Ionians en EUROPE. language however, and perhaps their very race, were CHAP. IV. all changed by the Dorian conquest of the Peloponnesus. The Ionian Aegialeis, driven from their ter Attica. Peloponnesian settlements by the Achaeans, entered Attica. The traditionary account of this migration is preserved in the story of Ion, son of Xuthus and grandson of Hellen.' The Ionians would therefore appear to be Hellenes. They either conquered Attica, or became amalgamated with the old Pelasgian inhabitants. Ion is mentioned as the leader of the Attic armies; and the Athenians were subsequently divided into four tribes after his four sons.* Ionian mi- This addition to the Attic population led to what is gration. regarded as lasgians. called the great Ionian migration to the coast and islands of Asia Minor. The emigrants chiefly consisted of Ionians, together with natives of Attica, and a motley band from other parts of Hellas. A doubtful population remained behind; apparently a mixture of Ionians and Pelasgians. A story is told of some Pelasgians from the island of Samothrace who became neighbours of the Athenians, but were Athenians subsequently expelled from Attica.' In the time of Ionian Pe- Herodotus the Athenian people boasted of their Pelasgian descent, but were regarded as Ionians, though they considered the latter name as a reproach. Their language, which was originally Pelasgic, and distinct from the Hellenic, was changed. They had in fact become Hellenes, and they undoubtedly considered themselves as Hellenes, and to be bound to all the other nations of Hellas by the ties of blood, of language, and of religion. The great difficulty in Herodotus is his apparent confusion between the Pelasgians and the Ionians. Sometimes he regards them as the same race, for in one important passage he contrasts the Dorians as an Hellenic race with the Ionians as a Pelasgic;" and he certainly considered some of the Ionians to be as much the aboriginal inhabitants of 10 9 Hellas as the Pelasgians.' The best way of getting EUROPE. over the difficulty appears to be, to suppose CHAP. IV. that the Ionians and Pelasgians were identical, and that Herodotus followed the result of his own researches in opposition to the prevalent belief that the Ionians were Hellenes.2 customs,etc. The Athenians were the first people in Hellas Manners, who made the images of Hermes fascino erecto, a custom which they learnt not from the Aegyptians, but from those Pelasgians who came from Samothrace and settled for a while at Athens.3 Their women originally wore the Dorian costume, which nearly resembled the Corinthian. [It consisted of a woollen chiton without sleeves, which was fastened over both shoulders by clasps or buckles.] When the single Athenian survivor returned from the fatal attack on Aegina, the women pierced him to death with their clasps, each asking him what had become of her husband. The Athenians then compelled their wives to change their Dorian for the Ionian chiton, which had no clasps or buckles, [but was a long and loose linen garment, reaching to the feet, and having wide sleeves.] This Ionian costume came originally from Caria.* 5 description and Athens. Attica was a country but ill adapted for cavalry, Herodotus's and so protected by the line of mountains on the of Attica north, that the only way by which an invading army could retreat into Boeotia was through the narrow passes of Mount Cithaeron. It is said that in ancient times it was the only country in the world that produced olive trees." ATHENS was the chief town, and appears in the time of Aristagoras to have had a population of 30,000 men,' including the Gephyraeans, who were descended from the Cadmeian Phoenicians. These Gephyraeans were however excluded from certain privileges of citizenship, which are not worth mentioning, and they possessed sanctuaries of their own, in which the other Atheni 1 viii. 73. 8 2 Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, chaps. ii. and iv. Comp. Grote, Part ii. v. 82. chap. 2. 3 ii. 51. 4 v. 87, 88. 5 ix. 13. 6 7 v. 97. 8 v. 57. Four an 1 EUROPE. ans could take no share. Their temple and mysCHAP. IV. teries of the Achaean Demeter were the most. celebrated. The Athenians as a body were originally divided into four classes, which were named after the four sons of Ion-Geleon, Aegicores, Argades, and Hoples. cient divisions of the Re-classification into Cleisthenes, the Alcmaeonid, and grandson of the ten tribes. tyrant of Sicyon, abolished this classification, and divided the people into ten tribes, or phylae, and named them all but one after heroes who belonged to the land, [viz. Erectheis, Aegeis, Pandionis, Leontis, Acamantis, Oeneis, Cecropis, Hippothoontis, Aeantis, Antiochis,] in order that the Athenians might not have the same tribes as the Ionians. The exception was the tribe of Aeantis, named after Ajax, who, though a stranger, was added because he was a near neighbour and ally. Each of these tribes, or phylae, contained ten demi. We also find the inhabitants of Attica divided into three parties or factions, viz. the pediaei, or lowlanders; the