 xi, 271-280. 6 x, 7 ; cf. Pietschraann, 237. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 233 Perhaps in the brother-sister union, found only in royal houses, a motive of assuring succession once came into play. 1 These various " incestuous " relations seem to support Westermarck's theory of " propinquity." 2 In treating of children, the family, and succession, the first fact one notices and correlates with other ethnographical data is the importance of children. This is what we should expect in the pastoral and agricultural stages, where the value of extra workers far more than compensates for the expenses and cares of early rearing. Infanticide appears in but one case, and that among the gods, where a deformed child was devoted to death by its mother. 3 Mar- riage was contracted largely liberorum causa and the gods blessed a marriage by granting numerous children ; Priam and Niobe were especially happy and proud while their children lived. The loss of children was a terrible affliction, as the sequels of these cases show, and a curse that brought down childlessness was most cruel. 4 The wife attained her greatest dignity as mother. There was a sort of passion for offspring, and a father delighted in the children prattling about his knee and calling him " pappa." A mother seems to have loved her son as much as she did her husband, or more, and even 1 Lippert, II, 48 ; for these various distinctions regarding incest, see II, 1-140; 505-555 passim. 2 H. M., 258. 8 XVIII, 395 ff; viii, 311 ff. 4 iv, 12; etc.; XXIV, 546; 602 ff; IX, 455 ff. 234 HOMERIC SOCIETY the obsolete infanticide partook something of the nature of exposure, a mitigated form. 1 Illegitimate 2 children had scarcely less attention paid to them than legitimate; they might not be taken care of by the father, though this probably does not imply the alternative of exposure or death. 3 The son of a virgin and a god was carefully reared and the mother married well. 4 The illegitimate child, moreover, was not unfortunate enough to follow entirely the slave-status of the mother. The relations of parents and children were very close and affectionate ; Priam attained his object with Achilles by rousing the latter's sympathy for the defenceless old father at home ; entreaty by father and mother and children is a leading motive %/ in the poems. 5 The relations of affection in the royal family of Ithaca were very marked and strong, aside from any matter of custom, state, or dynasty ; kissing and caressing were not unusual between parents and children, though far less common than among the Hebrews, for instance. 6 Of the infancy of the child : we should expect 1 XIII, 659; XXII, 424 ft; 486; xxiv, 336 ff; V, 408; iv, 817 ff; cf. Lippert, I, 219. 2 Of course the terra " legitimate " and its opposite cannot be used in a modern sense ; to Homer legitimate children were those of the ceremonial marriage. 3 IV, 499-500; V, 70; XIII, 173-176; iv, 12; xiv, 202 ff; xv, 100 ff; VIII, 283-284. * XVI, 180 ff. 6 XXIV, 486 ff; XXII, 338; etc. 6 ii, 130 ff; 376; iv, 703 ff; xi, 202-207; xvi, 187 ff; etc.; VI, 474; xvi, 190; I, 361. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 235 early weaning, though it is not mentioned, because we know the civilisation was one of flocks and herds ; it is hard to accept the little evidence which we have concerning the food of children. 1 It is certain that some of the mothers nursed their own children, though we find many nurses mentioned besides. 2 The high value placed upon the fecundity of women would lead them to shorten periods of barrenness as much as might be ; 3 hence the nurses. The period of effective maturity in the child would seem to have come comparatively late, judging from the case of Telemachus ; instances of precocity were legendary. 4 x Naming was usually the function of the father, though in one case it was done by the mother, and once by the mother's father, who took great interest in the boy (Odysseus) and made him gifts. 5 Names were regularly derived from conditions in which the father was placed at the time of the child's birth ; thus, " Astyanax," because Hector always defended Ilion ; " Telemachus," because Odysseus " fought afar," and "Odysseus," because of the feelings aroused in the victims of his grandfather's highway robberies. 6 Naming-customs tell for the patri- archal power, as do the universal patronymics. 1 See p. 47 above. 2 VI, 132; xix, 354; etc. 8 Friedreich, 216. 4 i, 296-297 ; xi, 448 ; xxi, 208 ; xi, 311 ff. 5 VI, 402 ; cf. patronymics and pride in them ; xviii, 5 ; xix, 406 ff. There are no " double names," as Lippert (II, 352) asserts. 6 VI, 402-403 (cf. XXII, 506-507) ; xix, 399-412 ; cf. VI, 252 ; IX, 145 ; 562-564. 236 HOMERIC SOCIETY All children were desirable, but sons indispen- sable, from standpoints of property-inheritance, dy- nasty, and religion, not to mention affection. Oaths were taken by one's son, and it was a great sorrow to lose a son, especially if he were about to marry. 1 It may be remarked here that religious motives for the desire of sons were less strong than analogies from other patriarchal tribes would lead one to expect. There was no ancestor-worship of a clearly defined type, no postmortuary sacrifices, though a son was eager to raise a tomb to a famous father. 2 But property and dynasty took up much thought, and ideas on these two subjects, which were really one and the same, are not to be dismissed without assigning to them the utmost influence upon mar- riage and the family. The first question of an absent hero was concerning the integrity of his pos- sessions and the prowess of his son ; " easily recog- nisable " were a lucky marriage and its progeny. 3 Pride of race and of ancestors' deeds were paralleled only by pride in a son's good qualities, and it was a great comfort to have a sure avenger of one's death. 4 Also in those troublous periods an aged man needed the support and protection of his son, and if he was childless, he sometimes adopted a defender. 5 By the strong son the estate was preserved and the 1 II, "259-260 ; XXIII, 222-223 ; etc. 2 ii, 222. 3 V, 154 ff ; xi, 492 ff ; iv, 207 ff. * XXII, 423 ff ; xi, 457 ff ; 492 ff ; i, 298 ff ; iii, 196 ff. 6 IX,435ff; 492 ff. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 237 glory of the race, as well as the ancestral kingship, maintained ; in the absence of the strong defender all these were likely to dissolve and yield before encroachment. 1 At this point the question of succession natu- rally appears, as amply corroborative of the above- described importance of sons. The subject has al- ready been touched upon under the head of property ; succession was regularly filiation in the male line, as is proved by genealogies, by the free use of patro- nymics, etc., 2 — by the whole patriarchal setting of the poems. Succession also emphasises the position of the chief wife — it was her children who inher- ited regularly, though not exclusively. The very honourable and privileged place of an adopted or illegitimate son, a place but little inferior to that of the regularly inheriting sons, shows that for him too there was hope of inheritance. We find one direct case of a slave-born son inheriting; 3 but, as has been said above, the view of this matter is somewhat obscured, because all women bear sons, as a rule, and so illustrations of the alternative case are not at hand. It is certain that the adopted sons, and more often, the nothoi, were frequently squires to the inheriting sons, yet they were little distinguished from them, and it is hard to see how a king with no 1 XXIV, 486 ff ; case in Ithaca ; xi, 495 ff. 2 11, 101 ff; VI, 145 ff; XIII, 450-452; XIV, 113ff; XX, 214 ff; xxiv, 514-515 ; I, 1, etc. ; honour in patronymics, X, 68-69, 3 xiv, 200 ff. 238 HOMERIC SOCIETY legitimate male heirs could be so content with his position unless his able and honoured nothos was ready to support the house. 1 However this may be, it must still be recognised that the bonds of real blood-kinship were extremely strong, so much so that one got no chance to adopt a son except in the person of an outcast from his own kin; 2 in spite of all second-choices for the succession, the first choice was ever and always the son of the status- union. Primogeniture was not well-defined, though the tendency lay in that direction ; Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades divided the universe by lot ; but Zeus, as the oldest, did not fail to impress that fact. 3 We also find the cadet going off fortune-hunting. Struggles toward the idea of primogeniture appear in Homer : attempts to escape inheritance-complications by assigning a king but one son, or by exalting the prowess and hence the power of the oldest brother ; 4 the latter being indeed the natural advantage of the first-born. The eldest son of Alcinous was recog- nised as host by Odysseus ; this son, as well as the oldest (living) son of Nestor, sat beside the father on state-occasions. In general, however, there was 1 XI, 102 ff; XVI, 737 ff; iv, 11. 2 IX, 478 ff ; XXIII, 85-90. 3 XIX, 100 ff; XV, 165; 185 ff; XIII, 355; Gladstone thinks that Paris was the oldest son of Priam, but that Hector by his military prowess was likely to win the succession. J. M., 223-226. * XIV, 119 ff; XXIV, 538 ff ; iii, 306; xvi, 117 ff ; iv, 199 ff; see preceding note. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 239 little question of the sons' ages ; they were expected to settle down in the ancestral home and co-operate in its defence. 1 Succession in the case of several sons, adopted, legitimate, or illegitimate, is none too clear from the evidence we possess ; the most that can be said, is that the succession was male filiation through the head-wife, i. e., the wife of ceremonial purchase, in a normal state of the case. We find that a man could give certain things away as he grew old, but there is no idea of testament as such. There is, however, one isolated case which may throw some light upon the subject, although the instance is that of an only son, Telemachus. It is the most complete case in Homer. The story has been told in part, above ; the essentials referring to succession are as follows. The aged king of Ithaca had resigned the government of the country, as well as the management of the estate, into the strong son's hands, while he and his wife were cared for at the palace. 2 Occasion arising, the son departed for war, seemingly making no provision for the govern- ment of the country, and leaving his wife as regent over his estate pending the majority, that is, the manhood, in strength of body and mind, of his infant son. The next scene is sixteen years later, and is marked by the incursion of a lawless element, who drove off old Laertes, probably by wounding his dignity, and settled down to win the supposedly 1 viii, 207 ff ; iii, 39 ; vii, 170-171 ; VI, 242 ft; iii, 412 ff. 2 xviii, 267 ff, 240 HOMERIC SOCIETY dead king's widow. The son was yet young, and could do nothing. 1 This condition of affairs lasted for four years, until the son, hastened to maturity of mind by the misery of his mother and the de- struction of his estate, bethought himself of revenge. The son's power in the house is described above; and being of the "kingly stock," his prestige was great among the people, so that all he needed was force to attain his father's place as king. 2 Left un- disturbed in his claims, he would have quietly succeeded his father as head of house and land. The Suitors' interference was plainly one of un- bridled force; their acts were lawless, and only their organisation and arms supported them against the enmity of the people ; therefore one must regard their doings as abnormal with respect to customs of the time, though force was a common enough means in those days. 3 Yet their boasts and hopes were not absolutely impossible of fulfilment, though proved empty in the sequel; so they enable one to under- stand the normal kingship and succession. The Suitors hoped to gain the kingship along with the dead king's widow, though they recognised her son's " ancestral right " to rule. They hoped against it, and said that the question " lay on the knees of the gods." They also proposed, in addition to the sub- version of the succession to royal honour, to murder 1 ii, 60-61. 2 ii, 49 ; 81 If ; xix, 124 ; xvi, 401. 8 ii, 229 ff ; cf . XXIV, 485 ff ; etc, . MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 241 the son and succeed to the ancestral estate. 1 All these doings were mere tours de force, like those of iEgisthus. Telemachus appealed to the gods, the conservers of the themistes, and under their sanc- tion he was avenged. The aged king was relieved from his hardships, and Odysseus ruled " when he had killed the Suitors," 2 i. e., when he had re-estab- lished himself primus inter pares. The conclusions from this story support the gen- eral argument advanced above with respect to suc- cession. First, we find the case of the " abdication " of the weak old king, and immediately the thought is suggested — how much personal vigour counted, and how comparatively little the state-organisation. Next, we notice the regency and the age of succes- sion of the son, entirely a matter of his ability to succeed. Succession to the estate implied readiness to take up the royal prerogatives ; 3 throughout, the two ideas were hardly separable, and the discussion must be taken up later from the side of the state. How great a role physical force played here may be seen as well from the standpoint of the immature as from that of the aged householder. With respect to the inheritance of the paternal estate, it will be noticed that filiation was so strong that the Suitors hoped to divide the estate only on condition of the heir's death; also that there was no thought of the grandsire's claims, nor of those of 1 xxii, 49 ff ; i, 386-387 ; 400 ; ii, 331 ff ; iv, 669 ft. 2 xxiv, 482 fE. 8 ii, 14, etc. 16 242 HOMERIC SOCIETY any other relative. The family, Telemachus said, was unfortunate because the gods gave but one son in each generation, and so he had no male relatives (agnates) to aid him. Throughout, the troubles of Telemachus were property-troubles "in great part ; in- deed he exclaims that they are worse than the loss of Odysseus. 1 Yet succession in the ancestral estate was tolerably well assured to the son, even in times of open violence. Succession to the kingship seems to have been less sure. What we should gain from the evi- dence is, that, under normal conditions, son suc- ceeded father quietly and easily. Even in a time of lawless anarchy, the kingly descent stood for much to Telemachus, especially as Odysseus was so good and kind a king. 2 The right of such succession seems to have been firmly implanted in the condi- tions of the time, and clearly recognised in the minds of the people, and only force could alter it. The only way to pervert the regular succession was to add to force a plausible pretension ; this accounts for the hope of the royal power going with the king's widow. The Suitors' claims were all the stronger because, the family being restricted to one child in each generation, no real line of agnates existed ; the incapacity of Laertes removed him at once from any consideration. The heirship of males, therefore, in spite of variations, was firmly rooted, and reciprocally aided 1 xvi, 115ff; ii, 48. 2 ii, 230 ff. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 243 and was aided by the patriarchal organisation. Female inheritance is not mentioned. To the patriarchal organisation of society, woman is not a person, but a thing, or, to put it more mildly, a perpetual minor. Hence, she is not a fitting vehicle for the transmission of goods and estates. While she was not at all the mere u ploughed field," 1 the mere " retort for Homunculus," yet she did not possess before the Homeric law of custom, excluding the exceptions mentioned, any legal status. She might be regent when there was no one else ; but a protector was given her, we find, 2 and one is inclined to believe that such an arrangement was the typical one. The chances of royal succession acquired by marrying the king's widow were not connected with the question of woman's succession ; the matter was, as before remarked, a popular pretension, depending upon association of ideas. The aspirant would in such a case hold the most characteristic possessions of the dead king : wife, and, possibly, estate. It was woman's lot to be taken away and identified with another family in a sort of gentile-exogamy; she was not thought of as a means of transmitting ancestral power at home. The woman was by predestination the child-bearer of another gens or family ; and this, her destiny, was perfectly in con- sonance with the patriarchal filiation. Even if the daughter's son was loved and petted by the maternal 1 Cf. Sophocles, (Ed. Tyr., 1256. 2 ii, 226 227 ; iii, 267 ff J cf. xi, 68. 246 HOMERIC SOCIETY with some idea of a tribal union have in Homer a sense vaguely, if at all, specialised. They mean a "body" (of men or things). 1 In a few cases only do we find phylon or phretre used in a way which implies some organisation ; in one case the army was arranged by pkretrai in battle, to find who of the leaders and men were cowardly and who were brave, for they would thus fight " by them- selves." 2 This was regarded as a fine piece of strat- egy. There is also a case of a murder " within the tribe," where the murderer had to flee for his life from the brothers and relations of the slain man. 3 We further find that the Ehodians were divided into three divisions, who lived " by tribes." 4 This evidence is very scattering ; no real organisation is witnessed. That there was a certain tribal spirit, however, is shown by the fact that tribesmen could fight better together, and that a violation of the group-peace was punished by death or exile. The feeling for the tribal unity is witnessed also by the fact that one who desired internal warfare was put beyond the boundary of the tribal brotherhood, themistes, and " hearth." Here we find fire the symbol of brotherhood. 