The following is an excerpt (pages 79-83) from Ancient and Medieval History (1946) by Francis S. Betten, S.J. Although some information may be outdated, the Catholic historical perspective it provides remains pertinent. Use the link at the bottom of post to read the previous/following pages. Use the Search box above to find specific topics or browse using the Resources tab above.
THE ACHAEAN AGE
84. The Achaeans put an end to the period of Cretan culture. They certainly belonged to a different race. The former population were short, dark, black-eyed, like all the aborigines of southern Europe. They buried their dead, used no iron, worshiped their ancestors, and lived frugally, mainly on fish and vegetable diet. The Achaeans, as described by Homer, were tall, fair, yellow-haired, and blue-eyed; they burned their dead, adored a sun god and a whole host of other deities, used iron swords, and would feast mightily on roast oxen for whole nights. About 1500, bands of Achaeans, drawn by the splendor and riches of the south, came from the mountainous countries in the north, broke into the lands around the Aegean Sea, overcame the natives, dwelt in their cities, became their chiefs, married their women, and possessed the land. An Egyptian inscription of this time declares that “the islands were disturbed.” The occupation was a slow process, no doubt involving much unrecorded misery. Occasionally large forces warred long and desperately about some strongholds. Troy and Mycenae may have been among these, while Knossos, undefended by walls, early fell before a fleet of Achaean sea-rovers. Homer’s story may have been based upon one of these closing struggles.
In the course of time the Achaeans assumed the characteristics of the natives and disappeared among them. Meanwhile the art of writing had been lost. What we know of the institutions and customs of the Achaeans we owe to their great poet Homer, whose poems passed orally from generation to generation, until the time when writing became once more known.
85. Political Institutions. — For the Greeks every city was an independent state, and every state was thought of as a city. In the beginning probably each geographical district was such a city-state, though later on very often a city-state contained several such districts. All who lived in such a territory were also considered citizens of what we may call the capital, whether they lived in it or in some other town or hamlet. The independence of these city-states was complete. The relations with a city only five miles away were foreign relations, as much as with the King of Assyria. The jealousy which animated these many little states accounts for the many wars which disfigure Greek history, and for the disunion often shown in the face of the greatest common danger.
Originally every Greek city had a king, who was priest, judge, and commander of the army. A council of prominent men, chiefs of the several tribes which made up the city population, and also members of his own family, assisted him and to a great extent controlled his actions. The assembly of the freemen of the city as a rule could only shout approval or mutter dissent, though it may have happened that a bold assembly thwarted the royal designs. These simple institutions contained the germ from which later on developed the several elaborated political systems of Greece.
86. Society was simple, and manners were harsh. Odysseus ruled as overking in the little island of Ithaca, in a “palace” built with his own hands. If we believe Homer’s description, it was merely “a rude farmhouse, where swine wallow in the court.” He himself could “drive the oxen at the plow and drive a clean furrow”; and mow all day with a crooked scythe, “pushing clear until eventide.” When he was shipwrecked on some island, he found the daughter of the head-king, princess Nausicaa, doing the washing with her band of maidens. Homer speaks of all this as of something ordinary, even as the ideal condition.
The mass of the people were small farmers, their houses being grouped in villages. The slaves were kindly treated. Odysseus at least is on the best terms with them. When he returns after a twenty years’ absence, the first to whom he discloses his identity is his faithful swineherd and another slave, and they without any further ceremony embrace and kiss their master. There existed also a class of free landless laborers, whose lot was far from being enviable.
Artisans and smiths were found among the retainers of the great kings. They were highly honored, though their skill was far below that of the Cretan age. Some artistically made weapons and other articles may have come from the workers of the earlier times. Also the palaces of a few kings may have been those erected with so much magnificence in former times — for instance, when we hear of “the flashing of bronze through the echoing halls, the gleam of gold and of amber, of silver and ivory.” No commerce was carried on, except occasionally by the kings. These even disgraced themselves by stooping to piracy to increase their profits.
