Mitchell, Lucy M.: A history of ancient sculpture (New York, 1883)

138 EARLIEST ART ON GREEK SOIL.

peculiar shades of culture. Moreover, the nature of the land was hostile to
effeminacy. The friction of contending tribes tended to develop a martial
spirit. Continuous and intelligent labor was required to obtain from the soil
an existence, and thus the Greek was shielded from the danger of sinking into
luxurious apathy and soft indulgence. So the peasant poet Hesiod sings, —

" Work, Perses, that hunger remain far from thee, and the beautifully wreathed Demeter be
friendly to thee: for the diligent are loved by the immortals."

The varied beauties of their land must have worked with a magical power
on the imagination of this people. They saw in each valley, and on each
mountain, storm alternating with sunshine : they saw the blue arms of the sea
breaking into every retired bay, and the rugged lines of mountain and cliff set
off by the quiet horizon of the distant waters, interrupted only by silvery
islands. No wonder that their fancy, stirred by such scenes, should have
enlivened the beauties of nature with creations of the imagination equally
beautiful. Here no tropic heat or arctic cold warped and dwarfed the full
development of man ; and the moderation of the clime preserved the imagina-
tion from revelling in the wildly voluptuous dreamland of the Hindoo, or in
the weird, shadowy, and monstrous fantasies of the foggy and inhospitable
North.

Thanks to its central geographical position, Greece was most favorably
situated for becoming the focus whither flowed all the streams of ancient
civilization. Surrounded by the hoary lands of antiquity, and its own sister-
colonies scattered along the shores of the Mediterranean and on the islands,
we find, from time immemorial, the Greeks, by means of migration, trade, and
warfare, being brought into contact with reviving influences from without,
remoulding their myth, religion, and art, so that no germs of ancient life were
wanting in bringing to perfect fruition the rich plant of Hellenic culture.

The Greeks fondly believed themselves to be autochthons of the soil, the
earth-born children of Hellas. But, in truth, their remote ancestry had wan-
dered from distant regions into this favored land. The unerring analogy of
language and myth has shown, that on the far-off table-lands of Central Asia
dwelt the parent-stock of the great Aryan, or Indo-Germanic, race.1?6 Descend-
ing from their primeval seats, its different branches spread into the valleys
of the Indus, took possession of Iran, and wandered westward into Europe.
To these latter belong the so-called Pelasgians, a portion of whom became the
ancestors of the Greeks ; certain races in time taking a more prominent place
under the names Dorians, yEolians, and Ionians. The migration of the Dorians
southward probably resulted in the crowding out of parts of some of the tribes
who were forced to seek new homes on the islands and in Asia Minor.

Actual history of those remote ages does not exist ; for the poetic fancy of
the Greeks wove out of their heroic past, as it were, one beautiful poem. It is