5 There was a strong feeling for one's own people 1 II, 459 ; 469 ; XI, 595 ; XII, 330 ; XIII, 533 ; XIV, 361 ; XV, 54; vii, 206; viii, 481 ; xiv, 73; 181. 2 II, 360 ff ; cf . 802-806. xv, 272 ff. 4 II, 655 ; 668 ; cf. Seymour, note to II, 655. 6 IX, 63-64 ; cf. Lippert, I, 259 ff et al. MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 247 — a developed blood-bond which opened out into self-sacrificing and ardent patriotism. 1 Naegelsbach considers the phretre as intermediate between the family and the state ; 2 from direct evidence it is hard to say what it was in Homer's time. But the condition of the patriarchate indicates that fam- ily power was rapidly crumbling under adverse en- vironment, 3 and it is likely that the former tribal unions were amalgamating and adapting themselves into more highly developed political forms. Feel- ings based on the old bond of blood were passing away, as is evidenced in the treatment of suppliants and guests, and restricted group-life, with its special totems and blood-kinship, was a thing of the past. It was evolving into the more developed form of state and classes. 1 XII, 243 ; iv, 522 ; xiii, 354*. «S^ ■ H. T., 275. „ — — • 8 Cf. Lippert, II, ch. 12; pp. 505 ff. it t / CHAPTEE VI GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. THE state is in origin a product of war and exists primarily as an enforced peace between con- querors and conquered. It carries over into con- ditions of peace the discipline of war, and maintains it for the sake of exploiting the possessions and persons of the conquered. 1 The state is therefore a wider organisation than that based upon the patri- archal power, inasmuch as it includes heterogeneous tribal or gentile elements ; but it is, in its prelimi- nary forms, founded upon the groundwork of the family system of patria potestas. The concentra- tion of power in the single hand, a condition so essential for successful war, was that characteristic of the patriarchate which made possible the rise of the state. The Greeks of Homer's time had not traversed many stages of state-development ; they were as yet in transition from a system based upon family and gens to one based upon tribe or nation. The evolution of the patriarchate into the state turns upon the extension of the peace-bond. Of 1 Of course, conquest presupposes some antecedent discipline. Cf. Lippert, II, 555 f£ ; Gumplowicz, Soc. Ill, art. 2, 1 14 ff ; Rassk. 157-263. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 249 the patriarchate pure and simple, the only Homeric examples are found among types of crude and bar- barous tribes. The Cyclopes had neither assembly nor hereditary precedents and modes of procedure ; each ruled his own wives and children, and paid no attention to the others. There were no kings, no classes, — no differentiation in the elements of pop- ulation ; the peace-bond was limited to the imme- diate family group. Only this narrow syngenetic sentiment 1 kept the society from being entirely atomistic. 2 This state of affairs was to the Greeks a mark of an extremely low culture, connected with cannibal- ism, lack of religion, and other savage character- istics. The keeping of the peace, in Homer's own society, was no longer a family affair, nor was it as yet regularly an inter-tribal relation. Peace was tolerably well assured between the gentile and ethnic elements which were united beneath the sway of one king ; and this king was the head of a ruling patriarchal family. The Greek system seems, roughly speaking, to consist in the superposition of a patriarchal family upon a group of inferiors. 3 It is not easy to define the constituents and ori- gins of this inferior group. From the evidence of 1 Syngenism is a neat term used by Gumplowicz (Kassk., 238 ff ; cf. Rechts. u. Social., 74 ff) for the tolerant or kindly feeling which an individual entertains towards the fellow-members of his own societal group. 2 ix, 106 ff; cf. Letourneau, Polit., 30. 8 Cf. Letourneau, Prop., 236. 250 HOMERIC SOCIETY the chapters which have preceded the present one, it is clear that the Homeric Greeks had long lived nnder such economic conditions as support the patriarchate and its institutions. In many ways it is likely that the life of the Greek ruling families, which occupies so large a share of Homer's atten- tion, was the life of the descendants of nomad tribes, which had settled in Greece at an earlier period. On the analogy of other state-formations we should then expect the lower classes to be sub- ject tribal elements, 1 held under conditions border- ing upon servitude. This, however, is not clearly the case in Homer. In the amalgamation of heterogeneous ethnic ele- ments, there are various barriers to be done away with. Amalgamation is complete only after an approximate similarity of speech, religion, and mores 2 has been developed ; when such an evo- lution has taken place, intermarriage quickly re- moves ethnic barriers, the heterogeneous becomes homogeneous, and the united strength of the amal- gamated elements is directed outward toward the conquest of other tribes or nations. 3 To get the proper setting for the study of Homeric govern- ment and classes, it may be said preliminarily that between the upper and lower elements in Homeric 1 Gumplowicz, Soc. Ill, art. 2, 114ff ; Rassk. 157 ff. 2 The term mores is used to cover the " customs, ideas, habits of thought and standards which are current in a human group" (Sumner). 8 Gumplowicz, Rassk., 226 ff ; Soc. u. Pol., art. 27, p. 80. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 251 society, speech and religion were common, 1 but that certain mores were diverse, and that intermarriage was not as yet practised. The society was not internally strong and homogeneous enough reg- ularly to employ combined strength for external undertakings, or to engage in wars of subjugation. After considering the detailed evidence, it may be possible to define more exactly the form of the Homeric state. In an age of violence, power regularly falls into the strong hand. Amidst conditions of insecurity submission to power becomes a sort of insurance ; the endurance of periodic small losses in the shape of exactions and dues becomes a means of avoiding utter loss and ruin. So lives and goods are com- mended to the strength which is able to afford pro- tection, 2 unless, of course, they fall directly beneath such power, through conquest by it. Whether the power originally resides in a patriarchal family or in a person, it tends to run out into monarchy pure and simple. Traditions of monarchy were strong among the Homeric Greeks ; to them monarchy was a symbol of culture and good discipline, in which they thor- oughly believed. " Not good is the rule of many ; let one be ruler, one be king, to whom the son of Kronos has given it." 3 Homer's heroes hated an- i Cf. Leaf, 174. 2 Cf. case of Middle Ages (Sumner, U. L.). 8 II, 203-205. 252 HOMERIC SOCIETY archy and knew the value of discipline and good order. This is nowhere more clearly shown than in the powers delegated to the king in war. The Homeric king was pre-eminently a war-chief ; he performed, upon the field of battle, to which he led his nation, the most conspicuous feats of brav- ery and military skill, quite eclipsing any deeds of the common soldiery. Because of his honoured posi- tion, he was expected to distinguish himself and his nation. Military glory was so much worshipped that a successful fighter gained a certain claim to the throne. 1 In short, the condition of physical and mental power was a sine qua non of the Homeric kingship. 2 Boys and old men were encroached upon, and an absent king re-established his rule by bloodshed and the exhibition of actual power, that is, in a sense, he had to re-conquer his kingdom. The king must not only secure victory without, but discipline and peace within ; under such internal conditions alone could defensive and offensive un- dertakings come to a successful conclusion. Thus the king came to be the preserver of the themistes, the guardian of those social customs and guarantees which the experience of preceding generations had evolved as rules of proper living. 3 The king, as the most powerful member of the society, is to be 1 Cf. pp. 196 ff above ; XII, 313 ff. 2 Cf. iv, 63-64 ; xiii, 222-223 ; xxiv, 253. 8 II, 206 ; IX, 97-102 ; 156 ; xix, 111. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 253 regarded as, in a certain sense, the supreme judge. He was also ex officio chairman or president of the assembly and council. Thus in war and peace the king was the guardian of the social bond and order. Also from the patriarchal organisation of the family- he took over into the state the function of head- sacrificer, carrying with him ever a sacrificial knife, which marked him as the performer of public sacrifice. 1 The king was thus the head of the state, and the people were " given over " to him. The position was one of power and also of duties and responsi- bilities ; besides the care of the people and their interests, he supervised public works, entertained publicly, and, if he was a good king, took a fatherly interest in his subjects. 2 The position was, of course, one of great honour and emolument, and to be king was great fortune ; " speedily one's house grows rich and himself more highly honoured." 3 The king was granted a rich piece of ground, which his subjects probably tilled for him ; he profited most in booty-raids, and, in addition, received feasts and gifts from his people. 4 All these services they were very glad to render in 1 III, 271-272. ** II, 25 ; ix, 332 ; x, 273 ; 429 ff ; xix, 109 ff; cf. VI, 355 ff ; XXI, 444-457; IV, 338 ff ; 385 ff ; viii, 38 ff; cf. XVII, 577 ; iv, 690- 693 ; v, 8-12 ; xix, 109 ff ; xxiii, 281-284. 8 i, 390-393 ; cf. XXIV, 543-545 ; xi, 483-485. 4 See pp. 193 ff above ; cf. XXIV, 449 ; IX, 155 (cf. 120 ff) ; iii, 480 ; vi, 300 ff ; x, 40-42 ; xi, 185-187 ; xxiii, 357-358. "■■ 254 HOMERIC SOCIETY return for security and protection, as well as for the assurance of success in raids under a great fighter. The king had considerable direct power over the life of the people. They avoided his rage; he had the power of banishment, and in war-time, of course, the power of life and death. It is unlikely that any such power was formally delegated to him in time of peace ; that, however, would not prevent his assuming such power, as any man would, pro- vided the avengers of blood were too weak to inspire fear of consequences. 1 Certain cities, acquired prob- ably in war, he could destroy or turn over to another without consulting any one. 2 Hospitality given by a king was often paid for by taxing the people ; the king might seize and hold the property of an absent subject, and do other acts of violence. 3 He might, without ceremony, order a requisition of gifts for a guest, and by his royal power he could save a man from the anger of the people. 4 The king might act with extreme injustice, though he seldom did ; Laom- edon sent off his (divine) workmen unpaid and with threats of slavery and mutilation. 5 The value of the king to the people was the value of strength and discipline in times of violence. The question of royal succession has been discussed above. 1 XXIV, 237 ff; VI, 158-159; x, 429 ff; cf. pp. 283 ff below. 2 IX, 149; 483-484; iv, 174-177. 3 xiii, 14-15; xix, 197-198; xi, 287 ff; xv, 230 ff; cf. iv, 690- 692. 4 viii, 389-399 ; xi, 346 ff ; xvi, 424 ff. 6 XXI, 444-457. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 255 To envisage the matter from the political standpoint, it is only necessary to recall the fact that the king owed his tenure to his ability to conquer without, and keep peace within, the group. Hence a stoppage of state-functions and a popular discontent under the rule of the very old or of the immature. 1 Kings were under the particular care of Zeus, from whom they gained their power and authority. 2 They seem to have had attached to their persons certain personal emblems or symbols of their power ; e. g., the colour purple was identified chiefly with royal robes and possessions. 3 The sceptre was the great symbol of real or delegated kingly power, and with its posses- sion went a share of royal dignity. 4 It was employed in its primitive use as a staff, for striking and for sup- port ; oaths of kings were taken upon this emblem of their power, and, in the assembly, the possession of the sceptre was a symbol of the king's permission to speak. 6 The king also occupied a special seat in the assembly ; further, he had, attached to his person, certain officers (heralds), whose presence generally indicates some public function. 6 1 ii, 25 ff ; cf. Westermarck, 232. 2 I, 176; 279; etc. 8 Cf. Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, 111,38-63 passim; IV, 141 ff : VIII, 221 ; X, 133. * I, 279 ; II, 206 ; VT, 159 ; VII, 277 ; IX, 38 ; 99 ; XIV, 93 ; XVIII, 557 ; ii, 231 ; xi, 91 (cf. 144) ; 569-570. 6 II, 199; 265; XIV, 457; XVIII, 416; xiii, 437; xviii, 103; VII, 411-412; X, 321 ff ; I, 245; II, 279; III, 218; XVIII, 505- 506 ; XXIII, 568 ; ii, 37. 6 ii, 14 ; cf. p. 274 below. 256 HOMERIC SOCIETY The several duties and powers of the king will appear under various heads below. The monarch who has been thus far described was the ruler of a comparatively small state, the head of a governing patriarchal family. There was, however, a more powerful king, the head and leader of a sort of tem- porary Pan-Hellenic League, the Trojan Expedition. 1 It is not conceivable that the functions of this king of confederated forces should differ much from those of the ordinary king. The relation of Agamemnon to his sub-chiefs was, in general, the same as that of an ordinary king to the chief men of his state ; the same forms and theories of the kingship prevailed. There was, however, this point of difference; the confederation was apparently founded upon the voli- tion of its separate members, and not upon coercion by the superior force or absolute power of a chief. The head-king of the expedition was the ruler over the greatest contingent, and the person most deeply interested in the success of the enterprise ; but his dignity and power were not such as to quell by force sub-chiefs superior in personal strength and only slightly inferior in number of retainers. 2 Therefore we should expect that the council and assembly would have, if anything, more freedom of expression than in time of peace, and that the support of Aga- memnon's headship would be strong and enthusi- astic in proportion to his success and to the weight 1 Cf. Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, III, 12-13. 2 I, 281 ; II, 577 ; cf. 817; II, 568; 602; 685. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 257 of the motives of confederation. The kingship of Agamemnon would therefore approach the elective type. 1 The motives of confederation, however, were strong ones, and, coupled with the great respect for dis- cipline, these motives led to the exaltation of the war-chiefs power. For the sake of the enterprise embarked upon, the many faults of the king and his actual tyranny were quietly endured. Agamemnon was primarily the war-chief, with the inevitable sternness of a military discipline to uphold ; hence, he possessed the power of life and death over the whole of the common soldiery, at least. 2 In battle, the king must appear the bravest, and in the games the most skilful, even if such pre-eminence were granted without trial, by courtesy; if he should flee from battle, the rest would be discouraged. The success of the confederated arms must be ever on his mind, and he must, by physical exertion and good strategy, promote the common aims ; he must be both king and warrior. 3 Naturally the public functions of sacrifice and purification, 4 as well as the entertain- ment of the sub-chiefs, devolved upon the head of the league. Connected with these extraordinary duties and responsibilities were wider prerogatives and richer 1 Letourneau, Polit., 44-52; 417. 2 II, 346 ; 357-359 ; cf. I, 325. 3 VII, 180; XXIII, 890-891; XVI, 659-660; II, 24-25; X, 88 ff ; XIV, 50 ; 105-106 ; cf. I, 342 ff ; III, 179. 4 I, 308 ff; II, 402; III, 105 ff; 271-272 ; VII, 313 ff ; IX, 69 ff. 17 258 HOMERIC SOCIETY rewards. The position of such a king as Agamemnon was most fortunate, due to a kindly daimon's patron- age ; as first man in the state, he received the first and greatest share of all booty, whether it was taken under his own leadership or not, and his wealth was ever increasing. 1 As head of the army, he had the right to grant trading privileges, for which grants he received substantial gifts from the merchants. 2 Of course such a great king, in his official capacity, was under the special protection of Zeus ; he was addressed with titles of respect even when the speaker was extremely angry. 3 The secret of the higher powers conferred upon Agamemnon is that he was the embodiment of the discipline necessary for success in a common cause. He was insecure enough in his position to delight in the quarrels of powerful sub-chiefs, and to at- tempt to quell with undue harshness any sub-chief who he thought was trying to rival him. 4 Such personal grudges the king sometimes gratified by executing an injustice under the protection of his royal power; yet, though the injured person saw the state of the case clearly enough, regard for discipline induced self-restraint. In an excep- tional case, Discipline itself, in the form of Athena, restrained the rebellious spirit and insisted upon * I, 171 ; 182-183 ; II, 226 ff ; IX, 120 ff. 2 VII, 470-471 ; IX, 71-72 ; XXIII, 741-745. 3 II, 196-197; cf. I, 122; cf. Gladstone, J. M., 153 ff; Naegels- bach, 280. 4 viii, 75-78; I, 176 ff; 287-289; 322-325. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 259 order. 