parali, or inhabitants of the coast; and the diacrii, or highlanders.3 Each tribe formed ten demi. Three fac tions. Public etc. Aeacus. Cimon. Beside the sanctuaries of the Gephyraeans already buildings, mentioned, Herodotus mentions many other public Temple of buildings in Athens. In the Agora was a temple to Aeacus, which had been erected and dedicated at the time of the Aeginetan war. In the front of the city, and beyond the road through Coela, was the Sepulchre of sepulchre of Cimon the father of Miltiades, and opposite were buried the mares with which he three times obtained the victory in the Olympiades. Below the Acropolis was the sanctuary [grotto] of Pan, who was yearly propitiated by the Athenians with sacrifices and a torch-race, in consequence of a personal remonstrance on the part of the deity. By Temple of the river Ilissus was a temple to Boreas, which the Athenians erected in gratitude for the storm which destroyed 400 Persian ships off Magnesia.' Herod Grotto of Boreas. 6 5 Enneacru- otus also mentions the spring called Enneacrunos; 8 6 4 8 9 Heracles. Munychia, General de the barathron,' into which the Athenians threw the EUROPE. ambassadors of Darius when they came to demand CHAP. IV. earth and water; and the temple of Heracles at Cy- Barathron. nosarges,3 near which was the tomb of Auchimolius Temple of at Alopecae. Opposite the Acropolis was the hill Areiopagus, from whence the Persians besieged Areiopagus. Athens. The city had three harbours, namely, Harbours of Phalerum, Munychia,' and Piraeus. In the time Phalerum, of the Persian war Phalerum was the real port. and Piraeus. The Acropolis was a square craggy rock in the The Acrocentre of the city. It rose abruptly to a height of polis 150 feet. The summit was flat, and about 1000 feet scription. long from east to west, and about 500 feet broad from north to south. It was the fortress, the sanctuary, and the museum of Athens. The rocks on the north were called the Long Rocks. On this side was the sanctuary of Aglaurus. Opposite the western declivity stood the hill Areiopagus and the altar of the twelve gods. On the Acropolis itself was the Erechtheium, which contained the temple of Athene, and the serpent, the olive, and the saltspring described by our author. account. Aglaurus. wooden At the front of the Acropolis, [on the northern Herodotus's side,] behind the gate and the road, [which were apparently at the western extremity,] the ascent was very precipitous; but, nevertheless, the Persians contrived to mount it near the sanctuary of Aglaurus, Sanctuary of the daughter of Cecrops.10 In ancient times the ele- Ancient vation was enclosed by a hedge; and when the ora- edge. cle declared that a wooden wall would alone protect the Athenians from the Persian invaders, many of the old citizens considered that this hedge was the wooden wall to which reference was made." A stone wall was built by the Pelasgians who came from Samothrace," and called the Pelasgic wall or fort, 13 Pelasgic which was sufficiently strong to defy the Spartans The barathron was a deep pit at Athens, with hooks on the sides, in which criminals were cast. The Persian envoys were told to get their earth and water there. wall. CHAP. IV. Erectheus. EUROPE. When the Pisistratidae took refuge in the citadel.' This Pelasgic wall was apparently dismantled before the Persian war, for when the Acropolis was attacked by Xerxes, the only fortifications appeared to be palisades and other works constructed of wood. In the Temple of Acropolis was a temple dedicated to Erechtheus the earth-born.3 The Athenians said that a large The serpent serpent used to live in the temple, whom they regarded as the guardian of the Acropolis, and to whom they brought honey-cakes every month. These cakes were always consumed until Xerxes arrived, after which they remained untouched; and the Athenians were consequently more anxious to abandon their city, as they considered that the god had forsaken the citadel. In the Erechtheium was the salt spring which had gushed from the trident of Poseidon, and The sacred the sacred olive by which Athene, when contesting with the latter, had proved her claim to the country. The olive tree was burnt by the Persians with the rest of the temple, but on the second day after, a shoot was seen to have sprouted from the stump Trophies in to the height of a cubit." Herodotus also mentions the two following trophies which were preserved in the Propylaea. The salt spring. olive. the Propylaea. First, a brazen chariot and four horses, which stood on the left hand at the entrance, and bore the following inscription: "Athena's sons o'ercame in feats of war And tythed the spoil, and gave these mares to Pallas." Secondly, the fetters of the Boeotians and of the Chalcidians, who had both been defeated and taken prisoners by the Athenians on the same day. These fetters were still hanging in the time of Herodotus on a wall which had been much scorched by fire by the Mede, and which was opposite the temple that faces the west. The Propylaea was subsequently rebuilt by Pericles in the most magnificent 1 v. 65. 6 |