DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0277
Bk. III. Ch. I.
GREECE.
241
that a more ancient record has been read on the monuments of Egypt
and dug out of the bowels of the earth in Assyria.
It is nevertheless true that the decipherment of the hieroglyphics
on the one hancl, ancl the reading of the arrow-headed characters on the
other, have disclosed to us two forms of civilisation anterior to that
which reappeared in Greece in the 8th century before Christ. Based
on those that preceded it, the Hellenic form developed itself there with
a degree of perfection never before seen, nor has it, in its own peculiar
department, ever been since surpassed.
These discoveries have been of the utmost importance, not only
in correcting our hitherto narrow views of ancient history, but in
assisting to explain much that was obscure, or utterly unintelligible,
in those histories with which we were more immediately familiar.
We now, for the first time, comprehend whence the Greeks obtained
many of their arts and much of their civilisation, and to what extent
the character of these was affected by the sources from which they
were clerived.
Having already described the artistic forms of Egypt and Assyria,
it is not difficult to discover the origin of almost every idea, ancl of
every architectural feature, that was afterwards found in Greece.
But even with this assistance we should not be able to understand the
phenomena which Greek art presents to us, were it not that the monu-
ments reveal to us the existence of two distinct and separate races
existing eontemporaneously in Greece. If the Greeks were as purely
Aryan as their language would lead us to believe, all our ethnographic
■ are at fault. But this is precisely one of those cases where
' steps in to supplement what philology tells us and to
hat that science fails to reveal. That the language of the
with tho smallest possible admixture from other sources, is
ii.e Aryan, no one will dispute : but their arts, their religion, and
irequently their institutions, tencl to ascribe to them an altogether
different origin Fortunately the ruins at Mycena: and Orchomenos
are sufficient to afford us a key to the mystery. From them we learn
that at the time f the war of Troy a people were supreme in Greece
ore not II e tlenes, but who were closely allied to the Etruscans
and other tornb-b ilding, art-loving races. Whether they were purely
Turanian, or merely ultra-Celtic, may be questioned; but one thing
seema clear, that his people were then known to the ancients under
the name of Pek gi, and it is their presence in Greece, mixed up with
tiie more purely Dorian races, which explains what would otherwise
be unintelligibie l Grecian civilisation.
Except frorn tur knowledge of the existence of a strong infusion
of T uranian bloo into the veins of the Grecian people, it would ’oe
impossibie to md< rstand how a people so purely Aryan in appearance
came to adopt a religion so essentially Anthropic and Ancestral.
VOL. I.
R
GREECE.
241
that a more ancient record has been read on the monuments of Egypt
and dug out of the bowels of the earth in Assyria.
It is nevertheless true that the decipherment of the hieroglyphics
on the one hancl, ancl the reading of the arrow-headed characters on the
other, have disclosed to us two forms of civilisation anterior to that
which reappeared in Greece in the 8th century before Christ. Based
on those that preceded it, the Hellenic form developed itself there with
a degree of perfection never before seen, nor has it, in its own peculiar
department, ever been since surpassed.
These discoveries have been of the utmost importance, not only
in correcting our hitherto narrow views of ancient history, but in
assisting to explain much that was obscure, or utterly unintelligible,
in those histories with which we were more immediately familiar.
We now, for the first time, comprehend whence the Greeks obtained
many of their arts and much of their civilisation, and to what extent
the character of these was affected by the sources from which they
were clerived.
Having already described the artistic forms of Egypt and Assyria,
it is not difficult to discover the origin of almost every idea, ancl of
every architectural feature, that was afterwards found in Greece.
But even with this assistance we should not be able to understand the
phenomena which Greek art presents to us, were it not that the monu-
ments reveal to us the existence of two distinct and separate races
existing eontemporaneously in Greece. If the Greeks were as purely
Aryan as their language would lead us to believe, all our ethnographic
■ are at fault. But this is precisely one of those cases where
' steps in to supplement what philology tells us and to
hat that science fails to reveal. That the language of the
with tho smallest possible admixture from other sources, is
ii.e Aryan, no one will dispute : but their arts, their religion, and
irequently their institutions, tencl to ascribe to them an altogether
different origin Fortunately the ruins at Mycena: and Orchomenos
are sufficient to afford us a key to the mystery. From them we learn
that at the time f the war of Troy a people were supreme in Greece
ore not II e tlenes, but who were closely allied to the Etruscans
and other tornb-b ilding, art-loving races. Whether they were purely
Turanian, or merely ultra-Celtic, may be questioned; but one thing
seema clear, that his people were then known to the ancients under
the name of Pek gi, and it is their presence in Greece, mixed up with
tiie more purely Dorian races, which explains what would otherwise
be unintelligibie l Grecian civilisation.
Except frorn tur knowledge of the existence of a strong infusion
of T uranian bloo into the veins of the Grecian people, it would ’oe
impossibie to md< rstand how a people so purely Aryan in appearance
came to adopt a religion so essentially Anthropic and Ancestral.
VOL. I.
R