1 If the king exceeded his powers in robbing a sub-chief of his personal property, it was yet bet- ter to endure that than to destroy the effectiveness of the confederation. One might contend against a tyrannical ruler with words, but his person was made sacred by his position, and his dignity was that of the society itself ; even the greatest sub- chiefs must learn subordination. 2 From what we know of the rights, duties, and general status of woman, it is entirely unlikely that she could hold political power of any sort, at least among the genuine Greeks. Perhaps Arete in Phae- acia held some political power; other evidence of " queenship " is unsound or too vague to receive serious consideration. 3 The king, then, was the highest power in the Homeric state ; but government was not confined wholly to his will. Every king cared for his own popularity, and did not wish obstinately to oppose the will of the people ; he would make a great sac- rifice rather than incur the people's blame. The popular assembly, as a means of taking the sense of public opinion, became a distinctive mark of civilisation. 4 The assembly was thus closely connected with, 1 I, 318 ff; 356 ; 137 ff ; 193 ff ; cf. Buchholz, H. R., Ill, pt. 2, 223. 2 I, 211 ; 225 ff ; 281 ; IX, 160-161 ; cf. also I, 255 ff ; II, 247; 371 ff; IV, 256-258; XXIV, 650-655. 3 Cf. Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, III, 20 ff. * xiv, 239; cf. ix, 112. 260 HOMERIC SOCIETY if not dependent upon, the kingship ; its absence was a proof of anarchy, and in Ithaca coincided with the absence of the king ; its renewal, as indicative of a reinstatement of law and order, was hailed with joy by the old and wise. The agore, we find, was primarily a meeting for the discussion of ques- tions affecting the demos, a gathering which ap- parently any one (probably of kingly rank) could summon ; indeed sometimes the people called the king to assembly. The actual summoning was done by heralds. 1 The ordinary assembly was composed of two parties, the people and the gerontes, and among the latter sat the king upon a special seat. It can hardly be said, in a modern sense, that the king presided over the assembly; speakers addressed him, or the people, or both, and the right to speak was conferred by the transfer of the royal sceptre, which was handed by a herald to the one desiring to speak. 2 The assembly was held in a regular place which derived its name from that fact; the head-men sometimes sat upon " polished stones," and the place was evidently the most frequented part of the community, resembling the mediaeval Roland or Mai. The assemblies were regularly con- vened early in the morning. 3 As has been said, matters of public interest were 1 ii, 26-34 (cf. xxiv, 420) ; vi, 53-55; ii, 6-7. 2 ii, 14 ; 37-38. 3 XVIII, 531; vi, 267; viii, 5-6; cf. XVIII, 504; iii, 406 ff ; Lippert, II, 148; 379; i, 372; xx, 146; cf. iii, 138. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 261 the general business of the assembly; the approv- ing or discouraging of the king's projects. On the whole, the assembly seems to have had little or no power of initiative. Telemachus brought his own private need before an assembly, and urged the people to repress the Suitors ; a discussion then ensued between the speaker and several of the Suitors concerning the re-marriage of the former's mother. All the people pitied Telemachus, and some were eager to coerce the lawless men, but the superior power and organisation of the latter prevented such action. This assembly was evi- dently an irregular one. We read of another gath- ering called by the relatives of the dead Suitors to consider plans for taking vengeance, but it also was hurried and irregular. 1 There is no adequate ex- ample of the assembly in time of peace, possibly because of the general state of disintegration of gov- ernment in the Odyssey period, due to long absence of the rulers. War-assemblies, however, are quite numerous in the Iliad; and since they were not essentially unlike those of peace, a clearer idea of the latter can be gained by studying the councils of war. The conditions of war, it must be remembered, would tend, on the one hand, to draw the lines of disci- pline closer and to limit popular privilege, and, on the other hand, to make the head-king more depen- dent upon a small circle of advisors, the heads of 1 ii, 6 ff ; xxiv, 420 ff. 260 HOMERIC SOCIETY if not dependent upon, the kingship ; its absence was a proof of anarchy, and in Ithaca coincided with the absence of the king ; its renewal, as indicative of a reinstatement of law and order, was hailed with joy by the old and wise. The agore, we find, was primarily a meeting for the discussion of ques- tions affecting the demos, a gathering which ap- parently any one (probably of kingly rank) could summon ; indeed sometimes the people called the king to assembly. The actual summoning was done by heralds. 1 The ordinary assembly was composed of two parties, the people and the gerontes, and among the latter sat the king upon a special seat. It can hardly be said, in a modern sense, that the king presided over the assembly; speakers addressed him, or the people, or both, and the right to speak was conferred by the transfer of the royal sceptre, which was handed by a herald to the one desiring to speak. 2 The assembly was held in a regular place which derived its name from that fact; the head-men sometimes sat upon " polished stones," and the place was evidently the most frequented part of the community, resembling the mediaeval Roland or Mai. The assemblies were regularly con- vened early in the morning. 3 As has been said, matters of public interest were 1 ii, 26-34 (cf. xxiv, 420) ; vi, 53-55; ii, 6-7. 2 ii, 14 ; 37-38. 8 XVIII, 531; vi, 267; viii, 5-6; cf. XVIII, 504; iii, 406 ff ; Lippert, II, 148; 379; i, 372; xx, 146; cf. iii, 138. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 261 the general business of the assembly; the approv- ing or discouraging of the king's projects. On the whole, the assembly seems to have had little or no power of initiative. Telemachus brought his own private need before an assembly, and urged the people to repress the Suitors ; a discussion then ensued between the speaker and several of the Suitors concerning the re-marriage of the former's mother. All the people pitied Telemachus, and some were eager to coerce the lawless men, but the superior power and organisation of the latter prevented such action. This assembly was evi- dently an irregular one. We read of another gath- ering called by the relatives of the dead Suitors to consider plans for taking vengeance, but it also was hurried and irregular. 1 There is no adequate ex- ample of the assembly in time of peace, possibly because of the general state of disintegration of gov- ernment in the Odyssey period, due to long absence of the rulers. War-assemblies, however, are quite numerous in the Iliad; and since they were not essentially unlike those of peace, a clearer idea of the latter can be gained by studying the councils of war. The conditions of war, it must be remembered, would tend, on the one hand, to draw the lines of disci- pline closer and to limit popular privilege, and, on the other hand, to make the head-king more depen- dent upon a small circle of advisors, the heads of 1 ii, 6 ff ; xxiv, 420 £f. 262 HOMERIC SOCIETY the various contingents. That is, the centre of gravity of the system lay distinctly in the boule, or council of chiefs, an organisation which does not appear to have been clearly differentiated in time of peace, and which does not occur among the Trojans in any developed form. The king's council was convoked in times of great need, and before it the ruler laid his perplexities and asked advice. The deliberations were usually accompanied by a feast, and the calling of such a council might be suggested by a sub-chief. 1 The proceedings of the council were devoid of ceremony, except that the speaker stood while addressing the company. It was the king's duty to listen to good advice, though he was not compelled to take it ; the 7-uling was the king's affair. Speech in the council was very free ; the chieftains often severely blamed the king, who took the reproaches with humility when he had made costly mistakes. 2 The council was not convened on all occasions, but was very much respected by the king, and always summoned when he was in distress. In general it preceded the popular assembly, and prepared the matter which was to come before it, the king depending upon the co-operation of the counsellors, men of maturity and experience, 3 in order to influence the people as he wished. There is, however, no evidence to show 1 IX, 69-73; cf . IV, 259 ff; 343 ff; VII, 321; VIII, 161-162; IX, 225 ff; XII, 310 ff. 2 IX, 96-102; cf. XV, 720 ff; IX, 70 ff; XIV, 82 ff; 103 ff. 8 II, 371-373; IX, 89 ff; II, 53 ff; 404 ff; 440; 445 ff; IX, 422. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 263 that the council was more than advisory in its function. The popular assembly or agore was a frequent gathering, perhaps a periodical one. As in the town, so in the camp, the general assembly was held in a fixed place — by the ships of the head-king, though separate nations had their assembling-places and public altars by their own ships. 1 The assembly was convoked early in the morning by the king or by some chief, generally through the agency of " clear- voiced " heralds, who summoned the people by shouting. Sometimes the chief himself did this summoning; in times of danger, the heralds and king went about quietly, summoning the men by name. 2 The people gathered with tremendous out- cry, and were restrained by heralds into a proper silence. The person who had convened the assembly then arose and explained the matter in hand, after which the question was open for discussion. Per- mission to speak was symbolised by the holding of a sceptre, probably that of the house of Atreus, 3 and the speeches were very frank. In general, only the chiefs spoke, differing often from the king, and sometimes reproaching him severely before the whole people ; it was themis to differ with the king in assembly, and he must not be angry. 4 Only occasionally did the king restrict speech or flatly 1 Cf . I, 490 ; VII, 372 ; 382-383 ; XI, 806-808. 2 VIII, 2ff; iii, 137-138; II, 50-52; XIX, 40-41 ; IX, 10-12. 8 I, 245 ; II, 101 ff. * iii, 127; IX, 31 ff. 264 HOMERIC SOCIETY disregard advice ; in general he felt bound to respect the wish of the people. 1 Oratory was greatly admired in the assembly, and the effective style was that where words came " thick and fast." 2 The counsel of the experienced and aged was most respected ; a young man would sometimes urge his nobility of birth as an excuse for his speaking, in council as well as in assembly. The assembly was dismissed by the rising of the king or convoker, though sometimes the people rushed off under impulse. 3 The relation of the king and the assembly as governing powers has been indicated in general lines ; the assembly was a means of gauging popular feeling, to which a sensible king was prone to conform his action. The sentiment of the assembly was indicated by the silence of disapproval or the acclamations of approval. 4 The popular attitude was the attitude of the " Tis " who, in an unofficial manner, communicated his views to his neighbour ; 5 the popular mind was awake and prone to express its feelings, and the consensus of many unofficial expressions of opinion constituted the approval or disapproval referred to. The common 1 Cf. XVIII, 245 ff; 296; XIV, 105-106. 2 III, 212 ff; also I, 248 ff; XV, 284; XVIII, 105-106; Odys- seus and (at least in Iliad, IX) Achilles, the typical heroes, were great orators; cf. Gladstone, Hm & Hra. Age, III, 96-116. 8 XIV, 1 13 ff ; I, 304-305 ; XIX, 276 ; II, 142 ff. 4 VII, 398 ; IX, 29 ; VII, 403 ; IX, 50. a Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, III, 131-143; Friedreich, art. 134-135 ; cf. II, 271-277. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 265 man might speak in assembly, but the one example of such a practice tends to prove it an exception, and brands it with a certain disapprobation. 1 The people might split into factions, however, and follow diverse plans and leaders ; in general they were, in the assembly, subjected to a discipline and education whose value was well known to them- selves. 2 The assembly was an " ennobler of men," and though the humblest of the Greeks (e. g., pilots) did not often come to the assembly, they took an interest in the society's vital doings ; they were not mere slaves. Before them the king was sometimes forced to humble himself, and upon the people's expression of approval or disapproval regarding a course of action submitted to them, the king was glad to set his stamp of executive assent. Appeals were addressed not only to the king and sub-chiefs, but also to the people ; the people had a share in the decision of the larger questions, for the king could not utterly disregard their evident wishes ; the smaller questions were confided to the king alone. 3 There are two fairly complete descriptions of assemblies and their action in Homer ; though they are taken from war-times, the condition of peace can easily be deduced by slight modifications. Both should be studied in detail to gain a clear view of 1 II, 212-277 ; but cf. Gladstone, Hra. & Hm. Age. Ill, 129. 2 iii, 136 ff; cf. XIX, 79 ff ; Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, III, 144; 417; 451-452. 8 XIX, 42-45; 77 ff; I, 15-16; VII, 385; 399-411. 266 HOMERIC SOCIETY the relations of king and people. Here is no space for even a summary of what is so readily accessible in full, but certain general considerations emerge which may be mentioned. The power of the Trojan assembly convoked in Iliad VII (345-379) appears to have been very limited ; proceedings were irregular and undignified and arrived at no result ; no assent or disapproval were shown, and the people merely obeyed. There appears to have been no discipline, for one man could defy the will of all those who were day by day suffer- ing and dying in expiation of his evil actions. This instance tends to prove the weaker organisation of the Trojans, and, as far as it goes, supports the theory that Paris was the oldest son and presump- tive heir to the Trojan throne. 1 In the Trojan assembly the same question of restitution had often appeared before, and Paris had maintained his position by bribes ; such unjust and irregular acts were those which Zeus severely punished. 2 The finest example of the relation of king, nobles, and people lies in the complication of plot which forms the introduction to the Iliad. 3 The whole of this story is exceedingly instructive to the social scientist ; a few among many points may be selected for special mention. The king, it seems, was not forcibly restrained by the assembly, nobles, or peo- 1 Gladstone, J. M., 221-223. 2 XI, 124-125; 139-141 ; cf. XVI, 385 ft. « I, 12ff. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 267 pie froin courses of action sure to bring calamity ; his sin was expiated, without complaint, by the community. Discipline was such that private feel- ings and ends were subordinated to collective ends, except in the case of the blackest injustice. The king, however, was jealous of great and powerful sub-chiefs and disposed to prove his superiority by an abuse of power entrusted to him. The sub-chief, on the other hand, was jealous of the ascendancy of a man inferior in strength and bravery to him- self, envious of his riches and prerogatives ; the king could not, however, force this sub-chief to serve in war if he wished to retire. 1 He was quite willing to dispense with a personality greater in the peo- ple's eyes than his own, with little thought of the consequences. By the sequel, i. e., the ruling of the gods, the king's actions were judged, but not by the assembly or council; the king was the power, even in a confederation apparently of peers. But there were limits beyond which he could not go and still preserve the sacredness and inviolability of his person. In this episode the superiority of the king over his inferiors is set forth in the case of Calchas; in times of violence a common man was not safe unless he was under the protection of some one who possessed power to defend him. Dependence was better than freedom. 2 If the power of the chief of a confederation was 1 Cf II, 286 ; 339 ff. a 1,74-83. 268 HOMERIC SOCIETY so strong over his sub-chiefs and people, it must be supposed that a like relation obtained upon a smaller scale. The rule of the king was a matter of force, and its perpetuation a matter of the maintenance of real power; tyranny can be supported if the tyrant can enforce order. 1 Council and assembly were means of assuring such predominance. CLASSES The upper classes in the Homeric state have been partially described in the preceding pages ; a dis- tinction in power has been found between king and noble, which led to the elevation of the one and the partial subjection of the other. In reality, the royal house was only the strongest of a number of noble, houses; the name basileus is applicable alike to king and noble, the king being the greatest noble, as Agamemnon was the " chiefest " king. 2 Therefore in the noble class we find the really rul- ing class, and in it the origins of the kingship. In Phseacia, Alcinous was surrounded by twelve " kings " who were entertained much at his house. They were associated with him in assembly and in public functions, though under his orders ; with him they levied upon the people. They held a (/eras from the people, and were served by her- 1 Sumner, U. L. ; Letourneau, Soc, 446 ; Prop., 236 ; Polit., 47- 49. 2 Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, I, 18-20 ; 62-69 ; Buchholz, II, pt. 1, p. 4 ft ; Iliad, II, 228. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 269 a ds ; they were called gerontes, " counsellors," and "sceptre-bearers." 