New-York tribune., 1895-02-10

| 7, &C. ,ndisnensabe that the links in this chain
| connecting primitive Greece with the "'eeoe VI
history should be perfect and contihuous' io'
| ,ha land uos subject TO many influences from
| .,J.hout Early ard late the Phoenician cru.sed
| along its shores in his trldng vessel pal'e'i"s
| for raw material the tries OF clever worN'hah-
| h,o which were to serve the Greeks as suS-
| pestions for their own Improvement III the a''''
| TIM ,ntaslios found I'm unelr,hing Argive towns
show traces of Assyrian influence ana there Is
not a little both In art and legend that looks
| toward Egypt. One needs the assurance that
,bese anc.ent workmen of Mycenae and Tiryus
| ,,.re Greeks in order To accept all that Is said
ahou, their originality: for one does not need To
| no told that in later times whatever the Greeks
| narrowed they made their own Here again
| the tomb comes In evidence The peculiar FORM
| of those walled cavities .hat looked IKE 'he
| interior of a vast beehive was common to all
| the centres OF the so-caed Mycenian art. Ther
| more antique counterparts are to be found about
| Mount Sipylrs in Phrygia, and legend, wnen IL
| told Of Peors and his removal from Phryga TO
| Mycenae, alluded to a real migration OF Aslauc
| Greeks to Europe But the dome-shaped tomDs
| Of Phrygil. dmnuve ard rude. give no more
| than a hint OF what the Greek architect iound
| il possible to accomplish If the real tomb was
! as richly crnamcnted with sculpture NJ.
|
| Treasury of Atreus and If the dome was lined
| with plates of shining bronze as he would nave
ut. then the finished structure was a subterra-
| moan palace Putting ones self In the place
| OF those to whom all this barbaric mag
nifcence was sacrot il Is not hard to understand
| why no traces Of temples belonging to the Myce-
| nlan period have been ;ound. Such a tomb was
itself a temple. Aside from the natural Inference
! that lis worship was given to the spirits OF the
dead who rested there and the few indications
! NJ q sacrIfcial service there Is nothing To in
dcate the thought Of primitive Greece respecting
| the gods or the ritual by which their favor was
sought. NJ Perrot appeals again to the HAD 10
show that the national .divinities Of Hellas were
well established and were already Of ancient
renown But II must be remembered that two or
three centuries make an interval long enough
for the inception and growth Of religion. II
| the views Of Homer and his contemporaries as
| to the dead had been completely transformed
| within the period Of mlgrat!cn caused by the
| Dorian conquest surely many vagares Of po-
,vtheism might have been worked out In the
same time The pantheon OF the Mycenans may
have been n simple on". That they had n god
dess answering to Aphrodl,e. who was herself
only the Hellenic refinement OF the idea more
coarsely expressed in the istar. Isis, Ashtoreth.
| Mana Mylitta or Zarpanit Of Oriental fancy is
certain Rude idols tina: can have no other
meaning have been found in considerable num-
hers She was sometimes accompanied by doves.
a fxed attribute Of the classical Aphrodite. The
Mycenan Is vo!celess for the modern. fic could
not label his gods with a rame. because he had
no sisns Tor words or syldbles or letters. ana
n. has loft no sign that he worshlpped the
greater gcds II later ticenes-Zeus. the SKY
/. god. Apollo the god or Ares. god of war
Il ainra1 Ia .fp q
groves to which Homer frequently alluded That
the goddess Of love had her temple can BE- m
f.rrcd from gold ornaments representing facldes.
81, tho corners Of which are doves. But NJ. Per-
r,t is too cauti ious t. assert anything more than
that this little gold 0rnarlcnt- which blythe
WAY was .ounJ in a tomb-resembcs the palace
AT Ttrvus a building which was certainly meant
Tor mortals rather than for gods In this mat
tor Of tho national religion lies the main dis
/ crcpancy between tho specimens ~ Mycenian
art and the teaching Of Ilomeric verse. The
,octs who pass under the name ~ Homer were
nothing n not patriotic They might well be
/ cnnpared 10 the multitude Of singers who made
/ GERMANY rlng with the note OF union long before
/ the establishment of the present federal en-
plrc The Myccnian period seemed 10 them a
| golden age and they hoped to bring about re-
revsl ~ thc feeling by which they imagined all
gethcr forgotten the local divinitcs whom their
own immediate ancestors worshlppcd. they stu
chose to ignore them in behalf Of thr expanding
! faith which all Greeks confessed in whole or In
| mart In The service Of the Oympian gods lay
| the strongest motive Of Hellenic union. II this
| WAS the theory OF the time. II was doomed to DIS
| appointmsni The Greeks became practically
| uniform In religion: they submitted to certain
weak bonds like that 81 the Amphictyons' they
gladly fra,crnizcd at the national games; out
they were hong In agreeing TO any political sys-
| TEN more complicated tan that or the clty-
state Below the worship OF the Olympians. the
sacrifices TO the dead were persistently offered
| Thus the process OF religious development whlch
| seemed be broken In Homer was in reaity
never interrupted. The Greek, who had been an
ancestor vorshIpper In prehistoric times WIS
stlll the same under Roman Imperialism.
Rearing in mind that Greek unity was matter
| Of race and not Of political artiiice. one can
| understand more clearly the value OF that varied
mass OF details which NJ. Perrot has gathered
and arranged. classification Of the specimens
shows that while the lost efforts Of Mycenian
| art foreshadOwed the achievements oi classical
times 1t reached back b. rude and ruder forms
10 the art Of the islands. best represented in the
examples recovered from Thera. and this older
workmanship pointed to the still more ancient
relics OF H.ssarlik. Thus. II fIissar.ik he the site
OF Troy and II the Had has a historic basis
then the Trojan war must have taken place long
before the society OF Mycenae reached It's most
polished and luxurious estate. Biologists have
| some thing to say on th,s point There was once
a volcanic eruption which DESTROYED part of the
Island Of Thera. 1t is sad thaf\hls calamity
must have occurred at least 1000 years before
| the Christian But the archaic houses or
Thera were found beneath the volcanic over
now. How long before that eruption the siege
o. Troy occurred can only be guessed. But
when palaces and godsmths work and rich
garments are described In the Had, or the Odys-