In war the bodies of the slain enemies were left unburied, to be devoured by packs of savage dogs. When the noble Trojan hero, Hector, had fallen, all the kings assembled around his body, “and no one came who did not add his wound.” Enemy warriors, if captured, and the inhabitants of conquered cities were doomed to slavery. Even princesses expected no better fate.
87. Religious Ideas. — The Achaeans worshiped the forces of nature as gods. They fancied these gods to be very superior men and women, immortal, good-natured, never troubled with human misery, but subject to all human passions. When the chief god, Zeus, slept, things sometimes went awry, because the other gods plotted against him. All the gods and goddesses, with the exception perhaps of Athene and Diana, were guilty of low vices. But sometimes we find noble sentiments expressed. “Verily,” exclaims Homer in one passage, “the blessed gods love not froward deeds. They reverence justice and the righteous acts of men.” The gods passed their days in continuous feasting on the top of Mount Olympus, whence, however, they could move through the air to any earthly place at will.
The principal Olympian gods are as follows: (The Latin names, by which later on the Romans designated them, are given in parentheses.) Zeus (Jupiter), the supreme god; god of the sky; “father of gods and men.” Poseidon (Neptune), god of the sea. Apollo, the sun god; god of wisdom, poetry, prophecy; leader of the nine Muses, who presided over the individual sciences. Ares (Mars), god of war. Hermes (Mercury), god of wind; god of cunning, of thieves, and of merchants; messenger of the gods. Hera (Juno), sister and wife of Zeus; queen of the gods. Athene (Minerva), goddess of wisdom, female counterpart of Apollo. Artemis (Diana), goddess of the moon and of hunting. Aphrodite (Venus), goddess of love and beauty. Hestia (Vesta), goddess of the hearth fire.
The Greeks thought also that all the world was peopled by multitudes of lesser local gods and demigods, — spirits of spring and forest and river and hill — all of whom they personified in their way as youths and maidens. Each family, clan, and tribe, also worshiped its ancestors, especially the one whom they believed to be the founder. Great importance was attached to this worship, which was performed in secret, nobody being admitted to the sacrifices but the members.
The Greeks had a very gloomy idea of the life after death. It was but “a washed-out copy of the brilliant life on earth.” Only the very worst offenders were punished terribly in Tartarus, and some few favorites of the gods enjoyed a life of pleasure in Elysium, the eternal dwelling place for happy souls after death.
THE DORIANS
88. The New Invasions and Their Effect. — About 1000 B.C. another wave of men came from the north, and hampered the progress of civilization. These men, called Dorians, were better warriors. They had iron weapons. The Achaeans fought in a simple fashion, the chiefs in chariots, their followers as an ill-armed, unwieldy mob. The Dorians fought chiefly on foot, arrayed in close ranks, with long iron spears protruding from between their shields. (A battle line thus drawn up was called a phalanx.) These invasions, with their attending misery and loss of civilization, seem to have come to an end about 900 B.C. The Dorians had no Homer as the Achaeans had, nor did they leave magnificent monuments as the people of the Cretan age had done. So there is a gap in our knowledge of several hundred years. When the historical sources again begin to speak, about 650 B.C., we find that great changes had taken place in Hellas. The Dorians had settled in many districts, notably in the Peloponnesus. Part of the old inhabitants appear to have fled to Attica and the islands and even as far as Asia Minor. Attica and these other lands were henceforth known as Ionian. A great colonizing movement, too, was in full swing (§ 92). Everywhere, however, the same gods continued to be worshiped. The political institutions in the Dorian states, though greatly differing in many points, on the whole were the same as those of the preceding age. During this period the Phoenicians (§ 51), who kept visiting the Hellenic shores, introduced again the long-forgotten art of writing. The Greeks with their characteristic independence gradually shaped the Phoenician alphabet into their own elegant letters.