1 In Ithaca, the head-men ai ions the Suitors were called basileus and one of them expected to gain the kingship by marrying the king's widow ; Telemachus says of the succes- sion that there is many another basileus in Ithaca, young or old ; that one of these may get the kingship since (apparently) Odysseus is dead. The presence of the nobles' sons 2 in the house of Odys- seus is an anomalous condition, not at all to be taken as evidence of a general rise of the nobles against the kings throughout Greece. The heads of noble families were represented in the circle of gerontes which surrounded the king, this fact pointing back to patriarchal customs. Old men were highly reverenced ; experience was the only education, and age alone gave that. Thus the associates of the king in peace and his coun- sellors in war. inherited the name gerontes, though few of them were really old and several young. 3 In the united forces before Troy there were, according to Gladstone, nine Greek kings. These leaders, whatever their actual number, formed Aga- memnon's council, with powers as above described. 1 viii, 390-391 ; xiii, 8-9 ; xv, 467-468 ; vi, 53-55 ; 60-61 ; vii, 98-99; 190 ff ; viii, 41-43; vii, 150; viii, 399; vii, 189; viii, 41 ; xiii, 12. Alcinous calls himself "the thirteenth" of these (viii, 391). 2 i, 394-396 ; ii, 51 ; cf. i, 245 ff j xvi, 247 ff. 8^1110^8-110; X XIII, 58 9-590 ; 788; etc.; II,404ff; cf.XIV, 112 J 11100,8-110; X XIII, 58 STXIX, 339. ~~~ 270 HOMERIC SOCIETY These were the only ones who dined with Aga- memnon and whose advice had real weight with him ; only on special occasions were other, younger leaders admitted to the council. 1 Nobility was a matter of birth, pure and simple. Of course the bravest men became the rulers and commanders ; and, since the sons of these generally possessed like qualities, 2 a power, once established, tended to remain in the same families. When we approach the question of how the nobility arose, we find ourselves referred for an explanation to some far- off conquest where victors imposed upon subject- elements their rule and that of their families. / The consideration due a prince is contrasted with that due a simple man of the people. The former was remonstrated with courteously and respectfully ; the latter rebuked harshly, and beaten, in event of unseemly or cowardly conduct. The common peo- ple appear in Homer as a somewhat undifferen- tiated mass, and, except the distinction between noble and man-of-the-cfomos, social contrasts be- tween the free classes are not clear. 3 / / The " people " were the " companions " of the nobles in war. In battle they were less brave and able, and were sternly made to feel their place, though they were usually very faithful to their leaders and their leaders' sons. The people were 1 Hm. & Hm. Age, III, 20-35 ; cf. XVII, 249-251 ; Naegels- bach, 286 ; X, 196-197. 3 X, 239 ; XI, 786, etc. ; X, 300-301 ; XV, 295 ff ; cf. xiii, 223. » II, 188 ff; 212 ff. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 271 blamed for not supporting the dynasty of Odysseus, but it is implied that they would have avenged his son's murder and were indeed willing to repress and banish the Suitors if they had been able. 1 In general, however, their own movements and fate were not their own business, but that of their leaders ; their share in war seems to have been desultory plunder and the stripping of the dead. There were some of them indeed who rarely came to the assemblies or exercised other prerogatives of " free " men. 2 / There was nothing in manual labour that de- meaned the man, as we have seen. 3 In Homer the crafts are respectable, and more. The Greeks were just learning processes, and all was new and inter- esting, rendering possible, as it did, a life of greater luxury. /Slaves from the East were respected highly. Later, familiarity with a greater number of Eastern slaves and merchants decreased the value to Greek eyes of these importations, and respect for dexterity and skill in handicrafts declined. The Greeks had not been forced to establish a middle class. /Thus the gifts of the Phoenicians were the cause of Grecian decadence, after having proved an incitement to early progress. The products and pro- cesses derived from the East finished by becoming too common ; the effort necessary to get them de- 1 II, 200 ff ; 250 ; I, 345 ; ii, 254 ; etc. ; iv, 738 ff ; v, 8-12 ; xvi, 375-382. 2 II, 246 ff ; X, 343 ; XIX, 42-45. 3 See pp. 85 ; 93 above. 272 HOMERIC SOCIETY creased as their value fell, and many an incentive to a wider and fuller social development was taken away. The social force in this case worked thus both backward and forward, leading first to ad- vance and then to retrogression. The first indication of this trend of thought appears in the contempt shown for a mercenary supercargo; the instance is isolated and refers to trade alone, not to any handicraft. There were really no Greek merchants ; fine artisans were con- sidered public benefactors. 1 The social position of the smiths is always a point of interest in studying social habitudes and status. 2 It has been said that the smith who possessed high art in metal- working was apparently a foreigner, and combined inn-keeping with his regular occupa- tion ; also that he appears to have been a retainer in one instance. He was respected as other crafts- men were, but, strangely enough, was not included among the dlmioergoi? Mention of mortal smiths is rare ; from what is said of them, and from the study of the god Hephaestus, no evidence appears to indicate that the smith was regarded as a sorcerer or utter alien. The smith was not confined to the vicinity of ore-deposits, nor were such folk-move- ments prevalent as would surround him from time to time with a strange population. Hephaestus pre- sents the figure of a recently adopted, respected, 1 viii, 159-164; xvii, 383-385; cf. XXIV, 681. 2 Lippert, II, 215 f£. * iii, 432 ft; xvii, 383-385. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 273 though not influential god, quite under the maternal domination. 1 Between the status of the ordinary demos and that of the nobility, membership in either of which was a matter of birth, was a sort of intermediate stratum. The people were, as a body, the retainers of the princes, but, naturally enough, some among them came to be more closely identified with the local lord and his interests. It is probable that these closer hetairoi were of higher birth than the mass of the people ; their quality of bravery would prove this to Homer's satisfaction, at least. Also we find exiles of princely extraction received by a king and appointed to be teachers or close companions to his son. 2 A number of these persons, however, are not represented as being of high birth, and may have been merely the most capable and faith- ful of the common people; indeed, great fidelity in a slave^sometimes led to his elevation to the status of hetairos. 3 Though generally the therapontes were body-servants, their function was often an impor- tant one. 4 Odysseus turned over his property to the supervision of Mentor, and that Athena took Mentor's form in her attendance upon Telemachus proves that the real Mentor was respected as a 1 I, 586 ff ; XXI, 330 ff ; 367-368 ; 377-381 ; 384. 2 IX, 440 ff; 607 ff; XV, 431-432; 439; XVI, 573-574; XXIII, 85-90 ; xiii, 265-266. 8 xxi, 214-216. 4 XIX, 143-144; 316; 321-322; 331-333; XXIV, 396-397 ; 574-575 ; 625 ; viii, 585-586 ; xvii, 68-70. 18 274 HOMERIC SOCIETY good adviser; Mentor always stood out firmly against the Suitors' outrages. Closely assimilated with this class of retainers were the bard and prophet; prophets might be noble, and the few priests were of high birth, neither, however, form- ing a caste. 1 The office of herald was likewise connected with the person of the lord ; the close hetairoi might be heralds also. But this office will suffer a further definition ; it was one of public importance and the herald was invariably attached to a king or kingly house, thus becoming a sort of royal emblem. 2 Heralds were first of all servants of the king in his public capacity, though as hetairoi they not in- frequently ministered to his private needs. 3 In his public capacity, the herald officiated as a sort of trained servant of the state; he mixed the wine, poured the purifying water, and performed other functions at public sacrifice. 4 Heralds summoned the people to assembly and kept them in order when they came ; they also delivered the sceptre to the one desiring to speak. 5 They were the regular 1 ii, 225 ff; i, 416; iii, 267. 2 I, 320-321 ; xviii, 424 ; xix, 244 ; 247-248 ; XVII, 324-325 ; xviii, 64-65 ; then cf. xviii, 292 and 295 with 297 and 300. 8 II, 184; IV, 193; i, 153; iv, 301; xvi, 328; xviii, 291 ff; xxii, 357-358. * III, 116; 118; 268-274; IX, 171-174; XVIII, 558-559; XIX, 196-197; 250-251; 267-268; vii, 163-164; 178; xiii, 50 ff; 64-65 ; xx, 276 ff. 6 II, 50-51 ; IX, 10-12 ; ii, 6-7 ; viii, 8-12 ; II, 96-97 ; 279-280; 437 ff; XVIII, 503-505; XXIII, 568; ii, 37-3a GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 275 means of communication between hostile armies, passed freely from camp to camp, and were evi- dently under a tabu ; their persons were sacred and easily recognisable ; they were called " divine." l Agamemnon sent heralds to take away Achilles's prize, his act being thus made at least a semi-official one. They feared to tell their mission, but Achilles recognised them at once and welcomed them, how- ever unwelcome their message : " Hail, heralds, messengers of Zeus and of men ! Approach. Ye are not blameworthy in my sight." 2 The ordeal- duel of Ajax and Hector was stopped by heralds, one from the Trojan and one from the Greek side ; they bore the royal sceptres, which they held be- tween the combatants, bidding them cease. There is also an isolated case of the herald as crier. 3 Heralds and squires had functions which mark them out as above the ordinary mass of the people. But there were other free men who seem to have been lower than the ordinary man of the demos. Hired labourers we have found to be a type of misery ; there was also a class of metanastai, prob- ably resident aliens, of whom, however, little is said. The impression gained concerning them is that they had few rights and were much oppressed. 4 Jhfijowest free man seems to have been the beggar, of which class there were two types : the 1 VII, 372 ff ; IX, 170; 689; x, 102; cf. XXIV, 149-150. 2 I, 334 ff. 8 VII, 274-282; XXIV, 577; cf. 701. 4 xi, 489-491 ; IX, 647-648; XVI, 58-59. 276 HOMERIC SOCIETY unfortunate and the indolent. Men of high station in old age might fall into misery and beggary, — such a role was played by the disguised Odysseus; on the other hand, young and able-bodied men might beg as a profession. With the former class, considerable sympathy was felt ; for the latter, only disgust and contempt. Beggars were ordinarily of the former class, it seems, for -they were under the protection of Zeus, as guest-friends were, and were generally pitied and treated well. 1 It was part of the Suitors' grievous transgression that they maltreated the beg- gar Odysseus. Violence toward him was received with a curse : " If there are gods and Erinyes who protect beggars, may Antinous meet the end of death before his marriage;" even the Suitors re- buked such violence and warned Antinous that he might be striking a god. Other cases of the beating and striking of beggars were, however, not infre- quent, and they might be seized and sold into slavery. 2 The beggar class throve best in the towns or settlements ; they were regarded as a social burden, and no one would invite them to come and live on him; they are contrasted with the really valuable members of society. They were clad in wretched skins, and ate off the floor or a low table ; they ran errands, and seem to have had no particular dwell- 1 xix, 165 ff: xviii. Iff; vi, 207-208. 2 xvii. 216; 226 ff; 363; xviii, 362-364; xx, 379; xvii, 475- 476 ; 483-487 ; cf. iv, 244-248 ; xvii, 250. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 211 ing. Some were lazy and useless; Odysseus, representing the type of unfortunate beggar, was unwilling to burden his host, and would serve the Suitors in any capacity, however humble. 1 The condition of the slave, the well-defended property of a strong master, was often better than that of the free man, in that age of violence. Slavery in Homer's time was a matter of the exploitation of aliens ; the narrow bounds of family and tribal union had in so far widened that Greek never bec ame slave of Greek. 2 There was no slavery for debt ; slaves were primarily won in war, though often bought from traders. According to the usage of war, the men were slain and only the women and children carried off into servitude ; as has been said, organisation was not yet strong enough to hold in subjection bodies of grown men. Also the slaves who were bought were mostly women and children, for they were most easily kidnapped ; the men-slaves of Homer were often persons who had been bought when young and trained for their later position by Jnejitaster. A distinction is felt, perhaps, between Greeks and peoples of an older and more stable organisation ; Egyptians could capture strong en- emies and hold them in bondage. 3 Greek civilisation had not yet reached that point of development where the labour of master and man 1 xvii, 18; 376; 382-387; xiii, 434-438; xvii, 357; xviii, 6-7; xix, 27-28 ; xviii, 362-364 ; xx, 379 ; xv, 321-324. 2 Cf. Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, I, 235. 3 xiv, 3 ff; xv, 363 ff; xiv, 272; 297; 316 ff. 278 HOMERIC SOCIETY was diverse in kind and carried on in different places ; the system of slave-holding was the family system, where master and man were ever thrown closely to- gether. Hence the treatment of human property was not marked by the relentless and unfeeling cruelty of Rome, nor by the indifference and coldness of later Greece. Not that there was any question of the slave being property pure and simple; there were no " rights of all men " in the Greek mind. The slave had no rights, for rights are in general founded on power, and his power was nil. 1 This conclusion the slave readily accepted ; he regarded his lot as an unfortunate one, but had no complaints of injustice to make. With the usual facility of adaptation displayed by Homer's people, the slave accommo- dated himself to conditions and made the best of them, often identifying himself thoroughly with his master's house and its interests. 2 There seems to have been no thought of a slave-rising, even during the period of anarchy succeeding the departure of the Greek chiefs; indeed the slaves were more faithful than the retainers in the preservation of their master's property. The conditions of slavery were therefore mild. Only in the case of the greatest unfaithfulness did severe punishment fall upon the slave, — penalties of death and mutilation, — which prove the slave a chattel without rights or the hope of an avenger of 1 Cf. Naegelsbach, 274. 2 xiv, 3-4; xvii, 594; xix, 355 ff ; xx, 218-223. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 279 blood. The old and faithful slave was not much below the hetairos and for exceptional service might obtain a wife, be numbered among the retainers of the house, and be honoured like a brother of the heir. Thus slavery passed easily into client- age. Evidently also the slave possessed a sort of peculium, as well as wife and house, at the will of the master; Eumseus, the swineherd, had a slave which he himself had bought. 1 Slave-women are found offering a price for a piece of jewelry, and in several places it is hinted that a good master would give his slave something now and then if he had been faithful. 2 It has been mentioned that the marriage of slaves was at the will of the master ; in no other way than by a master's kindness could a slave obtain a wife. Slave-marriages produced slave- children ; but the children of a master and his con- cubines followed closely the status of the father, 3 this fact again attesting the strength of patriarchal ideas. Unions between slave-men and free women were, of course, impossible under Homeric con- ditions. The tasks of slaves did not differ much from the duties of master and mistress. Female captives in war regularly became concubines; they were en- tirely at the disposal of their conquerors, who might formally marry them if they chose. Women of 1 xxi, 214-216; xiv, 449-452. 2 xiv, 62-67 ; xv, 376-379. 3 xviii, 223; cf. iv, 10 ft 280 HOMERIC SOCIETY princely descent drew water for their masters in a foreign land, 1 for the noblest might at any time fall into servitude by chance of war. Women-slaves regularly spun and wove under the direction of the mistress, cleaned the house, ground the meal, washed the clothes under the supervision of the mistress and probably with her aid, nursed the children, cooked the food, etc. 2 Some of these female slaves were very beautiful and accomplished foreigners ; the women were under the immediate supervision of an older female slave, who, in the absence of the mistress, might become the sole manager of the domestic economy. Faithful stewardesses who held the secrets of the treasure-house were not un- usual. 3 The assumption by female slaves of prop- erty-rights in themselves (adultery) was punished by death, and impertinence to the guests of the house might lead to terrible penalties ; if, however, the slave was faithful, she was carefully reared and fared not much differently from her mistress. 4 Men-slaves, often fallen nobles, 5 tended the flocks and herds, and in case of raids, were killed or cap- 1 XIX, 295 ff ; cf . I, 366 ff ; II, 226-228 ; IX, 658 ; XI, 625 ; XX, 1 93 ; i, 430-433 ; vii, 10-12 ; viii, 527-529 ; xi, 421-422 ; xv, 41 5 ff ; VI, 456 ff. 2 III, 388 ; 422 ; VI, 323 ; 375 ; 399 ; 491 ff ; XXII, 450 ; 503 ; XXIV, 587; i, 136 ff; 331 ; 357-358; 435; 439; ii, 345-347 ; vii, 10-12 ; 103-110; x, 349 ; xviii, 27 ; xix, 355; 482-483; xx, 105-111 ; xxii, 421-427. » iii, 392 ; ix, 207 ; xxiii, 293. * xviii, 338 ff ; xix, 65 ff ; vi, 76 ff ; xviii, 323. 