The sun., 1888-10-28

| worthinesS OF Homeric tradition there 4
no satisfactory evidence He finds the evidence
OF language open to objections scarcely les
fatal. III" he says, 1T were true that Grccl
is n homogeneous language, 1t would not fol
| low that all the tribes which spoke II were o
the same origin, still less that they were tn,
earliest denizens of Greece Nothing" he adds
us 30 delusive as facts founded on etymolo
Gies." And so OF religious rites and customs
i:hese he deems of little value as evidence o
she civilization Of the people among whom
| they nre found" As, for instance, II
! we find barbarous rites among the
| humane and civilized Greeks, we need no
assume that they are importatons from the
East; they may be survivals from a pre-
Hellenic population, or they may carry uf
back to that remote ago when tho Greeks were
still eavages. with beliefs and rites such as
| savages entertain and practise" Lastly the
evidence OF monuments. unless Illustrated OF
confirmed by written documentsis pronounced
OF small service to tho historian. 1t is quite as
| often destructive as constructive. Thus OF the
| excavations at Hissarlik. MycenR, and Tiryns
| 1t is pointed out that while they prove that
opulent and powerful tribes once inhabited
these sites. they toll us nothing Of the time
at which the cities wore built or OF the men
who built them. They teach us
how recent and imperfect our historical knowl-
edge is and how little wo know Of the long
period which preceded it. We may even go a
step further. They make 1t probable that the
civilization of the Homeric age is an idealzed
picture. not of tho Greeks whom we know, but
OF n nation which preceded them In the Aegean
and lived in the memory OF minstres." What
nation was this2 The only reply which Mr..
Abbott thinks II safe to make, after a careful
review Of all the testimony accumulated in
recent years, is embraced in the following sem
tences. brought together from more or less
distant pages: The evidence OF legend 1--we
quote from pago 35l tends to show that in
the earliest times number OF tribes moro
or less homogeneous occupied both sides OF tho
Egean and the islands. The tribes wore
known by different names. and sometimes one,
sometimes another. gained the preponderance
but there Is no reason to suppose that the
change from Pe!asgians to Hellenes was
brought about by the Introduction OF any new
or alien element into the population. What
were the causes which led to tho adoption OF
the torn Hellenes cannot be determined with
certainty" On page 80 equal doubt was cast
upon the meaning OF the term Pelasgian:
We have no evidence to support the idea OF
Pelasgic age rs period OF simple habits and
agricultural occupations which slowly gave
way before the more martial age OF the Achai-
ans. The civilization OF the 'Achaian Age
exists only In the epic poems. and the Pelasgic
Age Is but another name for the prehistoric
Greece OF whose agriculture We know moth
ing" To much the same agnostic position tho
author is brought by the scrutiny Of the other
kinds Of testimony. Thus. page 3s. he says:
" The evidence OF language. however imper:
feet confirms the evidence OF tradition in SO
far as 1t testiles to the presence of Indo-Ger-
manic nations on both sides Of the Egean. 1t
al r;a f,,rtl
past. when Greece may have been inhabited
or visited by nations which did not speak the
Greek language" The testimony of religious
usages scarcely yields more definite
result. For example page 40: THE evidence
Of religion confirms the evidence OF tradition
in pointing to an age OF barbarism from which
the Hellenes emerged as the Israelites emerged
from the sensuality OF Canaanitish worship. As
an chronological test Of the carly population of
Greece 1t is Of little or no ;aue" Finally, on
pages 4849 we are told that the only safe con-
clusion to bo drawn from the monuments and
prehistoric remains uncovered during the last
quarter of a century is that in early times the
Egean and the eastern coast of Greece were
the seat OF a lively and lucrative traffic which
had almost entirely passed away at the
period when the history Of Greece that
We know begins. 1t is extremely improbable
that the Dorians were the builders OF Mycene
and Tiryns. or that they possessed the riches
which were found In the tombs. The conquest
OF an ancient but decaying civilization by
ruder people is an almost unavoidable hypothe-
sis for the explanation Of these monuments"
To another often mooted conjecture there Is
an Incidental allusion in a foot note to the
chapter from which We have been quoting:
The theory OF Greco-Italic period
in which the Greeks and Italians lived
together. separate from the rest of
the Indo-Germanic stock. is untenable
II there Is large number OF words found only
in Greek and Latin. there are many words
found only in Greek and Indo-Persian. and the
grammar OF Greek and Latin differs more than
the grammar Of Greek and old Persian" Else
where Mr.. Abbot rejects on much the same
grounds the well-known chronological hypo-
thesis that given wave Of Aryan migration
bifurcated one fork passing Into Italy and the
other into Greece.
Such are Mr.. Abbott's conclusions with re-
gard to the general credibility OF Greek le-
gendary history. But so much has been said
in England-and particularly by Mr.. Gladstone
about tho historical value of the Homeric
poems that he deems 1t necessary to examine
with peculiar care their special claims to trust
worthiness. He is not led. however. to recog-
nize any grounds or which those poems can be
IeEaluou aS poiuk Ill any SoHso uibtoTlCul uOcu-
ments. He admits. indeed. that so far as thero
is any external evidence touching the date OF
their composition. 1t indicates that tho Iliad
and Odyssey (which. by the way. he does
not believe to have been the work OF the same |
author) were In existence before the Olympic |
era t776 b. CO. The internal evidence. on the |
other hand. collected from the poems them |
selves, docs not IN his opinion supply any salts
factory proof respecting tho precise period at |
which they were composed: much less can il be |
accepted as establishing the fidelity of the pic
lure OF the age which they profess to delineate.
In other words, we quote frompage 1855: |
- Homer is OF little value as evidence OF tho |
early civilization OF Hellas. because We have
no means OF ascertaining that his statements |
are historically true. We do not know that his |
silence implies ignorance, or that his assertions |
are not largely colored by his imagination"
Mr.. Abbott admits by Implication that the |
[liad WAS subjected to revision and interpola.
lion. but not on that account does he assent to
he theory that It or the Odyssey Is a collection
of ballads This view fthe origin OF the poem |
s." he thinks. untenable. For not only are the