New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-11-09

The most vexatlous lapse in the story Of Greece
Is that between the political and social life 50 WV
idly depicted in the Homeric poems and that
which is shown in veritabe documents OF the
time. or near the time. when record or events
hogan 10 be kept In the Greece. which the mod
ern reader feels fairly sure that he knows some
thing about there is a population held together
nv a common language and common religion
but without political cohesion. The separate COM
munities can hardly be united even by the pToN-
unity Of an overwhelming external peril Iha'
any city or any man should exercise specal au-
tboritv over others Is felt to be an intoleraole
grievance. But in the HAD nothing IS ho'e
marked than the subsection OF the various groups
of the Greek race to a ruler VINO IL caieu hi"s
of men, And the authority OF TINS KING 5 oro'i'e'
appears to be hardly less than his own. 'Irue'
Homer does not describe an Oriental despotism
Tho subordinate rulers have the right. or al least
+bev take II of using plain language. and even
os massive resistance TO the royal authority. BIT
tho n,cture IS so unlike anything possible In
historic Greece that many writer mas uespa'e"
OF ever harmonzing the discrepancy DiHefeh'
,reor,es may he adopted to account for the evo-
,u,ion of the historic Greek polity. The easiest
man Is TO suppose that the Homerc poems have
none but a poetic value. and that the poliucS
which they describe are wholly imaginary. linen
with the aid of modern chronological theories II
is not difficult to arrange a succession oi S''p'
from the family group through the tribe 'he VII
lage and the city to the perfected cltF-slate' i"
,sa,oa,oo,cal legends In which Greek lore was
particularly rich seem to favor TINS met"ou vi
making history where no history exists. The
author of the volume IN hand takes dl'ierVh'
view OF the case These legends alluded to are
,bo no aftprthOUglt or q
neople who could not rest till they had invented
names and personalities to explain their nys-
,aries II thev had real hero to talk about,
weu and good: but If the reality was lacking. the
semblance would answer. This they had the
necessary vivdness Of fancy to make as lively TO
themselves and 10 their successors in time as
a. u were real The process here described was
not the unconscious one of ordinary legend-ouiid-
ing II was largely a deliberate contrivance, rem
dered feasible and necessary by the Greek con-
ception Of the mutual relations or states Inc
process is illustrated by the case OF Cleis'heVes
a tyrant OF Sicyon. He was ambitious not Only
~ strengthen his authority in his own city, but
e. mako that CITY a power IN the world. He
.horgbt that II might be made the rival even OF
Argos which had long held the leadership OF the
Eastern Peloponnesus. The people OF the latter
CITY appealed to legend. which may or may
not have been Of ancient date, TO the enec' 'ha'
far back In the dim past, when Adrastus ruieo
in Argos. his authority was also conceded oF
Sicyon "In reply to this Cleistheves might nave
shown that Adras.us had really conquered Argos
xrben he was lord of Sicyon-an assertion that
would have been easy Of proof as any o'her OF
a similar kind" But he had no taste for so COM
monplace a procedure. He wished TO exclude
Adrastus wholly from the hero-worshp Of his
ho ThahqnS hermit him to
honor Melanippus an ancient warrior OF their
c,tv who was said to have aided in defending
srhehes rom the very Adrastus 10 whom
r,eistheves had taken a dislike. The Thebans
were delighted to have one OF their heroes re-
ceive additional rewards which they themselves
could not afford to pay. Besides. after the lapse
of a period more or less prolonged, Thebes might
be enabled to assert in Sicyon first those rights
of supremacy which it now helped Cieis'heVeS
10 disaow in the case of Argos Ciels'leVeS
raised a shrine to Meanippus In Sicyon ana de-
creed 10 him the homage which had before been
paid to Adrastus. This all happened within the
historic period near II that the record Is
fairly trustworthy. How often Juggling Of this
kind with the memory Of dead heroes had been
practised in earlier times can only be conJectured.
Cleistheves could only have done what he did
by having the majority Of the populace In his
city on his side; and they would In the end have
told the story that the actual facts about the
importation Of the Theban hero would have been
obscured in a legend probably Of war and con-
quest or at the very least Of family descent
While Holm discredits all family and epony-
nous legends such as were favored in Greece.
he gives the Homeric poems an historic value
which others would deny to them. Not that he
is certain Of the Trojan war of the incidents
,tad in ha IJa reviews the discoveries
of Schiemann both in the T'roas and at Nycenae,
and finds in them all the possibilities Of the Tro-
tan conflict but not the proof that II ever took
Mace But the agreement between the relics
and ruins found by modern excavation, and the
"Reminiscences and description found in Homer
leave no doubt in his mind that the poets allu-
sions TO politics and society refer TO state OF
things which once existed. The ancestors OF
historic Greek races did once acknowledge the
.overiordship of a king who was almost as
despotic as the rulers Of the East. The capital
Of this king was in the Peloponnesus. and his
SWAY extended TO the far northern mountains In
q more or less complete FORM 1t is not without
signif1cance that Menelaus seems TO share some
of Agamemnons power in the Had That may
have been a characteristic Of the Peloponnesan
supremacy. 1t Is to Sparta that Holm looks fol
a continuance Of the early tradition. and In
Sparta two kings reigned side by side from
time immemorial. THE Spartan monarchy ne
adds was a continuation Of that Of the HomeriC
ages. only its authority was more strictly defined
and became gradually much limited. The kings
of Sparta were the representatives Of the nation
with the gods. They had the same right to de-
clare war as the Homerc kings. but. like these
they required the moral support Of the MOBILES
The result was that in the Sparta Of clear his
tory the kings We're the servants, not the mas
ters OF tho state. They had become subject &c
the supervision Of an elective commission con
eisting Of five Ephors. and they were associated
with council which comprised twenty-eigh
members This decay in the practical power oi
monarchy is almost universal among European
nations after q period Of absolut'sm which usu