6 xiv, 340 ff ; xv, 381 ff ; xvii, 419-420. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 281 tured with them, carved and served the table, cared for trees and hedges, assisted their masters in feuds, etc. 1 Unfaithfulness or opposition to a master's power led to severe punishment, mutilation or death ; 2 the slave was ever a piece of property whose vital processes were absolutely at the mas- ter's disposal. In general, however, slaves were sufficiently, if not luxuriously clad, and ate the same food as the master. 3 The number of slaves held in rich houses was sometimes very large ; Alcinous had fifty slaves, not counting the men ; and connected with the house of Odysseus there were about one hundred all told. 4 However mild Homeric slavery was, the Greek none the less loved his freedom; though the free labourer might be more miserable than the slave, he yet valued his unrestricted power of going and coming. The fundamental difficulty of slave-labour was well understood ; however faithful some slaves might be, the majority needed constant supervision and correction. In the absence of the master, all was likely to be neglected and go to ruin ; the slave was but half a man. 6 1 XI, 696-697 ; i, HI ; 111-112 ; ix, 10; xvii, 212 ff; xx, 177 ff; 297;xxiv, 210; 498 ff. 2 xxi, 175 ff; xxii, 475-478. 8 xi, 190-191; xiv, 513-514; 520-521 ; 530; xv, 368; xxiv,208ff; 394 ff ; cf . Naegelsbach, 274. 4 vii, 103 ff; cf. Richard, De Servis apud Homerum, 18, note (quoted, Buchholz, II, pt. 2, 70; cf. 72). 6 xvii, 321-323; cf. Letourneau, Morale, 184-197; 332-336; Polit., ch. XI, i. 282 HOMERIC SOCIETY The classes of the Homeric state, then, formed a sort of pyramid : slaves, people, hetairoi, nobles, king. There is no thinkable origin of the differentiation of the upper classes except in a forcible exploitation of a conquered majority by a victorious minority, begun in some past age. 1 This exploitation had been mitigated in the progress of time and by amalgamation, as language, religion, and mores gradually ceased to present barriers to assimilation. The stratum of the servile class was coming to be re-formed from exterior sources in Homer's time, later to assume a wide development and growth. 2 JUSTICE AND LAW To secure its ultimate object of existence and growth, that is, of self-maintenance and the exploi- tation of its neighbours, the developing state must preserve internal peace and order. To meet the requirements for national defence, not to mention national expansion, a close internal cohesion is im- perative. The peace-bond of the family and gens must be widened and developed. The settlements of disagreements between members of the social organisation must be taken from their own hands and speedily accomplished with no resulting feuds or permanent ruptures. In Homer, law is in its infancy, for the settlement 1 Gumplowicz, Rassk., 205-240 ; Geschichtliche Hinweisungcn, ch. V of same ; cf. 157-163 ; Soc. Ill, art. 2, 114-121. 2 Cf. Letoumeau, Polit., 283 ff; ch. XI, i. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 283 of individual disputes has not yet been taken from the hands of the parties immediately concerned. The rise of a regime of law and order is indicated, however, by the fact that the talion may give way to less primitive methods of exacting reparation for injury. The best illustration of this development is found in the customs and usages having to do with homicide. Murder, as the most violent sub- version of internal peace and order, was the first act of violence to demand restraint, and customs and usages concerned with the expiation of blood-guilt developed antecedently to those involving penalties for violation of property-rights. 1 The first treatment of homicide lay in direct reprisal, — blood for blood. This is the common- est form in Homer. Instances of vengeance- tak- ing for a companion fallen in war have already, been given ; 2 the dead man was supplied with an escort to the spirit-world in the person of a foe, if possible. After the death of Patroclus, Achilles took no more prisoners, and the blood-vengeance descended upon all the offender's blood-kin and community, upon women and innocent children. 3 Manslaughter within one's own community or tribe drew down immediate blood-vengeance from the brothers and other relations of the slain man. This was the first course and the one most frequently 1 Cf. Pietschmann, 285. 2 Cf. also XV, 116 ; XVI, 398 ; XVII, 34-38 ; 538-539 ; XVIII, 93 ; 100 ; 336-337 ; etc. ; Leaf, 363-364. 3 XXI, 100-105 ; XXIV, 734-737. 284 HOMERIC SOCIETY pursued. Public opinion was coming, however, to approve a commutation of the talion in the shape of a property-indemnity ; this custom had the sanction of the gods only in rare cases, as yet, for the gods still clung to the earlier and more barbar- ous feelings and mores. 1 Several illustrations may be given of the taking of vengeance, showing its various modifications. The seer Tlepolemus killed a relative and fled before the threats of the blood-kin of his victim ; for the seer was not exempt from pursuit in such a case. The fate of such a murderer was to wander over the earth. The mother of Meleager cursed him for killing her brother. 2 The deed of Orestes, who slew the murderers of his father, though one of them was his own mother, received the greatest praise; it was good fortune to leave behind such an avenger of one's death. If the son had not exacted this vengeance, the brother would have done so on his return, still more pitilessly. 3 Odysseus was per- plexed to know where to flee after killing the Suitors ; he and his son did retire to the country, there to await developments and the attack of the Suitors' relatives. Other cases of flight to escape vengeance were not rare in Homer. 4 It made no 1 XXIV, 46-54. 2 II, 661-666 ; xv, 272 ff ; IX, 566 ff . 3 i, 298-299 (cf. ii, 145) ; iii, 195 ff ; 249; 256-261. * xx, 42-43; xxiii, 118-122; 139 ff; cf. xxiv, 354-355; 420 ff; 433-437 ; they expected Odysseus to flee to Pylos or Elis (xxiv, 430-431) ; XVI, 573-574 ; XXIV, 480-482 ; xiii, 259. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 285 difference whether the homicide was intentional or not, or whether the slayer or victim was a mere boy, for the fact of mnrder was the real issue, and must be formally avenged. The father of Patroclus had to take him from his native country, because in a childish fit of anger over a game he had killed a young companion. It is noticeable, however, that mildness was gradually becoming a virtue ; consider- ing the ideas of the time, the conduct of Achilles was not pitiless. 1 The avenger was not obliged to receive the commutation or wergeld offered, though it was sometimes accepted, even for a very near relative. " Many a man has received an indemnity from the murderer of his own brother, or even of his son, when he (the victim) was dead ; and he (the murderer) has remained there, in the country, after paying a great fine, and his (the avenger's) heart and noble soul have been stayed by the receiving of the penalty." 2 The arrangement of property- reparation seems to have been left to the parties concerned. On occasion of a disagreement, this might come before a council for decision. This council, however, was rather a body arbitrating between individuals, than a social tribunal with power behind it sufficient to enforce its conclusions. It cannot be said that the public had taken the blood- 1 XXIII, 85-88 ; XXIV, 112 ff. 2 Cf. XXII, 124 ; Leaf, 372 ; IX, 632-636 (quoted ; cf. the force of " r' " in 634). 286 HOMERIC SOCIETY vengeance into its own hands ; the question before the gerontes and people, in Homer's best example of such a " trial/' was whether payment of a fine had taken place or not. 1 Homicide was morally reprehensible when it ap- proached the form of patricide, or when the victim was a near relation ; a certain man had planned to kill his father, but gave up the purpose when one of the gods suggested to his mind the shame heaped upon the patricide by the sentiment of the people. 2 The murder of Telemachus would have been a " base deed," probably because of his royal descent and claims ; 3 while the killing of a slave was a thing of little moment, since in his case the very begin- nings of a system of reparation were lacking — slaves (and aliens) had no avengers. On the whole, there was very little blame attached to manslaughter ; fugi- tives such as have been described were kindly used, and often attached to the royal house as retainers, for the king was always anxious to strengthen his power by the support of those who had no other affiliations. To be a murderer was rather a piece of ill-fortune than a crime, and if the killing had been done by force, and with risk and courage, it was even honoured as an exhibition of manliness and daring. 4 1 Cf. Letourneau, Morale, 102-103 ; 341 ; XVIII, 497-508. 2 IX, 458-461 ; cf. x, 440-441 ; xi, 433-434. 8 xvi, 381-382 ; 401-402. 4 11,658-670; XV, 333-336; 429-440; XVI, 57 Iff; xiii, 256- 275 ; xiv, 379 ff; cf. Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, II, 441. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 287 The treatment of homicide may stand for the general treatment of social disorder, except that it was more developed and complicated. The pen- alties for adultery have been mentioned ; slaves who assumed rights over themselves were killed, and an adulterous wife might be repudiated, in which case the price given for her was repayable, and fines were due from the adulterer. Of course penalties fell only upon the woman, for the question was one of property-rights and their violation ; these and other such rights were guaranteed by force alone, as was the right of succession. The story of the Suitors, their transgression and fate, attests the strength of the force-guarantee in matters of property and the like. In this case reparation was offered and re- fused. 1 The overstepping of property-rights in the quarrel-episode of Agamemnon and Achilles was punished by misfortune until gifts of propitiation were made. 2 Theft was not morally reprehensible ; Autolycus had a great reputation for skilful thiev- ing, and was quite respected for his dexterity ; but petty theft, such as sheep-stealing, was regarded as a mean business. 3 Two men are introduced, quarrelling, measure in hand, over the location of their boundary-stones, and, we find, an orphan's boundary-stones might be torn up ; 4 here, again, the reign of law had not yet begun. 1 xxii, 55 ff. 2 IX, 115 ff; XIX, 249 ff. 3 X, 266-267; cf. 111,11; xiii, 123-124; XXIV, 262. 4 XII, 421-423 ; XXII, 489 ; cf. XXIV, 488-489. 288 HOMERIC SOCIETY Punishments were, then, private matters. The Suitors threatened to impose a fine upon adherents of Telemachus ; dismemberment is threatened to un- faithful slaves ; the Centaur lost nose and ears for the evil he wrought when drunk in the house of Peirithous ; a lying beggar might be thrown from a cliff; and for ill-treatment of the wife of Zeus, Tityus endured eternal torments. 1 Other punishments were stoning, suspension by the hands with weights tied to the feet, and exile, with mutilation of ears. Self- punishment in the form of suicide was uncommon. 2 The fact is that guarantees were regularly per- sonal affairs and matters of force. Hephaestus would not let Ares go until he had paid the adultery-fines, though the injured god accepted the word of a more responsible party. 3 One's goods were not safe un- less carefully guarded ; any passer-by would have carried off the baggage of Odysseus if it had been left on the roadside. 4 There was no law of custom regarding the keeping of mere promises ; for special occasions oaths were taken. Thus the supernatural was invoked, and religious fear generally led to oath-keeping. The " spoken " contract of Poseidon and Apollo with Laomedon was a failure, and oaths were not always kept. 5 1 ii, 192-193 ; xviii, 339; xxi, 298-301 ; xiv, 399-400; xi, 576-581. 2 III, 57 ; XV, 18-21 ; XXI, 452-455; xi, 277-278 ; cf. XVIII, 34. 3 viii, 347 ff . 4 xiii, 123-124. 5 XXII, 254-261 ; XXI, 444-457 ; cf II, 339-341 ; IV, 88 ; 158 ff; VI, 233; VII, 411-412. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 289 If, then, the rising state had not as yet laid its hand with force upon the internal regulation of so- ciety, the question arises as to the real use of the "trial," and the function of the old men who judged the quarrels of the young. 1 There were two forces in Homeric civilisation, dif- fering chiefly in name, which were derived from the past and clothed with all the sanction of ances- tor reverence and religion ; these were dike and themisy — what has been " pointed out " and " es- tablished." The concepts connected with these terms embraced all the results of the experience of preced- ing generations in the philosophy of living, and were thus closely connected with religion, its sanctions and ideas. In the purely religious sense, the "just" man was the man who observed those practices which placed him upon the best terms with the higher powers; 2 of course u justification" then ex- tended itself to the observances of the secondary social forms established for a sufficiently long period and with sufficient firmness to have gained divine sanction ; the shipwrecked Odysseus asks himself, " To whose land now have I come ? Are they vio- lent and wild and unmindful of dike, or are they those who cherish strangers and whose spirit is fear- ful of the gods ? " 3 Themis and dike were used com- monly as equivalent to " hereditary custom " or 1 xii, 439-440. 2 ii, 282 ; Hi, 52-53 ; 133-134 ; cf. xvi, 403-404. 8 xiii, 200-202. 19 290 HOMERIC SOCIETY " right " ; * in a social sense, however, themistes were most commonly "hereditary precedents of proce- dure." 2 These precedents covered the whole of social existence — the relations of family life, of property-rights, of classes and social status — and reached out to include in their domination relations with suppliants and guest-friends. The force of these norms, sanctioned by the gods and by revered or even deified ancestors, was very great. The counsellors mentioned above were regularly the old, or, at least, the mature ; men who had had experience and knew the proper methods of pro- cedure in all cases ; the typical counsellor, Nestor, in his lifetime, had seen two generations pass away. 3 Questions submitted to these counsellors, then, were settled according to hereditary precedent. They were decided in the presence of the people, who took sides with one or the other party; the disputants were eager to get a decision from the judge who was " one who knows." The gerontes sat in the sacred circle upon polished stones, and each in his turn spoke his judgment. In the midst lay two talents for that judge who should speak the dike " straightest." This instance implies something like a system ; the her- 1 II, 73; IX, 134; XIII, 6; XIV, 386; XVI, 796; XIX, 179- 183; XXIII, 542; iii, 187; iv, 690-691; x, 73-74; xi, 218-219; 451 ; xiv, 59; 90-91 ; 130; xviii, 275; 414; xix, 43; 168; xx, 294- 295 ; xxiv, 255. 2 I, 238; XVI, 387; XXIII, 581 ff; XXIV, 652 ; ii, 65-69; ix, 268 ; xiv, 56 ; xvii, 363 ; xviii, 141-142 ; xxiv, 286. 8 I, 247 ff; iii, 244. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 291 aids and sceptre betoken royal power, delegated to members of the council. Probably the two talents were fees, one contributed by each of the contending parties. 1 Chiefly to be noticed, however, is the in- terpretation of the unwritten law of ancestral cus- tom, treasured in the minds of the old and experi- enced, and reverenced by the people. To " judge " was to expound the dike or themis ; the place of judgment was called themis? In one case (in the spirit-world) we find a king, sceptre in hand, directly judging of questions pro- pounded to him,i e., explaining the dike and themis. 8 The counsellor is represented as coming home from the agore, where he has been arbitrating the strifes of young men ; Arete, the wife of the Phieacian king, is described, strangely enough, as performing the same function. 4 Witnesses are not mentioned in the case of the " trial." The dike and themis were under the strong sanction of the gods, who loved not deeds of violence; if men pronounced "crooked" themistes, Zeus punished them severely with autumn floods. 5 The strength of precedent 6 must have depended i XVIII, 497-508; cf. I, 237-238 ; cf. Friedreich, art. 138-139; Buchholz, II, pt. 2, 22; Gladstone, J. M., 56 ff. Leaf (312-414) seems to have misapprehended the situation. 2 Cf. Gladstone, J. M., 446-447 ; VIII, 431 ; XI, 807 ; XXIII, 579-580; xi, 545 ; 547; 569-570; Starcke, Samv., 311-312. 8 xi, 568-571. 4 xii, 439-440 ; cf. xi, 186; vii, 74. 6 Cf . xi, 325 ; XVI, 385-388 ; xiv, 83-84. 8 Cf. Letourneau, Prop., 259. 292 HOMERIC SOCIETY largely upon this religious sanction, among a people who served the gods as scrupulously as did the Ho- meric Greeks. The will of the dead was law ; what was old, was sacred ; the epigonoi were degenerate 2 and must cling to the wisdom stored up in customs handed down from former and wiser generations. In spite of the reign of the armed hand, a desire for peace and undisturbed possession of property was gradually undermining the old warlike spirit. Under the influence of transition in the economic system, commutations and agreements were succeeding in- dividual righting of private wrongs. Advance and the growth of the state demanded peace, order, and social co-operation, and would not suffer the pro- longed existence of a narrow syngenism. Thus the foundation of a developing state was laid, and, in its turn, the state-evolution brought culture and spurred on the social forces to which it owed its rise. 2 In the treatment of inter-state relations, the argument still turns upon the extension of the peace-bond. In early ages, war with strangers (non tribesmen) is the first condition of any external contact, and introduces the possibility of later friendly relations. A brief description of the war-customs of Homer's time may throw some light upon the development of external intercourse on the peace 1 ii, 276-277 ; cf. 1, 262 ff ; V, 302-304 ; XI, 636-637 ; XII, 381- 383 ; 447-449 ; XX, 285-287 ; cf. XIII, 6. 2 Gumplowicz, Rassk., 179; 231 ff; cf. 157-263 ; 205-240. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 293 footing. Perhaps the greatest war-motive of the time was the desire for booty ; there were no organi- sation-wars for the sake of conquest and subju- gation, while booty-raids are a distinctive feature of Homeric life. " Cattle-lifting " was the com- monest form of the booty-raid, and was regarded as a legitimate method of replenishing one's flocks and herds and gaining wealth ; Odysseus expected thus in part to repair the damage wrought by the Suitors. 1 A common way of meeting death, for a brave man, was to be slain while cattle- lifting; Odysseus asked Agamemnon in the spirit- world if he had been killed on such an expedition J there was no shame in it. 2 A suitor's service for his bride might be the capture of an enemy's cattle for her father. These raids sometimes de- veloped into petty warfare between neighbouring tribes, men in one of the tribes having " debts " due in the other, and the king, of course, repay- ing himself first from the products of a retaliatory raid. 3 Among themselves, the Greeks took no prisoners who afterward became slaves ; national feeling had developed beyond that point. In time of foreign war, however, human booty was one of the greatest incentives to action ; Greeks fell upon cities of 1 I, 155 ff; 367; IX, 328-329; XVIII, 520 ff; XX, 90-93; XXI, 37; iii, 106; ix, 225-228; 405; xix, 407-408; xx, 51; cf. xxiv, 206-207. 2 xxiii, 356-358 ; xxiv, 111-112 ; xi, 399-403. 8 xi, 288-290 : XI, 677 ff. 294 HOMERIC SOCIETY strangers with no apparent provocation, sacked and burned the cities, slew the men, and carried off the women and children as slaves. Priam expected to see his sons slain, his daughters carried away, and his grandchildren dashed to the ground ; the noblest women and children tnus came into servitude, and expected such fate as the outcome of an unsuccessful defence. 1 Only occasionally were men taken and sold over the seas into slavery ; men were never kept long in the Greek camp, though they were often retained for a time awaiting ransom. 2 Kansom, however rich, was not received when the desire for vengeance was strong ; in that case all, to the very youngest, were to be destr6yed. 8 In the sack of a great city, of course much treasure, clothing, etc., fell into the eager hands of the victors ; and on the field, combatants were always anxious to strip their victims of armour and to capture horses. 4 The booty was ordinarily divided into prizes, even when it was the product of an individual enterprise ; it was put into the hands of the king, who took the largest and the best prize, and then distributed others to the nobles and perhaps to the people. Booty- 1 IX, 592-594 ; viii, 527-529 ; ix, 40-42 ; xiv, 263-265 ; XXII. 62-64; XXIV, 731-734; Tylor, 226. 2 Especially by Achilles'; XXII, 44-^5 ; XXIV, 752-753 ; cf, Gladstone, Hm. & Hm. Age, III, 123 ; XI, 131-135; XXII, 49 ff; cf. VI, 426. » VI, 46 ff; 55 ff; XVI, 331-332 ; XX, 464 ff; XXIV, 734-736; cf. 650-655. 4 II, 226-227 ; IX, 365-366 ; xi, 534; IV, 466 ; V, 25 ; VI, 68-71 ; X, 343; XIII, 260 ff. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 295 war, like piracy, was eminently respectable, and was presided over by Athena and Zeus. 1 In Homer, as in the Nibelungen Lied and other epics, the terrific deeds of single champions receive an entirely disproportionate share of attention ; the common man appears to have been quite eclipsed. 2 That the common soldier, however, counted for something in war, is proved by the attention given to discipline and tactics. Death was the penalty for desertion or insubordi- nation ; cowardice was a shame, and brave warriors, Indian-like, boasted in the face of death. 3 The type of good order was that the soldiers should advance in silence, fearing their leaders. In this respect the Greeks and Trojans differed much : the Trojans regularly shouted more and were more dis- orderly ; they were presided over by the god of brute force, Ares, who was regularly worsted in contest with the goddess of discipline and order, Athena. 4 Fighting was most successful when it was not done desultorily, but under the direction of tine tacticians, in close array, with shield support- ing shield. Men fought best in companies and with their own tribesmen. Much always depended on 1 I, 167 ff ; VIII, 289; IX, 592 ff ; XI, 626-627 ; v, 40; IV, 128; X, 460; xiii, 359; xiv, 86. 2 Cf. IV, 397 ; 534 ; XI, 304-305 ; XX, 356-358. 3 II, 391 ff; XII, 248-250; XV, 348-350; I, 171 ; II, 115; VI, 442 ; XIV, 844-848. * XII, 413 ; II, 809-810; VIII, 59; XVI, 78; IV, 429 ff; cf. Ill, 218 ; V, 591 ; XI, 344 ; XII, 125 ; XVII, 88 ; XXI, 391 ff. 296 HOMERIC SOCIETY the chief ; if he lost heart, the rest did, and he was responsible for the lives of his people. Fighting was done on foot or from chariots, with equal facility ; the separate sections had regular captains, and the greatest importance was assigned to the horse and war-chariot. 1 The finest tactical arrange- ment of forces was attained by placing horses and chariots in the van, and behind them the infantry, the " bulwark of war " then as ever. The cowardly and weak were placed in the midst, and forced to fight. This was the good old way of arranging forces. 2 The usual expedients of camp-fortification, guards, signal-fires for summoning aid, watch-fires, lookouts, duels of champions, spies — sometimes in disguise, and sometimes paid for their services — and contri- vances like that of the wooden horse, were in com- mon use. 3 Ambushes were usual and were regarded as demanding special courage, particularly at night, when war was generally stopped ; the wounded were regularly rescued and carried from the field. 4 Defeated armies attempted at once to withdraw into some fortified town ; 5 siege lines were not 1 III, 77 ; VIII, 562-563 ; IX, 84-86 ; V, 530-532 ; VII, 380 ; XIII, 130-133; XV, 360; 618; XVI, 168-173 ;215ff ; XVIII, 298; xx, 49 ; II, 553 ff ; XXI, 206-207 ; XXII, 99-107 ; 383 ; XII, 76 ff (cf. ix, 49-50) ; XV, 517 ; xviii, 263-264. 2 IV, 293-311. 8 VII, 433ff; 371; XVIII, 208-213 ; VIII, 509-511; XIV, 8; III, 16 ff ; X, 1 ff ; 213 ff ; 304 ; iv, 244 ff ; 272 ff ; viii, 492 ff. 4 I, 227ff;IV, 392 ff; XIII, 277 ff; XXIV, 779 ; xiv, 217-218; II, 387 ; VII, 282 ; V, 663 ff ; VIII, 334 ; etc. 6 XV, 737-738 ; Tylor, 228. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 297 drawn closely, but much time was spent in laying waste the surrounding country and settlements. In the siege of Ilion, the Trojans' great object was of course to burn the ships, when they would have the Greeks at their mercy ; the city itself had spent great resources in withstanding the ten years' siege, and, though greatly straitened, still at the end of that period held much riches. 1 A great deal of Trojan property passed into the hands of neighbour- ing nations, probably in hiring allies ; also treasure was smuggled out of the besieged city to remain safe in another land. The old men, the women, and the young helped to defend a beleaguered city in desperate straits. 2 Yet war was not passionately loved by the Greeks ; there was a rising sentiment against it, probably in consequence of developing trade and other economic conditions. It was regarded as hard and cruel, and savagery entered into it only in the heat and excitement of victory, or in consequence of deeply stirred revenge. The persons of ambassadors and heralds were sacred with men of honour, and truces were gladly given for the burial of the dead or the discussion of possible compromise. 3 Greeks and Trojans were quite willing to cease from war, and the gods were blamed for the breaking of the truce. Truces were concluded with sacred oaths and a sort 1 XV, 504-505 ; VI, 289 ff ; VIII, 505-507 ; IX, 401 ff. 2 XVIII, 291-292; XXIV, 381-382 ; VIII, 517 ff. 3 III, 76 ff; VII, 375 ff. 298 HOMERIC SOCIETY of foundation-sacrifice, and the oath-breaker was cursed. Only death and woes came of such perjury, for Zeus sanctioned the keeping of pledges. 1 All these modifications of the war of extermination are marks of advancing culture and mutual sympathy. The sanction of the gods intervened to stop indis- criminate slaughter and the use of poisoned weapons ; the story goes that Odysseus made a journey to get poison for his arrows, but the man to whom he applied would not give the poison, " since (of course) he reverenced the ever-living gods." 2 Throughout Homeric life there are survivals of the formerly prevailing narrow tribal sentiment. The inter-tribal booty-raids and consequent petty warfare, such as that between the Eleans and Pylians ; piracy ; the retention of a non-tribesman's property, as when Augeas kept the horses of Neleus, sent to compete in games ; the virtual support which the Trojan people lent to the unjust deeds of Paris, though they hated him personally; the desire to compete with strangers and prove superior to them ; — all these practices and customs were of syngenetic origin and had not yet passed away. 3 The case of the king Echetus, who slew all strangers, and that of the Cyclopes and Lsestrygonians, who devoured guests relentlessly, were rougher phases of the same narrow tribal spirit. 4 » IV, 235. 2 xxiv, 482-486 ; 534 ff ; i, 260-263 (quoted) ; cf. ii, 328 ff. 3 XI, 698 ff; VII, 350-393; III, 205 ff ; 451-454; V, 804 ff. 4 xviii, 85 ff ; ix, 166 ff; x, 81 ff. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 299 As war, however, was becoming more humane, so guarantees outside of the bounds of the tribe or circumscribed group were being formed. The Greeks were an " active " race ; ! with them inertia before a possibility of advance was at a minimum. Minds were alive and elastic, eager and curious concerning external happenings, and bent upon an enthusiastic pursuit of material welfare. In all the phases of Greek life are found evidences of this receptivity of mind and eagerness for advance, impulses which work powerfully toward the decay of syngenetic feelings and customs, and toward the evolution of amalgamation and nationalisation. Toward this end one of the chief contributors is a body of traditions and usages connected with strangers, suppliants, guests, and guest-friends. 2 Since the stranger became at once a guest, and since a guest was for- ever afterward a guest-friend, this body of ideas and practices is appropriately called guest-friendship. Where syngenetic feeling is strong, " stranger " means " enemy " ; it had no such signification to the genuine Greek of Homer's time. The stranger, at his arrival, was at once addressed as xeinos, and welcomed with fine courtesy ; only the deepest domestic troubles led to neglect of strangers. 3 No questions were asked until the newcomer had par- taken of food and drink, and thus identified himself 1 Lippert, I, 43 ff. 2 Cf. Gladstone, J. M., 388. 8 iv, 277 ; i, 120 ff ; xiv, 45-47 ; xix, 134-135. 300 HOMERIC SOCIETY with the host and his interests ; for when men had taken food and drink together, their " brotherhood " was symbolically established. 1 Strangers were wel- come to feasts and sacrifices, were made participants of them, and were given the places of honour — all this before their identity was known. Menelaus is represented as feeling great irritation at the idea of sending strangers on to some other host; he felt and expressed his sense of reciprocal obligation for the hospitality extended to himself during his own wanderings. 2 During his stay (and his departure must neither be hastened nor delayed against his will), the stranger must suffer no harm — that would be a shame to his host ; while he remained, it was not in accordance with dike that the guest should suffer lack of anything his host could provide, and at his departure he was presented with valuable xeinia in remembrance. 3 In short, every liberty and privilege was granted to the stranger within the gates ; he was cherished as a brother by the right- minded man. 4 These guests were not always persons of noble birth ; any one who " came " 5 was welcome, though 1 XXI, 75-76; i, 120 ff; iv, 60 ff ; xiv, 158-159; xxi, 28-92. 2 iii, 34-41 ; cf. Buchholz, II, pt. 2, 43; Friedreich, 231 ff ; Leaf, 345 ; iv, 28-36. 8 xv, 68-74; xviii, 215 ff; xiv, 37-38; XVIII, 387; 408; iii, 485-490; iv, 591-592; 600; xv, 186-188; xx, 294-295. * viii, 546-547. 6 Cf. "proiktes"; "hiketes." GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 301 of course ancestral friends were most heartily received. Beggars were classed directly with xeinoi ; the disguised beggar Odysseus was hon- oured with the best food, and reverence was paid to his age and misfortunes ; when he spoke of departing so as to relieve his host of the burden, the host, a poor swine-herd, was incensed at the thought and bade him stay on. 1 Guests were often suppliants ; this type of man was generally a fugitive, fleeing from the relatives of some tribesman whom he had slain, intentionally or otherwise. The suppliant sought the protection of the hearth's sanctity, was regularly received as an unfortunate, treated with the utmost kindness, and, if brave and of good birth, often became a hetairos to his host's son. 2 The terms suppliant and guest are used together frequently ; in a certain sense every guest was a suppliant to his host, in those days. The suppliant, however, was generally in some plight that required considerable aid ; he was a special sort of guest. Such extended hospitality, such unguarded trust in a perfect stranger, is remarkable in any age of the world ; a host virtually placed himself and all his at the will and mercy of his guest. He must have felt great faith in some strong guarantee which safeguarded the integrity of this relation. 1 xiv, 57-58; 437-441 ; xv, 309 ; 335 ff. 2 IX, 485 ff; XI, 786 ff; XVI, 574 ff; XXIII, 85 ff; vii, 153- 154 ; xv, 223-224. 302 HOMERIC SOCIETY Such a guarantee was afforded in all needed strength by the heavy religious sanctions which rested upon all the relations of host and guest. The proper conduct of the host, as well as his duty of receiving the guest, was strongly emphasised by the gods ; they might go about in disguise, observing the actions of mortals to see if they treated their guests rightly. 1 Though the majority of divine in- junctions had to do, naturally enough, with the re- ception and respect to be accorded to strangers, still the guest's conduct also was prescribed. No right- minded man would consent to surpass his host even in athletic contests, much less to steal his property. An oath by the host's table or hearth was a sacred one. 2 It is not hard, therefore, to understand how a violation of this host-guest relation could bring on a Trojan war. Menelaus prayed to Zeus, as he took part in the ordeal-trial, for victory, in order that the rights of hosts might be upheld ; in another place he speaks with contempt and wrath of those who rob the man who is entertaining them. 3 The host had, then, strong religious sanctions to warrant his unguardedness. Doubtless his mind was satisfied in the belief that the gods would render his risks secure, and it never occurred to him to ask for a more rational explanation of his own hospitality. A.ny evidence as to the origins of this guest-friend- 1 ix, 270-271 ; xiv, 56-58; 386-389; xvii, 483-487. 2 viii, 208-211 ; xiv, 158-159. 8 III, 351-354 ; XIII, 623-627. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 303 ship must be given by Homer unconsciously, if at all. The presence of the religious sanctions in such number and strength indicates that the birth of the host-guest relation took place in the more or less re- mote past ; this is witnessed to also by the complete- ness of the relation's development. Apparently the origins of guest-friendship lay in the reachings-forth of a developing people toward an advance and to- ward a further and larger acquaintance with a world of greater material wealth and luxury than their own ; that is, the hospitality and love of guests so charac- teristic of the Homeric Greek were another product of the contact with the higher Eastern civilisation. The tribes of the Iliad and Odyssey, and their immediate ancestors, lived in a prosperous and populous culture-stage of combined cattle-raising and agriculture; conditions of life were such as to leave the lords of the people, if not the people themselves, free from the most grinding needs and from the enervating alternation of satiety and want. Settling in a land little suited to a continuance of nomadic life, and brought under the direct influence of the high civilisations of the East, attention was turning to other ideas and pursuits than those to which the earlier tribesmen had been attached — to the sea and to commerce, that is, to the outside world. The people were eager to learn, and men were their only books ; a stranger, who, if he were not himself a Phoenician, could yet describe the wonders of those magical foreign lands, was a rare 304 HOMERIC SOCIETY treasure to an isolated community. People came to be very fond of entertaining, and gladly accommo- dated another man's guest in his absence. One man is mentioned who had a house on the public road and entertained every one who came; a man was the more respected for entertaining freely. 1 In time the real practical value of the relation became more and more apparent, and Zeus became the guardian of strangers, who were the heralds of the time's advance. 2 Eagerness for news, for tales of the exterior world, its people and doings, is marked ; it is characteristic of an energetic, isolated com- munity. 3 Whether guest-friendship is to be regarded as an institution of more than local importance or not, its origin seems to have been taken from a period several centuries earlier than the Homeric age, and to have been due chiefly to the quickening contact with an older and more polished civilisation. The Greeks identified the customs of guest-friend- ship with civilisation and culture. Examples of dishonour of guests are connected with the cannibal- istic Cyclopes, the Lsestrygonians, and other such crude beings and monsters ; 4 it is only lawless and violent men who carry on such practices. The Suitors turned strangers away by their treatment i xv, 545-546; VI, 14-15; I74ff; 217; xix, 239-240. 2 III, 351-354 ; XIII, 623-627 ; ix, 270-271 ; xiv, 56-58 ; 388- 389 ; xvii. 485-487. 8 i, 170-172; iv, 595 ff ; xiv, 124 ff; xvii, 518-521; Sumner, U. L. * ix, 106 ff ; x, 81 £ j xii, 39 ff ; 245 ft. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES. JUSTICE, ETC. 305 of them and suggested their sale into slavery. 1 As for the Cyclopes, it is noticeable that they were especially godless, violent, and syngenetic; against their deeds appeal was made to Zeus Xeinios. As the Cyclops Polyphemus devoured the companions of Odysseus, he and his men held up their hands to Zeus; and by the aid of Zeus the monster was blinded. 2 Besides these lawless tribes, the Trojan Paris, and the Suitors, some of the ancient heroes were guilty of breaches of the host-guest relation, notably Heracles ; for he slew one to whom he had offered the hospitality of his table, — a terrible crime. 3 The best evidence to show that the kindly relation, between host and guest was the gauge of a people's civilisation is given by the shipwrecked unfortu- nate ; the first question of such an one as to the people among whom he is thus thrown, is : Are they just ? Are they godfearing ? Do they respect strangers ? These qualities are contrasted with rudeness and injustice. 4 From the reception of the stranger and the hospitality accorded to him arose an enduring relation, guest-friendship proper. After eating and drinking together, the two parties stood in a close mutual relation, which was strong enough to endure for generations ; the reciprocal duties and rights of the parties were made permanent. A strong sense 1 xvi, 108 ; xvii, 398-399 ; xx, 381-383. 2 ix, 294-295 ; 478-479. 8 xxi, 27-29. 4 vi, 119-121 ;xiii, 200-202. 20 306 HOMERIC SOCIETY of mutual good-will was engendered, the gifts at trie guest's departure standing as a symbol of the bond and not suffering its memory to fade ; the importance of these gifts as symbols is shown by a case where gifts alone established the host-guest relation, although the parties were never to enjoy each other's hospitality. 1 The once established relation afforded to each of the parties and to his children a special sponsor in a strange land, a land where otherwise he could claim no acquaintance ; the obligations descended upon the houses of the respective parties, in the death or absence of the original guest-friends. Such an ancestral relation was particularly holy and strong, and treasured in the traditions of the family. Mutual visits preserved the bond, and consequent diffusion of knowledge, tending toward amalgamation of ethnic elements, was among the results. 2 A further form of this bond is not unparalleled in ethnography ; for it resembles closely the system of " brotherhoods " common elsewhere. 3 It has been stated that eating and drinking together established a sort of brotherhood ; in time of war such brothers were expected to perform certain services for each other. A guest-friend was bound to make all effort to rescue the dead body of his xeinos for burial, and sometimes a prisoner was 1 iv, 591-592 j 600 ; etc. ; xxi, 34-37. a VI, 315 ft; i, 175-189; xv, 196-198; xvii, 522 ff; xix, 191 ff; xxiv, 263 ff. 8 Cf. Letourneau, Polit., 220; Sieukiewicz, Pan Michael, 164; 234 ; Tylor, 423-424. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 307 ransomed from slavery and set free, with gifts, by a guest-friend. 1 Ancestral guest-friends would not contend in battle. On the plain of Troy, Glaucus of Lycia and Diomed of Argos met for combat; before they fought, Diomed asked his opponent his name and ancestry. Glaucus, with the usual race- pride, gave his genealogy in detail. Hearing this Diomed exclaimed : " But you are an ancestral guest- friend of mine ; we cannot fight. Let us avoid each other in combat, and exchange armour as a symbol of our relation." This they did, with mutual pledges. The instance witnesses for many features of guest-friendship : the care with which its tradi- tions were preserved in the family, the detailed knowledge of a guest-friend's ancestry, the symbolism of gifts, the mutual sponsorship, etc. 2 The many advantages of this relation of guest- friendship need scarcely to be indicated ; one of its greatest services was of course to the traveller. Without this free hospitality, travel would hardly have been possible ; the wayfarer could not take a band of retainers to defend him and forage for him, nor could he take with him cattle or treasure, with which to pay his bills. The host acted as defender, food-provider, banker, sponsor, escort ; all the needs of the traveller were his host's to supply, from bath 1 XIII, 660-661 ; XVII, 150 ff (cf. 229 ff) ; XXI, 42. 2 VI, 1 45 ff ; the ancestors of Glaucus were Greeks, this indicat- ing migrations from Greece to Asia Minor; guest-friends would be especially valuable so far from home, for both parties ; cf . VI, 224- 225. 308 HOMERIC SOCIETY and bed to conveyance on sea or land, and all these duties were willingly discharged for the sake of the reciprocal claim upon the guest. Diomed witnesses to this in the passage to which attention has been called: " So now I am your dear host in the midst of Argos, and you mine in Lycia, when I visit that people." 2 Within range of this custom, therefore, travel became possible and not very hazardous, and so arose diffusion of culture and mutual knowledge ; the barrier of tribal narrowness was falling, for the stranger was a friend. And when we find that some such relation was recognised in Phoenicia and Egypt, 2 its far-reaching importance in the education of Greece becomes still more apparent. The stern safeguarding of the integrity of this relation would follow almost instinctively upon a realisation of its value. Public and private, and probably local and national, interests, would here unite. It has been shown that desire for vengeance upon a perfidious guest was the prime motive of the Trojan war; whether the allies of the injured Menelaus were led to fight the Trojans for his (and Agamemnon's) sake alone, or whether, as ap- pears more probable, a personal interest in the integrity of the violated relation roused their re- sentment, — at any rate, without guest-friendship and its anti-syngenetic power, such a united move- ment would have been impossible. Agamemnon 1 VI, 224-225. 2 iv, 125 f£ ; 617-619 ; cf. xiv, 246 ff ; Pietschmann, 285-286. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 309 and Menelaus enlisted their guest-friends by the story of the latter's wrongs, and in the wideness of the circle of their well-wishers and acquaintances lay the success of their undertaking. 1 Such a united movement as the Trojan expedition, for which more than 29 peoples, 1100 ships, and (ac- cording to the ancients) about 100,000 men, mus- tered at Aulis, is a veritable wonder under a non-despotic government, even if large discounts be made from these estimates. 2 Genghis Khan or Tamerlane might have been proud of it, and yet the expedition was a union of politically independent peoples. The mutual need of acquaintance, of security in travel and business, of external, stimu- lating communication, projecting itself upon the body of mores in the form of guest-friendship, was the most powerful factor in this great result. Such an aggregation of allies was hardly held together for so extended a period by allegiance to one or two kings, however rich and powerful. 3 The element of personal service is not infrequently brought out, both by the chiefs and by Mene- laus ; 4 still it seems that the allies were, in general attitude, less eager to aid the king (Menelaus or Agamemnon) than to aid an injured host to 1 XI, 769-770; XXIII, 296 ff; xxiv, 115-119. 2 Cf. Seymour, Iliad, Notes on the Catalogue ; II, 494. 8 II, 286 ff; 339-341. 4 I, 152 ff ; XVII, 92-93; XXIII, 607-609 ; v, 307 (but cf. XV, 449 ; XVII, 225-226) ; xiv, 70-71 ; there seems to have been some " buying off" from Agamemnon (XXIII, 297 ; cf. XI, 20 ff). 310 HOMERIC SOCIETY vengeance upon a treacherous guest and his whole tribe. The feeling of the allies had more than allegiance in it, 1 and from the ensemble of the Iliad it appears that the evident thirst for vengeance (and for booty, of course) considerably out-weighs any expressed desires of serving the sons of Atreus. The whole force of public opinion supported the expedition in a manner which indicates a collective aim to avenge an attack upon a collective possession ; the integrity of guest-friendship was certainly a far more vital matter to all Greece than intertribal alliances were to the separate tribes, though the latter are found to have been of high local importance. 2 There remain several cases of guest-friendship which exhibit peculiarities valuable as throwing light upon the system, though they were not ne- cessarily regular phases of it. Among the Phaeacians, Odysseus, though the guest of Alcinous, was, by the latter's command, the recipient of gifts from each of the sub-kings. The donation seems to have been a state-function, for the people finally paid for all the hospitality of these princes. The host of Odysseus in Crete also had recourse to taxing the people to pay for his generosity ; from them he collected the grain which he gave to his guest. Further, in Phseacia, the king and assembly provided Odysseus with con- veyance to his native land, jointly ; 3 elsewhere the guest was a purely personal burden or acquisition. 1 II, 354-356 ; IX, 42 f£; etc. 2 xiv, 238-239 ; xvi, 424-430. 8 viii, 389-393; xiii, 13-15 ; xix, 197 ; vii, 189ff. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 311 The presents received by the guest were an im- portant feature; tours were sometimes a means of collecting wealth. Odysseus waited for the Cy- clops's return to his cave in order to get a gift, and asked for it in a matter-of-fact way ; thus he seems to have done elsewhere. He delayed a long time among the Phseacians in order to collect property, and was regarded as clever for so doing. 1 Menelaus offered to take Telemachus the round of the Achaean cities, assuring him that no one would deny them presents ; a guest was urged to stay and get a valuable present at departure. 2 Guest-friends were also valuable in a business way ; we are told that Ithaca was too stony and mountainous for the raising of horses and cattle, and elsewhere we find that the horses and cattle of the Ithacans were pastured in Elis and on the mainland. There xeinoi of Odysseus and his own herdsmen cared for them; 3 evidently arrangements of this kind were common between xeinoi, which led to mutual ad- vantages and benefits. Guest-friendship thus reaches out into all the phases of social life ; whether it was an institution or not, it was a tangible, vigorous, social factor, and its importance at that stage of civilisation is scarcely to be over-estimated. Certainly the Greek states of that time were far nearer a voluntary unity than they have ever been since. The united Eastern 1 ix, 267-268 ; xxiv, 279 ; xix, 278-286. 2 xv, 80-85 ; i, 309-313. 8 iv, 635 ff; xx, 187-188; xiv, 100 ff. 312 HOMERIC SOCIETY movement of 336-323 b. c. was far less national in character, and was under a despot's hand and leadership, while the Trojan expedition was a vol- untary vindication of the right of a young, vigorous nation to grow and gather culture. This expedition, under whatever motives gathered, was a remarkable exhibition of collective action for that age of the world, as was the counter-alliance which defended Ilion. It is noticeable that former expeditions and alliances were matters of tradition to Homer; Priam had been an ally of the Phrygians ; the Theban expedition, like the Trojan, was gath- ered by visiting the various cities and soliciting vol- unteers ; and Nestor was called from afar to assist in the destruction of the " Mountain-beasts." 1 These ancient undertakings were small compared with the one against Ilion ; Agamemnon was the greatest king that had ever been known, and to the forces that mustered at Aulis practically all Greece contributed. The members of this great confederation all spoke the same language, followed the same religious system, and practised like mores ; their discipline was good, and though bound only by oath, a common desire for vengeance and booty led to a remarkably consistent collective policy. The close co-operation of the Greek contingents is a fine example of social enterprise for any age ; between the members of the several con- tingents few of those barriers remained which are wont to restrict social amalgamation. 1 III, 188 ff ; IV, 377 ff ; I, 260 ff. GOVERNMENT, CLASSES, JUSTICE, ETC. 313 The Greek confederation is the better understood by contrast with the Trojan alliance, which could never have formed a conquering state. The Trojan organisation was loose and weak ; differences in lan- guage caused much confusion ; the paid allies de- fended poorly, because they had no real interest at stake and were ever ready to withdraw, unless care- fully humoured. 1 Some of the allies were people from tribes which apparently had had an offensive and defensive alliance with Priam, and to whom goods might be sent for safe-keeping. 2 Most of the allies, however, came from afar, and some exhibit a certain crudeness and barbarity. 3 The fact that such a collection of peoples could have been brought together for a given object attests growing inter- course and communication between distant lands ; but they were a heterogeneous horde, and, in Homer's mind, plainly contrasted with the genuine Greeks. Among the Greeks, alliances which united the interests of tribes not far apart, seem to have been common and highly valued; the Ithacans and Thesprotians were allied, and an Ithacan who vio- lated this alliance was saved from death only by the king's influence. 4 In Greece, also, the knowledge of peoples con- 1 II, 803 ff; 867; IV, 437; X, 420 ff; XVII, 225-226; XVI, 538 ff; XVII, 142 ff. 2 XIII, 793 ; XXIV, 382 ; cf. 543-545. * II, 848; 867; 872; V, 478-479; XVII, 220 ff; XX, 485 ; XXI, 156 ff. 4 xvi, 424-430. 314 HOMERIC SOCIETY cerning each other was beginning to be widened by the establishment of Games, 1 and, as has been said, marriage was contracted by parties who lived the width of Greece apart. Class-amalgamation was well on its way, and lines which divided tribe from tribe were fading. Although Homer mentions no term for Greece, yet the peoples who inhabited what was later known as Hellas were in many ways fitted to bear the collective name of Nation. Patri- otism, at first merely the expression of ethnic unity, 2 had become a broader and more cosmopolitan feel- ing. Had the conditions governing. Greek develop- ment—the country's physical conformation and the influences subsequently brought to bear through con- tinued contact with the East, among others — per- mitted the authority of such a king as Agamemnon to become permanent in times of peace, Southern Greece might have advanced to the more evolved state-functions of organisa^on-wars and conquest ; 3 after centuries of petty strife, it was reserved to the less cultured Macedonia to develop these functions of statehood and to effect the real conquest of the East under an unlimited despot. 1 XI, 698-702. 2 Letourneau, Morale, 240. 3 Guniplowicz, Soc, III, art. 13 ; pp. 155-159 ; Soc. u. Polit., art. 27 ; p. 80. REFERENCES Buchholz, Homerische Realien. 3 vols., Leipzig, 1871-1885. Durkheim, E., Methode Sociologique. Paris, 1895. Friedreich, J. B., Realien in der Iliade und Odyssee. Erlangen, 1851. Gladstone, W. E., Homer and the Homeric Age. 3 vols., Oxford, 1858. Juventus Mundi. Boston, 1869. Guiraud, P., La Propriete Fonciere en Grece. Paris, 1893. Gumplowicz, L., Grundriss der Sociologie. Wien, 1885. Sociologie und Politik. Leipzig, 1892. Der Rassenkampf. Innsbruck, 1883. Rechtsstaat und Socialismus. Innsbruck, 1881. Jebb, R. C, Introduction to Homer. Boston, 1887. Keane, A. H., Ethnology. 2d edit., Cambridge, 1896. Leaf, W., Companion to the Iliad. London and New York, 1892. Lehmann, Alfr., Overtro og Trolddom. Kjobenhavn, 1893-1894 (trans. Aberglaube und Zauberei, Stutt- gart, 1898). Letourneau, Ch., The Evolution of Marriage. London, 1895. L'Evolution Morale. Paris, 1887. L'Evolution Politique. Paris, 1890. Property; Its Origin and Development. London, 1892. Sociologie, d'apres l'Ethnographie. Paris, 1880. Lippert, J., Kulturgeschichte. 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1886. Maspero, G., Dawn of Civilisation (Egypt and Chaldsea), trans. McClure; ed. Sayce. New York, 1894. Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de POrient. Paris, 1876. 316 REFERENCES Meyer, E., Geschichte des Altertums. 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1884. Movers, F. C, Die Phonizier. 2 vols., Bonn, 1841 (vol. 1) ; Berlin, 1849-1856 (vol. 2). Naegelsbach, C. F. von, Homerische Theologie. 2te Aufl., bearbeitet von G. Autenrieth. Niirnberg, 1861. Pietschmann, R., Geschichte der Phonizier. Berlin, 1889 Poehlmann, R., Feldgemeinschaft bei Homer. In Aus Altertum und Gegenwart, Miinchen, 1895. Ranke, J. , Der Mensch. 2 vols., Leipzig und Wien, 1894. Ratzel, F., Volkerkunde. 2 vols., 2te Aufl., Leipzig und Wien, 1894-1895. Ridgeway, W., The Early Age of Greece. Vol. 1, Cam- bridge, 1901. Seymour, T. D., Homeric Language and Verse. Boston, 1889. Iliad (6 books). Boston, 1889. Speck, E., Handelsgeschichte des Altertums. Erster Band : Die orientalischen Volker. Leipzig, 1900. Spencer, H., Principles of Sociology. 3 vols., New York, 1877 (vols. 1 and 2) ; London, Edinburgh, and Oxford, 1896 (vol. 3). Starcke, C. N., Primitive Family. New York, 1889. Samvittighedslivet. Vol. 1, Kjobenhavn, 1894. Sumner, W. G., Unpublished Lectures. 1895-1901. Tylor, E. B., Anthropology. New York, 1893. Westermarck, E., History of Human Marriage. London and New York, 1891. Wilken, G. A., Vergelijkende Volkenkunde. Leiden, 1893. Autenrieth's Homeric Dictionary and Liddell & Scott's Greek Lexicon are occasionally referred to with abbrevia- tions. INDICES INDEX OF REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES ILIAD I Lines Pages IV Lines Pages 206 252 Lines Pagi 8 111 212ff 270 35 129 9ff 126 212-277 265 58-61 232 12 ff 148, 266 228 268 58 ff 205 31 73 246 ff 271 75-77 154 37 ff 180 259-260 236 102 131 39 45, 143 271-277 264 190 ff 179 50 37 300 ff 160,170 235 298 59-67 125 318-319 155 293-311 296 62 147 356 228 371 78 62-63 150, 161 357-359 257 377 ff 312 65 ff 141 360 ff 246 437 313 72 160 400-401 146 478 244 74-83 267 494 309 80 ff 163 550-551 138 V 113 219 655 246 70 230 137 ff 259 661-666 284 88-92 78 152 ff 309 668 246 152-158 244 155 ff 85 722 113 154 ff 236 176 ff 258 803 ff 313 339-342 108 193 ff 259 813-814 146 389 227 218 138 867 313 402 235 227 ff 296 412 ff 205 233 ff 176 504 9 247 ff 290 ■ [II 512 143 260 ff 312 6ff 69 ff 76 ff 3 166 297 642 ff 84,85 318ff 334 ff 259 275 696 ff 880 103 207 356 403-404 423-424 447-479 597 259 146 2 133 157 184 ff 188 ff 212ff 240-244 204 312 264 87 905 14-15 210 VI 304 260-313 78 48 51 270 112 94 131 II 271-272 153 145 ff 307 8ff 150 316 265 160 ff 229 188 ff 270 351-354 302 168 ff 95 196-197 258 351 ff 229 178-182 186 203-205 251 365 127 186 204 320 INDEX OF REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES Lines Pages Lines Pages I Lines Pages 192 214 144 ff 214 769-770 309 200 ff 114 149 254 846 181 224-225 308 157 213 235-236 57 189 183 . 260-265 49 363 ff 87 ^Vll 269-270 130 365 51 199-208 157 269-277 136 394 219 218ff 157 289 ff 74 404-405 97, 144 234-243 158 297-311 136 410ff 114 243 247 300 147 455 ff 232 280 154 394 212 458-461 286 313 ff 252 402-403 235 478 ff 238 421 ff 192 526-529 136 483-484 492 ff 254 236 433-435 84 VI 499 130 XII 39 ff 166 533-549 135 5-6 2,47 44-53 161 534 ff 127 623-627 302 76 ff 121 566 ff 202, 284 660-661 307 83 142 574-575 147 671-672 103 171 ff 165 592-594 221 793 313 193-196 114 632-636 285 219-223 62 647-648 275 XIV 243-250 274-282 314 ff 345-379 372 ff 71 275 136 266 275 X 15-16 68-69 196-197 129 237 270 215ff 246 ff 271-276 296 333 ff 347-351 173 204 176 205 209 109 375 ff 467 ff 297 96 266-267 292-294 287 131 470-471 92 343 271 478-481 153 351 193 XV 415 168 187 ff 197 VII 420 ff 313 252 103 186 ff 35 318ff 173 290-291 97 XI 357 78 306 40 53-55 154 394 179 368 105 67 ff 192 466-470 153 378 78 124 100 627 83 404-405 180 139-141 100 679-684 36 553 78 160 192-194 78 158 737-738 296 EX 223 ff 232 Xvi 31 ff 263 225 ff 205 58-59 275 63-64 246 514-515 181 114 ff 153 73 195 558-562 37 180 ff 234 97-102 252 677 ff 293 233-235 145 115 ff 287 682 ff 99 385-388 291 120 ff 213 698-702 314 407 48, 169 INDEX OF REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES 321 Lines 441 459-460 504-505 538 ff 606-607 779 Pages 128 154 103 313 103 33 XVII 92-93 309 126-127 117 142 ff 313 150 ff 307 225-226 313 301-302 244 425 9 547-550 154 711 62 XVIII 122 349-353 417-421 438 497-508 541-560 541 ff 550-572 561-572 600-601 607-609 74 118 174 42 286,291 44 192, 195 195 42 64 9 XIX 118 271 238 287 177 297-299 219 404-417 160 404 ff 170 39 42-45 100 ff 249 ff 250-268 XX Lines Pages 61-65 106 221 33 427 78 XXI 42 95 100-105 130-132 132 243-246 281 320-323 391 ff 405 444-457 307 206 283 130 170 78 117 117 295 192 85, 254, 288 XXII 26-31 49 ff 69 74-76 88 124 169 ff 199 254-261 338 346-347 371-375 393-394 467 ff 470 ff 477 ff 489 506-507 509 509-513 154,180 213 38 117 212 285 138 152 288 234 129 118 182 103 217 227 192,197 235 117 121 XXIII Lines Pages 50-51 119 65-67 119 65-69 104 69 ff 112 85-88 285 85-90 238 100 ff 104 132-141 120 144 ff 129 147 131 175-176 129 176 120 222-223 236 265-266 37 281-282 35 296 ff 309 703-705 97 744-745 92 832 ff 44, 55, 88 880 103 XXIV 46-47 206 46-54 284 53-54 119 66-70 127, 138 80 57 112 ff 285 212 129 218-219 158 221 147 303-307 139 382 313 409 117 420-421 118 486 ff 234 488-489 196 525-526 115 592-595 120 656-804 120 734-737 283 762 ff 228 21 INDEX OF REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES Pages 22 ff 2 32-34 111 47 230 65-67 124, 127, 13 120 ff 299 170 218 216 206 231 ff 222 234-241 117 260-261 88 260-263 298 261 ff 60 275-278 215 289 ff 121 298 203 298-299 284 309-313 311 390-393 253 416 274 430-431 96,97 ii 6ff 261 25 ff 255 48 242 52-53 226 52-54 215 60-61 240 130 ff 216 131 226 135-136 227 143-145 224 155 ff 160 181-182 158 186 100 223 215 225 ff 274 ODYSSEY Lines Pages Lines 226-227 243 85-89 434 86 125 ff 164-165 174-177 iii 181 2 9 207 ff 34-41 300 229-232 47-48 124 252-253 71-74 93 274-275 127 263 277 136 ff 265 351-352 159 ff 87 351 ff 195 ff 284 360 ff 196 ff 236 377-380 244 290 412 249 ff 284 455 ff 255 ff 203, 226 472-480 258-261 117 502 ff 265-266 230 525-526 267 274 561 ff 267 ff 243 582-586 284-285 122 584 303 ff 228 617-619 304-305 224 635-637 309-310 123 635 ff 366-368 99 796 404-472 133 798 406-412 169 809 432 80 432 ff 272 464-468 210 35 iv 44-46 3ff 217 120 5 89 212-218 5-7 214 246-247 11-12 230 270 ff 28-36 300 307 49 ff 210 346-350 INDEX OF REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES 323 lines 371 488-490 PAGK8 36 49 15-19 209 25 ff 214 109 209 119-121 305 126 ff 209 136 ff 209 162-163 41 205 27 270-272 27 288 218 59-77 205 63 ff 205 65 ff 232 103 ff 281 114-128 42 153-154 168 163-165 26 191 26 203-205 26 205-206 2,3 313-314 213 viii 5-6 260 31 27 75-78 258 79-81 144 124 193 159-164 93,2 208-211 302 223-224 59 246-249 27 265 27 266 ff 229 284 3 306 ff 232 317-318 214 332 231 332 ff 209 347 ff 288 351 ff 99 Lines 389-399 391 546-547 557 ff 559 ff 58 84 ff 94-97 106 ff 130-135 166 ff 184 ff 187-189 196ff 209 219-223 252-255 267-268 270-271 275 ff 294-295 355 ff 383-386 391 ff 478-479 507-510 527 ff 7 81 ff 82 ff 2l0ff 492-495 508-515 512 ff 513-514 517ff 522 13-19 13-22 23 ff 25 ff Pages 304 254 269 300 174 27 33 3 46 ,249, 40 298 66 3 148 48 3 93 311 302 3 305 3 58 53,56 305 163 141 205, 232 298, 304 3 174 106 105 174 112 123 131 3 105 174 123 Lines 27-28 74 90-150 108-109 122-128 147 ff 184-186 206-208 2I3ff 218-222 235 ff 271 ff 277-278 279-280 288-290 301-304 311 ff 338 ff 346 ff 385-386 387-388 399-403 405 ff 422 489-491 491 492 ff 494-503 568-571 572-575 576-600 601-602 601 ff 605 ff 623-626 634-635 Pages 139 112 106 170 3 105 195 104 203 104 108 232 288 202 293 106 235 205 254 203 104 293 220 220 45, 275 104 236 196 104, 106, 291 29, 104 106 106 29 106 105 203 39 ff 304 89 ff 186 105-106 66 167 ff 186 235 ff 186 245 ff 304 262 ff 170 343-347 128 357-363 131 324 INDEX OF REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES Lines 394-396 439-440 Pages 156 289, 291 xm 14-15 254 57 ff 205 107-108 66 123-124 288 163 ff 155,163 200-202 289, 305 417 127 29-38 45-47 56-58 62-63 62-67 70-71 96-104 100-102 100 ff 158-159 200 ff 208-210 211-213 238-239 239 288-289 283 ff 316 ff 327-328 327-330 386-389 388-389 420-448 449-452 495 531 37 299 302, 304 214 279 309 98 198 311 168, 302 237 197 213 310 259 91 15 277 160,171 145 302 304 135 279 151 37 xv 80-85 311 223 ff 163,164 245-246 160 272 ff 246, 284 329 9 376-379 279 Lines 403-484 415 ff 416 419 459-460 Pages 91,92 86 15 91 54 383-385 18 87 115 ff 242 159-163 169 211-212 116 381-382 286 401-402 286 424-430 313 424 ff 254 426 ff 88 xvii 216 276 250 276 308-310 38 321-323 281 365 157 163, 272, 183 483-487 302 485-487 304 518-520 183 541-546 155 565 9 xviii 5 206 44-45 50 85 ff 298 130-131 115 184ff 209 267 ff 239 269-270 215,224 290 ff 212 294-295 54 328 80, 81 374 193 xix 111 252 134-135 299 Lines Pages 141 ff 214 278-286 311 399-412 235 414 ff 244 456-460 180 457-458 174 528-529 215 533-534 223 536-558 152 547 152 562 151 563 72 xx 18 188 25-27 50 66-78 114 87-90 152 100 ff 155 120-121 155 123 ff 49 187-188 311 201-202 127 342 223 345-357 156 355-356 161 16-21 27-29 34-37 74-79 175 ff 213-216 214 214-216 258 ff 350 ff 395 99 305 306 216 281 196 214 273, 279 138 225 59 xxn 55 ff 287 345-348 183 465-477 192 475-478 281 INDEX OF REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES 325 Lines 50-51 178ff 189 ff 211-212 223 267 ff 281-284 356-358 xxm Pages 112 68,69 72 114 279 137 114 293 Lines 1-10 12 87-92 111-112 115-119 226-227 279 294 Pages 104 151 121 293 309 42 311 212 Lines Pages 336-344 42 420 ff 261 430-431 284 482-486 298 482 ff 241 534 ff 298 SUBJECT INDEX Adoption, 236, 238 Adultery, 214, 227-231, 280, 287 JEgh, 31, 173 jEgisthus, 136, 226 iEolus, 205 Affection, 219-220,234 Agamemnon, 256-259, 268, 312 Aged, 177, 244-245 Agency, 110-111 Agore. See Assembly. Agricultural processes, 44 Agriculture, 31, 39 Aliens, 275 Alliances, 312-313. See Trojan expedition. Altar, 68, 143 Amalgamation, ethnic, 250-251, 306,312,314 Amazons, 204 Ambush, 296 Anthropomorphism, 1 08-1 09,1 1 6, 124 Arbitration, 285-286, 289-291 Arete, 205-206 Arms and armour, 58, 63, 68-73 Asceticism, 144, 161 Assembly, 256, 259-262, 264 ff Augury, 148, 151 Auspices, 156-159 B Banking, 97 Banning of ghosts, 105, 112 Bards, 182-185, 274 Bargain-sacrifice, 123, 126-128, 140 Barter, 96 Basileus, 268-269. See King. Beggar, 275 ff, 301 Blood, 105, 175 Blood-rain, 154 Boiling, 49, 50 Bone and horn, 72 Booty. See War. Boule. See Council. Boundaries, 193, 197 Bow, 58-60, 106 Bribery, 266 Bridge, 78 Brotherhoods, 175, 179,300,306- 308 Camp, 79 Cannibalism, 129-130 Caste, 147, 164 Cattle- raising, 30, 39 Ceremony (in marriage), 213, 216 Chaldaeans, 7, 107, 113, 175, 186 Chalkos, 50, 52 Chariot, 61-62 Charm, 174, 180 Chastity, 209 Children, 210, 226, 233 ff Children's food, 47 Clothing, 74-75 Clytaemnestra, 220, 226, 230 Collective undertakings, 77 Colour, 75, 76 Communications, 88, 89 Communism, 192, 195 Commutation (of talion), 284-286 Concubines, 220-221, 279. See Wife (chief). Confederation, 256 Contempt for merchant-class, 93 Contract, 84, 85, 91, 126-128, 142, 288 Cooking, 49 328 SUBJECT INDEX Copper, 23. See Chalkos. Cosmology, 9, 185 Council, 256, 262 ff Counting, 94 "Cow-eyed," 170 Craftsmen, 80, 85, 271 Cremation, 117, 119 Crime. See Homicide, etc. Cult, 112, 116 Cult-animals and plants, 169-170 Cult-implements, 137-138, 140 Cult-language, 146 Cult-selection, 34, 41, 170 Curiosity, 304. See Bards. Curse, 141-142, 176 Cyclopes, 2-3, 58, 162 Daimon, 109-110 Daimonology, 1 10-1 1 1 Date-palm, 41, 43 Dead, duties to, 116-123 Dead body, maltreatment of, 118, 129 "Dead hand," 138, 145 Death, 101, 103, 106 Death-like states, 101, 103 " Debt," 98-99 Deception of gods, 134 Degeneracy, 292 Dike, 289-292 Dikes and dams, 78 Discipline, 252, 258-259, 267, 282, 295 Divers, 84 Divorce. See Repudiation. Dodona, 144-145 Dog, 29, 32, 38, 105, 117, 120- 121, 130, 169-170 Domestication, 9, 19, 20, 39, 89 Dream-interpreters, 1 52 Dreams, 150-152 Drill, 58 Drugs, 172, 173 Dualism, 103, 106 Duel, 165-166 Dveing, 74, 76 Dynasty, 211, 218, 219, 225 Echetus, 298 Egyptians, 7, 8, 63, 107, 181, 186 Eidolon, 103, 151 Elektros, 53 Elysium, 106-107 Embalming, 117-118 Emblems (royal), 255 Envy of gods, 77, 114-115 Erinyes, 202-203 Eumaeus, 91-92 Evils of life, 115 Exiles, 273, 284-286, 301 Exorcism, 113 Fate, 128, 187 Eee, 291 Fertilisation, 44 Festival, 138 Fetich, 143, 166-172 Feudalism, 194-195, 196, 199 Fines, 99, 231, 288 Fire, 49, 112, 117,246 First-fruits, 127 Fish, 48, 169 Fishing, 30 Food, 45 ff. See " Old " foods. Force-guarantees, 190, 196-198, 240, 241, 252, 268 Fortification, 77, 78 "Foundation-sacrifice," 178 Fowls, 38, 39 Fruit-trees, 41-45 Funeral, 117-123 Furniture, 71-72 Games, 298, 314 Geese, 151 Gens, 245, 248 Geography, 3, 86 Geras, 268 Gerontes, 260, 290 Goats, 31,33 Gods, 107-110, 124 ff, 160 Gold, 23 SUBJECT INDEX 329 Grains, 36, 40, 45 "Grave-following-," 120, 121 Groves, 145 Guest-friendship, 89, 97, 229 299 ff H Habitations, 66 Hades, 105 Hearth, 69, 143, 168 Hephaestus, 81, 272-273 Heracles, 29, 59, 106 Heralds, 255, 274-275 Hetairoi, 270, 273-276, 282 Hippomolgoi, 2 Homer, 183 ff Homicide, 283-286 Honey, 46, 131-132 Horse, 34, 130, 131, 160, 170 Hospitality. See Guest-friend- ship. Household utensils, 63-64 Human sacrifice, 120, 129 Hunting, 29 Ideograms, 95-96 Illegitimacy, 234, 237-238 Incense, 130 Incest, 204-205, 232-233 Industrial organisation, 6 Infancy, 234-235 Infanticide, 233 Inhericance, 194, 195, 196-198. 225 Insurance, 124, 127-128 Iron, 44 Irrigation, 9, 45 Ivory, 72 Jealousy, 220, 230 Jewels, 54 Judge, 289-291 " Justification," 2, 125, 127,135, 139, 166, 289 K Kassiteros, 53 King, 98, 150, 193-194, 222,252- 259, 262-264, 266-268 Kyanos, 53 Land, property in, 192 ff Law, 282. See Themistes. Leather, 72, 82, 83 Levies (roval), 254, 268 Libation, i39-140, 153 Lighting, 69 " Long-house," 70 Loom, 66, 73 Lot, 165 Lotus-eaters, 3 Luck, 114-116, 128-129, 137 M Magic, 109, 172-175 "Mai," 168, 260 Manufactures, 50 Marriage and property, 200, 226- 227 Marriage-ceremonies, 216-218 " Matriarchate," 201-207 Meat, 46 Mercenaries, 313 Metallic processes, 55, 57 Metals, 50, 55 Metanastai, 275 Milk, 33, 47-48 Miracles, 155-156, 175 Monarchy, 251 Money, 96-97 Monogamy, " juridic," 218 Morals. 228, 230-231 Mores, 250 Motherhood, 225-226 Mourning, 113, 121 Movers, F. C., ix, 11 Mules, 37 Mythical tribes, 2, 4 330 SUBJECT INDEX Name, 113, 167, 206 Naming, 235 Narcotics, 40, 77 Nationalisation, 299 Necromancy, 174 Nemesis, 115 Nobles, 256, 268-270 Oak, 145, 160, 170-171 Oaths, 175-179 Ocean stream, 105, 107 CEdipus, 232 Oil, 73, 75, 76 " Old " foods, 47, 48, 132, 140, 171 Omens, 141, 152-160 Oracle, 144-145 Oratory, 264 Ordeals, 165-166, 178 Orestes, 122-123, 203, 284 Oriental influence, viii, 4, 24, 96, 303-304 Orion, 29, 58 Ornament, 74, 75 " Otherworldliness," 104, 107, 117-120 "Owl-eved," 170 Ox, 33/96-97, 131 Passenger-carrying, 30, 92 Patria potestas, 214 Patriarchate, 30, 31, 207 ff Patroclus, 118-120 Patronymics, 235,237 Peace-bond, 248, 252-253 Peculium, 279 Penelope, 222-226 People, the, 267, 270-271 Perfume, 75 Perjurv, 298 Phaeaclans, 26, 27, 205 Phoenicians, 10, 28, 43, 64 as culture-carriers, 6, 18, 24 commerce and commercial methods, 13, 24 influence of, 81, 89-92, 207 religion of, 17 Physicians, 179-181 Piracy, 92-93 Pitch, 76 Poetry, 182-185 Poison (for weapons), 60, 298 Polygamy, 218 Poor and rich, 97-98 "Possession," 110, 160 Potter's wheel, 64 Pottery, 83 Prayer, 140-142, 148 Precedent, 289-292 Priestess, 135 Priests, 132, 133, 145-149, 185 Primogeniture, 197, 238 Prcetus, 95-96 Professions. See Smiths, Bards, Physicians, etc. Property-guarantees, 226-227 Property-right, 190 Prophecy and prophets, 150-164, 170, 274 Propitiation, 115-116, 124 ff Proteus, 25 Pseudo-knowledge, 179-181, 185- 186 Public opinion, 259, 264, 286 Punishments, 288 Pygmies, 3 Pytho, 144 Rainhow, 154 nationalisation, 111, 128,187-188 Redemption, 130 Relationship, 245 Religion, 6. 16, 149, 186-188 Re-marriage. See Widow. Repudiation, 223, 226-227, 231- 232 Resignation, 187-188 Retainers, 194. See Hetairoi. I Right and left, 154, 156-157, 158 SUBJECT INDEX 331 Rights, 124, 225 Ritual, 137 Roads, 78 Roasting, 49 Round numbers, 6 1-172 Sacrifices, 116, 120, 123 ff, 140 Sailors, 83-84 Salt, 47 Sceptre, 255, 260 Scvlla and Charybdis, 86 " Second-sight," 161 Serpents, 170 Settlements, 79, 80 Sexes, relations of, 208-211 Shame, 209-210 Sheep, 3 1 , 33 Shepherds, 32 Shield of Achilles, 44 Ships and shipping, 18, 26, 27, 64-65, 82, 86-88 Sickness and the sick, 112-113, 179-180 Siege, 296-297 Silence, 113, 115, 141 Silver, 23 Sin, 125-126, 135,136, 232 Sisyphus, 106 Slavery and slaves, 191-192, 196, 277-281, 286, 293-294 Slave-trade, 21, 90 Sleep and dreams, 101, 105 Smiths, 80, 81, 90, 272 Sneezing, 154 Snow, 154 Song, 120, 133 Sons, 223-226, 236 Soul, 102-105 Spinning and weaving, 73 Spirit- world, 104, 105-107, 203 Sponges, 71, 77 Stars, 154 Statue, 144 Stone and stone-working, 66, 70, 7 1 , 82-83 Stranger. See Guest-friendship. Suicide, 288 Succession, 225-226, 237-244 Suitors, The, 222-226, 240-241 Sulphur, 137, 180 Sumner, W. G., vii Suppliants, 301 Swine, 31, 33, 130 Syngenism, 249, 292, 298 Tabu, 134, 137, 167, 193, 275 Tactics, 295-296 Talion, 283 ff Tantalus, 106 Tekton, 81-82 Telemachus, 223-224, 239-242 Temenos, 193-196 Tempering, 56 "Temples," 136, 143 ff Textiles, 73 Thank-offerings, 136 Theft, 227-229, 287 Themistes, 252, 289-292 Therapeutics, 179-181 Threshold, 168 Thunder, 154, 155 Tin, 23. See Kassiteros. " 77s," 264 Tityus, 106 Tombs, 121, 122, 168 ff Tools, 55, 57 Towns. See Settlements. Trade, 85 contempt for, 272 Travel, 307 •♦Trial," 285-286, 290-291 Tribe, 245-247 Troglodytes, 66 Trojan expedition, 256, 309-310 Trojans, 295, 313 Trophies, 142 Truce, 177 Values, 97 Vegetables, 40, 46 Venality, 99-100 332 SUBJECT INDEX Vengeance, 118-119, 310. See Talion. Victims, 130-131 Vines, 41-45 Vows. See Prayers. W 121, 308- Wages and wage-earners, 45, 77, 84-85, 275 Wagon, 63 *\ Wand, 172 War, 292-299 Waste (funeral), 120, 123; 129, 134, 138-439 Water, 48, 112, 131, 132, 137, 139, 141, 180 Wax, 76 Wealth, 98 Weapons, 58-62 Weights and measures, 93-94 Widow, 214-216, 222-227 Wife (chief), 211, 212, 213, 216, 218-220, 226-229, 237 purchase of, 212-215 Wine, 48-49, 131,139-140 Woman, position of, 135, 221- 227, 243, 259 Wonder-tales, 26, 43, 47, 56, 86 Woodworking, 57, 82 "Word," 114, 171 Work- animals, 131 Wounds, 179 > Writing, 94-96 Xeinoi, 198 Zeus Xeinios. ship. See Guest-friend. RETl HOME USE CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT MAIN LIBRARY This h..R is due on the *t*£ *■#$&. r ED or 3 4 — Berkeley (E4555sf0)~476B University of California Berkeley